The Prodigal and Forgiveness – The Crown Jewell Both in Heaven and on Earth

n other words we are asking and answering the question what would Jesus do in my situation how is it that I can address honorably the kind of questions that are before me that’s face to face what would Jesus do and we’re in that regard are going through Parables we’ve learned in the past weeks that parables are given for at least two reasons in the New Testament one is because in story form it makes us understand the kingdom of God in familiar terms agricultural commercial family relationships

and that’s good and God wants us to have those kind of mental pictures and stories of what it means to live in a way that’s honorable to him in story form we’re not at a passage yet I’m not sure what that’s up there there you go the second reason that we have Parables is in Matthew 13 and by the way let’s see your Bibles you brought them today good Kevin I don’t see your Bible there it is all right you know I’m going to harass you

here’s a here’s a good example the second reason that we have Parables is in Matthew 13 and I’m not going to take the time to read it so if you get bored or distracted by me you can go there and Matthew 13 says the disciple says why do you speak to us in Parables and Jesus said so that knowing you can know and others that don’t know will not know in other words it’s veil truth to those who hear who have ears to hear but to

those who do not it actually is a screen or a veil to keep them from knowing the truth interesting so every week it’s become our pattern to go first of all into the background and picking up the things that were dangling from last week it’s actually gotten so bad that as I finished my preparation this morning I’m already writing down the things that next Sunday we’re going to talk about that I know I won’t cover today but there are questions that will come up for those

of us that prepare messages and we don’t have a transcript we do it Acappella so to speak and there’s always about a third more of preparation than what you get yet and that either leads to questions that come to me after the service or later in the week or or I address the following week and actually next week we’re going to broaden the subject of forgiveness out but two things that have come up from last week was first of all the Barnacles you can turn to

Luke where we were last week and in that remarkable passage about the rich fool in Luke 13 Luke 13 the excuse me Luke 12 you remember he said my crops are good I’m going to build bigger buildings I’m set eat drink and be merry and God said you fool today your life will be required of you and in that context and in the following warnings about worrying and and being afraid Jesus says to his disciples in part verse 32o not be afraid Little Flock for your

father has been pleased to give you the kingdom sell your possessions and give to the poor provide purses for you against that will not wear out as out will not wear out a treasure in heaven and I said last week we talk about that and we didn’t I did say that every we have has us everything we own owns us we’re getting barnacled up with everything we own do you know the two best businesses to invest in in America right now I’ll give you the first

the first is mobile home parks but you know what the second one is self storage units because now our garages are full and so we’re putting all of our junk into self storage units and and I’m no different and what I said last week was all that stuff Barnacles up on you so the questions I got afterwards were John should I have a spare car should I have a second house should I have a large savings account should I keep my wedding dress I thought oh

boy am I in trouble here and here here’s the answer it’s an answer that an attorney should be able to use every now and then the the answer is I don’t know it’s up to you and your conscience for example in the last 24 hours I was told that on my truck mold is developing around the handles and car washes don’t get it off oh great now I got to think about my mold on my truck two in the last 24 hours we have a Lincoln

City vacation rental home and I was told in the last 24 hours that the little games devices in each bedroom have been stolen by previous people who rent in the house I like great so I got to deal with that and then I’m sitting in my tee this morning and I get a text that says we just fired this employee this morning and I thought barnacled up now what I’m telling you is be wise operate based on your conscience and the things that attract our dist

ract you I’m in the process of divesting not retiring but divesting because my bandwidth is maxed out it’s silly how much I am dealing with daily these things that are in uncon inconsequential so I’m saying the same to you that on those things like well let me say this I did say last week that the issue of possession and holding possessions seems to be more of a feminine than a masculine issue and I think that’s true I think it’s true I think it’s true you don’t

have to agree with me but I’m up here you’re down there and you know there’s always a thrower and a saver in every couple whatever but here’s what I want to say gentlemen there is no way you and I males have the skill set to make a house a home we don’t that’s our wives That’s our ladies that’s our girls that’s the feminine gender and it is true that whatever you accumulate has to be measured out against things like Hospitality the Bible commends hospitality and Hospitality

