ManChurch: Adoption

So let me pray and we'll get into it. Father, we thank you for the ability to gather as men today and to gather around your word. And we have a tremendous desire to grow as men and to grow in our knowledge of Christ. So be with us, be with me, Lord. Help me, help me divide this word with truth and with integrity. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alrighty. So 3 possible sermon titles for this morning. 'Cause there always seems to be 3. When the Father Brings You Home, From Fear to Belonging, and Living as Sons, Not Orphans. And tech support, I'll hand over Zoom entry to you from now on. So let's start as an apology. It's always a good way to kick off. There's no way I can teach this in 30 minutes. So there's 2 choices. One, we stay for 4 hours because it's about 30 pages of notes. 2, we spread it over 4 months, but that's boring because no one's gonna remember it next time. Or three, I just send you the notes. So I'm gonna send you the notes, and I preached this once before back in the day. Al was there, and Ron was there, and I'll put up that old sermon. I was a lot less gray, so that'll be up there. So there's two scriptures I want to highlight to you. One's in Romans eight, and one's in Galatians four. And Austin, I know you're driving a truck, so you don't have to look this up, mate. You get a free pass on this one. So Romans eight and Galatians four six. Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6. Write that down in your notes. Have a look later. Make sure I didn't make it up. You do not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, and that's a big statement there. We'll leave it alone just for the minute. But you have received the spirit of adoption, which is what I want to concentrate on, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. And Galatians 4:6 says, and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. Crying, Abba, Father. So I want you to take those scriptures and just put pause on them. Put them to one side. Here's why: because we've all heard those scriptures before, and the way they've been taught primarily has been wrong and has come with a lot of condemnation. So I just want you to hold them, and they sound difficult if you're just reading those. They sound a little difficult. So put them to one side. Okay. So when we talk about Living as sons and not as orphans, often there's a mention of the issue of fatherlessness. Now, we've experienced it ourselves, and the impact often comes with it of fathers on society, and it's not often portrayed in a positive way. I never understood it in church how for Mother's Day it's always let us celebrate mums, and yet for Father's Day it's what a crap job you did as a dad and why don't you like, like your wife more. I've never understood that, but that's what I'm seeing now to go. And so real questions from the pews. For example, the sorts of things that you'll hear about is more than 19 million children in America live without a biological, step, or adoptive father. Now that's 1 in 4 US children, and children from father-absent homes are 4 times more likely to live in poverty, 80% more likely to be in prison, 72% more likely to commit murder, 71% more likely to abuse substances, be pregnant, and so it goes on. So we hear those stats and we sit there and we do feel like crap when we go through that stuff because we know the impact of fatherlessness. We want to be better fathers and we go away from things where they talk about adoptions and being sons and being fathers and we think, I gotta be a better job. I'm such a loser. In the world, and I'm going to hell. I've got to try harder. My kids are all going to hell. They're all going to be in drugs and prostitutes. And I never had a model, and I don't know what that is to be a model. So how do I bridge that gap? And we read these verses, and I think we hear them, and we go, "I don't get it because it doesn't make sense to me." It's talking about being a son. I didn't know what that was, and having a father, and I didn't know what that was. And you could challenge someone on that. And it's normally taught by a pastor in skinny jeans or a lounge suit. And they always talk about crying out to Daddy God and we get lots of cuddles and we curl up in Daddy God's lap and it's all warm and fuzzy and it doesn't work for me. Number one, it makes God sound like a pedo, which I'm uncomfortable with. Number 2, it feels bloody awkward to me. Number 3, it's talking about feelings and crap, which is, I don't get that. What's going on with this? And number four, it just doesn't make sense to me. So when we talk about Abba Father, Daddy God, that's not computing for me. So I want to unpack that. And if you tell the guy, hey, hair bun, it's not making sense, he says, get me a latte and it's your problem. Well, it's really not. What's the problem is we have no theology in our society. Now, when I say the word theology, don't roll your eyes at me. Theology is awesome. Theology is the basis and fundamentals of our faith. And why we have weak, inept Christians today is because we have weak, inept theology. So here's 3 rules for Manchefs for you. Number one, and when we talk about theology, number one, I won't treat you as idiots if you don't pretend to be stupid. And number 2, there are no wrong questions. And number 3, we all agree that stupid people think they know everything. So in other words, ask questions is what I'm encouraging you to do. So let me give you some context for these two verses, and then we'll go back to them and unpack them a little bit more. And remember the verses, fellas, again is Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. So the New Testament is predominantly written in Greek, and the Old Testament is predominantly written in Hebrew, and the Old Testament was predominantly written for the Jewish people. And the New Testament was predominantly written for non-Jewish people. It was not written for Christians because there were no Christians. There were no Christians. The name wasn't even used until AD 74. So they were either Jews or non-Jews. So when Paul's writing, he's writing to a non-Jewish group of people that live in the nations of the place of Rome and Galatia. He's writing to them. And he's wanting them to understand some concepts that tie back into the Jewish culture. So this picture that Paul is painting and the images he's using are trying to find words to convey things that have never been conveyed before to a people who have never heard them before. So that might feel a little bit awkward. And so if you're feeling awkward with it, I'm feeling awkward with it. Paul was writing to people who felt awkward with it. So let's talk about this concept of adoption, what adoption means. The Greek word literally means to be placed as a son. It's active, it's not passive. It means to take someone and place them deliberately as a son. Now, now, this is important. This is different from the Hebrew or the Jewish context of it because The Hebrew and the Jewish context of it didn't use the word adoption like that at all. And when they talk about sons, it was more covenantal, about sonship and national covenant between Israel and God as Father, and Israel as the sons or the children. So there weren't these individual concepts of adoption. So what Paul is doing for a non-Jewish audience, they would have immediately recognized that what he was talking about Was Roman, and it's a Roman concept of elevating someone that is of a lower status into a privileged position through the act of adoption. And by raising him from slaves or non-family members, he's picking them up and putting them into a place of an heir, an owner, and a ruler. So that's the Paul that. Picture that Paul is placing. And he does it very specifically because what he's doing is using and describing the believer's new status in Christ. Now, when I say new status in Christ, again, we sometimes close down our mind because we've heard that over and it hasn't made a lot of sense. What it simply means is because of the work that Jesus did for us, we now are brought into God's family. We are no longer seen as slaves to sin, but we are seen as sons with Christ, co-heirs concept, big concept, equals with Christ as a son under the gaze of the Father. Now that's a really big thought, and that's deserving of you spending a little bit of time and having a think about that, because I'm still thinking about it. I mean, I've been preparing this thing for a couple of weeks, and it's it hurts. So Paul does it very specifically, and he talks about this believer's new status. And Roman law and customs were the context that Paul wrote in. They influenced daily life, society, legal concepts across the then-known world, across the entire Roman Empire. Now, if we're trying to understand what Paul is trying to say, we have to understand the context of the meanings. And most of what we're gonna talk about today is the context and the meaning that sits around a couple of these verses, particularly the Galatians. And I'll give you all the extensive notes, another 20 pages of those notes for you to go over yourself as a— just spend 10, 15 minutes a day just going through those notes. It'll be good follow-up. So the one thing we can't do, and I ask you not to, is I want you to suspend any assumption and fight against any assumption that we have about what adoption means. Because it's not a— because that's a 20th century concept. That's the filter you're coming through. And we've got to go back and we've got to try to come through this Roman concept. Because if we don't suspend that, we're going to miss out on the power and the beauty and the incredible thing that Paul is trying to communicate to us. Paul is trying to paint a picture about something that has never occurred before in human history, something that is unique to the Christian experience. And so that's what he's doing. So the scriptures we talked about, Romans 8, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery, big thought, to fall back into fear, but you have been received into the spirit of adoption as sons, Roman context, of who we cry, Abba, Father, Daddy God. The word Abba, it was illegal for a slave to use that term. And if a slave used that term, he could be killed. It was the term only to be used by heirs and sons of the household. So what Paul is saying here is not weak and wussy. It's nothing to do with a Swedish band. It's not soft, sloth and fluffy. It is— here is a term that you can use that is the most intimate, that if you are not of the household of God through Christ, It is worthy of a death penalty in Roman culture. This is the most intimate phrasing, and it's not intimate in terms of physical intimacy or emotional intimacy. It is relationally intimate. It is the term that you use and can only use when you are in the most intimate of relationships with a father. So Roman adoption in the first century was not about caring for infants. And orphans. It was not about that. In fact, we know that from the New Testament