The Authority of the Son (Mark 11:26-12:12)

Please turn in your Bible to Mark chapter 11.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

We'll be finishing Mark 11 and going into chapter 12.

And while you guys are flipping, last week I had the awesome opportunity to visit Charlotte and Calvary Chapel in Morro Bay, which is our sending church.

So I led worship over there as their worship, main worship director is out on maternity leave.

And it was just so cool to be able to visit our sending church.

And then it feels so cool and so like epistle-ish to be able to say like all the churches in Morrow Bay greet you.

So it's just been a real cool thing, but they they send their love and it was it was really cool to be able to visit them and then to be able to come back here.

But I gotta admit, I really missed being here.

So uh yes, awesome.

So we are going to be again in Mark chapter 11, starting in verse 27.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

So if you are able, please stand for the reading of God's word.

And I did this in the worst uh orientation possible.

If you have a if you need a Bible, Mr.

Barnes will get one to you, even though you're all standing.

He has a great throwing arm.

There we go.

Perfect.

Awesome.

Okay.

So, Mark chapter 11, starting in verse 27.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

They came again to Jerusalem.

As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came and asked him, By what authority are you doing these things?

Who gave you this authority to do these things?

And Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question, then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Was John's baptism from heaven or from human origin?

Answer me.

They discussed it among themselves.

If we say from heaven, the he will say, Then why didn't you believe him?

If we say of human origin, they're afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought John was truly a prophet.

So they answered Jesus, We don't know.

And John said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

He began to speak to them in parables.

A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug out a pit for a wine press, and built a watchtower.

Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went away.

At harvest time he sent a vineyard, or a servant, to the farmers to collect some of the fruit of the vineyard from them.

But they took him, beat him, and sent him away empty handed.

Again he sent another servant to them, and they hit him on the head and treated him shamefully.

Then he sent another, and they killed that one.

He also sent many others, some they beat, others they killed.

He still had one descent, a beloved son.

Finally he sent to them, saying, They will respect my son.

But those tenant farmers said to one another, This is the heir.

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

So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

What then will the owner of the vineyard do?

He will come and kill the farmers and give the vineyard to others.

Haven't you read this scripture?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and it came about from the Lord, and is wonderful in our eyes.

And they were looking for a way to arrest him, but feared the crowd, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them.

So they left him and went away.

All right, please have a seat.

Lord, I thank you again for today.

I thank you for all that you want to do today.

Please be glorified as we study your word.

Please fill me with your spirit to teach your word rightfully.

And for the congregation, fill them with your spirit to discern and divide the word as well.

And be glorified in your name.

Amen.

So we are in the last week of Jesus' ministry leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection.

So the past few weeks we have been in the same passage.

This is all happening in the same week.

So it's not just, hey, this happened at a certain time in a place.

Where are we again?

What town are we in again?

We're in Jerusalem this whole week happening over and over and over again.

Boom, boom, boom.

So these things are happening almost in real time as we're going through this.

And this is a fun passage because this is almost like the third part of a trilogy, where you have his triumphal entry to start with.

Where Jesus is interacting with the crowd, and the religious leaders are here having problems.

And then the second one, you have him cleansing the temple, interacting with the temple, and his disciples giving them teaching moments.

And then you have the religious leaders a little bit on the side here.

And here in the third one, you have Jesus interacting directly with the religious leaders.

So you get a little kind of a very similar perspective in every single moment.

And like any good trilogy, in the third one, this is going to be over long and I'm gonna have trouble ending it.

But just think the 35 endings of the Lord of the Rings, and this will be today while you're smelling that meat out there.

It'll be okay.

We'll get through it.

So having that said, we get to see Jesus interact with the religious leaders here.

And spoiler alert up front, everything about here centers around authority.

That's our big theme for today.

What is authority?

Now, authority, like you know, the common R definition of authority is something I want to have, but if you have it against me, I got a serious problem.

That's kind of how we approach authority in our culture today.

But here's a dictionary definition of authority: the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.

So authority in that definition is the power or the right to give orders, to give direction, to make decisions, and to enforce obedience, to have coercive power in that sense.

And that's what this all centers around today is authority.

