A Messiah's Story About Obedience
Text: Matt. 21:28-32
Introduction
1. Illustration: I used to have problems getting my son to clean his room. I would insist that he, "Do it now," and he would always agree to do so, but then he wouldn’t follow through – at least, not right way. After high school, he joined the Marine Corps, which is where he is now. When he and I were on the plane together coming home for his leave after Boot Camp, he said to me, "My life makes sense now, Dad. Everything you said and did when I was growing up now makes sense. I really, really understand." "Oh yeah, Dad," he added. "I learned what ‘now’ means."
2. Immediate obedience is always the preference, but delayed obedience is better than no obedience at all.
3. In our text today, Jesus tells the story of two kinds of obedience...
a. Contrasting obedience
b. Resulting obedience
4. Read Matt. 21:28-32
Proposition: True obedience is based on action not words.
Transition: First, he talks about...
I. Contrasting Obedience (28-30).
A. What Do You Think?
1. Jesus wanted to deal with the spiritual bankruptcy of the religious leaders in Israel. So he does what he does so well, he tells a story to illustrate it.
2. He asks them, “But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’"
a. This is the first of three parables that is aimed at the religious leaders. Notice the word "you" in verses 28 and 31.
b. In the first two parables, the vineyard is a reference to Israel, and the problem with the religious leaders was not only the inconsistency of their behavior, but also their failure to fulfill their God-given roles as leaders of Israel (France, 803).
c. This story is about a Father who has two sons and asks them to go work in the family vineyard.
d. Ancient Mediterranean culture demanded that sons honor and obey their parents, especially when they still lived on the father's estate (Keener, 318).
e. The Father had a right to ask his sons to work. It was good work, and as it was a family business, they had a stake in the outcome of the vineyard.
f. In those days they would live in the village, but the vineyard would be a little ways outside of town (Horton, 455).
3. So the father goes to the first son and he "answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway."
a. The first son's response was rude, thoughtless, and self-centered and is typical of all who live in open rebellion against God and His Word.
b. There is nothing here to consider commendable about his response or his attitude.
c. Some people think that God will forgive simply because they are open and upfront about their sin. Yet, a blatant sinner is no less a sinner than a secret one.
d. Both forms of sin will send you to the same hell.
e. However, after thinking about it for a while, the son repents of his sin, and decides to do what his father requested of him.
f. Changed his mind: to change one's mind about something, with the probable implication of regret (Louw and Nidda, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains).
g. This is what it means to repent.
h. The word appears only five times in the NT, two of which are in the passage.
i. The action shows that the son had come to his senses, felt bad about the way he treated his father, rejected his selfish attitude, and did the will of his father.
4. Then the father goes to the other son and "the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go."
a. The first son gives the first impression of being obedient.
b. In fact, he is even polite and respectful about it. He tells his father, "yes sir, I will."
c. However, his polite response is shallow, empty, and meaningless because he doesn't go after he said that he would go.
d. Jesus held up a mirror to his critics.
e. They were like the second son who to his father's face said, "yes sir," but when he back was turned did whatever he wanted.
f. They incriminated themselves with their answer to his question (Horton, 455).
g. Obedience is about lip service; it's about action.
B. Lordship of Christ
1. Illustration: The cross is laid on every Christian. It begins with the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death... we give over our lives to death. Since this happens at the beginning of the Christian life, the cross can never be merely a tragic ending to an otherwise happy religious life. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther's, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time... death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at His call. That is why the rich young man was so loath to follow Jesus, for the cost of his following was the death of his will. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and His call are necessarily our death and our life (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship).
2. Jesus has the right to ask anything of us
a. Acts 2:36 (NLT)
“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
b. He is not just the Messiah, not just our Savior, but He is our Lord.
c. As such he has the right to control and direct our lives.
d. He has the right to ask us to change everything.
e. He has the right to tell us to sacrifice everything.
f. He has the right to everything we have, hope for, and desire.
g. He is Lord in heaven above, on earth below; he is Lord over you and me.
3. Jesus has the right to require our obedience.
a. 1 Samuel 15:22-23 (NLT)
22 “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols...”
b. Because he is Lord, he has the right to require our obedience.
c. Because he is Lord, he has the right to demand our response to his voice.
d. Because he is Lord, when he says jump we should ask, "How high?"
e. Any other response is as bad a being a witch or a demon worshiper.
