You can
watch the live stream of this study tonight between 8pm to 9pm AEST here.
Replacement
theology. You will hear this word bandied about. I have addressed this topic on
my blog briefly a few times, and noted that what the Bible teaches can better
be called ‘Replenishment Theology’. However, I had the opportunity to address
this explicitly in a recent sermon and I wanted to share that with you on my
livestream Bible study tonight.
This is
not directly part of the Revelation Study, but it is relevant. Many people,
including myself see in Revelation that God is judging his apostate people and
he is seeking to encourage his faithful people and seeking to spur them on to
endurance. And for some of these people this will raise the concept of does God replace Israel? And this idea of what does God actually replace is essential to
understanding this larger issue of who God's people are. Revelation 14 even uses some of the same sort of
imagery of the vine that I will address in this topic. So, I thought it would be used to make this sermon part of our Revelation study.
You can
read the notes here. But I encourage you to watch the livestream as well, or
instead, because I expand on what I share here and also use a very visible prop
demonstration that helps reinforce this consistent theme in the Bible. May you
be blessed by this study.
Introduction
Last week we
saw how Jesus claimed to be the Godman. That is what he meant when he called
himself the Son of Man. Yes, the phrase could mean human one is some contexts.
But not the way Jesus uses it. He is the divine Son of Man from Daniel 7, and
when he calls himself the Son of Man riding on the clouds of heaven in front of
the high priests they accuse him of blasphemy, because they understood what he
meant: he was claiming not just to be a god, but to be the Lord of Lords;
Yehovah, Yahveh, Adonai, El Shaddai, and he was standing right in front of
them.
That is what
he was claiming. And they knew it.
I think many
Christians have this idea of the Bible that the God of the Old Testament is the
Father, and now the Son is here, and he reveals the Father to us more but he
wasn’t really around that much before. However, Jesus is all over the Old
Testament. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. God the Son, God the Holy
Spirit and God the Father are there, all throughout. They are just explained in
more detail in the New Testament.
For instance,
John says this, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and
spoke of him” (John 12:41). Who did Isaiah see? He saw
Jesus’s glory. This is what John is saying. What passage does this refer to?
Isaiah 6, where we read, “1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe
filled the temple… 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah saw the glory of Yehovah, he
saw Jesus. The Son has always revealed the Father.
In other
words, in the person of Jesus the God of the universe, the God of creation, the
God who made the stars, the God who made the mountains and who called Abraham
out of Babylon was walking among mankind. This is what we mean by the Son of
God, God the Son. And we will see in this passage that he is not happy with the
state of his people.
Today we are
going to start to look at Matthew 21 where Jesus is going to survey his
vineyard. He is going to escalate his confrontation with the leaders of Israel
from here on in, until it leads to them killing him. But the message he wants
them to understand is that if they were truly God’s people they would be
bearing fruit. This is the same message Jeremiah preached, that Isaiah preached
and so many other prophets. I want you to hold an image of a tree in your head.
A tree with fruit bearing branches and barren branches, because we will come
back to that. Let’s see how Jesus warns those who do not bear fruit?
It Will Be
Taken Away (vv.
45-46) – Let’s begin at the end of this chapter, Jesus is here to tell them
that the kingdom is no longer theirs,
“43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be
taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one
who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone,
it will crush him. 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his
parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they
were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be
a prophet.”
So, what does
Jesus say here? He says that the kingdom of God, or the vineyard of the Lord of
hosts, Israel, is going to be taken from them, and given to someone else. If
you take this away and give it to someone else. What have you done? You have
replaced them. You have taken it from one group of people and given it to
someone else.
What is being
taken away in this context? Their stewardship of God’s nation and citizenship
in his kingdom. They are being cast out of God’s people in other words.
So, this
naturally raises the question has God replaced Israel? Now, just asking this
question freaks some people out. Already I can see in some people’s faces where
is Matt going with this? Well, I want us to go where Jesus goes. But before we
do that we have to do a Biblical history lesson. So, we are to start by going
back in time to Abraham and the Patriarchs.
I believe we
have to do this to fully understand what is happening in Matthew 21. You see, in
the Bible the name Israel is synonymous with the people of God. How could God
replace that? Well, as he says, “43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of
God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”
These are Jesus’ words, not mine. But to fully understand what is happening
here, we have to understand God’s relationship to his people has never changed.
Remember keep an image of a tree in your head. God has always replaced dead
branches in his people with living branches.
He doesn’t
replace the tree, he has always replaced branches. We’ll come back to what that
means later on.
