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Grace Grafted into the True Olive Tree
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[Romans 11:17-18]
¡°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,do not boast over those branches.
If you do, consider this:
You do not support the root, but
the root supports you.¡±
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The
nation of Israel, whose ancestor was Abraham, was a nation that received
special love from God. God sent the promised Messiah, Jesus, to the land of
Israel.
But
the Israelites did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Rather, they crucified
Jesus, the Messiah.
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After Jesus was resurrected
and ascended into heaven, the gospel of salvation began to be preached
throughout the earth. Amazing things started to happen.
People from foreign countries
believed in Jesus, whom the Israelites did not accept as the Messiah, and
began to receive salvation.
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The
Israelites still did not accept Jesus as the Messiah.
Rather,
he harassed those who believed in Jesus and did all kinds of evil to prevent
them from preaching Jesus. They even did the terrible thing of stoning Deacon
Stephen and making him martyr for the sake of preaching the gospel.
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The
Apostle Paul was also a person who thought that those who believed in Jesus,
like other Israelites, should disappear. Jesus appeared directly to Paul, who
was going to Damascus to arrest those who believed in Jesus. Paul, who met
Jesus there, believed in Jesus and was saved.
From
then on, Paul worked hard to preach the gospel to the Gentiles that Jesus had
entrusted to him.
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Thousands
of Gentiles who heard the gospel preached by Paul were saved.
Among
the Gentiles, the number of God's people who are being saved has greatly
increased.
The
saved Gentiles thought that Israel, the people of God, had been abandoned.
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But
Paul said they were wrong.
He
explained that God had never forsaken the people of God.
He
said that the Gentiles became the new people of God because the Israelites
refused to
become
God's people by not accepting Jesus.
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However,
Paul was convinced that one day, the people of Israel, his homeland,
would
also have an opportunity of salvation.
This
is because they are a nation built on the strong foundation of the faith of
Abraham, the father
of
faith. It's like a tree with healthy roots,
he
thought, and over time a strong tree grows from its roots.
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The
Apostle Paul used the example of the olive tree to explain the people who
became God's people as Gentiles. There are two different types of olive
trees.
One
of them is a true olive tree and the other is a wild olive tree.
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Some of the branches of the true olive tree
did not grow properly.
The branches did not properly absorb the
nutrients provided by the fresh roots.
The olive tree did not improve over time.
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The
owner boldly cut off the branches.
Then
he grafted in the cut-off place with branches of wild olive trees.
The
wild olive tree branches absorbed the nutrients of the true olive tree root
and grew very healthy. The branches were no longer the branches of the wild
olive tree,
but
the branches of the true olive tree.
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The Israelites received special love from
God on the basis of the beautiful faith of their ancestors. However, they did
not accept Jesus, who is the root of true faith. As a result, they became
like branches that were rendered useless by rejecting the nutrients supplied
by the root of faith.
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They
boasted that they were physically descendants of Abraham, but did not receive
faith in Jesus. God cut off the branches of Israel, which do not have the
life of faith.
In
its place, God grafted in Gentiles like wild olive branches who had faith in
Jesus.
They
were grafted with true faith and their status changed as God's people.
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As
Gentiles who are not descendants of Abraham by blood, we are all wild olive
branches.
We
have all been grafted onto the true olive tree through faith in Jesus, who
died on the cross for our sins. Through grafting, our identity has been
changed to that of God's people, that is, children of God.
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The
condition for grafting into the true olive tree is faith in Jesus.
If
the cut off Israelites only have faith in Jesus, God's love will restore
them.
The
Apostle Paul was confident and hoped that one day God would come when the
people of
Israel
would be restored by believing in Jesus.
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We must listen to the Word today and always
live a life of faith with humility.
It was not through our efforts or merits that
we were grafted into the true olive tree and became God's people. God has
planted faith in us as a gift through one-sided love.
We should always give thanks to God for making
us His people and giving us eternal life.
We must become God's people who walk with the
Holy Spirit and follow the example set by Jesus.
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(This
is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the
conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)
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