Kindness of Jesus: receive it Small group questions Leaders: choose some, but not all of the following questions. Email me with any questions. Mark. 1. Was there anything new for you from Sunday s message? Any questions? 2. Why did Jesus kindness to sinners and tax collectors get him in to so much trouble? (Optional Read Luke 5:27-32 and/or Luke 7:36-50 to see some examples mentioned briefly in the message.) 3. Read Luke 15:1-2. Who are the two groups Jesus wants to address at one and the same time? In this story, Jesus does at least three things. He Clarifies what a sinner really is 15:11-16 4. Why don t most Australians ever think the category sinner has anything to do with them? How does Jesus redefine sin? Do you think the way Jesus pictures sin, would help your unbelieving neighbour or relative or friend, better understand the true nature of sin? 5. We hate the hypocrisy whereby someone claims to love God but treats people appallingly. What about when someone is good to other people but completely ignores God? 6. Would you be happy if someone played a video on the screen of everything you d said, done and thought? Is this a good question to ask someone who claims they ve never done anything wrong? Describes what God is really like - 15:17-24 7. What might both groups listening to Jesus, expected the father to do when the son returned? 8. Are you used to thinking of God as being so keen to forgive that he ll run and embrace and forgive you at the first inkling of your return? How do you react to this description/explanation? 9. Someone comments to you: I just don t think God would have me back. I hate who I ve become and what I ve done. How do you assure them? And exposes religion for what it often is 10. What was the older son s problem? Why was he so grumpy? In what way does his situation match that of the complaining religious leaders? Does this match some religious people you know today? 11. Someone says to you I ve helped out at church and been regular at church my entire life. I just hope I ve done enough! How do you point them to the beauty and the riches of God s grace to us? 12. What will be difference in someone s life when someone keeps God s rules to earn God s mercy compared to someone who lives God s way because they have already received God s mercy? Take some time to thank God that he is like the father welcoming, embracing, forgiving and showering us with good gifts. Pray for people in Noosa who want everything the Father has to offer, but don t want to know about him that they will come to their senses. And pray for religious people stuck in a never-ending attempt to earn points with God, that they would be liberated from their rule keeping to rest in all Jesus has done for them.
Date: 18 October 2015 Services: all services Series: Rediscover Jesus Passage: Luke 15:1-32 Title: Kindness of Jesus: receive it Outline: In this story, Jesus: 1. Clarifies what a sinner really is 2. Describes what God is really like 3. And exposed religion for what it often is Much of this material was first presented by John Dickson and we are very grateful to him for his permission to use it! You wouldn t think kindness would be a radical thing would you? But even in our own time, kindness can get you into trouble Kevin Rudd helping homeless in Melbourne in a soup kitchen, attracted criticism as did Tony Abbott on surf patrol or Rural Fire service rosters Or the Pope who has to sneak out of the Vatican late at night to go and help the homeless! We re going to see how Jesus kindness got him into all sorts of trouble but we ll see also how that same kindness can touch our lives today But before I get to that for those who weren t here last week let me quickly explain what we saw. We saw four fundamental things about Christianity when we were encouraged to test the history of Jesus Christianity is biographical it s all about the person of Jesus you can t actually know about Christianity until and unless you have encountered the person of Jesus Christianity is historical it s about stuff that really happened in time and space for which there is good evidence Christianity is Biblical by which I meant it fulfils the OT promises. The OT pointed to Jesus coming. Finally I said that Christianity is personal that is, it not JUST biography and history and in fulfilment of Biblical promises ultimately it s for you the gospels were written for you that you would encounter Jesus Christ and base your life on him we re meant to have certainty about Jesus Ok let s look then at the kindness of Jesus ----------- One of the things I really love about this church and there are many is the kindness of so many people here. I was impressed with it the moment I said yes to coming here the church brought Susan and me up to have a look around so kind they were doing up the minister s residence to such an extent that it was like moving into a brand new home And then over the years I ve both experienced and witnessed so much kindness People dropping in meals Transporting people to doctors and hospitals 2
Just last week 3 of our men helped move one of our ladies helped them shift house! The kindness extended to people out at John s Landing has been overwhelmingly generous But such kindness only embodies one of the most striking (and historians would say) one of the most certain features of Jesus in the first century. Jesus was famous for his kindness. Specifically and more radical that lots of our kindnesses - famous for eating and drinking with sinners.with people who were regarded as anti-god who had broken the rules of God such as tax collectors people who were regarded as greedy and a long way from God. And this was the cause of enormous controversy in the life of Jesus because he kept on going to people s homes who were sinners and the rule was in their day, of you had contact, especially over a meal, with a sinner, then their impurity would kind of contaminate you affect and infect you. And you kind of contracted their impurity So this is how the religious leaders of the day saw Jesus always eating with sinners and tax collectors and by so doing becoming more and more impure! All through Luke s Gospel, we find Jesus socialising with sinners. 5:27 he s at a banquet with a tax collector and the religious leaders the Pharisees and teachers of the law complained to Jesus disciples why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Then 7:36 Jesus this time is at the home of a religious leader and woman who had led a sinful life gate crashed the party and began weeping and then she dried Jesus feet with her tears and poured perfume all over them The religious leader was very critical of Jesus for allowing her to do this, but Jesus offers mercy and welcome to this sinful woman It s no wonder then that Jesus was accused of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners! Eventually this controversy of Jesus this eating and drinking, befriending sinners reaches a climax in Luke s gospel in ch 15 to let s have a look there and see the very tricky situation in which Jesus finds himself Read Luke 15:1-2 The leaders muttered they grumbled they were angry with Jesus for mixing with sinners and tax collectors So here Jesus has two groups really keen to hear what he has to say. On the one hand he has the sinners, but in the same room the religious elite And Jesus has to figure out a way of commending his message in a way that will impact on both audiences both the sinners and the religious leaders. He tells three stories the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son we ve only time for the third which begins in v11 let s get ready to read it. Remember the audience? He s got sinners and religious leaders So he does three things in this made up story: 1. Clarifies what a sinner really is 2. Describes what God is really like 3. And exposes religion for what it often is READ vv11-24 3
1. JESUS CLARIFIES WHAT A SINNER REALLY IS Remember the audience? He s got sinners and religious leaders The young son represents the sinners This young man does a terrible thing. What did the son do? Most of us think of sinners as people who just do naughty stuff. We think of sin as those vices of getting drunk and having sex when you shouldn t, swearing and those sorts of things and so often what happens is that people who don t do those naughty things think they are not sinners But Jesus has a definition of the sinner that is a little more complex and it nails us The young son said to his dad give me my share of the estate the dad agrees the sons sets off and spends all the money on wild living Again we all too readily tend to think the sinner is the wild living person, but the most offensive thing about how Jesus describes the son is not the wild living it s the fact that the son wants all that the father has to offer. That money that will be mine when you re dead, I want it now and it s an incredibly offensive thing! Forget you have ever heard of the word sinner in your life. Here is Jesus description of the sinner. The sinner is the one who wants everything God the Father has, but doesn t want anything to do with the Father himself! The sinner is the person who wants all the Creator has to offer in this beautiful Creation of ours, but wants it all to him or herself without ever acknowledging the Creator who it comes from. This is so typical of a majority Australians! Australians are famous the world around for enjoying all the gifts of Creation and then ignoring the Creator, just like this son. You look at our magazines and T.V. shows and on line, they are full of the gifts of the Creator. Technology, fashion, sex, sport, body image, and so on, all things that God has gifted the Creation with. But, we want these for ourselves and we don t want God. We hardly ever thank him for these things as Australians. We hardly ever ask God for his advice as to how all these things should be used and we very rarely apologise to God when we misuse some of these gifts. I would say, Australians fit this description of sinner to a T This is why, so called good people, by Jesus definition can actually be sinners, because it is entirely possible to be really nice to human beings and ignore God // We rightly hate religious hypocrisy you know when people say they love God but then are discovered as being terrible in their treatment of others. We call that out for what it is But the reverse is equally bad being nice to others but ignoring God! How could that possibly be any better than the person who loves God but not others? // Imagine this morning if I told you I was about to play a video on the screen here of everything you had said and done or even thought! 4
Would you be entirely comfortable with that? I d be stuffed!! Yet God sees all the ways we want everything he had to give us but ignore him! /// 2. DESCRIBES WHAT GOD IS REALLY LIKE Ok back to the story: the young man comes to his senses (a good definition of repentance by the way) and probably both the sinners and the religious people are thinking he s going to cop it good from his dad when he goes back he ll send him to his room and tell him to do all sorts of good things until he s accepted back into the family But Jesus turns that expectation on its head Do you recall the response? The father runs is filled with compassion throws his arms around him, kisses him calls for a huge party. Clothes feast celebrations The son doesn t even get to finish his apology did you notice? Didn t get to add the bit about making him one of his servants Jesus pictures a God here who is so keen to forgive you that he will run to you and embrace you and forgive you at the first inkling of your return He won t let you grovel and take the position of a slave before him.. in fact he ll lavish you with good things in the story the best robe, a ring, sandals, fattened calf Jesus description of God so wonderful!! Whatever thought you ve had of God if it doesn t fit with this one you re wrong because I ll take Jesus description any time!!. God is a running, forgiving, celebrating parent to all who turn back to him He s in the business of forgiving and forgetting. // Some time ago when there used to be video stores which rented out DVDs people used to amass all sorts of fines for not returning their DVDS except they weren t called fines they were called extended viewing fees Ever get some of those? For a time Blockbuster was running a campaign each year at Easter time interestingly enough when they sent out cards to all with extended viewing fees saying we re wiping the slate clean And you could enter into the shop to rent another DVD and they would simply put a big zero on their computer where your fines used to be. //// God has an offer on at the moment. He will wipe your slate clean for wanting everything good he as to offer, but ignoring him. And when you come to him to take up that offer? He ll run to embrace and welcome and forgive you!! // 3. AND EXPOSES RELIGION FOR WHAT IT OFTEN IS Well, Jesus isn t finished. He s not content merely to re-define the sinner and re-describe God, he wants to expose the religion of his opponents who are grumbling in the audience Grumbling that Jesus is so friendly with sinners.and that s why there is a third person in the parable, the older son who is kind of the goody two-shoes. 5
If the younger son represented the SINNERS in Jesus audience, the older son represents the RELIGIOUS LEADERS. Let s have a look then at his story READ 15:25-32 I want you to notice that by his own confession, the oldest son has adopted an attitude toward the father, not as his son, but as if he were his slave. v29 all these years I ve been slaving for you This is Jesus picture of religion Jesus is saying that religion can make you feel like a slave to God not as a child to a beautiful parent. Religion can lock you up in rules. not that God s rules for us aren t good they are good but they are never the way to attract God s attention or earn his favour they are always the way we respond to his kindness already received. and when we follow his rules as a response to his kindness then we find freedom and life. It s a bit like a fish it has one rule to follow in life in order to be free. What s the rule? Stay in the water. If a fish decides one day blow that rule I m going to be free and go on to land it s not going to turn out well. If we follow God s commands as a response to his kindness we do so in love and we find life and freedom because that s the life for which we ve been created! But if you re just working away at being nice because you re like this oldest son and thinking I m just going to slave for God and hopefully I ll do enough to win him over you ll be turned into a slave religion will crush you, and you ll have a completely stunted view of God s kindness..which is what the oldest son had You never even gave me a goat!! he says Don t feel sorry for him the father said you are always with me and everything I have is yours in other words you could have had the goat and the fattened calf even the sandals if you want but you couldn t see it because you were so locked up in your rules!! /// A young man in about year 9 or 10 came up after a Christian talk one day and said to the guy who had given the talk I m trying to work out if God is pleased with me And he had an exercise book with columns across the page and the days of the week and down the side all sorts of qualities he thought God might like kindness, patience, going to church and so on. And the guy had given himself a score out of ten for each piece of behaviour for each day of the week for pages and pages. And he asked the preacher do you think this will work? The preacher looked at his scores they weren t great...and then patiently shared with the young man that God doesn t work like that and if you think he works like that you are going to look at your life and always feel condemned because you ll never measure up! But the beautiful gift of Christianity is that God is like this father in the story Jesus told He wants you to come to him and admit you score very badly in his commandments and he will wipe the slate clean because Jesus died on a cross for you he himself took the punishment that you deserved. 6
The preacher explained this to him and he got so excited that he took his exercise book and dramatically threw it in the bin!!! He was now truly free to live the Christian life because he d received God s kindness Jesus describes God as a running, forgiving, embracing parent and Jesus exposed religion as something that will mess up your life... until you find the freedom Jesus came to offer./// ----------------------------- I wonder today whether there are some among us here who have realised maybe for the first time that you have lived life wanting all God has to offer, but ignoring him even running away from him? I want to urge you this morning, like the young man in Jesus story, to come to your senses. Stop pushing God out. Stop enjoying all he has to offer, but ignoring him! Stop your excuses. Come running to God - and he will come running to you with arms open, willing to embrace and welcome and forgive you and shower you with all sorts of unexpected and undeserved gifts! Will you do that?? But I also want to urge you if you ve been the religious type all your life and you ve been slaving away doing stuff for God just hoping you will have done enough to earn his favour I want to urge to too to realise the flaws in your approach to realise you ll never do enough and put a stop to thinking you can and come rest rest in what Jesus has already done because through his death and resurrection he has already done all that was required Come to the running, forgiving, embracing heavenly Father come to your senses and find life and freedom! 7