The Lost Son

The parable of the lost son, parable that Jesus tells in connection with two other parables, the lost sheep and the lost coin, he will look with me at Luke chapter 15 and we'll be reading verses 11 through 32. Let's listen together to God's word. Jesus continued, there was a man who had two sons, the younger one said to his father, father to give me my share of the estate, so he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth and wild living. 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. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my fathers hired men 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 men, 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 fat and calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and as alive again, he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. The brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fat and calf because he has him back safe and sound. The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father, look, all these years I have been to a son of yours who has squandered your prostitutes. You killed the fat and calf for him. My son, the father, said, you are always with me and everything I have is yours, but we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, lost and is found. Let's pray together. Our father and our God, we ask this morning that you would speak to us through your word. We thank you that even your word assures us that it will accomplish all of your purposes in our lives. We would ask this morning, Heavenly Father, that you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see and hearts to comprehend the truth of your word. I would ask that by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, you would convict hearts, that you would use me a week in unworthy vessel to communicate your truth. Forgive my sins, Heavenly Father, and don't allow me to get in the way of anything you would accomplish in the hearts of your people this morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the confidence that we have, that your strength is always made perfect in weakness, and that you will be glorified on this earth. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. The lost son, a very familiar parable, and again, very familiar problems. A few weeks ago, we talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan, and we talked about even its familiarity, how that brought about confusion and misinterpretation and misapplication of the parable. People know the story of the Good Samaritan so well that they begin to take their own understanding and their own twist to it and apply it in whatever way that they want. We come now to the parable of the lost son, which again is one of the most familiar of all of the stories that Jesus told to his followers and to those who had listened. We have the Good Samaritan again, which is almost a cultural expression in the prodigal son, in the same way, is like that. We talk about the prodigal sons in our family. We even refer to ourselves at times as prodigal sons. And while most often today, the Good Samaritan is misinterpreted and misapplied people in the world who see it as a good moral tale and a lesson in morality for people in the world, most often times, the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son, is misinterpreted and misapplied by religious folks, people in the church who are seeking a way to define God and even put God in a box. We have to always be aware, interpret any part of Scripture that we do so in light of all of the teaching of Scripture. And what happens is that scholars and religious folks will take the parable of the prodigal son and remove it from the context of Luke 15, and even the context of the two previous stories that Jesus told, and not only that, they remove it from the context of all of Scripture, and they then misapply it. So we need to be aware of the things that we've talked about every time we talk about a parable of finding it in its context and interpreting it in light of all of the Scripture. But we also have to avoid a very common problem that happens when people interpret parables particularly, but Scripture in general, and that is the problem or the danger of drawing any negative conclusions from the teaching of a parable. What they quite often will do is say, this is not seen in the parable, or this is not said in the story, and so consequently, that must be the nature of God or the way that He acts. And the parable of the prodigal son in particular is a parable in which they say, this shows that God is a God of love and not a God of judgment and wrath. And when we look at this parable, we don't see any teaching about justice and wrath. We see only a God of love and compassion, a fatherly God, and that is the picture that they want to see. And they neglect all the rest of the teaching of Jesus which addresses very clearly the full character of God and his holiness, his righteousness, and his judgment and wrath. And as they come to this parable, they make the most all the false conclusions that come up about this parable quite often, which is that there's no need for a mediator. There's no need for an atonement. There's no need for anything to make the son right with a father. You see in this parable, the son comes home, he doesn't send a lawyer, he doesn't send an advocate, he doesn't send a mediator, he comes to the father and the father reconciles with the son. And so they misinterpret and misapply the parable by saying that there is no need for an atonement, there's no need for a sacrifice, there's no need for a mediator between God and man. That's something that the Apostle Paul invented in his letters to the church. That's not the teaching of Jesus in this parable. But as we've said over and over again as we've talked about parables, the general, the key to make a point, he presents the story to us to teach us one great positive truth. So this morning, if we're going to understand what that truth is, we again go to the context. We have to always remember the context in which we find the parable. And again, as I've already mentioned, Luke 15 begins with two other stories that are told at a particular time when Jesus was talking with his followers, with the scribes and the Pharisees, and the teachers of the law who were upset with him because he spent time with tax collectors and sinners. And he told the stories of the lost coin and the lost sheep. And it's within the context of these two stories that we understand the parable of the lost son. And the great point of this story and the first two stories is that there is hope for all that God's love extends to everyone while the Pharisees and the tax collectors were angry with Jesus. And even indignant with the fact that he spent time with sinners, the point that Jesus was making in these three stories, in particular, the parable of the lost son, is that his love extends. And I think in the first two stories, the lost sheep and the lost coin, those stories are designed to teach us or to impress upon us, the love of God, which is an activity that seeks out sinners, that God himself initiates, that God himself pursues, that God goes about the business of finding us and drawing us to himself, a God who goes to infinite links in order to rescue those who are lost, and to show the joy of God in the finding of that which is lost, the joy of God in the salvation of one soul. Then we come to the parable of the lost son, the one before us this morning. Why does he add this particular story after having told the lost sheep in the lost coin? Why does he go on with this greater elaboration? Why now a son, a man, a human being instead of just a sheep or a coin? I think there can only be one answer. While the first two stories have stressed very clearly the activity of God, the action of God, the initiative of God in pursuing lost sinners, they do so without telling us anything about the actions or the reactions, or the conditions of the sinner. The first two stories, the sheep and the coin are passive and active and yet we come to the parable of the lost son, and it's told in order to impress upon us the fact that we as well have to respond to the grace and the mercy of God. We have to pursue the response of God to us, that we have certain conditions that are arise as we respond to the transforming work of God in our lives. It's the activity on our part that only occurs when God transforms us, when He brings us to life, when He regenerates us, but still there is the activity that takes place on our part. There are a number of lessons that I think we can see within this context, within the context of the great joy of the lost sinners, the great joy that comes to God in reclaiming that which is lost. I think there are several things we can see very clearly that are lessons that flow out of the particular parable before us. First of all, it's a parable, it's a story of a new beginning. The first truth that this parable, this story proclaims to us, is the possibility of a new beginning, the possibility of a new start, a new opportunity, another chance in our lives. Right off and we see our circumstances or our situation is like, our situation life is being hopeless. We think that no one else has ever been in the situation or under the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And yet, when we look at the story of the prodigal son, there really could be no case worse than his. There could be no search under which a person finds himself that could be more desperate, more hopeless, more fearful than that of the prodigal son. And yet in the story, we see that even he can start again. The message that those who heard the parable that day heard was one entirely new to them. Jesus was presenting a message that day which was radically different from anything his listeners had ever heard before. Again, we consider the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, the leaders of the Jewish people and their perspective on life at that time. They looked at life and they saw only those who were right with God, only those who had particular circumstances in their lives who were worthy of God's love. They saw themselves as being above everyone else and they saw themselves as being the ones to whom God addresses His Word and they didn't look at sinners, at tax collectors, at times this was truly a prophet. Jesus was truly a great teacher. If he were truly the Messiah, he would be coming to the people of God, the leaders of God's people. And he would be working with them to prepare them for the establishment of his kingdom. He was spending time with these hopeless wretches, these filthy sinners. He would be spending time with the elite, with those who God had already begun to work in. And he would be nurturing them and preparing them for the work of his kingdom. And so the message of Jesus didn't fit their paradigm. How could he be a true Messiah if he's coming and spending his time with these outcasts, with these wretches? It also didn't fit that of the Roman philosophers of Jesus' day. It was a time when the philosophical world was beginning to grow and ideas were being formed and philosophies were being proposed to men about how to advance in life, how to gain a foothold in the world. And yet, it always addressed the aristocracy, it always addressed the elite, it always addressed those who were in power. And even the philosophies of the Romans did not think about the slaves, it didn't think about the prisoners, it didn't think about the poor in the outcast, and Jesus comes along with a parable of new beginning, a parable that says the gospel can reach anyone in any circumstance at any point in life. There was not, and there never had been any hope for the hopeless in the world before Jesus came. He alone taught the possibility of a new start, a new beginning, Jesus brought something that no one had ever heard before, that even the worst, even the most hopeless, could find hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, the message that Jesus taught that day which was so radically new and different is still radically new and different today. You look at the world around us and you consider the lives of people in the world and they really are without hope and they really are without any expectation that there can be a new beginning. We sort of fool ourselves and talk about the fact that there could be and every new year we sit down and write out a list of resolutions and how long do they last? Hardly before the week is over, we've failed to keep the resolutions that we make and we grow frustrated with the fact that we just can't seem to change. And we look at the political world around us today and how often have you heard in the last few months, individuals who will say, what really doesn't matter who