If you have your Bibles, I will get mine that I left over here. I invite you to open to our Scripture passage for this morning. It is in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 20. And let me invite you to stand as we read from God's Word. Let me pray first. Lord, we ask that you would open our hearts to your word this morning, and through your spirit, you pour out your spirit to us, that we might be able to not only hear words, but hear the message of hope and joy that we have as believers, and that you would bless us through the word, and may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our redeemer, in your name we pray, amen. This is the word of the Lord. 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. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said to them, "You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will give you." So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, "Why do you stand here idle all day?" They said to him, "Because no one has hired us." He said to them, "You go into the vineyard too." 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." And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, "These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat." But he replied to one of them, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I chose to give to 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?" So the last will be first and the first last. Friends, the grass withers, and the flowers fade. This may be a familiar parable to you. If we are going to understand it, we need to see the parable in its context. When the New Testament scriptures were written, they did not have chapters and verses written in. Those were added centuries later to make it easier for us to use the scripture and reference things and find information. But there is really not a thought break between the end of chapter 19 and the beginning of chapter 20. At the end of chapter 19 is the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus and asks him, "What must I do to have eternal life?" And Jesus asks him to think about what he has done. He explains the Ten Commandments, the second half of the Ten Commandments. These are the things that you need to do and love your neighbor as yourself. And he says, "Well, I have done all those things," and he is thinking, "What's in his mind is that when Jesus says, 'Well, you know, what do you need?' Or he asked Jesus, 'What do you need to do?' And he lists out all these things. He expects Jesus to respond by saying, 'Wow, that's awesome. That's really cool. You're good to go. Come on in.'" That is not what he says. He tells him he needs to sell what he has and give to the poor and to follow him. And what the thinking of the rich young man is, if he does enough good things, he will deserve or earn his way into heaven. Now the disciples are listening to this conversation between Jesus and the young man, and they are a little unsettled. Jesus says, "It is so hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven that it is harder than a camel going through the eye of a needle." The disciples ask, "How can anybody be saved?" And Jesus says, "With God, all things are possible." Then Peter begins to think, "Wait a minute now. What about us? What about us as disciples? You told the young man that he has to give everything and give to the poor. We have given up everything and are following you. What about us? What do we get out of this?" And Jesus answers, "You will receive a reward in heaven. As the apostles, they will be given positions of authority, but that's not how it works." See, the context of the parable is about someone who wants to know, "Can I earn my way to heaven?" And Peter wants to know, "Do we get rewards in heaven based on what we do?" And they are both making the same mistake from different perspectives. They are thinking that their relationship with God and spiritual blessings are based on what they do. And that is the issue that Jesus is addressing in the parable. He is going to let them know that spiritual blessings are not based on your works, on what you do. So the parable is a contrast. He sees the way the young man and Peter are thinking, and he says, "Now it is different in the kingdom of heaven." So the earthly way that we tend to think is that you get what you deserve. The more you work, or the more that you suffer, the more you deserve. And that when you work hard in your job, or you are just being kind to someone, you are being nice to them, you have earned the right; you have actually obligated the other person to be nice to you. This is because that is what is fair. You have worked hard, you have benefited them, you have been nice to that person; they owe you respect now. It is a justice-based system of reward and punishment. That is how we think; that is the natural way, as in our fallen human nature, we think the world operates. And it is baked into us. We do not have to teach it. You all know if you are parents or grandparents or you have seen other little kids, you never have to teach your kid to say, "It is not fair." Right? It just comes naturally to them. We have an instinctual sense, a justice gene within us that says things need to, you know, you do good, you get rewarded. If you do bad, you get punished. We all should have things to be treated the same or equally. Now, in this earthly realm, a justice-reward system is appropriate. Justice is a good thing, but it is not the only thing. The big mistake that we make is when we try to apply this works-reward, justice-based system to God. And that is what Jesus is correcting in the parable. So let us work our way through the parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house. Here is the contrast. We just saw this conversation about the worldly way. Now the parable will describe what it is like in the kingdom of heaven. The example, the focus of the parable, is the master. In your Bibles, it often says, I think it says here in my Bible, that the title for this parable is "Labors in the Vineyard." That is not