Rejoicing in Laboring for King Jesus — Sermon by the Very Rev. Dr. Craig Stephans

Please be seated before we pray.

So the gospel is from Matthew chapter 19

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

and you can go and turn there. It's my

intention to preach on that and to

completely ignore Jonah. But after

reading

after listening to Jonah twice, I have

to confess that I've been convicted by

the question that God asked to Jonah.

And maybe if I say it again to you, you

will be as well if you haven't. God

twice asked Jonah in that text, do you

do well to be angry? And I hear that

resonating in my soul. Do you do well to

be angry? And Jonah pleads his case. But

when I ask that of myself, and maybe

like you, maybe not like you, I have

been angry. Not right now, but in my

life, I've been angry many, many times.

And I have to confess when confronted by

that question that I have not done well

to be angry.

Have you?

Have you done well to be angry?

And so if the answer is I have not done

well to be angry, then I invite you to

join me as I pray for me and on behalf

of you maybe a confession to God that

no, I've not done well to be angry. So

please forgive me.

And let's move on to Matthew. So let's

pray.

And father, we thank you for your word

and the presence of your holy spirit who

disciplines us like children.

Children that are are beloved by their

father. And so Lord, I have not done

well to be angry. And so I pray for your

forgiveness. I pray for the fruit of the

Holy Spirit rather than anger that is so

often self-centered. And I pray that if

anyone else is convicted by the Holy

Spirit and your word, you also bring

forgiveness and a cleansing to all of us

of all unrighteousness. And Father, I

pray that you fill me with the Holy

Spirit and my mouth with the Spirit's

words and apply them to all of our

hearts as your spirit comes upon each

one of us, filling us, baptizing us in

your most holy presence and shape us and

transform us as images and witnesses of

Christ in this world. Amen.

So now Matthew 19 is this parable that

Jesus says is about a landowner who

calls laborers to himself or to his

vineyard for work. But before discussing

that parable, I want to discuss

what precedes it in Matthew's gospel

because I think there is a context for

this parable that Jesus gives. And the

context is it follows after the story of

the rich young ruler that comes to Jesus

and he's feeling pretty good about

himself about his righteousness and

holiness. And he asked Jesus, "What must

I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus

tells him, "Well, obey the

commandments." And the man says, "Well,

which ones?" Jesus tells him, "Those

that deal with his interactions with

other people." And he says, "All these

have I I've kept since I was a youth.

What more must I do? And Jesus tells

him, "Sell all that you have, give it to

the poor, and come follow me, and you'll

have eternal life." And the man, it

says, goes away sad because he had great

wealth.

And Jesus then responds by saying to his

disciples, how difficult it is for the

rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

It's more it's easier for a camel to

enter the eye of a needle to go through

the eye of a needle than for a rich man

to enter the kingdom of heaven. And then

when the disciples hear this, they're

astonished. They're amazed because they

think the rich ought to have an easier

time. They're more blessed by God.

They're more worthy to enter the kingdom

of heaven. So, they're astonished. And

they say to him, "Who then can be

saved?"

What a question. Who can be saved? If

not the rich, who? What must we do to be

saved? And Jesus looked at him and said,

"With man, this is impossible.

Nobody can of their own strength or

power or merit or possessions.

With man, this is impossible. With God,

Jesus says, all things are possible."

And you might think all the disciples

were immediately humbled, repentant,

called upon Jesus to save them by his

merit. But that's not quite what

happened. In verse 27, Peter says, "See

what we've done?

What about us?

We've left everything to follow you."

And he he's presenting his merits, his

worth, what he's done to earn a better

place with Jesus in the kingdom. And

Jesus does honor their commitment of

following him. He honors them and he

says, "You who have followed me,

especially those 12, you will sit on 12

thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has made such

sacrifices, who has left, brothers,

sisters, houses, father, mother,

children, or lands for my sake will

receive a hundfold and will inherit

eternal life.

