The Man Outside

Luke 15 is something like a detective story. I don't know if you read detective stories, but you don't really understand the story until you get to the last chapter. And you don't really understand Luke 15 until you meet the elder brother.

"Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him," Jesus, "to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them.'"

Now the sinners that Jesus was receiving were not Gentiles. They were Jews. They were people who were not following the kosher way of life. And they were looked upon by their more religious neighbors as renegades, rebels, outcasts, hopeless.

And yet these people were attracted to the Lord Jesus. We have the idea that the more pharisaical we are, the more we'll attract people. No, we'll repel people. The more Christlike we are, the more we'll attract people.

Now, our Lord spoke this parable, not these parables. I have a feeling that he wanted us to see all three of these stories linked together. He talked about a lost sheep and the shepherd who went and found the sheep. He was saying to the scribes and Pharisees, "You look upon these sinners and you condemn them. Please remember they're just sheep. They're just lost sheep." Sheep are ignorant. Some people are lost simply because of their stupidity.

He talked about a woman who had her marriage necklace of 10 coins, and she lost one of the coins and searched throughout the house until she found it. Our Lord said, "These people are just like coins. They have the image of God stamped upon them, but they're lost coins. You can't spend a lost coin, has no value until you find it." Some people are lost because of heedlessness, and some people are lost because of carelessness, somebody else's carelessness.

Then he talked about the son. "A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his living." The older son would have gotten two-thirds of the estate, the younger son one-third. And by Jewish law, the father still ran it. Even though the older son and the younger son had joint ownership, the father still ran it.

"And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together," which literally means he took his property, sold it, and turned it into cash. I'm assuming, though I can't prove it, that he sold his property to his older brother. "Gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal," riotous, wasteful, "living." Some people waste their lives, some people spend their lives. We ought to be investing our lives.

"But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine."

This boy went out to be living high on the hog, ended up living with the hogs. He never planned it that way. Never planned it that way. Sin deceives. We're warned about the deceitfulness of sin. Sin promises success; it brings failure. It promises joy; it brings sorrow. It promises that you'll find yourself; you end up losing yourself. It promises life and brings death.

"He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, no one gave him anything." The Gentiles wouldn't give him anything because he was a Jew. The Jews wouldn't give him anything, because he was working for a Gentile and working for pigs. It's amazing how people can get themselves into messes. And usually, it starts by saying, "Give me. I want something."

"But when he came to himself," well, that's good news. Up till now he's been beside himself. "When he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?'"

Now the hired servants were the lowest kind of servants. They did not belong to the household. They were just hired in and out and in and out. He said, "They're better off than I am." The thing that brought him to his senses was the fact that his father was a generous man. It's the goodness of God, not the badness of man that brings us to repentance, Romans 2:4.

"I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'" That took a lot of courage. "And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him."

It's amazing how love sharpens your eyes. He didn't have a telescope, didn't have a pair of binoculars, but he saw him. You know why he saw him? He was watching for him. We see what we want to see. You ever notice that? What the heart loves, the eyes see. You're driving down the road and your children will find an ice cream place like that. You know why? They're looking for it.

The first time I flew to Lincoln, Nebraska to make programs for Back to the Bible, Mr. Epp met me at the airport, and we came through downtown Lincoln to go to the office. I said, "Hey, there's a used bookstore." Which does not surprise any of my friends. And Mr. Epp said, "I have lived in this town most of my life and did not know that bookstore was there." I saw it my first visit. You know why? I love books. Now, you ladies would see something else. A dry goods store, a place to buy patterns or little dresses for your grandchildren. What the heart loves, the eyes see.

So, the eyes of love saw him. "The father saw him, and had compassion, and ran." We pointed out last night that in the East men don't run. That's just not proper. But he ran, "and fell on his neck." That means he threw his arms around him, "and kissed him." Because that boy had so disgraced the village that had he stepped into the village boundary they would have stoned him to death, Deuteronomy 21. Well, the father got there first, and threw his arms around the boy, and said, "Throw all the stone you want to." They wouldn't hit the father. He was a respected member of the community.

