The Rejected Stone
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Welcome/ Introduction
Welcome/ Introduction
Good morning and welcome to FCC where we worship God in Spirit and Truth one verse at a time.
We are so glad that each one you have come today with great expectation wanting to hear from the Lord.
It is my hope as your pastor that we always leave with a nugget of truth that we can practically apply in our lives and that we would become more like Jesus today than we were yesterday.
I wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts about these things on our faces.
I am so uncomfortable in this thing, I struggle to breathe, I do not want to inhale carbon-dioxide, and I certainly do not want my 02 levels to drop.
However, the Lord spoke to me the past week about dying to self, and picking up my cross and following Him, about how we are called to lay our lives down for our friends, and how we are called to love and serve one-another.
I was battling wearing this thing, until the Lord showed me that I was not dying to self, that I was not trusting Him with this area of my life, but rather taking it in my hands. Lord, please forgive me! Paul, wrote for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!
What makes me think if I am loving others by wearing this mask, that God will not protect me form any harm?
I know it is a political year and someone once told me, “When it is a political year, do not believe anything you hear!”
Let us ask ourselves the question, How can I honor and glorify God in this situation?
How can I serve my brothers ands sisters, especially those who fall into the vulnerable category.
Let’s not allow this thing, to frustrate, divide, or distract us, but let us rather glory in the Lord through this.
Let us love God church with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves as we are commanded.
On the lighter side of things, I actually recieved a mailer from a marketing company a few weeks ago. And in it we could order masks with our church name on them. What do you think?
Prayer
Prayer
Read Matthew 21:33-46
Read Matthew 21:33-46
Review
Review
Jesus was hanging out with the disciples in the upper room, and they take of the last supper. Jesus washes their feet, and then Judas betrays Jesus and sells him for 30 pieces of silver. Amazing what people will sell or trade Jesus for?
Then he performs some miracles, call the boys to go into the city and find a donkey. Jesus then rides into Jerusalem on the donkey. This is called the Triumphal Entry, some call it Palm Sunday. The crowds are crying out:
Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
3. Then Jesus clears the temple. and he says:
And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
4. He left out of the temple, went to the city of Bethany and on the way used a fig tree to teach an object lesson. The lesson was that if a tree does not produce fruit, it will wither. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, it was symbolic of divine judgement on Israel for bearing no fruit.
The first Adam went to the fig tree to find leaves to make a covering for sin. While the second Adam, Jesus Christ went to the fig tree looking for fruit.
Do you have any fruit in your life?
5. Jesus authority is questioned, And we see the Sanhedrin, reason away Jesus, reason away the Messiah, reason away eternal life.
6. And last week we started the trilogy of parables, meaning Jesus speaks three parables in a row after his authority is questioned. It is now Wednesday, 2 days before Jesus will be crucified. Jesus taught the first parable on two sons. We learned that the second son, was the picture of the religious leaders, the religious folks, the self-righteous folks that do not need a physician, while the first son was a picture of the tax collectors, the harlots, the sinner or what people would think were the worst of the worst.
Did you figure out this past week which son are you?
The first son repented, while the second son thought he had no need of repentance.
Remember church, a parable is a story that is giving to illustration a spiritual truth. They conceal to those who are proud and have no need of a Physician, while the reveal a spiritual truth to those who are humble, those who are broken and know they need a Physician, these are the people who know, that they know they need help church.
So here, we come to the second parable.
These three parables have two side of them.
Mercy, grace, and love. God wishes not one shall perish, but that all shall come to repentance, or everlasting life.
An element of Divine judgement
Jesus is trying to get their attention, I believe wholeheartedly he was giving them the invitation to repent.
Church, today Jesus is giving us an opportunity to repent and return unto him, just like he is giving the religious leaders. He is giving us all an opportunity today to sell out for Jesus. If there is anyone in the house that does not know Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord, if there is anyone in the house that has walked away, or left their first love, please run to Jesus, please come to me after service so we can pray together.
Parable 2- Wednesday
“Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
Jesus says, Hear!
When Jesus says hear church, when God says Hear or listen, what should you do?
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
This is Jesus and the boys up on the Mt of Transfiguration and the Lord of Heaven says hear him.
Do you think the Sanhedrin, the religious folks that were standing around Jesus heard him?? Or was it just the broken, just the sinner, who knew he needed help?
Jesus say hear another parable.
In the Greek, this actually means hear a parable of the same kind.
We know that the Sanhedrin did not find their rightful place in he first parable.
So here, Jesus is being merciful, kind, full of compassion, and justice. He graciously gives them, and gives us another parable.
You know that is the heart of the Father, he is so longsuffering, that he keeps on giving not only another parable, but he feeds us, he clothes us, he supplies our every need, even when we are rebellious and refuse to Hear HIM. He desires that all would turn unto Him.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
“Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
Lenski writes, “This sounds as though the Sanhedrin tried to leave and that Jesus detained them while a crowd of pilgrims gathered close around him.”