the best way to describe this parable. I like what Jerry Bridges says. He calls this parable "The Generous Landowner." The focus is on the owner and his character and what he does. That is what we are looking at. So we can equate the master of the house to God and to his kingdom. The master goes out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. We might be able to safely assume that this parable is taking place at the time of the harvest. So many other workers are needed, and he is going out to hire people. If that is the case, if this is harvest time, then we could look at the context of this parable as being at the time of the final judgment. What happens at the end of the time when the harvest is ripe and Jesus returns and a final judgment is made. The laborers here are, in this case, believers who are entering into the master's house, into his kingdom, into his domain. The vineyard is the place of his work. In the Old Testament, very frequently, the nation of Israel is referred to as God's vineyard. So these are people who are brought into the people of God. Now after agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them out to the vineyard. These are the early workers, and perhaps there is a comparison here that they are considered the Jewish people who, throughout the whole Old Testament, had the blessings of God. They were the first of the chosen people of God. They agreed in this parable to a wage, a denarius, which was the equivalent of a full day's wage in those days. It was a just wage that they agreed to, and the master agreed to pay them. So they went out to the vineyard, and more workers were needed. So in verse 3, "...and going out about the third hour, the master saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.'" It is now about nine o'clock, the third hour. He did not come to a set wage with them as he did with the first workers. He just said, "Look, I am going to pay you a just wage," and they were good with that. They trusted him to be fair, and they went into the vineyard. They went out, and going again at the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. Now it is six o'clock, noon time, and three o'clock in the afternoon. No amount is defined; just a just wage is promised. They went out and they worked. And then in verse six, about the eleventh hour, so now it is about five o'clock, one hour left to go in the twelve-hour workday. He went out and found others standing there in the marketplace. He said to them, "Why are you standing idle all day?" They said to him, "Because no one has hired us." He said to them, "Go into the vineyard too." So apparently, it was not because they were lazy or avoiding work; they just did not have someone to hire them. Here, there is no mention or promise of compensation at all, but they went out and they worked. Verse eight, the evening comes. And so perhaps this is comparable to the final judgment. The owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, "Call the laborers and pay them their wages," which was the custom, as stated in Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 15. The workers should be paid at the end of the day, and their wages should not be withheld. They were to be paid, beginning with the last up to the first, which is the opposite of what one might expect. The master is illustrating in the parable the point that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. If the first workers were paid, they might receive their money and leave without seeing what happened to the workers hired at the eleventh hour. The master wants them to be able to see that. So the order is reversed. When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Here is a surprising detail: they received a full day's wage for working one hour. That is a twelve-time bonus for that one hour's worth of work. And why would the master do that? Perhaps what he was thinking is, "I want each of these workers to receive a full day's wage so that when they go home, they will be able to feed their family and have what they need to care for their family. Even if they did not work the whole day, I want them to have that blessing." Now, when those who were hired first came, they thought that they would receive more. Why? Why, after they had agreed to a denarius, would they think they should get more? It is because they are operating from this works-reward-based system. If those who were hired last received a denarius, then we should also receive a bonus or something extra because we work, we get rewarded. And that is how they are functioning in their mindset. But each of them also received a denarius. No bonus, just what was promised to them, a fair wage. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house. Why did they grumble if they received what they had agreed upon and what was a fair wage? It is because they had come to a conclusion that the master was unfair based on the works-reward system, and they accused him of injustice. But what it was really revealing was not the injustice of the master, but their own envy and greed, or their false operating system that they were functioning on. So in verse 12, they say, "These last workers worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat." In other words, they are envious. They are envious of what the last workers received. And they say, "Look how hard we worked. We toiled. It was hot and hard work. We did it all day." And they were not happy with the attitude of the landowner, the master. And then comes the response from the master. And this is the lesson that God is trying to teach us about his character and the way that he functions in the kingdom of heaven. And it is a threefold response. First, it points out the fairness of the master and of God. But he replied to one of them, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go." Was he unfair? No, he was just. The second point the master makes is about his grace, or the grace of God. He said, "I chose to give to the last worker as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me, or do you begrudge