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The rejection of Jesus Christ is a weighty, heavy theme for our worship today.

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Perhaps it is summarized best in just one verse from the Gospel of John that says, He

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came to His own things, and His own people did not receive Him.

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Would you bow with me please in prayer?

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Together we acknowledge your presence this morning as we gather for worship.

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And as we think about the rejection of the Savior, even by some who knew Him well, we

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pray that our hearts will respond not to reject but to receive Him as Savior and as Lord and

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King of our lives, for He is worthy.

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And this we pray in His name, in the name of Jesus, your Son.

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Amen.

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Sam had a good job with the corporation, and yet an opportunity came that he felt he just

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could not pass up.

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Therefore, he accepted the new position and became the head of operations for a corporation

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that made valves for submarines and moved to Portland, Maine.

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But within a few weeks of his accepting that job, the corporation was involved in a takeover.

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And a few months later, he got the news that all the chief executives of the corporation

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received that he was done there.

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And so as a man in his early 50s, he was without a job.

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He had a parachute, but it wasn't very golden.

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He had a few months severance pay, and then he was on his own.

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Quickly the months went by.

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He got out his resume to scores of companies.

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He worked with personnel agencies that sought to place him, and yet the time came that he

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was out of money and still out of work.

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It wasn't long before he was behind in the house payments and the car payments, and soon

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the house was about to be repossessed along with the cars.

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He left Maine and went to Ohio where his roots were and sought a job there.

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But after several weeks of search, living with family members, he wasn't able to find

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a job and went back to Maine.

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But nothing turned up there either.

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And so after a few months, he left his family once more and went back to Ohio to seek a

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job there to live with family members until he was able to send for them.

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Shortly after he got to Ohio, he received a telephone call from his wife.

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And she said, don't come back again.

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I don't love you now.

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I never have loved you.

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And I went out of the marriage.

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A few months later, Sam began to have symptoms of something wrong in his chest.

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About six weeks ago, they removed half of his right lung, which was cancerous.

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And today Sam is fighting for his life.

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Rejection is something that all of us can identify with.

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Because every one of us here has at some point in his or her life been rejected by someone.

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You may have been on the schoolyard when you were a kid, and you were the last one chosen

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always to be on the ball team.

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Or maybe it was that time when you came into the room and mom and dad were in a fight and

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you felt that you were the cause of it.

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And maybe you even heard one of them say, I wish he had or she would never have been

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born.

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And the arrow of rejection went deep into your heart.

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There may have been later in life when you were engaged to someone, only to have the

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engagement broken and you felt the pain of rejection.

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All of us at some time in life has experienced that grief and it hurts.

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The Lord Jesus Christ was rejected of men.

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A man of sorrows, literally it says, a man of pains.

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He knew many pains in his life.

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Someone asked me recently, didn't Jesus ever laugh?

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I never see a picture of Jesus laughing.

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I said to him, you know, some of the more contemporary depictions of Jesus show him

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smiling.

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But the fact is that Jesus in his life, though I'm sure there were times when he laughed

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hardly, was a man who endured a great deal of pain and sorrow in his life.

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Today we want to talk about his rejection.

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Initially there was a widespread acceptance of his ministry.

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There was excitement about his messages, about his miracles, all of which were intended to

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point the multitudes to him as deity come in flesh.

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From the beginning, however, the exception to this excitement and acceptance was the

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Pharisees.

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They never were a responsive group to him because they felt threatened by the authority

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that he had.

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The increasing public controversy between Christ and these religious leaders caused

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rising doubt in the multitude, for they were conditioned to listen to their powerful, though

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hypocritical religious leaders.

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And even though they were false shepherds, the flock followed them.

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Furthermore, Jesus made strong demands of his disciples, knowing many were insincere,

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and desired himself to thin their ranks.

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He came unto his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

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As we think about the rejection of the Savior this morning, I'd like to think about it

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in three aspects.

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First of all, the prediction of it.

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We have already had presented to us some of the verses from Isaiah 53 that I'd like for

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us to read ourselves.

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Would you open your Bible and turn to Isaiah?

