Saved to Serve

Please turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 21. Turn to Matthew chapter 21 and we're gonna be in verses 28 to 32. Now tonight we begin to study certain parables that Jesus taught and they're all concerning the Christian life. Now these particular parables deal with themes, they deal with lessons, they deal with examples that speak to true Christian living and they also speak to false Christian living. False Christian living. These parables illustrate and explain true Christian living and they illustrate and explain false Christian living and to be honest with you sometimes we can better see the true by examining the faults.

That does help us. And that's what we're going to see tonight. We're going to see the true and we're going to see the faults. Now one thing we need to see right away is that these parables are not grouped together. We have had the benefit of having our kingdom parables grouped together in Matthew chapter 13. But that's not the case with these parables. We're going to be in some verses in Matthew and we're going to be in some verses in Luke. Now let me give you a tip here. Some of you are very good students in taking notes and such. I encourage you to do that. As we go through these parables, list them, keep them together.

And what I mean is if you do that you'll have a resource of Christian living parables and you can go back to those lessons, the things that the Lord is teaching you, you can go back to that throughout your Christian walk. Because if you think about it, it could be that the Lord leads you to remember something you've learned a month or six months from now and you go back to that and you go back to learn and to grow. So be a good student. Well tonight we're going to be looking at, we're going to be studying the parable of the two sons. You can see that in your copy of God's Word. You probably have some kind of a heading above verse 28.

Remember the headings are not inspired of God. The chapters and the verses were not inspired of God. They were not there originally. I'm thankful that they have been supplied. But the heading is there to show you what is in front of you, what is in front of you in those verses. And probably your Bible has something that says the parable of the two sons. Now if we look before the parable, we can see that the parable of the two sons is just after some very important events between Jesus and the religious leaders. And if we look after this parable, we can see that the parable of the two sons is the first of three parables in a row.

And we need to ask what's going on with these parables. And we need to ask what's going on with the events before the parable, before we reach down and pull the parable out of its context. If we look starting in verse 12, we see that Jesus clears the temple. We've heard of that event before. He did that more than once. He clears the temple. He cleanses the temple. John MacArthur, he calls this event purging the perverted temple. The temple had been perverted and he was purging the temple. Basically this is what was going on in that time. The religious leaders had brought religious commercialism and profiteering into the temple.

They had made religion into a big business and they had made religion into big prophets. Doesn't that sound like today? Listen folks, none of this stuff is new. It went on then, it goes on now. And it was all on full display there in the temple. Well, in righteous anger, yes, Christ had righteous anger. Jesus drove all of that out. You can go back and read the verses. Then after the event starting in verse 14, Jesus began to heal the lame. He began to heal the blind, the blind and the lame as they came to him in the temple. Now let me pause there a little time out in my notes. It's very important to see two things here about Jesus.

First of all that the needy were attracted to him. Let me ask a question. Do you live such a Christian life where the needy are attracted to you? There are some people who live in such a way where the needy are are pushed, they're shunned. We should live a Christian life whereby the needy are attracted to us. But then the second thing here, Jesus never turned them away. We can never become a people who shun the needy. And we have to be careful because the needy can be consuming. The needy can be high maintenance. The needy can be difficult. The needy can get in our way. And we need to pause there and think about that for a minute.

Jesus clears the temple and then all of a sudden the blind and the lame are coming and he's healing them. That almost doesn't seem like that goes together. And that is a tremendous lesson for us here. But we need to continue with what's going on here. When the religious leaders saw these wonderful things that Jesus did for the sick and the needy and noticed the praise that he was receiving from the children, they were furious. Furious really isn't an accurate word because they were looking for ways to crucify him. And then in verse 17 we see that Jesus leaves Jerusalem for Bethany and he spent the night there.

And then the next morning Jesus returns to Jerusalem and he goes right back to the temple. Remember it's after all of these events. And when Jesus arrived back at the temple, the chief priests and the elders immediately came to Jesus and they began to question him. They asked by what authority are you doing these things? And they asked him who gave you authority to do all of this? That would be clearing the temple and that would be healing the lame and the blind there. They're saying by what authority are you doing all these things? Simply in their questioning they were trying to trap Jesus.

