Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary

spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin

and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome to the Daily Blade. I'm Jay Reisner, and I serve as lead pastor at Kyle Thompson's

Church, Faith Bible Church, here in Edmond, Oklahoma. I'm a friend of the forging table,

but this week I get to fill in and be with you on The Daily Blade. I'm excited to tell you

that we're going to spend the next five days in the gospel of Luke,

specifically Luke chapter 15.

And it goes without saying that Jesus, he was an exceptional teacher.

And one of the ways he was first described by those observing his ministry was,

this man teaches as one with authority.

And one primary feature of his authoritative teaching was his use of parables, of stories.

And I like to call Luke chapter 15 the epicenter of the parables of Jesus.

These parables, these extended metaphors that Jesus so often deployed in his teaching, I believe they reach their peak in Luke 15.

In particular, the third story, the parable of the lost son.

J.C. Ryle, the old bishop of Liverpool, he called the story of the lost son and the older brother the most full and instructive of all the parables.

Princeton theologian B.B. Warfield, he said that it was artistically perfect.

An English author, Charles Dickens, who knew something about the makings of a good story,

he called the story of the lost son the greatest short story in the history of the world. But before we get to verses 11

through 32, I'm going to set this all up by talking to you about the setting. What compels Jesus

to tell these stories in the way that he tells them is very, very important. So let's read the

setting in Luke 15, verses 1 and 2, where God's word says,

...