I absolutely love being a pastor. But one thing you gotta know is that pastors
are people too. And in this particular case, I am a dad and I am an avid sports
fan. And so what that means is that when you are watching a sporting event or
game, specifically watching your child's game, we tend to get animated and, and
we forget our pastoral role from time to time and we shout encouragement and
blessings um at the refs and the calls and the things out there. Of course,
every fan of their particular sport and their particular team has perfect
vision, don't we? We see every call, we see every missed call, every missed
play, what the coach should have done. If the fans could coach the games, our
teams would be undefeated all the time, right? I, I don't envy the position of a
referee though because you go into it knowing that half the crowd is gonna be
mad at you for the most part. And if you do your job correctly, you go
unnoticed. And so that's a tough job. But we love to shout things and encourage
and complain like, oh, that's a foul. That's not fair. Right? And we have this
sense of fairness, right? We want it to be equal, both ways, call it both ways.
Right? We want, and we shout and we praise and encourage and bless because
that's what we do, uh, the word for it. And, um, and so we go and, and this idea
of fairness and, and, and justice and wanting something to be fair is something
that you don't even have to teach your Children because everything is a battle
and everything is mine. And if it's not exactly the same, your child will shout.
That's not fair. Right. Well, I wanted the blue straw. I wanted this. His seat
is better than mine. I wanted the window. I wanted the middle. I want he got his
cake first. Why does he get to stay up later? It's not fair. Right? But the
truth is as adults, while we see that in Children, we're just grown Children.
And we take this idea of fairness into our lives as well. And so if you are
driving on the road or if you're in the supermarket and you pick that checkout
line and your line, the person in front of you happens to be one of the coupon
people and then you get annoyed at the line. Next, you going, checking through
just flying through and you're just standing there and you think to yourself
that's not fair. I it's almost to the point where even if we don't utter it out
loud when you do say it, it almost feels cathartic. It could almost be like its
own game show. Right? Kind of like the price is right. Do, do, do do, except
it's called, that's not fair. It's actually a lot of fun to say. So I'm gonna
give you a chance right now. Go ahead. Turn to your neighbor with enthusiasm and
say that's not fair. All right. for some of you who weren't paying attention and
really confused, I'm gonna give you a chance too. So one more time, you can turn
to someone else or turn to the same person whoever you want and with, with
enthusiasm. Go ahead and say that's not fair. All right now, I'm gonna give you
a chance to say that when we're reading our scripture today. So remember verse
nine and verse 10, OK, verse nine and verse 10. In our passage today, you're
gonna be able to say that phrase, I'm gonna pause and we're gonna say it
together. But today's message is entitled when life's not fair because you will
go through many experiences in which you think or will utter. Life's not fair.
Well, today, we're gonna take a look at a parable of Jesus. Our series Stories
of The Kingdom is taking a look at the messages of Jesus who primarily taught
through story called Parables. And in fact, a parable is defined this way. A
parable is a practical story Jesus tells to illustrate a spiritual truth. The
word parable inter interestingly enough comes from a root word that actually
means to place alongside. Then interesting. That's what parable means. And so
that's what you do when you tell a parable is that you take a unknown topic or
spiritual truth and you place it alongside a practical story that people
understand and can then associate and connect to a deeper meaning. Now, when
Jesus taught through parables, his primary theme of his parables were about the
Kingdom of God. And we define the Kingdom of God this way. Last week, the
Kingdom of God is the power of God working through the people of God. Another
way to think about it is the reign and rule of Jesus that if you have a king,
then you have a kingdom. If you have a leader, you have people. And what's
confusing about that, especially in America where we are in our context is that
we don't tend to think of kingdoms outside of movies and books. But this concept
here is really that Jesus is reigning right now and that his kingdom is a
spiritual one. It'll it upon his return, the return of Jesus, it will eventually
be a physical kingdom. But right now, it is still a spiritual reality. And so
when you pray to receive Jesus into your life, you invite Jesus to be the king
and ruler and reign in your life that you are ushered into the Kingdom of God.
