The Gospel is Worth Fighting For

Good morning, everybody.

Glad you're here.

We're in week three of a study

through the book of Galatians.

And we're really excited about this study.

I hope you are too.

Coming out of the book of Judges,

I know for some of us, me included,

that was a heavy book.

And yet I feel like God taught us things,

things that we can apply to our lives

and be changed by.

So that was really great.

But I'm glad to be in Galatians.

Not that it means that it's any easier to go through.

Paul is still giving us a challenge

and some real challenging things to process.

And that's what we're looking at.

So some things are worth fighting for

and other things are not.

Let me give you a couple of examples, right?

I mean, it's kind of funny

when you think about these examples

and maybe some others that we fight over things.

They're silly a lot of times.

And yet they can actually cause pretty big wedges

in relationships and that sort of thing.

I'll let you be the judge of it.

Because I think sometimes we tend to fight

about stupid things.

How about the toilet paper orientation?

Any of you guys fight over that?

Where over the front or the back?

How many fronts do we got?

How many backs do we have?

Only one, two, three, four, five.

Maybe a few, but four of them were kids.

Four of the ones that said the back.

Now I've heard, I'm not a cat guy.

I don't have a cat at home.

But I've heard if you put it to the back,

they're less likely to play with it.

But I don't know that.

Anyways, people fight over the toilet paper orientation.

How about thermostat wars?

How many of you guys are battling in your house?

Put those hands up high.

Let's see if you're battling about this.

Because then that way I can be praying for you guys.

But somebody wants it cold in the house all the time.

And somebody else wants it warm.

So you battle over the thermostat, right?

How about dishwasher loading?

Is there someone in your house

that loads the dishwasher correctly

and everybody else is wrong?

Maybe we'll stop raising hands at this point

because I don't want that.

And the one thing that Gwen and I probably have fought over

most in our lives is picking out

where we're gonna go pick up some dinner

if we needed to get dinner.

There were times when we first got married

where we would get in the car and start driving

and no, you pick, you pick, you pick, you pick,

that we would then drive home with no food, right?

I mean, I'm not proud of these things,

but people fight over the silliest, stupidest things, right?

But there are some things that are worth fighting for

and the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth fighting for.

And that's where we're heading in Galatians in chapter two.

We, like Paul, need to stand firm

on the gospel of Jesus Christ,

him crucified, buried, resurrected,

freely giving that to you as a gift

in exchange for your filth, your sin.

It doesn't cost you any more.

It doesn't cost you good works.

It doesn't cost you communion.

It doesn't cost you baptism.

Those things are good.

So don't hear me say that you don't need to do those things,

but those don't save you.

And Paul is fighting for the unity of the message

and the unity of the mission.

And that's what we're gonna see today.

So we're gonna look at that unity of the message,

unity of the mission, and then a little case study

at the end of these 14 verses.

So we're just gonna dive right in.

We're gonna pray that God teaches us something big today.

So when we leave today,

we're more passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ

and that we are willing to defend that and fight for it,

but also that we're not gonna get crazy upset

over which way the toilet paper rolls are

or picking out a place to go to dinner.

So let's dive in here and start talking

about the unity of the message.

Or when I say the unity of the message,

I'm talking about the gospel.

Paul believed in the gospel of grace,

and he believed that that was worth fighting for.

He didn't cut any corners.

The unity of the message is of utmost importance to him.

And we're gonna see that in this passage here, right?

Because you can't be unified as a church body,

as a church amongst the universal churches.

In other words, all the other churches

meeting outside of these four walls today

that are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can't be unified unless you have a solid foundation,

one that you and I can articulate.

So when you're talking to somebody

and they say something different about what the gospel is,

what the truth of salvation is,

that you can identify that and then be ready to defend it.

Because Paul says there are some things worth fighting for.

So the foundation of the message of the gospel

has to be intact because that's your place

that you're gonna start.

Now, there's a group that come

and kind of start some trouble for Paul.

They're called the Judaizers, okay?

And the Judaizers were accusing Paul of being off track

with the Jerusalem apostles.

He's like, they were trying to stir up and cause problems,

and they were saying, well, Paul and the original apostles,

they're not on the same page.

And that just simply wasn't true.

So he's gonna use this little visit to Jerusalem

to accomplish kingdom purposes,

because Paul believes that the unity of the message

is worth fighting for.

So we're gonna start out here in chapter two,

verses one to 14.

Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem

with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

I went up there because of a revelation

and to set before them, though privately,

before those who seemed influential,

the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles

in order to make sure that I was not running

or had not run in vain.

So after 14 years of teaching and preaching

and planting churches,

Paul goes to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus,

and it says here that he had a revelation.

