Luke 20:1-19, Sez Who?

Luke chapter 20 be reading verses 1 to 19. I hear the word of the Lord One day as jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel

The chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him Tell us by what authority you do these things or who is it that gave you this authority?

He answered them I also will ask you a question now. Tell me Was the baptism of john from heaven or from man?

And they discussed it with one another saying if we say from heaven, he will say why did you not believe him?

But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that john was a prophet

So they answered that they did not know where it came from and jesus said to them Neither will

I tell you by what authority I do these things And he began to tell the people this parable

A man planted a vineyard and led it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while When the time came he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard

But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty -handed and he sent another servant But they also beat him and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty -handed

And he sent a third This one they wounded and cast out Then the owner of the vineyard said what shall

I do I will send my beloved son people Perhaps they will respect him

But when the tenants saw him they said to themselves This is the heir let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours

And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others

When they heard this they said surely not But he looked directly at them and said

What then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone it will crush him

May the lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word You can't do that What says who

You can't say that Says who You can't believe that Says who

Well, that's the question today who says that something is wrong or right or forbidden or required?

or what something means We have now in our culture what some author about 20 years ago called the crisis of cultural authority

The crisis about what makes something true or false right or wrong about who or Or what is in authority if it feels good to me?

Well, who says it's wrong? If an eight -year -old boy says he's a girl who's to say that he's not one I mean except for biology or nature dna

But who's to say what biology means sure, maybe the maybe the anatomy is male

There's xy chromosomes that we can see in a dna test But his if his psyche tells him otherwise who's to say that his psyche is wrong and nature is right

This past week. I heard an interesting podcast from megan kelly interviewing a psychologist named deborah

So about transgenderism so told how she was forced out of academics because she documented the harm done to children

Who were being given drugs and other treatments because they claimed to be trans to have that what they technically called gender dysphoria

Children often end up renouncing that as they mature But for some if they've been prescribed drugs and so forth a lot of treatments there's been changes done to their bodies which are now irreversible and which they now regret

And she knew this deborah. So that publishing these findings would make her unacceptable in many universities

She used to be admired for having some integrity and she commented That she's all for now.

This is not like some very conservative person Just you know standing up for what she believes. She was actually she described herself as a liberal person

She commented that she's all for affirming adults who report this gender dysphoria because no one is harmed by that She says that's that's the typical kind of modern

Definition of what makes something right or wrong for that matter Make what makes it right if you want it and no one else is harmed by it

Well, it's good Then later she said that conversion or reparative therapy for homosexuals who don't want to be homosexuals anymore.

She said is unethical and I thought well, why even according to you why

I mean if they want it They want to try that that reparative therapy and no one else is harmed by it

Why is it now suddenly? unethical So I say back to her Well says who?

Well, deborah. So was reporting on the intolerance of much of the academy that began by rejecting any kind of external as empirical observable objective authority freedom we were told is being free all those authorities even biology, but now

These same people won't tolerate reporting facts Well says who?

That we have to accept Transgenderism we do they say this is what happens when people believe that we need to be free of of truth of External standards of right and wrong like being free of a plumb line or a level to see if a wall is straight

We need we need to be free of all natural law of the idea of truth of authority of absolutes

We need to be free of all that so that we can be free We were told that that ethic that if it feels good

To me and if it doesn't hurt anyone else that that will lead to more tolerance and to more freedom

The irony is that it has produced exactly the opposite when people are free of any authority telling them that they may be wrong

Then they're also free To tell you that you are wrong just because they want to do it in 1988 the

American philosopher Alan Bloom published the closing of the American mind about how relativism That is the idea that there's no truth.

There's no standards There's no authority that that has resulted in students He said as it was a professor of philosophy and the students now being unwilling to learn

I mean after all why am I learn anything? There's no truth Because there's no truth there's only opinions other than your opinion is no better than mine.

Why should I bother studying your opinion? I'll just assert my opinion in the 1990s.

We began to hear about political correctness That is the idea that you have to support these right opinions that these people have agreed on like about homosexuality

Or if you don't agree with those you are then politically incorrect. You are something's wrong with you Recently that has grown into the what they now call a cancel culture in which unacceptable people according to them

What they consider unacceptable people like this this Deborah. So I guess are forced out. They're fired. They're discriminated against They're not published so forth like one congresswoman

Woman who literally said in the past couple weeks that we should make a list of all the people who supported a president

She doesn't like so that we so that those people who supported him could never work again Who says that I can't oppress you in the name of tolerance, of course

That's the problem of the great says who? Here is what that they asked that same question of Jesus says who?

