The Ones “Go” and The Ones Who Don’t “Go”

The Ones “Go” and The Ones Who Don’t “Go”                    Kelly Durant 

Matthew 21:28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first. ”Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.

2. How many of you have ever asked someone to go to the store for you. You tell them, here is $20 so go and buy bread, milk, peanut butter, and eggs. And then what happens? They come back only with peanut butter, jam, and bread and then they tell you they did not have money for the rest of the things?  So you have coffee without milk that day!

And there are other people you give them $20 to buy just bread and they buy it but then they do not return the $15 change! Both of these cases make you a bit angry right? These cases happen frequently and these are people who fail in their mission. These people who cannot show their selves to be faithful in the small things. This makes you think they would not be faithful in the bigger things, right? Luke 16:10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Some people are like in Proverbs 25:19 Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint. I know if I see a person fail a few times in doing a simple job, I no longer count on them to do a job, and this is a Biblical standard to live by.

3. What was the point of Jesus concerning the two sons in the verses today? The first application applies to the context in which he was speaking which was to the Jews in His audience. But this principle applies to all! The reason Christians affirm scripture is living is because it is timeless and it can be applied to one certain circumstance, and then it can also be applied to other circumstances in our current day.

In this first context Jesus is addressing the previously chosen ones back then, the Jewish people. He is pointing out God had a mission for the Jews, to obey or to “go work in God’s vineyard” and they, for many years already claimed to be doing God’s will but in the end they were not. Going to do God’s will infers obeying God’s commands as He defines them, and Jesus taught clearly, and that is to love God and their neighbors as their selves. If they were doing God’s will they would have recognized Jesus as God’s son and obeyed His commands as Jesus pointed out.

But the people in Israel were simply not willing and were unwilling to have a change of heart. Before Jesus was John the Baptist and thousands daily for several years were given a chance. These unrepentant people, and others you may know, remind one of the verse Isaiah 29:13 Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, 14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid”.  This marvelous work was Jesus Christ’s miracles and testimony to them!

4. These people agreed to follow the law, but they failed to see that they were failures in keeping it, not recognizing that God is more than just law. God wanted them to “Go, into all the world and preach the gospel” serving in the vineyard bringing salvation and love. Jesus illustration is to ‘work in the vineyard’, or symbolic of harvesting souls. I think some Jews at first thought that Jesus could be in line with their ways and traditions, after all he was a Jew, but in their minds they were already obeying God so how is He accusing them of being unrepentant and unwilling? The factor was they could not see their sin of not doing God’s will and they became murderously furious when Jesus revealed their hypocrisy and sin to them.

In their pride they believed that they were God’s good children and sons of Abraham, so they were not going to have any part of Jesus commands to repent, stop being hypocrites, and join His disciples to work in the vineyard preaching the kingdom of God to all the world. They blindly thought they just automatically had God’s favor and inheritance just by their race and religion. After all they were through the years maintaining doing their rituals, sacrifices, fasts, and repetitive prayers. They began well over a thousand years ago before Jesus came but then they lost it. Jesus told them…

John 5: 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. 

5. The other instance is of the person saying he was not willing to go (but later went) can be applied to those who in the beginning did not want to obey Jesus but later they “saw the light” and obeyed and went on to do God’s will. There are good examples of Jewish leaders in this case that did repent and obey such as Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, and even Saul of Tarsus.

Jesus commands to work for God may appear hard but in the end they are less harsh than the world’s demands in secular jobs. Jesus said, ’My yoke is easy and My burden is light”. I think many people react with the “not me, Lord”, I can’t go attitude and become afraid when they learn about Jesus commands to go work and serve and preach to everyone! I know when I was young and prideful the last thing I wanted to do was to give up my ways to serve Jesus! To preach the gospel back then one was expected to go and pass out tracks and preach Jesus to those in the streets and pray with them?! I thought, how embarrassing, I will be taken as a weirdo! How could I become one of those ‘Jesus freaks!’ At first I felt embarrassed, I was very resistant to serve God pondering and not sleeping well for several months, until finally after saying to the Lord, ‘Not me, I won’t go’, I decided I would go! I forsake my music collection, creative hippie clothes, cut my long hair, and not decided to not be who I thought I was anymore. I became a ‘new creature’ as in I Cor. 5:17, moved to Brazil and now, exactly 40 years later, I can testify I am so thankful I did it! Beautiful people have been here all along the way.

