Understanding Kingdom Compensation
Matthew 20:1-16
April 22, 2012
Well this morning we come to a topic of discussion
That I think we can all easily grasp.
We are talking about the concept of compensation.
If there is one thing we in America understand
It is the concept of compensation.
• We understand what it is to be paid for a job
• And thanks to our legal system we understand what it means to be compensated for a wrong suffered.
Compensation is the often the theme of Scripture,
And it is one that proves to be a great motivator to life.
Only Scripture doesn’t call it compensation, Scripture calls it judgment.
Revelation 22:12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”
Scripture continually speaks of the fact that mankind
Will be compensated in eternity for how he lived in this life.
Paul says:
Romans 2:9-11 “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”
God is a righteous judge who will reward men in eternity for their deeds.
And this notion of compensation literally saturates the pages of Scripture.
Take just what we have been studying in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus first introduced this idea in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Even from there we learned about greatness.
Matthew 5:19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
And even from there Jesus continually spoke about the coming judgment.
Matthew 5:25-26 “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. “Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.”
Matthew 5:29-30 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”
In chapter 6 He taught:
Matthew 6:20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;”
And we could go on for a long time.
• Read Matthew 10 and listen to Jesus assure us that even the one who gives a cup of cold water will not lose his reward.
• Read Matthew 11 and listen that if you take His yoke upon you, you will receive rest.
• Matthew 13 brought the parables of the kingdom where we learned that the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value are worth any sacrifice
• Or in Matthew 16 where we learned that if we keep this life we will lose it, but if we lose this life we will find it.
• Or read in Matthew 18 about the man who would not forgive his servant and thus was handed over to the torturers until he repay all he owed.
The idea of eternal reward or judgment literally permeates the Scriptures.
Jesus spoke about it all the time.
He came from eternity and stepped into time and this gave Him tremendous perspective about where a person ought to invest.
Jesus understood that decisions you make here come with consequences in eternity, and He constantly pushed men to consider those consequences while making their decisions.
This flowing all the way to the conversation with the Rich Young Ruler.
Matthew 19:21 “Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Jesus wasn’t being harsh.
• If this man really wanted eternal life then he had to follow Jesus.
• If He wanted to follow Jesus he would have to remove the obstacles
• Namely, to follow Jesus, this man had to get rid of his wealth.
Now, even Jesus said, don’t fret the loss of your wealth
For “you will have treasure in heaven”
• Jesus wasn’t going to cheat this guy.
• Jesus wasn’t going to ruin him.
• Jesus was going to give him eternal life and let him keep his treasure,
• He was just going to transfer it from here to there.
But the idea is that this young man needed to make a decision based upon eternity, not today.
And this is how we are called to live our lives.
We are all called to make decisions based upon eternity not today.
Listen to Paul’s perspective:
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
He wasn’t looking for earthly treasure,
He was looking for heavenly treasure.
And that is really what we are talking about.
The notion of compensation.
Well that was certainly the notion on Peter’s mind last week
As he watched the Rich Young Ruler walk away.
He was grieving, but he was still wealthy, and it got Peter to thinking.
Matthew 19:27 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”
Peter was just being honest.
Is it worth it?
And that is what Jesus answered.
Matthew 19:28-30 “And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. “But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”
Jesus said that you will be compensated:
• IMPERIALLY – judging the twelve tribes
• IMMEDIATELY – many times as much
• IMPARTIALLY – “many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”
And it was that final statement that stoked our curiosity.
What did He mean by that?
It certainly is a statement that goes against logic.
And in all honesty we were doing good as Jesus explained compensation
Until He threw in that strange statement at the end.
Apparently it confused the disciples as well,
Because it prompted Jesus to give an entire parable
Dedicated to explaining what He meant.
This morning we get a better look at exactly how impartial God is
When it comes to compensating those who follow Jesus.
5 things
#1 THE CALL
Matthew 20:1-7
Now, just some basics to ensure proper understanding…
This is a parable about “the kingdom of heaven”
While we did talk some last week about immediate compensation
For those who leave houses or family or farms, this is not talking about that.
This is talking about eternity.
“the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”
Not only do we have another parable, but another vineyard parable.
In fact the vineyard makes a good base for an illustration.
• Vineyards had an owner
• Vineyards needed workers
• Owners expected fruit
That is really the basis for using them.
Matthew 9:36-38 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Even later in Matthew’s gospel we see a vineyard again.
• In one parable about two sons, one who says he will work the vineyard and then doesn’t, one who says he won’t and then does.
