Dec. 31, 2017 PM Service The Love Of The Father by Pastor Henry Wiley

The Shock of Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son

Good to be with you. My wife is out of town with our daughter in Southern California, so when Josh called me yesterday, I told him, no problem, I'm a free man. I know that many of you are familiar with this parable.

Probably a lot of you have known it since childhood. And you may ask, is there anything new to learn? Well, even if there is nothing new to learn, there are things you need to learn all over again. The goodness and character of God, we need to be reminded of these things.

So what I'd like to do this afternoon is kind of set the tone for you, how the original hearers took to this story. Because it actually was very shocking to them to hear this. They were totally astonished by this story Jesus tells them.

The reckless generosity of the Father. And I don't know, you've been astonished by things before, and if you can envision this group of people just with their mouths wide open, just shocked and astonished.

Jesus Welcomes Sinners and Eats With Them

And the chapter begins with Jesus being criticized for welcoming sinners and eating with them. And that's what verse 2 says. And the Pharisees and the scribes are grumbling, saying this man receives sinners and he eats with them.

They're totally offended at Jesus because, see, table fellowship was considered a sign of acceptance and friendship. How can he be so open with these people? Doesn't he realize that these are the bad people and we are the good people?

And so everything that follows in this chapter is Jesus telling them, this is why I eat with sinners and welcome them in. So Jesus tells them this parable, and it becomes apparent that the Father in this story is God, and the two sons are like the two groups of people listening to the story.

Because in this story there's two groups. The younger son's associates are in verse 1, the tax collectors and sinners, and their older brother, the older brother club is in verse 2, the Pharisees and the scribes.

So you have these two groups of people listening to Jesus. And so Jesus is holding up a mirror to these listeners, and he wants each of us to see ourselves in this story. He's asking, who are you in this parable?

Which of these sons are you? Who do you relate to? And he begins to tell us about this family, a father, an older brother, and younger son. And right away Jesus tells about the younger son, a son that wants to cut loose and be independent.

He's the rebel. He says, Father, you know that insurance policy that you took out to provide for us? I'd like my share now. I want it now. And the father says, well, that's all good and fine, son, but it's not going to mature until I'm dead.

And the son says, well, you've got the point, Dad. I wish you were dead. That's what he is saying in effect. It's an outrageous request. It's insolent. It's full of contempt for his father. Father, I want your things, but I don't want you.

And there are a lot of people today like this younger son. They view God, or they live as if he's irrelevant. They want the gifts of God. They want the life he gives, but they don't want him. They want independence.

They want this alternate world that they've created for themselves. And their slogan is in verse 12 where the son says, Father, and here's the slogan, Give me. Give me. Just give me those gifts and then just go.

And this is very shocking to those listening to Jesus. But they're even more shocked at the father's response. This was a patriarchal society in which you were required to show reverence towards those older than you.

Normally, this kind of contempt would have been dealt with very quickly. The listeners would expect the father to explode with anger, to drive the son out with kicks and punches, but instead we read the simple words, so he divided his property between them.

And we need to understand what this involved. In those days, most of the family's wealth was in their land and property, and it was part of their identity. And so the father had to sell some of his land in order to become liquid to get the cash to give to his younger son.

And the word property in Greek is translated bios, which means life. It says literally he divided his life between them. Well, let's take a look briefly at the older brother. He's kind of the establishment figure.

In verse 29, it says, look, he tells his father, I've served you all these years. I've never disobeyed your orders. I've done this. I've done that. He's the rule keeper. He's the fine, upstanding, moral young man.

He's the dutiful child. He's joined the family firm. He's hardworking. He's loyal. He's respectable. But he's somewhat boring, kind of like someone who works in a plastic factory. I don't know. That's who he is.

I hope no one here works in a plastic factory. He's conventional. That's what he is. Goes by the rules. But yet he's very different from his younger brother, but it's a deceptive contrast. He's not like his brother, but he's not like his father either.

And we see that in verse 28, when the younger brother returns and the older brother refuses to go into the party. The father is glad. The older brother is angry. The father greets him with open arms. The brother with clenched fists.

The father says, my son. The older brother says, this son of yours. He won't even acknowledge him as his brother. You see, this older brother never left his home, but he was just as far away from his father as his younger brother was in the pig pen.

