Live Like a Champion – Week 35
The Promise of Belonging!
Luke 15:11-32 (NAS95)
Reader #1: Luke 15:1-7:
Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Reader #2: Luke 15:8-10:
“Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? “When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Reader #3: Luke 15:11-32:
And He said, “A man had two sons. “The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them. “And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. “Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. “So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. “And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. “And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. “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.’ “But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. “But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. ‘But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”
The promise of the week is “The Promise of Belonging!”
Last week, we learned from the promise of membership that we are knit together as members of the one body of Christ. This week, we are learning from Jesus’ famous parable of the prodigal son that we are intended to belong one to another.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son can also be called the Parable of the Lost Son. Its placement in Luke 15 is essential because it comes after the parables of “The Lost Sheep” and “The Lost Coin”, which are straight forward parables, but this last one has an important twist in it.
Did you hear the twist as you listened to these three parables, back-to-back?
God is the central character of each parable: God is like the good shepherd who goes to great lengths to find the one lost sheep; God is like the woman who goes to great effort to find the one lost coin; and God is like the father who eagerly waited to receive back the one lost son.
Listeners of these three parables are being conditioned by the Master Teacher to expect someone in the third parable to seek and find! But the twist in this parable is that, unlike the other two, no one went looking for that which was lost. The Father stayed home and eagerly waited for his lost son to come home, back to the family to which he belonged.
Who was supposed to go looking for the younger son?
It was the older brother and Jesus’ original audience knew that to be true. When the older son doesn’t go after his younger brother, we are left confused and hurt! Something is wrong with this story! Something is terribly broken about this family!
Jesus did this on purpose because Jesus’ audience was a bunch of older sons who saw themselves as faithful to the Father but embittered to the Father’s lost children who were not faithful like they were. Listen again to Luke 15:1-2, “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus’ parable invites our hearts to yearn for three things at once:
- We yearn for our true elder brother, Jesus Christ, to come search for us. As Luke 19:10 explains of why Jesus came, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
- We yearn to join with Jesus in His work—to go out from this place and invite all who are lost to come home to the Father. As Jesus commands in Luke 14:23, “Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.”
- We yearn for our true Home, where God the Father is waiting to have all His children with Him, as one big forever family. John teaches us of the Father’s love in 1 John 3:1, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.”
From the beginning, God designed us to belong, and He is jealous for us to come Home. This is the mission of Jesus Christ and the perpetual mission of His body, the church. Several times we see this in Jesus’ life. Jesus’ ministry reflects the heart of God as Jesus was “moved with compassion” (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 6:34; 8:2-3; Luke 7:13; etc.).
Are you moved by compassion to help God’s lost children find their way home?
We were created to have a relationship with God—to belong as members of God’s family, to be His Image Bearers (Genesis 1:26-27), but our sin separated us from Him (Genesis 3:22-24; Romans 3:23). That is what it means to be dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1-10; Colossians 2:13), it means we are cut off from the Family of God and from Home, our inheritance of eternal life.
God loves us so much that He did something about it—God sent the Elder Son to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10; John 3:16)! This truth is why we listen to these three parables in a row and know deep down that something is wrong at the end, and we are disturbed!
Jesus did what the elder son in Luke 15 would not do—Jesus restored the Father’s lost children and brought them Home. In Jesus’ parable, neither son, younger nor older, was being faithful to their Father. They were too busy focusing on their current entitlements and future inheritances, on what they can get from the Father, rather than knowing their Father’s heart for His family.
God’s greatest desire for all of us, regardless of age, because this really has nothing to do with whether you are older or younger, but with whether you are struggling with the sin of sinfulness or the sin of self-righteousness, is that we would come Home to Him and belong.
You belong to the Family of God, and we hope that First Baptist Church can be a safe place for you to belong, regardless of whether your issue is that you ran away from God a long time ago and lived a life of sin or that you’ve been in the church your entire life and have become focused on your entitlements and inheritance.
Don’t let either your morality or immorality be a barrier to belonging! Jesus came to give you a new life in Him, the life of God through the Spirit!
You are invited to come Home as the Father wants all His beloved children to belong to Him and to one another. This is the body of Christ, and this work is why Jesus came, once and for all.