And it's a collision of Jesus' authority and the authority of the religious leaders.

Now, this is an interesting passage because we get to put ourselves in the shoes of the religious leaders a little bit today.

So we've got to do a little bit of work there.

And uh here's what I see their perspective is like you think about the uh, like pretty much leading right up until the 1900s.

The idea of like conquest and warfare is like you have like your little outlying towns where you hear those things being taken, you're like, okay, that's annoying, that's a problem.

You send out your scouts, the city, a little smaller cities start to fall, and then when the enemy is at the gates, you have a big problem.

That seems to be how they perceive Jesus and his presence in Jerusalem.

And one of the reasons I see that is because he came in with a parade where all of the people celebrated him in a very messianic way.

And then the next day, after he went to the temple, then he left, and the next day he kicked over their tables.

So this is not how you de-escalate, by the way.

If you ever, like, you know, leadership 101, don't kick over, like, you know, please don't go into Target and start kicking over tables.

It will not go well for you.

So, with that, there is a collision here.

And we gotta do a little bit of work with the religious leaders because when we read the gospels, we hear priests, scribes, elders, and we think that they're all the same people that are kind of this traveling band of people trying to bother Jesus and cause trouble.

That's not the case.

So, where did Jesus do most of his ministry up until this time?

Galilee, yes.

So Jesus is predominantly in Galilee in terms of the Jewish population that we're talking about.

He went into Gentile areas like the Decapolis and such as well.

But a lot of times in Galilee, there were religious leaders in Galilee.

There were priests, there were scribes, there were elders in Galilee.

And those are the people he was interacting with a lot.

These are not the same people.

And that's something that we it helps to wrap our head around this is that these are the chief priests, scribes, and elders of Judaism, of the whole entire Jewish faith at this point in time, because they are in Jerusalem, where the temple is, where this is happening.

And so when you look at it from their perspective, they are the top of the religious food pyramid, at the very, very top.

So they're not like these guys out in Galilee that are like trying to work their way up.

They're not over here in this area that got sent over there because, well, the little issues or they're annoying, and we so we sent them away.

They are in Jerusalem with the temple at the center of the Jewish faith.

And that's who we're interacting with at this moment.

So above them is the high priest, and above them is in their perspective, is God.

So having that said, we have to recognize that they believe they have the authority to do what they are doing and to say what they are saying.

Because we like, I'll put it this way, we have about like 40-45 minutes every Sunday, and it's and so when we're trying to make points and give messages, it's really easy to paint the religious leaders as kind of two-dimensional cartoon villains.

That they're either like twirling their mustache and trying to cause trouble, or they're bumbling idiots who keep going like, we're gonna catch Jesus this time.

Oh man, we'll try it again.

Next episode, like as if they're the as if they're Wally Coyote trying to catch the roadrunner.

And that's helpful for uh to a certain extent, but it really doesn't paint the full picture of what we see here.

Because putting yourself in the shoes of the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, think about this for a second.

They can take scripture, the Old Testament, and provide an argument for their authority through their own systems, beliefs, tribal identity, but they can use scripture to say, This is why I have the right to be here.

They could take scripture and they could say, This is why we have a right to execute a blasphemer.

It puts a little bit of a different perspective in this whole picture because oftentimes we look at this and go, Well, the religious leaders, they're bad, they make up their own rules, and they and it's like, well, that's true, but it is on a foundation of their tribal understanding of scripture.

And so if you see this, there's this layer of their customs, their cultures, their traditions, which is a big layer, okay?

I'm not denying that.

But then under that, they have an understanding that they can trace their authority back to the sons of Aaron.

So it's interesting to see that that's the kind of collision of authority we're having here.

Not these people who are just making stuff up as they go along, but of people who truly believe that they can, that they are the biblical authority here.

Kind of interesting to try to have to collide and do all the to figure out how these two authorities are gonna collide.

So that's what we're gonna see play out.

And how we see this really, in my opinion, enhances the depth of our understanding of the gospel when we see it that way.

So, it's a big statement, and I promise I'll back it up.

So, they approach Jesus, the chief priests, the scribes and the elders.

He's walking in the temple, back in the temple, and they're like, oh no, it's this guy again.