But Jesus turned the tables on them by telling them that he would answer their question if they would answer a question for him first. And he asked them by what authority? John the Baptist did his work. He simply asked them was John the Baptist, was John the Baptist in his ministry of man or was it of God? I'm borrowing some language from J. Vernon McGee. He describes what is happening here and I'm loosely quoting him. He says that the religious leaders were trying to put Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. I like that. But it was Jesus who turned it around and he put them on the horns of a dilemma.

Well after Jesus questioned them the religious leaders were trapped. They were on the horns of the dilemma but notice how. If they said John was from God, Jesus would then ask them why they didn't believe in John and then why they didn't believe in him because John was pointing people to him, to Jesus. But if they said John was from man then they risk ridicule and disrespect from the people because the Jewish people saw John as a true prophet sent from God. So notice the religious leaders refused to answer Jesus. He stopped them. They really were on the horns of a dilemma. He backed them in a corner and in return Jesus refused to answer them.

I want to go back and read those verses. Look at verse 23 on down to verse 27. "And when he entered the temple," remember this is the next day, "the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, 'By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?' Jesus answered them, 'I also will ask you one question and if you tell me the answer then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.' The baptism of John from where did it come? From heaven or from man?

And they discussed it among themselves saying, 'If we say from heaven he will say to us why then do you not believe in him?' But if we say from man we are afraid of the crowd for they hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, 'We do not know.' And he said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.' Well all these events, all these events that I breeze through lead us to the parable. Jesus told this parable to the religious leaders in the middle of a standoff. Jesus told this parable in a very tense situation not to de-escalate the situation but to show them two things about themselves.

First he told them this parable to show them that they were actually not in the kingdom. And second he told them this parable to show them that they were actually not doing kingdom work. And if that did not make them mad enough he shows them that it was actually the tax collectors and the prostitutes that would be the scum of the earth to them, they were entering the kingdom and they were doing kingdom work not them. You might say, 'Pastor, what does this have to do with my Christian life?' It's a legitimate question. How do these events and this teaching, how does all of this pertain to Christian living in my day?

It pertains to our day and our Christian walk far more than you know. Now we get to our verses the parable. Let's pick back up in verse 28. Remember he's looking right at the religious leaders and he says, 'What do you think? A man had two sons and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' And he answered, 'I will not.' But afterward he changed his mind and he went and he went to the other son. This would be the second son and he said the same and he answered, 'I go sir, but did not go.' Which of the two did the will of his father? They, this will be the religious leaders, they said the first.

Jesus said to them, 'Truly I say to you the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe in him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed in him. And even when you saw it, in other words all that was going on, you did not afterward change your minds and believe in him.' Now I want us to approach the parable here in two ways. First I want us to break down the parable and in breaking down the parable we're going to look at four things in the parable. I'm going to give them to you here in a moment.

And then I want us to make four observations from the parable. This will be where our application comes from. So notice these are the four, I sometimes call this major truths. This comes out of the parable, this is a breakdown of the parable. So first in this breakdown of the parable, number one the parable. Now the parable is in verse 28 to 30. We've already read it so I won't go back. But right off we see that Jesus draws the religious leaders in with the question. Remember that this comes right after this escalating tension between Jesus and the religious leaders.

And the reason for the question was that Jesus was setting them up for the parable. He was about to teach and he was about to apply the parable straight to them. So the question, don't overlook it, it was meant to draw them to him. Now within the parable we have a father and two sons. A father and two sons. The father asks each son one at a time to go into work in his vineyard today. The first son says no but then changes his mind and goes to work. The second son says that he will go and work but he does it. It's really simple to see. But we need to ask a few questions here.

I do this from time to time teaching and I'm asking you to ask these questions to ponder over these things. Who is the father in the parable? What does the vineyard represent? What is this work in the vineyard? Who do these sons, who are these sons and who do they represent? We have the first son who says that he will not work in the vineyard and he changes his mind and ultimately does work in the vineyard. Then we have the second son who says that he will work in the vineyard and he never does. Well what does all this represent? And get this.

