Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19980412.htm

ACTS: THE LOCAL CHURCH AS GOD'S AGENCY FOR DISCIPLING MEN
Part XXXVI: Going The "Extra Mile" In Abdicating One's Rights For Ministry Effectiveness
(Acts 16:1-5)
  1. Introduction
    1. Believers are called into spiritual liberty in Christ, a liberty that frees them from the religious regulations of men. As such, they are to stand free in such freedom without being hounded by false guilt, Gal. 5:1 NIV.
    2. However, in seeking to reach the unsaved or weak brethren in Christ, if exercising our spiritual liberties to the full causes others to be offended as our using such liberties ALSO happen to violate cultural codes, we limit our usefulness to God in ministry. Acts 16:1-5 demonstrates the self-abdication of one's rights to cross cultural bounds in discipling others as follows:
  2. Going The "Extra Mile" In Abdicating One's Rights For Ministry Effectiveness, Acts 16:1-5.
    1. When the Apostle Paul sought to take with him and Silas in their missionary ministry the young man, Timothy, he took and circumcised Timothy, Acts 16:1-3a.
      1. While returning to the cities of Lystra and Derbe, Paul and Silas encountered an outstanding young convert named Timothy, Acts 16:1-2:
        1. Timothy lived at Lystra as the son of a Jewish believer and a Grecian father, Acts 16:1.
        2. He had an outstanding testimony, for the fairly new believers of the new works in two different towns of both Lystra and Iconium which was 20 miles away held him in high esteem, Acts 16:2.
        3. For Timothy to be part Jewish and part Gentile, and yet to be admired by Jewish and Gentile believers alike shows that his credentials surpassed any racial boundaries set up between the groups.
      2. Paul took this man and circumcised him, Acts 16:3a.
    2. This act of Paul's seemed very inconsistent with what we know elsewhere of his stands on circumcision:
      1. In Galatians 2:3-5, Paul reported that the Jerusalem Apostles did not force Titus submit to circumcision, showing that circumcision was not viewed as necessary for salvation like the Judaizers taught.
      2. In fact, when the Judaizers taught that unless Gentiles were circumcised, they could not be saved, Paul and Barnabas had such a difference of opinion with them that it led to the Jerusalem Council, 15:1-2.
      3. At that council meeting, it was decided that Gentile believers would not have to submit to circumcision, but merely avoid marriages between too-near relatives, pollutions of idols and from animals strangled to death and from eating foo ds with blood, issues especially repugnant to Jews, Acts 15:19-21.
      4. Since then, Paul and Silas had circulated the letter with this council's decision to the believers at Antioch, showing their approval of it, Acts 15:25, 30-31.
    3. However, though circumcision as a requirement for salvation was forbidden, in Timothy's case, the issue had to do with cultural code, not with spiritual issues:
      1. Luke twice notes that though Timothy's mother was Jewish, his father was Greek, Acts 16:1 with 16:3.
      2. According to Jewish culture, the son of a Jewish mother was reckoned to be a Jew, and for a Jew not to be circumcised was a cultural offense, meaning a repudiation of one's Jewish identity! (Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 398.
      3. For Timothy to have joined Paul without being circumcised would have reflected negatively on the missionary team before the Jews who knew Timothy's mother was Jewish, Acts 16:3.
      4. Accordingly, to erase the cultural barrier, Paul circumcised Timothy in his hometown prior to taking him with Silas and himself as part of the missionary team, Acts 16:3b.
    4. Interestingly, Paul then went through the other cities of the region, delivering with Timothy to the Churches the decision of the Jerusalem Council that forbade circumcision for salvation, Acts 16:4.
    5. Thus, these Churches were edified as the cultural barriers were consistently in order with the spiritual.
Lesson: Though Timothy had the RIGHT before God not to be circumcised for his relationship with God to be pure, he NEEDED to be circumcised so as to remove a cultural bias that would have hindered his ministry influence. He thus abdicated his righ t, submitting to circumcision.

Application: Rights properly enjoyed before God sometimes must be willingly abdicated to cross cultural bounds if we would be effective for God in discipling others, cf. 1 Cor. 10:32-33.