Lost and Found

“ Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. ”

A certain man had two sons ... The familiar parable of the Prodigal Son gives rise to many lessons. The young man who insulted his family by insisting on taking his inheritance and leaving them for a life of sinful pleasures. The old man who has waited, looking down the road for any sign of his lost son. The sulking elder brother, unable to share in the joy of his brother's return to the household because of his self-righteousness. And the words of the father to the unhappy son : “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.” Luke 15:32

“This thy brother was dead:” that is an outlook we can take today. How often do we look out upon the people in the world who do not know nor understand nor believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ and think: ‘ This person, as he is today, is dead' ? We could look out a crowd of people and think of their future, on the day that they leave this earth, and say: “They may all be dead.” If they remain in denial of God, and of Christ, they're all dead to Him.

Now, we don't adopt this as a judgment. Rather, we should realize how terrible their situation is. We could care more about them. We could recognize their need, that they don't realize themselves. They are like people dancing to the orchestra on the deck of the Titanic. In a matter of hours, they will be dying in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Are they really dead? Do I know what I'm saying? I'm only telling you what Jesus said.

Jesus said , “Let the dead bury their dead, You follow me.” Mat 8:22 Jesus said , “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 Jesus said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” John 6:53-57 Jesus said , “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mat 16:25 Jesus said , “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:14-15 Jesus said , “He that believeth on [the Son of God] is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18 Jesus said , “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3 Jesus said , “And [they] shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:29 Jesus said , “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24

Jesus didn't mince words about the life and death issue of faith in Himself. Either we believe in Him, or we lose our place in Eternity. We would like it to be different. We might want to make our case with God for all the good people and all the nice people who know us but don't know Him. Why should they perish? My own faith was terribly challenged, and even broken, in my youth for the sake of the unbelieving Jews. Why should a loving God send these wonderful people to Hell, simply because they're Jews and don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God?

Rather than making a case for the fallen to go to heaven, why not begin to pray for them to receive the Lord? Instead of trying to make excuses to God for their salvation, consider how little you have done to persuade them that the Savior is truly their Savior and that they need Him desperately?

The people you see in the world—going along without God, believing that they can make it okay as they are, being just what most of us were before we came to know Christ—are as the Prodigal Son lost in a pagan country, eating swine's food, and starving to death. They will starve to death, if no one cares enough for them to show them the way back home.

The father's chastisement of the older son is that he should change his heart. “This thy brother was dead. What's the matter with you? Look with the eyes of love: this is your flesh and blood. He was in trouble, he was dying, he was on the outs with God and his family, and he would have gone to hell, but now he is returned to us, safe, whole, repentant. He will live. He is no longer lost. Can you come in now and welcome him?”

The younger brother wasn't literally dead. But he had buried his family in his heart, considered his father dead, and had taken his inheritance before his father's death and had turned his back on home. Just so, most of this generation has taken the good things our fathers and mothers and the founders of this nation of faith have provided for us and turned our backs on all that they meant by their works: all that is good, all that is holy, all that is sacred, all that gives life. My generation started it, this revolt, and by the time another generation comes along, the nihilism will be complete. Existentialism has given way to ‘reality shows,' extreme sports, the ritual of death: life is meaningless.

My generation ushered in a culture of death . This can refer to the staggering statistics of abortion, but also the rise in suicides and an emerging cultural value: euthanasia . We have become a culture that sees death as a release and a joy—but without any assurance of salvation or of heaven—when our lives are too burdensome for us. Killing the young and the elderly is justified by people who feel that they are dead already. What difference will it make to kill another body? They'll be better off dead.

The message of Jesus Christ is that, though we were once dead, now we can live, and live eternally, and live abundantly! He came to give us hope for this life and the next. He came and died that we might live, if we might live for Him . No other hope is offered mankind. All else is a cheat and a deception . Some look for Reincarnation to save them from what they did in this life. Others see the afterlife as a reward for their good behavior, or behavior that was not so bad, not really. But there is only the Resurrection at the end of all things and then a Judgment. The Epistle to the Hebrews says: “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Heb 9:27 Christ says , “I am the way...”

Think of your family, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors--and know that some of them will not be in heaven, as it stands today. That is probably true. I know many people, people I care about, even people I love, who have nothing to do with the Lord of Life. What is my heart saying to me about them? So often we adopt the line: “They're happy the way they are. I can't be judgmental about their believe systems. Perhaps I'm wrong and they're right. All paths lead to God, anyway. I'm not a religious nut, my brother's keeper.”

Aren't you your brother's keeper? Cain didn't think so. He even rebuked God for asking about his brother's welfare. But God said: “What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Abel was dead. This thy brother is dead . I am my brother's keeper, or at least his friend.

If you had a million dollars, and knew that just a few hundred bucks of it would spring your best friend from jail, would you bail him out, or just leave him in there, saying to yourself, “He probably deserves it”? I once bailed a man from the Los Angeles County Jail. We could be doing that daily, in the Spirit, if only we saw the bars, the dismal grey cell, the pallid skin of the prisoners, the death written on their faces. The people in the world are on death row. We have millions of dollars in our pockets and, what is better, we have a pardon. What should we do?

God's own nature is to seek the lost and save them. We see it in the story of His Son. We hear it centuries earlier in the words of Ezekiel: “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in good grazing ground, and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,' declares the Lord God. ‘I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick.” Ezekiel 34:11-16

“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Luke 15:21-24

Can you feel what the father in the story felt? Yearning for his lost son, searching the horizon for the silhouette that would tell him his boy was returned to him, bursting with joy at seeing his face, taking off his own robe and ring and calling for the servants to kill the fatted calf. Just so will your loved ones come to the Father's house if you care enough for them. Do you care enough? They are lost, you are found. Can we care enough for our lost generation to love them?

PFH+