Avoiding Hypocrisy

 

Avoiding Hypocrisy

 

In Galatians 2:11-14 Paul confronts Peter over Peter’s hypocrisy. Peter had been fellowshipping with the Gentile Christians in Galatia, but when some Jewish Christians come, Peter withdraws & stops fellowship with the Gentile Christians. Peter’s hypocrisy led other Jewish Christians to withdraw from fellowshipping with Gentile Christians & even Barabas was led astray.

 

How do we apply what Paul did in confronting Peter’s hypocrisy with how we are to confront hypocrisy?

 

We follow Paul’s example by confronting hypocrisy in the church, not in the world. The world is fallen & has no ability to be anything but fallen. The church is not fallen. We are people that God has transformed from sinner to saint. We are to live differently than the world. Paul is confronting Peter, knowing that this is not how Jesus desires His people to relate to each other & knowing that Peter, through the Holy Spirit, had the power to change.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about speaking the truth in love to confront hypocrisy in the church.

 

We must see all followers of Jesus as our brothers & sisters. We cannot put labels on other believers & create human-based divisions. Paul says in Colossians 3:11, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all, and in all.”

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about seeing all Christians as our brothers & sisters regardless of race or gender or language or nation.

 

We must reach out to others & when they come into the church by accepting them. In John 4 Jesus reaches out to an immoral Samaritan women & then to a whole Samaritan village & she & many in the village came to faith in Jesus. In James 2, James warns the church not to treat people differently based on wealth. We are not to welcome the wealthy & reject the poor; all are welcomed in God’s church.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about reaching out to all people to help them to come to faith in Jesus.

 

In Matthew 9 Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him & he does. Matthew then throws a party & invites his friends, tax collectors & sinners to meet Jesus. The religious leaders, the Pharisees got offended because Jesus was eating with sinners. Jesus told them that He had not come for those who saw themselves as righteous with no need for a savior, but He came for sinners who knew they needed a Savior. The church is not a club for the self-sanctified, but a healing place for the sinner.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about loving those who are sinners because that is who we were when Jesus saved us.

 

When people look at the church, they don’t need to see perfect people, but they do need to see people who love differently than the world. When the world sees a transformed church then they will start to listen to what the church says.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

Revelation & Acceptance

 

Revelation & Acceptance

Galatians 2:1-10

 

In Galatians 1:1-2 Paul goes to Jerusalem. He goes because of a revelation from God because of his calling to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul listened to the Holy Spirit & let Him direct his life. In John 5:19 Jesus says that He can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. Paul obeys the revelation from God & Jesus, God in the flesh, and does what the Father is doing.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about doing what God directs us to do & not doing what we want to do & asking God to bless it.

 

In Galatians 2:3 Paul says that Titus who was a Gentile was not made to be circumcised. We as disciples of Jesus are not called by God to make people conform to outward human-based rules or rituals. We have been called to proclaim the gospel & make disciples of all people. In John 17:3 Jesus said that eternal life is knowing the only true God & Jesus who He had sent. It is about relationship, not religion.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing God & living out our relationship with him every day.

 

In Galatians 2:4-5 Paul says that they stood their ground based in the truth in relationship to those who came to spread lies & disunity. We face a world that has been deceived by Satan. The world’s values are based on lies not truth, & in the church we have false teachings. God has called us not to be angry & fight, but to stand our ground in love & live out truth.   

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about speaking the truth in love & then living that truth & love out to show others Jesus.

 

Galatians 2:6 Paul says that he went to those who were leaders in the church & they did not put restrictions on what he was doing. Paul mentioned that, though they were leaders, they we not favored by God over others because God does not show partiality. In Romans 2:11 it says that God shows no partiality. God does not love any of us more or less than any other person. He loves us & desires a relationship with all people.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing God loves His human creation all the same & that we can rest in His love for us.

 

In Galatians 2:7-9 Paul says that the leaders of the church saw that God had called Paul to proclaim the gospel to the Gentile just as He had called James & Peter & John to proclaim the gospel to the Jews. The same grace that had been given to James & Peter & John to minister to the Jews has been given to Paul to minister to the Gentiles. We as disciples of Jesus have specific callings & all those callings come from God & are all necessary for God to build His kingdom.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about following God’s specific callings for our lives & recognizing that all callings from God are valuable.

 

Galatians 2:10 tells us that in all our God given callings we are to remember & serve the marginalized people. In Matthew 25 Jesus makes it clear that we as His disciples are to serve those who are hurting, those who are outcast, & those who are materially & emotionally & spiritually oppressed.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about serving those who have needs.

