Mark 12:1-12

I don't know if anybody else feels this way, or maybe from time to time.

I'm having just a crazy morning.

In a very kind of microcosmic way, we were getting ready.

Sam and I were running late this morning trying to get the boys rallied.

Sunday morning breaks their normal routine.

They normally get up and they get to watch a cartoon while they eat their breakfast.

Sunday mornings we throw them in clothes and throw them in the van and they eat on the run.

And Judah really, really wanted, Sam had said he could get two animals,

and he really wanted this one particular tree frog that he had.

And so I was helping him and he really thought it was in his bucket and we couldn't find it.

We had this whole selection process of the replacement tree frog for the one he really wanted.

And just in this little five-minute absolute frustration for me,

I realized that's how my whole morning has been going.

And after that, got a call that the water wasn't functioning too well in the building this morning,

which I'm sure many of you have already experienced.

We're on a well.

The filter was really dirty, so we thought maybe that was it.

Threw a new filter in.

That's not it.

It seems that just generally in the county, the water table is really low.

And so praise God for the potential rain that's coming to bring the water table back up.

The pumps are shut off, so there is no water in the building if you're wondering at this moment what's happening with that.

But the time I would have normally spent just re-going over my notes,

I spent running up and down the stairs and playing with the pump

and trying to figure out what in the world was going on with that.

And I'm in this really bad habit.

I wouldn't suggest any of you who are intending to preach to make notes like I do notes,

because I essentially preach to myself all week.

I'm just constantly looking at the scriptures,

and literally in my head I preach to myself.

I don't picture you guys.

I picture me, and I tell me what I need to hear from this particular text.

And then when I go, oh, that was good, I write it down.

But usually in this very abbreviated form that will just help jog my memory to say it the way I said it in my head.

And so it's really important that I go back and review my notes so I know what in the world I'm talking about.

In fact, I do this to the degree that I've gone back thinking, for example,

college Bible study right now is going through 1 Peter, which a bunch of years ago we preached through 1 Peter.

Oh, like three years ago.

And I got assigned a text that I'd previously done.

I remember doing it.

So I went and found my notes, and they made no sense to me.

There were some references that made sense.

I mean, obviously I had some framework going on there, but why did I write that down?

And what did I intend to say as a result?

So that's kind of where I find myself this morning as I'm coming to my notes.

I looked at them briefly and went, I don't even know what that means.

So let's pray together.

For God's grace, for the preaching of his word this morning.

We always need it.

We need it more.

We feel our need for it more at some time.

So let's pray together.

Father, it is a blessing to get to come to your word.

For us to all hold copies of various sort, translation, some digital, some in paper,

some big and some small in our laps this morning.

And to have a church that celebrates the truth and desires to come around it

and to align our lives with it is a great grace wrought by you.

Father, as we all come from different directions this morning with different levels of craziness in our day,

I would ask that you be very gracious to us.

Still our hearts focus our minds that we might hear what you would say to us by your word this morning.

There is no authority in my speaking except for the authority of your written word.

Help us to cherish it.

Help us to want to hear from you this morning.

To desire to have our little worlds crushed by your astounding love to us.

And Father, help all of this, the great end of it all,

be that we love you more as a result of what we do here together today,

that we will proclaim your excellencies,

that we will leave this place shouting to the mountaintops how great our God is.

We pray all of this in Jesus' precious and holy name.

Amen.

So we are now in Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

It is Wednesday of what's been called Passion Week.

Jesus will be crucified on Friday.

And we're going to spend a good majority of the rest of our time in Mark in Wednesday.

Quite a bit of the text itself is on Wednesday.

Things are winding down in one sense and certainly winding up in another sense.

He's entered Jerusalem on Monday, which we see at the beginning of chapter 11.

He cleanses the temple on Tuesday.

Begins to make quite a hubbub in town already.

And then Kyle last week preached from the very end of chapter 11.

And we see the confrontation that begins in Jerusalem with the scribes and the Pharisees,

all these religious elite leaders that eventually leads to his crucifixion on Friday.

And so that's where we find ourselves as we come to the beginning of chapter 12.

So follow along as I read to you, starting in verse 1.

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 winepress 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 shapefully.

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 God's word to us.

It was written for his glory and our good.

We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.

Jesus begins, verse 1, we see, to speak to them in parables.

And I think it's important for us to note who it is that he's talking to.