you vote for, it doesn't matter what we do, there's not any hope of anything changing. The world is going on in a fatalistic way and there's not a hope for a new beginning. I've talked with individuals in this church who are dealing with situations in their lives that are frustrating their life, grabbing patterns that have them in bondage and they look at the circumstances of their life and they say there's not any hope of change. That's the way that I am, that's the way that I've always been. I've always been a lazy person, I've always been an angry person, I've always been a prideful person, I've always been a covetous person, I've always struggled with lust in my life and I can't seem to change. And Jesus comes along and tells the story of the lost son and says there's always hope. There's always the possibility of a new beginning. I wonder how many of us here feel that our life has gone wrong, that we have gone so far astray, that we only look at life with the thought of what might have been. We don't look at the future and think what God might do. We sit in sorrow thinking about the things that we've gotten into, the problems that have come up in our life, that we can never get out of, we've gotten so far in debt that we'll never be able to pay it all off. We've wandered so far from the path that we can't ever get back on. We feel so hopeless because of the situations in our life where we find ourselves without hope because of some sin that has mastered us, because of some problem that has come along. And we say, is there any reason why I should, what's the use of trying again? I've tried and tried with the same results over and over again. And the gospel comes to you and says, there is hope. There is hope for great change in your life. Not in anything you can do, not by mustering up the power in your own life and your own heart. The hope that you have is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The next thing I think we see in this parable is we come to this wonderful hope of the gospel. And I think it's the thing which really provides the clear distinction between this parable and the first two is that there are conditions attached. Now as good-reformed theologians as good Calvinists, we know that our salvation is a work of grace, participation, to break ourselves right, and yet the scriptures clearly give us a picture of response to what God does in us when He transforms us to repent and believe the gospel. And as we look at that in context of the parable of the lost son, I think the first thing that we see is that each and every one of us must face our position in life squarely, truthfully and honestly. We must evaluate our lives and look at them for what they really are. See, so often in our life we develop patterns of behavior, we develop ways of doing things. We live a certain way and we wander away from the truth of God's Word and we wander into sin in such a way that we don't even notice it anymore. We allow patterns of behavior to become so commonplace in our life that we don't even address them as the sin that they truly are. We need to take a step back and come face to face honestly with the condition of our lives, honestly with the way that we live day by day. We see that in the prodigal son in verse 17 of Luke 15. It says, when he came to senses, when he came to himself, the text really says, when he really came to himself and looked at himself for who he truly was, when he evaluated the circumstances of his life and saw how he had brought about the circumstances that he was in, he faced things out and did it quite frankly. Let me ask you this morning, have you done that? Have you come to yourself, have you evaluated your life, have you looked at the patterns of behavior, the sin in your life and dealt with it honestly and come face to face with your sin? Let me ask you a question this morning. What if you were to take a piece of paper out this morning and write down on that piece of paper all of the actions in your life over the past year? All of the things that you have done. What if you were able to somehow develop a computer program which kept a log, a journal, a track of all of your thoughts, all of your desires, all of your ambitions, all of your imaginings? Would you consent to have them published in the next courier with your name at the top? Paul Warren's list of thoughts, year 2000, believe me, I'd be out of town so fast you'd wonder where the preacher was next Sunday morning. What about you? Would you consent to that? What are you now in comparison with what you once were? What are you like now that you weren't like before? What about your hands? Are they clean? What are your lips? Are they pure? What about your feet? Where have they taken you in the past year? Where have they been? Look at yourself this morning, evaluate your life honestly. Be honest with where you are. What are you living on? What has been your food? Has it been the Word of God? Has it been his grace and his mercy in your life? Slop. How have you spent your money over the course of the past year? For what purpose do you spend your money? You spend it in a way that provides for your family that is responsible and stewardly and brings honor to God, or have you spent your money casually and frivolously on things for yourself in order to please yourself? We need to each and every one of us come face to face with the conditions of our lives as the prodigal son did that day. As he came to himself, we need to come to ourselves and look at who we really are. We need to evaluate our lives today and admit that we need to come back to the Savior. And that's the second step. There is only one thing we can do. There is only one person to whom we can turn. And that's the Lord Jesus himself. The Son there in the pig field, hungering, starving, without hope, realized that his only hope was to return to his father. That the only hope he had was to go back home, and that's the only hope that we have. We have to turn to him. We have to throw ourselves at his feet, at his mercy and his compassion, looking to him to do a radical work in our lives. You see, it's interesting if we look at the prodigal son at the beginning and what he said to his father, he said, father, give me the things that I want. Give me what I need, what I desire, so I can go and do what I want. When he comes back, what does he say to the father? He says, father, make me a