Reaching Out to All Nations

This transcript was produced by speech-recognition software and has not been proofread. Names, Hebrew and Greek terms, and Scripture references may be misspelled. Tap a timestamp to play the audio from that point.

0:00 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All you peoples, clap your hands, shout to God with joyful cries. For the Lord the Most High inspires all, the great King over all the earth, who made people subject to us, brought nations under our feet, who chose a land for our heritage, the glory of Jacob, the beloved.

0:54 God mounts the throne amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise. Sing praise to our King, sing praise. God is King over all the earth. Sing hymns of praise. God rules over the nations. God sits upon His holy throne. The princes of the peoples assemble with the people of the God of Abraham. For the rulers of the earth belong to God, who is enthroned on high. Lord, You are God, and You are King, and You have enthroned Yourself in the person of Jesus Christ. Thank You for the gift of bringing the nations into Your kingdom.

1:47 If it weren't for that, most of us here would not be able to be a part of Your people. Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your providence, for the gift of Your plan hidden through the ages, but revealed in Jesus Christ and to the apostles and in their ministry brought about. Lord, thank You tremendously for blessing us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Lord Jesus Christ, be present now and let Your Holy Spirit bow, all hearts in love and truth today, to hear Your Word and keep Your way. Give us the grace to grasp Your Word, that we may do what we have heard.

2:36 Instruct us through the Scriptures, Lord, as we draw near, O God adored. To God the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, three in one. To You, O blessed Trinity, be praised throughout eternity. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I began by praying Psalm 47. So if you guys want to mark that, that's a psalm which talks about the Davidic covenant and the Davidic kingdom, the kingdom under David and Solomon, and how this kingdom is international. It's also over the nations. We're going to look into this some more in just a moment. Now, one time I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who's a deacon, and I was in graduate school at the time, and I was talking to this deacon.

3:36 He's a permanent deacon, so he's older and is married. And we were talking, and he asked me, he said, so what are you studying? And I gave him some topics about what I was studying and telling him what I was excited about, what I was learning. And somehow the topic got to the new covenant and what was happening and the biblical theology I was studying. And this deacon kind of looked at me and he said, you know, I really, I don't think that Jesus really intended for Gentiles to join the church. I think that it was mainly, you know, among Jews. And then later on, his followers started incorporating Gentiles into the church. And, but I don't think that was originally what Christ had in mind. Because if you look at it, you know, he chose just Jewish apostles and the church was pretty much primarily Jewish.

4:28 And, but I had to go at that moment, but I was thinking to myself, good grief, you know, what kind of a formation have you had? And hopefully by the end of tonight, you'll see that that is nowhere to be found in scripture. That's, that's a misconception. I don't know where he got this from. And this is why we need to pray for the deaconate formation programs, especially in the United States. Because man, whatever they're teaching these people, I don't, I don't get it. But, tonight's chapters, chapter 23, reaching out to all nations. And, chapter 25, excuse me. And, here's a word that you all are familiar with. Gentile.

5:18 And, we get the word Gentile from a Latin word, Gentiles. You can, G-E-N-T-I-L-I-S. And, Gentiles is the Latin word that translates a Greek word, ethnos. And, ethnos is a Greek word that translates the Hebrew word, Goyi. It can be Goyi or Goyim. I'm going to go with Goyi. Is, is how we transliterate it. G-O-W-E-E.

6:07 The Goyi. And, these all mean the exact same thing. And, that is, the nations. As opposed to, or separate from, the nation of Israel. And so, you know, a lot of times, you're reading St. Paul, you're reading Romans, for instance. And, St. Paul's talking about how the gospel is preached to the Jews and to the Gentiles. But, if you go back and you look at the words that St. Paul actually used, you know, he wrote his epistle to the Romans in Greek. And, he says, ethnos. He doesn't say Gentiles. But, the English translates it as Gentile.

6:55 Because, we know what a Gentile is, but, what are we going to translate it as? The, the ethnes? You know, the ethnics? You know, it's just, and this is because for so long, Christians read and wrote in Latin that this word came to be known as Gentile. Okay? So, this is kind of our, the English word that we use. So, a lot of times, ethnos is translated as Gentiles in the Latin, and so it's translated as Gentile in English. And, this is where you get the term ethnic from. You know, what's your ethnicity? Well, it comes from ethnos in Greek. And, then in Hebrew, if you spoke Hebrew, anywhere in the Old Testament where it says the nations, you know, Psalm 47 that I just read from talked about the nations, the nations, Every time it says goe, Does that make sense?

7:47 Yeah? Okay. So, it just depends on what language you're using. Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. So, that's where the term Gentile comes from. It's not because, we're not talking about those people, you know, who are really soft, spoken, you know, and, you know, wash with dove instead of, instead of lava or whatever. Gentile, right? And so, I guess Jews can't be gentlemen, right? Because they're not Gentiles. So, I don't know how that works. Okay. So, there's a little bit of etymology, a little bit of linguistic, so we know what we're doing here. Okay, so, in the time of Jesus, we've discussed this, how the Pharisees were very nationalistic.

8:37 In fact, that's where the Pharisees got their name from. They were the Perushim. They were the separated. They wanted to separate themselves from the ethnos, from the nations, those people who were not Jewish. Because they thought that this is God's will, that you wanted to keep kosher food laws as perfectly as possible. You want to keep the ceremonial precepts of the law perfectly, and this is going to bring about the coming of the Messiah, the restoration of the kingdom, the exaltation of Israel, and the defeating of the nations, the pagan oppressors, and into exile. This is going to come about by keeping the law. Well, Jesus and the apostles, and especially St. Paul, who was a Pharisee, and then converted to being a Christian, a Jewish Christian, actually a Benjaminite Christian, if you want to get very specific, they saw something different.

