Good evening, church.
Let's turn in our Bibles to Mark 11, 27, which is page 848 in your pew Bibles.
We're going to read through to chapter 12, verse 12, as we'll be focusing most of our
time on that parable of the wicked farmers.
Page 848, Mark 11, verse 27.
Verse 27, and they came again to Jerusalem.
And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came
to him.
And they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things?
Or who gave you this authority to do them?
Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question.
Answer me.
And I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?
Answer me.
And they discussed it with one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then
did you not believe him?
But shall we say from man?
They were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus, we do not know.
And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
And he began to speak to them in parables.
A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built
a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit
of the vineyard.
And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty handed.
Again, he sent to them another servant.
And they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another and him they killed.
And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed.
He had still one other, a beloved son.
Finally, he sent him to them saying, they will respect my son.
But those tenants said to one another, this is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours.
And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
What will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this scripture?
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.
And they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people.
For they perceived that he had told the parable against them.
So they left him and went away.
The word of the Lord.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity we have this evening to gather and worship.
Father, we praise you this evening for your lordship, your sovereignty, and your authority.
As we marinate in your word this evening, continue to soften hearts and turn us to you in love, humility, and obedience.
Let us know and praise you truly as you reveal yourself in the scriptures.
Amen.
In the name of your son and by the power of your Holy Spirit, I pray.
Amen.
Mom, I don't want to clean my room.
Dad, I don't want to mow the lawn.
That's a really annoying sound.
And any parent here probably recognizes it, though.
It is universally known as whining.
My parents tell me that for the first few years of my life, I was the perfect fat little baby.
Who just laid around and didn't want to move or make any noise.
But when I got older, I began to whine.
Whenever I was given orders that seemed unreasonable, unpleasant, or inconvenient, I did the thing that we as sinful human beings do.
Whine.
And do we understand what creates this impulse?
Do we understand the heart that produces such an annoying high-pitched sound?
It is a heart of rebellion.
It is a heart that wants authority for itself.
It is a heart that is confined to a body that is too weak to fight.
So it feebly struggles through whining.
But as we get older and feel like we have got a little more power,
that whining blossoms into full-fledged rebellion.
Rejection of authority.
It is this rejection that Christ is warning us against in this passage.
In the end of Mark 11, he faces a question from the religious authorities.
Verse 28.
By what authority are you doing these things?
Or who gave you this authority to do them?
Jesus has just been cleansing the temple and healing on the Sabbath and people are really thrown off by that.
And so Jesus doesn't directly answer this question.
Because he knows the heart behind it.
This is why he deflects to the question about John.
If the Pharisees are waffling on the identity of John the Baptist,
how will they deal with the Son of God?
If middle ground doesn't make sense with John,
it sure doesn't make sense with Jesus.
Jesus' response, as foreshadowing of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men,
you can't handle the truth.
But, of course, Jesus actually does give them the truth,
though indirectly.
He does it through the parable of the tenants.
So we're going to see a few things.
What authority Christ has,
how we and the corrupt Jewish leaders approach that authority,
and how we should approach that authority.
Let's take a look at verse 1 of chapter 12.
Christ begins with the story of a man who plants a vineyard
and puts a fence around it
and digs a pit for the wine press
and builds a tower
and leases it to tenants
and goes to another country.
What Jesus is doing here is he's quoting Isaiah 5,
which begins almost exactly like this.
But in this case,
the tenants are the corrupt Jewish authorities
that he's speaking to.
And so the parable continues.
When the season came,
he sent a servant to the tenants
to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
This is verse 2.
And they took him and beat him
and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent to them another servant,
and they struck him on the head
and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another,
and him they killed.
And so with many others,
some they beat and some they killed.
He had still one other,
a beloved son.
Finally he sent him to them,
saying,
They will respect my son.
But those tenants said to one another,
This is the heir.
Come let us kill him,
and the inheritance will be ours.
And they took him and killed him
and threw him out of the vineyard.
This is, at first glance,
the story of the Old Testament.
The Pharisees would have suspected that
from the beginning,
since Jesus is starting with a quote of Isaiah.
This is beginning with God's creation
and claim of his people.
It is God who plants the vineyard,
which we are told in Isaiah
is the people of Israel.
It is God who protects them
with the fence and the watchtower in the parable.
And through numerous historical events in Scripture,
whether it's the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea,
or the Lord's many military victories.
But the bad news comes
in the tenants' response
to the Lord's provision.
They methodically, consistently,
and violently reject the Lord himself.
He sends servants,
specifically the prophets,
and they treat them horribly.
They chased Elijah.
They beat Jeremiah.
They sawed Isaiah in two.
