The Stand to Which We are Called

This sermon was originally delivered over two weeks (July 10/17, 2011). 

Much of Christianity within the West, specifically in the U.S.A. is trying to determine the best way to make a stand for Christ.  It is evident that godlessness is growing and we are seeing our society become more and more against God's laws and more and more for its own will.  So what is the best course forward? Is it a "take our nation back for Jesus" campaign that focuses on politics and politicians. Do we strategically amass our funds and efforts to election believers and reseat the courts and remake the laws?  What is God's call to us as his people?

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 Paul speaks to the people of this Greek city and commends them for their  stand in Jesus.  I believe we have much to learn from these commendations.  Paul no where commends believers for "fixing" their countries, laws, governments, or societies.  Instead he commends them for their faith and love- the very two things the Bible says will be in short supply in the end times.  Could it be that America has more need of Christians who are growing in faith and love instead of growing in political power?  I think the answer is obvious.

Standing in Faith

Paul commends them for their faith.  Faith has two sides to it.  There is the thing in which you are trusting and then the other side are the actions we take as a result of it.  Thus the Object of our faith and the objectives of our faith.  What are we trusting in?  I mean the church in America.  What are we trusting in?  The object of our faith is supposed to be Jesus himself.  But not just as an idea, but as he is specifically revealed to us in the Word of God.  Paul had shared with them the life, teachings, and works of Jesus on their behalf.  They were trusting in what he had given them.  Because they were trusting in the life, teachings, and work of Jesus the Thessalonians kept worshipping God in spite of persecutions.  They kept trusting Jesus though their own people turn their back on them.  But they also grew in the objectives of their faith.  They were daily living the life of Christ, laying down their lives for the sake of each other and the lost.  They were not shrinking back from fear, but rather their faith was firm and growing stronger.  They were obeying the direct commands of Jesus to love their enemies and forgive those who sin against them.  They were submitting themselves daily to the obligations of love that go beyond any command, but are the fruit of a heart that cares for others.  In fact I focus on faith first because love is impossible where there is no faith.

Standing in Love

Though we are to love one another, we cannot do that so long as our faith is in ourselves or in each other.  Our faith must firmly be fixed upon Jesus.  Only then can we love each other as the Lord loved us.  Like Peter sinking in the water, we too fail at doing the impossible because we get our eyes off of Jesus and onto everything else around us.  "But, Lord..." is the words of a person who has their eyes on the things of this world instead of on the Risen Lord.  Paul says that they had love in abundance.  That means they had more love than what they knew to do with.  Jesus said that in the last days love would grow cold.  There is nothing like persecution to make our hearts hard and unloving.  But the Thessalonians were not using this as an excuse.  Instead they were overflowing with love.  I doubt it was the kind of love where they were dancing around and singing happy songs everywhere they went.  It was the kind of love that picks up a cross and packs it up the hill where you are going to be crucified for the sake of those who are beating you.  This is the love that God calls us to.  To love those who do not deserve our love.  Why?  Because I didn't deserve His love- none of us did.  We live in a day when the enemy is turning up the heat of persecution.  Will my love grow or snuff out like a candle in the wind?

How can we do this?  You probably noticed Paul's mention of their perseverance.  I could have easily added it to the list- We need to grow in Faith, Love and perseverance.  But I think the perseverance is the point.  Because they were persevering their faith and love were growing.  What is the perseverance here?  It literally means to "remain under."  When continuing in love and faith gets seemingly too heavy to bear, we continue anyways.  Yes we may speak to God in prayer how we feel like we are going to be crushed and can't keep loving, but then we see Jesus who has gone on before us.  He has blazed the trail of love and faith for us.  As we keep our eyes on him we are able to persevere, remain under the load.  We can remain under the load because we are remaining in Jesus.  We have taken up our residence in Christ.  Though we are tempted to move because it is so hard, we keep connected to Jesus.  Why?  Because only he has the words of life.  Those who are full of love and faith are not so because it comes easy.  They only get there through great and difficult inner battles whereby they end by saying, "nevertheless, not my will but yours be done."  They have fought through the temptation that comes in the statement, "but it doesn't work."  They do not love because it works.  They love because it is the way that Jesus has led them.  They do not trust Jesus because, "it works."  But, rather, because they know he is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Oh, sure trusting Jesus does work.  But we don't see that if we are looking at the things of this world.  The cross "works" but not for those who want to make money, drive nice cars, and travel the world vacationing in exotic places. 

