LIFE GIVING BREAD
#488 LIFE GIVING BREAD
Scripture John 6:30-59, NIV Orig. 6/7/1970
Rewr. 8/20/1990
Passage: 30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[a]” 32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” 43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[b] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Purpose: Returning to series preaching from the gospel, here defining Christ as the One who is Himself the Bread of God.
Keywords: Nature of Christ Sacrifice
Timeline/Series: Bible Study of John’s Gospel Bible Study of the Parables
Introduction
This chapter dares the reader to attempt to pass through these pages without being drawn into the discussion of Christ as the “bread of God.” Chapter six can, in fact, be divided seven ways, each funneling the reader into that deeper realization of Christ as BREAD. It opens (vs 1-7) as Jesus questions the disciples about feeding the multitude that has come to hear Him. The second segment shows Andrew acknowledging (vs 8-11) a lad who still has his lunch. Next, in sequel form, (vs 12-14), the disciples are admonished to see value in fragments also. The interval between this day and the next finds Jesus coming to the disciples during the storm at sea.
Immediately the next day begins, the crowds have returned for second helpings. What Jesus fed them satisfied their daily hunger, and they were back for more (v22-29).
The sixth segment contained in this chapter is our text this morning. Jesus presents Himself as the “life giving bread” (v33). The concluding portion of the chapter (vs 60-71) reminds us of Peter’s faith in this feeding (v68), and of Judas Iscariot, who like so many then and now, were content to get by on the table scraps that they had set for themselves.
The two essentials for nourishment are food and drink. In 4:7f Jesus offers a thirsting woman water that would quench her thirst. Now, to these who hunger, food is offered. The water was from a supernatural source. So, also, the bread. If all they want is a full belly, a full belly is all they will get. It will hardly last the day.
I. First Noted is the Striving of the Bread. V33 “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” V38 “For I came down from heaven, to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.”
Do we really, truly understand that Jesus is of more than fleshly stripe? Five times in this passage Jesus refers to His incarnation. No doubt His birth was a human birth. But it was so much more. We put great stock in important people. Go overboard getting program personalities who are important: Terry Bradshaw; Tom Lester (who played Eb on Green Acres) was invited to Camp Harris.
This incarnation establishes divinity John 1:14 “The word was made flesh, . . . and we beheld his glory.” Do you behold Him as God? I Timothy 3:16 “Great was the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” The Greek doesn’t say “God.” The text accords to Jesus the character of God.
Do we honor Him as is His due? I John 4:2f “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. . . every spirit that confesseth not . . . this is that spirit of anti-Christ.”
Jesus comes in the flesh to do the will of God. His doing establishes that it can be done. It testifies as well that we haven’t done it, and are ourselves at risk. The glory is that faith in Christ affords us with His substitutionary atonement. Hebrews 2:9 “We see Jesus . . . crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
1500 years ago missionaries from far to the south came to the land we call England. Celts had never heard. Some saw this as an insult to their gods. In the Grange Hall they argued far into the night. A small bird blundered in toward the light of their oil lamp. A chief: “Like that small bird we blunder toward what light we see. But will this new religion help us as we go out into the darkness where none of us have been?”
II. Second Noted, There is the Striving with the Bread. V41 “The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.” V52 “The Jews strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
It was striving against messianic claims. The Jews introduce a word of manna. The feeding of the multitude prompts. Jesus informs them (v31) that the bread was from God, not from Moses. The Messiah likewise will be from God to nourish people. V33 “The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” Nehemiah (9:15) refers to manna as “bread from heaven.”
The messianic tradition was that when Messiah came He would feed them manna. At destruction of temple, pot of manna secreted away by Jeremiah. Messiah will return it to the people. Revelation 2:17 Pergamos: “To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the hidden manna.” For Jesus to say that He was the bread from heaven was to say He was the Messiah.
They were striving also against His presumed claims to divinity. It is so easy for a person reared in the indigenous atmosphere of church. It is not hard for people of the same culture to easily grasp faith. But for the Jew, everything they believed is being threatened. Jesus informs them that it is not Moses who offers manna, but God; and now they are offered bread.
Someone (Lockyear, p. 319) makes the point that Jesus offers life three essentials. They are defined as breath, water, food. In John, chapter 3, Jesus spoke of breath, wind of Spirit without which man cannot have eternal life. In chapter 4, Jesus offers a woman living water by which she can live forever. In chapter 6, Jesus offers Himself as the food available and essential for life here and hereafter.
We should not overlook also that in His birth it was Bethlehem, house of bread.
III. Finally, There is a Striving for the Bread. V40 “This is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Has it occurred that the only physical commodity sought in Lord’s Prayer is bread? It acknowledges the majesty of God. It confesses man’s weakness and sin. It pleads escape from our confused inner selves. Of physical needs, it pleads only bread.
Our greater need is for the One who is our daily spiritual replenishment. To what degree are you striving for Him? V50 “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.” How readily do you accord Jesus the place of priority in your life?
I have told the story of the little boy in the home of people of means, who stuck his hand in the mouth of a Ming bowl. It would not release. Broken. Inside the clinched fist of the boy was a penny.
How many of us are intrigued with the gospel story, but our spiritual fists are clinched around some worldly device that we refuse to yield?
Your striving, my striving, must be for the bread.
V34 “Lord, evermore give us this bread.” Hear Dorothy Sayers in her book, Creed or Chaos: “The reason why the chuches are discredited today is not because they are too bigoted about theology. At the risk of appearing quite insolently obvious I shall say that if the church is to make any impression on the modern mind she will have to preach Christ and the Cross. Of late, she has not succeeded well in preaching Christ. She has preached Jesus, which is not at all the same thing.”
Conclusion
Do you have a place at the table where this bread is served? Have you called home to say, “I’ll be there, too! Set a place for me!”? V51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any . . . eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh.”
THE PARABLE OF TREES
#784 (use with #33) THE PARABLE OF TREES
Scripture Judges 9:7-15 NIV Orig. Date 8-26-51
Rewr. Dates 9-26-90
Passage: 7 When Jotham was told about this, he climbed up on the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted to them, “Listen to me, citizens of Shechem, so that God may listen to you. 8 One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’
9 “But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’
10 “Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’
11 “But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’
12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and be our king.’
13 “But the vine answered, ‘Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’
14 “Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and be our king.’
15 “The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’”
Keywords: Parable
Timeline/Series: Old Testament Parables
Introduction
Our story begins with Gideon. He was chosen as judge of the people. He sought confirmation. Judges 6:36f “If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand.” So, both Gideon and the people knew that he was their leader. They responded to him accordingly.
In later years, they had come to depend on him so completely that they offered him rule over them. Judges 8:22 “Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.”
The word for rule implies sovereignty. It may or may not have the effect of royalty. It is nonetheless clear that they were satisfied with all that had happened and were willing for the descendants of Gideon to come to the office and role of rule if not to the place of monarchy.
Gideon rejected these advances. He made it clear “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you” (Judges 8:23).
Besides king-like rule, Gideon left behind seventy sons “of his body begotten” (8:30), and a son, by a concubine, whom he called Abimelech. At Gideon’s death, Abimelech struck quickly. He went to Shechem, his mother’s home, claimed to be one of them, and the royal son. Together, they went after his half-brothers, killing all of them but Jotham, the youngest, who was delivered from this attempted assassination.
The message here, a parable or fable, is Jotham’s message to the men of Shechem who have followed Abimelech’s wiles.
I. It is First of All About Trees. Judges 9:8, “The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them.” It has the quality of a fable, but it is meant to stand out as a moral lesson. The meaning is hidden, but barely. These Shechemites are to see themselves. Jotham means for them to not like what they see.
There are some things we need to remember about trees. They derive their sustenance from soil. They take from the soil what they are fitted to take to meet their own needs. The trees are not valued equally in the codes of human economy. They are different in terms of size, and sight, and fruit.
Jotham then begins to identify certain of these trees and plants. The olive tree was asked to reign over the forest. One tree can yield a half ton of fruit per year, and there were numerous orchards. It offers food and building supplies. The olive branch is a symbol for peace.
The fig tree was called forth to reign. The fig tree provides food; in I Samuel 25:18, Abigail, an Israelite woman, made 200 cakes of pressed figs. Adam and Eve used its leaves to cover themselves. It is the first fruit mentioned in the Bible.
