Romans 11 various verses.
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. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew….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. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusionmean!… As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We've been working our way through Romans ever since June, almost nearing the end of our scheduled readings for Romans, there'll be coming up in about three weeks. But we've been in a section that is actually kind of difficult, or understanding what St. Paul is saying, these chapters nine through 11, are asking a question, what do we do with the promises given to Old Testament Israel? At the end of chapter eight, St. Paul declares this amazing promise that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even death itself. And he raises the question, then, what about Israel? What about the promise of the land and the temple and the kings and all of those things? How do we as Christians think about that? Romans nine through 11, builds to this point, where it talks about what the relationship between Israel and the church is, and how to understand that those promises come true for us in Christ. And so what we have to do then is look at what this what St. Paul does here in Romans 11, to talk about this relationship. In the end, very simply put, the church is the true Israel, the people of Israel that we think of as the nation, or the Israelites who are genetically descended from Abraham, or not. And the theology behind that is what Jesus does in his life. Now, unfortunately, our reading, if you look at the Epistle reading in your bulletin, there are a lot of holes in there, right? It goes, Romans chapter 11, one through two, A, and then 13, through 15, and 28, through 32. And that's because it really wants to skip a lot, to cut out some things. And what that cuts out is this idea that there is a section of the genetic offspring of Abraham, who have turned away from the gospel and left behind the faith that has always been passed down. Much of the book of Romans the purpose of talking about the faithfulness of God to the promises by faith, has shown that God's promises were not a genetic handing down by the DNA of Abraham. But a passing on of the promise through faith that Abraham was saved by grace through faith, just as we are, that Jacob was also saved by grace through the promise. And the promise didn't go just to every kid, because Abraham had lots of children. And not just one. And that has continued down through the ages. One of the sections that cuts out is when Paul talks about Elijah, who goes and hides and God promises that a remnant of true Israel has been saved only 7000, who did not worship ball, the false god. What St. Paul is helping us to see is that the true Israel promised from the Old Testament is Jesus Christ Himself, and that all who are in Christ, become part of Israel. What that means, then is that opens up membership in the land of Israel and the people and the promise of God to everyone who comes to Christ. Everyone who believes in Him. If you look at the work of Jesus, especially in the Gospel of Matthew, the entire structure and and path of, of Jesus's life is shown to prove that Jesus is the true Israel, the one who fulfills the covenant. It begins with the announcement of Jesus as the Son of David who would be the king, who would rule over Israel for forever. Then Jesus hustles off down to Egypt, where he is escaped just like Abraham. He comes out of Egypt, just like Moses did. It crosses into the Jordan River to begin his ministry just like Joshua. He spends 40 days in the wilderness just like Israel spent 40 years as being tempted in the wilderness. After coming back into his ministry, Jesus goes to the top of a mountain and gives a sermon about the Old Testament law. A lot like Moses, who went to the top of Mount Sinai and brought down the 10 commandments. And it goes on and on like that, we see Jesus handing out bread in the wilderness to people who are hungry and could not get enough when he feeds the 5000. And I think most significantly to what we're talking about today. Jesus Christ chose 12 men, to begin the new family of Abraham, just like the 12, sons of Jacob, who became the heads of the tribes of Israel, all of the sudden there is a new Israel, headed by the 12 apostles, to create the same nation, but in a new way, by membership and faith in Jesus Christ. And we can see that most explicitly and what St. Paul says in Galatians, chapter three, where he says, For as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the prompt. One of the other sections, they cut out in our reading today from Romans chapter 11, gives us a more explicit metaphor, or this it's a metaphor of an olive tree, that the olive tree of Israel, just like our fruit trees, you know how when you buy a fruit tree for your backyard, they've they've got they do grafting, right, there's the root stock, and then there's the fruit stock, I don't know what they call that I'm still too new to California to know the actual parts, but there's the root and then there's the rest of the plant, right. And sometimes, if you're, if you're really exciting, you get one of those fruit salad plants, where you've got the root and then the stock and then you've got like apples and pears and peaches, and whatever, you're gonna get as many as you want all on the same planet. That's grafting, right? St. Paul gets a metaphor of grafting wild all of branches, the Gentiles, onto the holy root of Israel. And that makes it the Gentiles who are brought into Christ, then are grafted into the Old Testament promises of Israel, made greater and newer in Christ. He says, Now I am speaking to you Gentiles in as much as then I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, in order that somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean, but life from the dead, if the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so as a whole lump, if the root is holy, so are the branches. But here's where we didn't get it, it says, 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, 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. Then you say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So we see this promise that God has always been working. The promise that begins with Abraham goes to Isaac goes to Jacob, to all of the nation of Israel, through Moses, and all the way up to Jesus Christ. All of that is the work of salvation that God has always been planning in the world, and is now present in the church. Christ is Israel. And by being in Christ, we have all the great promises of the Old and New Testament. You may be asking yourself, well, that's really interesting information, Pastor. I'm sure now that I can pass the test on Romans chapter 11. And I have all this nice stuff. But what does this actually mean for me, a Christian?
