Do Not Reject God's Patient Love

[0:00] If you take your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Luke chapter 20, if you're visiting with us in that black Bible in the chair in front of you, pull out that black Bible, go towards the back, and find page 64, page 64, Luke chapter 20, we're going to do the first 19 verses, Luke chapter 20, I was talking to Grant Colco, who's also preaching through the Gospel of Luke, he's only in chapter 14, I said, man, you're slow, he said, wow, you're fast, okay, touche, Luke 20, we're going to do the first 19 verses, I'm going to read and then we'll exposit the passage.

[1:02] And it came about on one of the days while he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes of the elders confronted him and they spoke, saying to him, tell us, by what authority you are doing these things?

[1:17] And who is the one who gave you this authority? And he answered and said to them, I shall also ask you a question, and you tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

[1:29] And they reasoned among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why do you not believe him? But if we say from men, all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.

[1:41] And they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Verse 9. And he began to tell the people this parable.

[1:54] A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey for a long time. And at the harvest time, he sent a slave or servant to the vine growers in order that they might give him of the produce of the vineyard.

[2:08] But the vine growers beat him and sent him away empty handed. And he proceeded to send another slave. And they beat him and also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty handed.

[2:20] And he proceeded to send a third. And this one also they wounded and cast out. And the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son.

[2:32] Perhaps they will respect him. But when the vine growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, this is the heir. Let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours. And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

[2:47] What therefore will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine growers and will give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, may it never be.

[2:59] But he looked at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected. This became the chief cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces.

[3:11] But on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him that very hour. But they feared the people for they understood that he spoke this parable against them.

[3:25] According to a traditional Hebrew story, Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man weary from age and journey coming toward him.

[3:42] Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. Then he washed the old man's feet and gave him food and drink. The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing.

[3:55] So Abraham asked him, don't you worship God? The old traveler replied, I worship fire only and reverence no other God.

[4:07] But when he heard this, Abraham became infuriated. He grabbed the old man by the shoulders, threw him out of his tent into the cold night air. When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was.

[4:22] Abraham replied, I forced him out because he did not worship you. God answered, I've suffered him these 80 years, although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night?

[4:34] Our passage before us is about Israel's rejection of Jesus, yes. Especially by her religious leaders, yes.

[4:47] God's judgment for their rejection, yes. But it's also about God's patient love toward rebellious sinners. Come follow Jesus, you'll find forgiveness of your sins.

[5:01] He is Messiah, the Sermon, the Son of Man. He is the Lord. Come follow Jesus. Find forgiveness. Instead of rejecting God's patient love in Jesus, in his Son, in him.

[5:15] Come follow Jesus. Don't reject him. Don't reject God's patient love in him.

[5:47] Or a statement for you. Embrace God's gracious patience for sinners and his Son. Don't be like the nation of Israel who spurned and rejected the one who was so compassionate and patiently gracious for them.

[6:02] Isn't that amazing how it coincides with the book of Jonah we were looking at in the adult class this morning? Jesus is God's messenger.

[6:14] Similar to John the Baptist. God's messenger who acts and speaks for God the Father. Failing to recognize Jesus and give him allegiance will result in rejection and severe judgment by God.

[6:32] He takes this seriously. John called himself, called the people to give allegiance to Jesus. John the Baptist did.

[6:45] You see that today. Jesus brings up John's ministry. And how he actually attested to Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the Son of the world.

[6:57] Two controversies today. We'll see about three controversies next week. Today is the source of Jesus' authority and Jesus' confronting parable. The leadership wanted to stop Jesus so they would use any means necessary.

[7:11] Yet, they'd be unable to trap him. Instead, he would embarrass them. Walk with Jesus. Because in him is wisdom.

[7:25] And it's sad that the religious leaders didn't even see this. They should have been pointing people to their Messiah. They should have been welcoming people to come to Messiah. Instead, they were out for themselves.

[7:40] Regardless of what was taking place, Jesus was in control of what was taking place. Jesus was in complete control of the surrounding events of his final visit to Jerusalem. Jesus' authority.

