Grace Mathematics: It just doesn’t add up | Guest Bryan Fagerstrom

Guest Pastor Bryan Fagerstrom shares a thought-provoking message from Matt 20:1-16 titled “Grace Mathematics: It Just Doesn’t Add Up.” We all have ideas about what’s fair and what people deserve—but God’s grace often works in surprising ways. This message will challenge the way you think about comparison, reward, and the generosity of God. It’s a timely reminder that in God’s Kingdom, things don’t always add up the way we expect—and that’s a good thing. 

Rockwell Church      June 8, 2025     Guest Pastor Bryan Fagerstrom
Grace Mathematics: It just doesn’t add up
 Matthew 20:1-16

1. God’s grace challenges our idea of fairness.

The workers all received the same reward, no matter when they started.

2. Grace is not about what we earn, but about God’s generosity.

He gives freely because He is good.

3. Grace levels the playing field.

No one is greater or lesser in the kingdom—we all need mercy.

4. Live as people shaped by grace.

Don’t compare, don’t compete—receive and extend grace.

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

Alright, so I'm gonna ask Brian to come up here. So today, Brian Feggerstrom from Chisholm Baptist is going to be our guest speaker. And I'm excited that he is our guest speaker because I like to listen to him. And too, I I preached 30 messages in a row, and I was excited to take a break and do some other other things this week, getting ready for the future. But it's just an honor to be able to call on our sister church. Are you up the road or down the road? Uh over the road, and to uh to share with us. So I won't take any any more of your time, Brian. All right. Thanks, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Well, good morning, Rockwell Church. Wow, nicely done. Very good. Sometimes you kind of get like an open, empty response when you do that. So it's always nice to hear that people are actually paying attention to what you're saying in an invitation. Uh again, my name is uh Pastor Brian, uh, and I am just uh privileged to be able to be a part of your uh service this morning. Uh I shared with you last time I was here. I think many of you, for those of you that were here, got to hear and learn a little bit about me and my story and my identity in Christ and how God uses us. Uh and this morning I have the unique opportunity to be able to kind of jump into your sermon series that you've been working through on this concept of grace. And what is grace? And how is grace defined by God? And how does grace affect my life? And so um, we're gonna be jumping into the book of Matthew this morning. So if you have your Bibles, you can start grabbing those and getting ready. We're gonna be in chapter 20. Uh my sermon title for today is called Grace Mathematics. It just doesn't add up. And the reality is, is that is what grace is. Uh, but before I get started, I want to be vulnerable with you. Can I be vulnerable with all of you? Sure. Thank you. I grew up in the church. I've been a part of the church my whole life. My dad served as a deacon. My parents were actively involved in choir. My grandparents were Sunday school teachers, choir directors, superintendents at Ebenezer Baptist Church, our other sister church in Duluth, Minnesota. My great-grandparents followed the Lord. And so you would think that life would just be pretty good, but there was a dark moment or a dark time in my life. And I'd like to just kind of walk through this with you because there was actually a time in my life where I not only contemplated, but verbally stated, I want to leave the church. And so I want to walk you through this story. This is gonna back us up to about 1993. And I was about 10 or 11 years of age. So maybe you can already tell this is getting a little bit lighter. It's not quite as heavy as maybe you thought it was going to be. And our Wednesday night program, uh, we had built our new church in 91, and so our program was being held at the new facility, the new church. And I remember very distinctly that day walking in for Wednesday night adventure club. That was the name of our Wednesday night youth program, and walking in just like every other Wednesday night, and as I came into the foyer, they were handing out tickets. They had blue tickets and they had red tickets. And so I walked up and they handed me, I can't remember if it was blue or red. Blue. They handed me a blue ticket. I'm like, huh, this is interesting. I'm not quite sure what's going on. And so I went with my friends, and all of a sudden I realized that many of my friends actually had red tickets. And I had a blue ticket. And so I went back to the front table where they're handing out the tickets, and I said, Hey, do you mind? Like, a lot of my real good friends, they have red tickets. Could I exchange my blue ticket for a red ticket? And the gal who was there was gracious and kind, and she said, Sure, yeah, give me your blue ticket, and here's your red ticket. And so we have our tickets, and we're eagerly waiting for, well, what's happening? What is going on? And so they they ushered us into the gymnasium, and in the