The God(ness) of God: The God of Future - Week 3
July 20, 2008 4:16 pm Chapter 11, Romans, Sermon-Texts
This sermon is week 3 of The God of Future section of our “The God(ness) of God” sermon series. It is an exegetical treatment of Romans 11:11-32, addressing God’s plan for the future full numbers of both Jews and Gentiles, how the picture of tree grafting illustrates God’s future plan, and end goal is to have mercy on all people groups. This sermon was originally preached July 20th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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July 20th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets
Series: The God(ness) of God | Romans 9-11
I. The God of Glory 9:1-29
II. The God of Gospel 9:30-10:21
III. The God of Future 11:1-36
Week 3 - Romans 11:11-32
Introduction
Good morning. We’ve got a full meal today, a lot of ground to cover. Were in the second to last sermon of our summer sermon series here at The Resolved Church and right now we’re dealing with The God of Future part of a section in the book of Romans which really focuses on the God(ness) of God. So let’s read the text, pray and get right into it. (read text and pray)
God, you are infinitely beautiful and sovereign in your glory. God, you are wonderfully generous and kind in your provision of the gospel. And God you are marvelously vast in your plan for the future and your ability to ensure that plan comes to pass. Help us today Holy Spirit to understand a part of the book you breathed out that can be very difficult. Through it may our love for people increase, would our tenacity in faith be invigorated, and would the mercy of God in Jesus Christ be rich among us all. I love you Lord and call upon you for these sacred moments. Amen.
So as you notice, this is a much longer portion of Scripture we are dealing with today in comparison to what we normally do. There are a couple reasons for that. One, is because verses 11-32 really all go together, they are all concerned with the exact same question and theme. The second reason is because these verses can easily be a trap, where you get super bogged down and then you lose sight of the whole and you end up sucked into a never-ending abyss. So if you’re surprised by how much text we’re dealing with today, that’s what is going on.
I’ll try and break it down and make it a little easier for us to follow by piecing it into three main sections, verses 11-15 on God’s Future Fullness, verses 16-24 on God’s Grafting Kindness, and verses 25-32 on God’s Merciful Ends.
Our verses for today start out first with a question, “So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall?” Before we can discuss anything today and before we can even understand what this question is even talking about we must understand who the “they” when it says “did they stumble”? Now the answer is easy and is right in front of us, so I want to point it out and then I need to say something about it.
Look at the text. “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, as to make Israel jealous.” Okay, there is the “they.” The “they” is ethnic Israel, the Jews.
This is important today. Usually, in the past when Romans addresses some of the Jewish Israel implications of the gospel, usually I try and intentionally downplay the differences. That’s not wrong because at it’s core, the issue is often not so much Israel in and of itself but people groups and the Bible is clear that no matter what people group you are from, everyone becomes a Christian the same way, through believing in Jesus. And sometimes even in Romans, Israel simply means Christians, all who are the people of God who had their hearts changed by him (Rom 2:29).
The thing is with this week, ethnic Israel is the point and it does matter for this entire section. So who are we talking about? Well, first you can tell it is ethnic Israel because “Israel” here is set in contrast to Gentiles. Gentiles are anyone who is not Israel. Jews, Israel are a people group. So that’s sort of like saying, “I’m a surfer and everyone else is Gentiles.” Except surfer’s don’t have don’t all come from one family and they don’t have their own country, although that might be cool.
Who is Israel? I mean most of us know there is a little country over in the middle east where there is a lot of fighting going on all the time. Most of us probably really are not sure what about. Very few of you probably actually even know someone who is a Jew. Out of the 1.3 million people living in San Diego, only about 2.5% are Jews.
Other than the middle east what comes to mind when you hear the word Jew or Jewish or Israel? If you’re me you think of Adam Sandler’s “Happy Hanukkah” song, Seth Cohen’s “yamaclause”, and dudes that where black suits and have sweet beards with long curls hanging down from each side. Some of you might be into Matisyahu, the Jewish reggae artist. And most of us have seen the movie, Schindler’s List about the Jewish holocaust.
So that’s who were talking about today, Jews, and then Gentiles, everyone else and how God has a plan for both, some things he is doing now and some things he intends to do in the future for and through both groups.
God’s Future Fullness
So our first point for this morning, “God’s Future Fullness.” Verse 11 asks this question, “Did they (the Jews) stumble that they might fall?” Here’s the reason why he asks the question. Last week we talked mainly about grace, and how everyone who ever becomes a Christian is because of God’s grace toward them. I told this story about a city high up on a mountain, that is a city full of people who have only been brought there by grace…but that some other people, some orcs had heard of the city and were seeking out the mountain trying to scale it, but the king of the city came and cast a spell on them in order to blind them and make them deaf and sore so that they stumble and can’t find the city and force their way in.
