Romans 11:1-27

Introduction and Welcome

Hey yall If you have your Bibles go ahead and flip to Romans chapter 11. There are 16 chapters in the book of Romans and last week Nolan led us through the end of chapter ten so we have 6 chapters left and we should finish up with Romans by the end of June if all goes as planned.

But tonight as we tackle a big chunk of Romans 11 we are going to talk about one the most confusing passages in all of the Bible.

but this passage is also super relavent given the world events right now particulary with what is going on between Israel and Palestine.

Paul is going to spend chapter 11 in Romans talking about Israels past and Israels future.

So we have to start with the question.

Who is Israel?

Biblically Israel was another name for the Jewish people.

these were people who were a race of people.

When we talk race today we get lost in skin color.

But if you travel the world youll quickly find out that race / ethnicity and skin color dont always go together.

For example. In Brazil you can have a brazilian who is darker skinned or pale. depending on where and how they lived in Brazil. Yet if they came to America we would classify both as Brazilian.

With the Jewish people you couldnt identify them with their skin or their appearance but they were a race of people.

And because they were a race that meant they passed down their lineage through their blood.

And in the Old Testament we have the story of Israel beginning with Abraham and being traced all the way through their history until Jesus.

The Israelites were Gods people.

but now that Jesus has come as the messiah the question becomes what happens to those Jewish people? What happens to Israel?

Romans 11:1–2 “1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?”

Paul first says that God hasnt rejected Israel but we have to carefully see why.

Paul gives us three answers to why God hasnt failed.

He points to himself as an answer to God not failing.

Paul is pointing to his own faith in Jesus as proof that God has not rejected the Jewish people completly.

We have to remember Pauls testimony.

He was a Jew.

He was a pharisee. He did everything as he was supposed to and he even opposed Jesus.

Yet Paul experienced the grace and mercy of God and was saved.

2. Pauls second answer is election.

We talked about this in chapter 9.

But in all of history there have always been two types of people those who have been faithful and those who have not.

Those who have believed Gods promise and those who didnt.

There were Jews who were only jews by blood and then there were jews who were jews by blood and faith.

God has never failed the true people of God.

3. Paul gives a third answer. The Remnant answer.

Paul then appeals to a story from the Old Testament. in verses 2-4.

Romans 11:3–4 “3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.””

If you have been around in PB Youth since I got here you might remember we did a series one summer about the craziest stories in the Old Testament. and in that series we talked about Elijah and the showdown on Mount Carmel.

There was this false God Baal and his followers had this showdown with Elijah to see who had the more mighty God.

They tried to see whose God could make the bigger fire. Baal did nothing. So then Elijah taunts the false worshipers. pours water on his wood and then prays to God.

God starts a fire so hot that it kills the servants of Baal.

and then Elijah and those who didnt worship Baal went on. they were spared from the fire.

Paul is connecting those who remained faithful while everyone one else worship Baal to the people of Israel who were able to recognize Jesus and Lord and Messiah.

Romans 11:5–6 “5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”

Paul says those who have followed Jesus are the remnant. And that their belief is an act of God’s grace.

What paul paints for us is that the Jewish system of belief was all about who you were born as and what you did to live faithfully.

But for the follower of Jesus things are opposite.

It is no longer the family we are born into and the works we do that bring salvation.

Instead it is the grace of God that saves. and we are saved not by our works but by grace through faith alone.

lets keep working through

Romans 11:7–10 ESV

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”

So Paul in 5-6 described how some of the Israelites or Jews came to know the Lord and salvation. Then here he is giving us the why that there were some who did not. Why did some of them reject Jesus?

And the answer is that their hearts were hardened to sin.

they had chosen sin and God had hardened their hearts.

RC Sproul says it this way “The people of Israel were blind because God had made them blind. Their blindness was punishment for sin. They did not want to see the things of God, so so He abandoned them to their sinful desires.”

Now you might be thinking. Well thats not fair that they didnt have a chance to get saved and know God.

But in verses 9-10 Paul tells us that they had every opportunity because they as Gods people had his Word.

The phrase “table” for the jewish audience would have immediately drawn them to what the called the table of the Lord.

this was their Bible.

their scriptures.

Paul is reminding us that the Jewish people who chose not to follow Jesus had every opportunity to know God through his Word. Yet they continually chose sin,

Martin Luther really pictures what Paul is saying here saying “The word of God is like a flower whose nectar is used to make honey for the bee, but the nectar is posion to the spider.

For those who know God and have been saved by God the Word is our sweetness and honey.

But for the unbeliever that has the Word of God it is a poison.

Lets keep going

Romans 11:11–15 “11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”

We can summarize this rather quickly.

What happens is that because some jewish people dont accept the Gospel. the apostles begin to take the Gospel to the world.

Heres how this happens. If all the jewish people accepted Jesus they would have stayed isolated to Jerusalem and that general area. There would be no spreading of the Gospel.

Because some in Israel did not believe and did not follow Jesus.

Salvation is now offered to the Gentiles. Because the Gospel is being preached.

and what we see is that throughout the old testament God saved some gentiles through their faith.

and the gentile church explodes and before the jewish people knew it there were more gentiles than jews.

Now who are the gentiles? Its us.

Paul says the purpose of God allowing non Israelites to know him is to make those who have rejected him to be jealous and to bring more of them to repentance.

and this is pretty awesome.

Like the fact that God saves people who have no way of knowing Him shows how great of a savior he is.

Romans 11:16–24 ESV

16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

We can belong.

Note Gods kindness to those whom he saves.

v23 if they do not continue in their unbelief… If they have Faith they will be saved.

The gentiles should not grow complacent in their salvation

God has cut off unbelieving branches.

In our unbelief we can be removed.

Unbelief, compromise, disobedience, lip service christianity.

Romans 11:25–27 ESV

25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

Israel is going to be restored.

We dont know how. But the Jewish people who were faithful to believe will be restored. And alongside gentile believers they will one day worship God together.