Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Before walking out of jail a free man in February, Albert Woodfox spent 43 years almost without pause in an isolation cell, becoming the longest standing solitary confinement prisoner in America.

He had no view of the sky from inside his 6 foot by 9 foot concrete box, no human contact, and taking a walk meant pacing from one end of the cell to the other and back again.

Then in April 2016 he found himself on a beach in Galveston, Texas, in the company of a friend.

He stood marveling at all the beachgoers under a cloudless sky, and stared out over the Gulf of Mexico as it stretched far out to the horizon.

"You could hear the tide and the water coming in," he says.

"It was so strange, walking on the beach and all these people and kids running around."

Then in April 2016 he found himself on a beach in Galveston, Texas, in the company of a friend.

He stood marveling at all the beachgoers under a cloudless sky, and stared out over the Gulf of Mexico as it stretched far out to the horizon.

"You could hear the tide and the water coming in," he says.

"It was so strange, walking on the beach and all these people and kids running around."

Of all the terrifying details of Woodfox's four decades of solitary incarceration … perhaps the most chilling aspect of all is what he says now.

Two months after the state of Louisiana set him free on his 69th birthday, he says he sometimes wishes he was back in that cell.

Of all the terrifying details of Woodfox's four decades of solitary incarceration … perhaps the most chilling aspect of all is what he says now.

Two months after the state of Louisiana set him free on his 69th birthday, he says he sometimes wishes he was back in that cell.

"Oh yeah!

Yeah!" he says passionately when asked whether he sometimes misses his life in lockdown.

"You know, human beings … feel more comfortable in areas they are secure.

In a cell you have a routine, you pretty much know what is going to happen, when it's going to happen, but in society it's difficult, it's looser.

So there are moments when, yeah, I wish I was back in the security of a cell."

He pauses, then adds: "I mean, it does that to you."

"Oh yeah!

Yeah!" he says passionately when asked whether he sometimes misses his life in lockdown.

"You know, human beings … feel more comfortable in areas they are secure.

In a cell you have a routine, you pretty much know what is going to happen, when it's going to happen, but in society it's difficult, it's looser.

So there are moments when, yeah, I wish I was back in the security of a cell."

He pauses, then adds: "I mean, it does that to you."

But Albert isn’t alone, really.

In the story of the Exodus, we see that the Israelites whined and complained that they wanted to go back to Egypt where they were slaves.

In fact, this happens when they are barely out of Egypt.

Look at

We sit here in awe of this story and yet it shouldn’t surprise us.

In the story of the Exodus, we see that the Israelites whined and complained that they wanted to go back to Egypt where they were slaves.

In fact, this happens when they are barely out of Egypt.

Look at

And the funny thing is that this won’t be the last time that the Israelites look back at their former life of slavery fondly.

And while many of us will preach a gospel that says we are saved by grace through faith, we far too often forget that we are also then kept by grace through faith as well.

It is always tempting to return to what you know.

It is tempting to leave your new life and return back to the life that you just left.

And we see it in our text today as well.

As we continue our look at Galatians, we see Paul showing his Fightin’ Side, as Merle Haggard once sang.

Peter had abandoned the freedom he had in Christ only to return to a legalistic view of ongoing justification with Christ.

And in all of this Paul said, “You may want to live like that, but you sure aren’t taking these people with you.”

As we continue our look at Galatians, we see Paul showing his Fightin’ Side, as Merle Haggard once sang.

Peter had abandoned the freedom he had in Christ only to return to a legalistic view of ongoing justification with Christ.

And in all of this Paul said, “You may want to live like that, but you sure aren’t taking these people with you.”

And we see it in our text today as well.

As we continue our look at Galatians, we see Paul showing his Fightin’ Side, as Merle Haggard once sang.

Peter had abandoned the freedom he had in Christ only to return to a legalistic view of ongoing justification with Christ.

And in all of this Paul said, “You may want to live like that, but you sure aren’t taking these people with you.”

