Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-Minute Bible Hour Podcast. And for the last few days, we've been on the collision course between Peter and Paul on their way to a lunch table in Antioch, where Peter was sitting with the fancy people and blowing off the not fancy people in his mind, and it was a big issue, and Paul is going to have to call the thing out. We're there and we're breaking down the implications of it this time around in Galatians chapter two. I'm going to have Jeff play some music, and we're going to pick up where we left off last time around. And now we're back to starting point, and Paul, after chapter two, is going to be ready to build back up the actual truth of the thing. But I think he's cheating ahead a little bit here at the end of chapter two. I think by quoting himself and telling us what he said to Peter in this confrontation that had happened years earlier in Antioch, I think what we're getting here is a preview of what's going to happen in the rest of Galatians, which is very theological in nature, but it's a preview of what the gospel actually is contrasted with what the gospel actually isn't. And in this case, you know, poor Peter, who is probably the good guy who makes the most mistakes in the entire New Testament. You know, poor Peter, I mean, he kind of gets kicked here again in the narrative for looking silly and getting the whole thing wrong. I think we've all been kicked in the narrative once or twice. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. But Peter, man, it just seems to happen to him a lot. I don't know, maybe he brought it upon himself. But that's why I find him so dang relatable. And it's why I can't even be mad at him for what we just read here in Galatians chapter two. Because again, the most charitable read on this situation is that Peter was just off balance. I mean, the guy just got arrested for crying out loud, one of his best friends for his whole life. Just got killed by Herod Agrippa, and Peter was awaiting the same fate when he was miraculously let out of prison. So I mean, come on. Dude's seen some stuff here. He's been flogged a little bit along the way, too. He's taken a lot of criticism. I mean, this guy has lived a lot of lifetimes in just half of one lifetime. I think we can cut him a little bit of slack for fumbling this thing socially, even though it was a pretty big fumble, and it had serious theological implications. Thankfully, Paul was there to straighten him out. Peter was a guy who needed a little help with that from time to time. So the most charitable read is Peter had a lot going on. He had a lot on his mind. He had a lot of burdens, and he was off balance, and it was easy when Jerusalem was way down there, and all the people he knew from Jerusalem were way down there in Jerusalem, and he's up here doing this Hakuna Matada thing, this new life in Antioch with new friends, and all the pressures of Jews and Gentiles and the tensions of the gospel going out, those all seem a million miles away. Now I'm here in Antioch, and everything's the same in terms of the message and the gospel, but also everything's different because it's kind of easier here. And we all just hang out and we all do our thing and we're all friends, and this is a wonderful time of healing for me, Peter. I mean I'm speculating a little bit here, but I don't think it's rooted in nothing. But then Paul specifically says that the problem resumed when certain men from James came up to Antioch. Remember, this is how the story goes in Galatians two, starting in verse eleven. When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong. But before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. So it isn't that Paul immediately opposed Peter when he came to Antioch. The timeline of events, as Paul is explaining it here, is that apparently Peter was great early on, that Hukuna Mathada period that I was just talking about. And he hung out with the Gentiles and everything was fine. All those tensions were a million miles away. But when people he recognized and had history with and knew who were representatives of and loyal to James when they showed up in Antioch, Peter felt weird all of a sudden. And probably a lot of his Gentile buddies were like, Dude, are you okay? It seems like you're being weird. Uh yeah, I'm fine. You know what it's like when something happens and somebody who's had one tone with you that's really familiar and friendly and chummy, suddenly they go cold. You know, okay, something happened here. There's some new pressure that's been introduced. That's what I imagine happening with Peter here. And all of a sudden that middle school table pecking order situation rears its ugly head again from childhood. And Peter sees those guys and he's got his lunch tray and his Hawaiian shirt that he has on metaphorically, that his metaphorical mom maybe made for him, and he's standing there looking like, where do I sit? And he eyeballs table A and table B, and table A has all of his new Gentile friends over there with cool Greek names and Hakuna Matada, it's been great. But then over there at table B are the very, very Jewish friends he has who are pals with James, who no matter how much the name recognition for Peter makes him seem like he was the biggest deal back then. He wasn't. James was the big deal in Jerusalem. He was the authority. He's the guy who spoke last at the Jerusalem Council. He's the guy. And these are James's guys, and they are at table B. Then my goulash gruel slime that got dished up on my tray is getting cold, and all my buddies at Gentile table A are waving at me, and they're like, Peter, come on, man, you always sit over here. What are you doing? Let's hang out and talk about Jesus and Gentile things. And then he looks at table B, and the guys over there are narrowing their brows at him a little bit, like, what are you doing, man? And then he looks at table A and back to table B, and then nervously Peter goes over to table B and table A is like, what the heck? I mean, okay, whatever. Again, a lot of paraphrasing here, a lot of reading between the lines, but I don't think the scene that I am imagining is all that far-fetched. Peter was fine in the early going, despite being all shook up. If anything, Antioch was a huge relief. Then Jerusalem catches up with him, and we realize he's still got some baggage there. He's still got some things that he needs to sort through in terms of where he fits. A man with a foot in two worlds sharing a dining room with another man with a foot in two worlds, that being Paul. And in that moment, Peter wavers. We've heard that before. Sometimes Peter wavers under pressure. And in that moment, Paul is a stalwart. He doesn't waver. He sees what's going on. Now, maybe this had gone on a few times, and Paul finally felt it was time to address it and address it publicly, but whenever it was and however long it had been going on, Paul, according to his own account here, says that he called Peter out on Peter's hypocrisy in front of everyone. Paul is not ambiguous about this in what he says here in Galatians 2. He doesn't make it sound like, well, it could have gone either way, you know, like we both got some things wrong, and I think we got to meet in the middle a little bit. There's no middle here. Paul's like, I was right, he was wrong, he was obviously wrong, everybody could see that, and he is theologically wrong, not just socially wrong. You can't do what Peter did, quote, because he was clearly in the wrong. And further, Paul goes on to say his wrong was contagious. And even Barnabas kind of got roped into the James's buddies and Peter reluctantly going along with it, crowd. And for the first time ever, Antioch has an actual crisis and it's all over the middle school lunchroom and who sits with who? And all of these leftover fights from way back in the day. Thank goodness Barnabas had the good sense to rope Paul in the years earlier so that he could speak to the situation and get it straightened out and nip this thing in the bud. Paul is right here. Peter is wrong here. And next time around, we got to try to dive into this deep water theology speech that we get from Paul so we can better understand why. And maybe when you heard me read that a while back, you're like, dang, that was a lot. Are we going to talk about that? Because it seems like we should talk about it because that's kind of intimidating. And yep, we're going to wade right into it and see what to make of it next time around. Dude, this was a quad episode. I don't know if I've ever done that before, but it was just really fun unpacking all of this at once. So for you, this has been like four days. For me, I've just been sitting here ranting about this whole story about Peter and Paul and lunch tables and middle school and the whole bit, filling it in with some little connective tissue stuff to divide it up into roughly 10-ish minute chunks so we can spread it out and stay on our schedule. That's a little different way to attack things, but I had fun with it, and I think we're well set up for what comes next. Man, I really enjoy doing this. Thank you so much for being a part of this thing with me. I would not get to do this if you weren't here. Your presence and interest is why I get to hang out with the Bible every single day like this. It's fun to imagine that I'd just do it because I would do it just here by myself, like I'm some great saint or really noble, honorable Christian, but I wouldn't. I go harder on this and I pay more attention to it because of you. And in that you do me a tremendous service, and I really am so, so grateful. Okay, that's plenty for now. Uh Matt, this is a 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.