We'll see here a parallel passage.

If you're a note taker today,

there are gonna be a lot of opportunities

to just jot down Bible references

and we'll be popping over to them

if you wanna go back later in the week to look at it.

But this is a parallel passage in Acts 11

that describes the revelation that Paul had.

Now, in the days of the prophets

came down from Jerusalem to Antioch,

and one of them named Agabus stood up

and foretold by the spirit

that there would be a great famine over all the world.

This took place in the days of Claudius.

So the disciples determined everyone,

according to his abilities,

to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.

And they did so,

sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

So Barnabas and Saul, missionary church planters,

collect a bunch of offerings and gifts

to take back to Jerusalem.

The prophecy that came through Agabus,

accurately predicted by the power of the Holy Spirit,

a famine that was coming on.

Now, the church in Judea was already,

if you were looking at the social economic standings,

it was kind of a poorer church anyways.

And so what happened was leadership says,

this famine, when it comes to be,

they didn't question Holy Spirit, if it's gonna be,

but when it comes to be, we're gonna be hit hard,

we're gonna struggle.

And so they send out a plea.

If you can help, send help.

So Paul responded and he went to Jerusalem

to deliver a monetary gift.

While Paul was in Jerusalem,

he utilizes this time to fight for the unity of the message.

Paul set before them the gospel that he was preaching.

He went up there because of the revelation,

he went up there to bring the money,

but he's also using this opportunity to say,

hey, these are some things I'm hearing.

I'm out in Galatia, I'm at the far reaches of the world,

planting churches, teaching,

and I'm hearing these things that just aren't true.

And so he sets before them the gospel that he was preaching.

To set before was like a full disclosure

to understand kind of the original words there.

Paul's laying it all out.

This is what I am teaching.

This is what I'm laying as a foundation

of these churches that I'm planting, right?

And so he set that before them,

though privately before those who seemed influential.

Little bit of Paul's sarcasm there, right?

Because these guys are so important,

I'm gonna lay it out for them.

But there's also some truth there.

These are the leaders of that church.

And you remember last week, I missed last week,

but I watched the sermon and talked with Kevin this week

at high school, middle school and high school camp.

Paul went to great lengths

to prove that he preached to the Galatians

the message that Jesus had given directly to him, right?

That's what Kevin said he preached on last week.

So like his goal was to be a God pleaser.

This is the message Jesus gave me.

This is the message I'm giving.

This is the message that some men would like me to give.

And if I did, they would be happy, but then God wouldn't.

So I'm gonna choose God every time.

And I hope that's the way you're walking.

That's the way I'm trying to walk every day.

And that's the way that Paul was walking.

I'm a God pleaser, not a man pleaser.

So we look at this and he's gone to Jerusalem

to bring the offering, to defend the gospel he's preaching.

And in order to make sure that he was not running

or had not run in vain.

Now this phrase has a lot of ink spilled on it

because there are some people that take it

in different directions.

And so how many I come before you today,

and I don't think that Paul had gotten it wrong.

I don't think he's really asking or writing something

to say, I wasn't sure.

So I went down there to find out

because he knew that he was preaching the gospel

that Jesus had given to him.

He's laid this foundation for his message squarely

on the message that Jesus gave to him as the foundation,

which was salvation by grace alone, no works needed.

Because to give you a little tidbit,

we might touch on it just a little bit later.

The Judaizers were saying it's Jesus plus.

And the big plus was circumcision.

You're a Gentile, you're not circumcised.

You wanna follow Jesus, become a Jew basically,

you need to be circumcised.

And Paul's saying, no, that's not it.

That's not a requirement.

Pre-Jesus coming to the earth,

if a foreigner wanted to become a Jew,

yes, they were circumcised,

an outward showing of what they desired to do,

which was to become a Jew.

But to become a Christian,

there was no longer that requirement.

There was never that requirement in Christianity,

but Jesus said, no, salvation is a gift from me to you,

period, you don't have to add anything else to it.

So that's kind of what's going on here.

And he's battling this character assassination.

These Judaizers are getting in amongst the churches,

even in Galatia.

And they're saying, Paul's made this up on his own,

or Paul's twisted it a little bit,

or Paul's not quite as good of a teacher or preacher

as the guys we have down in Jerusalem, right?

And so Paul is trying to get this all figured out

and to lay out before them that this is worth fighting for,

this is worth me defending what I'm preaching and teaching,

because this is the truth that was given to me by Jesus,

and I'm gonna continue to do that.

The message was grace.

It wasn't a long checklist of things that needed to be done.

And grace was worth fighting for.

And then I think Paul also knew this.

