I received a call just before Sunday School this morning from Steve Roberts. Charlie Roberts is expected to pass away any minute today. So please be in prayer for the Roberts family. Charlie may be the longest member of Bible Baptist. I think he joined the church when it started back in the late 1960s. He was here just a few months ago before he went into the nursing home. Let’s pray for him and his family today.
Take your Bibles with you and turn to Luke chapter 20. It's been a couple of weeks since we looked at the book of Luke, so I want to give you a review of what's been happening recently in our study.
Throughout all of this book, Jesus has been spending most of his time in Northern Israel, in Galilee. That's where he has preached, where he has taught, and where he has healed people in this remote region away from the city of Jerusalem. Jesus has many times had people trying to make him the Messiah, trying to make him the king. He's always rejected that kind of attention.
Something happens a couple of chapters back, and Jesus starts deliberately going to Jerusalem. He's going to force himself into the national spotlight. He's going to engineer his way to the cross.
In chapter 19 Jesus is going from Jericho to Jerusalem on a white or on a borrowed donkey and people are shouting "Hosanna" and quoting a Messianic Psalm about the coming of the King. Then at the end of the chapter Jesus goes into the temple and starts turning over tables and driving them out, saying that it was a house of thieves.
As you can imagine the leaders in Jerusalem didn't like that. I mean Jesus basically came into their house, as far as they saw it, and just took over. He started acting like he owned the place because of course he did. And in chapter 20, continuing that story, we're going to see the Jewish leader's response to what Jesus did in chapter 19.
So let's read Luke chapter 20 and we'll read verses 1 to 19 today.
[1] And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,
[2] And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?
[3] And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me:
[4] The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?
[5] And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?
[6] But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.
[7] And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was.
[8] And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
[9] Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.
[10] And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty.
[11] And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.
[12] And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out.
[13] Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him.
[14] But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.
[15] So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?
[16] He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.
[17] And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?
[18] Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
[19] And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.
Luke 20:1-19 (KJV)
The main idea in this passage is the folly of rejecting Jesus.
If you try to look at what happens here from the point of view of the leaders, the high priests, it kind of makes sense how they're acting. Jesus just comes into town, throws over the tables they've been running as a racket in the temple for probably centuries, and starts teaching to massive crowds. These crowds are adoring him and following him, and Jesus basically takes over the temple, calls them all a bunch of crooks, and starts preaching the Gospel.
Imagine, if you will, if I went to the Catholic church with a huge crowd of people, far bigger than they normally have. I just came in, denounced the priest there, and started preaching. There were enough people with me that there was nothing the priest could do about it. That's kind of what Jesus does here but on a much larger scale. It’s a hostile takeover.
So as Jesus is teaching, they come to him and they ask him a question. The question makes total sense. They say, "By what authority are you doing this?"
Another way to ask the same question would be: "Who gives you the right to come into our temple? We are the legitimate high priests. We are the people who have the official office and official leadership of this place. Who gives you the right to come in here and do this?"
Now the high priest and the leaders here think they have Jesus over a barrel. They think they've got this situation under control because they are the rightful leaders of the temple. Jesus didn't ask anyone's permission to do what he's doing.
But Jesus answers their question with a question of his own. It's a brilliant question. he asked them about the authority of John the Baptist's ministry. He said, "Remember John the Baptist. Where did his authority come from? All those people he baptized, was God behind that or was it something else?"
Now here's why that was a brilliant question. John the Baptist was an immensely popular figure. He was kind of a celebrity. His baptism was something that was done by thousands and thousands of people. It was generally seen by just about everybody that John the Baptist was a prophet who came from God. When I say just about everybody, I mean just about everybody besides the leadership, the chief priests, and the scribes had rejected John the Baptist.
If the chief priests and scribes answer this honestly, and they say, “Yes, we don’t believe John the Baptist was a legitimate prophet,” then all the people will be angry with them because he was so popular. However, if they say, “He is a prophet, and his authority comes from God,” it has two consequences:
- It exposes them because they rejected John the Baptist.
- It implies that Jesus has the authority because John the Baptist’s message was, “Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.” John the Baptist’s message was pointing at Jesus and saying, “I am not worthy to untie his shoes.”
So, Jesus really got them here.
Can you imagine the awkward silence? All this crowd watching this conflict go down? Watching these scribes and high priests get owned in front of everybody? A normal person would probably say something to cut the tension, but that's not what Jesus does here. He actually ratchets the tension up by sharing a very pointed parable.
