Matthew 21:33, parable of the talents. Parables. Jesus told this parable 2,000 years ago, and 2,000 years later, I think it still speaks to us. This is a parable of accountability. It’s a story of God’s patience. It’s a story of a generous master. It’s a story of sinful man. It’s probably, in my belief, it’s one of the greatest stories that has ever been told. And its implications for man in all time is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. I spent so much time studying this text, and I cannot adequately communicate its depth and its warmth and its wonder and the drama of it. I will try to do my best, but man, it is just so very good. Matthew 21:33. And I pray that God will open your heart to allow it to unfold in you the way it unfolded in me. Verse 33. Listen to another parable. He has just given the parable of the two sons, and here he’s about to give in the same vernacular, in the same style, another parable. The parable of the two sons was a parable of judgment, and this will follow suit. There was a landowner who had planted a vineyard.
He put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. It’s a very simple story. I’ve been getting in the habit of using ChatGPT to make me images for the sermon, so here’s one of it. There you go. Very simple scene, a very common scene in Jesus’s time. And that’s the genius of the parable. The land of Israel was covered with vineyards such as this. Vineyards were a major mainstay in the agrarian society of Jesus’s time. But in addition to the idea that these vineyards were so common, the reference of a garden or a vineyard to describe God’s good world is all over the scriptures. There’s one example that I’m not going to have time to study out, but you should really study out on your own is Isaiah 5. In fact, it’s so similar that you should, after this sermon, go read it and just find the similarities. But I think about Genesis 2 and Genesis 3. In fact, the parallels are so intriguing that I wanted to combine them all in the sermon, but I thought it would just take us too long.
So let’s just take a time to break down this parable itself. First, you have a certain landowner, a master, if you will. And this man, with his own estate, decides to take a portion of his property and segment it, probably on the slope of a hill, into a vineyard. And he plants a majestic vineyard. Then we’re told that he walls it or he hedges it Why does he do that? Because vineyards were vulnerable to wild animals. They’re vulnerable to robbers. The man cares about his vineyard, so he protects it. And then he digs a wine press, meaning that he’s going to allow for some cultivation of those grapes. The Bible is trying to explain to us the master cares about his vineyard. That’s the message. There’s security there. There’s shelter there. There’s storage there. There’s even a watchtower. What’s that for? It’s to make sure that no one is taking over. It’s to store your goods. It’s to become a shelter for the storms. What’s the point? Jesus is demonstrating to us the master cares about the land that he put these tenant farmers in. He cared for the land. And so in the language of Genesis 1, he made a good land, and he saw that it was good.
And he, as the landowner, Think about the story. If you’re the landowner, I want you to imagine you have several hundred acres of land and you carve out a piece of land and you start a farm on that land. You, as the landowner, can do whatever you want with that land, can’t you? You could cultivate it, you could use it, you could work it, you could rent it out, you could profit from the land. He could, of course, use it all for himself. But instead, he leases it out to some tenant farmers. Now, history tells us that there would have been some contract between he and the farmers, some It’s an agreement between he and the farmers. You can use my good land, but I’m asking you that when harvest comes, I want to share in the profits or in the glory of the land. That seems fair, doesn’t it? It’s my land. It’s not your land. I planted the vineyard. All these vines are mine. All these grapes are mine. This watchtower is mine. The wine press is mine. The whole thing is mine. Here, you’re a tenant farmer. You’re placed in the garden.
I want you to take care of it, and And then when harvest comes, you and I will share in its blessings. You can reap some, but also I want to reap a portion. And if you love the Bible like I love the Bible, your brain is connecting a little bit to the Garden of Eden, isn’t it? God makes a good world. He puts us in the garden to take care of it. He puts trees in it that we can eat. But he has a rule for us. And here is exactly the same. They could have done well with this agreement. It’s a good vineyard. It’s properly protected. The crops would have flourished. And then the text says, The master, the landowner, goes away. What does that mean? He grants them privilege to do what they want with the land that they have been given. It’s amazing privilege. As long as we get to share in the prophets. Verse 34. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruits. The harvest has come. It’s time to collect a portion of the fruit. So he sends them off to hold them accountable for the deal that they made to collect from them to claim what is rightly his.
