Alba 3-10-2022
BRANCHES – BROKEN AND GRAFTED
Romans 11:11-32
Today is the day we refer to as Palm Sunday. It commemorates the event when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem at the beginning of that week when He would die on the cross for us.
It was a day of celebration. Jesus was being hailed as a king and a savior. Hosannas were being shouted out to announce His arrival. Hosanna means “save we pray”.
It was a thrilling event. And it was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 which says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
You see, in times of war conquerors would ride in chariots or on prancing stallions. But in times of peace, the king would ride a donkey to symbolize that peace prevailed. So, for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem upon a colt of a donkey was to declare that He is a King proclaiming peace.
Among the crowds praising Him would be people He had healed. Some had been among the thousands He had fed. Many more had seen some of His miracles, and listened as "He spoke with authority." They had listened, and their lives had been changed.
In Matthew 21:8 it says that as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
Both Matthew and Luke tell us that sometime earlier Jesus looked down upon the city and had cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34)
And as this triumphal procession continued, Luke 19:41-42 says, Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Then He predicts the destruction that will soon come upon Jerusalem. And He could see the time coming when as a nation, in the same way they had cut off the palm branches to give Him praise, they would be like branches cut off from the blessings of God.
The apostle Paul in Romans chapter eleven speaking of Israel says they, the natural branches of God's family tree, have been broken off and the wild branches, the Gentiles, have been grafted in. So now the wild branches praise the Lord.
Because Israel as a nation was not believing in Jesus as Messiah, Paul expressed his deep concern for their future. but could see that in the plan of God there was a purpose in all of it.
In Romans 11:11 Paul writes, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.”
And in Romans 11:17-18 Paul uses the illustration of Israel and the Gentiles as branches, some cut off and others grafted in.
He says to the gentiles, “17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.”
Israel and Judah were the natural branches of God’s people, chosen by God. Yet they were “broken off” and cast aside as unworthy.
Then, by God’s mercy, the gospel came to the gentiles who are considered to be branches of “wild olive trees”, and who were grafted into the real olive tree by their faith in Jesus.
Paul then warns us, as gentiles who are grafted into the Family of God through Christ, not to think that we can now boast, or brag that we are better than the Jews.
We were cut off from a wild olive tree and grafted into the family of God. It was all accomplished through the blood of Jesus and the power of the Spirit of God. Gentile Christians have no right to despise the Jews as though they were not worthy of anything.
We should be so very thankful and humbled that God allowed us to be grafted in; and we should pray for Israel that they would also learn of Jesus and be saved.
Jesus accomplished what no mere human being can do. He lived a perfect life and died as a complete payment for the sins of anyone who comes to Him. He is the Savior who rescues us from the penalty of our sins. In Jesus, we have been grafted into the God's kingdom.
And we all need to be nourished by the same root on the same tree. John 15:4-5 tell us how. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
We must abide in Him because He is the vine, root of the tree of the family of God. How do we abide in Him?... In Fellowship with Him, His Word, His People, Worship of Him, Prayer to Him, Living lives that honor Him. That’s how we abide with Him.
“Abiding” is just going to “happen”. We have been forgiven by grace, but we have to cultivate our faith if it is going to grow. If we try to live apart from Him, we will be apart from Him.
That's the warning in verses 19-22 of our text. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
He is saying “Yes, the Jews were cut off, because of unbelief. And yes, you Gentiles have been grafted in – in their place. But don’t be so smug about this, you can be cut off too.”
If God rejected Israel, what makes us think that God won’t reject an unbelieving and backslidden Christian, or that He wouldn't even cast aside a church that is unfaithful in worshiping him?
Jeff Strite, a Christian minister in Indiana, points out that there are people who have problems with this apparent teaching from Romans that one can be “cut off”. {“Right Or Wrong? - Once Saved, Always Saved?” Contributed by Jeff Strite Apr 8, 2002}
They complain that it is unbiblical for a person to fear losing their salvation. They maintain that “once a person is saved they will always be saved."
But in 1 Corinthians 15:2 we’re told: “I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”
And Jesus declared in John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Still it is pointed out that Jesus said in John 10:27-29:
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
What does that mean? It means that once I’m saved, no one can take my salvation away from me. You can steal my car, burn my home, kill my family, but you can’t take my salvation away from me.
