Is God Fair?

All right. All right. Well, good morning. Good to have everybody with us today. And uh let’s start with a prayer and then we’ll get started this morning. Our heavenly father, we’re thankful for this new day knowing it’s a blessing from you, father. Thankful we be together. Open your word, encourage one another, and remind us how much you love us and how much we need to be with you. continue to bless us in Jesus name. Amen. I intend for this to be just a very informal class.

I’ll ask you questions, you ask me questions, together we’ll learn. Uh in John chapter 8, this is not going to be our text, but in John 8 where we find the encounter of Jesus with the woman caught in adultery. It begins in verse two by saying, “And early in the morning, he came again into the temple and all the people were coming to him and he sat down and began to teach them.” There’s something special about gathering early in the morning and opening the Bible.

It kind of colors the rest of our day and I I enjoy that so much. Uh it helps us just to kind of get before us our priorities and the things that are important to us. Today I want to go to the the Gospel of Matthew. We’re going to pretty much stay here. from Matthew chapter 20. And uh for the next three mornings, I want to just share some lessons with you. What I call just a day in the life of Jesus. And we’ll look at some miracles. We’ll talk about some parables and different aspects. But today’s lesson is we’re going to talk about is God fair?

And on the surface uh we would say absolutely he’s fair. you know, rains upon the righteous and the unrighteous and the sun upon the righteous and the unrighteous. And we don’t ask that question when things are going well in our life. We usually ask that question when there’s a storm. Uh we’re coming home from the cemetery or things are difficult in our life. And and many times we’ll we’ll run to the book of Job and places like that, some of the Psalms, and we’ll talk about how God is fair.

And and that is true. But there’s another side I want to talk about with you today that God’s not fair. And once we get done with this, you’re going to be glad he’s not fair. And that takes us to our study in Matthew chapter 20. We’re going to be looking at the first 16 verses, the parable of the servants in the vineyard. And and so just to begin with, just kind of get us all get our minds kind of working here a little bit this morning. guess thinking right. Um, a parable is what?

What’s a parable? A our common definition is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And we write that down. We say, “I have no idea what that means.” Okay? Uh, we’ve heard that all of our life. Okay? Um, it’s more than just a story. The word parable itself means to lay it alongside of. And so, so here’s something I know and here’s something I don’t know. So, I put what I know besides something I don’t know. When I look at this, I see this. And and that’s that’s the concept of a parable.

It is a comparison. Um, we do comparisons all the time. Car shopping, you go grocery shopping. Now, in in our household, I don’t do grocery shopping. and it’d be a disaster. Um, I’d come home with nothing but chocolate and I’d be in trouble. But a while back, we had a whole bunch of people over and Miss Debbie said, um, go to the grocery store and get a watermelon. Even you can do that. So, so I went to the grocery store, picked out a watermelon, put it in my basket, getting ready to walk away, and I saw all these ladies around there, and they were doing things I hadn’t done.

And I realized, I’m going to go home. And she said, “You didn’t get the right one. I I don’t want to do that.” So, one lady was thumping. So, I thumped. I don’t know what you’re supposed to hear, but I thumped. You know, one lady turned it over and she looked right at me and she said, “You want a yellow belly?” I thought [laughter] I didn’t know what she meant. No, they were smelling it. And I don’t know where this thing’s been, but what we were doing is we’re comparing. We were comparing. And so, so when it comes to the parables, as Jesus told these stories in a first century world, most of the audience got the story.

And so he’d lay it beside his spiritual truth and say, “When I look at this, I now understand this.” Our problem is sometimes we don’t get the story. If I don’t get the story, I can’t get the comparison. And so that’s our trouble sometimes. And that that really comes out in this lesson today. So let’s read the story and then we’ll just kind of unlayer it here and talk about several things in here. So Matthew 20, the first 16 verses. For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire his labors for his vineyard.

And when he had agreed with the labors for a dinner or dinner for the day, he sent them into the vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to those he said, “You two go into the vineyard and whatever is right I will give you.” And so they went again. He went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. And about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day long?”

