Jesus Asserts The Authority Of Heaven

Matthew Series | Matthew 21:18-22:14 | Pastor Duane Smets

This week is an exegetical sermon on Matthew 21:18-22:14 where Jesus assumes and exercises divine authority and action in five different scenes moving hearers to question their own allegiance to Jesus versus their own self-righteousness. These scenes include the cursing of the fig tree, Jesus’ response to the chief priests’ interrogation, and three parables Jesus uses to respond to and challenge them. This sermon was originally preached on September 26th, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
September 26th, 2010

Jesus Asserts The Authority of Heaven
Matthew 21:18-22:14
I. Two Incidents
  A. A Fig Tree Is Cursed (21:18-22)
  B. Local Leaders Are Denied (21:23-27)
II. Three Stories
  A. Two Sons and The One Who Gets Disowned (21:28-32)
  B. Vineyard Tenants and The Ones Who Get Ejected (21:33-46)
  C. Wedding Guests and The Ones Who Get Replaced (22:1-14)

Introduction

Good morning everyone. Good to see you all this morning. Looks like we’re finally getting summer weather now that summer is well over with.

If you’re new and checking the church out we’re super glad you’re here. My name is Duane and I’m one of the pastors here under our head pastor Jesus.

Well, today we hit the second day of Jesus’ last week of life before the cross in our study of the book of Matthew this year.

Last week we saw Jesus enter Jerusalem welcomed by the crowds as the Messiah King riding in on a donkey. The crowds are hoping he will lead a revolt against the ruling power of Rome but instead gathering an army he heads straight for the temple and begins a spiritual revolution cleaning out God’s house from financial corruption and missional deprivation.

That resulted in round one with Jesus and the spiritual authorities of Jerusalem where they question him and Jesus ends up quoting a Psalm which says rather than question him they ought to worship him as God.

Today we’ll dive into round two where we see pretty much the same theme played out…A challenge to Jesus from the spiritual authorities where they question him and in response Jesus once again references his deity and calls them to put faith in him, this time with the added implication that if they don’t their position will be stripped and they will be judged.

So the title of my sermon today is “Jesus Asserts The Authority of Heaven” and we’ll look at the two incidents where he see him act under this authority and the three stories or parables he tells where we hear him affirm this authority. It covers a big chunk of text today because it’s all one conversation and all tied together, so let’s not waste any time but get right into it and read it and pray over it.

(Read text and pray…ask for God to show us who we are and where we are in this text so that’s it’s not just a historical lesson but speaks to us about our own faith and the dangers we must guard ourselves against…grant repentance, faith, confidence, excitement and joy in Jesus through it)

I. Two Incidents
  A. A Fig Tree Is Cursed (21:18-22)

Okay so we start off on the next day after Jesus has come into the city with this weird fig tree scene. To be honest when I started working with it I had a hard time with this one. It just seems weird. You’ve got this momentous entry of Jesus coming into Jerusalem for the first time, over a million people are stirred up thinking he might lead a political and military revolt against Rome. The Jewish leaders of the city are all nervous and don’t really like Jesus rocking the boat. So what’s this fig tree deal doing here…it just seems out of place.

On top of it, it’s just kind of a weird miracle. I mean most of Jesus’ miracles are him doing nice stuff and cool stuff. You know like healing people, walking on water, calming storms, casting out demons…but what did this poor fig tree ever do to get cursed by Jesus and why this little mini-lesson on faith with the disciples as a result of it?

So when I started studying this passage at the beginning of the week I had a lot of questions. I’m sort of half a Christian during the beginning of the week I guess because I just question everything the Bible says and then I go looking for answers. And then the Bible always wins me over and I become a Christian all over again. It’s good times.

Two things unlocked the fig tree for me. One, come to find out that this isn’t the only time the Bible talks about fig trees. They actually show up quite a bit in the Bible. Particularly in the prophet books. Whenever a fig tree is producing figs, it’s a sign of blessing from the Lord. Whenever a fig tree is not producing figs, it’s a sign of judgment from the Lord against Israel for rebellion.

