The Magnanaimous Provider

The Parable of the tenant: The Magnanimous Provider

Matt 21: 33-43; Mark 12:1-12 ; Luke 20:9-19

Intro: Introduction of the myself to the congregation , review Congregational , Rev. John , her husband’s funeral , many from congregational joined with your celebration of her ministry. Deaconess Pinder has graciously invited me and I am grateful for the opportunity.

Today I will be speaking on a parable that is not spoken about frequently; we often speak about the parable of the sower, the parable of the prodigal son, what is a parable? It is an earthly story with divine meaning. One of the most popular parables is the parable of the sower and Jesus Christ interpreted it Jesus was the sower and the seeds are the message of God etc.

Today I would like to interpret the divine meaning of this parable. What is the essence of this parable? Is there heavenly truth for us in this parable?

Let me first paraphrase this parable. A landowner planted a vineyard, put a huge around it and placed a tower around it. Then he rented it out. When harvest time came he sent his servants for his share of the fruit. The renters saw the servants coming and beat the servant and sent him away empty, the Land owner sent another servant but the renters stoned him, he sent another whom they killed.

The landowner sent his only son whom he loved. He thought that they might respect his son but they said in their minds the “This is the heir let us kill him and we will have the vineyard for ourselves. The renters killed the son . Then the Lord asks the audience what will the Land owner do to the tenants, he will punish them severely and give the vineyard to others who will give him his fruit in due season. Then Jesus concludes it by saying that the stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner and the Lord has done this amazing thing.

A. God is the owner

1. All that we are or have comes from God , the only true owner is God

2. When I began college in the late seventies and early eighties I was told that the theory of evolution was the only way the earth could have come into being

3. The theory was that a loud bag occurred and that explosion resulted in small cell-like entities which, developed over millions or billions of years into many cells and eventually human beings.

4. There was two things wrong with that theory who made this bang possible and how can we come from disorderliness to orderliness it never happens in this world , if we drop a piece of glass it shatters , if we try to put shatter pieces of class together it is close to impossible . . Murphy’s Law says disorderliness is most prevalent in this society.

5. It is impossible for a simple unicellular entity to become a complicated multicellular entity we call human.

6. Psalm 24 says “ The world and everything in it belong to God , the world and its people belong to Him”

7. God owns you are the sheep of his pasture when we come to realize that everything that we have belongs to God we know where our place is in this world and what our purpose is. . When we think we own we try being God and we always fail because there is only one God

B. God provides all we need

1. V.33 says he planted it, built a wall around it, dug a pit to crush the grapes then he built a lookout tower.

2. This is a ready made business, the vineyard is already prepared the grape trees planted, the Lord goes even further and he made a place to crush the grapes. He built a wall around it and a tower.

3. God provides all the necessary things for life and for survival.

4. This planet we live on called earth is the on the place that can maintain life in this universe , We keep looking to see if there is life is on Mars but God is the one who place us here and this planet has the temperature , the vegetation to sustain life.

5. God has given us a body that is self sustaining, the blood courses through our veins and arteries to provide nourishment on the inside, our eye makes us see the beautiful world around us and helps us avoid danger. The bones of our body gives us shape and the ability to move around, a billion brain cells make us respond to the environment so we can survive. As David the Psalmist said we are fearfully and wonderfully made.