Grace is Not Fair | Matthew 20:1-16 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we're going to continue in the gospel of matthew today so if you'll uh turn in your bibles if you haven't already to matthew chapter 20. matthew chapter 20 is where we're going to be today and i'm going to read just the first 16 verses this is a parable that might be familiar to many of you but we're going to take a look at this parable together right out of matthew chapter 20 starting at verse 1. this is what it says for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day he sent them into his vineyard and he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said to them you also go into the vineyard and whatever is right i will give you and so they went and again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did likewise and about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing idle and said to them why have you been standing here idle all day and they said to him because no one has hired us and he said to them you also go into the vineyard and whatever is right you will receive so when evening had come the owner of the vineyard said to his steward call the laborers and give them their wages beginning with the last to the first and when those came who were hired about the 11th hour they each received a denarius but when the first came they supposed that they would receive more and they likewise received each a denarius and when they had received it they complained against the landowner saying these last men have worked only one hour and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day but he answered one of them and said friend i am doing you no wrong did you not agree with me for a denarius take what is yours and go your way i wish to give to this last man the same as to you is it not lawful for me to do what i wish with my own things or is your eye evil because i am good and so the last will be first and the first last for many are called but few are chosen i've entitled today's message grace is not fair grace is not fair let's pray first and then we'll dig into this parable together today lord we thank you for this day that you've given us we thank you for the snow we thank you for the opportunity just to be at home with friends or family and as we open up your word today we just look into matthew 20 with open hearts and open eyes that you would speak to us and that you would lord share your wisdom with us that we would learn and grow that we would come to a better understanding of some things and we thank you father for your patience with us your love for us we thank you for your grace over this day and each day that stretches out before us be glorified in our bible study now we love you and we praise you together in jesus name and everybody said amen well the story here in matthew chapter 20 is commonly referred to as the parable of the workers in the vineyard the parable of the workers in the vineyard at least in my bible that's what it's subtitled it's probably subtitled the same or similarly in your bibles jesus was known for using parables as a teaching tool to communicate a spiritual truth and the spiritual truth that he's wanted to communicate here has to do with what he tells us in verse 1 the kingdom of heaven he's going to use this parable to communicate an understanding about the kingdom of heaven now this might be review for many of you but for those of you who don't understand the terms let's first get just some basic definitions of what we're talking about here what what do we mean when we when we use the word parable and what do we mean when jesus uses the phrase kingdom of heaven so first things first when we talk about a parable it's from the greek word parabolo and that word means to cast alongside of or to compare and the word parabolo is used 48 times between matthew mark and luke now john doesn't give us any parables but between matthew mark and luke that word is used 48 times jesus employs this teaching tool this tactic to be able to help his listeners understand a deeper spiritual meaning or a moral truth and i'll just put the basic definition on the screen for you a parable is the use of an illustration often taken from everyday life to communicate a deeper moral lesson or spiritual truth it's a tool used to get the listener to think and understand so that's what jesus is doing here by using this parable as he often does as this teaching tool he wants his his listeners to think and to understand there's something beyond the obvious here and so he's helping them to to gain insight as to some moral matter or some spiritual truth now what does he mean when he talks here about the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of heaven is mentioned by matthew in his gospel more than 30 times interestingly though matthew is the only one who records that term kingdom of heaven in mark luke and john they opt for the phrase kingdom of god and they used that phrase a combined total of more than 50 times so it's unique with matthew only matthew is the one who talks about the kingdom of heaven more than 30 times the other gospel writers use the term kingdom of god now as i've said before here if you if you heard me teach about the kingdom of heaven versus the kingdom of god they're basically interchangeable when you look at the bible you can see that they are used pretty much interchangeably in fact if you jump a chapter back to chapter 19 at the end of last week's story when we were talking about the rich young ruler jesus uses the two phrases interchangeably in chapter 19 verses 23 and 24. jesus said to his disciples assuredly i say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven there's the first one and again i say to you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god and then he uses the second phrase so it's interchangeable right there in that passage there from matthew 19 and we don't have time to dig out the meaning of all of that but just to point out the fact that kingdom of heaven kingdom of god often interchangeable jesus uses it right there in that passage in an interchangeable way and basically what we need to understand we talk about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of god are some basic things first every kingdom has a king and when you think about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of god the king is god so in in the parable and in the reference in general in the bible kingdom of heaven kingdom of god the king of the kingdom is god but every kingdom also needs subjects of the king or else you wouldn't really have a kingdom the subjects of the kingdom are us we are the subjects of the kingdom we are subject to the king and then the last thing that a kingdom also needs is a territory i mean a king can't really be a king without some kind of a territory and when we talk about kingdom of heaven kingdom of god the territory is both physical and spiritual because it's physical in the sense that heaven is a real place so when we talk about the kingdom of heaven we're talking about a literal place it's a physical location but it also has a spiritual connotation the kingdom of heaven is also spiritual in the sense that it speaks about the rule and reign of god in the hearts and lives of people in fact jesus even talked about the spiritual aspect of the kingdom of heaven in luke chapter 17 in verses 20 to 21 where he was asked by some pharisees when the kingdom of god would come and jesus said the kingdom of god will not come with your careful observation neither will people say here it is or there it is for the kingdom of god is within you so see when you read the bible you can see that both kingdom of heaven kingdom of god are often interchangeable and that it speaks in general of god's rule and reign in a physical location we're talking about heaven the kingdom of heaven but in a spiritual sense to rule and reign in the hearts and lives of people let me combine this for you and give us just a broad definition for the kingdom of heaven in a broad sense the kingdom of heaven is about god's rule in the hearts and lives of people and god's reward heaven itself for those who have submitted to his rule in a relationship with him and and jesus enthusiastically calls people invites people welcomes people to be a part of that kingdom of this kingdom that we're talking about the kingdom of heaven to submit our lives to him as king and to enjoy all the many benefits that come to us as citizens of that great kingdom the invitation is open to all because the fact of the matter is everybody every single one of us is serving a king every single one of us is serving a king either you were king of your life and you're serving yourself and you're doing what you want to do when you want to do it how you want to do it or god is king of your life but somebody is ruling your life either you are or god is either you're in charge or god is king of your life and you surrender to his lead and you don't just live for yourself or for your own pleasure but you live to please god and sometimes to be honest even after we get saved even after we come into our relationship with jesus sometimes there's this power struggle as to who's going to really be on the throne you know the the flesh in every single one of us wants to dominate and wants to be king so even after you surrender your life to jesus if you've done that or if you haven't you'll notice later if you choose to that there's going to be a power struggle at times whether or not you were going to try to assert yourself to take back the throne of your life or whether you're going to continue to allow the lord to be king of your life and so it's almost like playing musical chairs with jesus it's like there's one chair and you both are walking around the one chair until the music stops and then you elbow jesus to get back under the throne of your life because that is usually the way the power struggle goes with our flesh we become a christian we make jesus king of our life but then our own flesh sometimes wants to dominate wants to get back on that throne and sometimes there's this power struggle but the reality is that when we talk about the kingdom of heaven we talk about being subjects of the king we talk about surrendering our lives to his rule and to his lordship that that there's no co-regency in this kingdom there's only one king and it's going to be jesus and so we have to learn to submit to him because either god is king of your life or you are king of your life but he does not share the throne so when we speak here about the kingdom of heaven this is what we're talking about yes it is a physical location but until that day that we reach our eternal reward the kingdom of heaven is about god's rule and god's reign in our hearts and in our lives and whether we are submitted to his lordship and so jesus is going to use this parable here in matthew chapter 20 to communicate a little bit more to help us understand to get his listeners to think about the kingdom of heaven what what what is it what is it about and so he uses this parable if you look at your bibles again with me and we'll just kind of go through this this parable together he he starts by saying in verse 1 for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard now in these days farmers didn't have employees that they just had on the payroll with benefits if a farmer needed someone to work the farm or in this case the vineyard he would go out to the marketplace and that's the place where people who were available to work would typically hang out in the early morning hours a farmer would go down there and hire some guys at the marketplace and take him to his farm or take him to his vineyard and then they would work for that day there wasn't there wasn't you know people added to a payroll it was just like if you needed work you could you stood in the marketplace if and and if you needed to hire people you went down to the marketplace and then you hired people from there we kind of reminds me what happens a little bit of the 7-eleven on plaza street i don't know if i don't know if those guys are legal or illegal but but that people stand around wanting to be hired for the day kind of like day laborers and this is this is what happens here in our story here so the landowner goes out and the bible tells us in verse one he goes out first very early in the morning now it doesn't specifically say what time that is but most bible scholars agree it's probably six a.m he goes out at six a.m to the marketplace and he hires some day laborers and he tells them that he will pay them the story tells us a denarius now a denarius was a typical day's wage it was a fair wage in the day and so he offers to pay these laborers a denarius and please note they agree to that that's important in our story they're happy to be hired they agree to that they think that's wonderful that's fair that's a day's wage and so they go to work with him but then it says that the landowner goes back at other times during the day to the marketplace to hire more laborers he goes back four more times for a total of five different hiring trips that he makes there the first one at six a.m and then the text tells us he goes out again about the third hour so the third hour would be 9 am and then he goes out again at the sixth hour which would be 12 noon and then he goes out again at the 9th hour which is 3 p.m and then finally he goes out at the 11th hour which is 5 p.m now quitting time is 6 p.m he's been hiring people all through the day first group 6 a.m then he goes back at 9 00 a.m 12 noon 3 p.m and 5 p.m the first group he said i'm gonna pay you daenerys they agreed to it all the other groups the landowner says to them i'm going to pay you whatever is right and he makes a promise to them i'm going to pay you whatever is right now he has as the landowner the discretion to pay whatever he wants so long as it's right so long as it's fair and this is this is the agreement but it tells us in in your bibles if you look at verse 8 so when evening had come now this is probably 6 p.m that's typically sundown the end of it of a jewish day the beginning of a new day when 6 p.m had come when evening had come the owner of the vineyard said to his to a steward who's basically the foreman call the laborers and give them their wages notice beginning with the last to the first now that's interesting the directive to to the foreman was i want you to gather all the laborers but i want you to pay the ones who were hired last the ones who were hired most recently i want you to pay them first pay the guys who were hired first last now why is this interesting because it forces those guys who were hired first to stand around and watch as those who were hired last were paid and and when those who were hired first are watching those who were hired last get paid and he sees that those they see that those who are hired last are getting paid a denarius for a full day's work even though they didn't work a full day's worth of work uh you can imagine it creates a bit of a firestorm here in our story because each group as they were paid got exactly the same a denarius a day's wage no matter if they were hired at 6 a.m or if they were hired at 5 p.m just one hour before quitting time now put yourself in their sandals for just a moment how do you think the group who had only worked for an hour felt when they got a full day's wage i mean completely overjoyed it's like they've just won the lottery for this day they've only worked an hour they got a full day's wage now how do you think those who were hired at 6 00 am felt when they saw people who were hired at 5 p.m get paid exactly what they were paid a denarius it tells us their reaction in verse 10 but when the first came those who were hired first they supposed that they would receive more now if you have an niv bible it says they expected to receive more you you know what is so damaging to any relationship is when you have expectations especially expectations that are not realistic the first group when they stand around seeing the last group getting paid to denarius well the first group knew hey we were supposed to get a denarius so here's what they're thinking if the last group of guys who only worked an hour they're getting paid at denarius well that means we're going to get more and it starts going to their head they start thinking we're going to get even more than what we were told originally because these dogs came late to the game and they're getting a full day's wage so surely we're going to get more i picture them high fiving each other as they're standing around waiting to get their pay well when they got their pay they weren't so happy because look at the rest of verse and they the first who were hired likewise received each a denarius and when they had received it notice they complained against the landowner circle in your bibles complain if you have an esv or an niv bible it says they grumbled they grumbled and here's what they said verse 12. they said these last men have worked only one hour and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day but he answered the landowner answered one of them and said friend i'm doing you no wrong did you not agree with me for denarius take what is yours and go your way i wish to give to this last man the same as to you is it not lawful for me to do what i wish with my own things or is your eye evil because i am good and so the last will be first and the first last for many are called but few are chosen the landowner basically says to the group that's grumbling the group that was hired first why do you have a problem with me i mean i i'm i i'm faithful to my promise you agreed to a denarius i'm giving you a denarius so i don't know why you have an issue with me i i'm giving you exactly what i promised and exactly what you agreed to and there's an interesting idiom there in verse 15 where the landowner says in this parable is your eye evil because i am good there was a hebrew idiom back in the day called an evil eye in hebrew it's ayin basically means when you have an evil eye it means you're you're stingy you're squinting you're stingy and you're envious and the contrast is a good eye which is means you're generous so it's an interesting hebrew idiom that is used in the parable here basically in the story what is being asked i think is actually communicated better in the niv verse 15 in the niv says don't i have the right to do what i want with my own money or are you envious because i am generous are you envious because i am generous now there's a main overall point to this parable and and that i'm gonna share and then i think there's a secondary point that i'll get to later but first the main point of this of this parable has to do with salvation and how it is that some people come to faith in jesus early in life and some people come to faith in jesus late in life and some people come to faith in jesus somewhere in between all that but that regardless the reward is the same for all who come to faith in jesus we get our sins forgiven and we get the ultimate reward of heaven so in this parable that jesus is teaching here here basically are the characters the landowner represents god the workers who are hired represent all of us who are called into a relationship with jesus the different times of the day represents different stages of life where we are called differently in terms of when we come to faith in jesus and the wages that they get paid is the ultimate reward of heaven that we receive at the end of the day from a generous god you see the fact is that some people get called early in life my wife got saved when she was eight years of age i i took a little bit longer to to get it i was 15. but i've given invitations alter calls for people to come to faith and i've seen elderly people walking with walkers and canes to get down to the front here to pray a prayer to receive christ i i know that people get saved at a very young age and i know that people get saved at an older age and their people get saved somewhere in between um but when you look at this parable here and you can you get the idea here that some people will get called early and they will get saved at a young age those are the ones who were hired first if you will and they will serve the lord and they will work hard for him for years but the fact of the matter is that regardless if you're saved early in life or you're saved late in life if you haven't really done too many terrible things or if you've done a lot of terrible things the reward is exactly the same whether you got saved early in the day or whether you got saved at the 11th hour the reward is still the same and those who got saved at a young age have to be careful not to grow weary or to resent those who got saved by the skin of their teeth at the last hour who still get all the same benefits because if you notice in the parable the ones who got called out by jesus the ones who got challenged here the ones who got exposed in this parable for their bad attitude were the ones who got hired early in other words were the ones who got saved at a young age because between verses 10 and 12 they expected more of a reward you know they started to cop an attitude they're like well you know we've been working a lot harder we should get more they also began to grumble and it tells us in the story that they complained about bearing the burden of the work and the heat of the day see all that it's like we we've been working so hard for you jesus we've been doing a lot of stuff we got saved at a young age and all our lives we've been serving you and and we can't expect to get anything more than anybody else serving jesus longer does not mean that there's a better retirement plan likewise coming to faith in jesus late in life or with a terrible past does not mean that you're going to be placed in subsidized housing and live off of food stamps in heaven it doesn't work that way the benefit package is the same now i can hear some of you right now those of you have been saved for many years you mean to tell me that i've been a christian for 45 years i taught sunday school i've tithed all my life i've gone on every mission trip that's ever been offered and some convicted 70 year old felon who got saved late in life and then died is going to experience the same reward that i'm going to experience yep that's about it wait a minute wait a minute pastor g you mean to tell me that i can live my life sold out for jesus since i was six years old and and some old coot can get saved at 86 on their death bed after a life of adultery and alcohol and they're still going to go to heaven as much as i am yeah you got it now you got enough well that just doesn't seem fair can you hear that if you're not thinking that somebody's thinking that well that's not fair yeah i know because grace is not fair and you ought to thank god that grace is not fair because if we all got what we deserved that's called justice and you don't want that you don't want that what we all want is grace sometimes though we just don't want it for the other person we want it for ourselves but we really don't want it as much for the other person no the last to be hired received the same as the first the first to be hired received the same as the last that's the point jesus is making here the last shall be first and the first shall be last you know what i hear from people who get saved early in life this is kind of a common testimony that i hear from people who get saved early in life i don't really have a testimony i don't i don't really have a testimony you know i i never shot anybody the only bar i've ever been to is bean bar for a latte i mean i've had a lot of partners but only in card games and the only shrooms i've ever had have been on a veggie pizza i don't have a story you know i hear that kind of a thing just kind of whining like you know i don't really have a story and i got saved early in life but then here i hear quite the opposite from people who got saved late in life what i hear from people get saved late in life is stuff like i wish i'd come to know jesus earlier i could have been spared a lot of heartache and pain i feel like i've wasted the best years of my life i wish i had a testimony without all the garbage and all the shame so here's maybe a new approach how about we just come to jesus when we come to jesus and live for him and stop envying somebody else's life that's really what we need to be about come to jesus as soon as you can come to jesus whether that's early in your life or late in your life and then live for him and stop envying somebody else's testimony or somebody else's life because here's what we need to recognize the big idea from this parable is this that the eternal reward is the same for all no matter when you come to faith in jesus that's the main point that's the big idea from this parable the eternal reward is the same for all no matter when you come to faith in jesus early in life late in life haven't done too many terrible things having done a lot of terrible things or somewhere in the middle it doesn't matter the reward is the same for all who come to faith in jesus that's the big idea but the other quick angle that i want to take here in just a few minutes is going to be quick because i'm going to rattle off three quick points but there's another angle here of this parable that i think exposes the wrong ways that man often relates to god and or others and here's the first thing for your notetakers the first thing is don't hold god to promises he never made don't hold god the promises he never made you know it's easy to create expectations of god based on what we think god should do rather than on what he said he would do it's very dangerous to create those kind of expectations the landowner in this story was faithful to his promises the workers created unnecessary strife and disappointment for themselves when they thought that the landowner should take a different course of action particularly as it benefited themselves this is why they complained the landowner was being completely faithful and true to his promises the workers though based on what they thought their standard their idea they didn't think that the landowner was doing what he should do because it didn't benefit them and so they had this expectation of the landowner resist the temptation to think that god needs to do more than what he has already done or more than what he has already promised the second takeaway from this other angle of this story i think is this number two don't assume that god owes you don't assume that god owes you god doesn't owe us any listen to this god does not own us anything except for just judgment because of our sins but incredibly instead of giving us what we deserve that would be justice he graciously offers us what we don't deserve the forgiveness of sins and a reward of heaven when we die that's grace and mercy through a relationship with him that's how we receive those things so he doesn't owe us anything that what he's already done if if god didn't do another thing he's already done more than enough he offers his son jesus a dying cross how dare we stand around and think god owes us more he's offered his son jesus he offers us a relationship with him our sins forgiven and the promise and hope of heaven when we die don't assume that god owes you anything and the third thing and the final thing number three is don't complain about how god chooses to bless others god loves to bless other people beyond what they deserve but we often think that people need to get what they deserve we think that way for others we just don't always think of that way about ourselves and so when we think well others need to get what they deserve then we selfishly get jealous and complain when others get blessed especially when we compare them to ourselves when we think well they shouldn't they shouldn't get that because what about me and we get into that whole self-pity party we have to stop this whiny song about how stuff isn't fair i mean didn't your mom tell you life is not fair we have to get over this when when you get to the place please hear me on this when you get to the place where you realize that you have gotten from god what you don't deserve then and only then will you be able to celebrate when others get from god what they don't deserve that's important until we realize how much we've gotten from god that we don't deserve because he's gracious to us that he's generous towards us that he's merciful towards us if you don't get that first then you will never come to the place of celebrating god's goodness in the lives of other people some of you and you know who you are you have a fairness meter in life where you're always weighing everything you need to crush the fairness meter because in a sense it's become an idol because you turn to your fairness meter which is based on your system of equality instead of god's system of generosity so you look at other people you look at the world you look at different situations and you're like that's not fair that's not fair wait a minute you're the recipient of god's unfairness aren't you glad that god isn't fair with you because if he was fair with all of us we would get justice we would get what we deserve grace is not fair grace does wonderful amazing marvelous things towards a human being from the hand of god that we don't deserve that we can't earn and so get rid of your fairness meter where you're judging everything looking at stuff weighing in your mind like a scale of the balance about what is right or what what is not right because that's all based on your equality your system of equality not on god's system of generosity and as long as you rely on your fairness meter you will never celebrate god's grace of the lives of others neither will you do for others the generous thing because you are too bound by the jealous thing i mean that's just truth right there you you will not celebrate the goodness of god in people's lives neither will you do the generous thing towards other people because you're too bound by the jealous thing be careful that your own self-interests don't blind you to the generosity and love of god toward others that's what this parable is all about the big picture it's about salvation whether you came to faith early in life or late in life the reward is the same if you came to faith early in life don't grow weary because of all the hard work you've done for the lord god sees it god notes it we do it for his glory and if he came late in life don't don't think to yourself oh i you know i've missed the best years of my life the best years of your life are still to come for all of us we're only passing through but we're citizens of heaven so whether you come to faith early in life or late in life the reward is the same and and then this other angle here don't hold god the promises he never made don't assume that god owes you anything and don't complain about how god chooses to bless others let's celebrate god's grace that he has lavished upon all of us he is a generous and a good god the landowner in the vineyard he loves you and he's a gracious and a good god amen well let me pray for us and then uh we'll pick up our bible study hopefully check check back here for wednesday night services and then next sunday we should be back in the gospel of matthew as well but let's let's have a quick word of prayer father we thank you for your grace in our lives and when we consider this parable of the workers and the vineyard we it doesn't matter when we were hired so to speak when we came to faith in in jesus whether it was early in our life or late in our life we thank you for the reward of heaven we thank you for the blessing of having sins forgiven what a privilege it is lord to come to you to be received by you to be forgiven by you to be able to go to heaven when we die thank you that we can be citizens of the kingdom of heaven with you as king and lord of our lives help us lord to not expect things from you lord you've already done more than enough but we thank you whenever you do above and beyond what you've already done help us lord not to think that you owe us anything you've already given us more than enough and help us lord to always celebrate your goodness and your grace in the lives of other people we ourselves are recipients of your grace we've gotten from you what we don't deserve may we celebrate that for other people as well because you are a good and generous god we love you and we praise you and we thank you together in jesus name and everybody at home watching online said amen and amen god bless you all have a great rest of your day we'll see you soon god bless you you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Length: 39min 6sec (2346 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021