Well, as I mentioned earlier, today is what is
traditionally recognized as the beginning of Holy Week,
which is essentially the yearly reflection of the
final events leading up to the death and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
as you're fully aware, it's usually on this day that
churches visit the story, the scene of Jesus entering
into the city of Jerusalem triumphantly, yet also
humbly. While our church was a little
early with that message, as you know, a handful of
weeks ago, we just through the natural study and the
series that we are in and Mark brought us there. And
so I'm sure you can agree that it's not probably
necessary to revisit that this time around.
Nonetheless, what we are going to look
at today together is an event that took place
during Holy Week, a few days after Jesus entered
into Jerusalem, the way that we know that he did.
And I want us to turn our
attention to that scene together in our Bibles to
discover the profound truths in it in Mark chapter 12,
where we'll be looking at a parable, parables are not
common in the book of Mark. Mark
is not too concerned about revealing Jesus as a
teacher. He's more concerned about
revealing Jesus as a servant. And
so with the very little of parables that we have in
this gospel account, it says something for us to
see allegorical message from the lips of the Savior in
our study. And here we find the Lord
Jesus in the temple. He has been teaching and
preaching the gospel to the masses who have gathered
from around the world to observe the Passover feast.
But while Jesus is there, he
was ambushed by the chief elders and the scribes and
the priests who located him because while the people
were preparing to celebrate the Passover, these
religious leaders were consumed and preoccupied
with a plot to get rid of Jesus once and for all.
They have reached now to a
boiling point. Enough is enough. After
that whole spectacle of him coming into the city and
the masses celebrating him, they felt as though things
were changing quickly and they needed to do something
about it just as quickly. And
so they were armed with an interrogation and they
attempted to surprise the master with a set of
questions hoping to catch him off guard and to find
some kind of evidence that would be enough grounds to
charge him for blasphemy and to condemn him to
death. And what we learned last week
is that whatever question was brought to him was
countered with his own question and Jesus gives a
question to them to reveal and to test their honesty
and their integrity, which they failed and instead
were exposed for their hypocrisy. They
were not genuinely asking by what authority do you
do these things or who gave you the authority to
do them. They were again trying to trap
him and the Lord saw through that but he just
wanted to show that he knew it and he wanted to
show that he can expose it. And
so you would think after that interaction, that brief
conversation, both parties would go their separate
ways and we would move on in this story but that's
not what we see. We find Jesus still in the
temple courts with the audience of these corrupt
religious leaders before him and this is what we find
in verse one of chapter 12. And
he began to speak to them in parables. A
man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and
dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower
and leased it to tenants and went into another
country. When the season came, he sent a
servant to the tenants to get from them some of the
fruit of the vineyard and they took him and beat him
and sent him away empty handed. Again,
he sent to them another servant and they struck him
on the head and treated him shamefully. And
he sent another and him they killed and so with
many others, some they beat and some they killed, he
had still one other, a beloved son. Finally,
he sent him to them saying, they will respect
my son. But those tenants said to one
another, this is the air come let us kill him and
the inheritance will be ours. And
they took him and killed him and they threw him out
of the vineyard. What will the owner of the
vineyard do? He will come and destroy the
tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have
you not read this scripture? The
stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and
it is marvelous in our eyes. And
they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people
for they perceived that he had told the parable
against them. So they left him and went
away. Pray with me. Father,
we do ask, oh Lord, we believe that as we're
praying, you hear us. And that invokes a set of
emotions even. I can't believe you hear us
as we pray to you. So we have this awe of you,
but we also feel this liberty in knowing that
when you look at us, you see bloodbath children who
have been accepted in the beloved. We
believe you love us. We believe you care for each
of us. And we believe that one of the
greatest ways you show your care for us is that you've
given us your word. We realize that this is your
word and we humbly receive it, but help us Lord
understand it. Lord, we are but flesh and we're
aware that even now in this holy moment, thoughts
can race through our minds. Even
as we're praying, we could be thinking about something
else. So Lord, deliver us from
distraction and deliver us from being flustered or
being caught up in something else that would
rob us of the moment that you have set up for us
today. So Lord, help us experience
you through your word in a transformative manner. This
is our desire and our plea and we ask it with great
humility and eagerness. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
You know, as Jesus opened up this this parable, I'm
convinced that right at the introduction of it, the
people here who heard it, namely the Pharisees and
the components of the Sanhedrin, understand exactly
what he was getting at. Parables
tend to be complicated and mysterious, and that's on
purpose, but this is one of the clearest and most
obvious parables of them all. And
the reason why the religious leaders would have
been so aware of what Christ was saying is
because Christ is borrowing certain truths from the Old
Testament that these people especially would have would
have been familiar with. In essence, what Jesus is
doing is he's building this teaching upon something that
the people of Israel would have been very knowledgeable
of because, again, what Jesus is saying is
strikingly similar, this profile that he is
presenting to what Isaiah the prophet said early in
his book. And so turn with me to Isaiah
5 and look at this with me beginning in verse 1,
because when you and I look at Isaiah 5, you know
what's going to happen. We too will be able to crack
the code of this parable and have zero doubt, zero
doubt that what the Lord is speaking about when he
is addressing the chief priests, scribes, and
elders. Isaiah 5 verse 1, the prophet
writes, let me sing for my beloved, my love song
concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on
a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of
stones and planted it with choice vines. He
built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out
a wine vat in it. And he looked for it to yield
grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. So
here's the prophet Isaiah expressing his longing and
his desire, yes, moved by the Spirit to sing for his
beloved. And the subject of his song
was not just the beloved, but something that the
beloved owns. He owned this vineyard. And
as you can see and compare the beloved and his
handling and his treatment of this property, property
is very similar to how Jesus describes this man
and the investment that he made with his own vineyard.
