Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter 20, beginning in verse 1. On one of the days while Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted him and they spoke. saying to him, tell us by what authority you are doing these things, or who is the one who gave you this authority? Jesus answered and said to them, I will ask you a question and you tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? They reasoned among themselves saying, if we say from heaven, He will say, why did you not believe him? But if we say from men, all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things. And he began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to the vine growers and went on a journey for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine growers so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard. But the vine growers beat him and sent him away empty handed. And he proceeded to send another slave, and they beat him also, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third, and this one also they wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him. But when the vine growers saw him, they reasoned with one another saying, this is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours. So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come. and destroy these vine growers and will give the vineyard to others. When they heard it, they said, may it never be. But Jesus looked at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken into pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him that very hour. And they feared the people for they understood that he spoke this parable against them. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous in order that they might catch him in some statement so that they could deliver him to the rule and the authority of the governor. They questioned him, saying, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and you are not partial to any but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But he detected their trickery and said to them, show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have? They said, Caesar's. And he said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And they were unable to catch him in a saying in the presence of the people. And being amazed at his answer, they became silent. Last week, we looked at the last half of Luke chapter 19 as Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So we find him there now having driven the traitors from the temple, those who are attempting to take advantage of God's people who had traveled a great distance for worship. He did that on Monday of that final week. Luke continues there the last two verses of chapter 19 saying that Jesus was teaching daily in the temple but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy him and they could not find anything that they might do for all the people were hanging on to every word he said. So Jesus shows up in Jerusalem on the day following the Sabbath He rids the temple of all of the false worship that's going on, everything that isn't worship. And then he doesn't just come in and make a big scene. That's not what he's there for. He's there to teach and to preach. And that's what he begins doing. That's what he's doing on Monday of that final week, and he's still doing that on Tuesday. The events that we look at today are from Tuesday of the last week of the life of Christ prior to the crucifixion. And as a result of Christ's life, not just in this week, but up until this point, the influence that he had among the people was increasing. And the religious leaders of that day were quite well aware that his influence was increasing, and with his influence increasing, their power continued to wane. Therefore, they hated him. They envied him. They envied the influence that he had. They envied, as we're going to see in a moment, the authority that he obviously had. So they resolved to stop his progress of gaining any more influence and having any more authority and to do so as soon as possible. Verse 1 of chapter 20, on one of the days, Tuesday, we've noted already, when Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel. All of the leaders unite their forces together to come against Jesus. The chief priests, the scribes with the elders confronted them. This is not just some small sect that is against Jesus. All of the religious leaders have joined forces and their primary goal is getting rid of this man. Not just low-level leaders, the highest officials. That's what Luke is noting here when he says the elders, the highest officials. From the top to the bottom, they were all against Christ. And they spoke. Saying to Jesus, verse two, tell us by what authority you're doing these things. Or, who is the one who gave you this authority? By what authority are you teaching? By what authority are you doing any of the things that you're doing? Who gave you this authority? What makes it okay for you to act this way and to say these things? It's a bit ironic, isn't it? These are the authorities of the day. The religious authorities. And they're coming to Jesus questioning his authority. If they are legitimate authorities, they ought to know. If they are legitimate religious authorities and are acquainted at all with the Scriptures, they would know where the authority came from or who gave it to him. You see, the problem was Jesus was not an officially recognized rabbi who had received the stamp of approval from the right people that would give him the authority from the synagogue to teach within the temple. So they come and ask. Tell us by what authority you're doing these things. Notice it's not just the teaching. It's all these things, verse 2, that they're asking about. Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Claiming to be the Messiah. Driving traders from the temple. Teaching in the temple. Preaching the gospel in the temple. It's not simply teaching. It's not even the claim of being the Messiah or driving the traitors from the temple. You have to sit back and think what was really getting under the skin of these so-called religious authorities was that Jesus was proclaiming the good news of the forgiveness of sins by means of a Savior, and He was that Savior. They would have been quite wise to simply ask the question, is his message true? Rather than, does he have the right documentation or qualification that he needs to speak? Is his message true? If Jesus answers in his answer to them, They've asked, where did you get this authority? If in his answer he claims to operate by his own authority, they will immediately accuse him of blasphemy. On the other hand, if he claims to operate without anyone's authority, it will be assumed that he's a maverick of sorts. The leaders are attempting to discredit Jesus with this dilemma. They've worked hard to come up with their question. They are the upper echelon of the religious community, putting all their heads together. They have asked in their minds the question so that there's no wiggle room. It's guaranteed to trap Jesus. That's what they're attempting to do. Jesus, who himself is the wisdom of God, responds with a question. I will ask you a question, he says, and you tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? It's important for us to remember that John said, Jesus was the lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. John said, Jesus was the Christ. John said, Jesus was God's son. Now, Jesus is asking the religious leaders, was the baptism of John from God or from men? Because if what John says about Jesus is right, that He was the Lamb of God, or is the Lamb of God, the Christ, the Messiah, that He is God's Son. If what John said was right about Jesus, then these religious leaders are guilty of not accepting John's prophecy as from God. And this is why they're guilty, because they had refused the baptism of John. Why would they refuse the baptism of John? Because it was a baptism of repentance. They're the religious leaders. They had no need of repentance. Not according to themselves. If they admit that John was sent from God, they self-incriminate. Because they have not believed the message of John, which was the message of God. If they deny John being a prophet of God, then the people, the crowds, who knew John to be a prophet of God and who loved John, John was more famous than Jesus in these days, they would stone the leaders for speaking against their prophet, their famous prophet, their beloved prophet. The crowds will be enraged. if the leaders deny that John was sent from God. So these religious leaders, the upper echelon, the smartest of the smart, the whole host of them find themselves in an impossible impasse. When I picture it here, I wish I could think of a serious scene of them kind of coming together and trying to figure out what they're going to say. That's the idea we have here though. They've come together. If we say from men, all the people are going to stone us. If we say from heaven, then Jesus is going to say, then why didn't you believe him? onto the picture. The picture I have is of the family feud. Like, when they're all there as individuals and then there's a question asked and they get to come together in order to try to, in responding to the other team getting three strikes or whatever. So they come together, what about this, what about this, what about this, what about this, what about this? Never, I'm certain, quite certain, I don't really know for sure, I'm making this up. I can't imagine it ever being true that they would step back up then to the mic and say, But that's what these religious leaders do. They've been asked a simple question, John's baptism, from heaven or from earth, from God or from man? I don't know. Completely dishonest and outright falsehood, a blatant lie. They were willing to say anything rather than admit being wrong. They knew John was from God. They knew he was a prophet of the Most High. And they knew it was slowly being revealed to increasing degrees that they were wrong for resisting the prophet of God. And now they were resisting his son, which will be played out to another degree in the parable in just a few moments. But right now, with regard to their dishonesty, their willingness to say anything rather than exposing or admitting their being wrong, they were already exposed, but they hadn't admitted that they were wrong. Unfortunately, we live in a day when too many follow the pattern of these religious leaders. Or the pattern of others in scripture, like Gehazi, 2 Kings 5, when Elisha shows up and heals Naaman. And Gehazi, the servant, chases down Elisha, lying that his master, Naaman, had changed his mind about wanting something. Or along with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5, not telling the whole truth. Too many in our day follow these patterns. They have so many more followers than Peter or John or Jesus. Christ, being under no obligation to answer dishonest questions from dishonest religious leaders, refuses to continue conversing with these hypocritical liars. Jesus said, nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things." They were proving to be mere religious politicians, far more concerned with their position and their power than with the truth. And Jesus stops conversing with them. And he turns from the leaders that he's been dealing with as a group now to the masses, to the crowd that's gathered there. And Luke tells us he began to tell the people a parable. In front of the leaders, they're still there. They're part of the parable. They're represented there. They're going to be exposed. They're going to respond as a result of being exposed. That's in our third story from today. But now beginning this second one that Luke records here in the first half of chapter 20, Jesus begins the parable with a familiar theme, that of a vineyard. Before we get into the parable, let's turn to Isaiah chapter 5. And look at one of the more familiar places where the people of God are referred to as a vineyard. To see that Jesus is not just coming off the cuff with this illustration or with this parable that he's offering. But it's something that the people would have been very well acquainted with. They would have known that