OPEN: In my files I have list of some unusual laws:
· In Birmingham, Alabama, it is illegal to drive a car while blindfolded.
· In Detroit it’s unlawful to tie a crocodile to a fire hydrant.
· Natchez, Mississippi has a law that forbids giving an elephant beer to drink.
· And if you tie your elephant to a parking meter in Orlando, Florida, you have to feed the meter just as if the elephant were a car.
· Barbers in Waterloo, Nebraska, aren’t permitted to eat onions between 7a.m. and 7p.m.
· In Hartford, Connecticut, transporting a cadaver by taxi is punishable by a $5 fine
APPLY: Those are fairly bizarre laws. But at one time, they probably made sense. I suspect someone had tried to drive a car blindfolded in Birmingham, and someone else had tied their crocodile to a fire hydrant in Detroit Michigan. And the courts realized it wasn’t against the law to do stuff like that… so somebody had to write a law.
And to this day those archaic and out of date laws are on the books in those states
I. In the days of the early church, there was a problem.
For the first few years of the church’s existence, the only Christians were Jews.
Jews were those who were physically descended from the tribe of Judah of the nation of Israel – and were people who zealously abided by the laws of Moses.
These Jewish Christians had been raised under the Old Testament law. All their lives they had attempted to obey the laws of Moses. They had kept the feast days. They bro’t offerings to the temple. They had offered blood sacrifices at the altar.… But then Jesus came into their lives and all those laws suddenly became useless.
No longer were they expected to keep the feast days. No longer were they required to bring offerings to the temple or offer blood sacrifices at the altar.
Jesus had come to fulfill the law
Jesus died to replace the offerings and sacrifices that had once been required.
But – in the mind of many good Jewish Christians – there was at least one law that was still on the books. There was still one requirement from the Law expected of anyone who wanted to belong to God. …Circumcision (for those of you who don’t know what circumcision is, see me after the sermon).
Circumcision had been required of God’s people ever since the days of Abraham. Every good Jewish parent took their 8-day-old baby boys to the Temple to have their foreskins removed. It never occurred to them that this requirement of the law might be outdated.
These good Jewish Christians believed that ANY male convert to Christianity needed to have been circumcised before they could become a Christian.
II. But all that changed when God decided it was time to have Peter pay a visit to some Gentiles.
Acts 10 tells us that an angel of God had visited a Roman Centurion by the name of Cornelius and had instructed Cornelius (a Gentile) to send messengers to Joppa and seek Peter.
Now that would seem like a simple enough request… except that there was NO WAY Peter would ever go into the home of Gentile. He wouldn’t have gone to eat with them. He wouldn’t have gone to visit them. He wouldn’t have gone to preach TO them.
Gentiles were vermin
They were beneath contempt
They were unworthy of receiving the Good News about Jesus Christ
But God softened Peter up with 3 dreams that so shook him up that when Cornelius’ messengers came to his door Peter “said to them: ‘You are well aware that it is AGAINST OUR LAW for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.’” Acts 10:28
So Peter went to preach to Cornelius and his friends… and he took along with him 6 other circumcised believers. It’s intriguing, but this story is the only occasion where God’s word referred to someone as “circumcised” believers. And whenever God takes the time to be specific in His language… we need to pay attention.
There was a reason why God went to the trouble of calling these 6 men “circumcised” believers. They thoroughly expected to circumcise Cornelius and his friends. All the way to Cornelius’ house I suspect they were sharpening their knives as they made their to visit these Gentiles so they could make the male converts into Jews before they could be baptized.
When they got there, however, God short-circuited their plans. Before Cornelius and his friends could even respond to Peter’s message “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were ASTONISHED that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” Acts 10:44-45
Why should they be “astonished?” Why would they be surprised? Well, they had intended to perform minor surgery on these converts before ever letting them get baptized. But Peter now realized how foolish that thought had been… and he asks "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?...” Acts 10:47
Thus, Peter didn’t circumcise these Gentiles – God had accepted them just as they were.
III. Now, you’d have thought that would have settled the matter… but it didn’t.
People – who became known as “Judaizers” - refused to accept this idea that circumcision was no longer required.
In fact they became so vocal in their opinion, that the early church had to hold a conference in Jerusalem to deal with the question. The Apostles and Elders of the church there invited all interested parties to present their opinion on the matter. Peter shared this incident and Paul shared about how mightily God had been working with the Gentiles he had baptized. Eventually, the Apostles and elders in Jerusalem sent a letter to all the churches telling them that God no longer required circumcision.
But, still the Judaizers refused to accept this teaching. Instead, whenever a new Gentile church was started, the Judaizers would stop by for a visit and they would try to convince these new Gentile Christians that unless they became circumcised they would not be accepted by God
Paul had to write several letters to different churches to combat this heresy. There were problems in Rome, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae and here in Galatia. These were the heretics Paul was referring to when he wrote: “As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:9
It’s hard for us who no longer even give circumcision much thought to comprehend how widespread and wicked this teaching became in the early Church. But IT IS important for us to understand the problem so that we don’t fall into the same kind of mindset as the Judaizers.
IV. The Judaizers was that they believed two wrong doctrines
1st they believed that God’s promises only belonged to the Jews. They argued that the most important people to God were the Jews. The promises of the Old Testament (they taught) belonged to Abraham’s seed…and that seed was obviously the Jewish people. Therefore, to be accepted by God you had to become a physical Jew - had to be circumcised.
It was a simple argument… but it was fatally flawed.
