Well good morning! Or should I say “DZRAS” which is Russian for “Hello”?
This morning we have a short time in God’s Word. Let’s commit this time to Him.
Father God. We thank you for this time together, this time in which we can study your Word. Father, reveal to us what you have for us to learn. Open our hearts and our minds. Use Your Holy Spirit to challenge us. We ask this in Your Son’s holy name. Amen.
This morning we are talking about fathers. This might have something to do with it being father’s day.
However I want to focus not on our earthly fathers but on our Heavenly Father.
Please open your bibles to Luke 15:11-32. This story is known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son or the Story of the Lost Son.
The context in which Jesus was telling this story was that He had been challenged by the Pharisees. They were upset that He was associating with sinners. Jesus knew this and you might say He was addressing their concerns.
Jesus tells a number of stories in Luke 15 and 16 which would have left the Pharisees a little bit uncomfortable.
They had got so focus on their rules that they had lost sight of the heart of God.
Their hearts had turned cold.
Their actions now reflected an attitude or motivation that was devoid of God.
Jesus was laying down the challenge to them in these stories.
This morning however I want to focus on just the story of the lost son.
I want to focus on what it teaches us about how our Heavenly Father choses to relate to us and how we are to relate to Him.
My desire is that we will refresh our understanding of just what God has done for us, the immensity of it and that this will cause our hearts to turn to Him in praise and worship.
Let’s read the story…
(Vanessa to read from NLT)
Story of the Lost Son
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: "A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, `I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 "A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him to feed his pigs. 16 The boy became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 "When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, `At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired man." '
20 "So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long distance away, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.*'
22 "But his father said to the servants, `Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening in the pen. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.' So the party began.
25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 `Your brother is back,' he was told, `and your father has killed the calf we were fattening and has prepared a great feast. We are celebrating because of his safe return.'
28 "The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, `All these years I've worked hard for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the finest calf we have.'
31 "His father said to him, `Look, dear son, you and I are very close, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!' "
So in short… a greedy, self focused, self loving young son demands his inheritance early, blows it all on fast cars (well maybe fast donkeys!!!) and fast women, crashes to the lowest of lows, realizes just how stupid he has been, comes meekly and repentantly back to his father, father reaches out to him and gives him what he does not deserve, older brother gets jealous and father explains his heart.
I want to quickly look at two aspects of this story.
But first realize Jesus was teaching a whole pile of stuff here. There is a great depth in this story and the stories Jesus told in Luke 15 and 16. These are more than just nice stories!
One of my challenges to you this morning is to leave your marker in these pages and ponder them this week.
The two aspects I would like to focus on are in verses 18 and 19, and in 20.
Firstly, verses 18 and 19.
18 I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired man." '
The son has realized his mistake. He was now the servant of a foreigner. He was dealing with pigs! He was even thinking about eating the lowest of food feed to pigs. To his Jewish upbringing this was bad upon bad upon bad.
He also realized that the answer to his desperate situation was to be back with his father.
It did not matter whether he was to return as the father’s son or the father’s servant. He needed to be with his father.
He was repentant. He knew he had done wrong.
He was intent. He knew the only way forward was to return to the father.
He was humbled. He knew he did not deserve even to be a servant but he could but ask.
So how did the father respond? Verse 20 is simply amazing.
… And while he was still a long distance away, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
What you have to realize is that in verses 11 and 12, the son had in the culture of that day, behaved quite disgracefully.
He would have received 1/3rd of the father’s wealth as the younger son. The older son received 2/3rd as dictated by the Old Testament law. So as a family, he had put them at financial risk. 1/3rd of their assets gone.
He would have shamed his family.
Not only had he decided to leave the land, he had decided to live as a heathen.
You can see even today, with the recent moving of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank, just how important land is to the Jewish people. How much more so in Jesus’ day. To turn your back on your homelands would have been huge.
Then we had living as a heathen or wild living in this translation. This was breaking Jewish law left, right and centre. You can imagine all this family’s neighbours talking about this young man, imagining what he was getting up to, shaking their heads and then being silent as the father walked by only to talk behind his back.
But look at the father’s response!
The father sees his son coming and he is filled with love and compassion.
He runs to his son!!!
He doesn’t just shake hands. He embraces him, kisses him.
Do you get the sense of joy?
In the following verses he showers him with the best of the best.
All the son hoped for was mercy.
To become a servant of his father.
Instead he was restored as a son.
He was given the finest clothes. A huge celebration with the best meat.
Amazing! Is this a picture of grace or what?!
Is this what the young son deserved?
No! Of course not.
Later in the story the older son focuses on this. But the father is not focused on fairness or retribution in a human sense. He is just overjoyed that his lost son has returned to him.
Well, Jesus wasn’t telling this story because it was a nice story. This is a story to illustrate the relationship between our Heavenly Father and us.
The father in the story is God!
We are that young son!
The living a “wild” life is where we were before being called by God. And yet when we realize that we need God, repent and come humbly back to Him, he shows the same amazing grace that the father in this story showed his son.
What’s more, God ran to us in the shape, form and example of Jesus.
He didn’t just wait until we arrived.
He called out.
He went out.
He reached out.
He walked the talk.
He paid the price.
This describes the simple faith we are to have. Forget the complexity! All those deep theological discussions. Be like the son! Know you need to be with your Heavenly Father.
I want to invite you to close your bibles… and to close your eyes as we enter a time of communion.
(Music – softly!!!!)
I want to ask you to reflect on this story.
This picture of our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
This picture of our Heavenly Father’s love and sacrifice.
Take a moment to realize we did not deserve to be allowed back.
A moment to realize we did not deserve to be welcomed back.
A moment to realize we did not deserve to have our Heavenly Father ran out to us through Jesus.
A moment to realize we did not deserve to have our Heavenly Father sacrifice His only son.
To our human minds this all just does not make sense. What amazing grace He has shown us.
Ask yourself, “Does knowing this make a difference in the way I live?”
As we take communion together, I would invite you to tell your Heavenly Father just what this story means to you.
This is more than a story. This is what our Heavenly Father has done for you!
Offer up from your heart the praise and thankfulness that He deserves.
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