“When You Should Be Circumcised”
[Acts 16:1-5]
July 11, 2010 Second Reformed Church
We just heard what we now call the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey. Last week, we looked at the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas which led Barnabas to go off on a missionary journey with John Mark, and Paul to take his second journey with Silas.
Paul and Silas went to Derbe and then Lystra – towns where Paul and Barnabas had preached the Gospel and many had believed – also towns where they were persecuted – and also worshiped, as we remember they were mistaken for Zeus and Hermes in Lystra. They went to disciple the young Christians – to continue to teach them and help them to mature and be the Church in that part of the world.
They also went, as we will remember, to bring the decision of the Jerusalem Council that it was not necessary for the Greek – pagan – converts to Christian to be circumcised – they did not have to keep the Ceremonial and Judicial Law. The Council said that they were only to not eat meat offered to idols, animals that had been strangled, blood, or to engage in immorality – things that would have occurred in pagan worship. (They were, of course, to keep the Moral Law of God.)
When they arrived in Lystra, they found a young man, by the name of Timothy, who had come to faith – perhaps during the former missionary journey. He was the son of a Jewish Christian woman and a Greek – pagan – non-believing father. (We find out in Paul’s letters to Timothy, that Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and mother, Eunice, were both Christians and had brought Timothy up learning the Scriptures.)
Timothy had become well-known as a devout and well-spoken believer – the believers in Iconium and Lystra all spoke well of him. And we would imagine that the Greek – pagan – community also spoke well of him, since nothing is said to the contrary. However, it was known that his father was a Greek – which is a euphemistic way of saying that, although Timothy’s mother was Jewish, Timothy had not been circumcised, as had been required of all Jewish males. And everyone knew it.
After Paul met Timothy, he decided it would be helpful to the missionary work if Timothy joined them, so he told him to come with them. And we read, “And [Paul] took [Timothy] and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew his father was a Greek.”
Did Paul just go back on the Jerusalem Decree? Part of what Paul was doing on this second missionary journey was telling the Greek converts that they didn’t have to be circumcised. Now, we see Paul insisting that Timothy be circumcised. What is going on here?
The first thing we ought to notice, even though Luke mentions that Paul circumcised Timothy because of the Jews, Luke does not say that the Jews demanded – or even asked – that Timothy be circumcised. (Lord willing, we will see another case where the Jews did demand that someone be circumcised, and Paul reacted quite differently.)
Second, Paul did not circumcise Timothy for the sake of Timothy’s salvation – his justification – his being legally right with God. Paul had just fought and won in the Jerusalem Council that understanding that the Ceremonial and Judicial Law cannot save. No one was ever made right with God through circumcision. Salvation is by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ Alone, to the Glory of God Alone. We can do nothing to save ourselves. God saves us as He is pleased to save. That is what Paul believed – that is what the whole Scripture teaches – so that cannot be why Paul circumcised Timothy.
The answer comes in considering how the Jews would have reacted to Timothy preaching the Word of God among them. They would never have listened to him, because God’s Law says that the uncircumcised is cut off from God and His Salvation. The Jews would have been wrong – Jesus fulfilled the Law. But that is how they would have looked at him. They would not have been able to get past the fact that he was uncircumcised to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So Paul circumcised Timothy, though it was unnecessary before God, so the Jews in the area would not look on him as unclean and refuse to listen to him as he explained that Jesus is the Savior God sent.
Paul circumcised Timothy – not to keep the Ceremonial Law – but to make Timothy more useful – to make him someone who the Jews would listen to and not automatically reject because of his outward appearance.
Paul did similar things for the sake of the ability to have people hear him preach the Gospel. He wrote the Corinthians: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I might share with them in its blessings” (I Corinthians 9:19-23, ESV).
Paul did whatever was necessary to remove hindrances from people hearing the Gospel. He was willing to put aside his freedom and his choice to be able to preach the Gospel. In those things that don’t matter, Paul was willing – not to be a hypocrite – but to abide by the conscience and rules of those he wanted to preach the Gospel to – so they would listen to him and not be distracted by the things he did or didn’t do that they thought were important.
Why? Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believers, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16, ESV).
Jeremiah Burroughs writes, “The soul of the lowest galley-slave is more precious than heaven and earth, sun, moon, stars, and all the host of them, and, let me add, than all the silver and golden mines under ground, and all unsearchable riches of the great and wide sea. Yea, put all together, and the soul of the most contemptible beggar that cries for a crust of bread at your door is unexpressedly worthy more than all these. Now, if man’s soul is of such a high-born nature, if God has put such a spirit, which is a spark of heaven, into the bosom of man for him to employ in no other use and service but to merely be an earthworm to creep upon the ground, this is a great evil” (A Treatise of Earthly-Mindedness, 63).
