Romans 11:13-29 • An Irrevocable Gift

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

 In the last few weeks, we've been rejoicing in the vision of the Apostle Paul as he has sought to have other people understand from every generation, tribe, language, people,



 there is a Lord who has given Himself for you.



 He deserved only honor, but he came in humility and he gave himself, and there was a reason. The Apostle Paul says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." There would be no way to him because the wages of sin is death.



 But then adds, "Yet the gift of God is eternal life." And that gift is so powerful that it is to claim people of every generation and every background for two whole chapters the Apostle has been saying. And so, you Jews who have known the gospel message for generations, make a seat at the table for some new people.



 Guess who he's going to talk to now?



 He's going to talk to the new people and he's going to say, "And honor those who came before you." Let's see how he says it. Romans 11, Romans chapter 11, verses 13 through 29, although I'll be looking only at verses 13 through 15 as we read at first. Let's stand to honor God's Word and see what the Apostle Paul says next after he spent so much time speaking to the Jews about their need to accept others.



 He turns the tables now and says, "Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles." By the way, who is that, you Gentiles?



 That's us.



 "Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles inasmuch then as 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. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean? But life from the dead." Let's pray together.



 Heavenly Father, everything that was written in the past, Your Apostle said was written for us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.



 Give us that hope again this day as we fulfill Your purposes of letting the gospel be known to the world.



 Those even who may be at odds with us, but are Your beloved children in Your time. Use us. Teach us. Reach our hearts again, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.



 We expect Super Bowl ads to entertain us, but on occasion they can touch us.



 One this year was from the Verizon network that gave the account of a woman who had been saved from a fire by a first responder in Quincy.



 Some of you may remember the account. Jack Ray, lieutenant in the Quincy Fire Department, was at the top of an extension ladder reaching into a window from which smoke was billowing. Flames were already surrounding him, and yet he was reaching toward the woman inside, who you got just a glimpse of. She was obviously poor in a building most people would not choose to live in. She was caught between panic from the flames and the fear of the height.



 What would move her into the fireman's arms?



 In the voice recording of her phone call of thanks to the fireman later, she said, because even as the video was rolling of the smoke and the flames, you heard her sang in her after call of thanks.



 I saw it in your face.



 You would not give up for me.



 You would not give up for me.



 And I appreciated that so much to come to you.



 It is the simple message of the gospel that our Savior went through hell for us.



 And having done so, we are to see in his face, in his heart, the reality that he would not give up for us. It was on our behalf that he came, on our behalf that he suffered, on our behalf that he rose again.



 And when we know that, it is to make us not only reach for him, but desire to reach others for him, to perceive not just the kindness, but the severity of the judgment of God in such a way that we desire not only to be free of the judgment ourselves, but that others would be free as well. But what will so motivate us to reach for him and to reach for others who need him as well?



 The apostle says it in words almost shocking in this passage. He says you have to understand, even as Gentiles, those late to the covenant, the people who are not Jewish by background, you have to recognize God's purpose for you.



 It is after all God's design that you would make other people jealous for Jesus.



 That really is what he is saying. Verse 13, "I'm speaking to you Gentiles, inasmuch as then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. I am pouring it on. I am saying everything I can." Why? "In order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them." We forget our purpose at times, but the apostle Paul is telling us what it was as he reminds us, "I'm magnifying my ministry. I'm pouring on the message of the gospel. I've confessed already that when I looked at myself, I said, what a wretched man that I am, because the wages of sin is death and no one is without sin. Who shall deliver me from this body of death?" The answer, "Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.



 Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers, things present, things to come, height or depth or anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." It's just climactic. It just keeps culminating. I'm pouring on the grace of God.



 So that my people will hear from Gentiles who have received it, peace and pardon and deep profound joy even in a broken and fallen world. Do you recognize that? That God's intention for you in place of work, whether it's difficult or pleasant, in school, whether you're at home with family that are easy or difficult, that God's intention for you in having that deep and profound peace that passes understanding, that joy that will not stop is to make other people jealous for Jesus.



 To see that peace, that joy, that confidence in God's providential hand even in difficult circumstances so that they want to say, "I need what you got.



 Whatever you got, I need some of that."



 And that jealousy is the gospel at work through us for the sake of others. It's how we are reaching for them even as we were reached by our Savior.



 How does it work? I could not help but think about it a few weeks ago watching Kelly Clark, the Olympic snowboarder. She won her first snowboard gold medal in 2002. She was only 18 years old.



 And at the pinnacle of what human success would be, she had a gold medal, she had fame, she had recognition, she had the television spots that would make her financially well off for life. Had everything.



