Westland Free Methodist Church

June 24, 2007

Parable of the Tenants

Matthew 21:33-46

 

As Jesus expresses this parable he’s paralleling the Isaiah 5 passage on the vineyard.  That’s how amazingly well Jesus knew the scriptures.  Ever wonder what Jesus did the first 30 years of his life?  Makes you wonder what maybe his unseen, unspoken father really was.  No doubt Jesus was perfect and sinless and amazing on his own as the Son of God.  But to know the Word of God the way he did and does, You might want to ponder how Jesus consistently parallels his Father’s words so well.

 

The following parts of this parable are known and will help in discussing it’s meaning today:

         

          The Landowner:  God

          The Vineyard:  God’s blessing and mission for the nation of Israel

          The farmers:  The rulers of God’s people, the Pharisees and Sadducees

          The Servants:  The prophets

          The Son:  The Son of God, Jesus

 

It is the day after Jesus enters into Jerusalem, so we are looking at the final week of Jesus life.  It is this visit to the temple that he drives out the thieves and moneychangers from temple.  The next day Jesus is in the temple teaching again.  He has already shared the parable of the 2 sons, and has now moved into a teaching on the rulers of the temple, and in a greater fashion, the Jewish rulers of Israel.

 

You see, good leaders are hard to find.  Jesus consistently reached out to the leaders of Israel, but found only rebellion and control of a kingdom that was not theirs. 

 

Even today, good leaders are hard to find. 

 

It began this time in verse 23 when the teachers of the law challenged the authority of Jesus.  There began the tug a war that would end on the cross.  Their message that day?  “You challenge us and you will lose.  You don’t know what you are up against.  2 keys questions were asked though, not just one.  The first question was, by what authority do you do these things, but second is even more revealing, who gave you this authority? 

 

It is in this setting that Jesus had such influence.  On the one side the teachers could not ask him to leave, for the people had such respect for Jesus, and considered him to be no less than a prophet.  Yet, Jesus was in the temple, in Jerusalem no less, and the teachers of the law were not about to give up their turf.  In fact, they were trapped for now.  They had to find another way to corner Jesus.  That is why we have so much written on the last week of Jesus. 

 

By the end of the week, the Jewish church leaders will feel that they have accomplished so much good by exterminating Jesus, but verse 42 reveals what is just beyond the last week of Jesus life. 

 

          “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone(or cornerstone)”

 

There are three questions that seem ready for answers in this parable.

 

1.     What will it take to get the gospel to a crippled and dying world?

2.     What will happen to those who are found unfaithful?

3.     What will happen to those who are found faithful?

 

1.  What will it take to get the gospel to a crippled and dying world?

We understand the first question:

                   What would you do when we are eating dinner at the table and your cup springs a leak?  Maybe there was a hidden crack that was unseen before.  You get a new one don’t you!?

 

                   I remember when what we called the foreign competition came in and threatened American auto makers in the early 80’s.  They were losing the battle, so they changed.  It took the almost death of one automaker, until a visionary leader came in and instituted a radical change.  They had to get rid of old methodologies, and create new ones.  And it’s happening again.    We may look back on these days as some of the most ingenious times. 

 

                   I love the game of racquetball.  It’s a game where you get into a small room, put on protective gear, and hit a ball 100+ miles an hour.  Because the ball goes so fast and hits the wall so hard, it often breaks the ball.  What do you do when that happens.  Do you pick it up and try playing with it again?  Do we get another ball.  We didn’t have anything against that ball, but out with the old and in with the new.  We could:

1.     try to play with the old ball.

2.     sit around and talk about how our precious ball used to go 100+ miles an hour.

3.     or, we could get a new ball.

                            

          This parable is about unfaithful farmers  who took advantage of a privilege given them.  Their agreement was as renters, not owners. But when we get that mixed up, God will not allow it to continue.  So he removes the blessing from the unfaithful farmers, and casts them     out.  In Matthew 9:17 much earlier in his ministry, Jesus illustrates the old and the new like this:

                    “Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and  both are preserved.”

 

          So do we just throw the temple leaders out?  We don’t treat people that way.  But look at what Jesus is saying in our passage in Matt 21,

                   “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”(verse 43)

 

q       Hearts can be so hardened that they no longer have any love in them.  It was time for the chief priests and the elders to go.  Why?  Were they so bad?

q       Our parable describes them this way, “they beat one, they killed another and stoned a third.”(v. 35)  Was there any love left in their heart.  Remember, this is a parable. A story to illustrate a truth of God. 

q       We’re not talking about Peter here, where he blew it time after time, only to seek repentance and forgiveness from Jesus.

q       We’re not talking Paul who took the lives of countless Christians, but repented on the road to Damascus.

q       We’re not talking about David who was an adulterer, and a murderer after he was follower of God.  Even after David’s failure, he later would be described as “a man after God’s own heart.”

q       We’re not even talking about the thief on the cross.  In one moment, even he went to heaven with sins forgiven, but on what condition?  Repentance.  These were all people of repentance. 

q       And that is the key.  To humble oneself, and repent, and come into the presence of the Savior, the one you truly believe is your Lord and your God.

q       Jesus can work with a repentant heart, but God will not work with hardened hearts.  Will there come a time when your hardened heart will be cast out with the old, making room for the new.  Don’t let that be today. 