Sin, Idols of the Heart, and the Father’s Costly Love

So if you want to think of God in terms of religion, then these two brothers are very different. But if you think of God in terms of relationship, which is how the Lord Jesus calls us to think of him, they're very similar.

Because they're both out of relationship with their father. One's religious, the other's not. One's respectful, the other's not. But both are out of relationship with their father. So what about you this afternoon?

Where are you? Which son are you? If you're one of these sons, you're still out of relationship with your father. Are you the young rebel or the young conventional type? Just imagine what it felt like for the father to lose his land, his family's good name and status, and the presence of his younger son.

You know, my son Matt, I have nine kids, and he's number seven. I don't refer to my kids as numbers, but he and his wife have three children, and last February he told me, Dad, I'm moving to Idaho. Now he's not a prodigal son, he's a good son.

But even as a good son, it broke my heart that he moved away. And I can identify with his father that his son decides to leave him and go away. He's being asked to tear his life apart, and he does it for his son.

And so people in the community would have thought, this father's foolish for giving in to this younger son's request. Yet, by bearing the agony and the pain of the son's sin himself, instead of taking revenge or inflicting pain on him, the father kept the door open in the relationship.

The father was willing to suffer for the sin of the child so that someday reconciliation would be possible. So what does that mean for us? First, it means whether we're free-willing, younger brother types, or moral religion, elder brother types, we have a problem with sin, with idols in the heart.

For example, imagine a wife who has a husband who spends hours with another woman just talking to her about his problems. And he hangs out with this woman and thinks about her constantly. And so the wife confronts her husband, and he says, well, what's the problem?

I married you, didn't I? I pay the mortgage, don't I? I do all my duties, don't I? If someone asks me if you're my wife, I say, yeah, she's my wife. Why are you so upset? And the wife will say, and rightly so, that someone else has captured your heart and imagination.

And this is how we are with God. That things capture our hearts and imaginations. And if anything has a controlling position in your heart, if anything is more important to your happiness than God, then that thing is a god to you.

It's an inordinate love, and we have to recognize it, those things, for what they are. Do you see them in your own heart, in your own life? And secondly, it means that our Lord has done for us what the Father in the parable did for his son.

When God came into this world, we would have expected him to come in wrath, to drive us out with blows, but he didn't. He didn't come with a sword in his hand, but with nails in his hands. He didn't come to bring judgment, but to bear our judgment.

And Jesus went to the cross in weakness, voluntarily, and his life was literally torn apart. But he did it so that when we repent, like this younger son, forgiveness and reconciliation is available. Well, let me just get back to this prodigal son story.

The father gives his son what he wants, he takes a big hit in his estate, and this is land that's been in the family for generations that could be farmed in the years ahead. All gone. Because the young son doesn't want to farm it, which is even more offensive to the father.

He wants to cash it in, sell it off quickly, doesn't want the responsibility of farming it, which he was supposed to do, he just wants to get rid of it and get the cash for himself. Well, what did he do with the money?

Verse 13 says he squandered it in reckless living. Now, the crowd listening to this, they're outraged. You have to get the feel for what a Middle Eastern person thinks like. What they would hear. They would be totally just shocked at this.

It's just beyond belief. And I don't think he squandered the money on just, you know, prostitutes, alcohol. I think he also had banquets to attract friends, to influence people, and all of it. He just squandered it.

So up to this point, he's done everything he could to offend his family, alienate himself from his village, and now he's trying to set up this alternate world for himself. And that's the picture that Jesus is painting.

And he's painting it because it is, in essence, what we human beings do. We create an alternate world without God, without a Father. We want to be independent. And so it's quite a powerful picture of the state of man.

And it's an outrageous picture, especially in this first century Middle Eastern society. You know, children rebel against their parents all the time, but our culture is a little different than that one.

Ours is very individualistic. It doesn't mean that parents don't get hurt. But the hurts are much deeper in that kind of setting, in that century. So the crowd in our story would say this. This is utterly shameful.

It's against all of our moral codes, all of our family codes. And they would finish by saying, it's unforgivable. And that's what they're hearing. And so when they heard the part about the severe famine in the land, and he began to be in need, it doesn't surprise them.

