To Know and be known by God

Journey of Faith (The Book of Hebrews)  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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This parable may sound like it is about the vineyard, but in reality it is about the family of God; the extravagant generosity by which God saves all sinners.

Notes
Transcript
The parable we are reading this morning may sound like it is about a vineyard but in reality it is really about the family of God. Who is inside the family of God and who finds themselves outside. It is a parable that gives us a window into the heart of God, who wants everyone to know that they are invited to be on the inside of His family.
2 Peter 3:9 ESV
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.
1 Timothy 2:4 ESV
4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
To know and be known by God
God makes himself known through His divine revelation. Although God has revealed himself to all of his creation, this knowledge has been suppressed by our sin.
We are incapable of knowing God apart from God revealing himself to us. God meets us in the market place of life. Many of Jesus parables dealt with God calling his children to a relationships with the Father.

BIG IDEA: What matters most is not that I know God, but that He knows me.

Isaiah 49:16 ESV
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
You would know nothing about God if he had not come to you in the market place of life and revealed himself to you.
John MaCarthur
Draws a parallel between Judas Iscariot and the thief on the cross? Two complete opposite people. One was a close disciple of Christ and gave three years of his life to the best, most intensive religious instruction and training the world has every known. But he lost his soul forever. The other was a hardened, a life long criminal who was still mocking everything holy while being put to death for his crimes.
But went straight to paradise forever. The difference of these two men could hardly be more clear nor could their endings make you scratch your head. Judas was a disciple in Christs closest circle of twelve. He preached, evangelized, ministered, and was even given power to “cure disease” (Luke 9:1) he appeared to be a model disciple. When Jesus predicted that one of the Twelve would betray Him, no one pointed the finger of suspicion at Judas. He was so thoroughly trusted by the other disciples that they even made him their treasurer in charge of the money bag. They evidently saw nothing in character or attitude to question his loyalty. But, he betrayed Christ and ended his miserable life by suicide, and entered into eternal damnation. Listen to Jesus words, “woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.
The thief on the cross on the other hand was a career criminal - a serious enough criminal of Rome that he was sentenced to die the slowest, most painful death possible. He was being crucified with with a partner. They were both originally slated to be executed along with Barabbas, an insurrectionist and killer, an enemy or Rome. All of that indicates that he was part of a cutthroat ruthless gang who stole by violence and lived by no law but their own passions. In the early hours of the crucifixion both he and the other thief were taunting and reviling Jesus along with the crowd until this one thief watched Jesus die silently - oppressed, afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth;…led like a lamb to the slaughter.
Now in the final moments of this thief’s wretched life here on earth he confessed his sin, uttered a simple prayer: “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” The man was ushered that day into paradise, the presence of the living God, now clothed in the perfect righteousness, all his guilt borne and paid for in full by Christ.
NOTE: If this one man’s wretched life could be redeemed in his dying breath on a criminals cross could not Judas’s one act of treachery and betrayal be canceled on the basis of good works he had done while falling Christ all three years of His ministry.
Judas himself seemed to be the kind of person who kept score. He protested, for example when Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with a costly fragrance.
He knew the precise value of the ointment and he complained, “Why was this ointment wasted when it could have been sold to help the poor.” He would have also thought the extravagant grace that Jesus showed the thief on the cross wasted.
What we must all keep in mind is that we are all totally unworthy. No one deserves God’s favor.
Matthew 20:1–16 ESV
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.”
How God views all people - regardless of age, gender social status, or nationality - as equal value. The first will be Last
This is not representative of normal economic practice. In an age of unemployment, when there was not state security to fall back on and no trades union power to protect the worker, when an employer could literally ‘do what he chose with what belonged to him’, the employer’s action in taking on additional workers whose productivity could not possibly match the wage they were paid may be understood as ‘the behavior of a large-hearted man who is compassionate and full of sympathy for the poor’.
The essential point in this parable is in the fact that his immense generosity defies and transcends human ideas of equity and fairness. No one receives less than they deserve, but some receive far more.
God is an equal opportunity employer in the kingdom. In the Kingdom of God if you are a genuine believer, you receive the full benefits of God’s immeasurable grace, just like everyone else in God’s kingdom.
Your access into the kingdom is not a time share where you access it determined by the length of time you spent doing God’s word.
The Purpose
“The Parable was given for the benefit of His disciples”
(Jesus told this parable right after His conversation with the rich young ruler)
The rich young ruler was a man of great wealth and influence had come to Jesus asking, “Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” He may have been fishing for praise, because he clearly though he had fulfilled every spiritual duty and that his life was well in order. He certainly looked like a promising evangelistic prospect.
But rather than giving him the good news of the gospel, Jesus challenged him on obedience to the law. When the fellow insisted, “All of these things I have kept form my youth. What do I still lack? Jesus told him to sell all his possessions, give the profits to the poor, and follow Him. That was a sacrifice that the young man wasn’t willing to make.
Jesus exposed the fact that the young ruler loved his possessions more than he loved either God or his neighbor. Remembered that the disciples were baffled about who could be saved.
Jesus said in 19:26 that with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible. The disciples were thinking about the impossibility of meriting God’s favor. They were no doubt examining their own hearts. Unlike the rich young ruler they had left all to follow Jesus, this was also a reassurance that their sacrifice wasn’t for nothing.
Notice that it was Peter who spoke up in 19:27 and said “look we have left all to follow you.”
The twelve were like the 6:00 a.m. crew.
NOTE: How do you feel after you have sacrificed, sweat blood and tears for the kingdom of God and then some people seemingly get into the kingdom with little skin in the game.
vs.12 these last worked only one hour, and you have med them equal to us who have born the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
What does it mean to know and be known by God?
We must understand the unchanging nature of God
Equality: the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunity.
Equity: the quality of being fair and impartial. The value of the shares issued by a company.