the people of God were represented often times as of the vineyard of God. Isaiah chapter five, let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. And he built a tower in the middle of it, and he also hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and mid of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? So now let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed. I will break down its wall, and it will become trampled ground. I will lay it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his delightful plant. Thus he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold a cry. of distress. This crowd, along with the leaders who are hearing this parable of Jesus, would be very well aware that they were represented here. The vineyard itself was a national symbol for the people of Israel. There was even a vine carved around the door in the temple. Not only that, many of them were farmers. They understood how it worked. It was so common for wealthy farmers, the landowners, to hire tenant farmers, the vine growers here in our story, to tend to the crops while the owners of the farms and the land were away. And at the harvest, the owner would come back to collect his portion of the harvest. The religious leaders that are standing by as Jesus teaches this parable are represented by the vine growers in the parable. They were expected to be the spiritual custodians of the people. Isaiah prophesies from God. God says He did everything that was needed. What more could He have done? He did everything expecting good grapes and only bad ones came up. It wasn't because He broke His end of the covenant. Let's read the parable again together. Jesus began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to the vine growers and went on a journey for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine growers so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard. But the vine growers beat him and sent him away empty handed. And he proceeded to send another slave and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty handed. And he proceeded to send a third. And this one they also wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I'll send my beloved son. Perhaps they'll respect him. But when the vine growers saw him, they reasoned with one another." Another picture in my mind of the family feud. What could we do right? What do we need to do? They said, this is the heir. Let us kill him so the inheritance will be ours. So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine growers and will give the vineyard to others. It is a story, no doubt, unquestionably. It is a story of Israel's history. We can't do this with all of the parables. It would be terribly unsafe. But this parable has been treated this way for histories, for history, oftentimes in history. God had sent his servants, the prophets, to warn Israel, calling them to repentance, calling them to true worship time and again. This is the way God had dealt with his people. Each time that he sent a prophet, his word was resisted. Each time that he sent a prophet, the prophet was often persecuted, sometimes even killed. Again and again, privileges were misused by the people of God and warnings were despised by them. Elijah was hated by the Queen, forced to run for his life. Jeremiah was ridiculed, rejected, left for dead in a pit. Zechariah murdered between the porch and the altar. In more recent history, John the Baptist was beheaded. And it wouldn't be long before Stephen would stand moments before he himself was martyred and summarized it all in this way in Acts 7.52. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. The parable is helpful in us seeing the history of Israel, but it's also crucial that we notice that this parable describes our situation as well as Israel of old. For 2,000 years, we've been guilty of careless, even false doctrine as the church. For 2,000 years, passive pursuits of holiness have too often marked the church's members. For 2,000 years, contempt for the word of God has continued, yet still, even still, God has granted season after season of refreshing mercy and grace. We must not neglect the applicability for us to respond to God's merciful calls for repentance and for true worship, for his expectation for us to make great use of the numerous privileges that he's granted to us, to be careful not to despise his merciful warnings, but to heed them at every chance we get. In telling this parable, it's clear that Jesus still has the question in his mind that the religious leaders asked, by whose authority? Look at verse 13. The owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I'll send my beloved son. Here's Jesus. Answering in a straightforward fashion the question, by whose authority? I'm the beloved son. The authority comes from my father. With undeniable clarity, Jesus claims his authority is from God. With undeniable clarity, Jesus claims he is God. Evidently, these vine growers, After having done away with slave after slave, prophet after prophet who's coming to collect for the sake of the owner, they see the son coming and they reason with one another. What does this mean? Evidently is their question. And they assume that because the son is coming rather than the owner, the owner must have died. But they have to assume that or they never would have imagined that by killing the heir it would belong to them. It didn't belong to the heir. It belonged to the owner. They assumed the owner had died. The heir was coming as the owner to claim it. Evidently they had been there longer than three years. Jewish law allows them as occupants for more than three years. It would have allowed them to become the owners if there were no living heir. No problem. Take care of the air. The land belongs to them. They had been living and making choices that evidenced already that they assumed the owner was dead. They didn't care. They were ignoring every prophet that he sent. Which begs the question for you and I. Do you make choices that presume God is dead? Do you live your life as if God doesn't exist? as a practical atheist. That's the way these religious leaders had been functioning. And Jesus tells this parable to expose it. With the plan of taking the vineyard for themselves, they carried the son of the owner outside the vineyard before killing him. So as not to defile the ground that would one day be theirs. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place, the writer of Hebrews writes, by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. These religious leaders had absolutely no concern for the defilement to their own hearts, yet they took great care not to negatively affect their future financial profits. And blood being spilt on their vineyard would have negatively affected their future profits. Not caring at all. about the miserable ground of their own heart and how stony and hard and wicked it was. But caring everything about their future and their finances, they carried the son outside the vineyard and killed him there. These men were not interested or concerned with the person and work of Jesus Christ, not in the slightest. They were only concerned with their own position, with their own power within the religious community. Jesus tells this parable to the religious people of his day with two distinct or direct charges. The owner, his wishes, the owner's wishes had been often ignored in the past. That's exposed. One slave is sent, he's ignored and done away with. Another one is sent, he's done away with. Another one is sent, he's done away with. The first charge that the owner's wishes had been often ignored in the past. The second charge is this, their crowning offense was on the verge of happening. The crowning offense, the murder of the owner's son was on the horizon. By the end of the week, what Jesus is prophesying here will come to fruition. It will happen. Again, we should see it as an amazing, merciful warning. Jesus is warning them, you are about to carry out what I'm promising here in this parable. Stop before you go too far. They were about to murder the owner's son, not because his claims were false, but because they had zero interest in being ruled by anyone other than themselves. That was their only problem. They didn't even pay attention to what he said. They didn't listen to the owner's son when he came. They didn't care about the owner. They assumed he was dead and didn't have any desire to know any different. They were interested in their own power and position and ruling and reigning in their own lives. And at the end of the parable, Jesus asks, A rhetorical question, second half of verse 15, what then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He doesn't allow them to answer, but he answers very explicitly, he will come and destroy these vine growers. and will give the vineyard to others. It's as if he's saying with the leaders on his right, the crowd on his left, he's turned out to the masses and he's saying, what is going to happen in this story? This is what's going to happen. The owner's coming back and these people are gonna be killed and destroyed because of what they've done. Because they've led my people astray, they've prophesied falsely. And the vineyard will be given to others. Again, a great mercy. It'll be given to us type others. Matthew 16, 19, Jesus said, I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. It's passed on from the people of God of old to the people of God of new, the church. And they're astonished with the response. May it never be. It just can't be. Surely they have promise after promise in the Old Testament swirling in their minds. Assuming that it just can't be this way. If they would only take the time as we often need to, to see that the promises are always based on two sides of a covenant being fulfilled. And they had broken their covenant with God. So it would be, though they said, may it never be. In fact, Jesus responds with the scriptures. The Bible is always so clear. Jesus looked at them. If it could never be, then what about this page right here? What about Psalm 118 that two days ago you were quoting? Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. As I was riding in on the donkey. What about that verse? What about that passage? What about when it says the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone? Christ indicted them with his teaching of the parable and proceeded to back up his allegation with their scriptures about him. the very text that had been quoted during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. These leaders were supposed to be the builders of God's house, but they had rejected Jesus. Jesus, who was the very stone that God had chosen to be the foundation of God's house. Peter says it this way, coming to him, to Jesus as a living stone, which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God. You also, as living stones, as a result of being united to Him, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture. And Peter quotes from the Old Testament. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone. Jesus indicts the religious leaders, exposing them, mercifully calling them again to turn from their wicked plans and desires to serve themselves. And the chief priests and the scribes, verse 19, being exposed, recognizing that they've been exposed, tried again to lay their hands on him that very hour. I'm reading from verse 19 now. And they feared the people. They have two problems on their hand. Jesus has just exposed them, and the people are now after them. Because they understood that Jesus had just spoken this parable against the leaders. condemning them for their unfaithfulness and shepherding the crowd. So they watched him, verse 20. Having failed to catch Jesus in front of the Jewish crowds, which was their hope with creating this wonderful question, the next attempt is an attempt to cause problems for him with the Roman rulers. They couldn't get him in trouble with the crowds. They're going to try to get him in trouble with the Roman Rulers. They failed to stump him with their religious questions, so they're gonna try their hand at politics. Several names come to mind right now, you know, Jesse Jackson, Mike Huckabee. Another day. Bad idea to go from religion to politics. Bad idea to go from anything to politics. They were increasing Their efforts, these religious leaders, were increasing their efforts now that the people had heard from Jesus who they really were, now that it had been revealed that they were wicked, self-centered leaders. The anxiety that they were living in the midst of gave way to cowardice on their part. So they went out and enlisted spies to approach Jesus. 