The Wicked Tenant Farmers

Mark 12:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 2, 2020.

We live in a day and age where there are difficult tensions on every hand.  The parable that we will read today reminds us that not all who claim to be God’s ministers and His people actually are.  The world takes advantage of this to accuse the Church and project it as irrelevant and non-essential.  Thus, true believers have to wrestle with the reality that not all who say, “Lord, Lord…” belong to Jesus, and yet the only hope for those who don’t believe in Jesus is to hear his Gospel and connect in a fruitful life with him and his people.

Two things must happen in these final hours of our work in this Age of Grace.  First, believers must get serious about having a living connection to Jesus, the Lord of Life.  We cannot afford to superficially participate in the things of God, and this goes for the average Christian and Christian leaders.  Second, we must be more convinced than ever that unbelievers will perish if they don’t hear the Gospel, believe on Jesus, and connect to his people.

This is a day that calls for boldness, but not a boldness in wickedness.  Rather, we need a humble boldness that does the work that Jesus has sent us to do though the whole world (other “believers” included) rails against us.

Jesus teaches with a parable

We are entering a section of Mark that apparently lasts for several days (note that Mark 14:1 says, “after two days”).  During this time, Jesus is teaching in the temple compound and interacting with the incensed religious leaders.  The main point of this parable of the Wicked Tenant Farmers is concerning the religious leaders.  However, if we take this parable and link it with the many other Scriptures that speak of God’s vineyard and spiritual fruit, we will find that it explodes with much more meaning and teaching than what is presented in our passage.

Now, parables teach a lesson about spiritual things by using the natural things of this life.  If Jesus were teaching today, he would no doubt have a parable about wicked property managers, hedge fund managers, or even rush hour commutes.  The natural story provides an illustration to the spiritual message it underscores.  Let’s look at the different elements of this story.

The owner is God.  He is the one who called Moses to co-labor with him in planting Israel in the promised land and setting up its spiritual care.

The vineyard is Israel as a nation.  Israel represented the visible kingdom of God (i.e. what God is doing in the visible realm).  Each person is a branch on the natural vine of Israel, but can only be fruitful if they are connected to the spiritual vine, which is God.

The vinedressers or tenant farmers are the spiritual leaders of Israel.  Vinedresser or tenant farmer translate a Greek word that literally means ground/earth worker.  It is where we get the English name George.  Since this is in the context of grape vines, these are the workers who tend the vines, harvest its fruit, and manufacture its wine.  Everything they do should be about making the vine healthy and fruitful.  The spiritual leaders are, of course, vines themselves.  Israel was not made for them and it did not belong to them.  They were simply serving Israel so that it could bear the fruit God intended.

The servants sent by the owner are the prophets of God.  God had been faithful to send servants who were inspecting the fruitfulness of the leader’s work.  Historically, the prophets were treated poorly and shamefully.  There does seem to be an increase in the wicked treatment of these prophets, but the final statement is that many other servants were sent, some beaten, and some killed.  The point is that this owner has been extremely patient and forgiving with these leaders of Israel, and the leaders have been extremely wicked.

The son of the owner is Jesus.  Here, Jesus presents himself as a unique servant.  The other servants were not biologically connected to the owner, but the son is.  Of course, outside of the analogy, God is spirit and thus, the biological should not be placed upon the relationship between Jesus and the Father.  Jesus is the One and Only unique Son of God.  Yes, we have been given the right to be called Sons of God, but that is in the sense of an adoption, a legal action.  However, Jesus is a Son of God by right of his being.  He alone is of the same being as the Father and has existed with Him from eternity past in an eternal unity.  The owner sends his son with the hope that they would respect him above the other servants.

The killing of the son is the coming crucifixion, only days away.  The parable presents that the spiritual leaders will knowingly kill the heir so that they can have the land to themselves.  Thus, they are greedy, unwilling to surrender their control over God’s people, and wicked.

We should not miss another layer to this parable.  The devil and his angels will also be guilty of this in the crucifixion.  They too are usurpers who attempt to lord their power over humans to the exclusion of God.  They will find themselves in the same boat as the first century leaders of Israel.

Jesus gives the moral lesson

The story ends at verse 8.  In some ways, this story is a moral obscenity that doesn’t need too much explanation.  However, mankind is making the same mistakes today.  The leaders of this world, both religious and secular, are seeking to kill the concept of God so greatly that the only thing left will be for the people of the world to look to them as gods.  In a sense, they desire to harness the people of the world for their own plans and ignore the rightful claims of God who is the true owner.

The main lesson that Jesus intends is brought to the forefront by the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do?”  God would destroy the spiritual leaders of Israel and get new ones who would do the job righteously. 

