The Last Will Be First, And the First Will Be Last based on Matthew 20:1-16

I. The story of Pastor Jud Wilhite in Las Vegas and “Grace City”. One of the Bible verses that has helped Jud is 1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Another favorite Bible verse he loves is Romans 5:20, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

II. Read Matthew 20:1-2 and comment. The parable in Matthew 20 gives a glimpse of what the kingdom of heaven or gracious reign of God is like. Jesus said in Matthew 20:1–2, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.”

III. Read Matthew 20:3-5 and comment. Jesus continued in Matthew 20:3-5, “3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.”

IV. Read Matthew 20:6-7 and comment. Jesus then said in Matthew 20:6-7, “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’”

V. Read Matthew 20:8-15 and comment. Jesus then gave the story an unexpected ending in Matthew 20:8-15, “8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’”

VI. So what does this parable have to do with our Christian lives today? We all deserve different wages. Romans 6:23 tells us about the wages we all deserve from God: “The wages of sin is death.” No matter how hard we have worked for God in the past or how little we have worked for God in the past, none of us deserves any good gifts from God. We are all in the same boat. We all sin and do wrong and deserve death. We can never do enough good works to earn our way into heaven. Romans 6:23 does not stop there though. Romans 6:23 also tells us about the gift God gives to undeserving sinners like you and me who believe in Jesus Christ: “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

VII. The sword of the Spirit and full armor of God helps us fight against evil.