Good Morning, Good Afternoon and/or Good Evening wherever you are. This is Rev Essie of New Birth Ministries and I am glad that you are listening today. I pray that your day is blessed and if it doesn’t seem to be going that way…..Bless it yourself! God lives in you. He gave you His Power so use it! Today the topic is “Parable of the laborers in the Vineyard.” Get your Swords, a drink and a snack, and maybe a tablet and pen and sit back and I’ll be back to delve into this subject right after this.
(SONG: This means war by Bridgeville Ensemble at opening and Rev. Charles Jenkins to end.)
{PRAYER } Add Elder Rita Coleman DeStein (back operation) and Ed Badia (heart catheterization, Lori McCoy’s mother.)
Turn your swords to Matthew Chapter 20 verses 1-16 please.
The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard
What does ‘parable’ mean exactly? The Greek word is ‘parabolas’ to throw something in or along side to demonstrate a point.
Mat 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
Mat 20:2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Mat 20:3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
Mat 20:4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.
Mat 20:5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
Mat 20:6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
Mat 20:7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
Mat 20:8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
Mat 20:9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
Mat 20:10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
Mat 20:11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
Mat 20:12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
Mat 20:13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Mat 20:14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Mat 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Mat 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
This is the typical lesson to learn for people who think that they deserve more from God than others do. We should never look down our noses at anyone else thinking that we have arrived and others still have to catch up. Verse 1 tells us that there was a householder who took care of business ‘early’ in the morning. He didn’t oversleep or slumber the day away. He did what was required to keep his business, life and finances running smoothly which is what we all should do. You have to have a business mind to care of something like a vineyard. It entails taking care of God’s Earth to make sure that it produces the best fruit possible for human consumption. That’s a huge responsibility. Just like us feeding others the Word of God. We can’t be lackadaisical about it. There are many mistakes that could be made in the vineyard to ruin the entire crop. Adam found that out the wrong way. He was ‘tending’ to the ground and taking care of the animals so much so, that his wife had just enough time to misquote a slippery snake and change the future of mankind forever. After the fall of Adam it became harder for man to till the Earth. The Angels stopped singing with them, teaching them songs, and God stopped walking with him in the cool of the day. His prayer life most likely took a hit as he was busy at work and upset with God for kicking him out of the Garden. You can only imagine how his relationship suffered with God and with his wife. By the sweat of his brow he made crops for his family as most likely the woman, Eve, took care of the clothing and food that Adam prepared. And I believe that her labor with her children was not to be so harsh as well.
In todays lesson, the owner needed help and was able to hire helpers at the low rate of a penny. These people obviously needed a job to want to work in a vineyard for only a penny but they did agree to do so. Grapes were probably their breakfast, lunch and dinner. I used to work in an apple orchard and we ate Granny Smith Apples and Red Apples all day long, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was healthier then (and smaller I must say.) Don’t tell anyone but we also pitched them at one another while we were in the trees, which I am sure the owner wouldn’t have appreciated. My brother used to get me good. I had a horrible throwing hand so I just mainly ate them. We had big, dark, green bags attached to our backs and would pick the apples and drop them down in that bag. Ah, memories. God rest my brother Paul’s soul.
Back in these days of Saint Matthew, there weren’t many necessarily written agreements. Jesus is showing us in the Word how we should be able to take another man at his word. When we read the Word we should note how it always points to Jesus somehow. Most men would make an agreement by the shaking of the hand or their word. A man’s word meant much then. It was respected and received. When someone said that they were going to do something it got done. Today, people don’t have time, they only hear what they want to hear and judge harshly if you don’t say what they want to hear. That is called in the bible the “tickling of the ears.” The Apostle Paul tells us to Preach the Word.
2Ti 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2Ti 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2Ti 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
2Ti 4:6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
2Ti 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
The devil has made this world so confused that you can’t even be open with one another. People don’t have time. Instead of being a pillar for you they’ll tell others, “he needs a psychologist.” Really? Send someone to man instead of Jesus? The World belongs to the World. People simply don’t have time to listen anymore. That’s why I thank God that some of you listening to this today, I can talk to freely and enjoy my conversations. That is a gift from the Lord to me. All preachers need it, BE A FRIEND! Amen? Jesus is. We should be also. No psychiatry here. Amen.