 But was smart enough to know that being at that pinnacle of success at only 18 meant it was going to be very hard for the rest of life to live at that pinnacle. It began to worry her. It began to actually drive her toward depression until in a later competition after the 2002 Olympics, she watched another snowboarder wipe out and then have a friend say to the one who had just done so badly, "It's okay.



 God still loves you."



 Now, I know we almost say, "Well, anybody say that."



 But Kelly Clark's heart was just in a position to hear the significance of those words. You could wipe out. You could have this terrible crash. Life could have gone badly. And God still loves you.



 She said after the competition, she went to her hotel room to find a Bible to find out if that's really what the Bible says, that you could wipe out totally in life and God would still love you. There was no Bible in the hotel room. I don't know. The Gideons weren't working that day or what.



 And so she went to the competitor who had crashed and burned and said, "I think you may be a Christian and you need to tell me about God."



 Now five Olympics later, Kelly Clark continues to be motivated even though she's 34, the old lady of the sport.



 She still goes, still competes.



 To make other people jealous for the gospel.



 Her snowboard now has a sticker every time, "Jesus, I cannot hide my love."



 And she doesn't want to hide it. Does it make any difference?



 Some of you may know the one who won the snowboarding this Olympic was Chloe Kim at age 17.



 But when she talked about her relationship with Kelly Clark, it was phenomenal of saying what had been experienced. What had Kelly done? When Chloe Kim had the gold medal, she grabbed the sleeve of Kelly Clark and drew her near. She said, "I really, really look up to Kelly.



 She's always giving me advice. She's helping me with tricks."



 The tricks on the slope, which you recognize means that she got better than the one who was teaching her and was still in the competition. It was Kelly living for the good of Chloe. And the evidence is when the interviews got tough on the 17-year-old, the 17-year-old said it was actually Kelly who said to me, "If the questions get difficult, I'll help you just pass them to me."



 What was Kelly Clark doing?



 I am here living for another.



 I want you to know peace. I want you to know joy. I want you to know that if you can't handle things, I'm here for you. And the reason I'm here for you is somebody has been here for me. And that is the Lord Jesus. And I trust Him regardless of what comes. He is my vision. He is the one, regardless of difficulty, whether I'm rich, whether I'm poor, whether things go well, then I'll go well.



 Jesus still loves me. I am secure eternally. And for that reason, I am here for you. My job, your job, is to make other people jealous for what's inside of us, which is the security that we have in Jesus Christ come what may.



 That means ultimately it is not just our job to make other people jealous, it's to make them more important than ourselves to actually begin to live in behalf of others. Paul talks about that too. He says, "His goal for the Jews was not merely to make them jealous, but to make them a blessing to others. My job is to live so that you will be a blessing to others." So, verses 15 and 16.



 For if there, that is the Jews' rejection, means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? Now, lots of biblical theology going by here. If the Jews' rejection, remember Paul has said they begin to depend upon their own righteousness rather than the grace of God. And for that reason, God has done a workaround. He's worked around them in order to save the Gentiles and then turn around the hearts of the Jews by jealousy. Now, what's the consequence? If the Jews would actually be reclaimed, verse 16, if the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches. Hey, if the Gentiles can make the Jews jealous so that they come back to God, so that the original starter lump of dough is made holy again, what will be the effect? Those of you who like baking bread, if you have a good starter lump, what happens with the rest? The bread just keeps multiplying. If we can reclaim the roots, says the apostle, then look what kind of fruit will now grow. If you can take that which God is reclaiming and making it even better, how powerful will that be? And so Paul is saying to the Gentiles, your job is to make the Jews jealous for Jesus.



 And you live in such a way that their lives not only turn around, but God's intention for them to be powerful impact upon the nations is your own goal as Gentiles.



 That means you're actually living for somebody else, for a previous generation, a previous group of people, so that God would renew in them what would even make them more fruitful for him.



 I can't avoid the obvious application.



 We are a church that is about to celebrate its 150th anniversary, which means that we have multiple generations here. And sometimes because we are multiple generations in a rapidly changing culture, it's hard for us always to see each other's perspective.



 And so we have to say, what does it mean if the apostle said, "My job is to make someone else jealous for Jesus," so that ultimately that which was first here would become important for future purposes, and that which was later here is actually living for others. It would mean we would stop talking in some ways for and about each other. What do we usually do when we're making important decisions for the church? We make comments like this.



 Well, we can't bring about that change because that will make the new people sad and they'll leave.



 We can't bring about that change because that will make the old people mad.