[7:54] Who gives you the right to do all this? He would confront them with John's baptism and with their evil actions towards God's gracious, patient mercy in his vineyard. They would try to seize him.

[8:07] Because they knew he spoke of them, the religious leaders. So as God was so gracious, loving, and compassionate to Israel, may we as Jesus' followers respond in these three ways when we look at the passage today.

[8:24] First, let us be thankful that God has graciously saved us. Two, let us share that same gracious love to each other. Just as God in Christ has forgiven us, has shown grace to us, has shown kindness to us.

[8:40] May we do that towards each other. And then faithfully proclaim Jesus to others. Faithfully proclaim this message of compassion to others. This is how we're going to respond.

[8:51] This is how you should respond. This is how we should respond to this passage. Of God's patient, gracious love to sinners. First, we'll see how Jesus will bring out how they were rejecting God's Son.

[9:08] Automatically, off the bat, these first eight verses. Notice how it begins. He already had arrived in Jerusalem. He's in the temple. He's teaching the people. And preaching the gospel.

[9:20] Then the chief priests, scribes, and the elders, they confirmed him. They spoke, saying to him, Tell us, by what authority you're doing these things. And who is the one who gave you this authority? So Jesus was teaching.

[9:33] And notice, preaching the gospel. Literally, he was gospeling people. He was gospeling. It's euangelion, which means preaching the good news.

[9:44] So in other words, Jesus was telling the people about the good news of himself. And how God called people to repent and trust him.

[9:59] And then the gang of three came up. Chief priests, scribes, and elders. The chief priests. Who are they? Members of the leading high priestly family. Holders of various offices.

[10:11] Rulers in the temple. People, leaders of the daily things and the weekly things in the temple. They were the treasurers. The scribes were lawyers of the law. And the elders were the lay representatives of the people.

[10:26] The gang of three. They came up to Jesus. They challenged him. Where's the source of your authority? By what authority are you doing this? Who gave you this authority? Who are you?

[10:37] The religious leaders did not believe Jesus had any rights to do the things he was doing. Specifically teaching and temple cleansing. Who gave you the right to be cleaning out this temple?

[10:49] Who are you? Remember, Jesus was really challenging them. Because he was getting in their back pockets of where their wallets are, right? Don't stop messing with my money.

[11:00] So they're going to try and trap Jesus. It would close in upon them. They believe Jesus was an imposter. Faker.

[11:12] Ah, but it was them who were the imposters. As we'll see in a few moments. What does Jesus do? He answers their question with the question. He puts them on the defensive.

[11:24] He answered and said to them, I shall ask you a question. You tell me. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? A strategic way to deal with people. If you won't deal with me, I'm going to have you deal with John the Baptist.

[11:40] What do you think? One or the other. From God or from men? From heaven or from earth? Why this question? Because John pointed to Jesus.

[11:54] Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist was pointing to Jesus. And Jesus pointed to John. He's the one who's going to be baptizing in water.

[12:06] He's the one who's going to come before me. So the ministries were linked. So if you answer the question of one, you'll get the answer to the other. If they said yes, yes, John's baptism was from heaven, they were saying, first, the nation needed to repent.

[12:26] And two, the one to come has arrived. Jesus. He's the Messiah. So you answer one, you get the other. See, Jesus didn't dodge the question.

[12:39] And he raised the stakes to see if they're willing to put their rear ends on the line. See if they're willing to fess up and admit that if John was from heaven, so was Jesus.

[12:55] If not, then neither was Jesus. Now, they've already made it apparent how they felt about John the Baptist back in the Gospel of Luke.

[13:06] Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist. In Luke chapter 7, verse 29, When all the people and the tax gatherers heard this, they acknowledged God's justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John.

[13:20] But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. So as far as John was concerned, he was a nutcase. And notice how they respond.

[13:32] Verse 5. They reasoned themselves. Whoa, wait a second. If we say from heaven, he'll say, why did you not believe him? If we say from men, all the people will stone us to death. For they are convinced that John was a prophet. We're in a quandary.

[13:46] They can't say from God. Because they thought, John, he was screwy. He was a nutjob. A nutcase. I mean, he ate locusts. And he wore, like, kooky stuff.