Chapter 11, verse 27.

It's the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

Essentially, all of those at the top.

The upper echelon of apostate Judaism is who he's speaking this parable to.

And Jesus is such a masterful storyteller.

I would encourage you at some point to take a brief break from whatever study you're doing in the scriptures

and spend some time just studying the parables of Jesus.

Brilliant in every regard.

Direct to the point.

Speaks to these people in terms that they understood.

Drew their minds to the exact place that he intended for them to go.

For us, it takes a little more work sometimes.

We have to understand context a bit more.

But boy, were these stories pointed and perfect in every regard.

Now, we've seen parables serve some different purposes.

Back in Mark chapter 4, he's speaking in parables to the crowd at Barad.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

And in verse 10, it says that when he was alone,

those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

And he said to them,

to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God.

But for those outside, everything is in parables so that they may indeed see,

but not perceive and may indeed hear, but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.

So Jesus has used the parables to veil the truth in a sense,

to speak about the kingdom of God in such a way that only those whose hearts had been enlightened by the spirit

understood what he was saying to them.

It was kind of a shrouding of the truth.

But now, he's using a parable in a much more pointed fashion.

These darkened, hard-hearted religious leaders fully understand that he is speaking about them.

We see this to be the case in verse 12.

For they perceived, brilliant fellas, glad you figured it out,

that he was talking against them.

These religious leaders, these apostates,

these who were leading the people of Israel astray.

And the story starts out with a man.

This man here is God who plants a vineyard,

puts a fence around it, digs a pit for the wine press, builds a tower.

And for us, these might seem like unimportant details,

but all of these things were necessary for the flourishing of a vineyard.

In fact, in this area, the valleys are very, very fertile, soft, good ground.

The mountains are full of stones.

It took a lot of work to prepare the hillsides,

and this is where they grew.

Wheat in the valley, wine, grapes up on the hillside.

They would have put a tower in the middle of it,

so they could have guarded over it,

from animals that would come and eat the grapes,

as well as any marauders that would come and try to take over the vineyards.

They would build a pit and a wine press,

so that they could process the grapes into something that was useful for their consumption.

These things were all necessary,

and so already he's catching them up into this story.

A man who builds a good vineyard.

A right and a proper vineyard.

But what does the vineyard represent in the story?

What or who is the vineyard?

The vineyard is Israel.

He's making here a direct reference to Isaiah 5,

Isaiah 5:1

verse 1 and 2.

You're welcome to turn there, or just listen.

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.

There are many other Old Testament references as well to this as a symbol,

like Psalm 80, verses 8 and 9.

Psalms 80:8

This is a psalm of Asaph.

You brought a vine out of Egypt.

You drove out the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground for it.

It took deep root and filled the land.

This symbol is used most often to speak positively about the Lord's planting of His vineyard,

His keeping of it, His tending of it,

the way in which He sustains it.

But it's also used to speak in negative about Israel,

this vineyard that He had planted,

and the way in which it lacked the proper fruit.

We saw that Isaiah 5 at the end of verse 2.

Looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes,

which was not a grape that was good for wine making.

Again, later on in Isaiah 5, verse 7,

Isaiah 5:7

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, here's the fruit He's looking for,

the good grapes,

He looked for justice,

but behold, bloodshed.

For righteousness,

but behold, an outcry.

Again, Jeremiah 2, verse 21,

Jeremiah 2:21

Yet I planted you a choice vine,

holy of pure seed.

How then have you turned degenerate

and become a wild vine?

They did not produce the fruit

that was keeping with righteousness.

They didn't produce the fruit that was proper

for the people of God.

Now, much of this was because

the tenants,

those that were put in charge

over this vineyard,

speaking here of those with spiritual leadership,

did not lead well.

Now, Israel is certainly held accountable as a nation.

Individuals will be held accountable

as individuals in our church.

You will be held accountable

for the sins that you commit,

both those of omission and commission,

but I will be held accountable

to a higher degree

for the way in which I teach you

to obey the Word of God.

What a weight that is,

especially on a morning like this.

So here we see in this parable

a particular indictment

against the religious leaders.

Jesus is not dismissing Israel

for their lack of following Him,

but particularly as these men

come to confront Him,

which is not a new thing for Jesus,

He's already experienced this

as He's traveled all over Galilee.