Verse 2 tells us that they definitely made an “agreement of wages” together and he sent them into the vineyard. This speaks of service being enjoined at this point.
(verse 3) Around the third hour of the day (which was around 9 a.m. because their days typically begin at 6 a.m.,) he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. You can only presume that these people were slothful or lazy to be standing in a place that would have plenty of jobs that they could have been doing instead of wasting the day away. Isn’t that how many humans act today? They sit around and just waste the day away. No vision, no purpose, just living to eat. In the olden days people used to tell us “you’re supposed to eat to live not live to eat!” The poor children are out haunting the neighborhood while the parents just sit inside bewitched by Facebook. Schooling has fooled people into thinking that if you don’t have a Doctorate you will never make good money therefore we have people who think that their lives are useless but we need them! God has given each man a talent. Don’t bury your talent so when He returns you’ll tell Him that He didn’t give you enough to do anything with. If everything shut down on us right now, how would you make money to eat? What is your gift? Better still, would you negotiate it for a penny? They agreed on a penny and then got mad at the owner. Interesting.
How can you be idle in a marketplace? In fact, let’s look up the term “marketplace.” It was ‘the gate’ or a ‘public square’ where people met and did their business together. It is evident that God is interested in the marketplace since this story includes it while describing what Heaven is like. Thus, “Heaven is like men who stood in a marketplace with no occupation until the householder came to offer them a living (with the Householder being Jesus of course.) Your main occupation is Matthew 28:18-20 Go and tell. Do our lives present Jesus to others? How do you represent Him? He pays whatever we want as long as we live for Him. Jesus paid the price, everything is free! Salvation is free. Jesus made it “free to be free.” No more waiting in the marketplace, amen? The Lord is our Shepherd we WILL NOT want. With God all things are possible. That is something to think about. No matter when you accept Him as your Savior, you are still in the same position as those before you and those after you. We were all in the same boat, now He wants you to walk out on the water and bring others with you.
Ok, so far we have 6 a.m., 9 a.m. and now in verse 5 the householder went out about the 6th hour (12 p.m. and then 3 p.m.) and did the same thing. So far we have a span of every 3 hours. Every 3 hours he hires someone for his vineyard. Let’s take a look at the number 3.
Three, shelosh[f.], sheloshah [m.] means biblically represents divine wholeness, completeness and perfection.
The number three appears in the Bible 467 times, fewer than the number seven, but more than most of the other symbolically important numbers.
Sometimes three is used as an emphatic Semitic triplet to describe the intensity of something. It’s not just holy. It’s holy, holy, holy.
We do have to keep in mind, three isn’t always necessarily something good. In Revelation, we see an evil trinity: Satan, the Antichrist, and the False prophet (Revelations 12-13).
However, typically, three means something complete and good. Satan does often like to take something good from God and corrupt it, much like the number three and the concept of the Trinity. (www.crosswalk.com)
Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. He was placed on the cross at the 3rd hour of the day (9 a.m.) and died at the 9th hour (3 p.m.). There were 3 hours of darkness that covered the land while Jesus was suffering on the cross from the 6th hour to the 9th hour. Three is the number of resurrection. Christ was dead for three full days and three full nights.
This last time that was mentioned (vs 6 and 7) was the 11th hour which is an hour before his scheduled time. This time they told him that “no man has hired us.” They weren’t lazy, these men had obviously been trying. Notice I said the word “scheduled.” This is an indication that NO ONE knows not the hour nor the day when Jesus will return. Be ready. Never assume. He didn’t come after 3 hours like he had before. If someone was watching for him at that time, they would have missed him because he came 11 hours later, (5 pm) not at 6 pm. Don’t be a foolish virgin so-to-speak. Get your oil ready! It should have been 6-9-12-3-6 but it was 6-9-12-3-5. And on the other hand there was a householder who left the workers and stayed away so long that they thought they owned the vineyard. They mocked and beat up his men when he sent for his produce so he sent his “heir/his beloved son” and they killed him. (Luke 20)
The parable of the laborers speaks of God’s unmerited Grace. No matter when you ‘came in’ or ‘arrived’ in the family of God, His Grace is available to us. In verse 10 those who came first and had worked all day thought that they should get more than those who hadn’t worked so hard and so long. They were so selfish that they had forgotten that they made an agreement with the owner to work for a penny. Isn’t it something how some people think that they are more knowledgeable or capable to deliver the Word because they have been doing it for longer than others? The bible says out of the mouths of babes. Now a day, children are speaking the Word of God better than some grown folks I know. These workers actually murmured against the owner which doesn’t really sound too positive to me. Just like today, they probably dogged his name, talked about him, and God only knows what else and it was them who were double-minded living by a double-standard! Have you ever had someone blame you for something that they did? It’s disturbing isn’t it? It is said that when someone blames you for doing something it is because they do it themselves. Misery loves company.
Notice in verse 12 they were upset because the late-comers were made ‘equal’ to them. In the corporate world they have what is called the “ladder of success” and people will do whatever they can to climb that ladder just to be in the higher rank of workers. When I used to work for the old Bell Atlantic before it became Verizon, they had incentives with higher pays raises, balloons all over the place, cake and ice-cream, pizza’s delivered, etc just to raise the activity of the workers. You would literally walk through balloons to get to your station. I always hated things like that. I really never was an “incentive” type of person. It’s nice for the ones who enjoyed the rat race but they neglected to realize that when it’s all over, you are still a rat. Here’s the meaning of incentives:
An incentive is a contingent motivator.[1] Traditional incentives are extrinsic motivators which reward actions to yield a desired outcome. The effectiveness of traditional incentives has changed as the needs of Western society have evolved. While the traditional incentive model is effective when there is a defined procedure and goal for a task, Western society started to require a higher volume of critical thinkers, so the traditional model became less effective.[1] Institutions are now following a trend in implementing strategies that rely on intrinsic motivations rather than the extrinsic motivations that the traditional incentives foster.
Some examples of traditional incentives are letter grades in the formal school system, and monetary bonuses for increased productivity in the workplace.
God doesn’t have to give us incentives. Knowing Him is incentive enough. It’s enough to get you radical and energetic so that you can take back what is yours by force.
Verse 13: The owner tells them that he did no wrong because they agreed on a penny. It’s not his fault that people came after they did. The more the merrier. He got his business taken care of. More hands make light work. He says, “Can I not do what I want with my own?” You actually have to tell people that you can do what you want with your own stuff! It’s like the neighbor who wants to tell the other neighbor how to live and when to cut their grass. We have to be careful of coveting. Coveting is a sin. As the song used to say, “Sweep around your own front door before you try to sweep around mine.”
God has Divine Ownership of His Kingdom! The Divine Call tells us that there is no reverence to position, He says “the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” Just be ready when He comes. Many are called but few are chosen.
Are you saved? Now is the time to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. With all that is going on around the world, you need a friend. Jesus can be that special friend if you allow Him into your life. He is your helper and His Holy Spirit is your Comforter.
If you are not saved, just repeat the Romans Road after me: Say “Jesus, I repent of my sins, I am so sorry Lord. I believe that you died on the cross and rose 3 days later from the dead, just for me and I accept what you have done, I accept you as my Savior. Thank you Jesus, amen.” Now go find a bible believing, Holy Ghost filled church and learn of Him, it’s never too late. Your new life starts now. All old things are gone away. God throws them as far as the East if from the West. Now….go live, laugh and love!
Num 6:24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
Num 6:25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
Num 6:26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Thank you for coming on today and I pray that your week goes by Victoriously!
Rev Essie signing off! God bless and have a great day!
https://www.blogtalkradio.com/revessie/2020/08/09/parable-of-the-laborers
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