Parable of the Vineyard

Introduction

Well, a pleasant good morning to all. We’re glad you’re here this morning to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. And if you are visiting with us, you are our guests of honor, and we’re glad that you have chosen to be worshiping with us this morning. We invite both member and visitor alike to be turning in your Bibles to that scripture reading that was read to us by Brother Folks. If you’ll turn to Matthew chapter 20, I want you to be thinking along with Matthew chapter 20 and the laborers in the vineyard, and I want you to think and consider how it would be. Just think with me how it would be. If you were in a first century marketplace, if you were in one of those first century marketplaces where the vineyards were.

Outside those marketplaces were vineyards, and in the marketplaces is where they would go to hire the workers. Think with me like this. It’s 6 a.m. in the morning, early in the morning. They’re setting up white kiosks or tents, wherein the people that would be selling their different items and products would set up these tents. It’s not even quite set up yet. The families around about Galilee were assembling their items to sell. It was most likely if he was hiring people for his vineyards, it was most likely August. And the Galileans know that rainfall in August in Galilee is almost non existent. The temperature is a standard 90 to 97 degrees in that region. An old vineyard owner would know through experience that if he was going to harvest the crop, there was going to be one thing he needed, and that was workers.

And find them he would, for sure. He would give them a fair wage. For sure, he would make sure they got their earnings. But one thing was the preeminent thing, one thing was the thing he was focused on, and that is getting people out of the marketplace and into his vineyard. The marketplaces in the first century were in nearly every city. Galilee had them all about. Nazareth had a marketplace. Even the town of Magdala, where we learn of Mary Magdalene, Magdala had a marketplace too. That was a marketplace on the fishing shoreline. There was over 28 shops there. There were fishing weights for sale. There were 40 pools and a treasure trove of the city’s international brand of catch this word, Tarichos, to which Strabo called the salted fish of the high esteem of Rome.

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I’m of Puerto Rican heritage, and I like those baccalaitos, those fried fish fritters. Magdala had a niche, and it was what scholars Zapata Mesa of biblical archaeology called the very secret to ancient Magdala’s economic growth, the salted fish market. People would buy those fritters there. Often a marketplace would specialize in one particular thing for that city. Yet it was often that meaning people of the town would go out of their homes and go to these marketplaces to buy the things they needed for this for their life. Furthermore, the marketplaces were a super social setting. It was a place where people talked and mingled. It was the mingling point of all the locals. It was the social hub. People would frequently recall familiar faces.

And of course, men would show up at various times of the day to have work and to say, I’m ready to work. They’d go to those little kiosks. They’d go to those little places where people were selling things and they said, Does your company have work? I’m ready to work. And of course, they’d earn money for their efforts. Galilee was known for markets that thrived on local vineyards. In Upper Galilee, the Golan Heights had a first century vineyard, and to this day, Katsarin and Tabor and Sakin and Nazareth all still have vineyards. In Galilee, vineyards are typically ripe for harvesting at the appropriate time in July to October. And the beginning of the season is during July’s hot days. August, according to Israel’s studies and looking through their advisory sites that I checked out, said that it’s one of the hottest months of the Israelite year, and even the night can be warm, which is often assumed to be uncharacteristic of desert regions.

Now I assume that since grapes are harvested every year, that it was one on these very early mornings that the vineyard owner collaborated with his vendor back in the booth with his family and wife and children and the farm’s produce. They would raise raisins and sweet juices of new wine. They would have a special paste that was characteristic where they would take wine and they’d make it a paste, and it wouldn’t be alcoholic, it would just be like this this paste that they could put more water in and dilute it and use it for various things that could be uh saved in various ways. They’d also have the other wine that, of course, we uh read of full vintage.

They also had things that they would sell from the grape that wasn’t from the actual fruit. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I like Mediterranean Dalmathas. They’re these little rice packets. I see some of you nodding your head. They’re these little rice packets that they have them rolled in grape leaves, and you eat it, and it tastes really good. Put a little meat, put a little rice, put a grape leaf in it, tastes very good. Mothers and sons and daughters and fathers would eat those and have a little lunchtime snack. It has been researched and evinced that nearly every little town that was a crossroads with a crossroads in Bible time, had a marketplace. And this is the one we find ourselves in in Matthew chapter 20.

1. The Early Morning Laborers: Noble Saints

This morning, I want us to imagine ourselves entering therein to hear the words of Jesus saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who goes into that place and seeks out to find laborers for his vineyard. He goes out at different times of the day. It first starts about talking about those that he goes and finds early in the morning, probably 6 a.m. when he’s setting up job. People want a job, they’re willing to work, they’d be ready to be hired at 6 a.m. There are two groups of people early in the morning. One, the vineyard owner himself, who’s setting his day laborer’s wage, and two, the responsible workers, the ones who’d arrive early and stay late. The men who would not only trudge through the 90 degree plus heat of the day, but would have the diligence that parallels the diligence of the landowner himself to rise up early and establish a contract with his most non-jettisoned employees.

These men were focused. These men were deliberate. They were ones who’d agreed to a wage, and the expectation for them was contingent on their follow-through with a full day’s work for a full day’s pay. The kingdom of heaven has some very noble saints. Some first century New Testament Christians weathered the heat, worked long in the kingdom, endured challenges that occurred when they were in the faith. Many people in the kingdom have essentially lived their entire adult life in the faith of Jesus. And if you’re one who has lived that way, like myself, comes a great responsibility. We have to from time to time show others how the work is to be done. We have to have listen to these scriptures, patience and continuance in well-doing. We have to not grow weary in well-doing and not lose heart.

We have to recognize that we need to be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as Jesus Christ has forgiven us. We need to be recognizing that we’ve been forgiven and we need to show others grace.

2. Whatever Is Right You Will Receive

Part of this adventure we call kingdom citizenry is that those that seem to be noble need not tout their obedience, as if doing the will of Jesus is supposed to give them a more exalted station in heaven. In Matthew chapter 20, we read that context. We read that passage of scripture so well where it talks about the landowner going out to hire laborers in his vineyard. But look at what happens when he hires people at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. And he hires them all, and he gets them all to work in his vineyard. They come at different times, they’re standing in the marketplace, and he brings them into the vineyard, and then he says in verse 7, they verse 7, he says to them, Well, if no one’s hired you, come to the vineyard, you also go to the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.

Verse 8. 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 those who came who were hired about the 11th hour, that’s about 5 p.m. They each received a denarius. That’s a day’s wage that had been established at about 6 a.m. with the others. But when they first, those that were first came, they, that’s the early birds, they supposed they would receive more, and they all likewise received 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 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 day’s wage or for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to the last man the same as I gave to the first and to you. Is it not lawful for me to do with my things the things that I wish to do? Or is your eye evil? Because mine eye is good. So the last will be first, and the first will be last. For many are called, but few are chosen. All right. Different hours of the day, different people, at different times. Do you know who the 9 a.m. workers are? The people, the marketplace. I tend to think that’s probably when things were usual or typical or how they were set up.

The village gates were usually growing in numbers, with the old men speaking the wisdom at the gates as mentioned in books such as Proverbs. They discuss the nature of the weather. They talk about how, whoa, for every year, for a century, the land is dry and ready to harvest the grapes. Men would gather at this popular hour because the sun had yet to reach its peak height. Yet they were also standing in the marketplace looking for work. The third hour of the day was the right sweet spot for day laborers. Kind of funny that early in the mornings when he establishes the wage, the guys that are way, way early, the early morning guys. After that, he says, Whatever’s right, I’ll give you. Whatever’s right, I’ll give you.

3. Out of the Marketplace and Into the Vineyard

By our own help, we sometimes need a little more information. The ancients didn’t calculate time the way we do. So, like third hour is 9 a.m., sixth noon, ninth hours 3 p.m., 11th hours 5 p.m. We just don’t talk about time like that. But that’s how they they associated time. The main thing of this parable when we look at this is Jesus is trying to tell us, get men out of the marketplace and into the vineyard. That’s the point. If we recognize we as people need to get out of the marketplace and into the vineyard, we recognize that when we’re in the vineyard, it’s not about what we get out of it. It’s about getting ourselves into the kingdom. It’s not about comparisons. Comparisons lead to competition.

Competition leads to conflict. Conflict leads to chaos. We don’t need to be comparing ourselves with others. What it’s about is once I’m in the vineyard, I am to painstakingly self-evaluate my work in the kingdom. I’m to see what have I been doing today. I look at my task and I evaluate. Have I got out of the marketplace and begun the work? There’s a direct parallel that’s crystal clear in this parable. The marketplace represents whatever the kingdom isn’t. It’s the life before entering the kingdom. It’s the place where we have activity before we engage in spiritual kingdom work, before vineyard work. Have you ever wished someone told you about Jesus, tried painstakingly to put Bible principles together, and then at some point had someone teach you how to get into the kingdom of God.

Once in the kingdom of God, you’d happily do the bidding of God. If you were in the marketplace in the world, you would say, Well, for years I’d been idle. I’d been standing in the world. I’d been waiting for somebody to teach me what is the way to get into the kingdom. And when I saw the way that was Jesus’ way, I was willing to go therein, out of the world, and into the kingdom. That’s what Jesus means when he says, Why are you idle? And they say, Well, no one offered me an opportunity to get into the vineyard. God seeks every day to call people into his vineyard. And at the stages of life, he calls over and over and over lives of men and lives of women into the vineyard.

Yet few choose to answer God’s call. Some are Christians when teenagers are early, when teenagers are earlier, rather. Most people in the book of Acts, if you just read through the book of Acts, most of the converts in Acts were adults. That’s the case. They learned the gospel a little later in life. And that’s what we learn of.

4. The Same Reward in Heaven

They become one in the kingdom of God very, very late. I want you to look at a passage of scripture in verse 9. He says in chapter 20, verse 1, he says, The kingdom of heaven’s like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers in his vineyard. There were people in the first century that lived, worked, and died for the kingdom of heaven. They were the early birds. We all could be considered some of these later hour ones. But here’s one who came at 5 p.m. They’re going to wrap up their work at 6, and this guy worked one hour. And he gets a full day’s wage for the same pay as what we might call the apostles. I once baptized a guy that was 90 years old.

I want to tell you a story. I won’t tell you his name, but I’ll tell you his circumstances. He’s no longer with us. He’s gone the way of all the earth. But that happened very soon after he was baptized. He wasn’t a Christian for more than a couple months. He didn’t live for more than a couple months after his baptism. The first time he partook of the Lord’s Supper, he was sitting there with the Lord’s Supper, and he looks to the guy next to him. He says, What do I do with it? I was sitting by there. I said, I saw what you did. He goes, What do I do with it? And he said, Well, you take this. I don’t pass it, I don’t give it to somebody.

Well, what do I do? He goes, Well, you partake of the Lord’s Supper. You’re a Christian now, so that’s your ability to remember the death of the Lord. And he said, Okay, he takes that. You know why he never became a Christian for years and years and years? This stuff. He thought he had to dress a certain way, and that the people in the church he was in said, Well, you’re you don’t have as fancy enough clothes as us. And he just felt slighted that maybe he didn’t have the right clothes for worship. I want to tell you something that’s very important. Those of us that are able to dress respectably and able to put our best foot forward and dress uh in a way that shows reverence to God could really do that.

But we need to recognize that some people they might not have what we have, and we might need to be the type of people that recognize what Jesus said himself. For those who have two coats, give so that you can have one and they can have one. Most of us that have coats have way more than two. And so it might be one of those situations where we could help those in need. And evidently, that fellow was a next door neighbor of an elder of the church. But he is a next door neighbor of that kid. They were both little kids together. And he said, Come on to church. You know what you need to do. You know you need to be right with the Lord.

And the 90-year-old was baptized. I don’t know if that fellow that I baptized ever taught anybody about the gospel. He only was a Christian for a couple of months. Barely knew what to do with the Lord’s Supper. But you know what I know, and that I guess you’re all getting ready to think in your mind before I finish the story? He’s gonna get the same reward in heaven as me. He’s not gonna get a lesser thing in heaven than me. We’re all going to be glad to say what the psalmist said long, long time ago. I would be rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than stand in the tents of wickedness. He’s basically gonna be in heaven serving the Lord, probably with more purity and simplicity and basic faith than many of the people that would have lived longer in the faith.

5. Do I Accept God’s Choices?

And that’s important for us to recognize. We need to recognize who we are are, our Christians all working together for the cause of Christ. Do I accept God’s choices? Is it not lawful for me? This is what the landowner says, the vineyard owner. We could just say God. This is what he says. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Is your eye evil because I’m good? Can I do whatever I want to do? That’s what God is basically saying. 1 Samuel 15 2. We won’t go there. We’ll just kind of recall the story. Samuel tells Saul, Go to the Amalekites. The Amalekites were really bad, and on the way they ambushed us. And because they did that, you execute the Amalekites.

Kill King Agag, kill the enemy. They did really bad. So because they did bad, they need to be taken out. Now, Saul doesn’t do that. It was a warfare point. It was not God just being a mean bully God. God’s not mean, He’s not a bully. He said the destruction was to be meted because the nation was of Amalek was against Israel, and they’d ambushed the sojourners when they were exiting Egypt. It’s just God’s choice. And he says, He says to do that, and Samuel tells Saul what to do, and Saul just says, Now I’m not going to do that. I’m going to come up with some other some other thing I want to do. He keeps Agag alive.

God said in Mark 16 16, he who believes and is baptized shall be saved. He who does not believe shall be condemned. Many say, Well, I just say a sinner’s prayer. I just wish to accept, or maybe they just think a prayer will save them, or they’ll think, well, maybe everybody was baptized uh real real early, and I don’t really know what I was doing, but it was a baptism. I didn’t really have faith, but I have baptism. So you have some people they have a lot of faith but not baptism, and others they have a type of baptism but didn’t have faith. And is either one of those going to amount to anything? No. He says, He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.

So you need belief and baptism in order to be saved. If you’re in the Lord’s vineyard today, it’s because you repented and were baptized for the forgiveness of sins to get in the vineyard. That’s the point I’m trying to make. You can you can tiptoe all around different ideas of what people say is a good thing or ideas for the faith, but God determines what puts you into the vineyard. The wisdom of God. The wisdom of God is there for us. We need to accept God’s choices. We need to accept God’s wisdom. There’s a lot of wisdom in God choosing vineyard workers at various stages.

