Christ Rejected For Man's Redemption

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons, or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

The Heart of Lost Humanity in a Prayer Without Christ

I'm always cautious when we begin, and I start with a story from modern events, that it has the ability or the possibility of cheapening the text. But I want to start our time this afternoon by looking at just a very recent event in the state of the world that we are in.

In January of 2021, just before, if you remember all the hoopla that has been made of January 6th, on January 3rd, 2021, the United States Congress kicked off its 117th session with an opening prayer led by a representative named Emanuel Cleaver.

He was a Democratic representative, and so, at least in his mind, it was a pivotal moment. As a new president was about to be inaugurated, you could say an important prayer at a pivotal time. And in many respects, as he prayed, he acknowledged the opportunity to steer the nation back, in his eyes, at least toward peace and prosperity and righteousness.

And in Cleaver's opening prayer, he started by acknowledging or addressing, in his own words, he said, the eternal God, who alone, he said, possesses sacred supremacy, who is the creator of the world and everything in it.

So far, it was a decent start, I think, to the prayer. And throughout the course of his prayer, Cleaver acknowledged the difficult year that had been 2020. He acknowledged the destructive effects of pestilence that had been wracking the land.

He decried injustice and oppression. He even confessed that the nation and the government itself was overcome with division and unrest. And you could say, if you listen to this prayer, and you can find it on YouTube if you look for it, you could say that as he listed all of the calamities that America was experiencing, in many ways, he acknowledged what we might rightly recognize as the just judgment of God upon a godless nation.

Chaos, disease, death, distress, and then what I would call a countless number of other contrary providences that might lead at least a sober-minded person to acknowledge their transgression and then to turn back to the living God.

And as he began to bring his prayer to a close, he quoted from Numbers 6, verses 25 and 26. You might remember that, especially if you've been to a lot of liturgical churches. He said, he asked, may the Lord make his face to shine upon us.

And he said, be gracious to us. He asked that the Lord would lift his countenance upon us and give us peace. That was his prayer. And as I said, at least from a starting point, it was a promising start to a prayer.

That was until he reached the very last line of the prayer. And he prayed, we pray this in the name of. Most of us would be at the ready to jump in, to chime in, to say, yes, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I mean, who else do we pray the attributes of God to God in the name of? Who do we ask for grace and peace of in the name of who? In what other name could we possibly pray the words of sacred scripture?

We would insist if we were in that room, we would say in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not how the prayer ended. As a matter of fact, that monumental crossroads, you could say, as representative Cleaver pleaded for grace and peace, good requests.

He skipped over the only one who could bring grace and peace. And he said this, he said, we ask this in the name of the monotheistic God. In the name of Brahma. And in the name of the God known by many different names and many different faiths.

And then to make a parody of the whole prayer, he finished with three words. He said, Amen. All woman and all woman. Amen and all woman. Now, we can find, I know, right? We can find some humor in the absurdity of that kind of prayer and that kind of praying.

But I would suggest to you that this is a crystal clear reflection of the heart of lost humanity. Just one man's heart on full display, representative of all hearts. And this is what I would say is the heart of the problem that befalls this godless world in which we live.

We live in a world that seeks the good things of God with one open hand. And at the same time, we thrust away the Lord Jesus Christ with the other hand. We live in a world where people are not merely neutral to Jesus.

But altogether opposed to him and his gospel. Even if they don't even know it. I will even go so far as to say today many professing Christians. Many who even profess his name and claim to be his follower.

As Paul confessed with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. They take his name and they have a zeal for God, as Paul would say. But not according to knowledge. They refuse to come to him on his terms.

They refuse to love him on his terms. It could be said of them that they love the name of Christ. But that they hate the law of Christ. And therefore, they reject all of Christ. The Christ that is the Christ of reality.

Not of the monotheistic God or in the name of Brahma. But Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And it begs the question. And children, I want to ask you this question.

Why?

Why do people refuse to acknowledge the sonship of Jesus Christ? Why do some wag their fists at Jesus Christ? Why do some, and you will know many, and we know many. Why do some take the name of Christ and yet reject the rest of him?

And really all of him. And what's more? What is God going to do about this? What is he going to do with a world that insists on rejecting Christ? As we've already heard our brother read, I think that our passage that is before us today answers these questions in high definition.