• We then get the unfaithful stewards who refuse to give the vineyard owner the produce they were supposed to produce and instead kill the slaves and ultimately the son.
Of course all of these parables get their root from Isaiah 5
Where God first uses it to express the fruitlessness of the nation of Israel.
But vineyards are often used and Jesus does so here as well.
And here we see the primary focus is on the fact that vineyards needed workers, and they are compensated for that work.
And so here we have a landowner out looking for help.
And just by way of understanding
NOTE that he goes to those who are otherwise unemployed.
Those who should be the most grateful to get a job.
And so he goes early to hire laborers.
(2) “When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.”
Now, understand that a “denarius” was a days wages,
But it was the wage of a Roman soldier.
It is highly likely that these men had often worked for far less.
But none the less, the vineyard owner agrees and the men are hired.
(3-4) “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.”
We don’t know what time the vineyard owner first went out,
But we do know that here at 9am he goes again.
(5) “Again he went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.”
So he returns again at noon and again at 3pm
And again hires more men to work his vineyard.
(6-7) “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?’ “They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’”
And so then he returns at 5pm and once again hires men.
Now this time he is perplexed as to why they have been idle,
But notice their answer.
“Because no one hired us”
And so he hires them as well even at 5pm and sends them to work.
Now we must stop here for just a second
And recognize what this part of the parable represents.
• Obviously the vineyard owner is Christ.
• Obviously the workers are His followers.
And it is important that you notice that
Even the opportunity to be a worker was a gracious thing.
• None of these men applied for the job.
• These men did not choose the vineyard owner, he chose them.
• The only reason they were allowed to work was because he allowed them to.
That is the point of those still hanging around at the eleventh hour.
They weren’t working because no one hired them.
They couldn’t make it happen, the vineyard owner had to call them.
And this is a very accurate picture of salvation.
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Even often times we have read those amazing verses in Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:1-5 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ( by grace you have been saved),”
We had no ability on our own to even to come to Him.
We most certainly could not put ourselves to work in His vineyard
Until He hired us to.
It was up to the gracious call of the vineyard operator.
So it is with salvation.
Christ must call you to it.
Now the beauty of that is that we also see that
Christ continues to make the call.
He kept going back seeking those who needed work.
Early, 9am, noon, 3pm, and even again at 5pm.
He wasn’t giving up, He kept looking for those to work in His vineyard.
So Christ must call, but He does so continually.
We also recognize that those He calls are expected to work the vineyard.
Some work it longer than others, but all are expected to work it.
John 4:35-38 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. “For in this case the saying is true, ‘ One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
So the opportunity must be given, but if it is given
It is expected that you seize it and go to work in the vineyard.
Not like the son who said he would and then didn’t.
There is an expectation that comes with salvation.
If you said you would follow then go to the vineyard and get to work.
That is all clear from these first 7 verses.
The Call
#2 THE COMPENSATION
Matthew 20:8-10
Here we come to the point of payment.
It was Jewish Law that if you worked a man you gave him his wages that night, you were not allowed to hold it.
So “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.’”
“evening” was 6pm
And so we understand what has happened.
• Some worked more than 9 hours
• Some worked 9
• Some worked 6
• Some worked 3
• Some worked only 1
And he starts paying the 1 hr workers first.
And what a pleasant surprise in verse 9, “When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.”
And you can imagine what that did
To those who had worked at least 8 hours more.
(10) “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more…”
WHY?
Because they worked longer.
I mean, that’s only fair.
“but each of them also received a denarius.”
WHY IS THAT ALL THEY GOT?
Verse 2, “When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.”
He gave them what they agreed upon.
He gave them the compensation they had signed up for.
Now that seems unfair.
But listen, compensation is never based upon quantity.
1 Corinthians 3:10-15 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
Paul was clear, it wasn’t quantity it was quality.
But in this parable, even the quality of labor is not mentioned.
It is just an even compensation regardless of merit.
WHAT IS THE POINT TO THAT?
Salvation and compensation are not based upon merit.
When you come to Christ, just as sin separated you, Christ reunites you.
There are no tiers in Christianity.
Hinduism has the cast system of those who rank higher and higher and you are constantly trying to work yourself up the system by your efforts in this life.
In fact, even a person in a low cast wouldn’t dare try to make their life better for fear of losing ground in their next life.
But Christianity knows no such tiers.
Salvation is equal for all.
Galatians 3:26-29 “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”
Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
It is to all believers that Paul writes:
Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
Salvation is equal for all.