When we patiently hold to faith and love they change us.  Too often we are worried about how others are responding.  But I can't control that.  I cannot quit loving and quit trusting because others don't do such and such.  I can't quit loving and quit trusting simply because others did something to me that hurt.  They can't change Jesus.  Thus they shouldn't be able to change me.  Lord forgive us and help us here in America to grow in faith and love because this world needs it like never before.

Standing by the Power of God's Spirit

In verses 11-12, Paul mentions that his prayer is for God to supply his power for them to continue in faith and love.  God will always bring us to the end of our own power so that we can learn to allow his Spirit to love through us.  We stand not by our own strength but by the power of God's Holy Spirit.  When we are submitted to the Holy Spirit, faith and love become weapons in his hands.  It sets people free from the shackles of the past changes the situation.  The issue is not whether you love someone anymore (a feeling) but whether you will love them anymore (the decisive action).  It is easy to gain a nostalgic love for the lost.  But when you are in the trenches with fellow believers and lost people you will find the limits of your own love.  Pray for God to supply his Spirit in your life that you may go beyond the limits of your own faith and love.  When you see those actions that your heart wants to back away from ask God to give you the power to carry on.  Thus Paul says we will fulfill all the good pleasure of God's goodness and it will bring glory to him.

Standing until the Judgment Day

It is in the fires of persecution that we begin to recognize the hatred that can exist for those who dare to trust God and love others.  God has set a day by which he will judge the world and it's governments.  God's judgment will be a righteous one.  Nobody wants to be judged and held accountable to "God."  It is interesting to me that the more we reject God in our society the more we increase our need for man-made laws and accountability to men.  If you plan to stand by God then plan to be maligned as judgmental and worthy of persecution.   2 Timothy 3:12-14 says, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.  But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it."  Suffering for doing good is not a sign of God's absence or abandonment.  Rather, it is proof that we are actually standing with God and it is proof that God is righteous for setting a day when all will be held accountable.  It is proof that we are worthy to obtain the kingdom of God.  Not worthy in the sense that Jesus was worthy.  Without Jesus none of us would be worthy.  But our faith in the midst of persecution demonstrates the wisdom of God to save those who have simply believed on him even though it didn't seem to save them from the persecution.  But it did.  The persecution was unable to extinguish their faith.  It only made it burn brighter.

We will not have "rest" in this world until Jesus comes.  Yes, we can rest in Jesus, spiritually.  But outwardly we will find ourselves under the attack of an enemy that despises our faith in Christ and the resultant love that flows out of us.  We may have times of outward rest but they are not guaranteed.  We are only guaranteed that the Holy Spirit can give us an inner rest whereby we can persevere and overcome until the day that he gives all his saints rest at the judgement day.

Paul focuses on the powerful coming of Jesus in verse 7.  He is coming back with mighty angels to assist him in judgment.  He is coming in flaming fire.  This is definitely metaphorical as fire is the ultimate judge of that which is temporary versus permanent.  But it may just as well be literal as the Bible clearly states that the armies of this world will attempt to fight against Christ but will be destroyed.  He comes taking vengeance.  It is not a vindictiveness, but rather a setting to right what is out of whack.  Today when we see the weak taken advantage of by the strong and the poor by the rich we long for it to be righted.  God has set such a day and will right everything in the man Jesus Christ.  Only God can give perfect justice and he need not be blindfolded, because he plays no favorites.  Each one is judged by their actions.  Notice the statement that he will punish those who do not know God nor obey his gospel.  The world has for thousands of years heard the gospel, but more and more it rejects the decree of God and pushes the world into more and more oppression.  We replace God with ourselves and thus enter into the greatest slavery this world has ever known.

We are to stand until the day that he gloriously reveals those who are his saints and we stand in awe and admiration of the Lord our King.  Lord, help us to trust you ever greater and to choose to keep trusting you as the work of representing you grows harder and is resisted greater.  Help us to love one another, but to also lay our lives down that those who are lost may find true love in you.

Fighting For Our Nation

If it is true that sin drags a nation down to its destruction then what should Christians do in this society?  Should we arm ourselves and forcefully take over like some groups promote?  Do other groups have a point when they say Christians need to bring Christianity into the 21st century by redefining what is sin and what is not--make a compromise with modern society.  Is there a different path? 

When Jesus came on the scene of 1st century Israeli society, he came into a situation that was much like ours is today.  The nation was becoming more and more sinful.  They had not been able to govern their own affairs for about 200 of the previous 300 years.  Also, with the Roman's crushing power, it did not look like they would regain it any time soon.  I believe that Jesus represents the perfect picture of what Christians should be doing in the United States of America today.  Let's look at a point in the life of Jesus where he speaks to these issues in Matthew 23:29-39.

A Nation In Trouble

If you take the time to read the chapter of Matthew 23 then you will know that Jesus is exposing the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day, especially the scribes and the Pharisees.  It comes to a head beginning in verses 29.  It is interesting to me that throughout Jesus' ministry he was harsh with the religious leaders and gentle with the common person (sinner or believer).  Though Jesus is often pictured as the "couldn't-hurt-a-butterfly" type, this really is a mischaracterization.  An honest read of the gospels gives a radically different picture.  Jesus was extremely kind and gracious to the average person.  The story of the woman caught in the act of adultery sticks out as a demonstration of his wisdom and grace.  The law of Moses required she be stoned.  In that story Jesus does not say the Law is wrong (the temptation of people today), nor that the Pharisees were interpreting it wrong, nor that the woman wasn't guilty and did not deserved the punishment.  Rather, he says whoever is without sin (worthy to execute her) should throw the first stone.  To their credit the religious leaders walked away.  But they were not really repentant, just check-mated.  Jesus then tells the woman to "go and sin no more."  She is thankful to be living, but the real question is how will she live this new life that Jesus has obtained for her?   However, in the Matthew 23 passage, Jesus is harshly excoriating the Pharisees.  They should know better and just as he whipped the money changers out of the temple, so here he gives the religious leaders a public "whipping."  He accuses them of using a double standard (vs.3).  They expect from others what they do not do themselves.  He accuses them of false piety (vs. 5-7).  They act all religious in public but only to get people to marvel at them and hold them in high esteem.  He accuses them of blocking the path to heaven (vs. 13) and the list goes on:

• vs. 14, Taking advantage of widows,
• vs. 15, Pretend spirituality through long prayers,
• Vs. 15, Instead of making Righteous converts, they create devils,
• Vs. 17,19, Making foolish and Illogical rules,
• Vs. 23, Bordering on O.C.D. when it came to tithing (a minor issue), but overlooking the main issues of the Law: Justice, Mercy, and Faith.
• Vs. 25, Only look good, but inside they are full of evil.
• Vs. 27, Appear good, but anyone who touches them become defiled.

In verse 29 Jesus begins to turn from rebuking them to revealing God's purpose through him.  The Pharisees prided themselves that they would never have killed the prophets.  But Jesus knew their hearts.  They were at best deceiving themselves.

You see, Israel was a nation in trouble.  A big percentage of the common people had given up on trying to serve the God of Israel and were living in ways that were unlawful.  The religious leaders did not care about the people, so long as they were able to keep their public image and power over the people.  Rome was appointing who was to serve politically, but it was also controlling who would be the religious power through appointing the High Priest.  Israel was a country that was at a boiling point.  A foreign power promoted wicked men.  The religious leaders colluded with this and demonstrated derision to the common man in order to have power.  The nation was falling apart.  In this environment zealots and rebels also took to arming themselves and conducting terrorist style warfare against Rome's troops.  Is this beginning to sound familiar?  Conspiracies and Conspiracy theories abounded throughout the land as the people groaned under the results of their own sin.  But here is Jesus and he tells the Pharisees that they are going to "Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt." (Vs. 32). 

What does he mean by that?  In fact he references a coming judgment in two more places: vs. 33-
"how will you escape the condemnation of hell," and vs. 35, "on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth."  Jesus makes it unavoidably clear that not only is judgment coming, but that there is a collective guilt upon the nation, both amongst those living and with the past.  The reference to filling up the measure of their father's guilt is the picture of a measuring cup.  Their father's sin had put a certain amount in the cup, but it wasn't full yet.  More than likely their grandfathers had also contributed a certain portion.  Jesus states that this is the generation that will "fill up" the cup.  What happens when it is full?  Much like a recipe that calls for a certain amount of something, so judgment is not ready until a certain measure of guilt has ocurred.   This is mentioned to Abraham in Genesis 15:16.  God already knew how wicked the Amorite/Canaanite people would become.  That is why he is telling Abraham (Abram) that the land would be given to his descendants.  However, the sin of the Amorites was not yet full.  Whatever the measure God uses, he does not judge until the measure of sin reaches a certain level.  What is that level?  Is it the same for every nation?  Most likely God would hold a nation like Israel who had his law more accountable than a nation like Rome or Bablylon.  Thus God gives each nation an "arc" of time.  The parabolic shape of an arrow's flight is much like that of a nation.  Throughout that flight the collective sin of the nation weighs it down until it reaches a certain measure, at which time it lands on the ground and its flight is over.  What about America?  Is our flight over?  Jesus was warning the Pharisees that they would be responsible for ending the flight of Israel.  Of course this was prophesied by more than one prophet and sets up the miracle of Modern Israel.  God had promised that though he scattered Israel to the ends of the earth, he would regather her before the end of this age.  Are we filling up the measure of the cup of judgment for ourselves?  Are we satisfying the recipe for disaster?  By all biblical measures the USA is increasing its collective guilt before God.  How will we escape the condemnation of God's judgment?

On top of this is the greater collective judgment of the whole world.  Just as God will judge nations individually, so there is a great judgment of the who earth.  We are not just filling the cup of our nation's sin, but we are also filling the larger cup of this world's sin.  Rome was judged but the world went on.  Hitler's Germany was judged, but the world moves on.  However that cup of global judgment is getting fuller and fuller.  We make a choice in life to align with God and promote righteousness or join with the rebels of every nation and of every generation in promoting wickedness.

This impasse for the believer is a critical one.  For it is exactly at this crossroads that a righteous man proves he truly is righteous.  Yes, Jesus rebuked the religious leaders, but that is a small part of the overall purpose of Jesus.  Notice that as he reaches this climax of rebuking the religious leaders, something switches.  Jesus begins to lament and speak to not just the religious leaders, but to Israel as a whole, both present and past and by extension we can hear him pleading with all mankind.

God's Heart of Sorrow and Mercy for the Repentant

 Starting in Verse 37, Jesus begins to weep over the condition of his people and his nation.  Because he is God in human flesh, he speaks from God's point of view.  How often God had wanted to gather the people of Israel together and protect them from the sins that were exposing them.  The people of Israel were scattered, plundered, harassed, and preyed upon both in the natural and in the spiritual.  God had been faithful through previous prophets to warn Israel and attempt to lead them away from the fate they were now encountering. 

2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is ... longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

Even those who would not repent were the objects of his weeping.  Why?  Why will you die?  Any parent who has had a child go over the top of all reason and warning in order to perish through sin and wickedness can understand this cry. Why will you die?  How often Jesus had tried to protect them like a mother hen protecting her chicks.  The chicks are ignorant of the dangers and too weak to protect themselves.  But they were not willing!  The people of Israel were like rebellious chicks that refused to come under the protection of God.  Instead they willfully exposed themselves and ran from their God into sure destruction.

Ezekiel 33:11, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

Clearly God is broken over those who refuse to repent.  His desire is to give grace, but we must be repentant in order to receive grace.  Is America repentant?  Not right now.  In fact many "christians" persist in pretending that Grace covers sin when we are not repentant.  Many "christians" persist in "redefining" what is good and right in contradiction to God's word.  And, of course, many pretend under the guise of being a Christian to satisfy the evil desires in their heart.

If Christians are to follow Jesus than we need to first repent of our own personal sin.  We then need to lament the destruction that sin is bringing upon our people.  Out of that brokenness we should rebuke those who know better, and give grace to those who do not.  But how is grace given?  Grace is given when I die that you may live.  None of us can die in the manner of Jesus.  He was perfect and obtained salvation for all who believed on him.  I can't obtain salvation for someone, but I can introduce them to Jesus.  If people around me are going to find the grace of God they are only going to do it if I learn to die to my selfish self.  Am I the voice of God pleading with the lost that they need not perish?  Or am I a pharasaical voice condemning them to hell without real concern?  Am I a zealot who selfishly thinks "so-and-so" must die so that this nation can live?  Or do I see how I need to die so that my children or spouse may live?  In short we are called to love them.  Love lays down its life so that others may live.

I challenge you today, if you want to fight for our nation, then ask God how you need to lay your life down for those in your life.  Once you have brought life to them then he may expand your circle of influence.  However, until then, continue to be a faithful voice demonstrating the brokenness of God to a generation plunging into destruction.

I can tell you this.  Judgment will come to America.  Only God knows when.  But we have known too much truth of God in our history for it to be very long.  No, I believe that God's list of nations that need judged has the "Christian" nations of the West at the top, because we know too much to be living the way we have and are.

America: On The Rise Or Not?

One claim that God makes in the Bible is that no nation rises to greater power or loses power without God's involvement.  It is He who raises nations and puts them down.  Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that the United States of America has been raised up from nonexistence to being the pre-eminent national power in this world.

