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Peter Rebuked by Paul

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When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,
I said to Peter in front of them all,
“You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.
How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

(Galatians 2:14)

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The first church to be built after Jesus ascended to heaven is the Jerusalem Church.
The church in Jerusalem was a church made up of Jews. The people of the Jerusalem church were Jews, so they were circumcised according to the Jewish tradition.

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The Jews who crucified Jesus regarded the Jerusalem church that believed in Jesus as thorns in their eyes. Due to their evil deeds, Deacon Stephen, who was preaching the gospel, was stoned and martyred. After that, the Jews greatly persecuted and harassed the Jerusalem church.

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Many believers who could no longer practice their faith in Jerusalem were scattered here and there. Among them were some who preached the gospel to the Gentiles.
The first Gentile church built by them was the Antioch Church. Unlike the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch is a church centered on Gentiles, not Jews.

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The first Gentile church, the church in Antioch, had a large number of people working together with Barnabas and Paul. Many Gentiles gratefully accepted the gospel of truth that anyone, Jew or Gentile, can be saved if they just believe in Jesus. The Antioch church did a beautiful job of sending Paul and Barnabas as the first missionaries.

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However, when Paul and Barnabas returned to the church in Antioch on their first missionary trip, a serious problem arose there. Because some from Judea said to the believers in Antioch, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."
They were telling them the false teaching that they could not be saved by faith alone in Jesus.

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Paul and Barnabas had a great conflict with those who taught false teachings in the church in Antioch. The church in Antioch sent Paul, Barnabas, Titus, and several others to the church in Jerusalem to confirm their claims with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

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They had a long discussion on this issue with the apostles James (Jesus' brother), Peter, and John, who were leaders of the Jerusalem church.
The Apostle Peter, citing the basket vision he had experienced, said that the Gentiles also received the same Holy Spirit, so we should not discriminate against them by their statutory deeds.

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After a long discussion, they concluded that it was a lie that Gentiles needed to be circumcised like Jews to be saved, and that Gentiles should not be discriminated against on legal grounds. During this time the Jews had forbade eating with uncircumcised Gentiles, but they admitted that this was also wrong.

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After making this decision, Peter once visited Antioch. Peter ate casually with uncircumcised Gentile believers as decided by the Jerusalem church. While they were having a long enjoyable meal, Jews from Jerusalem came there.

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For a moment, Peter was startled. He feared that they might spread the word in Jerusalem over eating with uncircumcised Gentiles. So he hurriedly backed away and acted as if he hadn't eaten with them.

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Affected by Peter's actions, the other Jews who ate there with the Gentiles also fled. Even Pastor Barnabas was seduced by that behavior and acted.
They knew that God does not discriminate between Jews and Gentiles, but they were afraid of people's eyes, so they acted falsely at that moment.

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The Apostle Paul, who saw that the Apostle Peter was acting falsely by being afraid of people's words and discriminating against Gentiles, rebuked the Apostle Peter for his mistakes in front of people. “Why doesn’t Apostle Peter act according to God’s Word when he tells the Gentiles to live according to God’s Word?”

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The Apostle Peter was conscious of human eyes rather than God's words.
He was greatly humiliated for acting falsely contrary to the word of God, because he feared that if other Jews saw him eating with Gentiles and they spread rumors about Jerusalem,
he would have trouble among the Jews.
Peter made a great mistake because he was conscious of man, but was not conscious of the Higher God at that time.

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But Peter was a man of great faith. It can be confirmed that he did not have any feelings or bad feelings toward Paul, who pointed out his error, by writing “beloved brother Paul” in the Bible later written by Peter.
[Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.](2 Peter 3:15)
This shows that although the Apostle Paul pointed out his error in front of many people,
he acknowledged and accepted it and did not have any feelings.

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We too must be careful not to make the same mistake as Peter. We must beware of false actions that do not follow God's word because we are afraid of what other people say.
We must not avoid what we are supposed to do as saved children of God.
We must do our worship to God and our prayers with thanksgiving.
We must live as children of God who will not be put to shame before God, who is higher than men.”

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)