They've been sending men out to Him.

They've already been trying to trap Him.

He's been avoiding them all along.

But here we see in this final week

as things are coming to a head,

the great climax of this redemptive story

is about to happen.

The confrontations also increase.

And so specifically,

He's speaking against these men.

Again, chapter 11, verse 27,

the chief priests, the scribes,

and the elders who came to Him.

Listen to what He says in Matthew 23.

You'd do well to turn here.

Matthew 23.

There's a well-known chapter

where Jesus speaks out

against the Pharisees,

the woes.

He says,

woe to them,

woe to them,

woe to them.

Beginning in verse 1 of Matthew 23,

then Jesus said to the crowds

and to His disciples,

the scribes and the Pharisees

sit on Moses' seat,

meaning they were given authority,

they were religious leaders,

over the people.

So, do and observe

whatever they tell you,

but not the works they do,

for they preach,

but do not practice.

They were great hypocrites.

The great picture of hypocrisy.

And sadly, I think we too often reflect

the way in which they live.

Verse 4,

they tie up heavy burdens,

hard to bear,

and lay them on people's shoulders,

but they themselves

are not willing to move them

with a finger.

They do all their deeds

to be seen by others,

for they make their phylacteries broad

and their fringes long,

and they love the place of honor

at feasts,

and the best seats

in the synagogues,

and greetings in the marketplaces,

and being called rabbi

by others.

These men had taken these positions

and used it for their own

self-exaltation.

The phylactery was a small leather box

that carried the law of God

on their foreheads,

and their fringes were on their

prayer shawls,

and them having longer fringes

was supposed to be a greater thing.

They were more serious

about their devotion

to the way in which God

had called them to live.

It seemed that they were

getting into a competition

about who could be better

and greater

and be exalted by people.

Is this not the way

that so many of us live?

Do you identify in any way

with these rulers?

Piling up for yourself

praise and exaltation.

Don't forget where we've been

in Mark.

Put yourself back in Mark 8.

The ways in which

that Jesus has now set Himself aside.

He's teaching the disciples.

He's traveling towards Jerusalem.

He's got this final few months

with them moving along.

And He says some incredible,

shocking things about what it looks like

to follow Him.

The high cost of discipleship.

Chapter 8, verse 34.

If anyone would come after Me,

let him deny himself

and take up his cross

and follow Me.

You must die.

You must lay down who you are

if you want to be found in Christ

and be found to be called His.

Chapter 9, verse 35.

If anyone would be first,

he must be last of all

and servant of all.

Chapter 10, verse 31.

But many who are first

will be last

and the last first.

Chapter 10 again, verse 43.

But whoever will be great among you

must be your servant.

And who will be first among you

must be slave of all.

And He puts the great punctuation mark

on all of this

as Himself as the example.

He has yet to do this,

but we're here coming to it

in this week we're studying.

Verse 45.

For even the Son of Man

came not to be served,

but to serve

and to give His life

as a ransom for many.

This is what it looks like

to follow Jesus.

This is what it looks like

to not be apostate

and to follow God.

This is not at all

what these religious rulers

were doing.

They were the antithesis of this.

The very opposite

of this thing.

And we see that even

they are aware of it.

By the end of His story

in verse 12,

they have perceived

that He's talking about them.

The indictment is on them.

And yet they fail to repent.

They instead seek to kill Him

at the appropriate time

when they feel that

they can get away

with such an act.

And back in our story,

verse 2.

When the season came,

He sent a servant

to the tenants

to get from them

some of the fruit

of the vineyard.

Now this whole practice

of leasing out a property,

even setting it up

and then giving it

to people to work

was very common

in this day.

It's not entirely uncommon

in our day either.

But the way that they

would go about this exchange

is that the owner

of the land

would get some percentage

of the crop

that was yielded.

So that's all He's saying here

is driving this story along.

He's bringing the people

who are listening,

particularly these religious leaders,

along in this story.

So they see

there's a good vineyard built,

there's tenants put over it,

and when the fruit comes,

the proper thing

is to follow.

The man who's gone away

has sent somebody

to collect

what is rightfully his.

What would have been expected.

Verse 3,

And they took him,

and they beat him,

and sent him away empty-handed.

So the servant is beaten

and sent back.

Verse 4,

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.

Now note for a moment

this man with this vineyard

and his great,

great patience

and mercy

towards the tenants.

