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With you, please open them to Mark chapter 11 and find your place at verse 27. Mark chapter 11 verse 27. Last week we looked at verses 12 to 25. We read all the way to the end of the chapter, but due to time and some other events that happened last week, we had a little bit of a little bit of a interruption last week.
We got a little behind in time so we weren't able to finish, but everything worked out fine and so we're going to pick up now at the place where we left off, but just to remind you of the context, and I know a few of you weren't here, what we have beginning in Mark 11 is we have the final week of Jesus's earthly ministry, his earthly life, and we saw in Mark 11 1 to 11 the triumphal entry.
We know that happened on Sunday. We call that Palm Sunday because they laid palm branches at his feet, and then the next day, which would have been Monday, Jesus goes to Jerusalem because remember he the triumphal entry he goes in looks at the temple and leaves.
Well the next day he goes in again on his way in he sees a fig tree. He notices the fig tree is barren. He curses it. We talked about this last week as to the reason why, and then he goes into the temple and he cleanses the temple of the money changers and those who are selling and extorting God's people in the temple, and then he goes out again.
So this leads us to day three, and day three, well day three began with the Jesus going back into Jerusalem, passing by the fig tree, which was now withered. We see this in verses 20 to 25, explaining to them the power of prayer and trust in God.
I talked about that last week. Jesus answered them, have faith in God, and that's a focal point there, and as I said last week, I think that's tied into the reality that what was happening in the in Jerusalem in the temple was a lack of faith, and Jesus is showing them what real faith looks like, and now we have them coming into Jerusalem, and in verse 27 they have an interaction with the leaders.
So we're going to read beginning at verse 27, and we're going to read down to chapter 12, verse 12. So that is my plan tonight, to look at chapter 11, verse 27, to chapter 12, verse 12. Verse 27, and they came again to Jerusalem.
Again, this is after passing by the fig tree, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?
Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me. They discussed it with one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him?
But shall we say from man? They were all afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
And he began to speak to them in parables. Notice the the conjunction and there, indicating this is still the same incident, same connection. Even though we have a chapter break here, we don't have a situation break.
It's going right into this. This parable connects to that statement that Jesus just made. And he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them saying, they will respect my son.
But those tenants said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of that vineyard do?
He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the corner stone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.
And they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. Just a moment. Father, now that I seek to give an understanding of this text, I pray that you would keep me from error.
As always, Lord, may you be glorified. May your people be edified. In Jesus name, Amen. This portion of the text, we find Jesus disputing with the leaders of Israel. And this will actually take us down through this chapter and even into the next chapter.
Because this interaction that Jesus has, Mark gives us a longer explanation. And then when we get to chapter 13, Jesus actually talks about the the destruction of Jerusalem that's coming and his second coming.
We're going to talk about that after the New Year when we come back. So these are, this is the the scene, if you will, of this interaction. And the latter part of chapter 11, when Jesus is disputing with the leaders, begins with a question from the Pharisees and the scribes who say, by what authority are you doing these things?
Well, what things is Jesus doing? Consider this. This is one day following the cleansing of the temple. So when he says, by what authority are you doing these things? He's asking him, by what authority do you come in here and turn over tables and make a whip of cords and drive out money changers?
By what authority do you come in here and think that you have any right to call into question these men who have, by our permission, come in to sell sacrificial animals and to exchange foreign currency for the currency that's used here in the temple?
By what authority do you think you have to do this? And in our modern vernacular, who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? Now this ties to something, if you remember, very early in our study of the Gospel of Mark, one of the first things that people recognized when Jesus was teaching was that Jesus taught with a certain peculiar authority.
Remember, they said that. They said, who is this man who teaches with authority? And if you remember the lesson that I gave at that point, I said there was something about Jesus's messages, there was something about the way he taught that was different than the teachings of the scribes and the Pharisees.
The reference the writers of the commentaries and all of these different things, they would quote other people. Jesus didn't do that. Jesus didn't look for other people upon which to base his authority.
Jesus's authority was inherent for he was the Son of God. He was God incarnate. And so Jesus did have a certain air of authority because it was inherent within him. And so they asked him, by what authority are you doing these things?
Or who gave you this authority? Who has authorized you? Well, Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question. Answer me and I'll tell you by what authority I do these things. And this is, it's interesting because Jesus has not shied away from who he truly is in other instances.
He has stated very clearly in their midst who he is. We see this in other Gospels. We've even seen this in the Gospel of Mark. And yet they have not believed him. But here's the key to what he just said.
Because he said, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. And then he asked this question, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me. And this may seem odd, but I want to kind of illustrate this.
John certainly was, it was believed by the people, we see this, that John himself was a prophet. And Jesus says, where did his authority come from? You didn't authorize him. You didn't make him a prophet.
No one certified John. No one gave him, I was talking to a man just today, I met a man who's very sweet, kind man. And we had had lunch together and he's a member of another church. We were just talking about theology and stuff.
And he told me, he says, my church has licensed me to preach. And I thought that's very interesting. You know, we don't, in the Baptist denomination, that's what happens before ordination. You get a license from a church and that allows you to have the authority to go and preach under the authority of that church.
You know, I thought that was interesting. He said he was licensed to preach. Okay, so so the church has affirmed you, but you're not yet ordained, right? You're affirmed to do this thing leading up to what I'm certain will one day be an ordination, right?
So that church licensed that man. Nobody ever licensed John. But there was no question that John was a prophet, because everyone believed John was a prophet. John had all of the markers of being a prophet.
He was bold in his speech. He said things that were true. He had a lifestyle of absolute holiness. Everything about him pointed to the fact, and we're going to talk about this Sunday, because Paul is going to say something in 2 Corinthians.
He's going to say, I didn't come to you with letters of recommendation. You are my letter of recommendation. What does he mean by that? He says, you are the proof of my ministry, because you, the church in Corinth, wouldn't even exist without me.
I was the one who came and preached the gospel, and therefore if you want a letter of recommendation, look at yourself. You are the letter of recommendation, and so too with John. John's ministry spoke for itself.
It didn't have to have a letter. It didn't have to have a certificate. He wasn't ordained by a church or a San Hedron or anything else. He was called of God from the very womb. So John had a unique place that was really unquestioned by the people, but the Pharisees didn't believe in John.
Pharisees didn't believe in John. So you've got John with a split. You've got the people who affirm John, and you've got the Pharisees who don't affirm John, and Jesus knows it. And so when he says, I'll ask you one question, answer me, and I'll tell you by what authority I do these things.
He's telling the truth, because if they would have answered and said John got his authority from God, then Jesus would say, so did I. And if you affirm John, you have to affirm me. And they know that too, because if you read further in the text, that's exactly what they said.
When he says, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man, answer me, and they discussed it. I can just imagine the huddle. I can imagine the holy, unholy huddle of these Pharisees kind of gathering away from Jesus, saying, okay, let's, how are we going to answer this?
Let's, let's talk it over. They discussed it with one another, saying, if we say he's from heaven, we'll be agreeing with everyone here, but if we agree with everyone here, what did John say about Jesus?
He said he was the Son of God. He was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his sandal, right? So we, we know that affirming him is affirming him, and they know that too.
So they can't, they said, we can't affirm what the people believe about John, because in doing so, we'll be affirming what the people should be believing about Jesus, because John was the forerunner of Christ.
If we say his, his, his baptism, and that was the, that was the key of his, what he was doing. He was John the baptizer, right? So, or he was John the Baptist. He was the first Baptist. Did you know Presbyterians don't call him John the Baptist?
They call him John the baptizer. I, all my Baptists, all my Presbyterian friends, when I talk to him, they call him John the baptizer, because, because, again, he was a baptizer, but we say he was the first Baptist.
No, no, just kidding, but he is, his ministry was baptism, and the people have affirmed that his ministry was of God, and if you affirm his ministries of God, you have to affirm Jesus's ministry is from God, and they know they can't do that, but then again, they said, if they don't affirm, the camera's acting up, so give me a second, I'll keep talking, if they don't affirm it, they know that the people are going to be upset, because the people themselves affirm John.
The people themselves affirm John. So, Jesus has put them in a pickle. He's put them in a conundrum, and what we're going to see, and the reason why I'm, I know I may be laboring a point that doesn't need to be labored here, I know you understand it, you can read too, but what's, what's happening with Jesus is going to, they're going to try to turn the tables on Jesus later.
They do it with the paying taxes thing. Should we pay taxes of Caesar or not? That's a loaded question, because if he says pay taxes, oh, he's a friend of Caesar. If he says don't pay taxes, he's an enemy of Caesar.
Either way, he can't win. When they ask him about the resurrection, you got the Pharisees and the Sadducees who debate over the resurrection. You're siding with one or the other, so whose, whose, whose wife shall she be, right?