Jesus paints a vivid picture that everyone there could understand, provided they had a heart that was bent toward heaven, a humble heart church.
They all knew of the Vineyards because Israel was full of them, sorta like the valley here, but more, more concentrated.
The Vineyard
We know that the national symbol of Israel was the vine or the vineyard. Jesus uses his favorite book here:
Read Isaiah 5:1-7
2. The vineyard also represent the kingdom of God that Israel was to look after, but failed as we just read and see here. God entrusts His kingdom or church (vineyard) into our hands and he expects us to cultivate it. The harvest is indeed plentiful Jesus said, but the laborers are few.
Now I think it is worth noting that the landowner who is God, planted the vineyard, he did not expect Israel to do anything, but to cultivate it, to take care of it, and guess what? They failed!
God desires us as His church to take care of His vineyard, His Kingdom until he returns for his bride. we must ask ourselves the question are we doing our part? Are we using are gifts, talents, and abilities that He gave us to care for His vineyard? Remember, He said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few!
Church, we must remember that Christianity is not a spectator sport. We are either in the game or sitting on the bench. We must ask ourselves and God, “Are we in the game?”
So the Lord, who is rich in mercy, planted the vineyard.
He not only planted the vineyard, but went all out, in fact he loved his vineyard so much, that he provided every conceivable thing needed to take care of His vineyard and the vinedressers.
Church, he did three marvelous things for His vineyard. Absolutely, everything was provided to assure growth and fruitfulness. He left it in such away, that those he leased it to, would have NO EXCUSE for producing fruit for the Kingdom Of God, for the Father who art in Heaven.
God set a hedge around the vineyard. Vineyards were vulnerable to wild animals, to robbers. And so, in order to protect vineyards, they were always hedged about. There could be a moat around them, on some occasions, water. There could be a wall built around them.But on some occasions, there was a hedge – a thorny hedge – often even cactus was used. And to this day, you can see cactus in the land of Israel to keep out the animals and the robbers. The point being the man took care in planting the vineyard. He took care in protecting the vineyard. The wall church, assured growth and fruitfulness, just like in our own life.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
2. God dug a winepress- That’s the place where the graves could be turned into juice. And if you travel in the land of Israel today, you will see many remnants of old winepresses in archaeological digs and even in more contemporary settings. A winepress could be nothing more than a stone in the ground. The stone would be cut out as a shallow basin, very wide and shallow, filled with grapes. And then there were would be a trough running to a lower basin carved in another piece of stone. And as the grapes were crushed, the juice would flow down the trough into the lower basin and be collected there, from which it would be scooped and put into wineskins and pots and jars. That was the way that they turned their grapes into grape juice and wine.
The winepress shows us that God will provide the equipment to get His work done. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few
And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Do you see how God provides? What equipment has he given you?
3. God built a tower- A tower was for three purposes really: security, shelter, and storage. A tower would allow someone to watch and be sure no one was trying to invade. It would also be a place of shelter in the event of weather problems, and it would be a place for the storage of implements and tools and things necessary for the care of the vineyard.The tower church stands for assurance, security, and shelter that God gives to his workers.
Church, God left Israel with everything they needed to be successful, he planted the vineyard, placed a hedge around it, dug a winepress, and built a tower. He has done the same thing for the church, he has done the same thing for us. But the question is are we fruitful? Will we allow Him to reap as He sees fit. Or will we run off his servant?
The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Church, God has supplied us individually as well as collectively with everything we need to be his laborers, just as he did Israel.
He entrusted and given responsibility to the vinedressers and us his church:
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
Note two things here:
God puts trust in people. Think about this? He trusted them enough to care for his land, just as he has entrusted his church. What a glorious privilege we have been given church!
God gives freedom to people. God left the vinedressers to care for the vineyard as they wished. God has given us freewill, we are not robots, but created in his image. He gave them the freedom to care for it, only they decided they did not want the Landowner. They wanted it all for themselves.
Leasing property out was a well know way of life in days of Jesus. Those that owned much land would lease it out, but one day return for payment.
Jesus is coming back soon my brothers and sisters, are your ready?
He has entrusted us with a vineyard and we must work. So how are you working? What are you doing for the Kingdom of God?
Church, how are you doing with the land that Jesus has given you to cultivate? Are you using the gifts, talents, and abilities that he has equipped you with to win souls for his Kingdom? Or are you like the religious leaders using them for your own glory, instead of the glory of God?
Church, today Jesus is giving us an opportunity to repent and return unto him, just like he is giving the religious leaders. He is giving us all an opportunity today to sell out for Jesus. If there is anyone in the house that does not know Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord, if there is anyone in the house that has walked away, or left their first love, please run to Jesus, please come to me after service so we can pray together.
Prayer
Announcements
Thank you for all that you do.
Please reach out to those that are not here.
There is a new little black box hanging on the wall for love offerings. When you exit, you will see it there to the left right under the rope for the church bell.
Thank you for your faithfulness in giving and in all you do saints!
Benediction
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
The Lord Bless you!
Your Mission starts now!