ISRAEL'S FALL, THE WORLD'S RICHES

Have you ever watched God bring something good out of something that looked like a disaster? A job loss that pushed you somewhere better. A rough road that led you to Christ in the first place. At the time, all you could see was the problem. Only later did you see the riches.

That's the story Paul is about to tell, but on the largest scale imaginable. In chapter 10 we watched Israel reject their own Messiah. It was the worst stumble in the history of the world. God's own people, handed the promises and the prophets, looked at the Savior they'd waited for and said no.

You'd think that would be the end of the story. A fall like that should just be a tragedy. But God did something with it that no one saw coming. He took Israel's fall and turned it into the open door for the whole world to be saved. Including you and me.

And there's a second surprise in here, one that turns the spotlight back on us. The way God chose to win Israel back was to make them jealous. And here's what He wanted them jealous of: the riches that people like us have in Christ. Which raises a question we need to answer this morning. If an outsider looked at your life, would they want what you have?

Open your Bible to Romans 11:11-16

Romans 11:11–16 NKJV

11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! 13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Paul asks his question again, the way he did back in verse 1. "Have they stumbled that they should fall?"

He's asking about Israel. They tripped over Christ. The question is whether that trip is a permanent wipeout, the kind you don't get up from.

And Paul gives the same answer he's given all through Romans. "Certainly not!" This is the tenth and last time in the letter he uses that phrase, and he saves it for ideas that need to be thrown out on sight. Israel stumbled, yes. But a stumble is not a fall you can't rise from.

Watch God Turn a Fall into Riches (vv. 11-12)

Watch what he says God did with the stumble. Verse 11 - "Through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles."

Israel's rejection of the gospel became the very occasion for the gospel going out to the rest of the world.

When the Jewish people said no, the message went to everybody else. That's the pattern Paul lived his whole ministry. He'd preach in the synagogue, get thrown out, and take the good news to the Gentiles down the street. The door that slammed in one place opened in another.

Here's what you need to see.

God is the God who brings good out of the worst situations.

The commentator, Matthew Henry, said it just like that. Infinite Wisdom brings light out of darkness, good out of evil, and sweetness out of the strong. The worst thing that ever happened, a people rejecting their own Savior, God turned into the best news the world has ever heard. And that same God is still doing it. He is still in the business of taking the fall and making it a doorway.

GREEK NOTE: By the way, the word for their "fall" or "transgression" means a false step, a slip, a stumble off the path. Paul chose it on purpose. He's telling us Israel tripped. He is not telling us Israel is finished. There's a world of difference between a stumble and a fall you never get up from.

Then Paul works out the logic. Verse 12- "Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!"

Follow the logic. If Israel's stumble brought this much blessing to the world, just imagine what their coming back will bring.

If the fall was rich, the fullness will be richer. Paul is arguing from the smaller thing to the bigger thing. The good we've already seen is only the down payment on the good still coming.

Now Paul turns and speaks straight to the Gentiles in the room, which means he's speaking straight to most of us.

Verse 13 - "For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry."

Paul takes his work among the Gentiles seriously, and he tells us one reason why. Look at verse 14. "If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them."

What does that mean for us?

Live So the World Wants What You Have (vv. 13-14)

Did you catch what he just said?

Part of the reason Paul poured himself into reaching Gentiles was to make his fellow Jews jealous.

He wanted them to look at what these outsiders had found in Christ and think, why should they have that and not us? He wanted to stir up a holy hunger in his own people by putting the riches of Christ on display in the lives of everyone else.

Now let's be careful about that word jealousy, because we tend to use it in an ugly way.

We picture the jilted, insecure person who wants someone back for their own sake.

God is nothing like that. God doesn't need Israel. He's not insecure.

When God stirs Israel to jealousy, he wants them back for their own good. His heart in it is all for them. He's making them hungry for the best thing there is, which is himself. It's the good kind of wanting, the kind that makes you say, I want what they have.

GREEK NOTE: The phrase provoke to jealousy has a root word. It means to burn with zeal, to eagerly desire something. This is the good hunger that rises up when you see someone who has something worth having, it’s not the same as the jealousy of a possessive heart. God is trying to make Israel eagerly desire him again, and the way He's doing it is by letting them watch other people delight in what they walked away from.

