In the 15th chapter of Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells three parables which all seem to be saying the same thing.
It leaves one wondering why he felt he needed to say it three times.
I would like to examine those three stories in this video
in an attempt to help us better appreciate what Jesus was doing at the time.
It helps to remind people, once again, that a parable in itself is not a teaching.
This is particularly so when we understand that what Jesus most often did with his parables
was to start with something worldly or material
that people could relate to, and then he would swing them around to something that was far more spiritual
which is often virtually opposite to what the parable might say, if you were to take it literally.
We saw that in particular with regard the employee who cheated his employer
knowing that he was about to lose his job.
That's the parable of 'The Unjust Steward'.
A similar problem occurred and has been terrible exploited by the prophets of greed
with regard to the parable where employees were being rewarded
for how much money they could make for a cruel boss, in the parable of 'The Talents'.
So with these parables Luke chapter 15, there are three things which are lost:
a lost coin, a lost sheep, and finally a lost son.
The parable of 'The Lost Coin', is the most blatant attempt
to get materialistic members of the audience to understand what Jesus was trying to say.
Imagine, for example, that you discovered that you had picked the winning number in a lottery.
You won millions of dollars but you couldn't find the ticket.
And you needed that ticket in order to claim the prize.
Wouldn't you turn your house upside down looking for it?
And this is more or less what Jesus was doing in the parable of 'The Lost Coin'.
In his day there were no such lotteries and his audience did not have much money.
So, he boils it down to just one coin;
probably a very valuable coin, but still it was just one coin.
There's no mention of the woman in the parable having a husband, and no mention of her having a job.
She might, in fact, be the very same woman whom Jesus commended
for giving her last two coins (very small coins in that story) to the temple treasury.
There must of been people in his audience who could relate to what Jesus was saying
turning their houses inside out searching for that coin
and even involving their neighbors in celebrations when it's finally found.
So that's a comparison which relates to a poor person's attachment to their last coin.
It's probably quite a valuable one, as I said earlier. The story shows Jesus relating to what?
He's relating to the love of money. That's the root of all evil, but he's not supporting it.
He's just trying to get his audience to jump from their love for money
to a greater appreciation for the love of God.
Then, there is the story of 'The lost sheep'. Now the coin has taken on life; it's an animal!
Once again, an animal that which many in his audience could relate.
Sheep herds in those days would rarely number over a 100 sheep
unlike the great sheep ranches in many parts of the world today.
The Shepherd would of known the sheep, perhaps even giving names to some of them.
But, they were not pets. No, the sheep were prized both for their wool and for their meat.
Jesus does the same thing with the story of 'The Sheep' as he did with the story of 'The Lost Coin'.
This time, emphasizing the apparently superior love that a Shepherd would have for the one that was lost.
Ninety-nine, he said, were safe; he could afford to leave them in the pen
and head out into the night searching for the lost one.
Can you see how in both of these stories
Jesus is wanting his audience to gain some understanding about the love of God
for those who are lost?
Yet he does it by appealing to their own greater love for material wealth.
He said of his own ministry, "I did not come for the righteous, but for the sinners".
The righteous as Jesus described them, would have included many who were merely self-righteous
and the same is true today.
There is a lot of self-righteousness in the church world.
But, whether it was true righteousness or just self-righteousness
both groups either had little need for special efforts at that time
or they thought they had little need for special efforts at that time.
Nevertheless, the lesson is that our loving, heavenly Shepherd treasures each one of us
enough that he would go to great effort, even the point of losing his own life for those who are lost
in the hope that it will bring us back to himself.
The lesson has nothing to do with becoming successful sheep ranchers.
It's about something far more spiritual than that, and Jesus wants us to wake up to it.
Even if the biggest love in our lives today is still our jobs and our possessions
he's saying that God loves us even more than we love our sources of income.
Those sources that he wants us to let go of in order to find his love. And then he moves to the final story
the one that has captured the hearts of so many over the years; it's about a lost son.
Not a cold dead peace of metal. Not an animal for which we can food and clothing, but a real, live human being.
One whom we love more than any other because he is our own.
Here in this picture of a loving family
Jesus makes a final attempt to communicate to us just how much God loves us.
"The Father" is what he calls him over and over...the Father. Just think of that.
Yes, he's our creator, and one day he will be our judge.
But the one word that describes him better than any other word, is our "Father".
It's so depressing when I hear religious zealots arguing over how to spell the name of God.
Is it Jehovah? Is it Yewah? Or is it something else? Listen to Jesus, brothers and sisters.
He says it's "Father"; a powerful and frightening authority from whom we have derived our very life to be sure.
But also the source of all true love. The Father loves us enough to let us sin;
to let us squander or entire inheritance on riotous living, as the King James version describes it
in that parable of 'The Prodigal Son'.
Isn't that true of the world today? We are literally destroying the entire planet through our greed
and still the Father does nothing.
