This morning you'll notice, if you open up to our reading from Matthew, we're pressing on in our Gospel of Matthews into chapter 20 for a variety of reasons. Don't fret, we're not skipping the beginning of chapter 19, we're going to look at that next week. One of the reasons that we're pressing forward in Matthew 20, Nathan's already implied for us the reason there, he started with the end of verse, or the end of chapter 19. this part of chapter 20, this parable of the labourers in the vineyard that many of us would know well and it sort of stands on its own, doesn't it? And yet it's actually strongly connected to what you heard last week at the end of chapter 19. It's actually Jesus' explanation of what took place at the end of chapter 19. Remember last week as David preached, the rich young man who asked Jesus, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? Jesus eventually told him, go sell your possessions and give to the poor. And the young man went away, didn't he? Rejoicing and leaping that he finally found out what he's got to do to inherit eternal life. He didn't do that at all. He went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. He didn't want to give up all that he had, all that he'd earned, all his hard labor that he'd earned, all his money. Not even for eternal life did he want to give that up. He loved his wealth more than he loved the Lord. He loved the life he had on this earth more than the one to come. His heart was definitely where his treasure was, as Jesus tells us. And Jesus said to his disciples, you heard it last week, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Who then can be saved? Ask the disciples. To which Jesus responds, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Only God can change our hearts, where our treasure is. Only God can save. And then Peter, good old Peter, perhaps a little concerned for his own situation, maybe even a little competitive, He's seen what Jesus said about the rich man who didn't want to give up things. And so Peter reminds Jesus, Hey, look at us. We have given up everything to follow you. What will we get? He's quite keen to find out. And Jesus promises him together with everyone. And that's important here. Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for his name's sake to follow Jesus, they will receive a hundred fold and will inherit eternal life. And Jesus concludes that chapter as Nathan read for us that last verse. Many who are first will be last, and the last first. For, Jesus continues, you might have a big chapter 20 in your Bibles, my ESV's got a big bold heading, labourers in the vineyard, but there's no break in what Jesus says here. He's continuing the same line of thought. Many who are first will be last, and the last first, for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning. So can you see how this is actually Jesus' explanation of what's just taken place and what he's told the disciples? More than that, it's also helpful to know, as we heard at the end of the parable, Jesus says in verse 16, so, his conclusion, the last will be first and the first last. So it's connected in that way. He's explaining what that phrase actually means. And I think a lot of the time we use that, not really understanding the context here and what Jesus is saying. Hopefully by the end of this morning, we will know. And I don't think Jesus is just answering Peter's question, what about us? What will we have? We've left behind everything. I think he's also answering the question behind Peter's question, the unspoken question. Yes, Peter, I've chosen you to be my disciples and you actually as my 12, when the son of man sits on his throne, you will sit on 12 thrones judging the tribes of Israel. That's part of the mission he has for his disciples. And yes, I know you've left everything to follow me. Yes, you will receive back a hundredfold and eternal life. But don't think for a moment that just because you're the first to do that, that you're gonna be any more special than the last who will do that, those who come after you. Don't think that just because I chose you first and you followed me here in these first three years of my ministry that people who come after me are gonna be worse off or you're gonna be better off or you deserve more. No, Peter, everyone, he says, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father, given up things for my name's sake, will receive the same gifts of my grace a hundredfold and eternal life. It's all gift. You don't earn it by being first. It's a gift of God's grace, his absolute, abundant, abounding grace. And we've heard it, and we know it, and yet as Yoshi so helpfully shared with the children, we still have our lenses of fairness on, don't we? Even if we don't think it. God doesn't show us any favoritism. He doesn't have favorites in his kingdom. In fact, many who think they deserve God's favour and deserve a special place are going to find themselves in a different place altogether. Might find themselves at the back of the line or the bottom of the pile. Jesus teaches us here, everyone who has left, everyone who's gone without for the sake of Christ, you will receive a hundredfold and you will inherit. You receive and you inherit. These are gifts. You don't