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The Gospel in Miniature: Lost and Found in Luke 15 · Wetumpka Church of Christ Online

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  Good morning. It's good to see everyone and I
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  just so I can see everyone a little better.
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  I had to be on a swivel today. I never realized when you stand
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  down here, I mean, up there I know, but down here you're
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  really like, you guys are getting my back.
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  I'm sorry, but it's good to see everybody today.
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  So Dwayne is out of town for the next three weeks.
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  So I was like, well, brother, I'll be glad to step in for you
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  because I have a class that I have been putting together that
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  I was sort of eager to share. And so you got me for the next
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  two weeks. Hopefully it'll be all right.
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  And then you'll get Dwayne again for a couple weeks for the
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  quarter ends. But thanks for your, your time
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  and attention today. So I'm sorry, I, I never, I know
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  we have the bell, but what, what time does class end?
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  Is it 40 after? When you're.
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  Done. I mean it's.
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  The the first buzzer goes off at at 20 tail and open it quarter
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  tail. OK, all right, well, I'll just
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  go till I hear the first bell and then I'll start wrapping up
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  from there. All right, so we'll start with
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  the prayer, then I'll give you an introduction to what we're
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  talking about and then we'll we'll go from there.
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  Good to see everyone please bow with me.
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  Dear Father, we're grateful to be together on this beautiful
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  Sunday morning. We're so grateful for this
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  church family and for the love that we share and for the the
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  support and help that we provide to one another.
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  We're thankful now for this opportunity to study your word
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  together. In Jesus name we pray.
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  Amen. All right, so you go ahead and
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  turn your Bible to Luke 15. That's where we're going to be
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  today and for the next couple of weeks.
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  So last year I did. Oops, sorry, give me one second
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  if I'm going to record this just 'cause I like to have my lessons
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  recorded so I can go back and listen to them again and then
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  know what I should do better next time.
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  So FYI, it's being recorded if you speak up.
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  All right, there we go. All right, so last year I did a
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  deep dive study into Luke chapter 15 and really gained a
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  lot out of it. Luke 15 is my favorite chapter
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  of the Bible. I strongly believe firmly this
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  is my stance, that this is the gospel boiled down into one
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  chapter. I'm not saying this is all you
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  need to become a Christian. It doesn't actually talk about
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  how to be saved, but it's the gospel message in one chapter.
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  It's Jesus in one speech, just laying out what he's about, what
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  he's here to do and how we can relate to him.
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  So I have long loved this chapter.
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  I, I was in my 20s, I was going through a challenging situation
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  as we do, you know, not just in our 20s, but throughout our
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  lives. I was, I was in a, a challenging
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  situation with my personal life, some, some decisions I was
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  needing to make, some relationships, things.
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  I was, I was struggling, I was hurting.
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  And I remember going to one of my trusted Christian mentors and
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  just saying, I just, I just don't know what to do.
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  I, I just, I, I don't know who I'm supposed to be or how I'm
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  supposed to, to behave. And he gave me this book, which
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  is will God run by Charles B Hodge.
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  And this book directed me to Luke 15 and that I'm not being
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  hyperbolic. That changed my life.
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  It changed my outlook. So Charles B Hodge was a
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  preacher who did a series of lessons back in like the 60s on
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  Luke 15. And then he put them all into
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  this book. So this is this is a fantastic
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  book. I highly recommend it.
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  He broke open this chapter, laid it out piece by piece.
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  It showed so many things to me that I had never understood from
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  this chapter before. And then that I, I was, I don't
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  know, 2223. I, I from that point, this was
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  my favorite chapter of the Bible.
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  So I, I continued to revisit it throughout the years.
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  I still do. Over the years, I've read other
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  books on the subject. I've, I've done, like I said, a
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  deep, deep dive last year into the chapter.
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  And so then last spring, yeah, last a year ago now, I did a
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  whole quarter on Luke 15 with the teen class.
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  And then in the fall I got the opportunity to do a whole
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  quarter with a young adult class on the same, the same material.
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  And so when Dwayne was like, I'm going to be gone for three
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  weeks, I was like, oh, hey, I've got a class that could cover 3
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  weeks plus. So I'm going to give you over
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  the next few weeks, the mini version of sort of the deep dive
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  I've been doing and the class I've already given a couple
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  times. I will say, if you like it, then
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  you can petition the elders for, you know, a whole quarter
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  sometime. But I'll, I'll leave that up to
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  you guys. But so this is a powerful book.
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  I think that we all have a a a a appreciation and understanding
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  for it already. I'm not trying to stand here and
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  say that I figured things out that you haven't.
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  I'm not trying to say that I know it better than someone
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  else. I'm just saying that this has in
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  a very deep and personal way affected my life.
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  And so I want to share some things I've learned and also
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  hear some things that you guys have to say about it as well.
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  So three books that have been very helpful.
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  Obviously the scripture, of course, but on top of that,
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  other books that have been written by other men.
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  Like I mentioned, will God run by Charles B Hodge.
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  Fantastic. Changed my life, saved my life
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  in some ways. The Return of the Prodigal Son
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  by Anri Newen. Now, Newen was a Catholic
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  priest, so theologically, doctrinally, he's got a lot of
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  differences, but his, his examination of the themes and
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  the, and the, and the core of the story is powerful.
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  This is a fantastic book. Another one that I don't have on
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  hand is The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller, which is also
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  it's that one short. You could read it in a weekend,
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  You could probably read it in an afternoon.
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  It's, it's really, it's powerful as well.
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  And each of these books really focus in on different aspects of
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  the story. And so they have been a part of
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  my formation as I've as I've done my own study as well.
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  So as I said a minute ago, Luke 15 is the gospel in miniature.
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  It's the Christian message distilled into one powerful
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  story. My sort of approach this, my
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  thesis if you will, is that since it's the gospel in
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  miniature, then we can see echoes of this story in every
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  teaching, that other teaching that Jesus gave or all of the
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  interactions that he had with other people.
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  So part of the bigger class that I did was drawing out a lot of
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  the parallels that echoes the connections to other other
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  parables of Jesus to other interactions with people.
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  I don't know if we'll have time to do that for the next three
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  weeks, but the my idea is that since this is the central
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  message of the gospel, we can see it through the whole gospel
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  like you can. You can see Luke 15 through all
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  of Jesus life and teaching. You can see it through the the
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  teachings of the apostles and and the rest of the Bible as
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  well. So to know Luke 15 is to know
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  what sets Christianity apart from everything else.
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  So I like in my opinion is that this is if you can understand
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  this chapter deeply and well, then you have a deeper and
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  understand deeper and better understanding of the gospel as a
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  whole. So having said all that, today
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  we're going to start with just a close reading of the chapter.
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  I know we've, I know we all know it.
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  We can quote lots of it by heart.
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  We're going to start by reading it and then we're going to do
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  just kind of the the quick overview of some, some parts of
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  it. And then we'll spend, I want to
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  spend a good amount of time on that next week.
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  Then we'll move into some of the the other aspects that I that I
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  want to point out. But we're going to start just by
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  re familiarizing ourself with with the story.
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  So we're going to read it through once just top to bottom.
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  And then we're going to go back and and take it in chunks and
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  just talk about each chunk a little bit.
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  Again, this is one of those things that I have a lot of
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  things I would like to say on pretty much every verse.
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  I'm going to, I'm going to try to to be disciplined and get the
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  main points and not go off on a lot of side side trails.
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  But if you want to talk about this chapter outside of class, I
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  would love to talk about it. I have, I have a lot of things
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  to that that I love about it. All right, so, you know, we're
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  we're spread out. I I like to do like a round
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  Robin reading this time. I think I'm just going to read
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  it and I'll invite you to to follow along.
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  So that's Luke chapter 15. Sorry, I also have had a cold
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  this week, so bear with me as I try to stay hydrated.
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  All right. Luke 15 starting in verse one.
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  Then all the tax collectors in the sinners drew near to him to
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  hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes
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  complained, saying, This man received sinners and eats with
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  them. So he spoke this parable to
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  them, saying, What man of you having 100 sheep, if he loses
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  one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go
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  after the one which is lost until he finds it.
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  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders
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  rejoicing. And when he comes home he calls
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  together his friends and neighbors, saying to them,
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  Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
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  I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over
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  1 Sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no
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  repentance. Or what woman having 10 silver
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  coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the
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  house and search carefully until she finds it.
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  And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors
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  together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace
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  which I lost. Likewise I say to you, There is
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  joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner who
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  repents. Then he said, a certain man had
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  two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father,
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  give me the portion of goods that falls to me.
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  So he divided to them his livelihood.
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  And not many days after, the younger son gathered all
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  together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his
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  possession with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there
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  arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in
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  want. Then he went and joined himself
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  to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields
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  to feed swine, and he would gladly have filled his stomach
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  with the pods of the swine. 8 And no one gave him anything.
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  But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's
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  hired servants have bred enough in despair, and I perish with
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  hunger. I will arise and go to my
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  father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against
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  heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called
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  your son. Make me like one of your hired
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  servants. And he arose and came to his
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  father. But when he was still a great
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  way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell
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  on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father,
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  I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and are no longer
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  worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his
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  servants, Bring out the best robe, and put it on him, and put
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  a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet, and bring the
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  fatted calf here, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.
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  For this my son was dead, and is alive again.
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  He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.
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  Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew
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  near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
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  So he called one of his servants and asked what these things
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  meant. And he said to him, Your brother
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  has come, and because he has received him safe and sound,
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  your father has killed the fatted calf.
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  But he was angry and would not go in there, for his father came
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  out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his
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  father, Lo, these many years I have been serving you, I never
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  transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave
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  me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends.
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  But as soon as this son of yours came who has devoured your
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  livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.
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  And he said to him, son, you were always with me and all that
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  I have is yours. It was right that we should make
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  merry and be glad. For your brother was dead and is
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  alive again and was lost and is found.
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  All right, I'm going to start even taking a step back before
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  we even dive into the, the story itself.
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  I want to point out something about the, the, the, the spacing
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  of it. The, the, I know that's not the
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  right word, but the, the chapter breaks.
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  We always point out that we had to be careful of the context,
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  making sure that the chapters that we're understanding, the
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  chapter breaks were put there by men later on.
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  And they're not necessarily, you know, connect the thoughts
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  forward and backwards. I want to point out that Luke 15
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  does seem to be one of these really nice cases where it is
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  self-contained, right? We we have some teachings of
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  Jesus back in chapter 14, but then verse 15, one, it says then
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  all the tax collectors and senators drew near to him to
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  hear him. This, this is showing to me that
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  we're we're changing subjects that this is not a continuation.
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  In my estimation. This is not a continuation of
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  the previous chapter. We also have the same thing at
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  the end here we move into chapter 16, verse 1.
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  He also said the disciples. Now that could be that he said
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  it immediately after the disciples.
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  I, I don't know. In one sense it doesn't matter
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  because what we have is a definite subject change.
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  We have, we have a break, right? So we have Luke 15.
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  We can take it as a whole in itself and it I'm sure it does,
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  it does some good to put it in the context of the book.
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  But I, I don't think that we have to assume that chapter 15
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  is taking place in the direct context of chapters 14 and 16.
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  Does that make sense? All right, so I, I want to point
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  that out with that, this is one of those nice cases where I, I
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  do believe we can just take it, just pull it out and just look
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  at it as a whole without having to do a lot of extra work to to
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  connect the dots forwards and backwards.
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  OK, So having said that, we're starting back at the top,
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  chapter 15, verse one through 3. Here's the context of what he's
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  talking about. I think this is the part that we
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  often forget as we're we're teaching this, this chapter.
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  I think that's the part we forget.
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  It's certainly when we start teaching it to children.
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  But this is showing us who the audience is, who he is talking
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  to as he's telling this, this parable, it's says all the tax
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  collectors and sinners drew near to hear him, to hear drew near
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  to him to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes complained
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  saying this man received sinners and eats with him.
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  So he spoke this parable to them saying, so the audience here is
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  the the Pharisees and the scribes.
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  He's not, in my estimation, talking to the tax collectors
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  and sinners. Now they're hearing it and it
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  might be one of those things where he's telling it to this
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  audience, but he's actually telling it to that audience
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  who's standing in the background and listening.
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  The audience here, though, is not the people who were coming
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  to him. The audience is the people who
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  were upset that people were coming to him.
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  The audience is the people who were angry that he was gathering
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  a crowd or that people were listening to him.
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  So I think we need to keep that in mind as we as we go through.
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  In one sense, this chapter is not being told to the believers,
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  it's being told to the skeptics. Now, obviously as believers,
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  there's so much we can take from it and we're going to do that.
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  But I think it's important to bear that in mind that his
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  speech over these next 30 odd verses, 20 odd verses is, is to
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  the people who are already kind of hostile to the situation.
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  So he starts to tell stories. He tells the same story 4
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  different ways. He tells the story of a lost
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  sheep, a lost coin, and then two lost sons.
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  It's the same story each time. There's different different
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  angles, there's different things he's drawing out, different
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  points he's making. But the whole concept is things
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  get lost and they can also be found.
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  And he's talking about the difference between what it means
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  to be lost and what it means to be found and the ways that
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  things get lost and the ways that things get found.
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  So he's, again, it's addressing this to the people who think
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  that they're smarter and better. And he's basically telling them,
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  you don't know what you think you know.
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  So starting in verse four, he says, what man of you having 100
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  sheep, if he loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the
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  wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it.
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  When he found it, he lays on his shoulders rejoicing.
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  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and
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  neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I found my
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  sheep which was lost. I say to you, likewise, there'll
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  be more joy in heaven over 1 Sinner who repents than over 99
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  just persons who need no repentance.
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  All right. So this is one of those times
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  where I'm just going to have to take Jesus at his word and just
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  trust that he knows what he's talking about.
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  I, I do it. That's a little bit of a job.
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  I, I do anyway. But I don't know anything about
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  sheep. I don't know about what it means
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  to be a shepherd. I I, I don't know, I will tell
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  you that when I read this as Peyton in the 21st century, I
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  actually think, would I leave 99 sheep in the wilderness to go
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  look for one or would I just be like, all right, well, that's a
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  write off. I mean, I really think that I
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  would be tempted to be like 99 out of 100 is pretty good.
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  I, I'm, I'm cool now. I haven't invested in sheep.
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  I don't know, but I, I wonder, and this is, this is me
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  literally just just wondering, I'm not teaching this, but I'm
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  wondering, is Jesus doing that thing where he goes, oh, I know
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  you would go look for the sheep and the people are like, Oh
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  yeah, yeah, that's totally what I would do.
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  Like I, I, I, I don't know if, I don't know if they actually
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  would have left the 99 for the one.
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  I think he's, he's giving them the benefit of the doubt, right?
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  He, he's offering them that. Surely you would go look for
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  your one lost sheep. I don't know.
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  I don't know. And I'm not saying they
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  wouldn't. I'm just saying I don't know.
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  But whatever the case, I have a challenging time relating to
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  that aspect of it because I think that I think that I would
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  leave the 90, leave the one for the 99.
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  Yes, ma'am. So sheep are actually different
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  than a lot of livestock. In.
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  That the relationship that they form with the shepherd is
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  different. So like, your cow doesn't care
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  if it's you or somebody else, but the sheep would form a
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  different relationship, and the shepherd would therefore form a
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  different relationship with the sheep than with other livestock
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  like goats. They're all.
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  Compared, you might not do that for a goat.
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  But. They, but they would.
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  For a sheep, those goats can fend for themselves.
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  Yeah, because. Because it was a.
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  Different, OK and. More dependent.
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  Relationship I appreciate it I'll accept that now that that
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  makes sense. Thank you.
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  Also I understand that sheep are social animals too like they
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  need each other as well. So like the 99 probably could be
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  more or less OK together whereas the one would definitely be in
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  danger by himself. So I, I, I get that.
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  All right, noted. Thank you.
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  So he says, if you lost one, you'd go find it and you'd bring
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  it back and then you'd celebrate, right.
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  This isn't just, oh, I, you know, I'll tell the story later
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  on when I'm hanging out with my friends.
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  This is, I'm calling my neighbors and bringing them
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  together and saying, Hey, I, I found the one that was lost.
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  So he's bringing something that was very, very real to them.
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  Like this is a agrarian society. Maybe not all these people are
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  shepherds, but they're living amongst livestock.
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  So they they would get that one question, how does a sheep get
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  lost? OK, but they wander away.
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  That's right. That's right.
• 18:23
  So a sheep gets lost because it gets distracted.
• 18:26
  It, it moves on, it doesn't realize it's separated from the
• 18:29
  flock. There's a parallel there.
• 18:31
  That's, that's a way that sometimes we get lost, we get
• 18:33
  distracted. We don't mean to leave.
• 18:35
  We just wander away. We get we get enticed along the
• 18:38
  path and next thing we know we're separated from the flock
• 18:40
  and the shepherd right. Moving forward.
• 18:42
  Now this one I will say having had the the quick shepherding
• 18:46
  lesson, I, I understand it better.
• 18:47
  But this one I will say I relate to a little bit better.
