Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Megan and I have always viewed our home as a tool for ministry.

So, when I was a youth pastor, it was a very common occurrence for us to have teenagers in our home for small groups or events or whatever.

Well, several years ago, after having teenagers in our home, I noticed that one of them started using a cell phone that looked a lot like an extra cell phone that Megan and I had.

It was a phone that we kept on standby in case one of ours stopped working.

So, I went home and checked, and sure enough, it was gone.

So, the next time that I saw this particular student at church, I was like, “Hey, that’s a nice looking phone you’ve got there!”

And, you can imagine how red and guilty he looked.

Quickly, he confessed to taking it, and he didn’t think that we would miss it or even notice that it was gone, since we had new phones.

But, here’s what I remember thinking and saying to him: “Man, why didn’t you just come to me?

I would’ve given it to you!

It would’ve given me joy and you joy, and you wouldn’t have felt guilty, and I wouldn’t have felt hurt.”

This morning, Jesus is going to tell a parable that’s a lot like that.

He’s going to tell a parable about a group of wicked tenants who are keeping a vineyard for their master who attempt to steal an inheritance that would have been given to them.

Turn with me to .

God’s Word

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Parable Number Two

Now, it’s important for us to remember where we are.

It’s still the Tuesday before Jesus’ Friday crucifixion.

Jesus has been teaching in the outer court of the Temple complex when He is confronted by the leaders of the Temple because of the things He’s done and the things He’s teaching.

They are filled with a murderous indignation against him, and they want their Jesus problem resolved sooner rather than later.

So, they’ve confronted Jesus and asked him, “Who do you think you are?” And, He’s telling them in great detail by telling them three successive parables.

We’re in the second of those parables this morning, as Jesus continues to reveal to these authorities more and more about who

The Longsuffering Master

The Longsuffering Master

“There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard” So, Jesus tells us a parable using rich OT language about a master that plants a vineyard.

I say rich OT language because this very closely parallels a a prophecy in , and so from that we can be confident that Jesus intends for us to understand here that the vineyard He’s referring to is Israel, the tenants are their leaders, and the Master is God.

The picture that He paints is of a very wealthy master.

He was so wealthy that he was able to fully plant and outfit a vineyard at one time, fronting all of the money.

It would typically take somewhere around four years for a new vineyard to become profitable, but this is no concern for a master as wealthy as he is.

He makes sure that they have absolutely everything that they need.

They’re protected with a fence and tower.

They have a brand new winepress ready to go.

Everything at the vineyard is state-of-the-art and ready to go.

It is the master’s full expectation that the vineyard will be fruitful.

He has given them every resource and every ability necessary.

He has done all of the painstaking work of preparation.

He has provided the funds.

He has made the sacrifices.

And so, he hands it over to his tenants with the full expectation that he will return in a few years to receive part of the fruit back as what He is due for all of his kindness and diligence.

So, at the appropriate time, the master sends his servants to collect what he is due, but the tenants ‘beat one, kill one, and stone another.’

Now, at this time in the Roman empire, it was actually common place that if you had tenants on your land that refused to pay what they owed, they you could actually hire ‘help’ to make your problems ‘disappear.’

But, this landowner, this master doesn’t do that, does he?

No!

He sends another groups of servants, even more than the first to collect from these tenants the fruit that He is rightly owed.

And, the same exact thing happens again.

And again, he doesn’t evict them and he doesn’t have them Al Picino’d.

He reasons with himself.

“They know how good that I’ve been to them.

They know that I have provided for them and resourced them.

They know that I am a mighty man worthy of much respect.

So, I will send my son, and they will respect him and give him what they rightly owe me.”

But, these men instead reveal just how wretched their hearts really are.

Rather than respecting the owners son, they suppose that the master must’ve sent his son because he was afraid or because he was sick or because he was dead, and so they take the son outside of his father’s own vineyard and they murder him, even though his father had spared their lives when he had the right to kill them, because they wanted to steal from him his inheritance.

God is Not a Mobster

Do you see the picture that Jesus is painting here?

He’s looking at these leaders, and He’s saying: “Stop spitting in the face of such a kind and loving God!” For centuries, the leaders of Israel were constantly leading Israel astray.

They were leading Israel toward unfaithfulness.

God had handed over to them such a beautiful vineyard, and He had said, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.

Keep my commands, and it will go well for you.

You will reap where you did not sow.

You will always have my protection and my power and my provision.”

But, they were not fruitful.

They were not obedient.

They led them astray.

They led them to worship false gods and to corrupt even the worship of the true God.

And, so God would send to them his servants, the prophets.

And, they would preach God’s word to the priests and to the kings and to the people.

Repent!

Turn back to God! Turn away from your false gods!

Turn away from your self-centeredness!

Turn away and produce the fruit of godliness!”

But, the kings and priests would take prophets like Zechariah into the very Temple where Jesus was now teaching and they would stone him.

Jeremiah would be put into stocks.

Elijah chased for his life right after the mass execution of the other prophets of Israel.

John the Baptist has just been beheaded.

God should have removed them.

God should have killed them.

They broke the covenant.

They were unfaithful to him.

But, again and again, He would send him servants, and again and again, they would turn them away.

And now, finally, God in his great mercy and kindness has sent his very own Son, and what are they to do, they are even as He tells this very parable plotting how they will take him outside the city to murder him on a cursed tree.

APPLICATION: If you talk to enough people about Jesus, you’re going to come upon the person or the professor or the friend, that tries to paint the picture of the OT God as though He is a mobster of heaven inciting wars and conflict and wrath and hatred.

But, brothers and sisters, let me tell you, God is not a mobster; He is a longsuffering master!

He should’ve wiped this planet clean long ago in light of our cosmic betrayal, but instead He has sent us his Son so that we might know his kindness even light of our persistent wickedness.

To believe that the God of the OT is an angry mob boss always trying to get even is fundamentally misunderstand how impossibly uneven we are.

He should have killed us, but He sent the prophets.

He should have condemned us, but He sent us his Son! God’s patience is historically documented and personally offered to you.

Wretched Tenants Facing a Wretched End

“what will he do to those tenants?”

So, Jesus looks at the very leaders that He’s talking about, and He asks them: “What do you think will become of those wretched tenants?”

And, the priests and Pharisees answer him: “They will receive a death that is just as wretched as they are.”

What was clear to all who heard the story that day was that a day of reckoning was coming.

A day was coming in which these tenants who had so abused the kindness and grace and patience of their master would have to answer to him, and they would have to answer severely.

You see, these tenants bore fruit, but it was a wretched fruit.

They received their master’s kindness and repaid him with wickedness.

They received his provision, but repaid him by rejecting his servants.

The received his resources, but repaid him by murdering his son all while attempting to keep for themselves to enjoy his benefits.

APPLICATION: Today, there are a lot of people as I mentioned earlier, who want to dismiss God as being this angry mobster of the OT, but there are just as many who seem to want to invent a new Jesus that will let them enjoy all of the benefits of God’s kingdom apart from any actual obedience in the kingdom.