Luke 15

Luke 15.

How many of you guys know the story of the prodigal son?

The story of the prodigal son, yeah.

So that's what we're going through today.

The story of the prodigal son.

But we get the joy of looking at this in the context of where it lies.

We've been going through the book of Luke for the last year, or a little bit less than a year, going back to last Christmas.

And this is going to be a lot of fun.

So Luke 15, open up your Bibles to Luke 15.

Let's read the first seven verses and then we will pray.

Luke 15, 1 through 7.

Does anybody, if anybody needs help finding it in their Bible?

And I don't want to take for granted the fact that sometimes Luke is tough to find.

Luke is in the New Testament, so you kind of turn your Bible to the middle and then turn to the right a little bit further until you get to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John.

So we're in Luke in the New Testament.

There should be a table of context in the beginning of your Bible as well if you need help finding it.

So chapter 15 is where we're at, starting in verse 1.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and he eats with them.

Then Jesus told them this parable Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.

Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.

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

Let's pray together.

God, as we look at your word and go through this chapter, we want to have ears that are listening for your voice, and we want to have an attitude as we listen that we're ready to say yes to what you say.

And so, Lord, as we hold in our hands your word, whether it's on our phones or a physical Bible, Lord, would you just quicken these truths to our hearts?

Lord, you can have your way with us.

We give you permission, Lord, to work in our lives.

Lord, you know the different things going on in us.

You know the story that you know the wounds that we have, you know the patterns, the character, Lord, all of this stuff you know.

And you have compassion upon us.

And so, Lord, would you meet us in the individual places where we're at?

The thing that I need to hear from you is different from the person next to me.

And so, Lord, just speak by your spirit to each one of us in particular.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, what we've seen is that Luke is a book written by Luke to a man named Theophilus, who was a wealthy patron at the time.

And Luke wrote this with three specific um points that he wanted to get through, right?

Some some key emphasis.

So the first one with Theophilus, who's already heard about Jesus, Theophilus uh he wants to buttress, that's like an architectural term, right?

He buttresses like what you do to give strength your architectural feature.

Um he wants to buttress the things that that um Theophilus has already believed about Jesus.

He's giving evidence, he's giving proofs, he's giving background on who Jesus was.

The second thing that Luke is doing is that he wants you, you and I, the reader, Theophilus, to understand that God has a plan.

That there's this redemptive mission that's unfolding all the way through the Bible.

And so as we encounter the truths in Luke, one of the things that we find is that that plan extends to our life, right?

Extended to this week.

The plan of God was unfolding around you and I, and God um wanted you and I to be involved in that in some way or another.

Um I don't know how successful I was, I don't know how successful you were, but but the reality is that God's at work in Fells Point, Upper Fells Point, you know, Washington Hill, Butchers Hill.

He's at work right here, Harbor East.

God's plan is unfolding.

That means that he's working in people's lives.

He's holding back evil is one of the things that we see God doing actively.

We know that there's um angels that are trying to protect the saints.

So God is at work, right?

And Luke, as he tells the story of Jesus, he keeps coming back to that over and over again, just trying to make it clear that God has a plan.

And then the last thing that we see is just that Jesus reigns over his kingdom, right?

That he is reigning and ruling over his kingdom.

So Jesus comes on the scene and he's talking about it.

So here as we get into Luke 15, um, one of the things that we encounter is that sometimes as a follower of Jesus, um, or oftentimes, just as being a follower of Jesus, he deals with the attitudes of our heart.

Right?

So you remember when you were a kid and your mom is like, hey, don't have that attitude with me, right?

So, so if if you're a follower of Jesus, and that's what he's looking for, he's calling people to follow him.

If you're a follower of Jesus, one of the things that he wants to deal with is our attitude, like our disposition towards life and others around us and about and towards God.

Like an attitude check.

I don't know how in your home you dealt with attitudes.

Um I know, I know what it looks like in my house now, but but the reason why I know my parents dealt with my, like when they're parenting me and a bad attitude, I didn't get away with that, was because they, my parents were training me to relate to God, to hear the leadership of God in my life.

Right?

So what I found as I moved out into high school and then into college and was independent from my family was that all this parenting that my parents did in my life was intended to set me up so that I could relate to the new authority figure in my life, which is God.

Right?

So here Jesus is bringing his kingdom, his reign, and it's it's clashing with these religious leaders.

And it and one of the things that we've got to be open to as we go into this text is that if you're a follower of Jesus and you're considering being a follower of Jesus, he's gonna speak to you about your attitude.

