WWUTT 2076 The Parables of the Two Sons and the Vine Growers (Matthew 21:28-46)

The Purpose of Jesus’ Parables to the Pharisees

Jesus told the Scribes and the Pharisees three parables, and the purpose of these parables was to demonstrate to them that just because they thought they were inheritors of the kingdom, it would actually be taken from them when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Matthew, we have three parables that we're looking at next. We've got the parable of the two sons, the parable of the vine growers. That finishes up chapter 21.

And then at the start of chapter 22, the parable of the wedding feast. Let me finish reading chapter 21 with the parable of the two sons and the parable of the vine growers. I'm going to begin reading in verse 28 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

But what do you think? A man had two sons and he came to the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not. But afterward, he regretted it and went. And the man came to the second and said the same thing.

And he answered and said, I will, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said the first. Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him. And you seeing this did not even regret afterward. So as to believe him, listen to another parable.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. Now when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his fruit and the vine growers took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned.

A third.

Again, he sent another group of slaves larger than the first and they did the same thing.

To them.

But afterward, he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son. But when the vine growers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir, come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.

And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers? They said to him, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.

Jesus said to them, did you never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruit of it.

And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they understood that he was speaking about them.

And although they were seeking to seize him, they feared the crowds because they were regarding him to be a prophet. Now there's one more parable in this trilogy, but the difference between the third parable coming up at the chapter, the beginning of chapter 22, the difference between that parable and the two that we just read is that in these two, Jesus asked questions of the scribes and the Pharisees and they answer his questions and he uses their answers to indict them, to show them the wrong that they have committed and that the kingdom of God is being taken away from them and given to those that they regard themselves as being greater than, namely the tax collectors and the sinners and the prostitutes who of course have repented.

And that is the, that's the point of the first parable, the parable of the two sons. At first they reject it, but then they feel guilty about it and they end up going out to the field to labor. So that is representing the fact that the tax collectors and the prostitutes did repent of their sin and follow Jesus Christ and they're going to receive the kingdom.

Whereas the Pharisees and those who believe themselves to have been faithful to the will of God, they will not receive the kingdom of God. So you have these two parables, the parable of the two sons, the parable of the vine growers in which Jesus asked questions of the scribes and Pharisees and brings guilt upon them because of their answers, trying to expose to them their hearts, whereas the people regard Jesus as being a prophet as we see here at the end of chapter 21.

Now the third parable at the start of chapter 22 is really Jesus saying the same thing, showing how these men who thought themselves to be faithful are really not going to inherit the kingdom of God. It's going to be given to others, but he doesn't ask questions in that one in chapter 22.

We'll get to that one tomorrow. So let's look again at these two parables, the parable of the two sons and the parable of the vine growers. Now as I've said before about parables, a parable has one meaning.

There are occasions in which I hear teachers nuance the thing to death and they try to find all this different symbolism throughout the parable and whatnot. That's never the intention of the parable. I won't say never.

I think there are occasions in which Jesus, as brilliant a storyteller as he was, because of course he was the son of God, he is the son of God. There are occasions in which Jesus will impose other meaning in there.

And of course there's going to be elements of a parable which are going to be true to a Hebrew that may be a little more difficult for us to discern. So sometimes in order to better understand the parable, you probably have to know something about Hebrew tradition or Hebrewisms or things like that.

But a meaning of a parable is never that far away from us. It's often easy for us to discern the meaning of this particular parable. And here Jesus does give exactly the meaning of the parable at the conclusion of it when we look at the parable of the two sons.

So in verse 28, what do you think? A man had two sons and he came to the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not. But afterward he regretted it and went.

And once again, this son represents like the tax collectors and the prostitutes. And so at first they are living wickedly and they are not followers of Christ. They do not fear God. We'll put it that way.

They don't fear God. They're doing what is right in their own eyes. But then they feel convicted over their sin and they turn from their sin and they begin to follow Jesus. And so they are forgiven. So they're doing the will of God.

At first they're resistant to God's will. And then they turn and they do the will of the father, which is being represented by the son who at first refused his father, but then obeyed and went out to the vineyard and.

Worked.

And then the man came to the second son and said the same thing. And he answered and said, I will, sir. But that son did not go. And this is supposed to be representative of the Pharisees and the scribes who say that they are doers of God's will.