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We have to understand that the rejection of Christ was something that was not unexpected.

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It had been prophesied in God's Word hundreds of years before.

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Isaiah 53 begins, Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

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For he grew up before him, like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground.

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He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that

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we should be attracted to him.

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The pronoun refers to Messiah, to Christ.

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It says in verse 3, He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with

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grief, and like one from whom men hide their face.

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He was despised, and we did not esteem him.

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Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried.

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Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

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But he was pierced through for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities.

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The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed.

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Isaiah says that when the servant of the Lord, the Messiah, would come, among other things

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he would be a man of sorrows who would be rejected and despised by his contemporaries.

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Then if you'll turn to one other passage briefly, Psalm 118, one of the Messianic Psalms, that

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is one of the Psalms that speaks generally to the coming of Messiah, a prophetic Psalm.

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We will look at verses 22 and 23, where it says, The stone which the builders rejected

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has become the chief cornerstone.

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This is the Lord's doing.

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It is marvelous in our eyes.

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It is, it causes us to marvel and to wonder what God is doing.

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The stone that is referred to here once more is the Messiah.

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And it says that he is rejected by the builders, but nonetheless has become the chief cornerstone.

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The cornerstone being that first critical stone laid in the foundation of a building

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which determined the symmetry and the stability of the whole building.

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It was the critical piece.

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And the stone which was overlooked by the builders, it says, has become nonetheless

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the chief cornerstone.

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You say, does that refer to Jesus Christ?

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Well, if you'll compare Acts chapter four, you find that the Holy Spirit in fact makes

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it very, very clear in one of Peter's comments that this is Jesus Christ being referred to.

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In Acts chapter four and verse 10, Peter is speaking here to the rulers and the elders

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of the Jews before whom they were on trial.

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And he says in verse 10, Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel

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that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the

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dead, by this name this man stands before you in good health.

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He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the very cornerstone.

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And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has

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been given among men by which we must be saved.

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And so the builders referred to by the psalmist, the Holy Spirit says through Peter, are the

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Jewish people, the Jewish rulers more specifically, the Jewish nation.

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They rejected the Christ.

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Nonetheless, the Christ they rejected has become the chief cornerstone of those who

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will believe on him.

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And there is salvation in no one else.

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The point I'm making is this, that the rejection of Christ was a part of God's sovereign plan

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for the nation.

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They rejected him nonetheless without coercion.

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It was God's plan from before, but when they rejected him they did it out of their own

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will and they were held responsible for it.

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If you're still with me in Acts, just back up a page to chapter 2 and look again at Peter's

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comments in verse 22.

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People of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God

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with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just

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as you yourselves know.

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This man, now notice the next clause, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge

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of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.

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So notice that Peter in this part of the message makes it clear that what happened to Jesus

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Christ was according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.

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The foreknowledge of God meaning more than that God knew ahead of time what would happen,

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it has to do with designating what would happen, planning what would happen.

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And yet in chapter 3, beginning in verse 12, Peter again speaks and he says, men of Israel,

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why do you marvel at this or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we had

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made him walk?

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The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus,

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the one whom you delivered up and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided

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to release him.

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But you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to

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you and put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact

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to which we are witnesses.

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But on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened

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this man whom you see and know, and the faith which comes through him has given him this

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perfect health in the presence of you all.

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Now brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also, but the things

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which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ should

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suffer he has thus fulfilled.

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Expect therefore and return that your sins may be wiped away.

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And so as we think about the rejection of Christ this morning, understand that it was

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prophesied.

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It was predicted ahead of time.

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The prophets said he would suffer and be rejected.

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It was part of God's divine plan from the beginning, and yet those who were responsible

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for it, because they did it of their own will, God held responsible, and he commands them

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to repent and to return to him.

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The prediction of his rejection, it did not catch God by surprise.

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But I'd like for you to think with me secondly regarding the warning about his rejection.

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To reject him is to condemn oneself.

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It caused Israel to stumble and to be scattered until a yet future time when God will regather

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the nation and bring blessing to them in the time of their repentance.

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But notice that Israel stumbled over their Christ and is scattered, was judged by rejecting

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him.

