New Branches on the Tree
Text: Romans 11:17-24
Pastor James Sheldon
May 3, 2009
Does God ever speak to you personally? Absolutely!
This sermon is the first in a new series of messages: "When God Speaks."
Many press writers and popular commentators today claim say that God doesn't speak any more. The number of people who call themselves atheists has doubled in the last 10 years--from 8% to 16% of our population. In England some people who are actually having themselves "un-baptized," and aggressively denying their Christian faith and labeling themselves as formal atheists!
So I repeat my words of both assurance and warning: "Yes, God speaks. He wants to speak to us. He chooses to speak to us, and He does so often and clearly. He Speaks."
Now to begin this message, here is a true story. If you are a parent, grandparent or aunt or uncle, you will right away tune in on what happened.
When I was about 10 years old we lived near Tokyo. One day I went outside to play some other kids. We went down to the nearby train tracks. They were the tracks of the high-speed commuter train coming out of the city. Those trains traveled the line at speeds of from 80 to 100+ mph. They would come whipping down the tracks, Whoosh! and be right on top of you before you'd know it. Very fast.
So there we were, playing around the tracks. We would take coins, lay them out on the tracks, and having the train come through and flatten them! Whoosh! Ha, Ha, Ha. Ten minutes later, another train came through. Whoosh! Wow, what fun! --Until my mother came out looking us and found us there. You know, just about every culture in the world has some form of the saying, "Spare the rod, spoil the child."? I got the Japanese version of it.
Now, I am not telling you this story just to prove how as a kid I was capable of doing some foolish things. No, I told you the story to prove that humans in general, when it comes to obeying God, often play on the railroad the tracks. Do you see what I mean? We wander off. We do some really foolish things. We get into dangerous situations. That's when God gets angry. Why? Because He loves us and cares about us, and doesn't want anyone to perish.
That's why God often and powerfully speaks to us today to call us to Him.
Start now by turning to Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 11. Here God lays out some important truths about how God would call out to us and offer us salvation.
He had said at least three times earlier in this, same letter that salvation is first for the Jew and also for the gentile. Romans 1:16 says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Paul then repeats that same promise two other times in this letter.
Now in Romans 11 he reminds the Christians back then in Rome, that both kinds of believers there are loved by God. It reminds you of John 3:16 [Recite], and also includes 3:17 that states, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
In verse 24 here God lays out 3, key truths for us today. It says, "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!" Grafting is the act of attaching to give new life.
God through Paul here says three things happen. First, God's own people turned away from Him, especially when Jesus came, they rejected and even killed Him. So first, they were cut off from their connections with God, like an "olive tree that is wild by nature." A wild olive tree will not grow proper fruit and so gets cut down!
Second he says that others were then grafted on to the original root. God's people brought Jesus into the world; now others, non-Jews, were become believers, because they accepted Christ. In actual olive groves, you would not graft wild olive branches onto tame trees, but Paul is saying that God in his mercy can bring about salvation for anyone, even the lost and wild.
Then third, Paul tells us that God's people--even after they rejected Jesus--could still be grafted back on to the tree and bear fruit. (Throughout the Bible the olive tree is the symbol of God's connection and care for his people. Jeremisah 11:16 says to Israel, "The LORD called you a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form." In Hosea 14:6, God calls His people turn from their sin and then "[Israel's] splendor will be like an olive tree...."
Many times Israel turned away from God. They grumbled and went off to seek other Gods. So they'd get in trouble like their bondage in Egypt and later their exile to Babylon. Finally--often a generation or more--they would say, "Oh my, we messed up. Call on God again." And when they did, God in his amazing grace would keep come and rescue his people, bringing them back to Himself.
Realize this now: This story of Jews is both true history, but also a parable for us. The problems they brought on themselves are the same problems that we bring upon ourselves today. The same steps take place: People turn from God, get lost and get into trouble.
You know individuals who are spiritually lost. Maybe someone in your family. Maybe you have in some way have turned your back on God and are messing around in you life, doing things that amount to playing on train tracks! For instance our laws show a disdain for human life. Many leaders are corrupt, immoral and god-hating. We've turned from God.
One common expression today "politically correct." Think what that often means: Men can be gay and women can marry other women. It's politically correct. Hopeless kids are failing tests and doing hard drugs in the bathroom! But to teach about true morals and God's laws would not be politically correct.
Recently one Episcopalian priest was asked to pray at a ceremony at the White House. As she prayed, she didn't use God at all! After all, it might offend someone, since it wasn't "politically correct." As Isaiah said, "We like sheep have gone astray." (Isa. 53:6)
So what do we do? If you know someone who has turned from God, do this: Put them at the top of your list of people to pray for. Then when you get a chance, go ahead and tell them about their need for Jesus. As one hymn says, "Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save!" Amen? [Do you know anyone playing on spiritual train tracks right now? Are you? That's a first concern we have.]
