Rechanzado la autoridad del Rey | Mateo 21:33-46

Making choices can be hard sometimes. One of the reasons is because you don’t want to make a choice you’ll latter regret.

Have you ever made a choice you later regretted?

Some choices have different impact than others.

Why did I drank that double espresso during the evening meeting?

Why did I get a new (item) instead of waiting to go on sale?

Why did I reject that job offer when it was I should have said yes?

There is one decision that depending on how you decide will impact the rest of your life and and its consequences will affect you forever.

Pray!

The parable that Kenny read is found In Matthew 21:33-46. Jesus tells this parable (a story) as part of 3 parables that answer the overall question, “how does one enter the kingdom of God?”

Let’s look closer at the Parable of the Tenants into three parts:

The parable presents a problem

The parable offers a solution

The parable demands a response

1. The Parable presents a problem

The tenants refuse to follow the terms of the lease that the owner of the vineyard had set. The tenants begin to act like owners, “We don’t have to listen to anybody!”

Pop culture, “Live like an owner.” “Have it your way!

Bible, “No, you are a tenant. You will be held accountable.”

We all live under the illusion that we can live complete independent, self-sufficient lives. “We don’t need God.

The parable presents the following problem: Every single person on planet earth has a willful rebellious corrupt heart.

My 2yr old.

We are sinners by nature and by choice.

Simply put: We sin because we are sinners.

Philip Hughes writes the following regarding original sin, “It tells us that there is an inner root of sinfulness which corrupts man’s true nature and from which his sinful deeds spring. Like a deadly poison, sin has penetrated into and infected the very center of man’s being...”

The tenants refused to submit to the terms, they rejected the messengers and even went as far as murdering the owner’s son.

This is a picture of humanity: How can they reject the messengers of God, even his own Son?

Sin affects our ability to see our own sinful condition.

Romans 8:7 NVI

7 La mentalidad pecaminosa es enemiga de Dios, pues no se somete a la ley de Dios, ni es capaz de hacerlo.

Romans 8:7 RVR60

7 Por cuanto los designios de la carne son enemistad contra Dios; porque no se sujetan a la ley de Dios, ni tampoco pueden;

Outside of the redeeming power of the gospel, we are all in deep hostility towards God. Because of sin, we naturally reject God like the tenants because we hate the idea that we are not in charge. In other words, in our natural sinful state, we see God as an enemy to our lives.

“Not me pastor Hector, I grew up in a good CH and we went to church every Sunday.”

Did you notice the tenants represent religious people?

At first, the religious leaders thought Jesus was talking about someone else. "Preach it!”

Religious leaders are faithful church goers

Fast 2x a week

Give 10% of their income.

v. 45 reveals that eventually they realized Jesus was talking about them!The problem with religion is that it makes your heart dull and blind to your own sin.

Jesus can see past the religious facade - they want nothing more than to have Jesus out of their lives to the point that they are willing to murder him.

You see, rejection of Jesus can take a religious form. “Your religion is keeping you from receiving the Son.”

The biggest barrier to full surrender & repentance is religion! “I do this, I do that.”

In her Novel, Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor writes about one of the characters, a young boy who had developed a conviction “that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.”

I don’t need Jesus - my life is not that messed up

I don’t need Jesus - I don’t make horrible sinful choices

I don’t Jesus in my life - I only need him at a distance in case I need something from him.

Religion keeps Jesus at a distance.

Matthew 21:31–32 NVI

31 ¿Cuál de los dos hizo lo que su padre quería? —El primero—contestaron ellos. Jesús les dijo: —Les aseguro que los recaudadores de impuestos y las prostitutas van delante de ustedes hacia el reino de Dios. 32 Porque Juan fue enviado a ustedes a señalarles el camino de la justicia, y no le creyeron, pero los recaudadores de impuestos y las prostitutas sí le creyeron. E incluso después de ver esto, ustedes no se arrepintieron para creerle.

Nothing wrong with being a good person/citizen.

The problem is the attitude, “We will earn our way into heaven. We don’t need Jesus.”

Yet, the gospel implies a complete heart transformation. *WHAT DOES FRUIT REPRESENT? Matthew uses fruit to represent evidence of repentance (transformed life).

