The Bible Study Podcast, episode 449.

Today, the Bible Study podcast starts the study of Matthew 20 in our study of the gospel of Matthew.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast.

I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

Today we're dealing with one of those chapters that can be either good news or seem incredibly, incredibly unfair.

And I think it's both. So listen to what Jesus says in this parable.

The parable of the workers in the vineyard.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

He told them,

You also go and work in my

vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. So they went. He went out again about noon and about

three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon, he went out and found

still others standing around. He asked them, why have you been standing here all day long

doing nothing? Because no one has hired us, they answered. He said to them, you also go and work

in my vineyard. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, called the workers

and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired, and going on to the first.

The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.

So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more.

But each one of them also received a denarius.

When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

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