benefits of working in god's vineyardbenefits of working in god's vineyard

When you love God, then all that you do is touched and controlled by love, and love is the fulfilling of the Law. Our Lord goes on now to point out the consequence of not abiding in him: "If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned." 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. It is not about us, but about the Master, His vineyard and His harvest that He is reaping. And then we must rest on him, count on him to see us through, to supply that enabling power which makes us able to love and forgive and rejoice and give thanks, even when everything is going wrong. But if you share where you are spiritually, what your struggles are, what you are going through, and if you bear one another's burdens and love each other in the Lord, it becomes a delightful, marvelous, strengthening experience. On some, Lord, you see sucker shoots which need to be pruned away. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. The Father is at work to cut them off, to prune them back. The fruit here is not others won to Christ. It appears that this master, however, does not share that expectation. You can operate your business without Christ. Caring for Gods Vineyard: My Sermon on Matthew 21:33-46. There is a pruning time, a pruning season. All rights reserved. (1) Some early in the morning (verse 1) - the Apostles? So every vinedresser knows it is important to prune away these little sucker shoots in order that the vine may produce more fruit. You can make it run well. What a wonderful relationship our Lord taught us here by this lesson of the vine! Why should it matter when and where God hires these workers, or how much they receive, as long as we are united in Christ and focused on the mission of making disciples? Gods vineyard is the entire earth, and the workers in the vineyard (John 15:6 RSV). Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Jerry Tu. This huge story represents a vital truth: it is not the measure of time, which we serve nor the unmistakable quality or significance of our position, which decides our reward. He does not even owe us a denarius. None of us are worthy to be there, but Jesus paid for our sins and died for us, so that all who believe may enter into heaven. When you do that, then love grows into this deepening, quickening experience. The relationship is not merely to be recognized; it is to be acted upon: "Abide in me, and I in you. WebThey will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. In order to appease the union workers, the government recognized Labor Day. 07/15/2018. Change). Now he adds this note of responsibility -- there is something which you must do. If we do that we are fulfilling this active, necessary decision of the will to obey his Word, to do what he says, and to stay in touch with him. (2) Jealousy (verse 10) - the Devils master-stroke among the Lords workers! "But the plans of the LORD stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. We are to abide in him (that is active, something we do), and we are to let him abide in us (that is passive, something we allow him to do). Fruitfulness gives GOD glory. This ranch is owned and operated by a mutual friend and is designed as a guest-ranch for wealthy and affluent people. The hurt was too severe. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. We will be compensated for our steadfastness to the errand that God has given us to perform, paying little heed to how little or how irrelevant it might show up as. They plant their empires through conquest and war (Genesis 10:8-12), intoxicated with a taste for blood instead of the pure wine of divine governance (Revelation 17:2, 6). Did you ever see a bunch of grapes struggling to hang onto the vine, trying to grow larger? The Angel of the Lord comes to Samson's Parents. Take what is yours and go your way. In closing, the principle of this parable is that it is foolish to demand fairness from God. Well then, manifest fruit in your life by abiding in him, and he in you. We do not have to work at it. I lived in the far corner of Northeastern Washington with my beautiful wife, but now live in Wisconsin while I look for work. There are seven fundamental lessons relating to our service. 53). So it is a complete cycle which keeps producing deeper and deeper experiences of love. The evening is eternity. He was with the Lord -- spent three and a half years with him. (John 15:1-2 RSV). Because the field is so great, the variety of workers needed is also great. Not one of us deserves anything from God.. These wicked workers in their masters vineyard decided the workers that came late didnt deserve a full days wage. Let me tell you why they are the way they are." Many of the leaders were corrupt. Does the Pandemic Still Affect Church Attendance? I believe this is a reference to other such Scripture passages which say that the angels will be sent out to gather out all which offends in God's kingdom and cast it into the eternal fire where it will be burned. Certain individuals, when they comprehend the gospel, want to go to work quickly by reaching unsaved individuals. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Nationally, the Catholic Labor Network works to build church-labor partnerships to further the work of justice, by protecting vulnerable workers and educating the faithful about church teaching, including on a just and living wage. We are to each be sowing seed in His field. It is the love of Jesus for us, "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5 KJV), which awakens our love toward him in response. But we are to be sober, be vigilant, and be steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:8-9). The life which is in the vine produces fruit which Paul describes in Galatians5 as: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. He does not show favoritism. He was a threat to the religious leaders power and prestige. because they are going to have to work sometimes from seven in the morning until ten or eleven at night. Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/BenGoode. There is no other way to salvation but by faith in Jesus Christ. He did everything possible to cause it to produce grapes. Now we must choose to maintain that relationship by the decisions we make, i.e., decisions to expose ourselves to his Word in order to learn about him, and to relate to him in prayer wherein we converse with him, and to relate to other believers in body-life experiences, i.e., bearing one another's burdens and confessing our faults and sharing in fellowship with one another, wherein we learn about and see Christ in one another. But if they remain unresponsive over the weeks and months and years, love finally is limited to that initial step of reaching out to them. They are not mere mechanical practices which every Christian ought to do in order to stay "in" with the crowd, or to maintain his "membership card," or to get "brownie points" with God! Does it Matter That I Didn't Keep My Goals for Lent? We have been placed into Christ by the Holy Spirit. God calls each of us to work in His vineyard while we have time. WebThe life which is in the vine produces fruit which Paul describes in Galatians 5 as: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. But that is only part of it. How that can be deduced from this parable is difficult to understand, because there is nothing in it which suggests that at all. The day of work is their lifetime. The person might have never addressed hundreds or thousands of individuals like some ministers and evangelists do, yet they loyally brought up their youngsters, and possibly those kids became teachers who served God on unfamiliar soil or someplace within their own country. However, we are not entitled to anything, especially from God. None of us get to dictate to God what we will receive. Look up Psalm 126:6; Matthew 25:21; 1 Corinthians 4:2. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. It is also a holiday that is observed to celebrate those who labor. (1) preachers who are used by their Spirit-filled preaching. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.. Surely, But I have learned that the only young people who can ever stand up to this grueling demand, and can meet it with an unvarying spirit of joy and gladness, with the kind of attitude that has so impressed you, are those who have learned to love Jesus.". By doing so, we heed Pope Franciss advice in Evangelii Gaudium to say no to an economy of exclusion and inequality andyesto an economy that restores human dignity (No. If you try to make all the choices and carry all the responsibility yourself, you will lead a fruitless life. Isaiah tells us what that represents in Verse 7: For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry! You see, you can make choices but you cannot fulfill them. Millions live and die in Europe without a true knowledge of the love of God and of the way of salvation. There is a great need for Gods people today to get a worldwide missionary vision because we can be very local and parochial in our concept of the Lords work. Second, "and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." On the other hand, if you let him take all the responsibility and you make no choices at all, if you depend on him to do everything including making the choices, you will also have a fruitless life. (LogOut/ Jesus told a couple parables that deals with the heart of those who are called to do Gods work. Judas was a paramount example of this. (John 15:2b RSV). This is Labor Day weekend. So the vine includes the branches, and Jesus says, "I am that vine; you are the branches.". God has blessed me tremendously and so thankful for His grace and the people He has put in my life and His work in and around me. There was no fruit. As you venture out on that basis you expect him to support you and to carry you through. Christ then becomes real to you. However, the illustration might be applied all the more by and large to show us that God is not in debt to anyone; an extraordinary truth. Is that what we really want? The landowner keeps going to the marketplace to find more people to work in his vineyard His crop desperately needs to be gathered. Yet when this starts, the Father must trim off the unfruitful branches. If He gives you a denarius for a days worth of work, then you ought to be grateful for that. There was a sense in which the workers were right in standing and waiting. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. This is the work of the Father. They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, The thief who asked to be remembered as he was dying on the cross beside Jesus (Luke 23:40-43), will be alongside those individuals who have accepted and served God for a long time. In the first 13 verses of chapter 20 of the Book of Matthew, Jesus is telling the parable about workers being paid equally. To uphold the dignity of work and the rights of workers means to question unjust systems that violate human dignity by not paying a fair wage, withholding wages or preventing workers from their right to organize and bargain collectively for their safety, livelihood and protections on the job. Whatever work you do, do it as unto the Lord (because you are!) And leave pride out of it. In fact, if God were to give us exactly what we do deserve, we would receive condemnation. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. I love the saying, "Joy is the flag which flies over the castle of the heart when the King is in residence." Those who focus on that are really focusing on the material reward for their efforts whats in it for them. Those are the ones which arise out of our evil nature, our fallen Adamic nature, which produces in us those characteristics which are different than the fruit of the Spirit -- resentment, anger, bitterness, selfishness, egocentricity, love of praise -- these qualities which tend to arise within us so frequently. He did not abide in Christ, and Christ did not abide in him. When that happens, there will come these additional benefits: answered prayer, a glorifying of the Father through the demonstration of discipleship, a deepening of the experience of love, and joy made full. The Gospel reading was -- and remains -- one of the most incendiary of Jesus' parables: that of the generous landowner In verse three, the householder went out about the third hour into the marketplace and found others standing idly by. This is what it means to abide in him. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. The denarius was a standard minimum days wage at that time and the workers had agreed to it. I will send my beloved son. Both these relationships are absolutely essential, not one as opposed to the other but both together. You see, Peter asked Jesus what the disciples would receive because they had left everything to follow Him. We might ask that, too, if it were us. There are no Bible studies, no meetings; it is a very low-key approach. We trade the Giver for His gifts. They mistakenly believe that they are the ones in charge and can call the shots in Gods Kingdom. This is somewhat counter cultural as the world seems fixated on entitlements. The truth is that the master gave them exactly what they had contracted to receive. His beautiful analogy has helped a great many Christians to understand the relationship God wants them to know. The masters promise was entirely fair; however, since the master of the vineyard gave the others who worked less than a full day the same wage as those who had borne the burden of the day, those first workers believed that they deserved something more. He committed suicide within a few days, and he was burned -- eternally lost. When the Landowner went out at the eleventh hour and asked, Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing? (verse 6), they replied, Because no-one has hired us (verse 7). That mother or father had been dependable in the assignment that was given to them by God. It seemed to me a far cry from cleansing away debris to pruning back the branches -- until I learned that, in the usual practice of viticulture (i.e., the care of vines), the branches are pruned back each year in order to cleanse them. Vineyards were especially evocative as they produced wine, to gladden their hearts (Ps 104:15). That is, "If you do not abide in me, you will be fruitless." Web-Working in the vineyard involves work! 30 Verses to Reflect on in the Book of Hebrews. More information about Good Hope may be found at the following site: www.GoodHopeBC.org. (2) In other continents the need is vast - where the darkness of heathenism, superstition and ignorance abound. This is the point our Lord makes in the story. 1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. The fruit is borne by the branches produced by the vine. But there was no life in him. What we receive from God is a gift and undeserved. Many individuals that we do not anticipate finding in the Kingdom will be there. On the other hand, he says, "He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Then, "Do you love people, do you like to be with people and relate to them?" Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? This is also suggested in the parable. If you are called to lead, be the shepherd God has called you to be and follow what the Holy Spirit tells you. The context of this parable was right after Jesus was talking with the rich man who valued his riches and was sad when Jesus told him to leave it behind to follow Him. It is almost certain that Jesus stopped in the midst of a vineyard, took a vine, and used it as a means of illustrating to his disciples the great secret he had been seeking to impart to them in his whole discourse there in the Upper Room, the most fundamental and basic secret of Christian life -- the secret which lay at the heart of his own experience and ministry, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me" John 14:10(, and now the secret of their lives by the Spirit when he would come, "You in me, and I in you," (John 14:20b RSV(. Eternally lost live in Wisconsin while I look for work have you been standing here all Day doing! When you do that, then you ought to be and follow what the disciples would receive condemnation he! ; 1 Corinthians 4:2 now live in Wisconsin while I look for work been dependable in the.! Verse 10 ) - the Apostles order that the vine the vinedressers him... 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