You Can Be Lost and Never Leave Church

Luke 15:11-32

Segment 1: Give Me What Is Mine

Luke 15:11-16

• Context: Luke 15:1-2
  • Tax collectors and sinners draw near to Jesus.
  • Pharisees and scribes criticize Jesus for receiving sinners.
  • Jesus responds with three stories about lostness: the sheep, the coin, and the sons.
• Step 1: The heart leaves before the feet leave - Luke 15:11-12
  • "Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me."
  • The son wants the father's possessions without the father's presence.
  • Sin begins with a disordered relationship with God.
  • The essence of sin is wanting God's gifts without wanting God.
  • Connection to Genesis 3: the temptation toward autonomy.
  • Application: If God gave me everything I wanted, would I still want God?
• Step 2: God allows the son to leave - Luke 15:12
  • The father divides the property.
  • God does not force relationship.
  • Sometimes judgment takes the form of God allowing us to pursue what we insist upon.
  • Connection to Romans 1: "God gave them up."
• Step 3: The far country promises freedom - Luke 15:13
  • The son travels away from the father.
  • Rebellion creates distance.
  • Sin advertises the departure but hides the destination.
  • What looks like freedom eventually becomes bondage.
  • Connection to James 1:14-15: desire, sin, and death.
• Step 4: Sin squanders what God gives - Luke 15:13
  • The son wastes his inheritance in reckless living.
  • Sin consumes rather than creates.
  • We can squander time, bodies, relationships, influence, money, sexuality, and opportunities.
  • Application: What has God entrusted to me that I am failing to steward?
• Step 5: The famine reveals reality - Luke 15:14
  • The famine does not create his spiritual condition, it exposes it.
  • Circumstances reveal the weakness of self-sufficiency.
  • Created things cannot carry the weight meant for the Creator.
  • Application: What is actually holding my life together?
• Step 6: Freedom becomes slavery - Luke 15:15-16
  • The Jewish son ends up feeding pigs.
  • He escaped one authority only to submit to another.
  • Connection to John 8:34: sin becomes a master.
  • He began by saying, "Give me."
  • He ends with "no one gave him anything."
  • The world will help spend your inheritance but will not restore you when it is gone.
• Closing truth
  • There is always a famine in the far country.
  • God's presence, not merely God's provision, is the source of life.
  • Psalm 16:11: fullness of joy is found in God's presence.
  • The son has exhausted his resources, but he has not exhausted the father's mercy.

Segment 2: He Ran to His Son

Luke 15:17-24

• Step 1: Repentance begins with awakening - Luke 15:17
  • "He came to himself."
  • Sin distorts reality.
  • Repentance begins when we finally see ourselves, our sin, and God clearly.
  • The son remembers the goodness of his father.
  • Connection to Romans 2:4: God's kindness leads us toward repentance.
• Step 2: Repentance requires movement - Luke 15:18
  • "I will arise and go to my father."
  • Remorse is not the same as repentance.
  • Remorse regrets consequences.
  • Repentance changes direction.
  • Conviction says something needs to change.
  • Repentance gets up.
• Step 3: True confession owns the sin - Luke 15:18-19
  • "I have sinned against heaven and before you."
  • No excuses.
  • No blaming circumstances.
  • No blaming other people.
  • Connection to 1 John 1:9.
  • Confession means agreeing with God about what He already knows.
• Step 4: The son still misunderstands grace - Luke 15:19
  • "Treat me as one of your hired servants."
  • He understands his guilt but misunderstands his father's grace.
  • He wants to earn his way back.
  • Religion says, "Let me work off my debt."
  • Grace says the debt must be received as paid.
• Step 5: The father runs - Luke 15:20
  • The father sees him while he is still far away.
  • He has compassion.
  • He runs.
  • He embraces.
  • He kisses.
  • The father receives him before he can repair his life.
  • Grace meets us while we still carry the evidence of the far country.
• Step 6: Grace does not ignore justice - Romans 3:26; 2 Corinthians 5:21
  • God is both just and the justifier.
  • Christ bears the judgment of sinners.
  • The cross is where holiness and mercy meet.
  • Forgiveness is free to us because it was costly to Christ.
• Step 7: The father restores sonship - Luke 15:21-22
  • The son begins his confession.
  • The father interrupts his attempt to negotiate servanthood.
  • The robe represents honor.
  • The ring represents belonging and family authority.
  • The sandals distinguish sonship from slavery.
  • The father does not place him on probation, he restores him.
• Step 8: Salvation produces celebration - Luke 15:23-24
  • "This my son was dead, and is alive again."
  • "He was lost, and is found."
  • Christianity is not self-improvement.
  • Salvation is resurrection.
  • Connection to Ephesians 2:1-5.
• Closing truth
  • We do not work for acceptance, we work from acceptance.
  • We do not clean ourselves up so we can come to Christ.
  • We come to Christ because we need Him to make us clean.
  • The son thought he was coming home to negotiate employment.
  • Instead, he walked into a celebration of sonship.
  • The Father runs toward repentant sinners.

Segment 3: The Son Who Never Left

Luke 15:25-32

• Step 1: Jesus turns toward the religious - Luke 15:25
  • The older brother represents the Pharisees of Luke 15:1-2.
  • The sinners are coming home.
  • The religious people are complaining about the celebration.
  • Jesus reveals a second kind of lostness.
• Step 2: You can be lost without leaving the house - Luke 15:25-28
  • The older brother is physically near the father but relationally distant.
  • One brother is lost through rebellion.
  • The other is lost through self-righteousness.
  • Religious activity is not the same as intimacy with God.
  • Application: Am I near the things of God without truly loving God?
• Step 3: Grace offends self-righteousness - Luke 15:28
  • The older brother becomes angry.
  • Grace feels unfair when we believe we have earned God's favor.
  • Romans 3:23: all have sinned.
  • If God gave us what we deserved, none of us would be at the table.
• Step 4: The father goes out to both sons - Luke 15:28
  • He runs toward the rebellious son.
  • He goes out and pleads with the religious son.
  • Grace pursues immoral people and moral people.
  • Both kinds of lostness require the Father's mercy.
• Step 5: Religious obedience can become transactional - Luke 15:29
  • "These many years I have served you."
  • The older brother thinks like a slave while living as a son.
  • The younger brother says, "Give me what is mine."
  • The older brother says, "Give me what I have earned."
  • Both are trying to use the father to obtain something else.
  • Application: Why do I obey God?
• Step 6: Self-righteousness creates entitlement
  • "I've served."
  • "I've obeyed."
  • "I've sacrificed."
  • "Therefore God owes me."
  • Obedience becomes leverage instead of worship.
  • The gospel says everything we receive from God is grace.
• Step 7: Self-righteousness produces contempt - Luke 15:30
  • "This son of yours."
  • He refuses even to call the prodigal his brother.
  • When we forget grace, we begin dividing people into deserving and undeserving.
  • Ephesians 2:8-9 eliminates boasting.
  • The ground is level at the cross.
• Step 8: The Father Himself is the inheritance - Luke 15:31
  • "Son, you are always with me."
  • The older brother is complaining about a goat while possessing fellowship with the father.
  • Comparison makes us blind to grace.
  • Gratitude recognizes what we have already received.
  • Application: Am I so focused on what God has not given me that I have forgotten that He has given me Himself?
• Step 9: Restored sinners become family again - Luke 15:32
  • The older brother says, "This son of yours."
  • The father responds, "This your brother."
  • Do not distance yourself from someone God has restored.
  • Connection to Galatians 6:1.
  • The church should reflect the Father's ministry of restoration.
• Step 10: Jesus leaves the story unfinished
  • We are never told whether the older brother enters the celebration.
  • Jesus leaves the Pharisees with a decision.
  • "Are you coming inside?"
  • Can we celebrate when God's grace reaches someone we believe does not deserve it?
• Step 11: Jesus is the true Elder Brother - Luke 19:10
  • The older brother refuses to seek the lost younger brother.
  • Jesus came "to seek and to save the lost."
  • Christ entered our far country to bring us home.
  • He did not merely risk His inheritance.
  • He gave His life.

Final Gospel Truth

• There are two ways to be lost:
  • Rebellion: "I don't need the Father."
  • Religion: "The Father owes me."
• Both sons need repentance.
• Both sons need grace.
• Both sons need the Father.
• The cross destroys both rebellion and self-righteousness.
• If you are running from God, come home.
• If you are trying to earn from God, come inside.
• If you are ashamed of your past, look at the Father.
• If you are proud of your performance, look at the cross.
• If you resent another person's restoration, remember how much you have been forgiven.
• At the Father's table there are no self-made sons or daughters.
• There are only recipients of grace.