Run to the Father: The Prodigal Son's Return

We're in Luke chapter 15 today, and this is the next parable.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

We're picking up, we read earlier, verses 11 through 32.

And those of you who are listening to our podcast, I encourage you to read that

passage as well, and you can pause it here, but read Luke chapter 15, verse 11 through 32.

Luke 15:11–32

But this is one of Jesus's best known and best loved parables.

And while it's much longer than the two that preceded it, right,

that we talked about last week, it actually, y'all, it addresses the same situation

and amplifies the same principles.

In verses 11 and 12, as we read earlier, introduces us to three characters.

Anybody know who they are?

There's a man and his two sons.

That's right. That's a pretty easy one, right? A man and his two sons.

And over the course of this parable,

each of those three individuals behaves in very striking ways that's going to

teach something important, y'all, about the dynamic that's described in verses one and two there.

And I think they're worthy of being considered individually.

So that's what we're going to do today.

We're going to actually start out with the younger son, the younger son here.

The story actually begins with a younger son asking his father for his share

of his inheritance in verse 12, right?

And in that culture, by the way, the older son could expect to inherit about

two-thirds of his father's estate.

The younger son could anticipate receiving the rest, which would be a third, right?

But what is really irregular here in the request, it's not the amount that he asked for.

He just simply requests my share, right?

So he's just requesting his share. But the fact here, what's really interesting

is that he wants it before for his father has died.

In essence, think about this today. He is communicating that he wants to break

all ties and associations with the family.

He's planning to leave home, and he doesn't anticipate any further contact with

his father, so he had better take his inheritance with him now.

He wants to start relating to his father now the way that he will once his father is dead.

Do you see that? And as we say in this first point, to put it bluntly,

y'all, he wants to skip ahead to the point where he can have his father's money

without having his father.

He wants to have his father's money without having his father.

We're not told why the young man felt this way.

Perhaps he felt that his father was too strict. Who knows? Maybe he felt pinned

in and unable to express himself at home.

Maybe he was just simply selfish and ungrateful. But whatever the cause here,

there's a seemingly irreparable breach, if you will, in that relationship when

the father grants the son's request and divides his property between his children in verse 12.

So the younger son here, surely he leaves home anticipating what?

He anticipates the life of unbridled fun, pleasure. That's available to a young

man with a lot of money in his pocket.

Hello, NIL, right? You got your friends, your food, your drink, your women, right?

I mean, he was planning it all out. He was ready to live like he always wanted to live.

And the fun doesn't last for long though, does it?

I mean, the wild living, if you will, as Jesus delicately puts it in verse 13, it quickly what?

It quickly drains that young man's financial resources.

When a severe famine actually hits the region in verse 14, and he had a famine

of his own as far as finances, right? I mean, it was a thorough famine.

He finds himself, as we see in this next point, he finds himself without any

money, friends or prospects.

And in the end, as we see in scripture, his only option is what?

What does he have to do? What does he have to take a job? He has to get a job,

right? That's one of them, get a job. That's always a good thing.

You know, my grandma used to say, there's always a good place to go when you're broke.

To work, right? And I think everybody's grandma says that, right?

Dave Ramsey's grandma says that too. To work, to work. That's a great place

to go. Well, he found out he had to get a job here.

And what was the job though?

Feeding pigs. Slopping the pig, right? Verse 15, in order to survive, y'all.

I mean, I'm thinking like today, like Brother Ronnie, like Mackie D's or something, right?

But I mean, is that equivalent? Slopping pigs? I don't know.

I'm just saying, you'd think he'd had them, but he didn't have a McDonald's back then, right?

But he took this job. I mean, this is talking about entry level, right?

Slopping pigs. I mean, the picture here, though, is of a young man who has lost

everything. Do you get it?

Y'all, he has no family, no money. In a Gentile country, did you catch that?

For nowhere else would we find a pig farmer because no Jew would ever keep pigs.

He's lost even his cultural and religious identity here.

And the word that Luke actually uses here in verse 15, that Greek word there,

and it's translated as hired himself, right?

It has the sense of binding or gluing something.

In other words, he has become identified with the citizens of that country,

outside the bonds of Jewish identity. and he's reduced to longing to what?

What is he so hungry and so in need? What is he longing to do here? In verse 16, what?

Yes, eat the pods the pigs eat.

Now, think about it. What kind of desperation would drive you to want to eat

pig slop and it look good to you?

But not here, even receiving that much.

And it's safe to say that a person couldn't fall much lower,

right? You're talking about hard times.

This is hard times. In fact, this man's desperation, it actually grants him

a healthy measure, y'all, of clarity.

You know, many Christians can look back to a time when God in his kindness actually

made them miserable enough in their sin that they finally called out to him

for help. You ever been there?

God made you miserable enough in your sin that you came to the end of yourself

and you just cried out, God help me, save me.

Just think about that for a moment. Hebrews 12, 7 through 11,

read that passage this afternoon. But it says here in Luke 15,

17, literally, literal translation, coming to himself.

You ever come to yourself? Coming to himself, he realized the mistake that he had made.

Perhaps he had been wrong about his father all along. Life on the farm wasn't

really that bad after all.

You know, you start counting your blessings like we talked about earlier,

you know. Life on the farm really wasn't as bad as I thought it was now that

I have this new perspective.

After all, he started thinking his father had hired servants that had more bread

than they needed, right?

And he realized that life with his father was a life of real blessing.

And that it was better than life pursuing happiness out in the world, so to speak.

So the plan that he hatches, and he notices as you read here,

the plan he actually hatches is a mixture, I think, of audacity and humility.

He's going to approach his father. What is he going to do, first of all,

in verse 18? What is he going to admit?

Yeah, he admits his sin. He admits his fault, right? And beg for some small kind of restoration.

No longer worthy to be called your son right but you

know he wants to be restored at least as a servant right and it's

certainly too much to ask to be accepted back is it too much you know into his

family as a son he knows that but perhaps the sight of his child might move

the father with compassion and he might be treated like a hired servant he thinks in verse 19.

So the younger son actually gets up and returns home in verse 20.

And by the way, before we go any further with this, isn't that what we see people

do a lot? We think somehow we got to earn it, right?

Just like this younger son. I mean, he wanted to go back. Yeah,

he did. He admitted he was wrong, admitted his sin.

But then he, instead of going back and resting on his father's grace and mercy,

it's like somehow I ain't worthy of that.

So I need to be hired so I can earn it. I can pay it back. you ever thought

that you ever thought there's some part of your salvation that you can pay God

for something good you can do that's going to get you gold stars.

It just gets away from the relationship, doesn't it? It gets away from that.

Well, it's not too hard to see that the character of the younger son helps to

explain, y'all, the experience of the people who have been flocking to Jesus.

Like the young man, think about it, y'all. The tax collectors and the sinners

had wandered far from home in their rebellion against God, against his law.

But just as he had come to his senses and humbled himself, So they were repentantly

seeking to be restored to their heavenly father through who? Through Jesus.

And in that way, y'all, we are engaged with the main tension of this parable.

And as we see in this last point on this slide, how will the father react?

That's the tension. How will the father react to all of this?

It's all well and good for the young man to decide to head home, right?

He's come to his senses. But it's all for nothing if his father will not take him back.

Y'all, in the same way, sinners can repent all they want to.

But the only question that matters is whether the heavenly father is disposed

to receive repentant sinners into his family.

Well, let's talk about the father here in this story for a moment.

Y'all, we can imagine that the younger son's heart here in this passage was just pounding.

It was racing as he neared the family property at their state.

He was rehearsing. You can see, you think about it, over and over his plea for mercy.

But what he found out was that his father saw him from a long way off. What does that mean?

Looking for him, anticipating, right? And in fact, he was watching for him, basically, right?

And he was filled with compassion for him, it says in verse 20.

There was no suspense or ambiguity in this reception, Eastwood.

As we see in this next point here, in his joy, y'all, the father broke all decorum

in that culture, and he ran to meet his son,

throwing his arms around him and kissing him.

Man would you think the father was

excited that his lost son had come home i mean

when i said breaking decorum in that culture that was

a shameful thing to do what he did you know

to run like that to lift up his rope to run toward his son i mean this was just

unheard of and the son here of course we know rehearsed all this and he was

truly he just humbly just begins to unfold his request for restoration to a

place of what? Service in the household, in verse 21.

