A Plain Parable with Profound Truths | Mark 12:1-12 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

Well, as I mentioned earlier, today is what is

traditionally recognized as the beginning of Holy Week,

which is essentially the yearly reflection of the

final events leading up to the death and resurrection

of the Lord Jesus Christ. And

as you're fully aware, it's usually on this day that

churches visit the story, the scene of Jesus entering

into the city of Jerusalem triumphantly, yet also

humbly. While our church was a little

early with that message, as you know, a handful of

weeks ago, we just through the natural study and the

series that we are in and Mark brought us there. And

so I'm sure you can agree that it's not probably

necessary to revisit that this time around.

Nonetheless, what we are going to look

at today together is an event that took place

during Holy Week, a few days after Jesus entered

into Jerusalem, the way that we know that he did.

And I want us to turn our

attention to that scene together in our Bibles to

discover the profound truths in it in Mark chapter 12,

Mark 12 · chapter mention

where we'll be looking at a parable, parables are not

common in the book of Mark. Mark

is not too concerned about revealing Jesus as a

teacher. He's more concerned about

revealing Jesus as a servant. And

so with the very little of parables that we have in

this gospel account, it says something for us to

see allegorical message from the lips of the Savior in

our study. And here we find the Lord

Jesus in the temple. He has been teaching and

preaching the gospel to the masses who have gathered

from around the world to observe the Passover feast.

But while Jesus is there, he

was ambushed by the chief elders and the scribes and

the priests who located him because while the people

were preparing to celebrate the Passover, these

religious leaders were consumed and preoccupied

with a plot to get rid of Jesus once and for all.

