Adrian
Old-Sunday Worship November 16th, 2025

      • Matthew 14:13–21ESV

      • Matthew 14:13–21ESV

  • He Has Made Me Glad
  • How Deep The Father's Love For Us

      • Isaiah 12ESV

      • Isaiah 12ESV

  • Before The Throne Of God Above
  • Doxology

      • Matthew 20:1–16ESV

  • The Last Will Be First, and the First Last” (Conclusion)

    K. Adrian Scott

    November 16, 2025

    St. Matthew 20. 1-16
    “So, the Last will be First, and the First Last.”
    K. Adrian Scott
    November 9. 2-25
    Introduction.
    This is one of the parables of Jesus and is unique to St. Matthew’s Gospel.
    The parable begins like this –
    vv. 1-8; “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When it was about was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. 4 He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. 6 And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ 8 When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages starting with the last hired until the first.’
    Notice, the landowner went to the marketplace at 6am, 9am, Noon, 3pm, and finally at 5pm to find workers for his vineyard.
    Vv. 9-16; “When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. 10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. 11 When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ 13 And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? 14 Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. 15 Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
    Telling the Story.
    There was an arrangement between the landowner and those whom he hired as to what they would be paid and the understanding was that the workers would be paid at the end of the workday and the job was complete. There was no discussion of the workers being paid by the hour. Throughout the day, the landowner continued to hire more workers so that the vineyard could be harvested and none of the fruit would be wasted because of the lack of workers in the fields. The fact that workers were still being sent to the fields suggested there was more work to be done! Thus, a sense of urgency on behalf of the landowner. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9.37).
    In dissecting this parable, we obviously see three things regarding the landowner first; the parable speaks to the privilege of ownership – he bought it! Then there is the inherent authority of ownership (it’s his, so he can do whatever he wants with his vineyard), then it speaks of the prerogative of the landowner (to recruit and offer work as he sees fit). The workers also have rights. They can choose to accept the offer to work in the vineyard for the wages offered, or they can exercise their right to reject the offer and perhaps find work elsewhere.
    “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.”
    *Preaching Point.
    The parable of ‘Workers in the Vineyard’ in Matthew 20 is a direct response to the question Jesus was asked in Matthew 19.23-30, 24 Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God. 25 The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, ‘Then who can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and replied, ‘This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.’ 29 And whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 but many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
    Jesus usually offered an interpretation once he spoke in a parable, but in our parable today Jesus chose to not provide an interpretation to this parable.
    First, we see the vineyard owner represents God, the great landowner who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50.10) and who is seen exercising His privilege of ownership. The vineyard belongs to the great vinedresser, eternal God. The Lord God, the Owner, possesses exclusive rights to the vineyard since it belongs to Him. Second, we see the landowner reflecting the divine trait as having freedom of choice to execute His sovereign will regarding His vineyard and His workers! And third, since eternal God is depicted as the mighty landowner in this parable, we also see the vineyard owner’s inherent and sole authority over the vineyard.
    Last week I reminded you of three passages in Sacred Scripture that I believe are germane to our Matthew 20 text:
    A.
    John 1.11 - “He came unto His own, but His own people did not receive Him.” Jesus is talking about His rejection by His own people, to those to whom He was sent and who first heard the glorious story of God’s intervention in human affairs through the Lord Jesus Christ. What this verse is telling us is the glad story of how the Gentiles, who were not the first to be offered an effective, national and personal relationship with eternal God, came to have an opportunity to respond to the Gospel - “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him” (John 1.11). when a non-Jewish Canaanite woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter, Jesus responded to her by saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15.24). Here is proof that The Gentiles, you and me, were like the workers who were hired late in the day! We were not the first to hear the Gospel story and the first to have the opportunity to receive the Gospel. And like the workers in the vineyard who were called late in the day, the Gentiles too, received the same benefits as those (the house of Israel) who were first invited. There was no reduction in the benefits for those who came into the vineyard later, representing us Gentiles.