Faith
Never Flesh (The Patriarchs) –
We are not going to recount the patriarchs’ entire story, as that would take us
too long. But I want us to focus on a key thread from Genesis that Paul
explores in the New Testament. God promised Abram that he would have a son, in
fact many sons, uncountable descendants, “5 And he brought him outside
and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number
them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the
Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:5-6). Then
after this God promises Abram that he will possess the land of Canaan and he
makes a covenant with him.
This is the
passage Paul uses to show how justification works, it is by faith in God, not
through works of the flesh. This is key, foundational. But it is not just
foundational to understanding individual salvation, it is foundational to
understanding how God’s kingdom works. It is all by faith. All of it.
Not long
after this Abram and Sarai hatch a plan to have a son through Hagar, the slave
girl (Gen. 16). We all know that son as Ishmael. Why do they do this? Because they
are seeking to fulfil the promise of God in their flesh, Genesis 16:2, “2
And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing
children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” We
human beings have this sinful flaw where we want to achieve the things of God
through the flesh. And part of this flaw is that we often believe teachings
that encourage this.
But God makes
it plain to Abram that this is not the child through which the promise will
come, God will give Abraham a son through Sarai, Genesis 17:15-21,
“15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you
shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless
her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she
shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham
fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a
man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a
child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”…21
But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at
this time next year.”
If you read
the passage you will see that God is going to bless Ishmael and make him a
great nation (17:20). But it is through Isaac that the promise will be
fulfilled and what is the promise? We read it in the same passage,
“1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared
to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you
greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my
covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for
I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you
exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come
from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your
offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant,
to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and
to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of
Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God” (Gen. 17:1-5).
God is
adamant that the promise of Abraham will not be fulfilled through Hagar and
Ishmael but through Sarah and Isaac. He is adamant.
But Ishmael
is Abraham’s son. He is his flesh and blood. God is going to bless Ishmael and make
him a great nation as well. But the promise to bless the world will not be
fulfilled through him.
Why? Why
could it not come through Ishmael? Why? This seems unfair, doesn’t it. Ishmael
did no wrong. Hagar did no wrong. Abraham clearly loved him. So why could it
not be Ishmael? In fact, here is a better question: why did God choose an old
man and a woman far past childbearing age to be the couple through which he was
going to make many descendants? Why did God do this?
Simple: because
he was showing Abraham, Sarah and all who would ever hear their story that the
promise is not received by the children of the flesh, but only those who have
faith, Hebrews 11:8-12,
“8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out
to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not
knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise,
as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of
the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has
foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself
received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered
him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as
dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the
innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
Holding the
land, the promises, the inheritance, was always about faith, not the flesh.
Listen
carefully, because if you go wrong here you go wrong on most of the scriptures.
God is teaching us that the promises of God were only ever for the children of
faith, not the children of the flesh.
John the
Baptist got it:
“7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to
flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do
not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell
you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even
now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 3:7-10).
Do you see
that same theme? Branches that do not bear fruit are cut out. They always have
been and always will be. It is how God’s kingdom works. The children of the
flesh have never inherited God’s kingdom and never will, unless they also have
faith.
Abraham had
many sons, Ishamel, and then more, “25 Abraham took another wife, whose
name was Keturah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and
Shuah.“ (Gen. 25:1-2). But only one got the inheritance, “5
Abraham gave all he had to Isaac” (Gen. 25:5). Why? Because he was the
child of promise.
Isaac was the
child of promise and was he told that the promise would continue through the
flesh? No. We read that God said this to Rebekah, Genesis 25:22-23, “So
she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are
in your womb, and two peoples from
within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the
older shall serve the younger.”
The older is
Esau (red) and the younger is Jacob (deceiver). The laws and customs of the
culture in that era, and most of history, said that the inheritance should go
to the first-born son. It was his birthright. This is what the flesh required.
It is no
small thing to change this.
But God is
teaching his people that it is never by flesh, but by the promise that his
descendants are accounted. Paul makes a big deal of this in his writings,
“6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed.
For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are
children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall
your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh
who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as
offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I
will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when
Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they
were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's
purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who
calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is
written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Romans 9:6-12).
Do you see
how everything I was showing you is foundational to Paul’s theology? This
thread of understanding that it is not by flesh but by faith that we receive
the promises is key to understanding God’s kingdom.