[13:59] There's no way this guy was a prophet. They couldn't stand John. On the other hand, they couldn't save from men because the people would take them out. Stone them. Stone him was the punishment for regarding a true prophet.

[14:12] It's false. Between a rock and a hard place. Jesus put him right there. Rock and a hard place. They would be killed by the people.

[14:23] But notice something. Notice how their private meeting showed their hypocrisy. It wasn't about giving an honest reply, but giving an answer to save their skins, yet still not admit the truth.

[14:39] Notice, they were the imposters. They were the liars. They didn't want to be exposed to who they really were.

[14:50] They were fakers. We're in a dilemma. Verse 7. They answer them that they do not know where it came from.

[15:02] We have no good. Public will end up liking us even more type answer. So they bailed out. I don't know. Agnosticism.

[15:15] That's an easy way out. Simple. What? Did you catch this? What's going on? These were the nation's religious leaders?

[15:26] And they said, I don't know. They're supposed to have the theological discernment and knowledge. Right? No.

[15:38] They're just out for themselves. They claim agnosticism. Beware. Sometimes agnosticism is really evading the truth.

[15:51] They don't want to see the truth. They're refusing to look at the truth. When somebody proclaims they're agnostic, it's quite possible they're just evading the truth.

[16:05] Someone really is not sure. We know that that's not what really is happening here, don't we? Look, if they can't judge John the Baptist, what makes them think they had any clue about Jesus?

[16:21] Ah. When things are toward their liking, they will gladly and joyfully judge Jesus soon enough, won't they? They'll judge him when no one else is around.

[16:31] They're in the dark. By themselves. And they'll send him off to Pilate to get him killed. Right? One writer says, if character is a test of truth, the Jewish leadership comes up short.

[16:48] They had no character. They did not know any truth. Oh, really, they were refusing to look at the truth. They wanted their own kingdom. Notice the rejection of God's Son.

[17:00] Notice Jesus says, Neither will I take my authority to do these things. It doesn't answer their question, even though really they didn't need to answer their question. The testimony had already been given.

[17:11] Both John and Jesus were from God. Where has Jesus' authority come from? It's given to him by his Father. That's where. And they should have known that. Listen.

[17:27] Wisdom does not rest necessarily on those who have a lot of head knowledge. You see that from Jonah. If one does not know and embrace Jesus, then one has absolutely no knowledge at all.

[17:41] The gospel is central. The gospel must be central. To reject Jesus and his wisdom is foolishness. Don't reject.

[17:52] Don't reject God's patience in his Son. God's grace in his Son. And, by the way, it's not about moving past the gospel to something deeper and more spiritual.

[18:04] Oh, I've got to move past the gospel, you know. I've got to move past that. That's just for, you know, new Christians type stuff. We're unsaved people. I'm beyond that. Really. The gospel is deep.

[18:18] And one can go deeper and deeper into the gospel and what it all entails. The righteousness of God. The grace and the love and mercy of God that comes to us in the gospel.

[18:31] Jesus must be the focal point in this church. He must be the focal point in our individual lives, in our families, in everything that we do.

[18:44] It must be about the gospel. It must be the motivation by which you do things, by which you change in your life, change things, how you change habits and different lifestyles.

[18:56] How do you do that? What's the basis? What's the motivation? It has to be the gospel. Or else you're just a moral person who's trying to get off from different things.

[19:10] Jesus must be the focal point. The gospel must be the focal point. How God in His righteousness and justice should judge rebellious sinners and yet He sent Jesus who lived in the place of sinners, died as a substitute for sinners, was brought back to life so that He might bring us to God for all those who turn away from their sin and put all their trust in Jesus.

[19:33] That's the gospel. And if we want to change and transform our lives to live more like Christ, we continue to repent and we continue to trust. The gospel must be foundational.

[19:45] The gospel must be the focal point. It must be Christ alone. Don't reject God's Son like the religious leaders did. So now what does Jesus do?

[19:58] At this point, He tells a story. A story about love, rejection and judgment. A story now. You see the religious leaders rejecting God's Son.