Jesus is warning that a destructive event is on the horizon that would wipe out these spiritual leaders who were confronting him.  The priestly tribe of Levi and the high-priestly line of Aaron were going to be rejected with new priests and ministers taking their place.  We should always remember that no one is indispensable among God’s people.  It belongs to Him.  John the Baptist warned his generation that God was able to raise up children of Israel from the stones on the ground if He needed.  If we use God’s people and institutions for our own purposes and abuse the true believers then we too will find a destructive event in our future in which we perish and God raises up others to take our place.

Jesus then reminds them that this had been foretold in Scripture (Psalm 118:22-23).  By the way, this is the Messianic Psalm that the crowds were quoting at the triumphal entry just days before this.  The picture is that the master builders will reject the cornerstone sent to them by God.  However, God will overrule their rejection and make him the chief cornerstone. 

We actually have a different analogy or picture that is one of a stone building.  The Son of God is the critical stone in the building of God, but the project workers are rejecting him.  The spiritual leaders were supposed to help Israel connect to the Son of God as the true vine of Israel.  In a sense, Jesus had always been the spiritual vine of Israel, but now he would walk among them.  Instead, the spiritual leaders were rejecting the true vine and keeping the people connected to them, or even worse, to an evil spiritual vine.

Psalm 118 then pictures believers rejoicing in the marvelous work of God overturning the leaders, and shouting, “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!”  Isaiah 28:16 picks up this same theme and declares that God Himself will set His precious cornerstone in the face of the rebellious leaders.  This also connects with the many passages that refer to a stumbling stone (see Isaiah 8:14).  Daniel 2:45 pictures a stone cut out by the hands of God, which crushes the beast kingdoms and fills the earth.  In 1 Peter 2:4-6, Peter pictures the rebuilding of a spiritual temple upon Jesus with those who believe upon him.

All the prophets had warned of this spiritual malpractice by the leaders of Israel, and the destruction that awaited them.  Thus, the leaders of Israel had no excuse.  God had warned them.  If this is true of them then what about Christian leaders?  If the leaders of Israel were without excuse then we are doubly without excuse because we have the Scriptures and the example of what God did to those first century spiritual leaders.  Christian leaders need to make sure they are not guilty of these same things “in the name of the Lord.”

This parable is also told in Matthew 21.  In verses 43-44, Matthew records some extra statements of Jesus that are not found in Mark 12.  Verse 43 says, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”  Jesus speaks of a new nation because the problem was not just with the leaders of Israel.  The vineyard analogy goes back to Isaiah chapter 5, where the prophet says that the vineyard itself is bearing wild grapes that cannot be used.  Therefore, the vineyard itself will be destroyed.  The destruction of national Israel within 40 years of the rejection of Jesus becomes an event in which God removes Israel as a nation and raises up a new nation, the Church.  Branches of national Israel who believed upon Jesus were transplanted throughout the world with spiritual leaders that would be both Jew and Gentile, under the everlasting covenant of the Messiah.  This is what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light!”  It is a nation that is not of one ethnicity, or of a particular geography, but a spiritual nation connected by the blood of Jesus and our capital city, the New Jerusalem, in heaven.  This new nation would receive the remnant of the old vineyard and increase it.

Clearly, the leaders of the Church have not all learned the lessons of the past, and not all Christians, who are not leaders, either.  Wake up Church of God!

Matthew 21:44 says, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”  There are only two options when it comes to Jesus, God’s cornerstone.  You will either fall upon him broken, or you will be crushed by him and ground into powder.

The first is a picture of a humbled person who is broken by the recognition of their sins.  They are falling on Jesus in repentance and responding to the Spirit of God to follow Him.  Though they are broken, he will be their healer.  The second is the picture of the wicked person who will be broken on the judgment day.  For most, that will be when they stand before him in judgment at the Great White Throne.  For some, that will be at the Second Coming when Jesus comes to cast out the usurpers of the earth and bring in everlasting righteousness. 

How about you today?  Are you casting yourself upon Jesus in humble repentance?  Are you connecting to him as the true spiritual vine, and drawing life?  Are you bearing the fruit that God desires, or is it only wild grapes?  This world needs believers who have the true fruit of God, so that they can have a chance of avoiding the coming day of God’s wrath upon the wicked.  May God help us to live for Jesus!

Wicked Tenant Farmers audio

The Authority of Jesus

Mark 11:27-33.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 26, 2020.

With the advent of this summer’s protests and the consequent actions, the question of authority is a timely one.  The First Amendment of the US Constitution recognizes the God-given right of every citizen to peaceably assemble in order to give voice to their concerns, and to ask for redress of their grievances- what the Bible would call justice.  Thus, the founding generation saw God as the one who authorizes our right to do so, not the government.

