Questioning The Authority Of Jesus

Today we are back in Luke chapter 19, the end of the chapter.! Starting with this interesting phenomenon that happens.

! Last week we looked at what's known as the triumphal entry. He was celebrating, but not him.

And then some interesting events happen right after this. He picks a fight. He answers a very important and challenging question from the religious leaders.

He tells a story. We might know it as a parable. And then in telling that story, he ends up picking another fight. And so it's quite interesting.

And before we dig into the text, we have an update. It's not.

Rich Chassie here reporting live from Jerusalem. Right outside the temple. What a day it has been, the events of today. This man, people know him as Jesus of Nazareth, came parading into town.

And as he was parading into town, people were shouting and praising his name. And what a ruckus it caused. And the religious leaders were very upset. And I had a chance to interview them after the events of this day.

And what a story to tell. Quite interesting, too, that once Jesus came into the city, he went directly into the temple. And oh my, what a ruckus he caused when he went into the temple, overturning tables and shouting at people.

And what a time it was. When things settled down, the religious leaders finally had their opportunity. And they came and they questioned Jesus.

Asking him by what authority he was doing these things. And oh my, were they upset with him. They would have said that Jesus isn't qualified to be a rabbi.

He's not qualified to be a teacher. He didn't go to rabbinical school. He didn't have any of the qualifications. At the high priest in Jerusalem, he is the one who has the authority to call the shits.

But Jesus, even though he doesn't have that kind of training, he's pretty quick-witted. And by answering their question, he asked them another one. That so confounded them, they replied, no comment.

Boy, this is bad. This mic's not even on. This is my poor attempt at AI. I thought it was pretty good.

The image is not too far off from me. But that's basically the gist of what we're looking at today.

That the authority of Jesus is what's being questioned. And you have this on your notes. The problem with the religious leaders in particular. And that's who kind of is in view in this section of Scripture.

The religious leaders were the ones who were in view here. And they had a problem with the authority of Jesus. Where did he come off doing these things?

Receiving the praise of the people as he came into Jerusalem. Who gave him the authority to overturn all the tables and all that stuff. We're going to get to that momentarily.

After all, it was the high priest who licensed, if you will, the dealers in the temple who sold the doves and sold the lambs and collected the money and all of those kinds of things.

But Jesus and his authority confronted their authority. Because if Jesus is who he says he is, if he is the Messiah, as people have been declaring that Jesus is the Messiah, how could this be possible?

He's from Nazareth. Nothing good can come from Nazareth in their minds. Everyone knew that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem.

They didn't know the beginning part of his story. And so you have these questions of that. The problem that every person, and this brings it up to our day today, the problem that every person who comes into contact with Jesus faces is this.

That his authority confronts our own authority. My authority. That if Jesus is who he says he is, if he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Holy One of God, that means that I need to submit to him.

And I don't get to call the shots for my own life. Because he's in charge. And so the bottom line for us, and this is kind of like telling you the end of the story here before we even start.

If you have to leave in the next five minutes, you will at least got the bottom line of today's sermon. And that's this. If Jesus is acting by God's authority, then we had better submit to him.

And I would say it this way. If Jesus is acting by God's authority, and he is, then we had better submit. Or there will be some very severe consequences as a result of that.

So let's start with what happened with the events right after Jesus comes into the city, after the triumphal entry. And Luke only gives us a couple of verses here.

So we're going to take a look at Mark as well. Mark's going to tell us a few more details that we're going to focus on as we do this. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, it is written, my house shall be a house of prayer.

And he goes back to the book of Isaiah to do this. But you have made it a den of robbers. So what is this that he's doing? And to understand this, you have to understand kind of the layout of the temple area.

It was massive. And as you came into the city, you came into the city gates. There was a wall around the city. And then as you would approach the temple, there's another wall that is around the temple.

And then inside of that is what was known as the Court of the Gentiles. Massive area. Basically, it would have been like three football fields worth of open space.

And that's where these vendors would set up shop. It was Passover week. People coming from all over the world to sacrifice in remembrance of Passover.

And as they would come, they would bring their sacrificial lamb or sacrificial doves or whatever it is that they were bringing to sacrifice. If you had the means to do so, you would bring a lamb.

If you were poor, then you would bring a bird of some sort, a dove or a pigeon. And then you would offer that and sacrifice to God in remembrance of Passover and as payment for your sin.

