Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Rejected Son and the Judgment of False Stewards (Matthew 21:33-46)

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The Rejected Son and the Judgment of False Stewards (Matthew 21:33-46) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the Reformed Thinking podcast.
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When you hand your books over for a financial audit, there is
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a specific feeling in the room. Oh, absolutely.
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A very uncomfortable feeling. Right.
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It's a cold, sterile precision. You know, you slide the Ledger
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across the table and the auditor tracks the missing funds and
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they point a pen at a line item. It's either solvent or bankrupt.
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It is clean. We actually we like things to be
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visible like that, to be neatly categorized in black and white.
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Yeah, we prefer the math to be straightforward.
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But what happens when you step into the realm of divine
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accountability? What happens when that Ledger is
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not tracking your bank account, but tracking your soul?
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That is a staggering question. We are looking at a diagnostic
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landscape today that is terrifying because the auditor
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already knows the outcome before the books are even opened.
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Yeah, there are no secrets here, so.
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Today we have a custom tailored deep dive prepared specifically
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for you. Our mission in this deep dives
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is unpacking the parable of the wicked tenants from Matthew
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chapter 21, verses 33 through 46.
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It is a phenomenal stretch of scripture.
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It really is. We are going to look at God's
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absolute sovereignty, the terrifying nature of divine
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patience, and the definitive judgement waiting for those who
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reject the authority of Christ. A lot of heavy themes today.
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Definitely, and right from the start, we need to establish our
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ground rules for the conversation.
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We are looking at this text through the lens of Protestant
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Reformed theology adhering to the Westminster Confession.
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That is a critical distinction to make right at the beginning.
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Yeah, because we are not treating this as a moral fable.
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We are not treating this as a, you know, a light hearted story
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about being nice to your landlord.
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We are looking at a severe and glorious revelation of
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redemptive history. I am glad you brought that up,
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because when we approach the Scriptures, especially the
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parables of Christ, there is a temptation in our modern context
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to soften the edges. Oh, for sure, we want to
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domesticate. It right We want to read these
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accounts as gentle suggestions for living a better life, or,
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well, perhaps, as ethical guidelines for social
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improvement. But that approach strips the
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text of its divine weight. It deuters the text, really.
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Spot on. When Christ speaks in Matthew
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21, he is not offering a seminar on agricultural ethics.
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He is delivering A prophetic lawsuit.
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He is bringing the full weight of covenantal history down upon
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the heads of the religious elite.
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A prophetic lawsuit. I love that phrasing.
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Thanks. Now understand this parable.
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We have to recognize that it is an indictment, a formal
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declaration of spiritual treason.
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The tension you mentioned with the audit is highly relevant
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here. It's all about an inspection,
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right? Exactly.
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I mean, yes, precisely. The owner of the vineyard is
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coming to inspect the books, and what he finds is not a simple
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accounting error, but premeditated, violent rebellion.
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Wow. This parable forces us to
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confront the reality that humanity does not naturally want
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the rule of God. We want the benefits of his
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creation, the blessings of the vineyard, but we want to banish
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the owner. We want the stuff, but not the
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sovereign. Right.
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And Christ standing in the temple courts, is pulling back
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the curtain on that rebellion in real time.
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To really grasp the sheer intensity of this moment, we
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have to look at the setting. It is Tuesday of Passion Week.
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Jesus is standing inside the massive temple courts of
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Jerusalem. The location is huge here.
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It is This is not a quiet hillside in Galilee where the
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crowds are sitting on the grass listening to the Beatitudes.
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This is the epicenter of the Jewish religious world.
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And we have to remember what happened the day before.
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Right Monday, Jesus walked into this very same space and
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completely upended their entire financial system.
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He cleanse the temple. He overturned the tables of the
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money changers. He drove out the merchants.
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He looked at the religious leaders and told them they had
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turned a House of prayer into a den of robbers.
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It was a massive disruption, the.
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Smell of the livestock from the day before is probably still in
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the air. The dust is barely settled.
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And now the religious elite, the Sanhedrin, which includes the
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chief priests, the scribes and the elders, they are furious.
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They are out for blood at this point.
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They March up to him in front of everyone in demand.
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By what authority are you doing these things?
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They're trying to trap him. Yeah, they want a public
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misstep. They want him to say something
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that they can use to have him arrested by the Romans or stoned
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by the mob, and Jesus responds by telling the story about a 1st
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century tenant farming situation in Judea.
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Which was a very common socioeconomic setup back then.
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Right. He talks about an absentee
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landlord who leases his estate to tenants and then disputes
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over the red turned violent. And there's a specific legal
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custom at play here. The inheritance laws.
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Yeah, if an owner died without a legal heir, the first person to
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claim the land could gain legal title.
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Jesus is taking the headlines of their day, the specific property
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laws they all understood, and he is turning those facts into a
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mirror. What's fascinating here is how
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this historical context prevents us from spiritualizing the text.
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Jesus is using real world economics and property law to
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trap the religious leaders in their own logic.
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He's using their own system against them, yes. 1st century
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Galilee and Judea were rife with these massive agricultural
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estates owned by wealthy landlords who lived far away,
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often in foreign cities like Alexandria or Rome.
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So they were entirely absentee. Pretty much they would lease the
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land to these tenant farmers, known in Greek as the jorgoi.
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These tenants were not slaves. They were contracted managers
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who had a great deal of agency, but they were obligated to pay a
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portion of the harvest as rent. And I imagine that caused a lot
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of friction. Oh constant disputes.
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They were incredibly common and they often escalated into
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violence because of the socio economic tension.
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The locals resented the foreign land owners.
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They felt the land belong to them by right.
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So the crowd would be tracking with the story immediately.
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Absolutely. When Jesus starts telling this
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story, the crowd and the religious leaders are nodding
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along. They know what this scenario
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looks like, but there is a political tightrope vibrating
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under their feet. Because of the Romans, right?
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The Sanhedrin field Roman intervention above all else.
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They view Jesus as a massive threat to their religious
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monopoly and to the fragile peace they maintain with the
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Roman occupiers. The Romans did not tolerate
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riots. Not at all.
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Pontius Pilate is sitting in the Antonia fortress, literally
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overlooking the temple complex, watching for any sign of an
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uprising. The religious leaders thought
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they were the owners of the religious system, the guardians
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of the nation. They felt untouchable.
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They did, and Jesus uses this agrarian legal loophole, the
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idea that killing the heir leaves the property owner less
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and up for grabs to expose their secret murderous ambition.
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They wanted to kill the true heir so they could keep the
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religious real estate for themselves.
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OK, let's unpack this. This is like a group of rogue
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property managers who realize the absentee IT owner is out of
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the country. That's a great way to look at.
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It they forge documents and plan a hostile takeover of the
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estate, thinking nobody will stop them.
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They look at the massive skyscraper they are managing,
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they look at the rent checks coming in and they make a
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decision. A very arrogant decision.
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Right, they decide. We do the work, We interact with
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the tenants, we maintain the lobby, We fix the elevators.
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Why should we send the profits overseas to an owner who isn't
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even here? They convince themselves they
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deserve it. They completely forget that they
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did not buy the land, they did not pour the foundation, they
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did not finance the steel and they do not hold the deed.
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It is a stunning level of arrogance.
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It's pure theft dressed up as management.
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Exactly what? Spot on.
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And to understand the sheer audacity of this hostile
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takeover, we have to look at the massive investment the owner
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made in the property before he leased it out.
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That part of the parable is so crucial.
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It is. Jesus does not start the story
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with the tenants rebellion. He starts by quoting the song of
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the vineyard from Isaiah chapter 5.
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He talks about how the owner planted the vineyard, put up a
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fence around it, dug a wine press and built a tower.
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He spared no expense. He furnished his place with
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everything needed for success. He provided the protection, the
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infrastructure and the resources.
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He handed them a turnkey operation.
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The detail Jesus includes regarding the owner's provision
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is absolutely vital for establishing the theological
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baseline of the parable. By invoking the imagery of
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Isaiah 5, Jesus is signaling to the scribes and Pharisees that
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he is speaking about national Israel.
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Because they would have known Isaiah 5 by heart.
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Oh, backward and forward in Isaiah, God asks what more was
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there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
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The owner provided everything. The hedge was there to keep out
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wild animals and thieves, representing the law and the
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covenant that separated Israel from the Pagan nations.
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It was a boundary of grace, essentially.
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Yes, a boundary of grace. The wine press was carved into
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solid bedrock and expensive and permanent fixture, demonstrating
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the owner's expectation of a fruitful, long lasting harvest.
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That implies he wasn't going anywhere.
