We've been making our way through the Gospel of Luke, journeying with Jesus to Jerusalem, and we have arrived in Jerusalem. And now we hear the, you could call it the beginning of the end. The events that happen right on the eve or leading towards the eve of Jesus's betrayal, his arrest, his crucifixion. But before that comes the drama that builds in chapter 20. So I invite you to stand. Now to respect for God's word, listen as God speaks to you from Luke chapter 20, verses one through 19. One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priest 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 to them. I also will 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're 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 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 that vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed. And he sent another servant But they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet 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 us 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 do 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Amen. Please be seated. Let's pray. Dear Lord, give us a heart. Give us hearts that recognize your authority and love you. Even now, as the word is preached, I pray that you would give me the words to speak and that those words, though they come from a weak vessel, would be powerful by the working of your spirit, that they would penetrate hearts, that they would change lives. that they would give all dignity to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. There's something about the drama of a debate that just draws us in, keeps us on the edge of our seats. Some of you are on debate teams at your local colleges. I know there's a few Cedarville debaters here. And I imagine one of the things you love about a good debate is how it just brings you in and every moment, you're right on the edge of your seat. What can I say next in response? It's the same thrill we get when we see two powerful football teams clash on the field. Well, in our texts this morning, we see some of that drama, you know, a taste of the drama of a debate. What we see is Jesus versus the religious authorities. Jesus versus what I have called the anti-Jesus alliance. Who do you have coming before Jesus in this text? the chief priest, the scribes, with the elders, and this unholy alliance of three religious sets of religious leaders come together with one purpose, stop Jesus, stop him in his tracks. And of course it begins with just an intellectual debate, but we know that's not where it's going to end. It's going to get physical. Very soon, within a matter of days, there's going to be bloodshed and arrest. But here it begins with a debate. And if ever you wondered what it would be like to go up against Jesus, up against the mind of Jesus, we get a taste of that here. It's not pretty. It's certainly not two equal forces coming up against one another. Because by the end of this text, we see who really has the authority, who really has the say as to what should happen in the city of God, who really has the ultimate power. Well, I want us to see the authority of Jesus demonstrated against this anti-Jesus alliance. First, by seeing a question of authority. Second, by seeing a crisis of authority. And finally, by hearing a statement of authority. A question of authority, a crisis of authority, and a statement of authority. I remind you what Jesus is doing. He's entered Jerusalem. He entered on the back of a donkey, on that humble donkey. And what did he do? First thing he did is he went to the temple and he started flipping over tables and casting merchants out. What was he doing? He was purifying his house, his place of worship. And then he started teaching the people in the courts, doing what the religious leaders were failing to do, really teaching the people the good news. And so we hear in verse one and two, one day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priest and the scribes and 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. Now, We've seen this all along in the gospel of Luke, haven't we? This crisis of authority, this question of Jesus' authority. What has Jesus been doing? You know, all the way back from Luke chapter four on, He's been teaching on the basis of His own authority. Now, teachers in this time had a certain way that they would teach. They would step up in front of the people and then, you know, in this kind of humble deference to the teachers of the past, they'd say, you know, as Rabbi Ben Joseph says, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? They'd quote someone's name and they'd cite another authority to give power behind their words. But what is Jesus doing? Every time he sets up to preach or to teach, he doesn't do that at all. He just says, I say to you, truly, truly, I say to you. And then he starts quoting the scriptures as it is written. And the people say, who do you think you are? teaching on the basis of your own authority. You think you're higher than our teachers and our rabbis? And then Jesus does something even more controversial in Luke chapter five. What did he do? He spoke to a man and he said, your sins are forgiven. And the Pharisees start scrambling. Who gives you the authority to forgive sins? Who do you think you are? And guess what Jesus did just one chapter ago in Luke chapter 19. When he