Matthew 3:8 NVI

8 Produzcan frutos que demuestren arrepentimiento.

2. The Parable offers a solution

In the parable we see the character of God: his grace, patience, and kindness.

You see it in his generous heart. He provides care and protection for the vineyard.

Matthew 21:33 NVI

33 »Escuchen otra parábola: Había un propietario que plantó un viñedo. Lo cercó, cavó un lagar y construyó una torre de vigilancia. Luego arrendó el viñedo a unos labradores y se fue de viaje.

You see his patience in action by sending messengers to the rebellious tenants multiple times.

He doesn’t give them one chance to repent, but chance after chance, after chance.

How has God send you repeated messengers in your life to tell you to fully surrender your life to God by repenting of your sin of self sufficiency, “I’m going to do things my way”?

God will send messenger after messenger in your life to tell you, “you are not the owner.” (we don’t like to hear that)

One of God’s messenger - your parents

Another messenger - individual friend

Another messenger - online sermon (social media, podcast)

Another messenger - life punches you hard on the face. Providential messenger (tragedy or near tragedy, a loss, a disappointment - goals/agenda). PANDEMIC!

God is telling you and I, “you are not in control of your life.” Surrender & trust

How are your treating the messengers God is sending you into your life? Are you kicking them and hitting them thinking they are ruining your life?

Finally, the owner shows ultimate grace and mercy: he sends his son. But, they end up rejecting him - they kill him.

3. The Parable Demands a Response

When Jesus poses the question at the end of the parable in v.40, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”Vv.41-44 is the application of the parable.

Matthew 21:41–44 NVI

41 —Hará que esos malvados tengan un fin miserable—respondieron—, y arrendará el viñedo a otros labradores que le den lo que le corresponde cuando llegue el tiempo de la cosecha. 42 Les dijo Jesús: —¿No han leído nunca en las Escrituras: »“La piedra que desecharon los constructores ha llegado a ser la piedra angular; esto es obra del Señor, y nos deja maravillados”? 43 »Por eso les digo que el reino de Dios se les quitará a ustedes y se le entregará a un pueblo que produzca los frutos del reino. 44 El que caiga sobre esta piedra quedará despedazado, y si ella cae sobre alguien, lo hará polvo.

Two choices are before today. How you decide will impact the rest of your life and and its consequences will affect you forever.

Receive Jesus. You can either build your life on stone

Or you can reject Jesus and be crushed and destroyed by the stone.

What about a third option? There is no third option.

“THERE ARE ONLY TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE END: THOSE WHO SAY TO GOD, “THY WILL BE DONE,” AND THOSE TO WHOM GOD SAYS, IN THE END, “THY WILL BE DONE.”

― C.S. LEWIS, THE GREAT DIVORCE

Am I trying to scare you? Absolutely!

ETERNITY IS AT STAKE

You are in danger! v.41, “[The owner of the vineyard] will put those wretches to a miserable death.”

Main idea: God is very patient with those who willfully reject his offer to turn from their sin but one day time will run out.

I’m here today as a messenger to tell you the good new of the gospel message: You can be reconciled with God

How’s the possible?

Romans 5:8–11 NVI

8 Pero Dios demuestra su amor por nosotros en esto: en que cuando todavía éramos pecadores, Cristo murió por nosotros. 9 Y ahora que hemos sido justificados por su sangre, ¡con cuánta más razón, por medio de él, seremos salvados del castigo de Dios! 10 Porque si, cuando éramos enemigos de Dios, fuimos reconciliados con él mediante la muerte de su Hijo, ¡con cuánta más razón, habiendo sido reconciliados, seremos salvados por su vida! 11 Y no sólo esto, sino que también nos regocijamos en Dios por nuestro Señor Jesucristo, pues gracias a él ya hemos recibido la reconciliación.

You see, when the son shows up in the parable, he is killed out of hatred and enmity, but God in his wisdom uses the very killing of his own Son in order to put an end to such enmity.

Conclusion: God has made everything possible for you to surrender and repent. You have a choice to make.

Reject or repent.

Reject - I will do what I want - consequence/crushed and destroyed by the stone

Repent - I will turn from my sin and turn to Jesus - result: a whole new life built up on the stone. What choice will you make?