A Heart of Rebellion

The scripture reading this morning is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 20, verses 9 through 20.

Luke 20:9–20

Encourage you to turn there, and if you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible located right there in front of you in that little shelf, and you can find it on page 879.

As you're turning there, I did want to mention, I know some of you, especially those of you who are on Facebook, may have known that I had gone to urgent care yesterday because of some numbness and immobility in my hand.

And I had some friends encourage me to go and in case it was a stroke, and I said, Well, it's not a stroke, but I'll go.

But there is some type of pinched nerve.

It isn't a stroke, but there is some type of pinched nerve in there, so I still have weakness and lack of uh full mobility.

So if I if I move my hand around and it looks like a claw, you know what's going on.

Just, you know, now you're all gonna be looking at my hands, so but I just wanted to let you know that.

And uh, like I said, some of you may have been wondering what uh what was going on, and so just wanted to make you aware of that.

Um, and I will go in to see a specialist tomorrow about that.

Luke chapter 20, beginning in verse 9.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

And he began to tell the people this parable.

A man planted a vineyard and led it out to tenants, and went into another country for a long while.

When the time came he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would be given, they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.

But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

And he sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.

And he sent yet a third, this one also they wounded and cast out.

Then the owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do?

I will send my beloved son, perhaps they will respect him.

But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, This is the heir, let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.

And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

When they heard this, they said, Surely not.

But he looked directly at them and said, What then is this that is written?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Every one who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on any one it will crush him.

The scribes and the f and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so to so as to deliver him to the authorities and jurisdiction of the governor.

This is God's word.

It's really a straightforward parable.

Unlike most parables that make one or two or perhaps three points, this functions almost as an allegory, as almost every point has significant meaning.

The vineyard that is talked about is God's people.

Throughout the Old Testament, Israel is called the vineyard of God.

In fact, in a famous passage in Isaiah chapter 5, verses 1 through 7, Isaiah writes about Israel as a vineyard.

Isaiah 5:1–7

For instance, in verse 7 it says, For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.

The man or the father is God the Father.

The tenants are the spiritual or religious leaders.

The servants are God's messengers, the prophets, those whom God sent to challenge the people.

And of course, the Son is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is an allegory of redemptive history.

It reminds us of creation and the fall of the rebellion of man, of the love of the Father, of God sending his own son Jesus.

But what does this have to do with us?

We could look at this passage as nothing more than a history lesson of the Old Testament and a theology lesson of the outworking of God's plan.

And truly, that is this passage.

But what does this have to do with us?

We read this and think, how could they be so hard-hearted and rebellious?

But their problem is our problem.

By nature, left to ourselves, we are hard-hearted and rebellious just like them.

I think sometimes we read the Old Testament, and I know for most of my Christian life, I would read the Old Testament and think, how could they be so dense?

And I thought if I was them, surely I would get it.

Because I'm so much different from them.

But the fact is, is we are exactly like them, left to ourselves.

Human nature has not changed.

Fallen, sinful human nature.

And so left to ourselves, apart from God's grace, we are independent, autonomous, self-willed, self-centered, self-motivated, and self-preserving.

We don't want to bow our head and our hearts to God.

God is king, he is sovereign, he's in control, he has authority.

But left to ourselves, we don't want to say, as Jesus did, not my will, but your will be done.

Like old blue eyes, we want to say, I did it my way.

This passage is about the rebellion of man and the goodness of God.

The rebellion of man cannot stop the unrelenting grace of God.

God is fulfilling his plan in redemptive history, and nothing is going to stop him.

This morning, as we examine this passage, we will first see the unrelenting grace of God, of his goodness unfolded through the ages.

Second, we'll see the unbelievable rebellion of man, which is highlighted in contrast to God's goodness.

And finally, we'll examine the ultimate victory of Jesus.

So follow along, look at the passage, and let's consider these three strands of truth in this passage.

First of all, the unrelenting grace of God.

The first thing that strikes us when we read this, we see the sinfulness of man, but we see the heart of the owner, of the father.

He keeps sending servants.

He sends his messengers, not that he will rule over them with an iron fist, but that he passionately desires them and longs for a relationship with them.

His hearers would have understood immediately that Jesus was talking about them and talking about the prophets of the Old Testament.

Why did God send messenger after messenger?

Consider the pattern of the Old Testament.

Think about Exodus, for example.

Israel is in bondage to slavery.

God raises up Moses to deliver his people.

God sends ten plagues to demonstrate his power and to convince Pharaoh to let his people go.

It culminated in the final plague, in the Passover, where the firstborn of every family died if they did not have the blood of the Lamb spread over the doorways.

Miraculously, God parts the Red Sea so that they can walk over on dry ground.

He leads them by a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.

He destroys the Egyptian army.

And so what's the first thing that they do?

Well, as you're reading through Exodus, you find the first thing they do is grumble and complain.

We don't have water.

We don't have food.

We want to go back to Egypt.

I started rereading the book of Exodus this week, and I thought, boy, what would I do if I was Moses?

And then I thought, what would I do if I was God?

And I thought I'd squash them.

You know, the first complaint about you read this and you think about their rebellion, but you see the grace of God over and over again, his patience and his longsuffering.

For 40 years they rebelled, and for 40 years God guides and protects them and provides for them.

Their clothes didn't wear out.

He brings them to the promised land.

That generation dies, another generation goes in and settles, but things don't get much better.

You think of the period of the judges, the endless cycle of rebellion and judgment, of repentance and deliverance.

To read through that, you see the cycle over and over again.

They sin against God, and God brings judgment, brings in a people, and they cry out to God in their pain.

And so God brings a deliverer, a judge.

And it ends in rebellion again.

Things don't get much better in the period of the kings.

Other than David and Solomon, who were the high points, there were few exceptions in their continual degeneration and rebellion.

What did God do?

He continued to send people to call them back to himself.

Most of us like a love story, at least a short one, maybe not a two-hour one.

But most of us like to hear love stories and read about them, but the kind that we find in the Bible aren't the kind that would play well on the Hallmark channel.

Remember one love story in the Old Testament of Hosea and Gomer.

In that book of Hosea, the prophet is told to marry a prostitute.

Many scholars say that she wasn't a prostitute when they married, but that is what she became later.

But what the text says in Hosea chapter 1, verse 2 is this: when the Lord God first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take to yourself a wife of whoredom, and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.

Hosea 1:2

Regardless, he is told to do something that is shocking.

Even if she wasn't at that moment, he knew what she was going to become, and he was told to take her as his wife anyway.

And he was told to do this as a living illustration of God's relationship to his people.

We see Gomer's rebellion and sin, of her rejection of Hosea, of her going and going in immorality and fleeing to the arms of others.

And Hosea radically pursues her based not on her worth, but based on grace.

And Hosea is demonstrating the unrelenting grace of God.

When God chose Israel as a nation to be his people, he says this to them.

In Deuteronomy chapter 7, he says, He says, It was not because you were more in number than any of the other people that the Lord sent his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all people.

Deuteronomy 7 · chapter mention

But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

In essence, what God tells Israel is, I love you because I love you, not because of you, but because of my great love.

In fact, in Hosea, during that time, and God is telling Hosea his anger at the people.

But then you also see this love break through, for instance, in chapter 1, verse 10, it says, Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered.

And in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God.

We see throughout the Old Testament, we see in the passage here in Luke, this unrelenting grace of God in pursuing rebellious people out of love.

And so next we examine the unbelievable rebellion of man.

In light of God's goodness, what should be our response?

If we really understood the grace of God, how should we respond to that?

Paul says, Do you not know it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance?

Who would rebel against love like that?

We would.

You and I.

By nature, we have a heart of rebellion towards God.

Theologian R.

C.

Sproul calls sin cosmic treason.

