February 1, 2015 – The Great Commission – A Study of Matthew – Generosity and Salvation

Matthew 28:18-20 – New International Version (NIV) – The Great Commission

¹⁸ “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Generosity and Salvation

Matthew 20:1-16 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

³ “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴ He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. ⁶ About five in the afternoon 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 five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰ So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ¹² ‘These 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, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Don’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.”

What is like the “landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard” (verse 1)?

How much did he agree to pay the workers (verse 2)?

When did the landowner go back to the marketplace (verse 3)?

How much did he agree to pay the workers this time (verse 4)?

In your opinion, why did he go back to the marketplace at noon and at three and at five (verses 5 and 6)?

In your opinion, what can you learn from the workers who were there at five, based on the answer “because no one has hired us” (verse 7)?

Who did the vineyard owner ask to call the workers (verse 8)?

How much did the workers who came at five receive (verse 9)?

How much did the first workers who came to the vineyard receive (verse 10)?

What did those first workers begin to do (verse 11)?

In your opinion, how justified is their comment (verse 12)?

Is the vineyard owner correct that they agreed “to work for a denarius” (verse 13)?

What did the vineyard owner want to do (verse 14)?

In your opinion, how do you think the workers who were there first responded to the question “or are you envious because I am generous” (verse 15)?

In your opinion, what can we learn by comparing Matthew 19:30 “but many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” with Matthew 20:16 “so the last will be first, and the first will be last”?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Matthew 20:1-16 show us about the Great Commission?

Isaiah 5:1-8 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “I will sing for the one I love
    a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
    on a fertile hillside.
² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
    and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
    and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
    but it yielded only bad fruit.

³ “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
    than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
    why did it yield only bad?
⁵ Now I will tell you
    what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
    and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
    and it will be trampled.
⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
    neither pruned nor cultivated,
    and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
    not to rain on it.”

⁷ The vineyard of the Lord Almighty
    is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
    for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

⁸ Woe to you who add house to house
    and join field to field
till no space is left
    and you live alone in the land.”

What does “my loved one” have (verse 1)?

In your opinion, was the preparation of “my loved one” adequate (verse 2)?

What kind of crop was yielded after all the preparations (verse 2)?

Who are the “dwellers in Jerusalem and the people of Judah” supposed to judge between (verse 3)?

What is going to happen to the vineyard (verse 5)?

How will the clouds be commanded to act (verse 6)?

Who is the vineyard (verse 7)?

What did the Lord Almighty look for (verse 7)?

What did the Lord Almighty find (verse 7)?

Who is the “woe” to (verse 8)?

In your opinion, how does the discussion of the vineyard of the Lord and its judgment in Isaiah 5:1-8 bring a greater focus to the generosity of the vineyard owner that Jesus talked about in Matthew 20:1-16?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Isaiah show us about the Great Commission?

Romans 4:1-8 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
⁸ Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

Who is Abraham in relation to Paul and the Christians in Rome that the letter was addressed to (verse 1)?

When would Abraham have something “to boast about” (verse 2)?

What does the Scripture say (verse 3)?

Who are wages “an obligation” to (verse 4)?

To whom is “their faith is credited as righteousness” (verse 5)?

Who is blessed in verse 7?

Who is blessed inverse 8?

In your opinion, what is the difference between the vineyard that God received bad fruit from in Isaiah 5:1-8 and the people that David indicates are blessed in Romans 4:1-8?

In your opinion, how does the “kingdom of heaven” being like the vineyard owner who was generous in Matthew 20:1-16 help us understand the “one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly” in Romans 4:1-8?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Romans show us about the Great Commission? 

   

Revelation 7:9-17 – New International Version (NIV)

^9 “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

¹¹ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying:

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴ I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
    will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶ ‘Never again will they hunger;
    never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’
    nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷ For the Lamb at the center of the throne
    will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
    ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

Who was standing “before the throne and before the Lamb” (verse 9)?

What were they wearing (verse 9)?

Who does “Salvation” belong to (verse 10)?

How did the angels behave (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why do the angels say “praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever” (verse 12)?

Who are the ones in the white robes (verses 13 and 14)?

What do the ones in the white robes do (verse 15)?

Where does “he who sits on the throne” shelter them (verse 15)?

What will the ones in white be sheltered from (verse 16)?

Where will the Lamb lead them  (verse 17)?

Who will wipe away their every tear (verse 17)?

In your opinion, does the discussion about “one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness”  in Romans 4:1-8 help to understand more about the ones who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” in Revelation 7:9-17?

In your opinion, how is the fact that the same God who says “I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled”  in Isaiah 5:1-8 also is the one who will “shelter them with his presence” and “wipe away every tear from their eyes” in Revelation 7:9-17 change your view about why the hedge will be taken away and the wall  will be broken down?

In your opinion, how would Jesus talking about the generosity of the vineyard owner in Matthew 20:1-16 help us to understand why a great multitude in white robes would shout “salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” in Revelation 7:9-17?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Revelation show us about the Great Commission?

 Next, back to Matthew 20:17 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)