Matthew's Gospel

K.

Matthew 21 33 to 46. Listen to 1 another. There was a landover who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch tower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.

When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenant seized his servants. They beat 1, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them more than the first time, and the tenants treated them in 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, this is 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 vineyards to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures? The stone the builders rejected has become the call a stone. 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 will produce its fruit.

Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. Anyone 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. We've been going through Matthew's gospel, as as you know, and we've arrived at this parable.

I we have a strange system because we the parables in Matthew, and then we were going through Matthew without the parables, and now we're going through Matthew with the parables. So I don't understand what's going on. But anyway, I do what I'm told, and this is the passage that we're com. So let's just pray. Father help us.

We pray to look at this little story. Some of us know it very well. Sometimes some of us, maybe it's the first time we've ever heard it. We pray, please, that by your spirit, you'd kind open our ears to hear the truths that you want us to hear in Jesus' name, our, ma'am. Well, last week in the news, the news was full of the the Australian mushroom murder trials.

I don't know whether any of you does anybody follow that? I guess, some of you know what I'm talking about. Well, I'll fill you in anyway. Because it was just an interesting thing because we used to live in Australia, so we we were following this along. Aaron Patterson, she's a 50 year old mother of 2, invited, 5 friends to lunch in her little home, in a little town in the state of Victoria in in Australia.

She invited her ex husband. She invited Don and Gail Patterson, who are her ex husband's parents and grandparents to her children. She invited her sister Heather Wilkinson and, her husband, Ian Wilkinson, who's a a Baptist pastor. So they're all invited to this, lunch, lunchtime, in, in, in her house. The ex husband declined but the rest went, and it was a homemade beef wellington.

And if you know beef wellington, it's not just got beef in it. It's surrounded by mushrooms. And the mushrooms that she put put in there in the beef wellington were freshly picked death cap mushrooms, which resulted in the death of Don and Gail Patterson, Heather Wilkinson, her sister, they all died of poisoning. And Ian Wilkin Johnson, survived after spending months in hospital, but he had to have a liver transplant. So it's a pretty major thing.

Aaron Patterson was convicted of 3 counts of murder and 1 count of attempted murder. Here's a report. Let me just read it, from a, 1 of the papers. At the sentencing hearing, Ian Wilkinson, who the Baptist pastor that survived, shocked the court, with his victim impact statement when he described his wife as a woman who took her faith seriously and was full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. I only feel half alive without her.

Wilkinson said before he was before he wept. It's 1 of the depressing shortcomings of our society that so much attention is showered on those who do evil and so little on those who do good like my wife. He described Dale and Don Patterson, the parents of Irene's, Aaron's Patterson's, husband, as the closest people to him after his wife and family. My my life is greatly impoverished without them. Workers said.

I'm distressed that Aaron has acted with callous and calculated disregard for my life and the lives of those I love. What foolishness possesses a person to think that murder could be the solution to their problems? Especially the murder of people who have only good intentions towards her. Wilkinson offered Patterson his forgiveness for the harms that she had done him. I say the harms done to me advisedly.

I have no power or responsibility to forgive the harms done to others. My prayer for her is that she will use her time in joy jail wisely to become a better person. It's a really powerful story when you read stories like that when you think, you know, these these are real people. But I think what struck me about this story is that though Heather Wilkinson, the sister in this case. Although her life was taken early, she had produced fruit.

She had a good life. She had the fruit of the spirit notice. He went through the through to the spirit, which is in the in the, bible. Excuse me. I've I've had COVID, and and I get this cough.

Excuse me. So she had the fruit of the spirit. She had a shorter life, but a fruitful life. And I think that's very important. Whereas Aaron Patterson, the murderous, she may live longer.

But at the moment, she's only ever produced death. What foolishness possesses a person to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, especially the murder of people who have had only good intentions towards her? What a sentence that is. Isn't it? And it's a sentence that actually could summarize this little parable, this parable of the tenants that we've just read.