Okay, so the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came and they have interacted with Jesus.

We see in the Gospel of John.

He comes in, they clash, he leaves, they sigh a big sigh of relief.

And here, he ain't going anywhere.

He's in Jerusalem, leaves at night, stays in Bethany, comes back into Jerusalem, and so here's this statement when they say, By what authority are you doing these things?

Who gave you this authority to do these things?

They are more or less saying, Sir, I need to see your identification.

You're coming here, you're making some pretty pretty big claims, you're making a really big mess.

What authority do you have to do that?

And so here's the game that you can play at this point in time.

If you say, What's your authority?

And then he can go two different ways.

He can say, Well, here's my teacher and my lineage and all those different things, and they can say, Cool, I can trace mine back to uh Aaron, we win, I can tell you what to do.

Or he can say, My authority is from God, and they can say, Okay, you are clearly blaspheming, which is a capital offense in the law.

So setting it up is an interesting way with that to where whatever his answer is, it's a little bit problematic for them as they're collecting, connecting, and colliding those authorities together.

And so here's what Jesus doesn't do.

What he could have done, he could have said, Oh, you want my authority.

Well, we saw all the way back when I was teaching in Mark chapter 1 that I my the people identified that I taught with authority and not like your scribes, not like the Capernaum flag.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

We could go back to Mark chapter 2, where he heals a paralytic and he says, Your sins are forgiven.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And they go, Who can do that?

You can't say that.

He goes, Well, just so that you know that I have the authority to forgive sins, take up your bed and walk.

He could have gone to Mark chapter 3, where he sends out his disciples and he delegates authority to them over unclean spirits.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

Which is pretty like, wrap your head around that.

That this is prior to the impartation of the Holy Spirit, and he goes, You have the authority that I have given, I am delegating to you for this sense.

He could have gone down that road.

He could have gone, hey, by the way, spoiler alert, according to Matthew 28, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth.

All authority.

We haven't gotten there yet, we're gonna get there, and when you get there, you'll realize it.

He didn't do that.

Which is interesting because he could have, he could have said, What authority do I have?

Well, I cast out demons, by the way.

I heal the sick, I raise the dead.

Can you do that?

No, you can't do that.

All these different things.

But he doesn't answer that way at all.

Which I find interesting because he doesn't meet them on equal ground.

And why doesn't he meet them on equal ground?

Number one, because he has true authority.

But then number two, getting into that argument is a losing battle.

So I used to manage in a big retail organization, and I used to train their managers and troubleshoot all those different things, work in different stores where people are having trouble.

And one of the things I would tell the managers is if you ever have to play the because I'm the manager card, you have already lost.

You get to that point where you say, and this is not a parenting thing, because if that's the case, I fail every day.

But if you have to say because I'm the boss, that's why, you have already lost control of the situation whatsoever.

And the best thing, and you get engaged in that kind of argument, and it's a losing proposition and it's a bad thing.

Ultimately, you just keep doing what you know you need to do.

In that situation, if a customer comes to a manager and they're basically like, you can't do that, you have to do this, all I have to do is nothing to demonstrate that that's not true.

So, in those different situations, if you have the authority, you do not have to continue to prove your authority.

And it's a really bad look when you do that.

Kind of in the same way, like when you see leaders who talk about, I'm a leader, I'm a great leader, hey, I lead, look at me lead.

That's one of those like who's following you?

Why are you convincing me of this?

So, in that scenario, he doesn't do this.

He doesn't say all of those things that he could have said that they would have no answer for.

He could have had an Elijah moment, where it's basically like, okay, bring two dead people here.

I'll heal mine, you heal yours, and we'll see what happens.

I mean, that's pretty crass, but in reality, that would have been a really shock and awe moment, don't you think?

But that's not what he's here for.

And that's what's cool, because his authority is for a different purpose.

So, what here does he say here?

He says, I'll ask you you one question, and then you you answer me, and I'll tell you by what authority I do these things.

So, what authority do you do this?

Okay, I'll ask you a question.

If you can answer me, then I will tell you.

Was John's baptism from heaven or human origin?

Answer me.

