God has not rejected His people

Thank you, Randy. And it's an honor to be able to speak to you for a few minutes this afternoon. Last year, there's a conference here in Ottawa in May. Uh we called it the Israel Conference, and it was designed at uh encouraging allyship between the church, between the gentile church and Jewish communities, Jewish people. And during that...

Transcript

Thank you, Randy. And it's an honor to be able to speak to you for a few minutes this afternoon. Last year, there's a conference here in Ottawa in May. Uh we called it the Israel Conference, and it was designed at uh encouraging allyship between the church, between the gentile church and Jewish communities, Jewish people. And during that conference, retired General Ed Fitch, I don't know if he's come for this event, but um he said something that that struck me. He he mentioned how whenever there's a any kind of topic that's that's under debate usually have 10% of the people who are strongly set against the issue, 10% who are very strongly for that issue and 80% in the

middle that aren't really sure what they think or not nearly as as strongly move towards one side or the other. And he said something to the effect of I'm giving giving the rest of my life to reach that 80%. with the cause of Israel. And that that struck me because being a local church pastor myself, I pastor in Niagara Falls, I know that there are many in the church who, you know, there's, let's call it 10%, it's not an exact number, but there's 10% who are strongly for Israel. I believe many of you are here today would would fit in that category. And there's a 10% who would speak strongly against perhaps the Jewish people. But then there's 80% in the middle who aren't really sure what

to think. And my heart is to reach many in that group. And so what I want to share today is hopefully something that would help you in dealing with friends of yours in the church. Uh for for Christians who are here today, friends in the church who don't really know what to think about it and are are kind of unsure what to think about the Jewish people today. This is something that's kind of come to light for me in the last couple years from the New Testament that's really been helpful. And so where that comes from is the the book of Romans. And we we know the book of Romans is widely celebrated in the church for being Paul's most thorough unpacking of a lot of key and core

doctrines of our faith. But something that's very interesting about the book of Romans that I rarely heard mentioned is the context in which Paul wrote the letter. Most of his epistles he wrote to churches that he had established or had visited himself. When you read Romans, he's pretty clear that he'd never visited them to that point. He didn't know them personally. And it's interesting that he wrote to that city that he hadn't visited before, but he didn't write to any others that we know of. So, what was going on that so compelled him that he needed to write into that situation? And I'm not sure if you realize this, but in we see a hint of this in Acts 18, but something

happened in the Roman Empire in 9 AD. The emperor Claudius expelled all the Jewish people from the city of Rome, forced them to leave the city and uh for five years they were kicked out of the city and when Claudia passed away that edict was lifted and and many Jewish people returned back to Rome. And what happened in the church in the city of Rome where there had been Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua is that that church became suddenly 100% gentile overnight in 49 AD. And 5 years later, you had their their Jewish brothers and sister move sisters moving back into the city. And what happened was they were having trouble reintegrating. And as we read through the book of Romans, it

looks like the Gentiles weren't really making it easy for them to come back in. And so Paul writes this letter, and it's funny when you read through the letter, usually it's these first eight chapters, lots of thick doctrine, and then the last eight chapters, lots of practical advice on how to how to relate to each other, how to get along, things like that. But when you read through those first eight chapters, it's clear that Paul is laying a groundwork to address the schism between Gentiles and Jews in the church there. And I think it's really important to note that many of these doctrines that are, you know, we look to Romans for on things like being justified by faith.

