I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to Mark, chapter 12 as we begin a new series on questioning the authority of Jesus. And I love studying the Bible with all of you here, Sundays at 11 o'clock. Does anybody else look forward to getting into the Bible at these services on Sunday? It's great to be here with all of you. I spend hours getting ready for this, doing the work of exegesis, which is to find the meaning coming out of the text, not to read our own meaning into the text. But what is the text actually saying? And so, we spend time in the Greek language, I read commentaries on how the passage has been interpreted. We cross all the cross references. We track them down all over the Scripture. And for this sermon, I even spent 42 minutes and 19 seconds watching an episode of Undercover Boss. Now, who's ever seen the show Undercover Boss before? This first episode that I watched, it came out right after the Super Bowl in the year 2010. I think 38 million people watch this gripping episode of reality television where the president of waste management, that's right, the trash company, he goes undercover within his own company. He's out there picking up trash. He's riding on the back of the trash truck. He's working with the people. Has anybody ever seen a show like this before? Do you know what I'm talking about? Okay, some of you have; thank you for being with me at this moment. And I’ve got to tell you, I'm watching this episode of television, and when he gets fired by one of his own employees for not being fast enough to pick up the trash, I’ve got to tell you, I was gripped a little bit by that, and I found myself focusing in on this episode, and he's in Port A potties, he's in a recycling center. He's realizing that some of his policies are causing hardship in people's lives. He's realizing even that some of his middle managers are not doing a good job caring for the people that they're over. And he's got all kinds of changes he wants to make. And so, by the end of the episode, he calls in the people that he worked with, and he reveals to them that he is the president of the entire company waste management. And they're like, what? And he gives this one lady a raise so she can keep her house. And I'm like, why am I feeling so emotional right now? Right? And I love that idea like the boss, you didn't know he was there, and then he's revealed. Jesus is the undercover boss in the temple. He's come in, and he's looked around, he saw what the religious leaders of the Jews and what the people are doing in the temple. Nobody's getting raises, nobody's getting a commendation. In fact, what Jesus has to tell them is that judgment is coming and you're going to feel the controversy, the tension between the religious leaders and Jesus. So, I want to read it actually, starting in Mark 11:27 is really where this thought, I think, begins, and I'm going to read all the way to chapter 12, verse 12, so a longer text. And out of respect for God's Word, I want to invite everyone to stand for the public reading of Scripture, and I encourage you to give what Jesus says here in the temple your full and undivided attention, because this is the Word of God. Please follow along as I read Mark 11, starting in verse 27.
And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. There's a handout there in your bulletin. I would love for you to pull that handout out and take some notes. And the first thing I would love for you to do is circle the word “authority”. It's there two times in verse 28. They're questioning, literally, the authority of Jesus. Who gave you this authority, and what are they referring to? Well, if you look back in Mark 11, maybe you remember when we studied that Jesus came into the temple. It says in Mark 11:15, “And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers.” So, they're doing business in the temple, and Jesus comes and clears it out. He reestablishes the Court of the Gentiles, where people are supposed to be welcomed in. He exposes their hypocrisy, calling them a den of robbers. And Jesus begins to teach right there in the temple. Do you know about this on the last week of Jesus's life? Maybe you know how he rode in on a donkey. Maybe you know how he died on a cross and how the tomb was empty on Easter Sunday morning. Do you know that in the middle of the week, Jesus turned the temple into a place where he could teach, and he did this in such an authoritative way that the religious leaders of the Jews, and if you go down to our verses starting there in verse 27, it mentions all of them, chief priests, scribes, elders. This is the Jerusalem Council, referred to as the Sanhedrin. There were 70 of these religious leaders of the Jews. They didn't all get along. They had their different groups, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, but they're like, hey, we're the authorities. We're the leaders of the Jews. But yet, Jesus has come into the temple and flipped the script so that he clearly is the authority, and he's the one teaching all the people. And the people are hanging on the teaching of Jesus. They're amazed at the teaching of Jesus. They want to keep hearing more of the teaching of Jesus. So now, here come these authorities to question Jesus, and they're questioning his authority. This is a showdown of who really has authority over the temple, and they're like, we're going to ask you a question, and Jesus, he flips the script right away, and he says, no, I'm going to ask you a question. And notice how Jesus says it if you look there at verse 29, Mark 1129, “I will ask you one question.” Underline where Jesus says, “answer me,” because then, after he asks him a question about the baptism of John, he says it again at the end of verse 30, “answer me.”
Do you see the authoritative way that Jesus is speaking to them. They want to ask him a question. No, he's asking them a question, and he's commanding them to answer him, which, of course, they don't want to do, because he's basically asked them the same question they've asked him, like, is John the Baptist, is he from God, from heaven, or is he from man? And if they say he's from God. Well, they can't really say that. If they say he's from man, well, they can't really say that. So, what are they looking for? Some middle ground. We don't know. They don't really believe in John the Baptist, but they're acting middle ground because they don't want to upset who. They want to please people. They don't want to upset the crowd. Here they are questioning Jesus, and with one question, Jesus completely exposes them. You don't want to answer my question. I'm not going to tell you by whose authority, so make sure you circle that “authority” there in verse 33, as well.