He's gonna speak to you about uh how you process life and kind of your disposition towards other people.

And we've also said this as we've gone to um and we've looked at some of the other parables, is that sometimes stories inspire and sometimes they model, right?

That's just an important thing to remember as we're going through the text, right?

So Jesus is sometimes telling these stories uh to make a point that will inspire and motivate people towards action, and other times he's um just modeling something.

So in these first seven verses, what do we have?

We first of all we encounter the fact that what is who's Jesus hanging out with?

Yeah, verse one tax collectors and sinners.

Jesus, who is God in the flesh, is hanging out with tax collectors and sinners.

The tax collectors in Israel were like the worst, right?

The Jews hated the tax collectors, right?

Because they imposed Roman rule and they were crooked.

Like they could use their position of authority to cheat people out of money.

So Luke, who's writing this historical account, says, here's Jesus, and gathered around to hear him teach are the tax collectors and sinners.

But then what do we have in verse 2?

We have a but.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

So, right off the bat, when you have a um contrast, which is what a but is in the text, it begs this question.

Are you a sinner listening to Jesus?

Or are you a religious person muttering about what Jesus is, do you think Jesus is doing wrong?

Isn't it interesting that the people that are welcome here are the sinners?

Yeah, so so who who's kind of the the um villain in these two verses?

It's the Pharisees, right?

It's these these guys that are super religious.

The Pharisees were the experts in in uh Jewish law, right?

They understood Judaism, and then they practiced this really strict Judaism.

And then they were really like um snooty about it, like high, high-minded, like look at me, I'm better than all of you.

And they're criticizing Jesus, they're muttering under their breath about who Jesus is hanging out around.

And so here's this contrast.

The question for you and I, just for a second.

Who are you?

Are you do you identify with the sinners that are just grateful to be with Jesus?

Or are you the religious snooty person, kind of arms crossed, upset that Jesus would hang out with the sinners?

So we've got these two groups, and Jesus tells this parable about the sheep, right?

This lost this lost lamb out of a hundred.

There's one that's lost.

And Jesus asks this question Doesn't the shepherd leave the 99 for the one?

They should have known culturally that that's what happens, right?

The shepherd goes, he loses a sheep, he goes out to get that one lost sheep.

Do you notice the repeated word at the end of these verses?

Verse um verse five.

He says, Joyfully, he puts it on his shoulders, and then in verse six, rejoice with me, I've found my lost sheep.

And then we have another rejoice in verse seven over and over again.

Right?

The shepherd lost a sheep.

He goes and finds the sheep.

And what is his attitude?

He's rejoicing, right?

He's rejoicing in finding what was lost.

Here is Jesus holding up as an example this shepherd saying, This is a good attitude.

This is where your heart should be at, where you're rejoicing in those who are lost being found.

In fact, he finishes off talking, giving an insight into what's going on in heaven.

He says, I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.

You want to make heaven, and and and I would say this the application of this, this isn't just like you're a sinner, and then one time you turn to the Lord and that's your conversion.

I I think that this can apply to all repentance in our life.

We're all sinners, right?

We all need to come, uh we we all need to recognize that we are born in sin.

We're all people desperately in need of the forgiveness of God.

And you want to make God happy, you want to lead to his rejoicing.

Our position of repentance leads to a heavenly rejoicing.

This parable illustrates the proper attitude and then gives the heavenly parable.

Thus, who is going?

The question is, who's going to be a party pooper?

Right?

Who's gonna who's gonna see this lost sheep found and be all cynical?

No, well, if we saw this this take place with the shepherd, we'd be like, that's a good news.

But sometimes, sometimes we take on this position of the Pharisees, right, where we want to look down our nose at other sinners.

We want to look down at other people who've messed up, right?

And man, Jesus is uh he's really correcting the Pharisees.

Let's go to the next set of verses, verses eight through ten.

And and this is a the reason we're doing a whole chapter, the reason we're doing a whole chapter this morning, and I know it's a lot to cover, is it's one big thought, right?

So we might as well just knock it out right here.

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one, doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and she says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin.

In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Have you ever lost something?

Have you ever lost a coin?

Like you're like, I know I had this.

The other day I lost my wallet.

I think it was probably three weeks ago.

And it was to the it was like DEF CON 4, you know, how's like I did all the normal searching and then it's like I can't find it, and then I did some more searching, and then it's like start flying the flag.

It's like, okay, family, cancel your life.

My one wallet has to be found, you know?

