The Disobedient Farmers

Welcome: Good morning to those in person and those online, my name is Kent and I’m the student pastor here at Crosspoint and I’m truly glad that you have chosen to worship God with us this morning.

Introduction

I want to share a couple other announcements this morning. Parent night tonight. As students prepare for Ice Camp this upcoming weekend. I want to ask you, church, to pray for the hearts of these students and leaders who will be going. Please pray for a willingness to first accept Jesus as their savior if they haven’t already and then second for a desire to grow in their relationship with God. We are already praising God for the numbers of students who have signed up to go. This is our largest group that I have ever taken to Ice Camp in the three years that I’ve gone. It’s exciting to see students desiring to continue to go back to camp year after year. One student wrote to me, “I really liked it last year. It was so fun; we got to hangout with friends and meet new friends. I really love Ice Camp.” Another student wrote, “I want to go to Ice Camp because I went last year and it helped me grow closer to God. It is really fun discussing scripture with the youth leaders and friends.” It’s awesome to see students’ desires to grow relationally with God. To recognize that their life isn’t about themselves but rather about loving God and loving others.

In our text today of Luke 20, we see the Jewish religious leaders show almost the complete opposite attitude toward God. The Jewish religious leaders made their life about themselves instead of truly submitting to God’s authority. As we continue our study of Luke we come to a parable of the vineyard owner starting in Luke 20:9. If you listened to Dave’s sermon last week, you heard about how The Jewish religious leaders were challenging the authority of Jesus because they didn’t believe that He is the Son of God.

This morning we are going to study a parable that speaks to the Jewish leaders unwillingness to submit to the authority of God. If we pay close attention to this illustration of the Jewish leaders’ hearts, I think we will be reminded of some gospel truths in our own lives. So if you have your bibles with you please meet me in Luke chapter 20 verse 9. Luke 20:9. Now before we starting reading I want to point out a couple of things before hand.

Vineyard owner - God the Father

Vineyard - Israel

Tenant farmers - Jewish Religious leaders over time

First three servants - different Old Testament prophets

Son of the Vineyard owner - God the Son (Jesus)

With all this in mind, let’s go ahead and read this parable. I’m reading from the CSB translation starting in Luke 20 verse 9.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 20

9 Now he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and went away for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the farmers so that they might give him some fruit from the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent yet another servant, but they beat that one too, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third, but they wounded this one too and threw him out.

13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’

14 “But when the tenant farmers saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those farmers and give the vineyard to others.”

But when they heard this they said, “That must never happen!”

17 But he looked at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of this Scripture:,

The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone?,

18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”

19 Then the scribes and the chief priests looked for a way to get their hands on him that very hour, because they knew he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

At first glance at this story, it may leave you flummoxed, or in a state of shock. Based on external actions, you may be thinking how can the tenant farmers act in this way? How can they be so hateful? How can they be so self focused? I think if we look deeper it may surprise us what we find. As we peal back layers of this story we are trying to get to their hearts. Because at the heart of a matter is a matter of the heart so let’s look at our story again and see if we see something about the heart of the tenant farmers. As we look through Luke 20, if we go to verse 14 we will see a glimpse into their motive for their actions.

Read Luke 20:14

Luke 20:14 CSB

“But when the tenant farmers saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’

Did you catch it? “so that the inheritance will be ours.”

The tenant farmers have commited the sin of Idolatry.

Idolatry- Trusting, serving or giving worship to something that is not God (repeat with me)

These tenant farmers had an idolatrous desire for money. Their heart was focused on building their own wealth so much so that they were willing to kill for it. Now when we talk about wealth we need to remember wealth or money itself in not inherently sinful, it’s how you view it.

1 Timothy 6:10 CSB

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Key word is loving money especially in ways that makes you disregard the needs of others in the church, in the community, and not realizing that everything you have has happened under God’s sovereign control.

In this parable we see that wealth is indeed viewed in a sinful idolatrous way. The tenant farmers refuse to see that they are hired help, they don’t own the vineyard. Plus they didn’t even plant the vineyard, the owner did! Their job was to care for the vineyard and harvest it. But along the way they saw the wealth in the harvest, saw that is was desirable, and didn’t want to share any of it. They disregarded the well being of the servants that the owner sent as they beat them up. When the opportunity came to take the vineyard for themselves, they killed the son of the vineyard owner.

This parable lines up with what the Jewish religious leaders have been doing to the nation of Israel since the old testament times. God was the one who formed the nation of Israel, starting with Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob and his twelve sons, through 400 years of slavery in Egypt. But after that we see along the way the Jewish leaders saw how the nation of Israel could benefit themselves and make them wealthy.

Ezekiel has this judgement against the Jewish religious leaders of his time.

Ezekiel 34:1–6 CSB

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed their flock? You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend the flock. You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd; they became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered. My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and there was no one searching or seeking for them.

This continues into the New Testament as Jewish religious leaders continue to abuse their position for wealth and power.

John 11:47–48 CSB

So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and were saying, “What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs? If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

At the heart of these texts is an idolatrous desire for wealth and power instead of serving God and serving others.

The outward actions of the Jewish religious leaders make it obvious that they have idolatrous desires in their lives. But getting to that point doesn’t happen overnight. Idolatry can slowly creep into our lives without us noticing it.

