Thank you, Jared, for leading us. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. If you're somewhere in the building or at home, if you would please take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter 20. This morning we are continuing, as David Kingston said, our series in the book of Luke entitled, Jesus Savior of the World. And those of you who've been with us as we've been working our way through Luke, in your notes, if you take notes, you may notice that the last, not the last sermon, but we have worked through a good portion of chapter 19, but I'm starting at 20, which means that we are skipping over the triumphal entry. So I see a few heads nodding up and down, so you've noticed that. We're going to come back to that on Palm Sunday, which would be a very appropriate time to do that and go over that passage. But this morning we're going to be in Luke 20, and I'll be reading verses 1 through 18. Let's hear the Word of the Lord. One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, The chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority? He answered them, I also ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? And they discussed it with one another, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say, Why did you not believe him? But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, neither 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 let it out to the tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant, but they also beaten and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. and he sent a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Let's kill him so that the inheritance may be ours. And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard due to them. He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When they heard this, they said, surely not. But he looked directly at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. Father, this is a special moment, a special time when we come together to hear from you through your word. And Father, we are helpless on our own to understand your word, to apply it, we're helpless to make it change our hearts. And so, God, we ask that You, through Your Spirit, would do those things in our lives. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. To say that there was tension in the air leading up to the exchange recorded in Luke 20, the passage that I just read, would be putting it lightly. And the friction began just two days prior when Jesus rode a donkey towards Jerusalem. And if you recall, as Jesus was approaching the city gates, the people spread their cloaks on the road and they began praising God, saying, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. The people saw Jesus as a King, And that was on a Sunday, and it's what today we call Palm Sunday. The next day, Monday, was the day when Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out the money changers who were taking advantage of the worshipers. The temple was intended for God's people to come and to worship and to honor God and to praise him and to glorify him. But instead it was turned into some financial racket. People were hustling there and trying to make an extra buck unfairly through the exploitation of God's people. And so Jesus went into the temple and he put an end to it. And as you can imagine, both the triumphal entry and the cleansing of the temple were not received well by the religious establishment. He was coming down hard on their parade. And Luke tells us in response to the praise offered to Jesus as he entered into Jerusalem, that the Pharisees came to Jesus and told him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. Get them to stop saying these things about you. And in response to the cleansing of the temple and Jesus' teaching, the religious elites wanted to destroy Jesus. That's how much hatred and bitterness were in their hearts related to the Messiah. And it is with this growing tension in the air that Luke shares these words in the opening verses of chapter 20. One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came up and said to him, tell us, tell us by what authority you do these things or who it is that gave you this authority. To which some of you say, what's the big deal? What's wrong with asking questions? What's wrong with coming up to Jesus and having a question? What's wrong with wanting to know His credentials? We do it all the time, don't we? Don't we do that all the time when you and I need a medical procedure? Don't we want to know the expertise and the background of the surgeon who potentially will be cutting us up? Don't we want to know that? It reminds me of a very humorous commercial that was on a few years ago with one of the phone services. This man is in his gown in the hospital, and presumably his wife is next to him, and he's getting ready to go into surgery. Remember this commercial? And the nurse is standing there, and so he looks at the nurse, somewhat anxious, and he asks the nurse, so is Dr. Francis, is he a good surgeon? And she replies, well, he's okay. Remember that? And he says, just OK. You could just see the fear all over his face. And the doctor walks in. He goes like this with his hand. He goes, oh, it's so great to be reinstated again. We don't want just OK. We want better than just OK. When we're interested in an educational program, don't we want to know the background and the expertise of those who will be doing the instruction? Of course we do. And in the case of Jesus Christ, what is wrong with wanting to inquire more about His authoritative claims? Think about some of the claims that Jesus made. Jesus claimed that He has the authority to forgive sins. Luke 5, 24, Jesus claimed that He is the way and the truth and the life, and no one can get to God but through Him, John 14, 6. Jesus claimed that if you and I want to save our lives, we need to lose it, but whoever loses his or her life for Jesus' sake will save it, Luke 9, 24. And this morning, if you are here, and you have questions about the claims of Jesus Christ, and you are sincerely interested in what it means to be a Christian, there's nothing wrong with having questions, especially as it relates to who Jesus is. And those of us in this room who are Christians, we should be bending over backwards for people in our midst who have questions about Jesus Christ. Now, having said that, sincerity and humility was not the attitude of the religious hotshots that confronted Jesus Christ. Essentially, they wanted to trap Jesus and charge him. with claiming to be God. And of course, he is God. And that is why he never needed anyone's permission to do anything. And that's still true today. Jesus could preach, he could teach, he could heal, he could cast out demons, he could do good on the Sabbath, and never needed anyone to sign off on his credentials. But this is where the religious leaders thought that they could trip Jesus up because if he did these things and was not God, he would be guilty of blasphemy, which was a capital offense. Jesus saw right through their