Luke 15:11-24 Intro: This mornings message is taken from a parable that our Lord taught and this is the third parable in a sequence of parables. He has mentioned the Lost Sheep, the Lost Silver, and the parable we will examine is the parable of the Lost Son. Except instead of examining this parable from the most common angles which are from the son s point of view and the brothers view; we are going to examine this parable from the prodigal father s perspective! I hope that you see what he saw, hear what he heard, and feel what he felt! This parable is spoken to picture Israel s relationship with God but with that on our minds we are going to pull the similarities from that to our relationship with God. When the father is mentioned think of God, when the son is mentioned think of yourself, and ask
the Holy Spirit to fill you in on what took place in the heart of the prodigal father s heart! Father as we approach these scriptures and attempt to use this portrait that you have so vividly painted for us to describe your heart, grant us wisdom, holy unction and illumination, power and authority, ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to believe. Glorify your son and in Jesus name we ask that all these petitions be answered in agreement with thy will, amen. As you come to this scripture you cant help but notice in the first two verses the language that the son uses with his father. The son comes to his father and ask him to give him the portion of goods that falleth to him. What this son was asking for was his inheritance. So with other words this son had just told his father that he was as good as dead to him, he did not
care about him, all he wanted was what was coming to him when his father died! No doubt this caused much pain to the heart of the father, yet the father complies and gives his son the portion of goods that was his. Not many days after the son received his portion, he left! He went down and the bible says that the son wasted his substance with riotous living! This son was characterized by wild and uncontrolled behavior. He was living it up and in living it up, he lived it up and all his money was gone! The son had nothing else! Then when all he had was gone, there came a famine or a drought and this man who had all this money, all this wealth, was suddenly in need! So what he did was he went and joined the country he was in and they sent him to work. They sent him to work with the swine.
Which might not be too bad for you or me, but for this man it was a disgrace and the lowest possible humiliation: because swine were the worst kind of unclean animal, which the Lord had forbidden them to eat! This son got to the lowest point imaginable when he was so hungry that he was longing and craving the husks that he fed the swine with, yet the bible makes it clear that no man gave to him! He was lost, hungry, and worse than that, without a friend! Then just as it does all humble sinners at this point, it dons on him that he has a father who has more than he could ever need! This son makes his plan to go back, repent, beg his fathers forgiveness, and acknowledge his unworthiness and just ask to be accepted as a servant because he knows he is not worthy to even be called his son every again!
So he goes back to his father to seek forgiveness and we know by the scriptures that we have just read that he is but this is what I would like to draw your attention to. There is something I have never noticed before in all of the times I have preached this precious text. V.29-30. Says that the elder brother knew exactly what the younger brother had been doing. I don t know how he knew, maybe he guessed, but some how or another the brother knew what was going on. Since the father in this story is representing God I also see the point that the father knew where the son was and what he was involved in as well! Yet in spite of everything the son had done to the father, all the hurt he had caused him and the father knowing all that the son had done; the father performs 4 action verbs in this text that relate to what the heavenly father has done to us as His children!
I. The Father Loves the son with an Everlasting Love V.20 The reason I know this is because it says that while the son was yet a great way off, his father saw him! The only way that you see anything when it is a great way off is to be looking for it and the only reason you would be looking for someone who had left to come back is because you wanted them to and you were expecting to see them! And the only reason you would want for someone who had left and is living in sin to come back home is because you loved them! Though the father knew exactly what the son was involved in he never stopped wanting him, he never stopped looking for him, and he never stopped loving him! That is just like our heavenly father, though He knew that we fell in Adam, he knows what we are,
where we are, and what we deserve but instead He loved us all the way back to Himself! II. He Forgave the son all his offenses V.20 From what I understand and have been taught in school the law said that this son should be put to death for what he had done! Instead the father has compassion on him, he had sympathy on him and fell on his neck and kissed him! From what I have been taught this boy could have been stoned by those that would come out and see him back home: but the father falls on his neck so that if any stones are thrown they will be absorbed by him! The Holy Ghost chose this word because the word compassion means to have the bowels yearn and the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity!
The father forgave the son because the father loved the son! When the father performed these two action verbs to the son and our heavenly Father performed them in us, He has spoken to us as He spoke to Jeremiah in 31:3 The LORD hath appeard of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindess have I drawn thee. The Lord s love for you has been as long as He has been which is an eternity and this love never started and will never end but is as God is and is yesterday, today, and forever the same! He loves us and because He loves us He never gave up, he never quit looking, watching, waiting, drawing, because He knew we were coming and that he would forgive us because HE LOVES US!!!
III. He Restored his son s Sonship V.21-24 The son realizes that he is not worthy to even be called his son anymore and makes his petition known but the father never acknowledges the prayer, he only acknowledged that he came to him! The son prayed and ask to be a servant, the father says restore this my son s sonship! The father gave his servants 3 different commands that show his son s restoration 1. Give Him the BEST ROBE Macarthur said this was reserved for the guest of honor. - that s his! Grace 2. Give Him a ring symbol of authority kings and priest! 3. Put Shoes on his feet servants didn t wear shoes which shoes a full restoration of sonship! SONS! Then the father does something that beats all the clothes, rings, and outward signs. He calls him son!
V.24 says that the father said this my SON was dead, and is alive again, he was lost, and is found! The father claimed him as his son again! This is once again a perfect picture of our heavenly Father who has claimed us as His children! Though we were lost in Adam, though we died in Adam, in Christ through the Spirit of God we have been adopted as His child and can never be lost again! Romans 8:14-15 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father! The son said that his father had enough bread and some to spare! Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
IV. He Rejoiced to have His son back home V.24 Macarthur pointed out the father running to his son, which shows the fathers eagerness and joy at his sons return, but the father through his son a party! The bible says in V.24 after the father announces that his son was lost and dead but is now alive again and found, it says that THEY began to be merry! The father was feasting as a token of joy, the father was rejoicing to have his son back! Zeph. 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing! When the bible says the Lord will rejoice over you and he will joy over you with singing, it means that God will shout over you as a proclamation of his joy and gladness that you are his! God feels great happiness and excitement over the fact that you are his! God receives pleasure from you being his!
If you are still wondering if God really shouts over you because he is so full of joy that you are his take it from Luke 10:19-21 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes: even so Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight! Conclusion: Now that you have heard the action verbs that the Father performs on all those that come to Him by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
You may want to thank Him for the love that He chose to give you that He has been giving you since before you were aware of it! You may want to thank Him that because He loved you, he drew you unto Himself by His word through His Spirit and saved you, forgiving you of all your sins! In the same vein you may want to thank Him for restoring in Christ your relationship to the Father that was lost in Adam! Or you may have never realized that God received pleasure from you being his! Maybe you have never heard that the Father and Jesus the Son in the Holy Spirit rejoice over you from the immense pleasure they receive in you being His! If Jesus gets that happy about us, don t you think we should get happy about Him? If God shouts over us, don t you think we should shout over Him?