So, authority is the key theme of this paragraph here from verses 27 to 33 at the end of Mark 11. Where does Jesus get his authority from? That is what they're asking. And that is something that we want to really consider, is the authority of the Lord Jesus. And a lot of people are doing what the Pharisees or these religious leaders do here, they're finding some middle ground position on Jesus. It's rare that you'll actually just find someone hostile and full out rejecting Jesus. It's also rare that you'll find people who are all in for obeying Jesus. Usually, people want to find some middle ground. And even though these men are planning to arrest and kill Jesus and actively working against him, they still, in front of the crowd, want to act like we're in the middle. We don't know, but a lot of people who are claiming to be in the middle are actually rejecting the authority of Jesus.
Reading through the Gospel of Mark, one of the clear thoughts that Mark wants to communicate to every single one of us about Jesus is that Jesus came across as authoritative to everyone who interacted with him. Go back to Mark, chapter 1. We need to review some of the things that we learned at the beginning of this gospel. We need to remind ourselves who John the Baptist is, because that's who Jesus asks about, who was clearly still present in the minds of the people there in the temple. And then we need to remember that when Jesus began teaching, what was the main impression that people had about him? So, if you look back at chapter Mark, chapter 1, look at verse 5. It says in verse 5, “And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” Now, if you remember our study when we began the gospel of Mark, the Jordan River is not close to Jerusalem. It's well out there in the wilderness. So, this is a long way people are going from the city of Jerusalem, but they want to hear John the Baptist teach, and he's teaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And as people are repenting of their sins, they're getting baptized, and the baptism is symbolic that they're being forgiven. They're being cleansed. Their sins are being washed away. And look what John the Baptist is teaching, starting in verse 7, “And he preached, saying, ‘After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’” Who is John the Baptist talking about here? He's talking about Jesus himself. He's the forerunner of the Messiah. He's the voice crying in the wilderness. Hey, you're not here to follow me. You're here to follow him. He's him. He's the one you want to know. He won't just baptize you with water. He'll give you the spirit.
And so, John the Baptist raised ruckus in all Judea in Jerusalem. That was clearly a ministry that was from God. He fulfilled prophecies by being this prophet crying out, preparing the way of the Lord. And yet, notice they don't want to say yes to John the Baptist, because then they would have to fully commit. But they also don't want to say no, because the people hold John the Baptist in high regard. Here they are looking for the middle ground. We give way too much benefit of the doubt to the middle ground. The middle ground is already rejecting the authority of Jesus. John the Baptist, we should be able to affirm. John the Baptist came from God, and he was telling everybody to prepare for Jesus. Can I get an amen for that? Is everybody here going to agree? No, John the Baptist is from God. That's the correct answer. They don't want to say that, because if they acknowledge that John the Baptist is from God, then they would have to believe in what John the Baptist said, and who was John the Baptist pointing to? He was pointing to Jesus. They would have to acknowledge the authority of Jesus. A lot of people are rejecting the authority of Jesus, even though they know about it. They don't want to obey Jesus. They want to do what they want to do, and so they question his authority.
Now, maybe you've heard somebody say, is it okay to question God? Is it okay to question Jesus? Well, I think it depends. What kind of questions are you asking. Are you asking sincere questions, of which you want to know the answer, or are you just throwing up questions like a smoke screen to confuse the issue? They don't really want to know where Jesus gets his authority from. They're not ready to listen to Jesus explain that the Father sent him and gave him a particular mission, that he's here to do all that the Father commanded, and that the Father actually is going to give him all authority in heaven and on earth. They're not asking a sincere question. We will see people in the temple who ask sincere questions, these chief priests, elders and scribes. This is not sincere. They are questioning the authority of Jesus, and I want to encourage you. What is the answer? Where did Jesus get his authority from? Jesus got his authority from being the Son of God. Look at verse 22 of Mark 1, people picked up on this right away. “When Jesus began to teach in the synagogue in Capernaum, they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had what, everybody? Authority. There's a contrast between the way Jesus teaches and the way that most of the religious leaders among the Jews taught at that time. And what are we learning about the religious leaders? What do they really care about? What really drives them? Are they there to please God? No, they're there to please people. What they care about is the popularity of the crowd. And if you care about the popularity of the crowd, how do you teach? You teach to tickle people's ears. You teach to tell people what they want to hear. You teach and you quote sources that they already agree with, to get a sense of agreement among the people. When Jesus teaches, he teaches like he doesn't care what you think about it. He teaches like he's telling you the truth. He teaches you like he tells you the truth, like he knows what the truth is, like he is the truth, like he has the authority to tell you how you should view life and what you should do with your life. We've never heard teaching like this. This is not like the scribes are teaching. He teaches with authority.
Jump down to verse 27 where they continue to respond to the teaching of Jesus in Mark 1, maybe you remember there was an unclean spirit that started convulsing and crying out in the synagogue in Capernaum, and Jesus cast out that demon, as he casts out many demons in the Gospel of Mark. Look at what they say, verse 27, “And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’”
So, we're here today to talk about the authority of Jesus. And there are only two possible responses to the authority of Jesus. You either reject his authority, or you obey his authority. Let's get that down for number one: “When it comes to Jesus, there is rejection or obedience.” There is no middle-ground posturing. There is nobody who is okay with Jesus. No, Jesus, he tells us what to do. He speaks with an authority that is above everyone else, and so a middle ground is just a nice way to reject Jesus, but you're either rejecting him or you are ready to obey what he says. And even the demons acknowledge the authority of Jesus. Even the demons know that he is the Holy One. And every single time when Jesus casts out a demon, what does a demon do? It gets cast out, it goes where Jesus tells it to go, because Jesus is the authority. I wonder if I were to do a word association with the name Jesus, how many things would come to your mind before authority comes to your mind? Because in the Gospel of Mark, one of the primary responses people are having to Jesus, one of the major themes that Mark is developing is people were blown away by his authority. Go to Mark 10:45. This was such a key verse for us. Mark 10:45, you could really call it a climactic verse, as Jesus was teaching his disciples in chapter 8 and 9 and 10, and he's telling them, “I'm going to go to Jerusalem, and then I'm going to be handed over to the chief priests, elders and scribes. They're going to kill me.” He's already told them the whole story of what's going to happen, and he said it like this in a climactic way, Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Now that's what we like to celebrate about Jesus, that Jesus gave his life as a ransom for our souls. Jesus loved you, and he died in your place on the cross. Jesus was willing to pay the penalty of your sin, his precious blood, his righteous blood, atones to pay for all of your sin before God. And we love that. Hey, Jesus, he didn't come to be served. He came to serve me. We think about the humility of Jesus, how he humbled himself to be born as a baby, how he put on flesh.