We have to understand what the different parts of the parable represent to truly understand the point of the parable. And if you do not understand the point of the parable, we will miss the meaning of the parable. We will not be able to to apply it to us. So that's the parable. Number two, the point of the parable. We have to ask what the point of the parable is. Now I'm going to read the verses, verse 28 to 30. What do you think? And here comes the parable.

A man had two sons and he went to the first and he said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." And he answered, "I will not." But afterward he changed his mind and he went and he went to the other son. The second son, he said the same thing and he answered, "I will go, sir." But he did not go. It's very easy to see the parable. Now in dealing with the point of the parable, we have to see that it can be easy to miss the point. Some do. I will talk more about how some miss the point a little later on. But we must see that the primary point of the parable is found in verse 28 and it's with this word go.

Look back at verse 28 starting with the word go. "Go and work in the vineyard today." So we see that the primary point of the parable is work. It's work in the vineyard. The father asks each son to go and work in the vineyard today. So work and working in the vineyard is the primary point. But we need to see the secondary point of the parable and that would be the sons, the two sons and their reactions to the situation. The first son says that he will not go but he changes his mind and he does go and work. The second son says that he will go but he never does. So we see the secondary point of the parable. That is the reactions of the sons.

The father asks each one. They react in different ways. The son's reactions are the secondary point. So that's the point or the points of this parable. And then number three. We need to see the revelation of the parable. Now this is found in verses 31 to 32. We're going to read those verses in a minute. But I want us to see the revelation of the parable. Now actually we can call this the explanation of the parable but really it's more than that. If you write explanation down that's okay but I want you to see that it's more than an explanation. Jesus was boldly in their face revealing how this applies to the religious leaders.

Jesus was boldly revealing who and what they were and that revelation and the application explains the meaning of the different parts of the parable. But note this the application is extremely important. We can understand the meaning of scripture and fail to apply it in our lives if we're not careful. We can do that. Jesus couldn't make that mistake here. See if we do that we can be hearers of the word and not doers of the word. Jesus never did that. Now let's get into this revelation and the application. As Jesus reveals and explains things here notice what he does. First Jesus asks a question.

Jesus asked the religious leaders which of the two sons did the will of the father? Look back at the verse when he gets through with the parable verse 31. Which of the two did the will of his father? Then second the religious leaders answered. The answer to the question is really obvious and simple. They said that the first son did the will of the father. We see that in verse 31 as well. But then third Jesus explains the parable by applying it to them. Notice this application was not in a favorable way and it is surprising that they didn't see it right off and they should have seen that it applies to them in a bad way.

Look back at the verses verse 31 and 32. Which of the two did the will of the father? They said the first and Jesus said to them truly I say to you the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe in him but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed and even when you saw it even when you saw all that was going on with John you did not believe afterward. You didn't change your minds and believe in him. Now in summary notice what Jesus was saying.

He was telling the religious leaders to their face that the tax collectors and the prostitutes that was the low lives in their culture the scum of the earth. He was saying they were just like the first son. They did not make some immediate religious pretense of obeying John the Baptist but eventually many of them did repent and become true followers of Jesus. But they the religious leaders he was saying they were just like the second son. They said that they approved of John the Baptist and his teaching but they never repented of their sins publicly.

They were never baptized as John baptized and they did not follow the Messiah that John pointed to. Jesus was saying to the religious leaders that the tax collectors the prostitutes the low lives the scum of the earth were going into the kingdom before them and rather than them. Jesus tells the religious leaders that they do not believe in John nor in his message and when they saw the tax collectors and prostitutes believing that didn't even change their minds. And in his explanation notice what Jesus was revealing about them. He was revealing their self-righteousness, their pride, their self-reliance, their self-obstinence.

