SPEAKER_00: Last few weeks we've been looking at a series on the church, and two weeks ago we looked at how to choose a church and what to look for in uh finding a new church.
SPEAKER_00: If any of you were to move away from here uh to give you some things to think through for how to choose a new church where you're going.
SPEAKER_00: And last week we looked at why you should choose a church, like why it is important for believers to gather together face to face for the worship of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning I want to kind of bring this little mini-series to a conclusion here by asking even, I guess, a more theological question or a question that goes deeper back into time is why did God choose the church?
SPEAKER_00: We looked at how you should choose a church, we looked at why you should choose a church.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to ask the question, why did God choose the church?
SPEAKER_00: You know, our lives are very self-focused.
SPEAKER_00: We live in the worlds that's everything is here and immediate, and our life is what is important to us, our world is what is important to us, so we can lose a bit of perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Namely, here's a perspective for you: the church has not always been in the world.
SPEAKER_00: The church came into existence at Pentecost where the Holy Spirit filled believers.
SPEAKER_00: This is described in Acts chapter 2, and then sent them into the world with the courage and the power and the boldness to preach the gospel to every tribe, nation, and language.
SPEAKER_00: And ever since then, the gospel has gone around the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples at the end of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says it in Matthew 28, it is prophetic.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm sending you into the world, you will be my disciples into all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the command that we're supposed to go, but it was future then.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Acts 2 where the Spirit empowers it, and we know that the church will not be on the world for forever.
SPEAKER_00: The rapture is coming where the church will be removed from the earth that launches us into the tribulation, and then ultimately the kingdom of God, and then into the eternal state.
SPEAKER_00: That's all future.
SPEAKER_00: And so for this little time right now, the church is here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so it is worth asking why.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to go to a passage that's not often looked at to answer this question, but I think it is critical in an understanding of why God has chosen the church.
SPEAKER_00: And that's Matthew 21, verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: This is the parable of the tenants.
SPEAKER_00: And before we read the parable, understand the context where this takes place.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to read through the whole parable twice this morning, but I want to give you the context for where it takes place.
SPEAKER_00: This is the third day of Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem in the last week of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: It may have been Monday, it may have been Sunday evening.
SPEAKER_00: There's differences of opinion on that.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have access to his daytime, or we don't know exactly, but his first day in Jerusalem, he comes in, he's welcomed in as the crowd is singing Psalm 118, and they receive Jesus into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the temple where he clears it out.
SPEAKER_00: He turns over the tables, he drives people away, and then he retires in Bethany.
SPEAKER_00: He returns the next day for teaching in the temple, day number two of his time in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So either Monday or Tuesday, he's there for teaching, and he spends the entire day.
SPEAKER_00: And that must have been quite a scene.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, nobody had, other than Jesus, ever had ever gone into the temple before and cleaned it out and turned over the tables and driven out the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin.
SPEAKER_00: This is the holy week in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It's the week leading up to Passover.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the temple is packed.
SPEAKER_00: It is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: It's the focus of Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: There's pilgrims from all over the world pouring into Jerusalem at this week to go to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: The Psalms of Ascent were written for going to the temple this week.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is this is nuts.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus goes there this week, clears it out one day, the next day shows up and begins literally holding court there, teaching in the temple all day long.
SPEAKER_00: His third day and his final day in the temple, he is there and he has people gathered around and he begins to teach them again.
SPEAKER_00: Only this time the Sanhedrin is ready.
SPEAKER_00: The Sanhedrin is the group of 70 leaders of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They are the upper class of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who are in charge of the Jewish religion.
SPEAKER_00: There are some Pharisees among them.
SPEAKER_00: There are some religious leaders, some scribes and priests among them.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, the high priest is supposed to have a chair of authority over it.
SPEAKER_00: We know that wasn't true during Jesus' lifetime, but it was just a title, really, who was holding over the Sanhedrin.
SPEAKER_00: But they're all gathered there this morning.
SPEAKER_00: They were ready for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we know their plan.
SPEAKER_00: Their plan was to trap Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They thought that this was a long joke that had gone on too long, and they wanted him out.
SPEAKER_00: They begin this day by putting him to the test.
SPEAKER_00: They have questions for him, almost like, you know, show me your papers.
SPEAKER_00: What gives you the right to be here and have authority over to over us?
SPEAKER_00: Who made you in charge?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is going to respond to them.
SPEAKER_00: But you just have to appreciate the gravity of this situation.
SPEAKER_00: The Sanhedrin is, of course, noticeable.
SPEAKER_00: Black robes, outlandish hats, stones in their robes, the Pharisees are around them, and a massive crowd of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people pressing in around them.
