Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc: What's the best story you've ever heard? Today Dr. Philip Ryken is going to retell one of the greatest stories that Jesus ever told. It insulted his audience, and the climax of the story highlights Jesus, but there's a twist. Someone is murdered.

Welcome to Every Last Word, a radio and internet program with Dr. Philip Ryken, teaching the whole Bible to change your whole life. We're working our way through the Gospel of Luke, getting closer and closer to Jesus' death. In the message today, Jesus gives us great insight into the kingdom of God.

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc (Mark): Phil, in today's parable, the stewards of the land abuse and even kill those who came to represent the master of the land. Is this a real-life story?

Dr. Philip Ryken: It is, Mark. Some of the stories that Jesus told are ones that he just made up in a very imaginative way, and this was an imaginative story as well. It was a parable, but Jesus was really telling the story of Israel.

Many of the prophets came speaking a true word from the Lord God of Israel, but those prophets were abused and some of them were even put to death. That's the story that this parable tells.

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc (Mark): In this passage, Jesus refers to himself as the cornerstone. Just what is a cornerstone, Phil, and how is Christ that stone for us?

Dr. Philip Ryken: This is what Jesus says at the end of the parable because he's talking about people abusing and even killing the son of the master of the vineyard. He's really telling his own story. The people listening don't believe it. They can't imagine that somebody would actually kill the son of a master.

Jesus makes it clear he's really talking about himself. He's the cornerstone, that foundational stone on which the whole temple of the people of God is built. But Jesus is giving a warning here. Not everyone will receive his grace and believe his gospel.

In that case, that stone isn't just a building stone; it's actually something that will crush people. Here's the very important warning at the end of the parable: either we will be saved by Jesus, or we will be judged by him and ultimately destroyed. This is perhaps the most important parable that Jesus ever told.

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc: Thank you, Phil. Let's turn in our Bibles now to Luke chapter 19, verse 41, through chapter 20, verse 8, and listen together to Dr. Ryken.

Dr. Philip Ryken: Please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 20, where this week we consider a parable that Jesus told as recorded in verses 9 through 18. Surely, Jesus of Nazareth is the greatest storyteller who ever lived, the Prince of Parables.

None of his stories is more than a page long, and yet each one of them is a perfect masterpiece. What stories Jesus told! Stories about rocks and trees, about sinners and saints, about farmers and businessmen, about fathers and sons. With each story, he inspires our imaginations and gives us a deeper understanding of the kingdom of God.

With each story that Jesus told, he was drawing one step nearer to the cross. Jesus was in Jerusalem now, the city where he had come to die. Everything in the Gospel of Luke has been building us to this point, preparing us for the work that Jesus has come to do in this city.

Here was a man who was destined to die. As we come closer to the cross, we see that the storyteller and the suffering servant are one. It only seems natural for him to tell this last full parable in the Gospel about the death of a father's only son.

It was the last week of Jesus' life on earth, and he told a Gospel parable about the cross and about the judgment to come. Here is how Jesus began the story: A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.

When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.

He sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. Often it's important not to read too much into all the details of a parable, and yet this parable is really an allegory in which each of the main characters stands for someone.

I want to begin by drawing some of the basic connections and then focus on one of these characters in particular before giving you the warning that Jesus gave at the end of this story. Rather obviously, the man who planted the vineyard stands for God.

In effect, he is Israel's landlord. He is that property owner who gave them the promised land in order that they should work the ground for his glory. Here in the parable, the owner is a kind of absentee landlord. He has been gone for a very long time.

He is a long-suffering landlord because despite the ill treatment that the people give to these servants sent to collect the rent, he patiently and mercifully gives them every opportunity to pay what they owe. This is the character of God. Even when we fall again and again, he very patiently invites our repentance, longing for the day of our obedience.

If God is the landowner, then what is the vineyard? The vineyard stands for the people of Israel. I say that in part because this is a very familiar image from the Old Testament. This is a parable that requires us to understand the full biblical background.

When Asaph praised God for the Exodus and what God had done for his people in those days, he described it like this: You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. We find the same imagery used in the prophets.

Jeremiah spoke of God planting Israel like a choice vine. Hosea called it a luxuriant vine. This is the imagery that was used to describe God's people in the Old Testament days. Perhaps the most famous prophecy comes from Isaiah in chapter five, in which we find a love song, the song of the vineyard.

The prophet begins by saying, "Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard." Then he tells the story of this beloved vineyard: "My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill." The prophet goes on to describe the hard work that the owner had to do to start the vineyard.

By the end of verse four, we see it all ending in disappointment because the fruit is only wild grapes and it's not suitable for winemaking. In the end, the vineyard had to be torn down. The prophet is really saying the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.