He was revealing hypocrisy. Religious hypocrisy in every way. Now you know why I said it was a continuously escalating situation. And in his explanation notice what Jesus was revealing about the tax collectors, the harlots, those low lives. He was revealing that their eventual humility and submission to John as in Jesus as the Messiah and the fact that they were going into the kingdom. He was showing that they were going into the kingdom ahead of the Jewish religious leaders. So I know that's a lot. We see the revelation of who all of these people were. Both the Jewish leaders, the tax collectors, and the harlots.

We see that Jesus boldly applied this straight into their face and this gives us the explanation of the parable. You see? Now right here is where we must ask a question. Which son are we? Are we like the first or are we like the second? We must ask that question, ponder that question, and examine that question. Well that's the breakdown and the explanation and the revelation of the parable. Revelation as in it revealed the peoples for who they were. That's the breakdown, the revelation, and the explanation of the parable. Yes we see how Jesus applied it to the people in that day and we must apply it in our day specifically to our lives.

That's why I ask you the questions which son are we, the first or the second. Now before I move to the observations that I want us to make out of the parable, I want to speak to that mistake that some can make. Some can miss the main point. The main point of the parable is about work in the kingdom. Who will work in the kingdom? The main point of the parable is not entering the kingdom or salvation, but it is who will work in the kingdom. Again look at verse 28. A man had two sons and he went to the first and said son. Here's the main point. Go and work in the vineyard today.

Yes, yes there is an aspect to this parable that does speak to one entering the kingdom. I know that. In verse 29 it says that the first son changed his mind. I'm reading from the English Standard tonight. That actually means repented. The King James uses the word repented. So this first son eventually repented and this speaks to salvation. And then he went to work in the vineyard. But remember the main point of the parable is work in the kingdom. Work in the vineyard. Or who will go work in the kingdom? If you highlight or write anything in your Bible, highlight that part of verse 28.

Now with the main point of the parable in our minds, I want to make four observations about serving in the vineyard that comes right out of the parable. Actually this comes from some James Montgomery Boyce material that really resonated with me. I really took it and I borrowed it. So I changed it up and this is where much of our application will come from. Now I'm going to go ahead and give you those observations. I want you to be able to write them down but follow me as I just unfold them. First observation. Number one. There is work to be done. There is work to be done.

Now this should be obvious that this is one of the main lessons of the parable. There is work to be done. Vineyard work. Vineyard work is kingdom work. What is the father saying to both sons in the parable? He was saying go and work in the vineyard. Why? Because there is work to be done. So in application, we must see that the true Christian life, in the true Christian life, we are saved to serve. That's the Christian life. The true Christian life. A part of the Christian life. God saves us to be his servants in the vineyard in the kingdom. As a born-again Christian and also as a member of Grace Life Church, we should see this in two ways.

First in our local church. We are saved and we are planted in the life of the local church to serve in the local church. We should all have a place of service. We're having a members meeting soon. Some folks are going through our church membership process and they will be affirmed. And one of the things that we will deal with in our membership meeting are some areas of ministry where we need servants. And God saves us to be servants. There is work to be done. But beyond the work of the church, there is service to be done out in the world. There are lost people who need Christ in your neighborhood. You come across people who need Christ.

There are the needy that we talked about. The blind and the lame who need Christ. And we are to go out and be Christ-like into their life hoping to be able to share the gospel with them. I had a beautiful example of being a servant not just in the local church but out in the world this past week at the True Church Conference. I was sitting down with one of our Anchored in Truth Mission Points church members from the church in Austria. Vienna, Austria, Marcus. Many of you met Marcus. Well from Grace Life Church of the Scholes there comes an older lady sat down right by us. And she began to talk to Marcus. And it was obvious she knew Marcus.

And then she began to share her story. She said, "Oh yeah, I'm a nurse. I have the ability to travel and and I go to all of these mission trips." So here's this lady that we would think as a grandmother and we would think she would be home. She's traveling all over the world. I said, "What does your husband do?" She said, "Well he's not able to go and I just leave him at home." So she got the vision that there's work to be done. And I want you to see there's work to be done down the halls of this church and the lives of the people of this church but also all throughout the world. So the first observation there is work to be done.

