This is Amazing Grace…

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WYK6DGNX

 

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness
Whose love is mighty and so much stronger
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder
And leaves us breathless in awe and wonder
The King of Glory, the King above all kings


This is amazing grace
This is unfailing love
That You would take my place
That You would bear my cross
You lay down Your life
That I would be set free
Oh, Jesus, I sing for
All that You've done for me

Who brings our chaos back into order
Who makes the orphan a son and daughter
The King of Glory, the King of Glory

Who rules the nations with truth and justice
Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance
The King of Glory, the King above all kings

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Worthy is the King who conquered the grave
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Worthy is the King who conquered the grave
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Worthy is the King who conquered the grave
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Phil Wickham

When does God love us the most? When does God love us the least? Please think about those questions.

In Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus tells a story (parable) to His followers. It is a parable that I didn’t like very much when I read it the first time. I believe we discussed this in class before. I think many of you didn’t really agree with it either. Maybe I didn’t like it because it didn’t make too much sense. It’s the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. I believe most of you are familiar with this parable. Let’s do a quick review. Who is the landowner? The landowner is God. What is this parable trying to teach us? The landowner’s dealing with the workers in his vineyard represents God’s dealing with the human family.

There is a contemporary Jewish version of this story. You might like it better. It goes like this. The workers hired late in the afternoon work very, very hard. They work much harder. And they also have to work under a very hot sun. The employer is impressed with their hard work. So he decides to award them a full day’s wages. How do you like this contemporary Jewish version of the story? We like it better, don’t we? It seems fair. However, Jesus’ version is different. The last group had been idly standing around in the marketplace. This is something only lazy workers would do during the harvest season. The workers do nothing special to distinguish themselves. Eventually, the other workers are shocked by the pay they receive. What employer in his right mind would pay the same amount for one hour’s work as for twelve! This makes no economic sense!

We don’t like this parable. Why don’t we like it? I’ll tell you why. As Christians, when we read this parable we identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers. We don’t like 11th hour workers. We don’t really like people like the thief on the cross. He came in at the last minute. He walked in at about 11:59, with about 5 seconds left. He labors for 5 seconds. He basically just says, “Lord, I believe.” And Scripture tells us that he was given a ticket into heaven.  Jesus said this to him: “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

We don’t like such people who make confessions on their deathbed. Deep down in our hearts, we envy them. We think they were so lucky. Got saved at the last minute and didn’t have do anything special.  We hate people who are luckier than we are. It is no wonder we don’t like this parable. The employer is right when He asked the other workers, “Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?” (Matthew 20:15) It ain’t fair, we’re jealous and that’s why we don’t like it.

What is Jesus trying to teach us through this parable which makes very little economic sense? Maybe what Jesus is trying to teach us is something that makes very little sense to us. Do you know what that is? It is grace. Jesus is trying to teach us about grace. Why does grace make very little sense to us? Why is it difficult for us to understand grace? Could it be because we rarely see it? On your way to church this morning, did you see grace?

We live in a very graceless world. Open the newspapers, or go to the internet, or turn on the t.v. and we enter a world marked by wars, violence, economic oppression, religious strife, lawsuits, and family breakdown. Would you like to talk about family breakdown? The good news is this: There will be less family breakdown in the future. The reason is because there will be less families in the future. There are more people divorcing than ever before. And more young people are planning to live as singles than ever before. Why is this? Could our homes be graceless? Well, it could be. But do you know what is really sad? Our churches may even be graceless.

Well known Christian author Phillip Yancey wrote a story he heard about in his book The Jesus I Never Knew. It goes like this: A homeless, sick prostitute who was unable to buy food for her 2 year old daughter came to me. Through sobs and tears, she told me that she had been renting out her two year old daughter, to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable—I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naïve shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”  Wow!!!  How sad, but ……. Is maybe this true? After all, isn’t church for clean people? Isn’t it for people who look good? And smell good? And be like …… us? But if grace can’t be found in church, where can it be found?

It is no surprise that we don’t understand grace. We don’t see it. We don’t regularly experience it. On top of this, we have an image of God that is anti-grace. Our misconceptions are often fueled by our chronic habit of comparing God’s love to what we have experienced in life from others. We think, “God must be like Dad or Uncle Joe or the nice lady at the corner store.” Many of us have grown up with a very mathematical God. This God who is relentlessly weighing our good deeds and bad deeds on a set of scales. Somehow we have missed the God of the Gospels. A God of mercy and generosity. A God of grace. By the way, what exactly is grace? What does is mean to give grace? Well known Christian pastor Chuck Swindoll puts it this way: “To show grace is to extend favor or kindness to one who doesn’t deserve it and can never earn it.” What is grace? Grace is an attribute or quality of God. Who is it given to? It is given to undeserving human beings. By definition, we receive grace because we are undeserving.

Have you tried hard to be really good? Have you believed that God will love you more if you are really good? It might have worked with our parents. Be a really good child, and we will receive more attention. Bring home better grades, and we will get bigger birthday presents. Maybe we’ll eat better food at home. Surely it will motivate our parents to work harder.

We may have been able to win our parents love, but we cannot win God’s love. We cannot earn God’s love. We cannot earn grace. Because grace, by definition, cannot be earned.

Look carefully at the parable. God does not dispense wages. Wages are what you earn. God dispenses gifts. Isn’t that good news? Ephesians 2:8 says, “⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” It’s a good thing we don’t get paid according to merit. Because we would all be lost if we received what we deserved. Do you know why that is? Do you know what God’s requirement is for eternal life? God requires a perfect life. None of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If we were all paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell. Aren’t we glad God dispenses gifts and not wages.

Isn’t God good? Aren’t we thankful for grace? In 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul writes, “⁹ You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.” It’s not so easy for us to comprehend grace, is it? It is mind boggling. In a book on the life of Jesus called the Desire of Ages, it says, “He had been the commander of heaven, and angels had delighted to fulfill His word; now He was a willing servant…” Why did Jesus do this? It’s the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” To the human mind, grace is not easy to understand.

There is a cure for people who doubt God’s love and question God’s grace. Turn to the Bible and examine the kind of people God loves. The Bible tells of a murderer and an adulterer who gained a reputation as the greatest king of the Old Testament. King David. A man after God’s own heart. It tells of a church being led by a disciple who cursed and swore that he had never known Jesus. Peter. And it tells of a missionary getting recruited from the ranks of the Christian-torturers. Apostle Paul.

If God can love that kind of person, maybe, just maybe, he can love the likes of me. Look at the way Phillip Yancey describes grace in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace. (Great book, by the way.) He writes, “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more—no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less—no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much an infinite God can possibly love.”

No one loves us as much as God loves us. No one cares for us the way God cares for us.  No one understands us the way God understands us. I know that our parents love/loved us very much. Parents would die for us. They would give everything they have for us. No one loves you as much as our parents. And yet it is so little in comparison to God’s love for us.

And this is Amazing Grace!  Have we all accepted it?