You may be seated.
Good morning.
My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today.
A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.
We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced there's no one so good,
they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad that they can't have it,
which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word.
We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark,
and you'll remember that the Gospels tell the story of Jesus and His life and His death and His resurrection.
And we are continuing the story we began a few weeks ago, which is the story of Holy Week.
You'll remember day one of Holy Week, Sunday.
Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, and then He finishes out the day by inspecting the temple.
And then Monday, He shows right back up.
He saw all the things that were going on in the temple, and so He curses the fig tree,
then cleanses the temple.
And then day three, Tuesday, in the morning, they're heading out,
and they see that the fig tree's been withered all the way to the root,
and He talks about the mountains being cast into the sea by great faith.
And so that takes us to today's passage.
Now, His cleansing of the temple in chapter 11, verse 18,
actually sets the stage for what's about to happen in this passage,
and the passages to follow because He has finally sort of thrown down the gauntlet
and let the religious leaders know He is here for a conflict.
He's come in as the king without apology in His triumphal entry.
He's come in as the one to cleanse the temple.
And so He has truly taken the baseball bat to the bee's nest.
And so that's why we see the religious leaders coming after Him now.
The focus of the Gospels, of course, is on Jesus' second coming, or His first coming.
But as we look at this passage, we're also going to see Him hint at,
look forward to talk about His second coming as well.
And so as we jump into this passage, we're at Mark chapter 11, starting verse 27.
This is the map. This is where we're headed.
I'm going to tell you the story.
And after we talk about the story, I'm going to tell you three things.
Okay? Story, three things.
With that, I invite you to turn with me in God's Word.
You can turn in your worship guide.
You can turn on your phone.
You can turn in your Bible.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's Word.
And God tells us that His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path,
which means that He has not left us to stumble alone in the dark,
but instead He's given us His Word to show us the way to go.
And so that's why we read now Mark chapter 11, starting at 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 heard 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.
Chapter 12.
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 winepress
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.
Verse 6.
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.
I invite you to pray with me
as we come to this passage of God's Word.
Our Father in Heaven,
the psalmist asks you in Psalm 119
to open His eyes
that He would behold wondrous things
out of your law.
And we ask the same thing this morning.
We know that without your help,
we can't understand your Word.
And so we ask that you would send
your Holy Spirit now,
that you would give us clarity in our minds,
you'd give us tenderness in our hearts,
that we would be able to hear and receive
everything that you've written in your Word,
that you would cast a spotlight on Jesus for us
so we would see His beauty and His glory
and His holiness and His love,
and that we'd follow after Him
with faith and joy and obedience.
We ask these things
in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
As we begin this story,
I mentioned we're doing it
against the backdrop of Jesus' confrontation
that He's already had
with the religious leaders.
First of all, He ticks them off
by having His triumphal entry
and being willing to say,
yes, He is in fact the King.
And then to add insult to injury,
He goes and cleanses the temple
of those who are selling things
and exchanging money there.
And so that helps us understand
as we begin this confrontation,
the scribes and the elders
and the chief priests ask Him,
verse 28,
by what authority are you doing these things?
These things here is a reference
to everything that's come before.
By what authority are you rolling into the temple,
turning over tables,
driving out money changers?
I mean, you're acting like you own the place.
And so what gives you the nerve?
What gives you the right to come in
and behave this way?
Jesus turns it back on them
and He says, look,
I'm gonna ask you a question.
And the question Jesus asks them
is not random here.
He is saying, essentially,
the answer to my question
is the answer to your question.
Now, this might sound foreign,
but we actually do the same thing today.
So if you were to ask me,
Matthew, are we having church on Sunday?
I might say, is the sky blue?
Do bears poop in the woods?
Yes, of course we're having church on Sunday.
The answer to my question
is the answer to your question.
This is what Jesus is pushing them with.
In other words,
John's authority is my authority.
If you understand John,
you will understand me.
If you know what authority he acted under,
you will know what authority I acted under.
verse 28 or verse 29,
verse 30,
was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?
And so Jesus might have well asked them,
is my authority,
do you think it's from heaven or from man?
Of course, we have this revelation
of where their hearts truly are.
Verse 33, we do not know.
And so Jesus says,
basically, I'm wasting my time here.
You didn't understand John,
you're not gonna understand me.
You didn't recognize John,
you're not gonna recognize me.
You didn't repent when John told you to repent,
you're not going to repent when I tell you to repent.
You are not asking sincere questions.
You're not seeking understanding.
You're here just to trick me and trap me.
