Deo Gloria
Sermon for October 1, 2023
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Matthew 21:23-32
Theme: God Wants More Than Lip Service!
“Do what I say, not what I do.” Do you like it when people tell you that? Do you like it when your parents tell you you shouldn’t swear but they do? Do you like it when your parents tell you not to lie but then you hear them lie to others or even to you? Or do you like it when people tell you one thing and then don’t follow through with their actions: like when they say they’re going to come over and help you on Saturday, but then they never show up; or they say they’re going to call and they never do? Of course you don’t like it. I don’t like it either. We don’t like it when people say one thing and do something else. We want people to be honest and sincere, to be genuine. They should say what they mean and mean what they say. And they should follow through on what they say. Otherwise their words are just words.
Would it surprise you to learn that God feels the same way? God doesn’t like it when people tell him one thing and then do something else. God doesn’t like it when people talk a good talk, but don’t walk a good walk. God doesn’t like it when people put on a good show when it comes to their faith and their relationship with him, but their hearts are cold and empty. God wants his people to be honest and sincere. And he wants their faith and their worship and their service to be honest and sincere. That’s the lesson Jesus is teaching us today in these verses from Matthew ch. 21: God wants more than lip service. He wants genuine repentance and faith!
It was Tuesday of Holy Week. Jesus was teaching in the temple courts when the chief priests and the elders showed up. Sadly, they had not come to listen. They had come to challenge Jesus, to challenge him and his authority. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they demanded, referring to his cleansing of the temple the day before. “And who gave you this authority?”(v. 23)
Jesus responded by asking a question of his own: “John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven or from men?”(v. 25) The chief priests and the elders had to think for a minute. If they answered, “From heaven,” Jesus would have said, “Then why didn’t you believe him?” If they answered, “From men,” they were afraid the people might become really angry at them, perhaps even stone them because they believed that John was a prophet sent from God. So they said, “We don’t know”(v. 27).
I don’t know about you, but for me that would have been it. That would have been the last straw. If I had been Jesus, I would have let those Jewish leaders have it right then and there. How many times had they questioned him? How many times had they tested him? How many times had they tried to discredit him and embarrass him in front of the people by trapping him in his words? And now just a few days before Jesus was going to go to the cross and offer his life as a sacrifice for their sins and the sins of the whole world, they have the nerve, they have the audacity to come and question his authority. But Jesus didn’t blow his stack. He didn’t tell them off. In fact, he didn’t even cut them off and put an end to the conversation. Instead he demonstrated once again his infinite patience and love, his tremendous love for lost souls, even the souls of the chief priests and the elders. Rather than turn his back on them, Jesus told them a parable, a parable aimed at leading them to see their sins and repent.
As usual Jesus tells a story we all can relate to. All of us have had chores to do, things dad or mom asked us to do around the house or around the farm. Jesus asked the chief priests and the elders, “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go”(vv. 28-30).
The first son was rather rude and disrespectful. When his father asked him to go and work in the vineyard, he just flat out told him, “No, I don’t want to.” But later he had a change of heart and went to work in the vineyard anyway. On the other hand, the second son sounded very obedient and compliant. When his father asked him to go and work in the vineyard, he politely told his father he would, but his words turned out to be all talk and no action.
“So,” Jesus asked the religious leaders, “which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.(v. 31)
Then Jesus proceeded to explain the meaning of the parable:
[He] said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him”(vv. 31+32).
The father in Jesus’ parable, of course, is God. The first son represents the tax collectors and the prostitutes. They had ignored the Father’s will, told him off, chosen to go their own way and do their own thing. But later they had a change of heart. When they heard the preaching of John the Baptist, they repented of their sins and looked to Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away their sins. The other son represents the chief priests and the elders. They seemed to be so pious, so religious, such obedient children of God; but were they? When they heard the message of John the Baptist, they did not repent. And they did not believe in Jesus as their Savior.
If anyone back in Jesus’ day gave the appearance of being in a right relationship with God, if anyone gave the appearance of being in tune with God and his will, it was the religious leaders. They didn’t ignore God’s will the way so many other people did. They didn’t break God’s laws the way so many other people did. They did their best to obey God’s commands and keep his laws. They went to worship at the temple every Sabbath. They gave their tithes to the Lord. They fasted. They prayed. They said all the right things. They did all the right things. But unfortunately, so much of it was only a show.
When they prayed, they often prayed on the street corner so everyone could see them. When they fasted, they walked around with long faces and held their stomachs, so everyone would know they were fasting. When they gave their gifts to the poor, they made a big show of it, sometimes even announcing it with trumpets, so everyone would see and everyone would know. And when they went to the temple to pray, they thanked God that they were so much better than others. Yes, outwardly speaking, they were better than others, better than tax collectors, better than prostitutes; but that didn’t mean they were right with God.
In the Old Testament God had revealed how a person can be in a right relationship with him, and it was not by trying to obey his commandments, by being good or doing good or trying to be better than others. God had made it clear that all people are sinful, that they need to confess their sins and trust in him for forgiveness. Through King David, for example, he had said, “There is no one who does good, not even one”(Psalm 14:3). Through King Solomon he had said, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy”(Proverbs 28:13). Through the prophet Isaiah he had said, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags”(64:6). And over and over again throughout the Old Testament God had directed his people to the Savior he would send, the one who would provide forgiveness for our sins:
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.(Isaiah 53:5+6)
This is the message John the Baptist proclaimed. He preached a message of repentance and a message of forgiveness. He pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. But the chief priests and the elders didn’t believe him. They felt no need to repent. They felt no need for a Savior. They felt they were good enough for God just they way they were. And even when they saw other people repenting, people like tax collectors and prostitutes—even when they saw people like that repenting of their sins and trusting in Jesus for forgiveness, they still refused. They refused to repent and believe.
So what about you? Do ever you act like the chief priests and the elders? Do you ever play the part of the second son? When we hear what Jesus had to say to the religious leaders, there’s a part of us that likes to say, “Yeah, Jesus, way to go! You really gave it to those Pharisees.” Or have you ever left church thinking, “Yeah, that was a really good sermon today? Pastor really let ‘em have it. He really gave it to those sinners, those people who don’t come to church very often, those people who don’t put much in the offering plate, those adulterers, those drunkards, those slackers! I sure hope they were listening.” But then aren’t we playing the part of the Pharisee, pretending that we’re so much better, that we really don’t need to repent as others do? Or when we say that we love God with our lips and actually love money and our material things more in our hearts, are we not playing the part of the Pharisee? Are we not paying lip service to God? Or when we say that God comes first in our lives and somehow everything else always seems to come first and God seems to come in last, are we not playing the part of the Pharisee? Are we not paying lip service to God? Truth is we have played the part of the second son at times. We gave the impression of being so pious, so religious. “Oh yes, Lord, yes Lord, whatever you say.” And it was just a show, all talk and no action. Jesus isn’t just calling the chief priests and the elders to repent in this parable. He’s calling you and me as well.
The tax collectors and the prostitutes were on the other end of the scale. They didn’t appear to be very close to God at all. The tax collectors were sort of like IRS agents. It was their job to go around and collect taxes for the Roman government. But they were known for extortion and corruption. If the Romans demanded $5 in taxes, they would charge $10 and keep the other 5 for themselves. And if people didn’t want to pay it, they would bring in the Roman soldiers for a bit of friendly “persuasion.” They were thieves—greedy, money-hungry, crooked thieves. They were despised by the average Jewish person. In Jesus’ day they were lumped together with the prostitutes, the bottom of the barrel, the scum of the earth.
But they had a very different reaction when they listened to the preaching of John the Baptist. When John proclaimed the stinging message of God’s law, when he pointed out their sins and the punishment they deserved on account of their sins, they repented. They felt awful about the things they had done and they confessed their sins to God. And then when John pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, they believed. They didn’t pretend that they didn’t need a Savior. They didn’t try to pretend that they were good enough for God just the way they were. No, they confessed their sins and trusted in Jesus as the one who would rescue them, the one who could do what they could never do, the one who could take all of their sins away and make them holy and righteous in God’s sight.
Here’s the good news in this story, isn’t it, the good news for you and me and everyone else? If there’s room in the kingdom of God for tax collectors and prostitutes, then there’s room in the kingdom of God for someone like you and me. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you have done. It doesn’t matter how great your record of sins may be. Come. Come and confess your sins this morning. Humbly admit your failures, admit the awful things you said and did, admit the awful things you thought in your heart. Confess your sins to God. And look to Jesus as your Savior. He is the Lamb, the perfect Lamb of God who gave his life on the cross for your sins and my sins and all people’s sins, the Lamb who takes away our sins that we might be holy and righteous in the sight of God.
That’s what God is interested in. That’s what God desires: not a bunch of hot air, not a bunch of pious sounding lip service. God wants repentance, honest and sincere repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. That’s the Father’s will, his gracious will for all his children–sons and daughters, chief priests and elders, tax collectors and prostitutes. Our Father’s will is that we repent and believe in Jesus. Amen.