So the last will be first, and the first will be last

Posted on October 13, 2026 by Pastor Foley

Matthew 20:1–16 is usually called Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard, but it is better to call it Jesus’ parable of the generous vineyard owner. As we mentioned recently, anytime you are reading a parable, in order to understand it correctly, you always have to start outside the parable and find out the context. Jesus always tells his parables in response to something. Unless we know what that something is, we won’t be able to understand the parable correctly. Earlier, in Matthew 18, Jesus says the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is the one who restores sinners who are falling away, because that is what God does.

In the case of today’s parable, in order to understand what Jesus is responding to, we need to go back to the beginning of Matthew 19. In last week’s message we finished Matthew 18, which was Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant. That parable was Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question, “How many times must I forgive the brother or sister who sins against me?” But it was also part of Jesus’ overall answer to the disciples’ question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The parable—and all of Matthew 18—says that the one who is greatest is the one who seeks to restore the brother or sister who is falling away because of sin, even when it means forgiving that brother or sister 77 times. Jesus says that one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven because God is like that.

Throughout Matthew 18 we get to see Jesus’ heart and thus God’s heart. If Jesus were alone in a room with you, what would he talk with you about? What is of greatest concern to him? The secret sin in your heart? Who you should marry? What job you should take? How much he loves you?

No. When you get Jesus in a room alone, what he talks about is your care for his “little ones”. Remember—that’s what Jesus calls those who believe in Christ and who are your brothers and sisters now that you have been baptized into Christ. Jesus’ concern is always especially for the least and lowest of our brothers and sisters, and whether the rest of us are caring for them. These are those who cannot contribute anything of worldly value to the church. Jesus reminds us to invite them when we hold a party, and he commands us to bring them back from sin.

How do we know that this is what Jesus would speak about in private? Because this is what Jesus discusses with Peter when he talks to him privately after the resurrection.

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. (John 21:17)

Peter may not have realized how his betrayal and falling away affected other believers, but it was Jesus’ main concern. Likewise, we often fail to consider how our behavior affects Jesus’ little ones. We frequently complain about other Christians. But Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” And whatever you did not do, Jesus says, you withheld from him as well. If you withhold love and forgiveness from believers, he says it is the same as withholding them from him.

That’s where Matthew 18 concludes. Now, we move on to Matthew 19. It begins with Pharisees asking Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” Jesus answers like this:

I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery. The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” (Matthew 19:10)

Remember the disciples’ response! We’ll come back to it.

Then little children are brought to Jesus for him to bless them. The disciples try to stop this, but Jesus rebukes them, saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Then the rich young man comes to Jesus.

Jesus replied, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)

Each of these teachings from the Lord in Matthew 19 are of course important for us to study. But what we’re focused on today is the disciples’ reaction to each of the Lord’s teachings here. In the case of the rich young ruler, when he walks away sad, notice the disciples’ reaction: Peter reminded Jesus that the disciples had left everything and followed him, and he asked, “What then will there be for us?” Don’t forget that question: “What then will there be for us?” Because Jesus sure doesn’t forget it! But first Jesus says this:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”

But then Jesus concludes with by dropping this bomb:

“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:28-30)

Jesus tells the parable of the generous vineyard owner to explain what he means.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

So the last will be first, and the first last.” (Matthew 20:1–16)

Jesus ends the parable with the same phrase with which he begins. But who is last, and who is first? Remember: the parable is Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question: “What will there be for us?” Peter and the disciples were among the first to leave everything and enter the Kingdom of God. Yet Peter’s question showed they had brought something with them into the Kingdom: envy.

There are three “Bible words”–envy, jealousy, and covetousness—that we often use interchangeably but are actually slightly different. Jealousy fears losing something we have. Covetousness wants something someone else has. Envy resents another person receiving something we want because we believe we deserve it more.

We know envy is sinful, but we may not realize how serious it is. It was the reason the religious leaders had Jesus arrested.

For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over. (Matthew 27:18)

Envy was also central to Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. The older brother envied the welcome his younger brother received.

But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:28–32)

Here, the older brother has only two choices: enter the party or leave. Today’s parable ends with the same standoff. The workers who labored in the vineyard all day are in the older brother’s position.

Envy is one of the main reasons people do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is one of the main reasons people leave after entering it.

