Matthew 20:1-16 – Why Stand Ye About Idle? – Bible study

Matt 20:1-16 Why Stand Ye About Idle? The title of the message comes out of \#Matt 20:6\. The Lord asked a question in this parable that all Christians are going to have to answer. When it comes to working for Jesus, why have we been idle? Why arent we working? This story we are reading is a parable. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. In order to understand a parable, we need to know what the different elements mean. There are three elements in this parable. 1. There is a vineyard a. The vineyard is the lost world, the lost people.. b. God grows many things: crops, trees, animals, but while He lets most things grow wild, God cultivates people! 2. There is a householder or a goodman of the house – There is only One who really cares about the vineyard that God loves; and that is God. a. God is the householder. b. I think specifically it would be Jesus the Christ. 3. Then there are the laborers – These are the people God calls to care about the lost people. a. In todays economy, that would be the Christians! b. Imagine that. This parable is over 2,000 years old, but you and I are in it! So the lost are in the vineyard while the saved are in the village. This parable is about God attempting to get the "village people" into the vineyard. I. From this parable, the vineyard is the Lord’s. A. Remember that the vineyard represents the lost world, and God is the One who is in charge. B. This parable is telling us that God not only owns the saved. He owns the lost too. Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine. C. We can see some things about God and His ownership over the lost. 1. God cares for the lost. a. One of the main thoughts to this parable is that God cares and wants a harvest of lost souls. That is what the harvest of this parable is about! b. This world may not care much for God, but God cares much for this world. c. For several years I worked as the nigh auditor for three different hotels. Every hotel had a lost and found. On a regular basis, things were found and left at the desk-sun glasses, flip flops, cell phone chargers. Most of them are never claimed. The items get tagged, bagged, and put into a box to be held for 30 days and after thirty daysor whenever someone took a notion to clean out the lost and foundmost of it ended up in the dumpster. d. Not so with God. God has shown up and wants you back. He is here today to lay claim to your soul, because He cares for you. 2. And God has invested into this field. a. Vineyards dont just spring up. Someone must break the ground, bring the water to it, cultivate the earth, and work the fields. b. Friend, you may be lost and you may stay lost, but God is working hard for your soul! (1) God has invested and labored for your soul. (a) He sent His Son to die for you. (b) He built churches and scattered them across the world to preach to you. (c) He called preachers to go from community- to-community and door-to-door to tell you about Jesus. (d) He put friends and family in your life to love you to Jesus. (2) You may well go to hell, but I am here to tell you that God is working in His vineyard. II. From this parable, I see that God cares about the Christians. A. Remember, the vineyard is the lost world but the laborers are Gods pool of servants. 1. In this dispensation, that would be the Christians. 2. As much as the goodman cared about His vineyard, He spent his time repeatedly going into the village to get the Christians to do what they were supposed to be doing. 3. This is a picture of the church. a. God does not go into the vineyard to do the work. b. Instead, God deals with the Christians about going into the fields to do the work. B. Why does God do it this way? 1. First we need to remember, God does not need us. a. God could harvest the field Himself. b. If God can create all things with nothing but a word, If God holds everything together with nothing but a thought, if God knows everything that every being does or thinks, He does not need us! c. Why does He seek it then? 2. God seeks our help not for His benefit but for ours! a. MAIN POINT – God does not give His best to those who SIT for Him, but to those who SERVE Him. b. God wants to give every one of us His best. c. Look how many times the householder went back into the city looking for workers! It wasnt for Him. It was for them! 3. Gods plan is for people to help people and them to be rewarded for it! a. You cannot beat Gods compensation plan. b. He saves you, cleans you up, puts you into His family (God is a Nepotist – He shows favoritism to His family), then He puts you on His payroll, fills you with His Holy Spirit, does all the work Himself, and then pays handsomely for the nothing you did! 4. Consider this parable. a. These villages were small. b. All the workers needing work should have been in the marketplace first thing that morning. c. Why didnt all these men get work the first time the householder went? or the second? or even the third? (1) The answer is they didnt want the work. (2) Maybe they wanted something easier. (3) Maybe they were waiting to do as little as possible. (4) But by \#6\, the eleventh hour of the day and the goodmans fifth visit, Im sure the goodman has them figured out but he wanted to hear it from their own mouths, "Why arent you working?" (5) While they probably had many excuses the obvious answer is that were just plain lazy. 5. But the householder was still willing to hire anyone who would serve! a. Why? b. Because God knows something that He wants us to know: God gives His best not to those who sit for Him but to those who serve Him! c. Too many Christians are working too hard not to have God’s best!. III. From this parable, I see that the time of serving Jesus is short. A. In this parable, the work in question lasted but a day. 1. I know this is a parable. 2. I understand that the harvest on a farm last more than a day. 3. But we should all likewise understand, the opportunity to serve Jesus is limited. B. The whole dispensation that we are in is considered but a day in the Scriptures. John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. C. The opportunity to serve Jesus is short by the most gracious standard. 1. The opportunity is short because Jesus could come very soon. 2. The opportunity is short because you die anytime. 3. The opportunity is short because this world is becoming increasingly hostile to God. IV. From this parable, I see that it is never too late to start serving Jesus. A. \#Matthew 20:6\ The householder was going out at the ELEVENTH HOUR. 1. The Jewish clock started at 6 AM and the twelfth hour would be 6 PM. 2. That eleventh hour would be about 5 PM. 3. Needless to say, that is pretty late to get started working an outdoor job. 4. The point is, "It is never too late to start serving Jesus." B. I do not say this to get you to put off starting to serve Jesus, but to impress upon you that you still have opportunity to serve. 1. You are not too old. 2. You are not too dumb. 3. You are not too bashful. 4. You are not too inept. 5. You are not too late. 6. If you have life in your body, answer Jesus question, "Why arent you working?" V. From this parable, I see that God will reward you what is right. A. This parable does not get preached too much. 1. In looking for notes and thoughts, I found very few. 2. Most don’t understand why God, the goodman of the vineyard, would reward the way this parable suggests. 3. To us, like to the characters in the parable, it is unfair. B. What we dont understand is that you and I are never rewarded 1. according to our labor. 2. according to our accomplishments. C. God rewards us on three things: 1. obedience 2. willingness 3. effort D. That is why a person in a small vineyard can expect as large a reward as a person in a large vineyard. That is why the person who can only tote a small basket can expect as large a reward as a person who can told a big basket. E. Those eleventh hour workers may have been late in getting started but when they got started, they were just as obedient and willing as the early arrivals. 1. When I was first called to peach, I felt as though I needed to get to work fast. I didnt want to go to Bible college. I didnt want to be anyones associate. I wanted to get at it. Thankfully, God used others to give me some education and guidance, but it was against my will. The reason I was so anxious to get to work was that I feared the Lord would return before I got to do anything for Jesus. I had a wise professor at college who one day explained the truth that Jesus is revealing here. It is not what you do. It is how obedient you were and how willing you were that God sees. I may pastor at Green Pond, but I am willing to anywhere and do anything that God wants me to do. That means I can get as big of a reward as anyone and everyone else. 2. By-the-way, you may not preach at all, but if you are willing to go where ever God tells you and you do whatever God tells you, your reward will be every bit as big as mine. 3. You say, I dont like Gods payment plan. 4. That is the reason for the parable. Jesus answers you in it. Matt 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? 14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? Here is the close. If you are lost, God cares about you. He brought you here today to save you. Would you surrender to Him today? If you are a Christian, there is too much to be done and the time is too short for us to be standing around idle. Lets get busy in the field for Jesus!