God's Plan for Israel and the Gentiles

It's a wonderful thing, I think, whenever we had Melissa there this morning to feel freedom to come up and share testimony with us, wasn't it nice to feel that God is working and touching and talking to people and communicating with them? That's good too. I want to use Romans chapter 11, if you'd find that in your Bibles. I'm going to start at verse 11 in chapter 11. The whole chapter is talking about Paul's addressing the issue of Israel. He said earlier all the way through 9-11 about how Israel had taken advantage of the position that God had given them and that God had moved on from them and moved out to reach out to the Gentiles. Here he comes back to address the issue of Israel, to let them know that it's not anything negative that he has toward Israel, but this is trying to see God's plan and perspective in the big picture. He starts off by saying in the first verse of chapter 11, am I saying by saying that it's not the fact that Israel as a people are called of God or elect, but only those who have faith? Am I putting down Israel in any way? Am I saying something bad about them? He starts off by saying that God rejects his people by no means. Paul is not mean by anything that he said previously that God has turned his back on Israel. He reminds him of his own position as an Israelite and descendant of Abraham in the tribe of Benjamin. He said that God's call and election of Israel was in spite of the fact that he knew their nature and character. They were stubborn people, resistant to God's direction, and in spite of all that, he did call them and he chose them. He said the scripture tells about God's plan and how that worked with the story of Elijah. Elijah thought everyone in the world had turned against God, but he said 7,000 people are still bowing the knee to me instead of Baal. They haven't touched, they haven't turned away from me. He uses this illustration to say that in all the things he's talked about, there is still a remnant of people who are faithful to God and that he wants them to understand that it is this remnant that carries forth the promises that God has made to the people of Israel. God has made sure that these people who are people of Israel by faith are still recipients of the promises that God has made to them. Now he comes to verse 11 in this. He sort of repeats a little bit of what he's talked about in verse 1. Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? Now he talks now trying to address the issue of what God does in the face of something that fails. God's intention with Israel was these were his elect and through this he would show the whole world his nature and character. His intention was that everything he did with Israel would reflect to everyone the power that he had and the guidance he had and the wisdom that he had. But instead, Israel kept turning their back on God. They kept violating the instructions that he gave them so that finally they drifted away so far that he had to come in punishment and take them out of their land and destroy the whole nation into exile. And then this story that he's telling, when Christ came, they were not prepared to follow Christ so they rejected him. That's what he's talking about. Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Remember the stumbling block or the stumbling stone was Christ himself. He's already told them in earlier chapters that they stumbled at Christ. When he came, they could not accept him as the messenger from God and he became not a redeemer but a point of difficulty or trial so that they stumbled over who Christ was and the kind of Messiah he was. Did they stumble over Christ? Sure they did. But he says that stumbling does not mean that they are beyond recovery. What Paul holds is the idea that God's plan for Israel is not over with the gospel being carried to the Gentiles. God's plan for Israel is still in effect. He says not at all, rather because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now even though God's plan was that Israel would be faithful to him and he would present in this nation a great picture of who God was and what he was like and through them be able to reach out to the world, two things happened to Israel. One is they started thinking of themselves as the end result. We are the recipients of God's blessings. God intended to bless them that they might bless the world. In the covenant with Abraham, he said to Abraham that through you all the nations of the earth would be blessed and the people of Israel took the blessings that God gave to them and focused on that instead of the task that God had to reach beyond them because of the blessings that he had given them. Now here he is saying God has taken this disaster of Israel not fulfilling the function or purpose that he had to do something wonderful and great. Paul talks about this again back in Romans 9 where he talks about in all things God works together for good. God works together for so much good in all these things that sometimes I think people misunderstand it. Sometimes whenever bad things happen to us, God works with us. He leads us and guides us and out of that comes something good. We oftentimes will say things like God caused this bad thing to happen so he could bring the good thing out of it. We understand that but it's sort of like saying to someone I pushed Virginia down in the mud so I could pick her up and help her up. She might be glad that I helped her up but she probably wouldn't appreciate me pushing her down in the mud. I think we have to be careful that we don't imply to people that God does bad things to us so he can bring good things out of it. That's not the point. Satan is the one who does the bad things. God never does the bad things. So when people talk to you about someone being killed or some bad thing happening to them and say well it's just God's will. God is not in the business of doing bad things to people. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. Now it's a good thing to get somebody up out of the mud but it's not very attractive to think that God comes along and pushes us in the mud. Satan is the one that does that. What he's talking about is God does such a good job of redeeming the bad things that happen to us that sometimes people will say you know what was bad that happened to me was really terrible but the result that came from it I am glad that the bad thing happened to me. Now that doesn't cause us to say God did the bad thing but we can say that God takes what we have happened to us and he creates something better out of it. That's the principle that Paul is using here. The failure of Israel to be obedient to God was a disaster from God's plan. But out of this he used it to open the Gospel to the whole Gentile world. God took their failure and he made it into a wonderful success and victory. And you can see all around the world how responsive Gentiles have been to the Gospel and how still closed so many Jews are to the Gospel message of Christ. Paul saw this already taking place. Their transgression because of their transgression their failure to be obedient to God salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now Paul sees in this something that God is doing. I think that God is using this he's saying so that the Jews will look at what the Gentiles are doing and see how God has blessed them and they will become envious of what's happening in the Gentiles and they themselves will then want to become followers of Christ himself. Paul is seeing in the past that he's one that talks about how God brings these good things out. He says I see in this some great plan that God has that he would show the Jewish nation and the Jewish world how wonderful his blessings are to those who have received Christ and live in obedience to him. But he says if their transgressions means riches to the world and their loss means riches to the Gentiles how much greater riches will there be will their fullness bring. See Paul's plan is Paul's thinking is if in this bad thing that God took and made this wonderful thing for the Gentiles out of it what if the Jews really did become faithful followers of Jesus. How much greater could God's blessings be. See that helps us understand it's not that when something bad happens to you and God makes something good out of it you say I'm glad for the bad thing because it might have been something even greater he'd done if the bad thing hadn't have happened. But God always moves to help us do something and find the fulfillment of what he wants. So you see Paul's thinking about this I'm committed to the message to the Gentiles but I understand that their rejection of Christ this transgression of their calling God has not seen as the end of his work he has brought the message to the Gentiles and through this he has even a greater purpose for the people of Israel. So all the way through chapters 9, 10 and 11 or 9 and 10 Paul's been talking about the Jews in a way that would cause people to think is he really in favor of them he really think they are God's people. Now he lets us know that all the things that have happened with the Gentiles he sees as a part of the fact that God is still trying to complete what he started with Abraham. He's still trying to complete what he did with David that the mission of God is not lost because of this for his plan is ultimately to achieve it. Verse 13 he says I'm talking to you Gentiles he's writing to the church at Rome and probably the church at Rome was a group of Gentiles and probably numbered more than those who were Jewish. But the evidence is pretty clear from the early church that many of the early converts who came to become followers of Christ were not what we would say a hardcore Jews. For example whenever Paul went to whenever he was asked when Peter was asked to go in and witness to Cornelius, Cornelius was a Jewish person that is he was going to the synagogue and doing all the Jewish things but he was really a Gentile. So he was a Gentile who was what the Bible calls a lover of God. He was a Gentile but he accepted the Jewish concepts he accepted the Jewish ideas. So many of the early converts in the in the Christian community were people who were either friendly to the Jewish community friendly to the Jewish religion willing to listen willing to accept and to hear. Now we see this in the story of the preaching of Peter to the first congregation when thousands came to know him. These were people who came to Jerusalem from all over the world because they wanted to worship God. There they heard the proclaiming of the message about Christ. We often think of you know when people talk about all these converts at the day of Pentecost as if you had 5,000 drug addicts out there and Peter starts preaching and all of a sudden they give up their alcohol, drug, robbing, murdering life and suddenly become Christians. These were thousands of people who had paid a great price to walk from all over the world to come to worship God and obedience to him. When they got there they were searching for God as a part of the Jewish community. And when they heard this message it resonated with them to say this is what God has been leading me for. So it wasn't that these people were against God and suddenly became converts. They were people searching for God looking for an answer and when they heard the message about Jesus the Holy Spirit said to them this is the man you've been waiting on. So many of the early churches had Gentiles in the church and more Gentiles than they had Jewish people but they were Gentiles who were Jewish friendly. They were God lovers some of the New Testament patches is called. They went to the synagogues. They participated in the synagogues. They built synagogues but they were never allowed to actually be Jews because they were Gentile in their background. So here he's talking to these people. I'm talking to you Gentiles and I want you to get in your mind that these are not Gentiles who grew up never hearing about God or never hearing about the Old Testament or never hearing the scriptures. They were people who were acquainted with all of this. So I'm talking to you and as much as I am the apostle to the Gentiles I make much of my ministry. My ministry is important to me and the assignment God's given me is to you. Now he just talked about the relationship of the Jews. God's not through with them but he's talking about how they fit in this. How will the greater riches that he sees coming to the Jews actually impact them. I'm an apostle to you and my ministry is very important to me he said. In the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. Paul's ultimate goal, this is an interesting thing, his ultimate goal he was told whenever he was on the road to Damascus that he would be a messenger to the Gentiles. We don't know that God ever told him any more than that but what Paul saw in his role is I'm going to be a messenger