Grace and Reward
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Do you remember your first job? Maybe it was for your parents and you earned an allowance.
Maybe you were working for someone else and they just told you to come help out and you would get paid?
You may have labored and worked hard, and all the while you worked, you wondered how much you were going to get paid.
At the end of the day, when it came time to leave, you were paid and it was an incredibly generous pay. It was far more than you expected.
As a child when we work, we are often more of a hindrance than a help. This can be true of a new hire as well. We are learning the job or a particular way we are expected to do the job and we often make more of a mess than we help.
Yet at the end of the day, we are paid out more than we earned, often by the generosity of the one who hired us.
I’ve had this happen to me many times. I’m sure you have as well.
This morning we are going to revisit something that Peter said at the end of last week’s passage and take a look at a parable that Jesus response to it.
You have heard the expression often in our culture, “The first will be last and the last first.”
When we say this, we often mean other things by it than what the original passage had to teach. Let’s go back to the text and see what it really means.
To do this, we will pick back up with Peter’s words in Matt. 19:27.
27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
1 “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.
2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’
5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
6 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?’
7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
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.’
9 And 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.
11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,
12 saying, ‘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?’
16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Pray
1. People Come Into the Kingdom At God’s Invitation
1. People Come Into the Kingdom At God’s Invitation
A. God Seeks Us (v.1, 3, 5)
A. God Seeks Us (v.1, 3, 5)
1 “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.
Day-Laborer Concept
It was the most common work agreement of the era
People had to go to the town centers to get work to feed their families
People were not guaranteed a job from day to day
The master of the house is looking for people to go into his field and work so he himself goes out to the market to hire them to work in his vineyard
Walk Down a Romans Road with Me
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
B. We Believe at Different Stages of Our Lives (vv.1-7)
B. We Believe at Different Stages of Our Lives (vv.1-7)
1 “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.
2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’
5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
6 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?’
7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
The night was divided into several sections based on a sentry’s watch
The day was also divided into sections based on the work phases
Early - 6am
Third Hour - 9am
Sixth Hour - 12pm
Nineth Hour - 3pm
Eleventh Hour - 5pm
Each time the Master goes to the market center looking for laborers, the laborers are all willing to work, but have not yet been hired
The Master gains less as each division of the day passes
People come to faith in Christ at different stages of their life
Some are saved early on as a child
Some come to faith as an adolescence
Some may come to faith as a younger adult
Some may not be saved until the 11th hour on their death bed
2. People Are Rewarded at the Master’s Discretion (vv.10-16)
2. People Are Rewarded at the Master’s Discretion (vv.10-16)
The main point of the parable here is not the workers themselves, but the master’s generosity.
There is nothing significant about the different workers. The workers that are hired last are not more lazy than the others. They simply had not yet been hired. They were in the market place looking for work, just like the ones who were there early.
There are three things we need to notice about the master’s generosity and our response to it.
A. We Should Humble Ourselves (vv.10-13)
A. We Should Humble Ourselves (vv.10-13)
10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,
12 saying, ‘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?
Loving rebuke - “Friend”
God is not unfair to give of his own more if he chooses
We don’t deserve anything.
In the parable the workers agree to a wage
We are not receiving a wage, but a gift
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we want a wage, it is death. Any salvation that we receive is a gift of God that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8-9)-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
B. We Should Celebrate the Master’s Generosity (vv. 13-15)
B. We Should Celebrate the Master’s Generosity (vv. 13-15)
If you had been the master of the house, would you have paid all of the workers the same amount?
The master tells his manager to reward the last first and the first last. That is going to be important to the reason Jesus tells this parable in response to what Peter had previously asked.
27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
Jesus’ answer
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
The master has already determined before he hires the workers in his own mind to pay them the same and show them generosity, no matter what time of the day they are hired.
The workers don’t know this and it is not fully revealed to them until the final part of the day where all of the workers are called together and paid
This was common in the culture
The master does not dismiss those first who had agreed from the very beginning for the denarius and then make it easier when he gives the same pay to those later in the day
Jesus is telling the story in this way to make the biggest impact
As each worker gets their pay starting with the last, you would expect that the pay would increase based on the more time the workers worked for the master
That is not what happens. Instead the generosity of the master increases the less time the worker worked
The master gains nothing from going out later in the day to the market place.
The eleventh hour worker has only 1 hour to work
The fact that he gets a full day’s wage for an hour of work highlights the generosity of the master
The worker’s family still needed the food of a full day’s labor
The proper response of the workers should have been to rejoice in the generosity of their master.
DA Carson so bluntly writes:
Exalting Jesus in Matthew The First and the Last (Matthew 20:1–28)
“Do you really want nothing but totally effective, instantaneous justice? Then go to hell” (Carson, How Long, O Lord, 161).
Conclusion
The point that Jesus is making is that all of us are given generosity by God who saves us.
We do not earn salvation. We are given it.
We cannot have half of a salvation, but we must have it all.
We are rewarded by grace and not works.
Jesus is not suggesting that we do not receive different levels of reward in heaven for serving. There are other parables and teachings that would indicate that this is true.
Jesus is teaching that God is generous to save people, even to the last minute of their lives.
That is extreme generosity. We should rejoice in that and thank God for it.
Maybe this morning you are hearing this at different stages of your own life. Will you accept the master’s invitation to come and work in his field?
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
