From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I don't know where you are in your situation with the Lord, but I know that it's the church crowd that has trouble with religion. And you can get locked down in that. And you can be a member of this church from the cradle onward. You can say, "Well, I was baptized when I was eight, did this and I did that, and I have all the attendance records and all the giving records. I've been a Sunday school teacher, I've been a deacon, I've been head of this, head of that."

So what? Do you have a real personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Because if you don't, today is the day to respond to the gospel.

Guest (Male): There are probably a lot of people who can relate to the parable of the prodigal son, the son who demanded his inheritance from his father and left to spend it all on worldly desires. But chances are if you grew up in church, you're not going to relate as much to the prodigal son as you're going to relate to the other brother in the story.

A son who never left his father, but was just as distant as his wayward brother. As Pastor Jeff puts it, he's really the poster child for the religious crowd. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today. Thank you for being with us. We're in part two of this powerful lesson to close out the month.

It's called Religion or Relationship, and it'll remind us that many religious people who appear to be respectable and good on the outside are not, but rather self-righteousness abounds. If you can, let's close out this month by opening to the 15th chapter of the Book of Luke and learn how to avoid loving your Christian religion and instead start adoring your relationship with Jesus.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I want you to notice three discoveries from this wonderful passage from the back end of this story that give us insight into the life of the religious. Discovery number one: religious people are sinners of a different stripe. Now, the religious brother, he didn't go to a far country. He wasn't far off in proximity to the father as far as outwardly. He's far away inwardly.

The prodigal, it's obvious he doesn't have a relationship with the father. He takes off. But the brother who stayed home, he doesn't have a relationship with the father. He was far away from the father inwardly. So right off the bat, we find out that the religious crowd, they are sinners of a different stripe.

Second discovery: religious people are exposed in the light of grace. In the light of God's grace. You can hide. They can hide in their religion until God's grace starts to shine. And when God's grace shines, as it did on the prodigal son, then everything starts coming to the surface. All the rottenness in the heart starts to become visible.

And that's what you see when the boy finds out, "Hey, what's all the music? What's all the dancing?" Interestingly, the word for music is where we get our English word symphony. And so there are lots of instruments and there's lots of singing. This is a loud party. This is a big party. I mean, the father is rejoicing at the top of his lungs and to the best that he can put on this party. He's putting that on for his son who was dead and has now come to life, who was lost and has now been found.

And so the religious brother says, "What's all this? I wasn't consulted about this. I don't know what's going on." And they say, "Oh, your brother's come back. Your father has received him safe and sound, and we're throwing a party for him." He doesn't care about his brother. You would think, "My brother's back, man, that's awesome." No, he doesn't want to see his brother. He doesn't care about his brother.

He gets angry because he thinks it's not right what my father is doing. They're celebrating shame in there, and that is not right. Religious people, you mark it down, they're angry with the father's grace. Angry with the concept of mercy and grace. They don't like it. Why? Well, why would anyone not like grace? Why would anyone not like mercy?

Because when you set up your religious system that's all based on points. It's the point system. How many points does his brother have? Negative zero, nothing. And we're throwing him a party? This is wrong. He's angry at the father's grace. Why? Because he says it's the point system, and I'm doing well in the point system. Don't change the rules of the game because I've put in all—I've invested so much in the point system.

He doesn't understand how rotten his heart is. He doesn't understand how negative he is. So the religious person doesn't like the concept of grace. He's exposed that he doesn't like grace. He doesn't like the fact that tax collectors and sinners could ever be able to come into the kingdom because they have so many negative points that you could never fix that.

Secondly, we see about this religious crowd, they serve only for gain and not for love. Only for gain and not for love. He's angry, and the father comes out and begins to entreat him. And he says, "Listen, look! I've been serving you for all these years. And what do I get for it? I haven't gotten anything. This son of yours comes back, this pig-smelling son of yours, he comes back, and what do you do?

You throw a shame party. You receive him back. You put your best robe on him, you put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. You kill the fatted calf. You don't even give me a young goat. What's up with this? This isn't right." He exposes himself as to his motivation. Why are you serving your father? Are you serving him because you love him? Obviously not.

You're serving him for what you can get out of him. The older brother and the prodigal son are the same in terms of this: they wanted what they could get out of their father. The prodigal just wanted it right now, and so "give me what belongs to me." And the older brother said, "Well, I want what belongs to me, but I'll go about it a different way. I'll just sit here and I'll work and I'll wait until you keel over, and then all this belongs to me. All this will be mine."