We shake our fist at God, we don't want to submit, we don't want to follow, we refuse to bow our heads and our hearts to the sovereign king, even though he's good.

At the core of sin is a heart of rebellion.

We want autonomy.

And that's a great word.

Webster's defines autonomy as freedom from external control or influence, independence.

And left to ourselves, that's what we want.

We want freedom from external control, freedom from God's influence in our lives.

In fact, the Bible warns us of that very real possibility in our own hearts, looking to the example of the Old Testament.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 3, verses 7 through 12, the writer to Hebrews says this.

Hebrews 3:7–12

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion, or the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, They always go astray in their heart, they have not known my ways.

As I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

And then the writer to Hebrews gives this challenge to us: Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Notice where the problem was.

It says, They have not known God's ways, they always go astray in their heart.

And so you see the rebellion of the people here towards God and towards his prophets, and ultimately towards Jesus, was a heart of rebellion that resides in each one of us left to ourselves.

That's the story behind the golden calf in Exodus 32.

You remember the story of the golden calf?

God had just delivered Israel from Egypt, and he had sent Moses to Mount Sinai, where he was about to receive the Ten Commandments.

And as Moses is away, what do the people do?

It says, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us, and for this, as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

In their hearts they wanted a God that they could control.

They wanted a God that they could manage that would follow their will.

That they could handle, that they could see, that they could manipulate.

And that's the heart of rebellion that we struggle with ourselves.

Notice in this passage in Luke the downward spiral of a hardened heart.

Each servant they treat worse than the last.

And it's shocking to see the unbelievable rebellion of man in light of the grace of God.

But finally, let's examine the ultimate victory of Jesus.

The father sends one servant and another servant and a third servant.

Those hearing the story at this point would think, what's the father going to do now?

What is the landowner going to do?

And what does the father do?

In light of all of the rebellion, in light of the hard-hardenedness, in light of the rejection in sin, what does the father do?

He sends his son.

He sends his beloved son.

Now, if you hadn't heard this story before and you were listening to it at this point, you would probably stand up and say, No.

Don't you know what's going to happen?

Can't you see what they're going to do?

Don't you recognize what they did to every one of your servants that you sent?

Don't send your son.

Why would you do that?

What would motivate you to continue to send people and someone that you love?

It's like a slow-motion train wreck.

Everyone who was listening at this point knew what was going to happen next.

Why would he do it?

Why would God send his son to this rebellious planet?

To this rebellious people.

To you and to me.

Doesn't he know what's going to happen?

He's motivated by love.

Jesus came because of God's love.

The most well-known verse probably in the Bible, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

It goes on to say, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that in order, 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.

Why did God send his son?

He sent it because of love.

He was motivated.

The great love of the Father motivated him to do what everything in common sense says not to do.

The end of the story sounds like failure.

If you would stop at the end of the parable before Jesus gives a commentary, it says, The son dies.

They said, Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.

And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

But what they didn't recognize is that that was victory for the Father and the Son.

The death of Jesus was victory in two distinct ways.

First of all, it was victory in the saving of a people for himself.

In the face of the unbelievable rebellion of man, why is God unrelenting in his grace?

Why is he unrelenting in his pursuit?

God is on a rescue mission.

He's calling out a people for himself.

And he will be successful.

In the book of Acts, we're reminded of God sent his son to be slain.

And the Bible says, and by your blood you ransomed a people for yourself from every tribe, it says this in Revelation, from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

If you were to read this story and hear that the Son would die, you would think that the story's over.

But what seems like the point of failure is the greatest victory.

It's a sacrifice of grace.

And God did this not because we're worthy, but because he is relentlessly gracious towards those he is saving.

Hebrews 4 chapter 12 reminds us that his word will be effective.

Isaiah 55, 10 and 11 says, it will accomplish his purpose.

That God's word will work in the hearts of people, that God will call out a people to himself, that he will break through the hardness of heart.

And so what seems at this point in the story of being the end is the beginning.

But we're also reminded of victory in a different sense.

