In the beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned, they exchanged God’s truth for a lie. Through their disobedience, they surrendered the dominion God had given them over creation to Satan. Yet in His mercy, God revealed a gracious plan of redemption. Even as He pronounced judgment on each party involved in the fall, He spoke a word of hope by declaring to the serpent that the Seed of the woman would crush its head—a prophetic promise pointing to Christ’s ultimate victory over Satan (Gen. 3:15).
After God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, humanity multiplied across the face of the earth. By the time of Noah, human wickedness had become great upon the earth. As a result, God judged humanity with a flood that destroyed every living creature, except Noah, his family, and the animals preserved in the ark. After the flood, the earth was repopulated as many nations emerged from Noah’s descendants.
Ten generations after the flood, God called Abram, a descendant of Noah through Shem, and said to him:
“1 Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1–2).
Abraham obeyed God and set out for Canaan. God remained faithful to His promise and made a great nation from Abraham’s descendants. Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, had twelve sons who became the nation of Israel.
Three months after Israel had departed from Egypt—where they had lived for 430 years (Ex. 12:40)—they arrived in the Wilderness of Sinai and camped before a mountain. Moses, their leader, went up the mountain to meet God. There, God reminded Israel how He had delivered them from bondage, carried them on eagles’ wings and brought them to Himself. This moment highlighted God’s gracious initiative in choosing and rescuing His people (Ex. 19:1-4).
The Lord declared to Israel in Exodus 19:5-6,
“5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”
God told Israel that they would be His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation—if they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant.
To be God’s treasured possession meant that Israel was chosen by His grace alone. To be a kingdom of priests meant they were to represent God before other kingdoms. And to be a holy nation meant Israel was set apart to reflect God’s holiness to the surrounding nations (Lev. 20:26).
Yet centuries later—more than 1,500 years after the Exodus—the apostle Peter in the New Testament applied the same exact words to decribe another people.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9–10).
In this passage, the apostle Peter was writing to Christian believers—mostly Gentile converts, along with Jewish believers—scattered throughout Asia Minor. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter applied God’s declaration to Israel in Exodus 19:5–6 directly to the Church of Jesus Christ.
Why the shift?
God had given Israel clear conditions for His covenant, and the people willingly pledged their obedience. When Moses conveyed God’s words to them, Scripture records their response:
“All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8).
Yet as we read the Old Testament, we see the many ways Israel disobeyed the Lord’s voice and failed to keep His commandments. They pursued other gods (Judg. 2:17; Lev. 17:7; Ezek. 6:9; Hos. 4:12; 9:1), sacrificed to false gods (Lev. 20:5), killed the prophets God had sent to them (Jer. 26:20–23; 2 Chron. 24:20–22), and gradually compromised by assimilating into the practices of their surrounding nations.
Israel did not faithfully represent God as a kingdom of priests, nor did they remain set apart as a holy nation. By the time of Jesus, Israel’s long pattern of disobedience had reached its climax. Many rejected the One God had promised—the Seed of the woman who would crush Satan through the cross. This rejection brought divine judgment upon apostate Israel, just as Jesus had foretold. In Matthew 24:1–2; Mark 13:1–2; and Luke 21:5–6, Jesus prophesied that the Romans would destroy Jerusalem. And in Matthew 23:34-38, He declared that the blood of the prophets would be required of that generation, bringing accountability upon unbelieving Israel before that generation passed. These thing indeed happened in AD 70.
In the parable of the tenants recorded in the Gospels, Jesus explained this transfer of stewardship that Peter told the Church in 1 Pet. 2:9–10.
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:33–43)
In this parable, God is the Master, His kingdom is the vineyard, and Israel were the tenants. The prophets were the Master’s servants—sent repeatedly, yet beaten, imprisoned, and killed.
For example, Zechariah was stoned in the temple court (2 Chron. 24:20–22), Uriah was killed by the sword (Jer. 26:20–23), Jeremiah was beaten, imprisoned and thrown into a pit (Jer. 20:2; 38:6; 11:21), Jezebel threatened Elijah (1 Ki. 19:2–10), Micaiah was imprisoned (1 Ki. 22:26–27), Stephen was stoned to death (Acts 7:52-60).
Finally, the Master sent His Son, Jesus, but the tenants rejected Him and crucified Him at Golgotha, just outside Jerusalem (Matt. 27; Acts 2:23; Matt. 23:37).
Jesus concluded: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (v. 43).
The “other tenants” are those whose have faith in Jesus—the Church of Christ who must produce the kingdom’s fruit. God took the royal priesthood, the holy nation and His treasured ownership of Israel and gave it to a people identified not by their father’s ethnicity but by their father’s faith.
“Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7, NKJV)
I am reminded of the Sunday school song: “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord.”
The ‘sons of Abraham’ in that song are those who share Abraham’s faith in God.
