The Workers in the Vineyard - Salvation the Same for all Who Believe - part 1

Well if you would take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20 will be in verses 1 to 16 tonight. Now most of you know that we've been in these parables that are grouped together. They are commonly called the salvation parables. We've been here for several weeks. I went back and I looked out of curiosity to see when we started, but we started Luke 15 on August the 17th. And since we covered those three parables in Luke 15, we've covered two other parables. We studied the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector from Luke 18.

We saw that Jesus illustrated justification through the parable, those examples of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee was not justified before God because he based his justification on his performance or his self-righteousness, everything that came from self. But the tax collector was a different story. The tax collector was justified before God because he based his justification on the mercy and the grace of God. It's really hard to divide those two, but that's what he was dependent on. He had a righteousness that came from God, not from himself. And the major point of the parable is one word, justification.

The fact that men and mankind are justified by grace and mercy alone. Of course, there are minor points found in these parables. We know that. But the minor point of that parable would be a lesson on how the religious leaders solved justification. They were in error. And then we also studied the parable of the wedding banquet from Matthew 22. We saw that Jesus illustrated the invitation to come to him for salvation through the story of the wedding banquet, which a king prepared for his son. And within the story, some guests refused the invitation while other guests gladly came.

And the ones who refused, they represented the Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah, while the other guests who did come were represented the Gentiles, those Gentile sinners who did receive Jesus. Now, the major point of the parable is this call of salvation. The major point is seen in verse 14. Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen." The gospel call goes out to so many, we understand that general call. But only a few believe and receive the gospel. And those who believe are the elect or the chosen of God. And we can tell that someone is indeed the elect of God.

If they receive the call of the gospel, they persevere in the call of the gospel. Now tonight, we're going to look at the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. It can be titled the parable of the workers. Sometimes it is called the labors in the vineyard or the workers in the vineyard. And if you read different Bibles, if you look at study helps, you will see different titles given to these parables. And that's okay. Sometimes if you're like me, you can look around and kind of find that parable or that title that fits the parable best for you. So let's get into the verses. I want us to read verses 1 to 16.

And then later on in the message, we'll revisit a couple of the verses. But Matthew chapter 21 to 16. The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning and he hired 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 to them he said, "You go into the vineyard too and whatever is right, I will give you." In other words, dealing with pay. And they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same thing.

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?" And they said to him, "Because no one has hired us." And 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, "The 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." In other words, they did most of the work. But he replied to one of them, "Friend, I am doing no wrong to you. Did you not agree with me for the denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I chose to give to the last workers 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?" And then hearing ends verse 16, "So the last will be first and the first will be last." Now this parable that is before us tonight is simple, although it is a little lengthy. Of course we may not understand a lot of what's going on here because we are definitely disconnected from this culturally. These things can go right by us because we might not identify with these things. But in their day vineyards were a very big part of everyday life. Many people kept vineyards, obviously, to produce grapes. Some were on a very large scale and some were on a smaller scale.

Of course the grapes were used for wine, which was a big part of their life. Actually it had a great deal to do with their health. It wasn't just for drunkenness. Good drinking water was in short supply and wine was a big part of their diet. And for those who were listening, again this audience would have been a Jewish audience. They would have understood all of these things. Other than one thing, there's one thing that they would not have understood, it would have stuck out for them as Jesus was telling the parable. And we'll get to that.

Now in their land the grape harvest was close to the end of September and they had this very short window of time to harvest the grapes before the rain set in. If they did not harvest their grapes before the rains, the crop would have been ruined. So there was this short window to harvest and that time was very, very busy. And it was very common for the vineyard owner to hire workers besides the servants that he would have had in his home or household. And scholars speculate that this event in the parable took place during the time of the harvest. The men standing around there in the market, I mean why were they standing around?

Were they lazy? Were they loitering there on the corner? That's a legitimate question that we might would ask. But it was common in their day for workers to gather in the marketplace as a way to find work. It was much like an employment office. They would gather there looking for employment and then some would come, others would come looking for workers. Scholars tell us that any skilled worker would gather there and they would have their tools in hand and they were looking for work. And it was not uncommon for them to wait for employment all day long. In our day we would describe them as day laborers, temporary help, temp help.

That's what they were. And it would not be wrong for us to call them day laborers or temp help. And we have this pay. We see that word. Some of us are familiar with this word denarius. Denarius was a day's work, was a day's wage and it was common for a Roman soldier and this was a good wage for day labor. And to those who were listening, they would have understood and seen this as a good daily wage for such a worker. And even though it was a good working man's wage, there was really not much left over when the needs were met. Simply the day labor wasn't going to make much off of that fair wage.