"And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'" And the father interrupted him. "But the father said to his servants," because when they saw the father running, they came running. "What's going on?"

He said to the servants, "Bring out the best robe, and put it on him." That's the father's robe. "Put a ring on his hand." That's sonship. "Put sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here, 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." "And they began to be merry."

One of the major themes of this chapter is joy. Our Lord talks about the joy of being found, the joy of being the finder, the joy of entering into the joy of the finder. Now, Jewish people in those days did not have a great deal of festivity. It cost too much. They didn't raise sheep to slaughter them. They raised them to reproduce and to be able to take the wool, and the milk. They didn't kill their animals.

But they always kept, they tried to keep a calf that was being fattened up in case there was a special occasion, a wedding, for example. Or somebody important came to the village and they all had to have a big party. And so, they took that fatted calf and they began to be merry.

Now, that's not the end of the story. That's where we usually stop. And at this point, the Pharisees must have understood, "All right, that younger son, he's like these people you're ministering to. Okay, you're telling us that he's come back, but we're still not sure we can accept him." And our Lord says, "I know exactly what you're thinking. Now, let me tell you about you. I've talked about them. Let me talk about you." Here comes the elder brother.

Luke 15:25, "Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants," just one of the little boys who worked around the place, "and asked what these things meant." Now, why didn't he know?

Because he wasn't watching. Had he been the kind of brother who would be out in the field and he'd look and say, "I wonder if my brother is coming back." He'd look— He would have known. I say it again, the eyes see what the heart loves. He didn't love his brother. Didn't even know he was home.

The tense of the verb in Luke 15:26 is "he kept on asking". "Come on, boy, what's going on? What's that?" "Well, sir—" "Come on, what's going on?" "He kept asking him. He was nervous. Some people don't know what to do when something happy happens. They really don't. They're surprised by joy.

He said, "Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf." That was a big deal now. Now the next verse ought to say, "And he rejoiced." It doesn't. It says that he "was angry and would not go in." Go in where? Go in the house where the feast was. Now the village was there. They were having joy. They were eating. This was something important because they didn't often do this. They were eating and rejoicing. He said, "I'm not going in there."

"Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him." Think of how humiliating that was. Father was the head of the feast. At the father's side, the prodigal was seated. And he was just finding out how wonderful it is to have a forgiving father. And the father had to say to all of his guests, "Would you excuse me a minute, I have to take care of something out here."

Now if you've ever had to do that, you know how how humiliating and embarrassing it can be. You have guests at the house and one of the children decides to bury the Volkswagen or do something. And are you hear this crash or this shattering of glass and you look at your guests and you say, "Now, would you please excuse me just a minute?" This is far worse. This is far worse because this boy was treating his father the way nobody should ever treat a father, or anybody else.

"Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him." So he answered and said to his father, "Lo—" You notice there's something missing there? He doesn't say "Father." Now in the East when you talk to your father you say, "Father." You don't just say, "Lo, these many years I have been serving you." You show respect to your father or your mother. "Lo, these many years I have been serving you. I never transgressed your commandments at any time."

That's good record. "And yet you never gave me a kid," a young goat, "that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf." Never gave me so much as a goat. Here you kill for him the fatted calf.

And the father said to him, "Son," and the word there is child, "Child, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours." That was true. The father had given the inheritance to the two boys. The younger son had wasted his, so that was gone. The older son owned the inheritance, but the father ran it. And so he said, "All that I all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

Now I wish that verse 33 were there. I wish that what verse 33 were there that said, and the elder brother said, "Father, I repent. I am sorry. I forgive my brother. Forgive me. Let's go in and enjoy the feast." Doesn't say that.

It's just like the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah ends just like this story. Jonah's angry. He's outside the city angry. And it never does tell us what happened. All God says is, "Should I not have spared all these animals and all these children and all these people?" End of the story. If I sent a manuscript like that to one of my publishers, they'd send it back. They'd say, "Finish the story."

You know why this story is not finished? You and I have to finish it. It's like one of these psychology tests, you know. Have you ever seen these Rorschach inkblot tests where they show you these inkblots, and you tell what kind of picture you see? And I don't know what it shows, but the way you end this story shows something about what we believe about God and about ourselves.

Now the important thing about the elder brother is that he was outside. Inside the house, in the father's house, feasting, joy, and forgiveness, and blessing, and outside the house, with his arms folded, with his face hard, his lips hard, his voice hard, the elder brother is telling his father off. Now, I imagine the guests could hear it, if they wanted to.

I'd like to look at that scene, and try to answer three questions tonight, very briefly. Why is he outside? What did it cost him to be outside? What did he have to do to get inside? I'll tell you why I'm doing this tonight. It's because there are people here tonight who are outside.

Why was he outside? Because he was angry. Our friends in the field of psychiatry and psychology are just discovering and revealing to us what anger really is like. Number of books have come out in the last few years on anger. We're discovering that people wreck cars because of anger, that people have heart attacks because of anger, that body chemistry is completely confused because of anger. Not anger that is always displayed, anger that is kept down inside. One of the most destructive forces today is anger.

Now, all of the feelings we have God gave to us, and they're all good. There is a good side to anger. If you can't get angry at sin, and evil, and abuse, then you don't have a backbone. "You that love the Lord, hate iniquity." Good to have anger if it's under control.

My Lord became angry. Moses got angry. When Moses saw that golden calf, he broke all Ten Commandments at one time. He simply took those two tables of stone, crashed them down. He was angry. Our Lord was angry, took a whip, and cleaned out the temple. When you read the epistles of the great Apostle Paul, you find a couple of spots where he lets his anger come out against sin, not against people, against sin.

Why is he outside? He was angry. If you want to start building walls, get angry. Anger always ends up building walls. He was angry at his father. He was angry because his father had forgiven his younger brother. You see, this boy needed no forgiveness. "Lo, these many years I have served you. I never once transgressed your commandment at any time." I wish I could say that. I wish I could say to my father, "Aren't you so proud of me that all these years I've been— I've never once disobeyed your will?"

Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican, and the Pharisee stood off by himself and said, "Oh, I'm so thankful I'm not like other people, especially like this renegade publican over here. I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I possess." So, my, "I've never once transgressed your law."

He was angry at his father for forgiving his brother. He didn't understand grace. He was angry at his father for killing the fatted calf. He wanted it for himself. It's usually the case that the thing for which I criticize somebody else, I wanted myself. This boy had been living with a hidden agenda all these years.

I don't know how long the younger brother was away from home. 2, 3 years? We don't know. But every time when the older brother went out to work, down inside he was saying, "I'd like to have a party. Boy, I'd like to have a party." Fatted calf is there in the stall. All he had to do was go to his father and say, "Father, I'd like to have a party and have some of my friends over."

And you know what his father would have said, "Fine. Go kill the fatted calf." "You have not, because you ask not." And he did not look upon his father as a father. He was an employer. He was someone who was wielding the scepter and you didn't dare ask your father for something other than more seed for the soil or more tools to work with.

He was angry at his father because his father killed the fatted calf. He was angry at his brother. Say, "Why would he be angry at his brother?" Because he came home. As long as that boy was out in the far country, living for the world, the flesh, and the devil, he made the elder brother look good. It's too bad when we look good only by making somebody else look bad.

Now, we don't know for sure that this boy did spend his money on harlots. There's no record that he did. Maybe he did. Maybe the elder brother knew something nobody else knew, but if he did, he should have kept his mouth shut.

Now, "I want to share this with you. I'm not gossiping, I just want you to be able to pray more intelligently." Who was it? Gilbert Chesterton that went to a an Oxford Group meeting. Now, the Oxford Group is, I think they're still around under a different name, a group of people who used to confess their sins to each other publicly. Chesterton said he heard of two sins he'd never heard of before. So, here's the elder brother hanging the family dirty wash out in public for everybody to hear.

Angry at his brother, because his brother's failure was his own success. His brother was a threat to him. Only two-thirds of the estate was left. The boy comes home, three people now have to live on two-thirds of the estate. And what right does he have to come home, and live off an estate that didn't belong to him?

He was angry at himself. He was angry at himself, because he pulled a bad bargain. He thought that by doing what he did, he'd get rid of his younger brother. One day his father would die. And then he'd have the whole thing to himself to do what he wanted to do. He was angry at himself because he had a hidden agenda down inside. "I want to have a party."

He was a drudge. Why was he working? Not because he loved the father. By the way, there are many people in our churches today who faithfully sing in the choir, who faithfully preach, who faithfully teach Sunday school class, they don't enjoy it. It's drudgery. It's misery. Just like the elder brother.

It's like Jonah. You know why Jonah went to Nineveh to preach? Not because he loved the Ninevites, and not because he loved God. Because he loved Jonah. He did not want to go down to the bottom again. For Jonah, preaching to Nineveh was a matter of life or death, and he chose life. This boy went out and did his work, but his heart wasn't really in it.

Why is he outside? Because he's angry. I don't have to remind a congregation that is well taught in the Word as you are of this truth: If I'm not getting along with my Father, I won't get along with my brother. And if I'm not getting along with my brother, I won't get along with my Father. A person who says, "I love God," and hates his brother is a liar.

And somehow we have the idea we can do anything we want to and say anything we want to when it comes to the brethren, and still get along with God and have our devotions everyday, and read our chapter, and go through our devotional book. Oh, no. No, in fact, my Lord says if you're heading for the altar, which is the holiest place you can go to, and you discover and you remember that your brother's got something against you, forget about the worship, go straighten out with your brother, then come back and worship God.

What was it costing him to be outside? Ever watched a child going through a tantrum? Sometimes when they're strange children, I'm in the shopping center waiting for my wife to come from the store, and maybe I'm outside just watching the people. It's a lot of fun.

And now some child will come along and wants to go into the toy store, or the candy store, and starts to throw a tantrum. You ever seen that happen? Your your palm begins to itch, you know? And you say to yourself, "Kid, you're hurting yourself more than you're hurting anybody else." They don't believe it.

Now, this man was outside and it was costing him dearly. If somebody here tonight is harboring resentment, anger against God, or against one of God's people, it's costing you. What was it costing him? Fellowship with his father. He and his father were not close. Cost him fellowship with his father.

Now, if I'm not having right fellowship with my Father—I mean loving fellowship, happy fellowship—His work and His will are my food, that's what Jesus said. Some people look upon the will of God as medicine. Jesus said it's food. "My food is to do the will of Him that sent me to finish His work." If I'm not in fellowship with my Father, my Bible's not— He's not going to talk to me from the Bible. My prayer life is going to be dull. My witnessing is going to be routine. My ministry is just going to be ritual, if I'm out of fellowship with my Father.

He lost his fellowship with his father. He lost his joy. There's no joy here. You don't read Jesus saying, "And there was joy." Oh, no. The joy is back in the previous verses. Luke 15:24, "They began to be merry." Everybody in this chapter is happy. The shepherd is happy, the sheep is happy, the woman is happy, the friends are happy, the father is happy, the younger son is happy, the village is happy. The elder brother is miserable.

He lost his fellowship with the father, and he lost his joy, and he lost his brother. Brother was on the inside, the elder brother was on the outside. This is an interesting fellow. This elder brother can talk to a servant. "Hey you, you, boy. What's going on? I hear music and dancing. What's going on?" He can talk to a servant, can't talk to his own brother. That's what anger does to you.

Now, if you forget everything else, remember this: when anger takes possession of our lives, adults start acting like children. That's why the father said, "Child," to the elder brother. When anger takes over, adults start acting like children and sons start acting like slaves, and brothers start acting like enemies. He lost his brother.

He lost his character. He did. I don't care how hard he worked. I don't care how diligently he obeyed. We have people today who call themselves Christians, who will say, "I've never disobeyed Him."

Now, this man may have had a certain amount of moral rectitude. And I admire him for that. If you're going to make a choice, you don't have to, but if you're going to make a choice, don't be like the prodigal son in your sinning. But there are sins of the flesh, and there are sins of the spirit. The prodigal son was guilty of sins of the flesh. The elder brother, sins of the spirit. Anger, pride. "I never once disobeyed." He tells the truth about everybody else, except himself.

He lost an opportunity to honor his father. He humiliated his father. The father got up, and said, "Excuse me, folks," and went out, and they could hear them haggling out there. And the guests were saying, "What kind of a boy is this? What— What—" He lost an opportunity to honor his father.

Quickly, how could he come in? I've met people in my pastoral ministry, couldn't figure out why they were sluggish spiritually, why they weren't getting some place, and the longer you talk, and the more you listen, you find out that back here, they got angry. Got angry at a relative, or angry at a child, or—I don't mean a righteous anger against sin. Oh no, I mean a selfish, protective kind of anger—or against somebody in the church, and they're just harboring that. And once they get that out of their system, my, all of life opens up.

You see, anger has a way of so robbing us of energy that we can't really live the way we'd like to live. Anger has a way of hardening the heart.

How can he come in? How can any of us come in? Well, to begin with, he had to see himself, and be honest. That's one of the hardest things to do. To see yourself, and be honest. Want to have an interesting exercise at a communion service in your church? I've never known any church to do this, but I no reason why it couldn't be done. Just hand everybody a 3x5 card, and have them write on there three ways in the past year that they had hurt their church. Be interesting, wouldn't it?

Marriage counselors do this, you know. I used to do this in my premarital counseling when I was in the pastorate. I would give a 3x5 card to the fellow and to the girl, and I'd say, "Would you please write down the three things she enjoys doing the most, and you write down three things he enjoys doing the most." They'd sit and look at each other. Here they want to get married, they don't even know what makes each other happy. Or then you say, "Turn it over now, and would you list three ways you hurt him, and you list three ways you hurt her." We don't like to admit those things.

He had to see himself. He had to apologize to his father. And he should have apologized to his brother. He should have gone in and said, "Stop the feast. I got something I want to say." I could just see the younger brother, looking for the door. "No, don't run away. Folks, you just heard me talking to my father out there, and I did not talk like a son should talk, and I'm sorry. I apologize for this to my father, and to these guests.

And brother, I apologize to you for several things. Number one, I wasn't watching for you to come home. Didn't even know you were here, but I didn't want you to come home. I apologize for that. I apologize for not coming in, and welcoming you, and joining in to the feast. Now, if you'll forgive me, please pass the veal."

You see, he was robbing himself of the kind of nourishing fellowship all of us need. Folks, I got news for you, we can't make it alone. We belong to each other. We affect each other. We need each other. We can't make it alone. That's what the church is all about. He had to see himself. He had to yield to the father. He had to be reconciled to his brother. And then he would have been so happy. So happy.

I recall, early in my ministry, many many years ago, when the Lord brought to my mind the fact that I had wronged a man, my pastor, when I was a teenager, I'd wronged him. I'd been an elder brother. And the burden was so great, I just went across town to where he lived, and I can still see myself walking up the steps to his apartment, and knocking on the door and when he opened the door he was shocked. I

'm sure he prepared himself, and I just said to him, "I've come to apologize," because all the while I had that in my heart, it was robbing me. I wasn't hurting him. I was hurting myself. Robbing me of fellowship with my father, and robbing me of fellowship with my brother, robbing me of the joy of serving the Lord happily. And so I apologized, I washed the wounds, and he said, "Well, you just forget about it, it's all forgiven." We prayed and that took care of it.

It's not worth it to be an elder brother. You can be saved and be an elder brother. One of these days, the Lord's going to open up the books at the judgment seat of Christ, and I hope it doesn't say on my page, "He would not go in," because if that's what it says, I will be saved, so as by fire.

Gracious Father, it haunts us, it frightens us that we can be busy working in the field and our hearts not be right with the Father. It burdens us and frightens us that we can be busy doing your work and yet not be in your will. That we can be laborers together and be at odds with a brother.

And I pray in Jesus' name, oh God, that you will help us to be honest with you and honest with ourselves, with one another, and deliver us from that destructive anger, resentment, malice that grows and poisons the system, that root of bitterness that spreads throughout a church. Oh God, deliver us. Grant that we shall enter into the feast where there's always room for one more repenting sinner. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.