[20:09] Well, Jesus puts this now into a story. He'll speak to the people about the religious leaders. Speaking to the religious leaders. Speaking to the people, to the people about the religious leaders.

[20:21] Really, He's talking about the nation as a whole. This heart-opening reply by the religious leaders put Jesus in a place by which He can tell a good parable, a good story.

[20:38] He spoke about salvation history. From the inception of Israel as a nation all the way up to Jesus' ministry. That's what this story does. It's really Old Testament history.

[20:50] I'm scrunched down. It's amazing how Jesus did this. He was an amazing storyteller. And how they will kill Him.

[21:01] Notice how it begins, verse 9. He began to tell the parable, the people of this parable. A man planted a vineyard, rented out to vine growers, or tenants, and went on a journey for a long time.

[21:15] I need to make some, clarify some things for you before we get into this story. First, I do not believe that Israel was the vineyard. Though Isaiah chapter 5 is written as such, it's better to see the vineyard as a place of blessing, a promise.

[21:34] It's vine growers. They, that's Israel, particularly its religious leaders. The whole nation will reject Jesus, led by their leaders.

[21:46] They'll reject their Messiah. So again, it's better to see the vineyard as the place of blessing, or promise. So I'll give you, up here on the screen, I'll show you, who is who in this story, that Jesus is giving, in this parable.

[22:02] Who is who? God is the owner of the vineyard. The vineyard is the promises, the place of blessing. The tenants is Israel, specifically, the religious leaders.

[22:14] The servants, or the slaves, are the prophets. The son is Jesus, and the others, it's us, the Gentiles, going in.

[22:27] Planted the vineyard, the owner, he lent it out to vine growers. I'll use the word tenants, in my sermon. Then he went on a journey.

[22:39] Now, in the ancient Near East, many estates would be let out, by absentee landlords. So they would, these landlords, they have a land, they rent it out, and then they leave. They go.

[22:51] They have tenants, who would take care of them. Now, sometimes, the tenants would attempt, to seize control, of that land, while the owner was gone. Which is why, you know, see this happening, later on, in Jesus' story.

[23:03] So again, here's the vineyard, a place of promise, God's the one who owns this, he's running out to tenants. Now, before we continue on, the story, what is Jesus, trying to do, in this story?

[23:17] He wants to warn, it's a warning, to the nation, and its leaders, who have corrupted, the people, these leaders, don't do this, else you will face, judgment. This is history, it's going to take place, but it's a warning.

[23:32] They're rejecting, God's eternal son, the Messiah, that has serious consequences. Don't do it. And yet they will. It's absurd.

[23:46] It is absurd, that the nation, would respond this way, to God's love, God's grace. No nation, has such benefit, and responsibility, and responsibility, to the whole world, to bring his fruit, for God like Israel.

[24:01] No other nation. But they failed. They will lose their position, position, excuse me, and the benefits, will go to others, who will go to the Gentiles.

[24:12] We'll talk about that, in a few moments. Notice how, now let's go back to the story. We got that set up, here's the set up, goes on a long journey. Verse 10, at the harvest time, he sent a slave, a servant, two of the tenants, where they might give him, some of the produce, or the vineyard.

[24:31] He's going to come to the estate, sending them, one of his servants, to see, what's the profit? What's the fruit, that's been produced? Okay, the owner, this is my land.

[24:44] You, my tenants, I'm sending one of my servants, to come to you, what have you produced? I've been gone for a while, had more than enough time, for the production. I want to ascertain the products.

[24:56] Keep in mind, the land did not belong, to the tenants. They're there to take care of it. I just hired you. You're there to take care of my land.

[25:10] A gracious gift, right? End of verse 10. But the tenants beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

[25:27] And then verse 11. He proceeded to send another, and they beat him also, treated him shamefully. They sent him away empty-handed. He proceeded to send a third, and this one also they wounded and cast out. He sent the first one, they sent him back, they beat him up.

[25:42] Gave nothing back to the owner of the property. The property that they were tending. It's not yours. Sends a second.

