This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome to day five of our look through Matthew chapter 21. At
the end of this chapter, there is a long parable that Jesus told. It's one of
the clearest parables that he told, and it is a parable about himself, very
clearly about himself, part of this parable.

So beginning in verse 33, let me begin by reading this parable and then draw
some truth out of it for your life and my life today. Verse 33 begins by saying,
listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and he
put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it and built a watchtower.

And then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When
the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his
fruit. The tenants seized the servants, they beat one, killed another and stoned
a third.

And then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time and the
tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. They
will respect my son, he said.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, that's 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.

Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those
tenants? He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, they replied. And he
will rent the vineyard to the other tenants who will give him his share of the
crop at harvest time.

Jesus said to them, have you never read the scriptures? The stone the builders
rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in
our eyes.

Therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and
given to a people who produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be
broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. When the chief
priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about
them.

They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because
the people held that he was a prophet. Now, when you look at this long parable,
it's obviously about the prophets who came to the Jewish people and again and
again brought God's message and they rejected and they stoned and they killed
them. And it's obviously about Jesus who's now come and they're rejecting his
son, even as he speaks the parable.

As you read this parable, the key to understanding the entire chapter we just
looked at is in verse 43, where he says, therefore I tell you that the kingdom
of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who produce its fruit.
Remember, this chapter, chapter 21, began with Jesus cursing a fig tree that
didn't produce fruit. And here he's talking about fruit again.

Now, Jesus did not curse the fig tree to show off. He did it to make a point.
God expects fruitfulness.

God expects the results of him being in our lives. And the nation of Israel,
these people of Israel, they have lost their privilege, he's saying, because of
unfruitfulness. It didn't begin with Jesus.

It began way, way back in the past with the prophets. Because they were not
fruitful, they attacked those who came to collect the fruit. Instead of
listening to those who came to collect the fruit and realizing, oh, we've got to
change our lives so we can become fruitful, they just attacked the people who
came to tell them, you're not fruitful.

Instead of choosing to change, they chose to attack the messengers. That still
happens today. And not just with other people.

I can do it, you can do it. Beginning with the prophets, they did it. Now with
the son, they're doing it.

Now, this message, this message of fruitfulness, it was all important in this
last week of Jesus' life. He wants his disciples to live fruitful lives. So here
you see him at the beginning and the end of the chapter talking about
fruitfulness, doing a miracle about fruitfulness, teaching a parable about
fruitfulness.

If you look over in John chapter 15, the whole chapter is about how to live a
fruitful life. I am the true vine and you are the branches, he said. I want you
to bear fruit.

I want you to bear fruit that can remain. This John chapter 15 are words that
Jesus spoke to his disciples in the upper room the night before he died, the
last week of Jesus' life. This last week of Jesus' life, he is focused on
fruitfulness.

Why? He's about to hand over all of the responsibility of God's kingdom on earth
to these disciples. Now his power's going to either be working through them or not.

You see, their responsibility is to depend on him for the power or try to do it
in their own power. And if they depend on him for the power, they will be
fruitful. If they try to do it in their own power, they're going to be just like
this parable.

People who are living in the vineyard but aren't producing any fruit. Jesus
wants my life, your life, to produce fruit. Now what does it mean to be
fruitful?

What does it mean to bear fruit? Well, simply it means that you bring out of
your life what God has put into your life. God puts love into your life.

So if you are fruitful, that love is going to be shown through your life to other
people, shown through your life back to God. God puts joy into your life. You
don't just hold on to it.

If you're fruitful, that joy is going to be shown out of your life. Just like God
puts the opportunity for an apple tree to bear apples into the apple tree, is
not fruitful until it starts bearing apples. Bearing what God has put into it.

God puts comfort into your life. And the Bible tells us that we are fruitful as
we comfort others with the comfort that he's given us. Fruitfulness means that
we're not just consumers of God's blessings.

We're not just containers of God's blessings. We are conduits of God's
blessings. They come into our lives, but then they go out of our lives.

We are light to the world because Jesus has put his light into us. We're the
salt of the earth because Jesus has put his grace into us. In this passage, as
Jesus talks about fruitfulness, he ends by telling us one of the keys to
fruitfulness.

At the end of this passage, he says, now, here's what I've just talked to you
about. Don't miss this. I am the cornerstone.

I am the capstone. I'm to be the capstone of your life. The stone the builders
rejected has become the capstone.

The capstone was the stone that held it all together. If you pulled it out,
everything would fall apart. And Jesus says, you need to trust in me.

I'm the rock that you have to stand on. And then he shares with them, the one
who falls on this stone will be broken. The one on whom this stone falls will be
crushed.

Jesus is saying, if you're trusting in yourself, you're not going to win this
battle. A stone is bigger than you. Let me ask you a question.

Would you rather fall 100 feet onto rocks or would you rather have a rock fall
100 feet onto you? Neither one, either way you lose. The rock's going to win every
time.

You know that game. Many of you know that game, rock, paper, scissors, where you
put your hands three times and you make scissors with your fingers or a rock or
paper and paper beats rock and rock beats scissors. In this case, you just got
rock and person.

Jesus is the rock and I'm a person. And the rock wins every time. Now, if you're
playing a game of rock, person, you know the rock wins every time, what do you
do if you want to play the game right?

If you want to win the game, choose the rock every time. Choose his power, his
strength every time. Don't choose your strength.

Don't choose your power. Don't do it on your own power and strength. That's you
falling on the rock or that's the rock falling on you.

You're not going to get into heaven on your own strength and power. It's only on
the power and strength of the forgiveness of Jesus. You're not going to live the
Christian life on your own strength and power.

It's only on the power, the grace, and the love of Jesus that you're going to live
the Christian life. The choice is obvious here. Always choose the rock.

In order to be like Jesus, you have to draw your life and strength from Jesus.
And when you draw your life and strength from Jesus, you will become more and
more like Jesus. Trust in the rock.

Let's do that together right now. And just a brief time of prayer. Just say,
Jesus Christ, I don't want to trust me today.

I want to trust you today. And you might just admit to him, Lord, I don't always
know how to do that. I don't always know how to not get caught up in myself or
in my own worries or jealousies or lusts or anger.

But I want to learn how. I want to learn how to be the kind of person that trusts in
you and that follows you. So would you teach me today?

And if I stumble, would you pick me up again? You can do that. You will do that.

Would you strengthen me to keep following you? But in all of it, I pray that you
would release me from the temptation to trust in my own strength and power. And
you give me the freedom to know today and every day that I can trust in your
strength.

I can trust in your power. I pray for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Be sure to join us next week. We'll be looking together at Matthew 22. Jesus in
this chapter answers questions and the kind of questions, the answers teach us
about what's really important in our lives.

We'll see you next week.