Transcript

Let's pray and begin.

Lord, thank You for Your presence with us this morning. In the name of Jesus Christ, we approach You with boldness and confidence. Thank You that You welcome us. You welcome everyone who is repentant of heart. So we come to You with humility, yielded to You, ready to hear from You, and ready to answer “yes” to whatever You have to say. We are Your creatures. We are Your servants, and we pray that You would speak to us now. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The next passage to be read is Matthew 21:28-46, a bit of a lengthier passage. The main idea of this passage is to repent. It's really as simple as that, just one word: Repent. The key verse is found in verse 43. There Jesus says, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it.” The word “repent” isn't there, but of course, Jesus' message has already been described in terms of repentance upfront in the gospel; and when Jesus here talks about producing the fruit of God's kingdom, He is talking about true repentance. What we have in this section are three stories. The first one is a discussion between Jesus and the religious leaders about His authority. The second is a story that Jesus told about two sons. Then the third was another story Jesus told about a vineyard owner. The point of those two stories (or parables) was that people must repent to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Let’s begin with that first section on authority. The scene is the temple. Once again, Jesus is there. It's another day of that final week of Jesus' life on earth. There at the temple, He has an encounter with the religious leaders, namely, the chief priests and the elders of the people. They have a question for Him. They approach Him and they ask, “By what authority are You doing these things?” Of course, Jesus had just done many things, not the least of which was clearing the temple. But He had also healed and received praise from the children as well as from the throng that accompanied Him into the temple. Well, Jesus' response to this question is quite interestingly another question. He did this to expose their wicked intent in their question. He turned the tables around to show them that He was fully aware of their desire to trap Him in what He said. What underlies this conversation is the fact that Jesus' authority comes from heaven. Jesus' authority is from God. The same way John the Baptist’s authority comes from heaven, so is Jesus' authority.

The real problem that is underscored is the unbelief of the Jews. They did not believe John. And in the same way, they also did not believe Him. But the underlying point that undergirds all of this is that Jesus' authority is from God, but the Jews did not believe Him so as to repent. To make this point even more forthright, Jesus just told them a story, a parable, namely, the parable of the two sons.

Jesus begins by speaking of a man who had two sons. This man told the first son, “Go work today in the vineyard.” And the son answered in the negative, “I will not.” But then later on, the son felt bad about this and went to the vineyard, and he worked as his father told him. The father also said to the second son the same thing. This second son answered in the affirmative, yet he never went to the vineyard and worked. At the end of this short story, Jesus asks, “Which of the two sons did the will of his father?” He poses this question to the religious leaders. They answered, “the first one.” This was right, and Jesus explains the point of this story. He tells those religious leaders, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.” Those are some shocking words to very self-righteous people. Jesus goes on in verse 32, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” That last remark about believing John describes repentance, because repentance was John’s message. And same was Jesus' message. What our Lord shows is that the Jews were just like the second son, who on the surface gave lip service to God that they were submitted under His authority, but they never did accept His authority. When God sent John the Baptist, they refused him. When God sent His only begotten Son, they refused Him also. Jesus tells this story to show them that true faith is an active faith. I suppose we can use the common English expression, “actions speak louder than words.” This is true of faith. What you do demonstrates whether you believe.

