Tim Schraeder in Leadership Summit 2009
Called a “C.S. Lewis for the 21st century” by Newsweek, Dr. Timothy Keller is founder and pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Over the past 20 years, the church has grown to three sites, with weekly attendance of 6,000. Named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Churches in America, Keller’s ministry is notable not only for winning over New Yorkers who are skeptical to faith, but also for its missional approach, planting more than 100 churches through the Redeemer Church Planting Center. Author of The Reason for God andThe Prodigal God, he will talk about the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son and discuss the ways many people in our churches tend to resist the gospel.
> Tim has been a minister for 35 years and has been a sucker for anyone who has come along and said, ”I have the key to spiritual renewal…”
> The thing that shocks us is the amount of spiritual deadness in our congregations.
> A small part of the congregations do most of the work.
> Spiritual deadness is still the main problem.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
> Prodigal means “recklessly” extravagant.
> We need an extravagantly loving God to deal with our wayward son
> We often think of the younger son when we think of the prodigal son
> In Luke 15, we see two groups of people around Jesus… the sinners and the relgious leaders.
> Religious leaders don’t understand what Jesus is doing with sinners.
> He tells three parabels to them (the religious people)… lost sheep, lost coin, and the prodigal son.
> The younger brother is like the sinners around Jesus.
> The elder brother is like the Pharisees, religious leaders.
> The last part of the parable is all about him.
> At the end, the father is addressing the older son.
> The point is to address the people in the church.
> The main point of the parable: both younger brothers and older brothers are alienated from the father, who represents God.
> They are both lost, the Father has to go out and invite them in.
> The younger brother is obvious, he doesn’t love the father, he wants his money and does whatever he wants.
> The elder brother doesn’t love the father either.
> He’s upset with how the father is using the estate… the elder brother loved the father’s things, but not the father.
> The younger brother got the money by demanding it.
> The elder brother tried to get it by staying home, by being obedient.
> There’s two ways to be your own saviour and lord, two ways to get control of your life… one is by being immoral and irreligious, the other is by being moral and religious.
> The elder brother says, “because I’m so good, God has to bless me…”
> For the elder brother Jesus might be his inspiration, but not his Saviour.
> Both ways are ways that reject God.
> Elder brothers believe they are with God.
> Both are alientated from the father, he has to urge each son to the feast (salvation).
> Younger brother goes in, older brother doesn’t.
> The “good boy” is not lost in spite of his goodness, but because of his goodness.
> Religion operates like this: I obey, therefore I am accepted.
> The Gospel operates like this: God accepts me, therefore I obey.
> Elder brothers are obeying God to get things, making God a means to an end.
> Everything we need is already ours when we receive the Father through the Son.
> Elder brother’s standing with God is based on performance.
> On one level we believe the Gospel, but we constantly go back to religion.
> Elder brother is our default mode.