They had John the Baptist beheaded.
Yet another recurring theme
that we see in Scripture.
God provides,
and yet we continually,
faithlessly reject him.
But then the sending of the Son.
The heir.
While the tenants should have seen this
as an extension of grace from the owner,
who could have given up
at any time along the way.
Instead, they seize this as an opportunity.
They think,
Oh, it's the Son.
We can take this guy out,
and the vineyard is ours.
So they kill him
and throw him out.
Friends, Jesus is on the offensive.
With this parable,
he utters his indictment.
In the last week of his life,
which is where we are
in the Gospel of Mark right now,
he faces those who will soon have him killed,
looks them in the face,
tells them what they're about to do to him,
and he tells them
what the result of their action will be.
What will the owner do?
He will come and destroy the tenants
and give the vineyard to others.
The result of rejection of the Son,
both for the corrupt Jewish leadership
and for us,
is destruction.
In fact, to make it even more explicit,
it is conscious eternal suffering.
The verdict ends
with an assertion of Christ's identity
as he quotes Psalm 118,
a well-known psalm about the Messiah,
verses 10 and 11 of chapter 12.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Wait.
Marvelous in our eyes.
We've just been talking about destruction.
How is this marvelous?
Well, for the Pharisees,
it surely isn't.
But for us,
it's the greatest news of all.
Why?
Well, let's back this up
to the beginning.
Let's say the very beginning.
The first verse of this parable
is not just about God's calling of Israel.
It's about God's creation of you
and his provision for you.
The continuing stories of the tenant's
rejection of God's authority
and righteous desires
are the story of you and I
and our consistent rejection
of his authority.
It's the story of the time
when we're tempted by lust,
when the desire boils up
and the word comes in telling us
that everyone who lusts after a woman or man
has already committed adultery
with them in their heart,
but we ignore it
and push it out
and continue to dwell in our sin.
When we in pride
exalt ourselves over others
and the word comes in
reminding us that God says,
I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will put an end
to the pomp of the arrogant
and lay low the pompous pride
of the ruthless.
But we push it out
and continue to dwell in our sin.
When we are consumed
with a desire for wealth,
for power,
for position,
for status
and the word comes in
reminding us
all that is in the world,
the desires of the flesh,
the desires of the eyes
and the pride of possessions
is not from the Father
but is from the world
and the world is passing away
along with its desires,
we ignore it.
Pushing it away,
thinking that we know best.
You see,
we are not innocent creatures.
We are rebels
against the sovereign authority
of the almighty God.
We want that authority
for ourselves.
We want to be gods
in our own lives.
And as a result of that,
we deserve the destruction
that the Pharisees are promised.
But this fate hinges
on how we treat
the authority of the Son,
the last hope.
The tenants thought,
this is our chance.
We take this guy out,
the vineyard's ours,
no more pesky owner
getting in the way
of my plans for my life.
Are we going to respond
the same way?
Or will we agree
with the psalm?
Will we see the authority
of Christ as marvelous?
Will we see the authority
of Christ as the authority
of God,
who disciplines us
not to break us down,
but so that we can bear
the peaceful fruit
of righteousness?
Instead of seeking
to exalt ourselves,
will we yield
to the authority
of our creator
as revealed in Christ?
This is the command
that Christ gives
in the beginning
of the Gospel of Mark
in chapter 1,
verse 15.
The time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God
is at hand.
Repent
and believe
in the Gospel.
Repent.
Recognize that you are
a rebel.
Not just that you rebel,
but that you are
a rebel.
And that we are in need
of a full overhaul
of being.
A new birth.
And believe
in the good news
of the authority
of Christ.
That he deserves
that authority
as heir
and that he wields it
with wisdom,
strength,
and perfect love.
That instead of attempting
to take that authority
for ourselves,
a task that is guaranteed
to fail,
we seize the opportunity
to be co-heirs
with Christ
as fellow children
of God.
Believe that in his sacrifice
of his life,
he took the righteous
wrath of God
upon himself for you.
And that by faith
in him
and his substitutionary
death and glorious
resurrection,
you can be brought
back to life.
To live a life
that's pleasing to him
and worthy of him.
We're not just people
who occasionally rebel,
who just need to stop
rebelling and then
everything will be fine.
Our identity
apart from Christ
is marked
by our foolish rebellion.
The Greek word
for sin
means to miss
the mark.
But it's not that
we're firing an arrow
at a bullseye
and we just miss
by a few inches.
If the bullseye
is over there,
I'm firing my arrow
over here.
That's the foolishness
of our rebellion.
Through faith in Christ,
he turns us around,
gives us a new heart,
and a new desire for
and closeness
with himself.