However, if God has authorized the action that you are taking then you had better do it in a way that is pleasing to him because you will be accountable to him.  This is why our founders added the word “peaceably.”  Those authorized by God must work peaceably in this age of his grace.

The same can be said for police officers who are to protect and defend the public good.  It is God who tells men that they are to uphold righteousness within their nations.  Each nation is responsible to set up the means of authorizing individuals to serve as police, and as judges, so that righteousness may flourish.  Thus, there is a divine and human aspect to their authority.  Again, let us not forget that an authorized person must act in accordance with and under the direction of that which authorizes them.  Of course, this all applies as well to protesters as well.

Today, we are going back to the week leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, and to the question of just what authorized Jesus to do what he did.

The religious leaders question the authority of Jesus

Just the day before our passage, Jesus had driven the vendors and money changers out of the temple compound.  The chief priests, scribes, and the elders of Israel were probably in shock at the time, but they have had their private discussions overnight and they are determined to publicly confront Jesus.  Just who does he think he is?  No doubt, they were watching for him to come into the temple area that day.

When he does, they are quick to confront him with a two-pronged question that is ultimately one.  By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?  Now, the immediate context would suggest that this is not about his itinerant teaching in Israel and the working of miracles.  Rather, they are questioning him about his right to interfere in the operations of the temple and to make it his public place of teaching.  You see, they were the ones who had authorized the vendors and money changers to be there in the first place.  Jesus had not so much challenged their authority, but rather, the particular things that they were using their authority to authorize.  They legitimately sat in the seat of Moses, but they were not making legitimate judgments and decisions.  They were unwilling to receive the public rebuke and were attempting to turn the tables on Jesus, so to speak.

Just because a person holds a position that is legitimately authorized by humans, it does not mean that they are actually authorized.  In Jeremiah 23:32, God rebukes the false prophets of that day. 

‘“Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness.  Yet, I did not send them or command them; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.’ (NKJV)

Whether some of these guys falsely obtained their positions, or they held them legitimately, they were at the least misusing their authority.  God was not pleased with their judgments.  All authority in this world is ultimately answerable to God for its actions.  Those who questioned Jesus did not realize that they should have been asking themselves that question regarding each decision that they were making.  It is precisely their failure in this area that made it necessary for God to send His Son to set things right.

It can look like Jesus is avoiding the question, but notice that he actually promises to answer it, if they will answer his question first.  “Was John’s baptism from heaven or men?”  This is essentially the same question that they were asking, but regarding John the Baptist.  Who gave him the authority to do what he had done?  This is a masterful turn of the tables because they are assuming to be the proper authorities and are in judgment of him.  Jesus essentially says, “Let’s see if you can judge the case of John the Baptist before you judge mine.”

Now, John’s ministry was far less controversial than the ministry of Jesus, but it was adversarial to the religious leaders nonetheless.  They had not authorized John to baptize people in the Jordan River.  He seemed to be skipping around their domain at the temple.  John even publicly declared that they were a brood of vipers who needed to flee the wrath that was coming (Matthew 3:7).  John 1:19-28 gives us a picture of these religious leaders examining John the Baptist.  Jesus is merely asking them to publicly declare the conclusion of their investigations into John.  Was following himself, or another man, or had God sent him?

There is another aspect to this.  It was John who publicly declared that he saw the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus, and that he was the one that he had been promising would come after him, the Messiah.  If John was authorized then it was most likely that Jesus was too.

It appears that they have a sort of huddle to determine their answer.  However, they are in a predicament.  If they say that John was authorized by heaven (God) then Jesus will ask them why they didn’t believe him, and embrace his ministry.  Yet, on the other hand, if they say that John was not authorized by God then they feared what the people would say and do because it was popularly felt that John was a true prophet of God. 

Here, we see part of the problem with all authorities and their authorizing mechanisms.  They typically fear people more than they fear God.  They rely upon the power of their position, but they always realize that if enough people reject them then they will lose it.  What do powerful people who do not fear God do in such circumstances?  They operate behind the scenes and in the dark to manipulate the passions of the crowd.  O, Christian, let us not be caught up in the manipulations of wicked people, who have no fear of God, but rather, let us hear the crying of the voice in the wilderness.

“Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth…”  (Isaiah 40:3 NKJV)

There are a lot of mountains that are yet to be brought low, and a lot of crooked people, both in leadership and among the people.  God has a day of dealing with such, if they refuse to repent, but let us be about our Father’s business!

The leaders decide to say that they do not know by what authority John did what he did.  Jesus then responds that neither will he answer their question.  Those who refuse to give sound judgments do not deserve an answer because they do not seek truth, but are only serving themselves.  Very few people in our day and age are actually seeking truth.  Those who start out to do so are often hijacked by false prophets and the false wisdom of this age.  If you are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and if you are in a daily relationship with God through prayer, studying the scriptures and doing the commands of Christ, then you will be able to navigate these times of peril in which we live.