Not because they've done that. He

doesn't correlate that they will receive

it in eternal life, those who have

followed him. And then he closes that

teaching in verse 30 and says, "Many who

are first will be last and the last

first." And he seems to in response to

this whole interaction be reminding and

showing his disciples that the kingdom

of heaven is upside down from the world

or vice versa. It's the opposite. Those

who are first in this world are last in

the kingdom. Those who are last in this

world will be first in the kingdom. It's

a whole different economy under God's

rule than under the rule of this world,

the devil, our own flesh. And then Jesus

begins this parable by saying the

kingdom of heaven is like a master of a

house.

That's how he leads into this parable.

The kingdom of heaven

which is eternal, which is ruled by the

King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. That

kingdom

which I'm bringing you into is like a

master of a house. It's not like the

whole parable, but it's like the master

of the house in this parable who goes

out early in the morning about 6:00 a.m.

to hire laborers for his vineyard. The

labors agree to labor for a daenarius,

which was the appropriate day's wage.

And they go and they work. And he keeps

going out about every 3 hours, gathering

more who are standing idle in the

marketplace, saying to them, "Go into my

vineyard and whatever is right, I will

pay you." And they agree. And they go,

and he keeps going out until the 11th

hour, which is like 5:00 in the evening.

And they would work until 6:00, the 12th

hour. So this is like one hour to work.

And he goes and he finds some again

standing idle. And he calls them and he

says to him, "Why are you standing idle

here all day?" And there might be

answers to that question that Jesus's

audience and maybe we too can infer

maybe these laborers have been standing

there idle all day because nobody wants

to hire them because they don't look

like can they can do any work. Maybe

they're older. Maybe they're decrepit.

Maybe they're weak. Maybe they're not

appealing for someone to hire. That's

speculation. But there may be something

like that. They were the last ones

picked.

But the landowner says, "You two go. Why

are you standing here? Go into my

vineyard." So they work an hour.

And when the day is done, the landowner

says to his foreman, "Call all the

workers and pay them, beginning with the

last hired, going to the first." And

those last hired, those that have just

worked an hour, he pays a daenarius. So

when those hired first saw that, they

thought they would receive more. But

they also received a daenerius. And then

upon receiving it, they grumbled at the

master of the house. So they're

grumbling at the one who in this parable

is representing the kingdom, the one

that the kingdom of God is like. They

are grumbling against him, saying, "The

last one worked only an hour and you've

made them equal to us who had borne the

burden of the day in the scorching

heat." But he replied to them, "Friend,

I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not

agree with me for a daenarius? Take what

belongs to you and go. I choose to give

this last worker 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?

So that's what the kingdom of God is

like. That landowner, that master of the

house who is generous with what is his

and desires to give it equally to all

who have come to him, who have come into

his field. And there is a temptation for

some to begrudge that generosity, to

criticize it, to be angry with it. Not

unlike the parable of the lost son or

what we call the prodigal son, the older

brother who begrudges the father's

celebration when the younger son returns

to the home and he complains and

criticizes the father, the master of the

house, the one representing the kingdom

of heaven.

And then Jesus completes this parable by

saying as he did at the beginning, the

last will be first and the first last.

There is a transformation Jesus is

saying needs to occur between from the

way that we live in this world and the

way that we think in this world to the

way that the kingdom of heaven operates

and the way that the king of the kingdom

of heaven operates and lives

and expresses himself in his

sovereignty.

And so of course the disciples hear the

parable and they immediately understand

and they get it

right.

Jesus knowing that they don't he

immediately

describes what he is going to endure.

him being the king of heaven, him being

the true master of the house, the true

master over all creation, says that he

is about to go up to Jerusalem and be

delivered over to the chief priests and

scribes and they will condemn him to

death and deliver him over to the

Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and

crucified and he will be raised on the

third day. He is describing to them the

true work of the kingdom of heaven that

provides the way into the kingdom of

heaven. He is describing the true labor

in the vineyard

that opens the way that all who come

into the vineyard might receive the

graciousness, the generosity of God.