• 18:50
  Just on on the face, starting in verse 8 or what woman having 10
• 18:54
  silver coins, if she loses one coin does not light a lamp,
• 18:57
  sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it.
• 18:59
  And when she has found that she calls her friends and neighbors
• 19:01
  together saying rejoice with me for I have found this peace
• 19:03
  which I have lost. Likewise, I say to you, there is
• 19:06
  joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner who
• 19:09
  repents OK, so this is helped if we understand a little bit of
• 19:14
  context of the the the culture of the day because you know same
• 19:18
  thing if I lose a quarter, I'm not searching my house for it.
• 19:21
  That's not what he's talking about.
• 19:23
  This is not just money. This is the the 10 coins would
• 19:28
  signify to this culture something specifically that this
• 19:31
  was probably part of a a woman's dowry like this was would be a
• 19:35
  an heirloom piece. So they would, at the time they
• 19:39
  would get married, they would by tradition get 10 pieces of
• 19:43
  silver that they would wear like as a necklace.
• 19:45
  And it was both heirloom and jewelry, a symbol of the love of
• 19:49
  the family and like the ultimate emergency fund, right?
• 19:52
  So if you had to, then you could use it if you were in in in
• 19:57
  great financial straits. So this isn't that She was, you
• 20:01
  know, emptying out her purse and she she came up a little short.
• 20:05
  This is likely. A tenth of her dowry, a tenth of
• 20:10
  her heirloom is missing. And so she then it's, it's very
• 20:14
  important. So, so this is, this is it.
• 20:18
  It's showing us the value of, of this one coin and why one coin
• 20:22
  would matter. So I can appreciate that for
• 20:25
  sure. If I lost something, that is one
• 20:27
  thing that's important to me. I I'll, I'll search my house for
• 20:29
  that. But when you also add to the,
• 20:32
  the like the emotional preciousness of it or the, the,
• 20:36
  the familial import of it, that, that, that, that makes it even
• 20:40
  stronger. So she turns that house upside
• 20:43
  down. She scrubs top to bottom.
• 20:44
  She's sweeping under every furniture.
• 20:46
  She's looking in every closet and she finds it.
• 20:48
  And then she has the same thing. She doesn't just relax and go,
• 20:51
  OK, good, I'm, I'm. But she goes and she gets all of
• 20:53
  her people together and says, I found the thing that I lost.
• 20:56
  And then they rejoice with her. So how does a coin get lost?
• 21:02
  You drop it. It's careless.
• 21:04
  It's a a moment of just not paying attention.
• 21:08
  I one time had an amazing Turvis Tumblr that I loved that I just,
• 21:12
  it just disappeared. And I think that I accidentally,
• 21:15
  I had my hands full and I think I threw it in the trash can when
• 21:18
  I meant to throw something else in the trash can.
• 21:20
  So it was just careless. Like it was like it was not, it
• 21:23
  was, it's, it's just lost. And I, I missed that Turvis
• 21:25
  Tumblr. But but that's, that's how
• 21:29
  something like that gets lost. That's also how sometimes we get
• 21:31
  lost, right? Sometimes we get lost because
• 21:35
  other people have treated us carelessly, and sometimes we get
• 21:39
  the idea that the church or Christians or religious people
• 21:44
  aren't worth the hassle and we're better off on our own.
• 21:47
  Sometimes maybe people have gotten lost because I have
• 21:51
  treated them that way. So this is showing us another
• 21:54
  way that things get lost. The sheep wanders off the coin
• 21:57
  gets lost because someone else is careless or or they don't
• 21:59
  treat it worthily. And now we move into the meat
• 22:04
  the like the real heart of the story.
• 22:08
  Verse 11 Then he said a certain man had two sons and the younger
• 22:12
  of them said to the father, father, give me a portion, the
• 22:15
  portion of goods that falls to me.
• 22:17
  So we divided them his livelihood.
• 22:19
  And not many days after the younger son gathered all
• 22:21
  together, journeyed to a far country and they're wasted.
• 22:23
  His possessions with brought with prodigal living.
• 22:26
  But when he had spent all there arose a severe famine in the
• 22:29
  land and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself
• 22:32
  to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to
• 22:34
  feed swine and he would gladly have filled his stomach with a
• 22:37
  pause of the swine ate and no one gave him anything.
• 22:41
  OK, so now we've had there's one of 100 sheep and and then we've
• 22:45
  had one of 10 coins. Now we have two sons and they're
• 22:48
  both going to get lost. So so the value is raising with
• 22:51
  each angle that Jesus tells this story, right?
• 22:55
  It was one of 101 of 10. Now it's two of two a few things
• 23:01
  here again, this these are some of the things that we don't
• 23:05
  necessarily think about as we're just just reading through this
• 23:07
  story. I will point out that I don't
• 23:11
  think it says here that this is a rich father.
• 23:13
  I think we always think of him as wealthy and of course,
• 23:15
  knowing that he represents the, the father, then we understand
• 23:18
  there's wealth involved, but it, it says that he was, it was a
• 23:21
  certain man. It says he had, he had goods.
• 23:23
  He, he divided his goods, but it doesn't necessarily tell us that
• 23:26
  he's wealthy. Later on we see his servants, we
• 23:28
  see his field. So that might give us some clue.
• 23:29
  But but this might just be a guy, just might be a regular
• 23:32
  guy. And I, I want to point out too,
• 23:35
  that Jesus says it so casually. He says, so he divided them his
• 23:41
  livelihood. I'm sorry.
• 23:42
  I'm going to back up to the one since where that the son said,
• 23:45
  father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.
• 23:47
  We all know this and we've all been in this class enough that
• 23:49
  we know that he's talking about the inheritance, however big or
• 23:52
  small that was going to be, whether the guy was rich or not,
• 23:54
  He's talking about the inheritance.