SPEAKER_00: This is a place where they want to see what will happen.
SPEAKER_00: They're there, they've had enough of Jesus, and they want to finally be done with him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they ask in Matthew 21, verse 23, by what authority are you doing these things?
SPEAKER_00: Who gave you this authority?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the crowd and the chief priests and the elders, which is another way of saying the Sanhedrin, they want to know.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus responds to them with a little bit of a riddle.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Sure, I'll tell you what authority I have if you tell me what authority John the Baptist had.
SPEAKER_00: And they were terrified of John the Baptist because the people loved John the Baptist, and the Sanhedrin was not able to respond to John the Baptist because John wasn't doing his thing in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was out by the river, finally put to death up by Tiberius in Galilee area.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Sanhedrin didn't know how to handle him, and so Jesus throws that right back at them.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus' way of getting the crowd on his side.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is aligning himself with John the Baptist, and the Sanhedrin does not know how to respond to that.
SPEAKER_00: And so now they're a little bit gobsmacked here, and they don't know what to say.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus responds to that with the parable that I'm about to read.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this parable is designed to confront the Sanhedrin for their rank hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: And it is just a wonder of Jesus' supernatural ability to communicate when you think of all that he accomplishes with this parable.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the scene, the 70 Sanhedrin pressing in on him, the thousands of people around them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, by appealing to John the Baptist, has started to sway the crowd to his side, but the whole thing is just a spectacle.
SPEAKER_00: The Sanhedrin is furious with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're as likely as not to just kill him right then and there.
SPEAKER_00: It's 70 against one.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans would not intervene in this.
SPEAKER_00: It's a likely outcome of the story.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus begins to speak to them, to play off their hypocrisy and expose their spiritual blindness with a parable.
SPEAKER_00: A parable, of course, is a fictional story.
SPEAKER_00: This didn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: Like most of Jesus' parables, they have an outlandish twist in them.
SPEAKER_00: And I just say that to you because if you grow up in the church, you grew up reading the Bible, the parables sound normal to you, like you're ready for the story.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the prodigal son is the best example of this.
SPEAKER_00: The, you know, the prodigal runs away from his family and comes back, and the dad runs out and greets him, and it becomes a picture of love and all this.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a it's a normal story to us.
SPEAKER_00: We're not surprised by it.
SPEAKER_00: So you lose sight of the fact of just how shocking Jesus' parables were.
SPEAKER_00: They all start out with a normal story about their world where something just totally insane happens in the middle of it that people don't know how to deal with.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to remember that as you read this story, that it's it has a twist in it that nobody was ready for.
SPEAKER_00: So it starts with a very normal encounter in verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a parable.
SPEAKER_00: There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and then went to another country.
SPEAKER_00: This would be a very normal situation.
SPEAKER_00: Normal in that it's it's something that would often happen in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: If a wealthy, this is an investment property, a wealthy person, obviously very wealthy, if he can buy land and you know, build a tower and a wine press and all this, a fence around it, hire tenants to be in there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot of financial outlay to get this to happen, and this wealthy person is able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: So he's bought the property, planted a vineyard, fence around it, wine press in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: The fence is to protect it from enemies, of course, to mark the boundary of it.
SPEAKER_00: The wine press is to turn the grapes into wine.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he's going to acquire his income from it.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a tower in it.
SPEAKER_00: The tower is going to be for a watchtower to see if there's enemies coming to attack.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is it's a luxury.
SPEAKER_00: Most vineyards wouldn't have that, but this guy, this guy does.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes to another country.
SPEAKER_00: So he's out.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a very wealthy individual.
SPEAKER_00: There's no Southwest Airlines back then.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very wealthy person who's investing in a vineyard and then going who knows where to.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of wealthy Jews at this time did live in different parts of the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them could even go off to Persia or to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: That would be unusual but not unheard of.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's something that's happened here.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody would have a grid for this story so far.
SPEAKER_00: They would all understand this.
SPEAKER_00: A wealthy guy, farm, he's going to want something from it eventually.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 34, when the season of fruit drew near.
SPEAKER_00: Season of fruit is going to be several years later.
SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 19, 23 says you're not allowed to sell the grapes from your vineyard until the fifth year.
SPEAKER_00: So five years have gone by here.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth year, you give them to the temple as a sacrifice to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The point is not whether or not these fictional characters were keeping the Mosaic law, but the point is that many years went by.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the Jews would understand this.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of years have gone by between the planting of the vines and now the time for grapes.
SPEAKER_00: So many years later, the rich guy sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.
SPEAKER_00: So he is dispatched servants.
SPEAKER_00: And there's different details of this parable in the other synoptics account, as synoptic accounts.
SPEAKER_00: Mark lets you know the servants came one at a time, and they were not well received.
SPEAKER_00: They were not well received.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 35, here becomes the shocking twist.
SPEAKER_00: The tenants took his servants, they beat one, they killed another, and they stoned another.
SPEAKER_00: So that is not what anybody would have expected to happen next in this story.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody would have had a grid for the rich guy sent his servants to get the grapes and they beat him up and then killed one of them.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the kind of thing that should never happen.
SPEAKER_00: Especially in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And who's Jesus telling this to, remember?
SPEAKER_00: The Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of Israel, the ones who are, in some sense, would be in charge with enforcing moral conduct in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: For something like murder, the Romans would have gotten involved, but likely at the Sanhedrin's urging.
SPEAKER_00: So if this story is true at all, it would fall on the Sanhedrin's heads to do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: So there's different ways the Sanhedrin could have heard this story so far.
SPEAKER_00: One way they could have heard it is that Jesus is indicting them that this kind of thing may have actually happened.
SPEAKER_00: I think more likely is that it's just such a shocking twist.
SPEAKER_00: They would have heard of something like this happening in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They would have heard of this kind of vineyard, and they definitely would have heard if the messenger came and was murdered, much less messenger after messenger after messenger.
SPEAKER_00: This is outrageous.
SPEAKER_00: It's outrageous.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps getting crazier.
SPEAKER_00: The wealthy guy sent other servants, more than the first.
SPEAKER_00: And they did the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Well why?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, at that point of the story, you would be you would have some questions for the rich guy, right?
SPEAKER_00: You sent one servant who got beat up, another servant who got stoned, a third servant who got killed, and so your response was to send more servants?
SPEAKER_00: Like at what point did that become a good idea?
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't send more servants.
SPEAKER_00: You go get the army, you go get the police, you go get law enforcement of some kind, you you come yourself with lots of swords.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's the right response to this.
SPEAKER_00: You don't keep sending them, but he does.
SPEAKER_00: He does keep sending them, which is just incredible.
SPEAKER_00: And you can hear the crowd really just in the background of your picturing the scene.
SPEAKER_00: You can hear the crowd almost shocked at this.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why would he keep sending more servants?
SPEAKER_00: Then verse 37, finally he sent to him his son.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus actually said, Finally, he sent his beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: He had a beloved son, his own precious son.
SPEAKER_00: Not one of the sons that he's okay with getting killed, but one that he actually likes.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: There's one son that stands among the rest.
SPEAKER_00: This is the favored son.
SPEAKER_00: This is the son who the father loves in a unique and privileged and special way.
SPEAKER_00: That's the son that sent.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the language here the father has.
SPEAKER_00: He says, They will respect my son.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is that rational thinking from the father?
SPEAKER_00: No way.
SPEAKER_00: They just killed all of your servants.
SPEAKER_00: Now you're gonna send your son and think they'll respect the son.
SPEAKER_00: Of course they're not gonna respect the son.
SPEAKER_00: They just murdered servant after servant.
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna be shocked that you sent their son.
SPEAKER_00: Who would think that?
SPEAKER_00: They'll respect my son.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 38.
SPEAKER_00: When the tenants saw the son, they saw the son, they threw him out of the vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says in verse 38.
SPEAKER_00: They said to themselves, This is the heir.
SPEAKER_00: Let us kill him and we'll have his inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody left.
SPEAKER_00: If the owner is in a faraway land and the son is dead, who would come execute justice?
SPEAKER_00: Israel had a squatter's law.
SPEAKER_00: If you could occupy property for three years without paying rent or without being having a claim laid against you, it was your property.
SPEAKER_00: You know, America has kind of similar laws in some places.
SPEAKER_00: If you can occupy a house over a certain period of time, it is very, very difficult to evict you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: These guys conspire together and say, many years have gone by.
SPEAKER_00: We've never given this landlord anything, and now the heir is here.
SPEAKER_00: If we kill him, who could possibly- This is our land then?
SPEAKER_00: That's their plan.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they would get away with it, but that's their goal.
SPEAKER_00: And so verse 39, they took him out, threw him out, and they killed him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this should not be.
SPEAKER_00: If something like this had happened in Israel, it would be front page news.
SPEAKER_00: And the Sanhedrin would be on it.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans would come after him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is this is just insane.
SPEAKER_00: And so then Jesus asks a question in verse 40, and here's where you just see the profound rhetorical ability of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, again, if you grow up with a story, you lose sight of the majesty of it.
SPEAKER_00: But do you just see the economy of words here?
SPEAKER_00: That just in such a short amount of words, Jesus is manipulating a crowd of thousands of people to think and then teach them a lesson that they don't see.