Why is it that people disdain Christ? And what is God going to do about it? As Christ settles into his final days in Jerusalem, he's now going to interact with the highest order of the Jewish elite. And as we observe this interaction together, we're going to see why it is that so many people reject the authority of Christ.

More than that, we're going to see how God is going to deal with those who reject him. And then finally, what we're going to see is how God has and will sovereignly use the rejection of his son to accomplish a marvelous end.

So you could say, and I think if you look on the front of our bulletin, that this passage teaches the rejection of Christ for the redemption of man. And while there are many aspects of this narrative as we look at it, you might say it's very straightforward.

It's elementary on its face. I think there's tremendous truth for us, for every one of us here in this passage. And so what we're going to do, we're going to mine the depths of this text together. Children, if you're under the age of 18, I'm talking to you, children and maybe young people, I'm going to speak directly to you for a portion of this time, but you have to listen carefully early on to get it all.

And what we're going to do, it's often my fatal flaw as a preacher, is I often emphasize the first point so much so that it weakens the second and the third point. But today I believe that the Lord has led me in this study.

We are going to emphasize those initial verses in chapter 11. And then we're going to cover off Christ's parable in a bit brisker pace. And so let's begin today by reading verses 27 to 33. It says this, And they came again to Jerusalem.

And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him. And they said to him, By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?

Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question, one question. Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me. And they discussed it with one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him?

But shall we say from man? Because they were afraid of the people. For all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

The first truth that I'm going to highlight especially today is this. We're going to have a look at the heart of those who reject Christ. What is going on in the heart of the man or the woman or the child who refuses to acknowledge the divine authority and the lordship of Christ?

Verse 27 begins with Christ returning to the temple in Jerusalem. If we remember back to last week, it's still Tuesday morning. And so just to refresh our minds quickly, we remember that Christ got up early in the morning before sunrise, that his disciples proceeded from Bethany into Jerusalem, and as they were on that road to Jerusalem, they encountered the fig tree that Christ had cursed.

This is shortly after that. They've now made their way further on, and we're told now that Christ is in the temple. Now, it doesn't say it here in Mark's gospel, but Matthew and Luke tell us that when Jesus was there, he was teaching the people, almost like a street preacher, you could say, teaching the crowds the things of God in the public square.

And many scholars would suggest that it was very likely that this took place at a prominent thoroughfare at the entrance to the court of the Gentiles, either at Solomon's porch or at the royal porch, probably not distracted by or pushed away by the crowds that were going in or the crowds that were making their purchases, but on the outskirts as people made their way in.

And as Jesus taught the crowds in the open air, we're told that the chief priests and the scribes and the elders confronted him. It was these three groups of people that made up what we call the Jewish Sanhedrin.

This was the highest council, the highest tribunal, who exercised some borrowed authority from the Romans over the Jewish people. And I think it's interesting that in the Greek writings, they were also sometimes referred to as the presbyteron or the elders or even the gerousia, the unofficial Jewish senate.

So maybe like the representative in Congress, someone with a little bit of power, but not all the power. In verse 28, they wasted no time getting to the very heart of the matter as they approached Christ.

And their question was this, by what authority is Christ doing these things? Who gave him the right to clear the temple the day before? Who gave him the right to block traffic and to enter into Jerusalem with a king's welcome?

Who gave him the permission to teach in the temple? And this is one of the themes that if we remember back, if you were here at the beginning of our study of the gospel of Mark, we dealt very heavily with the authority of Christ, how the authority of Christ was frequently challenged.

Well, it seems that Mark is interested in bookending his gospel by emphasizing the authority of Christ challenged and displayed at the beginning of Mark. And then the authority of Christ, again, challenged and displayed at the end of Mark.

And so that word that we might remember from a while back, the word gerousia, we haven't heard it for several chapters, now appears again in Mark chapter 11. This word for authority. And it appears that Mark wanted to make this plain to us as the readers.

We see how many times he uses the word authority just in this text. But as the religious leaders, as these chief priests approach Christ, Jesus doesn't engage in a futile dialogue, the one that they might expect him to enter into.

But instead he adopts for what was a common practice. If you were a rabbi in Jewish culture in the first century, if someone were to pose you a question, pose a question to you, it was very often the case that the rabbi would just pose another question back to their disciple.