And that is on purpose because
the Lord Jesus here is again drawing from Isaiah 5
so that he can make a correlation with his
immediate audience. But is there any way that we
can know who this beloved is? Is
there any way we can know what this vineyard
represents? And the answer is yes, the
answers are actually found in Isaiah 5 itself. So
scroll down to verse 7. For
the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of
Israel. And the men of Judah are his
pleasant planting and he looked for justice, but
behold bloodshed for righteousness, but behold an
outcry. It's his plainest day. The
owner of the vineyard, the beloved in Isaiah's words,
that owner is God, the Lord of hosts. And
the vineyard that he purchased and he provided
for is the house of Israel. And
Jesus again, by using this familiar language wants us
to see the parable that he presents in Mark 12 with
the same lens. The man in his story is God
and the vineyard is speaking of the people of
Israel. And we're going to fill in the
gaps with the other actors in this story. But
essentially what Jesus is doing by giving this
parable is that he is defining the relationship
that God has with Israel at the very moment and his
day while also ready to expose even further the
religious leaders that were standing before him. Because
in this parable in Mark 12, Jesus is going to
reinforce, I'm the Son, I'm the Son of God. And
he's also going to show them, and I know that
you're going to try to kill me. And
so this is powerful and we might be tempted to
appreciate it from a distance and think, well,
this is a parable that's exclusive to the nation of
Israel. And that is right in its
context, but God has preserved it for us for
our benefit as well. Let me pause here and give you
like a discipleship point, if I may. If
you are eager to learn anything from any passage
in the Bible, including the ones that are not directly
instructive to you as a follower of Jesus Christ in
the New Covenant, you have to be willing to do
something. People often ask me, how is it
that I can dig and find gold? How
can I mine precious jewels in the Bible? How
can I go deeper? And my answer in the beginning
is always the same, always the same. You
have to be willing to have a conversation with the
Bible. You say, what do you mean
conversation with the Bible? Well,
if you want the Bible to speak to you, you got to
ask the Bible some questions. And
if you're willing to ask the Bible a set of
questions, you're going to come out of any reading
with something. And those questions vary. The
ones that I am often prone to asking are these, are
the repeated words in this passage that the author is
trying to emphasize a point with? Does
this passage complete or does it connect with
another passage? Is there a warning in this
passage that I am to take heed of? Is
there a promise in this passage that I am to
enjoy? Is there a sin in this
scripture that I am to identify and avoid in my
life? Is this an illustration that
helps me know and understand even further a
new covenant principle or reality that's especially
helpful in the Old Testament? Does
this point to a gospel truth? Does
this point to something that I need to see in the
person of Jesus Christ? And here's my all time
favorite. Here's my go -to question that I
have a conversation with the Word of God with. This
is my go -to one. What does this tell me about
God? If you ask that question from
Genesis to Revelation, you could read through Leviticus
and get a lot out of it. What
does this tell me about God? Have
a conversation with the Bible and I trust that the
Bible will say something to you? And
that is the exact question. That's
usually my first question whenever I read any
passage. And that was the question I
asked this parable in Mark 12. What
is this parable? Yes, it's obviously about Jesus
defining the relationship that God has with Israel,
the fate of Israel, even the fate of the Son of
God. It's something to study. It's
something to appreciate concerning who Jesus is and
his omniscience and his brilliance. But
what does this say about God? And
the answers from that question I present to you
today, that in this parable about God and Israel, you
can learn three things about the character of the
Almighty. I want to present those three
things to you. You're going to leave this place
out of Mark 12, one to 12, with three things about
God. And the first one is found in
verse one of Mark 12. So let's go back there
together. And he began to speak to them
in parables. A man planted a vineyard and
put a fence around it and dug a pit for it and the
wine press and built a tower and leased it to
tenants and went into another country. Notice
at first the great contribution that this man
makes toward his property. These
are not insignificant details. We
are to send something about the heart of this man for
his vineyard, the attention that he gives to it, the
funding that he puts into it. He
is not a negligent landowner. He
is not careless. He is not a thoughtless
manager. No, instead you see someone who
supplies and provides everything necessary for
this vineyard to flourish. And
the first thing that we learn here from this
parable of this man represents God and vineyard
represents the vineyard represents Israel is that
this shows us the grace of God. This
shows us the grace of God because what this represents
is the overwhelming blessings and privileges
that the Lord granted to Israel in order for her to
bear fruit the way God desired. All
the things that he has deposited, all the things
that he has brought to their disposal is exactly
what Jesus is getting at here. In
other words, there was no reason for Israel to live
poorly before God. There was no excuse that they
could make to reject the Son of God with all the
light that they had for thousands of years, with
all the heat that they experienced for centuries.
It just doesn't make sense.
And that's exactly, that's
precisely the point that even Isaiah makes back in
chapter five. So listen, we read verses one
and two of Isaiah five. Look
at verses three and four of Isaiah five. I
should have mentioned you should have stayed in
Isaiah five as well. So stay there. In
Isaiah five, three and four, look at what Isaiah
says. After describing what Jesus
similarly describes in his day, the things that were
dug up, the things that were built, the things that
were used, and now, a inhabitants of Jerusalem and
men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What
more was there to do for my vineyard that I have
not done in it? When I looked for it to yield
grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? Pretty
straightforward, isn't it? So
the Lord in Isaiah five invites a jury and he's
asking, hey, can you guys, I'm curious to know your
ideas, maybe you're smarter than I am. Is
there anything else I could have done for my people in
order for them to be inspired to live in the
way that I desire? Let me know. And
Paul tells us that even this people were privileged
above all other nations for, again, thousands of
years, the covenants that they received, the miracles,
the manifestations of glory, the law, all these things
that were brought to them, the connection that they
had with God left them with no excuse to be the
way that they were. And that grace continues that
God showed into the life of Jesus Christ as he
stands before a stubborn crowd, a stubborn clergy
who would not believe and accept him as the Messiah.
What more could have Christ done
to convince them that I am indeed the Messiah that
you've been anticipating? What
other miracles could Jesus have done? What
other authority could he have performed over nature,
over demons, over sickness? Was
not his sinless life enough? And
that is precisely what we see here. Jesus
getting to this crowd the same way Isaiah did. Can
you point out what more I could have done for you to
surrender and to joyfully serve me? Let's
not just apply this Israel because God has made a new
people in Christ. That's you. That's
me. And it's no less true that he
has provided so much for us. I
would say we have less excuses than Israel did
because according to Ephesians one, we have been
enriched with every spiritual blessing because
we are in Christ Jesus. Here's
what that means practically. There's
no excuse or blame from a bloodbought Christian to not
be able to overcome lust, to not be able to defeat
rage, to not be able to conquer impatience, to not
be able to be delivered from envy, addiction,
profanity, worldliness. We have every divine resource
at our disposal in order to love, forgive, serve,
commit with the standard, even the standard that God
has in mind for us. You know a verse came to mind
while I was driving here in light of this thought.
There's much debate about Paul's
words and arguments from Romans chapter seven. I
do the things that I don't want to do and the things
I don't want to do, I do. Remember
that passage? And here's the debate among
Christians. Is that Paul speaking about
his struggle as a born -again believer? Or
is that Paul describing his struggle as an unregenerate
person? Do you understand the debate?
Is this Paul speaking about
his struggle as a saved individual? Or
is this Paul describing his struggle unsaved? And
people bring up different points, you know? People
love to use the words of Paul because Paul is deep
to come up with different conclusions. Here's
my answer and we'll get to Romans, I don't know when,
but we'll get to it eventually. But
I always tell people to just kind of limit the
back and forth. Whatever you believe about Romans
seven, you got to read Romans eight. Because
what happens in Romans eight is that Paul then
describes life in the spirit. So
lend where you will with Romans seven, but you have
to keep reading into Romans eight. And
here's what he says among other things, the victorious
life in the spirit. Verse 12 of Romans eight. So
then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh.
