Matthew 20:1-16

Matthew 20

 Matthew 20:1-16

Please read the whole sixteen versus. I would like you to think that you were hired at 7:00 am. The crew is just moving into the field. As your there you see more and more workers showing up all day. Certainly they were hired at a less amount of pay, correct.

Mat 20:1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Mat 20:2 "When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the 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 market place; Mat 20:4 and to those he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went. Mat 20:5 "Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. Mat 20:6 "And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?' Mat 20:7 "They *said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He *said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.' Mat 20:8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' Mat 20:9 "When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. Mat 20:10 "When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. Mat 20:11 "When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, Mat 20:12 saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.' Mat 20:13 "But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Mat 20:14 'Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Mat 20:15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' Mat 20:16 "So the last shall be first, and the first last."

 Now that you have read this, who is doing the hiring. This parable is about Christ. He is the person that is doing the hiring. The field is us. We are the people that are to accept Christ or not. If you did not accept Christ you will not be working in the field. Jesus said that “the first will be last and the last will be first”. This is the same statement as in Matthew 19:30. There are examples of people being saved at the last moment.Check Luke 23:39-43 the man who hung on the cross who accepted Christ was given heaven as his reward. We are all offered the same reward, life everlasting. There may be issues with what you can take with you and that is the rewards of working for Christ. Regardless of that if you were a pagan all your life. When you are dying and a pastor or anyone comes in as asks if you want to accept Christ as your savior and mean it. You will end up as all Christians will, living with Jesus.

Agape

 Dave