Envy shapes every reaction the disciples have to Jesus’ teaching in chapter 19. When he teaches about divorce, they envy single people. When he blesses the children, they envy the children. When the rich young ruler leaves, they show no concern for him. Their focus is entirely on themselves.

Jesus’ response is the same as the vineyard owner’s: the Lord always gives what is right.

Some people say, “I don’t think God is fair to send my grandfather to hell because he was born in a Buddhist country where no one had ever heard of Jesus.” But God is always fair. He will always give everyone what is right. We do not know whether your grandfather will go to hell. But we know Jesus will judge him justly when he stands before him. We do not frighten people with strict theology or comfort them with loose theology. We testify only to what Jesus has given us to proclaim: he will return in glory to judge the living and the dead, and he will always judge justly.

Why would envy keep you out of the kingdom? Because we hate the idea of a kingdom where everyone gets the same reward! “That’s communist!” we say. That’s why these days many pastors and teachers and Christians comfort themselves by saying, “OK, all of us—the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the hypocrites, and us—we all enter the kingdom the same way: By believing and being baptized. But in addition to eternal life, we also can get rewards in heaven based on what we do for Jesus here on earth! So the pastor who faithfully serves a church for 40 years is going to get more rewards than the person who sins their whole life but repents on their deathbed.”

This is why Christians like the parable of the talents much more than this parable of the generous vineyard owner. We think, “The one who uses their ‘talents’ to serve God should get a bigger reward than those who bury their ‘talents’.”

But the parable of the talents is not about God rewarding those who use their talents to do great things for God. In that parable, “talents” are a metaphor for the members of Christ’s family. In that parable, Jesus shows us that what he entrusts to us are not skills and talents to use for him but his family members. Jesus is asking, “What did you do with the little ones I entrusted to you?” They are his “talents”. This is why right after Jesus tells the parable of the talents he tells the parable of the sheep and the goats, and he says, ““Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”

Jesus’ parables will never make sense if you apply them first to yourself. They are not primarily about you. They are about God and how you treat members of God’s family. That is why Jesus usually begins parables by saying, “The Kingdom of God is like…” And the focus of Jesus’ parables—including today’s parable of the vineyard, as well as the parable of the prodigal son, as well as the parable of the unforgiving servant—is about how you treat other members of Christ’s family…especially the little ones who are most easily and often falling into sin! 

Through the parables, Jesus tells us, “Do not worry about yourself. I will provide what is right. I am never unfair. Instead, seek first the Kingdom of God. Serve the Father, and care for your brothers and sisters—especially those you do not like and those who are strangers to you, yet still belong to God’s family.”

Notice that Jesus does not tell parables where he praises people who play the piano for God or who sing for God or who do other great things for God. Jesus tells parables where the only way to enter the kingdom is to die to yourself, and the only thing you do when you enter the kingdom is to join him in caring for the little ones.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not like the kingdoms of this world. It is not for personal advancement or reward. In this Kingdom, it is not the pastor who serves for forty years who gets the party. It is the sinner who repents on his deathbed. And both receive the same reward.

I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:7)

The best reward for a faithful pastor is to preach faithfully, die quietly, and be forgotten. That pastor does not need a party, because he is content with the Father’s word: “You are always with me, and all I have is yours.”

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RUSSIA: MISSIONARY PARK TAE YEON SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS 8 MONTHS IN PRISON

Posted on October 8, 2026 by tdillmuth

As first reported by Voice of the Martyrs Korea, Korean Missionary Park Tae-Yeon was sentenced today in Khabarovsk Court to a total of 5 years 8 months on two immigration-related charges. The sentence is to be served in a general-regime correctional colony. Voice of the Martyrs Korea says an appeal to a higher court on Missionary Park’s behalf is planned.

Missionary Park’s co-defendant, Russian citizen Zinaida Ustinova, was sentenced to a total of 6 years on three immigration-related charges under the same Articles. The court imposed a total 6 year suspended sentence on Ustinova, with a probation period of 5 years.

