2.13.17 3.21.2021 Matthew 21.33-45 Obstacles on the Way of the Cross
Finding Hope in Following Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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Entice: The most important information is not always the easiest to find, the easiest to understand or the easiest to assimilate. And, The central stories human existence are often comic tragedies with little heroism.
I say that to introduce today's text, today's story, todays parable. It is maybe the most important story Jesus ever told. Those to whom it was directed understood perfectly what He was driving at and it became the final motivation for them to kill Him.
Yet, if we took a poll about the parables of Jesus my guess is that it would not rank as the most popular, memorable, critical, essential or clever. Many of you would not even list it.
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.
Engage: Think of the obstacles you have encountered in your life. My guess is that rather than a bunch of whats, and whys, and hows the greatest obstacles were “whos”. People who chose to create the whats that scared you. Individuals who confronted you with the whys. Evil or mean spirited antagonists who pressed you about the hows. Jesus Himself found that the central obstacle before Him on the way to the Cross was obstinate people.
Expand: Some were intrigued by Him and sought alliances. His friends did not quite understand how He was going to advance the Kingdom against all the odds. His enemies could not always explain what divided them yet they were always ready to accuse and subvert His program.
Excite: Even today much of what we do comes down to identifying the bad actors who would divert us from carrying our cross distract us from executing our Kingdom duty or separate us from the Master.
Explore:
Like Jesus, our greatest obstacle on the way to the cross is the very people He came to save!
Like Jesus, our greatest obstacle on the way to the cross is the very people He came to save!
Explain: In Jerusalem Jesus went through the mini-version of the sordid process of rebellionRebellion against God that was the reason for the the cross in the first place!
Obedience Expected.
Obedience Expected.
Reverence
Reverence
Respect
Respect
Repentance
Repentance
Obstacles Encountered.
Obstacles Encountered.
Resentment
Resentment
Refusal
Refusal
Rebellion
Rebellion
Outcomes Earned.
Outcomes Earned.
Reprimand
Reprimand
Rejection
Rejection
Restoration
Restoration