From Bad to Good
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St. Patrick
St. Patrick
He was bringing a new way of life to a violent, war-oriented pagan culture.
In fifth-century Ireland women were a commodity. Selling a daughter or arranging a politically strategic marriage was common and advantageous to a family. Patrick upset the social order by teaching women they had a choice in Christ. As God converted these women to Christianity, some became full-time servants of Christ in the face of strong family opposition. Patrick told women they could be “virgins for Christ” by remaining chaste. This newfound control was appealing to many women, but it angered many men who believed Patrick was taking away their prized possessions.
Many Christians did not believe the Irish were worthy of being saved. At that point in history, Patrick truly served as a pioneering missionary to a forgotten people.
Patrick entered an Ireland full of paganism and idol worship. But just a few short decades after Patrick arrived, a healthy, Christ-honoring church was thriving. The Irish church was so strong that in the centuries to come it would send missionaries to evangelize much of continental Europe.
God takes the very worst things that Humans can do and he uses it for good.
God takes the very worst things that Humans can do and he uses it for good.
This is the grace of God. St. Patrick was taken as a slave to Ireland. God used the evil in the captors to prepare St. Patrick’s heart to be a missionary to the very people that took him as a slave.
This is the theme of Romans 11:11-24 this morning.
11 I ask, then, have they stumbled in order to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their stumbling, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.
Who is they?
7 What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for, but the elect did find it. The rest were hardened,
So the question is
Can any more from Israel or Jews be saved and how?
Israel are God’s chosen people but are also the group of do gooders that many don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
Romans 10 is the center of this passage from chapters 9-11. Salvation comes through faith alone and in grace alone.
9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
The do gooders would say no the law is what brings us Salvation but we learned that THE END OR GOAL OF THE LAW IS JESUS.
So here in verse 11 Paul ask the question did Israel stumble so much in order to fall. Can anymore Jews be saved? The answer to this question is (Absolutely not!)
11 I ask, then, have they stumbled in order to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their stumbling, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.
What is the purpose of their stumbling?
Their stumbling is bringing salvation to the Gentiles
The word was preached first to the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia the message of Paul and Barnabas was rejected but when the Jews rejected the message of the Gospel Paul then turned to the Gentiles.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas boldly said: “It was necessary that God’s message be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles!
Gentiles response
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the message of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.
This can be hard for us to understand when someone hardens their heart and God turns to use this for good. This is a theme you see throughout scripture.
Think of Joseph and his brothers who sold him into slavery. His brothers meant for evil but God meant it for good.
Think also of the crucifixion of Jesus. The enemy thought he had won by killing the Messiah but it was through death that actually brought salvation and VICTORY TO US!
11 I ask, then, have they stumbled in order to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their stumbling, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.
12 Now if their stumbling brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full number bring!
Salvation as come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.
12 At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.
The Gospel is good news. The Messiah coming welcomes the Gentiles in to receive all the blessings of Israel. The Messiah causes all of the history of Israel to become our history. We become a part of the family as a result of the Messiah. There is so much good news when you think about the Gospel. This good news should cause Jews to be jealous of what we have in the Messiah.
“Daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises,” Patrick wrote while serving in Ireland. “But I fear nothing, because of the promises of heaven.”
This is freedom that would make Israel jealous
Their stumbling brings riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles.
How much more will their full number bring!
He doesn’t exactly spell this out but it hints at more Jews being saved and maybe even A LOT more Jews being saved.
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. In view of the fact that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if I can somehow make my own people jealous and save some of them.
My Calling is that I am an apostle to the Gentiles. I celebrate this ministry to the Gentiles so that in my flesh I make my own people jealous and save some of them.
St. Patrick had a heart for those who held him in slavery. Paul has a heart for the Jews even though they continue to reject the good news of the Gospel.
15 For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
Two ways and possibly a 3rd way this verse is interpreted.
1.) This verse is speaking of when Jesus returns and the resurrection of the dead takes place.
2.) This is speaking of the rapture
3.) I lean the direction that this is speaking of personal repentance and Jews coming to know Jesus on a personal level and at that moment they go from dead to alive. I lean this way because of the context around it and the word some that is used in previous verse. (Romans 4:17)
16 Now if the firstfruits offered up are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
He uses 2 illustrations.
He uses the firstfruits.
The firstfruits were the first of the Harvest that was to be offered to the Lord. It was the first of the harvest and worship with the firstfruits showed that more was to come.
The firstfruits here refers to the remnant of Jews people much like himself who have come to faith in Christ.
Second is the picture of an olive tree
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,
Now a word to the Gentiles
Think in Christ!
18 do not brag that you are better than those branches. But if you do brag—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 by unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
21 For 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 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?
(Preach through these verses)
Conclusion:
God takes the very worst things that humans can do and he uses it for good.
I think today’s text screams the testimony of Dr. Justin Sharp. Justin grew up in a pagan environment full of brokenness and pain. He has shared some of this with us and personally I have got to hear more snippets of his upbringing in conversation with him.
God rescued Justin from this.
As God rescued Justin from it the Lord then called Justin back to minister to His own father who had brought about some of the pain in His life. To hear Justin speak of the Love he has for his dad and Justin’s longing for his dad to come to know the love of Jesus.
In this room, God is taking the worst things that humans have done or are doing and God is using that for His good.
Have you ever considered this in your life story?