And so what they did, what the chief priests and the religious leaders, they had a racket. There's no way to sugarcoat this.

I mean, it was, they were ripping people off really badly. So what they would do is if you were shopping, if you were in another part of the world and you came to Jerusalem for this event, you could shop anywhere in and around Jerusalem and use your coins, whether they were Roman coins, whether they were Greek coins, whether they were Syrian coins, whatever coins you had, foreign currency, you could bring it to Jerusalem and use it.

And these vendors would sell you their products based on what coinage you were using. But when it came to the temple, there were particular temple coins or temple currency that must be used there in the temple.

So when people came, one of the things that they had to do, according to Old Testament law, was pay a temple tax. But they couldn't pay it in their foreign currency. So they had to exchange it.

Well, money, money changers, money exchangers, at that time, not a real prevalent thing, but they set up these booths in the temple, in the, in the court of the Gentiles there.

And in changing the money, they charged a very exorbitant rate. So like for us, it would be like if, if you had to go to, had to go to Toronto and pay a temple tax in Toronto, you would take your, your $10 American and go to Toronto.

And, and as you had to pay that tax, they would basically charge you a hundred bucks to get a, a Canadian $10 bill to pay your $10 tax.

And so it was that exorbitant. It was that outrageous of what they were doing. And then that was just part of the ripoff. And then the other thing that they were doing is people were bringing their lambs and their birds with them.

And they would have to be examined by the priests to make sure that they were without spot or blemish of any kind. And so they would, they would come to the, the priests and, and here's my lamb.

And they would put the lamb there and he'd look it over a little bit and say, nope, this lamb cannot pass. You cannot use this lamb for a sacrifice. And, and so you must purchase one of our approved lambs.

And these approved pre-approved lambs would be sold at an exorbitant price, a ripoff price. And then because you were having to, you're traveling, you don't want to travel with a lamb.

Well, we'll, we'll purchase this defective lamb from you just to take it off of your hands. And, and we'll, we'll give you a fair value for it.

And it, of course, it was a little bit less than fair value. And then they would take this quote unquote defective lamb, move it after you're out of the way, move it over to the pen of approved lambs, and then sell it for 10 times.

It's worth to the next person who came in line and who would have their lamb disproved or, or unacceptable for a sacrifice. And they would do the same thing with the birds and all of those kinds of things.

And so this is, this is the racket. And, and it was, it was exorbitant. And the people complained about it. It was just a normal part of doing business. When you came to Jerusalem for Passover, you knew that you were going to get ripped off at the temple.

This is not just doing people a favor and providing lambs and providing money exchanges and, and doing it in an honest way. This was a very dishonest and very inappropriate thing that, that was approved by the chief priests and the religious leaders and the way for them to make exorbitant amounts of money.

This is why they didn't want to have their authority questioned. They were living large and in charge in that system. As much as they hated Rome, Rome at least allowed them to carry on this, this charade so that they could keep their power and keep their financial windfall as a result of this.

Come over to Mark chapter 11, verse 15. He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. A little more detail here.

And he overturned the tables of the money changers, the seats of those who sold pigeons. So he's coming in and, and, and he's hot. He is angry.

And, and it does teach us a lesson that there are times it's appropriate to be angry. And, and this is one of those righteous anger moments when he sees what they are doing to, uh, what he would call the house of God or this house of prayer.

The court of the Gentiles, it was, it was for the Gentiles only. If you were, uh, not Jewish, you couldn't go beyond this. But as a, as a Gentile observer of the Hebrew faith, you could go to the temple and, and bring your sacrifice, but you couldn't go in with your sacrifice to have it, have it sacrificed.

So this is as far as you could go. And it was meant to be a worshipful place. It was meant to be a place where there could be some teaching that would be happening. And once again, those teachers would have to be approved by, uh, the priests and the, and the religious leaders of the, of the day.

And so these animal sellers, and, and you can imagine they're in the court of the Gentiles. You've got money changing hands. You've got animals and all the stuff that comes with animals.

We talked about emissions last week. Um, all of this is going on there in the court of the Gentiles as part of the temple. And then it says this in verse 16, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.

Well, what was that about? Well, if you understood the layout of the city and understood the layout of the temple, there was, if you had to go from one part of the city and to leave out of another certain gate of the city, you would have to go around the temple to get to that gate and, and go that direction.

