The Lost Son Number One

We're in Luke chapter 15 as we continue our study in the Gospel of Luke and this morning we have a long reading from 11 through the end of the chapter, Luke 15, 11 through 32. Then he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And so he divided them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. And when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish 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, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he rose and came to his father, and when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. Now his oldest son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And so he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. But he was angry, and he would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. And so he answered and said to his father, Although these many years I have served you, I have never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. So the story is normally called the story of the prodigal son, but in fact it is not about one son. The story is about two sons. In fact, the parable specifically says that he said a certain man had two sons. Not just one, but two sons. And so we are going to look at these two sons over the next two Sundays. I don't have enough time in one session to do both in one go. So we're going to do the first son today and the second son next Sunday. And you'll notice that in the heading of many Bibles where you have sort of section headings, it will say the story of the prodigal son. In fact, it's not the story of the prodigal son, it's the story of two lost sons. Two lost sons. The word prodigal is a problem. We'll find the word prodigal, I think, in the third verse. The word prodigal means wasteful living. So he lived a wasteful life, a reckless life, wasted what he had. We have come—because the story is that the word prodigal is attached to the story, we've come in our minds to think of prodigal as being someone who goes away and comes back. But that's not the meaning of the word prodigal. It doesn't even mean somebody who goes away. It simply has to do with reckless spending, with reckless spending. And so one of the commentaries actually calls this section the story of the prodigal god, the prodigal god. Now, immediately, if you've got the wrong understanding of the word prodigal, that sounds like an insult. But in fact, when you think that prodigal means reckless spending, God spends his grace. And that's part of the story, is God's abundant grace, that God does not hold back. God is not mean, he is not stingy, he's not careful about his grace. But his grace is abundant. And the same way as the young guy just let the money flow, God allows his grace to flow. And so, in fact, you can call it the story of the prodigal god, if you understand the word prodigal meaning the spending god, the god who gives and who just lets his grace go. So let's have a look at the first son. And so the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided them, his livelihood, so he asks for his inheritance. Now this is interesting because you remember that earlier on in the book of Luke, there was a man who said, I first need to go and bury my father, in terms of not following Jesus. And what he was saying is, I need to get my inheritance first. I'm waiting for my father to kick the bucket so I can get the money. This young guy was even worse, he couldn't even wait for his father to kick the bucket, he just wanted the money. And so the father gives him his share. His share would have been probably about one third. So the older brother would have gotten two thirds, because he had the birthright, and then the second brother would receive about one third. So the father does his calculations, he's obviously a wealthy man, they have servants, they seem to live a very comfortable lifestyle. And so he gives him his share. The problem, of course, is that the young man was not content with what he had. He had clearly a privileged lifestyle. These, as we said, these are not poor people. They have servants, they have fields, they have a fatted calf. The fatted calf is there specifically for special occasions. And so they are people of money and of comfort and of privilege. And yet he is not satisfied. And of course, here's a picture of a Christian who is not content with the things of God. The story is not telling us about an unbeliever. And while the grace of God is just as great to an unbeliever as it is to a believer, this is a son who is in the father's house. He is a son, so in terms of translating this into Christian terms, he is a Christian. But he is discontent. Nothing is good enough. The singing isn't good enough. The pastor preaches too long, or the pastor preaches too short, or the pastor is too dry, or the pastor is too animated. And the list goes on. Somebody didn't greet me this morning. All of the things that we find to complain about. The rules are a problem. I don't want to live in the father's house anymore because there are rules. I can't sleep until I want to. I have to wake up, and I have responsibilities, and I have things to do. And so many Christians find themselves in a place where they become discontent with the order, and with the structure, and with the discipline of God and of God's house. And they get to a place where they say, I need to be free. And of course, we have this emphasis, particularly in American culture, of freedom. And we misunderstand what freedom means. Freedom, of course, in the sense of the absence of dictatorship, is a good thing. And we thank God for the freedom we have in that respect. But unfortunately, we want to take freedom to the next level, and we want to have freedom from all rules. And so we need to be able to do whatever we want. And of course, we see the effects on our streets, as our streets are filled with tens of thousands of people who don't want to live by the rules. And so when they're offered housing, but there are some rules that come with the housing. No, we don't want that. We want to do what we want to do. And so it's become part