And so this is a waste of my time.
There's no time on my calendar
for this sort of conflict.
In fact, they've already played their hands.
They've revealed where their hearts truly are.
They are not interested in truth.
They're interested in power and reputation,
what serves them best.
Truth is irrelevant
since their concern is self-protection.
They're trying to trap Jesus,
not to learn from Jesus.
And really what Jesus is about to do here,
he's about to return to the lesson of the fig tree.
We talked about a few weeks ago from chapter 11,
that this is all leaf, no fig.
The religious leaders are all show, no substance.
And while Jesus has told them
he's not going to answer their question,
he then turns around and proceeds
to answer their question,
except he does it in the form of a story, of a parable.
Remember the question is by what authority?
That word authority repeats over and over again
between verses 27 and 33.
And so Jesus now decides to tell them a story
about authority, the story of the vineyard.
Now you may be familiar,
you may remember from chapter four,
when Jesus spoke in parables,
often he would need to provide this explanation
afterwards to the disciples.
He would pull them aside into his private gathering
to help them understand what it was
he was actually talking about.
In this incidence though,
there is no need for such a thing.
Jesus has burning clarity.
In fact, his clarity is so burning,
verse 12, we're told,
instead of being confused immediately,
these religious leaders understood
exactly what Jesus was saying.
They knew,
they perceived that he had told the parable against them.
easy for the religious leaders to understand,
also easy for us to understand.
It's not an accident that we read
from Isaiah chapter five this morning,
which presents this image of Israel as a vineyard.
And this image shows up not just in Isaiah chapter five,
but in other portions throughout the Old Testament.
And so it was easily recognizable
that when we're talking about a vineyard,
we're talking about Israel.
Then we have these tenants.
These tenants are supposed to watch the vineyard
for its owner.
And we have to understand the logic of this,
how a tenant in that time
when they were given a vineyard
would sort of share in a portion of the crop
in return for watching after the vineyard.
It was common for owners to leave
and to have someone
that that would be essentially a renter from them.
And they would split the profits
or share the profits.
So the tenants would get some of the grapes,
some of the wine.
And then the owner would get some of the grapes,
some of the wine.
They would share the proceeds.
There would be the one
who has the capital investment,
who's able to set up this vineyard.
And then there's the one
who doesn't have the resources,
who's just there to watch over it.
The tenants here are the Jewish religious leaders.
They are not the ones
who set up the sacrificial system.
They're not the ones
who came up with the idea of the temple.
No, God was the one who did all of that work.
He was the one, chapter 12, verse one,
who put a fence around the vidyard,
dug a pit for a wine press,
built a tower.
God here is the great investor.
And so these priests and tribes
are ones who are simply there
to watch over what God has set up.
And there's an expectation
that they're going to have fruit,
that they're going to accomplish
God's mission for Israel,
that Israel would be a light to the nations,
a show people that the nations
could look around and say,
oh, that's what it actually looks like
when God's people walk in God's ways.
That's what a society actually looks like
when it's filled with justice
and mercy and love and goodness.
That's what it looks like
when people treat each other
as created in the image of God.
And instead of doing that,
the religious leaders chose instead
to serve themselves.
They chose instead to look
for their own profit.
They didn't care about the owner.
They didn't care about God
and his purposes and his ways
and his mission.
And so then we find out,
okay, this owner sends his servants
to check in.
Verse six on what's happening.
Actually, verses two through six,
he sends these servants in
over and over to go check
and see how is the vineyard doing?
What's happening there?
Am I getting the profit that I want?
Is the fruit that's supposed
to come from these plants
actually materializing?
And instead of being treated
with honor as the servants
and representatives
of the owner of the vineyard,
of God himself,
they're beaten and killed.
This is supposed to represent
God sending his prophets
throughout the Old Testament
to his people,
sending them to warn them
about their lack of spiritual fruit,
to rebuke the spiritual leaders
for feeding themselves
rather than feeding the people.
And so we can think of
just a few examples out of many.
Elisha, one of the Old Testament prophets,
was persecuted by Jezebel,
who was the queen of Israel.
She wanted to kill him.
If you want to read about that,
you can read about it
in 1 Kings chapter 19.
Then we hear about Manasseh,
the king of Judah.
Tradition holds that Manasseh,
this king of God's people,
decided he was going to saw Isaiah in half.
Which is a great way to end as a prophet.
And then in case we haven't forgotten,
remember we see the last prophet
before Jesus here in the Gospel of Mark.
Mark chapter 6,
what happens to John the Baptist?
He's beheaded.
