Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Bad Leadership 101 - Luke 20:1-19

The series that we've currently been in is going through

the Gospel of Luke. We title the series Luke the

Orderly Account of Truth, and we've been going through this

carefully investigated account of the life and ministry of the

Lord Jesus. And our hope in this series is that

as we examine this orderly account, that we will come

to know the truth of who Jesus is better with

the hopes that our faith would grow in the certainty

of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Awesome,

So if you would please open with me, we're gonna

be in the twentieth chapter of Luke today. If you

do not have a Bible, please we have some out

on the resource desk for you to just go grab

one so you can follow along with us. If not,

we're gonna have it up on the screen. Butt once again,

if you do not have a Bible, like you don't

even own one, please just go get one and take

one home with you. Today Luke chapter twenty, we're gonna

be starting in verse one. This is God's Word. It says,

one day as Jesus was teaching the people and the

temple and preaching the Gospel, the chief priests in the

scribes that the elders came up and said to him,

tell us by what authority you do these things? Or

who it is that gave you this authority. He answered them,

I will also ask you a question. Now tell me

was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?

And they discussed it with one another, saying, if we

say from heaven, he will say, why did you not

believe him? But if we say from man, all the

people will stone us to death, for they are convinced

that John was a prophet. So they answered that they

did not know where it came from. And Jesus said

to them, neither will I tell you by what authority

I do these things? And he began to tell the

people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and let

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 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

vineyard of the or 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.

Falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and

when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. The

scribes 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.

This is God's word. Let us pray, Lord, we lift

up this time to you. We just asked that the

illumination of the Holy Spirit would be in our hearts,

so that we would see and understand and comprehend your

word for us today. Help us be good stewards of it,

help us apply it, help us understand it, Lord God,

and let it take root in our heart and in

our lives to produce fruit in us. So we just

asked that you would be with us. We render this

time to you to your glory in Jesus name. Everyone

said amen. So we're in kind of a cool section

of scripture of this gospel Specif where just a few

weeks ago we saw Jesus arrive at Jerusalem, shows up

basically a big parade. It's super awesome. Everyone's like really

excited and happy about it, except for Jesus. Jesus is

on a cult crying. He's weeping and wailing over Jerusalem.

He's and we saw that he's weeping and wailing over

the destruction that he knows that is coming upon it,

the judgment that will be upon this people. This is

also the last week of Jesus's life. It's crazy because

it's going to take us seven months to get through it,

but this is seven days worth of stuff that we're

going to be looking out over the next couple of months,

and guess what it's worth. It it's all worth it to

slow down and take that time. Jesus has a lot

of really cool things to say and do. And this

is the last week jesus life before he would go

to the cross to die for our sins and then

be raised on the third day. But from Jesus's arrival

on Sunday to his table flipping in the temple on Monday,

Luke now zooms into a couple of days before the passover,

where Jesus spends his time teaching in the temple. Right,

And honestly, we should have like cut this all out

and carved it and turned it into a mini series

and call it like I don't know, one v one

Jesus or something. I don't know. It would be cool

because it's just it's they go toe to toe. And

as you remember, last week, we looked at Jesus weeping

over Jerusalem, weeping over the rebellion that was to come

upon it, for its wickedness, and his heart break over

the city's rebellion. We looked intently that his weeping wasn't

just because oh, the stones are cool, or man, this

is a cool city, but his heart for the people

and the destruction and judgment that was going to come

upon them. His heart was broken. We saw God's heart

for those we were under judgment. We caught a small

glimpse of that rebellion when we looked at how Jesus

went into the temple and started driving out all the

bad people, started driving out all the people who had

turned this place of worship into a marketplace. And we

noticed how when Jesus did this, there were some people

who weren't so cool about it. There were some people

who were pretty upset that Jesus started doing these things.

