The Cornerstone

Call to Worship:

Benediction; 2 Cor 13:14

Introduction: This is the leaning tower of Pisa that was built 900 years ago, and it is one of the most famous buildings in the entire world, specifically because it leans. The fact that it leans is the only reason any of us have ever even heard of it!

When they built it, the foundation was made much too small for a building of its size and weight. and then, to make matters worse, the ground they chose was sandy, with no bedrock to support the weight of the building. Even before they were half-way finished, the tower was already leaning over but they didnt want to admit defeat so they just kept building and the tower just kept leaning more and more. By the 1900s, the lean had gotten so bad, that if emergency steps werent taken, it would collapse! So, cables were attached to the tower to pull it back and almost a thousand tons of lead blocks were put on the ground floor to pull the building back towards center. The tower still leans, but they say that now it is not in danger of collapsing.

Our passage today is going to teach us about foundations. Specifically, it is going to teach us that Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith. The foundation that everything else is built upon. And that unlike this unstable tower, which was built on an insufficient and unreliable foundation, our foundation is totally sufficient and totally trustworthy.

Please stand

Big Idea: We must make Jesus Christ the cornerstone of our lives.

Scholars debate but this is taking place on either the Tuesday or the Wednesday of Holy Week, the week in which Jesus is killed.

I. Christ’s Authority vs. 11:27-33

A. The Challengers vs. 27-28

-Chief Priests, Scribes, Elders-These three groups are the leaders of the Jewish religious establishment.

The Chief Priests are members of a group called the Sadduccees. They run the Temple, and are the ones getting rich off of the corruption we talked about last week. These men were political allies with the Roman occupiers.

The scribes are the religious lawyers who make their living interpreting the thousands of small laws in the Jewish system. Jesus had already condemned them earlier in Mark for their pride and because they valued their own traditions more than God’s Word and the good of suffering people.

The elders were the community leaders and civil judges, many of whom were wealthy businessmen.

These three groups often had differing opinions and struggled with each other for control. But one thing that unites them is that they all hate Jesus equally and this binds them together. They fear his influence with the people and think that Jesus is a challenge to their place in society. The alliance of these three groups against Jesus proves that the enemy of my enemy is my friend!

-Their question in verse 28 is about who gave Jesus the authority, the right, to do the things that he does and teach the way that he teaches. And we have to remember that just the day before, Jesus came in and ransacked their corrupt business empire that they had set up in the Temple. We know that Jesus could cleanse the Temple, because he is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that he speaks for God and thus has the authority to decide what happens in the Temple and what does not. But this group of priests and scribes and elders do NOT believe in Christ. And by asking Jesus this question publicly, we can see that it is actually a trap. They are hoping that Jesus will openly say “I am the Messiah, and thus I have all authority.”

As soon as he says that, they will have him arrested for blasphemy.

Because the Lord’s time had not yet come, he does not answer their question, but instead responds with a question of his own.

B. The Lord’s Response vs. 29-33

-Jesus asks them about John the Baptist and the source of his ministry. Was John just another religious fraud like them? Or was John the real deal? A mighty prophet like the prophets of Israel’s past who had spoken courageously for God and been martyred as a result? And we have to remember what John had said.

John had pointed to Jesus and called him the Lamb of God! he had baptized Jesus and thus put his own stamp of approval on Jesus’ ministry. He had also condemned the priests for their hypocrisy and called the people to repentance. And he had done all of this in the overwhelming, undeniable power of the Holy Spirit. If the priests say that John’s message was from heaven, then they will have to acknowledge that John the Baptist pointed EVERYONE to Jesus and said “after me comes one greater than I, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

But if they say that John’s ministry was not from God, then they know that the people will condemn them because the regular people could see the power in John’s life and ministry. So here these priests and lawyers are publicly caught between a rock and hard place, seemingly with nowhere to go!

And because they do not have the courage to actually say what they believe, they refuse to answer, so Jesus in turn refuses to answer them!

-I find it interesting that Jesus is willing to leave the conversation just like that. The hearts of these leaders are hard as granite and they dont want to believe. They are like swine and Jesus will not cast his pearls in front of them and he will not spend any more of his precious time on them either.

(Energy UP here).

Authority-Belmont, everything in the Gospel of Mark has taught us that because he is God’s Son, Jesus has all authority.

He has the authority to teach in God’s name and demand obedience to what he says

He has the authority to forgive sins,

he has authority over sickness,

he has authority over the demons which he casts out,

he has authority over nature which he proved by creating food and calming a storm,

and he had authority over life and death, demonstrated in the raising of the dead girl to life in Mark 5 and soon by his upcoming Resurrection.

