A FATHER AND HIS TWO SONS (PART II) LUKE 15:11-32 M.I. IN THIS PARABLE WE GET A GREAT DESCRIPTION OF GOD S HEART. IF WE ARE TO BE MORE CHRIST LIKE, THEN WE MUST EMULATE THE ACTIONS OF THIS LOVING FATHER. I. THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF GOD (VS 12 & 17) The God of the Bible is Loving, Consistent, And Generous. A. GOD IS GENEROUS B. GOD IS CONSISTENT C. GOD IS LOVING II. GOD IS WAITING (VS 20-24) God Is Waiting For Us To Come Back To Him In Love And Repentance. A. GOD IS ALWAYS MOVING TOWARD US (20) B. GOD IS ALWAYS READY TO FORGIVE (21-22) C. GOD TAKES GREAT JOY IN OUR LOVE (23-24) III. GOD S LOVE IS AVAILABLE FOR ALL (VS 25-32) God Is Waiting For All People To Repent And Receive His Love. A. A REASON TO BE HAPPY (25-27) B. A REASON TO BE SELF-RIGHTEOUS (28-30) C. A REASON TO BE LOVING (31-32)
A Father and His Two Sons (Part II) Luke 15:11-32 Last time we were together, we started our study through the parable of A Father and His Two Sons more commonly called The Prodigal Son. If you remember from last time, we said that was too narrow of a title and it focused the attention on the wrong character. If we were to take chapter 15 as a whole, it seems to me that the central character in the story is the father, Who Jesus informs us is God the Father. All through His ministry, Jesus equated Himself with the Father so for those listening to the parable, they could assume that Jesus attitude towards them would be the same as described in the story. So we must not get so caught up the sons behaviors that we forget the story is primarily about the character and love of the father. In the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, Jesus made it clear that God rejoices greatly when a lost sinner comes to repentance and becomes part of God s family. Last time we were together, we examined the youngest son s relationship with the father. He insulted his father, hurt his father, and took his father for granted. He ended up by disrespecting his father to the point he said he wished his father was dead. He took his share of the family estate and blew it all in a foreign country. His situation became more complicated when a famine struck the land. There was no decent work to be found and he found himself destitute and starving. Jesus said that when this young man finally gained his sanity back and returned to his right mind, he decided to go home. He realized what he had done and who he had hurt. He was fully broken and prepared to go back to his home and his father totally humbled. He was going to go back and confess to his father that he had sinned against God and that he had deeply insulted and hurt his father. He was going to go back and ask to simply be a servant in his father s household. He was going to confess to his father that he did not deserve to be welcomed back into the family as a son. This is true repentance and true repentance is extremely risky and dangerous. We left off last week with the son headed for home. How will his father respond to him? Will he hold a grudge? Will he make the son demonstrate some proof of repentance? Will he make the son pay back all the money he took? Will his father even want to look at him again after publicly disgracing him and emotionally wounding him? Will he even be welcome to work as a hired servant? When we truly repent and want to make things right with God and others, it is risky because we don t know how others will react to our apology. They may not even believe it is genuine. They may reject us. But in this morning s text, Jesus will make two things clear. First of all God is just and faithful. In the Bible He has promised to forgive us of all our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we come to Him in confession and repentance. The Page 2 of 12
other truth is this. We are commanded to love and forgive as God forgives. In the Lord s Prayer, which the Christian Church has recited throughout the years in worship, there is a line that goes, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. That seems to me that if we want to receive love, mercy, and forgiveness from God, we will have to extend love, mercy, and forgiveness to one another. As we examine the heart of God this morning, we also need to examine our own hearts. It is both comforting and disconcerting to see the example Jesus sets forth in today s passage concerning the example our heavenly Father sets for us. I think we are more comfortable with the example human fathers set for us. Let me give you an example. A lady in church related this story. Her 7-year-old son was giving her a hard time about going to church. The little boy said, Daddy doesn t go. Why should I? The mother responded, When Daddy was your age, he went every Sunday. Is that true? the boy asked his father? His father said, That is absolutely true. All right, said the kid, I ll go, but it probably won t do me any good either. That kid didn t have much to live up to but when we see how God forgives and understand that He is our example, we can see we have some pretty high standards to live up to. I. THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF GOD (VS 12 & 17) The main idea of this morning s text is this. IN THIS PARABLE WE GET A GREAT DESCRIPTION OF GOD S HEART. IF WE ARE TO BE MORE CHRIST LIKE, THEN WE MUST EMULATE THE ACTIONS OF THIS LOVING FATHER. Let me make an aside comment to all of you who are fathers and mothers. The way we comport ourselves will convey the nature and character of God to our children. That s why women who were molested or abused by their fathers have trouble relating to God. Their view of God as masculine and to name Him Father brings up only hurt and anger to their damaged minds, souls, and psyches. Further, daughters will marry men with the same traits as their fathers and sons will marry women with the same traits as their mothers. Parents are God s representatives to their children. All of us who name the Name of Christ as His followers are God s representatives to this lost and hurting world. Could we say that when people watch the way we live our lives: as we forgive one another, love one another, serve one another, etc. that we are giving an accurate description of the God of the Bible? God has set the bar high for those of us who call ourselves Christians. In verse 12 and verse 17 Jesus reveals the nature and character of God. This much is clear. THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS LOVING, CONSISTENT, AND GENEROUS. In other words, being loving, consistent, and generous to people we live with and come in contact with is something we must incorporate into our personalities and everyday lives. Page 3 of 12