comes, he starts flipping over tables in the temple and, you know, whipping cords, driving people out. He says, you have turned my house into a den of robbers. And again, the religious leaders say, can you, you hearing this guy? Can you believe him? He says the temple is his house. He's controlling it like it's his business. This is our place, Jesus. You're on our turf. Who do you think you are, Jesus? Do you think you're God? What gives you the right to step into our space and to start teaching our people on the basis of your own authority? That's really the question that's echoing throughout this entire text. That's what the religious leaders come, the anti-Jesus alliance comes with this question. Who gives you the authority? Now notice how Jesus responds. Verse three. he asked a follow-up question. And that's really important. I mentioned this in Sunday school this morning, that when you come to Jesus, or rather, sorry, when you are talking with unbelievers and people who do not embrace the gospel, and you see challenge after challenge to the gospel, you know, Well, what do you do with this? And what do you do with that? And, you know, who do you think you are telling me, you know, I can and can't do this? Sometimes we should follow Jesus's trajectory. We should learn from him and ask a question, a question that cuts right to the heart of the matter. Jesus does that, it's genius really. It shows what a masterful debater he is. He cuts right to the heart of the issue with these men, and he does it with a simple question. Here's his question. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Now, Jesus isn't just dodging their question. I want you to see that. He's not just, you know, trying to deflect or trying to avoid answering a really hard question. His follow-up question actually gets right to the heart of the matter. Because remember who John the Baptist was. He was this forerunner of Jesus who came in the wilderness preaching and saying, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And he started baptizing people in order to show that there was a need for repentance and turning away from sin. A kind of need for repentance that the religious leaders of the day weren't teaching. And so what is Jesus doing? He's saying, the way you answer this question really determines whether I have the authority to do what I do. Am I who John says I am? Am I the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world? Is John really speaking with the authority of heaven, the authority of God the Father? Or is he just some man who's elected to some crazy man in the wilderness who's just stepped up to take on this role himself? And notice what Jesus is doing as he's pressing them on this matter. He's exposing their hearts. They hate Jesus's authority. They hate the claim he has over their life and over their ministry. They crave control. The religious leaders, they don't wanna lose their power over the people. And Jesus is shining a spotlight right on that with this question. And so you see them huddling up, right? They go over on the side, they get in a huddle. What are we gonna say to this question? If we say that John the Baptist is, you know, is from heaven, then Jesus is gonna say, well, then why aren't you honoring me as the Messiah? But then if we say, well, he's just a man, the people love John the Baptist, they believe him. And so they're gonna come and stone us. Either way, we lose our power. Either way, Jesus takes away the claim we have over the people. And so as they feel that, that rug of security pulled out from under them, they deflect. They say, you know, Jesus, we have an answer. We don't really know. We elect not to answer your question. And so he says, then neither am I gonna tell you who gave me the authority. You know, the matter isn't very different today. Have you ever noticed how a room can sometimes tense up when someone mentions Jesus? Like, you know, not just says the Lord's name in vain, but seriously mentions Jesus. Sometimes it can take a room from being, you know, joyful and full of laughter to suddenly everyone saying, OK, who's this guy? Who's this religious dude bringing up Jesus? And suddenly the air changes, the atmosphere changes. Why is that? Why is it that a room can get so awkward and even hostile sometimes just by the mention of one name, Jesus? Because we know the kind of claim of authority that Jesus has. We know who Jesus claims to be and what he claims over our lives. And so when we hear that name of Jesus, what we're hearing is the name of one who threatens that control that we have over our lives. We want to run the temple of our hearts our way. What gives Jesus the right to tell me Who I can have a relationship with? Who gives Jesus the right to tell me what can and can't come out of my mouth? What gives Jesus the right to tell me to give up all that I love dearly and to be his disciple? And you know, sometimes a question is the best way that we can bring that very, you know, that very thing to light. I remember talking with a good friend of mine who is not a Christian. And I remember we'd gone on for hours and hours going back and forth about whether God exists and whether, you know, whether Jesus really is the son of God, whether he rose from the dead. And I just noticed every time there's always this, there's always a kind of safety net that he would appeal to. Well, have you thought