And so these religious leaders
know all too well
what Jesus is telling them.
Look, God has sent his representatives
over and over again
to warn you.
And all you did was reject them.
It was a bad deal
to be an Old Testament prophet.
It was a thankless job.
In fact, this is not in the Bible,
but church tradition holds
that at one point,
the prophet Isaiah
applied for term life insurance.
And he was denied
just based on his vocation.
He was unable to qualify.
He was laughed out of the building.
That's how bad it was
to be one of the servants.
And so Jesus is taking this long route,
this long story
to get to the answer
of their question.
Remember, they want to know
by what authority.
And after laying out
the history of Israel,
after reminding them
of the way they've treated the prophets,
he finally gets to the point.
I am the son
of the vineyard owner.
I am the one
who's supposed to receive
the inheritance.
I am the one
to whom all of this belongs.
By what authority
do I cleanse the temple?
I cleanse it as the son
of the owner of the temple.
I cleanse it as one
to whom it belongs.
There is no
higher authority.
I do it
in the authority
by the authority
of God himself,
an authority
that you
don't
care about.
Jesus here
could
not
be
clearer.
Again,
verse 12,
they perceived
he told the parable
against them.
The meaning
is not hidden.
Jesus has not
been subtle here.
He's told this
obvious story
and the religious leaders
understand it all
too well.
He is telling them this,
you rejected
John the Baptist,
you have rejected
me,
and you will
kill me.
that's not all
though.
Verse 9,
because of all
that,
judgment
is
coming.
What will the
owner of the
vineyard do?
He will come
and destroy
the tenants
and give
the vineyard
to others.
your time
here
has an
expiration date.
Your authority
over the temple
is coming
to an end.
Your era
of power
and control
will not
last
much
longer.
Now,
this raises
a question
for us.
Remember,
I told you
I'm going
to tell you
the story
and then
I'm going
to tell
you three
things.
You all,
believe it or
not,
are not
chief priests,
scribes,
or rulers
of the temple.
And this
passage is
meant to
explain the
overthrow of
the temple
leadership.
And so,
what is it
that we're
supposed to
draw out
of this
as people
in 2022
reading this
story about
Jesus explaining
his cleansing
of the temple?
Well,
I'm going
to give you
three things
for us to
hold on to
from this
story as
people who
look forward
to Jesus'
second coming,
people who
follow after
Jesus,
things that
give us
hope and
challenge
from what
Jesus tells
us.
First of
all,
we find
out in
this story
the end
of the
story.
How is
everything
going to
turn out?
At the
very end,
we know
the owner
of the
vineyard
is coming
back.
Verse
nine,
what will
the owner
of the
vineyard
do?
He will
come and
destroy the
tenants and
give the
vineyard to
others.
Now,
yes,
when we're
hearing about
the owner
of the
vineyard,
it's talking
about the
Jewish
leadership.
And so,
in a sense,
what Jesus
says here has
already been
done, and
it foreshadows
and follows
after what we
also know is
going to happen
at the end of
the age.
We may see
injustice and
oppression and
selfishness happening
now from the
tenants of the
vineyard, from
those who are in
charge in the
religious world or
the secular world
who are looking to
use rather than
to love.
and we know it
will not last
forever.
The owner is
coming back.
He is going
to clean
house.
Now, there's a
flip side to
that that's also
in this passage
because when we
talk about the
fact that Jesus
is coming back,
there's this
question that
arises that was
also true for
the early church,
which is this,
why hasn't he
come back yet?
If Jesus is
coming back to
make all things
right, why is
he waiting?
It seems like
things are getting
pretty bad.
It seems like
now would be a
great time.
If you remember
when we went
through 2 Peter,
we looked in
2 Peter 3,
and Peter actually
addresses this
question.
He says,
the Lord is not
slow to fulfill
his promise as
some count slowness,
but is patient
toward you,
not wishing that
any should perish,
but that all should
reach repentance.
What do we see
here from the
vineyard owner?
He is incredibly
patient.
Verses 2 through 6
is him sending
his servants
over and over
again and
watching them get
beaten or killed.
It's almost
nonsensical.
You would think
if you owned a
vineyard and you
sent one servant
and that servant
was beaten or
killed, what would
you do?
You'd probably be
posting on next
door.
You guys would
not believe I
sent my servant
in and he got
beaten.
Never hire these
people as your
tenants at your
vineyard.
Yet God just
keeps sending them
again and again.
He's sending the
prophets over and
over showing his
forbearance, his
patience, his
long-suffering with
his people.