This was a familiar national symbol that God had planted his people like a vineyard, and they were supposed to be fruitful and produce for him. In so many ways they had just produced wild grapes and needed to be brought under judgment.

Whenever the Israelites encountered this imagery, they knew immediately it referred to their national identity. It would be very similar to the way a Canadian thinks about the maple leaf or the way an American thinks about a bald eagle. When you see that symbol, you know it's referring to your whole nation.

When Jesus begins speaking about a vineyard, the people knew that he was speaking about them and about their relationship to God. In fact, right there in the very temple where Jesus was speaking, there was a carved image of a vineyard.

It was sculpted around the door that led from the porch to the holy place. Its branches and leaves were of finest gold, and from time to time people would donate gems to be included in that symbol of the vine. It represented their national identity.

Who then were the tenants? Who were these men who held the lease to the owner's vineyard? Who was it who was responsible to care for those people of Israel, that vineyard of God, so that they would bear good fruit and produce the wine of sweet obedience?

The answer is that those tenants are the spiritual leaders of Israel. They are the very priests and scribes and elders introduced to us back in verse one of this chapter who were challenging the authority of Jesus right there in the temple and trying to destroy him.

These were the men who were responsible for God's people and for their spiritual growth. God had been away for a long time, ever since Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden. While he was away, these spiritual leaders were supposed to cultivate the people.

They were supposed to feed them, prune them, and protect them so that they would grow. They were supposed to love God's people the way that a winemaker loves the best grapes in his vineyard. Then the people could be for God and for his glory.

These tenants were abusing their authority. We've seen it all the way through the Gospel. This parable Jesus is telling to show them the way that they are failing in their responsibility. He describes the situation in which several years have passed.

There's been enough time for the vines to start producing good wine. The landowner sends his servants to begin collecting the profits paid to him presumably in the wine itself. This is the way payment was made for this kind of tenancy in those days.

The servants came to collect the latest vintage. Yet the tenants refused to make the proper payment. Not only do they keep the wine for themselves, but they abused every last one of the owner's servants. According to the terms of this allegory, the servants are the prophets.

They are the prophets whom God sent to his people again and again. In the Old Testament, God calls them by this name: "My servants the prophets." When God sent Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea and all the rest of them, it's as if he's sending his servants out to the vineyard.

They were to bring back the good fruit of obedience. This is what the prophets were doing. They were calling the people to faith. They were telling them to bear good fruit. They were warning them that if they did not repent, they would perish.

These servants received rejection, persecution, and abuse, particularly at the hands of the tenants of the vineyard. How often the prophets went to the people, and yet they were rejected, particularly by the leaders. The prophet Jeremiah speaks about this.

God said, "I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them day after day, yet they did not listen to me." Many of the prophets were ill-treated. Many of them came to a violent end. Think of Jeremiah, ridiculed and rejected, before being thrown down to a muddy pit.

Think of Zechariah, murdered in the precincts of the very temple. Think of John the Baptist, who was beheaded. Consider the testimony of Stephen not long after these words of Jesus. Stephen, moments from his own martyrdom, said, "Which of the servants did our fathers not persecute?"

They even killed those who announced the coming of the Righteous One. Do you understand the meaning of this story? Each of the people here stands for someone and teaches us something about living for God. You see the long-suffering landlord, and it reminds you of God.

It shows you how patient he is, how he's waiting for your repentance. You see the vineyard, and that reminds you of your responsibility as the people of God to bear good spiritual fruit. You see the wicked tenants, and you see what kind of spiritual leadership God loves and hates.

You see how important it is for spiritual leaders to see that the people of God are for God and not for themselves. You see the suffering servants. They represent the prophets, and they teach us to expect persecution and difficulty if we preach in the name of Christ.

Those are all valuable lessons to learn, but we do not come to the heart of the parable until we see the sending of the owner's son and his murder at the hands of evil men. Listen to what the owner says: "What shall I do? I will send my beloved son."

As soon as we hear these words, we know that we're standing on the holy ground that's at the heart of the universe. The beloved son or the only beloved son is a precious person in the whole story of salvation. We catch our first glimpse of him in the story of Abraham.

Remember how God called that patriarch to make the costliest of all sacrifices. He said to him, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering." There you see the beloved son and the call to sacrifice him.

It was all part of God's preparation for the coming of Christ because he too is a beloved son. He is the beloved son, the only son of the loving Father. Luke has testified to this in his Gospel. He tells us that a voice came from heaven and said, "You are my beloved son."

When Jesus went up on the mount of transfiguration, a voice came from heaven saying, "This is my son." When he tells us a story about a beloved son, it's a story about himself. He is the most beloved of all sons. He has to say, "You have to see this is a beloved son."