But y'all, hear what is so awesome? He can only begin to acknowledge his sin.

Guess what? His father interrupts him with a lavish welcome.

There's no question of him, y'all, being treated like a hired hand or having

to endure a probation period with his father. The father orders his servants to what?

To quickly bring a robe, ring, and sandals for his son, right?

In verse 22, theologian Edwards points this out. He says that all three are

signs of status, reputation, and honor.

Wow, this is amazing. The killing of a calf was an extreme extravagance.

But this was a once-in-a-lifetime celebration. Do you see that?

Do you see this next point? The son who was dead, y'all, in his estrangement

and rebellion, his sin, in other words, had been restored to life in verse 24.

Wow. I mean, we're talking about a resurrection party, amen?

A resurrection party. In fact, if you're familiar with this story,

it can be hard to really appreciate how unexpected this response is, I think.

The younger son's behavior, y'all, it was truly scandalous.

The father could not have been blamed, in other words, here,

if he had responded to his son's return here with suspicion and distance, by the way.

But instead, as we see in this next slide, his love was lavish and unrestrained.

There was no question of the young man returning as a servant. Why?

Because he was a son. He was a son.

Man, the great Victorian preacher, Charles H.

Spurgeon, he reflected on the picture of God's love for the lost in this particular

parable in his sermon that was titled Many Kisses for Returning Sinners.

What a great sermon title, right? And this is what he said. Listen to this.

He said, The condescension of God towards penitent sinners is very great.

He seems to stoop from his throne of glory to fall upon the neck of a repentant sinner.

God on the neck of a sinner? What a wonderful picture.

Can you conceive it? I do not think you can. But if you cannot imagine it,

he said, I hope that you will realize it.

When God's arm is about our neck.

And his lips are on our cheek, kissing us much, then we understand more than

preachers or books can ever tell us of his condescending love.

Wow. Y'all, we need a fresh picture of that today, don't we?

Yes, it reminds me of a song. I believe Michael W. wrote this one, Stubborn Love.

It's stubborn love that won't let go of me.

You know, this parable is Jesus's way of putting a fine point on the lesson

of the previous two parables we studied last week.

If we rejoice in the restoration of relatively unimportant things,

You remember like sheep and coins in the grand scheme of things?

How much more, Eastwood, does God rejoice when human beings that are made in

his image are returned to him through repentance?

Wow. Well, let's talk a little bit about the older brother.

The older brother. We're introduced to him in verse 25, where we find him dutifully

working out in the fields, right? And I'm going to tell you all something today.

The contrast between the two sons really couldn't be more stark.

While the one left, he left his family to squander his money in shameful ways.

The other did what? The older, he stayed and he served his father obediently, according to verse 29.

He actually had appeared a model son.

But when he finds out the reason for the

celebration that's going on in the house he

can barely be civil did you notice that then he

gets ticked off anybody ever been ticked off I mean come on

he gets mad he's very angry and such as is anger in verse 28 his bitterness

actually pours out and by the way I want y'all to remember this bitterness is

a poison that you yourself take thinking it's going to kill others.

Bitterness only poisons you,

and that's what happens when you let anger and hatred fill your heart.

You will become bitter, and it will kill you. It will poison you.

But as bitterness pours out here, as we see in this first point,

as he describes his time working for his father in verse 29.

Really literally in the Greek is slaving.

He's been slaving for his father, right? and as

he then tries to pour cold water on the father's joy

here do you see that by reminding him what here

look at it this son of yours not this brother of mine but this son of yours

squandered the family fortune on prostitutes verse 30 you think he's got it

up a notch right I mean he's going for the he's going for that for the kill

right and viewed from a certain angle,

the older brother's outraged reaction is perfectly understandable.

After all, the father's celebration is a bit like a slap in his face, right?

It hardly seems fair to him that his diligence, his loyalty have never been

rewarded, he thinks, with even a small party and a young goat to eat.

I guess that's the thing about young goats in that culture, y'all.

When they threw that party, it's something about it. You went on a date,

you got young goat to eat, right?

