The Kingdom of Heaven is Like Workers in a Vineyard - Phil Whittall

It's great to see you. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Phil.

I'm one of the elders here at Grace Church.

And my privilege to bring God's word to you today.

It's another hot day in Bujumbura, capital of Burundi, in the heart of Africa,

and one of the poorest countries in the world.

I'm heading to the market in

our organization's white Toyota Land Cruiser pickup. We need some cement.

The driver slowly barges his way through the crowded streets,

and so we get to the supplier.

And nearby stand a group of mostly young, strong men.

They're so covered in cement dust that they are almost as white as I am.

We make our order, someone nods to the men, and they get to work hoisting 25

kilos of cement off the pallet, onto the shoulders, into the truck.

Make it look as easy as picking apples from the supermarket.

This is how they got strong.

They don't work for the shop. They're just waiting for a customer who doesn't want to get dirty.

So my driver then digs out some filthy, ragged banknotes, and quickly they disappear

amongst the men who loaded up the truck.

Then they go back to waiting, waiting until the next customer shows up.

It was a scene that Jesus and his listeners were very familiar with.

For many people then, and in lots of places in the world now,

labor, employment, was something you found day by day.

Not month by month, no contracts for a year.

You had to work for today, and you didn't know if you'd have work tomorrow.

You'd find out tomorrow if you had work, which is why Jesus' instruction,

give us this day our daily bread makes so much more sense to them than it might do sometimes to us.

So Jesus picks this scene, which they're very familiar with,

and he uses this familiar everyday scene to teach them an eternal truth.

The kingdom of heaven is like...

What's the kingdom of heaven like? What's it like to be under the rule and reign of God?

What is this place, this environment where God is in charge, what's that like?

It's a great question.

And so to illustrate what the kingdom of heaven is like, not heaven,

but just the place, the The kingdom of heaven, in this case,

is what happens on the earth where God is ruling the lives of people who trust

in him. What's that like?

The kingdom of heaven is like this.

The owner of a vineyard heads to a marketplace at around 6 in the morning,

hires his first group of workers, and they agree the standard daily wage.

All good. Everyone is happy. No complaints. There will be money in their pockets

and food in their bellies that evening, all good. It's a hot day.

It's a scorcher. Hard work under the sun in the vineyard.

And about 9am, which is the third hour, man still needs more workers,

heads back to the marketplace, hires his second group.

And this time he just simply says, I'll pay you what's fair.

No price, no sum, but the workers would have probably watched the first group

of people get hired. They would have probably been there.

So they would have known that they got the day's wage. So they just assume that

they're going to get 75% of that. No problem.

The owner repeats the trip at 12th, the 6th hour, and again at 3pm, the 9th hour.

And then at around 5pm, with the end of the day closing in.

He makes a final trip to the marketplace. And there they were,

a group of sad people, probably extremely bored, hungry, and poor.

No work for them today.

Now, Ona wonders, why are you just lounging around? Which is a slightly odd question.

The answer should have been obvious. In fact, that's the obvious answer is what

the owner got. No one hired us.

I'll hire you, the owner says. And they go and work the final hour.

The light has gone. No more work can be done. It's time to pay the workers and send them home.

So he gets this foreman, tells them to call the laborers and to pay them their

wages. And then the interesting thing, he clearly says to them,

let's start with the ones hired last.

And this is where Jesus throws in the first big twist into the story.

The thing which people will go, that's not what usually happens.

These one-hour workers get paid for the full day.

That's definitely not what usually happens. The listeners lean in, what's going on?

Maybe the vineyard owners got confused and paid the wrong group.

No. So now things get interesting.

Because the first group of workers, they would have heard or seen that these

one-hour losers had been given a full day's wages.

So they think, not entirely unreasonably, if you get a full day for one hour,

what do you get if you've done a full day?

Then we must surely get more, right? Like, but how much more? Double? Four times?

Twelve times? Excitement builds. This is going to be an unexpectedly good day.

But no.

They get exactly what they were told they would get. They got a day's wages for a day's work.

Hang on a minute the workers who have been treated fairly suddenly don't feel

that they've been treated fairly at all why,

Because the owner of the vineyard has been generous to these Johnny-come-lately

workers who only did an hour's work and got a day's wages.

And they say, look here, we worked all day. In the heat of the sun, we were working.

You've made them equal to us.

That's not fair.

They complain. They grumble. The deal they were happy to take in the morning

doesn't feel so good now, in the evening.

They might have woken up that morning, gone to the marketplace and prayed,

give us this day our daily bread.

And at the end of the day, even though the Lord had heard and answered their

prayer, they feel no gratitude.

They've been dealt with justly.

But others have been dealt with generously, which makes their just rewards feel unjust.

It's not so, replies the owner. We agreed a wage, and I've paid you it.

You've not been cheated.

So then he asked them two questions. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

And do you begrudge or resent my generosity?

Do you resent my generosity? What a good question.

Do you resent my generosity? To which the clear answer is, yes.

Yes, I very much do resent your generosity. I'm not at all happy about it.

Any parent will tell you that a keenly developed sense of fairness starts at a very early age.

Siblings compare the sizes of the slices of cake, sizes of presents,

number of toys, anything, in fact, that might suggest that the universe is a

little bit off balance. I'm all twisted up back there.

Anything that might suggest that something is that they've got more than me.

It's not fair. They've got more than me. They've got three presents. I've only got two.

They've got, you know, we had to do it in the cake cutting thing,

where in order to make sure that there couldn't be any sort of arguments about

the size of the cake, one of the children has to cut the cake.

And that's where they get the ruler out, to make sure that they're absolutely,

that the other one gets to choose.

You cut, they choose. So you are very, very careful about the size of the slice that you are cutting.

They are going to be so equal because there's no way that they are going to

get a bigger slice of cake than I'm going to get.

So we have this very keenly perceived sense of injustice about what's truly fair.

And I don't think that ever truly leaves us.

Jesus certainly didn't seem to think so.

But you think now that I'm a Christian, right? I'd be way past begrudging the generous grace of God.

Not a bit of it. Some friends have been given more opportunities,

more money, bigger churches.

Some are more charismatic. Some are better Bible preachers. Some are better leaders.

They're more blessed.

Look at what they have. Look at what they've got.

God has freely used what belongs to him.

But if I'm not careful, I stop thanking God for what he's given me and start

resenting him for what he's given them.

Do I begrudge him his generosity? You bet I do.

That's how I think when I think like the worker who's chosen first. You bet I do.

I'm not looking at what God has done for me.

I'm looking at what God has done for them. And I think I deserve more.

I've worked hard. I've labored. I've done my duty.

And these workers, they're like the older brother in another of Jesus' famous stories.

Missing out on the generous provision of the father because we're upset by the

forgiveness and grace shown to the younger, in our opinion, undeserving sibling.

But we forget that what we have was never ours.

It's always our Father's. See, grace is never earned. It's never deserved.

It's always generous. And it's always given as a gift.

So in this kingdom, what is the kingdom of heaven like? In this kingdom,

the only people who miss out on the joy of it are the ones who think they earned it in the first place.

If the first workers had been paid first, they'd have probably gone home tired but reasonably happy.

Thank you, God, for this day of work. Thank you, Lord, for this money in my

hand, the food it will buy, providing for my family. The Lord's provided.

The Lord has been good to us.

But that's not how their day ended.

There are a lot of reasons why comparing yourself to others can negatively impact your mental health.

Research suggests that comparison will foster envy and resentment and this whole

scarcity mindset that causes dissatisfaction with your own achievements.

This is kind of contemporary research. Jesus nailed it in a story 2,000 years ago.

See, injustice isn't really the issue here because there isn't actually any injustice.

Envy is the issue here. Maybe you've noticed in yourself sometimes the tendency

to think like the first worker.

Maybe on social media, maybe in your family, maybe at work, maybe even at church.

Look at what they have, you think.

And the moment you do, you look at what you have and you look at what they have.

Suddenly something just seems not as good as it did.

You can leave discontented and frustrated.

The same as this is a story, we're not stuck thinking and living and believing as just one character.

