Luke 15:11-24
Concealed II
We are jumping into the middle of Jesus’ answer to what was meant as
an insult against Him. The Pharisees and scribes had done their best
to slander Him in \\#2\\.
Luke 15:2 And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners,
and eateth with them.
We cannot go back over all we discussed last week except to say:
1. If you remove the religious leaders’ smugness, the question
is pretty good. "Why did/does Jesus receive sinners?"
2. The question is answered in all three of the parables.
3. In short, the answer is that Jesus came among sinners to
receive the lost.
4. All three parables are about lost things being found.
a. A lost sheep
b. A lost coin
c. Tonight, a lost son
5. However, as I alluded to last week, there is also a concealed
aspect of Jesus’ ministry which this last parable reveals.
Tonight, let’s separate the parable into obvious and the concealed.
I. \\#11-24\\ The parable is about an obvious sinner.
A. There is no question that the first son was rebellious and
determined to sin. In fact, it is hard not to spend the
whole evening preaching about him.
1. \\#12\\ He demanded his inheritance while the father was
still alive.
a. He was not just a sinner. He was an impatient sinner.
He demanded the inheritance that was his at his
father’s death.
b. He was not getting anything that was not going to be
his and he was not going to do anything that he could
not do after it became his, but he could not wait.
c. So it is with some sinners.
(1) They chomp at the bit to get into this world and
enjoy its pleasures.
(2) They do not care who they have to hurt or what
they have to do to get there.
2. \\#13\\ He lived the life he wanted for as long as he
could.
a. Like the lost sheep, this man was stubborn and self
willed.
b. Nothing was going to stop him until he decided he
wanted to be stopped.
c. I mentioned last week that this parable was a parable
of the lost being saved from the human standpoint.
(1) The shepherd went searching for the sheep and the
woman searched for the coin, but the father just
waited for the son to return.
(2) What’s more, there was no guarantee he ever
would!
(3) Why would the father not search for the son and
bring him back?
(a) Because people are not sheep and they are
not coins.
(b) People have to want to be rescued.
(c) It’s called freewill.
(d) God gave man dominion \\#Ge 1:26\\.
(e) That means God gave man authority to make
his own decisions.
i. Man can and has and does demand his
inheritance and waste it in sinful
living.
ii. And man is free to stay in the pig pen
or to return to God.
(f) God searches. God calls, but in the end man
must make the decision to return to the
Father.
3. \\#14-16\\ He sank to the lowest depths.
a. The boy did get a job.
(1) Of course he did not have much choice if he
wanted to eat.
(2) He became a Jewish hog farmer.
(3) The problem is that hogs were unclean.
b. This boy was raised on a farm.
(1) Should there not have been something else he
could do?
(2) Yes, but this is a parable and Jesus wanted to
demonstrate the way sin treats you.
(3) Some people like to call sin’s rewards Karma.
(4) I’ve never met Karma but I’ve met sin’s wages
several times in my life.
c. In this parable, the boy meet sin’s wages.
(1) He is a hog farmer.
(2) Even worse, he eats what the hogs won’t eat.
(3) Friend that is pretty low.
B. I see two things in this sinner’s life that I often do not see
in the lives of people today.
1. The first, I have already mentioned. The boy went and got
a job.
a. It might not have been clean and it might not have
been much, but he went and got a job.
b. I’ve seen people who lost their home, lost their
children, lost their health and they still will not
go to work.
c. I understand some cannot, but I also understand some
could.
2. \\#17\\ The second is that he starts thinking rationally.
Luke 15:17 And when he came to himself….
a. That is a literal translation.
b. It implies someone else was either controlling or
thinking for him.
c. The verse never indicates the lad might be demon
possessed or even demon influenced.
d. It is more like he lost control of his mind,
surrendering it to lust, laziness, and lasciviousness.
e. But he got it back again.
f. This is actually a picture of the Holy Ghost finding
and convicting the lost.
(1) The Holy Spirit does not kidnap or possesses the
lad any more than the devil did.
(2) Rather, the Holy Ghost brings the sinner back to
the place where he can think rationally and make
up his own mind.
C. \\#18-19\\ The obviously lost son decided to return to the
father.
1. That is a picture of repentance and salvation.
2. \\#20-24\\ And the no-longer-lost son was graciously
received and loved on by the father.
a. Of course, the father is a picture of our heavenly
Father.
b. The reception of love and forgiveness is a picture of
what we receive when we return to the Father through
the blood of Jesus Christ.
D. This is a beautiful story of God’s patience, man’s repentance,
and God’s forgiveness and love.
1. But the parable is not over yet.
2. Most never preach on the remainder of the parable for they
do not know what it is about.
II. \\#25-32\\ This parable is also about the concealed lost.
A. Let’s see if we can figure out the remainder of the parable.:
1. \\#2\\ Remember how the parables began.
a. One group of sinners (scribes and Pharisees) were
calling the other group of sinners (the publicans and
sinners) unworthy of God’s attention.
b. What do we have in this parable? One son calling the
other son too bad and too unworthy of the Father’s
attention and forgiveness.
2. The father in the parable had two sons and both of them
were lost—one just stayed closer to the Father’s house
than the other.
3. These sons represent two groups of lost people.
a. There are those who are obviously lost.
(1) We know who we were.
(2) You did not find us at church. We were chomping
at the bit to get into sin.
b, But there were also some lost who stayed close to the
the father’s house.
(1) They went to church—just like the scribes and
the Pharisees.
(2) They did not live riotously. They dotted the
i’s and crossed the t’s, but they were still
lost.
(3) Just because you are not obviously lost does not
mean you are saved.
(4) On the road that day, the religiously lost were
condemning Jesus for hanging around with the
obviously lost.
(5) The question they asked was why would Jesus hang
with such lost people?
(6) The answer was He was looking for the lost so He
could bring them home, but this parable goes on
to tell us that He is looking for the not so
obviously lost to bring them home as well!
B. The not-so-obviously lost displayed his lost condition by his
actions.
1. \\#28\\ He was jealous of the wicked being saved.
2. He was angry that God would give to the wicked any of the
treasures he felt were his.
C. \\#28\\ What did the father do?
1. He entreated him; that is, He beseeched him.
2. Often in the Scripture we see God’s anger at the Jews, but
in this parable, we see His heart.
a. \\#31\\ The Father called him SON.
b. The Father acknowledges that all He had belongs to
them.
c. He asked, even begged them to come to the salvation
celebration.
3. God has not forgotten His people and He has not quit on
them.
D. The question that started these parables was, "Why does Jesus
receive sinners? There are two answer.
1. He wants to find and to rescue the obviously lost.
2. He wants to find and to rescue the religious lost, those
concealed behind their choir robes, Bible, and pulpits.
3. Notice another way to look at the first two chapters.
a. The shepherd went to find the lost OUTSIDE of the
house.
b. The lady went to find the lost INSIDE of the house.
c. God is just as concerned about the lost in His house
as He is the lost outside of His house.
E. You will notice that this parable does not have a conclusion.
1. It ends with the father entreating the son to accept the
obviously-lost son and to come join salvation's
celebration.
2. We are never told what the not-so-obviously lost son does.
a. Why?
b. Because they had not finalized their decision yet.
c. Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem where they would,
but He will let their actions speak for them.
In this church, there are some who have lived like the world and
there are some who have abode near to God's house, but all must be
saved. Have you been saved today?
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