Secrets Unsealed

What Jesus Said

Stephen Bohr

1. The Word of God

2. The Unconditional Love of God

3. How Jesus Understood His Self Identity

4. Good and Evil

5. Moses and Jesus

6. Overcoming Life’s Mistakes

7. How to Pray

8. Family Values

9. Relief From Stress

10. History’s Greatest Hoax

11. Holy Spirit Baptism

12. Life and Death

13. Peace in the Middle East

14. The Rapture of the Saints

15. The Final Judgment

16. The End of Evil

17. The Secrets of Health and Wealth

18. The Return of Elijah

19. Religion and Politics

20. The Abomination of Desolation

21. The Unpardonable Sin

22. Prophets and Psychics

Tonight we have 1 of the most fascinating presentations in the whole series in this seminar, the Unconditional Love of God.

You know, the Lord Jesus had a favorite way of teaching, And that method was the use of parables.

Now parables were stories drawn from real life in his day that illustrated tremendous spiritual truth.

Now we need to understand that parables generally teach 1 central truth.

But parables also have different actors and different action.

And each action is also symbolic of something.

Now in this seminar we're going to be studying a lot of parables of Jesus because the parables of Jesus illustrate many of the great spiritual truths that we find elsewhere in God's Word.

Now, there are some theological words that we've all heard.

The Apostle Paul uses that word, reconciliation.

We find in the Bible the word repentance.

We find in the Bible the word justification.

You know, usually these words are used in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

Now this evening we're going to study a story that doesn't use any of these theological words.

However, the story contains in principle every single 1 of these theological ideas that I've mentioned just a moment ago.

I'd like to invite you this evening to turn in your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 15.

You should have your list of Bible texts so that you can follow along.

And we're going to begin with verses 1 and 2 because the parable that we're going to study tonight has a special historical setting.

In fact, this parable speaks about 3 kinds of sinners.

The first kind of sinner is the unrighteous sinner.

The second kind of sinner is the self-righteous sinner.

And the third kind of sinner is the repentant sinner.

So we're going to deal with 3 types of sinners in this parable of Jesus this evening.

It's known as the parable of the prodigal son.

Who doesn't know the parable of the prodigal son?

But we're going to learn many interesting things tonight, perhaps new things that you haven't thought of before.

Notice the setting of this parable in Luke 15, verses 1 and 2.

It says, then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.

You know, I find it very interesting that the greatest sinners in the days of Christ were the ones that were most attracted to Jesus.

Here you have Jesus, holy, blameless, without sin, and the publicans and sinners, they just enjoyed themselves in the presence of Jesus.

Ironically, the Pharisees and the scribes, who considered themselves to be righteous and holy felt very uncomfortable in the presence of Jesus.

And the reason is the scribes and Pharisees had sin inside that they needed to hide and they knew that Jesus could read them like a book.

The publicans and the sinners on the other side, they knew that Jesus knew that they were sinners.

They didn't have anything to hide and besides, differently than the scribes and the Pharisees, they felt a need and that's the reason they were attracted to Jesus because they said maybe this individual can help us in our need.

So it says in verse 1, then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him.

Then you have on the other side, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

Basically what they're saying is that if Jesus eats with someone, he should eat with us.

He should not be eating with those publicans and those sinners.

If he's gonna invite anybody to lunch or he's going to accept an invitation to lunch, he should accept the invitation to our houses and he should invite us out to lunch.

Now notice a parallel passage that we find in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2 and verse 15.

This is speaking about the experience of Levi Matthew, who was a tax collector.

When Jesus called him, it says that Levi called a party at his house, and he invited Jesus, and he invited several of his friends.

Now it happened, as he was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, how is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

So we have 2 groups that are spoken of in these 2 introductory passages that we've read this evening as we start.

We have on 1 side the publicans and the sinners, and on the other side we have the scribes and the Pharisees.

The sinners and the publicans, they feel their need.

The scribes and the Pharisees, they feel no need, and they feel repelled from Jesus.

Now, in this context, Jesus tells this wonderful story known as the story of the prodigal son.

And as I said, this story illustrates 3 kinds of sinners.

In the first place, the unrighteous sinner.

In the second place, the self-righteous sinner.

And in the third place, the repentant sinner.

Then he said, a certain man had 2 sons, and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

Now, it's gonna tell us in the next verse that this son, this younger son, decided that he was not going to stay at home anymore.

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

Now immediately we ask the question, why would this son get the preposterous idea of leaving home?

There's no doubt whatsoever that this son felt restricted by the laws of the household.

He considered that the laws of his house, the laws of the father were too restrictive of his freedom.

Also, he thought, if I have to wait till much later to get the inheritance, then I won't enjoy it now.

Instead of living for the sweet by and by, he said, I'm going to live for the here and now, because I'm not sure whether the sweet by and by is actually going to ever come.

And so I better enjoy life in the present.

So He takes the inheritance, according to the story, tired of the restrictions of the home, tired of the rules of the father, tired of being watched by his father, tired of working in the household, and he says, now I'm going to be independent of the house, I'm going to be independent of the Father.

Notice what he continues saying in verse 13.

And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country.

Notice he wants to be as far away from home as possible, as far away from the supervision of the father as possible, as far away from the rules and regulations of the house as possible.

And it says, there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

Now, there's no doubt that at first, as long as he had the money from his inheritance, things went well in the far country where he went.

In fact, the story tells us later on that he had lots of friends.

That is, he had lots of so-called friends as long as he had the money.

But when the money was gone, we're gonna find that the friends were also gone in a moment.

In other words, they were not real friends.

And the irony of this story is that this son, who wanted to be free from the laws of the house, he wanted to be free from the supervision of his father, now when he goes to this far country, he throws away the inheritance, living for the present, thinking nothing of the future, and the 1 who wanted to be free now ends up being a slave.

Now in this story, the father represents God.

The home represents the household of God, the church.

So in other words, this individual is saying, I'll be happier without God in my life, I'll be happier without the church in my life, I'll be happier if I just have my freedom and independence and I don't have to worry about the rules of my father and the rules and regulations and the law of the house.

And he thinks he's going to be a lot happier when he's free at last and independent.

You see, when he leaves God, when he leaves the house, like when we leave God and we leave the church, God's household on earth, we think we're going to be free, but the Bible says that we end up slaves, we end up in bondage.

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Series

What Jesus Said

2. The Unconditional Love of God

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Song of Songs

39m

Who Then Can Be Saved?

46m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

20 The Judgment Continued Phase 2

50m

ABC's of Prayer (with Video)

4 - His Incredible Gifts

51m

The Gospel Will Prevail

49m

Jesus on Prophecy

09 Revelation’s 1,000 Years and Hell

1h 3m

The Now of Prophecy

40m

How to Defeat Babylon

54m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

The House God Built

57m

Lost in Paradise

42m

Forgiveness and True Spiritual Healing

54m

Restored

53m

Sound Doctrine