gym, there was one half of the gym that had carpet squares on the floor, and the other half of the gym had tables set up. And they said, Those of you with red tickets, which I now held, you're gonna have a seat or find a spot on one of the carpet squares on this side of the gym. Those of you that have blue tickets, go ahead and have a seat at the table on the other side of the gym. And so I sat with my friends and eagerly awaiting like this unknown new thing that they were doing. We were sitting there and all of a sudden people started coming out of the kitchen and they had trays. And on these trays was food. I'm like, wow, this is cool. And not just any food, it was nachos. And so they had these individual little cheese containers and nachos that they were bringing to the kids that were sitting at the table. And so we're sitting on our carpet squares eagerly awaiting our coming prize of nachos and cheese. And pretty soon the gals come out with their trays and they've got the little cups again. And I'm like, all right, this is our moment. And they handed us rice in a bowl. And I very clearly remember sitting there going, wait, I think they made a mistake. Like, what do you mean, what rice? And I look over to my left, and there's these kids eagerly eating their nacho cheese, and then all of a sudden they were bringing out other things. I think they had ice cream sundaes and other things like that, and we were all sitting on the floor on the carpet square eating rice. And I don't even know if we had utensils. At first I thought we had those, remember those wooden sticks that you used to get with the little ice cream cups at school? I think we had those maybe to scoop the rice out of the containers. And so, as a young adolescent boy, I'm sitting there watching all of these other kids enjoying their incredible snacks while me and my friends are sitting there eating rice. And I'm sure the lesson was to either teach us about the fact that we don't often realize how good we have it here. I don't know if it was a missional aspect that they were trying to get at. I don't know if they were trying to get at mercy or grace or all of those types of things, but all I know is that by the end of that evening, I was so fuming mad that I walked out of that gym, and I'll never forget Tim Berg. He was kind of our game director, he has since passed, incredibly gracious, loving man. And I looked at him and I said, I am never coming back to this church. And I thought, what in the world? All of these years later, now I reflect back on that 11-year-old kid that grew up in the church. I knew about mercy, I knew about sacrifice, I knew about doing better for others and not expecting things for myself, but yet in the moment when I was tested, I immediately felt as though I was treated unfairly, unjustly, and this isn't right. And I guess I never would have imagined all of these years later that I would be able, and I don't think they ever, I'm probably not the only child that shared that same sentiment that night. I don't know that they ever did that field study again at the church. Um I mean, I think it was well intended, but I think maybe some of the kids, I don't know, didn't handle it very well. I know I didn't handle it very well. But to be able to use that as a springboard all of these years later for a sermon talking about what is the idea of fairness, of grace, of justness, uh, is a pretty incredible way that God works through these different aspects of our lives. And so today I'm excited to be sharing with you this morning as we look into Matthew chapter 20, and we're gonna be looking at the workers in the vineyard. This is a parable that Jesus was telling to his disciples. Um, and what we're gonna do, if you have your Bibles, you can open up to uh Matthew 20. And I enjoy reading through the scripture first as a whole, without me interjecting stuff, and then we're gonna kind of break this parable down and take a look at it as far as what does it mean for us when we're talking about grace? Uh before we do that, let's pray as we get ready to jump into God's word. Father God, we come before you humble and grateful. Father, grateful that you have given us your word, your word that is faithful and true, that your word is sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce bone and marrow, to be able to give us insight and wisdom, to be able to give us comfort and grace, and ultimately, God, to be able to reveal yourself more and more to us. Father God, I pray, Lord, that you would just use me to be able to speak your truth. God, that it would be true and right, and Father, guard me from anything that would be false or wrong or would negatively bring anything to your name. God, we desire for your name to be lifted high, for you to be glorified this morning as we read your word. In your name we pray. Amen. So read with me. Uh the verse will be on the screen as well as I read through. This is the parable of the vineyard workers. For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on one denarius for the day, he sent them out into his vineyard. When he went uh excuse me, uh when he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. To those men he said, You are also to go to my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right. So off they went. About noon and at three he went out again, and he did the same thing. Then about five he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing? Well, because no one has hired us, they said to him. Well, you also go to my vineyard, he told them. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first. When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius. So when the first ones came, they assumed that they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner. These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and in the burning heat. He replied to them, Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you agree with me on a denarius? Take what's yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Don't I have a right to do what I want with my business? Are you jealous because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last. Now, when we're reading parables, it's important to really understand context. Context is kind of an important aspect for a parable. Because you can jump into a parable and you can kind of get sidetracked a little bit or come up with a different understanding of what Jesus' original intention of that parable was. So, in order to get a little bit of context, I want to go back and look at verse 1 again. It says, for the kingdom of heaven. And for, as a preposition, is telling us we got to look ahead of that. All right? It's telling us that because of whatever was said beforehand, this is what I'm going to lead you to in the idea of what the kingdom of heaven looks like. And so that bumps us back to Matthew 19 and especially verses 16 through 30, which is an encounter with a young man who is a wealthy ruler. Okay? A rich young man comes to Jesus in verse 16 and says, What good deed must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus tells him to keep the commandments and the challenges and to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow him. And ultimately the young man walks away disappointed because he had many possessions. Then Jesus says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And this was shocking for the disciples. And so then they asked him, Who then can be saved? And Jesus said, With man is impossible, with God all things are impossible. And so Peter, the great spokesman, pipes up and he says, See, we have left, we've left everything to follow you. Surely our reward is great. Right? And Jesus does affirm that those who follow him will be rewarded him, but he drops an unexpected statement at the end of that section that will sound very similar to what we just read in chapter 20. And it says, But many who are first will be last and the last first. So we have this picture into the disciples interacting with Jesus, and it brings us then into Matthew 20. So the first two will be last, and the last will be first. And so then Jesus goes on to tell this story. For the kingdom of heaven is like this. He's like a landowner. So now we're just gonna kind of go back and break up this parable a little bit and kind of parse it out, if you will. Another word of caution is that we typically don't tear apart every little word of a parable in order to find inner meaning to what it is. But we're gonna kind of look at what's going on here. Let's let's understand some context of this parable. So it says, for the kingdom of heaven is like this. This is what he's explaining. This is what heaven will look like. This is what heaven will be. It's like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. This was a very common process. When a vineyard owner, and even to this day, when it becomes harvest time, there's just not enough people and a lot of times their families or their friend networks in order to bring in the harvest. So they need to go and get day labor to be able to help with the harvest time. And so it was very common practice that they would go down to the marketplace. The marketplace was like the hustle and bustle of the city. That's where people went. Those that were unable to secure consistent jobs would go and offer themselves as day labor. And so the landowner goes to the marketplace and he finds some individuals and he says, I'm willing to work with you. Or I'm uh will you come and help me with my uh my vineyard in order to bring in the harvest? And then you interesting thing of this one is that this first encounter, we see a deal struck. So what's the deal? They agreed, so they had a conversation, they agreed to one denarius for the day. And then he sent them into his vineyard. Now, a denarius was an ancient piece of money, a coin. Um essentially, what does it mean? A day's wages. Okay, one denarius equals a day's wages. However, uh, there's a lot of biblical scholars that have gone through and looked back and like, well, what did it take to live back in the day? Well, you needed a bushel of grain, you needed this much wheat, you needed, you needed this many ounces of wine, this much oil, and they kind of factored in like what was