In fact,

at this point,

the people listening

would have already been

kind of enraged

by the activity

of this man.

Why did he not go

and destroy these tenants

after they beat

and sent away a servant

the first time?

The proper and right thing

for them to have done

on the first sending

of the servant

would have been to

yield the crop,

give to him

what was rightfully his,

and send it back,

and they refused to do it.

This was grounds

for their very dismissal.

In fact,

he would have had

much room to punish,

right?

To destroy them

and to drive them out.

Well, we see this man

standing as a symbol

for our Lord

and the way in which

he dealt with Israel

with great patience,

sending to them

another,

and another,

and another.

Listen to the words

of the Lord.

Return to me.

You are my people.

I will be your God.

These words echo

all throughout

the Old Testament.

The way in which

he beckons his people

to come back to him.

And so,

who are these servants

in our parable?

Who do they represent?

They're the prophets.

They're the prophets.

And what had the leaders

of Israel done

with the prophets?

All of you are scholars

of your Old Testament.

I know you know it

so well.

From Moses

all the way

to John,

the baptizer,

they largely rejected them.

Largely rejected them.

Some repentance.

Some turning back.

But for the most part,

they rejected them.

Some examples for you.

Tradition holds

that Isaiah was

sawn in half

and Jeremiah

was stoned to death.

Ezekiel hated.

Amos had to flee

for his life.

Zechariah was rejected

and stoned.

Micah was beaten.

And here in our

Mark's Gospel account,

John the baptizer

was beheaded.

They rejected

the messengers of God.

They didn't want to hear

what they had to say.

Jesus sums this up

again back in Matthew 23.

I should have had you

keep your finger there.

Beginning in verse 29.

Woe to you,

scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites,

for you build

the tombs of the prophets

and decorate

the monuments

of the righteous,

saying,

if we had lived

in the days of our fathers,

we would not have

taken part with them

in the shedding

and shedding the blood

of the prophets.

They were so self-righteous

they thought themselves

above their forefathers

who had done these things.

Right?

Who had destroyed

these prophets.

So they're building

for them monuments.

They're decorating

these monuments

and they're saying

we would have

nothing to do

with the murder

of the prophets.

Verse 31.

The indictment

Jesus delivers to them.

Thus you witness

against yourselves

that you are sons

of those who

murdered the prophets.

Fill up then

the measure

of your fathers

you serpents

you brood of vipers.

How are you to escape

being sentenced

to hell?

That's our Lord.

Therefore I send you

prophets

and wise men

and scribes

some of whom

you will kill

and crucify

and some you will

flog in your synagogues

and persecute

from town to town

so that on you

may come

all the righteous blood

shed on earth

from the blood

of righteous Abel

to the blood

of Zachariah

the son of Barakai

whom you murdered

between the sanctuary

and the altar.

Truly I say to you

all these things

will come

upon this generation.

So what is he saying

to them?

He's saying

I'm going to prove

that you are as evil

as your forefathers.

You're going to kill me

and then I'm going to send

to you many people

who are going to come

and profess the truth

of God

and you're going to

kill them too.

And we see this

all play out

in this prediction

that happens here.

that's who these men are.

And boy

the scathing way

in which Jesus

speaks to them.

He gives them

no space

to wiggle out

of this whatsoever.

Serpents

brood of vipers

evil men

with evil intentions

proclaiming to be

men of God

and yet

were not

in any way whatsoever.

Now Jesus uses

two titles of himself

in the coming verses

and we really need

to hone in on this

and really pay attention

to this.

So we see the different

slaves are sent.

Kind of this

amassing number of slaves.

It would appear

that this man

runs out of slaves.

He sends so many

different servants

to them

that he's out.

He's tapped out.

No more servants

to send

because verse 6 says

he still had one other.

A beloved son.

Who is this?

It is the Christ.

It is Jesus.

The beloved son.

The man says

they will respect

my son

but the tenants

said to one another

this is the heir.

This is the Christ.

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.

Jesus is coming

and he is disrupting

their little world

of their religious

eliteness.

They are getting

knocked down

off of their thrones

that they have set up.

For the second time now

Jesus has come

and he has taken over

the temple.

It happens previously

at the very beginning

of his ministry.

We see that in John 2.

This is the second time

he's come back now

and he's done it again.

This courtyard

of the Gentiles

was a huge space

and I would just

love, oh would I love

to see it.

I hope that when we

get to heaven

we somehow get

the revelation

of what that looked like

and we watch the DVD

or something

of him driving out

and controlling

this massive,

massive space.

He's totally disrupted

and that's why

they're coming to him

and that's why

as Kyle was talking about

they're saying

by what authority?

You can't just come in

and take over like this?

He's putting them

in their place.

He's disrupting

all of this.

And they don't want that.

They want the temporary good.

They want the temporary glory.

They want him out of the picture

so they can continue

to persist

in leading in the way

that they have.

Amassing for themselves.

Getting all of the praise

in that time.

Jesus is the beloved Son.

Remember back in Mark 1

when Jesus was baptized

by John the baptizer.

We see this beautiful picture

of the Trinity

all in one place.

Jesus being baptized.

The Spirit of God

descending like a dove

and a voice coming from heaven

that says,

You are my beloved Son.

With you,

I am well pleased.

Places this seal

and this mark on him

and his ministry

really kicks off

at this point.

The amazing thing,

beloved,

and the reason I call you that,

is that if you're in Christ,

we are also now

children of God.

Jesus is the Son of God.

This complex,

mind-blowing,

Trinitarian truth

and the ministry apprenticeship

that we have going on here

this afternoon.

We're going to talk about

the Trinity.

It is such a difficult thing.

It's clearly biblically taught.

So hard to understand.

We've got this equal,

coexisting,

three-part God

and yet it exists

in some hierarchy.

The Son yielding to the will

of the Father.

The Father loving the Son.

It's a complex deal.

But this passes to us.

We get to join in.

Not that we're part of God,

but we get to be part of this

wonderful family

and this communion

that exists in that way.

John writes in 1 John,

1-3,

See what kind of love

the Father has given to us

that we should be called

children of God?

And so we are.

The reason why the world

does not know us

is that it did not know Him.

Beloved,

we are God's children now

and what we will be

has not yet appeared,

but we know that

when He appears

we should be like Him

because we shall see Him

as He is.

And everyone who thus hopes

in Him purifies himself

as He is pure.

If you have placed your hope,

if you have placed believing faith

in Jesus Christ,

you are a child of God.

And you see that the

clear expectation

as we've been studying

through Mark

is that we're also

going to experience

the kind of suffering

that Christ experiences.

We've seen this now

a number of times

throughout the text.

Prosperity gospel,

be damned.

It's not the truth.

We will suffer

and we will die

for our faith.

We live in a comfortable place

where this isn't a reality to us.

And the shameful thing

is because most of us

aren't living for Christ.

Most of us have bought into

this cheap grace idea.

Right?

You check a box.

Christian.

You show up for an hour and a half.

Maybe some bonus things.

You plug in somewhere

and do your monthly service.

And you think you're good

and right with God.

Discipleship is costly.

It costs you everything.

But it's worth it.

Trade what you can't keep

to that eternal thing

that you cannot lose.

Right?

This is the high call

of the gospel.

To be children of God.

John very poignantly says

the reason the world

does not know us

is that it did not know

Him.

We will be rejected

by the world

but we will be accepted

by God.

Isn't this a better thing?

Here we see these scribes,

these Pharisees,

these elders,

the religious leaders

who were highly accepted

by the world.

Jesus said in Matthew 23,

how will you escape hell?

How?

This is what you're looking for

in life.

Your end is destruction.

What a tragic thing.

Place your faith in Christ.

Accept what comes with that.

The high cost of discipleship

and be called a child of God.

It says in the text

that they killed Him

and then they threw Him out.

This is likely a reference

to the wide rejection

of Jesus by Israel.

They threw Him

out of the vineyard

altogether.

The vineyard itself

did not contain Him

any longer

but they tossed Him

outside of its walls

and so Jesus

opens the indictment up

a bit more.

And then He asks

the question

in verse 9,

what will the owner

of the vineyard do?

Now in the parallel text

in Matthew 21,

Matthew 21:41

verse 41,

they respond,

they said to Him,

He will put those wretches

to a miserable death

and let out the vineyard

to other tenants

who will give Him

the fruits

in their season.

Now remember

who He's talking to.

He's talking to these

religious scribes.

These people

who should have

had all the answers.

And they did in this case.

In Matthew's account,

they respond

with the right thing.

Jesus has so caught them up

into this story

that they've yet to really realize

that they're now

delivering judgment

on themselves.

What's He going to do

to these men

who have treated Him

so shamefully,

who in every way

have made themselves

His enemy?

They say,

who put Him

to a miserable death?

That's the right

and proper thing to do.

They understood

capital punishment.

Genesis 9, 6.

God speaks to Noah

and says,

whoever sheds

the blood of man,

by man shall his blood

be shed.

For God made man

in His own image.

They would have been

furious

as much as they were

engaging in this story,

this fiction

that's happening

before them,

at the way in which

these tenants

treated the man

who owned

this vineyard.

Put them to death.

Come.

Put them to death.

Drive them out.

Give the vineyard

to other tenants

who give Him

the fruits

in their season.

And then Jesus

brings another title

into our scene

in verse 10.

Jesus is

the cornerstone.

He's the cornerstone.

Have you not read

this Scripture?

Now, when Jesus

uses words like this,

He's really mocking

these men

because they had

read it.

They clearly had read it.

These were the experts

on the law.

I can't hold myself

in comparison

to the way

they understood

the Scriptures.

I'm not like this

in my knowledge.

We know men

who are in our country

we look to,

we use their commentaries

and go and source them

for help in understanding

the Scriptures.

So they knew this.

They had read the Scripture.

The stone

that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing

and it is marvelous

in our eyes.

Now, if you don't know much

about this ancient architecture,

the cornerstone

was incredibly important

for the building

of a building

because it had to be hewn,

right?

They chipped away.

They built these things,

blocks of rock.

They built stones

to be stacked.

Incredible.

I hope someday

to get to travel

and see firsthand

some of this ancient architecture.

That cornerstone

was so important

because it had to be

laid out perfectly square

on all sides

because it built

the walls out

as well as

the way in which

the wall would be built up.

Right?

So if it was crooked

in any way whatsoever,

the wall would lean

or the walls would gap out

or they would narrow in.

The building wouldn't

be put together properly.

The cornerstone

was key

to the function

of the entire building.

Without it,

the building

could not hold together.

It could not be

properly built.

This is further significant

because

he's quoting here

Psalm 118,

22,

and 23.

Now I know all of you

have great memories.

So you're remembering

a number of weeks ago

when Clay

spoke

at the beginning

of chapter 11

about the triumphal

entry.

And they called out

all the people

called out

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes!

in the name of the Lord.

And guess what

they're quoting there?

Psalm 118,

Psalms 118:26

verse 26.

Just a few verses

after this very thing

that Jesus is quoting.

The stone that the builders

project

has become the cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing

and it is marvelous

in our eyes.

So by the profession

of the people

as he came in

on Monday,

he is that cornerstone.

And this may be the point

we don't know exactly,

but this may be the point

at which

in their minds

it turns

and they get,

oh, aha,

he's talking about us.

Oh, he's saying

he's the cornerstone.

And it mentions there

in verse 12

that they feared

the people.

So they left him

and they went away.

Very clever of our Lord

to quote from Psalm 118,

22 and 23

in this case.

Now you remember

verse 9,

pulling us back up,

you remember in verse 9

that the tenants

are going to be destroyed

and the vineyard

is going to be given

to others.

In Matthew's account

it says

that the tenants

will give him

the fruits of their season.

The others will be

new tenants

that will give him

fruits in their season.

So who is Jesus

referring to

when he talks about

the others?

Who is this vineyard

going to be given to?

I think specifically

and firstly

we need to understand

to the apostles.

Already there's been

some authority shift.

Hasn't there?

Jesus has been teaching

them along the way

correcting their thinking.

He's given them

charge to go out

and preach the gospel

of the coming kingdom.

He's given them

the ability to cast out

demons and to heal people.

There's already been

a bit of a power shift

in the structure

already

and it will only

increase

as he sends his spirit

the helper

to come along.

Jesus says

that the apostles

are going to do

greater works

than he does.

They're going to become

the new leaders.

The new tenants

over Israel

being God's people.

Remember that 21

verse 43 of Matthew

Therefore I tell you

the kingdom of God

will be taken away from you

and given to a people

producing

its fruits.

producing good works.

These would be the

new heralds

of the truth.

The guardians

of it.

So specifically

the apostles

and then beyond that

to us.

We're in that lineage now

as those who believe

in the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

That message has passed

across the generations

and we are now

those heralds

of the truth.

If you don't believe me

I think you do.

But just in case you don't

let's turn to 1 Peter

together.

Chapter 2.

The scriptures are such a wonderful

web interweaving

of symbolism

written across

so many years

by so many different writers

but all inspired

by the spirit of God.

1 Peter

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2.

I'll begin reading

in verse 4.

As you come to him

him is Jesus

here

a living stone

rejected by men

but in the sight

of God

chosen

and precious

you yourselves

like living stones

are being built up

as a spiritual house

to be a holy priesthood

to offer spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God

through Jesus Christ.

So as we come to

Jesus Christ

the living stone

this cornerstone

we are also

stones

being built into

a house

to offer what?

Sacrifices

acceptable to God

through Jesus Christ.

Fruit

bearing good fruit

good works

preaching the gospel

loving our neighbors.

Verse 6

For it stands in Scripture

Behold

I am laying in Zion

a stone

a cornerstone

chosen

and precious

and whoever believes

in him

will not be put to shame.

So the honor

is for you

who believe

but for those

who do not believe

the stone

that the builders

rejected

has become

the cornerstone

Does that sound familiar?

Verse 8

And a stone of stumbling

and a rock of fence

they stumble

because they disobey

the word

as they were destined

to do

but you are

a chosen race

a royal priesthood

a holy nation

a people

for his own possession

Why?

That you may proclaim

the excellencies

of him

who called you

out of darkness

into his marvelous light

That's why

we exist

church

Once you were

not a people

but now you are

God's people

Once you had

not received mercy

but now you have

received mercy

verse 10

is borrowing

from Hosea

What a beautiful

beautiful picture

this is

of us being

built into

a holy dwelling

place

for God

Do you see

the great

juxtaposition

here

in the story?

Jesus is using

this story

directly as an

indictment

against these men

that he's talking

to

but it broadens

out

as he talks

about who

he is

and we have

a great

understanding

now on

this side

of all

of the

gospel

realities

who we

are now

in

him

this is

why we're

created

this high

cost

of discipleship

for us to

walk in

all of us

all of us

a holy

priesthood

all of us

are meant to be

going and sharing

going and doing

it's not reserved

for my position

in this church

all of you have

been given

this responsibility

my job

primarily

is to help

you

go do

your job

2nd

Corinthians

chapter 5

makes the

point again

and I'm going

to close

with this

2nd

Corinthians

chapter 5

beginning

of verse

17

therefore

if anyone

is in

Christ

he is a

new

creation

the old

is passed

away

behold

the new

has come

all this

is from

God

who through

Christ

reconciled

us to

himself

and gave

us the

ministry

of

reconciliation

understand

that we

are enemies

of God

and the

ministry

of reconciliation

is that we

help people

make peace

with God

verse 19

that is

in Christ

God was

reconciling

the world

to himself

not counting

their trespasses

against them

and entrusting

to us

the message

of reconciliation

therefore

we are

ambassadors

for Christ

God

making his

appeal

through us

we implore

you

on behalf

of Christ

be reconciled

to God

so if you

are in

Christ

you have

the ministry

of reconciliation

to be about

the work

of bringing

people to

peace

with God

and understand

beloved

this is a

big deal

just before

this in

2nd

Corinthians

Paul said

that we

no longer

regard

anyone

according

to the

flesh

and what

he's

meaning

there

is

that

they

see

people

as

eternal

beings

no one's

life gets

snuffed out

and it

ends there

they go

on forever

and where

do they

go on

to

we should

really want

to know

this

we should

be really

concerned

about this

with everyone

we encounter

do you

understand

the weight

of sin

and its

subsequent

consequence

oh if you

do plead

with people

to come

to the

Lord

that they

might have

life now

and for

eternity

this is

the message

of

reconciliation

God has

granted it

to us

he makes

his appeal

through us

and that

appeal is

simply this

if you

do not

know

where you

stand

in this

if you

think

I may

I may

be in

the camp

of these

religious

elite

I go

through the

motions

I do

the things

outside

I'm looking

pretty good

inside

I'm full

of dead

people's

bones

I'm full

of hypocrisy

if you

think you

align with

them in

this way

this is

the appeal

to you

we implore

you

on behalf

of Christ

be reconciled

to God

let's pray

together