But you could also, rather than do that, you could go into the temple and just use it as a shortcut. And, and so you just, Hey, I'm just, I'm just, Hey, I'm on my way to Jericho and I'm just cutting through the temple.

I've got my backpack, my suitcase, and I'm just cruising through the temple. Again, using the temple, not for the purpose for which it had been given to the nation of Israel.

And because of that disrespect, again, Jesus is not allowing anyone. So he's, he's following, he's seeing people carrying suitcases or backpacks or whatever, and he's going behind them and dragging them off their back.

and it's like, Whoa, Jesus, what are you doing? And, and he's mad. And he was teaching them and saying to them, it isn't, is it not written that my house shall be called a house of prayer.

And, and we have this little addition to the sentence here in Mark that we don't have in Luke. It's supposed to be a house of prayer for all the nations. In other words, the temple wasn't just meant for Israel.

The Israelites were meant to be a light for all nations. And all nations were to recognize that light and then come and worship the one true God. And the temple was meant to serve that purpose.

And here they were turning it into a mockery and using it as a pass through. And, and Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no, no, that this is not what's supposed to be happening. But you instead have made it a den of, of robbers.

And when he uses the word robbers here at in Luke, it's literally what they were doing. And they were thieving from the people with the exorbitant prices and things that they were doing there in, in the temple.

And so, and again, to finish out chapter 19 of Luke, we're back in Luke now, verses 47 and 48. And he was teaching daily in the temple and the chief priests and the scribes were, and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him.

So they had already before this, already started to, to, to lay down plans for what they were going to do with this Jesus. And they needed to get rid of him. He questioned their authority, questioned their position, and they would not want to tolerate any of that.

And so they were looking for an opportunity, literally to kill him, but they did not find anything that they could do for all the people were hanging on his words. And so every time that they wanted to, to, to go and get Jesus, Jesus was surrounded by crowds of people who were thinking and saying, this is the Messiah.

This is the one who's been doing all of this healing and miracles. And, and, and so if they were to, to go in and grab Jesus and arrest him, they would have some trouble on their hands from the crowds.

The crowds would basically throw a fit and stone them. And literally with, with rocks would stone them. And so a little bit, some information that you have on your notes here, as far as understanding the crooked swap meet.

Uh, there that's happening in the temple there in Jerusalem. Understand that the temple itself represented access to God.

And it's an old Testament concept that if people wanted access to God, the temple was through which they, they, they did that. Uh, the temple represented the presence of God.

Now we understand that the presence of God is everywhere. He's omnipresent, but in the old Testament in terms of access to him, they would go to the temple in order to do that.

And so the temple represented that access to God. If I want to get to God, if I want him to hear me, um, that's how it worked. Now, during the old Testament times, the temple provided what I'm calling here a, a restricted approach to God, restricted in the sense that you had to jump through all of these hoops.

In order to, to get this access to God, to get into the temple. Uh, if you were a Gentile, you could only go so far. And then if you were a woman, again, you could only go so far.

And then if you were a Jewish man, then you could only go so far further still. And then if you were the high priest, you could only go so far once a year into what we call the Holy of Holies, where God's presence was.

And so there were all of these barriers. And in order to, to keep, uh, to, to keep access there, you had to bring the right sacrifices and without spot or blemish and all of these things.

You had to do all of these things in order to do that. So the old Testament in the temple that represented restricted and a restricted approach to God. Now for us, we're living in the new Testament age.

After the, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we are now the temple of God. You and I, we serve as the temple of God.

And so we have this principle taught throughout the new Testament. For instance, I've got one passage here that we're going to look at. First Corinthians chapter three, verse 16, the apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth.

Do you not know that you are God's temple? And so if you are a believer here today, if you've trusted Jesus Christ as, as Lord and savior, and you belong to him, then I could say to you, do you not know that you, you yourself are the temple of God?

Now, what does that mean? And that God's spirit dwells in you. God dwells in us as believers. If you are a believer in Christ, it means that through his Holy spirit, God dwells in you.

Hebrews chapter four, you are the house of God. You belong to him. And so that means then that because we are the temple, this, this physical body is the temple of God, the Holy spirit.

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. This is what, how God looks upon the, the, the, the sanctity of this body of ours that belongs to him.

For God's temple is holy. And you are that temple. You belong to him. First Corinthians six talks about how you've been bought with a price.

