Luke 15-16: What Repentance Does

We read Luke 15 and 16 and listen to Jesus teach with grounded, blue-collar parables that make God’s heart feel close and concrete. We end by wrestling with how the realities of heaven and hell change our urgency to pray, speak up, and welcome people home. 
• Jesus using earthy stories to help us relate to God 
• Joy in heaven over repentance through the lost sheep and lost coin 
• The prodigal son as grace for the rebel and a mirror for the resentful 
• The dishonest manager as a warning and a lesson in urgency and stewardship 
• Faithfulness in small things and the danger of loving money 
• The rich man and Lazarus as a haunting picture of reversed eternities 
• Our tendency to minimize hell and underestimate heaven 
• Questions that probe how eternity should shape our daily choices 

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Transcript

Grassroots Teachings From Luke

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Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. I am Mike, and we're reading through the book of Luke. I hope you're enjoying it. Here in the middle of the book of Luke, chapters 15 and 16 today is just some man, just some good old-fashioned grassroots, blue-collar teaching on the part of Jesus. Uh, I mean, mostly because he's speaking to an agricultural society, and and so, but that's the point. That's that's why he is using parables and examples from that that are just in the dirt, you know, it's just dirty and and dusty and a little messy because that is life and and that's what we know. And it all points back to the fact that like Jesus came here to be one of us. He came to give us a way that we could relate to God, and so he's fully God and he's fully man. And Luke is is sharing a lot of these teachings of Jesus that help us relate to him in very practical and well relatable ways. So let's read Luke chapters 15 and 16 today in the New English Translation. And as we do that, let's always be asking God, what would you like me to know about you through the reading of your word today? Let's get into it, Luke chapter 15 and 16 in the New English translation. Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear him, but the Pharisees and the experts in law were complaining, Oh, this man welcomes sinners and uh

The Lost Sheep And Lost Coin

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eats with them. So Jesus told them this parable. Which of you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go look for the one that's lost until he finds it? And then when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing, returning home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, telling them, Rejoice with me, because I found my sheep that was lost. I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent. Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one of them, doesn't light a lamp, sweep the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it. And then when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and saying, Rejoice with me, I found the coin that I had lost. In the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents. And then Jesus said, A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate that'll belong to me. So

The Prodigal Son And Older Brother

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he divided his assets between them, and after a few days the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle. Then after he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and it began to be in need. So he went and worked for one of the citizens of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. To which all the faithful Jewish listeners listening to Jesus right now would be like, Oh, pigs, oh, that's real bad. He was longing to eat the carabods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. So when he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired workers have food enough to spare? But I'm here dying from hunger. I'll get up, I'll go to my father, and I'll say to him, Father, I I've sinned against heaven and against you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired workers. So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home, his father saw him, and his heart went out to him, and he ran and hugged his son and kissed him, and then his son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, Hurry, bring the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Oh, bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's eat and let's celebrate, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the slaves and asked what was happening. The slave replied, Your brother has returned, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he got his son back, safe and sound. But the older son became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and appealed to him, but he answered his father, Look, these many years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. And yet you never even gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. But when the son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. Then the father said to him, Son, you are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours. It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Jesus also said to the disciples, There was a rich man who was informed of accusations that his manager was wasting his assets. So he called the

Shrewd Money Lessons And Two Masters

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manager in and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your administration because you can no longer be my manager. And then the manager said to himself, What should I do? Since my master is taking my position away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm too ashamed to beg. I know what to do so that when I'm put out of management, people will welcome me into their homes. So he contacted his master's debtors one by one, and he asked the first, How much do you owe my master? And the man replied, A hundred measures of olive oil. The manager said to him, I'll take your bill, sit down quickly, write fifty. Then he said to another, How much do you owe? The second man replied, A hundred measures of wheat. The manager said to him, Take your bill and write eighty. Well the master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries than people of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out you'll be welcomed into the eternal homes. The one who's faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And the one who's dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If then you haven't been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? And if you haven't been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you your own? No servant can serve two masters, for he'll either hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Well the Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and ridiculed him. But Jesus said to them, You are the ones who justify yourselves in men's eyes. But God knows your hearts, for what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God's sight. The law and the prophets were in force until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urged to enter it. But it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny stroke of a letter in the law to become void. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus,

The Rich Man And Lazarus

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whose body was covered with sores, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man's table. In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores. Now, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, as he was in torment, he looked up and he saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side, so he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, as I'm in anguish in this fire. But Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus likewise bad things. But now he's comforted here, and you're in anguish. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you can't do so, and no one can cross from there to us. So the rich man said, Well then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers to warn them so that they don't come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, Well, they have Moses and the prophets, they must respond to them. Then the rich man said, No, Father Abraham, if if someone from the dead goes to them, then they'll repent. He replied to them, If they don't respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead. It's interesting to end this reading on this rather haunting story of two men with two very different times on earth compared to their two very different eternities.

Eternity, Urgency, And Self-Reflection

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It's in light of this story that we see about the rich man and Lazarus, not the Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead, but he was using his friend's name in this story, so that's kind of funny. But it's only in light of this story with the rich man and the poor man that we can really see the kind of celebration and take seriously the stakes that Jesus explained in the parables of the one out of a hundred sheep, and the one out of ten coins, and the one out of two brothers. In each of those cases, the shepherd, the woman, the father, all who represent God in these stories, are celebrating, and all the angels who are watching everything, and they know the stakes, they know what's what the odds are, and they know what's at stake, they're all celebrating because one lost person has repented and come back home so that they don't have to end up where this rich man ended up. I know personally I tend to kind of minimize the stakes. I tend to not really think about the level of torment. Now, I I I can't fully understand it, and that's a contributing factor, but I but I tend to minimize the pain and the torment and the eternal separation of hell. And I probably tend to underestimate the actual joy and healing and wholeness of heaven. And as a result, frankly, I'm not as motivated to go bring people from one side to the other while we still have time. I find myself more like that one son who had been faithful. And like I get to live in my father's household. What's all the fuss? Why why what's going on? How do Jesus' teachings regarding eternity and the importance of coming back to Jesus now while there's still time affect how you reach out to others, how you pray for others, the conversations you have. Does this fill you with a sense of urgency? Or are we content to enjoy the stability of living in our father's household in the meantime? That's a thinking out loud thought for the day. Not a fun one, but an important one to wrestle with. I'll see you next time on the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast.