Just Who Do You Think You Are? - [Luke 20:1-19]

Jesus often brings the worst out of people.

Jesus often brings out the worst in people. Jesus, to many, infuriates them.

Now, it's an interesting thing because the law is good, the law is perfect, the law is holy, but it shows people their sin.

And so, too, Jesus being good and holy and righteous, when he confronts a sinful person who thinks that they have their own self -righteousness, the worst comes out of them.

I find it fascinating that Jesus preaches the same message and his followers, the saved ones, the redeemed ones, think that he's the kind Messiah.

What a friend we have in Jesus. And the exact same message is preached to unbelievers and they are aggravated by him, they are infuriated by him, they take umbrage with what he says and they want to try to kill him.

How can that be? And what happened back in the days of the Bible happens today.

That is to say, Jesus, the risen Savior, tells people that there is an exclusive gospel.

Jesus is the only Savior, the only Lord, the only King, the only Messiah, and that you can only have your sins forgiven by true repentance and faith in him alone, the exclusivity of Christ.

And in our day, just like back in those days, there's a pluralistic view to things. Pluralism says

Jesus is a way but he's not the way. Pluralism pats our forehead and says, that's nice that Jesus is good for you,

I'm glad you're religious, I'm glad you're spiritual, if it works for you, hallelujah. Don't bother me, they're saying basically translation.

And pluralism says that if there's not many saviors, then you don't have to believe in Jesus alone. Something called inclusivism says this,

Jesus is the only Savior. He's the only sin bearer, he was the only one raised from the dead, but you don't really have to have faith in him.

He can save you, but it's not through faith alone in him. And if you take your

Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 20 this morning, as I deviate for one more week out of 1 Corinthians, I want to show you how

Jesus deals with religious leaders and other people because Jesus is the one who has the only authority to forgive sins, and people are divided by Christ.

Now most of you this morning I know are Christian people, and you will say, I love Jesus, I love to see how he acts, how he talks, what he does.

But if you're not a Christian, this will be a good passage for you this morning because Jesus has authority alone to forgive sins.

You are a sinner and you need forgiveness, and he alone is the one who can forgive your sins.

And so today we'll see from Luke, the great Dr. Luke who gives all kinds of precise details, this great picture of Jesus talking to people who are pluralistic, talking to people who are religious, talking to people who are self -righteous.

And when you look and see Jesus today, here's what I say, I will follow that King. I say when

I look at Jesus in Luke 20, he is a great Savior. Nobody taught like him, nobody acted like him, nobody did anything like Christ.

And I look at Luke 20 and I just think, I will line up gladly underneath this

King and follow him and I'll be glad to be in his kingdom. That's what I want you to think this morning as well.

Luke 20 shows Jesus has great authority, but people don't like that authority and they try to challenge him.

And so this morning we'll see as we deviate from 1 Corinthians for just one more week, who

Jesus is in Luke 20. After all, if you're super under the weather and you're busy, you've got a time schedule change and you think it's midnight in Athens, what do you do?

What do you do if you're me? Well, here's what you do. You show people who Jesus is and you can all sit and go,

Jesus is great. And if you're 12 years old, I hope you sit here and think today, Jesus is awesome.

Jesus is cool. Jesus is one of a kind. That's exactly the way

Luke portrays this Jesus who says things that just make the believer say,

I worship you and who says things that make the unbeliever say, you make me mad.

That's hate speech. How dare you talk that way? And that's exactly the way these false teachers dealt with Jesus as well.

Nothing's new. And so it shouldn't shock us that the world, that a Harvard, that cities, universities rather in Berlin don't bow down and say

Christians are wonderful. Christians are the best. Jesus, like it or not, is the only

God and He has made plain the only way of salvation. He's the only risen

Savior. He's the only one who died a substitutionary death on Calvary. He's the only one who raised

Himself from the dead. And He has an exclusive claim to say, I am the way.

I am the truth. I am the life. And what? No one comes to the

Father except through me. Just rubs me the wrong way, doesn't it?

