Israel’s Loss Is Gentiles’ Gain

Scripture Texts: Romans 11:11-24

Introduction.

It is interesting to consider God has ordained that we are thinking about Romans 11 and the relationship between Jews and Christians at this time in our history, at a time when there is a rise in anti-Semitism.  Keep that thought in the back of your mind as we work through our text.

I am sure you are aware Paul is being repetitiously repetitive in chapters 9-11.  Why do you think Paul is saying these things over and over again?  The first answer is the Holy Spirit inspired him to write these things over and over again.  OK, so why did the Spirit do that?

In chapter 11 of Romans Paul is wrestling with two great issues in the early church that were a big deal and a hard truth to grasp.

The scandal of the Jews absence from the church, the scandal of the Jews rejection of the Gospel, and God’s rejection of God’s people after two thousand years.

And the scandal of the presence of the Gentiles in the church.  The cutting off of the Jews and the grafting in of the Gentiles.

The great tension in the early church was racism.  The Church was divided, between Jews and Gentiles.  The first and biggest controversy facing the early church after Pentecost was what to do with the Gentiles.  The first big synod meeting of the early church was about what to do with Gentile converts to Christianity.  The early church had an immigration problem and it was racial.

The Jews hated Gentiles, they couldn’t stand them.  They were filthy, dirty, smelly, unclean.  They referred to them with a derogatory word, the uncircumcised.  They ate unclean food, their temples were filled with sexual immorality, they sacrifice their children (sort of first century abortion).  The early Jewish Christians said the only way a Gentile could become a Christian was to become circumcised and to follow Jewish laws and practices.

But as the church grew and spread, the next scandal was what to make of the absence of the Jews from the church, especially in the church in Rome.  The Gentiles were worshipping a Jewish Messiah, so where were the Jews?  Why weren’t they coming to church?  Paul has to explain this to the church in Rome.  The answer has two parts.

First, the Jews rejected Jesus.  They denied that Jesus was the Messiah and they killed Him.

One of the scariest verses in the Bible is when the Jews were demanding Pilate crucify Jesus, even though Pilate found Him innocent.  So Pilate called for a basin of water and

Matthew 27:24-25 He took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

His blood be on us and on our children!  They called down damnation on themselves and their children, on future generations.  Do we not tremble over those words?  They killed the Son of God, a shocking, earth shattering sin.