Luke #6 "For Everyone" 3-13-22

Overview

Text: Luke 15:11–32

Topics: Grace, Love, Mercy

Big Idea of the Message: In the parable of the prodigal son, both the older and younger brothers failed to understand the love and joy of the father.

Application Point: Whether you’ve been thinking the world’s pleasures are more alluring or you’ve been joylessly slaving away keeping the rules, renew your understanding of the love and joy found in the Father’s house.

Housekeeping

-Reminder that there is a special for Children’s Camp, completed 3rd through 6th grade, for the month of march. $100 per camper! In April it goes up to $150 then in May $230. June 20-24 at Sivells.

-While I’m in Israel, Doug will close out our Luke study on the 3rd and 10th.

-We will begin a new 6 week study on Sunday, April 17th…Easter Sunday. It’s called, Promises: “Covenants In The Bible” We will explore the promises of God through his covenants: the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants.

This is so that we can more fully understand the God who has given us a new covenant and promises in Jesus.

Open Up in Prayer

What aroma are you smelling right now?

What is your favorite aroma?

We all have an aroma…our homes, our offices, our cars, even ourselves.

Tom Boylan-Polo cologne

See, in time, we no longer notice that aroma. However, those around us do and especially those that meet us for the first time.

Just Sayin...

Now, the question this morning is this, “What aroma of Christ are you emitting?”

Romans 12:1 NLT

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

This morning we will take time to read about a father’s love for his two sons. I want each of us this morning to picture and truly sense the “aroma” of each of the individuals as also the family as a whole.

Let’s get started. Please turn your Bibles to Luke 15.

I’ve asked certain individuals to read.

-Amy Allen 1-7

-Mark Yee 8-10

-Randi Davis 11-14

-Jerry Lusk 15-19

-Barb Mulvey 20-24

-Dan Hill 25-30

-Kerry 31-32

Thank you all. Appreciate this.

This morning we just read perhaps the most famous story in Luke: the story of the prodigal son.

This is one of many stories that are not found in any of the other Gospels. In fact, all of chapter 15 is unique to Luke.

Chapter 15 consists of Jesus telling the Pharisees and the scribes, as well as tax collectors and sinners, three different stories (vv. 1–2).

Each story highlights the joy God has over the salvation of his children (v. 7).

Jesus begins by speaking of a shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep to look for the one that is lost (vv. 3–7).

Then he tells of a woman with ten coins who loses one of them and tears apart her house looking for it (vv. 8–10).

Finally, he tells the story of a father with two sons. One leaves home, the other stays. And we see what the Father is willing to do when the lost son is found.

In this parable, Jesus shows the love and joy of God in finding the lost.

The parable begins with a selfish request that is lovingly met with a tremendous sacrifice.

We see this right at the start of the parable (v. 12).

Luke 15:12 NLT

12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

The younger son approaches the father and essentially says, “Dad, I wish you were dead, because I want my inheritance now.”

If love is a reflection of God’s character, then the first element of his character that we see here is the element of sacrifice.

Surely the parents among us cannot imagine the pain that must have come with the son’s words.

But the father responds in a loving, selfless way.

Maybe this is a gut check to each of us.

“In the past week, parents, have you responded in love and sacrifice towards your children?”

This son gets what he wants, and he leaves. He goes far away, squanders the money, and soon finds himself in a dire situation. As a result, he resolves to return home (vv. 13–19).

Luke 15:13–19 NLT

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. 17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’

The father was prepared for his son’s return, and in that preparation, we see another element of love: God’s love never gives up.

In the original Greek tense, it’s an active action taken by the father.

Every day that his son was gone, the father was thinking about him, waiting for him, looking for him.

Why?

Because he loved his son. An aroma of love.

Even though his son said some of the most painful words a child can ever say to their parent and then left home, the father never stopped waiting and watching and hoping for the return of his child (v. 20).

Luke 15:20 NLT

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

The father may even have been actively searching for his son, when you lay the story beside the two previous parables. Both parables are about someone who has lost something important to them, and the lengths they will pursue to find it.

“What lengths are you wiling to go to display a Christ-Centered love towards your spouse, your children, your friends?”

Better yet...

“What lengths are you willing to go to display your love and obedience towards Christ Himself?”

The story ends on a lighthearted note. The father fully accepts his son back into the household, even giving him the status he had occupied prior to his departure.

He gives him his best robe, shoes, and a ring.

And then he orders a fattened calf to be butchered, because they are going to throw a party.

Luke 15:22–24 NLT

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

Twice in those three verses we read the word “celebrate or party” (vv. 22–24).

Knowing God’s love is like a party. And what a party!

The older son can hear the music and dancing in the house!

Have you ever heard someone dancing from outside?

They must have been having a lot of fun to be that loud!

The Greek word for music in this passage is symphōnia, which is where we get the English word symphony This is quite the celebration that the father has decided to throw because of the return of his son!

The story of the older brother is reminiscent of the character of Bellwether, a scorned sheep, in the film Zootopia.

In Zootopia, the imaginary world is a place where animals have overcome their inner nature, and prey and predators live together in peace. Bellwether, the assistant to the mayor of the city(who is a lion)doesn’t trust that predators have truly changed; she carries out a plot to make predators revert to their natural state so they can be expelled from the city.

Too often, we can be functionally close to the king but never trust his vision for world or believe in his love for everyone.

Think about Jonah. Think about Judas.

We each need to be careful about our hearts and attitudes towards others. When God has blessed another when we feel that they don’t deserve it because of our personal standards, that’s where the aroma becomes rancid.

Unfortunately, the story of the prodigal son doesn’t end there.

The older brother, who never left home, is upset that the wild child is getting a party.

He refuses to join the party, and so, in another act of love, the father comes out and invites him back inside (vv. 28–31).

Luke 15:28–31 NLT

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’ 31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.

Too often, those who are the best at making others follow the rules and letting everyone knows how well they themselves follow them are miserable—hardly thriving, hardly alive.

You can live in the grace of God and enjoy the love of God, or you can try your hardest to be a good son or daughter to God, so focused on following the rules that you never understand the lavish, extravagant, unreasonable grace of God.

The love that God showers on us is like a party that doesn’t make sense and costs him everything.

The tragedy of it all isn’t just what the younger son did for the first half of his life; it’s that the older brother, though he never left home, never understood the joy and love of his home to begin with.

He became accustomed to the aroma and he lost he sense of smell. The beautiful aroma of his father’s unconditional love and grace was there, but he refused to smell it anymore.