When Tim Keller first preached on the parable of the two prodigal sons, his wife said “This is the most important sermon you have ever preached.”
Why?
It is a paradigm changer for defining true Christianity. What is a paradigm changer? It’s when something you have always believed to be true is shown to be wrong and it changes everything, as when, in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet realizes Mr. Darcy is not an arrogant jerk but a humble servant.
In the same way, people misjudge Christianity, thinking of it as morality. Those who break the rules are out, and those who keep them are in.
In the church, we have so often completely missed the point of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal sons. Even the heading in your Bible, as headings are not inspired, may mislead you, calling it “The Prodigal Son.” Unless you see this is a story of two lost sins, you don’t understand the main point of Jesus’ parable. Both the younger son who rebelled and the older son who was self-righteous were lost, and only the younger son is found, for he repented, whereas the older son refused. This is directed at the Pharisees, the legalists, and the tax collectors, who all looked down on “sinners,” whom they thought they were not. Look again at Rembrandt’s painting, and this time see the older son, up on the step, face angry, arms folded, looking down at his younger brother and forgiving father.
If we are honest, there is some of the younger son and the older son in each of us, but the very good news is that our Father loves both. He went out to both. He pleaded with both. He wanted both to forsake their ways so that they could have intimacy with Him.
Last week several of you confessed your legalism, and I so regret mine as well. When I was young and mentoring my firstborn daughter, I told her “Divorce is not in our vocabulary.” And then she married a man who was unfaithful and abusive. But she hung on for five terrible years because of my words. God showed me divorce is in His non-legalistic vocabulary. I was also hard on widows. They grieved for too long! Then I was widowed. What a paradigm changer!
How thankful I am my Abba, Father did not give up on me but kept coming to me, entreating me to have mercy on “sinners” like me.
I have found many struggle to understand Keller’s paradigm-changing book because they have heard the wrong definition of Christianity for so long.
Perhaps sometime we will do the whole study, but for this series, this week is all you get – and so I pray God will help you understand it. Now that all Keller sermons are free, I will simply give you the link to the sermon and you can download it yourself:
https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/the-prodigal-sons-5424/
(I apologize that the numbering is different in the transcript. For the life of me, I cannot stop it from changing formats when I copy it. Also, numbering may be off below — it’s like there is a nemesis changing the numbers behind my back!)
Sunday:
- Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why.
- How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week?
Monday: Introduction
- Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. Thinking of the “two sons,” whom do you think”the sinners” represent? And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?”
- Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
- Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart.
- Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart.
- Download the Keller sermon and listen to the introduction up to when he says the parable is in “two acts.”
- What particularly stood out to you and why?
- Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son?”
- If you have seen the movie “The Jesus Revolution,” how was the church in the story acting like the older brother?
Tuesday: Act One — the Lost Younger Brother
11. Listen to the Keller sermon up to Act Two and the Lost Elder Brother.
12. What particularly stood out to you and why?
13. Why would have listeners been astounded by the younger brother’s request?
14. Why would they have been astounded at the father’s response? What does this teach about God as our Father?
The reason Keller titled his book “Prodigal God” is that while prodigal can mean squandering, it can also mean generous. How generous the Father was with both sons as He is with us.
15. What was Keller’s point with the song from the musical Oklahoma? (You can watch it on you-tube — the name of the song is “Oklahoma!”
16. How did Keller point out and describe the love of the Father toward His younger son? How have you experienced this?
Wednesday: Act Two — the Lost Older Brother
17.Listen up to when Keller says this parable redefines God as Father.
A. What particularly stood out to you and why?
B.What do you see in the attitude of the older brother through these words:
-
-
- Look!
- Slaving for you
- Never disobeyed
- This son of yours
- You killed the fattened calf for him!
-
18. How do you see yourself in the older brother?
Thursday: Redefining God, Sin, and Salvation
19.Listen up to Keller summing up with “three things.”
A. What stood out to you from this part and why?
B. How does this parable redefine God as Father?How does it redefine sin?
C. How does it redefine salvation? What was his point with Flannery O’Connor?
D.Why do religious people obey God? Why do Christians obey God? Which are you?
Friday: Summarizing
20. Listen to the end.
A. What stood out to you from this part and why?
B.How do you see the initiating love of the Father and what can we learn?
C. What do we need to repent of besides sin?
D. What is the difference between a Christian and a moralist?
21. What did loving us cost God?
Saturday: Take-A-Way
22. What is your take-a-way and why?
105 comments
Rebecca D.
1. Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why. When Dee admitted her pharisaical ways as a younger believer and how she saw the impact on her daughter’s life. Can i say, me too!!! I went way overboard after coming out of the prodigal son’s life, to the older son life. I only wore dresses to church and if there were buttons on a shirt, I buttoned them up all the way to my chin. This was self imposed, but what I was taught was that divorce was unacceptable in any shape or form, Even if a man abuses a women both mentally and physically. Also, women shouldn’t lead over men and I took that to the hilt. I would tout that women shouldn’t even be CEO’s of companies or presidents or anything where they lead over a man. They should stay at home and work in the home. Oh my, has God helped me to see the truth! Like Elizabeth saw Mr. Darcy!
2. How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week? I’ve experienced His love through my brothers and sisters in Christ. The honesty and humility of a brother who led our community group last week. This is an answer to prayer and I felt so loved and heard by my Abba, Father!
Oh Rebecca — thank you for beginning this week with such beautiful honesty. I love you, my sister!
I love you too!! So glad I’ve been able to wake up early in the morning again, and thankful for you, your blog and the godly women here!
Oh, I have been that Pharisee in my younger days too, Rebecca! Thank you for sharing from your heart!
One of the biggest things, Rebecca D, I love about this blog is the transparency and vulnerability of you, ladies. I don’t know about only wearing dresses to church lol but I know I used to think a stay-at-home mom is a higher calling than a working mom! Thanks be to God who saved me from such lies! I am a work in progress and lately, our Abba is shedding light so graciously on those Pharisaical little foxes that ruin the vineyard!
Good picture Bing:
Those Pharisaical little foxes that ruin the vineyard!
Bing, Love this: Pharisaical little foxes that ruin the vineyard! Oh yes!!!
Dear Bing, Amen to Dee and Rebecca D! I need our Abba shedding light daily on those Pharisaical little foxes that ruin the vineyard!! They still nip at my heels !
Yes Rebecca, Your transparency refreshes.
1. Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why.
I understand the difference between the legalistic and humble. However, I also think that if we go into a marriage thinking, “If this doesn’t work out then I will just get divorced,” is problematic. How do we balance? It’s not a black and white thing. So, if I have sex out of marriage (choice), and get pregnant, no problem; I will have an abortion.” I also know that God forgives when we make poor choices and are repentant. Humans will choose their comfort, regardless of who they are, before anything else. Depressing, but true. Oh how I have learned to be humble over the years!!
My friends who think Christianity is about rules cannot be convinced that it is anything other.
2. How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week?
We made it safely to our destination, with little to no traffic. 21 hrs in the (small) car with a 6 and 7 yr old. There were no casualties 😉. Happy spring break!!! Thank You Lord for a rest.
Laura, there were no casualties. LOL Hw is school going?
Bing, it is busy but okay. As a school, we have some discipline issues that we are trying to work out. I think administration has gone “batty” on us. Children get away with a lot these days. I am disappointed that adults aren’t acting like adults. We are almost done though. Every year goes by quicker and quicker….
You are a warrior for God as a teacher, dear Laura! I pray for you to put on the whole armor of God, daily! Ephesians 6: 11-18, I pray for you! And you are an angel to your grands. Dear Lord give Laura and family a restful, fun, safe and joyous Spring break.
21 hours!!! 😳
That’s a marathon. Praying you have a really good Spring Break.
Thanks, Bev! They are pretty good kids, but they get bored. For some reason they don’t sleep much in the car any more. We stop a lot too 😉
Laura, you always ask the BEST questions which means you are always patiently thinking through things, which means when you land, You are solid. I love that about you. Such an example for us!
Rebecca, I live in my head, hahaha! It can be a messy place sometimes. I just like to analyze from a different perspective. I understand Dee’s statement about divorce; marriage is a covenant. I might have said the same thing to my kids. I have trouble when it comes to justifying the legalization of marijuana. I know some say it helps their illnesses, but I only know it as a detriment to young people. I’ve seen kids who are lethargic and have no memory capacity due to smoking too much pot. Smoking anything is bad for your lungs. Here is my “legalistic” issue. I have friends who enjoy it, and I struggle to try to be understanding and not judge.
1. Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why.
Oh, this is so convicting for me! When I was in college, my roommate was engaged to a guy that had been divorced. I (the Pharisee) told her that I would never ever marry a man who had been divorced. (she ended up marrying someone else instead~ it had nothing to do with my advice). Well, a few months later I met my future husband and he was not only divorced, but he had two darling daughters. Fortunately, the Lord has blessed us with many great years together; I adopted his daughters when they asked me to be their mom, we also have a son, and it has been a journey with Jesus, as the head of our household. It was a very good lesson that has stayed with me forever!
2. How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week?
It has been a wonderful week filled with the love of God. Our daughter and her husband have been here from Rhode Island. It has been pure joy! Marcus trimmed some big trees in our backyard! He always asks me for my “fix it” list and he fixed lots of things, little and big, all through the house and yard! Darcy helped me with many other things and we practiced our sour dough bread making!
The very best Praise was a note from the sweet Mom of our grandson’s wife! Imelda’s note about Sam and Bella: “Patti, You and I are so blessed to have them in our family. I don’t know if you know but they are very active in bringing souls to Christ. They were even able to bring an atheist who is now also in love with Christ through their genuine love and kindness. ” Thank you, Lord!!
Patti, I loved reading your blessings. Praying for you as always.
Thank you, Bing. Praying for you, as well.
So glad for your blessed week, Patti. I want Marcus.
Marcus is a treasure and truly a man of God.
Sweet Patti,
It was a joy to read how God blessed your week. Just so good to hear for you in your time of need how our Abba Father shows us his love through others.
Thank you, Bev. Our Abba Father is very present. So thankful to Him for His love and care.
Wow Patti! Bringing an atheist to Christ! That is not an easy feat. How sweet it is ♥️🙏
I agree, Laura! Love that they love the Lord so!
Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why. There s some older son and younger son in each of us. It’s too easy for me to forget I still have times of rebellion and times when I want to judge another s actions forgetting the plank in my own eye. How wonderful to read He comes after me no matter what to woo me into intimacy with Him.
How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week? A friend took me to a Christian concert. I enjoyed both her company and the concert and found myself singing songs from it all week. Also a family member has stepped in to help with the planning of a luncheon and other aspects of the day in May.
How wonderful to read He comes after me no matter what to woo me into intimacy with Him.
Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why.
The fuller interpretation of God’s dealing with us (2 types of lostness) through grace and love instead of Works, legalism, morality, completely changed the direction of my Christian walk after reading Keller’s book. I previously did not understand how to reconcile the older brothers reaction, to the Father’s plea other than to agree with the brother. I was looking at it from the point of view that the younger brother, was not “deserving” of reward, acceptance, and reinstatement to the family. And now the older brothers portion of “his” share would be diminished. Once I began to understand the “grace economy” of God instead of earning our way and works, the whole basis of how I related to God began to change. Old beliefs/practices die slowly sometimes, though. I still think legally at times and mechanically resubmit my thoughts through the grace filter. When God graciously rescued me and welcomed me, as a sinner years ago, I reacted, as I believe Rebecca D eluded to in her post. I swung way the other direction…for me, pious, sequestered and judgy. In fact, my children have called those years in our family, “the Puritan Years”! It was not until after they left for college that I began being transformed by the grace I had originally embraced to be saved, but had not extended to my sanctification journey or to other people. His grace then began to be a filter through which I saw and acted. It caused confusion to my kids when they observed my change. And it caused grief to me when I saw how I had taught them legalism. But, God is good and they too are being transformed. What a life-giving, power God’s love and grace have. Even though in Rembrandts painting, the elder brother stands taller with a judging posture, looking down upon the father and his younger brother, the father has a wide stance that looks unable to be toppled. He is a solid foundation, almost like a boulder. In contrast, the elder brother stands there, erected, thinly anchored, so easy to fall in his stance of condescension and pride. What a visual he has given us to ponder!
Wow, Rebecca! I like how you described the father’s stance like as a boulder and the elder brother as thinly anchored. I think of the verse” God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Rebecca D.
Rebecca, So good here: Even though in Rembrandts painting, the elder brother stands taller with a judging posture, looking down upon the father and his younger brother, the father has a wide stance that looks unable to be toppled. I also love your honesty! It encourages me how God is transforming your children’s lives even though they struggled with this.
Beautiful Rebecca!
Rebecca, I agree with Bing. What a good description. As Dee said “Beautiful!”
Yes! The older brother is also leaning on a cane of sorts, as if it is there to hold him up!
Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why. The first thing that stood out is that you used a picture from my least favorite rendition of Pride and Prejudice lol. Ever since I heard about how the story of the prodigal was really about both sons, any time a pastor preaches on this I always feel like they don’t really get it, because they focus on the younger son only.
How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week? The constant reminders throughout the week that even if what was happening at the moment wasn’t part of my plan, that I could stay calm and trust that it’s part of His plan. He will take care of me.
Dawn, I love the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice. “He will take care of me.” I need a daily reminder of this.
🙂 Why is it your least favorite and what is your most favorite?
Thank you for this reminder that I need daily, Dawn: The constant reminders throughout the week that even if what was happening at the moment wasn’t part of my plan, that I could stay calm and trust that it’s part of His plan. He will take care of me.
Do you like the version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth? I love it because though it is a very long version, they develop his character so well, and you see the deep kindness and love in him, though it is difficult for him to express. 🙂
The 1995 version with Colin Firth is my favorite. Of course, when it is in a series it is going to be more in depth than a movie and that’s probably why I like it better.
I’m not a fan of Keira Knightly. I can’t really say why, but I’m just not.
She’s very pretty but doesn’t bring depth to a roll I don’t think.
Sunday:
Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why.
This stood out to me: “ If we are honest, there is some of the younger son and the older son in each of us, but the very good news is that our Father loves both. He went out to both. He pleaded with both. He wanted both to forsake their ways so that they could have intimacy with Him.”
I do agree that there is some of the younger and older son in each of us. What comforts me is that whether I am the younger son or the older son, the Father loves me! That is grace, amazing grace!
How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week?
I struggled with some negative thoughts this week, but the experience allowed me to press closer to Jesus. I needed to remind myself of who He is, and I just need to stay under His wings of protection and provision. Listening to music before I go to sleep, keeping my daily Bible Reading, and asking Him to ever be near even when I don’t feel Him have helped me not give in to my negative thoughts.
So good on our part:
I struggled with some negative thoughts this week, but the experience allowed me to press closer to Jesus. I needed to remind myself of who He is, and I just need to stay under His wings of protection and provision. Listening to music before I go to sleep, keeping my daily Bible Reading, and asking Him to ever be near even when I don’t feel Him have helped me not give in to my negative thoughts.
I am speaking at 10:30 at a conference for leaders on “Idol Lies Leaders Believe” Would so appreciate prayer for anointing and for God to bring who He wants to hear — and as always, for tech!
Abba Father,I praise you for being so gracious and caring for us and attending to each need we have. I ask you to be with Dee this morning in a very special way. Be close in her heart and mind as she shares her teaching from your Word to those at the conference. Give her clarity and grace in her presentation. And yes Lord “as always for tech”. Have you way over the technology involved. We are trusting your sovereignty. Please bless Dee richly today. we love you Abba Father. Amen.
Dear Jesus, Thank You for being right next to Dee today. We know you are always near; we do not doubt that. If her mind wanders, make it straight. If the listeners need to hear her words, help them hear exactly what they need. When the tech decides to fail, please prop it up. These people need to hear about You. They need to know about idols in their work. In Your Holy Name. Amen.
Dear Father God, How I praise your Holy Name. Thank you for your nurturing care of dear Dee and for this opportunity for her to share with other leaders. I pray that you will anoint her with Your peace in her heart and in her mind, as she shares the message of Your love at this conference this morning. I pray, dear Jesus, that you will be very present in this place and bring those that You want to hear this important message. I pray that there will be no tech issues and that Dee will have complete peace of mind and joy in her heart as she speaks. I pray this in Your Name dear Abba Father.
Prayers as requested
Dee, I am just seeing this. I trust things went well and every challenge has been sifted through the loving grace, provision, and sovereignty of God. how exciting to know about this opportunity you have for leaders! Praise God!
Sunday:
Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why.
—This comment is so true.
“……people misjudge Christianity, thinking of it as morality. Those who break the rules are out, and those who keep them are in.”
Because I was one of those who confessed to being legalistic this statement makes sense to me. I attempted to live out the rules and failed miserably.
So I agree with this statement as well and appreciated the “good news” of it.
“If we are honest, there is some of the younger son and the older son in each of us, but the very good news is that our Father loves both. He went out to both. He pleaded with both. He wanted both to forsake their ways so that they could have intimacy with Him.”
How have you experienced the love of your Abba, Father this week?
—I shared last week how our son Tyce lost his former pastor and good friend Phillip Dancy from Tyler, Texas to death by suicide. Tyce was devastated by the news as many people were. He had actually interacted with Phillip on his birthday the week before. Seemingly everyone who knew Phillip were blindsided by this.
God has been gracious to our family through our own local church. Yesterday here at our own church services in Nebraska I watched as there was a very gracious outpouring of love and caring to my son and his family. Our former pastor and close friend Larry took the pulpit for Tyce yesterday and shared a beautiful message rich with the Hope of the Gospel. We experienced the love of our Abba, Father through them, through Larry and other dear church family.
I have also failed miserably with living out perfection. Love this, Bev: “If we are honest, there is some of the younger son and the older son in each of us, but the very good news is that our Father loves both. He went out to both. He pleaded with both. He wanted both to forsake their ways so that they could have intimacy with Him.”
Praise God for your community embracing Tyce and his family at this heartbreaking time. So many have hidden pain that we cannot see, until it is too late to help. Continued prayers for Tyce and all of your family, as well as Phillip’s family. What a blessing Pastor Larry has been.
1. Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. Thinking of the “two sons,” whom do you think”the sinners” represent? And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?” Sinners represent the prodigal son, and the tax collectors and teachers of the law represent the older brother.
* Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
2. Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart.
He heard a celebration going on, but instead of going into the house to see what was going on, he hesitated and asked the servant what was going on first. His hesitation is telling. It seems like there is a lack of intimacy with him toward his father. If he loved and trusted his father his first instinct would be to go to the house to see what was going on. The second indication he didn’t want his father intimately, was his reaction when he was told what was going on by the servant. The third indication was his reaction when his father, knowing he was angry, entreated him to come.
3. Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart. He entreated him to come join the celebration even though he knew he was angry. Instead of getting angry back when the older brother exploded in anger toward him, he told him he is always with him, and everything he has is his.
* Download the Keller sermon and listen to the introduction up to when he says the parable is in “two acts.”
4. What particularly stood out to you and why?
Every human idea in how to connect with God is wrong. No one called it religion when Christianity hit the world. It was seen as anti-religion. The Romans called the Christians for 200 years, atheists. What Christians were saying about God was different than what any religion said. I didn’t know this!
5. Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son?”
Because it’s a story of two brothers, not one brother. It is important to compare the two brothers or you will miss it.
6. If you have seen the movie “The Jesus Revolution,” how was the church in the story acting like the older brother? They wouldn’t accept hippies who were Christians into their church because of how they dressed, and behaved, though he hippies exuded the love of Christ, and accepted the older brothers in the church even though they were legalistic and uptight. They went barefoot, wore hippie clothes, wrote Christian songs that were more in the format of current music. They talked different, and weren’t focused on what you did = Christ’s acceptance, it was Jesus plus nothing else. The church looked at them like the prodigal who didn’t deserve God’s grace. That was such a wonderful movie!!
Love your review of the movie, Rebecca. I remember the movement and can’t wait to see the movie.
Rebecca: I loved all this too. No one called it religion when Christianity hit the world. It was seen as anti-religion. The Romans called the Christians for 200 years, atheists. What Christians were saying about God was different than what any religion said.
Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. Thinking of the “two sons,” whom do you think”the sinners” represent? And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?”
He speaks to the tax collectors and “other notorious sinners.”
I’m thinking the “other sinners” were the prostitutes and thrives.
With respect to the younger and older brothers, one represents the “other sinners” and the other represents the Pharisees.
Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart.
The older brother was upset because he felt he had always done everything the father required. He did not hang with sinners. He felt he was upright and deserved some recognition for that.
“but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.”
Luke 15:29 NLT
Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart.
First, he begged him to come out. He wanted the family together.
The father tells him that since he always has stayed with him, everything he has also belongs to the older brother.
What particularly stood out to you and why?
Interesting that the Romans called the Christians “atheists.” Atheists don’t believe in God at all. Christians believed in God. Not sure I understand this idea. The Romans had many gods so maybe because Christians only believed in one God 🤷🏻♀️. He says they considered it the “anti-religion,” it was so different than anything they knew, they thought it should have a different name.
Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son?”
There are 2 sons, not just one.
If you have seen the movie “The Jesus Revolution,” how was the church in the story acting like the older brother?
The church did not believe the “Jesus Freaks” should be in the church.
3) Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” Matthew 12:34
The elder brother had a hard/cold heart, turned away from his brother and his father. He spoke of them, or to them without claiming them relationally. ie. “This son of yours”; “Look”, instead of addressing father, as “father”. He said, in essence, if he had celebrated, it would have been celebrating his loyal work as a slave, and would do it, not with his father, but with his friends. He was full of anger and closed his heart so much so that he did not even ponder going into the celebration even after a personal invitation. He appeared to judge the father and act, incredulous of the father’s foolishness in acting celebratory toward a blatant sinner.
4) Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart.
The Father’s heart attitude with its words, and its movement is so beautiful. The father moves toward him and initiates. When the father came out, he calls him in and invites him personally. When he entreated him, he assured him of his identity, his position, his possessions, security and relationship. When he said, “son, you were always with me”, he teaches him of his unfailing love for him. When he said, “it is fitting to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead and lost but now he’s alive and found”, he acknowledges that the turned heart and new life of his brother needed to be celebrated in grace.
Beautifully stated, Rebecca. Love this!
1. Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. Thinking of the “two sons,” whom do you think “the sinners” represent? And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?”
I think the sinners represent the younger son, the people who did not follow the law of Moses, adulterers, robbers…just bad and morally corrupt people and the tax collectors, Jewish agents, who collected taxes for the Roman government…considered a disgrace by their own people and detested because they were often defrauding their own people. The teachers of the law , represent the older brother, were the scribes and Pharisees who were hypocritical and rigid, believing that God’s grace was only for those who kept the law…(who could do that?)
2. Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
3. Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart.
The older son, was the rule keeper, with a bad heart attitude. He wanted to get what he felt he deserved and earned by obedience and he was angry that his father was willing to forgive his brother and jealous that he had never been given even a goat. (The younger brother the sinner knew he did not deserve forgiveness, but had a heart to repent.)
4. Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart.
The Father’s heart belongs to both of his sons, equally, regardless of the past sins. The Father is willing to forgive. The Father says “Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours”.
5. Download the Keller sermon and listen to the introduction up to when he says the parable is in “two acts.”
6. What particularly stood out to you and why?
I love this from Keller: Jesus is here to shatter all existing human categories. It was not called Christianity back then. It was called the anti-religion. Jesus is showing the true way to connect to the Living God. It is the completion to have a relationship, that no one has been able to earn by rules or works. It is only by God’s grace, forgiveness and love. It is in a whole different category altogether.
7. Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son?
It is about two brothers and their relationships and attitude to their Father; and the love and grace of their Father.
I too think it is great Christianity was called anti-religion. And so it is!
Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. Thinking of the “two sons,” whom do you think”the sinners” represent? And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?” Tax collectors and sinners were drawing near while the Pharisees and scribes complaining that Jesus received and eats with sinners. The people who weren’t Pharisees or scribes. I suspect the Pharisees and scribes considered themselves as holy and looked down upon the people who didn’t meet their high standards of righteousness.
Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart. Angry, he refused to celebrate his brothers return. He pointed out his brother’s sin and pointed out I’ve served and obeyed you all these years and never got a party, but when this son of yours came, you killed he fatted calf.
Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart. “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have mine is yours.” Tenderness tried to explain the reason for celebration.
Download the Keller sermon and listen to the introduction up to when he says the parable is in “two acts.”
What particularly stood out to you and why? Jesus was trying to shatter everything they had thought about how to connect to God. That is radical. In reading the older son passage again I remember years ago “getting it” on how the older brother felt. I missed the point of the parable. Father was after the heart not just obedience.
Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son?” It’s about both sons the one son left home but came to his senses and came home. The other son was there but never connected to the family. It was duty.
If you have seen the movie “The Jesus Revolution,” how was the church in the story acting like the older brother?
Tuesday
Monday: Introduction
Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. Thinking of the “two sons,” whom do you think” the sinners” represent? And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?”
The sinners represent the younger son, and the tax collectors can be the younger son, too as they were mostly Jews who have deserted their heritage for the love of money, and teachers of the law represent the older brother.
Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart.
He was angry. He expressed his bitterness about being overlooked for all the “good’ things that he has done-never disobeyed (yeah but what about your heart attitude?), slaved away, and did not have any “fun” thing to do like celebrating with his friends. He called his brother “that son of yours”. The younger has squandered his property. Oh, what words we say when our hearts are full of anger and bitterness!
Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart.
He called the older brother “my son”. He pointed out in a kind way that everything the father had is the older son’s which was true considering whatever was left was rightfully his since the younger brother got all of his shares. When our heart is not in the right place, we cannot think rationally.
I just had a thought cross my mind. I was wondering why the servant referred to the calf as the fattened calf. Was the Father confident that the younger son was going to come home and he wants to be prepared to receive and celebrate him? What a Father we have! Always ready to give us the best when we humbly return home!
Download the Keller sermon and listen to the introduction up to when he says the parable is in “two acts.”
What particularly stood out to you and why?
Not sure I got all of this verbatim: Every human idea we have on how to connect to God has been wrong. Jesus is here to shatter all human categories. Christianity when it arose in the world, was not seen as a religion and was called Antireligion, Christians were called atheists by the Romans. What Christianity said about God was so different than what any other religion was saying, that it should not be given the same name. It is its own category.
Here we are in the 21st century and what Keller said still applies. We can still be considered anti-religion and atheists by the religious and the people who call themselves Christians because our God is not who they think is God.
Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son?”
Because there are 2 sons, and they are being compared/contrasted to one another in this parable. Keller called Act 1 the story of the lost younger brother and Act 2, the story of the lost older brother.
If you have seen the movie “The Jesus Revolution,” how was the church in the story acting like the older brother? I have not but I am speculating the church probably looked down on the ways the hippies dressed and act. Like they are all hopeless cases. The older I get and the more I hear of people’s testimonies, the more I believe no one is beyond the mercy of God. Alistair Begg once said, “God is the final judge; we are not.” Dee, Faye Tucker came to mind.
Interesting thought Bing about “fattened”
Yes, I had never thought about the fattened calf!
Thank you so much for your prayers for me speaking. I did sense the Lord and all the tech went well too.
Rebecca D.
Dee, do you have a video of it you can share here? I’m SO happy to hear His Spirit moved and that the tech went well. Tech can be bittersweet!
Awww, thanks Rebecca! No — and haven’t you seen me speak enough? 🙂
I agree with Rebecca. It would be wonderful to see the video of you speaking. I always am inspired. I know many were blessed by you.
Rebecca D.
11. Listen to the Keller sermon up to Act Two and the Lost Elder Brother.
12. What particularly stood out to you and why? The Father’s response to the younger and older son. Any of us would respond differently when our love is rejected. We would become angry at the person and enact some sort of justice in order to ease our pain. The father turned that upside down with his response by doing the complete opposite.
13. Why would have listeners been astounded by the younger brother’s request? You don’t ask for your inheritance before your father dies because that is telling your father you want him dead. That you’ve always just wanted him for what he can give you for you’ve never loved him. You are also putting yourself in a place where you will be ousted from the family forever.
14. Why would they have been astounded at the father’s response? What does this teach about God as our Father? It is a natural response and expectation for fathers to reject their son as dead to him if he were to do something like this, for the father would never grant this request. This father did. He is exceedingly generous even if His generosity means he sacrifices Himself.
15. What was Keller’s point with the song from the musical Oklahoma? (You can watch it on you-tube — the name of the song is “Oklahoma!”) That they belong to the land…so giving away his wealth was more giving away of himself. It means biological. (I have this song memorized!! As a child I spent hours singing and acting it out.)
16. How did Keller point out and describe the love of the Father toward His younger son? How have you experienced this? I experience this in many ways as a believer and especially so when He helped me see my wandering heart chasing after idols.
This reminded me this morning of an aspect of my salvation story I haven’t really pondered before. Wanting God for what He could give me. In my tumultuous years as a teenager and into a young adult, I often asked him, if he would just get me out of the trouble I’ve caused myself, I’ll never do that particular sin again. I was praying to a God I thought was more or less an object than a person. An entity so far off and too high to be mindful of me, I thought He must be there to grant us our wishes when we decide to be good. 🙂 I am befuddled and in awe that God would even draw me to Him while I was thinking that way about Him!
Years later, God had me in a place where I started pondering, could He be a person? A creator who wants a relationship with the people He created? Is the ultimate love I long for found in God? Is the ultimate love I can feel and give toward someone ultimately found in God? He was “running after me with his legs showing, ” As I started pondering these things, He showed me Himself through my brother, and through an immigrant Gardner in California who threw his hands up saying, Praise the Lord! in front of my brother who was studying his bible outside on my grandmother’s porch. My brother told me he got up quickly and went to look for him as he walked off but he couldn’t find him. I didn’t know that the next day I was going to give myself to Christ for I wasn’t totally sure I wanted to give up my lifestyle yet. 🙂 I think that was an angel and there was a celebration “behind the scene” that this prodigal is coming home for she wants God rather than what God can give her. (Even that desire He gave to me!! I did NOT deserve that, and I did nothing but yield to Him). Amazing Love how can it be?
Rebecca D, thank you for sharing that part of your testimony. The sweetness of God’s love and pursuit of you, of us is so rich. His bare legged running toward us…wow! How he loves us!
I love your sweet testimony, Rebecca. I do believe in angels! 🙂 I think that was an angel and there was a celebration “behind the scene”
I love the story of your progression! Could He actually be a person?
12. What particularly stood out to you and why?
I like how the younger son doesn’t just ask to come home, but asks to be a worker and earn a wage. This means he knows he must pay his own way.
13. Why would have listeners been astounded by the younger brother’s request?
In that culture to ask for your inheritance meant you wished your father dead. He wanted the father’s stuff, not the father. That is so painful. I have felt like this with my own children before.
14. Why would they have been astounded at the father’s response? What does this teach about God as our Father?
A traditional middle-eastern father would have responded by throwing the child out of the house, even with physical violence. He does not do that. This father divided his “life” between them.
God is our Father. He knows best, and sometimes we must learn from experience. He will be there for us when we realize that we cannot live on our own, without Him.
3. Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. He was speaking to sinners, tax collectors, Pharisees and scribes. Thinking of the “two sons,” whom do you think”the sinners” represent? The younger brother. And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?” The older brother
4. Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
5. Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart. He is angry, jealous, ungrateful. He refers to his brother as your son instead of my brother. He brings up his brother’s sins, he accuses his father of not even giving him as much as a young goat.
6. Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart. He came to the older brother and he pleads with him, he tells him what’s mine is yours.
7. Download the Keller sermon and listen to the introduction up to when he says the parable is in “two acts.”
8. What particularly stood out to you and why? That Christianity wasn’t considered a religion when it started, but an anti-religion. I just found that interesting.
9. Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son?” Because it is not a story about just one brother. It should be called the Prodigal’s sons if you use the definition of prodigal correctly; Rashly or wastefully extravagant, giving or given in abundance; lavish or profuse.
10. If you have seen the movie “The Jesus Revolution,” how was the church in the story acting like the older brother? They resented the hippies and looked down on them.
It’s funny. When I copied and pasted the questions for Monday it showed the correct question numbers (3-10), but when I hit enter after I typed in my answers the numbers disappeared.
I went to the edit screen and added them.
So it isn’t just me!
11. Listen to the Keller sermon up to Act Two and the Lost Elder Brother.
12. What particularly stood out to you and why? Our normal response to rejected love is to lash out and retaliate, but the father is enduring.
13. Why would have listeners been astounded by the younger brother’s request? To ask for the inheritance while the father was still alive is to wish him dead.
14. Why would they have been astounded at the father’s response? A traditional father would have responded in only one way, drive the boy out with verbal or physical blows. Instead the father divided his life to them. What does this teach about God as our Father? He does not treat us as we deserve. And he gives us more than we deserve.
The reason Keller titled his book “Prodigal God” is that while prodigal can mean squandering, it can also mean generous. How generous the Father was with both sons as He is with us.
15. What was Keller’s point with the song from the musical Oklahoma? (You can watch it on you-tube — the name of the song is “Oklahoma!”) We know we belong to the land, not that the land belongs to us. The people in biblical times knew that the land was their identity
16. How did Keller point out and describe the love of the Father toward His younger son? He runs to his son and gives up all of his cultural norms by running to him. How have you experienced this? God came to me at a time when I was not seeking him. He rescued me.
15. What was Keller’s point with the song from the musical Oklahoma? (You can watch it on you-tube — the name of the song is “Oklahoma!”
The song says something like, “…we belong to the land.” I think his point was that in those days you were identified by how much land you owned.
16. How did Keller point out and describe the love of the Father toward His younger son? How have you experienced this?
His love was unconditional. Absolutely.
I also meant to say that he loved more like a mother than a father.
17.Listen up to when Keller says this parable redefines God as Father.
A. What particularly stood out to you and why?
The disrespect of the older brother is overwhelming to me. He says, “Look…” instead of calling him by name. He won’t attend the most expensive party his family has ever had because he is jealous.
B.What do you see in the attitude of the older brother through these words:
Look! – He is looking down on his father
Slaving for you – Playing the martyr.
Never disobeyed – He is acting altruistic
This son of yours – He is mocking the younger brother.
You killed the fattened calf for him! – He is overcome with jealousy.
18. How do you see yourself in the older brother?
I remember once a very long time ago (30 yrs), after a particularly stressful bit of life, saying that “…God owes me…” ugh and ouch. I’m so ashamed of that statement! He owes me nothing. I am here because He wanted me here. These days, I am better, but I can occasionally fall into the pity party attitude and wonder why life has to be so hard. It doesn’t happen often though. I have worked so hard to understand the Bible in the last 15 years and know how much He loves me and how that is the most important thing overall. Thank You Lord.
Thanks for that testimony, Laura.
11. Listen to the Keller sermon up to Act Two and the Lost Elder Brother.
12. What particularly stood out to you and why?
Enduring the agony of rejected love is what the father is doing. He loves his son so much, yet he lets him have his way~ he lets his son go. It is how we often treat our Father God; in our immaturity, we can think what we want is better than what God has for us. I don’t like to admit it, but I have felt this way when I was a teenager, yet God has been gracious when I have returned and asked His forgiveness. He opened His arms to me.
13. Why would have listeners been astounded by the younger brother’s request?
Asking his father for his inheritance, is like wishing his father dead. He want his father’s stuff, but not the relationship. His relationship was a means to an end.
14. Why would they have been astounded at the father’s response? What does this teach about God as our Father?
His father gave him more than he asked for~ He gave him half of his estate. Our Father God is generous and willing to give us far more than we ask. He never considers us dead when our hearts stray, but He opens His arms to us when we return to Him. He is the Father, who cherishes us so much that He sent His Son to pay for our sins.
17.Listen up to when Keller says this parable redefines God as Father.
A. What particularly stood out to you and why? The disdain with which the older brother treats his father. It must have been so hurtful to this father to have both of his children treat him with such disrespect.
B.What do you see in the attitude of the older brother through these words:
Look!
Slaving for you
Never disobeyed
This son of yours
You killed the fattened calf for him! Total disrespect and disregard for the father and his feelings.
18. How do you see yourself in the older brother? I’ve had some Christian brothers and sisters who go deeply into debt buying big houses, they don’t volunteer, don’t give money to charity, spend lots of money on what I consider vain things (hair, nails, clothes, cars, vacations, etc.) and yet they seem to always prosper. If I’m totally honest with myself, a part of me would be satisfied to see them fail in some way. It’s as though I would somehow be validated for the choices that I have made or the way my life has been going, by seeing their downfall.
It’s a horrible “big brother” way of looking at things. I pray for a spirit of true gratefulness for what I have and joy for the successes and blessings that others receive. All of it is because of His mercy.
Honest sharing. Some of that in all of us, I believe. Help us, Lord!
19.Listen up to Keller summing up with “three things.”
A. What stood out to you from this part and why?
I have not ever thought of God as patriarchal and harsh. It was comforting that I had Him in my life, from the time I was 12 at my fathers deathbed, until now. Of course I felt/feel “bad” when I fail Him, and I repent, and there was a time when I wasn’t following Him and didn’t repent. Am I covered for those times? If I am not specific because I can’t remember, can I say a prayer like, “Father, forgive me for wandering from You in that time of my life, and for not living the life You wanted for me?”
B. How does this parable redefine God as Father?How does it redefine sin?
Jesus redefines God as a living, caring Father. Sin is not just doing bad things. It is also being a Pharisee and righteous. Both are lost; they don’t know the Father.
C. How does it redefine salvation? What was his point with Flannery O’Connor?
Jesus redefines salvation and someone has to lose something.
Salvation is:
1) first need initiating the love – the father goes to both sons; good and bad.
2) learn to repent for everything, the sins and the desire to be your own savior.
3) be melted and moved by the cost it took to bring him/us home.
Flannery O’Connor had a character that thought he could “avoid” Jesus by avoiding sin. We believe that if we are “good,” then we will be blessed. If that is what we think then we don’t know Jesus. We are our own savior. We are trying to get God so we can get what we want, but not God.
D.Why do religious people obey God? Why do Christians obey God? Which are you?
Religious people obey God to get things. Christians obey God to get God. I have been both in my life. About 15 yrs ago I decided to start studying the Bible because I thought (the Holy Spirit fell upon me?) that I might just need to know more about heaven. I was at a very low point in my life with my teenage children. I couldn’t understand the pain I (we), was (were) enduring. I have learned that God loves me through this study I began so long ago. I have learned there is nothing I can do for this love. It makes me cry. No one here on Earth can make me feel this love and joy. I know I’m supposed to say it’s my husband, but he can’t be what God is to me. I truly believe that God has left a bit of Himself in each of us when we are born and it’s up to us to find it. Who doesn’t love a treasure hunt???
19.Listen up to Keller summing up with “three things.”
A. What stood out to you from this part and why? That we can be just as lost as a moral conformist. We can be doing the right things to get what we want, but miss the boat by not wanting the Father
B. How does this parable redefine God as Father?How does it redefine sin? God is not like many earthly fathers. God is loving, generous, not emotionally abandoned, willing to accept our rejection, and wanting our love in return. Sin is living as we want and doing what we want to get what we want from the Father. It’s not living a life being in a loving relationship with the Father.
C. How does it redefine salvation? What was his point with Flannery O’Connor? It’s not our goodness or badness that saves us. It’s our recognition of our sinfulness and our need for Jesus as Savior. Flannery O’Connor dark understanding in one of the characters was the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin. It’s the belief that if I do the right things God has to bless me and that instead of accepting that I need Jesus as Savior I become my own savior (self righteousness)
D.Why do religious people obey God? Why do Christians obey God? Which are you? Religious people obey God to get things. Gospel people obey God to get God, to know Him and to delight Him. Which am I? I have some older brother syndrome in me. At times I want to do the right things because of fear – fear of not pleasing Him, fear of being rejected by Him, fear of not being good enough(as if I ever could be) fear I’ve disconnected myself from Him.
15. What was Keller’s point with the song from the musical Oklahoma? (You can watch it on you-tube — the name of the song is “Oklahoma!”
The land is so much a part of who these people were. It was their wealth and identity.
16. How did Keller point out and describe the love of the Father toward His younger son? How have you experienced this?
The Father’s love is always unconditional to receive us back into relationship with Him. Yes! I seem to slip into “old sinful ways” of thinking and I have to pray that He will cleanse my heart of my negative motives. So many parts of this story remind me that my heart can become testy or pride filled…or sinful in so many ways. I need to keep a godly filter around my heart so that the gift I seek is God and my relationship with Him and not what He can do for me…but how I can be in community with Him.
17.Listen up to when Keller says this parable redefines God as Father.
A. What particularly stood out to you and why?
Our God is a loving Father, who longs for Reconciliation and Relationship. He is a sensitive, generous and willing to receive the agony of the rejected love of His children. He is love; He is suffering; He is longing. For all His power and majesty, He is all these things and longing for our love. This is a picture of a Father that I long to have a relationship with!
B. What do you see in the attitude of the older brother through these words:
Look!
Disrespectful
Slaving for you
Proud and Angry
Never disobeyed
Judgmental
This son of yours
Lack of Forgiveness
You killed the fattened calf for him!
Jealousy
18. How do you see yourself in the older brother?
I see that I need to constantly tend the log in my own eye. My concern needs to be with my heart, my attitude and my motives. I pray the words of the hymn and Paige Brown: Day by day, dear Lord,
of thee three things I pray;to see thee more clearly,to love thee more dearly,to follow thee more nearly,day by day.
Such a good prayer.
17. Listen up to when Keller says this parable redefines God as Father.
A. What particularly stood out to you and why? How angry he is at such a loving, gentle, and gracious father. To me, it seems like his anger is built up, like he’s always disliked his father’s kind character and maybe this was the last straw.
B.What do you see in the attitude of the older brother through these words:
Look! – He is saying “look you”… he is fuming and has no respect for the father. He is indignant and treats him like he is a stranger.
Slaving for you – It is a duty to serve his father rather than a delight, so he didn’t really love him.
Never disobeyed – Prideful, and believes works = love
This son of yours – He is belittling the father’s love for his brother and at the same time referring to his brother as trash. Pride again for he thinks based on his obedience, he is better.
You killed the fattened calf for him! – He is calling his father a fool. He believes he deserves it, not his younger brother.
18. How do you see yourself in the older brother? When someone has hurt me and yet God shows them amazing forgiveness and mercy even though they don’t see they have a pattern that can hurt others. So even though they haven’t fully changed, it’s okay because God has forgiven them. I easily think that they don’t deserve to get out of this for free. Why do they get the benefits of God’s forgiveness and love even though they don’t easily extend it to me?
1. Read the opening and then share what stands out to you and why.
I, too, didn’t grasp the meaning of Jesus’ parable for many years. I only understood it to be about the younger son; he was the rebellious, lost son. It was only until I heard Tim Keller’s teaching (and I believe it was right here!) and also Henri Nouwen’s book, that I began to see that Jesus was using BOTH sons to make his point. They were both equally lost, just for different reasons. The son who stayed at home, followed all the rules, was lost, because his was a mindset of fear based servitude towards his father, not joyful obedience because he knew his father loved him and truly, everything his father had was also his.
As to your (Dee’s) thoughts on divorce, I also recently learned something from Lisa TerKeurst, Christian author and speaker. On a recent FB Live with Leslie Vernick, Lisa shared how that famous verse in Malachi 2:16, which we read as “God hates divorce”, in the original language actually states, “When a man hates and divorces his wife, he does violence against the one he should protect.” That verse did not say that God hates divorce before the King James Version. A beautiful thing recently happened to a friend of mine who is Catholic. She was divorced over 30 years ago because her husband cheated on her and was emotionally abusive. She later remarried, and just a couple of weeks ago told her church’s priest that she rarely took communion because she believed she wasn’t supposed to as a divorced woman. He reassured her that she was welcome to receive communion.
Dee, I always appreciate your honest and vulnerable sharing, like when you used to be hard on widows in their long grieving, until you went through it yourself. I know I can speak for myself that I’ve done the same kind of things. There is someone that I used to be inwardly critical of because I thought they were “cheap” and expected others to help pay for things, until just recently, I learned of a financial burden they are carrying and having to make payment on.