Listen to Jeremiah 8:12-13 speaking about Israel, “They shall be overthrown, says the Lord….I would gather them, declares the Lord, [but] there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.”

Jesus, in this entire last week of his life will consistently do things to specifically fulfill unique intricate prophesies of the Old Testament, even into the very details of how he dies on the cross. This is simply one of those cases. I mean reading Jeremiah 8, it sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it? Leaves, no figs and a withering. What it does fill in for us is telling us there will be this “overthrowing” and that something God gave will be taken “away.”

Okay, now follow tight with me for a second…I know this is a little more academic than normal and we just jumped right into the sermon, but let’s press a little further. Last week we saw Jesus clear out the temple, the center of worship and the day concluded with him receiving worship from children and calling the Pharisees and everyone else to worship him. Last week we talked about how when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn and Jesus himself become the new center of worship instead of the physical, geographical locale of the temple.

Now notice something with me, in verse 21. The disciples are confused about the fig tree, and I’d probably be too. But it’s background is in Jeremiah as a judgment for a lack of faith which result in an overthrowing removal of a gift God had given. Now verse 21, here’s Jesus’ explanation, “If you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Okay, why is Jesus talking about throwing mountains? He says, “if you say to this mountain.” What mountain? Ahh. Here we go. What is “this mountain”? Do you know what mountain is standing in front of them as you are walking into the city as verse 18 says? The temple mount…the mountain the temple sits on. The center of worship.

Whoa! That would have been unthinkable. Could it be the temple? God’s gift to his people as a place of worship…the thing Jeremiah said would be taken and overthrown…thrown into the sea? Whoa!

You see Jesus isn’t offering magic trick advice here about how to do a cool trick on a fig tree to make it wither. He is not offering some spiritual formula or secret to make things go your way so you can ask whatever you want and it will happen.

No, when Jesus says “whatever you ask” it is…whatever…even something as big as the center of worship changing from the temple to himself…if you believe in Jesus, have faith in him…such an unthinkable thing, they would witness it and see and know the significance of it. The fig tree is just a picture and a sign of what Jesus is about to do in coming to Jerusalem and dying the cross. He’s come not just to cleanse the temple but to take it down.

Okay. Now maybe that’s there and maybe it isn’t. That’s okay, maybe I’m crazy. But either way, maybe you’re like, okay…that’s interesting but what’s it got to do with me? Here’s the point. The fruit is faith. The question is are you bearing the fruit of faith or are you just caught up in religious activity…”going to the temple”?

Notice Jesus is after faith filled prayer. It is so, so, so easy to just make prayer into a ritual that completely lacks any genuineness where your actually talking to God. In our life, we are either bearing fruit by putting our faith in Jesus and walking with him or we are withering because we don’t really believe.

Do you have the appearance of faith, where there are green leaves on your tree but there isn’t actually any real fruit? Where are you really at with God today?

  B. Local Leaders Are Denied (21:23-27)

Well, this indictment of Jesus concerning a lack of faith and God’s judgment for it will be a theme carried through his entire discourse on this day. Let’s look at it in the second incident in verses 23-27 of chapter 21 where the “Local Leaders Are Denied.”

If I’m right the fig tree deal is about the temple and guess what, where does Jesus go next, verse 23 the temple. He shows up and right away the religious leaders are there and they are all nervous. I mean the day before he had a whip and was driving out cattle and turning over table and calling everyone to prayer.

So before he can get started again they come right up to him while he’s teaching and they challenge him. Here’s what happens… They ask him straight up, “who gave you this authority?” In response, Jesus masterfully puts them in a dilemma. Jesus says he’ll tell them if they can answer one of his questions. So sly and so smart. I love it.