earn those things. You receive them. They're gifts of God, which he gives graciously and generously to all his children out of his love. Given not in order, not on basis of order of entry or order of importance. In fact, many who are first will be last and the last first. As the children learned, we have these glasses of fairness on, don't we? We all have a certain right order of things which we think should take place in life, don't we? Order's important. Some of us think that's more important than others, I think. We expect things to take place in a certain order. And when that gets mixed up, If we were first in line and all of a sudden someone jumps in or we get pushed back, we get a little bit grumpy, frustrated, indignant, angry. We realize pretty quickly just how important the order of things to us is. In Bible times, right from the very start back in Genesis all the way through the New Testament, order was important, particularly when it came to things like the rights of the firstborn. firstborn child especially the firstborn son that was built into the culture of the day not only the order okay you were born first you're special no he gets status and privilege and blessing double portion of the inheritance that was important but they expected that to take place and yet if you know your Old Testament at all how many times does God turn that on its head how many times does God choose the younger instead of the older How many times does he mess up and mix up the presumption and expectations of the culture? Isaac, not Ishmael. Jacob, not Esau. Joseph over all his brothers. Israel chose Saul. God chose David, the youngest son of Jesse. Jacob loved Rachel, the younger, not Leah. God repeatedly turns this world order on its head, the cultural norms, shaking up our traditions, messing up our expectations, frustrating our presumptions, our rights, our sense of fairness. It's not just ancient cultural issues, is it? we all have the same struggle. Someone jumps the queue, or zips up from behind on the road lane, just about to, you know, and there's roadworks, and I say, you've got to merge, and you rightly go 25 k's an hour up the freeway, and someone zips up the inside lane and gets, how frustrating is that? They've got some nerve doing that. They mean to be doing 25, and I've been doing the right thing all the way along, and they think they're going to jump the queue. And if you're a bit like me on a bad day, you make sure there's no room between you and the next car. Now you laugh because you do exactly the same, don't I? I don't think it's just my righteous indignation showing. All right, young ones, young ones in this morning. How do you feel when the teacher keeps the whole class in at recess time just because one or two lads up the back were mucking around? Or it could be girls, they muck up too. What's the cry of the class when the teacher says, right, we're all staying in for... It's not fair! It doesn't take much, does it, to get our knickers in a knot about fairness, about the order of things and how it should go that we expect, especially when we feel a little cheated or deprived of our place in the line and that which we think is rightfully ours. Now, it's not just ancient tradition and culture. We've all got this sense of fairness and justice, especially when it's my place, my rights, what I've earned, my time, my money. And if that's given to someone else, or worse still, taken by someone else, it stirs us up, doesn't it? Expectations like that, presumption, in almost any arena of life, it's a dangerous and slippery slope to go down. And when it comes to areas of status and power and authority, when it comes to our righteousness before God, It's a very dangerous slippery slope indeed. And the Bible shows us time and time again just how dangerous and slippery that slope is. It takes just one generation. Think of Cain and Abel. God accepts one sacrifice and not the other. He accepts the sacrifice of the younger brother. Cain presumed God would accept his. What happens when he doesn't? He gets angry, murderously so. The enmity between Jacob and Esau throughout all their lives builds up to a murderous hatred when Jacob receives his father's blessings. Joseph's brothers hate him, just about kill him because he's the father's favorite. David's older brothers think David's just a little pipsqueak and a nuisance shepherd boy. What are you doing out here on the battlefield? Go back home and look after the sheep. Who told you to come and be here? And yet God chooses him above them all. And it goes on and on, doesn't it? The Pharisees, they presumed they would be accepted by God simply based on their heritage. They were Jews. We're God's chosen people. We're children of Abraham. And Jesus says, don't you dare presume that. In fact, you're children of your father, the devil. Can you see how dangerous presumption is? There's so much hatred and enmity, even within God's covenant family, all because of expectations about the first, well, the first should be first, and the last, well, they should know their place. I can remember being young and getting ready for school and getting, okay, time to go out to the car, who's gonna get the front seat? Well, the eldest always got the front seat. And I have at least one family here, they had five children and they had one for each day of the week, so it worked out really well. Didn't it? Most of the time. It's this whole area of unfairness and expectation and presumption that's been worked out in this parable with the workers in the vineyard, isn't it? At the end of the day, we've heard it. Repetition's good, isn't it? We've heard it in our children's talk, we've heard the Bible reading, and we've got it before us now. When it said, the end of the day, 12 hours later, time to be paid. And it was right in keeping with the law that they get paid that day, not wait for it. Doesn't the cry of these workers who have worked through the whole day sound a bit like those year nines kept in class? That's not fair! They grumble. You're making us the same as those who work one hour. You're making us equal with them. We work through the whole day and through the heat of the day. Twelve times as long as some of these workers. You've got to be kidding us that you're paying us the same as them. But remember, And the master reminds the worker, didn't you agree to work for a day's wage at the beginning of the day? You agreed to work for a denarius. That was the agreement we had. There's no injustice here. You're not missing out. You're getting what you actually agreed to work for. It's actually my generosity that's working out here. You're not being shortchanged. In fact, if I hadn't come along and employed you in the first place, you wouldn't have received anything. I came and sought you out. I called you to work for me. The master here is not cheating them and in fact they're not saying that the master is cheating them out of anything. Nor are they arguing that the others who work there should be paid less. Their beef with their master is if you are going to pay them that much then surely we deserve more. What is it they say? You have made them equal to us. who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. You've made them equal to us. And they can't go to the Fair Work Ombudsman and have their work contract worked out because they agreed to pay for what they earned and what they were given. Their issue is not one of employment conditions, their issue is one of envy. You've made them equal to us. And they presumed, seeing that those who worked one hour got what they got, that they should receive much more. We're even told in the middle, those who were employed later in the day, they agreed to work for whatever was right. They just trusted the master to pay them what they were due for however many hours they worked. And he was generous and gave them a whole day's wages. Surely those that worked the whole day deserve more. Now we know the story and we think, no, no, we know how this should work out, but whether it's a cookie or the queue in the shops or the road laying it, we've all got this sense of when it works out for us, we would cry out the same, we'd grumble, it's not fair. And so we actually see here this dynamic, this principle that Jesus is explaining, the first will be last and the last first. It's not always simply just a reversal of the order. There's an element of that. But it is in fact a levelling of the playing field. You have made them equal to us. To which the master replies, friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? or do you begrudge my generosity? You're making us equal. As I said, it's not so much a reversal, it's a leveling of the playing field. God's grace, his generous gift to us, levels the playing field for us all. In fact, it's sin which places us on that level playing field in the first place, isn't it? As we heard from Romans, we've all fallen short, so far short of the glory of God. No one comes to God with any more righteousness than anyone else or any less. There is no one righteous, not one. It's not as if one person deserves a little bit of grace and this person needs a lot of grace. Or this one has a bit more righteousness when they come before God compared to that. No, no, no, we've all fallen short. There is no one righteous. We all need God's lavish grace, as the youth group heard last night. None of us are entitled to a little bit more mercy than someone else. Mercy is not entitled or earned, is it? It's all gift, it's all grace. We don't earn our way into God's good books. Into the kingdom. We receive our entry. We receive forgiveness. We receive our salvation. It's all gift. Dave read out Ephesians 2 at the end of last week, didn't he? Not by work so that no one may boast. By grace you've been saved. And this is a gift of God through faith. Jesus teaches us here how this glorious gift, the grace of God, the most wonderful thing ever, can also in fact be the greatest stumbling block for us all. And the master hits the nail on the head when he says, do you begrudge my generosity? It's his prerogative to pay what he chooses to all and any of his workers, especially after he's agreed with those he employed first for their day's wage. He chooses to be generous to those he employed later. That's his prerogative, his choice to make. And he's under no compulsion to give more to those who worked longer. He's under no compulsion to go and choose any of them in the first place, was he? Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Just as Paul argues in Romans 9 regarding God's gracious purpose of election, Quoting God's own words from Hosea, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. God's electing grace is the most beautiful gift ever. But it's also, it can be the most confounding and troubling mystery, especially when we have these lenses. I've even got that word here. Yoshi's been looking at my notes. This fairness and this idea of cause and effect. If I do this, then I'll get that. built into us isn't it? And so Jesus teaches the last will be first and the first last. Now we heard at the end of the Romans reading about Jews and then the Gentiles coming into the kingdom and maybe this parable is about that the Jews need to understand yes you're going to come into my kingdom but actually the nations will too. That principle is definitely in place, time and time again, the Jew first, then the Gentile. Except it's not mentioned here in the parable. I don't think it's just about Jews and Gentiles. Maybe it's a lesson to help us understand how God receives those who come to him by faith in the last days of their life. You know, the deathbed conversions. the thief on the cross. Surely he doesn't deserve a place in heaven that those of us who have come to church all our life and had to put up with coming to church with our family and Sunday school and hear Ray preach week after week. You've just had four weeks off, so relax. Surely the repentant thief on his last day of life doesn't receive the same rights in heaven as you and I. Doesn't he? Does he? Who are we to begrudge the generosity of God? grace of God. And shouldn't it be a joy to us that another lost sheep is welcomed into the kingdom, into the family? Just as the master, the shepherd rejoices over the lost sheep that's been found, we should rejoice with the angels in heaven over that. And no, this is not an encouragement for us to say, oh that means I can go astray and in the last moment of life I'll say sorry God, it's all okay. No, it's not that at all, not that at all. it's an encouragement for all of us to recognise that if it wasn't for Jesus actually coming to seek and save the lost, then none of us would enter into his family. None of us would know forgiveness. None of us would receive his grace. Just like the other parable we've heard back in chapter 18, you know the unforgiving servant? We have a debt that we cannot repay and yet he's forgiven at all. And maybe some of what we're hearing here and what being taught here is not just to do with salvation and those who come into the kingdom last. Maybe it's even just on the fairness of how life works out for us. Maybe it's in our suffering that we feel this sense of fairness or unfairness quite acutely. After all these years of serving God faithfully, this is what I get? this sickness, this ill health, this diagnosis and you look at others and you think well how are they living so healthfully? I've got a neighbour who's drank and smoked all his life and he's fighting fit. Others would look on here and he doesn't know God, he doesn't want to know God. How is that fair? So we say. Do you begrudge my generosity? Before we know it, we sound like we're the older brother and the prodigal son. Lord, all these years I've been serving you, slaving away, and you've never given me anything, and yet look what they get. It's not fair. To which the father comes to us, as he does the older son there, gently and graciously saying, my child, what do you mean you've been slaving away? You're always with me. everything I have is yours, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus and you don't know what I've got awaiting for you in glory. This is not just a matter of timing is it, about who gets in first and who gets in last. It's almost a matter of the first being the first class, the highest status, those who think they are entitled to anything, any notion of deserving something, versus those who can only afford the cheap seats, the humble back row, the economy ones. Remember, speaking of seats, we've looked at the immediate connections here, but just a little bit outside of chapter 19 and 20. This parable comes hot on the heels of the disciples asking Jesus back in chapter 18, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They want to know who's going to be first, who's going to be top, who's going to be kingpin, who's going to be king of the castle, closest to Jesus. More than that, they don't just want to know, they want to be in that position. Because just after this parable, look from verse 20 onwards, a mother's request. the mother of two disciples of James and John saying, would you mind just putting my boys next to you when you sit on your throne? Just raise them up a little bit higher than everybody else. They're special. They are to me, and I think they should be to you. And it's not just two out of the 12, is it? Because the other 10 are pretty indignant when they hear about what James and John are asking for, because they're there with their mum saying, go on, mum, you ask him. No, they all want that place. This principle of the many who are first and will be last and the last first demolishes, levels to the ground any notion of entitlement, of the rich and powerful, the great and