The second in a series of 9 sermons
Series Theme
The Gospel is only properly understood when it’s essential pillars (doctrines) are related to the Fall of humanity through the first Adam, and God’s mercy and grace in Christ in sending the last Adam by whose perfect obedience we are saved from God’s coming wrath.
These sermons present those doctrines of Scripture which, each one, underpin the good news of our reconciliation to God through Christ alone.
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
Matthew 20:1–16 (NIV84)
1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
4He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’
5So they went. “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7“ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
12‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.
15Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Text
Luke 23:26–49 (NIV84)
26As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
27A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.
28Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.
29For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’
30Then “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’
31For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.
34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
36The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar
37and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
38There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.
39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
40But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
44It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,
45for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
46Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
47The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.”
48When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
49But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