We do obey the commandments. We do whatever God asks of us to do. Of course, as we've seen with regards to the Pharisees, they will twist the word. They will change the law. They will add things to it and, and take away.

So really what they end up obeying is a word of their own, making the tradition of man as Jesus had rebuked them earlier. It's not really the word of God. It's the word of themselves. So Jesus asked this question in verse 31.

Now he's asking it of the Pharisees, which of the two did the will of his father? And they said the first. And Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you because they were represented by that first son.

Verse 32, for John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him. And you seeing this did not even regret afterwards. So as to believe him, like you acknowledge God with your lips, but your heart is far from him.

The indictment that Jesus made of them from the prophet Isaiah earlier. Now I didn't establish some context here. When we jumped into these parables, remember what we just finished off with. This would have been back on Wednesday when the Pharisees challenged Jesus authority.

They asked him, by whose authority do you do these things? And Jesus said, I will ask you a question. You answer the question for me, and then I will tell you by whose authority that I am doing these things.

And so the question that Jesus asked them was this. The baptism of John was from what source from heaven or from men. Do you remember this? And the Pharisees decided, well, if we say from heaven, Jesus will say, then why did you not believe him?

And if we say from men, we fear the crowd because the crowd regarded John as a prophet. So they responded to Jesus and said, we don't know. And then Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Now, Jesus did not just leave them with that answer, with their answer. We don't know. We don't know if the baptism of John, if his message, if it came from heaven or if it was from men. We don't know.

Jesus didn't leave them with that. So what he's showing here with this particular parable is that there were some who believe John. They're the ones that the Pharisees don't want to have anything to do with.

The tax collectors, the sinners, the prostitutes, they believe John and they've repented of their sin. They were baptized and now they have they have gone on in the fear of the Lord and delighting to do his will.

But you did not believe John's message. You claim to be followers of the of the one true God. But then when it comes to listening to one whom God sent, you did not listen to him. And you go on obeying your own tradition rather than the word of the Lord.

John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him. And you seeing this did not even regret afterward. So as to believe him.

So there's the meaning of the first parable, the parable of the two sons. The next parable we have in verses 33 to the end of the chapter, verse 46, this one being a little bit longer, Jesus says, listen to another parable.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. Now if you have either the new American standard or the legacy standard, which of course I'm reading for the legacy standard, there's quite a bit of verse 33 that's all caps.

And that indicates that this is a quote from the Old Testament. Jesus is quoting the Old Testament here. A landowner planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower.

That section right there is a quote from the Old Testament from what scripture happens to be Isaiah five, one and two. Let me sing now for my well beloved, a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard.

My well beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones and planted it with the choicest vine and he built a tower in the middle of it and he also hewed out a wine vat in it and he hoped for it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones.

And that vine or that vineyard right there in Isaiah five is supposed to be Israel. The Lord goes on in verse three to say, so now, Oh, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

What more was there to do for my vineyard than I have not done in it?

Why?

When I hope for it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? So now let me tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed. I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.

I will lay it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will also command the clouds to rain, no rain on it. For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah, his delightful plant.

Thus he hoped for justice, but behold, bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. And as this was being said about Israel in the days of Isaiah, so Jesus is using the words of the prophet and bringing them into the present time in his day and saying that this is the case with the scribes and the Pharisees.

They are just like, they're just like Israel 700 years ago. And so the Lord had quoted from Isaiah previously, well, did Isaiah speak of you hypocrites? They acknowledge me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

So as Jesus is telling this parable here, he's quoting from Isaiah five to show that this is the, you are the same kind of people that God was angry at before the, uh, before the exile, before the Babylonians came in and took over Jerusalem and, and drove all the Israelites out of it.

Of course, there's going to be a, another siege just around the corner. And that's going to be the battle between Jerusalem and the Romans, which is coming up in 70 AD, the Jewish Roman war. So there, there's, there's yet another occasion in which these people are going to be turned over to the hands of their enemies.

Jesus is going to talk about that further a little bit later on in, on this particular day, in fact, the same day that we're reading this teaching being taught in the temple. So anyway, Jesus quoting from Isaiah five, one, there was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey verse 34.

Now when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his fruit and the vine growers took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned.