servant. He's gone from father, give me to father, instead of saying, you do for me today, what can you give me to make my life happy? How can you make my circumstances better? Instead we submit ourselves to the immersion of God, the father, as the prodigal son does that, and as we do that, I think we find an amazing thing. We make an amazing discovery, and that is when we do that, when we make that change, when we turn back to the father, there will be a real solid new beginning and a new start in our lives. That's how the father immediately blots out the past of the son. The father doesn't see the son coming and say, oh, go get that list of things that my son did, that we're going to have to deal with before he comes home. I want that list of all the problems that he caused in our household. I want the accounting sheet of how much money he took with him when he left, and we're going to get things right. Now, the father sees him a long way off and runs to him and kisses him and embraces him and the past is blotted out. An amazing new beginning is the result of the return of the son. He takes hold of him and is filthy, rotten clothes, he embraces him and he brings him to himself. The past is forgotten, and when you return to God, when you come to yourself, when you admit your sin, when you admit that you need a savior, he will blot out your past. The wonderful thing in this story and the wonderful thing in terms of your relationship with God is not only does he blot out your past, he doesn't leave you standing there with your worn out sandals, your torn and filthy roads. He immediately says, get some new sandals, get a ring, put on the best robe, clothe him so that everyone who sees him will know that he is my son. He transforms you, not just by forgetting the past, but by making you new and bringing you back into the family and making you a son or a daughter of his. He closed you again, a new and he closed you, which is the righteousness of his son, Jesus Christ. You see, when we come to God, we are oftentimes like the prodigal son. When he decided to go back home having faced himself, he first thought, you know, I've got a strategy. I've got a plan in coming to the Father. I'm going to go and I'm going to offer to work and pay off my debt. I'm going to offer to just live as a servant. I'm just going to offer to do these things and maybe my dad will let me get away with that. And what happens? The Father comes and says, forget that plan, you'll never be able to work to pay off what you've done. I'm going to take care of it for you. And I'm going to clothe you in a robe which will make everyone know who you are. And that robe is the righteousness of his son, Jesus Christ. You see, when we come to the Father, he gives us everything we need and he makes sure that everyone around us knows who we are and to whom we belong. This parable speaks to us very clearly and profoundly of God's love, his desire to see sinners save. God longs for every one of us to be reconciled to him. He calls us though to evaluate our lives. You see, if we don't do a true assessment of ourselves, if we don't really come to grips with who we are, we quite often don't feel a need for a savior in our lives. A lot of us don't have a passionate and tense relationship with Christ because we've diluted ourselves about the true condition of who we are. We think we're all right. We've lived a good life. We've done enough to certainly please any God that might require of us obedience. And yet there is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God. And that's why he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty, to secure for us his righteousness so that we can be clothed in that robe. This morning is a wonderful opportunity. It's a wonderful opportunity for each one of us to evaluate our lives. When we think there's no hope for change. When we think that person, I'm always going to be like that. I just have always been that way. But God says to us this morning that he will change us, that he'll take off the filthy robes, the worn out sandals, that he'll wash us, he'll cleanse us, and he'll clothe us in the robe of his son, Jesus Christ. God has made it possible by sending Jesus into the world to die and rise again, and it doesn't matter what you've been in the past, or what you're like right now. All you have to do is come to God, confess your sins against him, cast yourself upon his mercy in Christ, and acknowledge that he alone can get his morning by for you. It's by Wes King, a friend of mine from college, and it's a song that he wrote after reading one of Charles Spurgeon's sermons on cum-blaw. As I sing it, I want you to listen to the words very carefully, and evaluate where you are this morning. Are you a lost son or daughter? Are you one who needs to come to grips with the reality of your life and the condition of your heart? Think about that list of all your thoughts, actions, words, and deeds over the past year. Consider whether or not you need to be clothed anew again in the righteousness of Christ. Anyone whose heart is cold and long, anyone who can't believe, whose hands are warmly comfy, are tired of walking, and even lost their will to run for your aching soul. As you nakedness, that there a frame, sinner, come and receive his mercy, come, come at will, clothe, naked, help us this morning to come, even as we are, recognizing our need to be clothed in that robe, which is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, a robe which allows us to stand before you spotless and blameless as your children, chosen by you, embraced by you, called by your name. Father, I pray that if there is anyone here this morning who feels that they are unworthy, who is just afraid, who feels like the things that they have done disqualify them from your grace and from your mercy and from putting on that robe of Christ righteousness, Father, God break through the walls that they are building up and allow them to run to you this morning, allow them to come to you just as they are. Father, if there is anyone here this morning who doesn't know the Lord Jesus, who has never embraced him, who has never felt the love of the heavenly Father, let's today be that day, let them know the love that you have for lost sinners, a love that pursues and a love that embraces and a love that puts away the past and makes all things new. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.