Jesus vs Jerusalem

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right. If you would open your

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Bibles, New Testament, first book in the New Testament, Gospel According to Matthew.

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We're in Matthew chapter 21. Matthew, Gospel According to Matthew chapter 21.

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Gospel According to Matthew chapter 21. Now I'm going to read a large section at the beginning here.

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I'm not going to unpack all of this today, but just for context and familiarity over the next couple of weeks as we really dive into this next section from Matthew, I want us to all be familiar about or with what's coming.

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So Matthew chapter 21. We're going to start in verse 28. 21 verse 28.

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There are three parables that are indictments. And there are four questions, three of them of theirs and one of the

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Lord Jesus. Matthew 21, 28. Hear now the words of the living and the true

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God. What do you think? A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, Son, go and work in the vineyard today.

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And he answered, I will not. But afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same.

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And he answered, I go, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?

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They said the first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.

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For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him.

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And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your mind and believe him. Hear another parable.

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There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.

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When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

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Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying,

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They'll respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, This is the heir! Come!

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Let us kill him and have his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

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When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They said to him, He'll put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.

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Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures? The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

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This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people producing its fruits.

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And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

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When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

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And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

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Again, he sent his other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited. See, I've prepared my dinner.

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My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention, went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

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The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

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Then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.

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And those servants went into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

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But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there was a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him,

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Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants,

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Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.

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Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the

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Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.

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Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said,

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Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax. And they brought him a denarius.

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And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said, Caesar's. And he said to them,

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Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. When they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away.

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The same day Sadducees came to him, who asked, Say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying,

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Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

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Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.

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So to the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be?

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For they all had her. But Jesus answered them, You are wrong, because you know neither the

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Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

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And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God? I am the God of Abraham, and the

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God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

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But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

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Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your

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God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it.

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and prophets.

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Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, What do you think about the

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Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, The son of David. He said to them,

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How is it then that David in the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet?

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If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray. Father, please bless today. We pray,

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Lord, that You would grant to us understanding that I would faithfully handle

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Your Word before Your people. We pray, God, that You would teach, that You would instruct, that You, Lord, would bring light to our minds, to our hearts.

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Please bring conviction where it's needed. Please grant repentance,

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Lord, for those who don't know You. And I pray, Lord God, that You would allow us to see the glory of Jesus in this section of Scripture before us.

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And I pray, Lord, with all that's in me, that You would allow me to be faithful in Jesus' name.

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Amen. So this entire section here, if you've been tracking with us and you've been with us over the last couple of months, you know that I've been very, very excited to get to this section because this is getting to the climax of Matthew, but not merely the climax of the

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Gospel according to Matthew. Now, it's agreed upon generally that Matthew is a very Jewish -focused

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Gospel. You have the synoptic Gospels, and they have different audiences and different purposes.

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You have, of course, John. Each Gospel telling maybe different aspects of the ministry of Jesus, His messianic work,

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His salvation. But Matthew isn't merely focused upon bringing the story to a climax for his own story.

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He is actually hanging onto the story that's given to us in the Old Testament.

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In other words, Matthew is, in speaking to a Jewish audience, very much aiming at demonstrating that Jesus is the promised

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Messiah. He was the one that was promised beforehand. Jesus, I said last week, is not a novelty dropped into history, not something that was unexpected.

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Now, this is really, really important, and it's interesting because we uploaded the video of the sermon that I gave in Kauai, and we talked there about how we know that Jesus is the

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Messiah. The popular text that we often appeal to from the Old Testament to demonstrate that Jesus is in fact the fulfillment of all those things.

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It's interesting because this atheist jumped on and said, oh, that doesn't help me at all. I'm an atheist.

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I reject your God. You can't point to those texts to demonstrate that Jesus is anything to me.

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And it's like, well, that's a different direction. If I'm dealing with an atheist, I'm going to go even deeper than these texts.

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The assumption is this. If you accept that God has spoken in history, that He's revealed

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Himself, He's condescended and given us revelation from the Old Testament, that's

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God's Word. God speaks. God exists. God is carrying history along.

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Then we have to, as people who believe that revelation, ask the question, is Jesus the

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Messiah? Truly the Messiah? Did He fulfill the Old Testament expectation of the

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Messiah? And the answer is yes. And Matthew throughout his Gospel aims at that point.

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Matthew is writing for this Jewish context, this Jewish audience, and he is from the very start when that gun goes off and that race begins for Matthew, he is immediately in the story of God's covenant people, the expectation of the

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Messiah and His Kingdom coming into the world. And Matthew, very specifically here, and we're going to find this out over the next couple of weeks, is in that story, that expectation of Messiah.

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I told you that there was an expectation in the Old Testament of salvation and what?

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Judgment. Salvation and judgment. Now, I just want to do this very quickly today.

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As Christians, we very rightly aim at demonstrating that Jesus is the

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Messiah. How? By pointing to all those texts that clearly give us the passion of the

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Messiah. Psalm 22, for example. We always point at, they pierced His hands and His feet,

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His heart like wax, melted within Him. He's surrounded by dogs. They cast lots for His clothing.

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That's Psalm 22 before crucifixion is even a thing. There it is in the text. We point to Isaiah 53.

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He's pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well -being fell upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed.

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He justified the many as He bears their iniquities. We thought He was suffering for His own sins, that text tells us.