So what Jesus is saying is that with man

it is impossible to do enough work to

earn their way into the kingdom of

heaven and to have eternal life. It's

impossible. It is only possible with

God. And Jesus being God is going to do

that possible work of him being perfect

man and perfect God, dying on the cross,

suffering crucifixion at the hands of

sinners, taking all of our sin upon

himself and paying for it, doing the

work that we could never do, and then

overcoming death on the third day and

rising from the grave, destroying the

power of sin, Satan, and death, and

ascending back into heaven for for the

sake of all of us.

He pays the price. He does what it takes

to inherit eternal life. He does the

work for us. And it's only through that

that that we can enter into the kingdom

of heaven.

And upon hearing that

we would think the disciples would

immediately be contrite finally

repentant and humble before Jesus asking

how they can serve him in gratefulness

for what he has done for them. But first

they decide to argue about who's going

to be the greatest.

It's all of us. Such an upside down way

of living in this world against the

kingdom of heaven. James and John with

their mom.

Their mom might have been more

persuasive than them come to Jesus and

say, "We want to be the greatest in your

kingdom. We want to sit at your left and

your right. We know that that you're

going to be in the middle, but we want

to be right there being greater than all

these other guys."

Even Peter, we want to be sitting next

to you.

And Jesus reexlains

the way the kingdom of heaven operates.

You do not know what you're asking.

First of all, because we don't

understand the fullness of God's kingdom

and eternal life in his kingdom. We

think that it's like this world where we

have status and power where some of us

have possessions and others don't. Where

some of us have earned more and others

haven't. So, we're all in this these

levels and hierarchy. They don't know

what they're asking.

And Jesus says to them once they all

hear about it and of course all start

fighting probably trying to figure out

the whole order of them 1 through 12 in

the kingdom of heaven. He says, "You

know that the rulers of the Gentiles,

that's the world. All of us in the world

lorded over each other and their great

ones exercise authority over them. It

shall not be so among you. But whoever

would be great among you must be your

servant. And whoever would be first

among you must be your slave, even as

the son of man came not to be served,

but to serve and to give his life as a

ransom for many.

The only way Jesus is saying is any of

you are even getting into the kingdom of

heaven is because I who am the king of

heaven have come and made myself lower

than all as slave to serve you and all

people by giving my life on the cross to

death

that not only may you be forgiven but

you might rise to newness of life with

me and have eternal life in the kingdom.

And if anyone is going to be great in

that kingdom, they must be servant to

all.

This story or this passage reminded me

of a event that I experienced in North

Carolina where I'd been a recctor for 10

years. And the hospital there had one

full-time chaplain who worked during the

week and in evening hours and weekends

who would have local pastors who would

serve as volunteer chaplain on call. And

it didn't come up very often because

there was quite a few pastors. And even

more infrequent than that was when I was

on call and actually got called to go

see someone in the hospital. But one one

time either really late at night or

early in the morning, I don't remember

on a weekend, I got a call from the

hospital that someone in ICU had

requested their family had requested a

chaplain and I was on duty. So I went

and it was one of those where, you know,

I'd been asleep. So, I'm there. I'm go

to the ICU. The nurse points me to the

room and I go in and there's an older

woman who had had a stroke and was being

sustained by life support machines and

she was going to pass away and her two

daughters who were probably in their 60s

had requested a chaplain to come. So,

I'm thinking in my mind, well, they must

be a very faithful, devoted family to

think of calling a chaplain, you know,

in the middle of the night, someone they

don't know. And so, I ask the sisters

very optimistically like, "Well, tell me

about your mom's faith." And they look

at each other and then they tell me,

"Well, she didn't believe. She was an

atheist." I'm like, "Oh, okay.

She's not conscious." And so, I asked

them, "Well, tell me about your faith. I

mean, they must have had faith to think

to call a chaplain. And the first one

says, "Well, I I'm pretty much an

agnostic. I don't really believe

anything either." I think, "Well, surely

this one must." So, she says, she gave

me the I'm spiritual but not religious,

you know, which means the same thing. I

don't believe anything. So, my mind is

spinning. I'm trying to maintain my

composure. I mean, a part of me is

thinking, why did you call me?