of our mindset. And unfortunately, it's become part of the mindset of Christians, saying, we don't want the strictures. We don't want the rules. We don't want the discipline. We don't want the requirements. That makes me responsible as a son. And they go walk about. They go and do their own thing. And so, not many days after. So, of course, he had figured this all out, and he said, Father, you know, can I have, and I'm not sure how he sold it to his dad, you know, but clearly he sticks around for a little while. But his heart is gone already. And folks, this is the sad thing, is that many times we see Christians, and I see Christians, and while they're still coming to the meetings, their hearts aren't here. They're already gone. They're just waiting for the right opportunity, for the right excuse, just to go. And so, not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and he journeyed to a far country. He journeyed to a far country. Getting as far away from the norms and the rules of his father's house. A place where he could do whatever he chose, where nobody could see him. Where he could do whatever his heart desired. And he wasted his possessions with prodigal living. So, there's that word, prodigal living. If you look at the English Standard Version, at the last line, with reckless living. Some translations say, with wasteful living. And so, of course, he's living the high life. And I don't think this is hard to imagine. Anyone who has money has friends. And so, especially if you're lavish and wasteful in spending your money. And we see some people here in Hollywood just having wads of money, and they just throw the money out. And it just goes, and people flock around them, and they have friends. And of course, he has friends, and he is buying friendship. And of course, he doesn't understand that they are not true friends. That his father was the true friend. But, in fact, that these people were simply opportunists, who were there to get what they could out of him. Folks, that's just the reality of the world. Many times we find the world attractive. We find the friendship of the world attractive. And we think, well, you know, that's great. They really love us. But, you know, the world does not love the way the father loves. The world's love is always with a hook in it. The world will only love as long as there's something in it for them. As long as they can get something out of you. As long as they think they're going to get something out of you. Whereas God's love is without hooks. It's altruistic. It doesn't require. It's not looking for a return. It's not looking for a response, even though God needs our response, in a sense. And so he squandered his property. So whether he had cashed all his goods in, I presume that he didn't get cash. I presume he got cattle and all sorts of other things. But he just squanders it all, and it's all gone. And then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. So here's the slide down. Remember who this young man is. He is a Jew. He is an Israelite. And now he rents himself out to a man of a Gentile country. Remember that when God brought Israel out of Egypt, one of the principles that he established was that they were not to be slaves to any man. They were to be free men. They were to be under God. That even if they were to be enslaved to another Jew, they were to be set free on the seventh year, so that no Jew was to be a slave or a servant to another man perpetually. And to sell yourself to a Gentile is the lowest of the low position you can be in. In fact, what he is doing is he's surrendering his birthright as a Jew, as an Israelite. And folks, it's sad that there are Christians who will surrender their birthright and enslave themselves to the world, to people in the world. To ideologies in the world. To habits of the world. To the things of the world. And become the servants of those things, rather than the sons of the Most High. We're going to speak much next week about the difference between sons and servants. But this man was a son of the Father. He now becomes a servant of a Gentile. What a terrible position to be in. And not only is he a servant, but the language is that he is the lowest form of servant. The highest form of servant, interestingly enough, is that of a slave, a doulos, who was part of the household. And while some of them were mistreated, generally they were part of the family, and they raised the kids. Many of them were tutors who raised and taught the kids, and ran the family business. The lowest form was a day worker. And I guess it would be the same, in a sense, if you go and hire somebody at Home Depot or somewhere there. You're not looking for the highest integrity. You're not looking for anyone with a bio. You're just looking for labor. And it's just for one day. You're not looking for a relationship. It's just one day. And, you know, it's a hundred bucks for the day, or whatever the going rate is. Those days it was a penny. And if the work's finished for the day, you go. That's all there is to it. There's no relationship. And this is what he becomes. He becomes a day laborer. He is hired for a penny a day. And he is sent into the fields to feed swine. How low can you go? How further down in the order of God can you go? To now feed unclean animals. Remember, for a Jew to have anything to do with a pig was unacceptable. It was against the law, in fact, because pigs were unclean animals. And there he is, having to care for pigs. Having to care for pigs. Can you see where he's come from? From being a son of the father, being in the father's house, being in a position of privilege. Now he finds himself enslaved, or not enslaved, but sold on a daily basis to a Gentile to do the lowest form of work. And that is to look after pigs. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate. And no one gave him anything. It seems that what the pods, or what the pigs were fed on, is carob. And it's a pod, which is a legume, if you understand what that is. And it has some nutritious value. And even today, in the Mediterranean, it is the last form of food that remains in time of drought for animals. People can also eat it. And so, this is a famine, as we'll see in the next verse. And this is the last form of food that's available. And it's being given to the pigs. And the sad thing is that no one gave him even pigs' food. From having all his friends hanging around him, enjoying the free drinks, enjoying the gifts, enjoying the lifestyle, there he is. And no one's even giving him pigs' food. Folks, my heart breaks for Christians who find themselves in the same position today, far from the Father's house, hungry and destitute. And no one cares. But when he came to himself—and this is really, in the first part of this story, in the first lost son, this is the most important part, in a sense. There are so many important parts. This is such a powerful story. There are so many very important aspects to the story. And of course, we don't want to, in any way, overshadow the grace of God, which is—this is really telling us about, in the first half, the grace of God. But at the same time, here is the pivot. Here is the point at which things change. He came to himself. As we say in South Africa, he caught a wake-up. He woke up. He realized. He saw himself. He saw his position. And so, it's time for Christians who find themselves far from God to wake up, to come to themselves, to understand what's going on. We can deceive ourselves so easily, but the time must come that we wake up. The time has come that we come to our senses. Some translations use that phrase, come to his senses. And he said, even my father's servants are better treated than I am. My father's higher servants have bred enough and they have extra. And I am supposed to be a son, and I perish with hunger. He was literally starving. And when I see Christians far from God, I wonder how far they have to starve. Not having the love of God, not knowing the grace of God, not knowing the fellowship of the saints, not knowing the blessedness of the ministry of the word of God, not knowing the blessedness of communion and fellowship with God, spiritually destitute, starving, hungry, dying, and yet they will not wake up. They keep being with the pigs. They keep trying to steal the food of the pigs, because nobody cares. How many of my father's hired servants have bred enough to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and say to him, I have sinned against heaven and before you. You see, there's a number of steps in this process of repentance and restoration. Feeling sorry for himself was not going to fix anything. And he could have sat there, and there are Christians who are in that position this morning, and they're feeling sorry for themselves. Missing the fellowship of the saints, missing their relationship with God, missing all of the wonderful blessings of being in the father's house. And they'll bemoan their lot and they'll complain, but they won't do anything about it. But the young man understands his position, and the next thing he does is he makes a decision. He makes a decision, and he says, this is what I will do. I will get up out of here, and I will return to my father. There may not be anyone in the service this morning, but there may be those who are watching on video who find themselves in this position this morning. You need to make a decision. You can't hope that it's going to just change, because in fact it's getting worse and worse. The famine is deepening. He's losing weight by the day. Need to make a decision and say, I'm going to get back with God. I'm going to get back with my father. I'm going to go back to my father's house. But notice what he says he's going to do. Father, I have sinned against heaven. In other words, against God and against you. That's the third thing that he does. He comes to himself. He makes a decision, and he confesses his sin. You see, here's the problem, is there's so many Christians who want to make a comeback, but they want to walk in and say, here I am, God, I'm your son. Don't you remember me? There's no repentance. There's no sorrow. There's no acknowledgement of having done wrong. And folks, we say, well, what did he sin? What did he do wrong? Did he kill his father? Did he steal from his father? Well, he took, the father gave him the stuff. So what was his sin then? His sin was that he rejected the love of the father. He rejected the care of his father. That was the sin. He didn't murder anyone. He didn't steal from his father. He didn't, he didn't do anything against his father, except that he spurned his love and his care, and broke his father's heart. But there are Christians who break the heart of God every day. There are Christians who break my heart as a spiritual father. There's no repentance. There's no acknowledgement. I've sinned. And not only have I sinned, and you see that this young man, for all his foolishness, understands that what he did to his earthly father, he did to his heavenly father. And I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. You see, he understood that he had technically forfeited his right to being a son. And that he had no claim anymore to being a son. And that his only hope was that he could get a better job with his father than he had at that time. You see, he got it right. Unfortunately, sometimes Christians go walk about, and they want to come back to God, and they want to walk in with honor. Make me like one of your hired servants. Here is the fourth thing that he does. He rose and came to his father. You see, many do the first three things. They wake up. They make a decision. They even acknowledge their sin. But they don't do anything about it. They stay where they're at. This young man made the decision, and he acts on the decision. And, of course, it was hard. And I understand that there are those who are not coming back to the Lord because they're embarrassed, or they're ashamed, or it's hard. But, folk, what are we going to do? Are we going to die out there in the world, or are we going to pocket our shame and our guilt and just come to God and throw ourselves upon his mercy? You see, I think the difference was that