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But actually, God was counting Him as the guilty one. God was actually punishing Him for the sins of God's people.

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Now, don't get me wrong. We must point to those texts. It's glorious.

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When I first heard the gospel, one of the most powerful experiences for me, not knowing this book, it sat on my parents' stereo no matter where we were in the world collecting an inch of dust.

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Nobody picked it up, but I knew only this. There's a person named Jesus. People say

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He died and rose again, and that's His book. And when I first heard the gospel, one of the most exciting things for me when

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I had made a profession of faith in Jesus was to actually experience all of what

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God said about the Messiah from the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus. I remember just being elated and actually going into high school classes with my

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Bible. My teacher actually punished me before and sent me out of the room and maybe sit in the hallway more than one day because I would carry my

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Bible to class and I would just sit and just tell everybody about what I read the night before about how we know Jesus is the

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Messiah. Are you guys crazy? Everybody here know that Jesus is the Messiah? Does everyone know that He fulfilled these prophecies?

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It was so mind -boggling to me to see the kind of specificity that is in the

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Old Testament revelation regarding Jesus. It is powerful. But what we often miss as Christians is we focus in upon those texts about the salvation we have in the

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Messiah. We miss, however, the clear indications from the Old Testament revelation that when the

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Messiah came, He was going to bring salvation and what? Judgment. Now, this is really key.

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Very, very important. And if we can grab hold of this, I believe that we can faithfully unpack what

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Matthew says here in the next couple of chapters. Now, while the Old Testament does give us over and over again promises that go beyond the people of God, the covenant people of God.

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All over. Abraham, your descendants are going to be as numerous as the stars. Daniel 7, 13 -14.

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Kingdom, dominion, glory given to the Son of Man, to this Messiah coming on the clouds. He comes up to the

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Ancient of Days. He's given a kingdom that all the peoples and everybody from every language might serve

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Him. This is a vision, Psalm 22, that says that all of the nations are going to come and worship

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Him. It goes beyond the people of God, the covenant people of God. However, we have to make sure that we actually acknowledge that much of the story here in the

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Gospel according to Matthew is very much focused in upon the covenant people of God and the promises made specifically toward them.

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This is important. I'm not going to go over all those verses again, but make sure that we all have them in our minds as we enter into this section of Matthew.

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I showed you a couple of times from the Old Testament revelation. Malachi 3.

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Malachi 4. I showed you Isaiah 65. These are texts that are specifically directed towards the covenant people of God.

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Now remember now, Malachi 3, it's the book right before Matthew in your

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Bible. So you don't have to go far to read it. That actually gives us prophecy. That there is going to first be a forerunner to the

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Messiah. Someone is first going to come before Him. And then it says that the Lord whom you seek is going to come to His temple.

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So we know that the forerunner comes first. Then Messiah comes. The Lord whom you seek comes to His temple.

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And if you follow the ministry of Jesus and you specifically follow actually the Gospel according to Matthew and how

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Matthew sets the story up, you see that Matthew is following in that line of thought.

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Who's the forerunner, brothers and sisters? John the Baptist. Jesus explicitly says that He was the

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Elijah who was to come. So Jesus points towards John the Baptist. What is John the

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Baptist's ministry? What is He calling Israel to? What is it? Repentance.

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And the first words out of John the Baptist's mouth in Matthew 3, the same Gospel, is repent for the kingdom of heaven is what?

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At hand. It's at the fingertip reach. It's right there. And what is John the Baptist doing in Matthew 3?

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He's calling the leadership in Israel to repent. And he warns them.

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This is very important you capture this because it is in line with everything that was the expectation from the

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Old Testament. Forerunner, Lord whom you seek, comes to His temple and then Malachi says salvation and judgment.

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There's going to be salvation, purification, and judgment. John the Baptist, the forerunner, enters into Matthew's story and what is he saying to the leadership in Israel?

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What is he saying? He says the winnowing fork is in His hand. The axe is laid at the root of the trees.

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Who warned you to flee from the wrath about to come? And he says bear fruit.

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Bear fruit. So John the Baptist is that forerunner, that Elijah calling the people of God to repentance before God's judgment comes.

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And that was, brothers and sisters, Malachi 3 and Malachi 4, the expectation.

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Salvation and what? Judgment. Very important to have that in mind as you enter into these texts because Matthew follows that line of thought here.

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Now Isaiah 65 I showed you as well. Powerful section of Scripture where God actually speaks to His people and He confronts them for their sin and He says that His people are going to drink.

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His people are going to eat. They're going to go thirsty. And He says that He's going to give

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His people a new name. So God has, of course, in mind there in the

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Old Testament, salvation and what? Judgment. Say it with me, guys. Salvation and judgment.

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Matthew is following that theme. We see that. Malachi 3, Malachi 4, Isaiah 65.

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Go to those texts. Become familiar with them and you'll see how Matthew is picking up on that theme.

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Now a quick overview for everyone to catch up quickly. You'll remember that in Matthew 20, before we got into this section here, in verse 17,

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Jesus foretells His death. He says in Matthew 20, 17,

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And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside and on the way

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He said to them, See, we're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn

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Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and He'll be raised in the third day.

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So Jesus tells His disciples what to expect when they go to Jerusalem. In 20, verse 17, in chapter 20, verse 17, we have that expectation of going to Jerusalem.

