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SESSION 2

Lost

The PointWithout Christ, we are hopelessly lost .

The PassageLuke 15:11-14,17-24

The Bible Meets Life My brother and I often went deer hunting with our dad . On one trip when I was a teenager, we drove into the woods about an hour before sunrise . It was extremely foggy . As we exited the truck, we took different paths to hunt for the day . The problem was, I chose the wrong path . I walked confidently for twenty minutes before I realized I was lost .

I’ve been lost in a wholly different—and far more serious—way . And you have too . We were born lost . Whether we realize it or not, we’re lost . Just because we think we’re on the right trail doesn’t mean we are . We’re lost when we’re not where we’re supposed to be .

But we don’t have to stay lost .

“Lostness”—our sin and rebellion against the holy God—is a key theme in Scripture, but God’s love for us is an even greater theme . Jesus told a parable that brings these two themes together . We are lost, but thankfully we can be found!

The SettingAfter the Pharisees and scribes complained that Jesus welcomed sinners (Luke 15:1-2), Jesus told three successive parables that illustrated something or someone lost and then found . Each one spotlighted a great celebration when the lost sheep, coin, or son was found . Of all the parables Jesus told, the parable of the lost son likely ranks as one of the favorites . This particular parable highlights God’s willingness to receive repentant sinners .

24 Se S Sion 2© 2019 LifeWay Christian Resources

Without Christ, we are hopelessly lost.T HE P OIN T

5 MINUTES

GET INTO THE STUDYACTIVITY (OPTIONAL): In advance, hide your car keys somewhere in the classroom . When group members arrive, announce that your car keys are missing and you need their help in finding them . Ask members to search the room until the keys are found .

DISCUSS: Question #1 on page 17 of the PSG: “What was your most memorable experience being lost?”

LEADER PACK: In advance, make copies of Pack Item 2, “The Language of Faith”

handout, and distribute them to any group members who have not received one . Use this handout to review the theological significance of the terms used in this unit .

GUIDE: Direct group members to “The Bible Meets Life” on page 18 of the PSG . Introduce the importance of understanding lostness by reading or summarizing the text or by encouraging group members to read it on their own .

GUIDE: Call attention to “The Point” on page 18 of the PSG: “Without Christ, we are hopelessly lost.”

PRAY: Transition into the study by asking God to help the group recognize lostness not only in their own lives but in others . Thank Him for offering a way to be found .

BI BL E S T U DI E S F OR L I F E 25© 2019 LifeWay Christian Resources

Luke 15:11-1411 He also said: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. 14 After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.”

READ: Ask a group member to read aloud Luke 15:11-14 on page 19 of the PSG .

GUIDE: Use the commentary for the verses on the next page of this Leader Guide to help explain the Jewish laws and customs regarding inheritance .

RECAP: In Jesus’ parable, the younger son thought he knew where he wanted to go . It was a destination framed with lavish living and focused on money . The high life awaited him . Or so he thought . Far too often we make the same mistake . We have a picture in our minds of what life should look like, the destination where we want to go . Without God’s perspective, we don’t realize we’ve chosen the wrong route and the wrong destination .

DISCUSS: Question #2 on page 19 of the PSG: “Why would someone choose to live apart from God?”

RECAP: Jesus’ story is pointing to an even greater danger: spiritual lostness . We are lost when we choose our own path . We choose to go our own way, to do our own thing apart from God . The root of this choice is sin . Our culture wants to downplay sin, but behind our efforts to please ourselves is self-centeredness, a choice to do what I want rather than what God wants . And that, plain and simple, is sin . A life apart from God the Father is sin .

TRANSITION: We are lost because we choose to live apart from God . In the next verses, we see that to turn toward God, we must acknowledge our lost condition and unworthiness .

STUDY THE BIBLE

10 MINUTES

ALTERNATE QUESTION:

What are some things that lure people away from a relationship with God?


T HE P OIN T Without Christ, we are hopelessly lost.

Luke 15:11-14 Commentary[VERSES 11-12] This parable features a prodigal son who willfully spurns his father and tries to make a go of it alone. The son later repents and returns to his father. The son’s father, who represents God the Father in heaven, demonstrates unconditional love and welcomes his repentant son home.

According to Jewish law, the oldest son received twice as much as other sons (Deut. 21:17). A father could distribute his wealth during his lifetime if he wished. Jesus introduced the parable about a man who had two sons. The younger son said, “Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.” He effectively declared his independence from his father. He no longer wanted to be tied down to his father’s property and the responsibility of caring for that property. He wanted to live his own life away from his father’s rule. The prodigal’s rejection and turning from his father and the father’s way of life mirrors the rejection each of us display toward the heavenly Father and His way of life.