John's baptism is interesting because John, number one, is, as in the eyes of the Jewish leaders, a troublemaker, he was, a troublemaker up in the area of Galilee.

So we can connect dots there already because that's how they view Jesus.

But here John is an immensely influential individual in Galilee while he was still alive.

What did he do?

Well, according to Mark 1.4, John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And this is interesting because baptism is not something that John invented.

It's not something that Christians invented.

This was a process, this was a tradition, and it was largely a tradition for the proselytization of the Gentile people into the Jewish faith.

You're going to be baptized into saying, I am forsaking my Gentile ways, I am going to follow the law, and I'm going to come under that.

So that's kind of interesting that John is taking that statement and he's making it not about that, but instead he's baptizing Jews.

And not only is he baptizing Jews, but as a declaration of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And so the religious leaders had a problem with that because they could come to him and say, like, I don't know if you know this, but repentance and forgiveness of sins happens at the temple, which is Archer, by the way.

Stay in your lane.

But John here is baptizing repentance for the forgiveness of sins to Jewish people.

And he also had a lot to say to the religious leaders up in Galilee as well.

He called them a brood of vipers.

You know, he definitely was not shy.

So, in that situation there, this is a very interesting question that Jesus gives, asks them about John's baptism, because what they say about John's baptism informs how they will impact or how they will receive his authority.

Because here you have someone who appears to be an outsider outside of their tribe and culture and tradition of understanding the law, and he is bringing about repentance apart from the sacrifice at the temple.

So that is an interesting thing.

And the question is, do you have authority to do that?

Do you not have authority to do that?

And that's what we keep colliding at.

And the amazing thing about this, they know what he is saying.

I love that the religious leaders in Jerusalem are like virtually the only people in these stories who actually understand what Jesus is talking about.

Isn't that amazing?

That they are the ones who are like, I know what you're doing there.

I see, I see the trap.

I see what's going on here.

And so uh it's it's interesting because they look and they go, well, hold on.

If we say from heaven, he's gonna say, Well, why didn't you believe him?

But if we say from if we say from man, we're gonna say that he's not a prophet.

Everyone and the everybody thinks that John was a prophet, there's gonna be a huge riot and an uprising.

And so uh we're stuck, and we're like, we're not going to fall for Jesus' trap here.

And so the chief priests and scribes and elders, the top of the food chain, who are in charge of uh responsible for interpreting the law and all these things, go, we don't know.

Yep, nailed that one.

We don't know.

And so Jesus says, Well, I'm gonna tell you what my authority is then either, about that point in time, because their answer would inform how they receive his authority.

It's not like he's just messing with their mind, although there's a sick part of me that really hopes he is too.

But uh, he is, it's a filter there, it's a heart filter to see how they how they answer this question will actually inform how they receive Jesus' authority.

And at this point in time, they fully understand and yet are not willing to accept his authority.

So think about this for a second.

We have people here who are the most fluent in the law and the scriptures in all of that land, who fully understand what Jesus is saying, and yet they are not willing to repent.

Think about that.

That's an interesting statement because we sit there and we often say, if people just understood, if we just taught them well enough, if we just gave them this information, if they just went to our church instead of that church, then they would fully understand, they would repent, and it would be good.

And here we have people who like understand more than anybody else.

They are the top of the class, and they still don't repent because repentance is a heart issue, not an issue of understanding.

And that's what we see happening here.

They we see in one of his interactions with them in John 5, he's colliding with these religious leaders in Jerusalem.

And I love this passage because he says, You pour over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me, but you're not willing to come to me, so that you may have life.

So he's telling them, it was like, look, you scan and interpret the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and you're missing the most important thing in them, which is Jesus.

And so this is a common interaction and collision that he has with them.

They did not or under they did not recognize or understand his authority.

And here's a kind of a fun thing is that he tells them, Look, I ain't gonna tell you my authority, and then he does.

So that's the nice thing, because he gives the parable a parable that they fully understand, that there's no confusion in their mind about.

So he begins to speak to them in parables.

A man planted a vineyard, he put a fence around it, dug out a pit for a wine press, and built a watchtower.

Okay, pausing the story for a moment there.