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Jesus enters Jerusalem in 21, verse 1 and we know that Jesus tells them this amazing story about the donkey tied in a colt with her.

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He says, Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say,

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The Lord needs them. And He will send them at once. And of course, you have Matthew keying in that this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.

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Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

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Matthew is picking up on all of the expectation. Jesus' genealogy. All of these symbols of the

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Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus. The specificity with which the Old Testament spoke about the

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Messiah. And of course in this section, Jesus comes into Jerusalem and the people present all these branches and they say,

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Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

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Quick thing, sound familiar? Sound familiar? What did we do today in service?

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Psalm what? 118. So I want you to, there's a reason we did that today before service.

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Psalm 118. That's the psalm from which this is pulled. The Hosanna. But there's more in that psalm.

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Of course Jesus comes in, everyone presents those palm branches from the trees, they spread them out on the road, they're saying,

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Hosanna, quoting Psalm 118. Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is

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He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Jesus now enters and what do we have?

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We have Matthew highlighting Jesus cleansing the temple. We have a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus' ministry in John and we have a second cleansing here, vitally important to get.

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We talked about the law in Leviticus provided law for the priest to actually come and cleanse a house.

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He had to first come and check the house. When he came back a second time, if the disease was still there, the priest had to take the house apart, stone off of stone.

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Jesus is the perfect priest. He comes one time, cleanses the temple, and now as he enters

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Jerusalem again, he cleanses it again and Jesus follows the law of God through the cleansing of the temple.

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Jesus, of course, in this section is hungry. He goes from place to place and is hungry.

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Bethany, the house of dates. We have Nazareth, the branch, the Mount of Olives, the house of figs, and now

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Jesus is hungry, of course, and he comes now and he sees the fig tree.

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Of course, we have that section where Jesus actually curses the fig tree. Why? It's got leaves but no what?

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No fruit. Yeah. Leaves but no fruit. Jesus cleanses the temple.

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He comes in now writing. Everyone's praising God and they're presenting leaves before the Son of Man and he comes to the fig tree.

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Leaves, no fruit. And he's hungry. He comes for fruit. Remember that.

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Then Jesus, of course, curses the fig tree and then he tells his followers about the imprecatory prayer, about praying for that mountain to be cast into the sea.

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Brothers and sisters, very important, we talked about this. Jesus wasn't speaking like the Word of Faith teachers of our day.

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He's not telling you to move your relationship mountains and all your financial mountains and pray over these mountains and say literally to Squaw Peak or Camelback Mountain.

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Can you imagine if you take this like in the way we often do, just a bunch of Christians standing underneath Squaw Peak like this and just getting really discouraged because nothing's happening?

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Well, there's a problem. We need to read our Bibles faithfully and when Jesus is saying this, he is speaking in language that they understood in their day.

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I argue that Jesus is actually telling his followers about an imprecatory prayer. This is the high priest coming into a diseased

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Jerusalem, condemning it, not finding fruit, and telling his followers about how to pray to get this mountain cast into the sea.

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Now, as we're catching up now, Jesus, of course, is challenged on his authority.

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By what authority are you doing things? In verse 23 of chapter 21, and Jesus actually gives them a mind -boggling response that puts the pressure onto them and their answer to expose their sin and malice.

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Jesus was an expert at that because he is the embodiment of wisdom. And Jesus, of course, confronts that.

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This is an example of the leadership in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the scribes, the elders of the people coming to Jesus to challenge him.

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You're going to see in this next section that they actually wanted to lay hands on him to deliver him over immediately.

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They were, of course, afraid of his authority and his wisdom, and they were finding ways, plotting, to actually take him down.

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They were in sin against the Messiah. This was their long -expected

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Messiah right in front of them in the flesh and blood, and they are warring against him because he is indicting them.

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He's pointing out their sin. And of course, as you move through here, you'll see, and I read through the whole section on purpose because there's a lot we need to connect together here, that now we have

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Jesus giving three parables that are indictments. And there are four questions following this.

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Three are from the religious leaders and rulers in that day that are trying to challenge

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Jesus and his authority. And the fourth one is a question from Jesus Himself.

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It's a powerful section. Now, I just want to highlight something quickly. Go with me ahead for a moment.

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We're going to be in the parable about the master of the house who planted a vineyard. But I want to point something out to you in terms of what is happening in front of Jesus.

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This is key. Context. Who's he talking to?

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What was going on in their hearts and minds? What were they plotting against Jesus? Is Jesus walking into Jerusalem not knowing what to expect?

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Or is Jesus actually in the story of the promised Messiah from the

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Old Testament actually engaging in the kind of indictment that we would expect from Malachi 3 and 4 and Isaiah 65?

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You see, Jesus now comes into Jerusalem not simply as somebody who is handed over to them just to be beaten up, and he's confused about what's going to happen.

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He tells them, I'm going to Jerusalem. Here's what's going to happen to me. He comes in cleansing a temple, cursing a fig tree, challenging them, and indicting them with these parables.

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I want you to hear just a bit of what was behind the leadership in Jerusalem. And this is really interesting.

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Just skip ahead now to 2215 in terms of who's Jesus talking to? What were they doing?

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What did they believe? What's behind their conversations with Jesus and his parables against them?

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In 2215 it says, Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words, and they sent their disciples to him along with the

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Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you're true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.

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Oh boy. So this is the Pharisees and the Herodians. Very important thing here.