to the Gentiles and I hope by the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ that the Jewish people longing for the Messiah will look at what happens and say that really was the Messiah. My ministry is to you who are Gentiles but I want to tell you that in the long run what I hope will happen is that your accepting Jesus, living in obedience to him will cause my Jewish brothers and sisters to be jealous and envious of what they see in the community of believers that you are. What Paul wanted and that's why all the letters that he wrote were so passionate about people being holy and living righteous lives, he wanted the Jews in every community to see that the Christians were better protectors of the Ten Commandments than the Jewish people. He wanted them to see that the Christians or followers of Christ in that community really were fulfilling all of the Old Testament law, that they were really better at being obedient to what God was asking than the Jewish community so they could see that the fulfillment of all that they were reading in the Old Testament was really coming true in this community of the followers of Christ. That's why he was so passionate about this. He thought that it would have an impact on his own people because of the mission and the ministry that he had. He says in verse 15, for their rejection is the reconciliation of the world. Now this word, rejection, we don't have a language like they had in the Greek language. It reads here like the Jews' rejection is the reconciliation of the world, but most translations and many people who read this passage see this as God's rejection. He's already talked about above, their transgression, and what Paul does throughout this discussion about election was he's very straightforward about the fact that God makes a choice for people and he makes a choice for us, he makes a choice for the Jewish people, but the responsibility on our side is to respond to his electing choice. He never does come down on one side or the other that it's all in God's hands and you don't have anything to do with it. Neither does he come down on the other side and say it's all up to you. He has two kind of contradictory ways of looking at this. One, God is in charge and he's doing everything. On the other side of it, you have full responsibility for all the choices that you make in your life. He seems to hold both of these things and see no contradiction in them. Here he's talking about in the first paragraph, you have transgressed against God. Now he comes to this one where he's saying that God, for their rejection, that is God's rejection of them is the reconciliation of the world. In other words, God's reaction to them is to say, okay, I'm going to turn and open the gospel to everyone in the world who wants it. So their transgression has made a response where God said, okay, I'll take another step. I'll do something else. So the rejection of God of these people has led to the reconciliation of the world. Now the word world is a reference to the rest of the world apart from Gentiles. What their acceptance, what will their acceptance be but for life from the dead? Now he's saying, here's how God has worked. He said, you've rejected what I have to say and you've rejected who I am. So I'm going to turn to the Gentiles and what's happened now is that all of you, he's talking to the church of Rome, all of you have received Jesus and you have been reconciled to each other, not just a reconciliation to God, but you've been reconciled to each other as well to God. And in this church where there were Jewish people and there were Gentile people formerly with great barriers between them, God has drawn all of you together and he's drawn all of you together and drawn you together with him so that there is a reconciliation between people who were enemies and between people and God. If God has been able to do this as a result of the Jews transgressing against him and him rejecting the Jews then, if God has been able to do this, think what God could accomplish if the Jews in all of their fullness believed in Jesus. If God can take this failure and make such a wonderful thing out of it, think what he could do if the Jews were willing to be obedient to what God wanted. So Paul's great hope is that as great as the mission to the Gentiles would be, that something even greater would come to pass and here's what it is. What will their acceptance, that is God's acceptance of them, be but life from the dead? Now he's talking about the resurrection. He's talking about the end of life that God will be able to make sure that these people have found life everlasting. Now he's not just talking about the resurrection as an event, that is I'm buried in the ground and God comes back and raises me up so there's a resurrection. He's talking about what happens after that takes place. When we're going to be with God in heaven, Jews and Gentiles, all in one great group of God's people in heaven, one, one with God, one with Christ, one with the Spirit and one with each other, what will it be like for us to be able to look, Gentile and Jew, at one another and say brother. If God has been able to bring this reconciliation on earth because he's rejected these transgressing Jews and given the message of redemption to the Gentile world, think what would happen if the Jewish people gave themselves completely to Christ. The change and the transformation will be heaven. Remember all the things the Bible says about heaven, you know there's no pain, suffering or anguish, no fighting. The peace that will come, the oneness that will come, will all be together there. So Paul sees this little break between what God is doing with the Jews as simply an opening to the future that will be even more powerful and more wonderful than anything they've ever been able to have before. Verse 16, if the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy. If the root is holy, so are the branches. Paul goes back to talk about what happened in the Old Testament whenever the people of Israel were getting ready to go in the promised land, he said to them, when you get into this land of promise, you are to take the very first fruits that come and those fruits you are to take to the temple, to the tabernacle, and you are to offer them as a sacrifice. By offering the very first fruit that comes on your trees, the very first fruit that comes from your wheat field or your barley field or your oak field, when you do that, you