We think about how Jesus is gentle and lowly. There was a book written about that. It was like a best-selling book. Everybody loves this idea. Oh, Jesus, I can bring all my burdens to him. I can bring all my cares to him when I'm weary and heavy laden, I can come to Jesus because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He's gentle and lowly. He'll give rest for my soul. So, we love what Jesus does for us. But how much do you think about the authority that Jesus has in and of himself and what he tells us to do for him. See, I think among Christians today in America, we understand that Jesus came to serve us, but do we still understand that Jesus deserves to be served himself? Look at that verse again, For the Son of Man, even the Son of Man came not to be served. What is the expectation that the Son of man would be what he would be served? So, it's surprising that he came to serve us, and we're so thankful he gave his life as a ransom for us. But do you still see the Son of man in a place of authority and that he deserves for you to obey Him, to serve him? How much are you recalling to your mind the authority that Jesus has over you? I hear a lot of Christians describe our personal relationship with Jesus, and what a blessing it is that we can know God through his one and only Son, Jesus, and experience that eternal life. But make sure when you have a personal relationship with Jesus that you don't make Jesus your buddy because he's not your buddy. He is your Lord. Yes, you have a personal relationship with Jesus if you're a believer and he's your boss and you live to serve him, that's the personal relationship you have with him. Oh, he may have gone undercover, but do not make the mistake of not thinking that Jesus is the boss. How much do you acknowledge. He doesn't need your acknowledgement. He's got the authority, whether you want to give it to him or not.
But how much do you think about Jesus? He's the one who tells me what to do, and whatever Jesus tells me to do, I'm going to do. In fact, what are the commands that Jesus gives? Don't do this or do this. Here's how you should live. Stay away from this, practice this in your life. What are the things that you have stopped doing because Jesus told you to stop doing them? What are the things that you do and you're like, well, I wouldn't normally be like this. This isn't my natural inclination, but because I know the Lord Jesus commanded this, I want to keep all his commands, because Jesus has authority over my life. Does Jesus get to tell you what to do? Because if you don't want to obey him, you can find some middle ground, but you're actually rejecting him. Jesus is the boss, and those who really know him live to do what he says.
Go over to chapter 4, verse 41 in Mark. Go to chapter 4, verse 41. Maybe you remember this story when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee, and there was wind and there were waves, and they wondered, is this going to be the end of us? And Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves, and he said, “Peace, be still.” And then in verse 41, “And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” Even the physical creation knows who their master is. So, let's think about this for a second. The demons, the evil spiritual forces in the heavenly places, they know that Jesus has authority and they obey him. The wind and even the waves in the physical creation, they know that Jesus has authority and they obey him. How come so many people who claim to be Christians that churches like this don't know that Jesus has authority and obey him.
This is one of the primary things that our church needs to think about Jesus, is Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. Go back to chapter 2, verse 10 of Mark. He made this point during one of his miracles when he raised up a paralyzed man. Remember this story? There was no room in the house. So many people were jammed into the house to hear Jesus teach. But these friends had brought their paralyzed friend, and they were like, Jesus is going to heal him, but they couldn't get into the house, so they came in through the what, everybody? Through the roof, and Jesus saw their faith, and he told the man, rise up and walk. This epic miracle that Jesus does. But instead of just saying, rise up and walk, what does Jesus actually say? And he says it in front of the some of the scribes who are there in Mark chapter 2, verse 10, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He says that is the ultimate authority, where Jesus is the judge of our eternal souls. We all have a soul. We are all created in the image of God. God forms us in our mother's womb, and he makes us not just to be physical beings, but spiritual beings. The real you is who you are inside your skin and bones
And so, it says that he can forgive your sins. That's who he is. He has the authority to forgive your sins. Jesus judges over us. Jesus decides what happens when we live and when we die. Jesus, it says, when he comes back, he will judge the living and the dead. When you die, you will go before Jesus. Someday he will come on the clouds and rule over all of the nations. What will Jesus judge about you? Will he forgive your sins because you've trusted in him and what he did, to die on the cross for your sins and to rise again, to give you a new life? Or will Jesus judge you according to what you've done for your sins? Everybody gets judged on the basis of either what you've done, or you get judged on the basis of what Jesus has done, and he will decide what happens to your soul for all of eternity. You want to talk about power and authority. How about someone being able to decide what happens to you after you die? That's Jesus. And can we just take a moment together here this morning to say that I'm terrified by the idea of someone having absolute authority over my life. We've become kind of an anti-authority nation. We don't really like a lot of other people having authority over us. We like our system of checks and balances. We don't even like having a boss who tells us what to do. We don't like that kind of stuff. We want to be our own boss. Okay, that's how we are. But what about Jesus? He has authority over us. Are you ready to agree with that? Is that what you have acknowledged, that he is your lord? Have you submitted to his authority? See, we’ve got to make this clear, the reason we obey Jesus is because we don't think we're going to be saved by what we do. No, because we have transferred our trust to Jesus and what he did, once we acknowledge him to be our Savior and our Lord, then we want to live in obedience. Why? Because we love Jesus and we see him as Lord, so we live to do what he says.
