Opening Prayer
Last Week
What was valuable, or what stuck with you from last week?
Romans 11:11-12
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, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 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!
This is the same spirit at John 9
Romans 11:13-16
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I
am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in
order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of
them. 15 For if their rejection means the
reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the
dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is
holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Who deserves to be part of God’s kingdom? Gentiles? Jews?
What attitudes might this passage encourage in us?
The ministry of Jews for Jesus and Apple of His
Eye.
Messianic
Jews
Acts 1:8
Romans 11:17-24
17 Now if some of the branches were
broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and
have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do
not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do
not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. 19 Then
you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted
in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because
of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, 21 because
if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 Therefore,
consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but
God’s kindness toward you—if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise
you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they
do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power
to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off
from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a
cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted
into their own olive tree?
Grafting – an image for inclusion into the body of Christ.
John 15:1-8
Abide!
Who is the root?
Wild vs. Cultivated
Humility – a major theme.
The tension
between Jews and Gentiles is a regular theme in Paul’s letters.
Speaks
to the current tension between people of different ethnic groups.
Kindness and severity
How much of
our life do we consider as results of God’s kindness?
Once saved always saved?
v. 23 – what is Paul’s hope for the Jews?
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