If my hand has something in it, my foot does not say, Oh, I have not got it! No, for if my hand has it, my foot has it; it belongs to the whole of my body. (Spurgeon). There were many who died right there as the result of the scourging itself. The world may assess a man's greatness by the number of people whom he controls and who are at his beck and call; or by his intellectual standing and his academic eminence; or by the number of committees of which he is a member; or by the size of his bank balance and the material possessions which he has amassed; but in the assessment of Jesus Christ these things are irrelevant. Observe, They did not come for their pay till they were called; we must with patience wait God's time for our rest and recompence; go by our master's clock. A reaction might especially be expected when Jesus said He would be betrayed. This furnishes occasion to the Pharisees to vent their unbelief: to them nothing is so offensive as grace, either in doctrine or in practice. If there were, so to speak, a justification of circumcision by faith, undoubtedly there was also the justification of uncircumcision through their faith. Now they no doubt had heard of the fame of Jesus. Let them read their error in One who was evidently superior to the condition and the ruin of man in Israel. As for the Gentile, the Lord's proffer to go and heal his servant brought out the singular strength of his faith. They put it off until a more convenient time, but so often the more convenient time never comes. It is easy to sympathize with these who had worked all day. No sooner had Peter pronounced to Jesus the truth of His person, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," than Jesus holds the secret no longer. The meek and trustful spirit is to be desired; so also is the worker; but neither class of people, nor yet another class combining the virtues of both, can in any degree merit salvation. There was the consciousness of good unattained, a void for which he appeals to Jesus that it might be filled up. They are beautiful people. The payment shall not be wholly deferred till the morning of the resurrection; but then, in the evening of the world, will be the general account, when every one shall receive according to the things done in the body. The Father and the Son have their appropriate part, even as we know from elsewhere the Spirit sent down from heaven in due time was to have His. All shall reach heaven, and all shall receive what I promise to the faithful. All that are chosen from eternity, are effectually called, in the fulness of time (Romans 8:30), so that in making our effectual calling sure we make sure our election (2 Peter 1:10); but it is not so as to the outward call; many are called, and yet refuse (Proverbs 1:24), nay, as they are called to God, so they go from him (Hosea 11:2; Hosea 11:7), by which it appears that they were not chosen, for the election will obtain,Romans 11:7. With God, as nothing is impossible, so no one, small or great, is despised: all is seen and put in its just place; and grace, which rebukes creature pride, can afford to deal divinely with the smallest as with the greatest. Prophets (d) T. Hieros. First of these comes the treasure hidden in the field, for which the man sells all he had, securing the field for the sake of the treasure. But he answered, and said unto them, Friend, I do thee no wrong: did you not agree to work for a penny? said the Lord; and then stretched forth His hand toward His disciples with the words, "Behold my mother and my brethren! Whatever the time may have been, whatever the incidents added by others, the account is given here for the purpose of showing, that as Israel's case was desperate, even unto death, so He, the Messiah, was the giver of life, when all, humanly speaking, was over. It is the glory of Christ; not so much as Son of the living God, but as the exalted Son of man, who once suffered here below. Matthew, Expository Sermons - From The Executable Outlines Series by Mark A. Copeland - Hundreds of free sermon outlines and Bible study materials available for online browsing and downloading. "Christ demands that the driving force in your life must be love. And he said unto them, You shall indeed drink of my cup ( Matthew 20:23 ). He comes to do not his own will, but the will of him that sent him, and so he correctly says of rank in his kingdom, It is not mine to give. Jesus was passing by. 1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Apply to the Son of David; lose not a moment; he is passing by, and thou art passing into eternity, and probably wilt never have a more favourable opportunity than the present. Then says the unclean spirit, "I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Unfortunately, they have missed the blessing of knowing God, and serving God all their lives. "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David!" In some cases the last called will be among the first in rank of blessing. she cried; but what had she to do with the Son of David? Gentile as he was, he was for that very, reason the less narrowed in his thoughts of the Saviour by the prevalent notions of Israel, yea, or even by Old Testament hopes, precious as they are. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." LOVE'S ANSWER TO NEED'S APPEAL ( Matthew 20:29-34 ). When we are converted, we become members of Christs living body; and as we grow in grace, and get the true spirit that permeates that body, we shall say, when any member of it is honored, This is honor for usIf any brother shall be greatly honored of God, I feel honored in his honor. Those that were priests in the house of God would not they at least receive their own Messiah? The key to it is this, that Matthew was led by the Holy Ghost to keep in view adequate testimony to the Jewish people; it was the tender goodness of God that would meet them in a manner that was suitable under the law. But these men slept in Gethsemane, forsook the Master when He was arrested, and one of them at least failed Him at the crosswe can only follow Christ in his cup and baptism, after we have been endued with the Spirit of Pentecost. (Meyer). Perhaps, Christ here gives an intimation to Peter, not to boast too much, as he seemed to do, of his having left all to follow Christ; as if, because he and the rest of them had borne the burthen and heat of the day thus, they must have a heaven by themselves. The Old Testament When they had received the boon for which they craved, they did not go away and forget; they followed Jesus. The devil, by his temptations, is hiring labourers into his field, to feed swine. He tells them that they should not have gone over (or finished) the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come. They said to him, "We can." Out in the world there was the Roman governor with his retinue and the eastern potentate with his slaves. He "went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." And every Jewish mother wants the best for her son. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard ( Matthew 20:1-2 ). i. And that's exactly what the word, "minister" means, servant. Blue Letter Bible study tools make reading, searching and studying the Bible easy and rewarding. No request is too great to bring to Jesus. The "calling" of which the New Testament almost invariably speaks is what divines call effectual calling, carrying with it a supernatural operation on the will to secure its consent. We have two things in the parable; the agreement with the labourers, and the account with them. It is a question, then, of internal evidence, what that particular order is which God has employed in each different gospel. And if thou hast what thou didst agree for, thou hast no reason to cry out of wrong; thou shalt have what we agreed for." The unparalleled grace of the Saviour must form and fashion the saints henceforth. No man can ever claim that he began to follow Jesus under false pretences. Jerusalem's proud, traditional hypocrisy is exposed, and grace fully blesses the tried Gentile. ], "Any union leader worth their salt would protest at such employment practices. The crowd rebuked them, so that they might be silent. Next, the storm follows. "And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth." Therefore He could not have any broken bones. They're on the way to Jerusalem; they've come down the Jordan Valley. They knew that they were the chosen people, nor would they ever willingly forget that choice. That act forfeited their further right to it. They boast, as the prodigal's elder brother did, of their good services; We have borne the burthen and heat of the day; that was the most they could make of it. How thoroughly did our Lord take a lowly place for our sakes! b. The simple meaning seems to be: As those who did not come at the invitation of the householder to work in the vineyard did not receive the denarius, or wages, so those who do not obey the call of the Gospel, and believe in Christ Jesus, shall not inherit eternal life. But yet people who have been faithful to that service, to which God has employed them, whether it be intercessory closet prayer that nobody knows anything about, and I think when we get to heaven we are going to be surprised when we see those who are sitting on the front row. As the apostles were the first-fruits of the whole church, they appeared to possess some superiority; and Christ did not deny that they would sit as judges to govern the twelve tribes of Israel. WORK AND WAGES IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD ( Matthew 20:1-16 continued). 20 Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. And the third day He will rise again: Jesus was remarkably specific in this announcement of His fate, and foretold many things over which He had no apparent control. That the complainant had no reason at all to say he had any wrong done to him, Matthew 20:13; Matthew 20:14. She replied, "In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.". Wisdom Literature 13. Beyond the curtain of suffering lay the revelation of glory; beyond the Cross was the Crown; beyond the defeat was triumph; and beyond death was life. Johannine Writings Did you not come to an agreement with me to work for 4 pence ? If there be a privilege more manifest than another which has dawned on us, it is what we have found by and in Jesus, that now we can say nothing is too great for us, nothing too little for God. without holiness no man shall see the Lord. (Compare Mark 3:13-19, andMark 6:7-11; Mark 6:7-11; Luke 6:1-49; Luke 9:1-62) The mission of the apostles did not take place till afterwards. He is also the writer of many of the letters that you find in your New Testament.". Pauline Epistles The rich young ruler was not converted: far from being so, he could not stand the test applied by Christ out of His own love, and, as we are told, "went away sorrowful." After this our Lord sees great multitudes following Him, and gives commandment to go to the other side. 748.]. Sometimes a man dies full of years and full of honour, with his day's work ended and his task completed. The woman at last meets the heart and mind of Jesus in the sense of all her utter nothingness before God; and then grace, which had wrought all up to this, though pent-up, can flow like a river; and the Lord can admire her faith, albeit from Himself, God's free gift. Some think this parable speaks of the way that people come to God at different stages of their life. "Oh, you bet you, we're able." Now what is Jesus seeking to teach by this parable of sending forth the laborers into the vineyard? But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister [or servant]; And whosoever will be the chief among you, let him be the bondslave ( Matthew 20:23-27 ): Jesus here is teaching the servanthood of the ministry and the path to greatness. He was to be condemned to death; there we see the suffering of injustice, which is very hard to bear. He was to be scourged; few tortures in the world compared with the Roman scourge, and there we see the suffering of physical pain. But still, it was His carrying on the great process of shewing out more and more the total rejection of His rejectors. There will be differences at the close. . Mockery could go no farther. If this be a sound judgment, the comparison of the first chapter of Mark affords decisive evidence that the Holy Ghost in Matthew has taken the leper out of the mere time and circumstances of actual occurrence, and has reserved his case for a wholly different service. The system of grace is foreign to us: God deals with us according to who He is, not according to who we are. For less than $5/mo. To be like Christ he went to live in the slums, even though he himself was suffering from tuberculosis. BEST VALUE in digital Bible study. In immediate juxtaposition to this stands the Gentile centurion, who seeks healing for his servant. Rome might at any time have recruited her armies by volunteers from such a mass of well-educated, hardy soldiers but she thought proper, to use the words of the Abbe Mably, that the honour of being chosen to serve in the wars should be the reward of the accomplishments shown by the citizens in the Campus Martius, that the soldier should have a reputation to save; and that the regard paid him, in choosing him to serve, should be the pledge of his fidelity and zeal to discharge his duty. Then Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and he said unto them, [now He is on the way, there is probably great multitudes, but He takes the twelve apart] He said, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him and the third day he shall rise again ( Matthew 20:17-19 ). Second, this passage sheds a light upon the Christian life. Hence, here it is a question not merely of cleansing, but of forgiveness, and forgiveness, too, as that which precedes power, manifested before men. When they had divided among them the command of the four legions to be formed, the consuls summoned to the capitol, or Campus Martius, all the citizens who, by their age, were obliged to bear arms. HEARTLIGHT is a registered service mark of Heartlight, Inc. | Privacy Policy. a. Just the idea of Him being crucified was so shocking, that their minds in trying to absorb that, lost everything else He said after that. The Gentiles, who are newly called in, have as much of the privileges of the kingdom of the Messiah as the Jews have, who have so long been labouring in the vineyard of the Old-Testament church, under the yoke of the ceremonial law, in expectation of that kingdom. Those hired later correspond to other people who became Jesus disciples later in His ministry. The Lord was in Capernaum, where Peter lived; and on a certain Sabbath-day, after the call of Peter, wrought in the synagogue mighty deeds, which are here recorded, and by Luke also. Faithful labourers shall receive their reward when they die; it is deferred till then, that they may wait with patience for it, but no longer; for God will observe his own rule, The hire of the labourers shall not abide with thee all night, until the morning. What can have more evil in it? He went out again about nine o'clock in the morning, and saw others standing idle in the market-place. [There is what I call a clear, unmistakable note of time.] The third and fourth legions had the same advantage in their turns. To drink the cup simply means to follow Christ wherever he may lead, and to be like him in any situation life may bring. So we have a farther scene. Matthew 19. Higher proportionate rewards shall be given to them than to others. Jesus laces this point throughout the parable. Gregory the Great said that Jesus was like a baited hook meant to catch Satan, and Peter the Lombard said the cross was like a mousetrap to catch the devil, baited with the blood of Christ.
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