They have reached now to a

boiling point. Enough is enough. After

that whole spectacle of him coming into the city and

the masses celebrating him, they felt as though things

were changing quickly and they needed to do something

about it just as quickly. And

so they were armed with an interrogation and they

attempted to surprise the master with a set of

questions hoping to catch him off guard and to find

some kind of evidence that would be enough grounds to

charge him for blasphemy and to condemn him to

death. And what we learned last week

is that whatever question was brought to him was

countered with his own question and Jesus gives a

question to them to reveal and to test their honesty

and their integrity, which they failed and instead

were exposed for their hypocrisy. They

were not genuinely asking by what authority do you

do these things or who gave you the authority to

do them. They were again trying to trap

him and the Lord saw through that but he just

wanted to show that he knew it and he wanted to

show that he can expose it. And

so you would think after that interaction, that brief

conversation, both parties would go their separate

ways and we would move on in this story but that's

not what we see. We find Jesus still in the

temple courts with the audience of these corrupt

religious leaders before him and this is what we find

in verse one of chapter 12. And

he began to speak to them in parables. A

man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and

dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower

and leased it to tenants and went into another

country. When the season came, he sent a

servant to the tenants to get from them some of the

fruit of the vineyard and they took him and beat him

and sent him away empty handed. Again,

he sent to them another servant and they struck him

on the head and treated him shamefully. And

he sent another and him they killed and so with

many others, some they beat and some they killed, he

had still one other, a beloved son. Finally,

he sent him to them saying, they will respect

my son. But those tenants said to one

another, this is the air come let us kill him and

the inheritance will be ours. And

they took him and killed him and they threw him out

of the vineyard. What will the owner of the

vineyard do? He will come and destroy the

tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have

you not read this scripture? The

stone that the builders rejected has become the

cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and

it is marvelous in our eyes. And

they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people

for they perceived that he had told the parable

against them. So they left him and went

away. Pray with me. Father,

we do ask, oh Lord, we believe that as we're

praying, you hear us. And that invokes a set of

emotions even. I can't believe you hear us

as we pray to you. So we have this awe of you,

but we also feel this liberty in knowing that

when you look at us, you see bloodbath children who

have been accepted in the beloved. We

believe you love us. We believe you care for each

of us. And we believe that one of the

greatest ways you show your care for us is that you've

given us your word. We realize that this is your

word and we humbly receive it, but help us Lord

understand it. Lord, we are but flesh and we're

aware that even now in this holy moment, thoughts

can race through our minds. Even

as we're praying, we could be thinking about something

else. So Lord, deliver us from

distraction and deliver us from being flustered or

being caught up in something else that would

rob us of the moment that you have set up for us

today. So Lord, help us experience

you through your word in a transformative manner. This

is our desire and our plea and we ask it with great

humility and eagerness. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

You know, as Jesus opened up this this parable, I'm

convinced that right at the introduction of it, the

people here who heard it, namely the Pharisees and

the components of the Sanhedrin, understand exactly

what he was getting at. Parables

tend to be complicated and mysterious, and that's on

purpose, but this is one of the clearest and most

obvious parables of them all. And

the reason why the religious leaders would have

been so aware of what Christ was saying is

because Christ is borrowing certain truths from the Old

Testament that these people especially would have would

have been familiar with. In essence, what Jesus is

doing is he's building this teaching upon something that

the people of Israel would have been very knowledgeable

of because, again, what Jesus is saying is

strikingly similar, this profile that he is

presenting to what Isaiah the prophet said early in

his book. And so turn with me to Isaiah

5 and look at this with me beginning in verse 1,

because when you and I look at Isaiah 5, you know

what's going to happen. We too will be able to crack

the code of this parable and have zero doubt, zero

doubt that what the Lord is speaking about when he

is addressing the chief priests, scribes, and

elders. Isaiah 5 verse 1, the prophet

Isaiah 5:1

writes, let me sing for my beloved, my love song

concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on

a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of

stones and planted it with choice vines. He

built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out

a wine vat in it. And he looked for it to yield

grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. So

here's the prophet Isaiah expressing his longing and

his desire, yes, moved by the Spirit to sing for his

beloved. And the subject of his song

was not just the beloved, but something that the

beloved owns. He owned this vineyard. And

as you can see and compare the beloved and his

handling and his treatment of this property, property

is very similar to how Jesus describes this man

and the investment that he made with his own vineyard.

And that is on purpose because

the Lord Jesus here is again drawing from Isaiah 5

so that he can make a correlation with his

immediate audience. But is there any way that we

can know who this beloved is? Is

there any way we can know what this vineyard

represents? And the answer is yes, the

answers are actually found in Isaiah 5 itself. So

scroll down to verse 7. For

the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of

Israel. And the men of Judah are his

pleasant planting and he looked for justice, but

behold bloodshed for righteousness, but behold an

outcry. It's his plainest day. The

owner of the vineyard, the beloved in Isaiah's words,

that owner is God, the Lord of hosts. And

the vineyard that he purchased and he provided

for is the house of Israel. And

Jesus again, by using this familiar language wants us

to see the parable that he presents in Mark 12 with

the same lens. The man in his story is God

and the vineyard is speaking of the people of

Israel. And we're going to fill in the

gaps with the other actors in this story. But

essentially what Jesus is doing by giving this

parable is that he is defining the relationship

that God has with Israel at the very moment and his

day while also ready to expose even further the

religious leaders that were standing before him. Because

in this parable in Mark 12, Jesus is going to

reinforce, I'm the Son, I'm the Son of God. And

he's also going to show them, and I know that

you're going to try to kill me. And

so this is powerful and we might be tempted to

appreciate it from a distance and think, well,

this is a parable that's exclusive to the nation of

Israel. And that is right in its

context, but God has preserved it for us for

our benefit as well. Let me pause here and give you

like a discipleship point, if I may. If

you are eager to learn anything from any passage

in the Bible, including the ones that are not directly

instructive to you as a follower of Jesus Christ in

the New Covenant, you have to be willing to do

something. People often ask me, how is it

that I can dig and find gold? How

can I mine precious jewels in the Bible? How

can I go deeper? And my answer in the beginning

is always the same, always the same. You

have to be willing to have a conversation with the

Bible. You say, what do you mean

conversation with the Bible? Well,

if you want the Bible to speak to you, you got to

ask the Bible some questions. And

if you're willing to ask the Bible a set of

questions, you're going to come out of any reading

with something. And those questions vary. The

ones that I am often prone to asking are these, are

the repeated words in this passage that the author is

trying to emphasize a point with? Does

this passage complete or does it connect with

another passage? Is there a warning in this

passage that I am to take heed of? Is

there a promise in this passage that I am to

enjoy? Is there a sin in this

scripture that I am to identify and avoid in my

life? Is this an illustration that

helps me know and understand even further a

new covenant principle or reality that's especially

helpful in the Old Testament? Does

this point to a gospel truth? Does

this point to something that I need to see in the

person of Jesus Christ? And here's my all time

favorite. Here's my go -to question that I

have a conversation with the Word of God with. This

is my go -to one. What does this tell me about

God? If you ask that question from

Genesis to Revelation, you could read through Leviticus

and get a lot out of it. What

does this tell me about God? Have

a conversation with the Bible and I trust that the

Bible will say something to you? And

that is the exact question. That's

usually my first question whenever I read any

passage. And that was the question I

asked this parable in Mark 12. What

is this parable? Yes, it's obviously about Jesus

defining the relationship that God has with Israel,

the fate of Israel, even the fate of the Son of

God. It's something to study. It's

something to appreciate concerning who Jesus is and

his omniscience and his brilliance. But

what does this say about God? And

the answers from that question I present to you

today, that in this parable about God and Israel, you

can learn three things about the character of the

Almighty. I want to present those three

things to you. You're going to leave this place

out of Mark 12, one to 12, with three things about

God. And the first one is found in

verse one of Mark 12. So let's go back there

together. And he began to speak to them

in parables. A man planted a vineyard and

put a fence around it and dug a pit for it and the

wine press and built a tower and leased it to

tenants and went into another country. Notice

at first the great contribution that this man

makes toward his property. These

are not insignificant details. We

are to send something about the heart of this man for

his vineyard, the attention that he gives to it, the

funding that he puts into it. He

is not a negligent landowner. He

is not careless. He is not a thoughtless

manager. No, instead you see someone who

supplies and provides everything necessary for

this vineyard to flourish. And

the first thing that we learn here from this

parable of this man represents God and vineyard

represents the vineyard represents Israel is that

this shows us the grace of God. This

shows us the grace of God because what this represents

is the overwhelming blessings and privileges

that the Lord granted to Israel in order for her to

bear fruit the way God desired. All

the things that he has deposited, all the things

that he has brought to their disposal is exactly

what Jesus is getting at here. In

other words, there was no reason for Israel to live

poorly before God. There was no excuse that they

could make to reject the Son of God with all the

light that they had for thousands of years, with

all the heat that they experienced for centuries.

It just doesn't make sense.

And that's exactly, that's

precisely the point that even Isaiah makes back in

chapter five. So listen, we read verses one

and two of Isaiah five. Look

at verses three and four of Isaiah five. I

should have mentioned you should have stayed in

Isaiah five as well. So stay there. In

Isaiah five, three and four, look at what Isaiah

says. After describing what Jesus

similarly describes in his day, the things that were

dug up, the things that were built, the things that

were used, and now, a inhabitants of Jerusalem and

men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What

more was there to do for my vineyard that I have

not done in it? When I looked for it to yield

grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? Pretty

straightforward, isn't it? So

the Lord in Isaiah five invites a jury and he's

asking, hey, can you guys, I'm curious to know your

ideas, maybe you're smarter than I am. Is

there anything else I could have done for my people in

order for them to be inspired to live in the

way that I desire? Let me know. And

Paul tells us that even this people were privileged

above all other nations for, again, thousands of

years, the covenants that they received, the miracles,

the manifestations of glory, the law, all these things

that were brought to them, the connection that they

had with God left them with no excuse to be the

way that they were. And that grace continues that

God showed into the life of Jesus Christ as he

stands before a stubborn crowd, a stubborn clergy

who would not believe and accept him as the Messiah.

What more could have Christ done

to convince them that I am indeed the Messiah that

you've been anticipating? What

other miracles could Jesus have done? What

other authority could he have performed over nature,

over demons, over sickness? Was

not his sinless life enough? And

that is precisely what we see here. Jesus

getting to this crowd the same way Isaiah did. Can

you point out what more I could have done for you to

surrender and to joyfully serve me? Let's

not just apply this Israel because God has made a new

people in Christ. That's you. That's

me. And it's no less true that he

has provided so much for us. I

would say we have less excuses than Israel did

because according to Ephesians one, we have been

enriched with every spiritual blessing because

we are in Christ Jesus. Here's

what that means practically. There's

no excuse or blame from a bloodbought Christian to not

be able to overcome lust, to not be able to defeat

rage, to not be able to conquer impatience, to not

be able to be delivered from envy, addiction,

profanity, worldliness. We have every divine resource

at our disposal in order to love, forgive, serve,

commit with the standard, even the standard that God

has in mind for us. You know a verse came to mind

while I was driving here in light of this thought.

There's much debate about Paul's

words and arguments from Romans chapter seven. I

do the things that I don't want to do and the things

I don't want to do, I do. Remember

that passage? And here's the debate among

Christians. Is that Paul speaking about

his struggle as a born -again believer? Or

is that Paul describing his struggle as an unregenerate

person? Do you understand the debate?

Is this Paul speaking about

his struggle as a saved individual? Or

is this Paul describing his struggle unsaved? And

people bring up different points, you know? People

love to use the words of Paul because Paul is deep

to come up with different conclusions. Here's

my answer and we'll get to Romans, I don't know when,

but we'll get to it eventually. But

I always tell people to just kind of limit the

back and forth. Whatever you believe about Romans

seven, you got to read Romans eight. Because

what happens in Romans eight is that Paul then

describes life in the spirit. So

lend where you will with Romans seven, but you have

to keep reading into Romans eight. And

here's what he says among other things, the victorious

life in the spirit. Verse 12 of Romans eight. So

then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh.

We're not debtors to the flesh

to live according to the flesh. And

this is what he says in verse 13. For

if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the spirit you put

the death, the deeds of the body, you will live.

If you put the death, the

deeds of the body, how? If you bang your head on the

wall long enough? If you jump through religious

hoops? If you slavishly try to

observe aesthetic ways of dealing with your body and

its impulses? No. If you put to death the

deeds of the body by the spirit. If

you don't know what it means to live in the

spirit, if you don't know how to tap into the

resource known as the Holy Spirit, you'll never know

victory over the flesh. And I am promised victory over

the flesh because of the spirit who is mine in

Christ Jesus. So there's just one sliver to

show that God has dispensed in our lives everything

that we need to know fruit bearing future. That

is not to say that these characteristics will be

developed in one day in the same way that none of

us expect natural fruit to be grown in its maturity

overnight. But it does mean that we are

set on the path for growth and transformation. That

is totally possible no matter who you are because

of what God has given you freely and generously, which

brings us to our next point. This

is not just speaking about the grace of God. We

also learn in this parable about the patience of God.

So come back to Mark 12 and

look at verse two. When the season came, he sent a

servant to the tenants to get from them some of the

fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him

and sent him away empty handed. Again,

he sent to them another servant and they struck him

on the head and treated him shamefully. And

he sent another and him they killed. And

so with many others, some they beat and some they

killed. What you see here is the

magnificence of God's long suffering. How

patient he is and it's manifested in a couple of

ways. The first way is in the timing

that the owner seeks to retrieve a harvest. Look

back at verse two again. When

the season came, when what season came, when the

expected fruit should arrive, you know what that

tells me about this owner? He's

not unrealistic. He's not hurried. He's

not impatient. He is someone who fully

understands that fruit takes time. That

development can face some delays. And

that's something that you and I have to understand

concerning ourselves, because in the same way this man

came at a realistic time, the Lord also graciously

understands your growth in the spirit. He

does. We should be glad that this

truth is proclaimed on the heels of learning that God

has made a great investment in us and he is expecting

a return. Yes, he has empowered you.

Listen, he has empowered you and

I. This is not something to be

condemned about. This is something to leap for

joy about. He has empowered you for a no

excuse sanctification. And yet at the same time, he's

also aware of the addemic limitations that we face

daily. The things that would cause

setbacks, the things that would cause shortcomings in

the process, our God is aware of those things. He

does always remember that we are but dust. And

this is something extremely comforting, not to those

who abuse the idea of God's grace, but to those

who long to live like Jesus, but find themselves

tripping along the way. And the truly righteous can

often be tempted to be deeply discouraged,

especially when they find themselves in a trap,

something that they thought they were able to overcome

and dodge, something that they thought that they

dealt with. And here are these flare up of

the flesh. Have you not experienced that

ever? You had a good three -day track

living like Christ. And all of a sudden you're in

a situation where there's pressure, whatever the case

may be, and something comes out of your mouth and

you're like, why did that come out of my mouth? Or

you act in a certain way. Why

am I acting this way? Why am I reacting this way?

And there you are now convicted

and you feel like you want to just crawl away into

some corner and reconsider God's love for you,

reconsider God's use of you. There

are righteous people who feel that way. And

this is how they view them. This

is how they view God, rather, that when they do

find themselves there in the flesh for a moment and

they slip, here's God now looking over the balcony of

heaven, crossing his arms and turning his back on

you, when instead the way you should be seeing God

at all times, even in your sin, is that when you are

in a place where you shouldn't be, when you're

doing something that you shouldn't be doing, when

you have been acting the way you should not have

been acting, the master is on a stool with a towel

in his hand ready to wash your feet. See,

that sounds almost scandalous. That's

the grace of God. God's grace didn't begin and end

at the cross. He told his disciples, I have

washed you, but your feet need still washing. Meaning

you're saved, but as you traverse through this world,

you're going to pick up some dust. And

I'm just as eager to wash those feet as I did when

I initially washed you. Do you believe that about

Jesus? You should. Here

we see this man, patient. God

is patient with us. He's patient with your growth.

