The Prodigal Son
Luke chapter 15, and I'm gonna read from verse 11, the parable of the prodigal son. And he said, there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that's coming to me. And he, the father, divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had. and took a journey into a far country and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to be, to one of the citizens of the country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants." And he arose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let's eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and I began to celebrate. Now his oldest son was in the field and as he came and drew near into the house he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed a fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he, the elder brother, was angry and refused to go in. His father came out. and entreated him. But he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the faddened calf for him, and he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad. For this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Well, good morning. It's a privilege to be able to open the word and yeah, just go through this passage with you guys. I thought I'd just start off with prayer. It's probably the best thing to do. So yeah, if you just want to close your eyes and bow your heads and just pray with me. Lord, I just pray that you would speak to the hearts of each of us through your Holy Spirit this morning. As we open your word, I pray that it would have a powerful effect not only on our lives, but on our hearts and our minds. Thank you, Lord, that we can approach you in prayer any time and worship you for who you are. Thank you that we can open your word whenever we want to and have you speak directly to us through it and through your Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord, that you love each and every one of us. And I pray you would speak through me this morning in Jesus' name, amen. The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It's one of three parables in Luke chapter 15. It comes after the parable of the lost sheep and then the parable of the lost coin. I was gonna read those but they're a bit long and we'll just, I'm pretty sure you know how those go. the context of all of these parables is basically the same. It's revealed at the start of chapter 15. in part and also at the start of chapter 14. So at the start of chapter 15, verse one to three, hopefully that's up there, yep, it is sweet. says, now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him, that's Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable and then he goes on to tell them the three parables in a row. And we know from the start of chapter 14 verse 1 where Jesus is. So Jesus is at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. So, you know, he's in a bit of a, you know, probably nicer, fancier place. And then all these sinners are coming and the Pharisees are like, what's going on here? And he's already given them a number of parables before these three actually, but the Pharisees are unfortunately as usual still heart of heart. And yeah, like I said, they see the tax collectors. and the sinners are now drawing near to hear what Jesus has to say. They are of course not fans of this and in their self-righteousness they couldn't fathom why Jesus would ever associate with these people or give them anything at all. So he of course goes on to deliver the parable of the lost sheep, then the lost coin, and then the one that we'll be going through obviously, the parable of the lost son or prodigal son, whatever you want to call it. So now we're all caught up. I'll be reading from verse 11 all the way until the end of the chapter, but I will be stopping every few verses just to talk about a few things. So if you're following along and you get annoyed by me stopping all the time, I'm sorry in advance, but you'll be right. verse 11 to 13 says, and he said, there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property in reckless living. Some translations say in prodigal living, which is where the prodigal son thing comes from. Basically, prodigal means like wasteful. but that's just a little side point. So yeah, notice here that the younger son goes off to a far country and it's likely that he felt he needed to get away from everything that reminded him of his father and of God and his traditions and get away to a place that he wouldn't have to be confronted with his sin and where that will lead him. And I have at least noticed this about people who have lost their way. that they need to remove any reminders that the way they're headed leads to destruction. And they try to run from God. Yeah, I just thought that was interesting. So now verse 14 to 16. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything. So talk about hitting rock bottom, right? This type of work was reserved for, you know, the desperate people. Not to mention that he was so poor and had no one around him to give him anything. So poor that he wanted to eat the pods that the pigs were eating. Now I've actually got a photo of the pods that they were likely to be eating there. They're called carob pods and they come from a tree, a carob tree, believe it or not. That looks like that one on the left, that's a carob pod tree. Now I don't know about you, but they don't look exactly delicious. You certainly wouldn't find those in the spread at morning tea after church. But yeah, imagine being so hungry that you're longing for those. Not to mention working with Pigs is bad enough. They are not kind animals, especially hungry pigs. I once, if you don't know, my mum and dad have a pig as a pet. I hate it, but they love it. And I once brought a biscuit out while they were walking it around and it bit me on the leg just because I had a biscuit in my hand. these, like working with pigs is just next level, like low, you know, it's not fun. Anyway, let's move on. verse 17 to 19 says, but when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And so finally, He comes to himself, he realizes that being with his father was more than he ever needed. He realizes his error and he decides he's going to go back. Now the parable doesn't actually tell us how long the younger son would have been away, but I assume just from what information we do have that it's probably been a number of months, even potentially years. It was at least long enough for the land that he was in to go into a drought and long enough for him to be, yeah, completely brought to the end of himself, completely broken down. Because it wasn't until that he had nothing left, he was full of shame, hungry, completely broke, no friends, no family around, utterly broken. It wasn't until he went through all of that, that he finally began to turn back towards his father. Now, Does this mean we should encourage the prodigals that we know to go and indulge in all the world has to offer so they can be brought to the end of themselves? Of course not. But I will say that I have heard countless stories that went this exact way. People find themselves at the end of their rope, left empty by the world, left hopeless and ashamed of themselves. And that right there is a person on the brink of repentance. And as we learnt last week, if you were here, from Matt's message, And we see later on in this parable that repentance is something worthy of great rejoicing and repentance brings joy. So back to the parable. He's heading back home. He's realized all he ever needed was back at home with his father. He's even practiced what he's going to say. Father, I've sinned against heaven before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. He's probably terrified of how his father might react. He might... sent him away or disown him entirely and it would be completely deserved if he did that but we know that's not what happens. So verse 20 to 24. And he arose and came to his father but while he was still a long way off his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him and the son said to him father I've sinned against heaven and before you I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. So of course, his father forgives him, embraces him, and welcomes him back home, back into the family of which he used to be a part. No reprimanding, no punishment, not even any disappointment, only joy, great joy, that his son has returned and repented. His son was dead and is now alive. He even starts preparing a party to celebrate the occasion. And you know what blows my mind is the fact that this parable is coming straight from the mouth of God himself. Jesus, who is God, is the one actually saying all this. The message is essentially, no matter what you've done and how far you've drifted away or how much you've squandered your inheritance, he will always welcome you back if you come to him with a repentant heart. And something cool about this is the father doesn't sit on his porch and wait for the son to come groveling before he forgives him. The father runs to him while he's so far away off. And in the same way, God isn't waiting for you to come groveling at his feet. The moment you gave it up and turned from your transgressions, God took them, placed them on Jesus Christ and justified you. He made the move to you and not the other way. Now, if you're listening and you are that prodigal son, the younger son, and if you repent of your sins and trust in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, God will welcome you home. And that's that. But let's move on to the next part, so verse 25 to 30. Now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed a fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when the son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. Now, chances are most of us actually find ourselves relating to the older brother, at times potentially even more so than the younger. This guy's been working hard, right? He's been doing the right thing, trying his best to please his father. Of course, never perfectly, but he's sure doing better than his younger brother is, right? He didn't ask for his inheritance early and go and waste it on worldly rubbish and then come back only once he had nothing left, absolutely desperate, realizing what he once had was all he needed. He knew what he already had was all he needed. He knew it was right to work diligently for his father and that's exactly what he'd been doing. Why is this older brother always seen as this party pooper, right? Whenever this parable is presented, it does seem completely unfair. The fact that this dirty sinner, right, gets a party for coming back when all I've done all along is serve and trust in you and love you, that just seems completely unfair. Or maybe in a more applicable sense, the fact that some jerk gets this amazing high paying job and the good Christian struggles to provide a meal on the table every night. Or maybe a faithful, Jesus loving Christian woman can't get pregnant even though she wants to so badly, she's prayed for it day after day, but sinful. People all over the world are murdering their babies in the womb as if there's some sort of inconvenience. That doesn't seem fair. Well, let me give you a change of perspective. If life was fair, you and I would burn in hell. It's blunt, but that's the truth. We don't deserve God's grace. We don't even deserve to breathe. Everything we have is because of the grace and love of our God. Nothing we can do will ever earn our right to be working the Father's fields, living in his house, waiting patiently for our inheritance. So, we're all the younger son. in some sort of way. We've tasted the forgiveness and mercy of Jesus when we turn from our sin to faith in Jesus. But somewhere along the way we get this idea planted in our heads that we've somehow earned the place we've been given in the kingdom of God, usually after some time. Of course, we'd never admit to that. Maybe we aren't even aware that we're feeling that way. But that is until you read this parable. That feeling you get When you read this parable of that's not fair or relating to the older son, that should be a warning sign to you. We constantly need a refreshed understanding of grace. Because grace destroys any notion of they don't deserve that, because it should change into they don't deserve that, but neither do I. Praise God that life isn't fair. But that's not the end of the parable. And maybe that was a bit jarring and possibly it's left you feeling a little bit hopeless, especially if you are that person waiting for something when People all around you seem to be treating it like it's nothing. And even if we don't understand, even if we understand that we don't deserve anything from God, that woman who can't have a baby still feels the hurt. That guy who didn't get the job still has to work all day for nothing. And I'm not going to pretend that I understand why God gives certain things to seemingly evil people and doesn't give them to the most faithful Christians. Even though we know we don't deserve it, that we've done nothing worthy of earthly rewards, it can seem like God favours this fresh Christian or this sinner who just repented from their frivolous sin and gave their life to Him over his faithful son or daughter who's been labouring for years. But this of course is not the case. In verse 31 and 32 it says, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. This parable has such a beautiful combination of harsh teaching and loving comfort all the way through it. God wants you to know that you haven't done anything to deserve to be a son or daughter. And don't you dare be convinced otherwise. When a sinner comes to repentance, your reaction should be nothing but joy and celebration. They are God's child just as much as you are, no more or less, simply because they've put their faith in Christ just like you have. But if you're that person waiting on God for something and you keep seeing the world around you get everything they want and treat it all like dirt, then God's words to you are, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. What a wonderful comfort to know that God hasn't forgotten about you. The inheritance is still yours. He loves you just like he loves any of his children, which by the way is more than you could ever imagine. So I'm just gonna finish up in prayer. Father, we thank you that you have welcomed us home time and time again when we stray from you. We desperately need you more than the air we breathe, and thank you that your love is wide and deep and that your grace is completely sufficient. I pray that we would remember what we deserve and be thankful for as long as we live that we are not getting what we deserve. You are so good and kind to us that we have anything at all is such a blessing, and you are more than enough for us. I pray for those that might be here that don't know you, Lord. Maybe they see themselves in the younger son. I pray that you would soften their hearts and open their eyes to their need for you and repent of their sins and place their faith in you. I also pray for those who are here who see themselves in the older son. I pray you would reveal any sinful attitudes in our hearts that are self-inflating and unloving towards the loss. Change our hearts and our minds to be more like Jesus. I pray that you would strengthen us as we wait for your return and I thank you that we can meet together every week and worship you as one. In Jesus name, amen.