Well, a big piece of Romans 11 is helping to show us that some of the the expectations in the Christian church about the end are a little unusual. Now you're gonna have to let me pause and talk about what what certain people teach right now, there are three different views about the end of the world and what will happen when Jesus returns. And so I have some slides, visual aids to help you out sweet, like we knew these would come in handy. Let's go and take a look at the first one. Okay? This is called post millennial, post millennialism. What that means is, it's Jesus is supposed to come back after this thing called the millennium. So what you have right now is we are in the church period, post, millennials believe that things are going to just generally get better throughout all of humanity, until we reach this utopia. And then after the period of 1000 years of Utopia, Jesus will return and everything will be great. This is sort of the Star Trek theory of, of church. Like in Star Trek, you know, everything sort of just got better until it was this utopian world. And then Jesus returned. This was really popular before World War One and World War Two, and we blew everything up. And since then, has not been quite as popular. But it's thinking still underpins a lot of the progressive thought about history, that everything is progressing towards something hurt. Another way of teaching is this one. This is what the Lutheran Church teaches. We are currently in the in the world of in the reign and rule of God on earth through his church. And everything is going to happen by grace through faith on account of Christ until Jesus shows up. And he will raise us all from the dead and give us eternal life. That's the story you hear from me just about every Sunday. And it's the one that the Bible teaches. Things are going to go on as they go. And then in a moment, when no one is expecting it, Jesus will appear in the clouds, and he will raise you from the dead and give you life forever. But the one I want to talk about is this next one dispensational premillennialism, which is really fun, right? Like say that 10 times fast. This is a one that is quite popular in America today. It's the idea that the church is here, then there will be a the rapture, a period of tribulation, then Jesus will come back and establish a military rule on earth over humanity. Like a government like a normal human government, based out of Jerusalem, where they will rebuild the temple, reinstitute reinstitute animal sacrifices, He will reign there for a literal 1000 years before Satan will be set free. And they will march on Jerusalem, and Jesus will destroy them with his armies. And we will bring about the new era, the new heavens and the new earth. If it sounds complicated, it is. Why are we talking about this one is the popular version of in much of American Christianity. If you have read books, or seen books like The Late Great Planet Earth, that is what it talks about are the Left Behind series that keeps being made into movies. It seems like every 10 years or so. Or I guess more pressing, David Jeremiah, up at Shadow Mountain teaches. And I've seen his books in many of our home. So I know that his influence is here. This kind of thinking, what it does is it separates the promises of Israel, from the promises that God gives the Gentiles in Jesus. And it teaches us that God is not doing something, something that's part of the whole big plan, but that the church is sort of a pause, almost a side note. In fact, I have a quote about that from will duke from Chateau mountains website. He says in this view, the church is a sort of parenthesis within God's primary purpose or Israel. He also says in the millennium, God will focus on what has been the Heart of His earthly plan, the redemption of his chosen people Israel. He will fulfill the unfilled covenants and prophecies about the restoration and blessings of Israel, the temple in Jerusalem will reap be rebuilt. The Levitical priesthood will be reestablished with an animal sacrifices, again being offered. Does that sound weird? That sounds a little weird. That's because it is. What happens with this is that it doesn't allow the New Testament to define the Old Testament. And we get a break between the work of Jesus and the work that God did in the Old Testament. But even worse than that, is that tells Christians that we need to be thinking about about earthly thing, and not about the promises of God in heaven. If you've watched or looked at some of these things, they will say that Christians need to be worried about the politics of the world far more than I think we need to do. I remember reading an article where one of these churches was talking about how concerned they were about global currencies, because that is something that the church needs to worry about. Right. But it played into these prophecies. Another time I watched a show when I was young and sick. And it was in the middle of the day, where where Bible teachers were talking about how they found Saddam Hussein in the in the book of Revelation, fulfilling some of these prophecies. But more than that, it also forces us to to have particular opinions about the nation of Israel. From David jeremiah.org. Modern Israel's ability to maintain independence and prosperity amid constant threats highlights God's sovereignty over world affairs, nothing can disrupt his plan, meaning Christians must support the nation of Israel. According to this. I do not doubt that a fully operational temple will be present during the tribulation. Even now devout Jews are working on reproducing sacred temple vessels. According to the Old Testament requirements. A breeding program aims to produce an unblemished red heifer that meets the requirements for purification of the temple. It gives me chills to hear how the groundwork is being laid for the end time. What does this mean? The End Times depend on. Its calling on people to focus on things like breeding red heifer programs, or reproducing articles from the temple, rather than on the promises of Jesus Christ. And Romans, chapter 11, asks us to say, Wait a second. Jesus is Israel. Jesus is the one who fulfills all of those promises, the one who gives us the yes for everything that God has promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What we have to do is focus on him, and how he fulfills those things just the same way the New Testament rather than looking at the story of the church like this. We simply look at Christ and wait for his comment, because that is what he has promised. And so when you hear these things in the church, about rapture and millennialism, and all of the promises about places invading other places and stuff like that, it's all bunk. What we are waiting for, is Christ to come and raise us from the dead. And that's it. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai