The Feast of the Father
Text : Luke 15:11-32 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: We Had to Celebra t e
Int roduc t ion: We have looked at the story of the younger brother, then we put it into its context
with the story of the elder brother. Then we put the story of the two brothers into the context of the
whole chapter. Each time we saw another important part of Jesus’ message. But we are not quite
done. We need to see the story in the context of the whole Bible. Jesus was immersed in the
Scriptures, and in this story he is giving us the essence of the whole Biblical storyline in one vivid
narrative. If we see that, we will get a 30,000 foot view of what the Bible is all about. We learn about
1) the human condition, 2) the divine solution, and 3) the new communion.
1. The human condi t ion—verses 13-17.
• The younger brother’s sin turned him into an exile from his home. He had disgraced his family
and the entire community would have been outraged. He would have had to take his money and
go far away, and he did.
• When he did so, he became an image of the human race. For we were made for life in the Garden
of Eden. Our true home is in the presence of God. But we have lost our home. We are all exiles.
• “Home” is the place that truly fits and suits us. We were made to know and serve God, to live in
his presence and enjoy his love and beauty.
• However, because we wanted to be our own Saviors and Lords, we lost God, and therefore
we wander in the world and experience what the philosopher Heidegger called
unheimlichkeit. The word is translates as “eeriness” or “uncanniness” but literally it means
“away from home.” Heidegger is referring to the anxiety and spiritual nausea that comes
from never feeling at home in the world.
• This world doesn’t address the needs of our heart. We long for a love that can’t be lost, for
escape from death, for the triumph of justice over wrong. But such things will never be
found here.
• When the younger brother “came to his senses” he realized that he needed to go home, but
how? He realized he was an outcast, so why would they receive him? Still, he went home.
2. The divine solut ion—verses 31-32.
• The centerpiece of the parable is a feast. The father throws a feast, filled with “music and
dancing” and the greatest delicacies, to mark the reconciliation and restoration of his son. He
says that when the younger son came home, “we had to celebrate.” There was no choice. Why is
the feast so important?
• In the Old Testament, meals ratified covenants, celebrated victories, and marked all special
family occasions and transitions, such as births, weddings, and funerals. Also, a feast was
established to mark the greatest event in the salvation history of God’s people to that time—the
Passover. Why were meals so important?
• In ancient times, meals were prolonged affairs that lasted all evening, usually until bedtime—
since there was little else to do after the sun went down and after a strenuous day of
labor. So evening meals became the center of family life and therefore both a symbol and
practice of intimacy.
• But we don’t need to be people of the first century to grasp all this. It is at meals that you
most feel at home. In a meal your body is getting what it needs—the pleasure and
nourishment of food and rest. But also, at meals your heart is getting what it needs—
laughter and friendship. Even today, if you have a family reunion or some kind of
homecoming—you eat. And it is at those great feasts that no matter what else is going
wrong in our lives, we feel almost at home.
• The feast means that God will bring us home some day.
• As Jesus says: “Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the
feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 8:11). Because of our
true elder brother, God will some day make this world home again. He’s going to wipe
away death, suffering, and tears, and will give us bodies that run and are never weary.
• And when we get there, we will say something like what Jewel the Unicorn said at the end
of the Chronicles of Narnia: “I’ve come home at last! I belong here. This is the land I’ve
been looking for all my life, though I never knew it!”
• The younger brother did not expect to be brought back into the family, he did not expect a
feast, since he had sinned. But that is what he gets. And the elder brother objects. Why?
• Because meals signified acceptance and relationship, the religious leaders forbid believers
from eating with “sinners.” To eat with someone was to receive him, virtually as family.
How could you do that for someone who has rejected God? Besides that, didn’t everyone
know that you become like the people you love and spend the most time with? If you eat
with sinners, it was reasoned, you would become a sinner.
• The Jewish dietary laws were extremely elaborate. They were seen as quite effective in
keeping Jews from being polluted by the pagan practices of their neighbors. In fact, during
the time between testaments, leading up to Jesus’ day, preoccupation with ritual purity
increased, as Judea came under the boot of one set of pagan masters after another. Meals
more and more became boundary markers between the righteous and sinners.
• But Jesus shattered this practice, as we see in Luke 15:2. He eats with the notoriously
wicked and the marginalized. How can he do this? How can sinners be included in the
feast?
3. The new communion—“thi s brother of your wa s dead and i s a l ive aga in.”
• Jesus leaves his own true home (Phil. 2), wanders without a home (Matt 8:20), and is finally
crucified outside the gate of Jerusalem, a sign of exile and rejection (Heb. 13:11-12). Jesus
experiences the exile that the human race deserves. He is alienated and cast out so we can be
brought home.
• On the cross, Jesus loses fellowship and communion with the father. He cries out, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:45). He is forsaken and “cast out” of the family, so
that we can be brought in.
• As we can see from the parable itself, Jesus calls younger brothers to repent. He does not only
eat with them for the sake of “inclusiveness” or just to defy convention—rather he calls people
to change.
• And he gives us the foretaste of that great feast, what we call “The Lord’s Supper” or
Communion. To sit at the Communion table you don’t have to be perfect, only repentant. So
anyone can come, and anyone does come.
• Think of it like this—the ultimate son, who was dead and cut off, is now alive again. So we have
to celebrate! And the way we celebrate what he has done for us, is to create a new community of
forgiven sinners, in which anyone can be a part. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve
done, it doesn’t matter what your race or class or background is. Any repentant sinner can come
and be a brother and a sister, because of the death and resurrection of our true elder brother,
who took our exile and punishment upon himself.
• The death and resurrection of the Son, and the love of the Father, create a new community of
men and women who regularly break bread together to celebrate the new life and common
union they have through Jesus. It is not enough just to have an individual personal relationship
with God through Christ. You have to be an active part of the feast, the new community, the
family of God. That is where together we become conformed into the image of the one who did
all this for us.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
The prodigal God pt4
The True Elder Brother
Text : Luke 15:1-6, 25-32 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: Everything I Ha ve Is Yours
Int roduc t ion: We have been looking at the story traditionally called “The Parable of the Prodigal
Son.” We’ve said that you will miss the radical message of the story if you don’t see that it is about
two sons—one immoral and “bad”, one very moral and “good”—who are both alienated from the
father and therefore spiritually lost. That is a remarkable message. But there is much more—though
it too is easy to miss. We must remember that this is the third of three parables, told to the same
audience, meant to be pondered all together. What do we learn if we do that? We learn: 1) the cost
of reconciliation, 2) that there is a missing elder brother, and 3) that we have a true elder brother.
1. The cost of reconc i l i a t ion—verses 29-31.
• What did it cost to bring the younger brother home?
• At first glance, it seems not to have cost anything. There is no punishment—he is just taken
in. The father opens his arms, puts new clothes on him, and that’s that. It’s free.
• Many people have pointed this out and then argued like this: “God in heaven is like this
father. He just accepts and forgives anyone who asks. There is no need for the classic
Christian doctrine of the atonement. Christians have taught that God cannot simply
forgive, that there must be payment for sin—but here we see that reconciliation is
completely free.”
• However, this is a great mistake. The reconciliation is free to the younger brother. But it is
very costly for someone else.
• The elder brother is furious with the father for receiving his younger brother back into the
family. He alludes to it when he says, “you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate
with my friends. But… you kill the fattened calf for him!” The elder brother is angry because of
the cost of this reconciliation.
• Remember—the father had given the younger brother his entire legal part of the
inheritance. And it was all spent—all gone.
• Yet now the father is restoring him into the family. He has already put a robe on him, and
given him a ring, which was probably the signet ring with which family members ratified
contracts. The younger brother’s fair share of the wealth is all gone, but now he is back, and
every robe, ring, fatted calf is coming out of someone else’s pocket.
• Everything the father has, now is legally the elder brother’s. He is the only heir of all the
father has left. So every robe, every ring, every fattened calf, every cent of the father’s, is
ultimately the elder brother’s. When the father says to the elder brother, “everything I have
is yours” (v.31) he is speaking the literal truth.
• So the salvation of the younger son is not free after all. It has already been extremely expensive—
look at the feast. And it will be extremely expensive. The father cannot forgive the younger
brother, except at the expense of the elder brother. He is the one who must bear the cost of the
reconciliation.
2. There i s a mi ssing elder brother—verses 1-10.
• The elder brother knows all this—that forgiveness and reconciliation is never free. Someone has
to pay. Either the younger brother has to come and earn his way back into the family, as he
offered to do (see verse 19) or he can come back in immediately, through forgiveness, and then
the elder brother will have to bear the cost. Salvation cannot be free. Someone has to pay, either
the sinner or his elder brother.
• The elder brother knows this and refuses to do it. So we listen to the story and see the elder
brother “being a Pharisee,” and we are saddened. But that is not where Jesus wants our minds
and hearts to remain.
• Jesus told his listeners three parables together—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.
• In each of the first two parables there is a lost object and someone who goes out, searches
for it, and brings it home with joy. The shepherd searches until he finds the lost sheep. The
woman searches until she finds the lost coin. So when we get to the parable of this lost son,
the listeners fully expect that someone will set out to search for the lost brother and bring
him home.
• To our surprise, no one does. Jesus is leading us to ask, who should have gone out to search
for this lost boy? And the answer would have been quite clear to 1st century listeners: it
should have been the elder brother.
• That was the reason that the oldest son got the lion’s share of the estate. It was his job to
sustain the family’s unity and its place in the community. It is the elder brother in the
parable who should have said something like this: “Father, my younger brother has been a
fool, and now his life is in ruins. But I will go look for him and bring him home. And if the
inheritance is gone—as I expect—I’ll bring him back into the family at my expense.”
• Jesus doesn’t put a brother like that into the story. Instead the younger son and the father have
to deal with a recalcitrant, resistant, self-righteous elder brother.
• But we don’t. The elder brother in the story is there to make us long for a true elder brother,
one who, if we go astray, won’t hold it against us but seek us and bring us back at any risk and
any cost to himself.
3. We ha ve a t rue elder brother.
• Think of the kind of elder brother we need. We need one who would not just go into a far
country, but who would come all the way from heaven to earth to find us. We need one who
would not just open his wallet for us, but pour out his life. One who would pay not just a finite
cost but an infinite debt, to bring us back into God’s family. And we do! It’s Jesus.
• See! When the father says to the elder brother “everything I have is yours” that is literally true of
Jesus. Jesus had all God’s glory. He had equal glory with the Father, but he emptied himself
(Phil 2:4-10.) He lost it all—for us.
• How do we get the father’s robe? Because Jesus was stripped naked on the cross. How do we get
the father’s feast? Because Jesus took the cup of wrath that might have the cup of joy. He is our
true elder brother—and he says so. Hebrews 2:11 says, “Both the one who makes men holy and
those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers’.”
• Jesus came to earth and truly obeyed his Father and never disobeyed his orders. He truly had the
right to all the Father owns. But instead, he came out and searched for us, and found us in the
pigsty, and carried us home on his shoulders singing with joy. And he gave us his robe, his ring,
his place, his wealth—it is all at his expense.
Text : Luke 15:1-6, 25-32 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: Everything I Ha ve Is Yours
Int roduc t ion: We have been looking at the story traditionally called “The Parable of the Prodigal
Son.” We’ve said that you will miss the radical message of the story if you don’t see that it is about
two sons—one immoral and “bad”, one very moral and “good”—who are both alienated from the
father and therefore spiritually lost. That is a remarkable message. But there is much more—though
it too is easy to miss. We must remember that this is the third of three parables, told to the same
audience, meant to be pondered all together. What do we learn if we do that? We learn: 1) the cost
of reconciliation, 2) that there is a missing elder brother, and 3) that we have a true elder brother.
1. The cost of reconc i l i a t ion—verses 29-31.
• What did it cost to bring the younger brother home?
• At first glance, it seems not to have cost anything. There is no punishment—he is just taken
in. The father opens his arms, puts new clothes on him, and that’s that. It’s free.
• Many people have pointed this out and then argued like this: “God in heaven is like this
father. He just accepts and forgives anyone who asks. There is no need for the classic
Christian doctrine of the atonement. Christians have taught that God cannot simply
forgive, that there must be payment for sin—but here we see that reconciliation is
completely free.”
• However, this is a great mistake. The reconciliation is free to the younger brother. But it is
very costly for someone else.
• The elder brother is furious with the father for receiving his younger brother back into the
family. He alludes to it when he says, “you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate
with my friends. But… you kill the fattened calf for him!” The elder brother is angry because of
the cost of this reconciliation.
• Remember—the father had given the younger brother his entire legal part of the
inheritance. And it was all spent—all gone.
• Yet now the father is restoring him into the family. He has already put a robe on him, and
given him a ring, which was probably the signet ring with which family members ratified
contracts. The younger brother’s fair share of the wealth is all gone, but now he is back, and
every robe, ring, fatted calf is coming out of someone else’s pocket.
• Everything the father has, now is legally the elder brother’s. He is the only heir of all the
father has left. So every robe, every ring, every fattened calf, every cent of the father’s, is
ultimately the elder brother’s. When the father says to the elder brother, “everything I have
is yours” (v.31) he is speaking the literal truth.
• So the salvation of the younger son is not free after all. It has already been extremely expensive—
look at the feast. And it will be extremely expensive. The father cannot forgive the younger
brother, except at the expense of the elder brother. He is the one who must bear the cost of the
reconciliation.
2. There i s a mi ssing elder brother—verses 1-10.
• The elder brother knows all this—that forgiveness and reconciliation is never free. Someone has
to pay. Either the younger brother has to come and earn his way back into the family, as he
offered to do (see verse 19) or he can come back in immediately, through forgiveness, and then
the elder brother will have to bear the cost. Salvation cannot be free. Someone has to pay, either
the sinner or his elder brother.
• The elder brother knows this and refuses to do it. So we listen to the story and see the elder
brother “being a Pharisee,” and we are saddened. But that is not where Jesus wants our minds
and hearts to remain.
• Jesus told his listeners three parables together—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.
• In each of the first two parables there is a lost object and someone who goes out, searches
for it, and brings it home with joy. The shepherd searches until he finds the lost sheep. The
woman searches until she finds the lost coin. So when we get to the parable of this lost son,
the listeners fully expect that someone will set out to search for the lost brother and bring
him home.
• To our surprise, no one does. Jesus is leading us to ask, who should have gone out to search
for this lost boy? And the answer would have been quite clear to 1st century listeners: it
should have been the elder brother.
• That was the reason that the oldest son got the lion’s share of the estate. It was his job to
sustain the family’s unity and its place in the community. It is the elder brother in the
parable who should have said something like this: “Father, my younger brother has been a
fool, and now his life is in ruins. But I will go look for him and bring him home. And if the
inheritance is gone—as I expect—I’ll bring him back into the family at my expense.”
• Jesus doesn’t put a brother like that into the story. Instead the younger son and the father have
to deal with a recalcitrant, resistant, self-righteous elder brother.
• But we don’t. The elder brother in the story is there to make us long for a true elder brother,
one who, if we go astray, won’t hold it against us but seek us and bring us back at any risk and
any cost to himself.
3. We ha ve a t rue elder brother.
• Think of the kind of elder brother we need. We need one who would not just go into a far
country, but who would come all the way from heaven to earth to find us. We need one who
would not just open his wallet for us, but pour out his life. One who would pay not just a finite
cost but an infinite debt, to bring us back into God’s family. And we do! It’s Jesus.
• See! When the father says to the elder brother “everything I have is yours” that is literally true of
Jesus. Jesus had all God’s glory. He had equal glory with the Father, but he emptied himself
(Phil 2:4-10.) He lost it all—for us.
• How do we get the father’s robe? Because Jesus was stripped naked on the cross. How do we get
the father’s feast? Because Jesus took the cup of wrath that might have the cup of joy. He is our
true elder brother—and he says so. Hebrews 2:11 says, “Both the one who makes men holy and
those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers’.”
• Jesus came to earth and truly obeyed his Father and never disobeyed his orders. He truly had the
right to all the Father owns. But instead, he came out and searched for us, and found us in the
pigsty, and carried us home on his shoulders singing with joy. And he gave us his robe, his ring,
his place, his wealth—it is all at his expense.
the prodigal God pt3
The Elder Brother
Text : Luke 15:25-32 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: He Refused to Go In
Int roduc t ion: Most people who read and study The Parable of the Prodigal Son concentrate
completely on the character of the younger son, his repentance, and the father’s forgiveness. And yet
look at the text. It doesn’t end with the return of the prodigal. Almost half of the story is about the
older son. The story is about two sons, who are both alienated from the father, who are both
assaulting the unity of the family. Jesus wants us to compare and contrast them. The younger son is
“lost”—that is easy to see. We see him shaming his father, ruining his family, sleeping with
prostitutes, and we say, “yes, there’s someone who is spiritually lost.” But Jesus’ point is that the
older son is lost too. Let’s learn from the text: 1) a startling new understanding of lostness, 2) what
the signs of it are (so we can recognize it in ourselves), and 3) what we can do about this condition.
1. A st a rt l ing new underst anding of lostness—verse 28.
• The elder brother would have known that the day of the prodigal’s return was the greatest day in
his father’s life.
• The father has “killed the fattened calf”, an enormously expensive extravagance in a culture
where even having meat at meals was considered a delicacy.
• The older son realized his father was ecstatic with joy. Yet he refused to go into the biggest
feast his father has ever put on. This was a remarkable, deliberate act of disrespect. It was his
way of saying, “I won’t be part of this family nor respect your headship of it.”
• And the father had to “go out” to plead with him. Just as he went out to bring his alienated
younger son into the family, now he had to do the same for the older brother.
• Do you realize what Jesus is saying to his listeners, and to us? The older son is lost.
• The father represents God himself, and the meal is the feast of salvation. In the end, then,
the younger son, the immoral man, comes in and is saved, but the older son, the good son,
refuses to go in and is lost.
• The Pharisees who were listening to this parable knew what that meant. It was a complete
reversal of everything they believed. You can almost hear them gasp as the story ends.
• And what is it that is keeping the elder brother out? It’s because: “All these years I’ve been
slaving for you and never disobeyed...” (v.29). The good son is not lost in spite of his good
behavior, but because of his good behavior. So it is not his sin keeping him out, but his
righteousness.
• The gospel is neither religion nor is it irreligion; it is not morality nor is it immorality. This
was completely astonishing and confusing to Jesus’ hearers at the time—and it may even be
astonishing and confusing to you.
• Why is the older son lost?
• The younger brother wanted the father’s wealth, but not the father. So how did he get what
he wanted? He left home. He broke the moral rules.
• But it becomes evident by the end that the elder brother also wanted selfish control of the
father’s wealth. He was very unhappy with the father’s use of the possessions—the robe, the
ring, the calf. But while the younger brother got control by taking his stuff and running
away, we see that the elder brother got control by staying home and being very good. He
felt that now he has the right to tell the father what to do with his possessions because he
had obeyed him perfectly.
• So there are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord.
• One is by breaking all the laws and being bad. One is by keeping all the laws and being good.
• If I can be so good that God has to answer my prayer, give me a good life, and take me to
heaven, then in all I do I may be looking to Jesus to be my helper and my rewarder—but he
isn’t my Savior. I am then my own Savior.
• The difference between a religious person and a true Christian is that the religious person
obeys God to get control over God, and things from God, but the Christian obeys just to
get God, just to love and please and draw closer to him.
2. Wha t the signs of thi s lostness a re—verses 29-30.
Some people are complete elder brothers. They go to church and obey the Bible—but out of
expectation that then God owes them. They have never understood the Biblical gospel at all. But
many Christians, who know the gospel, are nonetheless elder-brotherish. Despite the fact that they
know the gospel of salvation by grace with their heads, their hearts go back to an elder-brotherish
“default mode” of self-salvation. Here’s what the elder-brotherish attitude looks like. It is:
• A deep anger (v.28—“became angry”). Elder brothers believe that God owes them a
comfortable and good life if they try hard and live up to standards—and they have! So they say:
“my life ought to be going really well!” and when it doesn’t they get angry. But they are
forgetting Jesus. He lived a better life than any of us—but suffered terribly.
• A joyless and mechani c a l obedienc e (v.29—“I’ve been slaving for you”). Elder brothers
obey God as a means to an end—as a way to get the things they really love. Of course, obedience
to God is sometimes extremely hard. But elder brothers find obedience virtually always a joyless,
mechanical, slavish thing as a result.
• A coldness to younger brother-t ypes (v.30—“this son of yours”). The older son will not
even “own” his brother. Elder brothers are too disdainful of others unlike themselves to be
effective in evangelism. Elder brothers, who pride themselves on their doctrinal and moral purity,
unavoidably feel superior to those who do not have these things.
• A l a ck of a ssuranc e of the fa ther’s love (v.29—you never threw me a party). As long as
you are trying to earn your salvation by controlling God through your goodness, you will never
be sure you have been good enough. What are the signs of this? Every time something goes
wrong in your life you wonder if it’s a punishment. Another sign is irresolvable guilt. You can’t
be sure you’ve repented deeply enough, so you beat yourself up over what you did. Lastly, there
is a lack of any sense of intimacy with God in your prayer life. You may pray a lot of prayers
asking for things, but not sense his love.
• An unforgiving, judgment a l spi ri t . The elder brother does not want the father to forgive
the younger brother. It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel “I would never do anything
that bad!” You have to be something of an elder brother to refuse to forgive.
3. Wha t we c an do about thi s spi ri tua l condi t ion.
• First, we have to see the uniqueness of the gospel.
• Jesus ends the parable with the lostness of the older brother in order to get across the point
that it is a more dangerous spiritual condition. The younger brother knew he was alienated
from the father, but the elder brother did not.
• If you tell moral, religious people who are trying to be good, trying to obey the Bible so
God will bless them—that they are alienated from God, they will just be offended. If you
know you are sick you may go to a doctor; if you don’t know you’re sick you won’t—you’ll
just die.
• Moralistic religion works on the principle, “I obey, therefore God accepts me.” The gospel
works on the principle, “I am accepted by God through Jesus Christ, therefore I obey.”
• These are two radically different, even opposite, dynamics. Yet both sets of people sit in
church together, both pray, both obey the Ten Commandments, but for radically different
reasons. And because they do these things for radically different reasons, they produce
radically different results—different kinds of character. One produces anger, joyless
compliance, superiority, insecurity, and a condemning spirit. The other slowly but inevitably
produces contentment, joy, humility, poise, and a forgiving spirit.
• Unless a person and a congregation knows the difference between general religiosity and
the true gospel, people will constantly fall into moralism and elder-brotherishness. And if
you call younger brothers to receive Christ and live for him without making this distinction
clear, they will automatically think you are inviting them to become elder brothers.
• Second, we have to see the vulnerability of Jesus.
• Remember, again, whom Jesus is speaking to (vv.1-2). Jesus is speaking to his mortal
enemies, the men he knows will kill him. On the one hand, this is an astonishingly bold
challenge to them. He’s talking to those who want to kill him and telling them that they
are lost, that they fundamentally misunderstand God’s salvation and purpose in the world,
and that they are trampling on the heart of God.
• But at the same time, he is also being so loving and tender. When the father comes out to
the older brother, that is Jesus pleading with his enemies. He is urging them to see their
fatal error. Jesus does not scream at his enemies, or smite them, but lovingly urges them to
repent and come into his love.
• And so we have a foreshadowing of that great moment on the cross when he says, “Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). This love toward
his enemies made him vulnerable and cost him his life. On the cross, instead of blasting his
enemies, he lovingly took the penalty of their sins on himself. While we were his enemies,
Christ died for us (Rom 5:10).
• Knowing what he did for us must drain us of our self-righteousness and our insecurity. We
were so sinful he had to die for us. But we were so loved that he was glad to die for us. That
takes away both the pride and the fear that makes us elder brothers.
Text : Luke 15:25-32 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: He Refused to Go In
Int roduc t ion: Most people who read and study The Parable of the Prodigal Son concentrate
completely on the character of the younger son, his repentance, and the father’s forgiveness. And yet
look at the text. It doesn’t end with the return of the prodigal. Almost half of the story is about the
older son. The story is about two sons, who are both alienated from the father, who are both
assaulting the unity of the family. Jesus wants us to compare and contrast them. The younger son is
“lost”—that is easy to see. We see him shaming his father, ruining his family, sleeping with
prostitutes, and we say, “yes, there’s someone who is spiritually lost.” But Jesus’ point is that the
older son is lost too. Let’s learn from the text: 1) a startling new understanding of lostness, 2) what
the signs of it are (so we can recognize it in ourselves), and 3) what we can do about this condition.
1. A st a rt l ing new underst anding of lostness—verse 28.
• The elder brother would have known that the day of the prodigal’s return was the greatest day in
his father’s life.
• The father has “killed the fattened calf”, an enormously expensive extravagance in a culture
where even having meat at meals was considered a delicacy.
• The older son realized his father was ecstatic with joy. Yet he refused to go into the biggest
feast his father has ever put on. This was a remarkable, deliberate act of disrespect. It was his
way of saying, “I won’t be part of this family nor respect your headship of it.”
• And the father had to “go out” to plead with him. Just as he went out to bring his alienated
younger son into the family, now he had to do the same for the older brother.
• Do you realize what Jesus is saying to his listeners, and to us? The older son is lost.
• The father represents God himself, and the meal is the feast of salvation. In the end, then,
the younger son, the immoral man, comes in and is saved, but the older son, the good son,
refuses to go in and is lost.
• The Pharisees who were listening to this parable knew what that meant. It was a complete
reversal of everything they believed. You can almost hear them gasp as the story ends.
• And what is it that is keeping the elder brother out? It’s because: “All these years I’ve been
slaving for you and never disobeyed...” (v.29). The good son is not lost in spite of his good
behavior, but because of his good behavior. So it is not his sin keeping him out, but his
righteousness.
• The gospel is neither religion nor is it irreligion; it is not morality nor is it immorality. This
was completely astonishing and confusing to Jesus’ hearers at the time—and it may even be
astonishing and confusing to you.
• Why is the older son lost?
• The younger brother wanted the father’s wealth, but not the father. So how did he get what
he wanted? He left home. He broke the moral rules.
• But it becomes evident by the end that the elder brother also wanted selfish control of the
father’s wealth. He was very unhappy with the father’s use of the possessions—the robe, the
ring, the calf. But while the younger brother got control by taking his stuff and running
away, we see that the elder brother got control by staying home and being very good. He
felt that now he has the right to tell the father what to do with his possessions because he
had obeyed him perfectly.
• So there are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord.
• One is by breaking all the laws and being bad. One is by keeping all the laws and being good.
• If I can be so good that God has to answer my prayer, give me a good life, and take me to
heaven, then in all I do I may be looking to Jesus to be my helper and my rewarder—but he
isn’t my Savior. I am then my own Savior.
• The difference between a religious person and a true Christian is that the religious person
obeys God to get control over God, and things from God, but the Christian obeys just to
get God, just to love and please and draw closer to him.
2. Wha t the signs of thi s lostness a re—verses 29-30.
Some people are complete elder brothers. They go to church and obey the Bible—but out of
expectation that then God owes them. They have never understood the Biblical gospel at all. But
many Christians, who know the gospel, are nonetheless elder-brotherish. Despite the fact that they
know the gospel of salvation by grace with their heads, their hearts go back to an elder-brotherish
“default mode” of self-salvation. Here’s what the elder-brotherish attitude looks like. It is:
• A deep anger (v.28—“became angry”). Elder brothers believe that God owes them a
comfortable and good life if they try hard and live up to standards—and they have! So they say:
“my life ought to be going really well!” and when it doesn’t they get angry. But they are
forgetting Jesus. He lived a better life than any of us—but suffered terribly.
• A joyless and mechani c a l obedienc e (v.29—“I’ve been slaving for you”). Elder brothers
obey God as a means to an end—as a way to get the things they really love. Of course, obedience
to God is sometimes extremely hard. But elder brothers find obedience virtually always a joyless,
mechanical, slavish thing as a result.
• A coldness to younger brother-t ypes (v.30—“this son of yours”). The older son will not
even “own” his brother. Elder brothers are too disdainful of others unlike themselves to be
effective in evangelism. Elder brothers, who pride themselves on their doctrinal and moral purity,
unavoidably feel superior to those who do not have these things.
• A l a ck of a ssuranc e of the fa ther’s love (v.29—you never threw me a party). As long as
you are trying to earn your salvation by controlling God through your goodness, you will never
be sure you have been good enough. What are the signs of this? Every time something goes
wrong in your life you wonder if it’s a punishment. Another sign is irresolvable guilt. You can’t
be sure you’ve repented deeply enough, so you beat yourself up over what you did. Lastly, there
is a lack of any sense of intimacy with God in your prayer life. You may pray a lot of prayers
asking for things, but not sense his love.
• An unforgiving, judgment a l spi ri t . The elder brother does not want the father to forgive
the younger brother. It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel “I would never do anything
that bad!” You have to be something of an elder brother to refuse to forgive.
3. Wha t we c an do about thi s spi ri tua l condi t ion.
• First, we have to see the uniqueness of the gospel.
• Jesus ends the parable with the lostness of the older brother in order to get across the point
that it is a more dangerous spiritual condition. The younger brother knew he was alienated
from the father, but the elder brother did not.
• If you tell moral, religious people who are trying to be good, trying to obey the Bible so
God will bless them—that they are alienated from God, they will just be offended. If you
know you are sick you may go to a doctor; if you don’t know you’re sick you won’t—you’ll
just die.
• Moralistic religion works on the principle, “I obey, therefore God accepts me.” The gospel
works on the principle, “I am accepted by God through Jesus Christ, therefore I obey.”
• These are two radically different, even opposite, dynamics. Yet both sets of people sit in
church together, both pray, both obey the Ten Commandments, but for radically different
reasons. And because they do these things for radically different reasons, they produce
radically different results—different kinds of character. One produces anger, joyless
compliance, superiority, insecurity, and a condemning spirit. The other slowly but inevitably
produces contentment, joy, humility, poise, and a forgiving spirit.
• Unless a person and a congregation knows the difference between general religiosity and
the true gospel, people will constantly fall into moralism and elder-brotherishness. And if
you call younger brothers to receive Christ and live for him without making this distinction
clear, they will automatically think you are inviting them to become elder brothers.
• Second, we have to see the vulnerability of Jesus.
• Remember, again, whom Jesus is speaking to (vv.1-2). Jesus is speaking to his mortal
enemies, the men he knows will kill him. On the one hand, this is an astonishingly bold
challenge to them. He’s talking to those who want to kill him and telling them that they
are lost, that they fundamentally misunderstand God’s salvation and purpose in the world,
and that they are trampling on the heart of God.
• But at the same time, he is also being so loving and tender. When the father comes out to
the older brother, that is Jesus pleading with his enemies. He is urging them to see their
fatal error. Jesus does not scream at his enemies, or smite them, but lovingly urges them to
repent and come into his love.
• And so we have a foreshadowing of that great moment on the cross when he says, “Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). This love toward
his enemies made him vulnerable and cost him his life. On the cross, instead of blasting his
enemies, he lovingly took the penalty of their sins on himself. While we were his enemies,
Christ died for us (Rom 5:10).
• Knowing what he did for us must drain us of our self-righteousness and our insecurity. We
were so sinful he had to die for us. But we were so loved that he was glad to die for us. That
takes away both the pride and the fear that makes us elder brothers.
the prodigal God pt2
The Two Lost Sons
Text : Luke 15:11-32 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: Give Me My Sha re
Int roduc t ion: The third of Jesus’ three parables is the longest and most famous. It is a story about
a family—a father, an older son, and a younger son. The story begins when the younger son comes to
the father and says, “Give me my share of the estate.” In ancient times, when the father died, the
oldest son always got “a double portion” of what any other child got. If there are two sons, the
older would get two-thirds of the estate and so the younger would get one-third. So the story opens
with the younger son asking for his one-third share of the inheritance. Let’s look at: 1) the meaning
of the request, 2) the response to that request, and 3) what difference it makes for us.
1. The meaning of the request—verses 11-12.
• The younger son’s request was stunning, because the inheritance, of course, was not divided up
and distributed to the children until the father died.
• As Kenneth Bailey writes: “In Middle Eastern culture, to ask for the inheritance while the
Father is alive, is to wish him dead.”
• The request would therefore have been a disgrace to the family name, because of the
younger son’s extraordinary disrespect for his father. It would have also been a blow to the
economic standing of the family, since the father would have to sell part of his estate in
order to give him his share.
• In short, this request ripped the family apart. It was a relational and economic act of
violence against the family’s integrity.
• Why would the younger son make such a request?
• In his Confessions, Augustine gives us a theory of why we do what we do, and especially
why we sin. He makes this startling observation: “A man has murdered another man—what
was his motive? Either he desired his wife or his property or else he would steal to support
himself; or else he was afraid of losing something to him; or else, having been injured, he
was burning to be revenged.” Augustine goes on to say that even a murderer murders
because he loves something. He loves romance or wealth or his reputation or something
else too much, inordinately, more than God, and that is why he murders. Our hearts are
distorted by “disordered loves.” We love, rest our hearts in, and look to things to give us
the joy and meaning that only the Lord can give.
• The younger son may have lived with his father and may even have obeyed his father, but he
didn’t love his father. The thing he loved, ultimately, was his father’s things, not his father.
His heart was set on the wealth and on the comfort, freedom and status that wealth brings.
His father was just a means to an end. Now, however, his patience was over. He knew that
the request would be like a knife in his father’s heart, but he obviously didn’t care.
• Here is a great irony, which we will return to later in our series.
• The two sons look very different, on the surface. One runs off and lives a dissolute life, one
stays home and obeys and serves his father.
• Yet at the end, the older son is furious with the father and humiliates him by refusing to go
into the great feast. This is the older son’s way of saying that he will not live in the same
family with the younger son. So again the family’s integrity and the father’s heart are under
assault—this time by the elder brother.
• Why? The elder brother objects to the expense of what the father is doing, as we will see.
He shows that he has been obeying the father to get his things, and not because he loves
him, since he is willing to put him to shame. Both the older and younger sons love the
father’s things, but not the father.