Jesus’ question is whether the baptism of John was from heaven or man? If you’re unfamiliar with John the Baptist, he was a pretty straight up preacher who told everyone they were sinners and needed to repent and be baptized and that he was preparing the way for Jesus. A bunch of people responded, but not the religious leaders.

Well, right away they get what Jesus is up to. They realize if they say John’s baptism was from heaven then they will be accepting that Jesus himself is from heaven and is operating under the authority of heaven. That’s the right answer Jesus is getting at. But they don’t want to admit that because that then they realize they should believe or put faith in Jesus if that’s true.

So the religious leaders are in a dilemma…they don’t want to put faith in Jesus but they can’t say John’s baptism wasn’t from God because everyone had already pretty much accepted that John was a prophet of God. So instead of just admitting Jesus is from God and believing in him they decide to act dumb and say, “We dunno.”

So Jesus denies them in return and says, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” The funny thing is he goes on to tell three stories which make it pretty clear what authority Jesus is operating under…but he already kind of implied it anyway by the kind of question he asked.

We’ll take a look at each of the stories or parables Jesus tells in a second, but before we do I think there’s some things here for us to digest.

Essentially what we have going on here is a battle over authority. Jesus is really calling them to submit to and follow his authority and they don’t want to…really because they like being the ones in authority.

When we strip it down to that base level, we realize that everyone of us are in that same quandry when we are faced with Jesus. Jesus calls us to stop living our lives under our own authority, doing whatever we want and think is right and instead submit to and obey and follow his rule and reign in our lives…and that’s hard for us. We don’t like to be told what to do. We like to be the ones in authority over our lives.

Notice the issue here is “belief” or “faith”, same word and same thing as the fig tree. Look at verse 25, “If we say ‘From heaven (Jesus is God from heaven),’ then he will say to us ‘Why then did you not believe?’” Believe what? That we are sinners, who are in rebellion against God living under our own authority and that we need to repent and follow Jesus. That was John the Baptist’ message.

When we are put in this position by Jesus we’re left with two options. Either we start rationalizing Jesus away, questioning whether he was God, questioning whether he really was calling us to give up the reigns of control over our lives, questioning whether we’re really sinners…and on and on. You see we are left with either getting rid of Jesus or getting rid of ourselves…because there can really only be one authority in our life.

So let me ask you…who’s in authority, who’s in control? Is it Jesus or you? Are you submitting to and following Jesus and his word or are you dismissing Jesus so you can do your own thing?

May God help us to humble ourselves and believe and bow the knee to king Jesus.

II. Three Stories

Alright, well it doesn’t get much better for the religious leaders when Jesus continues to talk. Jesus tells three stories and each one is progressively sharper in it’s judgment and progressively clearer in Jesus revealing his identity.

  A. Two Sons and The One Who Gets Disowned (21:28-32)

The first one is one about two sons and how one of them gets disowned. Dad asks both of them to work in his vineyard. One says no, the other says yes. The one who says no, later changes his mind and goes to work and the one who says yes, never goes even though he said he would.

Jesus tells the story and then asks the chief priests and elders, verse 31, “Which of the two did the will of the Father?” Right away when they hear the phrase, “will of the Father” they know Jesus is talking about God the Father and doing his will. They were big on doing the “will of the Father” just right. So they respond “the first son” expecting Jesus to commend them on enforcing obedience.

But instead Jesus flips it, which is what parables always do, there’s always a punch line where the carpet gets pulled out from beneath your feet. Jesus flips it and says, the first son is like the tax collectors and the prostitutes, two groups of notorious “sinners” and says that it’s the religious leaders, he says “you” who are like the second son who doesn’t get into God’s kingdom.

Here’s the question. What’s the difference? Why does the first son, the tax collectors and prostitutes, the sinners get in and the second son, the religious leaders don’t? Jesus points out two things and he says it twice…we’ll just re-read the last one at the end of verse 32, he says it is because there was no “change [of] mind” and no “belief” or faith.