The court found Missionary Park guilty of Organization of Illegal Migration by a group of persons by prior agreement, under Article 322.1, Part 2, Paragraph A of the Russian Federation, with a sentence to 5 years and 2 months of imprisonment. She was also found guilty of Fictitious Registration of a Foreign Citizen or Stateless Person at the Place of Stay in the Russian Federation under Article 322.3 of the Russian Federation, with a sentence of 2 years and 6 months of imprisonment. Based on the aggregate of the offenses, the court imposed a total sentence of 5 years and 8 months of imprisonment, to be served in a general-regime correctional colony.

“Missionary Park was taken to a pre-trial detention center (SIZO) immediately after the hearing, where she will remain pending the results of the appeal,” says Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley. “Until now she had been held in a detention center for foreign nationals. If the higher court upholds the sentence without modification, Missionary Park will most likely be sent to a women’s correctional colony located in the village of Zaozernoye, Khabarovsk Krai, just beyond the city of Khabarovsk.”

Pastor Foley says the factors the court used in determining the sentence are not yet known. “The judge announced only the sentence itself and did not state the reasons or the legal grounds for the decision when pronouncing the verdict,” says Pastor Foley. “The written judgment will not be available until next Wednesday.”

Pastor Foley notes that the court did not impose a fine and that as a result, the seizure of Missionary Park’s home in Russia was lifted.

Pastor Foley noted that the time Missionary Park spent in the detention center for foreign nationals would not be credited toward her sentence. “Only the time Missionary Park spent in custody after the the criminal case was opened—the period from January 15 until February 4–will be counted toward her sentence,” says Pastor Foley. “Authorities say that her stay in the detention center for foreign nationals was based on an administrative violation, namely that her permitted period of stay in Russia had expired. However, this violation was of course due to authorities detaining her. These will be among the many important factors to be noted in the appeal.”

Pastor Foley noted that Missionary Park’s co-defendant, Zinaida Ustinova, had not been in detention and remains free due to the sentence being suspended, but she must report to the police twice a month to confirm that she is complying with the law and the conditions of her probation.

Voice of Martyrs Korea has been advocating for Missionary Park since her arrest in Khabarovsk, Russia on January 15, one week before she was scheduled to return home to Korea to retire at age 70.

An online petition posted by Voice of the Martyrs Korea from February to April garnered more than 4,000 signatures from Korea, along with more than 1,000 signatures from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Africa, Finland, Zimbabwe, Poland, Hungary, Indonesia, Romania, Nigeria, Scotland, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

In April, Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representatives Dr Hyun Sook Foley and CEO Pastor Eric Foley delivered the petition to the Russian Embassy in Seoul, calling for the missionary’s immediate release. Copies of the petition were also sent to the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

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Where Two or Three Gather: Why Jesus’ Words Bring the Lost Back Home

Posted on September 22, 2026 by Pastor Foley

The Epistle of James mentions Jesus by name only twice. Yet it contains more than 180 possible references to his teachings. Paul’s letters are similar, echoing Jesus’ words and instruction again and again. Why would the New Testament writers refer so often to Jesus’ teachings, but comparatively rarely refer to his name? They did so because they expected their hearers and readers to recognize the voice behind the words.

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:15–16)

Jesus directly taught the twelve apostles who were with him from his baptism through his resurrection. He taught them his words and they memorized his teachings.

I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. (2 Peter 3:2)

Modern readers often imagine the twelve apostles as sincere but bumbling doofuses, while the “real” authors of the Bible were figures like Mark and Luke, who interviewed the apostles and recorded their memories before anyone forgot them. But that assumption says more about us than about them. We are modern people who often misunderstand oral societies. The early church understood that the oral teaching handed down from the apostles had priority over the written record.

The purpose of the written Gospel was not to replace oral memory but to assist in its faithful reproduction. This is probably why John Mark traveled with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. (Acts 13:5)

The word translated “helper” in Acts 13:5 is the same Greek word Luke uses at the beginning of his Gospel, where it is translated “servants.”

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. (Luke 1:1–2)

Mark was most likely a “servant of the word,” not simply a person who carried Paul and Barnabas’ bags. His role would have been to teach the direct words of Jesus, which, according to church tradition, he learned from Peter.

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

When New Testament writers speak of “the word of God” or “the word of the Lord,” they are often referring quite literally to the Lord’s own words. That conviction is central to why the New Testament was compiled. The church believed that Jesus is God, and therefore his words are the words of God. Just as Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus were recorded and compiled to preserve the direct words of God, so also was the New Testament. Both served as memory aids, helping God’s people remember and faithfully repeat the word of God.

But how accurate is the Gospel memory of Jesus’ words? Were his words changed or redacted in order to support later theological developments in the early church?

One of the strongest proofs that the Gospels convey the actual words of Jesus is that Jesus uses different vocabulary depending on the audience he is addressing. He teaches different subjects and gives different content to different audiences. When he speaks with his disciples, he uses certain words that he does not use when he speaks to the crowds or to his opponents. Even when the wording varies slightly across the Gospels, his word choice for each audience is recorded with remarkable consistency.

As the great J.Arthur Baird noted, Jesus uses nineteen words only when speaking to his disciples and to no other audience. Of these, four appear with especially high frequency: “disciple,” “brother,” “slave,” and “little one.” All four appear in Matthew 18, our Scripture for this week, where Jesus is privately addressing the disciples.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:1–20)

Matthew 18 is not primarily a procedural manual for church discipline, nor is it merely advice about what to do when someone sins against us. Jesus is answering a deeper question from his disciples: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

If we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, we must always be working to restore wayward believers to the sheepfold.

Notice that Jesus does not say, “Get people to come back to church.” Jesus preaches the kingdom of God, not the church. Jesus uses the word “church” only twice in Matthew. For Jesus, the church and the kingdom of God are not identical.

The kingdom of God comes into existence when Jesus comes. It is permanently and completely established through Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. Even if everyone rejected Jesus, the kingdom of God would still exist. Jesus is King whether anyone accepts it or not.

The church consists of those who have welcomed the kingdom and the King. The church is not the King. It does not bring the kingdom into existence; Jesus does. It does not control the kingdom; Jesus does. It holds no power in the kingdom apart from him; Jesus holds all power and authority there. The church is not the mediator of the kingdom. There is only one mediator between God and humanity: the man Christ Jesus.

This is why Jesus does not tell us to go to the pastor or the elder when somebody sins. The goal is not to bring the sinning person to pastors or elders, but to bring that person to Jesus. In the New Testament, there is no hierarchy among believers. There are only brothers and sisters. A family may have older children or children with particular responsibilities. But in Jesus’ church, there is only one leader, one shepherd, one master, one teacher, one Father, and one Lord.

Because we start with our own modern understanding of “church” when we read Jesus’ references to the “church” in the gospels, we think that in Matthew 18:17, Jesus saying “tell it to the church” means “go and tell the pastor”.

We think of church as a hierarchy, so we think of Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 18 as escalating a conflict up the ranks. We think Jesus is telling us to try dealing with a conflict by ourselves before we report it to somebody with more authority.

But when we recognize that the word “church” in the New Testament means “the assembly”, not “institutional leadership”, we get a different escalation related to number of Christians. It starts with one brother, then two to three brothers, and finally the assembly of all the brothers.

Dealing with the conflict of another brother is not about calling the police when they don’t listen to you. It’s about lovingly bringing more brothers to get a brother back on the right track, like a body recruits more antibodies for the maintenance of the health of the body.

We can see Paul putting Jesus’ instructions into practice (like usual) in 1 Corinthians 5 when he instructs the Corinthians to hand the sinner over to Satan when they are all gathered together in the name of the Lord. This is not an example of church leadership exercising its authority to carry out church discipline, but instead a carrying out of the command of the only church authority, Jesus Christ.

The church is never entrusted to the elders as though the Lord were absent. The church belongs only and always to the Lord. This is why Jesus is present even when two people gather in his name, and why, if even two agree, it is done for them by Jesus’ Father in heaven.

The language of “binding” in Matthew 18:18 relates to teaching. That is, it concerns which teachings are binding and which are loosed. Wayward brothers and sisters are brought back by applying the teaching of Jesus. What restores people from sin is showing them where they have departed from the words of Jesus.

That is the heart of today’s Scripture. Jesus teaches us to win back sinning brothers and sisters to the Lord as two or three fellow believers apply the teachings of Christ to them. Restoration is not mainly about proving that we are right or persuading someone to behave differently. It is about bringing the Lord’s own words to bear on a wandering life. His words are what bring the lost back home.

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