A Prodigal Family
Notes
Transcript
Handout
What happens after the feast?
We don’t know, because it depends on the choices of the brothers.
We can speculate about what will happen to each son, but what is the ideal that the story is pointing toward? What would be a happy ending?
Joyful reunion of the entire family
Moving forward rooted in the father’s prodigality.
What does that mean for us?
The church is frequently described as the family of God
Matthew 12:49–50 “Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
But we are not just any family. We are marked out as a distinct kind of family.
They will know you are my disciples if you love one another
Brotherly love (4 times)
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
The GOAL of the STORY is to become a prodigal family. (Ephesians 4:1-6)
We are the family who share the generosity of our father. This is a major emphasis:
Command to love each other: 30+ times
Love non-brothers: like twice
Why the difference?
Because the feast only works if the guests buy in.
We can only invite people in to a loving family if we love each other
We can only invite people into a prodigal family if the family is prodigal.
How do we become a prodigal family? (4:7-16)
How do we become a prodigal family? (4:7-16)
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it… So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
It starts with leaders. This is a tricky thing in the church, because there is a whole range of ideas on how important leaders are.
In some churches, the definition of a church includes the presence of a bishop.
In fact, the politics of church leadership has influenced the way we translate this verse.
to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
2 items in the list: God gave leaders to equip his people for works of service—to build up the body of Christ.
But it’s actually three:
to perfect the saints
to do the work of ministry
to build up the body of Christ
The starting point is the work of ministry, because that is the one thing that only these leaders can do.
The work behind that (“ministry”) generally refers to someone who speaks on another's behalf.
In the NT, it’s used to refer to the work of sharing the Gospel—through preaching, teaching, and leading worship.
This is something that only leaders do—because doing this is what makes them leaders.
The power comes, not from their office, but from the Gospel. We have seen how the Good News liberates us from slavery to death.
Everything the church does together—singing, confessing, praying, communion, preaching, baptism—is all meant to remind us continually of God’s generosity so we can be transformed.
Leaders are like arteries—they carry the blood-the source of nourishment—to the whole body.
Our gatherings NOURISH us with THE GOSPEL.
How does this happen here?
Participating in worship
Getting baptized.
This is why going to church matters.
But notice the point of arteries to bring nourishment to the cells. But if that’s all that happens, all you’re doing is bleeding.
The leaders nourish us so we can be perfected.
to [perfect the saints]...until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
The purpose of doing the work of ministry is to bring the nutrients to the cells so they can grow and develop.
To start out, we are all infants, tossed around by waves, subject to every deception. We are biased, self-absorbed, ready to jump on anything that meets our appetites.
Think of the prodigal son after he ran.
Instead, we each grow in our faith and knowledge of the Son of God, so that we can speak the truth in love.
Members grow in FAITH, knowledge, and LOVE.
How do we do this here?
Prayer and devotions
Classes and groups
Taking what is offered here and internalizing it.
But even the personal growth is not the point. A mass of healthy cells still has a long way to go.
There is a shift from plural to singular:
to perfect the saints
to do the work of ministry
to build up the body of Christ
Then we will no longer be infants,...Instead... we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
We move from being saints or infants to the one body.
In a body, this is when cells begin to work together.
If you’ve seen a baby, you know that our cells don’t automatically work together.
They have to develop:
Neural pathways
Muscle memory
Muscle mass
Cells also have to take care of each other:
Scabbing, healing, fighting infection.
The goal of this growth is not mature cells, but a mature body.
Growing members BUILD UP the BODY.
I get tempted to think that my job is to create a mature body. I try to do everything myself. But Paul is very clear about how a mature body is created:
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
How do we do this here?
Membership
Volunteering
Congregational meetings
Leadership
Prayer meetings
There is one last step, because we are not just supposed to be any body.
There is no virtue in having a healthy body and doing evil things with it.
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
The goal is to be a mature body that matches our head—Jesus.
The body of Jesus does what Jesus does.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
The mature BODY does the WORK of JESUS. (Eph. 2:10, Titus 2:14)
What this looks like here:
Being a prodigal family
That loves and shares with each other
That forgives
That provides food for the hungry in our community
That teaches the children in our community
That supports the spread of the Gospel around the world.
I want you to notice something: WE ALREADY DO ALL THOSE THINGS.
I’ve been thinking of this as a season of transition, but that’s not true.
Every church is always changing, but we are not defined by what we don’t have or aren’t doing.
We are doing a ton.
We are doing the work of Jesus.
We will always have room to mature.
We should never rest on our laurels.
But neither should we think that we need any other thing to be what God made us to be.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are God’s tapestry. He’s already making us.
As we close, I want us to make a deal:
The other leaders and me, we will dedicate ourselves to bringing you the Gospel—to bathing you in the reality of God’s generosity and love.
Each of us, myself included, will commit to taking in the nourishment of the Gospel
As we each continue to grow, we invest that growth in the building up of our church community
So we can grow—not to the biggest congregation or the fanciest facility—but to the most prodigal, the most loving, the most generous, the most Christlike community I can be.
If we have a deal, say amen.