They said to him, “Because no one hired us.” He said to them, “You two go into the vineyard.” And when they when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foremen, “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.” And when those who were hired about the 11th hour came, each one received a generous. And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more, and they received each one of them adenerous.

And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowners, saying, “These last men worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us, who been who borne the burden of the burden and the scorching heat of the day.” But he answered and said to them, verse 13, “Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for dinner? Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do with what I wish or with what is my own?

Or is your eye envious because I’m generous? Thus, the last shall be first and the first last. First thing I want to you understand. We hear this a lot and what we sometimes call deathbed repentance. Here’s here’s a lady. She’s married to somebody who’s not a Christian. He will not come. Never comes. He goes to the doctor one day and is told he has stage four cancer and just weeks to live. So he shows up on Wednesday night, goes forward and is baptized.

Few days later he dies and we say he made it at the 11th hour. Okay. Problem is in this story nobody dies. So So this is not about someone being saved at the last second. That’s not what this is about. So we just need to kind of just kind of move that out of our mind. And so what we’re going to look at is what is the story all about? Now, now there are three components I think uh that that’s the Lord’s really trying to stress here. One of the first components we notice is a is a heavy emphasis upon the time.

You’ll notice verse one talks about early in the morning and then verse three has the third hour and then the sixth hour, then the 9inth hour, then the 11th hour. He’s very specific with this time period here. Now, under Jewish concepts, how did the Jews count a day? They had 24 hours like we do, but we go from 12 to 12. How did the Jews go? Yeah. Yeah. Sunrise to sunrise. Okay. So, so verse one, the man is is most likely going to be working 12 hours.

Okay. from ⁠6:00 in the morning till the end of the day would be 5 in the afternoon. Okay? And and so that that’s why he’s going to be working. Verse three, when the man went out the third hour, what what time of day is that? ⁠9:00. We go down here. Verse five, sixth hour. And then the ninth hour and then the six verse six, the 11th hour is five o’clock because we only work one hour. Okay. Five o’clock. Okay. So, that’s that’s that’s kind of the same that that that that sets the tone for what’s going to take place here.

And we’re going to we’re going to see that. Now, verse one, when when the agreement is made, you’re going to work all day for me. It says, and I’m going to pay you, verse two, a generous. Okay, that was a common day’s coin to work all day long. Now, it’s interesting verse three. And then when when he finds these other labors, he says in verse four, you two go into the vineyard and whatever is right, I will give you. Wouldn’t you like to work for somebody like that? Um, whatever is right.

Well, what’s that? But but from his standpoint, it’s going to be less than a generous because I’m not working all day long. And that’s that would be acceptable and that would be understandable and that would be something that they would kind of get. Now the second component in the story here is the type of laborers. So, so the owners of the vineyard would go to the marketplace and you have these men who are just standing around all day wanting to be hired.

Now, if you ask them, “What’s your job?” I really don’t have a job. Um, I I may pick grapes today. I may haul manure tomorrow. Whoever needs me, I’ll work for whatever I can do. Okay? And so, uh, being from Indiana, uh, we love basketball. If you don’t play basketball in Indiana, we send you to Illinois. Okay? So, you just, you got to play basketball in Indiana. And so, the two best guys become captains. Everybody’s lined up. Who do you pick? Well, my best friend’s right there, but my best friend may not be able to dribble the ball.

Sorry, we’re playing basketball. So, I’m going to pick the best player. Okay. So I So I am the owner of the vineyard and I come to get some workers and they’re all lined up. Who am I going to pick? Yeah. I’m not going to get a guy and say, “Um, sir, when do we have coffee breaks?” Excuse me. Or, you know, I got a splinter. Can I go home? Excuse me. No, I don’t want you. I want the best workers. Okay. And so the best of the best was chosen. Now, what’s left? Well, the second best.

And so the there there’s there’s a sense of urgency here. We’ve got to get these grapes picked. And I’ll talk about that in a minute. So he goes back and he picks them. He picks the next group and the next group and the next group till we come down here to verse six, the 11th hour. Here’s a guy who’s been waiting around all day long. What patience. Now if he doesn’t get picked, he doesn’t get paid. his family doesn’t eat. So, he’s just waiting and waiting and hoping.

Now, as it says here in verse six and seven, why are you idle? It’s not because, you know, I just showed up late or I don’t feel like working all day long. No one picked me. No one chose me. And so, he’s chosen. Now, also inherent in all this there there seems to be an urgency here because he keeps going back for more workers. We we got to get this done. And from from our understandings of the culture and the climate there, when grapes were ready to be harvested, it was also the rainy season.

So if you got all these grapes and you get a heavy rain, there goes your there goes your crop. So we’ve got to get these grapes in. And so we’re in a hurry to do all these things to get these grapes in. And so there there’s that sense of urgency with us. Now up through verse seven, that’s the natural story. And what happens in verse eight is Jesus turns this upside down. Like so many parables, the kingdom of heaven is not like the way we think. The kingdom of heaven operates differently.

And so up to verse seven, you could probably have people hold up their hands. They had purple fingers from yesterday. I picked those grapes. Okay. But now in verse eight, three things happened that would not normally happen in the first century world. So he he he calls the foreman, tells him to pay the wages and pay them the last group to the first. Why would you probably not do that? Why does it matter whether pay the first guy, the last guy, the middle guy? Why does the order matter?

One. That’s right. What else? Okay, we’re going to get to that in just a minute, too. Jesus is doing this on purpose to get them to see what they’re being paid. But now imagine, imagine we’re there. We’ve spent 12 hours picking grapes. We got baskets of grapes everywhere. What are we going to do with those grapes? Yeah, we’re going to make wine, aren’t we? Most likely we’re going to make wine. So most likely, who do I want to work tomorrow? The best guys. The best guys.

So I’m most likely going to pay the first group first, go home, get some supper, come back tomorrow. I probably going to need you. Don’t bring your shoes cuz I want you to stomp on some grapes for me. Okay? But that that’s logically who they would pick. Okay? We’d pay the first guys first. But not in this story because Jesus is teaching the lesson here. The second thing that would not happen is as it says in in verse 9 verse 10 that the guy who worked a one hour the 11th hour came and received a diterance.

Why would you not do that? Work as long. Well, you’re growing grapes because your favorite color is purple. No, you’re growing grapes to make a profit. And that doesn’t make economic sense. Now, now if you if you’re if we had them all lined up here and I’m the guy worked one hour and I got a whole dinner. Well, behind me is a guy who worked three hours. What’s he thinking? Yeah. Behind him is a guy who works six hours. I’m going get more than him.

That’s a whole week. Go all the way back to the man that worked 12 hours. That’s two weeks. Maybe I don’t have to come here tomorrow. I mean he his calculator is running and that’s what he’s thinking. And so the Lord is trying to teach a lesson here about this and we’ll come back to this in just a moment. And then the third thing that would never happen in the first century world is found in verse 13 is that the master would explain himself to the servant.

Servants are like shovels. Okay? So when I use my shovel and I’m done, I hang it up, I don’t say, “Thank you, shovel, for what you did today.” It’s a shovel. These are just servants. Now, our culture is so different today. Notice in verse 13, not only does he explain himself, he uses the word friend. You’re not just a servant. You’re not just a slave. There’s a term of endearment here. I am explaining myself to you. Something that they would never ever do in a first century world.

Now, up to this point, that’s the story. So, that’s what Jesus is going to lay beside this spiritual truth. And we look at that and say, “Well, that’s a cool story. What’s this all about?” Now, I want you to notice something really interesting. Look at verse 16 of chapter 20. Verse 16 says, “Thus, the last shall be first and the first last.” Now, go back and look at the very last verse of chapter 19. Chapter 19 verse 30. Many who are first will be last and the last verse.

What Jesus is saying is here’s the principle. Here’s the illustration. Here’s the principle again. So what this is about is first is last and last is first. Cool. Let’s go home. What does that mean? What does that mean? Okay. So let’s go up in chapter 19 a little bit. Okay. And let’s kind of dig some things here. Any thoughts or questions up to this point? I’m just kind of plowing the field here. Any thoughts? Okay. Chapter 19. And chapter 19 verse 16, it says, “And behold, one came to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing should I do that may obtain eternal life?”

Stop right there. Best question you can ask. He could ask Jesus lots of questions. Jesus, how long am I going to live? Jesus, should I marry this girl? Jesus, what’s a quick way of making some money? The greatest question you can ask, what must I do to obtain eternal life? Secondly, he asked the greatest person. He didn’t ask AI. He didn’t ask his mama. He didn’t ask his local rabbi. He asked Jesus, the giver of life. What must I do to attain eternal life?

He said to him, “Why are you asking me about what is good? There’s only one who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” What’s Jesus mean? Verse 17. Why do you call me good? There’s only one who is good. What’s he driving that? Who’s the one who is good? God. You call me good. God is good. You call me God. Do you recognize you’re talking to God? That’s what I say. Do you recognize you’re talking to God? That would change your tone just a little bit, wouldn’t it?

Probably make you drop through your knees. try to make you realize, oh my, okay, he did not say, do not call me good. He did not say it’s wrong to call me good. You call me good, but there’s only one who’s good, and that is God. And so, and so then from there, he said, he said in verse 17, he said, uh, why are you asking me about what is good? There’s only one who is good. If but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. Now, one thing we lose when we read text is we don’t see faces.

We don’t see attitudes. And and and I see an attitude here by the way he answers. You know, I sometimes wish we had a video of this. I can see this guy just being a little bit cocky. And so, keep the commandments. Which ones? On the Old Testament, there’s over 600 commandments. Okay. Um Jesus could have said every single one he could have said, but he says, “You shall not commit murder, shall not commit adultery, shall not steal, shall not bear false witness.”

He’s kind of running through the negative parts of the ten commandments there. “Honor your father and mother, shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Young man said to him, “All these things I’ve kept. What am I still lacking? Why don’t I have eternal life?” Okay. Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. Come and follow me.” We don’t like verse 21 because we often wonder, “Does that apply to me?”

How would you answer that? Do I have to sell everything to go to heaven? Jesus was talking to you personally, yes. The answer could be yes. It could be. Yes. If if there’s something between me and Jesus, I need to deal with that. We can put our family between us and Jesus. I got to deal with that. I can put my possessions, my job, my health. I can put lots of things between me and Jesus. For this man, it was his wealth. And so to remove that, you got to go sell all that you have.

Okay? Sell your possessions, give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. Come and follow me. But when the young man heard this statement, verse 22, he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property. Jesus said to his disciples, verse 23, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again, I say to you, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” When disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?”

I mean, up to this point, it’s like Jesus is trying to get everybody in, and here’s a guy who wanted to come in. Jesus said, “No, no, you’re not coming in because you’ve got some issues. You got some other gods before me, so you’re not coming in.” And they’re astonished because Jesus doesn’t turn anybody away, but he does if we’re not completely committed to him. And so and then in verse 26 and looking upon Jesus he said to them with me with men this is impossible but with God all things are possible.

God can do all things. Then Peter verse 27 I love Peter. He’s my first cousin. We have a lot in common. It’s called our mouth. Okay. Okay. Our mouths get us in trouble many times. Mrs. Shall sometimes say, “Are you really going to say that?” Okay. cross that out of my sermon. Okay. [snorts] Then Peter answered and said to him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then will there be for us?” Now, stop there for a minute. Is that a true statement?

We have left everything fallen. And and if that’s a true statement, when did that happen? Remember when they were fishing? It says, “Put down your nets. Come and follow me. I’ll make you fishers of men.” And what did they do for the next three years? They followed him from village to village, from place to place. So, so basically here’s a young man, a ruler, a wealthy man. What must I do to eternal have eternal life? Jesus said, “You got some you got some issues inside.

You got to sell all that you have.” We’ve done that. What do we get? And then so Peter, that’s just so Peter just saying that. So, so then Jesus said in verse 28, “Truly I say to you that you who have followed me in a regeneration, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you will sit upon the 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.” Talking about the role of the apostles, role of authority, the role that they’re going to play in this kingdom.

Everyone who’s left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers or children or farms for my name’s sake will receive many times as much. and shall inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first then our story and then chapter 20 verse 16 the first will be last and the last will be first. So before I tell you what’s he talking about here? What’s your thinking on this? Any ideas? Who do you think is the first?

Who do you think is the last? The first will be last. The last will be first. Well, before you said that it wasn’t fair that the got the 11th hour, I would have thought it was the guy who came in in the end to be saved, who spent his whole life philandering and now I’m going to die. I need Jesus. Yeah. And then the other people were the ones who’ve been faithful to God their whole life. Okay, getting real close. Getting real close. I think the first are the apostles.

Oh, the apostles. Now you think about that. I come I come here to Orlando, Florida, already church building, already a congregation, already an eldership. Tonight we’ll take out our himnels. We’ll sing songs that’s already been written. We all have Bibles printed in our hands. The apostles went into the world where nothing nothing, no brethren. And when we go back to our story, okay, when we go back to the story here in chapter 20 and the first hour of man is complaining, he talks about he grumbles in verse 11.

And we have borne the burden of the scorching heat of the day. Had that not been the story of the apostles? Look over in the Bible. Keep your hand there, but go to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 4. And I just I just give you an illustration of this. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul here is talking about some of these things and and in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 as he’s kind of laying out how some of these things have been in his own world uh he would say in verse 8 uh he talks about how God or rather verse 9 God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death because we have become spectators of the world both of the angels and to Men, we are fools for Christ’s sake.

But you’re prudent. Says, “Present hour.” Verse 11, “We are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated. Are homeless, we toil, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure.” I have never in 50 years of preaching had somebody pick up a rock and throw up my head. I’ve had some people walk out. Had some people get mad, but no one has thrown a rock up my head because I something I said. I have never spent a night in jail because of my preaching.

Paul couldn’t say that. Paul couldn’t say that. And so when we think about this first group, how hard it was for them, how they endured and how they went through that. And then following them came men like Timothy and Titus and Apollos and and others as we read about in the New Testament. And and they they they started watering what was already planted. Following them came another generation and they started doing those things and then another generation and then it goes throughout Europe and then it crosses the ocean and comes to America and then come spreads all over to here it is.

I sometimes believe we are the 11th hour people. Now the 11th hour people got work to do. You notice that we we we don’t just get dinner for doing nothing. He calls us to work and there’s a work we have to do. But what a blessing. Now, when you when you look in in the first parts of verse 20 or chapter 20, if you had to pick out one of those time slots to work, the best time slot is 11 ⁠5:00. Early in the morning, it’s cold, the ground is wet with dew.

At noon, it’s hot, but at ⁠5:00, the sun’s going down, the ground’s dry. That’s that’s the premium time to work. And so when we think about this, he’s laying out to Peter who asked this question, what do we get? Well, you get something because you are apostles, but first are going to be last. Last is going to be first. Now, let’s go back to chapter 20 here and and and again, let’s let’s point out a couple of the phrases he uses that with that in our context and and to think about these things.

And so in verse 14, as the master is replying, “Take what is yours and go your way. But 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 what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?” That’s what this context is all about. The generosity of God. And what you notice up here up above here, look at verse 12. The man who worked all day long. These last men have worked only one hour and you made them equal to us.

This is where we see the unfairness of God when this life is. Now I told you yesterday I used to live in Kansas City and the baseball team when I was in Kansas City, the Kansas City Royals and they did the fans a lot of justice because you didn’t have to check the standing just go to the very bottom. They were always in last place. And the joke of the town was when the police pulled you over, they gave you tickets to the game cuz they were so bad.

I mean, it was just this is terrible. Well, they they had they had a thing at school at the schools that if you had good attendance, you got tickets. So, my youngest son, Joe, had perfect attendance one day. So, we got tickets to go to the game. We were the very top row. And other than alcohol, we ordered everything. We ordered nachos, hot dogs, popcorn. We we ate like hogs up there. And I remember telling one time, Joe, if you look way down there, I think those are baseball players, but you know, they’re way down there. And I think sometimes that’s our concept of heaven.

It’s a great big arena and the apostles get the best seats. 50 yard line. We get to be there, but we may be up nose bleed, but we’re going to be there. Notice what he says there in this passage. You have made them equal to us. equal to Paul, equal to Peter. And when you look at your life, said, “What have I done? I’ve not done nothing. I’ve I’ve not traveled the oceans. I’ve not started congregations. I’ve not been jailed because I’m preaching and you have made me.”

That is not fair. But God is generous. And so I think what this passage is really teaching us is that okay, I may not be the first Christians. I may not be the first hour. I may not be the the sixth hour, but I’m in this somewhere. And whatever I can do, I’m going to do for the kingdom. And when it’s all over, God is so benevolent, so generous, so loving. He’s going to make me equal to the ones who work so hard. And that’s what’s amazing. I mean, can you imagine?

And if you’ve never done this before, this is just a great way, especially some of the some of the epistles. If you’re teaching a Bible class, rather than, okay, everybody, let’s open it up to Galatians, have everybody close their Bible, and then someone just plays it because that’s how it was done originally. They didn’t have Galatians in their lap. They had to hear somebody speak it. And they couldn’t say, “Now, now over here, Timothy, over here, Titus, D, we can do that.”

They couldn’t do that. What a blessing it is. What a blessing it is to stand upon the shoulders of so many great men, Sean and Don back here and just generations before who have showed us how the prophets connect to the New Testament. How we see Jesus over in the Bible and we put all these dots together and we think, man, that’s I I get that. Turn your Bible to the book of Galatians. Again, just just another cultural emphasis for us over in Galatians chapter 3 as he talks about this oneness in Christ.

He said in verse 26, Galatians chapter 3 and verse 26, he says, “But you’re all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all who are baptized in Christ have clothed themselves with Christ. There’s neither Jew nor Greek. There’s no slave nor free man, neither male nor female. You’re all one in Christ Jesus. Now, I don’t know the logistics of how they did the Lord’s supper. Now, we know they didn’t have church buildings like we do. They didn’t have pews like we do.

Some of them met in synagogues. But go through this list here. Can you imagine a Jewish brother handing the Lord’s supper to a gentile brother? And stories have told us how the Jews felt according to the Gentiles. If you came across a cart that was turned over and there was a Gentile that was injured and his dog was injured, you take care of the dog first because that’s how Jews felt about Gentiles. But now here’s a Jewish man handing the Lord’s supper to a gentile man.

Or how about a master handing the Lord’s supper to his own servant, knowing that when church is over, he’s going to go go home and the servant’s going to feed me. But in this setting, I feed him. Now doesn’t mean much in our culture today, but back then it was huge. A man handing the Lord’s supper to a woman. really. But what this emphasized is that oneness. And so so when when we when we go back to Matthew 20 and we think about what this story is all about.

Why did Jesus tell the story? Well, this is what the kingdom of heaven that’s how he begins this in verse one. The kingdom of heaven is like this. We have a God who’s unfair because he treats us a lot better than we deserve. I mean, if we if heaven was based upon what we have done, most of us would say, I’ll probably parking cars outside is what I’m going to be doing. Okay? But it’s not that way. And we we study the lives of the apostles. We look at what they endured.

We look at those journeys they were on and we think, he’s going to make me equal with them. But that’s our God. That’s our God. And so what this does is it makes us realize how wonderful this God is, how fair he is, how benevolent he is, how generous he is, and how we need to see some wonderful things from that. Well, that’s about everything I know. So any thoughts, comments? Uh you painted a picture of me of the everybody all of us want to convert other people and we’re happy when they convert and the the senior people are happy to hold the door to heaven as all these new people go.