Was Jesus authorized?  Completely!  The Scriptures foretold his coming, and it was even testified by Moses who said that a prophet would come that would be like him, raising up the house of God.  They would need to listen to him.  The prophet John had publicly revealed who Jesus was.  The Spirit of God had powerfully worked through his ministry.  He was the Son of God who had come to that which was his own.  He was the Good Shepherd seeking out the lost sheep of Israel before the wolves would come and have their way.  He is the only way to the Father by which all men must be saved!  Yes, Jesus was authorized, but they refused to accept it because they loved lies rather than truth.

How about me?  How about you?  May God help us to love truth more than lies, even when the truth publicly reveals that I have not been as good as I have pretended before the world.  Such a person will find Jesus and in him find eternal life!

Authority of Jesus Audio

What Are We Doing At Abundant Life? Grow Part 2

Ephesians 4:8-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 17, 2020.

There is a lot of water under the bridge when it comes to churches.  Many wonderful things have happened through them, but so have many bad things that were not of Christ.  Christian leaders and individual Christians both need to recognize and appreciate the difficulty that we have today.  It is easy to allow the obvious failures of others to blind us to our own failures.   As we talk about this purpose of spiritual growth, it is clear that Christ intends for each of us to grow individually, but not to grow alone.  He intends for us to be within a community, that is, even more a family.  Thus, leaders who are convinced on this point must be sensitive to the prior point that many people are “shell-shocked” on this issue.  A church does not belong to its leaders, and the role of leaders is not for their own benefit either.  Leaders have to learn to navigate the tension of the importance of a growing connection to Christ and his Church, and the fear people have in being a part of “institutionalized religion.”

On the flip side, if you are one of those shell-shocked people who are afraid of institutionalized religion then please recognize that being a leader is not easy either.  None of us are perfect and we do not lead perfect people.  Church is messy because people are messy, but families stick together.  In a culture that has embraced no-fault divorce and holds marriage in no high regard, it is easy to see how people are afraid to join another family.  Christ is asking you to trust his way.  Find a group of Christians who are serious about following and becoming like Jesus.  It won’t be easy, and it will require repentance, forgiveness, and courage on your part, but God will use it to cause you to grow spiritually.  Don’t settle for anything less because it is what God is going to use to make you, and the local church you attend, to become more like Him.  You won’t grow up to be like the Father if you don’t spend time as a part of His family.

Jesus provides for our spiritual growth

In this passage, the Apostle Paul has described the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In verse 8, he says that, when Christ ascended on high (that is, into heaven), he gave gifts to men.  This sets up a whole teaching on why we have leaders and the purpose that Jesus has in giving leaders to his Church.

Yet, we must not read this passage and only focus on what the gifts are.  We must also emphasize the purpose for these gifts, and that purpose is the spiritual growth of all who believe in Jesus.  Jesus has made provision and is still making provision today for our spiritual growth.

There are many things that we can say Jesus has given to the Church, but here Paul is emphasizing different leadership roles in the early Church.  It is interesting that he does not mention Bishops and Elders here.  I don’t think that we should read too much into that because elsewhere Paul makes it clear that they are valid and helpful leadership roles.  Perhaps, he sees them as redundant in regards to the ones listed here in Ephesians 4.

We are told that Jesus gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers to the fledgling Church he had begun.  These roles should not be separated from the individuals who perform them.  If a person who has not been sent by Christ is given one of these roles then it can be damaging to the Church.  Also, a person who Jesus does call to fill one of these roles must continually remind themselves of the purpose that he intends them to fulfill.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these leadership roles and how they benefit believers.

An apostle is a reference to those first century individuals who witnessed the ministry of Jesus and his resurrection.  They were to be the foundational witnesses of what he did and taught to the world.  They often functioned in every level of leadership since they took the Gospel into new areas, preached to the lost, raised up churches from those saved, and nurtured them through teaching and oversight.  They are also described as prophets of God.  They laid down the faith that believers are called to believe and live out.  The New Testament is the record of what they taught.  In this sense, we don’t have apostles like this today, though we may recognize that some today have an apostolic-like ministry because they have influence and authority over multiple groups of believers, and are used of God to take the Gospel into new areas.  Yet, they are not authorized to establish new doctrine that the church is to believe and follow.  This was laid down once and for all by the apostles of Christ (Jude 1:3).

