Man of Sorrows: Mark 12:1-12

Please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, reading verses 1 through 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

We are in our sermon series in this gospel.

We're getting down to the end.

There's still a few more chapters in the gospel, but if you're following along chronologically, time-wise, from a timetable, these are Jesus' last days.

This is probably Wednesday before Good Friday that we read about this conversation.

So let's read the Word of God.

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 him 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 heir.

Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.

And they took him and killed him and 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.

This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, and errant word.

And we need the Spirit to open our eyes to this truth this morning, so we pray.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for this sobering message that we dare never forget.

Lord, thank you for the lesson.

Jesus, we thank you for the cost to you.

Lord, by your spirit now, would you please make this truth come alive in every one of us?

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Mark, if you've been paying attention, is not so much into parables.

Matthew and Luke have a lot of parables.

Mark, not so much.

The only real parable we saw a long time ago in Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

And yet now at the last of his life, Jesus wants to tell another story, a parable.

And Pastor Josh talked, preached last week about what Jesus had to say to the religious authorities and leaders about authority.

Jesus' authority was constantly being challenged.

How did he put up with that?

Some of you are in authority.

Some of you have people that come to carry out what you tell them.

How would you put up with somebody who just kind of dissed you?

You know, just like maybe I will, maybe I won't.

His patience for putting up with these scoundrels.

Amazes me.

His authority was questioned then, and his authority is questioned today by many.

Who says?

Was I the only kid that used to say that?

You know, somebody tells you to do something you don't want to do.

Who says?

Why should I listen to you?

Come on, how many of you said that?

Who says I should listen to you?

Maybe you didn't say it.

But you thought it.

Oh, yeah?

Who says?

It's very important for us to know who says.

And Jesus is the one who says.

And he began to speak to them in parables.

He tells a story that they could relate to because this was very common in their commerce, their agriculture, vineyards.

They made some good wine in Israel.

And the vineyards were very near and dear to the owners, and they could make some good money from that good wine.

But it required a lot of care and attention.

And it wasn't unusual in that time for the absentee owner to hire tenants to take care of his vineyard.

And it wasn't a short-term crop.

People tell us that it could take up to five years to produce a good vintage.

And so occasionally the owner of the vineyard would send someone to check in on the vineyard.

We read the story.

So the owner sends his servants, and they're treated shamefully.

They're treated violently as if the vineyard was theirs.

What an apt symbol to the depravity of men.

Who take the things of God and act as though they're ours.

Do you ever struggle with that?

Take the things of God and act as if they're ours to determine.

Oh my goodness, there are so many references to this in the Old Testament, but probably the preeminent passage that Jesus had in mind comes from Isaiah chapter 5.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

Let's just read a little bit.

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.

And now, O 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?

Why did it turn out such a lousy vintage?

I don't understand.

And now I tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured.

I will break down its wall and it shall be trampled upon.

I will make it a waste.

It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up.

I will also command the clouds that they rain upon it no more.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah.

They're his pleasant planting.

But he looked for justice, but instead there was bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, there was an outcry.

So we have to understand what's going on here.

And these religious leaders that Jesus is speaking to at this time, you know they knew this story from Isaiah.

They were very familiar with this imagery.

In this parable, the vineyard owner is clearly God the Father.

The Son who's finally sent, clearly is Jesus.

The servants are the prophets.

The prophets that God sent throughout history, over centuries, God sent his servants to warn the people of God to turn away from their waywardness and turn back to God.

You know, the sheep can be pretty wayward, huh?

We sheep.

We can be pretty wayward.

And God sends people to call us back.

Who'd he send?

Who did he send to you to call you back?

Maybe.

You were going in the wrong direction.

And he sent one of his prophets.

And they spoke for the Lord and said, You turn around.

You're going in a bad direction.

You turn around.

Praise God for when he sends his prophets and his teachers.

The Father sent many prophets to Israel, turning them back from their waywardness to prepare them for the Messiah.

And yet these religious leaders rejected the prophets, oftentimes beating them, treating them shamefully, some of them killed.

And then you get to the real crux of this parable, verse 6.

But the father still had one other messenger, a beloved son, his own son, his only son.

And he said, I'm going to send him.

They will respect my son.

But what did they say?

No, this is the heir.

Let's kill him.

Because if there's no heir left to receive the inheritance, then it becomes ours.

Not true, but that's what they thought.

What farmer in his right mind would send his beloved son to such tenants like these?

As one commentator said, the son goes on the father's, goes as the father's representative with the father's authority to the father's property to claim the father's due.

So here's the question.

