For our text this morning, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 21. Matthew 21, as we read verses 33 through 46, the portion for our consideration, 33 through 44. We know that after our Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on that day and the days before he went to the cross, he told a number of parables, pointing out, looking in the eye, if you will, the religious leaders of his day, and pointed to them and saying, this is what you are going to do to the Son of God. Before we read one of the parables together and consider that, let's read together Psalm 80. Psalm 80. Beginning at verse 1 as we give our attention to the Word of God. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Awaken your might, come and save us. Restore us, O God, make your face shine upon us that we may be saved. O Lord God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears. You have made them drink tears by the bowl full. You have made us a source of contention to our neighbors and our enemies mock us. Restore us, O God Almighty. Make your face shine upon us that we may be saved. You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its bows to the sea, its shoots as far as the river. Why have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars from the forest ravage it, and the creatures of the field feed on it. Return to us, O God Almighty. Look down from heaven and see. Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the sun you have raised up for yourself. Your vine is cut down. It is burned with fire. At your rebuke, your people perish. Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the Son of Man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you. Revive us and we will call on your name. Restore us, O Lord God Almighty. Make your face shine upon us that we may be saved. In Matthew 21, beginning at verse 33, as our Lord says, Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. They will respect my son, he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, they replied. and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone? The Lord has done this? And it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew He was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest Him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that He was a prophet. Dear people of God, sometimes the truth hurts, doesn't it? Especially when it's not in our favor. When the truth is pointing out a fault in us or showing us where we may have gone wrong, it can hurt. We don't like that very much. But then the question is, how do you respond to that truth? Does that truth cause you to change for the better or for the worse? In the days just before He was tried, convicted, condemned, and crucified, as He was standing in the very threshold of death's door, our Lord was revealing the truth about those who would, humanly speaking, be responsible for His death. As the scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders, were trying to trap Jesus in order to justify getting rid of Him, Jesus, orchestrating, as we know, orchestrating the entire path to the cross, He gives them their reason. He, as it were, hands it right to them on a silver platter by openly telling them who He is. He is the Son of God, which we know they would use against Him. But at the very same time, as I said a moment ago, He was, as it were, looking them straight in the eye, And he was revealing the truth of their sin and what the consequences of that sin would be. A little before this, this parable, the chief priests and the elders of the people, the scribes and Pharisees, you recall, had been challenging the authority of Jesus. By what authority do you do and do you say these things? And then Jesus turns it on them and he questions them about the authority of John the Baptist. And you recall that they refused to answer because they knew that either way they answered, they were in trouble. But at the very same time, Jesus exposes their unbelief and their disobedience. And now with this parable in particular, Jesus exposes the true sinful motives and sinful intentions of their hearts and their open rebellion to the promised Messiah. And as well, He lays right before them. He lays it wide open, the consequences of their actions. this is what you are going to do in essence. And what do they do? How do they respond? Do they repent? No. As verse 46 makes clear, they hated Him more. They looked for a way to arrest Him. Their response moved history one step closer to Christ's saving sacrifice as the cornerstone prophesies of his complete rejection. Now as we consider this parable together, we notice that the imagery here is that of a state-of-the-art vineyard, state-of-the-art at least in those days. The landowner took great care to see that this vineyard was prepared right. It included a wall or hedge around it, could have been a hedge, to protect it from different predators that make their business to help themselves to the fruit in the middle of the night. And this wall would also keep scavengers out who would be tempted to steal the ripe grapes even in the daylight. Psalm 80, verses 12 and 13 point to this. Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Bores from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it. A wine press was dug in it which made it possible for the wine to be made as soon as possible, no doubt, to get the best quality of wine. A watchtower, the watchtower had multiple purposes. It provided lodging and storage and security, a watch against danger. But the point is that everything had been done to ensure a good crop yield, productivity. And then it was customary that the farmers, the tenants who rented the vineyard, would pay rent with a certain percentage of the produce. Now what do these different details stand for? Well, the landowner represents God. The vineyard, as Jesus makes clear in verse 43, represents God's kingdom with all of its benefits and advantages which Israel, and especially her leaders, enjoyed. Her leaders as represented by the tenants. The servants of the landowner represent the prophets of God, ending with John the Baptist. And the landowner's son represents none other than Jesus Christ himself. And in this parable, then, Jesus begins by making it clear what a peculiar privilege, we might say, that Israel had enjoyed. Just like these farmers, these tenants in the parable, who had received this well-prepared vineyard that was equipped. It was equipped with safety and protection. It was equipped to produce a crop and to