Well, we're continuing in our study of the gospel according to Mark, and we're now in chapter 12. And I'm just going to hone in on this one parable that, of course, we've studied over the years, but it's an important parable. Not that there's unimportant parables, but this is an important parable, and there's a lot contained here. So let me pray for the Word, and then I'll read from verse 1 to 9 to get us started. Our Father under God, we pause before the public reading of your word to acknowledge in your presence that we're about to read and study the very word of God. And Lord, this isn't just the thoughts of men of old. Lord, this is holy scripture. So Father, we pray that you'd implant that word in our souls, that it might grow up to produce works of righteousness for your glory's sake. and for our good, in Jesus name, amen. So let me read this. This is Mark 12, one to nine. 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 vine dressers 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. Well, thus far, the reading of God's holy word. To start, we have to understand who Jesus's targeted audience is as we unpack this parable. And if you go back to chapter 11 and verse 27, it says, then they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him. And when you get to our story today, it says, he began to speak to them in parables. And as a matter of fact, when we move on from this parable in verse 12 of Mark 12, it says, and they sought to lay hands on him. So the audience here is the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. That's who he's speaking to with this parable here. One of the things to understand as we unpack the parable, which is pretty plainly put together here, it's not real cryptic, is that the gist of the parable is there's a landowner who does everything that's necessary to put together a vineyard and then leases the land out with the idea is the payment of that lease that the tenants would owe would be a portion of what was harvested. So there's an expectation of fruit. There's an expectation of a harvest and that he would be given part of that harvest. In the story, as we start to look at what is pointing to what, One of the things to understand is that when you look at these chief priests and the scribes and the elders who held office, and we're going to look as we move forward, and Mark, God willing, next time, you'll see that the Pharisees and the Herodians are now going to come together, and they're also going to come after Jesus to trip him up with some questions. So these various groups hold offices in Israel. And these offices that they hold, according to Jesus, are legitimate. It's not as if Jesus says that, hey, they don't hold legitimate office. Jesus' problem with them is that they're not carrying out their duties in those offices according to the way God told them to carry out those duties. So when you look at like Matthew 23, And verse 1, it says, Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, he legitimizes their office. He says, you know, when they sit in Moses's seat, that would have been a judgment seat. They're judging matters according to God's law. And Jesus says they legitimately hold that office. Romans 13 tells us that, you know, all governments, all authority comes from God. And so they were put in office by God. Now Jesus does go on in that same passage and says, you know, whatever they say, you know, you observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say and they do not do. In other words, they might speak accurately out of the Word of God, but don't follow the model of their lives, is what Jesus has to say. And that's why the angst of God Almighty, Jesus, is against these leaders. And that's who he's talking to in the story. So let's start to unpack the parable a little bit. The Vineyard. the land that's been cultivated and prepared, the vineyard, is a picture of Israel. And you'll see at the end of this that his audience, the leadership, they know what he's saying. Now, when Jesus taught him parables, Jesus said, this is given in parables, it's gonna be hidden to them, that they have eyes and they can't see, they have ears, they can't hear. But here, it's so plain that these leaders, they know what he is saying, and they don't like it. So, the vineyard itself being Israel, and we'll look at two passages, Psalm 80 will help us, and then Isaiah 51 will help us with that. So, Psalm 80, verse eight, says, you have brought a vine out of Egypt. And there's the picture of God's people, Israel, being brought out of slavery, out of Egypt. And they are called there a vine. So you have brought a vine out of Egypt. You have cast out the nations. And what would that be? That would be the driving out of the lands of Canaan, to make prepared the land of promise for them to have. So you've cast out the nations and planted it. And now that's national Israel in the promised land. You prepared room for it and caused it to take deep root. And it filled the land. And you can read that in Joshua, the taking over of the land. It says, and the hills were covered with a shadow. And this is going back to the picture of this vine growing up tall. So the land is so big that the land is covered with a shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs. So you get this picture of God taking the vine, planting it in the land, driving out the Canaanites. And he's talking about national Israel here, which is his vineyard. And you'll see that language also in Isaiah 5, where it says in verse 1 of Isaiah 5, Now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved according to his vineyard. So and Isaiah, the one who is the well-beloved, the song of my beloved, that's God, right? Our Lord Jesus Christ, it's God. So he's singing a song, this is Isaiah's song. And he goes on and says, 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." Now that language is what this leader today would have known that he was talking language that's right there in Isaiah 5. He's talking about national Israel. He's talking about the leaders that God put in place in national Israel. It says that in this picture, God put a hedge around them. God is their protection. He puts up a tower, a high tower. And you can imagine in a vineyard, going up in the tower so you can see the whole of the vineyard. Maybe you're looking for a vermin and fox that would come in and be a problem in the vineyard. But the idea is protection and safety. And this is all found in God. And this language is found throughout the scriptures. The leadership would have known what Jesus was talking about. Like in Psalm 144.2, the psalmist writes, my loving kindness and my fortress. Now he's saying this to God. My loving kindness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer. my shield, and the one in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me." This is the psalmist crying out to God and calling him his protection, his shield, his high tower. So the leadership would have known the language that Jesus is importing into this parable that he's teaching. Also notice within the parable that Jesus says that the owner of the vineyard, the owner of the land, does everything that's necessary to produce a good, healthy crop, and then goes off to a far country. He puts tenants in the land, there's a lease agreement, and he goes off to a far country. And that's prophetic in itself. If you know your Old Testament and the intertestimonial testament period between Malachi and where our New Testament picks up in Matthew, 400 years have gone by. And even non-Christian Jews who wrote about those years in antiquity called those the years of silence. God was not talking. They had the scriptures. I mean, God always speaks through his word. But they had no fresh revelation. They had no fresh prophecy in those 400 years until you get to the birth narratives like in Luke. We have Zacharias bursting in the song at one point, and the prophetic word that comes at that stage, at that juncture, when God's speaking again through John the Baptist and others. But this is a long time. We're almost as if God himself had gone on a long journey. And the people are there with the Old Testament. But while he's gone on that long journey, if you will, while God is silent, he's put in place leaders. to shepherd God's people. And that's really all part of what is being placed by Jesus into this parable. I was thinking about this, because when I read these kind of parables and stories, and I begin to look at the history of Israel, it's real easy for me just to see this as a history lesson and not realize there's implications and lessons for us as well. Because God says that he did everything that was necessary for national Israel. If there was a problem, it was not on God's part. There was issues in Israel and God says, I did everything. I planted a good choice vine. I put in the high tower. I put up the hedge of protection. I did everything that needed to be done. And the Bible says that God has done that for us in Christ Jesus. You get a passage like 2 Peter 1.3, it says, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him, who called us by glory and virtue. He's given us everything in Jesus Christ. And Ephesians 2.10, he says that we are his workmanship. That we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. That's synonymous with good fruit. As a matter of fact, he goes on and says, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So like we looked at, as we studied prior, that God expects His people to produce good fruit. Now we also know that the Holy Spirit's at work in us, and we're not just conjuring up good work out of our own flesh, that's impossible. But God's at work in us, but we need to really come under the fountains of grace and be in the Word of God, have our minds instructed by the Word of God. And then look to see what God would have us to do, because He does expect us to walk in the works He's prepared for us. So back to the parable. In the parable, now we come to the point of the season, which is the season we're in. It's harvest time. It's harvest time in Israel. It says in verse two of Mark 12, now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vine dressers that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vine dressers. God expects a harvest to be there and ready and handed over to Him. Now going back to the text, I think Jesus had in mind and the leaders, they knew He was talking about. Back in Isaiah 5, when you look at verse 3 and 4, It says, and now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between me and my vineyard. This is between God and Israel. You judge my relationship with Israel. Judge, please, between me and my vineyard. And then God says, through Isaiah, verse four, what more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? God's almost calling out Israel through Isaiah and saying, what did I fail to do for you? You know, that you're not producing fruit. Because he says, what more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then? Right? Because he's done everything. Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? In the Hebrew, the word that's translated in our English to wild grapes, it literally means stinking things. When I came looking for the good fruit, why did I find nothing but stinking things? Why is that? Did I fail to do something? Of course God didn't fail to do anything. That's the indictment against Israel in that day through Isaiah. In Isaiah five, again, verse seven, it says, 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 found oppression. For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. That's the stinking fruit that he found when he was looking for the good fruit. What's God's requirement? Well, you can quote this by heart. I don't know if Norma Jean can quote this, because I've heard you quote it before, but Micah 6.8, which says, He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? It's what Paul gets into in his writings, beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of the law. What is it? What kind of hearts are we to have for one another? What kind of heart are we to have towards God? It's not just the outward, do this and don't do that. It's a deep heart issue that God expects to be tilled and fertilized and growing forth fruit of justice and mercy and humility in our lives. I told you Matthew 23 for me is a tough chapter because Jesus goes on the attack as prophet. He was sent by God, you know, in his threefold office, but as prophet, he speaks prophecies of woe in that chapter. In just one verse for you, Matthew 23, 23, he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of law, justice, and mercy, and faith." He says, these you should have done without leaving the others undone. In other words, it's not a problem that you even go to the point of tithing the herbs in your little garden at your house. That's a good thing. But in doing so, you've left undone the delving out of justice and giving people and extending mercy and having faith. And that's Jesus' indictment, if you will, against the leadership that he's talking to in this parable. One of the principles that you see in the parable, and you might have noticed it, but if you didn't I'll point it out, is there's a progressive hardening of the tenants that occupy the vineyard. There's this progressive hardening. It says that he sent a servant, right? And in the parable, What's he talking about? He's talking about he sent prophets. He sent a prophet to the people. And you have to understand that the vocation of prophet in the Old Testament was to bring a legal accusation against the people of God to say, you and your forefathers agreed to this covenant and you've broken the covenant. And it was always a call to repent and return to God, right? But that was the job of the prophet. That is not a popular job to have, to be a prophet to a people that are stubborn or obstinate, and to tell them that they have broken covenant with God, and they're out of sync with the covenant, and God's going to bring judgment if they don't repent. But that was their job. So it says he sends a servant, which is a picture of he sent a prophet, And it says they took him and they beat him, and they sent him away empty-handed. He doesn't get a portion of the spoils of the harvest, which was the agreement. He doesn't get that. He sends them another servant in verse 4. It says, him they threw stones, they wounded him in the head, sent him away shamefully. So it's progressing here. He sends them another servant, another prophet. And it says again, you know, they sent another, and him they killed. So they beat, and then they violently attack, and now they've killed. And now God, in his mercy, in the story of the parable of the landowner, sends wave upon wave upon wave of servants. And we could say, well, that means God sent wave upon wave upon wave of prophets, and he did. And so when that happens in Mark 12, it says, many others beating some and killing some. Jesus is talking about the long-suffering and mercy of God, who instead of sending wrath upon the nation, sent prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet, crying out in the streets that the people would awaken, that they've offended the holy God, they've broken covenant with God, that they would repent and return to the Lord. and his mercy he sends wave upon wave." Now when you look at the New Testament and the sermon, which I'm not going to read, of Saint Stephen in Acts chapter 7, Stephen, led by the Spirit, goes through basically the whole history of Israel. And when he gets to the end of that sermon in verse 51, He is almost in the office of prophet himself, says to the leaders, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one." Who's that? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, you killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. And what do they do? They kill Stephen. They pick up stones and kill Stephen. So I see here, and again, I can slip into just looking at the historical context. There is a historical context. We can learn something about God's redemptive history here, for sure. But there's a warning to us as well. Sin itself, there's a progression to it. And it seems like in our foolishness at times, we think we can reach out and just nibble a little bit on a little innocent little nothing sin, right? But we would call that. And progressively, further and further away from shore, our boat drifts. And Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews warns us as Christians about that. So let me read that warning. It says in Hebrews 3 verse 12, says, Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." That we would endure in the faith. And he warns the church. Why would he warn the church if this wasn't something that we could fall into or willingly walk into? The deceitfulness of sin. It's just a little sin. It's just a little white lie. However we deceive ourselves. And sin always takes us farther away from God than we ever wanted to go. And it keeps us there farther and longer than we ever thought we'd be there. So the warning comes in Hebrews. Wave upon wave, servant upon servant. Hebrews 11 talks about, going back to our parable, about God's mercy in sending so many. And then what did the people do when God sent his man, the prophet, to come and awaken the people? Hebrews 11 verse 36 says, Talking about the prophets, still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in the deserts and the mountains and dens and in caves of the earth. Nehemiah 9.26 says, nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. Cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to yourself. and they worked great provocations. Jesus, in his parable, is talking about all of that, but he's really laying it before the current leadership, not saying, hey, this is what your fathers did. He's basically saying, this is what you're doing right now, right now. J.D. Jones, in his commentary, says that this story conveys the love and the incredible patience of our Lord. Listen to what he writes. He says, it is a parable of divine patience. Dr. A.B. Bruce says that no landlord would ever have acted as this landlord did. The whole story has an air of improbability, not to say impossibility. An ordinary landlord would very speedily have evicted those troublesome and rebellious tenants, quite so. Jesus had to tell an improbable, almost impossible story if he was to convey any notion of the patience and longsuffering of God. For God's patience does pass all the limits possible to us men. As Faber puts it, his fondness goes far out beyond our dreams. Indeed, in his primary application, this parable is not a parable at all. It is a simple matter-of-fact history. This is how God treated Israel. He sent to them servant after servant, prophet after prophet, and though Israel turned a deaf ear to the appeals of God's prophets from Amos to John the Baptist, even then, God's patience was not exhausted. He had yet one, a beloved son. He sent him last unto them, saying, They will have reverence for my son. What marvelous and subduing patience it is. Ascending of the Landowner's Son. That's, to me, where the story goes ludicrous. You have the parable, and we get it, okay, he's the landowner, he's got tenants in the land, they've got an agreement, they're supposed to give part of the harvest, he expects good fruit, he expects a harvest, he expects payment, and he sends a servant, and they send him away empty-handed. He sends another one, and they violently attack him. He sends another servant, and they murder him. Servant after servant, it does get ludicrous, and it's supposed to. It's supposed to be hyperbole. Servant after servant, murder after murder. And then he goes, you know what? I'm going to send my son to these guys. They'll respect my son. It really is. There's some hyperbole in the telling of the story. Jesus, in his coming, comes in that threefold office of prophet, priest, and king. And as prophet, he comes to Israel to speak the truth to them, to awaken them to the fact that they have broken covenant with God. In Matthew 3, you know the text, a voice comes from heaven and says, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Elsewhere he says, and listen to him. In other words, he's my voice piece. He's prophet to the nation. In Malachi 3, it says, the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant. That's a title for Christ. He's the messenger of the covenant. He came to awaken Israel to the fact that they had broken covenant. And in Hebrews 1, the writer of Hebrews spells that out for us. It says, God, who at various times, various ways, spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. Right? He's spoken through His Son or by His Son. And Jesus, who willingly comes in obedience to the Father, in perfect agreement in the Godhead that he would come, that he would be prophet to the nation, and then when they rejected him, that he would go and die for sinners. The same Jesus, when he comes in Luke 19, looks over the city, And it says, as he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it. He wept over the fact that they were so blinded and so deaf to the calls of God that they couldn't turn to the living God and find life. And he wept over the city. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing. the great love of God. Luke gives us one little detail, and it seems like a small detail, but it's important, obviously, in the telling of this parable. In Luke 20, 13, when these servants are all killed, all sent away, beaten, the owner, in verse 13 of Luke 20, it says, the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? And the idea in Luke, and of course these are the words of Christ, is that God surveys Israel, surveys the situation, sees all the efforts and all the love that he's poured out and sending prophet after prophet, and they continue to murder the prophets, and he says, what shall I do? Now, we would answer that and say, well, no, what I would do, I'd drive out those tenants. I love my kids. I don't know that I'd send one of my kids to those rascals. I mean, they might get hurt. So he thinks, what shall I do? Should I send an army? Do I get an army together and take those people out? They're murderers. Do I bring them before the council and watch the sentence come down on them? Because the sentence for murdering would have been the losing of their own lives. No, he says, what shall I do? And then in Mark 12, 6, he says, therefore, still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, they will respect my son. That's the point we are in the gospel of Mark, is the son has been sent, the son has been teaching, the son has been prophesying, and the son is being rejected. He's not being respected. This is such a well-known passage, but try to hear it with fresh ears. I think sometimes those that aren't Christians that also know this passage, because it's so familiar. I don't even know if they know that Jesus is the one that said these words. But Jesus in John 3 said, For God so loved the world, And you have to stand back and understand John's theology that he's talking about that world. What world? The world that rejected God's call, the world that murdered the prophets, that place. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Spurgeon wrote, the sending of Jesus to Jerusalem was God's ultimatum. If he should be rejected, judgment must fall upon the guilty city. It seemed impossible that his mission could fail. In sending his beloved son, the father seemed to say, surely they will reverence my son. Can they go the length of doing despite? to the heir of all things? Will not his own beauty and majesty over all them? Heaven adores him. Hell trembles at him. Surely they will reverence my son." Spurgeon writes. And then you have the rejection of the wicked tenants in verse 7. But those vinedressers said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance. will be mine or be ours. It's the heir. If we kill him, this place is ours. That's it. He's done with servants. We got the son. We inherit the farm. We inherit the vineyard. In the story, and we might not pick up on this, but the most detestable thing happens. They kill the son, and they throw him outside of the vineyard. Which I believe is prophetically a picture of the fact that Jesus was crucified outside of the center of the city. He was taken to Golgotha to be executed, to be put on the cross. But it's the worst thing that a Jew could have happen, unimaginable, is that you would be put to death And then your body just cast out into the field somewhere. And that's the disdain that these vinedressers in the story and the parable have for the son. It's not just simply, well, let's do away with him and make sure he gets a proper burial. He's cast out, which is kind of amazing in the story. And then as I read the parable, I ask the question to myself, and I'm just stepping into the story. I know it's a parable, but I'm stepping into it. Look at the reasoning of the tenants. They think, OK, you kept sending servants to us. We took care of them. We beat them. We stoned them. We killed them. And now you brought your one son, and we took care of him too. He's gone. He's dead. So therefore, the next thing that will happen is this is ours. The vineyard's ours. Who are they forgetting in this story? They're forgetting the landowner. Jesus is saying, you forgot God. You forgot there's a God in heaven. There's a sovereign God above all of this. And he will deal with you. The vinedressers, he's the heir. Let's kill him. The inheritance will be ours. Deuteronomy in chapter eight, beginning in verse 11, instructions to Israel. If you know your Old Testament, Leviticus is the book of the law, right? We get all these instructions. Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law. Why was it given again? Because they were about to cross into the promised land. They had wandered around for 40 years and Moses gets to them and says, look, I have instruction for you. And Moses basically says, I'm not going to cross with you. And Joshua's going to take over, and he's going to cross in with them. But Moses brings them back through the law, and he brings them back to the covenant that they had made with God. And in Deuteronomy 8, verse 11, it says, Beware. that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you today. Lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses to dwell in them, And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness in which there were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you, that