I'm not obeying Jesus so that he will save me. I'm obeying Jesus because he has saved me. He's my boss, and I want to do what Jesus tells me to do. He forgave me for my sins. So, I live my life in response to the authority of Jesus over me. Go to Matthew 28, it's just a few pages to the left. It's the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations. But a key verse in our mission that Jesus has given to our church and to all churches is in Matthew 28:18 where after he has risen from the dead and appearing to many eyewitnesses, Jesus, it says he came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus is the Lord of the universe. And you know what? That terrifies us in our anti-authority nation. But guess what? I couldn't pick anyone better to have authority over my life than Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? If someone gets to decide what happens to me after I die, then let it be the one who died in my place. Let it be the one who humbled himself, who's gentle and lowly, who loves me and died for me. Yes, in fact, I think Jesus is the appropriate one to have authority over my life. I think Jesus could do a better job with my life than I even could. And so yes, there is someone who has absolute authority over me, and I'm 100% okay with it, because his name is Jesus. And so, we are supposed to be the people who are the church, the bride of Christ, submitted to his Lordship. Are you submitted to the authority of Jesus, or are you trying to find some middle ground posturing?
When I was watching this episode of Undercover Boss, it felt like sometimes what happens to me here at church is one of the pastors around here, I show up sometimes, and I'll be like, hey, I'm coming to your fellowship group tonight, and you just see a sheer look of terror come over a person's face. You're coming to my fellowship group? Sometimes, people will come to meet with me, and we'll go up the stairs to my office, and we'll sit down, and they'll be like, oh, it's terrible to be here right now. I'm like, oh, great. Nice to meet with you, too. This is wonderful. Why are you so scared? Well, you're the pastor, right? I remember this one fellowship group here at the church, they felt like it was having a rough time, and they're like, hey, will you come and join our fellowship group? Because I'm just not sure it's going well. And I'm like, I'd love to be a part of your fellowship group. So, I show up, and people just start pouring out their souls in this group. They start sharing their secrets, they start confessing their sins. And people clearly have prepared. They're sharing insight from the Scripture on how we should be doers of the Word and what the Bible is teaching them. And I'm like, this was one of the great fellowship groups I've ever been to. This is awesome. I love being a part of things like this. I wish every night a church was like this. And I go to that group a few more times, and people are just totally into it. And then I stop going, and then it's like, yeah, it's not going well again, yeah, I don't think everybody wants to stay in the group. And I'm like, wait a minute, are people just saying those things because I'm there? Wait a minute, how much of what people do at church is just to impress other people?
Maybe there's a lot of that kind of pharisaism going on, a lot of middle ground posturing, just trying to look like I'm in a good spot with everybody else. How many people really come to church to obey the Lord Jesus, who has all authority? And the way we treat one another is not based on how the other people are treating me. The way I treat other people at church is based on how Jesus commands me to treat them. I wonder how many people in this room came here today because Jesus is your boss, and how many of us came here today to please somebody else. We need to see Jesus as the one who has authority.
I really want you to try to think about the authority of Jesus this week, to talk about it at your fellowship group, to show up with something to say about the authority of Jesus. And I really want you to consider what command do you obey, because Jesus told you to? What's something that's hard for you to stop doing, or it's hard for you to do, but you're going to do it because you love Jesus. And Jesus said multiple times in John, chapter 14, “If you love me, you will” what? You'll obey my commandments. You'll keep my commandments. That's what he says here in Matthew 28. Look at Verse 20. What are we supposed to do with all the disciples of Jesus, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, teaching the disciples to keep his commands. That's supposed to be a part of what happens at church where we teach. Hey, this is what Jesus said. He said, don't do these things. He said, do these things. He said it to the apostles, they wrote about it. We’ve got to learn these commands so that we can keep them. Why? Because he has all authority in heaven and on earth.
And so let it be known here today that there is no middle ground when it comes to Jesus. You either obey what Jesus says or you are rejecting him, as nice as you want to make it as appropriate as you want to be in front of other people, there's either obedience or there's rejection. And these guys wanted to find some middle ground, but they were the rejecters of Jesus. He knows it. They know it. And then go to Mark 12 and look at what he has to say about it. Because he tells a parable here in the second part of our passage. And this parable that he tells here, it's not like other parables that Jesus makes up a story to fit the point that he's making. Remember, back in Mark 4, he started teaching parables to the crowd to actually obscure the message, because the crowd wasn't really listening to his teaching, and so he taught parables. The disciples understood them, but the crowd didn't really understand what he was teaching. But this parable here in Mark 12 is different, because even the chief priests, elders, and scribes, by the end of this parable, know that he's talking about them and he's coming after them in this parable. So, I don't think this parable is a parable that Jesus makes up to obscure the message of his teaching. I think that this is not a story that Jesus is just telling new. I think it's actually an old story that Jesus is retelling for his current situation there in the temple. Look at verse 1. You can see the story is about a man who planted a vineyard. So, if you're taking notes, you want to write down the Parable of the Vineyard. That's a key thing. We're talking about a place where there should be fruit. We're talking about somebody setting up a place where they're going to grow things and they're going to make a profit off of their growth. And in this vineyard that Jesus is describing, write down two things about it. One, there's a wine press in this vineyard. The other, there's a tower in this vineyard, a watchtower to protect it, to defend it. And so, when you start reading about a vineyard with a wine press and a watchtower, I wonder if some of the people in the temple might have even remembered, oh, we've heard about this vineyard before.