4. Jesus has the right to expect our immediate response.
a. Luke 9:23 (NLT)
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.
b. He is Lord, therefore we must move when he tells us to move and act when he tells us to act.
c. He is Lord, therefore he has the right to expect us to act without hesitation.
d. Yet he is patient, and even when we delay our obedience he still calls us.
e. He would rather a late response then to say we will and we choose not to.
Transition: Then Jesus talks about...
II. Resulting Obedience (31-32).
A. Which of These Two Obeyed?
1. The fact of life is that we all have choices to make, but with those choices come consequences.
2. We can see this as Jesus turns to the religious leaders and asks, “Which of the two obeyed his father?” They replied, “The first.” Then Jesus explained his meaning: “I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do."
a. In explaining the parable, Jesus is in no way, shape, or form saying that the first son's response was a good one, but it was much better than the second son.
b. He is not saying that the lives that the tax collectors and prostitutes lived were good.
c. But what he is saying is that they finally came to their senses, repented of their sins, and did the right thing.
d. Furthermore, what Jesus definitely is saying that the religious leader, despite saying the right things, and giving the appearance of doing the right thing, where in actuality living in sin.
e. They claimed to obey God, but their actions denied that He had any place in their hearts.
f. They claimed to be longing for the Messiah and lauded His name; but when He came, they would not have Him (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 16-23).
3. No rebuke could have cut them deeper or infuriated them more, because in their eyes, tax collectors and prostitutes were the scum of society, perhaps even worse thin Gentiles.
a. Tax collectors not only were merciless extortioners but were traitors to their own people, Jews who bought franchises from the Romans to collect taxes from their own people to support the Roman occupation.
b. Prostitutes were the epitome of gross immorality.
c. If any people were totally outside the pale of God's mercy, the self-righteous Jewish leaders thought, it was those two groups.
d. Jesus was not leaving them without hope, because if they repented they to would be accepted.
e. In fact, after Jesus resurrection many of them did turn to him.
f. Acts 6:7 (NLT)
So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
4. Then Jesus explains the reason behind the explanation of the parable when he says, "For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins."
a. When John the Baptist came showing the right way to go, the common people, including tax collectors and prostitutes, believed him and obeyed God.
b. Notice also that John lived under the OT covenant and so he lived the same righteousness that they religious leaders stressed.
c. Yet these religious leaders still rejected him.
d. The Jewish leaders had been skeptical of John from the beginning, having sent a group of priests and Levites to question him.
e. By saying all the right things and doing what looked good on the outside they said "yes" to God.
f. However, their rejection of John showed that they didn't mean what they said, and it was all a show.
g. Saving faith is not simply a matter of the mind. It is more than just being convinced intellectually of the truth. It is evidenced by obedient action (Horton, 457).
B. True Obedience
1. Illustration: The true follower of Christ will not ask, "If I embrace this truth, what will it cost me?" Rather he will say, "This is truth. God help me to walk in it, let come what may!" (A. W. Tozer)
2. True obedience calls for immediate action.
a. Mark 1:17-18 (NLT)
17 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”
18 And they left their nets at once and followed him.
b. It's immediate obedience to his call.
c. Not when we feel the time is right.
d. Not when it is convenient for us.
e. Not when we are comfortable with the situation.
f. But it is when he calls because he called.
3. True obedience will not always be easy.
a. Philippians 2:7-8 (NLT)
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
b. Jesus sets the example of obedience for us.
c. It was not easy for him to give up his privileges.
d. It was not easy for him to become like us.
e. It was not easy for him to go to the cross.
f. But he was obedient to the Father; and he did it all for us.
4. True obedience always brings blessing.
a. James 1:25 (NLT)
But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
b. It all comes down to the "if/then" principle.
c. If we will obey God then he will bless us.
d. He will bless us in our coming and our going.
e. He will bless us joy.
f. He will bless us with peace.
g. He will bless us by meeting our needs.
Conclusion
1. How about you?
a. Are you like the first son, who even though he didn't obey right away, repented and did what he was told?
b. Or are you like the second son, who said yes with his lips but no with his actions?
2. If Jesus himself were to ask you that question how would you what would your answer be?
