Sunday, June 5, 2022 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Serving in the temple, and all the various shadows and types of the

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Old Covenant have been swept away. What is it going to be like?

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Is there still work to do? Does holiness still matter? What will worship be like?

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And Jesus has several things to say to orient the expectations of His followers, that they will know how to serve

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Jesus, how to love Him, and how to worship in His kingdom. Now, Matthew 13 is filled with parables of the kingdom.

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Matthew 25 has some very important parables of the kingdom, and we've been trying to fill in the gaps to understand what does

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Jesus mean at the beginning of chapter 25 of Matthew when He says, Now the kingdom of heaven is like.

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And this is practical to us, as we live in the kingdom of Christ.

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All authority has been given to Him, and we live in the light of His reign. So, we're going to read

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Matthew 21, verses 28 -46. A couple of parables, one short, one long, about the ins and outs of vineyards.

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Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, I thank You for this day. I thank You for this text. I pray that You would help us to understand it, and rejoice in the truth of Jesus.

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And we pray these things in His name. Amen. Verse 28 of Matthew 21.

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But what do you think? A man had two sons. And he came to the first and said,

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Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said,

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I will not. But afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise.

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And he answered and said, I go, sir. But he did not go.

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Which of the two did the will of his father? And they said to him, the first.

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Jesus said to them, Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.

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

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And when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.

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Hear another parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower.

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And he leased it to vinedressers, and he went into a far country. Now when vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers that they might receive its fruit.

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And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.

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Again, he sent out other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.

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Then last of all, he sent his son to them, saying,

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They will respect my son. But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves,

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This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.

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So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

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Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?

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They said to him, He will destroy those wicked men miserably and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.

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

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This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you,

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The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

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And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.

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Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitudes, because they took him for a prophet.

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And so, Jesus has two parables.

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They are related. They both refer to the kingdom of God.

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And in the first parable, Jesus wants to clarify for his listeners what it takes and what it means, what it looks like to enter the kingdom of God.

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A man had two sons. He speaks to them both, and they both answer in sinful fashion.

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The first refuses the authority of the father, rejects his father's instructions outright, openly.

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The father says, I want you to go serve, to go work, to go labor today in my vineyard.

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And the son says, no. So he rebels against his father. The second one also answers sinfully, though it is less apparent.

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The father says, I want you to go work in my vineyard. And he says, yes, sir, on my way.

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But this is the answer of the hypocrite. This is the answer of a liar.

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I want my father to think well of me. I will say what

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I know he expects me to say. But there is no intention to go work in the vineyard.

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Just saying the thing that sounds good. So both sons answer sinfully.

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But the difference is that the one who openly refused to go, repented.

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He repented. There was a change in his life. He regretted it.

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He relented. He changed his ways. He turned away from his rebellion.

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And he embraced obedience. And he went into the vineyard to labor in the vineyard.

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And Jesus asks a fairly obvious question. Who did the will of the father?

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Well, the answer can't be found in the first half. Either the rebellion or the lie.

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The answer is only seen in the second half. Which one was in the vineyard? Which one ended up in the vineyard laboring and working?

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Well, obviously the first. Everyone answers the correct way. The first son is the one who did the will of the father.

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And Jesus brings before them now, again, the figure of John the

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Baptist. Who was the forerunner. Who came before the Messiah to prepare the way.

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And he preached repentance. He had a ministry of baptism.

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But he wouldn't baptize just anybody. You didn't get baptized by John the Baptist just for showing up.

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It wasn't a participation trophy. All kinds of people showed up to catch a little bit of the glow of the favor and the glory of this preacher out in the wilderness.

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And John would say things like, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

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And then he would say things like this. He would say, Bear the fruits of repentance.

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And then I'll baptize you. So what he was saying was, The only reason for you to be baptized is to indicate that you have repented.

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And the way that we know you've repented or not is that we can see those fruits in your life. And so, in this way, the preparation for the

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Messiah was a preaching about repentance and preparation for the kingdom of Christ.

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And Jesus says, The tax collectors who repented entered into the kingdom of God.