We can say it like this in our day, they live from paycheck to paycheck. Y'all know what that phrase means. There's really not much left over. But we need to see who these hired workers, these day laborers were. They were actually the lowest of class. They were the lowest class of men within the working class. Scholars and historians tell us that they lived very precarious lives. Actually, they were always on the edge of literal starvation and death. If there was a severe famine, if there was war, some kind of an economic downturn, they would literally starve in their families also because they would not have work.

They didn't have any type of social security or things like that. Believe it or not, slaves and servants in this society were really better off. Slaves and servants were a part of the family. They were attached to the family. And although they could struggle, if the family that they were attached to struggled, they were really not in danger of total destitution and starvation and death like these day laborers, the day workers. But we need to see what is happening here in the scene. Obviously, the vineyard owner hired these workers for day help, for labor. But we do not know for sure if this was the time of the harvest.

The text really doesn't say, and I know we can speculate, but no matter the reason, the owner, the master, was hiring these workers, day laborers, and this was very, very hard work. We would definitely call this manual labor. And in this Jewish culture, this time their workday would begin at 6 a.m., which was called the first hour. So when you look in your text and you see that first hour, that's 6 a.m. And counting from the first hour, the day was counted until 6 p.m. So the third hour was 9 a.m., the sixth hour was noon, and the eleventh hour was 5 p.m. Note that, the eleventh hour was 5 p.m. And then we have payday.

Don't we all like payday? I think we all like payday. Well, for them, payday was at the end of the day. Now we need to see what this was all about. Now we might ask a question, comparing their culture to ours, why not just pay them at the end of the week? Or why not just pay them at the end of when the owner needed them? In other words, when their work was done. But they were paid at the end of the day because of what the Old Testament Scriptures commanded. All of those Jews listening would have known this fact. You can read the chapter if you want on your own.

In Deuteronomy 24, we see that there are all these various miscellaneous laws that were given to the Jews. And in verse 15, we see that they were commanded to pay their workers at the end of each day's labor. Yes, the Old Testament says that. And this particular law was given to ensure that these day laborers were paid as they should be. This law was given to protect those who were at the bottom of the working class and to ensure that they weren't defrauded. Literally, if they did not get paid daily, they couldn't eat. And they could starve. So this law was given to protect the workers, and it was given to keep the employers in check.

Kind of sounds like a labor union, does it not? We're familiar with those kind of things. So we have the parable. We even have the context or the explanation of what things mean because a lot is given. This parable is rather simple. It's easy to understand, but the problem comes in the meaning. The meaning or the interpretation of the parable can be debated. We've seen this before because we've been studying parables for quite a while. Some are rather easy to interpret and some are not. But basically, there are two ways of interpreting this parable. Some see the point of this parable speaking of rewards for service in the kingdom.

But others see this parable speaking of salvation or inheriting eternal life. Some see this parable teaching about rewards in the kingdom for those who are Christian. But others see this parable as teaching and illustrating certain things about salvation. Now, I take the position that this parable is speaking and illustrating things and truths on salvation, inheriting eternal life, not rewards. Otherwise, I wouldn't be dealing with it in this part of the series. Now, before we get into the parable, we need to remember some things we have already learned.

Jesus taught certain parables, and we've seen this, which were aimed at the Jews who were furious that the Gentiles, these sinners, were coming into the kingdom. They were believing in Christ and following Christ. Simply, the Jews were filled with anger more and more and more that the Gentiles, those outcasts, those sinners were coming into the kingdom, while at the same time, they were rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and the kingdom. And at the same time, Jesus was teaching on salvation in these particular parables. It's the same thing in the parable of the prodigal. Remember, the parable of the two lost sons.

The older son represented the Jews, and the older son refused to accept the Father's love and to come into salvation, that salvation celebration. And the younger son represented those Gentile sinners who were coming to faith in Christ. They were coming into the kingdom. That's why the father was having a big celebration. We also see the same thing in the parable of the wedding banquet. Those who were first invited, they refused to come to the wedding banquet, and that group represented the Jews. Those who were invited, they refused to accept the king's invitation to come to the son's celebration.

