Who Owns the Vineyard
Matthew 21:33–46
Jesus is there at the temple. He's already had a confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees, so He says to them, "Listen to another parable." A landowner planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press, built a watchtower, leased it to tenants, and went to another country. When the harvest came, he sent his servants to collect his produce, and the tenants beat them. Finally, he sent his son, saying, "They will respect my son." And they killed him.
He was talking to the scribes and the Pharisees, who were in charge of the temple. But did they own the temple? No. They were entrusted with the temple. A sacred responsibility by any standard, but they did not own it. The landowner is God. What Jesus is trying to say is, "You don't have as much authority as you think. You're a tenant. You're a servant, and the owner expects a return from the crop."
Now, the question Matthew wants to ask is, are we producing what God desires? Matthew's question is deeper than are we doing something? They were running the place. There was activity. But were they producing a return, a fruit, that went back to the landowner? Churches can get in a situation where they've done a really incredible job of conserving their resources and they have lots of money, but they don't have very many people. So would Jesus ask, "Are you producing the right kind of fruit?"
Sin is not simply breaking the rules. It is the attempt to live in God's vineyard but refusing God's ownership. They have confused stewardship with ownership. This is always a danger. In preaching, we study the scripture, and then we look in the mirror. A congregation may begin to think, "This is our church." A pastor may begin to think, "These are my people." But Jesus' parable says, "No, it is God's." The church belongs to God. These are not my people. These are God's people.
I had a wonderful church, and they were wonderful people. I was hired to reverse their decline. They had the prettiest, fanciest ladies' parlor you've ever seen in a church. We were starting to get all these visitors, and I went to the ladies and said, "Ladies, it'd be so nice if we could host the visitors for coffee in the parlor after every service." You know what the initial response was. Coffee? On the carpet? Oh, no. But I will say this for those ladies: they were Christians. Let us meet in that parlor. And the visitors loved it, and they would come back, and they would join the church, and we reversed that decline in just a year because they realized it's not our church. It's God's.
What is the fruit we're supposed to produce? I hope part of it is to bring people to salvation through Jesus Christ and bring them into the church. There are other fruits. There are other ways to serve. But we should never forget that one. What kind of tenants are we? It used to be them versus us, but now it's faithfulness versus unfaithfulness. Who owns the vineyard? My entire life, our culture has been trying very hard to say we own it. We own the schools, the government, the country, the world. We don't need to include God. Who owns it? God.
The Son is God's greatest gift to the world, to us. The vineyard is the Lord's. We are the stewards, and when we follow Jesus Christ, we are blessed, we are saved. We come into a love relationship with the Lord that changes our entire lives. We don't put a lot of barriers in front of people about becoming a Christian. We ask one question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And do you accept Him as your Lord and Savior?
From the sermon of October 4, 2026
Pastor William Mitchell
Jesus is there at the temple. He's already had a confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees, so He says to them, "Listen to another parable." A landowner planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press, built a watchtower, leased it to tenants, and went to another country. When the harvest came, he sent his servants to collect his produce, and the tenants beat them. Finally, he sent his son, saying, "They will respect my son." And they killed him.
He was talking to the scribes and the Pharisees, who were in charge of the temple. But did they own the temple? No. They were entrusted with the temple. A sacred responsibility by any standard, but they did not own it. The landowner is God. What Jesus is trying to say is, "You don't have as much authority as you think. You're a tenant. You're a servant, and the owner expects a return from the crop."
Now, the question Matthew wants to ask is, are we producing what God desires? Matthew's question is deeper than are we doing something? They were running the place. There was activity. But were they producing a return, a fruit, that went back to the landowner? Churches can get in a situation where they've done a really incredible job of conserving their resources and they have lots of money, but they don't have very many people. So would Jesus ask, "Are you producing the right kind of fruit?"
Sin is not simply breaking the rules. It is the attempt to live in God's vineyard but refusing God's ownership. They have confused stewardship with ownership. This is always a danger. In preaching, we study the scripture, and then we look in the mirror. A congregation may begin to think, "This is our church." A pastor may begin to think, "These are my people." But Jesus' parable says, "No, it is God's." The church belongs to God. These are not my people. These are God's people.
I had a wonderful church, and they were wonderful people. I was hired to reverse their decline. They had the prettiest, fanciest ladies' parlor you've ever seen in a church. We were starting to get all these visitors, and I went to the ladies and said, "Ladies, it'd be so nice if we could host the visitors for coffee in the parlor after every service." You know what the initial response was. Coffee? On the carpet? Oh, no. But I will say this for those ladies: they were Christians. Let us meet in that parlor. And the visitors loved it, and they would come back, and they would join the church, and we reversed that decline in just a year because they realized it's not our church. It's God's.
What is the fruit we're supposed to produce? I hope part of it is to bring people to salvation through Jesus Christ and bring them into the church. There are other fruits. There are other ways to serve. But we should never forget that one. What kind of tenants are we? It used to be them versus us, but now it's faithfulness versus unfaithfulness. Who owns the vineyard? My entire life, our culture has been trying very hard to say we own it. We own the schools, the government, the country, the world. We don't need to include God. Who owns it? God.
The Son is God's greatest gift to the world, to us. The vineyard is the Lord's. We are the stewards, and when we follow Jesus Christ, we are blessed, we are saved. We come into a love relationship with the Lord that changes our entire lives. We don't put a lot of barriers in front of people about becoming a Christian. We ask one question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And do you accept Him as your Lord and Savior?
From the sermon of October 4, 2026
Pastor William Mitchell
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