The Parable of The Wicked Tenants

                           
                               Opening Prayer                                                   Pg.1
Father God we ask your blessing on this study tonight, that you would open our minds and our hearts to your word.  Bring us to the realization of those matters that you would have us learn from this study. Make us aware that in this world you do not always work independently.  Help us to realize that we too are vessels that you use to further your Kingdom on this earth. And it is our good fortune to live in the greatest most blessed country in the world, and for that we are thankful. We pray that your peace and comfort be with those of us who are sick or disabled and cannot be here tonight. We ask that you share our blessing with them. Lead us now and give us understanding as we study the teachings of Jesus, In Jesus Name we pray Amen

The Pharisees had just challenged Jesus’ authority and He responded by asking them to identify John the Baptist’s authority. They refused to answer his question So Jesus then speaks a parable about a father and two sons, directed to those who were questioning Him, and in the process he told them that the prostitutes and tax collectors would enter Heaven before they would. He now has their full attention. With everyone now in a heightened state of anxiety Jesus tells them another parable which further intimates that they are not doing the will of God with their religious bigotry and pious holier than thou attitude.
                           The Parable of The Wicked Tenants                                                      
Mat 21:33  "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 moved to another place. 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 cornerstone; 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  Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed." Mat 21:45  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.
This parable is even more accusatory than the first, and in it he tells them that They will be denied Heaven because of their religious bigotry and selfish actions.

Q.1 What is Jesus’ main objection concerning their religious beliefs and actions?

                                                           


                                      Jesus sets the scene                                                           Pg.2
The parable begins by speaking about a landowner who made an investment, Then the landowner did four things; (1) He planted a vineyard; (2) He built a wall around it for security from animals and trespassers; (3) he dug a winepress in it; and (4) he built a watchtower so as to provide protection for the vineyard from thieves.
The vineyard was very well laid out. The landowner provided everything to assure growth and fruitfulness for his vineyard.  He expects it to bring forth good grapes, to bear good fruit to produce good wine and food for consumption. There are 7 main points to be considered in this parable: (1) the landowner; (2) the vineyard; (3) the tenants/farmers; (4) the landowner’s servants; (5) the son; (6) the other tenants; and (7) The improvements that that the landowner put into his vineyard

Q.1 Who is Jesus alluding to when speaking about “The landowner”?
Q.2 To what or to whom is Jesus alluding when describing the “vineyard”?
Q.3 Who is represented by the “tenants” who are supposed to work the vineyard?
Q.4 Who are represented by the “landowners servants”
Q.5 Who is Jesus alluding to when speaking about the “Landowners Son”?
Q.6 There is reference to “other servants” who do they represent?
Q.7 What is representative of the improvements that the landowner put into his vineyard?

                                      What does God expect?
When we look closely at the use of the word 'vineyard' in the parable, we realize that it represents something else - not just the nation of Israel. What else does it represent? It represents the kingdom of God. Compare two verses, v. 41 with v. 43.
Notice how the landowner trusted the tenants. He left them to care for his vineyard as they wished. They were given the privilege of being free to use their own ingenuity and ideas, and not have someone looking over their shoulders and forcing them to work in a particular way. God trusted His people. Unfortunately they abused that trust.
In our parable, the vineyard is also an allusion to Israel. Jesus explained that when God chose Israel to be His people, He wanted some spiritual fruit. So He sent His servants. The servants represent the prophets that God sent to the Jews down through the centuries to remind them of their obligations. When you read the writings of the prophets, you can see that the prophets were constantly calling for spiritual fruit, reminding God's people that they are God's vineyard and that they must produce the kind of fruit that God expects. What happened to those prophets? Some had been beaten (Jeremiah 20.2). Some had been killed (Nehemiah 9.26). Some had been stoned (2Chronicles 24:21). This is unfortunately the way the Jews treated the servants of God. And Israel is now at the point of rejecting and killing Jesus, the Son of God.

Q.1 Describe the type of fruit that God was expecting from Israel in this parable.
Q.2 But instead of spiritual fruit, what did the tenants do for God?
Q.3 After His first servants were killed God sent more, what does that tell us about God?
Q.4 What would be a practical analysis of this investment that the landowner has made?
Q.5 God sends His Son. He too is killed. What does that say about Gods chosen people?