So, how were the apostles a gift to the Church?  They gave a sure and proven foundation of the content of our faith and the purpose of God in Christ.  The fact that this was written down was most often due to people who had different ideas.  Anyone, who has gone online to search for the “truth” on a biblical concept, knows how hard it can be to know who to trust, not to mention that there are umpteen million ideas.  Who can we trust?  Jesus took care of that concern right off the bat by spending 3 years of his life with the original apostles.  Even Paul recognized that he was an oddity as an apostle.  Yet, his writings and ministry were approved by the original apostles, excluding Judas.  We have something solid that we can use through the centuries to measure what all leaders teach and do.  No leader in God’s Church is ever intended to be outside of this.  Even if you are in a group that has let leaders add doctrine to the original, you have the ability to compare what they teach to the Scriptures themselves.  Thus, the written record of the apostles serves as a corrective device for those who seek God.  In fact, Paul stated in Galatians 1:8, “Even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”  In an age of confusion and spiritual pretenders, it is refreshing to know that a new believer can pick up a Bible and be in direct contact with the pure teaching of the apostles of Jesus.

Let’s move to prophets.  Prophets are those who God uses to speak to the Church regarding specific issues.  They can be past, present, or future things, and their prophecies must always be judged by the leaders and elders of the assembly through a prayerful comparison to God’s Word.  This gifting of some to hear from the Lord is a help to the group as a whole, even though it can be abused by individuals who are not sent by God.  The answer here should not be of fear, but mature respect for the gifts of Christ.

Evangelists are those who were not apostles, and yet had a calling to spread the Good News of Jesus.  They would travel from city to city, encouraging the believers, and calling the lost to salvation.  This is a benefit to believers because even leaders can have tunnel vision.  From time to time, God will send a person from outside the local church to speak a word that shakes us out of lethargy and complacency.

Lastly, pastors and teachers are actually two sides of the same coin.  The language in the Greek gives good reason to think that Paul is presenting these as speaking about one position.  They are the hands-on leadership within every local assembly, watching over the souls of each member and exhorting believers to follow Christ.  As long as pastors remember that they too are sheep who belong to Jesus, they can be a great benefit to those who are helped by their instructions and prayers.

In verse 12, Paul moves from the gift itself to the purpose for the gift.  Leaders must never forget what their job is.  The Church does not belong to them, but to Jesus.  All leadership is supposed to be equipping the Church for the work of ministry, or service.  Part of my growth is to rightly listen to leaders and to learn from them so that I can better serve Christ.  Yet, I must be equipped to serve.  We are equipped with the truth of the Word of God because it helps us to know what serving God looks like.  We are equipped with a presentation of the wisdom and help of the Holy Spirit, which teaches us how to rely upon that same Holy Spirit.  We are given guidance and corrections in love.  Thus, in Christ, we have everything we need to serve him today, and yet we all need to grow in faith and skill so that we can serve him better.  A prayer we should always be praying is this.  Lord, help me to know what ways you want me to serve your purposes.

Leaders should also equip believers so that they can build up the body of Christ.  The body of Christ is an image that sees believers as an extension of Jesus.  He is the head who resides in heaven.  All instructions and directions are ultimately from him.  However, each individual cell is connected to the life of the body so that we can work together for the functions that Christ wants.  The body of Christ can be anemic, diseased, and even dead, if we are not careful in these areas.  Leaders who have lost their way can be detrimental to a particular body of believers.  The key is to recognize that Jesus intends for you to grow in relation to other believers so that his body may be strengthened in order to do his purposes.  You need other believers, companions, brothers and sisters, who are also trusting Jesus, and they need you.  This is a strength that both keeps us going, and makes our work more effective.

The goal of all of this equipping is a unity of the faith, and a unity of the knowledge of Jesus.  Goal may not be the proper word.  However, we must recognize that even the things we do for Jesus are not the end goal in and of themselves.  When we are equipped for serving Christ and strengthening the body of believers, then we can achieve a unity of the faith, which refers to the things that we believe and trust about God.  The Church is not intended to be divided on the foundational teachings of the apostles.  However, through the years, individuals who were proud and full of themselves have pressed their views to the point of fracturing the Church.  The point is not that we all should believe all the same things, but that we all hold to the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.  It is no difficult thing to determine what the apostles of Christ taught.  It is this we are to unify around, not the additions of others who came later.  Large parts of the Church have cast off the restraints (or better, the protection) of Scripture and have co-opted the Church for the purposes that are not of Christ.  We can never be unified with that, but within our group, we can work for a unity of the essentials of the Gospel.

The unity of the knowledge of Jesus is just as important.  Most cults that have come into existence have done so because they refused to accept the revelation of Scripture regarding just who Jesus was.  Some make him out to be an angel, or a created being.  Others make him out to be a spiritual master who is just one among many.  In 2 Corinthians 11:4, Paul called this “another Jesus.”

