September 20, 2026 | Comfort for Sinners

This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire 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 market place.

And to them he said, You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.

So they went, going out again about the sixth hour, and the ninth hour he did the same.

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?

They said to him, Because no one has hired us.

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 came first, 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, These last workers only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.

But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong.

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 give to you.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

Or do you begrudge my generosity?

So the last will be first and the first will be last.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you that among the many gifts you have given us, you have given us the precious gift of your life-giving word.

And we thank you that you have also given us your Holy Spirit so that we can understand these words that you speak to us.

So come, Holy Spirit, open our ears to hear what you are saying and open our hearts to respond.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

This morning, I will be continuing our series that we have been doing on the comfortable words.

And just as a reminder, these comfortable words, these four Bible verses, were inserted in the 16th century by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer into the middle of our liturgy.

And he put them there because he was convinced that we needed to return to them, that every week when we gather together, we need to return once more to the comfort and the hope that we have in Jesus.

And so far, I think you would agree with me, so far, that is exactly what these words have done.

They have spoken comfort to us.

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Who would not draw comfort from those words?

But then we come to the third of these comfortable words, and there's something a little bit different about this one.

It's the words of the Apostle Paul that can be found in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15.

1 Timothy 1:15

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Now, I have found, as a general rule, that people don't like to be called sinners.

In fact, most people don't even really like the word sin.

And that's not new.

Back in 1973, a prominent American psychologist by the name of Carl Meninger wrote a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin?

He observed how the language of sin had become so infrequent in the United States, and he wondered why that was.

The very word sin, he says, which seems to have disappeared, was once a proud word.

It was a strong word, an ominous and serious word.

But the word went away.

It has almost disappeared, the word along with the notion.

Why?

Doesn't anyone sin anymore?

Doesn't anyone believe in sin?

I think that what Mininger observed in the general American public has become true in many ways of the church as well.

Not that we have abandoned the word sin entirely, but we talk about it much less than we used to.

And we talk about it less seriously than we once did.

And we certainly don't like that word applied to ourselves.

And yet, it's right there in the third word of comfort we hear, right after Jesus' invitation to the weary and heavy laden, right after the reminder of how God so loved the world, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

May seem like an odd choice for a comfortable word, but I think Archbishop Cranmer knew what he was doing.

And I think he understood something that we sometimes forget.

Which is that true comfort, the comfort which God desires to give us comes not from avoiding the reality of our sin.

But from facing it, confronting it, looking it square in the eye.

So this morning, that's exactly what we're going to do.

We are going to talk about sin and about being sinners.

And we're also going to be reminded once again why this word speaks such great comfort to people like us.

Now there are a lot of things you could say about sin.

The Bible says a lot of things about sin, but this morning I'd like to focus our attention very briefly on three things that we see in Scripture: the character of sin, the consequences of sin, and the commonality of sin.

So first, the character of sin.

I keep using this word.

What even is this word?

What does it mean?

What is its nature?

The Bible uses a variety of metaphors when it talks about sin.

Sometimes it portrays it as a burden or a weight that presses down upon you.

For my iniquities have gone over my head, the psalmist says, like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

If you've ever read the story Pilgrim's Progress, you might remember that at the beginning of the story, Pilgrim, the main character, he has this immense burden on his back.

It is pressing him down, weighing upon him everywhere he goes.

He can't shake it off.

That's a very biblical image in many ways.

Sin is an unbearable burden that weighs upon you.

But it's not just a burden.

Scripture says that sin is also a stain.

It's something that makes you feel dirty and unclean.

And no matter how hard you try to wash it off, you can't get rid of that stain.

To quote the words of the prophet Jeremiah, though you wash yourself with lie and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God.

An unbearable burden, an unwashable stain, but also an unpayable debt.

You remember that story?

We actually heard it last week in our gospel reading.

It's the story that Jesus tells of that servant who owed all that money to his master.

