The Parable of Parables--Matthew 20

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth.

I don't know when this show will be played, probably in February. It is now January, though, and I'm looking outside. We had that huge snowstorm, and there is so much snow. So much snow. Actually, it makes me think of Martin Luther, when he looked out at the snow, and he saw some white snow covering a pile of dung.

And then he immediately thought about that pure white snow covering the dung. You couldn't see the dung pile anymore. You just see a beautiful, what looked like a pile of snow, white and pure and clean.

And that reminded him about Christ's alien righteousness imputed to our account. For us, sinners, dung-like in spiritual constitution, yet covered and cloaked by a righteousness that is credited to our account, given to us freely by Christ Jesus, costing the Father, His Son, costing the Son, His life, but given to us freely and placed over us.

We are cloaked with the righteousness of Christ. We have Christ-imputed righteousness. We, when looked upon by God Himself, sees the perfect nature of Christ and His obedience, His active obedience, passive obedience, confirmed by the resurrection.

He sees us in Him, therefore He couldn't love us anymore. So when you look at snow, you can think of all kinds of things, but think of Luther and the snow-covered dung hill. I think you can read more about that in James White's The God Who Justifies.

I think it might be the very first section, first chapter, first page, first something. Matthew 20 is going to be our passage today. And this is one of those parables that is world-rocking. I love to teach passages about Jesus.

And this is one of those passages that make you sit up and take notice. Now, the issue with parables is this. If you don't know why the parable was given, you're not going to understand the parable. The parable is not going to have a lot of points.

It's not going to have a lot of, you're going to outline it with five teaching points. The parable is going to have a main thrust. It doesn't mean there's only one thing that you can learn from a parable, but there's going to be a thrust to the parable.

And that thrust is going to be determined by the current situation, occasion, setting, why was the parable given. For instance, if you're going to tell a story to people, there's a reason you tell them a story.

If you're going to use this ancient teaching device that Jesus mastered, there's the master teacher, Jesus, there's going to be a reason for him to tell the story. He doesn't just walk around and tell stories.

Sometimes he teaches, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn. There's a certain style for everything. And the style here is a parable because of a context. And that context is found in the passage, usually just before the parable.

And in this case, it's the same thing. So if you want to know what's going on in Matthew 20, you just look down at it and verse one says what? For the kingdom of heaven is like. Four. Well, that makes me go back to chapter 19.

And remember, for a long, long time, I think 1200 years, I'll have to check to see if my math is right. There were no chapter divisions. And so you would read 19 and flow right into 20 because you wouldn't know it said 20.

So one of the biggest problems we have in evangelical interpretation is this. You look at the numbers. Don't look at the numbers so much, just read the passage. I actually wish I had a Bible that had no numbers in it and I would just have to read through.

Say Matthew and you just have to read through. That would help you in your Bible interpretation. So Matthew chapter 20, it starts with four. There is a context. And the context is with the rich young ruler.

And I just preach this passage at the church. You could pull it up at bbcchurch .org if you'd like the whole thing. But I have to abridge it a little bit, amend it a little bit because we have 24 minutes and 30 seconds.

I don't think I wasted any time earlier today talking about a bunch of stuff. And so I have a little more time but I don't wanna read all of the rich young ruler passage but I will summarize it. The rich young ruler comes up to Jesus.

He wants eternal life. Jesus says to the man, first you've got to recognize your sin. You don't need a savior until you know you're a sinner. The man thought he was righteous. He thought he kept all the commandments from the youth up.

Jesus identifies this man has a problem with greed. Therefore Jesus attacks the greedy man and says, with his words, he attacks the greed of the man and says, you've got to sell everything and then you can come and follow me.

Of course, when the man heard that, he was very sad because he was rich and he owned a lot. Well, the disciples were there and they were listening and here's the tie into Matthew 20. They had given up a lot.

They had given up their houses and they'd given up their families and they had given up everything to follow Jesus. And Peter said in Matthew 19 .27, behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then will there be for us?

And so we have heard what you've said to the rich young ruler. We gave it up. What is there for us? Jesus says in 19 .28, Matthew 19 .28, truly I say to you that you who have followed me in the regeneration when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you also will sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

So you're going to have a great reward. God has graced you and he is going to grace you more, not just with forgiveness, but also this great exalted heavenly position. But for everyone who follows, not just the 12, 19 .29, and everyone who has left houses, our brothers, our sisters, our father, our mother, our children, our farms, for my sake, my name's sake, shall receive many times as much and shall inherit eternal life.