And then you are invited then to live kingdom down versus culture up and you get
to bring into your relationships into your workplace and your conversations a
little bit of heaven, a little bit of the kingdom into your life. Now, our
parable today is one of the least popular ones of Jesus because at the end of
it, you're gonna think that's not fair. And so we know that going in. But right
now this, I want you to know that this parable is all about focus and
perspective and priority. So if you're taking notes, I invite you to write this
down, that grace isn't fair, but it's what we need. When we think life isn't
fair. The reality is the deeper spiritual meaning is that grace isn't fair, but
it's exactly what we need. Our parable is found in Matthew chapter 20 it's
entitled the Parable of the Vineyard Workers. But in most cases, a parable is
found within a context or an audience. And so you can hear and you can share a
parable with others. And so it can stand alone on its own merit. But it helps to
read the Bible within the context and to the audience through which the message
was originally shared. Now, I love chapters and verses. But we have to know that
when the Bible was first written, there were no chapters and verses that those
were put in after the fact so that we could reference them. I mean, can you
imagine if it didn't, can you imagine if everyone came in with scrolls this
morning? Like, all right, open your scroll to the gospel account from Matthew.
And we're like trying to go through and everything. And so I'm very grateful for
the, the numbers for the chapters and for the verses, but sometimes where that
hurts us is that we miss the context of a story. And in this case, this parable
is within a particular context. And so in the chapter before Matthew 20 chapter
19, specifically verses 13 to 14, there is a story, a brief story about where
Children with all their snotty noses and dirty fingers are running up to Jesus
and the disciples get in the way. Whoa whoa whoa. And they try to push those
street kids away and Jesus, no, let the Children come for to these or to those
here belong the kingdom of God. And I love that messaging, especially as we head
into kids camp in V BS this week that God and Jesus love the little Children and
that Children are free to come before God and are accepted within his kingdom.
And then right after that, there's a story of this rich young man or other
gospel accounts, they call him the rich young ruler. And so by all accounts,
this guy had everything that the world wanted. So he was rich, he was young,
probably good looking and in good health and he had power and authority and then
to top it off, right. Like if you ever see somebody who's good looking in public
and you're like, I bet they're a jerk and you just kind of tell yourself that
this is just me. Am I the only messed up one that does that? Ok. Anyway, um, you
know, and so you go like, uh, they don't, they're not the whole package though,
you know, like there's gotta be something off of them. Well, people might be
thinking that but then he says, you know, rabbi teach your master, what must I
do to inherit the kingdom of God? And he starts rallying off some of the old
Testament commandments. And then this guy says, I've actually, I've kept all
those. So now this guy is even morally good as well. Like, so now he's even a
nice guy. So he's rich. He's young, he's a ruler. He's nice. Oh, I hate those
guys. And so then go and like, and then Jesus, 01 more thing. So all you have
give to the poor come and follow me. And he said that not because it is a
requirement to follow Jesus to sell all of your possessions, but rather he knew
the idol in that person's life. And so it's not that Jesus will ask all of us to
sell all of our possessions and give everything away. But if he did ask you
would you be willing? Because his wealth was his idol. And Jesus knew that. And
so this man went away, sad because he had a lot of possessions. So at which
point then Jesus says, well, it's tough for the rich to enter the kingdom of
God. Why? Because they don't understand, they have a need that can only be met
and wow, people are like, man, that would be a lot to give up all of my stuff.
But think about what that rich young man passed up an internship and and
connection with the creator of the world and the savior of the world. And so by
comparison, there really is no comparison but the disciples are confused because
Jesus lets the kids come the rich, handsome, smart dude with a lot of money
while they are a traveling group of uneducated bandits. Basically, he walks away
and they're like, well then who can get in if this guy can't get in, who, who
makes the team, you know, if this guy gets cut, who makes the team? And Jesus
actually confirms, he says, look, I didn't say that he can. I just said it would
be tough. He says with man, it's impossible but with God, anything is possible.
