Riches for the Gentiles

Intro

Good morning Rich Pond! If you have your Bibles and I hope that you do, go ahead and turn to Romans 11. We are continuing our journey through the book of Romans. We will be in Romans 11:11-16 today, so lets read it then pray and ask the Lord to speak to us now. Romans 11:11-16 (Read) This is the word of the Lord. Let’s pray.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank you for filling our lungs with air this morning and allowing us to be able to worship you. We know that every day is a gift from you and so let us not take it for granted. We ask you now, Holy Spirit, to come in our midst and do the work of opening our eyes and beholding wonderful things from your law. We thank you for your faithfulness and we trust that you’ll be faithful to help us look at Romans 11 for the new few minutes. We thank you for Jesus and we thank you for grace. It’s in His name that we pray, Amen.

Thank you, take your seats.

Introduction - When I was in 3rd grade, I remember loving school. I was living in Frankfort, KY at the time. I had lots of fun until I broke my collar bone. I broke my collar bone trying to be impressive by making a large leap on the monkey bars. However, the problem was that it had just rained and my fingers slipped and I slammed my left shoulder on the pavement. For the next few months, I had to spend recess inside. I hated recess inside because I couldn’t play anything but board games (which if you had me do that today…I’d be all for it) and could only have one friend stay with me each day. My best friend in 3rd grade was a boy named Houston Hardy. I only remember his name because of the double H’s. After a while, he didn’t want me to pick him anymore, which makes sense because he was healthy and wanted to go outside and play games. Then there was another boy in that class that I wanted to be like. His name was Drew. My name, legally and up until this point, was Andrew. I was so jealous of him because he was the popular kid. My jealousy led me to do something that has impacted my life ever since then. I started telling people my name was Drew. See jealousy has a way of guiding our choices and sometimes leads us to make foolish ones. Do you remember a time when you were jealous? How did it go? Did you do anything about it or did you let the feeling fade away? I think we get better at that as time goes on. But today, we’re going to look at how jealousy plays a part in the story between the Jews and the Gentiles.

As we continue through Romans, I think it would be helpful to spend a few minutes in the beginning recapping where we have been so far. In general, Paul is writing a letter to the church in Rome. In Acts 18, we see that Emperor Claudius kicked out all of the Jews in Rome, which of course included Christian Jews. Roughly 5 years later, after Claudius had passed away, the Jewish Christians came back to find their house church in Rome very different, it was filled with Gentile followers of Christ. Now, when I say the word Gentile, I want you to hear “non-Jew” which would mean that unless there is anyone in here who is ethnically Jewish, we’re all Gentiles.

So the Roman church had now become fairly argumentative between the Jewish and Gentile believers because many of the Jewish Christians had been taught that their right standing before God was based a right keeping of the Torah (the laws of the Bible) in addition to faith in Jesus. Much of Paul’s argument throughout the book of Romans is to set up a proper understanding of the gospel of Christ, while tearing down improper thinking and encouraging the believers to be unified in Christ. Here is a real basic summary of his argument so far:

The thesis for the whole book is Romans 1:16 - “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The word Greek here is similar to the word Gentile, in that it is referencing any non-Jew.

Chapters 1-4 - Show their need for the gospel. The jews cannot be saved by righteousness of heritage or ethnicity; Gentiles cannot be saved by righteousness of morality. Both can only be saved by righteousness from God.

Chapters 5-8 - Shows how faith works in the gospel. It is faith in the finished work of Christ alone that justifies us and makes us right before God. This brings us from death to life and transforms us internally and externally. This is all a gift and power of the Spirit.

Chapters 9-11 - Shows how salvation now works in the nation of Israel. Chapter 9 focuses small focus looking at Israel’s past through the lens of individual characters. Chapter 10 looks at Israel’s present by challenging them to believe in the gospel and take it to those who need it. Now in chapter 11, we’re looking at Israel’s future in a broad way.

With all that being said, I have three observations for us this morning and they all begin with “R,” so hopefully it is easy to remember. The first observation is “Rejection.”

