The Parable of the Vineyard - Mark 12:1-12

Mark 12:1-12

Irenaeus wrote a book against heresies... He used today's parable to refute bad doctrine, that God's nature changed between the Old and New Testaments. The same Father that sent the prophets in the OT sent the Son in the NT. God doesn't change! Jesus was the plan from the very beginning. 

v1... The vineyard owner gave his tenants everything they'd need to be successful.

The vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7 was a picture of Israel... its grapes were no good to eat. Israel should be joyful, a place of blessing, but it was not. The church today should be as well! 

Who owns the vineyard here? God, and he's in heaven. The Sanhedrin are the tenants. 

v2-5... God sends messenger after messenger but the tenants reject again and again. 

v6-8... He sends his beloved Son, and they not only reject him but kill him!

The Sanhedrin didn't own the temple; they're only stewards of what belongs to God. But they'd created an identity around the false story that the own the temple. They were foolish and delusional!

They hated John, and they hate Jesus even more, for threatening their delusion. They're even willing to kill God himself for it. 

The only way to break delusion is to introduce truth. God snaps us out of the delusion that we're "good enough!" We are not. Though others may be fooled, God is not. Sometimes God's truth is uncomfortable! 

"Follow your heart" is a lie! Our heart is deceptive above all things. Follow him. Live by the truth! Measure yourself by the standard of the Word!

We are to reject the lie, and get our standard from the Word of God. Stop pretending there's not sin where there is. Submit to the true authority of God, not the false authority of the world!

v9... What will the vineyard owner do to the evil tenants? Mt21:40... Matthew says it was the Sanhedrin who answered, LOL! When Jesus writes Psalms (the stone that the builder rejected becomes the cornerstone)... The Sanhedrin knew he was talking about them.

The gentiles had been grafted into the tree of the family of God, when the Jewish people rejected Jesus. So Jerusalem will fall. 

v10... Psalm 118 is quoted... This is the Psalm that was sung as Jesus entered Jerusalem. He reveals that he's the cornerstone! The victory will only be secured when the evil tenants kill him, the beloved Son.

Colossians 2:13-14... He's forgiven all our trespasses. All! And a trespass is a willful, planned sin. And it's all forgiven! Cancels the record of it, regarding your eternal destiny. Christ's blood cancelled our debt! All we have to do is believe. And we grow to value the Lord above everything else!

...Colossians 2:15... He put the authorities to shame, killing them, and Jesus becomes the cornerstone!

The enemies of Christ think they're winning by defeating us, but they're sealing their fate.

We build our life in one foundation: Christ and his word! 

Mark 12:12... The Sanhedrin picked up that Jesus was talking about them. They will be judged. If your want to reject him, be prepared to pay the cost for eternity.