Created For Significance pt 4b
Created For Significance • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewThe parable of the "Prodigal Son" has caught the attention of millions of people over the years... It is the story of a wayward son, a loving father, and an unforgiving older brother... But... Who is who in this story? Who is really lost? Who is the "Prodigal"? What does this story have to do with critical, complaining Pharisees??? Better yet, What does this story have to do with us?!? This story holds the greatest revelation of who God is, and how He feels about us in the entire Biblical narrative. Plunging it'a depths will carry us into a greater revelation of what it means to be "Children of God"!
Notes
Transcript
Are you worth saving?
Are you worth saving?
Bishop Moore tells the story of a little boy who was swimming in a lake… He was doing pretty good, until… He suddenly got a cramp and could swim no further… He struggled for his life… He had gone under twice, when he felt the strong arm of a man lifting him…
The man had seen his plight from the shore, and swam out to save him.
After he got him to shore and saw that he was alright, the man turned to leave… The boy said, “Thank you for saving my life!”
The man replied, “You’re welcome, son. See to it that you are worth saving.”
He goes on to explain that he was that boy… He was saved by a man who didn’t even leave his name… “Every Christian should ask [themselves], ‘Am I worth saving?’”
“Are you worth saving?”
This isn’t a question of your worth to God… We’ve already seen that!
Jesus has given us a shepherd who risks 99 sheep to save 1… A woman who cancels plans and rips her home apart looking for just one coin… and now a Father....
A father who loves his sons so much that when the one who wandered returns, He refuses to allow him to suffer the walk of shame and the destruction that would come… BUT… instead lifts his robes… exposes his legs… and he runs to him!
Embracing him… Kissing him… wrapping his arms around him… taking the humiliation… the shame… and the potential isolation from the community on himself…
BUT, he doesn’t stop there!!!
NO!!! The question, “Are you worth saving?” Has nothing to do with our worth in God’s eyes… BUT… everything to do with how we respond to that love!
Let’s take a look at what else this father does… (Luke 15)
3. He calls for the best robe to be put on the son.
Luke 15:22 (NRSV)
22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Question: Who owned the “best robe” in the family?
— The Father.
The father and son are still standing at the edge of the village… The father wants the whole village to know that he has accepted his son… So, He sends his servants to get his own best robe so his son can wear it!
But… He doesn’t stop there…
4. A ring and Sandals
Luke 15:22 (NRSV)
22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
The ring is probably a signet ring… It’s the ring the father would use to sign all documents… It was a symbol of the father’s authority… and a symbol of the family…
This meant that the son is a trusted, empowered member of the family.
Do you realize that is who you are?
Do you think you CAN’T do what God asks of you? YOU CAN!!!!
Do you think the world will stop you? THEY CAN’T!!!!
You are His child! You have been accepted! You have been given privilege!
Sandals are a sign that he is a free man… not a servant.
Servants didn’t get shoes… they walked barefoot.
5. The Fattened Calf.
Finally, the father says:
23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;
Not a fatted goat… or sheep… or chicken… but a calf!
WHY???
Because a calf had enough meat to feed the entire village!
Do you see what the father is doing?!?
He’s inviting the whole village to share in his joy!
He doesn’t want the son to just be reconciled to him, He wants him to be reconciled to the whole village!
He wants everyone to have a relationship with his son!
WOW!!!
This is a story that no one could have anticipated!
One commentator states: “For Palestinian listeners, initially the father would naturally be a symbol of God. Then, as the story progresses, the father comes down out of the house and, in a dramatic act, demonstrates unexpected love publicly in humiliation.”
Sound familiar?
That’s what God did on the cross!
23 his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession.
God stepped out of Heaven… Off His throne… and sent a part of Himself into the world…
John 1:1–14 (NRSV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
…
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
He didn’t come just to take the punishment… Just to pay the price for our sin… Jesus came to take the guilt… the shame… the isolation… the separation… all so that we could be restored into a relationship with each other… through our relationship with Him!!!
This is the ultimate rags-to-riches story… Only it’s not about money… It’s about measuring your worth in God’s eyes!!!
Do you see what Jesus has been doing with this story?
He has been telling every person listening… who ever wanted to take a step towards God… Just how significant we are to Him!
He’s been telling us how God feels about us!
He doesn’t wait for us… He runs to us!
He doesn’t let us bear the shame of living our lives as if we wished He were dead… He bears it for us!
He embraces us… He kisses us… He puts His robe on us… His ring on our finger… His sandals on our feet… His seal on our hearts!
He kills the fatted calf to celebrate US… and invites everyone else to celebrate us with Him!!!
That’s who you are!!!!
Do you know what’s so significant about that “fatted calf”? It’s not the first one!!!
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
God has been clothing us and providing for us from the very beginning! He’s not about to stop now!!!
His love is deeper… wider… and bigger then we can even imagine!!!
The question is: “What are you going to do about it?!?!”
You see… That’s what this story is about! That’s Jesus’s point!
We have to make a choice “What we are going to do about the Love God has for us!?!?”
But… It’s not about just one character… It’s not just one father or one son…
SO… Who’s left?
— The older son…
Scene Four… the Older Son. (I think more of us will relate to the Older Son, if we honestly think about it…)
But… Before we dig into the older son, I want you to consider this question: “Who really is the ‘Prodigal Son’?”
— Keep that question in mind as we finish up this story… we’ve already seen the younger son… Now let’s look at the other son…
The older son hasn’t left home, BUT… he has left the father!
25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.
27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’
As this scene opens, where is the older son?
— In the field, working…
Now… The opening of the story mentions the older son two times…
11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.
The first sentence, “the man had two sons...”
The second time, he’s mentioned as having received his share of the estate.
Luke 15:12 (NRSV)
12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.
The older son had everything that he and his father now lived on. It ALL belonged to him!!!
— That’s Important! —
He has literally been given the “keys to the kingdom”!
Yet, what happens?
As he is coming in from the fields, he hears music… He grabs a servant and asks, “What’s going on?”
And the servant tells him his brother has returned safely! His father is so happy… everyone is celebrating!
What is his response to this news?!
— He becomes angry…
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
He refuses to join the party… Whether we want to admit it or not… Whether we think he is “justified” in his actions or not… This would be a severe insult to the father… humiliating him a second time!
The older son’s role in the party was to be the “gracious host”… to welcome the people to the party… Everybody would see his refusal… They would see his rejection of his father!
They would see the insult he was handing him!!!
If you read further, you find that, in his heart, the older son has already distanced himself from his father.
29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve 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.
Jesus gives us two clues to the condition of the older son’s heart — that the people would not have missed:
Does he even think of himself as a son? NO! He’s been “slaving for the father.” He hasn’t lived with him as a son, but as a servant! The very thing the younger son had decided was the best he could do after having shamed his father the way he did…
(verse 29b) He’s mad because the father had never given him an animal to throw a party with his friends. Do you see what that says? In his mind… His father’s friends are not his friends. He doesn’t want to party with his dad… or be friends with his dad’s friends… (listen) He has developed his own relational web, and the father has nothing to do with it!
Is That Us? Have we developed a social and relational web that God has nothing to do with?!
Here is the amazing thing about the older son… He felt deprived by the father because the father “had never given him anything” — no calf… no chicken… not even a goat!
WHAT?!?!?!?
What happened when the younger son left?
— The older son got his share too!
31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
The Father says: “I already gave it to you! ALL these years, it’s ALL been yours.”
Do you see it?
The older son has distanced himself… he refuses to join his father at the party…
So, what does the father do?
— He humiliates himself… he leaves the party… and goes out to his older son…
Now… Here’s where it gets interesting… Pay attention, cause this is some upper level Bible teaching going on here…!
Are you ready for this?
Jesus… like all good Jewish storytellers of his day, tells this story in a chiastic way.
Let me explain…
All stories from this region, and almost all stories from the Bible, are told with a certain structure called, chiasm.
If you read most Bible stories carefully you’ll find that they diagram like this:
Scene one: the younger son.
A. A son is lost
B. Goods wasted in wild living
C. Everything lost.
D. The Great Sin.
E. Total rejection
F. Change of mind.
F1. Initial repentance
E1. Total acceptance.
D1. The Great Repentance
C1. Everything gained
B1. Goods wasted in wild partying
A1. A son is found.
See the symmetry?
Pretty cool, isn’t it?
If you want to have some fun this afternoon, look around in the Bible… I’ll bet you’ll find this pattern…
That is the structure of the younger son.
Now… Look at the older son:
Scene Two: the older son
A. a son is far off
B. Your brother is safe/a feast
C. Father comes to reconcile
D. “How you treated me”
D1. “How you treated him”
C1. Father tries to reconcile
B1. Your brother is safe/feast
A1. A son is ________?
Do you see what’s missing?
The conclusion…
Jesus is doing something deliberate with this story.
There’s no resolution! (unlike the lost sheep and lost coin…)
There’s a piece missing… What did the older son do?!?
Who really was the prodigal son?
Who are you in this story? (be honest)
In the first story, the son is far off… but in the end he is found!
In the second story, the son is far off… But What does he do?
That’s the question Jesus poses to the Pharisees…
Clearly in their minds, they were the older sons. They were the ones who had stayed… who had tried to obey… who served God like slaves… BUT… Their hearts were far off…
They didn’t want to come to the party… They didn’t want to celebrate the return of the wayward sons… Because they weren’t their friends…
They didn’t engage in seeking and welcoming the lost… They didn’t join in the Father’s work… They simply wanted to live their lives, Their way…
“The younger son understood and accepted that he was far off… The he was completely lost… That he didn’t deserve to be welcomed by the Father, or called a son.... BUT… The Father comes out and outrageously welcomes him home…”
“The older son, too, is far off… BUT… He’s too proud to admit where and who he has become… He knows he’s not really a bad guy… He’s mad at the Father for accepting “That Horrible son back!”… So, he refuses to go in… Again, the Father comes out to him… in the same humiliation caused by the younger… He talks about rejoicing and invites the older son to come in…”
Does he come in?
Do you come in?
You see… The point is that the Father Loves ALL His children.... He loves them so much that He is willing to suffer shame and humiliation to bring us home.
Will you come home?
Will you let Him love you?
Will you choose to be in a close relationship with Him?
Will you acknowledge how much He loves you and respond to that love?
Will you celebrate the things He celebrates and pursue the things the Father pursues?
Church… It’s not about money… It’s not about how much you give… It’s not about works…
It’s about living as His child!
It’s about recognizing and celebrating what’s important to Him… AND what He’s given to us!
Will you come home?
You see… To often, I think we are like the man in the story told by Tim Hansel…
We want the benefits of being in God’s family, but we do not want the responsibility… So we say:
“I’d like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul, or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk, or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man, or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.” — Tim Hansel
Is that you?
Have you been looking for the benefits of God, without the commitment? The blessings, without the cost?
God has proven your worth to Him! What are you going to do with it?
He has invited you to the party… He’s given you the finest robe… the family ring… sandals for your feet…
Will you come in?
Let me tell you:
You are never too far away for God to reach you!
You are never so far lost that God can’t save you!
It doesn’t matter what you’ve done… It doesn’t matter where you are at… It doesn’t matter what you’ve become… God, will welcome you home!
“There is no pit so deep the Father’s love cannot reach” — Corrie Ten Boom
(prayer)