“For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!” (NKJV)

We are jumping in mid-stream, but Paul is concerned that the Corinthians might listen to ideas about Jesus that are not what they were taught by the apostles who were confirmed by Jesus.  False apostles promote false ideas about Jesus and lead many astray from the true Gospel.

Another way of talking about unity is spiritual maturity.  Verses 14 to 16 bring Paul’s point home.  The whole goal of these gifts is the spiritual maturity of God’s children.  He is bringing us as spiritual infants into His family and then helping us to grow until we become adult Sons of God who can step into the New Heavens and the New Earth by His side.

A person who is spiritually mature is not easily moved by every doctrine that comes along (vs. 14).  Little kids are easily deceived and manipulated.  Imagine a person who comes to faith in Jesus, but never connects to a good group of believers.  They might use the internet to search for the answers to every question that they have.  What will they find?  They will find a sea of confusion blown about by every idea and teaching under the sun.  As much as we may want to believe that God’s Spirit can help us to navigate these waters on our own, that is precisely the point that I am making.  The Spirit is the One who has made it clear to us that our safety partly comes from being in a good, Bible-teaching group.  We cannot ignore that and remain safe by some mystical connection to the Spirit of God.  At that point, we are fooling ourselves. 

Just as God uses individuals to help you embrace the Word of God, so the devil uses individuals to try and separate you from the healthy truth.  There are many who have a flicker of spiritual life.  They want to follow Christ, but are not sure how to proceed.  They exist like a homeless child living outside and exposed to the elements.  Christ desires something much better for you, a spiritual home where you can be cared for, encouraged, and where you can spiritually thrive.

Verse 15 mentions growing up into Christ, which is a great analogy.  Don’t get stuck on how far short of being like Jesus you are.  The real point is this.  Am I growing to look more like him each day?  That might be hard to analyze on a daily basis, but it must be our continual prayer.  Growth is not separate from connection to Christ, but rather an extension of it.  True connection to Jesus allows living truth to flow into my life, and that growth makes me more like Jesus.  It also strengthens my connection to Christ.  May our connection to Christ ever grow stronger.

Jesus is working through all people in his Church to build it up in love.  Verse 16 ends with the analogy of the body of Christ.  Paul sees each part “joined and knit together,” like a family.  We are joined and knit together when we respond to the Spirit of God and learn to love and forgive one another.  We are joined and knit together as we do life together.  Covid-19 is just one example of the kind of things that crop up in the life of a church and require us to grow and bond with one another.  Bonding comes from shared crises and learning to work through them together (not perfection). 

Paul also sees each part “doing its share.”  That share involves spiritual things, but also very practical things.  Instead of seeking for the applause of one another and getting to be something big, we simply need to let Jesus teach us how to do our part.  Lord, help me to do my part in your Church today, so that it may be built up in your love and strengthened for the days that we live in.  In short, help us to grow to be like you!

Grow part 2 audio

Empty Promises

Mark 12:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 21, 2019.

Today is Easter Sunday and therefore we are going to look at another passage further ahead in Mark than we currently are in our exposition of this Gospel.  Next Sunday we will be back on course.

Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, celebrates the day that our Lord Jesus conquered sin and death.  It is easy to scoff at such things.  However, the amount of evidence regarding both his death (he did not merely swoon) and his resurrection is overwhelming (over 500 people testified to multiple accounts with many people at the same event).

We can hide behind the sophistication of modern man.  Yet, we still find ourselves in the same place as those in the first century or even two millennia before that.  We are still fallen people who are extremely broken inside and who need a savior.

Today we celebrate the reality that God has a plan to save us, and Jesus Christ is the man He has given to us to lead us to salvation.

The parable that we are going to look at this morning is one that Jesus told in the temple compound during the last week of his life.  This parable gives us a metaphor to help us understand just what was going on when Jesus was crucified and yet later raised from the dead.

Understanding the Parable

In verses 1-8, Jesus tells a parable that presses the issue of his coming execution.  The public is not aware that the leaders have decided to execute Jesus when they can, but Jesus does.  In this parable the metaphor has a biblical precedent from Isaiah 5.  There Isaiah tells a parable in which he states that Israel is the vineyard of God.  He even speaks of a tower for defense and a winepress.  This sets up an easy identification for the hearers, but also for us.