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Still today, anyone who rejects him does so to his own damnation.

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We see this illustrated in something that Jesus did in the last week of his life.

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Turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew in the 21st chapter.

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Jesus gives here what has been called a visual parable, a visual parable in order to teach

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a truth.

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Verse 18 of Matthew 21, Now in the morning when he returned to the

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city, he became hungry.

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And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it except

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leaves only.

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Only the fig tree produces its fruit first and then leaves later.

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So whenever the leaves were apparent on the tree, one would expect to find fruit.

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That was not the case with this tree.

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And he said to it, No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.

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And at once the fig tree withered.

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Now Mark gives us a more extended account of this.

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It did not happen while they were standing there.

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It happened overnight.

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And as they passed by the next morning, they saw that from the roots upward the fig tree

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had withered.

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The disciples marveled, saying, How did the fig tree wither at once?

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And Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not

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doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this

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mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done.

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And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.

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And so we see Jesus use this to teach them prayer and faith.

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But there is something else that seems to be involved in this lesson.

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It is a warning that to reject him causes one to be judged.

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Say how is that?

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The fig tree represents on this occasion and on other occasions in the Bible, it represents

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symbolically the nation of Israel, which was in the process of rejecting him.

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Israel had every advantage.

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It had many spiritual privileges.

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And it had tree, it had leaves rather, in the sense that it had religion.

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But there was no fruit that satisfied God.

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And because it ultimately rejected its own Messiah, its own Christ, God rejected the

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nation and set it aside for this period of time.

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And it withered.

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That is symbolically said here in this visual parable.

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You say, well, aren't you stretching it a bit?

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Well, let's go on to look.

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Notice in verses 23 to 27, there was a confrontation once more between the religious leaders and

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Jesus over his authority.

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And we go on to verse 28 where Jesus says, but what do you think?

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He's going to pose something to them.

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A man had two sons.

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And he came to the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard.

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And he answered and said, I will, sir.

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And he did not go.

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And he came to the second and said the same thing.

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And he answered and said, I will not.

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Yet afterward regretted it and went.

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Which of the two did the will of the father?

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That's what Jesus wanted them to struggle with.

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And so they said the latter.

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Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, that tax gatherers and harlots will get into the

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kingdom of God before you.

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For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him.

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But the tax gatherers and harlots did believe him.

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And you seeing this did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

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Do you see what Jesus is saying in the parable?

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He is saying that the nation is the one that responded immediately to God's revelation

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saying we will, God.

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You recall at Mount Sinai the nation was given the choice, will you ratify this covenant

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with God?

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And we will.

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But it was a covenant they did not keep.

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And so the Lord Jesus in his ministry was rejected by the Jews.

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But he went to the tax gatherers, those who were the financially immoral of his day.

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People who were unjust, people who could not be trusted, people who were traitors to their

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own and worked for the Roman government.

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And he went to the harlots, the sexually immoral of his day.

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Those who were the down and outers and the despised that no decent person would associate

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with.

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Jesus said they believed.

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They believed.

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They rejected John the Baptist in his ministry, his forerunner.

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What was John's message?

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Repent.

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The kingdom of God is at hand.

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And he pointed toward the one who would come after him.

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The latchet of whose shoes John was not even worthy to loosen.

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The religious leaders rejected him.

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The society of his day rejected him.

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But the sinners, those who knew they had deep need, came and repented and were baptized

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with John's baptism.

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They responded.

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That's the point of the parable.

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Then Jesus gives another parable to show the rejection of the nation, not only to his forerunner,

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but to him himself.

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Listen to another parable.

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There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press

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in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey.

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And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive

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his produce.

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The vine growers took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third.

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Again he sent another group of slaves, larger than the first, and they did the same thing

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to them.

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But afterward he sent his son to them saying, they will respect my son.

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But when the vine growers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir.

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Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.

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And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

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Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers?

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You would think that the religious leaders would be tired of answering Jesus' questions

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by now because every time they did, they stuck their foot in their mouth and they're about

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to follow the same procedure.

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They said to him, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard

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to other vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.