Second observation, the work to be done is God's work. The sons were told to go and work in the vineyard which represents the kingdom. But whose vineyard was it? The father's vineyard. The father was calling both sons to go and work in his vineyard. And this speaks of God's ownership of the vineyard and ownership of the work. And there is a big lesson here. We must see that many are working for God today but they are not doing God's work. That is real easy in our country. That is real easy in our country and culture. They're all types of people that they are doing work for God but I am convinced that they are not doing God's work.

And the question that we must ask here is this. If there are some who are working for God but they are not going and doing God's work, well then what are they doing? I firmly believe lots of this parachurch ministry is working for God but it's not God's work. Listen folks, if you are buried neck deep in the life of the church and service in the local church and service in people's lives and in your family as you should, you probably won't have time for a lot of extracurricular ministry. A lot of people who are involved in that are not rooted in the local church.

So we have to ask ourselves if there are some who are working for God but they are not going and working and doing God's work, what are they doing? If someone has a Christian work and it takes them out of the local church, it can't be of God. They think they're working for God but they're not. Now here's what I'm driving towards. In the New Testament we see the simplicity of true kingdom work. Simplicity in that it wasn't polluted by all kinds of extracurricular kingdom work. Look at the scriptures. In the New Testament we see churches evangelizing the lost and organizing them into churches.

And the saints there in those churches and the leaders in those churches, they were working at growing the saints in those churches while working for the health of the church in those churches and evangelizing the lost outside in the world. And when they reached the lost outside in the world, they organized them into local churches and they did it all over again. If you look at the New Testament and you study that, it becomes very underwhelming. Can't get any better than the Apostle Paul. I mean we don't believe in super apostles but if anyone was a super apostle it was Paul. But what did Paul do?

He began his missionary journeys out of the church of Antioch. The church of Antioch sent him out and he goes all out in the gentile world, evangelizing the lost, organizing the church, evangelizing the lost, organizing the church, and he came all the way back full circle to Antioch and give a report because he was under their authority. And then later he would go back and do the same thing. Many times he'd go back to those churches to encourage them and he would write letters to do the same thing. He was not involved in extracurricular "kingdom work." You see what I mean? So the work to be done is God's work.

And so notice the work to be done, that first observation, and the work to be done is God's work. Folks, we have to examine the work that's out there and we have to see that the greatest kingdom work is being faithful and rooted in serving and the life of the local church, the church where God has put you. Third observation, the work to be done is now. Notice a particular word in verse 28. You might not have noticed it. A man, I'm starting in the middle of the verse, had two sons and he went to the first and he said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." Notice that.

The father calls the son to go and work in the vineyard tomorrow or next week? No. He says, "Go do that today." Go do that today. I'll reference that some of this comes from James Montgomery Boyce. He has a quotation here that we need to listen to. Follow me here, okay? Because I'm going to build off of this. And I'm quoting, "It is interesting that God, who is eternal and who presumably has endless ages to do whatever he wishes, should emphasize the importance of doing work now while we, who are creatures of the day and who are not even certain when we will be that we will be around tomorrow, should procrastinate.

We might think that God would delay and we should get immediately to work, but that is not how it is. We delay and it is God who not only works now but also encourages us to work now. In an application, we need to see two realities here. First, God's work is here and now. And God, although he is eternal and timeless, he is about working now. But second, we can see that God's work can be pushed off till tomorrow. It can be procrastinated about. You see? Those two realities? God's work is here and now. And God is working here and now. But second, we can see God's work as tomorrow sometime in the future.

And we must all see that procrastination is not a spiritual gift. And many of us have it. Even the best of us. Now, a question I want you to think about with me. Can we do everything now? Is there kingdom work that we can't do today that we must put it off till tomorrow? Well, yes. And we need God's wisdom here. We need God's guidance here. We need God's help to know what we should do today and what should be done tomorrow. You see? But the lesson to be learned here is that kingdom work, it is a here and now work. And I think we must have a spiritual experience about us. We must have a spiritual urgency about us.

