Heritage Christian Fellowship
Sunday, August 31, 2025

      • Ephesians 1:3NASB95

      • Romans 6:3–11NASB95

  • He Is Our God

      • Ephesians 1:3–10NIV2011

  • Come Praise and Glorify
  • I Will Glory In My Redeemer
  • Before The Throne Of God Above
  • I Surrender All

  • Introduction

    Openning Illustration

    Let me start with a question, church: Has anything ever fallen on you?
    Melia dropping brick
    Let me ask you a similar question…Have you ever stumbled and fallen
    Melia breaking my arm
    Now today’s message is about a far greater stumble—
    the tragic error of Israel’s religious leaders who rejected Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and His divine authority.
    In our text, Jesus unleashes a parable to pierce the hearts of those religious leaders, and expose their murderous intent.
    The warning is clear: stumble over the Son, and you’ll be broken to pieces,
    crushed under His righteous judgment!
    Will you stand with me as we read this parable from Jesus…
    *Read from Bible
    *Let’s Pray
    “Father in the name of Jesus we turn our attention to the study of your word. Every word we will study from this text, you have breathed out to us to reveal yourself, your will and purpose, your faithfulness, your character, your son. Open our eyes that we may behold wonderful things from your word. Give us understanding, and we will keep your word and observe it with our whole heart. Draw to yourself those who should be saved. Cause your children in Christ to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Help me to speak your word faithfully and clearly, guide my thoughts, guard my heart, govern my words so that everything I say would be consistent with sound doctrine. In the marvelous name of Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.”

    Main Idea

    Allow me to title todays sermon, Do Not Stumble on the Beloved Son (repeat)
    This is what we see today in our text:
    Jesus is the Beloved Son, the precious stone of salvation, but also the crushing stone of judgement.
    Do not stumble on the Beloved Son
    And this is our main point today: Either submit to the Son of God as Lord and Savior, or be crushed by Him in judgment.
    Main Point: Either submit to the Son of God as Lord and Savior, or be crushed by Him in judgment.

    Structure

    Our text in Luke today is divided into three separate movements.
    First, in verses 9-13 Jesus will paint the picture of the Amazing Mission.
    Then in verses 14-15a we will witness the Astonishing Crime
    And Lastly. in verses 15b-18 we see Jesus reveal the Appropriate Punishment

    1. The Amazing Mission (vs 9-13)

    Transition

    Let us begin, with the Amazing Mission.

    Context

    But before we get to our passage,
    I want us to feel the tension building in Jesus’ final week.
    On Sunday, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, hailed as King: 
    with the words “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38, LSB).
    For centuries, no true king ruled Israel.
    Herod and Caesar held power,
    but priests gripped spiritual authority.
    This kingly entry stings, threatening the control of the religious leaders.
    On Monday, Jesus storms the temple, their stronghold.
    He overturns money changers’ tables, drives out merchants, and declares, 
    “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers!” (Luke 19:46, ESV). 
    Did you hear that? My house, not theirs!
    After this He heals the blind, restores the lame, and preaches to the poor, proclaiming His authority.
    By Tuesday, the battle peaks.
    Jesus returns to teach, and as we saw last week with Pastor Greg, the seething priests and elders challenge Him: 
    “By what authority do you do these things?” (Luke 20:2, ESV).
    Jesus counters with a question they can’t answer.
    And then, He delivers His final parable in Luke,
    pronouncing judgment on the religious leaders and all who reject Him. 
    Turn with me to Luke 20:9 and hear the words of the Sovereign Storyteller
    Luke 20:9–13 ESV
    9 … “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’

    The Planted Vineyard - vs 9

    Theological Background

    Friends, this parable of Jesus is no mystery shrouded in complexity!
    Unlike some of His stories that twist and turn,
    this one is a straight-shot allegory—clear as crystal to every ear in that temple court.
    They knew the vineyard was Israel, God’s covenant people, etched deep in their history.
    From Exodus onward, God painted this picture: His people as a vineyard, rooted in His love.
    In the Song of Moses, Exodus 15, he sings of a vine—Israel—plucked from Egypt, carried to the Promised Land, and planted on God’s holy mountain.
    The Psalmist Asaph picks up the song in Psalm 80
    Psalm 80:8–9 LSB
    8 You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and then You planted it. 9 You cleared the ground before it, And it took deep root and filled the land.
    Later Jeremiah calls Israel God’s “choice vine” (Jer. 2:21).
    Hosea names them a “luxuriant vine” (Hos. 10:1).
    And so when Jesus opens His parable in verse 9, saying, “A man planted a vineyard,” everyone’s ears perked up.
    They understood! The Owner? That’s God Almighty. The vineyard? That’s Israel, His covenant people.

