A Tale of Two Sons

Parables this summer, of course, not covering them all. Lord willing, we’ll end this series next week. This morning, our focus is on Matthew chapter 21, verses 28 to 32. Children, here are your questions for this morning. First, how did the first son respond to his father’s order to work? Two, how did the second son respond to his father’s orders to work? Three, what did each of them do? Four, who needed to turn from their sin and follow Jesus? A, the tax collectors and sinners, B, the people who thought they were good on their own, or C, both? Matthew chapter 21, beginning in verse 28. This is the word of God. What do you think?

A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today. And he answered, I will not. But afterward, he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he said, I go, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, the first.

Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”

There ends the reading of God’s word. Let’s pray together. Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word and we thank you for the truth of it and the power of it. Lord, we ask that now the truth and the power of your word would penetrate our very souls as we hear your word preached. Having heard it read now, we ask that you would continue to minister to us by your word and by your spirit. And so please help the preacher and please help all of us who will hear this morning as we come to you in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, this message is so simple, Jesus’ message that is, so simple that it’s almost hard to see it as a parable, almost more as a saying or as an illustration or an analogy, but it certainly is a parable. It’s very brief. It’s very pointed. It gets right to the point, but it’s also very pointed. If you want to understand the context, you go back a little bit to verse 23, and here’s the context of Jesus’ saying.

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? Jesus answered them, I will also ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.

The baptism of John, from where did it come? from heaven or from man. And they discussed it among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him? If we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we do not know.

And he said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. So Jesus is addressing the chief priests and the elders. And their problem is they don’t believe that John the Baptist is sent from God. They don’t believe that they need to hear his message of repentance.

But if you think about what the sum of John’s message was, it was repent of your sins, but also look at Jesus and understand that he is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. And so you have these self-righteous chief priests and elders, these religious elites, who thought they had it all together. And you can picture them standing there with their arms crossed, not only judging these tax collectors, despised tax collectors, and prostitutes, and judging Jesus himself.

Their dilemma is this, if they say that John is right, then they ought to be repenting. And if they say that John is right, then they ought to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus addresses their issue by giving a non-answer to their question.

And he does so by telling this tale of two sons. And as you read it, you recognize that both sons would make any parent angry, would probably merit some discipline. One would be immediate at defiance, the other delayed at not doing what they were supposed to do. The first son is the defiant one, he’s an insolent doer. And we are shocked when we hear him say to his father, we don’t know much about these two sons, by the way, or their character, that’s not the point, but we do know this, that the insolent doer, the defiant one, says something that we would find shocking, flat out no to his father. No to his father. I’m sure our children can never imagine saying something like that to their parents. And so here we have this one son who resists what his father told him to do.

And we can see him walking off. We can picture him walking off, having said no, doing nothing at all, going to do whatever he felt like doing. Well, the father goes then to the second son, this individual I call an impressive deceiver. On the surface, he’s every parent’s delight. This is more like it. Of course, dad, I’ll do exactly what you tell me to do right away. And we imagine him walking off and getting right to work and doing what he’s supposed to do.

When you start to picture this scenario, you can see the father almost with his hands in his head in frustration over the first son. Not only defiant, but refusing to work. And at the same time, very encouraged by the older son, or sorry, the second son, saying, surely he’s out in the field already doing the work that I told him to do. But when he looks up at something entirely different, he sees the one son who said no out there working, And the other son is nowhere to be found.

You can actually visualize this thing. So one has had the audacity to say no to the father, and yet he still goes and does the work. The other we might call a schluzer who wants to put on a good appearance, and yet he’s not going to obey after all. After all. Apparently the second one thought that whatever he was doing was more important. And his promise ended up turning out to be skin deep. He had no intention of doing what he was called to do.

Jesus has his listeners draw the conclusion and specifically focusing on the chief priests and elders. You tell me, You tell me which one was the obedient son, and they can’t help but draw the conclusion that it was the first son, who certainly on the surface seemed like the sinner, the most defiant one. But he was the good son, and the other one was the bad son.

What will they do with this? We know what the sinners in real life are doing. The sinners that represent the first son are doing what they’re called to do. They’re repenting of their sin and they’re believing in the Lord Jesus. We know what they’re doing. The question that hangs is what will these self-righteous individuals do in light of what they’ve heard? They come to this conclusion. I don’t think it convicted them, at least at that point, but they come to this convicting conclusion. We enter into Jesus’ application.

