Sermon Tone Analysis

This This morning we are back in Matthew and we have come to Matthew 20.

A few weeks ago, going back to Matthew 19, we see that Jesus entered Judea.

Within Judea is the city of Jerusalem.

Now Jerusalem is a very important city.

Jerusalem is the city in which Jesus would be arrested, the city in which he would be nailed to the cross, and the city in which three days later he would rise from the grave.

And Jerusalem is also the city in which Jesus would leave the earth and ascend into heaven, and Jerusalem would be the city where the gospel would first be preached, then it would spread throughout the entire world over the next 2000 plus years.

Even today, people in many parts of the world are hearing the name Jesus for the first time and it all started from the city of Jerusalem.

But we haven’t come to Jerusalem yet.

Next week Jesus will make his grand entrance into the city with the crowds cheering his as the Messiah.

But just days later, the would be shouting “Crucify Him!”

But that is next week.

This week we are in Matthew 20.

************CBC CREED**************

Open you Bible to Matthew 20.

Now before we begin in Matthew 20, let’s begin in Matthew 19:30

This last verse sets the stage for what Jesus will teach his disciples, and us in Chapter 20.

What I want you to see here is that Jesus continues his conversation.

Even though there is a change from Chapter 19 to 20, the thought, the conversation is still the same.

It continues.

So as we look at this parable that Jesus speaks, we need to look at it through the filter of “many who are first will be last, and the last first (Matt 10:30)

So here is a parable, a story that is not real, that Jesus is using to make a point, so show a biblical principle.

Let me do this, let me tell tell this story in a way that we know well.

For the kingdom of heaven is like the engineer who went to the junction early in the morning and hire some workers to put concrete on the top of my house.

He found some workers and told them he would pay them 5000 naira to come and work for the day.

So they started to work at 9 in the morning.

Then by 12 he needed more, and went to the junction and pick up some more workers to begin the work and finish at the end of the day.

About 3 o’clock he went back to the junction and brought more workers that began to work.

Then finally at 6 in the evening he brought more workers.

The work was finished at 7 in the evening., and when he began to pay the workers, he gave a full days wage to those who were there one hour, four hours, 7 hours and 12 hours.

No matter how long they worked he paid them the same.

Everyone got 5000 Naira each.

Those who work 12 hours, 5000 naira, those who worked 1 hours… 5000 naira.

Do you think that everyone will be happy?

Would you be happy if you were there at 9 in the morning and worked all day?

The heavenly meaning here from this earthly story point to GRACE.

The workers that came within one hour didn’t deserve the full pay.

Maybe they were even surprised.

And that is the things about Grace.

I don’t deserve the love of God.

I am a person who fails all the time.

I am a sinful person.

I can easily say the same words Paul said and they would say the same thing about me:

I have no hope.

There is nothing that I can do.

There is nothing that you can do.

But there is an answer.

GRACE.

Right after Paul admitting that he was doomed, he goes on to say this...

GRACE!

This story of an underserving person getting a full day wage is like an underserving person being rescued from our sin.

I don’t deserve it.

You don’t deserve it.

But God looks at you and says I love you so much that I would make my Son give his life for you.

That is Grace.

God’s grace is surprising.

We expect people to get what they deserve.

if they act a fool.

they will be treated like a fool.

If they bring trouble upon people, then they will find trouble.

But that is not how Jesus works.

Jesus looks at the drunk man, he looks at the corrupt politician, he looks at you, and says I love you....even before you were born, I loved you.

He extends grace.

1. God’s grace is surprising.

2. God’s grace is sovereign.

What do I mean by sovereign?

This word sovereign means that he is involved in everything.

He knows everything and nothing happens that he does not know about.

So understanding that, he doesn’t have to offer grace, he can do what he wants.

He can extend it to whoever he wants.

And this is good news, because we don’t deserve his grace, but he still gives it.

Now look at verse 17:

This is the third time Jesus has given his disciples a picture of what was coming.

First in Chapter 16, 17, and now 20.

Look at the details he gives: he would be mocked (made full of, laughed at, put down), flogged (you know what that means right?

But this flogging would be a whip, something that would hurt 100 times more than a kabo-ko) and crucified (killed, tortured, left for dead for all to see).

All of that is bad!

Very bad.

But it ends with the good....raised on the third day.

(mouth, their hands, and their darkened hearts)

This was the third time he told them of this.

But they were not totally understanding it.

Even as Jesus gives the details about what was going to happen to him..they didn’t fully understand.

How do I know?

Because of what happens next.

Look at verse 20”

Jesus just told them of the cruel way he would be killed: mocked, flogged, and crucified, then in verse 20 the mother of James and John steps up and ask if here sons could sit on each sit of Jesus when he comes into his Kingdom.

What was Jesus’s answer?

You have no idea what you are asking.

Then he asked, are you able to drink the same cup I will drink?

What is this cup that Jesus talks about?

He will talk about the cup again in Chapter 26.

This is what he says there, he is praying to his Father and he says: Matthew 26:39

This cup signifies what Jesus would physically and emotionally go through at the hands of the Romans.

This cup is what he has told his disciples three times…it was coming.

But still they didn’t understand.

How could James and John both fully understand what the cup meant if the were to stand there and say”we can take it.”

Now, I believe they understood fully after Jesus was resurrected, but in this moment, they only wanted to be elevated above others.

Church history records that James, this James, brother of John, was beheaded for preaching the gospel.

And his brother John, the writer of John, 1,2,3 John and Revelation, was the only apostle not to be martyred or killed.

He died of old age.