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Very strange bedfellows. Very strange. The fact that you have now here the

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Pharisees and the Herodians working together, it's like having the

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Republicans and the Democrats hanging out together, praying over Donald Trump. Weird situation.

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Right? Strange. But here you have the Pharisees, the conservatives of the day, right?

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The conservatives. And you have the Herodians, those who are sort of like mingled together with the government of the day.

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They were really despised by the conservatives and the nationalists. And you have them now working together to actually ask questions of Jesus.

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And it's really powerful here, because here's what happens. They say, Teacher, we know that you're true and you teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.

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What's this called? Flattery. Flattery. You ever experienced that?

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Oh no, right? You ever experienced somebody who's always flattering, right, to get what they want?

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You know, of course, that this is sin. You see, we can recognize it in the text, because it's clear that the

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Pharisees and the Herodians don't usually hang out together. They're not like best friends.

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They're not like at the same movies together. They're not hanging out at the same restaurants and coffee shops next to each other, smiling and clinking glasses.

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These guys don't really like each other, and yet they're teamed up against Jesus to challenge Jesus. And when they come to Jesus, what's behind this moment of Jesus coming into Jerusalem is these people are trying to catch

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Him and trip Him up. He's challenging them, cleansing their temple, cursing a fig tree.

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He is mixing them up in all their devices to try to actually get Him tripped up in His words.

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They're plotting to put hands on Jesus, to deliver Him over, to have Him killed. And in this moment, they flatter the

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Lord Jesus. Now this is important. Let's talk real quickly about flattery.

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Go quickly to Psalm 12. Psalm 12. Psalm 12, verses 2 through 3.

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It says, "...Everyone utters lies to his neighbor. With flattering lips and a double heart, they speak.

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May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts."

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Now, since you're in the Psalms, go to Psalm 62. Psalm 62. You see that the

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Lord speaks about this quite often. Psalm 62, verse 4.

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"...They only plan to thrust Him down from His high position. They take pleasure in..."

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Mark this. "...falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse."

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You can look also at Proverbs 27 .6, Jeremiah 9 .8, Proverbs 26 .28,

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Proverbs 29 .5, 28 .23, Psalm 55, 20 -21.

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Don't worry, it's being recorded. You can go back. But God speaks a lot about flattery. And what is flattery?

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It's things you're saying with your mouth, but inwardly you have some other device. It's saying one thing with your mouth when really you're filled inside with malice and lies.

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Flattery is to deceive. Flattery's purpose is to deceive. And flattery, brothers and sisters, is a sin.

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It's a sin. And it's interesting here because we praise to encourage or to bless.

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But flattery is to deceive. That's its purpose. Now what's important here is to actually mark this moment with the

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Lord Jesus. Here you have religious people. People who profess faith in Yahweh, the

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God of Israel. They say that they serve Him, and they're coming to God in the flesh, the embodiment of wisdom.

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And they're coming to Him with deception in their hearts and malice seeking to actually destroy the

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Son of God. And they flatter with their lips. I think we can learn something here.

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I wanted to highlight this as a pastor. We can learn something here in terms of religious people who profess to love

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God who actually deceive with their lips when inwardly they're full of lies.

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You ever had an experience with somebody who was always flattering you, but they had other purposes?

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They had other things in mind? They had a goal that they were working towards? I think we can see it oftentimes in commercials today, right?

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Commercials are full of flattery today, right? For example, a commercial that praises moms for their hard work and then advertises a specific brand of diaper.

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Right? Oh, you're such an amazing mom. Moms are so wonderful and beautiful, and so how about these huggies, right?

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Right? That kind of flattery is used. There's a purpose behind it. There's something the person is trying to gain or to get from you, so they flatter you.

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Or a car commercial that says you work hard. Reward yourself in an attempt to get you to get their new car.

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Or somebody that tells your friend that you are just wonderful at math before asking you to help with the homework.

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Or praising your mom, kids, for a wonderful dinner just before asking if you can get out of washing the dishes for the night.

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You see, we recognize that kind of manipulation, but as believers

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I think we can learn from this moment with religious people who are confronting the Son of God, trying to flatter

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Him with their lips while they have another device behind it. Now, here's where we go wrong with this.

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We recognize that as Christians we should have integrity with our lips, amen? When we say something, we mean it.

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And oftentimes, that actually gets the wrong direction. Somebody says that I don't want to flatter and deceive somebody, so I'm just going to be really straightforward and harsh with people, right?

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That's also not biblical. We should actually encourage and bless people, but we shouldn't have in our hearts malice and some other motive behind the flattering words that we're giving to them.

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Here's a moment where wisdom, the very embodiment of wisdom, is walking among religious people.

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And here these religious people are just laying their cards on the table. This is the nature of their heart.

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This is who they truly are. So these are the people that Jesus is actually confronting. Religious people who ought to actually fall to their faces before the

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Son of God and actually trust Him and follow Him, but instead they are trying to destroy and to deceive

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Him. That's what's before us. That is the context before us in this next section.

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Now, let's go to the text here before us. The parable of the tenants. In verse 33 of chapter 21, it says here another parable.

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There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to the tenants and went into another country.

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Now, quick thing here. Jesus is already appealed to the symbol of the fig tree representing

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Israel. Leaves, but know what? Fruit. And He's hungry and He's come for fruit.

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So we already have that picture that God desires for His people to bring forth fruit for Him.

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Here is Jesus coming to inspect and no fruit. Inspect cleanses the temple. And now

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He gives them a common parable of a master who owns a vineyard and He leases it out to people and goes off to another country.

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Now, if you look in Isaiah chapter 5 verse 2, Ezekiel 17 6, Hosea 9 10, you'll see that God used this language of the vineyard to actually refer to His people.

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And let's just go there quickly to Isaiah chapter 5 so you can see it. Isaiah 5 in verse 1.

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Here's what God says. Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning His vineyard.

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My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines.

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He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it and He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

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And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?

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When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now

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I'll tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge and it should be devoured.

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I will break down its wall and it should be trampled down. I will make it waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed and briars and thorns shall grow up.

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I will also command the clouds that they rain. No rain upon it, for the vineyard of the

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Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are His pleasant planting.

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And He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, an outcry.

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Notice this. God's calling Israel His what? His vineyard. And when

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He talks about not bearing fruit, what kind of fruit was He looking for? He says that He looked for what?

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Justice, but behold, bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, an outcry.

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So just gather this for a moment now. When Jesus comes into Jerusalem as a Jewish Messiah, as the expected

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Messiah, now before Him are the religious leaders in Jerusalem and He gives them a parable about a master over a vineyard.

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It's a common parable and it was understood that Israel was represented by that vineyard.

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The vineyard is Israel. Now here's what's important to note in terms of the background here. The chief priests and the elders probably owned lands.

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Chief priests and elders could have owned land. It was actually a common thing for rabbis to actually create parables around masters of vineyards, vineyard owners.

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It was such a normative thing for people who had money to do so to actually purchase land.

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Here's what's interesting. It would take about four years. Four years to start producing fruit from a vineyard.

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So this is a massive investment and you had to be a relatively patient person.

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You're going to invest money in something and you're not going to even start seeing produce for another four years. But this was a normative thing in this culture among the land.

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They were used to this sort of a thing. So chief priests and elders probably owned land that was just like that.

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So Jesus is giving them a parable that really rests with them. It sits with them.

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They understand the context. Masters, vineyards, tenants. I get it.

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Oh, the vineyard. God and Israel. I get it. I've read Isaiah 5.

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I know that text. So Jesus is giving them a parable that really hits home with them. Now, rabbis would use these parables of landowners who leased vineyards to tenants and oftentimes the landowners would take even 50%.

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50 % of the produce from the vineyard. Now as Jesus moves on he says in verse 34, actually

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I'll jump back here. When the season for fruit drew near, verse 34, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruits.

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And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them.

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Finally, he sent his son to them. Now this is interesting because as Jesus tells a common parable to them that they would have been maybe familiar with or used to, and rabbis were touching on this sort of a thing and understanding the vineyard and Israel being used to this sort of circumstance in their land, he actually tells them a pretty graphic story.

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Who would do such a thing? It should be obvious. Can you imagine a landowner blessing people with the ability to actually work land and have a place to stay and be able to gain produce and they didn't have to put any money into this thing, it all belonged to this guy, and they created a contractual agreement with that person, they made an arrangement, and now the landowner, four years has gone by, and he's starting to send people to get what they agreed upon.

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Can I have my fruit now? And then all of a sudden, strangely, maliciously, murderously, these tenants of the vineyard start beating and destroying the people coming as arranged.

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It would have been mind -boggling. Who would do such a stupid thing? And in this day, if you engage in that kind of behavior, perhaps that landowner might send a hit squad to the vineyard to actually get the land back.

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And it would have been something that they would have said, how could somebody engage in such a thing? But Jesus actually very soon in the text, in Matthew chapter 23, when

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He indicts the religious leaders of Jerusalem, He says to them, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

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How often I wanted to gather your children like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you,

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Jerusalem, you were not willing. Jesus actually challenges

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Jerusalem and He says that they stone the prophets, kill those who are sent to her.

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All the blood of the righteous, Jesus says, coming soon, is upon this generation.

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Jerusalem was engaged in killing God's prophets, persecuting God's prophets, and it was folly, folly to engage in such a thing.

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Now here's what's important, that Jesus, I think, gives us here, is

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He tells them how God sent His servants, the prophets, they're martyred, they're beaten.

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I think what we need to pay attention to here is as Jesus describes this story, is you have a very patient landowner, amen?

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Four years before you're getting fruit, and then the landowner, and all this patient working this out, is sending people to go and get the fruit from the vineyard, but they just keep getting beaten and destroyed and sent back.

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And oftentimes I think we can see in Israel's history and, please listen, today, that we mistake

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God's patience with weakness. He's not going to respond.

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He won't set a heavy hand down. If He sends His Son, let's kill His Son.

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We'll take His inheritance. I think that's what we often do as human beings, is we see the delayed hand of God's judgment as God's absence or God's weakness.

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Take, for example, the situation we're in today. We have faithful men and women of God who are speaking to the culture that we now live in, speaking to our culture about the injustices in the land, speaking to our culture about the blood that's on our hands, speaking to our culture about turning their backs to God and running away from God.

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And our culture just lives as though God is absent or that God is weak.