Now, Jesus also was aware that the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him. Even in the Gospel of Matthew, we saw this back in Matthew 12. In the Gospel of John, we see this numerous times: in chapter 5, chapter 7, chapter 10, and so on. Knowing this, Jesus then told them another parable to expose their true spiritual condition that they were actually antagonistic toward God. Their refusal to accept God's authority was not neutrality but actually hostility toward God. Jesus tells this third story of the vineyard owner to make this point. That story goes like this: first, the setting is described. Jesus explains that there was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. So here's a man. He owns a plot of land. He plants a vineyard; he protects the land from intruders and animals with walls, and puts in a wine press to already set in motion what he's going to do with the grapes; and he built a tower, probably a watchtower, to make sure that no one was going to invade his vineyard and rob him. Finally, he finds laborers, namely, vine growers, to work his well-constructed vineyard. He then goes on a journey. And then comes the twist. The owner, he sent his slaves to his vineyard during the harvest time to receive his payment, to receive his portion of the produce. The vine growers responded with something totally unexpected. They rejected the owner’s request. They beat one slave, killed another, and stoned the third. This is shocking. This wasn't even their land. They were just hirelings keeping up someone else’s vineyard. The owner then gave them another chance. He sent them another group of slaves, a larger group of them. The vine growers did the same thing to these slaves as well. Now, at this juncture, you would imagine the owner would send law enforcement or a small militia to deal with these thugs. But instead he wants to give them another chance. As his third attempt, he sends his son to the workers, expecting them to have the decency to respect his son. But these wicked laborers did the unthinkable. When they saw the son, they said to themselves, “This man is the heir to the landowner. Let us kill him and seize his inheritance.” And they take the son, throw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. This is the last straw. There's going to be a just recompense. And Jesus didn’t have to finish the story. Instead, He asked a question to the religious leaders. He said, “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” Jesus knows the religious leaders are absorbed in this story and He wants them to declare the sentence to show them what they actually were in the sight of God. He wanted them to hear their own self-condemnation from their own mouths. The religious leaders answered, “the landowner will bring those wretches, those wretched slaves, to a wretched end.” He's going to destroy them. Moreover, “he will rent out the vineyard to other vine growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” This was the right answer. Then Jesus shows them the import of the story. He said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures (then He quotes from Psalm 118), ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” The point of the psalm is that the Jews will do the unthinkable thing. They will reject the Messiah. This is described with the most outrageous illustration. The builders in a construction project would actually throw out the most important part of their construction, that they would throw out the chief cornerstone. In ancient building architecture, that was the most important part of the foundation of a building, the most crucial part that aligns the rest of the building. This is what the Jews would do, according to Psalm 118. God always knew that the Jews would reject the Messiah, their own Savior. They will actually do the unthinkable evil against the Savior. They will murder Him. Then Jesus goes on to make an additional remark that piggybacks off what the religious leaders said. The landowner will not only dish out just recompense, but he will then rent out the vineyard to someone else. Analogous to that, the kingdom of God will be taken away from the Jewish people and be given to others (Gentiles) who will believe and repent. Jesus declares, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.” The Jews will forfeit this right to the kingdom for a time. I say for a time, because God will keep His covenant with Abraham—God always keeps His promises—and so there will come a time when the Jews will repent and God will restore the kingdom to them. But until then, the kingdom of God will be taken away from them and given to another people who will produce the food of that kingdom. What is that fruit? The fruit of faith and repentance. It is what people are to do when they are confronted with the reality of their creator God. They are to repent, submit themselves under His authority. Jesus shows that it is those who are truly repentant who submit under God's authority who possess the kingdom of God. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these words, they knew that Jesus had spoken against them. And so they were enraged. They sought to seize Him. But they couldn't, because the people loved Jesus and they considered Him to be a prophet. Eventually they will, in God's own time.

Well, there's a great deal of application here. God wants us to honor Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Lord, the Messiah. He wants all who hear His voice to repent and submit to Jesus as the Lord. You see that is the resounding call of Scripture, that all those who had rejected God would now turn back to Him and recognize that He alone is the Lawgiver and Judge, that He is the supreme authority over all things. Jesus explains here is that the Kingdom of God will be given to a people like this which actually responds with faith and repentance.

Well, what can we pray about in light of all of these things? Recognize Jesus' divine authority. And if in your heart you truly believe that, and I trust that you do, then this is the time to tell that to the Lord. So tell Him, “Jesus, You are God. You came from heaven. And I do not wish to rebel against You. Every word You say is the truth. And I am committed to keeping Your word. Grant to me every grace and every help to not forget Your word but to deeply think about what it means in my life and faithfully live by it. I ask for Your Spirit's help.” In many ways, this isn't new, but Jesus brings the reality of these matters to surface once again, because this is the heart of the gospel, that Jesus is the Lord, and we must embrace Him for who He is and honor Him. I trust that God is continuing to give you a greater understanding of these things so that you would truly honor Jesus Christ the Lord and earnestly live your life for Him and according to His word. Let's pray we'll wrap up.

Our Lord, thank You for these precious words. They were spoken to those who were hostile to You, but they were ultimately spoken for our good, that we would not be hostile to God, but that we would instead surrender to You. We want to honor You. But we need wisdom to not do the foolish thing, to hear these words and then go on through the rest of our day, giving no further thought or attention to who You are. Keep us from all such foolishness. I pray that instead this day, our minds and our hearts will turn again and again to this reality so that we would truly honor You for who You are. Thank You for giving these words for our good, so that we would wise up and submit ourselves under Your supreme authority. Thank You that You went to the cross to pay for the sins of all who believe and repent. Thank You that there is a pathway to true forgiveness and new life to all those who repent. In Your name we pray. Amen.

That's it for today. May the Lord bless you and keep you this day. Goodbye.