There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. Matthew 21:33.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Just after Jesus had ridden triumphantly into Jerusalem fulfilling the words of the prophet Zechariah and cleansed the temple of the money changers tables, while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him, and they spoke, saying to Him, “Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?”
They asked this with evil intent to trip Jesus up and get an answer that they would be able to use to accuse Him of blasphemy. But He did what I do when people ask Me a question out of evil intent, I question them about something in their own lives that needs correction. And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” They began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. Answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Mark 11:27-33.
Jesus then told them two parables. Both of which He asked them for the conclusion to the Parable. And both times they answered correctly and judged themselves. And both of them had to do with My vineyard.
The first one began thus:
But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him. Matthew 21:28-32.
Jesus had made the point about John the Baptist but also about the hypocrisy of lip service that does not perform compared to the honesty of a repentant and willing heart that presses forward to perform the work I give you to do. And it all comes down to faith. It was the faith of people that received healing from Jesus that He said gave them wholeness. The power is there in Me to heal, prosper, and promote you, but faith is what connects you to that power to receive. But take note that it all comes down to the fruitfulness of your life that is only possible in My vineyard.
But since Jesus had their attention, He took the opportunity to tell a parable that not only addresses them but explains to you the dominion of mankind upon the earth. I have given you dominion authority via a leasehold interest. I own the earth and all in it, and like any leasehold, once the term expires everything in the leased land belongs to the owner of the fee simple, no matter who built it or who amassed it. The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. For once I have taken back the earth as Mine and rid it and cleansed it of the curse and from all the harm Satan and his demons did to destroy it through the people he took captive to do his will in destroying the earth, I make it entirely new.
And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” Revelation 11:18.
I make new heavens (the first and second heavens) and a new earth, incorruptible and filled with My splendor and glory. And My heavenly city Jerusalem joins to it as the bridge city joining the Kingdom of Heaven with the earth. And then guess what I do? But if you have read the prophet Daniel you know.
But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion (the beast and the devil who powers him) will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the sanctified ones of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him. Daniel 7:26-27.
I give it all back to you who I can trust. You who have received Jesus and followed Him to My throne. I made the earth for you, but I made it good and perfect, and I will give it back to those who are Mine, My children, My family, good and perfect as I planned so you can reign with Me forever.
And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:5.
And so He began a very important parable. You would be wise to listen.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and leased it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. Matthew 21:33.
Here I liken the earth to a vineyard. And this is not the only time I do that. Through the prophet Isaiah, I called Israel the Vineyard of the LORD of Hosts. But think about My first words of blessing as I conceived all of you in My innermost being, I empowered you to be fruitful, very fruitful, and My Son likened your fruitfulness to a branch on a grapevine with Him being the Vine and I am the Vine keeper and owner of the vineyard.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:1-5.
And I speak of the idle laborers that are standing around unfruitful and what do I do? I send them into My vineyard to become fruitful, even in the last few hours of the day.
A grapevine produces fruit on the branches and the vine and the branches are so close that in older vines you cannot be sure where the vine ends and the branch begins.
And so Jesus continues the parable about the earth, but also as it pertained to the country of Israel and the coming into the Kingdom of the gentiles when Israel rejected My Son.
At the harvest time he sent a servant to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. Mark 12:2.
Here we are talking about the tithe. It is My share of the fruitfulness I have blessed you to make by using the things and the seed I have given you. It is the royalty, the usage fee, that keeps My house funded and the work of the Kingdom on earth and you get the reward of the increased yield and the protection of the rest.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:8-12.
You know that if you do not pay the royalty free you lose your license to use the owner’s work. Think about that. You will be putting your wages into a bag with holes or a broken cistern.
And let us continue with the parable.
The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Luke 20:13-15; Mark 12:6-8; Matthew 21:34-39.
This is what happened to Jesus by the people of the Covenant that had taken over the production of the vineyard. But it goes back further. It was what Adam and Eve did to Me. They closed Me out of the vineyard which I had made for them and given the leasehold to them, keeping back only one tree’s fruit as My tithe.
And then Jesus asked a question of the chief priests and scribes that had asked about His authority to do the things He did and it had to do with their authority over My vineyard to shut out My Son, which is to shut out Me.
Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” Matthew 21:40-41.
They answered correctly. I will give it to those who love My Son and those are the ones who are fruitful. Do you remember when the Israelites, after He had multiplied the loaves and the fish, asked Jesus “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” John 6:28. Doing My works would make you fruitful. Do you remember what Jesus answered? Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” John 6:29.
You attach to the Vine by believing in Jesus and it is then you become fruitful by your connection with Him. Through Him the Holy Spirit is flowing into you.
Back to the parable: Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” Matthew 21:42-44.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. The foundation on which all is built is the revelation of the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. The revelation of Jesus as Lord and Messiah who paid your judgment and took your sentence and went to the dust of death for you and gave you His righteousness forever. And when you know and live this you will rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give constant thanks as you work the works of Jesus and greater in the unique life of good deeds I prepared for you in advance in Christ Jesus. Your works will not be wood, hay, and stubble as those of the worldly but genuine gold on the Last Day that will stand the test of the fire of love. Anything done without love, My kind of love in your heart, will not endure.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet. Matthew 21:45-46.
They did not repent and keep the vineyard. Instead they brought about that which had not yet been done. They threw the beloved Son of the Owner out of the Vineyard and killed Him. But I raised Him up as their Savior and yours, indeed of the whole world. I can make all things work together for good for those who love Me and are called according to My purpose. Fruitful was the blessing, empowerment, and command from the beginning, and it still is the same, you can live a fruitful life of Kingdom deeds that I will reward in full.
I love you. Will you go to My Vineyard to work for souls with My Son? Attach and you will bear much fruit.