Now Paul, the human author asks is this stumbling permanent? It sort of sounded permanent because verse 10 ends by saying backs get bent “forever.” Paul knows that word is going to illicit a reaction and a potential misunderstanding. His point has been that forever and ever, no one will ever get into the city of God except by grace. That stands, that is true. His question now is, does that then mean there is permanently no hope for the Jews?
What’s his answer? “By no means!” No way. And then he launches into an explanation and describes a plan that God has for the future. Let’s look at it. “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 inclusion mean!”
Three things: the trespass, jealousy, and the full inclusion. What is the trespass? Namely not believing in and embracing Jesus as the Messiah for their salvation. This is what set off this whole portion of Romans. Chapters 9-11 all go together and at the beginning of chapter 9, Paul is literally crying because the majority of his brothers, his fellow Jews, were not embracing Jesus as the savior. That pained him. Now granted, some Jews did, Paul himself was one and a few others…that’s what we talked about two weeks ago, they are called a “remnant.” But all of Israel, the whole country, the whole race, was supposed to, should have, all, embraced Jesus as their savior. That’s the trespass.
What has happened as a result? The story is told in Acts 10. Jesus spent three years with the disciples. He’s crucified and dies. He rises from the dead, appearing to the disciples another 500 people or so on several occasion. He ascends up into the heavens, saying he is going to go back to his throne but he’ll come back again and until then, he wants all his followers to go out into all the world telling everyone about him.
The disciples don’t really do that at first. At first, they mainly just focus on telling the Jews. So God gives Peter a dream and then after he wakes up Peter remembers how Jesus went even into the Gentile cities loving them and preaching to them. So he starts preaching that message, that Jesus is Lord of all and that there is forgiveness of sins for all who believe in Jesus’ name.
From that point on, consistently in Acts the apostles always when they get to a city, go first to the synagogue, the Jewish place of worship to share with them about Jesus, they meet opposition, then start sharing with the Gentiles and many of them believe. You see this pattern over and over again. For the most part the Jews as a whole rejected the gospel, but large amounts of Gentiles believed.
This is still true today. There are small pockets of Christian Jews, there is a group called Jews for Jesus. A group called Messianic Jews. Michael Brown is a Jewish Rabbi who is also a Christian doing some great apologetic. And there is Ariel Ministries, who is doing some awesome stuff. But for the most part, who are churches filled with? Gentiles. The majority of Christians today are not Jews but Gentiles. This is what this verse means when it says, “through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles.”
But then we get this next line, which adds something, it says there is a God appointed purpose for why things have and are working out this way. Look at it, this is happening, “so as to make Israel jealous.” Jealous. That’s interesting. Kind of weird. What’s even weirder is that jealousy is how Paul defines his entire ministry. Look at verse 13, “I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.” Paul says that the whole purpose of his ministry is to make Jews jealous! What the heck is going on here?!!!
Here’s the thing. I think most of us when we hear the word, “jealous” or “jealousy” we have a bad or negative connotation. We think of someone who wrongly wants or wishes for something someone else has whether it be a physical item, a position in life, a job, a personality, a man or woman. But there is a good kind of jealousy. There is a rightful jealousy that wants or wishes for what is yours.
For example, I am very jealous for my wife. I like her a lot. I love spending time with my wife. I love talking to her. I love eating and drinking with her. I love doing fun things with her. I love making love with her. I love my wife. And I am not okay with her doing that with any other man. I am very jealous for her. I don’t even really like her talking to any other dudes! J You girls are alright but you dudes better back off! I’ll fight you! J Me an my daughter Adina are actually having some problems lately because I’ve kind of been noticing that sometimes it seems she gets a little more attention than me from my wife…and I’m a little jealous. J
So jealousy. Here is what Paul is saying. Jesus was a Jew. He was born into a Jewish family. All his apostles were Jews. He spent most of his life ministering to Jews. He was the promised savior that the Jewish Bible prophesied would come. Yes, he is for everyone…but first he was for the Jews. That was the thesis of the entire book of Romans stated back in Romans 1:15-16, “…(the gospel) is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, first for the Jew and then for the Greek.” So Jews ought to be jealous for Jesus. So he says, I am going to attempt to win as many Gentiles to Jesus and when Jews see how much Gentiles really are falling in love with their God and their savior, then they will get jealous and be provoked to want Jesus back and to have him too.
