Sermon Today’s Gospel ( Luke 20: 9-19) Parable of the vinedressers (farmers)

1. SermonToday’s Gospel (Luke 20: 9-19)Parable of the vinedressers (farmers) Okbe Zemede St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church5333 St. Bernard Ave. New Orleans, LA 70122August 11, 2013

2. Part 1 Luke 20 : 9 – 15 •  The wicked behavior of the vinedressers (farmers) • The vice (deep corruption) of human nature. • God’s amazing patience • God’s incredible mercy. Main points Luke 20 : 9 – 19

3. First: • The vinedressers beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. • Second: • They beat him, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. • Third: • They wounded him and cast him out. • Fourth: • "Then the owner of the vineyard send his beloved son but they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him, too. The Gospel, today, talks about (Luke 20:9-19)

4. Now, How many of us resemble the vinedressers (Jews) who beaten the messengers? • We may not own a vineyard & may not be Vinedressers • We may not have beaten a servant/messenger • We may not have mistreated anybody • We may not have wounded somebody. • We may not have killed anybody at all.

5. Now, How many of us resemble the vinedressers (Jews) who mistreatedothers? • The Vinedressers acted against the covenant they have with the owner (God) • The vinedressers lived according to their will & without control! • They became role models for their wickedness, (Killing, mistreating, casting out fellow humans) • Christ wants us to be role models to others in good deeds and words • Light & Salt to the world (Matt 5:13-15) • To love one another. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you (John 15.12) • To have the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22)

6. Sin by Omission Sin by Commission • But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.(1 John 3:17-18). • "Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.“ (James 4:17). • "‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. • Luke 20: 14-15. Sin

7. What do a shoplifter & a killer has in common? • If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker (James 2:11). • Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law, because sin is a breaking of the law.(1 John 3:4) • Not loving our neighbor is a sin because God Commanded us to love in deed and in truth (1 John 3:16-17). • Neglecting my responsibilities as a Christian

8. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5) Examining myself (Luke 20:9-19)

9.  God's final punishment on the stubborn sinners. • The end (destruction) of the wicked Main points – Part 2 Luke 20 : 16 – 19 • “16 He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.“ Luke 20.16. • God’s grace and compassion is infinite but it is also written, that He is "a consuming fire." (Heb. 12:29.)

10. A tree in your backyard Think of the grape/orange tree … that does NOT bears fruit. • Take it away (cut it)

11. A tree in your backyard Think of the grape/orange tree … that does NOT bears fruit. • Take it away (cut it) • 1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; • 6“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned (Joh 15.2; 15. 6). • "Behold then… If you continue not in God's goodness, you also shall be cut off." (Rom. 11:22)

12. A tree in your backyard Think of the grape/orange tree that BEARS fruit. • Takes care of it, prunes it so that it gives fruit.

13. A tree in your backyard Think of the grape/orange tree that BEARS fruit. • Takes care of it, prunes it so that it gives fruit. 1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2“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. John 15.1-2.

14. Abide in Me •  4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. • 5“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. • 7“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:1-4 (the gospel of the 3rd hour)

15. Abide in Me • If you live to satisfy your sinful self, the harvest you will get from that will be eternal death. But if you live to please the Spirit, your harvest from the Spirit will be eternal life (Galatians 6:8, ERV).

16. Conclusion • Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith & we are a temple in which God lives by his Spirit . • you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also • members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. • 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. • 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-22).

17. May God help us be a holy temple in the Lord, Glory Be To God Forever, Amen!