What Jesus does here is assume everyone has been disobedient and what matter most is having a “change of mind” and believing. Interestingly, having a change of mind or heart is exactly what the word “repentance” means. Jesus call is for everyone to realize the need for change and to turn.

There are two types of sinners and we all fall into one of these two camps. We either sin in irreligion, going off and doing our own thing, thinking we can make up our own beliefs and do whatever we want. Or we sin in religion, following a strict set of morals and then becoming very proud for our accomplishment and achievement in it.

Jesus here says both are displeasing to the Father and what matters most is being repentful about it…changing. In addition, Jesus says here in verse 32 that when we see others change, it is meant to provoke us to think we, ourselves need change too.

It’s a good test…when you see others blow it but then later repent…do you think “it’s about time”, or “good thing they finally repented” or do you think…”wow, that’s amazing, that had to be really hard and took a lot of guts…Would I be able to do that? What areas do I need to change?” Because the truth is change is really refreshing.

Let me try and give you a real life example. Sometimes that helps us. Lindsey Lohan. If you don’t know the story, she’s this movie star actress who keeps getting busted for drinking and driving and doing drugs and she’s in and out of jail and rehab. The funny thing about the whole deal is that there are like two camps of people when it comes to her. There is the group who feels bad for her and are just perplexed at what a mess her life has become and hope she can recover and get help. Then there is this other group who is like downright angry at her. They’re all mad about her not spending enough time in jail, say she’s getting special treatment and they post all these degenerate picture of her mugshots and of her doing heroine.

Now as far as I know, Lindsey Lohan hasn’t repented and put her faith in Jesus and become a Christian yet. Maybe she will. But just imagine if she did. What camp would you be in…the skeptical angry camp or the camp that saw yourself as just as much of screw up as her realizing that you may not be all cracked out on cocaine but you’re really proud about it and are just as messed up inside and need a change of heart and mind?

Where do you need change? Are you like the first son or the second? Do you say you’re going to do something but you don’t follow through? Do you pay God lip service but there is no real reality to your faith? If someone watched your life 24- 7 for a week what would they see? Repentance and obedience or just an outward profession of “Christian” but nothing in your life that resembled it?

May God help us to be like the first son.

  B. Vineyard Tenants and The Ones Who Get Ejected (21:33-46)

Well the next story is another one about a vineyard and it’s tenants who get ejected. In the first century, if you were well off enough you might own a vineyard and pay some people to run it for you.

Sort of like today when people invest in a company or a franchise…like say Subway. It’s a common scenario. The people who are running the business don’t own the business so most all the profit which is going through their hands ends up going to some owner they don’t know and after awhile they get bitter and resentful because they’re doing all the work.

Time comes to collect the cash for the year and the owner sends a few guys to retrieve it and the dudes who are running the business beat them up and kills one of ‘em. So the owner sends bigger, tougher guys and the guys who are running the business do the same to them. Finally, he figures maybe the issue is them feeling detached from the owner or something so he figures he will send his Son and they will respect him, he’ll get his money and the situation will be resolved.

Instead, the people who are running the business see what they think is a prime opportunity to take the whole company over by killing the son, thinking the owner will then just give up and let ‘em have the vineyard and it’s profits.

Jesus then turns and asks the religious leaders what they think the owner will do and they say, verse 41, “he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

The religious leaders are thinking they are the owners servants, who enforce right and wrong. Once again they think Jesus is talking them about enforcing obedience, making sure people do the will of the father. And once again Jesus flips it on them.

Check it out. It’s in verse 43, Jesus says, “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” Jesus makes them eat their own words by telling them they are not the owners servants but they are in fact the wretched tenants. These are scathing and direct words of Jesus…”the kingdom of God will be taken from you!” Wow.

And the religious leaders get it. They realize Jesus has just punked them hard. Verse 45 says, “they perceived that (Jesus) was speaking about them” that they were the evil tenants and they’re so upset they want to arrest him.

