5.31.2026 The Scandal Of Grace

Jesus is the only person who has every right to be first. He made everything. He was there before any of us. He chose, though, to be last. Betrayed, humiliated, killed, not because he deserved it, but because if he didn't, we would get what was fair to us, and we would be gone. That's the scandal. God is not fair, but he's generous and gracious. So let me ask you, are you grumbling? Still looking at what other people have, what they are gripping to, and missing what you don't have? [00:37:38] (44 seconds)  #scandalOfGrace

The first will be last because they think they earned it. The last will be first because they know they have nothing apart from God's grace. This is why right after this in verse 17 to 19, Jesus foretells his death a third time. Matthew arranges it this way. You know why he says this, repeats it again at this particular place because he's trying to get us to see when Jesus says the first will be last, he will be last. And if he's going the way of last, what does that mean for us? Do you realize all this grace is because Jesus is treated as last? He chose to be last for you. [00:35:58] (46 seconds)  #graceNotMerit

And what we're meant to see is that God's grace transcends every human idea of fairness because all of us are undeserving and we all get more than we deserve. We're all getting grace. If we demand God to give us fairness, none of us would be alive. And so when you grumble at the grace of God, it is quite a serious thing. The lesson is here. When we emotionally trip over this concept of grace, we say it, right? We're saved by grace. [00:33:33] (41 seconds)  #graceBeyondFairness

And we bring that same kind of logic to God and we say, I've been faithful. I've served. I've sacrificed. Surely I deserve. That's not how God's kingdom works. He doesn't owe us anything. Think of, we often forget this because it's so mechanical to us. It's so like natural to us. You're, you're every breath and the scriptures talk about this because we're, we exist because we're dust, but God breathes life into dust. [00:20:16] (35 seconds)  #everyBreathIsGrace

Here's the real heart issue. It's really not about the denarius. It's not even about their sacrificing of hard work under the sun. They agreed at the beginning of the day. They were happy with their arrangement. They were amazed at it, that they got a job at all for the day because they get to feed their families until they got to see the other people with the same pay with less hours. It's not that they don't like the grace of the landowner. They don't like how the grace is unequally applied to other people. They just want it for themselves. [00:25:49] (35 seconds)  #comparisonKillsGratitude

See, when you're genuinely grateful for the grace that you have from God, your hands don't grip so tightly the things that he never promises to you. That's what grace does. It begins to reorder your life, reorder your heart. That's the contrast with these words. Actually, and I say that not because I'm a great person, plus trust me, my wife, you ask her about how much I cared about that car, she'll tell you otherwise. I bring that actually as a sign that God has been sanctifying me. See, this is so contrast to these workers. [00:31:44] (39 seconds)  #graceMakesYouGenerous

Our job isn't to guard the doors of who's in, who's part of our church, it's to make room for God's children. The question is, does our church reflect the heart of the landowner or does it reflect the heart of those who are working at 6 a.m.? Who grumble when he's generous to those who've actually done in their perception less. Does God keep his promises to us? Is he free to do as he wishes? The last question, do we despise God's grace? Do we despise it even though we cling, we say we cling to it? [00:24:53] (52 seconds)  #openDoorsNotGatekeeping

The denarius was good news at the beginning of the day because they didn't know if they would have work. But all of a sudden, they see other people with the same thing and they compare. And we bring that heart attitude of comparison of this category of fairness into the kingdom without realizing God's kingdom doesn't operate like that. We miss how God actually is keeping his promises to us. He's actually been gracious to everyone in his kingdom. We look at other people though, after receiving what he's promised to us and we begin to compare our lives. [00:13:44] (40 seconds)  #stopComparingTrustGod

Jesus sandwiches this parable around this statement that the first will be last and last first because he's trying to get us to see. He's going to get Peter to see all his disciples, all of us who are his children. His kingdom does not operate like the world. It is not first come, first served. It's not based on merit. It's not who's there first. It's based entirely on God's grace. And here's the heart check question, especially for those of us who've been in church saying that we follow Jesus for a long time. If we still operate like the world, the first, Jesus says to us, we may not get it. [00:35:20] (38 seconds)  #kingdomUpsideDown

We say this word all the time, and yet maybe we reveal in our expressions, in our feelings, something of not understanding. The grace that operates in the kingdom. We acknowledge grace as a concept for ourselves, but often our discontentment, our frustration reveal whether we understand this or not. Because God's kingdom is not only an entrance by grace, the entire thing operates in an inverted way, completely by grace. [00:02:12] (29 seconds)  #practiceGraceDaily