We're talking to the people.

Who know the Old Testament better than anyone else, right?

They know exactly what he's saying here, because this is like note for note from Isaiah chapter 5.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

In Isaiah, we have the uh he is prophesying here that the beloved broke up the soil, he cleared it of stones, he planted the finest vines, built a tower in the middle of it, and even dug out a wine press there.

So these are so many dots to connect that they're like, okay, we're talking about this, we're going straight into Isaiah 5 mentality here.

So he leased it to tenant farmers and went away.

Who is the vineyard?

In that same chapter in Isaiah chapter 5, in Isaiah 5.7, I love it when God gives us the answers.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

He says, The vineyard of the Lord of armies is the house of Israel and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in.

He expected justice, but he saw injustice.

He expected righteousness, but heard cries of despair.

So, what's the vineyard in this story?

The vineyard is Israel.

And there's no confusion about this in the mind of the people.

So the person, owner of the field is God.

He did all the work, right?

All the work of setting this up.

So that's usually the biggest deterrent to projects like these.

Hey, I want to plant a vineyard.

Go, be a vineyard.

It doesn't work that way.

You have to do a whole lot of work.

And uh God did all the work here.

And he built, planted, planted the vineyard, which is representative of Israel, according to Isaiah chapter 5.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

Much like we saw the imagery of the fig tree last week.

That's why I said this is very all these things kind of intertwined together.

And here he sent the uh he leased it to tenant farmers and he went away.

At harvest time, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect some of the fruit of the vineyard from them.

The owner of the vineyard owns the vineyard.

That is the deepest thing I'm going to say today.

And the owner of the vineyard owns the vineyard, yes.

And so he sends a servant to collect some of the fruit, because that's his due.

That's what that's deserving, because it belongs to him.

But what is the uh farmers here?

They took him the servant, they beat him, and they sent him away empty-handed.

So guy comes in and goes, hey, I represent the owner.

Give me some of the fruit.

Kind of similar to this idea of Isaiah 5.7 with the he expected justice, he expected righteousness.

He's looking for fruit here.

And what did they do?

They beat the servant and sent him away.

Why would they do that?

Now, at this point in time, we have to decide either because the religious leaders are just these weird two-dimensional evil characters that are written into the story who just have ulterior motives all the time, or this is what you do with trespassers.

So they thought this is their vineyard.

They had a right to it.

They had a right to the fruit.

This is like the servant being like, hey, give me some of the vineyards.

Like, you're not taking my food, you're not taking my produce, you didn't work for it.

What are you doing?

And then then he's like, Well, I ain't leaving, I have a job to do.

I have to take the fruit and bring it back to the servant.

And so what they do is they treat him like a trespass and they beat him and send him away empty-handed.

In their mind, they are not, they are the authority of the vineyard.

They are not recognizing the authority of the owner to receive the fruit of it.

So, this continues.

Again, he sent another servant.

They hit him on the head and treated him shamefully.

Again, you're not welcome in my vineyard.

Well, it's my own, it's my master's vineyard, the owner.

No, get out.

And he sent another, they killed that one, and he sent many others, some they beat, and others they killed.

Okay, pause for just a second here and bask in the amazing long suffering of the owner of the vineyard.

Because, you know, in my fleshly self, if I send a servant to collect what's mine, and you treat my servant shamefully, I'm gonna be at your doorstep the next day.

But he sends another one and another one and another one and another one.

Isn't that like we should take some, take those moments and just drink in the reality of those seek those little hidden moments that God is immensely patient and long-suffering.

Now it's a beautiful thing.

He just keeps sending, keep sending, keeps sending.

So, and then they they're beating and they're killing these people and sending them empty-handed.

It's interesting because when Jesus in Matthew 23, 29 through 31, is rebuking the religious leaders, he points out, he's like, you build up the tombs of the prophets, you make them into monuments, and you mourn and say, Well, man, if they had lived in our time, we would have listened to them.

And you are testifying that you are descendants of murderers.

And it's there's a connection there, this whole idea of they're saying, like, well, this wouldn't happen in our day.

If we were there, we wouldn't have treated the servants and the prophets in this way, because throughout Israel's history, uh, as it continued on, they would the prophets were the first ones to get murdered for their message to repent.