of this? Well, have you thought of this? Well, have you thought of this? And I realized, that really it all just needs to come down to a question. Sometimes you have to cut through the pure intellectual nature of a debate by saying, let's say Jesus really is the son of God. Let's say who he claims to be. Do you feel uncomfortable with that authority he has over your heart? Do you feel uncomfortable with that claim he has over your life? Sometimes it's that very question that just gets you right to the heart of the matter and cuts through all the surface level stuff. And that's what Jesus does here with the religious leaders. But he doesn't stop there. Jesus is now on the offensive and notice how he uses his amazing power and authority and skill to move from question to parable, from question of authority to paint a picture of the crisis of authority. We hear this parable of the vineyard. It's the last parable of Jesus. This is the final parable that we'll hear in the gospel of Luke. But as the story unfolds, what we learn about this parable is that it really isn't a parable at all. It's actually an autobiography. It's actually a tale about Jesus himself, what he's about to do, what he's come to do, what the religious leaders are about to do. It's a tale about a vineyard. And as soon as anyone in Israel, any Jew would hear the mention of a vineyard, they'd know exactly what Jesus was talking about because the vineyard was this poignant symbol, like this national symbol of who Israel is. Israel is the vineyard. We heard that, right? Today in Isaiah chapter five, Nathan Jones read to us, the vineyard is the house of Israel. And so as they're hearing this, the story starts to come to life and they're saying, wait a minute, he's talking about us. He's talking about the people of Israel. And he's talking about its owner. The vineyard has an owner. And who is that owner? It's God himself. And who are the tenants? entrusted with this vineyard. But the religious leaders, the chief priests, the scribes, the elders tasked with caring and pruning and trimming and watering the vineyard of God, God's people. But we also hear in this parable that the tenants are doing an awful job. They have taken control of the owner's vineyard and they are lording it over with this power, this claim. And so what does the owner do is he sends his servants to get the fruit. He sends servant after servant to collect his due. Who are those servants? Well, it's not too hard to conclude. They're the prophets of the Old Testament. The prophets that have been sent over and over and over. Think of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah. What did God do time after time as his people were turning away from him and trying to run the vineyard in their own way, keep the fruit to themselves? God sent his prophets with these fiery words saying, give God his due, stop doing this, turn back, repent. And time after time, what did? What did the people of Israel do? What did the religious leaders do? They mistreated the prophets. They kicked them out of town. They sent them running for the hills. They abused them. They scoffed at them. Three times that happens in the parable. Three times the tenants, the religious leaders wanna keep their power. They bully and abuse and misuse so that they can keep that authority. You know, isn't that the story of human history? If you could just boil human history down just to one line, wouldn't it be this? That the story of human history is this, to rid the universe of God so that man can rule supreme. To rid the universe of God so that man can rule supreme. That's the history of Israel's struggles up to this point in the Bible. That's really the history of human history. God, We wanna get rid of you who created us so that we can do our own thing. And then we reach the darkest moment of the parable, the darkest moment of human history and of Israel's history. It's the moment when the owner sends his son. You know, you hear him mention it, what shall I do? I'll send my beloved son. You almost feel yourself saying, no, don't do it. Don't do it. You know what they're gonna do to him. What have they done time and time again? And yet he sins him. He sins his beloved son. And what do those tenants do? They do the unthinkable. They murder the son. Here's the heir. Let's kill him so we can take his inheritance, so we can keep his authority, so we can keep our control of the vineyard. Cold-blooded murder in verse 14. And so Jesus paints this picture. What's he doing? He's exposing their hearts. He's showing that they'd rather murder than give up control. In fact, that's exactly what they're going to do. What is Jesus going to do? Just days away from when Jesus proclaims this parable. The very people that hear this parable are going to murder Jesus. They are going to nail him to a cross. They're going to take the beloved son, the beloved son of the owner of the vineyard, and they're going to take him outside of the city gates. They're going to kick him out, and they're going to crucify him and murder him, all so that they can keep their authority. What gives Jesus the right? What gives him the authority to make claim over these tenants? Well, it's really this. He's a prophet, the last prophet sent by God. And guess what? He's even more than that. He's the beloved son. He's the beloved Son. Hebrews 1, 1-2 says this, See, that's what gives Jesus the right. That's what gives Jesus the right to speak to them, to speak to us. He's the beloved Son. And so this passage moves. You see, from that attempt to undermine Jesus's authority at the very beginning of this passage, and it ends with a statement of his unbreakable authority, Jesus says to these tenants, to these religious leaders, guess what God is going to do? He's going to take away the vineyard from the tenants, from the religious leaders, and he's going to give it to others. You know what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about the vineyard being taken away, Israel, the kingdom of God being taken away from the religious leaders and given to the apostles, given even to Gentiles. And they hear that and they say, surely not, surely not. You wonder, what are they saying that about? Are they saying, surely not? to the killing of the beloved son? I don't think so. Because notice when they say, notice when they speak out, it's when Jesus says, the vineyard's going to be taken away from you. And then they say, may it never be. No way, Jesus. He's touched the nerve, do you see? And then he makes this most incredible statement in verse 17. He looks directly at them and says, then why is it written in the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. There was a... tale in Israel. There was a story and how it went was while they were building the magnificent temple, there was this stone that they didn't quite know what to do with. And so they just tossed it to the side. But then as they got to the pinnacle of the temple, that cornerstone that held everything together, it just so happened that that rejected stone fit perfectly in as the cornerstone. And they said, oh, that's great. That's wonderful. Held the whole thing together. Well, Jesus is using this verse and he's using that tale in the life of Israel to really make an incredible point about himself. It's a point that we hear not only in Psalm 118, that's what we just heard quoted, but also Isaiah 8, 14 through 15. Listen to this. The Messiah will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel and many shall stumble over it. they shall fall and be broken. What is Jesus saying about himself? He is making the ultimate statement of his authority. Here's what he's saying. You can't thwart Jesus. You can't thwart me. You can't get rid of me. You can kill me, but I'll just rise again. You can reject me. You can throw me aside like that rejected stone, but guess what? I'll just keep coming back. I'm gonna be the stone that keeps the whole temple together in the end. You can try to toss me to the side, but guess what? You're just gonna trip over me and fall. Here's what Jesus is saying about himself. And this is what you really need to hear. Jesus is either your savior or your judge. He's either your security or your stumbling block. And that's true for Israel and it's true for you. What are you going to do with Jesus? What are you gonna do with Jesus? Maybe you're here this morning and you're like those religious leaders. You keep over and over again coming up with objections to him. Who gives you the right? Or maybe it's a little even more tame than that. You respect him. You honor him. You appreciate him as a great prophet. But when you read the kind of authority he claims for himself, an authority that belongs to God alone, you say, okay, maybe I wanna keep a little bit of distance from this guy. You know what Jesus says? He asked you the question, what are you going to do with me? Because your life hangs upon that question. Jesus, is either your rock of stability, that cornerstone that keeps your whole life in place, that stone that you fall upon when everything seems to be falling apart, when your marriage is barely hanging on, when you're struggling to overcome sin in your life, you fall upon Jesus and you say, he's the solid ground. Or he becomes the stone of stumbling. where you trip over him because you don't wanna submit to his authority, you don't wanna listen to him, and your life crumbles into a million pieces, and nothing seems to be steady or come together because you don't have him. Here's the final appeal I want you to hear as this sermon comes to an end. Find stability in Jesus. May he be the stone of security for you and not the stone of stumbling. And there's only one way for that to be true. Lay a hold of him by faith. Let go of your desire to hold on tight to your own life. Let go of your desire to have your own authority over your life and say, Jesus, I give you everything. I put my life in your hands. Do with it what you will. I need you. I need the security you bring. Let's go to him now in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this stone, this deciding stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you how time and time again, we have seen how he is that cornerstone that holds our lives together. He rose again from the dead. after the tenants of the vineyard murdered him. And now he has made us a fruitful vineyard, one that bears fruit for the owner, for God, for you. And so we pray that we would continue to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, even as he has entrusted that vineyard to us and to the leaders of this church. May we never be found stumbling over the Savior, but may we always be found safe and secure and submitting to His rule and reign. We pray this all in Christ's name, amen.