1. God calls sinners not the self-sufficient

Grapes were one of the most valuable commodities in ancient Israel because they could be transformed into fine wines. So important were the vineyards that the prophets often describe the salvation of God's people as including the restoration of the vineyards of the Promised Land (for example, Amos 9:14).
Vine dressers and vineyard owners know, however, that the profitability of their vineyard depends on harvesting the grapes at just the right time. Wait too long, and the wine produced from the grapes will not be as good and will not command as high a price as it could. Consequently, when the time of harvest comes, vineyard owners often employ many day laborers in addition to their regular staff so that all of the grapes can be picked before it is too late. That is the setting of today's passage, wherein the master of the house must find "laborers for his vineyard" (Matt. 20:1).
Note: Those who Jesus found in the market place were the poor, and meek, devoid of resources, begging for work.
There was nothing complacent or self-satisfied about them - especially those who came toward the end of the day. That is exactly the kind of people Jesus came to seek and to save. Those who have ears to hear.
Being saved by grace may be easy to stomach when we are first saved and our eyes are opened to the brokenness inside of us. However, the longer we are Christians we slowly and subtly begin to feel less needy. Self-reliance can creep in, corrupting our awareness of our own corruption and awakening fresh confidence in our own energy and effort.
The desperate urgency leaves us and like the first workers, we begin to rely on our own sweat and effort.

*God’s call is URGENT

Note: The grape harvest was so great that to get sufficient help, the master continued to return to the marketplace which represents the world to call more laborers for the harvest.
Jesus told us of the fields that are ripe for harvest but the laborers are always few. The evening is coming when this age will be completed and we step into eternity. The Laborers complaint had to do with thinking that the master somehow owed them more because of the time and effort they had put into the gathering of the harvest.
THE LORD IS NOT OBLIGATED TO GIVE ANYONE GRACE!
Jesus point is that the master of the vineyard, who is God has the right to determine how much grace he will give to people, and when he will bestow that grace on them.
CULTURAL CONNECTION: We see the world in terms of what is fair, and what is equitable. From the time we are very young we learn from society that if one kid has something we should have the same thing of at least equal quality and value if not something more. If your house is like mine, when our kids were younger we felt as though we had to treat our kids with equality. If one kid gets a bike for their b-day, we should give the other kid a bike of equal value for their b-day. Our culture prizes equal opportunity, equal wages, equal housing, equal education. What happens when we try to put these ideas and labels on God?
We then get this notion or idea that God somehow owes us something, a wage. Well he does:
Romans 6:23 ESV
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He owes us death. So if you want to go down that road we all deserve the wrath of God. However God being rich in His mercy and grace does not give you what you deserve. While we were dead in our sins and trespasses against a Holy, Righteous, God, he sent His only son to die for us taking the full wrath of God on the Cross. Jesus became our wrath bearer.
Romans 9:14–16 ESV
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