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And of course they were right.

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You see Jesus had trapped them much the same way the prophet Nathan trapped David in the

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Old Testament and responded to him by saying, you are the man, David.

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They have just condemned themselves because the vineyard is God's kingdom, the vine growers,

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the nation of Israel.

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The servants who were sent beforehand were the prophets of God in the Old Testament who

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were rejected over and over again and finally killed in many cases.

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And then God sent his son to the nation of Israel.

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And now they are on the verge of casting him out a side of the city, literally, where he

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hung up on a cross and died.

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And so Jesus said to them, did you never read the scriptures?

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And I think that drips with a bit of sarcasm because here you have the people who hold

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life was wrapped up in the scriptures.

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The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone.

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This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes.

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Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to

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a nation producing the fruit of it.

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That nation, my friend, is the nation that you are a part of and that I am a part of,

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the holy nation, the church, the people of God, the new entity in this age.

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And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces and on whomever it falls, it will

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scatter him like dust.

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These words are predictive of the scattering of the nation of Israel, which would happen

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some 40 years later when General Titus would come against Jerusalem and level the city

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and destroy the temple and carry the Jews away.

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And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they understood that he

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was speaking about them.

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And when they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes because they held him to be

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a prophet.

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And so you see the warning of what it means to reject Jesus Christ.

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The leaders got the message.

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They were without excuse.

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The warning about his rejection is just this, to reject him is to bring condemnation on

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oneself.

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Jesus says that to reject him is to stumble over a stone, falling upon which it will cause

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one to be broken to pieces.

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And the stone falling upon him will scatter him and crush him.

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It is a serious thing to reject Jesus Christ.

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The witness to that is the nation of Israel.

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And the witness of that is every person who from that day to this has rejected him and

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gone into a Christless eternity to be separated from God, to be separated from light, to be

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separated from happiness and fulfillment in a place the Bible calls hell, and to be there

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forever and forever.

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We move ahead to the extent of his rejection.

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Even as we have thought about the first two aspects, let's think about this one for a

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moment, the extent of it.

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I want you to turn to the Gospel of Luke, and we're just going to breeze through several

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passages.

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It's lovely to see different groups here that are in the process or at the culmination of

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rejecting him.

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We come now to Luke chapter 9 where the climax of Jesus' public ministry has been reached,

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and now it's on the other side of the mountain.

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It begins to go downhill as far as acceptance of the crowds is concerned.

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And it says it came about, verse 51, when the days were approaching for his ascension.

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Notice that.

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That he resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem.

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He sent his messengers ahead of him.

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They went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements, and they did not receive

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him.

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And so we see that the Samaritans, these half-breeds, the mixture of Jew and Gentile who live in

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between Judea and Galilee, the Samaritans, where Jesus had gone, where a woman of Samaria

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had believed on him, the Samaritans now reject him.

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Don't come to our village.

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Over in chapter 11, verses 14 through 16, and then again in verses 27 through 32, we

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see the multitudes, the Jewish multitudes beginning now to reject him.

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Some of them saying he does his work by the power of Seton.

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He's the son of Beelzebub.

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Jesus refutes that.

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Others were saying to him, well, show us a sign.

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I mean, how many signs had they seen?

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And Jesus tells them that they will see the sign of the prophet Jonah, a reference to

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his resurrection after being dead three days and three nights.

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And he tells them that had the people of Nineveh received what they had received, they would

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have repented.

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Likewise, the queen of the south, the queen of Sheba, we call her, would rise up against

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the people in his generation and condemn them because how much greater revelation they had

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than she had when she went to Solomon to seek after God.

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He warns them of what was happening in their hearts.

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They were turning against him, against the revelation that he had given them of God and

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of himself.

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We see this further carried out by the Pharisees beginning in verse 37, where a Pharisee asks

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him to have lunch and some problems come up.

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And Jesus in verse 42 says, woe to you, Pharisees.

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And again he says in verse 43, woe to you, Pharisees, woe to you.

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And in verse 46, woe to you, lawyers as well, the scribes who worked hand in hand with the

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Pharisees, the specialists in the law.