And it, you know, thankfully by God's

grace, the whole thing was by God's

grace that, you know, I'm thinking, what

do I do here? And like what came to my

mind is this woman is alive. She's not

conscious, but she is alive and she is

present to God

at this point in time somehow. I don't

understand it. And so I was inspired to

to pray for her and just thinking God

gave me this image of the gates of hell

not overcoming the kingdom of heaven.

And she was right there at the gates of

hell. And it's like Jesus said, "Pray

for her. Pray for me to come to her and

for her to be rescued." And that's

essentially what I prayed. I prayed for

her deliverance, for her salvation, for

somehow Jesus to come to her in a way

that she could understand and respond to

him and be saved. And

that I prayed for her after being in the

evangelism conference the last two days.

I know I should have shared Jesus with

the other sisters

next time.

I didn't. I mean, it was just by grace I

prayed for her. And you know, I believe

as I was walking from that room, I felt

that stirring in my spirit that God had

answered and responded to that prayer

somehow and that he came into her life

in some way through Jesus the only way

and saved her and that she will be in

heaven. I just felt that discernment.

You know, I can't prove it or anything.

And this isn't the way that you want to

encounter Jesus. You want to do that

now.

But you know Jesus paid the price for

her to enter into heaven. And if he did

come to her in her unconsciousness and

she responded to him and called upon his

name and said, "Yes, Jesus, I will go

with you." None of us have merited any

more from Jesus than she did on her

deathbed by just receiving him. Because

it's Jesus who has done all the work for

any of us to be saved.

All of us

are sinners saved by grace through

faith, not of our own merit, that none

of us can boast, but we are his

workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to

do good works, which God has prepared

ahead for us to walk in. And by God's

grace, some of us walk in those.

And God welcomes that. And we do it out

of love and service for him, but not out

of merit.

And the wonderful news of the gospel is

Jesus shows us in two parables in Luke

Luke 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15, the one of the lost sheep

and the one of the lost coins that when

one sinner repents, when one sinner

receives the gift of salvation through

Jesus, all of heaven rejoices.

There is joy before the angels of God

over one sinner who repents.

Period.

What the parable is showing and Jesus is

trying to convict his disciples of is

that that's the mindset. That's the

attitude of the kingdom of heaven. Not

to begrudge someone else who receives

something from God or receives something

that you think you're entitled to.

Not to begrudge someone who hasn't done

enough in your eyes.

But the mindset of the kingdom of God is

to rejoice over one sinner who repents

and receives the gift of Jesus.

There's a wonderful vision in the book

of Revelation

Revelation 7:9

7:9 where John sees a vision of

multitudes of people from every tribe,

language, and nation before the throne

upon which is the lamb of God. And he

sees them clothed in white robes and

they're waving palm branches and they're

declaring salvation belongs to our God

and to him who sits upon the throne. And

the elder who's curating this vision for

Jesus says or for John the the apostle

says who are these clothed in white

robes. And John says I don't know sir

you know. And the elder or the angel

says to him these are the ones coming

out of the great tribulation. They have

washed their robes and made them white

in the blood of the lamb.

They are in heaven. They're in paradise

with Jesus, the good shepherd who wipes

their tears away, who protects them from

the scorching heat of the sun.

They are there clothed in white because

of one thing. The blood of Jesus has

washed away their sins. And they've come

out of the fallenness of the world.

They've come out of the sinfulness of

their flesh. They've come out of the

oppression of the spiritual forces of

evil. and they've come into the presence

and paradise of God for eternity because

they have washed their sins away in the

blood of the lamb.

That's what makes heaven rejoice and

celebrate. That's the mission of Jesus.

That's the goal of Jesus. And he invites

us into that celebration and that

mission to bring sinners into repentance

into the kingdom of heaven and to

rejoice with heaven over them. This past

week, I watched the dog whisperer.

I need the dog whisperer in my house.