*God’s call is SOVEREIGN

NOTE: It is God who goes to the marketplace of the world to call sinners to repent and enter the vineyard of the Lord. God initiates salvation. In the parable the landowner went out to find the laborers in the marketplace and brought them into the vineyard. God does the seeking and the saving. Our salvation is His work, and that is the main reason we have no right to make demands or set limits on what He gives to someone else.
Why doesn’t the landowner just call everyone on the first trip to the marketplace. The parable doesn’t reveal the reason why? Neither do we know why God saves people at different stages of life. He sovereignly determines when and who he will call.
But all those he calls know they are needy and are willing to work. And their willingness is a result, not the cause, of God’s grace towards them. John 10 the sheep know the shepherd
Philippians 2:13 ESV
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
CULTURAL CONNECTION: We like to be in charge, we like to have the control all to ourselves. Here is the good news of the Gospel. He saves us anyway, in spite of the fact that we want to do things our way instead of his. When we try and take control we try to live a self determining life.
This is where you get the so called, “name it claim it idea” I speak it therefore, it comes into existence. However, if it is God who works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure,” this makes god the will beneath my will and the worker beneath my work. The question is not whether I have a will, but the question was why I willed what I willed. And the ultimate answer - not the only answer - was God.

2. God Keeps His Promises

Note: He kept his promise to those he hired later too. He said he would give them what was right - and what he gave them was more than generous. The wage that was offered for working in the vineyard was beyond generous for the type of labor that was being done.
God never gives less than he promises, and often gives exceedingly and abundantly more, than we could ever hope or imagine.
Ephesians 3:20 ESV
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

*God always gives us more than we deserve

Note: The landowner told the first workers that he would give them a danarius, and he did. The remaining workers were not told what their wages would be, He told them that He would give them what was right and he did, he gave them what was more than generous. God never gives less than He promises, and much of the time it is far more than we expected.
James 1:17 ESV
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Everything that we receive from the Father other than eternal damnation is more than we deserve. So there is no place for Christians to resent God’s grace towards others or to think He has somehow defrauded us.
Believing God when "the chips are down" is one of the most difficult things that we will ever be called to do. Yet if we trust the Lord only when things are going well, then we do not really trust Him at all.
When things are good, let us thank God for His blessings, but also ask Him to sustain our faith if we face real hardship. As we walk through dark times, let us ask Him to help us rejoice in Him and remember that He is our exceedingly great reward (Gen. 15:1).
Notice, who gets paid first it is crucial to the story. The landowner started with those hired at the eleventh hour. Purposefully giving them the full agreed upon wage from the first workers. The point here goes back to the heart of God for the Lost.
This is much like the story of the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep in search of the 1 sheep. Remember Jesus gives this illustration to the Pharisees who are beside themselves that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. The religious leaders in Jesus day structured their religious system in such a way as to exalt the self-righteous and exclude alone who did not live up to their own standards.
What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:12–14). The people of Jesus’ day understood the relationship between shepherds and sheep, but the significance of a shepherd going in search of one lost sheep is sometimes lost on us. It seems strange that a shepherd would leave his flock to search for one missing sheep. Just like a landowner who would pay the same wage to those in the 1st hour and the 11th hour.
The shepherd pursues lost sheep, woos them, calls to them, and allows circumstances into their lives designed to make them look up. This whole circumstance was being used for the disciples benefit.

3. God’s grace should give us a reason to Celebrate

WHAT IS THE PROPER RESPONSE TO GOD’S GRACE
How did the Laborers in the vineyard respond?
We are not told how the other laborers responded, however, since their is no conversation of any disagreement we must assume that they all received it with great joy and thankfulness.
Those Hired in the first hour upon seeing the generosity given to the other workers who had not put in all the hard work they were grumbling. The conversation that came after includes several statements and a questions.
did you not agree to work for a denarius?
I am doing you no wrong.
Did you not agree to work for me for a denarius?
Take what belongs to you and go.
I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

*We should respond with Gratitude

DON’T BE THE UNGRATEFUL CHILD OF THE KING
How do you think it makes the father feel when we behave in an ungrateful way for what we have been given?
What does the ungrateful child do?

*Forgets the mission of the vineyard

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH: The mission of the church is the task given by God for the people of God to accomplish in the world (vineyard).
Mission Dei: Our task as the gathered body of Christ is to make disciples, by bearing witness to Jesus Christ the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit to glory of God the Father.
Luke 4:18–19 ESV
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
JESUS’S MISSION IS OUR MISSION
Note: Jesus ministry was to preach (proclaim) the gospel message calling sinners to repentance and faith. Jesus mission must not be reduced to a verbal proclamation. Jesus’s mission was to vicariously die for the sins of his people.
OUR VIEW OF THE MISSION IS TOO SMALL
There has been a paradigm shift in the Church and how it see’s its mission today. The more expansive view of the Church and its identity as missional communities called and sent to represent the reign of god or communities of common people doing uncommon deeds.
New converts - missionaries communicate the good new of Jesus the Messiah and Savior of the world.
New communities - missionaries communicate a new way of life that replaces the social norm.
Nurtured Churches - Missionaries now integrated the new believers into a new community.
We want to avoid the danger of making our mission too small. Some well-meaning Christians act like conversion is the only thing that counts.
They put all of their efforts into getting to the field as quickly as possible, speaking to as many people as possible, and then leaving as soon as possible. Mission becomes synonymous with first-time gospel proclamation. Clearly Paul did not practice this kind of evangelism.
On the other hand, we want to avoid the danger of making our mission too broad. Some well-meaning Christians act like everything counts as mission. They put all their efforts into improving job skills, digging wells, setting up medical centers, establishing great schools, and working for better crop yields - all of which can be wonderful expressions of Christian love, but bear little resemblance to what we see Paul and Barnabas out to do on the mission in Acts.
We must remember that the church’s mission is more specific that common people doing uncommon deeds.

*Forgets the grace of the vineyard

John 1:16 ESV
16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
GRACE: is God choosing to bless his people rather than cursing them.
The better way of understanding God’s unmerited, and undeserved favor towards us is seen in a move from guilt and shame, to Honor and forgiveness. When Adam and Eve first sinned in the garden the first thing they did was hide from God. Why? Because for the first time the understood their nakedness before God.
Humanity spent Hundreds of years giving blood sacrifices to make atonement or payment for the sin that now stained all of humanity. Now Jesus is in the vineyard with his father, and in the fullness of time the Father sends Jesus out into the marketplace of the world to call his workers to come work the harvest.

Forgets the Mercy of the vineyard

MERCY: withholds a punishment we deserve
Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
What is the first thing that you think about when you wake up in the morning? More often than not the burdens of the day come rushing in before we can even take a couple of breaths and have our first cup of coffee. We think about struggling relationships, some conflict, that meeting, the mistakes you made the day before, the task list that’s too long for today, the pain you are feeling, that sin you can’t seem to shake. And underneath all, there is this nagging feeling that we won’t find the strength to make much of a difference about any of it.
It always seems kind of odd that after a whole night of unaware dependence, we immediately wake up and go into independent, self-trust mode.
Lamentations 3:22–24 ESV
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
ANXIETY COMES WHEN WE LOOK AT OUR CIRCUMSTANCES AND THEN LOOK AT OUR ABILITY
FAITH COMES WHEN WE LOOK AT OUR CIRCUMSTANCES AND THEN AT GOD’S ABILITY
CLOSING
NOTE: Being a Christian is a daily recalling to mind that you were at one time in the marketplace of this world, and God came to you in your dead, poor, needy state. He called you into the vineyard of the kingdom of God. In the economy of God it doesn’t matter if he called you during the 1st hour or the 11th hour. The greatness of God’s Grace is that He called you anyway and none of us deserve what He has given us through Jesus Christ.
WE ALL RECEIVED THE GRACE OF GOD AT THE SAME PLACE
The Prodigal Son’s Brother
Perhaps we have all heard the story Jesus told of the prodigal son. In case you have not let me refresh your memory. There was this son who one day decided that he wanted to take his inheritance and go live in a far off land away from the home. The father gave him his inheritance. The young man squandered all of his money on experiencing the pleasures and illusions that the world had to offer.
One day he woke up financially bankrupt and alone, slopping food for pigs in the pig pen of life. He was so hungry that even the food that the pigs were eating looked good. The Bible speaks of how he came to his senses much the way that those whom the master called in the marketplace of life did. The son decided that his fathers servants were better off than he was. He decided he would go home and beg his fathers forgiveness, asking no longer to be called a child, but, to live as a servant in his fathers house.
When the father saw his son in the distance we are told that he ran to meet us. Much the same way that God comes to meet us in the market place of our lives. The son was trying to give his proposal to his father, however, the father had other plans in store for his son. He put his best royal robe on him, and his sign-ant ring of his finger identifying him as his child. He ordered the fatted calf to be killed and a celebration to begin for his son who was lost but now was found.
This is where the story draws from the same vine as the story of the master of the vineyard. The older brother felt slighted by the father. He had stayed home and did what the father required. He worked hard for his father and complained that his Father had never offered to kill the fatted calf before even so he could have a party with his friends. The Father responded to the son with how he should have responded in the first place. You I have always had with me, and what I have is yours, but, your brother was lost and now he is found. Your brother was dead and now he is alive. It is fitting that we should celebrate and be glad.
Luke 15:10 ESV
10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Have you reached the point that you are completely bankrupt in the marketplace of this world?
Maybe you are still hanging out waiting in the marketplace of this world?
Maybe you were called into the vineyard of God’s kingdom a long time ago and have forgotten the sheer joy of being called by God?
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