(# 362) Romans 11 - Let’s Be as Faithful as Moms to Our Jewish Friends

Class Outline:

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Welcome To

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Let’s Be as Faithful as Moms to Our Jewish Friends

 

Happy Mother’s Day!  We begin the lesson with a tribute to mothers.  I had an excellent mother.
 

My childhood could never be described as normal.  A person asked me last week, “Why do you have such a serious look on your face?”  I don’t ever really remember a time when I wasn’t serious.  I learned to be serious from my Mom.  The seriousness manifested itself as an intense scrutiny of everything around me…a skill described by many as “street smarts.”  One of the ones under my constant observation was my Mother.

 

She was born Dorothy Marie Beatty on June 28, 1918…a woman I knew as Dorothy Spann Clark…she kept the last name of her two husbands.  Her friends called her “Dot.”  Her license plate was DSC and her social security number was 328-18-6886.  I knew everything about my mom.

 

My relationship with my Mom here on earth was a forty-three year relationship that lasted from April 13, 1955 to September 24, 1998.

Since I’m not my Mom, I don’t know if I can ever adequately know what it was like to be my Mom.  But I know that raising four kids under the age of eleven, alone, with two divorces under your belt, isn’t easy for anyone.  She was a college graduate.  She graduated from Tennessee State University in 1941.  She majored in home economics.  She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.  She was raped twice.  She was mugged and beaten.  Her mom died at age 31 in childbirth…so she was raised by her mother’s sister. 

 

As I was thinking about her today, I remember my first thirty days of high school at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, Illinois.  I was a fish out of water at the best school in the city.  I was there at the suggestion of my eighth grade teacher, Sister John Mary.  I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into.  The Chicago Public School System had not prepared me adequately for St. Ignatius.  Nor had the studiousness required to be excellent in the Chicago Public Schools prepared me for the onslaught of learning the St. Ignatius faculty would demand…and immediately.

 

I wasn’t tough as a child.  In fact, I came to think at one point that “sissy” was my middle name because I was called it so often.  What my peers were saying is that I was “soft.”  I couldn’t fight.  I didn’t want to fight.  I was picked on, bullied and beaten up regularly.  I would cry at the drop of a hat about virtually anything…a characteristic that irritated my Mom to no end.  She was not emotionally demonstrative.  She was an excellent fighter.  She was the bully as a kid.

 

For the first thirty days at St. Ignatius, I found myself crying after school every day.  The environment was hard.  The workload was hard.  The reading demands were hard.  The subjects were hard.  The adjustment to being in a school with the smartest kids in the City of Chicago was hard.  Maybe it contributed to my seriousness.  Beowulf.  Unrequited love.  William Carlos Williams…To the Virgins to Make Much of Time… Latin…Algebra…racism… Lithuanians… Ukrainians…JUG (an afterschool detention program that demanded my attendance Day 1 for being what one teacher called, “a smartass.”  The overwhelm was so complete in the first thirty days that tears were the only thing I could muster to cope.  My Mom looked on every day at my crying, helpless to help.

 

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.  I remember that October day in 1972 as if it were yesterday.  It was a matter of fact, informal talk as we prepared for dinner.  I was crying and complaining for the thirtieth straight day, and Mom had enough.  “You know Joey…maybe you just can’t compete with those kids.  Maybe you ought to go to that school down the street…De La Salle.  I’ve been talking to some people and they say it’s a lot easier.  Maybe you ought to go there.  Sometimes we have to admit that we just don’t have what it takes to compete.”

 

I looked at her as if she were a Martian.  “What did you say?  What do you mean I can’t compete?  You think I can’t compete?”  She didn’t answer.  We never discussed the subject again.  I graduated from St. Ignatius with honors.  Among my accomplishments were a 99 in Latin in my junior year…the highest grade you can get in a class at St. Ignatius.  I took Koine Greek for two years…I can read and write in the Greek language.  I became a member of the “It’s Academic” team…an academic television show competition between Chicago high schools.  I lettered in track and in soccer.  I paid my own way through high school.  I went on to Northwestern, one of the best universities in the world on an academic scholarship.  I lettered in basketball.  My mom’s response to each accomplishment was a non-emotional, “That’s nice…”

 

I never really considered what those thirty days must have been like for my Mom, watching me drowning in my tears…not really knowing what to do for me or how to help.  She’d smile at this story.  She’d be amazed that an informal comment put my life on a different trajectory.  She didn’t know how to help, but she knew me.  She laid down a challenge she knew I’d respond to.  The mothers I admire are the ones who know their kids and who are willing to do whatever it takes to save them.  Today, we call this tough love.  I just call it love.  I loved my Mom.  And my Mom loved me.  It’s a privilege to take a moment to remember her today.  I hope you’ll take time to remember your Mom…whatever she was like…and to honor her with a phone call today.  Just for today, really think about what it must have been like for your Mom raising you, and honor the best in her with a thank you…either out loud to her or through prayer to our almighty Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on her behalf.  Happy Mother’s Day!

