(Audio/Video/Text)
Title: The Great Tangent (Part Two)
Intro:
A reminder from last week:
Paul BEGINS a thought in verse ONE, he then goes on a tangent explaining the nature of his own special insight about the union between Jew and Gentile in verses TWO through THIRTEEN. He gets back to his original thought in verse FOURTEEN!
Today, our entire passage, verses 5-7 takes place within the tangent of verses 2-13.
Last week we meticulously broke down each of Paul’s phrases to arrive at some conclusions, today I’m going to deal with this passage by stating the conclusions first, then showing how we arrived there from the text.
The reason for this switch is this: now that we are fully diving into Paul’s tangent, his argument flows quite nicely and is not difficult to understand, it is the transition in and out of his tangent that can be a little confusing, but now that we are fully into the tangent, his logic is easier to digest.
First Big Idea:
Paul tells us that previous generations of God’s people did not receive this special revelation from God that the Apostles (Paul himself included) have now received and are passing on to the Church. (v.5)
Put a quick pin in this, we will return to it in a moment, but to fully grasp it, we need to also look at the second big idea.
(Can anyone tell me, looking at the passage, what, precisely, this new special revelation is?)
Second Big Idea:
The Gentiles are also heirs of the Kingdom through the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. (v.6)
J.I. Packer makes a very good observation about this:
“The Old Testament’s silence about Paul’s mystery (the union of Jews and Gentiles in the Church) was relative, not absolute.
This union between Jew and Gentile was anticipated by the O.T. prophets, for example:
Isaiah 19:25
…whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
If this idea had been completely absent from the O.T. Paul could not have written in Romans 4 that the Abrahamic covenant included all who were like faith, including the Gentiles.
In Acts 22, Paul also told Agrippa that his proclamation of the Gospel to both the Jews and Gentiles did not go beyond what had been promised by Moses and the prophets.
Side Note:
Maybe a better way to understand what Paul is saying here has more to do with the revelation of the timing of this message, let me offer a quick little exercise:
Question: How many of you, by show of hands, would make comfortable with the following statement: First century Jews who really read and studied the O.T. should not have been surprised that the Messiah’s message also applied to the Gentiles?
Second Question: In the N.T. who was the group of people who were most opposed the Gospel also being a message for the Gentiles?
(The Jewish Religious Leadership)
Third Question: Why is this so Ironic?
The lesson: Blessed are the Meek. (Be NOT Loud and Proud.)
The point: The idea that the Gentiles were going to come into the fold has been aluded to in many places in the O.T. what Paul is talking about it timing.
v.5 “it has NOW been revealed…”
v.7 “I was made a minister…”
Big Idea Three:
Gentiles are now fellow heirs. This is the unity we should be seeking as a society.
Again, Packer offers some very keen insight here:
Although the O.T. gives occasional glimpses of a unified human race, only in the light of Christ’s sacrifice does God’s plan become clear:
In one magnificent act, Jesus removed the enmity between God and man AND ALSO took away the divisions that fracture humanity.
In Romans, Paul describes the process this way: The Gentiles were a wild branch that was grafted into a cultivated tree. (Rom. 11:11-24)
Close:
What a perfectly timely message for the challenges facing the United States of America today, amen?
You really want to unite humankind? Bring the Gospel. It bridges the gap between sinful man and holy God and also bridges the gap between all our human factions, whether those factions are racial, cultural, or historic.
Asl we close: Let me give you a little glimpse of what this can look like.
(Summer of 1998 story with Michael Hart playing hoops in that little Arkansas town, what brought us together? Hoops. What kept us together? Christ.)