Rejection

If you’ve been paying attention to the writing style of Paul so far, we’ve noticed that he will ask a question, almost anticipating what some of the pushback will be, then he answers his question, then he supports his answer. In Romans 6:1 he says “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” In Romans 3:3-4 he says “What if some (Jews) were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” Romans 11:1 “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means.”

Romans 11:11 - So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means.” The ‘they’ here is referring to Israel. If you look back at verse 7, “Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.” Then if you just track all of the references to ‘they/them/their’ from that point forward through 16, we’re referring to Israel. So this is an analogy and metaphor used against Israel and it is saying that they have stumbled. I’m sure we’ve all been there before right, we’re running (or maybe just walking if we have an uncoordinated moment) and we trip over ourselves and think we’re going to fall. Sometimes we might fall and sometimes we might catch ourselves. Paul is using that imagery here… did Israel stumble and fall completely or not?

The next question we should ask is: what did they stumble over? Here the answer is pretty straight forward, it’s the gospel. Look back at verse 9 and you’ll see this word again, “a stumbling block” then even further back in chapter 9:33 “I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.” So Paul is saying here, that here that the gospel has become a stumbling block to the nation of Israel, that gospel message, that faith in Jesus Christ is the exclusive way of salvation and the only way to receive the righteousness of God.

Israel is so spiritually blind at this time, that they believe that they have to earn their way to God through their own good works. They don’t have a category for grace in their mind. They have no concept of what Ephesians calls “a free gift of God.”

So then, going back to our question, they have stumbled, but have they fallen? This means…are they without hope? Are they beyond recovery? Have they so fallen away from the teaching of grace, that they have no hope of ever coming back. Putting it as simply as possible, Paul is asking, have they stumbled so far that God is done with them? They stumbled in a major way back in the 1st century when they crucified the Savior. If you remember back to the trial that Jesus was in, Pilate was inclined to let Jesus go but the Jews were shouting, crucify crucify. What about Barabbas? No crucify, crucify!

Seeing this…what is Paul’s immediate response? Absolutely not. This is where an understanding of the Old Testament story is essential for readers of the Bible. In simplest terms possible, once Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden, the nation of Israel established through a Covenant with Abraham, walks with God a while, gets tempted, falls into sin, faces consequences, eventually repents…and the cycle repeats itself. And this happens over and over and over again…yet God remained faithful to His promise, even when Israel was not faithful. So by no means is God done with Israel, but rather there will be a salvation offered to them.

Paul hits this idea of rejection multiple times in just a few verses, which should always set off alarms in your head: Verse 11 “through their trespass,” verse 12 - if their trespass/if their failure, verse 15 - if their rejection. However, weaved in between all these failures/rejections, Paul is pointing to a bigger picture which answers why the stumbling was not permanent but actually is setting the stage for a grander salvation than the people of Israel could have ever imagined.

So… the first observation is Rejection…the second observation is Riches.

Riches

When we keep reading through verse 11, you can see what he’s talking about. “Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.” He hits a similar theme in verse 12 “if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the gentiles.” So by their trespass/transgression/rejection of Christ and the gospel message, salvation has come to the world. We saw reference to this a few weeks ago when we were in that important missionary passage at the end of Romans 10. Paul is saying because Israel decided to close the door on the gospel, those with the gospel just went to the next open door which was the Gentiles in that region and from that second audience, the gospel began to spread.

Let me call you attention back to the conversion of Paul in Acts 9. He sees Jesus on the road to Damascus, he is struck blind, and then Jesus tells Ananias to go to him. Look at Acts 9:15 (Read) and now skip ahead to Acts 13. Paul and Barnabas were set aside for ministry. Then in verse 16, Paul starts a strong sermon, directed at the Jews but they rejected his message. So look at Acts 13:48, “and when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” So rejection from the Jews led to riches for the Gentiles. This happens again in Acts 18:6 and Acts 28:17-28 (that can be your afternoon reading if you’re interested). More often than not in the book of Acts, there is this cycle of preaching, acceptance of some, rejection by many, go to the Gentiles, and repeat.