This is our missional philosophy as a whole for all the cultural groups in San Diego. We want everyone to see how much we love our God and enjoy worshipping him and trusting in his Son. Our mission exists because of our worship. My goal is to make the people of San Diego jealous for Jesus.
Now here is where Paul opens the door to the future. He says, isn’t this a great and wonderful thing, that because Israel has first rejected Jesus that many many Gentiles have had the awesome privilege of coming to know God, verse 17 “their trespass means riches for the world.” Then he adds, if that is true “how much more will their full inclusion mean!” He says, if you think that is great, how great will it be when the fullness of Jewish Israel, maybe not every single Jews, but the majority…comes to believe in Jesus one day in the future.
It’s a future thing, “…will (future tense) their full inclusion mean!” And then he gives two analogies. One is simple, it’s the picture of resurrection. It’s verse 15, “If their rejection means the reconciliation of the world (and by the way “world” most of means people groups of the world, every tribe and tongue of the world), what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead.” The other one is simple too, but Paul takes 8 verses to explain it and it is the analogy of a tree and the picture of grafting. He introduces it in verse 16, “If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”
So, the future. Paul says in the future, there will be a “full inclusion” of Israel. It is going to be a great thing, greater than even when the gospel was opened up to the Gentiles and nobody dreamed of that happening and the great results! We’ll get into it in a minute, but just to help you hear and see what I’m saying, skip ahead for a second and look at verse 25, “I want you to understand this mystery brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.”
Paul predicts here that in the future, there will be a time when a great number of ethnic Jews will have a change of heart and believe in Jesus. If that seems impossible to you, I agree. But think of this…the year 70 AD, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed and Israel did not exist as a country any longer. It was not on any map. There were not at any world powers leader meetings or summits. No one ever thought there would ever be another portion of land on earth that was a country known as Israel. But in 1967 it happened…about 1900 years. That’s insane. 1900 years. Let me give you a little perspective. The United States has only been in existence for about 230 years.
1900 years and then a war and it ends with Jewish soldiers overtaking Jerusalem…they walked in with guns in hand and tears on their cheeks. No one thought it would ever happen and it did. History is not over my friends. The gospel has yet much work to do and there is a great revival coming. It can and it will happen. And the key is us winning as many people to Jesus as possible, so as to make our Jewish friends have a godly jealousy.
God’s Grafting Kindness
Now there is an analogy to try and explain what God has done and what he has planned and it is a warning for us and what I want to do is to simplify it. It’s verse 17-24. We read it earlier, so here’s the analogy. It’s an olive tree. In the Old Testament God’s people were compared to an olive tree. Jesus too compared his church to a tree. This is a popular Bible picture and it fit the land and the culture the Bible was written in. Olive trees were common.
The analogy goes like this. God started the tree with one family, Abraham. It’s God’s tree, it’s a holy tree. The tree is God’s people. And the tree grew big with a lot of branches. It’s a nice big Jewish olive tree. God sends his son into the world, Jesus. Jesus is the lifeblood and water of the tree, without him it dies. But most of the branches don’t believe in or accept Jesus. So God pulls out his chainsaw and starts whacking branches off. He only leaves a remnant, a remaining few branches. And he not only does that but he goes to another olive tree, that grows crazy and wild but doesn’t have any fruit and he cuts off some branches from that tree and then grafts them into his tree.
Some stuff about grafting…farmers do this. My wife’s uncle is a farmer and he does this. If you got a tree that isn’t bearing fruit but is growing fast and big and strong and you got another tree that has nice fruit but is growing slow and small, then he’ll cut off a branch of the crazy fast growing tree and graft it into to the small nice fruit tree in hopes that he’ll get a big full tree with a lot of good fruit. The way you graft is by cutting something called a “cleft” in the branch and in the tree which is like a wedge and then you put grafting compound around it and tie it up. After awhile the two pieces of tree start growing together and their common properties and nutrients get co-mingled.
Paul looks at this process and says, “Hey, that is like what has happened and what God is doing with the gospel.” Gentiles have been grafted into the Jewish tree, because a lot of the Jewish branches were cut off for not believing in Jesus as the Messiah.
Now after he makes this analogy, he sees it as an opportunity first for a warning to the Gentiles who were grafted in and then he also sees it as an opportunity for reaching out to the Jews. So to the Gentiles he says this, beginning in verse 20 “They (Jews) were broken off because of their unbelief but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 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 kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
That’s his warning. He urges Christians not to get to confident and make the same mistake that the Jews made which was thinking they were fine just because of their family heritage, tradition, race or past belief. He urges all of us to keep pressing forward. Apathy is immense danger. I’ve seen so many fall into it’s pit and it’s trap.
