The two parables of Matthew chapter 21 were given in response to an attack on Jesus by the Jewish leaders. It was the last week of Jesus' life. He had earlier came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey while His disciples worshipped and exalted Him. He then went into the temple and, for the second time of His ministry, forcefully cast out the moneychangers that were cheating and taking advantage of the people. The scriptures say in Matthew 21:14 that all of the "blind and the lame" came to Jesus and He healed all of them. This caused a tremendous uproar of the people in the temple and they began to worship Jesus crying out loudly "Hosannah to the son of David!" He then returns the next day and takes over the temple by beginning to teach and preach boldly within the temple, something that He did not make a common practice of in His earthly ministry.

I want you to realize that all of these events have to do with Jesus exerting His authority as God in Flesh. If Jesus had not been the Almighty God robed in flesh and walking upon the earth, then He had no authority to do what He did. Authority is given; never assumed. That means that you just can't act like somebody important and become somebody important. You can't act like you have authority and say that you have authority. If you have authority, then someone over you has to give it to you. You can't "fake it until you make it." Real authority is delegated.

Understanding that, I want you to realize the significance of Jesus' actions in Matthew chapter 21. The worship and praise and exaltation that Jesus received upon His entrance into Jerusalem was a parade that was only given to kings. That He would be exalted in the city of Jerusalem, which was the "city where God had chosen to put His name" was the same as Jesus saying "I am God; I am king of this city." And He wasn't faking it. He really was the rightful king of that city! He was literally the "son of David" and rightfully deserved to be on the throne of David's old capital city. In those days, when a king rode a horse into a city, that meant that he came in war. When he rode a donkey, it meant he had come in peace. The fact that Jesus rode a donkey shows that He was saying "I am the rightful king of Jerusalem and I don't have to fight for it." Only an invading king will have to fight and ride a horse into his own capital!

But Jesus didn't stop with just claiming to be the rightful heir of the throne of David. He also went into the temple of Jehovah God and cleaned it out -- again! He also healed all the blind people and lame people that came to Him. And, to really top it off, the next day He enters into the temple itself and assumes the role of the priests and scribes and begins to teach the people in the place of the Jewish leaders in their own "backyard." Now understand that this temple did not belong to the priests, Pharisees, and scribes, but to Jehovah God, the one, true God of the Israelites as revealed in the Old Testament. Therefore only Jehovah God would have the right to clean out His temple and teach and perform mighty miracles within it. Jesus was not "faking His authority." He was the Jehovah God of the Old Testament come in flesh. It was His temple. He had the right to do everything that He did and the people realized that His authority was right and real because they began to cry out to Him "son of David." In other words, "our Messiah, our God, and our King" which is what the blessed descendant of David was to be. This son that had been born really was "the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" and the "government" or "authority" really was upon His shoulders as Isaiah 9:6 had proclaimed!

And so into this scene, we find the Jewish leaders getting real nervous. Jesus has moved in and "taken over" and the people are responding to Him as if He really is who He says He is! So they decide to try to trip Him up by getting to the point:

They wanted to know by whose authority did Jesus take over the temple. If their motives had been pure, then Jesus would have given them a straight answer. Jesus only responds clearly and straightforward with people who are interested in serving Him and whose motives are right. Remember in John chapter 14 when Philip asked Jesus "you've been talking about the Father, and how that it is the Father that gives you the authority to do these things. Jesus, show us the Father, who is the Father?" And Jesus looked at him and gave him the straightest answer that could possibly be given: "Have I been with you so long and you have not known me, Philip?" "He that has seen me has seen the Father. How can you ask 'show us the Father?'" That's a pretty straight answer and Jesus gave it because Philip was sincere and hungry for truth and would accept whatever Jesus told him. But here in Matthew chapter 21, we find that the Pharisees aren't really interested in learning more about Jesus but rather hearing something that they can twist into a trial claim in order to kill Him! And so Jesus avoids the question and then begins to speak in parables. You see, only people who are genuinely hungry for truth and are willing to change will be able to get a revelation of who Jesus Christ because if their motives are wrong or impure, Jesus will not let the revelation come!

Jesus was smarter than the Pharisees! He responded with a question of His own that put the Pharisees in a tough spot. Jesus wanted to see if they would be honest with Him and honestly admit their mistakes and faults at having avoided the truth. When they would not be "real" with Him, then Jesus would not give them any revelation either. More important than your scriptural knowledge, experience, or whatever, is whether or not you will look at yourself and your beliefs honestly in light of God's Word. Remember there are two kinds of people in the world: those who "get it" and those who "don't get it." The difference is their hunger. If you are hungry enough for truth then when confronted with the Word of God that contradicts a false belief, you will admit that you are wrong and will change it to match God's view. If you will not be "real" with Jesus about your own life, then He will choose to not reveal Himself to you. This is a relationship thing. Jesus said that whatever measure you use to give will be the same measure that is used to return your blessing (Luke 6:38). That applies to money but it also applies to our relationship with God. He already knows everything about you. But the amount of revelation that you will be able to receive from Him will be determined by how "real" you are with Him about your own life! God will let you go through as many doors in His kingdom as you will let Him enter in your heart!

So the question was "Jesus' authority" and instead of a straight answer, Jesus then gave two parables that illustrated the correct answer. They are the parable of The Two Sons, and the parable of The Wicked Husbandmen.

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Jesus begins by telling a story of a Father who had two sons. The interesting point about the story in context is that the Father of the sons does not have to prove his authority. He has the authority to tell the sons what to do because he is daddy. What Jesus is saying, of course, is that He does not have to prove His authority to come into the temple of God and take over. He's "daddy." Those who are really His "sons" will know that He has the right to command and teach them! People who question Jesus' authority in their life are simply proving that they are not "sons of God." But let's read the parable:

The father owned a vineyard and went to each of his two sons separately to ask them to work for the day in his vineyard. Remember it must be around harvest time because that was the only time that a vineyard needed "extra" help. Son #1, as we will call him, tells his daddy "I ain't going to work in the vineyard under the hot sun." But then after his father had left, repented and went and worked in the vineyard. Son #2 tells the father "sure, daddy I'll go work today" and yet as soon as daddy was gone leaves and goes as far away from the vineyard as possible. Jesus then asks the question:

Which of the two sons did the will of the his father? Which of the two really obeyed? Of course, it is easy to see that it was Son #1 who at first said that he wouldn't go and yet repented and went that truly obeyed his father. Jesus then pointed out that the parable represents God and the two sons were the common people and the Pharisees. At first the common people had not been really sold out to the ways of God and yet when John the Baptist came preaching the will of the Father, they repented and began to obey. The Pharisees were the exact opposite. They claimed to be religious with their mouth and yet they in actuality refused to obey the commandment of God as delivered through John the Baptist!

This parable, of course, has a modern day application to our lives also. In scripture, the "vineyard" is used over and over again to represent God's church. God is not interested in what you say you will do, but in what you actually do. This parable brings us to the threefold test of sonship. 1.) The test of sonship was not in how the sons responded while in the presence of the Father, but how they acted when they were by themselves! Hear what the scriptures are saying. There are many people who are able to talk like a Christian and talk like a Son of God when around certain people or at church, but when they think it doesn't matter they don't obey God's commands! They are not true sons because they are obeying the will of the Father. Jesus said:

The word "indeed" there literally means "truly." In other words, you are not a son of God just by saying something but if your confession leads to true obedience or not. 2.) The second test of sonship is whether or not your actions obey the command of God regardless of what you have said with your mouth! There are many people who "confess with their mouth, that Jesus is their saviour" and yet they refuse to allow Him to "save" them from anything because they will not let Him change their life and pull them from sin. There are many religions that confess that Jesus Christ is their savior and yet they will not be baptized in His name which is clearly commanded in the Word of God and separates them from their sinful past and do not teach for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost which is not only a part of being born again as a child of God but also what gives us the power to separate ourselves from a sinful world and to live "saved" from the deadly effects of sin. Just saying the words "I confess and believe that Jesus Christ is my personal savior" does not save you unless your actions obey the words that that savior commanded for you to do to be saved! If a person truly confesses and believes that Jesus Christ is their savior, then they will be baptized in His name and receive the Holy Ghost just as He commanded (Mark 16:16-17; John 3:5; 7:37-39) If they say they confess with their mouth and yet don't want the Holy Ghost or want to be baptized in the name of Jesus then they are only fooling themselves. They haven't really believed or obeyed. They are like Son #2 that said that he would obey his father but in action really did not!

Likewise there are those who say with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord of All and yet try to make Him second in a triune Godhead. In their mental action they do not obey what they have confessed with their mouth. And there are people who understand that Jesus Christ is the one, true living God and say that He is Lord of All, and yet their lives say that He is not lord over certain areas because there are certain places of their everyday life that they will not allow to be governed by His Word! Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. He is either Lord OF All or He is not Lord AT All! God is not interested in people who can say the right things and respond the right way and talk right only. It is important to know scripture and to talk the talk. But it's even more important to "walk the walk." We must be as James put it "doers of the Word and not hearers only" because if we only hear it and don't obey it, we are only "deceiving ourselves." We are only obedient if we practice what we preach and obey what we hear and our actions speak louder than God to our words!

To finish up this parable, 3.) The third test of sonship is how you respond to correction from Godly authority. The scriptures reveal this test very plainly in scripture. Let me read the entire passage in a paraphrase (Contemporary English Version) and then point out the bluntness of a literal translation:

The New King James Version puts verse 8 like this:

In other words, if you respond to correction from Godly authority and obey it and allow it to change you, then you are proving that you are truly sons of God. But if you run from the correction and get bitter and do not obey it, then you are "illegitimate" and are not truly a "son of God." Make no mistake: the scriptures very clearly teach that God is more interested in what we actually do than what we say that we are going to do. There is a major difference than saying that you will obey and actually doing it! If we are truly sons of God, then we will recognize Jesus' authority and the authority that He has given the man of God in your life to correct us. But the scripture says that God has given that authority to the man of God in your life:

This brings us to the other parable that Jesus taught here at this time about His authority

Again this parable deals with a vineyard. In those days, a rich owner of a vineyard would often not do the work of harvest himself but would hire out men to run the everyday operations of the vineyard in exchange for a share of the profits. This man who was hired to run the vineyard was called a "husbandmen."

In this story, the owner lent out the vineyard to a husbandmen and then traveled into a "far country." When the owner of the vineyard came to receive the fruits of the vineyard at harvest time, the husbandmen decided to try to take it over completely and killed the servants that were sent by the owner. The owner sent more servants and they too were killed and they were all killed: some stoned, some beaten and some by other methods. Finally the owner sent his son reasoning that "they will not reject my own son." But the wicked men running the vineyard took the son outside of the vineyard and killed him as well! Jesus then asked the question "when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these evil men who killed his servants and son because they did not want to relinquish control of the vineyard?" The obvious answer is that the owner would kill them with great wrath and then will lend the vineyard to another husbandmen that will be faithful.

Jesus went on to give us the literal translation of this parable:

In other words, the vineyard represented Israel and the owner of the vineyard represented God. The servants that were sent represented the prophets that God sent to try to get Israel on course. Almost all of those prophets were rejected, abused, or killed. Finally God decided to overshadow a virgin and be born of woman thus becoming a "son" and coming directly to the people of Israel and yet they not only rejected the message of Jesus Christ but they took Him out of the city and killed Him! That is why in the endtimes when the Wrath of God is poured out upon the earth, it will kill two-thirds of the Jewish people who are alive at that time because of what they did to God and His "vineyard" (Zechariah 13:8-9) That's why God allowed the Roman general Titus in A.D. 70 to come completely destroy Jerusalem and the temple with it. That's why God allowed Hitler to persecute the Jews so horribly before stopping him. Because of how they responded to God's vineyard. And now God has turned the vineyard of His kingdom over to His Apostolic Church. It's open to "whosoever will." You can be Jewish, Gentile, black, white, brown, or anything in between and still be born into this great kingdom!

Before we quit, then we must look at the parable as it applies to us today. Quickly look again at verse 33:

In establishing this great church, God did six things:

1. He planted a vineyard. In other words, He formed the church, He built it upon twelve men that would found it. He came to earth and did the "dirty work" of plowing up the hardened ground of men's hearts and planting the seed of the Word of the Lord into it. God did not send someone else to do this, but He did it Himself! He planted the vineyard.

2. He built a hedge around it. He established a fence of protection. He established a line of separation that said this point marks the boundary of the church and the world. If you want to be "in the church," then you need to be within this boundary. Don't ever let yourself think that it really doesn't matter whether or not you look, live, act, speak, or respond according to this Word, because this Word is a fence, a hedge of protection. It marks where the church stops and the world begins.

3. He put a winepress in it. That was the place where the fruit of the vineyard was squeezed until the precious juice ran out. Without a winepress, there was no point of having the vineyard because nothing productive could come from the fruit. In scripture, the winepress always represents trials and tests. God allows bad things to happen to good people. He allows you to go "through some things" because only by going through them will you be profitable to the kingdom of God. In scripture, wine represents the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost can only flow out of you and minister to others if you allowed yourself to be squeezed and broken by the winepress of God!

4. He built a tower. That tower was a place of authority and protection. It served two purposes. First, it served as a lookout against any wild animals that might come and attack the grapes. Someone had to continually be on guard particularly against the "little foxes" that might spoil the vine. It also served a place during the harvest where someone might oversee the efforts of the harvesters and make sure everything was going smoothly and that each laborer was doing their job correctly.

I don't have time to go into this like I should, but if you study out the role of the "watchmen" who sat in such towers, you will find that they represent the pastors and the ministers that God has set up in the church. The prophet Habakkuk said that he was a "watchmen on the wall" protecting God's people and warning them of coming danger. Because of his position, the watchmen on the tower can see things that the people on the ground cannot see! We've already talked about it: you'd better listen to your pastor and the ministry set over you. They "watch for your souls!" And they are trying to coordinate the harvest and at the same time watch out day and night for the "little things" that would try to steal your relationship with God!

5. He let it out to husbandmen. God took this power and this anointing, this "vineyard," that cost Him everything to plant and create and placed it within our care. It is up to us to reap the harvest and win people for Him. It is up to us to work and build a church in this community that produces good fruit for our master. It is up to us.

6. He went into a "far country" promising to return after harvest time and give us our rewards. After Jesus established this great church, He went into heaven and has promised to return again one day. When He comes, He will be interested in what we have done with His vineyard! What have we done with the great blessing and love that He has lavished upon us? What have we done to reach others with this precious message?

Quickly turn to Isaiah chapter 5 and look at what happened to Israel when they rejected God's Word. God says:

Because they did not respond to the words of the prophets and the words of the Son of God, they were destroyed and briers and thorns came up and, even worse, no rain was allowed to fall.

God is asking us the same question today: "what more could have been done to my vineyard?" If you cannot live for God and get your liberty in an Apostolic Church that has the rain of the Holy Ghost, the power of the name of Jesus, anointed preaching and singing, and a hedge of protection, then what else can God do for you? It's time we realize what a great blessing and power that we have received and what a great church that we are apart of and it's time that we step out in faith and get the liberty and freedom in the Spirit that God has promised! Don't disregard the words of these prophets and Jesus Christ (the Bible)! Don't kill it in your life. Don't say that you will work in the vineyard and yet disobey. Because Jesus is coming back, and when He gets back He is going to want to know what has happened in His vineyard! When He comes back, let's present Him a huge profit and harvest and may He find us being faithful to what He told us to do! After all, it's His vineyard and He has the authority to do with it what He will! Let's submit to Jesus Christ in every way, for He truly is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He truly is the "mighty God!"