gifted, the fastest or the fittest, whatever category you think, the goodest, the baddest. No, the grace of God levels it all. Any notion of earning an entitlement in the kingdom is brought to naught here. just as we've already heard Jesus teach it's not to the wise or the learned or the rich in fact it's more difficult for them to enter the kingdom it's impossible in fact as far as humanity is concerned no it's to the little ones the children with humble childlike trust in God they are the ones welcomed embraced and blessed all who come to him in faith like that are actually given the royal privileges of the Kingdom of God, the full rights of being God's children. There is no place for presumption in God's Kingdom. Assurance, absolutely, we can have absolute assurance in Christ, but no presumption that what we have done makes us better or gets us more favour or more grace. The hymn writers, I think, have got it worked out better than most. One old hymn that we sing often, nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross I cling. I don't come with any merit, any earning, anything at all. Or the other one we sang last week, when I survey, forbid it, Lord, that I should boast. Got nothing to boast about, save in the death of Christ my God. All the things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. Even if I had the whole realm of nature, to give to God, that wouldn't be enough. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. If any of us are going to come into the Lord's vineyard, it's a phrase, the vineyard was Israel, and then Christ himself is the vine. If any of us to come into God's family, into Christ, whether we come first or last or somewhere in between, we only ever come because he comes and seeks us. He first sought us out. He came to us. He called us by name and chose us to be His. We only ever enter because of His grace. And for all that we put behind and give up for the sake of Christ, He promises all will receive a hundredfold. Look at the family you've got around you. Look at the mothers and the fathers and the children. Look at the home He's prepared for you. An eternal life. And we read verses 17 to 19 today as part of our passage too. Jesus for telling his disciples again of his upcoming death and resurrection. And I think it's important to include here because it's into the mess of all of our presumption, into the marketplace of all our expectations and sense of fairness, all our contractual ideas and notions of earning and merit that the Son of Man comes. he enters into all that mess and places himself at the bottom of the pile so that he might lift us up. Jesus comes, he says, or we hear, he learned obedience through suffering. He learned wisdom. We're told he grew in stature with men and in favor with God. Jesus, the son of God, grew as a young boy in favor with God. He wasn't entitled, didn't think he was entitled from the very beginning. He came, we're told, not seeking to be like God, although he was God, unlike Adam and Eve and all humanity since, trying to account equality with God, something to be grasped. You will be like God, the serpent said. And Jesus said, no, I'll empty myself and take on the form of a servant, took on our flesh and humbled himself even to death on a cross. Jesus made himself last. He bowed himself low before anyone and everyone who sought to exalt themselves. He made himself the least of all. And in that he bore all the brutality of the sibling rivalry that fight for first place across every generation. Cain, Abel, Jacob, he bore it all. Yours and mine. For the joy set before him. For every cry of, it's not fair, he bore that so that God might be the one who is just and the one who justifies sinners. He humbled himself to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, the name that at which every knee will bow. and every tongue confess. And God promises, Jesus promises here that all who confess that name, all who believe in Him and follow Him, He will give freely, graciously, the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Not because we've earned it, done anything special, but out of His sheer grace, it's all gift. And so it's with grateful and joyful hearts we receive the gifts of God, isn't it? Not thinking we've done better. Fathers, do you think you earned your present this morning? Because you're a better dad than someone else? No, it's all gift. No one receives less than they deserve in the kingdom. We all receive far more than we deserve. He lavished his grace upon us. Friends, let's not begrudge the generosity of our Redeemer and our Lord and Father. Instead, let's stand and confess as we sing, a debtor to mercy alone, as we give thanks to God and praise him for his grace. As our musicians come up, let me read these words. A debtor to mercy alone. for nothing to give, we're in debt to mercy alone. Of covenant mercy I sing, God's faithful covenant love and mercy. No fear with Christ's righteousness on, my person and offerings to bring. The terrors of law and of God, have I done enough? Surely I've done enough, surely I deserve, no, all of that with me can have nothing to do. My Saviour's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from you. Let's stand to sing and pray this song together. Amen.