Month: February 2022

Luke 13:10-17 Jesus is the Son of Man Love the People

Luke 13:10-17

Jesus is the Son of Man

Love the People

 

Note: It has come to my attention that my sermon posts from Nov ’21 through the begining of Feb ’22 have been lost. So i will be reposting them here, meaning they wont necessarily be in the order they were preached and recorded. THank you for your understanding)

 

All right! Let’s turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 13. As usual, if you do not have a Bible, or you need a Bible, please see me after the service and we will try to get one into your hands.

Now, as we look at where we have been, we see that Jesus has been teaching and preaching to his disciples, the people following him and those opposing him. He has been trying to get their attention, to focus them on eternity and the kingdom of God. And not just generally, but so that they would know the right way to understanding the Word of God.

Jesus has been trying to tell the people about the promised Messiah, the Savior whom God promised to the people all the way back in Genesis and every chance he got through the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. He was telling the people; this is Who the Messiah is (Him) and this is how you are saved from the wrath of God because of your Sins. As he said in our passage last week, Repent and Believe or perish.

We are going to see how this belief affects how we see the people around us as we read this week’s passage. We will be looking at Luke chapter 13, verses 10 through 17. Ill be reading out of the English Standard Version and I greatly encourage you to pick up your Bible, in your preferred translation and follow along as I read the Word of God.

Luke 13:10-17, Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit writes:

 

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

 

 

          Thus says the Word of God.

 

SO, first thing, we see that Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Of course, if you have paid attention to any of the accounts of the Gospels, you know that conflict lies ahead.

Now, it was the custom of the time to invite travelling and visiting rabbis to read and expound upon the text on the Sabbath. That what happened here. Jesus was traveling and whatever village he was visiting, he stood up on the Sabbath, read the text of the morning and started to expound on it.

Sometimes we see that the issue is the text the He chooses to read. Here we see that it is what Jesus does on the Sabbath that causes the issues. Time and time again, Jesus has fought with the Pharisees and the legalistic sects of the Jewish people regarding the right understanding and the right practice of keeping the Sabbath. That’s what we see more of today.

On that particular Sabbath, there was a woman who was there. She had been disabled for 18 years, she couldn’t stand up straight, the issue was so debilitating. From what we read, this woman wasn’t there to ask for healing perse, though she was probably praying for it. Instead, she was there to worship the God of Israel and to learn from the Rabbi more about the Word of God.

Jesus saw her. He called her over to him. He spoke to her, laid hands on her, told her she was freed from this disability and then waited a while to see if she would be healed? No! She stood up straight and glorified God!

 

Jesus said she was healed, and she was immediately healed! We have seen time and time again that when Jesus heals someone, its not a gradual healing, its not a partial and eventual healing, instead its an instant and complete healing. Just like this lady.

Now, the ruler of the synagogue, he takes issue with what Jesus did here. His issue was not necessarily because Jesus healed this lady, but, at least presumably, because he did it on the Sabbath.

He says that she could have come and gotten healed any of the other days of the week. But there was no place for that in the synagogue in the Sabbath. It was interesting to me as I was reading this and studying this, how often we do the same thing.

No, I don’t mean if someone were miraculously healed here this morning, we would take issue with it. But how often do we have the right reasons for doing the wrong things? How often do we have the right reasons for being unloving? How often do we have the right reasons for doing destructive and unbiblical things?

That’s exactly what this synagogue ruler was doing. He was trying to preserve the holiness of the Sabbath. Exodus 20:8-11 lays this out for us:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

 

And this command was taken for thousands of years at its most literal and in its most extreme. There were no room for exceptions or for compassion in these instances. His idea of what constituted work on the Sabbath was not to be questioned and was the only possibly right interpretation.

We have churches today that have the same mindset. Come in, sit down, be quiet, dress like us, look like us, think like us and believe like us. If you don’t, we won’t necessarily be outwardly mean or rude, but we will make it clear that you don’t belong here. These churches really do exist today.

There are churches that think that they don’t have to go out in the community and meet people where they are. They think that if these people really wanted to know God, or if God really wanted them to know Him, they would walk through those doors right there and conform to the ways of the church. We don’t have to care enough to go to them, they should care enough to come to us.

This synagogue ruler is saying, this lady should not have come here to be healed today, there are 6 other days of the week that this could have happened. But here and now, at church is not the time or the place.

(I have often had people not make it to service, show up here afterwards and talk to me about very serious issues in their lives, showing a desire to get answers and direction. It would be easy for us to say, they should have come for the service if they really wanted to be blessed by God or to know His will, or to whatever. I have never once seen or heard that form this church and I thank you for that.)

The synagogue ruler interpreted this lady being healed as work being done. And there was not to be any work done on the Sabbath. But his, and many in that day, their interpretation was nitpicky, to say the least.

Jesus points out the hypocrisy going on here. This man would work to make sure his animals were fed and watered. But would not allow this? HE says, you work by redefining what work is when it benefits you, but won’t have any compassion for this situation, or any other that doesn’t fit into their box.

How many of us, I don’t need hands or anything, but how many of us live by the perceived command, it is wrong to work on Sundays? Now, don’t get me wrong, if possible, I encourage you not to work on Sunday, mornings at least. That is when we meet as a church family to worship our God and get together, praying for each other, praising each other, bearing each other’s burdens and so on. It’s the most important day of the week for sure. But is that a command from God? And then so many who live by that command go out to eat after church and put to work waiters and cooks and so on.

My point is not that it is right or wrong to work on Sunday or that it is right or wrong to go out to eat after church on Sunday. My point is that we often will pick and choose when the rules are taking literally and how we interpret them based on how they affect us or how we look upon following them.

And also, we need to not take the commands of God in the Old Testament out of context and apply them wholesale, without looking at them, to our lives today. Sometimes it can be that simple. But sometimes, as with the Sabbath, Jesus spends much of his ministry correcting misunderstandings and providing more context for the purpose and application of those commands of God. We are wrong if we do not look at what Jesus has to say before we decide how it applies to us.

And one of the things that we see Jesus saying is what better day for this to occur than the Sabbath! Again, correcting their misunderstanding. This woman had been suffering for 18 years! 18 years ago, I was not a Christian, too bushy living it up with no motivation to have a job any better than the one I had that provided a roof over my head, food in my belly and beer in my hand.

For 18 years this lady could not stand up straight. For 18 years, she was in constant pain. The way it reads to me, for 18 years she came and worshipped God in the synagogue. Faithfully. She did not ask for healing that morning form Jesus, though, again, she may and likely was praying to God about it. But she was there worshipping God through her suffering, in spite of her suffering, and maybe because of her suffering, meaning that her suffering was driving her to lean on and depend on God.

Jesus took compassion on this woman, healed her and said what better day than the day of the LORD for her bondage to Satan be broken, for her to be freed from the chains of this disability. What perfect timing, both for her physically and symbolically of the power of the LORD on His day.

And some of the people, led by this synagogue ruler, could not even be happy for her. They could not even rejoice in her healing. They couldn’t even praise God for his good works.

And for this, Jesus rebuked them. And in verse 17, we see that there are two different reactions to this healing that Jesus did. All those who were against him and were against the healing, were put to shame. But it says that all the people rejoiced at the glorious things that God did. This is of course, not every single individual, because it is directly contrasted with those who were against the healing.

The point is that we have two choices when we see God at work. We can criticize it. We can ignore it or reject because that’s not the way it should be done or that’s not the way we would do it. We can look at and say,

That’s not the right type of person.

That’s not the right tradition.

They are not wearing the right clothes.

They are not speaking the right languages.

They are not supporting the right politics.

They are not the right anything.

 

 

Or, we can say, “Look at the great work that the LORD is doing! Let us praise him and rejoice in him and worship him.” One of the 5 solas of the Reformation, Soli Deo Gloria, To God alone be the Glory.

As we often sing, let there be glory and honor and praises, glory and honor to Jesus.

 

Let us search ourselves often and ensure that we are rejoicing in the good work that the LORD is doing, instead of leaning on our own understanding and unintentionally and inadvertently having the seemingly right reasons to do the wrong things. Nothing would be worse than thinking we are working for the LORD and turns out we are actually working against him.

Let us be the people who rejoiced in the LORD instead of the ones who were so intent on fighting for what was right that they ended up fighting against the very work that God is doing and fighting against those who were adopted in Gods family.

Let us pray for these things.

Luke 16:1-13 Jesus is the Son of Man The Dishonest Manager

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus is the Son of Man

The Dishonest Manager

 

All right! Please turn with me, if you will, to Luke chapter 16. WE are preceding through Luke’s Gospel and spending time right now looking at a lot of the teachings of Jesus, as he is teaching via parables to the Disciples, the scribes and Pharisees and to all around him that would listen.

And recently, we have been looking at a lot of the stories, the miracles, the parables of Jesus that are very well known. And as I’ve shared, the problem is that so many of those stories that are so well know, the problem is that we gloss over them because we assume that we know all there is to know about them.

In those instances, I try to spend some time a have us dig deeper than we would normally go. We work to find out what we have forgotten. We look at what we have missed. We double check contexts, and we look at what Jesus main point was when sharing it. As one theologian said, “The Bible can never mean what it never meant.”

This week we come across the opposite problem. Today we see a story that I have seen glossed over for pretty much the opposite reasons. This is a story that I have not spent a lot of time studying, not like I should have, until this week. This is a story that I don’t see or hear referenced much, if at all. This is a story that I don’t recall hearing any sermons or classes taught on. But it is important, and we know that because Jesus spoke it and it was included in the Bible.

But because its not a story that gets dwelt on too much, its extra important to look at Luke’s Gospel and see the context. We look at what Jesus has been teaching lately and the themes that have been popping up.

First, God knows all and is in control of all. He decides who gets saved and who he calls to himself. Salvation is all by God’s grace, no merit or work from us involved. Discipleship takes work and it costs something. And it’s all about God’s glory and the Kingdom of Heaven. These are some of the themes we have seen recently.

We just finished, the last two weeks, looking at the three parables in Luke chapter 15. The lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, which could also be named the lost brothers. Those parables were very specifically told to the scribes and pharisees.

His ultimate point was twofold, first, joy and partying every time a soul repents and becomes a child of God. And second, that you cannot do it yourself. IT doesn’t matter how hard you try; the sheep couldn’t go back and find the Shepard, the coin couldn’t find the woman looking for it and both brothers were ultimately trying to work to earn their fathers love. Our actions do not contribute to our justification.

With that context in place, lets go ahead and read this morning’s passage, Luke chapter 16, verses 1 through 13. Ill be reading out of the English Standard Version. Please follow along in your preferred translation.

Luke records, starting in chapter 16, verse 1:

He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures[a] of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures[b] of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world[c] are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth,[d] so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

 

Thus says the Word of God

 

 

So, this parable, this story, we see contrasted with the last few, was spoken very specifically to the Disciples. This quite possibly could have included the tax collectors that we see getting close to Jesus in Luke 15:1. And we will see next week that the Pharisees were also present and heard what Jesus said here.

Now, the actual story he tells his disciples is not very deep. There’s not a hidden meaning, though there is a confusing part to it. Jesus just tells the story and it’s a straightforward telling of the account.

A rich man has a dishonest manager in charge of his estate and affairs. When he hears about the managers dishonesty, he brings him to him and essentially fires him. Now, this manager had time to finish up a few things before his dismissal becomes known.

He starts thinking, what am I going to do now? We have all been there. No matter your beliefs or whether or not it was deserved, life throws a curve ball at you, in this case unexpectedly losing a job, and we wonder, what am I going to do now?

And this guy limits his options moving forward. He is too proud to beg, and he is too white collar, not skilled or strong enough to do the hard work of blue-collar labor. He, at least in his mind, was only qualified to be a manager and now that everyone will find out he was dishonest, its not likely anyone would hire him.

Now, nobody could accuse this manager of being a stupid man. Foolish, sure, dishonest, absolutely, but not stupid. He comes up with an idea. Ill curry favor with those whom I interact with now, those who owe my master money.

SO, he goes to some of the people who owe his boss, or ex-boss money and he essentially cuts their debts, to a partial amount, he forgives parts of the debts. He was very generous to them, though not so much to his master then. He was trying to get in good with those who owed so that one of them might be inclined to hire him when it comes out that he needs a job.

Now comes the confusing part. Jesus says that the master commended the dishonest manager’s shrewdness. I was curious and looked up the word commend, in the original Greek and it means exactly what it sounds like, what many of you have it as in your translations, The master praised his shrewdness.

TO me that’s where this gets confusing and for many of us, this is what can make the story uncomfortable and make us want to just kind of gloss over it.  But its right here, Jesus words, so I don’t think we can just gloss over and ignore it.

So, what does it mean that he commends his shrewdness? Well, we know he can’t be praising his dishonesty. He just fired him for that. My initial thought was that the master saw what the manager had done, and he just looked and went WOW. What he did was that brazen, that bold, that cunning that the master just kind of had to hand it to him, that attempt was something all right…

But I think what Jesus is showing us here is that shrewdness, thinking ahead and being smart and tactical and logical about it, is often only a tactic used by the enemy and the worldly. But we are to use that same shrewdness, being smart, tactical and logical to work for the eternal good.