He sends some servants looking to receive from them maybe some currency because they sold the grapes, maybe some wine, maybe some produce. But the agreement, this would have been an agreement that everyone was privy to. Everyone, everyone, everyone knew the master was going to come back and ask for a portion of the land. Everyone knew that without a doubt. So the servants come and they come in the master’s name. They would have said, Hey, I am here on behalf of master so and so. It is time for me to collect the produce or the wine or the money. And then something awful happens in the story. Verse 35, The tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned the third. Now, if you read Mark’s parallel account in Mark 12:3-5, it tells you that the first one comes and they beat him, and they send them off. Then the second one comes and they slay him. And the third one comes, and they stone him. Matthew just clumps them up into one occasion. One person is killed, one person is beat, another is killed, the last is stoned. Can you imagine? Can you imagine this good man who has given this piece of land to these farmers, and all he wants to do is share a bit of the prophets with them.
And by virtue of this agreement, they could both flourish. But instead, these people treat the servants horrifically. They beat one, kill the other. And then as a progression of cruelty, the third idea about stoning is like they torture the last. It’s ridiculous. It’s bizarre. These tenant farmers are given privilege, opportunity, given a chance to prosper, and they use the land for themselves. They’ve become so independent, right? They’ve become resentful. They’ve become filled with hatred. They’ve become possessive of a land that is not theirs. So they want everything. They wanted to take the man’s land, everything for themselves. They are squatters. They are murderers. And yet the owner continues to be so gracious. Look at the next line. Then he sent another servant to them. Stop there for a second. Would you do that? My guess is no, you wouldn’t. If you were as rich as this guy, that would be the end, right? If there were police, you would call them or something like that. But let me tell you, you wouldn’t just keep sending messengers more than the first time. So not just three, but more than that. Maybe five servants.
Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they thought that they were fraudsters, those people that came in my name. So I’m going to send more. Okay, then what happens next? And the tenants treated them the same way. So it just keeps sending more and more and more, and they continue to kill. The master proves something about his character that he is slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. Patient, patient, merciful, and gracious, even with the most wicked of human beings. Now all of his servants are dead, and the story takes a turn. Last of all, And there’s so much sadness in that thought. Last of all, he sent his son to them. They will respect my son, he said. They will respect my son. Mark tells us that it’s his only son. I’ll send him, and they will respect my son. The verb here is intense. It means that to respect means that they’ll turn from their evil ways. They will turn, right? They’re going to see my son walking in, and they’re going to say, oh, and they’re going to come to their senses, and they’re finally going to respond the way that they’re supposed to respond.
They’re going to respect my son. They will respect my son. They have to respect my son. And you know where the story is going. Verse 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. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. It’s an amazing story, right? They knew who he was, and they murdered him anyway. It’s premeditated murder. It’s murder in the first degree. Why do they do this? Well, he’s the heir, which It means this. If they can kill him, then they can be the heirs. Then it can be their land, and it can be their grapes, and it can be their lives, and it can be their land, and no more contract, and no more rules, and the land is now mine, and this vineyard is now mine, and the garden is mine, and the watchtower is mine, and this is all mine. If finally and fully I can kill the air and I can kill everybody, then I can have everything I ever wanted. I can be in control of this good land.
That’s the illustration. The people know it’s a parable, but the story itself is so captivating that even without interpretation, Jesus is just leading them down to follow the path, because then he turns and asks a question. Verse 40, Therefore, okay, now that you heard the story, Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, when the master returns, what will he do to those tenants? Now, the assumption here is that this guy has power and resources. He has forces. So when he comes, what is he going to do? That’s the question And the crowd answers. In Luke’s account, it says, The people, when they heard this, they said, God forbid. God forbid, almost like they understood. But here in Matthew’s account, this is what it says, he will bring those wretcheds to a wretched end. And he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest. So they get it, and they get the story, and they maybe get a bit of the spiritual reality. But I feel like it’s important for you and me to connect the dots here. Let’s make sure we understand the story for ourselves.
