Sermon Tone Analysis

We sang a version of Amazing Grace a few minutes ago.

There is a line within that is true:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I’m found

Was blind, but now I see.

We haven’t become wretched.

We’ve always been wretched.

Yes, from Adam’s fall, we’ve been anything but lovable in the eyes of a just God.

All mankind fell in Adam’s fall

One common sin infects us all

From sire to son the bane descends

And over all the curse impends.

The evidence cannot be denied.

We trust in our feelings instead of God’s Word.

We honor our appetites instead of God’s holy law.

We place our selfish desires above our neighbor’s needs.

Yes, and we stand in judgment of others.

All of this is but outward confirmation of the radical sin that lies deep within us and bubbles up into every form of idolatry.

That’s the nature of fallen, sinful, humanity.

The parables in Luke 15 all focus on the one searching for that which was lost.

All three of the Luke 15 parables go together.

They teach that repentance comes by God’s grace.

They teach that repentance is necessary.

They teach that heaven rejoices when a single sinner repents.

But most of all, they teach us about The Father’s love.

The Father’s Love

And God loves all people.

He loves sinners.

But they are lost.

They are alienated from God.

They don’t know God.

They don’t love God.

They don’t worship God or serve him.

They are unbelievers.

They believe in something; but it isn’t the truth.

It is a form of idolatry.

They are always searching but never finding the truth.

Only God can show them the truth.

In the gospel reading today the Pharisees object to how Jesus treated lost sinners.

He was kind and gracious to them.

He taught them.

He treated them with value and care.

His teaching is what led them to repentance.

The lost sheep and the lost coin represent lost sinners.

When the lost sheep and the lost coin are found by the one searching for them, this is referring to when a lost sinner repents of his sin and believes the gospel.

He is found.

Christ seeks out the lost and finds them.

He is the man with a hundred sheep who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one who was lost until he finds it.

He is the woman with the ten coins who searches the house looking for the one that was lost until she finds it.

In the gospel reading this morning neither of the two sons celebrated their father’s love.

The younger son fled his father’s love, pursuing worldly pleasures.

He squandered the resources his father had graciously given him.

The result was impoverishment, degradation and despair.

The older son forsook his father’s love because he was more concerned with his own priorities: his pride, his estate, his status, his self-righteousness.

These kept him from celebrating his father’s love and the restoration of his brother.

We can be either son, rejecting our heavenly Father’s love.

Jesus directed the parable to both the tax collectors and sinners, and also to the Pharisees and scribes.

Many things tempt us to forsake the Father’s love

Take the younger son: adolescent rebellion (which may last well into adulthood); mid-life crises; the quest for romance and excitement.

All of us are susceptible.

The result is spiritual impoverishment, degradation, and despair.

The ultimate result is spiritual death.

Many things can tempt us to forsake the Father’s love like the older son: preoccupation with status, possessions, wealth, work, family; jealousy of other people’s blessings; self-righteousness and pride because we avoided riotous living.

The result is spiritual estrangement, bitterness, and spiritual death.

The Father’s Love is Boundless

Malady: Cares of the world draw us away from what is most important: our relationship with God.

Money and property, position and status, riotous living and promiscuity, or self-righteousness and jealousy can become more important to us.

We fail to accept, grasp, or consider God’s boundless love for us and for all, and so we do not return that love to God or show it to one another.

The younger son, the prodigal, knew of his father’s love even though he had forsaken it.

By God’s grace, he came to himself.

He rehearsed his confession, and in so doing he repented.

The father seeing his son a long way off, runs down the road to received him back with open arms and kisses.

Totally impoverished, the father lavished his son—who was dead, but is now alive—with the best robe, sandals, a ring, and the fattened calf.

The father showered his love upon the older son as well.

He begged him to join the celebration.

Firmly but lovingly, he set this son straight regarding his relationship to his brother and to his father.

He reminded the older son what his major concern in life should be: the restoration of those who are lost and dead.

Through the perfect life, death, and resurrection of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the heavenly Father lavishes his love upon us.

Whichever son we happen to be, the Father calls us back to himself.

He sends the Holy Spirit, working through his Word of Law and Gospel, calling us to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

The Sinner Celebrates the Father’s Love

Means: God’s persistent overwhelming love continues to reach out to us—embracing, kissing, imploring us to come back to him.

He has provided the way through his Son, Jesus Christ, who was the great substitute for us—whichever lost son we happen to be.

He sends his Spirit to us, working through his Word and sacraments, showering us with his love, calling us back to him, empowering us to share that love with others, and enabling us to make his priority our own.

Returning children celebrate the Father’s love.

Like the younger son, we celebrate the Father’s love through contrition and faith, trusting solely in Jesus Christ for our salvation.

Like the younger son, we continue the celebration through ongoing worship and praise.

We actively participate in the Divine Service

We actively hear the Word of our Father

We actively partake of the lavish meal He has prepared for us.

Unlike the older son, we celebrate our Father’s love by serving him joyfully with grateful hearts, and rejoicing in the blessings he gives others.

Unlike the older son, we celebrate the Father’s love by adopting his priority as our own: seeking the salvation of those who are lost and dead.

Finally, Christ Jesus is the father in this parable, and He is to teach Christian fathers how to be fathers.

we must listen to this story, paying close attention to the father’s behavior.

As we do, we learn three things that God would have us know about godly patriarchy.

Being a Christian Father

First, the father doesn’t excuse the prodigal son’s sins.

Neither should we.

It isn’t fatherly love to excuse our children’s sins and to redefine sin so that our children will no longer be guilty of it.