There's all these questions that are, in essence, trapping questions. Well, Jesus is asking them this question, where did John's baptism come from? And they said to themselves, if we say it's from, if we say it's from God, we're agreeing with the people, but then we got to affirm him.
But if we say it's not from God, then the people are going to stone us, because the people believe it's from God. So what do we do? So they plead the fifth. They said we don't know where the baptism came from.
And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Why? Because they're not willing to recognize the authority of John, therefore they're not willing to recognize the authority of Jesus.
No matter what Jesus would have said at that point, it would not have been satisfactory to them. So Jesus said, if you're not willing to affirm John and unequivocally affirm John, then you're not willing to, or you're not ready to receive me.
Now out of this comes our parable. And what's interesting about this parable is, well, there's two things. One, Mark has very few parables. In fact, if you think of our study, we haven't really had a parable since chapter 4, right?
We've had a lot of incidences in the life of Christ, but not a lot of parabolic teaching, right? Where do most of the parables of Jesus come from? The Gospels of Matthew and Luke. John doesn't have any parables, and Mark has very few parables, just because that's the way God has ordained us to have this information.
Well, I don't know what's happening here. So anyway, in regard to the parables, this parable is the first one we've had now in several chapters, and it's the only one in the Gospels of which I can think of, and maybe you may correct me on this, and I'm willing to be corrected.
I didn't do an extensive study, just by memory. It's the only one I can think of where when Jesus gives this parable, it doesn't have a connection to the kingdom. It doesn't say the kingdom of heaven is like this, but rather it has a connection to the people he's looking at, and it's so easy to interpret that even the unbelieving Pharisees know exactly what it means.
It's not hard to interpret. It's not hard to figure out what he's saying. So with that in mind, let's just begin to look at it. It says, and he began to speak to them in a parable. We're in parables. A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, and dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower, and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.
Well, like I like to do with parables, let's break it down by virtue of the characters. Well, there is the landowner, master, if you will, and the master has chose to have a field that he's turning into a vineyard, and he does all of the work to produce the vineyard.
Notice what it says. It says, a man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, built a tower. All of those things are important in the sense that this is something that someone does when they care about something.
They're building up this vineyard. So we have the man who is the landowner, the master. I don't think anybody would doubt this, but my interpretation is that is God. All right. Now, if we wanted to tie into this, in Isaiah chapter 5, Isaiah has a prophecy where he talks about God planting a vineyard, and in that particular prophecy, it is a, well, it's really a parable prophecy, because it tells the story of a vineyard, and instead of producing good fruit, it produces inedible fruit, fruit that's not fit for eating, and that's a picture of Israel that's not bearing fruit, but rather is doing evil, and this is the parable that leads up to the Babylonian captivity, because at the end of chapter 5, it's the promise of judgment that this vineyard that's supposed to be producing good fruit is producing bad fruit, and as a result of producing bad fruit, there's six judgments that are given in Isaiah chapter 5, and those six judgments end with the punishment of Israel, and that is being led away into captivity, so Jesus could, in this parable, be hearkening back to this passage, because if you read both, if you read the story of the man who had the vineyard, dug the pit, and all that, it's very similar to the opening of Isaiah chapter 5, digging the pit, making the vineyard, and all that, so in that passage, the vineyard is Israel, so you have the vineyard, and that's Israel, and I would, I'm going to be more specific now, I'm going to say God's people, Israel is the vineyard that's not producing fruit, Israel is the vineyard that's going to go and be punished, and Israel is ultimately the one that's going to be led into captivity, all right, so with that in mind, in the Mark parable, we had the landowner, who is God, we have the vineyard, which is Israel, which is God's people, but then we have another group that's mentioned, and that is the tenants.
Now, the tenants, it says, were leased this property while the master went into another country, okay, so who are the tenants? If the vineyard represents Israel and God's people, well then who are the tenants?
I am convinced, and I like the way MacArthur says this, Sproul and MacArthur both are saying the same thing, but Sproul says it's the clergy, MacArthur says it's the stewards, and I like the word steward because the idea is the people who are managing the people, the people who are in authority, the ones who are in authority, so we could say stewards, but we could also, if we agree with the language of Sproul, we could say clergy, because that's the way we would define the Pharisees, right, we would define them as the religious leaders, or what we call today clergy, and that is the one who is in view, remember that's the one Jesus was just talking to, that was the one who in chapter 11, who he says, tell me by what authority and that John did these things, right, that's who he's conversing with, and we see, if you just notice, go down to verse 12, and they were seeking to arrest him, for they feared the people, for they perceived that he told the parable against them, so they knew who it was about, they knew that the tenants were them, and they weren't wrong, they weren't, they didn't misinterpret Jesus's words, this is a flat-out, in-your-face attack against what they had done, and I think about this passage, and I don't have the, I don't have the address on the tip of my tongue, but when Jesus looked at Jerusalem, and he said, O Jerusalem, you who who killed the prophets and stole those who are sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children as a hen gathers her brood, and you were not willing, and that people often miss, there's two categories of people, there's the children, and then there's the unwilling leaders, and it's the unwilling leaders who are receiving that rebuke, he said, I would gather your children, but you are unwilling, who is the you?