SPEAKER_00: So verse 40, he asks verse 40, he asks a question.
SPEAKER_00: When the owner of the vineyard comes, what do you think he will do to those tenants?
SPEAKER_00: So now this is open to open mic time.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd is now able to answer.
SPEAKER_00: What do you all think?
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd, in their rush to answer, doesn't see what this story is about.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see where Jesus is going with this.
SPEAKER_00: It's, and of course, the Sanhedrin are not just gonna stay quiet.
SPEAKER_00: They need to answer that question.
SPEAKER_00: There's a massive crowd here, and if the leaders of the crowd say, Ah, I guess they get the property, and what's gonna happen to the Sanhedrin's property?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a rush to justice here.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd is gonna shout for justice, the Sanhedrin is gonna shout for justice, everybody is gonna want justice in this.
SPEAKER_00: And so the crowd does respond almost with one voice, verse 41.
SPEAKER_00: He will put those wretches to a miserable death and give the vineyard to other tenants who will give them the fruit in their season.
SPEAKER_00: That's what will happen.
SPEAKER_00: He'll kill them, is what he'll do.
SPEAKER_00: He'll execute them.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Levitical law would demand.
SPEAKER_00: They're murderers.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Romans would demand.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody would expect this.
SPEAKER_00: And then he'll just give the property to other people.
SPEAKER_00: They don't realize what the story is about.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice that?
SPEAKER_00: It's so obvious to us.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reminded of the story of Nathan where he confronts David in 2 Samuel 12.
SPEAKER_00: He tells him a story about the poor guy with the one sheep and the rich guy who kills the poor guy's sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And David, what should we do?
SPEAKER_00: And David's like, kill him! That's what we just saw here from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd shouts, kill that guy! So let's rewind back to the beginning of the story.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go through it again.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're gonna go through the story understanding what it's about.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see what the Pharisees miss.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you know this.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is not that profound stuff yet.
SPEAKER_00: We're working towards the application at the end, but this is stuff, this is stuff you know.
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
SPEAKER_00: The story begins in verse 33, of course, everybody gathered together.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus begins by telling them the story of a man who plants a vineyard, puts a fence around it, digs a wine press, puts a tower, and leases it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a quotation of Isaiah chapter 5, verse 1, and it is going to be worth your time to flip over to Isaiah 5.
SPEAKER_00: If you go back about to the middle of your Bible, you can find the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Flip over to Isaiah chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: This and the parable of the seed that grows into a tree where the birds land in it, those are the only two parables where Jesus quotes scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So this is noteworthy.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' parables, he doesn't quote scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But he begins this one with a somewhat extensive quote here.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 5, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And he's quoting it in the Greek, the Septuagint.
SPEAKER_00: So it's going to be a little bit different in English, but no, it's a quote of this.
SPEAKER_00: A song that Isaiah has, and the quote picks up in the middle of verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
SPEAKER_00: He dug it, he cleared it of stones, and that's where the fence comes from.
SPEAKER_00: He planted it with his choice vines.
SPEAKER_00: He built a tower in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_00: He hewed a wine press out of it.
SPEAKER_00: That's how this parable starts.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Sanhedrin missed that.
SPEAKER_00: They missed that.
SPEAKER_00: Likely because Jesus did not often quote scripture in parables, but Isaiah 5 is not obscure.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like he quoted an obscure part of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 5, a very well-known passage in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It's about it's the idea that Israel is the vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: That's where it comes from.
SPEAKER_00: Every Jew understands this.
SPEAKER_00: They know God spoke to them as if they were the vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: They're supposed to be producing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews in Jesus' lifetime saw it as a vineyard that had been invaded by an invading army.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans were stealing the vineyard from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Pharisees would have made the connection.
SPEAKER_00: They likely would have seen themselves as the victims in this.
SPEAKER_00: But you can tell by the way the story ends, they didn't see the connection.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is that Israel is the vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus makes that clear.
SPEAKER_00: But this chapter goes on.
SPEAKER_00: Inhabitants of Jerusalem, verse 3, men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: So God is saying, I have a dispute with my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of verse 2, he said the vineyard is giving wild grapes.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want great wild grapes.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted grapes that could be made for wine.
SPEAKER_00: So he asks in verse 4, what can I do to my vineyard?
SPEAKER_00: This is the vineyard owner asking, What should I do with my vineyard?
SPEAKER_00: They haven't done in it.
SPEAKER_00: It's only giving me wild grapes.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, I'll tell you what I'll do.
SPEAKER_00: I will remove its hedge.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to knock down its fence.
SPEAKER_00: It will be devoured.