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The harlots who repented entered the kingdom of God. Those who knew the right things to say, but didn't think they had any need to repent, they didn't enter into the vineyard to labor for the

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Lord. They didn't change their ways. It was only those who did change their ways.

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Think about the two sons. What would the appearance be as the father left the house that day?

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Think of the servants who were kind of maybe on the outskirts and they witnessed this happen. Son number one says,

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I will not go. Wow, what an awful son that is. Second son says, yes, of course,

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I will go. And the servants say, yeah, that's the one who's going to get the inheritance. You know, we know who's going to be written out of the will and who's going to remain in the will.

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However, the first son repented and went and did the work of the father, even though he was apparently, to all appearances, he was the wicked one.

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And this is what Jesus is saying with his illustration. The tax collectors, the turncoats, the traitors, the thieves, the extortioners, the harlots, the women of infamous sin and appearance and the hopeless cases.

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These are the wicked and they'll forever be wicked. When they repented of their sins, when they turned away from their sins and turned toward the preaching of the gospel, they turned toward the

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Lord, guess what? They entered the kingdom. Yes, they said no at first.

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Look at their lives, it's obvious. But then they repented. These entered. While those who knew all the right things to say, how to appear and sound holy, never repented and they didn't enter into the kingdom.

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And so that's the basis for what Jesus says. Tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.

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Part of the background of the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And he says,

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

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And even after you saw tax collectors repenting of their sins and their lives changed, the fruit of repentance, even after you saw harlots repent of their sins and their lives changed, even though you saw this, you didn't relent from your hypocrisy and enter in.

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And Jesus says, okay, that was fun. How about another parable? Here's another story, more in depth and in fact, very rich with biblical imagery.

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Let's listen to the very first part of this parable and try to understand the setting. Here, another parable.

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There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard. He planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it and built a tower.

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Now, this vineyard is famous amongst Jesus's audience. They know this vineyard.

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It is one of the most famous metaphors and pictures that they have in their culture.

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Okay. And we go back to Isaiah chapter 5 and we hear about this vineyard.

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In Isaiah chapter 5, after speaking about the judgment coming upon Jerusalem for their unfaithfulness and the coming restoration of Jerusalem and the restored

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Mount Zion, we come to Isaiah 5 and we have an extended metaphor, a parable given to us in Isaiah about Israel and God's relationship to Israel.

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Isaiah 5, beginning in verse 1. Now, let me sing to my well -beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard.

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My well -beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones.

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He planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst and he also made a wine press in it.

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Sound familiar? Well, this is the same vineyard. Jesus is talking about the role of the

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Jews in the old covenant. That his blessings, his covenant was entrusted.

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And here is a vineyard. Now, notice he expected it to bring forth good grapes.

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Isaiah 5, verse 2. He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

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He did everything he could. He did it right. He put everything in place so that this vineyard would bring forth the best of the best.

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He left no step undone. And yet, the vineyard gives bad grapes.

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And so the question comes in verse 3. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah. This is relevant to them because, you know, they're the ones who are living on that fruitful hill.

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And there's a wall around them that's much like a vineyard wall.

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And this is regarding them. Judge, please, between me and my vineyard.

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What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

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And now, please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned.

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And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briars and thorns.

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I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of the

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Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant.

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He looked for justice, but behold, oppression. For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

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So, when the vineyard brought forth bad fruit instead of good fruit, there was judgment that came.

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And, of course, that happened historically in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586

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B .C. Jesus takes up this parable from Isaiah, and everyone knows what he's talking about, and he fits it for the occasion.

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It's a little bit of a remix on Isaiah 5. And in this, it wasn't the vine or the vineyard that was the problem.

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The vine wasn't the problem, it was the vinedressers. They too were supposed to give good fruit to the owner of the vineyard.

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They were to provide good fruit. They were to take of the produce of the vineyard, and they were to give those fruits to the one who owns the vineyard.

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And they refused to do so. They did not properly steward what had been entrusted to them.

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Okay? So, the covenant blessings were given to them. They did not steward it correctly.

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And when the owner of the vineyard sent other servants to them to say,

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Hey, the owner needs the produce. Wasn't this agreed upon that you would give the produce of the vineyard to the owner?

