The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

The Believers Life Style Bible Study
Presents
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
Scripture References:
Matthew 20:1-16
June 6, 2015
Presented by Michael Webb

Open It

  1. What do you think of deathbed or death-row conversions?
  2. What is the most generous thing anyone has ever done for you?
  3. *Who is the best employer you ever had? Why?

Explore It

  1. To what situation did Jesus compare the kingdom of heaven? (20:1)
  2. Who was the central character in this parable? (20:1)
  3. What did the landowner go out and do? (20:1)
  4. What wages were agreed upon by the landowner and his hired hands? (20:2)
  5. In the parable, what happened at about 9:00 a.m.? (20:3)
  6. What wage was agreed upon between the landowner and his workers? (20:4)
  7. How many additional times did the landowner go out and hire workers? (20:5-6)
  8. What explanation did the last group of workers give when asked why they were standing around doing nothing? (20:7)
  9. What happened to the last group of workers? (20:7)
  10. What did the landowner tell his foreman at the end of the day? (20:8)
  11. What wages did the workers hired at the eleventh hour receive? (20:9)
  12. *What did the landowner pay to the men who worked all day? (20:10)
  13. *How did the workers respond to the landowner’s system of payment? (20:11-12)
  14. *What rationale did the landowner give for his actions? (20:13-15)

Get It

  1. In what ways does God’s grace seem unfair?
  2. How do our cultural values resist the idea of grace?
  3. Why is it dangerous to compare your own situation with someone else’s?
  4. How would you answer the argument that God isn’t fair in the way He forgives?
  5. How does it make you feel to know that heaven will include ex-murderers, former child molesters, and people who put their trust in Christ only minutes before death?
  6. *What would happen if God gave each of us what we deserve?
  7. *How can focusing on God’s grace in our lives keep us from becoming jealous of others?

 

Apply It

  1. What can you do today to help someone who needs God’s grace begin to understand the love of God?
  2. *In what way can you say thank you to God every day this week for his amazing grace in your life?

 

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing [a]idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, [b]and whatever is right you will receive.’

8 “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ 9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they [c]complained against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For[d] many are called, but few chosen.”