9:34 They said, no, the law had a purpose, a true purpose, and it was to keep you separate from the rest of the nations, but this is no longer God's will. The law was a temporary phenomenon. You wanted to be separate from the Gentiles for a reason, and we'll get into that, and it'll be a little bit of a review. Okay, let's go all the way back to Adam. Remember, Adam, you had Abel and Cain, and God favored Abel because he gave a righteous sacrifice. He gave the fat, and he gave the firstlings, but Cain didn't. Cain's sacrifice was not as good, he wasn't quite as devoted to the Lord.

10:21 Cain slew Abel, God raises up Seth, and then the birthright goes through Seth, and then so we have the Canaanite line and the Sethite line. Well, eventually, when Seth's descendants, Noah, you know, has the birthright, and the Canaanite line had gotten so bad, so messy, that they ended up, God ended up having a flood to knock out the human race, and Noah becomes a new Adam. And Noah had the birthright, right? He's the chosen one, in a certain sense. And Noah, you know, he has Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the story, the Genesis narrative, follows not Ham, not Japheth, but Shem. And Shem's descendants ends up going down to Noah, I mean, I'm sorry, to Noah, you're right, ends up going down to Terah, the father of Abram.

11:18 And so we know that Abram is God's chosen, God's going to bring about his purposes for humanity through, don't pay no attention to the men behind the curtain, quit looking over there, look at me. And so God's purposes for humanity are going to occur through Abram. And in Abram, we have three covenants made with Abram. what chapters in Genesis were these three covenants made? Genesis 15, 17, and 22. All right. In Genesis 15, it was made with Abram.

12:08 Genesis 17, Abram's name is changed to Abraham, and now he's Abraham. And then in Genesis 22, the covenant is made with Abraham's seed, his Zerah. Zerah is the Hebrew word for seed. And so in Genesis 15, the covenant God makes is to give land and nationhood, land and nationhood to Abram's descendants. But Abram doesn't have a descendant. He has no children. And God says, no, I'm going to give you a kiddo. And his wife, I mean, they're old. They're in their, you know, they're really old. And they're like, there's no way that Sarai can have children. And God says, no, I'm going to, your descendants will be as countless as the stars in the sky and as the sands on the seashore.

13:02 And so God makes this covenant and he's going to give land and nationhood to Abram through his descendant. whoever, you know, and God says that, you know, basically they're going to have a descendant, but they don't have faith. And Abram has Sarai go into Hagar, his concubine, and thus pops out Ishmael. Okay? Land and nationhood. Let's look at Genesis 15, 18. Genesis 15, 18. And there's something that's curious in the promise that God makes in this covenant. Genesis 15, 18.

13:55 This is right after, you know, the God appeared as a smoking brassiere and a flaming torch which passed between the sacrificial animal pieces that we've discussed. It was on that occasion that the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying to your descendants I give this land. this land. And remember Abram is in what is later known as the promised land or the holy land and that today is known as Palestine. I give this land from the wadi of Egypt to the great river. And then in captions my Bible says the Euphrates because that's what the great river was. Now notice that this land is not just the promised land or Palestine or the holy land.

14:45 It goes all the way to Egypt and all the way to the Euphrates in Mesopotamia. This is a huge chunk of land. This is not just this small piece of land. So in a certain sense this promise of land is going to be larger than just what Israel is going to get when they finally enter the land crossing the Jordan River under Joshua's leadership. Just keep that in mind. Now in Genesis 17 let's turn there to Genesis 17 there's a covenant made and focus is put upon Sarai whose name is changed to what? Sarah. And then those are two Hebrew words that are different forms of the word princess.

15:38 It's related to royalty. So there's a focus put on her name and somehow this is going to have something to do with royalty in Genesis 17. Let's turn to Genesis 17 verse 15. God further said to Abraham, as for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai, her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless. And then my new American Bible says he shall give rise to nations but that's that's not what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew says she will be a mother of nations. She will be a mother of goe.

16:31 And kings, Melech, you know, Melchizedek, Melech, Melech is Hebrew for king, and kings of peoples shall issue from him. Okay, so we have, we're told, you know, we have a focus upon the name which has to do with royalty. She will be a mother of nations, not just one nation, Israel, but nations. And kings will issue forth from her descendants. This descendant specifically who we know is going to be Isaac. So 17, we have kingship being promised. And then in, let's turn to 1st, if you go ahead and put, keep your, no, you don't have to keep your hand in Genesis.

17:26 Let's turn to 1st Kings chapter 5, 1st Kings chapter 5, verse 1. This is talking about Solomon's kingdom. Solomon, who eventually is, you know, this kingship is given first through Saul, but then really through David, the Davidic covenant, and then David's son, Solomon. And David's son, Solomon, you know, the king of Israel, let's look and see what his reign looked like in 1st Kings chapter 5, verse 1. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms, from the river, to the land of the Philistines, down to the border of Egypt.

18:15 Sounds familiar, huh? This is the promise of land that was given in Genesis 15. See, notice, Genesis 15 wasn't just about Israel and about their nationhood. Ultimately, it has a bigger perspective. And Solomon, see, Genesis 15 that promises this land is really kind of ultimately fulfilled in a certain sense with the covenant in Genesis 17 when you're going to end up having kings because Solomon's kingdom isn't going to be just over the land that Israel has in the promised land. It's going to be over from Egypt all the way to Mesopotamia to the river the Euphrates. And so Solomon's kingdom, the Davidic kingdom, is international. It's international.