So here's the question we need to consider this morning.

God's plan runs on people being able to see the riches of Christ in somebody's life and want them.

That only works if the riches are showing.

Warren Wiersbe asks it this way. If an unsaved person visited the average church service, would he be provoked to jealousy and wish he had what we have, or would he just be provoked?

That's a gut-check question. When people look at how you handle a rough week and how you face bad news, do they see something they want, or something that looks just like their own life with a little church added on?

We are the display case. The riches of Christ are meant to show up in the way regular people live, right in the middle of regular life. So live so they want what you have. Let me say that again.

STICKY: Live so they want what you have.

Now, Paul isn't done lifting our eyes. He wants us to see that the best chapter of this story hasn't been written yet. Verse 15…

"For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?"

Trust the Blessing Still Coming (vv. 15-16)

Look at the two halves of that sentence.

When Israel was set aside, the world got reconciled to God. That's already happened, and it's glorious.

But Paul says their acceptance, the day Israel comes home, will be like life from the dead.

Understand, faithful believers read that phrase in more than one way. Some hear it as the greatest blessing you could name, a picture of how wonderful that day will be.

Others hear an actual promise about the end of history. I'm not going to plant a flag on the timeline this morning.

But here's what every reading agrees on, and what Paul is certain of. God is not finished with his people. The story is still moving toward a day of blessing so great it can only be described as the dead coming back to life.

Then Paul gives us a reason to be sure of it, reaching back to the very beginning. Verse 16…

"For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches."

He's using two pictures from Jewish life. When you baked bread, you gave the first piece to God, and that first piece set apart the whole batch as his. When a tree has a holy root, the branches share that same life.

Here's his point. God set apart the fathers of Israel, Abraham and the ones who came after him.

He made promises to them He will never break. And because the root is holy, the tree is holy. Because God accepted the first of the batch, the whole loaf belongs to him.

GREEK NOTE: The word holy here is hagios. Its first meaning is set apart, claimed by God for himself. The point is not about the patriarchs being sinless. God put his hand on them and marked them as his, and that claim reaches all the way down to their children. What God sets apart, he does not walk away from.

So we don't read Israel's stumble as the last word. And while you're at it, don't read your own stumbles as the last word either.

The God who kept his promise to Abraham for thousands of years is the God who is keeping his promise to you. The best is still coming.

STICKY: Live so they want what you have.

APPLICATION

Here's what this passage asks of us. Make the riches of God in your life show to one person this week.

God's whole strategy here runs on people seeing Christ in a believer's life and wanting him.

That means your life is meant to be a window somebody looks through and sees something they want.

So this week, pick one person who isn't walking with Christ. A neighbor or a coworker, or somebody in your own family. And do one thing that lets them see what you have.

I don't mean preach at them. I mean let the riches life with Christ show.

When the bad news comes and you don't fall apart, let them see why. And when they ask how you're holding up, tell them the truth about where your peace comes from. You don't have to force it. You just have to stop hiding it.

And pray for that one person by name, the way Paul kept his own people in his heart even while he worked among strangers. Ask God to make them hungry for what you have. Then live in front of them like you believe it's worth being hungry for.

Because here's the sad thing. We have everything in Christ, and too often we keep it so well hidden that nobody around us ever gets jealous. We have plenty to show. Let it show. Live so they want what you have.

VISION (close)

Picture a church that makes the neighborhood curious.

A church so full of people who plainly have something the world doesn't that folks start asking questions.

The draw is the life, never the volume or the music.

A marriage that holds when others fall apart. A man who loses his job and doesn't lose his hope. People watch that long enough, and eventually somebody leans over and says, I want what you have. How do I get it?

That's how God has always worked. He puts his riches on display in regular lives, and he uses the sight of it to draw people home. He did it through Israel's fall to reach the whole world, and he wants to do it through you to reach your neighborhood.

You are holding the greatest riches in the universe. Don't bury them. Let them show, so the people around you start wanting what you have. And keep watching, because the God who turned a fall into the salvation of the world is not finished yet. The best is still coming.

Let's pray.