What we need to make note of is the beautiful tension in the rejection from the Israelites happened while God also did the hardening to form the remnant mentioned in Romans 11:1-10. This goes back to the topic of Sovereignty we lightly covered in Romans 9 and we don’t have time to dive into that this morning but it’s worth mentioning that both of those truths are occuring at the same time. So when you ask “why were some hardened, according to verse 7?” it’s because in their hardening lead to salvation to the Jews (to which we all belong).

The clearest picture of this actually comes a little further down in Romans and we’ll touch on this more in a few weeks but I need to make this connection. Look at Romans 11:30-32 (Read). Paul even addresses them directly in our text in verse 13-14. So some encouragement from this text is that God’s message cannot be stopped. He is never tied down. He uses the failure and rejection of His chosen people to be the launching point to see the whole world hear the message of Jesus Christ. This gives a little clearer image of what Jesus meant when he told Peter “upon you will I build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Nothing can stop the message of Jesus from going where it needs to go, even when it has seemingly been rejected by the people who should have been carrying it in the first place.

So, the first thing we noticed was a rejection of the gospel from Israel, the second thing we notice is the riches of the gospel are then given to the Gentiles. The final thing we’ll observe applies to both groups of people and that is ‘reconciliation.’

Reconciliation

The word reconciliation means to be reunited with someone. In Christianity, we are reconciled back to God once we realize our need of a savior, repent of our sins, and put our faith and trust in Jesus’ life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. This is the gospel message, what was an impossible task (reuniting with God on our own) has now been made possible because of Christ. Paul makes note of how this blessing has turned into reconciliation and riches for the Gentiles. Paul touches on this earlier in the letter but Romans 5:11 says, “more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” So, where is this reconciliation mentioned here? It actually starts with the Gentiles and ends with the Jews.

The reason was rejected by the Jews and then accepted by the Gentiles (who the Jews believed they were better than), was so the Jews might get jealous of the gospel message and come to truly believe in it. The word jealous is even mentioned twice in verse 11 and 14. Why would this make them jealous? Jews were regularly envious of the Apostles position, following, and power. But now…Paul’s wish is that they would put aside those selfish desires and see the beauty of the gospel.

DOG ILLUSTRATION - One silly example of this that I think drives home the point is to think about our dogs and if you have multiple dogs in your home, maybe you’ll understand this. Our dogs get bones whenever we want them to be quiet for a few minutes or if we just want to give them a treat. However, there is one bone in particular we give them that is fairly large. Large enough to have one dog chew on one end while also being a temptation to the other one. So, what always happens is that one dog becomes jealous of the other and a tug-a-war match breaks out over a bone, even though both dogs have full access to a complete bone.

That’s the type of idea that Paul is trying to argue here, even though in my dog example one dog would have had to reject the bone, the other dog starts to chew it, so now the first dog is jealous and the tug-a-war breaks out. Paul is pointing out to us that the Jews are going to see something beautiful in the reconciliation that the Gentiles are experiencing, that they will eventually repent and come to a saving faith themselves.

Dr. Tom Schreiner, in his commentary on Romans says that Paul is describing two groups: the former (Israelites) and the latter (Gentiles). He goes on to say that “salvation of the latter produces jealousy and salvation of the former.” Paul even says that he hopes that his ministry among the Gentiles produces this (vs 14). Paul even hinted at this idea in chapter 10 when he was quoting from Deuteronomy and Isaiah in Romans 10:19-20.

Look with me at verses 12 and 15, which both seem to mirror each other in what they’re trying to say. Verse 12 - If the trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Then verse 15 - For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

What is Paul hinting at here is that he is repeatedly answering the question posed in verse 11. Rejection = Riches = Reconciliation. There was a general thought that Gentiles would join Jews but in a ‘you join us’ type of way, similar to what happened in the Old Testament. Instead what is going to happen is that the Gentiles will get full inclusion into the family of God and full acceptance, their acceptance of God and His acceptance of them. What does this acceptance lead to? But life from the dead. Their eternal destination secure.

