THE REBELLIOUS WICKEDNESS OF REJECTING JESUS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 29, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: September 29, 2021 from Luke 20:9-19

Theme: To reject the testimony that God has given of His Son is a very wicked act of rebellion.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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Not long after Jesus had entered the city of Jerusalem—not long after He had cast the money changers and sellers of doves out of His Father’s temple—a series of ‘temple confrontations’ began. The chief priests and scribes and elders of the people challenged Him for His actions; and they began to oppose Him and seek to trap Him with their words.

In our last study of Luke’s Gospel, we saw how those religious leaders demanded that He tell them what authority He had to do the things He was doing—and who it was that had given Him that authority. Without knowing it, they were throwing their opposition back toward the God who had given that authority to Jesus. He responded by showing them that the real problem was that they were rejecting Him because they were rejecting His Father’s will for their lives.

And it’s then that He turns from those religious leaders, and speaks instead to the people who were listening in—using those leaders as an object lesson.

Then He began to tell the people this parable: “A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.’ But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.” And when they heard it they said, “Certainly not!” Then He looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

‘The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone’?

Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people—for they knew He had spoken this parable against them (Luke 20:9-19).

This is a very important parable. It’s repeated in all three of the synoptic Gospels. It was spoken against those religious leaders; because they were the wicked vinedressers of the parable. And it was intended to reveal the rebelliousness of their hearts toward the God who had sent His Son to them.

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Back in those days, people had lots of varying opinions about Jesus. People also have lots of opinions about Him today. You will find lots of books written about Him in which the authors work out their own ideas and beliefs about Him. But in the end, the truth isn’t found in any human being’s opinions about Him. The truth is found in what the declaration of God the Father is concerning His Son. If that declaration has already been made from the throne of heaven and already declared on earth, then no one else’s opinion has any authority. All people everywhere are obliged to bow to the declaration of God concerning Jesus Christ.

What is God’s declaration concerning Him? At His baptism, the Father said this about Jesus:

“You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

That’s the authorized declaration of the Father regarding Jesus. He is the Father’s Son. And to embrace any other opinion of Him than that one—or to reject the Father’s declaration regarding His Son and to refuse to bow to it—is nothing less than rebellion against God. This means that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, and ought to be received as the Lord of all humanity; that, as the apostle Paul once put it …

at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

The chief priests, scribes, and elders—the rulers of the Jewish people, and the superintendents of the temple of God at the time—should have known this. But they did not believe it. They rejected Jesus. They rebelled against His right to call the temple the house of His Father. They rejected His right to exercise ‘Sonship rights’ over all that belonged to His Father. And so, as a result, Jesus spoke this parable to those rebellious leaders.

But He also, in a sense, speaks it to every human heart alive today. As this parable shows us, to reject the testimony that God has given of His Son is a very wicked act of rebellion.

It is, in fact, an act of rebellion that will result in terrible consequences.

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Now; you may be familiar with an unusual characteristic of many of Jesus’ parables. In them, our Lord often spoke with just enough obscurity that the hearers were left wondering what He meant. He once told His disciples that He did this in order to reveal the truth to those who had a heart to receive it; but also to conceal the truth from those who didn’t have the ears to hear it. But that’s not the case with this parable. Its meaning was very clear—so clear, in fact, that it made the religious leaders angry enough to seek His life.

So, let’s begin by considering …

1. THE PARABLE OF THE WICKED VINEDRESSERS (vv. 9-16).

Our Lord began by saying, “A certain man planted a vineyard …” (v. 9). And as soon as he spoke those words, the minds of the Jewish people who were listening would have gone back to what it says in the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah. In Isaiah 5, the prophet wrote a song about what God was about to punish the rebelliousness of Israel. In Isaiah 5:1-7, the prophet referred to Israel as God’s vineyard and said;

Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
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.

“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
I will lay it waste;
It shall not be pruned or dug,
But there shall come up briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”

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 behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help (Isaiah 5:1-7).

What a tragic story that song tells. It speaks of how God’s heart must have broken over the rebelliousness of His people; and of how grieved He must have been that He had to bring judgment upon them. And it would have been very much in mind as these people heard our Lord’s parable. In our Lord’s parable, the vineyard owner planted a vineyard. He also cared for it and prepared it; then leased it out to vinedressers and went away to a far country for a long time. He had a right to expect good produce at harvest time; and he sent a servant to collect the fruit that was rightfully his.