    The Identity of the Tenants

    But who are these tenants—the vine-growers?
    Church, these are the religious leaders: the judges, elders, kings, prophets, and priests.
    God entrusted them with His vineyard, His covenant people,
    to lead them in faithfulness and fruitfulness.
    Their calling was clear: to nurture God’s people with spiritual care,
    to feed them with His truth,
    to prune them with His wisdom,
    protect them from harm,
    and tend them like a master winemaker cherishes every precious vine.
    So when Jesus spoke of these tenants in His parable,
    every heart in that temple court knew exactly who He meant:
    the chief priests, elders, scribes and Pharisees.

    Sending the Servants - vs 10-12

    The Servants Rejected

    Now as the seasons turn from planting to harvest,
    Jesus unveils a fourth character in verses 10-12: the servants.
    The Owner sends three waves of faithful messengers to collect His rightful due, the fruit of His vineyard.
    But each time, these servants return to their Master empty-handed, battered, and broken.
    In verse 10, the tenants beat the first servant.
    The Greek word for beat, dero, paints a brutal picture—to strip away one’s skin, a savage thrashing that surely leaves him bloodied.
    In verse 11, the cruelty deepens: they not only beat the second servant but shame him,
    likely stripping him bare and shearing the hair from his head and beard,
    sending him back in disgrace.
    By verse 12, the third servant fares worse—they wound him and cast him out.
    Our English translations soften the blow, but the Greek word for wound, trauma-ti-santes reveals the truth:
    he was traumatized, broken in body and spirit.
    This same word is used to describe the man left half-dead in Luke 10, whom the Good Samaritan rescued.
    Church, these servants in Jesus represent God’s prophets,
    sent to call His people to righteousness,
    yet rejected and brutalized by those entrusted with the vineyard!

    Theological Background

    Israel’s history is stained with the blood of God’s faithful messengers!
    Before his martyrdom, Stephen stood before the stone-clutching Sanhedrin and proclaimed, 
    Acts 7:51–52 ESV
    51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,
    Consider the roll call of God’s rejected servants:
    Elijah, hunted by the monarchy, driven into the wilderness.
    Isaiah, tradition tells us, was sawn in half.
    Zechariah, stoned to death on the temple’s sacred ground.
    Jeremiah, cast into a pit and pelted with stones.
    Amos, forced to flee for his life.
    And just over a year before this final Tuesday in the Temple, John the Baptist — imprisoned, then beheaded.
    Prophet after prophet, sent by God, was met with violence and scorn by those who claimed to lead God’s people.

    Two things About God

    Now Beloved, in this parable, Jesus unveils two glorious truths about God the Father.

    1. God is Patient

    First, His patience is vast as the heavens!
    When His first servant returns battered and empty-handed, the Owner doesn’t unleash judgment on His vineyard.
    No, He sends servant after servant, wave after wave, giving chance upon chance.
    As Paul declares in Romans 2, God is rich in kindness, forbearance, and patience,
    designed to lead us to repentance. 
    This patience is woven into God’s very nature.
    When He reveals His glory to Moses in Exodus 34:6,
    He proclaims, “The Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” 
    In Hebrew, “slow to anger” carries the idea of one who is “long of nostrils.”
    Picture an angry bull, snorting steam, pawing the ground—short-nosed, ready to charge in anger at any provication.
    But God? He’s long-nosed! He is not trigger-happy, not poised to pour out wrath.
    And it takes persistent rebellion and rejection of His continual calls to repentance
    to stir His righteous anger. 
    Scripture shows that God is provoked to anger by repeated rebellion,
    but He never needs to be provoked to love or mercy.
    His patience restrains His wrath, and a sinner’s simple repentance unleashes the floodgates of His grace.
    Oh dear church. When we finally stand in His presence,
    we’ll marvel at the countless, unacknowledged mercies He poured out,
    a river of kindness flowing through our lives guiding us back to Himself over and over.