We're not debtors to the flesh
to live according to the flesh. And
this is what he says in verse 13. For
if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
But if by the spirit you put
the death, the deeds of the body, you will live.
If you put the death, the
deeds of the body, how? If you bang your head on the
wall long enough? If you jump through religious
hoops? If you slavishly try to
observe aesthetic ways of dealing with your body and
its impulses? No. If you put to death the
deeds of the body by the spirit. If
you don't know what it means to live in the
spirit, if you don't know how to tap into the
resource known as the Holy Spirit, you'll never know
victory over the flesh. And I am promised victory over
the flesh because of the spirit who is mine in
Christ Jesus. So there's just one sliver to
show that God has dispensed in our lives everything
that we need to know fruit bearing future. That
is not to say that these characteristics will be
developed in one day in the same way that none of
us expect natural fruit to be grown in its maturity
overnight. But it does mean that we are
set on the path for growth and transformation. That
is totally possible no matter who you are because
of what God has given you freely and generously, which
brings us to our next point. This
is not just speaking about the grace of God. We
also learn in this parable about the patience of God.
So come back to Mark 12 and
look at verse two. When the season came, he sent a
servant to the tenants to get from them some of the
fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him
and sent him away empty handed. Again,
he sent to them another servant and they struck him
on the head and treated him shamefully. And
he sent another and him they killed. And
so with many others, some they beat and some they
killed. What you see here is the
magnificence of God's long suffering. How
patient he is and it's manifested in a couple of
ways. The first way is in the timing
that the owner seeks to retrieve a harvest. Look
back at verse two again. When
the season came, when what season came, when the
expected fruit should arrive, you know what that
tells me about this owner? He's
not unrealistic. He's not hurried. He's
not impatient. He is someone who fully
understands that fruit takes time. That
development can face some delays. And
that's something that you and I have to understand
concerning ourselves, because in the same way this man
came at a realistic time, the Lord also graciously
understands your growth in the spirit. He
does. We should be glad that this
truth is proclaimed on the heels of learning that God
has made a great investment in us and he is expecting
a return. Yes, he has empowered you.
Listen, he has empowered you and
I. This is not something to be
condemned about. This is something to leap for
joy about. He has empowered you for a no
excuse sanctification. And yet at the same time, he's
also aware of the addemic limitations that we face
daily. The things that would cause
setbacks, the things that would cause shortcomings in
the process, our God is aware of those things. He
does always remember that we are but dust. And
this is something extremely comforting, not to those
who abuse the idea of God's grace, but to those
who long to live like Jesus, but find themselves
tripping along the way. And the truly righteous can
often be tempted to be deeply discouraged,
especially when they find themselves in a trap,
something that they thought they were able to overcome
and dodge, something that they thought that they
dealt with. And here are these flare up of
the flesh. Have you not experienced that
ever? You had a good three -day track
living like Christ. And all of a sudden you're in
a situation where there's pressure, whatever the case
may be, and something comes out of your mouth and
you're like, why did that come out of my mouth? Or
you act in a certain way. Why
am I acting this way? Why am I reacting this way?
And there you are now convicted
and you feel like you want to just crawl away into
some corner and reconsider God's love for you,
reconsider God's use of you. There
are righteous people who feel that way. And
this is how they view them. This
is how they view God, rather, that when they do
find themselves there in the flesh for a moment and
they slip, here's God now looking over the balcony of
heaven, crossing his arms and turning his back on
you, when instead the way you should be seeing God
at all times, even in your sin, is that when you are
in a place where you shouldn't be, when you're
doing something that you shouldn't be doing, when
you have been acting the way you should not have
been acting, the master is on a stool with a towel
in his hand ready to wash your feet. See,
that sounds almost scandalous. That's
the grace of God. God's grace didn't begin and end
at the cross. He told his disciples, I have
washed you, but your feet need still washing. Meaning
you're saved, but as you traverse through this world,
you're going to pick up some dust. And
I'm just as eager to wash those feet as I did when
I initially washed you. Do you believe that about
Jesus? You should. Here
we see this man, patient. God
is patient with us. He's patient with your growth.
Yes, he expects something. Yes,
periodically, we should be able to see advancement,
but oh, everything in between. And
even when there are seasons where there is great
stalling, the one who saved you is waiting for you and
ready to wash you and empower you again. That
is the grace of God shown through his patience, but
it's not just through coming at the right season,
so to speak. It's also in the repetitive
sending of his messengers. You
saw it, right? Verse three, he sends one of his
servants. Verse four, he sends another of
his servants. Verse five, he sends another, and
then it summarizes that he sent many. And
do you notice the progression of the
aggression of the tenants? The
tenants who were given the land are getting more
hostile and aggressive as the man sends more of his
representatives. So they strike one, and then
the next one, they strike him on the head, and then
finally they start killing some of them. Look,
if I was an owner trying to collect rent and I send
one person to go and collect that rent for the
month, it wouldn't take more than one case of
abuse for me not to send another one, but to send
the police, to send legal authorities, to arrest such
people. And what you see here instead
is that the man is sending another empty -handed, pure
-hearted, submissive servant to get what is the owner's
rightful due. And it's not difficult to see
who these servants represent. All
you have to do is look at Israel's history, and
Jeremiah summarizes it so well in Jeremiah 7, verse
25 -26. You don't have to turn there,
just listen to these words. From
the day that your fathers came out of the land of
Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my
servants, the prophets, to them day after day. Yet
they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but
stiffened their neck. They did worse than their
fathers. Show that to somebody who says
that God is not gracious in the way that he is to
be even more informed about how God is extremely
merciful, even under the old covenant. I've
sent prophets to you day after day for hundreds of
years. And what were these people
doing in the meantime, sacrificing babies to false
gods, among other things. And
instead of sending judgment after 10 years, after 100
years, no, I'm just, I'm going to send more of my
messengers to get your attention and to hopefully
get you to come to repentance. You
know what this parable shows us? It
shows us that humanity's response to God's patience
is one of two ways. His undeserved kindness will
either move you to surrender to it, or it
will encourage you to remain an even worse sin
in your sin because you translate God's patience as
his permission to sin. One of two ways. Either
it dawns on you that I've been a rebel against God
since I could remember, and now I will fully surrender
to him because all he's done is given me grace
upon grace upon grace. It's so undeserving, but here I
am willing to receive this cup of friendship. Either
that or it's, it seems like God is okay with
this. It seems like God is fine
with this. There's no divine interruption in
my life. And as Ecclesiastes eight says
that sinners plunge into deeper darkness and run
even harder after sin because there is delayed
judgment. Where are you? Which
one are you? Ask yourself that question. How
many promises have you made to God while being away
from him? Oh Lord, if you just get me
out of this mess, I'll come back to you. I'll
give my life to you. Do you know how I know people
ask that? Because I used to. I
used to as a kid who knew enough about Christianity,
but who also loved the world and knew that living
in the world would get you in trouble from time to
time. But there's Jesus ready to get
you out of the mess whenever you call upon his
name. It's so cute. So
which one are you? How many loosed vows have you
made to God? Young men, young lady, where are
you at? How are you interpreting God's
patience? Because here you are coasting
through your life with all your plans and desires and
dreams and there's something in your peripheral, in your
conscience there and the corridor on the side about
God wanting to save you and redeem you and use
you. But you ignore and you visit
it from time to time, especially when you're in
trouble. But are you not baffled yet by
how through your prolonged delay of surrendering to
him, God has not struck you, that God has not
wounded you, that instead he showers blessing upon
blessing on you? Maybe today can be the day where
the script changes for your life, where this is yet
another thunder clap of God saying, hey, I'm trying to
get you to understand that I want to forgive you and
cleanse you and fill you with my spirit and name
you among the redeemed. Enough
is enough. Here's another message. Here's
another Bible study. Here's another friend, a coworker
coming into your life and is reminding you of the
gospel. Can you pause and think about
all the messages that you've heard, all the
messengers that you've encountered throughout your
lifetime, has it not yet convinced you that God is
trying to allure you to himself? I
pray today that's you, that today would be the last
day where you translate his patience as false permission
and that you would fall in love with the Prince of
Peace and give God, if you thought that the patience
of God has reached the limit here and if you
haven't been pulled in your affections yet, look what
was says here in verse six. He
had still one other, a beloved son. Finally
he sent him to them saying, they will respect
my son. So after all his employees
either came back bruised or never came back again, what
is the solution of this man at this point where
the rebellion of these tenets are only getting,
it's only getting worse and worse, defying this man's
kindness, defying his mercy, defying his patience, I'm
going to send my son and notice the great tribute
that the Father makes for his son, regardless of how
great those other servants were, how faithful they
were, they do not compare to the loveliness of the
son and so great is the loveliness of the son in
the eyes of the Father, that he even expresses how
he is such a treasure that perhaps even the wicked
will be able to perceive the treasure that he really
is. They will respect my son surely?