will make every crop that grows in this land holy from this day on. The first fruit offering when they entered the promised land was very special because offering that offering in the very first time, God was to say, now everything that you grow will be holy to me because you've made this offering. So now he goes back to say, the Jews are sort of like that first fruit offering. Abraham and the great patriarchs are like that first fruit offering. They were devoted to God, so all the rest of the Jewish nation is colored and made holy by this. He doesn't mean they're made sinless, nor are they made saved. He means that they are set apart for God's purpose, in God's mind. Because the people of, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were giving themselves in service to God so that the fruit of what they did will affect every Jewish person that is born as long as the world is here. The impact that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had on the people of Israel was lasting and permanent. So God has made sure that this impact of the early patriarchs has a power. If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy. Everything that follows after it is holy. If the root is holy, so are the branches. So he uses two analogies to talk about what's happened. Now remember, he started talking to this about the ultimate end result of what's happened. He's speaking to the Gentiles, saying, I've talked to you about this, and I've talked about how the gospel has come to you, and I want to talk about the end result of it. God is not through with Israel, for he's not forgotten the promise he made to Abraham. He's not forgotten the promise he made to Jacob. He's not forgotten the promise he's made to all these people. God is still at work in this task of completing what he started with the call of Abraham. The Gentiles and their receiving into the kingdom of God does not divert God from his original purpose. He's still trying to do it. He's doing this in a different way maybe than it looked like he was going to do in the beginning, but he's still at work in this. Here's his analogy. Just like in the Old Testament, the first food offering guaranteed that all the rest of the crop was holy to God. So it is that these patriarchs guarantee that the holiness they have given will be available to the people of Israel all the way down the line. Then he moves to another direction. If the root of the tree is holy, then all the branches are holy. He uses an example here that maybe is a little bit easier for us to understand. If you plant a tree, I mean if it's a peach tree and the roots are the roots of a peach tree, what's going to happen to the rest of the tree? It's going to be a peach tree. God has planted the roots in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those roots will still be a great power to the whole nation of Israel still. This is something really important for us to see. He's going to talk about this illustration later, but I want to just introduce this in a little bit. What God sees is that you and I are part of this great stream from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When he talked about faith, he went back to Abraham and talked about our faith is the same as Abraham. We are the children of Abraham by the faith of Abraham. Paul would have had no idea that there would ever be followers of Jesus who were not deeply connected to the patriarchs, who didn't understand the Old Testament. It was in his mind inconceivable that you would have a New Testament Christian. There weren't any. When the New Testament started, he was writing part of it. What he saw was taking place was the root of the Old Testament was providing the strength for the people who were now followers of Jesus, this Jewish Messiah that came. If we think we can cut aside, and this has happened early in the church, in fact there was a man in about 200 A.D. who decided the Jewish Old Testament was terrible, so he went through and paired out of the Bible everything that had references to Jews to make just a Christian Bible. He didn't end up with very much, I'll tell you that, but efforts come along in parts of people that ignore the Old Testament. I hear people say, well, I read the Old Testament and I don't get much out of it. It is the root, Paul is saying, of our fruit. You can't produce fruit unless you're connected to this root. What Paul is giving again is the critical role that he sees for the people of Israel and all the work that God did with them. These are the places from which all of Jesus' spiritual training came. This is the place where all of Paul's spiritual training came. These were the things that they saw as the key and foundation stone of all that they believed. And yet, for many of us, it is a closed book. Paul will talk about this in the next section, but it helps us to understand the importance of this. It's why I've always tried to make sure that one of the services I do in the week is always from an Old Testament book, because it is in Paul's eyes, and I assume God's inspiration for him, in God's eyes, critical for us to be genuine followers of Jesus. Let's pray. Father, sometimes we think of our lives as just we hear the message of Jesus and we become his followers, and we forget the great heritage of which we become a part. You talk to us just like you did to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are part of a great stream of your work in the world. Help us not to lose sight of that. Help us to understand that we're building everything we do in our church on this tremendous foundation that was started in the beginning of the Old Testament. Give us a sense that there is a great purpose to all that we do as your people. It's not just this church, but we're a part of the great stream of history through which you are transforming this whole world. Give us an appreciation that our part is valuable, but it's not the only thing. Help us to see that your work in this world is not just for us, but it's for the people around us. It's not just for the Christians, but for the Jews, for the Muslims, for the Hindus, for all the people of the world to be reached with your message. So open our eyes to the people around us. People that you are trying to reach, to become your followers through our lives of devotion and obedience to you. In the name of Christ, I ask for this, amen. Cantaloupes and, cantaloupes and, what else is it? Cucumbers and cantaloupes, okay?