A. GOD IS GENEROUS Jesus described God as generous. When the younger son asked for his portion of the estate, the father did not hesitate. He divided up the estate like the Hebrew Law demanded. 2/3 went to the older brother and 1/3 went to the younger brother. As I look at our society today, I have trouble making sense of the sentiment of our day. Since I grew up in an immigrant family and married an immigrant, we all have the same ideas and goals. My parents goal was to provide me with a better life than they had. Towards this goal, they made sure to leave me well off after they died. My wife and I lived with the intention of providing our children with yet a higher level of living. And towards that goal, our intention is to leave them well off when we die. Within that system a lot of other actions took place. I went to work fulltime when I was 13-years-old, brought home every paycheck I received, and turned it over to my father each week. My wife went into show business at 16- years-old and supported her family as well. Part of the belonging to a family is to help the family get ahead as a unit, to care for the elderly, and to leave the next generation better off than the previous generation. As I look at the state of affairs in the United States, I don t see this kind of continuity in the family. It seems as if everyone is out for their own happiness. In my family, all of my cousins on both sides cared for their elderly parents and gave them first class treatment. Each cousin took their parents into their homes to live with them during their final years. My cousins have really impressed me with the way they cared for their parents. And further, these same cousins have provided their children with a financial leg up to help them get started. On the other hand, I have friends that don t want to have much to do with their parents. Even those that do only want to have limited contact with their parents. I have seen people I know take their parents homes, take the money, and put them in nursing homes because they didn t want to deal with them. I have friends who say they will not help their children out financially nor do they plan on leaving them anything when they die. It is hard for me to understand this kind of thinking even though it is the thinking of our day. The request of the younger son in today s passage is a totally unreasonable request. Yet the father is wise enough and generous enough to grant his request. The father is generous because love, not money, is what gives meaning to life in his world. He generously split up the estate. Technically, that would leave him with nothing. In the past, we have had all our money tied up together as a family. Our children s names were on all our holdings. They could have cashed us out at any time and run away. My friends used to say how foolish that was since they could leave us broke. My response was always that if my children did that to me, I wouldn t care about the money. I would have been heartbroken that they didn t love me enough Page 4 of 12
to not do this kind of thing to me. God is a generous God and gives us many good gifts. Among these are the facts that He has given us physical life and He has made us spiritually alive through Christ. All that we have and all that we have become are unmerited gifts given to us through Christ. It is said that we are a people who loves stuff and uses people. However, God gives us stuff so that we can use stuff to love people. One of the ways we can see if we are on the right track or not is to examine our view towards money, stuff, and people. The father in the parable is described by Jesus as generous. He gave away all his money and stuff to his two sons. In reality, God gave us His most precious relative, His One and Only Son Jesus. God gave us everything so that we could be in a right relationship with Him. B. GOD IS CONSISTENT Jesus goes on to demonstrate that God is consistent. Notice the last sentence of verse 12, he divided his property between them. In other words, the father was consistent. He not only gave the younger son his share, he gave the older son his share. He loved his sons equally and treated them both fairly. Further, while in the foreign land coming to his senses, the younger son remembered that his father treated the hired hands well also. The father made sure the hired hands were cared for and had enough to eat. In fact the father was generous and consistent with not only his sons, but with the servants. I think sometimes it is easy to be generous and kind with our family and friends, but how do with treat others that we don t know, who may be less desirable, or that we don t really like? Part of imitating God s consistency is that we treat all people with love, generosity, and respect. As we will see later, that consistency carries over into forgiveness. Jesus said that we should love and pray for our enemies and that we should forgive our brother 7 times 70. This father loves both his sons and the people who simply work for him. He is consistent in his relationships and his generosity. C. GOD IS LOVING And most of all, Jesus portrays this father as loving. All throughout this story we can see the love of this father show through with both of his sons, even though both at first don t want to receive it and acknowledge it. In fact, neither one really understands the love of the father. If this father is setting the standard of love for us, it will become quite disturbing for us because his attitude and his nature go far beyond where we are naturally willing to go. It will take a supernatural push and supernatural wings to go where Jesus wants us to go. When trying to become more Christ-like every day, we need to remember that THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS LOVING, CONSISTENT, AND GENEROUS. Page 5 of 12