19:04 It includes these other nations. Let's go back to Genesis 22. Genesis 22, verse 17. This is the third covenant made with Abraham. And Genesis 22, it's not made with Abram, like 15, not Abraham, like it was in 17, but it's made with Abraham's seed, his Zerah. And in Genesis 22, we're told that through Abraham's descendants, specifically through Isaac, his descendant, there's going to be worldwide blessing. Again, there's this scope of internationality, worldwide blessing. Okay, so we're in Genesis 22.

19:55 Actually, I'm not. You guys are. There we go. And it's verse 17. And this is the promise. I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore. Your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies. And in your descendants all the nations of the earth, all the goyi of the earth shall find blessing. All this because you obeyed my command. And if you want to look back at verse 2 of chapter 22, it says, then God said, take your son Isaac, your only one whom you love.

20:42 Was Isaac Abraham's only son? No. There was also Ishmael. But God is, again, he's choosing Isaac, the son of promise. He says, it's going to be through Isaac. It's going to be through the Isaac-ites, not the Ishmael-ites, that this is going to occur. And so Isaac ends up marrying Rebecca. I know this because in our wedding, the first reading at our wedding was Rebecca getting off of her horse when she meets Isaac for the first time, when Isaac's servant brings her to him. My wife's name is Rebecca, so it was fitting. He marries Rebecca and they have two kiddos. What are their names? Esau and Jacob. Esau sells his birthright for a pot of porridge marriage.

21:32 And so Jacob gets the birthright and Jacob's name is changed to Israel. Israel is a bigamist. He's tricked into marrying Leah and he really wants Rachel. So in a certain sense, his honor is kind of preserved. He didn't want to be a bigamist, but he happened to be one. And then he ends up going into their concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah. And out of these four women, the twelve tribes of Israel are born. Or more specifically, the twelve sons of Israel. The twelve sons of Israel. And so Israel is elected. It's chosen. It has the birthright. Now, someone was asking me not too long ago, about a couple of weeks ago, someone who's not Christian asked me, they said, Carson, do you believe that the Jews are the chosen people?

22:31 And I said, well, yeah, if we want to get back to the New Testament, yeah, the Jews certainly are the chosen people. And not the Jews so much, but Israel is the chosen. It's just that the Jews were the remaining visible Israelites at the time. But it's Israel that was chosen. And the assumption behind the question was this. It was almost kind of, why are you Catholic and not Jewish? If the Jews are the ones who are chosen by God, why aren't you in an Orthodox Jewish community? Why are you? And so that was, you know, the idea that we have when we just hear that you're chosen, it's kind of like, oh, well, if you want to be saved, you have to join that group that's chosen. You know? But that's not the case.

23:17 That's not what the Hebrew narrative means by chosen. To be chosen by God, to be the firstborn, means that you're the servant. You're chosen to go out and to spread God's word, to tell others about God and to bring them into relationship with God. This was Israel's vocation. This was the vocation of the elder, the firstborn. And so Israel was delivered from Egypt to go out to the nations to bring God's law out there, which they were going to get at Mount Sinai. And so Israel goes to Mount Sinai. They're just twelve tribes at this time. They're not a nation. They're just twelve tribes. And then at Sinai, God makes a covenant with Israel.

24:04 And this covenant turns these twelve tribes into what? A nation. Yeah. This is where they become a nation. They get their national law. They get the book of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, which are part of the book of the covenant, Exodus 20 through 23. And so Moses is proud. He's got his people. He's at Mount Sinai. He's like, we're ready to go, God. Make us into a nation. And what happens? They mess up big time. Apostasy. So what's given? No, not curses. Curses come when you disobey something that's given.

24:53 What's given? The law. Specifically the book of the covenant. The book of the covenant is given and then more law is given in Leviticus and then more law is given in Numbers because they keep sinning. So the law comes in. And when they sin with the golden calf, all the Israelites lose the priesthood. And who gets the priesthood? The Levites. So Israel is reconfigured to where now no longer can the Israelites be near the tabernacle. Now the Levites are going to encamp around the tabernacle and then the tribes will encamp outside of the Levites. serve as a buffer zone. The Levites are kind of put over their brothers and sisters to kind of watch over them.

25:39 And the law separates Israel from the nations. The law says when you go in and you take Canaan, you know, you can't be like them. You can't eat pork like them. You can't eat pork because what did you do as an Egyptian? You sacrificed pork. Now you can't sacrifice it. You can't eat it. And just as you worshipped sheep, rams, and goats, you're now commanded to sacrifice what you used to worship in Egypt. So the law is to root out idolatry, to root out this idolatry of Israel, to separate them from the nations, to kind of rehabilitate them, to get them back on course, to get them back on par, back in relationship with God. This is what the law is meant to do. And in Jesus' day, everybody's gung-ho about the law.

26:27 Let's keep the law. We're supposed to be Israel. But they don't really quite understand that the law had a temporary purpose to rehabilitate Israel. The Mosaic law was not meant to be eternal, in the sense that this is how it's going to be forever. It was a temporary type of provision that was given. And so this first generation doesn't want to take the land. They're like, they have big bad people in the land, so we don't want to take it. But Joshua and Caleb come back and they're like, yeah, we want to take it. So the Lord says, okay, you generation, I'm through with you. You're going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and you're going to die here and your descendants will get the land that you guys don't get.