questions, right into their hearts, just like he sees right into your heart in my heart. He knows when you and I are sincere, and he knows when you and I are full of it. And he knew that the religious leaders were disingenuous in regards to these questions. And so Jesus responded with a question of his own. In verse three, I also ask you a question. Now you tell me. Let's flip this a little bit. You tell me, was the baptism of John, was it from heaven or was it from man? Two can play that game. Of course, the answer to that question was that John's baptism was from heaven. God sent John to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. We read about that, didn't we? Early in our study of Luke, And many, many people believed that John was sent from God. Everyone except the religious leaders. They did not acknowledge John's ministry was from God because had they accepted it, they would have also had to admit that Jesus's ministry was also from God and they were unwilling to do that. And so this elite religious group found themselves in a real dilemma. They try to trap Jesus, but Jesus turned it around and ends up trapping them. So according to verse five, after Jesus poses this question, they all get together and they realize what's going on. And so I can just picture them huddled up together, taking a break from the conversation with Jesus and coming over here and just looking at each other, wondering, what do we do? What are we going to do if we say, from heaven, he's going to tell us? Then why don't you believe him? Which they didn't. And then they looked at each other and said, well, if we say it's from man, all the people want to stone us to death. Because they're convinced that John was a prophet. And so knowing that they were between a rock and a hard place, they said, we don't know where he came from. They knew, of course they knew. They knew that Jesus's authority was from God, but they were too prideful to admit it. And you know what that should tell us all? Usually, when someone rejects Jesus Christ, Usually, it's not a matter of intellect. Usually, it's a matter of the heart. We've all been there where we're sharing the gospel with somebody and they have question after question. You address it. They have more. This, that, this excuse, that excuse. And finally, you realize this is no longer an issue of the mind. This is an issue of the heart. And that's why prayer should be such an important part of our evangelism. And that's why parents, yes, we teach our children the truths of Scripture, but just as important is the time we spend on our knees praying that God would change their hearts so that they would understand and know the truth that we're trying to teach them in God's Word. So in response to their response, to the religious leader's response, Jesus says, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. You never want to go head to head with Jesus. You will always lose. He's smarter than us. He's got more courageous than us. He's wiser than us. And he knows when we're trying to just weasel our way out of things. He also knows when we're sincere and humble. But the defiance and the rebellion in the hearts of the religious establishment, it went a long way back. This wasn't new. And to illustrate just how far back it went, Jesus proceeds to tell a parable beginning in verse 9. Read with me. A man planted a vineyard and let it out to the tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants. so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard, but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed, and he sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed, and he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out." If you're new to your Bible, a parable is sort of like a riddle, a riddle with an underlying truth And sometimes parables are very difficult to figure out. This particular parable is not difficult to figure out at all. In fact, it's much more like an allegory. It's very straightforward. The man, the vineyard, the tenants, the servants, they all symbolize someone or something. The man who planted the vineyard is God. God raised up a people for himself and called them to be his representatives among all the people of the world. The vineyard represents the people of Israel. And there's many, many passages in the Old Testament that refer to Israel as a vine. or as a vineyard. One in particular is found in Isaiah chapter five, verse seven, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. Who are the servants? The servants represent the various prophets that God had sent to his people to preach to them a message of repentance and obedience. Why? Because God had called them to a life that would bear fruit for his glory and for the good of others. Fruit like faithful worship. Fruit like caring for the poor. Fruit like standing up for the widow. Fruit like caring for the fatherless. But when God's people were not producing fruitful lives, God sent these prophets as a way to get them turned around. And how were these prophets treated? They were rejected, ignored, persecuted. Listen to what God said through the prophet Jeremiah. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants, the prophets, to them day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffen their neck. They did worse than their fathers. And by the way, Jeremiah, who wrote that through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he's speaking from experience. As a prophet, he was thrown into a pit and left to die. Read about it later on in Jeremiah chapter 38. And lastly, who are the tenants? The tenants are the spiritual leaders of Israel. The hotshots, the bigwigs, the ones who are coming to Jesus and questioning his authority. God entrusted these leaders to care for his people so that they might bear fruit. They were supposed to love and protect God's people, but instead they abused their authority. These same men who were challenging Jesus's authority were guilty themselves of failing to live out the authority given to them. Yet despite the vineyard's lack of fruit and the incompetent leadership of God's people, do you notice the patience and the kindness and the grace of God? He loved his people so much that he sent one and then another. and then a third. You know, so often we think of God as being angry with us, or constantly disappointed with us, or exasperated with us. Yet this parable should demonstrate to you and to me that God is a compassionate God, that He's slow to anger, That He's merciful and He's full of grace. And there's this rumor going around. I don't know if you've heard of it. This rumor that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament. That somehow the God of the Old Testament was bad and the God of the New Testament was good. or the God of the Old Testament was mean and the God of the New Testament is nice. The same God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. He's the same, He never changes. He's full of compassion, full of mercy, and He's full of grace. And we see that grace come out even more profoundly when he does the unthinkable. After in this parable, after not just one, not just two, and not just three prophets or servants are sent, God sends his beloved son. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son, perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours. And they threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him. Of course, you know and I know that this was more than a parable. This was a prophetic word spoken by Jesus regarding his own future. Jesus knew that he would be hanging on a tree in just a few days from this interaction. But he also knew that this was all part of God's plan, all of it. Everything that we read, the questioning of his authority, was all a part of God's plan. It was part of God's plan that the religious leaders would be so intoxicated with their own authority that they would be willing to kill Jesus. That was part of His plan. And of course, at any time, Jesus could have used His own power and His own authority to stop them from executing their plan, but He didn't. He didn't, he could have, but he did not. Why? Because Jesus was on a mission, a mission to seek and to save the lost. And that includes you and that includes me. And nothing was gonna thwart or derail that mission. And that mission included his death on a cross so that you and I would not perish in hell, but have eternal life. which raises the question, do you believe? Do you believe in Jesus or not? So easy to go through the motions and talk and talk and talk, but at the end of the day, do you believe? Do you believe that you've done things and said things and thought things that are in violation to God's law? Do you believe that you deserve punishment for your sin? Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus' life and death and resurrection are sufficient to deal with your sin? Do you believe that Jesus is Lord and is the rightful authority of your life. For those who believe in Jesus Christ is the promise of eternal life in heaven. But what about those who refuse to believe? What are the consequences for those who reject God's son? Jesus tells us, look with me at the end of verse 15, What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. One consequence that came from rejecting Jesus's authority was to the religious elite. Jesus makes it clear that they forfeited their right to shepherd God's people and that that responsibility would get transferred from them to another group. And that's exactly what happened. After the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the spiritual leadership of God's people was reassigned to whom? The apostles. But there's a second consequence that come to those who reject Jesus, and we read about that in verses 17 and 18. After Jesus pronounced that the vineyard would be given to others, He went on to say this, What then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken into pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. What does that mean? Anyone here, and I know a few of you, I'm looking at a few right now, anyone here who's involved in construction, you know exactly what that means. On any job site, there's always a pile of rejected material. Sometimes it's a board that was measured incorrectly, was cut wrong. Sometimes it could be a stone or a brick with some type of blemish on it. And so all these pieces, these rejected pieces, they go to a pile. But you know what happens oftentimes on the job site? There comes a time when the foreman or the worker is in a particular aspect of the job and he notices, I need a special piece that goes right there. It's not a foreign piece, it's a very unique piece. And then it dawns on them. They remember that pile. And they know, it's amazing how these gifted men with their hands, they know that one piece, I know exactly where it's at. So they send somebody to go collect it. And sure enough, it's the exact piece they need. The piece that was rejected, that was in the pile, that was destined to go to the dumps is the one piece that completes the job. And so in the same way, Jesus is like a stone that's been rejected. The leaders of Israel rejected Jesus Christ They hated him, hated him from the very beginning and wanted him dead. Essentially, they wanted to toss him in the scrap pile, just like what happened to Jeremiah. They wanted to throw him away, put him in that scrap pile, never to see him again. But God had different plans. Jesus went from the scrap pile to being the cornerstone of the church. What's a cornerstone? It's the most important and most critical piece in any structure. It's often placed first and all the other pieces are positioned, find their place around the cornerstone. And this is what Jesus is to the church. He's the basis, He's the foundation on which the entire church is built. But Jesus Christ For those of you who are Christians, He's our cornerstone. He's our foundation. We build our life on Him, but Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, He's also a stumbling stone for those who do not believe Him. No matter how good you think life is as an unbeliever, and yes, for an unbeliever, life can be good. God gives his grace both to believers and unbelievers. And no matter how good you think life is as an unbeliever, eventually life without Jesus falls apart. And when that happens, your life just gets broken into pieces. It happens. But even more tragic is the eternal ramification that comes from rejecting Jesus Christ. Because for those who reject Jesus, there will be a crushing blow that comes to them. And that will take place at the final judgment. But the best news, the most wonderful news that I can share with all of you today is that you don't have to face this crushing blow. You don't have to face God's wrath because Jesus faced it for you on the cross. Let me just end with asking you this, are you stumbling this morning? Like right now, are you stumbling over Jesus Christ this morning? Are you rejecting his authority? Are you trying to maintain control of your own life? If so, I just, I want to encourage you, just stop. Just stop. Stop right where you're at. and turn to Jesus. Turn to Him, submit to His authority. For it is only Jesus who has the authority to forgive sins. It's only Him. It's only Jesus who can keep you from stumbling. And it's only Jesus who can present you blameless in the sight of God. The stone that the builders rejected can be your cornerstone. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. And thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, for so many, the cross is a stumbling block. But for those of us and for those who you are calling to yourself, it's the most beautiful news. It's glorious, it's wonderful. And so for those who are believers here this morning, I pray that we would be more assured of who we are in Christ as our cornerstone. And for those who have not chosen to build their life upon your son, the Lord Jesus, would you please move in their hearts, draw them to yourself so that they too may build their life upon Jesus, the cornerstone. We pray in his name, amen.