20, they sent spies who pretended to be righteous in order that they might catch him in some statement so that they could deliver him to the rule and authority of the governor. Spies who faked righteousness. Spies who were smooth talking and offered demeaning flattery. Listen to how they talk to Jesus. We know that you speak and teach correctly. They hate him. You are not partial to any but teach the way of God in truth. And so then, the next question that they've worked so hard to come up with. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Surely they have him trapped now. It's a yes or no question. How do you get out of that? Again, Christ is the wisdom of God. Show me a denarius. The denarius, you can imagine a coin. We have inscriptions on our coins. The denarius had Caesar's inscription on it. This coin was actually not allowed in the temple treasury. Not simply because the inscription on it, that was part of it, it violated the second commandment in their minds. But it also said this, here was the real violation. Son of the divine, the supreme ruler. That was the inscription on the coin. So you see what the leaders are trying to do. They actually considered the coin blasphemous. which is actually interesting because when Jesus asked one of them for it, they have it in their pocket. It wasn't too blasphemous to them. Jesus's answer to them was basically this. If you use this world's goods, pay for them with this world's currency. In verse 25, one of the more famous quotes from Jesus, he wisely divides the question up in a very neat fashion. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. The principle of Christ's answer hinges on this issue of ownership. Whatever is Caesar's, give to Caesar. And since everything is God's, even what is Caesar's, give everything to God. When we render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, we are ultimately rendering it unto God. Because everything is God's. Jesus is so careful and calculated with the answer here. It's not either or. It's both and. The expectation is that you live underneath the rules and regulations in the land that you live so far as it doesn't violate the scriptures and the commands from God. You obey. Rendering on the Caesar the things that are Caesar's and doing it it is possible to do it in a way to where you're worshiping God Recognizing that all things are under God So I'm giving this idea of a side-by-side Mentality would be better if I were you know going up and down right all things are God's Caesar is God's Render under Caesar the things that are Caesar's and by doing so you are rendering to God the things that are God's This idea of ownership I mean, that's the issue if you look back at the parable. The religious leaders, the vine growers, were usurping the rightful owner. It's the issue of ownership. When Jesus makes this statement, verse 26, the religious leaders were unable to catch him in a saying in the presence of the people. And being amazed at his answer, they became silent. Amazed, but not amazed enough. Silenced, but unfortunately only briefly. Three stories in the text today. The authority of Jesus, where does it come from? The ownership of the vineyard and His impending return and rendering unto God what is God's. First, the authority of Christ. Do you acknowledge and therefore accept the authority of Christ in your life? Or do you find the evidence of Christ's teaching here exposing an attempt to avoid His authority? to usurp it maybe in some seemingly insignificant area. Do you acknowledge and obey his authority reluctantly or willingly? Second, the owner of the vineyard, his son, he's coming back. What will he find? Will he find us responding to the continual merciful calls for repentance and true worship? Will he find us making great use of our numerous privileges? Will he find us heeding his gracious warnings? Or will he find us like the prophets of old and the religious leaders in our story, refusing the calls? not making the most of the privileges and turning away from the warnings. And third, render to God the things that are God's. Jesus made his point about giving to Caesar what is Caesar by noting the image on the coin. What image is stamped here? Caesar's. Give those things to Caesar if they're marked by Caesar. He could do the same thing with you. Whose image are you marked with? You've been stamped, made in the image of God. So give everything to Him. Give your all to Christ, your life, every bit of it. Every arena, your mind, use it for Christ's sake. Your ears, the things that you hear, listen for Christ's sake. Your eyes, guard them. Gaze at the glorious things for Christ's sake. Your hands, use them to work as to the Lord. Your voice for praise and for prayer. Your money. your home, your vocation, your education, your time. We could go on and on. You have been marked with the image of God being made in His likeness. Render unto God the things that are God's. You belong to Him. Give yourself wholeheartedly, fully to God for Christ's sake. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word, that it is marked with warning after warning and mercy after mercy for our sakes, that we as your people might do your good pleasure, that we might know you, that we might follow you. God, help us as we seek to recognize and acknowledge your authority, that we might submit to it increasingly, that we might make ourselves ready for the return of your glorious Son, and that in the meantime, we might render ourselves wholly and completely to you, our Father, who is the giver of all good things, We acknowledge that you alone are God and that there is none like you. Hear our prayers in Christ's name, amen.