 And let's stop giving.



 And we begin to make pragmatic decisions on what simply will satisfy one group or another



 instead of saying, "What is our calling?"



 Actually in an age at which there are so many fractured families who are looking for how do we care for one another? How do we stop just being a monogenerational church where everybody just says, "I get my own and you don't have to be bothering me?" If we actually begin to live for one another and believe that there is a certain power in taking that which is selfish and making it selfless, in taking that which may be craggy and crabby and making it soft-hearted and gentle for the gospel, that people begin to say, "The Spirit of God must be in that place." I mean, they're different. They're not like every other place where people are just saying, "Give me my due," that they're actually living for the sake of one another.



 What would that sound like?



 It would sound like a younger generation at some time saying, "You know what? I know this will make my friends happier, but would you please do something for my parents or grandparents' sake?"



 The parents and grandparents perhaps saying, "You know what? We've had our time. Let's make some changes for the young people's sake." And instead of people saying, "Do this for me," they are saying, "Make changes for them."



 And each generation is pointing the other way instead of to themselves.



 Why?



 Because Paul is saying to the new people, to the Gentiles, "If you can work in such a way that those who are long the covenant people of God are turned around with their resources, with that bound, with their knowledge, look how powerful they'll be." Just as he said to the Jews for two chapters, "If you can receive these new people so that the gospel prospers across lines, look how much credibility the gospel will have when all nations hear."



 It's the way in which the gospel is expected to move, and I must tell you, it is really hard.



 And for the reason that it is really hard, the apostle begins to say, "In order for this to happen, I've got to warn everybody about the pride that will keep it from happening." Where is that addressed? Verse 17. Paul says, "But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, Gentiles, though a wild olive shoot, were grafted in and among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches."



 Do you get the image? Here's the olive tree, which was God's cultivated people in the garden from the very beginning. "I will make a covenant with Abraham, and it will be a blessing to the nations. He will be a tree branching out into the nations."



 But the nations, through that influence, ultimately were not hearing the gospel because the roots, the Jewish nation itself, began to trust in its righteousness rather than in Christ Jesus' provision. And so some of those branches were broken off. And God says, "I took a wild olive tree." Wasn't even part of the original trunk. And I began to graft it in. He says to the Gentiles, "You are the grafted in ones."



 But don't get prideful.



 Don't get arrogant. Don't stop remembering who was originally here and your obligation to be a blessing to them because your life is something bigger than you.



 You're to be devoted to something larger than you. It's what the theologians call the "misiodae," the mission of God.



 Now we're about to enter a mission conference in a few weeks, and we typically think about our mission as a church or the mission of our missionaries.



 But we are forgetting that the gospel is like this steel locomotive going through history according to the plans of Scripture where God is saying, "I will make my name known and I will save my people by my grace." And as God is making that message known, He is saying to everybody who gets on that train, this train was moving before you got on, and you are part of something much bigger than you can imagine.



 It happens in families, of course. I think of my wife, Kathy, who loves the ancestry.com things, but one of the reasons she loves that is because she keeps gathering family histories. And one of the ones that we gathered up some years ago was how her grandfather became a pastor, little farm boy in Iowa, no means, no availability. And then there was this pastor of this little church. Some of you know these little churches in our little one-room church. You know, if you get everybody in there, there might be a hundred people who could fit in. And Reverend Wattermüller, the Germans here can correct me on pronunciation later, Reverend Wattermüller took his own monies to pay for the tuition of this farm boy to get him to go to seminary, to get him to be a preacher, to ultimately come to Alton, Illinois to raise a family that I married into and can tell you the gospel.



 What were the events? God says, "I was planning this long before you got on the scene. I was working long before you. I was putting things together. I so rejoice when we celebrate communion afterwards, we sing the doxology. And I recognize when we sing those words, we are saying words of praise to God that Christians have sung for centuries and across many nations as we are basically saying, "It's not just us. We are part of something grand. We are part of some wonderful, big plan of God so that we don't just take pride in, you've got to take care of me." No, I'm participating in something that God has done from eternity past and intends for the eternity of many more people. We are just on the train, and that means we are to recognize we don't take pride in what we do, but recognize that we are always dependent on God's grace received by faith alone. Verses 19 and 20, "Then you, Gentiles, will say, well, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in."



 That's true.



 They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast because of faith.



 So do not become proud, but fear.



 Why are you here?



 New or old? Not what you did, not what you accomplished, not your resources, not your background? No. The only reason you can be a part of the family of God is because of God's grace, which you receive by faith alone.



 The Jews are not going to be right before God because they were of the right ethnicity. You are not going to be right before God because you did good stuff. The only thing that will make you right before God is trust and the provision of Jesus Christ. And that means if you don't believe that, you're in as much danger as any other person.



 The verses that we don't even like to read, verses 21 and 22, "For if God did not spare the natural branches," that means the Jews, "neither will he spare you.



 Note then the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward those who have fallen, but kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off." It's this amazing warning against pride. You begin to say that you have promotion power in the church, that you need to be served, that everything needs to be about you, that you're the God of the church.



 You are in danger.



 But the severity of God who begin to make their accomplishments, their activities, themselves the focus of their faith, rather than saying, "I have total faith in what God has done. My hope is only in His provision. I am living for His sake."



 So here's this warning. It's the kindness of God is meant to draw you. Kevin quoted it earlier today when he was giving the hymns that we were singing. It is the kindness of God that leads to repentance. I recognize how open His arms, how wide His grace, but to turn away from that is to be in danger, not just for you, but for those who are meant to hear the gospel through you



 and are not hearing it because you become self-oriented.



 We were shocked this past week to hear some of the allegations toward at least one and maybe more first responders at the latest Florida shooting that despite the fact that since Columbine first responders have been taught to go toward the danger, to go toward the shooter, that allegedly, and I know there are conflicting accounts now, but what shocked us was allegedly somebody took a place of safety for himself rather than the place of saving others.



 And the apostle with unfeigned rigor is saying here, "And what makes you think that when it is your hand and your power to help others know the gospel and you are not going toward the danger that there will not be severity of God toward you?" After all, what that ultimately means is you're not trusting God anymore.



 It's just self-protection, self-promotion, selfishness that is motivating you. And that, says the apostle, is going to put you in spiritual danger. We are to be living for one another so that the church is strengthened for its ministry so that ultimately God's grace is known to those far and wide touched by our ministries.



 We probably won't believe that or act upon it unless we have strong reminders of how powerful is God's promise to save those who put their trust in Him. So we will trust that and that alone and make it our purpose. And so the apostle mentions two things that are absolutely vital to motivate us beyond personal pride or self-promotion. He begins to talk about an irrepressible promise of God. Verse 24, "If you, Gentiles, 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?" I know it sounds strange, but it's just the modern science of gardening in ancient record. The apostle recognizes what? That that which is compatible with the original tree is most easy to graft. So he says, "Some of you Gentiles, you were the wild olive tree that's been grafted in to the original. But recognize that the original tree with original olive trees is going to be grafted in much easier. Why do you need to know that?" Verse 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." Now again, just a world of biblical theology being put into a little verse. What is the fullness of the Gentiles? From the very beginning, Abraham, you will be a father of many nations. God's intention is to spread the covenant with Israel far and wide as others would trust in the God of Abraham. That's the fullness of the Gentiles. And the apostle Paul will say it over and over again that Jesus is the fullness of him who fills everything in every way so that ultimately Christ will be all in all, that all nations will recognize the knowledge of Christ will cover the earth as waters cover the sea. That's the plan.



 But there's been a hardening, at least a partial hardening of the Jews. So this irrepessible promise, it's going forward. God is reaching the nations, even through Paul. The Gentiles are now hearing. We are now hearing, though not originally Jews.



 But that's not the end.



 The apostle goes on to talk about not only the grace being evident in this irrepressible promise but an irrevocable gift. What has God done? The hardening of the Jews was only partial.



 Earlier in the same chapter, verse 5, he's talked about there is a remnant of the Jews that God will be maintaining. Why is he doing that? Because he made a promise to Abraham. I will be a God to you and to your children. And God is not going to go back on his promise. Verse 26, "In this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob," that is the Jews, "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." As regards the gospel, the good news in Jesus, the Jews right now, they are enemies for your sake.



 But as regards election, God's eternal plan, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.



 God made a gift. He said to Abraham and his people, "I will be your God, you will be my people." And that gift is being identified as irrevocable. God has never totally abandoned his people and he will not. Now I have to tell you this, why do we talk so much about it in these evangelical Christian circles? Why do we talk so much about the Jewish people and our responsibilities to care for those who are ethnic Israel when we recognize we have been adopted by faith into the same covenant? The reason is we believe profoundly God is not turning his back on the people to whom he made a promise, which is irrevocable.



 What difference does it make?



 The difference it makes is that God is making this great object lesson of the people of Israel for all of history to see and all nations to see.



 You can turn your back on me and I will not turn my back on you.