Yes, he expects something. Yes,

periodically, we should be able to see advancement,

but oh, everything in between. And

even when there are seasons where there is great

stalling, the one who saved you is waiting for you and

ready to wash you and empower you again. That

is the grace of God shown through his patience, but

it's not just through coming at the right season,

so to speak. It's also in the repetitive

sending of his messengers. You

saw it, right? Verse three, he sends one of his

servants. Verse four, he sends another of

his servants. Verse five, he sends another, and

then it summarizes that he sent many. And

do you notice the progression of the

aggression of the tenants? The

tenants who were given the land are getting more

hostile and aggressive as the man sends more of his

representatives. So they strike one, and then

the next one, they strike him on the head, and then

finally they start killing some of them. Look,

if I was an owner trying to collect rent and I send

one person to go and collect that rent for the

month, it wouldn't take more than one case of

abuse for me not to send another one, but to send

the police, to send legal authorities, to arrest such

people. And what you see here instead

is that the man is sending another empty -handed, pure

-hearted, submissive servant to get what is the owner's

rightful due. And it's not difficult to see

who these servants represent. All

you have to do is look at Israel's history, and

Jeremiah summarizes it so well in Jeremiah 7, verse

Jeremiah 7:25–26

25 -26. You don't have to turn there,

just listen to these words. From

the day that your fathers came out of the land of

Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my

servants, the prophets, to them day after day. Yet

they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but

stiffened their neck. They did worse than their

fathers. Show that to somebody who says

that God is not gracious in the way that he is to

be even more informed about how God is extremely

merciful, even under the old covenant. I've

sent prophets to you day after day for hundreds of

years. And what were these people

doing in the meantime, sacrificing babies to false

gods, among other things. And

instead of sending judgment after 10 years, after 100

years, no, I'm just, I'm going to send more of my

messengers to get your attention and to hopefully

get you to come to repentance. You

know what this parable shows us? It

shows us that humanity's response to God's patience

is one of two ways. His undeserved kindness will

either move you to surrender to it, or it

will encourage you to remain an even worse sin

in your sin because you translate God's patience as

his permission to sin. One of two ways. Either

it dawns on you that I've been a rebel against God

since I could remember, and now I will fully surrender

to him because all he's done is given me grace

upon grace upon grace. It's so undeserving, but here I

am willing to receive this cup of friendship. Either

that or it's, it seems like God is okay with

this. It seems like God is fine

with this. There's no divine interruption in

my life. And as Ecclesiastes eight says

that sinners plunge into deeper darkness and run

even harder after sin because there is delayed

judgment. Where are you? Which

one are you? Ask yourself that question. How

many promises have you made to God while being away

from him? Oh Lord, if you just get me

out of this mess, I'll come back to you. I'll

give my life to you. Do you know how I know people

ask that? Because I used to. I

used to as a kid who knew enough about Christianity,

but who also loved the world and knew that living

in the world would get you in trouble from time to

time. But there's Jesus ready to get

you out of the mess whenever you call upon his

name. It's so cute. So

which one are you? How many loosed vows have you

made to God? Young men, young lady, where are

you at? How are you interpreting God's

patience? Because here you are coasting

through your life with all your plans and desires and

dreams and there's something in your peripheral, in your

conscience there and the corridor on the side about

God wanting to save you and redeem you and use

you. But you ignore and you visit

it from time to time, especially when you're in

trouble. But are you not baffled yet by

how through your prolonged delay of surrendering to

him, God has not struck you, that God has not

wounded you, that instead he showers blessing upon

blessing on you? Maybe today can be the day where

the script changes for your life, where this is yet

another thunder clap of God saying, hey, I'm trying to

get you to understand that I want to forgive you and

cleanse you and fill you with my spirit and name

you among the redeemed. Enough

is enough. Here's another message. Here's

another Bible study. Here's another friend, a coworker

coming into your life and is reminding you of the

gospel. Can you pause and think about

all the messages that you've heard, all the

messengers that you've encountered throughout your

lifetime, has it not yet convinced you that God is

trying to allure you to himself? I

pray today that's you, that today would be the last

day where you translate his patience as false permission

and that you would fall in love with the Prince of

Peace and give God, if you thought that the patience

of God has reached the limit here and if you

haven't been pulled in your affections yet, look what

was says here in verse six. He

had still one other, a beloved son. Finally

he sent him to them saying, they will respect

my son. So after all his employees

either came back bruised or never came back again, what

is the solution of this man at this point where

the rebellion of these tenets are only getting,

it's only getting worse and worse, defying this man's

kindness, defying his mercy, defying his patience, I'm

going to send my son and notice the great tribute

that the Father makes for his son, regardless of how

great those other servants were, how faithful they

were, they do not compare to the loveliness of the

son and so great is the loveliness of the son in

the eyes of the Father, that he even expresses how

he is such a treasure that perhaps even the wicked

will be able to perceive the treasure that he really

is. They will respect my son surely?

And so instead of sending

servants of God, God arrives on the scene

himself. The son now comes and how did

these tenets receive the son? Look

at the justification for their premeditated murder in

verse seven. But those tenets said to one

another, this is the air, come, let us kill him and

the inheritance will be ours. So

here's what these men foolishly believed. If

we get rid of the air, then perhaps the man, the

owner would just surrender and give up and give up

even the land to these tenets. That's

how foolish these men really were in thinking

that by removing the son from the scene, we can

actually keep what it is that we want to keep. And

what Jesus is getting at is he is exposing not just

the plot of these Jews that are ready to kill

them in a few days, but the reason why. These

tenets wanted to secure what they believed,

prospered them, empowered them, benefited them, and

they saw the son as a threat. Is

that any different with the religious leaders? They

have known the religious respect of the masses, of

the general population of Israel. And

here comes this rabbi from Nazareth now, and he is

sweeping everybody off their feet. And

now it's only getting more intense where you're having

on this great holiday known as the Passover people

celebrating his name while we're being pushed back in

the crowd. We rather gruesomely murder

this man than surrender what we believe to be our

right. We want to secure our

positions. We, yes, want a political

Messiah, but not a spiritual king. We

occupy the office of spiritual authority. Who's

this man think that he is? So

in the same way as described in the parable,

let's get rid of the son and we can keep this for

ourselves. And what about people today?

Why do people metaphorically

kill God in their unbelief? Or

as many, many years ago, not too far back, the

culture declaring that God is dead. Why

do you think that is? Because

they want to protect their ridiculous right to be

their own God. That's why. If

we get rid of the author of life from our worldview,

then we can be the owners of our own lives. Isn't

it the same train of thought? Get

rid of the son and we get to keep this. Get

rid of Jesus Christ. Get rid of the exclusive claims

of the gospel. Get rid of the infallibility of

the word of God. And we get to be our own

owners. Foolish, foolish in the same way

that the owner of this vineyard is so clear and

obvious. You are not the owner of your

own life. Someone made you, someone created

you in his image. And as we're about to find out

with that whole argument about paying taxes to

Caesar, because his image is on you, you belong to

him. You do. Do

you believe that? Or do you believe that Jesus

is helping you be the king of your own life? That's

not what Jesus is all about. Jesus

is king of your life and you serve him. He

doesn't serve you. He doesn't serve you in how

you want to do this thing called life. No,

you realize he gave me life. He

died for my life, not just in this life, but in the

life to come. I throw myself at his feet.

So you either receive Christ

and acknowledge him as the rightful owner, or you kill

him in your rejection and denying him. And

that's what lead us to our third and final point of

what this reveals about God. This

parable doesn't just teach us about the grace of God.

It doesn't just teach us about

the patience of God. It shows us the justice of

God. Look at verse nine with me.

What will the owner of the

vineyard do? He will come and destroy the

tenants and give the vineyard to others. He

will come and destroy the tenants. That

is the fate of those who also reject the Son. You

say, well, this is intense. Well,

don't forget the intensity of his patience. That

day after day and providential moment after

providential moment and sermon after sermon. An

invasion of his grace after invasion of his grace. When

a person keeps resisting and hardening their hearts,

their fate is set in the same way that these men's

faith were set. Destruction is on its way. Destruction

is on its way for all those who do not receive

the Son. That's part of the gospel, by the

way. Holy week as we come to Good

Friday, as we come to resurrection Sunday. What

do you think? Jesus just came to die for what?

He came to save you from

what? From the wrath of God. That's

from what? I know you don't hear it

that much these days. I don't care. It's

what the Bible says. It's what God has revealed. It

makes the gospel that much more glorious than instead

of the right, righteous wrath of God being poured

out on us. It's the love of God that's

poured out on us through his Son Jesus Christ.

That's the truth of the gospel

and you have a choice to make. And

these men clearly decided the wrath of the owner.

And so wrath shall be. But

what's unique about this particular verdict about

these people, these tenets, is not the destruction

that's coming. It's not the eventual

retribution. It's the transfer of ownership

for the tenants. The lease is going to change.

Look at verse nine again. What

will the owner of the vineyard do? He

will come and destroy the tenants. Okay,

we understand that, but notice this and give the

vineyard to others. This is unique to Israel. And

this is the immediate context. So

the vineyard is going to be now given. It's

going to be now given over to a different group of

people. And we know that to be what?

The Gentiles. So

this is a prophetic forecast that Jesus is

making about the faith of the Jewish people, that in

light of their denial of the Messiah, this is going

to now make way for the Gentiles to enter in and

enjoy the spiritual blessings and treasures that

the nation of Israel forfeited. That

is why the church today is the light of the world.