No army known to man, no terrorist with explosives can forcibly remove my salvation. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t get up and walk away from God.
Remember the warning in Romans 11:22 “consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”
How do we avoid living in abject fear all our life – afraid of losing our salvation when we're not looking. Well let’s go over a few points:
1. You can’t lose your salvation. It’s not like misplacing your glasses or your car keys. You don’t someday wake up and realize you’ve forgotten where you put it.
2. And no one can take your salvation away from you. Jesus won’t let that happen.
3. Salvation is something one would have to deliberately walk away from to not have it any longer.
A good way of explaining this is a story that was in Reader’s Digest some time ago: A man was explaining that, “During the Mortgage Closing on our summer house, my wife and I were asked to sign documents containing small print.
“When I asked if I should read it, my attorney replied, "Legally, you should, but here’s the bottom line: If you pay your installments on time, there is nothing in there that could harm you. Should you stop paying, however, there is definitely nothing in the small print that can save you.”
If a family has a mortgage on their home, and if they are faithful in making their payments every month, there is no fear of losing it.
There are people who have lost their homes. Often you see houses being sold in foreclosure. The owners walked away from it. They didn’t pay their taxes, they didn’t pay their mortgage payments.
They have not been faithful to their home in keeping it up and meeting their responsibilities. And now it is no longer theirs.
That’s what Paul said about the Jews. They walked away from God’s gift for them. Do you remember why Paul said the Jews were cut off? (wait for the audience to find it…)
Verse 20 tells us they were broken off “because of unbelief.” Notice, they weren’t cut off because they slipped and sinned. It wasn’t because they said a bad word or did a bad thing – NO!!!
THEY REFUSED TO BELIEVE. That’s why they were cut off. They didn’t want what God had to offer, so they proudly turned their back on all that God wanted to give them. So they were cut off.
But now, here’s the good part: Look at Romans 11:23, “if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
Romans 11:26-27 says, 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”
This is the great promise of God to the Jews! Their Deliver has come. And there will come a day when they shall know Jesus as their Messiah. The Jews will recognize the Lord and begin to believe on Him and serve Him faithfully.
They will turn from ungodliness and idolatry and turn to Jesus as their Lord, and God makes a great promise to them!
National Israel’s rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah is reversible. Now the scripture does not say that for those who die in their sins that personal rejection is reversible.
Jesus taught that principle which is found in Hebrews 9:27, which says: “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” If one dies, having rejected Jesus’ Lordship, that cannot be reversed.
But God promises a time in the future when there will be a revival in national Israel. How much easier can it be in the spiritual realm to graft a natural branch back into the tree of life?
God can bring the Jews back in and make them a part of the church that will be in Heaven, just as easily as He saved us to be a part of that church too.
While the bad news is that you can walk away from your salvation. The good news is this: If you return to Him, God will open the house back up for you.
He’ll take the shutters off the doors and the bars off the windows and fix your life back up again – even if you’ve wandered so far away from Him you don’t think you’ll ever get back.
The parable of the Prodigal Son that Jesus told makes it plain that God is waiting in anticipation for those who have left Him for the things of this world to come back to Him.
God stands off from His people when they rebel against Him, but He never ignores people who cry out to Him in faith. When we look beyond the struggles of this life we will see Him waiting for us with open arms.
When the lost cry out to Him, He hears their cries and joyfully carries them to eternity. Both Jew and gentile alike, are one and the same in the eyes of the Lord once we are born again and saved by the mercy and grace of God through the blood of Jesus.
Romans 3:23 condemns us all saying, “For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
But the next verses give us hope saying that we can be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood.”
The main thing to learn from Romans chapter 11 is the fact that God wants to restore us to Himself. He wants us, Jew and gentile alike, to be His people and realize how precious a thing He has done for us.
Romans 11:32 says, God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
That means His mercy is available to each one of us if we will come to Him in obedient faith. Praise God!
CONCLUSION:
You may remember the story about the little boy who was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch.
The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?"
"You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today."
The little boy replied, " Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!"
Listen, we don't have to miss Jesus. When we come to Him in faith, repentance, confession and being baptized into Him, and stay faithful, we have the the promise in Revelation 7:9-10.
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
That salvation is ours when we are in Christ Jesus.