The vine was singled out. It produced fruit for nourishment and for medicinal purposes. In Numbers 13:23, the spies sent out by Moses cut a branch with a cluster of grapes, and also brought pomegranates and figs. Micah 4:4, “But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.”
Finally, the great cedar was pictured. It was the greatest of Bible trees. Herbert Lockyer wrote that a cedar could be as much as 120 feet tall, with a girth of 40 feet (A36p334). Both Solomon’s temple and palace included cedars. In Judges 9:15 fire devours the Cedars of Lebanon.
A bramble is offered the role. It is a plant with no fruit of worth. Some use it as fuel. It could be used as a hedge, 12-15 feet high. The parable does not effect repentance.
II. The Prophetic Message of the Parable/Fable. Judges 9:15, “If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow.”
The olive tree has to do with covenant privilege. Romans 11:17-21: 17 ‘And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, [2] and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. 20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.’
It is evergreen, suggesting eternality. In Exodus 27:20 the Hebrews were to bring “pure” olive oil for use in the tabernacle.
The fig tree seems more to stand for the national privilege. I Kings 4:25 “Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree.” That is similar to Micah 4:4; Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. Zechariah 10:12 forecast the messianic time. Think of the intended sweetness of the fig. But the Christless Zion is the bane of most non-western nations. Also, the great parable of Christ in Matthew 24:32, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree: when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that Summer is nigh.”
The vine seems to speak of spiritual privilege. Isaiah 5:4, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” The vine is God’s chosen symbol for joy. The vine brought forth alien fruit. Psalm 80:14, “Look down from heaven and visit this vine; and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted; . . . turn us again, O Lord of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
The bramble speaks of liberty, responsibility, privilege being sacrificed. The bramble is willing to reign. The cedars are willing to allow it. The demand of the bramble is for the cedar to “put your trust in my shadow.” It is said that when the Messiah comes, He will build the new temple, again of cedars, but instead, His head was anointed with bramble.
NO MORE CHANCES
#463 NO MORE CHANCES
Scripture Luke 13:6-9 NIV Orig. 2-16-68
Rewr. 10-26-81
Passage: Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’”
Purpose: Continuing the series on the parables to remind my people of the teaching of Jesus relative to our responsibility to use our opportunities.
Keywords: Grace Judgment Providence Revival Uselessness
Series: Parables
Introduction
As Jesus continued his teaching, one of his Judean listeners raised a question. There was no great love lost between the Judeans and the Galileans, and a report had been recently circulated that Pilate had stormed out against their rebellious character by having his guards strike some of them down even while they were offering sacrifices. The one who raised the question was implying that they probably got what they deserved. If there is any place that a right-thinking person ought to be safe it is at the appointment of sacrifice. If, therefore, harm fell to them there, it simply means that they are guilty as charged and got their just deserts.
Jesus then answers directly. Do you think that those Galileans were the chief sinners among Galileans because that happened to them?” Jesus then laid the burden of sin right at their feet. “No!” he said, “They were not necessarily the chiefest of sinners just because they were killed.” Then, addressing their own disdain of God’s purpose for them, he continued. “Unless you repent, you will also perish.”
Then he brought up the case of a recent natural disaster. The tower of Siloam in Jerusalem had fallen causing the death of 18 people. He implies that if such as this can happen in Jerusalem, then the people must think that these victims were somehow deserving what happened to them. Again Jesus addresses their own sin problem. “That is not the case.” He says, but unless you repent of your sin, then you will ultimately perish just as violently as they did.
He does not deny that these Galileans and these workmen in Jerusalem were sinners. There is just not anything that he can do for dead sinners. His concern is for the living and for their errant rationale that allowed them self-justification. They were not safe from judgment simply because they were Jews. They were not to be excused from the necessity of repentance simply because of the chance of their birth to a Hebrew mother. Thus he shared with them the parable of the barren fig tree.
I. The Parable Addresses Opportunity: The fig tree owned a special providence. V6 “He came seeking fruit thereon.” Perhaps the significance of a parable needs to be restated. It is a story with a hidden meaning. The significance of such a story is never in what is obvious. It is not about a fig tree, but what the tree represents. It must somehow relate to productivity.