You are not your own. And, and understand that's a good thing. It's a good thing. You want to belong to God.

You want him to be in charge of your life. It's what you were created for to fulfill the purpose of your life, to, to have any kind of meaning in this life. It comes, it is found through being owned.

We don't like that word, but being owned by him, being possessed by him. We, we want him to be in charge.

We want him to be in control of who we are and of this body of ours. Secondly, God's anger resides on anyone who was denying people access to God.

Makes sense. If I like all those money changers and people who were swindling people in the temple courts.

Yeah. God does not look favorably upon that kind of activity. Matthew chapter 23. Uh, again, uh, the people who want to portray Jesus as, Oh, what a wonderful man.

And he's always so soft spoken and just loves everybody. They just like take Matthew 23 and cut it out of their Bibles. Because they don't like to see Jesus in this way.

No, same thing with, with, as he goes into the temple and he's overturning all these tables, Jesus speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees, and he calls them hypocrites. Are we allowed to do that?

Now you and I are not Jesus. So it's a little bit more difficult for us to do that. But if someone is obviously being a hypocrite, it's okay to call that person out for, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.

This was the charge that he was laying at their feet. You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Do you think God will look kindly upon this group of people? No. Do you think God will look kindly upon us?

If we do that. And so here's the question for us. Do I have anything that needs to be overturned or driven out of my life because it's making it hard for people to see God?

If I am a living, breathing temple of God walking around, then my life should provide access to God for other people.

By the way that I live my life, the words that I say, the attitudes that I portray, are there things in my life that need to be cleaned out because it's wrecking my testimony for the Lord?

If when people look at my life, and I would ask of you, if when people look at your life, would they see God? Would they see Christ in your actions, in your words?

And if there's something that needs to be overturned or driven out, are you willing to do that? Are you willing to make your life that much more of a testimony for Christ?

Now, let's go ahead and get into basically the rest of this text here. We're starting now in Luke chapter 20, beginning in verse 1. So Jesus has come into Jerusalem.

He's being celebrated. He comes into the temple area. He's angry. He's driving out all of these money launderers or money changers and thieves.

And then on another day, one day is Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel. So Jesus is, this is still now the week that he's going to be crucified at the end of this week.

So there's just a few days between when he comes into Jerusalem and at the end of the week when he's crucified. And on one of these days, he's teaching in the temple. And so he's doing this again without the chief priest's authority to do so.

He's not getting permission to do this. From his perspective, this is his temple, right? He is God. And so the temple belongs to him or his father. And he's teaching them.

And he is highlighted section there, preaching the gospel. Do you guys remember what the message of the gospel was? By the way, it's different than the message of the gospel that you and I are preaching, right?

And for some of you hearing this for the first time, you might say, well, that sounds like heresy, Rich. And no, we preach the gospel of grace, Acts chapter 20.

Jesus was preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And remember these cute little drums? Remember the message, the gospel message that he was preaching?

The message was, what was the gospel message he was preaching? The kingdom of God. Oh, I love you people. The kingdom of God is at hand.

The kingdom of God is at hand. And I wish Doug would come up here and play this for me. But he told me to play emphasis on my, the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand.

I can't do, I can't do two at one time. So kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand. And that drumbeat, ever since Luke chapter nine, verse 51, that drumbeat was very soft back in Luke nine, 51, but he set his face toward Jerusalem.

And chapter nine, verse 51, all the way to where we're at today, he is making his way from the North and Galilee down to where Jerusalem is. And all that time, that drumbeat is getting louder as Jesus is declaring the kingdom of God is at hand.

Literally what he is saying is the King is coming and he is at hand. He is right here.

Literally, he's looking at you right in the face. He's here. Now there's coming a time where that will be preached again during the tribulation.

You'll, you'll notice that the kingdom of God is at hand is preached once again in revelation during the tribulation. You'll see that same message.

But right now, as we are waiting for that day to come, we are preaching the gospel of grace. That Jesus came and he died and he rose again from the dead.

And that by repentance of sin and trusting in Christ as savior, we can be saved. And we can know him as Lord and savior. But there's coming a day where the kingdom of God is at hand.

But right now, he's still preaching it. Okay. He hasn't been fully rejected yet. Right. The people have accepted him. He's gone into the temple, but now the rejection is going to start coming.

Okay. So he's in the temple and he's preaching this gospel of the kingdom. And the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, aha.

