Branches

Introduction

Good evening and welcome to our Online Evening Worship Service!

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My hope is that everyone is doing well and staying safe out there.

And tonight we are going to continue in our study, our “Walk Through Romans”

And we are going to be pushing forward just a bit tonight, looking at Romans 11:11-25

And the subject we will be looking at is that of “Branches.”

And if you were with us last week, or if you would like to go back and view last Sunday night’s message, you will know that we started Romans 11 and looked at the first 10 verses.

And the subject last week was really a question.

And the question was, “Did God Reject His People?”

And spoiler alert—God did not reject His people.

However, those who rejected and continue to reject God, well God allows them to go their own way and they endure the consequences of their actions and their sins.

However, this was not God’s plan, but rather our unwillingness to follow God’s plan.

God’s intention was for the Jewish people to be the leaders and examples for all people and to actually lead all to the Messiah.

But they along the way, messed that up.

And instead of becoming leaders and champions of the Gospel, they became the antagonists of the Gospel.

However, there were and remain today, Jewish people who hear and accept the Gospel and they do become leaders.

But in Paul’s day, when the letter to the Romans was written, the “Christian Religion” was new and the people were just learning how to go about this relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church.

And it was particularly difficult for the Jewish converts because it was to them almost as if God was pushing them and their traditions aside for this “new way.”

And they had many questions, one being whether or not God had turned His back on them.

To which Paul has answered many times here in Romans and will continue to answer—no.

But Paul also, is always teaching them of what God’s intentions were for them and for all people.

And here in the second part of chapter 11 though we see Paul beginning to turn his attention back to the Gentiles a bit as well.

I almost get the impression that Paul was able to anticipate and understand what the Gentile reaction to this letter was going to be.

And the reaction I believe Paul anticipated was one of contempt and “one ups-man-ship” against the Jews by the Gentiles.

And this is because for generations the Gentiles had lived among the Jews and had been revered as being “worthless” and “not good enough.”

Jews referred to them as “dogs” and “dirty.”

So bad that they wouldn’t even go into a Gentile house.

And now, we have Paul, and Jew of Jews touting himself as the “Apostle to the Gentiles” and telling the people that the Gentiles were just as good as the Jews in God’s eyes.

That all of the Jewish bigotry and hatred toward Gentiles that was rooted in their traditions of being God’s “chosen people” and “above everyone else” was false and a complete misinterpretation of God and God’s word.

So, now the Gentiles think that the tables are turned and the Jews are getting their “just desserts.”

But Paul is getting ready to slow them down—to cool their own jets just a bit.

And he does so here in the second part of chapter 11.

So, that’s where we are going tonight, and again we are going to be looking at verses 11-25 but I want to start just by reading a short snippet of the passage.

So, Romans 11, starting in verse 17, Paul writes this . . .

Scripture Focus

Romans 11:17–21 NIV - Anglicised

17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

I’m Talking to You Gentiles! (vs 11-16)

In one word we can say “ouch!”

Paul is pulling no punches here and says what he means and means what he says.

I almost get the impression that he is growing weary of the arrogance and sinfulness of both groups, Jews and Gentiles alike.

And I get this sense because regardless of where your tradition brings you from, in Christ, there is no room for arrogance and pride.

It is incompatible with Christ and incompatible with Christianity as a whole.

And Paul is tired of it.

However, before we get to where we are going, I want to back up to verse 11 and see how all of this gets started.

In verse 11, Paul writes this . . .

Romans 11:11 NIV - Anglicised

11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

So, again Paul is now addressing the Gentiles who think they have one leg up on the Jews now.

And Paul asks them, “did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?”

Are they beyond saving?

Are they beyond the grace of God?

And his answer “not at all!”

And it is the same question and answer that we receive as well.

We have a lot of people running around out here with an elitist attitude saying that they have the market on Jesus cornered.

That the only way you come to Jesus and remain in Jesus is if you do everything the way they say you have to.

And if you examine it very carefully, you will find that their salvation is based in works and not in faith.

And that is no salvation at all.

Also, you will have those that when someone in the church falls and sins, the first thing they want to do is cast them out, forget about them, condemn them.

When they should be the first one there lifting them up trying to help and trying to restore.

So judgmental.

Folks, none of us are beyond falling.

And also, none of us are beyond being recovered by God as well.

And Paul goes on to explain to them that salvation came to the Gentiles so hopefully the Jews would see and realize what they had abandoned, what they had given up.

Not to rub it in their faces, but in hopes that they would return to God.

And he continues to explain this point . . .

Romans 11:12–14 NIV - Anglicised

12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fulness bring! 13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.

And it goes back to the very thing we talked about last week.

It wasn’t that God rejected His people.

It was that God wanted to reveal to His people what salvation looked like, not just for a certain group, but for all people.

So that they would return to God and become the leaders that He had designed them to be.

And the message for us Gentiles is that God does not give us salvation so that we can flaunt it in the faces of other people.

In the faces of Atheists, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or whatever religion.

It is not given so we can have this “I am better than you attitude,” or so we can blanketly condemn everyone who is different from us to Hell because they think differently than we do.

And I am not talking about other religions—I am talking about other Denominations within the Christian religion.

I have heard, and it makes me cringe when I hear it, Christians (or at least people claiming to be Christians) condemning other denominations who’s belief and faith is in Jesus Christ, because the other denomination does not worship the way they do or they have some doctrinal difference than they do.

Or even worse, within the same denomination, I have heard condemnation because a certain church worships a different way or they have a certain preacher or they use a certain translation of the Bible.

That is not of God.

We all come to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

And if a Church is teaching that, who cares if they worship with hymns or contemporary music?

Who cares if their preacher wears a suit or jeans and t-shirt?

Who cares if they use the KJV, NIV, or NRSV Bible in their services?

None of those things matter and we are all in this together, or at least we should be.

And the point of it all is reconciliation with God.

Look at what Paul says next here . . .

Romans 11:15–16 NIV - Anglicised

15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

And he is talking about the Jewish rejection of Christ, opening up the door for the rest of the world to receive Christ.

But they can still accept.

And their acceptance does not mean the door is closed to the world again.

It means that the way to life has risen from the dead—for ALL PEOPLE, Jew and Gentile alike.

And now Paul begins to introduce this idea of branches and roots.

The root is Christ.

The original branches are the Jewish people.

And the root is Holy, thus the branches that grow from that root were also holy.

He Won’t Spare You Either (vs 17-21)

And Paul is going to use this idea to make his point regarding the grafting in and the pruning as well.

He goes on in verse 17 . . .

Romans 11:17 NIV - Anglicised

17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,

And again he is talking about the Gentiles now.

Some of the branches have been broken off—the Jews who have rejected Christ.

But we, the Gentiles are like wild shoots that grow among the trees.

Through Christ we are grafted into the tree and become part of the tree.

And we find our life and our nourishment from the root, from Christ, just like those branches that were there to begin with.

We are no different to God at this point than the Jews.

No better, no worse.

We are one and the same.

And so are they.

The conditions to getting to God.

To receiving eternal life— to salvation— is through Jesus Christ and only through Jesus Christ—for ALL PEOPLE.

However, this sometimes leads people to take this “holier than thou” approach and attitude.

This was happening in Paul’ s day and we see it playing out today as well.

Which is why Paul reminds us all . . .

Romans 11:18 NIV - Anglicised

18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

In other words, we are all dependent on Christ, not the other way around.

We do things God’s way and God does not do things our way.

Romans 11:19–21 NIV - Anglicised

19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

And there is where the “ouch” comes in.

Do we think that just because God opened the door for us that it makes us any better or any more special than anyone else?

Do we honestly think that the same God who cut off his chosen people because they rejected Him will not do the same with us?

Getting Cut Off/Closing (vs 22-24)

Remember, we are all the same in God’s eyes.

And we all come to God the same way—Jesus Christ.

Not through privilege.

Not through family heritage.

Not through tradition.

Not because we come to church.

Not because we are “good people.”

We don’t earn it.

We don’t pay for it.

We come to God through faith in Jesus Christ—all of us.

And if we choose to rejected God and reject salvation through Jesus, then we are cut off.

Not because God wants to do it, but we choose the consequence of our choices.

It is our choice.

A choice we make knowing the options and knowing the consequences.

A choice and a punishment we don’t have to make—but we choose to.

Which is what Paul is saying here in these last few verses . . .

Romans 11:22–24 NIV - Anglicised

22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

So, the real question tonight is have you been cut off from God?

Rather, have you cut yourself off from God?

Either by never coming into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, or by walking way from a relationship you once had.

You can be grafted in—or even grafted back in tonight, if you choose to be.

Will you make that choice tonight?

Maybe you have heard this message and God is convicting you because you realize that you have had the wrong attitude about other people.

You can do something about that. You can change that tonight, if you will.

We don’t have to be face to face to in a church building to talk to God, you can do it right now, right where you are at your computer.

Will you do that? Can you do that?

If you need to send me a message, send me a text and I will pray for you or even with you.

Or leave us a comment.

And as always until next time, stay safe and stay well!