That's what one man said. He said this. This is the verse, John 14, 6, that is frequently quoted to defend the idea of the exclusivity of Christ, namely that all who do not consciously and decisively accept

Jesus as their personal Savior will burn in hell forever. This particular man said, that phrase raises concerns for me because based on the

Scriptures, I believe Jesus primarily came not to proclaim a way out of hell for some after death, but rather a way into a better life for all before death.

This writer said, if Jesus is the only way, is

Jesus the only way? It depends where you're trying to go. If I was teaching junior high students,

I'd probably sing an old song that they wouldn't know, Do You Know Where You're Going To? But that would not be right. Jesus' words seem too intolerant.

He seems to have some kind of authority that supersedes everything. Jesus, the way

He talks, He acts like He's actually God incarnate. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.

Acts chapter what? 4, verse what? 12. Let's dive into this passage.

We'll try to get through Luke 20, verses 1 -19 this morning. And I want to show you basically the greatness of Christ, how

He has authority, and they challenged His authority. And then He gives a parable to back up why

He has great authority. And today, it will cause two things to happen, I hope. One for the believer, most of you today, to say,

I love to look at Christ. I love it that when He says, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

I like that part of Jesus, the gentle, meek Lamb. But I also like Jesus when

He makes plain the way of salvation to these people that would try to silence

Him. They would try to gag Him. They would try to mute Him. And if you're an unbeliever,

I hope you see this Jesus today as the one who has authority as the eternal God, alone to forgive sins.

They challenged His authority then. They challenge His authority today. That's the Bible. That's written by men.

And you'll begin to see all these things take place. Let's look at Luke chapter 20, verse 1, and set the scene, please.

Luke 20, verse 1, English Standard Version. One day, as Jesus...

Now, don't miss that. As Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the

Gospel, here comes this triad, this trifecta of works righteousness teachers.

The chief priests show up and the scribes, and the elders came up and said to Him, rudely interrupting,

I might add, tell us by what authority you do these things. Or who is it that gave you this authority?

Can I see your papers? Can I see your ordination? What school did you go to?

What rabbi taught you? Just who do you think you are? And what they're trying to do is they're going to try to silence

Him. Because Jesus, this great Messiah, since He was the religious Messiah, He showed up to attack false worship in the temple.

If He was a political Messiah, a military Messiah, what would have Jesus done? He probably would have marched right over to where the leaders of the

Roman Imperial Guard were and He would deal with those in the Imperial Guard. But since religion was the issue, that is, how can

I have my sins forgiven? That is the issue. He goes straight to the temple and He's going to teach at the temple and then deal with this issue.

And these three classes of the Sanhedrin were not very happy. They try to pounce on Jesus.

They try to show up and they're going to try to discredit Him because they have a power base, they have a money base, and they don't like what

He's going to say. For your information, the chief priests could have included

Caiaphas and Annas. They were high priests. Scribes were mostly Pharisees.

And they wrote things down, yes, as you would think a scribe, but they studied the law, they interpreted the law, they taught the law.

So we've got the chief priests, the scribes, and what does the text say the other group was? The elders.

Maybe they were the lay leaders of the land, as most commentators would say. But these were the big shots.

The ripples had gone out to cause big waves now, and the big shots have to come in and deal with Jesus.

I think they knew that Jesus was going to give the death blow to self -righteousness, to works righteousness.

And they didn't like it. Show us your credentials. Show us your authorization. They wanted to embarrass

Jesus. Don't upset the apple cart. Jesus so far in Luke 1 -19 has been said of Him, He's the

Son of the Most High, chapter 1. He's the Messiah, chapter 2. He's the Holy One of God, chapter 4.

He's the Son of Man, chapter 5. He's the Son of David, chapter 18. He's Israel's King, chapter 19.

Who do you think you are talking like that? You've probably got... You're probably self -ordained.

You probably got your degree through the mail order, some www .hokeyordination .com

kind of thing. That wasn't in my notes.

I'm just going to blame everything now on I'm sick, I'm tired. Jesus is attacking worship.

Jesus is attacking what these people are saying would be the way to God, the way to have forgiveness, the way to have justification with God, to be in a right standing with God.

They don't like that. They don't like it when He has said to maybe some of them or some of their other comrades, you are of your father, the devil.

And they came, looking back at chapter 20, verse 1, excuse me, verse 2.

Tell us by what authority you do these things, plural, like purge the temple, like forgive sins, like do things on a

Sabbath, like the triumphal entry. Tell us, what are you doing with these things? If you go back to verse 45 of chapter 19, it says, and He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them,

It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.

Mark says He drove out those who were buying and selling in the temple, overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

And just like back in John chapter 2, the first time Jesus drove people out of the temple, it says the zeal of God drove

Him to do this. We're making a mockery of the tabernacle, excuse me, the temple.

Money changers, Jesus drives them out according to chapter 19, and then these men show up and say,

Just who do you think you are? I was trying to think of all the stuff that was going on near the temple or by the temple.

You'd have three kinds of money. You'd have Roman money, Greek money, Jewish money. You'd have to buy the right kind of animal to slay the animal, the right kind of lamb, the right kind of dove, the right kind of everything else.

They're using it as a throughway, as a thoroughfare, as a cut through. And I thought, Can you imagine showing up to a worship service today and getting about 55 different sections of the church all playing bingo?

That's exactly what it would be like, but maybe a hundred times worse.

Going to a worship service and having the sterling fare break out with all the cows.

How can you do these things, Jesus? By what authority do you go to the temple, cast everybody out, and say,

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you've made it a robber's den. By what authority do you do that?

And what does Jesus say? What does Jesus say? And you almost don't want to know.

He answered them. You'll notice here that He doesn't seem scared. He doesn't seem intimidated.

He doesn't seem like some kind of weak, emaciated little Jesus who's so effeminate He can't say anything to anyone.

He answered them. I also will ask you a question. Now, if you're them,

I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm thinking if I was them, this is bad. This is kind of a gulp moment.

Okay. And then Jesus says, what does it say in verse 3? Now tell me. I'm going to ask you a word, literally in the

Greek. I've got a word for you. Here's the word. Verse 4.

Was the baptism of John, John the Baptist, from heaven, that's option one,

John had been martyred by now, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?

Two options. And if they can answer this question, they'll know the answer to their own question to Jesus.

This will give them the right answer. John comes along and he's pointing to Jesus. He has authority by God to point to Jesus.

And if you know where John's coming from and to whom he points, you'll know everything you need to know. John testified that Jesus was the

Messiah. Yeah? John proclaimed that even as a national hero for Israel, there was one to whom he was pointing.

It wasn't himself. John had no credentials, no mail order degrees, no rabbi saying,

I anoint you with this kind of thing. John was a messenger from God. No priest -like credentials.

Acting only on the behalf of God. And so what does Jesus do? People call this being put on the horns of a dilemma.

Isn't that good language? You're actually put on the horns of a dilemma. And if they say the baptism of John was from heaven, then why didn't you believe him?

Why didn't you be baptized? Why didn't you show fruits of repentance? Why did you just keep on doing this works righteousness system?

You've contorted the original plan of the Old Testament. Mark 11 says that Jesus said to these men,

Answer me. Here the superior tone of Jesus places them between a rock and a hard place.

They're rejecting John. They're rejecting Jesus. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

Now if it's from heaven, why'd you kill John? If it's from men, these guys are thinking,

Now if I say it's from men, that'll be false witness. That'll be false testimony. It'll go against the crowd.

The crowd might be mad at us. Was God behind John's mission?

If the answer is yes, he's behind my mission. Verse 5. They discussed it with one another.

I think we'd say in the Midwest. They were hemming and what? Hauling.

If we say from heaven, he'll 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 when all else fails, play the stupid card. So they answered,

I mean, If you want to show who you are really, why play ignorant?

Because they knew. This is just insincerity. This is hypocrisy. So they answered, they did not know where it came from.

I think they were discredited before Jesus, before all the people listening. You might want to mark this down in your theological lessons,

Cap. Because there is a lesson to be learned here. That unbelief is a moral problem.

People can't believe because they won't believe. The fool has said in his heart, there is no

God. They saw the evidence, they saw the miracles, they heard the teaching, but they refused to believe.