What foolishness possesses tenants to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, especially the murder of the son of the land owner who only intended good towards them. What sense is there in at. In fact, the parable of the tenant includes many elements of of that mushroom murder case, the awful murder, for for for what seems to be no reason. Empty lives, no fruit and a fruitful life, then judgment, rejection. And then the challenge in that little story is what fruit Have I produced in my life?

See, we we often fall for this, and I think the world falls for this constantly. We fall for the idea that a long life is a good life and a short life is a bad life. It's just not true. Let's get that out of our head. A fruitless life, however long is a bad life, and a fruitful life, however short is a good life.

So it it it brings up all of those things. Here's this woman that was murdered, but she produced fruit. She did her job in the world. Sorely missed. Of course.

But here's a woman still alive. And maybe god in his kindness is digging around her and dunging her as he uses another illustration. Keep the tree alive for a little bit longer. See whether it will produce fruit. So here we are then.

We're at this parable, but first of all, let's just put the setting. Jesus is in Jerusalem. He rode in on a donkey, We saw that a few weeks ago, and it caused a stir and and the crowd had a sense of the fulfillment of prophecies and scriptures that were being fulfilled, and they shouted out as he came in on a donkey, Jose, the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord, Jose in the highest heaven. And then at the end of that scene, we're told when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? And the crowds answered, this is Jesus the prophet.

This is Jesus the prophet. Then he enters the temple of god. In Jerusalem. It's the place where you're supposed to meet with god. Yeah.

It's a holy place. He comes in. He sees it's not holy. It's a den of robbers. He smashes the money making tables over, he drives the robbers out.

Then the next scene is there's a fig tree, a fig tree that seemed to be offering figs, and he was hungry. And he went to the fig tree. And the fig tree is a symbol of Israel, the nation of Israel, and it didn't have any figs on it. It had no fruit. And so he curses the fig tree.

And, it's a picture of well, if there's no fruit in your life, then why should you live? And he's talking about Israel l there. And then, he points his disciples to a mountain, and, the mountain where the temple is on, and he says, if you have enough faith, you could throw that mountain into the sea. In other words, we don't need that anymore. We don't need that religion anymore.

We don't need the mountain. We don't need the temple anymore. Faith in God, you don't need that. You can throw that away. Then he challenged, of course, by the religious leaders.

And, they're pretty angry about what authority have you got and all that sort of stuff. And so now he tells a series of parables. The first 1 we saw last week, which is the parable of the of the 2 sons. 1 says, I'll I'll do the work, and the other says, I won't do the work, and then they shift around. We saw that last week.

But at the end of that parable, Jesus said to them truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of god ahead of you. He's talking to the Jews here. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did, and even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe. So he's giving this whole picture of of him coming to Jerusalem, like a king, and he's judged touching this nation and the temple and the religion and the people, and they're fruitless. And so now is time to move on to others.

That's what seems to be going on. So that's the first parable. Now we come to this parable of 10 tenants. He's days away from the crucifixion. He's going to be murdered in a brutal and bloody way.

And as he approaches the cross, he wants us to see human history and particularly Jewishists history is it that the history of Israel from the perspective of god. He wants us to see it from the perspective of god. What does god think of this history? What does god think of us? What's god's verdict on us?

As a people. And when we see human history and, in particular, the history of Israel, from god's perspective, it really should stop us from saying the foolish thing, I don't think god should ever get angry. I I don't I don't think god should ever judge anyone. That's what's going on. That's the setting.

Right? You with me, let's get into the into the parable, this little story. It's quite easy. Let's have a look at the cast. First of all, there's the land, the land owner himself.

The word translated land owner, it's it's a it's it's a bit more than that. Some of the translations will have things like master of the house, head of the household. It's got that sort of stuff. But he's not only the the land owner, the the he not only owns the vineyard, but you'll see that he planted the vineyard. And he not only planted the vineyard.