And so instead of sending
servants of God, God arrives on the scene
himself. The son now comes and how did
these tenets receive the son? Look
at the justification for their premeditated murder in
verse seven. But those tenets said to one
another, this is the air, come, let us kill him and
the inheritance will be ours. So
here's what these men foolishly believed. If
we get rid of the air, then perhaps the man, the
owner would just surrender and give up and give up
even the land to these tenets. That's
how foolish these men really were in thinking
that by removing the son from the scene, we can
actually keep what it is that we want to keep. And
what Jesus is getting at is he is exposing not just
the plot of these Jews that are ready to kill
them in a few days, but the reason why. These
tenets wanted to secure what they believed,
prospered them, empowered them, benefited them, and
they saw the son as a threat. Is
that any different with the religious leaders? They
have known the religious respect of the masses, of
the general population of Israel. And
here comes this rabbi from Nazareth now, and he is
sweeping everybody off their feet. And
now it's only getting more intense where you're having
on this great holiday known as the Passover people
celebrating his name while we're being pushed back in
the crowd. We rather gruesomely murder
this man than surrender what we believe to be our
right. We want to secure our
positions. We, yes, want a political
Messiah, but not a spiritual king. We
occupy the office of spiritual authority. Who's
this man think that he is? So
in the same way as described in the parable,
let's get rid of the son and we can keep this for
ourselves. And what about people today?
Why do people metaphorically
kill God in their unbelief? Or
as many, many years ago, not too far back, the
culture declaring that God is dead. Why
do you think that is? Because
they want to protect their ridiculous right to be
their own God. That's why. If
we get rid of the author of life from our worldview,
then we can be the owners of our own lives. Isn't
it the same train of thought? Get
rid of the son and we get to keep this. Get
rid of Jesus Christ. Get rid of the exclusive claims
of the gospel. Get rid of the infallibility of
the word of God. And we get to be our own
owners. Foolish, foolish in the same way
that the owner of this vineyard is so clear and
obvious. You are not the owner of your
own life. Someone made you, someone created
you in his image. And as we're about to find out
with that whole argument about paying taxes to
Caesar, because his image is on you, you belong to
him. You do. Do
you believe that? Or do you believe that Jesus
is helping you be the king of your own life? That's
not what Jesus is all about. Jesus
is king of your life and you serve him. He
doesn't serve you. He doesn't serve you in how
you want to do this thing called life. No,
you realize he gave me life. He
died for my life, not just in this life, but in the
life to come. I throw myself at his feet.
So you either receive Christ
and acknowledge him as the rightful owner, or you kill
him in your rejection and denying him. And
that's what lead us to our third and final point of
what this reveals about God. This
parable doesn't just teach us about the grace of God.
It doesn't just teach us about
the patience of God. It shows us the justice of
God. Look at verse nine with me.
What will the owner of the
vineyard do? He will come and destroy the
tenants and give the vineyard to others. He
will come and destroy the tenants. That
is the fate of those who also reject the Son. You
say, well, this is intense. Well,
don't forget the intensity of his patience. That
day after day and providential moment after
providential moment and sermon after sermon. An
invasion of his grace after invasion of his grace. When
a person keeps resisting and hardening their hearts,
their fate is set in the same way that these men's
faith were set. Destruction is on its way. Destruction
is on its way for all those who do not receive
the Son. That's part of the gospel, by the
way. Holy week as we come to Good
Friday, as we come to resurrection Sunday. What
do you think? Jesus just came to die for what?
He came to save you from
what? From the wrath of God. That's
from what? I know you don't hear it
that much these days. I don't care. It's
what the Bible says. It's what God has revealed. It
makes the gospel that much more glorious than instead
of the right, righteous wrath of God being poured
out on us. It's the love of God that's
poured out on us through his Son Jesus Christ.
That's the truth of the gospel
and you have a choice to make. And
these men clearly decided the wrath of the owner.
And so wrath shall be. But
what's unique about this particular verdict about
these people, these tenets, is not the destruction
that's coming. It's not the eventual
retribution. It's the transfer of ownership
for the tenants. The lease is going to change.
Look at verse nine again. What
will the owner of the vineyard do? He
will come and destroy the tenants. Okay,
we understand that, but notice this and give the
vineyard to others. This is unique to Israel. And
this is the immediate context. So
the vineyard is going to be now given. It's
going to be now given over to a different group of
people. And we know that to be what?
The Gentiles. So
this is a prophetic forecast that Jesus is
making about the faith of the Jewish people, that in
light of their denial of the Messiah, this is going
to now make way for the Gentiles to enter in and
enjoy the spiritual blessings and treasures that
the nation of Israel forfeited. That
is why the church today is the light of the world.