Grab your Bible and turn with me to Isaiah, chapter 5, and this is the parable that I think Jesus is referring to, a previous example that was given by the prophet Isaiah, about the nation of Israel and the judgment that God was going to bring upon them, because they were not producing the fruit. They were not obeying his commands. They were not submitting to his authority. So, if you know about Isaiah, chapter 5, it's a chapter where God pronounces woe upon the nation of Israel. Woe, the word that means you will be judged. And he usually gives many reasons to Woe to you because you're doing this. This is going to happen to you because you don't obey this command, or you continue in this sin. Now this judgment will befall you. And so, it starts out in this epic chapter of judgment, of a prophecy, of a warning that judgment is coming. It starts out, look at Isaiah 5, verse 1, “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” You put all that work into a vineyard, you expect to get some choice ready grapes, but we're not getting that. We're not bearing the fruit of obedience. We're not bearing the fruit that shows we really have submitted to God's authority by faith. No, there's no fruit, and so there's going to be judgment. And who is the vineyard? We'll go down to verse 7. “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!” Hey, these are my people. The vineyard represents the Jewish people, God's chosen nation. And he's looking for what he commanded from them, but he is not finding it. In fact, he's finding the opposite. He's finding disobedience. And so there is going to be judgment.
See, here's what's so fascinating. If you go back to Mark 12, everybody turn back to Mark 12. This is what's so fascinating to me, as we're going through the Gospel of Mark when we got to chapter 10:45, and it was very clear that Jesus is going to give his life as a ransom. Well now, starting in chapter 11 and moving into chapters 12 and 13, it's almost like Jesus's focus is now on telling us what's going to happen, even after he dies, even after he rises again. We haven't got to the end of the gospel. He hasn't been crucified on the cross. They haven't gone to the tomb and found it empty yet, but Jesus, he's already told them all about that. Now he's in the temple, teaching that after he dies and rises again, there will be judgment. The religion that is being practiced there among the Jewish people is not what God had commanded them. And here he is exposing that these religious leaders aren't teaching you the way of God, and you're not following the way of God, and there is going to be a judgment. And so, he now extends this vineyard parable from Isaiah 5, and he says, think about all the prophets, like Isaiah, like Jeremiah, like Zechariah, all these different prophets that God has sent to his vineyard. And what have they done with these prophets. They haven't listened to them. They've beaten up some of these prophets. They've killed some of these prophets. And so now here we are. In fact, they just disrespected one of those prophets, who was John the Baptist, and they wouldn't even acknowledge he was from God. And so now the owner of the vineyard says, what about my beloved son? I'll send my son, not just one of my servants, I'll send him surely they'll respect my son. What is Jesus doing? He's talking about himself here in this parable. And then look what he exposes about them in verse 7. “But those tenants said to one another, this is the heir. Come let us” what everybody? “Let us kill him.”
Do you see, they're not as middle ground as they want to be perceived. They understand who Jesus is. In fact, the religious leaders of the Jews understood very clearly that Jesus was claiming to be God. That is precisely why they killed him. The accusation is blasphemy. In John 8, when he says, “Before Abraham was, I AM, they pick up stones to stone him.” In John 10, when he says, “I and the Father are one,” that's when they want to end him. It wasn't because they couldn't understand who Jesus was, no they understood all too well who Jesus was claiming to be. He's the heir. Let's kill him. They know he's claiming to be the Son. And they have this idea that if we can just get rid of Jesus, then we'll be in charge, then we can live. See this lie, that there's some way around the authority of Jesus. Satan's big on this idea. Satan is the one who will actually end up possessing Judas and getting Judas, one of the twelve Disciples, to betray Jesus to these religious leaders at night, in the cover of darkness, he will betray him. They will arrest him. They'll have a trial that goes all night, bringing all these false accusations.
Go ahead to Mark 14. Let's just jump to the end of the trial, when these religious leaders finally get what they want to kill Jesus, but they need a reason to kill Jesus, and so they're accusing him all night long, and he's not answering any of their accusations, and they can't come up with anything. So, in Mark 14, verse 61 it says, “he remained silent and made no answer. And again, the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am. And you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’” “Yes, I am,” Jesus says, I'm the son of God, and you're going to see me riding on the clouds and all of God's power and glory, and that's what they were looking for. Verse 63, “And the high priest tore his garments and said, ‘What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy.’” They understood that he was claiming to be God, and they rejected him.
And a lot of people, they're deceived into thinking that you can reject Jesus and somehow get away with it. They thought that if they killed him, the inheritance will be ours. We'll get to be in charge of the Jewish people again. They'll all come back. We'll be popular again. They'll all listen to us again. Even Satan thought that when he killed Jesus, that he would actually win some kind of victory. A lot of people, they have this wish-Jesus-away kind of a thought like, I can just deny his reality and make up my own world, my own universe to live in. There is no denial of the king. No, you're going to see him in all power and all glory. Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. There will be no other religions. There will be no other worldviews. There will be nobody who can try to deny that he is the one. That's what's coming and they're like, let's kill him, and then it will be ours. That doesn't work like that, but that's what a lot of people think. So go back to Mark 12, and this is the main line of the parable. This is what all of us need to hear Jesus say in the temple to these religious leaders of the Jews. He sets up this whole story. They're the vineyard, and God's been sending his prophets, and now he's sending his Son. Now they're going to kill his son. And then look at this verse 9. So, what will the owner of the vineyard do? Like as you're going through the story here in Mark 12, as Jesus is telling the story, maybe you thought this when I read it. He sends a servant and they beat the servant up. He sends a servant and they beat up another servant. He sends a servant and they kill that servant. Then he sends even more servants. At some point, I think intentionally, in the telling of the story, you're supposed to think maybe stop sending the servants. Right? Like, how many servants are we going to send? That just shows the patience that God has had. It shows the long suffering that God has had. And do not make the mistake of thinking that the patience of the Lord equals weakness, because someday, the patience of the Lord will be done and judgment will come. What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? He's going to come and destroy the tenants? That's what Jesus is saying in the temple.
People think that they can reject the Son, and the Father is going to be neutral about it, that the Father is going to be passive about it, that the Father is going to somehow accept that he loved the world so much he gave his one and only Son. What more could he give? He offers his Son as a sacrifice to atone for our sins, and we reject his Son. We don't think that's going to make Dad mad. Am I speaking to any fathers? You send your son to help someone, and your son gets rejected, mistreated and killed, somebody kills your son, and you're just going to be passive about it? What do you think the owner of the vineyard is going to do when they beat and kill his servants and then they kill his son? Jesus says, he will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Jesus is teaching a judgment that is coming on these religious leaders on that temple, on their whole false system where they're not really obeying the authority of God Jesus.
Let's get this down for point number two: “For those who choose rejection, there will be judgment.” We're going to hear some judgment in Mark 12 and 13. This is something Jesus wants to be known, and he's holding court in the temple to make it clear God is going to come and destroy and that should get every single one of our attention. Because if you know history, you know that in the year of our Lord 70 AD, the Romans came in and they wiped out the Jews. Exactly what Jesus is prophesying happens in the in the history of Israel. It happened. And he's prophesying a time of judgment that will come upon the whole world that has not happened yet. And the only way you can learn about judgment is to be warned, because you cannot learn judgment by experience. Once the judgment comes, it's already too late. That's why judgment is a tough topic for us to talk about at church on a Sunday morning. We don't like thinking about judgment. We don't like being judged, and we can't see it, we can't feel it, we can't experience it. The only way to really understand judgment is to hear someone teach about it and to receive the teaching by faith, because once you go through judgment, it's already too late if you get judged for your sins.
And so, do you believe that there is a judgment that is coming and how much time do you actually spend thinking about that, that the entire world that we live in is going to be held accountable for its sin before God, that all of God's patience, all of God's mercy that's new every morning, all of God's long suffering over all the years, not just the years of our lives, but the years of generations gone before us, that it is storing up wrath for some future day of judgment, and out of the very heavens wrath will be poured down upon this planet. Do you believe that that day is coming? That's what the Prophet said. That's what Jesus is warning about. That's what we've seen glimpses of in different places of history, going all the way back to Noah's Ark and Sodom and Gomorrah. And how about when the temple got destroyed one time and they were exiled? How about when the temple gets destroyed after they killed Jesus and reject him? There have been examples of judgment throughout history, but a great and terrible day of judgment is coming, and Jesus wants the whole world to be warned. Why? This is the beautiful thing about warning people about judgment, because it's when you get warned about judgment that you can find salvation. There's always a warning about judgment so that people have time to repent and believe before it comes. And so, Jesus is saying, hey, everybody here in the temple, what do you think the owner of the vineyard is going to do? Do you remember what happened in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah? What do you think he's going to do now, if you reject me and you kill me, you think the Father's going to be passively standing by while you crucify his Son that he sent to save?
So, we need to understand judgment. I want to actually encourage you to think about judgment. It's only when you sit for a moment with judgment, you'll realize that giving the people around you, the people who don't know Jesus, the people who don't believe that Jesus is the Lord, and they don't see his authority, and they don't worship Jesus, you don't want to approach these people with some middle ground posture like, let's just all be friends and it'll all work out in the end. It's not going to work out in the end, they're going to bow the knee to Jesus. They're going to see he's Lord. Everybody is going to know who Jesus is by the end, we want them to believe in who Jesus is now, by faith, we want them to call in the name of the Lord now so that they can be saved.
So, I wonder how many of us are just like these religious leaders, where we want people to like us. So, we don't really talk about Jesus that much when we study over these next few weeks, if you come back after this, if we when we study what Jesus does in this temple, Jesus doesn't care what people think, unless it's for them to know the truth. Jesus is not threatened. There's no rival to him. There's no challenge to him. He's above it all. He actually has authority over everything that is going to happen. He doesn't feel like, well, I hope everybody likes me. No, they will all acknowledge him in the end. Is that the tone then that you take with other people, like, if you really think about judgment, there are people that you know who, right now are going to be judged by Jesus for their sins. You know these people. You love these people. You do not want them to be judged. There's only one thing you can do if you really care about them, speak his name.
