Manchester Lutheran Church

Don’t I deserve to go to heaven?

My job is to talk about Jesus. And every week I talk to people on the street, online, in their homes… And one attitude I hear a lot is:

“I’m a pretty good person, and God owes me stuff.”

The last few weeks we’ve talked a bit about suffering… …and all of us will be familiar with that feeling: “I’ve suffered in such and such a way, and so now God owes me.”

Many people think that God owes us when we do something that in our eyes is “good”:

Some time ago, I sat down over a coffee with a man who told me: “I had a sexual partner, and I discovered she was bad in a certain way. And so I did the noble thing and gave up my sex with her. So, God rewarded me with a different sexual partner.”

I’ve talked with a person who told me: “I grew up in the church since I was a child. So I deserve to be a member. Why should I be required to ‘turn up’ and get to know people in the church? To ask me to read the Bible with someone else is offensive—why should I have to do that? I grew up in this way. I’m entitled to this.”

When I’m handing out fliers on the street, sometimes people just shout things as they go past. One I heard recently was: “If God’s there when I die, I’m a good person and I’ll tell him.”

Don’t I deserve to go to heaven?

Everyone is familiar with that question. Everyone here, on some level, has thought that at some point.

And this part of Matthew’s Gospel began with Jesus giving a series of parables in chapter 18 about the nature of the church.

And the key message of those teachings was: people in the church should be humble, because the only reason we’re here is we’re forgiven.

Then in chapter 19, Matthew showed his readers what forgiveness and humility mean for marriage, for children, for money. And they are high ethical standards:
—We shouldn’t get divorced.
—We shouldn’t lead children astray with false teaching.
—We should obey God’s commandments perfectly, and let go of all our material possessions for Jesus if needs be.

Wow! I mean, if God’s ethical standards are that high, …then as they get to chapter 20, the person reading Matthew is probably struggling with the question: who on earth can get into heaven?

Which makes you wonder about that question we’re tempted to ask: But… don’t I deserve to be there?

This story now that Jesus tells responds to that question in three ways:

1) You can earn nothing from God.
2) God gives everything as a gift.
3) God wants nobody to be left out.

So, You can earn nothing from God.

Please look again at vv. 1-2:

For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

Jesus sets up this parable to catch people who think they can earn things from God.

And this is the default way that most people in life think of God… …even if they don’t believe in God …they think he works in this way.

It’s transactional.

“I scratch God’s back, and he’ll scratch mine.”

“I’ll make concessions to him, and so I deserve things in return.”

And so, in our heads, we enter into these little negotiations with God:

“Ok, I’ll try church out, but here’s what I want back.”

“I’ll behave well in this way, but this is what I want out of it.”

Jesus is telling a story about this kind of attitude to God. People who imagine they are labourers, agreeing a wage with God, before committing to anything.

This is a transactional mindset. And a transactional mindset leads to pride. Look at how they react in v. 10:

Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

“I’ve worked hard; I deserve more.”

We’ve all been around those kind of people, haven’t we?

And if we’re honest, we’ve all been that person at some point in our lives.

I’ve made more effort. I’ve worked harder. I put in the extra mile—this person didn’t. I gave it my all—that person hasn’t.

And as we count what we consider our above-average efforts… …we think we deserve something more.

And we can do the same thing in different ways.

“Well, I was nicer.” “I handled that situation better.” “I’m quick to forgive.” “I’m smarter.” “I’m more talented.” “I’m just a more decent person.”

Whatever it is… …if we think in a transactional way …it leads to pride: listing our positives, thinking we deserve to be superior.

And so, thinking we earn things from God then also leads to envy.

Take a look at vv. 11-12:

And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

In the story, this first group of labourers, who represent those who think they earn things from God, are jealous of others who they see receiving God’s kindness.

And that makes sense, doesn’t it? If you work for a wage, of course you will get jealous if other people are given the same wage for less.

Where are you envious of other people? All of us are! All of us struggle with this!

And the reason we get envious, is because deep down, all of us are “transactional”.

Deep down, all of us think we can earn stuff from God. …and so we are jealous of other people when we can see they have things that we don’t think they deserve.

So, this kind of transactional thinking leads to pride, it leads to envy, and then finally settles into begrudgement and bitterness.

Please look again at vv. 13-16:

But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

The reason Jesus told this story is simply this: God’s grace feels unfair to people who think in wages, not in gifts.

The way God deals with people is purely on the basis of his kindness.

None of us deserve anything from him.

But, if we think we do… …it will lead to us being proud, envious and bitter.

Again: bitterness is something I don’t need to describe to you. We all know what it feels like. And that’s because we all have this tendency to transactional thinking.

That’s what sin is: Faith is trusting God’s goodness. Sin is being suspicious of God, and so trying to put him in our debt.

But: You can earn nothing from God.

Instead: God gives everything as a gift. That’s our second point.

Please look again at vv. 3-4:

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’

Do you see the difference with these characters? The first set of labourers “agreed a price”: they negotiated with the landowner based on works.

But the second set of labourers trust in his word of promise.

“Whatever is right, I will give you.”

This is God’s kindness: his decision to be good toward us simply because he chooses to, not to give us what we deserve.

The Bible calls this decision to be good toward us grace.

And Grace is not about earning things, but God’s character.

The landowner gives freely—not because of work done, but out of his goodness.

Salvation is a gift, not a wage. And that is why Jesus tells this deliberately shocking story. To force us to think in terms of grace, not wages.

Look again at what the landowner says in v. 14:

I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.

God has simply chosen to love you. That’s grace.

And God’s grace is so broad that God wants nobody to be left out.

That’s why Jesus makes a big deal of the landowner repeatedly going out during the day. Please look again at vv. 5-7:

So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

There are 2.95 million people in Greater Manchester. And Jesus died for every single one of them. God is desperate for every single one of them to be saved… …to come to know his grace …to be told the good news that he loves them …that Jesus died for them so they are forgiven …and that just by trusting in him, they will receive all the benefits of that forgiveness.

For 2,000 years, Jesus has been sending people to what is now Greater Manchester so that they will accept this message.

Christian Roman soldiers.
Then Celtic missionaries.
Then teams of church planters led by Augustine of Canterbury.
Then monks, bishops and religious orders.
Reformation preachers.
Missionaries from various places.

And now finally you and me.

God sent all these people and has sent us here… …because God loves Manchester …and God loves you and has a purpose for your life.

God’s love is wide. It is high. It is long.

And so, the only ones who will miss out are those who continue to think transactionally.

Those who refuse to receive God’s grace, and instead think in terms of wages, v. 8:

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’

Which is why there are two reactions to these words Jesus repeats again in v. 16:

So the last will be first, and the first last.

Those who think they are first will turn out to be last: they’ll receive nothing.

But those who trust in God’s goodness and his gifts, who recognise “I’m last, I can’t earn anything from God.”

Those people will be first: you will be with him in paradise for all eternity; and he will use you in incredible ways before we get there.

So, Don’t I deserve to go to heaven?”

We naturally think in terms of fairness and earning rewards And many assume this is the way God works. But it isn’t.

You can earn nothing from God

Don’t have a transactional mindset Pride, envy, bitterness: a feeling of unfairness shows up when we think in wages, not gifts.

But, God gives everything as a gift

This is who he is. This the Gospel: God is good, and he is good to you… …not because you deserve it …but because of his own character.

So, God wants nobody to be left out

He doesn’t want you to be left out. He doesn’t want anybody in Manchester to be left out.

What kind laborer from this story do you want to be: the ones who negotiate with God and try and earn things from him; or the ones who trust God and receive things from him by grace?