MATTHEW 20-21
THE HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES AND MATHEMATICS
OF GRACE
(Luke 15:1 NIV) Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him.
(Luke 15:2 NIV) But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
(Luke 15:25 NIV) "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
(Luke 15:26 NIV) So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.
(Luke 15:27 NIV) ’Your brother has come,’ he replied, ’and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
(Luke 15:28 NIV) "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
(Luke 15:29 NIV) But he answered his father, ’Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
(Luke 15:30 NIV) But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
(Luke 15:31 NIV) "’My son,’ the father said, ’you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
(Luke 15:32 NIV) But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’"
Last Sunday night some teenagers and a few middle-aged people were jumping up and down for joy in the Fellowship Hall. Do you know why? The team they were rooting for to win the Super Bowl had just scored a touchdown or made a good play. For some of these people the joy was short-lived. This morning I want to challenge people of my generation and older to show these younger people what really brings true joy on earth and in heaven. The greatest joy in all the world is when lost people are found by the Good Shepherd. I want to challenge people of my generation and older to set the pace for young people in winning the lost to Jesus Christ. I want us to set the pace for these young people in praying that the Lord of the harvest will raise up laborers for the harvest. I really don=t think there are too many of us who want to sit around quibbling about whether we want a pianist and/or an organist. Whether we decide on one or both, let us get on with the job of winning the lost.
Let us not think that we have to take sides about how large a stage should be, when there are billions on the stage of life who are lost without Christ. Grumbling and murmuring and complaining bring sadness to God and to people. My wife told me recently that one of the senior men of our church, while waiting in line in the Fellowship Hall, said: ALet the good times roll.@
And I say, Amen. Let the good times of winning the lost and rejoicing in their salvation roll. Let us bring joy to God and joy to one another by making the winning of souls our top priority.
Turn now please to Matthew 20:1, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.
The story of the laborers in the vineyard is another version of the self-centered, self-righteous, Pharisaic older brother.
(Mat 20:1 NIV) "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
(Mat 20:2 NIV) He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
WHAT DO WE THINK WE ARE WORTH AS SERVANTS OF GOD? WHAT IS STIPULATED IN OUR CONTRACTS? DO WE WANT GOD TO GIVE US WHAT WE DESERVE OR DO WE WANT HIM TO TREAT US WITH LOVE AND MERCY? IF WE WANT HIM TO TREAT US WITH LOVE AND MERCY, THEN WE HAD BETTER SHOW LOVE AND MERCY TO OUR FELLOW SLAVES OF ALL RACES AND COLORS AND AGE BRACKETS.
(Mat 20:3 NIV) "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
(Mat 20:4 NIV) He told them, ’You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’
(Mat 20:5 NIV) So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
(Mat 20:6 NIV) About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ’Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
(Mat 20:7 NIV) "’Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. "He said to them, ’You also go and work in my vineyard.’
(Mat 20:8 NIV) "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ’Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
(Mat 20:9 NIV) "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
(Mat 20:10 NIV) So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
(Mat 20:11 NIV) When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
(Mat 20:12 NIV) ’These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ’and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
(Mat 20:13 NIV) "But he answered one of them, ’Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
(Mat 20:14 NIV) Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.
(Mat 20:15 NIV) Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
(Mat 20:16 NIV) "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
BELOVED, DO WE CONSIDER BEING GOD=S CHILDREN AND WORKING FOR HIM A BURDEN? IF WE DO, THEN WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE WANT TO JOIN US AS GOD=S CHILDREN? GOD=S CHILDREN DO ALL THINGS WITHOUT GRUMBLING AND
MURMURINGS, FOR THE GREATEST JOY IN ALL THE WORLD IS TO KNOW JESUS.
Have you ever complained that young people today get away with murder? Older brothers often do that with their younger brothers and sisters. When the drama team went to Canada on a mission to win the lost and train others to win the lost, did you complain that the pastor and John were both away at the same time and you and your fellow church members were somehow neglected? Have you ever suggested that the charter members of the church, those who have been part of the household since early days, should decide what should be done to reach the lost? The Pharisees and scribes murmured that Jesus focused on winning the lost.
Jesus, in response, told the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. The real point of the story is Jesus= rebuking of the attitude of the older brother. This self-righteous, self-centered, legalistic older brother complains about the gracious treatment afforded to the younger brother. He is so consumed by laws and rules and regulations that he does not understand grace.
If sheep could talk, would sheep complain that the shepherd leaves them to go out to seek and to save the lost? They would if they were like the self-righteous, self-seeking, racially prejudiced Pharisees. But if they were reasonable sheep, they would realize that seeking the lost is the main purpose of the shepherd. That is what good shepherds like Jesus do. They go out to seek and save the lost. And when they bring the lost sheep home, every reasonable creature in the fold is grateful and joyful. And if some self-centered sheep did complain about being neglected,
the more reasonable sheep would point out that they too were once lost and the shepherd left the flock to go out and seek for them.
When a housewife loses a valuable coin, and the housewife looks everywhere to find the valuable coin, if the coins could talk, would they complain that the housewife thinks that the lost coin is more valuable than they are. They would if they were like the self-righteous, self-centered, racially-prejudiced Pharisees. But if they were reasonable, they would realize that they all are valuable and they would rejoice when the coin is found. Seeking for lost coins does not minimize the value of the coins on hand and accounted for.
When a little child gets lost, are the older children concerned? or do they say: AGood riddance to bad rubbish. I never did like that brat anyway.@
Who should determine how welcome the younger generation are in our churches and how much we should encourage them to come? Self-righteous, self-centered people of older generations
who complain that life was never that easy for them? Or should we take our cue from Jesus who died for them and the heavenly Father Who loves them?
What should determine what we do for the younger generation? Our anger and self-righteousness or their need and God=s love? Who should determine the priorities pastors give to winning the lost and training others to win the lost? Sheep who are angry and self-centered and feel neglected or the love of the Good Shepherd Who came from heaven to die for the sheep?
Does a housewife who has lost a valuable coin spend her time polishing the ones which are in the collection, or does she have a concern to find the lost? It is obvious to any one who has a concern for the lost that the people which in the years to come are to use this church building
are in the main people who are yet unchurched, and who will move into the new homes which eventually will be constructed in this area. Do any of you have any idea of their needs and how to win them to the Savior? Let me tell you someone who does. His name is George Barna.
His life has been revolutionized by the care which the Good Shepherd gave to him when he was lost. He has spent most of his ministry interviewing lost sheep and lost coins and lost sons and idle workers who have not been hired by the Master Workman. George Barna has a better understanding than most of us of what will meet their needs. If we love God and love the lost as Jesus does and as George Barna does, and if we read the Bible and the books written by George Barna, we shall have a better perspective on what we need to do to reach out to the lost. If we do not love God and love the lost, or do not understand the needs of the lost, we will base our views on what we like and what they did in our generation. And the lost will go to hell,
and some of us will join them there, even though many of us have stood together and have sung together: ABless be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.@
It is my belief that people who claim to be Christians but complain about being neglected or not appreciated really do not understand grace, and really do not understand the mercy of God, and therefore really do not understand Christianity. And if they do not understand the grace and mercy of God, they may not in fact be saved.
In order for us to understand better the grace and mercy of God, let me trace for you the history of the world. God made the world from one person and from one family. Theoretically then we are all brothers; we are all part of one family, which is neither Jew nor Gentile. If we really understand grace and the family concept, we shall never complain if one member of the family is treated more graciously than another. A human family member who really loves God and loves his human family rejoices when God’s mercy and grace are extended to any other member of the human family.