Jesus is about to give the explanation of this account, and it’s very important, and it’s a wonderful explanation. But before we get to the explanation, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page. See, all these parables have local interpretations, and then they have interpretations for the future. The local interpretation is clearly about the religious leaders. That makes sense. They have taken God’s possession. They have destroyed it. God continues to send more and more people, and God has responded, Father, finally, God sends his son, and they even want to kill him. Okay, that’s good. That’s for them. How about for you and me? So let’s make sure we’re on the same page. In the parable, there’s a vineyard. What’s the vineyard? What is this beautiful vineyard? How about this? It’s God’s good world. It’s God’s good world. It’s God’s kingdom, right? Certainly, but it’s also I think it’s everything that God has placed you in to be responsible over. It’s everything in your life that God has given you responsibility over. How about your family? Is your family a vineyard? Has God given you a wonderful family? If you have children and you have a spouse, and maybe you have mom, parents that are still living, is that part of your vineyard to be taken care of, for you to have responsibility over?
I think certainly. Anything you have personal responsibility over that God, Christ himself, has given you, that’s your vineyard. How about your talents? How about your abilities? How about your resources? How about your money in your bank account? How about all of that wonderful stuff that God has given you? You have been given a good vineyard, haven’t you? Wonderful things. The land then is symbolic of the lives that you and I live. I would say it’s even symbolic of your physical body, owned by God, given to you as a steward. It’s the good, it’s the wonderful things that God expects for you to share with him in his happiness, to partner with him to make it all better. What does the story say? Well, he sets it up. He makes it good. He protects it, which you and I could personally benefit from. He gave the resources required, and that’s an amazing gift. And Then what does he do? He puts tenants in it. So if the farm is your life or whatever, then you are the tenant farmers. You are the contracted employees. And let me ask you a question, what’s the agreement? What’s the agreement between you and God for the things that you have been given?
Well, Genesis 2 gives us that very first agreement, doesn’t it? That you are to fill the Earth with the goodness of the Father, with the image of God’s good creation. What are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to provide more good to the world. Fill the Earth, make it blossom, make it amazing. God gave you a family, make that family the best family you could possibly be. Love them and care for them. You have a spouse or you have best friends or whatever, those relationships. Make them the best they could possibly be. You have some resources, use those resources to make the world a better place in whatever capacity you know how to do that. And then you say, well, then who are the servants who come in? Well, they are the prophets and those who use the prophets’ words to help guide you when you’re veering off course. In some ways, I am a prophet for you. Small P, not real prophet. You get the point? Trying to explain to you what you should be doing and maybe what you shouldn’t be doing. The prophets are the people who teach you how to be better husbands and sons and daughters and wives and fathers and mothers and friends and children.
It’s the words from God’s mouth that you read every single day if you read the Bible. Those are the prophets. Those are the servants coming to you again and again and again and again. So then what do we learn? Well, here’s what we learn, and here’s the rough reality. Just take it in for a second. I like what Peter did. He just said, Listen. And then he didn’t say anything for a minute. Do that. Listen. Take it in for a second. It’s this. It’s this. We, like the tenant farmers, are prone to disregard God’s instruction and to believe that the things that we have been given are ours to use for our pleasure and our comfort. We all are like this, tempted to think that the good things that God has put us in our ours and fully ours. And we become like the Lord of the Rings. It’s my ring. It’s ours. It’s mine and mine alone. We take possession of it. These are my kids, and this is my family. And this is my time. And this is my money. And this is my house. And this is my car. And this is mine and mine and mine.
And God’s instruction comes and goes, hey, you were bought at a price. Your life is not your own. And we say, kill it Throw it out of town. Beat it. I don’t want to listen to that instruction because that instruction doesn’t elevate the desires of my heart. We forget that every breath we take is borrowed. We forget that we already have an arrangement with our maker to live in such a way that honors him and his creation. And we forget that at the end of time, he’s going to come back and ask, What did you do with what I gave you? What did you do? What did you do? You might think, I don’t kill the prophets. I don’t kill the son of God. But you might remember that you do sin, and Christ died for your sin. So you did kill the son of God. And yet, like the story, man, the master is so patient with us. Aren’t you grateful for a patient God? Oh, my goodness. He just keeps sending a new word. He keeps it to you. He keeps sending to me a bit of my own conscience, reminding me who I’m supposed to be.