Jesus said that that servant owed 10,000 talents, which is a little difficult to translate into today's currency, but it's essentially the same thing as saying there's someone who makes around$50,000 a year, and that person owes$10 billion.

It is so much money that this person could not pay off that debt if they saved everything they could for 500 lifetimes.

That is the debt against us.

And that, Jesus is saying, is what our sin is.

It is a debt so staggering that it is unimaginable.

A burden, a stain, a debt.

These are all metaphors that the Bible uses.

But if you want to truly understand the character of sin according to the Bible, then you need to understand that sin, unlike how we often think, sin is not just wrongdoing.

It is open rebellion against God.

It's right there in the opening words of the prophet Isaiah: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.

For the Lord has spoken.

Children have I brought up and reared, but they have rebelled against me.

They have rejected me.

They have turned away from me.

They have spat upon me.

Sin is a complete rejection of the moral authority of our Creator, lawlessness, as 1 John calls it.

And we may choose to overlook it.

We may think it's not that big of a deal, but Scripture says otherwise.

The Bible calls even the stars in the sky to look with horror upon the sin they behold in us.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this.

Be shocked, be utterly desolate at what you see.

Whatever you and I may think of our failures to love and obey God, and our failures to love our neighbors, however lightly we may think of it, that, according to the Bible, is the true nature of our sin.

That is its character.

But Scripture doesn't just teach us to take sin seriously by describing its character to us, it also teaches us to take sin seriously by helping us to understand its consequences.

What does sin bring?

You remember what happened in Genesis chapter 3?

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

A little bite from a piece of fruit.

Such a small, simple action.

What harm really could possibly come?

Well, the story says, as it turns out, quite a lot.

Because when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that tree, they immediately began to experience something they had never felt before.

Shame.

Overwhelming, terrible shame.

They had always been naked.

But Genesis 2 tells us they felt no shame.

They did not feel that way.

Now, for the first time in their lives, they feel naked, they feel exposed, they try to hide themselves from God, even from each other.

And then what happened?

They lose that wonderful harmony they had with God, their creator.

He used to walk and speak with him in the garden, we're told.

But now they are banished from his presence.

Unholy creatures who cannot abide, the presence of a holy God.

And it wasn't just God that they're separated from, it's also each other.

Remember, Adam rejoiced when he first saw Eve, but as soon as he took a bite from that fruit, he turns on her and he blames her for his own actions.

And then the Lord tells Eve that the wonderful intimacy she has had with her husband will now forever be marred by conflict and strife.

And after that, as sin makes its way ever deeper into the human heart, it only gets worse.

In the very next chapter, God warns Cain of what the consequence of his sin will be.

Sin, he says, is crouching at your door.

Its desire is for you to consume you, to control you, and you must rule over it.

Cain doesn't take it seriously.

Sin masters him.

And Abel pays the price.

The very first older brother in human history who was ever charged with looking out for his little brother murders him in cold blood.

And for what?

For nothing more than a bruised ego.

In Romans chapter 6, the Apostle Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

And the Bible illustrates that for us.

We see it played out on every page of human history.

Sin brings death.

Death to marriages, death to families, death to our bodies, death to our souls.

That is the consequence of sin.

And that consequence can be seen everywhere because sin is everywhere.

It is common.

It is universal in its reach.

It's not just the canes of the world.

It's not just the brother killers or the wife beaters or the child abusers.

When Paul says that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he is not referring to the worst of the human race.

He is referring to each and every one of us.

Because that's another thing the Bible says.

Sin is not just the domain of some people.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Even the Apostle Paul himself.

That's one thing I love about this verse in 1 Timothy.

Thomas Cranmer chose not to include the final phrase of the verse in the comfortable word.

But notice how Paul actually ends his statement.

He says, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Do you know what else he says?

Of whom I am the foremost.

Notice, of whom I am the foremost, not of whom I was the foremost.

Of course, we all know that back when Paul was called Saul, he did some particularly atrocious things.

But Paul is not saying he used to be a great sinner at one point.

