One Father, Two Sons
Author: Josué Mora PeñaThis is one of many parables that Jesus mentioned. He spoke on parables most of the time. A parable is a simple story told to illustrate a moral truth. Here Jesus talks about a family, a father and two sons. The mother in most cases is not mentioned in the Bible, like for instance the Parable of the prodigal Son. It mentions the father and two sons, but no mention is made of the mother.
Jesus said this parable in His last week on before His crucifixion. It had a purpose. This parable was aimed directly at the religious leaders, the chief priests, the elders of the temple, the scribes and Pharisees. They had rejected Jesus, but the common people accepted Him joyfully. Thats why Jesus mentioned the publicans and the harlots in verse 32.
Now this family was like any other family in biblical times. It is like your family or mine or anybody elses for that matter. The story goes like this: The father told one of his sons to go and work in his vineyard. The son said no! But then, he repented and went. The father told the other son the same thing, go and work in my vineyard, this son immediately said yes, but he did not go.
Then Jesus asks the question. Who did the fathers will? The people responded, the first one, the one who repented and went to work at his fathers vineyard. That makes me think that there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say yes to what they need to do but dont do it and those who dont want to do it but repent and go. Which one are you?
I believe that we can apply this story to our own lives. God is our Father. We are His children. Sometimes we obey Him, sometimes we dont. Occasionally we are like the son of our parable who said to his father that he would go and work on the vineyard but he did not go. We want to work in Gods Kingdom, in His church and we say yes, Lord, but then we dont do it. We need to be like the other son who refused to go, but then he repented and went.
Anther title for our sermon would be Working Together. We need to come together as a group, as a church and agree on what we want to do. We all need each other. We cannot work apart from each other. We cannot be a Lone Ranger. We have to work as a team. Last week we mentioned that we need 4 teams in order to fill our pews:
- A Prayer Team
- A Visiting Team
- A Calling Team
- A Welcoming Team.
A Prayer Team will come together in prayer, or agreed together when they pray. A good example of agreeing with each other is the drawing of two mules tied to each other by the neck. On both sides of the mules are two stacks of hay. One mule pulls towards the hay on her side while the other mule does the same. The problem is that the two mules want to get to the hay at the same time. Then they came together and agreed to go to one stack of hay, eat it and then go to the other and eat the other one. The prayer team will have a list of petitions that have to do with our church.
Mathew 18:19 says, Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Like the mules, we need to agree to get together and eat the hay. I pray for the same thing every single day. I mentioned last week that all we need is 15 minutes a day and you pray at your most convenient time, but we need a volunteer to organize the prayer group.
We also need a Visiting Team. For this we also need to have a volunteer to help organize this team. Ecclesiastes 4:9 says: Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. And also Mark 6:7 reads, And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits.
Another team that we need is a Callers Team. A group of people who will call the absentees, the shut-ins, the sick, to make an appointment with them for the visiting team to go and call on them. Paul told Barnabas in Acts 15:36 to go and visit the brethren to see how they are doing.
And the last team that we need to have is a Welcoming Team. These are usually the ushers and greeters of the church. They need to be always on time to welcome the newcomers and the rest of the people. The ushers will make sure to get the names and address, including the telephone number of the new people and then, our pews will be filled with new people anxious to worship God and to saved from eternal damnation. Are you like the son who repented and went to work at his father vineyard? I pray that you are. Amen.
josue.mora@iglesiabautista.org
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And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 