But look at what happened instead to the servant that the vineyard owner had sent. Jesus said, “the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out (vv. 10b-12). This reminds us of what our Lord said to the leaders of Israel on another occasion:

“Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation (Luke 11:49-51).

The vinedressers in our Lord’s parable were not merely foolish and incompetent. They were rebels. They were showing complete disrespect and disregard for the rights of the vineyard owner. They were a picture of the religious leaders of Israel who had, in the past, repeatedly killed the prophets that God had sent to them.

And it’s then that Jesus spoke of Himself in the parable; and of how God the Father had sent Him to the people of Israel. In verses 13-15, the vineyard owner said, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.’ But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.” It’s hard to imagine that they would have thought that killing the son of the vineyard owner would actually end up making the vineyard their own. It seems like a kind of madness to think such a thing. And yet, that describes what the religious leaders were about to do. Jesus—who was the Son of His Father and had a right to the temple—came to His Father’s temple. And the religious leaders were resistant to God’s will for them and demanded to treat the temple as if it was their own. And so, only a few days after the telling of this parable, Jerusalem’s ‘vinedressers’ took the Son of the Father and handing Him over to be crucified.

So; that’s the parable. And now, let’s consider …

2 THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THE PARABLE (vv. 15-19).

The first lesson comes to us in the middle of verse 15. It has to do with the justice of God the Father in acting against those who rejected His Son. Jesus said, “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?” And in verse 16, He answers; “He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.” And that’s what happened not long after Jesus was crucified. It was only a short while later that the Romans marched in and completely destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.—utterly demolishing the temple. God still loves the Jewish people. He still has a plan for them; and that plan will be fully realized when the Lord Jesus finally returns to this earth. But for the past two-thousand years that followed after Jesus was crucified, the focus of God’s gracious work has been directed to other people groups than the Jewish people. This shows us how serious a matter it is to rebel against the living God and reject His testimony with regard to His Son, or to refuse to give His Son the respect that is due Him.

The second lesson has to do with Jesus Himself, and with His own nature as the Son of the Father. When the religious leaders heard this parable, and understood its implications, they cried out at the end of verse 16 and said, “Certainly not!” In the original language, they used the strongest ‘No way!’ that they could have used. And then, in verse 17, Jesus quoted from the words of Psalm 118:22 when He told the religious leaders; “What then is this that is written:

‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone’?”

A “cornerstone” is the stone that a skilled architect or builder would use as the main stone upon which the entire building would be built. He would carefully select it, and prepare it, and set it in just the right place. And even though the religious leaders—the “builders” of God’s house—had rejected Jesus, He nevertheless became the very one that God would establish as the ‘chief cornerstone’ of His rule upon the earth.

And what a ‘cornerstone’ Jesus is! The destiny of everyone is determined by what they do with Him. In verse 18, Jesus said of Himself—as that chief cornerstone—“Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” He puts everyone at the crossroads! If they receive Him and humbly ‘fall upon’ Him—they will then be broken of their pride and arrogance and rebellion, and will bow the knee to Him, and become the recipients of His saving grace. But if they will not receive Him as they should—if instead He falls upon them in judgment—then He will grind them to powder! There is no third alternative.

And a final lesson is found in verse 19. It’s found in how the religious leaders reacted to what they had just heard. You’d think that after Jesus had revealed the truth of their rebellion, they would bow the knee to Him. But no. Instead, they became even more hardened in their rebellion against God. We’re told, “And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people—for they knew He had spoken this parable against them.” This teaches us that when someone is truly rebellious against God’s rule over their lives, even the truth about Jesus will not change them—not even when that truth comes from the very lips of the One who is Himself truth. Jesus declared in this parable what they were about to do to Him—and it angered them so much that they went out and did it just a few days later.

Only God—by His grace—can change a hard heart like that.

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Now; in the end, I’m grateful that our Lord submitted Himself to what these religious leaders would do. Because of it, He died on the cross for the sins of all of us.

But let’s make sure that we do not have a heart of rebellion against the declaration of the heavenly Father with regard to His Son. Let’s make sure that we personally yielded ourselves to Him as our Savior. Let’s fall on Him and let Him break us—confessing our sinful rebellion against Him, and accepting the payment He made for our sins on His cross.

Let’s make very sure that we do not do the dreadfully wicked act of rebelling against the declaration of God the Father concerning His Son.

EA