A Tale of Two Sons

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Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

0:17It's good to be back in the pulpit this morning. I've missed being with you all, and I'm very grateful for the many competent preachers that we have among our elders. And it's a good reminder for me and for all of us that it's not about any one individual, but about God's Word at work through his people, conforming us into the image of his Son. Amen? Amen. Would you join me as we pray now?

0:45Father in heaven, we ask that you would come now in the power of your Spirit so that we would have eyes to see wondrous things from this parable, so that we would behold Christ afresh, and as a result, that we would believe and love, repent, treasure, and obey. And so we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me begin with a question. How many of you have ever said the words, "We should get together sometime," but never followed through? Or, "I'd love to have your family over for dinner," and an invitation never happens. You don't have to raise your hands. I know some of you have done it because I've been on the receiving end of it, and I have also done this as well, and I've forgotten who I've said that to.

1:47So don't expect an invitation anytime soon. Charitably, those statements express our desire and our good intentions, but for various reasons, like a busy schedule or we later forget about it, it never happens. We could say that this is an aspirational invitation that never becomes a concrete commitment. It's just words, but no actions. And this lighthearted example shows that good intentions have value, but they're very different from our actions expressed. There's a world of difference between saying something and doing it, and this is the tension that Jesus exposes in our text this morning. His concern isn't over dinner invitations, though.

2:39It's over something much more serious, our obedience to God. So the question for us this morning is, do our lives match our words? Or do our actions reflect our beliefs? So before diving into our passage here this morning, let's kind of situate ourselves again in Matthew's Gospel. We've been preaching through the last week of Jesus' life prior to his crucifixion. And this passage kind of slows way down to record this growing confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders that's ultimately building towards the climax of his crucifixion. Now, last week, Pastor Sam, you saw the chief priests and the elders are questioning Jesus' authority, and yet they refuse to answer Jesus' question because they had already rejected him. They had already conspired to kill Jesus.

3:39And what follows are three parables now here this morning. You can see that in 28 to 32, and then 33 to the end of the chapter, and then chapter 22, 1 to 14 is the third parable. The first parable kind of indicts Israel's religious leaders for refusing to believe in both John and in Jesus. And then the next two parables sort of escalate the tension, showing the rejection of God's messenger. So if you were listening to the soundtrack of Matthew's gospel, it would grow more dissonant and the tension is growing and growing because they're on a collision course that's going to climax in the crucifixion.

4:24Then the problem of our passage is that the Jewish leaders are outwardly religious, but they have rejected God's message and his messengers. They look the part on the outside. They look buttoned up and well-dressed, and yet Jesus later on, when he calls out the woes in Matthew 23, what does he call them? Whitewashed tombs, a veneer of cleanliness on the outside that's hiding the death and decay that's at work on the inside. So it's like the person who wears the expensive $200 running shoes but never goes on a run, or the person who wears camo but never hunts, or wears the Harley jacket and has the boots and has the helmet but never rides a motorcycle.

5:13It's all a show. It's the influencer on Instagram who takes a picture in front of someone else's supercar or yacht, just pretending that it's theirs. Jesus exposes their veneer of spirituality that hides the death and decay that resides inside. And so at the heart of this parable this morning, at the heart of this parable is this simple truth. True disciples of Jesus don't merely say the right things. They come to Jesus and obey him. True disciples of Jesus don't merely just say the right things, but they actually come and turn to Christ and obey him. So Jesus doesn't want external conformity, box-checking, tradition, rule-following.

6:07One must believe, repent, and obey all that Christ commands. And so knowing about God isn't sufficient, or in the case of these Jewish leaders, claiming to be God's chosen people, the Israelites, is also insufficient. They must believe in God's sent messenger, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this parable cautions us against this religious veneer. You guys know what a veneer is, right? For the kids among us, if your mom and dad go and buy some furniture at Ikea, if you will, it looks like some wood on the outside, and maybe there's a little thin piece of wood on the outside, but if you go kind of underneath that wood or it gets chipped, underneath, it's all cardboard.

