“BORN AGAIN & FOUND AGAIN:” THE COMPASSIONATE GOSPEL
Luke 15:20-32: LIFEWAY SPRING QUARTERLY 2021 SESSION 2
It had been a simple Arraignment Hearing that October, 2006 but it was not to go as planned. The drunk driver that had crushed both of my legs and left me in the hospital from August to mid-October walked out with no bail and he was free till trial in February. Meanwhile I had returned home but my house became my prison. Stuck in a wheelchair, terrified of riding in a car, unable to take care of myself, suffering with memory problems- I was depressed, hurting, lonely, scared and most of all angry! The holidays were hard that year- broke from medical bills and no presents or decorations in my anger I snapped at and pushed away family members and was at a loss as the “man of the house” to spiritually lead my wife and daughter or help them process their own hurts. I claimed I wanted “justice” (at least that’s what I told others and anyone I thought would listen) but really it was revenge. I wanted the guy that had caused my family and me to experience such suffering to suffer and to suffer worse! I was bitter and felt abandoned by God. What kind of God, the God whom I had served “faithfully,” would allow this to happen? And allow it to happen on a Sunday while driving to church to teach Sunday school? I knew I needed to forgive the man but I didn’t want to, and I was powerless to do so. The deadly poison of unforgiveness was sinking closer to the center of my heart… I was sick, I was sad, and I wanted to die. Lord, help me what was I going to do? I was saved but I felt so lost, who would find me again?
We’ve been corresponding through these written lessons for almost a year now. Has COVID made you feel like I felt after my crash? Do you feel alone, despairing, and lost? Dear friends, know God is here- He is with you. I pray that our lessons have been more than just “lessons” for you. I pray that they have encouraged you with the realness and closeness of God in the MIDDLE OF OUR PAIN AND TRIALS. I pray they have reminded you of His faithfulness in the past, His presence today, and the hope of heaven for tomorrow. God doesn’t want us to just “learn lessons” He wants us to know that He is with us that He is real, His WORD is true and His promises and His commands CAN make a real difference transforming our very lives when we trust in Him- when we repent. He has saved us! And I am convinced that He saved us not just for ourselves but for the sake of others and for such a time as this. That somewhere between the agony of our trials and the Hope of Heaven lies the appointed season of the revival of His Church and the saving of many souls by the testimony of “a great cloud of witnesses”; OUR WITNESS (Heb 12:1-4) and that time is sooner than later (Paul says in 2 Cor 6:1-12a that it is today!). The Bible teaches that we are BORN AGAIN once unto salvation (see John 3:3-21; Rom 10:8-15; 1 Cor 15; 2 Cor 5:1-17) but we are found (revived) again and again (see James 5:13-20) because we often drift in our faith. Politics won’t save hard bitten, wayward prodigals, protests won’t save prodigals, and Presidents won’t save prodigals. The Compassionate Father through Jesus Christ by the witness of His Word and the church has saved saves and will save prodigals like us. Born again, and found again we have hope! Let’s take a look…
The Parable of the Prodigal Sons is another well-known story in Luke’s Gospel, and ends a 3 story triad of God’s desire, passion, pursuit and compassion for the lost. The stories focus is not just our lostness but the joy of being found of being redeemed! (Think of that old hymn: Redeemed How I love to proclaim it!) The Prodigals’ story goes much further than the other two and emphasizes God’s grace, forgiveness, repentance and redemption/reconciliation. Luke accomplishes this through showing us how God’s forgiveness given and accepted transforms our AWARENESS, ACTIONS and AFFECTIONS. We will examine each of these.
The first thing we see in the story is how God changes our awareness. The younger son was clueless of his Father’s love for Him at the beginning of the story. In the ancient world a child claiming their inheritance while the Father was still alive and then skipping town and responsibilities of the household was pretty much telling the parents- “I wish you were dead and I’m going to do what I want to do regardless of how you feel about it!” There are many of us who know what it’s like to have someone treat our love for them with such disdain- who skip out and abandon us. Perhaps you’ve had a parent, a spouse, a child, a friend abandon you because of their own self-interests like this son did. You know how much it hurts; you know the hardship, trouble, and resentment- the broken hearts it causes. One of the things I think God makes us aware of when we repent (turn away from) our sin is how much it hurts others alongside ourselves. Our sin not only destroys and breaks our relationships it causes us to break the heart of God and people’s hearts too. This young man through experiencing the wages of his sinful living (Romans 6:23) and the tribulations they brought (see 1 Peter 5:5-11) became aware of his own sin’s devastating effects- the Bible says “He came to his senses”- he came to the awful and hurtful truth of his reality- he woke up and saw “the gutter” he was in. The good news of repentance is he didn’t stay there he had enough faith- enough little bit of hope that his Father’s house would make a difference and at the end of himself he was willing to try and reconcile with his Father for his own sake and I think for the family’s sake too to “right the wrongs” that he had done. Humility and repentance are the hardest part of being a Christ Follower; it means we have to drop our guard- leave the “plastic smiles” the rugged façade of cowboy independence and strength and admit we are weak and willful sinners incapable of saving, leading and redeeming ourselves- that we are helpless sheep as capable of spiritual movement as a coin is to pick itself up off a dusty floor (see the other 2 stories).
The most beautiful awareness in the story is the young man’s surprised “second awareness”. His sin had brought him so low he saw himself as a slave (v.15-20a) but his brokenhearted Father only saw a son- a son He loved and wanted to restore! We don’t know how far the son traveled but the way the story reads I think Luke wants us to know that this son’s redemption began the moment he turned towards home- towards the Father. Our redemption begins, our sins are forgiven the very moment we turn to Jesus the moment we repent we are found again. At one of the lowest points in my adult life when I had pushed everyone away and was clueless to the presence of God trapped in the cold comfort of thorny bitterness it was when I turned around that things changed- that I changed.
What do you think happened when I turned around? Who did I see? God had not abandoned me Jesus had been there all along- waiting for me like the Father waited for His son. In the spiritual sense He ran to me and lifted me up out of that wheelchair out of my self-imposed darkness and I was “found again.” I was and am God’s child and I have new life in Christ Jesus. My old paths of sorrows and self-inflicted hurts ended with the awareness of the loving grace of God and life began again with celebrations of joy! We sing a song often at Wylie called Lord I Run to You but I’m so glad I have a Savior that ran to me when I couldn’t. I just had to have the little faith and hope to turn around! The irony of the story is we have One Father with two sons. One son thinks he’s a slave and finds out he is a son, while the other is UNAWARE of what it means to be a son by God’s grace and trades his Father’s grace for a self-imposed destructive slavery because of pride, bitterness, jealousy, and a work’s righteousness. This was the darkened understanding of the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law.
Both children did not understand their Father’s love, desire, and graciousness but one started to while the other refused. The eldest son wanted to keep a record of wrongs. Before we completely write him off as the “villain” the “antithesis” the “foil” of the story we need to remember Luke wants us to see ourselves in this man. The younger brother responded with humility and repentance the older brother is responding naturally to circumstances. How would you respond to a loved one who betrayed the family and caused such pain and now shows up unannounced years later asking for forgiveness? It wasn’t that the eldest didn’t forgive but that he couldn’t. Why not? He didn’t really know his Father. He didn’t know the awareness the knowledge and wisdom his Dad had concerning him. Think about it- the Father knew his boys best! Dad knew to wait patiently for one son, while going out personally to plead with the other. The eldest saw his Father’s actions as foolish, unfair and unjust instead of indicative of His grace and deep love He had cherished for both of them.
Think on this, what kind of God leaves His sovereignty, His reign on High for ungrateful doomed sinners dying in their place to save them and then rising again to secure them as His very own (Rom 5:8)? This is the very definition of foolishness, misdirected unfair affection and naivety in the world’s eyes (look at the son’s natural, worldly response in verses 28-30.) This, the Gospel, it is the very definition of “love” for believers (God is love). This makes us the wisest fools in all the world- following Jesus- the One we call Savior and LORD who has given us a treasure we did not earn, a Kingdom we are not worthy of, His righteousness for our rags, Life through His death, Heaven by His Hell, and hope by His suffering and resurrection. That’s God’s grace- that’s Jesus’ Gospel of Compassion- Jesus a gift from heaven, a gift received by grace through faith and a gift proclaimed through the very affectionate actions of God on our behalf. It’s a love that leaves us dumbfounded and surprised by joy and new mercies every morning. How can we not be forgiving when God forgave us so much? How can we not be gracious when we have experienced and know such supernatural love working on our behalf? This “Father of theirs” (I love how Luke keeps switching the possessive pronouns in the story according to being found versus being lost- “this son of yours, this brother of yours, this son of mine.”) “This Father of ours” responds supernaturally- graciously to both of his children and to us. Ancient Wealthy Near East Fathers (the Patros- where we get “Patron” -person of vital importance benefit and influence) didn’t run, was reserved with their affections, and held the power of life and death in the ancient household. If an unruly child was giving Mom a hard time; Dad could say: “banish it, remove it, replace it, or kill it!” and it was so! Supernatural Grace to the extent Jesus was telling and showing was not associated with being a worldly Patros.