Our hearts are drawn to Jesus the Son and to God the Father who loves him. Some skeptical scholars doubt whether Jesus really understood his own divine identity, just as the scribes and elders of his own day doubted whether he had divine authority.

Jesus knows exactly who he is, that he is the Father's beloved son. When he tells this parable about the sending of a beloved son, he's bearing witness to the love that he has enjoyed with the Father from all eternity. Jesus is the eternally beloved son.

From eternity past to eternity future, the Father is always loving the Son. If you want to understand who Jesus is, you have to understand that he is the beloved son. This parable is pointing to that. This beloved son is also sent on the Father's mission.

Out of his loving heart, the Father is sending his beloved son. That's the verb he uses: "I will send my beloved son." He asks the question, "What shall I do?" then he gives this costly answer: "I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him."

We want to tell this man he's making a terrible mistake. Even without hearing the rest of the story, we know that the wicked tenants will not respect the man's son anymore than they respected his servants. You would want to say, "Don't do it! Don't you know what they will do?"

That is exactly what they did to him. For Jesus goes on to say that when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, "This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours." They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Apparently after such a long absence, these tenants assumed that the owner must be dead. Thus they seized this opportunity to claim the vineyard for themselves. They knew that the son was the son, and yet they refused to acknowledge his rightful claim.

In their foolish wickedness, they take him out and kill him. This story is much more than a parable. Really it is a prophetic autobiography. The storyteller is telling the story of himself. Jesus knows who he is. He is the last in the long line of prophets.

He knows that he is the beloved son. He also knows what he is doing because he knows that in sending the son, the Father is sending him to die. There is such an air of inevitability about this entire story. Jesus knew what would happen to himself.

Already the religious leaders of that day had rejected him. They were denying his divine authority. They were refusing to acknowledge that he came from the Father. That's the context at the beginning of chapter 20. They are now plotting to destroy him.

That very week they would conspire to commit his murder. Having persecuted all the prophets, they would now slaughter the beloved son. How wicked it was! God is the owner of all creation. What could possibly be gained by murdering his beloved son?

The people should have been giving him all of their worship and honor and praise. As the Father's son, he had a right to the good spiritual fruit of God's vineyard. Instead, the people are rebelling against the authority of God. They're refusing to give Jesus his due.

They've rejected all of the prophets, and now they are getting ready to crucify the only begotten son. What a brutal, horrible crime it was. The most awful thing that anyone has ever done, the murder of God's infinitely perfect son. Yet we see it was also part of God's plan.

If we were to ask the Father, "Don't you know what they are going to do to your beloved son?" he would say, "Yes, I know it, and that is why I have sent him into the world. Don't you know that? That I have sent my beloved son to do the work of salvation?"

In this amazing parable that Jesus tells in the last week of his life, we see that the Father and the Son both know what will happen. The Father is sending the Son to suffer and to die for sinners. This is the main business of his life.

The scriptures say that God so loved the world that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The question is, do you believe in Jesus or not? In believing the son, you will have life and not perish.

The Father has sent the son so that you might be saved. Yet some people refuse to acknowledge his sonly authority. They prefer to work their own religion, to worship the God of their own understanding. Or perhaps they imagine that God the owner is dead.

They think if somehow they can simply deny Jesus as the son, they can have life all to themselves on their own terms. This is the choice that everyone has to make. It's the choice that no one can make for you but you. Will you believe in Jesus or not?

Jesus said, "Whoever believes in the son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God." What will happen if we do not believe in the son? What will the consequences be?

Jesus wants to give us a serious warning. He poses this question: "What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?" What do you think the owner should do? These tenants have murdered his beloved son. What does justice require?

Jesus goes on to say, "He will come and destroy those tenants and he will give the vineyard to others." I suppose people don't always like the way that God deals with sinners. I doubt though whether you can argue with him here on the basis of justice.

These men have murdered the owner's beloved son. They surely do not deserve to work any longer in his vineyard. No indeed, they deserve to die. The people in the story all stand for someone in real life. Understand what Jesus is saying here.

When Jesus said that the vineyard would be taken away and given to others, he was really saying that Israel's priests and scribes and elders would no longer lead the people of God. Their leadership would be transferred to the apostles of the church.

The Gospel in days to come would go out to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. The people who were listening to what Jesus said knew exactly what he was saying. They could hardly believe it. They said, "Surely not! Surely not, Jesus! Surely you can't mean that."

It was unthinkable to them because they had so little spiritual concern for people outside of Israel. They had turned the court of the Gentiles virtually into a grand bazaar. It's interesting what made these people angry, isn't it? It's not the death of the beloved son.