because infants, orphans, widows are catered for in other parts of the scripture. So the New Testament makes provision for them. This is not being discussed here. So if you're looking over and you're thinking through Timothy and his writings about caring for widows and orphans, and you're applying the same rule of adoption, you've got it wrong. You're missing the point altogether. This is not being discussed. What is being discussed here is the change in a man's relationship from not knowing a Heavenly Father to now having the most form— intimate form of relationship that came not because you deserved it, but because the choice was bestowed upon you. It was something that was given, and it comes through the work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone. And we have gone because of that sacrifice from slaves to sin, born outside, to insiders now because of sacrifice. So let's have a look at what Paul's focusing on. How you going so far? Good. Just have a little sip of coffee because that's a lot of words. It's a bit of theology. Just stretch. You're right, I've got this. Just warm the shoulders. Blink a few times because most of you sitting going, what the hell? This guy's just rabbiting on. I can't even understand. I'm just stuck on the guy with the hair bun and the latte. Come forward. We can do this. Remember, we're not stupid. Say together, we're not stupid. We're clever. All right, here we go. The first thing that Paul talks about, and you got to understand, you got to think about the purpose of adoption. Adoption was a deliberate legal institution focused on family continuity, inheritance, and status. And this just blew my mind when I started to unpack this. So in order to preserve a family name. In order to ensure that family name would live forever, in order to transfer power from the father to an heir that he deemed worthy, an heir that he deemed worthy that lived outside the established family that he had. Okay, so lived outside Father God Yahweh's established family, his chosen people lived outside. Because he wanted to have someone to continue the family inheritance. Now, emperors did it. Julius Caesar adopted Octavia and Augustus. Augustus later adopted Tiberius. And the reason they adopted these people and the reason adoption existed was because the father had a vision for the family. And he picked someone who he deemed was worthy. Julius Caesar picked Augustus instead of his own children because he felt that Augustus was more likely to succeed as emperor in ruling the Roman Empire than his own family. And I think you need to think about that, just the weight of that. Think about what that means when you come to understand that you have been adopted into God's family based on his future view of that family. His vision of that family. He has a vision for this family, and that vision can only be fulfilled if you're involved. That's what that word means. So number two, who was adopted? Near adults, males, teens to forty plus were the ones that were adopted. They're not babies. Adoptees were chosen because of. Proven character, ability, and loyalty. Someone that could be relied on to carry on the family tradition and legacy. So think about that, and think about it in the context of the sin you came from. That when God the Father looks at you through the work of Jesus Christ, He does not see someone that does not qualify. He sees someone that He is choosing. You who are lack. In faithfulness, you who are disloyal, he chooses you because he sees you as loyal. You who have a shady character, you who are a liar, a thief, a stealer, a killer, a murderer, he does— through Jesus Christ and his work, he sees you as a man of faithful character and he says, I choose Nick. I choose Max. I choose Ben. I choose you because I've got a vision. And this— you're going to be the man who's going to live that vision out for me. All of us doubt our character, our ability. All of us doubt being loved by God at one time or another. And this verse is saying exactly the opposite. So there's another theological term; it's called justification. So just put a pin in it, hang on to it. You don't often go, "I'm going for a justification coffee down the road." We don't use it a lot nowadays. What justification? A simple way to explain that to yourself is justification: just as if I'd never sinned. So through the work of Jesus Christ, we are justified by our faith. So when God the Father looks at us, he looks at us just as if we've never sinned. And what he sees is men of character, men of loyalty, men of giftedness, men of faithfulness, with an ability to be able to feel an aspect of his vision that he has for the future. Of his kingdom. Incredible. That's just— you roll around on the floor and have a cry after that one. I did. Anyway, so anyway, number 3, legal implications. Adoption is complete and irreversible transfer. We've gone through the other. Listen, it's a complete and irreversible transfer. You could never be unadopted. We've all known rejection as men. We've all known rejection in multiple ways, and we are easy to assume that God the Father will reject us. This is saying that is never going to happen. Why? Because by the legal status of adoption, you're once you're in, it's irreversible, non-transferable. It also means that all previous ties to all previous relationships. Or previous family debt, legal identities are severed and erased forever. Often as men, we come into Christ and we come into Christianity and we bring this baggage with us, and we say to ourselves, the thing that disqualifies us from being a son of God or a good father is all this other crap that I'm dragging with me like a dead body. And that's actually one of the images Paul uses as a— as an image on it. But anyway, we'll get into that another day. So this whole thing that we feel like we're dragging forward, what this word says is that's done. That has never happened. That is never going to take place. In fact, he says that he throws it into the sea of forgetfulness, and when he looks at you, he doesn't see you as assigned to that sin. An adoptee becomes a legitimate heir and often the primary sole heir with equal rights to the natural-born children. So the center of what Paul is saying is that there is only one natural-born Son of God, but through Christ and through his sacrifice, we are now co-heirs. And that's where Jesus talks about us being moving from slaves to sons. He now sees us as friends of God. So this is where this transfer takes place. Our refusal as men To see ourselves in this light immediately makes us live small. Our understanding of what this does for us immediately makes us step up, and that stepping up is actually the thing that often holds us back. Because when we step up with the old paradigm of sin, worthlessness, the challenges that we bring in, our failure and our actions—when we try to step up with that baggage. we're dragged back down. You hearing me? We've got to let go in order to step up. You can't call him Abba Father as a slave. Why? That's a death sentence. You can only call him Abba Father as a son because that's your position. If we would just get that graduation from slaves into sons It will totally change the way we view the word, totally change the way we understand things and how we see things. So when you come back to replaying the sermon, and it'll be on YouTube later today, but I want you to take some time and play this and listen to it and get it. And maybe use the notes and go through the notes and just 5 or 10 minutes a day for the next week or so. Just go through and just read a couple of paragraphs and how it's been unpacked and try it and let it soak in and touch your heart. And change the way— allow it to change the way you see yourself. You won't feel like it, and you won't believe it's true. You won't, because it's too much of a head shift from where you've come to where you want to go. But if you will just make the decision to believe it— why do you believe it? Because it's based on the words of God. It's not based on the heresies of John King. It's based out of Romans and Galatians. So therefore, you are either making a decision to believe it or not believe it. Make the decision to believe it and just sit with that for 30 days. Just sit with that and say, this is true, I'm going to listen to it again. This is true, I'm going to read this again. And just see if it doesn't change the way you think. The 4th thing, as I said before, is it's a voluntary and intentional act by the Father on an individual. It's all about what the Father's done, nothing that you have done as an adoptee. It's irrevocable, as I said, and once complete, it's permanent. The adopter cannot disown you or revoke you. He cannot take it away from you. Not will, not wanting to, but he legally cannot do it. And Paul is saying that God's commitment to you as a man, as a son, is that strong. He is binding himself by his word to you. That regardless of what you do, you will always be a son, no longer a slave, and you now have the ability to speak to him and talk to him in the most intimate way possible, which is what the term Abba means. So there you go. So open up Galatians 4:1 with me, and we're going to do this little exercise for about 10 minutes, and then we're going to Turn all the streaming off and have a look at some questions and answers. Galatians 4:1. So there's six verses here. I want to read them one at a time, and I'm gonna give you a chance to turn off your mic if you've got a question or you want to make a statement or a comment, and then turn it back off once and give us a chance to. And I want everyone to jump in on this. I want this to be a free-flowing discussion. All right, Galatians 4:1 to 6. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different than a slave. So he's talking about the heir of a father within a Roman household. Now, as long as that child, that person, that baby is a child according to Roman tradition, he's no different than a slave. So an immature person— this is the concept— an immature person in the family of God is viewed no different than a slave, even though he owns everything. He's immature. And he's talking in the Roman— in the Jews in this sense. Immature, didn't graduate to an understanding of the Messiah. So even though they were born into it, they don't qualify for this because they're not joint heirs through Christ. Number 2, he's under the guardian and managers. The child is under the guardians and managers until the date set by the father. Okay, so that's the children of the household. In the same way, when we're children, we're enslaved to elementary principles. When we're acting in an immature way, When we're seeing ourselves not as part of the family, but as immature, we are acting as slaves. We might be children, but we're acting as slaves. It's the same level. But when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, were outside of the family, that they might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent his Spirit that you can cry, Abba, Father.