As we are approaching the holiday on which we celebrate our beginnings, it would be incumbent to ask ourselves how God might be dealing with us both now and in the future.  Is He still "raising us up" or are we due for some discipline?  Of course if you do not believe that God has anything to do with this than you will scoff at the idea.  I challenge you to at least hear out what the Bible tells us about what will lead to the success of our nation.

Righteousness will help our nation

Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

Of all the things that we say this nation needs in order to be on the rise or great again, righteousness is probably not high on the list.  Definitely America has a lot of things going for it, but do we have righteousness?  Is it increasing or decreasing?  These kind of questions beg for a definition of what we really mean by righteousness.

A simple and quick definition would be that righteousness is that which is the right thing.  But not just right as defined by me or you.  Rather as right is defined by God.  If you are a Christian then you do not have the luxury to question God's definition of what is right.  By the very nature of putting your trust in Jesus you are saying, "I may not understand it all, but I believe that you are right and I have been wrong."  Anything short of this is most likely not a true conversion to Christianity.  However, Christians should think through God's definition of what is right in order to engage those who do not believe in God.  Why is God's way right and my way wrong?  To answer that by saying, "it doesn't matter, you just need to believe God," is not showing the reason for the faith that we have.  

Now God defines righteousness as that which conforms to his character.  So we could say that God himself is the definition of what is right.  It is the answer to the question, "What would God have me do?"  He has made his character very clear in Scripture and has even detailed many lists of things that are not right; thus sins.  In general Micah 6:8 says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."   In the New Testament Jesus says that all the Laws of Moses could be summed up in these two commands:  Love God with your whole being, and Love your neighbor as yourself.  However, the apostles do give some detailed lists describing actions that fail the command of love.  It is interesting that homosexuality is one of those sins listed.  Today you might hear the question, "But how can God say, on the one hand, love is good and then, on the other hand, say this certain kind of love is bad?"  Or the shorter version, "How can love be wrong?"  This is where we realize that the issue is troubled by the many definitions of what is right and what is love.  The Bible does answer these questions if you are willing to listen.

Everyone thinks they are right.  Even Hitler felt he was "right" to do what he did.  I know that is an extreme, but that is my point.  The Bible says that righteousness (as defined by God, not me or you) is what will exalt a nation.  Now I already made the point that we are a nation that has already been raised.  Was there a greater measure of righteousness (as defined by God) in our past?  Even nonchristians would have to agree that America has less people living as God says we should do now than in our past.  The general trend is away from the Bible and Christianity.

The Rabbi Daniel Lapin has an interesting point in his book "America's Real War."  He mentions that we typically look at nations overseas that are in great poverty, violence, and tyranny and ask the question why is there so much of it there.  However, historically speaking, that condition has been the normality of all nations.  What is not normal is the kind of freedom that has existed in America.  Where did it come from and are we losing it?  I believe any honest answer to that question will at least admit we are losing it.  If history teaches us anything it is that no nation stays on top forever.  

The powerful nations of the past were not necessarily so because they were good.  Thus, righteousness exalts a nation, but every nation that is exalted is not done so because it is righteous.  The pragmatic outlook of many Americans can lead us to assume that we must be better than the other nations because we are so successful, but that would be a mistake.  There is always a time of turbulence when a nation that has risen to great success is on the brink of collapse.  During that time plenty of signs will point to its downfall and many others will point to its continued success.  But that leads us to the next point of the proverb.

Sin will only drag us down

Whether we reject the "right" of God knowingly or unknowingly it will have the same effect upon the nation.  It adds to our collective guilt before God and eventual fall from power.  Whatever the condition for your rejection of God's way, it always comes down to using our own reason and logic to overturn what the Bible says.  Even Christians will sometimes reason themselves into rejecting parts of the Bible as not good and follow a different path of their own choosing.  Sometimes the reasoning will be something like this:  "we are no longer under the law.  We are under grace and so we don't have to obey the Bible other than to believe Jesus covers our sin."  This is a grotesque perversion of what Jesus and his apostles taught.  Yes, they did teach that God was making grace available to those who would believe on Jesus.  However, they also taught that we were freed from the guilt of the law and its punishments so that we could pursue righteousness in a greater way.  Just because previous generations promoted righteousness to the point of legalism does not mean pursuing righteousness is no longer our calling. Christian, are you living any old way you please?  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."  It is not a call to embrace a smug and arrogant self-righteousness.  Rather, it is a recognition that I have been freed from guilt so that I can pursue righteousness.

