Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Thus far my favorite description of the greatness of God’s love is that given by A. W. Tozer in his book Knowledge of the Holy: “… because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea.”

Why want them back?

o have more kids… Job loses 10 kids at beginning has more at the end BUT nothing replaces the ones he lost… WHY/ Love...

The consistent theme throughout these parables is rejoicing over the finding of what was lost (one sheep, one coin, one son).

These are images of God’s joy in the restoration of a sinner through repentance (vv.

7, 10).

Pennington, J. (2013).

Luke.

In B. Chapell & D. Ortlund (Eds.),

Gospel Transformation Bible: English Standard Version (p.

1384).

Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Transition:

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Joy is the serious business of heaven,”

The sheep was lost because of foolishness.

When a Jewish girl married, she began to wear a headband of ten silver coins to signify that she was now a wife.

It was the Jewish version of our modern wedding ring, and it would be considered a calamity for her to lose one of those coins.

Palestinian houses were dark, so she had to light a lamp and search until she found the lost coin; and we can imagine her joy at finding it.

We call this story “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” (the word prodigal means “wasteful”), but it could also be called “The Parable of the Loving Father,” for it emphasizes the graciousness of the father more than the sinfulness of the son.

The knowledge of God’s goodness draw us back… (DOES JIM CYMBALA TELL STORY OF HIS DAUGHTER COMING BACK IN FRESH WIND FRESH FIRE)?

My text to Keith...

Could share Keith’s text to me… (very family relational)

And that God loves you just because you are His.

I have been trying to hammer home with my girls how they can’t change my love.

They can’t make me love them more or make me love them less, I love them because they are mine... telling them reminds me of God’s love for me.

I had blown it as a parent on Friday then to hear Pastor Dave say Sunday how God sees us as perfect (through the blood of Christ) was so life giving!

I love everything about this picture and text.

Thank you Keith!

We call this story “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” (the word prodigal means “wasteful”), but it could also be called “The Parable of the Loving Father,” for it emphasizes the graciousness of the father more than the sinfulness of the son.

Context v.1-2

Lost sinners came to Jesus, not because He catered to them or compromised His message, but because He cared for them.

He understood their needs and tried to help them, while the Pharisees criticized them and kept their distance (see Luke 18:9–14).

Shepherd story… God is actually on pursuit

Other Jewish teachers stressed God’s forgiveness for the repentant, but did not stress God’s seeking sinners out.

The relative value of the lost item increases in each parable: one out of one hundred, one out of ten and finally (15:11) one out of two.

muttered.

In the Greek translation of the OT, this Greek word always applies to the grumbling of the Israelites in the exodus account (Exod 15:24; 16:2; 17:3; Num 14:2; 16:11; Deut 1:27; cf.

Josh 9:18b).

Here the Jewish leaders likewise fail to understand and appreciate God’s mighty acts among them.

We do not have an equivalent to tax collectors today… think about what matt Chandler said… imagine hostile take over they rape your wife and daughter then your friend starts working for them… the worst traitor, treason… Jesus is eating with them

“sinner” a class of people

NIV appropriately puts “sinners” in quotation marks to show that this was not Luke’s designation but the way others, i.e., the Pharisees, thought of them.

For an explanation of the attitude of Pharisees to such “sinners,” see comments on 5:29–30.

“All” signifies either all such persons (wherever Jesus was at the time) or, generally speaking, the large proportion of them among the crowds who usually came to hear him.

The imperfect periphrastic “were gathering” (cf.

comment on 14:1) could indicate either the process of gathering at the time of the story or the habitual coming of “sinners” throughout Jesus’ ministry.

How Pharisees viewed “sinners”

29–30 A banquet (v.

29) in the NT symbolizes joy and often hints at the eschatological banquet, the future celebration of God’s people with the patriarchs in the presence of God.

Jesus is the guest of honor; but Levi does not, as might be expected limit the guest list to his new Christian friends, the disciples of Jesus.

Instead of immediately cutting off his old associates, Levi invites them into his home, probably to bring them also into contact with Jesus.

Luke mentions “others,” who turn out (v. 30) to be “sinners,” as far as the Pharisees are concerned.

The joy of the participants is now opposed by the dour criticism of the religious leaders, a contrast we can see running throughout the Gospels.

The complaint of the Pharisees, and particularly of those among them who were also scribes, is more than a superficial attempt to find fault.

To join in table fellow ship with irreligious “sinners” is to cast doubt on one of the essential assumptions of Pharisaic teaching.

This sect was dedicated to upholding the purity of Jewish faith and life.

Implicit in their teachings was strict adherence to both law and tradition, including necessary rites of purification and separation from all whose moral or ritual purity might be in question.

The Galilean people had a reputation (not always deserved) for disdaining such scruples and disregarding the traditions.

The Pharisees’ complaint is specifically directed to the act of eating and drinking because in their society table fellowship implied mutual acceptance.

No act, apart from participation in the actual sinful deeds of the guests, could have broken the wall of separation more dramatically.

Yet the Pharisees are not yet ready to argue with Jesus himself.

In the previous incident they did not even express their thoughts openly (v.

21).

They direct their question to Jesus’ disciples and also (in Luke only) charge the disciples themselves, not just Jesus, with this unacceptable conduct.

The parable could be called “The Parable of the Prodigal God” because the word prodigal means “extremely generous or lavish,” and the story is primarily about the lavishness of God’s love—that it is “an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea.”

A well-traveled outline of this parable goes like this: I. Sick of home, II.

Sick, III.

Homesick, IV.

Home.

At this point he was homesick.

and literally “threw his arms around him and kissed him” again and again and again (as the Greek tense demands).

READ

Two things are striking.

First, in the obvious analogy to the search for the sheep, Jesus takes the initiative in seeking out lost people—a major theme in Luke (cf.

19:10).

In contrast were some rabbis in the early centuries who hesitated to seek Gentile converts.

15:1 The tax collectors and “sinners.”

These are “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” of 14:21.

The two groups are found together in 5:30 and 7:34.

For “tax collector” see comments on 3:12.

Of course they would be hated.

Such people had bid and won the right to collect such tolls for the Romans.

The fact that their profit was determined by how much they collected and that their bid had been paid for in advance led to great abuse.

They were hated and despised by their fellow Jews.

Dishonesty among tax collectors was the rule (Sanh 25b), and their witness was not accepted in a court of law.

Thus they were often associated with sinners and prostitutes.

To hear.

This connects the following material to the teachings in 14:26–35.

The tax collectors and sinners have “ears to hear” (14:35).

True Christianity has always broken down economic, social, ethnic, and racial barriers; for where Christ is truly present, “people will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God” (13:29).

Why do you eat and drink?

This shared activity implied acceptance of such people as one’s “brothers and sisters” (cf.

Acts 11:3 and the explanation in 11:4–18, esp.

11:18; cf. also Gal 2:12–13).

To “break bread” with someone had important consequences.

Even as contact with lepers (Luke 5:12–16) brought ritual uncleanness, so in the minds of the Pharisees contact with tax collectors and sinners brought moral (as well as ritual) uncleanness.

Yet Jesus associated with such people to offer them salvation through repentance and faith, not to participate in their sin.

Compare the derogatory “this man” with 14:30.

God runs after rebels

It is not just being glad when one comes home it is going to get them

15:20 his father saw him.

Clearly, the father had been waiting and looking for his son’s return.

ran.