I end with where I left off in the story at the beginning. I was powerless to forgive the drunk driver that took my leg and changed my life. BUT WHEN I TURNED TO JESUS… That same grace, compassion, and forgiveness Jesus gave me overwhelmed my soul and as I remembered His forgiveness and grace to me- His grace that found me again- I could offer forgiveness to Ricky Holloway in the hope that maybe he could be found by Jesus too… At the end of the trial, Mr. Holloway with his lawyer came up to me and apologized and stuck out his hand towards me… I shook it and told him I forgave him. I don’t know if he was sincere insincere or somewhere in-between but when I offered my hand I meant it and that was not a forgiveness born of my will but of God’s and His love at work in my life! It was a forgiveness that was to be expressed again at a Restitution Hearing where I asked the judge to forgive the portion of Mr. Holloway’s one and a half million dollar debt that he owed me and my family. I still pray for Ricky and I pray that no bitter root will ever grow or thorns of resentment infest the beautiful tree of life, testimony and peace God planted in place of that bitter season of personal darkness! Jesus has made all the difference! I was lost, but I am found again! Lord, may Ricky Holloway be found by you for your glory one day!
Listen, we can be a lot like that eldest brother. We think we are ok with God since we serve in His house and are following “the rules” but it is easy to drift to get lost even in our own church home and lose our way when we don’t keep our eyes on Jesus and focused on the grace of His Gospel that has saved us. One fact I kept coming back to that led me towards repentance was that August Sunday morning when the wreck happened I was headed to church to teach Sunday School and the passage I was teaching on was 1st Corinthians 13- God’s love!!! How could I teach what I’m not willing to live by? How can I live God’s love successfully if I haven’t experienced it and been washed in His grace daily?
We live in a climate today in which it is easy to get caught up in a divisive political zeal but we must remember the best way to defend our faith is by sharing it; by sharing God’s love through the Truth of His Word. By loving our neighbor, by forgiving them, by being gracious and patient with them like that Father was patient with his sons, like God was forgiving of us. Jesus leaves us with the eldest son- the remaining prodigal- outside of the house- did he go in?. Would he come home to the Father and the place he never left but didn’t know? His brother was “born again” would he be “found again?” No “body politic” ever legislated anyone in or out of Heaven, but the Body of Christ at Her best has loved many a sinner towards the arms of Jesus! Not only are we New Creation and no longer of this world, we do not operate by their rules but by God’s grace; by His compassion we don’t treat those who oppose us the way they treat us nor should we (see Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus) for we once were them. The difference? God’s grace FOUND US and we have the privilege and opportunity to be God’s gracious conduit by which Jesus and the counsel of the Holy Spirit finds them!
Just imagine if the eldest brother had shown the same grace to the youngest his Father had shown? Imagine that world? Imagine that family! That’s God’s imagination for our Church, for His world, for our communities and our own loved ones and even our enemies! That my friend is the world of REVIVAL the VISION that is the Gospel ministry of reconciliation we have been called to (see 2 Cor 4 and 5, Rev 21). Don’t let circumstances, political climates, or anything else thwart it. We’ve been called to greater things. We’ve come home. Let’s invite them, let’s invite others home too! Imagine your today. Imagine what God wants to do to you, through you, and by you. His grace is available and His arms are open wide-looking for lost sinners to be Born Again, and prodigal- wayward saints to be found again through the Compassionate Gospel! “Redeemed how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! Redeemed through His infinite mercy. His child and forever I am!”
Know I am praying for you all. Revival is coming, share your hope, spread the Word, Love your neighbor, and live out God’s Grace in Christ Jesus Our LORD! Be discipled and discipling! I’m one click away for now and willing to help dray@wyliebaptist.org- YOU ARE NOT ALONE! We will be together in person soon.
Love to you all and ALL THE BEST! Darrin.