They're thinking, well, what do you expect? If you turn away from your family, your home, your Jewish heritage, it's going to end in tears. And it does end in tears. He loses everything. And now, of course, he's rootless.

He's homeless. He has no family. He's hungry. He has nowhere to go. No one to care for him. And he's lonely. And he's now dependent upon other people who are not of his heritage. And Jesus tells us he went out and hired himself out to a citizen of that country.

He sent him out into the fields to feed pigs. Now, in those days, if you were wealthy, and if there was a famine, you would get a lot of people coming around your property, kind of hangers-on, because they would want work or want something from you.

And there would be so many of them that the landowner would want to get rid of them. So this wealthy person in this far country wants to get rid of this young man, I believe. And he looks at him, and he says, well, you're a little Jewish boy.

I can tell by your clothes and your accent. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you a job that will absolutely disgust you so that you won't do it. Feeding pigs. But you know, he was so desperate, he did the very thing that disgust him.

And Jesus is bringing out the depths to which we can fall when we go our own way. But here is the point I want to bring out about this younger son. The real point, as it would have been understood by the crowd, is this.

There's no way that this son, who has done this to his father, can ever come back. Ever. He's dead to the family. He's dead to the village. He's dead. He's lost. It's over. He's gone from us. And that is a scenario that's painted.

And I'm sure it was a story that did happen from time to time. And people can identify with that in the crowd. Now, the second part of the story is, or the main part, really, is the generosity of the father.

The son realizes that he's in an awful situation. The pigs are eating better than he is. And so he comes to himself. He realizes he's made a mess. He's having one of those moments, what-was-I-thinking moments.

And so he goes back, and he has a speech all prepared. And when he's a long way from home, his father sees him. Now, how does the father... Now, does the father stand on the porch and say, this better be good.

This is going to be good. He's coming back. Or, I'm going to make him grovel. I'm going to blast him, because that's what he deserves. But that's not what he gets. No, verse 20 tells us that the father runs out to him.

He runs down the road. He cuts through a field. He jumps over bushes. And he falls on his son. He kisses him over and over again. By the way, just as a point, you would never see the Queen of England doing this, running to her son, doing something.

And this was a kind of society. That's why the crowd was astonished. What do you mean the father was running? So it was so out of their norm. So it was just like that for the fathers. So even though this young man had forgotten his father, his father hadn't forgotten him.

Because his father was waiting and watching and longing for his son. He's saying in his heart, Son, where are you? He was waiting for him to come home. Son, where are you? When will you come home? And if we're out of relationship with God, then your heavenly father asks, Where are you?

And that's what was said to Adam in the garden. It's been said to every human ever since then. Where are you? Well, this son is not looking forward to seeing his father. He really thinks he's going to get it.

And that's an amazing moment, and I want to convey it to you what it must have been like. The son is about to enter the village. He's about to experience shame and humiliation for all that he's done to his father.

He's getting ready for that. And then he sees somebody running towards him, and he can't quite understand why this is taking place. And he sees that the person running towards him is his father. And the father is actually humiliating himself in front of the village.

He risks being misunderstood. He's risking his reputation on top of what his son has already done to him. And those listening to Jesus are thinking, what is this father doing? Why isn't he telling his son off?

Why isn't he striking him? But in that moment, the son realizes that the father loves him and will pay any price to get him back. And that's the moment the son's heart melts, and he realizes what his father really thinks of him.

The father takes the humiliation on himself, and he takes the cost of it on himself. He's prepared to look foolish in order to put his arms around his son. And the son's words are so heartfelt. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Do you really love me like this, that you were prepared to make yourself look foolish before everybody? That you would run out to meet me, a scoundrel, a wastrel, who wasted everything, who cared nothing for you?

Is that what you really think of me, despite all that? It's the moment that melts his heart. It's astonishing, reckless generosity on the father's part. And it's the moment the son's heart comes back to the father.

I'm not worthy to be called your son. But the father says, no, I'm going to give you my robe, my ring, my sandals. Sandals were a sign of sonship, because servants did not wear sandals. So he gave him his sandals.

I'm going to close you so that you are now fully my son. And this is the love of the father, isn't it? It's turned to those who are lost, who have done awful things to him. The father's heart towards you is such that he would pay any price to bring you home.