Two things here. First, what has Jesus implied by this parable? Who is Jesus in his story? God’s the owner. The vineyard is Israel, God’s people, whom the religious leaders are supposed to care for, they are supposed to pastor them. So who’s Jesus? God’s Son. And guess what is about to happen to him in three days? He will be arrested by the chief priests, beaten and killed on a cross. That’s the first thing…Jesus own self-revelation inherent in this story, that’s he’s the son of God.

Second thing. Notice the level of authority Jesus asserts here. He basically just fired all the pastors of God’s people…the religious leaders. In verse 43 he says “I tell you…the kingdom of God will be taken away from YOU.” Jesus the son of God is asserting the authority of heaven. The day before he cleansed the temple of ungodly practices and now he’s cleansing it of ungodly leadership.

Where’s this one hit us? This second story is a story about tenants. Tenants are stewards, they are given something to take care of in a way that is going to be pleasing to the owner…and it should “bear fruit.” If God is the owner, what has he given all of us and made us stewards or tenants of it?

Life. God has given us life and once again the question is whether or not we will bear fruit by living for him and believing in his Son…or whether we will reject and kill him. You see this second story takes things to a whole new level.

Earlier we talked about either living under Jesus authority or dismissing it and living under our own. What we realize here is that when we dismiss Jesus we do violence to him…not only killing his work in our life and our hearts but we become complicit in the same attitude and affection that nailed him to the cross. There’s no in-between with Jesus, you either love him and embrace him or you crucify him.

Hebrews 6:6 says when we do not bear the fruit of faith we are “crucifying once again the Son of God…and holding him up to contempt.” You see, we might think…yeah, I know it’s bad to just want to do my own thing or to think I’m better than others but it’s not that bad. But if you say such a sentiment is you taking a hammer and nail and driving it into the wrists and feet of Christ that’s a whole other ball game.

Every single thing we do or don’t do is connected to either our love or hatred for Christ. We have to look at things like that, it’s the reality. We are either motivated by a love for Jesus or in our lack of love we are crucifying him all over again. That’s serious. This Christianity thing is a serious deal and some of you need to get serious. May God help us see that and live it.

Receive the Son. Love the Son. Embrace the Son. Don’t reject the Son.

  C. Wedding Guests and The Ones Who Get Replaced (22:1-14)

Well, there’s one more story Jesus connects in this conversation with the religious leaders where he asserts the authority of heaven and that’s this story of the “Wedding Guests and The Ones Who Get Replaced.”

Here’s the story. This time we’ve got a king. His son’s getting married. He sends out an Evite to all his friends and family for everyone to RSVP for the wedding dinner. But no one replies. So he thinks, maybe the reception didn’t sound good enough so he tells them what good food and wine is going to be there thinking then they will come for sure and he sends out the invitations by hand with messengers to make sure his friends and family get the invitation.

This time he gets more of the same response, ignoring the invitation, and some are so annoyed at him having the invitation hand delivered that they kill the messenger. The king is so angry he goes and executes the murderers and burns their city to the ground. Then he sends out an open invitation to everyone everywhere…and a bunch of people respond.

They come to the wedding hall and as was the custom back then they are given special wedding clothes to wear. The king is delighted that his wedding hall is filled celebrating his son and as he is walking around he sees one of his friends, one of the ones he originally sent an invitation to who ignored him.

Now he’s there but he’s not wearing the wedding clothes. So he’s not there to celebrate but just to make an appearance so his city doesn’t get burned to the ground. Thus this man adds insult to injury at the king and the king has him taken away and eternally punished.

By this point in the conversation with the religious leaders they know what Jesus is up to. They get it. He’s the Son. The King is God the Father. They’re the bad guys. They’ve ignored and rejected both John the Baptist and the prophets’ invitations to repent and celebrate Jesus the Son.