It's a volitional issue. They failed to see the truth because they hardened their hearts against that very

Messiah. They would not submit to his will. So what do they say?

You can hear the bureaucracy, can't you? This has got the echo of the government in it.

No comment. They have no comment. They can't comment because they won't comment.

They will not. And so what does Jesus say? Neither will

I tell you, verse 8, by what authority I do these things. You see the official state of Judaism that had moved away from the true grace that was found in the

Old Testament, it's now been torqued, it's been perverted, it's been turned to works righteousness, and Jesus is going to go after those leaders of Judaism.

They're hostile towards Jesus. They cannot tolerate Jesus. And so Jesus now gives a parable, verses 9 through 18, then a comment to wrap up in verse 19.

Jesus gives a parable, and Jesus is going to warn people about false teachers.

He's specifically going to be warning against Israel's false teachers, but this would apply to many.

And he will also answer this question, how does Jesus have the authority to say what he says, does what he does, to do what he does, rather, how does he have authority?

How can he criticize the temple? How can he go and clear out the temple? How can he call down these people?

So this parable has a context, and you can never get a parable right unless you know why it is given.

What is the occasion? What is the situation? What's the circumstance? The circumstance is this, they challenge

Jesus' authority, and Jesus says, now I'll tell you why I have authority to do this. The challenge is by false teachers, who are in a work system, a righteousness system, and by the way, aren't we all born with an idea in our brain that the way you get to heaven is you be good, you do good.

To put it theologically, you are born a Pelagian. You are born a person that says, if I just do more good than bad,

I'll be okay. If I just do extra good things, and maybe have everything confess just before I go to bed, just before I fall asleep, it's going to be okay.

I'm going to please God, I'm going to pacify God, I'm going to do whatever I want to do. You're born that way. We are all born that way because of Adam.

We don't become semi -Pelagians until we're born again. We thought somehow we cooperated with God.

I allowed him to believe, I allowed him to enter my heart. I said, please, Jesus, you're knocking on my door, my heart, and then

I let you in. I mean, we're born Pelagians, and when we're born again, we're pretty much semi -Pelagians. You're all looking at me saying,

I thought the IBS class was Friday night, or Thursday night. It's not until later we realize from God that we had nothing to do with our salvation except sin.

God did it all. Jesus is the Savior. He's the Alpha and the Omega of our salvation, and He did everything.

But here are these people, this false, show me a false religious system, and I don't care if it starts with a

B, or it starts with an M, or it starts with an I, or it starts with a C, or it starts with an H. You find one of the major religious influences of the world today, religious groups, and I'll tell you that they all have this in common, works righteousness.

And Jesus will not tolerate works righteousness. And so He gives a parable, and if you haven't read this parable yet, you better buckle up, because it is something.

It is God, the Son, talking about the triune

God's work with Israel. Verse 9,

And He began to tell the people this parable. I would have loved to have been there.

You know, there's something about standing in Corinth, thinking about 1 Corinthians, standing on Mars Hill, reading through Acts chapter 17, there's just something about it, but how did

I like to be there? Basically, we get to be there as we listen to these words.

A man planted a vineyard, led it out to tenants, and went into another country for a long while.

It doesn't sound kind of so nice and so sweet. You know, let's just tell me a story. And I just remember going to my grandfather's room, and he was dying of prostate cancer, and he'd say, he'd say,

Mike, hop up on the bed, and I'm going to tell you a story. And then he'd start off the story, and then

I could change the story whenever I wanted to. And he'd say, we're going down, you and me into this cave, and we need some kind of weapon.

And he'd say, grandson, what kind of weapon do you want? I want some kind of knife. Okay. And then Mike took the knife, you know, down.

You just think, this is a nice story, Grandpa. That's part of the pungency of parables, because he draws you in, and you go along, and you think,

I agree, I agree, I'm there, I'm with you, I agree, I agree. Gah! You know, like I should have disagreed five steps before.

Now, once he starts doing all this vineyard talk, I'm telling you, these people began to think of their only

Bible, and that was the Old Testament. And they were thinking Jeremiah, and they were thinking specifically Isaiah 5, where it says, and Israel was the vineyard.

