The Loving Father
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Intro
Intro
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.’ So he divided to 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 that 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.
“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! I will arise and go to my father, and 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 arose and came to his father. But 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 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 older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 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 would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I 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.’ ”
This story is known as the parable of the lost son, or the story of the lost son. Jesus would often tell these parables, and he did so to provide a vision of life, especially life in God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus shared parables or stories with his audience, it was to reveal the truth of God’s kingdom in a way that ordinary men and woman could understand, that they could grasp...
Also consider that the primary purpose and reason reason why God sent His son Jesus to us, that primary purpose was for Him to the reveal God, reveal the Father.
No one has seen God at any time; the one and only, God, the one who is in the bosom of the Father—that one has made him known.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Heb 1:
It is in this light that I think the parable is not so much about the lost son, than it is about a loving Father, God, and his love for you and for I. I’m going to call the title of this message “The parable of the Loving Father”
“Abba Father”
JOhn 1:8
Scene 1
Scene 1
And so then the question begs? What is this Father God like, who is our father in heaven we pray to that Jesus came to reveal to us? Father God, Jesus begins to tell his audience and us, is like a man who had 2 sons...
Note that when Jesus starts telling this parable, he introduces this family. The passage says “There was a man who had 2 sons, and the younger one said to his father” The idea of family, of community, we get the idea of US, of being together, being connected, accepted in the bonds of familial love. This was a wealthy household, for the father had an estate, had property, had servants. Everything to meet the needs and every desire of its occupants. In this unfolding drama the father represents God, and the sons are us, humanity, you and I.
When Jesus starts telling this parable, he introduces this family. The passage says “There was a man who had 2 sons, and the younger one said to his father” The idea of family, of community, we get the idea of US, of being together, being connected, accepted in the bonds of familial love. This was a wealthy household, for the father had an estate, had property, had servants. Everything to meet the needs and every desire of its occupants. In this unfolding drama the father represents God, and the sons are us, humanity, you and I.
And so I submit to you that God’s design and purpose for humanity has always and will always be for us to live in relationship with Him and to live in relationship with one another. For when the expert in the law asks Jesus in “Teacher, which is the greatest commanment in the Law”? Jesus says
And he said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
It is such a beautiful picture of the cross - the vertical beam pointing upwards toward God, and the horizontal beam reaching out to the people around us. This is the way Jesus says in his response we are meant to live, this is pleasing to God!
But then we quickly learn what is in the heart of the youngest son, when he approaches his father and says:
“Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me”
other translations say
“Give me the share of the property that is coming to me.
How contrasting is his request to this idea of family, community, unity, connection, togetherness?
VS
We get a sense of own interest, the self, independence. the idea of “ME” versus the idea of “US”. He is in fact saying to his father “I don’t want to live under your restraint anymore, I want to be my own man, I want to do things my way - I want to live a little, and I can’t wait for you to die for me to get my share of your estate - I’ll have it now thank you.
He is acting from a thoroughly selfish motive - he is choosing his own individual values without much reference to those closest to him i.e. his father, his brother. In this young man’s actions I hear the echoes of our culture today…Life becomes and open road inviting us to travel it as we choose, with whom we choose, and where we choose, for whatever reason we choose. Life is free, life is good
TALK ABOUT THE “SELFIE”
His request
This would have been hard for the Father to hear I’m sure…but the fact that the youngest son had the boldness and confidence to make this request known to his father, however inappropriate, speaks volumes of the relationship this father had with his sons…they could approach him with ANYTHING!
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
And so the bible says “…the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.”
He travelled to this distant country in quest of personal freedom and fullfilment, without the restraints of the father’s home, it’s responsibilities and family loyalties. We see a deliberate renunciation of a set of values, endemic to his existence until that time. The enjoyment of this personal freedom can only be attained in fleeing from the father’s house with all it stood for in terms of tradition, authority, objective values and socia-moral responsibilities to his father and his brother…We see a disconnection from the family, a departure from God’s orginal design for life, to live in relationship with Him and with one another.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
Themelios: Volume 27, No. 1, Autumn 2001 The Younger Son in His Prodigality—The Postmodern Condition
The enjoyment of personal freedom could only be attained in fleeing from the father’s house with all that it stood for in terms of tradition, authority, objective values and socio-moral responsibilities to his father and his brother. So the younger son’s drive for freedom meant a deliberate renunciation of a set of values, endemic to his existence until that time.