Remember this too about his anger. The father had already given all that belonged to the younger son to him. So now all that was left belonged to the other brother. And so if we're going to kill the fatted calf and if we're going to do all this stuff, that's coming out of my inheritance. I don't like this at all. I wouldn't give that guy a slice of pizza, and you're throwing him a lavish party.

He reveals his heart. He didn't serve the father for love. He served him for gain. He served for what he could get out of him. He didn't love God, and that was the problem with the Pharisees. They didn't love God. Now, if you asked them, "Do you love God?" they would tell you, "Of course." But they didn't. The scripture makes it clear in the gospels: they were lovers of money.

They were lovers of the respectful greetings in the marketplace. They were lovers of accolades and the respect they got from the people. They didn't love God. They just used God to get what they wanted. Well, this religious guy only serves for gain. He only serves for the blessings. And when he sees that it's not going the way he thinks it should go, he gets angry.

He's exposed in the light of God's grace. And then thirdly and finally, this crowd has no heart for the father's heart. No heart for the father's heart. Because as we read in these parables in Luke 15, every time that the lost was found, you have the same refrain: "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost, for I have found the coin that was lost, for I have found the son who was lost. Rejoice with me."

Heaven's greatest joy is when one sinner repents. That's what Jesus said in Luke chapter 15, verses six and seven. And when he comes home, he calls his friends—he was talking about the shepherd that found his lost sheep—he calls his friends together and his neighbors and says to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance."

But the religious crowd, they don't care anything about that. Hey, what do you see in church? You see people when a church—God begins a work and the church begins to grow and people start coming and prodigals start coming to Christ and people start to fill the seats, and all of a sudden it's like, "Well, that's where I sit. You're sitting where I sit."

And you can get frustrated because someone who's never been here before comes and sits in your seat, and you look at them like they just burned your house down. How dare you sit in my seat? I've been in there for 40 years. Well, sorry, I was at the pigsty, I just got saved last week, I'm here to worship God. Well, you should be rejoicing because the father rejoices, but all you care about is your seat.

You say, "Well, I paid money for that seat. I gave money for that seat." Hey, all the money that we give, we give it to the Lord and we give it for the purpose of winning people to Christ and growing them up in Christ. That's what we're here for: to go and make disciples. So you can see through this story that this upstanding son had no heart for his father.

He had no care and concern for what was on the father's heart. He didn't love what the father loved. Hey, do you love what the father loves? Do you long to see people come to Christ? Do you have a heart for the father's heart? Religious people are exposed in the light of grace. And then thirdly and finally, religious people are very hard to reach.

You know, it's not that hard to reach the prodigals. You know why? Because they know they're sinners. They know they're sinners. One preacher used to say, "You've got to get folks lost in order to be saved." He didn't mean they weren't lost; he meant they have to understand that they're lost. And so when you talk to someone and they understand—I remember asking guys when I was at University of Texas, going out on the streets and witnessing, and I talked to some of these guys that lived on the street and I said, "If you died tonight, do you know if you'd go to heaven?"

And I remember one guy, he said, "I know for sure I'd go to hell." And it's like, "Hey, you know what? You're not far from the kingdom because you understand that your sin is going to send you to hell." You ask the Pharisees, you ask the religious crowd, "Hey, are you going to heaven?" "Of course I'm going to heaven." "Why?" "Well, I do this and I do that and I do the other."

Very hard to reach a person like that. And the reason being is because number one, a person like that is blinded by his own self-righteousness. Blinded, can't see. That's why Jesus called the Pharisees, "You guys are blind guides of the blind. You can't see. And if the blind guide the blind, both of you fall into a ditch." You think you're so good and you are so bad.

So you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you neglect the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and righteousness. You neglect that stuff. And you strain out a gnat and you swallow a camel, and you can't see it because you think you're so good. It's hard to reach someone who's blinded by self-righteousness.

But not only are the religious blinded by their self-righteousness, they're also bitter over perceived injustice. Look again at verse 29. When the father goes out to entreat him to come into the party—"We want you to come in, go see your brother, go rejoice, rejoice with me for I found the son who was lost"—he's unwilling to go in.

And he says to his father in verse 29, "Look!" No, "Father, let me explain to you where I'm coming from." No, it's "Look! Hey, look here, you!" You don't talk to your father like that. This is a shameful thing. This is a gross disrespect. The prodigal always called his father "Father." This guy just says, "Look here, you look! For so many years, I have been serving you."