It's the leaders who are the you, it's the leaders, it's these tenants who have the people in bondage, they have them in bondage and false understanding of the Old Testament, they have them in bondage in their phaseical trappings, they have them in bondage in their legalistic false piety, they have them in bondage, Jesus said, you lay burdens on the backs of men that you yourself are not willing to carry, so the tenants, the stewards, the clergy, whatever we want to call them, they are in this pictured, and Jesus says, when the season came, he, that is the master, the the person who represents God, sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard, and they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed, this happens again in verse 4, and he sent them another servant, they struck him on the head, treated him shamefully, sent another, they killed him, and so many others, so some they beat, some they killed, this is a picture, a snapshot, if you will, of how Israel has treated the prophets that have been sent to her down through the centuries leading up to the time of Christ, and think about Jesus who talks about this when he talked about the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, there was a passage where Jesus mentions that, and he's talking about all those righteous men who have been killed by the unrighteous, all those righteous men from the time of Abel all the way to the time of the last prophet to be killed, which was Zechariah, right, all down through the ages, and I mean, you probably know this, but think about like Jeremiah who was hung, he was suspended in a pit, many believe he was stoned, Isaiah and others who suffered, and we see God's prophets over and over and over again suffering at the hands of the leaders of Israel, all of them led up to Jesus.
Jesus was prophet, priest, and king, greatest of all prophets, greatest of all priests, and the one true and living King, and so verse 6 says he sent one more and that was his son. Now again, not hard to interpret.
This is not a difficult parable. It's obvious the son is Jesus. He's referring to himself, and here's the thing, if this were just a story, one would have to ask what would cause the master of the property to be so foolish as to send his unarmed son to a pack of people who were already demonstrating themselves to be willing to beat and murder his servants, and so some might take the position that the the master here is demonstrating foolishness, but the master is no fool.
However, in this he does say they will respect my son in the sense that they should. This is my son. They should respect my son, but they don't. But those tenants said to one another, this is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. I don't know how they come to that conclusion, that all I've got to do is kill the heir and then I'm automatically the next in line. Maybe they think that by their viciousness that they will somehow force the hand of the master to turn over the deed to the property to them.
Yeah, yeah, perhaps, right? Yeah, Abraham's Eleazar. Yeah, no, possibly. Possibly. They figure if there's no son left, he's got to give it to somebody. He'll give it to us, and they killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
Obviously a reference to what's going to happen to Christ just a few days later. Christ will be taken out of Jerusalem, suspended between heaven and earth, and killed by the hands of wicked men. And so Jesus asked the question, what will the owner of the vineyard do?
Now, if you compare this, this parable is also in Matthew's Gospel and in Luke's Gospel, there is an interesting distinction because when in verse 9 it says, what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read the scripture? It jumps right into the passage, which is a quote from Psalm 118. It jumps right to that, but it doesn't do that in Luke's Gospel. And I just want to read to you the difference.
Luke's Gospel is in chapter 20 verse 15. It says, 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. You know why they said surely not? Because they realized at that point he's talking about them. At that moment in the parable, they realized they're the object lesson.
They are the evil vinedressers. They're the evil tenants. And they said, no, God's not going to judge us. That's basically what they're saying. No, because they get it. In their mind, they can't. Certainly not would God judge us.
And that's why he says the next verse in Mark, which again, putting it all together, he says this. Have you not read the scripture? The stones the builder rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes.
And what's interesting, that Psalm 118, that Psalm 118, 22 and 23, that would have been one of the Psalms that was read during the Passover. That would have been in their mind as part of what they were already studying, reading for that week.
And Jesus uses it, turns it on them, and says, the stone, who's the stone? Jesus. I'm the cornerstone. I am the Son, but I'm also the stone. And I tell you what, this stone is going to have one of two effects.