It's going to be worth it. And by the way, Jesus says then in verse 30 of Matthew 19, but many who are first will be last and the last first. So how does that happen? How does it happen? Look down at Matthew 20 .16, thus the last shall be first and the first last.

So in 19 .30, many who are first will be last and the last first, Matthew 20 .16, thus the last shall be first and the first last. So that's the theme. Jesus is going to answer this question. How can the first be last and the last be first?

What does that mean? What does it mean the first last and the last first? And by the way, if you're at a race, you're at the Olympics and you watch eight racers for the 100-meter dash, and the last is first and the first is last, what happens?

How does that happen? Can it happen? The only way it can happen is what? How can the first be last and the last be first? A tie. So Jesus is going to say, whether you follow me early in life or late in life, whether you get saved young in life or on your deathbed, there's a great reward for you.

Eternal life is for you. Now, he's not talking about rewards. He's not talking about 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, be my seat rewards. 1 Corinthians 3 doesn't have anything to do with that. The issue is, in the context of salvation, who gets eternal life?

And if you follow Jesus Christ, if you have trusted in Christ Jesus, if you believe him enough to follow him, if you recognize your sin and have turned from your sin and placed your faith in Christ Jesus as a response to Christ's great work on the cross, there is eternal life for you.

Whether you're Timothy, probably got saved when he was young, the disciple Timothy, or whether you're the thief on the cross, eternal life is for you. Eternal life. And so Jesus then gives the parable.

The Vineyard Workers and the Generosity of God

For the kingdom of heaven, this is Matthew 20, we're looking on No Compromise Radio today on Thursday, focusing on who Jesus is. I want you to see Christ and say, wow, there's no one like him. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house.

Now, we're gonna easily see that this master of the house is God himself, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyards. This is a very typical scene back in those days. And he's got a lot of work to get done.

And so you hire these day laborers, just like today. If you go to a big city, Los Angeles, and you go to Home Depot or Lowe's or any of those kind of construction companies, out on the public sidewalk, just before you enter the parking lot, you will see tons of people wanting to get hired for the day.

They tend to be undocumented. Illegal aliens is what they normally are. I won't have compassion on all people, but if you're in France illegally as an American, you're sinning. If you're in America illegally as a Mexican or as a Tasmanian, you're sinning and you need to go through the proper steps to become a citizen or you need to go back home and stop sinning.

It's as simple as that. But I'm digressing. He went to hire laborers for his vineyard. Very common thing. It's at dawn, you go out and sun comes up, you go out. After agreeing with the laborers for denarius a day, he sent them back into the vineyard.

Well, we got some hoeing to do. We got some planting to do. We got some trimming to do. Whatever it was, everybody would understand Jesus's terminology because it was a common everyday occurrence. And the wage was, I'll give you a day's pay.

Start at six, end at six. It's a 12-hour day. It's what a Roman soldier made. It was the generous grace that the master of the vineyard and the master of the field would choose one of these people. He didn't have to choose them all, did he?

He didn't have to choose any of them, but he chose some. And so they were very, very happy. When you get picked at the beginning of the day and you're gonna make this daily wage, you are happy that you got picked.

No questions asked. We would love to help. Going out, about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. So back in those days, 6 a .m. is zero hour. And if you work three hours or three hours later, it's nine.

So the third hour is nine o 'clock. So 9 a .m. Guy's still milling around. They're not working. And he said to them in verse four, you go into the vineyard too. Whatever is right, I will give you. And you can feel the story getting condensed.

There was no agreement. There's no this, there's no that. It's a matter of trust. It's just normal practice. So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour. And the ninth hour, he did the same. So he hired some at 6 a .m.

He hired some at 9 a .m. He's hired some at noon. That's the sixth hour. And he hired some at 3 p .m. That's the ninth hour. No reason given. We don't know why we had to go back out. We don't know anything like that.

We can't say, well, nobody miscalculated. Therefore, he had to go out. Or maybe the sugar content of the grapes is so high, he had to go figure out how to get some more people. The Sabbath is approaching.

He's got to really work hard. Those things are real relevant. More people were needed. Now, the great thing about Jesus and his parables here in Matthew 20 and other places, it sucks you in. You become part of the parable.

That's the great part about teaching parables for Jesus. His listeners then, and his listeners even now, get drawn in, and you find yourself identifying with one of these people. And there's gonna be one particular group that you're gonna identify yourself with, and that is the people, those are the people who were hired at 6 a .m.