And of course, those who were invited off of the streets, they were those Gentiles and sinners and outcasts who were believing in Jesus, and they were coming into the kingdom. And it's the same in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee praying there in the temple represented the Jews, and especially the religious leaders. The Pharisee in the story, like all of the other religious leaders, did not need mercy. He did not need grace. They saw themselves as justified before God through their self-righteousness, their religious performance, all their so-called good works. Of course, the tax collector praying in the story.

He represented those Gentile sinners who were believing in Christ, and they were justified before God. How? Through mercy and grace. So in these certain parables, Jesus was definitely teaching and illustrating certain things about salvation. We've seen it. But Jesus was purposely isolating the Jews and revealing the fact that they were doing two things during Jesus' earthly ministry. First, they were rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and refusing to believe, therefore they couldn't come into the kingdom. And then second, they were becoming increasingly furious that the Gentiles were believing coming to Jesus and coming into the kingdom.

I mean, Jesus even had the audacity to announce that certain Gentiles, they had their sins forgiven. He was openly declaring that they were indeed right with God coming into the kingdom, remember? And to me, the meaning of this parable about the vineyard and the workers is the same as those other parables that we've studied. They are all meant to teach and illustrate certain things about salvation, but they are also meant to reveal the religious hypocrisy of the Jews. And they were meant to reveal how the Gentiles, those sinners, were coming into the kingdom as well.

You can say it like this, there's a lot of moving parts going on, but when you put them all together, you can see what they mean. Now let me show you how we'll approach the parable. I want us to look at the parable finally, because I know this has been a lengthy introduction to get there. And we will get at the main point of the parable, but there is a lot more teaching and some application, some teaching that will carry this further that we'll get into next week. So this is a part one and a part two. So number one, I want us to look at the participants in the parable, verses 1 to 8. We've read those verses, so I'm not going to revisit them.

We've already come to a place where we understand the parable. Now, no, we know what's happening here. And this was very realistic. It was a common story. Everything here of the Jews would have understood except for one thing. One thing would have stuck out for them in a glaring way. But we have the master of the house. He owned the land. Specifically, he owned the vineyard. And for certain reasons, or a particular reason, he had a need in his vineyard. He goes out and he hires these day laborers. He hires the first group at the beginning of the day, remember? And they agreed on a day's wage. And he then hires the second group.

And the owner simply says, "You go and you go work and I'll pay you what's right." And then he hires two more groups at the sixth hour and the ninth hours. And the text says he does the same thing. And then he hires another group at the eleventh hour. And that was 5 p.m., which was one hour before the end of the day. But there's no mention of pay with this group. And we see all of these events, verses 1 to 7. But we need to see a few things about those who were hired late. We need to see that they were not hanging around because they were late for work or lazy or anything like that. They were waiting around looking for work.

They were waiting for someone to hire them. They were not loitering on the corner. They were looking for work. What am I trying to show you? They did not have character issues. Starting in verse 8, we see a new character, the foreman, who worked for the owner of the vineyard. And here we see that the foreman is called by the owner to come and to pay the workers for their day's work. Paying the workers took place at the end of the day. And again, this was according to the Scriptures. John MacArthur calls the owner of the vineyard a very conscientious Jewish employer because he did all of these things and obedience to the Scriptures.

And all of the Jews would have seen that. There was one thing, though, that stuck out. And we'll get there. So I think it's easy to see. The participants, the characters, these events, it's easy for us to see. And I think they're in your mind. Now question, who do these people represent? Who do these people represent? In these parables, the people and the participants, they represented certain people in certain things. We know that. So the question is, who is represented by these things in the parable? We have the owner. Who's the owner? We have the foreman. Who does the foreman represent? We have the first group of workers.

Who do they represent? Then we have the other workers. And then we have the day's labor. And I'll see if you can identify who these people are. We'll get to them here in a moment. Now number two, we have the problem in the parable. It's in verse 8 to 12. We have a problem in the parable. Now the problem in the parable is not with the parable. The problem is found in the conflict that came about and how the workers were paid by the owner. Now to see the problem, we need to see two things that are very obvious. First, the odd manner in which the workers were paid. This is easy to see.

Verse 8, we see that the owner calls his foreman to pay the workers. And this was all normal, all good. But the owner calls his foreman to start paying them, beginning with the last who was hired up to the first that was hired. Look back at verse 8. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, "Call the laborers and pay them their wages. Everything's fine." And notice, beginning with the last up to the first. And look, this was extremely unusual. Everything in these events would have been good with the Jews. They knew and understood these things, but this part would have stuck out for them.