27:13 But Joshua and Caleb, since you wanted to take it, I'm going to let you guys take the land too. You're going to outlive your brothers and sisters. And so their children come about the second generation. Are they faithful to God? No, Numbers 25, great apostasy, Baal worship at Beth Peor. Baal of Peor is worshipped specifically through having sex with these cultic prostitutes in Numbers 25. It's really bad. So Deuteronomy is given, the second law, to the second generation. Things are really bad. But time goes on, time goes on, and the people keep kind of turning away from the Lord, and finally they want a king like all the other nations.

28:05 And God tells Samuel, he says, it's okay, go ahead and anoint a king, it's not you that they're rejecting, it's me that they're rejecting, and not wanting me to be their king, they want a king for themselves, okay, so I'll give them what they ask for. Now they're going to be taxed twice, they're going to be taxed once and then twice by the king, their children are going to be taken as slaves by the king in a certain sense to do his bidding, there's going to a lot of not so great things are going to come along with the kingdom, but go ahead and give it to him. But God uses this to his purposes, because he's going to have kings issue forth from Sarai, and kingship is going to become a part of his plan. He's going to take up his children's disobedience into his plan.

28:54 And so, you end up having the Davidic covenant. And the Davidic covenant, as I just talked about a second ago, was international. It wasn't, God starts focusing apart from the Mosaic law and starts focusing on the international aspects of what he wants to do. In a certain sense, Israel, he thinks, is kind of ready for this. In fact, there's a man after God's own heart, David, that he does this through. And the Psalms celebrate the international aspect of the Davidic covenant. So, like, for instance, let's turn to Psalm 2.8. We've been looking at Psalm 2 quite a bit. Let's look at it again.

29:42 Psalm 2, verse 8. Psalm 2, verse 8 says, Only ask it of me, and I will make your inheritance the goyi, your possessions, your possession, the ends of the earth. And this is the Lord speaking to the Davidic king, the son of David, the descendant of David, the king. Only ask it of me, and I will make your inheritance the nations, the goyi, your possession, the ends of the earth. With an iron rod, you shall shepherd them. Okay?

30:31 So, the Davidic descendant, the king, is going to shepherd all of the nations, all of the goyi. Let's turn to Psalm 18. Psalm 18. And if your Bible counts the introduction to Psalm 18 as a verse, then we're going to look at verse 18. But if it doesn't count that introduction as a verse, we're going to look at verse 17. I'm sorry. It's either verse 43 or 44. 43 or 44. you rescued me from the strife of peoples.

31:19 You made me head over the goyi. Okay. You made me head over the goyi. And this is a psalm of David. So, it's David speaking. You made me head over the goyi. We can turn to Psalm 22, which is the famous psalm that Jesus evokes from upon the cross. in Psalm 22. And again, if your Bible counts the introduction as a verse, we're going to start with verse 28. If it does not count that introduction as a verse, it's verse 27 of Psalm 22. All the ends of the earth will worship and turn to the Lord. All the families of the goyi will bow low before you.

32:10 For kingship belongs to the Lord, the ruler over the nations. You see, even this is a Davidic type of psalm that Jesus quotes from the cross. And he quotes the my God, my God, why have you abandoned me or forsaken me right at the beginning of it to invoke the entire psalm. 47 is another one. I begin with prayer with that. We can turn to psalm 72. Psalm 72. And in psalm 72, let's look at verse 8. This is a psalm of Solomon. If you look at the introduction right underneath the title, it'll say of Solomon.

33:01 But we want to look at verse 8. May he rule from sea to sea from the river the river which is what river the Euphrates which is kind of like a boundary in a certain sense of the known from the river the Euphrates where his kingdom extended to the ends of the earth may his foes kneel before him his enemies lick the dust may the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute the kings of Arabia and Seba offer gifts may all kings bow before him all goyee serve him all nations serve him so again the international so God in the Davidic covenant is saying okay you guys have been separate from the nations for quite a bit but now let's start reincorporating them but not too quick not too quick you'll have rule over them they'll be your slaves your vassals so it's like a teacher with the students you don't want to be too close of a relationship or else your students will be like oh we can just do

34:07 whatever we want now the teacher loves us he's their friend no you want to keep a little bit of distance that's kind of what this is like we're going to start incorporating the nations but not fully so the temple which is the architectural symbol of the Davidic covenant the temple includes a place for the Gentiles the court of the Gentiles but notice they can't go beyond the court of the Gentiles into the court beyond that so they're still kind of excluded a little bit but they're included a little bit so there's some inclusion happening here okay so let's turn to Isaiah 2 verse 1 so now we're going to start taking a look at the prophets and you'll notice a lot of these prophets arose in the time of the Davidic kingdom largely when it was divided and also during the exile so this is after the Davidic covenant had been made so the prophets sometimes you'll notice that the prophets won't just

35:15 prophesy against the tribes of Israel sometimes they'll prophesy against foreign nations huh that's odd so who does Jonah go to prophesy against the northern kingdom of Israel right no Nineveh the capital of Assyria the Goyi he's going to prophesy against whoa why are you going to prophesy against them well because they're a part of the Davidic covenant okay Isaiah 2 verse 1 this is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah in Jerusalem in the days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills now of course this is speaking metaphorically it's not like we're going to have some sort of volcanic eruption beneath Mount Zion and it's going to get really tall physically no this is basically it means that it's going to be exalted somehow this is a metaphorical way of speaking and the mountain of the Lord that's talking about

36:20 here is Mount Zion and the Lord's house is the temple many peoples now it says all nations all shall stream toward it many people shall come and say come let us climb the Lord's mountain to the house of the God of Jacob that he may instruct us in his ways that we may walk in his paths for from Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem now the early Christians reading this at the time of Pentecost and afterwards guess what they saw in this where did Pentecost start in the middle of Jerusalem you know from the new temple the new Zion the church going out and proclaiming to all nations this has been seen throughout Christianity as being fulfilled in the apostles in Jesus Christ in his church okay from Zion shall go forth instruction okay so it says that these people are going to say that he may instruct us in his ways that we may walk in his paths so it's kind of like

