Class Notes: 9/10/2014

Mark 11:29- Mark 12:13; The parable of the vineyard. The Church instead of Israel will be the focus of God's activity for the duration of the Church Age


In our study of Mark we are with Jesus in the temple where He is going to ask the Pharisees a question in order to stop their heckling and interruptions while He is teaching.

The Jewish religious leaders are jealous and afraid of Him because the people are flocking to Him and they are trying to discredit Him before the people by questioning His authority to teach.

They are trying to discredit Him on the basis of the Jewish oral law and their religion where He has no authority from their system but the sponsor of their religion is satan not God.

Jesus does not come by the authority of satan or in the power of demon influence. He comes by the authority of God the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus does not come according to the Jewish religion and the oral traditions of men per the Talmud. He comes according to the Word of God that is in the Tnach.

These leaders have rejected God's Word and established their own religion. Mark 7:7-9;

So they kept on heckling Him and rudely interrupting Him. This is the way arrogant self righteous people act when faced with someone who is presenting truth that they don't want to hear.

They interrupt and try to discredit the communicator because want to keep others from hearing and accepting truth that they have rejected in order to maintain their power.

Mark 11:29; So Jesus said to them." He is going to answer their question with a question. Jesus could have answered their question directly but there was no point because they were not really seeking information; they are simply questioning with the objective of discrediting Him.

Since they are not really seeking information and they don't really care Jesus uses debater's technique. He answers their question with a question, and it does a good job of shutting them up for the moment.

"I will also ask you one thing, and when you answer me I will tell you by what authority I do (keep on doing) these things."

Mark 11:30; Was John's baptism from the source of heaven or from the source of men? You answer Me now!!! (aorist passive imperative) Again we have an example of imperative that is not complied with because they don't answer.

Remember John had his ministry out in the desert and the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees had gone out to hear him because all the people were leaving the temple and going out to the desert to hear John.

When the religious leaders went out to hear John he called them a generation of vipers, a nest of cobras. John performed ritual baptism but John had never been to their seminaries so his authority did not come from their religion either.

John did not teach Judaism; John was not connected with their religion in any way. He didn't get his authority from them, he wasn't under them and they weren't able to control him.

So when Jesus asks them about John's authority to baptize He completely confounds them with His question. He puts them between a rock and a hard place so they could not answer Him without accepting Jesus or risking offending the crowd.

Mark 11:31; "And they reasoned among themselves," they began to think about this question, "saying, If we say, from heaven; he will say unto us, Why did you not them believe him?"

So they are stuck, they can't say that John's baptism was from heaven. They realize their vulnerability there because they have rejected John's message to believe in Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

Mark 11:32;"But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; because they all believe that John was a prophet." So they cannot answer Jesus' question because they fear the people and refuse to accept Jesus as Messiah.

Religion and politics is always is concerned about what people think, it always has public relations in view. The criterion is not, what is truth? But instead, What do the people think?

This is the way religion and politics operate. They have no criterion from the truth of the Word of God they are based entirely upon public opinion and the public lie.

This kind of thinking is always an indication of an organization in decline, an apostate organization of any kind, even an apostate country like the USA. It occurs whenever leadership is more concerned about what people think than on what the Word of God clearly states.

This is also what happens when Christians become religious. One of the most freeing things in the world is to grow up spiritually to the point where you are not the least bit concerned about what people think because you only care about what God's Word says. John 8:32; Psa 56:11; NET

The religious political leaders tried to establish themselves as the authority at the expense of Jesus. They are trying to build their happiness on His unhappiness; they were trying to discredit Him.

But it boomeranged! Isa 54:17;

The principle is that you can't seek someone else's unhappiness without making yourself unhappy. Instead, they found their own unhappiness and the authority of Jesus could not even be questioned so they had they had completely failed in their attempt to discredit Him.

Mark 11:33; And they answered Jesus, and said, We do not know " Net note 47 "And Jesus said to them Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

For the moment that shut them up and He had a captive audience and no heckling. The religious leaders also stayed to listen to Him because they were still trying to find some other way to discredit Him.

Since the crowd is now also filled with the religious leaders Jesus speaks directly to them using parables that are specifically directed at them to them so that they would understand.

Mark 12:1; And at that point in time (aorist tense) (then) he began to speak to them in parables. In this case the parables are stories that He used to explain a parallel situation in order to help them understand and condemn their rejection of Him.

"A man planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress (production), and built a watchtower (protection). Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. Net note 2

Mark 12:2; At harvest time he sent a slave to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop (production) from them. Net note 5 (In the parable, God who was the owner expected spiritual production from Israel (the tenants).

Mark 12:3-5; The beatings and murders represent their treatment of the prophets God sent to them.

Mark 12:6; The son represents Jesus Christ.

Mark 12:7; Israel's political-religious leaders that Jesus was speaking to represented the vine-growers who plotted to kill the son.

Mark 12:8; Their killing of the son (Jesus) represents their complicity in his death on the cross.

Mark 12:9; The parallel passage in Matt 21:41; says the owner will "bring those wretched wretches (the Jewish political-religious leaders) to a wretched end"(the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD)

The vineyard was given to the church on Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of the son (Jesus). During the Church Age Israel is not the focus of God's work on the earth and Israel will not be the focus of God's work until Jesus returns to set up His kingdom on the earth.

The destruction of the vine-growers represents the 5th cycle of discipline on the nation of Israel. This occurred in 70 AD, when the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the city and the Roman Empire became the first gentile client nation of God.

Today the USA the gentile client nation of God. Israel will never be a client nation of God during the Church Age.

Mark 12:10-11; Jesus then quotes Psa 118:22-23; two verses that the Jews had omitted in the song that they sang as He entered into the city on the previous day (Palm Sunday).

v22 The stone (Christ, the Rock) which the builders (these religious people) rejected, the same is become the head of the corner (Jesus Christ is going to rule in spite of them).

v23 This is the Lord's doing; (it is from the source of the Lord because it is a part of God's plan), and it is amazing".

The parallel passage in Matthew 21:43-44; includes a couple of additional statements that Jesus made to the Jewish leaders to make sure they understood it.

Matt 21:43; "Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you," Jesus looks right at the religious leaders who represent the rulers of the vineyard; "and given to a gentile nation (the Church) who will produce it's fruit.

The Greek word translated "people" is "ethnos" is always used to refer to a
non-Israelite nation or group of people. He tells them that they (God's chosen people) are going to be removed and replaced by a group of chosen people comprised of gentiles. (the church).

Matt 21:44; "And whoever shall fall on this stone (Jesus Christ)." This means to reject Christ as savior, it means to stumble over the stone. Stumbling over the stone represents the rejection of Christ; "shall be broken into pieces."

Every religious person in the room will be broken and their religious system will be broken into pieces and destroyed. This described Jesus' the first advent.

"but on whoever it (Jesus Christ) shall fall, will be crushed and scattered like dust." This describes Jesus' second advent. The stone (Jesus Christ) cut out without hands will fall on them.

The Rock (Jesus Christ) will come a second time to the earth and it will crush them. This is the baptism of fire judgment on all unbelievers after Jesus returns in his second advent.

Mark 12:12; Net note 25; They knew He was talking about them so they wanted to arrest Him but they couldn't because they were afraid of the crowd so they just left and went away to form more plots against Him.

Mark 12:13; They didn't stay away long. Net notes 28, 29; This brief alliance between the Pharisees and the Herodians occurred under the principle of the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

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