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Jesus begins to speak woe and judgment to them because of their hypocrisy and their

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legalism.

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And he warns them that the blood of the prophets of old would come upon their generation because

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they were about to reject the prophet that had been prophesied by Moses, the Messiah.

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Well, all of this we understand.

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I mean, we expect that eventually the Pharisees and scribes are really going to seriously

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turn on Jesus, and they did.

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And we can expect perhaps that the multitudes as a whole would turn on him, but I tell you

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it came also from an unexpected source to us unexpected, but not to Jesus.

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Turn to John chapter 6.

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We're going to see that Jesus' own disciples now, I'm speaking about the broader group

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of disciples, numbering hundreds, perhaps thousands, those who said, we follow after

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Jesus of Nazareth.

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Many, many of those also now reject him.

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Verse 60, many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a difficult

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statement, who can listen to it?

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Who can accept it?

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What's he been talking about?

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And notice the previous verses.

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For example, verse 53, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat

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the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.

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He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.

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Now, there are those who will immediately say, oh yes, I remember hearing that in the

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church I used to attend.

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That's talking about the mass.

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It's talking about where the elements of the bread and the wine become the body and

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the blood of Christ.

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We eat that and the priest says the body, the blood of Christ.

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I'm sorry, this does not justify the unbiblical mass of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Jesus is not speaking here literally of eating his body and drinking his blood any more than

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he is saying in the same context that he is a loaf of bread literally.

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He is using symbolic language here, calling himself bread, saying that one must appropriate

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him, one must eat him, one must drink as it were his blood.

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Now, we know that he's speaking symbolically because you notice in verse 54, he says he

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who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.

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Compare that to verse 47.

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He who believes has eternal life.

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So what does it mean to eat and to drink?

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It means to believe.

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That brings eternal life.

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But even Jesus' disciples in that day did not understand this.

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They thought he was speaking of actually eating his body and drinking his blood.

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They had that literalist mentality about it.

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And they said who can accept this?

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But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, does this cause you

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to stumble?

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What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where he was before, pointing

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to his origin?

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It is the Spirit who gives life and flesh profits nothing.

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The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

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But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they

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were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him.

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So among his disciples he knew the one who would betray him, who is identified at the

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last part of the same chapter.

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And he knew who among his disciples did not actually believe.

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The word disciples does not equate into believers.

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All disciples are not believers.

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However, all believers are disciples.

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But he says here there are some of you that do not believe and he was saying, for this

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reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him

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from the Father.

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As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore.

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That is they went back to their former pursuits and their attitude of heart was that they

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were done with him.

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They had no intention of ever returning to him.

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They withdrew.

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And so we see that in the last, Jesus Christ was even rejected by many of those who at

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00:35:46,460 --> 00:35:55,420
first accepted him in a superficial sense and they called themselves his disciples.

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Jesus said therefore to the twelve, you do not want to go away also, do you?

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And Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go?

439
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You have the words of eternal life.

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And we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God.

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And yet even these twelve in the end, did they not also forsake him so that he was left

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alone in the garden?

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And can we not say that when the Savior went to the cross there is some sense in which

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he was rejected not only of men but of God as he became sin for us so that he himself

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cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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We are talking about the rejection of Jesus Christ this morning.

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By his enemies for sure.

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By the crowds.

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By his own family, his brothers and sisters.

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By many of his disciples who claimed to follow him.

451
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In the end forsaken by those who were the closest to him.

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And by his very God.

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I want to say this by way of application as we close, that there is not a person who is

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listening to me today who is suffering the pain of rejection but that Jesus Christ does

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not understand exactly how you feel being rejected as you are.

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And he can identify with that deep hurt, that pain, that agony within you.

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Perhaps it is the rejection of a spouse or the rejection of your parents, the rejection

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of your children or your peers, but Jesus Christ understands fully, more than you can

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understand him, he understands you in your rejection.

460
00:37:57,660 --> 00:38:01,540
He is able to comfort you, put his arm around you.

461
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Know this, that he does not reject you.