A third.

Now, given that this is talking about the prophets, you might be tempted to look at that and think, okay, well, who are the three that are being represented there? Beat one, killed another, stoned a third.

Are these possibly prophets from the old Testament that these things happen to? To beat one is actually to flay the skin. So it is to beat someone so severely that their skin shreds and they bleed out and die.

It's a very brutal way to kill somebody. Killed another, not really a description there as to how that person died, but nonetheless, they were murdered. And then the last one stoned a third, and this was a typical way that capital punishment was carried out in the time of theocratic Israel.

You have in Deuteronomy 13 .10, 17 .7, also talked about in Joshua 7 .25, that those who had disobeyed God were to be stoned to death, and on occasion in the narrative, we even saw that carried out. But these are not talking about specific prophets.

It's just certain manners of death that were carried out in Israel, but these were the kinds of things that happened to the prophets. The people did not listen to the prophets, and so put them to death.

And then verse 36, again, he sent another group of slaves larger than the first, and they did the same thing to them. But afterward, he sent his son to them saying, they will respect my son. But when the vine growers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir.

Come let us kill him and seize the inheritance. Now you know exactly who that's referring to. That is referring to Christ. They took him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers?

So once again, Jesus asking the question of the Pharisees and the scribes, and their answer he's going to use against them. They said to him, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.

Hmm.

So who is going to be, who will be the ones that God will give the vineyard to? He'll give the vineyard to the Gentiles. He'll give the vineyard to anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ. And those who think that they had earned it because they were scribes and Pharisees and descendants of Abraham, it will be taken away from them and they won't receive anything.

In fact, they will receive the wrath of the man who owned the vineyard. They will receive the wrath of God. So Jesus said to them, did you never read the scriptures? Like he's showing them, do you not realize what you've just said about yourselves?

Have you never read in the scriptures that the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone? This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is a passage that is quoted throughout the gospels.

It's from Psalm 118 beginning in verse 22, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is from Yahweh. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which Yahweh has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Oh Yahweh save, oh Yahweh succeed. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh. Look at that. Those words look familiar, don't they?

Happens to be the same words that the people were quoting, were singing when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey's colt. They were singing from Psalm 118. And it's that very same Psalm that says the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and this of course in reference to Christ.

Therefore I say to you, he says, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruit of it. And that is a nation that will be made up of Jews and Gentiles, those who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As the apostle Peter talks about in 1 Peter 2, you are a holy nation, a royal priesthood. He says this to the church. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you would not receive mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And that's especially being said to Gentiles. Those who are far off have been brought near by the precious blood of Jesus. Verse 44, Jesus says, and he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.

And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they understood that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to seize him, they feared the crowds because they were regarding.

Him.

The Two Sons: Repentance Versus Empty Profession

The crowds were regarding him to be a prophet. One more parable in this trilogy that we have to read, which we'll come back to tomorrow. And I'll kind of expound upon the lesson a little bit beyond what we've even discussed.

Today.

But all those who are in Christ Jesus are God's people. And we have received the inheritance that which the father has given to the son. The son has even given to all who have eternal life in him. And we are fellow heirs with Christ.

And so turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and live. Do not be as the Pharisees who will acknowledge God with their lips, but their hearts are far away from God. Do not say that you were a believer, but in secret, in your thoughts, when nobody is looking, you go after the temptations of your flesh.

You are enticed by the world. You are easily ensnared by Satan and really show yourself to be unqualified and not a true follower of Christ. Turn from your sin and your wicked ways and follow Jesus and his righteousness.

The righteousness Jesus talked about in verse 32, John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. The way of righteousness is the way of God. Walk in his way and show yourself to be a true follower of Jesus.

Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here and I pray it is convicting upon our hearts. We recognize that as followers of Jesus, we're to be doing more than paying lip service to a religion.

If we truly follow Christ, if we have faith in him, that the evidence of that faith is going to be demonstrated in our lives. Let us not present ourselves one way in front of other people and then in private we're somebody else entirely.

We flee from the Lord and instead we continue to be ensnared, enslaved to the passions of our flesh. Set us free from these things, free in Christ that we may live holy and upright lives before you in the present day.

It is in Jesus name we pray, amen.

The Vineyard of Israel and the Rejected Stone

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