He is saying that he is still a great sinner, a chief sinner he calls himself, even as he pins these words to Timothy.

And that's something we should pay attention to, because I'll tell you from personal experience, it is a hard thing to come to terms with the reality of your own sin.

It's hard to acknowledge that what the Bible says about sin is true about you.

To let yourself feel that burden pressing down upon you.

Guilt is a terrible feeling.

And when you start to feel its weight, it's so easy to try to find something to comfort yourself.

And sometimes we comfort ourselves by convincing ourselves that we're not really the ones to blame.

It's not our fault.

Adam and Eve tried that, you know.

They told themselves that they weren't guilty.

They were victims of manipulation.

The serpent had gaslighted them.

They deserve sympathy, not condemnation.

That's one way to make yourself self-feel better.

Take the way of Adam and Eve, or you could take the way of Mr.

Bennett, the father in pride and prejudice.

Mr.

Bennett, throughout the story, you'll notice that he enjoys laughing and finding humor at the faults and failings of all of his neighbors, but he rarely reflects on his own.

At least until his youngest daughter, Lydia, runs off with the highly questionable Mr.

Wickham.

And Mr.

Bennett knows it's his fault because it is his own laziness and indifference as a father that put her in danger in the first place.

And he tells his other daughter, Elizabeth.

He says, It has been my own doing, and I ought to feel it.

But then Elizabeth tries to comfort him.

You must not be too severe upon yourself, she says.

And then he says, I love this line.

He says, No, Lizzie, let me once in my life feel how much I am to blame.

I am not afraid of being overpowered by the impression.

It will pass away soon enough.

And I read those words, and it's like looking in a mirror.

And I think to myself, how rarely have I allowed myself to actually feel the weight of my own guilt?

How often do I simply ignore it, minimize it, or tell myself not to be too severe upon myself, as Lizzie said.

Truth is, you can minimize your sin, you can try to avoid thinking about it, you can convince yourself you're not really to blame.

You can find someone else who's a worse sinner than you, and you can focus on their faults instead of your own.

But none of that will bring real comfort.

The apostle Paul knew that.

A pattern in the spiritual life.

The closer you draw near to Jesus, the more aware you will become of your own sin.

Great saints always know themselves to be great sinners.

Just think of some of the names in church history.

People like St.

Augustine, Martin Luther, John Newton, Billy Graham, Mother Teresa.

If you read what they had to say, you will quickly realize that none of them thought of themselves as particularly holy.

They knew that they were great sinners.

They knew the depth of their sin.

And that is precisely why they all found such joy and such hope and such comfort in Jesus.

It wasn't because they thought their sin was no big deal or that they were better than their neighbor.

It was because they allowed themselves to feel the burden, the unbearable weight of their sin.

Because of that, they knew what a joy it was to feel that burden lifted entirely off their shoulders and born in the body of their Savior on the cross.

It was because they understood just how extensive and unwashable their stain was, that they knew they could not get it off themselves, they could not clean themselves, that they sang with gladness of how they had been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

It is because they knew how infinite their debt was, that their hearts soared to hear the news that that debt had been paid in full by Christ Himself and they had been set free.

This, friends, this is the comfort that we have in Jesus.

It's a comfort that the world cannot give.

It is a comfort that comes not from avoiding the weight of sin, not from trying to lighten its burden, but from having the burden of it thrown off our backs entirely and all at once.

Maybe you feel weighed down.

Maybe you feel stained, unclean.

Maybe you've been trying to comfort yourself and it's just not working.

But wherever you are, however the Holy Spirit may be moving in your heart, I can tell you this.

If you are weary and heavy laden, you can come to Jesus and He will give you rest.

Because God loves you so much that He gave His only Son.

And if you think you are not worthy of that love, if there is something in your past that haunts you, if you know yourself to be a much worse sinner than people think you are, then hear this comfortable word.

This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, sinners like you.

And from one sinner to another.

Let me tell you, that is very good news.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.