Parable of the Householder
Text: Matthew 20:1-6
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Identify the four key words of Matthew 20:1 — "hire," "laborers," "into," and "his vineyard" — and explain what each word excludes.
- Identify the vineyard with the church, using Matthew 3:2; 16:19 and Colossians 1:12-13 as supporting texts.
- Explain why the church is composed of laborers, not passengers, and what the "penny" (the reward) represents.
- State why there is no reward for stopping and working on the outside of the vineyard.
- Identify themselves as either inside the vineyard and laboring, or as the eleventh-hour man still waiting for the invitation — and respond accordingly.
Thesis
The parable of the householder is a parable about where you are and what you are doing there. The kingdom of heaven is the vineyard — the church — and the one who enters it enters to labor, not to observe. There is no reward for working near the vineyard, beside it, or outside it. The invitation remains open to the eleventh-hour person; but the hour is already late.
Burden
The outline opens with a caution: "danger in pressing the parable too far." The parable is about grace — specifically, the grace that gives the same reward to the eleventh-hour worker as to the one who labored all day. But that grace is not the whole sermon. The sermon is built on the four precise words of Matthew 20:1 and what each one demands of the hearer. The person who has not yet entered the vineyard is the eleventh-hour man — and the question the sermon ends with is direct: "Are you?"
Introduction
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard" (Matt. 20:1). The sentence is dense with content. Every word the sermon develops is already here: the kingdom of heaven; the landowner; the hiring; the laborers; the vineyard. Each word bears weight. The parable is designed to answer a question lurking in the context: Peter has just asked "What then will there be for us?" (Matt. 19:27) — what do the disciples get for what they have given up? The parable answers: a penny, a full day's wage — the full reward of the kingdom — for everyone who enters and works, regardless of when they arrived.
The parable must not be pressed too far. The point is not that early workers are treated unfairly; it is that the householder's generosity is not constrained by entry time. The warning against over-pressing is the sermon's first word of theological discipline.
I. Four Words That Define the Call
The call to labor in the vineyard is stated in four terms, each of which excludes something:
To hire — the householder promises a reward. The laborer who enters is not working in hope of payment that may not come; he is entering on the basis of a specific promise: "I will pay you whatever is right" (Matt. 20:4). The call to the kingdom is a call with a stated reward. The invitation to enter is not a call to serve without prospect; it is a call to labor with the promise of the penny in view.
Laborers — not idlers, not spectators, not babies. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). The vineyard is composed of workers. The person who enters the kingdom intending to be carried rather than to labor has misunderstood the terms. The church is not a nursery where the immature are maintained; it is a vineyard where laborers work. The church made of laborers is the church that can be harvested.
Into — not by the vineyard, not near it, not beside it. The preposition is precise. Entry into the kingdom is the requirement, not proximity to it. The person who is adjacent to the church — raised in it, familiar with it, fond of it, respected by those in it — but who has not entered it is not in it. "Into his vineyard" means through the gate, under the obligation, engaged in the labor.
His vineyard — not father's or mother's, not the vineyard of a tradition or a denomination, but the one that belongs to the householder. "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner" — Christ is the owner. The vineyard is his church (Matt. 16:18-19; Mark 1:14-15). The one who has entered his parents' religious tradition rather than the vineyard of the householder has entered the wrong field. There is no reward for laboring in a field that belongs to someone else.
II. The Vineyard Is the Church
What is the kingdom of heaven in this parable? It is not heaven above — there are no laborers being hired in glory, no morning and evening and eleventh hour of hire, no return at the end of the day to collect a wage. The kingdom of heaven is the church in its present, earthly expression (Matt. 3:2; 16:19).
The vineyard is the church (Col. 1:12-13: "the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light... He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son"). To be in the kingdom is to have been transferred — to be inside the vineyard, under the Lord's ownership, engaged in the labor he has assigned.
Am I in the vineyard or church and laboring? (Titus 3:8: "This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.") The question is not rhetorical — it has a binary answer. Either one is inside and working, or one is not. The person who cannot answer it affirmatively is the person the sermon is addressing.
III. The Terms of Entry and the Reward
Into his vineyard or church, no other — not the congregation one was raised in if it is not his church, not the fellowship one prefers if it is not his vineyard. The reward is tied to the vineyard, not to earnest effort in a different field.
No reward to stop and dig on the outside. This is one of the sermon's most pointed moments. The person who has done considerable religious labor — who has served, given, attended, believed — but who has done it outside the vineyard has not earned the penny. The penny belongs to those who labor inside the vineyard, not to those who work near it.
To labor for the penny, not because they already had it (Mark 10:29-30). The reward is given to those who enter and labor — not to those who presume they already possess it by virtue of lineage, sincerity, or familiarity with the field. The people who trusted in a faith in the wrong one — who placed their confidence in a tradition or institution that was not his vineyard — have misplaced the labor that would have earned the reward.
IV. The Eleventh-Hour Man
"Eleventh-hour man, one who had been waiting for an invitation. Are you?"
The householder found men standing idle in the marketplace at the eleventh hour and asked them, "Why have you been standing here idle all day long?" They answered: "Because no one hired us" (Matt. 20:6-7). They had not been indifferent — they had been standing in the place where the hiring happened, available, waiting. The householder hired them.
The eleventh-hour man is not the person who has been hostile to the gospel; he is the person who has been available but not engaged. He has been in the vicinity of the vineyard — perhaps most of his life — without being called in or without responding to the call. The sermon ends with the invitation still open: the hour is late, but the householder is still hiring. Are you the one who has been standing, available, waiting?
Application
Three diagnostic questions from the sermon:
Are you in the vineyard — his vineyard, the one he owns? The question of which church one attends is not a trivial one. The vineyard belongs to the householder, and the reward belongs to those who labor in his.
Are you laboring? Entry into the vineyard was not the conclusion; it was the beginning. The laborers who were hired were hired to work. Membership in the church that does nothing is not the New Testament picture of membership in the vineyard.
Are you the eleventh-hour man? If you have been in the vicinity of the gospel most of your life — raised in the church, familiar with the teaching, acquainted with those who are inside — and you have not entered, you are the man standing idle in the marketplace. The invitation is still open. But the hour is already late.
Conclusion
"And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages'" (Matt. 20:8). The evening comes. The householder calls for settlement. The penny is given — the same to the last as to the first, the same to the eleventh-hour worker as to the one who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat (Matt. 20:12). The grace is staggering. But the settlement at evening requires that one be inside, laboring — not standing idle in the marketplace when the accounting begins.
Invitation
The eleventh-hour call is still going out. "Why are you standing here idle all day long?" The answer — "because no one hired us" — may be the most honest thing said in the parable. The invitation has not always been clear; the terms of entry may not have been understood; the vineyard may not have been identified. This sermon is the invitation.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and householder of the kingdom. Repent. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). Enter the vineyard — his vineyard, the one he owns — and begin the labor for which the penny waits.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laborers | ergatas | workers, those engaged in physical labor | workers, those engaged in physical labor | the word describes people who are doing physical work, not servants or managers; the vineyard needs people who will dig, prune, harvest; the church needs people who will work, not observe. | Matt. 20:1 |
| Into | eis | directional preposition indicating movement into an enclosed space | directional preposition indicating movement into an enclosed space | eis consistently marks entry, arrival, incorporation; to be sent eis the vineyard is to be placed inside it, not near it or beside it. | Matt. 20:1 |
| Kingdom of heaven | basileia tōn ouranōn | the reign of God as expressed in the church in this age | the reign of God as expressed in the church in this age | Matthew's preferred term, equivalent to "kingdom of God" in the other gospels; the present, earthly expression of God's rule in the assembly of those who have submitted to it; not heaven itself but God's kingly authority exercised through his people now. | Matt. 20:1 |
| Penny | dēnarion | a denarius, the standard daily wage for a laborer | a denarius, the standard daily wage for a laborer | the symbol of the complete reward; it does not represent more for those who worked longer; the reward is the same, which is the point of the parable; grace is not calculated by hours. | Matt. 20:2 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Kingdom = the church; vineyard = the church | I.3 | Matt. 3:2; 16:19; Col. 1:12-13 |
| "To hire" — promised a reward | I.1a | Matt. 20:1-2 |
| "Laborers" — church made of workers, not idlers | I.5 | Phil. 2:12; Titus 3:8 |
| "Into" — inside, not by or near | I.1c | Matt. 20:1 |
| "His vineyard" — not father's or mother's | I.1d | Matt. 16:18 |
| No reward to stop and work on the outside | I.7 | Matt. 20:1-2 |
| Labor for the penny — not presuming it already possessed | I.8 | Mark 10:29-30 |
| Eleventh-hour man — waiting for the invitation | I.9 | Matt. 20:6-7 |
| Baptism for remission of sins — the door into the vineyard | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 115. Primary text: Matthew 20:1-6 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "<;>r" → "or"; "labor-ers" → "laborers." Doctrinal audit: kingdom of heaven identified as the church in its present earthly expression — not heaven (Matt. 3:2; 16:19; Col. 1:12-13); "his vineyard" applied to the specific church Christ built, not religious tradition generally; the reward withheld from those who labor outside the vineyard developed from Boles's point; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