We can meditate and reflect on what it would have been like To be one of the

workers chosen at the end of the day,

Maybe they too had woken up that morning and prayed to God, give us this day our daily bread.

And then for 11 hours straight, wondered whether God had heard their prayer.

They too would have faced the challenge of comparison as worker after worker

gets picked. But not then.

Not chosen. Not chosen. Not chosen.

Now they're expecting to go home empty-handed and empty-bellied For 11 hours

straight, no one offered them work,

God hears their praise, but he hasn't heard mine,

But then,

they get work It's not much, but something's better than nothing, right?

A fraction of something is worth a lot more than 100% of nothing.

But then they get more than just something.

They get the day, the whole day, enough to fill their hunger,

meet their needs, and make them forget about all their earlier fears and doubts.

How would that feel? How would that feel?

Maybe they wouldn't believe it. Maybe they take the money and they think,

this must have been some mistake.

Let's get out of here quick before someone catches us and realizes that they screwed up.

You know, there's this bank error

in your favor. Great, let's get out of here. Let's go spend it quick.

But it would be a story that they would tell, right? And tell,

and tell. Do you remember that time where we worked one hour and got paid a day?

Do you remember that? That was amazing. That's never happened before.

That's never happened since.

They'd be stunned, surprised, delighted, grateful.

Did they begrudge the owner his generosity?

Not a chance. they don't resent his generosity not a bit of him,

What can we learn from this story?

Firstly, all the workers were chosen.

All the workers were chosen.

Without the action of the owner, no one gets caught and no one gets paid. it.

The first group didn't deserve to be called any more than the last group, but they were called.

They were receiving grace all along, but they just didn't realize it.

The first are actually the same as the last, and the last are the same as the first.

He's made them equal.

Secondly, no one is treated unfairly. No one was cheated.

And people will either be dealt with according to the justice of God or the grace of God.

And there'll be no one who can say, God has dealt unjustly with me.

No one will receive less than they deserve from God.

No one will receive less than they deserve from God.

But many will receive far, far more than they deserve.

They will receive grace.

Thirdly, we are the last workers.

We might like to imagine that sometimes we're the ones who show up early,

the reliable ones, the steady ones, the ones who carry the heat of the day.

But when it comes to God, we're never the early worker.

We didn't show up at dawn looking for him. He came looking for us.

We weren't negotiating a fair wage because spiritually we were bestiches,

standing in the marketplace of selfishness and sin hoping for someone to buy us a way out,

the full day's wage of the kingdom Forgiveness,

adoption, calling, eternal life is not something that anyone can accumulate

through hours logged on the time sheet.

But grace is free for the worker, but it's not for the owner.

It costs the owner to pay the workers. grace cost them to pay them more.

Grace cost the giver something. And when we extend this story and we look at

the whole gospel and all the gospels and the teaching of Jesus and put it all together,

we realize that for us to have life, to have more than we deserve,

cost Jesus his life.

It meant that Jesus took all that was ours, our sin and our shame,

our brokenness, and he took it on himself and took it to the cross and took it to the grave.

That's what it cost the owner for us to have what we don't deserve.

Which means for us we all come in at the 11th hour at the end of the day,

because not one of us can justify ourselves God

chooses all his people and we're all saved because he came looking for us because

he called us to come and follow him and a lifetime of serving doesn't change

the fact that a life started because God called,

and God chose and God so loved and God loved us first.

So maybe this, maybe you're here today and you think, ah, look at these guys,

these are Christians, they've heard the call.

They've had good opportunities. Maybe they had life worked out different for

them and that's why they believe.

It's not too late. God is still calling and is calling you.

It's not too late to respond to his call. His offer is now. Will you come and follow me?

That was Jesus' said. What he said to his disciples was, come and follow me.

Come follow me. The owner goes to the marketplace and says, come and work with me. Come follow me.

There's this opportunity today, right now, to find your place and your purpose

in service to the King of Kings.

Don't be proud and refuse. Don't miss out on the grace that is on offer.

Trust and believe in Jesus Christ, who paid you more than you deserve and who

offers you life and hope.