That's not the thing that provokes their outrage here. It's the idea that they're going to lose their place of spiritual leadership. These men were not concerned with the person and work of Jesus Christ, but only their own important position in the religious community.

How deadly that attitude always is in Christian ministry. As soon as we become concerned about our own position and reputation, and more concerned about that than the honor of Jesus Christ, we no longer deserve any kind of leadership in the church.

In order to confirm what he was saying, Jesus quoted from the scriptures. He wanted to give them just a little bit more of the background here so they would fully understand. The people are saying, "Surely not," and Jesus wants to say to them, "Yes indeed."

He looked directly at them and said, "What then is this that is written: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?" Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

This is a hard saying. Hard to understand and hard to accept. It is worth struggling to understand because this is one of the most important things Jesus ever said. This quotation is essential to his own understanding of his saving work.

This quotation comes from Psalm 118, the psalm people had been singing as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. They said, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." The part of the psalm that Jesus wanted to quote comes earlier in verse 22.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This statement refers to an unusual incident that occurred during the building of Solomon's Temple. In those days, the great stones for the temple were cut at the quarry and then chiseled into the proper shape.

They were transported to Jerusalem directly to the temple worksite and slid into place. One large stone had turned out to be the wrong size and shape. When it arrived at that building site, the workmen had to set it aside. It was the stone that the builders rejected.

To everyone's surprise, that unwanted stone later turned out to be exactly the right size and shape to serve as the cornerstone, the thing that holds the whole structure together. The psalmist was using that stone as a metaphor for the whole nation of Israel.

Like the cornerstone, the people of God were rejected. They were rejected among the nations. In a way, they were rejected by God when they were taken into captivity. Yet later God rescued them and restored them to their place of honor.

They could sing, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Jesus in quoting this verse was saying that this was really a prophecy about himself fulfilled in his coming as the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the stone that the builders rejected.

That's what the religious leaders were doing at that very time. In destroying him, they were rejecting the cornerstone of salvation. That's what the parable was about. Those wicked tenants were like these builders who rejected the chosen stone.

These words from the psalm were coming true: the rejected stone was about to become the murdered son. But that wasn't the end of the story. That stone that was rejected became the cornerstone. Jesus quoted the full prophecy because he knew it was a promise about the Gospel.

As the son, he would be rejected unto death, but he would not be rejected forever because the Father would raise him up again. That stone rejected at the cross would become the cornerstone of resurrection life. Jesus is also giving a hint that he would come back from the grave.

It's a promise of the whole Gospel. It's the resurrection as well as the crucifixion. All of that brings us back to the same crucial question: do you believe in this Jesus or not? Do you believe that his rejection is your salvation?

Do you believe that his resurrection is your life, that he rose again so that you could live forever? If you do not believe this, you need very seriously to consider this warning at the end of the parable. It's a warning about the heavy stone of the wrath of God.

Jesus says, "Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." Those are words to heed because Jesus knew better than anyone else what will happen to people who reject him.

The truth is that many people get tripped up when they encounter Jesus. They stumble over him, so to speak. They don't accept him as the Son of God and Savior of the world. They think that he is not really relevant to their life or experience.

What a crushing mistake that is to make. Jesus says here that people who trip over him will be broken to pieces. I think that refers to something that happens already in this life. If we refuse to accept Jesus, eventually life falls apart.

You see at the end of the warning something much worse that happens at the final judgment. Jesus Christ himself, that stone of salvation, will fall on everyone who is not built on top of it. It will crush us completely if we have not believed in him.

He's the precious stone. God's chosen him to be the cornerstone. But if we trip over him, then he'll fall on us at the end with crushing force. This is why Jesus was weeping as he rode into Jerusalem. He knew that they would come to reject him and he cried great tears.

This is why Jesus gave this warning because he wanted people to know his identity as the beloved son of God. He wanted to warn them about the weight of the judgment of God so that we would be saved and not destroyed.

Will you come to Jesus in faith, or will you stumble over him? Imagine for a moment that you knew by reliable testimony that some enormous boulder was about to come crashing through the ceiling of this room. It would fall right on the place where you are sitting.

If you knew that was about to happen, what would you do? You would move out of the way if you believed that that word of warning was really true. What then will you do with the word of warning that comes from Jesus Christ?

Will you move out of the way of judgment? Will you come to him for salvation? Don't stumble over the stone of salvation. Don't fall under the judgment of God, but believe in the beloved son.

Our Father in heaven, we give you praise for your great love for Jesus, your only son. We also give you praise for your great love for us. You have said that we, through faith in Jesus, are your beloved sons and daughters. Father, we pray that we may find safety in Christ.

We pray this not only for ourselves, but for our families, for our friends, for a lost city in need. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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