SPEAKER_00: I will break down its wall.
SPEAKER_00: If a vineyard loses the fence around it, wild animals will come into it.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be devoured.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be knocked down.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be trampled upon.
SPEAKER_00: People will cut through it, step on all of it, the end of verse 5 says.
SPEAKER_00: I will make it a wasteland.
SPEAKER_00: People will dump their trash in there.
SPEAKER_00: It won't be pruned or hoed.
SPEAKER_00: Briars and thorns will grow up.
SPEAKER_00: I will command the clouds that they won't rain upon it.
SPEAKER_00: So we're leaving the you know the human analogy now.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'll knock down the fence, everybody will trample over it.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be ruins.
SPEAKER_00: Also, I'm going to tell the clouds don't rain on it.
SPEAKER_00: The vineyard of Yahweh, verse 7 is the house.
SPEAKER_00: Of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There's no ambiguity about the interpretation of this parable.
SPEAKER_00: The vineyard is Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The men of Judah are his pleasant plants.
SPEAKER_00: But God looked for justice and found bloodshed.
SPEAKER_00: He looked for righteousness and behold, an outcry.
SPEAKER_00: And so verses 8, I won't take us through all this, but now is all the woes.
SPEAKER_00: Woe, woe, woe, woe, woe to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Israel's going to go down.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, he's going to send them into exile.
SPEAKER_00: Woe, verse 18, to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with a cart, you draw ropes, a cart with ropes.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to those, verse 20, who call good evil and evil good, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.
SPEAKER_00: God will destroy them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24, he's going to send fire and it's going to burn it down because it's a rotten, rotten vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going to happen to it.
SPEAKER_00: They are going to go down.
SPEAKER_00: You can turn back over to Matthew 21.
SPEAKER_00: So the image here is very clear.
SPEAKER_00: Israel is the vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: God wanted fruit from them, and God did not get fruit.
SPEAKER_00: If we spent more time in Isaiah, you would see who the servants are that God sends.
SPEAKER_00: But we know this.
SPEAKER_00: God sends servants to Israel to help them bring their fruit to harvest.
SPEAKER_00: The servants are, of course, the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: He sends prophet after prophet to them.
SPEAKER_00: But back in the parable, verse 34, the tenants were took the prophets and they beat them, they killed them, and they stoned them.
SPEAKER_00: And is that not exactly what happened to the prophets in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_00: When God looked for fruit in Israel, he didn't find it.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of fruit is God looking for, by the way?
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the Savior to go to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's how Israel starts in Deuteronomy 4.
SPEAKER_00: They're supposed to be exporting good news.
SPEAKER_00: They have the truth of the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: They should stand for righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: They should stand for justice, Isaiah 5 says.
SPEAKER_00: The nation should come to them and see how transformed their society is and long to meet their Savior.
SPEAKER_00: That's the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what's happening there.
SPEAKER_00: You've more likely to meet a God-fearing Gentile in the Old Testament than a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: And so God sends them prophets.
SPEAKER_00: The prophets expose Israel's sin, ask them why they're not producing fruit, confront them for their sin, and what do the Jewish leaders do to the prophets?
SPEAKER_00: They stone them, they abuse them, they throw them out of the vineyard, they kill them, they mocked and ridiculed Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: They threw Jeremiah into a pit and eventually ran him out.
SPEAKER_00: They betrayed Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah was sawn in too.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah was killed at the altar of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's no shortage to how the prophets were mistreated.
SPEAKER_00: To the point where Jesus says, You're calling me a prophet, is it possible for a prophet to die anywhere except in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: He's not making an exhaustive statement.
SPEAKER_00: He's just saying, that's what happens to prophets, is that the Jewish religious leaders kill them?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the question, the shocking twist in this parable earlier?
SPEAKER_00: Why would the vineyard owner keep sending servants when they keep getting killed?
SPEAKER_00: Is he crazy?
SPEAKER_00: But when you relate to Israel, what's the answer?
SPEAKER_00: Why did God keep sending them prophets?
SPEAKER_00: Because he loved them.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants them to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: He's patient towards them.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to come and burn the vineyard down.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to come and just slaughter the people that are there.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually showing them mercy by sending prophet after prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Now it does not feel that way to the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Ask Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah, do you see God's mercy all over your life?
SPEAKER_00: And Jeremiah says, no.
SPEAKER_00: I'd make a vow to stop speaking about God if I could.
SPEAKER_00: Except God, He puts His word in my bones like a fire, and I can't hold it in any longer, but I definitely don't see it as an act of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: But his ministry was an act of mercy to the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: But they didn't perceive it that way.
SPEAKER_00: So God keeps sending them prophets because he's patient.