Paul knew that fighting alone is not good and it's no fun.

But it sure is fun when you have a unified message

and you can all move forward together.

We're gonna defend this gospel together.

We know what the truth is,

and we're not gonna allow anyone to add anything to that

or take anything from that.

And Paul desperately wanted to know here,

am I running this race on my own, or are you guys with me?

That's really what I see kind of in this phrase here.

He's fighting for unity of message.

Picture a relay race.

This is kind of what made the most sense

to Kevin and I this week as we talked.

Tough prepping a sermon and hanging out

with 45, 50 middle school and high scores,

and yet it was awesome.

But during some of the time we had to talk about this,

we talked about a relay race.

And one of my favorite things,

how many of you guys like to go to track and field meets

for your middle scores or your high scores?

For your middle scores or your high scores?

Or just to go watch?

I kind of expected, I mean,

maybe not as many hands as went up.

Because as parents, sometimes you're like,

wait, my kid runs the 100,

which means he's gonna be done in about 14 or less seconds,

and I'm gonna sit here for how long?

I've gotta be here at 8 a.m.,

and they're not gonna be done till 3 p.m.?

And my young daughter or son is gonna run for 15 seconds?

Like, it doesn't make sense to a lot of us, right?

But I loved, I got to the place

where I loved track and field meets.

And I loved going and watching our kids participate.

And my older two boys, the linemen,

they went out there and they threw the big rock,

and they threw the discus,

and mostly they were out there goofing off, having fun.

I'll be honest with you.

If they were here, I'd say the same thing.

My daughter tried hard in everything she did,

but she also threw the rock.

But then I had a fast kid, and that was fun.

And so I would go and watch track meets.

And my boy was running these short races,

but he got to run a few of them,

and I really loved the relays, right?

And what made a relay race really good

was if they worked well as a team.

It doesn't matter how fast those four young men were.

If they couldn't hand off the baton properly,

it didn't matter.

They might all have great times in the 400,

or the 100, by themselves.

But if they can't work as a team,

they wouldn't find success.

And so when you got to the state tournament,

you got to see your boys perform at this high level

amongst the best in the state,

those races were awesome to watch.

And I think this track and field, for me,

it kind of was like, there's gotta be unity.

We're on different missions,

the first leg, the second leg,

the third leg, the fourth leg.

Paul's up in Galatia among the Gentiles.

The rest of the apostles down in Jerusalem amongst the Jews.

Different mission fields, but same message.

And it was just beautiful.

And I started thinking about that,

this running, this picture of running.

I don't want to run in vain.

If leg number one runs its best leg ever

and goes to hand off the baton,

and it falls out of their hands and bounces away,

it's all for naught, okay?

And in this, we're saying the message of the gospel

is so important.

We have to be unified on message.

Everything we do might look a little bit different

to who we're going and sharing it with,

but we gotta be a team.

And that was what was so important to Paul.

And Paul had full confidence in the message that he had.

So he wanted to make sure that the rest of Jerusalem

was on board with that.

Picking up in verse three.

But even Titus, who was with me,

was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.

Yet because of the false brothers secretly brought in

who slipped in to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ

so that they might bring us into slavery,

to them we did not yield in submission, even for a moment,

so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

The first thing of importance to note

had nothing to do with Paul's companion and partner Titus.

Right?

It did, I should say.

It did have to do with him.

Paul had a companion in Titus who was one of his teammates

and he was getting a bad time because he was a Greek,

which is a Gentile, which would be a uncircumcised.

And what the Judaizers were saying

is Titus needs to be circumcised.

If he's gonna follow the way, if he's gonna follow Jesus,

if he's gonna be a Christian, a Christ follower,

he needs to become like us, right?

At this point, he hadn't been circumcised

or he wasn't forced to.

And the Judaizers were like,

no, every convert needs to be circumcised.

If you wanna be in with us,

if you wanna be part of our in crowd as Jewish people,

you need to be circumcised.

Yet with Christ and the message of the gospel,

there is no in or out based on what you've done.

We are all in based on what Jesus Christ had done.

On the cross, took our sins, died for us,

his blood was shed.

And then on that third day, he was raised from the dead

to conquer the power of sin, death, and hell in our lives.

And so we are one in him.

We're not one based on something that we do

or something that we've joined, but because of who Jesus is.

Those who wanted to continue to fellowship

and to follow, I should say, the Jewish law,

those Judaizers, they would take someone like a Titus

and say, no, you're on your way,

but you're not quite there yet.

There's more for you to do.

If you wanna be in, you've got to do these things.

But again, like I said, Paul already said,

Titus, no, you are in with Jesus

because he's done all the work

and we don't need to do anything to add

to the faith that you have in Jesus as your sacrifice.