So then Peter, oh good old Peter come back said, hey, Jesus, you know, you
talked about giving up everything we did that. So what am I getting put? I just
pictured him putting his hands out like All right, what are we getting then
Jesus and Jesus does two things. He actually says, first, you will get 100 fold,
1000 fold of what you, you would even imagine here on earth. So I'm gonna bless
you and give you more than you could ever think or imagine in heaven. So yes,
you will be rewarded. But second, Peter, your focus is off. It's not the point.
And he gives this warning and he gives this phrase that says the first shall be
last and the last shall be first. Now that sounds very Yoda like right? And so I
imagine the disciples hearing that phrase, give me a little bit of look of doubt
like huh, like we just want some stuff and reward and you, and you tell us the
last will be first and the first will be last. It's in this, that then he tells
a story and the story that we're gonna read today. See our parable today is
really based on a principle and that principle is the last shall be first and
the first shall be last. And so he tells this story here in Matthew chapter 20.
Matthew chapter 20. I want you to picture what character would you be in the
story. OK. We're gonna come back to that. So verse one for the Kingdom of
Heaven, also another gospel to talk about the Kingdom of God. Same thing for the
Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning
to hire laborers for his vineyard. So you got an owner, you got a master
wealthy. When it came time to harvest, they would need day workers. And so they
need a lot of people to work in a short amount of time. And so he went to the
market and they would see people. So here we go, verse two, after agreeing with
the laborers for Daenerys a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Now, they're
guessing this is probably about six o'clock in the morning, typically with the
Jewish time and calendar. So at six in the morning, you go to the market and
let's just think this through for a second. If you are a owner and you're hiring
workers who are you most likely to hire, you're gonna hire the young, the in
shape the experts and not necessarily, but most likely the fact that we have an
agreed upon term is that they probably negotiated, right? Because they're
probably getting recruited from different landowners and you want the best for
your field and say, whoa, whoa, what are you gonna give me? And so they said
Daenerys, ok, I'll take it, I'll come work for you. And so they agree upon a
price and they start working. Now that's 6 a.m. verse three and going out about
the third hour. So now it's nine o'clock in the morning. He saw others standing
idle in the marketplace. Why would he get more workers simply put, because
there's more work needed, there's more work needed to be done. OK. 9 a.m. He
goes and says in verse four, you go into the vineyard too and whatever is right,
I will give you. So they went, they, they don't even need to negotiate at this
point. They're just happy to have a job. Hey, whatever's right. I'm gonna pay
you done. I already got passed over at six AMI missed the first round but you
know, it's not bad being a second round draft pick. You know what I mean? Like
second round, you still get some guaranteed money in there, right? I'll take it.
Ok. So they went, going out and said going out again about the sixth hour. So
now we're at noon and the ninth hour. So three o'clock, he did the same verse
six in about the 11th hour. So we're talking about 5 p.m. Workers started at 6
a.m. Been working all day. Ok. And then now we're at 5 p.m. we got one hour
left. The day is almost done. He went out and he found others standing and he
said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? And they said to him because
no one has hired us. Now think about the crop of people still in the marketplace
at this time. They're probably not your top notch people, right? Maybe they're
lazy and they slept in. Although it says they've been standing there all day,
like, wouldn't you at some point? Call it a day? Like I'll try again the next
day. Most likely these people would have been standing there day after day after
day, being overlooked, being passed over. And they, these are the people that
you pick last for kickball. These are the people that you would not want in the
group project. These are the people that would not get the job that are bouncing
around from one to the next. And these are the overlooked. These are the least
the last and the lost. And he says, hey, I need you. He said, go into the
Vineyard two verse eight. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said
to his foreman call the laborers and pay them their wages beginning with the
last up to the first. Now, why would you pay the the last workers first? Well,
because you know, the first workers are gonna wait, right? And again, this is a
parable. It's to teach us the last will be first verse will be last, right? So
you see this imagery lining up here for this principle. And so here we go, verse
nine. Remember what we, we're gonna say here at the end of this verse, this and
when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a daenerys into
which all of us say that's not fair when they come in with an hour to go and
they get a daenerys. Now, you know, the workers are like, wait a second, if
they're getting one, does that mean we're getting 12? We picked the right owner
today, right? But then verse 10 and now when those hired first came, they
thought they would receive more, but each of them also received daenerys to
which we all say that's not fair. And how do they respond? Verse 11, just like
we all probably would. And upon receiving it, they grumbled. Now again, they
received the agreed amount they negotiated, they got what they asked for. They,
it wasn't like he took theirs and gave it to the other people. They still got
what they asked for. They grumbled at the master of the house. Now as a
principal, it's not good to yell at your employer, right? Like it's not good to
shout at the person giving you a paycheck. But this is exactly what they do say
in verse 12. These um saying here in verse 12, in here, it says that these last
worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the
burden of the day in the scorching Arizona heat. Ok? I might have added a word
but we understand he's like hold up, we worked the heat. But notice the owner's
response he says, but he replied to one of them friend. See, even in his rebuke,
he still was gentle with them and called them friend. He didn't call him
servant, he didn't call him slave. He didn't call him day worker. He called him
friend. He says, friend. Am I doing you? No wrong. Did you not agree with me?
For Daenerys? Take what belongs to you and go? I choose to give this uh I choose
to give this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose
with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? We, in the ESV
version, the Niv, I love their phrase and it says, are you envious? Because I'm
generous. And then it says verse 16. And so the last will be first and the first
will be last. And that's a cool story. But isn't there a little bit of you?
Like, I don't know Jesus, I, I'd be pretty mad if I was at 6 a.m. work or right?
And we started thinking about times where we didn't get what we thought we
should get. Here's the thing is that those first workers, they had the wrong
attitude, both the owner and to others. See, their focus was on fairness and not
on freedom. You don't get to be a day worker unless you are in some pretty
significant need. And they were blessed with a job with an owner that called
them friend and with respect to which then they were paid for the job they did.
And so they didn't have respect to the owner and really they focused on their
fairness, not on their freedom. Another way to think of it is they focus on
their expectation and not their experience. I wonder how many of us come to God
and worship God with our expectations, right? When we get the promotion, we're
like Jesus, you reign above it all. You are the same God, right? Then you lose
that job. Are you still singing that song? Right? Are you still singing it? When
the it doesn't go your way? Are you worshiping based on what you get or
worshiping based on your expectation versus the experience and on who God is and
what he's already done. Here's the other thing is that when we read the story,
we tend to focus on the workers. Remember what I said a parable. So the place
alongside takes a practical story to reveal a spiritual truth. The very first
phrase of the parable is that the Kingdom of God is like a master. This means
that the main character of the story is not the worker, but the master. You
know, some people say this parable is about salvation because whether you get
saved when you're young and you live all your life saved or in your last moments
in life, you get saved that we all get eternal life. And that makes sense. It
does. It's not quite a parable about salvation because it's about work. And
there's nothing you can do. You don't work for your salvation. So it's not a
parable about salvation. However, it is a parable that reveals the character of
the God who saves you. It is a glimpse of the heart of Jesus and the heart of
God. There's that show undercover boss, right? Where the CEO goes and works
among the employees for a week or so and sees what life is like. This story is
like an undercover God. We get a glimpse into the heart and mindset of God. Now
reading this story through that lens starts to make a little more sense because
we see Him saying God saying like, do I not get to give what I want to whom I
want? I'm God. Yeah. Right. He owns all things. He's all knowing, all present,
all powerful. And so when you think about that, that really this parable is
about the grace and the generosity of the owner and it's about the perspective
of the workers. See this principle about humility coming before our heavenly
Father, coming before our savior rings throughout scripture. For example,
Matthew 2312 says, whoever exalts himself will be humble, whoever humbles
himself will be exalted. Paul writes to Ephesus in Ephesians 47, he says, but
grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gifts.
Now, the author of that, his name was Paul. Now, Paul would really be seen as
like the Mount Rushmore of believers and church leaders. In fact, he wrote a
good percentage of The New Testament. And so the question is, how did Paul view
himself? So he had Roman background, he had Greek ties, he was educated, he
memorized the early books of the Old Testament known as the Torah. He was a
teacher, he was, he was smart. And then when he became a Christian, now he's
planting churches, developing leaders. And so he is a baller like he, if there
is world rankings, he is going first, if there is a draft of Christians, right?
