The Fight Over Circumcision Series

Once upon a time a spider built a beautiful web in an old run-down house. He made sure to keep it clean and shiny so that the flies would patronize it. The minute he got a ‘customer’ he would eat him so the other flies wouldn’t get suspicious. Then one day a fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by. The big spider called out and said, “Why don’t you come on in and sit down for a while. But the fly wouldn’t fall for that trick. He said, “No sir, I don’t see any other flies in your house and I’m not about to come in there by myself!”

A little later the fly spotted a large group of flies who appeared to be dancing on a sheet of brown paper. He was excited because he loved to dance. Just as he was making his final approach and was about to land on the paper a bee buzzed by and said, “Don’t land there stupid, that’s ‘flypaper.”

But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, “Don’t’ be silly, look at all those flies they’re having a great time. There’s a big party going on down there and besides that many flies couldn’t be wrong! Well, as soon as his feet hit that sticky brown flypaper he was trapped, and eventually he died on that very spot.

Many people like the fly take great comfort in the fact that the majority of people believe the same way they do, but in reality, they’re all deceived because God has always been the God of the minority. Someone wisely said, “Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start now and make a brand-new ending.”

II Why was circumcision such a big deal in the New Testament?

1. In Acts 7 Stephen preached an incredible sermon before the Sanhedrin which was comprised not only the high priest but the seventy Jewish leaders of Israel and Stephen gave an extraordinary walk through the spiritual history of Israel but when he came to the end of his message he said in verse 51, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

He said, the nation of Israel had a longstanding history of being physically circumcised, yet they were spiritually uncircumcised. We see this so often in the Old Testament where the nation is constantly straying into false worship and then marrying their unsaved neighbors but when they repent, they experience the blessings of God.

2. And then in Acts 15 we find the apostles arguing about the issue of circumcision with some of the converted Pharisees and the argument escalates to the point where they call a church council, and the conclusion of the meeting starts at verse 24, where they said, “Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment.” And then they sent Judas and Silas to go from church to church and spread the message and the message was simply that circumcision wasn’t necessary.