Jesus tells a story about a landowner who leases out a vineyard to some tenant farmers. This was a common business practice of the day. Somebody would own some land and allow other farmers to take care of it, and those farmers would pay the landlord from the produce.
So in this story the landowner leases his vineyard to these farmers and then he goes away for a long time.
So harvest time comes and the landowner wants his profits. He wants his produce and he sends one of his servants to go get his produce from these tenant farmers. and the tenant farmers beat up the servant and send him away with nothing.
So the landowner sends another servant and they do the same thing. They beat him up and send him away with nothing. He sends a third servant. They do the same thing. They beat him up and send him away with nothing.
Finally the landowner says, "I'm going to send my son. Surely they'll give my son some respect." He sends his beloved son to these tenant farmers and they see the beloved son and they kill the beloved son. They think, "If we kill the son then the land will be ours."
In Israel at the time if you lived on a piece of land for three years and the owner was not around, you could claim it as your own. That's probably what they thought: "The owner is dead. That's why his sons are here, so we're just going to kill his son and it's going to be ours." They miscalculated because the owner was not dead. The end of the parable says the owner would come and destroy these tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others.
Now a lot of Jesus' parables are kind of mysterious and were meant to confuse people. Jesus had to explain them later. This isn't one of those parables. This one is crystal clear.
The vineyard was a common picture of Israel. There are many passages in the Old Testament that compare Israel to a vineyard. Probably the most famous is in Isaiah chapter 5, where God says:
[1] Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Isaiah 5:1 (KJV)
And then goes on and on about how Israel is God's vineyard. There are a half-dozen or so other passages in the Old Testament where Israel is called God's vineyard.
The Jewish people really leaned into this. In fact, right where Jesus was teaching, there was a giant carving in gold of a vineyard. It was about 30 feet tall, made of gold, and the grapes were covered in jewels. It was representing Israel as the vineyard.
If Israel is obviously the vineyard in this parable, the landowner is obviously God because it's his vineyard. Who are the tenant farmers? They are the leaders of Israel: the high priests, the scribes, and the people leading Israel.
And God had sent servants to Israel over and over and over again, and those servants were the prophets. On Wednesday nights, we have been studying the stories of the Bible. For several months, maybe over a year now, we've been in the stories of kings and prophets. It's terrible how those prophets were treated. On Wednesday night, we talked about how King Manasseh had the prophet Isaiah sawed in half.
The prophet Zechariah was stoned to death near the altar. The prophet Elijah was driven into the wilderness. Recently, John the Baptist, the latest prophet, had been beheaded.
And so the message here is very clear. Israel is God's vineyard. God has been sending his servants to his vineyard, and you, the leaders, have been treating them shamefully. And so God is going to send his son, Jesus, to Israel, and what did the leaders do to Jesus? They killed him. They put him on a cross.
So God is going to come and destroy them. God is going to give their leadership, their position, to other people. This is exactly what happened: God replaced the whole temple system with the church and their spiritual leadership with people who followed his son. God ultimately had the city of Jerusalem destroyed and a temple destroyed in 70 AD. It has never been rebuilt.
Now when the leaders heard this, they knew exactly what was going on. Which is why they said, "God forbid." They knew what the point of this parable was and it horrified them.
Remember when Jesus was coming into the city on a donkey and people were shouting "Hosanna" or they were also quoting a messianic psalm. They were quoting Psalm 118:25-26
[25] Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
[26] Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
Psalm 118:25-26 (KJV)
This was a well-known song that would have been known to all of the Jews, especially the priests, and it was absolutely about the Messiah. If you remember, when the leaders heard them saying this, they chastised Jesus and said, "Are you going to rebuke them for saying that? Are you going to rebuke them for using this Messianic Psalm about you?" Jesus said, "If they were quiet, then the rocks would cry out."
Well at the end of this parable of the vineyard, Jesus quotes another verse from Psalm 118. Psalm 118 verse 22 says,
[22] The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
Psalm 118:22 (KJV)
In Israel they didn't build houses with studs and sticks like we do now. They mostly made buildings with masonry. The most important stone is usually the first one: the corner stone, the stone that two of the walls rest on.
Jesus was showing them that this verse is talking about them rejecting him. It doesn't matter. He's still going to be the chief cornerstone.