SPEAKER_00: This is 2 Peter 3, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is patient towards you, not wishing that any of you should perish.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would they miss this?
SPEAKER_00: Why would the Sanhedrin miss this?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's so shocking to them.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see themselves in the story.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see themselves as the evil ones.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see themselves as the ones who killed the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see God as desiring the Gentiles to be saved as part of the problem.
SPEAKER_00: When the Sanhedrin looks at the story, they don't see the story and think, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Israel should have been bearing fruit and they haven't.
SPEAKER_00: They should have been drawing the Gentiles in and they weren't.
SPEAKER_00: They should have been guarding the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, to be the savior so the Gentiles could come and put their faith in him, but they weren't.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see that at all.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they don't view God's patience as a virtue.
SPEAKER_00: They're upset that the Romans are ruling over Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They're upset at that, and they want God to come now and kick the Romans out.
SPEAKER_00: That's the big thing on their priority chart.
SPEAKER_00: Why are the Romans here?
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of them.
SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin, they are the victims in this divine narrative in their own mind.
SPEAKER_00: They're more than likely, if they understood the vineyard story, which they didn't, but if they did, they would have probably seen themselves as the beat-up prophets, as the victims of the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's how blind they were to their sin.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't see themselves as the ones doing the evil deeds.
SPEAKER_00: They don't recognize anyone in the story at all.
SPEAKER_00: They don't recognize the vineyard owner as God because the vineyard owner is overly patient and they did not see God as that.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see the fruit as the good news going to the world.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see the fruit as a spiritual fruit of justice and mercy, as Isaiah 5 says, they don't see those things.
SPEAKER_00: So they definitely don't see themselves as evil.
SPEAKER_00: Least of all, you know who they absolutely do not recognize in this story at all is verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: The owner sends his son.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is VBS kindergarten level interpretation right here.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the son?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees did not grow up in Sunday school.
SPEAKER_00: And in Saturday school, that was not the right answer.
SPEAKER_00: They don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: The son of God is now in the vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: And the owner says, maybe they'll respect my son.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't respect the son.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus asks, What's going to happen?
SPEAKER_00: Of course the son is going to die.
SPEAKER_00: What's going to happen to the people who killed the son?
SPEAKER_00: Well, God will take their kingdom from them.
SPEAKER_00: This is David and Nathan's atahaish.
SPEAKER_00: That's you are the man, what Nathan tells David, you are the man, David.
SPEAKER_00: You did this.
SPEAKER_00: You are the villain in your own story, David.
SPEAKER_00: That's this moment right here.
SPEAKER_00: What should happen to them?
SPEAKER_00: They will become given over to a miserable death.
SPEAKER_00: Aha.
SPEAKER_00: The brilliance of Jesus and how he used the story is in the Pharisees' application of it.
SPEAKER_00: They condemn themselves and don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: They're so blind of this.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going to happen to the story.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to actually fulfill this is part parable and part prophecy, and they're going to fulfill the prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: That's how little they see of this.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says they're going to go and you're put to a miserable death.
SPEAKER_00: You know, to this day, what's behind all of this is that if you can get rid of God's claim on your life, then you are God.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's behind unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to believe the Bible because I can determine right from wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to let God tell me what to do because I am in charge of my life.
SPEAKER_00: So God sends you evangelists, he sends you people that point you to the gospel and you reject them and you reject them and you reject them.
SPEAKER_00: God sends his son to the world.
SPEAKER_00: If you reject his son, who's left to send?
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe the gospel, if you don't believe the Bible, if you don't believe God's son, then that means you are in charge and you get to be the king of your own vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: You've inherited it.
SPEAKER_00: You've lived for your own life, your whole life, and nobody has successfully laid a claim on your life.
SPEAKER_00: You've exiled God's word, you've exiled the evangelists, you've exiled God's son, so that means you're in charge of your life.
SPEAKER_00: The non-believer today acts out this parable in the very same way, does not see himself as the guilty party at all, but has the same motivation of the guilty party in the parable.
SPEAKER_00: If I can reject God and reject Jesus, then I am in charge of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's behind all of this.
SPEAKER_00: People are angry at God because they don't want authority on their life, and they think that if they can deny God, then they can be, they can have the vineyard of their life to themselves.
SPEAKER_00: You see this even with Israel today.
SPEAKER_00: Much of Israel rejects the idea of a messianic coming.
SPEAKER_00: They see the nation of Israel as the Messiah, the nation of Israel as the sent one, the nation of Israel as the fulfillment of the prophecies.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they are the end of their own religion.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not how God sees it.