the cost of living at that time. So at that time, one denarius is what a soldier would get paid for a day. That was a good paying job to be a soldier in those days, to work for the government of Rome. And so what they estimated is that really one denarius equaled like five days worth of labor. But it was it was good pay. We see here, they didn't argue, right? There's no going back and forth. They're like, that's a good pay, we will go and work for a denarius. And so they go off to work. And the work day back in those times was a 12-hour workday. It started at 6 a.m. and then it went to 6 p.m. that day. And so the landowner comes back at 9 a.m. So three hours have passed. And he goes to gather more workers. And this time it's interesting, he doesn't strike an agreement with them. What happens? He just says, You also go to my vineyard and I will give you whatever is right. And my guess is that they were probably in the marketplace when he first came and talked to those other individuals and heard that, wow, they're getting paid a denarius to work at that vineyard. And when he came back, they're like, hey, that's still really good pay. Even though we don't have a full day, we'll still make out really well on this. It'll be a little bit less than a denarius, but this is still a good gig. And so they don't agree to anything, they just trust him and they go and work. And so the landowner comes back at noon, does the same thing. Comes back at three, does the same thing. And then he comes back at what time? Five o'clock. And he sees another group of individuals. Well, we haven't been, no one has has picked us, no, no one needs us for work. And so he says, go into my vineyard and work. And it's interesting here as we as we look at this setup of how he's doing it, we have one hour left. How much work is he going to get out of those workers? Not very much. By the time they leave the marketplace, walk to the vineyard, get set up, very little time. He's getting very little output from those workers. And so at the end of the day, um, again, I'm as as I read scripture, I love the idea of the story. So in my mind, it's like, have you guys seen there's new like AI stuff now coming out of like if Jonah had a cell phone and he's like doing selfies of himself as Jonah? That like that's in my mind, like how things play out. My mind, I'm like, I see how these things are working out. So at the end of the day, these workers are gathering together because back in the day, uh, when you look in Deuteronomy, you pay the workers at the end of the day. It's not like our culture today where it's you know every two weeks or once a month. Back then, you paid every day for your worker. And so the the landowner was doing what is right. I will pay you. So the workers were coming to him to get paid. And he does an interesting thing here. At this moment, how does he pay them? He doesn't start with the ones that came in first, he starts with the ones that came in last. Because he wants them to see his generosity. And so he pays the first worker. And I'm sure the worker's standing there and like, boy, this isn't gonna be very much, but maybe it'll help a little bit. And he gets a denarius. Can you imagine that worker? A denarius? But not only that worker, can you imagine the people that were at the end of the line? Can you imagine the math going through their head? Wait a minute, wait a minute. A denarius per hour? So that's 12 denarii that we're gonna get. That's incredible. This is like months worth of salary that we're gonna get for this work. And then we see through the parable that it's denarii after denarii after denarii. And he finally gets to the workers that came in the very early mornings and worked all day long, and he paid them what? What they agreed to. One denaire. And what was their response? Were they excited? Well, that was a good day's work. Because they were ex-I would imagine they were excited in the beginning. This is a good paying job. Right? They would have received that money and be like, hey, that was a good I hope I hope he picks us tomorrow. Like, I want to come back to this vineyard and work tomorrow. The only thing that changed, their work didn't change, their pay didn't change, the only thing that changed was their perspective on what was fair. And so they looked down and said, why would he get one denary for one hour of work when I worked all day long in the heat and the sun? And what does he say? Friend, I'm going, I'm doing you no wrong. Oh, by the way, this is a little tidbit. Anytime you see the word like friend, this is like a corrective action time. All right. Jesus used this language also in other times in the Bible. When he says, friend, it's almost like here, come here. Let me let me set you straight a little bit. And so the the landowner says, Friend, I'm I'm doing you no wrong. This is what you agreed to, right? One denarius. Take what's yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Do I don't I have the right to do what I want with my business? Are you jealous because I'm generous? Because he didn't short them, right? He's not saying, Are you are you jealous because