221120 Tales from the Prodigal, The Prodigal's Return (3 of 6)

(A series based upon Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son taken from John MacArthur’s study series in Masterwork Sunday School curriculum, Winter 2010-2011)

No one is ever saved until he realizes he needs to be saved. No one ever repents or changes until he realizes he needs to change. No one ever returns to the Father until he realizes he needs to return.

This morning I want us to return to our series on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This series, the Tales from the Prodigal brings us to the Prodigal’s return today which really is a cause for Thanksgiving!

Coming to One’s Self, Luke 15:17a

When he came to himself

The Prodigal had gotten everything he wanted and quickly found out it was far more than he bargained for!

We have often heard of people who in an effort to discover something more in life or in their life repeat a familiar cliché. They say they are trying to find themselves! Perhaps the words of the Prodigal here in Luke 15:17 form the basis for that phrase.

This Prodigal son had demanded of his father more than he deserved. He had disinherited his family fortune. He had dishonored his family name.

By the time he finds himself with no money and no friends, he is desperate as to what to do. Before he finally comes to the conclusion that he has no other recourse but to repent and return to his father, he did what we often find ourselves doing. He tried everything that might help him not have to confess his sins to his father; to admit his foolishness and face the fury of his elder brother.

He was ashamed of his decisions he had made. He was embarrassed and humiliated. I have mentioned several times now that within this parable of the Prodigal Son, there is a beautiful picture of true repentance. But I want you to see that the bible makes a difference between what is true repentance and simple regret.

2 Corinthians 7:10–11 (NLT) 10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. 11 Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.

Man is born with his back toward God. When he truly repents, he turns right around and faces God. Repentance is a change of mind…. Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith.

Dwight L. Moody

Before the Prodigal truly repented and returned to his father, he first attempted to resolve his own problems.

The Inadequacy of Self-Effort, Luke 15:14-16

14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

This young prodigal was not just a spendthrift and a failure at money management, he was simply a failure in life. Everything he tried ended in failure!

Look in these verses at all the different things he attempted to do and failed.

First, he spent all he had. He burned through his Father’s inheritance. And he found himself broke, away from friends and family with no one to help.

Second, to make matters worse, a famine hit the land. This more than an economic recession or even a depression, this was a famine of finances, a draught of the worse kind!

He begins to be in want, but nobody wanted him. No matter where he looked, he couldn’t find a job. All his friends had forsaken him. So, Jesus tells us he joined himself to a citizen of that country.

To say that the Prodigal “joined himself” to a citizen of that country implies much more than we may know.

First, the word “citizen” as it was used at that time implied someone of considerable clout. A citizen of Rome per se would have been a privileged person. He likely was a landowner and financially stable if not prosperous.

Second, to say that the Prodigal “joined himself” to this citizen is strong language meaning he literally attached himself to him. The word used in the original language is very picturesque. It means to “glue oneself to.”

This Prodigal who has lost everything does the only thing he can think of—he joins himself to this prominent citizen in order to survive and ……… to do all he could NOT to have to repent and return to his father. He basically sells himself to this citizen who sends him into his fields to feed his swine.

And that’s the third thing that this young prodigal did. He lost his dignity. He lost all his dignity. He literally hit rock bottom. Swine herding paid next to nothing. Feeding pigs was also extremely demeaning and degrading work, especially for a young Jewish boy who had been raised as a kosher Jew to avoid pork at all costs! Under Moses’ ceremonial law, pigs were considered unclean. Any contact with pigs meant instant defilement.

Feeding pigs represented the lowest, most debased form of employment anyone could do. In the minds of the Scribes and Pharisees and other Jews who heard Jesus tell this story, if they had not been before, their minds were definitely made up that this young Prodigal was beyond redemption.

ILLUSTRATION: Several years ago, I attended the funeral of a former high school classmate named Joseph Albright. Joseph, or Joe as his classmates called him was a brilliant young man.

His older brother Thomas spoke at his funeral about his life being a picture of redemption. He said Joe had three stages to his life: 1) His days as a quiet student who was studious and an avid reader, a bookworm really. 2) His days of rebellion from authority, his family, his upbringing, socially, he went down the same prodigal road to the ruin of drugs, alcohol and a life of immorality. His brother admitted that the family had come close on several occasions to abandoning him as a member of the family. 3) His salvation which led him to his wife, two higher education degrees, a Master’s and a PH. D. in nuclear biology which eventually lead Joe to a teaching career in the Sumter, SC high schools where he became one of the most popular teachers at the school.

Joseph’s life was not beyond redemption. Neither are the lives of wayward family and friends you may know. And neither was the Prodigal’s life beyond redemption.

T/S—So let’s see what happens.

Returning to the Father, Luke 15:17

“But 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!

This is the point in the story we have all been waiting for. The Prodigal son has reached the end of the road. Coming to himself meant that he had to take a hard look at himself and admit his wrong. It meant he must repent of his sin and return to his father and confess all his mistakes and failures.

So, he carefully and thoughtfully contemplated his next steps and the words he must use in his confession.

Luke 15:18–19 (NKJV) 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’

The prodigal had come to the end of the road. With no money and no friends, he had no means to be able to return to his home and his father. But he knew that was his only hope. Somehow, someway, he had to get back to his father.

For the first time in his life, he was ready to acknowledge his sin, repent and return to his Father.

Notice the steps the prodigal decided to take in order to return to his father. And notice that this is where all true repentance begins with everyone—in the mind.

1) He would repent. Luke 15:18a, I will arise – One of the best and clearest examples of true repentance anywhere in the bible.

2) He would confess his sins and failures. Luke 15:18b “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,

I love the way he rehearsed his words he planned to say. He practiced his confession long before he used it!

Proverbs 28:13 (HCSB) The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

3) He would return to his father, Luke 15:18-19, 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’

Then comes verse 20, and the clearest statement of his repentance and decision to return to his Father. So he got up and went to his Father. Luke 15:20

And when he came to his Father he began to share his confessional he had rehearsed, and I love this, he never got to finish his confession! His father interrupted him! He never got to say, I’m not worthy to be called you son. Make me like one of your hired servants.

I think it was the old Jewish Evangelist Emmanuel Scott I heard preach in the 1970’s who said of this passage and of this moment. “The Father looked at his son and said, ‘Son, we got plenty of servants around here! But we’re kind of short on sons!!’

Oh glory! Excuse me for a moment while I have a shouting fit!

Conclusion: Always remember who you are in Christ Jesus. You are child of the King! You’ve been adopted into the family of God! You’re a joint heir with Jesus! Everything the Father has belongs also to you! No matter how far you’ve roamed away from the Father, you can always go home again! No matter where you’ve been, what you have done, you can always go home!