6:57That is what Jesus is warning us against. Don't put on Christianity as a costume, as cosplay. Like you can put on kind of a costume from Star Wars or Lord of the Rings and pretend to be like them. Don't pretend to be a Christian. So in this tale of two sons, we have two parts, if you will, a parable, and then the explanation, and we're just going to walk through the text. So first we come to the parable. Look with me at verse 28 to the first half of 31. Jesus turns from this discussion of his authority to now tell a parable. "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 answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" And they said, "The first."

8:02So we'll pause there. Jesus begins, "What do you think?" This is an invitation to ponder and to think and to consider carefully what he's going to say. And the parable is rather straightforward. Here we have this small family-owned vineyard, and these adult sons are being asked to work in the vineyard. The first son refuses to work in the field. "I will not." This refusal would've been shocking to Jesus' listeners, because adult children, even in that time, were expected to obey and to honor their parents. You can go to Deuteronomy 21 to see what happens to a pattern of rebellion from an adult son.

8:46But he changes his mind, he regrets his initial response, and then he obeys. So within that same day, he ends up going out into the vineyard and working the vineyard as his parents had asked him to. Now, the second son is the complete opposite. He responds with willingness. "I will, sir." That word for sir could be translated Lord. So there's this sense of deep reverence and kind of obedience and compliance. But this son never goes out into the field. And Jesus doesn't mention later on he changed his mind, and then he didn't go. I think what we're supposed to see here is that he never intended to obey the father at all. It was a lie from the beginning.

9:34So Jesus is painting a picture of these religious leaders. They appear compliant on the outside, but it's hiding this obstinate rebellion that's at work on the inside. And Jesus poses the question, "Which of the two did the will of his father?" You remember from last week, they refused to answer Jesus' question. Now he puts it much more innocuous. Which one was the good son? And they say, "The first." And that's right. The good son was the repentant son. And Jesus forces this binary decision. He's contrasting two sons, one who says yes and doesn't go, and one who says no but ultimately goes. In a sense, we would say the good son actually would've been the one who agreed to go and then actually went.

10:28But Jesus doesn't give us that option, and I think it's perhaps an acknowledgment or maybe a nod to Romans 3:11 and 12. "No one seeks for God, no one does good, not even one." Jesus' parable, we hear echoes of his earlier teaching in chapter seven, verse 21. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom," but who? "But the one who does the will of my Father." So Jesus reveals that it's not enough to claim to be God's people and not enough just to say, "Lord, Lord." It's not enough just to agree to obey. You actually have to carry out and do the will of the Father. You have to obey his commands. And Jesus teaches this throughout the Gospels.

11:15John 14:15, Jesus says, "If you love me," what? "You will keep my commandments." And on the flip side, John 14:24, he says, "Whoever does not love me does not keep my words." So in other words, true disciples of Jesus don't merely say the right things, but they obey him in faith. So obedience, not just profession, is required of true disciples of Jesus. So to us this morning, which of these two sons are we more like? Are there areas of your life where you are consistently saying yes to God, but your actions behind closed doors whisper no? Have we conflated knowing about God with knowing God and obeying God?

12:19Or do we presume upon grace? "Well, I know that's wrong, but God's just going to forgive me anyways." And so the gap between what we profess and what we do continues to grow and grow and grow. Which son are we more like more often? This now leads to Jesus' explanation. Look with me at the second half of verse 31 all the way to verse 32. Jesus proceeds to explain the parable. He 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.

13:05And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him." Jesus gives a shocking interpretation of the parable. The first son, the good son, the one that the chief priests and elders said, "That's the good son." The rebellious but repentant one. That one represents the social and moral outcasts of the day. Tax collectors were traitors to Israel, exploited and extorted their fellow Jews, and engaged in systematic fraud and corruption. Prostitutes are known for their blatant sexual immorality. They're compromised and unclean. A respectable Jew would have nothing to do with either of these two groups.