You're coming up, right? There's all this talk in the NBA that there was one
clear number one draft pick. In this case, you're going one pick, you're going
Paul, right? He's the number one pick. He's he if you wrote most of the New
Testament, that's, that's a pretty good resume builder, right? And so you would
think he would get more reward than most. But how did Paul view himself? How did
Paul view himself? He tells us in a few places. I'm gonna share two with you 1st
and 1st Timothy one. Paul's writing to his godson here, Timothy verse 15 to 17.
He says, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. He says,
but I receive mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ
might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in
Him for eternal life, to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God
be honor and glory forever and ever amen. Who was the main character of Paul's
story, Jesus to the point where every chance he got, he elevated Jesus and said,
I am a sinner saved by grace and I am the worst of the worst and I do not
deserve anything. And that's what it is to receive a gift of grace. If grace is
deserved, it's not grace. Paul, another letter to the church in Corinth, first
Corinthians 15 verses nine and 10. It says for I am the least of the apostles
unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by
the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace to me was not in vain. On the
contrary, I worked harder than any of them. I love that because he didn't just
receive his grace and sit back rather, he used his grace as motivation to live
differently. But then he even clarified that it's like whoa, whoa whoa, just to
clarify. I didn't receive grace worked really hard and that was it. But even my
work, he says though it was not I but the grace of God that is in me, even the
work I do now, every single day I live by grace, it is grace. That sets me free.
It is grace that gives me joy. It is grace that gives me love. I don't deserve
any of it, but I graciously receive his generosity and I want to pass that
through to everyone else that I can. So here's the thing. We're not in this
story. But if we were in the story of the parable, we would be the 11th hour
workers. Think about it for a second. Many of us in this room, the hardest thing
we had to battle today was our snooze button to which then we entered a vehicle
and we bypassed some of the heat and came into an air conditioned space in a
country where we are free to gather, to open up our Bible. And if we forgot our
Bible, we have it on a smart device here and if we're and we can't even make it,
we, we hit our snooze button too many times. We're now tuning in online. Think
about the early church and the persecution without written scriptures, knowing
that their lives were at stake where they would go and they would struggle and
they didn't have it. So now we can freely gather, freely worship, access to
scripture and teaching and preaching and worship more than ever before
connecting with the global world as we know it along with 2000 years of proof of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And there are more believers today than any
time in history. Church. We are the 11th hour workers. We just are that, here's
the, here's the thing. We gotta remember that we have a God. We have an owner.
We have a master who keeps searching. He keeps going out and finding more
people, people that are overlooked. People that are bypassed people that think
that they're not worthy people that have a past people that have doubts and
struggles and issues and battles. And God comes to him and says, I need you. We
got work to do. Amen. Grace isn't fair, but it's exactly what we need. You wanna
talk about fairness. If God were fair, all of us would deserve help. It was. And
here's the thing, God is a God of justice. God is a God who rescues and Satan's
getting his and evil will be taken care of hell. I understand this hell is an
example of God's justice. Let's not forget that. But out of that is pull those
who receive Him as a marking of grace. We are the least the last and the lost
and God looks down and says you are worthy. You are mine. I need you. This means
that if you've messed up relationships, if you've messed up things in the past,
there might be earthly consequences, understand that, but it's not too late. And
so how do we respond to the grace of God? And we do three things? Number one
first. Praise him. Do you grumble to God? Based on fairness and your
expectations or do you praise God for the freedom that He's given you in the
grace? That's not deserved. Second thing when you praise God, then you celebrate
others. OK? I think we're going to be surprised at some of the people who make
it into heaven. Right? We're gonna be up there like whoa streets of gold. Let's
go. You're here. She's here. Some people will be like you're here. We also might
be surprised that some of the people who don't make it. I look, pastors aren't
immune to this. We pray for revival. We work, we preach, we want decisions, we
want baptisms, right? For a pastor. The challenge is like you're praying, you're
preaching and then you hear the street, you know, you've been preaching for
years doing all this stuff and then the person down the street like fumbles and
bumbles and doesn't have anything and just says uh Jesus and 1000 people get
saved. You're like, wait, what? Even as a pastor, we go, that's not fair, right?