Now these guys, these chief priests and the scribes with the elders, this group of men was charged with by the whole nation of Israel.

Hey, we know Messiah is coming. How are we going to recognize him? We're all looking to the chief priests and the scribes along with the elders to tell us, this is the one.

They have a different agenda. They're not interested in that. They want to keep their power. They want to keep their authority. So they're asking Jesus, tell us by what authority you do these things or who it is that gave you this authority.

Who is authorizing? Because the chief priests didn't give you the license to come in here to the temple and teach. You didn't get that from us. So where's your authority coming from?

You and I, we know the answer to that as we've been reading through the gospel of Luke. But it's interesting how Jesus handles these chief priests and these elders and scribes.

He answered them. I will also ask you a question. So I'm going to answer your question with a question. Jesus loves to do this, by the way.

Okay. And, and now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? And this is brilliant from Jesus.

Okay. This is brilliant in the sense of, depending on how they answer, then he's going to be able to then provide an answer himself. Because if they say that the baptism of John was from heaven, ah, they're recognizing that John's message was from God.

And John, after all, was the one who declared, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He said this of Jesus. He recognized Jesus as the Messiah.

So if they agree that John's authority came from heaven, then, oh, we're good. Or, did John's authority come from man?

In other words, did John decide on his own, and it wasn't something that God had ordained, something that God approved of? John's message. The problem with that is, if they answered it by saying that, the people in the crowd would have been upset, would have been driven mad, because the crowds basically believed that John the Baptist was from God.

That his message was from God. Absolutely. And so they would have run up and beat them and stoned them. And so that was the concern there.

And so they huddled up, and they discussed it with one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, then why did you not believe him? But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.

So literally, I mean, can you imagine living in a culture where if you say the wrong thing, literally they're going to circle up around you and find some rocks and pummel you? Talk about being canceled.

That's what canceling looked like in their world. And so they don't know what to do. They don't know how to answer this question. So they answered that they did not know where it came from.

And this was the no comment. Right? Sound like politicians today. They're playing a political game. That's what they're doing here.

No comment. We don't know. Can't answer it because we're too afraid one way or the other. Can't go. If we say one thing, we're going to lose our power and authority. If we say another thing, we're going to get killed. Great.

And so then Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. So Jesus says, I'm not going to, I can play that game too.

I'm not going to answer that question. And then from there, he begins to tell them a parable, a story.

And this is a very interesting parable. Very interesting parable. A man planted a vineyard. And this story, by the way, is prophetic.

We'll see the prophecy of this as we make our way through. A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants, rented it to tenants and went into another country for a long while.

And when the time came, he sent a servant. And what I've done is I've highlighted the characters in this story. And then I'm going to, you'll see this on your notes, who those characters represent.

So the first character, if you will, is the vineyard itself, even though that's not a person, but it plays a role here. Then he sent a servant of the tenants to come so they would give him some of the fruit.

That's the rental agreement, right? I'm going to rent out the vineyard to these tenants who are going to farm the vineyard, raise the grapes, and then when the time comes, I'm going to send my servant to come and collect my portion of the agreement because that's how the rental would work.

The payment for you to rent this property is you're going to give me a portion of the produce. Well, the tenants beat him. The servant who came from the vineyard owner, the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

How outlandish that they would do such a thing. And many of Jesus' parables were very outlandish, not realistic in any way.

This is one of those parables. He sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.

And he sent yet a third. This one they also wounded and cast out. Again, this is crazy. And you can imagine the hearers of this story.

So he's telling this parable to a group of people, and part of that group are the chief priests and scribes and elders that are there, part of the same audience.

Then the owner of the vineyard, another character, said, what shall I do? I will send who? My beloved son. Now, can you guess who this character represents?

I mean, you kind of know already who this character represents because of the title that's given. When Jesus was baptized, the voice from heaven, my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

Perhaps they will respect him. Crazy talk. They've already beaten up three separate servants. Now you're going to send your son into that kind of a setting?

That's crazy. Is it any less crazy that God would send himself to this earth to go to the cross to pay the penalty for sins of us?

When the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours. Again, crazy that they would even think this.

How could they think that this is even possible? That if they kill the owner's son, well, we'll get the inheritance then. That's not how this works, but this is what they're thinking.

And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then, and this is the question that Jesus asks, what then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? What do you think the owner of the vineyard would do to these tenants?

destroy them, wouldn't he? What do you and I deserve? We just sinned against the righteous and holy God, lived in rebellion.