    Application: Do you recognize or reject His mercy

    Let me press you, friends:
    Stop and think of how frequently you might be failing to heed God’s calls to turn from sin?
    Do you find yourself unwilling to heed the confrontations of a fellow believer?
    Do you find yourself resisting the counsel we Pastors give you from God’s word?
    Do you find yourself ignoring our weekly calls for you from this pulpit to repent of your sin and follow Jesus?
    If you think you’re safe, untouched by consequence, basking in unrepentant sin, you’re gravely mistaken.
    Yes, God abounds in mercy and lovingkindness, but don’t be fooled—He will come to His vineyard to claim what is His.
    Friend, it’s a grave mistake this morning to confuse divine patience with divine indifference. (Pause)
    Israel made that fatal error. They assumed God’s silence meant He overlooked their idolatrious rebellion.
    But the bill came due.
    Their debt of sin piled high, and judgment fell.
    As Paul warns in Romans 2:5
    Romans 2:5 ESV
    5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
    Oh, friend, don’t presume on God’s kindness!
    Respond to His mercy with repentance.
    Don’t trample His patience with a stubborn heart.
    Surrender to His Lordship, follow Him in faith, and walk in obedience today.

    2. God is loving - vs 13

    Church, the second truth Jesus unveils about God in this parable is that God is boundlessly loving!
    This story pulses with divine affection.
    In verse 13, the Owner of the Vineyard asks, “What shall I do?”
    And every listener braced for the expected answer: swift vengeance on those wicked tenants.
    But instead, what does the Owner declare?
    “I will send my beloved Son.”
    Did you hear that?
    The beloved Son!
    With that phrase, Jesus transforms this parable into an auto-biograph-ical allegory,
    echoing the words of His Father when He was baptized by John:
    Luke 3:22 ESV
    22 …“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
    Why did God send His beloved Son?
    John 3:16 tells us He sent His only begotten Son…
    because He loved this fallen, sinful world.
    Nothing in us deserved this love. God’s love is purely born out of His sovereign grace.
    As Paul proclaims in Romans 5:8
    Romans 5:8 LSB
    8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
    John echoes this in 1 John 4, 
    “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins...
    we love, because He first loved us”
    But it’s not just the Father’s love we see—it’s the Son’s love, too.
    Before time began, Christ set His affection on us.
    He left heaven’s glory and the worship of angelic hosts, to dwell among us.
    Bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, He bound Himself to the church, His bride.
    Born an infant, He shared our weakness.
    As a carpenter, He knew our toil.
    He embraced our struggles, our sweat, our suffering.
    He is the King of kings, yet He knelt with a towel and basin to wash His disciples’ feet.
    The co-equal, co-eternal Second Person of the Trinity willingly faced shame, spitting, and scourging.
    He shed His blood, endured death’s agony, and gave His life for us.
    Oh, saints, this is love—Christ came for you and me!
    On this verse, Spurgeon comments (slowly),
    “If you reject him, he answers you with tears; if you wound him, he bleeds out cleansing; if you kill him, he dies to redeem; if you bury him, he rises again to bring resurrection. Jesus is love made manifest.”

    Main Point Incorporation

    Church, Jesus is the Beloved Son,
    sent by the Father on an amazing mission of matchless love!
    With affections ablaze in His heart, He came to seek and save the lost,
    to call you out of darkness, to summon you to repent of your sins and follow Him into His marvelous light.
    Therefore, beloved, do not scorn God’s patience or doubt His love!
    Whether this is your first step of faith or your five-hundredth,
    submit to the Son of God as the Savior from your sins, and the Lord and Master of your life (pause).

    2. The Astonishing Crime (vs 14-15a)

    Transition

    Church, picture yourself, once more, in that temple crowd, hearing Jesus’ words for the first time.
    The Owner of the Vineyard, in a final act of hope, sends His beloved Son,
    saying in verse 13, “Perhaps they will respect him.” 
    His last resort, His only Son, was sent to tenants who’ve already beaten and shamed His servants.
    And Your heart sinks.
    You want to cry out, “No, don’t send Your Son!
    These wicked tenants won’t respect Him—they’ll destroy Him!”
    Every listener in that crowd knew it.
    The tenants’ hearts were stone-cold, their hands already blood-stained with rebellion.
    And yet…the Owner sends His beloved anyway.
    Please turn with me to verses 14 and 15,
    where we witness point number 2: the tenants’ astonishing crime.
    Luke 20:14–15 ESV
    14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

