Sunday, November 8, 2015

Todays Sermon Notes



2015.11.08      Ephesians 2: 8-10 and Luke 15
                       Grace illustrated
Good morning everyone… It is wonderful to see you here this morning… I have good news… His name is  Jesus…
Here at CC Wiesbaden… We go through the Bible verse by verse... We want to see the big picture! We want to know and understand our great God and Savior… We are studying the Letter to the Ephesians… As always Paul is ministering to the people of God… He is following the Lord´s command to go and make Disciples… In Acts 20… He called the church elders from Ephesus to come and see him…. He knew that he would be arrested in Jerusalem…. The elders and others begged him no to go…. But he was determined to finish his race and to testify of the Gospel of the Grace of God… As a former Pharisee he cherished the great grace that the Lord had poured out on his life…. Everywhere he went and every letter he wrote had the same mission…
Paul´s Mission
1 To teach the Word of God…
2 To make Disciples…
3 To equip the Disciples to do the work of the ministry…
We see exactly these things in the letter to the Ephesians…. We see it very clearly in our text for today… These 3 verses are full of meaning and power…
As we have begun our study of Ephesians… We have already seen several important truths about God… We have learned That God in His Sovereign Power and Unfailing love… Chose to send a Savior… A redeemer to deliver from sin and death… Jesus saves all that cry out to Him… In Chapter 1 we learned of this marvelous plan… As we moved to chapter 2 we were reminded that God accomplished our Salvation and redemption all by Himself….. While we were dead in sin and rebellion… Ch2 v1… God did this because of His Grace and Mercy…. He intervened in our lives… We were dead in sin… That´s a bad place for us to find ourselves… But God stepped in and by His Grace changed everything… Open your Bibles with me to Ephesians ch 2…v4,5…
Ephesians 2: 4,5   NLT   Neues Leben
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.
4 Doch Gott ist so barmherzig und liebte uns so sehr,5 dass er uns, die wir durch unsere Sünden tot waren, mit Christus neues Leben schenkte, als er ihn von den Toten auferweckte. Nur durch die Gnade Gottes seid ihr gerettet worden!
But God… Here we see God´s grace…. It is real and active in our lives… We were dead… But God gave us life… look down at verse 8-10… These 3 verses are our focus for this morning… ch 2 v8-10…
Ephesians 2: 8-10              NLT  Neues Leben
 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
8 Weil Gott so gnädig ist, hat er euch durch den Glauben gerettet. Und das ist nicht euer eigenes Verdienst; es ist ein Geschenk Gottes.9 Ihr werdet also nicht aufgrund eurer guten Taten gerettet, damit sich niemand etwas darauf einbilden kann.10 Denn wir sind Gottes Schöpfung. Er hat uns in Christus Jesus neu geschaffen, damit wir zu guten Taten fähig sind, wie er es für unser Leben schon immer vorgesehen hat.
The Gospel according to Grace is wonderfully shown to us in these verses… And when it is all said and done… It is the grace of God that does it all… His unfailing love transforms our lives… We are saved by Grace…. We cannot boast about it…  
And so my dear friendsIt is absolutely necessary that we understand grace… When we understand what God Has done for us…… When we understand that He has poured out His Love on wicked and sin filled people like me… Like us… We should become deeply thankful…
When I understand the miracle that I have been forgiven… It will affect every aspect of my life…. It will affect the way I respond to God… It will transform the way I relate to others…
In Ephesians Paul is explaining God´s character and nature to us… We have already learned of His Sovereign plan and His Unfailing love and Mercy…
In fact… God delights to show mercy… Micah 7:18,19… God the Father delights to shower us with His grace… That´s why He sent His only Bogotten son… Jesus as Savior and redeemer…
Jesus Himself is the perfect reflection of the Father... When we look at Jesus we see the Lord our God perfectly… Paul makes this abundantly clear in his letter to Titus… Note takers… Titus 2: 11-15…
We see the Grace of God when we look at the cross…. On Calvary we see His unfailing love… and we see the perfect reflection of the Father… The Grace of God has appeared…. We can see Him… His name is Jesus…
One of the great chapters in the Bible is Luke 15… Here Jesus illustrates Grace with three awesome parables…
We are going to take a good look at God´s Grace This morning… We will see grace illustrated clearly to us as Jesus tells us this parable…
Today we will look at the third parable in Chapter 15… It´s about a loving father and two sons… It is usually known as The Prodigal Son…. but this story has much more than that…
This third parable is the story of 2 sons… first of all a prodigal, wasteful son… A rebel… A Sinner who came back home… And by returning and repenting… He brought his father joy...  joy that called for celebration… We see 2 sons and we see 2 kinds of people listening to Jesus… The tax collectors and prostitutes are like this first son…. Full of sin and lust and rebellion…
But  in fact… Jesus´ main audience for these parables are the Pharisees and the Scribes… They were very good people… They were very religious and legalistic… They were strict to obey every detail of the law… The common people admired them and almost worshipped them because of their outward Righteousness…
But they were Hypocrites…. They were only pretending to love the Lord their God with all of their hearts… They despised and rejected anyone who did not live up to their standards…. They looked down on the sick…. They must be deep in sin you see… They could not understand why Jesus would hang around with tax collectors and prostitutes…They knew nothing of God's joy over repenting sinners…
The great message of this chapter is that God ´s grace is active… He seeks and He saves… A second message is that Heaven celebrates when a sinner is saved… There is great rejoicing in Heaven when a lost soul is found… He receives Grace and forgiveness… And God himself rejoices… Zeph 3: 17…  tells us that God the Father… will rejoice over us with singing…
God delights to show Mercy…The Good News of the Gospel is that God Himself has done all of this for people like us… This is important for us to see… It is His Mercy… His unfailing love…. His Grace that transforms us… We don´t have to persuade the Father to love us…! He delights to pour His grace out on our lives… As we listen to Jesus tell this third parable…
Let´s remember the occasion that brings us the parables that Jesus tells in Luke 15…. verse 1 says…
"All the tax gatherers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him."
They came because they were willing to listen but they didn´t like what they heard… The Scribes and Pharisees began to grumble,,, because Jesus ate with them…
Now Scribes and Pharisees would not eat with these people ever… That would make them unclean… So they thought… So why did Jesus hangout with sinners?
The answer is simple …..   Jesus said I have come to seek and to save that which is lost…..   Luke 19:10……Although they hate Jesus… He loves them… He wants them to receive grace and forgiveness too…
And that is the reason for this parable… In this chapter… We have seen the recovery of a lost sheep and a lost coin…… And here is the recovery of a lost son…… But this story is intended to demonstrate the same thing, the joy of God over the recovery of a lost sinner… But this story goes even beyond that… It identifies the nature of repentance… Repentance has been mentioned in this chapter in verse 7 and  in verse 10… but so far it has not been reflected in the parables… In this parable we see genuine repentance and we see the religious Hypocrites as well…  The Pharisees and the scribes actually appear in this parable as well…
And as the parable unfolds…  they will see themselves… And that's the surprise ending of the story… He will show them the truth about themselves…
It is His Unfailing love…  and His desire to show them grace… Jesus uses this parable to show The Fathers longing to forgive and restore…. He truly delights to show mercy…
This is a powerful illustration of and sin and rebellion… It is met by a Loving Father who shows Grace and mercy…. He puts His love into action for an undeserving son…
It's a story of redemption and reconciliation……
Turn with me to Luke 15 beginning at verse 11….
Luke 15 : 11- 32     NKJV
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring [fn2] out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ 
Luke 15 : 11- 32     Schlachter 2000
11 Und er sprach: Ein Mensch hatte zwei Söhne.
12 Und der jüngere von ihnen sprach zum Vater: Gib mir den Teil des Vermögens, der mir zufällt, Vater! Und er teilte ihnen das Gut.
13 Und nicht lange danach packte der jüngere Sohn alles zusammen und reiste in ein fernes Land, und dort verschleuderte er sein Vermögen mit ausschweifendem Leben.
14 Nachdem er aber alles aufgebraucht hatte, kam eine gewaltige Hungersnot über jenes Land, und auch er fing an, Mangel zu leiden.
15 Da ging er hin und hängte sich an einen Bürger jenes Landes; der schickte ihn auf seine Äcker, die Schweine zu hüten.
16 Und er begehrte, seinen Bauch zu füllen mit den Schoten2, welche die Schweine fraßen; und niemand gab sie ihm.
17 Er kam aber zu sich selbst und sprach: Wie viele Tagelöhner meines Vaters haben Brot im Überfluß, ich aber verderbe vor Hunger!
18 Ich will mich aufmachen und zu meinem Vater gehen und zu ihm sagen: Vater, ich habe gesündigt gegen den Himmel und vor dir,
19 und ich bin nicht mehr wert, dein Sohn zu heißen; mache mich zu einem deiner Tagelöhner!
20 Und er machte sich auf und ging zu seinem Vater. Als er aber noch fern war, sah ihn sein Vater und hatte Erbarmen; und er lief, fiel ihm um den Hals und küßte ihn.
21 Der Sohn aber sprach zu ihm: Vater, ich habe gesündigt gegen den Himmel und vor dir, und ich bin nicht mehr wert, dein Sohn zu heißen!
22 Aber der Vater sprach zu seinen Knechten: Bringt das beste Festgewand her und zieht es ihm an, und gebt ihm einen Ring an seine Hand und Schuhe an die Füße;
23 und bringt das gemästete Kalb her und schlachtet es; und laßt uns essen und fröhlich sein!
24 Denn dieser mein Sohn war tot und ist wieder lebendig geworden; und er war verloren und ist wiedergefunden worden. Und sie fingen an, fröhlich zu sein.
25 Aber sein älterer Sohn war auf dem Feld; und als er heimkam und sich dem Haus näherte, hörte er Musik und Tanz.
26 Und er rief einen der Knechte herbei und erkundigte sich, was das sei.
27 Der sprach zu ihm: Dein Bruder ist gekommen, und dein Vater hat das gemästete Kalb geschlachtet, weil er ihn gesund wiedererhalten hat!
28 Da wurde er zornig und wollte nicht hineingehen. Sein Vater nun ging hinaus und redete ihm zu.
29 Er aber antwortete und sprach zum Vater: Siehe, so viele Jahre diene ich dir3 und habe nie dein Gebot übertreten; und mir hast du nie einen Bock gegeben, damit ich mit meinen Freunden fröhlich sein kann.
30 Nun aber, da dieser dein Sohn gekommen ist, der dein Gut mit Huren vergeudet hat, hast du für ihn das gemästete Kalb geschlachtet!
31 Er aber sprach zu ihm: Mein Sohn, du bist allezeit bei mir, und alles, was mein ist, das ist dein.
32 Du solltest aber fröhlich sein und dich freuen; denn dieser dein Bruder war tot und ist wieder lebendig geworden, und er war verloren und ist wiedergefunden worden!
We begin with the younger son.......  Verse 11, "And He said, 'A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father....  Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.'" We'll stop there for a moment…...
Remember In verse 11 we see the man and both sons…
As I said… It´s really a story about two sons and a loving father……. Jesus said, "A certain man had two sons……. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.'"
When Jesus said that, you could imagine that the Pharisees and the scribes were very judgmental of this young man… In this culture this is absolutely an outrageous statement…..  He is utterly disrespectful toward his father…… He lacks any love or respect for his father…He is basically saying…. The stuff that you have is far more important than you are… He is saying, "Dad, I wish you were dead already because I want my inheritance…
This attitude shows us that he is not happy living under the fathers authority…   He is miserable…   He doesn't want to obey his father…   
The Scribes and the Pharisees expected the father to be angry and ashamed… They would have been very angry… totally Furious (Wutant)…
They would expect him to rebuke him and punish him… Not only should he not get the inheritance… The very way that he was behaving deserved severe punishment…
Here is the first surprise in the story…... Look at v 12…
v12…"And he divided his wealth between them."
v12… Und er teilte ihnen das Gut…
Here is the first surprise… He did not give this young man what he deserved…. Instead He Showed him grace… He divided his wealth… 
And so the father willingly accepts the pain of rejected love… The greater the love, the greater the pain when that love is rejected…..
This is God´s Grace illustrated… Like this man and His father… God gives the sinner his freedom… he is demonstrating the absence of a relationship…  The sinner Doesn't love God… He  doesn't care about God… He certainly doesn't want to submit to God… Just like this  young man… He has no real relationship with his father….  Although the father loves him very much… He lets him go…
Verse 12 also  that he divided his wealth between them… We still have two boys in this story…. They both get their portions…  And Just a few days later the younger son takes off… He's sick of having any accountability or relationship with the family… He has no love for his father or for his older brother… and we will see that his older brother has no love for him either…
 By the way… the older brother has no love for the father either…   When the younger brother comes home… The father is very happy… But the older brother is angry….  He is equally unloving and  unthankful… even though he stays home… He is the hypocrite in the house… He is the main subject of the story… you see it is the older brother who represents the Scribes and Pharisees…  
These 2 sons represent the two kinds of people who have no relationship with God…   One is as far away from God that he can get… Full of sin and rebellion…  The other is as close as he can be… outwardly very religious… But he is also proud and judgmental…. Just like the Pharisees… Just like some of us…
The Scribes and Pharisees did not understand grace… Just like the Scribes and the Pharisees sometimes we are proud and judgmental of sinners… And we often sit in Judgment of our own brothers and sisters… Well in our illustration here… Jesus is building a case… He is showing the Scribes and Pharisees a really rotten young man…
He is as bad as anybody could be... You can't be worse than to scorn  and dishonor your father… Outrageous and wicked selfishness… It is certain by now that would have had a funeral for this guy… He's gone and he's dead… It's over…... The only way he could be restored now is if he were to come back and repurchase the estate which he sold…… He'd have to return and buy it all back… He would have to make restitution… He would have to pay for his sin and rebellion…
By the way… Where's the older brother? Why doesn't he  rebuke the younger brother for dishonoring the father?"
We know the answer… He didn't love the father either… This whole scene is filled with shame… We see a loving generous father who's provided massive gifts to two ungrateful sons…… One is a rebellious sinner… the other is a religious and outwardly obedient son… But he is not serving his father from his heart..
Well the rebellion is on… look at v13…
13, "That when he got into the distant country, he there squandered his estate with loose living."
Squandered means to scatter…... He just threw it away...   he wasted it all… He trashed his life……
Now obviously this young son represents open sinners….. the rebels…… They are the tax gatherers and the sinners in the audience… They are the outcasts… And they run as far as they can from God… because they have no love for Him and no relationship with Him…
They don't want anything to do with His law, or His rule….. They don't want any accountability to Him whatsoever… And yet the father shows them grace and they hear Jesus gladly… That´s the prodigal… The father showed him grace…     
 Verse 14…
14a… "Now when he had spent everything."   
He spent everything… Now he is hungry and in trouble… And it is all his fault...
Disaster strikes… You're talking about desperation… He could die…   This is life at its lowest…
I think the Pharisees and the scribes listening to the story now are starting to feel  sorry for this young man… He has no family… He has nobody left… He's in a foreign land, nowhere to turn…… All his resources are gone… He is destitute…...  The party is over for sure….. But he's still not ready to go home…...   Still not ready to  humble himself and repent…
His life is a mess…. He refused the Love of his father… He ended up with a hard miserable life… He was actually facing death from starvation… So  he went and started to work for one of the citizens of that country…  And finally it says in verse 15…
15… he sent him into his fields to feed pigs……
And this point the disappointment and anger of the Pharisees comes up again… Serving a Gentile… Feeding pigs… This is lower than low…
But it's not all…… Look at verse 16….
v16… he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating… "No one was giving anything to him…
It's just unthinkable… He's so low, he can't get lower…
The Pharisees were very upset by now… I can imagine that in their self righteous way…. They are saying… That´s exactly what he deserves…. He is such a godless sinner… The Lord has abandoned him because of his sin…  
What is the lesson here?
The lesson is that all sin…  is rebellion against God the Father… It is not rebellion only against His Law… it is also rebellion against Him… It is rejecting His willingness to forgive and save us…  
We refuse to have a relationship with a loving God…. He offers us grace and mercy… We spit in his face…….
That is our once proud and stubborn younger son…   
Finally
He is ready to go home….. His is finally willing to repent….It starts out simply by saying he got up and came to his father…... The son, the sinner, ready to face the shame he deserves…… He wants mercy… He needs his father… His father can give him life instead of death…… He has hope in the goodness and kindness and forgiveness of his father… He's truly repentant….
The Pharisees taught that repentance was work a man does to earn God's favor… The Pharisees thought that this Prodigal´s return in repentance and his willingness to work as a hired man to pay his father back… would be the happy ending to this parable…
But that is not what happened…...   
This is where the story has its biggest surprise… What happened is that while he was still a long way off…. his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him……   The father is watching and looking for his son to come home…...  He sees him and runs……
Why? He wants to protect him from the shame and anger of the village… They would kill this man in their righteous anger… That´s just like us sometimes… sometimes we want to hate the sinner… Thinking that we are better than them… They don´t deserve to be forgiven… They have to pay…. We are quick to Forget that we were also saved by grace… Undeserved mercy and unfailing love …
The Father runs taking the shame to protect the son from taking the shame… He takes the scorn and the mockery and the slander so that his son doesn't have to bear it……  
And now we know that the father has been suffering silently for the whole time he's been gone… Everybody now knows how much that father loves that son… He loves him so much that he takes his shame…. that he empties himself… He gives him a robe and a ring… Signs of His grace and mercy…. Proof that he has been forgiven and restored to sonship…   
What a shock went through the listeners…The tax collectors were thrilled…. There is hope for grace and mercy…   This is wonderful…    
Some people think that God is a reluctant Savior… No… Like this illustration… He is a joyful and loving Father… seeking and  looking for us… Waiting and watching for us to come home…
And the father does all of that before the son says one word… He's come home… that's enough to demonstrate his genuine repentance… He came knowing he had to cast himself on the father's mercy… He came knowing he had to be ready to bear the shame… And he yet he came…
This is radical stuff… It was absolutely unexpected that the father would just simply forgive him…. No restitution necessary…  He came humble and repentant… And he receives Total Instant restoration…
That father is doing exactly what Jesus did for us…..   He came seeking us and running to throw His arms around us… And because of His grace and because He delights to show mercy… He forgives us and reconciles with us… We are transformed by his love…
The Scribes and Pharisees are in shock… Why?
Because this all happened without any works…That's the shock… It was all grace… He doesn´t have to suffer of pay back anything…  He's just received grace…... This is the shock to the Legalists… the Scribes and Pharisees want sinners to pay…. The father is so Happy….  He receives and reconciles with the son before the son can say anything…... The son never has a chance to offer to work for forgiveness….. He doesn´t get a chance to offer to earn it… It is all instant permanent Grace…
Why? Because he's already been received as a son……. He's already been forgiven…... He's already received mercy…...   His repentance is real….. His faith is true….. And his father responds with complete forgiveness and reconciliation…….
This is the perfect illustration of God´s grace 
The son starts out with a religious understanding of repentance and faith and works… He had it all wrong… and so do the listeners to this parable… Jesus is reaching out to these proud stubborn rebellious Scribes and Pharisees…
They do not understand Grace… With this parable… Jesus is saying you don´t understand…. You will never earn your salvation….
Grace is undeserved forgiveness and mercy…. It is the perfect reflection of my unfailing love… It is the perfect fulfillment of the plan of Redemption… Which was made before the foundation of the World… Eph 1…
It was promised by the Father and fulfilled in the The Lord Jesus… He is the perfect reflection of the Fathers love and grace…
This illustration shows us the experience that each of us has had who are believers… There was a day when we came to the Father And even though we didn´t derserve it… He poured out grace and mercy into our lives… Instantly we were forgiven and our sins were washed away…
The older son was angry about this happy ending… He represents to Scribes and Pharisees… He represents some of us too… He was there with the Father serving him…. But he was serving out of Duty and obligation (Pflicht) …. He was not loving or serving the Father from a thankful and joyful heart… The Father pleaded with this proud and judgmental son to understand and forgive his brother…. Even though he did not deserve it…
We are all included in this story… we are either the wild sinner who will not stop sinning until our lives are totally destroyed…. Or we are the PhariseesObeying the law… But not from our hearts…  If only instaed of being angry these listeners would have searched their own hearts…. The Lord told this story to offer them the very same miracle… Undeserved grace and mercy…. But they were angry and unforgiving… They cherished their pride and were unwilling to forgive anyone who has not paid for their sin… The tax collectors and the prostitutes got it…. They went home forgiven….
The Scribes and the Pharisees unfortunately did not… They did not understand grace… They rejected Jesus´ offer… They refused to humble themselves and repent… I say that because if they did… we would have seen the miracle in the text…
Although we are believers… Many of us do not understand Grace…. We are stern and unloving… We are judgmental and unforgiving…
The Lord is pleading with all of us to receive the Grace and mercy that he offers…. He is pleading with us to forgive each other from our hearts… The lesson for today is for us forgive each other from our hearts… If we refuse that… Maybe we do not understand Grace… It is time to repent…   This Letter to the Ephesians is rich in solid teaching about the Lord our God… It is also full of practical advice… Paul is laying a solid foundation under our feet  as he helps us to understand… He shows God´s awesome plan of redemption and forgiveness… He displays God´s grace and mercy to us so that it will affect everything and every one around us… He is teaching us how to walk out our Christian life…. Let´s look ahead at Eph 5..v1,2… to finish this morning… Here Paul exhorts us to walk in love…
Ephesians 5: 1,2                NLT   Neues Leben
1 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
1 Folgt in allem Gottes Beispiel, denn ihr seid seine geliebten Kinder.
2 Euer Leben soll von Liebe geprägt sein, wie auch Christus uns geliebt hat, denn er hat sich selbst als Gabe und Opfer für unsere Sünden gegeben. Und Gott hatte Gefallen an diesem Opfer, das wie ein wohlriechender Duft zu ihm aufstieg.
 Let´s pray…

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