    This parable says something about the generosity of God! He did not have to write a contract like this! He did not have to have hungry workers in mind, but He did! Everyone received everything they were promised! Whatever God promises, God will pay! God will keep His word! Every person, no matter their age, ethnicity or background who was found at the marketplace, was offered an opportunity to receive what they did not have – wages so they could live. This is the result of the landowner’s initiative – He went to the marketplace to find workers, those who could potentially be productive in His kingdom. The workers did not seek Him out. No one else in town had a solution for their poverty, but the landowner. He alone would solve their impoverishment, their low self-esteem, their hunger! There is no two-tiered plan for salvation! Rather one be a Jew according to the flesh or a Gentile, obedience to God’s call, the Father’s claim on one’s life will result in the same relationship with the Lord. It doesn’t matter if you were born in the city of Jerusalem or in Jessup, Georgia, God knows where we are and what we need. Listen to His great call to the vineyard! God is pursuing you for service in His kingdom. In the meantime, since the Jewish nation has refused God’s call into His kingdom, as a nation they have temporarily been blinded to the truth, and the door was opened to the Gentiles who received God’s call to His kingdom. The Jews would then represent “the First Last.”
    B.
    St. Luke 15. It is here where the oldest of two sons bragged that he stayed in the house, was a keeper of the letter of the father’s laws, but in the course of time we see the eldest son did not have the law in his heart because he refused to go into the house and celebrate the return of his youngest, rebellious brother! “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3.6)! The eldest son was like the First also, but they were pretenders, and although a law-keeper, he famously disobeyed his father at a key moment in their lives and the oldest son proved he did not have an authentic relationship with the father.
    But it was the youngest son who, despite all his faults and failures, his mistakes and mishaps, came to acknowledge the word of the father was right. He clearly represents the Last who would become first! It was the father’s love that never gave up on him; that drew him back home to the father’s house. When he found his way back home, he was joyously received back into the house with a renewed relationship, greater authority than he ever had, and he would now enjoy more privileges than he previously had! Here again, “the Last is First, and the First is Last!”
    The eldest son stayed out in the cold while the youngest son, whom the father had made room for in his heart, entered the warm fellowship of the father’s house and enjoyed the delicious fellowship meal at the father’s table.
    This is what Rabbi Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg calls “the great reversal” – the youngest or the last son is exalted and the eldest or the first son is now last! “The Last First, and the first last!”
    No matter where you’ve been, God is not finished with you yet! Your life may have dove into the lowest depths of depravity, but God is not finished with you! God still has you in mind.
    C.
    Luke 18 – The Story of the Publican and the Sinner. Here is the account of two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one a Pharisee, the other a publican or a tax collector. One considered highly respected because of his status and the other a mere tax collector or who in those days was synonymous with a thief.
    One man, the Pharisee, being quite religious, held every advantage. He had extensive personal training in the Law of Moses, Israel’s map to reach favor with God. The Pharisee also enjoyed the extensive community of fellow Hebrew worshipers, and collectively they had the reminder of the presence of Jehovah among His people because of the existence of the sacred Temple in Jerusalem. We could safely say this man singularly represented the Jewish nation. Confident in their worship of God, overconfident in their relationship to the point of arrogance and unbending in their adherence to God’s Law to the point of obsession. The Publican, conversely, was an employee under the authority of the Roman province. Although the publicans had different contracts with the government, examples in the Bible show them primarily as tax and toll collectors. It was not a respected position, but a lucrative one. In addition to collecting the stated taxes mandated by the Roman government, often the publicans would extort additional money from businesses and private citizens alike. Those ‘additional’ funds went directly into their pockets!
    The Pharisee saw himself as special, above others who were not one of God’s favorites, according to him. The Bible says “he trusted in himself” and had tricked himself into thinking he was a saint and close to God. This religious Pharisee’s prayer was not heard because of his arrogance and lack of respect for the holiness of God, whereas the hated Publican who had cheated people out of their money, had been dishonest in figuring out what taxes people owed and had taken advantage of those who could not afford his thievery, but saw himself for what he truly was, owned what he had done and knew he was unworthy to approach God without first acknowledging his sins, and he said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Matthew 18.13). This man clearly did not trust in himself but placed his trust in God. Notice, the person who presumed to be closest to God was the furthest away from God! The Pharisee who put himself in the First position was really Last in the eyes of God. And the one who knew he was far from God, Last, became the First, the closest to God, because of his humility and honesty.
    Once again, “the First shall be Last, and the Last First.”
    Part II.
    Now I would like for you to consider other examples in the Bible where “the Last will be First, and the First Last.”
    D.
    The sons of Adam and Eve - Cain and Abel, Genesis 4. 1-11;
    “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So, Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
    Cain was older and he grew things from the ground, a farmer, while Abel, the younger brother was a sheep rancher. One day they are prompted to make a sacrifice to God, and they both did; Cain gave from what he grew and Abel gave from what he raised. This would become the very first worship service in the history of humankind.
    Cain brought to the Lord an offering that God did not accept, while Abel gave the Lord a much more generous, heartfelt gift - the firstborn, the most tender sheep of his flock and of their fat. So, Cain was very angry, and the look on his face fell. “The Lord said to Cain, ‘why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?”’ If you had done the right thing, your sacrifice/offering would have been accepted also.’
    8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper? 10And the Lord said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.’ And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”
    We do not know what instructions God or even Adam, their father, must have given to the brothers regarding what God expected in an offering. But we do know God preferred the offering given to Him by Abel and rejected or had no regard for the offering of Abel’s older brother, Cain.
    We see something here – Yahweh God, being like the landowner in our text, has the prerogative of ownership and can require of his workers what is just and right. Abel did right by God while Cain did not. There was something deficient in Cain’s offering. Perhaps he gave too little, or perhaps he gave poor quality. Was it that Cain had not inspected the corn or the barley or the wheat he had picked to give to God? He had not paid adequate attention to what God deserves, what He expects, and what he had decided to give. A big mistake! We learn from this that God does not and will not accept whatever is given to God in service. If our service is given out of convenience rather than quality, God will reject it. It our gifts of service are given out of selfishness – “I will keep the best for myself”, God is not obligated to reward us for that kind of service either.
    It’s no wonder some Christians are always broke, because they have their productivity cursed because they are always thinking of God last! Abel would have lived to raise more sheep, and the Lord would have replenished his flock if his life had not been taken by his wicked brother.
    After his offering, Abel was right back out there faithfully tending his sheep when he was approached by his brother, Cain who was angry that God approved of his brother’s sacrifice.
    I believe Cain really wanted to do what was impossible for him to do in this moment – Cain wanted to kill God. But he knew he couldn’t, so he killed the one God loved his brother Abel.
    Well, with this evil deed, the first murder in human history, Cain’s fate was bottled up and his future sealed. He would no longer be a farmer as his gift is taken from him, and he would not have a home any longer as he would be a wanderer, and everyplace he went people would know God had marked him, so they left him alone.
    Cain, born First being the eldest, and the one closest to the heart of his mother and father usually, and the one to share the largest inheritance, but Cain has become Last.
    You say, how did Abel become first, when he died? Abel became First because his service to God was accepted, God regarded Abel, God loved what Abel did in showing the Lord the respect and honor God deserves. Abel’s sacrifice was a window into his heart; Abel loved God, and although he would die young on this earth, he would go where all of God’s people go when they leave this earth, into the very presence of God.
    “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Psalms 116.15).
    Cain was firstborn, but became Last, while Abel, born Last, became First! First to please God in his life, and First to go to be with his Lord in heaven!
    “The Last First, and the First Last.”
    E. The Story of Joseph, Genesis 37.
    Joseph was the youngest son of Jacob, also called Israel. Being that Joseph was the son of his old age, Jacob favored Joseph and unwisely showered Joseph with favoritism. Joseph becomes hated by his oldest brothers and they begin to conspire how to take revenge on their youngest brother, not only because of their father’s favoritism, but because Joseph began to believe he was special and even told them a dream where in the dream his brothers would become servants to him (vv. 6-7). He also told them of another dream he had when in the dream the sun, the moon, and the stars were bowing down to him (vv. 9-10). This infuriated Joseph’s brothers, and they put a plan in place to kill Joseph (v 18). But Joseph’s oldest brother Reuben talked his younger brothers out of shedding any blood, so they stripped Joseph’s coat of many colors their father had given him and put Joseph into an empty pit with no water. The brothers saw a caravan of Ishmaelites and sold him into slavery for twenty shekels of silver (v. 28). The Ishmaelites then sold Joseph into Egypt, to an officer of Pharoah, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard (v. 36).
    It was while Joseph was enslaved in Egypt the Bible says, “the Lord was with Joseph” and all Joseph did was successful (39. 2-3). Joseph was thirty years old when he began working under the Pharaoh in Egypt, and because ‘the Lord was with Joseph’ ensuring his success in everything he undertook, Joseph was eventually promoted to the top of the Egyptian government, overseeing everything the Pharaoh had (39.5), even its agricultural ministry. This would be important because God knew a famine would hit the land of Israel, Joseph’s native country and where he had been kidnapped and sold into slavery some years earlier.