If this is just about trees, then there are many factors to be considered: size, fertility, climate, etc. If about trees, it can produce only what it is. But if its meaning is about people then we startlingly discover that a person can do much more than just produce another being like unto himself. Not only can he improve upon what nature has given, he can do more. He can produce a thought, an idea, a word, and a deed which, by the way, may be good or evil.
It is a consuming thought to come to realize that the master of the orchard is conscious of every plant. He expects no more that the plant, or that which it symbolizes, is capable to produce. Of a fig tree, he would expect a fig. But of one created to produce more and better things, he would expect that also. The master of the orchard knows the opportunity of each of us and expects that of which we are capable.
II. The Parable Addresses Obstructions to Opportunity. The fig tree reminds us that uselessness invites disaster. V7 “Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.” Some would like to apply the parable to Jesus’ hearers, thus the Jewish nation. It is true that Isaiah foresaw such an eventuality. He describes the beloved’s vineyard “on a fruitful hill” and marks its destruction. Isaiah 5:1-7 “I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. That more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness but heard cries of distress.”
We dare see not see it, however, as relating to other than ourselves. Judging a tree we examine its leaves—right size and of good texture; its roots deep and strong; its fiber soft, pliable, moist; but if it bears no fruit, cut it down.
III. The Parable Asserts Offensiveness. The fig tree will understand that nothing which only takes and does not give can survive. V7 “Cut it down, why doth it cumber the ground?” The literal meaning is why does this plant allow the ground to be reduced to inactivity? Not only is the tree useless, the soil beneath it is rendered useless. An interesting parallel exists with other parables: Prodigal—“Lost,” loss of wellbeing; Strait Gate—“Destruction,” loss of wellbeing; Fig tree—“cumber,” loss of wellbeing; Fig tree—“cut it down,” loss of wellbeing.
The message is a twofold one, for empires and for individuals. We must never passively keep someone else from achieving their spiritual best, and we must anchor our lives to a bold, assertive spiritual activity.
IV. The Parable Speaks of Obligation. By the grace of the keeper of the orchard, a second chance is extended. V8f “Let it alone for one year more. I shall dig about it, and if it bear fruit, well.”
We are not directed to do something about our past, for we cannot; Thomas Hardy wrote in The Ghost of the Past, “We two kept house, the past and I.” We are not to be dazzled by the future, for we cannot grasp what it may hold; Longfellow wrote in A Psalm of Life, “Trust no future howe’er pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act, act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead.”
Be sure only of this, that God in Christ gives to each of us, to all, a second chance. Christ, on the cross, prayed “Father, forgive.” The foundling church offered to Israel a second chance to believe. Acts 13:46, First to Israel, “But seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” The nation, the denomination, the individual church, the believer, likewise understand that our very being (wellbeing) is “second chance.” The mind of the Father and the Son is the same that repentance spurned. The soil must be cleared for one who will repent.
V. Finally, the Parable Acknowledges Oblivion. The fig tree testifies that there is coming a last chance. V9 “If it does not bear fruit after this year, then, cut it down.” The judgment made by the gardener is based on its fruitlessness. It is not the fault of the gardener. It is not the fault of the soil. The fault rests only upon the agency judged. Understand this, please, of the judgment of God: It will always be upon spiritual potential denied. He will not judge any person for something they were incapable of doing. What one is capable of, and what one “wills” to do with that capability is, sadly, too often, two different things.
We, who have been favored to live in a part of the world graced by the finer things of life must accept a responsibility to do with these things to the glory of God. Who then must face a more severe judgment? The Russian who grew up being taught that God was a capitalist plot? The remote tribesman whose only notion of God is the predictability or unpredictability of nature? The third world refugee who knows nothing so completely as he knows hunger? Or the polished citizen of a western culture who has the best of all things, but who ignores the clear warnings of sin, and judgment, and last chances?
Make no mistake, we are accountable. The divine gardener pleads “spare.” It is he who finally declares “cut it down!” Recall please the message of John the Baptist, the forerunner. He admonished Israel to repent, and then warned, “and even now is the axe laid unto the root of the trees: Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.”
Conclusion
We are called therefore to believe. That belief requires repentance, for we have sinned, and in spite of our sin the second chance has been given. Finally, acknowledging that second chance means that we choose to live in such a way that others understanding our commitment to life in our Lord Jesus Christ will begin to reckon their own lives in relation to Him.
THE PARABLE OF THE LOVING FATHER
#379 THE PARABLE OF THE LOVING FATHER
Scripture Luke 15:11-32 NIV Orig. 6/30/63 (10/81)
Rewr. 8/6/87
Passage: 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 servants 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 servants.’ 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.’”
Purpose: In a series on the New Testament parables, here sharing with my people on the theme of human intemperance beset by God’s great love.
Keywords: Disobedience Forgiveness Revival Self-righteousness Sin
Timeline/Series: Parable
Introduction
Once upon a time there were two young children who went to spend the summer with their grandparents. Their names were Billy and Sally. They lived most of the year in the city, and a few weeks on their grandparents’ farm in the summer was a wonderful experience for them.
Billy, like many little boys, was exceedingly curious. He enjoyed all the different things, and animals that he encountered. One day Grandfather had some work to do in the hayloft and it was too hot for Billy to help. He was free to roam. He picked up his slingshot and went out to play hunter. Out beyond the barn, almost out of sight of the house, Billy had armed his weapon and had it ready. Suddenly, Grandmother’s pet duck waddled around the corner of the barn. Without so much as a flinch, Billy let fly his artillery. His aim usually wasn’t very good, but this time he was right on the mark. The duck lay dead. He looked to see if anyone was in sight. Then, scared though he was, he quickly buried the duck back of the barn. That night at supper he couldn’t eat. His grandmother asked if he was sick. After supper he and Sally went to wash dishes. She said she wasn’t going to help, and if he complained she’d tell about the duck.
You can imagine what the next week was like. Billy was miserable. Finally, one afternoon Billy went to his grandmother’s sewing room. He stood around, picked up trinkets in which he had no interest. Shuffled from one foot to the other. “Billy, if you need to know it, I love you.” Then came the flood of guilt and confession. “Billy, I was sitting here by the window and saw the whole thing. I wondered how long you would endure this bondage to Sally before you came to me.”
I. First, Parables are Often Unique in Their Setting. We can back up a couple of chapters. Luke 13:22. “. . . Jesus went through the towns and villages . . . as he made his way to Jerusalem.” Jesus is clearly conscious of the precious commodity of his dwindling days. Luke 17:11 “Now on his way to Jerusalem”—his last.
More directly, the scribes and Pharisees were murmuring about his friendship with sinners. Luke 15:2 “[They] muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” Aren’t you glad Jesus is like this? You know where we would be otherwise.
Thus Jesus shares 3 parables of lost possessions. There is a lost sheep (15:3). It doesn’t will to be lost. It just wanders away. The shepherd seeks it until it is found. It is lost! It is sought! It is found! The finder rejoices.
There is a lost coin (15:8). It has no capacity to lose itself, or to understand its lostness. The one discovering it lost, holds other things incidental until it is found. It is lost! It is sought! It is found! The finder rejoices.
There is a lost son. He is lost, not because he wandered off, or was impassively misplaced, but because he chose to leave, to separate himself. He was just as lost! He was sought! He was restored! His return causes joy for his father.
The elder brother does not joy in return. Nor does he find joy in his father’s joy.
II. Next, We View the Lost Son As a Principal Character in Our Story. V11: “A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.” It is noted that Jesus does not call this young man a prodigal. Keep in mind the religious bigots listening. They are vindictive of Jesus’ openness to sinners. We can measure both sons and their sin. The younger was callous and rebellious; the older was censorious, retaliatory.
We can learn that there are good things about this young man. He is his own person. He is ready to strike out on his own. But he handles it poorly. His immaturity shows he gives his father no chance to counsel him. He is seeking only what is rightfully his. Deuteronomy 21:17 The right of the firstborn is a double portion. He seems to be a man of simplicity and responsibility. He discovers his mistakes, and blames himself. He knows his best chance is starting over. At home? Enslaved?
The Bible describes three kinds of enslavement: Bondsmen—respected family extensions; servant—subordinate but with status; hired servants—temporarily indentured. The younger son is a man to whom repentance is not an unreasonable alternative. V.17 “And when he came to himself, he said . . . I will go . . . and say . . . Father, I have sinned.”
Don’t make the mistake of accusing him as an unthankful delinquent. There is a mind sustained by childhood teachings. There is a heart with gratitude for a loving father.
There are interesting interpretations. Augustine: the “far country” represents the forgetfulness of God. “Came to himself” suggests restoration from madness. Paul’s description in Ephesians 4:18, “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance . . . in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
III. Then, We Must Consider the Older Brother Just as Lost in His Condescending Attitude. V28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in.” The elder brother stands in the parable for the hardhearted Pharisees who necessitated its message. They did not share Christ’s concern for sinners. We must consider our own attitudes. As the younger was riddled by an uneasy conscience, this one purported to be without fault. V29: “I never disobeyed your command.” He was unforgiving. One-third of the estate has been lost. His ledger-book mentality demands censure. Even brotherhood is too high a price for acquittal. Add to his other wrongs that of betraying his father’s joy. Father: “this thy brother.” Son: “This thy son.”
The theologian George Buttrick wrote: “The far country is measured in motives rather than miles.”
Finally, the parable shows no evidence of repentance for the elder brother. Some suggest that it is a true story.
IV. The Parable Remains Forever that of Loving Father. V22 “But the Father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found.”
There were some things that the father could do. The robe, best or first, showed honor and restoration. The ring established the relationship and oneness (Wedding Ring, Class Ring, Super Bowl Ring). The shoes, not worn by the lowest servants, were provisioned to sons.
There were other things, however, that the father could not do. He could not erase the wrong done: Billy could not revive the pet duck. He could not promise a second part of the estate.
He depicts all the characteristics of the heavenly Father. He waits patiently and lovingly. He recognizes the repentant pilgrim. He goes out to meet the weary son. He interrupts the confession. God is no stickler for law for law’s sake.
A totally new picture of God emerges. We saw the shepherd search for the lost sheep. We watched as the homemaker searched for the lost coin. We sense that the father is brooding for his lost son. God’s concern for the lost is the brooding concern for what is of eminent worth.
Conclusion
I have had recent occasion to reconsider the different attitudes allowed my Dad and myself in regard to God as Father. When he was a lad, his dad deserted them. He tried to run the tiny farm, but in failure, lost the only holding they had. He has lived out his life without owning property: fearful of loss. But the greatest disparity is that he knew no human counterpart to depict for him the true picture of God as one of zealous good will.
THE PARABLE OF TWOS
#005 THE PARABLE OF TWOS
Scripture Matthew 7:13-14 Orig. 12-08-63
Rewr. 10-81; 5-9-91
Passage: 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Purpose: Sharing a message from this early parable of Jesus reminding us all that choices all around us need to be based on both reason and faith.
Keywords: Decision New Birth Eternal Life Judgment
Timeline/Series: Parables
Introduction
We call this “The Parable of Twos” because herein are two gates, two avenues, two companies, and two destinies. We are told that they are not alike in any eventuality. One almost compels us to choose it, the other beckons only under the circumstance of privation and struggle. But the advice of Jesus is to think the matter over carefully, and choose for eternity, not for the here and now.
We have few songs that testify of “wide gate and broad way.” Many, however, instruct us about the “way” we need to follow.
Listen as they are sung. Footsteps of Jesus: “Tho’ they lead o’er the cold dark mountain.” I Have Decided to Follow Jesus: “Tho’ none go with me, I still will follow; Tho’ none go with me, I still will follow; Tho’ none go with me, I still will follow; No turning back, no turning back.” O Master Let Me Walk with Thee: “O Master let me walk with thee In lowly paths of service free; Tell me Thy secret, help me bear The strain of toil, the fret of care.” The Master Hath Come: “The Master hath called us, the road may be dreary, And dangers and sorrows are strewn on the track; But God’s Holy Spirit shall comfort the weary; We follow the Saviour and can not turn back. The Master hath called us, though doubt and temptation May compass our journey, we cheerfully sing: ‘Press onward, Look upward,” through much tribulation The children of Zion must follow their King.”
This parable came at the end of a lengthy discourse known today as “The Sermon on the Mount.” People were hearing Jesus for the first time. They were told, in effect, that “life is hard.” It certainly was not going to be easy to follow Jesus. They were told in that sermon of the need for “meekness,” of the tribute of those that “hunger for righteousness.” He spoke to them of the clear mandate of the law opposing killing, but of a higher law that addressed hatred. Jesus said that prayer was a sacred trust, and forgiveness, a spiritual necessity. 7:12 “All things ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
I. The Parable of Twos Shows Us First that There are Two Gates. V13 “Wide is the gate,” v14 “strait is the gate.” The words themselves help us. “Wide” gives us our word “plateau,” platys. “Narrow” is the word stenos from which we get “stenography,” or narrow, lined writing. Luke 13:24 “Strive (agonize) to enter through the strait gate.”
It is brought down to choice in its simplest form. If I am buying shoes and only two pair fit, I take one pair and leave the other. But if there are a dozen possibilities, it is more difficult. When I was a boy, ice cream was available only in vanilla and chocolate. When I take my grandson to Baskin-Robbins, it will be different.
We can set this simplicity in religious context as well. There were those who heard Jesus, and believed. There were others who did not. Some listened to His message. Others rejected it. It is the application of two gates, one identified with Jesus, the other, not. The gate imagery piles up on us. One is colorful, filled with boisterous people; a refreshment stand interrupts. The other is inconvenient, and must be carefully approached; people seem serious to the point of foreboding.
It really should not surprise us that there are only two choices. Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I have set before you this day, life and good, and death and evil.” I Kings 18:21 “And Elijah said, . . . if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal . . . .”
II. The Parable of Twos Goes on to Affirm Two Ways. “Wide is the gate . . . that leadeth to destruction . . . Strait is the gate . . . which leadeth unto life.” No doubt, all of us have measured life in terms of broad ways and back roads. I haven’t been east or west on Highway 80 for more than a few miles in years. Remember how glad we were to get back in this auditorium from the confinement of the Fellowship Hall?
It was our good fortune to live in New Orleans while old Tulane Stadium was around. The word “concourse” was reserved for airports. At Tulane Stadium everything was jammed tightly together. After the game, you squeezed through the aisle, then the gates, then it got difficult. You had to get your car out of someone’s yard.
Now, we have the Louisiana Superdome.
While the two gates refer to broad and narrow, the two ways are destruction and life. This is encroaching on two destinies. We will look at that last.
III. The Parable of Twos Tells Us Also of Two Companies. There is a consortium of “many,” and another of “few.” The gate through which the two companies have passed is symbolic. John 14:6 “Jesus said, . . . I am the way, . . . no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” John 10:7 “Then said Jesus . . . , Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door . . . .” It is interesting that there is no other differentiation. They don’t come from different districts. They have no specific nationality. Wealth, education, physical status seem to offer no criteria of involvement.
The ONE thing that separates them is Jesus. He has taught them about God’s Kingdom. He described a religious value system.
In this sermon, He has so spoken. Matthew 6:1 “Do not announce your alms before men.” 6:7 “When you pray, use not vain repetitions.” 6:17 “Fast . . . not unto men, but God.” 6:21 “Where your treasure is, so is your heart.” 6:24 “No man can serve two masters.” 7:24 “A wise man who built his house upon a rock, . . . [another] built . . . on sand.”
IV. In Conclusion, It Is the Parable of Two Destinies. Some are passing through the gate and along the way to destruction. Those who have rightly chosen, are passing through to life. It is so easy to become enthralled with the “broad” way.
The things with which we occupy ourselves are not necessarily bad things. Ann and I attended some Mardi Gras activities while in New Orleans. Locals were there in droves. Revelers came from around the country. Money was spent irretrievably on junk. There were excesses of flesh jeopardizing health. Bad disposition remained for weeks. It took weeks to clean up the clutter. Too often there was a dead child who had taken too big a risk chasing a doubloon.
Having seen Canal Street under these circumstances left an indelible view of this text. Canal was dubbed “the world’s widest thoroughfare.”
Those things may do nothing more than keep our eye off of the main things in life. Let this “broad” way remind us that there is a “narrow” way. This narrow way leads to “life.”
There is a final thought from the word’s meaning. Two Greek words define “life.” Bios (biography) means duration, manner of life. Zoe (zoology) is life in its absolute sense. 1 John 1:2 “. . . We . . . show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” John 1:4 “In Him was life; and that life was the light of men.”
About destruction, several words contain the idea of loss: Luke 15 parables (sheep, coin, son). The idea is that of loss of well-being.
The idea here, in Matthew 7:13, is more. It is the impact on everything worthwhile.