You can't just keep trying to get these people to like you forever, because judgment is coming, and they need to believe in the Lordship of Jesus, his death and resurrection, so that Jesus will forgive them for their sins, rather than judge them according to what they have done. See, one of the reasons that you're not really maybe urgent in your evangelism, one of the reasons that you're maybe not fervent in your prayers, one of the reasons that maybe it's been some time since you've pleaded with someone else to believe in Jesus, is you're not really thinking that judgment is coming, or that they're going to die and go before Jesus, and you want them to be prepared before it's too late. Look at what Jesus says here in verse 10 of Mark 12, and notice how many times have we seen Jesus say something like this. Now, have you not read this scripture? Jesus expects people to know what the Bible says. Jesus expects, especially these religious leaders, to be familiar with the previous prophecies and to understand how they're going to be fulfilled and come to pass. He's always saying, do you not know? Have you not heard? Have you not read this scripture? And then what does he quote here? Psalm 118, verses 22 and 23. Psalm 118. That should be fresh on our minds, because they were shouting Hosanna from Psalm 118. In fact, go back to verse 10 of Mark, chapter 11, verse 10. Remember when they were shouting, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” They were going back to the ideas of Psalm 118, which is a psalm that they would have brought up at a feast like the Passover, which is why everybody's in Jerusalem right now. And so, Jesus takes this chapter of the Psalms that would have already been brought up when he rode into town on the donkey, would have already been fresh on their minds, because it comes up at the Feast of Passover. And now he says, hey, there's a prophecy there in that Psalm. Don't you know it? “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and he's saying that to the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. And then after he quotes this Scripture, look at verse 12. “They were seeking to arrest him, but they were so afraid of the people for he knew that they knew he was telling the parable against them. So, what does it say they left him? And what everybody? They bailed on the temple. Let me ask you who had authority in the temple on that day, and these false religious leaders, he chased them all away. And how did he chase them away? By quoting the Scripture.
I just want to encourage you that every time we see Jesus teaching, it seems he's always quoting something already established in the Hebrew Scriptures, and he's expecting people to know what the Bible says. And he's saying you have to understand ancient architecture and construction that when they're doing a massive building project, and the temple was a massive building project, you start with your foundational piece, your cornerstone, and you have to pick the perfect one, because everything else you're going to build goes off of this stone. So, it has to be the right stone in the right place, very precise. And then you can add all the other stones to get the whole structure. And so not just any stone can be the cornerstone. And so, what it's saying here is a stone that the builders rejected actually became the cornerstone. So, here are the builders. They're looking for their perfect stone. They think this stone is in it. They throw it in the unwanted stones pile over here, they pick a different stone, and they start building with that. But guess what's happening in the unwanted stones pile, the stone that got rejected, there's actually something now being built on that this is God's plan, and it's marvelous because the religious leaders of the Jews that reject Jesus and kill him, Satan and all the demons that think it's a great idea for Jesus to die, right? When they think through their rejection of Jesus, they've won. That's actually where your salvation begins. That's actually the foundation of the entire church, where people from every nation, every tribe and every tongue all over Planet Earth for the last 2000 years, have been saved on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ.
They thought they were rejecting him, but really that was just the beginning of his building. Wow, look at what God did. He used the enemies right when they thought they had won victory, that's when they faced ultimate defeat, and right when it seemed like Jesus was not going to establish his kingdom, that's when the church had a cornerstone to be built upon. And so, this right here is Jesus quoting a prophecy to the guys who are going to reject him, declaring his ultimate victory over them. That's authority. When you can walk into somebody else's temple, take it over and teach them, use the scripture to expose the error of their ways right in front of their eyes, and they're forced to leave. That's authority. That's Jesus, and he's saying, the stone that the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone.
You know who really likes this verse and uses it is Peter. In fact, in Acts, chapter 4, Peter goes in front of the Sanhedrin, the Council of the Jews, and he says to them, hey, you guys are the builders, and you rejected the stone, and it's become the cornerstone. You guys want us to shut up about Jesus. You're tired of thousands of people repenting and believing in the gospel all across Jerusalem. Yeah. You rejected him, and now he's building it. Go over to 1 Peter, chapter 2. Look at what he says about this verse in 1 Peter, chapter 2. Peter quotes it in 1 Peter 2:7, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” And really, I can't wait to get to Mark 13. So, we're going to spend four weeks going through Mark 12. Then we'll do four weeks in Mark 13. And when we get to Mark 13, they're going to walk out of this temple, and all the interactions and the controversies and the teachings that Jesus has in the temple, and as they're coming out of the temple, the disciples say, look at the stones of this temple. If you've ever been to the temple in Jerusalem, even to this very day, you can go underground, and you can see some of the foundational stones, and they are massive stones. I remember going on the tour under the temple in Jerusalem, and the guide there, they do this cool thing where they're like, okay, I need a volunteer. And they say, okay, you go find the end of the stone way down over there in this little tunnel under the temple, okay? And you, you volunteer, you go the other way, and you find the end of the stone. And then you're looking at these two people. They're like over 40 to 50 people apart, and that's all one stone. And you're watching videos there on this tour where we're speculating even today, how did they move these stones to get them into place, these massive, epic stones of the temple? And in Mark 13, as they're walking out of the temple, the disciples are like, Jesus, check this place out. Look at these stones. Isn't the temple impressive? Isn't the temple awesome? You know what Jesus says to his disciples in Mark 13? He says, yeah, you see these stones. Not one of them is still going to be standing. Judgment is going to come on these religious leaders, this temple, these people, because they're going to reject me. And they're like Jesus. When is this going to happen? And then we're off into Mark 13.