I currently have the privilege to part of a great men’s group that meets here on Saturday mornings at 7am, and this semester we are reading “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis. In the book it gives an example of a subtle temptation of idolatry. For context purposes, this book is set in England during the time of World War 2. In one of letters from the senior demon, Screwtape, He writes to his nephew demon, Wormwood on the topic of making his patient- the human that Wormwood is tempting- into either a pacifist or a patriot during the war. An excerpt from this letter reads as this.

“Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause,’ in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism.”

What C.S. Lewis is not saying is that it’s bad to have opinions on current day issues. But rather he is writing that we have to be careful that our opinions on current day issues don’t elevate higher than the gospel. We have to be careful that it doesn’t become an idol.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when we give our attention, our energy, our money toward anything more than we give our attention, energy, and money toward the Gospel of Jesus Christ at that point we have lost sight of the beauty and importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we have traded it for a lesser than substitute that in the end cannot save any souls.

C.S. Lewis in his book gives a good image of what it looks like to have idolatry slowly creep into our lives. If we are not careful, after an idol has taken settled into our daily routine, we can become like the Jewish religious leaders where religion becomes merely part of the ‘cause’ and our worship is no longer fixated on Almighty God but rather on something else.

The tricky part of identifying the sin of idolatry in our lives is that many times idolatry can be consisted of “good” things.

Idolatry can be consisted of “good” things.

A spouse/desire for a spouse is a good thing to have, but a spouse can become an object of our worship when our identity is based on our spouse, we have put our spouse in the place where only God should be. Our spouses can be an idol.

Food is a good thing to have, but food can become an object of our worship when we find comfort in food first, we have put food in the place where only God should be. Food can be an idol.

Sex is a good thing, but sex can become an object of worship when we desire sexual satisfaction above all else, we have put sex in the place where only God should be. Sex can be an idol.

Sports are a good thing, but sports can become an object of worship when our joy is tied to sports, we have put sports in the place where only God should be. We have made sports an idol.

Money is a good thing, but money can become an object of worship when our trust and dependence is tied to money, we have put money in the place where only God should be. Money can be an idol.

A job is a good thing, but our job can become an object of worship when we put our self-worth based on our job, we have put our job in the place where only God should be, our job can be an idol.

Our children/the desire for children they’re a good thing, but children can become an object of worship when we our joy is tied to children, we have put children in the place where only God should be. Children can be an idol.

Activity in the local church is a good thing, but activity in church can become an object of worship when our security of salvation is tied to activity in church, we have put activity in the church in the place where only God should be. Church activity can be an idol.

There are so many other examples of good things potentially being idols in our life. This list is just one that I personally have been tempted by and battled with over the years of being a Christ follower.

For those who have a relationship with Jesus, I want you to ask yourself,

What in my life is a higher priority than the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Be honest with yourself. Don’t make excuses for yourself. Don’t try to justify it somehow. Be honest. What in my life, in your life is a higher priority than the gospel of Jesus Christ?

If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of something, write it down. Tell someone, confess it to God. Repent of your sin of idolatry. God is gracious and faithful to forgive you and me of our sin.

Repentance is the first step in reorienting a disordered heart. (Repeat this)

We have to recognize that our worship should only be directed the creator instead of something created.

For those who do not have a relationship with Jesus, I want to ask you,

Why are you continuing to reject Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of your life?

For those who may not know of the illustration of a cornerstone, a cornerstone was used as the first stone to be laid for the foundation of a building. Once the cornerstone was set it became the standard for where the other stones would be laid. Everything else was aligned to the cornerstone.

For those who don’t have a relationship with Jesus, you’re trying to base your foundation of your life on a cornerstone that is lesser in comparison to Jesus. It’s not as strong, it will not stand forever, it will fail you because whatever you have in place of Jesus is something that is created not the creator.

Jesus is the perfect cornerstone for the foundation of your life. I ask you, will you stop trying to build your life on a foundation other than Christ? Will you repent of you sin today? None of us are promised tomorrow and none of us know when Jesus will return, but there is today, there is right now, when you can start having a right relationship with God today and know that you will spend eternity with Him instead of eternal separation in Hell.

In closing, as much as this parable exposes the idolatrous heart of the Jewish religious leaders, we also see characteristics of God. We see God bring our provider as He is the one who plants the vineyard, we see God being compassionate, slow to anger, as He keeps sending servant after servant, then we see God’s amazing love as He is willing to send His son to die. This is the kind of God who is calling us to put Him first in our lives over anything else. This is the God who wants to be in a relationship with you today. This is the God that should be our cornerstone of our lives. He alone is worthy of all of our devotion and our worship. Will you give Him your devotion and worship today? I pray that you and I will do that today.

In a moment we are going to take communion this morning.

Communion

Communion provides us a reminder of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for us. It should cause us to pause and examine our own lives and repent of sin in our lives. Communion should cause us to pause and reflect on the goodness and love of our amazing God. We invite those who call Crosspoint home and visitors to partake in communion. We do ask that as a requirement for taking communion that you do confess that Jesus Christ is your Lord of your life and savior.

As communion is a beautiful picture of believers confessing their dependency on Christ and reminding believers of His love and forgiveness toward us.

If the ushers would please start passing the communion trays.

Ask Dave about gluten free wafers.

Benediction

1 Cor. 6:9-11

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

9 Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males,, 10 no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. 11 And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Let’s live in our identity that we have in Christ. Doesn’t mean that we will be perfect in everyway but when we do sin, we repent of it, seek forgiveness and turn away from our sin.