You say vineyard back in those days, they would say, yes, we got grapes. But if it's some kind of religious context, religious discussion, religious atmosphere,

Israel is the vineyard. Mark chapter 12, it says a man planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, dug a vat under the wine press, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine growers, and went on a journey.

In other words, here God is the great vineyard owner, and he does everything for Israel.

He nourishes Israel, he plants Israel, he originates Israel, he does everything, protects Israel. That's where we're going here.

Let me just read you Jeremiah 2 for a moment. Yet I planted you, Israel, a choice vine.

A completely faithful seed. Isaiah chapter 5 verse 7,

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. The vineyard's

Israel. The landlord's God. The farmers are the leaders of Israel.

It's very simple. Verse 10 of Luke 20,

When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to check, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.

But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty -handed. Sounds like what they did to the

Old Testament prophets. God sends an Old Testament prophet to Israel, and what did they do?

They didn't want to hear it. Well, verse 11,

You begin to see the patience of God, the forbearance of God, the gentleness of God, the long -suffering of God, and he sent another servant.

But they also beat him. The word beat is where we get the word trauma.

They wounded. They beat him and treated him shamefully and sent him away. Take that message back to the owner.

We've got a message for you, and it's not here's all the fruit. That's the sound that they made when they beat him.

Elijah driven into the wilderness. Isaiah, according to tradition, sawn in half.

Zechariah, stoned to death, 2 Chronicles 24. John the Baptist, beheaded.

Legend says Amos was killed, Micah was killed, Jeremiah was killed, Ezekiel was killed, Joel was killed,

Habakkuk was killed. Jesus said in Matthew 23,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say, if we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets.

If we would have been back around those days, we wouldn't have let them kill those Old Testament prophets. Back to Luke 20, verse 12.

You can just feel this thing building. You can feel this thing. You know where this is going to end. We see the long -suffering of God, the forbearance of God.

God loves Israel, has cared for Israel, has provided for Israel, has given them a conscience, has given them the law, has given them a land.

And what are they doing? They don't want to hear from God. They're too busy committing, as ESV says, committing whoredoms with the

Baals. And now it's no different when you've got He works righteous in the system by the leaders in the temple.

Verse 12. And He sent out yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.

Even more abuse, even more suffering. And now we've built it to a crescendo. Jesus has built it.

We reach the climax here. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall

I do? You can feel the emotion. You can feel the pathos. You can feel just with love.

What should I do? Care for them. I love them. I want them to do the right thing.

You can feel the mood here is not, I'm going to slay this instant. I will send my beloved son.

Doesn't that echo back to this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased? I'll send my son.

Perhaps they'll respect Him. That'll work.

My dear son, Jesus. I'll send Him. There's no one else to send.

There's no one better to send. This is the last resort. I'll send my son.

Verse 14. And what do you think the religious leaders did? You can see what

Jesus is trying to do. He sends the son and what happens? But when the tenants saw

Him, they said to themselves, we don't know who this guy is. He seems like an Old Testament prophet. Let's kill him too.

No, they knew exactly who He was. That makes it all the worse. 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.

We'll kill the son. And they threw Him out of the vineyard. You don't want to defile the vineyard, of course.

It might make you lose a few grapes. They threw Him out of the vineyard and killed Him. And what does

Jesus say? What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? What will

He do? They've cast Him out of the vineyard. They've killed Him. What therefore will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

I wonder how long the pause was When I read the parable,

I say to myself, I want to give the answer. This kind of talk elicits the answer.

You look at that and I ask you the question, what therefore will the owner of the vineyard do to them? And everything in you wants to give the answer.

Because everything in us says, justice, righteousness, truth.

He's been merciful. He's been kind. He's been patient. Verse 16.

I think the false teachers there were afraid to say it, so Jesus says it.

He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyards to others. And it was so horrifying, so dramatic, so drastic.

When they heard this they said, surely not! No! The only time it's used out of Paul's epistles, may it never be, is the

Greek. May this never be. God forbid, the Old Testament, excuse me, the

King James, translates it often. And then

Jesus gives them some verses. Verse 17. But he looked directly at them.

