30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 20 9-18 THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE 02 Luke 20 9 Restoring all things back to the original purpose
📖 Luke 20:9-18
18Feb2021 - *Restoring all things back to the original purpose* - _Luke 20:9-18_ - THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE 2 – Bible reading: _Ephesians 1:9-10_
The nation of Israel was a theocratic state.
The people of Israel were deeply conscious of God choosing them and that they were a special people above all others. This speciality, this uniqueness, lay in their trust and obedience to God. They were to be in a love relationship with God in all matters of daily life. They were to remain and function out of being in the habitat of God.
It was the responsibility of the leaders to guide the nation, under God, to be a light to the nations of the world. It was in this backdrop that Jesus gave this parable.
_Luke 20:9 Then He began to tell the people this parable: "A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time._
The owner of the vineyard is God and He has leased out His vineyard to vine growers. The ownership remains with God but vine growers are in a leased-out arrangement with God.
The vine-growers are the people and very importantly the leaders of the people of Israel. They were expected to take care of God’s vineyard, God’s way and be answerable and accountable to Him. The Lord is expecting results from His vineyard.
What is the result that God is expecting from the vineyard and the vine-growers?
As we saw yesterday, Israel was to be a light and a blessing to the nations by being a demonstrative model of God’s governance over all the land. The nations around the world should be able to see the Shalom or the wellness of God over the land because the land and her people are walking in the ways of God.
Tragically, Israel had failed to meet the expectation of God for her.
_Jeremiah 2:21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? Isaiah 5:3-4 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. (4) What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? Exodus 15:17 You will bring them in and plant them In the mountain of Your inheritance, In the place, O LORD, which You have made For Your own dwelling, The sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established._
The allegory that is given in the Old Testament and what we read in the gospel of Luke, looks different, in a casual reading, but the underlying principle is the same. God’s heart breaks for degenerate Israel that has not met the expectations of God.
We said yesterday that the church is spiritual Israel. We have been restored back to God for a purpose. We are here as the church to bring the kingdom rule of God on all of God’s creation. This was the original mandate for man.
_Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; *let them have dominion* over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."_
Man was created in the image of God to have dominion over all of God’s creation as vice-regent of God.
_Psalm 8:4-9 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? (5) For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And *You have crowned him with glory and honor. (6) You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet*, (7) All sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field, (8) The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas. (9) O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!_
The plan and purpose of God is to restore all things back to its original plan, which we see in Genesis, known as the creation or God’s cultural mandate
_Ephesians 1:9-10 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, (10) that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times *He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him*._
God has not kept His overall plan hidden from us. It is His good pleasure to make known to us the mystery of His will, which is to gather, in one, all things in Christ.
*Thought to ponder*
```Just as Israel is held accountable as the vine-growers of God’s vineyard, the church too is held accountable for all of God’s creation.```