process that crop. In the same way, Israel had been set apart by God after Egypt. God had covenanted with His people and said, I will be your God, you shall be my people. He provided His law and the sacrifices and the ceremonies to fence and protect His people. He gave to His people His covenantal promises and He surrounded them with His strength and help. He was their tower, a refuge for them to flee to in times of trouble. Like in the image of a vineyard, it is not foreign to Scripture describing God's people and His relationship with His people. We read about it in Psalm 80 and in Isaiah 5. We also read about the care the landowner puts into his vineyard. Now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst and also made a winepress in it. So he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? God's people enjoyed a peculiar privilege over all the other nations of the world and they were responsible to bring forth fruit. The fruit of contrite hearts. Sorrow for sin. Repentance. Faith in the promises of God were expected. All of this fruit and all of this leading then to the fruit of righteousness and obedience. And beloved, the church today continues to enjoy peculiar privileges as God comes to us in the ministry of His Word of the Gospel and all that flows from it. For example, the sacraments. The privilege to educate our children of the covenant in the way of the covenant, in the way of Jesus Christ. The communion of the saints in the fellowship of the church. All the promises of His Word that those who seek the Lord, They will find Him by His grace. Those who repent of their sins will be forgiven of all of their sins and enjoy eternal life. God has given to us all that is necessary to know what our calling is as a redeemed people and to know what fruits we are called to bring forth in the name of God. The fruits of repentance, faith, and obedience by the grace of God, but as well the fruit of advancing His kingdom. by living for Him openly, by testifying for Him, witnessing for Him, again, openly. But with this parable, Jesus, in a sense, does an overall scan of the history of God's people up to His very day, including these scribes and Pharisees, and He points out the neglected responsibility. Now, we know well the biblical history, at least most of us, of God's people. So often they did not give to God the fruit of obedience which was due to Him. That's why we read in Psalm 80 about their plight, we might say, calling out to God. In fact, if you think about it, many of the well-known stories of the Bible, and boys and girls, you know this too from the stories you learned in the home and in Sunday school and at school. Many of the well-known stories of the Bible are clothed in the context of disobedience. For example, early in history, Noah was commanded to build an ark. Why? Because God was going to destroy the world with a flood because of man's disobedience. We think of the Israelites and the golden calf. Disobedience. The time of judges, especially with Samson, is a vivid picture of the rejection of God. Elijah on Mount Carmel is another episode of a time of apostasy. Daniel in the lion's den. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. These things took place where? In captivity. Because of the people's rejection of God. And therefore God's rejection of the people. In fact, we know that so often God's people use the blessings of God to indulge in their sin as liberty for sinful purposes. It's a little bit like us, young people, using the trust of our parents to do the things that they do not approve of. For example, if your parents let you use the car one evening and you use that automobile to go out and engage in activities that you know that your parents would not approve of, that you know would be disobedience to God. The Israelites mocked God. They despised His promises. They trampled His covenant underfoot. They rejected Him for the gods of their neighbors. They mixed the worship of Jehovah with the worship of idols. They completely neglected their covenantal responsibilities. And the landowner sends his servants for the vineyard rent, the fruit that was due. God sent His prophets, His representatives, to his people. And that alone, beloved, is a picture of the long-suffering of God that he even bothered to send his representatives. But from Moses to John the Baptist, God sent his prophets to require of his people the fruit of obedience. The prophets, as it were, were sent to clear the weeds away from the vine, to cut off the unproductive branches. God sent His prophets, we might say, to raise up decayed piety. To awaken drowsy souls. And to bring back the worship of God in a new life of repentance and faith. And if you think about it, in a sense, it's no different today, is it? God sends His servants, His preachers, as well as the elders. But as preachers, to be used of Him because of the sin that remains in us against our renewed will, at times we need to be called to raise up decayed piety, to awaken drowsy souls, and again, to bring back the worship of God in that new life of repentance and faith. But what happened? Well, in many cases, the people openly rebelled against God through the brutal treatment of the prophets, The imagery that Jesus uses, that He gives here, points to this. The landowner's servants, the text says, were beaten, killed, and stoned. From the original language, we need to understand just how merciless this treatment was. The word used for beat literally means to be tortured by flaying, skinning, and beating. And through each prophet of God, the cornerstone was being rejected. And all we need to do again is think of biblical history. Ahab and Jezebel sought to kill Elijah. Joash killed the prophet Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. Jeremiah was thrown into a dungeon to rot. Why? Because he brought the word of God. Tradition tells us that Isaiah was sawn in two with a wooden saw by the command of Manasseh, who made Jerusalem run red with the blood of saints. John the Baptist was put in prison by godless Herod and he was cruelly beheaded. You see, beloved, prophet after prophet was sent in vain and miracle after miracle was performed without any lasting effect. Scripture is clear about all of this. We read in 2 Chronicles 36, And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. And Jesus himself rehearses this history in Matthew 23, beginning at verse 29. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, if we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. In verse 34, Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. And in Acts chapter 7, we remember Stephen. He says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers. Beloved, is it any wonder that as Jesus entered Jerusalem, as He came around the side of the Mount of Olives to see Jerusalem spread out before Him, is it any wonder that He wept over Jerusalem? As He had a burden for the offended God and a burden for the dying people. In this parable, when there was no one else to send, the landowner sends his son saying, they will respect my son. And the idea here is that the farmers, the tenants upon seeing the son, they would then be ashamed because of their previous actions. And they would regard the son as representing his father and they would pay the rent. But seeing the son, the farmers became more hardened in their rebellion and rejection and they premeditated and then they carried out the murder of the owner's son. Does that sound familiar? These religious leaders to whom Jesus speaks had said the very same thing about Jesus shortly before. In John 11, Caiaphas the high priest says, Do you not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people? And from that day on, it says, they plotted to put him to death. In their foolishness, the farmers forgot that the landowner himself was still alive. Small detail, but a very important one. And that's the foolishness of sin, isn't it? That's what the psalmist says. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And we are reminded of Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage? And the people plot a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Beloved, the clear message of Jesus to these religious leaders was that they stand in the family line of those who rejected God throughout history. And as he ties this parable to Scripture with a proof text from Psalm 118, Jesus makes it clear that their complete rejection of Him is the complete rejection of God's cornerstone, the very Messiah they were waiting for. But wait a minute. How can this be? You see, to the scribes and Pharisees, this idea was ridiculous. It was next to impossible. They, of all people, would never kill the Son of God. After all, they were the ones who were looking for Him. They were the ones who were expecting Him. And they were the ones who alone were competent. They were educated to judge and decide who the Messiah was. They were the religious leaders. And they would lead the people to approve of the one they thought was the Messiah. Because certainly, without a doubt, they would recognize him when he came. But Jesus quotes Scripture, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, the chief cornerstone. He quotes this Scripture as if to say, well, does Scripture foretell that the Messiah would be received with joy and favor and applause? Is that what Scripture says? Or on the contrary, didn't it foretell that the rulers themselves would oppose Him? You see, just as the Word of God through the prophets and through John the Baptist was considered useless by God's people and their leaders, the living stone, the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, upon their examination and scrutiny, He was declared to be useless. But you see, the cornerstone was the most important stone in the building. It supports the whole weight of the building. It determines the size and the shape of the building since the primary walls rest upon it. And all the other stones must be adjusted according to the cornerstone. And those who stood here challenging Jesus were those and represented all those who neglected their responsibility to repent and believe. And instead, they completely rejected Jesus Christ. And their rejection, we know, would ring out loud and clear in just a couple of days through the words, crucify Him, crucify Him. Jesus could read their hearts, and therefore, He could truthfully prophesy of His death at their hands. Jesus was a threat to their self-proclaimed works, righteousness, religion. He was a threat to their position as leaders in the nation. Very simply, He had to go. Yet though rejected, beloved, He would be set firmly in place. His rejection and death did not eliminate Him as they thought it would, but the very opposite is true. It established Him and establishes not those who thought they were righteous, But all those who would be made righteous in Him. As Psalm 118 says, this stone has become the capstone. And did you catch the next phrase? The Lord. The Lord has done this. This rejection and disobedience, beloved, was used by God to carry out His plan of redemption. This complete rejection made Jesus Christ, that which this new structure needed, that God should pour out His mercy upon His church even as He carried out His justice against His Son. And as the chief cornerstone, Jesus governs every angle, both in the foundation and in the building itself. On Christ, on Christ alone, the salvation of the church rests. And by Him alone, its condition is preserved forever. But then what about those wicked farmers and tenants? What of them? What of those builders responsible for rejecting the cornerstone, those who continue to reject the owner? Once again, as in the previous parable, in the previous parable of the two sons, the father asked his two sons to go work in the vineyard. And the first one says, I will not go, and then he goes. And the second one says, I will, but he doesn't go. And Jesus asked the listeners, well, which one obeyed? and clearly pointing out their sin that they identify with the wrong one. In the same way here, Jesus draws an answer from them, an answer of self-condemnation. Verses 40 and 41, Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, they replied, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. What an answer! He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. And imagine the look on their face when they figured it out, as verse 45 says, they knew He was talking about them. They had condemned themselves. He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. That's the promised punishment. Verses 43 and 44, Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. The rejection of Jesus Christ is the most sinful crime one could commit and will result in being rejected by God. Those who have been given the privilege of hearing the Word of God, but reject it, will forever lose that which was placed before them, all the eternal benefits of the kingdom of God. And beloved, every day, but in a particular way, as we have been called to prepare to come to the Lord's