Remember they just said, God forbid. He looked directly at them. What then is this that is written?

It's like going to the seminary, a liberal seminary, a seminary that doesn't teach the exclusivity of Jesus anymore, that doesn't teach the faith is mandatory in Christ alone anymore, and saying, you're the

Bible teachers. You're the Greek professors. You're the systematic theology professors. Tell me what the

Bible says. If you're saying surely not, I'm going to tell you what does the Bible say. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and he cites

Psalm 118. Psalm 118. The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the chief cornerstone.

Jesus says, have you ever read the Bible? Have you read the

Bible? Kind of a foil to them.

I wasn't in Jerusalem lately, but I was in Greece, and they make these huge temples. Huge temples to Apollos.

Huge temples to Zeus. Huge temples to Athena, Athens.

And you see these huge stones. I saw one stone on the top of a necropolis, on the top of this big hill, and they said that stone weighs 120 tons.

And I thought, 120 tons. I wonder how many people got killed getting that thing up there.

120 tons. Now, it's not like they could prefab rocks and prefab stones, and so what did you have to do?

You'd have to investigate carefully these stones to figure out how they would fit into the temple.

Same thing with the real temple. And here, if you notice the text, the stone which the builders rejected.

Rejected means to discard after fully testing. You look at it.

You examine every side. You think that's going to fit perfectly? These are the false teachers who have looked at every possible angle of Jesus.

He forgives sins. He heals on the Sabbath. He's called the Son of God. He's virgin born. He said He's going to be raised from the dead.

He is omniscient. He does all these things. And you know what? We've looked at Him, and we can't believe in this

Messiah. We won't believe in this Messiah. By the way, this is right close to Solomon's temple, where this is all happening.

And they've said this. The false leadership has said we've examined Jesus as the only way to God's presence, as the only way for forgiveness, and we've said rejected.

We won't give it our stamp of approval. Jesus quotes

Psalm 118 and says you should have examined this, and then said, you know what? I'm the chief cornerstone.

You throw me to the side. I'm the chief cornerstone. If I fall, your religion, your access to God, your view of Yahweh, it's all over.

Peter never forgot it. Listen to this sermon. Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for the benefit done to a sick man as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the

Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name this man stands here before you in good health.

Jesus is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, which became the very cornerstone.

Listen to what Psalm 2 says about God the Son. Do homage to the

Son, or kiss the Son, lest He become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled.

Jesus said, instead of discarding me, you should recognize me as the Messiah. Therefore God highly exalted

Him and bestowed on Him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. How about 1 Corinthians 16 .22? If anyone does not love the

Lord, let him be accursed. So let's continue back in Luke.

Back in Luke. No, you know what I'd like to do? We've got time. Turn with me to Mark chapter 12 just for a moment. You'll be glad you did.

Matthew, Mark, Luke. Turn to Mark chapter 12 and this is called a synoptic gospel and so you see the story of this happening in Mark and in Matthew and in Luke.

But Mark gives us a little bit of extra information that Luke does not. Luke says the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

But I want you to know how this all happened because this is almost, it's not the punchline, but you don't know everything unless you see this.

Mark 12 .11. Same passage, same place, same time. He's recording these words.

Verse 11. This came about from the Lord that the religious leaders would investigate, examine, reject, cast out, turn over, have crucified out of the city.

This is all what? Plan B. This is all flow chart C4. This is all backup plan.

This is all Jesus started saying a few things about Himself but got a little out of control and they killed Him. This is

God, Mark this, if you're not awake now, I'll wake you up. This is God ordaining sin.

A few of you just popped your head right up. God, of course, isn't the author.

He doesn't tempt us to sin. But if you think this world is just running haywire without a divine

God working everything together for good including sin, you don't understand

God. Because God ordained the death of Jesus Christ which is the worst sin ever, isn't it?

Only God could take sin and make it into something good. Friends, if your view is only

God ordains only the good things, what do you do with evil and sin? Option one, you could be like a

Christian scientist and say it doesn't exist. Option two, you could say

Satan's the one bringing it in. Or option three, you could say, you know what, this is from God.