And so as these highfaluting religious leaders come to Christ, he takes the role of teacher and begins to school them. Verse 29, he poses a question back to them. And he asks this, he says, John's baptism, was it from God or was it from man?

Now what's interesting is that both Christ and the Sanhedrin would have immediately known that this was an impossible question to answer. Now why was that? You see, when John was in the thick of his wilderness ministry at the Jordan River, it was the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the religious elite who refused to acknowledge him.

If you remember back to passages like the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 7, he referred to those Pharisees and Sadducees who looked on at his ministry as a brood of vipers.

And so for the Pharisees and Sadducees to acknowledge Christ now in this stage would be to completely contradict their previous assessment of him. And then they would have to sheepishly admit that they were wrong about who John the Baptist was and that John the Baptist was right.

And we know because we know the religious leaders of Christ's day that they were beyond such an act of condescension and genuine humility. And yet, at the same token, what we see is that to deny John's baptism publicly would be to brazenly insult all of the crowds who stood in that temple court.

After all, it was John that they held to be a prophet. And a good number of those people may have even been baptized by John and his disciples at the Jordan. And so the chief priests refused to give an honest answer to Christ and these onlookers.

And what's more, I find it interesting that it was at Christ's baptism that as John lifted him out of the water, we're told that the Holy Spirit descended on Christ in bodily form like a dove. That the Father spoke from the heavens and said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Not only does John the Baptist attest to the authority of God, but even the highlight of John the Baptist's ministry would have been that moment when Christ's identity and divine authority was attested to by this Trinitarian testimony.

Every person in the Godhead at Christ's baptism by John the Baptist was present for Christ's exaltation where his exousia was made plain to all. So this is what we have. Christ in this brief encounter with the Sadducees, with the religious leaders, with the Sanhedrin.

And without question, it's a short exchange between Jesus and the Sanhedrin. But I think it teaches us a great deal about why people reject Christ. About why it is that people refuse to allow Christ to hold sway over them.

And in this brief encounter, I'm going to show us at least four reasons why a person might reject Christ. What we see in the hearts of these religious leaders. I was expecting that today was going to be a smaller group and I was expecting as well that we were going to have some kids here.

And so I really want kids, if you can make eye contact with me for a minute, each one of you. I really want to address you guys for about the next five to ten minutes. And I want to tell you why it is that many of your friends will reject Christ.

And I want to tell you how it is and why it is that many of you may be tempted to reject Christ. That you can be raised in a Christian home and you can hear about Jesus every day. And you can see your parents' love for Christ.

And yet, how temptations still come for you to turn from him. And so I'm going to give four reasons. Adults, there's plenty for you here. But kids, I want you guys to pay attention. And give me lots of eye contact so that I know you're listening.

Especially those who are coloring.

Perfect.

Rationalizing Away the Claims of Christ

So the first thing that Sanhedrin is trying to do as they're confronted with this dispute about Christ's authority. Is they try to rationalize. Point one of four in the sub points, if we can call it that.

Is to rationalize. When Jesus posed his question about John the Baptist in verse 31. We're told that the Sanhedrin discussed it with one another. Now that word discussed doesn't sound very sensational, does it?

But what's interesting is every time Mark uses that word discussed when he wrote it in the Greek. He uses the Greek word... I can say it every day of the week until Sunday. Dialogizami. My goodness. Dialogizami.

There we are. It's funny as I repeat it a thousand times. And then I can't say it here. From which we get our English word dialogue, of course. But in Mark's gospel, it's almost entirely used. This dialogizami.

Almost entirely used in reference to those who are trying to figure out a way to escape their knowledge of Christ's authority. We see it used, for instance, in Mark chapter 2. When the scribes questioned in their hearts, it says.

How it was that Jesus could forgive the sins of a paralyzed man. Who he had also the power to heal. A really good commentator on the book of Mark. He says this. The Greek word appears seven times in Mark.

Always in the context of people trying to... This is important. Evade the force of Jesus's word or claims on them. Kids, I want you to hear me on this. People reject Christ. Not because Christ has not shown himself to us.

As a matter of fact, people reject Christ. Because they refuse to acknowledge him. And to submit to his lordship. It's not a matter of a lack of evidence. But it's a matter of the heart. And a heart that is predisposed to disdaining Christ.

In the book of the Psalms. In Psalm chapter 19. We see two things there. If you like theology, these are good and important terms. But in the book of Psalms, the first half of the book. Is given to what we would call the book of nature.

Or general revelation. And what general revelation gives us is this. It shows us enough about God. That we know who he is. And his power. And his might. And his glory. And his justice. But it doesn't yet give us enough to know salvation.

And how we are to be saved. But the second half of Psalm 19. Speaks of the book of scripture. I prayed a good part of that. As we opened our time in God's word today. That it's in God's word that we are made wise.

That we learn how to be saved. As Paul wrote to Timothy. That would make you wise for salvation. So in the book of Psalms. It tells us that we can know enough about God. To be accountable to him. At least in nature.

But not enough to know how to be saved. But in the book of scripture. We know everything that we need to know. To be right with God. By faith in Christ. And the reason why people. At least in our context.

Who have heard the name of Christ. Refuse to repent and believe in him. Is not because they don't know enough to be saved. Or it isn't clear enough. God has made it clear. But it's simply this. It's because they have become too smart for Jesus.

Or at least so they think. They rationalize. And they think in their minds. I'm good enough without Christ. Christ is old fashioned. I don't need him. I don't like the Bible. Whatever it is. But they rationalize.

Or as the Sadducees did. Dialogue to my.

Wow.

They discuss in their own minds and hearts. How it is. That they can rid themselves of Christ. And this is plainly seen in the writing of many. Popular atheists today. Kids tell me if the statement. How this makes you feel.

Or what this elicits in you. The popular atheist Christopher Hitchens. He said. He once wrote. Anyone who can look me in the eye. And say they prefer the story of Moses or of Jesus. To the life of Socrates.

Is intellectually defective. And he says Jesus Christ is Santa Claus for adults. Now what is really interesting. Was that Christopher Hitchens had a brother named Peter. And Peter was just a little bit older than you.

He was 15 years old. When he decided he was not going to believe in God. And so what he did was he took his Bible out into a field. He was in Cambridge. And he burnt his Bible in the field. What a terrible thing.

To burn the revelation of God. And Jesus Christ. But that is exactly what he did. And his brother followed after him. And made a career of denying and rejecting Christ. Now what is really interesting.

Is later Peter would rediscover a Bible. And that he would read that Bible. And that the Lord would save him. And so what you ended up with. Was you ended up with Christopher Hitchens. Who denied Christ.

And then Peter Hitchens. Who was an advocate or an apologist for Christ. And what is interesting is this. My young friends. Is that when Christopher Hitchens died. In 2011. He did not go and appear before Socrates.

But he appeared before the triune God. And on that day. I remember what my friend said one time. He said Christopher Hitchens. A former atheist. He realized that God was and is. And he said something that I thought was very stirring.

He said at least he knows. That even though he will go to hell. That his brother is a believer. And he can take comfort in that. Paul has said. He has spoken of these kinds of men. In Romans 1 .22 he said.

They claim to be wise. But they become fools. And the psalmist adds this. The fool says in his heart. The fool says in his heart. There is no God. So these Sadducees. Rationalized. To evade Christ's claims over their lives.

The Fear of Man and the Praise of Man

The second reason why. The chief priest refused to acknowledge Christ. Was because of the fear of man. In verse 32. It says that when they were afraid of all the people. Or when they were posed with this question.

They were afraid of all the people. In Luke 20 and verse 6. It actually zooms in a bit more. In Luke 20 and verse 6 says this. That they were afraid that the crowds would stone them. So not only were they afraid to answer.

Just for the opinions of the people. But they were actually afraid for their lives. And this has been the case for many throughout the ages. That people have been more inclined to die in their sins.

Sorry.

Many people through the ages have died in their sins. Because they were afraid of dying for Christ. And what a heartbreaking miscalculation. If you're going to die for something. Boys and girls. If you're going to die for something.

Or if you're going to die from something. There is nothing better than dying for and in Christ. There was a Puritan. His name was John Flavel. He said. By the fear of the Lord. Men depart from evil. So when you fear God.

