PRAYER: Father God, You are so good! You are so faithful! You come through exactly when I need You. And this is because You are always here. You're always with me. You're always watching me, looking after me. Thank You LORD. It's so good to know that I serve the most powerful God that exist. The only God that exist. You love me! How special I am because with all that is going on in this world and with different people; You have more than enough time for me. You're so great! You're amazing! You get all of my glory and all of my praise. Even when I'm thinking about doing wrong, You're right there to direct me into the right way. Forgive me, for my mistakes, as they were no way to despise You. Just a reminder that the flesh is a powerful thing that I have to always keep in mind. Thank You for listening to me. Thank You for being my strength during my times of weakness. I love You LORD. Thank You for choosing me to worship, honor and praise You. In Jesus' name, amen.
THE PARABLE OF THE TENANTS:
Jesus is still speaking with the chief priests and the elders of the people who questioned His authority:
33 "Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son.' he said.
38 But when the tenants saw the son they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.'
39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"
41 "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time."
42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?
43 Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Most of you have been reading the Good News for a while now, and some of you are church participants, so I'm sure you got what this parable was about as soon as Jesus began telling the story. This is a good thing, because it tells you about YOUR growth in the Word and the Spirit; as things begin to reveal themselves to you without having to wait on an "official" explanation. I'm happy for you! It's an amazing thing.
The main elements in this parable are (1) the landowner-God, (2) the vineyard-Israel, (3) the tenant farmers-the Jewish religious leaders, (4) the landowner's servants-the prophets and priests who remained faithful to God and preached to Israel, (5) the son-(you know)-Jesus, and (6) the other tenants-the Gentiles. Jesus was exposing the religious leaders' murderous plot.
How backwards the chief priests and Pharisees were. When they learned Jesus was talking about them, instead of repenting right there-they continued to plot against him. They didn't fear God at all, instead they feared the crowd. What is this? Do you fear people? Do you care what they think about you? Are you afraid of being labeled religious? I deal with this a lot. People want to label me religious. I've hated when people called me religious, because I know I'm not following a religion. I don't do what I do to feel good or to be labeled a good person. People who don't know God, don't get this. I don't go to church to be forgiven and I don't do what I do so that God will love me or to say that I'm better than anyone us. God loved me first. Because of the fall in the beginning, I am more prone to sin than to walk away from it- and I continue to struggle and make mistakes daily. But I AM SAVED! Praise God! I have a relationship with God! I talk to Him, I give to Him (in comparison to all that He provides) a small portion of what He has given me, I desire to learn more about Him, I desire to share Him with other people because the grace and glory that has been over my life deserves to be shared. Now I'm at the point if you want to call me religious-go right ahead, because I know the God that I serve is real. I know that my life does not end in earthly death. I know I am blessed continuously because the God that I serve is so generous. And He's loving, so He is also continuously CORRECTING me. I have God-centered and God-honoring relationships in my life. No words from any human about my faith will put me down. A person can judge me all he/she wants, it does not matter. I love Jesus and I will continue to grow and mature in relationship with Him and others. I can't ask for anything more. How about you?
In trying to reach us with His love. God finally sent His own Son-out of love for each one of us. Jesus' perfect life, His words of truth, and His sacrifice of love are meant to cause us to listen to Him and to follow Him as LORD. If we ignore God's gracious gift of His Son, we bypass that God wants to save each one of us and have a relationship with us; sadly, we reject God Himself.
ARE YOU SAVED?
AND IF YOU'RE SAVED, ARE YOU GROWING?
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