Download Romans Series: Big June 21, 2015 Message Three: Big Plan

Romans
Series: Big
June 21, 2015
Message Three:
Big Plan
Romans 11:25-36
Intro: Father’s Day – Guys, have you ever come up with a plan - a plan
of action – a plan of attack. There is a job that needs getting done
around the house and you’ve got a plan to get it done! You were going to
proceed in a certain way to get a job done – to accomplish a goal – and
at some point your wife or kids saw and heard the plan – and they
weren’t as convinced as you that it was going to work! You’ve been
questioned! “How is this going to work?” How can they challenge us?
They can challenge me because of my track record!
Sometimes we think we have a great plan, but others are not sure it is
going to work! Maybe we need to be open to approaching the situation
in a different way!
VIDEO
God our Father has a plan! Our Heavenly Father has always had a plan!
God created people to have a relationship with Him! He wants to be the
Father of all! Throughout the centuries of time, people have not
understood the plan. They have tried to work the plan their own way. It
has created all kinds of messes for humankind. All the while, God
continues to work His plan and He will have a people with whom He will
have a relationship for all eternity!
The first eight chapters of Romans discuss how the plan is now by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ and His work alone.
Romans 1:16-17 – For I am not ashamed of this Good News about
Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—
the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God
makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by
faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person
has life.”
The Jewish believers could continue to practice whatever Jewish rituals
were meaningful to them, but they were not necessary for salvation and
it was not required that any Gentile Christian had to participate in any
Jewish ritual in order to be in a right relationship with God.
In the middle of this letter, chapters nine through eleven, Paul explains
that even though it may appear the plan has changed, and most Jewish
people are not understanding the change in how the plan works, and
many of the Jewish people are missing out on a true relationship with
God, this does not mean that God has rejected the Jewish people at all!
They are still part of His plan – a key part!
In the last section, Paul helped his readers see this plan as a “BIG
PICTURE!”
 God has not rejected Israel
 Israel as a whole has not received God’s grace
 There is still a plan for Israel
 Non-Jews are key to the plan for Israel
 Non-Jews need to understand the plan
 Everyone needs to understand God’s character
Paul now completes this middle section of the letter by assuring them of
this:
Big Idea: If God has a plan for humankind – that plan is
going to work – regardless of who rejects it or who
receives it!
T.S.: In our homes and families, fathers are key to this plan. We see
evidence over and over again of the importance of fathers – their
leadership – their influence – and how every son and daughter longs for
the leadership and relationship and love that a father provides.
This passage gives us 3 Assurances about the certainty of our Heavenly
Father’s plan for all mankind – Dad’s – hear this – you are leaders in this:
1. Rejection will not hinder God’s plan
Romans 11:25 - I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers
and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves…
Sometimes my wife questions me … that doesn’t stop me …
Although, I must admit, my plans are not always as good as God’s!
The mystery is the mystery of God’s awesome plan of salvation! He
doesn’t want the mystery to be mysterious! He doesn’t want it to be hard
to grasp!
It seems like a mystery because so many are misunderstanding it!
When God was working through the Jewish people, the descendants of
Abraham, His desire was to bless them all so that others nations would
want the blessings that come from a relationship with Him! They did not
understand it, they were filled with pride thinking their status as “special
people” meant they were the only ones God desired to bless!
So, now that the majority of the Jewish people have rejected faith in the
sacrifice of Christ as the means of having a relationship with Him,
Gentiles are beginning to fall into the same prideful mistake! They
mistakenly believe that they are “special people” and the Jews are
somehow “rejected”. That’s not the plan!
Think of God’s plans –
Adam & Eve – The beginning of the human race that God wanted to
bless – it was messed up by disobedience.
Noah – God found a man of faith and wiped out the rest of the earth and
entrusted the future of mankind to his legacy. Because of the nature of
sin that came with Adam’s disobedience (discussed in Romans chapter
five), the whole of the human race fell out of a relationship with God
again.
Abraham – God is going to choose this faithful man to bless him, bless
his family, and start a nation that He will bless as a witness to all the
nations of the kind of relationship He wants to have with people
The Jewish nation – God blessed them. But, eventually, they rejected
Him and began to worship other fake gods.
Now – the Gentiles – God sent Jesus Christ. With the Jews rejection of
Jesus, God is using the Gentiles to try to do the same thing that He
wanted to do with the Jews for years. He wants to have a great
relationship with people. He wants to bless people! He wants others to
see the great life that He has and live the full, complete, blessed life that
He originally intended for mankind!
It’s only a mystery because people are having trouble getting it – but
Paul is explaining the mystery clearly! However, it seems that every
group that God blessed gets prideful because of those blessings!
It is the same with denominations … it is the same with churches … all
the radio ads in Lakeland …
But – God is not finished with the Jewish people! They are not written
off! They are not condemned to eternally have no place in God’s
kingdom!
Romans 11:25 - …Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but
this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.
Moses saw the beginning of this and shared it in his final prophetic
message to the nation Deuteronomy 32:20-21 - He said, ‘I will abandon them; then see what
becomes of them. For they are a twisted generation, children without
integrity. They have roused my jealousy by worshiping things that are not
God; they have provoked my anger with their useless idols. Now I will
rouse their jealousy through people who are not even a people; I will
provoke their anger through the foolish Gentiles.