I shortchanged you? I didn't quite pay you a full denarius, I paid you a little bit less, I thought your work was off. No, he he paid them what was just, what was agreed to. And then he ends this section with that same saying so the last will be first, and the first will be last. So, what does this mean for us today? Number one, the parable of the vineyard workers is something that offends oftentimes offends our sense of justice. So in verse 1 through 12, Jesus tells this story that we just walked through, and everyone gets the same wage. Now, to be honest, if we were one of those early workers, and I have to be honest, I bet I'd be grumbling. I bet I would have shared those same sentiments that they had. Like I worked hard. I bet many of you in this room have experienced that. You worked hard at a job, you worked hard at doing something, and you were expecting a promotion, and someone else came and got that promotion. Some of you maybe were have have been working in even in ministry and or I've been praying for this friend of mine to get saved, and I've been witnessing year after year after year, and yet I see, I see no change in their life. And then my other friend talks to his friend the very first time and he comes to know the Lord. And in our hearts we kind of want to go, yay, that's awesome that he came to know the Lord, but then right away it starts thinking, why, Lord? Why one time with him, and yet I have spent year after year praying for and meeting with this other friend of mine to lead him to the Lord, and yet he is still not saved. That eats at our soul, at our heart, at the core of who we are. And so when we talk about justice and God, it's good to have a perspective. And R.C. Sprohl was one of the first, I don't know, teachers that really kind of helped me understand this idea of justice. And so R.C. would describe God and justice as this. He would draw a circle, and in the center he would write justice. Okay? Everything just and good is in the circle. Everything outside of the circle is unjust, or it's just not just. Okay, so it's everything that is not just is outside of the circle. And then he would divide it kind of into two halves. You have injustice, which is what? Evil, bad, unfortunate. We see that in our lives all around us, injustice, evil that occurs. And on the other side of it, we see grace and mercy. Because for us, when we read in scripture, we know that the wages of sin is death. And so God, in his justice, would render what in our condition? Would render death, right? That's just. That is God being good and a just God. But part of God's goodness is grace and mercy, where he takes something that has no merit on its own and he gives it merit. And he shows grace and he shows mercy. Every good thing we experience is the result of God's grace. And that's the whole point. Jesus isn't giving us labor laws in these, he's confronting a deep belief that we carry that God should give more to those who do more. That we can earn, deserve, or merit our place in His kingdom. And that brings us to my second point. Grace is not about what we earn, but about God's generosity. The landowner replies with a piercing question, don't I have the right to do what I want with what is mine? Are you jealous because I am generous? And the Greek words in this literally translate as, is your eye evil because I am good? Are you really reacting in an evil way because of goodness that I was showing? Are you mad at grace because it wasn't just for you? And this is where Jesus pushes us hard. God isn't unjust to give others what they didn't earn. He's just simply by being God. A generous, lavish, undeserved gift-giving God. The actual definition of grace is unmerited favor. Unmerited. We did nothing to deserve it. On our best intentions, on our best days, we fall incredibly short. And yet we are shown favor or goodness. Which means there's nothing that you can do to deserve it. And this was something that I really had to wrestle with years back, with my understanding of grace. And to understand that God is under no obligation to show grace. Because obligation means what? I did something. And because I did something, so then I deserve this. That's not grace. There is no obligation for God to show grace. Grace is freely and sovereignly administered by God. Period. He chooses and he gives because he is good. And when we start thinking that he owes us more because we've served longer, we've prayed more, we've tithed faithfully, we've avoided scandal, we've forgotten something vital. That everything that we have is grace already. God gives freely because he is good. How many of us have non-believers who are incredibly loving, generous, kind, honest, incredible individuals that are not followers of Jesus? Right? That is common grace. That is God pouring out grace on that individual, that they exhibit those characteristics even though they are not a follower of Christ. Revealed grace is God's word, and that helps us to grow and to learn and to understand Him more. But God's grace is not confined just to us as Christians. Number three, grace levels the playing field. Verses 16. So the last will be first, and the first will be last. This is one of those kingdom paradoxes. The people we expect to be ahead might be last, and those that we wrote off might be first. Think of the thief on the cross. One hour before death, he cries out to Jesus and says, today, and Jesus says, Today you will be with me in paradise. He experienced no baptism. He had no understanding of justification by faith. He had never never tithed. He had never served in the nursery or VBS. And yet Jesus says, Today you will be with me in heaven. That is the defining picture of grace. He did nothing to deserve it. The challenge is that bothers some of us. If I've been walking with God for a long time, and my life is still really hard or difficult. And yet my friend who's a partier and very far from the Lord has got a great job, a great wife. God, is that you being unfair? No, it's God's grace. The simple act of leveling the playing field ensures that we all keep our eyes on Christ. If we've been a Christian for a long time, we should look to God with thankful and joy-filled hearts for his work in our lives. If we're a new believer, we should be looking dependently upon him to refine our hearts and guide us down his paths. And yet at the same time, those of us who have been trusting in Jesus, maybe longer than we can remember, we still need to look to him to keep us on our path and to celebrate every soul brought from darkness to light. Number four, we should live as people shaped by grace. So how do we live this out in a world that runs on merit, performance, and comparison? We should remember that grace is all about God. While the parable describes God's mercy, it also gives us a picture of God's heart. After we become Christians, we enter into this journey of becoming more and more like Christ. This is the fancy world called sanctification, becoming more and more like Christ. It is because of our love for God that it compels us to live according to his righteousness. So, how does this parable help us to do that? One, stop keeping score. If you're constantly comparing your blessings to others, your ministry fruit, your answered prayers, your spiritual growth, very easily can become bitterness. Grace doesn't compare, it just gives. Second, celebrate others' blessings. Can we rejoice when someone gets paid more than you think that they should have? When God blesses the newcomer, restores the fallen, and forgives the undeserving, if grace is real, then we should throw parties when someone receives it. Not keep ledgers of who does. Number three, extend grace like you've received it. We are called to be grace people in a harsh world. Give second chances, speak with gentleness, serve without needing credit, forgive as freely as you've been forgiven. Because here's the truth. If you think you've earned your spot, you'll make others earn theirs. I'm gonna say it again. If you think that you've earned your spot, you are gonna make others earn theirs. But if you know that you didn't, you're gonna be quick to welcome, quick to forgive, and quick to love. So, in conclusion, is grace fair? Does grace mathematics make sense? I'm no mathematician. I did two years of engineering before I went to paramedic school. Realized I didn't like math very much. Even in that, I know this math doesn't make sense. It's not supposed to make sense. God is outside of our understanding. This parable is all about God's grace. And while the practical steps that we've talked about of how we can live life being grace-filled people, is important and good, the heart is really understanding the reality of who God is. And so I use numerous different Bibles. When I'm preparing for a sermon or working with different Bible studies, there's different translations or different Bibles that I think afford different perspectives. And so this is one of my Bibles. This is a Holman, it's a CSB that uses, it's an apologetics Bible. And so there's some commentary that's found on the bottom. And I just wanted to share this with you. So for this parable, all 16 verses, they sum it up in this one short statement. The parable merely illustrates God's generous mercy. It recommends neither wage practice nor deathbed conversions. So those other things we talked about are good. When we see and understand God's heart, it helps us to understand how we should live as people who are not the same, who are dead to our old selves and alive in Christ. But ultimately, the parable of the workers in the vineyard is about God's incredible, miraculous, overflowing, generous grace. And can we be reminded of that as we live our lives day to day today? So that we would not be people like I was when I was a young 11-year-old adolescence thinking like I am never coming back to church again because I felt I was wronged. Was not fair. Don't resent grace, receive it. Don't compare, celebrate. Don't keep score, live free. And when you do, you're gonna stop worrying about what's fair and start living with joy. Because God's grace is enough. It was enough for you, it was enough for them, and it's enough for all of us. Worship team, I believe, will come and close us this morning.