- The parable describes a landowner hiring workers throughout the day for his vineyard. Those hired early in the morning agree to a fair daily wage. Those hired later are promised a fair wage for their time worked. - At the end of the day, all workers receive a full day's wage regardless of how long they worked. This angers those hired early who see it as unfair. - The parable illustrates that salvation is by God's grace, not by works or what one deserves. All who respond to God's call will receive eternal life as a gift, not a reward earned by works.

2. How is the Kingdom of heaven to be understood
in light of laboring for Christ while the world
enjoys the pleasures of sin?
The parable of Jesus in is helpful
here.

3. NIV

8. Jesus introduces this parable saying the
kingdom of heaven is like this.
That's an impressive, if not disturbing
introduction to this particular parable for many
reasons.
I believe the kingdom of heaven in Matthew's
gospel applies directly to the church.
If this is true, what might Jesus be telling us?

9. This parable is easily misunderstood and
misinterpreted.
For instance: Can you imagine being envious of
someone who lives for the devil for most of their
life and finally comes to Christ at the end and is
saved?
Some see this idea in this parable.
A darker question is: Would some of us prefer
such a scenario for our own lives?

10. For example: Maybe I can sow my wild oats and
enjoy sinful pleasures for most of my life and
avoid all that Christian duty stuff and church
commitment, but close to the end, I'll repent and
still avoid hell! That thought says abundant life
is actually outside of Christ and not within the
borders of the kingdom of heaven.
The prophet Malachi deals with this.
Perhaps you have been there.
Is anyone here growing weary of working for the
Lord and getting discouraged?

11. I must admit in my childhood I remember many
of my friends got to stay home on Sunday
nights and watch Walt Disney while I was
dragged to church by my parents for another
boring church service.
I remember thinking, why do we have to always
miss the good stuff?
Can any of you relate?

12. Does this parable address any of this?
Is Jesus saying working for the kingdom is like
hard labor in the hot sun out in the fields while
living in the world is like hanging out with your
friends in the market place sipping coffee while
you wait for a gig? Is that His message here?
I would argue that THAT thinking completely
misses the point of the parable, but points to
another problem of the heart that is answered in
other scriptures.

13. So what is going on here?
Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven
and making points that we need today.
Let's look at it carefully and let the words of
Jesus sink in and show us something can help
us.
Think with me about Jesus' words here.

14. The landowner goes out to hire men to work in
his vineyard.
Do these men want to have this job?
Absolutely! They have come out early in the
morning hoping to find work so they can feed
their families and make enough to live on.
The landowner doesn't have to twist their arms
to get them to come!
They WANT this job. They NEED the pay!

15. The landowner agrees with them for a denarius,
or a day's wages.
It is a fair wage and, glad to get it, they go out to
his fields to work, blessed with the security that
they and their families will eat and have enough
to live on today.
They are happy to give a day's work for a day's
wages. It's all fair and square.

16. If you were to interview any of them as they
head off to the vineyard to work, which do you
think they would be: aggravated or thankful they
had a paying job today?
Of course they would be thankful!
The landowner has blessed them by giving them
this opportunity.
Do you think that they would look on other men
who were not hired as better off or worse off
than themselves?

17. Again, it's a "no brainer.“
Of course they would consider themselves as
better off than those standing around waiting
and hoping for a job!
They are secure in the employment of this
landowner. Glad to have the job.
The concept of wishing they could be among
the unemployed instead of having this work
would be totally foreign to them.

18. But the parable continues.
Jesus says the landowner keeps going out
every few hours and finding others who are
standing around unemployed.
When he sees them, he sends them out to his
vineyard to work saying, "Go work for me and
I'll pay you what is right.“
He doesn't tell them how much they will get,
only that it will be "right.“
Would you like to know the Greek word here
that is translated "right?"

19. The word translated "right" is dikaios,
(dik’-ah-yos) the same word for righteous or just.
All the landowner is offering these men who are
hired later on in the day is what would be fair
pay for their time.
They do not expect to receive a whole day's
wages, but only what is right.

20. Then comes the final part that creates the
tension and will later give heartburn to the
workers who were hired early on.
The landowner goes out at about an hour before
quitting time and sees still others standing
there. Have they been there all day?
Yes. That's what the landowner asks.
Do you think they were happy and enjoying
standing around all day without work? No way!

21. Remember, this was long before welfare and
social security.
Listen to the landowner's question.
It is clear that this is his first encounter with
them today. He didn't see them before this and
they didn't just get here after a lazy day at the
club or McDonalds. These men have been
looking for work all day and no one hired them.

22. They might have been worried about feeding the
family, wondering what they would say to the
wife and kids when they had to go home that
evening empty handed.
Those were the days when Jesus taught them to
pray: Give us this day our daily bread. Those
people understood hunger. Having something to
eat was a real and present issue. We are so
blessed. We have so much. But even we can
understand the problem of unemployment.

23. One of the worst things that can happen to a
man is being jobless. Not just a paying job, but
something that he does for work.
Immediately after creating man, God put him in
the garden to tend and care for it.
When a man is without work it is demoralizing
and debasing. Men were created by God in His
image and after His likeness, and God is a
worker! God made us to work.