And those people where were the religious leaders and prominent

people in Jerusalem. And now we see that they're starting

to seek to destroy Jesus. We saw last week that

they wouldn't do it, though not in broad daylight at least,

because everyone was hanging on Jesus's words. When Jesus spoke,

everyone leaned in, everyone was listening and attentive and going like, oh,

what's he going to say next? What's he going to

teach us next? And they're like, oh, we can't. We

can't touch this guy without starting any kind of issue.

So the next several weeks we're looking at Jesus's teaching

and Luke is going to show us how specifically the

leaders of Israel continue to send people to challenge and

trap Jesus. In his words, what's really cool, though, is

what we're going to see is that the religious leaders

are no match for the Word made flesh. So today

we're kicking off with the leaders of Israel challenging Jesus's authority, which, honestly,

if you're gonna challenge, if that's like, that's a probably

smart thing to start off with, if you're going to

challenge anyone, like, hey, who what gives you the right

to even be opening your mouth in this place. So

we see them challenge Jus's authority and no surprise, Jus's

rebuke and then condemnation of those leaders. Today's message, if

you are taking notes, is titled bad Leadership one oh one.

Today we're going to get a little master class and

everything that is wrong with the leader of Israel and

the consequence of their as we will see, wicked and

rebellion or rebellious leadership. That God had made them stewards,

that they were servants of His who were supposed to

lead Israel, but that they had abandoned their proper station

in pursuit of a right that was not theirs. So

we will see Jesus once again pronounced judgment that is

going to be coming upon them, as well as predict

his death. Again, where I believe this is going to

be helpful for us today because that's important. We could

just see Jesus throw down with some bad leaders, but

we want to know how is this going to affect

us today? And where I believe that's going to help

us as First, the most and most importantly, it's going

to remind us of who is truly in charge. Second,

it's going to show us what bad leaders look like,

not that we don't know what they look like, but

putting some words to what makes than bad leaders, I

think is going to be very helpful for us. And third,

we should heed the warning of what becomes of bad stewards,

as all of us are leaders and stewards of things

in our own life. So you guys ready to jump

in Awesome, We're gonna start in our first section here

we're gonna see something kind of interesting. The interesting situation

where the leaders come and try to get Jesus to

expose his true identity so that they could say he's blaspheming,

but instead he and Jesus ends up making them expose

their true identities, that as wicked and bad leaders. We

see this in verse one and two. One day, as

Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching

the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the

elders came up and said to him, tell us by

what authority you do these things? Or who it is

that gave you this authority. Jesus had been teaching and

rebuking with authority. This is something we've been seeing all

throughout Luke. Everywhere he goes, people are like, man, this

guy talks like he's running at all. So these leaders,

the ones with authority in Israel, come to Jesus wanting

to know what gives him the right to do these things.

They're saying, who put you in charge? And it actually

kind of reminded me of like a little sibling when

they're kind of like, you're not the boss of me,

saying that to the older sibling. But maybe they don't

realize that the parents left like twenty minutes ago and

put the oldest sibling in charge. They don't know what's

up yet, so they're trying to challenge Jesus and trap him.

They want to know who gave Jesus this authority. They

want Jesus to say God did, so that they could

turn around and be like, no, we didn't, and then

execute him or do something right like they wanted to

just get Jesus in trouble. But here we see one

of the first big mistakes that these leaders had. They

had forgotten who is in charge, and here it almost

seems like they don't recognize the one who is really

in charge when he did show up. Although we're going

to unpack the idea more when we get to Jesus

as parable. But interestingly enough, as we've also found in Luke,

when Jesus answers a question, sometimes it doesn't necessarily feel

as straightforward as we think, like Jesus could just say

I have the authority it's me. Jesus doesn't do that.

