Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

How do you measure success?

It’s one of the most important and life-defining questions that we ask.

None of us wants to come to the end of our lives only to realize that we’ve failed.

Our most common means of measuring the success of our lives is by comparing them with others.

How good of a mom am I? Well, how do I compare with the other moms?

How good of a husband am I? Am I doing better or worse than most other husbands?

How good of a pastor or an intellect or an entrepreneur am I? How do I stack up against the others?

Things were no different in Jesus’ day.

In fact, in Jesus’ day, the perceived successes and the perceived failures were even more publicly prominent.

In Jesus’ society, it was all about how you ranked in society.

That’s why in a couple of weeks, we’re going to see the momma of two of Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus to place her babies on his right and left sides in the Kingdom of God.

She wanted to make sure that her baby boys were considered successes and given positions of honor in the Kingdom.

So, this morning, we’re going to continue seeing Jesus teaching us the extraordinary value system of the Kingdom.

On the Kingdom of earth, your success and your honor may be determined by your position and your merit, but in the Kingdom of God it will be completely different.

God’s Word

Read

Don’t Trust Your Eyes

"What then will we have?"

It's important to remember the context in which we find chapter 20.

Jesus and his disciples had just been approached by the Rich Young Ruler who had departed Jesus sad because Jesus had told him to inherit eternal life he would have to betray his wealth, and it was a price too high for him to pay.

Peter responds to this situation on behalf of the disciples by asking Jesus, "What then will we have?

We, who have laid down everything to follow you.

We, who have left businesses and livelihoods believing that you were the Messiah.

We, who live under death threats and constant scrutiny.

What then will we have?"

You see, from the perspective of the disciples it appeared as though the Rich Young Ruler was better off than they were.

Or, to put it in spiritual terms, that he was more 'blessed' than they were.

They had been trained to think like most of us to believe that God's favor and your riches are proportional to one another.

You see, in comparison to the Rich Young Ruler, it didn't appear that the disciples were doing very well.

It appeared, from the outside looking in, that the Rich Young Ruler had experienced the blessing of God far greater than they had.

"What then will we have?"

It's important to remember the context in which we find chapter 20.

Jesus and his disciples had just been approached by the Rich Young Ruler who had departed Jesus sad because Jesus had told him to inherit eternal life he would have to betray his wealth, and it was a price too high for him to pay.

Peter responds to this situation on behalf of the disciples by asking Jesus, "What then will we have?

We, who have laid down everything to follow you.

We, who have left businesses and livelihoods believing that you were the Messiah.

We, who live under death threats and constant scrutiny.

What then will we have?"

You see, from the perspective of the disciples it appeared as though the Rich Young Ruler was better off than they were.

Or, to put it in spiritual terms, that he was more 'blessed' than they were.

They had been trained to think like most of us to believe that God's favor and your riches are proportional to one another.

You see, in comparison to the Rich Young Ruler, it didn't appear that the disciples were doing very well.

It appeared, from the outside looking in, that the Rich Young Ruler had experienced the blessing of God far greater than they had.

And, Jesus responded by teaching them the transcendent glory of eternal treasures in place of temporary treasures, and he ended that point and chapter 19 by saying something that he says frequently: "But men who are first will be last, and last first."

In other words, Jesus is saying to this disciples: Don't believe what you're eyes are telling you.

Believe what I'm telling you.

And so, this is where we pick up this morning.

Jesus is driving home this last-first ethic and how it transforms thinking in the kingdom of God.

A Promise and a Warning

“So the first will be last, and the last first” In our text this morning, in verse 16, we see an almost verbatim repeat of 19:30.

Again, Jesus says that the first will be last and the last will be first in the Kingdom of God.

And, in chapter 20, we see Jesus approaching it from the opposite side of 19:30.

In 19:30, it is given to his disciples as a promise, something to encourage them and to enable them to persevere in their suffering for the cause of Christ, but in verse 16 we’re seeing it, not as a promise, but as a warning.

So, in 19:30, Jesus is saying: Don’t be beaten down when it feels like the world is winning.

Don’t be beaten down when it appears that others around you are finishing first.

Don’t be beaten down when it feels like you’re finishing last, because in the Kingdom of God the last will be first and the first will be last.

God does not evaluate us by how we finish on earth.

Then, when we come to 20:16, he’s saying: Don’t be puffed up.

Don’t compare yourselves to one another.

Don’t try to calculate God’s generosity.

Don’t try to rationalize God’s grace.

So, it’s the promise that they will be rewarded beyond what they can see and understand, and it’s the warning to not self-impose their standards onto God’s grace to others.

APPLICATION: We tend to not only be

A Full Day’s Wage

“a master of a house who went out....to hire laborers” Jesus tells the parable of a wealthy master who owns a vineyard.

It’s the time for him to harvest his grapes and so he needs to add some day laborers to his permanent staff to account for the increase in workload.

So, he goes out at 6 in the morning to find some workers and he promises them one denarius for their work, which was a standard day’s wage.

But, then he goes out again at 9am and again at noon and then, he goes out once more at 5pm, which was one hour before quitting time to hire yet another crew of workers.

And, you’ll notice that each of the workers hired after the first crew are not promised a denarius for their work; rather, they are promised “what is right.”

This would have likely been in their minds as an amount that was commensurate with the amount of time they worked.

But, then quitting time comes, and that’s when the most extraordinary part of this story takes place.

Starting with those hired last, the master pays every, single man for a full day’s work, regardless if you’ve been there one hour or you’ve been there ten hours.

So, you have some who leave that day astounded at the generosity of the master, and you have others who leave that day angry at the generosity of the owner.

Those who worked one hour for a full day’s wage are ecstatic, and those who worked a full 12 hour day for ONLY a full day’s wage feel slighted.

And, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like this.

A Generous Master

And, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like this.

“Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first” Jesus’ intention in the parable is to teach us by the characters that we meet.

And so, I want us to look at these characters together.

The main character of this story is the owner of the vineyard.

In this parable, the owner of the vineyard is to give us a portrait of our heavenly Father so that we might better understand his Kingdom and the last-first principle of the Kingdom.

And, what Jesus teaches us about the grace of our heavenly Father.

You see, it really doesn’t make business sense for this master to hire so many workers and to pay what would have been an exorbitant amount to people who worked so little.

Those who were hired last were paid more than 10 times what they should have earned.

If this is about business, then this owner is a terrible business man.

He could have increased his profit margins exponentially by reducing his workforce and paying the workforce the bare minimum that he could pay them.

But, this wasn’t about business; this was about generosity.

And, in that generosity we catch a glimpse of the generosity of our God.

Notice three portraits of grace that are seen in the landowner.

Not Calculating, But Generous

First, we see that the landowner is not calculating, but generous.

Most interpreters agree that the landowner would have hired all the workers that he would have needed early in the morning.

So, the landowner is going back to hire workers each time, not because he has underestimating the work that was to be done, but so that he could show compassion and provide for as many people as necessary.

You see, this owner is not a numbers cruncher.

He’s not calculating it out so that he can get the most work out of the fewest people for the smallest amount.

Rather, he is seeking to be a generous benefactor.

And, here’s the point: Our God is not basing his generosity toward us on any business formula.

He’s not trying to get the bare minimum He needs to build his Kingdom.

No! Our God does not need any of us!