Interpreting the Most Popular Parable

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

We're here to take your calls as well. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministries. This is Mike Abendroth, your host, for the next 25 minutes or so. You can find us on nocompromiseradio .com. You can find us at bbchurch .org. And if you're listening in the Worcester area, we hope you find a good Bible teaching church this weekend to worship at.

Worship with the saints at the place, the building that you're at. And if you don't have a local church to worship at, we'll see you at Bethlehem Bible Church. If you do, make sure you encourage your pastor as he faithfully delivers God's word.

It is a high calling, and your souls are fed, and you want to respond with gratitude, thanksgiving that God would grant you. Here in the middle of Massachusetts, Worcester, Massachusetts, a pastor who would faithfully teach the word of God.

How much money is that worth? I'm not trying to say that you ought to pay your pastor $1 million, but it is probably worth a million dollars to have a pastor who will teach you God's word. And that's what we want to talk about today.

How to Study the Bible with SMAK and SMART

Today is Friday. It's Mystery Friday, which gives me an opportunity to talk about whatever I want to talk about. And so I have lots of things on my mind. And today I want to talk about Bible study, how to study the Bible.

And so many times we'll use our discernment in the No Compromise Radio ministry realm, but some maybe want to back up and say, I'm just a beginner. I'd like to learn how to study. What do I do? Is there any particular way that I can be motivated to study?

And I love to teach people how to study the Bible. It assumes that you'll A, have a Bible. If you don't have one, you can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com. It also assumes that you'll open your Bible and read it.

We live in a society where there's all kinds of competing influences for our time. We have 168 hours in a week. We all have the same amount of time and we live with this society and its pressures and we just have to make time.

You will make time for people you love. You will make time for the things you love. And if you love the Lord because he has loved you first, you will find time to spend learning about him, learning the details, learning the intimate details.

What I mean by that is precise details of who God is. And so if you have a Bible and you want to study the Bible, there are some very simple principles early on. And some people would use the acronym SMAK, S-M-A-K, S-M-A-K.

First, what does the Bible say? You're observing what it says and you're making notes and you're asking questions. You're trying to figure out what does it say? That's the S of SMAK. M is mean. What does the Bible mean?

What does it mean by what it says? And so you're looking through not just what it says by observation, oh, this is a verb, this is past tense, this is a noun, but what does that mean? Why are these words put together in such a way like syntax, the arrangement of words?

So for instance, love is God or God is love. See, those are two different religions. That's the difference between heaven and hell. Love is God or God is love. And so you would try to figure out what does the text mean?

Thirdly, in the acronym SMAK, you have A, S-M-A. What does it say? What does it mean? A, apply, Lord, Spirit of God, help me to apply this truth to my life either by what I do, action, or what I think, attitude.

It either needs to make me change my mind about who God is, what he's done, what he's accomplished, what he did in eternity past, the greatness of his glory, or something I should do. I should stop complaining.

I should give thanks. I should stop stealing. I should work. All kinds of to-do list in terms of the response. And it's not a morality to-do list. It is in light of who God is and the power he's given me, I want to obey.

So what does the text say? What does the text mean? And how do I apply it? And then the last thing on SMAK, I think I was calling it S-M-A-K. Let's call it S-M-A-C. And that would be, what does the Bible say about what I should change in my life?

What should I change? I think I want to change that now to S-M-A-R, smart. And that is, do I need to repent of something? Do I need to change my mind? Literally, the word repent means to change your mind.

I used to think this way about God, that he looked down eternity past and chose me based on who I was, my faith, my goodness, my looks. I was handsome. John Calvin said, Christians before they were saved aren't handsome.

So God looked down the quarter of time and then I realized he didn't choose me based on who I was. He chose me based on his own good pleasure, by his own everlasting love, by his free will. And I change my mind.

I either kick against the goads. I try to buck the system, but the text will not change. God will not change. So I say, I repent. Isn't that a good feeling to say, I will forsake my transgressions. I will repent of the false ideas about God and I will just give in to his truth.

So we've got the new S-M-A-R. What does the text say? What does it mean? How do we apply it? And then we repent. And so today we want to talk about Bible study. This is no compromise radio ministry.

We're not taking any phone calls today. Soon enough we should. I tape the shows at the local church and we have a phone system almost set up. So right now you just have to email us if you'd like. You can call us and leave a message, but I won't get it until after the show.

But soon enough we'll have the phone line set up at the church and you'll be able to call and we'll be able to interact. And I have to figure out how I can talk to people. But if they have a really dumb question, I want to be nice in the pastor.