in a house that’s been made into a home makes people comfortable so I’m going to leave that question to you and your conscience and I’m going and try to figure out how to keep mold off of my truck second housekeeping matter from last week I told you that the Second Great commandment first great commandment to love the Lord your God with heart and soul and mind Second Great commandment love your neighbor yourself I said we talk about that we didn’t here’s who your neighbor is the

righteous leaders didn’t want to do deal with that man in the ditch the levite didn’t but the Samaritan did he went to one who was in crisis and he said I’m going to do something about this and he picked him up out of the ditch and he bound his wounds and he went the next day and paid his bill and got him on his feet so who is my neighbor my neighbor is one whose need I see and whose need I can meet I’ve taught this

before in previous years but it’s worth repeating my neighbor is one with my resources whose need I see and whose need I can meet there may be needs that you know about that you cannot meet that’s not your neighbor hear about those all the time but there may be needs that you can meet but you haven’t seen those needs yet you have the resources but you’re not aware of the needs and here I want to be careful because we’re a vulnerable society electronically we have people

from Alabama to the Ukraine that are taking advantage of our people with these crazy emails and pitches for giving and if you give to a group then you get on a list and they sell that list to somebody else and it goes crazy I myself was almost faked out you remember that about a year ago when various people in the church got this email from Steve said there are four women in our church that have cancer we got to get under this Good Samaritan that there

are four women in our church that have cancer get some cash cards and give them to me I’m going to give them out I said okay and I was standing in line at Fred Meyer to buy those cash cards before Judy sent an email saying hold up that was a joke I mean that was a that was a scam so you got to be careful but your neighbor is one whose needs you see and whose need you can meet we’ll talk more about that next week

the parable of the lost son in Luke is maybe the most familiar Parable in the Bible it’s in Luke chapter 15 so turn there if you would Luke 15 Charles Dickens has said that this is the greatest story the greatest short story ever written Ralph Waldo Anderson Emerson said the same thing it deals with the most fundamental aspects of life it’s a story that not only can be understood by a child as you read it through but when you take a second run at it in

Luke 15 you find that it has a secondary a higher meaning over just the basic dysfunction of a Jewish Family parables are like that sometimes they’re straight on what you see is what you get the rich fool I tear down my Barns and build bigger ones and God say you’re an idiot that’s straight out you don’t need to imagine anything about that but this Parable the parable of the soil of parable of the lost son has a secondary and a higher meaning and we know that

because this is the third of a Trilogy of parables in Luke 15 now next week in Luke 16 we’re going to talk about a master that goes after his slave because he’s mismanaging his money and and Jesus will use that Parable to teach about how to be wise in this world how to be smart in a way that counts for eternity and we’ll come back next week to some of the lessons of the rich fool but this week the Luke 15 this is the third Parable

the first Parable has to do with the parable of the lost sheep the second Parable the parable of the lost coin and then the third parable the parable of the lost son what we call the prodigal prodal is not a word that we find in our Bible it means spin Thrift it means prolific it means foolish living it means excessive living and that’s the third Parable but we know that it has a greater and higher meaning because of the way it starts now the tax correctors

and sinners were all gathered to hear him but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered this man welcomes Sinners and eats with them that verse Shadows the rest of Luke 15 it reflects on not only the audience of Jesus but the message that comes out of our Parable and it’s basic and fundamental we have really two religious systems going on in Luke 15 we have the wandering unbeliever who who having been confronted with the message if not the person of the Messiah needs to

take an account on what is God’s standard for Life who’s the best example of that Nicodemus Nicodemus as best we know at least in the P pages of scripture was the only Pharisee ever converted interesting and there’s a whole crowd of Pharisees listening to Jesus Nicodemus snuck over to Jesus in the middle of the night and said what must I do to be saved and Jesus said you must be born again and Nicodemus said say what what does it mean to be born again Jesus said

born not of woman not of water but of the spirit and we know that grabbed a hold of Nicodemus because later on in the gospels we find that as Jesus is put before a phony trial it’s Nicodemus that says is this the right thing to do and more amazingly in the end of John Book of John after Jesus is crucified when his followers take his body and bind it with linen and with spices who who there two men I’ll give you the first Joseph of arthea

who was the other Nicodemus and while we don’t have in black and white these in heaven that’s likely an example of his commitment to Jesus and his conversion to Jesus and if we didn’t understand that religious system in John 3 enough in John 4 we get this woman at the well and there Jesus comes and says give me a drink and she says well sir sir you didn’t bring anything to give you drink with and he said if you knew how to ask you I could

give you living water Eternal water Everlasting water that would last forever and so she goes into a theological distraction oh we know that you know there’s going to be a debate between the Jews and the Samaritans and Jesus said let me tell you about your history your marital history and the woman said I’m dealing with something different here and Jesus said ask and you will get Everlasting water and that woman raced off into the village to tell others about meeting Jesus that’s one whole religious system

it’s the the non-counters in the first century the slaves the ones without religious standing the ones who have really nothing to commend themselves to Jesus but there’s a whole second religious system in Luke 15 and that’s the Pharisees that’s the ones who loved high places they loved to be known as religious and they were absolutely committed to a system that says you get to heaven based on how well you live and they hated Grace for by Grace you’re saved through faith and that not of yourself

not of works that any man should boast they hated that but here they are listening to Jesus in these three Parables okay let’s get into it first Parable lost sheep conclusion is when that sheep is found there’s much rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent second Parable and lost coin woman has 10 coins she misses she loses one she finds that coin and Jesus Jus said Rejoice with me I found my lot coin the

woman has said in the same way I tell you there’s rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents so we know now the setting is set the context has framed for us the fact that we’re dealing not just with one-on-one analyses Earth to buildings to what we see and here we’re talking about the kingdom of God we’re talking about a party in heaven we’re talking about the joy of God something the Pharisees knew nothing about here we go Jesus continued

there was a man who had two sons the younger son said to his father father give me my share of the estate so he divided his property between them not long after that the younger son got together all he had and off he went in a distant country What’s going on in the Jewish Community First of all in this Village this Jewish village this father had two sons and this younger one said I’m out of here I don’t buy your value system dad I don’t buy

The Village’s view of the kingdom of God I don’t want anything to do with it in fact in fact if we looked behind the scenes we’d find that this boy was waiting for his dad to die how do you know that because that’s the only way he was going to get his inheritance and he finally ran out of patience and he said I want it now now the father of course had options but in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy if he distributes his

estate early he distributes 2/3 to the oldest son and one3 to the youngest son and so this boy said divide your property and in fact God that father did that he he gave father give me my share so he divided the property between them interestingly enough we won’t get to this until the last verse of this Parable but you see see those last two words he divided the property between them he gave two-thirds to his oldest son and he gave onethird to this boy not long

after that the younger son got together all that he had he went off to a distant country he couldn’t get far enough away from Israel and the Jewish community and he squandered his wealth on wild living now an estate’s going to involve property and animals and cash and this boy had to convert it to cash he wasn’t interested in animals he wasn’t interested in taking care of any kind of responsibilities that come with receiving an estate from his father he wanted dollars and so he fire

sailed it and when somebody in that Community buys estate property two things happen one you pay a discounted amount because it’s being sold before the patriarch is dead and secondly what you buy you have to hold until the patriarch dies there’s still a color on the title there’s still a lean on the title so to speak on the estate property you buy whoever bought this didn’t care the son said I’ll make you a deal you can’t believe and in fact that’s what happened so he sold

and got a cash and with the cash the text says he set off for a distant land and squandered his wealth and while living he’d been dreaming of all the things he could get with a pocket full of cash and we know from the end of this Parable that included prostitutes and all kinds of lascivious living and without much trouble he burned through everything that he had received from his father now there’s certain things this boy had control over and there’s certain things he had no

control over what he had control over of course was the way he spent his money the way he threw away his money what he didn’t have control over was and we read there’s this severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need he didn’t plan on that he didn’t have any anticipation for the future he didn’t set aside anything for the future he said I want it all now and I want to run through it as fast and hard as I can

