Hope Church's Church
10.25.26 Sunday Morning Worship
  • Jesus Is Alive
  • On That Day

  • Intro

    What motivates us to live for Jesus?
    Motives are tricky for us humans. It’s hard to separate out our motives from our actions. Why do we do the things we do?
    I might buy Erika chocolate, and i want my motivation to be because I love her. But is it sometimes to make her less upset that she will loose the next few evening with me because I am booked?
    In letting someone borrow my truck, am doing it out of the kindness of my heart, or out of obligation because of something they did for me previously?
    My motivation for my kids behaving in public. Am I wanting to train them in godliness and how best to live in society? Or am I hoping not to be embarrassed by them?
    I might want to share the gospel with a coworker. But am I really caring about their eternal soul? Or in the back of my mind am i thinking about my reputation and what people will think of me for my evangelism?
    In all of these, while we might want to think we are having the correct motives, truly having the right motivation, and separating out bad motives, is really hard to do. But this is what the parable before us today is calling us to.
    Specifically in our context today (SLOW DOWN), we are asking, why live for Jesus? What motivates us to be Jesus followers? Why continue following him?
    What if someone were to ask you “Why are you a Christian? Why do you go to church? Who do you do that Jesus stuff?”
    What answer would you give? Why is it worth it for you to follow Jesus?
    I was so thankful for Rick Ponce’s message to us last week. In his sermon, he reminded us that following Jesus does not actually make life easier, in fact, your life will become harder. So why do it?
    This is the question Peter asked back in chapter 19 verse 27, just a few verses ago. Peter wants to know about the reward for giving up everything to follow Jesus.
    Our parable today is an answer to Peter’s question.
    MAIN POINT: Jesus’s disciples are motivated by gratitude for the gracious gift of life in kingdom.

    I. Generous Seeking of the Master v1-8

    First today, we see the generous seeking of the master. We see this in verses 1-8. Let’s go through the parable.
    Verse 1, Jesus starts with typical parable language of “the kingdom of heaven is like...”
    Let’s talk about parables for a moment. What is a Parable? It is not a sermon illustration. Illustrations help make what the preacher is trying to say more understandable. Parables sometimes confuse or muddy the water. Do not think of Parables as sermon illustrations. Parables are more like riddles than sermon illustrations.
    We also don’t think of parables as only allegorical stories. We aren’t trying to find every detail and the hidden message between the lines and in every object. Sometimes, the items in a parable are needed to tell a good story and don’t have any meaning. We need to be on guard against looking for information and meaning from the parable that Jesus did not intend.
    This parable is particularly difficult if you are trying to search for meaning in every detail. What kind of master so poorly plans his work out that he has to constantly be looking last min for laborers? Also, if you are wondering how to be a good employer, it is not a good business practice to give everyone the same wages whether they work one hour or 12 hours. Your business will not make it.
    Does the Bible have things to say about our business practices and work ethic? Yes! But this is not the point of this parable.
    Is Jesus trying to teach socialism? No. You could rip this out of the context from which it was given to us, but this is also not what Jesus is trying to teach.
    Parables do not carry the meaning on the surface, but demand our thoughtful perception and contemplation. Jesus tells parables because he wants you to think. But he doesn’t just want the thinking to be done in your brain, he wants you to think with your heart.
    Parables are meant to assess the deepest, most true, and maybe darkest parts of who we are.
    Parables cause us to stop being spoon fed with our Christianity, and start working the gospel our in our own life and what it really means for you to follow Jesus. What is our motivation behind following Jesus? Why am I following Jesus?
    If Parables are to have any affect on your life, you should not hear them as Victor just read them, listen to the sermon, then right them off. You should talk about them on the car ride home. Reflect on the parables as you go to bed. Wake up the next morning with it on your mind as you assess your own life in alignment with the Kingdom of God.
    So in verse 1, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like this. But usually, the kingdom of heaven for Jesus is about a situation. But here, it is about a person. The kingdom of heaven, what life with Jesus looks like for us here on earth, in this parable, is centered on a person. The master of a house.
    Want to know what God is like? Understand this parable. Want to know what it looks like to be in relationship to God? Take a look at this parable.
    If God is going to be understood by means of a man, this man would be far more different than any human we have ever known, and this masters actions are much different than we think they should be.
    Jesus is in the region of Galilee. Some would have had their own land to take care of, or their own craft to work, but some didn’t have work. There was larger land owners at the time who were rich and well off. They could hire people as they pleased to meet their needs. Some Galileans would have been landless, homeless, or jobless. And they needed daily provision. Living day to day for food. Maybe similar to today, the people who are living like this, might be less desirable, of a lower class. They would not be able to continue life unless someone changed their situation. If they didn’t work, they would not eat or provide for their families.
    So the master goes out to the marketplace, and hires the typical laborers at the start of the day. Jewish days were split into different time segments.
    In verse 2, we see he finds typical laborers, and we assume this is the first hour, which would have been 6 o’clock. Laborers at this time were expected to work 12 hours during peak harvest time. So a 6am to 6pm day.
    A Denarius was a day’s wage, so early birds have agreed to a typical payout.
    But the story continues. In verse 3, the master goes out to find more people, at the 3rd hour. This would have been 9am. Normal for some of us, but a late start for a typical Galilean. These workers hired at the 3rd hour have a different description. They were standing idlily by.
    And we might ask, why didn’t the master hire them in the first place? But they are hired for “whatever is right” as we see in verse 4. We don’t really know what this means, but we might expect it to be a bit less than everyone else.
    “Whatever is right” is a careful phrase that Jesus throws in here. He is keying us into the fact that whatever the master does, will be right. This is clueing you into the ending.
    In verse 5, the master goes out again in the 6th hour and the 9th hour. This would have been noon and 3pm for us. And he does the same, which is hire people and tell them he will give them whatever is right. And we are thinking, maybe they are going to put in a half day and get paid?
    But them we get to verse 6. The master goes out in the 11th hour. This would have been 5pm, and finds others standing.
    Look at verse 7. He asks them why they stand idlily, and they tell him, no one would hire us. These laborers are left after all the others were chosen. These were the laborers no one else wanted.
    But, he tells them, you go into the vineyard also.
    Now, it would be unfair for us to think these guys worked a full hour. Remember, the master goes out at 5:00pm, has a brief conversation with them, then sends them into the field. I don’t know how far the field is away, but pretend it’s right near the market, by the time they grab a gathering basket, get into position, receive instruction, it’s got to be getting close to 6:00pm. They haven’t even worked a full hour.
    Then verse 8, it’s the end of the day, 6pm, and the owner tells the manager to call all the laborers, cause it’s payday. For the jews, every day was payday. The levitical law said that you couldn’t wait till the next morning to pay the people who worked for you, you had to pay them that very day.
    We are reminded about this little insight in verse 8, the first will be last, and the last will be first. This is what the verse before the parable starts with, and what Jesus says at the end of the parable, and here, right in the middle of the parable also.
    Now, before we go on with the rest of the story, it’s good for us to point out a simple truth here that will lead us to the main point of gratitude.
    None of these laborers would have received anything unless the master intervened.
    We should ask, why does the master keep going out and finding more laborers? Is he just ignorant of how much work there is on his vineyard? Does he have poor management skills? No. He goes out to find more that he can be gracious and generous to.
    The heart of the 11th hour labors is “No one has hired us.” And the gracious master responds kindly, and generously, even to the ones who he knows he will get little to nothing from.
    It is good for us to consider this fact also. Which laborers are we? Maybe we think of ourselves at the early bird laborers, but we all sometimes feel like the 11th hour laborers. Not worth anything. Unwanted. No one has hired us.
    If you think this parable is about our efforts, we are about to see it is not. This parable is about the graciousness of the master. And it starts with him bringing in people that had no hope, to give them hope.
    Just like the laborers in the 11th hour, we didn’t have a chance to work for our own lives, unless someone stepped in and did something. Like the master here, stepping in to offer life.
    We want to be careful not to ever think that we earn God’s favor or his reward. Remember how all of these people started. Unemployed, hopeless, unless the master intervened. We don’t work to earn God. If it was up to our efforts, we fail every time. God’s intervention in our lives is his grace. He sets us on a path so that we can live for him. We cannot do it on our own.
    Those of you who feel like you are not worth a lot in service to Jesus, or maybe you feel shame for coming to Jesus late in life. This parable is a reminder to you that your reward is the same, God’s grace.
    No matter who you are, Christ loves you. He is calling you to himself. Come and be a part of his kingdom.
    PAUSE
    There is also growth for us as well here. Peter is focused on himself and the other disciples being early adopters of Jesus’s new kingdom. They were the originals. And the master is graciously letting others come in also.
    In some churches I’ve seen, they hold status in high regard. How long they’ve been Christians, or how long they have been a part of the church.
    Maybe in a church that has only existed for 9 years, that doesn’t exist? Maybe. I just learned this week, that Jim is the longest standing member of our church. He has been here since the church had it’s first Sunday.
    But whether you’ve been a Christ follower for many years, or just a few weeks, God has graciously welcomed you in, so we ought to graciously welcome others in.
    Are we generous with the ones God has been generous to? Do we look down on people or do we also treat them with grace and kindness.
    We are not exclusive with the gospel, or even our brand of Christianity. We welcome all just like Jesus does.
    In what ways are you welcoming people into the kingdom of Christ? When you come on Sunday, is your time spent only with the ones who have been here for a while? Or all the ones that Jesus has welcomed? I would encourage you, If you are a part of God’s kingdom, Jesus wants to use you to welcome more into his kingdom. And you can do that by just finding a new person to welcome. Tell them you are glad they are here.
    I’m thankful for the welcoming Spirit of our church to new and longtime believers.

    II. Generous Reward of the Master v9-16

    Next, lets look at the Generous Reward of the Master. And this is where we are really going to look at motivation. We see this in verses 9-16.
    Look at verse 9. And when those hired about the eleventh hour were paid, they received a full day’s wage. And the ones hired first, showing their motivation, think they will be getting more. But strangely they don’t. They all get one full day’s wages.
    But in verse 11, the early bird workers are disgruntled. They are frustrated that they are getting the same pay at the ones who only worked an hour. in verse 11, notice the complaining. They worked all day in the scorching heat.
    For you bible nerds, I believe there might be an allusion to Jonah 4, and similar themes as well.
    Understandably they are upset. Their 12 hours of work should get a higher reward than the 1 hour of work! We want reward to be equal according to services rendered.
    When God blesses others in our lives, do we grumble or do we celebrate the giver of blessings?
    The first workers are upset, that the late workers have been made equal to the ones who put in more effort and worked longer.
    The owner is not giving according to what was deserved, but what was needed. The owner wasn’t giving to get rid of money because he has a surplus, it was a good year for bonuses. He is giving according to need. He knew that the man who worked 1 hour and the man who worked 11 hours needed a days wage to make it, to have food. The master is graciously providing.
    The Masters wealth is magnified in this story as we see his abundant grace for those apart of his kingdom. His reserve of grace is unmatched and never ending. He acts compassionately and in kindness to alleviate hardship and unemployment.
    This is the picture we should have in our minds of our God. The one who is lavishly gracious and kind to us beyond what we could ever deserve.
    God does not give us his grace based on our merit, but based on his love for us.
    You might be asking, what is the reward? It is eternal life. Being a part of Jesus’s kingdom. A relationship with the God of the universe through our sins being forgiven by the blood of Jesus. You are not more saved or less saved. There are no levels of being a Christian. We are equal at the foot of the cross, graciously accepting the reward of Jesus’s kingdom.
    We oppose the teaching that there are levels of heaven that can be earned. Level of the afterlife. This is not what the scriptures teach.
    While we know from other teachings in scripture that there are degrees of punishment in hell who reject Jesus, there are not degrees of rewards in our treasure of Christ and being a part of his kingdom. Our eternal relationship with him is shared by all followers of Jesus.
    If we are thinking of the kingdom of heaven as a contractual obligation, “i give and I get” “Input Output” “I say yes to Jesus, I get eternal life.” You have missed the point of this parable and what Jesus has been teaching.
    Do you think the master of the story really needed those 11th hour workers whom he was able to get a few min of work out of? No.
    Does God need us? Absolutely not. God doens’t need any of us to be who he is. He is perfectly complete and loving and holy and just and kind apart from any human interaction. But he chose us. Chose to love us.
    Ephesians 2:4–5 NET 2nd ed.
    But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!—
    In verse 13 of our passage, Notice the master says “Friend, I am not doing you wrong, did you not agree to a full days pay?
    The master has not done any evil. He has done exactly what he said he would. In grace, provided work and gave a reward.
    He started the day with nothing and no job, and without the master intervening, he would still be lost and have no job. He ought to be thankful that he has been taken care of.
    Matthew 20:14–15 “Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’”
    This is a gentle reminder that these first workers are not upset with injustice, they are actually upset with generosity.
    God’s world operates by grace, not by deserving. No one looses out in becoming a disciple of Jesus.
    Our social standing, your net worth, your value, your mental health, your physical ability, your status, your gender, relationship status, mean nothing compared to the infinite value of being a part of Christ’s kingdom. Merit and Ability are set aside for God’s grace.
    Our worth is not based on our sacrifice, But in the truth that God has rescued us from our sin.
    Verse 15 is a reminder that God is not a debtor to anyone. God is up in the heavens and does whatever he pleases. Who are we, his creation, to raise a first to God, the one who created us? Who are we to demand what we think we deserve? God has complete freedom to do and act as he wills. Yes he chooses to love us in his grace.
    This phrase at the end of verse 16, do you begrudge my generosity, is more literally translated “Is your eye evil because I am good?” This part of the Bible is originally written in greek as says this. Your eye is blinded to generosity because you are self-centered. Your own interests are your focus rather than the gratitude to be a part of the kingdom of God.
    If our eyes are fixed on earthly security, or our own personal significance, or what others think of us, then evil will be the state of our eyes, and our hearts. If our eye is fixated on an evil object, this pursuits of physical life, then your eye will be a conduit for the evil to reach your heart.
    Then we get to verse 16 that bookends with chapter 19:27. Matthew 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first last.”” This is not that some receive a greater or lesser reward, but that our reward is not based on our effort, but on God’s grace.
    We are fools to want to appeal to God for justice rather than grace. If justice is what we want, then all of us deserve nothing and no part of God’s kingdom and all condemned to hell. We ought to embrace God’s grace.
    Today, we can embrace the gift of being a part of Jesus’s kingdom. Not because of what we have done, but because of what he has done for us. Our entry and our being kept in Jesus is not based on our ability to be holy, or live up to God’s standard, because we can’t. We all have sin. Sin that separates us from God. But even while we were sinners, God loved us. And how did he love us? He demonstrated his great love by sending his son Jesus to come and take our place, our punishment, our shame, our sin, on the cross. To die and be buried. But to be raised to new life. This life that he earned, is given to us in grace. This gift of life is our reward.
    If you are here today, and do not yet know Jesus as Lord and Savior, I would encourage you to make him Lord of your life today. Trust him as the only savior from your sin for a relationship with God. Want to know how to do that? Please, come and talk to us after the service.

    Beyond the Walls (Grace and Growth)

    So to Peter’s question and ours. Why am I following Jesus? What is my motivation? What is filling my heart to continue?
    One author puts it like this:
    “The Rewarder should fill our hearts, not the reward.”
    Today, from the parable, we see that leaning into gratitude for Jesus purifies our motives.
    We should ask ourselves. Am I governed by the concept of what is deserved in my life? Or is my life motivated by the uncalculated generous grace of the kingdom of heaven offered to me in Jesus?
    Think about the motivation of two different musicians. One has paid money for lessons, spend tireless hours working to become good. Because of the money and time invested, they deserve the reward of being able to play well and be good at what they do. They have an obligation to be good because of the time and money they have invested in being a musician. And maybe they are part of an orchestra to earn money.
    When Erika and I were in college, we went to see the Chicago Symphony with our school. It was great. Those musicians have trained their entire lives, they have put in the effort, the money, and are now being rewarded for their work. They are playing for many reasons, but one of them is the reward. Musicians in the Chicago Orchestra make more than $150K per year. They have their reward.
    But there is another type of musician. Do you know about the Main Music Orchestra called “Fiddleicous?” If you don’t know, Jim plays with them. And they have a few concerts coming up in the next few weeks. Our first year here, Avenleigh and I went to a concert together. Not knowing exactly what to expect. And it was fantastic music! Blew me away. But one of the things that stood out to me most, was joy and happiness. Talking to Jim about it this week, It is volunteer. They have highly trained and experienced musician leaders, who will take people in, for free, train them for free, work with them for free. And then those people get to spend time together, playing music they love with people they love. A major part of their motivation for playing is gratitude they have of someone being willing to take them in, invest in them, and play alongside them. Their motivation for playing is completely different than the Chicago Symphony. They are motivated by gratitude, not by gain.
    What motivates us to live for Christ? Is it gratitude or gain?
    Some might say “Being with Jesus just gives me just happiness and peace.”
    if I live for Jesus because of the peace, and happiness, and joy, and good vibes, that motivation will only get me so far. And guess what, those motivations are really hard to hold onto in hard times and challenges in our lives.
    Do we experience hope, joy, peace in following Jesus? Yes! But these things are a result, not a motivation.
    If your motivation is what you can get out of your relationship with Jesus, you are likely to fall away.
    If we say the reason we follow Jesus is because it gives us peace and happiness, then we are following Jesus for our gain instead of gratitude. We are following Jesus for the reward rather than gratitude of the Rewarder.
    Your work for Christ, your spiritual life, your Bible reading, your prayer time, your service to this church, all of your life. What is the purpose for you? Is it done for gain? Looking to have a reward from it?
    Gratitude must be our motivation. Gratitude for the greatest of God in rescuing us from our sin and establishing us in his kingdom.
    Will we be rewarded? Yes. But this reward pales in comparison to the gift of life with Jesus.
    Let’s Pray:
    Father, Thank you for generously giving my your grace in my life.
    Jesus, change my motivation to be gratitude instead of gain.
    Spirit, help me this week to govern my life by grace toward others.

      • James 5:16–18ESV

      • 1 Kings 18:21ESV

      • 1 Kings 18:23–24ESV

      • 1 Kings 18:26–27ESV

      • 1 Kings 18:26–27ESV

      • 1 Kings 18:36–39ESV

      • 1 Kings 18:40ESV

      • 1 Kings 19:1–2ESV

      • 1 Kings 19:3–4ESV

      • 1 Kings 19:5–8ESV

      • 1 Kings 19:9–10ESV

      • 1 Kings 19:12b–13ESV

      • 1 Kings 19:15–18ESV

      • 2 Kings 2:11ESV

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