2. The response to the request—verse 12b, 20-24.
• The younger’s son request to the father would have shocked Jesus’ listeners, but the father’s
response is even more remarkable. This was a patriarchal society, in which you were required to
show deference and reverence toward those older or above you. This kind of contempt and
insolence would have ordinarily met with outrage. The listeners would expect the father to
explode in wrath, to drive the son out with blows.
• Instead, we read the simple words, “so he divided his property between them.” We need to put
ourselves into the historical context. In those days, most of a family’s wealth was in their land
and property. Indeed, their family land was part of their very identity. It is likely that the father
had to sell some of his land in order to become “liquid” and give his younger son his share.
• This is reflected in the unusual Greek word used in verse 12 translated as “property.” It is the
word “bios” which means “life.” It says, literally, he divided his “life” between them. Why use
that word? Probably it was a way to convey what it felt like for the father to lose his land, his
family’s good name and status, and the presence of one of his two sons. The father is being asked
to tear his very life apart—and he does.
• The older son and anyone else in the community would have thought that the father was being
foolish to give in to the younger son’s request. But looking back, we know better. If the father
had become embittered, and had perhaps beaten the young man or done something else severe
to him, no restoration would have ever happened. The father’s heart would have been too
hardened to ever receive him back, and the son may never have expected or wanted the father to
do so.
• By bearing the agony and pain of the son’s sin himself, instead of taking revenge, instead of
paying the son back by inflicting pain on him, the father kept the door open in the relationship.
The father was willing to suffer for the sin of the child, so that some day reconciliation would be
possible.
3. Wha t di fferenc e i t makes for us.
• First, it means that whether we are irreligious, free-wheeling, “younger brother” types or moral,
religious “elder brother” types, we have a problem with what Augustine calls “inordinate love”
or idols of the heart.
• For example, imagine a wife who has a husband who spends hours with another woman
talking about all his and her problems, and he goes traveling with this other woman, and
talks and thinks about her incessantly. So the wife confronts her husband and he says,
“What’s the problem? I married you, didn’t I? I pay the mortgage, don’t I? I do all my
duties, don’t I? If someone asks, I say you are my wife. Why are you so upset?” The wife will
say (rightly) that someone else has captured his heart and imagination.
• Many of us are like the elder brother. We may obey all the rules, but our real heart and
passion is something else—our career, or making money, or our children, or peer
acceptance. If any thing has a controlling position in our heart, if any thing is more
important to our happiness than God—then that thing is a “god” to us, an “inordinate love.”
• Recognize these things for what they are. Do you see them in your own heart and life? Once
we see these things for what they are, what can be done about them?
• Second, it means that our Lord has done for us what the father in the parable did for his son.
• When God came into this world, we would have expected him to come in wrath, to appear
and drive us out with blows. But he did not. He didn’t come with a sword in his hand, but
with nails in his hands. He didn’t come to bring judgment, but to bear our judgment.
• Jesus went to the cross in weakness, and there, voluntarily, his life was literally torn apart.
And for his only property left, his garment, they cast lots. But he did it so that, when we
repent, like the younger son, forgiveness and reconciliation is now available.
• And how does this help us with our “disordered loves”? Objectively, it means there is real,
true forgiveness for them. Our guilt is dealt with by Jesus’ blood. Subjectively, when we see
the absolute beauty of what Jesus has done for us, it captures our hearts. Money can’t die
for us, popularity can’t die for us. There is nothing more beautiful in all of reality than the
picture of a perfectly happy Being, leaving all the bliss of heaven, and sacrificing everything
for the sake of rebellious, undeserving, ungrateful people. The more you look at Jesus doing
that, the more you will love him above anyone or anything else. He will capture your heart
so that nothing matters more than he does. When you see what he’s done for you, it makes
the worst times bearable and the best times leave-able.
• As John Newton wrote,
Our pleasure and our duty,
Though opposite before,
Since we have seen His beauty,
Are joined to part no more:
It is our highest pleasure,
No less than duty’s call,
To love Him beyond measure,
And serve Him with our all.
Text : Luke 15:11-32 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: Give Me My Sha re
Int roduc t ion: The third of Jesus’ three parables is the longest and most famous. It is a story about
a family—a father, an older son, and a younger son. The story begins when the younger son comes to
the father and says, “Give me my share of the estate.” In ancient times, when the father died, the
oldest son always got “a double portion” of what any other child got. If there are two sons, the
older would get two-thirds of the estate and so the younger would get one-third. So the story opens
with the younger son asking for his one-third share of the inheritance. Let’s look at: 1) the meaning
of the request, 2) the response to that request, and 3) what difference it makes for us.
1. The meaning of the request—verses 11-12.
• The younger son’s request was stunning, because the inheritance, of course, was not divided up
and distributed to the children until the father died.
• As Kenneth Bailey writes: “In Middle Eastern culture, to ask for the inheritance while the
Father is alive, is to wish him dead.”
• The request would therefore have been a disgrace to the family name, because of the
younger son’s extraordinary disrespect for his father. It would have also been a blow to the
economic standing of the family, since the father would have to sell part of his estate in
order to give him his share.
• In short, this request ripped the family apart. It was a relational and economic act of
violence against the family’s integrity.
• Why would the younger son make such a request?
• In his Confessions, Augustine gives us a theory of why we do what we do, and especially
why we sin. He makes this startling observation: “A man has murdered another man—what
was his motive? Either he desired his wife or his property or else he would steal to support
himself; or else he was afraid of losing something to him; or else, having been injured, he
was burning to be revenged.” Augustine goes on to say that even a murderer murders
because he loves something. He loves romance or wealth or his reputation or something
else too much, inordinately, more than God, and that is why he murders. Our hearts are
distorted by “disordered loves.” We love, rest our hearts in, and look to things to give us
the joy and meaning that only the Lord can give.
• The younger son may have lived with his father and may even have obeyed his father, but he
didn’t love his father. The thing he loved, ultimately, was his father’s things, not his father.
His heart was set on the wealth and on the comfort, freedom and status that wealth brings.
His father was just a means to an end. Now, however, his patience was over. He knew that
the request would be like a knife in his father’s heart, but he obviously didn’t care.
• Here is a great irony, which we will return to later in our series.
• The two sons look very different, on the surface. One runs off and lives a dissolute life, one
stays home and obeys and serves his father.
• Yet at the end, the older son is furious with the father and humiliates him by refusing to go
into the great feast. This is the older son’s way of saying that he will not live in the same
family with the younger son. So again the family’s integrity and the father’s heart are under
assault—this time by the elder brother.
• Why? The elder brother objects to the expense of what the father is doing, as we will see.
He shows that he has been obeying the father to get his things, and not because he loves
him, since he is willing to put him to shame. Both the older and younger sons love the
father’s things, but not the father.
2. The response to the request—verse 12b, 20-24.
• The younger’s son request to the father would have shocked Jesus’ listeners, but the father’s
response is even more remarkable. This was a patriarchal society, in which you were required to
show deference and reverence toward those older or above you. This kind of contempt and
insolence would have ordinarily met with outrage. The listeners would expect the father to
explode in wrath, to drive the son out with blows.
• Instead, we read the simple words, “so he divided his property between them.” We need to put
ourselves into the historical context. In those days, most of a family’s wealth was in their land
and property. Indeed, their family land was part of their very identity. It is likely that the father
had to sell some of his land in order to become “liquid” and give his younger son his share.
• This is reflected in the unusual Greek word used in verse 12 translated as “property.” It is the
word “bios” which means “life.” It says, literally, he divided his “life” between them. Why use
that word? Probably it was a way to convey what it felt like for the father to lose his land, his
family’s good name and status, and the presence of one of his two sons. The father is being asked
to tear his very life apart—and he does.
• The older son and anyone else in the community would have thought that the father was being
foolish to give in to the younger son’s request. But looking back, we know better. If the father
had become embittered, and had perhaps beaten the young man or done something else severe
to him, no restoration would have ever happened. The father’s heart would have been too
hardened to ever receive him back, and the son may never have expected or wanted the father to
do so.
• By bearing the agony and pain of the son’s sin himself, instead of taking revenge, instead of
paying the son back by inflicting pain on him, the father kept the door open in the relationship.
The father was willing to suffer for the sin of the child, so that some day reconciliation would be
possible.
3. Wha t di fferenc e i t makes for us.
• First, it means that whether we are irreligious, free-wheeling, “younger brother” types or moral,
religious “elder brother” types, we have a problem with what Augustine calls “inordinate love”
or idols of the heart.
• For example, imagine a wife who has a husband who spends hours with another woman
talking about all his and her problems, and he goes traveling with this other woman, and
talks and thinks about her incessantly. So the wife confronts her husband and he says,
“What’s the problem? I married you, didn’t I? I pay the mortgage, don’t I? I do all my
duties, don’t I? If someone asks, I say you are my wife. Why are you so upset?” The wife will
say (rightly) that someone else has captured his heart and imagination.
• Many of us are like the elder brother. We may obey all the rules, but our real heart and
passion is something else—our career, or making money, or our children, or peer
acceptance. If any thing has a controlling position in our heart, if any thing is more
important to our happiness than God—then that thing is a “god” to us, an “inordinate love.”
• Recognize these things for what they are. Do you see them in your own heart and life? Once
we see these things for what they are, what can be done about them?
• Second, it means that our Lord has done for us what the father in the parable did for his son.
• When God came into this world, we would have expected him to come in wrath, to appear
and drive us out with blows. But he did not. He didn’t come with a sword in his hand, but
with nails in his hands. He didn’t come to bring judgment, but to bear our judgment.
• Jesus went to the cross in weakness, and there, voluntarily, his life was literally torn apart.
And for his only property left, his garment, they cast lots. But he did it so that, when we
repent, like the younger son, forgiveness and reconciliation is now available.
• And how does this help us with our “disordered loves”? Objectively, it means there is real,
true forgiveness for them. Our guilt is dealt with by Jesus’ blood. Subjectively, when we see
the absolute beauty of what Jesus has done for us, it captures our hearts. Money can’t die
for us, popularity can’t die for us. There is nothing more beautiful in all of reality than the
picture of a perfectly happy Being, leaving all the bliss of heaven, and sacrificing everything
for the sake of rebellious, undeserving, ungrateful people. The more you look at Jesus doing
that, the more you will love him above anyone or anything else. He will capture your heart
so that nothing matters more than he does. When you see what he’s done for you, it makes
the worst times bearable and the best times leave-able.
• As John Newton wrote,
Our pleasure and our duty,
Though opposite before,
Since we have seen His beauty,
Are joined to part no more:
It is our highest pleasure,
No less than duty’s call,
To love Him beyond measure,
And serve Him with our all.
the prodigal God pt1
The People Around Jesus
Text : Luke 15:1-10 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: He Wel comes Sinners
Int roduc t ion: Luke 15 begins with the religious leaders noticing something—that Jesus seems to
attract and befriend “tax collectors and sinners,” moral outcasts of respectable society. We read in
verse 2 that they “mutter” to one another about this. We can almost imagine them saying: “He
welcomes sinners! This kind of person never comes to our meetings. This must be because he is
telling them what they want to hear. He is not calling them to repent or change.” In response, Jesus
tells them three parables. By listening carefully to all three parables, and especially to the last one,
traditionally called The Parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus challenges his listeners’ fundamental
assumptions about God, sin, and salvation. He gives them an entirely new way of thinking about
God, themselves, and the whole world. This week we look at the first two of these parables. Let’s
notice three sets of characters: 1) the unwilling listeners, 2) the lost things, and 3) the joyful seekers.
1. The unwi l l ing l i st eners—verses 1-3.
• There are two groups of people around Jesus—“tax collectors and ‘sinners’”, and “Pharisees and
the teachers of the law.”
• The religious group is especially offended that Jesus eats with sinners. Table fellowship was
considered a sign of acceptance and friendship. How, they thought, can he be so open to them?
Doesn’t he realize that they are the “bad people”— who are the real trouble with the world?
(And, therefore, that we are the “good guys”?)
• Jesus does not give a direct, compact answer. Instead, he responds with three stories or parables.
It is important to realize that these parables were not spoken in a vacuum. The purpose of all
three parables was to challenge the Pharisees’ point of view.
• When we get to the final parable, we will realize that both groups of people—“sinners” and
“religious people”—are actually in the parable. That is why the last story, the story of the
prodigal son, is Jesus’ final answer. But that is to come later. For now, let’s notice how he begins
to challenge the Pharisees’ attitude and categories of thought in the first two stories.
2. The lost things—verses 4-5, 8.
First, Jesus confronts their categories about sin.
• In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd goes out to find the sheep. A sheep is a stupid
animal that is completely helpless when lost. In the second parable the lost object is a coin, even
more incapable of finding its way home.
• The three lost “objects”—the sheep, the coin, and (in vv. 11-32) the son—all represent people
who are spiritually lost, far from God. This is Jesus characterizing the people the Pharisees view
as “sinners.” They are lost, yet they are lost in quite different ways. The sheep is lost through
foolishness, the coin through thoughtlessness, and the son through willfulness.
• Taken together, this is a nuanced, multi-dimensional view of sin.
• Here’s an example. Mr. Smith has a problem with abusive anger—he often flies off the handle
and is verbally abusive and sometimes physically so. Why?
• Is his problem genetic? Is it a matter of brain chemistry? Is it just part of his inborn nature,
as in the example of the sheep?
• Or is his problem the result of a bad environment? Perhaps the result of poor parenting and
family life? Was he, like the coin, mismanaged by his “supervisors”?
• Or does his problem stem from selfishness and pride, as with the prodigal son?
The answer is that usually, in varying degrees, it is all of the above.
• Sin is deeply complex. It is inborn in you, it is magnified by sinful treatment, and it is deepened
and shaped by your own choices. Jesus’ view of sin is more comprehensive and multi-dimensional
than that of many psychologists, sociologists, and many religious leaders. It is certainly more
comprehensive than the view held by the Pharisees listening to him.
3. The joyful seekers—verses 6-7, 9-10.
Second, Jesus confronts their categories about salvation.
• Most people think of religion as “humanity’s search for God.” We like to think of ourselves as
spiritual seekers, as honest inquirers. We look at the religions of the world and, while giving
somewhat different directions about how to do so, they all seem to agree that if we sincerely
search for God we will find him. Millions of people the world over believe that by believing and
obeying God’s law in the Bible, they can find God.
• The problem is that anyone who feels they have searched for and found God will naturally
disdain those who seem to be making no effort at all. They will look at “sinners” and say, “I
found God! If you try, you can. I did.”
• But the Biblical gospel turns this idea on its head. The shepherd (whom Jesus obviously identifies
with) must go out to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). Likewise the coin cannot
search and find its owner, the owner finds the coin.
• And here is the first great blow to the world’s categories. Every other religion says that we can
search for and find God if we try hard enough. Only Christianity says, no, God had to come
down into the world to seek and save us. Salvation must be by his grace, not our achievement.
• The end of each parable challenges not just the categories of the Pharisees but their heart and
attitude. A theme through all three parables is the joy of finding the lost. God does not look at
spiritually lost people the way the Pharisees do. Because the Pharisees do not see themselves as
lost sinners saved by grace, they disdain “sinners”. They feel superior to them. But heaven
rejoices when “sinners” are reached and found.
• Jesus is the Great Shepherd, even more intent and joyful than the shepherd of the parable. For
Jesus knew that he would have to die to bring the lost home, but “for the joy set before him
endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Heb. 12:2). The joy he had in doing his Father’s will,
and the joy he had in finding us, was so great that he was willing to endure the cross.
Text : Luke 15:1-10 NIV
Al t erna t e Ti t le: He Wel comes Sinners
Int roduc t ion: Luke 15 begins with the religious leaders noticing something—that Jesus seems to
attract and befriend “tax collectors and sinners,” moral outcasts of respectable society. We read in
verse 2 that they “mutter” to one another about this. We can almost imagine them saying: “He
welcomes sinners! This kind of person never comes to our meetings. This must be because he is
telling them what they want to hear. He is not calling them to repent or change.” In response, Jesus
tells them three parables. By listening carefully to all three parables, and especially to the last one,
traditionally called The Parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus challenges his listeners’ fundamental
assumptions about God, sin, and salvation. He gives them an entirely new way of thinking about
God, themselves, and the whole world. This week we look at the first two of these parables. Let’s
notice three sets of characters: 1) the unwilling listeners, 2) the lost things, and 3) the joyful seekers.
1. The unwi l l ing l i st eners—verses 1-3.
• There are two groups of people around Jesus—“tax collectors and ‘sinners’”, and “Pharisees and
the teachers of the law.”
• The religious group is especially offended that Jesus eats with sinners. Table fellowship was
considered a sign of acceptance and friendship. How, they thought, can he be so open to them?
Doesn’t he realize that they are the “bad people”— who are the real trouble with the world?
(And, therefore, that we are the “good guys”?)
• Jesus does not give a direct, compact answer. Instead, he responds with three stories or parables.
It is important to realize that these parables were not spoken in a vacuum. The purpose of all
three parables was to challenge the Pharisees’ point of view.
• When we get to the final parable, we will realize that both groups of people—“sinners” and
“religious people”—are actually in the parable. That is why the last story, the story of the
prodigal son, is Jesus’ final answer. But that is to come later. For now, let’s notice how he begins
to challenge the Pharisees’ attitude and categories of thought in the first two stories.
