We have all been in relational situations where we get in a fight with somebody. Maybe we were really right and they were really wrong. Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe it's ambiguous as to who was right and who was wrong. But some authority figure or some social pressure upon us came into play, and we felt like, okay, we need to just make it right for the good of whoever. We just need to hug it out and we're not going to get to the bottom of this. And we gave everybody the impression that everything was cool. But then time passed and we were like, nah, I still have resentment. Nah, I don't really feel like that was resolved. And it kind of lingered. We have all surely also been in a situation where we had some kind of tension with somebody else, and we felt like we needed to work it out, and we reached an understanding, and we did work it out. And then some time passed, and we looked back and we were like, huh, that's all worked out. I feel great about it. And we're probably better for it. I want to know which one of those two realities happened after Paul confronted Peter in Galatians chapter two, because I think it's a really big deal. I think it's more than just wanting to know how the story worked out and whether two of the heroes of the Bible got along better after or not. I think it's more than just a little relational curiosity. I think that it has actual implications for the whole history of Christianity, as we were talking about yesterday. And so as we're here kind of paused at the end of Galatians chapter two, getting ready to go into Galatians chapter three in our little journey through this season of the podcast, I am taking us on this rabbit trail to go and do our own homework to try to figure out which way the evidence points. Did these guys just get along to get along and then go do their own things and have tension between them forever as some sort of frenemy rivals? Or did they really actually work it out? Did Peter realize, huh, I was wrong on the gospel thing? I missed it. I forgot myself for a minute. It was difficult, but my buddy here, Paul, he called me out. I needed to hear it. It's a little embarrassing, but hey, I'm Peter. Sometimes I do embarrassing things. And, you know, say about me what you will. I at least I'm teachable and I will come around and admit when I was dumb and I was dumb this time. Which one was it? Which way was it? Well, I think this is, again, knowable. And yesterday we talked about the reality that we have a whole bunch of data on Peter's personality, what he's thinking, what he's doing, where he's at in his process of faith and understanding the gospel. We got a ton of that in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And we got a ton of that in Act One of the Book of Acts. Still a decent amount in Act Two of the Book of Acts, but in the last third of the book of Acts, we get basically nothing about Peter at all, and more or less no more narrative about Peter at all, moving through the rest of the New Testament. Now, church history and tradition tells us some stuff. We'll try to take that into account as well. Well, here's my suspicion. After thinking about this for a couple days and flipping around through the Bible and chasing down leads and whatnot, I think that we can confidently say that these two guys legitimately worked it out. That Peter legitimately came around, that there was a sincere repentance and apology off-screen for Peter's mistake. He's fallible, just like everybody else. Even though he definitely spoke with the authority of the church, as someone who Christ had really uniquely propped up to do this, dude still made mistakes and was even wrong about theology at times in his own personal behavior. And this is one of those examples. And I think he came around to acknowledge that. And here are the following reasons why. I think Peter came around, and Peter and Paul worked things out and were on the same page, not as rivals, but as intense allies, one going to the Jews and one going to the Gentiles for the rest of their lives. I might not get through all four of my reasons in one conversation. Maybe I'll take two, maybe I'll take three. I don't know. We'll see where we get. Reason number one Peter and Paul were still hanging out with the same crowd after this incident in Antioch in Galatians chapter two. And I think that's really encouraging and really speaks to the likelihood that they truly did square things up in every way and truly did function as allies moving forward. Paul was feisty. He got into it with people, and he was willing to get right up in people's faces. Maybe it was the personality that made him good at being a Pharisee stuck with him, but now that personality was reconfigured and retargeted by God, by the Holy Spirit, to use this in places where wrong thought or heresy needed to be confronted. Whatever. I mean, Paul's got, I mean, he's got some bodies in the rearview mirror. He is not afraid to part ways with people when they're wrong. He was a man on a mission, he's doing stuff. Do you remember, like off the top of your head, some of the most famous fights and parting of ways that Paul had with other people? I mean, obviously he had a showdown with a wizard on the island of Cyprus. That guy was maybe a para-Christian heretic, like somebody trying to mingle them. But I mean like Christian Christians that he fought with. You remember? Okay. Uh he parted ways with Barnabas eventually. Barnabas, who was just awesome to Paul at every turn. He still ended up not working with Barnabas. Eventually, he isn't working with Silas as well. But do you remember when he got in the fight with Barnabas over? It was over one dude in particular. Do you remember who that was? This is, I don't know, this seems like a fun way to do it. It was John Mark. It was Mark. It was the author of the Gospel of Mark. And this is interesting given our conversation yesterday, because church history and I think the internal evidence says very loudly that Peter is the guy behind the Gospel of Mark, the main source behind the Gospel of Mark. Maybe Mark listened to Peter's recollections of his firsthand encounters with Jesus in Rome and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Maybe this is where the book of Mark came from. It's not crazy to think that at all, meaning that Mark and Peter were pals in the later part of Peter's life. And Paul and Mark, they were pals early on, but then they had a falling out. Let's review the falling out. All right, Acts chapter 12. Herod Agrippa executes James and tears into this persecution thing that he's doing for a while. Then he also has Peter arrested, and miraculously, Peter is led out of prison in Acts chapter 12. Where does Peter go? Do you remember? He goes to John Mark's house, or a whole family compound owned by the John Mark family. Apparently, all of these people were tight. These people must add money. John Mark's family. He was a young kid at the time, but apparently Peter being miraculously freed from prison and the martyrdom of James, all of the events that happened here in Acts chapter 12 made a big time impression on John Mark. And even though he was young and still green, he's like, I want to be in the game. I want to help out. Now, somewhere in here, Paul and Barnabas, when Paul was still called Saul, they had been down in Jerusalem making the connection and facilitating the connection between the Antioch Church and the Jerusalem Church. And it says in the last verse of Acts chapter 12 that when Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, that is the one in Jerusalem, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark. Then they go right into their privat journey, the first missionary journey, and they see some amazing things happen on the island of Cyprus. But before they leave Cyprus, John Mark gets homesick. He's a kid. I don't know. Paul was just incredibly impatient with this, and maybe he was right to be impatient. I mean, this provet journey that he was on wasn't to be trifled with. This is one of the most important things that ever happened in the history of Christianity. So I get why Paul would be like, you're not ready, kid. Uh if you're homesick and you want to leave so bad, nobody's stopping you. Get going. I mean, none of that's actually in the Bible. This is how it's described. Acts 13, 13. From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. I misstated that earlier. So he didn't leave them until they actually got to Perga. So he didn't bail while they were on Cyprus. He bailed after one more trip uh overseas to Perga. Maybe the journey overseas didn't go well. It was rough. Maybe he got not just homesick, but maybe seasick. I don't know, whatever. He wanted to go home, so he went home. And Paul just sort of seems to mentally move on from the guy. He's only taken people with him who are serious at this point. Well, fast forward a couple chapters later, now Paul's done the prove it journey. Now he's come back and reported on the results of the prove it journey in Acts. Who's there? Well, for the second time in just three chapters, we have Peter and we have Paul and we have Barnabas and we have John Mark all in the same environment at the same time, dealing with the same stuff. Paul, again, means all business at the Jerusalem Council. Peter's there as well, and Peter and Paul seem to solidly be on the same page here. Now there's a really decent chance that the Jerusalem Council is happening comfortably after the incident at the lunch table in Antioch. So even this, I suppose, serves as evidence that they patched things up because they're saying the same stuff theologically at the Jerusalem Council here in Acts 15. But it's what happens after that that is an interesting point of tension. Paul is ready to go out on another journey. Let's do this second prove it journey. Well, it's not a prove it journey anymore. Let's go cash in on the prove it journey. So a little bit later on, Paul, or it says sometime later, Paul said to Barnabas, this is the end of Acts chapter 15, let's go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preach the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. Barnabas is amenable to the idea, and he wanted to take John, also called Mark with them. But Paul didn't think it was wise to take him, because John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and hadn't continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. I think it's really interesting that Barnabas, the son of encouragement, wants to take John Mark, wants to give him another shot. You know, hey man, a lot's happened. Time has passed. Let's let bygones be bygones, let's take the kid with us. He still wants in. And what does Barnabas do after they part ways? He goes back to the last place where John Mark had a win. Because apparently things went well on the island of Cyprus, and John Mark handled his business pretty well there. It wasn't until uh again, I misstated this a moment earlier, but it wasn't until they got on the boat and sailed back to the mainland in Perga that John Mark started to flag and flounder. So I just think that's a nice touch that this is what Barnabas thought it would be a good idea to do. Give the kid an easy win in football terms. You know, let's give him a few easy check down completions to get him in a groove. It's very on-brand for Barnabas, and it looks like they go and have success. It looks like Paul goes and has success, and we don't really hear much more about it after that, other than just the evidence that we get from the whole story, which is the gospel works out really well. It turns out great. Everybody's responding all over the place. Everybody who's participating in this thing, John, Mark, Peter, Paul, everybody, Barnabas, Silas, everybody's doing a great job. I'm having fun tracking down all of this. Paul, Peter, Mark, Barnabas quadrangle of relationships here. I think there's really good stuff that's going to help us understand how Peter and Paul worked things out or whether they worked it out at the end of chasing down this story. And I just need another day to do it. So we're going to split this in half. We're going to pick up right where we left off next time around. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I love that we get to do this. Thank you so much for being willing to indulge rabbit trails like this one that I think are really important. And this just happens to be when it came up. So we'll run it down. And then when we're done running it down, we'll go and pick it up with Galatians chapter three. All right, that's good for now. I'm Matt. This is a 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.