But then, he completes his argument in this passage by bringing us back to the original question in verse 11 - what about the Jews? This is where verse 16 comes in. This verse seems a bit odd because it doesn’t seem to flow with the rest of the passage. “If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches?” What is Paul talking about here?

Paul is referencing the Jews here in our closing verse by pointing our how temporary the Jews rejection will be and how certain their restoration will be for the remnant. Paul is referring to the Old Testament offerings and sacrifices, specifically the offering of the firstfruits in Numbers 15:17-21. In that offering, the priest took some of the dough from the larger lump and offered it to God. Paul reasoned that if the lump offered to God was acceptable, the rest would naturally be as well. The firstfruit was Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, and he was accepted before God because of his faith. Therefore it is natural to assume that his descendents will also be accepted. This of course is referring to those who are part of the remnant, who might have rejected at one point but saw the overwhelming beauty of Jesus Christ, who repented and returned to follow Him.

Therefore, this brings it full circle, is God done with the Jews? By no means. He’s using their rejection in order to extend salvation to the Gentiles so they can see the beauty of the gospel and be reconciled to God. When that happens, some of the Jews will become jealous, see the beauty of the gospel, and be reconciled to God through faith in Christ, not their heritage.

Conclusion

So I know that this text has us walking into the weeds a little bit and I have been praying that the Spirit would make it make sense to the ears of those who would hear this morning. However, I do believe that there are a few reflection questions we can be asking ourselves with a passage like this and maybe you can spend time reflecting on them this week.

Do you believe in the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ? This has to be our first reflection because it applies to the Christians in the room and the non-Christians. If you are not a Christian in the room, can I tell you about the beauty of Jesus and what He did for you on the cross? How he lived a perfect life and died in our place, raised to life and ascended into heaven, in order that we might have access to God. Maybe you’re in the room and you read Romans 11:11 and when you apply that question to yourself, you answer…yes. I have stumbled and fallen. My sin is too great. God could never forgive someone like me. You don’t know what’s in my past. Oh friend, can I tell you about the cross of Christ that covers all of my sins, past/present/future? Can I assure you that while you have breath in your lungs, you are NEVER too far beyond the reach of Jesus. Charles Spurgeon says “the glory of God’s faithfulness is that no sin of ours has ever made Him unfaithful.” So, Christian in the room who is caught in habitual sin, he is still faithful, you might have stumbled but you have not fallen. Non-Christian in the room, you might have stumbled but you have not fallen, come and experience His faithfulness. So come to him, receive grace, and find peace.

Are you thankful for your salvation? This is for the Christians in the room. If in God’s sovereignty, he chose to leave salvation with the nation of Israel, then not many of us would be Christians. However, because the Jews rejected the gospel, the gospel went to the Gentiles and it spread from the Middle East, to Europe, to Asia, to Africa, to Europe, to America. Because Jesus decided to say something like “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” Because Jesus made himself the path forward, we have access to salvation. So let a passage like this stir your affections for your own salvation. Let it cause you to sing loud, pray hard, be intentional, and take the gospel where it needs to go.

Final reflection question - Is your faith something a non-believer would be jealous of? This is an important thought because this was the plan for the Gentiles, was through their salvation, the Jews became jealous and some came to faith. When a non-believer looks at your life, are they seeing a clear picture of Jesus or do you live like everyone else? Is your life so marked by the joy of your salvation, that it makes a noticeable impression on those you come in contact with? If not, then maybe just start by praying that God might remind you of the joy of your salvation and see what the Spirit does from there.

In all these things there is a reason to rejoice. Because I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew but also to the Greek.

Thanks be to God…lets pray

Let’s stand as we respond in worship, the alter is open if you need to do some business with God, I’ll be here if you need prayer or counsel.

Every week we gather in order that we might scatter to a lost and dying world. Let’s live this week in a way that would make our non-Christian friends jealous of our relationship with Jesus. Here the words of Jude 24-25 as a benediction:

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Go in His peace.