he might test you, and to do you good in the end. Then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. Oh, beloved, we got to watch that one. Our own wickedness. That they would say, my power and my might, the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant, which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. And Moses leaves them with that instruction, and they go into the land, and you know the Old Testament story, they do turn to other gods. And God, in his mercy, doesn't pour down wrath. He says he's gonna destroy them. He sends them a prophet, and another prophet, and another prophet, prophet upon prophet, wave upon wave, and finally sends his son. And that's what Jesus is teaching here. Now, Jesus goes to the application of the parable in verse 10. Now remember, he's talking to the scribes, the leaders here. He says, 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. In Matthew 21, Matthew's telling of this parable, he says in verse 43, therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. And the land owner's son will be murdered, in just a couple days in Mark's gospel. The destruction of the vine dressers will occur in 70 AD, when Rome comes against Jerusalem. This stone is God's chosen king and chief cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hendrickson says in his commentary, anyone who opposes Christ is going to be pulverized. If Christ strikes him with his judgment, the person so stricken will be crushed. And that's what Jesus is teaching there. And he says the vineyard will be given to others. And we see that in the formation of the beginning of the church in the book of Acts. The nation, national Israel, is judged. But God has not done with his people. He has his remnant. And now the gospel call goes to the nations. And now no longer is the kingdom of God confined to national Israel. It's now the people of faith from every nation that goes forth. That's what Jesus is talking about. In Ephesians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul talks about this. He says, remember you were once a Gentile in the flesh, called uncircumcised by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands. And he talks about how God brought us together by faith, both Jew and Gentile, and reconciled us both as one man through the cross of Christ Jesus. And this is what Jesus is talking about in the parable. So the state of natural man, J.D. Jones again says, sin dulls the sensibilities and sears the conscience. And so gradually the sinner becomes capable of crimes from which, in his more innocent days, he would have shrunk in horror. Thus it came about in Jerusalem, which began by rejecting the messages of the prophets and then ended by crucifying Christ. between two thieves. The ending of this parable, they understood what he was saying, and it was shocking. Luke records the shock. He says, in verse 15, Jesus says, therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vine dressers and give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, certainly not. Far be it from this ever happening. This is impossible. This will never happen. But Jesus, as the voice of God, as the prophet of God, as the messenger of the covenant, was speaking truth. And they just couldn't wrap their minds around it. Matthew records for us that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation. That's the word ethnos, which just means a people. It's the people of faith that God has entrusted the kingdom to in the church age that we live in. Lastly, Jesus' stern gaze and somber words. They say, certainly not in Luke 20. And then he looked at them. Now, I preach a lot, and I look around the room a lot when I'm preaching. I try not to zone in on you, because isn't that the most uncomfortable thing in the world, when somebody just looks you in the eye, and you're just like, oh boy. Because I've done it before, and you guys usually look down, because it's awkward. So I try not to do that. But that's exactly what Jesus is doing here. He hears they say, certainly not, and he looks right at them, right in the eye, stern gaze. He looks at them. He says, what then is it that was written? The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, right? And he goes through that Old Testament passage. Jesus gives them that stern look. The Holman New Testament says the Sanhedrin did not miss the message of this parable. They recognized that Jesus had claimed divinity for himself. that he had prophesied destruction against them and their elaborate system, and that God's blessings would come upon the hated Gentiles. But again, their fear of the people with whom Jesus was popular kept them from taking action at this point. But they will take action, beloved. And next time we'll look at the Pharisees and the Herodians coming to trip him up. And this is all culminating on this Passion Week to the arrest of Jesus, where he'll be taken, tried, a mock trial, and brought to the cross, where he'll be nailed to the tree to die for our sins. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, a lot there, and I'll just simply leave it to your Holy Spirit to apply the text that we've studied today. And Father, thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Go in the peace of Christ Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel.