Matthew 21:28-32..Working

Matthew 21:28-32..Working

21:28 “What do you think? (Expresses a rhetorical question meant to indict the Religious leaders through a parable.) There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first (younger) and said Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’(i.e. Harvest fruit. Repent and believe on Jesus.) 29 “I will not,’ he answered, (Expresses defiance and willful disobedience) but later he changed his mind (Expresses remorse, regret, change of heart) and went. 30 “Then the father (God) went to the other son (Older son, Religious leaders) and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’(Expresses compliance, obedience, respect) but he did not go. 31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them “I tell you the truth, (assuredly) the tax collectors and the harlots (Notorious Sinners; drunks, prostitutes, drug dealers, criminals) are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. (Does not mean the religious and self-righteous are bound for heaven following the tax collectors & harlots. But rather there’s still time for them to turn and repent.) 32 For John (the Baptist) came to you to show you the way of righteousness, (John’s call for repentance, faith in Jesus.-(John 1:29-31) and you did not believe him but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, (Sinners repenting, getting right with God, changed lives.) you did not repent (3340-A changed mind, turning from sin to God) and believe him. (Believe on Jesus as Savior.)

Continued From Book

“Warns against giving lip-service to God with no heart-service in following through and obeying Him” ⇒ How many times have we made commitments to God, only to fail on following through? How many times have we made promises that, for one reason or another, we have not kept? How many times have we promised God we would stop doing something only to find yourself doing it.

“Displays how those who resist the Gospel may be closer to faith than any of us have ever imagined.” ⇒ So be encouraged if you have a defiant child or grandchild. A defiant husband or wife who’s shaking their fist at heaven, saying No! Don’t lose hope or give up on them in thinking my poor son, my poor daughter, my poor loved one is so estranged from God I can’t even imagined a world in which they will change their minds. But know this the grace and love of God will get through to them. It may take some time, even years, but it will touch their hearts if they will allow it.

“Display the gracious patience of God in giving the rebellious and willful sinner time to repent and be forgiven.” ⇒ With God it’s not too late to change your mind. It’s not too late to obey. It’s not to late to say I was wrong about Jesus. I was wrong about the bible. I was wrong about the Gospel. As a believer no matter how much we’ve backslidden or how far we’ve strayed there’s still time to repent, there’s still time change, there’s still time to turn. There’s still time to say “You know what I haven’t lived a life of obedience and submission to God. I haven’t lived a life of cooperation to the will of God. I haven’t put away that sin that displeases God.

“Teaches how one minute were promising God were going to go to church more often, pray more often, read the bible more often with no heart to follow through with it.” ⇒ Have you ever meant someone who claimed to be disciple of Christ, but you hardly see them at church. Or they’ll sai “I love the Lord”, but they never show up at the prayer meeting or go to a bible study. Or they’ll say “I’m a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ”. But they won’t forgive people who hurt them. They won’t help the poor. They won’t witness or fulfill the great commission.

“Even today, most of us are like the first Son. All of us at some point of time, when God spoke to us we pushed back and resisted because we understood what that would mean for our life and what would be expected of us.” ⇒ Or maybe after God called us we would say “I don’t want to become a Christian, look at the kind of stuff they have to do and the life they have to live.”

Additional Notes & Applications

Teaches how true faith and beliefs are responses tested by time. In the end what we finally do matters most.

Teaches how our profession of faith will eventually be tested. The true test of spiritual health is obedience.

Warns how just having all the right words, talk, and rhetoric is not enough without a life of daily obedience and righteous living.

Teaches rather than live with the status quo, thinking, well I disobeyed the Lord, there’s no use turning back now. Were to stop, repent and do what God wants us to do.

Displays how God gives ample opportunity for all people to repent. (Notice Jesus could have said their not going to go into the Kingdom period, but only ahead of them.)

Vineyards usually consisted of grape or fruit orchards. Working in a Vineyard involves a variety of tasks. Depending on the time of the season it may include tilling the soil, planting the seeds, pruning the vines, harvesting grapes, etc. A father asking his sons to work in the Vineyard was culturally acceptable and culturally expected for a son to obey. Most assume the first Son was probably the younger Son and the second Son the oldest. It is often in the family the oldest child is often thought of as the “Good Son”. The one who is more responsible, ambitious, and confident. Whereas the younger child are often the more easy going, independent thinkers and sometimes a little rebellious. The oldest child may perform better in school and have higher aspirations than their younger siblings. The oldest child may be more motivated to meet their parents’ expectations, while the youngest child may be less worried about meeting those expectations. The eldest child is tended to be more extroverted, agreeable and conscientious.  In a traditional culture to say no to your father was a shameful thing to do. It was disgracing  his family.

This parable is not teaching that one son was better than the other. But rather it exposes the hypocrisy between profession and practice.

Jesus is not telling this parable out of anger or frustration. Jesus is not trying to hide the truth from them.  But rather He’s telling this parable out of love. Jesus is reaching out to these religious leaders in giving them an opportunity to turn from their sin. Jesus wants them to come to grips with their relationships with God.

Additional lessons drawn from Parable

• There’s a big difference between saying & doing. That God considers action more important than word.

• God Saves not because of the good things we’ve done, or lack thereof, but by our belief & trust in Jesus,

• The Gospel call is given to all types of people; the outright disobedient & rebellious as well as the morally upright.

• Those who obey God’s will & call are the doers rather than the Sayers.

• The conscious sinner is more readily to receive the Gospel than the outwardly religious & upright.

• There’s a difference between knowing the will of God and actually doing it.

• God is gracious despite our former mistakes and allows the sinner every opportunity to repent