he didn’t plan on the fact and this is this is not a famine like you miss a meal or you miss two meals this is a famine where in this land that he was in there was starvation the best we have of a recent example in America on that was the stock crash of about 100 years ago and historians tell us that there was so much famine in America America that people would bloat up from a lack of food and would go around to their neighbors

and apologize for looking like they were eating well when they weren’t this was a severe Fanon so severe that the boy stooped to a level he never never planned on he began to be in need so he went and hired himself to a to a citizen of that country who sent him to his field fields to feed pigs now there are two audiences that Jesus is telling this story to one is the disciples and it’s not unusual to them to understand that there’s a message about

somebody in need that there’ll eventually be a rescue but to the Pharisees they thought this is disgusting not only this boy walked away from his father and treated rather than treating his father with honor treated him with shame and shamed his father and his family in that whole village but now he’s wallowing Among The Forbidden pigs that Jews are to have no contact with so I would suspect on a theological level the Pharisees are kind of having indigestion which is raising up in their minds in

terms of this story he found himself as feeder of the pigs he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating but no one gave him anything now there were vegetable pods in the first century that actually had molasses in them and they would be processed and squeezed theat the Molasses would come out and then the pods that were left were fed to the pigs even that the garbage that was left for the pigs he longed for that to satisfy his hunger

and then the tables turn in the second section of this Parable the boy has squandered and thrown away everything that had to do with the history and bearing of his life he said I know now I I know now that what I thought was best for me wasn’t best for me so the text says he came to his senses he said I I got to get back some of what I had before I I don’t expect I’m going to get back everything but I I got

to turn this thing around before I die and I am in deep trouble so the text says when he came to his censes he said how many of my father’s Hired Hands have food to spare and I’m starving to death I will set out and go back to my father and say to him father I’ve sinned against heaven and against you I’m no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired men he got up and went to his father now

he rehearsed ahead of time his speech based on the fact that he knew his father he hoped would be a generous and receiving man he’ grown up with him he said there may be a some latitude there may be a window by which I can at least moved back to the most basic level of living working as one of my father’s Hired Hands So he rehearsed what he was going to say and in fact he recognized in that that the coming to his senses included repentance

you say John the message today is forgiveness which is the Crown Jewel in heaven and on Earth and it is how do you measure forgiveness saywell you haven’t been hurt the way I’ve been hurt for the first time in 25 years last week in our office building as I’m in my office there’s this huge shrieking that comes out of our conference room oh boy what now it wasn’t my case it was was another law firm’s case but it was a woman being deposed who’d been sexually

abused and she was having to go through again the history of that in the course of her case I have had experiences where I’ve been counseling with women who’ve been raped and one who got pregnant because of the rape and so you ask yourself the question what can I expect how do I understand stand my standing to either please God or deal with the consequences in my life this boy said there are two ways which I understand I was wrong I sinned against God pile him

up I walked away from my Jewish Traditions I walked away from my forgiving father I threw everything to the wind in prolific living and I sinned against God the second thing I did was I sinned against man if you want to measure true forgiveness true repentance that’s the measure it’s twofold it’s not just acknowledging before God that what my behavior did was wrong but it’s owning it with those that we’ve offended that we’ve hurt so you say well John this is easy go I don’t need

to forgive until I’m convinced they’re serious about how they offended me I don’t need to forgive until they make it right I don’t need to forgive until they pay me back we’ll see the boy had his speech ready and it was just make me one of your workers I don’t deserve to be a son again I squandered that the text says but when he was a long way off his father saw him and filled with compassion for him he ran to his son threw his arms

around him and kissed him what does that say the father was steady he had a road to repentance that stayed open he watched for that boy and longed for him and wanted nothing more than to be reconciled to him and interestingly enough that Recon reconciliation from the father to the son did not include restitution he didn’t say boy you got to pay me back we’ll get this cleaned up but it’s going to take you a few years to get that cleaned up the father rather said

to his servants quick that’s that’s at the beginning of the Greek sentence it just means hurry up up get the best robe the one actually the robe that signified him as the patriarch the one who was destined to go to his older son get the best robe get that signant ring on his f finger and sandals on his feet put shoes on him bring the fatted calf and kill it let’s have a feast and celebrate for the son of mine was dead and he’s alive again

he was lost and he’s found so they began to celebrate now one thing that happens in a village when a family decomposes like this a Jewish Family is they they usually have a ritual funeral it was fair game to know this boy had booked it out of town and whether it was formal or just the knowledge of the village there was knowledge that this boy was as if dead so when the father saw him again he said we found him he’s come back to life let’s

celebrate now this first image of the lost son being restored to his father is also the imagery that in the parable we find with a celebration of the lost sheep and the lost coin and it means this there is great joy in heaven on a sinner who’s been brought to God do you realize that does your view of God include the fact that it’s the Supreme Joy of your heavenly father for which there’s a constant party going on in heaven as Sinners are brought to Faith

and so the disciples who were listening to this had to be encouraged with the fact that to the extent this was a mirror of the kingdom of God and The Parables say that it was this was one to whom they had come and did not require first restitution did not require resolution of past wrongs just that you come to God as you are and he accepts you based on the what we know the crosswork of his son but there’s a second phase to this meanwhile the

older son was in the field now at this point the Pharisees have to be just belly up with this whole whole story they this father has taken this stinking son who still smelled like pigs had embraced him had received him had killed the fatted calf had invited the village and there was a celebration going on the older son was in the field and when he came near the house he heard music and dancing so he called one of his servants and he asked what was going

on does that seem odd to you they’re in the same family what it says is there was no relationship between the father and the older son there was no dialogue going on there was no from the father saying to his servants go get the older son tell him his brother is back there was nothing this was a son who stood stayed near his father and had a pretense and a pretext of commitment to the father but it wasn’t there there wasn’t a relationship so we’re not

surprised that he didn’t know that this was happening and the text says all these years I’ve been grieving the father says I’ve been grieving and never but you never disobeyed the son says you you never gave me even a young calf a young goat excuse me that I could celebrate with my friends but when the son of yours who squandered your property comes back you kill the fatted Gaff when the son spoke to the father you see in verse 25 that he said look there’s no

real respect between the older son and the father he didn’t sayf father what are you doing he said by way of Confrontation he’s getting what I should have he’s getting the recognition that I should get the father with Grace and with gentleness says my son you’re always with me and everything I have is yours but if we have to celebrate and be glad because the brother of yours was dead and is now alive again he was lost and now found the older son is a picture

of these Pharisees they stayed near they had a form of religious oity they wanted to be known as religious leaders they wanted to be near the father they weren’t foolish enough to squander the estate the way the younger boy did but they were not happy because the father represented a Grace and a compassion and a forgiveness and a Reconciliation that they were convinced that he did not deserve so in fact the son confronted him and the father said wait a minute he was dead and now

he’s alive he was lost and now he’s found it’s a powerful parable but it ends in an odd way people that are smarter than me that have studied this passage say there are a number of literary stanzas in this Parable and that happens often in biblical literature where you have parallel stanzas to help with the recitation and memory of a story before it was written down and there are eight stanzas that have to do with the father father and the lost son but when you get

to the father and his older son there’s only seven it ends I mean there’s there’s nothing the next thing we have is the shrewd manager in chapter 16 you’re left with the father gently instructing his older son what happened next I can tell you what happened next the older son took his father jammed him into a phony trial required of him that he go to golgatha and die the Pharisees in no way were going to submit that this was the kingdom of God they in fact

said let his blood be on me wow that’s the picture of the religious system that saysi hate Grace I hate it when you say that you can have a right standing with God and there’s nothing required of you other than to believe in one who died for you because it takes away my Prestige my control my power my status my standing and it does so this really is a story about two religious systems about what it takes to either reject the grace and compassion and forgiveness

of God or to enter in with God to Joy because one who was lost has been found you know the subject that this Parable brings up is not finished until we look at other gospel passages and also at least one or two passages in the Epistles for example in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus taught about prayer excuse me taught about forgiveness when he said our Father in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us

today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from the evil one for if you forgive other people when they sin against you your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others their sins your father will not forgive your sins wow why that duel why that dichotomy between forgiveness and non- forgiveness it’s because it becomes a measure of either we’re marked out by Grace as children of