Why would God send his own son into this world, knowing full well what they would do to him?

That's the question.

And there's only one reason that I know.

Love.

That's the only reason you do it.

He knew what was required to get the fruit from his vineyard.

Us.

He knew what was required.

It was not only the grapes that were staked to the vine.

His own precious son would be staked to a different kind of vine to get us back.

To take fruit that was all leaves and no fruit.

We were all leaves and no fruit in this analogy.

Oh, this text has been blessing my heart all week.

I couldn't wait to tell you guys this.

Just living in this passage, thinking about the love of God.

This is how much he loves us.

This is what this story is about.

And John, Jesus said in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, these words will be familiar to some of us.

John 3 · chapter mention

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

He's not talking about being lifted up to heaven.

He's talking about being lifted up on a cross, a stake, a vine of sorts.

That whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

And some of you may not know that.

It's really a good thing that you're here today.

This is why he sent his son out of love for people like you.

That whoever believes in him may have eternal life, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These tenants thought if they killed the heir, they'll get the inheritance, they'll become the heir.

What we could say is an application of this is if humanity can dispense with God or kill him, then they think that they can become God.

It's been that way from the beginning.

From Satan being cast out of heaven ever since.

And so people today work very, very hard to keep him at great lengths from their heart, to eliminate the true God from their lives or to limit his control over their lives.

That's what sinners do.

Keep them away for all kinds of reasons.

Who is he to tell me what to do with my life?

What's the big deal about Christianity?

God, the patient landowner, waits for his people to repent.

Please hear that.

God, the patient landowner, waits for his people to repent.

But there is a day when the days are over.

There is a day when the chance to repent is over and gone.

This is today is the day of salvation.

Hebrews tells us.

Today is a day of salvation.

Confess your sins to God.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him, and that I think that includes you.

Whoever believes in him will not be cast into hell, but will live in paradise with Jesus forever.

The wicked tenets represent spiritual, the wrong, harmful spiritual leaders of Israel.

We want to cry out, don't we?

When we hear this story, we want to cry out, God, don't send your son.

Look, we know what's going to happen to him.

God, you knew what was going to happen to him.

God, don't do it.

We've seen this movie.

But he still did.

It strikes me that in his final hours, Jesus tells this story.

The Father sent me to die because there's no other way for you to live.

This is the God we serve.

This was the greatest act of evil this world has ever seen that brought about the greatest good that this world will ever see.

We read about it all over the scriptures in the book of Acts, chapter 2, verse 23.

Acts 2:23

God was not caught by surprise.

God knew exactly what he was doing.

Acts chapter 2, verse 23.

Acts 2:23

The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers, and you shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

Listen to him, whatever he tells you.

He said earlier in the text, but he's talking to the Jewish leaders.

This is after Jesus' death.

This is what Peter says.

You denied the holy and the righteous one, and you asked for a murderer to be granted to you.

You killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

To this we are witnesses, and his name by faith, and his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know in the faith that is through Jesus.

The apostle still speaking.

I don't know if you understand this, but there's Christianity in all the other religions.

What do all the other religions of the world have in common, even with all their differences?

That if you're gonna make it to the next world, whatever, however they describe that, if you're gonna be saved however they describe that, it's gonna be in your name.

Every other religion says it basically comes down to your goodness.

How good of a life you live.

And if you work hard and you live by the rules, and you you know you're better than most, a sin of pride, you might make it.

It's either the name of Jesus or your name.

Who are you gonna trust?

Who are you gonna trust to go to heaven?

You?

I hope not.

Or the one who went on a cross out of love.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This was prophesied in Psalm 118 in the Old Testament.

Listen to that verse that Jesus quotes.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

For this was the Lord's doing.

He knew what he was doing all along.

We said, Jesus, Father, don't send him.

This is how it's gonna turn out, and it's gonna be ugly.

And the Father says, I know.

I know.

But I must to get you back.

And it is marvelous in our eyes.

Is this marvelous in your eyes?

Or does it seem like nonsense?

Does it seem incredulous to you that the Father would do this to save you?

Is it marvelous in our eyes?

One Hebrew scholar put it like this the stone that he's referring to.

One large stone turned out to be the wrong size and shape as they were constructing the temple.

So when it arrived at the building site, the workmen set that stone aside.

It was the stone that the builders rejected.

But to everyone's surprise, the unwanted stone turned out to be exactly the right size and shape to serve as the cornerstone, the keystone that squared the building.

What does Jesus go on to say?

Many people are going to trip over this stone.

Indeed, they do.

Many people are going to trip over that stone, the cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

They're going to say, I don't get it.