    The Motive: The Inheritance May Be Ours - vs 14

    This is the Heir

    The tenants’ recognition of the Son seals the fate of the religious leaders in two ways.
    First, it deepens their guilt.
    They know He is the Son, the heir,
    yet they plot His murder with cold intent.
    This isn’t ignorance—it’s deliberate rebellion,
    piling sin upon sin.
    Second, by identifying Him as the heir, they expose their own frailty.
    They’re mere tenants, temporary stewards, replaceable hired hands.
    The vineyard, God’s covenant people, were not and never will be theirs.
    Through this, Jesus also answers the religious leaders’ challenge in Luke 20:2
    Luke 20:2 ESV
    2 …who it is that gave you this authority.”
    The Son, sent by the Father, is the heir, wielding the Owner’s dominion over the vineyard.
    Jesus lays bare the Sanhedrin’s schemes.
    They think their murderous plots lurk in the shadows, hidden behind cunning questions.
    But Jesus is God! He sees their hearts, and their treachery stands exposed before His piercing gaze.

    The Inheritance

    The vinedressers in Jesus’ parable hatch a wicked two-part scheme: first murder, then inheritance.
    The Talmud, their religious law, held that unclaimed land could pass to those who worked it if it remained unclaimed after three years.
    These tenants, blinded by greed, likely believed the Son came to claim His inheritance after His father’s death.
    By killing Him, they schemed to seize the vineyard for themselves.

    The Murder: Threw Him Out of the Vineyard

    So they executed their foolish plan. Look at verse 15,
    Luke 20:15 LSB
    15 “So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
    Here the tenants’ crime turns prophetic in this parable!
    They cast the Son out of His own vineyard and murdered Him.
    And just three days later, John records the fulfillment of this story: 
    John 19:16–18 LSB
    16 So he then delivered Him over to them to be crucified. 17 They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out (that is outside the city walls), bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. 18 There they crucified Him…
    Outside the city,
    beyond the gate,
    the Beloved Son was slain,
    Pouring out His life to redeem His people!

    God’s Gospel Plan

    Church, hear the story of God’s infinite mercy and mankind’s immeasurable guilt!
    The hosannas of Sunday turned to cries of “Crucify Him!” by Friday.
    Yes, they crucified the Lord of Glory!
    Yet, this was no accident—it was God’s sovereign plan.
    As Peter proclaimed at Pentecost, 
    Acts 2:23 ESV
    23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God…you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
    Do you remember the parable’s most shocking twist?
    The Father sent His Beloved Son, knowing the tenants’ wicked hearts.
    After they abused His servants, the crowds were surely wondering: “did He not foresee what they’d do to His Son?”
    Yes, church, He knew!
    The Father sent the Son knowing that He would suffer and die,
    because that was His ultimate mission — to glorify the Father by becoming the Savior of the World.
    Jesus declared in John 3:14-16
    John 3:14–16 LSB
    14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
    The Sovereign Storyteller and the Suffering Servant are one!
    Jesus came to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy: Isa. 53:5-6
    Isaiah 53:5–6 LSB
    5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our peace fell upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

    Gospel Application

    The question then is this: Do you believe in Jesus or not?
    As Jesus said in John 3:18
    John 3:18 LSB
    18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
    Oh, dear friends, do not stumble over the Son!
    Do not join the tenants’ astonishing crime, rejecting His divine authority. 
    Do not fool yourself into believing that by casting Jesus aside,
    you’ll seize control of your life’s vineyard.
    When Pharaoh scoffed at Moses, saying, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” (Ex. 5:2, LSB), he learned the cost of such defiance of the Divine.
    So will you if you reject the risen Jesus,
    who declares in Matthew 28:18, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.”
    He is Lord of the living and the dead,
    bearing a name above every name.
    A name at which every knee will bow,
    and every tongue will confess that He is Lord!
    Beloved, the Son was sent to be lifted up,
    pierced for your transgressions,
    and crushed for your iniquities on that cross.
    Do not reject the only Name that can save you from sin’s eternal consequences.
    Believe in the only begotten Son of God today!

