The Extravagant Goodness of God: September 24, 2017

TITLE:  THE EXTRAVAGANT GOODNESS OF GOD

TEXT:  MATTHEW 20:1-16

¹ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.  ³ “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴ He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went.  “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. ⁶ About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’  ⁷ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.  “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’  ⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’  ⁹ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰ So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ¹² ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’  ¹³ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’  ¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

I. JESUS WANTED US TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE IN HIS WORLD (KINGDOM)

II. THE PARABLE IS ABOUT THE PRIORITY OF THE HARVEST, AND NOT STATUS

III. THE PARABLE IS ABOUT MERCY – THE OPPOSITE OF BEING STINGY

QUOTES OF INTEREST

“I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.”  ——John Wesley

“When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man!”   ——   John Wesley

“Most refugees are innocent people not connected to political people…. The politicians fight against each other and the harsh consequences of their decisions fall on the refugees.” —— Médine Keener

“I will not be at the mercy of the telephone!” (What would he say today?) —— C.S.Lewis

“For a servant of God to have authority in every sentence he utters, he must first suffer for the message he is to deliver. ——  John Sung,