That you can drive out the merchants from the temple from whom we get some kickbacks from Who says that you could come in here and start teaching?

There's a crisis here in Luke chapter 20 of cultural authority who has authority in this culture

Well today professors psychologists journalists will say what they do who says we have to accept those ethic.

Well, they say we say They say today same -sex marriage or transgender genderism is right and that those who oppose it are bigots

We say well says who they say we do if you ask says who then they'll try to cancel you

They'll try to fire you from your academic positions So you can't work again or ban your books from Amazon or remove them from Target censure you and then temples of the culture in the name of tolerance, of course here the religious leaders the chief priest and The scribes and the elders in verse 1 that they thought they were the authorities they thought that they could say

What could and could not be done in the temple and so now? They're going to try to cancel

Jesus We see that here in in two major parts who's in charge of the temple and Who's in charge of the kingdom?

Who's in charge of this temple? of course this group of religious leaders thought they were and they were not happy that Jesus had purified it and Did basically just set up shop they're starting to teach

They've already started to plot to kill him at the end of chapter 19 and now they're going to make their move

They're going to ask him some questions each of them trick questions traps That if he answers them wrong and they can't figure out how we can do anything other than answer them wrong

But if he answered them wrong, they can accuse him of a blasphemy They can turn the crowds against him and these crowds remember in your chapter 19

You were so impressed by him that they were hanging on to his every word They can alienate those crowds from him

And then once that's done they could swoop in with their guards to arrest him and do him in that's their plan

Their first question is the the obvious one says who Since you've stormed into this temple just yesterday or maybe the day before driving out the merchants and taking over teaching

Who said you can do that? So they gather together they concoct this question who gave you the authority to do this and they think well if he says

If he says God did well, they get him for blasphemy Who are you to say God gave you that authority if he says well

I did I gave myself the authority or or we did We had a committee meeting or some some person did then they'll pounce

They'll say you know men have no authority to take over here This is God's temple and so the people will agree that he has no authority

So they can't see how Jesus is any way out of this question So they come up to Jesus while he's teaching notice that you know

Not while he's on his way into the temple or what his way out not privately, you know,

Jesus Could we have a word with you in private? Please? No, it's in public Right in front of the people

So they will see him because they want to embarrass him in front of them before this crowd Notice the verse 1

Jesus is teaching the people and he says he's preaching the gospel That's the gospel of the kingdom.

The kingdom of God has come and they interrupt him and they they say tell us in Verse to tell us that's they're commanding him.

It's a command What makes them think they could command Jesus what to do? Well, they think there are the authorities.

I think they're the ones that say What can it cannot be done tell us and in verse 2 by what authority you do these things and who is it?

They gave you this authority This is a crisis of authority Who says you could cleanse the temple who says you can teach here if you have no right we can cancel you

And the Lord Jesus answers the question by getting to the root of of what they got wrong

He does indeed answer their question Yeah, that's important He's not just kind of pairing with them toying with him utilizing clever debating tricks to avoid getting caught dodging

Just being coy. He answers their question and goes deeper than their question to get to their real problem

People who don't recognize any authority over them who don't understand that they are under authority and They have to give an account to authority such people hardly ever ask

Sincere questions. Maybe they never are asked sincere questions Never really engage in a serious discussion or debate in which they are willing to admit that they could be wrong

They're not really searching for truth That's not what they're asking these questions for to get to some truth all

Language for them all speaking is merely a ploy to get the result they want

To elevate themselves to cancel someone else to get power to squash opponents

Same here same today Jesus answers their question and overturns their trap by asking them a question in return in verse 4 was the baptism of John From heaven or from man

Did God inspire him to baptize people or was that just something he kind of made up out of his own imagination?

What was his authority for baptizing people God or man? This answers by the way, this answers

The question that they've asked him because the right answer to that question from Jesus is

Also the right answer To the question from them by what authority do you do these things the same one who gave

John authority Gave Jesus authority And Jesus has now tell me

They thought they could command Jesus Jesus turns it right around you tell me Well, they huddled together

And notice their reasoning because we get this little insight into their discussion if we say

This thing but on the other hand if we say this other thing You know, here's the consequences.