    Main Point Incorporation

    Dear friends, either you will bend the knee willingly, and gladly confess that Jesus is Lord and Savior now,
    or you will be made to bow before Him
    as He comes again to fall upon the world with His crushing judgment.

    3. The Appropriate Punishment (vs 15b-18)

    Transition

    Church, my warning today isn’t born of my own mind or authority—
    it’s the very warning Jesus delivered in that temple court,
    and He speaks it to you now!
    Look at your Bibles and see where the Son of God declares, point number 3, the appropriate punishment for those who reject Him. 
    Jesus asks in verse 15,

    The Owner’s Just Judgment - vs 15b-16a

    Luke 20:15–16 ESV
    15 …What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others…”
    What will the consequences be for those Israelites who reject the Son?
    Jesus gives an answer that shocks His hearers.
    “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

    The People’s Incredulous Response - vs 16b

    Luke captures the crowd’s shocked gasp at the end of verse 16, “Surely not!” they said.
    In Greek, this is the strongest possible rejection, of “May it never be.”
    But why are they shocked?
    They couldn’t dispute Jesus’ justice.
    Those tenants murdered the Owner’s Son—they forfeited their place in the vineyard.
    Luke’s word for “heard” means that the people heard and then grasped the full weight of Jesus’ words:
    The judgment was clear, and it struck their hearts like lightning!

    Israel Replaced?

    Remember In Jesus’ parable, the vineyard represents God’s chosen nation—every listener in that temple court knew it!
    The imagery wasn’t new; it echoed the ancient song of Isaiah, where God Himself sang of His vineyard.
    Isaiah 5:1–7 LSB
    1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He hoped for it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. 3 “So now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Please judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I hoped for it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? 5 “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall, and it will become trampled ground. 6 “I will lay it waste…
    Jesus, standing in the temple, takes up this song and turns it into a thunderclap of judgment.
    The vineyard—Israel—had rejected the Son, and judgment was coming again as it did in the days after Isaiah sang His vineyard song.
    Just forty years later, in 70 AD, the storm broke.
    Roman armies under Titus besieged Jerusalem,
    razed the temple to the ground,
    and scattered God’s people into exile once more.
    But hear this! The judgment didn’t stop there.
    Jesus declared the vineyard would be given to others.
    The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees—those proud stewards of God’s covenant—would lose their place.
    And to whom? To a ragtag band of fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots—the despised disciples of Jesus!
    In the eyes of the elite, these were unlearned, unimpressive nobodies.
    Yet, Christ called them to lead His vineyard, to steward His revelation, and to shepherd His sheep.
    And by the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles turned the world upside down!
    Even more unthinkable to those temple leaders was this:
    the vineyard would open to Gentiles.
    Remember that they cared so little for gentile worshipers of Yahweh that they allowed the Court of the Gentiles to defiled by greedy money changers.
    Now Jesus points to the grafting in of the others - the gentiles into the vineyard of God
    Now, does this mean Israel’s removal is permanent?
    Has the church made up of Jews and Gentiles together—replaced Israel?
    No, saints, surely not!
    God’s promises endure,
    and His chosen nation will yet bear the fruit of faith and repentance.
    As Paul says in Romans 11,
    Romans 11:1 ESV
    1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin…11 I say then, did they stumble so as to fall? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. 12 Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness be!