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Right. He was in it for the long haul,
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and the tower provided a vantage point for Watchmen to guard the
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crop, representing the protective oversight of God.
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Every single detail screams of grace, forethought, and rightful
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ownership. So he sets them up perfectly.
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He really does. When the owner eventually leaves
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and leases the land to the jorgoi, the trusted managers, he
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is not abandoning them. He is delegating responsibility.
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And when harvest time comes, he sends his servants, the duloi,
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to collect his rightful share. There's big difference in those
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Greek words, isn't there? A huge difference.
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Notice the distinction. The tenants are the jorgoi men
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with agency and accountability. The messengers sent to collect
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the fruit are the duloi, the bond servants who come entirely
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under the authority and backing of the owner.
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And the response from the tenants is shocking.
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The owner repeatedly sends these servants to collect his rightful
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rent. And what do the tenants do?
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They go on a rampage. They beat one, they kill
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another, and they stone 1/3. It is an escalation of violence
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and the owner sends more servants more than the first
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group, and the tenants do the exact same thing to them.
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It's a bloodbath, this. Is where the story shifts from a
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typical labor dispute into something sinister.
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This is not just a bunch of farmers saying hey the crop was
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bad this year, we need an extension on our rent.
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Right. This isn't a negotiation.
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This is a coordinated, violent assault on the owner's
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representatives, and when we look at the historical timeline
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Jesus is drawing from, those servants represent the Old
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Testament prophets. The men God sent to wake them
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up. Yeah, men like Jeremiah, who was
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thrown into his cistern and left his sink in the mud, Elijah, who
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had to flee for his life from Ahab and Jezebel, Zechariah, who
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was stoned in the court of the Temple.
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The history of Israel is stained with their blood.
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The tenants are brutalizing the messengers, which reveals that
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their real issue is not the rent.
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The real issue is the owner himself.
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That is the crux of the rebellion.
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The violence against the servants proves the tenants
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issue is a settled historical hostility toward the owners
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authority. They do not want to be stewards,
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they want to be sovereigns. I want the crown.
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Yes, the prophets of the Old Testament were not sent to
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introduce novel ideas. They were sent to call the
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covenant people back to the terms of the lease.
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They were calling for the fruit of repentance, justice and true
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worship. And they were hated for it.
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Despised and every time a prophet was beaten or killed,
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Israel's leadership was essentially shouting we will not
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have this man rule over us. What we see here is an
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illustration of the theological concept of divine patience.
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Which is really hard to wrap our minds around.
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It is. God is slow to anger.
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He sends warning after warning. The owner could have raised an
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army and eradicated the tenants after the very first servant was
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beaten. He had the legal right and the
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authority to do so. Any human landlord would have
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done that. Without a doubt.
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Instead, he sends more servants. He extends the opportunity for
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repentance. This highlights the tragedy of
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human rebellion. The longer God delays judgement,
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the more hardened the rebellious heart become.
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They just get bolder in their sin.
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Right. The tenants mistake the owner's
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patience for weakness. They assume his delayed response
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means he is either incapable of enforcing his rights or
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indifferent to their crimes. If the owner knows the tenants
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are violent, why keep sending servants?
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From a business perspective, isn't that just bad management?
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It definitely looks foolish to the world.
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If I own a company and I send an executive to a regional office
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to collect revenue and the regional managers murder him, I
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am not going to send another executive.
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I am calling the authorities, I am sending the police.
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You'd shut the whole branch down.
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Immediately. So does this reveal something
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staggering about God's character?
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Is he operating on a completely different metric than our
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standard corporate logic? He absolutely is.
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Because to the natural mind, sending wave after wave of
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unarmed messengers into a violently hostile environment
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seems reckless. But in the context of redemptive
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history, it shows as a God who exhausts every possible avenue
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of prophetic warning before the final hammer of judgement falls.
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It is a thorough, exhaustive grace.
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He ensures that when the verdict is finally read, no one can
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claim they were not warned. No one can say if only you had
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sent one more profit, we would have listened.
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It reveals the unfathomable depth of divine forbearance.
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Ted's patience is not a lack of managerial skill.
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It is the deliberate, gracious delay of a holy judge who
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desires that men turn from their wicked ways.
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It's a mercy that we don't naturally comprehend.
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Right. The sending of the prophets,
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century after century was an act of supreme mercy.
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Every beaten servant, every stone prophet, was a physical
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manifestation of God's willingness to absorb the insult
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of His creatures in order to give them time to repent.
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That is heavy. But this extreme patience sets
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the stage for the most shocking business decision of the text,
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says Last of all, he sent his son to them, saying they will
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respect my son. The ultimate risk?
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The sending of the Son is the absolute climax of divine
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patience. The owner does not send another
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slave. He sends the huyos, the son, the
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one who shares his nature, his authority, and his name.
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This is the definitive turning point in the parable and in
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redemptive history. The text notes that the owner
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says they will respect my son and the Greek word used for
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respect there is entrepo. A fascinating word choice by
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Matthew. It implies being turned in upon
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oneself in reverential awe or deference.
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It is this idea that when the sun shows up, all the rebellion,
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all the posturing, all the hostility will just melt away
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because of the sheer weight of who he is.
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They should have been on their faces.
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Right. They should feel shame for what
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they have done and they will yield to his authority.
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But that is not what happens. The tenants see the sun coming
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and they recognize him immediately.
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There is no confusion here. None, they say.
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This is the air. Come, let us kill him and have
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his inheritance. The Greek word for air is
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claronimos. They do not kill him out of
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mistaken identity. They know the stakes.
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They do not think he's just another servant or a trespasser.
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They kill him because he is the heir.
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They know precisely who he is, and that is what makes their
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crime so horrific. It is chilling.
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They want to seize the inheritance.
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They want the vineyard without the owner, and so they throw him
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out of the vineyard and kill him.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, this action ties
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directly into the Reformed doctrine of total depravity.
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Which is a doctrine a lot of people misunderstand.
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They do. Total depravity does not mean
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that every human being is as evil as they could possibly be
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in every moment. It means that sin has corrupted
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every part of our nature, our mind, our will, our affections,
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so that the human heart does not naturally welcome divine
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authority. It's a systemic corruption.
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Right. We want the benefits of the
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vineyard without the rule of the owner.
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We want the sun shine, the rain, the harvest, and the life that
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God provides, but we violently reject the idea that we owe Him
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our obedience and our worship. We want the gifts, not the
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giver. Well said.
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How does a religious leader, someone who has memorized the
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Torah, self justify murder? Sin blinds the intellect and
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twist the will. The tenants reaction to the Sun
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is the ultimate proof of this depravity.
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It really exposes the human heart.
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When the clearest, most perfect representation of the Father
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arrives, the response of the signal heart is not reverence
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but murder. Furthermore, we see prophetic
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exactness in Jesus's words. He says they threw him out of
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the vineyard and killed. Him, the geography of the
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Crucifixion. Yes, this is Jesus predicting
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his own substitutionary atonement, knowing that within
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days he would be LED outside the gates of Jerusalem to suffer and
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die on a Roman cross. He's demonstrating that he is
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not a victim of circumstances. He is the Sovereign Lord,
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narrating his own passion. Here's where it gets really
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interesting. This is an accidental
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manslaughter. This is first degree
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premeditated corporate treason. The worst kind of betrayal.
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They look the CE OS son in the eye, know specifically who he
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is, and pull the trigger so they can keep the corner office.
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They are acting with full agency and complete malice.
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They have 0 excuses. They think they're winning.
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They think that by eliminating the air, the problem goes away
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and they get to reign supreme over the estate.
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They do not realize that their act of ultimate rebellion is
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actually sealing their own doom. They are blind to the
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consequences. And after describing this
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gruesome murder, Jesus suddenly stops the story.
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He does not finish the narrative himself.
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Instead, he turns to the chief priests and the elders, and he
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forces the Sanhedrin into the jury box.
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He. Corners them?
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He asked. Them a direct question.
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When therefore the Lord of the Vineyard cometh, what will he do
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unto those husbandmen? He makes them pronounce the
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verdict. And their answer is a
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devastating self condemnation. They reply, He will miserably
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destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto
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other husband men, which shall render him the fruits in their
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seasons. They walk right into the trap.
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They do. The Greek syntax of their answer
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is striking. It uses a double accusative
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construction which is a bit difficult to render smoothly in
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English, but it essentially means miserable men miserably
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destroyed. It's very poetic, almost.
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It is. Why does this matter?
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Because they are not just giving a dry legal response.
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They are emotionally invested in the story.
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They are indignant. They're actually angry at the
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tenants. Right.