Jesus says the Sons if the world, meaning not children of God, not believers, look how clever and cunning they can be when looking out for their own interests. But we are children of God. We are called to be honest but shrewd managers of Gods estate and affairs. We are called to be good stewards of his possessions.

And we don’t belong to ourselves. We are not to be looking out for our own interests, but for the interests of God. And what we steward is not our own but belongs to someone else.  Warren Weirsbe writes, “The steward must remember that they (the goods or possessions) belong to his master, not to him personally, and that they must be used in a way that will please and profit the master.”

Jesus tells the disciples to use your goods and money for the good of God. One study note I read shows us that the sons of this world are more attentive to the here and now than believers are to eternity. And it shows, in that often, we look just like the sons of this world.

Jesus is showing us that shrewdness can be good, if we use it correctly. In Matthew 10, he tells the disciples, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

We saw the manager try to use money to make himself friends here and now. Jesus says, use the goods and money of this world to make eternal friends. Now, again, we have to ask what he means by that. And we start out with what he doesn’t mean.

We know, especially after the parables in chapter 15, that we cannot use our money to gain influence with God, to make him our friend. We can in no way, shape or form buy our way into heaven. So that cant be what he means.

What a number of theologians and commentators have taken from this, and I agree, is that we should use our money, our goods, our possessions, whatever we have to work for and spread the gospel and the kingdom of God. When we give and support our local church, when we give and support local gospel-based ministries, when we give and support missionaries around the world, both foreign and domestic, then lives are changed, people are converted, souls are saved, and we will see them as friends in heaven for eternity.

Jesus next point is that money, goods, wealth, success, these things reveal character, not develop character. Its so easy to say, and I’ve said it in the past as well, “Once I get a raise or once I do this to get more income, then ill finally be able to give…” Jesus says, nope. He who is faithful with a little will be faithful with a lot, and he who is dishonest with a little will be dishonest with a lot.

It comes down to the mindset and the heart. Weirsbe again, he writes, “The thief says, “What’s yours is mine- I’ll take it!” The selfish man says, “What’s mine is mine- Ill keep it!” But the Christian must say, “What’s mine is a gift from God- Ill share it!” We are stewards and we must use our abilities to win the lost, encourage the saints, and meet the needs of hurting people.”

We also see that our trustworthiness and our faithfulness is a sing of the fruit that we bear. And the fruit we bear, while it does not determine it, is an outward sign of our spiritual life or our spiritual death. The LORD loves a cheerful giver. And its not only money, either. We are talking about money, about time, about our gifts, about our commitment, about our faithfulness. Are we faithful in our commitment to serving our master with his possessions?

If we are dishonest with one’s persons goods, why would another person think it can be any better. I think one easy to see example is with infidelity in marriage. It can be either husband or wife, but for sake of clarity, let’s say that the husband cheats on his wife and they divorce. The husband then marries the woman whom he cheated with. It’s not a guarantee of course, but by the statistics, there should be no surprise when the husband cheats again, this time on his new wife.

The dishonest manager was cheating his master. He gave unethical deals to those who owed the master money and then wanted one of them to hire him. If any of them did hire him, they should not be surprised when he cheats them out of their money.

If you are not a good steward, if you are not responsible with what God has given you here and now in this world, why would he expect you to be responsible, to be a good steward of “true riches,” the eternal, spiritual, heavenly gifts?

Lastly, Jesus says that we cannot serve two masters, God and Money. He doesn’t say we shouldn’t. He doesn’t say don’t. He says we can’t. But boy do we try…

We hear this often, that we cannot serve both masters, but what does it actually mean? Its easy to know what the big picture, the theoretical, the intellectual part of what it means. It means don’t make money an idol. Money isn’t everything and God is better than and more important than money. Easy, right?

But its not as easy to live, not in any practical sense. Because what this means is that either you will use your money to serve God, or you will use your god to serve and to make money.

Sometimes this is very subtle in how it plays out. We can very easily trick ourselves which of those two directions we are going. Its really easy to justify our blindness, our choices, our actions, and our sins. Its especially easy when we have people who are influential, whom we listen to telling us its ok.

Who we listen to and who we let influence us matters? 99% of the so-called preachers that we see on TV are selling some form of the Health and Wealth Gospel. They are serving money and using their god to do it. And they are selling it to you. SO many of the books out there telling us that God wants us to be rich (that’s an actual title, BTW) or that we should live our best lives now. That if we would just pray a little harder, believe a little more, sow a seed, that God will bless us and that He wants to do so, its just our lack of faith that’s holding God back.

Now when I say these things, it’s really easy to notice the error. But these guys don’t make it that easy. They have silver tongues, and they are talking to itching ears, and they make it sound oh so biblical…

And again, it’s not just finances, it’s not just money. Its influence, its status, its power, its knowledge, its health. It’s all of those things. We use it to serve God, or we use god to serve it by trying to gain more of it and using it for ourselves.

The question that Jesus brings to our minds here should be Who is Ultimate in our decisions Who is Ultimate in our actions, in our choices?

Are we God focused? Or are we self-focused? IS God Ultimate in our lives? Or is self Ultimate. Manifesting in Money, family, job, hobbies, everything and anything else besides God.

The answer to those questions is the ultimate showing of our fruit. We will show either the fruit if the spirit, or the fruit of the flesh. We will be sons o the world or children of God. The choice is ours to make but make it we must.

 

Let’s Pray.

Luke 13:1-8 Jesus is the Son of Man The Gospel Saves

Luke 13:1-9

Jesus is the Son of Man

The Gospel Saves

(Note: It has come to my attention that my sermon posts from Nov ’21 through the begining of Feb ’22 have been lost. So i will be reposting them here, meaning they wont necessarily be in the order they were preached and recorded. THank you for your understanding)…

 

All right! Let’s go ahead and turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 13. As usual, of you do not own a Bible, please see me after the service and we can get one for you.

As we start a new chapter in Luke’s Gospel, we look at what Jesus has been doing and how it continues and changes in the chapter and chapters ahead. TO put it in its simplest of terms, Jesus has been preaching and teaching the coming of and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

He has been showing us how our faith affects how we see things. And maybe even more important for our practical living out of our faith, how we see things affects our faith.

Ultimately Jesus has been showing us that our worldview, our works and our good deeds, our entire life in fact flows out of our faith, instead of the other way around, and that is where our focus should be.

Jesus has been making some enemies as well, as he has been telling the people who are listening to him and to us, the things we need to hear, not necessarily the things we want to hear. We are people and creatures of comfort, and we don’t like to be dragged out of our comfort zone. Jesus says, I’m not going to let you stay in your comfort zone.

So, on that note, lets go ahead and read this morning’s passage, where Jesus continues to encourage and draw us out of our comfort zone. We will be reading Luke chapter 13, verses 1-9. Ill be reading out of the English Standard Version though I greatly encourage you to read along in your preferred translation. The Power is in Gods Word, not in my voice reading it.

Luke 13:1-9, He writes, inspired by the Holy Spirit:

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

 

Thus Says the Word of God.

 

So, we open up with the crowd telling Jesus about an incident that we don’t know anything about outside of these couple of verses. Its not recorded anywhere else in history or in scripture. And so, we have to be careful in what we pull out and picture in this story.

As best as theologians and historians can figure is that there was a group of Jews from Galilee who came down to Jerusalem for the Passover and Pilate ordered a bunch of Roman soldiers and guards to squash a perceived rebellion or to pay them back for some perceived slight that was perpetrated against Pilate. The soldiers murdered the Galileans and in doing so, mixed their Jewish blood with the blood of the animals that was being sacrificed. You can imagine how offensive this would be to the people of Israel. Now, again, this is conjecture, but it makes sense based on what we do know.

The people brought this story to Jesus and wanted him to comment on it. We see from how Jesus is going to respond, exactly what the people were looking for.

The prevailing worldview at that time was that things like disasters, disease and death were the direct result of sin. That’s what these people thought when they told Jesus about what happened. The Galileans must have had some hidden sin underneath their outward piousness. Their church must have been too liberal, too accepting of sin. Or they might have been too legalistic. Whatever their hidden sin was, that’s why God let happen what happened.

We see this idea play out a few times in scriptures. We see it in Job, where his friends came around to “comfort” him. Instead, they tell him that he must have done something wrong for God to allow this to happen, so he might as well confess his sin. Job 4:7 records them telling him:

“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?

 

Now we know from reading the rest of Job, especially the beginning that he was upright and blameless, not meaning perfect, but that he was not being punished because of his sin.

We see again in the Gospels, in a direct question to Jesus, John chapter 9. They saw a blind man to Jesus and asked him why the guy was blind. And this wasn’t the pharisees trying to trick him, it was his disciples asking a genuine question!

John 9:2 & 3:

his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

 

And we still tend to think this way today as well. When tornados or hurricanes hit, when the fires come through other places, 9/11 is a good example. Jesus even gives another example that the people would have been acquainted with, a tower collapsing and killing 18. Oh, that’s a case of Gods judgment on the people that died.

How hard and cold and calloused do we have to be to think that? We don’t think it when we are the ones affected! And there is some truth to saying that it is the result of sin generally, that God is in control of it, that sometimes it can be a judgment on worldwide or widespread sin. Linguistically and semantically, there can be some truth in that.

But the tone and the meaning and the worldview behind it could not be more wrong. Even famous “pastors,” and I use that title loosely, those who you see on TV, even they will say things like, “God does these things to punish sinners. If they weren’t sinners, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Wrong!

We see this in Jesus’ response to them. He points out that they are asking the wrong questions. Remember part of what he was saying the last couple of passages we have looked at, the last parts of Luke chapter 12. He was warning against hypocrisy and self-righteousness. And here the people were coming and saying, “What about those Galileans, eh?” Jesus points out that they were being the hypocrites he was warning against.

He says, “their sin is no greater than yours.” We compare our sins to others, and we grade others and ourselves by different standards. Theirs are worse of course. Their sin is way more devastating and destructive than ours.

I like what Philip Ryken says. He writes

Notice the precise place where Jesus disagreed with his listeners. He did not say that they were wrong to hold God responsible for the fall of the tower. Jesus knew that this too was under Gods sovereign control. No, the place he disagreed with them was in their assumption that they were morally superior to the people who died at Siloam. On the contrary, the people who died in the tragic accident were no better and no worse than anyone else.

 

We talked about this a bit on Wednesday. Scripture makes it clear that some sins are different than others. Some sins have more devastating consequences. Some sins hurt others more. Some sins require different amount s of punishment and discipline.

But in the context of God holiness and our salvation. All sin is sin. All sin separates us from God. Even if we were born sinless, which we are not. But even if we were, one the only sin we commit is a little white lie, or stealing a candy bar when we were 12, or something like that, it is enough to besmirch the holiness of God and it is enough to make us worthy of his full wrath. In this context, all sin is equal, and we are all sinners.

Jesus is telling us that we would do well to remind ourselves of our own sinfulness and our own mortality. And we need to make sure we are ready. We make sure we are ready by responding to the Gospel. Jesus tells his listeners, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

 

Just like all sin is equal in separating us from God and making us deserving of eternal punishment, all sin is also forgiven through repentance and trust in Christs work on the cross. All sin from smallest to largest.

The listeners were saying, “Those people who died because they deserved it!” Jesus tells them, “How are they any different from you?”

When it comes to salvation, when it comes to the need for repentance, when it comes to the need for forgiveness, we are all guilty as charged. None of us are “more” guilty or “less” guilty than others. We all deserve death, wrath, eternal damnation.

Without responding to the Gospel, without Christ’s righteousness, his saving work on the cross, without faith, trust and repentance, none of us will get anything other than what we deserve. But with those things, all sinners can be reconciled to the Father. All sinners can be adopted as a child of God. All sinners can be spared from his wrath. Not all will, of course, scripture is clear about that. But all have the opportunity, to repent or perish.

His steadfast love endures forever.

Now in verses 6-9, Jesus enters into a time of teaching in Luke 13, starting with this mini parable about the fig tree that wont produce fruit. The first, broadest point is that Israel was not willing to believe the message of the Gospel. They were not able and willing to produce the good fruit that is born of repentance and faith. And so, they were going to be cut down and the rich, fertile soil would be made available to the rest of the garden. Gentiles, you and I have access to the Gospel, through faith and repentance. And so do the Jewish people. All have access to the Father through the Son.

But we also see some practical things we can pull from this parable, things we can use in our own lives and try to help the lies of those around us.

 

Sanctification is us bearing fruit in accordance with our faith. IT is not always instantly visible, but it is always there. RC Sproul writhes that this is Jesus reminding us, not to repent someday, but that now is the time. The Father is generous beyond what is required of him, but when he decides our time is up, our time is up.

When our time is up and we stand in front of the Father, we will be judged. We will be judged on what we did and did not do. We will be judged on the fruit that we produced. Most importantly and most applicable, we will be judged on whether we have trusted in Christ for our salvation and repented of our sins.

God can see the fruit in our lives, even when its not visible to others yet. Sometimes it takes time for our fruit to become visible. Sometimes a person needs to be poured into. Sometimes a person needs to be discipled, tended to for a time, given good fertile soil before the fruit begins to show. We can often be guilty of demanding fruit immediately. But that doesn’t work in nature. You can’t plant a tree and expect it to immediately produce fruit. The same with us.

