The Stone the Builders Rejected
Matthew 21:28-46
Harry Stoliker
March 14, 2010 EBC
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Today we are dealing with two parables of Jesus. Both were aimed
at the Jewish leaders, they knew it. Both were designed to shock them
out of their religiosity, their religious pride and
religious assumptions and their hard hearted rebellion
against God. There will be one more parable in this trilogy next week.
Although the New Covenant Christian isn't the direct subject
in these parables, there are secondary applications that we can
make for our lives that will enrich our relationship with Christ.
The Parable of the Two Sons
This is a simple yet powerful parable. There is a distinct contrast
between the two sons. One shows an outright, blatant rebellion but
then repents and ultimately obeys his father's will.
The other gives lip service to his father but never obeys
his father's will. The first son shows initial resistance
but eventual obedience after repentance; the second
shows initial compliance but eventual disobedience after
the appearance of submission.
Jesus draws them in with a question in V.31 "Which of the two did what his
father wanted?" The answer was obvious, but stating the obvious
is often necessary when rebellious hearts are involved. They indict
themselves with their answer.
Jesus then spells out the gut wrenching application to the Jewish
leaders. "I tell you the truth the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering
the kingdom of God ahead of you." This must have been like a hard slap in
the face to them! Preposterous! Absurd!
Ridiculous! Scandalous! The Jewish leaders were the
most "spiritual" men in Israel…weren't they?! On what possible basis
could Jesus make such a shocking claim against them?
V.32 "For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did
not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after
you saw this, you did not repent and believe him." John the Baptist decried
the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. "You brood of snakes!"
he called them. While some people truly confessed their sins, repented
and were baptized, when the Pharisees and Sadducees came, he saw through their
hypocrisy and said "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance!"
They saw the social outcasts respond to John's message that the Kingdom
of God was near, yet they didn't budge from their smug self-righteous
hardhearted pride. Jesus nails it when he says "And even after you saw
this – the power of John's ministry among sinners – you did not repent
and believe him." So we see the core issue in this small
parable is repentance, true biblical repentance. That
is where it applies to our lives. The value of repentance and obedience over lip
service and eventual disobedience – that it! Religious talk vs. genuine
walk.
One of today's greatest theologians, D.A. Carson, defined biblical repentance
like this: "Repentance is not a merely intellectual change of mind
or mere grief, still less is it doing penance, but a
radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental
turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones
of grief, which result in spiritual fruit." That's
as good as it gets. Do you understand what true repentance is? Can
you explain it to someone?
Here's another close second to Carson's definition that says the
same thing in a different way. It's from the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
"Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby
a sinner, out of true sense of his sin, and appreciation of the
mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of sin, turn from
it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after,
new obedience."
My buddy, John Piper, said "The first spiritual step
on the Calvary road of radical obedience to Jesus is repentance."
OK, where are you in this parable? Are you the first son
– or the second son? Are you the one who used to rebel against God
but now you have truly repented and your life shows the fruit of
repentance, like John the Baptist called for? Are you the son who saw
his sin against the Father and has sincerely and deeply grieved
over it and found the joy of repentance that leads to obedience?
C.H. Spurgeon understood this when he said: "I do not know when I am more
perfectly happy than when I am weeping over sin at the
foot of the cross." Can you identify with that quote? Counselor Edward Welch
adds: "Scripture considers repentance a path to liberation, not
condemnation. Spiritual liberation from guilt, gloom, condemnation,
heaviness comes through biblical repentance.
Or are you the second son who just pays lip service to God,
like saying: "Sure I'm a Christian; I'll be at church at least twice a month
– but we never see you. "I think it's important to read the Bible!"
– but you never do. "I think it's important to serve in the church
by using my spiritual gifts" – but you never do. "I'll come to
prayer meeting and witness to my coworkers!" – but it never happens.
"I believe it's vital for my spiritual life to be in a small group of men or women
for Bible study and accountability" – but you never make that commitment.
What ends up being true is that there isn't a shred of real evidence
in your life that proves what you say you believe and will do.
That's the second son: lip service only and no deep biblical repentance
of any sort.
I trust that is not a description of your life. If it is, it's time
for a talk with God and some changed behavior.
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants V.33-46
God is the landowner in this parable. His servants are the OT prophets
of Israel. His son is Jesus Christ. The tenants are the Jews and
their leaders. The parable is aimed directly at the Jewish leadership
of the first century Israel. They knew it. V.45 "When the chief priests
and Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them."
They were the leaders and shepherds of God's people Israel. They had
not led the people in the way of holiness and righteousness. They
were not dedicated to God in their hearts. They had missed and rejected
Jesus as Messiah. They were the tenants who had killed the prophets
and killed the landowner's son. What was the landowner to do?
Jesus asks in V.40. The key to the parable is V.43 "Therefore
I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given
to a people who will produce its fruit." God wanted fruit
from the vineyard but got none from the Jews, so he turns it over
to a people who will produce spiritual fruit.
The Kingdom of God has been taken away from the Jews as a nation and
given to the new people of God, made up of Jews and Gentiles.
Who is this new kingdom of people who produce spiritual fruit? It
is the church of Jesus Christ. We see this in 1 Peter 2:9 "But
you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging
to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now
you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you
have received mercy." The Christian church is now the Chosen
People of God, the custodians, the witness to, the possessor of the mysteries and
truth of the Kingdom of God. We have the mind of Christ,
the presence of Christ, the indwelling Holy Spirit,
the true worship of God and are being transformed into the likeness
of Christ. If you want to find God, you must come to the true Christian Church,
we are his sanctuary, His temple, His dwelling place.
All the OT metaphors and imagery of the people of God apply now
to the true Christian church: the holy nation, the priesthood,
the spiritual temple where spiritual sacrifices of praise
and thanksgiving are being offered and accepted. 1 Peter 2:4-5
"As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious
to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Another OT metaphor
that identified the people of God was circumcision. Paul, however
calls Gentiles the new circumcision in Eph. 2:11
"Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called
"uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done
in the body by the hands of men) 12remember that at that time you
were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners
to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the
world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have
been brought near through the blood of Christ."
Then he says directly in Phil. 3:3 "For it is we who are
the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory
in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh." In one last
verse he spiritualizes circumcision as a reference to the new birth and
the removal of the old nature. Col. 2:11 "In him you were also
circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature,[a]
not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by
Christ, 12having been buried with him in baptism
and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised
him from the dead."
What is the application of all this truth about the church being the
new Israel, the new spiritual tenants of God's vineyard
of the Kingdom? Although the Jews are hardened against Jesus now,
I believe that Rom. 9-11 tells us that at some time in the future
Jews will be re-grafted into God's vine through a great conversion
to Christ in the last days.
Our application is this: we are to love the Kingdom of Christ;
- that is critical! We are to represent the Kingdom
of God with truth, holiness and honor. We are to be Christians who
know how to deeply and biblically repent of sin and bear spiritual
fruit that point to the glory of Christ. He is our Cornerstone,
rejected by the Jews but exalted by the LORD. All
this is marvelous in our sight! We marvel at Christ and
what God has done in salvation history.
Can you feel the power of these two parables? What about your life
and your walk with God in Christ? Is Jesus the Cornerstone of your
life? What does that mean? What is a cornerstone? The stone that is
indispensible, irreplaceable, and structurally critical for your life.
Do you live in total dependence upon Jesus Christ? Do you act as
though He is the focus of your life? Do your commitments and actions
show the proof of this?
The verse that means so much more to me now than ever before is Mt.
6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things
will be added to you."
Let His Kingdom and His righteousness be your twin passions in life.
Let's pray.