37:27 what Israel was supposed to do to begin with what Israel is going to do eventually this plan for Israel is going to have fulfillment because who are the apostles they're Israelites united with the Davidic king who has ascended into heaven Jesus Israel's king some more at Isaiah but let's turn to Zechariah Zechariah is one of the last prophets in the it's a second to last book in the Old Testament Malachi is the last one the second to last is Zechariah let's turn to Zechariah 2 Zechariah 2 verse 14 and again Zechariah is all about is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and his ministry in fact Zechariah is quoted over and over again by the New Testament authors as as referring to Jesus like for instance have you guys ever do you guys remember hearing they shall look on him whom they have thrust through that's quoted in John 19 37 you also have and they counted out my wages 30 pieces of silver you know that's that's in Isaiah that's in Zechariah

38:54 so I became the shepherd of the flock to be slaughtered for the sheep merchants that day his feet will rest shall rest upon the Mount of Olives strike the shepherd that the sheep may be dispersed that's quoted in Matthew 26 31 this is all Zechariah okay Zechariah 2 verse 14 sing and rejoice O daughter Zion see I am coming to dwell among you says the Lord many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day and they shall be his people wow the Goyi the non-Israelites are going to be God's people that's that's huge and he will dwell among you and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you turn to Malachi Malachi is the next book the last book of the Old Testament as we have it in the in the canon of scripture Malachi chapter 1 verse 11 Malachi chapter 1 verse 11 and the early church fathers quoted this verse to refer to the Eucharist so when we're when you read the early church fathers

40:21 and they talk about the Eucharist quite often you'll see this verse quoted of course it's not quoted chapter and verse they didn't have chapter and verse back then but they they'll say as Malachi said or as the as the word says as the Lord says for from the rising of the sun even to its setting my name is great my shim is great among the Goyi the nations and everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name and a pure offering for great is my name among the nations says the Lord of hosts so you have the Lord's name is great not just among Israel but among all the nations they all bring a pure and spotless oblation a spotless sacrifice to the Lord okay so we can see that the Old Testament itself is pointing forward to the incorporation of the Gentiles the ethnos into the church but now we're going to switch from Hebrew and we're going to start using the Greek term that Saint Paul used the ethnos

41:29 okay so no longer Goyi now we're ethnos okay let's turn to Acts 13 Acts 13 and in Acts 13 we have Paul's first missionary journey and in this first missionary journey of Paul he goes to Antioch in Pisidia I'm looking at verse 14 okay so Acts 13 14 and this is this is known as Pisidian Antioch is the location and there were several places named Antioch because Antiochus you know was a big Greek guy the different Antiochuses that existed Antioche okay let's look at verse 14 they continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia on the Sabbath they entered into the synagogue and took their seats after the reading of the law and the prophets the synagogue officials sent word to them my brothers if one of you has a word of exhortation for the people please speak okay Saint Paul was probably he's just burning you know he's just he's like yes I have a word for you of course I do you know I studied under

42:57 Gamaliel you know I was knocked off of my horse well the scripture doesn't say he was knocked off of his horse it says that he fell to the ground but he probably was upon a horse and so I mean I've you guys wow here we go so Paul got up motioned with his hand and said fellow Israelites notice he doesn't say Jews he says Israelites and that's important it's important and I'll point and I'll show you in just a moment fellow Israelites and you others who are God fearing the Gentiles that are the ethnos that are among the Jews that are God fearers they aren't completely Jews they don't completely adhere to the law but they adhere to some of the law and they want to hear the Torah and they want to learn kind of like inquirers in the Catholic faith people who are inquiring into baptism you know they come to classes they sit down they go okay I'll go to mass that's cool okay you know I can follow

43:59 the Ten Commandments that's fine but I'm not going to quite buy it all yet you know I'm not going to be fully initiated okay they're not quite catechumens or they're not quite there okay the God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt with uplifted arms he led them out of it and for about 40 years he put up with them in the desert when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan which by the way the early church fathers saw the seven nations in the land of Canaan as a sign of the seven deadly sins that we have to conquer he gave them their land as an inheritance at the end of about 450 years after these things he provided judges up to Samuel the prophet then they asked for a king God gave them Saul son of Kish who I'm probably named after Paul is thinking a man from the tribe of Benjamin just like I am for 40 years

45:03 then he removed him and raised up David as their king of him he testified I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart he will carry out my every wish from this man's descendants God according to his promise has had has brought to Israel a savior Jesus John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel and as John was completing his course he would say what do you suppose that I am I am not he behold one is coming after me I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet my brothers children of the family of Abraham and those others among you who are God fearing to us this word of salvation has been sent the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read Sabbath after Sabbath for even though they found no grounds for a death sentence they

46:04 asked Pilate to have him put to death and when they had accomplished all that was written about him they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb but God raised him from the dead and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem these are now his witnesses before the people we ourselves are proclaiming this gospel this good news to you that what God promised for us their children by raising up Jesus as it is written in the second psalm you are my son this day I have begotten you and that he raised him from the dead never to return to corruption he declared in this way I shall give you the benefits assured to David that is why he also says in another psalm you will not suffer your holy one to corruption psalm 16 verse 10 now David after he had served the will of God in his lifetime fell asleep was gathered to his ancestors and did see corruption