But we must be cautious as well. We can't be marked by faultlessness or recklessness or some kind of blind spontaneity. This urgency must be infused with wisdom and a leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And that does come better for us or easier for us when we are more mature. So the work is to be done now. And then the fourth observation. The Father's instructions concern the duty of the Son. The Father's instructions are concerned with the duty of the Son. As born-again Christians, we have a heavenly Father. Before we are true Christians, we are Fatherless.

We have no relationship to God the Father other than being alienated from God while we're in sin. But after we are converted to Christ, God becomes our Father. And in the parable we see that it was the Father who called his Son to work in his vineyard. Sons. Simply the Son, the Sons, they had a duty. One obeyed, one did not. They had a duty to obey the Father, their Father, and to work in their Father's vineyard. And we see relationship. We see that this is personal. We see the duty of the Son, the duty of the Son to obey his Father. And see for us as Christians, we have a duty to obey our God and our Father. He calls us.

He expects us to serve in his kingdom. He saves us to serve. And it is our duty to serve. And we obey the duty out of a love for our Father. Out of curiosity, I looked up Webster's definition of the word duty. I think it will help us here. Webster says duty, and I'm reading the definition, it speaks to conduct due to parents or superiors. And then it has out to the side respect. And the lesson for here is that God is our Father and out of love and respect our proper conduct should be to obey and fulfill our duty to serve in the kingdom. But notice something. I haven't given you the fourth major truth.

Remember our four observations when we broke down the parable? We see the parable verses 28 to 30. We see the point of the parable there in verse 28. Really the second part of the verse. Then we saw the revelation of the parable. And then for the reaction, the reaction. We need to see the reaction. And listen, I wasn't just putting that in there so I would have two with a P and two with an R. See the parable, the point of the parable, the revelation, the reaction. We need to see this. This is simple. The religious leaders rejected Jesus and his teaching. Look over at verse 45. This was after the second parable.

The second parable deals with motivation. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. Pause. They should have seen all along. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds because they, the crowds, held him to be a prophet. What am I trying to show you? They rejected him. And the lesson here for us is this. We cannot be like the religious leaders and reject Jesus and his teaching. And if we react like the religious leaders, it proves that we are not gods. Now look at how simple this is.

The religious leaders said that they loved God and worked for God, but they were simply just like the second son. They said that they worked in the vineyard and they didn't. But many of the tax collectors, the harlots, the scum of the earth eventually did come to faith in Christ and they did go and work in God's vineyard. And the Jewish leaders, they understood Jesus here eventually and oh they were mad. Mad enough to kill him. And as I begin to conclude, look at what this parable is all about. The main point of the parable is about work in the kingdom. Who will work in the kingdom?

I like how William Barclay summarizes what this is all about. He says, and I'm borrowing some words here, he says this is where profession and practice meet and match. I've just been ringing in my ear all week. He says this is where profession and practice meet and match. You see? Look at the religious leaders and how their profession and their practice met and matched. And look at our lives. We need to see how our profession and our practice meet and match. Barclay goes on to say that promises can never take the place of performance. And I have to ask us, do we make promises that produce performance in God's vineyard?

Do we have promises that produce performance in God's vineyard? The kingdom and the church. So tonight we have studied the first of our parables that deal with the Christian life. You see it now? You might not have seen it at first. What's the title of the message? I've given it to you all throughout the message. Save to serve. That's it. Save to serve. Not save to say that we're going to serve. Not save to say that we're going to serve, but we sit in our seat and sour. Save to serve. Now here's a bonus for you. Go study the next parable and you'll see that they go together and the next parable deals with their motives. Okay?

The two go together. So what have we looked at? Save to serve. Now I'll say this and then we're going to close and look at some prayer requests. If you don't know where to serve, you come see me. You come see Brother Keith and we will put you to work. And when we have our members meeting here soon dealing with some new church members and some other church business, we're going to talk about some more organized places in ways that we can serve because we believe in a membership where every member is serving and we need you to serve.