This is from God. God has planned the death of Christ. Do you think He planned the death of Christ kind of by Passover time, kind of on the

Friday, kind of on that day? Friends, everything has been ordained by God.

This came about from the Lord that they rejected Jesus. That's sin in and of itself.

I only have to say God has a strange way of working. If you think the fall of Adam wasn't ordained, then

I want you to think greater of the sovereignty of God. You say, well,

I don't like all that. I don't like it that God sovereignly said this is what they're going to do with Jesus.

And what does Mark say? Mark 12, verse 11. This came about from the

Lord, the rejection of Jesus, including the death of Jesus. You can read Acts 2 and Acts 4 to see that the death of Jesus was ordained by God.

And it's not just from the Lord. It's not just...

This gives me a theological headache. It's not just this is some kind of conundrum, some kind of paradox, some kind of hyperdox, some kind of antinomy, some kind of concurrence, some kind of theological word so I can figure out how all this goes together.

What is it for the Christian who says even though this is planned by God, we are now the recipients of free forgiveness because Jesus paid for it all.

What is your response, Christian? Here's the response. And it is what? Marvelous in our eyes.

Wow, it's marvelous in our eyes that God the Father would send

His Son to die on my behalf. It's all planned. It's all ordained.

God's sovereign over all of it. Wow! That God can take the religious leaders who killed

Jesus and with a dramatic, providential, sovereign reversal make it for the glory of God and the angels shout out.

And if the Bible said angels sing, I don't see that they sing. If they did sing, they would sing. Marvelous is this in our eyes.

It's marvelous. Back to Luke please.

We better wrap this up. Everything falls under the sovereign plan of God including

Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection, including the sinful religious leaders, including their rejection of Jesus, their examination of Jesus, their sinful crucifixion of Jesus.

Luke 20 v. 18 If you're not a Christian, I'm going to try to ask, beg, plead that if you don't believe on the stone that was marvelous in some people's eyes, you are going to be crushed by something worse than a 120 ton rock.

Everyone who falls on that stone, trips on that stone, doesn't believe that stone, doesn't believe

Jesus is the only way, doesn't believe faith alone in Jesus is the only way, doesn't even believe they're a sinner because they're too wrapped up with diseases, syndromes, and self -help things.

What can save a sinner? What can save you if you're here today? You're underneath the burden of your sin and you know you'll die one day and stand before God.

What will save the sinner? Jesus. And if that Jesus doesn't save you, he'll shatter you.

And on that stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone, you will crush him.

Jesus is not going to be the one who's ultimately damaged by these false teachers. He will ultimately make them suffer and all those that follow.

Now some of this happened in 70 A .D. to them. But there's a future judgment as well.

And what do you think they did? Verse 19. You think they responded like some

Gentiles did? Oh, centurion, I know I'm sinful. The thief on the cross, forgive me.

The Samaritan woman in John 4, I just need forgiveness. I've heard now that you're the Messiah and I believe in you.

The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour for they perceived that he had told this parable against them.

They got that right at least. And they feared the people. I watch this with the eyes of Scripture and say there's nobody like Jesus.

Friends, do you think it was unloving of Jesus to say the religious system that was in Israel was null and void?

You think that was kind of mean? It's kind of nasty? You know, it's like some of the

United Methodist missionaries in the New Hebrides Island, Vanuatu, where John Payton went and he preached the

Gospels to the cannibals as he was running from them because he knew if they caught him they would boil him and eat him.

The same John Payton that when his wife and child died he had to bury them in the sand by the beach and sleep on their graves so they wouldn't be dug up and eaten by people that were acting like wolves.

The United Methodist missionaries said, do you know what? It's a shame that the Christian missionaries have come here and they've upset the local religion.

It's kind of a shame too that Jesus went and upset the local religion. Why do missionaries go?

Why do you tell your unbelieving friends the Gospel? Because you want to upset their unbelieving paganism.

Why? Because you hate them? No. It's hard to evangelize your friends. It's hard to preach the Gospel to your family.