Without a doubt, this younger son appeared headed for trouble because he valued things more than people, pleasure more than responsibility, and distant places more than the blessings he would have enjoyed at home. This son behaved unbelievably toward his father, yet the father met the son’s impatience with patience and submitted to his demand. The father distributed the assets. The son could have his freedom. He could take his inheritance and do as he wished without any interference from his father.

In a similar way, God allows us to experience freedom. We have the freedom to live away from Him and to pursue pleasure without responsibility. However, we should be reminded that sin will always take us farther away from Him than we ever intended to go. The slippery slope of freedom from God will eventually lead to eternal death unless we repent and return to Him in faith.

[VERSE 13] It did not take long for the young man’s slide to begin as he converted his inheritance to cash. When he asked for his inheritance, the younger son never suggested he intended to use it to bankroll a shocking breakaway from all familial relationships. Having already determined to leave, this son plummeted down a path that began with bad and spiraled downward to worse as he traveled to a distant country. This likely referred to some non-Jewish world where he would be free from all religious impediments and where he could enjoy his independent life full of carousing, drunkenness, partying, and immorality. He had chosen a country drastically different from his father’s where he squandered his estate in foolish living. He lived only for the pleasure of this life. That he squandered his money meant that he did not lose it due to a failed business venture, but rather he blew it with wild, reckless spending.

[VERSE 14] Life in the distant country did not live up the younger son’s expectations. When he had spent everything, his friends left him and a severe famine struck that country. The son seemed to have no other choice but to do for a stranger what he had refused to do for his father. This sad story continued to careen down the hill of dire circumstances that sin always produces. Everything he had based his life upon had evaporated. He had cut himself off from his father and pride kept him from returning.

The severe famine drove the destitute young man to slop pigs for a Gentile. His selfish choice to reject his father’s home and service to him now left the young man wallowing like a hog in the slop of his sinful choices. Consider what his rebellion had cost him. He lost his familial, ethnic, and religious identity. This young man had seemingly passed the point of no return with no hope in life. He depicted an apt metaphor for someone so trapped in sinfulness that he lived without hope. His deplorable circumstance climaxed when the pig slop looked appetizing to him.


STUDY THE BIBLE

Luke 15:17-1917 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” ’


GUIDE: Use the Commentary for the verses on the next page of this Leader Guide to help explain the spiritual significance of the prodigal coming to his senses .

RECAP: Without intent and purpose grounded in Christ, we are lost . The younger son came to that very realization . “He came to his senses” (v . 17) . At one point, all his “wants” had been at his disposal, but now he realized he couldn’t even meet his “needs .” He had reached the absolute bottom; he landed work feeding pigs, and to the Jewish crowd hearing this story from Jesus, feeding unclean, forbidden pigs was about as low as a person could get . Yet as despised as the pigs were, even they ate better than this young man .

The younger son discovered just how lost he had become . He saw himself in his current state, filthy and starving, and came to his senses . Only then did he reach the point where he could admit he needed to return to his father’s house .

DISCUSS: Question #3 on page 20 of the PSG: “How did you come to your senses spiritually?”

RECAP: Coming to our senses and acknowledging our lost, sinful state is important, but it is not enough . Deciding to do something is not the same as actually doing it . Too many people know they’re sinners, but they do nothing about it . When we see our sin as God sees it, it should cause us to turn around and go in a new direction—toward God .

A lot of people know what it means to be spiritually lost, but they don’t know what it means to be found . The prodigal son knew he was lost, and he was about to discover what it means to be found .

TRANSITION: In the next verses, we see that the Father restores us when we return to Him .

10 MINUTES

ALTERNATE QUESTION:

What part of the prodigal son’s words here stand out to you the most?



Luke 15:17-19 Commentary[VERSE 17] The prodigal experienced the loss of everything, and therefore, epitomized the essence of lostness. He had nothing on earth to help him. He had wrapped his life up in the pleasure and security of the world, then everything had vanished. He had cut himself off from his father, so he had no security. Everything he had in life came from his father, and he had blown it all. In a culture that honored older family members, this man had despised his father. Anyone who knew his story would have shunned him. He had no one to whom he could turn.

Jesus’ words, he came to his senses, marked the turning point in the younger son’s story. The phrase alone did not signify repentance. It could have meant he woke up, recognizing his plan for an easy life had backfired, and that his empty stomach now drove him to return to his father.

When he came to his senses, he thought about his father and his enormous provisions. He thought about how foolish for him to starve while his father’s many hired workers had more than enough food to eat. Would he have remembered the sense of belonging and the joy of fellowshipping in his father’s house? Considering his situation with the pigs and his thoughts of dying of hunger, the young man lived a hopeless existence. Jesus likely intended a double meaning—not only was the man empty, unhappy, and destitute, but his life had no real value or significance apart from his father and family.

[VERSE 18] The man could no longer bear to live this tragedy of starving to death, so he decided to return home. Until he determined to do something about his circumstances, no possibility of reconciliation between the son and father could have occurred. His remorse needed to be combined with action on his part. I’ll get up marked the beginning of the son’s decisive change of direction. To repent means “to change one’s mind,” and the young man did exactly that. He changed his mind about himself and his situation.

While hunger may have initially motivated him to go home, the son could have saved his pride by never returning. He could have searched for another job and avoided his older brother’s inevitable scorn over what he had done. Instead, the son chose to go back to his father because he admitted he had sinned against heaven and his father. Jesus’ order followed His teaching in Luke 10:27 concerning loving God and neighbor. The young man had sinned first against God, represented by heaven. Second of all, he had sinned against his father by dishonoring him.

That the prodigal would have to go to his father meant he would have to turn from and leave the distant country (v. 13). Now ready to turn back from his runaway life and go back to his father, the young man initiated his journey home toward full repentance.

[VERSE 19] The son continued on the path of repentance by confessing his sin. Quite sure he had burned his bridges with his father, he prepared to add, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. He recognized he had no one except himself to blame for his predicament. He admitted he had destroyed the relationship with his father and had proven no longer worthy to be called his son. Now ready to come crawling back to his father, he did not know how his father might react. However, knowing his father’s track record of treating his servants well, he concluded that returning home as one of his father’s hired workers would prove to be better than staying away. As one of his father’s servants, he knew he would no longer experience hunger in his belly nor the separation from all he had come to love.

The son’s rehearsed confession demonstrated the depth of how he recognized the errors of his ways and that he must change. However, merely having the desire and a longing to return to his father would not restore their relationship. His feelings of remorse had prepared him for his meeting with his father, but the son still had to go home to his father.


STUDY THE BIBLE

Luke 15:20-2420 “So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! ’ So they began to celebrate.”


RECAP: The young man in Jesus’ parable was truly in a humbled state . He embraced that and decided to return to the father he had abandoned . He could not imagine being accepted as a son again, but he knew that, even if he were nothing more than a hired worker in his father’s employ, he would be treated decently .

DISCUSS: Question #4 on page 22 of the PSG: “What does this parable teach us about the heart of God?”

GUIDE: Use the commentary for the verses on the next page of this Leader Guide to help explain how the father’s love and that of our heavenly Father are alike .

RECAP: The “far country” will still call to us . In those moments, we would be wise to remind ourselves just how lost we once were, and what we gained when Jesus saved us .

The Father is waiting for us to come to Him and live the abundant life in Christ . He desires to put a robe on our backs, place rings on our fingers, and hold a feast in our honor . He wants to celebrate with us that we were once lost but now we are found .

DISCUSS: Question #5 on page 22 of the PSG: “How can our group facilitate and celebrate people turning to God?”

DO: Direct group members to Engage with “My Path to God” on page 23 of the PSG (page 33 in this Leader Guide) to help them reflect on their own journey to God .

ACTIVITY (OPTIONAL): Use the testimony option on page 33 of this Leader Guide to further illustrate the importance of being spiritually lost, then found .

GUIDE: Refer back to “The Point” for this session: “Without Christ, we are hopelessly lost.”

15 MINUTES

ALTERNATE QUESTION:

In what ways has God restored your life?



Luke 15:20-24 Commentary[VERSE 20] After the prodigal learned through the loss of everything he held dear—possessions, unrestrained living, and freedom from authority—he confessed his abject humility. Before he got up and went to his father, he had rehearsed his speech in which he would declare his unworthiness even to be called his father’s son.

Jesus let His audience know that this father longed for the day when his wayward son would come home. As he waited each day, his eyes would have peered into the distance hoping to get a glimpse of his son. Jesus, the master storyteller, startled His audience with the father’s surprising response. When the father saw his son coming, he had compassion on him. He did not wait for his son to walk up to the house. Rather, he ran out to meet his son, embraced him, and kissed him. If he had followed the customs of the day, the father would have waited for his son to initiate the conversation, which would necessarily have included a proper demonstration of respect and groveling, before saying anything to his son at all. After all, by committing such an outrageous offense, the father could have had this son stoned. The prodigal had rebelled against his father. He had lived the life of a glutton and drunkard, sins so offensive he deserved to be stoned (Deut. 21:18‑21). At the very least, he could have put his son on probation. However, Jesus shocked the Pharisees and scribes by saying the father was filled with compassion before the son even had the chance to confess.

Before the son could get one word of his confession out of his mouth, the father threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son’s confession had not conditioned his father’s response. He had experienced a turning point in his life when he determined to return to his father, only to find his father waiting for him to return. Our Father still waits for a sinner to return to Him. God knows when we are ready to come to Him in sincere repentance and offers us His forgiveness. We should not miss the fact that God takes the initiative in salvation (Luke 19:10).

[VERSE 21] The young man finally got a chance to confess, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. However, the father interrupted him before he got to the part about making him like one of the hired workers. Jesus offered no explanation as to why the son did not make any further attempt to finish his planned confession. Clearly, the father’s demonstrations of acceptance with his embrace buried the confession the son had intended to make.

[VERSES 22-24] The father cut off his son’s confession and ordered an exorbitant celebration to begin as he told his servants to act quickly. Rather than making his son a hired worker, he completely restored the young man as his son. Each item the father called for the servants to give his son carried great symbolism. The best robe restored his son to a position of sonship and honor. The ring restored him to a position of authority, full sonship, and the right of inheritance. The sandals elevated him above servanthood. Servants did not wear sandals, so having the son wear them revealed the father’s full acceptance of his son.

The father ordered the fattened calf killed for a full‑blown banquet. The servants would have set the table with the best‑fed and most‑expensive beef saved for a special occasion. Slaughtering such a large animal meant the father intended to invite a large crowd. The joyous celebration of this magnitude pictured reconciliation and full acceptance.

The father declared the reason for calling for a celebration: this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! This phrase would have recalled for Jesus’ audience not only the gulf the son had dug between himself and his father but also the depth to which the son had subsequently fallen. Their relationship had died, but the son who was dead and lost was now alive and found. The recovery of this lost son demanded a celebration.


GUIDE: Direct group members to page 24 of the PSG . Encourage them to choose one of the following applications:

> Seek God. Perhaps you need to “come home” to God . Confess to God any destructive behaviors or thoughts and come to Christ .

> Forgive. When was the last time you ran to forgive someone with reckless abandon? Maybe it’s time to forgive even if it seems strange and shocking to everyone else around . Remember to forgive others as God forgives .

> Reach out. Reach out to someone who is lost and at rock bottom . Point them to the loving, restoring arms of God . Let them see the love of the Father in you .

Wrap It UpTRANSITION: Read or restate the final paragraph from page 24 of the PSG .

“Lost” doesn’t have to define our lives . A loving Father is waiting . Let’s continue to work out the salvation we have in Christ, choosing to live each day for the kingdom of God .

ACTIVITY (OPTIONAL): Use the lost and found option on page 33 of this Leader Guide to further illustrate the importance of the lost being found .

PRAY: Conclude by asking God to confront group members often with His holiness and to give us humility in His presence . Thank Him for calling us to holiness .

LIVE IT OUT

5 MINUTES

Get expert insights on weekly studies through the Ministry Grid. MinistryGrid .com/BibleStudiesforLife



ENGAGEMy Path to God. In the space below, draw a “map” that reflects how you wandered from God, the point where He found you, and what the journey has looked like since then.

BONUS CONTENTACTIVITY (OPTIONAL): In advance, invite someone who’s lived a prodigal life and returned to come and speak to your class. Give the person five minutes to share. Ask the person to emphasize how God came looking for them, found them, and helped them return to Him.

ACTIVITY (OPTIONAL): In advance, use an Internet search to find a news story of someone who was lost, prompting a wide search, and then was found. Ask a volunteer to read or summarize the story. Then, inquire whether members have been involved in such a search or how they would respond if they were asked to join a search for a lost neighborhood child. Finally, read this quotation (attributed to multiple sources):

“The only thing worse than being lost is being lost and not having anyone looking for you.” Lead a prayer of commitment to share Christ with the lost.

NOTE: A link can be found at BibleStudiesForLife.com/AdultExtra.


the bible meets lifemedia1.razorplanet.com/...04052020leaderguide.pdf · guide: use the commentary...

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