Confronting that thinking, Paul wrote in Galatians 3:16 “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed…”
OK… (he admitted) you’re right… the promises were to Abraham’s seed.
BUT
“The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.”
In other words, God’s promises to Abraham were ultimately not made to the Jews (the “many people”). The Jews weren’t the seed of Abraham in that promise.
Those promises were made to the TRUE seed of Abraham – Jesus Christ.
God’s ultimate goal was not to establish a Jewish state…
God’s ultimate goal was to establish a Jewish Savior
So the people who are acceptable to God are the ones who belong Jesus… not to Judaism. “If you belong to Christ, THEN YOU ARE Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29)
The 2nd wrong doctrine that the Judaizers believed was that the Law was still valid.
I mean they probably didn’t believe that sacrifices were still required, but they did believe people had to observe many of the Law’s requirements about what you should eat, what feast days you had to observe, and how you were to obey to the Sabbath laws that Jesus hated so much.
But Paul told the Galatians – “you don’t want to go there!”
“All who rely on observing the law are under a curse…” (Galatians 3:10a)
If you believe that you’ll be acceptable to God because of what you do or don’t eat… you’re under a curse
If you believe that you’ll be acceptable to God by following the feast days of the Old Testament… you’re under a curse.
If you believe that following a set of Sabbath Day rules and regulations will gain the approval of God… you’re under a curse.
AND if you allow yourself to become circumcised to gain Old Testament status for yourself… you’re under a curse.
“… for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’” (Galatians 3:10b)
Don’t put yourself back under the Law – Paul tells them. You can’t win going that way! The law can’t free us… it only serves to imprison us!
Paul wrote that
“Before this faith came (before we became Christians) we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:23-24)
One of the Law’s main purposes was to convince us of our sinfulness. And to convince us of our need for a perfect sacrifice. The LAW was meant to lead us to that perfect sacrifice – Jesus
ILLUS: Now, inside of each of us there is a Reader’s Digest version of the Law of Moses.
It’s called our conscience. The only time we acknowledge our “conscience’s” existence is when we feel guilty. When we feel shame. When we want to crawl under a rock and die…
The purpose of the conscience is to help us determine what is right and wrong. And when we do wrong, the conscience is there to make us feel guilt and shame… so we won’t do those things again.
But the conscience can’t free us from the guilt of things we’ve already done wrong. That’s not what the conscience was designed to do. The conscience can only lead us to the understanding that we are less than perfect. It can lead us to the understanding that we need forgiveness and mercy that only Jesus can give.
V. So, you can’t depend upon the Law to free you from guilt.
You can’t depend upon a set of legal “dos and don’ts” to set you free. The only power that can set you free from the past of guilt and shame… is the blood of Jesus.
What the Galatians needed to understand was that being circumcised would have put them back under the bondage of the Law.
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:2-4)
Why would that be? Well, circumcision was the mark of the Old Covenant. The Old Contract.
ILLUS: Tell me, what is the going rate for a home mortgage these days? High 4 % or low 5% right? Several years ago, you couldn’t get a loan for a rate much less than 10%.
So let’s say you go down to the bank, slam your fist on the desk and demand a mortgage for 10%!!! Why would you do that? Why demand an interest rate that so much higher than what you can get presently??? It doesn’t make sense.
And neither did it make sense for the Galatians to ask to be put back under the Law when the mercy and forgiveness of God cost so much less under Jesus Christ.
So Paul’s saying to them:
Don’t get circumcised
Don’t sign that old contract
Don’t clothe yourself with the false protection of that Old Law
Because, you see, if they allowed themselves to be circumcised they would be clothing themselves with the Law. Instead, Paul wrote:
”You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27)
Our faith in Christ and our baptism into Christ clothed us with the freedom of Jesus.
CLOSE: Charles Swindoll tells this parable to help us understand the difference:
Think of yourself as living in an apartment house. You live there under a landlord who has made your life miserable. He charges you exorbitant rent. When you can’t pay, he loans you money at a fearful rate of interest, to get you even further into his debt. He barges into your apartment at all hours of the day and night, wrecks and dirties the place up, then charges you extra for not maintaining the premises. Your life is miserable.
Then comes Someone who says, "I’ve taken over this apartment house. I’ve purchased it. You can live here as long as you like, free. The rent is paid up. I am going to be living here with you, in the manager’s apartment."
What a joy! You are saved! You are delivered out of the clutches of the old landlord!
But what happens! You hardly have time to rejoice in your new-found freedom, when a knock comes at the door. And there he is-the old landlord! Mean, glowering, and demanding as ever. He has come for the rent, he says.
What do you do! Do you pay him! Of course, you don’t! Do you go out and pop him on the nose! No-he’s bigger than you are!
You confidently tell him, "You’ll have to take that up with the new Landlord."
He may bellow, threaten, wheedle, and cajole.
But you just quietly tell him, "Take it up with the new Landlord."
If he comes back a dozen times, with all sorts of threats and arguments, waving legal-looking documents in your face, you simply tell him yet once again, "Take it up with the new landlord."
In the end he has to. He knows it, too. He just hopes that he can bluff and threaten and deceive you into doubting that the new Landlord will really take care of things.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES (“3:16 and Jesus”)
The Greatest Love - John 3:16-3:16
Why Was Jesus Baptized? - Matthew 3:1-3:17
The True Seed Of Abraham - Galatians 3:1-3:18
Is Jesus In Here? - 1 Timothy 3:14-3:16