Scene 2
Scene 2
After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
Luke 15:14-
“Ho! Everyone thirsty, come to the waters! And whoever has no money, come, buy and eat, and come, buy without money, wine and milk without price! Why do you weigh out money for what is not food, and your labor for what cannot satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul take pleasure in rich food. Extend your ear, and come to me! Listen so that your soul may live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the enduring proofs of the mercies shown to David. Look! I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and a commander for the peoples. Look! You shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that does not know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and the holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you.”
“Ho! Everyone thirsty, come to the waters! And whoever has no money, come, buy and eat, and come, buy without money, wine and milk without price!
And after he had spent everything…there was a severe famine throughout that country…and he began to be in need. All the friends are gone, the nice times has come to an end, but more than that, a famine, a sever famine has hit the land. And he has no means to support himself, the bible says he began to be in need.
What a sad picture…here’s the son destitute and disconnected from his family, in a foreign country.
TALK ABOUT LIFE AS AN IMMIGRANT
Again, see the contrast with the life the son had with his father of abundance and wealth, and now he finds himself in a place of lack. That is exactly what the famine represents both literally and figuratively...”THE LACK OF...”, “THE ABSENCE OF...”
TALK ABOUT THE FAMINE’s WE LIVE WITH...
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Verse 17 says that he “came to his senses:
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’
This is where his journey of return begins…he came to his senses. He saw things for what they were, his life for what it is, and then he acted…He said I will set out and go back to my Father…and he would confess his wrongdoing...
that if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Scene 3
Scene 3
So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:20-
A LONG WAY OFF
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XXXVII Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son (No. 2,236)
The father “saw” his son. There is a great deal in that word, “saw.” He saw who it was; saw where he had come from; saw the swineherd’s dress; saw the filth upon his hands and feet; saw his rags; saw his penitent look; saw what he had been; saw what he was; and saw what he would soon be. “His father saw him.” God has a way of seeing men and women that you and I cannot understand. He sees right through us at a glance, as if we were made of glass; he sees all our past, present and future.
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XXXVII Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son (No. 2,236)
The father “saw” his son. There is a great deal in that word, “saw.” He saw who it was; saw where he had come from; saw the swineherd’s dress; saw the filth upon his hands and feet; saw his rags; saw his penitent look; saw what he had been; saw what he was; and saw what he would soon be. “His father saw him.” God has a way of seeing men and women that you and I cannot understand. He sees right through us at a glance, as if we were made of glass; he sees all our past, present and future.
The father SAW him
The father “saw” his son. There is a great deal in that word, “saw.” He saw who it was; saw where he had come from; saw the swineherd’s dress; saw the filth upon his hands and feet; saw his rags; saw his penitent look; saw what he had been; saw what he was; and saw what he would soon be. “His father saw him.” God has a way of seeing men and women that you and I cannot understand. He sees right through us at a glance, as if we were made of glass; he sees all our past, present and future.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
was FILLED with COMPASSION
Filled with COMPASSION
Spurgeon, C. H. (1891). Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 37, p. 650). London: Passmore & Alabaster.was FILLED with COMPASSION
RAN to him
RAN to him
THREW HIS ARMS AROUND HIM
KISSED him
THREW HIS ARMS AROUND HIM
KISSED him
What about that
The ROBE - restored to position of sonship
Robe of righteousness
I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels.
And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful land, and in the vineyards no one exults, no one shouts for joy; no treader treads wine in the presses; I have put to an end to the jubilant shout.
The RING - authority or seal of the Holy Spirit
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
The RING
The SANDALS - not a slave, but as a free man put on the shoes for the readiness of the gospel of peace
For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.
The SANDALS
The FATTENED CALF - for feasting
The FATTENED CALF
Scene 4
Scene 4
The older son
“ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.