God or we’re not Matthew chapter 18 teaches about forgiveness when Jesus said truly I tell you whatever you Bond on Earth will be Bound in heaven and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in heaven truly I tell you that if two of you on Earth agree about anything they ask for it’ll be done for them by my Father in heaven for where two or three Gather in my name I’m with them and then he went on to say that Peter said to Jesus Lord

how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me up to seven times well the law said six Peter said let’s do one better just to show that I’m really somebody who’s committed to your instruction about forgiving others should we really forgive them seven times and Jesus said not seven times but 70 seven times in other words if you’re counting you’re not forgiving well John there’s something that’s impossible to forgive it’s true that poor woman in the conference room my student who

had been raped even if they grapple to the point of being able to say I’m willing to not make that a barrier that affects my relationship to God and at least with some caution those around me it’s impossible that they’ll ever forget that impossible physically impossible so don’t beat yourself up if as you work through ones who have harmed you you can’t forget it forgiveness means you’re giving up the right to pay back somebody has hurt you and forgiveness means there’s some standard besides getting even

that is what God wants of me both in my relationship with him and my relationship with others not seven times but 77 times but really one of the classic passages on forgiveness is in Ephesians chapter 4 where Paul writes and sayso not let any UNH wholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what’s helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen and do not grieve the holy spirit with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption

then in things that we can control in the subject of forgiveness Paul writes get rid of all bitterness rage anger brawling slander along with every form of malice be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other just as in Christ God has forgiven you there’s our standard you know as pastors our task is to not make too much of a Biblical subject or too little of a Biblical subject too much might be to say well if you if the Psalms say your sins are forgiven

as far as the East is for the West that must mean that God forgets them no that’s not true in fact we learned in 2 Corinthians 5 last week that we’ll all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ at some point as Believers and we’ll give an account for everything done in the body whether good or bad that’s coming for us as Believers we’ll be saved we’ll be in heaven with the Lord but we will stand before Jesus with either the gold silver and precious stones

that came from a life that lived for him or wood hay and straw that is burned up because of its mixed motives or events in my life but the task is to not make too much or too little of forgiveness this is really I I can’t I can’t emphasize it enough forgiving each other just as in Christ God has forgiven you there are really two religious systems that Jesus taught about in the New Testament one had to do with broken people people who said I I’ve

gone to the end of my own resources I can’t affect my situation anymore the best I can hope through is to kind of grel through life and hope for a modom of Grace and to that person the Bible says come here your father’s been watching for you to the extent it has a human application as parents do it keep that road open wait for that opportunity when you can come back and that father will embrace you and say you are dead now you’re alive and to

those who say it’s not for me because it doesn’t meet the standards of all the requirements of the Old Testament as I understand it and all of the way in which I can work myself to Heaven through self-righteousness to those they’re outside the perimeter of the kingdom of God and do not know of the joy and Delight that comes in heaven when a sinner is brought to him so in Hebrews chapter 12 we have that last part of the ending of The Prodigal you know I

said it ended kind of in an awkward way here’s the last part the last stanza in the prodigal and I’m reading from Hebrews chapter 12 and verse two therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race before us here it is let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before him

endured the cross scorned the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God that’s the end of the story of the parable it is the joy and Delight of God to send his only son to the cross for us so that without restitution without without paying any other prices we simply say I’m at the end of my ropes Jesus you are my savior and I’ll follow you you the hymn that came out of some of this material was a hymn that was

ultimately put to song by Don moan but it came out of a poem from Annie Johnson flint and it goes like this you’ll you’ll recognize it he giveth more he giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater he sends more strength when the labors increase to add Affliction he adds his Mercy to Multiplied trials he multiplies Grace whe

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 6,631 words.