II Next God makes a second call to us. It's the call to be grafted on to Him.
You see, no matter how evil or wild you've been, God is willing to take you and graft you on to His vine of faith. He wants to make you his own stock, adopt you into his own family. I'm can be a child of the King himself, royal stock!
Note, you and I aren't Hebrew stock, not the original, chosen people. But still, God offers to graft us onto his own vine. We are given the Spirit of God, Who begins to flow through our veins. Like a renewed olive vine we start producing new fruit in our lives.
Paul lists that new fruit in Galatians 5:22. He says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." And he immediately applies this truth by adding on, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (verse 24-25)
If you really are connected to Jesus and living for Him, you will look different, sound different and act different. He takes your old stock, uses it a new way and produces great things for his Kingdom sake. He does that for us, even the Gentiles now.
Let me ask you now. Is that what you are doing? Do you say you believe in Jesus? If so, does it show in your life? When you meet temptation, do you just do the same old thing you've always done? Or do you now say, "I really desire to act differently, and live in a way that pleases Jesus. I'm willing to have Him working through me and touching the world around me."
This new life is an act of both worship and witness. You are saying, "My God is so good and so worthy, I am going to bring other people with me to worship Him and serve Him with me." If you get "grafted on" to the lineage of God's family, it produces a real desire to bring others to serve and worship him with you. That's the fruit you produce.
Are you bearing fruit for Jesus? You certainly want to!
People in the world today may brag, "I got connections!" In earthly politics that has one meaning. But in our lives as Christian it means so much more. We've got real, eternal connections with Almighty God, and can count on Him being with us forever. Go ahead and say: "I got connections!"
Your connections are with Jesus the King. And that's worth telling people about.
Consider doing this then: Make a list of the people you will speak to. Then do so to bear fruit. A lot of people today are down, playing on the railroad tracks of the world. They need to be saved, and you and I are the folks who need to go down and call them to be safe in Jesus. We today are the people God uses to produce fruit from our personal faith and witness.
So first, some have rejected God. They are like the Jews around Jesus, and now need to be warned and called. Second, God can use even you, and make your life fruitful. Some of the best witnesses of God's grace are those who have received it and now want to say so.
III Now third, God says one more thing about the personal faith. We read here, "[H]ow much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!"
He is saying this: Yes, the Jews first rejected Jesus. They tragically cut themselves off from Jesus--God in person. But what if they were to come back to Him? Non-believers came and got connected back up with God, and He used even us! And now he is saying that the Jews too, should they come back to God. If so, He will graft them back on too.
Some of the most powerful and passionate Christians I know --like Rev. Dr. Lee Spitzer, our state minister--are just that, Jews who love Christ. Their personal, deep faith is there, because they have long-term, generation-deep connections to God. Hallelujah! God wants to use us all.
This same truth applies to this country. We started out as a Christian nation, followers of God. Our colleges and hospitals were founded first and foremost as Christian groups.
Now what? Many churches and denominations have wandered off. They have ended saying things like, "the Bible isn't the truth of God, and Jesus isn't the only way to salvation."
But what if these people, once called by God, were to wake up spiritually and came back to their Christian beliefs and a love for Jesus? What if? The answer is clear. God will use them.
Get personal now. What if you and I were to say, "Jesus, I've believed, but haven't really been really showing this and living it. I've strayed off."? That's one of the main problems with many Christians today. We've lost our first love, just like the Jews back then.
As such, God is willing to call us back to him, fan the flames and really make us burn with holy passion again. If we, like the Jews, come to Him, then God will take us, use us, bless us, empower us and work through us. We are like the three sets of olive branches described here by God. We can and should produce new fruit for His Kingdom's sake. This is a promise that God gives, and He does not break His promises.
The one common truth about all three of these branches here is this: They are all connected to God. If they disconnect, they wither and die. But connected to God, they will bear fruit.
Now that our call. We need to be personally connected to God.
So do this today to take action to connect to God. In a moment we will receive the communion cup. It is as a symbol of the blood of Jesus. As you do, use this symbol: Think of yourself as a new branch, grafted on to Jesus--personally connected. Think of the wine as a new, fresh sap that flows from Jesus, into you to give you new life. Make Him part of your life. Let Him renew and revive you. He can and will speak to you!
Will you? God invites you to answer his call. Get Jesus in you and be like a real branch, connected to Him and thus able to bear the fruit He wants you to produce.
Let this be your prayer: "Lord Jesus, graft me on to you and renew my very soul and mind. Let your love flow through me, that I might share it with all I meet. Let me bear fruit for your kingdom's sake and for your glory. Amen"
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