SPEAKER_00: God sent them prophets, God sent his son, all of them rejected.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus responds in verse 42 with just an incredible line.
SPEAKER_00: Have you never read in the scriptures that the stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone?
SPEAKER_00: This was the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Have you never read?
SPEAKER_00: He's quoting Psalm 118.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of the Halail.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of the songs that they sing in Passover week.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you go down a few verses in that psalm, what they sang to Jesus when he entered on Palm Sunday is from this song.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 118.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: It's Hosanna.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They were just singing this song.
SPEAKER_00: They have it memorized.
SPEAKER_00: Singing this week, and Jesus asked them, Have you never even read it?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, nice melody.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what the words mean?
SPEAKER_00: You're all singing in the same unison.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what it means?
SPEAKER_00: People that say Jesus was never sarcastic.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what they do with verse 42.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what happens in Psalm 118?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the cornerstone, it's the cornerstone of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Massive, massive cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: You have to get the cornerstone right.
SPEAKER_00: When you build with stones, the stones have to be flat one on top of each other.
SPEAKER_00: The most significant stone is the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: If any of its sides are off, then the temple, if you're building a big building and the cornerstone is a skew even slightly, or not level slightly, then the whole wall will fall in.
SPEAKER_00: So you start with the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: In a house it's important, but more so in a temple.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to Israel today, you can go down the tunnels on the west side of the temple wall, the tunnels underground where the old city is built over it, and you can you come across the tunnel goes around a cornerstone that the builders rejected.
SPEAKER_00: There's an actual cornerstone there.
SPEAKER_00: It was hauled there at great expense.
SPEAKER_00: Not easy to move those things around, and it wasn't quite right.
SPEAKER_00: It's been rejected, and it was just left there.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with the rejected cornerstone?
SPEAKER_00: You can't then haul it away.
SPEAKER_00: It's just way too much work.
SPEAKER_00: So it just gets discarded, and the temple gets built around this rejected cornerstone, and now the wall kind of the tunnel even itself goes around it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the prophecy is about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're gonna do with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is the cornerstone, the builders of the temple, and the builders are those who occupy the temple, obviously the Sanhedrin, they're the ones that are occupying the temple.
SPEAKER_00: They're rejecting the one that should have been the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what happens with that rejected stone?
SPEAKER_00: The God is going to build his own temple on it.
SPEAKER_00: And this is marvelous.
SPEAKER_00: Marvelous in our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: For those who believe it, it's incredible that God sent the one to be the cornerstone of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: It's rejected by the temple builders.
SPEAKER_00: It's the sun who's abused.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the parable, the sun is thrown out of the vineyard first before he's killed.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever that cornerstone lands, God's going to build his new temple right on top of that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 44, we'll get back to verse 43, but look at verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: The one who falls on the stone will be broken into pieces.
SPEAKER_00: And when it falls on him, it will crush him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how does that even work conceptually?
SPEAKER_00: How do you fall on a cornerstone?
SPEAKER_00: A cornerstone is huge.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's bigger than that screen right there.
SPEAKER_00: How do you fall on that?
SPEAKER_00: You don't fall on that.
SPEAKER_00: You walk into it, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even step your toe on it.
SPEAKER_00: It's massive.
SPEAKER_00: But the what Jesus says, if you fall on it, you will be broken into pieces.
SPEAKER_00: More than likely, it would crush you.
SPEAKER_00: If that thing moves, it would crush you.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the stone is not movable, and you harm yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You will be shattered if you reject that cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 43, Jesus says, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you.
SPEAKER_00: And given to a people producing its fruits.
SPEAKER_00: Who's he speaking to?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: Your kingdom, your vineyard, Israel, the religious leadership of Israel will be taken away from the Sanhedrin.
SPEAKER_00: You lose it because of your connection to all of those who killed the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: You identify with those who killed the prophets, you are killing the Son of God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so the religious leadership in Israel is being stripped from you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to be given to a different group of people that will actually produce its fruits as you yourselves confessed earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Israel's leaders will be cast aside.
SPEAKER_00: And a new people will be built in.
SPEAKER_00: Who's that new people?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's a group of people that are hearing the parable also and are starting to connect the dots and probably looking at each other somewhat nervously.
SPEAKER_00: The twelve apostles are here.
SPEAKER_00: That's who the authority is going to go to.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is stripping away the leadership of Israel from the false religious system that built the temple, from the false religious system that taxed people for their sacrifices, from the false religious system that would take money from widows and orphans.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that right before this.
SPEAKER_00: He walks in the temple and says, this thing is going down.
SPEAKER_00: He watches the woman put her last penny in this works righteousness system.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, it's going to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of these bricks is going to come down from each other because of how awful this is.