So the fact that the apostles didn't go there,

didn't say he needed to be circumcised, that was huge.

But the fight wasn't over.

This was kind of just the beginning.

These false brothers, they secretly brought it in.

They slipped into spy.

Listen to the words that Paul's using there.

So that they might bring us into slavery.

It's kind of like a Sherlock Holmes motif

Paul slips into here.

Yeah, these Judaizers slip in

and they're trying to get people talking

and they're trying to spy what's going on here.

They're trying to, in a underhanded way,

catch us on something that they think is important.

They're trying to force things on people

who are converting to Christianity.

Really, they hated freedom.

The freedom that's found in Christ.

They wanted slavery.

They wanted bondage to a list of rules.

You wanna be a Christian, you have to do this.

You have to do this.

You have to do this.

It wasn't just circumcision.

There was a whole list of things

that they wanted them to be doing.

They would say to Paul, the gospel's too easy.

It can't be just Jesus dying on the cross

and taking your sin in exchange for his holiness.

I hear that.

When I explain to people what the true gospel is,

again, we're called to huge things

just coming to Jesus Christ in faith.

But for the actual process of salvation,

they'll say the gospel's too easy.

It's cheap.

It doesn't require you to do enough.

Because again, they wanna somehow earn something

that can never be earned.

And so when you really can explain to somebody,

no, this is a free gift.

Does God call us to big things post-conversion?

Yes.

But you don't have to do those things to be saved.

You don't have to be baptized to be saved.

You don't have to come to church

and take communion to be saved.

You don't have to give a portion of your funds,

your money to support the things of the kingdom,

even though the Bible calls us to do that.

You don't have to do that to be saved.

Those are all things we do because we're saved.

And I think if we can understand that as a church

and as Christians, it becomes more beautiful

because we see Jesus for who he is,

the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the earth.

He doesn't need your help.

He loved you enough to die on the cross.

He had big enough shoulders to take all of your sin.

His blood was enough for the payment of your sin

to his heavenly father, and that is enough.

And that's the gospel, and it's beautiful.

People though still will say,

what value does this salvation have

or this Christianity have if it's free?

It just, it's really hard for people

to get that through their brain.

That although it looks cheap or it looks free, it wasn't.

Jesus Christ paid the cost, and it was costly.

The architect, I should say, of salvation

should get all the glory,

just like in any great building, right, the architect.

But anyways, Paul continues on,

and he says we didn't yield in submission,

not even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel

might be preserved for you.

Paul is passionate about this.

He is fighting for the truth.

He doesn't like what the Judaizers are doing,

not because somehow they got it right

and he got it wrong and now he's embarrassed.

They are adding weight to the shoulders

of those who want to follow Jesus Christ

that was never meant to be added.

And so Paul is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ alone,

by grace alone, through faith alone.

Anything added to that wrecks it.

If you're building a house

and you know you're gonna be short on concrete

for the foundation, you don't just add some random things.

You don't add a little bit more water.

I got a half a two liter of Sprite here.

Maybe I can get some dirt.

Like, you don't just start adding things

to get more volume,

because that would cheapen the foundation.

Your house will crumble.

You can't just add things.

And in Christianity, it's the same thing.

Jesus did it all, period.

He paid the price, period.

He loves you enough to give it to you.

Salvation, eternity with God the Father in heaven

for you in exchange for your filth,

your sin, your unrighteousness.

It's a beautiful exchange and it's hard to understand.

It's easy to say, it's hard to comprehend

that the God in heaven who created everything

loved me enough to do all the work

so that I could spend eternity with him.

And Paul says this gospel is worth fighting for.

We need to keep it preserved

just like some good concrete for your foundation

and I'm gonna keep fighting for that.

Verse six, and from those who seem to be influential,

what they were makes no difference to me.

God shows no partiality.

Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me.

In other words, Paul's message was affirmed

by the apostles in Jerusalem.

This is a great verse.

This is saying the Judaizers tried.

I came down to Jerusalem to bring the offering.

I presented the gospel that I've been laying out there

and it was affirmed.

They said yes.

The Judaizers were not from them.

They were trying to stir up problems

by adding the ways of the old Jewish people,

that old way into the new way.

And Paul says unity in gospel is most important

and they agreed.

And so that was beautiful.

What we're gonna see next here in these last few verses

is a fight for the unity of the mission.

Now that we've established one message,

the gospel, with nothing extra added to it,

we can see that the actual outworking

looks in a certain way that is identifiable.

When the message is consistent,

we can go out on varying missions.

So again, Paul was going up into Galatia,

into the area of the Gentiles.