Often you'll hear
folks talk about how
God in the Old
Testament is a God
of wrath.
Then we have God of
the New Testament,
this God of love.
Yet that's not the
picture the Bible
gives us.
The picture the
Bible gives us of
this God who is
just patient decade
after decade,
century after
century, millennia
after millennia.
God is more patient
than you.
God is more long
suffering than you.
God has more
forbearance than you
do even if you are
the nicest person I
have ever met.
And God does it for
the sake of repentance.
He gives his people
time and time again
opportunities to turn
back and return to
him.
And so the vineyard
owner is coming
back.
God is coming back
to this world to set
all things right.
And his delay
shows his patience.
It shows his love.
It shows his
wisdom.
And he is not
patient forever.
He's not patient
forever.
So I told you I was
going to tell you two
things.
The second is this.
Well the first was we
know the end of the
story.
God's patience does not
mean he's not coming
back.
The second one is that
ultimately his patience
ends with him
returning and there are
two and only two
options.
There are only two
ways to live.
Either we worship
Jesus or we reject
Jesus.
Remember I've told you
over and over as we've
been going through the
gospel of Mark that as
the story moves forward
as we get near the end
we're no longer going to
have three categories of
people.
At the beginning we had
those who were on
Jesus' team.
They were pro-Jesus.
We had those who were
against Jesus.
They hated him.
And then we just had
these crowds in the
middle that didn't quite
know what to do.
They were intrigued.
They were curious.
Now we're getting to the
point where that middle
category disappears.
which is the narrator's
way of telling us.
Mark's way of
underscoring that in
the end as you get to
know Jesus, as you
understand him and
study him, you have to
make a choice.
There are only two
options.
Those who love Jesus
and those who hate
him.
That's part of what
Jesus is getting at
here when he cites
Psalm 118 in verse
10.
The stone that the
builders rejected has
become the cornerstone.
A cornerstone is the
stone of a building
that's laid first.
It's the stone that has
to be laid perfectly
because everything else
matches it and aligns
with it.
Every other stone exists
in reference to the
cornerstone.
Everything is submitted to
it, aligned with it,
in agreement with it.
This quotation then from
Psalm 118 is reminding
us either we align with
Jesus or we don't.
Either we love the
cornerstone or we reject
it, either we build on
it or we trip on it.
Either you harden your
heart or you repent.
Either you decide you're
going to try to be God
or you submit to God.
Either your heart is hard
or it is tender and
responsive.
Either you serve yourself
or you serve the owner of
the vineyard.
Either God's word confirms
judgment or it confirms
salvation.
There are no other options.
Either you reject God's
messengers or you receive
them.
When it comes to Jesus, as
we get closer and closer to
the end of the story, you
must make a choice.
Are you going to build your
life on the cornerstone or are
you going to reject it and
fight it?
I warned you at the
beginning as we began, Mark,
it is not an intellectual
exercise that we're taking
part in, but instead the
author here, Mark, is
pointing the finger at us
more and more.
He's asking the question of
us over and over again.
What are you going to do
with this information?
How are you going to
respond to it?
Remember Jesus' questions
in chapter 10.
He asked twice, what is it
that you want from me?
A question of the heart.
Here the same question of
the heart is coming up.
How are you going to
respond to me?
Are you going to receive
my servants or are you
going to beat them?
Are you going to build your
life on my cornerstone or are
you going to reject it?
Are you going to run towards
me or run away from me?
There are no other
options.
So first, we know how the
story ends.
We know the vineyard owner is
coming back.
Second, we know there's two
and only two ways to live.
Either we receive the king
or reject the king.
And the third and final thing
is this.
When we come to a passage of
scripture and it's showing us
things that are incredibly
negative, when it's rebuking
people for sins that
potentially we don't share in,
it's likely that you're not a
religious leader who is using
the temple for your own
purposes.
What do we do with that?
Well, as I've mentioned to you
before, one of the ways we read
the Bible, when we see a
negative, we turn it positive.
So you look at the Ten
Commandments and you see,
thou shalt not commit adultery.
And you think, I'm doing great.
I haven't committed adultery.
Well, no, there's a positive
there for you.
And the positive is build up
your marriage.
Make it as strong as you can.
Do not murder.
You think, well, I haven't
murdered recently.
I'm doing great.
What can you do to promote
and protect life?
That's the positive.
And so when we look at this
negative, when we see the
religious leaders beating
God's servants, killing them,
and throwing them away,
what is our response?
Our response is to look for
the positive.
The way that we act on God's
word is we recognize his
authority and his messengers.