But this gets at the main point of the parable, and that is those who were hired at the last were paid the same as those who were hired at first. Take note of that. Those who were hired at the last were paid as the same as those who were hired at the first. And that gets at the main point of the parable. Remember, they only worked an hour. Second, the odd amount of the workers that the workers were paid. Now, this part of the parable is very easy to see, and here is where some cry foul. Here is where some see some type of an injustice, a problem within the parable.

One could make a point that those who were hired at first could think that they deserved more. When the foreman was paying the last workers hired, he paid them a full day's wage. The first ones hired did not have a problem, if you notice. They actually were very excited because they assumed that they would be paid more. But we see that they had a big problem when they were only paid a full day's wage. They had assumed that they would get paid much more, and they said out loud, "They did not think this was fair." Look at verse 12.

They said, "These last worked for only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat." You see how they cried foul? Simply they were mad. They saw this injustice. They were mad because they believed they were being mistreated or cheated. It wasn't fair in their eyes. But a couple questions here. Did the owner of the vineyard break his word in any way? Did he break any agreement that he had made with any of the workers? Think here. Think about the parable. Think about that. The answer is no. The owner did not break any arrangement.

In fact, he did everything he said he would do and more. That's key. Get that. Because that has a big bearing on the meaning of the parable. The owner did not break any agreement. In fact, he did everything he said he would do and more. So before we move on, we must make sure we remember the problem in the parable. The fact that these first workers felt defrauded and they felt cheated. They complained that those who were hired last were paid the same as they were, which was a full day's wage. And remember this. Our problem can come about.

A problem in us can come about when we fail to understand that this problem in the parable speaks to or demonstrates a particular trap that we can fall into and we will get to that. Now next in the parable, verses 13 to 16. And this is where Jesus really gets into its meaning. This is what I will call point number three, the point of the parable. But before we get into the point of the parable, I want to tell you how we're going to proceed. Tonight I will give us the point of the parable and what these things represent. And next week I will come back and I will give a lot more teaching from the parable.

And also next week I will deal with how some see this parable as teaching on rewards. We're just going to flesh this out more. I guess I can say it like this. We have covered a lot to get to this point. And next week we will build off of all of this teaching, we'll get into more insight, make more application. So number three, the point of the parable, verses 13 to 16. Let's read those verses or let's look at them together. "But he," this is the owner, the vineyard owner, "replyed to one of them." Seems like one is speaking for that first group who feels defrauded.

"But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong or no injustice, nothing unlawful. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?" In other words, can I not give more out of my own pocket if I choose? Or do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first and the first will be last. Now here the owner answers the accusations from the disgruntled worker. And in his response, the owner does two things.

First, he answers the accusation and then second, he explains his decision, the decision that he's made as an owner. First, his response to the accusation. He says friend. Now that's not a term of endearment in the original. It basically means he's disconnected from him emotionally. He says friend, I am doing no wrong to you. He is saying we made an agreement for a fair wage for a fair day's work. I agree to that and you agree to that. And in his response, the owner is clearly telling this worker that he agreed to work for a full day, a full day's work for a fair day's pay.

The owner is clearly telling this worker that he paid him for what he agreed to and what he worked for. Simply the owner is saying I've done nothing wrong. I've kept my end of the bargain and you have kept yours. Take your pay and go. But second is explanation of his decisions. And at this point he says, am I not able to do with my money what I choose? Can I not pay the last worker a full day's pay if I choose? Can I not choose to be generous? And why are you angry at me because of my generosity? And also notice what he is saying. He did nothing wrong. He is saying I did nothing unlawful.

He is saying he did not break God's law or any kind of law by doing what he did. Simply the owner is saying that the motive behind his decision was generosity. So we see that Jesus gave the point of the parable here. The owner explains his actions. He says he did nothing wrong. But he paid the last hired worker or workers a full day's pay out of generosity. But what is the point? The major point is not simply the generosity of the owner. The point is the generosity of the owner and the jealousy and the envy and the animosity of the first hired worker. The problem here is not about any injustice. The first hired worker was paid in full.

The problem was the first hired worker's jealousy and envy and animosity. The problem was the first hired worker's rudeness and selfishness in light of the owner's generosity. And yes, we can draw out lessons about injustice and fairness here. But the major point is centered on the owner's generosity and his lawful right to pay all of those workers the same day's wage. And all of this is built on top of this jealousy, this envy, this animosity that is seen in the first hired worker or workers. Now at this point I think we need to see who all these characters represent. Some of you have probably been figuring it out. This will help us.