I don't know, But here his brother acts in the most irresponsible way that's imaginable.

And his father actually rolls out the red carpet, y'all, for the lost son.

How is he expected to be pleased with that?

Well, it's clear that we see in this next point that the older brother here

is meant to show the Pharisees how they're muttering about Jesus's ministry.

Actually, y'all, places them

outside of God's program of restoration and forgiveness. Do you see that?

You see that in this passage? They saw Jesus proclaiming that the tax collectors

and sinners could come home to receive the warmest welcome.

And instead of rejoicing in the goodness of God's mercy and grace,

they complained about the unfairness of it all.

The parable actually ends with a surprising reversal of fortune,

by the way. Did you notice it?

The younger brother is inside the house doing what?

Celebrating his relationship with his father, but the older brother is on the

outside, suddenly estranged from his father.

Do you see it? The reversal of fortune there?

Well, I think we can sit here a moment and think, wow, are we celebrating?

Are we rejoicing with the Father over lost souls who are saved?

Here's the invitation today that we see in this passage.

We'll see it right off here in this first point. The father's love for his lost

younger son is actually matched by his patience.

For his suddenly lost older one. We can well imagine y'all that he might have

berated this young man, right?

For his ingratitude, his selfishness, you know, trying to say,

you know, look, I hope you learned your lesson.

It reminds me of the old saying, you know, people horsing around,

you know, getting to mow the yard.

You remember you got to mow the yard the first time, you know,

got to cut the grass and you loved it.

That quickly went away. But anyway, you loved it and you were happy and you felt powerful.

And your mom and dad or somebody yells out, if you cut your legs off with that

lawnmower, don't come running to me.

Yeah, and you're probably thinking, if I cut my legs off, I won't be running

to anybody. But anyway, but he might have berated the young man,

tried to teach him a lesson, you know.

See, didn't you learn your lesson there out there? See what happened to you?

After all, who is the son to tell his father what to do with his time and money?

Aren't we in an entitlement culture? Everybody thinks somebody owes them something,

even though they didn't earn it or work for it, right?

Somebody owes me something. Mom and dad owes me this, that, and the other, or whatever it might be.

But instead, the father pleads with him, reminding him that his service has

not been in vain. Do you see that in verse 31?

The parable actually ends here with an implicit plea for that older brother

to come in, to rejoice in his father's kindness to the lost brother and actually

to join the party in verse 32 there.

We're left hanging, aren't we? With this question, as we see in this final point

on the slide, will the older brother come in?

Will he come in? So these three parables, y'all, here's the invitation.

They actually extend an invitation to everybody. That's all of us.

Some people, like the younger brother and the tax collectors and sinners,

they've looked to live and find life in riotous living instead of rejoicing

in God that they've wandered away, right?

They imagine that the pleasures of sin make life ultimately satisfying.

Jesus actually called and still calls, by the way, these kinds of people to

come to their senses and repent.

He calls them to repentance. In fact, church, if they will, they can be sure

of what? Of a warm welcome from their heavenly father.

But people who believe that their obedience to God means that they and only

they should be rewarded by God,

people like many of the Pharisees are just as lost as the most hardened sinner.

You see that today in this passage. They're on the outside.

In fact, I submit to you today that their case may be worse. You know why?

Because they're blinded to their need for repentance.

They're still trusting in that self-righteousness, right? Still trusting that God owes me something.

Their lives look more put together on the outside, so it's harder for them to

get to a place where they come to their senses like this young man did.

You see what it took to get the attention of a Pharisee named Saul,

didn't you? Before he became Paul, you see what it took to get his attention, right?

In Acts 9, 1 through 19, you can read about it again.

And the fact here that the parable of the prodigal son ends with this cliffhanger,

he would, will the older brother join his father's party? Y'all,

it puts the spotlight squarely on the Pharisees.

As we see in this next slide, will they drop their attempts to earn God's blessing

by their performance and join the salvation that Jesus is bringing?

That's a good question for all of us too, right? If you're like that younger

son today, you can come home.

He's calling you to repentance. Maybe you're like the Pharisee.

Maybe you're like the older brother.

And it's just a matter of saying, Lord, forgive my self-righteousness, Lord.

