{"id":5930,"date":"2023-07-09T19:48:57","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T23:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&p=5930"},"modified":"2023-07-09T19:49:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T23:49:00","slug":"the-last-will-be-first","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/en\/sermons\/the-last-will-be-first","title":{"rendered":"The Last Will Be First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[Matthew 19:30-20:16<\/a>] 19<\/strong> <\/strong>30\u00a0<\/sup>But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20\u00a0<\/strong>1<\/sup>\u201cFor the kingdom of heaven is like\u00a0a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>He agreed to pay them a denarius[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0for the day and sent them into his vineyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 <\/sup>\u201cAbout nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 <\/sup>He told them, \u2018You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.\u2019 5 <\/sup>So they went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 <\/sup>About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, \u2018Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 <\/sup>\u201c\u2018Because no one has hired us,\u2019 they answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe said to them, \u2018You also go and work in my vineyard.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 <\/sup>\u201cWhen evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, \u2018Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 <\/sup>\u201cThe workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 <\/sup>So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 <\/sup>When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 <\/sup>\u2018These who were hired last worked only one hour,\u2019 they said, \u2018and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13 <\/sup>\u201cBut he answered one of them, \u2018I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn\u2019t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 <\/sup>Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 <\/sup>Don\u2019t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cSo the last will be first, and the first will be last.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Abstract]<\/strong> In terms of our salvation, we all receive the same salvation and eternal life regardless of all other conditions. This parable mirrors God’s salvation: the landowner, vineyard, workers, and the pay are God, His kingdom, born again Christians, and eternal life, respectively. We note that this parable does not describe the other rewards God promised us; this parable only concerns the salvation through faith. It is human nature that we might have objections to this equal salvation to all. However, one should remember that God has the right to do what He wants with his salvation, which is by grace anyways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Audio download<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Matthew 19:30-20:16] 19 30\u00a0But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. 20\u00a01\u201cFor the kingdom of heaven is like\u00a0a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.\u00a02\u00a0He agreed to pay them a denarius[a]\u00a0for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 \u201cAbout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":5932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[199],"ctc_sermon_series":[],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[1527],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"class_list":["post-5930","ctc_sermon","type-ctc_sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ctc_sermon_book-mat","ctc_sermon_speaker-harry-zhang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/5930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/5930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5933,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/5930\/revisions\/5933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=5930"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=5930"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=5930"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=5930"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=5930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}