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And what's interesting here is that Jesus now tells the story as God sends people to gather the fruit, they then see that God is sending

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His Son to them. And their response to this is, let's kill

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Him. Have His inheritance. See, God says, they'll respect

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My Son. When the tenants saw the Son, they said to themselves, this is the heir come, let us kill Him and have

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His inheritance. And they took Him and threw Him out of the vineyard and killed

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Him. It would have seemed like absolute folly to these first century

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Jews that the land owner would send His Son? Why would you send your

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Son? They already demonstrated to you that they're not going to give you the produce. They did all these things to the people you sent before.

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You're going to send your Son? And what madness and murderous hearts to say that, oh, this is the heir, let's kill

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Him and take His inheritance. And they do what? They take Him out of the vineyard and they kill

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Him. Was it folly to send the Son to wicked people?

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No. We know from the text of Scripture it's the grace of God, the love of God to send

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His Son to the vineyard where He is thrown out and He's killed. Of course, I have to point out that Hebrews 13, verse 13 tells that story of the

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Son of Man being killed and thrown outside of the city. But here's an important element.

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I want us to hang on to this. This is big. So come back now and let's highlight this for a second. Here's a moment where Jesus comes into Jerusalem.

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He's indicting Jerusalem, cleansing the temple, cursing the fig tree. He's given them a parable that clearly relates to them and they perceive it in a moment.

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They know He's talking about them. But Jesus has a moment here where He actually is declaring Himself to be the

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Son of God. Now we take it for granted because we know that Jesus is the Divine Son of God.

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But here's a moment where Jesus comes to religious people in the first century who are rejecting Him as Messiah and He is actually calling

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Himself the Son of God. Here's a moment where Jesus calls

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Himself the Son of God. They take His Son, take Him out of the vineyard and they kill

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Him. And Jesus says, in verse 40, when therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will

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He do to those tenants? They said to Him, He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give

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Him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the Scriptures, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?

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This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Jesus in this parable is calling

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Himself the Son of God. Jesus is God's Son. Listen to this. He is the true

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Son. He is the true Israel. Now this is important. If you would, go with me quickly here to Hosea in the

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Old Testament. Hosea chapter 11. Hosea chapter 11.

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Here's a text that is powerful and Matthew uses it.

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Hosea 11 verse 1, when Israel was a child I loved

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Him and out of Egypt I called my what? Son.

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What is God calling Israel, the people of God here? He's calling Israel His what? His Son.

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Out of Israel I called My Son. And then as the text moves on, you'll see God's explanation of that.

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But here's a moment in the Old Testament where God actually refers to Israel as His Son.

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I want you to see this in terms of a theme in Matthew. Keep your finger there in Matthew 21. Just move back to Matthew chapter 2 so you'll see how

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Matthew is picking this theme up. Now Matthew chapter 2 verse 14 is the section where Matthew tells the story about Christ's flight into Egypt.

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Of course the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, tells him rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you.

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For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. Now of course there it says in verse 14, and he rose and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

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Watch what Matthew does here. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, and here's the quotation from Hosea.

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Out of Egypt I called My Son. Wait a minute.

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In Hosea chapter 11 verse 1, that was God actually calling

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Israel God's Son. But Matthew is actually picking up on a theme that's really throughout the

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New Testament, and that is that Jesus is the true and perfect Israel. Jesus is what

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Israel was intended to be. Jesus is the fulfillment of all that God had commanded for Israel, God's Son.

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So while Israel was called God's Son, Israel failed in their vocation as God's Son.

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Israel failed. Jesus is the true and perfect Israel. Jesus is the true

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Son of God, the Divine Son of God. Matthew announces it in Matthew chapter 2 that Jesus is the fulfillment of Hosea chapter 11 verse 1.

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Out of Egypt I called My Son. Jesus is what it was all pointing to.

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All of Israel's story is wrapped up and finalized in Jesus. And now here as Jesus comes into Jerusalem and indicts the religious leadership, now

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Jesus is giving parables where the Master is clearly God and Jesus is

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God's Son. But it gets deeper.

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I told you that they asked Jesus some questions. I told you they asked

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Jesus some questions but Jesus has a question for them. I want you to jump to it. I read it at the beginning. Let's go to it together. In Matthew 22 41, here's

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Jesus' question. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question saying, what do you think about the

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Messiah? Whose Son is He? They said to Him, the

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Son of David. He said to them, how is it then that David in the

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Spirit calls Him Lord? Saying, and he quotes now what?

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Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

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If then David calls Him Lord, how is He His Son? And no one was able to answer

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Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions. Listen, as Christians, we take it for granted,

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Jesus is the Divine Son of God. Amen? Right? We accept that. But here now Jesus is interacting with the religious leadership of Jerusalem, and Matthew's showing us,

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Jesus is the true and perfect Israel, Matthew chapter 2. Jesus is giving parables, actually saying that He's the

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Son of God, and here's a moment where He challenges the religious leadership in Jerusalem, saying this, well if He's David's Son, then how is

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David calling Him Lord? Whose Son is the Messiah?

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See what Jesus is doing? He's pointing them toward His true identity. He is the

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Son of God. He is what Israel was supposed to be, but it gets deeper. Matthew has another highlight moment of Jesus and His declaration of Him as the true

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Son of God, and that is in Matthew 26. Move ahead a step to Matthew 26, verse 57.

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You know this scene? It's a famous scene. Then those who had seized Jesus led

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Him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered, and Peter was following Him in a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest.