You depart from evil. He said this. But by the fear of man. They run themselves into evil. And it's kind of a silly picture. But to deny Christ. Because of fear for your personal safety. Are you kids?

Are any of you guys afraid of bees? Would you be willing to admit you're afraid of bees or wasps?

No?

Okay.

That's a good thing. This helps my illustration. We have one over on this side of the room. He's a big kid. But imagine for a moment. Running from a bumble bee. And seeking refuge in a wood chipper. That is what it is to run from Christ.

Out of fear for your life.

Thirdly.

They rejected Christ because of the praise of man. Now it's important to understand the historical context of this interaction. The chief priests. While they had some borrowed authority. And they had definitely more authority than the Pharisees.

They were far less popular than the authorities. They weren't the cool kids at school. And the reason being. Is because they were seen as being compromisers. And colluders with Rome. And so for this reason.

They didn't have nearly as much social capital. To lose. Or to work with. And they had to do whatever they could. To preserve what little popularity they had. When they had the opportunity. And what we see here is that they craved.

The approval of people. They craved the approval of people. More than the approval and the honor of Christ.

And kids.

I want to relay this to you. Of all the four that I'm going to give you here. This is going to be the strongest pull in all of your life. To seek to be cool. And to be accepted. And to be praised and appreciated by people.

Rather than living for the praise of God. And the reason for that is this. When we get praise from people. It is immediate. It's immediate gratification. It's like that notification on Facebook. That tells you that someone just liked your post.

And you feel good about that. But when we get praise from God. Or if I can say approval from God is a better word. It is a deferred approval. It's an approval that we receive by faith. We have the joy of obedience.

But it doesn't come with that fast hit. That we experience with the approval of people. And yet. Do not be fooled by it. It is a shame. To gain the fickle praise of the world. And to forfeit your souls.

I want to tell you a story about this. There was a statesman in the 16th century England. His name was Sir Walter Raleigh. And I've seen a few portraits of him online. If you can remember that name. Sir Walter Raleigh.

Look him up on Google after I preach. And he is what you would probably describe. Maybe the best word is flamboyant. At least in his portraits. He always has these colorful coats. And embroidered garments.

Sometimes with the coat slung over his shoulder. Or buttoned up to the very top of his neck. Even by 16th century standards. He was a very extravagant man. At least I can tell from these painted portraits of him.

And yet there is a story of his willingness. To be made low for the honor of another. One day while Sir Walter Raleigh was walking with the Queen. Pretty impressive company. Walking with the Queen. They came upon a mud puddle.

And a pile of mud that was blocking the road. And what do you think Sir Walter Raleigh did? Well based on the portraits that I've seen. He had a big beautiful bright embroidered robe. And he took off his cloak.

And he laid it on the ground. So that the Queen could walk through or over the mud. Without getting her feet wet and dirty. And I like what one of our Baptist forefathers said about this scene. He said.

And thus with unselfish motives. Out of pure reverence for our Lord. Let us be willing to be made like the street to be walked over. If Jesus can be honored by it. Let us lay out for our Lord. The best that we have.

Even to the character that is dear to us as life itself. If by doing so. We may bring glory to the holy and blessed name of our Redeemer. It is worth exchanging all the praise of man in the world. To be approved of by God through Christ.

It is worthy little friends. Big friends. To be counted as dung to the world. And to have a profaned name. To be unpopular or to be disliked by the cool people in the world. But it is a small price to pay.

For the honor of Christ. And lastly. The chief priests relied on what we would call suspended judgment. Verse 3. When Christ asked them about John the Baptist. They said we don't know. They had suspended their judgment.

So they could avoid being wrong. And many people today rely on that excuse. You might ask your friends at school. Even at your Christian school. Do you believe in Jesus? Well I don't know. But I'm trying.

Or I'm. Sometimes we talk to adults. And they say I am looking into it. I'm seeking truth. You might even say. They're an earnest seeker of truth. But that doesn't cut it. For a short time. And maybe some of you might remember this.

Some seeker sensitive churches were using the slogan. Try Jesus. Give Jesus a try. He won't let you down. Something like that. And let me tell you straight up. God has never commanded that we investigate Christ.

He is not impressed by our thinking good thoughts about him. To give him a try. God is not. I think about a scene at Costco. God is not standing at a cosmic sample cart. Inviting you to try Jesus. He is seated on his throne.

