Sermon Tone Analysis

Accusations that are false accusations are hard to refute unless you have hard evidence, but if there is no evidence, should those accusations stick?

Fortunately, we have lived in times where the law upheld the “presumption of innocence” & protected people from false accusations.

The onus was on the accuser to prove the alleged offender was in the wrong.

But we are heading, as a western society, down the road of “guilty by accusation alone”.

Recently, this was seen in the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh as a federal court judge in the US.

A lady came forward at the end of his hearing, just before the congressional vote to appoint him & accused him of raping her at a party 35 yrs ago at an occasion she cannot remember, a place she cannot remember & at a time she cannot remember, but she remembers it was Brett Kavanaugh.

The witnesses gave contrary evidence that went to the favour of Brett Kavanaugh.

He himself vigorously denied it & even his well kept diary showed no such event.

Yet, the media & the Democrats, who opposed this conservative judge, who they think is out to get rid of abortion laws, all said that they believed her over him.

It was of course, political, but “guilt by accusation” without evidence is becoming a troubling trend in the western world

28-10-18 811 Echuca

Accusations that are false accusations are hard to refute unless you have hard evidence, but if there is no evidence, should those accusations stick?

Fortunately, we have lived in times where the law upheld the “presumption of innocence” & protected people from false accusations.

The onus was on the accuser to prove the alleged offender was in the wrong.

But we are heading, as a western society, down the road of “guilty by accusation alone”.

Recently, this was seen in the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh as a federal court judge in the US.

A lady came forward at the end of his hearing, just before the congressional vote to appoint him & accused him of raping her at a party 35 yrs ago at an occasion she cannot remember, a place she cannot remember & at a time she cannot remember, but she remembers it was Brett Kavanaugh.

The witnesses gave contrary evidence that went to the favour of Brett Kavanaugh.

He himself vigorously denied it & even his well kept diary showed no such event.

Yet, the media & the Democrats, who opposed this conservative judge, who they think is out to get rid of abortion laws, all said that they believed her over him.

It was of course, political, but “guilt by accusation” without evidence is becoming a troubling trend in the western world

- In this passage today, the apostle winds up his message to the Gentile Christians that God has not excluded Israel in His rescue plan for the world

- He is meticulous in providing evidence to show that, in spite of their accusations against Israel, God has not rejected or excluded Jews from the possibility of receiving His grace

- Even though, from appearances, it seems that the Jews have certainly rejected Jesus, but from God's plans & purposes, this can & will change

1.

The Mystery of Hardening

1.

The Mystery of Hardening

Q.

Why have the Jews rejected Jesus?

- Surely, they knew God well enough to see that His plans & purposes would come to fruition in a Christ/Messiah

- But faith/belief has to do with the heart & we live in a fallen world where the liberty to make your own good choices are limited

- The world is in bondage to sin & the fear of death - & that shapes how everyone thinks

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- Let us understand, firstly, that Paul is addressing Gentile Christians in the church

- I hope by this stage, you will realise that Gentile is simply a name that means “not a Jew” - so it includes the whole world, except Jews

-- 13 But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles.

- If you can recall from the last couple of messages, we saw how the Gentile Christians in the church in Rome are rather hostile towards the Jews

- The Jews have not only rejected Jesus & had Him crucified, they are actively encouraging the persecution of the church

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- We get a hint of this in this passage

—28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake

—28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake

- Paul talks a lot about the arrogance or pride of the Gentile Christians towards the Jews

- He speaks about them being conceited.

However, there is something they don't understand

a) God's Great Plan

—33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

- God's plans are amazing in how He levels the playing field

- God's plans are amazing in how He levels the playing field

- Mankind leans towards being arrogant – leans towards thinking he knows better than God

- God has undercut human pride & brings every man & woman to their knees before Him

- He has done this by His grace in & through the cross of Christ

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- No one can stand before God & stake their claim, as v.35 says - “who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again”

- God alone is the master architect & designer of His great saving plan for mankind

- The problem was mankind's rebellion – he wanted to be God & was not content to be His “child” - he wanted to be God's equal

- Something that THE Son of God would not even claim for Himself

—6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

- Man's problem is that it was a thing to be grasped & he sinned in the process

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- God's great wisdom in bringing man back to Himself was not to enforce submission, but to win him over by voluntary submission

- God's solution is found in a crucified Saviour

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- Perhaps, if God left us to organise salvation, we would have deployed interrogation tactics to bring about submission – bamboo under the fingernails or waterboarding

- But God, in His wisdom, won the day by weakness; by submission to suffering

—21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

- The cross is the love of God in action as He demonstrates that love through the suffering of Jesus (this is God's great plan)

b) Paul Reveals God's Plan – the Revelation of this Mystery

b) Paul Reveals God's Plan – the Revelation of this Mystery

- Whenever the apostle talks about a mystery, he is revealing what was an unknown

- We have seen that the mystery Paul reveals in Ephesians is the oneness of Jew & Gentile in Christ

-- 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.

4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

-- 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.

4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

- Now in our passage today, he says that there is another mystery he will reveal – that there is a partial hardening that has happened to Israel – he hinted at this previously...

What then?

What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened

What then?

What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened

- So he says to the Gentiles, “what you have & do witness about the behaviour of the Jews is God's plan in action”

- He has hardened them so that they would oppose the Christ & have Him crucified & oppose the church to have it grow full of Gentiles

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- You might ask: why do that?

Paul says in vs.12

—12 Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!

- Israel's rejection of Christ has meant riches for the world for through His crucifixion, the price of sin was paid as we read on many occasions in the NT – here's one...

—3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

- Here is the riches for the world & had the Jews not opposed Jesus & encouraged the Romans to crucify Him, then there would be no forgiveness of sins for the world

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Q.

Does that mean that those who rejected Christ according to God's grand plan are innocent?

No way Jose

- Judas was a Jew who betrayed Christ to the chief priests of Israel

- Judas served God's purposes as we see in the words of Peter

—23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

- Likewise, the words of Jesus

—24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!

It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

- Judas was filled with remorse over his actions, but instead of repenting, he decided to end his life by suicide

- So sad that he could not turn to Jesus, for Jesus would have forgiven him

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- So too the Jews in rejecting Jesus served a greater purpose, but nevertheless were guilty of rejecting Christ & the individuals will be judged for their actions

- They rejected God's purposes, but it does not follow that God has rejected His purposes for them

- Opportunity is still available for them to be grafted back into the “Olive Tree” - now, however, on an equal par with the Gentiles

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- For we know that both the wild Olive branches and the natural Olive branches share equally in the nourishment from the root

- The branches, either Jewish or Gentilic, are not the root

- The root is the word of promise through Abraham