28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29, NKJV).
It is those who have faith in Christ—you and I, the disciples of Christ,—who are called the ‘other tenants’.
But what qualifies us to be the Kingdom’s new tenants? Is it because we are better than the first tenants? More worthy than them? Absolutely not. It’s by God’s grace alone that He calls the Church:
- A chosen race—sons and daughters by faith, not by ethnicity.
- A royal priesthood—called to represent Him to the lost world.
- A holy nation—set apart to display His holiness.
- His own possession—purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
And what does God require of His new tenants? The same as He required of the old tenants—obedience and fruitfulness.
Obedience
Abraham’s faith produced the fruit of obedience. When God asked Abraham to leave his father’s country and go to a place he had never been, he obeyed. When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son of promise, Abraham obeyed. And when God commanded Abraham to circumcise every male in his household, he obeyed.
Faithful tenants must do the will of the Master. It is not enough to be merely ‘identified’ as a Christian while failing to do what our Master requires of us as His disciples.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
And again:
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Fruitfulness
Jesus told apostate Israel: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43).
As the ‘other tenants’ of the vineyard, we are required to produce fruits for the Master.
It is important to note that believers can bear fruit only as they remain in Christ. Jesus reminds us in John 15:1-2, 4-6 that:
“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 does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. … 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. “ (John 15:1–2, 4-6).
It is only through faith in Christ that you can bear fruit for His Kingdom. You cannot bear fruit for God’s Kingdom if you are not abiding in Him.
In verse 8 He continues:
“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8)
God is glorified when we produce fruit for His kingdom and by doing so we prove to be Christians.
You prove yourself to be a disciple of Christ by the fruit you produce. It is not by being born into a Christian family. It is by having Christian name. Nor is it by remembering the date and time we confessed Christ. We prove ourselves to be followers of Christ by bearing much fruit.
It is a blessing to be part of the ‘other tenants’ of God’s Kingdom—but it is not enough if we do not bear fruit for Him. You may have faith—and we praise the Lord for that—but the question remains: what are you doing with it?
The Fruit God Seeks
What kind of fruits does the Master of the vineyard expect us to produce?
- Faithful Representation
As royal priests, we must represent God faithfully to the world. We must be faithful shepherds to the world.
Is the Church of Christ a good shepherd to the world?
The Holy Spirit does not only identify areas of your insufficiency but also highlights areas of good production so you can produce more fruit.
The world should look at the Church and see something worth desiring—not compromise with its culture. The Church should be a faithful witness that magnifies Christ as King. When we live this way, non-believers may be drawn to serve our King because of our faithful representation of Him. It should never be the other way around, as it was with Israel, who demanded a human king to be like their neighbors, even though God was already their King (1 Sam. 8).
- Distinctiveness
As a holy nation, we are called to be set apart. Jesus said,
“You are the salt of the earth… the light of the world… a city set on a hill” (Matthew 5:13–14).
But does the Church of Christ still have its saltiness? Do we still shine with distinctiveness? Can the world see the Church from a far as a city set on a hill, or have we blended in so much that there is no telling the difference?
Sadly, some in the Church have bowed to the idols of politics, popularity, pluralism, tolerance with holiness, and compromise. If we do not repent, we risk the fate of the first tenants. We must remember who we are—the ‘other tenants,’ not the owners. Above all, we must remain set apart, reflecting Christ in a world that desperately needs His light.”
- Kingdom Growth
There is still room in the vineyard for more tenants. Revelation 7:9 reminds us that these tenants will come from every nation, tribe, people, and language. No one is beyond the reach of the Master. As the prophet Habakkuk declared,
“The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
Christ Himself commanded us to:
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).
We are the instruments the Master chooses to bring about this Kingdom growth, each according to their gift. There is work for every faithful tenant.
The good news is that the Holy Spirit not only convicts us where we are barren, but also prunes us so that we can bear more fruit. Just as Jesus spoke to the seven churches in Revelation, He affirmed what was good in them while also warning them where they had fallen short. The Holy Spirit not only shows us our areas of weakness but also highlights where we are producing well, so that we may produce even more fruit.
Let us examine our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom. The vineyard belongs to God; we are only His laborers. If we do not bear fruit, we too risk being cut off.
The Master Will return
The Master will return to get His fruit. He says:
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done” (Revelation 21:12, NIV).
What are you doing with the faith you have been given?
And again He says,
“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!” (Revelation 16:15).
Let us stay awake, faithfully producing much fruit for the Kingdom of our Master, so that when He comes, we are found ready and fruitful in His service.
May we never forget that it is by grace alone, through Christ alone, that we have been entrusted with the vineyard. Let us live faithfully as His chosen people, His royal priests, His holy nation—bearing fruit that glorifies our Master.”
Amen.