What caused me to obey Jesus against my own will was the Holy Spirit! I sincerely wanted to do God’s will deep inside but what an internal war I experienced in my head and heart! I wanted to do God’s will but doing it my way, but after the Holy Spirit touched me inside, I could see I had to change everything about myself to become useful to God. John taught repentance preparing the way for Jesus and Jesus did as well, and that is from that point where everyone must begin.   

6. Here is what those who do God’s will have in common, they see their sin for the horror it is, repent and do a 180 degree turn, and then they start loving and serving Jesus much deeper and sacrificial than those around them.  Luke 7: 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Who was forgiven much? The prostitute!

What we learn from the scripture in focus is that God does not really count on what you or I say, He cares about what you do for Him! Actions, not words, are what matter!  Notice also that God also does not punish a person in his anger for not obeying Him immediately either. He gives people a space and time for a change of heart. We have witnessed recently that there are world religions that will not forgive a person for a lack of submission to them and they will end your life quickly! That is Satan’s way for not obeying Him. To hell with Satan and His people’s ways, it’s obvious you and I are blessed to choose God and His love and salvation!

Thank God He is a God of love and mercy desiring all to come to Him and He allows a time for conviction to take over, but we must take Him seriously before some major event prevents us from doing His will. Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: (yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years).

7. Let’s reflect on those who serve God in this church Corps. There are many people who say they will come and help and do many things around here but then do they do not show up as planned? I would be rich if I had a dollar for all the times a person said to me that they would come to serve in the church or help or volunteer but did not show up!

Erroneously people take it light when they say they swear they will do something for God and they do not but God sees all. Some people swear, I will serve God but then they harm their selves by offending God. Matthew 5:33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:  34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:  35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

Contrary to this though, there are those who just show up and volunteer who never swore and promised that they would come. Some volunteers here do have court hours to serve, but many volunteers are just doing it from the heart and they have really helped this work move forward.

I will be honest, when someone says to me, next week I will come and do something for God or the Corps my natural response after being let down a few thousand times is to let it go in one ear and out the other. If I take people too seriously I am setting myself up for a big let down, anger, and disappointment. So I just take serious the ones who show up! And Local Leaders in the church, by the way, should always keep their word if they say they will show up they must show up, because if not they should relinquish pretending to be a leader.

8. Jesus says it and I have seen it that people from really bad sinful pasts, who have tuned their lives around, make better servants of God than those who think they are so good growing up in the church! I love the willingness, fire, and passion of some of those out of rehab, of those out of bad lifestyles! These are people who burn the candle at both ends for God and the people in darkness are drawn to their light as they come out to see what all the action is about as they burn brightly for Jesus!

And I will give you an example, without using names, of a case we had in Atlanta of how we have had to turn down a person who said they would and could do everything (having grown up in TSA) but never followed through.  We hired a person in the Corps and he did a fine job and then he wanted us to hire his wife as well. We actually had the funds to hire her but I chose to let the process take 2 or 3 weeks to see if she was worth it, if she would volunteer while we started the paperwork. I kept inviting her to please help us and that if you have nothing to do but be home alone, please come and help us in the office a few hours. Guess what?

She never chose to volunteer for hardly anything and my wife and I chose not to hire her! How can one hire a person unwilling to do good knowing there is a need? She never learned of the fact that we were almost hiring her but we backed out seeing she had no goodwill to be useful when she could have been.

9. The message today, as always, is not aimed at anyone in particular but when I share a matter it is to bring God’s word into our reality, and also to bring about conviction if someone is lacking in it. I decided to share this as often times we see those who as the Jews, misinformed Christians that just expect to inherent everything from God without following through working in the vineyard.

There is no way around it, our motto in the Salvation Army that we are ‘saved to serve’ and this is Biblical. Jesus wants us busy in the vineyard winning souls to Him. All our lives we see those who say they will go and do not, and then there are those who say, “Not me, I will not go”, but then later go. Only those who go store up treasure in heaven!

All of you as Soldiers in this volunteer army have chosen the path to do all they can in some manner to serve in this part of God’s kingdom! Thank God for Soldiers, amen? And if you are here and have never really dedicated yourself to “do something” for God then today is a good day to tell the Lord you are willing to go. And let’s go! Let’s go in the world, in the highways and byways, and get people busy serving in God’s work.  There is a lot to do in this troubled world, as too many people are in pain from the sin of their bad choices. Jesus saves by giving “whosoever will” a new start and a new mission, I’ll love Him forever for that! And you?