That is why the church today is
a royal priesthood. That is why the church today
are the ambassadors of Christ. That
is why the church today is the pillar and buttress of
the truth. That is not to say that God
has now forsaken completely the people of Israel. Read
Romans 11 and you'll come to that clear conclusion.
But what it does mean is that
the people of Israel, even up to this day, have
forfeited so much in the meantime. They
were originally called to be the light of the world
under the old covenant. And ultimately through the
rejection of the Son of God. Now
that responsibility and that privilege has been given to
you and to me. We now shine the light of the
truth of God's Word and truth. And
so this is what he's saying. You
gave it up. This is it. There
is nothing left after what you did with the Son. What
you do with the Son will determine your faith. True
for this moment and true for you and I. We
are not waiting for any other messenger. We're
not. Sorry to disappoint those who
believe in Joseph Smith. We're
not waiting for anybody to complete this revelation.
There is no other final
messenger, including Muhammad. Jesus
Christ has come and Jesus Christ is the final
revelation of who God is and the complete one at
that. And so we see here that he
says the tenants will be destroyed and the vineyard
will be given over to others. And
as the Lord is ready to now close this parable, he
assures his audience then and now that the death of
the Son is not the punctuation mark to the
story. Because that's what you heard,
right? That's what you saw. That
they killed the Son and in verse eight they threw him
out of the vineyard. So this is even a degrading
death. It was an honorable in any
way. They left them out to the field
to be open to the elements and animals. That's
ultimately a picture of what they would do to
Christ, the brutality of his death. But
Christ wants to end this by assuring that again, the
death of the Son is not where it ends. Notice
what he says here in verse 10. Have
you not read this scripture? Isn't
that like offensive to guys who teach the Bible? These
guys memorize the scriptures, like books of
the Bible. These guys apparently teach and
he goes, have you not read this scripture? I
wish I could have seen some of those faces squirm.
Have you not read this
scripture? And then he quotes Psalm 118,
verse 22 and 23. The stone that the builders
rejected has become the cornerstone. This
was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our
eyes. So now Christ goes back to
the book of Psalms and he pulls out a messianic
Psalm, a Psalm that predicts the Messiah to
come. But he still stays within the
lane of the theme of rejection. So
in the parable here of the tenants, they rejected the
Son. So he's still there because in
this, in the Psalm, there is a rejection of the
stone. And why he's coming to this
text is because in this promise, the people who
rejected the stone should now expect a great
reversal. Because what you have rejected,
according to the Psalm, is going to return. The
stone that you've rejected is going to come back and
it's actually going to become a cornerstone, the
most important piece of the foundation of a building
that would set the alignment and the strength
of the rest of that structure. You
rejected the stone, but the stone is going to come
back and build something new. In
other words, Jesus is telling these leaders of
Israel by using this scripture that though they
will kill him, he knows it. He's
like, I know you're going to kill me. You're
going to kill me, but you will not be able to thwart
the eternal purposes of God. Do
you know how Jesus ends this parable? This
is how he's doing. If I can translate it in a
way that will be memorable, providence will prevail.
God's providence will prevail. And
that's why he goes into verse 11, which is also
part of Psalm 118. Look at Mark 12, 11 again. This
was the Lord's doing. This was the Lord's doing. And
look at this. And it is marvelous in our
eyes. How can you interpret a
murderous rejection as being marvelous? Only
if you understand God's providence that your
rejection will ultimately lead to resurrection and
will lead to redemption. So the truth here is that
this is God declaring that no matter what you're
coming up with, you Pharisees, God's going to
come out victorious. And this is a declaration of
God's sovereignty. And the brilliance of God's
sovereignty is not that he makes robots in his
creation to do his bidding without a choice of their
own. The splendor of his sovereignty
is that even through man's autonomy, even in their
horrific sinful defiance against the will of God,
God's still going to get his will done. So
plot what you want, do what you want, fret all
you want, plan all you want. God's
will will be done, even if you kill the Son. And
in this case, Israel's rejection is going to
become the world's redemption. How
do they respond to this? This
is brilliant. This is amazing. The
parable is so plain. And he made it plain on
purpose so that they can understand by being sucked
into this story, because Jesus was such a profound
storyteller. And if you read in the other
gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke, they get so
sucked into it, Jesus asks, what should be done about
these tenets? The Pharisees themselves says,
kill them. And then at some point, they
donned on them. Uh -oh. He's
talking about us. And that's why you read in
Luke's version where he asked the question. They
go, surely not. So when you marry all these
texts together, they did admit their own guilt. But
at some point, they're like, no, no, no, no, no,
actually, we change our mind. And
this is what we see in verse 12, how they truly
responded. And they were seeking to arrest
him, but feared the people. For
they perceived that he had told the parable against
them, so they left him and went away. Human
depravity is an awful thing. You
know what you take away from this is that man can
be confronted with God's truth about themselves. Man
can be left undone and unable to deny that what
they just heard from God's word applies to them
personally, and they are still capable of hardening
their hearts. When just a second ago, before
the and you felt in that wooden pew, I think the
sky and it's not this guy is speaking right to me.