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How did they treat these servants? They beat one, killed one, stoned another.

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In the parable, of course, the vinedressers are the chief priests and Pharisees, as we see in verse 45.

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They knew he was talking about them. The religious leaders of the Jews, who were primarily responsible for the stewardship of the covenant that God had made with Israel, they were not producing the fruit that they were supposed to produce.

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They were not living in accordance with the covenant agreement. And God sent to them prophets.

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He sent to them Elijah and Elisha. He sent to them Joel and Amos and Micah.

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He sent to them Isaiah and Jeremiah. And how did they treat these prophets?

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Well, they beat one, stoned one, killed another. They did not treat the prophets in the fear of the

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Lord. They rejected those messages. They would not listen to these servants. And last of all, indeed greatest of all,

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God sent his son, the owner of the vineyard. He sent his son and said,

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They will respect my son. But when the vinedressers saw him, The heir, come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.

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All the blessings of the covenant belong to the son, to Christ. It all belongs to him.

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And there's jealousy that the kingdom will be given to him, that the religious leaders, these chief priests and Pharisees, would no longer be the chiefs of the kingdom, the stewards to whom it all was, who was supposed to be handling all of this.

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And they were jealous of the heir. He said, come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.

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We want it for ourselves. We don't want him to have it. In many ways, they were like King Saul, jealous of David.

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Recall that in the experience of King David and King Saul, King Saul was the Lord's anointed.

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How often did David have to tell his troops, No, we're not going to kill Saul. He's the

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Lord's anointed. But yeah, David, aren't you the Lord's anointed? My goodness, this is very tumultuous to have two anointed at the same time.

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But isn't this exactly what goes on in this situation where the

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Messiah, the anointed one, shows up in the presence of the anointed of the old covenant,

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Israel. And how do they respond? With jealousy, where they could have set the stage and welcomed and said, this belongs to you.

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They acted in jealous rage and sought to kill him. And Jesus is prophesying of his own death.

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Even as they, out of jealousy, had him killed and cast outside of Jerusalem. So the son in this story is killed and cast outside of the vineyard, cast outside of the vineyard and then killed, just like it was in Jerusalem.

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So Jesus asks his audience, what would the owner of the vineyard do?

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And it's the audience who responds to him and they know what is right. They know what should happen.

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That the owner of the vineyard should destroy those wicked men miserably and lease his vineyard to other vine dressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.

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This causes us to reflect then back on the first parable. Were there not two sons?

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Did not one of the sons fail to produce in the vineyard, but one did? So it wasn't about those who knew how to look right and speak right and so on.

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It was about those who would repent and do the will of God. And that's what it's saying here.

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This is going to be given to a different group. And Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures, the builders, the stone, which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

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This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. And this is, of course, from Psalm 118, speaking of the

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Messiah. This imagery is picked up on by Peter in first Peter chapter 2.

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And the image is given as this. Jesus is saying, not just that the vineyard is given away to anyone, but notice it's about the chief cornerstone.

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Now the cornerstone in this building metaphor is the stone that is first set.

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It is a larger stone. It is extremely carefully crafted so that it is square.

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It has the 90 degree angle and it's level and it's everything you need it to be to start your building.

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And every stone that is laid out in this building from that point on is going to be exactly in line with this cornerstone.

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Whether you're going out to the width or the length or the height.

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Everything is going to be based upon this cornerstone. And this is what

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Jesus is saying. Rejecting the sun is like rejecting the cornerstone.

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The stone that the builders rejected, but then he becomes the chief cornerstone. Indeed, the basis for the building out of the new group and the new kingdom that he is talking about here.

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Therefore I say to you, verse 43, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

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A nation, a kingdom that is entirely based upon Christ who is the chief cornerstone, his kingdom.

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And whoever falls on the stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.

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So it's a little helpful to remember that Matthew 21 44 accords with Daniel 2 44 that this kingdom, the stone that is uncut by human hands, comes crashing in and crushes and does this horrific damage to this great idol of gold and silver and bronze and iron that it crushes and then the idol breaks across the stone and falls apart that this stone who is

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Christ, his kingdom utterly undoes all the other authority structures and none can stand against it.