So even the check of my own spirit, do I want revival here? Yes, I do. But can I
do? I just want revival? See the difference like you can celebrate the grace on
somebody else and that doesn't diminish the work in your life. How about the
fact that if you do consider yourself to be the early worker? What if you flip
the script instead of saying it as a burden. You think of it as a blessing. In
other words, you're walking through a tough situation, but you know what God
knew you could handle it. You have the strength to battle something that maybe
the person next to you couldn't. There is grace in all of that. So the first
thing we do is we praise God. The second thing we do is we celebrate others. We
celebrate when someone is saved. When someone's life is turned around, when God
uses them, when they are blessed. When they can you celebrate when that person
gets the promotion? Can you celebrate when others around you celebrate? You
don't have to lose in order for somebody else to win. Can you just celebrate
others that we have a good and gracious and generous God who has already given
us the goodness and grace that we needed. Because again, we view ourselves as
the 11th hour worker so that we can turn around and say, hey, God's not done.
And then the last thing that we do then is that we get to work. He calls us into
the harvest season and says, let's go. I believe we're in the last hour of
history here, metaphorically here. I don't know when God's going to return, but
I think it's coming soon and we have all the tools and the resources to go and
reach this world with the gospel. And so it's time to get to work. It's time to
go out and tell others about the good news of Jesus and saying, hey, you may
think you've missed your opportunity but you haven't. It's not too late. God's
not done. You're not dead. God's right here. He's right here. He's right now.
He's available and you don't deserve it. I didn't deserve it. But what was given
to me is available to you. Let's go. How do I know this to be true? Because we
shared the earlier context that the first will be last, the last will be first
that it's about humbly coming before a gracious owner who gives freely to those
who wants to. But the very next verse after this parable verse 17 to 20 reads
this and Jesus was going up to Jerusalem and he took the 12 disciples aside and
on the way, he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of
man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will
condemn him to death and deliver him over to the gentiles to be mocked and
flogged and crucified and he will be raised on the third day, Jesus can freely
give because he took on the wrath of God. He took on the justice of God so that
he can freely give to us. He is the master, he is the owner. He's the one that
reigns and rules and he used his power to sacrifice his life for the least, the
last, the last you and I the 11th hour workers so that we can respond to this
grace. You know, we sing of amazing grace. You know, we don't think of it's
about time. Grace. I expected grace like average grace. The whole reason it's
amazing is because we don't deserve it. We don't say regular grace. It's about
time, you know, to give someone awesome like me, you are welcome, God, You're
welcome everyone else. You're blessed to even call me friend. Like like think
about the attitude, right? No, it's, it's not. It's the way to come before God
is just the complete utter humility at his feet. To where the author of that
hymn that we sing. John Newton on his epitaph. He viewed himself as that 11th
hour worker. That's why he could sing. Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me. He wrote these words on his tombstone. He said, John
Newton clerk once an infidel in Libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa. He was
a slave trader. Do you know that? The Amazing Grace song of the most sung song
in the world written by a slave trader who gets saved changes his life says but
was the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, persevered, restored
pardon and appointed to preach the faith that he had long labored to destroy.
Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost,
but now I'm found, was blind. But now I see this is the parable. Our God is
gracious. Our God is generous. Let's receive that. Now, dear father, we come
before you as we get ready to take communion. God, we reflect on what you did
that you gave your life for us, that you give freely to whom you want when you
want, how you want because you are God. And so we received your gift. We believe
that you are Lord, we believe that you are a savior. We praise you for who you
are, what you've done. We celebrate when others are used by you and God, it's
time to get to work. It is an honor and a privilege to work in your fields
during this harvest season. Maybe we have that perspective of not what is
expected but what we experience that you give far beyond because if you were
fair, God, all of us would deserve hell. But because you are gracious and
generous, you save some and God, we save those who call upon your name. And so
we call upon your name now. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for saving us. We
reflect on this time now and this grace that is so amazing. He says, let me
pray. Amen.