This Is Our Story Series

This is Our Story

Series: Encountering Jesus (through the Gospel of Luke)

Brad Bailey – November 9, 2019

Series #46 / Luke 15:11-32

Intro

As we continue in our extended season of Encountering Jesus through the Gospel of Luke…we are challenged to face that we haven’t understood the actual story that we are a part of.

It’s like that point in a movie where everything you thought was a certain way…is suddenly given a twist…and you think “What?”…and then you have to reconsider everything…and you realize you had been making certain assumptions. Some may remember the end of the original Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston’s is shocked to learn that he didn’t land on another planet, but on Earth, just in a future where humanity has been mostly wiped out and subjugated by apes. Or there is The Sixth Sense (1999)…Shutter Island… and of course, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) where the great hero is fighting the villain Darth Vader… what is simply the ultimate good verses evil…until it’s not that simple…as the villain Darth claims that he is actually Luke Skywalkers father.

Today… Jesus tells us that our story is not what we may assume.

Last week… religious leaders,,, problem with why he is welcoming bad people around him. When human life believes that it is simply good people and bad people… naturally they wonder… how could Jesus be representing God…with bad people coming to him.

Jesus explains what is actually unfolding with a story… actually using three versions…and this third is the larger treatment… the expanded version.

First two stories speak quite simply about the central figures seeking to find what was lost. In this extended story…Jesus expands on the story of our lives.

Luke 15:11-32 (NIV) ?11  Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12  The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. 13  "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17  "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20  So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21  "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22  "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. 25  "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26  So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27  'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' 28  "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29  But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' 31  "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"