    It was during the terrible famine in Israel where people were dying throughout the land that the Israelites heard there was food in Egypt (42.1), his brothers, the ones who had sold him into slavery many years earlier went down to Israel to ask if they could buy grain so they would not die (42.2).
    So, Joseph’s older brothers come to Egypt and without knowing their Last or youngest brother was living there, and they ask about purchasing food, and who do they have to speak to? Who was the person they had to deal with in order to buy food that them and their families would not die of starvation? Joseph, their youngest and Last brother, but because thirteen
    Years had passed; the brothers did not recognize Joseph until he revealed himself to them who he was (45.3). Because of the generosity of Joseph, his brothers and their families lived and did not die due to the famine.
    Here is another example of God in God’s wisdom reversing the birth order and in God’s providence overruling the rules of the land and imposing God’s will in the case of Joseph also.
    Jesus said, “the Last Shall be First, and the First Last.” And here is the lesson we learn once again; God is in control of our lives, and no one else! Only the Lord has the final say in our lives. This story of Joseph is another example of how God can use what we see as the unfortunate events in our lives to serve God’s ultimate purposes. So, rather you have been talked about, hated, mistreated, bound and abandoned, God has not forsaken you and God will still use a life that is lived for His honor and glory!
    “The Last First, and the First Last.” Quoting Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, “Reuben, the firstborn, fades into obscurity, while Joseph’s elevation underscores God’s pattern of favoring the unlikely.”
    F.
    Jesus of Nazareth.
    Here is Jesus, conceived by a young and humble virgin girl named Mary through the agency of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1.35). She was pledged to marry a man by the name of Joseph, who also was of no notoriety, but he was of the family of David (1. 27). The surroundings of his birth were at least modest if not poor, seeing Jesus was born in the animal’s stable rather than a more suitable and sterile place for the birth of a child.
    As Jesus grew, he was known as “the carpenter’s son.’ Although there was nothing wrong with that, but that title certainly did not put Jesus on the top of the list for invitations to country club balls or other fancy events. He started His ministry with for the most part, rough and uneducated men and with none of Galilee’s wealth to finance His work. In fact, Jesus’ personal finances were such that the Bible said, “And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8. 20). Jesus never owned His own home, or his own business. He did not wear tailored clothing or signature sandals. He did not eat at the finest restaurants in the cities and villages where He ministered, but His ‘dining out’ consisted of eating with close friends like Mary, Martha and their brother, Lazarus, or even eating with towns people, sinners, as the town’s religious people would call them. Jesus was never given a plaque for His services, granted special status by the town council; was never given a rank in Israel’s army nor did he command chariots. Often, the only way Christ’s disciple’s and those He was ministering to ate, was when Jesus performed a miracle and empty nets became full of fish or two fish and five loaves of bread mysteriously lasted to feed more than five thousand.
    During Jesus’ ministry, He was accused of being a demon, eventually falsely accused of insurrection, tried by a rigged jury, found guilty by a mock trial, and sentenced to hang, not by the judicial authorities, but by a boisterous crowd of citizens of whom the court was afraid. So, he hung, not in a special place for former dignitaries, but He was hung between two thieves, depicting what the arresting authorities really thought of Jesus.
    Jesus nor His family had no burial arrangements for Him, so His burial tomb would be provided by a rich man. In his life, Jesus lived a life of modesty and in His death, He died a death of mockery.
    Yet, when He gave up the ghost, when Jesus breathed His last breath and cried out, “It is finished” the entire universe experienced a breakthrough. The Temple curtain which hid the face of God was torn completely in two, as the sacred and formerly secretive presence of God was now revealed; Christ’s death assured the world that there was no effective separation between God’s Spirit and human beings. Jesus’ death said, God has come out even as we are invited into God’s presence through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ! The death of the One who knew no sin certified all the sin of the repentant has been taken upon His shoulders and nailed to the cross just as His hands and feet were. Jesus opened up and secured the passageway for sinners to move from death to life because of His perfect sacrifice on Calvary’s cross. God is now friendly with humankind because of Jesus! And Christ’s claim of being the Savior of the world was verified when after three days He was raised from Joseph’s new tomb which said, all who trust in Christ will too be raised spiritually and from their natural graves as well to be joined with Him.
    The Close.
    Truly, in the case of the Savior of the world and the hero of the Church as well as Abel, Joseph, the Gentiles and the Prodigal Son and the Publican, “The Last will be First, and the First Last!

      • Matthew 20:1–16ESV

      • Genesis 4:1–16ESV

      • Psalm 116:15ESV

      • Genesis 37ESV

      • Genesis 37:18ESV

      • Genesis 37:36ESV

      • Genesis 39:2–3ESV

      • Luke 1:35ESV

      • Matthew 8:20ESV

      • John 19:30ESV

      • Romans 5:8ESV

      • Luke 7:48ESV

  • Bless His Holy Name

      • 2 Corinthians 13:14ESV

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