Back to the Garden, Luke 15: 8-10

If you’re a regular here at the Beach Fellowship, then you know that I don’t usually try to pander to the holidays with my messages.  As you know, we are going through the book of Luke, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, which is our custom.  But it just so happens that today my message does in some degree address mothers.  So for those of you that feel that I should attempt to recognize the holidays more in my messages, then you’re going to get your wish today.  However, as they say, be careful what you wish for.  If you have a seatbelt on your lawn chair, I advise you to buckle it, or if not, then hang on tight because it may be a bumpy ride, but hopefully the destination will make it all worthwhile. 

Contrary to what some might think, I don’t deliberately try to be controversial, or even necessarily confrontational.  Though if the passage of scripture calls for either, I won’t avoid it.  But the issue with the message that we are looking at today is that it would not be controversial, or confrontational, if the tide of the popular culture was not going so hard against what the Bible teaches in regards to the God’s design for women, and particularly mothers. 

Fifty years ago the women’s lib movement burst on the scene in this country with the burning of bras, the promise of freedom by joining the sexual revolution and the goal of financial equality with men.   But the question fifty years later is, are we better off today than we were then?  The popular culture then ridiculed the Ozzie and Harriett lifestyle depicted on “Leave It To Beaver” and said women needed to get out of the kitchen and become empowered.  So 50 years later we have exchanged Ozzie and Harriett for Ozzie Ozborne’s dysfunctional family as typical of the American family .  Instead of “I Love Lucy,” we have shows like “Desperate Housewives.”  I’m afraid that if the lineup on prime time TV is any indication of the state of our union then we are in serious trouble.

I’m afraid that women’s rush towards equality and empowerment has not had the beneficent effect on society that we all hoped that it would have.  Half of all marriages today end in divorce.  Today children are being raised strangers in child care facilities while they are still in their diapers.  Family dinners are a thing of the past.  Obesity is a national epidemic.  Women are now having health problems like heart disease that once was only the purview of men.  And children are increasingly  diagnosed as having psychiatric problems.  Statistics say that anti depressant prescriptions have risen 400% in the last two decades and is still climbing. 

I was talking with a young mother the other day who recently had her first children, twins, and was back to work full time in three months, putting the kids in childcare.  Her husband has a good job, and she makes a lot of money in her job as well.  And so even though she doesn’t have to work, she said she wants to work because she likes the extra money and the social aspects of her job. When she told me that, outwardly I tried to be polite and smile, but inwardly I felt like screaming.  I wanted to cry out, “Who has deceived you?”  “What has indoctrinated you so that you place a higher value on a new car or the latest iphone than you do upon mothering and nurturing these two little babies?”  What would convince a mother to give up the most precious thing a woman can have over to strangers to raise, to strangers to teach to walk, to hear them say their first words, in exchange for some attempt at self fulfillment? 

I am not saying that a mother cannot work outside the home.  I’m aware of the financial strain that many households are under and the necessity for two incomes in today’s economic climate.  I’m aware that many women are the sole providers in their homes.  But I am suggesting that the system as we know it is broken.  I am suggesting that the societal dogma  that has come to define women’s roles  needs to be examined afresh in the light of God’s word. 

There is a well known passage in the Proverbs 31 that I’m sure most of you are familiar with.  “Who can find a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies.”  It’s not talking about sexual virtue.  It’s talking about her character.  And this woman of Proverbs is a working woman by the way. Scripture doesn’t say that a woman cannot work.  Now I’m not going to take the time to read that proverb for you today.  That can be your homework.  But I will give you the cliff notes on it.  The virtuous woman had her priorities right.  Her priorities were God and family, not her career. 

On Wednesday evenings we have a mid week service at my home and we have been looking at the origins of man in the book of Genesis.  And what has come to light in our study is that men and women are different because they were designed to be different.  Though they are the same in so many ways, yet God designed them for different roles.  Men and women are different by design.  Women are physically different and psychologically different from men.  One is not better than the other. Just designed by God for different responsibilities. 

In Genesis 2 Adam looked at all the animals that God had made in creation and did not find a mate suitable to him.  So the Bible says God took flesh and bone from his side and fashioned a woman to be a help mate for him.  And Adam said, “this is now flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone.”  The scripture goes on to characterize  marriage as being one flesh.  Vs. 24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”  Now theologians can quibble about what it means to be one flesh, but I don’t think it’s talking about sex.  But let us just consider the first word.  One.  They were to become one.  They were to be united in purpose, united in everything that they did.  That is the spiritual definition of marriage. Adam didn’t have a prenuptial agreement.  Eve didn’t do her thing and Adam did his thing.  They became one.

Now in chapter 3 we are introduced to the devil.  And somehow the devil found a day when Eve was alone and he used that opportunity to take advantage of her.  At that moment she wasn’t one with her husband.  And because she was alone, she got into a conversation with the devil and acted independently of her husband.  Satan tempted her when she was alone. Then she acted independently on her own.  And that became her downfall. 

Listen, that is still the way in which the devil works to destroy  marriages.  He separates what God said let no man separate. He tempts them to work against one another than together as one. But not only does Satan use that strategy to destroy marriages but also to destroy mankind.  He attempts to overthrow the very purpose of God’s creation.  He gets mankind to act and think independently of God.  We think that is our prerogative.  We think independence is our inalienable right as Americans.  But folks, that has never been the plan of God for mankind from the beginning.  Please understand, just as Eve was created to be the helpmate of Adam, so mankind was created to be the help mate of God.  God looked around all of the universe and He did not find anything that was suitable for Him.  There was nothing in existence in heaven or in the universe that was compatible for Him, that corresponded to Him.  And so God created the Earth and all that is in it to be the home of His bride, His companion.  And when all of this home was ready and good and perfect, then God got down on His hands and knees in the mud and fashioned out of the earth man in His own image, in His own likeness.  We were never created to be equal with God, but to be in the likeness of God, corresponding to God, made and conformed to His image. So God formed man out of the dirt to be like Him.  And then when He had lovingly shaped every feature, every inward part in wonderful ways, He bent over and placed His lips upon our lips and breathed the breath of life in us.  God created mankind for love, for His love, and that we might love Him. 

But as we see in Genesis 3, mankind rebelled against the plan of God.  They acted independently.  Eating the fruit of the  tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasn’t that the fruit itself was sin, but acting in independence from God was sin.  Man wanted to choose for himself what was right and what was wrong.  We wanted to be  like God in the sense that we can determine the parameters of our existence rather than live in accordance to God’s purposes. 

Romans 1:21 tells us what happened as a result of that original sin, that original rebellion against the purpose of God.  It says, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Then in vs. 28, we see the downward spiral of society as a result of that independence. It reads like a diagnosis of modern societies ills today.  “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”  Romans clearly is talking about people who have lost their way, who deviated from the plan and purpose of God to their own peril, rushing to their own destruction.

Crosby, Stills and Nash who were the travelling minstrels of my generation recorded a song called “Woodstock” which was written in 1969 by Joni Mitchell.  The first verse goes “Well I came across a child of God, he was walking along the road and I asked him tell where are you going, this he told me: Well, I'm going down to Yasgur's farm, going to join in a rock and roll band.  Got to get back to the land, set my soul free. We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.”  They actually had the right idea but the wrong plan.  Mankind does need to get back to the garden. We need to get back to the Garden of Eden.  We need to get back to the original plan of God for our lives.  Unfortunately, the devil sold the mother of all men a bill of goods then, that she would be better off deciding for himself what was right or wrong and what her purpose should be. And the results have been disastrous for mankind.  The devil is still deceiving men and women today with the same strategy today.

The last line of the song “Woodstock” seems to admit that man is deceived, it says; “We are stardust, we are golden, we caught in the devil's bargain, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.”  Unfortunately, they disregarded the plan of God and tried to find their own way back, and the result is we are more lost today than ever.

The Garden of Eden, by the way, was a real place here on Earth that existed before the fall of man.  But symbolically, the Garden of Eden is a picture of heaven.  When Jesus went throughout Israel He was preaching that men should repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  In other places it says the kingdom of God.  And so we know that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are both referring to the same thing.  It is the place where God is.  It is the spiritual kingdom of God. 

In the Garden, mankind walked in the cool of the evening with God.  And when man fell through sin, that fellowship, communion with God was broken.  So God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to be born as a man, that He might become one of us, that He might suffer the penalty of our sin upon Himself, that we might be saved.  So that we might be restored to the fellowship with God which man had in the beginning, in the original plan of God, the way we once were back in the Garden.  That is why Jesus came, to make it possible for us to be reconciled to God.  For man that has lost his way to come back to God.

Now that is the picture that Jesus presented in the first parable of Luke 15 which we looked at last week.  The parable of the lost sheep. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  Jesus says this is the reason that I have come, to seek and to save those that were lost.  And so He tells a story about a sheep that is lost and a shepherd that goes looking for it.  And when He finds it, He binds it’s wounds and lays it upon His shoulders and carries it home, rejoicing.  He says there will be joy in heaven for one sinner that repents. Repentance is the path to restoration with God.  It’s the way to get back to the plan of God.

So what does that mean to repent?  It means to surrender to God’s purpose.  To surrender to God’s design for us.  God’s design for man was to be made in His image.  To reflect the image of God.  To be the bride of God.  To be in fellowship with God.  To be in service to God.  To be obedient to God.  So to be saved is to repent of doing things your way, deciding for yourself what is right and what is wrong.  To repent of being your own god, of deciding your own fate, and submit to the Lordship of Christ in every aspect of your life. 

Now I am afraid that by that definition then not a lot of people are actually saved.  They may be religious.  They may be more moral than the guy living across the street.  They may pray to God. They may go to church. They may have been baptized.  But they have never realized that they were lost.  That the way that seemed right unto a man was actually the way of death.  And as a result of realizing that they were lost they have never completely surrendered to God and said, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.  I am lost.  I surrender all.  I want to be remade in your image and I realize that I am incapable of doing it on my own. Like the sheep that went astray I cannot find my way back to the Garden.  I have been caught in the devil’s bargain.  I thought I could find happiness in my own way.  I thought I could be wise like you and make my own decisions.  But I realize that I am lost and in need of a Savior or else I will be lost eternally.”    

Now that is repentance and this is the message that Jesus is preaching, to repent and be saved in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is such an important message that Jesus gives us three illustrations or parables which reveal 3 different perspectives to being lost and then being saved.  And it’s the second parable that we are looking at today.  My introduction was extremely long, but thankfully the illustration is very short.  But it is the same message as number one and number three.  However it is from a woman’s perspective.  A mother’s perspective. 

First of all, Jesus says this woman had 10 coins and she lost one of them.  Now that may not really seem like a major calamity to us today.  But in the Middle East at this time women used to have what was called a dowry.  It was a sum of money that belonged to the woman which served as an element of financial security in the case of widowhood or against a negligent husband, and could eventually go to provide for her sons and daughters.  The women would oftentimes sew the money inside a headdress which they would wear, so that the money was always with them.

And so at some point the woman discovers that one of the ten coins is missing.  She is distraught.  Who knows how long it was missing.  It must have fallen out of the headdress somehow. It is lost.  And so she begins to look for it.   Now there are a number of points that I think that are born out in the parable that I think are applicable to us. 

First of all, notice that the coin is lost at home.  Unlike the parable of the sheep, this coin didn’t wander off.  But she lost it at home.  It was hers to keep, and now she lost it.  This is why I think that this parable has to do with mothers.  It could apply to anyone, but a mother is traditionally the keeper of the home.

I’m sure it is evident that the coin represents a person. And so the application to us today would be to ask the question, is there someone in your home that is lost?  Mom, is there someone in your home that is lost, that isn’t saved?   There is no greater stewardship given by God to parents than to raise their children in such a way as to bring them to faith in Christ.  There is nothing more important than to teach their children about God, about the importance of surrendering to follow Christ, and then to live out that Christ like example before your children.  That is job one for a mother or father. 

So the question is, is there someone at home that you may have thought was ok, you thought that they were saved, but one day you realize that they must be lost.  There is no tangible evidence that this person in your home is really saved. Oh, they may know the major stories of the Bible. They may even have at your prompting said a prayer at some time when they supposedly received Christ.  Maybe there was a public experience at camp or at a church service which made you think that they were saved.  But as the years went on, it became apparent that there was no desire to live for God.  They have shown no love for the things of God.  There is no commitment, no unconditional surrender to the Lord.  Maybe it’s a reality that you as  mothers and fathers have been unwilling to face.  But lately things have happened that make you question whether or not your kids are saved.

So the second point we see from this parable is that realizing that she has lost this thing of great value, the woman goes into action.  She is a picture of God, who seeks and saves those that are lost.  She is a picture of the heart of God towards the lost world.

Now there are three things that she does.  The first thing Jesus says she does is light a lamp.  She needed light to find her coin.  It says in the Psalms, “your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  We need the light of the scriptures to help us find the lost.  You know, when I deal with various people from all walks of life, I often find myself intimidated by the person.  Sometimes I’m talking to people that are much better educated than I am.  Some people are more sophisticated.  Some people are older, some are younger.  If I had to rely on my wisdom or my skill then I would be unable to reach anyone with the gospel.  In those situations I have to remember to turn to the scriptures and to let the word of God do the work.  It is the wisdom not of men, but of God.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  So the first thing we must do when confronted with a lost person is bring the light of God’s word to bear on them. We need to bring our children under the teaching of the word of God so it can shine into their hearts and reveal to them that they are lost. 

