The Runaway

Introduction

Think of a movie that you’ve watched a million times. You know the lines coming up, you know the storyline, you know the main characters, you know the plot, you probably have done some research on the actors and actresses, you are a fan of this film and you know pretty well! For Lindsey’s family, they have a Christmas tradition of watching the movie Elf every single year - sometimes multiple times during the Christmas season! They know this movie extremely well and I found out about this whenever Lindsey and I first started dating. We were talking about our favorite traditions around Christmas and I talked about visiting family and having Christmas with my parents on their anniversary on December 20th and she immediately talked about their family tradition of watching Elf! There were other good things mentioned, as well, but that was up there! Because they’ve watched this movie a lot, they know the lines really well. Maybe you have a movie that you know really well - or maybe you’re more of a book person and you’ve read a specific book several times and you can summarize it to someone and give them lots of information that an ordinary person might not know.

For many Christians, the story of the Prodigal Son is one that we have read many times. It is a text that we’ve heard many Bible study lessons and sermon messages on as well. For good reason! It is a very powerful parable told by Jesus Christ to his audience and it illustrates lots of important points about salvation and the attributes of God. This is a good story and one that we should know very well. But with reading the story many times, there comes a risk of being numbed by what we read. If you watch a movie lots and lots of times, you come to know what happens next and the shock factor isn’t there anymore. The same can happen to us with the Bible. We know that Jesus was born, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended back to heaven. Because we know that story, certain details might not stand out as much to us now as they used to. Details like the death of Jesus might not resonate as much because we know how the story ends!

In the story of the Prodigal Son, we often focus on the younger of the two brothers - after all, many Bible’s have a subtitle for this story and it is called the Parable of the Lost Son. Tim Keller shares in a book about this passage that the subtitle should really read like this, “The Parable of the Lost Sons.” Friends, in this story, we will find not just 1 lost person… We find 2. In our culture, and even in church life, it can be easy to be the “older” brother and think that we have it all figured out and to play the “at least I’m not so and so” game. I know that I’ve sinned, but at least I didn’t sin like she did, or at least I didn’t go out and do what he did. This mentality can be pervasive in the church and it was a common attitude held by many people in Jesus’ day. That’s why Jesus tells this story in the first place. This is a story that communicates God’s love for His children - certainly! But it is also a story that illustrates our lostness and our desperate need for God. Not our need to obey rules and compare ourselves to others. Not our need to play the “I deserve” this game. Not our need to look good in front of others. Our desperate need is to be saved by our heavenly Father from the punishment of our sins.

This morning we are going to begin a 3-week study entitled Prodigal Children / Faithful God. We’re going to look at what the text says and focus on how our God is faithful to redeeming and saving prodigals like you and I. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, whether you’re a younger brother or an older brother, understand that we all have a need to come home, to repent, to be saved, to be filled with compassion, and to live as an adopted child of our Faithful Father.

Luke 15:11–24 CSB

11 He also said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. 14 After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. 15 Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. 17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” ’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

We, like the Prodigal, Have Fallen Short (11-16)

How many of you would say that you are a pretty good driver? A survey in 2019 revealed that 76% of Americans claim to be good drivers. What qualifies as “good”, though? That varies from person to person. There are those who think that being a safe driver is being a good driver. Others believe that not having a ticket means that you’re a good driver. Others think that being able to get from point A to B without directions or getting lost makes you a good driver. One thing that has happened to just about every driver in the world a time or two is that we’ve gotten lost on our way. Whenever you get lost, you are left with a decision to make. On the one hand, you can continue going the way you’re going in hopes that you eventually find your way to the destination. On the other hand, you can go backwards and find a familiar place and try to proceed from that point. Often, though, we don’t like going backwards. We don’t like admitting that we’ve made an error or wrong turn. My best friend growing up was going to another buddies house several years ago and it was his first time going to this particular house. The directions given to him were a little hard to understand and my friend thought that he arrived at the correct house. To his surprise, though, there weren’t people playing outside and no one was there to greet him at the door. This was strange, he thought. Rather than going backwards and getting into his truck and back to the road, he went into the house and began to ask if anyone was home. Eventually there was a couple home and this couple was extremely frightened because they thought that Nathan was an intruder and threatened him. After a few minutes, Nathan left quickly and found the correct house and told the story to a chorus of laughter.

