Sermon Tone Analysis

Rejection is a very common aspect of life.

So common, that we might not even give thought to it.

On the playground at school when students are picking teams to play against one another there are often children who are rejected because of a lack of proficiency in the activity being played.

In school it used to be that a student’s work was often rejected by the teacher as being inadequate.

This was a teaching moment regarding the quality of ones work.

Years ago, when we lived in Auburn Hills, my father-in-law and I went to Home Depot to purchase lumber for a building project in our house.

We looked carefully over the 2x4’s and rejected those which were warped or so knotted as to cause a problem.

When we lived in Maine, our son, Caleb, would often work Potato Harvest.

One of his jobs was to look over the potatoes that were harvested and separate the good quality potatoes from the rejects.

All of this is to say that rejection is a common part of everyday life.

Please turn with me to , as we continue in our series titled THE FINAL WEEK — One Very Long Day!

This passage is about a double rejection.

Because the religious leadership of Israel rejected the prophets, and the Cornerstone, God rejected them as leaders of His people, and replaced them with leaders who bore fruit.

But what was the human condition that led to the rejection of Messiah, the Cornerstone?

Ultimately it boils down to pride.

For the religious establishment of Israel, they took pride in their works of righteousness.

They took pride in their standing in the community.

They took pride in their shepherding of God’s flock.

Because of their pride they did not recognize God Incarnate when they saw Him with their own eyes.

Because of their pride they did not recognize that they were, in fact, poor, wretched, miserable, and blind.

Because of their pride they ultimately rejected the One who would become the chief corner stone!

As we go through this passage we will consider the setting, the telling of the parable, the unpacking of the parable, the application of the parable, and the understanding of the parable.

Let’s read this passage together.

THE SETTING

In truth the setting for this parable goes back a long ways.

I would argue that it goes back as far as the time of Ezekiel, the OT prophet.

That is because, through this man of God, the Lord rebuked the leadership of Israel for its poor shepherding of the flock of Israel.

Look at the scathing remarks of God to the shepherds of His people:

That is the greater context, but the immediate context is in relationship to the things that happened at the time of Christ’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the incidents that followed.

If you will recall, a few weeks back we looked at

The Fig Tree Incident

At that time I noted that unfruitful fig tree represented the fruitlessness of the religious leaders of Israel.

They gave an outside appearance of being fruitful, of being spiritual, but in fact it was a false deception.

After this we looked at

The Exposing of Hypocrisy

Christ was challenged by the religious leaders about His authority to clear the temple, and to teach in the temple.

Christ refused to answer their question unless they would answer His question regarding the source of the ministry of John the Baptist.

Was it from man or from God? Since they refused to answer this question, understanding that it was a trap, Jesus refused to tell them the source of His authority.

Instead He told them a parable in which He answered the question about John’s authority being from God.

Then He delivered a scathing rebuke for their lack of faith in the message that John preached.

Both of these episodes point to

The Lack of Fruitfulness from the Religious Establishment of Israel

Immediately after rebuking these men for their unbelief, Jesus launched into the second of three parables in which He denounced the so-called spiritual leaders of Israel.

This brings us to

THE TELLING OF THE PARABLE

As we read through this simple parable once again, I want you to note the way in which Jesus drew His audience into the story.

Inclusive Story Telling

Intended Response Achieved

THE UNPACKING OF THE PARABLE

As we unpack this parable we are going to look at the characters and what they represent, as well as the proper conclusion that priests and elders came to regarding the story-line of the parable.

Let’s begin by looking at

The Characters

Landowner — God the Father

Vine-growers — Religious Leaders of Israel

Vineyard — Israel

Fruit — Righteousness

Slaves — OT Prophets (including John)

Son — Jesus

The Conclusion

Judgment

THE APPLICATION OF THE PARABLE

It is in this application section that Jesus, oddly enough, revealed the true meaning of this parable to the chief priests and elders.

I say oddly because His normal practice was to reveal the meaning of parables only to the apostles.

But here, Jesus intent clearly was to use this parable as a rebuke of the religious establishment in Jerusalem.

Let’s look at verse 42 as we consider how Jesus rebuked the ignorance of these religious leaders.

Ignorance Rebuked

Jesus rebuked these men for being ignorant of the Scriptures.

I’m pretty sure that the issue was one of ignorance of the meaning of the Scriptures more so than merely not having read them.

Cornerstone Rejected

The OT reference is to which was a very familiar passage to all in Israel — especially to those traveling to Jerusalem from elsewhere.

It was one of the songs that was sung as they made their journey to Jerusalem for the sacred festivals.

There are two different stones that can be referred to as a cornerstone.

One is used on a foundation to tie together two intersecting walls.

The other is used as a capstone of an archway.

The teachers of Israel had always held that the nation itself was the rejected cornerstone by the other kingdoms of this world.

But Jesus is correcting their misunderstanding.

It was a reference to His rejection by the leaders of the nation.

A builder during ancient times would spend a great deal of effort to find the perfect cornerstone for the building he was constructing.

Failure to find the right stone for the foundation of the building could lead to the collapse of it.

This passage from Psalms is stating that the very stone which builders rejected, was in fact the cornerstone that should have been chosen.

As the song I sang earlier pointed out: “Though rejected by His own, He became the cornerstone.”

And, according to , this was a God-thing!

A builder during ancient times would spend a great deal of effort to find the perfect cornerstone for the building he was constructing.

Failure to find the right stone for the foundation of the building could lead to the collapse of it.

This passage from Psalms is stating that the very stone which builders rejected, was in fact the cornerstone that should have been chosen.

As the song I sang earlier pointed out: “Though rejected by His own, He became the cornerstone.”

And, according to , this was a God-thing!

Let’s look at verse 43 as we consider the

Penalty Announced

The penalty for the rejection of the Cornerstone was that the present religious leadership would lose their role of shepherding God’s people.

That responsibility would be given to the apostles of Christ.

There are many who take the statement that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it” as to mean that the predominately gentile church will replace the nation of Israel in God’s program.

But we have to remember that Christ is dealing with the religious leadership of Israel and not the nation as a whole in this particular context.

David L. Turner notes:

“Matthew does not view the church as a gentile entity that supersedes Israel but as the eschatological Jewish remnant that spreads the kingdom message to all the nations, including Israel.”

Did the apostle in fact produce fruit?

You better believe it.

Luke’s writing on The Acts of the Apostles demonstrates as much.

And you and I, who are believers in Jesus Christ, are a small part of the fruit that they produced.

The amazing thing is that this vineyard, which was planted nearly two thousand years ago, is still producing a phenomenal amount of fruit!