 

          What will it take to get the gospel to a crippled and dying world?

 

Churches are dying and closing every week in America because what was once new became old, and the old died a spiritual death before it ever died a physical one. 

 

The Lord says leave the hardened hearts behind.  That doesn’t mean you stop praying for loved ones who do not yet know Christ.  It doesn’t mean you stop caring or praying for those who separate themselves from you through conflict.  This is speaking of those who know the truth and use the truth to bring attention to themselves, not God.  Does our church bring more attention to ourselves or God?   Again, and again, the Lord says to the sinner, you and me, repent and believe.

 

This parable begs us to throw out the old ball in our lives and begin a new.  What are you holding that is old that needs to be let go of?  A bitterness.  A control issue.  A broken relationship.  A want for more that consumes your drive to conceive and achieve a life filled with things. 

 

                   The message Jesus sends to the church in Jerusalem is the same one he sends to us today.  Repent and believe. 

 

2.     What will happen to those who are found unfaithful?

 

          V. 42 says, “the stone the builders rejected has become the                                    capstone.”

 

·        The Son was sent to the vineyard to collect fruit and he was killed.  Why?  Because he was the heir.  They thought that by killing him they could take his inheritance.

·        The temple leaders said, how dare you challenge our system?  They were angry.  They truly thought Jesus was there to take away their church, to take away their identity.  But he came to fulfill the law not replace it.

 

          But then comes V. 44, “He who falls on this stone, will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

 

         

We need to understand how God works and how he handles the Jewish church.  He does not destroy the church.  He simply leaves and it destroys itself.   Think about it.  Jesus leaves the temple that day, is crucified by these same leaders days later, and this gives birth to a new church.   What happened to the formal Jewish church?  They continued to collaborate with the Roman government to persecute the Christian church, but in the end they found it is impossible to squeeze wine out of new wineskins.  In effect they died.  There are remnants, but they are only old wineskins.

 

How about us though.  I mean the church today.  How many churches have died in the last few years, because they became an entity to themselves.  A club if you will.  How many?  Thousands. 

q       You can’t kill a church.  They just die over time.

 

q       In the Greek Islands, one can seek out the home of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. In the area, one can also find an olive tree, supposedly dating from his time. If this is so, this tree would then be some 2400 years old. The trunk of this tree is very large but completely hollow. The tree is little more than thick bark. There are a few long, straggling branches, but they are supported by sturdy wooden poles every few feet. It has an occasional leaf here and there and might produce a few olives each year. In the fields around, however, are olive groves in many directions. The strong, healthy, young trees with narrow trunks are covered with a thick canopy of leaves, under which masses of olives can be found each year. The tree of Hippocrates can still be called an olive by nature, in that it still shows the essential unique characteristics, but it has long since ceased to fulfill an olive's function. Tourists file up to inspect this ancient relic, having some link to a dim history, but the job of the olive tree passed long ago to many successions of replanted trees.

 

Is that us?  Are there effects of the Pharisees and Sadducees among us.  Do we revere things around us more than God’s message, repent and believe?

 

3.     What will happen for those who are found faithful?

 

v. 41b “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

 

v. 4  “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.’

 

          The parable tells us that they are given assignments in the vineyard as   the farmers.  How did that play out in the NT church?

 

          To be a farmer is to say in effect, “Jesus is Lord, and I am not.”  It means to respect God’s plan for the new Testament church.  It means to follow God’s Word for your life.  To Live it to your death.  It means to love God more than man.  It means to love God more than institutions.  Institutions like your job, your family, your possessions, your church.  These are all institutions that only exist to serve God.  To give God anything you have at any moment. 

Church Consultant George Barna says, “People want substance from their church. They want to make some difference in the world through their church and they need to feel connected to God and to other God-loving people as a result of their experience.”

I’ve heard this message before.  I just know it.  Oh yea, our vision statement.  “We reach out to people so they may worship God, connect with His people, grow in Christ, and serve others.”

 

And why do we do this.  Because we are more interested in making disciples, than in growing a church.  Paul said it well, you water, you plant, but God makes it grow.  Do we as a ministry give substance for a lost and hurting world.  If we don’t then let’s close shop and go play golf, or whatever you often think of when you get discouraged with church. 

 

Do you know how weird the church really is? 

 

William Temple once said, “The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members.”

                                                                            

It is clear from this passage today, you are a renter not an owner.  And the only way you will succeed in God’s vineyard, is to accept the new wine as valid, and put to it into new wineskins. 

 

God is here and he is ready for you to repent.  Repentance is the only difference between the faithful and unfaithful Christian. 

 

I don’t have it right yet?  So I need to repent.

 

Do you have it right yet?  Do you need to repent. 

 

In the end, Jesus was declaring that one church was about to die, and another was about to be born.  Are you a member of a dead and dying church or are part of the living, repenting, believing church?

 

I don’t have God’s next move figured out. God is God.  But we do have instructions from this parable that warns us, repent.  Be faithful.  And let it all go in a moment’s notice.