 

Welcome to a place where you can learn to honor your mother so that it may go well with you, and so that your days may be prolonged by God on the earth.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

SONG FOR MAMA

Boys2Men

 

Let’s listen to Boys2Men sing SONG FOR MAMA…as you call your relationship with your Mom into remembrance!

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Father, thank you for giving us women who care about us as much as You do…and even though these women you gave us as Mom’s were quite imperfect, thank you for supporting them to do the best they could even when their best wasn’t good enough…for there is something to be said for hanging in there for fifteen to twenty years with another person…

 

Give Your special blessings to all Mothers today…extend their lives…let them know that they are appreciated in a way only You can get that across…

 

We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...

Amen.

 

A few announcements…

 

BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

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June 25, 2017

 

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July 2, 2017

 

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Sandy Saloum

May 17, 2017

 

Looking forward to seeing you again at the Coeur d’Alene Conference

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

William Goodall

May 18, 2017

 

Is he three already?  Wow!

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Let’s Be as Faithful as Moms to Our Jewish Friends

 

We’re finishing up our study of the third passage in Romans, Chapter 11…Verses 11 to 24…let’s listen to it…

 

PASSAGE 3

 

ROMANS 11:11

I (Paul) say then, Israel and The Jewish Race did not stumble so as to fall,

did they? May it never be! But by their transgression (the hardening God allowed when they turned their backs on their Jewish Messiah…the Christ), salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race jealous.

 

ROMANS 11:12

Now if the transgression of Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race is riches for the world…and it is…and if their failure is riches for the Gentiles…and it is…how much more will their fulfillment be (when they turn back to Christ?)!

ROMANS 11:13

But I (Paul) am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry…

 

ROMANS 11:14

…if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen (my kinsmen

according to the flesh) and save some of them (through preaching the gospel message).

 

ROMANS 11:15

For if their rejection of their Messiah is the reconciliation of the world… what will their acceptance of their Messiah be but the resurrection life from the dead?

 

ROMANS 11:16

If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also…and if the root is holy, the branches are too.

 

ROMANS 11:17

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you (the Gentiles), being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree…

 

ROMANS 11:18

…do not be arrogant toward the branches…but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.

 

ROMANS 11:19

You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

 

ROMANS 11:20

Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief…but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear God…

 

ROMANS 11:21

…for if God did not spare the natural branches, and He didn’t, He will not spare you, either (if you are unbelieving).

 

ROMANS 11:22

Behold then the kindness and the severity of God…to those who fell,

severity…but to you, God’s kindness…if you continue in His kindness… otherwise you also will be cut off.

 

ROMANS 11:23

And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

 

ROMANS 11:24

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

 

Now the details…Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 11…

 

ROMANS 11:11

I (Paul) say then, Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression (the hardening God allowed when they turned their backs on their Jewish Messiah…the Christ), salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race jealous.

 

ROMANS 11:12

Now if the transgression of Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race is riches for the world…and it is…and if their failure is riches for the Gentiles…and it is…how much more will their fulfillment be (when they turn back to Christ?)!

 

Even though some in Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race follow the broad road that leads to destruction, that destruction will never be permanent in the matter of God’s favored nation and God’s Chosen People.  God will always keep for Himself a remnant of Jewish believers…spiritual Jews…who will not bow a knee to Baal…to the devil…to false gods. 

 

At the present time, the unbelieving Jews are like the unbelieving Gentiles…sinners, on the wrong side of a barrier, separated from God, and helpless and hopeless to do anything on their own to change their situation.  Both groups, Jews and Gentiles, must count on the death and resurrection of the Christ, the Jewish Messiah for their salvation.  What do these verses mean by jealousy?  What is jealousy?
 

JEALOUSY

A feeling of resentment when you witness someone’s success or someone’s

advantages.

