WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Services
  • Ministries
    • Sabbath School
    • Adventurer and Pathfinder Clubs >
      • Club Calendar
    • Children
    • Community Service
    • Family Ministries
    • Health
    • Men
    • Women
    • Youth
  • Calendar
    • Financial Peace University
    • 2025 Family Fun Nights
    • Annual Retreat
    • Tuesdays with the Doctor
    • Discover Something Bigger
  • Sermons
  • Devotional
  • Tithes-Offerings
  • Contact Us
  • Bulletin

July 26, 2021

7/26/2021

0 Comments

 
Confrontational Parable Number 2
 
        "Hear another parable.  There was a householder who planted a vineyard...and let it out to tenants, and went into another country.  When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another....Afterward he sent his son to them....But...the tenants...killed him.  When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"  Matt. 21:33-40, RSV.
 
    The second confrontation parable takes the sequence a giant step forward.  Whereas the parable of the two sons pictured the resistance of the Jewish leaders in a passive mode, this one is active--so much so that it points both to rejecting the prophets and to killing the son.  It would be almost impossible for any Jewish hearer to miss the allusion to God's much-loved Israel in the description of the vineyard.  Isaiah 5:1-7 describes that vineyard in quite similar terms to what Jesus employs.  But in Isaiah the fault lies with the vines, whereas here it is with the tenants.  In both cases, the result of failure is divine judgment.
 
    We can learn several lessons from the parable of the tenants.  The first is that God is long-suffering.  He does not send just one time, but keeps on sending.  He does not give up easily on His children.  A second lesson is just as obvious--the perversity of the tenants.  If the major theme of the gospel story is God's love, a counterbalancing theme is humanity's rejection of that love.  The tragedy of both the parable and history is that so often it has been God's own chosen people who have spurned His overtures.
 
    The third lesson is the centrality and finality of sending the Son.  Yet the tenants kill even Him.  The parable pictures that act as ultimately bringing judgment on them.
 
    A fourth lesson is that even though God's judgment may be long in coming, it is nonetheless certain and irreversible.  The judgment of the particular tenants in Matthew 21 will come with the destruction of Jerusalem.
 
    The parable's fifth lesson is the transfer of God's kingdom from the nation of Israel to a new people.  "I tell you," Jesus says in His most explicit statement on the topic, "that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit" (Matt. 21:43, NIV).  That new people is the Christian church, which has inherited a continuation of the Jewish covenant promises and responsibilities.
 
    May God help His new people not to exhibit the same perversity as the old.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    CONNECT ON
    ​
    Facebook

    Instagram
    ​
    YouTube
    JOIN A BIBLE STUDY

    Listen to
    My Take with Pastor Miguel Crespo

    Picture

    2023 Devotional

    This year's devotional comes from the book, Jesus Wins!--Elizabeth Viera Talbot,  Pacific Press Publishing Association

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Thank you for visiting our website!  
Joy of Troy Community Seventh-day Adventist Church
600 3rd Avenue, Lansingburgh, New York 12182 | 518-273-6400
Picture