Sermon Title: The Kingdom is Christ’s and it is given to you!
Text: Matt. 21:33-46
37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
"In Other Words," a publication of the Wycliffe Bible Translators, told a story about Sadie Sieker, who served for many years as a house-parent for missionaries' children in the Philippines. Sadie loved books. Though she gladly loaned out some, others she treasured in a footlocker under her bed. Once, in the quiet of the night, Sadie heard a faint gnawing sound. After searching all around her room, she discovered that the noise was coming from her footlocker. When she opened it, she found nothing but an enormous pile of dust. All the books she had kept to herself had been lost to termites. What we give away, we keep. What we hoard, we lose.
Larry Pennings.
That is the blessed good new that we share … because:
The Kingdom is Christ’s and it is given to you!
Following our lesson last week where the Chief Priests and elders questioned Jesus’ authority which ultimately caused Jesus to ask them a question about John the Baptist and whether his baptism was from God or man. To this they answered, “I don’t know” fearing both Jesus and the people. To this Jesus also refused to tell them where his authority came from.
Today we see also Christ’s continued teaching to the Chief Priests and elders with his use of parables. And we know that a parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels. As a pastor it is also important to use illustrations and stories as we proclaim God’s word so that you too can understand and have application in your lives.
[Jesus said]: 33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.
Jesus here begins with an image of a vineyard. You can imagine a beautiful vineyard contained within a fenced area and all within the vineyard is the masters and it is leased to the tenants. So too this world that God created he gave to the children of Israel who were to manage his creation and produce fruit.
34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
As the harvest approaches the master sends servants to get what is His. But they are mistreated, beat, stoned and one is killed. The message of John was to repent, to turn away from sin and to receive the washing of repentance. The Chief Priests and elders knew this, they had hardened their hearts. John was sent to prepare the way. He ultimately was killed.
Fearing Jesus and the crowds, Jesus shows the Chief Priests and elders that they too acted like the tenants treating the servants sent from God as despised and rejected. As those left to tend His vineyard they have fallen short.
36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 [So],Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’
It is not a coincidence that the tenants kill the son for in keeping with the parable Jesus was showing the type of death he too would suffer.
39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Jesus too was led outside the city gates where the prisoners were taken to a small hill called Golgotha to be crucified, so the image of the master’s son being thrown out of the vineyard parallels the Lord’s own rejection. So Jesus asks this question …
40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
We’ll, the Chief Priests and elders answer for themselves:
41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
The Kingdom is Christ’s and it is given to you!
Ill.
This weekend we celebrate the work of the LWML. LWML does great work in our community and around the world. Those mite boxes and what seems like insignificant giving can be multiplied by our loving God and master of the vineyard to bring about His will and great things in the world.
St. Paul Community Lutheran Church, one of the mission’s we here at Peace support, received a three year commitment from the LWML convention totaling $65,559. This grant has enabled St. Paul to hire a secretary, hire two young musicians and continue to reach out to the community with VBS and other outreach opportunities.
Those mites enabled the LWML to to help 18 like minded work of bringing the gifts of Christ to a dying world to the tune of $1,830,000.00 in grant money.
Ill.
Richard Baxter, an English Puritan church leader once said:
It is a most lamentable thing to see how most people spend their time and their energy for trifles, while God is cast aside. He who is all … seems to them as nothing, and that which is nothing … seems to them as good as all. It is lamentable indeed, knowing that God has set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain end, that they should sit down and loiter, or run after the childish toys of the world, forgetting the prize they should run for.
Were it but possible for one of us to see this business as the all-seeing God does, and see what most men and women in the world are interested in and what they are doing every day, it would be the saddest sight imaginable. Oh, how we should marvel at their madness and lament their self-delusion! If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do, or what was before them in another world, then there would have been some excuse. But it is His sealed word, and many profess to believe it.
Richard Baxter.
The point is, that those who had been given the vineyard as tenants to care for the master’s property thought more of the property than the master. Even His son they killed. The analogy of heaven and hell is a good one for Chief Priests and elders desired a heaven apart from Christ. And, a heaven apart from Christ … is hell.
43 Therefore [Jesus says] I tell you; the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
Because the Kingdom is Christ’s has been given to you.
Jason, you and your sons received the Kingdom today. You have been marked as Christ’s, redeemed by Christ the crucified. He has washed you, Jason and Jaxon clean and you have been given the Vineyard and heaven is your home.
He also has by his Holy Spirit called you to a joy in that good news and I am looking forward to seeing all that the Lord will do through you. May God bless you daily as you trust in Him.
But, that too is what we all who have been baptized in the name of Christ share as He works by His Spirit in us for His glory.
The Kingdom is Christ’s and it is given to you!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment