Family Bible Series for March 19: Celebrate when people come to Christ

Posted: 3/08/06

Family Bible Series for March 19

Celebrate when people come to Christ

• Luke 15:1-7, 11-13, 22-24, 28-32

By Greg Ammons

First Baptist Church, Garland

A theologian once said, “The church exists for those persons who are not members of it yet.” Do you agree with this statement?

So often, churches are content with those who are members of their congregation at the present time. There is minimal effort to reach the unsaved and little or no celebration when a person trusts Jesus by faith for salvation.

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It is astounding that a Sunday school lesson on this topic is needed. You would expect any Christian would be overjoyed when another person becomes a Christian. However, this is not always the case.

This unit emphasizes how to be effective followers of Christ. One of the characteristics of a devout follower of Jesus is a sense of celebration when a lost person becomes a Christian. In Luke 15, Jesus told three parables about lostness and the accompanying joy when the lost was found.

Manifest compassion (Luke 15:1-7)

One of the most famous passages spoken by Jesus was in response to a complaint from the religious leaders that Jesus welcomed and ate with sinners (Luke vv. 1-2). Jesus spoke three parables of lostness in response to their complaint. The first parable was of a lost sheep (vv. 4-7), the second was of a lost coin (vv. 8-10) and the third was of a lost son (vv. 11-24).

In each instance, Jesus emphasized the extent to which one would go to retrieve the lost item. The one who lost the item had compassion. Also, in each situation, there was an accompanying joy when the lost item was found. However, in the case of the lost son, there was no joy from the older brother. Jesus was making the point of the lack of compassion experienced by the religious leaders when our Lord welcomed sinners.

In the original language, the word “compassion” is a compound word with a rich meaning. When the prefix “sum-” is added to the root word “pathos,” (sumpatheo), it means “to bring your feelings together and be touched with the feelings of another.” We get the cognate “sympathy” in the English language from this beautiful Greek word.

Does this describe your feelings toward people who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you honestly bring your feelings together and sympathize to the point of sharing their hurts and feelings?

Celebrate forgiveness (Luke 15:11-13; 22-24)

Jesus spoke a parable of a younger brother who demanded his part of his father’s inheritance now (v. 12). Legally, a father could give his inheritance while still alive. The son took the wealth and squandered it on a wild and lavish lifestyle (v. 13). The money was quickly gone, and the young man faced the dire conditions of a famine in the land (v. 14), while forced to feed swine (v. 15).

The young man came to his senses, noted his father’s servants back home lived better than he did and decided to go back to his father (v. 17). His desire was simply to be his father’s servant (v. 18).

The forgiveness the father extended to his son was complete. The father ordered his servants to bring the son a robe, a ring and sandals for his feet (v. 22). Each of these items represented sonship. The father had forgiven the young man completely and received him back as his son.

Then, the celebration of forgiveness began. The father ordered the fatted calf to be killed and a party be thrown in response to the son’s coming home (v. 23).

True forgiveness is accompanied by true celebration. Often, Christians rejoice they are forgiven by God, but do not rejoice over another’s forgiveness. In either case, forgiveness is cause for celebration.

Reject self-righteousness (Luke 15:28-32)

The main point of the story of the prodigal son is the response of the older brother. When you connect the brother’s response to the first two verses of the chapter, there is no doubt the point Jesus was making. He was showing the religious leaders’ complaint to be like the attitude of the older brother.

When the older brother noticed the party for the younger, prodigal brother, he was angered (v. 28). He asked why no party was thrown for him, since he had never left the father’s side. He didn’t even want to identify with his younger brother, as he called him “your son” (v. 30). There was no sense of joy from the self-righteous older brother.

Interestingly, the father could not enjoy the younger brother’s celebration because he had to console the older brother. Too often, today, it is difficult to enjoy the forgiveness God extends to sinners because so much time is spent consoling the older brothers in our congregations.

There is much irony in the conclusion of this story. The brother who was lost was found. Yet, the brother who never left home was on the outside looking in at the final celebration.

Self-righteousness is a dangerous sin. It creeps into the life of the most well-meaning believer and steals joy from the heart. As true followers of Christ, commit to reject any self-righteousness and truly celebrate when others come to Christ.

Discussion questions

• Do you demonstrate the kind of compassion God would expect?

• What keeps Christians from truly celebrating another’s forgiveness?

• Which of the brothers’ attitude most closely resembles yours?