Sermon Tone Analysis

A sheep, coin, and Son Walk into a Bar...

Have you ever had a friend that was the “wrong” kind of person to hang out with, but you did anyway, because you liked them?

Modern Christian churches are full of the right kind of people.

We stay together.

We judge those outside.

We don’t judge those inside.

We have our crowd, the right kind of crowd, that belongs to the right groups (political parties), watches the right shows, consumes the right news (Fox), and believes the right things (God found America to bless Americans and oppress all others.)

If our church’s looked like Jesus’ gatherings, we would be excoriated in the news.

Here is an example:

Tax collectors…to Jesus teach.

I would like to know what church the Ogden, UT IRS Employees attend?

And does it also have “notorious” sinners?

I love that, notorious sinners.

Like well known, famous sinners.

Think of a famous sinner and then think of them being in your church gathering, right here with us, today.

This made the Pharisees and teachers...

Yes, they are all out there with their cell phones, recording the event so later they can analyze what happened, pick Jesus’ words apart, show the behavior of the sinners and complain about it.

even eating with them!

I mean, this is too much!

This is the perfect opportunity to teach a lesson to everyone.

Question: Which group is he addressing?

Pharisee’s and teachers of religious law?

OR

Tax Collectors and other Notorious Sinners?

This man is fairly wealthy to have 100 sheep.

100 is a good number of completion.

A good round number.

The sheep has no value apart from the shepherd.

It is food for wild beasts.

But with the shepherd, it has value.

It makes the flock whole.

Do you follow that?

The sheep has value when it is under the leadership of the shepherd.

Why do they raise sheep?

Food and clothing.

We concentrate on the finding of the sheep, but this message is clear:

To the leaders: you hate the thought of lost sheep coming home, but God rejoices when a sinner is found.

To the sinners: you love being found, but you must repent and stop being lost.

Don’t get lost over and over just so God can rejoice each time.

Jesus makes another analogy...

This parable is really directed at the mindset of the Pharisee and religious teacher.

They were all about money and power.

Again, there are ten coins.

A complete number, but one is lost.

How did the coin get lost?

Did it go astray?

We concentrate on the finding of the coin, but the message is clear:

To the leaders: You will go to the ends of the earth to find a coin, but you won’t lift a finger to find a sinner.

To the sinners: When you have been found, repent, stop being lost.

You are of NO VALUE unless you are in the hands of the one who owns the coin.

The Pharisee’s see no value in the lost sinner or tax collector.

What can they bring them?

Nothing but trouble.

Jesus goes on...

A bit of NERD INFO: This section switches up the sentence word order to be more like Hebrew than Greek.

VSO rather than SVO.

The young son essentially says to the father, I want to live like you are dead.

No parent would do this and they would be deeply offended if one of their kids asked for this.

But, shockingly, the father agrees!

No parent would agree!

This puts the family and possibly the community in jeopardy.

The whole family is dependent on the father to survive, and he just gives up a share of his wealth for this one son.

But the younger son has what he wants.

You can have all you want, but life apart from the father is difficult.

Notice what he does, he just squanders all he has been given.

Imagine the amount of work it took the father and generations before him to gather the wealth.

And what is left of it?

Nothing.

It is gone.

Makes you wonder why this younger son wanted to leave so badly.

What happened?

Of the characters in the group (pharisee or sinner), who does this apply too?

Who fits this model?

The notorious sinners and tax collectors?

The pharisee’s and teachers?

BOTH.

One squanders what they have been given in this life.

The other scandalizes the teaching by oppressing.

This is what repentance looks like.

What will the father do?

What does the LAW of God require him to do?

Two greatest commandments: Love God, Love Neighbor.

So he returned home...

And the father obeyed the law.

He was not resentful.

He was not judgmental.

He was angry.

He is filled with love and compassion, just like the law requires.

****VERSE****

But his father said to the servants...

Notice, the father flat out directs the servants on what to do.

(More on that later)

This parallels what we saw with the sheep and the coin.

The family is complete again, it is whole again.

Let the party begin.

The son has repented and returned.

Meanwhile, the older son...

Can you imagine…Some of you have siblings, you know how this feels when the “favorite” gets a big party and they have done NOTHING TO DESERVE IT!

****VERSE****

The older brother was angry...