And so we're going all over the place, you know?

And um, I I like to pride myself in being a really good like person at searching, you know, when when people lose stuff in my house, like they ask me for the for help, right, Hayden?

Yeah.

You guys like like I'm I'm like a good searcher, and I could not find my wallet.

I'm like, and then you start thinking, like, could I seriously have left this somewhere?

Where did this go?

Anyway, I had hung my g my my wallet was in my pants, and then I hung it over the bathtub, and it fell out of my pants down into the bottom of the bathtub, and it was just hanging out there.

Yeah, so I we finally found it, but I felt really, really stupid.

Well, this lady, she has ten coins and she loses one, and she goes and she sweeps the house to find the lost coin.

But but the the story kind of crescendos with this idea where she finds it, she calls her friends and her neighbors and she says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin.

In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of God, a presence of the angels of God, over one sinner who repents.

Here's the thing.

Here's the thing.

Jesus tells another story about something that's lost and is found.

And what is the repeated word?

Rejoicing.

Right?

Jesus wants people rejoicing over the lost being found.

He says that is the appropriate attitude in our life.

You leave the the 99 to go find the one.

She rejoices over the one coin being found.

Let's go to the prodigal son.

And I will try to progress the slides here for this one.

Verse 11.

Jesus continued, right?

So the thought continues.

So this is the third story to convey this point.

Must have been an important point to Jesus.

There was a man who had two sons.

The younger one said to his father, Father, give my share of the estate, or give me my share of the estate.

So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and then squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and he hired himself out to the citizen, a citizen of that country, who sent him to the fields to feed the pigs.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am, starving to death.

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.

The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servant, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fatted calf and kill it.

Let's have a feast and a celebration.

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field.

When he came near the house he heard music and dancing.

So he called he called one of the servants and asked him, What was going on?

Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has him back safe and sound.

The older brother became angry and refused to go in.

So his father went out and pleaded with him.

But he answered his father, Look, all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home, you kill the fatted calf for him.

My son, the father said, You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

It keeps going, but I cut it off.

Why did I cut off the text?

Doesn't it isn't there a little bit more there?

Everything I have is yours.

What is the next?

I must have cut it off and then I cut it off in my notes as well.

And then there's another verse, right?

Just one verse.

Okay, good.

I knew I was missing something.

Okay, so you most of you are familiar with this story, right?

We've got two sons.

The younger son takes his inheritance, he squanders it, he ends up destitute, starving.

And some of you can relate to this story.

Some of you have made bad choices in your life, and you're, and you maybe have gone through a season where you're like, I was the prodigal, right?

Where you're out and you're like, man, I made, I squandered, I had good opportunities and I didn't make good choices, right?

So maybe you can relate to the to the prodigal son in this story.

If so, there's this beautiful um example of repentance, right?

What does he say?

He just humbles out.

He's done, he's ready to like eat the pig food, and they won't even give him pig food to eat.

And he's like, I'm ready to go back to my father, right?

And and it's amazing kind of the thresholds that we all are at.

Like, um, I don't know what your threshold for repentance is.

I I can be pretty stubborn, right?

I can I can hold out for a pretty good long time.

And then, but there's certain pain points that God knows that I have that he'll allow me to experience to motivate me towards repentance.

In fact, it says in the book of Hebrews that God disciplines us because he loves us.

He allows our life to be painful so that we will move back towards him because he's like this father.

Right?

The father starts running from a far ways away and he grabs the son, right?

He has compassion on him.

Not only does he have compassion, he doesn't even let the son really get into his whole speech.

He's just like, let's throw a party.

He's just ready to love on his son and just care for his son in such an awesome way.

Amen.

Some of you need that treatment this morning.

Like, like we just need, like, and and here's the good news, right?

Here's why we, in our mission statement, why we love Jesus.

Like, the reason we're a church that loves Jesus is because Jesus tells these kind of stories.

Jesus tells the kind of stories where the sinner is loved.

Right?

The kind of stories that Jesus tells says to you and I, hey, you are loved no matter what you've gone through.

When you turn, the father is waiting to receive you.

Man, isn't that beautiful?

Isn't that beautiful?

But the story doesn't stop there.

There's this older brother who becomes angry, refuses to participate, and then he explains or he justifies his bad attitude.

Now, I don't know if if you're like me, but that I've definitely pitied this older brother at times.

Because I was the oldest in my family, right?

Um, but you look at him and and and you're like, yeah, I mean, poor guy, here he did everything right, and you know, he's kind of like bombed out, right?

