Talk: The Bad Tenants
Intro
• Homicide, parricide, matricide, fratricide, suicide, genocide…
• Deicide
"I feel like a walking abomination. I feel like I am the closest thing to Lucifer on this planet, and I feel like that all the time. I feel that things that go wrong (in) my life are a personal attack by him on me. Lucifer is responsible for the way I am. I get lots of signs in my life, but I don’t blame Lucifer for the bad things, I blame Jehovah. There’s a hatred between Jehovah and me.”
Glen Benton’s self-professed "war with God" is not some token gesture. Sitting quietly one Sunday lunchtime in a restaurant bar, with families all around, he grins, sighs and points up. "I blame Him for everything that’s happened to me, for everything that’s happening, for this messed up world we live in. I believe that He is responsible for my being here like this, and so I will always have a problem with Him."
The calm man that sits before me confesses that he feels a storm slowly brewing inside him.
"I feel that all the time in my life there’s something coming. I really feel that in time I’m gonna snap. I’ll either snap and kill myself for kill someone else, and it’s up to your will power not to take it over that line. And right now I know what I’m capable of and can keep it under control pretty much.
"Those are the ones who have their beliefs and also believe in ’Live and let live.’ When there’s Christians like that, I don’t go out of my way to mess with them. They stay on their side of the line and I say on mine, and I don’t personally throw any ill will toward them; but if they come across the line and take shots at me, then they must deal with me on my level.
"I’ve learned one thing: Arguing with Christians doesn’t get you anywhere, and I’d rather resort to violence, because argument is hopeless. Every so often I’ll verbally take out Christians, but overall there is no point in sitting and arguing with somebody.
“Listen, I don’t go out of my way to bash anyone. I don’t care what colour, class or creed anyone is-I don’t judge people based on those things. My only beef is with God. I wake up every day, I curse Him every day, because there is only on person who’s responsible for the life I have and that’s the being who created us. I hate Him. My belief system is with Satan, and I blame God for anything that happens in my life that I don’t like."
• Rare & important- only one of three parables in all three synoptic gospels; special emphasis (other two are Sower and Mustard Seed)
• Very accessible- all the codes can be easily deciphered!
Overview
A. Master
1. Master carefully provides (33)
2. Master continually sends (34-37)
3. Master certainly punishes (40,41,44)
B. Tenants
1. Tenants refuse to bear fruit (Mark 12:3)
2. Tenants repeatedly beat and kill servants (35,36)
3. Tenants rebelliously kill and cast out Son (38,39,42)
C. Us
7 Questions…
A. Master
1. Master carefully provides (33)
…everything necessary for the vineyard to grow
a. He plants it
b. He protects it with a wall Portcullis at Castle Norwest Holst PLC!
c. He posts a watch over it Security guard…
2. Master continually sends (34-37)
…messengers back to His vineyard
a. Who? Servants, then finally His Beloved Son (Mark 12:6, Luke 20:13)
b. Why? To collect the fruit
3. Master certainly punishes (40,41,44)
a. When? When He returns
b. How? With death
c. Why? Because of their theft of the vineyard and its fruit, and because of their murder of his servants and Son. My name is Gladiator. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And in this life, or the next, I will have my vengeance.
B. The Tenants
1. Tenants refuse to bear fruit (Mark 12:3)
a. Why? Because of their greed
b. Why also? Because of their independence>>
2. Tenants repeatedly beat and kill servants (35,36)
a. Why? Because of their violent hearts
b. Why also? Because they have no worthwhile arguments (see Glen Benton)
1 Kings 22- Zedekiah slaps Micaiah in the face; Saul trying to spear David to wall, etc.
3. Tenants rebelliously kill and cast out Son
a. Who is Son? He is the Master’s beloved and final messenger, the closest representative yet; see Hebrews 1:1,2, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of the God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven”
b. Why do they kill him? To steal everything from the Master and indeed to become masters. To kill the Son is to attempt to kill the Father. They imitate their father the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). They also kill Him because this is the way they deal with their evil conscience, like Cain who killed Abel because “his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous” (1 John 3:12). See verse 45 of our passage.
C. Us
In the light of this teaching from the Master’s Son, what kind of tenants of God’s vineyard, this world, shall we be?
1. Do we acknowledge God’s ownership? (33)… or do we try to seize the Son’s inheritance for ourselves? (38)
2. Do we acknowledge God’s provision? (34)…or do we trample on it (grumble, moan, constantly want more)?
3. How do we treat God’s messengers, namely His Word (prophetic writings)? Do we continually read, absorb and obey the teachings of God’s appointed teachers?
4. How do we treat God’s Son? (The great question Jesus asked: Whom do you say that I am?) Do we throw Him on the scrap heap or do we count him as the keystone of our lives (42)? Are we prepared to go out to be on the scrap heap with HIM? (Hebrews 13:12,13- “And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore”)
5. How will God treat us on the day of judgement? Will we be crushed by the weight of His wrath (44) or will He give us the inheritance of His Son (43) because we have produced fruit? (41)
6. What are these fruit? Galatians 5:22,23- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. No fruit without root…
7. What/who is the root? “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6,7)
STARK CHOICE: TRY TO KILL HIM, LIKE THE BAD TENANTS OR GLEN BENTON OR CROWN HIM AS LORD. IT’S DEICIDE OR TOTAL SUBMISSION. MAY THE LORD GIVE US ALL GRACE AND HUMILITY TO ACCEPT HIS FORGIVENESS AND LOVE HIS SON WITH ALL OUR HEARTS FOR THE BLOOD THAT HE SHED FOR US.