2. The lost things—verses 4-5, 8.
First, Jesus confronts their categories about sin.
• In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd goes out to find the sheep. A sheep is a stupid
animal that is completely helpless when lost. In the second parable the lost object is a coin, even
more incapable of finding its way home.
• The three lost “objects”—the sheep, the coin, and (in vv. 11-32) the son—all represent people
who are spiritually lost, far from God. This is Jesus characterizing the people the Pharisees view
as “sinners.” They are lost, yet they are lost in quite different ways. The sheep is lost through
foolishness, the coin through thoughtlessness, and the son through willfulness.
• Taken together, this is a nuanced, multi-dimensional view of sin.
• Here’s an example. Mr. Smith has a problem with abusive anger—he often flies off the handle
and is verbally abusive and sometimes physically so. Why?
• Is his problem genetic? Is it a matter of brain chemistry? Is it just part of his inborn nature,
as in the example of the sheep?
• Or is his problem the result of a bad environment? Perhaps the result of poor parenting and
family life? Was he, like the coin, mismanaged by his “supervisors”?
• Or does his problem stem from selfishness and pride, as with the prodigal son?
The answer is that usually, in varying degrees, it is all of the above.
• Sin is deeply complex. It is inborn in you, it is magnified by sinful treatment, and it is deepened
and shaped by your own choices. Jesus’ view of sin is more comprehensive and multi-dimensional
than that of many psychologists, sociologists, and many religious leaders. It is certainly more
comprehensive than the view held by the Pharisees listening to him.
3. The joyful seekers—verses 6-7, 9-10.
Second, Jesus confronts their categories about salvation.
• Most people think of religion as “humanity’s search for God.” We like to think of ourselves as
spiritual seekers, as honest inquirers. We look at the religions of the world and, while giving
somewhat different directions about how to do so, they all seem to agree that if we sincerely
search for God we will find him. Millions of people the world over believe that by believing and
obeying God’s law in the Bible, they can find God.
• The problem is that anyone who feels they have searched for and found God will naturally
disdain those who seem to be making no effort at all. They will look at “sinners” and say, “I
found God! If you try, you can. I did.”
• But the Biblical gospel turns this idea on its head. The shepherd (whom Jesus obviously identifies
with) must go out to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). Likewise the coin cannot
search and find its owner, the owner finds the coin.
• And here is the first great blow to the world’s categories. Every other religion says that we can
search for and find God if we try hard enough. Only Christianity says, no, God had to come
down into the world to seek and save us. Salvation must be by his grace, not our achievement.
• The end of each parable challenges not just the categories of the Pharisees but their heart and
attitude. A theme through all three parables is the joy of finding the lost. God does not look at
spiritually lost people the way the Pharisees do. Because the Pharisees do not see themselves as
lost sinners saved by grace, they disdain “sinners”. They feel superior to them. But heaven
rejoices when “sinners” are reached and found.
• Jesus is the Great Shepherd, even more intent and joyful than the shepherd of the parable. For
Jesus knew that he would have to die to bring the lost home, but “for the joy set before him
endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Heb. 12:2). The joy he had in doing his Father’s will,
and the joy he had in finding us, was so great that he was willing to endure the cross.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Ten Principles of Christian Giving
It is well known that the apostle Paul organized a collection from the
Greek churches of Achaia and Macedonia for the benefit of the impoverished churches of Judea. It may seem extraordinary that he should have devoted so much space in his letters to this mundane matter, referring to it in Romans 15, 1 Corinthians 16, and 2 Corinthians 8-9. But Paul did not see it as a mundane matter. On the contrary, he saw it as relating to the grace of God, the cross of Christ and the unity of the Spirit. In fact, it is very moving to grasp this combination of profound Trinitarian theology and practical common sense.
Moreover, Christian giving is an extremely important topic on the contemporary church’s agenda. For I doubt of there is a single Christian enterprise in the world, which is not currently hindered and hampered by lack of funds. Only this past week I heard of two Christian organizations both of which are threatened with closure unless their income dramatically increases.
In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 the apostle develops 10 principles of Christian giving.
1. Christian giving is an expression of the grace of God (8:1-6).
And now, brothers we want you to know about the grace that
God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.6So we urges Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.
You will notice that the apostle Paul does not begin by referring to the generosity of the churches of Macedonia in Northern Greece. He refers instead to the generosity of God, to ‘the grace, which God has given to the Macedonian churches’ (v.1). In other words, behind the generosity of Macedonia, Paul saw the generosity of God. For grace is another word for generosity. Our gracious God is a generous God, and he is at work within his people to make them generous too.
More remarkable still is the fact that three tributaries contributed to the river of Macedonian generosity, namely (v.2) their severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty. In consequence, the Macedonians gave even beyond their ability (v.3). And they pleaded for the privilege of sharing in this service to God’s people in Judea (v.4).
Indeed, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to Paul and his apostolic band (v.5). Also Paul had urged Titus to complete what he had begun in Corinth, the capital of Achaia, a little while ago (v.6). What was this? It was this same ‘act of grace’.
This then is where Paul begins–with the grace of God in the
Macedonian churches of Northern Greece and with the same grace of God in the Achaean churches of Southern Greece. Christian generosity is fundamentally an outflow of the generosity of God.
2. Christian giving can be a charisma that is a gift of the Spirit
(8:7).
But just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
Thus, as they excel in the spiritual gifts of faith, speech, knowledge, earnestness and love, the apostle urges them to excel also ‘in this grace of giving’. Similarly in Romans 12:8 Paul includes among another list of charismata ‘contributing to the needs of others’.
Why is it important to draw attention to this? It is because many of
God’s endowments are both a generous gift given to all believers and a particular gift (charisma) given to some. For example, all Christians are called to share the gospel with others, but some have the gift of an evangelist. Again, all Christians are called to exercise pastoral care for others, but some are called to be pastors. Just so, all Christians are called to be generous, but some are given the particular ‘gift of giving’.
Because they have been entrusted with significant financial resources, they have a special responsibility to be good stewards for the common good.
3. Christian giving is inspired by the cross of Christ (8:8, 9).
I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of you love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
The Corinthians were not being commanded, still less browbeaten, to give generously. Rather the sincerity of their love was being put to the test by comparison with others and especially (it is implied) by comparison with Christ. For they knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We take note of this further reference to divine grace. Not only is the grace of God at work in us (v.1), but the grace of Christ challenges our imitation (v.9).
Here are two references to poverty and two references to wealth.
Because of our poverty Christ renounced his riches, so that through his poverty we might become rich. We must not misunderstand this by supposing that material poverty and wealth are in mind. No, the ‘poverty’ of Christ is seen in his incarnation and especially his cross, while the ‘wealth’ he gives us is salvation with all its rich blessings.
4. Christian giving is proportionate giving (8:10-12).
And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter:
Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
During the previous year the Corinthian Christians had been the first not only in giving but in desiring to give (v.10). So now Paul urges them to finish the task they had begun, so that their doing will keep pace with their desiring. And this must be according to their means (v11). Thus
Christian giving is proportionate giving. The eager willingness comes first. So long as that is there, the gift is acceptable according to what the giver has, not according to what he has not (v.12).
This expression "according to his means" reminds us of two similar expressions which occur in the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts 11:29 members of the church in Antioch gave to the famine-stricken Judean
Christians "each according to his ability." In Acts 2 and 4 members of the church in Jerusalem gave "to each according to his need."
Does this ring a bell in our memories? In his Critique of the Gotha
Programme (1875) Marx called for a society, which could "inscribe on its banners 'from each according to his ability' and 'to each according to his need' ”. I have often wondered if Marx knew these two verses in Acts and if he deliberately borrowed them. Whatever our politics and economics may be, these are certainly biblical principles to which we should hold fast. Christian giving is proportionate giving.
5. Christian giving contributes to equality (8:13-15).
Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little’.
Paul’s desire he explains to his Corinthian readers, is not that others may be relieved while they are hard pressed, for that would merely reverse the situation, solving one problem by creating another, but rather that there might be equality (v.13). He goes on to repeat his argument. Now at present Corinthian plenty will supply the needs of others, so that in turn Paul illustrates the principle from the supply of manna in the desert. God provided enough for everybody. Larger families gathered a lot, but not too much, for nothing was left over.
Smaller families gathered little, but not too little, for they had no lack
(v.15).
Thus Paul put the affluence of some alongside the want of others, and then called for an adjustment, that is, an easing of want by affluence.
Twice he concluded that this was with a view to isoles, which can mean either ‘equality’ or ‘justice’.
What is this ‘equality’ for which Paul calls? It may be said to have three aspects.
First, equality is not egalitarianism. God’s purpose is not that everybody receives an identical wage, lives in an identical house, equipped with identical furniture, wears identical clothing and eats identical food – as if we had all been mass produced in some celestial factory! No. Our doctrine of creation should protect us from any vision of colourless uniformity. For God the Creator has not cloned us. True, we are equal in worth and dignity, equally made in God’s image. True, God gives rain and sunshine indiscriminately to both the evil and the good. But God has made us different, and has given his creation a colourful diversity in physique, appearance, temperament, personality and capacities.
Secondly, the equality we seek begins with equality of educational opportunity. Christians have always been in the forefront of those demanding literacy and education for all. For to educate is to lead people out into their fullest created potential, so that they may become everything God intends them to be. For example, equal educational opportunity means not that every child is sent to college, but that every child capable of benefiting from a college education will be able to have one. No child should be disadvantaged. It is a question of justice.
Thirdly, equality abolishes extreme social disparity. Julius Nyerere, ex-
President of Tanzania, said in his Arusha Declaration that he wanted to build a nation in which ‘no man is ashamed of his poverty in the light of another’s affluence, and no man has to be ashamed of his affluence in the light of another’s poverty.’
The same dilemma confronts missionaries. Should they ‘go bush’, becoming in all things like the nationals they work among? Or should they continue to enjoy western affluence without any modification of their lifestyle? Probably neither. The Willowbank Report on ‘Gospel and
Culture’ (1978) suggests that they should rather develop a standard of living ‘which finds it natural to exchange hospitality with others on a basis of reciprocity, without embarrassment’ (Making Christ Known. Eerdmans/Paternoster, 1996, p. 82.
In other words, if we are embarrassed either to visit other people in their home, or to invite them into ours, because of the disparity of our economic lifestyles, - something is wrong. The inequality is too great. It has broken the fellowship. There needs to be a measure of equalization in one or other direction or in both. And Christian giving contributes to this equality.
6. Christian giving must be carefully supervised (8:16-24).
I thank God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative.
And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honour the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.
In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honour to
Christ. Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.
The handling of money is a risky business. Throughout church history religion has too often been commercialized. Paul is evidently aware of the dangers. So he writes both that ‘we want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift’ (v.20) and that ‘we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men’ (v.21). That is, he was determined not only to do right, but also to be seen to do right.
So what steps did Paul take? First, he did not handle the financial arrangement himself, but put Titus in charge of them (vv.16, 17) and expressed his full confidence in him (v.23). Secondly, Paul added that he was sending along with Titus another brother, who was ‘praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel’ (v.18). Thirdly, this second brother had been ‘chosen by the churches to accompany’ Paul and carry the gift (v.19;cf. 1 Cor. 16:3). Thus the people who carried the offering to Jerusalem had been elected by the churches because they had confidence in them.
In our day it is wise to take similar precautions against possible criticism. In this connection we have reason to be profoundly grateful for the wisdom and integrity of Billy Graham for declining to handle his organization’s finances, for accepting a fixed salary and refusing all ‘love offerings’, and for ensuring that audited accounts are published after every crusade. Similarly, we are grateful for the formation of ECFA (the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) which sets standards of financial accountability for Christian organizations.
7. Christian giving can be stimulated by a little friendly competition
(9:1-5).
There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. For I know your eagerness to help and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we – not to say anything about you – would be ashamed of having been so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
Paul had been boasting to the Macedonian churches of Northern
Greece (e.g. Philippi) about the eagerness of the Achaean churches of
Southern Greece (e.g. Corinth) to give, and the South’s enthusiasm has stirred the North to action (v.2). Now Paul is sending the brothers already mentioned to the South (especially Corinth) in order to ensure that his boasting about the South will not prove hollow but that the
South will be ready as he had said they would be (v.3).
For if some northerners were to come south with Paul, and were to find the south unprepared, it would be a huge embarrassment to Paul, and even a public humiliation for him (v.11). That is why Paul was sending the brothers in advance, in order to finish the arrangements for their promised gift. Then they would be ready and their gift would be generous and not grudging (v. 5) First Paul has boasted of southern generosity, so that the northerners will give generously. Now he urges the southerners to give generously, so that the northerners will not be disappointed in them.
It is rather delightful to see how Paul plays off the north and the south against each other. He boasts of each to the other, in order to stimulate the generosity of both. True, competition is a dangerous game to play, especially if it involves the publication of the names of donors and the amount they have donated. But at least these verses provide a biblical base for the concept of matching grants. We can all be stimulated to greater generosity by the known generosity of others.
8. Christian giving resembles a harvest (9:6-11a).
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:
‘He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor: his righteousness endures forever.’
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, …
Two harvest principles are here applied to Christian giving.
First, we reap what we sow. Whoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly, and whoever sows generously reaps generously (v.6). ‘Sowing’ is an obvious picture of giving. What then can we expect to ‘reap’? We should not interpret Paul’s point with excessive literalism, as if he were saying that the more we give the more we will get, and that our income will keep pace with our expenditure. No. Each donor should give ‘what he has decided in hi heart to give’. Neither reluctantly, nor under compulsion, nor for that matter calculating what he will receive in return
(Luke 6:34, 35), but rather ungrudgingly, because ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ (v.7).
If then we give in this spirit, what will happen? What harvest can we expect to reap? Answer: ‘God is able to make all grace abound to you’ so that ‘in all things’ (not necessarily in material things) on the one hand you may have all you need, and on the other you may ‘abound in every good work’ because your opportunities for further service will increase
(v.8). As Scripture says, the consequence of giving to the poor is to have a righteousness, which endures forever (v. 9; Ps. 112:9).
The second harvest principle is that what we reap has a double purpose. It is both for eating and for further sowing. For the God of the harvest is concerned not only to alleviate our present hunger, but also to make provision for the future. So he supplies both ‘bread for food’ (immediate consumption) and ‘seed to the sower’ (to plant when the next season comes round). In the same way God will ‘supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness’ (v.10).
These verses are the origin of the concept of ‘seed-money’, expecting God to multiply a donor’s gift. But it has been much abused by some TV evangelists. Paul is not preaching the false prosperity gospel. True, he promises that ‘you will be made rich in every way’, but he adds at once that this is ‘so that you can be generous on every occasion’ (v.11a) and so increase your giving. Wealth is with a view to generosity. This is the second principle of the harvest.
9. Christian giving has symbolic significance.
There is more in Christian giving than meets the eye. Paul is quite clear about this. In the case of the Greek churches, their giving symbolized their ‘confession of the gospel of Christ’ (v.13). How is that?
Paul looks beyond the mere transfer of cash from the Greek churches to the Judean churches to what it represented or symbolized. The significance of his collection was not just geographical (from Greece to
Judea), nor just economical (from the rich to the poor), but in particular theological (from Gentile Christians to Jewish Christians). His collection was a deliberate, self-conscious symbol of Jewish-Gentile solidarity in the body of Christ.
Indeed, this truth (that Jews and Gentiles are admitted to the body of
Christ on the same terms, so that in Christ they are heirs together, members together and sharers together) was the ‘mystery’ which had been revealed to Paul (e.g. Eph.3:1-9). This was the essence for his distinctive gospel. It was the truth he lived for, was imprisoned for and died for. It is hinted at here, but elaborated in Romans 15:25-28.
Paul writes there that the Gentile churches of Greece had been ‘pleased’ to make a contribution for the impoverished Christians of
Judea. “They were pleased to do it’, he repeated. Indeed ‘they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings (culminating in the Messiah himself), they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings’ (Romans 15:27). It was a striking example of solidarity in the Christian fellowship.
In similar ways, our Christian giving can express our theology, because our gift symbolizes our support of the cause to which we are giving. For example, when we contribute to evangelistic enterprises, we are expressing our confidence that the gospel is God’s power for salvation, and that everybody had a right to hear it. When we contribute to economic development, we express our belief that every man, woman, and child bears God’s image and should not be obliged to live in dehumanizing circumstances. When we give to the maturing of the church, we acknowledge its centrality in God’s purpose and his desire for its maturity.
10. Christian giving promotes thanksgiving to God (9:11b-15).
Through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of
God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.
And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Four times in the concluding paragraph of these two chapters, Paul states his confidence that the ultimate result of his collection will be the increase of thanksgiving and praise to God.
v. 11 ‘your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God’
v. 12 ‘this service that you perform…is…overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God’
v. 13 ‘men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity…’
v. 14 ‘Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!’
Here is a crucial test as to whether our giving is authentically Christian or not. Truly Christian giving leads people not only to thank us the donors, but to thank God, and to see our gift in the light of his – the indescribable gift of his Son.
It is truly amazing that so much is involved in what may seem to be a straightforward transfer of money. On the one hand, the doctrine of the
Trinity is involved – the grace of God, the cross of Christ and the unity of the Holy Spirit. On the other, we see the practical wisdom of an apostle of Christ.I hope that our study of these chapters will help to raise our giving to a higher level, and will persuade us to give more thoughtfully, more systematically and more sacrificially. I for one (having preached this sermon to myself before preaching it to you) have already reviewed and raised my giving. I venture to hope that you may do likewise.
Greek churches of Achaia and Macedonia for the benefit of the impoverished churches of Judea. It may seem extraordinary that he should have devoted so much space in his letters to this mundane matter, referring to it in Romans 15, 1 Corinthians 16, and 2 Corinthians 8-9. But Paul did not see it as a mundane matter. On the contrary, he saw it as relating to the grace of God, the cross of Christ and the unity of the Spirit. In fact, it is very moving to grasp this combination of profound Trinitarian theology and practical common sense.
Moreover, Christian giving is an extremely important topic on the contemporary church’s agenda. For I doubt of there is a single Christian enterprise in the world, which is not currently hindered and hampered by lack of funds. Only this past week I heard of two Christian organizations both of which are threatened with closure unless their income dramatically increases.
In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 the apostle develops 10 principles of Christian giving.
1. Christian giving is an expression of the grace of God (8:1-6).
And now, brothers we want you to know about the grace that
God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.6So we urges Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.
You will notice that the apostle Paul does not begin by referring to the generosity of the churches of Macedonia in Northern Greece. He refers instead to the generosity of God, to ‘the grace, which God has given to the Macedonian churches’ (v.1). In other words, behind the generosity of Macedonia, Paul saw the generosity of God. For grace is another word for generosity. Our gracious God is a generous God, and he is at work within his people to make them generous too.
More remarkable still is the fact that three tributaries contributed to the river of Macedonian generosity, namely (v.2) their severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty. In consequence, the Macedonians gave even beyond their ability (v.3). And they pleaded for the privilege of sharing in this service to God’s people in Judea (v.4).
Indeed, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to Paul and his apostolic band (v.5). Also Paul had urged Titus to complete what he had begun in Corinth, the capital of Achaia, a little while ago (v.6). What was this? It was this same ‘act of grace’.
This then is where Paul begins–with the grace of God in the
Macedonian churches of Northern Greece and with the same grace of God in the Achaean churches of Southern Greece. Christian generosity is fundamentally an outflow of the generosity of God.
2. Christian giving can be a charisma that is a gift of the Spirit
(8:7).
But just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
Thus, as they excel in the spiritual gifts of faith, speech, knowledge, earnestness and love, the apostle urges them to excel also ‘in this grace of giving’. Similarly in Romans 12:8 Paul includes among another list of charismata ‘contributing to the needs of others’.
Why is it important to draw attention to this? It is because many of
God’s endowments are both a generous gift given to all believers and a particular gift (charisma) given to some. For example, all Christians are called to share the gospel with others, but some have the gift of an evangelist. Again, all Christians are called to exercise pastoral care for others, but some are called to be pastors. Just so, all Christians are called to be generous, but some are given the particular ‘gift of giving’.
Because they have been entrusted with significant financial resources, they have a special responsibility to be good stewards for the common good.
3. Christian giving is inspired by the cross of Christ (8:8, 9).
I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of you love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
The Corinthians were not being commanded, still less browbeaten, to give generously. Rather the sincerity of their love was being put to the test by comparison with others and especially (it is implied) by comparison with Christ. For they knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We take note of this further reference to divine grace. Not only is the grace of God at work in us (v.1), but the grace of Christ challenges our imitation (v.9).
Here are two references to poverty and two references to wealth.
Because of our poverty Christ renounced his riches, so that through his poverty we might become rich. We must not misunderstand this by supposing that material poverty and wealth are in mind. No, the ‘poverty’ of Christ is seen in his incarnation and especially his cross, while the ‘wealth’ he gives us is salvation with all its rich blessings.
4. Christian giving is proportionate giving (8:10-12).
And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter:
Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
During the previous year the Corinthian Christians had been the first not only in giving but in desiring to give (v.10). So now Paul urges them to finish the task they had begun, so that their doing will keep pace with their desiring. And this must be according to their means (v11). Thus
Christian giving is proportionate giving. The eager willingness comes first. So long as that is there, the gift is acceptable according to what the giver has, not according to what he has not (v.12).
This expression "according to his means" reminds us of two similar expressions which occur in the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts 11:29 members of the church in Antioch gave to the famine-stricken Judean
Christians "each according to his ability." In Acts 2 and 4 members of the church in Jerusalem gave "to each according to his need."
Does this ring a bell in our memories? In his Critique of the Gotha
Programme (1875) Marx called for a society, which could "inscribe on its banners 'from each according to his ability' and 'to each according to his need' ”. I have often wondered if Marx knew these two verses in Acts and if he deliberately borrowed them. Whatever our politics and economics may be, these are certainly biblical principles to which we should hold fast. Christian giving is proportionate giving.
5. Christian giving contributes to equality (8:13-15).
Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little’.
Paul’s desire he explains to his Corinthian readers, is not that others may be relieved while they are hard pressed, for that would merely reverse the situation, solving one problem by creating another, but rather that there might be equality (v.13). He goes on to repeat his argument. Now at present Corinthian plenty will supply the needs of others, so that in turn Paul illustrates the principle from the supply of manna in the desert. God provided enough for everybody. Larger families gathered a lot, but not too much, for nothing was left over.
Smaller families gathered little, but not too little, for they had no lack
(v.15).
Thus Paul put the affluence of some alongside the want of others, and then called for an adjustment, that is, an easing of want by affluence.
Twice he concluded that this was with a view to isoles, which can mean either ‘equality’ or ‘justice’.
What is this ‘equality’ for which Paul calls? It may be said to have three aspects.
First, equality is not egalitarianism. God’s purpose is not that everybody receives an identical wage, lives in an identical house, equipped with identical furniture, wears identical clothing and eats identical food – as if we had all been mass produced in some celestial factory! No. Our doctrine of creation should protect us from any vision of colourless uniformity. For God the Creator has not cloned us. True, we are equal in worth and dignity, equally made in God’s image. True, God gives rain and sunshine indiscriminately to both the evil and the good. But God has made us different, and has given his creation a colourful diversity in physique, appearance, temperament, personality and capacities.
Secondly, the equality we seek begins with equality of educational opportunity. Christians have always been in the forefront of those demanding literacy and education for all. For to educate is to lead people out into their fullest created potential, so that they may become everything God intends them to be. For example, equal educational opportunity means not that every child is sent to college, but that every child capable of benefiting from a college education will be able to have one. No child should be disadvantaged. It is a question of justice.
Thirdly, equality abolishes extreme social disparity. Julius Nyerere, ex-
President of Tanzania, said in his Arusha Declaration that he wanted to build a nation in which ‘no man is ashamed of his poverty in the light of another’s affluence, and no man has to be ashamed of his affluence in the light of another’s poverty.’
The same dilemma confronts missionaries. Should they ‘go bush’, becoming in all things like the nationals they work among? Or should they continue to enjoy western affluence without any modification of their lifestyle? Probably neither. The Willowbank Report on ‘Gospel and
Culture’ (1978) suggests that they should rather develop a standard of living ‘which finds it natural to exchange hospitality with others on a basis of reciprocity, without embarrassment’ (Making Christ Known. Eerdmans/Paternoster, 1996, p. 82.
In other words, if we are embarrassed either to visit other people in their home, or to invite them into ours, because of the disparity of our economic lifestyles, - something is wrong. The inequality is too great. It has broken the fellowship. There needs to be a measure of equalization in one or other direction or in both. And Christian giving contributes to this equality.
6. Christian giving must be carefully supervised (8:16-24).
I thank God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative.
And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honour the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.
In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honour to
Christ. Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.
The handling of money is a risky business. Throughout church history religion has too often been commercialized. Paul is evidently aware of the dangers. So he writes both that ‘we want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift’ (v.20) and that ‘we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men’ (v.21). That is, he was determined not only to do right, but also to be seen to do right.
So what steps did Paul take? First, he did not handle the financial arrangement himself, but put Titus in charge of them (vv.16, 17) and expressed his full confidence in him (v.23). Secondly, Paul added that he was sending along with Titus another brother, who was ‘praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel’ (v.18). Thirdly, this second brother had been ‘chosen by the churches to accompany’ Paul and carry the gift (v.19;cf. 1 Cor. 16:3). Thus the people who carried the offering to Jerusalem had been elected by the churches because they had confidence in them.
In our day it is wise to take similar precautions against possible criticism. In this connection we have reason to be profoundly grateful for the wisdom and integrity of Billy Graham for declining to handle his organization’s finances, for accepting a fixed salary and refusing all ‘love offerings’, and for ensuring that audited accounts are published after every crusade. Similarly, we are grateful for the formation of ECFA (the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) which sets standards of financial accountability for Christian organizations.
7. Christian giving can be stimulated by a little friendly competition
(9:1-5).
There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. For I know your eagerness to help and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we – not to say anything about you – would be ashamed of having been so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
Paul had been boasting to the Macedonian churches of Northern
Greece (e.g. Philippi) about the eagerness of the Achaean churches of
Southern Greece (e.g. Corinth) to give, and the South’s enthusiasm has stirred the North to action (v.2). Now Paul is sending the brothers already mentioned to the South (especially Corinth) in order to ensure that his boasting about the South will not prove hollow but that the
South will be ready as he had said they would be (v.3).
For if some northerners were to come south with Paul, and were to find the south unprepared, it would be a huge embarrassment to Paul, and even a public humiliation for him (v.11). That is why Paul was sending the brothers in advance, in order to finish the arrangements for their promised gift. Then they would be ready and their gift would be generous and not grudging (v. 5) First Paul has boasted of southern generosity, so that the northerners will give generously. Now he urges the southerners to give generously, so that the northerners will not be disappointed in them.
It is rather delightful to see how Paul plays off the north and the south against each other. He boasts of each to the other, in order to stimulate the generosity of both. True, competition is a dangerous game to play, especially if it involves the publication of the names of donors and the amount they have donated. But at least these verses provide a biblical base for the concept of matching grants. We can all be stimulated to greater generosity by the known generosity of others.
8. Christian giving resembles a harvest (9:6-11a).
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:
‘He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor: his righteousness endures forever.’
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, …
Two harvest principles are here applied to Christian giving.
First, we reap what we sow. Whoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly, and whoever sows generously reaps generously (v.6). ‘Sowing’ is an obvious picture of giving. What then can we expect to ‘reap’? We should not interpret Paul’s point with excessive literalism, as if he were saying that the more we give the more we will get, and that our income will keep pace with our expenditure. No. Each donor should give ‘what he has decided in hi heart to give’. Neither reluctantly, nor under compulsion, nor for that matter calculating what he will receive in return
(Luke 6:34, 35), but rather ungrudgingly, because ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ (v.7).
If then we give in this spirit, what will happen? What harvest can we expect to reap? Answer: ‘God is able to make all grace abound to you’ so that ‘in all things’ (not necessarily in material things) on the one hand you may have all you need, and on the other you may ‘abound in every good work’ because your opportunities for further service will increase
(v.8). As Scripture says, the consequence of giving to the poor is to have a righteousness, which endures forever (v. 9; Ps. 112:9).
The second harvest principle is that what we reap has a double purpose. It is both for eating and for further sowing. For the God of the harvest is concerned not only to alleviate our present hunger, but also to make provision for the future. So he supplies both ‘bread for food’ (immediate consumption) and ‘seed to the sower’ (to plant when the next season comes round). In the same way God will ‘supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness’ (v.10).
These verses are the origin of the concept of ‘seed-money’, expecting God to multiply a donor’s gift. But it has been much abused by some TV evangelists. Paul is not preaching the false prosperity gospel. True, he promises that ‘you will be made rich in every way’, but he adds at once that this is ‘so that you can be generous on every occasion’ (v.11a) and so increase your giving. Wealth is with a view to generosity. This is the second principle of the harvest.
9. Christian giving has symbolic significance.
There is more in Christian giving than meets the eye. Paul is quite clear about this. In the case of the Greek churches, their giving symbolized their ‘confession of the gospel of Christ’ (v.13). How is that?
Paul looks beyond the mere transfer of cash from the Greek churches to the Judean churches to what it represented or symbolized. The significance of his collection was not just geographical (from Greece to
Judea), nor just economical (from the rich to the poor), but in particular theological (from Gentile Christians to Jewish Christians). His collection was a deliberate, self-conscious symbol of Jewish-Gentile solidarity in the body of Christ.
Indeed, this truth (that Jews and Gentiles are admitted to the body of
Christ on the same terms, so that in Christ they are heirs together, members together and sharers together) was the ‘mystery’ which had been revealed to Paul (e.g. Eph.3:1-9). This was the essence for his distinctive gospel. It was the truth he lived for, was imprisoned for and died for. It is hinted at here, but elaborated in Romans 15:25-28.
Paul writes there that the Gentile churches of Greece had been ‘pleased’ to make a contribution for the impoverished Christians of
Judea. “They were pleased to do it’, he repeated. Indeed ‘they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings (culminating in the Messiah himself), they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings’ (Romans 15:27). It was a striking example of solidarity in the Christian fellowship.
In similar ways, our Christian giving can express our theology, because our gift symbolizes our support of the cause to which we are giving. For example, when we contribute to evangelistic enterprises, we are expressing our confidence that the gospel is God’s power for salvation, and that everybody had a right to hear it. When we contribute to economic development, we express our belief that every man, woman, and child bears God’s image and should not be obliged to live in dehumanizing circumstances. When we give to the maturing of the church, we acknowledge its centrality in God’s purpose and his desire for its maturity.
10. Christian giving promotes thanksgiving to God (9:11b-15).
Through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of
God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.
And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Four times in the concluding paragraph of these two chapters, Paul states his confidence that the ultimate result of his collection will be the increase of thanksgiving and praise to God.
v. 11 ‘your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God’
v. 12 ‘this service that you perform…is…overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God’
v. 13 ‘men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity…’
v. 14 ‘Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!’
Here is a crucial test as to whether our giving is authentically Christian or not. Truly Christian giving leads people not only to thank us the donors, but to thank God, and to see our gift in the light of his – the indescribable gift of his Son.
It is truly amazing that so much is involved in what may seem to be a straightforward transfer of money. On the one hand, the doctrine of the
Trinity is involved – the grace of God, the cross of Christ and the unity of the Holy Spirit. On the other, we see the practical wisdom of an apostle of Christ.I hope that our study of these chapters will help to raise our giving to a higher level, and will persuade us to give more thoughtfully, more systematically and more sacrificially. I for one (having preached this sermon to myself before preaching it to you) have already reviewed and raised my giving. I venture to hope that you may do likewise.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Fellowship: The implications of Koinonia
- The word fellowship is overworked and undervalued, genial friendliness, psa, a superficial mateyness, a good gossip
- We have to recover it, three reasons, biblical, historical, practical
- Biblical warrant, not good for man to be on his own, not just about marriage, aloneness is not the will of God for anyone, people are built for fellowship for company, it is God’s will that they should have it!
- But this isn’t met by churchgoing alone, too often in a crowd like this you can be all alone, not a congregation rather an aggregation, church can perpetuate aloneness rather than cure it.
- There is a need for small groups in the life of the church for the life of the people, the value of small group is that they become a community of related people, the benefit and challenge of which cannot be missed or evaded
- Same for a human family, our growth into maturity according to the purpose of God takes place in the context of a family group. A complex pattern between parents, children, brothers, sisters, which more than anything else governs our development into adulthood, even with single children and on parent families there are usually relatives and neighbours and friends that mould us, those who keep alone and aloof in the Christian family are likely to damage or stunt their own spiritual progress.
- We want to grow bigger, but we want to grow deeper, it is no exaggeration that small groups, house groups, fellowship groups are indispensable for our spiritual maturity. People who hide in church or only do church on a Sunday truly miss out in belonging to the people of Christ and perhaps Christ himself
- Historical warrant, many famous movements of the Spirit of God have come from small groups, the revival in the western isles beginning with 2 elderly ladies, Methodism where John Wesley met with just a few, the fellowship meetings of the east African revival, from the small great movements have sprung up and spread. Prayer triplets!!!
- Pastoral warrant, in every church the pastoral ministry, has to concentrate on nurturing the new convert, visiting the sick, meeting with those in need of baptism, funerals or marriages, counselling, training, but they cannot hope to see all the members of the church, nor indeed should they!!!! Pastoral oversight is not the burden of the minister alone!
- The bible indicates that we are our brother’s keeper, there is a hint that each of us is a bishop, because there is an oversight entrusted to each of us to each other, Hebrews 12:15, that no one fails to obtain the grace of God (episkopountes). So realistically it is in the fellowship groups that the ideal can become a reality, it needs the minister to delegate to the lay leaders and all of us learnt to care for each other. John Wesley, Dr Dale
- Cell church, home group house church movement has been growing and growing, often it is the innovation of the Holy Spirit, there is a hunger for being real, a hunger for life that the world doesn’t give us, but what we have spoken of is far short of the Koinonia mentioned in the New Testament
- At the heart of this word (fellowship), is the adjective Koinos meaning “common”, Koinonia is what we bear together in common, it expresses what we share in together, share out together and what we share with each other, our common inheritance, common service, and our common responsibility
- Our common inheritance too often fellowship is this subjective woolly kind of word, where we have security and warmth with one another, we had good “fellowship together”, but in the bible, Koinonia is not a subjective feeling it is an objective fact, expressing what we share in together.
- Paul writes how we share in God’s grace with him, that John could say “that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and the son, paul spoke of the fellowship of the HS, in other words real fellowship is Trinitarian, we have a common share in the grace of God the father son and HS
- Is this not what makes us one? We come from so many different places, we have different temperaments, gifts and interests, yet we have this in common, the same God as our loving father, the same Jesus Christ as our lord and saviour, the same holy spirit as our indwelling comforter.
- It is our common Koinonia, (participation) in God which unites us together, that is why the Lord’s supper is so vital because we share together in the body and blood of Jesus we are united in him, and we can find that nowhere else in the world.
- Our common service Koinonia not only express what we have received together, but also what we give out together, our common service, in acts ch 2 we see they devoted themselves to the fellowship, first use of Koinonia in the NT, it only can come after the HS has come, Luke is speaking of the common life the church had together.
- We are called to love one another, to care for our brothers and sisters who are struggling in poverty, but Koinonia challenges us not to simply share our material wealth, but also our spiritual wealth, our knowledge of the gospel
- To give you an example Andrew, Peter, James and John were partners (koinonoi) in their fishing business, Jesus then calls them to be partners in fishing for human beings, catching them for the kingdom of God
- Yet we have a strange reluctance to share the wealth, to spread the love, how often have we sung oh for a thousand tongues to sing the great redeemers praise? What a useless wish, for one thing we will never have a thousand tongues, and for another if did we wouldn’t know what to do with them, with the one tongue we do have we share the irrelevant and hurtful and when we should speak of the hope in us we stay stubbornly quiet.
- Our mutual responsibility in the first two aspects of Koinonia we are all facing the same way, receiving or giving out, but in the third aspect of Koinonia, what we share with each other, we are not all facing in one direction, we are gathered in a circle facing each other. We are neither all recipients or givers we are in partnership with each other receiving and giving, Paul says to the Philippians since he shared the gift of the gospel they shared a gift with him
- Same with the collection he was organizing from the Greek churches for the Judean churches, was a symbol of unity, the jews had shared the spiritual blessings, the gentiles were sharing the material blessings
- Another example is romans 1, where Paul longs to visit to impart a spiritual gift and also that they all might be encouraged by each other’s faith.
- Throughout the NT there are many “one another” words, the speak of the mutuality of Christian fellowship, the most common one is of course from Jesus “love one another as I have loved you”, this isn’t romantic or idealistic, to love each other is to have very practical consequences, negative and positive
- Negative, if we love one another, we will not judge others, or speak evil against each other, we will not bite and devour each other (sheep bite), we will not provoke or envy or life to each other
- Positively if we love each other we will be kind and compassionate, we will forbear and forgive each other, we will submit to each other and build each other up, we will practice hospitality without reluctance, we will encourage admonish and comfort one another, pray for each other and bear one another’s burdens
- The place to do this is not a Sunday morning, although it comes through there, it is in fellowship found in small groups, try it!
Practical illustrations
- fellowship groups can take many different forms, our house groups, our prayer groups, the youth bible study, the guild, Yorkie, but they need key elements, of prayer and feeding on Christ, we share in together to share out, we need to also be outward looking, to look for opportunities of service, inviting neighbours to church or a special meeting, visiting the sick and the elderly, volunteering in the church, praying for the world and the church.
- Fellowship groups should also share with each other, every time they meet an opportunity should be given to members to share their joys and sorrows, doubts, fears and needs. Leaders of our groups are like mini ministers, and pastoral oversight is shared among many.
- Our groups are full of human beings and as every human is different I have no intention of dictating what our groups should be like, but I do believe that Koinonia should be allowed to unfold, to rejoice in our common inheritance, our common service and our mutual responsibility, I don’t want groups just concentrating on themselves, or only concentrating on others, we need a balance.
- So first of all, if you do not go to a group, you need to if you want to grow, take your pick we have loads, or start one! And keep asking yourselves are we growing in Christian maturity together? Are we serving the Lord, the church and the world together? Are we increasing in love and care for one another?
- Then we can say with confidence and joy, “we had good fellowship together!”
- We have to recover it, three reasons, biblical, historical, practical
- Biblical warrant, not good for man to be on his own, not just about marriage, aloneness is not the will of God for anyone, people are built for fellowship for company, it is God’s will that they should have it!
- But this isn’t met by churchgoing alone, too often in a crowd like this you can be all alone, not a congregation rather an aggregation, church can perpetuate aloneness rather than cure it.
- There is a need for small groups in the life of the church for the life of the people, the value of small group is that they become a community of related people, the benefit and challenge of which cannot be missed or evaded
- Same for a human family, our growth into maturity according to the purpose of God takes place in the context of a family group. A complex pattern between parents, children, brothers, sisters, which more than anything else governs our development into adulthood, even with single children and on parent families there are usually relatives and neighbours and friends that mould us, those who keep alone and aloof in the Christian family are likely to damage or stunt their own spiritual progress.
- We want to grow bigger, but we want to grow deeper, it is no exaggeration that small groups, house groups, fellowship groups are indispensable for our spiritual maturity. People who hide in church or only do church on a Sunday truly miss out in belonging to the people of Christ and perhaps Christ himself
- Historical warrant, many famous movements of the Spirit of God have come from small groups, the revival in the western isles beginning with 2 elderly ladies, Methodism where John Wesley met with just a few, the fellowship meetings of the east African revival, from the small great movements have sprung up and spread. Prayer triplets!!!
- Pastoral warrant, in every church the pastoral ministry, has to concentrate on nurturing the new convert, visiting the sick, meeting with those in need of baptism, funerals or marriages, counselling, training, but they cannot hope to see all the members of the church, nor indeed should they!!!! Pastoral oversight is not the burden of the minister alone!
- The bible indicates that we are our brother’s keeper, there is a hint that each of us is a bishop, because there is an oversight entrusted to each of us to each other, Hebrews 12:15, that no one fails to obtain the grace of God (episkopountes). So realistically it is in the fellowship groups that the ideal can become a reality, it needs the minister to delegate to the lay leaders and all of us learnt to care for each other. John Wesley, Dr Dale
- Cell church, home group house church movement has been growing and growing, often it is the innovation of the Holy Spirit, there is a hunger for being real, a hunger for life that the world doesn’t give us, but what we have spoken of is far short of the Koinonia mentioned in the New Testament
- At the heart of this word (fellowship), is the adjective Koinos meaning “common”, Koinonia is what we bear together in common, it expresses what we share in together, share out together and what we share with each other, our common inheritance, common service, and our common responsibility
- Our common inheritance too often fellowship is this subjective woolly kind of word, where we have security and warmth with one another, we had good “fellowship together”, but in the bible, Koinonia is not a subjective feeling it is an objective fact, expressing what we share in together.
- Paul writes how we share in God’s grace with him, that John could say “that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and the son, paul spoke of the fellowship of the HS, in other words real fellowship is Trinitarian, we have a common share in the grace of God the father son and HS
- Is this not what makes us one? We come from so many different places, we have different temperaments, gifts and interests, yet we have this in common, the same God as our loving father, the same Jesus Christ as our lord and saviour, the same holy spirit as our indwelling comforter.
- It is our common Koinonia, (participation) in God which unites us together, that is why the Lord’s supper is so vital because we share together in the body and blood of Jesus we are united in him, and we can find that nowhere else in the world.
- Our common service Koinonia not only express what we have received together, but also what we give out together, our common service, in acts ch 2 we see they devoted themselves to the fellowship, first use of Koinonia in the NT, it only can come after the HS has come, Luke is speaking of the common life the church had together.
- We are called to love one another, to care for our brothers and sisters who are struggling in poverty, but Koinonia challenges us not to simply share our material wealth, but also our spiritual wealth, our knowledge of the gospel
- To give you an example Andrew, Peter, James and John were partners (koinonoi) in their fishing business, Jesus then calls them to be partners in fishing for human beings, catching them for the kingdom of God
- Yet we have a strange reluctance to share the wealth, to spread the love, how often have we sung oh for a thousand tongues to sing the great redeemers praise? What a useless wish, for one thing we will never have a thousand tongues, and for another if did we wouldn’t know what to do with them, with the one tongue we do have we share the irrelevant and hurtful and when we should speak of the hope in us we stay stubbornly quiet.
- Our mutual responsibility in the first two aspects of Koinonia we are all facing the same way, receiving or giving out, but in the third aspect of Koinonia, what we share with each other, we are not all facing in one direction, we are gathered in a circle facing each other. We are neither all recipients or givers we are in partnership with each other receiving and giving, Paul says to the Philippians since he shared the gift of the gospel they shared a gift with him
- Same with the collection he was organizing from the Greek churches for the Judean churches, was a symbol of unity, the jews had shared the spiritual blessings, the gentiles were sharing the material blessings
- Another example is romans 1, where Paul longs to visit to impart a spiritual gift and also that they all might be encouraged by each other’s faith.
- Throughout the NT there are many “one another” words, the speak of the mutuality of Christian fellowship, the most common one is of course from Jesus “love one another as I have loved you”, this isn’t romantic or idealistic, to love each other is to have very practical consequences, negative and positive
- Negative, if we love one another, we will not judge others, or speak evil against each other, we will not bite and devour each other (sheep bite), we will not provoke or envy or life to each other
- Positively if we love each other we will be kind and compassionate, we will forbear and forgive each other, we will submit to each other and build each other up, we will practice hospitality without reluctance, we will encourage admonish and comfort one another, pray for each other and bear one another’s burdens
- The place to do this is not a Sunday morning, although it comes through there, it is in fellowship found in small groups, try it!
Practical illustrations
- fellowship groups can take many different forms, our house groups, our prayer groups, the youth bible study, the guild, Yorkie, but they need key elements, of prayer and feeding on Christ, we share in together to share out, we need to also be outward looking, to look for opportunities of service, inviting neighbours to church or a special meeting, visiting the sick and the elderly, volunteering in the church, praying for the world and the church.
- Fellowship groups should also share with each other, every time they meet an opportunity should be given to members to share their joys and sorrows, doubts, fears and needs. Leaders of our groups are like mini ministers, and pastoral oversight is shared among many.
- Our groups are full of human beings and as every human is different I have no intention of dictating what our groups should be like, but I do believe that Koinonia should be allowed to unfold, to rejoice in our common inheritance, our common service and our mutual responsibility, I don’t want groups just concentrating on themselves, or only concentrating on others, we need a balance.
- So first of all, if you do not go to a group, you need to if you want to grow, take your pick we have loads, or start one! And keep asking yourselves are we growing in Christian maturity together? Are we serving the Lord, the church and the world together? Are we increasing in love and care for one another?
- Then we can say with confidence and joy, “we had good fellowship together!”
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Ministry: the 12 and the 7
- Leg joke
- Many different leadership styles in many churches, book of acts shines a light on God’s purpose in ch 6 and ch 20 for Church leaders
- Early chapters of acts about the birth and growth of body of Christ and the strategy of satan to smother it
- Chief actor 1 and 2 holy spirit, 3-6 chief actor satan
- 3 tactics of satan, physical violence, moral compromise, social distraction, persecution, corruption, distraction, still in same old rut
Acts 6 v 1-7, An every member ministry
- Church is growing, but quarrel between Greek and Hebrews over the widows’ breaks out, danger that the apostles were getting bogged down in administration and neglecting the ministry of the word.
- They did a wise thing, they didn’t impose a solution, they called a meeting, they sought wisdom from the body, not be right to neglect ministry of word for waiting of tables, it is not beneath them, it was not their calling, they were called by God to be apostles.
- Suggestion- delegate to those “full of spirit and wisdom”, the 12 to the 7, they would stick to preaching and prayer, without prayer the seeds sown may not be fruitful
- Church agreed, 7 were appointed, commissioned and authorized, vital principle everybody cannot do everything, indeed everybody is not called to do everything
- 1. God calls all his people to ministry (diakonia)
- 2 God calls different people to different ministries
- 3. God expects those he calls to ministry of the word to on no account be distracted by social administration
- Both the work of the 12 and the 7 is diakonia, ministry, neither inferior to the other, both are ways of serving God, both require spirit filled people, both can be full time ministries, the only difference is that they are different, the pastorate is not “the ministry”
- Diakonia is the generic word for ministry or service, it is not specific, in Romans 13:4 the magistrates of the state are known as the servants of God, which could be applied to pastors or other servants of the church.
- So in this passage it is clear that all Christians are called to ministry, because we are followers of him who said he did not come to be served but to serve, it is inconceivable that we should spend our lives in any other way than ministry (service), but there is a wide diversity of gifts, callings and ministries, we have to discover ours and help others discover theirs.
- When the apostles delegated, and concentrated on their calling the word of God spread and the number of disciples increased rapidly! Logical
- It is vital for us as a church to learn this lesson! I am not an apostle, but my job is to expound what they teach what they have left, that is first and foremost my ministry, too often we let pastors get bogged down in all sorts of other stuff
- Often it is the pastor’s fault, power hungry they want to keep hold of everything and delegate nothing, but it can also be the people of God’s fault, where the general rule is well we pay him, let him get on with it!, in either case it spells disaster! Standards of preaching decline, and people do not get an opportunity to use their gifts, the church falls sick!
- We need a basic biblical recognition that God calls different people to different ministries, the people have to set the pastor free from the unnecessary and the pastor ensures the people can exercise their gifts, if this happens the church will flourish!
- The spiritual gifts that God gives to us all are for the common good of the church, to build up the body of Christ, we need to hold on to the every member ministry of the body of Christ.
The pastoral ministry
- there is a role for pastoral ministry, this is what we think of as the minister, or priest or pastor, but what are they meant to be? Are they needed if everyone has a ministry?
- Acts 20 Paul and the Ephesians, pastoral oversight, feeding the flock, a teaching ministry, how do they feed, well they don’t they lead to good pastures to feed themselves
- Plural oversight, it is not a one man band, Paul always relied on others, there is a need for a leadership team in every church, with every part of that leadership playing it’s part.
- With the pastoral and plural parts of leadership vital to churches, Paul develops a metaphor in Acts 20 that is helpful for us to not, he describes himself and the elders as shepherd, secondly he warns of false teachers and thirdly he affirms the value of the people, who are God’s sheep.
The example of the Shepherd
-Paul speaks of his thoroughness, in his teaching the themes of the gospel, in his outreach, in his methods, he taught publicly and privately, day and night, nothing could stop him, he shared all possible truth with all possible people by all possible means, the whole gospel to the whole city with his whole heart. He was an inspiration to the Ephesians as he should be to us today
The invasion of wolves
-wolves were and in some cases still are the chief threat to the sheep, shepherd could never relax, Paul calls Churches to be on their guard, a double task, to feed the sheep and rout the wolves, unpopular to speak against false teaching today, but both Jesus and the apostles told us we must, to often we get sensitive and say nothing when we should speak out if we say and do nothing we are like the hired hand who cares not for the sheep.
-we cannot leave the flock of God defenceless, we need to protect it from error and establish the truth.
The value of the sheep
- we all must see the value of the sheep, v 28 is key here 28Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.[a] Be shepherds of the church of God,[b] which he bought with his own blood.
- Implicit in this is three things; one the Church is God’s church, the church of god!
- Secondly it is bought with the blood of Christ
- Thirdly it is overseen by the Holy Spirit
- It belongs to the father, redeemed by the son, anointed by the Holy Spirit, it is not our Church, it is God’s church, this should humble us and inspire us, especially to love the sheep of God
- Now sheep at a distance are lovely to look at but up close they are dirty and full of beasts! They need to be dipped often, they are obstinate and unintelligent, are God’s sheep dirty, lousy and stupid? Let’s not stretch the metaphor too far………………
- Sheep can be a trial to a pastor, but the reverse is true also! How do we love that which we can find unlovable? By remembering how precious they are, when you are struggling to deal with a difficult person say “How precious you are in God’s sight, the father loves you, Jesus died for you, the Holy Spirit guides you, if the trinity care for your welfare, it is a privilege for me to serve you!
- To be the flock of God means to be in ministry together, to walk with God, stand against the devil and love one another, it is a great privilege to seek the will of God, to do the will of God and be in the place he has called you, can we continue to walk this walk together, into eternity?
- Many different leadership styles in many churches, book of acts shines a light on God’s purpose in ch 6 and ch 20 for Church leaders
- Early chapters of acts about the birth and growth of body of Christ and the strategy of satan to smother it
- Chief actor 1 and 2 holy spirit, 3-6 chief actor satan
- 3 tactics of satan, physical violence, moral compromise, social distraction, persecution, corruption, distraction, still in same old rut
Acts 6 v 1-7, An every member ministry
- Church is growing, but quarrel between Greek and Hebrews over the widows’ breaks out, danger that the apostles were getting bogged down in administration and neglecting the ministry of the word.
- They did a wise thing, they didn’t impose a solution, they called a meeting, they sought wisdom from the body, not be right to neglect ministry of word for waiting of tables, it is not beneath them, it was not their calling, they were called by God to be apostles.
- Suggestion- delegate to those “full of spirit and wisdom”, the 12 to the 7, they would stick to preaching and prayer, without prayer the seeds sown may not be fruitful
- Church agreed, 7 were appointed, commissioned and authorized, vital principle everybody cannot do everything, indeed everybody is not called to do everything
- 1. God calls all his people to ministry (diakonia)
- 2 God calls different people to different ministries
- 3. God expects those he calls to ministry of the word to on no account be distracted by social administration
- Both the work of the 12 and the 7 is diakonia, ministry, neither inferior to the other, both are ways of serving God, both require spirit filled people, both can be full time ministries, the only difference is that they are different, the pastorate is not “the ministry”
- Diakonia is the generic word for ministry or service, it is not specific, in Romans 13:4 the magistrates of the state are known as the servants of God, which could be applied to pastors or other servants of the church.
- So in this passage it is clear that all Christians are called to ministry, because we are followers of him who said he did not come to be served but to serve, it is inconceivable that we should spend our lives in any other way than ministry (service), but there is a wide diversity of gifts, callings and ministries, we have to discover ours and help others discover theirs.
- When the apostles delegated, and concentrated on their calling the word of God spread and the number of disciples increased rapidly! Logical
- It is vital for us as a church to learn this lesson! I am not an apostle, but my job is to expound what they teach what they have left, that is first and foremost my ministry, too often we let pastors get bogged down in all sorts of other stuff
- Often it is the pastor’s fault, power hungry they want to keep hold of everything and delegate nothing, but it can also be the people of God’s fault, where the general rule is well we pay him, let him get on with it!, in either case it spells disaster! Standards of preaching decline, and people do not get an opportunity to use their gifts, the church falls sick!
- We need a basic biblical recognition that God calls different people to different ministries, the people have to set the pastor free from the unnecessary and the pastor ensures the people can exercise their gifts, if this happens the church will flourish!
- The spiritual gifts that God gives to us all are for the common good of the church, to build up the body of Christ, we need to hold on to the every member ministry of the body of Christ.
The pastoral ministry
- there is a role for pastoral ministry, this is what we think of as the minister, or priest or pastor, but what are they meant to be? Are they needed if everyone has a ministry?
- Acts 20 Paul and the Ephesians, pastoral oversight, feeding the flock, a teaching ministry, how do they feed, well they don’t they lead to good pastures to feed themselves
- Plural oversight, it is not a one man band, Paul always relied on others, there is a need for a leadership team in every church, with every part of that leadership playing it’s part.
- With the pastoral and plural parts of leadership vital to churches, Paul develops a metaphor in Acts 20 that is helpful for us to not, he describes himself and the elders as shepherd, secondly he warns of false teachers and thirdly he affirms the value of the people, who are God’s sheep.
The example of the Shepherd
-Paul speaks of his thoroughness, in his teaching the themes of the gospel, in his outreach, in his methods, he taught publicly and privately, day and night, nothing could stop him, he shared all possible truth with all possible people by all possible means, the whole gospel to the whole city with his whole heart. He was an inspiration to the Ephesians as he should be to us today
The invasion of wolves
-wolves were and in some cases still are the chief threat to the sheep, shepherd could never relax, Paul calls Churches to be on their guard, a double task, to feed the sheep and rout the wolves, unpopular to speak against false teaching today, but both Jesus and the apostles told us we must, to often we get sensitive and say nothing when we should speak out if we say and do nothing we are like the hired hand who cares not for the sheep.
-we cannot leave the flock of God defenceless, we need to protect it from error and establish the truth.
The value of the sheep
- we all must see the value of the sheep, v 28 is key here 28Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.[a] Be shepherds of the church of God,[b] which he bought with his own blood.
- Implicit in this is three things; one the Church is God’s church, the church of god!
- Secondly it is bought with the blood of Christ
- Thirdly it is overseen by the Holy Spirit
- It belongs to the father, redeemed by the son, anointed by the Holy Spirit, it is not our Church, it is God’s church, this should humble us and inspire us, especially to love the sheep of God
- Now sheep at a distance are lovely to look at but up close they are dirty and full of beasts! They need to be dipped often, they are obstinate and unintelligent, are God’s sheep dirty, lousy and stupid? Let’s not stretch the metaphor too far………………
- Sheep can be a trial to a pastor, but the reverse is true also! How do we love that which we can find unlovable? By remembering how precious they are, when you are struggling to deal with a difficult person say “How precious you are in God’s sight, the father loves you, Jesus died for you, the Holy Spirit guides you, if the trinity care for your welfare, it is a privilege for me to serve you!
- To be the flock of God means to be in ministry together, to walk with God, stand against the devil and love one another, it is a great privilege to seek the will of God, to do the will of God and be in the place he has called you, can we continue to walk this walk together, into eternity?
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
evangelism:through the local church
Evangelism: mission through the local church
- Decade of evangelism…. to evangelize “is to make known by word and deed the love of the crucified and risen Christ in the power of the holy spirit so that people will repent, believe and receive Christ as their Saviour and obediently serve him as their Lord in the fellowship of his Church.
- Not a modern idea, in 1571 Bishop John Jewel of Salisbury, “if any man be a Christian and not profess his faith he gives men occasion to doubt whether or not he has the grace of the holy spirit within him because he is tongue toed and doth not speak
Forms of evangelism
- It takes different forms, Jesus with the Samaritan woman and Philip with the Ethiopian this is Personal evangelism, which is still our duty today to share with those near to us who do not know Christ
- Mass evangelism, despite some American tv evangelists, this method has been blessed by God, Jesus spoke to the masses, Paul to the pagans of Lystra and the philosophers of Athens, Wesley, Whitefield, Bily Graham, millions have found faith and grown in their faith through their ministries.
- However local church evangelism can claim to be the most normal, natural and productive method of spreading the gospel today.
- 2 reasons for this, 1 argument from scripture, according to peter the church is a royal priesthood that is to offer spiritual sacrifices to God (worship) and a holy nation to spread God’s praises (witness), so every church is called by God to be a worshipping and witnessing community
- If we truly worship God, acknowledging him and adoring his worth, experiencing his presence and his pleasure, we find ourselves impelled to make him known to others, so they can worship him, so worship leads to witness and witness leads to worship, Perpetual cycle
- Example of Thessalonians, the message came to them, they welcomed it, the message rang out from you, every church must pass the gospel on, it is still God’s principal of evangelism, if all churches had been faithful to this, the world would long ago have been evangelized!
- 2nd reason, argument from strategy, every church is set in a certain place, it’s first mission is to the people who live there. Any political party would be hugely jealous of the resources we have in terms of buildings, personnel, we have so much that if it were fired up for local mission much of what we complain about wouldn’t happen because the Church would have stood in the breach.
- Bill Hybels, the local church is the hope for the world, Stott the local church is the primary agent for evangelism, but it must understand itself, organize itself, express itself and be itself
The church must understand itself: it’s theology
- many churches are sick because of a false self image, they do not know who they are or what they are called to be (identity and vocation), the importance of having an accurate self image is vital for mental health in humans, it is equally true of churches
- at least tow false images of the church today, the first is the religious club or introverted Christianity, like a golf club but God instead of golf, they enjoy doing religious things, pay their fees and so are entitled to certain privileges, in fact they concentrate on status and the advantages of being part of the club and forget the world
- William temple, the church is the only co operative society that exists for it’s non members, instead they are introverted, like an ingrown toenail, of course we have a responsibility to one another, the NT tells us this, but our main job is worship and witness for and to God.
- The opposite extreme the secular mission, or religionless Christianity, this really began in the 60’s were understandably Christians were exasperated with the self centered nature of the church, and so they exchanged the worship services for the secular city, no longer interested in worship services only worship service, worship was mission, love for God as neighbour, prayer to God as encounter with people.
- An over reaction undoubtedly, but they have a point, all this naval gazing the church does as the bible tells us sickens God, but we must never confuse mission with worship, there is overlap but they are not the same.
- There is a third way which combines the two, where we realise there is a duty to worship God and witness to the world, this is a double identity, incarnational Christianity, Holy worldliness, we are called out of the world, to be separate, but God calls us back to the world to let them know of Jesus.
- In the world but not of it, best example is of course Jesus, fully human, but never sacrificed or compromised his own unique identity, he was the perfect example of holy worldliness
- He sends us out as the father sent him, to enter into the worlds of others, their thinking, feeling, living, this is costly, but we do not pay with our integrity, we are called to maintain the standards of Jesus.
- Seldom has the church managed in history to maintain it’s God given double identity of holy worldliness, sometimes it has withdrawn, at other times conformed to the world, but to maintain it’s calling the church must faithfully hold both it’s holiness and worldliness in balance so the will of God is done.
- The bible shows us the way to go, and what to say but we have nothing to say if we are compromised by the world, but also we have no one to serve because we are insulated and cut off, be in the world but not of it, and we can only do that in the strength of Christ
The church must organize itself: It’s structures
- too often we are organized for holiness rather than worldliness, our church is not for itself it is built for others, the centre lies outside itself, too often we are a waiting church, waiting for people to come in and then conform them to the way we do things.
- If our structures are inflexible and self centered then we I believe are heretical, because we need to be in here to accommodate us going out there, if all we do is stay in here then we are living a lie.
- Too often our structures mean that we spend all our time in here, with meetings and business, with our church, our people, we become occupied with church when being a church actually means bearing witness to Christ in the world.
- Sometimes I wonder if we should simply meet on a Sunday for worship, fellowship and teaching, then scatter for the rest of the week to get our hands dirty for Jesus. Then we follow our double identity of holy worldliness
- How then can we organize ourselves, well should we not be conducting a survey, examining ourselves, testing ourselves to see if we are reflecting our identity our vision, of asking the hard questions. To see if we are organized for ourselves or do we serve God and the community
- In fact we should also have a community survey to see whether our church is penetrating the community for Christ (that is a job for outreach!)
- Ask questions like an outsider, what does our Church building look like? Chapels in France, keep out! Church services what are we saying to visitors, Church membership do we leave everything to the minister and a few others, or do we realize that the NT teaches everyone of us has a ministry church programme do we tie people down to do things or release them to be active for Christ in the community? Do we provide training? Do you get an idea and run with it or say what a shame no one has ever done that? What changes do we need to make, many many things have come out of our vision supper, but we need to keep casting the vision to let people know that Jesus is alive and they can find him here
- Let’s make the tough decisions to step out of our comfort zones so that others are with us in eternity.
The church must express itself: it’s message
- not enough to understand and organize, we need to articulate our message, evangelism means sharing the good news, the essence of which is Jesus Christ, Philip, Paul spoke of the good news of Jesus, we must speak of him, his death and resurrection
- How do we do this? Two extremes to avoid total fixity where you have a set talk and you cannot move from this and often the words you have make no sense
- Total fluidity where people just discover it by entering into a Christian event or service.
- Middle way we have to think, see everyone we meet as a person with a need to meet Jesus, but in the same way that Jesus treated everyone differently so do we, and some will believe and others will not, but that should never stop us from telling of the hope that we have in a sensitive and loving way.
The church must be itself: it’s life
- The church is God’s new society, a taste of what is to come, the good news seen, people learn by what they see and experience much more than they hear, people have to see that the gospel we preach has transformed us!
- It is people who communicate, not primarily words or ideas, authenticity. If our life contradicts, our evangelism will lack all credibility.
- 1 john 4 :12, no one has seen God but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us
- The Lord is invisible………he is spirit, it is still a challenge for faith today, science has shaped our age, we will believe when we see him.
- How does God overcome this? The world shows his glory, he revealed himself in his son, the third way? He is seen in Christians, God is seen through the quality of our loving of one another, if we do not love one another we do not love God, that simple.
- Nothing so damaging as a church torn apart by jealously, rivalry, slander, malice or selfishness, a church like that needs to be renewed by love, or die, image of dry rot!
Conclusion
- Church must grasp double identity, organize itself developing a mission strategy to reflect being in the world but not of it, it must express verbally the gospel by being faithful to scripture and relevant to the world today and fourthly it must be itself, transformed into a community of love that makes the invisible God visible to the world
- Decade of evangelism…. to evangelize “is to make known by word and deed the love of the crucified and risen Christ in the power of the holy spirit so that people will repent, believe and receive Christ as their Saviour and obediently serve him as their Lord in the fellowship of his Church.
- Not a modern idea, in 1571 Bishop John Jewel of Salisbury, “if any man be a Christian and not profess his faith he gives men occasion to doubt whether or not he has the grace of the holy spirit within him because he is tongue toed and doth not speak
Forms of evangelism
- It takes different forms, Jesus with the Samaritan woman and Philip with the Ethiopian this is Personal evangelism, which is still our duty today to share with those near to us who do not know Christ
- Mass evangelism, despite some American tv evangelists, this method has been blessed by God, Jesus spoke to the masses, Paul to the pagans of Lystra and the philosophers of Athens, Wesley, Whitefield, Bily Graham, millions have found faith and grown in their faith through their ministries.
- However local church evangelism can claim to be the most normal, natural and productive method of spreading the gospel today.
- 2 reasons for this, 1 argument from scripture, according to peter the church is a royal priesthood that is to offer spiritual sacrifices to God (worship) and a holy nation to spread God’s praises (witness), so every church is called by God to be a worshipping and witnessing community
- If we truly worship God, acknowledging him and adoring his worth, experiencing his presence and his pleasure, we find ourselves impelled to make him known to others, so they can worship him, so worship leads to witness and witness leads to worship, Perpetual cycle
- Example of Thessalonians, the message came to them, they welcomed it, the message rang out from you, every church must pass the gospel on, it is still God’s principal of evangelism, if all churches had been faithful to this, the world would long ago have been evangelized!
- 2nd reason, argument from strategy, every church is set in a certain place, it’s first mission is to the people who live there. Any political party would be hugely jealous of the resources we have in terms of buildings, personnel, we have so much that if it were fired up for local mission much of what we complain about wouldn’t happen because the Church would have stood in the breach.
- Bill Hybels, the local church is the hope for the world, Stott the local church is the primary agent for evangelism, but it must understand itself, organize itself, express itself and be itself
The church must understand itself: it’s theology
- many churches are sick because of a false self image, they do not know who they are or what they are called to be (identity and vocation), the importance of having an accurate self image is vital for mental health in humans, it is equally true of churches
- at least tow false images of the church today, the first is the religious club or introverted Christianity, like a golf club but God instead of golf, they enjoy doing religious things, pay their fees and so are entitled to certain privileges, in fact they concentrate on status and the advantages of being part of the club and forget the world
- William temple, the church is the only co operative society that exists for it’s non members, instead they are introverted, like an ingrown toenail, of course we have a responsibility to one another, the NT tells us this, but our main job is worship and witness for and to God.
- The opposite extreme the secular mission, or religionless Christianity, this really began in the 60’s were understandably Christians were exasperated with the self centered nature of the church, and so they exchanged the worship services for the secular city, no longer interested in worship services only worship service, worship was mission, love for God as neighbour, prayer to God as encounter with people.
- An over reaction undoubtedly, but they have a point, all this naval gazing the church does as the bible tells us sickens God, but we must never confuse mission with worship, there is overlap but they are not the same.
- There is a third way which combines the two, where we realise there is a duty to worship God and witness to the world, this is a double identity, incarnational Christianity, Holy worldliness, we are called out of the world, to be separate, but God calls us back to the world to let them know of Jesus.
- In the world but not of it, best example is of course Jesus, fully human, but never sacrificed or compromised his own unique identity, he was the perfect example of holy worldliness
- He sends us out as the father sent him, to enter into the worlds of others, their thinking, feeling, living, this is costly, but we do not pay with our integrity, we are called to maintain the standards of Jesus.
- Seldom has the church managed in history to maintain it’s God given double identity of holy worldliness, sometimes it has withdrawn, at other times conformed to the world, but to maintain it’s calling the church must faithfully hold both it’s holiness and worldliness in balance so the will of God is done.
- The bible shows us the way to go, and what to say but we have nothing to say if we are compromised by the world, but also we have no one to serve because we are insulated and cut off, be in the world but not of it, and we can only do that in the strength of Christ
The church must organize itself: It’s structures
- too often we are organized for holiness rather than worldliness, our church is not for itself it is built for others, the centre lies outside itself, too often we are a waiting church, waiting for people to come in and then conform them to the way we do things.
- If our structures are inflexible and self centered then we I believe are heretical, because we need to be in here to accommodate us going out there, if all we do is stay in here then we are living a lie.
- Too often our structures mean that we spend all our time in here, with meetings and business, with our church, our people, we become occupied with church when being a church actually means bearing witness to Christ in the world.
- Sometimes I wonder if we should simply meet on a Sunday for worship, fellowship and teaching, then scatter for the rest of the week to get our hands dirty for Jesus. Then we follow our double identity of holy worldliness
- How then can we organize ourselves, well should we not be conducting a survey, examining ourselves, testing ourselves to see if we are reflecting our identity our vision, of asking the hard questions. To see if we are organized for ourselves or do we serve God and the community
- In fact we should also have a community survey to see whether our church is penetrating the community for Christ (that is a job for outreach!)