It makes sense that he would say something like this after talking about election because divine election never means that human do not urgently need to continue to exercise faith. It doesn’t mean as John Stott says, “That those who truly belong to him will ever be rejected, but that continuance or perseverance is the hallmark of God’s authentic children.” True believers will persevere in their faith and we ought faith forward in fear and humility.
Pride can so easily creep in, especially among Christians. I’ll appeal to Jonathan Edwards here. He says this, “Spiritual pride (prefers) to speak of other person’s sins, their (separation) from God and his people, (and their) miserable delusion…and deadness…(with) an air of contempt. Where as Christian humility (prefers) to either be silent about them or to speak of them with grief and pity…The spiritually proud person is apt to find fault with other saints, (is) low in grace…and quick to take notice of (others) deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home in his own heart…that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts, he complains most of himself…of his own coldness and lowness in grace. He is apt to esteem others better than himself. (The proud enjoy) to speak in the most harsh, severe, and terrible language…they say we must be plain hearted and bold for Christ, we must declare war on sin wherever we see it, we must not mince the matter in the cause of God and when speaking for Christ…(this) is to overthrow all Christian meekness and gentleness…and defile(s) the mouths of the children of God…under a cloak of sanctity and zeal and boldness for Christ [Thoughts on Revival, Part IV, Sec.1].”
We must be humble and always remember that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. We are always ever dependent upon Jesus for everything. If we ever think it is because we are smart enough, strong enough, passionate enough, morally upright enough…we have opened the door to pride and run the risk of being cut off and facing the severity of God. Instead we must seize his kindness and continue in it.
That’s the warning and then there’s the appeal to the Jews. Verse 23-24 “If they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in again. 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 tree.”
This is the future. In the future, there is a plan for many Jews to be included. How will that happen? Just as it was for the Gentiles, through grafting. And how do you get grafted? Simple by believing in Jesus. Salvation, whether for Jew or Gentile, is now always through a grafting. Everyone must undergo the medical procedure of a farmer and get bonded to the tree of life that is Christ. It can be painful, but the kindness of God in it is greater than all else.
God’s Merciful Ends
Well, that brings us to our last point for the day. Verse 25-32 summarize what has already been said and make the equal needs of Jews and Gentiles abundantly clear, both groups are in need the mercy of the gospel. So let’s look at “God’s Merciful Ends” described in these verses and then we’ll close.
Beginning at verse 25, “Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
A couple things. First, the mystery. Mystery here doesn’t mean mystery in the sense like, something that is beyond human comprehension. It means something that what was once secret, known only to God, has now been revealed or made known by him. So what’s the mystery, the mystery is that God has planned the hardening and rejecting of Jesus by the Jews, so that the full number of people in history that he has destined to become Christians will. The mystery is that God has planned and ordered history and the future in this way.
Second, the phrase “in this way all Israel will be saved” does not necessarily mean every single Jew will become a Christian. It may mean the majority of Jews at some point in the future. It may even be as Paul says in Galatians 6:16 that Israel is all those from both Jews and Gentiles whom God has mercy on in Jesus.
I’m not fully confident as to which one of those it is…you have to remember he concerned about the collective identity of God’s people and not so much specific individuals…but either way, what is clear, what I am confident about is that the way all Israel becomes such, and that is exactly what the next verses reiterate, it is through faith and belief in the deliverer to take away sin. Jesus is the deliverer and Jesus chief work is to take care of our sin, by dying on the cross in our place to satisfy justice for sin and then he makes a covenant with us…his death for our life, through our belief in him. Believing in Jesus is absolutely necessary.
He is it, for everyone. And that is what the last few verses for today illustrate so poetically. (Are you guys getting full? I am. That’s why I told you at the beginning of this message this sermon is a full meal. You will feel stuffed afterward. It’s like thanksgiving.) These verses equalize everyone.
Verse 28, concerning the gospel…yeah Jews are right now enemies of it, that’s for your sake, for Gentile benefit. They are enemies. Even right now, it is a current practice of many Jewish families to disown any of their family members if they become Christians. They are treated as if they no longer exist. Sometimes in the past they have even had funeral ceremonies for them. Enemies of the gospel for sure, but we must remember it is only a temporary hardening and so we must keep offering the gospel, keep loving, keep reaching out as Paul has here in these words.
Verse 29, reminds us why…Jews are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. God made a promise to Abraham years and years ago, way back in Genesis 12. He said to Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” That was God’s promise to the first forefather and it was a promise God repeated to Abraham’s sons. God has beloved Israel, the ethnic Jews, he promised to do so and that does not change.