IF we are saved, we will produce fruit. Martin Luther wrote that we are saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. If fruit never produces, God says that is a sign of an unregenerate heart. And an unregenerate heart will be punished and cast out or cut down to use this parables metaphor.

But we need to be careful in our judgments. We cannot always, or maybe even often, tell when we look through a narrow lens at one specific moment in time at one specific instance with one specific set of circumstances.

IF you feel frustrated, like you are not producing the fruit that you know your faith should be producing, or if you are looking at another believer and not seeing the fruit that you think there should be, I think we all would do well to keep Romans 8 in mind. It’s a great chapter. It starts in verse 1, saying: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

          And then that closing passage of the chapter, starting in verse 28 through the end of the chapter:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[h] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[i] against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.[j] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you have truly repented of your sins, trusting in Christ and his work on the cross, you can be assured of his salvation, his steadfast love which endures forever. And Jesus wants us to continually be assured and remind of it and how it was purchased by His work on the cross.

And it is His work on the cross which we remember each month, on the first Sunday as we celebrate communion. We are going to this now with partaking of bread and juice symbolizing his body and blood and with reflection.

If you have not truly repented and trusted in Christ, please just pass the elements along. There is nothing magical about it. There is nothing special about it for those who do not believe that Jesus Christ gave his broken body and his blood for the forgiveness of our sins. There will be no pressure and no judgment.

Stemming from that, Communion does not save us, it does not cleanse us, it does not do anything along those lines. It has no power to keep us clean or to restore our relationship with God, only Jesus can do that. This was given to us by Jesus for the purpose of remembering. Remembering who Jesus was. Remembering what Jesus did for us. Remembering how much he loved us and remembering just how big of a deal our sin really is. It is meant to be sobering and somber, but at the same time it is meant to be a celebration.

Thirdly, we are told that we need to come and participate with the right heart. As I said, we do this in remembrance of what he gave up for us, the sacrifice he made. We do this because we remember how big of a deal our sin is, that he died on the cross for it. We need to make sure that our hearts and minds have their hearts set on what’s important and that we seek God’s forgiveness and make our relationships are right with him. In addition to a tradition becoming too important and placed above the word of God, tradition can become bad is by it losing its meaning and becoming simply a ritual. Please take some of this time to reflect on what this tradition means and to make sure that you are prepared to receive. There will never be any judgment if you choose not to participate, and just pass the plate.

Paul recounts to the church in Corinth what I now tell you as well, in 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26:

 

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for[e] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[f] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

 

          We have individual cups that contains both the wafers, which symbolize Jesus’ broken body on the cross. His Death that pays the penalty for our sins. It also contains the juice, symbolizing the shed blood of Christ, which purchases our eternal life in Christ, through faith.

First, we will take the wafer together. Afterwards, we will take the juice together and we will be united together under the cross and blood of Jesus Christ. I will pray and we will come to the LORDs table.

Lastly, I want to read the words of RC Sproul and plead on last time for anyone who has not repented as of yet. HE writes:

If you have lived this long without ever having truly repented of your sins or fled to Christ for your forgiveness and your healing, today may be your last chance. You may not have next week or even tomorrow. Don’t presume on the grace of God. IF when you lay your head on your pillow tonight, you remain unconverted, I pray that you would not sleep until you are on your knees before the living God, taking advantage of the blessed redemption that he has given to all who repent and believe in the LORD Jesus Christ.

 

Amen. Let’s celebrate Communion.

Luke 12:54-59 Jesus is the Son of Man Time is Short

Luke 12:54-59

Jesus is the Son of Man

Time is Short

(Note: It has come to my attention that my sermon posts from Nov ’21 through the begining of Feb ’22 have been lost. So i will be reposting them here, meaning they wont necessarily be in the order they were preached and recorded. THank you for your understanding) 

All right! Let’s go ahead and open our Bibles to Luke chapter 12. We are finishing this chapter this morning, picking up right where we left off just a few weeks ago.

Jesus has been focusing his teaching and preaching in this chapter on focusing on the right priorities. And the only right priority is the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And what our attitudes are, what our actions show, what our hearts and prayers and behaviors are and do and show, directly reflects how important Gods Kingdom and Glory are to us.

We work here and now, we do what’s good for this world, we act on the today, but we focus on, and we look forward to and we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ; his death, his resurrection, his second coming, and the culmination of his Kingdom.

And here Jesus is issuing a wake-up call to those who are following him and listening to his teachings. Now is the time to repent and believe. He just told his disciples that division will be coming, between those who believe and those who don’t, now he turns to the crowds and tells them to get on the right side of that division.

Let’s go ahead and read this morning’s passage, Luke chapter 12, verses 54-59. I will be reading out of the English Standard Version, though I encourage you to follow along in your preferred translation.

Luke 12:53-59, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit reads:

 

 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so, it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57 “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”[j]

 

May God Bless the Reading of His Holy Word.

 

 

So, Jesus starts off talking about what most small-town, blue-collar folk talk about, the weather. IN that region, the weather was pretty easy to predict. When the winds came from the west, they were coming off the Mediterranean Sea and that generally meant rain.   If the winds were coming from the South, it was coming from the desert and the winds would be bringing heat with them. And everyone knew this simply by observing nature.

We do this today as well. We read the signs, we know that when certain things are coming up, what it will look like and how it will affect us. We know when certain winds are blowing, we will see certain things happen. We can see what God is doing with the weather. And what Jesus shared is just one example of that.

What He is showing us is that we can and will see what we want to see. And we can and will not see what we don’t want to see. We will see what’s important to us and we will ignore and suppress what’s not important to us. You have heard me use this example before, but the Bible is a perfect example. What you are looking for in the Bible, whether true or not, is what you will find. If you go into the Bible looking for it to confirm your views, regardless of what they are, you can find a Bible verse to support it. It may be ripped out of context, it likely doesn’t actually support your views, but what you are looking for you will find.

That’s what’s going on with people in Israel that Jesus is talking to here in this passage. They are seeing what they want, and they are consciously or subconsciously, ignoring and not seeing what they don’t want to see. Jesus is saying that they can’t see what is right in front of their eyes.

Jesus said back in Luke 11:20, telling the crowds who he was, But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. He is giving them the answer to the question that they don’t even realize is being asked.

Jesus was right there, in the flesh, literally. He was what God was doing right there in their midst. And they couldn’t see it. They wouldn’t see it. They were blinded to it. And they were distracted.

They were distracted by the same things we are distracted by today. They were distracted by being good, moral people and following Gods Law. They were distracted by the outer influences on their society, in their case the Roman occupation of Israel. They are distracted by things that seem good and seem important. Politics, weather, nationality, and so on…

They are so distracted by these things that they can’t see the good and great works that God is doing. They can’t see who God is. Jesus calls them hypocrites because they know this deep down, but they are unwilling, again, often subconsciously, to see Jesus for who he is.

