In the Father’s house, with the Father – some sharing from the Autumn 2018 University Conference

A couple of weekend’s ago was the Autumn 2018 University Conference, and the subject of the conference was “Jubilee”.

Jubilee means having no worry or anxiety, no concern or care, no lack or shortage, no sickness or calamity, and no problems whatsoever but, rather, having all benefits; hence, all things are pleasant and satisfying to our heart, and we are free from anxiety, at ease, excited, and exultant (Psa. 103:1-5).

The word jubilee in Leviticus 25:10 means “a time of shouting,” or “a time of the trumpeting of the ram’s horn”; the trumpeting of the ram’s horn signifies the preaching of the gospel as the proclaiming of liberty in the New Testament jubilee to all the sinners sold under sin that they may return to God and God’s family, the household of God, and may rejoice with shouting in the New Testament enjoyment of God’s salvation (Luke 4:16-22; Acts 26:16-19).

An illustration of the jubilee

The Old Testament type of the Jubilee, seen in Leviticus 25, has an illustration in the third parable of Luke 15, and this is one of the things I enjoyed most from the recent conference.

I recommend reading the verses for yourself, but just as a very brief recap – Leviticus 25 tells us of the fiftieth year being a year of jubilee, when everyone who had sold their land (their possession) and even themselves into slavery, hears the trumpeting of the ram’s horn and is released, free to return to their possession and their family. (Notice that it is not that their possession is returned to them, but they are returned to their possession – because they were the ones in captivity.)

Can you imagine being a slave to someone one day, with absolutely nothing to your name, and the very next day you are free to return to a land and a home that belongs to you, and to be reunited with your family? No wonder there was rejoicing!

Well in Luke 15, we have the parable of the prodigal son, who:

• took his share of his inheritance (how disrespectful – his father was still alive!),
• left home (worse – he just wanted the money),
• and squandered his wealth on immoral living (even worse – his father probably worked hard for that money).

The Bible says that then there was a famine and the son became hungry. He managed to find work feeding pigs, but he longed to eat the pigs’ food. But that’s when “he came to his senses” and remembered that in his father’s house, the servants had plenty of bread. So he returned home with a plan to confess his sins and ask to be treated like a hired servant.

Luke 15:20 then says that “while he was still a long way off”, his father saw him (implying he was looking for him), ran to him, embraced him, and completely reinstated him as a son.

Can you imagine? One day he’s hungry and indebted to others, the next day he is home again and having a joyful feast with his father! Wouldn’t you say that was a real jubilee for him?

And it was thoroughly undeserved

And this is the application of the parable that we often focus on: We also are that prodigal son who went astray, we threw away all that was rightfully ours, were enslaved to sin and the world, and yet as soon as we made a repentant turn to God, we were immediately welcomed back by our Father, and given everything we need for our salvation, with Christ as our righteousness and the Spirit as our seal. And we didn’t do a single thing to work for it. The son’s attempts to take the position of a labouring servant fell on deaf ears – his father would have none of it and was just rejoicing to have his son home.

Doesn’t that sound wonderful? We also can experience a real jubilee!

But the story doesn’t end here

In Luke 15 it goes on to explain that the older son had been working in the field and coming back he heard the music and dancing and asked a servant what was going on. But when he finds out it’s because of his brother’s return, he is so angry that he refuses to come into the house. His father comes out to him, and entreats him to come inside. Here is the son’s response:

Luke 15:29 But he answered and said to his father, Behold, so many years I have been slaving for you and have never neglected a command of yours, and you have never given me a goat that I might be merry with my friends;
15:30 But when this son of yours came, who devoured your living with harlots, you slaughtered for him the fattened calf.

And then this is the father’s response to him:

Luke 15:31 And he said to him, Child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

We may find it easy to put ourselves in the shoes of the younger son, and to see how we left God and needed to come back to Him. But how about the older son? Can we put ourselves in his shoes?

Maybe we recognise our attitude towards our “younger brother” – if someone is selfish and disrespectful and foolish and suffers as a result of his own actions, then yes, we may also think, “serve him right” and “that’s not fair”. But do we recognise our own attitude towards our Father?

Even though the older son in this parable was always faithful to his father, always worked for his father, and didn’t treat him like the younger son did, he still didn’t have the enjoyment of his father. He wasn’t enjoying the jubilee.

Look again at verse 29 – the older son considered that he’d been slaving for his father, following his commandments. And he wanted a goat to make merry with his friends, not even to feast with his father. He doesn’t realise, as the father tried to tell him, that he already had his father and all his father had was his.

And here’s the point – he already had the jubilee, but he was not experiencing or enjoying it.

So what, or Who, is the jubilee?

Jubilee isn’t just regaining lost wealth or a physical location, but jubilee is a Person, Jesus Christ. This jubilee, Jesus, has already come.

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed,
4:19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.”

4:21 And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

It is this Person who frees us. It’s when we lose this Person that we lose the jubilee. And it’s when we don’t enjoy this Person that we are in captivity all over again. If we have this Person, we have freedom, release, satisfaction and rest.

The living of the jubilee is a living in the enjoyment of Christ, a living of enjoying God as our inheritance and real freedom (Acts 26:18; John 8:36).

So whether we are those who left the Father’s house and need to return, or are those who have always been in the Father’s house and need to inwardly return – we need to realise where we are, and then come to enjoy Him, our Triune God, who is everything we need!

How about you today? Where are you?

Are you in the Father’s house, enjoying the Father Himself?

The Greek word oikos means not only the house, the dwelling, but also the household. We as the church are God’s house, God’s dwelling place. At the same time, we are God’s family. So just as Christ is the Head and the church is His Body, so God is the Father and the church is His house – a living entity, a living house.

1 Peter 2:5 You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 3:6 But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the boast of hope firm to the end.

Ephesians 2:22 In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

If you have not yet received the life of God, you can be believe into Jesus Christ and be born of God to become of a child of God. This makes you a member of the household of God, with the right to enjoy God as your Father. Everything He has, is yours.

If you have already received the life of God, you are already part of His family, and you are already in the Father’s house. But are you enjoying living here, together with Him? Are you living a life of enjoying God as your inheritance and real freedom?

Our Father God is just waiting for each one of us to turn to Him, from wherever we are.

2 Cor. 3:16 But whenever [our] heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
3:17 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Head over to unistudents.eu to read a full report from the University Conference, and to listen to the messages and some songs from the conference.