Verse 30 affirms it, “…the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” God does not promise one thing and later change his mind. His gift of salvation and effectual calling is sure and immovable.
Verses 31-32 do this. They say, yes, Gentiles were disobedient, godless heathen pagans and they have been shown mercy in the gospel. And now you Jews, you too, have like them become disobedient, so that you too may now know what my mercy is like. Look at verse 32, “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”
That is a beautiful and wonderful phrase. God is determined to have mercy, to show his merciful side. There is hope and confidence in those words. It equals the playing field, everyone is laid low and flat. All are disobedient, and now there is mercy for all.
It doesn’t mean everyone in the whole world is eventually going to get saved and become a Christian. Some have wrongly thought this verse teaches universalism. It doesn’t. Romans and the rest of the Bible are clear, God is a just God, there is a hell and judgment, hell is hot and forever is a long time, which all who go there will endure.
You have to read this verse in context. What have we been concerned with all day? People groups. The Jewish people and the Gentile people. All Gentiles have been disobedient and all Jews have been disobedient. God has consigned, or held them all in it, in order that he might have mercy on all the people groups of the world. I’ve said it before, it’s not race that counts but grace. God eliminates the race factor and says here that instead, all people groups need and receive mercy from God.
This means for our theologians out there, that we must avoid both full replacement theologies and full restoration theologies. And for everyone else who that means nothing to, don’t worry about it. But we have some brilliant dudes among us and I love them too and that will help them.
The point for all of us is that God is merciful and plans to be merciful in the future. Mercy is the love and compassion of God toward humans for their crime and would be unjust if not for Christ satisfying justice.
I tried to steal something once in my life. I was 16. I tried to steal the Nirvana “Unplugged” album from Wal-Mart. Back then they used to have these big plastic cases that every CD was kept in. When you’d by the CD the cashier had a special tool to take it off. So what I did was took the CD and walked around the store like I was looking for something else to buy. I went to the hardware section. I found some snips and I cut that big plastic thing off the CD. I started walked toward the exit through the store. I walked through the clothing section and stashed the plastic case. As I started walking toward the exit, I though I saw a worker following me out of the corner of my eye. So I thought I’d play it safe and go and buy a candy bar. Sure enough he followed me. So I left the CD in the candy and bought a Snickers and headed for the door. The man who was following me stopped me at the door. He had the CD and the now broken plastic case in his hand. He told me he saw me, knew what I was doing and told me never to come back.
Now that wasn’t mercy. If I had in fact stolen the CD and he met me at the door with the security guard. Told me he could arrest me right then but then instead turned and arrested the security guard and said I could go free…that would be mercy!
And that is what God has done for us in Jesus. Through Jesus God extends a massive undeserved leniency and no matter what your race or background is, it is no barrier. God and his gospel is enough and is sufficient. So often we think that we are just too different. That our personality. Our race. Our background. Our interests. Whatever it is. We think we are different than everyone else. This verse says no. We are all disobedient and we all need mercy and God has provided for it in Jesus.
Conclusion
Well, let’s conclude. It’s been a full morning. A lot of words from Scripture. Here’s the main points… The story is not over with the Jews. God has a plan. He is working right now, through us as we learned in Romans chapter 10…he is working to bring the full number of Gentiles to Jesus. After that has happened there will be a big change and many ethnic blood line heritage Jews will turn and believe in Jesus.
The picture of this is a tree. God’s tree is his people and it started with Jews, but most their branches were broken off for not believing in Jesus. So God grafted in a whole bunch of Gentiles. When Jews truly see and realize that they will be provoked out of jealousy and want in the tree and God will gladly graft them in out of his kindness and all Israel will be saved.
This salvation is through the deliverer who is Jesus, who died and rose again to provide forgiveness for sins. This is a new covenant, a promise from God that is for all peoples. All have been disobedient and now there is mercy for all.
Now just in case that sounds just like information. Here are the heart points you ought to take home. One, our God is the God of the Future. He is a big God and he determines and has a plan. We ought to trust in it and be confident in him. Two, this plan is missional in its character. God’s plan is to save many many people. So we ought to be fervent and passionate and determined like Paul here to try and save as many as possible. Three, our position is never guaranteed because of past faith, we must continue in our belief and resist spiritual pride and apathy like the plague. And lastly, we are ever and always a people of mercy with a message of mercy for all. Mercy is from God and it is irrevocable. Let us cherish and spread the message of mercy in Jesus.
Let’s pray.