Like Nathan, we’ve all gotten lost on the road before. Hopefully for your sake, you haven’t entered the wrong house! Whenever we get lost in life, one of the most helpful things to do is return to a place of comfort and a place that is familiar. Sadly, for many people, whenever they think about turning around or for asking for help, there can be a prideful urge to double down, to remain confident in our own ability, and whenever we do this as humans, we always remain lost. In the story of the Lost Sons, we see the result of doubling down on our feelings - it leads to a life that will not satisfy. The first step that we must make is to understand that we have fallen short and we must turn around.

Whenever someone tells us that we’ve done something wrong, do we typically welcome their criticism with open arms? Occasionally however, as we touched on last week, we usually don’t handle constructive criticism very well. Jesus taught His followers often and one of the primary ways He did this was through parables. What exactly is a parable? One definition that is helpful describes a parable as, “A story or saying that illustrates a truth using comparison, example, analogy, hyperbole, or simile.” There is a purpose behind parables and Jesus’ parables were no different. In Luke 15, we see 3 parables. Looking to the beginning of the chapter, we see the audience that Jesus addresses these parables to: tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, and scribes. Jesus gives these people 3 parables about something being lost and eventually being found. We see the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons. For comparisons sake, we know that God is compared to the Shepherd who finds the lost sheep, the person who finds the lost coin, and the Father in the Son narrative.

Why would Jesus chose to share these parables with this specific audience? Why do we focus almost exclusively on the younger son at the expense of the older one? Is there more to the audience than heathen gentiles who have lived reckless lives prior to this day? Yes. Jesus starts off by saying that a man had 2 sons. This is incredibly important for us to understand the entire story properly. In the audience there are 2 types of people. In our world, there are 2 types of lost people. There are those who are lost due to forging their own path and living a reckless, self-centered life. These people are lost in their sins. There are others who are lost not because of rejecting God and moving away and living a worldly, secular life. There are people who are lost because they are following all of the rules. Maybe you’re scratching your head here. You can be lost if you’re following all the rules in the Bible? Yes, you can. This is more for next weeks sermon, but we have to understand who Jesus’ listeners were if we are going to accurately understand His purpose in this story.

The younger brother comes to his father and asks for his inheritance. We’re familiar with this part of the story. This is disrespectful. This is uncommon. This is insane in this particular culture, but it’s also disrespectful in our culture today! Why does the younger son act in this way? Commentators are helpful in giving us an idea, and we see as the story plays out that this is a man who has a plan and his plan starts and ends with himself. Friends, whenever we are all about me, myself, and I, we are going to fall flat on our face and we are going to end up hopelessly lost!

The Father obliges and gives the son what he asks for. In our translation Luke says that, “he distributed the assets.” In the Greek, it reads like this, “he distributed the life.” In this era, much of one’s wealth would have been tied up to property rather than liquid assets like cash. Because of this, the Father literally gives away his life/livelihood to the younger son. The possessions that the father had to live on were going to the younger son and we read that he travels to a distant country and squanders what his father has given to him.

The younger son fell short. He squandered what his father had given to him. He was stuck working with unclean pigs and serving a master who didn’t care for him particularly well. He fell short. He made a mistake. He was self-centered and the allure of freedom and opportunity failed him miserably. Can you relate to the younger son? Have you desired freedom and opportunity so strongly that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to do what you want to do? We’ve all had moments like this. We’re all strong-willed to an extent. What must we do? We have to realize that we’ve fallen short. We have to understand that the Bible is clear that we have sinned! As a result of this, second…

We, like the Prodigal, Must Repent (17-19)

Whenever we mess up in life, we usually are sorry that we have been caught doing something wrong. Whenever someone gets caught in a scandal in the media, it usually comes as a huge surprise to everyone and the people involved say something along the lines that they are so sorry and never intended for things to happen the way that they did. They’re sorry that they have been caught. Are they truly remorseful for their actions, though? Are we truly sorry for our sin, or are we simply upset that the fact that we’ve been caught? How can we tell the difference?

There is a difference in genuinely repenting and turning from our sin and being sorry that we got in trouble. The younger son has gotten into trouble, we see that he is working in a field of pigs. He has gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. He is cut off from his father. He is away from his community. As we will see at the end, he is considered dead! Friends, there is a consequence whenever we run away from our heavenly Father! John Piper shares, “You and I were made to be filled with God. And if we run from Him, if we take our little earthly inheritance of time, money, and energy and use it to do things that are not of God, it won’t matter whether we are worth 9 billion dollars - our future will be swine food for all eternity.” What’s his point based on the story of the younger son? We must be connected to the vine. We are created to be filled with God! Whenever we are apart from him, we suffer and there are consequences.

John 15:5 CSB

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

The son is not where he should be and he realizes that he has made a mistake. In verse 17 we read that he finally came to his senses. What does this mean? Again, we are created by God, to be with God, and to be for God. Whenever we are not fulfilling these things, there will be an emptiness to our lives. What does the younger son do as he comes to his senses? He longs to come home! Friends, the first step to coming home to your heavenly Father is to repent of our sin and turn from it.

Repentance is more than an emotional decision, though. How many of us have ever made an emotional decision that we later regretted or one that we made in order to please someone else? The younger son doesn’t simply do this. He doesn’t make an emotional decision to try and please his father. He came to his senses and realized that he had sinned. He doesn’t make an excuse as to why he sinned - as we are tempted to do - he simply says that he will tell his father that he has sinned against heaven and against him. The consequence of his sin is that he doesn’t deserve the title of son anymore. His only hope was that his father would welcome him back as a servant.

Repentance is the only appropriate response before our holy God! Whenever we come to understand how we have fallen short and whenever we come to realize how holy God us and how severe our sin is, we cannot make any demands of God. The only appropriate response is one saturated in humility and repentance as we pledge allegiance to our Lord.

Spurgeon commented on this passage and said this, “Though he had no goodness to bring, yet he did not try to keep his sins and come to Christ.” Church, lots of people think that God accepts us as we are - which is true - but they believe that they don’t have to change their living as a Christian. That’s simply nowhere to be found in the Bible. Whenever we repent, we turn from our sin. We don’t keep our sin in a box as we come to Christ. We, like the Prodigal, come home and we leave our past at the door and pick up what He has in store.

We, like the Prodigal, Are Welcomed by the Father (20-23)

In the 2 parables used by Jesus before this one, we read that people actively go out and look for what was lost. We read that the Shepherd goes after the sheep. The woman looks for the coin. In the story of the Lost Son, though, the Father doesn’t go looking. This is an interesting distinction by Jesus. We read in Scripture that the reason that Jesus came to the earth was to

Luke 19:10 CSB

10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

We know that the younger son was lost and we know that He is convicted of his sins and comes home. Why does no one go looking for him? Tim Keller argues that this would have been the job of the older brother. The older brother would have been responsible for tracking down the younger brother because brothers are to look out for one another as we see with the first example of brothers in the Bible with Cain and Abel.

We’ll focus on the older brother next week, but even though he drops the ball, we see the Father do the exact opposite. He runs after the younger son - he had compassion, he embraces his son, he clothes him, gives him a ring, and declares that a feast will be thrown immediately for his son! Was this at all what the younger brother expected would happen whenever he returned home? Absolutely not! He expected a spanking, a consequence, a stern talking to. Whenever you or I disobeyed mom and dad whenever we were kids, we didn’t get a party thrown for us, we normally got a punishment. Yet, we see in the text that the Father rejoices. He wasn’t too busy to not notice. He wasn’t too heart broken to not care about his son. He wasn’t to prideful to not run after his son. He wasn’t too stingy to not throw a party.

Church, our God is a God of grace and He doesn’t just give it out sparingly like whenever you’re trying to be very conservative with the ketchup at the restaurant so that everyone gets to use it. That’s not how God rolls. He lavishes His grace upon His children. More than we could ever deserve on our own. More than we could ever merit. As Jesus shares this story, He wants His audience to understand that God is the God who welcomes His children with open arms just as the father welcomed his lost son in love.

There are some people out there who make lots of conditions that people have to meet in order to be a Christian. These are the older brother types that we’ll address next week. What are some of these criteria? You have to look a certain way. You have to say certain things. You have to do what I do. You have to like what I like. You have to follow all of the rules. If you ever make a mistake then you clearly aren’t a Christian because what Christian on earth would do what you did? In our text, we see the younger son lived a life of rebellion and went far away from his father. What happened though? He repented of his sinfulness and came home. What is the call for each and every person on planet earth today? To repent of our sinfulness and come home. There is no sin too great that the cross cannot bear. Earth has no sorrow that heaven can’t heal! Come home and be welcomed with open arms.

We, like the Prodigal, Must Be Born Again (24)

Why do we need to come home? Our world says that we’re good to just do whatever we want to and be true to ourselves and please ourselves and do what makes us happy. Why do I need to come home? What makes home, home? Whenever you think of your home, what do you think of? For many people, we think of family, good memories, laughing, games, and parties. For some, they think of sad things whenever they think of their childhood home, and the word home looks like something different to them as they’ve made their own version of the word. As humans, we need a place where we feel safe. A place where we are surrounded by people we love and who love us. A place where we can spread our wings and grow. We need home and often, we long for home whenever we are away for a while. It’s no different in our spiritual lives. We’ve heard it said that we’re not citizens of this world, we’re just passing through. This is true - while we do live here, we know that our citizenship is not just in the US or whatever country a Christian lives in, rather as Christians we are citizens of heaven. That is our ultimate allegiance! Why is this the case? Think back to the Garden of Eden. What was the home for Adam and Eve? Living, talking, walking, and doing life with God. God walked with them in the Garden. He talked with them. They had a relationship! Friends, as human beings, we are created to have a relationship with God! Sadly, though, because of sin - as Romans 5:12-21 shows us, we are separated from God. We are lost - each and every one of us. What is the solution? We must be found.

This is what the Father celebrates at the conclusion of our text.

Luke 15:24 CSB

24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

This is what we see after each parable. The shepherd finds the lost sheep and rejoices. The woman finds her lost coin and rejoices. The son returns to the Father and a feast is in order. Why does this merit a celebration? Because the son wasn’t just lost, the Father says that he was dead. Does the Bible share with us that apart from Christ we are dead in sins? It does!

Ephesians 2:1 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins

We were all dead in sins. We have all fallen short. We must repent of our sins and we are assured that whenever we do this, whenever we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, we are a new creation. John 3 states that we must be born again and Paul, in Ephesians 2 shares this truth

Ephesians 2:4–5 CSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

The story of the prodigal being lost and found is absolutely true, but Jesus’ broader point as illustrated by the father in verse 24 is that the son was dead but is now alive. Friends, apart from Jesus Christ, we are all dead in sins but once we are born again, we are alive.

Conclusion

Earlier in Luke 15, Jesus shares this piece of truth

Luke 15:10 CSB

10 I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

Not only should we celebrate whenever the runaway person comes home, we know that there is a celebration going on in glory at this moment too!

Maybe your story is similar to that of the younger brother. Perhaps you’ve lived a very self-centered life for years and years before the Holy Spirit grabbed hold of your life and you came to your senses. My uncle was one such younger brother as he lived a life of rebellion from God for years and years until he finally hit rock bottom. Whenever we hit rock bottom, we have a choice before us: Keep digging, or turn around. My uncle, at his lowest point, came home. The Lord has changed his life since this day - but it wasn’t overnight. The younger brother in this story likely would have still been tempted to go back to his former ways as we all are tempted to continue to live in sin. What is the proper response to this urge? We must fight against it and trust in God’s plan. We grow in His Word and abide in Him.

Lindsey and I are getting to the point in parenting where Gabriel is starting to take some steps. He’s really good at taking 1 step unassisted and sometimes he’ll even take 2! Whenever this happens he’s excited and smiling but usually by the time he tries to take his 3rd step he falls and cries. While this is sad at times, it’s extremely exciting as parents because we know that he’s growing and he’s about ready to walk on his own. This brings us great joy - it’s the same way whenever the younger brother returns home to His Father. We’re not going to have all the answers. We’re not going to be perfect. But, we have to ask ourselves, am I taking some steps forward? Maybe it’s just one or two before we fall. We get back up and we try again. Eventually we’ll take 3 or 4. It’s a process, but we must grow.

Have you come home? It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, there is room in the Father’s house for you. Come home today!