II. GOD IS WAITING (VS 20-24) In the last sermon, we left off with the son headed for home. He had no idea how he would be received. The tax-collectors and other sinners were also waiting to hear how this story turned out. In verses 20-24 we are all stunned to find out that God is waiting for us to come to Him. GOD IS WAITING FOR US TO COME BACK TO HIM IN LOVE AND REPENTANCE. I don t know why this is but from the very beginning our nature is to run away from God when we sin. We ought to know that the only way to correct our sin problem is to go directly to God, confess, and get things right. But when Adam and Eve sinned and heard God approaching, they hid. A. GOD IS ALWAYS MOVING TOWARD US (20) I think the tax-collectors, the other sinners, and even us are surprised to know that God is always moving toward us as Jesus describes in verse 20. Verse 20 covers a great deal of time and geography. Remember this young man ran away to a far away distant foreign land. The verse starts out, So he got up and went to his father. This journey could have taken months. He had a lot to think about as he went home. The closer he got to home, the more anxious he would be getting because the moment of truth was quickly approaching. And then we read the next phrase, But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. This had to be surprising to all. According to Hebrew law, this son should have been stoned to death for publicly humiliating his father and for acting so rebellious. Instead, the father ran to meet him and embrace him. Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, If the neighbors had started to stone him, they would have hit the father who was embracing him! The father was shielding the son from the punishment he deserved. That s the way it is for us. Jesus shields us from the punishment we deserve. He was killed for our sins. The next strange fact in this is that the old man ran to meet the son. In that day, it was considered socially unacceptable for an old person to run. Perhaps they would stumble, fall, and expose themselves accidentally. This father does not care about social norms or how dignified or undignified he looks. All he knows is that he sees his son. He is not going to make the son come to him and beg. The father runs towards the son, hugs him, and kisses him. This is the critical distinction between all other religions and Judaism and Christianity. Other religions portray God as sitting up in heaven expecting us to come to Him and appease Him. However, the Judeo Christian God is portrayed as approaching us. He came to Abraham. He approached Moses at the burning bush. He came to Israel as a pillar of cloud and fire. Most importantly He came to live among us in human flesh. He died for us and is now knocking at the door of our hearts. Our nature is to run away from God but God s nature is to come near to us. If we have been running away from God and decide to turn around, we are always surprised to find Him right there. Confession and repentance are not a long Page 6 of 12
journey. Once we make up our minds, all we have to do is turn around and we will be face to face with God. Not a word was said. There was only a loving feeling and acceptance that were exchanged in that embrace. I m not sure how it is at your house, but no matter how tired we are or what we are doing, when the kids come over to visit us, we are immediately energized and could stay up all night with them. None of us get much sleep on our family vacations, but we have a lot of crazy fun. I couldn t even imagine how this father suffered while his son was away and how much joy and excitement he felt when he saw his son again coming home. B. GOD IS ALWAYS READY TO FORGIVE (21-22) But that s not all. In verses 21-22 Jesus demonstrates that God is always ready to forgive. Do you remember the speech the son rehearsed all the way home? Look at verse 18-19, 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men (Luke 15:18-19 / NIV). But now look at verse 21. The father doesn t let him get the whole speech out. It s almost as if the father doesn t care about the whole speech. He is only concerned that his son has returned home. I think we have to take some time, pause here, and contemplate what our attitudes are towards forgiveness. Look, this is hard for me to read and apply to my life. I love it that when I sin, God is ready and anxious to forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from all my iniquity. I love the fact that He doesn t need a pound of flesh. I love it that He just wants my love and my heart. Think of people that have hurt you and wronged you. I will do this with you. Is our attitude like that of the father in this story? Are we waiting for the opportunity to embrace and kiss those who have hurt us and wronged us? We may say that others don t know how hurt we are. But I dare say that our hurt cannot be more than that of the father in the story or God the Father in real life. Jesus knows the exact cost of forgiveness. It cost Him His life. If someone who hurt you or me came up to us and said, I am truly sorry for what I did to you? would we act like this father in the story, or would we be cynical? Now I m not taking about wife abusers, child abusers, or something of that nature. Of course forgiveness but we would still need to take precautions to protect victims of abuse. But in general, that s not what I m dealing with. For the most part, people have disappointed me and hurt me by betrayal, lies, harmful words, and things like that. Most of us face those types of hurt. And yet, would we respond to those people like the father responded to the prodigal son? I think we would be inclined to make the prodigal work off his debt as a servant to teach him a lesson, and then restore him to the household. We would put these people on some sort of a probationary period. Page 7 of 12
But look at what the father does? He puts a ring on the boy s finger, a robe on his shoulders and sandals on his feet. Here s how Barclay interprets this, The robe stands for honour; the ring it was the same as giving him the power of attorney; the shoes for a son as opposed to a slave, for children of the family wore shoes and slaves did not. It s as if the son had never left, as if he never publicly humiliated his father, and squandered the family s money. It s as if he had never done any of these horrible things. That s the way it is when we confess our sins to God. It s just as if we had never sinned. First of all, how do you think the people who heard Jesus telling this story felt? I m sure they were overjoyed to hear Jesus say that as they confess their sins, God looks at them as if they had never sinned. That s what you call a fresh start and a clean slate. How does that make us feel? If you know me, you probably know that the words thank you come out of my mouth more than any other words. I am overwhelmed by God s love, His grace, His mercy, and His forgiveness. It seems that all I can say is thank You. Now let s put this where the rubber meets the road. Can we extend this same love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to those who have hurt us? Do you realize the awesome potential we have to overwhelm people with God s love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness? That s an incredible power we have. The only question that remains is if we are willing to extend that to others. C. GOD TAKES GREAT JOY IN OUR LOVE (23-24) That doesn t mean forgiving in just words or from a distance. In verses 23-24 we see that God takes great joy in our love. God is not just looking for a treaty of non aggression. He is looking for us to embrace the person and to make him or her feel the extent of our love and forgiveness. In the parable, the father calls for a celebration. So the fattened calf is killed and a feast is prepared. Let the party begin. Here is another aside comment. I don t see how people could ever get the idea that Christianity is boring. Jesus is always at a party and calls for celebrations. Heaven is described as a place where celebrations are always happening. Here is the theme of the party, For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. We let our friends, television, movies, magazines, and society tell us what real living is. But the Bible is clear that living in sin is death. Death in the Bible means separation. Sin separates us from God and the abundant life He has for us. Living in sin is living in death and separation. When separated from God, we are clearly lost. This father knows that his son has found his way home and that God had breathed new life in him for him to be able to repent and come home. And so they began to celebrate. How do we feel about the people who have harmed us? Are we merely civil to them or do we truly desire for them to be restored? I have to say that I am more Page 8 of 12
comfortable with simply adopting an attitude of non aggression but it seems to me that God calls us to much more. Jesus puts this in perspective by telling a parable found in Matthew 18:23-35. Peter asked Jesus how many times we are required to forgive those who sin against us. Jesus told a parable about a servant who owed the King millions of dollars that would be impossible to pay. The King simply forgave the guy of his debt. Immediately this guy went out and found a guy who owed him a couple of hundred dollars. Instead of forgiving the debt owed him, he had the debtor arrested and thrown in debtors prison. When the King found out about it, here is how He responded: 32Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33Shouldn t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you? 34Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny. 35 That s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters in your heart (Matthew 18:32-35 / NLT). III. GOD S LOVE IS AVAILABLE FOR ALL (VS 25-32) There is no confusion about Jesus idea of forgiveness. We have been forgiven of a great deal of sin we have committed against God. He forgave us. Therefore, we are commanded to forgive those who have sinned against us which is little in comparison to what God has forgiven us of. Restored relationships and forgiveness bring a great deal of joy to God. Are we ready to let the celebration of restoration to begin? GOD IS WAITING FOR US TO COME BACK TO HIM IN LOVE AND REPENTANCE. God is generous, consistent, and loving. He is waiting for us to turn to Him and repent. He takes a great deal of joy in forgiving us and expects we too will feel joy when we forgive those who sin against us. As we keep in mind that Jesus is talking to sinners who felt they had no hope of being saved, imagine how they felt when Jesus made it clear in verses 25-32 that God s love is available for all. In other words, GOD IS WAITING FOR ALL PEOPLE TO REPENT AND RECEIVE HIS LOVE. A. A REASON TO BE HAPPY (25-27) In verses 25-27 Jesus reminds us that when people give their lives to Christ in faith, or who return to Him after a period of backsliding or neglect; these are all reasons to be happy and to celebrate. While all this was taking place, the older son was out in the field working. As he approached the house, he heard a loud party going on. There was music, dancing, and celebrating. When he heard all this, he asked one of the household servants what was going on. Now look at verse 27 carefully because the servant understands exactly what is Page 9 of 12
going on, Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. Think about the magnitude of this event. We don t know how long this prodigal son was away from home. However, when he left, the father thought he had lost his son forever. Those of us who are parents of even adult children know how we worry about them when they are away. To complicate matters here, not only did the son leave, but he seems to have severed love relations with his father. The father had lost his son physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Even though he went on with his everyday life, I m sure there were times when this father just broke down and cried, overcome by the grief and the hurt. But now, this son returned and he was safe and sound. He hugged and kissed his father and the relationship was restored. That is certainly a cause for celebration. Remember what happened before Jesus started telling these three parables. Let me just refresh our minds what sparked the telling of these three parables: 1Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people even eating with them (Luke 15:1-2 / NLT)! And then in each parable: The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Lost Son, Jesus points out that when any sinner finds themselves reconciled with God, Jesus considers the proper response on God s part is to throw a party. Jesus made sure that everyone knew they were invited to sit down and eat with Him and everyone could be reconciled with God. Church ought to be a place of celebration and joy. If we are a place where people can find salvation and if those who have wandered away from the faith can find their way back to being in a right relationship with God, there should be constant celebration here. B. A REASON TO BE SELF-RIGHTEOUS (28-30) But since we are a religious community, people will always find a reason to be selfrighteous as Jesus is quick to point out in verses 28-30. We will talk more about this next time when we discuss this incident from the older brother s perspective. But he refused to go in the house and to join the celebration. His argument is basically this. The younger brother insulted the father and took his money. He became a public embarrassment to the family. Now after losing everything, he decides to come home with his tail between his legs. In comparison the older brother makes the point that while the younger brother was out there having the time of his life, the older brother had to stay home and even pick up the younger brother s portion of the work. The older brother viewed himself as good, righteous, loyal, and more deserving of the younger brother. Now from a human perspective, we would have to say he was right. But what we must keep in mind is that just Page 10 of 12
because we do the right thing, doesn t make us more righteous or more deserving than others. The Bible is clear that we all have sinned and that we all deserve death. C. A REASON TO BE LOVING (31-32) And that s what Jesus wants to drive home. In verses 31-32 we see another reason to be loving. Do you remember that we said the father s generosity and love was consistent? Look how he deals with the insults, the anger, and the indignation of the older brother; with the same gentle and loving compassion he showed for the younger brother. He acknowledges the loyalty and the hard work. He reminds the older brother that everything presently belongs to him. The younger brother no longer has any claim on the estate. The father demonstrates his love for the older brother in these verses. But he tries to bring this young man around to the truth of what is really valuable in life. Relationship and love, generosity and mercy, are what is truly important and valuable in life. The father demonstrated the same attitude of love to both sons. The interesting thing at the end of this parable is that the younger son actually understands this. Jesus leaves the older brother s insight or lack of insight unanswered. But from this we can clearly see that GOD IS WAITING FOR ALL PEOPLE TO REPENT AND RECEIVE HIS LOVE. I m sure the tax-collectors and other sinners were stunned with joy and excitement as Jesus concluded these three parables. We should be filled with joy and excitement as well. But those of us who have been Christians and have experienced the love, grace, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness of Jesus have an added message here. IN THIS PARABLE WE GET A GREAT DESCRIPTION OF GOD S HEART. IF WE ARE TO BE MORE CHRIST LIKE, THEN WE MUST EMULATE THE ACTIONS OF THIS LOVING FATHER. Forgiveness is what makes us most Christ-like. Listen to what St. Augustine said about forgiveness: The greatest gift you can give is to genuinely forgive sin committed against you. It is a comparatively small thing to wish someone well or to do good to someone who hasn t hurt you. But it is much greater to love and wish your enemy well. When you have the opportunity, do good to those who want to make you suffer and do you harm. For in doing this you obey God s command: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you. This is a frame of mind that only the children of God can reach. All believers should strive after it, by prayer earnestly struggling with themselves to attain this standard. However, such a high degree of goodness can hardly be met by all the people who pray, Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. In view of all this, those who don t yet love their enemies can fulfill this command when they forgive someone from the heart who has sinned against them. Page 11 of 12
Our immediate goal as a church is to build a family of grace. In other words we want our family to become very good at receiving and extending grace. In that spirit, Let us close this portion of the service by saying the Lord s Prayer together. We will use the phrase, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And as we pray that line, let s focus on it with our hearts as well as with our lips. Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our sins, As we forgive those who sin against us Lead us not into temptation But deliver us from all evil For Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and glory forever, Amen. Page 12 of 12