47:05 not like Saint Bernadette a Subaru whose body is still perfectly incorrupt in Subaru France has anybody ever been there and seen that so if Jesus was incorrupt go look at Saint Bernadette she still got blue eyes are not dilated still perfectly incorrupt now David after he had served the will of God in his lifetime fell asleep was gathered to his ancestors and did see corruption but the one whom God raised up did not see corruption you must know my brothers that through him forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you and in regard to everything from which you could not be justified under the law of Moses in him every believer is justified be careful then about what was said in the prophets not come about he quotes Habakkuk 1 5 look on you scoffers be amazed and disappear for I am doing a work in your days a work that you will never believe even if someone tells you now notice Paul says

48:12 be careful then that what was said in the prophets not come about what do you mean not come about that you're just like you know someone who doesn't believe in Habakkuk no something much greater Habakkuk proclaimed this oracle about disbelief right before Jerusalem was destroyed as a warning to the people Saint Paul knows the judgment is coming to Jerusalem and if you don't repent Titus Flavius Vespasianus that's how you say his name the Roman legions to destroy Jerusalem just like what happened in the days of Habakkuk as they were leaving they invited them to speak on these subjects the following Sabbath hey you're a pretty good preacher you're a pretty good lecturer we'd like to have you back what's your fee after the congregation had dispersed many Jews and worshippers who were converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who spoke to them and urged them to remain faithful to the grace

49:10 of God now notice lots of Jews accept the gospel leaders you know many Jews worshippers who were converts to Judaism you know they had converted and so sometimes the scriptures even Paul will talk about quote unquote the Jews who are disbelieving well he doesn't mean all Jews he's a Jew you know Jesus is a Jew Mary is a Jew the twelve apostles were Jews no the Jews are specifically those unbelieving Jews and it's very important to keep that in mind now you know how I said a moment ago that it was important that he said Israel my fellow Israelites his hope that Israel has I want you to look at chapter 26 verse 7 chapter Acts 26 verse 7 and notice Paul says something very curious Acts 26 verse 7 our hope to attain to that promise as they fervently worship God day and night our twelve Paul didn't you know that there's only three tribes left some Levites Benjaminites and Judahites what do you

50:47 mean twelve tribes what do you mean twelve tribes that doesn't make sense well it does make sense let's see what else he says at Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13 verse 44 on the following Sabbath one week later almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord when quote unquote the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul had said both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life we now turn to the ethnos and my English translation says Gentiles is that what all your translations say Gentiles for so the Lord has commanded us for so the Lord has commanded us and he quotes scripture quote I have made you a light to the Gentiles that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth now

52:05 that is a that's from Isaiah and Isaiah is talking about the servant of the Lord the suffering servant I have made you a light to the Gentiles that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth so he's saying that the servant the suffering servant will be a light to the and that through you somehow salvation will reach the ends of the earth like through Abraham worldwide blessing worldwide salvation Isaiah 49 6 so let's turn back to Isaiah 49 6 and look at the context of what Paul is quoting 49 chapter 49 of Isaiah verse 6 okay we could even begin with verse 1 so I'm going to begin with verse 1 but 6 is what he quotes hear me oh coast lands listen oh distant peoples the Lord called me from birth from my mother's womb he gave me my name he made of me a sharp edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm he made me a polished arrow in his quiver he hid me you are my

53:33 servant he said to me Israel through whom I show my glory so who is the servant of the Lord Israel is but Paul says that somehow he's Israel and then other gospel authors quote Isaiah talking about the servant of the Lord referring to Jesus so who is it well ultimately it's Jesus who is the new Israel and then Jesus body the mystical body of Jesus the church because you're united to Jesus let me say that again it's Jesus who is the new Israel remember Jesus did what Israel failed to do in the desert he ends up acting like Israel he does what Israel did he goes through the desert 40 days for 40 years tempted by the devil overcomes the devil is obedient to God's word unlike Israel Jesus is a new Israel and so he's a new Israel he's a servant of the Lord and now we in a certain sense take up his vocation when we're united to him in baptism when we become members of his mystical body so we so

54:45 this vocation of the servant Lord becomes in a certain sense our own we are now a light Paul is a light to the Gentiles okay so let's look at this verse 4 Isaiah 49 verse 4 though I thought I had toiled in vain and for nothing uselessly spent my strength yet my reward is with the Lord my recompense is with my God for now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb that Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him that's saying there's a literary device where you say the same thing twice and this happens a lot in the Psalms it's like my dad is Raleigh Weber Raleigh is my father you're saying the exact same thing but in a little bit of a different way okay so he's saying that Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him Israel is Jacob's ulterior name and I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord and my God is now my strength okay here's the

55:55 key verse that Paul quotes it is too little he says for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel that's too little of a thing well for the Israelites that was a huge thing but he says no that's too little rather quote I will make you a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth so I don't want to just restore Israel I want to restore everybody I want to bring about the salvation of the go let's skip along a little bit later to verse 22 by the way we could read from this whole this whole all of the whole thing I want to read before it I want to read after it I want to read all this Isaiah is amazing let's turn to verse 22 verse 22 is going to tell us how Israel is going to be restored how God is going to raise up the tribes of David verse thus says the Lord God see I will lift up my hand to the nations and raise

57:13 my signal to the peoples they shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders so what's the how of the restoration the nations are going to this is the imagery are going to take Israelites the boys in their arms and are going to bring them back and the nations are going to take the daughters of Israel on their shoulders and are going to bring them back so how is Israel going to be restored the Gentiles are going to bring the Israelites with them and Saint Paul knows this because Saint Paul's mission is to the Jew and to the Gentile and when he goes out to the Gentile who is he going out to all 12 tribes those tribes that had been assimilated among the Gentiles see Isaiah knows this Isaiah knows how this is going to come about Isaiah knows the restoration it's kind like duh how else is it going to come about there's no other way so that's kind of

58:36 cool and Paul knows this and this is why he quotes from the strategic verse in Isaiah 49 verse 6 let's look at Isaiah 51 verse 4 we're just going to keep looking at Isaiah we're going to go through Isaiah a little bit and I'm going to point out some passages Isaiah 51 verse 4 Be Be attentive to me my people my folk the new american bible lord help us my folk give ear to me for law oh my gosh somebody buy me a revised standard version please and then transfer all of my notes to that bible for law shall go forth from my presence and my judgment as a light of the peoples I will make my justice come speedily my salvation shall go forth and my arm shall judge the nations in me shall the coastlands hope and my arm they shall await raise your eyes to the heavens and look to the earth below though the heavens grow thin like smoke the earth wears out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies

59:46 my salvation shall remain forever my justice shall never be dismayed so basically that's talking about how he's the light of the peoples and his arm shall judge the nations so this the servant of the lord is going to deal with the nations let's go a bit further to Isaiah 55 now this is a huge passage in Isaiah 55 verse 3 and if you begin Isaiah 55 verse 1 all you who are thirsty come to the water where else is that in the new testament revelation 21 talks about all you know who are who are thirsty you know come to the living waters come to the water drink from the water verse 3 come to me heedfully listen that you may have life I will renew with you the everlasting covenant the benefits assured to David okay the renewal of the Davidic covenant as I made him a witness to the peoples a leader and commander of nations the goyi so shall you summon a nation you knew not and nations that knew you

1:01:11 not shall run to you because of the Lord your God the holy one of Israel who has glorified you so the servant Israel is going to be glorified and this is going to be a light to the nations that the nations who knew you not shall run to you this kind of reminds me of the what Simeon said in the temple to Joseph and Mary when they presented Jesus in the temple you guys remember what he said now master you may let your servant go in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel this is Isaiah that Simeon is speaking of Simeon the prophet that's Luke 2 29 through 32 Luke 2 29 through 32 okay so you know as we read the Old Testament as we know our Old Testament all of a sudden the New Testament just come to light oh that's why Simeon said that man that

1:02:15 was really weird what he said okay Isaiah 56 verse 3 I promise I won't bore you too much I mean it's sacred scripture right I mean who can beat God's word Isaiah 56 verse 3 let not the foreigner say when he would join him this is Isaiah 56 verse 3 let not the foreigner say when he would join himself to the Lord the Lord will surely exclude me from his people nor let the eunuch say see I am a dry tree that's an idiom a euphemism for saying I can't have children because I'm a eunuch I've been castrated to put it lightly you know the textbook points out that eunuchs cannot become Jews they're prohibited in Deuteronomy 23 verses 2 and 3 it says anybody who has had his crushed cannot join my people period so if eunuchs are somehow going to be a part of God's people they can't become Jews first especially men eunuchs because they can't be circumcised if they don't have that thing that heart to be

1:03:37 circumcised and this presents a great case for the apostles yes go ahead Tanya why were they castrated great question okay let's put it this way I have a teenager on the streets who has a shaved head who loves heavy metal who is just you know I think he's a good kid would you like to have him stay in your house for a week while you go off to work no why not you don't quite trust him but what if I took somebody who I knew was a goody two-shoe a girl maybe who loved my little ponies great track record never sinned before as far as we know would you like to have her watch over your house no yes there you know there's a difference there well in the same way eunuchs took care of the harem or the concubines of the kings you can put two and two together and figure out why okay back to the passage at hand who did that to them god forbid I don't know who but it happened I don't know just thank god

1:04:56 that you live in the 21st century or you don't live in other countries I guess that are less nice okay Isaiah 55 verse 4 for thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who observe my sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters an eternal imperishable name will I give them so better than them being able to have children I'll give them an imperishable name and they will have within my walls a monument and a name basically they'll be a part of my people eunuchs will be able to be members of the full members of the covenant family of God and the foreigners who join themselves to the and this is by the way this is why you know you have Philip baptizing the eunuch the eunuch reading Isaiah and he's kind of like I don't understand who the servant of the Lord is and Philip goes up to him the

1:05:54 apostle says let me interpret this for you it's Jesus and guess what Isaiah also says you can become a member of the covenant family of God now because of Jesus I'm sure Philip knew Isaiah 56 verse 6 and the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord ministering to him loving the name of the Lord and becoming his servants all who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer their holocaust and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples thus says the Lord God who gathers the dispersed of Israel see this is inextricably connected with the gathering of Israel the salvation of the foreigners Isaiah kind of talks about the two interchangeably others will I gather to him besides those already gathered okay we're almost finished with Isaiah almost

1:06:58 finished let's turn to Isaiah 60 Isaiah 60 the glory of the new Zion yay Isaiah rise up in verse one rise up in splendor your light has come the glory of the Lord shines upon you see darkness covers the earth and thick clouds cover the peoples but upon you the Lord shines and over you appears his glory again here's the idea of the glorification of Israel that Simeon talks about nations shall walk by your light and kings by your shining radiance raise your eyes and look about they all gather and come to you their sons come from afar and your daughters in the arms of their nurses and again there's the idea of the daughters of Israel coming in the arms of the nurses of the Gentiles there then you shall be radiant at what you see your heart shall throb and overflow for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you the wealth of nations shall be brought to you caravans of camels shall

1:07:59 feed you dromedaries from Midian and Ephah all from Sheba come bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the Lord hence why gold and frankincense were brought to Jesus by the three magi okay this is fulfilling Isaiah 60 now the deaconate formation program that my friend went through failed to mention the prophet Isaiah you know hello of course Jesus knew Isaiah he knew it so well that that's what he that's the scroll that he unrolled in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth in Luke I believe it's chapter four and he read from Isaiah and said this is being fulfilled you know as you hear these words Jesus knew Isaiah he knew that this was for all the nations okay let's turn to the very end of Isaiah and so you know I can't go any further Isaiah 66 verse 18 this is great just in case if you haven't gotten what he's had to say yet he says it again I come to gather this

1:09:06 is Isaiah 66 verse 18 I come to gather nations of every language they shall come and see my glory I will set a sign among them from them I will send fugitives to the nations to Tarshish put and Ludd Mossack I'm probably martyring these names Tubal and Javan to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame or seen my glory and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the Lord on horses and in chariots and carts upon mules and dromedaries to Jerusalem my holy mountain says the Lord just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the Lord in clean vessels some of these I will take as priests and Levites says the Lord wait a minute how can you take Levites from non Levites what does he mean he's going to take priests and Levites from these peoples that's odd it's like saying I'm going to take

1:10:09 an American from the Germans you can't do that you know I want to take a South African from a North Arab it doesn't make sense well basically I'm going to take ministers you know from the Gentiles just as there are ministers from the Israelites so there will be Gentile ministers and St. Luke saw himself as one of those because he was one he was a missionary companion of Paul he was ordained right he's going to keep them on an equal footing yes precisely okay let's turn to Ephesians chapter one now we get to look at some of St.

1:10:59 Paul man St. Paul in Ephesians St. Paul now that you know this and you're knowing the Old Testament better and you're knowing this narrative better St. Paul's epistles are going to make much better sense you're going to see St. Paul's arguments come much clearer but in Ephesians 1 verse 15 we read this by the way I commend all you guys for staying through this Bible study to chapter 26 this is incredible this is really good this is wonderful I mean the we had attrition rate of about I would say 40% about 60% are still here I mean who come regularly we still have people who come half of the time and then we have people come a third of the time some people come two out of every three I really commend you guys way to go way to put up with me did you know that this entire scripture study is about 40 hours of listening to me drone on and on that amazing you're going to have listen to me for 40

1:12:00 an entire work week only if you wish you got a paycheck Ephesians 1 15 the attrition rate would be better it definitely okay therefore I too hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus by the way he's writing to both Jews and Gentiles who have become Christians I too hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and of your love for all the holy ones do not cease giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you a spirit of Sophia and apocalypse a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him may the that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call what are the riches and glory of his inheritance among the holy ones and what is the surpassing greatness of the power for us who believe in accord with the exercise of his great might which he worked in Christ raising him from the dead and seating him at

1:13:02 the right hand in the heavens that's an allusion to Daniel 7 and also Ezekiel 2 and Ezekiel 8 but primarily Daniel 7 that he seated Christ up seated Christ up so let's skip down to verse 4 of chapter 2 let's go to chapter 2 verse 1 You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world following the ruler of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient all of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses you know your disordered passions your weakened will your darkened intellect life with Christ by grace you have been saved raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus now obviously we're not ascended into heaven but we share in Christ's authority right now this is Daniel 7 when the when he the son of man is presented among the ancient

1:14:14 of days he shares all glory and kingship with the saints that in the you have been saved through faith and this is not from you it is the gift of God it is not from works so no one may boast for we are his handiwork created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance that we should live in them now some people see that since Paul is talking about good works in verse 10 it must be works good works he's talking about in verse 9 but that's not the works that he's talking about when he says works in verse 9 he's talking about a different type of works that separate you from Gentile this is why in verse 11 he says therefore remember that at one time you ethnos Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by those called the circumcision which is done in the flesh you were separated at were at that time without Christ alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers

1:15:27 to the covenants of promise without hope and without God in the world wow that was they were in dire straits verse 13 but now in Christ Jesus you who are once far off have become near by the blood of Christ for he is our peace he who made both one and broke commandments and legal claims that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two thus establishing peace the dividing wall he's not just using metaphor there was a dividing wall the wall of the temple that separated the court of the Gentiles from the rest of the temple but that has been broken down now Christ is the true temple and both are on the same footing in Christ Gentiles are now part of the covenant family of God on the same level as the Jews because the mosaic law the national law that separated the Israelites from the nations has been abolished Christ took upon himself the deuteronomic curses of the deuteronomic

1:16:25 covenant he suffered all those curses so that by being baptized the Jew would experience the benefits of the redemption and would be delivered from the deuteronomic covenant the mosaic covenant the covenant that was doomed where they were doomed to die where the deuteronomic covenant was basically a damning covenant Paul elsewhere calls it covenant of condemnation and so they're delivered from that so that they can enter the renewed Davidic covenant the family of God be on the same footing as Gentiles and now they can live at peace with one body okay I know that's a lot we're going to talk about it more next week because we're going to cover Saint Paul in more depth in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen Lord thank you tremendously again for the gift of Jesus Christ who became a curse for us who was hung upon a tree we thank you for condemning the flesh for doing

1:17:29 away with our slavery to the devil our slavery to the passions and giving us the spirit that frees us that animates us so Holy Spirit oh Lord Holy Spirit ignite in us a fire a flame of love that we may become great saints that we may become virtuous help us pray this week help remind us to pray help us pray well we love you Lord Holy Spirit thank you for all of your gifts your seven fold gifts we ask for you to renew them within us this week as we live out Lent and follow our Savior Jesus Christ ever more intensely Amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen Son of Son of