Christ finishes this up with one phrase that has stuck out to me my whole Christian life. I've thought about this phrase for twenty something years. Jesus said,
[18] Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
Luke 20:18 (KJV)
Now as I've been studying this passage this week, I've really been struggling with how it applies to us. This is primarily a passage about how the leaders of Israel rejected Jesus and the consequences of that. So what do we take from it?
Let me give you three points of application and I'll be done this morning.
The first thing That this passage teaches us for our own lives is we should...
1. Stop acting like you own the farm.
That's what these tenant farmers did in the parable. They didn't own the farm. They didn't buy it and they didn't build it. They were just there using it but they were treating it like it was their own. Instead of using the land for the benefit of the owner, they were using it for their own selfish purposes.
And that's kind of a picture of what sin is. God has given us life. He's given us our family, our friends, our talents, our intelligence, our personality, our spiritual gifts, and our health. But he hasn't given them to us for our own benefit. They belong to him. We're supposed to bear fruit for Him.
What happens is we forget that and we start acting like we are the owner of the farm. We're the owner of the vineyard. We act like we get to make all the rules, like it's all about serving ourselves.
But we're not the owner. We're the tenant and we're supposed to be bringing forth fruit for the Lord.
If you think about the history of Israel, God gave them this beautiful land. God drove out their enemies. God cared for them and protected them and all He wanted was for them to bring forth fruit of righteousness for Him. What they did over and over again is they just wasted every opportunity on themselves.
Stop acting like you own the farm. Stop thinking only in terms of yourself and realize you have a duty to serve the Lord.
A second point of application that I think we can make from this story for our lives is...
2. Accept Jesus as your foundation.
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.”
God is building human history and the cornerstone of human history, the thing that it is all being built on and built around, is the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you want your life to matter, then build your life around the Lord Jesus Christ. Build your life with Christ as your foundation.
Too many professing Christians treat Jesus like he's paint, or drapes, or some tchotchke that they can just add as a decoration to building of their life. No Jesus is to be the foundation. Jesus needs to be what all of our life is built on top of.
There are probably dozens of ways that you could see if Jesus is really the foundation of your life but one way is to look at how you treat church. Is church optional for you? Is it something you can just give or take? Or is it something that is so built into your life that you don't even think about it? It is the foundational aspect of your life.
Look at your time, your money, your decisions—does everything orbit around Christ, or is He just one of the many things you juggle? If Jesus is truly the cornerstone, then when life shakes you (and it will), your life won’t crumble because it’s built on the Rock. Everything else—career, family, politics, hobbies—must rest on Him, not compete with Him.
The builders in Psalm 118 rejected the stone because it didn’t fit their plans. They had their own ideas about what the building should look like. Don’t make the same mistake. Let Jesus be the cornerstone of your life. Submit every part of it to Him. That’s where real stability, real purpose, and real blessing are found.
3. Fall on Him or He will fall on you.
Verse 18 says:
[18] Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
Luke 20:18 (KJV)
Here is what that means: everyone is going to have an encounter with Jesus. Every single person is either going to voluntarily fall on Christ and be broken, or they are going to have Christ fall on them in Judgment and be ground to powder.
It’s a lot better to be broken than to be ground to powder.
But here is the good news of the gospel, anyone, and I mean anyone, can fall on Jesus.
A few minutes ago I told you how King Manasseh cut the prophet Isaiah in two with a saw. That’s a pretty awful thing. But it’s just one thing on a lifetime of awful things that King Manasseh did. He spent 50 years being the most wicked man in the Old Testament. Child sacrifice. Killing prophets. Filling the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood. Even bringing a pornographic idol and ritual prostitution into the Temple. He was as bad as it gets.
But do you know what Manasseh did at the end of his life? He fell on the rock and was broken. He repented of his ways and trusted in God, and do you know what God did? God restored him. God gave him five years or so when he could be a good and godly king.
Anyone who wants to can fall on Jesus. It will break you. It will break your pride. It will change your life. No one comes to Christ and remains the same. But anyone can fall on him. The invitation is there.
But if you don’t fall on Him, you won’t be spared. He will fall on you in judgment and He will grind you too powder.
Conclusion
So this morning, I want too invite you to stop acting like you own the farm, to accept Jesus as the cornerstone of your life and to fall on Him.
This passage teaches us it is far better than the alternative.
Let’s stand for prayer.
