Message preached Sunday, October 30, 2016 from Mark 12:1-12
Theme: It is a serious an act of rebellion against God whenever men reject Christ’s right to their love, worship and obedience.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Recently, we have been studying what the Gospel of Mark has to tell us about the last few days of our Lord in Jerusalem—just before going to the cross for us. And most recently, we have been studying the events of the third and final day of His entry into the temple. It was on this day that He taught the people plainly what the Father’s plan was through Him.
Now; we’ve already considered what happened when He entered the temple on this third day. The chief priests and scribes and elders of the people immediately confronted Him and demanded an explanation from Him for His actions. “By what authority are You doing these things?” they said—speaking, no doubt, of the way He had cleansed the temple the day before; “And who gave You this authority to do these things?” And He answered their question with a question of His own—one that confronted them for their rejection not only of Him, but of the preaching of John the Baptist about Him. Ultimately, these religious leaders were in rebellion against God’s authority over them; and that’s why they would not welcome Jesus as the King that God had promised in the Old Testament would come to them—riding on the colt of a donkey.
Now; it’s in that context—that is, of His teaching to a group of chief priests, scribes and elders who were in rebellion against God’s rightful rule over their lives—that Jesus speaks the next parable that we find in Mark 12:1-12. And it’s a powerful parable indeed. We as Christians typically love Jesus’ parables. But I have to tell you that those who heard this one from Him didn’t receive it warmly. In fact, by the time He was through telling it to them, they were trying to figure out a way to lay hands on Him and kill Him. It must have been one that truly hit target.
Mark tells us;
Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away (Mark 12:1-12).
Dear folks; I believe it’d be very hard to find a parable of our Lord that spoke more directly to the rebellious heart of sinful man than this one! And I think the reaction it received proves that this is so!
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As I thought about this story from Mark’s Gospel, I recalled a famous quote I once heard. It’s a quote that is attributed to Abraham Kuyper—a great and very influential Dutch theologian—a man who, at the turn of the 20th century, became the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. The quote is something that he said in the inaugural address at the dedication of the Free University of Amsterdam which he had founded. He boldly set the tone for this university by declaring that “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” (And by the way; wouldn’t you love to hear that declared at the dedication of a university today?)
Now folks; that’s an idea that—if fully accepted as true—is enormous in its consequences. And shouldn’t we, as Christians, accept it as fully true? It’s the idea that Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords, has absolute rights of ownership over every area of human life. I would be among those that embrace this idea is true. But I don’t need to tell you that it is also an idea that is aggressively rejected by most of the people in this world—including many of the people of our own culture. Most people will gladly concede that Jesus Christ can say “Mine!” when it comes to church—and yet, even then, they will only accept that to a limited degree. But they absolutely reject that He also has complete right to look at our politics and our government and say “Mine!”; or to look at our institutions of education and say “Mine!”; or to look upon the sciences and say “Mine!”; or to look at art and culture and say “Mine!”; or to look at philosophy and the world of ideas and say “Mine!”; or to look at the economy, or our finances, or the world of business and manufacturing and commerce, and say “Mine!”; or to look upon our morality and ethics by which we live and operate and say “Mine!” And most of all, most people will say a very aggressive “No!” when Jesus demands the right to say “Mine!” to their own hearts and minds and life choices.
But if He is who the Bible says He is, then He does indeed have that right! If it’s true that Jesus Christ—the Son of God in human flesh; King of kings and Lord of lords—then He truly does have absolute, sovereign Creator-rights to say “Mine!” over every square inch of the whole domain of the human existence of every person on earth. And to refuse Him His right is to commit an act of high rebellion against God our Maker. That is a very wicked thing to do!
How did Jesus see it? In His great commission—His last great words to His disciples on earth before departing to go to the Father after His resurrection—He said;
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).
Think of that! “All authority”! Nothing is excepted. No human authority supersedes His. And do you remember what the apostle Paul said about Him? He wrote of Jesus that
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (Colossians 1:15-17).
“All things were created through Him and for Him!” Nothing is excepted! He possess full ‘Creator-rights’ over all things and all people. And what did Paul later say that all people would one day—absolutely and without fail—do in relation to Him? Paul wrote;
“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
“Every knee”! “Every tongue!” No exceptions!
Now; the chief priests, scribes and elders—the rulers of the Jewish people, and the superintendents of the temple of God at the time—did not believe that. They rebelled against His right to call all things His. They didn’t even believe that Jesus had authority to do what He did in the temple. And this parable of our Lord that we’re studying this morning is, of course, directed primarily at those religious leaders.
