Sermon – Romans 11:29-32 – Pruning the Church

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Romans 11:29-32 – Pruning the Church

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

August 14, 2011

Two weeks ago we heard Paul’s anguish as he talked about his disappointment in not being able to bring his own people, the children of Israel, to belief in Jesus Christ. But Paul was assured that since God is faithful the covenants God had establish with the Jews were still in force. God had not left his people. Last week we saw that the covenants that God had establish with the Jews also apply to non-Jewish Christians, us, because of our confession that Jesus is Lord. Today we will see why the majority of Jews did not accept Jesus because this was part of God’s plan. Let us pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Romans 11:1-12 ^NIV Romans 11:1 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ² God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah-- how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? {3 1 Kings 19:10,14} ⁴ And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." {4 1 Kings 19:18} ⁵ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. ⁷ What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, ⁸ as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day." {8 Deut. 29:4; Isaiah 29:10} ⁹ And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. ¹⁰ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever." {10 Psalm 69:22,23} 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. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

For several weeks now we have been looking at the Book of Romans. This book was written by the Apostle Paul to a church he did not establish and had not yet visited. But he knew about them because he had met two of their members, Pricilla and Aquila, in Corinth where they all worked together in the leather industry. Pricilla and Aquila had come to Corinth from Rome in 51AD because of an imperial edict ordering all Jews out of Rome. Six years later the Jews were permitted to return and the Christian Jews found the church they left was now very different. Gentiles, non-Jews, were in control holding leadership positions. The church had grown significantly with Gentile believers. It had become a Gentile church. It was almost as if God had used the Emperor to prune back the church, by sending the Jewish Christians away, allowing new growth to start. Now that the Jews were returning they needed to be reintegrated into the church, regrafted onto the bush they had been pruned from. The purpose of Paul’s letter to the Romans is, in part, to deal with problems that have arisen since the return of the Jewish Christians.

As we have seen, Paul’s concern is that the majority of Jews have not accepted Jesus as their Messiah and Lord. Paul is astonished by this because the proclamation he has been making is such good news that everyone should accept it. Who wouldn’t want to hear that God loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us so that we would have eternal life? But for most of the Jews this was rejected. Paul knew there had to be a reason for this so he searched the scripture, the Old Testament, for clues about what might be happening. What he found was that time and again throughout the history of the children of Israel, God had hardened their hearts so that for a time the number of believers was diminished, but this eventually led to even greater growth in the numbers who believed. Elijah, at one time, believed that he was the only believer left, but God assured him that thousands remain and from them faith would grow.

We saw this earlier in our Old Testament reading from Genesis. This week and last we have been looking at the story of Joseph. He and his brothers were the first children of Israel. Remember how God hardened the hearts of Joseph’s bothers when they sold him as a slave in Egypt. It looked like God would punish them for this dastardly deed by killing them all with a drought. But Joseph used his time as a slave to because a government official in Egypt in charge of grain storage, and was able to save his brothers from starvation. God had hardened the brothers’ hearts to save them. So too with the Jews in the first century, God had hardened their hearts so they would not believe in Jesus, to save them.

God knew that if the first century Jews believed in Jesus they would control the churches and the Gentiles, the non-Jews, would never come to belief. So by holding back the Jews, God allowed the Gentiles to develop the church, greatly expanding the number of believers. God had pruned back the bush far enough so that it could grow back even larger than before.

Paul took this to by analogy why the Jews were not accepting Jesus as Lord. They has been pruned away from the church by God allowing Gentiles to come to faith. But remember that God remains faithful to the Jews. So just as the Jewish Christians were returning to the Roman Church once a Gentile Church had been established so too will all Jews accept Jesus as Lord once the church is fully established by Gentiles and we love God with our whole hearts, mind and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. But this has never happened. We have never loved one another just as God loves us. We have hated the Jews, forced them to leave our communities and persecuted them. As a result of what we have done the Jews have yet to accepted Jesus as Lord. Because sin still clings to us so closely we have never accomplished Paul’s dream of building a fully inclusive church of Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, slave and free. And so God must continually prune back the church to prepare it for future growth.

Last Summer I went out to look at the shrubs in front of our house on Greenway Ave. They looked OK on the outside, but I could see a lot of dead wood on the inside. So I began to prune the bushes back getting rid of all the dead wood. When I was finished they really looked ugly, little more than misshaped sticks coming up from the ground. But this year the shrubs have grown back and they are beginning to look better. They are on the way to being even more beautiful than before. You have to prune back bushes from time to time to keep them growing to their full potential.

We see this in the church as well. Whenever we see the church in decline, with falling membership and tightening budgets we must remember that this is God at work pruning us back so that we will be ready to grow even larger and more beautiful than before. When we discern that God is pruning us back it is time to prepare ourselves for the future growth. We do this by becoming more spiritual with daily prayers, Bible study, worship and service to those in need. Through these spiritual practices we become the foundation upon which God can build a church. But don’t think that the people God prunes away from the church are forever lost. This is certainly not true. God prunes them way to prepare us. Once this happens many, if not all, will return and their relationship to the church will be even stronger than before.

So don’t be afraid of falling numbers. See it, as Paul did, as part of God’s plan to make the church even stronger than before. Prepare yourselves for the day when you will be the spiritual leaders of a growing church. When you are ready spiritually, God will send new people to our doors and bring some whom we have lost back to us again, and our churches will be stronger than even.

Lord Jesus, we pray that your spirit will come upon in worship and prayer. Prepare us as your followers to provide spiritual leadership to the church. When we are ready, we ask that you send new people to our doors and bring back the people we have lost. And we pray for our church be stronger than ever. In Jesus’ glorious name we pray. Amen.