Growing as Theologians: God Being Gracious (conclusion)

“Amazing Scandalous Grace”

“Grace is scandalous. It’s hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is

truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners.” (Philip Yancey)

I. Amazing Scandalous Grace: Recruiting Everybody

A. Our Way: The Best Workers Recruited

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in

his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.”

(Matthew 20:1,2)

“When it is a question of a sinner (God) does not merely stand still, open His arms and say, “Come hither.”;

No, He stands there and waits as the father of a lost son waited, rather He does not stand and wait, He goes

forth to seek as the shepherd sought the lost sheep, as the woman sought the lost coin. He goes — yet no,

He has gone, but infinitely further than any shepherd or any woman, He went …. the infinitely long way

from being God to becoming man and that way He went in search of sinners.” (Soren Kirkegaard)

B. The Way of Grace: God Recruits the Least Worker for the Last Hour

“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them,

‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out

again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About 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?’ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in

my vineyard.’” (Matthew 20:3-7)

II. Amazing Scandalous Grace: Paying the Workers

A. Our Way: You Get What You Have Coming

“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.” (Matthew 20:8)

B. The Way of Grace: God Rewards Us Without Regard to Merit

“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those

came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.”

(Matthew 20:9,10)

“When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘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.” (Matthew 20:11,12)

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a

denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I

have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

(Matthew 20:13-15)

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16)

III. Amazing Scandalous Grace: A Way Higher than the Heavens

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the

heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your

thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8,9)

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and

the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he

will freely pardon. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the

LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts

than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:6-9)

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but

now am found, was blind but now I see.”