In other words, the souls of the lost are worth more than our freedom to do all we are allowed to do. If someone says, “I’ll listen to you about Jesus if you join me in such-and-such first” – and it is not a sin – do it in the hopes that God will change that person’s heart and cause them to receive Jesus. If someone says, “I’ll listen to you about Jesus if you don’t do such-and-such while we’re together” – and it is not a sin – do it in the hopes that God will change that person’s heart and cause them to receive Jesus.
For example, if the leader of an AA group told me I was welcome to come and tell the members about Jesus, I would not tell them about how I enjoy drinking vodka, because that could be a stumbling block to them.
Again, most of you know that I am a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, but in the circles that I am invited to preach the Gospel, most people would be distracted if I weren’t dressed – so I dress up – and I wear the robe – to keep people from being distracted by what I look like or am wearing – and listen to the Gospel instead.
If someone were to say, “I’ll listen to you about this Jesus if you come to my house for dinner. But none of this vegetarian nonsense, I want you to try my famous” – whatever kind of animal it might be. I would be willing to eat an animal – though I don’t usually – for the sake of being able to tell someone about Jesus.
Growing up, our family used to play miniature golf at the beach; I came to hate miniature golf. But I would be willing to play miniature golf for the sake of being able to tell someone about Jesus.
The same goes for all of us – for all Christians – we ought to be willing, for the sake of the Gospel, to not exercise our freedom. We ought to be willing to do or not do something – so long as it is not a sin – in order to have the opportunity to tell others about Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the Only Hope and Only Salvation – and the souls of our neighbors are worth it – worth more than our freedom to do whatever we want.
Would you be willing to go to a concert you won’t care for, if it will give you the opportunity to tell someone about Christ? Would you be willing to eat a dinner that would not be your type of food, if it will give you the opportunity to tell someone about Christ? Would you be willing to forego your after dinner drink, if it will give you the opportunity to tell someone about Christ? Would you be willing to listen to someone’s family history – in great detail, if it will give you the opportunity to tell someone about Christ?
Think about what you like to do. Would you be willing to not do whatever that is for the sake of being able to tell someone about Jesus? Think about the things you don’t care to do. Would you be willing to do whatever that is for the sake of being able to tell someone about Jesus?
We are called to love our neighbor, and the greatest love we can show them is telling them the Gospel and living it out by not putting stumbling blocks in their way. The greatest love we can show our neighbors is to make them comfortable enough with us that we can tell them that there is Only Salvation in Jesus Alone.
Again, understand this is not a call to be hypocrites. We are not being told to lie to our neighbors – to those who do not believe. What we are doing is abstaining or taking part in things that don’t matter as far as salvation is concerned, so we will be able to have them listen to us about Jesus.
So, if a non-Christian who had not been willing to listen to me about Jesus invited me for hamburgers, I might say that I would be glad to have hamburgers with so-and-so, if he would let me tell him about Jesus.
There are many things which we can choose to do or not do – we are free in Christ to prefer one thing over another. But there are times, for the sake of telling someone about Salvation in Jesus, that we ought to be willing to put aside our preferences for the opportunity to tell them that Jesus is the Savior.
Timothy had not been circumcised. It no longer mattered whether a person was circumcised or not. But to be able to preach to the Jews – for them to be comfortable with him preaching the Gospel among them – Timothy submitting to circumcision – as an adult. Being circumcised did nothing for Timothy before God, but it made him able to be heard by the Jews who would have otherwise rejected him without hearing the Gospel, since they believed that he was unclean.
Do we love our neighbors? Do we believe that Jesus is the Only Way to Salvation? Are we willing to do anything – short of sinning – to make sure our neighbors hear the Gospel?
Luke tells us that Timothy was circumcised and joined Paul and Silas preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. “So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”
Refraining from exercising our freedom is not a guarantee that God will cause the Church to grow in numbers and in faith, but we can surely say, if we put up stumbling blocks, if we hinder people from coming to Christ, if we are not willing to do what is necessary to preach the Gospel to all people, we will be sinning, and God will certainly not bless our sin.
Let us “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15b, ESV). And out of love for Christ and our neighbor, let us be willing to forego our preferences so that some might be won.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that we do not have to submit to the Ceremonial and Judicial Law, which were fulfilled in Jesus. Thank You for the freedom You have given us in enjoying all that You have created. Help us to humble ourselves, even to the point of foregoing our preferences that we might have the opportunity to tell others about Jesus and His Salvation. Bless our tongues as we speak and bring all those You have appointed to eternal life to belief. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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