Luke 15
COMMENTARY:
: 2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinner, and eats with them. (1234 “murmured” [diagogguzo] means always used of many indignantly complaining, to grumble, or to mutter.)
DEVOTION: One of their chief complaints against the LORD was that HE was not politically correct. Luke the author of this book and the book of Acts makes this point regularly. He is a doctor and they are noted for giving detailed reports on what is happening in their patient’s lives.
Here we find again that he thinks it is very important that those who want to be followers of Jesus Christ should not worry about the company they keep, as long as, they are doing it to honor the LORD. We should be witnesses to those who are at local city missions. We should be witnessing to those we meet on the street. We should be inviting those who visit our churches to our house or out to eat to show them that you and the church you attend cares about them.
Our responsibility today is to be Biblically correct and act like Jesus. The Holy Spirit will guide us. The LORD will give us strength to do the witnessing you are assigned to do. The Father will bless you for your obedience.
Those around you might not understand. In fact, some people you think are good Christians might even tell you to stop. Listen to the LORD when you are given direction to witness to someone that most people would think you shouldn’t witness to them.
CHALLENGE: Our responsibility is to work with sinners to give them the message of hope. When was the last time you eat with someone who needed Christ as their Savior?
: 10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. (5479 “joy” [chara] means gladness, state of rejoicing, happiness, delight, or cheerfulness.)
DEVOTION: We have an audience. We know that God is omnipresent and so HE knows what is going on around the world. We know that Jesus is omnipresent and HE is interceding for all those who are believers. We know that the Holy Spirit is omnipresent and HE is guiding believers in their attitudes and actions. HE is also correcting those who need correcting, so that, their service improves.
Now we understand that the angels are watching what is going on here on earth. They are not omnipresent. They can only be in one place at one time but they have the ability to watch what is happening. They have a party every time someone becomes a believer. They don’t have omniscience to know who is going to be saved. Only the Godhead have omniscience. They knew before the foundation of the world who would be saved.
We don’t know who is going to become a believer before it happens. Our responsibility is to witness to those who give us an opportunity to tell them about Jesus. Sometime we miss opportunities when we are not following the Holy Spirit’s lead. That causes us to commit the sin of omission against the Holy Spirit.
When someone becomes a true believer there should be happiness with excitement in the life of the one leading them to the LORD and also for all those who have been praying for the individual to become a follower of the LORD.
CHALLENGE: Are we full of excitement when someone comes to know the LORD or do we treat it with a ho-hum attitude. The angels don’t, neither should we!
: 17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! (4052 “have enough to spare” [perisseuo] means abound, to be abundant or plentiful, exist in large quantities, more than enough, to have an overabundance, abounding, or to exceed a fixed number of measure.)
DEVOTION: Some people are stubborn. There are people who have a good life and then think that there is something better out there. There are children who are raised in a good Christian home and given a good education and have had a good church to attend all of their life but still are not satisfied.
They think that the grass is greener away from the LORD. They think that they need to shed all the beliefs of their parents and some of their friend and go and see what the world is really like.
This young man found out that those who were his friends when things are going well were not his friends when his money ran out. They left him high and dry. He had to hit bottom before he realized that he had a good life before he tried this other lifestyle.
He finally came to himself or understood what was really going on and wanted to return to his family and their lifestyle. The great part of the story is that the father was willing to restore him after all he did to him. Some Christian fathers don’t feel the same way. It is wrong. Our arms should always be open to the return of a child that has gone astray.
I had a seminary professor who was mad at his son because of his unbelief and was not going to leave him a penny in his will. It was hard to listen to him as it seemed that he didn’t want to leave the door open to a repentant son if that ever happened.
Our attitude shows to our children and to those who attend our church.
CHALLENGE: Is our attitude a one of love in Christ or one of bitterness toward someone who has hurt us in the past? The older brother had the bitterness.
: 29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. (3928 “transgressed” [parerchomai] means to go past, pass by, moving forward, or disobey.)
DEVOTION: This chapter is dealing with the self-righteous Pharisees that were following Jesus. HE gave them a number of parables to explain why HE was reaching out to sinner and not to them. They thought they were in a good relationship with God when in reality they were not.
This final story of Jesus dealt with two sons. The younger went out and wasted his inheritance. After the inheritance was gone he ended up feeding swine. After he came to himself he realized that a servant in his father’s house had it better than him. He headed home to become a servant.
The father welcomed him back home and gave him a party. In the previous parables Jesus told of how the angels in heaven rejoiced over one sinner repenting. This story has the same truth. Here the younger son was repenting and yet the self-righteous older brother was not happy.
In fact, the older brother was mad. Here was a brother who had done everything wrong and he was getting a party. He thought it was very wrong of his father to give such a bad brother a party. His father tried to tell him that he loved him but the thoughts of this brother were that his father didn’t really love him.
One of the other thoughts that we learn about the older brother is that he thought he was perfect in his relationship with his father. He had never disobeyed him. He was the perfect son. He thought he deserved a party for being good.
As we read this chapter we see that the LORD used three parables to teach the Pharisees and religious leaders a lesson. What was the lesson? It was that HE had come to reach those who knew that they were sinners. HE came to reach those who were rejected by the religious leaders as TOO BAD to reach. The Pharisees looked at themselves as perfect in God’s eyes. Jesus informed them that they were not perfect. HE informed them that heaven rejoices over someone who realizes that they are a sinner and need help rather than over those who think they are perfect and don’t need to repent. All need to repent of their sins.
Only those who realize they are sinners can!!! There are some in our churches who think that they are perfect in God’s eyes. Even after we chose to follow the LORD there is need for confession of sin to keep our fellowship with the Father in good standing.
Remember that those who are followers who don’t confess or examine their lives are stricken with weakness, sickness and premature death. Those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ who seem to be living in sin and getting away with it, might not have ever really been followers of Christ. Those whom the LORD loves HE chastens.
CHALLENGE: Watch how you look at other people. Sometimes we can think we are better than other Christians. Sometimes we can think we deserve heaven while others do not. It is only by GRACE that we are SAVED!
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