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And going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put

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Him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last, two came forward and said, this man said,

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I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make?

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Now, quick point, highlight moment. Remember that? Remember where Jesus actually said to the

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Jews, destroy this temple, and in three days who will raise it up? I will raise it up.

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And what does it say about that? He was speaking of the temple of His what? Of His body.

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So you see what we're doing in the Gospels now? The writers of Scripture through the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit are showing us that Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel as God's Son. Jesus is what the temple was pointing to.

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Jesus is who the priest was pointing to. Jesus is who the sacrifice of the Lamb was pointing to.

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Jesus is the sum and the substance of all of God's promises. Are you seeing it?

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All of it. Everything that they were experiencing and all their practice and all their ritual was all aimed at pointing them to Jesus.

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All of it. It wasn't so much about Israel as it was about Jesus. It wasn't so much about the temple as it was about God and what

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God was going to do in the Messiah. It wasn't about the Lamb and the Lamb's blood over the door post.

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It wasn't about all. It was all about Jesus. He is the fulfillment of all of God's promises.

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But here in this moment, you'll see what Matthew is doing. Out of Egypt I call my son.

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What does the master of the vineyard do when they kill his son? Whose son is the

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Messiah? How is he David's son if David calls him Lord? And in this moment now before the high priest, listen to what happens.

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Verse 62. The high priest stood up and said, Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?

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But Jesus remained silent like a lamb led to the what?

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Slaughter. Fulfillment of prophecy there. And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God. Tell us if you're the

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Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, You've said so.

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But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

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Then the high priest tore his robe and said, He's uttered blasphemy. What further witness do we need?

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You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? They answered, He deserves death.

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Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him saying, Prophesy to us, you Messiah.

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Who is it that struck you? So in this moment, so many scriptures, so many scriptures coming together in this moment.

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You see, if we understand the Old Testament revelation and don't treat the

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Old Testament as something that is just irrelevant now and not worthy of our attention, then we can actually understand this inspired revelation better.

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Here is now the high priest who's challenging Jesus, You the Messiah? The Son of God? And Jesus answers, essentially in the affirmative.

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Yeah. And then what Jesus says is something that offended them, but why?

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Why? Jesus says in response to their question if He's the Son of God, You'll see the

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Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Who can tell me where in the

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Old Testament we have the Son of Man coming on the clouds? Daniel 7 13 -14

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I saw one like the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.

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And He comes up to the ancient of days and is presented before Him and to Him is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve

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Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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But you know what's powerful about that section of Scripture? It says that thrones plural thrones plural are set up, and the ancient of days takes

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His seat, and the Son of Man comes up to take His seat.

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It's really the scene of the divine Son of Man in the Old Testament.

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Why are they so upset with Jesus calling Himself the Son of God? They understand what this is all pointing to, and in that moment here is where their ultimate hatred for Jesus, the

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Son of God comes out. But Matthew is highlighting this theme.

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Jesus is the true Son of God. Israel failed in their vocation.

01:00:03

Israel failed in their duty. Israel failed in their covenant. And here comes Jesus, all that Israel was supposed to be, the true

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Son of God, the divine Son of God, the eternal Son of God, coming now into His city, into His temple, and actually indicting

01:00:21

His people, condemning His people, and judging His people. But here's what I wanted to finish on for today.

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In the laborers in the vineyard parable, Jesus is clearly condemning them and warning them of the soon -coming judgment.

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He tells them, have you never read in the Scriptures that the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?

01:00:44

This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Quick question, see if you guys are with me on this. What's that from?

01:00:52

What's that verse from? Psalm 118.

01:00:59

Tim, maybe a little more passion next time. You're not quite passionate enough when you're singing the psalm. It's not connecting.

01:01:05

Just kidding. I love when Tim does it, because he brings it to life. I love that.

01:01:11

But watch this. Psalm 118, that's what that's from. This is a few steps away from somewhere else in Psalm 118 that was just quoted.

01:01:19

Remember when Jesus comes into Jerusalem? Remember that? Comes in Jerusalem, fulfillment of the prophecy, donkey, all the rest.

01:01:26

Everyone's saying what? Come on now, yell it. Everyone's saying what? Hosanna!

01:01:32

They're quoting Psalm 118. A few steps later now, Jesus is quoting

01:01:38

Psalm 118 too, but it's a different part. It's the part about them rejecting the stone that has become the cornerstone.

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This Messiah that they reject is becoming the chief cornerstone.

01:01:55

And Jesus says this, final word. Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

01:02:06

Brothers and sisters, what's going to be taken away from them? The kingdom of God.

01:02:13

The rule of God is going to be taken away from you and given to a people producing its what?

01:02:20

Why did God come here, Jesus come here into Jerusalem? What is He inspecting?

01:02:26

What's He looking for? Fruit. Fig tree. No fruit. Temple. Cleanse it.

01:02:31

It's diseased. Parable. Master. Tenants. Vineyard. Send the

01:02:36

Son to collect the what? Fruit. God demands of His people that they produce what?

01:02:44

Fruit. And God has not changed. God judged His covenant people in the

01:02:50

Old Testament for their lack of fruit, for their injustices, for their killing His prophets and those who were sent to Her.

01:02:58

And in this moment, Jesus promises them what they should have already expected. What does

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Isaiah 65 promise us? That God's servants would drink.

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But the covenant breakers would be thirsty. God's servants would eat, but they would be hungry.