[25:54] Parallels the first one, but now they treat him shamefully. Sends a third one. Treated him the same even more so, though. Treated worse than the previous two. Now the servants, we've looked at this already, the servants depict Old Testament prophets who were rejected by the nation.

[26:15] The way Israel treated her prophets is not a pretty picture. It shows their unfaithfulness as tenants. Who would in time murder the son.

[26:27] Here you see a stubborn nation who rejected God's gracious compassion to them and sending them, these servants, these messengers.

[26:40] And instead of immediately punishing them, what does God do? He gave them further, further opportunities to repent. Show me the produce. Send them back. Show me the produce. Send them back.

[26:51] Show me the produce. Be a trophy to the nations of the grace and the glory of God. And were they like that? No. They refused. This is our land.

[27:05] This is mine. No, it's not. You're tenants. What did Stephen say to the religious leaders? You stiff-necked people who always resist the Holy Spirit.

[27:20] Right? What does the writer of Hebrews say in Hebrews chapter 11 about the prophets? Some of them were sawn in two. They were stoned.

[27:32] They were beaten. They were everything. All this stuff happened to the prophets. God kept sending them prophets. That's why we read that from Nehemiah chapter 9. God would send them prophets. Send them prophets. And yet they would rebel.

[27:42] And they would rebel. And they would rebel again. There's a question that might come up. Maybe you should talk with someone about the gospel.

[27:57] Someone might bring up, you know, you're talking about God and He creates everything. And one of the main questions that might come up is, but why does God allow evil and suffering to happen in the world?

[28:08] You ever had somebody ask you that question? Why should I believe in that God that you're mentioning in this Bible? When there's so much evil and suffering in the world. What is the reason God allows evil to continue to happen in the world?

[28:22] Because it gives people another opportunity to repent and not face eternal judgment. which is according to what they deserve. God will endure and endure and endure and be patient and be gracious and even allowing evil to happen in the world so that people will turn from their sin and trust Him.

[28:49] That's how patient, that's how gracious, that's how merciful God is. 13.

[29:02] The owner of the vineyard said, what should I do? A reflection of the owner and his patience. I will send my beloved son.

[29:14] Perhaps they will respect him. The reflection and patience by the owner, even his uncertainty, which obviously does not correspond to reality.

[29:25] God is not hesitant and uncertain about his son's fate. But Jesus has given us this story that the owner has a dilemma so he's thinking, okay, maybe it would be better if I just send someone who's of greater, higher rank.

[29:42] I know. I'll send my beloved son. What does that register in your heads automatically? Jesus and at his baptism.

[29:56] This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. The story parallels what has happened to Israel and that the owner hopes that perhaps they will respect his son.

[30:16] What does this tell us? What does this tell us about God? He is long-suffering, graciously patient to withhold judgment from these evil, selfish, arrogant tenants.

[30:32] God has every right if you want to write anything down, this, God has every right to be totally severe with not only this nation, Israel, but every nation, every people group in this world because of their flat-out rebellion against him.

[30:49] But God is loving, kind, gentle, merciful, and gracious to hell-bounded sinners calling them to repent. Do you know why this continues?

[31:03] Why do these evil and terrible things continue to happen in this world? It's because God is long-suffering. God can easily wipe people out and yet he's long-suffering and patient and gracious calling people, come to my son and be saved.

[31:32] And when the tenants saw him, he reasoned with one another. Awesome! This is the heir! Let us kill him and then we've got the land!

[31:43] Now, we're thinking, well, why would this happen? Why would they think this? Well, first of all, they're idiots in the first place, okay? That's pretty obvious, right? I mean, their own stupidity in rejecting the owner, I mean, that's pretty obvious, okay?

[31:57] So they're not thinking clearly. They're kind of, things aren't making sense. But second, the land might revert to those working the land. They're thinking that the son was sent because the owner had died.

[32:11] Awesome! This is great! Notice their greed. Greed is apparent. Those listening, they possibly didn't pick up on this, but it's obvious that the leaders knew exactly what Jesus was saying.

[32:25] Wait, wait, wait, wait a second. I think he's talking about us. What does this tell us?