Let’s walk through the parable and identify each element.  First, we see that the man who owns the vineyard clearly represents God and, as we stated earlier, the vineyard represents Israel.  It would be better to use the phrase, the people of God, because this puts a better image in our mind.  It is not about a nation, but about a people who belong to God and are in relationship with Him.   The next element is the vinedressers, which are also translated as farmers or tenant farmers.  The Greek word that is used literally means worker of the earth and is where we get the name George.  The are the leaders of Israel who are supposed to ensure that the people of God are fruitful in their lives.  Technically, this means both the political and religious leaders, but it is told during his last week while he is in the temple.  So, it seems that the religious leaders are taking the brunt of the teaching- this is most likely due to the fact that the political leadership had long been separated from Israel with Herod (not from the tribe of Judah) receiving his position as king from Caesar.  I would quibble with the word tenant farmer, not because it ruins the parable, but because the emphasis is not on the fact that they are getting paid.  It is on the fact that their job is to oversee the vineyard and make sure it is fruitful for God.  They had taken their offices under the guise of performing the purposes of the Lord, and yet, too often these became empty promises that were not fulfilled.  They superficially performed the purposes of the Lord while all along serving their own interests.

Next, in our parable we see that the man sends servants at the appropriate time to get evidence of how fruitful the vineyard is.  These servants have been with the man and are the special or extra-ordinary teachers that God sent from time to time known as the prophets.  The leaders of Israel were also servants of God, but they represent those who spend their time in the vineyard all the time.  They are the day to day servants of God.  The prophets would come at special times with a special mission.  They would give direction and corrective instructions from the Lord so that Israel could be fruitful.  In light of the spiritual nature of the parable, the fruit that God is looking for is evidence that the people are growing in their trust of God and living according to His Word.  The very Scripture that the religious leaders took care to copy and memorize testified that the prophets were generally abused and often put to death by the political and religious leaders of Israel.  Thus, as God sent his prophets to help make Israel fruitful, they would abuse them and kill them.  Yet, later they would give lip-service to them.

This leads to the man deciding to send his beloved son.  Of course, this represents Jesus.  The parable presents it as a hopeful attempt to turn things around.  However, in many other places we are told that Jesus was sent knowing that he would be abused, executed, and excommunicated (i.e. thrown out of the vineyard).  Thus, the leaders would kill the Son and leave their promise to tend to the people of God for God’s purposes unfulfilled.

As the parable ends, we are left asking if it was really as bad as the parable shows.  Somewhere along the line, the leaders had lost sight that this nation belonged to God literally.  They existed for His purposes, not theirs.  They had edged God out by pushing Him high into the heavens, but using the system for their own ends.  When Jesus arrived on the scene, they could only see that Jesus would inflame the hopes of the people that He was Messiah.  Rome would then come in and quash it, while holding the religious leaders responsible for letting it happen.  They would lose their authority and that couldn’t happen in their minds.

Lest we seem too hard on the Israelite people, let’s use the parable as a set of glasses for our times.  If we look at our times religiously, we must confess that the leaders of the Church of Jesus have often fallen into the same mentality as those of Israel did.  We give lip service to God and His purposes, but we abuse and kill those prophetic voices that He sends from time to time.  O sure, there are real heretics that must be faced and rejected, but not everyone labeled a heretic throughout the Church’s history were so.  Our leaders have too often hijacked the people of God and their devotion to Him for their own ends and purposes. 

What if we look at our times nationally (the United States of America, or insert your nation here)?  Are not our leaders leading us in a way that serves their own purposes and do they not lack any care for what the God of heaven thinks?  Sure, there are anomalies, but the majority give God lip service at the best.  Was it not God who supernaturally enabled us to break free from the political tyranny of King George III.  Side note, it is interesting that George’s name has the root used in our parable.  He was King Vinedresser, but had come to think the vines were all for him and his pleasure.  The testimony of our forefathers is that we succeeded by God’s help, period.  Has not the Lord of America come looking, from time to time, for godly fruit by sending special, prophetic voices, only to be cast aside and ignored?  Are we not, as a society, killing the Word of God as we cast it aside and live for our own purposes?  Also, this begs the question.  Do you not know that your own life is itself a vineyard of which God has put you in charge in order that it be fruitful for His purposes?  His ways lead to life, but ours continually lead to ever more creative expressions of death.

God still has a plan that cannot be thwarted

The parable does get rather dark and foreboding.  Jesus in verse 9 asks the question.  What will the owner of the vineyard do?  They are going to be removed and destroyed.  Ultimately, they will not succeed in their attempt to use God’s people for their own ends.  They will be removed and God’s purposes will continue unthwarted. 

The religious and political leaders would do exactly what this parable says.  They would reject Jesus, abuse him, execute him, and then excommunicate him.  This is why the book of Hebrews makes such a big deal about Jesus being crucified outside of the city gates.  This ancient sign of extreme banishment (extreme in that they also killed the person) was the ultimate rejection.  Hebrews 13:12-14 says, “Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore, let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.  For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.”  We are in danger of losing the eternal for the sake of holding on to the temporary at all times.  Is it not better to surrender that which you cannot keep in order to receive that which you cannot lose?  You can and should trust God.  His plan is not thwarted, and cannot be thwarted, whether by man or spiritual powers in the heavenlies.

