“The First Shall Be Last” | Matthew 20:1–16

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Well, good morning, good morning, assuming that you're

watching in the morning. Yeah, I guess true course most

people do.

Or happy afternoon or goody, goody, goody, or good night sleep.

Remember that video that we did.

Oh yeah, you were great in that. Go back to

twenty nineteen and watch that or not because they may

not want to.

October of twenty twenty, twenty twenty.

That's right, that's when you started.

I forgot Actually it might have been actually in November

actually because it was relational vampire relational lampires. Yeah, some

good news, yep.

Jeff standalone then Relationship Press did a great job on

that man with great acting.

Hey, so my name is Chris. This is Kyle. We

are the Bible Guys today because Jeff is out of

town and we've been had we had we've had a

great discussion on great Yes.

Yeah, we're Jesus and the Outsiders.

Jesus and the Outsiders, and we're talking about famous sayings

of Jesus. In the past, we've described it as what

if Jesus had a podcast, he would actually talk about

his famous sayings, but really it's it's a series about

the famous sayings of Jesus. And today he's going to

be talking about how the first shall be last. But

before we do that, we have a segment that I'm

very fond of Would you rather? Because it asks a

ridiculous question and it forces you to make a choice

between two bad choices.

Gotcha?

All right? You want to read the first one? Sure?

All right, here we go, Chris. Yes, would you rather

have a pet lama that follows you everywhere? Or a

parrot that constantly roasts you?

You know what? I think that people would get sick

of the lama because lama spit, they smell right, and

they're very large. So if I'm going through like a

rotating door in New.

York, that'd be tough with the lama, right, that's how

you lose it.

But the parrot, But the parrot could be on your shoulder, right,

and parrots it would have actually be humorous. Yes, and

even though it get irritating, I would enjoy it very much.

Yeah. I would say that the llama might make you

some friends to start, people who want to be aroun

because the lama is following you. But I feel like

the parrot keeps friends around for a while.

Yeah. I mean it's just been like, hey, that guy

with the parrot that constantly, Yeah, that's good. It's like, oh,

I can't wait to get the guy in the room.

Right, yep, as long as you don't have too much

of that gred percent, eventually you're like, okay, we got

so the parrot. Yeah, I'm gona agree with the parrot.

I feel like the lama.

Yeah again, I feel like people think it was super

cute until it's not. That's for sure.

Yep. Okay, so parrots for both of them. Right.

Would you rather have a vacuum that sings show tunes

or a fridge that judges your snack choices?

What was that?

I tapped you because I realized you're to read that

one as my bad. Sorry.

I thought you were tapping me because they said show tunes.

No no, no, no, that bad because you started speaking

and I was like, oh h I anologizing, Hey, dude.

I totally thought that's what Jeff would have done. Jeffould

have said show tunes no definite all right here?

Would you rather have a vacuum that sings show tunes,

or a fridge that judges your snack choice.

Well, there's no comparison here. You would have to loathe

show toots right. First of all, how often do you

run your vacuum? Yeah? And for how long?

My wife every day? Yeah?

Okay, right, but for how long though?

Twenty minutes max?

Fifteen? Yeah, fifteen? Probably right? And so and it's hopefully

it's pleasant, Hopefully they're not off key, right, Hopefully the

vacuum doors had a saying yes, right, yes? Or at

fridge that judges your could you imagine.

That'd be kind of funny, though, every.

Time you go into the fridge it's judging you.

Last and last. It's like a motivational thing. You're like,

You're like, I want that fridge is going to when

I pull that food out there. It was a tactic

for only some right get shamed.

I would say, like, for instance, I'm thinking, once again,

since I've already brought up Jeff, I would say that

Jeff would laugh at the judging because he and I

are the same personality. We sort of love that. You know,

he roast his brothers all the time, that sort of

his love language, and he and I roast each other so,

and he wrote you heroes everybody right, So he would

laugh and he wouldn't mind it it uh and you

would ignore it, yeah right.

Yeah, that's what we do.

You just ignore one, any good one. But most people

aren't like us. Most people would be like feeling bad.

Like my wife, Yeah, she would be like, oh mine too, way,

like I will pay you to get rid of these fridgs.

So and I like show tunes, so I would definitely

definitely say the vacuum that sings shows. Yeah.

I would say that the fridge does not bother me

that much because I do think it could be funny slash, yeah, motivational,

but I don't see that. And the negative with the

vacuum that sing show tunes, I don't see the negative

at all. Oh I would look forward to yeah, yeah,

there you go.

Yep. I just I can't even imagine I'd look forward

to it. I'd be like, oh, yeah, that's not bad.