The thief on the cross who was saved in his final hour
Received the same salvation as the child who is saved at the age of 5.
And that is clearly typified here in this parable
When all receive the same compensation.
The Call, The Compensation
#3 THE COMPLAINT
Matthew 20:11-12
And of course we had to see this coming.
• Despite the agreement…
• Despite the blessing of even having a job…
• All of a sudden we hear the cries of “That’s not fair”
(11) “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,”
Had they been the only workers, that denarius would have looked great,
But it didn’t look so good now, because they thought he was being unfair.
(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.’”
We worked longer…
The conditions were tougher…
You should not have made us equal.
And we talked about this last week.
There are many nations in the world who would seem to have
A legitimate complaint against America in regard to rewards handed out.
Take a believer from Russia or China or a believer from the Sudan.
It’s not fair that American’s be rewarded like us.
• It’s legal for them be a Christian…
• It’s legal for them to share the gospel…
• They have nice churches with air conditioning…
• None of them had to lose their families to be saved…
• None of them had to lose their jobs to be saved…
• They aren’t beaten in the streets for Jesus…
They could easily argue with God that we don’t deserve what they got.
Or even in a simpler sense.
Those who are saved as children could complain that
It isn’t fair that one saved as an adult gets the same reward.
“That’s not fair they didn’t have to be a Christian in high school, or college”
And you can understand the complaint.
That is what is given here.
#4 THE CORRECTION
Matthew 20:13-15
(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?”
And so the first question to those who think they are getting cheated is,
“Have I wronged you?”
• Did I wrong you by choosing you when no one else would?
• Did I wrong you by paying you more than anyone else would have?
• Did I wrong you by giving you what you agreed on?
And of course the answer is no.
(14) “Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.”
The second issue is that I can do what “I wish”
Or do we forget that it is all a matter of grace?
We can’t desire for us to be treated with grace
And everyone to be treated with justice.
(15) “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?”
In other words, I am totally innocent in this matter.
And then comes the issue.
(15b) “Or is your eye envious because I am generous?”
The issue wasn’t the corruption of the vineyard owner,
It was the envy of the worker.
This man did no wrong, the person in the wrong
Was the one who held envy in their heart.
This vineyard owner had every right to reward however he wanted.
He didn’t call based on works and he didn’t reward based on works.
He called based on grace and he rewarded based on grace.
Dad won “closest to the pin” at the pastor’s masters.
“Grace is always better than works”
And that is the point.
#5 THE CONCLUSION
Matthew 20:16
And now Jesus makes it full circle.
Did it sound strange that Jesus would reverse who got what?
Sure it did, because when we really get down to it,
We all think we deserve something.
AND THE REALITY IS WE DON’T.
We don’t even deserve salvation let alone reward,
And yet because God is gracious He gives both.
Now go back to Peter’s question last week.
Matthew 19:27 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”
Peter actually thought he deserved something.
What Jesus should have said was “Big deal, you left everything. Let’s go see what all you left Peter; a bunch of broken nets. And you expect Me to reward you for that?”
He could have said, “Peter you wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for Me, how dare you be so greedy.”
But He didn’t did He?
Instead He promised Peter that he would indeed get a reward
And a great one and eternal life to boot.
But He also instructed Peter not to be surprised
When other, less deserving people got just as much.
And friend I want to give you some perspective this morning too.
If you walk around on a high horse
Like you are so important and so worthy of some great reward.
If you are so sure that you are one of the “greatest in the kingdom”.
Let me remind you that you wouldn’t even be in the kingdom
If it weren’t for Christ calling you.
And you wouldn’t even get a reward if He weren’t gracious.
That is why it is always ridiculous to me when I hear someone
Talk about someone else deserving to go to heaven.
“Oh, they were a good person,
And if there’s a heaven, then I know they’re going.”
We have this mindset that people deserve it.
• We think we deserve to be saved.
• We think we deserve to go to heaven.
No we don’t.
Apart from Him we are all nothing.
And don’t for one second look down on one of these little ones
And assume you are more valuable than them,
For it just might shock you in eternity when they get the same reward.
This is in reality the beauty of God’s grace.
The flip side is this.
• I don’t care what you’ve done.
• I don’t care if you missed your opportunity at the 3rd, 6th, and 9th hour.
• Come during the 11th hour and Christ will give you the same salvation
that He did to me.
He will make you an heir to the kingdom and grant you eternal life.
He will because He is gracious!
And we wouldn’t want salvation any other way!
Matthew 18:1-4 “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