We get so caught up today in what’s going in Washington DC, or what’s going on in Sacramento, or how things are being played out across the country, different trials going on, the seeming worsening of the moral fabric of society that we miss the good and great work that God is doing today, in America, in California, in Butte County and in Bangor.

We talked a few weeks ago of the works that God is doing specifically in rural communities throughout the country as churches like ourselves, and so many more are partnering with Village Missions to reach out to the communities they are in and through these rural domestic missions, show people the love of Christ and the truth of his Word.

IN that regard, we are working for the here and now by focusing on the eternal. But when we focus on the here and now at the expense of the eternal, when we are distracted by the things which seem right and good, we miss Gods work and what he is doing.

So, instead of reading the tea leaves, instead of reading conspiracy theories or prophecies into every headline we read, instead of focusing on those things, we are to look and marvel at the great work that God is doing and that he is doing it through His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus is saying that, in context, they should have seen. What should they have seen? Philip Ryken details it, writing:

What, specifically should they have seen Luke is the Gospel of knowing for sure, and it has shown us what Jesus was saying and doing. People should have learned from his teaching that he spoke with divine authority. This was the man who took the old promises of salvation and said, “They are fulfilled in my ministry” (see Luke 4:21) They also should have seen from his miracles that he had true divine power. This was the man who ruled the waves and cast out demons “by the finger of God” see Luke 11:20). If people had been able to interpret the times, they would have recognized that Jesus was the Messiah who had come to bring salvation.

          They also would have seen that judgment was coming. Jesus was just the kind of prophet who always got persecuted, and probably killed. Already the religious leaders were plotting against him (see Luke 11:53-54) and this served as a storm warning. If people had been able to interpret the times, they would have seen the gathering clouds and taken cover. Yet they never saw it coming.

 

 

          Jesus says they should have seen it. Jesus isn’t going to say things like this if there it wasn’t true. He is God, he can’t be wrong. If he says we should have seen, then we should have seen. He was clear, they and often us are the ones that miss it.

 

And He says, And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? Jesus calls us back to what he was asked and what he answered back in verses 13 & 14 when the gut wanted Jesus to judge between, he and his brother in an inheritance case.

He uses this reference to share another mini parable. He is telling us to settle our case now. There are two applications to this, one, the main, eternal one, and the secondary one for here and now today.

Make amends in your relationships. Fix those relationships and friendships that have fallen away. We are never promised tomorrow. WE don’t know how long we have or how long they have, you never know when it will be too late to make amends, especially if you are the one who is guilty or at fault. And if the other person is at fault, make sure they know that you have forgiven them, that you are ready to move on and make amends. As one commentator pointed out, sometimes we are really good at believing in forgiveness, but not so much in acting on it.

All of us in this room, many of us recently, can testify to those times when a loved one is here one day and gone the next. The question always comes up, do we know where they are going? Sometimes we do. That has been one of the things that we can be so grateful for when we know a person’s faith, we see and hear their love for Jesus and so we know that when they die, they are with Him in eternal Glory, no tears, no pain, no nothing, just eternal glorification and communion with God.

Sometimes we know that a person has no faith and there is no evidence that they are saved. We know where they are going and its not good news. Other times, and I had this with my mom, we have no idea. They might profess some faith, but not show much fruit. They may not talk about any faith they may have or were raised in a different faith tradition where you can’t tell by talking to them if they have a saving faith. That, I think is the toughest.

But the question is there, sometimes in the background, sometimes brought by circumstances or by conviction of the Holy Spirit, do you know where your loved ones and friends are going after they die? And the follow up, what are you doing about it?

 

We can’t force anyone to believe, so while we do have the responsibility to share the truth of the Gospel with our friends and family, there may be an even more important question. DO they know where you are going, if you were to die today? If you are the one who is here today and gone tomorrow?

 

Jesus is saying that this needs to be determined here and now. The time for mercy is now. The time for settling our case before God is now. This requires recognizing and admitting our guilt. That all of us are guilty of sinning against the Almighty and all holy God.

The only way that we can receive mercy, a commuted sentence is through the mercy and grace of God when we turn to Jesus and repent of our sins and believe on him who died for the forgiveness of our sins.

We will all stand before the judge when we die, and will give an account for our lives, sins and all. Once we are standing before the judge, the time for mercy is over. That’s why Jesus is calling for us to decide now. Once we are before the judge, if we have not previously received his mercy, there are no more options, no more chances. He has no choice but to find us guilty, because we are. That’s the only verdict possible. The time for mercy is over and the time for justice has arrived.

And so, Jesus is offering to settle our case. If we admit our guilt, repent from our sins and throw ourselves on the mercy of Most High, he is merciful. If we reject mercy, we receive justice. It is just that all sins are punished through eternity in Hell. Sin requires that all of us receive justice, that all sin is accounted for.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He has attained the forgiveness of sins by taking the wrath and punishment for sin. Justice was served. Therefore, God the Father chooses to pour his mercy, his forgiveness, on some. Those who believe, those who repent, those who put their faith and trust in Christ.

We owe a debt that we can never repay. Even if we could, we continue to sin until we are in Heaven, in our new, glorified bodies, so we would continue to accrue more and more debt, so to speak. But once God’s mercy is poured out on us, though we stumble, we shall never fall. Though we fall, we will get back up. WE are, what Martin Luther termed, “at the same time justified and sinner.” Simul Justus et peccator

The very first of Martin Luther’s 95 theses, which would unintentionally go on to start the Protestant Reformation says that a believer’s life is one of continual repentance. Salvation, or Justification is a one time, once and for all, It Is Finish event. But our living it out, our working out our salvation with fear and trembling, our sanctification is an ongoing, lifelong process.

It is better to receive this mercy, before we get to the judge, than to face the justice we so truly deserve when the verdict is handed down.

Jesus has given all the information; he has been clear and left no room for doubt. Now it is up to each one if us individually to believe Him, to acknowledge the truth, His Truth, the Truth of the Bible. Jesus tells those who are hearing him in this passage, they should have seen through all the other stuff, they should have read the signs and they should have recognized Him for who He was.

And how much more, seeing these people reject, having the whole counsel of scripture and have it all here, laid out before us, who much more should we see and acknowledge His Truth and recognize Jesus Christ as our LORD and savior and trust and obey.

My great uncle, who was a priest, was so very fond of saying, “We are promised forgiveness if we ask, but we are never promised tomorrow.” Look around at what many in our family right here have dealt with over the past number of months and you will see the truth.

Sometimes it can be somewhat expected, we can know it is coming soon. Sometimes it will come out of nowhere. Sometimes it’s a little in between. God knows the number of our days, but he doesn’t let us in on that.

And as we think of how we have grieved for different people we have lost; think how they will grieve for you. WE can give them a gift by assure them of where we are going after we die.

Salvation Belongs to the LORD.

Today is the Day of Salvation.

Romans 10:8-10:

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

And lastly, John 5:24: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.

Luke 15:11-32 Jesus is the Son of Man: The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

Jesus is the Son of Man

The Prodigal Son

 

All right! Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will, to Luke chapter 15. As I say every week, if you do not have a Bible or if you need a Bible, please see me after the service and we can help get one into your hands.

Well, last week, we introduced the setting of this passage. Tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus, drawn to him, wanting to hear his teaching and to be on the receiving end of his grace. And as they saw this, the Scribes and Pharisees grumbled about it.

Whether they recognized it or not, they were grumbling at Gods grace. We see what had been happening in Jesus’ ministry. Sinners were welcomed. People were getting healed on the Sabbath. Jesus is claiming the power to forgive sins. Heaven was open to those who would repent and submit themselves to God. But those who think they had no need to repent, those who were self-righteous, they would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

“That’s not fair! I did everything right! Why does HE get to get in!” That’s the mindset that Jesus is addressing in these three parables that he tells here. The first two we looked at last week, the lost coin and the lost sheep. And Jesus point was we don’t save us. We don’t even help Jesus save us. Jesus chooses to save us and its all grace, no merit involved at all.

The third parable is the one we will look at this morning as well, the parable of the prodigal Son. Again, Jesus showing that the themes of grace are at complete odds with self-righteousness and pride.

Let’s go ahead and read the passage, Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 32. Ill be reading out of the English Standard Version and I encourage you to follow along in your preferred translation. Luke 15:11-32, The Holy Spirit inspires Luke to record the Words of Jesus:

 

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to[b] one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’[c] 22 But the father said to his servants,[d] ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

 

Thus says the Word of God.

This is one of those well know Bible stories that we have been talking about. We think we know what the story is and what the story is telling us, and we do, partly, mostly, sort of. There are many lessons that we can learn from the prodigal son, the character of the son himself. And that who we tend to focus on. We can learn lessons from the how he deals with his father, his attitude, his heart, how he lives apart from his family and from God. So many of those lessons are right and good lessons, but not a single one of them are ultimately the point of this story.

We start out seeing that this man, this older man, had two sons. And in those days, in that society, using this example of two sons, when the dad dies, each son gets a portion of the dad’s estate, property, animals, etc. The older son, the first born would get a double share. This means that he would get 66% and the younger son would get 33%.

Now, in this case, the son doesn’t want to wait for his dad to die in order to get his share. So, he goes to the dad and says, “Give me my share of your estate now.”

Now we don’t know the exact thoughts going through the sons’ head at that moment. He could have been thinking “Why should I continue working in this apparent dead-end job? I’m not the one who is going to get it.” OR he could have been thinking, “This is too stifling, I have to be true to who I am and follow my bliss, follow my heart and my dreams.” The result is the same, not willing to step up and take responsibility for his life, his work or anything else.

So, he goes to the father and says, Give me what’s my mine! Now, this was not exactly unheard of, but it was pretty close. At the least in was incredibly uncouth for the son to do this. And the father did it. He separated his estate in two sections, 1/3 and 2/3s. He gave his youngest son his third of the inheritance and as one commentator said, and I know a lot of you can identify with this, “the father allowed him to make his own choice to go his own way.” As a parent, especially as the kids get older, that’s the only thing we can do. They need to live their life and unfortunately, make their own mistakes and bad decisions.

Verse 13 indicates that someone liquidated the inheritance. Either the father to make the division cleaner or the son so he could just get going and whoop it up. Either way the son took of a long way away, away from the eyes of family and people that would have known him. He goes far away, like leaving here and headed to Redding or Sacramento or even San Francisco. And he proceeds to spend his money foolishly. He squandered it with reckless living.

Sometimes we see in the Bible, things can be overstated, over emphasis used, telling us to go through the eye of a needle in order to make the point how hard it is to save ourselves. (Spoiler; its literally, physically impossible.)

But I think that here we are seeing the opposite. I think we are seeing some very serious understatement here. The son squandered his money in reckless living. It reads to me like those lottery winners that we all see the stories for. Winning millions and hundreds of millions of dollars and being bankrupt within just a few years.

Just in case things are unclear, especially with the ultimate point of these three parables we are looking at last week and this week, our decisions absolutely have consequences. Just because we cannot save or help save ourselves, that it is 100% God in every way shape and form, just because he is sovereign and predestined all things and controls all things from the grand universe to the tiniest of Atoms, and decrees all things, does not mean that we are puppets, that our decisions don’t matter. We make our decisions day by day, moment by moment how we live, how we act, how we respond to what’s going on around us and inside of us.

And this younger son, he made his decisions. He was willfully defiant. He was a lost cause who wanted to be lost. And he lost all his money. He spent it all. It was all gone. He had nothing. And then, after he had lost all his money, a famine hit hard. So, he had no food. Not things were tight. Not he had to go to the local food pantry. He had no food.

And so, he did the only thing he was able to do. He, a Jewish man, hired himself out to a gentile pig farmer. The pig, of course, being the symbol, the epitome of unclean animals. IT seemed like the lowest of lows.

His self-made circumstances, no money, no food, combined with Gods sovereign circumstances, the famine and so on, both combined to bring this main to what seemed like it was the lowest point that the man could ever get to.

He sacrificed his dignity. He sacrificed his respect. He sacrificed his religious convictions. And then it got so bad, that he was looking at the slop he was feeding the pigs and was jealous of how well they were eating. He wanted to eat as well as them, which was not well, make no mistake.

 

And then, what could be said next in the text, what is true and based on the context of the parables, I believe is implied, is “But God…”

The text says that he came to himself. He “came to” as if awakening from a spiritual coma. He woke up as “awoken from God, by the Power of the Holy Spirit.” He was at his lowest point, but God wouldn’t let him stay there. God brought him to his senses.

He thought, I remember the people that worked for my dad. I remember the servants. Even the servants! And they were eating good! They got everything they needed and more. I will go back to my dad; I will repent, and I will beg his forgiveness.

I will tell him, I’m not worthy to be forgiven. I’m not worthy to be called your son. I’m not worthy to be even a lowly servant. I have sinned against you and heaven. I can imagine God bringing a little piece if the scriptures to his mind and heart at that moment, maybe PS 51:4 where David says that all sin is against God.

So, he gets up and starts making his way back to his father’s home. But before he gets there, we see something else. We see that the father, since the son has been gone, he has been actively looking, actively searching for him, actively waiting for him to come back home.

He saw his son while he was still a far way off, just as God sees us when we are still spiritually a far way off. The father saw his son in the distance and ran to him. He embraced him, and grabbed hold of him, again, just as God does to us, to every sinner who repents.

As we established last week at the end, we are loved and received by God before we ever make that decision to repent and trust in him. The son hadn’t even gotten there and hadn’t even said anything, but the father already loved him and received him back.  We always have a home with God if and when we are willing to repent and turn ourselves our to his grace and mercy.

The son, of course, started to recite his spiel that he had rehearsed. But his father wouldn’t have any of it. He sent for his best robe, for a ring, and some shoes. The son didn’t even have any shoes… But he was reconciled back and welcomed back a s a full member of the family.  He was welcomed, he was loved, and he was forgiven by the father. He was also rejoiced over.

The father tells his servants, go prepare the fattened calf for a partay! And to be clear, just in case it needs to be said, the party and the celebration, were in thanksgiving to God, not a godless, self-indulgence party. Just as verses 7 & 10 tell us that there is much rejoicing in Heaven over a sinner who repents.

The son was dead, now he is alive again! Just as Adam sinned and brought spiritual death to the human condition, so too did Jesus, the Second Adam, makes us spiritually alive, bringing us a new heart and a new spirit through the Holy Spirit.

We then are born again. Was dead, now alive. Was lost, now found. Time to celebrate.

 

 

But not everyone was happy.

 

The older son, remember him? He was out in the field working, as he always was. He was dutiful, he was responsible, he was hardworking. He heard the singing and dancing and asked what was going on. What’s the big hullaballoo?

“Your brother is back, and your dad is throwing a party because he is all the way back! He is safe and sound and back a part of the family!”

 

Well, make no mistake, the brother was angry! Just like the Pharisees grumbling about the tax collectors and sinners. The brother wouldn’t take part in the celebration. He couldn’t bring himself to be happy for the brother. The Father came out and tried to bring him in to join. Tried to get him to be happy for his father and his brother.

The brother lashed out: “It’s not fair! He left. He hurt my father. He squandered his opportunity. Not me! I never left. I have been loyal and steadfast. I followed the rules. I have been responsible.” “It’s not fair! You never threw me a party. You never slaughtered the fattened calf for me!”

But the fathers love and forgiveness were great and unconditional. He was brought back in the fold like nothing ever happened.

Now, when we look at application of some of these parables, one of the biggest things we need to remember is that we are not Jesus. We can’t and shouldn’t automatically do the exact and complete things that Jesus does in these stories.

Is this story an example of how we should always run a business? No.

Is this an example of how we should, without exception, run our family and personal relationships? No.

There are times and places to draw lines. There are times to remember that we are called to forgive, but not forget. There are times to reward loyalty and dedication and steadfastness.

 

But that’s not how God’s grace works in relation to salvation. God’s grace is scandalous. It is undeserved. It is unfair from the world’s perspective.

It reminds me of the parable of the workers in Matthew 20. In Sinclair Fergusons book, The Whole Christ, he talks about this parable and the scandalous Ness of God’s grace. He points out that its not until the workers who showed up early and worked all day long, not until they saw the workers at the end of the day get the same pay, they did, it was only then that they got upset. It was Gods grace that revealed hidden legalism in their hearts.

That mindset, “I deserve it! Especially because they didn’t deserve it and they got it. So, I should especially get it because I deserve it.” This subtle form of Legalism is heading in all of our hearts.

We see in verses 30 that the older brother won’t even calls him his brother, he just spits it out in disgust, “That son of yours…”

The Father responds, the grace I show him has nothing to do with you. It doesn’t affect you one bit. It doesn’t take away anything from you. Other people being saved doesn’t take away anything from your salvation. Them receiving grace does not take away from grace you already received.

We see in this part of the story that Jesus is still and will continue to call the Pharisees to repent and join him in the kingdom of Heaven. The offer never stops being presented. The plea never stops being made.

The father tells the older brother, it is right and proper to rejoice. It is right and proper to rejoice over your brother coming back home. It is right and proper to rejoice in each and every one of us who was lost and is now found. Each and every one of us who was dead and is now alive.

The father is telling the son, I believe, that if you repent and come to me, we will rejoice for you as well. For then you will have been brought from spiritual death to spiritual life and will be brought home.

God often will bring us through the far country in order to wake us up and bring us home. And we see this, and we see How Great the fathers love for us. That we will always be welcome home. That he will never stop actively looking for us, searching for us and waiting for us.

We also need to remember that as often as we put ourselves in the younger brothers’ shoes, more often Id says, we are actually in the older brothers’ shoes. God, I’m doing this work for you. I’m loving you and serving you and being loyal and steadfast. Why don’t I get more grace, more mercy, more whatever?

That heart of ours is an idol factory and that is one of them. That’s one of the reasons that Jesus tells us we need to remember. He is constantly reminding us of his grace and mercy and that it is freely given, as Mike read this morning, so that no man may boast.

And so, we remember. Constantly, regularly. We do it every first Sunday of the month. We remember and we know that we are in his hands because we have responded by faith to his death on cross and resurrection. God grace poured out on those covered with his blood, the blood of the lamb, come to take away the sins of the world. He instead he spares us from the wrath of God.

He condescended from Heaven, still God, was born a man, a human baby and lived the perfect, sinless life that we needed to and were unable to live. HE paid the penalty, paid the wages for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God. He paid that penalty with his life. In an act of pure, perfect love, Romans 5:8 says:  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Before he did this, Jesus told us to remember this and to celebrate it as often as we get together. We do this in a monthly basis, we celebrate communion as a church family.

We remember and we follow the commands of Jesus that he gave his disciples during the Last Supper.

Luke’s Gospel records the Last Supper, and he writes of Jesus telling his disciples in chapter 22, verses 19& 20: He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying: “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after super, he took the cup, saying, “This is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” 

We do this in remembrance of Him. Paul speaks about communion in 1 Corinthians 11 and before we get into it, I have one thing to share that Paul tells us, first, communion is for believers. It is in remembrance for what he has done for us. It is us obey his commands by our faith in him. Communion itself does not save. It does not forgive sins; it does not impart righteousness or cleanse your soul. If you are not a follower of Christ, we just ask that you pass the elements along and then, if you have any questions or want to take that step, you can talk to myself or one of the deacons after the service.

 

Now, we are going to do things a little bit different this morning, due to taking some precautions. We have individual cups that contains both the wafers, which symbolize Jesus’ broken body on the cross. His Death that pays the penalty for our sins. It also contains the juice, symbolizing the shed blood of Christ, which purchases our eternal life in Christ, through faith.

First, we will take the wafer together. Afterwards, we will take the juice together and we will be united together under the cross and blood of Jesus Christ. I will pray and we will come to the LORDs table.