Let me vacuum.

It's not a bad one.

All you do. The windows I was not a bad

one at all. All right, let me read number three

and four? Right, yeah you gottam all right, there we

got number three. Would you rather only eat with chopsticks

or only eat with a tiny spoon. That's rough.

Okay, So because I do not, I'm embarrassed at this.

I do not know how to use oop sticks.

I could say.

Well, the other thing too about me is I am

I do struggle with patience. I'm not saying impatient, but

I struggle with patience. So whenever it comes to chopsticks,

it just feels like I'm like, I'm just gonna grab

before I come, grab a spoon and just get this

over with.

Yeah, you know what, I love chopsticks. I love them.

I love them. Yeah, I've learned to eat noodles with chopsticks. Really,

so I could I could actually eat like put tie

with chop sticks. Obviously with soup you have to have

a spoon. Yeah right, so it's not a universal thing.

And this is saying only eat with chopsticks, you'd have

to drink your soup.

Right. And also I would say I probably should learn

how to use chopsticks because could you imagine eating soup

with a tiny spoon? That would be like for impatient people,

that would be.

Maybe the worst. Well, to be honest with you, a

tiny spoon with steak, Oh, it wouldn't be good either.

Yeah.

No, right, so I'd rather use chopsticks for steaks.

Oh, I'd use my hands if I had those options.

Oh yeah, well but all as you were allowed to

use a knife. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's saying,

you know, I'm assuming eating things bring up to your mouth.

Yeah right, so you can cut it.

Yeah, I'd go chopsticks for that reason, although i'd have

to learn.

So yeah. So I'm going to say Shop six two

because I like them. And how could a billion Chinese

people be wrong? Right, that's true.

Come on, they know what they're doing.

They know what they're doing.

They're smarter than they can't be wrong. That's right.

By the way, that's a movie club, Come on, Michael,

how can a billion Chinese people be wrong? What's it from?

It's from the Lost Boys? Oh okay, throwbacks. It's actually

a movie about vampires.

Okay, I'm true, right something like that.

Acknowledge that? Yeah, yeah, but no, no, it was wasn't.

The famous actor or actors in there, no, believe it

or not.

The main star was a no name guy. But it

did have some famous people in it. The kids were

short of famous. Okay, So anyway, all right, Number four

would you oh Keith Sutherland? Okay, so that was the vampire.

Keith for Otherland, Yeah, from twenty four that's right, legendary show.

Yeah he was young then. Anyway. Number four, would you

rather be stuck in a room with fifty Would you

rather be stuck in a room with fifty clapping robots?

Or one mime who won't break or who won't break

eye contact? Are you kidding me? This is the most

random question.

One mime who won't because you didn't get through that,

one mime who won't break eye contact?

So stuck in a room, right, but how stuck in.

The r Yeah, let's throw a number out there.

Let's say twenty four hours.

Yeah, twenty four hours, fifty clapping robots or one mime

who won't break kaikn.

I'd have to choose the mime, yeah, I mean only

because fifty clapping robots, I'm assuming they're metal. Yeah, I'm

assuming because the room is I mean it's not going

to be acoustically treated, yeah, which means like my ears

will be bleeding. Yes, right, so I'd have to choose

the mime. Yeah.

I think the mime's uncomfortable, like very uncomfortable, like I'm

not going to get pass effect that is odd, right,

and just be staring at it like that would be weird.

But I would say that, Yeah, the annoyance after a

while of the robots, I'd have to choose the mime

as well.

Yeah, fifty clapping robots.

Wow, just as a funny site.

That is a wild question. It is, it is all right,

We'll give you the right, last one, last one.

Would you rather be known as the person who always

has a snack but never shares or the one who

laughs like a dolphin?

Again? Pretty random?

Wow, these are random.

I would definitely rather be known as the person who

laughs like a dolphin. It's not even a question really,

because it's saying. It's saying very specifically here that your

reputation is a person who never shares. Yes, and that's unacceptable. Yeah,

so it is as unacceptable as laughing as a dolphin

is in public. I would much rather choose that and

then be able to try to explain that a way

as I'm sorry, it's the way that I laugh, as

opposed to having a bad reputation of a person who

ever shares.

Yeah, you've hearn meet people like that who you'd say,

like thirty type of people that always has a snack

but would never share it.

Um G whiz, that's a great question. I'm I'm not

sure that I can peg that on a single person.

Yeah. Probably. We don't want to use any names either.

He's curious because when I read the description, I was.