Jesus’ only remark to the religious leaders is verse 14 of chapter 22, “Many are called but few are chosen.” It’s a pointed statement. Not just relevant to general and effectual calling (for you theology buffs) but it’s another indictment of Jesus implying the religious leaders have not been chosen.

Their apathy and rejection of Jesus has shown that. Instead those out in the roads, the tax collectors, the prostitutes and the Gentiles are hearing the call and showing God’s gracious choice to have them at the wedding feast.

Each of Jesus’ parables adds an increasing amount of detail both regarding Jesus’ identity as God’s Son, his imminent fate of the cross and God’s judgment against the religious leaders. With this last story, it adds emphasis to the missional result of the leaders rejecting Jesus. Many others, whom you would not expect to be at the king’s wedding feast will be there and celebrate the Son.

What this story does for us is makes you want to be at the feast! I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like going to weddings. You get free good food and usually there’s an open bar.

When we read that line of Jesus’s “Many are called, but few are chosen” what’s our response? How do you get to be one of the chosen? You want to be one of the chosen. And nobody want to be “bound hand and foot and cast…into out darkness…(where) there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I don’t know what that is but it doesn’t sound good.

None of us want that, we want to be chosen and we want to be at the feast…at least that’s how the story is meant to make us react or feel. I think. So what’s it asking for then, if that’s true…what’s it ask of us to do? To respond to the call, to say yes to the invitation. For the ones who respond are the chosen and the good news is it doesn’t matter who you are, where you live, or what you’ve done…you’re invited.

This last story is actually the most gracious one of them all. The others are pretty hard hitting but this one is full of grace, it’s got open arms. The call of God goes out to all…”love me, come and eat and drink at my feast and we respond to his grace.”

In the last story I said there was no in-between, you either love Jesus and embrace him or you crucify him. We see that same theme here. Some who are invited are apathetic. There’s no real response. And it turns out deadly for them.

There’s really three responses in this story and each of us probably falls in a couple of the categories and maybe one more than the others.

The first is apathy. Where you hear the things of God and the gospel like we’re talking about today but it doesn’t move you…you’re just sort of numb to it.

The second is hostility. When the king sends someone to personally press you to come to the feast…you don’t like it. There might be some of you here today and I’ve made you feel really uncomfortable and you haven’t liked some stuff I’ve said. But it’s not so much me that your really frustrated with and you know that…it’s a hostility against God your wrestling with.

Then there’s the third response, which is joyful reception…where the thought that God would love you and invite you to celebrate his Son thrills you because you know you’re not worthy to sit at the king’s table.

Where do you find yourself today…in apathy, in hostility or in receptive joy? May God work in us to know what a privilege it is to be welcomed into his family.

Conclusion

Well, let’s conclude. We’ve covered a lot of ground today. Rather than going back through all the points today and showing how each relate to the gospel I’m just going to conclude on one note.

Much of Jesus conversation here, well all of it really is directed toward the religious leaders. I think the biggest danger for us is to read and hear what Jesus is saying and think it was just directed at them. It’s easy to do that…where we are like, “yeah man…the religious leaders are bad, they’re the bad guys, it’s sweet how Jesus socks it to ‘em.”

Here’s the thing…the moment we do that, we become like the religious leaders Jesus is condemning here in these scenes and these stories…thinking we are better and more righteous and without error and the need to repent and put faith in the Son.

These scenes and these stories are really not so much about the religious leaders but they are about us and how prone we are to our own self-righteousness, how prone we are to live under our own authority and how prone we are to reject Jesus, killing his work in our hearts and our life.

The good news of the gospel is that there is grace and forgiveness for it…it’s the reason Jesus went to the cross and allowed himself to be killed, so that the punishment we deserve would fall on him in our place in order that we might be cleansed and changed through our faith in him.

So as we go to the table today let’s feast on Jesus. God the Father invites his children to come and eat and drink and know the goodness of what his Son has done for his bride the church. So let’s celebrate Jesus today by repenting and believing.

Let’s pray.