[32:35] What else does this tell us? that the nation, especially the leaders, would go as far as murder to maintain their position of blessing? It's ours.

[32:51] It shows the evil, murderous heart of humans all over the world. And then 15, they threw him out to the vineyard and killed him. Killed him.

[33:02] The tenants, they took the son, they killed him, they threw him out and killed him. Exactly what the leaders were intending to do to Jesus. And Jesus, what therefore will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

[33:21] What will the owner do to these tenants? These guys that he hired to take care of his land, who tortured his servants, who killed his beloved son, what will he do?

[33:35] He will come and destroy these tenants and will give the vineyard to others. He'll give it to someone else. They're in deep trouble. These tenants will be destroyed and the opportunity given to others.

[33:52] The nation of Israel, especially the leadership, will be judged for their unfaithfulness, their evil, their wickedness for killing the eternal son of God.

[34:06] And the others, it not only includes apostles and disciples, but it's us, Gentiles.

[34:18] If you're not Jewish in here, you're Gentile. That's how it goes. Unless I read the dictionary a different way. If you're not a Jew, you're Gentile. It's the world.

[34:32] And notice how people are shocked. Because remember, he's telling this to the people. verse 16. And when they heard it, they said, Oh, may it never be.

[34:44] Uh-uh. What? Why would they reject the owner's action against these tenants? Maybe they possibly knew Jesus was talking about them.

[35:01] They don't want the vineyard taken away from them. They don't want to give it to others. It's ours. Is it right? It belongs to me.

[35:14] Right? They were appalled at the thoughts of others taking possession of their vineyard. As far as they were concerned, it should stay as ours.

[35:27] They were outraged. They were horrified that Jesus would send you such a thing. a story about love, rejection, judgment. But then notice, and this brings us into the third point, how Jesus is going to mention how fatal this rejection is of him.

[35:47] Rejection is fatal. Rejection is fatal. Verse 17, Jesus says, wait a second. Notice how it, and this is only, only find this. This story is, this portion of Luke, you see it in Matthew, you see it in Mark as well.

[36:06] But only in Luke do you actually have it saying that Jesus fixed his gaze upon them, so he's looking at them, and he says, what then is this that's written?

[36:18] The stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone. He quotes Psalm 118, verse 22. Foundation stone. In the ancient Near East, the stone bore the weight of two intersecting walls.

[36:35] It was vital to the stabilization, to the establishment of this building. You had to have this cornerstone, this foundation stone had to be there, and that's by which they would build everything else, was that stone.

[36:48] That's what he's talking about, right there. Though the stone was rejected, it would be exalted. Now, understand the context of the psalm, which we talked a little bit about this last week.

[37:06] The psalm is about a rejected nation, and a rejected king before the nations. So the nation rejected Israel, the nation rejected their king, but though they rejected, they have an exalted place before God.

[37:19] That's the context of the psalm. God would exalt them. Even though the nations would be like, and they would be like, on their king, God would exalt them.

[37:31] So what does Jesus do here? Jesus, the beloved son, he was rejected by Israel, but he was accepted by God, given a place of honor.

[37:43] It's ironic that the psalm that was used to give national comfort actually indicted them for their lack of faithfulness because of their opposition to God's messenger, God's king.

[37:56] So in other words, Jesus is saying, the psalm is talking about you. You are the one who rejected him. You are the one that's rejecting God. You are the one that's rejecting his king.

[38:07] It's about you, nation of Israel. Yet though the king and his followers face rejection, God would accept them.

[38:19] God would exalt them. Jesus is the rejected, yet the exalted king. And the people were angry because the nation and her leadership were now in opposition to God and his people.

[38:39] No God was against them. And this is what's going to throw the people off. And notice you're going to see in just a moment how the religious leaders, they knew exactly what Jesus was saying by this.

[38:51] Wait a second. He's just saying this about us. That's it. We're going to take them out. That's why they got angry. Yet, though they rejected God's messenger, it doesn't stop God from giving honor to his son and accomplishing what he wants to accomplish, giving the vineyard to others, to us.

