Called a “C.S. Lewis for the 21st century” by Newsweek, Dr. Timothy Keller is founder and pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Over the past 20 years, the church has grown to three sites, with weekly attendance of 6,000. Named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Churches in America, Keller’s ministry is notable not only for winning over New Yorkers who are skeptical to faith, but also for its missional approach, planting more than 100 churches through the Redeemer Church Planting Center. Author of The Reason for God andThe Prodigal God, he will talk about the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son and discuss the ways many people in our churches tend to resist the gospel.
- Tim has been a minister for 35 years and has been a sucker for anyone who has come along and said, ”I have the key to spiritual renewal…”
- The thing that shocks us is the amount of spiritual deadness in our congregations.
- A small part of the congregations do most of the work.
- Spiritual deadness is still the main problem.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
- Prodigal means “recklessly” extravagant.
- We need an extravagantly loving God to deal with our wayward son
- We often think of the younger son when we think of the prodigal son
- In Luke 15, we see two groups of people around Jesus… the sinners and the relgious leaders.
- Religious leaders don’t understand what Jesus is doing with sinners.
- He tells three parabels to them (the religious people)… lost sheep, lost coin, and the prodigal son.
- The younger brother is like the sinners around Jesus.
- The elder brother is like the Pharisees, religious leaders.
- The last part of the parable is all about him.
- At the end, the father is addressing the older son.
- The point is to address the people in the church.
- The main point of the parable: both younger brothers and older brothers are alienated from the father, who represents God.
- They are both lost, the Father has to go out and invite them in.
- The younger brother is obvious, he doesn’t love the father, he wants his money and does whatever he wants.
- The elder brother doesn’t love the father either.
- He’s upset with how the father is using the estate… the elder brother loved the father’s things, but not the father.
- The younger brother got the money by demanding it.
- The elder brother tried to get it by staying home, by being obedient.
- There’s two ways to be your own saviour and lord, two ways to get control of your life… one is by being immoral and irreligious, the other is by being moral and religious.
- The elder brother says, “because I’m so good, God has to bless me…”
- For the elder brother Jesus might be his inspiration, but not his Saviour.
- Both ways are ways that reject God.
- Elder brothers believe they are with God.
- Both are alientated from the father, he has to urge each son to the feast (salvation).
- Younger brother goes in, older brother doesn’t.
- The “good boy” is not lost in spite of his goodness, but because of his goodness.
- Religion operates like this: I obey, therefore I am accepted.
- The Gospel operates like this: God accepts me, therefore I obey.
- Elder brothers are obeying God to get things, making God a means to an end.
- Everything we need is already ours when we receive the Father through the Son.
- Elder brother’s standing with God is based on performance.
- On one level we believe the Gospel, but we constantly go back to religion.
- Elder brother is our default mode.
Marks of an Elder Brother
- Elder brothers get incredibly angry when their lives don’t go well. They get furious with life and with God. It shows they believe God owes them.
- Elder brothers can’t handle criticism. How do you respond to criticism? When they get criticized they reply with vicious counter-attack. Their self-regard is rooted in their self-image and reputation of being a good person, not in their identity in Christ.
- Elder brother’s prayers are petitionary. They never just enjoy God. There’s no intensity or intimacy in their prayer lives. They only pray when life gets rough.
- Elder brothers are loathing. If your self image is based on you having right doctrine and not what the right doctrine is about… or if you are hardworking, you’ll look down on anyone who’s not.
- Elder brothers can’t forgive. It’s impossible to stay angry and bitter at someone unless you feel superior to them. You have to have a fair amount of pride to stay bitter.
The Remedy
1 – You’ve got to get a new level of repentence
- Repentance is more than “being sorry.”
- Secret to renewal is repenting for the reasons for your rightdoings, not just your wrongdoings.
- “The main thing separating you and God is not your sin, it’s your damnable good works.”
- You don’t see your need.
- Until you learn to repent for the reasons of your right doing, you think you’re doing something for God.
- You’ve got to get to a deeper level of repentance.
2 – You’ve got to get a new level or rejoicing.
- It’s typical to read the prodigal son and say: if you do wrong, humble yourself and be sorry and God will welcome you back.
- But if you do that, it’s just one more thing for you to do. Another religious activity.
- What did it cost to bring the father to bring the younger son home?
- Their inheritance was split between the two sons, so because the younger son spend his half, the calf, the robe, the ring, everything was the expense of the older brother.
- The atonement was costly and the older brother was angry about it.
- What kind of elder brother do we need?
- We need a brother who would come from heaven to earth.
- We need an elder brother who would save us at the cost of his life.
- The only reason we can be clothed in the father’s robe is because he was naked on the cross.
- The only reason we can drink at the father’s table because our older brother drank the cup of God’s wrath.
- We are humbled out of our self-righteousness and lifted out of our pride.
How do you get this basic idea, Biblically informed and spiritual empowered into the deeper parts of people’s hearts?
- The Gospel is religion or irreligion; morality or immorality; it’s a new thing, it’s something else.
- Young people are demoralized by religion and legalism.
- We’ve got to distinguish the Gospel from moralism.
- Moralism creates older brothers.
4 Ways to get this into people’s hearts…
1 -You, the leader, have to get this into your heart.
- Don’t let the ministry save your soul.
- Too many of us base our identity in our ministry.
- We’ve got experience personal renewal and revival for ourselves.
2 – If you are a preacher or teacher, when you communicate, move beyond Biblical principles to the Gospel.
- To the degree you see how you have everything you need in Christ, is the degree by which you will give. You’ll be more generous if you believe the Gospel in your heart.
- Don’t teach it unless you take it back to the cross.
- Never end the teaching without pointing back to the One who did it.
- Make it Gospel-centered, not moralistic.
3 – Get a group of leaders and go through his book The Prodigal God…
- Don’t make it a class… that takes you back to step 1!
4 – Let it spread through your church.