 

We who are following Jesus must accept others who are following Him even if their following does not look exactly like ours.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

Called by God

 

Called By God

Galatians 1:11-24

 

In Galatians 1:11-12 Paul tells us about the source of the gospel that he is proclaiming.

 

Paul says that the gospel that he preached was not human based but the gospel that God had given him. This is true of all of God’s word. 2 Peter 1:19-21 says, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed; to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shinning in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The Bible is God’s word & it comes from God, not humans.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting that the Bible is God’s word & it comes from God, not humans.

 

In verses 13-14 Paul shares about his former life where he persecuted the church & advanced up the ladder of religious authority in Judaism because of his zealous persecution of the church. A person can be religious & be sincerely devoted to following religious beliefs & still miss experiencing God in their lives. John 17:3 tells us that eternal life is knowing the only true God & Jesus Christ who was sent by God the Father. It is about a relationship with God, not a religious devotion to God, that He wants.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about experiencing the reality of the one true God in our lives every day.

 

In verses 15-17 Paul shares his transformation. Paul was set apart through God’s grace before he was born to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. This being set apart came through His encounter with Jesus. Paul spends three years with Jesus being discipled to prepare him to fulfill God’s calling in his life. God desires for each of us is to be transformed & set apart to follow God’s call through following Jesus as His disciple.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about allowing God to transform us & set us apart to follow Jesus as His disciples.

 

In verses 18-23 Paul shares about the beginning of his ministry. He went to Jerusalem & met with Peter. He then went to Syria and Cilicia. The disciples there did not know him personally, but they knew that the man who had once persecuted the church was now proclaiming his faith in Jesus. Just as Paul’s transformation from persecutor of churches to planter of churches, we need to be transformed from one who rejected Jesus to one who has surrendered their lives to Jesus as Lord.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about allowing the world to see the difference Jesus has made & is making in our lives.

 

Galatians 1:24 says, “And they gloried God because of me.” God had called & set Paul apart to proclaim the gospel & Paul had responded in obedience & the result was that God was glorified by people coming to surrender their lives to Jesus as their Lord. God has called & set apart each of us to serve Him & when we do, it will result in His being glorified & drawing people to Jesus to be their Lord.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about obeying God so that He can be glorified.

 

God had a plan for Paul’s life & He has a plan for each of our lives. When we obey God & follow His plan, it will always lead to His glory & our good.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

No Other Gospel

 

No Other Gospel

 

Galatians 1:6-7 says, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – not there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”

 

There is one gospel. The gospel is the good news that Jesus was God in the flesh who came & died for our sins on the cross & rose from the dead showing that He had victory of over death, sin, & Satan & that He will return & put everything under His loving reign for eternity. The one gospel of Christ is based in God’s grace. It is through God’s grace that we enter into the Christian life which is a living relationship with God through Jesus. We do not become a Christian by agreeing to a set of doctrines or values, but by surrendering our lives to Jesus as our Savior & Lord.   

 

So, what happens when we desert this one true gospel?

 

We experience trouble. The trouble here means perplexity, confusion, & unrest. The true gospel that is based in God’s grace brings clarity, stability, & peace. 1 Corinthians 14:33 tells us that God is a God of peace, not confusion. The true gospel of Christ brings peace. All other so-called gospels bring confusion.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about have the true gospel of Christ & it leading us to experience God’s peace.

 

We experience distortion or perversion in our knowledge of the truth. This word means to change into an opposite character. This perverted gospel was changing the nature of the Christian from grace to legalism. It was changing the very nature of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about living out our relationship with Jesus based on God’s grace, not trying to legalistically follow rules & rituals & traditions.

 

Paul is pointing to the truth that everything in our relationship with Jesus is based in grace.

 

Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches us that we are saved by grace.

1 Corinthians 15:10 teaches us that we live every day by grace.

Romans 5:1-2 teaches us that we stand in grace daily which leads to experiencing hope.

2 Timothy 2:1 teaches us that we are strengthened daily by grace.

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 teaches us that grace empowers us to withstand suffering without complaining.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about letting the grace of God enable us to know God & walk each day in an intimate relationship with Him through Jesus.

 

In Galatians 1:8-10 we get a very strong warning that even if an angel should preach to us anything that is contrary to the true gospel of Christ, we are not to believe it or follow it.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about not trusting any spiritual being other than Jesus & no other spiritual truth other that what God gives us in the Bible.

 

When we believe anything other than the gospel of Christ, we are not serving Jesus.

 

God in His grace has given us the gospel of Christ to provide salvation, to give us peace, to give us hope, to strengthen us, & to give us the empowering to deal with the suffering we will face living in a fallen world. We simply need to believe & obey Him.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe