I’ve heard it said, because we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; and because we can add not one wit to our salvation by good works - we are to sit back and do nothing. After all, it’s said, “God’s sovereign, He’s in charge of everything. If He doesn’t do it, it won’t be done.” Where do we get such twisted views? The world? Ourselves? The Devil? Probably from all three. What an absurdity!
God, the Father, didn’t appoint our salvation, and Jesus Christ didn’t accomplish our salvation, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t apply the fruit of salvation to us so that we can stay living like the pagans we once were. He saved us to conform us to the image of Christ. He redeemed us to remake us into a company of disciples who will tangibly reflect the character and the characteristics of the Lord Jesus! If you are saved, it’s GO TIME!
If someone reads the New Testament with the mildest of care, they will see Jesus establishing a clear pattern of “coming and going.” As we saw last week, He had the woman at the well come to Him and then she went to call others to come. It’s the biblical pattern. He saves us to send us! He frees us to free others. He calls us so that we may call others to Him. What He does for us He calls and equips us to do for others. How is this missed? I call the question!
Here’s one of the clearest pieces of evidence that ratifies this Christological pattern, yet, so many miss it in today’s church. In Matthew 16 Jesus takes His disciples on a journey miles north of Galilee to a place named for the Roman Caesars. It’s called Caesarea Philippi. It’s here that Jesus asks them a question – “Who do men say that I am?” This is the first time in the gospel that Jesus’ true identity is revealed to the disciples. And if you listen to what Jesus says in response to Peter you see that it’s all revelation. The Father reveals to Peter the identity of His Son and Peter speaks it. And what follows in most Christian commentaries is: (1) an elaboration of Jesus’ blessing on Peter; (2) the delineation between Petros and Petra; and (3) the nature of the church’s foundation. That’s it. What’s missing is most essential. It’s found in Jesus’ word right after He says, “And upon this petra – the rock – I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The words that follow flesh out the purpose of the church. Our foundation is the confessed Lordship of Jesus. But our purpose is to prevail against the gates of hell.
Now let me ask you – what is the mission of hell and its henchmen? Simple. To enslave people in their sin. It is stealing, killing, and destroying by binding people in their sin, shame, and guilt. (Note: the image Jesus uses here – “gates.”) So what is it that the church does to gain victory in the face of hell and its gates? Jesus tells us in the very next verse. He says, “I will give you (His disciples) the keys of the kingdom of heaven…” What are those keys that unlock the gates? He tells us, “…and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” What’s He talking about? The same thing He’s talking about in Matthew 18. There He says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother…Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” They are the same words! So, what’s He talking about? The same thing in both places. FORGIVENESS! Do you see it? He’s giving us the same commission He possesses – to storm the gates of hell to release prisoners. Is there any shred of evidence that we are, therefore, justified in sitting on our butts and saying, “If a sovereign God wants to do it He can do it without me.” Sure He can, but why miss it? It’s way too exciting. It’s like Tom Cruise in Top Gun – engage Maverick!
That’s what this series on transformation is all about. That’s what Paul means when he says, “If anyone be in Christ he is a new creature. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
This week we will examine a familiar text - Luke15:11-32. It’s 2/3rd’s of the greatest story Jesus ever told. It’s a perfect example of the power of forgiveness that the Holy Spirit can wrought in a transformed life. The Father is Jesus. You and I are the younger son. Not only does He exhibit profound and costly (extravagant) forgiveness to us, He empowers us to do likewise.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following questions:
1. Who is Pinin Barcilon? What did she do?
2. How does Jesus’ statement in Mark 2:17 relate to the Matthew 16 & 18 texts
we’ve just cited?
3. How do the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” relate to Jesus’ actions in the
last two messages in this series – John 8 and John 4?
4. What is the meaning of the son’s demand in Luke 15:12?
5. What does “gathering together all he had” mean?
6. What does it mean when Jesus says, “…there he squandered his property in
reckless living”? (verse 13)
7. What does it mean when it says “he comes to himself” in the pigpen?
8. Why does the father run to him?
9. How costly to the father is the restoration of his son?
10. Enumerate some of the different dimensions of “loosing” the father provides
the son and think about how you can be used to loose others in the same ways.
See you Sunday!