The reality is that sin, as defined by the Bible, is rampant within the Church of America.  We can point the finger at those who do not believe, but it is a weak argument when the lives of so many Christians are not following God's way.  The reality is that God will judge the church of America before he judges the nation as a whole.  Are we not there?  Churches and Pastors are no longer respected like they once were in our country.  Instead they are often the butt of jokes and derision-laden comments in every aspect of our society.  Hebrews 12:6, "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."  Most likely, the plummetting of the Church's reputation is part of God's attempt to get our attention.

The proverb says that sin is a "reproach" or "disgrace."  This word has the idea of being stained by something that is humiliating, whether it is private or public.  This may help us to understand why God uses the metaphor of "stripping a nation naked" in time of judgment.  It is a picture of hidden humiliating sin being publically exposed to the world as God brings judgment.  We see this happening within the church as pastors, priests and churches are publically exposed.  However, the secular groups within our society should not be quick to rejoice over the demise of Christians because the same process is happening to our country before the world.  It is easy for us to believe that the current economic woes and political turmoil are just cyclical and will pass as we go on to greater heights.  But that is just plain arrogance.  Did not the Romans believe they could only become greater?  Did not the British Empire believe that they were destined to be the world power?  Yet, each one in its time fell from great power and are shadows of what once was.

Are we rising or not?  I think the evidence is that we have hit the highest point of our parabolic trajectory and are now headed down.  We will see.

Reaching a Lost Son

The case could be made that it is getting more and more difficult to raise children in modern times.  However, we need to be careful that we do not lose sight of the truth that it has always been difficult to raise children.  Sheltering, feeding, and clothing children can be challenging at times, but they represent the "easier" tasks of being a parent.  The more difficult task is teaching and preparing the child to take on the tasks of caring for itself in a way that does not prey on others.

The Bible is filled with the history of parents having trouble raising their children.  It wasn't easy back then either.  Thus we do not have a special case that only we can answer.  Throughout history mankind has wrestled with the issue of how best to raise children.  In the Bible we have the examples of many failures in this regard and yet counsel from God himself on what we could do better.

Before we talk about reaching a lost son, I believe that there is an amazing teaching in the bible in this area.  The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God intends us to make the connection between our difficulties raising our children and the often stormy relationship between God and mankind.  Think about it.  Children are born helpless, in a weakened condition, unable to care for themselves, and unable to interpret the world around them.  If it were not for the "god-like" care and influence of parents then they would die.  Parents as the "gods" of their children care for their every need, help them grow and understand the world around them.  The frictions that happen during this process are both unavoidable and necessary.  We are the lost children God is trying to reach and the passage we look at today is God's attempt to help us see his heart towards mankind.  Today we do not look at the infant and toddler stages, but rather the end of the parenting process where our kids become adults in their own right and in that sense transition into standing beside us as our brothers and sisters.

Setting the Stage

Before we get into the story we need to understand the situation that led to Jesus telling it.  In Luke chapter 15 we are told that the tax collectors and the sinners "drew near" to Jesus in order to hear his teachings.  The point is that they weren't just hanging on the outskirts of the group, but that they were right in next to Jesus as he taught.  The fact that tax collectors are equated with sinners here is not lost on us modern readers.  However, these tax collectors were viewed even worse than in our society because they collected taxes for a foreign, oppressive regime, and often did so excessively so that they could skim profits off the top.  They were seen as opportunistic traitors.  The religious leaders saw that Jesus allowed these obvious sinners to be close to him as he was teaching.  They make the complaint: "This man receives sinners and eats with them."  If he really was God's holy representative than how could he let unholy sinners first come to him and then, even worse, have a meal with them?  It flew in the face of what they understood about God and what they taught Israel about their God.  Jesus gave them three stories to show how they neither understood God's heart nor were in a position to teach about it.  He also wants us to understand the heart of those who are lost.

Jesus primes the pump of their understanding by giving two quick stories about a lost sheep and a lost coin.  He then follows up with a much more involved story about a son who asks for his inheritance early and leaves his father's home.  Jesus' use of the three pictures of a lost sheep, lost coin, and a lost son, are highly illustrative of our lost condition.

• Luke 15:4-7, The Lost Sheep, this is a picture of how we stray from God through our own ignorance and stupidity.  God, as the good shepherd, "goes out after the one" even though he has 99 others.  If you are an animal lover than you will probably think that it is obvious that a shepherd would seek out the one.  But Jesus is showing how it makes obvious sense to the religious leaders when talking about sheep.  But, they don't see it when talking about lost people.  The point of this story is the waywardness of the sheep and its seemingly insignificant value and yet the shepherd's desire to "go out after" it.  God's heart is to go out after us even when we have ignorantly chosen a path that will destroy us.
• Luke 15:8-10, The Lost Coin, Jesus moves to an inanimate object that makes no conscious decision.  It is simply lost.  this is a picture of how we are generally oblivious to our own lost condition and how we got there.  The coin is not valuable to the woman who lost it because of what it does.  It has an inherent value to the woman regardless of its lost state.  So she diligently lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches the house till she finds it.  This is a picture of how God has lit a light in the world through his prophets and particularly Jesus.  He is even now sweeping the world and searching it as he sends out his Church to share the good news with all (to the ends of the earth), yet only some believing in and following Jesus.

• Luke 15:11-32, The Lost Son, here we come to the apex of the teaching where we are brought face to face with the picture of how we willingly estrange and separate ourselves from our heavenly Father, all along not understanding his true heart towards us.  This story is true of all mankind, as we seek to cast off God and go our own way.  Let's look at this story closer.

The Heart of the Lost Son

First we are shown the heart of the wayward son.  We enter the story at a point when the younger of two sons is doing an unthinkable thing.  He is asking for his inheritance before his father dies and is planning to get as far away from his father's house as possible.  In short he is completely rejecting his father.  We are not told what leads up to this point, but any parent can fill in some of the details.  The young man is chaffing under his father's supervision, rules, and overall way of thinking.  He is restricted from what he wants to do by his father and can only think of getting away.  He only sees what the father is keeping him from.  Thus he chooses to leave.  But somewhat hypocritically he wants a portion of his father's estate.  Yes, it naturally would be his at his father's death, but notice he is rejecting his father and wants nothing to do with him, however, still wants the wealth his father has accumulated.  The same mindset that he is rejecting is the mindset that he now expects to benefit him.   His father is merely a means of wealth for him.  This action is a deep wound into the father's heart that says, "you are only a means to an end for me, a stepping stone."  Another issue to see is that the inheritance is merely money to him.  A father hands down to his child far more than money as an inheritance.  However, the young man saw none of that.  The only thing his father had that he wanted was money.  He seeks to get away from his father's presence and supervision along with all its restraints and expectations.

The wayward son then takes the money and goes to a far country.  In this country he "wasted" all that he had in "prodigal" living.  The greek word translated as "wasted" is actually a picture of a farmer who is broadcasting his seed.  It is as if this young man began to throw his possessions to the wind.  Such "investments" generally give no returns.  The second word translated as "prodigal" has the sense of no morals or boundaries.  He plunges himself into immoral  activity without placing boundaries on his actions.   Again his lifestyle and mindset continue a rejection of all that his father is and has modelled to him.  Yes he is blazing his own path, but it is not a new one.  It is a tired, well used, familiar path that many a parent has wept over because it is a path that leads to destruction.

The son ends up in a humiliating condition.  He becomes penniless, but also has the misfortune to be so just as a famine comes upon that country.  Good times economically, militarily, and socially often mask the effects of our own poor decisions.  If there hadn't been a famine, perhaps the young man could have had a better situation by taking a job, but he is not so lucky.  The famine hits.  Everyone else is hurting too.  They either do not have anything left over or are so fearful for themselves that they are not willing to share any extra that they have today.  The only thing he can find to do is to feed the swine of a pig farmer.  This choice is clearly chosen by Jesus in the story to highlight the depths to which this young jewish boy has fallen.  Pigs were an unclean animal and the religious leaders would see it as the bottom of the barrel if not under it.  Yet, this young man is so hungry that he is desirous to eat the pigs food!  The clincher comes in verse 16, "no one gave him anything."

Now remember why this story is being told.  Jesus was letting sinners come and listen to him and he was giving them teaching about God and eating with them.  Giving is a critical part of this story.  The only one in it who truly gives is the rejected father.  Everyone else, the son included, takes and wastes, but does not give.  Now, it is while he is in this humiliating condition that the young man, "comes to himself."  We would probably say that he came to his senses.  It dawns on him that his father's servants have it way better than he does.  This fact then gives rise to a possiblity that he previously could not see and desire.  He could go back to his father apologize for his wrong and beg to be a slave in his house.  It is in the dire situation that he is able to see how good his father's house really is.  The mindset that he before was rejecting, he sees now is a mindset that created a house that was one where even the servants had plenty of bread to eat.  It was a good place and his father was a good man.  When all good is lost from our life, it opens the door for us to see the wisdom of repentance.  In fact we can ask the question, Is true repentance possible without suffering?  All sinners who live a life in rejection of God's ways experience a life of waste and suffering.  Though not all "come to themselves" and desire repentance, some do.  Jesus wants us to see the utter humiliation, lack of grace, and lack of hope in which sinners find themselves.  They are in a desperate situation.  Will you help them?  What would God do, and more importantly what would God want you to do?

The Heart of the Rejected Father

At this point where the son's mind turns back to his father, so does the point of now showing the father's heart.  But before we do that let's think back to the father's actions already and think about what his heart must be feeling and thinking.  I mentioned that the son's actions would be very hurtful and were quite impertinent.  Instead of rebuking him and refusing to divide the inheritance, the father gives his son much wealth and lets him go.  When children are young we often rebuke them and refuse to let them have everything they want, but at some point the spankings and punishments fall away.  The father's heart is not to force his son to be like a slave that has to obey his every command.  He realizes that he has to let his son go or he will forever lose his heart.  The father also lets him take what he neither earned nor deserved simply because he loved his son.  But on top of this the father suffers the public shame of a son who would do such a thing.  Many a parent fails at this juncture.  We are unwilling to bear the public weight of our children's sins.  But this father carries the shame of a foolish son without flinching.  Later, as the prodigal son approaches home, vs. 20 tells us that "when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."  The fact that the father saw the son while he was still a great way off implies that the father was watching for the boy.  His head knew he couldn't go out and force the boy to come home, but his heart was on the horizon looking for any sign of a changed heart.  At the first sign he quickly embraced the wayward, grievous son who had caused so much suffering to his heart and he did so with "great joy."  Instead of lording the son's failures over him, he rather completely restored him to son status.  "Are you kidding, you are not going to be a slave in my house, you are my son...!"  The father dresses the son in a fine robe and prepares a feast and calls all around to celebrate with him that his son had come home.  This is the heart of God towards sinners who have gone astray.  Yes he has been hurt and has carried the sorrow and heaviness of our rejection.  But he longingly looks for any change of heart that he might receive us back into his "house," not as a slave, but as a son.

The Other Son

Here Jesus inserts a question in the story.  For you see there was an older brother who had always been faithful to his father and had never disobeyed.  He was, in a sense, the perfect son.  But was he?  What makes a "perfect" son?  It is interesting that in the Scripture "perfect" carries the sense of matured or completed.  Was this son really completed?  Had he really become like his father?  It is at this point that we find the heart of the elder son.  The elder son is offended and angry at his father's actions and refuses to come into the celebration.  The father tries to reason with the elder son by reassuring him of his place in the father's house and that everything that was his belongs to the elder son.  He also speaks to the morality of the situation.  It is only right to rejoice when the brother who was as good as dead has come back to life.  You see this is the other thread throughout the stories.  The joy that breaks forth when the lost thing is found.  The shepherd calls his friends to rejoice with him.  The woman likewise entreats her friends to rejoice with her.  The father celebrates and throws a feast for his son along with music and dancing.  This is the heart of God.  He longs for our repentance and rejoices with great joy when we turn to him.  He is quick to embrace and restore.  This was not the heart of the religious leaders.  They were so proud in their obedience to God that they became offended when God had mercy on sinners.  Here is the question.  Jesus doesn't question their obedience, which he could have (we all like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way).  Instead he questions whether they were really like God and was God really as they thought.  They claimed to represent him and speak on his behalf, but in the end their heart is diametrically opposed to God's.

John MacArthur gives an interesting twist on this story.  Although the parable ends here, we might ask the question, "if the elder brother represents the religious leaders of the day then how might the parable continue?"  MacArthur says that the story would continue this way.  The elder brother becomes so enraged that the father intends to drag the family name through the mud by embracing the wayward son and because his own service seems to be slighted in the circumstances, that he picks up a staff and clubs his father to death.  When the true essence of his father was displayed he then rejected his father's heart and killed him.

The real question is not how obedient we have been to God, but is this.  When the true nature of God's heart is displayed do you reject it or do you embrace it?  Only the proud, self confident, and self righteous who refuse to see their own sin reject God's heart.  But those who have suffered and been humiliated because of their own sin rejoice and are amazed at the heart of God displayed at the cross.  God is all powerful.  But he does not use that power to wipe out those who dare disobey him.  Instead he uses that power to carry the weight of their sin and provide a way for them to be restored to him.  Yes, there will be a day of judgment because there is a real rejection of God, but is is not always seen by the outward appearance.  Many who are sinners will be restored to sonship and many who appear to be great religious leaders will be cast out of his house in that day.  Which heart is yours?