Introducing the newest series we are adding to the collection here on the “One Small Seed” blog. These are lessons Rodney shares each week with the congregation of Faith Community Chapel. We are calling it “Weekly Wisdom” although, to post the archives of Rodney’s messages, we will occasionally post more than one within the week. But, as long as we are able, we will consistently post one per week, with the aim of posting it each Monday. Thank you all so much for your continued faithful support, the One Small Seed team – Without further adieu,
Matthew 20:1-16
Verse 1 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like…”: By saying these words, Christ was guiding the minds of the listeners to the attributes of God, which he so graciously shares with all who believe and accept his bounty. In the parable of our text, God and all his righteousness was on display and the proper response to his point of view is with yea and amen. This is why the householder said in Verse (15) “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Paul’s response to this is in Philemon 2:5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” This means that anything we do in word and deed should be studied and pondered from God’s perspective.
One quality of God’s perspective is, there is no time involved, so it is his decision to give each worker a day’s pay and not count by hours and minutes. If we accept this, then we can come to realize what right is. It is from His love we receive our blessings more than from our
over zealous working to receive these blessings. We have no right to judge because “in the Kingdom of heaven” it is His sovereign
power that rules. So, he asked the question, “Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” Are we envious when some receive a blessing or
are we jealous when someone gets an anointing from God? The Bible says to weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that
rejoice (Romans 12:15).
God keeps a clean house. His Kingdom, even in this world, is made up of righteous souls and not carnal bodies. Remember, the carnal
mind is enmity with God, so it is our duty as believers to worship him with our spiritual mind and soul and keep our temporary house
as clean as possible until we vacate it some time in the future. God said, “Be ye holy for I am holy, and when he said that, he was
speaking to the righteous souls that had chosen to follow him.
The Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of heaven always existed, but
Jesus came preaching that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand. For three and a half years he challenged the spirits, souls and minds
of the ones he came to save. Then verse sixteen came along. “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” A good example of this is
plainly illustrated by the presence of him and his disciples standing in the face of the crowd of unregenerated Jews. The Jewish
people had over a thousand years of law that God had given to them to obey his will and purpose. This is why they were called his
servants. But instead of them performing the purpose that God gave to them, they hid behind a shoad of ritualistic religion and never
displayed the true love of God as Christ did.
The disciples and Christ’s followers were in the group of “the Last” and Pentecost was their pay day. Then they had the responsibility or the ability to respond to the message of the gospel and share it with all the ones under law who had been chosen first. The idea of the parable is that God wasn’t short-changing anyone. The agreement was the same for anyone who worked in the vineyard, a day’s pay. This same example applies to every soul, it doesn’t matter how long one waits to submit to Christ’s calling; when they do, the pay is the same: eternal life. Sadly, the longer one waits, the shorter the time they have to help build the Kingdom of heaven and the fewer the blessings they can receive from God.
Another key word in our text is the word “right” (verse four; verse seven). The word right means just, lawful, morally good, proper and correct. So, when the laborers agreed on the wage, the contract was complete. In the Kingdom of heaven God is sovereign and fulfills all the requirements of being “right”, beside the fact that it is his Kingdom. The householder was gracious enough to allow the laborers to come into his Kingdom, gracious enough to make an agreement with all that he was going to hire; and this he did. The Kingdom of God is his place to rule, his place to establish the rule and it is his right to judge according to his rule and not according to our opinion. Jesus said in Luke 17:20, 21: “The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! Or lo there! For, behold the Kingdom of God is with you”. By saying this he was pointing to the truth that God was removing his presence from something material (the Temple) and needed their souls for his Holy Spirit to dwell in. The Apostle Paul adds to Jesus’ statement in Romans 14:17; “For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” God said in Leviticus 11:45, “Be ye Holy for I am Holy.”
The idea is, that there is nothing unclean, unholy and unacceptable in his Kingdom and this is why flesh and blood won’t be in his Kingdom. Also, there is nothing God created that can inherit his Kingdom, but there is one uncreated thing that can inherit a place in his Kingdom. That is the soul of man as Genesis 2:7 says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The perfect will of God for man lay in what God predestined man to do and that was for man to conform to the image of His (offspring) Son. This was not speaking about the natural form, as the incarnate Word of truth, but he was speaking about the eternal life of man through the righteousness, peace and joy of God’s Kingdom imbedded in soul.
Amen