Murder In The Vineyard
Series: The Book of Mark Mark 12:1-12
Once again, I would like to bring your attention to the Gospel of Mark. We've been studying the life of Jesus during His time on the earth and how He came into direct confrontation with the religious establishment of His day which eventually led to His crucifixion. It's amazing to me that so many times the very people who were supposed to know the most about God didn't even recognize Him when He was standing right in front of them.
Tonight I want to speak on the subject, "Murder In The Vineyard". Notice here in verse 1, Jesus is speaking to the religious establishment in response to the challenge of His authority:
Read Text
Now as you look at this story, it’s the story of a murder in the vineyard and basically what Jesus is saying is that if you receive God's blessings but reject God's Son you will receive God's judgment. So let’s begin by looking at…
I.THE GOODNESS OF GOD
This parable that Jesus told is built around three truths. The first truth is what I like to call “THE GOODNESS OF GOD". Notice how the Bible describes this particular occasion.
God is represented by this vineyard owner who builds a hedge around His vineyard and He puts a wine press in that vineyard, making the vineyard a fruitful one.
Not only does He allow these farmers to come in and reap the benefits of His vineyard, but He also provides everything they need in order to bear fruit and to have a good crop. This is a picture of the goodness of God.
In Romans 11:22 the Bibles tells us to, “consider the goodness and severity of God”. Church, you don’t have to look very far to see the goodness of God. All throughout Scripture we see God blessing His people, blessing His children. God desires to bless the world. God desires to give to the world. We serve a good God.
Now in this particular story, Jesus was relating the goodness of God to Israel. Israel is represented by the vineyard; they were to bear fruit unto God. They were to be a witness for God.
We know from reading Scripture that God has been good to the nation of Israel; He has blessed the nation of Israel. In Psalm 73 we read, “Truly God is good to Israel.” When God called Abraham He spoke of Israel when He said, “I will make you a great nation".
When Israel got themselves into bondage and idolatry, God delivered them from Egypt. He brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey. God made them the strongest nation on the face of the earth. So God has indeed been good to Israel. But you know, not only has God been good to the nation of Israel…He’s been good to you and me as well.
The Bible says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”. In today’s world it may seem like at times we are living in a nation that doesn’t belong to God, but God has indeed blessed America.
God has made us a nation of plenty among a world of need. America makes up only seven percent of the world's population, yet we have seventy percent of the world's wealth. So yes, God has blessed America and God has blessed each one of us individually and personally.
As you reflect on your life, can you honestly think of a time when you went hungry? Is there really a time when you went without clothes on your back? God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams.
If you think back twenty years ago, in the majority of cases in this room tonight, you can look at what you have today as opposed to what you had then and I guarantee you that you’ve been blessed. You have things today that you only dreamed about having then. The house that you live in, the possessions you have…God has been good to us, both financially and materially.
Just like God gave Israel this vineyard, God has given us a vineyard and He has met every single need in our life. Think about the children/grandchildren God's given you. Think about the spouse God's given you. Think about the job God's given you.
When it comes to the songs we sing in church, I’ve always heard it said that you can sing a lie just as easy as you can tell a lie. But there’s one song we can truly sing with a clear conscious…sing it with me, "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me." No matter what kind of problems you may be facing in your life, it really doesn’t hold a candle next to the good things that God has blessed you with.
God has also blessed our nation spiritually. We live in a nation where there's a church on every corner. God wants to bless your life spiritually week in and week out through this very church…through Sunday School, through the songs we sing, through the preaching of His Word, through DT and through Prayer Meeting. So we see in this parable the goodness of God emphasized.
II. THE WITNESS OF GOD
Next, I want you to see “THE WITNESS OF GOD” because the Bible says beginning in verse 2, that when it was time for fruit to come in, God sent servants after servant to collect a portion of what He provided. Now, we’ve already looked at God’s goodness to the nation of Israel. God blessed them and met all their needs; He made them a great nation.
But what did they do? They rejected each one of these servants, one by one. God sent Israel great prophets like Moses and what did they do? They rebelled.
God sent them a great prophet in Jeremiah and what did they do? They cast him into a dungeon where he inherited the nickname, “the weeping prophet" because of the people’s rejection of God and the message He had sent to them. God wanted to witness to Israel of His love and His grace and His power.
God sent Isaiah to plead with them to repent; to turn away from their rebellion and turn to God and what did Israel do? Well, just like these farmers rejected the servants, Israel rejected the prophets.
They stoned them, they killed them, they threw them in prison, they persecuted everyone of the prophets that were sent to them so Jesus was saying to them, "You have rejected all the witnesses God has sent."
And then the Bible says here that the noblemen said last of all, "I will send my son. They’ve stoned my servants, they’ve killed my servants, they’ve persecuted my servants, but surely they will reverence my only beloved son. I'll send him."
This is a picture of how God finally sent the Messiah. God sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him”. The Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah. The religious leaders said, "We won't have Him."
And they killed Him as they rejected the Son of God, God's ultimate witness to man. Just like these farmers also killed the son. Church, this is all very interesting stuff but I have to tell you that God’s done the very same thing in our lives as well.
He’s been extremely good to us by sending witness after witness to us. God wants to see some fruit in our lives, He wants to bless us.
After everything He’s done for us, after everything He’s blessed us with, after all the different ways He’s met our needs, after the way He's blessed our families and after the way He's looked after us and protected us…He wants our worship, He wants our allegiance and He wants our praise.
What have you done with the witness of God? You know I think that if we were completely honest here tonight we'd have to say that at times we've rejected God's witness. We've even gone so far as having despised God's witness.
For some of you, God has placed you in a Christian home; you have a mom and dad who love God and yet you rebel against them and against God. If God has blessed you with Godly parents, they are God’s witness to you.
God has given us the witness of the Bible. You come here every week and God has spoken to you through His Word, but you’ve ignored His teachings, His principles and His warnings. You're not living your life according to the guidelines He has given through His Word because you would rather live your life according to your own desires.
Sometimes, God even sends heartache and tragedy to your life. There have been times when your heart has been broken and life has come crumbling down around you. This also is the witness of God. God might be trying to tell you through your tragedies that He and He alone holds the solutions to your problems. Even when everyone else has forgotten about you, God never will. And yet you’ve rejected the witness of God.
THE WITNESS OF GOD is seen throughout creation. The Bible says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse (Rom. 1:20).
Even the person who has never seen a Bible and never heard the name of Jesus and never heard a missionary or a preacher preach can look around and see that there is a loving God just by viewing the creation.
But the Bible also says that when they saw the beautiful creation of God worshiped the creation more than the creator and they turned from God who made it all and they began to worship the things God had made rather than God.
God sent another witness to us. He has sent the witness of conscience, the witness in your heart that there is a God. Did you know that the Bible teaches us that it is against human nature to be an atheist and not have faith in God?
Why? Because God made us with a natural tendency to believe. There’s an emptiness in our heart that can only be filled by God. It’s easier to believe in God than it is not to believe in God, so you have to make a moral decision to refuse to follow your heart and your own conscience because we were created for fellowship with God.
Here’s what I’m trying to say. You might think that you’re only rejecting what the preacher has to say, you might think that you’re only rejecting what your parents are trying to tell you, you can reject the witness of creation, you can even reject the witness of your conscience. But when you reject Jesus, there’s no hope for you.
III. THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD
Finally, we see THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD.
Read verse 9
The problem many people have today is that they want to make and mold God into the kind of God that they imagine. They want heaven but they don’t want hell; they want salvation but they don’t want judgement. That’s because it’s easy for them to receive the goodness of God but the truth is that there’s also another side to the nature of God.
If you receive God's goodness but reject His witness, you will receive God's judgment. That’s what this verse is telling us. It says that the nobleman will come and he will destroy these wicked husbandmen. He's saying that if you reject God's Son, after everything He’s done for you, one of these days when you're least expecting it, God's going to come and call your number. One of these days God will say, “Alright, that’s enough. They’ve rejected my Son." And that is the greatest sin any person can commit.
God wants to give you a fruitful life if you will just give Him what’s already His. You have seen His goodness; you have received His witness. So my question to you tonight is, what will you hear Him say when you stand before His throne of judgement? “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”, or “ Away from me you evildoer for I never knew you!”