Secondly, it says that she  swept the house.  Many  homes in those days had dirt floors.  And so to keep the dust down they spread straw on floor.  So in order to find the coin she took a broom and swept up the straw.  She swept out all the corners of every room.  She swept under the bed.  She swept out the closets.  What this indicates is laying bare every facet of your house. Searching every facet of our lives for error in the light of God’s word.  As a parent that calls for transparency.  We cannot be guilty as parents of saying do as I say, but not as I do.  We need to examine ourselves by the light of God’s word, and then we need to hold our children to the same standard.  We need to be an example of a surrendered heart to God.

Thirdly, Jesus says she searched diligently.  In other words she gave herself completely to the task.  Finding this lost coin became a priority.  Parents, I wonder how many other things have taken priority in your life.  Sure we say our kids are the most important thing in our lives, but many times our actions say otherwise. If you compared the time spent on your career, or your recreation, or your hobbies or your obsessions as opposed to the time spent bringing your children to a saving knowledge of Christ then I wonder what such a comparison would reveal?  I think the parable says it well.  The coin was lost at home.  And I’m afraid that kids today are lost at home as well.  Kids are left home alone to fend for themselves.  They are being raised by MTV.  So it’s no wonder they are lost.

Repentance requires that Jesus Christ must become the priority.  There is no shortcut to salvation.  You can’t hold onto the world and have Christ.  James 4:4 says that friendship with the world is hostility towards God.  Jesus said in Luke 16:14, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”  Repentance calls for full surrender.  Completely giving yourself to God, to live no more for yourself, but to live your life for God’s purposes.

           

But Jesus concludes His parable with the coin being found.  What was lost has been restored.  And she calls her friends to celebrate. It’s a picture of the joy of heaven when man is brought back to God.  Jesus says, “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  In 2Peter 3:9, it says that the Lord “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 

Parents, mothers, fathers, if you’re a Christian here today, then the Bible tells us that we are made in God’s image, our purpose is to reflect the love of God to the world, by being conformed to the image of Christ.  Christ came to Earth to do the will of the Father, to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin.  I wonder if we that claim to be Christians are also doing the will of the Father as our first priority?  Are you sacrificing your priorities, even as Christ did, so that your loved ones may be saved?  Are you willing to make the sacrifice that Christ made?  If not, then you can hardly say that you are being conformed to the image of Christ.

I hope that as the body of Christ we remember the purpose for which we were created.  That we put away all the weights that so easily distract us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I would just close with one more thought.  And that is the woman pictured here is not just a picture of mothers, but as a picture of the bride of Christ, the church.  And so it is a picture of what all of us who say we are Christ’s should be doing.  There are lost people right here in this house here today.  They may have a form of religion, they may be good people, but they have never fully surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives.  They have never renounced their sin, renounced the world, and given themselves completely as a bride to Christ, forsaking all others, clinging only to Him.  Forsaking all that the world offers in exchange for communion with God the way it was intended in the creation. 

Today the light of God’s word has been shed upon your lost heart.  In your heart, you know that something is missing.  The Holy Spirit is at work right now, convicting you of your sin and righteousness and the judgment to come.  He is sweeping in every corner of your house, in your closets, exposing your sin and your shortcomings.  Romans 3:23 says that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  But the good news is that having discovered that you are lost, you can be saved.  The problem with so many people is that they refuse to accept that they are lost and on the way to hell.  But the good news is that Jesus has come to seek and save the lost.  And if you recognize that you are lost today, then all that remains is to repent of your sins, confess to God that you need to be saved, and He will save you.  But Jesus said that they that follow Him must count the cost.  And the cost is your life.  Your will must become subservient to His will.  Your plans must become subservient to His plan.  Your purpose must become subservient to His purpose.  That is what repentance means.  To surrender everything. To become one with Christ.  I hope and trust that today is the day of your salvation.  I pray no one leaves here today lost.  Jesus has come to seek and to save those that were lost.  He died on the cross for our sins, that we might be reconciled to God.  That we might find our purpose, to find our way back to the Garden.  I pray that today is the day of your  surrender resulting in salvation.  Let’s pray.