They’re they’re ecstatic whether it’s the last day or 10 days ago. Yes. They they want them to enjoy it. Absolutely. You know everybody is I have a question. Okay. Let me go with David first. I come back. We’ll just do an order here. Okay, that’s okay. I [snorts] I believe he just explained Acts chapter 2 when Peter when when when the question was given to Peter, this was truly the Christ. Yeah. What should we do? I mean, these are the ones that just put him on the cross.

Peter offered them, you can have the same thing we have. And and and isn’t this Acts chapter 10 going to Cornelius and and Paul? and Paul. Yeah. And and you know, again, sometimes we do this for more understanding standpoint, but we’ll talk about Jerusalem was a Jewish church. Over here, Antioch was a gentile church and gentile church sent money to a Jewish church. And sometimes we talk about this is a black church. This is a white [snorts] church.

Um, drop the names. We’re brethren. We’re brethren. And and that’s something we all see. It might be off topic, but aren’t the Jews, if they were God’s chosen people, why do they treat other people so badly? Because we are the chosen and you’re not. Yeah, but he chosen them to to treat people that way. Well, that’s just it. I was I was in uh Ohio last week in the meeting. One one of the members there was converted from the Amish. not ever stud Amish is a very closed society.

So his wife left him and the kids. He’s not allowed to see his own children. And he’s facing, okay, do I leave the faith and have a family or do I do I do I know what do I do while it’s right? Stay with the Lord. And that that would have been that would have been the Jewish culture for someone to leave that become a Christian. It’s like you’re you’re no longer one of us. Um the story of the prodigal son where we’ll be preaching on that uh Wednesday night Lord willing.

Um it’s kind of like that that that you know we you know when we talk about parables whenever I teach a class on parables and it’s happened so much now. I asked people what’s your favorite parable after the prodical son because everybody loves prodical son. I mean it’s just our favorite. But when Jesus first told that story I expect the people in the audience just shook their heads. I mean first of all what young man would dare ask his father for the inheritance?

while he’s alive. What a spineless father to accept him back through a celebration. And as Jesus tells the story, we have this obnoxious older brother who won’t even go in and they think that’s what the story is all about. That’s the hero. And what Jesus does once again is he flips it and said, “You’re so unlike your father. You shun and he accepts. You run away from and he runs too.” And again trying to get us to see that. Okay. Other thoughts? Yes.

I also see in this parable where there’s a suffering among the laborers that weren’t picked, standing there all day, not knowing if they’re going to be able to make money to be able to feed their families. Yes. And and incredible incredible hope and patience, too. Right. Just hope I get picked. I I I have been the guy when we’re picking basketball that, oh, okay, you can have him. [laughter] I’ve been that guy before. and you think, “Oh, thank you. I can just go home.”

You know, but but but that’s the feeling. That is the feeling. And and and peace and to stay there that many hours is incredible. But he had nothing else to hold on to. That’s something other thoughts. Y back to the rich young ruler. Um seemed like he was God, God’s answering that Jesus did not mention the first four commandments, right? But he mentioned these, right? And so it’s just it’s interesting that why did he mention these? Seems like this that was his problem that he didn’t love God with all his heart and his mind and his soul.

He was he was uh was covetous but did not right and and the Lord left out the word coveting and you know that was one of the commandments he doesn’t put in there the these are the ones that most people don’t have trouble with you know um you know raise your hand if you murdered anybody commit adultery no how many have stolen some most of them those are pretty easy ones and so uh so this guy so the Lord’s taking him on a little journey he doesn’t realize this and then he gets like he does.

Okay. Other thoughts? Yes. I think it this parable reveals a lot about the heart of the laborers too. And you’re talking about the generational, you know, through time. I think he calls them and they’re doing once he calls them, they do what they’re supposed to do. They’re laboring. They’re not sitting there popping the grapes, you know, sitting back and eating the grapes when they should be working. They’re not They’re not they’re not giving the grapes away.