You will feel their pain. You will feel what's going on in their mind. Verse six of Matthew 20, about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing. Now, what's the 11th hour? 11, if you start at six, that's zero hour, and then we add 11 hours, that's 5 p .m.

Day's almost done, day's done at 6 p .m., six to six, six to 1 ,800. So here at 1 ,700, he found others standing. He said to them, why do you stand here idle? Because no one has hired us. He said to them, you go into the vineyard.

Now, here's where the whole thing turns. Matthew 20, on No Compromise Radio, we're looking at Christ's life. I want you to be thrilled by studying the parables. By the way, you need to get Simon Kistemacher's book, The Parables of Jesus.

It's the only book you need to get on the parables. Of course, if you want to study more in depth, you can. I think Allison might help you, along with the Terry Johnson's book and others, but you need to get one book, and one book only.

That is on the parables written by Simon Kistemacher. Simon Kistemacher, I think he must be retired, RTS. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the labors and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.

Now, doesn't that sound like chapter 19, verse 30? Doesn't that sound like chapter 20, verse 16? Of course it does. Beginning with the last up to the first. Now, if it would have been the other way, pay the first first, and then the last last, nothing would be that out of the ordinary.

The punchline, the storyline, the heads up drum roll is, here's what makes a story wonderful, beginning with the last up to the first. This creates the tension. This creates the surprise. If he had paid the first, they had gone their way, no big deal.

Verse nine, and when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. So those who got there at five o 'clock, they got one day's wage. They got 12 hours worth of work paid to them by the good pleasure of the owner.

Wasn't due, wasn't owed, they didn't earn it. The generous, distinguishing grace of the owner gave them that. And if you saw someone get paid one day's wage for one hour's work, and you work three hours, because you were hired at 3 p .m., you would think you'd get three days wages.

If you were hired at noon, you'd think you'd get six days wages. If you were hired at 9 a .m., you'd think you'd get nine hours wages. And if you were hired at 6 a .m., you would think you'd get 12 days wages.

What would you do if you worked one day and got 12 days wages? You would party. What would you think? Oh, this is gonna be awesome. And on receiving it, here, verse 11, they grumbled at the master of the house.

You say, what does that mean? You say, you missed a verse. Yes, I did. Verse 10, now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. See, you are them. You're them. I'm them. We are the world.

We are the children. But each of them also received a denarius. They all got the same. The last is first. The first is last. Tie. They all got the same. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house.

Now, remember, there were people there standing at the Home Depot that never got picked. They went home at 6 p .m., never chosen. It was the grace, the distinguishing sovereign grace of this great master who picked people.

They never should have been picked. They should have been looked, passed over. You can see where we're going with this. You can see where we're going. And you can imagine what they did back then. Good thing J. Seculo didn't exist back then.

Good thing the ACLU, AFL-CIO, Johnny Cochran, that would have been big trouble. These last worked only one hour. And you have made them equal to us. You have made them equal to us. You have made them equal to us.

First, last, last, first. How does that happen? Tie. You have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. That Scirocco, that scorching wind. But he replied to them, Friend, I'm doing you no wrong.

Did he do anyone wrong? Work all day, you get a wage. He chose you. You shouldn't even have been picked. You should have been looked over, passed over. The people at 6 a .m. were not wronged. People hired at 9 a .m. were not wronged.

They actually got more than what they should have gotten. They should have gotten three hours less, a quarter less. People who were hired at noon, they got more than what they earned. They got more than what they bargained for.

Why are they complaining? Why are people complaining? But he said to one of them, Friend, it's a rebuke. Mild though, still a rebuke. Friend isn't close friend, best buddy. This is an acquaintance, someone that you know.

Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Who was done wrong? They were all done right, by the way. Done rightly. Who did you any wrong? Did you not agree with me, Ferdinarius? The answer is yes. God, here's the implication.

God, by his own free sovereign will, decides to choose some early in life, some late in life, and they all get more than what they deserved. Verse 14, take what belongs to you and go, I choose, I choose, I choose to give this last worker as I give you the first.

First, last, first, last, last, first, last, first. This last worker as I give you. It is God's prerogative to save some people early in life, some people late in life, and to not save other people, to look over them.

And this is difficult for us because we, you, live in a works world. You breathe works, you eat works, you sleep works, you were born works righteousness, and you think along with everybody else, at least for Christians now we're only influenced by, but we don't think this way anymore if we're thinking properly, that God looks at your works and determines, oh yeah, you did more good than bad, you're in.