I really don't understand him.

He's confusing to me.

And how do we really know that he's really the Messiah, anyway?

Don't stumble over the stone of salvation.

And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces.

That's what the Word of God says.

It's recorded in Matthew.

It's recorded in Luke.

This passage is also right here in Mark.

If you stumble over this stone, if you reject this Savior, if you say, I will find my own way to peace, I will find my own way to God, I will do it my way, you will stumble over him and you will be crushed to pieces.

That's what the Bible says.

That's what Jesus does.

That's a message that often isn't being preached in many churches today.

But Jesus said it.

And it's true.

Don't stumble over this cornerstone.

Is it marvelous in our eyes?

Oh, again, the references in the Old Testament, Hosea chapter 10, verse 1.

Hosea 10:1

Israel is an empty vine, plenty of leaves, but no fruit.

Isaiah chapter 5, verse 4, we read, What more could I have done when I looked for the good grapes?

Isaiah 5:4

All I found were rotten grapes.

That represents our lives apart from Jesus Christ.

Israel thought that she was the vine in the Old Testament.

As long as she did think that she was the vine, this is the kind of fruit that they produce.

So as I close, Peggy, you've seen that book?

So Peggy came to my office, I don't know, six weeks ago, whatever, and we had a good conversation.

And I said, Peggy, why don't you take that book and read it?

And after you've read it, come back and let's talk about it.

Two days later, Pastor, I've read it.

Like the whole thing?

Yeah.

Let me read from my favorite book outside of the Bible.

This is what Jesus says about these things, about us trying to be the vine.

Jesus cried out, I am the true vine.

It's as if he said, man's day of being the vine is over.

God's judgment of him as the vine is to be completed in the body of Jesus on the cross, on the tree.

Jesus says, from now on in the history of this world, I alone am the vine.

I'm not looking for fruit from Israel, I'm looking for fruit from the Savior who died on the vine.

And you put your faith in him, and there's going to be fruit in your life.

You put your faith in him, and there's going to be good fruit that's going to be growing in you.

Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches.

If anyone abides in me, he will bear much fruit.

But it only comes as you abide in him.

It only comes as I abide in him.

The way of victory is always by repentance.

Jesus cannot be the vine to any of us except as we repent.

If the works of our flesh shows them to us, it shows us that apart from Christ we could do nothing.

Jesus is the only vine.

And he's the vine to me as I repent of trying to be the vine myself.

How many times have I had to pray that prayer of repentance in my life?

God forgive me for trying to be the vine.

God forgive me for trying to control this day as though this day is my day.

My agenda.

Thinking that I'm not going to answer to him one day?

You will.

I will.

Everybody in this room one day is going to answer to him.

And I think I'm guessing the first thing I'm going to say is, Jesus, thank you for being my vine.

Thank you for being staked to that cross.

So that I could be your fruit.

This is grace.

This is grace.

Receive God's grace today.

Don't put this off.

You don't know how many days you have.

You don't know how many more opportunities you have.

Come to Jesus today.

The man who wrote the song we're going to sing, Man of Sorrows, Philip Bliss.

He understood this.

He understood this, man of sorrows, what a name.

For the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah! What a savior.

Guilty, vile, and helpless we, spotless Lamb of God was he.

Full atonement?

Can it be?

Hallelujah.

What a savior.

This is how the man died who wrote this hymn.

He was on a train with his wife, and the train was derailed, hit something, went off the tracks.

The train cars burned.

Apparently he initially survived the crash, but when he realized that his wife was not out of the burning train car, he went back in to rescue his wife.

And then both perished.

That's an exemplary love.

A man who would go back into a burning car to rescue his wife.

That's an exemplary love.

But it's not this love of Christ.

Jesus went into the burning car.

Jesus went into.

He knew he wasn't coming out.

But he knew that if he went in, you would come out.

I would come out.

Hallelujah.

What a savior.

Jesus, we want to thank you.

Right now.

We want to praise you.

We're never going to stop praising you.

We're never going to stop thanking you.

You were lifted up.

That you would take all of our punishment.

That we would be free.

That we would be forgiven.

That we would be loved.

That we would abide in you.

Jesus, please accept our praise this morning.

Please accept our thanks this morning.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would be working powerfully in our midst right now.

Lord, bring anybody who's lost to put their faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Father, for those of us who have been on the path, maybe we need to be wakened up.

Maybe we need to be renewed, revived, refreshed.

Lord, we want to live for you.

But how can we do that unless we see Jesus sacrifice for us?

Thank you, Jesus.

Amen.