I mean, it's been toil, it's been horrible. The word for serving means to serve as a slave. "For so many years, I've been slaving for you and I've hated every single minute of it because I didn't do it for love, I did it for gain. And I didn't get anything. I've never neglected a command of yours, I've done everything right, and what do I get for it? Nothing. You've never given me as much as a young goat that I could have a party with my friends."

"Oh, I wouldn't invite you, Dad. You wouldn't come to the party; I'd be with my friends. But when this son of yours came—and may I remind you, Dad, he devoured your wealth with harlots, you funded his prostitution bill—well, what do you do? You kill the fatted calf for him." He's bitter. He's outraged.

And here is the amazing thing, the shocking thing. He expects the father to ask him, "Will you forgive me, son, for what I've done?" Because the son is perfect in his eyes, blinded by his own righteousness. "I've never neglected a command of yours, I have kept the whole law." And so this boy is incensed and enraged and bitter at the father.

Because he says, "You're not doing this right. You're celebrating shame. How dare you? I am outraged by you." Horrible. Bitter over perceived injustice. I've talked to people before and they've had bad things happen to them in their family and they say, "Oh, I don't understand it. I go to church every Sunday and I give my money and my husband died. And I did this and I got sick and I got cancer."

It's like, what planet do you live on? Do you not understand that bad things do happen to good people? And if you don't understand that, read the Book of Job. Find out all the things that happened to him. You don't understand that, look at the life of the Lord Jesus. Though he was a son, he learned obedience through the things that he suffered.

God never promises any of us a life where you'll have no trouble and no problems and no heartache and no pain. That doesn't exist. And if you're serving the Lord because you think, "Well, I'm going to get this and this and this and this from him," if you serve because it pays, listen, it doesn't pay. But if you serve because you love him, it pays in spades. Because you're not doing it for the pay; you're doing it for him.

And so this kid is angry. He is bitter. He says, "This is not right." And then thirdly, he's unwilling to repent and come to the party. The father is entreating him, but he's not coming in. The father says to him in verse 31, "My child, you have always been with me and all that is mine is yours. But we had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live and was lost and has been found.

How can we not rejoice? It would make no sense to not rejoice over what has happened." The son doesn't come in. You know, when you read in the Bible in the New Testament, Pharisees and scribes and religious leaders who came to Christ, it's a very short list. You read about Nicodemus. You read about Saul of Tarsus. Acts chapter 15 says that there was a small group of Pharisees who were followers of Jesus.

These are the guys who study the Bible. These are the guys who say they're so close to God, and when God is in front of them, they miss it because they're just religious and lost. They don't have a relationship with the father. Now, I want you to think about this as we get ready to close. Why does this story end the way it does?

You know, with the issue of the prodigal, it ends with a big party and it ends on a high note and it ends like, "Yeah, that's the way it should be." But with the issue of the religious older brother, the father's entreating him to come, and we don't know what he does. It doesn't say that the older brother was convicted and he recognized his sin and he said, "Father, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Yes, I want to come into the party, I want to see my brother, I want to rejoice with you."

That would be a great end to the story. But it doesn't say that. It just leaves it open-ended. He's speaking to the Pharisees. He's speaking the story to the Pharisees and to the scribes. And the question lingers: what are you going to do? You can come in or you can stay out. What are you going to do?

And here's how the story ends. A shocking end to the story. It ends this way: and the son, after hearing the father explain why they had to rejoice, picks up a piece of wood with a nail in it and beats his father to death in the sight of all the guests. That's the shocking reality to the story, because that's what they did.

They said, "This man can't continue to live." John chapter 11, he raises Lazarus from the dead. And they said, "It's imperative that he dies, otherwise everyone's going to follow after him." And they planned together from that day forward to put him to death. They picked up a piece of wood with a nail in it and beat him to death.

It's just going to be a few months from this incident that they persuade the crowd to say not this man, but Barabbas. "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?" Pilate asked. And they said, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" And he said, "Shall I crucify your king?" And they said, "We have no king but Caesar."

The father welcomes the repentant prodigal son. He would have welcomed the older brother. But the religious crowd would rather kill the father than rejoice with him over the found. Don't be that person. Don't be that person. Today is the day to make sure you have a real relationship with the one who died for you, was buried for you, and rose again the third day for you. Today is the day.