this young man knew that he had no hope, and that he was physically going to die of hunger where he was, and that his only hope was to get back with his father. And, folk, until we understand that we have no other hope but to return to our Father, our pride will keep us from doing what we ought to be doing. Now, before we move on, I want you to remember the last two parables that we dealt with in the last couple of weeks—the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin. Remember that I said that these three parables hang together—the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. But there is a big difference between the first two parables and this parable. The difference is that in the lost sheep, the shepherd goes and seeks the lost sheep and brings him back. In the story of the lost coin, the woman lights the lamp, and she gets out the broom, and she sweeps, and she looks until she finds the coin. But I want you to notice that the father doesn't go after this boy. He waits for him to return. You see, there are Christians out there, and there may be Christians out of this church who are saying, well, the pastor has never come to beg me to come back to church. No, I'm not there, and God is not begging you to come back. You need to recognize that you need the Lord. You need to recognize that you need to be in the Father's house, and you need to make a decision to come back. Look, we cannot hold people in the church, and we cannot hold people in the kingdom by force. We cannot manipulate and control people and bring them in and then lock the doors and say, now you can't leave. You remember Lot's wife? Remember that important second shortest verse in the Bible? Remember Lot's wife. What was the problem with Lot's wife? While the angels had forcibly brought her out of Sodom, her heart was still out there. It was no good. They may as well have left her there, because her heart was there. And folk, until people—and we all have friends, and we have people who have been part of this congregation who find themselves in this position out there in the world, and our hearts break for them—but until they come to themselves, until they wake up, until they see things the way they are, and they say, I need to come back to the Father, until then there's nothing we can do for them. There are parents whose children are wayward this morning, and our hearts break for our children. But folk, until they wake up, until they come to themselves, until they come to their senses, we cannot force them to serve God. All we can do is what this Father did. He was watching. While the parable doesn't say so, because he's a righteous man, I believe he is praying. And every day he's looking out. He was still a great way off. His father saw him. It wasn't the same boy who left. He'd lost a lot of weight. He was no doubt filthy, dressed in rags. But the Father recognized him as his son, a long way off. The Father had been scanning the horizon every day. And as the Father works in the fields, and as the Father does his business, he's about his business, every now and then he looks on the horizon, he looks at the road. Maybe today my son's coming home. Folk, there are people in this church, every Sunday I come, maybe, Lord, today they will come home. My own children, I pray, Lord, maybe today they will come home. The Father saw him. I don't think that the Father ever lost sight of him. And certainly the Heavenly Father never loses sight of those who are wayward, of those who are backslidden. And he had compassion. See, here's the point. God has compassion. Remember, it speaks about Jesus when he looked at the crowd. It says that he was moved with compassion because they were a sheep without a shepherd. And of course, the point of the story, and I don't want to jump to next week's, but one of the points of the story is that the older brother has no compassion. But God has compassion. God's, the Scripture says that he is married to the backslider. And the Father sees, and those of our number who find themselves on the streets of L.A. today, I see them. Even though I can't physically see them, I see them in their filth and their degradation and their brokenness and their emptiness. And I'm looking as a father for the day that they will come back. And he saw him and he had compassion and he ran and fell on his neck and he kissed him. You see, the Father, when this young man had done everything right, he had made the right decisions. He had confessed his sin. He'd got up and actually walked back towards the Father. However many days or weeks or months that took him to do, the Father recognized this is real repentance. And he runs towards him. See, God's waiting for us to take the first step and he'll take the next hundred steps. But there must be the first step from outside. There must be the first indication of repentance and of sorrow and of remorse. And he fell on his neck, he embraced him and he kissed him. And the Greek says that he continued to kiss him, smothered him with kisses. This dirty, filthy boy and folk of the Father will never turn the repentant sinner away. God will never turn away the backslider, no matter how far he has gone. And there may be consequences. And that's the problem, is that whenever we backslide, whenever we go into the world, whenever we go away from God, we do things that we ought not to do. And there are consequences to those things. But it doesn't change the love of God. It doesn't change the fact that the Lord will receive us and he embraces us. And he restores us. And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. You see, here's the proof that his repentance was genuine. Because he could easily have said, oh, the Father has received me. Everything's cool. Let me forget about this thing about not being a son. No, his repentance was real. And he followed through on what he had decided. The Father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Put on the best robe, the robes of righteousness. Whenever we read about robes in the New Testament, most of the time it speaks about the robes of righteousness. Read about it in the book of Revelation, that the saints are clothed with the righteousness of the saints, the blood washed garments that are white. So he covers his poverty. He covers his filth. He covers his brokenness. Dresses him with a robe of righteousness. He put a ring on his hand. The ring probably was a signet ring. A ring that you would use to sign documents with, the seal. And was a sign of sonship. You see, the Father restores him as a son, not just as a servant. But he puts a ring on him and he says, you are my son. And you'll see in the second part next week, the dispute between the father and his brother is whether this is a son. The older son says, this is your child. The father says, no, he's your brother. So he restores him. Put sandals on his feet. Servants didn't wear sandals those days. They went barefoot. Only landowners wore sandals. Now, I don't know. Of course, this is a parable. So Jesus doesn't go into the detail about what happens to the rest of the inheritance and the rest of that. That's not the point. The point is the prodigal love and grace of the father, the spending of grace, the gushing forth just as money flowed from that young man's pockets into the hands of the prostitutes and of the bar owners and the things of the world as the money just flowed from him until there was nothing. The grace of God flows. The grace of this father flows to this young man. And he embraces him and he brings him into the family and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry. And so there's a celebration. And remember, this is the point of the three parables, that there is celebration over the restoration of that which is lost. The sheep that is lost, the shepherd comes back rejoicing. The woman who finds the coin, she's rejoicing. And if there's someone who's listening or watching this morning, heaven will rejoice if you are far away and come back to God today. You see, God is not unemotional about the backslider. God is not insensitive. He is not cold to those things. His heart is broken for those who are backslidden, but when they return, there is rejoicing. Let us eat and be merry. For this, my son was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. It's likely that in this congregation this morning, there are more that are like the second son than of the first son. But maybe there is someone here this morning, even though you're physically here, you're far from God. You're dead. You're lost. And the Father is pleading with you again this morning, come home, come home. There's that wonderful hymn that we sing, Sinner, come home. There is room at the cross. There is room in the Father's house. There is room in the Father's heart. There is enough grace to deal with whatever you have done. And there is reason for rejoicing. If you will only hear the call of the Father and recognize where you're at and come home. I thank God for his grace. There is not one of us who don't at times go wandering off. And yet God receives us without incrimination, without a list of stuff that we've done and that he's holding against us. But he receives us. All he's looking for is real repentance. And let me conclude then by saying that there are two important things about the story that we've emphasized and I want you to remember, and that's why I'm recapping on these things. God's grace is super abundant. But God's grace is ineffectual without repentance. The problem is that we want God's grace without repentance. We want God to find us there in the far country and to somehow change us and bring us back. God says, no, I want to see repentance first. Notice the young man doesn't do anything very much. All he does is he makes a decision and he acts on that decision and he goes back and makes that confession to his father and he is received. Maybe you need to repent this morning. Will you not do so? The father's hands and arms are wide open, waiting to receive, waiting to welcome, waiting to restore. Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. Father, that even in Israel, we see how many times Israel as a nation wondered far from you, entered into illicit relationships with foreign gods and foreign nations, and yet when they repented every time you received them back again. But Lord, our hearts sorrow for those who cannot find repentance. Lord, who find themselves having gone so far that there is absolutely no sense of it is better in my father's house. Lord, our hearts go out this morning as this is very personal, Lord, for those that have been part of this church and over the years have gone back to the world. Father, bring them back. Bring to their remembrance the former things. Bring to their remembrance the fact that in my father's house there is food to eat. And not only is there food, but there is love and acceptance. And Lord, that there may be a decision to turn away and to turn back to you. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, Lord. We cannot understand it because, Lord, we're so much like the older brother, Lord, who want vengeance, who wants our form of justice. But, Lord, we thank you that you are a gracious God, that you forgive without recrimination, that you receive without conditions, that you welcome even those who are unlovable and those who are filthy in their sin and their degradation. So, Lord, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. And even, Lord, as we come to your table this morning, we remember again your great love when Jesus died for us at the cross of Calvary, that whosoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. And so, Lord, we pray for your continued presence with us as we come to your table, Lord. We pray for those who leave us now, that you'd go with them, keep them, protect them, and bless them. And, Lord, as we come around your table, may your grace just become more real to us again. May your grace just become fresh to us again, as we understand, Lord, that every one of us has had times when we've wandered far from you, and yet you've been gracious and you've restored us. And so, Lord, we pray for your blessing now, in Jesus' name. Amen.