But we've also got the no compromise edge and I might have to, I don't know, do you hang up on somebody? Is that ungodly to do? Maybe, I'm not sure. But anyway, our theme here at no compromise radio ministry is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

I want you to tune in on Monday through Friday, sometimes just to ask yourself the question, what is that lunatic going to talk about today? And he bugs me, but it's like irresistible grace. I'm forced to turn the radio on to listen WVNE 760 AM.

And you want to make sure you tell your friends that there's a guy on the radio who, I don't know, you say he thinks he knows it all, or he always talks about controversial subjects. That's what I want to do.

The Bible is controversial. The Bible is true. And I just want to preach the parts that most people aren't preaching. It's fine to go talk about God's love. I do think he's loving. It's fine to talk about his loving kindness.

He is very kind and he's very loving. And he has wonderful loving kindnesses. But I want to also talk about things that we don't tend to think about very often. And so today I want to talk about the parable of Luke 15.

The Purpose of Parables and Why Context Matters

The parable of Luke 15, as we're asking ourselves the question, how do we study? And I'd go so far to say that everyone who's listening today, 99 of you who are listening today on podcast or here in local Worcester area, do not interpret this most famous of all parables correctly.

Maybe the parable of the Good Samaritan might be more well known, but the parable of the prodigal sons, the parable of the prodigal sons is probably the most misinterpreted parable that we have from Jesus.

Now, what is a parable? We're talking about Luke 15 and I basically double dare you to get this parable right. I hope you do. I hope I'm wrong. I hope 99 of you get it right, but I don't think many of you will get it right because we forget about how to interpret a parable.

Parable is from a word called parabalo, beside and to throw, something that's thrown next to it. And it has a wide usage of meanings in the New Testament. Maybe the best definition I've seen is a parable is something placed alongside something else for the purpose of comparison.

The typical parable uses a common event of natural life to emphasize or clarify an important spiritual truth. And so Jesus uses all kinds of illustrations for parables. He uses fishing nets, he uses vineyards, he uses wedding banquets, lamps, money, fig trees, all kinds of things he uses.

And he uses parables for several reasons. One, he uses parables to conceal the truth from people who will not believe. That's Matthew 13. Can you imagine Jesus, sweet, kind, loving Jesus, teaching a parable to purposely conceal the truth from those who would listen?

On the flip side, he also uses parables to reveal truth to the Christians, to the believers. They weren't technically Christians yet, it was pre-Calvary, but those who would believe in Christ Jesus. And he also uses parables to give new insight on the kingdom, new truth to the kingdom.

And so we have to be careful when we interpret parables because if we just look at them in an allegorical way, we end up like Origen with the Good Samaritan parable. The man who fell among the thieves is Adam, the robbers are the devil and his minions, the priest stands for the law, the Levite for the prophets, the Good Samaritan is Christ, the beast, Christ's body, the inn, the church, the two pence, the father and the son, and the Samaritan is when I come again, Christ's second coming.

I mean, I don't know what to do with that except laugh, maybe cry. Origen had some truth that he would reveal at certain times. Lots of other times he was very wacky. And if you're an Origen lover, you want to make sure you're very, very careful.

Jesus didn't talk about some of these things like that at all. He didn't say, now take a look at the hidden meaning. The Good Samaritan is Christ and the beast is Christ's body. That's not what we're supposed to do.

So what are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to look at parables? Well, here's the number one way to interpret a parable and I'll throw it out there again. Here's the gauntlet that's thrown out.

Do you really know the real meaning of Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son? I'm not sure you do. I think you say to yourself, here's God and he's very generous and he's gracious and he forgives and he lifts up his cloak and he runs and nobody really runs as a father to go get their son.

Now, some of those sub points are true, but I think you're taking the main point of the parable, which is really the sub point of the parable. So what do we do with a parable? How do we interpret parables?

It is a different kind of genre. It is a different kind of literature. You can't read it like you would Romans. You can't read it like you would Revelation. You can't read it like you would Song of Solomon.

So you have to have some guidelines for parables. And so you find this answer and then you'll get it. You find the answer to the question, why did the parable, why did Jesus place the parable here? For what specific problem was Jesus addressing?

What specific occasion was he addressing? What was the need of the situation that prompted the parable? That will unlock the parable for you. That will unlock Bible study for you. Why was this here? We know context determines everything, right?

What are the three rules of Bible study for the basic Christian? Context, context, context. What are the three basic rules for real estate? Location, location, location. What are the four main virtues of Christianity?

Augustine said, humility, humility, humility, humility. We want to find the context. And the context will tell you the specific problem, occasion, question, need, or the situation that prompted this parable.

And sometimes Jesus answers a question with the parable. Sometimes he answers a request with a parable like the rich fool. Sometimes he answers a complaint like the parable of the two debtors. Sometimes he's going to just state a purpose like the parable of the unjust judge.

Sometimes he talks about Israel's rejection of Jesus. But the issue here is for us in parables is, why was that parable written? So class, why was the parable of the prodigal son written? Why did Jesus say that?

It starts off in Luke 15, 11. And he said, the man had two sons. And so from all the way from 15, 11 in the Luke's account through 32, we have this parable. And so you have to say to yourself, why is this here?

That is Bible study. Why is this here? What is the specific purpose? It doesn't tell us. And so if it doesn't tell us, what must we do? This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and I'm double dog daring people to figure out the real meaning of Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son, maybe the prodigal sons is what we should call it.

But let's figure out what this parable is all about. Do you know it? If you don't know the most popular parable next to the Good Samaritan, if you can't figure that one out, can you figure any of the other ones out?

I'm assuming that here's what we do in Christianity. We assume that we know what we're reading instead of opening the Bible up and reading again and saying, what does the author intend for me to understand?

What is he trying to convey? How am I supposed to understand this? Taking our preconceived notions and push them down. Like you would take your brother when you were in fifth grade and you would put him underwater, push that kid underwater and dunk them.

You know, the kids like to bob and they think that's fun to bob up and down, but when they get pushed under, they don't like it. You need to take your presuppositions theologically, exegetically, not necessarily, but theologically and submerse them.

You need to baptize them. You need to put them under. There's only two kinds of people who have presuppositions, those that have presuppositions, but don't think they do, and those that have presuppositions and know they do.

And so we all do. We come to the Bible, excuse me, with our Western mindset, unless you're from the East. We live in 2009, et cetera. So we have to ask the question, what is the context? What is authorial intent?

How can I figure this out? What is the meaning of Luke 15? And you asked me the question. Well, come on, get onto it, get a move on. We're 14 minutes into the show and you still haven't told us. Well, there's lots to talk about and I'm not trying to stretch the program out today.

I'm trying to get you to say to yourself, do I know what this means? Because if I was a betting man, I used to go to Vegas almost every week, but that was usually for work and that wasn't for gambling.

I saw all the people and their faces flying to Vegas, happy as a lark, flying back from Vegas, just very stone-faced sad. The parable of the prodigal son. It doesn't tell us in the text, what is the specific meaning?

So we back up a little bit and we find in Luke 15, the key to unlock this parable. Now, all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. Remember, tax collectors were Jews who by birth had all the rights and privileges of the nation of Israel, but they turned their back on them to collect money from the Jews.

They were worse than Gentiles. Gentiles couldn't help themselves. They were born swinish, as it were, but the tax collectors were born as Jews and then they turned their back on that heritage. And so you've got tax collectors and sinners.

Of course, everybody's a sinner, but in the New Testament, especially the Gospels, you'll see the word sinner used for someone who by character, by nature, characterized by sin. They're just one big sinner.

And they were coming near to Jesus to listen to him. What do you think the Pharisees thought about that? Here in Luke 15 too, both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

So see the situation. Jesus is allowing the tax collectors and sinners to come near to him to listen to him. And of course, Jesus would address their sin, but when people didn't have any righteousness and they knew it, Christ was kind, compassionate.

He would eat with them. He would dine with them. He would fellowship with them. When people thought they had a righteousness of their own, Jesus would blast them. You need to get John MacArthur's new book.

I'm trying to have John on the radio for an interview. Hopefully that will be soon, but I can't make any announcements yet. This Jesus, when he met the self-righteous Pharisee, scribe, hypocrite, Sadducee, lawyer, he blasted.

It was B -24 Liberator bombers all over again. So these tax collectors and sinners were coming near to Jesus and the Pharisees couldn't stand it. And they were criticizing Jesus. Who cares about criticizing the tax collectors and sinners?

They're low. They're less than people. And so they're getting criticized, not necessarily at the top. They're going for the leader, Jesus. So Jesus tells them three parables. He tells them three parables that all relate to those two verses, Luke 15, one and two.

He tells a parable about a lost sheep. He tells a parable about a lost coin and a lost son. And so here's the theme. Are you ready? Someone's got a sheep. You've got a hundred sheep and one of them is lost.

What do you do? Jesus says that you go and you find it. And when you find it, Luke 15, five, you rejoice. So here we have the lost sheep. Something is lost. You'd go try to find it. And if you find something that you lost, you what?

Rejoice. Lost, found, rejoice. We've come to the second part here, parable number two, that all relates back to those first two verses in Luke 15. The woman has a coin. Well, she only had 10 silver coin and she lost one of them, 10%.

She tried to find it. She lit a lamp. She searched all around. And when she found it, verse nine, she called her friends saying, rejoice with me for I have found the coin which I lost. And so what do we have here?

You have a sheep that was lost. It was found. They rejoiced. You have a coin. This is their money. This is her retirement. This is what she could live on. She lost her coin. She found her coin. And now she rejoices.

Lost, found, rejoice sheep. Lost, found, rejoice coin. What should the typical response be? When now we move to the prodigal son, the son is lost. This son was a dastardly man. He was a devilish man. He wanted his father's inheritance.

This lost son was selfish. He was immoral. He was vile. He went and he spent everything that his father had so saved. He squandered it with loose living, verse 13 says. And all of a sudden his money's gone and everything's gone.

There's a famine in the land. And he's out there eating with the pigs. If I was telling this story to my kids, I'd insert pig sounds here. So you've got a sheep that's lost. And it's found and there's rejoicing.

You've got a coin that's lost. When it's found, there's rejoicing. You've got a lost son. If you'll rejoice over a coin that you found that was lost or a sheep that was lost and you found it, don't you think you'd rejoice a lot more if your son was lost?

Maybe some of you actually listening have one of those prodigal sons and they've come back. I guarantee you the right response should be what? Rejoicing. Lost, found, rejoice. So this man is lost. He goes away and he is found.

And what should the response be? The response should be rejoicing. The father did rejoice. Quickly, bring out the best robe. Put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf.

Kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead. He was lost and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found. And they began to celebrate. That is the issue. Lost, found, rejoice.

But who was not rejoicing? The other son who represents who? You can imagine the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling about Jesus receiving tax collectors and sinners. And now he's telling them the story and they're going, uh-huh, uh-huh.

Lost, found, rejoice sheep. Yeah, that's right. Lost, found, rejoice coin. That's right. Lost, found, rejoice son. That's right. And now Jesus takes his finger and he jabs it into their sternum and says, but you are exactly like that other brother who should have been rejoicing.

You're the older son. You're the older son. You hear the music, you hear the dancing, you're coming to the house after being out all day and you wonder what's going on. Send me a servant and tell me what these things are.

And the servant said, your brother has come and your father's killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound. Lost, found, rejoice. And you know what? The Pharisees were just like this boy.

And he became angry and was not willing to go in. And his father came out and began pleading with him. Look, for so many years, I've been serving you and I've never neglected a command of yours. And yet you never give me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.

And when this son of yours came and has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed a fatted calf for him. Verse 31. And he said to him, son, you've always been with me and all that is mine is yours.

But we had to celebrate and rejoice for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live and was lost and has been found. Lost, found, rejoice, sheep. Lost, found, rejoice, coin. Lost, found, get mad, son.

You're the Pharisee, you're the scribe, you're the grumbler. You should have been rejoicing just like in Luke chapter 15 and verse 10. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God who over one sinner who repents.

Lost, found, rejoice. Lost, found, rejoice. Lost, found, mad. And they should have been rejoicing. Friends, the key to this parable is in verse one and two of chapter 15. Are there great truths that we can learn about God's hound love, that he is like a hound of heaven and he'll track you down with this everlasting love?

Of course. There are all kinds of sub themes there. But the main theme is this. Jesus, with his great storytelling, there's never been a preacher like Jesus. He's the prince of preachers. Sorry, Spurgeon.

He's the prince of preachers and he puts his finger on the issue and the issue is the Pharisees. They should have been rejoicing that a tax collector or a sinner would repent and believe in the gospel of the kingdom, believe the good news that Jesus alone saves sinners, that he will be the resurrected king.

As we look back, he is the one. They should have been rejoicing and they were mad. That lost son was the Pharisees because they were grumbling. What about you? Did you get it right today? Did you get the parable right?

Lost found rejoice, lost found rejoice, lost found mad, but he should have been rejoicing. We want to rejoice when sinners come to the kingdom. We don't want to be like Jonah. I know God, your mercies are so wonderful that these Ninevites, the people that fillet humans alive and take the skin and make wallpaper out of it to put down by the shipping docks, we don't want them saved.

We want to study the Bible, study the Bible in context, and we'll be much better off. What about the other parables? I think you better get your Bible open and start reading them. This is NoCompromiseRadio .com.

We'll have to tune in on Monday and see what's there. Lost found rejoice, lost found rejoice, lost found mad.

Program Close and Ministry Disclaimer

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.