Tale of Two Sons (3)

Tale of Two Sons (3)

REVIEW V. 11-28

Chapter 15:1 “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” It was the outcast; it was the scum, the low lives who listened, believingly, upon what Jesus had to say.

Two categories: Tax Collectors & Sinners

Verse 2 says, “And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

When they saw Jesus associating with sinners, they drew one single conclusion: He is satanic because He hangs around Satan’s people.

He explains what He’s doing in three stories.

· Vs. 3-7 “Parable of Lost Sheep” ~

· Vs. 8-10 “Parable of Lost Coin”~

Point~ Pharisee’s are so far from God; they don’t get it. God’s joy is found in the salvation of one sinner. (Point of chapter 15)

PRODIGAL SON

Read verses 11-21

Verse 17, he says, “I’m going to die of hunger.”

This is desperation. This is the sinner: poor, destitute, hungry, hopeless, , and dying; this is desperation.

And the question is: How is the father going to deal with somebody who is this bad?

“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.”

Still a long way off~ The father was looking; He was watching for his son to return.

We could assume that this was a regular thing for him to look for that son.

The father was the seeker, felt compassion, and those Pharisees are saying, “How weak is this man? Can’t he ever respond in a righteous, honorable way?”

Give him dignity; give him authority; give him responsibility.

This is full son ship.

GRACE TRIPMPHS OVER SIN.

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

“His father came out and began pleading with him.”

This is just unbelievable. The father comes down again, leaves the party, and leaves the celebration where he’s the guest of honor. “Excuse me, folks, I have to go.”

And he goes and pleads, begs, the older brother to join the celebration.

Here we see God the initiator again; Here we see God in Christ the seeker,

As in the case of the younger son, the father came down out of his house and ran right down to the middle of town for all to see, bearing the scorn and the shame of the embarrassment of violating public common conventional behavior. And he did it to embrace the sinner and protect him from the shame.

Here the father leaves the festival, goes out and does what you would never expect God to do, beg a sinner, beg a hypocrite. But He is the one who seeks to save the lost.

This image reminds me of

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

He left Heaven, He left the party, and came to this planet taking the scorn and the shame that you and I deserve.

It is in fact exactly what is being referred to herein the passage of the prodigal son.

Illustration: ROAD KILL

But the response, verse 29, “He answered and said to his father, ‘Look’, for so many years I’ve been serving you.”

That’s how it is with legalists. They do it; it’s a duty; it’s a grind; it’s bitter.

I’m the one that’s always been here, I have always been doing the work, and I have always been serving you.

I wonder if that is how you feel about your ‘service.’

Look at all this stuff I have been doing for so many years.

And it gets to the point that it is not about what the father has done, but it’s all about what I have done.

It isn’t that he enjoys serving the father, but it is something he does to earn position and prestige. It is a task and a duty that he performs. It is a ritual or a tradition in his life.

It’s like a Job to receive a paycheck. Only the Job is a moral life of works and the pay-check is heaven.

Think about this for a moment, and answer this question: Why do you do the things that you do?

What is your motivation for your service?

Do you not think that God know you ulterior motives?

· Why do you teach that class?

· Why do you drive that bus?

· Why do you attend church tonight?

· Why do you sing in the choir?

Listen if the answer is anything other than to Glorify God, then you are a prime example of the older brother in our passage.

I think it is safe to say that the Scriptures make it clear that God is concerned with your heart a whole lot more than he is concerned with your actions.

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

Notice the “Six Antitheses” of the“Sermon on the Mount” in you notice that Jesus doesn’t fixate on what you do. But His focus is on who you really are.

· Anger “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

· Lust “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

And it goes on and on talking about Oaths, Divorce, Retaliation, and Loving your Enemies.

It’s exactly what Jesus is talking about in when you read about the “Seven Woes” to the Scribes and Pharisees.

But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer…4-7 “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows,… 13 “I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either… You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it… You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! clean the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something. You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

This is what he is talking about. You do all you work and you activities, but your heart is so far from me.

Self-Righteous: No one here would admit it, but deep inside it is the feeling that if anyone deserves heaven I surely deserve it, not only do I deserve it; but I have earned it. It is my paycheck for the life that I have lived.

ENTITLED

We see that greatest Entitlement problem that has ever existed.

Grace= “The Unmerited Favor of God.”

In other words it means that you get something and you do not deserve it!

Anyone here that has been saved must realize that it is only out of the grace of God that you are saved.

The problem is that we come here and we feel that we are entitled to all that we have.

· We are entitled to ‘salvation’ it’s something we have always known so of course it belongs to us as well.

· We are entitled to heaven, no need to worry about it it’s what we deserve.

· We are entitled to our ‘Bibles’ We have always had them, they will always be around for us whenever we would like to read them. No rush in reading them now it’s our entitlement to get to them when we please.

· We are entitled to come and worship God corporately. Nothing to get excited about, it’s all that we have ever known and it will always be.

· We are entitled to access to God through the Holy Spirit.

· We are entitled to Forgiveness of our sins

Listen to me now because we feel this “entitlement” none of it is exciting to us in our life.

None of it means anything to us and because of this it is boring to us.

DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?

Grace is scandalous. “It’s hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners.”

Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there.

Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in your salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross.

Grace also means that some people may be too good to be saved. That is, they may have such a high opinion of themselves that they think they don’t need God’s grace. God’s grace cannot help you until you are desperate enough to receive it.

DETOUR: Notice how similar the following story is to the older brother we are studying.

“Workers in the Vineyard”

Grace reminds us that God’s favor is a gift.

Remember the “problem” in this text. It is not the injustice of a mean and cruel landowner. The problem is the scandal of a gracious and loving farmer.

Verse 15 asks the question, “Are you envious because I am generous?”

“I have never neglected a command of yours.” Boy, there’s a deception.

This is like the rich young ruler who said he had kept all the commandments.

That’s how it is with religious phonies and hypocrites. They don’t want to admit their sin.

And then if you want to know the self-image of a hypocrite, here it is.

Now if that isn't the language of a self-righteous hypocrite, I don't know what is.

There is the amazing self-deception of a hypocrite.

He's perfect. I'm perfect, which is to say to the father, "And look, buddy, you're not. I am perfect. I understand what perfection is. I understand what perfect righteousness is and perfect justice and I know what perfect honor is and I know how you're supposed to behave and you're in violation of it. Again and again you're in violation of it.

You took him back, you ran, you shamed yourself. You protected him from shame. You forgave him. You embraced him. You kissed him. You gave him full sonship. You gave him honor. You gave him authority. You gave him responsibility. You hold this massive celebration for an absolutely unworthy sinner. I'm perfect and you're not."

This is exactly why Paul went around killing Christians because he hated grace.

It was Paul, you remember, in who says, "Blameless according to the law, that's how I live my life, under the illusion that I was absolutely blameless and these Christians with their message of grace were violators of God's holy law."

And he went everywhere he could breathing threatening and slaughter and imprisoning and killing them.

“Yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.”

I've been the worker and I don't even get a goat. He's done nothing for you and he gets the fattened calf. This is not fair. This is not equitable. This is not just. This is not righteous."

He wanted a party of his own but not with the father and not with the brother. He had other friends. He had his own group.

He’s really saying "Father, I don't need to ask you for forgiveness, I haven't done anything. But I'll tell you something, you need to ask me for forgiveness for what you've done."

That is the outrage of hypocrisy.

And the Pharisees are going to identify with him. Yeah, this is right, this is the right posture. This is outrageous conduct by the father. The father is the culprit. The father is the bad guy here.

GOD YOU OWE ME…

Have you ever been there, have you ever thought that God owed you something?

The brother also reveals a bit of his heart in this moment; did you catch that he said “My friends.”

That is significant because the party is not going to include his brother, it's not going to include his father. He lives in a completely different world. He has a completely different group of friends.

He's at home but he has no relationship to the family. All his friends are outside the family. He parties with those who think the way he thinks. He parties with those who have no connection to the father.

He doesn't understand the father's love, compassion, kindness, mercy, forgiveness and joy.

And the father, 30 says...“When this son of yours came who devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him.”

Do you feel the disdain? He doesn’t say my brother; he says “this son of yours.”

He has to point out how bad this son of his is… He doesn’t deserve what he is getting. I deserve it… but not him.

Legalism compares ourselves to others.

Back in remember their problem came only when it related back to the others.

This “son” of yours is really, bad news. I would never dream of doing the things that he has done.

He doesn’t deserve you love. I do but he is way too bad.

And the father says to him, “My child.” Wow. Wow. The word for “son.” Now it’s teknon, “my boy.” “You’ve always been with me. All that’s mine--it’s always been yours”

“You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”

And here you see the patience of God with the sinners, even hypocrites.

Sometimes, you know, it's easier to be patient with prodigals than it is with hypocrites.

I will confess that. We all love a great story about a wicked, outrageous sinner who is converted, but we aren't nearly as excited about a hypocrite that's converted. And, of course, that's even rarer. People who are in false religion don't come as often.

In fact, this is a footnote, it never says in all four gospels that a Pharisee believed on Jesus and was saved. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and it implies that he came. Later on, Paul the Pharisee, was saved on the Damascus road, those are the only two.

Legalist are very hard to convert- The Lukewarm of don’t even realize the condition that they are actually in.

15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, will I spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

The problem is that you think you are ok but in reality you are so far lost and you don’t even realize it.

But he says to him, "Look, my child," endearing terms. "You've been around."

The father knows he's estranged. You've been around here superficially.

Everything has always been available, it's all here.

I "All that is mine is yours.” I don't ever have to split it up." And here's the picture of the fairness of God and the endlessness of His grace and His resources.

And verse 32, It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

This is what causes joy to God. This is heaven's joy. It can't be restrained. It can't be delayed.

Divine joy is released when one sinner repents and is reconciled.

And heaven's joy will be released not just for a prodigal, not just for someone who's immoral and irreligious and blatantly sinful, but for secret sinners, rebels, the religious, the moral, the hypocrites, the ones whose lawlessness is all on the inside.

· I go out into the street for the prodigal and I go out into the courtyard for you.

· I humble Myself and take on public shame for the prodigal. And I humble Myself and take on public shame for you.

· I come with compassion and love and forgiveness and I am ready to embrace you and to kiss you and to give you full sonship with all its privileges, not just if you're the prodigal, but even if you're the hypocrite."

He's really inviting him to salvation. You can come to the party if you choose, if you recognize your true spiritual condition, if you come home you can take possession of everything that's always been there.

· The younger son was overwhelmed with his father's grace. Immediately confessed his sin, confessed his unworthiness in the very most magnanimous ways and he received instantaneous forgiveness, reconciliation, sonship all the rights and privileges that the father had at his disposal to give. He entered into the celebration of the father's joy that is eternal salvation. And as I've been saying, that joy goes on in heaven forever.

· The older son, the same tenderness, the same kindness, the same mercy, offered the same grace, reacts with bitter resentment, attacks the virtue, the integrity of the father. And his father makes one final appeal. "My child, it's all here. We had to celebrate, implied, and we will celebrate for you too if you come."

What do you see in this story? Two kinds of sinners:

And both are extreme sinners.

And a father who entreats both, who offers both everything he has.

But, you know, the story doesn’t have an ending. It just stops, and after you’ve read verse 32 you’re looking for verse 33 because what happened? What does the son say? Come on, what did he do? It just stops.

Well, how about if I write an ending: The older brother, seeing the compassion and mercy of his father and desiring a reconciliation, confessed his sins of hypocrisy and asked his father for forgiveness and was embraced and kissed and taken into the banquet and seated at his father’s table.

I like that ending. But I can’t write the ending. The ending’s already been written. That’s right. Here’s the ending. “Upon hearing this, the older son being outraged at his father, picked up a piece of wood and beat his father to death.”

That’s the ending. It would be only a few months before the Pharisees would kill him by nailing him on wood. And they would congratulate themselves that what they had done was an act of honor that protected their people, their nation, and the religion from one who came to shame it.

That’s how the story ended. And the final irony is that the father who should have beaten the son is beaten to death by the wicked son in the greatest act of evil ever.

And they thought they were righteous, and they didn’t understand love, mercy, and grace. Yet God, the saving gracious Father in Christ, uses that murder as the means by which He purchases our salvation.

It all ends at the cross where He in Christ endured death, despising the...What?...the shame for us. He took the shame so you could be at the celebration that brings him joy.