The other apostles were working down in Jerusalem

with the Jewish people.

Different mission fields, same message.

Paul was called by God to preach to non-Jews.

Peter and the other apostles

were called to preach to the Jews.

So let's continue on here, looking at verse seven.

On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted

with the gospel to the uncircumcised,

just as Peter had been entrusted to the gospel

to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter

for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised

worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles.

This is Paul saying, Peter and I have the same message,

even though we're going to two different people.

And this is a good thing.

One message, really one mission,

but two different mission fields.

The mission was to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

But Peter was called to do it amongst the Jews.

Paul to the Gentiles.

Same God sent Peter as sent me, Paul, right?

And then Paul just wanted to show

that they are working together in this.

That even though it looks different,

they're working for the same God with the same goal.

They're fighting for the unity

of the message and the mission.

And Paul says, it's the same Lord Jesus that called Peter.

He called me.

And if you and I have placed our faith in Jesus Christ

based on Matthew 28, you and I have been called also.

Okay, Peter's been called, Paul's been called.

And here 2,000 years later,

if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ,

if you're a Christian and you read Matthew 28,

you have been called to go and take the gospel,

the good news of Jesus Christ to those around you,

including the extent of the earth, right?

Each one of us, our mission field might look different,

but our mission is the same and our message is the same.

If we were blessed enough to have a missionary

here this morning speaking, it's the same message,

it's the same mission, it's a different field.

So if you're a stay-at-home parent

and all you do is hang out with your kids, right?

All you do is hang out with your kids,

that is your mission field.

And then they get friends,

now you have a bigger mission field.

And then you join a church body,

you can serve here and teach other people about Jesus Christ.

The mission field expands and contracts

based on the season of life that you're in.

And it's beautiful, but the message is the same,

the mission is the same,

the mission field might look a little bit different.

And that's what we see here.

Paul's saying, we're moving forward,

we have to be together,

mission field might be a little bit different,

but the message and the mission are the same.

And when James and Cephas and John,

who seemed to be pillars,

perceived the grace that was given to me,

they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me,

that we should go to the Gentiles

and they to the circumcised,

only they asked us to remember the poor,

which is the very thing I was eager to do.

This right hand of fellowship,

this symbolic gesture of partnership in the gospel.

There was an understanding amongst these people,

this is the mission, this is the message.

You go there, we go here, great things are going to happen.

This is an important principle for us to remember also.

There are a couple other churches that meet here in DuPont.

And if they're preaching the good news of Jesus Christ,

they're preaching the Jesus that we are preaching,

we are glad that they are here,

they are not our competition.

If someone attends here, goes checks out another church,

decides to go there, praise God.

God will bring the people to the grace works

who he wants to bring here.

Should we welcome people in?

Of course, should we invite people?

Of course, but I'm not gonna worry about it

if they go across town.

We need more churches in DuPont.

Look around you, this is not enough people

three times over to be going to church

on a Sunday morning in a town of 10,000 people.

Now I know people drive to Lacey,

I know people drive to Lakewood or Tacoma.

Praise God they're going somewhere.

There's plenty of room for all of us.

It's not a competition.

We pray for the other pastors in this community.

We pray for the other churches in Lacey and Olympia.

Kevin and I and Brian, as we gather throughout the week,

we're talking about other churches.

How can we help them?

How can we support them behind the scenes?

How can we join together on mission, on message,

even though our Sunday morning mission field

might be a little bit different?

The apostles were onto something that's good.

Invite people to come to the Grace Works.

We love what we're doing here

and we love for people to come along with us.

But if they're going somewhere else

that preaches Jesus Christ and salvation by faith

through his grace alone, praise God.

We want the unity, we wanna fight for that.

And well, that's what we see here,

extended to Barnabas and to Paul.

And then of course they say at the end here,

remember the poor.

Well, that's why Paul was here.

That was the whole reason that he came up there

was to bring the offering, right?

He wanted to bring the offering.

But even when you're on mission

and even when you're on message,

sometimes things get a little crazy.

And that's what these last couple of verses here

are gonna talk about.

And we decided, you know what,

we might as well look at the application of this

through the story that's actually written here

before next week we get into the next section.

And we're gonna realize that even when we're preaching

a unified message, we're gonna try our hardest

to live in unity.

That's really difficult and that sometimes things happen

and we need to be willing to fight for the gospel.

We need to be able to fight for unity.

We need to be able and willing to speak a hard word

to somebody that might be drifting.

And that's where this case study is gonna go

because we can talk about things out of the Bible all day,

but if we don't apply them to our life,

what good is it doing?