Jesus would be rejected and killed, but this would not extinguish the fact that He is the key component to God’s plan.  In verses 10-11, Jesus reminds the leaders of Psalm 118:22-23.  There the psalmist uses the imagery of building the temple of God.  In such building projects, the stones would be fashioned at a remote quarry and then arrive at the building site with some mark explaining its place in the structure.  The builders are the leaders of God’s people who are supposed to have the skill and knowledge to take the stone and put it in the proper place.  The psalmist speaks of a stone that arrives, but the builders reject it and cast it aside.  However, the God of heaven overrules them and uses it as the most important stone of all, the key foundation stone.  These leaders were rejecting the most important part of God’s plan, and He would intervene so that Christ would indeed be what He was sent to be.

Though our parable is challenging the earthly human leaders, there is another layer to this whole thing.  We forget that Jesus is very aware of the evil, spiritual forces around him.  Just as many of his sayings slighted the religious leaders who overheard them, so too they also slight the spiritual powers in rebellion to God.  This parable is no different.  There were spiritual powers who had been put in charge of the nations after the Tower of Babel incident.  These powers had abused their delegated authority and twisted the peoples’ hearts with false religion that lifted the rebellious spiritual powers up as gods.  They too were complicit in the execution of the Son of God and therefore fall under the same judgment given here.  In fact, the spiritual component makes even more sense than the human.  The religious leaders never looked at Jesus as the Son of God who must be killed so that they can inherit those who belong to God.  However, this makes perfect sense of the spiritual powers.  They knew exactly who Jesus was and apparently believed that they could kill Jesus and seize mankind for themselves.

Nearly 40 years after the death of Jesus, after a time of his disciples warning the nation of Israel of the coming destruction and God’s plan of escape, the Roman legions destroyed the city and dismantled the temple stone by stone.  The people of God, who clung to Christ, went to the world with this rejected stone that had now become the chief stone, not just of Israel, but of the whole world.  If you wonder what in the world God is doing then I would put it this way.  He is offering anyone who will an opportunity to be a part of His people, and to participate in a kingdom that will come into existence at the Second Coming of Jesus.  He is not as enamored with our buildings, institutions, and plans, as much as we are.  He is more interested in you, that you are bearing the fruit of faith, the fruit of trusting His Word and living for Jesus in this dark world.

This brings us to the reality that the promises of God are counterbalanced with the promises of the world and those spiritual powers behind it.  This world promises us better things if we will cast Jesus aside and pursue pleasure, or wealth, or fame and accomplishment.  All of these things still leave you feeling empty in the end.  Why?  They do so because we were not created to be satisfied with temporary and material things.  We are trying to stuff small temporary things into an enormous eternal space that is as vast as the universe.  You cannot fill it with the temporary.  Only God can fill that space.  Only a relationship with Him can fulfill the promise of peace and joy.

Over time the philosophies of the world have turned away from God and religion, and towards man.  We must do it.  No God will do it for us.  These are the mantras of humanistic materialism.  Sadly, too many Christians practically do the same thing by pushing God as far up into the heavens as they can.  He doesn’t intervene.  He expects us to do it for ourselves.  Such philosophies have no real basis for upholding good values.  We can pretend that love is a good value, but if we have a philosophy that states humanity is an accident and there is no absolute truth, then why is love good?  Is life precious?  Without God, we only find the precious nature of life ground out of us on every side.  Hopelessness and despair continue to reign from shore to shore and we have no peace because we have rejected the Prince of Peace.

You may feel like God has not kept His promises to humanity, but remember.  He is the God of the resurrection.  Jesus did not back away from the last step to the cross out of fear and lack of faith in His Father.  He showed us that if we would live for God all the way through our death, without turning back, then He will exalt us in due time.  There is a day when the people of God from every generation will be resurrected in the same way that Jesus was, almost 2,000 years ago.  I hope that you have made the choice to be apart of that day because the promises of God will never fail!

God will keep His promises to us.  If you have waffled on trusting Christ then do it today.  If you have been partially trusting Christ, yet basically floating aimlessly, then choose to fully trust Him today.  If you have been trusting Jesus, then don’t let this world rob you of your victory.  Jesus overcame this world by His faith in the Father, and therefore, He is given a place above every other name.  Through Him, you too can overcome and take your place at His side as the Father brings a fulfillment to every word that He ever gave us.  Jesus rose up from the g rave because He is greater than death.  Those who trust Him cannot be destroyed by death, but only made stronger!

Empty Promises Audio