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So Jesus is saying, this is what it's like when it comes to the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven.

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You enter into the kingdom, you enter by repentance, by repentance, by faith.

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Jesus says you did not believe. We enter the kingdom through repentance, meaning that we are not living for ourselves, but our lives are completely in line and accorded to the chief cornerstone.

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And Peter says that this is important because we are living stones being built up according to the cornerstone.

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We are living stones. Those who are in Christ being built out into the temple and God indwells his people and dwells his temple.

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So this is a big, important change.

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The those who were jealously defending the shadows of the old covenant, those who were jealously defending their position were fighting against Christ who is the fulfillment of all those shadows and types.

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The one who brought brings a better covenant and to fight against Christ is to be left outside of his kingdom.

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Verse 45 says, Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitudes because they, they meaning the multitudes, took him for a prophet.

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So again, it's not that we, it's not that the

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Bible is unclear and that this bothers people.

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It's that it is clear that it's so bothersome. And having trouble, that wasn't their blindness.

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Their blindness was to the saving glory of Christ, the face of God, the glory of God, the light of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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They had the veil that was blinding them, Paul says in Corinthians. But they understood what he was saying and they didn't like it.

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And they set themselves to kill him, to lay hands on him. But as always, the fear of man kept retarding all of their plans.

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They were afraid of men, and so they were ensnared by that fear of men. And they kept on failing to follow through until such time in God's providence they did.

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Any questions or thoughts about these parables, about the ins and outs? Yeah, it's the fruit of repentance.

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It's not the root, it's the fruit. I think the emphasis in this passage is looking at the long term, the long scale.

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These kinds of assessments are made from an end point of view.

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In Ephesians chapter 2, we are assured that our salvation, our deliverance from the death of transgressions and sins, our deliverance from slavery to the enemy, is by the gracious power of God.

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That salvation is by grace through faith and this does not constitute some sort of work in which we may boast.

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However, in that we are made alive together with Christ, we have been made alive, created anew for good works, which

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God has prepared beforehand for us to do. So, it's important to remember that framework.

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There are many people to their good works and they will hold to their good works as their salvation.

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Look at what I have done, how can I not go to heaven? How can I not be saved?

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Look at all that I have done. And they're looking at what would be considered holy action, holy behavior, rather than looking at their savior, rather than looking at the savior.

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And... Well, certainly. And did not Jesus say that many will say to him in that day,

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Lord, Lord, have we not? And then they begin to roll out their resume. Right? And this is a good reminder that all of that, if that's for somehow, if we're grabbing onto the resume of what

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I have accomplished in any shape or form as our comfort of salvation, then our faith is misaligned.

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None of us here have outworked and outlived the Apostle Paul and he wouldn't have a shred of his resume to cling to.

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For he said, not only about his past, but also about his present, I am what

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I am by the grace of God and that's all that I am. So when it comes to salvation, there's only one nail upon which we hang everything and that is the righteousness of Christ, his person and his work.

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And we are encouraged to examine ourselves to see whether indeed we are in the faith. And this is again, in that context as we read in Corinthians, talking about a godly sorrow that leads to a repentance from which there is no repentance.

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So there, a godly sorrow is a brokenness that is according to God, not a worldly sorrow of, oh

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I messed up, I feel guilty, I have shame. Therefore, I'm going to take care of those guilt feelings and those shame issues and the bad reputation that I now have and I'm going to do all these things and undo all of that.

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Well, the examination is whether or not we're in the faith. And the godly sorrow, the brokenness, has to do with who

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God is, who Christ is and the fact that we have grieved him. Does our sin that we're repenting from, is it a matter of I'm trying to get away from my guilt and my shame or is it dealing with the one who has made me in the light of his holiness, living before the face of God, am

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I grieving him? And that's a godly sorrow, a sorrow that is according to God, related to God.

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That's a good contrast. Yes, and that's the real difference that Paul was making in Corinth as he noted their zeal and their repentance and running away from the things that he rebuked them about.

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He was making note that it was a godly sorrow. Alright, well

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I hope that's been helpful to you. Let's go ahead and close by singing the doxology together.