He puts a wall around the vineyard, and he not only puts a wall around the vineyard. He digs a, a wine, press in the vineyard, and then he builds a watch tower So everything is set up for success of this vineyard. And this land owner, this master is personally lovingly set this vineyard up for a successful vineyard, a successful business is gonna produce should produce really good fruit and some really good wine. Who's the landlord? Who's the master of the house?

Well, we're sitting in a church and we are reading the bible, and it's pretty obvious if you haven't clicked. But it's interesting, isn't it? You could go outside of this situation, and people don't click that there is a landlord in the land owner. They think they're the landlord. Have they?

But here, it's obvious we're we, you know, we're clever people. It's god. And it's god. The father. It's god.

He made this world. It belongs to him. He's, it's his vineyard. All the nations belong to him. He he made the world, and he made you and me, and he made your body.

And, it's a gift. He's gifted to you. Your body, your brain, your intelligence, and he's given you a life so that you could live to please him. How wonderful? What an extraordinary thing that you're given a life and breath.

In order to be able to please none other than the great creator god. So he's the owner of everything. He's the creator of everyone. He's the land owner. He's the master of the house, the creator, and sustainer.

And in the parable, he's even the father because he sends a a son. So he's a father. He's the father god. Then you have the vineyard. What's this plot of land that the the the the father god has made?

Well, it's widest application of the vineyard is it's the whole world. It's the whole of creation. And we'll come back to that, towards the end. He he made everything, and he made the whole of creation in all of this world for billions of people to be able to enjoy themselves and to bring glory to god. Nothing food in the world, enough water in the world to sustain the world.

He's made this world for 7000000000 people at the moment or what whatever it is, and there is enough for everyone. It's just that some of us have more than us. So he's made this wonderful world. That's the sort of big picture, but the immediate application is the nation of Israel. If you go back 700 years before Jesus, the prophet Isaiah gives it almost exactly the same illustration as Jesus or Jesus gives almost exactly the same illustration as the prophet, Isaiah.

Isaiah in chapter 5 as the story of the vineyard. And at the end of Isaiah's storytelling, he says this in verse 7 of chapter 5 of Isaiah. The vineyard of the lord, almighty, is the nation of Israel, the people of Judah, and the vines he delights in. So he's talking about the nation of Israel particularly here. And in both Isaiah's and Jesus parables about the vineyard, they don't produce good fruit.

They produce bad fruit. So you got the landowner, you got the vineyard, you got the tenants. Well, there's the sort of farmers. They they don't own the land, although they seem to think they do and they want to, they they rent it, and it's their job to cultivate the land to to make it fruitful to take a percentage back of their profits and pay it back in rent to the land. I know.

It's just it's sort of easy concept. We know that. You rent, though lots of you are renting. And, you know, it's rent time. And you rent your house out, you rent a flat or, you know, you're you're renting it and you have to pay the owner.

It's a sort of obvious and easy sort of illustration, but they don't pay And they don't give anything back to the land owner. And, they steal, and they're greedy, and they're stingy, and they're selfish, and they're thieves. Now when you look at the history of Israel and the history of these people, the leaders of Israel, it's not so much that they produce really good fruit and then hold it back from the land owner, hold it back from god. It's not it's not so much that way around. It's more that they're terrible tenants, and the vineyard is in massive disrepair And the vineyard doesn't produce good fruit.

It produces bad fruit. That's the history of Israel. In Psalm 80, there's a very vivid picture of god repairing the vineyard. But it needs repairing because it says its walls are broken down. It's so broken down the vineyard that anyone walking past can pick pick its grapes.

It's so broken down that the pigs of the field, the boars, from from the forest rather, come in and ravage it. So you've got hogs everywhere, and it's so broken down that insects of the field come and just feed on it. It's a wreck of a vineyard. So it only ever produced bad fruit. Now these tenants were supposed to be bible teachers and priests and kings and leaders helping god, helping, the the the people to understand god's word and how to walk in god's truth and how to love god and how to produce fruit for god.