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They are so caught up in the narrative trap Jesus has set
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that they use poetic, venomous language to condemn the
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fictional tenants, completely blind to the fact that they are
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signing their own death warrant. The irony is just staggering.
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They recognize the utter wretchedness of the tenants
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actions and they demand a punishment that matches the
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crime. They pronounce a sentence of
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absolute destruction, and Jesus takes their own verdict and
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seals it upon them. He drops the gavel.
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He pronounces the formal sentence, The Kingdom of God
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will be taken away from them and given to a nation, producing its
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fruit. This is a monumental shift in
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Covenant history. A completely new era.
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Jesus is declaring the end of the exclusive stewardship of
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national Israel's religious leadership, and historically we
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see the terrifying fulfillment of this verdict with the
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judicial hardening of Israel's leadership and the eventual
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catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the
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Roman armies in 8070. Hold on, I'm stuck on this idea
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of producing fruit. If I'm listening to this, I'm
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thinking great, I have to earn my salvation by growing grapes.
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That is a very common misreading.
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Doesn't this completely contradict the Protestant idea
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of grace alone? Help me square this circle.
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If the requirement for receiving the Kingdom is that this new
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nation must produce fruit, someone might assume that their
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salvation depends on their performance.
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They might think it's a workspace system.
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Right. They might think they have to do
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enough good works to prove to the owner that they are worthy
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of the lease. That seems to rub up against the
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core Protestant doctrine that we are saved by grace alone through
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faith alone in Christ alone. How do we reconcile the demand
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for fruit with a free gift of the Gospel?
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That is a vital clarification to make.
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To resolve this, we have to look at the Reformed understanding of
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sanctification as outlined in the Westminster Confession.
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We are absolutely justified by faith alone.
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No works added. Zero.
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Our right standing before God is based entirely on the imputed
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righteousness of Christ, not on any works we perform.
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Imputed righteousness means that Christ's perfect obedience is
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credited to our account, while our sin is credited to His.
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The great exchange. Yes.
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However, the faith that justifies is never alone.
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It inevitably produces obedience.
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Fruit does not earn salvation. Fruit is a visible evidence of
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genuine participation in the Kingdom.
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So it's the result, not the cause.
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Spot on. The failure of the religious
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leaders was not just that they lacked perfect works, it was
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that their lack of fruit demonstrated a complete absence
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of saving faith and submission to the owner.
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The new nation Jesus speaks of is the Church, a spiritual house
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gathered from both Jew and Gentile, united to Christ by
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faith. It's a living Organism.
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Because the Church is united to the true vine, to use another of
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Christ's metaphors, it will organically produce the fruit of
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the Spirit. God demands fruit, and through
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the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, He produces in His
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people the very fruit He demands.
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The warning to the Sanhedrin is that their barrenness proved
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their rebellion. Their outward religious rituals
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were leaves without grapes. That is well, that is actually
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terrifying if the fruit is just the proof of the root.
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How many of these religious leaders thought they had a
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healthy root system just because they had religious leaves?
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Too many of them. They had the robes, they had the
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public prayers, they had the respect of the community.
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They were surrounded by the architecture of worship, yet
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they were completely dead inside.
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And Speaking of architecture, Jesus seals this verdict by
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completely switching his metaphor.
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He pivots away from the vineyard entirely.
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He moves from agriculture to a construction site.
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He quotes Psalm 118, verse 22. The stone which the builders
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rejected the same has become the head of the corner.
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This is a massive pivot. It is brilliant rhetorical
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strategy. He is standing in front of the
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Master Builders of Israel, the men responsible for constructing
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the spiritual life of the nation, inside a temple complex
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that is actively undergoing renovations by Harrods workers.
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There are literally massive stones being moved around them
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as they speak. It's a very visual lesson.
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It is a highly targeted environmental insult.
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He accuses them of throwing away the most critical piece of the
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entire foundation. The shift in imagery is
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brilliant. The Greek word used for rejected
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is apodoki maso. This is not a casual tossing
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aside of a rock that happened to be in the way.
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It's not an accident. No, this word denotes a formal
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examination. It means to scrutinize
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something, to test it, and then deliberately conclude that it is
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useless, unfit, and disqualified.
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The builders, the Sanhedrin examined Jesus.
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They. Evaluated him closely.
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They listened to his teaching, they saw his miracles, they
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evaluated his claims, and they formally voted him out.
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They deemed him entirely unfit for the religious structure they
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were building. They threw him in the trash
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pile. But Jesus points out that human
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rejection does not Swart divine election.
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The very stone they threw into the scrapheap God sovereignly
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installs as the chief cornerstone.
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In ancient architecture, the cornerstone was the massive,
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perfectly squared stone laid at the corner of the foundation.
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It's at the lines for everything else.
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It bore the weight of the structure and every other stone
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was aligned to it. Without the cornerstone, the
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building collapses. Jesus is telling them that
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they're trying to build a temple without the foundation, while
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God is building a new temple entirely upon the stone they
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despised. So what does this all mean?
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It is like a city inspector examining a massive steel beam
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for a new skyscraper. OK, I see where you're going
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with this. He looks at the specs, decides
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it does not meet his personal code of aesthetics, so he tosses
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it in the scrap heap. He writes it off his garbage.
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He decides to build the skyscraper out of glass and
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hubris instead. A recipe for disaster.
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Right, but the chief architect of the entire city comes along,
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pulls that exact same rejected steel beam out of the trash, and
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uses it as the central support pillar for the tallest, most
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structurally sound building in the world.
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And the inspector is left with nothing.
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The inspectors rejection did not change the integrity of the
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beam, it only revealed the inspector's incompetence and
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doomed his own building to collapse.
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And Jesus takes this imagery of the stone and turns it into a
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terrifying twofold judgement. A double warning.
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He says, And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be
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broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to
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powder. If you run into that pillar, you
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break yourself. If that pillar falls on you, you
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are crushed. That twofold judgement
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encapsulates the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation
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and damnation. To understand this, we look to
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the Westminster Confession, specifically chapter 3 on God's
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eternal decree and chapter 5 on Providence.
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Those are heavy chapters. They are, but they are vital.
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The tenants acted freely on their own wicked desires.
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They were not coerced into sinning.
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Yet God sovereignly used their wicked rejection to lay the
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chief cornerstone. So he used their evil to bring
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about his good. Yes, God overrules human
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rebellion to establish salvation.
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The cross was the ultimate act of human wickedness, but it was
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also the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God to save His
25:42
people. The imagery of the crushing
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stone connects beautifully to Daniel Chapter 2.
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The statue dream, right? Yes, where King Nebuchadnezzar
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dreams of a giant statue representing the kingdoms of the
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earth, and a stone cut out without hands strikes the
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statue, shatters it to dust, and grows into a mountain that fills
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the whole earth. Christ is that divinely
26:01
appointed stone. And people react to that stone
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in two ways. Right.
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If you stumble over him in unbelief, if you find his claims
26:09
offensive and refuse to bow, you will be broken, your pride will
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be shattered, and yourself righteousness will end in ruin.
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That's the stumbling part. But the second part is active
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final judgement. If you remain in rebellion, that
26:23
stone will fall on you. The rejected Savior will return
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as the crushing judge. There is no standing ground
26:29
outside of Christ. You are either aligned with the
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cornerstone and built into the house, or you are crushed by it.
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It is an absolute, unavoidable collision.
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You cannot just walk around the stone.
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You cannot ignore it. It is placed squarely in the
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path of every human life. It demands a response from
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everyone. And the reaction of the
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religious leaders to this devastating exposure of their
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own souls is incredibly telling. The chief priests and the
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Pharisees hear this. They understand the metaphor.
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They know he's talking about them.
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They realize Jesus is speaking directly about them.
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They are the wicked tenants. They are the incompetent
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builders, the text says. They perceived that he spoke of
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them, and instead of falling on their faces, instead of tearing
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their robes and repentance and begging for mercy, they seek to
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arrest him right there on the spot.
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They double down on their sin. They try to fulfill the prophecy
27:17
of the parable in real time. They want to lay hands on the
27:20
air and kill him. Their reaction is the definitive
27:23
proof of their spiritual blindness and the total
27:25
depravity we discussed earlier. Light came into the world, and
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men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were
27:32
evil. They hated the light.
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The clarity of Christ's teaching did not produce repentance in
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their hearts, it only fueled their malice.
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This is a chilling reality regarding exposure to biblical
27:43
truth. When a heart is hardened, the
27:45
clear preaching of the Word does not soften it.
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It has the opposite effect. It acts as an anvil upon which
27:50
the hammer of the Word only hardens the steel.
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They knew precisely what Jesus meant, but they refused to
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submit to it. And the only thing that stops
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them from arresting him immediately is political
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expediency. They were scared in the crowd.