Nowhere in the discussion does truth enter in You know, they don't they don't say well, we know what the answer is.

We got to say it We're gonna say what is true no matter what anyone says We're gonna give the facts as we see them even if the crowd booze and start throwing rocks at us

No, that would take integrity to think like that which they have none. They have no integrity This is a this is a look into the mind of the people of the lie

They don't think about what's true or at least What they think is true even if it's wrong

But only the effect of what they say The consequences of their words will have all on them

That's all they care about like a politician calculating what he says by the polling data

And if I say this my my points will go up if I say this I'll go down formulating his speeches with focus groups

What's the best way to say? What's the best thing to policy to embrace how his promises will win him votes or not or like some preachers?

Crafting their sermons for the entertainment value or for appealing to certain people currying their favor giving them what they want

They might want some sins now sins of maybe people people way out there Far away.

They may want those sins condemned But they like their sins to be left alone

Unmentioned homosexuality. Oh, you can bash that but racism Leave that untouched don't even mention it like what the editor of the castle messenger told me once about my articles

She said consider racism over Not because it's over But because the readers didn't like any like me mentioning it in my articles here

This discussion is all politics and empty of truth empty of God God doesn't need her in here anywhere.

Does he they don't say well God requires us to say this or that No, they don't they don't they don't they they talk about this as if they don't even believe in God They don't they don't say well

We know John who's an eccentric hothead who just made up this crazy stuff out of his imagination

And we've got to tell that truth no matter what the consequences know That's what they really believed but they didn't dare say it because they didn't believe

God was in authority over them That he would hold them to account For not telling the truth or at least what they thought was the truth if we say in verse 5

From heaven that is from God They could see what happened what happened. They could see Jesus would retort.

Well, why did you not believe him? Why didn't you get baptized if it's authorities from God and they thought well, he'll have us over a barrel with that will look bad but if we say

In verse 6 what they really believed from man All the people will stone us to death because they are convinced that John was a prophet so they just opted out

We don't know Of course, they thought they did know they weren't even telling the truth. They're just flat -out lying.

They think they do They just weren't brave enough to say what they thought was true because they because they thought they were not under Authority, they thought they didn't have to tell the truth or at least what they thought was the truth

So Jesus answers the question by exercising authority by whose authority am

I doing these things? The same authority that allows me to refuse to recognize your authority to question me notice the way he puts it.

No Exposing what they had done They didn't really say what they believed they just refused to answer and So Jesus says neither neither in other words, just like just like you didn't answer my question

Neither will I tell you? Like you didn't tell me By what authority

I do these things if you're not going to answer my question I'm not going to answer yours Because I'm an authority here

Well says who who says that you can clear out the temple and teach Jesus says I do

I'm in charge of the temple. Who's in charge of the kingdom?

You know out of this encounter About who's in charge of the temple Jesus tells a parable the parable of the of the tenants starting verse 9

And so this parable is at least in part to explain what he just said That is who gave him authority

A landowner planted a vineyard. That's it's important. It's important. We know the landowner planted it. That is he did the hard work of planting this vineyard starting it from the beginning and Then he lets it out to tenants that has hired hands to take care of the vineyard while he goes away

The tenants are in charge of the vineyard But only as temporary custodians as stewards for the owner while he's away

Then he goes off to another country says for a long while in other words. There's a long gap between the planting of the vineyard and For him the owner returning in that meantime that the tenants began to think

We own this place. This is our place They don't think that they owe the owner anything They think the vineyard exists for them and they get to eat all the grapes

They get to drink all the juice and the wine they sell the produce and they keep the money off of themselves

They think it's theirs but then the owner sends a servant to get some rent in the form of Some of the fruit and the owner planted the vineyard for himself

He planted the vineyard to get fruit from it and the tenants have totally forgotten that and so when the first servant shows up with An invoice, you know rent do so many pounds of grapes

They got mad and they beat him up Shoved him out the gate with nothing

The owner tries another servant and the same thing happens Then a third one this one they actually wound and they throw him out the gate again empty -handed

Finally in verse 13 the owner says well, maybe the problem is they don't respect just mere servants

But maybe they'll respect my son and he calls his son notice My beloved son verse 13.

That's important detail Calls him my beloved son, which is exactly the same term that say my beloved son the same term used in Luke chapter 3 verse 22 of Jesus at his baptism.

Remember the voice from heaven my beloved son and It's an obvious clue here in this parable about who is symbolized by the beloved son

So the owner sends the beloved son to its vineyard expecting the rent expecting some fruit That was do him instead when the tenants saw him coming they thought well, here's the air

So if we kill him, you know, we'll have squatters rights. We're here in the vineyard and we get to keep the vineyard for ourselves

We can be in charge of the vineyard. We can be an authority And so they do they kill the beloved son now at the end of the story

Jesus asked the crowd And he's returned to teaching them After he was rudely interrupted by the religious leaders and these religious leaders are probably still standing there kind of gloomily looking on And he asked him

What will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He probably let that hang in the air for a minute well any people imagine

What would you do if that happened to you you were the owner? Here is here. It's obvious that the parable this parable was no mystery

Some of the parables they couldn't figure out they actually what does that mean here? They all knew exactly what

Jesus was referring to what everything stood for every one of the crowd knew What this referred to the vineyard is the kingdom of God in Matthew in the same parable

Jesus explicitly says that says the kingdom the kingdom will be taken away from you you tenants

Here we can in Luke we can infer it It's what God built It's what

God planted with the covenant to Abraham the revelation that that Jacob as Israel would be a community of nations

That the Passover what God did for his people there the Exodus the law the covenant with David the

Psalms He planted his kingdom on earth That's the vineyard

Now he expects fruit like doing justice loving mercy steadfast love

When walking humbly with our God he expects more people living like that and for the earth to be full of The knowledge of the glory of the

Lord is the waters cover the sea So he sent his prophets to get it to get this fruit

That he planted his kingdom on earth for so he said prophets like Isaiah Amos Jeremiah Tradition says that Isaiah was killed by King Manasseh.

That's how he was treated that servant of God Amos was told to leave Bethel. He was cast out empty -handed

Jeremiah was thrown into a muddy cistern and imprisoned then God sent his son his beloved son

He's expecting fruit bear fruit in keeping with repentance John the

Baptist has said You know though your word contain the plans we sang not long ago They just did not understand instead of religious leaders

They double down on saying we're in charge here this temple this religion this Bible this covenant

It belongs to us for our sake for the good life that we can squeeze out of it for how we can use it for ourselves

So they killed the son. They said the kingdom belongs to us What will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

Jesus asked at verse 16 he will come and Destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others

He will destroy the religious leaders the priests and the scribes and the elders who destroyed the temple and give the kingdom to other people to people who didn't think

That they just deserve it because they were born into the right ethnic group to people who know that the kingdom Who is the kingdom belongs to?

the owner God Will give the kingdom to other people

To the church Now the crowd obviously under stands all this and just finds it stunning

Imagine Jesus is standing in the temple saying all this is going to be destroyed Give it to other people to people

They wouldn't even allow in the temple to Gentiles and Jesus had just said that Right there in the temple the covenants the promises of God all the gifts from God that they they took such pride in Now all that will be taken from them and give it to others because of the corruption of those leaders who are now just looking on so gloomily

They probably often criticized this crowd probably many of them criticized the leaders themselves But they find it inconceivable that the leaders would be wiped out in the kingdom given to the stewardship of others in the gospel

Of Matthew to another nation to another people to the Gentiles and so they shout back at the end of verse 16

May it never be Surely not They understood perfectly and they find it revolting amazing stunning the same exclamation in Greek may

Ganoito That Paul often uses for revolting ideas like when he asked shall we sin that grace may abound?

May Ganoito may it never be surely not here the people who have been hanging on Jesus's every word

So impressed by him They can't accept that Says who defiantly well, that's impossible that we

Israel would lose our stewardship over God's kingdom, but that's what

Jesus said Then notice verse 17 notice what Jesus does there says he looked directly at them

Now obviously a teacher is usually looking at the people he's talking to but here is an especially intense gaze

He's looking them in the eye He fixed his stare at them to make sure that they were paying attention and this is important So you so Jesus asked you think?

This is impossible or this this parable. I just told that that the leaders of Israel It's impossible that the leaders of Israel would lose their stewardship over the kingdom of God Then if that's so then what does this scripture?