But they didn't do that. They were about self and and ripping off people and, saving stuff for themselves and teaching the people they didn't need to repent and have faith in god, and teaching the people that they could be selfish and not encouraging them to obey god, so they are the tenants. Then you've got these servants, yeah, in the story. And they're the godly leaders that god says, okay. If you if the tenants are horrific, I'll send good people, preachers, prophets, I'll raise up these people to come and speak the word of god.

And if you listen to them, if you plant yourself in them, you'll grow good fruit. But it's pretty awful history because they didn't listen to them. And the prophets and the servants of god were were dismissed, and every time god sent a a new prophet to speak in a new and fresh way, the tenants opposed them and persecuted them and mocked them. And tortured them and imprisoned them and stoned them and exiled them and murdered them and killed them with the sword. An Isaiah that gives an illustration exactly like Jesus, they cut him in half.

That's what they did to the prophets. Then the next 1, the sun. Look at verse 37 and 39. Last of all, he sent his son. That's the land owner sent his son.

They will respect my son, he said. But when the tenant saw the sun, they said to each other, this is the air. Come, let's kill him. Take his inheritance. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

He's now thrown out of the vineyard, and he's killed. And, of course, in the story, that's Jesus. That's Jesus the son of god. So that's the story. Yeah.

It's quite simple, isn't it? You got it? Do I need to go over it again? Simple land owner. Yeah.

God. Makes a beautiful vineyard, yeah, tenants rent it. They destroy it. No fruit. The land owner sends, servants, profits, to speak.

They kill them, destroy them, beat them up, sends his son kills them. That's it. That's it. That's the history. That's human history as god sees it.

When god looks down at history, that's that it. That's what he sees. It's very simple. He doesn't just have to worry about this, this group is killing this group, and this group is killing this group. The overall thing is very, very simple.

God created this wonderful, beautiful vineyard, provided everything for it to be fruitful, and it has produced bad fruit, and it's killed the prophets. That's it. So the question is, or rather it's a stupid question to ask. Why should god be angry at the world? How can you ask a question like that?

Who is god think he is? Does he have a right to judge us? Well, that brings me to my second point then. So we've seen the story. Here's the second point, the question and the answer.

Now look at the question. Jesus stops his story, and he asked this question. Look at it. First 40. Got it?

Ready? Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with those tenants? What a question? But what what would you think you should do? What would he do?

How are you gonna answer that question? Imagine you're watching a film of this. You know? It's dark. You've had your popcorn, and you're quite moved.

There's this beautiful land and this wonderful land owner, and this amazing king. And he's so generous. And they kill servant, after servant. Your whole emotions are stirred up aren't you? I mean, whose side are you on?

You're you're you're you're taking up with this. You're you're you're you're crying out. Got there's gotta be justice at the end of this film, isn't there? And then he sends his son, his beautiful son, his son. He sends his son to go and see them.

Perhaps they listen to my son. No longer than my son, and they take him, and they rip him apart. What's your emotions telling you? Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, What will he do to those tenants? What's your answer?

Would you expect god to be any different? Do you expect god to be less passionate than you? What what do you think God is like? Oh, it doesn't matter. It's okay.

Not another son, because she hasn't? No. That's alright. It's my only beloved son. So so the answer's amazing.

Now back to this story, because the people that are hearing this, this is what I wanted to show you, they they've heard this story on a level. They're emotionally connected with the story. This is how good Jesus is at telling stories, but they haven't really heard it yet. They've heard it but they haven't heard it. They don't really hear it until verse 45.

Look at verse 45. This is when they hear it. When the chief priests and the pharisees heard Jesus parable, they knew he was to talking about them. And they looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because people said he was a prophet. They heard it in verse 45, but that came a bit later.

Right now at the asking of this question in verse 40, they're very enthusiastic to answer. Now that's quite unusual for this group. Because normally when Jesus asked a question, you know, what, you know, who's right, John, the Baptist, and John, what what do you think at all? We don't know. We wouldn't dare say that they're all sort of like this.

But there's an enthusiasm, and they're taken up with the whole story and they're taken up with the injustice that's going on. And we're very much like this, aren't we? We've seen a story. We're taken up with injustice, and then we go out and be the unjust ones. That's what happened to King David with Nathaniel when the it came to David and painted a picture of this man that was so evil.

And David said he's a wicked man, and then Nathaniel is it Nathaniel? Nathan? Sorry. And Nathan said, you're the man. David went, oh, yes, I am.

So they're just taking up with this story. It's just disgrace. It's just an absolute disgrace. And so they say verse 41. Here's the answer, and it's a right answer, isn't it?

He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. They reply. They don't realize he's they're they're actually condemning themselves here, not yet, and he will rent the vineyard out to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest, and it's very strong language they're using. The word wretches is wicked, is worthless, is depraved. It comes from an inner malice, an inner poison.

It's a death cap mushroom in them. And then the word wretched end, The, a ESP version says miserable death. I like that. You know, they're gonna be destroyed fully. They're gonna be cut off.

They'll be cut off like Aaron Patterson from the family, from freedom in a cell on her own. 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 up at the harvest. Give the vineyard to others. They've consistently and utterly abused their position and their privileges, so who wouldn't agree with that judgment.

Is there anyone here that wouldn't agree with that judgment? Now Luke, in his recounting of this event, tells us that some people started to protest at that point. When they heard the words give the vineyard to others. You're not talking about the prostitutes and sinners and gentiles, are you? And in Luke's telling of that some people say, and they say they say, God forbid.

Let it never be. Shortly not. And it's at this point then, I hope you're with me, that Jesus underlines the judgment, but he changes the picture. He starts using building language and the kingdom of god language instead of vineyard. Now remember, he's still near the temple.

That he had smashed up inside, that he had dismissed. He's still near the temple. And Jesus said to them verse 42, have you never read in the scriptures? What a That's a condemning of these people. You probably haven't read because you kill them.

Yeah? It's it's really going at them here. Don't you know the prophets? No. You probably don't because you kill every off it that there is.

Then verse 42, the stone the builders rejected. He sort of changes the whole thing. So just bear with us a minute. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it's marvelous in his eyes.

Now Jesus is quoting a Psalm, a song from the old testament, and it's Psalm a hundred and 18. It's the same Psalm that the people who are singing Hosanna to Jesus when he came in on a donkey to Jerusalem use. So we're in the oops. We're in the same we're in the same section here. Now the picture is very simple, actually.

But it is a shift isn't it? The the picture is of builders rejecting a stone. There's a large stone for the building, perhaps the building of the temple. We don't know. We don't know where this story comes from.

But let's say it's off the temple. And the builders are working away, and there's there's this great big stone. There's always a wrong shape, mate. It's unsuitable for the work. It doesn't fit.

We can't use this. And then as they're building away, they suddenly say, hey, Hey. This fits perfectly. In fact, it's the cornerstone or a capstone. In other words, it's the stone that holds all the other stones in its place.

It's it's actually the most important stone. It corrects every position of the other stones. And without this stone, the building wouldn't work, and the temple would fall. Isn't it odd? The stone Okay.

Let's picture this. Here's the builders building a temple. You know, it's Pub time. They finished. The thing's gone.

They're down the pub, and they've just found this stone. And Hey, Fred. Fred. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And a pack of crisps as well. Yeah. But, hey, Fred. Come over here. You gotta get do you remember that stone that we rejected?

Do you remember that that weird shaped 1? What? What? What? What?

What? The 1 it was like a cross? Yeah. I mean, what could you do with a stone that's like a cross? Nothing.

