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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Miguel Serrano

Got Circumcision?

As you heard, my name is Miguel, and I was born and raised in Mexico.

I have 3 sisters, 2 sisters, my own parents, and there it is.

And with 4 kids, it can get chaotic sometimes.

I know This is 2 of my sisters, my oldest sister is not in the picture.

But as I said, poor kids could get chaotic.

And so I remember as a child, distinctly remember my parents, especially my mom, putting the fear of God in all of us.

And in fact, 1 of my most meaningful glimpses of God came through her when I was about 6 years of age.

When you're a kid, I don't know, my case, growing up, I would get up early on Sunday mornings to watch cartoons and eat breakfast.

And this fateful morning in the tropical land of Tabasco, Mexico, I got up early and went to the fridge.

He said I would make myself some toast and put some condensed milk on top of it.

I didn't know about the health message then.

But as a side note, the condensed milk was in a little glass jar that my mom treasured because it reminded her of her guest parents who had already passed on, who had given it to her as a wedding present.

So I knew that this little jar was important to her.

So as I go to the fridge, my toast is ready, I go to the fridge, then I take the little glass jar out of the fridge.

In my little mind, I'm still not aware of the laws of physics that dictate that certain compounds have coefficients of contraction and expansion.

And, you know, certainly glass is 1 of those compounds that adds new temperatures quickly it tends to change shape you know what I mean so what happened was take a little glass jar out of the fridge and then I heard it first it was a small crack, a cracking sound, and then it happened.

I saw my short little eye flash before me.

I saw the jar falling slow, hundreds of pieces.

So I did what any other kid would do, hyperventilate.

I start to cry and hyperventilate as I'm heading to my servant bed.

I don't know about you guys, but it makes me go, moms are not afraid of child protective services.

Child protective services are not afraid of moms.

And so I'm heading to my certain bed, to my parents' bedroom, and I'm crying and hyperventilating.

I'm hyperventilating and she said, what happened?

She's alarming, you know, she's wide awake now.

I have to tell you something, but only if you forgive me first.

And of course I forgive you, what happened?

This point she's annoyed, I better tell her now.

And as I'm asking for forgiveness, my mom just kisses me, hugs me, and says, I'm so glad you're okay.

I'm glad you didn't hurt yourself and I Distinctly remember that Being 1 of the first ones.

I got I Got a kid And that has nothing to do with the sermon, but that's what happened to me.

Actually, this is not completely useless.

My hope is that as we look at circumcision, you'll also get a glimpse of God and the gospel of Jesus and the character of God as well.

But before we do that, would it be okay with you all if we pray before we start?

Father in heaven, this morning we pray for the spirit of the living God to fall afresh.

Father, we pray for convention, for conversion.

God, as we hear the word, your word, not my word, Lord, that our hearts may be stirred to action.

So I was struggling with what to share with you and I was praying and asking God what do I share?

And I was thinking maybe I'll share about my research.

Maybe I'll share about books I've been reading.

And then I believe the Lord used my patient and beautiful girlfriend to talk to me and tell me, what do you share about your devotions?

So I took it to the Lord in prayer and I said, Lord, should I share about my devotions?

And I'm like, but Lord, I'm studying about circumcision.

So that's how we got to this topic today, this morning.

And my personal devotion as well, and devotions as well as in my Bible study group, the book of Acts has been a primary focus of our studies.

Yeah, that was actually my major in college, I was a history major.

And I especially love the history of the early church.

And in Acts, you encounter the history of the early church from the ascension of Jesus to the Pentecost and how the gospel is preached to the entire world, the then known world was preached.

And Acts tells you all of this history, and it's beautiful, and I would encourage you to study it as well.

But 1 of the things that most intrigued me about the book of Acts was how barriers were being broken down so the gospel of Jesus Christ now belonged to anyone who would accept it.

Jews and Gentiles, male and female, rich and poor, everyone now has access to Jesus.

And this spread of the gospel to outside of the Jewish nation begins with Stephen.

He goes down history lane and he reminds the Israelites of their history with God.

He tells him how he called Abraham out of his land to a land that he would promise him and he gave him the covenant of the circumcision.

He gives him the covenant of the circumcision.

The first time that, 1 of the first times we encountered the circumcision in the Book of Acts.

Then in Acts 10 we see how Peter has a vision to bring the gospel of Jesus to Cornelius and his household and Peter acknowledges that indeed God is no respecter of persons.

The Holy Spirit fell on all of them, Jews and Gentiles that were there, and the Gentiles there got baptized on the spot.

This is powerful, and from then on a host of Gentiles began to join the faith, and they began to believe in Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and it is in this context that we get to Acts chapter 15.

Acts chapter 15 verse 1 we're gonna focus on that passage for for a while actually because It is really important that we understand the whole, like, the whole context too, but this passage is going to illustrate a really important point.

And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

Unless you get circumcised, you cannot be saved.

Now, 1 of my favorite Bible commentators who happens to be both inspiring and inspired, says this in 1 of my favorite books now.

The Gentiles, especially the Greeks, were extremely licentious, and there was danger that some unconverting heart would make a profession of faith without renouncing their evil practices.

The Jewish Christians could not tolerate the immorality that was not even regarded as criminal by the heathen.

The Jews, therefore, held it as highly proper that circumcision and the observance of the ceremonial law should be enjoined on the gentile converts as a test of their sincerity and devotion.

This, they believed, would prevent the addition of the church to the church of those who adopt the faith without true conversion of heart, but afterward bring reproach upon the cause by immorality and excess.

This is a legitimate fear if you put yourself in their shoes.

These people, they've strayed from God several times and they've paid for it and they know the history and now they know that they want to keep the commandments of God.

But then the gentiles begin joining the church and they're like, oh I don't know, you know, they're gonna make us fall away from God again and so in a way it was a legitimate concern so the Jews say all right all right You can be part of our club.

But there's this little initiation ritual that you have to follow.

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Got Circumcision?

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