Mean and then he quotes from Psalm 118 verse verse 22 And Psalm 118 was one of the

Psalms of ascent That's which the people sang as they made their pilgrimages to Jerusalem going to the temple

Perhaps Jesus and his disciples were singing it just a day or two earlier on their way up from Jericho It would be it would be fresh in their memory

It says the stone that the builders Rejected has become the cornerstone this explains

Why the tenants are destroyed? The builders are the same people as the tenants in the parable the leaders who were entrusted with the stewardship of the kingdom of God to bear fruit same people builders

Tenants, but they rejected the stone. It should be the cornerstone So the old builders are rejected by the owner by God and the rejected stone

Is made the cornerstone He's switching analogies But to illustrate the same point the

Sun the stone is Rejected so those who rejected him it are rejected

The rejected stone now becomes the cornerstone that the foundation the most important part that becomes the basis for two walls

Making sure that the walls are at 90 degrees and so the basis for the whole building that goes out from that foundation

And from those walls the beloved son Jesus is the cornerstone. He was rejected

He was killed by the old builders and now the kingdom has been taken away from them and given to a new people the church who are built on the cornerstone

Paul says in Ephesians 2 What else does it mean than that? Jesus says

It means that the old builders the tenants are rejected or destroyed and that their custody of the kingdom will be taken away and Given to people who will build on that cornerstone

May it never be says who? Psalm 118 does it also means

We must remember at this Christmas time when we're supposed to remember the the reason for the season

Why the beloved son was sent into the world Why why did he come?

Why was he incarnate? Why was he born it it means? That the kingdom is still his vineyard.

This is still his vineyard. And so he wants fruit from us Jesus is still the cornerstone and he wants us to build on him

He wants us to do justice to love mercy to walk humbly with our God and to build people who do

He wants us to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and to build

Others who will continue to do that if we forget if we forget that if we forget that the church isn't a show for our entertainment or a venue for our

Self -promotion just to show off or we forget it. We think it's a community club for for our kind of people

If you forget that we forget and think that this is a good place. This is a good place for me

You know kind of to be the man to be somebody to be a big shot a star or maybe to make money

And we forget that and so we don't challenge people to do justice like stopping racism or abortion or Or to be faithful.

I keep your commitments to be involved in evangelism to preach the gospel to poor youth

Who can't do anything really for us if we'd rather Have a respectable building, you know with an organ and pews

Because that looks good for us that makes us look good because we forget who the kingdom of God the temple of God belongs to if we forget

Then we too Will be rejected If we do that We've forgotten the reason for the season why the

Beloved Son came and we start using the kingdom We get using his church using his word using his faith in him his name for ourselves if we do that.

Don't be surprised if the owner comes back and Takes it away from us if he replaces us builders and gives it to others who will remember

Who the cornerstone is? If we think that we can be Christians and enslave people if we can do the opposite of justice on people because of the race

You know He can send our sons across a cornfield in Gettysburg Never to make it back

He can hand over our churches to liberal quote pastors who don't really believe in Jesus Or he can send an hysteria on our country that closes churches out of fear of a virus

He'll find other builders maybe from China or Africa or Brazil He'll find other builders

Who will remember who owns the vineyard? Who is in charge of the kingdom? Who all of this is for you see the choice is either that we build on the cornerstone or he

Crushes us Jesus changes the analogy again in that last verse verse 18 everyone who falls on that stone stumbling over that stone will be broken to pieces and When it falls on anyone it will crush him the stone now

Is a stumbling stone and a stone Coming from the sky crushing like from Daniel chapter 2 where the stone strikes the image that Represents all the kingdoms of man and it smashes them and it becomes the foundation for the kingdom of God and stands forever

He changes the analogy but all to get to the same point says who you ask says who?

The owner of the vineyard says the one stone that you must build on.

Well, that's it the tenants Either give the owner fruit rent

Or they are destroyed the builders either build on the cornerstone Or they are replaced

You and I either build on him. We give him fruit or we stumble over him our

Refusal to give our lives to him to bathe our lives on him will trip us up and break us he will even fall on us and Crush us

There's no no such thing is that you can self -identify as a non -jesus person build your life on something else on Whatever your psyche says or whatever you think makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone else

You think pursuing your own happiness as you see fit no matter the facts of nature or nature's God Yourself as your own authority.

No, you see it's not only that Jesus is in charge of the temple and in the kingdom he's in charge of Us We live in a culture that tells us that we can make ourselves into anything.

We want to be That no one is the boss of me I'm the captain of my fate

Not even the facts of biology bind me and if anyone tries to tell me any different we just shout back says ooh

But then Jesus comes the cornerstone and says build on me

Who says? We have to build on him the beloved