 

For the Gentiles during the Age of Israel, if they wanted to believe in the Christ, they had to become converts…they were called “proselytes”…those who change their opinion about something.  In this case, it was a changed opinion about the Messiah.  As converts, they had to go to Jerusalem three times a year, they had to worship God indirectly through a Levitical priest, they had to follow a set of rituals, and they had to participate in feasts and temple services.

 

In the Church Age, Gentiles had to do none of these things.  They were as free to have salvation handed to them as the repentant thief was handed salvation at the Cross…with no hoops to jump through.  The ease of this salvation course is definitely enough to make The Jewish Race jealous.

 

Let’s take a music break…as we reflect on our Savior’s love for us…love like the love Moms have for us!

 

MUSIC BREAK 

HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE

Phillips, Craig and Dean

 

MUSIC BREAK

CHANGE MY HEART OH GOD

Maranatha Praise

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Let’s Be as Faithful as Moms to Our Jewish Friends

 

Let’s begin the next portion of our lesson by giving you a chance to make an offering…we need and we value your financial support to continue the work of this ministry…please welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

JOHN 15:19

If (for the sake of argument) you were of the world, the world would love its own…but because you are not of the world, but because I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

 

OFFERING

FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

Dave McClure, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Let’s Be as Faithful as Moms to Our Jewish Friends

 

Let’s continue to look at the details of the third passage…Romans, Chapter 11, Verses 13 and 14…

 

ROMANS 11:13

But I (Paul) am speaking specifically to those of you in Rome who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I (even though I am a Jew, I) am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry…

 

ROMANS 11:14

…if somehow I might (by any means) move to jealousy my fellow countrymen (my kinsmen according to the flesh) and save some of them.

 

Paul is provoking his “kinsmen according to the flesh,” Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race, to a jealousy that may result in their salvation.  It’s what great ambassadors do as a lifestyle.  Paul boasted before the Jews in Rome of the inner peace among the Gentiles…the grace…the freedom…the filling and indwelling of God the Holy Spirit…God using them instead of the Jews to broadcast the gospel message throughout the whole world.  Paul boasted about a group, the Gentiles, who were alive, as opposed to being set aside for a hardening.  These things were designed to provoke Paul’s kinsmen to jealously, so they would resent what the Gentiles had enough to desire it.  God IS unconditional love…and His unconditional love always has a target…if The Unbelieving Jewish Race didn’t want it, God found a home for His unconditional love in the Gentiles.  Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 15…

 

ROMANS 11:15

For if Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race’s rejection of their Messiah is the reconciliation of the world…and it is…what will their acceptance of their Messiah be but the resurrection life from the dead?

 

There are two resurrections…the resurrection of saints and the resurrection of the wicked (ungodly, unrighteous unbelievers).  What is resurrected before lends its character to what is resurrected after.  If we believers in Christ are in union with the resurrected Christ…our resurrection will be of the first resurrection and not of the second resurrection of the wicked.

 

Paul’s letter to the Romans believers has a simple message when all is said and done…Paul, a Jew, is spreading the gospel message to the Gentiles…a message of God’s grace.  What does God have for the Gentiles?  Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verses 19…

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:19

…namely, that God Father was in union with Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and God the Father has committed to us Gentiles the word of reconciliation (just as He had given it to The Jewish Race).

 

In spite of their rejection of the Jewish Messiah, Unbelieving Israel and The Unbelieving Jewish Race have a glorious future…as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah, Chapter 40, Verses 1 to 5…

 

ISAIAH 40:1

“Comfort, O comfort My people (The Jewish Race),” says your God.

 

ISAIAH 40:2

“Speak kindly to Jerusalem…and call out to her…that her warfare has ended…that her iniquity (the hardening) has been removed…that she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

 

ISAIAH 40:3

A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness…

make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”

 

ISAIAH 40:4

“Let every valley be lifted up, and let every mountain and hill be made low…and let the rough ground become a plain…and let the rugged terrain become a broad valley.”

 

ISAIAH 40:5

“Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together…for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

 

Isaiah may not have known it, but he gave a perfect description of Israel and The Jewish Race in the future.  Israel and the Jewish Race will be comforted…they will have peace…their sins will have been paid for without partiality…their Messiah will come again…and they will recognize Him the second time and they will make a clearing in the desert for their dignitary, the Jewish Messiah, rolling out the red carpet for Him…and everyone will witness their restoration and will see the promises kept that were made to Abraham.

 

Now analogies to make a point… DOUGH and a LUMP…ROOT and the BRANCHES.  Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 16…

 

ROMANS 11:16

If the first piece of dough from the first fruits of the wheat harvest is holy… and it is…the lump is holy also…and if the root from the tree is holy, and it is…the branches are holy, too.