They would silence the messenger.

And that's a very good imagery of what we see happening here in this passage.

This is the messengers sending, coming, fruit, being silenced, being beaten, being murdered.

Being a prophet was not an occupation for the faint of heart.

So, in that scenario, we see um that he's saying, look, you think that you would treat them differently, but you don't in Matthew 23.

How can they act this way?

How does somebody feel justified being this way?

And this is, you can sit there and do this as a parable, yes, but they're about to um have Jesus executed, right?

So this is their heart and their mindset in this moment because they believe they have the right and the authority to do so.

They are trusting in their own authority, they are defaulting to their own understanding because they are right and others are wrong.

And they're locked into that moment saying, well, yeah, we can do this.

And here's the thing that's called self-righteousness, right?

When we are self-righteous, then the end always justifies the means.

When we hit self-righteousness, we've already decided we are right.

And so if we're right, what we do is right because our goal is right.

And just take a stroll through church history and see how that went for us.

Constantly.

So in that scenario, even looking way back to 380 AD, this is for free.

Uh, with uh Theodosius, the uh Eastern Empire, emperor, who not only took the toleration of Constantine that Christians, you know, hey, you don't get to kill Christians anymore, but instead he said to uh the Eastern Empire in the presence of the Western Emperor as well, Christianity is the legal uh religion of Rome.

You must be that way.

And what was the first thing that happened?

They started killing and persecuting pagans.

It shows human nature very well in that scenario, all throughout history, that when we think we're right, we can do it.

It's amazing what we are willing to do while still feeling self-righteous about it.

And so this is not, this is the punchline here.

You're going like, where is he going with this?

This is not a religious leader's problem, this is a human being issue that we see here.

Raise your hand if you're a human being.

I'm I'm wandering some stuff.

The rumors are true.

No, uh, but yes, they uh it this is something that can exist in any of us.

And the problem that we see here is that they are full of zeal in their self-righteousness, but absent of love.

Love does not inform their zeal.

That sounds really, really deep, and I straight up stole that from a discussion in our home group a couple months ago.

Shameless plug.

So, having that said, that was a discussion as we were going through the book of Acts with the conversion of Saul.

That if we are full of zeal but absent of love, this is the kind of thing that happens.

Love needs to inform our beliefs, our faith, our actions in that scenario.

They truly believe that they're doing God's work.

Is that a little bit scary?

A little bit like kind of make us go a little bit twitchy.

I know that none of us are compared are making any connections to our current day and age at all, so don't worry about that.

So he continues here.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This came about from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes.

Haven't you read this scripture?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

So here we have another perspective.

I skipped a passage, jumping back.

The tenant farmers said to one another, This is the heir, the beloved son.

They will respect my son.

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

So they killed him, sent him, threw him out of the vineyard.

So he finally sends his son.

And they're like, This is the heir.

If we kill him, we get the inheritance.

How insane is that, by the way?

Like, who did that math?

But they think, man, if we get rid of the son, then the inheritance will be ours.

So they kill the son and throw him out of the vineyard.

And so he's basically straight up telling them what they're going to do to him before they do it to him.

That's the dots that doesn't, nobody seems to connect those dots to where he's saying these things and they understand he's like, by the way, I'm going to die and rise again.

And everyone's like, I don't know what you talk about.

But okay.

And so here he says it again.

So what will the owner of the vineyard do?

He'll come and kill the farmers and give the vineyard to others.

Their belief that they own the vineyard and their belief that the servants and the son do not have a right there has no bearing on reality in any way, shape, or form.

Just because they believe they have this authority does not mean it's true.

And when he comes and cleans house, he does so because it's rightfully his due to do so.

So that is something to hold on to because we see this happen again here.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Here we have builders.

What do builders do?

They build things.

And all the stones, and they look at the stone, they go, This stone is useless.

We ain't using this stone.

So they cast it out.

The builders reject it.

They're like, no, get that out of here.

But what happens?

That stone becomes the chief cornerstone.

This came about from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes.

That stone had a purpose that was bigger than the authority of the builders.