His overwhelming authority in all areas can mean only one thing, that…Jesus is Lord. And that you and I must submit to him and obey him! This is not an option! As the great preacher John Macarthur says:

To be a Christian is to die to self, to ambition, to ego, and to pride. It is to bow in humble submission to Christ’s lordship.

John F. MacArthur

The Bible is crystal clear that one day in the future, every single person who ever lived will acknowledge the the lordship of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes:

English Standard Version Chapter 2

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

If you are in this room, you have two choices in regards to the Lordship of Christ. And the choice is not will you submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ or not.

SLOW DOWN

The choice is to submit in this life, and know his forgiveness, his love, his blessing, or to submit in the next life, when it is too late and you will know only his judgement.

If you have not submitted your life to the authority of Jesus Christ by turning away from your sins and believing in Christ Jesus to save you, then I urge you to do so today!

Dont be like these priests who challenge his authority and end up walking away from him, still in their sins and still under his judgement.

II. The Parable of the Vineyard vs. 12:1-12

Here at the start of chapter 12, Jesus tells a parable that shows God’s perspective on Israel and its religious establishment. Its a parable that takes the 2000 year relationship of Israel and its God, and condenses it into just 12 verses!

A. The Parable vs 1-9

-Vineyard-This represents Israel

-The owner of the vineyard is the Lord God

-The Tenants-People given control over the vineyard with the agreement that they will help the vineyard produce fruit. These represent the priests.

We see that the owner, who had the right to the vineyard, does everything needed to make the vineyard succeed. We see in verse 1 that he plants the vineyard, and puts a fence around it, and then he digs a winepress and he even puts a watchtower up over it to protect it. This vineyard has been set up for success! And this is what God had done with Israel. He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, then brought them into a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And he had given them his Word so that they would know how to live rightly, and he had protected from their enemies and sent the judges and prophets to lead them. Israel had everything necessary to succeed.

But you know the old saying that you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink. This is the case with Israel because the tenants that take over this vineyard, who represent the priests and religious rulers. They consistently mislead Israel. And because of this, the vineyard becomes unfruitful.

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I was thinking about how the Lord describes this vineyard, and how Israel had been set up for success, and iwas just reminded of myself at five years old in Tball. So you stand there, and they have a coach literally put the ball in front of you and I remember swinging and missing the ball but hitting th Tee. So the coach puts it up there a second time and I do it again. and then a third time. You guys should be alarmed, you have chosen a pastor who struck out at Tball! But the point is this, God DID EVERYTHING FOR ISRAEL. He put them in a good land with everything they needed to succeed. And they still struck out, just like a little kid striking out at Tee ball.

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Now eventually, the owner sends his servants to collect his portion of the fruit crop because the tenants owe him this. This is how they pay their rent!

And what happens when the servant arrives? He is terribly treated! He is badly beaten. So the Lord sends another servant. And this one comes and it says they strike him on the head, literally, the bash his head in, and humiliate him. But the owner doesnt give up.

He keeps sending servants, and the rebellious behavior of the tenants seems to escalate. The tenants mistreat some of the servants and others they kill! These tenants are HORRIBLE people!

In the parable, these servants, or slaves, depending on your translation, are the Prophets of the Old Testament. The Prophets spoke for the Lord to Israel, usually carrying a message of repentance from sin, calling the people to come back to the Lord. Because sin and repentance made up their message, the Prophets were typically hated by the people and their leaders. No one wants to be told that they are in sin after all! The Prophets of the Old Testament, one after another, came and delivered a hard message to sinful people who did NOT what to hear, and because of this, the Prophets suffered persecution at the hands of Israel, who were supposed to be God’s people!

John the Baptist is the last prophet and his arrest, imprisonment, and execution are pretty standard treatment for these faithful servants of the Lord.

At this point, after seeing his servants abused and killed, the Owner would be justified in bringing the full force of the law down on the tenants and wiping them out! But notice how long suffering and patient the owner is! He is sending servant after servant to them, pleading with them to turn back from their rebellion.

Finally, the owner, sends the ultimate messenger. He sends his very own Son. His Son has the full authority of his Father to come and reason with these rebellious tenants to try and get them to give to the owner what he is owed. And notice how the Son is described in verse 6. He is the Beloved Son. Obviously, the Son in the story is Jesus our Lord. And “Beloved Son” is exactly how Jesus is described at his baptism in Mark 1. The Scripture says

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The Son is his Father’s pride and joy, and yet he sends him into the hands of these terrible people. And the tenants, seeing the Son come, decide that they will kill him and take his inheritance! So they murder him and throw his body out of the vineyard. They want to take what is rightfully the Son’s!

