Kingdom Principle: God loves the sinner through Jesus Christ and calls him to repentance and life in his name.
Two Preliminary Observations:
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The main character is the loving and forgiving father
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There is so much movement in this text.
We are not static creatures! We express ourselves in movement toward something. We move toward the thing that we love the most
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The _______________________ of the Sinner
Luke 15:12–13 (ESV) —12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
This wealth grants him freedom and freedom always grants us the ability to pursue the things we want to pursue.
Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) — 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Proverbs 28:26 (ESV) — 26 Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
It is enough to say that the sinner, free from all constraints, finds himself involved in all kinds of sensuous and debauched behavior.
Ephesians 2:1–3 (ESV) — 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
For a Jew no occupation could have been more distasteful. A rabbinic saying runs, ‘Cursed be the man who would breed swine’ (Baba Kamma 82b). The pig was unclean (Lev. 11:7) and the Jew under normal circumstances would have nothing to do with it at all. The young man must have been in desperate straits even to consider this job.
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The Re-_______________ (to think), ____________, and ____________ home of the Repentant Sinner
Luke 15:17 (ESV) — 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
True repentance begins by seeing our situation as it truly is, seeing ourselves as we truly, and most importantly, seeing God as he truly is.
Repentance = Meta (turn around) – Noia (inner man)
The truly repentant re-cognizes his condition before a holy God, confesses his sin, and comes home to the Father through Jesus the true Son.
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The ___________________ of the Father
Luke 15:20 (ESV) — 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
This is the kind of love that God shows to the repentant sinner. It is the kind of love God shows to us, if we believe it.
The fatted calf was clearly an animal carefully looked after for some special occasion. Its use now shows that the father felt that there could scarcely be a more special occasion than this.
Question to Consider
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How does God’s love for the sinner help you understand God better? Is there still sin God is calling you to repent of and to experience is lavish grace?