But I watched an episode where Caesar

Milan, the dog whisperer, is working

with this dog who is rescued. It's a

beautiful white lab, but it is an angry

dog. And the dog will become aggressive

to people or other animals when anyone

gets near its food. It'll start growling

and attacking them.

And that to me was like that is how we

are without the mind of God. That is how

we are without the transform

transformative power of the Holy Spirit

changing our hearts. We're like that

dog. We don't want anyone to take what

is ours. And we are worried and fearful

that we might not get enough. That we

might not get what we think we're

entitled to.

What Caesar Milan, the dog whisperer,

had to do was two things. Show the dog

who was in charge, that he was in

charge, had authority over the dog, over

the food, and then also show the dog

that under his authority, the dog named

Rusty was safe

and didn't have to be afraid.

Didn't have to be afraid. And under the

kingdom of heaven, under the master of

the house, who is Jesus, he's our

authority.

That's what it means to call upon him as

Lord and under his lordship and in his

kingdom we are safe. We don't have to be

afraid. We don't have to be begrudge

someone else. We don't have to be angry

that someone

receives the favor of the Lord. We don't

have to fear pain. We don't have to fear

death. We don't have to fear being

alone. We don't have to worry that we'll

be forsaken.

We can be at peace because Jesus is our

king and he is good and generous with

all that is his that he has given to us

demonstrating his love upon the cross

and his victory in the resurrection. The

message of Jesus I think is summed up so

well in Matthew 11:28. Come to me all

Matthew 11:28

who labor and are heavy laden and I will

give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and

learn from me for I am gentle and lowly

in heart and you will find rest for your

souls for my yoke is easy and my burden

is light. His burden is to come and

learn of him.

And as we come, we become part of the

celebration of heaven over ourselves who

are saved, over those who are being

saved, over those who are already in the

kingdom. And through that celebration,

as we live more and more into it, we

become more and more prayerful

that others might enter in to his

kingdom because we realize there is an

infinite sufficiency with God. And we

want more people to be there. We want

God's desire for everyone to be in his

kingdom fulfilled. And so we begin to

obey Jesus who said, "Pray to the Lord

of the harvest that there might be

laborers

in his field." And we pray for people to

come. And we get excited for people

coming. And we start to tell people

about this celebration in the kingdom of

heaven where there's eternal life

because Jesus forgives our sins. And we

start being laborers in the harvest. And

the celebration gets bigger and bigger

and there's more labors and there's more

rejoicing in heaven

because Jesus paid for all and he calls

all to come and he invites us to be part

of that mission.

And I want to encourage you with this

last story.

The field like Jesus says is ready for

harvest. It needs laborers.

I was walking this past week on Thursday

and was walking down Bull Street further

down and I had my clergy collar on and I

was walking down the street and there

went by a restaurant where there were

some young people serving as hosts and

maybe valets and a young man he sees me

walking and he's kind of looking at me

smiling and he's like is that for real?

Is that is that for real? And I'm like,

"Yeah,

I'm really a priest. Look, I'm Anglican,

not Catholic. I'm Anglican. I'm

married." And he says, "Wow, that is so

cool." And, and I'm not exaggerating.

That's the first time I've ever been

called cool as a priest. So, I'm feeling

pretty good. And so, I, you know, I just

talked to him a little bit and said, you

know, is there anything I can pray for

you about? That's pretty much what I can

do. And, you know, he gave me some

things and we prayed over it. But you

know that I think was an encouragement

from God that there are folks out there

that you would not imagine that are

ready to hear the gospel. They are ready

for someone who doesn't wear a collar

but wears the glory of God to come into

their life and tell them about Jesus and

pray for them and share the good news

with them. So I want to close by praying

for all of us that we might live into

that. And father, we thank you for the

encouragement that you give us through

the evangelism conference by your grace,

oh Lord. And Father, I thank that as we

offer ourselves to you in gratitude and

in joy and we rejoice with heaven, God,

I pray that you make us contagious and

you make the celebration of heaven

contagious through us and help us to

open our mouths and tell people about

Jesus because Lord, it seems like they

are ready and waiting. Help us to be

your messengers. We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.