He keeps sending me brothers and sisters to tell me, Tony, that’s not right. You’re going the wrong way. He keeps sending songs that we sing that are supposed to go Wait, I sang that, but do I live that way? He just keeps sending and sending and sending. How compassionate he is. And again, I am tempted, and I’m sure you are tempted, prone to be tempted to say, go away. This is my life. This is my field. These are my resources. And then we come face to face with the sun. And the good news of the coming of the sun is we are yet given another chance to finally and fully respect our master or to plot completely, to take dominance or dominion over our own lives. Are you with me for what it means for you? So now listen to Jesus’s explanation. Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the scriptures? I love that because he knows they’ve read in the scriptures. Have you never read this? This is a very, very, very common illustration. It’s a very, very commonly used passage of scripture. And he’s just like, Have you never read this, guys?
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our own eyes Now, you might listen to that and you think, That doesn’t sound like an explanation. That sounds like we’re mixing metaphors. And it may seem that way until you fully understand the quote. Again, this is from Psalm 118:22. And in this quote, they talk about the idea of a cornerstone. This is a cornerstone. Cornerstones are massive. I saw an article that said that one was excavated that was 32 feet wide. 32 feet wide. They were quarried A single stone quarried from the ground. How they did that, I still don’t understand. Aliens. I’m just kidding. So in selecting one, what you wanted was a perfect stone because it set all the walls in alignment. It was able to be… If it was set in the corner, the rest of the building was built based upon it. And what the Psalmist is saying is that the stone that the builders rejected will become the cornerstone. That’s what it’s saying. In other words, God will bring back what others have rejected and put it in place of significance.
Got it? Cool. In the Psalm, Israel is the cornerstone. That’s who it is. It’s Israel. It’s an unimportant nation that God sets, that’s been discarded by the nation builders, and God sets back into the center of redemptive creation. It’s Israel. But in Jesus’s account, it’s not Israel. Well, I’ll have Acts 4 explain who the cornerstone is. Jesus is the cornerstone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Here’s the explanation. The stone is Jesus. He is rejected, he is killed, and then God restores him by resurrecting him from the grave, and he becomes the cornerstone, meaning that he is the new guide for to get to salvation. The religious leaders thought they were the guide. Jesus is like, no, no, no. Just so you know, just so you know, the Son was rejected and killed. The cornerstone was rejected. And guess what happens to the Son? What will happen to the Son is the same thing that will happen to that rejected Stone. That rejected Stone will get placed in a place of significance and will lead everything.
And guess what will happen to the Son? The Son is coming with full authority, where at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. The Father will glorify the Son, and he will take back what is rightfully his. What does this have to do with you? Well, here’s a very easy way of thinking about this. I didn’t put it in my slides. I’ll just tell you what it is. God cares about what you do with what you’ve been given. And if you choose To dishonor God and to dishoner the son, he will take everything back and he will glorify himself. Your life is not your own. Your money is not your own. Your children are the lords. It’s your responsibility to prepare them, to teach them, and to spend how you’re supposed to spend and all that. Your spouse isn’t yours to use for your own desires. So at the end of the night, you can ask for a cup of water. That’s not why you have a spouse. Your job is to prepare in that relationship for you to present her or him perfect before the Lord.
This is God’s house. I don’t mean this building. I mean, yes, this building, too. But this is God’s church. This is not my church. And you know what I found? People that think that they are God in the church get taken out by God, and God puts himself back at the center. And if you lead here, I want you to know that you are just a steward of the people who you’re working with. God is going to take it back if you dishonor him. You are going to be held accountable for what you do and what you’ve been given. This is God’s world, and everyone and everything will honor him at the end. And I’m here to tell you that if you dishonor him, he will reject you. He is going to get the glory, whether or not you like it. He is going to be king, whether or not you want him to be king. So it’s our responsibility to make sure that we live in such a way where you give, you grow your life, you grow the blessings of your life in such a good way. And then you don’t think, wow, I am so awesome, and I am so smart, and I am so rich, and I have the best marriage.
It’s like, no, what you do is you use that to then bless the whole world. That’s what you do. That’s what you do. You have not been blessed just to be blessed. You have been blessed to be a blessing. Now, Jesus wraps it all up. This is the practical illustration or application for them. Oh, this is the wrong passage. That’s why it’s there. Jesus said to them, Truly, I tell you… No, what is happening? God cares. There you go. I didn’t take it out from last week. Therefore… Yes, okay. Therefore, I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to the people who will produce its fruit. Fruits? What fruit? Well, fruits of righteousness. Who is it given to? 1 Peter 3, it’s given to a new nation, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. So what is this text? What do we learn from this text? Well, can I summarize it for you? What do we learn about God? We learn about his grace. Isn’t that clearly displayed in this text? Again and again and again and again, he sends messengers. We learn about how he gives so much privilege to mankind.
We love that. Isn’t that beautiful? With potential rewards, certainly. We learn about his patience towards men. What do we learn about man in this story? Well, we learn that we are given great opportunities. That God’s revelation and the scriptures are all there to give us guidance to how to be a blessing to the world. And yet we are in a position where often we are not willing to be held accountable for what we’ve been given. What do we learn then about accountability? Well, that the Lord is going to send his servants to check on how we’re handling what we’ve been given. And if we don’t do well with what God has given us, eventually, he will take it all from us. Now, I know this This is a bit much. It’s not like I can end this and go like, well, now have a great lunch. See you tomorrow. And I know it’s a bit much, and the story might seem like, Okay, that’s a lot. I don’t feel like it’s really relevant for me because I don’t I lot evil. I don’t kill people. But I want you to think of it a little bit differently.
Maybe the way you can think of it, and this is the way I’m going to close here. Maybe you could think of it like this. God has given you good things. You agree with that? Yes. Everyone agrees God has given you good things. It’s It’s your responsibility to multiply the good. Fair? If you do nothing with it, it’s going to be taken. If you don’t share in the glory that God… Or if you don’t share with God the glory that he is rightly deserving, it’s going to be taken from you. But it’s your responsibility. Don’t be afraid. It’s your responsibility just to produce something good. Here’s an old story, and I’ll end with this. In George McDonald’s Children’s Book, The Princess and Kurdi, a young man named Kurdi was out playing with a bow and arrow when he impulsively took aim at a bird and he killed it. The bird dropped and he picked it up and he found out in the moment where he killed it that it was the princess’s Pet Bird. So his shoulders are slumped. He goes over to the castle and he has the bird in his hand and he says this line, Ma’am, I didn’t mean any harm. I didn’t mean any harm. And here’s her response. You say you didn’t mean any harm. Did you mean any good? Did you mean any good?
I want to just impress upon you the evil of inactivity. If you’ve been given a lot, you better multiply that good. Maybe you’re not killing any prophets or blah, blah, blah. Okay, amen. But if you’ve been given a lot, you better do something with what you’ve been given. God put you in a good world. You should be multiplying that good for his glory and the glory and the benefit of those around. Don’t live just avoiding bad, but live to multiply the beauties of what God has given. That’s what I learned from this parable. Let’s pray together. Father, man, you’re such a Great storyteller, Lord. I’m just so honored to have lived in that text for a week and get to share it with my community here. Lord, I know that in this room right now, there are people who are disregarding my words and are pushing them aside because their flesh is so strong. God, I’m asking you today that you would overpower the flesh in this room and you would allow your spirit to speak and to change people’s lives today.
God, I know that there are some who listen and think, That’s not that important. But I pray that you will just, through the spirit of your son, that you will impress upon them the need to repent, the need to confess, the need to get real about who they really are, God, and that we, together as a community, will see the turn in the lives of sinful men towards our glorious King. God, I want to declare today that this is not my church. This is not the elders church. Lord, this is yours. These are your people. This is your community, God. And I want you to know, Lord, that I don’t take ownership of it. God, I feel like a tenant farmer here. And Lord, I just pray that we are guided by the prophets and by the words that you send to correct us. God, I pray for all of us here today that we will know exactly what it is that you’re asking for us to do. That we will feel, we will hear the spirit of God, communicate to us what it is that you want us to do so that we can multiply good in our lives.
Father, also just want to thank you for Maurice, who’s doing well. Thank you for just the good news of seeing something that’s so scary become something that’s good news. Father, you can do that. Lord, we sang that song earlier today. You’re the only one who can turn graves into gardens. Father, you’re the only one who can turn bones into armies. God, that’s what you can do, and you’re the only one who can do it. And so thank you for that swing. Father, I just want to say thank you for Jesus as we take communion here for a moment to have just a quiet moment of reflection. I pray that when we actually reflect, that we’ll be thinking about who we are and what we need to do to present to you the crops and the blessings that you’ve asked us to do. God, we just want to say we love you, Lord. Thank you so much for what you’ve given us. It’s so good. Thank you for Jesus, for his death, for his resurrection. And thank you for this time where we can remember that. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.