Yeah. What about it? What'd you how'd you get rid of it? Well, we were gonna get rid of it, but when we came to the building, we found that it fitted perfectly and it held everything together? You're joking, mate.

You you what? The 1 we rejected has become the capstone. That's right. So Jesus it saying, you try and build the kingdom of god or the temple of god or a vineyard without the cornerstone, it's gonna be a disaster verse 43. Therefore, I tell you the kingdom of god will be taken away from you and given to the people who will produce fruit.

Jesus is now back to the parable. The kingdom of god the vineyard will be taken away from you. It will be given to those who build on what you have rejected, and you have rejected none other than the cornerstone. And all the profits you rejected, all the prophets that you mocked, and all the people that you killed were all pointing to me as the son of the land owner, and now you're planning to kill me. Verse 44, and anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.

Anyone who falls on this stone is going to be shattered. And if this stone falls on them, you will be crushed and the word is ground to a powder. You will be nothing. You'll be nothing but dust. You'll have no significance whatsoever.

This stone, the things that you reject is a matter of life and death. First 43, therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of god will be taken away from you, and given to the people that will produce fruit. Israel as the nation of god had sealed its own fate at this point, and its own fall. It's the end of them. They're not the people of god anymore.

And this is where they really understood the whole parable. First 45, when the chief priests and the pharisees heard Jesus parable, they knew he was talking about them They looked for a way to arrest him. You're talking about me, aren't you? Murdering the profits. You're you're saying I'm the murder of the prophets.

Alright. Well, let's murder a profit then. They look for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held him that he was a prophet, but their words of condemnation were surely ringing in their ears before they realized he was talking about them. He will bring those wretches to a wretched end they said. And he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crops at the harvest.

That's the history of Israel. From god's point of view. From generation to generation, they scorned the true prophets. And when the glory of god came in the sun, the lord Jesus Christ, they're about to cast him out of Jerusalem. And crucify him, they rejecting the cornerstone.

But this parable isn't just about Israel, because we could go home and say, oh, lord, awful, isn't it, or of Israel. But it's not just about Israel. It's about us. It's about people who love the blessings of god, the vineyard, but ignore the will of god, the fruit. It's about churches.

Christians are now called the Israel of God. It's about churches that are busy with programs, but empty of the fruit that god wants. It's about individual that want heaven later, of course, and demand that god shouldn't be angry at them, but want autonomy now. So that leads me to my third point. Jesus is talking about us.

The earth was made by god. I've already said that. He is the master landowner. Every nation belongs to him. You and I were made by god.

God has given us a life. He's given us breath so we can breathe, water to drink, life to enjoy, a body to inhabit, things to touch, places to go, people to meet, objects to see. All ultimately belongs to god. And he's generously given it so we can be involved in his glory. This is there's no better mission.

He's lavish, generous gifts upon us of life. That we can give back thanks and glory. So god is our land owner, and we are the vineyard, and we are the tenants because we wanna rule ourselves. And the servants god has sent a succession of servants for Israel in the old testament, you know, profit after profit, loving humble, truth telling, sacrificial servants, the prophets, receiving god's word, thinking about how to communicate god's word in different ways. Those of us are unauthentic.

Was just seeing the the the absolute masterly of the prophet, ezekiel, how how he thought about how to communicate stuff, and he used every method to get the truths over to people. Visually, painfully. Yeah? And that's what that that's what happens. And we live in a town called Kingston where, we're celebrating King Athhelstan, who's considered to be, yes.

I've got that right. Yes. Who's considered to be the first proper king that brought, sort of, England together. And, he was a Christian king, but do you hear anything about that in Kingston? And he was a man that put lots of bible stuff in place.

We live in this town. It's amazing. We're on a piece of land that used to be part of Norburton, Norburton Palace, Norburton Place. And Norburton Place was where a man who translated the Bible early on, lived here. He must have prayed for this place, wasn't he?