And he commands everyone everywhere. To repent and to believe on his son. The Lord Jesus Christ. But for these religious elites. They would have none of it. This is a picture of the heart of those who reject Christ.

I don't think any of us have found any of those reasons compelling. Now in the next verses. Christ outlines the second truth in today's study. And as I mentioned. This is going to be briefer than the first half.

God's Righteous Judgment on the Wicked Tenants

Here we see God's righteous plan for the wicked. God has a plan for those who reject Christ. And it is wise. And it is righteous. Jesus tells the story of a man who planted a vineyard. And leased it out to tenants.

Now if we were to get in a time machine and go back to Christ today. What we would find is that was actually a very common occurrence. There was an abundance of wealthy landowners. Who enjoyed the prosperity of Roman rule.

They had tremendous legal and social protections. And they would engage in what we would call absentee land ownership. And what that is. We see a little bit of that today. Maybe in the more nefarious parts of the world.

Or nefarious skyscrapers in downtown buildings. And real estate and things like that. But they would purchase big swaths of land. And they would hire tenants who would live on those swaths of land. And they would work the fields.

And they would give a portion of their profit back to the landowner. Not all of that is bad. Not all of that is good. Depending on who's the landowner. And because vineyards were big business in this region.

It made perfect sense for Christ to use a vineyard for this parable. And so in verse 1 we're told that the usual preparations were made by this landowner. For such a vineyard. There was a fence probably of stones or briars.

To keep the people that you wanted out, out. There would be a pit that would be dug. Where they would put in a basin. So that as the wine was crushed in the wine press above. A basin would catch the juices to make the wine.

And then there would be a tower. And if you were to build a tower on your property. What would you use it for? In this case it was as a lookout. There were criminals. You need to be able to see them from a distance.

It was a good place to store your tools. It was a good place for the tenants to sleep at night. In verse 2 indicates that the normal practice. That would occur for such. Or what the normal practice would look like for such an operation.

When a vineyard was planted. The landowner would have to give the tenants five years. Five years to plant the vines. To let them establish and grow. And to be strong and healthy and fruitful. And then after that five years.

It was the expectation that that landowner would send delegates on their behalf. To go and collect a portion of the profits from the tenants. And this was an arrangement that worked for both parties. And it was widely practiced in the nation of Israel.

But in Christ's parable. And I should say as well. That it was a hefty profit that was shared with the landowner. Between a quarter to half of the profits. Went directly back to the landowner. But in Christ's parable beginning in verse 3.

We see a problem arise. Instead of the tenants paying the landowner his fair share. We're told that they beat his servant. And sent him away empty handed. And when the landowner sent another tenant. They beat him too.

And added shame to the beating. I like what C .H. Dodd rightly says about this passage. He said the tenants paid their rent in blows. As every servant came. They would beat the next one worse than the last.

And with each consecutive wave of servants who were sent. The tenants escalated their violence. Until they eventually killed some of them. Now if you were a crowd in the court of the Gentiles. Listening to Christ interact with the Sanhedrin.

This would strike you as a very odd parable. And maybe not for the reason you would expect. As the crowds would listen to this. It's very likely that they would think. What a patient landowner. That he would allow them to beat one servant.

And he would send another. And to beat another servant. And then he would send another. It was very common in that time. Kids do you know what mercenaries are? Maybe adults know what mercenaries are. Assassins.

It was very common in that time. Yeah that got you excited didn't it? It was very common in that time. If you were a landowner. And your tenants didn't pay up. You would go to an assassin or a mercenary.

A hit man. You would pay them a certain amount of money. And they would go take care of the tenants for you. And they would return the land. And all of the profits to you. And so for many of Christ's modern hearers.

Or contemporary hearers. In his day at least. They would be listening to this and going. What patience. But Christ goes even further. What Christ says next is astounding in fact. And we're going to read verses 5 and 6.

It says this. And he sent another. And him they killed. And so with many others. Some they beat. Some they killed. He had still one other. A beloved son. The same words that were spoken about Christ at his baptism.

As John raised him from the water. A beloved son. Finally he sent them to them. Saying they will respect my son. But those tenants said to one another. This is the heir. Come let us kill him. And the inheritance will be ours.