In all of this, we see that there is a great pressure from those who are legalistic to try and change the answer to the question “What Justifies a Person Before Christ?”

In our text today, Paul gives us a great reminder that we must be people who contend for the gospel truth if we want to make a difference in the world we live in.

Let's turn our attention back to our text today.

If we look back at , we see that Paul is astonished that the church would so quickly abandon their goal.

People who Compromise

As we start our look at the text today, we see Peter, the rest of the Jews and even Paul’s close friend Barnabas compromising the truth for the hypocrisy of a false gospel.

But first, Peter came and was eating with the Gentiles.

Something changed and when we see that in a text, we need to ask ourselves what happened?

Peter came to Antioch, which is in modern-day Turkey or ancient Galatia, and began to associate with the Gentiles.

This was after Peter’s big revelation in where he was told to eat unclean animals and God tells him in , “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

Interestingly, this happened three times.

It seems that Peter needs to hear things three times for it to sink in.

I get that.

So, when Cornelius, a God-Fearing centurion, called for Peter, it all clicked.

Peter goes to Cornelius, tells him this story, and in says,

Peter understood the truth of the message we looked at last week that the gospel compels us to reach across worldly divides for the sake of gospel.

In our text today, Paul tells us that Peter was “eating with the Gentiles”.

But something changed.

We see in verse 12 of our text today that Peter drew back and separated himself from the gentile believers.

He no longer ate with them and instead ate only with the Jewish believers.

This sets the stage for the confrontation that we read about in this passage between on one side Paul and the other Peter along with the other Jewish believers.

And, it was a confrontation that needed to happen.

The simple truth is that there are people who start well in gospel ministry and then either deviate for a season or walk away all together.

And the simple reality is that it can happen to anyone.

I mean, here’s Peter, just when you think he has finally “got it” he stumbles away from the truth that Jews AND Gentiles are both saved by Jesus.

King David started well but had his struggles later in life.

Many of the people we look up to in the Scriptures are people who at some point have compromised their ministry or calling due an abandonment of the Gospel.

That’s why I want you to see that holding fast to the gospel means there is grace for those who stumble away.

Remember, Galatians was one of the very first letters written that is now part of our New Testaments.

It would be almost 20 years later that Peter would write these words in -

and if anyone knew something about a former ignorance, it was Peter!

Friends, let me encourage you today to not give up on yourself or others who have compromised the gospel.

Instead, let me encourage you to pray for them, speak boldly into their lives.

God is not done writing their story yet so don’t give up on them.

Because the reason so many people compromise is because there is great pressure to compromise.

Pressure to Compromise

I had coffee with some folks this week and we were talking about graduation and the great pressures that our young people face as they head off to college or out into the working world.

And yes, the pressures are great to compromise on gospel truth when we head out into the public arena.

The simple truth is that there is, and always has been, a great pressure to compromise on the truth of God.

As we continue the narrative in our text today, we see that the reason the people like Peter and Barnabas compromised on the inclusion of Gentile believers and gave in to the Judaizers was because of a great pressure to compromise.

Paul points out at the beginning of verse 12 that certain men came from James and then the rest of the passage points out to us how they led them into hypocrisy.

What most likely happened was men from Jerusalem came to follow up with Peter when he came to see Cornelius and see what was happening in Antioch.

These men then encouraged Peter to exclude the Gentile believers because they weren’t “clean”.

And Peter went along because of a fear he had of the circumcision party.

Thus the meal was segregated, and quite possibly the Lord’s Supper as well.

These men pressured Peter and the other Jewish Christians into disobeying the truth that God shows no partiality.

This is particularly ironic because back in , Peter also quotes the same passage from the Deuteronomy that Paul quoted a few verses before and that we looked at last week.

Paul understood the truth that the gospel means that God shows no partiality.

But he still caved and gave into the pressure that said “Don’t eat with Gentiles.”

Peter also quotes the same passage from the Deuteronomy that Paul quoted a few verses before and that we looked at last week.