 I will save my people. As long as they turn back to me, I will always be waiting for them. I will graft them back in. That is my plan and purpose. The book of Hosea, whom the Apostle Paul quotes as much as he quotes anybody, we hardly ever turn to it in the Old Testament because it's such a sordid story of a prophet in the Old Testament. The prophet Hosea is told by God to take Gomer who is a prostitute and to make Gomer his wife.



 Hosea obeys. He takes the prostitute and makes her his wife.



 But because of the patterns to which she has become accustomed, she again goes out after other men.



 And then God's commandment to Hosea is this.



 Take her back again.



 For such is the love of God for Israel.



 Here is this amazing object lesson going across centuries, going across millennia. God is saying, "Though they walk away from me, I will not walk away from them." Why do you and I need to know that? So that when we have a child who has walked away from the faith, when we recognize we have been in the far country, when we recognize there are people that we work with and love or go to school with and we think there's no way God could claim them, we begin to say, "But look at Israel."



 As much as they had done in wickedness and rebellion, as long as they turned back to God, he would receive them. What is the message? We would often quote the minor prophets of the Old Testament so much, but listen to what God says about himself through this Hosea.



 Out of Egypt says God, "I called my child Israel."



 The more they were called, the more they went away. Sound like any children you know? The more you call, the more they go away.



 So how did God respond to that? He says, "I taught them to walk.



 I took them up in my arms. I held them with cords of kindness. I bent down to them and fed them. Yet my people, my children, are bent on turning away from me.



 My heart recoils within me, but how can I give you up, my child? My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. For I am God and not a man. And I will not come in wrath.



 But my children will come trembling from the west, like birds from the south, like doves from the north. They will come back to me, and I will return them to their home."



 I know they're poetic words, but as you see the birds begin to fly again this season, you think, there's God saying like the birds returning, trembling, flying, not having your God say, "I will receive you."



 The message is meant to empower us when we need the kindness of God to call us back again.



 I don't know if many of you watched the Billy Graham funeral.



 To me the most telling moment was when the third daughter of Billy Graham, Ruth, told her story.



 She talked about how she'd been married for several years, had several children, and the man to whom she was married was unfaithful.



 So she divorced him.



 On the rebound, married someone else. She said when she called her mother and father about marrying this new man, they said, "Could you please wait and let us meet him and find out something about him?" She said, "What did my father and mother know about what it meant to be a single mom with children to take care of? They weren't going to be able to help me." So she married another man.



 And she said within 24 hours she knew it was a mistake and that she would have to divorce him too.



 She said, "How would you speak to Billy Graham, your father, about a second divorce?"



 She drove, she said, from her home to the Billy Graham home in the mountains of North Carolina. She said it was several hours all the time. Think of the little birds trembling, trembling. What am I going to say? What's he going to do? What will he say? Will he say, "I'm done with fooling about you.



 You've embarrassed me too often."



 She said, "No woman wants to embarrass her father and you surely don't want to embarrass Billy Graham if he's your father."



 And so she said as I drove up that long drive up the mountain to where the Billy Graham home is, she said, "It's a long winding drive, all the while trembling. What will I say? What will he say?"



 But she said as she rounded the last ban of the drive, she saw her father standing in the driveway.



 And when she got out of the car, he wrapped his arm around her and said, "Welcome home."



 She said, "My daddy's not God, but that day he represented my God.



 He knew the worst about me, the embarrassment and the pain that I had caused, and he still said welcome home.



 What do you and I believe is our job? It is first to believe that regardless of the pain and the difficulty and the sin in our lives that our God through Jesus Christ has held his arms out wide and said, "Welcome home."



 And for the people that surround us at school and at work and in our own homes, our own children sometimes who have wandered far, what is our job?



 It is to say when they come round again.



 It's to say when they think there is no way we would receive them, no way that God would forgive them, that our arms of love surround them and we say, "Welcome home."



 This is the gospel in Jesus' name. Amen.



 Father so work in our hearts, for there are some of us who need to hear the welcome again,



 and there are some of us who need to say the welcome again.



 If there are those who need to hear it this day, Father, I would ask that you would work in our hearts that all who would say, "I need somebody to forgive me.



 I need somebody to walk with me again.



 I need a church to apologize for the way that it treated me or my family or my hurt."



 Father make us such a church, such a people, such parents, such friends that we would be able to say welcome home because you said it to us.



 Bring Jesus into our hearts.



 Help us to know that He's already embraced us in His.



 Give us great peace because we've heard this great message from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our Savior Jesus Christ.



 What does He say? He says, "Welcome home."



 Thank you, dear Jesus. We pray in your name. Amen.