You went by the golden rule, you know, he who helps himself, you know, helps a lot. But no, in works righteousness world, we're with those people who were hired at 6 a .m., that's not fair. Friends, you don't want fair when it comes to salvation.

Fair is damnation. Fair is hell. Fair is eternal punishment by the Lamb of God. The wrath of the Lamb is fair. You don't want fair, you want grace. God, give me grace. Like the tax collector in Luke 18.

Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner. He knew full well. He didn't say, Lord, have justice on me, the sinner. Have your righteous law excised on my account. No, have mercy, have grace, sovereign, distinguishing grace.

Verse 15 of Matthew 20. Look at these two questions that come shooting across the bow. Am I not allowed to do what I choose? Let me repeat that. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

Can he do whatever he wants? Yes, and when it comes to the spiritual realm and salvation, God can do whatever he wants. Or do you begrudge my generosity? Do you begrudge my agathos, my good? You're treating me, you know, badly.

You think I've got some kind of evil, got an evil eye? No, I'm generous. No one is unfairly treated. You know, when it comes to even election, sovereign grace, when God chooses people, everybody gets what they want.

The people who get saved get what they want, eternal life, heaven, fellowship with the Lamb, forgiveness, camaraderie. They want to worship Jesus. They get what they want. They're not getting what they don't want.

And those who will not bow the knee, God overlooks, God passes by, God does not choose. They get what they want. They don't want to worship Jesus. Of course, they don't want hell. They're not masochists.

But they don't want to worship God. They don't want to honor Jesus as the only God. And so they get what they want. And so no one gets treated unfairly. That's wrong for us to think that way. Oh, somebody gets treated unfairly.

So then Jesus says in Mark, excuse me, Matthew 20, 16, so the last will be first and the first last. When it comes to salvation, everybody gets generously eternal life. All get eternal life. You get salvation, you get forgiveness according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.

Every person who comes to faith in Christ Jesus, the Son, gets the same wonderful, gracious salvation prepared by the Father. You come to faith early in life or late in life, you get eternal life. You're a social rascal or a pastor's kid, you get eternal life.

You're weak or mature, you get eternal life. If you get saved in the first century or the 21st century, you get eternal life. You get saved as a Jew or a Gentile, you get eternal life. Rich or poor, eternal life.

Slave or free, eternal life. Man or woman, eternal life. Child or elderly, eternal life. Missionary or cannibal, you get saved, you get eternal life. You all get the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ fully credited to your account, the equality of salvation.

Every believer is part of the church. Every believer is part of the bride of Christ. Every believer is glorified with the Son. Every believer is conformed to the image of the Son. Every believer gets every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Every believer gets all of God's grace, not just a part of it. Every believer will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is, 1 John 3, 2. This gives me hope. This gives me assurance. This elicits praise that God would save me.

Now, many times people think, you know, I wish God would have saved me when I was 15. I could have not had gone, I wouldn't have not had of, I could have just avoided all these horrible things that I did for 20 years and then God saved me.

I did, personally, I did a lot of bad things between 15 and 29. That was part of God's plan. Maybe it's more of a distaste for sin. Maybe I am more compassionate and empathetic with people enslaved to sin.

Whatever the reasons are, it's God's choice. Can He do what He wants? Can He choose to do what He wants? And there's a big, huge plan going on here and we don't see but a glimpse of it. We don't even see the tip of the iceberg in God's sovereign plan.

Why did He allow the thief on the cross to get saved at the very end? God has His reasons. God has His methods. God has His way. But you know, He was going to see Jesus Christ in paradise. Not just part paradise, not just purgatory ice, but it was gonna be paradise.

Why? Because the first will be last and the last first because God grants to all who believe on, not themselves but on Christ Jesus, get equal salvation. Rewards are different. Yes, but this has nothing to do with rewards.

Do you see the sovereign generosity of God choosing? He didn't have to choose any of those people for workers just like He didn't have to choose any of us. None of us deserves to be chosen and yet if He did choose you, you ought to shout from the rooftops, worthy is the Lamb to be slain.

Blessing and honor and dominion and authority. We ought to be praising God. Every believer, and if you're a believer, you get all that God has for people and that is eternal life in heaven glorified with Him as a child, an heir, a joint heir, fellow heir with Christ, an heir of God.

And so today on No Compromise Radio, we looked at Matthew chapter 20 in our little excursus on Thursdays looking at the life of Christ. Read Matthew 20 and rejoice the Lord is King.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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