We live in a town where there were 5 martyrs killed, burnt to death, who told about Jesus, and they were told not to tell about Jesus, but they told about Jesus, before the reformation, this is 15 13, before the reformation, before Luther's reformation. They were telling about Jesus. They were wycliffeites. They were burnt to death. Yeah?

We live in a town that churches support school as workers. That are paid to go into schools to tell the gospel to all the different ages, and they're masters at it. You know, we've got people like Karen. She's brilliant communicator. We we we're gonna just get the rubbish.

I mean, the others might be rubbish. I don't know, but Karen is brilliant. I mean, the others go to other churches, so they're bound to be a bit lesser. But, but, you know, she's a master. If you watch her, she's a great communicator with people.

We're living in a town where you can buy a bible if you want to, in your language. We're living in a town where churches have produced literature and area where we've given thousands and thousands of pieces of literature to try to communicate the gospel. God, in his kindness, send servant after servant, after servant, after servant, after servant, there are preach in this town, pleading with people. I'm trying to do it now. You've grown up and you could've got a Bible any day you wanted to.

God speaking. And what have we done? Have we produced fruit? Have we produced the fruit that he wants? I was doing a mission once in Cambridge, Cambridge University.

And, oh, gosh, Gosh, they think they know everything. And the arrogance and there was something to behold. And they didn't really like me because I was a commoner, really, which made me more annoyed. I said to them, I can't think of a town in the world that will be more condemned than Cambridge. Do do you go to Cambridge?

Yeah. There we go. You might have been there when I was there. You went to Cambridge. Yeah.

I can't think of a town walking down because you can't go anywhere without there being a Jesus field, or a Christchurch, or a Mary Magdalen building, or an Eden Street, or, you know, Adam and Eve Street, or the everywhere you go, you're reminded of the Bible. So if you don't listen, Then there's gonna be massive condemnation. We have an Eden Street used to be called Heaven Street because witches were down Heaven Street, and they worked down Heaven Street. But the church came to town, and 3 churches set up in Haven Street to reach the pagans, the heathens, and so much so that so many were converted, they changed it to Eden Street. Yeah?

There's gospel everywhere. And god in his kindness has sent it, and have we produced fruit? We talk about our bucket list. What a joke before we die? What's god's bucket list for you?

Why don't you ask that 1? What does he want in the bucket? Ian Wilkinson described his wife as a woman who took her faith seriously and was full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. I only feel half alive without her. That's that's fruit, isn't it?

You feel half alive without her because she has so much fruit. When you start to think it's my body, it's my life, it's my money, it's my house, they're my possessions. I don't got, oh, god anything. Why doesn't god help me? I don't, oh, 0, anything to anyone.

It's all mine. Then we won't give to god, and we won't give to others, and we won't give to anybody in the end. We become a self contained tenant. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with those tenants? You're gonna judge God and judging, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end.

So that's why we need the lord Jesus Christ. And that's why if we're gonna build anything in our life, we need to build on that stone. And as we come to him, the cornerstone of anything and everything we ever do, that's what we build our life on. Anything and everything we're ever going to build and do in this world, build it on Jesus because it will fall and crush you otherwise. Anything we ever wanna start.

We build on Jesus, but not just individually, but as a church. We constantly have to be building on Jesus. We have to be telling his message. Our bucket list as a church is to be producing the fruit of the spirit so that the world around here may hear and come and repent and believe. Let's pray.

Father, you know, every 1 of us in this room, and you see what fruit we producing or what we're not producing. Would you be kind enough to humble us that we may cry out to you? Sorry. And that we would be people that come to the lord Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, and build our lives on him that we may bear fruit. And in 1 sense.

It doesn't matter how long our lives is are, but it matters whether we're fruitful or not. And so help us to be fruitful. We pray. Serving the lord Jesus, loving the lord Jesus, doing what the lord Jesus wants for his glory, amen.