13:56And Jesus says they are the ones represented by the good son, the first son. "They go into the kingdom of God before you," in verse 31. Well, why? Why do they get into the Kingdom of God? It's because they believed in John. Well, what about believing in John? Well, they believed in John's preaching. And what did John preach? John preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." They were able to recognize their sinfulness and their need to repent and humble themselves before the mighty hand of God. Repentance becomes this prerequisite to true obedience. If you don't repent, you can't ultimately, fundamentally obey God's law.

14:54Now, verse 31. It says, "The tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom before you." That almost sounds like, well, you guys are eventually going to get in. It's just that they get to go first. You're just at the back of the line. That's not what Jesus is saying. Verse 32 actually makes this really clear. The Jewish leaders refused to believe in John. The word believe there shows up three different times. They refused to believe in John, which means they refused to believe in Jesus, because John was pointing to Jesus. He was the forerunner to the Messiah, and Jesus is the only one who gives entrance into the kingdom. "I am the way and the truth and the life.

15:39No one comes to the Father except through me. I am the door. Only the sheep who come into the pen through the door are saved." And they won't come to the one who will grant them entrance. They won't come to John, which means they won't repent. They won't come to Jesus, which means they won't believe, and so they're lost. And so what Jesus is saying here is that the worst of sinners are going to enter the kingdom even before the religious leaders do, and in fact, the religious leaders will not enter the kingdom at all if they don't come to Jesus. Now, look at verse 32. It has a curious phrase, "John came to you in the way of righteousness." What does that mean?

16:23What does it mean that John came to you in the way of righteousness? I think it has two aspects to the way in which John came in righteousness. The first is that John the Baptist lived a righteous life. So he came in righteousness, meaning he lived righteously. So he was the one who was persecuted for righteousness' sake, which is what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Or his life was an example of someone who didn't seek the things of the world, but what did he do? He sought first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. So we could say that John came living a righteous life, meaning he wasn't a hypocrite.

17:02The second way John came in righteousness is that John preached the way of righteousness. This is how you become right with God. How? Repent. Repent. This is what was John's primary message. He called people to repent of their sins, to see their sinfulness before an infinitely holy God so that they would be ready to see when Jesus comes on the scene, this is the Messiah. The way to be right with God is to repent and to come to Jesus. So John preached righteousness, and he lived righteously. I think that's what it means that John came to you in the way of righteousness. And the tax collectors and prostitutes repented at John's preaching.

17:51Luke 3:12 says, "The tax collectors also came to be baptized by John." They actually ask him, "What shall we do? What do we do now? Even after we're baptized, how should we live?" And what does John tell them? "Don't defraud anyone anymore. Only take what you're allowed to take." But the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, are recorded in coming to John actually as well in Matthew 3. But what does Matthew say to them? Excuse me, what does John say to them in Matthew's Gospel? He says, "You brood of vipers. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." In other words, I'm not going to baptize you. You won't repent.

18:37You're just here to see the spectacle. What matters is a true and living faith that believes in Jesus, repents of our sins, and then seeks to obey all that Christ commands. True faith always produces obedience. Romans 1:5 describes how the Gospel brings about the obedience of faith or a faith that obeys. So there is no such thing as a real faith in Jesus that refuses and doesn't obey Christ's commands in an enduring way, an ongoing disobedience to Christ's commands. Let me say that again. There is no such thing as a real faith in Jesus that does not obey Christ's commands in an ongoing way, pattern.

19:35Now, this is not salvation by obedience. This is not works righteousness. The result of doing the will of God is inseparable from believing in Jesus and repenting of our sins. So we don't obey to earn salvation, but true salvation will produce ongoing obedience to Christ's commands. He transforms us from the inside out. So this passage warns us of this veneer of faith that is empty and dead on the inside. For example, you can fake a testimony. It's not that hard. We can interview you for baptism or for membership, and you can just tell us a story and cry in the interview, and we will likely take your word for it. You can fake all those things.

20:23You can attend church for years and years and years and decades, even your whole life. You can wax eloquently about matters of faith and theology and debate the nuances of those realities. You can read Jonathan Edwards and John Calvin and the Puritans, but the proof of true faith is found in believing in Jesus, continually repenting of your sins, and obeying all that Christ commands. Does that last sentence describe you this morning?

21:00When we practice baptism here at the North Church, we ask three questions. You guys remember the third question? Do you intend, with God's help, to obey Jesus' teaching and to follow Him as Lord? Why do we ask that question? Because we're not just looking for this one time, I'm excited, came back from camp, ready to follow Jesus. We're saying, do you intend, not in your own strength, but with a transformed heart, because of believing in Jesus, constantly repenting of your sins, to obey Jesus' teaching and to follow Him as Lord? Now, I want to close one sheep gate. Don't misunderstand. When I say obey all that Christ commands, I am not calling for sinless perfection I am not calling for sinless perfection.

21:53Now, I know Jesus says our righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, and he actually says, "Be perfect as your Father is perfect." But rather, instead of sinless perfection, it's this trajectory or pattern of where is our life pointed. Do we display a pattern of humility or are we arrogant and boastful? Do we recognize I am the chief of sinners because I see not just my corrupt actions, but my corrupt thoughts and even my heart desires. Do we display a pattern of humility? Do we acknowledge our sinfulness? When someone calls it out, maybe our spouse, maybe our family, do we say, "No, no, no. You don't understand," and we're quick to defend ourselves.

22:44Or do we say, "You're right, you're right. Guilty." Happened recently, my wife said, "You were being really impatient with that person," at a restaurant we were at. And I was like, "Well, they just weren't listening to me," which was half true. And later, I was like, "And I was being impatient." I'm a sinner. Pattern of humility. Acknowledge your sinfulness. Third, repent and confess your sins. And number four, exhibit increasing obedience to Jesus in every area of life. Increasing obedience to Jesus in every area of life. My guess is there's certain areas where like, man, I'm knocking it out of the park, batting 100 or 1,000 or whatever it is. I'm not a baseball guy.

23:38I'm doing really good. And then there's other areas where like, "I'm not doing well. I'm not doing well." Is there increasing obedience to Jesus in every area of life? Anger and lust and pride and sinful anxiety and seeking comfort in the things of the world. This parable calls out unbelief and this hardness of heart towards Jesus. And the religious leaders are in Jesus' scope. They've rejected John, and they've rejected Jesus, and Jesus says, "You're not going to enter the kingdom if you don't believe in me." That's the obedience that's called for in this moment. So true disciples of Jesus don't merely say the right things.

24:28They turn to Christ and obey Him. So how do we apply this text this morning? I have three applications that I want to draw out for us from this passage. Three applications. The first is that rejection doesn't have to stay that way. Rejection doesn't have to stay that way. Look at verse 32. Jesus says to the chief priests and elders. I wish I could hear the tone of Jesus' voice when He says this to them. "And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him." Was it an accusation or was it this tenderhearted, "And even when you saw it, you saw that John came in righteousness.

25:14You saw his life. You saw his preaching. You saw how he died. He was the real deal. Why don't you come?" I imagine Jesus is beckoning them to believe, and yet they would not change their minds. And I think what is implied there, though, is you can change your mind. You can repent. Even when you've hardened your heart, you can repent. And I think there's actually two bright spots in the Gospels that record that for us. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, and he comes to Jesus in John 3, and he questions Him. But then he shows back up later, and he assists in Jesus' burial in John chapter 19.

25:59Or there's Joseph of Arimathea. He was a respected member of the council, and he also came to help bury Jesus. Later on in Acts 6:7, it says that many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Obedient to the faith. I don't think it's a throwaway phrase there. They believed, and they obeyed. So if you have faked being a Christian for decades or weeks or months or years, and you're seated here in this gathering, we are so glad you're here. And this text invites you to believe in Jesus. The passage last week was all about Jesus' overarching authority, and one of the implications of believing in Jesus is coming under His authority, obeying all that He calls us to. And so come this morning. If you're faking it, don't fake it until you make it, but rather, come to Jesus for cleansing and forgiveness.