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To me it is an emotional statement when with hundreds of people walking away, Jesus turns

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to the twelve and he says, you, will you go away also?

464
00:38:29,580 --> 00:38:33,660
I think that is the question like all of us to struggle with this morning.

465
00:38:33,660 --> 00:38:42,260
For we live in a culture that rejects Jesus Christ and that culture attacks us, it presses

466
00:38:42,260 --> 00:38:49,980
upon us, it permeates our lifestyles.

467
00:38:49,980 --> 00:38:58,240
And as we see our peers, as we see our associates, as we see our families rejecting him, I wonder

468
00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:07,060
if this same question might not come to our hearts, and you, will you also reject me?

469
00:39:07,060 --> 00:39:16,100
Oh, may our response be to our Savior this morning, Lord, we do not reject you.

470
00:39:16,100 --> 00:39:23,980
Lord, I do not turn from you, I do not forsake you, but I worship you and I pledge my loyalty

471
00:39:23,980 --> 00:39:25,820
to you.

472
00:39:25,820 --> 00:39:29,220
You have the words of eternal life.

473
00:39:29,220 --> 00:39:36,220
We have known and we have believed that you are the Holy One of God, and as you have given

474
00:39:36,220 --> 00:39:47,900
yourself for me, I give myself to you without reservation.

475
00:39:47,900 --> 00:39:50,740
Let's pray.

476
00:39:50,740 --> 00:40:00,140
Friend, Jesus Christ was rejected, that we might be accepted because of his work at the

477
00:40:00,140 --> 00:40:04,100
cross.

478
00:40:04,100 --> 00:40:10,220
Perhaps up to this day you have rejected him.

479
00:40:10,220 --> 00:40:13,940
Will you today receive him?

480
00:40:13,940 --> 00:40:20,780
He came unto his own, and his own people did not receive him, but as many as did receive

481
00:40:20,780 --> 00:40:29,940
him, they became the children of God.

482
00:40:29,940 --> 00:40:38,760
Would you receive him today and believe on his name under the saving of your soul?

483
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,780
You can do it right where you are seated.

484
00:40:41,780 --> 00:40:53,180
It's a transaction that takes place inside of your heart between you and the Lord.

485
00:40:53,180 --> 00:40:58,900
Just see yourself and your heart turning around, instead of walking away, reach out to him

486
00:40:58,900 --> 00:41:09,580
and embrace him in faith as he receives you and embraces you.

487
00:41:09,580 --> 00:41:16,580
For those of us who are God's children and who claim to be the disciples of the Lord

488
00:41:16,580 --> 00:41:32,180
Jesus Christ, may we not join the multitudes, but may we dare to even stand alone if necessary,

489
00:41:32,180 --> 00:41:40,380
so we might be loyal to him who gave himself for us.

490
00:41:40,380 --> 00:41:51,140
And you, you won't go away too, or will you?

491
00:41:51,140 --> 00:41:57,020
Lord Jesus, I pray that you will apply this message to the heart of every listener and

492
00:41:57,020 --> 00:42:01,140
to this preacher.

493
00:42:01,140 --> 00:42:05,940
Having decided to follow you, may we not turn back.

494
00:42:05,940 --> 00:42:11,980
For he who puts his hand to the plow, you said, and turns back is not fit for the kingdom

495
00:42:11,980 --> 00:42:15,820
of God.

496
00:42:15,820 --> 00:42:23,900
May we be loyal and faithful to you, even if it costs us our life.

497
00:42:23,900 --> 00:42:31,020
Make us willing to be rejected of men if we have to be, that we might be identified with

498
00:42:31,020 --> 00:42:41,380
you and share in your glory which is coming.

499
00:42:41,380 --> 00:42:44,380
Sing with me with our heads bowed.

500
00:42:44,380 --> 00:42:53,420
I have decided to follow Jesus.

501
00:42:53,420 --> 00:43:03,100
I have decided to follow Jesus.

502
00:43:03,100 --> 00:43:12,900
I have decided to follow Jesus.

503
00:43:12,900 --> 00:43:17,420
No turning back.

504
00:43:17,420 --> 00:43:44,420
No turning back.