Sermon Tone Analysis

We Believe in God’s Grace

We believe that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed upon all people, enabling all who will to turn from sin to righteousness, believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin, and follow good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight.

We also believe that the human race’s creation in Godlikeness included the ability to choose between right and wrong, and that thus human beings were made morally responsible;

that through the fall of Adam they became depraved so that they cannot now turn and prepare themselves by their own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God.

A Dark Place to Start

I realize that most of my messages start with a disclaimer… At this point, it is probably not surprising,

but just so we’re clear, we going to start today from a pretty dark place.

Some of you were probably expecting something a little more snappy to start off a message about grace…

maybe some sunshine, rainbows, kids playing...

Well, that’s not the place Jesus was in at this point in his ministry.

In fact, right before the parable we’re going to look at today, we read in Mark’s Gospel about a pretty emotional day in Jesus life.

Let me set this up for you...

See, Mark really likes sandwiches…

Story sandwiches.

It is a tool he uses in a number of places to link things together that might not otherwise be related.

This parable we’re about to look at was probably told on a Tuesday afternoon.

Just a couple of days after a big parade.

A parade where people praised Jesus as a conquering hero.

But he didn’t conquer… at least not on THAT particular Sunday.

Instead, he rolled up to the temple, looked around a bit, and then headed to Bethany,

probably to Lazarus, Martha, and Mary’s house for the night.

Back to the story sandwich… Monday morning, Jesus and the disciples head back up to Jerusalem.

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And we say UP, not because they were headed north, as we typically do today, but because Jerusalem is up the mountain from basically all the places around it.

If we look at this image of the destruction of Jerusalem, we can get an idea of the terrain.

When your parents tell you about how they used to walk to school, uphill, both ways… there’s a chance that story started in Jerusalem.

But I digress...

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Back to Monday morning… and it really must be a case of the Mondays, because on the way up to Jerusalem, Jesus sees a fig tree.

Hoping to find some figs (but knowing better, because figs weren’t in season) he walks up, doesn’t find any, and flat our curses the fig tree!

Not exactly a WWJD moment, eh?

But wait, he’s not done yet...

From there, he heads back to the temple and starts flipping tables.

We’re on a roller coaster here.

The next day, they’re walking back up to Jerusalem from the ‘burbs, and Peter sees the fig tree from the day before… withered and dead.

The point Mark is making, if you haven’t figured it out, is that Jesus didn’t just curse the fig tree yesterday, he also cursed the temple.

What happens now?

Well this doesn’t, yet.

But it will, in around 70 AD.

For now, Tuesday seems to be a little bit more chill… and that’s where our story picks up.

So yeah, we’re in a dark place in the story.

We’re in the week leading up to Jesus crucifixion.

And what we’ll see as we talk about this today, is that sometimes it takes darkness for us to be able to see the grace.

Think about Joseph’s story in Genesis… spoiled little kid probably wouldn’t have known grace if it jumped up and bit him.

Of course that was before he found himself at the bottom of a cistern,

or sold into slavery

Or in prison for something he didn’t do.

He was powerless to overcome these challenges on his own.

From this side of the cross, we can look at this parable differently.

So let’s unpack it together and I think we’ll start to see God’s grace unveiled.

I’ve been using the general term grace so far this morning, but what we’re really talking about with this article of faith is what we call

Prevenient Grace

grace that goes before

Grace which William Barclay tells us is evidence of the generosity of God..

Think about the imagery of a vineyard.

The owner who built it provides everything needed to make good wine.

The owner then turns it over to temporary stewards to mange the vineyard, and produce good fruit.

All the owner expects in return is that the tenants work faithfully to produce good fruit, and that a portion of it be returned.

It is not a stretch for us to bring garden imagery into this parable.

It is not hard to already see where this is going.

Our article of faith tells us:

“through the fall of Adam they became depraved so that they cannot now turn and prepare themselves by their own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God.”

Despite being given all the best things and the perfect environment for bearing good fruit, humanity fails when we try to do it in our own strength.

Have you felt like that?

Like you’ve been had opportunities before you and in your own power you dropped the ball, or missed the mark, or strayed off course?

You’re not alone.

I have.

At some point, we have, or we will.

We fail because we continually try to do it in our own strength.

The psalmist writes:

Yet God extends grace.

Because it is not God’s plan that we stay in our sin.

We learned last week from Pastor Des that the atonement - brought about by Jesus death and resurrection - means that this gift of grace is free for everyone.

Did you hear that?

Grace is a gift.

For everyone.

Freely bestowed upon all people.

Dr. David Busic, one of the Church of the Nazarene’s General Superintendents writes:

“No person is a stranger to God’s grace, and everyone is the object of the Spirit’s wooing… while not irresistible, no person is left without the offer of restorative grace.”

We cannot earn grace.

We don’t deserve it.

Nothing we do will ever change that fact.

Yet, grace is present.

It has been from the beginning of the world, going before us and

working behind the scenes...

grace that works behind the scenes

Grace goes before us and works behind the scenes in our lives because God is trusting.

The owner of the vineyard generously provided everything needed to bear good fruit, then went on a journey.

In the garden, God left Adam and Eve to their own devices with minimal instructions.

In our lives, God trusts us.

The silence we may sometimes feel from God is just that - trust in our faith and decision making working together for the best outcome.

Our article of faith affirms this:

“We also believe that the human race’s creation in Godlikeness included the ability to choose between right and wrong, and that thus human beings were made morally responsible; “

God knows how we were made.

God was there!

When God isn’t silent, that’s when we need to listen.

Just as God trusts us, we also need to trust God.

Sometimes, in the behind the scenes work of grace, God uses others to speak into our lives, or other means to disrupt our plans that don’t coincide with God’s will for us.

In the parable we hear of slaves and servants coming to the vineyard to collect.

To the hearers of this parable on that Tuesday in the temple courts, they were already making connections.

Isaiah chapter 5 tells a similar story.

Isaiah’s vineyard only produced bad fruit.