Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Lost and Found, Part 70 of 78
TEXT: "Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.' But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found' " (Luke 15:25-32).
IDEA: The sin of self-righteousness is particularly the sin of professing Christians.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand the danger of having a self-righteous attitude.
I. The story of the elder brother displays a self-righteous attitude that we need to take seriously.
It shows itself in three ways:
A sense of bitterness because we feel we have been treated unfairly.
An over-inflated view of ourselves and our importance.
A contempt for others and a lack of respect for God’s gifts to us. God never gives us the right to be nasty to other people.
II. This sin of self-righteousness is a particular sin of professing Christians.
It is shown in the attitude that the church is a kind of club that belongs to “our kind of people.” It resists the inroads of others. We want our church to be a group for white middle-class Anglo-Saxon Republicans.
But the church is to be what Jesus Christ wants it to be: a gathering place for all who have come to know the Father through Jesus Christ.
It is shown by an indifference to missions and evangelism.
Like the elder brother, self-righteous people have no concern for those living in darkness and blindness. They want to know “what’s in it for me?” They look at the homosexuals or lesbians or abortionists or people with AIDS as not worth saving.
III. This sin of self-righteousness can show up in the elder brother in being against those who have the spirit of the elder brother. We can become snob’s snobs.
We can look down on people who look down on people. There are those who hold in contempt Christians who are separatists or fundamentalists. If we admit that they are Christians, then we must accept those that the Father accepts.
The father in this story accepted both of his sons. Jesus associated with the tax collectors and sinners, and also with Pharisees and teachers of the law.
God, our Father, loves the smug, self-centered legalist as much as He does the rebellious and defiant sinner. The Father doesn’t say, “You are a dog in the manger; you have stayed here with Me only because you were afraid to do anything else.” We derive a king of malicious pleasure out of calling someone a “Pharisee.”
Luke 6:35 - “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High [you will make it evident with this attitude that you are children of the Most High—you will have the family resemblance], for He is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful.”