[39:15] look, though they were responsible, they were responsible to embrace and worship their Messiah, God, according to his predetermined plan, would use the sin of Israel's rejection of his son to accomplish his plan of salvation.

[39:35] They would kill him, but he would rise, and that salvation would be for the Jew and for the whole world. God would do that. And then notice what Jesus says about how fatal the rejection of the son is, or I should say the stone, 18.

[39:56] 18 says, everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but whenever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. Those who reject or fall on that stone are broken to pieces.

[40:09] If it or he falls on that person, they're scattered like dust, like bits. This is the stone's significance in reference to those who fail to respond to it or to him.

[40:27] Jesus is relating himself, I am that cornerstone, I am the stone, and whoever falls on that stone, if you fall on that stone, you're going to be broken to pieces. If that stone falls on anyone, it's going to shatter you like dust.

[40:40] This falling that he's talking about is unbelief, rebellious rejection of Jesus and his authority. It is disbelief in his person and work of atonement, and that is fatal.

[40:55] The son, as the ruling king, will have judging authority when he returns to judge this world. Now, it could also allude to Jerusalem's destruction in 70 AD, which I believe that.

[41:09] There's an initial fulfillment, fulfillment, and there's a greater fulfillment. And this is a fulfillment that happened to them in 70 AD when God wiped out the Jewish nation. But then there's a greater fulfillment when Jesus will return and judge this world.

[41:26] Rejection is fatal. Rejecting Messiah brings severe consequences. If you reject him, he will judge you. He will crush you. don't reject his patient love and his son.

[41:41] Don't do that. Oh, they love this little thing that Jesus did. Verse 19, scribes and chief priests, they tried to lay hands on him every hour.

[41:55] They understood that he spoke this parable against them. They knew exactly what he was talking about, who he was talking about. They wanted to seize him and kill him that very hour. Oh, wait a second, that's the very thing about the parables they're going to do, right?

[42:11] But notice they feared the people. How dare this uneducated Galilean speak this way about us? Who does he think he is to challenge the official religious leadership?

[42:27] But they would have their way, won't they? They would have their way. God is long-suffering and gracious to Israel, giving them ample opportunities time and time again to repent and be faithful, to put his fruit, but their leaders led the people astray.

[42:46] There's nothing new. Nothing new. Look at God's promises and his grace. They are not inalienable rights.

[42:59] They're not. God's love. The Constitution says that about the United States of America. It does not say that in the Bible. He demands a response to his words, specifically a response toward his eternal son.

[43:13] One must embrace the son or be crushed. Yes, God is a gracious, compassionate God, but he will judge. Don't reject his patient love. Don't do it.

[43:25] the nation would reject the stone, but he would be exalted. The nation would be judged, plus the blessings and the promise is going to go to others.

[43:40] And Jesus and those who follow him, they would be vindicated by God. They would be exalted by God. So, do you have a positive relationship with that exalted stone today?

[43:55] Do you have a positive relationship with that exalted stone? Or are you falling over the exalted stone? Is he crushing you? Have you surrendered to Jesus' authority?

[44:10] Have you surrendered to Jesus and his authority giving him your life? For us, as followers of Jesus, do we or are we long-suffering and patient as God has been patient with us?

[44:27] Do our lives, as Jesus' followers, reflect grace, compassion, love, and forgiveness? The motivation, as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

[44:43] That's why we celebrate the Lord's Supper, which we'll do in a few moments. For us to think about and to consider what Jesus has done. The bread symbolized his body that was broken, shared amongst us.

[44:56] The juice represents his blood shed for sinners. So we think about that, we consider that. We consider and think about God's gracious, patient love toward us and let that be a motivation by which we show that towards each other.

[45:16] Take a few moments then and think and ponder and we will be seen in God's word this morning. Maybe take a time or two to pray.

[45:28] Have you been focusing on the gospel? Does your life reflect grace and compassion? If you're here and you don't know Christ, maybe you need to become a Christian.

[45:43] Surrender your life to Jesus. Take a few moments and think through that and then we'll do our time of giving. We'll sing one song and then we'll have you prepare your hearts for the Lord's Supper.

[45:58] Let's think.