And often we fail fail to realize that he does so talking about Abraham, you know, the the father of the faith. He does it to highlight how it's not just in the New Testament. This is a thing. He said this has always been the case. Abraham is the is the prime example of this. And he goes on and talks about a few more things. We also know from you know Romans 9 and 10 there's this whole celebrated doctrine of or often debated topic of the election and predestination of God. And you know many circles in the church you know go back and forth over this. And it's something that gets a lot of emphasis. But what we rarely hear is that Paul is saying, he's talking about

it in the context of God chose Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He chose them. He chose their lineage. He predestined that they would be his chosen people. We we kind of in the church for many many years, we've kind of left that detail out of the conversation. And it's and yet it's the very point Paul was making. And so what I want to draw in is as as he finishes those eight chapters kind of unpacking so much, it seems like he turns on a dime and kind of okay, so what about what and he starts addressing this schism that was that was there in that in that church in Rome. And what's important about this is it's Paul's most thorough dealing with this with this question of Gentiles and Jews. And how

should we as Gentiles see and understand this whole question? And this is what I want to touch on because for the better part of these past 2,000 years, I think the church has got this very wrong. And this is the part that I think a lot of Christians are just completely unaware of how we've how we've heard, how we've been taught to understand who we are in our faith. And I think this is an important thing for us to get today. And so what I want to leave you with is just from those three chapters, Paul makes a series of conclusions at the end. And what I want to say is these are three conclusions that if you're speaking with friends or even for yourself, if you're

just if this is kind of new and you haven't thought through this before, these three conclusions, if they're not reflected in your theology as you understand the Jewish people, then your theology on this is incomplete. It's Paul's most thorough dealing with the question. And many times there are other verses are interpreted in such a way that ignore these conclusions. And so again, in conversation with friends, with other believers, if these things are missing, my heart is that we'd be able to bring some of these people on along few inches at a time. What about this? What about this? So the first thing I would say is number one, Paul's conclusion, verse two in in Romans 11,

he says it's one of the most clearly definitive statements in the New Testament. He says, "God has not rejected his people whom he forneew." There's no there's room for debate there. He's very very clear about this. He has not rejected his people whom he forneew. And there are many Christians today who would point to other verses in the New Testament and say it looks like God has moved on from them. This is a clear statement. He has not rejected his people whom he forneew. If if you hear someone make a statement contrary to that, this is a gentle reminder. But what about this? There's no room for movement on that. Second one I would say is that Paul says in Romans 11 that we

Gentiles are not to be arrogant towards our Jewish brothers and sisters. Not to be arrogant but to realize anything we have of this faith has come to us through the Jewish people and their faith and their religion. It's come to us through that olive tree. We have no right to be arrogant towards the Jewish people. And there are many Christians today who have a very arrogant maybe not aggressively so but an arrogant posture towards the Jewish people believing that we have the fullness of truth. Right? I would say that is incorrect. Paul says the proper posture is not to be arrogant towards them but to be humble would be the opposite. And later in the chapter

saying actually our posture is to extend mercy. It's not to stand back in arrogance. It's to extend mercy. So that's the second one. And if a friend's theology on the Jews is has this arrogance to it, actually Paul says no, don't be arrogant. Extend mercy. And the third thing I would highlight is that Paul says we are not to be ignorant of the fact that God has not rejected his people whom he forneew. We are not to be ignorant of that. And many Christians today are ignorant of that idea. Many Christians today just don't believe it matters anymore. But I would finish with this. And and Tim, I'll get you to start coming up now. my friend Tim and finish this off. But uh there's a verse from

1st Samuel 15:29 where Samuel makes this beautiful statement. He says, "It is not a man that he should lie or change his mind." And I want to say this, part of what Tim's going to be sharing is some of the passages from the Old Testament that a few that that indicate God's heart, his passion, his passionate love for the Jewish people. He wasn't lying when he said those things. He wasn't misleading them when he made those statements. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. And he's not a man that he should change his mind. He has not rejected his people whom he forneew. And what I want to just leave you with is this thing of we have so many Christian brothers and sisters who are

ignorant on God's heart for Israel, perhaps arrogant towards the Jewish people and thinking that God has moved on from them. And I just want to clearly say from Paul's most thorough dealing with the question, he has not rejected them. We are not to be arrogant towards them. were not to be ignorant of his heart for them. Tim, why don't you come and finish up?