What do we deserve? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

And the, give the vineyard to others is also a character in this, in this story. And when they heard this, now back to the chief priests and scribes and the elders, when they heard this, they said, surely not.

not, not, not just to the last part, but to the whole thing. The whole story is just outlandish. And of course, the last part, so let's, let's talk about the different characters in the prophecy of this parable that represents that Jesus is going away and he's going to come again.

And when he comes again, what will he find? So the vineyard owner represents God the Father. The vineyard itself represents the nation of Israel.

The tenant farmers represent the religious leaders. And these religious leaders treated brutally the prophets of God, the servants, who represented the Old Testament prophets that God had sent and they brutalized them and killed them and didn't believe them.

Beloved son, of course, we mentioned this, Jesus, the son of God. And the others who are invited into the vineyard, it's going to give the vineyard to others, the Gentile nations.

It's you and I as Gentiles. We are now invited into the vineyard. Romans chapter 9 talks about us being grafted in to the vine because of Christ.

We can now refer to Abraham as our father. All of that, this story, represents that truth. And Jesus is coming again.

That's the prophecy part of this. And then, in verses 17 and 18, now, we get introduced to a very familiar phrase that a lot of us don't really know the details of this idea.

We can name churches, there's a church in town that has the name Cornerstone. We get that Jesus is the chief cornerstone. This is where it comes from.

This is what it means. He looked directly at them. Okay? Jesus tells them this story and it's about them rejecting the prophets and then finally rejecting and killing Jesus.

And he looks directly at them and he says, what then is this that is written? And he goes back to Isaiah and pulls this quote, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

The stone that the building rejected has become the cornerstone of the building. From Isaiah chapter 8 verse 14.

So, and then verse 18 he continues here, everyone who falls on that stone, that cornerstone, will be broken to pieces.

What is that a reference to? Well, what we have here is, oh, here it is, Isaiah 8 14. He will be a holy place for both Israel and Judah.

He will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare. Jesus became this stone of stumbling.

They would trip over this stone and they wouldn't get it. They wouldn't understand what Jesus represented to them. And so you have this, as Jesus has the cornerstone, on the one hand, Jesus is a stumbling block for those who refuse to believe.

That's true back then. The religious leaders, anyone who rejected Christ, Jesus became a stumbling block, that as they were going along, trip over the stumbling block, be destroyed because of their refusal to believe.

And this is in a passive way, a passive voice, if you will. In other words, the stone doesn't move, it just sits there. And people trip over it.

People stumble over it. And we get this in other portions of scripture that again, go back to the Old Testament and draw on it.

1 Peter chapter 2 verse 6, For it stands in scripture, Behold, I'm laying in Zion, that's in Jerusalem, a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

Romans chapter 10 quotes from this. This idea, and this is taken from Isaiah 28, that whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

In the Hebrew version of this from the book of Isaiah, it says that whoever believes in him will not be disturbed, or literally not be shaken.

The idea that if you put your faith in him, your trust in him, you're not going to have to worry, your life is going to be on a solid foundation. You're going to be standing on that cornerstone.

It is going to preserve and protect you, that faith that you place in Christ. You will not be put to shame. You will not be disappointed when you put your faith in Christ.

But, so for the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

The cornerstone in the building is the cornerstone of the foundation that the rest of the foundation is laid upon and becomes the chief fixture of that building.

So the nation of Israel, Jesus is the cornerstone of the nation of Israel. Jesus is the cornerstone of the coming kingdom. We're going to see that in prophecy.

Jesus is also, according to Paul, the cornerstone of the church, Ephesians chapter 2. So Jesus is the cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

You're destined if you are still in your sin, if you refuse to believe and you are still in your sin, your sin destines you to stumble and to fall and to be destroyed because you refuse to believe.

That's the first part of chapter or verse 18. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. But or and when it falls on anyone, here's something new, here's something different because the stumbling stone is something that just sits there and people trip over it.

But now we have a stone that's doing something different. When it falls on anyone, it will crush him. Crush him can also be translated as ground into powder.

That kind of destruction there. And it refers to in Daniel chapter 2 how the Messiah will come one day and crush every nation, every person who again refuses to believe.

So that same stone, that same cornerstone then, will become an active agent. Remember, the first time it's passive, it's a stumbling stone, people trip over it, it just sits there.