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The text notes that they feared the multitudes because the
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people regarded Jesus as a prophet.
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They were not restrained by a fear of God, nor were they
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restrained by a crisis of conscience.
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They were restrained by crowd control.
28:17
They were politicians at heart. They were terrified of losing
28:20
their public influence and sparking a riot.
28:22
They cared more about their approval ratings than they cared
28:25
about the state of their eternal souls.
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It is terrifying that these men knew the Bible better than
28:29
anyone, recognize themselves in the parable, and still chose
28:33
murder over repentance. They had the scrolls memorized.
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They were the academic elite. They were the phylacteries.
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They prayed on the street corners.
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They were the theological elite of their day.
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How do you and I ensure our theological knowledge doesn't
28:47
just make us more sophisticated rebels?
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That is the right question to be asking.
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Because the application here for today is a massive warning
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against formal, empty religion in the visible church.
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We can have all the right doctrines.
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We can subscribe to the historic confessions.
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We can debate theology with precision and still be acting
29:07
like tenants who want the vineyard without the owner.
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We can be orthodox and dead. Think about your own life when
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God's authority steps into your territory, your finances, your
29:17
relationships. Do you welcome the heir, or do
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you try to throw him out so you can keep control?
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How do we guard against our own knowledge becoming the very
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thing that insulates us from true repentance?
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This raises a critical question for everyone who professes
29:32
faith, but especially for modern church leadership.
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Pastors, elders, and ministry leaders must remember that the
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church is not their property. They are stewards, not owners.
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It is Christ Church. The pulpit is not a platform for
29:45
personal ambition and the congregation is not an audience
29:48
to be managed for profit or prestige.
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The severe warning here cut straight to the heart of modern
29:54
seeker sensitive pragmatism. Is a huge issue today.
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Trying to build a church using the tools of corporate
30:00
marketing, attempting to make the gospel more palatable by
30:03
removing the offense of the cross is spiritual treason.
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It is an attempt to construct a spiritual building without the
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absolute authority of the cornerstone.
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You can't just edit the gospel to make it popular.
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When we soften the demands of Christ to draw a crowd, we are
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acting like the wicked tenants trying to control the vineyard
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on our own terms. To guard against becoming
30:25
sophisticated rebels, we must constantly examine our hearts
30:28
against the demand for fruit. And not just look at our church
30:31
attendance. Proximity to holy things does
30:33
not save. You can sit in a Pew every
30:35
Sunday. You can read the finest
30:37
theological works. You can even hold leadership
30:39
positions. But if there is no brokenness
30:42
over sin, no humble reliance on the imputed righteousness of
30:46
Christ, and no visible fruit of the Spirit, you are in danger.
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Knowledge isn't enough. Theological knowledge must lead
30:52
to doxology, to worship and submission.
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We must bow to the air. We must recognize that every
30:58
breath we take, every resource we manage belongs to Him.
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That is the sheer weight of this text.
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There is no neutrality before Christ.
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You cannot politely decline his authority.
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You can't just opt. Out I cannot just be an admirer
31:12
of his moral teachings while rejecting His sovereignty over
31:16
your life. You are either built upon Him
31:19
finding your stability in your salvation and His finished work,
31:22
or you are crushed by Him when he returns in judgement.
31:25
There is no middle ground. The owner has spoken.
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The air has come, the cornerstone is laid.
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God will not be robbed of His glory, and He will not allow His
31:35
vineyard to be plundered forever.
31:36
The transition from patience to judgement is certain.
31:39
The owner will return and the stewardship of every soul be
31:42
examined. The history of the Sanhedrin
31:45
stands as a monument to the danger of possessing religious
31:48
privilege without possessing Christ.
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A very sobering monument. We must look to the cross where
31:53
the air was cast out and killed, and recognize that through his
31:56
substitutionary death the penalty for our rebellion was
31:59
paid. And we must look to the empty
32:01
tomb where the rejected stone was raised and established as
32:04
the eternal foundation of the Church.
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Think about the areas of your life right now, your time, your
32:09
family, your ambitions. Are you acting like a tenant
32:12
who's fiercely defending what you think is yours?
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When the owner comes to collect the fruit of your life, will you
32:19
hand over the keys willingly, or will you force him to break your
32:22
grip? Rest on the cornerstone today
32:24
before he returns at the crushing stone of judgement.