You see, they were set up to draw the conclusion themselves to admit that it was the sinners and not them after all that were obeying. You see, the accusation against them is that they were the ones not obeying. And yet the repentant sinners were the ones who were doing what they were called to do. The ones that are singled out here, and certainly they weren’t the only wretched sinners, only sinners coming to Jesus, but they were certainly the notorious sinners. You’re probably familiar with the fact about how much the Jews in that day hated their Jewish brothers who were tax collectors working for Rome and ripping off their own people. They were the lowliest of low in their eyes, and lower than that still were the prostitutes. And yet they’re the repentant sinners.

They’re not justifying their lives. Just like any true believer, and if you’re a true believer today, you know that you have no business justifying your own life, your own behavior, your own morality. You understand that you are a sinner and chief of sinners, but you understand because you’ve heard and you’ve believed that there’s a need for repentance and that there is a savior to cover your sins, and he is Jesus. Now consider those who are coming to Jesus, these tax collectors and prostitutes, what an encouragement it is for them to hear Jesus say these words.

They’re the ones who are obeying. They’re the ones who are doing what they’re supposed to do. But then there’s the recalcitrant saint, and I put that in quotes. recalcitrant saint, individuals who think they’re good, they have the appearance of obedience. They seem to be willing and yet, after all, they’re missing the point.

And it’s a point that any self-righteous so-called saint needs to see that in reality, by nature, while we might not be notorious sinners, we’re no better off than a tax collector who’s given his life to filthy lucre or a prostitute who’s given their life over to a very tragic and sad, but also very twisted lifestyle.

It’s where everybody needs to be. to see that in and of ourselves we lack the righteousness that we need and that we need new lives, we need to repent, we need to believe in the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Apostle Paul understood that. He understood that he was a sinner in need of the grace of God. If you look at Romans chapter three, Paul writes this, he includes himself in this lot and other places, but what a read for us, Romans 3, beginning in verse 10. It helps us to understand who we all are by nature.

He’s addressing the Jews. He’s addressing the fact that by their heritage, they’re no better off than the Gentiles. He’s addressing people who think that they’re self-righteous and don’t need a savior. And he lumps us all together. Pick up in verse nine. What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. And I’ll just end there. You see Paul’s point. Standing where Jesus is standing, telling this parable, this applies to those standing there with their arms crossed, judging the sinners, and it applies to the obvious sinners as well. All have fallen short of the glory of God.

And again and again, Jesus has to drive home that point to the hyper-religious, self-righteous community that he was facing. And Paul has to do it himself. He was a part of that community. who thought that by his own righteousness and his own goodness and even his own zeal for persecuting the church that he, with all good intentions, was persecuting because he thought it was against God’s will, he needed to recognize that he himself was the chief of sinners and he, like anyone else, needed the depths of repentance and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. as much as anyone else, but the difference is he saw it and he knew he needed it. Here’s what Isaiah says in the context of Israel needing to repent. We have all become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous deeds are like polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away.

If I understand this very brief parable today, I see that there are two categories of people. There are those who see their sin and see the need to repent and see the need to have a mediator, Jesus, and those who don’t. And there are some who don’t care anything about any of this. But here Jesus is speaking to this religious community. And there is a divide. There’s the repentant who understand that they needed a dramatic change and a savior and a new life, and those who don’t see it at all. And that category are those who have some sense that there’s a living God, some sense that there’s accountability to that living God, but must believe that they have it together enough to stand before a holy God. And so they’re without confession of sin, they’re without repentance, and they’re without resting in the mediator Jesus. Bear with me as I analyze it a little further. Three scenarios. Two fall in the category of the repentant.

The obvious sinner, maybe some of us, are from a background where we were obviously sinners, obviously without hope, obviously without Christ in the world. maybe even notorious sinners who needed to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, needed to hear that we needed to repent and believe in Jesus, and by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, our hearts were convicted and we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus. thinking about the difference between our church and my former two churches, I would say the predominance of people in my last two churches were from some form of that background. We didn’t have tax collectors and prostitutes, but people who knew for sure that they were living in the world and needed to come out of it. And then within the category of the repentant are those who I think are more in this category in a church like ours, where you were raised in the church, you were taught, I trust, that you needed a savior.

You were taught that your own righteousness would never satisfy, but many of you, I’ve heard most of your testimonies, many of you have said that there was never a time in my life when I didn’t believe in the Lord Jesus, when I didn’t need a savior. Sometimes following from that, I’ve heard some of the strangest words come out of a believer’s mouth. I really don’t have much of a testimony. I wish I had more of a testimony, people, that’s a powerful testimony of the work of Jesus Christ in your life.