And just because they rejected it did not mean that that stone was not in right standing.

It just means the builders looked really stupid when that stone was used.

They proved their own ineptness by their treatment of this object.

Just like the sun being cast out of the vineyard, the stone is being cast out here, and they're saying that.

But at the same time, this came about from the Lord, that they became this chief cornerstone here, that just because you don't accept his authority does not mean he doesn't have this authority.

It just means there's going to be a problem later when we reject it.

So there's the spoiler alert with that.

And what he's quoting here is Psalm 118, 22, and 23.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

Why is that important?

You jump a few verses later in Psalm 118, you get Psalm 118.26, which is in paraphrase, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Where did we hear that?

The triumphal entry.

Like we went over that two weeks ago here, where the people are shouting that.

And so Jesus is connecting dots that are inescapable here for people who know the law, to where that would be so immensely irritating for him to be connecting these dots when they're like, you know, that's still a sore spot that all those people were like, you know, praising you with that passage and you're coming in.

You had to bring that up.

And he uses the same exact uh psalm here to point out that the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Like, just because you are not receiving this authority, you're not recognizing my authority.

It doesn't change the reality of what God has decided.

And they were looking for a way to arrest him, but they feared the crowd because they knew he spoke this parable against him.

So they left him and went away.

Once again, they know exactly what he's talking about.

It's not like they're like, stone, vineyard, son, builders, vineyard.

I don't I don't know what you're, but I really need to see your authority, sir.

They're they know exactly what he is saying.

But it doesn't bring about repentance.

Instead, they look for a way to arrest him because in their mind, in their understanding, their authority, they're like, okay, he's clearly violating the law, and we need to do something about this.

And they're not going, we need to do something about this, because otherwise he's gonna take our clubhouse from us.

They're saying, This is God's will that we do this.

That's heavy.

That the religious leaders here believe they are following the Lord.

In John 16, Jesus warns his disciples there's gonna be a time where people think that they are doing God a service by persecuting you.

But they're gonna think that they are actually doing the Lord's work.

That's what's amazing here is that they are not doing this just for, you know, just for kicks, but rather that they believe that what they're doing is right.

Because they're building a different kingdom.

And that is the core of this re of this passage is that they have built a kingdom and they are trying desperately to protect it.

And desperate people are full of outrage, full of attack.

So they are taking this kingdom and they're going, we have to protect this.

How immensely scary is that?

How stressful is that?

Do they have to protect this and hold it all together?

When here God is, Jesus is saying, Look, this is gonna happen whether you like it or not, because this is the will of God.

And all I have to do is continue my course.

I don't have to argue with you.

I'm going to continue my course of action, and you will see that this is the will of God.

And so it's amazing how much peace there can be in accepting that.

They're like, in God's kingdom, God is king, and his will will be done, versus our king, our kingdom is collapsing.

We have to keep it together, we have to hold it together, we have to attack that person because they might possibly be maybe in the future potentially causing a problem.

Maybe.

And that is the difficulty that we see here, and it is all based on the authority.

Whose authority are they guarding?

Whose authority are they protecting?

Both people, both parties, Jesus and the religious leaders are building their foundation from their understanding of scripture.

It's just one is God and the other is not.

And so this is the thing that we need to wrap our heads around in this passage because why I said earlier that this really can inform the depth of the gospel is when we read the gospels, what we like to believe, okay, maybe I am, and maybe it's just me and I'm twisted, but but uh at this point in time we look at Jesus as this, you know, he's the star, and the disciples are like the really cool sidekicks.

Yeah, they get it wrong sometimes, but they're they're really, really good.

And then the religious leaders are the bad guys, right?

They're the villains.

They're the ones we we root against and we go, I thank you, God, that I am not like that sinner over there.

Oh, just turn the tables there.

And in that moment, we like to think that there's the good guys and the bad guys, and how that works.

This is what I hope that we can uh chew on.

In this passage, we as human beings are the religious leaders.

We see constantly throughout scripture that when we were enemies of God, Christ died for us.

Isn't that amazing?

That is, he's not dying for like people who are on his side, he's like, hey, I got this, I'll be right back or whatever.