my generosity?" How did this payment come about? It comes not based on the work of the people, but from the generous heart of the master. Each one's wage is a gift. It did not matter how long you worked; it was all a gift. He gave to the last worker, and he gave to the first worker. Is there something wrong about being generous? And the answer is no. Why do the first laborers feel that they have been treated unfairly? As if they have authority to tell the master what he needs to do. And it is because of the sin that is in their heart. My favorite definition of sin is thinking you know better than God. And that is exactly what was going on in the mind of the first workers. You choose as a master to do this, but we know better than that. You should be giving us more, or you should not be giving them as much. And that is the nature of sin, thinking you know better than God. And the root of that is pride. You see, everything belongs to the master. He has the freedom to do whatever he wants with whatever he has. If he wants to give it to someone, he can give it to someone. The workers had two choices. The first laborers had two choices. They could look at the situation and say, "Well, that is unfair." Or they could have equally looked at the situation and said, "That is amazing how generous this master is." But which did they choose? They chose to think it was unfair and unjust because of the works-righteousness mindset that they had. They thought it was unfair, and they grumbled. The master chided them for their pridefulness. The third point that the master makes is that all believers, if we are thinking the master is God, are viewed equally by God. So the last will be first, and the first will be last. That is the pinnacle of the parable. It is the summary of what Jesus is trying to teach to his disciples and to you and me. In the kingdom of heaven, it does not matter who you are, what you have done, or when you arrive. We all arrive there only by the grace of God. It is a gift given to us from his loving and generous heart. Note that Jesus did not say you will be first or last, as if it is one or the other. As if there is a system of ranking in heaven. He said, you will be either first and last, or last and first. In other words, you are both. The point being, it does not matter which you are. In the kingdom of heaven, we will all be treated equally in God's sight. That is the meaning of being the last, first, and the first, last. So now let us step back and just take an overview of Jesus' answer to the young man and to Peter. How is he answering their issues? Before I do that, let me insert a little parenthesis here, one set of guardrails so that we do not go astray here. First, Jesus is not rejecting a works-reward principle in this world. There are many places in Scripture where it is indicated that if you work hard, you receive more. If you do not work, you will receive less. So that is not being rejected. Second, Jesus is not advocating for a Marxist ideology of social equity that we hear so much of in the news today. That is, that no matter what you do, everyone should have the same standard of living. That is not what is being taught. With that said, how does Jesus respond to the rich young man's concern about receiving eternal life? The parable teaches us that God is the sovereign master or king of heaven. Everything belongs to him, and he can do with what he has as he pleases. The entrance into the vineyard or into the kingdom of heaven is not based on our works. God forbid that He would judge us only on our works. It does not matter if you work 12 hours, 9 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours, or 1 hour; they all receive the same blessing. If it were by our works alone, none of us would be qualified to receive eternal life because there is no one as righteous. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We enter the kingdom of heaven and receive eternal life by the invitation of God, who graciously gives us the gift of salvation which he earned and paid for on the cross through his son, Jesus Christ. We receive this gift by faith alone, trusting in God's faithfulness to his promises, which are far greater than anything we could ever earn or deserve. As for Peter's concern about how believers will be treated in heaven, the parable teaches us this: The spiritual principles operating in the kingdom of heaven are not the same as a works-reward principle that operates here on earth. Yes, the apostles will receive a place of honor as the apostles, and there will be others who will have different roles and responsibilities in ministries in heaven, but all will be equal in the eyes of God. No one will have a greater or lesser blessing. Everyone will be exceedingly and fully blessed by God. Why? Because God is a generous and gracious God. All of our blessings come to us by His grace. We deserve none of them. They are all God's generous gift to us in this world and in the next. So that is a great reminder to us as we are entering into a week of thanksgiving. If you understand the generosity of God's grace to us, you cannot help but respond in gratitude for all that you have and will receive. If we are not grateful, then we are prideful, thinking that we can take credit ourselves for our blessings. My prayer this morning is that this parable and the message in it will spur us on to greater gratitude and thanksgiving this week, recognizing that God is the gracious giver of every good gift. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would open our eyes to the generosity of your grace, especially in light of the fact that we deserve nothing. We thank you that you allow imperfect people such as Peter and us into eternal life. We do not have to have our doctrine and understanding all together and perfect. You still extend your grace to us. And Lord, in light of your grace to us, we pray that you would make us to be more gracious to the other imperfect people around us. Lord, make us thankful to you for every blessing every day. In your name and to your glory, we pray. Amen.