We receive God's word not with
hardness or bitterness or
indifference.
We receive it with joy and
eagerness.
We have this anticipation and
this excitement about what God
is going to tell us in his
word, what we're going to learn,
the ways that we're going to
grow and be shaped as people
who look more and more like
him.
As Israel failed in their
mission to be a light to the
nations, as they failed for
people to be able to look at
them and say, that's what it
looks like when God's people
walk in God's ways.
We have a passion to say, what
would it look like for this
people to be God's people who
walk in God's ways?
What would happen, the light we
would be to our community if we
were excited and zealous, filled
with anticipation about what
God's going to do in our
midst?
Filled with the desires we
talked about with the fig tree
to grow in that fruit, to be
filled with the fruit of the
spirit.
What would it be like for us
not to try to kill the son of
the vineyard owner, but instead
to look forward to his
appearing, to look forward to
his coming and prepare for it?
Many of you, if you have
someone who's coming over to
your house, they're not a
regular guest, you probably
feel some obligation to try to
clean up and tidy up, right?
You want it to be the most
hospitable environment it can
be.
You want to give them a good
and warm welcome.
Sometimes you can recognize
this when you go over to
someone's house because you
look at the carpet and what do
you see?
The fresh vacuum stripes.
And so you know, okay, this
person has done the prep.
They've gotten ready.
They cared about this event.
They want to honor the guest
who's coming over.
And so what I'm saying is
this.
As we look forward to Jesus
and his return, our hearts and
our lives have the stripes of
the vacuum cleaner on them.
Not out of guilt or shame or
fear, but because we're so
excited and joyful about the
coming of the king.
We want him to find everything
set in order.
We want him to be honored and
exalted and glorified.
We're doing the opposite of
these tenets.
We're preparing for his return.
Of course, this parable is also
a type of prediction.
Jesus tells about the past, but
he also tells about the future.
In verses 2 through 5, we hear
about the prophets who have been
beaten and killed.
And when Jesus says this, all the
prophets have been either beaten
or killed.
Jesus then tells them about
something that hasn't happened.
Verses 7 through 8.
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.
Jesus is telling them, not only did
you kill the prophets in the past,
you will kill me, the son, in the
future.
That's how twisted and broken and
curved inward your hearts are.
And of course, that is the
sacrifice that makes it possible
for us to look forward with joy to
Jesus' return.
To be the ones who long to have the
marks of the vacuum cleaner on our
carpet.
That we know that what Jesus has
done for us when he came to this
earth, he lived the perfect life that
we could not live and he died the
death that we should have died.
And so none of what Jesus is saying
matters unless we know how this
particular story in the gospels end.
And it ends with Jesus going to his
death and then rising again from the
dead.
He comes to die for hard-hearted
people who beat and kill the
prophets.
But who turn and follow him in
repentance.
He comes for hard-hearted people and
changes their hearts to hearts of
flesh.
He comes for people like you and me.
The house that I grew up on in, the
front door had window panes, not in
the door, but on both sides of the
door.
In fact, those windows are still there.
They're called apparently double
side lights.
I just thought of them as windows
along the side of the door.
And every Christmas, every December
really is before Christmas.
And then at one point we shifted it to
New Year's.
All of my dad's family would come to
our house from different parts of the
country.
And so we would spend several days,
maybe a week, getting ready because
there's lots of things that need to be
cleaned and cooked and prepared.
And then the day would come when we
knew our family was actually going to
arrive.
And so what would we do?
Well, I for one would look out those
side lights because I was so excited.
And even though I knew they weren't
going to get there until 2 p.m., I would
check it earlier than that.
Because who knows, right?
We didn't have, people didn't have
cell phones back then.
This was in a different age.
So no one was texting you or sending
you their PIN, you know.
You might get a call from a rest station
like, oh, we're two hours away.
So you never know the exact moment that
they might arrive.
But you knew that they were and that
when that time happened, you know, your
cousins would be there.
Both the awkward cousin and the fun
cousin.
And things would be more exciting than
they had been at that moment before.
And so it was worth it to look out, to
try to deal with the impatience, to
look and see when it was you would see
the car coming down the street.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is
coming back to make all things right.
And so we prepare our hearts and our homes and our
churches and our lives for him.
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, we praise you and thank you
again for your word.
We ask that you would not let it return to you void,
but instead it would accomplish all the purposes you have
for it.
That it would be at work, growing our longing and
desire for you to come back and that we would live in
light of your return.
We ask all of these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I invite you to stand for our closing hymn.