The Forgiving King Luke 15:11-32

The Grace of God is Available Today

The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott A Maasai’s Understanding of Grace

Vincent Donovan is an American Roman Catholic priest who worked seventeen years in Tanzania as missionary to [the] Maasai. The region was rich in wildlife, especially in big game. A Maasai elder once used the lion as a picture of God’s initiative of grace:

We did not search you out, Padre.… We did not even want you to come to us. You searched us out. You followed us away from your house into the bush, into the plains, into the steppes where our cattle are, into the hills … into our villages, into our homes. You told us of the High God, how we must search for him … but … we have not searched for him. He has searched for us. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think we are the lion. In the end, the lion is God.

I. For the Reckless Rebel vv. 11-16

As we approach today’s parable, a little context may be helpful

Jesus is facing controversy: the sinners are coming to Him and the Pharisees are mad about it!

In response, Jesus tells 3 parables that illustrate God’s pursuit of the lost

What we will see is that God loves lost people, not only like sheep or shekels, but as sons and daughters!

In our parable of the prodigal, we see that the son is:

Arrogant v. 12

He doesn’t care about his father’s life, he’s as good as dead

He only loves his father for his possessions and what he can provide

Absent v . 13

He flees as far from his father as possible

He does not want to live under his father’s influence or authority, so he cuts himself off from his father’s presence!

Audacious v. 13

When he goes away, he rejects his father’s morality and character

He squanders the reputation and fortune his father built with his reckless and abominable actions

Anguished vv. 14-16

Circumstances change and there is no way to care for himself any longer

Rather than returning home, he chooses to live as the servant of a Gentile, feeding pigs

Everything about this speaks to poverty, filth, and shame brought on by his rejection of the father

Think about the state that he is in!

He has lived out Proverbs 16:18- pride has gone before destruction and his haughty spirit has brought about a great fall.

Now, he is left with the reality of his own brokenness

In the culture of Jesus’ day, there was a ceremony for young men like this one, called the kezazah. In it, when a young man who had brought shame on the family and the community attempted to return home, he would be met by the community and confronted. A clay jar would be thrown at the young man’s feet and the shattered pottery would be a reminder of his relationship with his community: It was completely broken, never to be repaired! At this point, the young man is in a hopeless state!

II. From the Forgiving Father vv. 17-24

At this point, the story takes an incredible turn

Recognition-In the face of utter humiliation and suffering, the prodigal comes to his senses:

He recognizes his father’s quality and character

He recognizes his own sinfulness and its cost

Return- He makes a decision to go home

Notice, that this is a physical return to his father’s house

However, it is the natural overflow of a spiritual return to a right view of his father’s love and wisdom

Running- before the son can make it home, the father sees him coming and runs after him

Moved by compassion, the father goes to the son; this move is important because it will spare him the shame of the kezazah

The father’s actions are shameful in his culture; he does not sit back in his dignity and wait for his son to beg for forgiveness. He runs!

The father will endure shame himself to spare his son that same shame

Rejoicing- the heart of the father is fully on display

He welcomes his son with genuine love and care

This is symbolized through his actions:

Robe- he is loved and blessed

Ring- he shares in the father’s authority

Shoes- he is not a slave, but a free man

Celebration- his return is not a source of grief, but is a reason to throw a party!

Jesus reiterates again the attitude of the Lord towards sinners, and that attitude is best expressed through Jesus’s own incarnation

2 Samuel 14:14

[14] We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast. (ESV)

2 Peter 3:9

[9] The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (ESV)

Philippians 2:5-8

[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (ESV)

III. For the Resentful Righteous vv. 25-32

There is another character in this story, an elder brother who does not understand things at all

His wrong-headed understanding of the love of his father takes him to places of bitterness that demonstrate his own need for forgiveness:

He does not understand:

The Source of His Father’s Love v. 29a

He believes that his father ought to love him for the sake of his own good works and cannot understand how his father could love a rebellious brother

The beauty of the father’s love is that it is based on the father’s character, not the son’s!

The Size of His Father’s Love v. 29b-31

He believes that his father cannot love both he and his brother well, as though there were not enough to go around

The father can fully restore a rebellious brother while also fulfilling his promise, “all that is mine is yours”

The Scope of His Father’s Love v. 32

All of this feels far too permissive, if his father is willing to forgive this, what else might he be willing to forgive?

It turns out, that’s exactly the point; he is able to forgive anyone, even self-righteous older brothers!

The Sufficiency of His Father’s Love v. 32

The love of the father for his rebellious son and the forgiveness that he offers ought to be enough to unite his boys

The sin was never primarily against the older brother; if he wants to share in the joy of his father, the older brother must embrace the younger!

1 John 4:20

[20] If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (ESV)

Who needs to respond?

Some are stuck between a return to your senses and a return home

Some are sitting “outside the house” and refusing to fellowship with your brother

Some must remember your ring and your robe and celebrate a new identity in your Father’s care

Some must experience this sonship for yourself

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Prodigal Son

One of the most beautiful stories of the Scriptures is that of the prodigal son, the youth who left home, got into deep difficulty, wasted his life in riotous living, and ended up in the pigpen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee once asked, “Do you know the difference between the son in that pigpen and the pig? The difference is that no pig has ever said to himself, ‘I will arise and go to my father.’ ”

He is right; only sons say that. That is why there will be no condemnation, no rejection by God of his children. All believers, even prodigal sons, are his children, not his enemies.