The unified gospel message, unified gospel mission,

it's worth fighting for and there is a fight.

Now, the players in this are gonna be Cephas,

who is also Peter and Paul.

The stage, they got a face-to-face public confrontation

that's gonna happen.

And the ground rules that were laid

is that they were going to do this

through the lens of the gospel, right?

That's what needs to happen here

and that's what Paul puts forward here.

We're gonna pop right into these next verses

and look at it.

For before certain men came to James, he was eating.

Did I miss the first verse there?

But when Cephas came to Antioch,

I opposed him face-to-face because he stood condemned.

That's what we were just talking about.

There's gonna be a battle here.

He already has expressed his love for Peter,

the unity in the message, the unity in the mission,

but there was a problem.

Something happened here.

Now we're ready to go to the next slide.

I thought something looked a little off there for me.

But before certain men came from James,

he was eating with the Gentiles,

but when they came, he drew back and separated himself,

fearing the circumcision party.

Paul says, hey, Peter was doing a great thing.

He was in community with Gentiles.

He was eating lunch with them.

Now, that would have made a Jewish person unclean

under the old law.

A Jew could not eat with a Gentile.

But through Jesus Christ,

those things have all been torn down.

Through a vision that was given to Peter,

these things were torn down.

And here we're seeing that these certain men

come from James.

Now, they're not sent by James,

but the James, the brother of Jesus,

was kind of the head of the church, right?

And so they came from that area.

James did not send them out, okay?

We know that.

There's actually a part of a letter in Acts here

that is quoted.

We have heard that some persons have gone out from us

and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds,

although we gave them no instructions.

This is what James wrote about these men.

So again, if you're taking notes,

write down Acts 15.

This is a popover.

This is what James is saying.

Hey, they came from our area,

but they were not from us, right?

And I know they've been causing trouble,

but that wasn't from us, right?

So again, James' gang did not have James' message.

There wasn't a unity in message,

but they came and they're like,

hey, you can't be eating with Gentiles.

For before certain men had come,

he was eating with them, but now he's not.

So again, we talked a little bit

about why that was a big deal,

the uncleanliness that used to be in place

for the Jewish people.

And again, we've gotta know those things

so that we can see what's happening here.

In Acts 10, Peter went up to the housetop

about the sixth hour to pray,

and he became hungry and he wanted something to eat.

But while they were preparing it,

he fell into a trance.

And he saw the heavens open

and something like a great sheep descending,

being let down by its four corners upon the earth.

And in it were all kinds of animals

and reptiles and birds of air.

And there came a voice from him,

rise, Peter, kill and eat.

But Peter said, by no means, Lord,

for I have never eaten anything

that is common or unclean.

And the voice came to him again a second time.

What God has made clean, do not call common.

This happened three times,

and the thing that was taken up at once to heaven.

So again, this is that vision I was talking about

where Peter was given a crystal clear message.

Don't call unclean what I have now made clean.

And as we look at the story of Acts,

and we see how it continues to go on,

Peter, almost immediately in that story,

went with a Gentile visitor to him,

back to the Gentile's home and had dinner.

God had changed the conduct that they were allowed to have

because the message of the gospel.

And the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words.

We need to remember that application matters.

So before certain men came to James,

he was eating with the Gentiles.

We saw that there in Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

But when they came, he drew back and separated himself,

fearing the circumcision party.

Now all of a sudden, Peter's not willing to eat with them.

He was fearing man's approval.

Remember last week?

Are you looking for God's approval or man's approval?

Here we see Peter stopping what he was doing,

stopping the vision that Christ had given him

three times that night.

Let's continue on reading.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically

along with him.

So when the leader goes one way,

a lot of times people will follow.

Peter stops eating with the Gentiles,

so do the rest of the Jews.

So that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step

with the truth of the gospel,

I said to Cephas before all of them,

if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile

and not like a Jew,

how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

What happens when Peter falls?

Right, it's the domino effect.

He's the leader, people follow him.

The hypocrite is somebody who says one thing

but does another.

Peter's preaching the freedom in Christ,

but then not walking in it.

Peter's sin was public, Paul calls him out in public.

People need to hear that you were wrong in this.

Because sin, sometimes, especially through leadership

or someone that you respect, can be contagious.

And it was infecting those around him.

The Jews acted hypocritically,

even Barnabas was led astray.

Unity and the application of the gospel

is worth fighting for.

And that's what we're seeing here in these verses.

Their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.

The gospel had opened up all those doors,

calling clean what was once unclean.

The message was unified, they were moving forward in that,

and yet Peter went back.

Are there areas in your life that are not consistent

with the gospel message of Jesus Christ this morning?