So, Jesus hasn't died, he hasn't risen yet, but he's already teaching us what's going to happen after that. And something that's going to happen is judgment is coming. And Peter, he warns about that. Look at verse 8. He quotes other verses about stones as well. He's building this whole stone theme here in 1 Peter 2, and look at what he says in verse 8, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they what everybody? They disobey the Word as they were destined to do, as they were destined to do. What do you mean? Oh, yeah, like it was prophesied in Psalm 118:22 that the builders would reject the cornerstone through their what? Their disobedience to many people, the authority of Jesus causes them to stumble. It offends them because they want to be the authority. They don't want to bow the knee. They don't want to submit. They don't want to confess that Jesus is the Lord. They want to be in charge of their own life. They don't want to say that Jesus calls the shots, and so they trip over Jesus. They stumble over Jesus. They disobey him and reject him.
I'm sure there are some people that came here today, and as you came in here today, you were in some middle ground place with Jesus. I pray that God has opened your eyes to see there is no middle ground when it comes to Jesus. There is rejection or there is obedience, and for all of those who choose to reject Jesus, there will be judgment. But look at what it says, “For those who do put their faith in the Lord,” look back at chapter 2, verse 4. Look what he says as you come to him. And I would like to invite anyone to come to Jesus here today. I'd love to talk to you after the service. There are people out in the courtyard at an easy up. They would love to connect with you. And he says, as you come to him, it's like you are a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house. So, Jesus, he was a stone that got rejected, which became the cornerstone. But you yourselves now are like living stones. It's like God's picking you, and he's placing you as stones on the cornerstone of Jesus, all of us who trust in the Lord. He becomes the foundation for our salvation. He becomes the cornerstone on which we are being built, on which he is building his church all over the world. And it says we are like living stones. Yeah, he's the rejected cornerstone, but we are now like living stones being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices. And here's the key, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, acceptable for those who acknowledge the authority of Jesus, and you confess him to be Lord, for those who transfer your trust, and you don't try to do it yourself, but you trust in what Jesus did. God loved you. He sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus died in your place. He is your atoning sacrifice. He paid for your sin. If you put your faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are now acceptable before God, and you don't have to fear a coming day of judgment, because Jesus already took the judgment for you when he died in your place. This is why we're here today to warn the entire world that judgment is coming, because only those who realize that judgment is coming are those who can be saved. Today, there's only one place to find refuge from the judgment to come, and that's the one place that judgment already came, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you found refuge in Christ? Have you transferred all your trust to Jesus? Do you know that you are acceptable before God by your faith in Jesus? Do you obey Jesus as your Lord, not obeying him to be saved, but obeying him because he saved you? What does Jesus say three times in John 14? If you love me, you will what? Keep my commandments, obey my word. There is no other way to go but to acknowledge the authority of Jesus.
And so, I really hope that you'll take this to heart. I hope that this will become a major theme in your life, that studying the gospel of Mark will actually matter to you, and you'll be more willing to obey what Jesus tells you, because you acknowledge his authority. And if you are not under the authority of Jesus, if you haven't willingly submitted and placed yourself under his authority, I want to invite you to turn to Jesus today. Please don't reject him. Don't try to find some middle ground about Jesus. Don't face the judgment that is to come. Today could be your day that he places you like a stone onto the cornerstone, and you get built into his spiritual house. So let me pray for us, and then we'll continue to worship.
Father in heaven, we come before you, and we're so thankful to be in the temple with Jesus today. We're so thankful to see them question his authority, and to see the awesome way that he replies by turning the question on them and how they can't answer about John the Baptist. They're looking for a middle ground that doesn't exist when, clearly, really they want to reject Him. And so, we thank you for this parable. How Jesus quotes Isaiah 5, how he brings up Psalm 118, how he exposes that they do want to kill him. And then he brings up this thought, what will the owner of the vineyard do? God, I want to take a moment right now to thank you for your mercy, that even though I deserve to be judged for my sin, even though all of us would deserve to be judged for our sin, we woke up today and we have not known judgment. We experience fresh mercy this morning, and we thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your patience with each one of us in our sin, for your long suffering with us even when we were rejecting you. You've been so gracious to us, and it's your kindness that led us to repentance, and it's your love that has brought us salvation in your Son, Jesus. And so, Father, we want to thank you for saving us. But I pray that as we celebrate our salvation, that we would still understand judgment for sin is coming, and that just because Jesus was willing to serve us does not mean that he's also not worthy to be served himself. So, let everyone who's one of your people, Father, let us all see Jesus high and lifted up here together right now. Let's see him at your right hand of the Majesty on high, given the name that is above every name exalted to the highest place. And just how you've lifted high the name of Jesus in heaven, lift him high in our hearts. Lift high the name of Jesus in Huntington Beach and all the cities of North Orange County. And let everyone know that Jesus will suffer no rivals. He will take no threats. Jesus will reign supreme as king, as Lord, and that they should bow the knee to him. Now, they should confess him as Lord. Today, they should live in obedience to Jesus. Father, I pray for those who are rejecting Jesus, that they will turn to him, that they will find that he has the authority to forgive their sins and to save them from the judgment that is to come, because he already took judgment in their place. So, Father, please let today be a day of salvation before the judgment comes. And let us all worship Jesus, because there's no one like him. We pray this in his name. Amen.