That is certainly the way it should be in the Christian church. Certainly we should never hear in the Christian church complaints that one person gets more love and grace than another. We should rejoice in any love and grace that is extended to any member of the family. Remember that God made us as a human family.
Because God made us, He owns us. Because He owns us, we should serve Him as slaves, slaves who love the Master and are willing to do whatever He says, trusting that He will reward us in mercy and grace. Man very early sinned against God and did not serve Him. Before God made the foundations of the world, He designed that His Son would die for the sins of men. So the concept of the Cross, the concept that God has sent His Son to die for the sins of the world, undergirds, as an eternal foundation, all of God’s relationships with men.
Because God has made us, and because God has laid the foundation for our redemption, He doubly owns us; and we should gladly welcome any opportunity to serve Him. And if we really believe that He is a gracious God to Whom we owe everything, we are not going to dicker with Him about our reward, or complain that somebody else seems to be getting better opportunities than we are. We are going to rejoice in any work which He allows us to perform for Him, and rejoice in any reward which He deems suitable.
At first basically there were only nations or Gentiles in the world. God had not separated the Jews to Himself as His very own people. Beginning with Abraham God called the Jews to Himself. He called Abraham with a covenant of promise, promising to bless all nations, Jews and Gentiles, with a covenant of grace through Abraham. Although He called all Jews in Abraham, many perverted His call. They developed the idea that if God had called them, then they must have been especially good people, not realizing that God does not extend His mercy to people because they are especially good, but because they are especially bad.
Rather than trusting in God and trusting in God’s promises of grace and mercy, like Jacob in the early years of his life, they perverted God’s grace; and instead of trusting in God and in His mercy and grace, as it were they made deals with God, like many Jews bargaining with God,
asking God not for His grace and mercy, but asking for what they thought they deserved for being such especially good people, not realizing that they were not especially good, but especially bad, and deserved death and eternal hell.
Over many centuries, nearly twenty in all, God continued in a special way to call Jews. However, few of them really understood the concept of grace. Most of them perverted the
concept of grace in some way or another. Those who really understood the concept of grace by so doing demonstrated that they were really God’s chosen people. Those Jews who perverted the concept of grace demonstrated by this perversion that though they were called of God as Jews, they were really not His chosen people. Hence, often we have from the mouth of Jesus the expression: Many are called but few are chosen.
After calling the Jews for many centuries, and after seeing His grace perverted again and again, especially perverted in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God turned to the Gentiles. In a sense God turned back to His first called people, the Gentiles. In the time of Jesus they were the ones who responded most to His grace and mercy. Rather than pervert His mercy, they accepted it, and served God with all their hearts, trusting in His mercy and grace for any reward; not, as many Jews, trusting in their own bargaining powers with God, but trusting in His mercy and grace.
Over the next few months we are going to be looking at several parables. In some of the parables the older brother represents the Gentiles before Abraham, who refused to do what
God wanted them to do; but when Jesus came repented and did what God wanted them to do.
In the so-called story of the prodigal son, the elder brother represents the Pharisaic legalistic Jews, who were in the line of those who were especially called in Abraham, who enjoyed a
special relationship with God before the Gentiles, and who, when Jesus came, complained that he ate and drank with publicans and sinners and Gentiles, and who at the end of the story
refused to come into the house. The prodigal son represents the Gentiles and Jewish sinners of Jesus’ day, who repent and are welcomed into the house with rejoicing.
Let me spell out some of the principles of grace which are illustrated especially by this first passage in Matthew which we shall study together. In Christian grace the Lord takes the initiative in establishing the relationship with the worker. It is assumed that the Lord owns the worker. As I have said, there are two reasons for this. First, He made the worker and therefore owns him. Secondly, by His death on Calvary, He died for the worker; and by His death paid the price for the redemption of the worker. Therefore He doubly owns the worker. The worker therefore is a slave who has been made by the Lord, and for whom the price of redemption has been paid by the Lord.
And yet the slavery is not a forced slavery. The slave in one sense is free and independent of the Lord. Therefore he can make his own decisions. He can barter for his wages. In one sense he is a slave; in another sense he is free to barter for his wages as a hired servant.
Theoretically the Lord is not required to pay His workers anything. If they are His slaves, they should be prepared to work for nothing more than the joy of being hired and looked after by such a wonderful Master. If the worker, like a Pharisaic Jew, is legalistic in nature, then he has a tendency to negotiate for what he thinks is a fair wage. In other words, rather than trusting in the grace and mercy of the Lord, he trusts in his own good works and in his own bargaining powers on the basis of those good works. If the worker like a tax?collector or adulterer or other kind of Gentile or Jewish sinner, in sheer gratitude for what the Master has done, wants to work for the Master, then he goes to work without really knowing what the pay is going to be. He trusts in the grace and mercy of the Master.
Those who serve without a legalistic spirit, who serve because they are motivated by love, are graciously paid first and graciously paid the same as those who serve with a legalistic
spirit. And this is quite fair. After all, if those who went to work early in the day had the love and attention of the Master for the whole day, and if that love and attention was what they really treasured, then they are not going to be unhappy if the Master gives some special love and attention to those who were not under His care as long. In other words, according to the principles of grace, the first are last and the last are first. Those who receive God’s love and mercy first should not complain if God chooses to bless in a special way those who have not had that privilege.
Those who serve with a legalistic spirit complain that God is not fair. By that they demonstrate that they are not true children of God. They have really not understood the principles of grace. They get what they bargained for; they get what they deserved; they did not realize that they deserved death and hell; for the wages of sin is death. They wind up last; which is another way of saying they go to hell; which is another way of saying that they are called, but not chosen.
Chosen ones are motivated by love. Chosen ones understand grace. Chosen ones wind up first; which is another way of saying that they are saved and go to heaven. Chosen ones do not complain or get angry or get envious when others are recipients of God’s grace. Many are called, but few are chosen. Many are called to become children of God; but few are chosen; few in fact become children of God, and few demonstrate that they are children of God by rejoicing when others are treated with grace and love.
(Mat 20:1 NIV) "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
(Mat 20:2 NIV) He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
SELF-RIGHTEOUS JEWS WHO BARTER
(Mat 20:3 NIV) "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
(Mat 20:4 NIV) He told them, ’You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’
SINNERS WHO ACCEPT THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD
(Mat 20:5 NIV) So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
(Mat 20:6 NIV) About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ’Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
(Mat 20:7 NIV) "’Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. "He said to them, ’You also go and work in my vineyard.’
(Mat 20:8 NIV) "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ’Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
Why? Because the Master wants to demonstrate His grace, and the ones recruited last had the greatest need of grace.
The workers hired first had a special relationship with the owner right from the beginning. They are like the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son. The workers hired at the end are like the prodigal son. They did not enjoy a long?term relationship with the owner. But like the prodigal son, though they started to work late, they were willing to accept whatever the owner would give. In other words, they were willing to entrust themselves to the grace and mercy of the owner.
(Mat 20:9 NIV) "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
(Mat 20:10 NIV) So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
(Mat 20:11 NIV) When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
(Mat 20:12 NIV) ’These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ’and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
(Mat 20:13 NIV) "But he answered one of them, ’Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
(Mat 20:14 NIV) Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.
(Mat 20:15 NIV) Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
(Mat 20:16 NIV) "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
(Mat 20:17 NIV) Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them,
(Mat 20:18 NIV) "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death
(Mat 20:19 NIV) and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"
My friend, when you stand at the final judgment day, are you going to stand pleading your own merits and good works, or are you going to plead the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ Who died in your place? If you understand God’s grace and goodness, you will plead the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. And if you really understand God’s grace and goodness, then you will be happy and rejoice when the pastor and this church seem to neglect you to reach out to the lost.
And hopefully, in the days ahead, we shall all do that.