Do your friendships show unity?

Do your dinner invitations reflect unity,

reflect ministry, reflect mission?

We need to be committed to fighting

for the unity of the message, the unity of the mission,

and then make sure that our behavior is in step with that.

In closing here, let's look at a speech

that's given by Peter in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

The apostles and the elders were gathered together

to consider this matter,

and after there had been much debate,

Peter stood up and said to them,

brothers, you know that in the early days,

God made a choice among you, that by my mouth,

the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them

by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,

and he made no distinction between us and them,

having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test

by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples

that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

But we believe that we will be saved

through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will.

Now, you're taking a speech that Peter gives

after this confrontation that shows the heart change.

He doesn't say, well, in this particular speech,

he doesn't say, well, Paul called me out

on not eating with Gentiles,

and now I'm eating with Gentiles,

but he is saying that same thing

through what he is articulating here.

He heard Paul's rebuke, he repented of it,

and he moved forward and he said that the Gentiles

do not need to live under our law.

It's grace, it's faith through Jesus Christ.

There's nothing else that we need to add to that.

The gospel message is worth fighting for.

So for you and I today, as we consider this passage,

as we kind of consider what Paul was talking about

with a unity of message,

we're not gonna add anything to it.

And then the idea that we're really all on the same mission

no matter what that looks like,

whether we're just staying here in DuPont in our own homes,

whether we work outside the home,

whether we're actively going around the United States

sharing the good news of Jesus Christ,

whether we're sharing it around the world,

the mission is the same,

but our mission field might look different.

And I think for me today, my prayer through this passage

is Lord, help me to strive to move forward in unity,

unity of message with our people,

unity of mission with our people.

How can we as a church body better honor and glorify you

through the message that you have given us

and the mission that you've called us to?

And I pray that this week, as you reflect on this passage,

that your hearts will feel the same.

Let's pray together.

Father God, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you for an opportunity to look into your word.

We thank you that you have given us

a beautifully clear message,

the gospel that Jesus Christ came and died for us,

that you loved us so much

that you sent your son into the world

to be a sacrifice that we needed

for a debt that we could never pay,

for a payment that was too large

for any of us to take on on our own.

And Jesus stepped in and took our place

because he loves us.

In light of that message,

help us to live on mission for you.

Help us to take Matthew 28 seriously.

Help us to be a people who share the good news of Jesus

every single day, starting with our family,

then our friends and our coworkers,

and then any other opportunity you might give us.

Help us to live on mission today for you.

And as we consider other mission fields,

help our hearts to be open to your calling.

Help us to see the hurt around not only DuPont

and Washington State and the United States,

but around the world.

And if we have an opportunity to be sent,

Lord, help us to step forward and say,

here I am, send me.

So that we can share the good news of Jesus

with those around us.

And it's in his precious name that we pray, amen.

We've got a few more songs of worship.

Communion tables are set in the back.

So stand with me if you're able

and let's worship Jesus this morning.

["Communion Table"]