And that's what Jesus did, by going to the cross to be humiliated and shamed to bear your sin, to bear your shame. All the things we've ever done wrong, Jesus absorbs into himself. He absorbs the cost in order that you could come back.

Joy in Heaven Over the Lost and Found

Our heavenly father is quick to bless those who return to him. The story is all about God's generous, lavish provision for you. And not only that, he's joyful in doing it. He's joyful in doing it. That's one of the notes played throughout this chapter, joy.

Beginning with the chapter with the lost sheep. Remember the hundred sheep, the ones lost? I mean, what would you do if you had to go out and look for that one sheep? The dark side of you would probably kick that sheep all the way home, right?

But what does the shepherd do? He picks up the sheep, he puts it on his shoulders and he says, I found the sheep that was lost. Let's celebrate. It's the same with a woman who finds the lost coin. And the prodigal son's father throws a party for his son, doesn't he?

Let's celebrate, let's have music and dancing, let there be joy and laughter. If there's joy in heaven among the angels over one sinner who's converted, do you think the one who stands at the center of the angels is joyless?

God is not only an awesome God, he's awesomely joyful. At the end of Zephaniah, the prophet speaks of God singing over his children with joy. Imagine that, God sings over us. So what do we need to see before we go home today?

We need to see God's generosity. He doesn't treat us as we deserve. He doesn't grind our faces in the dirt. He's so generous and he rejoices over us when we come back, regardless what we've done. He's joyful when you do.

For the younger son, it was fortunate for him to be seen on the road by his father and not by his elder brother. Because what would his older brother have done? His older brother would not have been so generous, would he?

In verse 31, the father tells the older brother that all that he has is his. And he was being literal, because he already gave the younger son his inheritance. What was left was the older son's. So when the father says in verse 22, bring the robe, ultimately it's the older brother's robe.

And when the father says, bring the ring and shoes, those are the older brother's. Same with the fatted calf. It's all ultimately the older brother's. So there's a big cost for this son coming home. There's the robe, the ring, the calf, even the party itself.

And there would be no way that this stingy, selfish older brother would ever pay for it. But Christians have a different sort of older brother, don't we? In Romans 8 .29, we're told that the Lord Jesus is our older brother.

And he's not stingy or selfish, like this older brother in our story. He earned everything. He earned the robe. He earned the ring. He lived the perfect life. And this true older brother, as he dies on the cross, says the only way for you to be clothed is for me to be stripped.

The only way for you to get the robe and ring is for me to put them aside for you. So as the Lord Jesus dies on the cross for my forgiveness, for my wrongdoing, he saves me there from hell, through the cross for heaven.

He pays, and he's the faithful older brother that says, for you to experience the Father's kiss, I will pay the price. I will die. I will be stripped so that you can come home. And being home is only a prayer away, because the Lord Jesus has paid the price for me to come home.

Coming Home in Humility Instead of Trusting in Your Own Goodness

If you're far away from the Lord, then you need to come home. And there's only one thing that will stop you from coming home. You know what that one thing is? It's your own goodness. It's your pride, which was the older brother.

You see, this older brother wouldn't go home, would he? He wouldn't go in the house, because he was trapped in his own goodness. Look, all these years I served you, because I'm good. I don't need to ask for your forgiveness.

I don't need to repent. There's nothing I've done wrong, and you've never given me a part. You're lucky to have me around, kind of his attitude. And so this older brother never experiences his Father's kiss.

He never does, because he's convinced of his own goodness. And he'll never know his Father's generosity. And I'm saying to you this afternoon, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't trust in your own goodness.

Come home, like the prodigal son, in humility, because the Lord Jesus has paid the price, and it's only a prayer away. Amen. Well, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the generous offer that you give us, that it's an overwhelmingly generous generosity on your part to forgive us for our sins and to make us clean, to make us your sons and daughters.

Lord, we thank you that you do this for us. Be with us as we enter a new year. We thank you that you have preserved us even up until now, that every day we live, we would live with the Lord Jesus in mind and what you would have us do that day.

Teach us to number our days, that we would be prone to wisdom. So, Lord, thank you again for our time together. In Jesus' name, amen.