• 23:55
  This is essentially him saying I would rather have your stuff
• 23:58
  than have you. I, I kind of wish you were dead
• 24:00
  so that I could have have what I'm expecting to get after you
• 24:04
  die. The son is saying I don't want a
• 24:07
  relationship with you. I want what you can offer me,
• 24:11
  which is that's a hard thing to say.
• 24:14
  But then here's the point that I want to make.
• 24:15
  So we divided to his livelihood. It just says it so casually.
• 24:18
  What was the livelihood at this time?
• 24:20
  Again, this is an agrarian society.
• 24:23
  This is not someone who's got like the Scrooge Mcduck money
• 24:27
  vault where he's just going in there just dipping out gold
• 24:29
  coins into a sack, right? We're talking about land.
• 24:32
  We're talking about, you know, flocks, sheep, cattle of some
• 24:35
  kind. This is not a he didn't write a
• 24:38
  check. The, the, the hoops they would
• 24:41
  have to jump through to liquidate your, your wealth in
• 24:45
  that time are enormous. And Jesus says it very casually
• 24:49
  here. And I think that we kind of
• 24:51
  gloss over that. Even if you think about even
• 24:54
  your own situation or the, the wealthy people of, of this
• 24:57
  world, Like it's not that Elon Musk has, well, what is he
• 25:00
  worth? I forget, like how many billions
• 25:02
  of dollars? Not like he has that much money
• 25:03
  sitting in a bank. And he could just like when he
• 25:05
  bought Twitter, he didn't just like write a check.
• 25:07
  Like he had to move things around, liquidate some things,
• 25:09
  sell some things. That's the same here.
• 25:14
  So when Jesus is talking to this audience and he says the son
• 25:18
  said, give me what's coming to me and then the father does it,
• 25:23
  that's shocking. Like that's mind blowing like
• 25:26
  that. That doesn't that doesn't even
• 25:27
  make sense. That doesn't compute to them.
• 25:29
  And I think we sort of gloss over, because we don't think of
• 25:31
  it in those same terms, that the to even be able to do that, not
• 25:37
  even talking about the willingness, but to even be able
• 25:39
  to do that was would take so much work on the Father's part.
• 25:43
  And yet the Father just does it. And in the way Jesus tells the
• 25:46
  story, the Father just agrees to it, which give us a clue in the
• 25:50
  mindset of the Father that he is not so worried about the stuff,
• 25:54
  but he is more worried about the Son.
• 25:56
  And in this instance, he's giving the Son what he's asking
• 25:58
  for, whether that's good for him or not.
• 26:01
  So I think if you look even again in our culture, but if you
• 26:06
  look at Middle Eastern culture, even today, it's certainly, if
• 26:09
  you look at ancient Middle Eastern culture, the, the, the,
• 26:11
  the respect that they would be expected to have father to son.
• 26:14
  Like this is shocking. Like this, this is not the norm.
• 26:19
  This is not OK. And then for the father to react
• 26:21
  this way is also shocking. Yes, I have.
• 26:24
  Heard before and I'm just wondering if you've heard this,
• 26:26
  if you have thoughts on this part.
• 26:28
  I've heard that for this to have all taken place, it's not that
• 26:31
  he just gave his younger son a portion, like he divided
• 26:34
  everything up and so now he's no longer the master of the
• 26:38
  household. Basically, like both sons would
• 26:41
  have gotten their inheritance. It would have been all divided
• 26:43
  and given out so that the younger son could have the right
• 26:45
  portion. And so in that way, the father
• 26:47
  would be also stepping back from his own role in the family.
• 26:51
  Do you have any? I don't have a specific thought
• 26:53
  of that other than at the end of the story when the son comes
• 26:56
  back, it's still the father's house and the father's land and
• 26:58
  the father's calf. I see the hands.
• 27:00
  We've got to move on. I apologize, but but it's a
• 27:02
  great question and I don't have a specific answer for that other
• 27:07
  than like I said at the end, he still, it seems to be managing
• 27:10
  things even if he does not the owner of them.
• 27:12
  So then real quick on this, this point, I know every teacher says
• 27:16
  it's back. We just ran out of time so
• 27:17
  quickly on this point. Verse 16, he would gladly have
• 27:22
  filled his stomach with the pods of the swine ate and no one gave
• 27:25
  him anything. And that to me is the saddest
• 27:27
  verse in this entire chapter. No one gave him anything.
• 27:31
  And I want to step aside from our judgement of the son.
• 27:34
  I want to step aside from like what he should have done and
• 27:36
  what he should have been. I just want to say, picture
• 27:39
  yourself in this situation where you came from a father who gave
• 27:43
  you everything, even to his own detriment, and you find yourself
• 27:47
  in a situation where no one is giving you anything.
• 27:52
  You're just alone. That's that's heartbreaking.
• 27:59
  Yeah, yes. So many levels of of the
• 28:02
  cultural. This guy has gone as low as he
• 28:08
  can go 17 Then it turns when he came to himself, when he came to
• 28:13
  his senses, when he woke up, he said how many of my father's
• 28:16
  hired servants have bread enough and despair and I perish with
• 28:19
  hunger. I will arise and go to my father
• 28:21
  and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and
• 28:23
  before you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
• 28:26
  Make me like one of your hired servants.
• 28:29
  And so he comes up with a plan. He, he realizes he's, he's
• 28:32
  becomes very rational. He's like my father's servants.
• 28:35
  The guy who cleans out my father's chamber pot is going to
• 28:38
  bed tonight with food in his belly and he's got a bed and a
• 28:41
  roof. I am sitting here in the pig
• 28:44
  pen. I am eating pig food.
• 28:47
  I'm going to go back and ask if I can be a servant.
• 28:52
  Verse 20 He arose and came to his father, But when he was
• 28:55
  still a great way off, his father saw him and had
• 28:56
  compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
• 28:59
  And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and
• 29:01
  in your sight, and we're no longer worthy to be called your
• 29:03
  son. But the father said to his
• 29:05
  servants, bring out the best robe, put it on him, put a ring
• 29:07
  on his hand, sandals on his feet.
• 29:09
  Bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be
• 29:11
  merry. For this my son was dead and is
• 29:13
  alive again. He was lost and is found, and
• 29:16
  they began to be merry. So he goes back home and notice
• 29:19
  he's planning. He has a whole speech planned.
• 29:22
  Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you I'm no
• 29:24
  longer worthy to be called your son.
• 29:25
  Make me like one of your hired servants.
• 29:27
  He starts to put his plan into action.
• 29:29
  He, he's gets the first part of the speech out, but he doesn't
• 29:31
  even get to finish the speech. He says, Father, I have sinned
• 29:33
  against heaven in your sight and I'm no longer worthy to be
• 29:35
  called your son. And the father cuts him off.
• 29:38
  He just, he stops him and he says bring out the best row,
• 29:43
  bring the ring and the sandals start a feast.
• 29:46
  The father doesn't even let him get to his offer.
• 29:50
  The father just takes him back, just accepts him.
• 29:54
  And then here's the the, the key key port.
• 29:56
  He restores him. The the son was humbled to the
• 30:00
  point where he was going to come be a slave.
• 30:02
  But the father is not even listening to that offer.
• 30:05
  The father just wants him back where he belongs.
• 30:09
  The father doesn't say, you owe me this much money.
• 30:13
  He doesn't say we're this much behind in the crops because you
• 30:16
  were gone. He just says it's time to
• 30:19
  celebrate. So sheep get lost because they
• 30:23
  wander. Coins get lost because people
• 30:25
  drop them and are careless with them.
• 30:28
  This son got lost because he willfully chose it.
• 30:31
  He turned his back and walked away.
• 30:33
  I want to point out one thing here.
• 30:35
  The first two examples, the father goes the, the, the, the
• 30:38
  person who lost the thing goes out and searches, right.
• 30:41
  There's a shepherd finds that lost sheep.
• 30:43
  The woman searches for that coin.
• 30:45
  This time the father knows there's not any point in going
• 30:48
  and searching for him. He will only come back when he
• 30:52
  recognizes he needs to come back.
• 30:54
  So the father actually does the hardest thing, which is wait, so
• 30:59
  that's powerful. All right.
• 31:01
  Oh, there's so much more I want to say.
• 31:02
  So we got a blaze on. And so here, to me, that's the
• 31:06
  part we focus on. I love it.
• 31:09
  It's important. So many things to say.
• 31:11
  This last. What is this?
• 31:12
  10 verses, 15 verses is to me the point of the whole thing.
• 31:19
  Now his older son, verse 25 was in the field, and as he came and
• 31:23
  drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
• 31:26
  So he called one of the servants and asked where these things
• 31:28
  meant. He said to him, Your brother has
• 31:29
  come, and because he has received him safe and sound,
• 31:31
  your father has killed the fatted calf.
• 31:34
  But he was angry and would not go in.
• 31:36
  Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
• 31:38
  So he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years
• 31:40
  I've been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at
• 31:42
  any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might
• 31:45
  make merry with my friends. But as soon as this your, this
• 31:48
  son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with
• 31:51
  harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.
• 31:54
  He said to him, son, you were always with me, and all that I
• 31:56
  have is yours. It was right that we should make
• 31:58
  merry and be glad, for your brother is dead, was dead and is
• 32:00
  alive again and was lost and is found.
• 32:03
  Now we have the second son, the 4th lost thing in this chapter.
• 32:10
  This son is out in the field. He's working for the father.
• 32:15
  He's he's being diligent, he's being obedient, he's being
• 32:20
  everything that he is expected to be and he is dead inside.
• 32:26
  He has no heart of compassion. He has no heart of sympathy.
• 32:33
  He has no love for the Father or for his brother, but he's doing
• 32:38
  everything right. And this is where I want to
• 32:42
  bring us back to Who is Jesus talking to at the beginning of
• 32:45
  this chapter? This is about the Pharisees.
• 32:49
  This is about the people who think they've got it figured out
• 32:53
  and who are looking at the Son who wandered away and judging
• 32:57
  him. He's talking about the people
• 32:59
  who are not worried about finding that lost coin, the
• 33:01
  people who would leave the one sheep in the wilderness.
• 33:05
  This last part of the chapter is what this is all about.
• 33:08
  This is who he's talking to. And I dare say this is the
• 33:13
  biggest problem representing this chapter that we have in the
• 33:18
  church today. This is where I think we will
• 33:23
  find ourselves clearer than any of the other parts of the
• 33:26
  chapter. I'm not saying that to disparage
• 33:30
  this congregation or any of you individually.
• 33:32
  That's especially the thing I'm talking about myself, but I'm
• 33:34
  saying that this is the point that Jesus is making.
• 33:36
  There's the wonderful lesson of redemption is so there.
• 33:40
  It's throughout this whole thing, but the audience is the
• 33:44
  people who are not willing to hear that lesson and even worse,
• 33:49
  not willing to let other people hear it.
• 33:52
  So again, at the very beginning is the scribes and Pharisees
• 33:55
  were angry that this that the sinners, the tax collectors were
• 33:58
  coming to Jesus. I see the hands, but please bear
• 34:00
  with me. They were angry that he was
• 34:03
  coming, that they were coming to him and he listening to him and
• 34:05
  he was accepting them. And he tells this whole chapter
• 34:08
  to bring this point. He says you are that son working
• 34:13
  in your father's field who has no heart for the people who your
• 34:18
  father loves. Let's go back to the the passage
• 34:21
  here. So the older son was working in
• 34:23
  the field. He came and drew near to the
• 34:24
  house. He heard music and dancing.
• 34:26
  He called one of the servants and asked what these things
• 34:28
  meant. He said to him, your brother has
• 34:30
  come and because he has received him safe and sound, your father
• 34:32
  has killed the fatted calf. So far so good.
• 34:34
  There's nothing wrong here, right?
• 34:35
  This is this, this at this point, this son can go one of
• 34:39
  two ways, maybe more, but there's two obvious ways. 1 is
• 34:43
  my brother's back. That's fantastic.
• 34:45
  Like get my dancing shoes like I'm going in like like he's he
• 34:49
  could be there and and excited and and ready to accept his
• 34:54
  brother back the same way that his father accepted him back.
• 34:57
  But verse 28, but he was angry and he wouldn't go.
• 35:01
  He wouldn't even go into the house.
• 35:03
  He wouldn't he was mad at the father for accepting the younger
• 35:08
  brother back. And here we see again the power
• 35:11
  of the glory of this father who it says in that same verse, his
• 35:14
  father came out and pleaded with him.
• 35:18
  I love this image. You picture a house, picture
• 35:21
  fields back here. Picture a long road out here.
• 35:23
  There's a house, the one sons coming down the road and the
• 35:26
  father runs out the front door to meet him and they go back
• 35:29
  inside. And then you have the other son
• 35:31
  coming in from the fields and the father goes out the back
• 35:33
  door and meets him. That's the father we serve.
• 35:35
  He is Will, He'll run out that front door.
• 35:37
  If you're coming down the path, he'll go out the back, the back
• 35:40
  door and meet you in the garden. If that's what you're doing, he
• 35:43
  will meet you where you are. And so he goes out.
• 35:47
  He talks to the son, and this is what the sun says.
• 35:50
  Lo, these many years I have been serving you, I never
• 35:52
  transgressed your commandment at any time.
• 35:56
  Maybe that's true, it's probably not, but maybe it's true.
• 35:59
  But what good is the commandment and living up to the commandment
• 36:02
  if he doesn't have a heart of love and service?
• 36:05
  What's the point of sitting in the Pew every single Sunday,
• 36:08
  writing that check every Sunday, taking the Lord's Supper, going
• 36:12
  to the care group meetings? What's the point if you don't
• 36:14
  have a heart of love and service and sacrifice and the fact that
• 36:17
  you're doing it for someone much stronger and more powerful than
• 36:22
  you that you are dependent on? But he says I never transgressed
• 36:27
  anything you've ever told me and you've never gave me a young
• 36:30
  goat. He's like I, he's asking for a
• 36:32
  party. He's like, you never let me have
• 36:34
  a, a, a goat with my friends. And now you're killing the
• 36:37
  fatted calf. He's not worried about the
• 36:39
  brother. He's worried about the things he
• 36:41
  feels like he missed out on, the things he thought he should have
• 36:44
  had the right to. But as soon as this son of yours
• 36:48
  who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the
• 36:51
  fatted calf for him. I want to point out too, that
• 36:53
  Jesus never tells us exactly what that younger brother got up
• 36:56
  to. We can imagine, but the brother
• 37:00
  here assumes that he knows that the brother is the one who
• 37:03
  brings up the harlots. This tells us more about his
• 37:06
  heart. This tells us maybe what he
• 37:08
  wishes he had been doing or what he would have wanted to do more
• 37:12
  than it says anything about what the younger brother was doing
• 37:15
  it. When it comes down to it, it
• 37:17
  doesn't matter to the older brother what how the younger
• 37:20
  brother. Let me, let me rephrase this.
• 37:23
  It should not matter. The younger, the older brother
• 37:25
  has no business knowing what the younger brother was doing in the
• 37:28
  far country. But he's filling in those gaps
• 37:30
  with his imagination of the things that he, you know, he
• 37:33
  would have done if he hadn't felt free.
• 37:36
  Does this feel familiar? You don't have to answer that.
• 37:39
  This is the danger that we get in in the church.
• 37:43
  Yeah, We can walk away like the older, the younger brother.
• 37:45
  We can be lost in those other ways.
• 37:47
  That happens. I'm not trying to discount that.
• 37:49
  But this is the danger for most of us.
• 37:53
  And of course, we see ultimately the father's incredible
• 37:58
  response. The father, if he was like one
• 38:02
  of us, might immediately be like, that's it, you're out,
• 38:05
  you're vanished. Don't you see?
• 38:06
  How can you be this way? Why would you treat me this way?
• 38:09
  Why don't you treat your brother?
• 38:09
  But no, he guess what he does, He responds like he just, he
• 38:13
  meets him there. He listens to his anger.
• 38:15
  He listens to his unrighteous vitriol and he he responds to
• 38:19
  it. He said to him, Son, you are
• 38:23
  always with me and all that I have is yours.
• 38:27
  There's more there, but I'm going to lean on that for a
• 38:29
  second. This is actually one of my
• 38:31
  favorite verses of the Bible. I think this is one that we can
• 38:34
  just, we can just pluck that right out of context and we can
• 38:36
  apply it to ourselves. Son, you are always with me and
• 38:40
  all that I have is yours. That's the that's what God
• 38:43
  offers us. We can be one with him in his
• 38:49
  Kingdom, in his work. We can.
• 38:51
  We are heirs of the Kingdom, children of the king.
• 38:56
  All that he has is ours. We can always be with him, He
• 39:03
  continues. It was right that we should be
• 39:05
  merry and make glad, for your brother was dead and is alive
• 39:07
  again. He was lost and is found.
• 39:10
  So the father listens to what he has to say.
• 39:13
  He responds to him. He doesn't make it OK.
• 39:17
  He he doesn't, he doesn't just sweep it all into the rug.
• 39:20
  He doesn't just make it go away. But he, he listens.
• 39:24
  He responds and he, he brings out this incredibly important
• 39:29
  truth which is lost. Things are lost and they can get
• 39:34
  found. And when they are found, that's
• 39:38
  even better than if they had never left in the first place.
• 39:43
  This son never left. He was still lost.
• 39:48
  The other son left and was lost and was found.
• 39:51
  It's better to be lost and found than it is to be here and never
• 39:59
  found. Does that make sense?
• 40:04
  The the person who wanders and comes back is in a better place
• 40:09
  than the person who never leaves and is eaten alive with anger.
• 40:15
  And jealousy and judgement. So Jesus ends this parable
• 40:25
  differently than he did the, the previous three.
• 40:27
  You know, the, the sheep, the coin, the other son, they were
• 40:29
  all found and they, and they all rejoiced.
• 40:32
  This ends with the father's words.
• 40:34
  We note, see the the other son's response.
• 40:37
  We don't know. Did he listen?
• 40:40
  Did he accept it or not? I have lots of thoughts on that
• 40:43
  that we won't get into right now.
• 40:47
  Hopefully in the next week or two we can talk about some of
• 40:49
  those. But part of it is Jesus is
• 40:53
  leaving it open-ended as an invitation.
• 40:57
  He's saying, what are you going to do with it?
• 41:00
  He's saying to that audience of scribes and Pharisees, what are
• 41:03
  you going to do now, now that I've shown you the truth about
• 41:07
  what it means to be lost and found and how this is not me
• 41:10
  talking to you. This is Jesus talking to the
• 41:11
  scribes of Pharisees and, and how you are responding to the
• 41:15
  people who are lost and found. What are you going to do with
• 41:18
  that? Now he he leaves it to them as
• 41:20
  an invitation. So for my concluding thought, I
• 41:24
  just want to say that the point of this chapter going back to
• 41:29
  the very beginning, it's it's, it's the whole gospel in one
• 41:32
  chapter, in 30 something verses, 32 verses.
• 41:36
  The point of it all can be summed up in 3 words.
• 41:38
  And that is God wants you. Think about that.
• 41:44
  God wants you. God wants you and God wants you.
• 41:55
  Not just your service, not just your obedience, your heart.
• 42:00
  And he is willing to do what it takes to get it all right.
• 42:05
  We have a couple of minutes. We can take a couple of
• 42:08
  comments. I was just taking the older son
• 42:12
  there, you know, the younger son, the father had offered the
• 42:17
  fatty cat and here's the the younger son.
• 42:20
  It's kind of things like antagonistic.
• 42:23
  You didn't even offer a goat for my me and my friend.
• 42:26
  Yeah, yeah. Yep.
• 42:29
  He's he's comparing. He's he's like you.
• 42:31
  You give him this the most special thing of all when you
• 42:34
  haven't even done something simple for me.
• 42:37
  But part of the question might even be, well, did you ever ask
• 42:39
  for a goat? Like, did you, did you have a
• 42:41
  relationship with the father where that could be a
• 42:43
  conversation you had? Yes, Sir.
• 42:45
  I think there's a great lesson here for us that go into all the
• 42:49
  world, preach the gospel and every preacher.
• 42:51
  Yeah. We need to realize that some
• 42:54
  people are lost like that lost sheep.
• 42:58
  The sheep was lost. He knew it was lost, but he did
• 43:01
  not know how to get back home. Yeah, that's right.
• 43:04
  The coin was lost. It's an inanimate object.
• 43:09
  It was lost and didn't know it was lost, and the son was lost.
• 43:15
  He knew the way home. Yeah, yeah, Beautiful points.
• 43:20
  He needed some help. Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:24
  Yeah. So the, the sheep and the coin,
• 43:26
  someone had to go find him. And then the, as you said, the,
• 43:31
  the, the son, he knew the way home and so he's had to start it
• 43:35
  on his own, but yet the father went out to meet him.
• 43:38
  One other thing about, about that that I glossed over.
• 43:42
  It's important to note that that sheep, that coin, both sons,
• 43:45
  none of them lost their value, right?
• 43:47
  That that coin was still worth whatever was.
• 43:49
  I don't know, I had a number stamped on it.
• 43:50
  But you know, if I lost a quarter, it's still worth $0.25
• 43:54
  whether I have it or not. It's not being put to use.
• 43:56
  It's not being, it's, it's not living up to its value, but it
• 43:59
  has an intrinsic worth. And the same is true with with
• 44:02
  all of us as well. We, we have, you know, our worth
• 44:05
  is not diminished by being lost. Our effectiveness is.
• 44:11
  We have probably 30 seconds left.
• 44:12
  Yes, Sir. Yeah.
• 44:13
  The. One thing about the prodigal son
• 44:16
  is the three, three major characters and I learned for
• 44:21
  myself that. The more.
• 44:23
  Life Experience, I could understand it so much better
• 44:28
  yeah, because I was the. Product I was the older brother
• 44:36
  I had that you yes, beautiful. You have anticipated where we're
• 44:40
  going. That is that is fantastic.
• 44:42
  You're so right that we think of it.
• 44:44
  We always kind of teach it as well.
• 44:46
  Don't be this and don't be but it's like we're we all at
• 44:48
  different parts of our lives. Are any of them and I spoiler
• 44:52
  alert, this is sort of sort of the the the conclusion point
• 44:55
  that we'll get to is yes, we the goal here.
• 44:58
  I think what he's showing us is be the father, not be God, but
• 45:02
  be the person who is putting it back together, bringing people
• 45:06
  back in have that heart. So thank you for that.
• 45:10
  Yes, you're exactly right. Thank you so much.
• 45:12
  I have enjoyed it. I hope that you guys have gotten
• 45:13
  something out of it and I'll can't wait to share more in the
• 45:16
  next two weeks.