They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re laboring. Yes. And it shows the kind of heart they have. Absolutely right. And and you know, and to that good point, um all of them were called to work. Whether it’s all day long or one hour, they all were called to work as we are. We we we don’t have to go to to do what the apostles apostles already did what they did, but we have our work to do. We have to raise families. We have to spread the word. We have to encourage one another. We have a work we have to do. And so, you know, no one no one gets in and gets paid for doing nothing.

Okay? Um that’s that’s an Americanism. Okay? We don’t we don’t do that. Um but when we’re called, we go. And that’s that’s The only reason why they were idol was because they had not been called yet. Okay. Um sometimes we are idol and we have been called and so we’ve got to think, okay, I I just need to do what I’m supposed to do with that. Okay. I thought yes. Sometimes it’s easy for us to measure ourselves against one another. Oh yes. say, “Well, you know, I’ I’ve been a Christian for 30 years and I’ve done all these wonderful things and you know, somebody else hasn’t done that or been that committed.”

Hopefully, it’s for God to decide. And I think that’s that’s a lesson here. Absolutely. Because the laborers are questioning the the boss. Yeah. And he says there in verse 15, “Do I not have the right to pay what I want to pay? It’s my vineyard. It’s my pay. Um, you know, you’re not being fair. Yes. I Because the only one that actually had the agreement was the guy who first pipped. He knew going in how much he was going to make. The rest of them didn’t know.

Now, they would assume it’s going to be less because that’s that’s natural logic. But the master kept his agreement. So, you know, you agreed to this. I kept my agreement. The rest of the guys, why? Why? We’re all We’re all God’s children. God will handle us as he deems appropriate. You know, I know as a parent, you know, my my children often said, “Well, why does, you know, why does she get why does he not have to whatever.” That’s for the parent to decide. That’s not for the children to decide.

Absolutely. Turn turn to John 21, the very last page of John. I got a whole sermon on this, but you reminded me of this. And so once again, we had Peter and Jesus having this conversation. Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love him?” three times. And of course, um, we we miss some of this in English language. We we we define words by context. I love my truck. I love my wife. I love chocolate. Okay? Those are not equals. If there are, I’m sleeping in the truck.

Okay? Those [laughter] are not equals. Okay. But in the Greek language, they would have different words. Okay? So the love of family is a a unique Greek word. The love of friends is a unique word. Okay? Here Jesus asked Peter three times the agape, the onedirectional I love you. Period. I love you no matter how how you feel about me. And Peter responds each time with the word filio which means friend. And so this goes on down through here. And then verse 18. Truly I say to you, Jesus speaking here.

I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. And when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now in other words, when you were younger, you dressed yourself, did whatever you wanted to do. days coming when someone else is going to do that for you and they’re going to stretch out your hands and they’re going to take you places you don’t want to go.

Now verse 19, he was signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. He’s basically saying, Peter, you’re going to be crucified. They’re going to stretch out your hands kind of like you stretch out the Lord’s hands and there going to be a kind time coming where they’re going to take you places you don’t want to go. Okay? And he said, “Follow him.” Peter turned around verse 20 [clears throat] saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them most likely John the one who he also leaned back on his breast at the supper and said Lord who’s the one who’s to betray you Peter therefore seeing him said to him Lord what about this man Jesus said to him if I want him to remain until I come what is that to you mind your own business see that if I want John to be alive until I come back.

That’s my business, not your business. We get so worried about everyone else, where they sit, how they drive, how they do that. And what I need to do is just focus on my lane and my walk with Jesus and do what God wants me to do. And again, that’s our parable. The man who’s picked first, he was all concerned about all the other laborers. Just pick your grapes. Just pick your grapes. Mind your own business. Okay? And sometimes we have a hard time doing that.

And I think that’s a good remeance. All right, let’s let’s stop for now. Let’s have a prayer and pick up next time tomorrow. We’re going to talk about the 911 of the Bible emergency call. And I think it’s a interesting lesson there. Thankful, Father, for the day. Thankful for us starting together. Thankful for these good hearts. Thankful for your word, Father. We’re thankful how you see us and treat us and are so generous to us. Father, you treat us better than we deserve.

Father, may we go about this day being safe. Bless us in what we do. Jesus name. Amen.