 

The First Piece of Dough from the First Fruits is The Chosen Nation Israel and The Chosen People, The Jewish Race.  From the start, this nation and this people were special to God…holy in His sight…first fruits.  The remnant, the lump, is just as special to God…just as holy in His sight.

 

In the root and branches analogy, the seed is Christ.  His seed produces a root…Abraham.  The Spiritual Jews, the Jews of the order of Abraham, are the branches.  Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 17…

 

ROMANS 11:17

But if some of the branches (the Unbelieving Jews) were broken off, and they were, and you (the Gentiles), being a wild olive, were grafted in among the branches and became partaker with the believing Jews of the rich root of the olive tree…

 

Us Gentiles…the wild olives, are the receivers of God’s unconditional love as a result of The Jewish Race’s rejection of their Jewish Messiah’s unconditional love.  Us Gentiles were grafted in to become branches in the tree.  But a warning to us Gentiles…Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 18…

 

ROMANS 11:18

…do not be arrogant toward the branches…but if you are arrogant, and some of you are, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.

 

As Gentile believers, we owe our salvation to Abraham (a former Gentile) and The Jewish Race.  In Galatians, Chapter 3, Verse 7…a reminder…

 

GALATIANS 3:7

Therefore, be sure of this…that it is those who are of faith (not those who are of the Law) who are sons of Abraham.

 

All Israel is not Israel…the believing Jews are the spiritual Jews.  Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 19…the warning continues…

 

ROMANS 11:19

You Gentiles will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

 

ROMANS 11:20

Quite right, they (The Unbelieving Jews) were broken off for their unbelief…but you stand grafted in by your faith. Do not be conceited (as if you did your salvation)… instead respect God (for doing your salvation)…

 

ROMANS 11:21

…for if God did not spare the natural branches (Unbelieving Israel and the Unbelieving Jewish Race), and He didn’t, He will not spare you Gentiles, either (if you are unbelieving).

Because us Gentiles have received privilege, it’s no reason to be cocky…we must respect and thank Abraham and The Jewish Race for being instrumental in our “so great” salvation.  Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 22…

 

ROMANS 11:22

Behold then the kindness and the severity of God…to those who fell, it was thought of as severity (blaming God because they blew the gift of salvation) …but to you Gentile believers, God’s work is seen as kindness…if you continue in His kindness (and don’t turn away from the gospel message)… otherwise you also will be cut off.

 

There are certainly enough Gentiles who follow the broad way to destruction…many more than The Jewish Race!  Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 23…

 

ROMANS 11:23

And they (the Unbelieving Jews) also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God the Father is able to graft them in again.

 

Israel and The Jewish Race will not continue in unbelief.  The will recognize their Messiah the second time around.  Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 24…

 

ROMANS 11:24

For if you Gentiles were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and you were, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

 

The Church and Israel are separate and distinct.  The Church and the Gentiles did not replace Israel.  The bulk of Israel is hardened for a time.  Then there is a remnant.  But one day the bulk of The Jewish Race will turn back to their Messiah.  He will welcome them back with open arms.  Their hardening is temporary.

 

There is no place for Anti-Semitism in Christianity.  We do well as Christians when we take the time to say thank you to our Jewish friends with evangelism.  Let us be like Moms with them.  Let us be faithful!

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

In the Lord Jesus Christ we have a Servant-Savior…Mark, Chapter 10, Verses 43 to 45…

 

MARK 10:43

“…whomever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant…”

 

MARK 10:44

“…and whomever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.”

 

MARK 10:45

“For even the Son of Man (the Lord Jesus Christ) did not come to be served, but He came to serve, and He came to give His life as a ransom for many.”

 

The Lord served us best by offering us His life so He could offer us His very own righteousness…Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 21…

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:21

God the Father made the Lord Jesus Christ who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God the Father in union with Christ.

 

The Servant-Savior paid the price of sin so we wouldn’t have to…He paid with His blood…Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 23…

 

ROMANS 6:23

For the wages of sin is spiritual death, but the free gift of God the Father is eternal life (the resurrection life) in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Once you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are saved forever…John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life (the resurrection life) right at that moment…but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life, but the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”

 

Decide for Christ!  Choose to be on the Lord Jesus Christ’s side and it’s a decision you will never regret.

 

CLOSING SONG

DESTINY

June Murphy

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

          THANKS - INTERCESSION - PETITION

 

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Thanks for listening!

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