Transcription
So, here's what we did. And let me, let me, you know, cover the passage real quick and then deep dive a couple things. There's one thing in here that's especially legit.
So, Luke chapter 15. Um, and I want to read it because a lot of people do not understand the context of Luke chapter 15. So, a lot of people know, hey man, parable of the prodigal son. Okay, we know that. But, but a lot of people don't know the context Jesus is speaking into.
It's very, very significant that Luke chapter 15 begins with this verse. This sets up literally everything in Luke 15. If you don't understand this, you don't understand Luke 15. So it begins, 15 verse 1. "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them.'"
Then the very next verse says, "So he told them this parable." Okay, now that's really important. Okay, I do just want to point this out. It's very interesting that throughout the gospels, you will constantly see people who are demon-possessed. As soon as they see Jesus, they run up to him and they're like, "Son of Man, have mercy on us."
I do just want to point this out, man. This is a warning for all for church people. Uh, in the Bible, the people with thousands of demons recognize Jesus, but the people who know thousands of Bible verses don't. Mhm.
That is a warning to all of us because you got the Pharisees right here who had memorized the Pentateuch, knew their Bible, you know, forward and backwards, and they don't recognize Jesus. Okay, warning.
Now, what Jesus does is he, in Luke 15, he tells, um, he tells a succession of three rapid-fire parables. Interesting. A lot of people miss this. And notice they are escalating in their losses. So, first he tells the one about the lost sheep. Dude leaves, a shepherd leaves 99 to save the one. Okay. So, one out of 99. Then he tells the story of the widow who lost, the wife, the woman who loses one coin. One out of 10. So,
one out of 10. Then he tells a parable of the lost son. Lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. And so, think about this. One out of 99 sheep, one out of 10 coins, one out of two sons.
So, what he's doing is there's an, there's a level of escalating, uh, losses to increase the urgency. Um, so, just let me do one quick thing on each of these that, like, most Christians will will miss on this thing. First of all, evangelistically, we're going to circle back to this here in a second because I want to get like super practical. Almost every Christian has lost people in their life that they want to know Jesus. They just don't know how. So, we're going to get like super practical couple tips on this thing, but I do want to point this out.
So, like, I, uh, my friend Sean Sears pointed this out to me. So, you got the lost sheep.
Think about this. The sheep is lost through negligence.
This is really important. Okay. So, the shepherd didn't do his job.
Sheep's lost through negligence. Then you got a lost coin. The coin is lost through no fault of its own. Somebody didn't do, you know, it, you know, they lost, they they lost it. Then you got a lost son. He's lost because of willful rebellion. Dude, this is really important, man. People are the exact same way. Uh, some people are lost because of negligence, man. Some, some people, they had a bad parent or they had a bad pastor. They didn't do their job.
Lost because of negligence. Some people, it's not even their fault in one sense. You know what I'm saying? What I'm not saying in one sense, it's like, man, it's partly actually somebody else's fault. A Christian hurt you.
Somebody hurt somebody with Jesus the Jesus name tag on did something from team Satan. Okay? Lost partly because somebody else's fault. And then some people are lost because of willful rebellion. Here's, here's a big idea. Jesus is saying, "Hey, man. It doesn't matter why you're lost. I just want you found."
Okay, that, that's, that's huge. Now, a couple things people miss on this. Number one, uh, people do not understand just how intertwined the Old Testament is with the New Testament. So, when Jesus tells the parable of the shepherd that goes after the one lost sheep, first of all, that's where at Lake Point we get our one more language. So, I'll just say this over and over, like, "Dude, people, people look at a church like Lake Point. They're like, 'Oh, these people, they're just all about the numbers and reaching thousands of people.'" And, dude, man, you guys know this 'cause you're in the meetings. We have literally never set a growth goal since I've been at Lake Point. Like, literally never even once. We're not about reaching tens of thousands of people. Here's what we are about.
We're about every disciple of Jesus Christ being used to reach one more.
Real quick. When I get that objection sometimes interacting with people and and I and I get, yeah, it can feel like sometimes it is just so impersonal, but to your point, we don't make it that when we're talking about it. So, when I get in these conversations with someone like, "Hey, well, hey, let's make a deal. If you'll write down the name of one person who you don't want to like see come to know Jesus, we'll stop talking about it."
There you go. That's right. That's right.
To your point about like making it personal, it's like saying, "Hey, great. If you will let us know the name of someone you're great with spending eternity apart from God,
we'll stop trying to reach them.
We'll stop trying to reach, we'll stop."
And usually that, that usually like shuts the conversation pretty quickly. So, it's like, no, like this idea of reaching one more person who is a real person with a real name.
That's right.
Yeah.
So, a couple things on this one. And when he tells, a lot of people don't know when Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep, he's actually calling back to a very specific Old Testament passage.
And he's essentially, what he's doing is he's saying this is actually a claim to Jesus being God, but it's veiled. Interesting.
Okay. So, Ezekiel 34 says this, six or 800 years before Jesus, God says, "Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd, and so has been plundered and become food for all the wild animals. And because my shepherds did not search for my flock, but cared for themselves rather than my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says. I am against the shepherds, and I will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. Now watch. Check, check, check, check this out. For this is what the Sovereign Lord says. I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them. So will I look after my sheep. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays."
Then fast forward, and Jesus is saying, "Do you know what I'm like?
I'm like a shepherd where the 99 were good, but one was lost." And he's saying, "I'm the fulfillment to the Ezekiel 34 prophecy. Someday there's going to come a shepherd."
Wow.
Who will chase after the one that was lost? He's going, "I'm him. I'm him." Okay, so you got that. That's awesome. All right. Then you got the parable of the lost coin. Okay. You got a woman who loses. She's got 10 coins. She loses one. Now, this is just a little Bible nerd thing. It's kind of interesting. I ran across this this week in study. We go and toss that up, Trinity. So, what you got right here is a lot of people like, "Hey man, why was the, why is she freaking out over one lost drama?" Because a drama really how much wasn't that
about a day's wage?
Yes. Like, you know,
it's a shame, but it's not like you're not going to obsess over finding it after a while.
That's right. So, what a lot of Bible commentators say, especially Jewish Bible commentators,
is so in this culture, traditional Jewish culture, what they would do is when a woman got married, obviously she would bring a dowry into the marriage. So, that's like, if you don't know what that, that's like where her, the family she came from would invest sometimes money, sometimes land into her, and then she would bring that into the marriage. So, this is actually cool. Why, why 10 coins? Why 10 coins? Well, in traditional Jewish culture, she, she may have been wearing something like this. This is a dowry headdress. And guess what it would have on it? 10 coins.
10 drachmas. 10 coins. That's what that is right there. And so, a lot of people are like, man, the reason Jesus tells the parable where she's freaking out, "I got to find a coin. I got to find a coin."
Is this is part of her wedding dowry
headdress, and she lost one, and she's like, "I, I got to go. I got to go find it." Okay.
So, I just, I find that interesting. All right. Now,
this is my favorite one.
There's so much, dude, in the parable of the prodigal son.
There's a lot.
There's a whole lot. You guys cover what I miss, and then we'll move on, and we'll talk about Calvinism. It's gonna be great. So, you know, everybody knows the, the story. The recap is, dude comes to his dad and he's like, "Hey, Dad, can I have my inheritance?" Which, by the way, in Jewish culture, that would have essentially him being like, "Dad, I kind of wish you were dead already." So, the loving father essentially goes, "You know what? Yep, you can." And he goes away and into a lost far country. And he's there, and he ends up in the pig slop. Obviously, all of us know pigs, ceremonially unclean, Jewish people don't have anything to do with pigs. That he ends up with pig slop. There's a verse in there nobody ever pays attention to, by the way. It says, "And nobody would do anything for him."
I'm just going to pause and say that. Nobody ever, nobody ever pays attention to that verse. It says, "Nobody would do anything for him." Heads up. There's a lot of people who are lost simply because no Christians will do anything for them.
Wow, bro.
So, it says that. All right. So, then, then he comes back, and he, you, I love it. I don't know why, man. I, I'm getting emotional. What he's talking about. He comes back, and, uh, if you read the thing, I think I get emotional because, uh, every Christian who's ever been saved, when you read that, uh, passage, you remember when that was you.
So, uh, he's come back, and if you read it, he's like rehearsing his little "I'm sorry" speech.
He's like, "Dad, I'm sorry. I sinned against you and the family, and I'm no longer worthy to be your son. Can I just be a servant or a slave in your house?" And he's rehearsing the whole thing. And then, you know, he gets that spot in the parable where he crests, like, the top of the hill coming down to his little family farm, and, uh, and as soon as he crests the top of it, you know, he, what he sees is that his dad, uh, is sitting there on the porch. Yeah. I'm just going to contextualize it. Sitting on his little rocking chair that he pulled out from the kitchen years ago when his son left. And every single day, what the dad was doing is he would go out and he'd sit on that rocking chair and look towards the horizon, just waiting, waiting for the day that his lost son would come home. And then, if you remember it, as soon as the dad sees him, and this is the part that I don't think people understand, why did Jesus tell the parable this way? Soon as the dad sees it, you know, he's just overcome with emotion and he starts running. And all you've probably heard this in sermons before, in Jewish cultures, like dignified men, they, they didn't run. Like, it kind of be like if one of my kids was like, "Dad, could you put on my princess dress and go to Walmart with me?" I'd be like, "Nope, sure can't, 'cause I'm a dude. I'm not." We'll talk about that later. Bad bunny. No, sure can't. 'Cause dignified men don't do that in our culture, you know. And the dad, what he, what he would have had to do is he would have had to, like, take his little toga, little robe, and he would have had to pull it up, like a little, like, literally like a Jewish toddler would do when they were going out to play, and he would have had to tie it up above his, like, up on his thighs. And I was just like, heads up, like, grown, grown men don't like to show off their thighs. I'm just gonna, I sure don't. So, so, so, and then he just starts running towards his son. And dude, if you read it, it's so great because the son thinks the dad is running at him for one reason. I'm going to talk about that in a second. A lot of people don't know. He thinks the dad is running at him for one reason. And the dad, so he goes into his "I'm sorry" speech. "Hey, Dad, I'm so sorry. I sinned against you and the family, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son." And the dad interrupts him and doesn't even let him finish the "I'm sorry" speech, and he gives this big old hug and he puts a, you know, robe on him and puts a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. That's really important. I'm coming back to that in a second. And he says, "Kill the fat and calf."
Now, a lot of people don't know, a Jewish dude that heard this parable would have gone like, "There was something, there's a layer we don't know." So, in traditional Jewish cultures, they had something. It was called a Kzaza ceremony. Okay? There's a, a, a Bible scholar I ran across this week who was talking about this. And in a Kzaza ceremony, what a Jewish family or village would do is if somebody left their home and disrespected the family and like, especially if they became a traitor to the Jewish people, and then they tried to return, then the Jewish villagers, they would enact this Kzaza ceremony. And they would, what they do is, in front of the guy that betrayed the family, they would bring a big clay pot and in front, they were very visual culture, and they would break the pottery in front of the individual person.
And it was a symbol that they were saying, essentially, like, "We are breaking fellowship with you. You are not welcome here.
Wow.
You have broken respect and fellowship with the community. We are breaking respect and fellowship with you." And it was a way of them casting them out of dignity, of acceptance in society there. Now, here's the big idea. Check this out. Guess where the Kzaza ceremony would happen? On the outskirts of the village. Wow.
All right. Now, check this out.
If you're asking the question, man, so why does the dad get up and start running at his son as soon as his son reaches the outskirts of the village? The, the verse actually says this. It says, "While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him, and he ran." Some translations say "raced"
to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Well, who's he racing? He's trying to get there before the people from the village start this Kzaza ceremony to cast him out. And he's going, and listen, remember what I said at the very beginning of this. Jesus, all these Pharisees see Jesus hanging out with, get, watch this, traitors to the kingdom of God. Mhm.
And the Pharisees are like, "Cast them out, Jesus. Don't have anything to do with these jokers. You get, show them, Jesus. Show them judgment, hellfire, brimstone." And Jesus is saying, "You, you hypocrites. You Pharisees." He's like, "You people, you're, you're trying to cast these people out of my kingdom." And, uh, and, and what he's doing is he's like, "I'm the father who's going to beat you to the punch. And all the people that you're trying to condemn, I'm going to run to and I'm going to embrace before you get a chance to cast them out." And he's the father's preempting the condemnation ceremony so he can enact, watch this, a salvation and acceptance ceremony.
Wow.
And then he does this thing, and I, I'll say this, then I'm done. And he throws, this is so significant, dude, just theologically significant. So, he puts a robe on him, right? This, this sinful son, shamed, puts a robe on him. All right. Now, fast forward to the book of Revelation. And when all the sons of the kingdom of God are accepted into the kingdom, what's it say? They're covered in white robes. The father's wrapped him in a robe of his righteousness.
Wow.
Then he puts a ring on his finger.
And a ring would have been like a symbol of the family authority, right? Fast forward to the book of Revelation. Guess what we're going to do?
We will reign with him.
So, you still got all the family authority. Then he puts, it says he puts sandals on his feet. This is actually kind of significant in this culture, Jewish culture, sons would always be gifted sandals. Slaves wouldn't.
Wow.
So, he's going, "Hey, man, you're a son of the house. You ain't no slave in this house. For we have not been given a spirit of fear to fall back again into slavery, but we have been given a spirit of sonship."
By which we cry, "Abba, Father." And then he goes, "Kill the fattening calf."
Uh oh.
And then you fast forward, obviously, to the book of Revelation, and guess what's on the throne? A slain lamb killed for us. And guess what's happening around that throne? A big party. The wedding supper of the Lamb. Boom.