He decided to answer their question with a question. You

might go, well, why did he do that? And as

I was reading in the commentaries, they're actually saying that

that was one of the Rabbidic like the leaders in

the synagogues, that was one of the ways that they

would have dialogue and discussion with one another. It's like

you'd ask a question, you'd ask kind of another question

about their question. It's interesting, but we now see Jesus

with or we look at that. We see this in

verses three and four. Jesus answered them, I also will

ask you a question. Now tell me was the baptism

of on from heaven or from man? Now this is

what's crazy. Jesus's masterful expertise. He turns this question back

on them, And just for some context, Jesus, much like

John the Baptist, wasn't a high ranking member of society

in the community in the temple. They didn't necessarily have

anything that was like, oh, he's the son of the

high priest, like there wasn't anything like that that kind

of just gave him this authority within their community. He

wasn't born and raised into a situation where he would

have been recognized as having been an authority in their community.

He came from a family Jesus did, where his supposed

father Joseph was just a carpenter. Saw earlier in Luke

that that was one of the kind of indict it's

against Jesus who was preaching in his hometown. They're like,

isn't this Joseph's son? Like who does this guy think

he is? And this is the carpenter. But now Jesus,

much like John the Baptist, appears and starts preaching to

the nation of Israel, speaking with authority and power like

a prophet of the Old Testament. Do you remember John

was the forerunner of Jesus, the one sent ahead of

Jesus to prepare the way for Jesus's arrival to Israel.

And now these leaders want to know by what authority

Jesus is doing what he is doing, and Jesus asks them, well,

where do you think John's baptism came from? What he's

getting at is like, where do you think John got

that authority to do that? It's amazing because now they're

stuck because Jesus exposes two big problems with these leaders,

both their hypocrisy and their fear of man, that is

how they look in the eyes of others. We see

this verses five through eight, and they discussed it with

one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say,

why did you not believe him? But if we say

from man, all the people will stone us to death,

for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So

they answered that they did not know where it came from.

And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you

by what authority I do these things. The options were slim.

Either Jesus could call them out or they could be

stoned to death, and they chose neither neither. They don't

want Jesus calling him out. They can't bear that, and

they also don't want to be stoned to death. So

Jesus has got them with this question. It's beautiful. If

they answered that John was gone or from God, Jesus

would want to know why they didn't believe him, And

that's such a reasonable question. You see clearly what they

really did think, though, because they say that the crowds

were convinced that John was a prophet, so they don't

want to give They have an answer, but they don't

want to give it. They don't want to be forthcoming

about their answer. Either way, they're exposed, so they plead ignorance.

They don't want Jesus to confront them. They don't want

the crowds to confront them. They had an answer, but

in fear of the hypocrisy being exposed, and their fear

of what the crowds would think. They simply said, I

don't know, we don't know, so Jesus answers, then neither

will I tell you both have an answer. But these

religious leaders are now exposed that they aren't acting in

good faith. They're not trying to have a real conversation here.

The leaders of Israel, though they were wrong, won't even

speak up to try and lead and share what they

believe to be the truth. They're a man fearing hypocrites now,

for as much hate as we want to give them,

I believe that unfortunately many of us fall into the

same category. We call ourselves Christians, and yet we might

keep silent about it because we don't want people to

point out how we don't actually live like it. It's

our hypocrisy. And I think one of the deepest daggers

to the death or the chest of a Christian should

be when someone is surprised that you're a Christian and

not like, oh you're a Christian, Like oh you're a Christian.

That should cut us that shit hurt. It's one thing

if someone's like, praise God, because I need someone to

tell me about Jesus. That's what we want. We do

not want someone to go like and they let you

walk into church, they let you come and be a part.

We call ourselves Christians, and yet we're afraid to speak

the truth because of what the crowds might do to us.

There's both sides playing there for us. Now. Of course,

these religious leaders didn't know the truth. They were wrong,

but they thought was wrong. Though they did think it

was the truth, but it was of their own invention.

