Thursday, October 1, 2009
Lost and Found, Part 22 of 78
TEXT: "Then He said, 'A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.' ” And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." And they began to be merry' " (Luke 15:11-24).
IDEA: The story of "The Waiting Father" gives us an image of God but not a whole picture of God.
PURPOSE: To show the limits of a story.
A. W. Tozer begins his book "The Knowledge of the Holy" with a penetrating observation: “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
I. How do we get the images of God that we have?
Society gives us impressions of God. "All Is Forgiven" by Marsha Witten points up this danger after a study of 47 sermons by Southern Baptist and Presbyterian preachers on the Prodigal Son.
Family shapes what we think about God.
Preachers and sermons contribute to what comes to our minds when we think about God.
Reading books can have a strong impact on our understanding of God. Reading the Scriptures should influence our thinking about God.
II. Can reading the Bible lead us astray?
It depends on how we read it.
Luke 15 tells the story of "The Waiting Father." It is a powerful picture of what God is like. Are there limits that we need to observe as we study this text?
This isn’t the only passage in the Bible about God. He isn’t a “sugar-daddy” who has no other attributes but accepting love.
This parable isn’t an allegory. The father isn’t God incognito. He is an earthly father (see Luke15:18). Yet he is an illustration in human terms of God and of the relations between God and a repentant sinner and between God and those who are self-righteous.
III. We might say, “If an earthly father can act this way, how much more God!”
There is a difference between identification and characterization:
We must be careful of reading into God all the emotions and the limitations of an earthly father, but in the way this father acts toward his two boys, he helps us understand how God acts toward us.
This is one reason Jesus gave us three different stories to capture a range of God’s attitudes and actions toward both the unrighteous and the self-righteous.
