²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” -Galatians 2:21

We know that over time Peter came to his senses and took Paul’s words to heart. We know this from Acts 15:6-11, where Peter, in Jerusalem, before James and Paul and Barnabas and the other apostles, proclaimed that Gentiles did not have to come under the Law of Moses to be saved. We can trust that God used this awkward encounter in Antioch for everyone’s good.

· It was good for Paul, because he stayed true and proclaimed the gospel.

· It was good for Peter, because he was corrected, and as a result became even more convinced in the truth than before.

· It was good for Barnabas, because he came to the correct belief on this matter.

· It was good for the men who came from James and started the whole mess, because a line was drawn at the true gospel, and they had to decide.

· It was good for the Jewish believers in Antioch, because they had the truth spelled out clearly before them.

· It was good for the Gentile believers in Antioch, because their faith and liberty in Jesus was strengthened.

· It was good for us because the truth still lives today.

All this good came, but only because Paul was willing to do something that was totally right, but extremely uncomfortable. Peter was willing to do that too, when he admitted he was wrong. Peter and Paul were willing to sacrifice their comfort zone for what was right.

Does your comfort zone get in the way of taking action? My comfort zone has been stretched beyond belief. I can assuredly say that God likes to do so. He wants us to be faithful in awkward situations even if it means publically rebuking a friend. For all the scholars that harp on the “early church train.” ( In other words, all the scholars that tell us to model everything after the early church). This type of confrontation is usually not talked about. The early church grew because the early Christians were not only willing to die (as we will see on Sunday, COME TO CHURH!) but they were also willing to lose friends, family, and even their jobs. The awkwardness or the result was never enough to scare them from following God. Can you say the same?