- Ask questions like an outsider, what does our Church building look like? Chapels in France, keep out! Church services what are we saying to visitors, Church membership do we leave everything to the minister and a few others, or do we realize that the NT teaches everyone of us has a ministry church programme do we tie people down to do things or release them to be active for Christ in the community? Do we provide training? Do you get an idea and run with it or say what a shame no one has ever done that? What changes do we need to make, many many things have come out of our vision supper, but we need to keep casting the vision to let people know that Jesus is alive and they can find him here
- Let’s make the tough decisions to step out of our comfort zones so that others are with us in eternity.
The church must express itself: it’s message
- not enough to understand and organize, we need to articulate our message, evangelism means sharing the good news, the essence of which is Jesus Christ, Philip, Paul spoke of the good news of Jesus, we must speak of him, his death and resurrection
- How do we do this? Two extremes to avoid total fixity where you have a set talk and you cannot move from this and often the words you have make no sense
- Total fluidity where people just discover it by entering into a Christian event or service.
- Middle way we have to think, see everyone we meet as a person with a need to meet Jesus, but in the same way that Jesus treated everyone differently so do we, and some will believe and others will not, but that should never stop us from telling of the hope that we have in a sensitive and loving way.
The church must be itself: it’s life
- The church is God’s new society, a taste of what is to come, the good news seen, people learn by what they see and experience much more than they hear, people have to see that the gospel we preach has transformed us!
- It is people who communicate, not primarily words or ideas, authenticity. If our life contradicts, our evangelism will lack all credibility.
- 1 john 4 :12, no one has seen God but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us
- The Lord is invisible………he is spirit, it is still a challenge for faith today, science has shaped our age, we will believe when we see him.
- How does God overcome this? The world shows his glory, he revealed himself in his son, the third way? He is seen in Christians, God is seen through the quality of our loving of one another, if we do not love one another we do not love God, that simple.
- Nothing so damaging as a church torn apart by jealously, rivalry, slander, malice or selfishness, a church like that needs to be renewed by love, or die, image of dry rot!
Conclusion
- Church must grasp double identity, organize itself developing a mission strategy to reflect being in the world but not of it, it must express verbally the gospel by being faithful to scripture and relevant to the world today and fourthly it must be itself, transformed into a community of love that makes the invisible God visible to the world
Friday, January 29, 2010
sermon 24th Jan 2010
Worship: glorying in God’s holy name
Often said evangelism is the first priority for the church, but it is not for at least 3 reasons 1. Duty to neighbour not to God, duty to God must come first.2 we are all witnesses to the gospel but evangelism is also a spiritual gift, not all have that gift, but all Christians are worshippers. 3 Evangelism is a temporary activity which will end when the Lord Jesus returns to claim us for eternity, but our worship will continue throughout eternity
Worship is the Church’s preeminent duty, we need to give it our attention!
What is worship however? Of course the whole of our life is worship, serving God with all our being, so how do we define it? Best definition is ps 105:3 to worship is to glory in God’s holy name” God’s name is his revealed character, it is holy because it is unique, set apart from and above all other names. When we see the holiness of God’s great name we see the reason for glorlying in it, reveling in it. We are to join with all the creatures in pronouncing him worthy of our praise because he is creator and redeemer (rev 5: 9-14), because of who God is, it is appropriate to worship at his throne.
True worship according to scripture has four main characteristics
Biblical worship
True worship is biblical worship that is a response to biblical revelation, Paul in Athens, mars hill found the altar where they worshipped to an unknown God to cover all the bases, he was going to tell them who that was. One of the truths of that story is they could never worship an unknown God, if you don’t know him you cannot worship him.
So Christian worship is defined as a response to revelation, so the reading and preaching of the word is central to a worship service, it is the word of God that leads us to the worship of God for it is hear we learn about God, the reformation brought the word back to the centre of worship, it is good for us to read together in church, when this happens it is like Cornelius when he received Peter into his home, “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.
This Spirit of receptivity is a necessary condition of hearing the word of God, so much depends on how readers and preachers approach their task.
It is a great privilege to be involved in any aspect of the service, to lead in prayer, to speak to the children, to read and especially to preach, if worship is response to the word of God, the preacher must impel the people to the truth and worship will flow from the truth.
Psalm 95 for example, a call to the people to praise him, but it contains an abrupt change of mood, a call to sing for joy and shout out loud, but also in v6 the mood changes, we are to bow down and kneel before the Lord, why? Because he is our God and we are under his care, to sing for joy because he is a great God, but to bow down because he is our God, we need to sing for joy but also kneel before him in quiet. Not simply fortissimo, but piano and even pianissimo. Quiet as well as loud!
Congregational worship True worship is when God’s people are together, some say they worship easier on their own and there is a place for private worship, even in the psalms, but the psalmist focuses on corporate worship. Praise O servants of the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. In the NT, let us not give up the habit of meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb10:25)
The worship, which is pleasing to God, is when his people are together offering it! This means participation! The reformers got it, priest at the high altar celebrated the medieval mass and the lay people spectators, the reformers brought the action into the body of the Kirk, to ensure the people were not spectators but participators. Also the mass was in Latin, the reformers insisted on the common language of the people! So everyone is involved.
Our worship should clearly express the international and intercultural character of the body of Christ. Paul was conscious of the tensions between Jews and gentiles, in ch 15 of Romans he prayed for a spirit of unity, so they could join together in the common worship of God, with one heart and moth they might glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are all different, but in Christ we are one, we have different preferences, different views, but when we worship we worship the risen son of God and as long as we sing to him with words that are biblical and true it matters not the tune! Focus on the words you sing, if you don’t mean them with all your heart, the sacrifice of praise you bring before God is nothing more than a rotting corpse and the Lord doesn’t want it.
Spiritual worship True worship is spiritual worship, scripture tells us that worship is not simply about the correct forms, rituals or ceremonies, we need to see and hear the criticism from the bible of religion. No book is more scathing of empty religion than the bible, not Marx, not even Richard dawkins.
The prophets of 7th and 8th century bc were outspoken in their criticism of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship, Jesus applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day, they honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me (is 29, Mark 7:6), This rings to clear to me and my life of worship today, and probably some of you too, too much of our worship s ritual without reality, form without power, fun without fear, religion without God. Malcolm muggeridge, “one of the greatest defences against God’s work in the world has been organized religion; churches have often provided a refuge for fugitives from God, his voice lost in the clutter of the service, his purpose obscured in the creeds and dogmas, when the voice begins “dearly beloved or with the earnest open face, God can be relied to nick off”
We need to say something about music in worship at this point. It can be a wonderful vehicle for praise but can also provoke him to cry away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps (Amos 5:23)
Every generation has gifted musicians who have brought their talent to God, from the Jewish praise that was enriched with singing and various instruments (Ps 150), so it is in the Christian tradition from the organ, brass and strings to drums and guitar of today, I have no intention of passing judgment between classical and contemporary for different styles appeal to different temperaments and cultures. What is essential is however the biblical content of the hymns and songs, for if it is not there it is too easy to descend into “babbling” which Jesus condemned in the sermon on the mount (battalogia), battalogia seems to mean any speech in which the mouth is engaged but the mind is not.
Striking that we are to offer spiritual worship, there is such hunger for spirituality in the west, the New age movement with it’s bizarre assortment of diverse beliefs, picks from everywhere, but sows that this world on it’s own cannot satisfy the human spirit, people are searching for a transcendent reality everywhere.
This quest for transcendence is a challenge to us and to the quality of our public worship. Does it offer that which people are craving, the element of mystery, the sense of awe and wonder, the immanence of God? Truth is probably not often, too often the truth is we do not know how to worship, we have little sense of the greatness and glory of God, we do not bow down before him in awe, our tendency is to be cocky, flippant and proud. We do not take our time to prepare for worship, participants and leaders, and too often we miss out because our hearts are not right, neither are our heads. No wonder people seeking God pass us by if we are more concerned about the time, or chatting to our pal or getting through the next part of the service, and that may be as much my fault as yours.
What is needed then? 1. Faithful reading and preaching of the word of God, so his living voice is heard by his people. 2 reverence and expectance when we come to the Lord’s table we really meet with him, so we may feed on him in our hearts by faith. 3 we need a sincere offering of praise and prayer that God’s people like Jacob can say “surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it”, unbelievers present will fall down and worship God, exclaiming “God is really among you”
Basically it is a great tragedy that many of our contemporaries seeking God, seeking to fulfill their craving spirits turn to drugs, sex, yoga, cults, mysticism, the new age, science fiction, anything except the Church, it is a damning indictment on us, our worship services should always experience the transcendent God, a close encounter with the living God is possible for us all, in this place if we take time to prepare and expect to meet with him.
Moral Worship The kind of worship that is pleasing to God has one more characteristic, true worship is moral worship, our words must be backed up by our actions, Samuel to Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice, to heed is better than the fat of rams. God was scathing through Isaiah, he took no joy in their sacrifices, their assemblies were an abomination to him, he would not even listen to his prayers, for their hands were full of blood, if they would stop doing wrong, seek justice and encourage the oppressed they would be forgiven (Isaiah 1), it was this mixture of religion and wrongdoing and injustice that God could not abide. Worship without holiness was hateful to him.
Conclusion Best place to finish this sermon is in Romans ch 12, at the beginning where Paul describes the Christian life as the spiritual act of worship! For 11 chapters the apostle unfolds “the mercies of God” and now in view of God’s great mercy, which by grace we have all received, Paul appeals to all the members of God’s church across the world to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, this physical offering is our “spiritual” act of worship!
The word he uses is Logikos, which can either mean reasonable, it is logical in response to God’s mercy or rational, that is intelligent, the offering of a heart and mind, spiritual not ceremonial
Paul is clearly thinking of worship to not simply about what we do in this place, but worship is how we live our live at home, in the workplace with our friends and family, everything is to be worship, and if we do not worship in all the places we find ourselves, we limp, when God calls us to bow down and soar with him!
Often said evangelism is the first priority for the church, but it is not for at least 3 reasons 1. Duty to neighbour not to God, duty to God must come first.2 we are all witnesses to the gospel but evangelism is also a spiritual gift, not all have that gift, but all Christians are worshippers. 3 Evangelism is a temporary activity which will end when the Lord Jesus returns to claim us for eternity, but our worship will continue throughout eternity
Worship is the Church’s preeminent duty, we need to give it our attention!
What is worship however? Of course the whole of our life is worship, serving God with all our being, so how do we define it? Best definition is ps 105:3 to worship is to glory in God’s holy name” God’s name is his revealed character, it is holy because it is unique, set apart from and above all other names. When we see the holiness of God’s great name we see the reason for glorlying in it, reveling in it. We are to join with all the creatures in pronouncing him worthy of our praise because he is creator and redeemer (rev 5: 9-14), because of who God is, it is appropriate to worship at his throne.
True worship according to scripture has four main characteristics
Biblical worship
True worship is biblical worship that is a response to biblical revelation, Paul in Athens, mars hill found the altar where they worshipped to an unknown God to cover all the bases, he was going to tell them who that was. One of the truths of that story is they could never worship an unknown God, if you don’t know him you cannot worship him.
So Christian worship is defined as a response to revelation, so the reading and preaching of the word is central to a worship service, it is the word of God that leads us to the worship of God for it is hear we learn about God, the reformation brought the word back to the centre of worship, it is good for us to read together in church, when this happens it is like Cornelius when he received Peter into his home, “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.
This Spirit of receptivity is a necessary condition of hearing the word of God, so much depends on how readers and preachers approach their task.
It is a great privilege to be involved in any aspect of the service, to lead in prayer, to speak to the children, to read and especially to preach, if worship is response to the word of God, the preacher must impel the people to the truth and worship will flow from the truth.
Psalm 95 for example, a call to the people to praise him, but it contains an abrupt change of mood, a call to sing for joy and shout out loud, but also in v6 the mood changes, we are to bow down and kneel before the Lord, why? Because he is our God and we are under his care, to sing for joy because he is a great God, but to bow down because he is our God, we need to sing for joy but also kneel before him in quiet. Not simply fortissimo, but piano and even pianissimo. Quiet as well as loud!
Congregational worship True worship is when God’s people are together, some say they worship easier on their own and there is a place for private worship, even in the psalms, but the psalmist focuses on corporate worship. Praise O servants of the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. In the NT, let us not give up the habit of meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb10:25)
The worship, which is pleasing to God, is when his people are together offering it! This means participation! The reformers got it, priest at the high altar celebrated the medieval mass and the lay people spectators, the reformers brought the action into the body of the Kirk, to ensure the people were not spectators but participators. Also the mass was in Latin, the reformers insisted on the common language of the people! So everyone is involved.
Our worship should clearly express the international and intercultural character of the body of Christ. Paul was conscious of the tensions between Jews and gentiles, in ch 15 of Romans he prayed for a spirit of unity, so they could join together in the common worship of God, with one heart and moth they might glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are all different, but in Christ we are one, we have different preferences, different views, but when we worship we worship the risen son of God and as long as we sing to him with words that are biblical and true it matters not the tune! Focus on the words you sing, if you don’t mean them with all your heart, the sacrifice of praise you bring before God is nothing more than a rotting corpse and the Lord doesn’t want it.
Spiritual worship True worship is spiritual worship, scripture tells us that worship is not simply about the correct forms, rituals or ceremonies, we need to see and hear the criticism from the bible of religion. No book is more scathing of empty religion than the bible, not Marx, not even Richard dawkins.
The prophets of 7th and 8th century bc were outspoken in their criticism of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship, Jesus applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day, they honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me (is 29, Mark 7:6), This rings to clear to me and my life of worship today, and probably some of you too, too much of our worship s ritual without reality, form without power, fun without fear, religion without God. Malcolm muggeridge, “one of the greatest defences against God’s work in the world has been organized religion; churches have often provided a refuge for fugitives from God, his voice lost in the clutter of the service, his purpose obscured in the creeds and dogmas, when the voice begins “dearly beloved or with the earnest open face, God can be relied to nick off”
We need to say something about music in worship at this point. It can be a wonderful vehicle for praise but can also provoke him to cry away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps (Amos 5:23)
Every generation has gifted musicians who have brought their talent to God, from the Jewish praise that was enriched with singing and various instruments (Ps 150), so it is in the Christian tradition from the organ, brass and strings to drums and guitar of today, I have no intention of passing judgment between classical and contemporary for different styles appeal to different temperaments and cultures. What is essential is however the biblical content of the hymns and songs, for if it is not there it is too easy to descend into “babbling” which Jesus condemned in the sermon on the mount (battalogia), battalogia seems to mean any speech in which the mouth is engaged but the mind is not.
Striking that we are to offer spiritual worship, there is such hunger for spirituality in the west, the New age movement with it’s bizarre assortment of diverse beliefs, picks from everywhere, but sows that this world on it’s own cannot satisfy the human spirit, people are searching for a transcendent reality everywhere.
This quest for transcendence is a challenge to us and to the quality of our public worship. Does it offer that which people are craving, the element of mystery, the sense of awe and wonder, the immanence of God? Truth is probably not often, too often the truth is we do not know how to worship, we have little sense of the greatness and glory of God, we do not bow down before him in awe, our tendency is to be cocky, flippant and proud. We do not take our time to prepare for worship, participants and leaders, and too often we miss out because our hearts are not right, neither are our heads. No wonder people seeking God pass us by if we are more concerned about the time, or chatting to our pal or getting through the next part of the service, and that may be as much my fault as yours.
What is needed then? 1. Faithful reading and preaching of the word of God, so his living voice is heard by his people. 2 reverence and expectance when we come to the Lord’s table we really meet with him, so we may feed on him in our hearts by faith. 3 we need a sincere offering of praise and prayer that God’s people like Jacob can say “surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it”, unbelievers present will fall down and worship God, exclaiming “God is really among you”
Basically it is a great tragedy that many of our contemporaries seeking God, seeking to fulfill their craving spirits turn to drugs, sex, yoga, cults, mysticism, the new age, science fiction, anything except the Church, it is a damning indictment on us, our worship services should always experience the transcendent God, a close encounter with the living God is possible for us all, in this place if we take time to prepare and expect to meet with him.
Moral Worship The kind of worship that is pleasing to God has one more characteristic, true worship is moral worship, our words must be backed up by our actions, Samuel to Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice, to heed is better than the fat of rams. God was scathing through Isaiah, he took no joy in their sacrifices, their assemblies were an abomination to him, he would not even listen to his prayers, for their hands were full of blood, if they would stop doing wrong, seek justice and encourage the oppressed they would be forgiven (Isaiah 1), it was this mixture of religion and wrongdoing and injustice that God could not abide. Worship without holiness was hateful to him.
Conclusion Best place to finish this sermon is in Romans ch 12, at the beginning where Paul describes the Christian life as the spiritual act of worship! For 11 chapters the apostle unfolds “the mercies of God” and now in view of God’s great mercy, which by grace we have all received, Paul appeals to all the members of God’s church across the world to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, this physical offering is our “spiritual” act of worship!
The word he uses is Logikos, which can either mean reasonable, it is logical in response to God’s mercy or rational, that is intelligent, the offering of a heart and mind, spiritual not ceremonial
Paul is clearly thinking of worship to not simply about what we do in this place, but worship is how we live our live at home, in the workplace with our friends and family, everything is to be worship, and if we do not worship in all the places we find ourselves, we limp, when God calls us to bow down and soar with him!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)