2. How have you experienced the love of your Abba Father, this week?
I’ve been having a hard time emotionally this week. I was in NC from last Friday to this Monday evening, visiting our son, his wife, and our two grandchildren. My one sister also came with me. We were taking care of the kids over the weekend, as my son was out of town for a wedding and my daughter in law had to work. My son reminded me of one of my not admirable moments as a mother when he was young, and I felt the guilt and shame rushing in. And there’s a pretty bad situation going on in my family of origin right now that I can’t share here. But my emotions are all over the place. Yesterday I was walking from the hospital parking lot into work. I had been feeling badly driving to work, and when I got out of my car and was walking, I started praying silently but my head was down. All of a sudden I heard a man say to me, “Hey – what’s wrong? Is it really all that bad? Are you having a bad day now?” I looked up and saw an elderly African American man on the sidewalk in front of me. Then he just looked at me and held up what he was carrying in his hand. It was Bible, and on the cover it said The New Testament. I smiled back and said I have one of those at home, sir, and I read it too! Then he just walked on. Maybe God was reminding me to have hope, and what is the source of my hope.
Oh, Susan, thank you for your honest and loving post. You always address such important points. My husband had an abusive wife; our daughters would have had a terrible life if she had ever had custody of them. They are so many stories that are never told, known or understood from surface information. God so protected our family and our daughters as they grew up and they learned from sources other than us what could have happened to them. They are both very grateful. So thankful for the protection of the Lord.
I also loved how God placed a the sweet reminder of His presence in your life, just when you needed it most. I will pray for your family of origin, that our Abba Father will hold them in the palm of His mighty hand and give healing and peace. Praying for you to sense the presence of God’s love and care and you travel this storm.
Susan, thank you for this post. I was especially filled with hope for you (and me) with the elderly man’s comment. Thank You Lord! The news makes it seem like we all hate each other. It is NOT TRUE. It’s not what I see as I move across the country this week, and it isn’t what you experienced either. Love you sister ♥️
You’re right, Laura! There is a lot of positive out there and kindness, but sadly it doesn’t make the headlines!
Wow — Susan — I want to check that out with a Hebrew scholar for that TOTALLY changes the meaning!
Yes it does, Dee! I was watching a replay of a Livestream on Leslie’s FB page and Lysa TerKeurst was her first guest. As you likely already know, Lysa is divorced. Lysa studied the Scriptures and said that when she went back to the original language, this is how this verse is stated in its bigger context. So interesting. I’m also in a private FB group for empty-nest moms. This week, a woman shared about how her 17 year old son curses at her every day, lies and manipulates her. I was saddened at a couple of the responses to her, which included things God allows trials in our lives….trust in God, hope, pray. I felt compelled to share some of Leslie’s words of wisdom in a reply to her, that sacrificing the best of who God made you to be in order to enable the worst in another person isn’t being a godly woman!
What terrible advice to that mother! A counselor who hasn’t heard of boundaries?
Susan, thanks for sharing about the verse in Malachi. I have not seen that verse in light of what Leslie shared. I have friends who are divorced and I love them to pieces. I do struggle with the why and try to keep in mind that I do not know the whole story. We have a couple of friends in our church a while back where the husband divorced his wife because he “deserved to be happy” and so married the wife of his best friend after the divorce! My husband often tells me, ” God always has the final say”. And I am learning to extend grace as I have received grace from God.
Thankful for the elderly man whom God sent to bring you hope. For sure, He saw you and sent you a “kiss”! So like our Abba.
Bing, I do know that Leslie Vernick isn’t an advocate of divorce for any reason, like I’m not happy with my spouse anymore or just looking for an escape clause. She does advocate for women trapped in abusive marriages who have had that verse used against them to keep them trapped.
Oh, yeah, Susan. I realize that and do understand situations like those of those trapped in abusive marriages. I guess I did not express myself rightly. I remember a funny example of Dr. Townsend (Minirth-Meier Clinic) when he was interviewing a couple who were contemplating divorce. One of the reasons that the wife gave that made her consider divorcing her husband was, “he leaves his dirty clothes outside the hamper! Why can’t he put them inside the hamper?” (I liked the phrase escape clause that you used) Fortunately for this Christian couple, they saw the light and stayed married after receiving godly counsel.
20. Listen to the end.
A. What stood out to you from this part and why?
All the younger brothers go to NYC! Hahaha! Our daughter sure did…
B.How do you see the initiating love of the Father and what can we learn?
He jumps into receiving the younger son before the son has a chance to explain himself. Love, love, love.
C. What do we need to repent of besides sin?
Also our goodness. Our idea that because we are so good, that we follow all the rules, that we should be rewarded for being this way.
D. What is the difference between a Christian and a moralist?
A Christian wants God for God, not for “stuff.” There is nothing else but the love. A moralist follows the rules for some sort of gain in the end.
21. What did loving us cost God?
It cost God the life of His Son. At one point Jesus was not the Son so we could be that Son to God. We had the relationship that He should have had. Thank You Lord.
Saturday: Take-A-Way
22. What is your takeaway and why?
I have been busy with end-of-school-year responsibilities this week but listened to Tim Keller’s sermon twice. I decided to just summarize my answers from Tuesday to now as my takeaways. Dee, thank you for introducing me to his sermons and messages several years ago. God has gifted him with words (a wordsmith?) to minister to my soul.
My takeaways from this study:
I am the young brother in many ways, going off to a foreign country to indulge in worldly ways.
I am the elder brother in many, many ways going off to a foreign land in my mind though I “stayed” home to indulge in self-righteous ways.
I have been a recipient of God’s generosity in both personas. And I grieved both personas because they have grieved not only the people I love but God Himself.
I have realized how my moralist persona is daily at work in me. Judging others and like the elder brother, I tend to put myself on a pedestal and look down on others. Ugh. Never have seen this subtle part of the painting. But when our eyes are opened to the truth, we see things more clearly, conviction is given by the Holy Spirit and repent we must!
The initiating love of the Father, the ability to repent of not only what I have done wrong but of the things I did right in self-justification, and to melt into what it cost to bring me back home. Thank you, Jesus!
Lastly, that the God of the universe loves me, and I can call him, Abba, Father overwhelms me. There is no father like Him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTHS4W1bPj8 Run to the Father by Cody Carnes
Monday: Introduction
1. Read Luke 15:1-2 and describe the two groups that Jesus is speaking to. Thinking of the “two sons”, whom do you think “the sinners” represent? And “the tax collectors and teachers of the law?”
Verse 1 says that tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus. Verse 2 says that this made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law upset that Jesus associated with these kinds of people. The sinners would represent the younger son who left home, and the teachers of the law would represent the elder brother.
2. Last week we looked at the Father’s love for the younger son. Now read Luke 15:25-31.
3. Describe the older son’s attitude toward the Father and his younger brother. Look for specific phrases that show his heart.
Towards his father: Anger and refusal to go into the celebration his father was hosting. He viewed his father as a slave-master (All these years I’ve slaved for you). The elder son misses the boat here in not grasping his own father-son relationship with his father. It shows he obeyed his father’s requests, but he resented it. He sees his father as withholding from him (You never gave me even one young goat…) He doesn’t see his father as generous, giving, and even lavish.
Towards his brother: Because of his younger brother’s “sin”, his younger brother is dead to him. His sins are unforgiveable. (This son of yours…) He doesn’t identify with him at all. He has held a grudge all this time against his younger brother, evidenced by the way he recounts his offenses (squanderering money, consorting with prostitutes). Anger, resentment, and likely jealousy.
4. Describe the Father’s love toward the older brother, again, looking for phrases that show His heart.
The father came out and begged him to come join the party. In that culture, it would’ve been shameful for the father to do this, but he doesn’t care about his image. He desires fellowship with his elder son. He sees his elder son as his equal, sharing equally in everything he owns (Everything I have is yours). It’s as if he was telling him, look, if you wanted to have a party with your friends, you could’ve taken your pick of our animals for your feast! You didn’t even have to ask!
5. Download the Keller sermon and listen to the introduction up to when he says the parable is in “two acts”.
6. What particularly stood out to you and why?
Keller said that Jesus is teaching, through this parable, that every idea the human race has ever had about connecting with God is wrong. So different was Christianity from its very beginning that the Romans referred to the Christians as “atheists”, feeling that this movement wasn’t just another religion.
7. Why should this parable not be called “The Prodigal Son”?
Because it’s really about two sons, and you are meant to compare and contrast them. If you fail to do this, you will miss the radical message Jesus intended through this parable.
Tuesday: Act One – The Lost Younger Brother
11. Listen to the Keller sermon up to Act Two and the Lost Elder Brother.
12. What particularly stood out to you and why?
The idea that it’s possible to want the father only for his stuff, for what he gives to you or what he can do for you, reminded me of one of Mike Reeves’ sermons in which he said that we often offer Jesus/God to people as a way to get to heaven, or for His help for whatever their troubles are, but then we stop right there. God becomes a means to an end, which is why many people walk away, because “Jesus didn’t work for me.” Or even like Paige Brown saying in one of her talks that Jesus can be used like a “tonic” – take Him out of the medicine chest when you’re in trouble, and then put Him back in and shut the door. So I see that even I can be like the younger son; not necessarily running off in outright rebellion, but using the Father for what He can help me with but not valuing say, just spending time with Him.
13. Why would listeners been astounded by the younger brother’s request?
Keller explained that when you had two sons, when you died, the estate was divided: 2/3 to the older son, and 1/3 to the younger son. The oldest was to get a double portion. But that happened when the father died. When the younger son asked for his share while the father was still alive, one scholar said that it’s to wish the father dead. It’s like saying, “I want your stuff, but I don’t want you. I wish you were dead.” It was also asking his father to tear his life apart and to diminish his standing in the community.
14. Why would they have been astounded at the father’s response? What does this teach about God as our Father?
In ancient Middle Eastern culture, the expected response would’ve been for the father to drive his son out of his house – even to the point of physical blows. But this father carries out his son’s request. The literal translation says, “The father divided his life between them.” Jesus’ hearers had never heard or seen a patriarch respond to such a request like this. Keller said that this father is enduring “rejected love”. A typical human response to this son’s request would be to get angry and to diminish our affection for the person so we don’t hurt so much. Not this father. He endures the agony of rejected love. So like our Father in heaven. He knows the agony and pain of His love being rejected. Jesus knew the pain of His own people rejecting Him, to the point of wanting Him killed.
15. What was Keller’s point with the song from the musical Oklahoma?
Keller explained the relationship that people of the past had to their land. The father’s estate was his land, and he would’ve had to sell off part of it in order to give his younger son his share of the estate. Keller likens this to the musical Oklahoma! in which one of the songs says, “Oh we know we belong to the land and the land we belong to is grand!” It doesn’t say the land belongs to us, but rather we belong to the land. It’s hard to understand this relationship in our modern society, but in ancient times, to lose your land was to lose a part of yourself and even your standing in the community. Truly, in Jesus’ day, the people “belonged to their land”.
16. How did Keller point out and describe the love of the Father toward his younger son? How have you experienced this?
The younger son returned with a plan to be an apprenticed worker (a hired hand) so that he could eventually learn a craft or skill and begin to pay his father back. When his father sees him from afar, he runs. Middle Eastern patriarchs did not run. You’d have to pick-up your robes and bare your legs, which would be dishonoring to the father. In fact, said Keller, this father acts more like a mother by running to his son. He is so emotionally abandoned that he starts kissing his son. The father isn’t even listening to his son’s attempts to tell about his plan. He doesn’t wait for his son to even get cleaned up before he orders that the best robe be put on him. The father makes it clear by his actions that there is no earning his way back for this son; the father is bringing him back in.
The Father treats me in the same way. When I know I’ve done wrong and sinned, I often feel like avoiding Him altogether. Yet I know I can’t do anything to earn my way back or to somehow right the wrong I have done. I can only trust myself to His never failing mercy and love and forgiveness. What’s the use in trying anyway? I always think of what I read in that book, Gentle and Lowly. The author said that if sin were the color blue, everything we do is tainted with blue. Even my best and most generous actions may have a hint of blue if my motives are the tiniest bit for selfish gain or wanting approval.
Appreciate this reminder, Susan. The author said that if sin were the color blue, everything we do is tainted with blue. Even my best and most generous actions may have a hint of blue if my motives are the tiniest bit for selfish gain or wanting approval.
Wednesday: Act Two – the Lost Older Brother
17. Listen up to when Keller says this parable redefines God as Father.
A. What particularly stood out to you and why?
That Jesus doesn’t neatly end this parable with either a happy or an unhappy ending. The final outcome remains unknown. He leaves the listeners hanging.
B. What do you see in the attitude of the older brother through these words:
Look! – The older son basically says, “Look, you!” He does not address him as father. This is an insult to his father.
Slaving for you – he does his duties with resentment, not out of love for his father.
Never disobeyed – he thinks his goodness makes him righteous and will earn him the love of his father.
This son of yours – he’s your son. I want nothing to do with him. My younger brother is nothing to me.
You killed the fattened calf for him! – Meat was a delicacy in those days, and the greatest and most expensive thing to do was to slay a fattened calf. This was not done for a private party. The elder son is saying, “How dare you use our wealth like this! I have some right over these things!”
18. How do you see yourself in the older brother?
I can be judgmental of those who live lives of obvious sin and disobedience. I don’t want to get too close to them. Even though I may say that I believe God can forgive anyone, anything, I secretly may be wanting them to experience the consequences of their actions.
Susan — this from the top Hebrew scholar at Dallas Seminary: Dorian Coover-Cox — she was so very helpful as my editor on Esther. Sounds like there is validity to that interpretation but it is also a very hard passage to translate:
Malachi 2:16
24 tc The verb a´nDc (sane}) appears to be a third person form, “he hates,” which makes little sense in the context, unless one emends the following word to a third person verb as well. Then one might translate, “he [who] hates [his wife] [and] divorces her…is guilty of violence.” A similar translation is advocated by M. A. Shields, “Syncretism and Divorce in Malachi 2, 10-16, ” ZAW 111 (1999): 81-85. However, it is possible that the first person pronoun yIkOnDa (}anokhi, “I”) has accidentally dropped from the text after yI;k (ki). If one restores the pronoun, the form a´nDc can be taken as a participle and the text translated, “for I hate” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).
24 sn Though the statement “I hate divorce” may (and should) be understood as a comprehensive biblical principle, the immediate context suggests that the divorce in view is that of one Jewish person by another in order to undertake subsequent marriages. The injunction here by no means contradicts Ezra’s commands to Jewish men to divorce their heathen wives (Ezra 9-10).
25 tn Heb “him who covers his garment with violence” (similar ASV, NRSV). Here “garment” is a metaphor for appearance and “violence” a metonymy of effect for cause. God views divorce as an act of violence against the victim.
As you can see, it is not a simple matter of contradicting one translation and maintaining that the original language actually says . . . .
When NIV says, “Does violence to the one he should protect,” it is offering an explanation of the imagery of covering a garment with violence (“hamas,” which sounds like the name of the terrorist group for good reason). Such a man is being thoroughly and publicly harmful by what he is doing. The book is describing infidelity/treachery against the Lord, beginning with Israel as a whole, then the priests and the tribe of Levi, then Judah as a whole, and then individuals in their covenant relationships with one another, with divorce as a prime example. Meanwhile, people are complaining and accusing God. He, however, has not changed and has major plans for the future, to say the least. Anyone hearing Malachi should turn from their infidelity of all sorts, and some did (3:16–18).
Am I making sense? I hope what I’ve said helps; if questions remain, fire away.
As ever,
Dorian