Sermon Tone Analysis

A few years ago, a family living in a beautiful home in West Palm Beach, Florida, told a film crew that it was okay to use the front lawn as a set for filming an episode of a TV show.

They knew that cars would be crashing violently in front of the house.

While the front yard was being destroyed, the owner of the home was tipped off and called from New York, demanding to know what was happening to his house.

It seems that the people living in the house were only tenants who had no right to allow the property to be destroyed while the cameras rolled.

Some awful mistakes can happen when those who are tenants begin acting as if they were owners.

The more valuable the prop- erty they occupy, the more responsibility they have to treat it carefully.

Can you imagine tenants in a beautiful mansion who refuse to pay rent and who threaten or beat up those whom the owner sends to collect rent?

They argue, “We live here; it’s our house now.”

No one making that claim would stand a chance in a court of law.

The owner has the right to receive rent and to have his property treated rightly.

To follow up the challenge of the Jewish leaders to Jesus about the source of His authority, He tells a parable about some wicked tenants of a vineyard, who had wrongfully assumed owner- ship of that which was not their own.

It is one of only three par- ables that occur in all three synoptic gospels (the sower and the mustard seed are the other two).

The parable answers the question that the leaders had just asked Jesus: “By what authority are you doing these things?”

If God owns the vineyard and Jesus is the Son and rightful heir to it, then He is acting under God’s authority.

The Jewish leaders have wrongfully usurped the authority of God, the rightful owner.

Thus the fundamental question that not only these Jewish leaders, but also all who hear the parable, need to answer is, “Who owns the vineyard?”

Keeping in mind the answer to that question will determine how we live and respond to God.

Before we read the passage I want to walk you through the cast of the story:

The Owner of the Vineyard = God

The Vineyard = The Place of Blessing and Promise

(Not just Israel BUT the Place where God has chosen to place His people and entrust them with HIs promise and blessing)

The Tenants - Israel and the religious leaders

The Servants = The Prophets

The Son/The Heir of the Owner = Jesus

Main Point of Text = Since God owns the Vineyard, we must live accountably to Him

2 thoughts characterize this parable:

1.RESPONSE

2.REJECTION

This parable is intended to:

1.ENCOURAGE

Don’t take God’s Spoken/Written word for granted

Dont take it lightly

Dont give up in opposition be faithful to owner

2.WARN

Dont harden heart

Dont take God’s mercy lightly

PARABLE one of only three recorded in all three synoptics

Sower and Seed and Mustard seed other two

This Allegory made sense to the people - Absentee Landlord was common

The hearers made sense of it loud and clear - v:19

IN This passage we see:

Our Sin

Listeners (Rel.

Leaders) didn't feel they were rejecting God or Word

Yet within a day or two their plot would come into fruition

Do we understand the stat of our own hearts ?

Remember the passage on Christ’s authority …

Our sin is at it’s heart a rejection of the Authority of God

You don’t have Christ when you reject the authority of the Scriptures (As did the tenants)

Christ and the Scriptures speak the same language

Cannot Reject the scriptures without rejecting Christ

The AUTHORITY of Christ is Expressed in His WORD

And what His word Says HE SAYS

To Reject One is to Reject the Other

JC Ryle in Commentary on Luke says … in our hearts … “If we could pull down God from His Throne, we would!”

That’s the nature of our sin … to reject the authority of God.

Will you embrace it?

Our God

Here we see God’s patience … long suffering … forbearance

Pictured in Landlord - Some would say He is naive

ANE landowners often sent their thugs to receive rent

This landlord patiently sends servants

Then finally Sends his Beloved Son … the heir

Jesus is telling you something about the kindness, the patience, the forbearance, the forgiveness of this loving heavenly Father who is the owner of the vineyard, the owner of the land, the only one who has the right to bestow its inheritance.

And why is He telling you that?

Because if you have ever or if you do ever come to really realize what your sin is and what it deserves, the last thing that is natural in the world is to want to run to God in that moment, because for the first time you've realized what you are and what you deserve and your temptation, when you think about being in the presence of an all-seeing, all-knowing, holy, heavenly Father, is to run.

And Jesus is showing you the kindness, the patience, the forbearance, the forgiveness of God in this passage to encourage you to run to Him when you realize who you are and what you've done and what you deserve.

He's showing you God's patience.

He's showing you what your God is like.

The Certainty of Final Judgement

So we see our sin in this passage and we see God's patience in this passage, but we also see certain judgment in this passage.

Jesus, if you look down at verse 15, after the son is thrown out of the vineyard and killed, asks the question, “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?”

And the answer He gives is, “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

Do we understand the certain judgment that Jesus is teaching about?

Do we understand that the judgment of God comes on those who reject the Lord and who reject the Gospel?

You know there are many, many people today, even in Christian pulpits, who want to assure you that that is not the case, that all will be well.

“Peace, peace,” they say.

“No one will fall under final judgment.”

But Jesus says that judgment is certain.

Now I ask you a question.

Who are you going to believe?

Are you going to believe Jesus or anyone who dares to contradict Him?

Jesus, in His love — notice what He is doing.

He is lifting up the veil of the future and He is saying to you, “I want you to see what is going to happen to all those who reject Me and who reject the Gospel.”

He does this because He loves us.

He shows us what is coming because He knows it is easy to look at this life and think, “I'm going to get by with my sin.

I'm going to prosper in my sin.

I'm going to be happy in my sin.

There are going to be no eternal consequences for my sin.”

And so He lifts up the veil of the future and He says, “I want to show you what is going to happen to all who reject Me.”

And He does this because of His love and because of His kindness.

It is Satan who wants us to be blind to the future consequences of sin and to the certain final judgment of God against all who reject Him.

Satan wants us to be blind, so when you hear someone or read someone assuring you that there will be no final consequences for the rejection of God, for the rejection of Christ, for the rejection of the Word of God, for the rejection of the Gospel, you may always be assured that that tongue speaks with a forked tongue.

Satan does not want you to see the future certain final judgment.

Jesus, who loves you, does want you to see it and He speaks this truth so that we might see that certain judgment and repent of our sins.

The Certainty of Final Victory

But fourth and finally I want you to see the kingdom victory here.

At the end of the story, notice first in verse 16 and then in verse 18 that Jesus indicates that the kingdom is going to prevail no matter what these wicked tenants do.

If the wicked tenants have rejected the servants and the son, then the field will be taken away from them and it will be given to others.

And then we're told in a verse that alludes not only to but to and , “everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”