Like, huh, well, I mean, I wouldn't say their name anyway,

But I'm not sure I really know somebody who's that selfish,

do you.

I there has been people in my life. There was

one person in particular. I remember we go on these

like like golf outings and be a bunch of people together,

and this one person would like have his own like

like cooler and it was like his own thing.

Yeah you know.

It was just like it was no, no, no, don't touch

that's his stuff.

It was like oh yeah, all right, yeah yeah, go man,

come on to pullen, give me, hit me the co

now get your own jeez. Yes. Anyway, So, hey, what

a great segment that was, And we went too long

on that. Would you rather so we're gonna go right

into Matthew chapter twenty.

Here's a bad transition. Would you rather play that game

again or would you rather get into the Bible.

Ooh, that's it. I forgot the transition.

Yeah, what would you rather do?

I would rather Kyle get into the Bible.

Let's do it then? Perfect, all right, Matthew, Chapter twenty,

starting in verse one, we're going through verse sixteen. It's

it's the title here is. Jesus tells the parable the

vineyard workers. Says this for the Kingdom of Heaven is

like the landowner who went out early one morning to

hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the

normal daily wage and sent them out to work. At

nine o'clock in the morning, he was passing through the

marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing, so

he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever

was right at the end of the day. So they

went to work in the vineyard at noon, and again

at three o'clock. He did the same thing. At five

o'clock that afternoon, he was in town again and saw

some more people standing around. He asked them, why haven't

you been working today? They replied because no one hired us.

The land owner told them, then go out and join

the others in my vineyard. That evening, he told the

foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning

with the last workers first. When those hired at five

o'clock were paid, each received a full day's wage. When

those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed

they would receive more, but they too were paid a

full day's wage. When they received their pay, they protested

to the owner, those people worked only one hour, and

yet you paid them just as much as you paid us,

who worked all day in the scorching heat. He answered

one of them, friend, I haven't been unfair. Didn't you

agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take

your money and go. I wanted to pay this last

worker the same as you. Is it again the law

for me to do?

Oh?

Sorry? Is it against the law for me to do

what I want with my money? Should you be jealous

because I am kind to others who I love that?

Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?

Then it says so those who are last now will

be first then, and those who are first will be last.

Did you know, by the way, that this was my

very first message at Hardon? No?

No, wow?

Yeah, So we were just talking about that. We were

saying the Vampire's member. Oh yeah, so I got hired.

October eleventh was my first message twenty twenty. We were

in a series called Some Good News Yeah, and I

preached this passage. And the point is that the question

of the title, the title of the message was is

God fair? Remember? And then the answer, based on this

passage was God is not fair? Right? God is not fair. Now,

first of all, when people hear that concept, before I

give the rest of them of the title or the

rest of the point, I should say, people might have

a problem with that. What do you mean God's not fair? Well,

fairness ended in the garden of Eden. Right, God is

not fair at all. Fairness, by the way, is something

that we all want. We all want our coaches to

be fair. We want our teachers to be fair, we

want parenting to be fair, we want our bosses to

be fair. And yet at the same time, fairness can

be a thing that is, you know, not a good thing.

For instance, like, hey, they got to raise and I didn't.

That's not fair. Actually it is, they produced and you didn't.

They're talented and you're not. It's like there are some

things where it's like fairness is not what is demanded.

Not every kid is going to be on the field

at all times, right, at all plays the NFL. If

everybody got the same amount of time playing, it would

be more like it wouldn't exist. Right, Yeah, it was

all fair.

Yeah. So so fairness isn't always a high value. And

to be honest with you, it isn't always a great night. Right.

So as people demand fairness for the sake of fairness

is it's it's not a great concept. So the question

is is God fair? And and and the answer is

absolutely not, and then and then and then the extension

to that answer is He's incredibly unfair in our favor

or to our favor. Both are grammatically correct, but God

is unfair to our favor in our favor. So, in

other words, he if we gabble, we deserved. If you

wanted God to be fair, then we'd all be in hell, right.

And it's like, it's like, we don't want God to

be fair. The last thing you want is for God

to be fair, because God gives to us that which

we don't deserve, and that's called grace. Yep, right, the unmerited,

unwarranted and unmerited favor of God. But God, God decides

to not give us what we do deserve, which is

called mercy. So he holds back right, mercy that spares

us and grace that favors us. And so the thing

I love about this is really that concept, the concept

that God doesn't even apologize. No, you know what it is.

It's the it's the no explanation explanation. Right. So they're like, hey,

I demand an explanation. How did you give those guys

who only worked one hour all this money? And he says,

I don't have to even answer you, right, I could

do what I want with my own money. And by

the way, I'm not unfair to you. Take your money

and go your way. I've been I've been very fair

to you because here's the wage we agreed upon him.

He doesn't even pretend to say why he did what

he did. He said, I can do what I want.

Yeah, and I read it twice there. But I like

when he turns it on him said, should you be

jealous because I am kind to others?

Right?

That's like that's a but I know for me, Like

just in this New Living Translation Bible, the Chronological Life

Out Vacation Study Bible, here's a couple of points on

there that they that they bring up is that this

parable speaks especially to those who feel superior because of heritage,

position or having spent so much time with Christ, and

to new believers. It's a reassurance of God's grace. And

then as it goes down, it says, I love this part.

It says, many people we don't expect to see in

the Kingdom of Heaven will be there. The criminal who

repented as he was dying, will be there, along with

people who have believed and served God for many years.

Do you resent God's gracious acceptance of the despise, the

outcast and the sinners who have turned to Him for forgiveness?

Have you been Have you ever been jealous of what

God has given to another person? Instead, focus on God's

gracious benefits to you and be thankful for what you have,

Oh man.

And and now if you if you want to break

down the hermaeutics of this passage and go word by word,

and there's obviously there's a there's a study that could

you know, reveal a lot, but even just uh, phrase

by phrase also right, so phrase by phrase, what you

realize is that Jesus is a master story of them

because he sets the precedents and he says he hired

him at the beginning of the day. Well, first of all,

the Jewish calendar is different than our calendar, so we

have midnight to midnight is a day, but in the

Jewish calendar it was six am to six am. And

the reason why is they called the sun. You know,

the time of the sun it was day, and the

time of the you know, all through the night was evening,

and so twenty four hour period began with sunrise and

it ended, you know, at sunrise. So anyway, all that

to say, that's the reason why some of your versions

in the Bible may say on the third hour, on

the sixth hour, on the ninth hour, right on the

eleventh hour, because what they're doing is they're taking it

from six am. But this version translates for us. This

version says nine am, noon, and then five pm. And

then we know that the day ended when the sun

went down, because they said this man only worked one out,

which means that the shift was a twelve hour shift.

So we literally know that. So Jesus is a master

storyteller because he says these guys agreed to twelve hours,

and he agreed them to pay a denarius denarius was

actually determined in the book of Deuteronomy, or maybe it's Leviticus,

one of those two as affair day's wage. It was

also the same wage that a Roman would get working

for the whole day. So denarius was a very fair thing.

So imagine the first century listeners. They're like, Okay, once

upon a time, there's a guy who owns a vineyard,

and this guy agrees to work for all day and

he agrees on a denarius. Everybody's like, I'm with you,

Like that is very fair. So they started out the

listeners were like, it's very fair. And then he finds

somebody nine o'clock, and I love how Jesus says, I'll

pay you what is right. So Jesus doesn't even indicate

what he's going to do, and so Jesus is literally

adding suspense, right. I mean he is a master scriptwriter,

because everybody who's listening goes, ooh, I wonder what that is.

They've worked three hours less. Then he found somebody at noon,

I'll pay you what is right? Only half a day,

only six hours? I wonder what that is. Then at

five o'clock, one hour right, and then he gives them

a denarious. Whoa, And he starts with the denarius for

the for the one hour guy, and he works backwards.

So they all got to witness it.

Even the listeners are on the edge of their seat.

What the one hour guy got a denarius? They're wondering.

It's so masterful and obviously he's God, right, But all

I have to say this, there's a reason why we

love good stories. There's a reason why we can find

the Gospel in stories. You could find the Gospel played

out in almost anything. You know. I watched the Bible, guys.

I think it might have been this morning, like literally

the morning of this record, and and and in the

morning of the recording. We talked about how there was

how the Bible was shown in certain movies. We talked

about the matrix But dude, you could literally preach a

whole movie and call it the gospel according to the.

Matrixes people did back in the day. They would do

a series like yeah, yeah, you could.

Do the Gospel according to Harry Potter. And some people

are like, oh blassph me, But I'm telling you, the

Gospel is in Harry Pottery. The Gospel is in the

Lord of the Rings, right, And I believe that obviously.

It's what I'm what I'm meaning is as I'm meaning

that the overall arching story of a hero sacrificing for

another is the story of salvation. And you can find

it in other stories, and those are the stories that

grab our attention. Those are the stories that make the

most money, those are the stories that are most popular.

And the reason why is because the Gospel is in

you and the Gospel is in me. There's a deep

rooted sense where we want that story. We long for

that story in our souls because that's the story of

the Gospel that is in you.

I would say too, I love that because you know

it's taking back to the the first century when he's

telling the story, and you got to think when he's saying,

when they sell the story, some people, I mean they

got they got upset about this, like they're mad, they're

they're like no, no, no. And a part of it is

because the way the structure and the rules and the

religion and tradition it was all about, you know, meeting

quotas and standards and like it's all those things. And

then Jesus starts breaking it down, like you're saying, like

it's not fair. But he starts breaking it down in

a way that like it doesn't make sense because it's

it's like the good news of Jesus and what he did.

It doesn't make sense the fact that it's available to

anyone everyone, that somebody can literally be on their deathbed

and say today, I've decided, if they've truly surrendered their

life over to Jesus, that they can have that moment

and they can actually join us in heaven. Like I

read earlier the thief on the cross, Jesus doesn't say, okay,

before we you know, I take you before you die,

I need you to get off the cross and go

get baptized, or he needs you to get off that

cross and go attend to local synagogue. No, he just

literally is like he's just saying to him, hey, today,

you'll be with me in paradise. And it has to

do with the faith, and it has to do with

that surrender that because I do think that there's going

to be a lot of people in heaven that we're

going to be surprised who made it, But also shouldn't

we have the same humility. I'm surprised I made it.

I'm surprised. Well, thank god, I don't deserve that. If

you truly understand what he's the grace and the like

you said, the mercy that he's given us, you have

no choice but to have humility if you ever get

to the point where you start to think that you're

above somebody or start to I guess, score people or

rank people in that way, which is what the Pharisees

did all the time. Like, you start to look a

lot like a Pharisee when you start acting like that.

You know, and we don't want to be on that side.

And you know, Jesus always has a master comparison. Right,

there's a point in the story. And and the point

of this story is, you know, the people listening, most

likely it doesn't say so, but most likely wait, wait

a minute, wait a minute. Actually I'm going back on

my words here because I'm going back, it says. Then

Peter said to him, we've given up everything to follow you.

What will we get? Then Jesus replied, and then he answers,

and then he goes directly into for the Kingdom of

Heaven is like a landowner, right, so and so yeah,

and then and then also they asked another question who

in the world, who in this world can be saved? Right?

So this is a this is a long conversation. This

is the reason why Jesus is telling these stories. But anyway,

the point is is that the masterful comparisons are we

try to ask ourselves who are we in the story? Right?

So you know the prodigal son, you know the Pharisees

who were grumbling, they were the older son and they

were the point of the story, right, And so who

are we in this story? Well, the entitled Christians are

the ones who are the twelve hour, full day Christians

who say, wait a minute, you know they shouldn't be

able to get the full day's wage, right, There's no

doubt about it.

They don't deserve what I've worked hard for.

That's correct, and there's some legitimacy there, right. But here's

what I would like to bring out or bring to light,

and that is if you go down that line of

thinking and you say, okay, who are the twelve hour workers?

Who are the nine hour workers? Who are the six

hour workers? Who are the one hour workers? And another

way to say it is who are the eleventh hour people? Right?

And the answer is we all are it's the same

answer as the five hundred silver coins that you're forgiving of. Right,

we are the eleventh hour workers, every single one of

us are. We're all saved by grace, we're all forgiven.

We're all the ones who get unexpected, undeserved forgiveness. And

not only do we do it for salvation that think

about it. Every single time you screw up, and then

you screw up again, and then you mess up again,

and then you don't mean to, but once again we

fail God, or you know, or we willfully sin, or

we're just too tired and we neglect, or we walk away,

or we're apathetic, or we're depressed, or you know, we

feel guilty about our choices. We know that it's wrong,

but you know, we just we're just gonna do it

anyway because we want to do what we want to do,

all these different things that we do, knowing that that

that's not the right thing to do. God offers continual

forgiveness that never stops. That's right, unconditional grace that is unending.

And so all of us are the eleventh the room.

All of us are.

That's good. No, I thought that was great man, great

way to end it. And great, great story, and it's

something I think that as some anybody, anybody who's new

to the faith or maybe even somebody's been a Christian

for a long time, can really glean some insight from

this passage for sure.

Hey, let's end this podcast by you being me and

I'll be you because Jeff always lets me sign off. Yeah,

so you sign off and I'll do what you do.

Go ahead, all right, cool, all right, signing off. We're

the Bible.

Guys.

My name's Chris.

This is no. I didn't mean that I thought you

you being me, but I just.

Thought I repretend I was gonna try to pretend to

be you. Hey, guys, we'll see tomorrow. Yep, you