How To Be Sure You Don't
Miss The Party
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To School With God Series
A
Christmas Sermon By Jim Hammond from Luke 15:11-32
An elderly man in Phoenix called his son in New York and said,
"I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother
and I are divorcing—45 years of misery is enough."
"Dad,
what are you talking about?" the son asks.
"We
can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the old man says.
"We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so
you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."
Frantic,
the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. "Like heck
they're getting divorced," she shouts. "I'll take care of
this."
She
calls Phoenix immediately and screams at her father, "You are NOT
getting divorced. Don't do a single thing till I get there. I'm calling
my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do
a thing."
The old
man hangs up the phone and turns to his wife. "Okay," he says,
"They're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own fares. Now
what do we do for Christmas?"
Now that family holiday party was going to
be interesting, more tension than tinsel would be my guess if you know
what I mean.
How many of you are afraid your family holiday
party will be more tension than tinsel?
Have you ever felt like you were at a family party but you were
missing the party? Maybe
your holiday memories include mom or dad getting drunk?
Maybe your holiday seasons have felt empty because of the loss of
a loved one, or some tragedy that was not timed to miss the holidays.
Today we will be studying a family party filled
with tension rather than tinsel. We
will be learning how not to miss the party that Christmas was designed
to bring. Two Sundays ago
we focused on the Movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
We like that movie because suddenly we feel significant.
Everything we do has intended consequences and unintended
consequences. We learned
that the Bible’s message is clear as to Why It’s a Wonderful Life.
Christmas marked the coming of a Savior in order to help us have
life, and life to the full. We are not alone, we are loved, cared for, and guided.
We also learned that is not everybody’s experience.
Some people miss the party.
Some people don’t experience the Wonderful life and this is
somehow more pointed in this season.
Would it surprise you to know that the suicide rate
is extraordinarily high in December, and that depression is as common as
joy to the world?
Today we focus on how to be sure you don’t miss
the party.
There might be a number of reasons that in this
particular Christmas season, Christmas 2001, people feel like they are
missing the party. Does the
celebration seem a little bit different this year in light of 9/11?
Usually I lament how soon the stores start decorating for
Christmas, but this year, to be honest with you, the decorations
provided a sense of comfort. They've
engendered a feeling of hope. Christmas season is different this year.
Our vocabulary includes words we never used before this year,
words like Anthrax, Osama bin Laden, Terrorism, Tora Bora, Taliban, the
al Qaeda.
Not in many years has our country had more reason
to hear the message “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!”
Focus:
Christmas season is filled with parties, but God’s gift to us
at Christmas gave us a reason to celebrate that isn’t seasonal.
We have a basis for celebrating life each day, forever.
Almost
everyone likes a party. Almost no one associates Christianity with a
party, but Jesus did. He talked about the rejoicing that takes place in
Heaven when a sinner repents (Luke 15:7, & 10).
The Bible is
full of the imagery of parties, and it clearly teaches that it is
possible to miss the party. Jesus tells us about someone who missed the
party. This story came at
the end of the parable of the prodigal son. A younger bother takes his
inheritance and wastes it. He trades his self respect for a pig pen.
There, he learns a great lesson. Life can begin in a disaster that
reveals our need for God.
A wandering,
shivering boy returns penniless, willing to become a mere servant in his
father’s house. When the father sees him in the distance, he runs to
greet him. Before the boy can deliver his well-rehearsed speech, he is
wrapped up in his father’s grace. The father, so happy to see his son,
kills the prized calf and hosts a party, with music and dancing.
The older son,
who stayed home, comes out of the field and refuses to go in.
It is one of those awkward family parties.
He is now a prodigal of sorts himself. One son ran away from
home; another refused to go home. Outside the house is outside the
house, regardless of how one gets there. This older brother missed the
party. Let’s study this parable of Jesus and discover why he missed
the party and how to be sure we don’t miss the party.
Luke 15:11-32
(NIV) 11Jesus
continued: “There
was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father,
‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property
between them.
13“Not long after that, the younger son got
together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered
his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that
whole country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a
citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16He
longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but
no one gave him anything.
17“When he came to his senses, he said,
‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am
starving to death! 18I
will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have
sinned against heaven and against you. 19I
am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your
hired men.’ 20So
he got up and went to his father.
“But
while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled
with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him
and kissed him.
21“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have
sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be
called your son.’
22“But the father said to his servants,
‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his
finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and
celebrate. 24For
this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is
found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25“Meanwhile, the older son was in the
field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So
he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27‘Your
brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the
fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28“The older brother became angry and
refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But
he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for
you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young
goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has
squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the
fattened calf for him!’
31“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you
are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But
we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead
and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
I. Two
Reactions to the Coming of the Prodigal Son
A. The Reaction of the Father
was to Host the Party
The father hosts a party at his cost!
A CULTURAL SURPISE
The reaction of the Father in this story was a
cultural surprise. Normally
in the Jewish family in those times, the Father would wait till the son
would give some indication of respect before responding.
But the Father doesn’t wait.
He rushes out with joy simply to see his son coming back.
The other surprise in the Father’s behavior is that the Father
ran.
Maybe you can imagine this better if I tell you
about my mother. I can
count on one hand the number of times I saw my mother run.
She looked funny when she ran.
First of all, she normally wore dresses. She was from the you don’t run in a dress school.
There was something undignified to the look of my mother running.
So I know how surprised the hearers of the parable were because
in Jesus day, distinguished elderly gentlemen didn’t run.
They wore robes. If
they ran they could do one of two things.
“Gird up their loins”, that is pull up their robes and tuck
them into there belt exposing their legs in a funny looking pair of
baggy shorts, or they could simply run in their robes in a very awkward
looking run, with their robes flying in the wind, binding up their legs.
This humbling scene is what the prodigal saw in the running
father.
GOD HUMBLED HIMSELF
This is an excellent picture of God’s compassion.
God did the surprising thing.
He ran to us. How did he run to us? He
humbled himself and ran to us as a child, the infant child humbly in a
manger. Jesus, God
incarnate, removed the robes of glory and humbled himself as God ran to
us to do what it took to initiate reconciliation with the lost world.
Are you like the lost Son coming home this
Christmas? Do you need to
be reminded of God’s great love to you.
He runs to welcome you. His
forgiveness is immediate. He
wants you to be a part of his great party.
You don’t have to try to earn his favor, or work your way back
into his good graces. It is
enough that you want to be with him.
That’s all. He
will do the rest. Isn’t
that really the message of Christmas.
We have a father like that.
He runs to us. He sends us his son so that we can know him.
Really know him. What we learn about him is just how gracious he is.
If you are busy being like the older son trying to earn God’s
favor, trying to keep score, you will miss God’s grace altogether.
You will not really know what our Father is like.
If you want to be a part of the great party, that
celebration comes when you repent.
You turn to God and throw yourself at his mercy.
You’ve messed up your rights as a son.
You don’t appeal to your rights, you appeal to his mercy.
That’s the way of the party.
Here’s something you can be sure of.
God runs after sinners who approach his mercy.
B. The Reaction of the Older
Brother was to Resent the Party
The Older Brother did not understand his father’s kindness.
The older brother has been around his father
longer, but he sure doesn’t know him well.
Perhaps it does seem like a raw deal. While the
younger son was sowing wild oats, the elder brother was sowing the
crops. How can the father be so kind to the undeserving?
I can tell you this. I’m
glad our heavenly father isn’t always “fair”.
He gives us what we do not deserve.
I’m glad for that. Strict
fairness means I would get what I deserve.
The Bible tells me my sin deserves punishment.
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God through
Christ is life. He operates
out of grace more than fairness.
No doubt the older brother said to himself, “So
this is how you get recognition in this house. Run away, waste money,
drink and party.” Sometimes older brothers tend to look at younger
brothers this way even in the church.
We must be careful to understand the father’s heart.
We must celebrate OUR Father’s kindness as a virtue.
The older brother condemned the virtue of grace as if it were a
vice. This is a dangerous
position to be in because we will be judged with the judgment we use.
The Older Brother did not understand his brother’s repentance.
The younger brother really has had a change of
heart. He has exhibited real repentance. It took a lot to admit he was
wrong. He did not come home demanding, but begging. He left home saying,
“Give me”; he came home saying, “Forgive me.”
He was a broken man. The
older brother doesn’t seem to display any humility.
The Older Brother did not understand his own position.
Though his behavior is “good” there is a
problem in his heart that can only be described as “sin.”
The older brother resents his brother and his father also.
He has a bitter, cold and closed heart. As
a result he doesn’t even know he is in need of mercy.
He focuses on what he thinks he deserves.
The Older Brother doesn’t understand his Father’s Grace
The older
brother is so angry he misses all the fun.
It isn’t that the Father shut him out of the banquet hall. He
has locked himself out. The father would let him in if he wanted in. He
probably does not even realize that a place has been set for him at the
table. There is a plate filled for him.
Sometimes whole churches act like the Older Brother
Perhaps the story of Benny Ploegster illustrates
the point best.
The Story of Benny Ploegster
Sietze Buning, tells the story of a man whose life was beat up,
who was tired, who carried a heavy burden on his shoulders and in his
heart.
His name
was Benny Ploegster.
Benny
was a drunk.
For
three years the church elders had tried to change Benny’s ways. And
for three years they’d failed. Benny failed. Benny remained a drunk.
The stain on his life remained as deep as ever. The siren song of booze
kept seducing him. The chains seemed to hold fast.
And so -
the elders decided it was time to excommunicate Benny. No other option.
Three years and nothing to show for it. They were done.
Benny,
writes Buning, could have reacted in several different ways to his
excommunication.
He might
have resigned his membership and just walked away from a group that he
could very easily have labeled “a bunch of hypocrites.”
He could
have done that.
He could
have gone to a more lenient church.
He could
even have continued to attend this same church, and just skipped the
excommunication service -lots of dark, shadowy corners in the balcony
area where no one would see him, and from where he could escape after
service without speaking to a soul.
He could
have done any one of these things. But he didn’t.
Benny went to church on the day he was excommunicated.
Benny sat in the center, a few rows from the front.
Benny
stood, he stood right up, head bowed, when the form for Excommunication
was read.
Buning
writes - “Why shouldn’t Benny stand up? That in twenty centuries
there was not a single precedent for bodily presence of an excommunicant
at his excommunication is insufficient reason not to.”
So,
Benny stood. His father
cried. And Benny was excommunicated.
The
elders didn’t know what to make of it, what to do with Benny.
Others in the congregation—they didn’t know, either.
Benny
didn’t fit the bill. There wasn’t a category around that could
properly cover him or his situation. They didn’t know what to do with
all this.
And so
Benny was dropped. Yet,
desperate for mercy, desperate for Jesus, Benny kept coming to
church until he died of cirrhosis of the liver.
The
Church had no room for Benny.
One
wonders, though, what the Lord thought.
If He had room for a skid-row drop-out?
If there would be room in heaven for a tired sinner desperate for
mercy? If there could be
eternal rest for someone hounded by life-long addiction?
And as we wonder about that, something inside us knows, doesn’t
it? That somehow, beside
the criminal on the cross, and joining in the chorus,
“Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom” (Luke
23:42) somewhere there is Benny, with an eternally easy yoke and
heavenly lightened burden, a strange-looking child of God who saw the
Son and refused to leave Him. Who
through the blurred vision of addiction realized that God-life would
only be found by Jesus—and refused to quit.
Because Heaven’s categories are shaped quite differently than
those we fashion with human minds and hearts.
Heaven’s categories are cross-shaped.
[i]
II. Two
Reactions to the Coming of God’s Son
A.
Ignore His Invitation (Miss the party)
Just before the death of actor W.C. Fields, a
friend visited Fields' hospital room and was surprised to find him
thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields
replied, "I'm looking for loopholes."[ii]
Why do some people ignore God? The following story “Something by Tolstoi” as told by
Tennessee Williams about a shy Russian Jew may give us one insight into
how someone might forget what it is they are looking for.
It’s a story of another prodigal with much different results.
Something by Tolstoi (as told by Tennessee Williams)
Jacob Brodzky was a shy Russian Jew whose father owned a bookstore.
The older Brodzky wanted his son to go to college. The boy, on the other
hand, desired nothing but to marry Lila, his childhood sweetheart -- a
French girl as effusive, vital and ambitious as he was contemplative and
retiring. A couple of months after young Brodzky went to college, his
father fell ill and died. The son returned home, buried his father and
married his love. Then the couple moved into the apartment above the
bookstore, and Brodzky took over its management. The life of books fit
him perfectly, but it cramped her. She wanted more adventure -- and she
found it, she thought, when she met an agent who praised her beautiful
singing voice and enticed her to tour Europe with a vaudeville company.
Brodzky was devastated. At their parting, he reached into his pocket and
handed her the key to the front door of the bookstore.
"You had better keep this," he told her, "because you
will want it some day. Your love is not so much less than mine that you
can get away from it. You will come back sometime, and I will be
waiting."
She kissed him and left. To escape the pain he felt, Brodzky withdrew
deep into his bookstore and took to reading as someone else might have
taken to drink. He spoke little, did little, and could most times be
found at the large desk near the rear of the shop, immersed in his
books, while he waited for his love to return.
Nearly 15 years after they parted, at Christmastime she did return.
But when Brodzky rose from the reading desk that had been his place of
escape for all that time, he did not take the love of his life for more
than an ordinary customer. "Do you want a book?" he asked.
That he didn't recognize her startled her. But she gained possession of
herself and replied, "I want a book, but I've forgotten the name of
it."
Then she told him a story of childhood sweethearts. A story of a
newly married couple who lived in an apartment above a bookstore. A
story of a young, ambitious wife who left to seek a career, who enjoyed
great success but could never relinquish the key her husband gave her
when they parted. She told him the story she thought would bring him to
himself. But his face showed no recognition. Gradually she realized that
he had lost touch with his heart's desire, that he no longer knew the
purpose of his waiting and grieving, that now all he remembered was the
waiting and grieving itself. "You remember it; you must remember it
-- the story of Lila and Jacob?"
After a long, bewildered pause, he said, "There is something
familiar about the story. I think I have read it somewhere. It comes to
me that it is something by Tolstoi." Dropping the key, she fled the
shop. And Brodzky returned to his desk, to his reading, unaware that the
love he waited for had come and gone. [iii]
I liked this Tennessee Williams story "Something by Tolstoi"
because it runs along parallel tracks to the story of the prodigal but
in the opposite direction. How
unlike Brodzky our heavenly father is.
He was not so preoccupied with his pain that he ignored us.
He doesn’t forget us. He
runs to us with open arms. He
did more than give us a key to come back.
He gave us his son.
I like this story for another reason.
There is another way of looking at it.
Have you been in the place of Jacob Brodzky and it seemed to you
God was a lot like Lila? You
were perhaps hurt by God and you were disappointed in God.
You were so busy nursing your pain that you ignored God as he
continued to try to talk to you. The
truth is He never left, but you felt he did and you nursed that pain
till you were ignoring God altogether.
Jesus’ gave us another parable that illustrates 3
ways people ignore God’s invitation to His Party.
It is found in Matthew 22.
Matthew 22:1-14 (NIV) 1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding
banquet for his son. 3He
sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell
them to come, but they refused to come.
4“Then
he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited
that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been
butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5“But
they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his
business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
7The
king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and
burned their city.
8“Then
he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I
invited did not deserve to come. 9Go
to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10So the
servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they
could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with
guests.
11“But
when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was
not wearing wedding clothes. 12‘Friend,’
he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man
was speechless.
13“Then
the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him
outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.’
14“For
many are invited, but few are chosen.”
1) Some
people ignore God’s invitation by refusing to come, 2) some are
hostile to his invitation, and 3) some people try to get into the
banquet without the appropriate attire.
They ignore the details of the invitation and try to get in on
their own merits. We must
come in wearing the garments provided, the righteousness that comes by
faith through Christ.
The prodigal son gladly put these garments on, and
the elder brother refused. He
felt his garments were good enough and that his brother didn’t deserve
the provided garments.
B.
Accept His Invitation (Join the party)
The
Christmas Shoes
It was almost Christmas
time, there I stood in another line
Tryin’ to buy that last gift or two, not really in the Christmas mood
Standing right in front of me was a little boy waiting anxiously
Pacing round like little boys do, and in his hands he held a pair of
shoes
His clothes were worn and old
He was dirty from head to toe
And when it came his time to pay
I couldn’t believe what I heard him say
(Chorus) Sir, I want to buy
these shoes for my mama, please
It’s Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy said there’s not much time
You see, mom’s been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if mama meets Jesus tonight
He counted pennies for what
seemed like years
Then the cashier said, "Son, there’s not enough here"
He searched his pockets frantically, then he turned and he looked at me
He said, "Mama always made Christmas good at our house,
Through most years she did without
Tell me, sir, what am I going to do,
Somehow, I’ve got to buy these Christmas shoes."
I just had to help him out
And as I laid the money down
I’ll never forget the look on his face
When he said, "Mama’s gonna look so great."
(Repeat Chorus)
I knew I’d caught a
glimpse of heaven’s love as he thanked me and ran out
I knew that God had sent that little boy my way
To remind me just what Christmas is all about
(Repeat Chorus) [iv]
Obviously this boy has been prepared by his family to think in terms
of the great party ahead for his mother, and he wanted his mother to
look nice for a meeting with Jesus, but I couldn’t help but think of
how this touching song reminds me of another story, a true story, his
story, history. There was
another boy who gave us a gift to make sure we looked acceptable for a
meeting with God. And this
boy was the Christmas boy—Jesus.
This boy also sensed the urgency of time running out for us.
But Jesus unlike the boy in the story had what it took to pay the
price for the acceptable attire. He
paid the price and we became the recipients of the garments of grace.
We too can look nice for the celebration party with God.
In fact without this garment we cannot get in.
Dear Father God,
Thank you for humbling yourself and running to me.
Thank you for sending your Son at Christmas.
It is hard for me to imagine the humility this required for you
to stoop from Glory to a human birth in a stable.
You humbly ran to me with open arms.
Thank you, Jesus, for those open arms.
It cost you the pain of outstretched arms on the Cross so that I
might enjoy the embrace from heaven.
Thank you for providing me with life, and life to the full, and
life eternal. I want to be
like the repentant prodigal son enjoying the banquet.
Forgive me for the repeated times I have ignored your loving
invitations. Forgive me for
the times I’ve acted like the older brother trying to find favor in my
own attire rather than the garments of grace you provide.
Forgive me when I treat my younger brothers and sisters with
scorn when you are trying to invite them back to your party.
Help me to love the way you love.
Thank you for loving me so that I can.
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