                                                                                                                                               Pg.3
                                What are the consequences?
Think about the landowner and ask yourself this question. Why would a person plant a vineyard, and then rent it to someone else? Is there something other than grapes that he expects? Remember the words in Isaiah 5:1-2: …My Well-beloved has a vineyard … He expected it to bring forth good grapes… 'The Master has a vineyard. He expected fruit from it.'
 We read in v. 45, Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them, and they perceived that they were being associated with the tenants who killed the prophets. To restrict the tenants to the religious leaders alone would be, a narrow interpretation.  No Jewish hearer would fail to recognize that the rejection of God's sovereignty involved not only the leadership but also the nation as a whole. The people, (God’s Chosen People) had strayed away many times, and now, Jesus is bringing their infidelity into focus and they were offended by his accusations.  But Jesus tells them how it will be by asking a question. 40  "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" And they condemn themselves with their answer?

Q.1 What is their answer? Read vs. 41 and discuss how they arrived at that answer?
Q.2 How is it that they did not immediately recognize that they were the tenants?
Q.3 Isn’t it obvious that Jesus was speaking of the Jews? How do we conclude that?
Q.4 Read vs.42 thru 44. Has Jesus now involved anyone else?
Q.5 How would one further describe the ramifications of vs. 44.

                The relevance of the parable in today’s world
Now how is this parable relevant to us? Yes, it deals with the kingdom of God. But what do we learn about the kingdom of God that is applicable to us? Here we need to talk about the key idea of this parable. This story has to do with the matter of fruit and of being fruitful. In the kingdom of God, the Lord looks for fruit from His people.
In verse 41. the vineyard is taken away from those who do not produce any fruit and given to those who do. In verse 43, the kingdom of God is taken away from those who do not produce its fruits and given to others who will. The two sentences express the same idea. The main difference is that the word 'vineyard' in v. 41 is replaced by the expression 'kingdom of God' in v. 43. By this simple comparison, you can see that the vineyard represents the kingdom of God. The vineyard that the landowner planted in the parable is the kingdom of God.
If you are in the kingdom, you are in the same position as the tenants of the vineyard who were supposed to look after it and produce the fruit that the master expected. We must understand why we are in the kingdom. God entrusts His kingdom to our care so that we may produce the fruit that He desires.

Q.1 What is the fruit that God expects from his tenants?
Q.2 What Does Jesus require of his followers?
Q.3 What is the mission statement of Advent Presbyterian church?
Q.4 What Has Jesus said is the greatest commandment?



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Closing Prayer
Father God,  be with us now as we leave this place. May we carry with us your blessing as we continue in our efforts to live the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ. We pray for your continued watch over our loved ones and those among us who need your healing hand to touch them in their time of distress.___________ We pray now that we may cause You great joy by sharing your love with others as we have seen it in your Son our Lord Jesus, as we continue in our day to day living,  It is in Jesus name we pray, AMEN

Meditation
Jesus, walking with his disciples after arising one morning was hungry, and Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked. We would probably have asked the same question. Jesus answer had to do with faith. "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
No one who is a Christian would expect to call for a mountain to be thrown into the sea and then have it actually happen, as Jesus often did, he used an unlikely allegory to make a point. Jesus is God incarnate, nothing He does, nothing he did or will do is without a purpose and a reason.
It is acting in faith to believe that God can do anything that one asks of Him, and if it lies within the boundaries of His will, it will happen. But what one cannot do is have God act on our behalf to satisfy our desire to have a self gratifying moment in time.
The apostle Paul made an interesting statement in Romans 7:4. He said that the whole point of becoming a Christian, and more specifically of the believer's death to the law, is that he may bring fruit for God. Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead so that we can bring forth fruit unto God.
It is our privilege to walk day by day with Jesus and to bear fruit as we go. To be generous and self giving, To care for the elderly, the sick, the widows and orphans, the downtrodden and the poor, to promote peace and good will, and to avoid the frustrations of self serving gratification in all that we do. We are his servants, and just as he expected fruit from the fig tree, and finding none caused it to wither and never bear fruit again. We are to bear fruit for our God. He has fully equipped us and given us a Savior and the Holy Spirit who by the grace of God are there to help us with our day to day walk with Him. We pray that we will never hear His words “May you never bear fruit again” spoken to us.
God has put in our minds, a vineyard. It is in our thoughts and in our desire. We perceive it as a Heavenly eternal existence in His Kingdom, It has been fully prepared just as Paradise was prepared for Adam and Eve. We have been given full awareness of it and a desire to have it. May every step we take, and every move we make be rendered fruitful until that happy day when we will hear his words “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'