But a huge part of that
is submission
to his authority.
So let's boil this
authority thing down.
We've got three
loci of authority
that this text
is telling us
to submit to.
The entire Gospel of Mark
is all about Jesus.
Who he is
and what that requires
of us.
Such a task revolves
around how we view
his authority.
Now the Pharisees
came to Jesus
with that question,
however insincere it was.
And Jesus' answer was,
well, if you're not
willing to take a stand
when it comes to
John the Baptist's authority,
you sure can't handle me.
So, I won't tell you plainly.
But I will tell you
in this parable.
So the first
and greatest authority
that we are to submit to
is the authority
of Christ.
Which is,
as he notes in verse 11,
the authority
of the Lord.
Instead of seeking
to save ourselves,
he tells us
to put ourselves
under his lordship.
He is our Lord
and our Savior.
In our thoughts,
in our words,
and in our actions.
And this isn't just
a lofty,
God's out there
and I've just got to
do what he says,
I can ignore the people
around me.
It is our submission
to his authority
that informs
and necessitates
our submission
to earthly authorities.
It's because Christ
is our Lord
that we submit
to our parents.
It's because Christ
is our Lord
that we submit
to our bosses.
It's because Christ
is our Lord
that we submit
to the police officer
who pulls us over
for driving 20,
15, 10, 5,
or 1 mile
past the speed limit.
Christ is to have
authority
over every aspect
of our life.
And he wields
that authority
completely,
lovingly,
and wondrously.
Now the second
tier of authority
is the word.
We view the scripture
as fully authoritative
and fully true
because of Christ.
This whole parable
is soaked
in scripture.
Isaiah 5,
Psalm 118,
callbacks to
2 Chronicles 36,
15 to 16,
which says this,
The Lord,
the God of their fathers,
sent persistently
to them
by his messengers
because he had
compassion on his people
and on his dwelling place.
But they kept
mocking the messengers
of God,
despising his words,
and scoffing
at his prophets
until the wrath
of the Lord
rose against his people
until there was
no remedy.
Christ is showing us
that God is truly
revealed in the scriptures
and we are to submit
to its view
of the world,
to its view of us,
and to its view
of God.
Lastly, however,
and this may be surprising
to some of you,
this authority
is applied
to the elders
of the church.
Let's take another look
at verses 9 and 10.
What will the owner
of the vineyard do?
He will come
and destroy the tenants
and give the vineyard
to others.
Have you not read
this scripture?
The stone
that the builders
rejected
has become
the cornerstone.
Who are these others
that the owner
is giving the vineyard to?
Immediately,
it's a reference
to the gospel
going out to Gentiles.
Ultimately,
it's the gospel
going out from the church.
In redemptive history,
Christ is signaling
that the call
that was initially
confined to Israel
was always meant
to extend beyond them
as well.
What does it mean
for Christ
to be the cornerstone?
Not only is he
the Jewish Messiah,
but Paul,
in Ephesians,
understands this
to be a reference
to the church.
When he says,
speaking to the Ephesians,
you are fellow citizens
with the saints
and members
of the household of God,
built on the foundation
of the apostles
and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure
being joined together
grows into a holy temple
in the Lord.
The church draws
from all nations.
And there are men
who have been called
to authority
in the church,
namely the elders.
Hebrews 13, 17.
Obey your leaders
and submit to them,
for they are keeping
watch over your souls
as those who will have
to give an account.
Let them do this
with joy
and not with groaning,
for that would be
of no advantage to you.
Let us also submit
with joy
and not with groaning.
First,
to the all-encompassing
authority of the Son.
also,
to the all-penetrating
authority of his word,
and then to the loving,
wise leadership
of the elders
in the church
of which he is
the cornerstone.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
we are sobered
by your word.
The plight of these tenants
who,
like us,
Lord,
have rejected
your word.
Lord,
I pray that you continue
to soften our hearts,
that you continue
to draw us
toward yourself,
that we seek you
in your word
and through prayer.
And Lord,
that when we fall,
that when we fall
into sin,
that we heed,
that we heed your warnings,
that we heed your instruction,
that we submit
to your authority.
Lord,
I pray that we,
I pray that we trust you,
knowing that you,
because you created us
and you gave us
our purpose,
Lord,
that you will,
that you will fulfill
that purpose.
Lord,
anyone here,
Lord,
who has not
taken you by faith,
I pray that you
soften their hearts
and draw them
towards yourself.
And for those of us,
Lord,
who have,
I pray that you
kindle our love for you
and our love
for one another.
I pray these things
in the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ,
and by the power
of your Holy Spirit.
Amen.