Now, here is where I want to digress, and talk about myself and this channel for a moment.
There something very special about this story of 'The Prodigal Son'.
I've felt, as I considered doing a video on this, that there was little that I could say
to improve on what some very good speakers have said about it from within the church system.
For it does, in a way, contradict so much that I have said about obedience to the teachings of Jesus.
I feel more like the older brother in the story, and I think it's a sober warning
not only for me, but also for all those who have responded positively
to what I've been preaching on this channel for almost two years now.
We talk of a day of judgement
when the Cornerstone will come crashing down on all those who have spurned the truth in what Jesus taught.
Yet in this story of 'The Prodigal Son', it's the son who did just that:
spurned his father's guidance, who finishes up with a happy ending.
He threw it all away...abused his father's great grace...
lived his life selfishly in riotous living, as the saying goes.
Now, you never going to convince me that Jesus wants us to do that
that he wants us to reject him, to abuse the patience and amazing grace of his Father in order to get to Heaven.
But, he does want us to see something higher than quitting your job
higher than selling your possessions, and higher than going into all the world to preach the Gospel.
In the Old Testament, you obeyed God through offering sacrifices
but in Mathew 9:13 Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6
where Hosea says, "Go and learn what this means: I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
"For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance".
The ultimate form of obedience to Jesus is an appreciation of God's mercy.
First, that God loves us, but also that we should love others. He called it the greatest commandment.
The greatest commandment is mercy...a humble recognition of God's love for us
and a life of love to others in response to that love.
"Here's Love", wrote John in his first epistle, "not that we loved God
"but that loved us, and that He sent His Son to be the payment for our sins".
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not love
"it profits me nothing".
This is not the Voice you're used to hearing on this channel, is it?
I'm not reversing everything I've said about obedience to Jesus
but I am saying that the three steps to revival are not enough
if we don't have a deep and powerful appreciation for the love and mercy of God our Father.
Not just love and mercy us, but love and mercy everyone.
Our loving, forgiving, and merciful Heavenly Father reaches out even now to those who rebel against Him.
Permeating everything that we do, must be this appreciation of the love that the Father has for the lost.
In our relationship with God, it was, in fact, our older brother, Jesus, whom He sacrificed to save the rest of us.
And He wants those of us who have stayed home with the Father (through obedience, while the others ran wild)
to be prepared to lay down our lives to win the others as well, the way Jesus did.
This is such a powerful message which is repeated over and over in the teachings of Jesus.
"The last shall be first, and the first shall be last."
Or as Paul put it, "Let him that thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall".
See, God is forever flipping things over and choosing the ones
whom we would be least likely to expect Him to choose.
And that seems to be the story 'The Prodigal Son'.
Where one son leaves home, spends all his inheritance
but when he finally realizes the enormity of what he threw away
he returns to God in deep repentance, ready to become a servant
while the brother who stays home becomes jealous of the apparent injustice of rewarding such behavior.
Are we taking such a message of God's love to the world today?
His judgement is part of the message: "Whom the Lord loves He chastens"
and at this point in history, the world and the church is moving dangerously close to the terrifying wrath of God.
Don't push it brothers and sisters, don't push it!
But, under it all, He loves you. He does not wish that any of us should perish.
There may yet be a chance for those inside the religious chain, but maybe even for those outside.
When we go out there on the streets with our message of faith in and obedience to Jesus
are we praying that God will give us His heart for these people?
Do we pray that God will soften their hearts, open their eyes, and cause them to say, like the prodigal son said:
"Even a servant in my father's house is treated better than I'm being treated by a harsh and cruel system".
Or are we just wanting to win an argument...put them down...
proclaim to the world that unless they join us they are going to hell?
One of my favorite songs, (well at least one verse of it) is called 'I've never been this homesick before'.
It uses the analogy of a family, as Jesus did in the story of 'The Prodigal Son'.
In the chorus, at least, the focus is on the Father, waiting patiently, lovingly, for us to turn to him
and let go of all the dregs of this world.
Can you see Him? Can you hear Him calling you today, to leave it all and follow Jesus?
I want each of us to pray, right where you are, right now, thanking our Heavenly Father for His patience with us.
And praying that He will help us to have the same heart
in our efforts to reach out to today's prodigal world and prodigal church.
Three times, Jesus told the same story.
The message is so important. As the only begotten son of that loving Heavenly Father
what you will find most consistent in everything that Jesus said
even more consistent than his message of living by faith, was that His Father sent him.
Not to condemn the world, but to save the world from a condemnation that is already upon each one of us.
"Whom the Father loves, the Father chastens".
But He chastens for the purpose of saving us--for the purpose of drawing us to Himself
for the purpose of giving us all the joys of eternity with HIm.
He's given us free will and we have abused it
but there will be rejoicing in all of Heaven for even one soul that turns and heads back toward home
back home with our Heavenly Father. Amen
(Song Plays)