This message
is reiterated again and again and again. Who was Jacob’s first son? It was
Reuben. But it is said about Judah that his brothers will bow before him,
“8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall
be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you. 9
Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped
down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? 10 The
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his
feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the
peoples” (Gen.
49:10).
Reuben lost
his inheritance with his father because of his behaviour. But it was Judah who
confessed before Joseph the sins they had committed against him, and it was
Judah who promised to take his brothers place, “33 Now therefore, please
let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the
boy go back with his brothers. 34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy
is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father” (Gen.
44:33-34).
By the flesh
Reuben was owed the place of prominence, but the kingdom of God does not work
according to the flesh. It works according to faith and faithfulness. This is
how God set it up. But the Pharisees and the Jewish people had largely
forgotten this. They thought they were owed the kingdom because of who they
were. But this was never the case.
The Exodus
– We see this
principle throughout the whole Bible. Take the Exodus for example. The entire
nation who came out of Egypt who were over the age of twenty were forbidden
from entering the promise land,
“28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you
have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in
this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years
old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the
land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of
Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said
would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you
have rejected”
(Num. 14:28-31).
Was it unjust
for God to exclude the entire nation over twenty, except two men, from entering
the land promised to them? They were Hebrews. They were descendants of Abraham.
They were even saved from Egypt and the power of Pharoah, which is a picture of
our salvation from the oppression of sin and the devil.
How could
these descendants of Abraham, these Israelites, who were there at the 10
plagues, the parting of the sea, the splitting of the rock, at Mt Sinai and the
giving of the law, not be able to inherit the promise?
Simple:
because it is only those who receive it by faith who can inherit it. They saw
the Nephilim and the mighty inhabitants of the land, and they lost their faith.
They looked with eyes of flesh, not eyes of faith.
As Hebrews
says,
“12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an
evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God…16 For
who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt
led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with
those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he
swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief” (Heb. 4:12, 16-19)
They were
unable to enter because of faith. It really appears that there is a consistent
theme in the bible when it comes to God’s kingdom, doesn’t it.
And to drive
the point home even more, a Canaanite got to inherit the promise that the
descendants of the flesh did not. Her name is Rahab, “8 Before the men
lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “I know that
the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us,
and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you” (Josh.
2:8-9).
Compare Rahab
to the cowardly Hebrews. They feared the people in Canaan, but the people of
Canann were afraid of them and their God. But notice also that Rahab had
believed the promise, “I know that the Lord has given you the land…”
That’s faith.
Rahab was not
descended from Abraham. She was a Canaanite. She ran a brothel of all things.
But she believed the promise. And because she believed it she inherited it. In
fact, she was Boaz’ mother, Matthew 1:5, “and Salmon the father of Boaz
by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,…”
So, you can
see there is a consistent theme: the promises of God are secure and sure. But
they are not and never were intended for the flesh, but only for those who
trust in God and his promises. God went out of his way to drive this message
home to the Israelites,
“13 And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I
command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your
heart and with all your soul, 14 he will give the rain for your land in its
season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain
and your wine and your oil. 15 And he will give grass in your fields for your
livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16 Take care lest your heart be
deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; 17 then the
anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens,
so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will
perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you” (Deut. 11:13-17).
All of the
promises in the Bible of what we can receive come with an implied condition: if
you continue in faith. If you believe. Even when this condition is not stated
in that verse, just keep reading you will find it.
Part of the
problem is people don’t read the Bible in context. They read a verse for the
day, then they listen to a sermon which gives a verse for the day, and then
they get a skewed view of the promises of God.
God never
intended his promises to be inherited by flesh. Whether the land in Canaan or
the new promise land in heaven. Access to the kingdom of God has always been by
faith. Only branches connected by faith bear fruit.
The vineyard
of the Lord of hosts is Israel, and like any good gardener he prunes out the
bad branches so that they can be replaced with branches that bear good fruit.
So, let’s now turn to that theme.
Pruning
the Branches – Remember,
I am setting the scene for you this morning for what Jesus is doing in Matthew
21. Remember, he is the King of Israel. They will welcome him as a king and
then not long after they kill him. But remember Jesus does this in Matthew 21, “18
In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And
seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but
only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And
the fig tree withered at once.” This is no random event. Jesus has just
cleansed the temple. He went into the temple and found no good fruit. Then he
comes before this fig tree and finding no good fruit he curses it. Like I said
this is no accident. The fig tree here is a symbol of the nation of Israel and
it has been corrupted.
A good
example of this imagery being used comes from Jeremiah 8:13, “13 When I
would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs
on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed
away from them.” Jeremiah is saying the exact same thing as Jesus. He
is looking at the house of Judah, the temple, the priests, the people and he is
saying, “You are not bearing fruit.” And what does God do with branches that
won’t bear fruit? He prunes them so that fruit bearing branches are
prioritized.
The
illustration – This
is where I want to put all this in picture form for you today. Because what
Jesus says in Matthew 21, which we will explore next time in more detail, is
that he is going to prune the dead branches and allow good branches to grow, “43
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given
to a people producing its fruits.”
Some people
might read this and say, “Ah ha! There it is right there. God is going to take
the kingdom of God away from Israel and give it to the Church!” There it is in
black and white. But I am here to show that is a misunderstanding.
Some people
read this and say, “But that’s replacement theology. God would not replace his
people!” But they are also presenting a misunderstanding. Both those groups are
wrong. In fact, the term “replacement theology” was invented in the 1980’s as a
slur to denigrate historical Christianity which has always taught there is one
people of God and it is those who trust in Jesus, the Messiah.
But something
is being replaced in this passage, what is it? The answer is that the branches
that do not bear fruit are being replaced. The Pharisees, the chief priests and
their followers amongst the people of Israel who reject Jesus are going to be
cut out of the tree, and Peter, James and John and all who followed Jesus will
inherit the kingdom. Jesus is here to prune the tree, not replace it. Call it
Israel, call it the Church, the flock, the bride, whatever you will, it is the
same tree.
This image of
the tree or vine is used all throughout the whole Bible. I have already shared
some in this sermon. Here are a few more,
Isaiah 5:5-7,
“5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned
or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the
house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked
for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”
God is
pruning the vineyard because it has not born fruit. The vineyard of the Lord of
hosts is Israel. So, when Jesus says he is the true vine, what is he saying?
John 15:1-6,
“15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch
that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are
clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in
you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart
from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away
like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire,
and burned.”
Jesus is the
true vine, the true Israel, and only those who truly believe in him will bear
fruit. The rest are cut off and thrown into the fire.
Our flesh
accounts for nothing, only faith in God that produces good fruit counts.
And of course,
the most famous example is Romans 11, which will round off our examples today,
“21 For if God did not spare the natural branches,
neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God:
severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you
continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they,
if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the
power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a
wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree,
how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own
olive tree” (Rom.
11:21-24).
Here Paul
finishes his argument about who the true Israel is, and he says it is all who
believe. Those who reject Christ, even if they are Jewish, are cut out of the
tree. Those who trust in Jesus, even if they are Gentiles, are grafted into the
tree.
But don’t be
arrogant, you must continue in faith, “20 That is true. They were broken
off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not
become proud, but fear” (Rom. 11:20). What is being proud in this
context? It is relying on the flesh and not on faith.
This is the
mistake that most of Israel made when Jesus came, and which Jesus is going to
challenge in Matthew 21, 22 and 23. This is the mistake that Paul is determined
to make sure that we do not copy. And it goes all the way back to Abraham, we
saw it there. The child of promise inherited the promises, not the child of the
flesh.
Application
– This is where I
drive it home and personalize this message for you: are you are fruit bearing
branch? If Israelites, who were descended from Abraham, who did not bear fruit
could be cut out of the tree, how much more could you an Australian, or South
African, or Indian, or Brit, or European, or whoever you are be cut out if we
do not bear fruit?
Do you know
what God did when he destroyed the temple in AD 70? He removed the lampstand
from the physical nation of Israel. But he also prophesied to the 7 churches
that he would do the same to them if they did not bear fruit in keeping with
repentance.
If you want
to determine who the people of God are, you can’t look to a modern nation that
claims the name Israel. I know some people really struggle with this. This
happens because God’s people have always struggled not to see with eyes of
flesh. But Jesus gives us to key to know where his people are: You have to look
at who is bearing fruit. Only fruit bearing branches are truly of God.
Every
generation has had to hear this same warning: only fruit bearing branches will
inherit the kingdom. Because bearing fruit comes through faith, not the flesh. “43
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given
to a people producing its fruits.”
So, are you
bearing fruit? Are you a truly believing fruit bearing branch? Because God will
never replace his people. But he will replace branches that do not bear fruit
with those that do.
Conclusion
– Now you know where
I am coming from on this. And why I will stick to this message. Flesh counts
for nothing in God’s economy. He wants us to be people of faith. Let’s pray
that he increases our faith and the fruit in our lives. Let’s pray.