When Jesus was asked about the end of time, part of His response
included a statement about “the period of the Gentiles.”
Luke 21:24 - They will be killed by the sword or sent away as captives to
all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the
Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end.
We are still in that portion of the working of God’s plan – but that does
not mean He has “written off” the Jewish people. Look at Paul’s clear
statement:
Romans 11:26-27 - And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say,
“The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel
away from ungodliness. And this is my covenant with them, that I will
take away their sins.”
How can anyone make that say anything other than what it says?
Paul is quoting from the prophecy of Isaiah. Look also at what God said
through the prophet Zechariah that He will do:
Zechariah 12:7-10 - The LORD will give victory to the rest of Judah first,
before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of
David will not have greater honor than the rest of Judah. On that day the
LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will
be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God,
like the angel of the LORD who goes before them! For on that day I will
begin to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of
David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they
have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve
bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.
God still has this plan! The Jewish people will realize that they rejected
Jesus as the Messiah, and after suffering at the hands of their worst
persecutor of all, they will mourn for their rejection – and they will receive
Jesus as their Messiah at His second coming to this earth!
This is God’s plan for all – Dad: don’t reject God’s plan for you – don’t
reject God’s plan for your family!
2. Rebellion does not alter God’s plan
Sometimes as Dad’s we have to deal with rebellious children … God
certainly understands that -
Many of the Israelites are now in rebellion
Romans 11:28 - Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the
Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people
he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
His promises to them are still good – because He made them! Because
of His relationship with them – He will be faithful – even when we are
“faithless” – this promise is for us as well!
2nd Timothy 2:13 (NIV) - if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he
cannot disown himself.
Romans 11:29 - For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.
Some have tried to apply this Scripture to situations where pastors, or
evangelists, or missionaries fall into sin which calls for discipline and
removal from positions of leadership and full-time ministry. They try to
use this Scripture as a basis for rejecting godly Scriptural discipline and
protection of the Body of Christ from unscrupulous people. This Scripture
is not talking about that. This is talking specifically about His promise to
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Israel …
Ezekiel 37:25-28 – “They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob,
the land where their ancestors lived. They and their children and their
grandchildren after them will live there forever, generation after
generation. And my servant David will be their prince forever. And I will
make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I will give
them their land and increase their numbers, and I will put my Temple
among them forever. I will make my home among them. I will be their
God, and they will be my people. And when my Temple is among them
forever, the nations will know that I am the LORD, who makes Israel
holy.”
But, it won’t be the Jewish people alone – Jew and Gentile together – all
who are in relationship with God through Jesus Christ – will be in
relationship with Him forever!
Daniel 7:18 – “But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be
given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever.”
So, even though most of the Jewish people are in rebellion now to God’s
plan, it does not alter God’s plan and eventually God will keep His
promises to this line of people and as a whole they will be brought back
into a relationship with God – and through Jesus Christ!
-
As a whole, the Gentiles were in rebellion
Romans 11:30-31 - Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God, but
when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you
instead. Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you so
that they, too, will share in God’s mercy.
This is how it was in the Old Covenant. Now, the shoe is on the other
foot!
-
God uses the rebellion and the punishment in order to bring
mercy
Romans 11:32 - For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so
he could have mercy on everyone.
He is going to work His plan! No one nor nothing is going to stop Him!
He is using even our rebellion and disobedience and the rebellion and
disobedience of others to cause us to see and long for His goodness!
He will have “a people!”
Psalm 102:18 – Let this be recorded for future generations, that a people
not yet born will praise the LORD.
1st Peter 2:10 – “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are
God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received
God’s mercy.”
Dad: don’t let rebellion keep you from staying focused on God’s plan –
He wants you and all your household to be a part of His great plan!
Don’t give up! Keep believing! Make sure you are in the plan yourself!
3. The plan of God is awesome!
Romans 11:33-36 - Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and
knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and
his ways! For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough
to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to
pay it back?
For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is
intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.
Paul concludes this awesome section of such a powerful letter quoting
Isaiah 40 and Job 41
God is the Source of everything! He desires to give great riches, wisdom
and knowledge to people – to us!! We may not be able to completely
understand everything – but we can understand this aspect of God’s plan
that Paul is explaining to us. God was using the Jews as a living
illustration to show His desire to bless all people, including the Gentiles.
Now, God is using the Gentiles as a living illustration to show His desire
to bless all people, including the Jews! It is all designed for His glory! It
is all designed because He has a never-ending desire to be in
relationship with people – to the point of sacrificing Jesus Christ on the
cross – and He will continue to work His plan and His plan will work –
and He will have a people in relationship with Him made up of both Jews
and Gentiles – FOREVER!
Concl: First – Dad’s – are you in the plan?
Is your family in the plan? Are you leading your family in the plan?
Has there been rejection? Rebellion? Don’t give up – God is not giving
up on Israel – the plan of God is awesome!
These message notes are the intellectual property of Randy
Blankenship and are intended for the reader’s personal use only.
For any other use please contact Randy Blankenship at
[email protected]