27:08Repent of your sins and acknowledge your desperate need for a Savior. There is a huge difference between knowing about something and actually believing it enough to act on it. You can know about seat belts. You know that seat belts save lives. You can look at the statistics. You can take a driver's ed class where they tell you all the importance of wearing your seat belts, and in these modern cars, you got the beeps and the lights that will tell you you're not wearing your seat belt. Or when I was a kid going through driver's ed, they would show you the videos, like real-life footage from accidents where people get mangled and their guts are splayed across the highway to scare you into wearing your seat belt.

27:52And you can know all those things. But if you don't wear your seat belt, you don't get the benefits of the seat belt. Many people know about Jesus. They know stories of His life. They can cite His teaching. They can quote verses. They attend church. But true and living faith is much more than knowing a list of facts or stories about Jesus or having grown up in the church. True faith requires believing in Jesus so that it transforms the way in which we live. And so for some this morning, the invitation is for you to pray, "Lord, I have faked it for far too long, and now I see the depth of my sin, my need for a Savior.

28:46I confess my sins, and I come to you and you alone for forgiveness of sins so that I might find life." Today is the day to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Second application Mere profession is insufficient. Being raised in a Christian home, it's great, but insufficient. Praying the sinner's prayer is good, but insufficient. Praying or getting baptized is good, but insufficient. Being able to articulate nuanced aspects of eschatology, theological accuracy is good, but insufficient. Jesus requires ongoing belief and a pattern and life of obedience. And so we wonder, why are there some that Jesus describes in that last day who say, "Lord, Lord, did we not...?" And they list their accomplishments. And Jesus says, "Depart from me, I never knew you."

29:50Well, we can look to the Parable of the Sower. There are those who hear the word with joy, but when persecution comes, the faith is choked out, it falls away. Or the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches choke out the seed of faith. So suffering and prosperity, persecution and wealth, those are two dangers on the maybe two ends of the spectrum. But maybe we can consider John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." Christian encounters all these characters on his way to the Celestial City, and there's all these characters that fail to enter in. There's Pliable, who abandons the journey when it gets difficult. There's Mr.

30:34Worldly Wiseman, who's content with legalism and self-improvement. There's the Formalist, who follows external religion but refuses to go through the gate. There's Hypocrisy, who makes a false profession, but with no true conversion. There's Timorous and Mistrust, who run away because of danger, or there's Talkative, who enjoys religious conversation but lacks faith and obedience. There's By-ends, who follows Christ only when it gets him something, and it's socially advantageous. I wonder if we see ourselves in any of these categories this morning. There's the saddest character, Ignorance. He arrives at the gate of the Celestial City, but he lacks the King's certificate, and he can't get in. It's an echo of what we'll see later in chapter 22 of someone who lacks the wedding garments but is in for the feast.

31:30Pilgrim's Progress reveals that there's a lot of ways to get this wrong, but there's only one way to get it right. You got to come to Jesus. You got to believe in Him. You got to repent of your sins, and you got to walk in this newness of life. So true disciples of Jesus treasure Christ above all else, and then love and obedience flow forth from this changed life. So when I am calling for obedience, I'm not just saying, "Try harder. Pull yourself up in your bootstraps. Stop sinning." That is not what I'm saying. I'm saying have a heart that is so transformed that you so love and delight in Jesus, that He's transformed you.

32:16He's taken you out of this heart of stone, put in this heart of flesh. You so keep your eyes fixed on Him that what flows forth is love and obedience. We want the obedience not of a begrudging employee, "Fine, I'll go clean the bathroom because you're paying me a lot of money to do it," but rather the obedience of a loving son. "I'd love to, Dad, because all your commands are good."

32:44I remember a season in my life, I think it was in college, when the Bible was dull. I would read it and nothing would penetrate my heart. Preaching was boring. I had no spiritual sensitivity. I didn't feel the weight of my sin or my desperate need for forgiveness. And my guess is that there's probably even some here this morning who feel that exact same way. You're thinking, "I wish this guy would just finish up so I can move on to lunch."

33:15And the Bible has no draw. You read it and you're like, "I don't know why people keep telling me to read this thing. It's so boring." And I remember asking God, "Oh, please do whatever it takes to help me see and feel my need for Christ." And that's a prayer that I think some here in this room need to pray this morning. Your heart is growing hardened, and the world looks more and more compelling, and other things seem more interesting, and the things of God seem less interesting, and you need to cry out, "I believe. Take away my unbelief, O Lord." And God was very gracious to answer that prayer.

34:04Third application, third and final, pray for the salvation of the unlikely. Pray for the salvation of the unlikely this morning. While this is a sobering indictment of the chief priests and elders for rejecting Jesus, it also reveals the wonder that the gospel saves tax collectors and prostitutes, and as we saw, chief priests or priests and leaders of Israel as well, Pharisees. Social and moral outcasts are not beyond the reach of the gospel. I don't know if any of us would say, "That's me," but you're not beyond the reach of the gospel. Those deeply embedded in other religious systems can hear the preaching of the gospel and be saved. Those engaged in evil and wickedness can be transformed. Those blinded by the lies of our world can have eyes to see Christ. And so one of the implications for those who call themselves believers here this morning is redouble your labors and hope in praying for those who seem unlikely to believe. The gospel can save the religious and the irreligious. The gospel can save blatant rebels and secret haters from within their hearts. The gospel transforms obvious sinners and the self-righteous, and praise be to God He does that because if we're being truthful, we're both of those things at the same time almost all the time. We're deeply religious at times, and yet I'm going through the motions, and at other times, I'm doing things that I wish no one would know about.

35:50We're sinners of the worst kind, and we're self-righteous, and God saves sinners. And so come this morning and then pray for those who do not yet know Jesus. Pray For your family and for your friends, and for your children and for your parents. This is the impossibly high and low bar of the kingdom of heaven. Repentance is both impossible, and it's just so simple. It's impossible because it needs to be a gift of God. God has to give you the gift of seeing your sin rightly, and yet the scriptures consistently call sinners to humble themselves before the Lord so that God would grant them the gift of repentance.

36:39You can't say, "Well, I wasn't granted the gift of repentance. I didn't repent. I'm not guilty." No. Humble yourself this morning under the mighty hand of God, and He will give you the gift of seeing your need for a Savior. And He loves to answer that prayer. And repentance this morning is so simple. Just come before the Lord. You don't have to have a scripted prayer. You don't have to repeat after me. All you need to do is say, "Lord, I need you. I'm a sinner." And then just start listing the things that come to mind. And so pray for God to save unlikely family members this morning, that hostile neighbor or coworker.

37:20And the glory of the gospel is that no one, no matter their background or their status or their pattern of sin, no one is beyond the transforming power of the gospel this morning. So true disciples of Jesus don't merely say the right things. They turn to Christ and obey Him. And the invitation to everyone here this morning is to come to Jesus. But it's not an aspirational invitation with no follow-through, as we talked about at the beginning. He exposes empty professions and hardness of heart, and He invites all sinners to believe and to repent and to walk in this newness of life. There is no greater thing in all the world than recognizing our sinfulness, Christ's all-sufficiency, and letting Him transform us so that we would walk in His ways. So this morning, the question is not have I done enough? Did I check enough boxes? Is there enough external conformity to God's law?

38:28But rather, which son are you? And by God's grace, which son are you becoming? Let's pray. Father in heaven, oh, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who comes to rescue sinners so that we might walk in your ways. And so, for us this morning, some who are thinking, "I believe. Take away my unbelief," oh, would you help them? And for all of us, help us to walk in your ways and increasingly, that we would obey you in every area of life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 21:28-32

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