But this same stone will become an active agent in the very real destruction of those who refuse to recognize their sin and their need of a savior. I realize we're getting a little deep in the weeds here with this, but this is so good.

And this is such a serious warning for those. The cornerstone then becomes the reference point for the rest of the building. That cornerstone governs every angle of that building.

Everything has to be built based on how the cornerstone is laid. And that the cornerstone is our standard.

Do you see how this relates to Jesus? Jesus is our standard. everything else we build upon it is based on that standard, on those measurements, on those angles.

So you build your life on the cornerstone of Jesus and he becomes the standard of your life by which you build the rest of your life.

And he closes with this and we'll close with this too. Verse 19, the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him that very hour, just as they had wanted to do before, where they perceived that he had told this parable against them.

Was their perception right? It was. It was right on. They feared the people so they couldn't act right then.

And so we have a serious warning here in this passage as Jesus comes into Jerusalem as he overturns the tables in the temple as he answers their question with another question as he tells them this story and then he talks about Jesus being the cornerstone.

The warning is this, that our Lord is a very patient Lord. There are passages of scripture that describe his patience, that there will come a time when his patience is over.

The owner of the vineyard is coming again to bring justice. And we ought not to misunderstand his delay as your deliverance.

Just because he is waiting, just because he is still patient today does not mean that you're okay, that you can live how you want.

Don't misunderstand his patience as indifference. he absolutely cares. He is a God of holiness and justice and all the justice that we see in this world.

He will come again and make it right. And that is true for us as individuals as well. if you refuse your life to Christ, if you refuse to believe, if you refuse to repent of your sin, say, Lord, I trust you with my life.

If you refuse that call, that invitation, then there's coming a day whether you die before he returns or when he returns.

He will come in his justice for you and it will lead to your eternal destruction in hell.

And so the best thing that any of us can do is to heed that warning and to recognize the need that we have. Yes, Lord, I am a sinner. To me, that's like the easiest thing to be able to admit.

Yes, Lord, I have blown it over and over again. I have rebelled against you. I have sinned against the righteous and holy God. Absolutely, yes, I am guilty. And I can't do anything about it.

I can't be good enough. I can't earn it. I can't work it away. The only hope I have is in what Jesus Christ has already done for us.

He's laying the ground work for him going to the cross where he's going to pay the penalty for their sin and for your sin and for my sin there on the cross.

And he rose again from the dead. I would implore you trust him.

Trust him with your life. If you've not trusted in Jesus Christ, do it today. Don't put it off. The more you put it off, the harder your heart gets to that message.

if you hear today and you sense that the Lord is saying to you, yes, this is a step I need to take. I need to trust Christ as my Savior and don't put it off.

Trust him today. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. It is powerful.

even these actions that we see Jesus taking in the text today. Powerful examples of your justice and your wrath that awaits those who refuse to repent, who refuse to believe.

Lord, I pray for the people here in this room or the people that are perhaps watching online. Lord, I pray that you would help them to see that for anyone who has not yet trusted you as Savior, help them to see that today is the day of salvation, that putting it off only makes the danger that much greater.

And Lord, if we would just recognize our need, if we would recognize our sinfulness, it's so easy, it's right there in front of us, it's so clear, yes, I am a sinner, and I deserve death, I deserve punishment, but you have provided a way of escape, you've provided a way that not only can we be forgiven of our sin, but we're brought into a right relationship with you, we're brought into your family, we're made a part of the family with all of the rights and inheritance that comes from being a child or a daughter of the king, how can it be that you could be so gracious to us, so merciful to us, who have sinned against you, our creator, and yet this is what you have done for us.

Amazing God of all creation would step in to save his creation who lived in rebellion and yet this is what you've chosen to do.

How good you are, how gracious, how loving. You are the definition of love, you are the definition of goodness and of grace and of mercy.

I pray for those who yet need to make that decision that even today they would be saying to you, Lord, I trust you with my life.

It's yours. My sin, I turn away from it. I recognize that my sin is what has separated me from you, God, and I trust you with my life.

The rest of my earthly existence, my eternal destination, Lord, I trust you with my life. It is in your hands. There are no other options for me.

things for you. It is only through Jesus Christ that we are saved. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for saving us, for making us a part of your family.

You are so good. We love you. We praise you. We ask it all in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Thank you.