So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.So the last shall be first, and the first last.
8 sermons cite this verse
… Are you envious because I am generous? Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last. The Gospel of the Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I'd like you to have a seat. So a couple years ago, I was talking with one of our missionaries, and we have Focus here on Campus Course, and she was talking about one experience she had at Focus Training. So now they've Focus Training a couple different places. She was at training at Ave Maria University down in Florida. And so middle of the summer, super hot, and she had to cross the entire campus. Now, when you have focus training, apparently, apparently you have to, you have to wear a business casual. So you got to get dressed up to just to go to class. So she gets dressed up, goes to class, walks outside, super hot. Her next class was completely other side of Alvarez campus. So they have these bikes on campus, kind of like you have bikes everywhere around town. …
In this way, Jesus said, The last will be first, and the first will be last. Matthew chapter 20, verses 1 through 16. It's a symbolic story, and Jesus is showing us that he's well aware of our tendency to compare ourselves to others. He knows that we imagine ourselves in a story of survival, in a race to the top of the food chain. And it's a dog-eat-dog world out there, survival of the fittest, competition for scarce resources, limited attention, diminishing returns. And if you get more for you and your people, then that means I have less for me and mine. And if I want more for me and my tribe, then I have to take it from you and yours or from someone's. And the clock is ticking and time is running out. Jesus understands our default view of the world. But in this parable about this odd vineyard owner, he offers an alternative. Because the owner doesn't see the world through the lens of competition, but participation. …
… the very people that you despise the last shall be first and the first shall Thank you. He said, make the people sit down. Make them sit down in order. Y'all are getting ready to miss it. You forgot when they got there, when they got there, it is a desert. But the Lord told them, sit down. When they got there, it was a desert. but God told them sit down when they got there nothing was flourishing nothing was growing nothing was prosperous but here it is when they followed what he told them to do hallelujah you missed the first miracle the miracle is not the two fish and the five loaves of bread when they got there it was a desert but because they did what God told them to do when they sat down what was a desert was grass. Did y'all hear what I just said to you? When you are obedient to what God tells you, the stuff you thought you were going to die in, the stuff that you thought was going to dry up on you, the stuff that you thought was never going to flare, God said, I'll shift it because you follow directions. …
… We have to lose our life to find it? In another place we read, The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. What kind of ordering are we talking about here? In another place Jesus says, Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. Seriously, by suffering we're to think of ourselves as blessed? Finally, in a society in which we often think of ourselves as fully in charge of our lives, the Bible says, You are not your own. You were bought with a price. If you perceive these things to be strange and even difficult to believe, well, that's because they are. The kingdom over which Jesus Christ is King is a kingdom that is not of this world. It just works differently by what we perceive to be an illogical, upside-down, crooked sort of logic. The fact that the church celebrates this Sunday as the end of the church year also fits this same mold, it hits us as strange, foreign, nonsensical, and yes, even difficult to believe. …
… Or one translation, does it make you angry to see me be generous? So the last, he says, will be first and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen. I will never forget the day. my dad taught me the difference between grace, mercy, and justice. I was in third grade. This was before I got pukey when I was bad, but I still got bad. And I did something I knew full well was wrong. My siblings, two of them, were involved, and my mom said the words nobody wants to hear, wait till your father gets home. And it was like so bad that she wasn't going to deal with it. We had to like sit with this like fear, you know. My dad gets home. She told him what we had done. He asked us to line up in the living room and I was just sure it was my last day on earth, you know. This is it. And it was an infraction that had been clearly specified what the consequence would be of that specific infraction. And so my dad sat us all down and said, if you got this discipline that I gave you, that I told you would be yours if you did what you have done, that is what the Bible says is justice. Because justice is you getting what you deserve. …
… Right after this verse is verse 16. And it says that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Meaning that we serve a generous God who wants to give his children Thank you. He wants to supply all of our needs. And we want God's generosity to make sense, but it doesn't. We want to measure it. We want to quantify it. We want it to add up. And you don't get to control how good he is. We just get to trust and know that he is good. I love that so much. because when we try to control his grace, we can miss it. When we try to measure it, we can limit its ability. We can limit its ability. But when we trust his grace, when we surrender our lives to his generosity and his goodness, we get to walk and we get to experience how good it actually is. The third thing that we need to unlearn is our programming. I don't know what you did on your Saturday, but yesterday we spent all day at a robotics competition. …
… look at the opposite see wherever there is good news there is also the possibility of bad news if jesus comes and teaches a message and says the last shall be first and the first be last that's good news if you're in the back it's bad news if you've been pushing your way to the front the whole time blessed are you who mourn well cursed may be you who don't have any compassion for others cursed are you who are heartless well if blessed are you who are meek who are down to earth approachable a gentle breeze in greek the word meek means a gentle breeze it's just something smooth about you it's something easy going about you well it's a divine warning it's a word of concern for those who are not meek See, that's when you get deep, Ms. Walterine. Ms. Walterine is a teacher of teachers and professors of professors. And I like teaching this kind of stuff, Ms. Walterine, because it makes you go deeper. …
… Look in verse 16. So the last shall be first, and the first last. You see, this is not equal pay for equal work. God is not interested in your hours. God wants your heart. God wants you to serve Him, trusting Him with a free heart, a joyful heart, an open heart, a liberal heart, saying, oh, God, whatever you do, I know that you are good. Now, God can treat you two ways. He can treat you like a hireling. You bargain with Him. Or He can treat you like a servant. Now, the Pharisees were legalists, and they tried to bargain with God, and they lived lives of legalism. Just go over to Matthew 23 and look in verse 23 about the Pharisees. Jesus said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done, that is, you ought to tithe and not to leave the others undone. Now let me tell you how meticulous the Pharisees were. Some of you ladies have a little mint plant in your backyard and you go and pick a few leaves off to put in the iced tea. And I like that. That smells good and just adds a little extra flavor and buoyancy the iced tea. …