And secondly, victory and triumphing over the rebellious and the rejecting.

Who won and who lost here?

On the surface, it might look like sin and Satan and death defeated the sun.

It might look as if the enemies of God come out on top.

The sun is dead.

But what Jesus reminds us is this death was both tragic and triumphant.

And even in judgment, there's triumph.

Notice what it says here.

He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

The grave could not hold Jesus.

Sin had no claim over him.

Satan had no power over him.

The enemies of God could not stop the plan of God from unfolding exactly as he had determined.

Jesus was resurrected in power and he provides full and complete salvation to all who turn to him.

But Jesus reminds us that there is also certain judgment to all who continue to reject and rebel.

2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 5 reminds us that he will give relief to those who are afflicted and inflict judgment on those who do not know God or obey his gospel.

2 Thessalonians 1:5

Even in the warning, there is an expression of grace.

Sometimes we read a passage like this and we don't recognize God's grace even coming in the warning.

There's a warning of certain judgment, but that warning is a call to turn, to repent, to turn to God.

But if not, there will be judgment, and that's what happened to the religious leaders.

What then will the owner of the vineyard do?

He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to another.

When they heard this, they said, surely not.

But this is exactly what happened in 70 AD.

Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were scattered.

Since the day of Pentecost, God's people have been led primarily by Gentiles to this day.

Jesus had been rejected, but his death and resurrection are in fact the most important events in God's plan.

He concludes by saying that the stone which the builder rejected had become the cornerstone.

That which was thought insignificant and useless was actually central and the most significant reality in the entire building of God's plan.

But we read this and we ask, how does this apply to us?

God's ways are not our ways, His plans are not our plans.

We think, if I follow you, Lord, you'll do what I want you to do.

But that's not how God is.

Will you follow Him even if deliverance never comes?

Will you follow Him if healing never comes?

I told the story times before, but it it bears application here when my oldest daughter, when we were pregnant and she had developed heart block in utero.

And every day we were going for an ultrasound, and every day I was praying for healing, that God would heal.

And I and I had expected that one day we would go in and say, all of the problems were gone, she's healed.

There's no sign of heart block.

But that isn't what happened.

And I became disillusioned, and I became angry, and I became bitter.

And my heart began to harden towards God because I thought he owed me this after all that I'd done for him.

And in my heart of hearts, what I was saying is, Lord, I'll follow you if you do things my way.

But what if the healing never comes?

What if deliverance never comes?

What if God has another plan than the plan that you have?

You see, we see the rebellion of others, but we really need to look at our own hearts because the hardness of heart can happen at any moment in time.

God is calling us to a place of brokenness and repentance.

He desires a humble, dependent heart.

A heart that says, Lord, not my will, but your will be done.

God is relentless in his grace.

It's the beauty of this passage.

He calls us to learn from the examples of the Old Testament and even from those who rebel against Him and to not harden our hearts as they did.

Is God trying to get your attention?

Has something in your life caused you to begin to harden your heart towards God?

May the unrelenting grace of God and the example of a hardened heart and the reminder of the ultimate victory of Jesus bring us to repentance and humility and trust.

Let's pray.

Father, as we think of hardness of heart, it's easy to see it in others.

But not in ourselves, the subtlety of sin.

When it's not obvious and blatant, when our heart begins to cool towards you, when our first love grows cold, when we're more passionate about other things than you, and we don't stop to ask why.

Of what's going on in our hearts, what is it that we are thinking wrongly and believing wrongly and trusting wrongly about you?

What is settled in our hearts that has caused us to begin to become dull and insensitive to your spirit?

And so, Father, we pray that this is not just a theology lesson or a history lesson, but an opportunity for us to recognize that we're no different left to ourselves and to cry out to you for the working of your Holy Spirit and grace to soften our hearts because we can't do it on our own.

To draw us to yourself because of your great love.

And so, Father, we yield ourselves to you now and we ask you to do your work in our hearts, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.