Matthew 21:28-32 10-19-2014 #1937 Pent 19page 1
Hi Kids,
[Empty toys onto the floor]Let’s say that you had been playing in the living room and left your toys lying around on the floor because you wanted to watch a favorite television program.As you sit in front of the T.V. your dad tells you “please go and pick up your toys in the living room because company is coming.”
Suppose you say “O.K. I will.”Do you always get right up and go pick up your toys like your dad asked?If you stay sitting in front of the TV after you said “I will go pick up my toys,” how have you sinned?You have told your dad a lie.What does God feel about this?He is sad because we have sinned.
Suppose you say, “No I won’t do it.”What sin is that?You disobeyed your dad.But as you are watching TV something inside of you keeps saying, “I should not have said ‘no.’I need to pick up my things.”Soon you leave the TV to do what you were asked.Why would Jesus be pleased that you went to pick up your toys?Because you admitted you did wrong and wanted to do what was right.
There is a special word for when we tell God that we are sorry that we have sinned and ask him to forgive us.That word is “repent” [hold up card with “repent” spelled out and have the kids repeat it].We will study the story Jesus told about a dad who asked his two sons to do a job.Only one son obeyed, but only after he had said “no” and later repented of his sin. When we repent Jesus always forgives us.
Fellow Redeemed,
“By what authority are you doing these things?” (Matthew 21:23) That was the accusing question the spiritual leaders of the Jews aimed at Jesus.“What gave you the right to come into the temple complex yesterday and disrupt ‘business as usual’ by overturning tables and accusing us of being robbers?”“Who gave you the authority?”they asked with suspicious anger.But when Jesus asked them who gave John the authority to baptize, they said “we don’t know.” They chose not to answer because they didn’t want to upset the people who held John as a prophet.Nor did they want to give Jesus the opportunity to compare John’s divine authority to his own.But Jesus didn’t give up on wanting them to believe in him and be saved. He followed up their silence with a question of his own. We read Matthew 21:28-32.As you hear the account, think about howJESUS CONTINUES TO INVITE SINNERS TO REPENT.
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
29 “ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ 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, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
The key to Jesus’ parable is that everyone needs to “repent and believe” Jesus.How do you Describe “repentance?” The New Testament has two words that can be translated as repent.The most common one refers to having a change or turning of the mind.The other one that appears twice in our reading is a less forceful word meaning the same thing.To repent means to acknowledge our sin with sorrow in our heart for disobeying God.Repentance is the sorrow that Peter had after he had denied knowing Jesus and went out and “wept bitterly,” not the sorrow Judas had after betraying Jesus and “went out and hung himself.” This is what Psalm 51:17 means with, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”Repentance is the heart turning away from sin and turning to God with a trust in God’s promised forgiveness.Jesus was inviting his opponents to turn to him with a changed heart filled with repentance.
Jesus’ technique is very simple.He asked for their input in discussion, “What do you think?”In a non-hostile approach he asks for their opinion. Then he tells a short parable about a father who asks his two sons to work in the vineyard.Jesus picks the word for “son” that depicts a close loving affection the father has for them.Although the two sons are addressed the same way, their reactions are poles apart.Then Jesus asks the follow-up question, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”The leaders agreed, ““The first,” they answered.” With that response Jesus made the personal application to them.He confronted them about their sin of impenitence and unbelief. “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
Do you also hear Jesus as (1.) He makes us aware of our sins?Or are our hearts like the leaders? Dowe not recognize our sins because of ourignorance?Do we refuse to acknowledge our sin because of our defiance that likes to do certain sins?The leaders were living a moral life, but their hearts were dead because they were convinced that their religious life style was good enough to earn God’s approval so that he would take them to heaven.They didn’t see themselves as sinners.Their primary sin Jesus’ parable confronts is (v. 32)impenitence.He kicks out the ladder “I can climb my way into heaven by my righteous life, by keeping the commandments.”They thought they were doing God’s will.But they had totally missed what God put as top priority.Jesus made it clear early in his teaching ministry, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29).
