The Amazing Love Of God. Luke 15 Part 3 The Power of Repentance and the Father's Mercy
Notes
Transcript
Text - Luke 15:11-32
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The story we are about to look at today is probably one of the most well known in all of the Bible.
When I think of well known Bible stories I think of David and Goliath, Daniel and the Lion’s den, Noah and the ark, the Christmas story (Jesus birth and coming to earth), Jesus death and resurrection. Jonah and the whale.
As far as the stories Jesus told, this and perhaps the good Samaritan are two of the most well known.
This parable is well known because of its content and the love that is shown through it.
Ray Pritchard said of this parable
"Many people consider it the greatest short story ever written. It is a story that speaks perfectly to the human condition." (Pritchard)
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 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. 13 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. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “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! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 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. 21 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.’ 22 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. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. 25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 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.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 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. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”
Scripture is wonderful because it reveals to us more about ourselves.
Like a child sitting in front of a mirror for the first time.
At first they don’t realize that it is their own reflection.
They think it is another baby in the mirror.
But then they notice that when they move their hand, the hand in the mirror moves.
The realization eventually dawns that - that is me.
That is what the Bible does for us.
At first we look into it and think that we are reading stories about others.
It’s interesting to see how they are portrayed.
We may laugh at some of the actions or shake our heads in disbelief
But the truth is that longer we look, the more we begin to notice that those characters in the Bible look more like us!
The more we read our Bibles the more we realize, sometimes with some embarrassment that that is me.
As I mentioned before we read the passage, this is one of the most well known passages in scripture and I think it is because the reflection is so clear.
The more we look at this story, the more we begin to see our own heart displayed through the younger brother, older brother, or both in some way.
But the Bible not only reveals what we are like, it also reveals what God is like.
This is important, because we cannot know what God is like apart from His revealing Himself to us.
Apart from scripture, we can guess at what we think God is like, but such speculations don’t mean anything,
They are just our opinions, not based in fact.
Jesus Christ reveals to us what God the Father is truly like.
The father in this story gives us one of those glimpses into an important aspect of God’s character, namely, His abundant mercy toward all who will repent of their sins.
To understand this parable correctly we must remember where we began.
In verses 1-2 of this chapter the tax collectors and sinners were come near to Jesus to hear him.
This caused the Scribes and Pharisees to grumble saying This man receives sinners and eats with them.
These parables Jesus tells have different applications for different audiences.
To the tax collectors and sinners, it was to give hope.
To the scribes and pharisees, it was to challenge their proud, self righteous ways and show them they should also be spending time with these down and out people.
There is a common goal as well for both though, that is to call all people to repentance.
Each of the three parables illustrates God’s abundant mercy toward repentant sinners and His great joy when they are made right with Him.
The first two parables focus on God’s seeking lost sinners and rescuing them and on His great joy in saving them.
The emphasis in our parable for today is on God’s great love and mercy, but also on the necessary human response to experience His mercy.
That response is called repentance
Jesus introduces us to this family, a man and two sons.
The younger son comes to his father and says
Dad, I wish you were dead.
That is how it would have felt for the father when the son came to him and said give me the share of the property that is coming to me.
The son knew that when his old man died, he stood to inherit one-third of everything he owned (his older brother would get two-thirds).
But he did not want to wait that long.
As the years passed, he spent more and more time thinking about what he wanted to do with his father’s wealth.
He wanted to go wherever he wanted to go and do whatever he wanted to do.
But in order to do that, he had to be able to spend whatever he wanted to spend, which meant getting as much money from his father as he could.
Like the tax collectors who were among the sinners listening to this parable (see Luke 15:1), the young man was greedy for money.
This young man was lost before he even left home.
He was lost in selfishness, ingratitude, rebellion, and greed.
He was lost in his rejection of authority.
But mainly he was lost because he did not love his father.
He didn’t break any law by demanding his inheritance, but he did fracture their relationship and broke his father’s heart.
Perhaps you can relate to the lostness of this younger son, now or in your past.
Here was a young man who wanted what his father could give him but did not want his father himself.
There are times when we treat God like this, knowingly or not.
We pray to God like we are praying to a great genie in the sky.
This is what it means for us to be lost.
It means not loving the Father.
It means putting demands on God without desiring God himself.
It means wanting his gifts without loving him as the Giver.
When we take this attitude, what we are really expressing is hatred to God.
And of course there are times when all of us do take this attitude.
We object to God’s fatherly discipline, wanting to have life on our own terms. We complain about God’s fatherly care, demanding something better than what he is providing for us.
We take advantage of God’s fatherly affection, expecting his blessing without depending upon him in prayer.
Even when we are at home with God, our prodigal hearts sometimes long to run away.
This is what sin is: running from God.
And that is what this son did.
He took his father’s money and ran.
Journeyed to a far country where he squandered his property in reckless living.
The Greek word there reckless carries the literal meaning of wastefulness.
And when placed together it actually has the connotation of luxury.
He bought the finest food, clothing, enjoyed the wildest entertainment, and anything else you could think of.
Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 In a Far Country
J. B. Phillips put it in his paraphrase of this passage, “he squandered his wealth in the wildest extravagance.”
What this son wanted, was the freedom to sin.
In order for him to have that “freedom” he had to get away from his father.
Away from his family, away from his community.
So long as he stayed home, he would be unable to use his money the way he wanted.
Again the more we read, the more we find ourselves reflected in scripture.
Like the lost son, we want to run away from God and live the way that we want to live.
How often do we squander our time pursuing our pleasures?
How often do we squander our money?
Spending so much on ourselves that there is little or nothing left for God.
How often do we squander our talents by not using them for our Father’s joy.
Jesus calls this “reckless living.”
How recklessly are you living?
As a Christian, it is never wrong to ask yourself,
Am I feeding my addictions, indulging my passions?
Am I giving away my Father’s inheritance?
Am I squandering my time, my money, or my talents on myself when I could and should be investing them in the kingdom of God
The son’s situation when from bad to worse though.
He had planned on spending a lot of money, but what he hadn’t planned for was running out of money.
Not only did he run out of money but he ran out of food.
14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
Rather than face the shame of returning home, he went to a pig farmer.
This person would not have been a Jew as pigs were considered unclean animals.
We don’t have to go far to learn about raising hogs here.
Talk to Jason and Roxie, Kat, or Cody, they could tell us all about it.
Jesus says that this son was so hungry that he wanted to eat what the pigs were eating.
And what will pigs eat - pretty much anything they can get in their mouths.
Pig slop is the waste that was unfit for human consumption.
Looking in the mirror - this is a picture of our own spiritual condition outside of Christ.
This is what it means to be lost.
It is like being without money, without food, and without friends.
A complete failure in life.
This sons was living in wilful rebellion.
The willful, rebellion of the son led to his destruction in sin.
The younger son’s rebellion and downward course illustrate the terrible toll of sin in human lives.
Sin always alienates the sinner from fellowship with the loving and merciful Father.
We sin because we stupidly think that it will bring us lasting happiness and fulfillment, and for a short time, it seems to deliver.
But rebelling against God and plunging into sin is like buying things on credit when you have no money to pay.
At first, it’s fun.
You can go to the big city, stay in first class hotels, eat at the finest restaurants, and live like a king.
But then the bills start coming due and it isn’t fun anymore.
Our rebellion and hard heart can destroy us, too.
It can keep us from coming to Christ and trusting in Him or it can cause us to run away from the Lord.
But, thankfully, there is a way to go, to repent or turn back to God.
Jesus says But when he came to himself
He had hit rock bottom.
Who has been there?
Maybe your are there now?
If you are there now, the first step is realizing where you are.
There is nowhere to go but home.
It was the son’s complete lostness that brought him to his senses.
17 “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! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’
The son realized that not only had he sinned against his father, but also against God.
He is preparing his speech to seek forgiveness from his father.
When we are lost, the thing to do is to go back and see where we made our mistake.
This means admitting that we are sinners, not making excuses, but confessing our sin.
It means confessing our sin both to God and to the people we have wronged.
It means acknowledging that we are no longer worthy to be considered God’s son or daughter.
Yet even as we confess our utter unworthiness, we also need to remember that God is still our Father.
This was the lost son’s only hope.
He did not feel worthy to be called a son.
Nevertheless, when he spoke about his father, he was still able to call him his father.
This is another reflection, and the most important reflection we have to see in scripture.
No matter how far we’ve run, no matter how far we’ve fallen, we can always turn our eyes towards home.
We can always repent and turn back to our Father in heaven.
That still doesn’t mean it is easy though -
In my study I came across a story about a boy named Jimmy -
ILLUSTRATION - The "R" Word -
Jimmy had trouble pronouncing the letter “R” so his teacher gave him a sentence to practice at home: “Robert gave Richard a rap in the rib for roasting the rabbit so rare.”
Some days later the teacher asked him to say the sentence for her. Jimmy rattled it off like this: “Bob gave Dick a poke in the side for not cooking the bunny enough.”
He had evaded the letter “R.”
There are a lot of people today—including Christians—who go to great lengths to avoid the “R” word of “Repentance.”
The prodigal shows us a number of things about true repentance.
It always begins by seeing our true condition for what it is: “He came to himself [or, his senses].”
He realized what he had done. It took him a while to come to this awareness.
We don’t know how long he was slopping pigs before he realized how low he had sunk, but finally his eyes were opened to his true, awful condition and he thought, “What am I doing here?”
He thought about the fact that even the servants in his father’s house were happier than he was.
He determined to return to his father.
Repentance is turning away from our sin and turning to God.
This lost son’s friends that he had gained because of his reckless living had left him because he had run out of resources.
All he could do was turn towards home.
As long as we have anything in ourselves that we think will meet our needs, we will avoid going directly to God.
If the young man had thought, “I’m going to turn over a new leaf. I’ll get a better job.
I’ll save some money.
I dug myself into this pit; I’ll pull myself out by my own bootstraps!”
he would not have gone back to his father.
If he had clung to his own pride, he would have thought, “I’m not going to let him see me in this condition.
I have too much dignity for that!
I’ll return to my father after I’ve cleaned up and gotten a new suit of clothes.”
The thing about the good news of Jesus is that it always brings us to the end of ourselves,
our resources, our schemes, and everything else that we rely on,
until we must come directly to God Himself.
All we can plead for is His mercy.
We can’t come and show Him how well we’ve done without Him.
We can’t splash the cologne of our good works over the stench of the pigsty and hope that He doesn’t notice how badly we smell.
We can’t send a friend or a gift to try to patch things up.
We can only come directly to the Father in our wretched condition and appeal to His mercy:
“I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Repentance must be directed personally toward the God whom we have sinned against.
And the most amazing thing about it all.
We have a father who is actively waiting, actively looking for us, which we will see more of next week.