But this older brother is why Jesus is telling you this story.

Let's go back to the beginning.

You have, this is told into the context of a Jewish community, right?

The audience is primarily Jewish.

There may have been a few Gentiles there, but it's primarily Jewish.

And the hierarchy of who's like a good Jew at this time were these Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Scribes.

And they're the ones who are cynical in their disposition towards the ones that Jesus is hanging out towards.

And so Jesus in this story, the older brother, represents these religious Jewish people.

Translated over to our context, it represents this self-righteous, legalistic religious people, you know, whether it's the SNL church lady or somebody else that comes to mind, right?

It's somebody who's like looking down their nose, goody two shoes, and justifying themselves and having a little pity party because God is rejoicing over sinners and welcoming sinners into his presence.

Right?

We can all look for to justify ourselves through our own works.

And this older brother was like, look, I've done everything, I didn't go and blow my inheritance, like I've stuck around town, you know?

He's trying to justify him through his good deeds.

And Jesus is saying, he's saying, listen, listen up.

That older brother is just as wrong, just as wrong as a sinner, but which one ends up in close proximity to the father?

It's the sinning son who has returned, the prodigal son that's returned, who is rejected is this self-righteous older brother.

It's amazing.

It's this surprise factor.

Here's a couple of principles I want to just pull out really briefly from the text.

First of all, it's possible to miss the moment because we are self-absorbed.

It's possible to miss the moment.

Here's God in the flesh rescuing the lost.

This is the moment that lost sheep was found.

This is the moment the lost coin was found.

This is the moment the prodigal son has returned.

And yet the people who think they're religious are missing the moment.

It's possible for you and I to do life in such a way that we miss what God's doing right in front of us because we're self-absorbed, we're self-righteous, we want to put God into blocks.

Second, it is possible to seek justification through the good things that you and I have done.

But that is not a valid ticket to God's party.

Do you understand that the good things you do do not earn you God's favor?

It's really important to understand this, that the Bible teaches that you being a good person does not get you into heaven.

So if you were to die this very moment and God was to ask you, why should I allow you into heaven, if you try to take your good works and hold them up and say, look, I did this over here and I did this over here and I volunteered in the compassion center and I helped this homeless person out, or I'm homeless and I gave half my food stamps away, or whatever it is that you did.

God will not recognize those things to forgive your sin.

Your debt of sin is greater than the good works that you can do.

You cannot justify yourself before God.

You can't be the older brother and say, look, I've kept my nose clean my whole life.

No, one sin, one sin is enough to keep you from the presence of God and living eternally with God.

It is essential to understand, it is essential for us to put our feet, ourselves, in the shoes of the prodigal son and recognize that we are the sinners that need to repent and turn to the Lord.

Also notice that Jesus is the leader.

He wants to lead our emotional response to life.

Our attitudes are within the domain of his evaluation and leadership, right?

We are a very emotional culture, right?

A lot of media is wired to appeal to our emotions.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, what that means is that your leader is Jesus, and the way that you are to feel about things comes under that authority.

So that doesn't mean that you don't have a bad attitude, but it means that the bad attitude is wrong, right?

When you're you're um tempted to condemn someone else or to um judge someone else or look down your nose and be critical of somebody else, that doesn't mean that um you're not tempted to do it, but it means in Christ that it is um it is wrong.

Your leader, my leader, wants to lead our emotional response to life.

The fourth thing I wrote down here is the sympathetic hum of our hearts.

Have you ever tuned an instrument?

Have you ever watched somebody tune a guitar?

You have usually like the tone plays, or maybe that play that little funny looking harmonica thing, or you have another, like you hit the key on the piano.

And what you learn when you tune a guitar or any instrument is you're listening to the sympathetic vibrations between the tone and the the um wire that's being tightened.

And the better you become at it, you can actually, you can actually, you know, know, you can hear like that that vibration, right, Barry?

You know what I'm talking about.

I'll put this in this illustration in there for you.

But but that's how our hearts want, that's how God wants our hearts to be.

He wants our hearts to be in tune with his heart, right?

And just so you know, we're born with a messed-up heart.

We're born to be like the older brother.

We're born to kind of um to just to want to look down on other people that have problems or are not like us.

And yet, here is God rejoicing.

He's rejoicing over the presence and the return of the lost.

Let me just ask you this question.

This is what I was just kind of meditating on as I closed um up my study this week on this passage is like, what's what's my attitude towards Baltimore?

Like, is your is your heart and is my heart in line with God's heart towards Baltimore, towards this neighborhood, towards the people?

Well, like, how's your heart towards the people around you?

You know, personalize this.

Take it in.

Like the the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you and I about how we um need to align our hearts with his heart.

Does your heart attitude sing sympathetically with the Father's care?

Let's wrap this up.

Hebrews 2, 10 through 11.

And this is really the most important thing to see because we looked at two brothers, and I want to talk to you about a third brother, a third brother.

Read with me Hebrews chapter 2, 10 and 11.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

I have it up here on the screen.

It says this in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.

So this is all talking about Jesus.

Then verse 11.

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

You see, Jesus became our brother.

He was willing to be your brother, he was willing to suffer so that you could be saved.

Your good brother is Jesus.

Right?

The passage goes on.

Read some more of Hebrews chapter 2 when you get a chance.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

But the whole idea is this that Jesus is our good brother.

We're like the prodigal, right?

We're tempted to be like the older brother, but Jesus has been our good brother.

He's brought us into the family, he's made us loved, right?

He's made you loved, loved by God.

I want to close with a quote.

Actually, this is like two weeks in a row that I've pulled stuff from Keller, so forgive me.

But but read this.

There's actually three slides because this this quote is um lengthy.

But but read this along with me, okay, just in your own heads.

Consider what he's saying here.

One of the main purposes of this passage, the passage that we just looked at, is to say if you are a gospel-believing Christian, you will love the poor.

You will love the broken.

You will not be creeped out or look down or be paternalistic towards people whose lives are broken.

You won't look at anybody and say, Well, yeah, you're poor, but you brought that on yourself.

Wait a minute.

Do you not know who you are?

Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

You're the middle class in spirit.

He's current, he's saying, if you do this kind of paternalistic attitude, you're the middle class.

Middle class people say, Well, I've worked very hard for my salvation.

That's middle class in spirit.

You should know better.

Do you believe you're a sinner saved by grace?

Then when you look at a poor person or a broken person or a person who has been out of work for a long time or who has messed up, you know you're looking in the mirror.

You're looking at somebody just like yourself.

The only reason why you are in the feast of the Father's salvation is because the ultimate rich man, Jesus Christ, became poor for you.

That means we ought to be deeply involved in the lives of broken people in this city.

It means not just giving your charity, giving your money, though that's very important.

It means giving your time, giving your relationship, and entering into non-paternalistic relationships with people inside the church.

You don't hobnob with people of your ilk or your class or your level of connection or of power or of money or of looks.

Don't you dare?

Not when you know the parable of the prodigal son and the father who did this.

Isn't that good?

Man, may we be a people, may we be a people that just embody the prodigal son, right?

The story of a father who's rejoicing, rejoicing in the rescue of the lost.

Let me just tell you, if you've come to church this morning and you don't know God's love towards you through his son Jesus, let me just really basically explain that if you want to have a relationship with God, He's already made a way for that to happen.

He has sent His Son into the world to pay for your sin on the cross.

So, like when we have the symbol of the cross, Jesus died on that cross.

That's why the church loves that symbol.

Some of you even have it, you know, tattooed on you, or you wear it as a chain.

Because it's it's the symbol of your payment.

Jesus paid for your sin on the cross.

And so, how do you have a relationship with God based on the cross?

Well, you just trust that what he did on the cross on your behalf was sufficient.

You place your faith in him.

You say, I want you to be the Lord of my life.

That's the beginning of your relationship with God.

And God wants to do that in your life.

He's like this father.

He's waiting for you to come home.

He's waiting for your return.

And I don't know what that looks like in your life.

But but the Father is standing there waiting for you to return home.

He wants to throw his arms around you, he wants to invite you to his feast.

You are a loved person.

And for those of us who've already made that decision to follow Jesus in our own life, let's continue to share in the image of Christ in our disposition towards others.

Some of you are in close proximity to people who would be considered the sinners of the world.

Some of you spend a great deal of time in proximity of other sinners.

This is the attitude of the Father towards those people around you.

Loved.

Absolutely loved.

Let's pray.

Lord, give us your heart.

Give us your heart.

By the work of your Holy Spirit, Lord, give us your heart towards the people that are loved.

Lord, if there's anybody here that has not yet received you into their life as their Lord and Savior, I pray that, Lord, you would um that you would lead them to you, that you would help them to see the truths of the gospel, that you would give them the faith to trust in you.

That they would turn and trust.

So thank you for this text.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's stand.