"A Warning to those who reject the Son of God."

Good Morning, I am so glad that you are here with us today and we prepare for a week not only to remember and reflect on the Cross, but also to celebrate next weekend our risen Savior. Today we continue in our series of the Lord’s Parables. Would you turn with me to Matthew chapter 21. The title of our message today is, “A Warning to those who reject the Son of God.” There are many people today who are found opposing or rejecting God, and so this message is desperately needed today. Let’s begin in verse 33.

Matthew 21:33–46 ESV

33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

The interpretation of this parable is founded on the opening verse which is verse 33 and helps us to see the allegory of the vineyard. Here we see that these wicked and sinful tenants were managing this vineyard for the owner and they mistreated the owners servants and eventually killed his own son. The vineyard here is clearly speaking about the house of Israel. The problem however is that Israel has stopped bearing fruit. God desires for His people to bear fruit, and so the lack of fruit most recently here symbolizes the current failure of the religious leadership. Some of the chief priests and elders to whom Jesus is speaking too would probably have owned land outside of Jerusalem, so they clearly understood what Jesus was saying. The landowner here must have been someone who was rather wealthy because a newly planted vineyard would not produce for several years and this one was already producing. Once the vineyard began producing fruit the landowner would work out a deal with the tenants to an agreed amount of crops due to the owner, and then they would keep everything else.

This story is really symbolic of the nation of Israel, whose leadership had totally rejected God’s early prophets and now would reject His Son Jesus. We clearly see this from the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 7.

Jeremiah 7:25–27 ESV

25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. 27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

Now, there are some Obvious Questions that you may be thinking about, so we must answer these before we dig into this parable and make sense of it:

-Who is the Master of the House? The Master of the House or the owner of the vineyard is God the Father who is part of the Blessed Trinity. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and they all make up the One God in 3.

-Who or What is the vineyard? As we have already mentioned, the vineyard here represents the house of Israel.

-Who are the tenants? The identification of the tenants here is the current Jerusalem leadership which are the chief priests and elders. These men are wicked because of their hatred of others including their Master God.

-Who are the servants? The servants here that have been mistreated are the prophets. We know that down through history God had given his people these prophets to help them but many times Israel turned a deaf ear to them and ignored God’s warnings through these men.

-Who is the Son and the Heir? The Son here represents Jesus whom the tenants would go on to murder.

-What is the kingdom of God? As we have discussed in previous weeks the kingdom of God represents the salvation God gives to those who place their faith in Him and because of are counted as righteous and part of God’s eternal family. For those of us who have fully submitted and trusted in God, we are part of His kingdom. Let me make more sense of this as you look at verse 43.

In verse 43 who are the people the kingdom of God will be given too?

Verse 43 tells us that the kingdom of God will be taken away and given to a people (Greek word ethnos) or nation. This is not necessarily referring to Gentiles, but more so to the people who follow the risen Christ, the Lord’s true disciples. These new people of God were coming about because of the ministry of Jesus and they were known as people who had faith in Christ. These would be both Gentiles and Jews. The vineyard now would be given a new lease on life and embodied a new nation who were saints of the Most High. What was lost here by the current leadership, was gained by a new nation of believers who inherited the Kingdom of God. The old tenants lost their place because they were wicked men and they failed to produce fruit. Producing fruit or bearing fruit is clearly the mark of believers or this new nation of Christ followers. Here is how Matthew puts it back in chapter 7. He says you can know for sure who a believer is. Here is how.

Matthew 7:20 ESV

20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Now as we dig into this parable I want to really help us today understand what is going on here. Notice verse 33. The master of this house planted a vineyard. He also put a fence around it and dug a winepress. He finally built a watchtower. Jesus was explaining all of these things here to his audience to drive this point home. In fact, he wanted his Jewish audience to know that all Israel was the vine of God and of course they did understand this. Why? Because they knew what the prophets had already said. Here is what the prophet Isaiah wrote about the vineyard.

Isaiah 5:1–2 ESV

1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

The prophet Jeremiah said, I planted you as a choice vine, wholly of pure seed.” (Jer. 2:21) Ezekiel the prophet said, “Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard planted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water. (Ezekiel 19:10)

My point here, is that this Jewish audience that was gathered to hear this parable would have understood the imagery Christ was using. As Christ spoke about the landowner’s vineyard they knew that Jesus about them and to those who had responsibility for the peoples spiritual well being. You may be here today and say well I guess this parable does not relate to me because Jesus was addressing this to the Jewish people. We too can be compared to the vine as Israel here was. Has God cared for us today? Of course he has. God has time and time again watered, provided and cared for us. He has sent good tenants to care for us, so that we might bear fruit when the Lord returns. But our nation of America, this land of the free and the home of the brave has been less faithful than Israel was. That is why we need to listen up today because these words still apply for us thousands of years later.

Now in verse 34 we see that when the season came for the fruit to come the master sent his servants to get it. What Jesus was doing here was explaining how God’s servants had been treated through both history and prophecy.

-In the days of Elijah, remember that wicked Queen Jezebel murdered many of the Lord’s prophets so much so that Elijah himself worried and hid.

-During the reign of King Joash the peopled stoned Zechariah the prophet.

-During the reign of wicked king Manasseh Isaiah one of Israel’s greatest prophets was ordered to be sawn into two. (This was told about in Jewish history)

-Here is how the author of Hebrews puts in in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11:35–38 ESV

35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

These people of God, these prophets of God were mistreated and even killed. But, who was it that did these things to the prophets? It was the Jews. And these were the very people now that Jesus is speaking too. These Jewish leaders now have a hatred for another leader. Jesus was also God’s representative and these people hated Jesus for his Godlike characteristics.

These tenants here were found guilty of opposing God. They oppose themselves to God because the persecuted His prophets, they tried to stop God’s work. Please hear me today, don’t be found guilty of opposing God’s Work. Notice in verse 40 the question that the Lord asks, “what should be done with these persons who oppose the work of God?” Jesus turns to the very people He was accusing and asks what the owner should do when he returns??? In other words you tell me what the judgment should be? Here is their response.

Matthew 21:41 ESV

41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Church we too need to listen up. Unless we are all hypocrites today, we too could answer as the leaders of Jesus’s day did. There have been times in all of our lives where we see just how awful our sin truly is and how wretched we are. After the Lord hear’s the response of the people He wraps this parable up by explaining something about himself.

Matthew 21:42–44 ESV

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

3 Quick Applications that we see here in this parable.

1. There is a Wonderful Benefit of Belonging to God’s Kingdom.

For those of you who have trusted in Christ today the kingdom of God has been given to you. What a wonderful gift that this is. When God’s faithful stewards teach and preach His Word, the kingdom of God is proclaimed. We can receive this message and feed upon it, and someday enter into it. If someone came to you today and offered you a winning lotto jackpot ticket worth millions it would even come close to receiving the salvation of God’s eternal kingdom. The things of this earth can never compare to being a son or daughter an heir of the kingdom of God. If you have trusted in Christ today you have an eternal benefit that is truly priceless. Take time today to thank the Lord for His forgiveness and His grace.

2. There is a Sad Tragedy of Rejecting God’s Kingdom.

What I want you to understand today is that to reject God’s kingdom is to reject the good news that Jesus Christ offers. In fact, it is to reject Christ himself. Now of course there is no way for us today to kill Christ again like these Jewish leaders did, but there are many ways that people are found opposing or rejecting God today.

-People today reject the Lord by refusing to follow his wonderful commands. People today live however they want because they think God and His claims are not true and not real and sadly they are mistaken.

-People today turn a deaf ear to those faithful ministers who proclaim His Word. God’s Word is truth and it is the only standard that we have for our life.

-People today reject Christ and His Lordship over their lives. These are all ways people are found to reject God’s Kingdom.

3. The Judgement of God must be taken seriously!

Our greatest fate is to be broken to pieces and crushed by the kingdom of Christ. You see Christ offers the kingdom to us in salvation. In verse 42 Christ tells us that he is the stone, or the cornerstone and His salvation is marvelous to our eyes. What Jesus is saying here to the people of his day and to us as well is that you can be part of that kingdom and trust in the name above all other names, Jesus. And, this happens when the Father decrees those who are His children are part of that kingdom. Or you can stand against the kingdom of God and be broken. Someday you will stand before God and you will face His judgment and that should not be taken lightly.

Conclusion: This parable comes to an end with a severe warning. The warning today loved ones is this. Don’t reject the cornerstone that God has chosen, don’t reject Christ because by doing so we kill the son of God in our hearts and minds.

The crowds here that were gathered to hear Jesus teach were largely made up of His Galilean supporters, however the religious leaders were also mixed in. The Galileans had presented Jesus as their Prophet just like they did with John the Baptist. We know that this crowd supported him. But, we know eventually Jesus faced a very different crowd in Gethsemane in Matthew chapter 26 and of course in Matthew chapter 27. The crowds there were in total opposition of Christ so much so that they claim that Jesus is a false prophet and should be crucified on a cross to die a criminals death. In the end these people rejected God.

Church, the God who offers us salvation now is the same God who will judge the righteous after this life here on earth is over. If you do not know Christ as your Savior, if you have not confessed your sin to him and believe that he is the Son of God, you will someday face Him as your Judge when you stand before His throne at the final judgement. God today offers you once again His wonderful grace, so come to Him, and ask Him to be Lord and Savior of your life. Come to Christ today and know that you will be forgiven of your sin.