It's either going to crush, or those who fall on it are going to be crushed as they fall on it. But no one's going to walk away. No one who rejects the stone is going to simply walk away. And I'll read to you, this is from Matthew's account.
He says, therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. Harkening back to Isaiah 5. Harkening also back potentially to the fig tree that didn't bear fruit.
We talked about that, and the fact that that potentially represented Israel, who was not bearing fruit. He says, the vineyard is going to be taken away and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces.
And when it falls on anyone, it will crush them. So Jesus is being very clear. He's saying, you are about to have what you have taken away from you, and it's going to be given to other tenants. It's going to be given to someone who will produce fruit.
Now that leads to a fifth group, and that is the other tenants. Who are the other tenants? Now this is a interesting question, because we could discuss this. We could maybe even debate somewhat of the interpretation of this.
Some would say that the other tenants is the church. However, I would argue against that slightly as if to say the church, because I don't believe the church began to exist in the New Covenant. I believe the church has always been God's people.
I talked about this in my sermon a few weeks ago. But the New Covenant church certainly began when the Spirit fell at Pentecost. So if we were going to say the church, we would say that refers to the New Covenant church or the New Testament church.
Others might say this is the Apostles, because the leaders, the tenants, the clergy are about to be done away with, and they will be replaced by apostolic authority. I think there is some legitimacy to that.
Some would say it's the Gentiles, and there is an argument to be made that after the cross, the gospel went out to the Gentiles, and we see a hardening on Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, right?
So any one of these, there could be an argument made, but ultimately the point is that those who had authority are about to lose it, and their authority would last a little while. But when AD 70 comes, and we're going to talk about this more in a few weeks when we look at Mark 13 and how the destruction of the temple is going to come, when that comes, those tenants will be put away, and you realize there are no more Pharisees.
There's no more Sadducees. No one today is able to trace back their roots and put themselves in that position. That's gone. That is over, and now that which was under one rule or authority has been done away with and replaced with a different authority, and as a result, they were seeking to arrest him.
Why? Because he just told them, your power is coming to an end. Your stewardship, your management of Israel is coming to an end. Why? Because you're evil managers. You're evil vinedressers. You have killed the prophets.
You have murdered those God sent to you. You've stoned them. You've beheaded them. You've put them in pits. I mean, think about Hebrews 11. Remember, you read through Hebrews 11 of the faithful, and what is it?
It has one after the other. People sawn in two. All references to the prophets of old who suffered under the hands of evil leaders. Jesus said, your time is coming to an end, and they knew he was talking about them, and therefore, they sought to arrest him.
So, last it says, so they left him and went away. So, this is a reminder that there is a transition coming. The transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant is taking place in the work of Christ, and when does the New Covenant be, when is the New Covenant inaugurated?
It's inaugurated in Christ's blood. The night before he went to the cross, he held up the bread and the cup. He says, this is the cup of my, of the blood of the New Covenant, right? This bread is my body.
This cup is my blood, and this is going to be poured out for the sins of many, and the next day he goes, and he cries out, Tetelestai, it is finished. The Old Covenant is over, and the law is fulfilled, and Christ has now initiated the New Covenant, and we are in that covenant, and thanks be to God that we are.
So, those are my thoughts from tonight's passage. When we pick up next time, we'll pick up in verse 13 and see Jesus interacting with those who would seek to put him into a position of difficulty by asking him questions.
Anyone have any questions from tonight? Yes, sir. I think they wanted the authority of the Son, and when you think of how that would be, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say, and in this sense, we could say the deed to the Israel, Israel itself, the power over Israel.
Any other questions or thoughts? Was that helpful? Hopefully. I'm always hoping that it will be. Well, good. Well, I want to remind everybody, we will be taking the next two weeks off for our Christmas break.
I do hope you all have a wonderful Christmas time with your families, and that you are able to enjoy that well, and don't forget that Sunday evening we have a special event here, because we didn't want to do something on Christmas Eve night, because a lot of folks have things with their families, so we're doing ours a week early.
We're going to have music. The worship team is providing music for us to sing with, and we're going to have some food. We're gonna have s'mores. If it's raining, because it does say it may rain, the great thing is we now have one big large room down there that we can fellowship in, and we can get those little heat things that allow us to melt the marshmallows and have marshmallows inside, and have a good time.
So either way, if it's raining, please still try to come and bring your families, bring your young ones, grandchildren, everybody, and we'll have a good time. All right. Hmm? Six o 'clock. Is there anything else I'm forgetting, Andy?
Well, let's...Brother Mike, would you pray for us? Pray for us out.