The Prodigal Sons

Introduction

Share the story of almost lighting my college apartment on fire.

My friend was making cheese sticks in the kitchen. I was in my room, because I had three exams the next day.

The fire alarms went off, they they started yelling. I thought they were messing with me.

Eventually, I walk out into the living room, and all chaos has broken loose. The microwave is melting. My friend picks up the oil, and drops it on the floor.

When we get into high tension situations, we attempt to solve them in one of two ways - we try to run away or we try to fix it with our own effort. The psychological terminology would be fight-or-flight. You stay and fight and try to fix it, OR you run and leave and try to get away from it.

You can run away from having to deal with the Father, but your house is still burning down. And you can avoid or ignore the pleading of the Lord on your heart, but one day there will be a reckoning. Jonah taught us recently that there is no forever running from God.

You can attempt to solve the problem on your own, but you are just spraying water on a grease fire.

These two ditches on either side of true faith are legalism and licention.

Legalism, remember, is earning approval from God through good works. Licention is running from God.

Read Luke 15:11-32.

Explanation

Luke 15:11–16 ESV

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. 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.

When the son asks the father for his inheritance, the Jewish audience would have gasped. For a son to ask a father for his inheritance is the modern day equivalent of the son’s wishing his father was dead.

“I want your money, but I don’t want you.” We have an easy equivalency with how we react to God. We trade the Creator (God) for the created (everything else).

The father gives his son his inheritance. He could have said no, he could have kicked his son out of the house, but instead, he allows his son to take advantage of him.

We are so quick to study where the Son went that we neglect to understand what he left. He left his loving Father. In the same way, we run from the Father to the world.

If you are here today, you may have run away from the church for whatever reason.

You found God’s Word restrictive. Someone hurt you. You found hypocrites.

But the longer you found yourself in the world, the more you realize that God is good. Don’t let pride keep you from coming back to Him.

The son leaves and squanders his inheritance on reckless living. We don’t know what reckless is, but the connotation of the word is that he was living sinfully.

This prodigal son’s pursuit is sin and wild living. He represents the spirit of the age. This is age where whatever we want to do is recognized as legitimate and worthwhile simply because we want it.

Eventually, he ran out of money, and he spent his time as a hired hand - feeding pigs, and so impoverished that he longed to eat the pig slop.

Eventually, the world we pursue will run out. Even the hard moments are a kindness of God to call us back to himself.

I have had times in my own life where I was wilfully disobeying God, and I just stopped and said, “Connor, what are you doing? You don’t even really want this.” Sometimes, the Lord wakes us up to the fact that we are eating pig slop.

Luke 15:17–24 ESV

“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 am 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, 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.

The young man came to his senses, and he realized that being a servant in his fathers house was better than the way he was being currently treated. The phrase, “came to his senses,” is a Hebrew/Aramaic phrase that historically meant repentance.

There comes a point in your life that you just realize that the presence of God is better. That Jesus and his plans for your life are better than your plans for your own life.

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” // C. S. Lewis.

The father sees his son and runs to him from a distance and embraces Him.

I can imagine that long walk home. What will my dad say? What will he do? I am so ashamed of myself. I can imagine the amount of conversations that ran through his mind. Don’t let shame keep you from the love of God. Because I know what is on the other side of your repentance.

I want to show you a picture. It’s one of my favorites. Its a reimagining of what the younger son saw when he made it home.

Now, Middle Eastern men didn’t run. Running was considered undignified and childish. Culturally, a middle eastern man would never have run to someone or from something. But this passage says, out of love, the father runs to his son and sweeps him in his arms and calls for a party.

Our God’s love for you is so great that he is doing the exact same thing at this very moment. He is standing at the door and waiting for his child to come home.

“For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”

Imagine the tears of joy, the smile, the hugs, and the excitement around this son who was counted for lost and dead, but he is now found.

Some of you have family, children, etc. who are far from God. The Lord is not finished with them.

Luke 15:25–32 ESV

“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 the 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 this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened 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.’ ”

Notice that throughout this sermon, I have not said the prodigal “son” but the prodigal “sons.” Because we have a second son. And this second son has worked for his father and labored in the family business and has done everything necessary to keep things going.

Let’s not forget that this parable isn’t necessarily for the tax collectors. Jesus is talking directly to the Pharisees.

The older son wants the father no more than the younger son.

How do we know this?

“I served you.”

“I never disobeyed you.”

“You never gave me a kid to have WITH MY FRIENDS.”

When he sees his younger brother who has come home, he scowls. “How dare he show his face here again after leaving the family. And my father throws him a party! He has never thrown me a party like this one!”

Tim Keller // “Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake. This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from him either by breaking his rules or by keeping all of them diligently. It's a shocking message: Careful obedience to God's law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.”

And we are left, much like in the book of Jonah, on a cliffhanger. Will this son enter the party?

Invitation

Could your life be described as the prodigal son - far from God while squandering his gifts on a life you want - only to come up empty?

Or could your life be described this way - always within the shadow of a steeple and in the middle of a pew - but far from the heart of God. You are in no less danger than the prodigal in the far country.