table, called to examination, we too must answer the question, what is my response? What is my response to God's servant who brings the word, who preaches His Word faithfully. Sometimes I understand it better than other times. Sometimes it's more clear than other times. What is my response to the faithful preaching of the Word of God? What is my response to that visible sermon we enjoy in the sacraments? What is my response to God's call in Scripture? To grateful obedience. To obey Him as a way to say, thank you. What is my response when one does ask me to give a reason for the hope that is in me? What is my response? The kingdom of God, as it were, was taken away from the Jews as God's special people and given to those from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, along with those converted Jews who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith. And this Word of God is clear that those who reject Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, by that same cornerstone, they will be destroyed. Those who oppose Christ will fall on Him and be broken because their works cannot stand up to Him. And He will fall on those who oppose Him. And what will be the result? But He on whom it falls will be crushed. Another version says, it will scatter Him like dust. The Greek says literally to pulverize, to ground, to grind like powder. We find the same idea in Psalm 1. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. In other words, the wicked are good for nothing. And beloved, that is the destiny of those who refuse to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and instead completely reject the joy of His salvation. Their destiny is total eternal destruction. Those not built upon the solid rock, Jesus Christ, they will be forever crushed by the rock. Sin is the complete rejection of God and His Word. But whoever hears and heeds the call of God by His grace is forever laid upon that foundation, secure with the chief cornerstone. And those secure on Christ the cornerstone then give evidence of being grafted into the vine through the fruits of repentance, faith and obedience, with lives of devotion and worship to God and God alone. And they, by the Holy Spirit of God, are effectually nourished by the preaching and the reading of the Word of God and through the sacraments, especially the Lord's table. God still comes to His people today, but not to say, do this and live. But to say, I have done this for you through My Son that you might live. Believe in Him. His message for us is a message of hope in Jesus Christ. He has fulfilled all righteousness. He has righteously paid for our complete rejection of God. so that now we might stand in a right relationship with God. Beloved, the warning for those who reject Jesus Christ is a wretched end, being rejected by Him for all eternity. But you know there's also a warning for God's people. There's a warning for those who claim that God is satisfied with them through the sacrifice of Jesus. A warning for those who are called to grateful obedience. we need to remember that we are a part of the building called the Church of Jesus. We are not a part of the world. Yes, we live in the world, but we are not to be a part of it. You see, believers are part of a different kingdom, the kingdom of God. We serve a different king, King Jesus. We live by a different standard, a different set of rules, the two great commandments of love. And the Word of God is that wall that separates the Christian from those who do not confess Christ. Young people, we are different. We are to be different. And the Word of God is that wall. Stay on the right side of the wall, the correct side of the wall. The Bible says that friendship with the world is enmity against God. And the believer's contact with the world is not to be one of accommodation and cooperation, but we might say one of illumination and revelation as God's people are the light of the world, to be the light of the world through whom Jesus shines. And as we reveal, indeed, to them, God's grace in our lives. And we represent the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we say and all that we do And therefore, in all that we say and do, we are to point those of the world to Jesus Christ. So how are you doing as a road map? How are you doing as a direction pointer? Our love for and obedience to God for His gift of the Rock of Ages, who is our chief cornerstone, is to result in fruit. That fruit is to include striving to be used of Him to advance His kingdom. And not only has God graciously made us a part of His kingdom, firm and secure in the cleft of the rock, so that we will never be moved, but He has also given us to see through our Lord Jesus Christ that those who reject Him will be permanently crushed. There is no hope apart from Him. And therefore, our heart's desire, even as we are called to desire to love the salvation of our own soul, we are to love that. Our heart's desire must be the salvation of many souls. Now, we know that we don't accomplish that. God does. But He uses means, and may our prayer be that He would use us and bring forth fruit in us and through us to bring many souls to Him. Beloved, praise God that He has overcome our once complete rejection of Him through Jesus Christ who completely paid for our sins so that we will not be crushed but nourished. And He has put a new song in our hearts that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And in His grace, beloved, He has built us as believers and continues to build His believers into His everlasting building. The Lord has done this, the text says. And therefore, may this indeed be marvelous in our eyes. Amen. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, as we meditate upon the truth of Your Word, we must confess, O Lord, that there are times when we really don't know how to respond. We don't know much more to say than thank you, O Lord, for what you have done for us. And indeed, Father, your gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord, is so great. It is so wonderful. Especially as we consider that we are among those who have rejected you. Yet through Jesus Christ, you have drawn us back. and you draw us closer day by day until we will see you face to face in the glory of heaven. Father, may we look forward to that day. May we be used of you in a most precious and powerful way while we still breathe in this life. And may we never cease to give you the thanksgiving and praise that you alone deserve. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen.