20 One day as Jesus was teaching the people and preaching the Good News in the Temple, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. 2 They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?” 3 “Let me ask you a question first,” he replied. 4 “Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human?” 5 They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. 6 But if we say it was merely human, the people will stone us because they are convinced John was a prophet.” 7 So they finally replied that they didn’t know. 8 And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.” 9 Now Jesus turned to the people again and told them this story: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and moved to another country to live for several years. 10 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers attacked the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. 11 So the owner sent another servant, but they also insulted him, beat him up, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 A third man was sent, and they wounded him and chased him away. 13 “‘What will I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will respect him.’ 14 “But when the tenant farmers saw his son, they said to each other, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ 15 So they dragged him out of the vineyard and murdered him. “What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do to them?” Jesus asked. 16 “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others.” “How terrible that such a thing should ever happen,” his listeners protested. 17 Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what does this Scripture mean? ‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’[a] 18 Everyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.” 19 The teachers of religious law and the leading priests wanted to arrest Jesus immediately because they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the people’s reaction.

10 “Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?” 11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

The stone which the builders rejected titled this message to stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone of course our scripture their disappointing that we already read together was the descent from the Mount of Olives and no Jesus was moved when he descended the Mount of Olives it says as he approached the descent of the Mount of Olives he looked out over the city and he wept he wept and I don’t think he was weeping just because of the city he knew the destruction that was common upon Jerusalem he knew that it was going to be destroyed but I believe he wept because the people the city the ones that were to proclaim him the ones that should have believed in him the ones that were to teach the other nations about God they rejected their Messiah I truly believe that is why he wept because they rejected it became to his own and His own received Him not they rejected Him and you know traditionally around Palm Sunday you know going in the east week I would preach on at the cent but really that whole week Jesus is entering in to his final week on earth so really that whole week in are so much there to talk about and teach so I’m actually going to be teaching from Luke Chapter twenty are talking from Luke Top or twenty verses one through nineteen and this is Jesus teaching later on after the descent from the Mount of Olives hear the word of the Lord now it happened on one of those days as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel wherever Jesus went he preached the gospel he preached the truth that’s what he came for to preach the kingdom of God is at hand we the church are to preach the gospel so as he is in the temple preaching the gospel that the chief priests and the scribes together with the elders confronted him imagine that. That’s happened often write they confronted him and spoke to him saying tell us by what authority are you doing these sayings and who is he who gave you this authority but he answered and said to them I will ask you one thing and answer made the baptism of John was it from heaven or from men and they reasoned among themselves saying If we say From heaven he will say why then did you not believe him so the chief priests the scribes the elders and all they also rejected John not only did they reject Christ as Messiah they rejected John but if we say From men all the people will stone us for they are persuaded that John was a prophet so they answered that they did not know where it was from and Jesus said to them Neither why I tell you by what authority I do these things then he began to tell the people this parable So as I read that icon of the vision there is the religious leaders in the scribes and the Elgin are there over here they’re always there they’re always in the midst of the crowd aren’t they listening to everything he says watching everything he does you know just waiting for some opportunity to try to trap and you know what might have been a Sabbath when healed that leper were going to get him for that So but here’s those religious leaders over here then the people was kind of like he had his confrontation with them that he’s like he turns to the people he’s going to tell them this parable that’s just my take on that so he began to tell them to spare a bill a certain man planted a vineyard leased it to the vine dressers and went into a far country for a long time now admitting vintage time he sent a servant to the vine dresser’s that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard but the vine dressers beat him and sent him away empty handed again he sent another servant and they beat him also treated him shamefully and sent him away empty handed and again he sent a third and they wounded him and also cast him out. The owner of the vineyard said What shall I do I will send my beloved son probably they were respect him when they see him but when the vine dresser saw him they reason among themselves saying this is the heir come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours so they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them he will come and destroy those vine dressers and give the vineyard to others and when they heard it they said certainly not then he looked at them and said What then is this that is written the stone was to builders rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone whoever falls on that stone will be broken but whoever it falls on it will grind to Pat grind him to powder and its chief priests and scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him but the fear of the but they feared the people for they knew that he had spoken this parable against them they got at his blessings to the here and in the reading of His Holy Word let us pray Father God we do thank you and praise you for your word Father we thank you that you did send your only we gotten son your beloved Son into the world that the world might be saved through Him we thank you Jesus for your willingness to go to the cross to take our sins upon yourself that by your blood we are healed by your blood we are forgiven by that we thank you for that we thank you for your love and your mercy for each one of us I thank you that we no one can pluck us out of your hand father may your spirit be present today may or hearts rejoice in your love may or minds be open to what you have for Steward May your word be spoken may your truth be proclaimed in Jesus’ name amen the ones that should have recognize him the ones that were standing there in the crowd when they were shouting Hosanna the one that he taught he taught so many they should have recognized him the chief priests and the scribes they were the scribes were study years of the law they knew the law all they should have known Zachariah nine nine were says rejoiced greatly the daughter of Zion shout the daughter of Jerusalem behold your King is coming to you he is just and having salvation lowly and riding on a donkey a coat the fall of a donkey that was prophesied four hundred eighty years before Christ came you would have thought instead of south and Jesus tell your disciples to be quiet as he descended the Mount of Olives they should have said wait this was prophesied back in Zachariah they should recognise that shouldn’t many other prophecies that they should have recognized the Messiah would be crucified with credible criminals I mean I know this is later in the week it was prophesied Isaiah fifty three twelve that he would be crucified with criminals and we know that there was one hundred side. It was prophesied that the Messiah would be falsely accused in some study five eleven it came to fruition and Mark fourteen fifty seven through fifty eight it was prophesied that he would be praised by the little children and Psalms eight verse two that happened in Matthew twenty one sixteen it prophesied that a messenger would prepare the way for Messiah and we know that John did that was prophesied Nazia forty so many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled I could go on all day with the prophecies that he fulfilled to the T But yet they rejected Him came to his own they knew Him not the religious leaders question is authority they asked by what authority or you doing these things who gave you that authority were talking about Authority downstairs inside a school who gave you that authority that amazing the chief priests they thought they had authority there Thord they they thought came from zero zip is because the law all set the tribe of Levi apart to serve in the sanctuary they thought that was their place they thought they had their authority from Moses the scribes who were students of the law all claimed that there are Thor to came from the rabbis who taught them they thought they had the authority because they knew the law all they knew the letter of the law so that was there or Thor to and then we had the elders the elders thought because of their experience what we’ve been in the church for forty years I mean we have so much wisdom and understanding said Surely we should have authority these are the same ones that would stand on a corner and say Thank You Lord and I’m not like that Samaritan over there so they thought they had authority they were better than others and they wanted to know were Jesus got his authority imagine that they’re questioning the one who does have all forty about where he gets his authority the one who is truly the king in the ruler of the earth the one that created the earth and. Jesus with with him in the beginning said Let Us make man in Our image the one who has all with or to be found a humorous illustration about authority. When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts he was running really hard for a second term in office one day after very busy morning of campaigning and it had no lunch here Rob that a church barbecue and it’s kind of late in the afternoon and herder was kind of famished as he moved down a serving line he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken she put a piece of chicken on his plate and turned to the next person in line he says Excuse me he says if you don’t mind I’d like to have another piece of chicken sorry the woman told him I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person but I’m starve the governor said sorry the woman said only one per customer governor hurdles herder was a modest and unassuming man but he decided that it was time to throw a little weight around he was going to use a little bit of his authority that he thought he had says Do you know who I am I am the governor of this state the woman says Do you know who I am I’m the woman in charge of the chicken. Move all Mr. Thought he could use his authority but it wasn’t even good enough for the woman in charge of the chicken and John nineteen ten eleven we found out were all true authority indeed comes from Jesus as before pilot and pilots said to him Are you not speaking to me Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you Jesus answered You could have no power at all against me and message had been given to you from above therefore the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin all authority has been given to him All authority has been given to Jesus and I praise God that He does have authority and I pray that we all willingly give him authority over our lives in everything we do you know as I read. From Luke Chapter twenty The spirit kind of spoke to me about a particular part of that passage and in a parable whenever Jesus speaks of how the owner of the vineyard will send out his own son and how the vine dressers will reason among themselves how they will kill the air and claim the inheritance for themselves speaking of Jesus’ authority I believe that whenever Jesus is speaking that he says the vine dresser’s will see this is the son we’re going to cast him out he is speaking of his own death we know that Jesus spoke on a number of times about how he would suffer and die that he would be buried in the earth but I believe he’s speaking a rate there he spoke the authority he spoke to them the authority of about what they were about to do I think the spirit just the spirit so that to me you might not get that out of it but Jesus spoke it he spoke the authority the vine dresser’s will cast him out out of the city so he’s cast out of the truce and to a hill called Calvary and he would it says that the his beloved Son Jesus is the beloved son of the father he spoke what they were going to do he spoke it and it did happen the vineyard of course is the kingdom of God and the vine dresser’s are the religious leaders the ones that were meant to teach the people they were the ones that should have recognized him as I said in the beginning but he is the stone he is the stoned at the builders rejected the Chief Cornerstone he is called and you know I’ve I’ve built some homes I’m not much of a block layer or brick layer I mean I could do it but I had a great uncle that was a mason or a man lay block lay brick and he just he perfected it. And whenever we went to build our first house back in one thousand nine hundred four I hired him to come lay my blocks for me and speaking of the cornerstone the Chief Cornerstone you know you get your foundation you get your footers dug and you pour your footers you have to have a good solid good solid foundation to build a house you don’t want to build it on sinking sand as the the song says because you don’t want your house crumbling but the corner stone is so important also whenever you try to square things up and you’re going to build that house that very first corner you build that first stone you set it it everything has to line up off of that first stone everything has to be square everything has to be in line with that cornerstone that Chief Cornerstone or lives have to be in line with Christ we are blocks in the wall if you will or stones in the wall but he is the chief cornerstone if you get that first corner out that this out of square out of plumb it messes up the entire building he is the cornerstone of the church he is the firm foundation that the church is built upon but he is the Chief Cornerstone Also if you get that first one out as I say the whole building will be a mess you might build that building it is going to be a mess it’s not going to be square it’s going to be out of plumb but the church if it’s not built upon that Chief Cornerstone it might look like a church from the outside but it must line up with Christ he is the Chief Cornerstone our lives need to line up with this word if our lives don’t line up with this word we might look like a church we might think we’re a church but we must line up with this he is the cornerstone and this is the only the only foundation that we can build upon there is no other foundation there is no other way which men can be saved but by Jesus Christ he is a solid rock he has achieved course under so many thing is the capstone he’s called but it’s Christ and nothing book and he is the only one by which men can be saved his death and his resurrection he defeated death Hell in the grave is by Him we are saved and thus if we’re going to have time for some Him better rein it in pray that we do have our lives lined up with him and that our hope is in Christ the solid rock.