He Was Lost, and Is Found - Lesson Outline

"Lesson 18: “He Was Lost, and Is Found”," New Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, (2002)

1. Introduction

a) Do socks ever get lost around your house?

i) What do you do to find them?

b) Lost a wedding or engagement ring?

i) What do to find it?

c) Have any of your children ever been lost?

i) What do to find them?

2. The Savior teaches the worth of souls

a) The core of the Atonement of Christ is finding and saving lost children of God

i) READ Doctrine and Covenants 18:15

15And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

b) Parable of Lost Coins

c) Reading 1 – Luke 15:8-10

8¶Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

10Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

i) Consider the value you place in your earthly treasures, your sorrow when they are lost, and your pleasure when they are recovered. Likewise, you can imagine the great joy in the heavens when one of my children repents and returns to the household of God.

d) Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 18:10-13

10Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;

11For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.

12And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance.

13And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!

e) Reading 3 - President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “Some of our own … cry out in pain and suffering and loneliness and fear. Ours is a great and solemn duty to reach out and help them, to lift them, to feed them if they are hungry, to nurture their spirits if they thirst for truth and righteousness. …

“… There are those who were once warm in the faith, but whose faith has grown cold. Many of them wish to come back but do not know quite how to do it. They need friendly hands reaching out to them. With a little effort, many of them can be brought back to feast again at the table of the Lord.

“My brethren and sisters, I would hope, I would pray that each of us … would resolve to seek those who need help, who are in desperate and difficult circumstances, and lift them in the spirit of love into the embrace of the Church, where strong hands and loving hearts will warm them, comfort them, sustain them, and put them on the way of happy and productive lives” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1996, 118; or Ensign, Nov. 1996, 86).

3. The Prodigal Son

a) Move from a simple parable to one of Christ’s most complex parables

b) Prodigal: "A person who spends money or uses resources with wasteful extravagance; wastrel or profligate." (Random House Webster's College Dictionary)

i) Wasting inheritance

ii) Wasting opportunities

iii) Wasting the Atonement

c) Reading 4 – Elder Bruce D. Porter has said: “The parable of the prodigal son is a parable of us all. It reminds us that we are, in some measure, prodigal sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven. For, as the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:23).” (Redeemer of Israel, Bruce D. Porter, Ensign, November, 1995)

d) Reading 5 – Luke 15:11-16

11¶And he said, A certain man had two sons:

12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

i) Verse 1 – Classic introduction

ii) Verse 13 – ASK – what is a “far country”?

(1) READ – Elder Bruce D. Porter has said: “Like the errant son of the Savior’s parable, we have come to ‘a far country’ (Luke 15:13) separated from our premortal home. Like the prodigal, we share in a divine inheritance, but by our sins we squander a portion thereof and experience a ‘mighty famine’ of spirit (Luke 15:14). Like him, we learn through painful experience that worldly pleasures and pursuits are of no more worth than the husks of corn that swine eat. We yearn to be reconciled with our Father and return to his home.” (Redeemer of Israel, Bruce D. Porter, Ensign, November, 1995)

iii) Verse 16 - he would fain have filled his belly with the husks

(1) What does this say about someone who is estranged from the Lord?

iv) Verse 16 - no man gave unto him – Satan never supports those whom he tempts

e) Reading 6 – Luke 15:17-19

17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

i) Verse 17 – when he came to himself

(1) Reading 7 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell has written: "There are many prodigals who lack the meekness and the intellectual clarity to do what the prodigal son did. Saying, in effect, 'Living like this is ridiculous!,' the prodigal son 'came to himself.' He realized how much better off he would be to return to his father. He did not ponder, 'What will they say? Will anyone come out to meet me?' Instead, he arose and went home. Being sufficiently meek to feel caused him to think, and humbleness of mind saved his soul." (Meek and Lowly, p48)

ii) A Pattern for Repentance

(1) Verse 18 - I will arise and go to my father

(2) Verse 18 - will say unto him – pray, confess

(3) Verse 18 - Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee – confession of sin

(4) Verse 19 - am no more worthy to be called thy son

(a) READ – 2 Nephi 2:8 - Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

(5) Verse 19 - make me as one of thy hired servants – it would be an act of charity to put me into the least place in the Kingdom

f) Reading 8 – Luke 15:20-24

20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

i) Verse 20 – when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him

ii) Verse 20 - had compassion

iii) Verse 20 - ran

iv) Verse 20 - fell on his neck, and kissed him

v) Verse 21 – Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son

(1) Son confesses his sin and acknowledges he has no right to any inheritance or place in his father’s house

vi) Verse 22 - But – the father’s reaction is not what the son feared or what might be expected of a natural man

vii) Verse 22 - Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet

(1) Temple symbolism

(a) Best robe – put it on him

(i) In Bible times robing ceremonies were associated with the coronation of the king or the divinization of a mortal

(ii) the Greek term for “robing” is endusis, from which we derive the modern English word “endowment

(iii) Think in the temple of putting on a robe

(b) Shoes

(i) Servants and slaves went barefoot

(ii) Think in the temple of putting on shoes

(c) Ring

(i) Symbol of power

(ii) Pharaoh gave Joseph a ring that Joseph used to show that he had power to act in Pharaoh’s name (Genesis 41:42)

(d) Embrace of the son by the father

(i) Think in the temple of the very end of the endowment ceremony

g) READ – Luke 15:25-32

25Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.

26And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.

27And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

28And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.

29And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:

30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

i) A father had two sons and both needed to be saved

ii) Satan did not leave this family alone because the younger son had repented

iii) Verse 28 – Older son was angry, and would not go in

(1) Cut himself off from his family

(2) Symbolically, kept himself out of the celestial kingdom

iv) Why is it that we sometimes want our mortal experiences to be evaluated like sums in a math class: “You were bad a total of 72 times and good only 64. Therefore, you are more bad than good and you can go to Hell!” This is not the manner in which the Father and the Son calculate our preparation for salvation. Their only concern is, “What are you?” not, “what were you?”

v) Every one of us has sinned, every one of us needs forgiveness, every one of us has wandered into a far country at some time in our lives, every one of us needs the Atonement

vi) We cannot begrudge someone else the right to walk down the same road of repentance that we have walked and that we will have to walk during our lives

vii) READ – Doctrine and Covenants 58:42

42Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.

viii) Verse 31 - Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine

4. Conclusion

a) Reading 9 - President Gordon B. Hinckley said of The Prodigal Son: “I ask you to read that story. Every parent ought to read it again and again. It is large enough to encompass every household, and enough larger than that to encompass all mankind, for are we not all prodigal sons and daughters who need to repent and partake of the forgiving mercy of our Heavenly Father and then follow His example?” (“Of You It Is Required to Forgive,” Ensign, June 1991, 5).

Ten Lepers - Luke 17:11–19