But mankind, humankind, is at enmity with God prior to repentance, prior to accepting by faith the sacrifice that he gave.

That's a pretty heavy thing to chew on, and that's what I believe this really informs the depth of our understanding of the gospel, is because if we look at this and we say, well, Jesus really, I mean, the disciples are the good guys.

Yeah, they kind of ran away.

Peter had a really bad moment, but he's like, it's okay, I forgive this, I take care of you.

He died for the religious leaders, too.

They just refused to receive it.

And it's that uh we are all, it's not like we have Jesus and the good guys and the bad guys.

It's God and humankind.

And the only way there is any kind of reconciliation is through the sacrifice of Jesus, and not only that, but the receiving of that salvation and the acceptance of his authority coming under his kingship.

So we all have our kingdoms, and we all have our authority that we believe is right, that we believe is true, and that is going to collide with Jesus at some point in time, and we're going to need to be able to submit to him and lay down our kingdoms.

That is the gospel in a nutshell in that scenario.

That's all that we have, all our all we do is surrender.

It's a lot less exhausting than trying to prop up our idols constantly.

But then when we've done that, once we've done that, we still collide with this whole idea of his authority.

And we still collide with this idea that once again, we can feel 100% self-righteous in our understanding of scripture and in our tribal identities, and then we can be full of zeal without love.

That's a human battle that we're going to face every day.

That we're going to face constantly.

That we can, and we can feel so right and yet not be building his kingdom.

And that's that can be a big thing, that can be a small thing.

So that's the uh the big challenge in that point in time.

What do we do about that?

What do like if we go, okay, let's pray at that moment.

You go, gosh, what do I do now in that scenario?

All it takes is returning to the Son, is submitting to his authority, is committing to his kingdom, and then following him.

There are so many things that vie for our attention, and that's something that I fear, as one of you know, one of the elders of a church, is that we get an hour, maybe, and then the whole rest of the week, every single day, we're being discipled, actively discipled, by so many other sources that want to build a different kingdom.

They want to tell you that you're right for building a different kingdom, they want to tell you this is God's kingdom, they want to tell you that the sky is falling and that you need to attack.

And this is an outrage.

And yet, what do we do?

We just return to the sun and let him guide us.

What does that look like?

I can't tell you that.

You're gonna have to sort that out with him.

Um there's no three-steps, there's no uh like you know, three-step solution to how to how to do that, but it's something we've hit for the last couple weeks.

This is the third week where we are we collide with that idea of that we need to receive Jesus for who he is and not for who we want him to be.

We hit that with the triumphal entry, we hit that with the cleansing of the temple last week, and then again, this is the third time we get that same message.

And it just really is a big challenging point in conviction for me.

It's like, how do I do that?

And then, next step, as we do that, and as we surround ourselves with others who encourage us to do that, to dig into Christ, we can trust him, that he is good, and that he will guide us.

Because we can, at that point in time, we can dive really deep into like, am I doing this right?

Did I do this right?

Did I pray this correctly?

Did I not do this right?

How am I doing?

And it's like, dive into him, come to him, seek him, and trust that he is a good shepherd who knows how to guide his sheep.

And that he's gentle and loving and faithful.

Isn't that amazing?

We keep sitting there going, Ha! I gotta do so much work, I gotta get this, I gotta do this, and God keeps going, stop working, stop doing this, just come and follow and hear and receive.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you that you are good and you are faithful and you are holy and you are just and you are upright.

I thank you that you hold all things in your hand.

I thank you that you have all authority in heaven and on earth as the Son, and that is indisputable and not open to threat.

And with all of that authority and all of that power and all that love, I mean all that uh might, I thank you that you love us with all of that authority and power and might.

I thank you that you are humble, you are lowly, you are the good shepherd.

I thank you that you sacrifice, that you give yourself for us, that you model that, that you are gentle and meek and lowly.

I ask that as we continue to keep to turn our eyes to you, that we continue to seek you for who you are and not for who you uh we want you to be.

That we would trust that you will guide us.

That it will not lead to fear, but that it would lead to hope that you're the one doing the work.

I ask Lord that we would we would lay down our outrage weapons and that we would seek your face and follow you and trust you.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.