But because you want to glorify God and you love them. Because there's only one

Savior and He will either save you as the chief cornerstone or He will pulverize you.

You say, well, I don't want to think about those things. Nobody wants to think about them but there's a day coming where we'll all stand before God.

And so what Jesus does when they come in love, in honor to the Father, He says, this is false righteousness.

It's the worst odor, the worst reeking smell in the nostrils of God.

When God says, you can't trust in yourself, you can't believe in yourself, you can't save yourself, you can't do anything except,

I'm going to send my Son to live in your place, to die on behalf of sinners like you, to raise Him from the dead.

He'll live the life you can't live. And you need to just take my word for it that you're sinful and look to another.

It's like when the people were getting bit by the snakes. You raise up the serpent and you say, here's the solution, just look and you'll live.

And can you believe the sinfulness of sin where some people said what? I'd rather die than do what

God says and look to Him and live. It's Christmas time.

It's a religious time. It's a happy time for some. Happy on the outside.

This is your ordained time to preach the offense of the cross to your friends.

And I want you to just think back in your mind. There was a day that you thought the cross was stupid, foolish, moronic, for a bunch of right -wing

Republicans who were all white and had all these kinds of ideas. Who's a Christian?

And then all of a sudden you realize they don't represent the God of the Bible. And when I see

Jesus, I realize who talks like this, who acts like this, He does forgive sin and I'm a sinner at the core.

And I now believe that Jesus is the only God. God, help me. If you can't save me, no one can.

Do you remember that time when that happened to you? And it had to come through someone opening their mouth, preaching the gospel to them.

For us, the bad news is the way people treated Jesus, they're going to treat us that way too.

They're going to think you're dumb, stupid, foolish, bigoted, prejudiced, and they're not going to want to hear it.

And they'll stumble over your words and they'll stumble over you. People say, well, you're middle -aged now,

Mike. I think middle -aged? My average age for a male is 70. I'm 50.

I'm not middle -aged. I'm practically gone. I was in this

Greek hotel in Naphtali and they said, well, it's very quiet for you tonight and you can teach over here and go ahead and just have this whole lobby.

And they said, but tomorrow night a group of Greeks are coming. They're old and they're loud.

I didn't say that. That's what they said. They're old and loud Greeks. And I said, really?

How old? They said, like 50 years old. I'm like, that is old.

I said, I'm 50. I've got one life to live.

And if my base is, my platform is, my relationship network is pulpit, radio show, friends, neighbors, then

I ought to be faithful to use those things to tell people Jesus is the only Savior. He's a great forgiver of sins.

You can commit the most heinous sins in the world and God's grace is greater than those things.

Just look to Jesus. Repent. Live. But we also need to tell them there's another side to this story.

And if they won't believe in that Jesus, the loving Savior, He's going to crush them forever. And the way of the transgressor is hard.

We love you enough that we don't want eternal hell for you. And you're one breath away.

The only reason you're not in hell now is because the Jesus whom you deny is giving you one more heartbeat.

Jesus was not doing friendship evangelism. I want to try to influence everybody. I'll get them to like me and then

I'll slip them the gospel later. We see here

Jesus, His real love for the glory of God and for those who would trust in His Son.

This is one place where you can say, what would Jesus do? He'd tell the truth and say

Jesus is the only Savior. He's the eternal God. And I should follow Jesus' example.

Let's pray. Thank you Father for this great passage.

Thank you that for most people here this morning, Jesus was the one who was crushed.

Isaiah says it pleased you to crush Him. Thank you that you've given us eyes of faith.

Thank you that we believe that Jesus has all authority. Thank you that it's only by your transforming grace that we see things the way we do now.

We would have been like the chief priests, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, scribes, lay leaders.

But now we see your Son with eyes of faith. Thank you. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.

I pray Father out of a wonderful heart of gratitude that Bethlehem Bible Church would be very effective in preaching

Christ crucified in the next several weeks. Crucified, buried, raised, and will return shortly.

Thank you that we have a sin bearer who's conquered death. Death is horrible, awful, unnatural.

It's the enemy. But we have a Savior over death and over sin and over hell.