They were blind, they were wicked. But how much worse

for any Christian or Christian leader who does know the

truth but doesn't speak out because of their fear of

being shown to be a hypocrite or their fear that

other of what others will do to them. We actually

have the truth, we have the way to life. We

know Jesus, we have the gospel. We have the gospel

that's the power to save. But some of our lives

are lived, so it's connected from our beliefs that we're like,

I can't say nothing. We're paralyzed because we don't actually

live out what we believe. That hurts. Sometimes we're like, oh, man,

I don't know what to say, don't know what to say,

But also we're afraid of what people might actually say. Well,

didn't I see you? Well don't you? Aren't you the

one who This isn't just about sharing the gospel. This

can be about doing the right thing when you don't

want to. Maybe it's how we lead our families. People

are watching, people see that. Maybe there's some serious changes

that we need to make in our life because we

are living a double life. Maybe you're afraid of what

your family will say because of what you give first

priority in your life, which should be Jesus, just in

case we don't know what that is. So these bad

leaders did have an answer, but they were so hypocritical

that they had to remain quiet. These bad leaders did

have an answer, but they were too afraid of what

others would do if they did share it. I think

it goes without saying, let's not be like those leaders,

especially being that we do know and have the truth

and are called to proclaim it. We need to get

rid of those roadblocks in our life. Now. I wasn't

originally going to say this, but I noticed that as

I was going through this section, I did want to

make a quick mention of it because I think we

see Jesus also using good discernment here in this situation,

that is to not cast pearls before swine, that he's

being asked a question in bad faith. He's being asked,

he's being lulled, he's being pulled into, abated, into an argument.

I had to find the word. It was there a baited.

He was trying to be brought in to this argument

in this fight. Jesus uses good discernment to go, I'm

not going if we're not going to continue this conversation

in good faith, if it's not going to be a

two way street, we're not having any more of this conversation. Now.

I think we can also learn from that too, to

have good discernment, that there's some situations where we might

need to do that and go like I hear the

questions you're asking me, I don't and find a very loving,

graceful way of saying, I don't think this conversation should

go forth right now. Now. I think you should heavily,

heavily depend on the Holy Spirit to know which is which.

You don't get to just be like, I don't look

this conversation. I'm getting pinned down, Like so this is

the bad conversation. I'm out like, you can't do that,

you should not do that. It's also okay to genuinely

say I don't know. But here we see Jesus in

a situation where they know the answer. He knows the answer,

but no one, no one wants to play, so Jesus

he gives them that answer. But then also in an

interesting way, Jesus does give them an answer, and it's

it's very interesting. He's like, I won't give you an answer,

and then he turns around and gives a parable that

practically gives an answer. It's just different from exactly how

they were asking it. See this verses nine through twelve.

And he began to tell the people this parable. A

man planted a vineyard and let 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 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 him and treated him shamefully and sent

him away empty handed. And he sent yet a third,

this one they wounded and cast out Jesus has just

set the stage and told everyone around him the history

of Israel through this parable. This was a very condensed

version of the history of Israel, but to kind of

help us understanding a little bit better of what he's

talking about, especially having trouble tracking what he's talking about.

The owner is God, the vineyard is Israel. The tenants

who were running it are the leaders of Israel. But

we see in this parable that something went horribly horribly wrong.

God starts sending messengers to the vineyard to collect fruit,

but the tenants continue to reject and abuse and send

away empty handed. The servants send from the Master, and

those servants that were being sent would have been the prophets,

the ones who throughout Israel's history continued to come to

Israel and say, this is what the Lord requires, that

you're going astray, or this is what he wants you

to be doing. And time over and over again, you see,

specifically the leaders of Israel reject, kill, abuse, persecute all

of those prophets. This is something we looked at many

months ago when Jesus said to those around him and

Luke thirteen thirty four specifically about Jerus where he's at

oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and

stones those who are sent to it. Imagine that as

like a slogan when you were driving into the city.

Can you imagine that, sorry, that's popped in my head?

How often would I have gathered your children together as

a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you

were not willing. We saw in Luke eleven he calls

out the history and condemnation coming upon this generation, which

you should take that phrase put in your back pocket

for a couple of weeks from now. The condemnation coming

upon this generation for what they have and continue to

do to the prophets. We saw this Luke forty seven.

Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the

prophets whom your father's killed. So you were witnesses and

consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them,

and you build their tombs. Therefore, also the wid God said,

I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom

they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of

all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world

may be charged against this generation. From the blood of

Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perish between the

altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you it will

be required of this generation. This pairs very nicely with

Jesus being a prophet coming to Jerusalem predicting his own

death as the ultimate prophet who will end up being killed.

And actually in that verse that chapter eleven, I believe

right before that, he's like, I need to go to

Jerusalem because I'm like, no prophet can die outside of Jerusalem.

Like literally, he's on his way there for that purpose.

And Jesus's parable is exposing the history of how Israel

has treated the prophets of God. Hence also the condemnation

and judgment that Jesus would be weeping over for the city,

because he's already said prior that it's coming upon this generation.

They have refused to give to God what is his.

They have been bad stewards of what God has set

them in charge of. But then we get a shift

in the parable. The only decides instead of sending more messengers,

he's going to send his very own son, because surely

the tenants will respect him. So we see in verse thirteen,

then the owner of the vineyard, said, what shall I do?

I will send my beloved son, whom they will respect.

But then we see the wickedness of these tenants, these

leaders of Israel on full display, it says. But the tenants,

or 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

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. The servants think

that if they kill the heir, the inheritance is theirs.

They've been given authority in stewardship over the vineyard, over Israel,

but they had forgotten their place. They tried to grab

all the authority for themselves, even to the point of

killing the one true authority son. But Jesus shows them

that they are sadly mistaken. The result will not be

an inheritance, but it will be total destruction. That's what

they're getting for themselves. They've forgotten the privilege it is

to be the steward of the one true owner, and

tried to prop themselves up as the true owner, thinking

that they'd get it all for themselves. But instead of

gaining more, Jesus says, they will lose everything. They are

going to be destroyed and it's going to be given

to others. But the leaders, when they hear these words

of Jesus say that they are saying that the tenets

will be destroyed, it will be given to others. They

object and say, surely not. That is what they had

will be taken from them and given to others. They

start freaking out, and Jesus affirms the truth with scripture.

The words here are crazy. I feel like if I

was watching a movie, the thing would zoom like pan

over and zoom in really intently, because it says in

verse seventeen. 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. Everyone who falls

on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when

it falls on anyone, it will crush him. Jesus is

the precious stone that Israel was going to reject, but

instead of them being successful, Jesus was going to become

the corner stone they rejected. Him like he was just

another stone, just another person, but yet he was to

be the most consequential stone or person. Jesus is the

stone that the leaders stumble over, and Jesus was thinking

about it. You can technically say that Jesus had the

leader's tripping. Jesus is the one that some stumble over

to their own destruction, and some he falls upon to

their own destruction. There will be judgment for those who

reject Christ, either for those who intentionally stumble because of

their rejection or because of those who are just going

about their way, and then Christ will fall on them

suddenly in judgment. Now, the leaders were no well, they

sometimes seemed like dummies, but they weren't dummies in this situation.

They knew exactly what Jesus was saying and try and

getting at in this text here, and we see in

verse nineteen and I need the band to come up

please verse nineteen. The scribes and the chief priests sought

to lay hands on him that very hour, for they

perceived that he had told this parable against them. But

once again they feared the people. So they are very

aware that Jesus has called judgment down upon them for

their rebellious and wicked leadership. But it was also because

of their bad leadership that kept them from doing anything.

That moment kind of worked in both ways. It's kind

of interesting because they feared the people, so today we

get this very interesting picture of so many of the

things that made them bad leaders. That is, they were hypocrites.

They were not God fearing, but man fearing. They were

selfish and wicked, and this was shown by Jesus's parable

showing that they were rejecting the true authority. They had

rejected the true authority and they tried to have it

all for themselves. They forgot were even worse. Blatantly rejected

God as the true authority. So when Jesus shows up,

they don't even recognize the true authority when it's staring

them right in the face. Instead of submitting to the

true authority, they find themselves fighting against it. And honestly,

this is a story that is all too familiar. This

is a story since the very beginning. Adam and Eve

were placed in a garden. They were told to keep

it and work it, but instead they rebelled against God

and wanted to be their own authority. They rejected God,

they were unfaithful over what He had given them, and

the result was judgment. All throughout the Bible we see

the story of faithless stewards of what God has put

them over and the judgment that will come upon them.

So why would that be any different for us when

we reject or forget who the true authority is in

our lives, when we forget who and what we were

made for, that instead of living for Him, we live

for ourselves. We want the glory and authority for our

own lives. We can be just as wicked as these

leaders are, and we all lead in different areas of

our life, whether it be the example that we just set,

from the entirety of the lives that we have. It

could be our families as husbands, wives, children, as bosses, coworkers, friends, neighbors.

And I say this because we're called to be a

light on a hill. But we can't do that if

we don't learn to be faithful leaders over what the

Lord has given us to steward, whether that be a

large portion or a small portion. As we already spoke

about our hypocrisy, our fear of man instead of fear

of God gets in the way of leading others. How

we are supposed to. And I believe that all of

this is rooted in forgetting who the true authority is.

As soon as we forget who's really in charge. As

soon as we forget who it all really is, our

lives become disjointed to who is really in charge of

your life? And I think, honestly, a more important question

is does that show A lot of us would say, yeah, yeah, totally.

I'm a tenant of the vineyard. I'm under him. But

do I live like it when he calls on me,

when he sends servants to collect the fruit in my life,

when he calls out fruit that should be being born

in my life? Do I send him away empty handed?

Does it show? Because it needs to be made clear

that this text, all of Scripture, are very clear that

there will be judgment for those who reject the true authority.

And actually, in two Peter, chapter two, we get this.

We're gonna we're gonna read all of it, but we're

going to see here leaders. He calls them false teachers,

and they are but people who are other people are

looking up to to be leaders. And he says, this

is what they're marked by, and this is what will

become of them. Starting in verse one, it says also,

but false teachers or false prophets also arose among the people,

just as there will be false teachers among you, who

will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master

who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many

will follow their sensuality, and because of the way of

Because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed,

and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their

destruction is not asleep. For if God God did not

spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell

and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be

kept until the judgment. If he did not spare the

ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with

seven others when he brought a flood upon the world

of the ungodly, If by turning the cities of Sodom

and Gomora to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making

them an example of what is going to happen to

the ungodly, And if he rescued righteous lot greatly distressed

by the sensual conduct of the wicked for us, that

righteous man lived among them day after day he was

tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he

saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue

the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under

punishment until the day of judgment. And especially those who

indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and wilful, they do not tremble as they blasphem

the glorious ones. It's being said here is that there

will be punishment for those who reject and continue to

reject the true authority. Here he says, there's false teachers

and false prophets that have come before who have destruction

that is coming for them. And then he just gave

some pretty big examples from the Old Testament about wickedness

who had judgment that came upon it. I put in

my notes a way of kind of summarizing some of

these things is that I was thinking about it, and

I was thinking that as a bad leader, are those

who forget that they are but servants of the true leader,

that is Christ. But for everyone who's put their faith

in Jesus, we need to be reminded of who we

are and who we are called to be. Coincidentally, we're

also going to be in Peter verse Peter too. So,

so put away all malice and all deceit, and hypocrisy,

and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for

the pure spiritual milk, that it may grow, or that

you may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have

tasted that the Lord is good, as you come to

him 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. For it stands in scripture. Behold, I'm

lying 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

reject has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling

in a rock of offense. 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. That you may proclaim