01:03:17

And God says what? I will give my people a new what? Name. A new name.

01:03:23

Here is Jesus now walking in the line of all that God promised us about the

01:03:29

Messiah's coming. Salvation and judgment. Here's what we should learn from this.

01:03:35

This is the fulfillment of all of God's promises to His people. They should have seen it. If they would have believed

01:03:41

His word, they would have believed Him. What does Jesus point them to? It's something that I actually learned years ago from Dr.

01:03:49

White. I never lost it after I first heard it. It was where Jesus refers to His word. He says have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

01:04:00

Jesus equating the reading of Scripture as God speaking. God speaking.

01:04:07

They should have known. Jesus wasn't coming in as a novelty. He told them this is what was spoken by God.

01:04:16

If they had believed Moses, they would have believed Jesus. All of these are fulfillments of God's promises.

01:04:24

What should we learn from this? God is faithful. He is merciful. He is patient.

01:04:30

However, we ought to humbly respect God's patience because God is still a consuming fire.

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They presumed upon God's mercy. They presumed upon God's patience.

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And yet they rejected the embodiment of all of God's promises standing right in front of them.

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Now can I just finish with this word. When I was praying over how do

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I bring this to your people God? How do I connect this word to our hearts and to our minds?

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One of the things that I kept meditating on is how often we turn our backs on God.

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How often we presume upon His patience and His kindness.

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How often we pretend like He's not there. How often we're dismissive of His patience and His mercy.

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And in this moment here you have religious people who are holding the very revelation of God in the one hand and touching the face of the

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Messiah with the other. And yet even with holding the revelation of God and being in physical contact with the

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Messiah they will not turn from their sin.

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They will not recognize God's coming judgment. Even as God, watch, even as God is sending warnings and warnings and calling to repent and He's sending

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His people on street corners laying down doing weird things and eating weird food and all these different symbols and strange things and all this stuff calling to His people.

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As all this is happening people are just dismissive and turning their heads and blind eyes and walking away and saying well

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I don't need to think about that now. I don't need to respond to God's calls now. I don't need to respond to God's tenants or His people coming to get fruit because well

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God is patient. Or maybe I can get an upper hand on God. Maybe I don't need to listen to God. And brothers and sisters do we live in a culture like that today?

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Don't we? We live in a culture where we are dismissive of God's love, His patience, His kindness towards us,

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His mercy and we say not today God. Maybe someday I'll think about that. Or we just outright reject

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God's revelation and turn our back on God. Brothers and sisters these parables ought to teach us something about God.

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He is good. He is so patient. He is so merciful. But there is a time where God's holiness,

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His justice and His wrath do fall. God is a consuming fire.

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He is the judge of all the earth and He will always do right. Now today is the day of salvation.

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Today is the day to hear His voice and to turn in faith to His Messiah for the gift of eternal life.

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And this is what as a pastor I felt like I needed to say to us as Christians.

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We always say that God does not change, right? He is the unchanging God. And yet in the

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Old Testament God is sending His people to Israel to receive fruit, to receive their godly response and they just kill

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His messengers. And now here is the Messiah Himself. God in the flesh, tabernacled among us, walking into His city.

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This is the whole world He created. He made these people when they were babies. And now here they are as grown -ups defying

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Him. He is walking into His own city looking for fruit, cleansing the temple and He gives them this parable of a vineyard owner looking for fruit.

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And they hate Him. And they cast Him out of the vineyard and they kill Him. But notice in that what does the

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Messiah come to get for God? Fruit. And God is the unchanging

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God. I want to highlight this about this moment. Here we learn from Jesus that God expects of His people that they produce what?

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Fruit. They produce fruit. He doesn't buy land, lease it to tenant owners and walk away from it and forget about it.

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He sends people to get fruit from it. And the question is, as a church, as we see this, we see this, watch normally, as those are the bad guys.

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The Pharisees, the chief priests, the Herodians, all those guys, the elders there, they're the bad guys.

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Of course. Pile on. Let's indict them. Let's talk about how bad and how wicked they are.

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But brothers and sisters, as a church, what ought we to learn from this? Is that God actually requires of His people that they produce what?

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Fruit. And you'll notice what Jesus says in the parable. He says that He leases it out to other tenants who will do what?

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Give Him the fruits in the season. And here's the thing.

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That's you. That's me. God calls us as His people to produce as His vineyard fruit.

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And the question is this. Will we respond with a humble heart and brokenness in a way that is different than these religious people who flatter

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Jesus with their lips? They say such sweet things to Jesus. Watch. They can talk like Christians, but in their hearts, their hearts are far from God and they have malice and lies in their hearts.

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They can say all the nice things to Jesus. They would have had a sweet prayer life to Yahweh. Wonderful.

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But all they did was flatter and lie. And when God sends merciful servants to get fruit, they destroy.

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My question is this. Will you respond with a humble heart and with pure lips to the

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Messiah? Will you respond in a way that actually looks like the tenants who produce fruit for the

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Messiah when Jesus comes to apologia, to our fellowship? Does He find a tree with leaves?

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Or does He come to find a body of believers who are submitted to Him and one another producing fruit?

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That's our call. Let's pray. Father, please bless the words that went out today for Your glory. Please use this message for the glory of Christ and His Kingdom.

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Please draw us to Jesus in faith and draw us to one another in love.