SPEAKER_00: That's what will happen.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to transfer from these religious leaders to the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And they have a new message, and they will produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: These apostles were not the religious leaders of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, they were from Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the problem with John the Baptist, why the Pharisees and Sanhedrin couldn't get a hold of him?
SPEAKER_00: Because he was up in Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: He's out at the Jordan River, and then he went up towards Tiberias.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is from Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: The apostles were, except for Judas.
SPEAKER_00: The other eleven were from Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: They're fishermen.
SPEAKER_00: Half of them were fishermen.
SPEAKER_00: Throw in a zealot and a Roman tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: That's the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: These people were not educated.
SPEAKER_00: They were not refined.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have teaching from some elevated rabbi.
SPEAKER_00: They had teaching from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus can look at Peter and tell him, I will build, you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Jesus is the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: It's the confession of Christ as the Lord, and Peter's preaching of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so you get to the book of Acts, and what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Peter's preaching of the gospel launches the church.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's sermon in Acts 2 leads to Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit comes, the churches launch, the apostles scatter, somewhat reluctantly at first, but eventually jet propelled into the world, and they're preaching the gospel around the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the story ends.
SPEAKER_00: We gather together on Sunday, not to study the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin and the different elevated rabbis in Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: We gather around the Word of God on Sunday to study the teaching of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: John and his books in the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew, one of the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: That's who we're studying this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're not studying what the Sanhedrin said about Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: We're studying Matthew's own words.
SPEAKER_00: The leadership of Israel is stripped from them.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah leads to Jesus, leads to the apostles, builds the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's not a coincidence, the church becomes predominantly Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that he casts off Jews in favor of Gentiles, because the church is both Jew and Gentile together, with Jews being the original apostles of the church.
SPEAKER_00: But the whole point is that the new vineyard would grow fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We would produce the fruit of the Spirit, and some of the fruit the vineyard would grow, is the good news going to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Flip over to Romans chapter 11, and we will close there.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 11.
SPEAKER_00: Write a few books down to verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 11, Paul says, if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, speaking of the Romans, were grafted in among the others, you now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree.
SPEAKER_00: So the branches of the Sadducees, the branches of the Pharisees, the branches of the Sanhedrin, broken off of the tree.
SPEAKER_00: The good root of the tree, the Old Testament prophets, the messengers, the servants that were sent to the vineyard, the ones who were killed, that's who we're grafted into.
SPEAKER_00: So Gentile believers in Rome, Gentile believers in Washington, D.C., we are grafted in to the root, the tree of the prophets of the Old Testament, that the religious leaders of Israel persecuted and killed.
SPEAKER_00: What should our response be to that?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, don't be arrogant towards the branches.
SPEAKER_00: If you are, remember it's not you who support the root, the root that supports you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be arrogant towards Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be arrogant towards Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: Because the real history of Judaism leads to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It supports us.
SPEAKER_00: You'll say verse 19, branches are broken off, so I might be grafted in, and that's true.
SPEAKER_00: But the branches are broken off because of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: We stand fast through faith.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God choose the church?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it's very simple.
SPEAKER_00: God chose the church to create a body of people that would have a sense of urgency in the world, bringing the gospel to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: That would have lives that have the spiritual fruit in it, the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God built the church.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God chose the church.
SPEAKER_00: So ask yourself this.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very simple application.
SPEAKER_00: Are you producing the fruit of the Spirit in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is the Holy Spirit at work in your life producing his fruit?
SPEAKER_00: And are you taking the gospel to the world in your own life?
SPEAKER_00: Because if the answer to that is no.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a sense of urgency with evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: I don't do you think God won't break you off?
SPEAKER_00: How do you what are you picturing happening?
SPEAKER_00: If you're not seeing your life transformed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ, what do you think will happen?
SPEAKER_00: Are you standing in your arrogance?
SPEAKER_00: Because if he broke off the natural branches, how much patience do you think you will have towards those that we're grafted in?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful that in your kindness and mercy, you have given us light and given us life.
SPEAKER_00: That our light should shine into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so I pray for boldness this week as we go into the world preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for courage this week to stand in the face of a society that doesn't want anybody to stand.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for humility as we share the gospel with others.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for your patience towards us.
SPEAKER_00: It was your patience that led us to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that we would have that same patience for others, but give us a holy urgency.
SPEAKER_00: A holy urgency as we bring your gospel to the world.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in the name of Christ.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining Emmanuel Bible Church today through this resource.
SPEAKER_00: It's my prayer that if you live in the DC area, I'll be able to meet you on some Sunday at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, you can go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: Or for information on the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource helps you seek God through Jesus Christ, serve the Lord with joy, and share him with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.