That is why the church today is

a royal priesthood. That is why the church today

are the ambassadors of Christ. That

is why the church today is the pillar and buttress of

the truth. That is not to say that God

has now forsaken completely the people of Israel. Read

Romans 11 and you'll come to that clear conclusion.

But what it does mean is that

the people of Israel, even up to this day, have

forfeited so much in the meantime. They

were originally called to be the light of the world

under the old covenant. And ultimately through the

rejection of the Son of God. Now

that responsibility and that privilege has been given to

you and to me. We now shine the light of the

truth of God's Word and truth. And

so this is what he's saying. You

gave it up. This is it. There

is nothing left after what you did with the Son. What

you do with the Son will determine your faith. True

for this moment and true for you and I. We

are not waiting for any other messenger. We're

not. Sorry to disappoint those who

believe in Joseph Smith. We're

not waiting for anybody to complete this revelation.

There is no other final

messenger, including Muhammad. Jesus

Christ has come and Jesus Christ is the final

revelation of who God is and the complete one at

that. And so we see here that he

says the tenants will be destroyed and the vineyard

will be given over to others. And

as the Lord is ready to now close this parable, he

assures his audience then and now that the death of

the Son is not the punctuation mark to the

story. Because that's what you heard,

right? That's what you saw. That

they killed the Son and in verse eight they threw him

out of the vineyard. So this is even a degrading

death. It was an honorable in any

way. They left them out to the field

to be open to the elements and animals. That's

ultimately a picture of what they would do to

Christ, the brutality of his death. But

Christ wants to end this by assuring that again, the

death of the Son is not where it ends. Notice

what he says here in verse 10. Have

you not read this scripture? Isn't

that like offensive to guys who teach the Bible? These

guys memorize the scriptures, like books of

the Bible. These guys apparently teach and

he goes, have you not read this scripture? I

wish I could have seen some of those faces squirm.

Have you not read this

scripture? And then he quotes Psalm 118,

Psalms 118:22

verse 22 and 23. The stone that the builders

rejected has become the cornerstone. This

was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our

eyes. So now Christ goes back to

the book of Psalms and he pulls out a messianic

Psalm, a Psalm that predicts the Messiah to

come. But he still stays within the

lane of the theme of rejection. So

in the parable here of the tenants, they rejected the

Son. So he's still there because in

this, in the Psalm, there is a rejection of the

stone. And why he's coming to this

text is because in this promise, the people who

rejected the stone should now expect a great

reversal. Because what you have rejected,

according to the Psalm, is going to return. The

stone that you've rejected is going to come back and

it's actually going to become a cornerstone, the

most important piece of the foundation of a building

that would set the alignment and the strength

of the rest of that structure. You

rejected the stone, but the stone is going to come

back and build something new. In

other words, Jesus is telling these leaders of

Israel by using this scripture that though they

will kill him, he knows it. He's

like, I know you're going to kill me. You're

going to kill me, but you will not be able to thwart

the eternal purposes of God. Do

you know how Jesus ends this parable? This

is how he's doing. If I can translate it in a

way that will be memorable, providence will prevail.

God's providence will prevail. And

that's why he goes into verse 11, which is also

part of Psalm 118. Look at Mark 12, 11 again. This

was the Lord's doing. This was the Lord's doing. And

look at this. And it is marvelous in our

eyes. How can you interpret a

murderous rejection as being marvelous? Only

if you understand God's providence that your

rejection will ultimately lead to resurrection and

will lead to redemption. So the truth here is that

this is God declaring that no matter what you're

coming up with, you Pharisees, God's going to

come out victorious. And this is a declaration of

God's sovereignty. And the brilliance of God's

sovereignty is not that he makes robots in his

creation to do his bidding without a choice of their

own. The splendor of his sovereignty

is that even through man's autonomy, even in their

horrific sinful defiance against the will of God,

God's still going to get his will done. So

plot what you want, do what you want, fret all

you want, plan all you want. God's

will will be done, even if you kill the Son. And

in this case, Israel's rejection is going to

become the world's redemption. How

do they respond to this? This

is brilliant. This is amazing. The

parable is so plain. And he made it plain on

purpose so that they can understand by being sucked

into this story, because Jesus was such a profound

storyteller. And if you read in the other

gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke, they get so

sucked into it, Jesus asks, what should be done about

these tenets? The Pharisees themselves says,

kill them. And then at some point, they

donned on them. Uh -oh. He's

talking about us. And that's why you read in

Luke's version where he asked the question. They

go, surely not. So when you marry all these

texts together, they did admit their own guilt. But

at some point, they're like, no, no, no, no, no,

actually, we change our mind. And

this is what we see in verse 12, how they truly

responded. And they were seeking to arrest

him, but feared the people. For

they perceived that he had told the parable against

them, so they left him and went away. Human

depravity is an awful thing. You

know what you take away from this is that man can

be confronted with God's truth about themselves. Man

can be left undone and unable to deny that what

they just heard from God's word applies to them

personally, and they are still capable of hardening

their hearts. When just a second ago, before

the and you felt in that wooden pew, I think the

sky and it's not this guy is speaking right to me.

You can be given a perfect

diagnosis of your sinful condition and be moved by

the Holy Spirit to realize that you were guilty before

God. And at the end still say,

we're nothing to do with this. That's

what they're doing. They perceived that they were

being addressed. They even made an honest verdict

according to Matthew's account. And

what happens? They still say, we'll come back

for you. We're coming back for you. And

so in the same way that you and I can interpret

God's patience of one or two ways, it's the truth

about the conviction of God as well. And

so if your heart is convicted today, even now

in this reading of the word and this proclamation

of the word, here's my final exhortation. Let

your heart not be hearted. If

it's sensitive right now, if it's been touched, if

you're moved in an unusual manner, even if you've been

through so many services, so many holy weeks, so

many Good Friday, so many resurrection Sundays, but

some for some reason now you're here and you're

thinking and you're feeling to yourself, I feel drawn

to this. You have the power to walk

further into that and to know the glories of it or

to cut it off and perhaps never feel it again. And

so I beckon you today. If you're a visitor here, we

welcome you, we rejoice in that, but we really believe

what we preach here. And we really believe that this

story that Jesus has given us that God has preserved

for us for the ages applies to man today, and

that you can know this Christ that has been

proclaimed. And believers, because this is

not an evangelistic meeting, so I'm speaking to also

the family of God, you've been redeemed, you're

secured in the hand of the Father. Let

me remind you today through this parable of the grace

of God, he has made every investment he could make

for you to flourish in Christ, to be the husband

that God has called you to be. I

know it's hard, I know it's hard. I

know it's hard. It was probably hard this

morning on your way to church. I

know. Wives, I know. Mothers,

I get it. In this crazy age, I get it.

But remember now, God has given

you everything to be victorious and to know

steady success in this. And even as you stumble and

fall, even as you maybe even backtrack a little

bit, understand the patience of God, for centuries he

was patient with the people who killed the very

messenger of God. Holy man, he was still willing

to work with them. How much more you, after you

accepted his Son Jesus Christ, why do you doubt

his love for you? Why? Why do you question if

he's going to use you? Why do you think that he puts

you in a penalty box even after you repented and

asked for forgiveness? He's patient toward you. He

cares for you. He's aware of the limitations

that you face. And he's day by day, second by

second, ready to work with you. Be

patient with your own growth as long as you're

set on growing. And lastly, the justice of God,

the justice of God. Here's how you, family of God,

can be comforted even by that truth. The

justice of God has been dealt with 2000 years ago.

You never have to question or

fear destruction from God because Jesus drank your

destruction. It's done. And

he will never, ever, ever transfer you into the place

of the condemned. Never. He will keep you until the

end. You're hearing this today and

you're not a Christian. You're

wondering, this is too good to be true. This

is the gospel. It's called the gospel because

it means good news. And you're invited to share in

that destiny today. Do you see how I'm like

leaning over the pulpit? Do you see this? Because

I'm trying to, trying to compel you and convince you

that you can actually today know new life in Christ.

You can't today. Today.

I would cancel my lunch plans to make that right.

I would. I

know you probably have a nice lovely dinner waiting

for you, but I would, I would cancel everything to

make sure that you know for certain that you have

Christ, Christ's favor over your life. If

you repent and believe, it can all change. It

can all change. What we thank you for the

service today. Thank you for helping us

understand this parable and how it reveals something

about your heart. Thank you for Lord, these

precious people who have gathered here on a Sunday

afternoon to hear the word of God and to give you

praises Lord, even with a word like this, as sobering

as it is, we ask and pray that there would be joy

because there's joy in the truth. Because

your word says my truth shall set you free. And

so Lord, even now, God, if there has been any

interference with the truth being deposited in us,

Lord, give us mercy and help us leave here with

something. Let us not be forgetful. Let

us not be stubborn and believing and Lord, for the

person that doesn't know you, we ask with great

intense desire that there would be a testimony for

them leaving this place. Thank

you for your grace. Thank you for your patience. And

yes, even thank you for your justice in Jesus name

we pray. Amen. Church to stand and worship

the Lord together.