    Jesus Scriptural Application - vs 17-18

    The Stone Rejected

    Church, see that instead of repenting at Jesus’ parable, the crowd clings to denial.
    Luke 20:17-18 captures the moment of His response to their dismay: Jesus looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written.’..
    The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
    Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
    Just days before, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowd shouted hosannas, quoting from Psalm 118:26.
    Psalm 118:26 ESV
    26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    This messianic Psalm was clearly on their mind,
    and so, in response to the crowd’s shock, guess what Psalm Jesus decided to quote back to them?
    Psalm 118:22 “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
    The Son the tenants killed, is the stone the builders rejected.
    He is saying I am that Son of the Father that the tenants murdered
    and I am that stone that David said God’s enemies, the builders, would reject.
    And those who stumble over me, will be broken to pieces.
    Whether you fall on Him or He falls on you, you will be shattered.
    You may chase sin, thinking life is trouble-free, but that road leads to ruin.
    This life, the closest an unbeliever gets to heaven without Christ, will inevitably crumble.
    Worse awaits when Christ returns in righteous wrath.
    In verse 18, Jesus is echoing Daniel 2, where a Stone smashes the statue of gold, silver, bronze, and clay—representing earth’s mightiest kingdoms.
    This points to when the Son of Man comes to subdue all nations and shatter all of His enemies.
    As David prophesied in Psalm 2,
    Psalm 2:7–9 LSB
    7 “I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’”
    Jesus is the Judge of the earth,
    and His holy wrath will fall on all sin.
    Reject the Savior, and you’ll face the crushing weight of His judgment.
    The language of crushing here bears the idea of a weight so heavy that it smashes whatever it falls on
    into fine powder fit to be blown away by the wind.
    Now you might be sitting here today, having not yet believed in Jesus
    And you might be objecting to these heavy words, thinking,
    “This wrath is too harsh for rejecting the Son!
    I’m not hurting anyone by ignoring Jesus!” 
    But listen to me when I say to you that you are committing an awful crime
    when the One who deserves all your thoughts, affections, and worship
    receives instead your scorn, rejection, and indifference.
    When Christ means nothing to you,
    when you dismiss His rightful claim on your heart,
    when you ignore His Lordship,
    and when you deny His deity,
    what you are really doing is attempting to erase Him from existence.
    In this twisted made up world, there’s no Savior who died and rose.
    He’s just another dead man, buried and happily ignored.
    If you reject the Beloved Son like this, dear friend you reject your final hope.
    Moreover, in rejecting His Son you spurn His patience and mock His love.
    He is the Father’s ultimatum.
    There’s no middle ground— There is only one way to God.
    You either believe in Him or disbelieve Him.
    As Spurgeon warned, “Heaven itself contains no further messenger. If Christ be rejected, hope is rejected.” 
    This is the King who commands winds and waves,
    who laughs at the world’s armies,
    and breaks nations with His rod.
    Do not think that you can withstand His wrath.
    I am pleading with you to see that there will be no refuge from His coming judgment,
    except for the refuge that is found in coming to Him in faith.

    The Stone Resurrected

    And that is the last thing I want us to see before we conclude:
    there is no refuge from Him…
    but there is refuge in Him. (pause)
    When Jesus quotes Psalm 118, see also that He’s proclaiming a prophecy of His resurrection.
    The Son, rejected and killed on the cross, would not remain rejected forever. (pause)
    The Father would raise Him up! The stone the builders rejected would become the cornerstone of resurrection life.
    In the ancient world, the cornerstone held the weight of intersecting walls, anchoring the entire structure. The chief cornerstone set the standard—every other stone’s alignment and stability depended on it.
    Jesus is that chief cornerstone, chosen and precious.
    These are the words of Peter that I read earlier
    1 Peter 2:6 ESV
    6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
    Beloved, believe in this promise, turn from your folly and your sin, and build your life upon Christ our cornerstone, following after Him in faith
    and when you do so you will stand secure forever!
    Peter preached this same message in the early days of the church,
    Acts 4:11–12 LSB
    11 “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

    Conclusion

    Closing Argument

    In conclusion my brothers and sisters, do not stumble on the Son.
    All power and all authority rest in one name alone— there is salvation from God’s just wrath in no one else but Jesus Christ!
    He is the Beloved Son.
    He is the precious cornerstone of salvation.
    And He is also the crushing stone of divine judgment.
    You stand at a crossroads this morning:
    Either submit to the Son of God as Lord and Savior, or be crushed by Him in judgment.
    Do not stumble on the Beloved Son, dear friends.
    He has come into this world to seek and save the lost.
    He opens blind eyes,
    He makes the lame walk,
    He breaks the chains of sin’s slavery,
    and He resurrects those once dead in sin to the glories of His eternal life
    Oh, do not stumble on the Son!
    Do not wait until you’ve had your fill of more sin!
    Do not wait until you have your life more together.
    The time is now—repent, believe, and follow Him
    before your last day comes or His Last day dawns!
    there will be no refuge from Him on that day…
    but there is refuge in Him on this one. (pause)
    As the prophet David said of the future King Jesus,
    Psalm 2:11–12 LSB
    11 Serve Yahweh with fear And rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
    Let’s Pray

      • Ephesians 1:3–10NIV2011

  • By Faith

      • Philippians 1:6NIV2011

Heritage Christian Fellowship
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