You can be given a perfect
diagnosis of your sinful condition and be moved by
the Holy Spirit to realize that you were guilty before
God. And at the end still say,
we're nothing to do with this. That's
what they're doing. They perceived that they were
being addressed. They even made an honest verdict
according to Matthew's account. And
what happens? They still say, we'll come back
for you. We're coming back for you. And
so in the same way that you and I can interpret
God's patience of one or two ways, it's the truth
about the conviction of God as well. And
so if your heart is convicted today, even now
in this reading of the word and this proclamation
of the word, here's my final exhortation. Let
your heart not be hearted. If
it's sensitive right now, if it's been touched, if
you're moved in an unusual manner, even if you've been
through so many services, so many holy weeks, so
many Good Friday, so many resurrection Sundays, but
some for some reason now you're here and you're
thinking and you're feeling to yourself, I feel drawn
to this. You have the power to walk
further into that and to know the glories of it or
to cut it off and perhaps never feel it again. And
so I beckon you today. If you're a visitor here, we
welcome you, we rejoice in that, but we really believe
what we preach here. And we really believe that this
story that Jesus has given us that God has preserved
for us for the ages applies to man today, and
that you can know this Christ that has been
proclaimed. And believers, because this is
not an evangelistic meeting, so I'm speaking to also
the family of God, you've been redeemed, you're
secured in the hand of the Father. Let
me remind you today through this parable of the grace
of God, he has made every investment he could make
for you to flourish in Christ, to be the husband
that God has called you to be. I
know it's hard, I know it's hard. I
know it's hard. It was probably hard this
morning on your way to church. I
know. Wives, I know. Mothers,
I get it. In this crazy age, I get it.
But remember now, God has given
you everything to be victorious and to know
steady success in this. And even as you stumble and
fall, even as you maybe even backtrack a little
bit, understand the patience of God, for centuries he
was patient with the people who killed the very
messenger of God. Holy man, he was still willing
to work with them. How much more you, after you
accepted his Son Jesus Christ, why do you doubt
his love for you? Why? Why do you question if
he's going to use you? Why do you think that he puts
you in a penalty box even after you repented and
asked for forgiveness? He's patient toward you. He
cares for you. He's aware of the limitations
that you face. And he's day by day, second by
second, ready to work with you. Be
patient with your own growth as long as you're
set on growing. And lastly, the justice of God,
the justice of God. Here's how you, family of God,
can be comforted even by that truth. The
justice of God has been dealt with 2000 years ago.
You never have to question or
fear destruction from God because Jesus drank your
destruction. It's done. And
he will never, ever, ever transfer you into the place
of the condemned. Never. He will keep you until the
end. You're hearing this today and
you're not a Christian. You're
wondering, this is too good to be true. This
is the gospel. It's called the gospel because
it means good news. And you're invited to share in
that destiny today. Do you see how I'm like
leaning over the pulpit? Do you see this? Because
I'm trying to, trying to compel you and convince you
that you can actually today know new life in Christ.
You can't today. Today.
I would cancel my lunch plans to make that right.
I would. I
know you probably have a nice lovely dinner waiting
for you, but I would, I would cancel everything to
make sure that you know for certain that you have
Christ, Christ's favor over your life. If
you repent and believe, it can all change. It
can all change. What we thank you for the
service today. Thank you for helping us
understand this parable and how it reveals something
about your heart. Thank you for Lord, these
precious people who have gathered here on a Sunday
afternoon to hear the word of God and to give you
praises Lord, even with a word like this, as sobering
as it is, we ask and pray that there would be joy
because there's joy in the truth. Because
your word says my truth shall set you free. And
so Lord, even now, God, if there has been any
interference with the truth being deposited in us,
Lord, give us mercy and help us leave here with
something. Let us not be forgetful. Let
us not be stubborn and believing and Lord, for the
person that doesn't know you, we ask with great
intense desire that there would be a testimony for
them leaving this place. Thank
you for your grace. Thank you for your patience. And
yes, even thank you for your justice in Jesus name
we pray. Amen. Church to stand and worship
the Lord together.