All sufficient's merit

Shining like the Sun

A fortune I inherit

By no work I have done

My righteousness I'll forfeit

At my Savior's cross

Where all sufficient merit

Did what I could not

In love He condescended

Eternal now in time

Life without a plan

Which the Maker made to die

The law could never save us

Our lawlessness had won

Until the purest hardness

Landman had finally gone

It is done, it is finished

No more dead I hope

Painful, all sufficient

Merit now my own

I lay down my coffins

Many empty holes

Good works now all corrupted

By the sinful host

But I'm trusting my Lord Jesus

A crimson road in my life

No more fear of judgment

His righteousness is mine

It is done, it is finished

No more dead I hope

Painful, all sufficient

Merit now my own

It is done, it is finished

No more dead I hope

Painful, all sufficient

Merit now my own

Oh, His righteousness is mine

All sufficient merit

Firm in life and death

The joy of my salvation

Shall be my final breath

When I stand accepted

Before the throne of God

I'll gaze upon my Jesus

And thank Him for the cross

Yes, I'll thank Him for the cross

It is done, it is finished

No more dead I hope

Painful, all sufficient

Merit now my own

It is done, it is finished

No more dead I hope

All sufficient merit

Merit now my own

Oh, Your merit now my own

Oh, Your merit now my own

For my laid-in grass

For my daily bread

I depend on You

I depend on You

For the sun to rise

For my sleep at night

I depend on You

I depend on You

You're the way, the truth and the life

You're the well that never runs dry

I'm the branch and You are the vine

Draw me close and teach me to pine

With the Spirit as I'm followed

I depend on You

I depend on You

For the feet of me

Still in front of me

I depend on You

I depend on You

You're the way, the truth and the life

You're the well that never runs dry

I'm the branch and You are the vine

Draw me close and teach me to pine

Be my strength, my storm in the night

Be my all, my treasure, my bride

I am Yours, forever You're mine

Draw me close and teach me to pine

As I pass through death

As I enter rest

I depend on You

I depend on You

For eternal life

To be raised with Christ

I depend on You

I depend on You

You're the way, the truth and the life

You're the well that never runs dry

I'm the branch and You are the vine

Draw me close and teach me to pine

Be my strength, my storm in the night

Be my all, my treasure, my bride

I am Yours, forever You're mine

Draw me close and teach me to pine

I depend on You

I depend on You

Sing it out

I depend on You

I depend on You

I depend on You

I depend on You

I depend on You

I depend on You

Come all you weary

Come all you thirsty

Come to the well

That never runs dry

Drink of the water

Come and thirst no more

Come all you sinner

Come to His mercy

Come to the table

He will satisfy

Taste of His goodness

Find what you're looking for

Here we go

But God so loved

The world that He gave us

He's one and only

Son to save us

Whoever believes in Him

Will live forever

Bring all you failure

Bring your addiction

Come lay them down

At the foot of the cross

Jesus is waiting there

With open arms

The sea is open now

But God so loved

The world that He gave us

He's one and only

Son to save us

Whoever believes in Him

Will live forever

The bound I am

Forever defeated

Now it is well

I'm walking in freedom

For God so loved

For God so loved the world

Praise God

Praise God

For whom all blessings flow

Praise Him

Praise Him

For the wonders of His love

Praise God

Praise God

Praise God

For whom all blessings flow

Praise Him

Praise Him

For the wonders of His love

His amazing love

For God so loved

The world that He gave us

He's one and only

Son to save us

For God so loved

The world that He gave us

He's one and only

Son to save us

Whoever believes in Him

Will live forever

The bound I am

Forever defeated

Now it is well

I'm walking in freedom

For God so loved

For God so loved the world

Bring all your failures

Bring your addictions

Come lay them down

At the foot of the cross

Jesus is waiting

God so loved the world

Amen

Love on some people on your way out

And we don't have to break down stuff

So that's great

Turn away

I said I'd never leave your side

For the days of my life

But I am weak

And I'm afraid

I traded my Lord for pocket change

Yeah, baby, I'm not Judas

Baby, I'm not thief

Baby, I'm not thief

Baby, I'm not thief

Baby, I'm not Judas

Baby, I'm not thief

Baby, I'm not sinner

To put you on that tree

Thirty pieces of silver

He ain't worse than me

Cause He betrayed you for money

And I did it all for free

No, I'm never gonna forget it

Forever I'm indebted to you

No, I'm never gonna leave this life the same

Lord, I'm here and I repent

Clean my heart and clean my hands

Oh, Lord, my only hope

I'm a sinner and a broken man

I am blooded by your grace

I live and forget

But I said I'd never

Turn away

I said I'd never leave your side

All the days of my life

But I am weak

And I'm afraid

I traded my Lord for pocket change

Yeah, baby, I'm not Judas

Baby, I'm not thief

Baby, I'm not sinner

To put you on that tree

Thirty pieces of silver

He ain't worse than me

Cause He betrayed you for money

And I did it all for free

No, I'm never gonna forget it

Forever I'm indebted to you

No, I'm never gonna leave this life the same

Oh, I'll pierce your hands

And I'll stab your back

I won't wait to turn away

From the only friend I had

Thirty pieces of silver

I can't be that cheap

Even if my brokenness

Can save you that from me

Baby, I'm not Judas

Baby, I'm not thief

Baby, I'm not sinner

To put you on that tree

For thirty pieces of silver

He ain't worse than me

He betrayed you for money

And I did it all for free

Baby, I'm not Judas

Baby, I'm not thief

Baby, I'm not sinner

To put you on that tree

For thirty pieces of silver

And I still can't believe

That God in all His mercy

Wouldn't purchase me

I Need Your Spirit

I need your spirit

That's what I'm after

More all the praises

That's all that matters

Oh, narrow is the way

But I'm still wealthy

And I'll leave it all behind

If it's your spirit

Where you lead me

I will follow

Oh, what a privilege

Just to follow

I found safety

In your shadow

What a privilege

Just to follow

Oh, do not cast me

Out from your presence

Oh, God

Cause I'm far from perfect

But, God, I'm desperate

Hey, yeah

Oh, narrow is the way

But I'm still wealthy

And I'll leave it all behind

If it's your spirit

Where you lead me

I will follow

Oh, what a privilege

Just to follow

I found safety