We are from dust. And the only reason we have life at all is because God breathed that into us. He made us from nothing, which means every breath you take, which you don't think about, is from him. We often forget this, right? We think eventually when we are in our homes, in our jobs, with our lives, that it's because I studied really hard, I worked really hard, I sacrificed really hard. Why were we ever born into this place at all? Why were we not born somewhere else? [00:20:59] (34 seconds)  #madeNotSelfMade

It's very easy to bring that first perspective into the kingdom, and that's not grace. The workers at 6 a.m. are deciding who gets in and who gets out, and sometimes, sadly, that perspective can seep into our churches where those who've been here longer sacrifice more, different things, we begin to look at this is my church, and those who come later, those who are not like us, don't get the same amount of, say, this is not their family, this is not their church. God is sovereign in his grace. Everyone here is called, if you are a child of God, by grace. [00:24:11] (41 seconds)  #belongByGrace

We see other people's lives, their jobs, their families, their vacations, their beauty, their aestheticism, whatever it is, and our hearts begin to begrudge the grace of God. And joy is gone. Gratitude begins to diminish and our hearts turn against what we saw at one time as a gracious God. And you see that in grumbling, begrudging. This past week, my car was stolen from in front of my house. And if you know me, it wasn't just a car. [00:27:22] (40 seconds)  #gratitudeOverEnvy

He's getting us to think about the perspective that when we use the categories of fairness, we're not actually asking the right thing because God owes all of us nothing. All of it is by grace. He didn't have to choose those workers at the beginning of the day at all. It's all his money. It's all his field. It's all his gift. It's all his blessing. It's all his talents. All his church, his world. He gives according to the way that he sees fit. [00:18:33] (29 seconds)  #everythingIsGodsGift

We begin to look at those in our church communities with different eyes because we're bringing in this the first, I'm the first perspective. Think about people who are newer to a church, different in the church, outside a majority culture of a particular church, because this is the honest, and it's not just true of Sunset Church, but I want to just make it particular to us. It's very easy to have a culture of who's first here, who built this. We literally have people in our church still from people who built this church. [00:22:57] (35 seconds)  #welcomeTheNewcomer

See, instead of being awed by the grace of the landowner, they begin to hate him for his grace. Their biggest problem was how they see the landowner. They don't like how the grace of God functions when it's not applied to them. And it begins to harden their heart against the character of God. And this is even more prevalent, I think, in a digital time. We have easy access to infinite comparison in the pocket or the purse by our phones. [00:26:30] (36 seconds)  #comparisonCulture

And you're excited about what you get at 16 years old until the first day you drive into the school parking lot and you notice everyone else's cars. Because now the car that you're so excited about getting at 16, because you had nothing, all of a sudden, that guy has that car which looks nicer than ours. That's newer than mine. That's more exciting than mine. The gift all of a sudden becomes something you are now comparing with. Your heart has changed. The gift hasn't changed. Your heart changed. That's what's going on in this parable. [00:13:08] (36 seconds)  #giftVsGreed

They get a denarius, a whole day's wage for one hour of work. But at this point, you can kind of imagine, it's not in the text, but I imagine all the 11th hour workers are imagining, is this a mistake? Do we tell him? No, don't tell the guy. I mean, like, this is crazy. We just got a day's wage for one hour of work. You can imagine them whispering, discussing, and now everyone else is discovering what they got and now imagining if they got a whole day's wage for one hour of work, we must get more. [00:07:00] (34 seconds)  #eleventhHourGrace

But the three questions at the end of the parable, asked of the landowner, the interactions that he have, those get at the deeper problem that he's trying to expose in the disciples' hearts and in ours. Three questions to get at the scandal of God's grace. Three questions to help us understand that the kingdom of God is very different from the world. The first will be last. And the last will be first. [00:08:40] (30 seconds)  #threeQuestionsOfGrace

Jesus tells them of this great inheritance, entrance into the kingdom for them, but then he explains this principle that we need to pay close attention to, this kingdom principle that explains things being inverted. He says in verse 30, but many who are first will be last, and the last first. And then he repeats that statement in verse 16, so the last will be first, and the first last. Sandwiched between these two repeated phrases is the parable we're going to look at, which means that the parable is explaining what it means for the first to be last, and the last to be first. [00:04:23] (37 seconds)  #parablesRevealKingdom