the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness

into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people,

but now you were God's people. Once you had not

received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I

urge you, as sojourners in exiles, to abstain from the

passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable, so that when

they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your

good deeds and glorify God. On the day of Visitation,

we needed some news. We needed also that reminder of

who we are in Christ. We need to be reminded

that even in the areas where we've been failing to lead,

there is forgiveness when we have tried to take control

of our life as if we are in charge, that

we can repent and turn to the one who is

truly in control. We can do all of this because

of what Jesus did for us. That Jesus, yes he

was rejected, Yes he was killed even though he didn't

deserve it. But the good news is that that was

no accident. Jesus himself, being perfect and without sin, laid

down his own life. Jesus himself submitted himself to the

authority of God the Father, and took upon himself the wrath.

Not do his sin, but our sin. He took the

punishment for every rebellious, wicked servant that would put their

faith in him. And whether you believe it or not,

you are gods. You bear his image. You were made

to worship, to glorify, to serve and enjoy him forever.

You were made to be a servant of the Lord.

But you have to ask yourself right now, are you

living as a servant who is in rebellion, who is wicked,

or a servant who has been redeemed by the work

of Christ. We were made to live for him, glorify him,

worship him. We were made in his image to be stewards.

Some of us are in our rebellion and continue in

our rebellion, but he offers us forgiveness, to turn to him,

to look to him find forgiveness. Those leaders rebelled against

God and crucified the Lord. Jesus which is incredible because

the ultimate authority even use that wicked act of theirs

for his glorious purposes. The Lord will bring judgment for

the sin and rebellion of those who have rejected him.

But the good news is that you can turn to

Christ and have your punishment taken by him instead. The

very same death that was brought about by wicked hands

was the same means that God used to save and

redeem the wicked. Our God is so good, so I

plead with you to stop living rebellion towards your maker

and turn to him before it's too late. Before because

for those who reject Him and die in their sin,

there will be eternal punishment because we all deserve it. It's

all do our sin. We have wrath stored up for

each and every one of us. The question is is

it going to be on your head? Or is it

going to be on Christ's? You put your faith in him,

He's taken that punishment for you. Everyone who repents to

their sin and believes in Jesus will be saved. Scripture

is so clear. Everyone who believes in his heart and

confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord will be saved.

That is to say, everyone who lays down their pride

and believes and submits themselves to the true authority of

the universe will be saved from the wrath do their sin,

and I hope and I pray that you do so.

And I hope that for everyone who has put their

faith in Jesus that this is a sobering reminder. We

need these when it's stuff that we already know. We

need the reminders. We need the reminder of the seriousness

that God has with those that he sets up as stewards.

He has called us to steward our families, our church,

our wives, our jobs, our lives. So we need to ask,

are we leading in a hypocritical self seeking way? Are

we living in fear of man instead of fear of God,

the true authority? Are we giving two weight to things

that don't matter. We need to repent and turn to

Him and seek guidance on how to lead and how

to steward the things better in our lives that He

has given us, because one day, every single one of

us will be called to give an account. And I

don't want to be found an unfaithful or rebellious steward

of what was truly his. We need to remember that

everything we have is his. He has given it to

us as stewards, so let's be faithful with it. Maybe

that's going to mean some making, some changes to your schedules,

some changes to your finances, some changes to your time,

your focus, your goals. Ultimately, all with this question in mind,

are those things submitted to what the true owner of

those things wants you to do with them? Everything you

have is God's? Are you using it for him? Are

you using it for his purpose? Have you submitted it

to him? Say I was thinking about doing it this

with it? Are they submitted to him for his purposes?

Is it what he wants you to do with them?

And I pray that you consider these things and that

we as a church would only shine brighter to those

around us because of it. We would live as faithful

stewards carrying out His mission. And I pray that as

we become more faithful in the little that the Lord

has given us, that we will lead our families, our churches,

our communities even better and all to the glory of

the one it all truly belongs to. Amen, All right,

would you please stand