Throughout time scads of people like the Jewish leaders to whom Jesus spoke the parablehave defied God by rejecting the gospel and Jesus as the only Savior.Only he can release us from the guilt and punishment of our sins.When Jesus asked, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”he was confronting his opponents with the pointed question, “Who is doing the will of the heavenly Father?”When they picked the first son, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth.”You are the second son, and you had better take a close hard look at your relationship with the true God. “The tax collectors and the prostitutes,” the people whom you look down on and assume can never escape God’s eternal punishment, they “are entering the kingdom of God before you.”
Jesus had indicted the so-called model people of God with the charge that they were anything but.Ask yourself, “Where do I sit as a sinner between the two extremes of the unbelieving Jewish leaders and the openly greedy and sexually immoral people?Do Jesus’ words indict me as well?” My sinful self wants me to push out my chest and brag at the moral life I live saying, “See, I deserve to go to heaven.”My sinful nature tries to keep me ignorant of the fact that I can’t hide from God my wrong attitudes when they are influenced by greed, or lust, or self-pity.My sinful nature urges me to flirt with sin and under pressure of criticism from others go along with sin, or at least not expose it when others do it around me.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”When he asked that questionJESUS CONTINUES TO INVITE SINNERS TO REPENT.He makes us aware of our sins so that we will listen as He directs us to believe the way of righteousness.Jesus spoke of “The kingdom of God.” What is this?It is being under God’s activities of grace.It is being part of God’s family of believers. It is knowing and trusting in “The way of righteousness” that John the Baptist explained when he pointed to Jesus and said “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).There is on one way to be right with God.We have to be free of sin and always do what is his commandments teach, both of which we cannot do.That is why we need Jesus’ obedience as our own and his payment to remove all our guilt.This is why we need faith in Jesus which gives us both.
By referring to John Jesus give one more personal invitation to those who didn’t recognize their sin and repent.And it would not be the last invite either because his actions during his arrest, trials and crucifixion would reach out several times.Jesus refers to “tax collectors and prostitutes” because forgiveness covers all sins and all sinners. Tax collectors and prostitutes were generally despised in Judea. They were considered to be the lowest social class, the people the Jewish leaders called “sinners.” Religiously, they were not considered worthy of being ministered to. They were treated as a lost cause.What a shock it must have been for these leaders to hear that the despised ones were preceding them into God’s kingdom.But Jesus words, “ahead of you” (v. 31) shows that Jesus had not given up on the leaders.The “sinners” were going in before these leaders. The “sinners” had an edge in faith. But the kingdom was still open. Jesus didn’t slam heaven’s door in the Jewish leaders’ faces.
Like the rebellious first son, the tax collectors and prostitutes had said “No” to God’s gracious invitation. But when John preached sin and grace to them, they repented and went to work in the Lord’s vineyard. Like the agreeable and respectful second son, the Jewish leaders appeared to be doing what was right in God’s eyes. But appearances can be deceiving. The leaders never got around to doing the work of the Father. They wouldn’t listen to the Bible.They wouldn’t admit they needed a Savior to get right with God.They wouldn’t believe in Jesus.They didn’t (Matthew 3:8)Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
Upon hearing Jesus’ parable it is important that each of us ask ourselves, “Which son am I?Why?”God’s vineyard is the people of the world. What work has the Lord asked me to do in his vineyard?Do I live the Christian way the Bible teaches with every part of my life at all times—at home, at work or school, when I am with friends, when I am among strangers.Do I fulfill my commitments I have made to the Lord to feed my faith regularly through Bible reading, worship and taking Communion?My commitment to my family to be a loving faithful spouse, a loving obedient child?My commitment to my churchto pray regularly for my brothers and sisters in the faith, to be an active participant in church work through my involvement and offering?My commitment to my community, to care for others, for strangers, for even my enemies?Have I said “I will” to these requests from God?Am I doing them?
If we were to expand the parable, What would son number three say who truly does the Father’s will?Would he not say “I will work” and then keep his commitment? JESUS CONTINUES TO INVITE SINNERS TO REPENT. He knows our weaknesses, our sins, and he continues to forgive us.That is why we calls us to repent.That is also why he invites us to Communion over and over.He wants us to experience personally that forgiveness.And he commands us to offer his forgiveness to everyone else by telling them about Jesus and his love.As we sang in the opening hymn, “Christ has died.Christ has risen.Christ will come again.”Our forgiveness is guaranteed through faith in Jesus.The God of mercy and the God of all truth promises this.Amen.