What Do You Think? (Two Sons)

INTRODUCTION:

How many have a sibling? I want to share a story with you that Jesus told to a group of religious leaders who were questioning his authority and challenging the message he was preaching.

The story he tells is what’s called a parable. You could think of it as an earthly story that has a heavenly meaning. In other words it’s a story about every day life but it teaching us something important about God and about the Gospel.

Devotional

Matthew 21:28–32 (CSB)

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go work in the vineyard today.’

29 “He answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ but later he changed his mind and went.

30 Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered, but he didn’t go.

31 Which of the two did his father’s will?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.

32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.

On the surface the point of this parable seems pretty simple, right. A vineyard owner has two sons. He asks both of them to do something that neither of them really wanted to do.

The first son said he wouldn’t do it but later changed his mind and did so. The second son said he WOULD do it but did actually do what he said he would do. Who did the Father’s will? The first son.

Main Idea:

When it comes to doing the will of your Heavenly Father you can either be obedient or rebellious. Each son teaches us something important about this principle.

All Have Sinned

In the story, both sons start out being rebellious. Both are disrespectful. It’s a reminder that nobody does the will of their heavenly father Like they are supposed to.

I know yall have been going through a Gospel clarity series on the basics of the Gospel. The first two foundations are God is Holy. He’s our creator. We are sinful and stand guilty before him.

Two Types

We are ALL sinners. (And notice there are two types - sin that’s out in the open / sin that’s under the surface) blatant disrespectful rebellion and undercover hypocritical rebellion … both are sinful before a holy God

Jesus is contrasting these two types of sinners with two groups of people. The “out in the open” sinners are the tax collectors and the prostitutes. The “under the surface” sinners are religious leaders.

The Message of Repentance

Jesus mentions John the Baptist and how he came preaching a message that all sinners needed to hear. The tax collectors and prostitutes heard that message and believed it. The religious leaders heard that same message and rejected it.

What was the message? Repentance. Repent. So the thing that separates the obedient son from the rebellious son isn’t just that he did the right thing. It’s because he did the right thing for the right reasons.

To use biblical terms - the obedience that pleases your Heavenly Father is obedience that flows from repentance and faith. So let’s talk about each of those two things.

True Repentance/False Repentance

What does this story show us about repentance?

Repentance is modeled by the first son and not modeled in the second.

Some wrongly think that repentance is just expressing sorrow over your sin. But it’s more than that. Repentance is “a change of mind that leads to a change of action.”

Repentance doesn’t just mean you feel bad for disappointing God. Repentance is agreeing that God is right and you are wrong and changing your mind about how you see the world.

An Odd Request

In the case of the story, would’ve been out of the ordinary for the son of a vineyard owner to go and work in the vineyard. The son would’ve thought of that kind of work as “beneath him.”

That’s probably why the first son initially says what he says. “No way, Dad. Your crazy. I’m not going to do that.”

If the first son would’ve felt regret for disappointing his dad but never came to agree with his dad that “nobody is too important to go and work in the vineyard” that would not be repentance.

Repentance is saying yes you were right all along, I should not have been thinking the way I was thinking about it. I’m sorry about that and I want you to know I agree with you now and I’m going to prove it by how I live.

Faith In Action

That leads to the second thing this parable teaches us. It doesn’t just teach us about obedience that’s cause by repentance. It also shows us something about faith.

Namely, faith isn’t proven by what you SAY. Faith is proven by what you DO with what GOD SAYS.

Faith is trusting God enough to act on what he says.

On the surface it looks like the second son has lots of faith. He verbally expresses agreement with the Father and verbally commits to do what the father says. But that kind of faith is worthless because it isn’t followed by action.

True obedience is not measured by what you say. True obedience is measured by what you do. If you call Jesus Lord but never do what he says then your a liar.

Jesus says not everybody who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only the one who DOES (acts out) the will of my father in heaven.

Application

What does this mean for you and for me today?

Well we want to avoid making the same mistake the religious leaders did.

They thought they were “too good” to believe the message of John the Baptist. It’s called “self righteousness.” They thought they were “pleasing God” if they worked hard to look good on the outside.

But The message of Jesus - the Gospel - is that no matter how good we look or sound on the outside we are all sinful on the inside. Nobody honors God. Nobody pleases the Father.

Repent and Believe!

So we must do what the first son does. We must humble ourselves and repent. God you’re right. I’m wrong. I agree with you. You’re holy. I’m sinful. Jesus died for my sin and I can only be saved by trusting in him.

But we can’t stop there. Repentance must always be accompanied by faith if we are going to please God with our obedience.

Faith is not just saying you believe only Jesus can save you. Faith is actually acting on that verbal confession and changing the way you live.

(Chair illustration)

So let me close by asking the question Jesus asked at the beginning. “What do you think?” If God was going to look at your heart what would he find?

Would it be obedience or rebellion?

Would it be humility and repentance or pride and arrogance?

Would he find faith that expresses itself in love and action

Or only words that talk big but have nothing to show for it at the end of the day?

Which of the two sons would you be?

Do you trust that Gods will is good?

Have you aligned your heart with his purpose?

Your past does not define you. What matters is what you do right now.