24. NIV For we are God’s
handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to
do.
We are instructed to work out our own salvation
with fear and trembling, for it is God who works
in us, both to will and to work for His good
pleasure.

25. NIV Therefore, my dear friends,
as you have always obeyed—not only in my
presence, but now much more in my absence—
continue to work out your salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God who works in you
to will and to act in order to fulfill his good
purpose. Do everything without grumbling or
arguing,

26. For six out of seven days on the very first week,
what did God do? He worked. His day of rest
was actually quite unique! God wants us to
follow the rhythms and pattern of His activity.
Six days of work and one of rest. This is a divine
model, not just a good suggestion. The Sabbath
rest of God is a huge concept in both the old
and new Testaments. But even more so is the
work and working of God!

27. NIV In his defense Jesus said to
them,
It is against our very human nature to not work.
We are designed for it. Men, particularly, find
fulfillment and identity in their jobs. It gives us
purpose, security, and we tend to measure our
success by our jobs. That's part of why the end
of this parable hits home.

28. At the end of the day the landowner calls in the
workers and lines them up to be paid, starting
with the ones who had been hired last and had
only worked an hour.
Now these workers needed a full day's pay just
to make enough to live on.
But fair is fair, right? In the kingdom of heaven
you get what you deserve, right?

29. How many of us who are living for God and
serving Him think that we are earning our way
into heaven?
When you stand there before the Judge of all
the earth and give an account for your life, do
you think He will say, "Congratulations!
You did it! Come on into heaven, because you
deserve it!"?

30. Surely no one here thinks that, do you?
Now that doesn't mean we haven't heard the call
of our Lord and answered it and entered the
fields of labor for the King of kings.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't live our lives in
Christ worthy of the calling we received and in
such a way that our Lord will say:

31. NIV

32. Remember, God didn't call us into salvation in
Jesus Christ so that we would hang out as
spiritually unemployed but draw a heavenly
check just the same.
Jesus didn't come here and die on the cross so
we could relax and sit back at ease and not
follow His example.

33. Jesus is our mentor as well as our master.
What He did, we are called to do.
It's part of the blessing of transformation into
the image of Christ.
Those who think salvation means we don't have
a job are dead wrong.
That's not the point of the gospel or this parable
or the grace of God. Whoever will not work for
the Lord will not eat at the feast in glory!

34. But each one who receives the call and enters
the vineyard also receives the reward.
Let me address the problem I started with.
For those who think they can live for the devil
for a while and then repent and be saved, think
again.
Those who were hired the eleventh hour were
waiting all day for this.
They would have taken the job in the morning if
they had the chance.

35. If you hear the voice of God calling you into His
vineyard and refuse to answer, God doesn't
work like you think. If the landowner offered to
hire the morning crew and they refused, do you
think he would come back in the evening and
say, "Well, there's only one hour left, but if you'll
just come on out, I'll pay you just the same." I
don't think so. God's word says that if you
refuse to listen and go on sinning willfully after
coming to a knowledge of the truth, it is worse
for you.

36. NIV If we deliberately keep on
sinning after we have received the knowledge of
the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only
a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging
fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died
without mercy on the testimony of two or three
witnesses.

37. How much more severely do you think
someone deserves to be punished who has
trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has
treated as an unholy thing the blood of the
covenant that sanctified them, and who has
insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him
who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”
and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.

38. Jesus parable is about men who wanted to
work! They were waiting, hoping to be hired.
They knew that their livelihood depended on
being employed. When the landowner hired
those men in the evening, they entered the
fields and did as much as they could during that
hour's work! But here's the point: They did it
without expecting to receive as much as those
who had labored all day.

39. They could not have known that the landowner
would surprise them by his gracious generosity.
But he did. He gave them a full day's pay for an
hour's work.
He knew that if they could have, they would
have worked for him all day.
There's a huge difference in that and one who
would like to get out of work but get the reward.
That's a heart problem that will bring wrath from
God, not grace.

40. Soooo, why does the parable end like this?
Why is envy even seen in a parable about God's
grace? That contrast is part of the point Jesus
is making. God's grace is based on God's own
generosity, not on our hard work or earnings.
NIV But when the kindness and love of
God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not
because of righteous things we had done, but
because of his mercy.

41. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and
renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured
out on us generously through Jesus Christ our
Savior, so that, having been justified by his
grace, we might become heirs having the hope
of eternal life.

42. NIV But because of his great love
for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions—it is by grace you have been
saved. And God raised us up with Christ and
seated us with him in the heavenly realms in
Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages
he might show the incomparable riches of his
grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ
Jesus.

43. For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith—and this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God— not by works, so that no
one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which
God prepared in advance for us to do.

44. NIV

45. God's value of people has less to do with
performance, (think about what Jesus has just
taught on greatness and little children,) than it
does about the heart and commitment of
whoever hears the call whenever they hear it
and answer it.

46. The worldly attitude of performance-based value
can create pride and envy. Pride says: I am
greater than others. Envy says: No fair! They are
getting more than me! Or more than they
should! Jesus parable shows us that the reward
in the kingdom of God is based on God's
gracious generosity that creates opportunity for
all who will hear and come follow Jesus Christ.