This is a side note, but is it just me, or have humans been acting like these rebellious tenants forever? Have you noticed how ungrateful, unbelieving people want to throw God out, so that they can try to “steal” what rightfully belongs to him? Have you noticed that if we throw God out of our government or our society or our schools or our families, that you can then do anything that you would like? But have you also noticed that when you toss God out, everything falls apart? This parable was specifically spoken to condemn the leaders of Israel, but it applies in a sense to any group of people who look at the Lord and say “We dont want you, but we do want all the benefits of the world that you have made!” The spirit of these rebellious tenants lives on even today, wherever people rebel against the Lord’s rightful authority!

Vs 10 describes what happens to the tenants. After failing to provide fruit and killing and humiliating the servants, and then finally killing his Beloved Son, all in a desperate attempt to live without the authority of the Master, judgement comes and the tenants are wiped out and the vineyard is loaned out to other, better tenants.

Like we talked last week, this wiping out of the tenants takes place in the year AD 70 when many of the people in our story would still be alive. The Roman army attacked Jerusalem because Israel had rebelled against the Empire. In a brutal siege, Jerusalem was reconquered by Rome, and almost everyone inside of it, including the priests and elders and scribes, were killed. Any survivors were packed off into slavery. In total, more than 1 million Jewish people were killed across Israel and the Temple was completely destroyed. The destruction was so great and so complete, that Jerusalem would have looked like it had been hit by a nuclear bomb after the legions of Rome were finished with it. This was the destruction of the rebellious tenants that the Lord was teaching about in the parable!

And the new tenants in our story, who are faithful and share the fruit of the vineyard with the owner, represent the Apostles, who became the leaders of God’s people and spread the Good News of Jesus to every corner of the known world. And this should excite us because we as non-Jewish Christians are part of their incredible legacy of faithfulness. The nations being reached with Gospel and churches being planted in every corner of the world is Good fruit for the Lord of the vineyard!

B. The Cornerstone vs. 10-12

Jesus next quotes from Psalm 118 in verse 10 and 11. This is important because remember our story last week, where the people cry out Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord? That was also a quote from Psalm 118. Jesus is taking this Psalm that the people sang when they celebrated Passover and applying it to himself. He says

“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

11  this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

When they built a building in their day, they did not have concrete like we do, so they could not just pour a foundation like we can. Instead, they would usually get a single, extra large stone and shape it until it was as level as they could possibly make it. This stone would be set at a corner, and all of the other walls would be built off of this one stone. If this cornerstone was not level, then there was no way that the walls built off of it would be level, and if you pulled the cornerstone out of the wall, the structure would collapse. The cornerstone was thus the key to the whole structure. Lose it, and you lose everything else.

Jesus is saying that the leaders of Israel, had looked at him and in their hard-hearted rebellion and unbelief, had rejected him as the Messiah, just like builders looking at a stone and deciding it wasnt useful for their purposes, so they throw it away. But just like that rejected stone actually becoming the cornerstone of a building, Jesus is the cornerstone of his people’s relationship with God.

Without Jesus, the entire structure of our faith comes crashing down. He is the base, and we, his people, are totally dependent upon him as we are being built up into the great new Temple of the Lord. The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2 “Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Eph 2:20–22.

In verse 12, the Sadduccees get exactly what Jesus meant by this parable. They know that he is teaching about them and their wicked behavior. So how do they respond to this parable about wicked servants conniving together to kill the Son and steal the inheritance? They get together in a secret group and scheme how they can arrest Jesus and turn him over to the Romans to be killed. In doing this they act JUST like the wicked tenants in the story! They get so mad about his parable that they act exactly like the murderers in the parable!

Belmont, as our worship team comes back up to the stage, I want to remind you of our main idea, that we must make Jesus Christ the cornerstone of our lives. So I want to ask, what is the cornerstone you are building your life upon?

Let me ask it like this, what is the foundation of your relationship with God? Is it your own goodness, or is it the perfection of Christ given to you at the Cross when you believed in him? Are you trusting in Christ alone for your salvation, or is there something else, anything else, at the base of your faith?

Or how about your daily life? Are you living for Christ, obeying Christ, in the power of Christ, or are you living for yourself, doing whatever you want, in your own strength?

How about your family? Is it founded upon Jesus or is it a structure of relationships built on something else?

In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus tells a parable about two builders. One man builds his house on sand. The other man, builds his house on the rock. The winds come and the waters rise and the house built upon the sand collapses because it had no foundation! But the other house, built on the Rock which represents Jesus Christ, endures the storms of life and death without issue because it was built on a strong foundation.

If you are in this room, and you have never turned away from your sins and put your faith in Jesus, then you are like this man who built his house on sand. The day will come when everything you have trusted in will collapse and you will be left out in the storm. Turn from your sins today, and put your faith in Jesus to save you, and in so doing you will have built your house on the rock-solid foundation that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the World.

Would you pray with me?

Benediction; 2 Cor 13:14