Prairie View Christian Church

8350 East 141st Street
Fishers, IN 46038
ph: 317.770.4030
fax: 317.770.4031
rspillman@pvcchurch.org

Weekly Update - August 17, 2008 - by joshua walker

Updated each week, usually by midday Monday.

Write to Robby to be notified by email when updates are posted!

“Lost”

Good morning! I hope you had a great weekend and are all rested and prepared for this new week. Just like we do every week, we gathered together this Sunday morning to worship God through singing and preaching. We continued on our Route 66 journey through the Bible with a message from Luke. (Route 66 is our title for this series, named for the 66 books that have been clearly recognized as God’s divinely inspired written word.) We talked a little bit about what it means to be ‘lost’, in God’s eyes, and what can be done about it. But before we review Robby’s sermon from Luke, let’s take a look at some of the activities this week!

Last Sunday afternoon featured the big putt-putt outing at Ben & Ari’s. For the purpose of these Weekly Updates, the new week starts on Sunday evening; so if you’re interested in seeing the results and photos from the golf outing, check out the Weekly Update archive at the bottom of the page. Likewise, in last week’s Update (August 10) there were several announcements and information about upcoming Sports Ministry opportunities. These include bowling, softball, indoor volleyball, and outdoor volleyball.

After everybody had a chance to unwind from the golf outing, the youth group went over to the Hunter’s for their weekly event. The youth have started a lengthy series in a book by John Piper, “What Jesus Demands From the World”. (There are 50 separate demands, and they’re all commands, not invitations!) The youth will be working their way through those during this school year. Of course, youth group isn’t just about great teaching; they do occasionally bite the bullet and play some games, and maybe even eat some food.

The volleyball team wrapped up their first summer season on Monday night with a close and exciting loss. They’ve been playing at Holland Park all summer, and very nearly knocked off a higher-seeded team in the tournament. For more exhilarating volleyball action, sign up for the upcoming outdoor league (at the church) or the indoor league (YMCA).

Thanks to everyone who brought in gift cards and notes of encouragement for the Myers! They are our neighbors across the street from the church, and their house was destroyed by fire about a month ago. We collected about $150 for them last week, plus a few other later additions. We hope that will be helpful and useful to them. Fortunately, since we’re God’s people in this world, we have much more to offer than a few Meijer cards; we can speak with the Almighty God about the needs we see in the world. Please don’t neglect to pray for the Myers, their 3 young kids, their relationship with the Lord, and for all the Christians that know them. Of course, if you missed the collection last week, you can always drop something off at the church office and we’ll see that it’s delivered.

As we move toward the weekend, we come across more sports items. The softball team had their organizational practice Saturday night and their first game Sunday afternoon. The practice was a huge success – we won, although Craig allowed about 200 runs. The team also won its season opener, in a tie-breaking set of innings. Very exciting! Come out and cheer for our team, every Sunday afternoon between now and mid-October. The game is a different time each week, so see Craig for scheduling details. (1:00 on the 24^th.)

That brings us up to Sunday morning! As usual, the morning got started a little before 8:00 with the worship team rehearsal. The team practices on Thursday evenings at 7:00, usually, but we always try to get things really nicely polished before leading you in the worship of the Lord. The set-up team arrives shortly after 9:00 to make sure the communion trays are filled properly and the coffee is on. Then the bread team rolls in shortly before 10:00, so that nobody goes hungry. (Please make sure that visitors know the way to the kitchen, and see to it that they don’t go home empty handed! We can’t be certain that they’re leaving with a knowledge of Jesus as their savior, but we can at least make sure they don’t leave without bread.) There’s a large variety of other volunteers and workers – greeters, servers, teachers, counters, clean-uppers, and of course, preachers. There’s a lot that goes into a Sunday morning worship service, and there’s no doubt folks that I’ve forgotten or overlooked. There’s also no shortage of volunteer opportunities, so don’t hesitate to lend a hand!

If you enjoy reading the Weekly Update but aren’t able to join us on Sunday mornings – and there’s a lot of reasons why that might be the case – then we encourage you to keep your ears open for a new option starting later this fall. We know there’s quite a few folks in the current PVCC congregation that can’t always attend a Sunday service, and there’s plenty of ‘lost’ people (see below) that also aren’t keen on a Sunday morning gathering. If this is describing you, then stay tuned to this page and the ‘Upcoming Events’ page on the website for a special new opportunity…

In the meantime, let’s take a look at the message that Robby brought us this morning from Luke 15. This account, written by Luke to a Roman/Gentile audience, takes place deep in Jesus’ ministry. He’d already developed a certain following, and developed certain enemies. Unlike most rabbis, Jesus had drawn a distinctly unsavory group of folks as his regular audience – Roman collaborators, extortionists, prostitutes, thieves, and the whole bottom rung of society. And also unlike a typical Jewish rabbi, he had earned the enmity of the religious establishment, the people that considered themselves close to God, God’s special favorite obedient people. Jesus addresses this divide with three parables, stories of events from everyday life that have an immediate and obvious spiritual relevancy.

In fact, it’s the same story, told three times. Somebody loses something valuable; there is much angst and concern, and a search is commenced; and when the lost item is found, there is great celebration. Jesus started with sheep, and a shepherd who lost track of 1 sheep out of a 100. (Personal testimony time: we went to the State Fair this week, and we got to see some sheep up close. They are utterly contemptible creatures – foul, loud, annoying, headstrong, and above all, foul. And these were the best sheep that Indiana has to offer – clean, pretty, groomed, dressed-up sheep. It was a very sobering and humbling reminder of the way God describes us: sheep, but without a shepherd – until Christ gathers us.) Similarly, a widow lost 1 coin out of 10, where each coin would be enough to feed, house, and clothe a family for a whole day – not throwaway money.

The third story, however, is more than just a few sentences, and it’s a lot deeper than just a single lesson. It’s about people, and it’s one of the classic Bible stories – the prodigal son. You probably know the story – the younger of two brothers insults his father by asking for his inheritance immediately, instead of being forced to wait around for the old guy to finally die. He takes his money and lives the high life, squandering it swiftly on wild living. (In our day, this would be equivalent to moving to Amsterdam, Bangkok, or Vegas, to devote yourself to the kind of things that people go to Amsterdam, Bangkok, and Vegas to do.) Once the money’s gone, he can’t find any sort of respectable work, and ends up feeding pigs. (A distasteful job, no matter what your cultural background. Again, a quick visit to the State Fair will confirm this!)

This time, however, the story is a little different. Rather than a physical search, like the widow or the shepherd conducted, we see a search of a different kind. The father lets the rebellious son extinguish his appetite for sin, and reach the end of his rope. Then, as soon as the son realizes that his father is an honorable and gracious man, and returns home, we discover that the father has been searching the horizon for his son all along! And the father welcomes the son home as a true son, and refuses to grant the boy’s request to be taken as a slave.

Well, that’s a really nice story. And it has a happy ending! (Except for the older son, who’s not happy. More about him later.) So what is Jesus trying to say about his friendship with the sinners and his cold relationship with the Pharisees? In brief, Jesus is saying that God desires sinners to repent, and celebrates when they do. There’s much more celebration over sinners who repent of their sin than there is all the un-lost sheep, coins, and sons that don’t “need” to repent. (We’ll discover shortly that Jesus is pretty good with the sarcasm here.)

Robby asked us to consider what it means to be lost. The sheep, the coin, and the younger son were all described as ‘lost’. It’s easy to understand what we mean by the sheep and the coin – their whereabouts were unknown, and until they were located, it was practically as if they didn’t even exist. They were of no value to the owner unless they could be found. The sheep and the coin didn’t know they were lost; they didn’t really know anything at all. Even the story of the lost son starts this way; the father didn’t know where the son was, and the son didn’t know he was lost. He didn’t think he was lost; but in terms of what really mattered, he just didn’t have a clue. He had no relationship with the father, and the father didn’t have any fellowship with him. He was lost.

In the same way, all of us were (or are) lost. We don’t know the Father, because we are born as sinners. We live our lives separated from him, taking the good gifts he gives us and using them to fulfill our own appetites. We don’t even know that we’re lost and separated from the Father. We may have learned a lot about the Father; but we don’t know him. But God, in his great mercy and grace, causes the same change in us that happened in the prodigal son.

Just like the prodigal son, God helps us understand the emptiness and futility of our sin, and that the wasted life we’ve been living isn’t getting us what we want. He helps us understand that we have a good and gracious Father who is kind to his servants. He helps us understand that if we turn to the Father in repentance and throw ourselves on his mercy, then we can trust him to respond graciously according to his promise and character. He helps us understand that the only way to be restored to a right relationship with him is to come with repentance and humility and faith in his word.

In the story of the prodigal son, the younger brother had to get up and go to his Father. The father didn’t seek him out, the way the widow sought her coin. In our lives, the father doesn’t seek us out in that way either. He doesn’t come chasing after us, wooing us and begging us and inviting us to be reconciled to him. Instead, he commands that we put our faith and trust in Jesus, and he changes our desires so that we want to be reconciled to him. God came to earth as a man, to live the life we could not live, and to die the death we deserved to die, and to rise so that we could have life in his name. Jesus was that man, and he died on the cross to pay the due penalty for our rebellion and sin. Jesus is the only way to have relationship with God; when we come to Jesus in repentance and humility and faith in his word, he is faithful to forgive us – and to cleanse us from our wickedness.

When Jesus tells these parables, it’s always useful to identify with the appropriate character in the story. In the primary understanding, each of us is the prodigal son, and we are all welcome to come to the father in repentance. (If you were reading the story and thought of yourself as the father, you need to go back to the beginning.) However, there are a few other characters in the story some of us might identify with. Unfortunately, some of us should be identifying with the older brother, who reacted angrily to the father’s grace and the welcome given to the unexpected sinful younger brother. This is a little too common in church-world; we can be too quick to disassociate with the sinners of this world, and much too unwelcoming when they come to God. Robby asked us to consider how the story would have played out if the younger brother, when returning home, had been greeted first by the older brother instead of the father. It certainly wouldn’t have been the same warm greeting – not at all! If you recognize the older brother in yourself, then just like the younger brother, you need to come to the Father in repentance, and to consider the great work that Christ has done for us.

A much better model to consider is the overlooked people in the story – the servants of the father. (We can’t even call them ‘characters’, since they don’t get any lines!) They are quick to obey the Father and welcome the prodigal home. They do the work of the Father’s house. They seek to reconcile the older son to the Father. Which group are we at Prairie View – are we represented by the older son, hostile to sinners and ungrateful toward God? Or are we the quiet servants of the father, quick to obey, quick to welcome the lost, and quick to point the lost older brothers of this world to the Father?

So what’s the result of coming to God in repentance and faith? In our parables, the widow, the shepherd, and the father all threw a party of celebration, and there was great rejoicing. In the last story, the father even killed the ‘fattened calf’, the animal that was raised and carefully cultivated for only the greatest celebrations. (If you doubt that beef makes for excellent celebration food, go to the State Fair – but not to the livestock barns; seek out the ribeye sandwiches.) Likewise, when a sinner comes to understand that God is gracious and turns to him in repentance, there is great celebration among the servants of God. Jesus says that the rejoicing in heaven among the angels is great, but we certainly shouldn’t let that stop us from celebrating here and now when we welcome new brothers and sisters into the body of Christ.

If you’re interested in a much more extensive treatment of the story of the prodigal son, I encourage you to read “A Tale of Two Sons” by John MacArthur. He preached several weeks on this passage, and the book is the edited compilation of those sermons. It’s quite a rich story, since it was aimed not only at the repentant sinners but also the self-righteous Pharisees – the two sons.

Next week, we’ll be in John. We’ve seen three of the gospels so far; Matthew, Mark and Luke give similar accounts of similar stories, with similar perspectives. John is quite a different narrative altogether; John wrote much, much later, and he had a single, focused, primary purpose for his book. John wrote that we might believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we might have life in his name. We’ll look at John’s gospel next week!