That’s salvation by grace. And I hope you recognize, and I’m sure that you do if you’re in Christ, I hope you recognize that by nature, you’re no better, you were no better than a prostitute, a drug dealer, tax collector, a Muslim by nature, by nature sinners. And you will always remember that. But you’ll also remember, just like the clearly repentant notorious sinners, you’ll know it’s the grace of God through the Lord Jesus.

The repentant see their need for dramatic change. And so in the repentant category, the notorious sinner flocking to Jesus, and the covenantal sinner resting in Jesus. But then within the religious community, there are the self-righteous, and they have not repented of their sins, but they need to know. They need to hear the words, for instance, that Samuel said to Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice.

You can be going through all the motions. You can try to impress as many people as you want. But if you’ve not repented of your sins and rested in the finished work of Jesus Christ, then you’re just like the chief priests and elders standing there with your arms crossed. doing nothing for the sake of your soul. It’s an interesting passage in John, and I can’t explain the whole context, but here’s what Jesus says.

What works, it’s in response to what works must we do. Is there any work that somebody must do? We understand that everything about our salvation is about grace, but here’s Something very fitting for this parable. Jesus says this, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give you.

For on him, God the father has set his seal. They said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. And by the grace of God, the tax collectors and prostitutes and all the sinners coming to Jesus did, by the grace of God, that first work. But the self-righteous have not.”

Well, of course, the best combination is to be that child that immediately says, yes, and then does what they’re called to do. The child that says, yes, yes, I have heard and I will do, yes to repentance, yes to Jesus, Yes, I will repent of my sin. Yes, I will repent of my self-righteousness, and I will do what I’ve been called to do. It’s yes to Jesus and all that follows.

You see, it doesn’t end. It’s not a one-off. It’s not like the sinners came to Jesus And then they could go back into their lives and do whatever they wanted to do. No, Jesus says, go and sin no more. See, the new life that comes to these former notorious sinners and that needs to come to the self-righteous is a life of obedience. A life of obedience.

And so I simply ask us all to consider this morning what it would be like if we were within the hearing of Jesus. Do you see yourself as that sinner who had to see yourself for what you are and then to see Jesus, the Savior? If you are that repentant sinner, then you always have the cross in view because you know that that’s what your sinful soul needed. But you might be someone who is still relying on the fact that you’re a good person, and that somehow you’re qualified to stand before a holy God.

Put yourself in this scenario. You’re standing there, with your arms crossed. You’re standing there with the chief priests. You’re standing there with the elders. You’re standing there with your arms crossed looking at these sinners and you’re judging them. And worse, you’re looking at Jesus and you’re judging him.

In reality, we all need to look to Jesus. But we also need to have a good assessment of ourselves. And at some point in our life, recognize that by nature, I am a sinner in need of salvation. And because I know myself, I consider myself the chief of sinners, no better than anyone else that I’ve ever met. But a child of God, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope none of you are standing still this morning. How convicting it must have been for the self-righteous to hear that these sinners are outrunning you, they’re passing you, they’re coming into the kingdom of God, and you’re still standing there. So foolish. You need to repent. The kingdom of God is at hand. You need to repent, and you need to believe in the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. Let’s pray. Lord our God, you are holy, and we are sinners. And there’s not a single soul in this room that has any claim to righteousness outside of Christ.

Lord, you have searched us and you’ve known us. And Lord, we trust that you’ve helped us to see ourselves and our need to repent of all of our sin, even repent of our trust in our goodness and our own righteousness. and humble ourselves. Lord, we thank you that you’ve done that work of grace in our hearts. Lord, help us to now walk in your ways to glorify you.

But Lord, if there is anyone in the hearing of the words of your word this morning, who is still living in sin, living in even notorious sin. May they hear the call to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus for the sake of their souls. And may they come to the Savior. And if there’s any self-righteous who think everything’s fine without the blood of Jesus, the Lord have mercy on their souls. that they might see their desperate condition and press past with a desperate plea for mercy, press past the notorious sinners, that they might see not only their sin, but the glory of the Savior and inherit the kingdom of God. Lord, we confess as a congregation this morning, there is none righteous, no, not one, but through the blood of Jesus, the righteous one died so that we might be made righteous, giving us the claim of heaven and reconciliation to you, not on our own merits, but simply through the blood