But I believe that this very serious parable has implications far beyond just that one specific occasion. I believe it speaks to every human heart, and to every area of human existence over which the rightful rule of God our Creator is being rejected and rebelled against. I believe it’s a parable that even you and I—as professing followers of Jesus—ought to take careful warning from. It teaches us that it is a serious an act of rebellion against God men reject Christ’s exclusive right to their love, worship and obedience.
May it never be a rebellion for which we—in any area of our own lives—are found guilty.
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Now; let’s look back again at our passage. In the context of this confrontation that Jesus had with these leaders—after having responded to their rejection of the preaching of John the Baptist about Him; and with it, their rejection of God’s authority over their lives—Mark tells us, “Then He began to speak to them in parables …” (v. 1).
As we’ve studied this Gospel together, we’ve often seen that Jesus spoke in parables. He frequently used parables as a way to instruct His disciples; and in those cases, He used them to open eternal truth to their hearts. But there was a sort of ‘double-whammy’ to His parables; because He also used them to speak to those who rejected Him. And in those cases, parables were often used to confuse His opponents—parables through which He spoke truth to them in such a way as to result in their hearts being further darkened and hardened.
Mark tells us that He spoke “parables” to them—plural. So there may even be more that He spoke to them than what we have recorded before us. But the remarkable thing about this one particular parable that is before us today is that it didn’t come across as so obscure. Those who heard it knew exactly what He meant by it—so much so, in fact, that they wanted to do violence to Him because of it.
So; let’s begin by carefully considering—piece by piece …
1. THE PARABLE THAT JESUS SPOKE.
Jesus began by saying, “A man planted a vineyard …” (v. 1). And you need to know that, as soon as He said those first few words, the minds of those religious leaders immediately went back to the fifth chapter of the Old Testament book of Isaiah. They would have known that passage by heart.
Isaiah 5 tells us a song. It’s a song that God Himself wrote of the love of the Messiah for the disobedient people of Israel. I hope you don’t mind if I take the time to quote those words to you. Isaiah 5:1-7 says;
Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help (Isaiah 5:1-7).
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
I will lay it waste;
It shall not be pruned or dug,
But there shall come up briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
What a tragic story that song tells! And so, right away—when Jesus said, “A man planted a vineyard”—the religious leaders would have known that He was talking about God’s planting of His own vineyard Israel.
And just as in the song, the Lord Jesus told of how this man did everything possible to make preparation for the fruitfulness of his vineyard. We’re told that he “set a hedge around it”; and this would have been for its distinction from all other lands, and for its protection from that which might harm it. He also “dug a place for the wine vat”. This would speak of how the juice of the grapes, when pressed, would flow down into receptacles so that it could be captured and stored. He “built a tower”; which would have been a place in which equipment and supplies could be stored, and from which further care and protection could be given. And then, “he leased” his vineyard “to vinedressers”—that is, professional tenant farmers who would know how to produce a good harvest. And once everything was in place, he “went into a far country”—entrusting the vineyard to the vinedressers, and fully expecting that all that he had graciously prepared for the vineyard would be put to good use.
What a picture this is of God’s love and care for Israel. What a picture it is of His gracious provision of a temple to His people—the very temple in which Jesus right then stood. And God would, of course, have every right to expect good fruit to be rendered to Him from His people whenever He demanded it. Jesus went on to say of this vineyard owner; “Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers” (v. 2).
But look at what happened instead to the servant that the vineyard owner had sent. Jesus said, “And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some” (vv. 3-5). I’m tempted to say, “What lousy vine-dressers!” But no! They were evil rebels!
When I read this, I think of what our Lord once said to the religious leaders on another occasion:
“Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation (Luke 11:49-51).
Clearly, the killing of the vineyard owner’s servants in Jesus’ parable was meant to be an illustration of how the religious leaders of the past had killed the prophets and holy people that God had sent to them.
And it’s then I believe Jesus speaks of Himself—standing there as He was in their midst, only a few days away from being crucified by them Himself. He said; “Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son’” (v. 6). And by the way; can’t you see the great mercy and compassion of God toward His disobedient people? He didn’t give up on them. He still even went so far as to send His own Son. Jesus His Son, in fact, had just come into the city a few days before as their long-awaited King.
And yet, as the Bible tells us, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). Look at what Jesus then said in His parable: “But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard” (vv. 7-8). And by the way; does their reasoning on the matter make any sense to you at all? How, by killing the son, does the inheritance then become theirs? It can’t come into their hands, really, in any way other than black-hearted, bold-faced theft. It is God’s vineyard. It is Jesus Christ’s by right of divine Sonship. And yet, they sought to steal from Him what is His.
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What a powerful parable this is. It was revealing those religious leaders—who would not accept Christ—for what they really were. And really, it also reveals every person who refuses to accept our Creator God’s rightful rule over their lives through His Son Jesus Christ for what they also are. In the sight of God, they are rebels and thieves who refuse to give Christ His due.
And this leads us, briefly, to consider Jesus closing words on this parable; and …
2. THE LESSONS THAT ARE TO BE LEARNED FROM IT.
I believe that the first lesson Jesus meant for His hearers to take home had to do with His Father’s justice in the matter. In verse 9, Jesus said; “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.” And that’s what happened not long after Jesus was crucified. It was only a few decades later that the Roman general Titus marched his troops through the city of Jerusalem and completely destroyed it in 70 A.D. They demolished the temple. Not one stone was left upon another—just as Jesus had said elsewhere would happen. And for the past two-thousand years, the focus of God’s gracious work in spreading His kingdom has been through the Gentile world—not through the Jewish people.
Now; I believe that God still has a future for Israel. When the times of the Gentiles has been completed, the Bible promises that God will again graciously visit and bless and use the Jewish people in expanding the kingdom of Jesus Christ. When He returns, He will reign over this earth bodily from Jerusalem. But until then, how powerfully Jesus’ words about the justness of the Father have proven true! It should be a reminder to us of how serious a matter it is to rebel against the living God and to refuse to render to Him what is His!
The second lesson Jesus meant for His listeners to learn had to do with His own nature as the Son of the Father. Jesus quoted from the words of Psalm 118 when He told the religious leaders;
“Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (vv. 10-11).
A “cornerstone” is the stone that a master builder or architect would use as the main stone upon which the entire structure would be built. And even though the religious leaders—the “builders” of God’s house—had rejected Jesus, He has nevertheless become the very one that God would establish as the ‘chief cornerstone’ of His kingdom upon the earth.
I can’t help but also remind you of what the Gospel writer Matthew tells us that Jesus said at this point. In Matthew 21:44, Jesus then goes on to tell these religious leaders, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” What a “stone” He is! Everyone who encounters Him comes to the crossroads! If they receive Him as they should—if they ‘fall upon’ Him—they will be broken. I take this to mean they are broken of their pride and arrogance and rebellion. They are humbled before Him and bow the knee to Him; and they repent of their rebellion and become the recipients of His saving grace. But if they will not receive Him as they should—if they choose to maintain their rebellion against His right over their lives, and over His rightful rule over every area of human existence—then He will fall on them! And in that fall, He will grind them to powder!
There is no escape from the matter, then. All of us—no matter who we are—must deal with Jesus Christ and His all-encompassing demand of lordship.
And I believe we see a final lesson from this parable in verse 12. It has to do with the hearts of those who rebel against the rule of Jesus. You would think that, after Jesus had revealed the truth of what was in their hearts to them, that they would bow the knee to Him. But it was not so. In fact, they became even more hardened in their rebellion. Mark tells us; “And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away” (v. 12).
The lesson I learn from this is that the man or woman that is truly rebellious against God’s rule over their lives is humanly impossible to change—even when the truth about their condition comes to them from the lips of the Lord of truth Himself. He told them in His parable what it was that they were about to do to Him. And it angered them so much that they went out a few days later and did it!
The only way such a hard hearts can be converted is by an act of the grace of God—calling rebels from out of spiritual death and into life, and giving them the faith to believe Him and to humbly receive Him.
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Now; in the end, I’m grateful that our wonderful Lord Jesus submitted Himself to their abuse, aren’t you? He was nailed to the cross and died for the sins of all of humanity. He even died for hard-hearted rebels and thieves such as these leaders. He even died for you and me.
But let’s learn the lesson that this has to teach you and me today. There truly is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: “Mine!” It is a very serious act of rebellion against God whenever men reject Christ’s right of rule over any area of life. Let it never be that we rebel against Him or against His heavenly Father’s right to take full possession of all that is truly His own.
Let’s make sure that we do not have a heart of rebellion against His rightful rule over any area of our personal lives. And let’s faithfully declare His right of rule in this world over every area of human experience. And most of all, let’s make very sure that each one of us has personally yielded ourselves to Him as our Savior—confessing our sinful rebellion against Him, and accepting the payment He made for our sins on His cross.
That’s when the rebellion truly ends.