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17 Nov:   The Prodigal Son          Luke 15:11-32

Luke 15:1-3 “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…”

Jesus then told them three parables: 1) the first parable is about the shepherd that leaves the 99 and goes find and bring back one lost sheep.   2) Then He tells the parable of the woman who loses one of her silver coins and completely cleans house until she finds it. 3) The third parable is about the son who takes his inheritance from his father and goes into a foreign land where he squanders it. The son then comes back home and his father hugs him, gives him a banquet and accepts him back into the family.    

The point of these parables is to show us that God wants all to be saved and that He desires a relationship with Him! In the parable of the lost sheep the lamb is placed on the shoulder of the shepherd and carried back to the pasture. In a similar fashion Christ has borne our sins on the cross and brought us back into the presence of God.     ?????

Prodigal Son:  Luke 15:11-12  “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.”

In the parable of the Prodigal Son the story starts off with the son of a wealthy man requesting his inheritance even though there are no signs of an imminent death of the father. The son is basically telling his father that he is unwilling to wait until the father has died and that he does not care how much he might harm the family – he wants what he wants - and wants it NOW!  

I am reminded of the story of creation and Adam and Eve being in the Garden. They are in paradise, they are enjoying the fruit of the Tree of Life, and they walk in the Garden with God - in His presence. Yet, this isn't enough, is it? For some reason they want to be like God, even if it means going against His will.

So, what blessings do you and I enjoy? We may not be in a situation like the Garden of Eden, but are we not all enjoy a very blessed life?    Phil 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”    James 1:17 “Every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…”   Eph 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”   Rom 5:5 “…. Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us.” Imagine a life in which you do not have the qualities of the Spirit’s fruit living within us???    2 Cor 9:8 “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”     And last but not least:    Rom 5:9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”   Maybe I should have started with the greatest blessing that has been given to us: Salvation through the sacrifice of God’s only son. Let us NOT be like the Prodigal Son and take God’s blessings for granted or worse – ignored. Let us respond to all that God has done for us by loving Him with all our hearts, minds and souls. Let us love Him by keeping His commandments.

Luke 15:13,14  “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.”

The son began to experience the consequence of living his sinful life. But in the parable, these are worldly consequences. There ARE worse consequences to suffer:

Rom 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   The Lord has warned us that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve self and God at the same time.

Gal 5:17,19-23 “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, strife, sensuality, envying, drunkenness, carousing . . . But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness . . .”

I have mentioned many times the gift of eternal life is NOT referencing just our time in heaven but speaks to that abundant life Jesus came to bring us even while we are living here in this life.

That also speaks to the opposite, which is life WITHOUT Christ, which is death, in this life and in the next. Seriously, look at the lives that are available to us. There is life in the world and there is life in the Spirit. Which of these seems the most attractive???

 Scripture says by no other name may a person be saved. That means our own name as well. We cannot earn our eternal life in heaven and with the Father by our own righteous deeds. Rom 3:23 tells us ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is imperative that we maintain our relationship with God, and we do not let ourselves wander away from the Good Shepherd; we do not let ourselves wander into a foreign land.

Luke 15:17-19 “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.’”

There is not a sense of repentance here but rather an awareness of an idea about how to get out of his predicament. You and I on the other hand should have an awareness of the predicament that we are in which DOES require repentance in our sinful lives.

Acts 2:36-38 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they hear this, they were pierced to the heart, and said, to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” 

This audience here certainly are in a bad situation – they have rejected and crucified God’s only Son. But   WE   are not off the hook.      Rom 3:10,23 “As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one’; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.     Isaiah 53:5,6 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities . . . All of us like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”    1 Peter 2:24 “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds, you were healed.”

The story of the Prodigal Son is our story. We too have lived for our own glory and welfare – dismissing the life God would have us live for Him. We too have sin and failure in our lives. But the Prodigal son’s story does not end with him starving and slopping pigs.  . . . .

Luke 15:20ff “So the son 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. The father said to the servants: ‘Quickly, bring out the best rob and put a ring on his hand and kill a fattened calf and let us eat and celebrate! This son of mine who was dead has come to life.’ And they began to celebrate.”

We have all sinned like the Prodigal Son and gone into a foreign land and lived an unrighteous life. We all must repent of this and turn our lives back to God and accept Him as our Savior and Lord. When we have returned to God then like the Prodigal son we will be accepted, forgiven and given life with our heavenly Father!

1 Peter 2:25 “For you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”             1 Cor 5:14,15,18 “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this – that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

We need to read these words and believe them. We have been restored; we have been reconciled with our heavenly Father. We need to turn our hearts and minds to Him and accept His offer of adoption and salvation. We need to begin living our lives with the Holy Spirit guiding us and in accordance with the Lord’s teachings!

Prov 8:32-36 “Now therefore, O’ sons, listen to Me, for blessed are they who keep My ways. Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at My doorposts. For he who finds Me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who sins against Me injures himself….” John 8:12 “Then Jesus spoke, ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

 

10 Nov:   The Wicked Tenants  -  Mt 21:33-41 / Lk 20:9-16    

 

Mt 21:33-41 / Lk 20:9-16 (abbreviated) “And He began to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. The owner sent another slave whom they also mistreated as well as a third slave and cast them out.’

‘The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’” “But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ So, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner do to them?    They said to Him, ‘He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.’

This parable very clearly illustrates the way the Jewish leaders were given the responsibility of caring for God’s people and instead operated for what was best for themselves – even to the point of rejecting God’s Son when He sent Him and having Him, Jesus, killed.    

The breakdown of this parable looks like this:  

1. In this parable the owner of the vineyard is God
2. The vineyard is the Jewish nation (God’s chosen people)
3. The fruit would be the righteousness one receives as a blessing from God   
4. The tenant overseers are the nation’s leaders
5. The servants sent to collect are the prophets of the Old Testament
6. The son who was rejected/killed is Jesus.

I thought looking at the two main characters, the wicked tenants and God, would give us something to chew on.  

1). Wicked Tenants – leaders of God’s people

1. Solomon – I Kings 11:4,6 “For when Solomon was old, his wives (700 wives/300 concubines) turned his heart away after other gods; and His heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as David his father had done.”   “Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully,”…  Here we see one of the most celebrated and wisest of all of God’s kings showing an example of someone trying to straddle the fence between walking in this world and walking after God’s teachings. You can see where this straddling led to – doing evil in the sight of the Lord.
2. Heb 11:32 – 38 “And what more shall I say? For time will fail if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson . . . others who experienced mocking’s and scourging’s, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. . . .”   Here is another historical illustration of God’s leaders acting on what is good for them   AND  NOT  what is good for God’s people or following God’s path.
3. Luke 7:29,30  “When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized of John.”                    Mt 21:45,46 “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.” Here are the New Testament Jewish leaders continuing down the path of their forefathers.
4. Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified.”     Rom 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.      1 Peter 3:18 “Christ suffered and died for sins once for all. He never sinned and yet He died for us who have sinned. He died so He might bring us to God. His body died but His spirit was made alive.   2 Cor 5:15 “ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.             Here we see a brief accounting of the actions of God’s people during the life of Jesus. Even though a great many of the people saw who Jesus was and accepted Him as the Messiah – and because the leaders were unwilling to do so many of the people followed suit.

Our passage in Acts illustrates the path taken by the leaders and the people. The next 3 verses show that WE TOO are guilty of Christ’s death/crucifixion. He suffered the cross because of OUR SINS. We are just as guilty of as those people crying out to Pilate: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

 

2. How Can We Avoid Being The “Wicked Tenants”?            As I said, we are the wicked tenants and we are responsible for the necessary death of the Lord. But, a question arises: how can we be like the people on the Day of Pentecost and cry out: ‘What shall we do”?   

Mt 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”     Ex 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me”.    Mtt 22:37 “(The great commandment is: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”   Mt 13:22 “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”  This WAS us – Mtt 13:23 “And the one own whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it: who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty fold, and some thirty.”

 

WHAT is FIRST in our lives?      Are there areas in our lives where we are like these wicked tenants and also reject God’s ownership? Do we clutch our finances instead of having a giving spirit? Do we hold our possessions and refuse the opportunities to give to others (food, clothes)? Do we plan our schedules to include serving as God’s children? Are there times and ways in which we are guilty of casting God and His plans for us out the window to follow our own will?        We should not be taking our things/blessings for granted but always give thanks to the Source of all good things.

 

7. God’s Response

1. God is loving/giving – Mt 7:11  “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him?”  The vineyard is rented out to the tenants – reminiscent of Canaan, land flowing with milk/honey, being given to the Israelites. Are we living in a land flowing with God’s blessings??? How are we doing with those blessings / talents / buried treasure that we have discovered or we been given.???
2. God is patient – the Owner sent multiple servants to claim His rent; He even sent His Son in order to claim what was His;    2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow… but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance;    I Tim 2:3,4 “God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”   Rom 5:4 “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”             In our prayers we should continuously recognized His patience and long-suffering attitude as He protects and provides for us. Consider how in the Old Testament God time and again put up with their rebellious and resentful attitudes: Jonah, David, Solomon, kings of Israel, etc….
3. God is Just – “So the tenants threw out the son and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.”;          Lk 13:27,28 “And He will say,  I do not know where you are from: Depart from Me, all you evildoers. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth …”                Mt 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left (goats), ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.”                                                                                             We need to realize that there is a limit to God’s patience. That there will come a reckoning – consider the rich man in the Lasarus parable who found himself in Hades wanting a drop of water.

Are we not rich in God’s blessings? How are our lives playing out in God’s plans? Are we willing to stand on Judgement Day and declare with certainty that we are His?

 

8. SUMMARY:  We are God’s tenants, also known as the Light and as Ambassadors. We have been given an abundant life filled with God’s Word, God’s love and His blessings / talents, responsibilities, roles/jobs, and opportunities in this life. Let us persevere in service to the Kingdom until we have been called to receive our crown of life which we have been promised!