6. Maybe It’s Not All About You

Maybe it’s not all about you. Getting in the vineyard is contingent on entering by his terms, and once you’re there, it makes no sense to say it’s all about you. In Exodus 18 14, you have a passage of scripture that I love studying. If you look at Exodus, turn there with me, the book of Exodus. And if you’ll look on the PowerPoint slide, it has the wrong chapter. It says 17, that’s water from the rock and victory over the Amalekites. But if you’ll know that sometimes even preachers put a little typo in their notes, turn on to your scriptures to chapter 18 and learn about Jethro. Jethro is Moses’ father in law. Jethro is known as Jethro Ruel of Midian, priest of Midian and Zephora’s dad.

And Jethro gives a lot of good advice to Moses. He says, it makes no sense for you as one guy to arbitrate absolutely every individual complication that arises between the people. You are blessed with a retinue of elders of the people. Allow them the opportunity to use their fair-mindedness so you don’t get wore out. Then if there is a quite difficult case or complicated thing that comes out concerning God’s decrees, then they can lean on your coordinated wisdom, and then everyone will be at ease.

Do a little Old Testament application. Moses, I’m connecting a parable with a parable or a real life story with a parable. Moses doesn’t need to teach an 11th hour Christian how to harvest grapes. A ninth hour Christian can do that. Elders and deacons don’t need to teach the process of how to read a Bible or a concordance to a newly converted one in Christ. Yet our newest Christians surely need to know how to do that. And that was part of what I taught in the high school class this morning how to read a concordance, how to study, how to use that tool. All we as Christians should be reading our Bibles and doing various things on various levels. And what I’m basically saying is that the one that’s working in the vineyard early, early, early, doesn’t have to necessarily be doing the things that other people, other workers at other times in the vineyard, can teach the later one in the vineyard how to do.

One of the things I was told when growing up by my dear mother, there she is, was to periodically ask my parents and teachers and leaders, is there anything I can do to help? I try to teach that to my kids too, Mom. Try to teach them the same thing. Robert’s smiling. He gets that. I guarantee if anyone here has a question regarding evangelism, I have plenty that you can do to help. And there are specific things you can do. There are specific people you can connect with. There are measurable things that can be done, both in groups and individual as such. You can send me a text, state who you are, and I will give you an assignment tailor selected for you. Okay? I’m serious.

I’m not just saying that. I am serious. Our elders have a great vision, but in the vineyard where there is a lot of work to be done, it’s not practical for one, two, three, or four people to do the work that can be done by so many others. There are some things that are done that maybe to some they might appear small, but to others, that small thing is a huge big deal. Something you did may be a huge big thing to them. Let us never forget the father in law of Moses named Jethro Ruel, the priest of Midian, who knew full well Moses, delegate, man, delegate. Send this person to do that, send this person to do that, have that guy do that, and work together.

And it worked. The next part of our lesson should come as no surprise to you. God said to the kingdom citizens, take what’s yours. Go your way.

Conclusion

Combining parables again. Luke 18, 10 says, two men went up to the temple to pray. One prayed with himself, and as I could say, the other pleaded with his Lord. When people are restored and seek encouragement, God values their honesty, their openness, their courage, their vulnerability, their faith, and their coordinated efforts to serve the Lord prayerfully and on bended knee. As we study this type of lesson, we need to realize one main thing about the lesson. Just one. When you go home this week and you consider this lesson, remember one thing. God wants us out of the marketplace of this world and into his vineyard. And when rewards are given out on judgment day, let us all be contented to hear, well done, and respect that heaven rewards in reward to the obedient, the same reward for all.

Hear the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. Say, I believe in Jesus, confess the name of Christ, turn away from wickedness, turn away from evil, turn away from the things that would distract us from being focused. Turn away from sin and serve the Almighty God. Acts 2 38 says, Let every one of you repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Spirit. For the promises to you and to those who are far off is many, as many as the Lord our God will call. And he will call. And he has been patient. And the Lord has said very clearly through the scriptures in 1 Peter that the Lord is not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

And he waits patiently and waits patiently. He doesn’t just call those early, he calls those late. But I’ll tell you, you’re not guaranteed another day. You don’t know what will happen. For the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and we must be ready. For the day of the Lord will come suddenly, as the Thessalonian letter says, as if labor pains upon a pregnant woman. No one knows exactly when that’s going to happen. Oh, there it is. We need to be ready for the coming of the great day of the Lord. And when we’re ready, when we’re ready, and we serve the Lord and we get to be put to work in the vineyard, when the Lord comes back, he will reward the faithful.

Yes, when he rewards the faithful, what a great day that will be.