Because he came looking for us. Jesus said of himself, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost,

to lift up the ones who are poor and brokenhearted, to give them a place at

the table, to make the last equal to the first.

That was what Jesus' mission was.

And so when I realize that this is exactly how God has treated me,

I'm chosen and called to work in his vineyard.

He's treated me both justly and also with abundant grace and generosity.

What should my response be?

Will I respond like the first worker, the first workers? Will I respond like that?

Will I look at all the things that other people have and complain to God?

Will I resent him for what he's given to others, that I somehow think that he

owes me, that God owes me,

or will I respond like the final workers?

To be honest, I am still stunned and surprised and delighted and grateful that

a God so good would find a place for someone like me.

I've told it before, I have this, God has somehow done this thing to me, which I didn't expect.

A few years ago, when I was wrestling with a few things, suddenly it seemed

to happen that I couldn't ever, I still can't, it's just embarrassing, it feels embarrassing.

I can't sing about the resurrection of Jesus without crying.

So if ever you see me like we sing these songs and suddenly I've got tears pouring

out and it's like what's going on like I can't help it I can't help it just

it's like he's nobbled me somehow he's It just got me.

I'm like, not again.

Suddenly with my eyes, there must be some problem. I need to go see the doctor

about my tear ducts. What happens?

Well, I keep singing these songs and it's making me cry. Can you fix it?

Thank God would send his son to die for me.

And that death has been defeated and sin has been overcome through the resurrection

of Jesus Christ and that we can be new creations.

And that he would say to me, come and be with me.

Come and be with me. Come and work for me.

Do I resent him, his generosity?

Wouldn't have life, wouldn't have love, wouldn't have Jesus, if he hadn't?

No, I don't, I resent him his generosity, it's not one bit.

So let's not stand in the marketplace of comparison, of looking at others,

looking at what they have.

We're not to be counting other people's wages.

You've been chosen, you've been called, your debts have been paid,

you have been given more than you deserve.

So what kind of kingdom is this? The kingdom of heaven is like,

the kingdom of heaven is like where the last get welcomed in.

The kingdom of heaven is like where mercy and grace have the final word.

The kingdom of heaven is like when no one earns their place and when no one

who will come ever gets turned away.

The kingdom of heaven is like an owner who goes and calls his workers into a

vineyard and pays them more than they ever deserved.

That's what the kingdom of heaven is like, because that's what God is like,

that's what Jesus is like.

Full of grace and truth, full of grace and truth, full of mercy, rich in love.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

That was who he declared himself to be in the Old Testament.

That's who he revealed himself to be through Jesus Christ and that's who Jesus

taught us that the kingdom of heaven is like.

Rich in mercy, gracious, compassionate, generous to a fault.

If you've ever noticed in yourself the temptation to be the first worker,

now is an opportunity to say so unto God, to repent of an attitude of entitlement

when all God has done is show you grace.

Maybe you're the third worker the final lot opportunity to say thank you and to let your heart,

really express the truth that God has been so generous to you and you didn't deserve any of it,

Maybe you feel like you've been waiting at the marketplace and other people

have been chosen, but not you.

I want you to hear very clearly that Jesus Christ today, right now, calls you to come.

Come and believe in him. Come and put your faith in him.

Come and trust him, that if you go and work with him, he will pay you more than you deserve.

Amen.

Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

I think in his work, his Father who showed up praying, give us this day.

And you provided for them and so much more that your grace is enough for us

each and every day to forgive us our sins.

To lead us not into temptation and to deliver us from evil, that's what you've done,

So I thank you for your kindness to us, your grace to us.

Thank you that you called us and you've given us way more than we could ever ask or imagine.

How great is the love that you have poured out upon us, that we should be called children of God.

For that is what we are, through Jesus Christ.

To help us, God, not to live with begrudging hearts, hearts that are stingy

and looking at entitlement and comparing.

Free us from all of that.

And so give us hearts that are full of gratitude and joy because you've called

us and you've shown your grace to us.

We thank you for all of that that comes through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And in his name we pray. Amen.

We hope that this sermon has encouraged you. If you'd like to learn more about

us, visit us online at gracechurch.se.

Thanks for listening.