It helped me. First we must see that the parable is all about the kingdom of heaven. Right off we see that in verse 1. But specifically the vineyard is the kingdom. It speaks of the kingdom and the work of the kingdom. And the vineyard owner or the master is God the Father. And the foreman is Jesus or God's Son. The day labors, they are represented as believers. Now the denarius there represents salvation which is given to any and all who believe in Christ. And the day's work represents the believer's life and time on earth. And again I'm going to flesh some of this out more next week.

Now here is the exclamation, the exclamation at this point. We see in the parable, God sovereignly works in man's salvation and every person who savingly comes to faith in Christ receives the same precious gift of salvation. All, any and all who are saved receive the same grace gift. It's the same for all. There is no exception. If a person comes to faith at 8 or 18 or 88 they receive the same grace gift. If a person comes to faith and they have lived years and years and years in sin and rebellion or if someone comes to faith in Christ and they have never openly rebelled they receive the same grace gift.

If a person lives like the devil up until they are 89 years old and they come to faith in Christ on their deathbed or if they come to faith in Christ right off of the church pew at the age of 9 and they have never experienced what we would call open sin and rebellion they receive the same grace gift. And get this, if we think about it from our perspective what I have just said, it can seem like that's unfair. Burning the candle of life at both ends and then coming to faith in Christ getting the same gift as the one who has never done anything wrong openly of course we know that that's not true.

But from God's side of things it's all about God's sovereign grace. From God's perspective all men and all mankind deserve what? Eternal punishment. Whether it's the 89 year old who has lived in open sin or the 9 year old who has never seemingly rebelled at all. All deserve hell, all deserve damnation and all who are saved are saved by the same sovereign grace. And for those Jews who were hired first remember they are all descendants of Abraham they have been a part of the covenant.

And for those Jews who were the first hired men to see those Gentiles who were the very last ones they were coming into the kingdom, coming into the kingdom they were envious and they were angry and they hated the Gentiles and they hated Jesus even more. Now question and application. Do we truly see that our salvation is solely of grace? Of God by grace through faith? We really need to ask that question and answer that question more than you know. Listen folks, we must see that our salvation is of grace by grace from Christ. We must see and truly believe this fact.

We must hold this reality and truth in our minds and in our hearts and at the forefront of our minds because if we do not then that can cause us to veer off into a multitude of sins that relate to spiritual pride. I've seen that. I've seen people in churches think that they've got the gospel figured out and if people don't get saved through their ministry and their preaching and their church well then they really don't get saved. It's the same sin. Very close. You see? Now this is how I want to leave us tonight. I want to quickly put this parable in the context of those others. I did this earlier. This will help us.

In the parable of the lost sons, both were lost, the older and the younger, the older brother and the workers in this parable are very much the same. They were all jealous, envious, resentful of the Father's generosity. Their root problems were jealousy and envy and resentment. See the similarity between what's here, the parable of the vineyard, the parable of the lost sons, and the parable of the wedding banquet. It's a little different. They outcast off the streets, did receive the invitation for the wedding banquet but the first ones who were invited did not. They simply refused the invitation of the king.

Their root problem was refusing the invitation of salvation. And in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector it is different. The Pharisee's root problem was pride. He was full of self-righteousness and pride. But notice, all had the same problem. All here in the parable tonight they had the same problem. Jesus was revealing more about the Jews, more of their resentment, more of their anger towards the generosity of God and Him loving, lost sinners, Gentiles through Jesus.

And I want us to close with asking if we have ever been jealous when we see God love someone that we may think they do not deserve God's love and blessing, mercy and grace and generosity. Think before you answer. Have we ever been jealous or envious or aggravated or questioned why God would love someone that we may think they do not deserve God's love, blessing, generosity and grace? If we have ever had a thought like that it comes right out of the heart that these Pharisees had. You see? Now I know it's a lot. And I've probably stirred up more questions than I've answered. And I did that on purpose. It's good for you to study some too.

And next week we're going to finish this out, right? So what's the title of the message? "The Workers in the Vineyard." And I'll flesh out the second part of the title next week. So here's how I want to challenge you. You go study, you answer some of these questions and you dig into it, see how all of these come together. I'm going to flesh this out next week. Even looking at those who hold the position that this refers to receiving rewards. And I think it'll be good for us all. It's been good for me. So let's pray. And then we're going to look at some prayer requests that I think many of you have on your hearts.