Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to worship

Welcome everyone!

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“Waymaker”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord, we praise You for choosing us.

We praise You that in ur grace and mercy You reached down and called us by name and that now we belong to You.

We worship You this morning as our Father who works all things together for good, for those who love You, and because You have called us according to your purpose.

May our worship be pleasing to You this morning.

Amen.

“10,000 reasons”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“King of Kings”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, We invite You and plead with You to open our hearts and give us understanding.

Help us to understand the seriousness of sin in the church and how much You detest sin in our lives.

We ask that Your Holy Spirit would come down in this place today and reveal things to us that we need to remove from our lives.

May we leave with a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Amen!

SERMON

Introduction

Matthew 21:23-27 “When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”

Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

“The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?”

And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

“But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.”

And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.”

He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

This interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees introduces the next three parables that we will be studying for the next three weeks.

Each of these parables is not only an indictment for the religious leaders, but also a clear description of what God requires into enter into the kingdom of God.

These Jewish leaders believed they already had the Kingdom because they had religion.

They had the right blood line, said all the right things, and looked like God’s people on the outside, BUT their understanding of kingdom righteousness was flawed!

And in my opinion, many today who would call themselves religious have a flawed understanding of what God requires.

It doesn’t take long to notice that much of Matthew’s Gospel is about bringing clarity to what it means to be in a right relationship with God.

Over and over we find Jesus clarifying what it means to be in the kingdom of God and correcting people’s flawed understanding of that.

And that is because it is the most incorrectly understood ChristIan truth (in my opinion).

What does God require?

He requires obedience to His will

Matthew 21:28-31 “But what do you think?

A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’

“And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went.

“The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go.

“Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.

“For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”

Let us begin by identifying the people in this parable

The Father of the sons is God the Father

Notice that he owns a vineyard

Isaiah 5 tells us that God planted a vineyard which referred to Israel

Notice also that the sons were to obey, “the will of the Father”

This reminds us of what Jesus has already said about God’s will

Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come.

Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 12:50 “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.””

The two sons represent two classes of people: those who do the will of God and those who rebel against the will of God

Notice the first son tells the father “no”

BUT, despite this initial response he regrets it, changes his mind, and goes to work in the vineyard

The second son told his father "yes”

He even acknowledged the Father’s authority over Him by addressing Him as “Lord”

But despite all this he still did not do what he was told

Jesus then asks “which one did the will of his Father”

The Pharisees respond correctly and say, “the first”

The primary point of application from this whole parable is that

Only those who do the will of God are true children of God

Matt 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”

Matthew 12:50 ““For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.””

So it is paramount for us to understand today that all children of God do His will and if we are not obedient to His will, we are outside the kingdom of God.

What does this mean to us?

There are 4 principles I want to apply from this parable:

#1) If we do not believe, we will not obey

This entire Parable is given to point out the failure of the Pharisees

They were the son who immediately responded with yes, but did not obey

And what made them rebels and enemies of God was their disobedience To God.

This parable links all The way back to the beginning of the gospels with John the Baptist.

John was sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus

And do you remember the message that John preached?

REPENTANCE

And John had an interaction with the Pharisees, and he told them “Matthew 3:7–8 (NASB95): But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance”

Jesus tells us here why the Pharisees refused to repent: “because they did not believe John”

John proclaimed the right way to live

John denounced a sinful lifestyle covered up with religion

John saw through Pharisees shallownessand told them to repent, turn, change their mind about what it means to be right with God

And they refused to believe him!

It is impossible to be a ChristIan if we do not believe the ChristIan message as revealed in Scripture

It is impossible to be right with God if we do not believe what He says about Jesus

Rom 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

We must confess (agree with God) that Jesus is Lord

That means there is no greater authority and we are all accountable to Him

And it is impossible to believe what He says, if we do not agree with Him about our sin

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If we do not truly believe God, obedience to His will is impossible

We must believe that God absolutely will and must punish sin becuase He is a just God!

We must belive that the only way we can be made right with God is by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ Becuase none of us are good enough!

We must also believe that there will not be one single person in heaven who has not repented of their sin!

We must believe that to follow Jesus means we renounce this world and give all of us to the Lord Jesus as His servant forever!

What is the reason people ought to believe the ChristIan message today?