I celebrate with you over one lost soul who repents, right?

I realize my performance is not what makes me right with you.

It's that relationship being restored to you through forgiveness of my sin.

Nothing I could ever earn.

I can't perform enough good deeds to make that happen.

It took the blood of Almighty God, and it took God becoming truly man and truly

God for that to ever amount to anything.

But it did. And he did it for us.

You see, these three parables are about the incredible truth that God loves

sinners, y'all, with a joyous, a passionate love.

Do you see that here? If the Pharisees and teachers of the law had really known

and loved God, they would have been calling sinners to repentance like Jesus was.

They should have known better. You know, in the book of Ezekiel,

God had complained about the leaders of his people.

He actually used language that is strikingly familiar to Jesus' imagery here

in Luke 15. Let me share it with you quickly.

Listen, should not shepherds take care of the flock?

You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with wool and slaughter the choice animals,

but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or

healed the sick or bound up the injured.

You've not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.

You've ruled them harshly and brutally so they were scattered because there was no shepherd.

And when they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals.

My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.

They were scattered over the whole earth and no one searched or looked for them. Ezekiel 34.

But y'all want you to know today, in his love, God had a plan to find his lost sheep. Amen.

In fact, he would do the work himself. Listen, Eastwood, for this is what the

sovereign Lord says. I myself will search for my sheep and look after them as

a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them.

So will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places that they

were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

Kind of like today, right? I will bring them out from the nations and gather

them from the countries and I will bring them into their own land.

I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel in the ravines and in all the

settlements in the land.

Well, Jesus represents the ultimate fulfillment of that promise.

He is, Eastwood, the good shepherd. Jesus is the good shepherd,

as we see on this slide, who pursues the sheep.

He does what the older brother in the parable should have done.

He pursues the lost children of his father.

You ever thought about the older brother? Might should have been out looking

for his younger brother.

The question for us is whether we love the same things, y'all,

that our Heavenly Father loves.

Followers of Jesus should be marked as compassionate, tender.

They have this compassionate tenderness towards people who are in rebellion against God.

We should actively pursue them working as, if you will, deputy shepherds, right?

There you go, deputy shepherd. That's a new program, right? Some kind of show

somebody can start. seeking to bring the lost sheep back to the fold.

And when a sinner repents, y'all, and comes home through faith in Jesus Christ

alone, we ought to be filled with the light that our God is a merciful Father

who gives and restores the lost, no matter how deep they've sunk.

You remember where the younger brother was?

The lowest of the low.

We ought to rejoice. Because what happens, did we learn earlier in heaven over

just one sinner who repents. What happens in heaven?

Rejoice! Kind of like here, right? They throw a party, right?

There's rejoicing. There's celebration.

Why can't we celebrate? Do we celebrate?

When a lost sinner repents and comes home, you know, we ought to be filled with

that delight that God, the father's filled with.

In fact, I think rightly did James Montgomery Boyce. He wrote this and I'll,

I'll close with this one here on this last slide.

We are never so like God as when we rejoice at the salvation of sinners.

We are never so like Satan. When we despise those are thus converted and think

ourselves superior to them.

The same grace, in other words, that it took to save Judd Harbison,

the same grace it took to save me is the same grace it takes to save any sinner.

The same blood that covered my sins can cover any sinner.

And if he can cover my sins, I know he can cover yours.

You see, we have a reason to rejoice, y'all.

Those of us that are here today who are in God's kingdom because they realized

they were a sinner in need of a Savior and they repented like this younger brother.

They humbled themselves before their heavenly father you

can rejoice because you've received that salvation that restoration

and if some of you are sitting here today and i

don't know maybe somebody that may be a little bit pharisaical maybe a

little bit like somehow not as

much rejoicing you've lost the joy of seeing sinners repent you've lost the

joy of saying i want to go and seek and save the lost we've lost that joy and

passion to see sinners saved it could be a day instead of us getting all angry

and bent out of shape, that we say, Father.

Forgive me. I know, I know you love me.

Lord, forgive my wandering heart, Lord, and bring me back to where I need to be.

Because otherwise, y'all, it could be that if that's your trajectory in life,

if that's your way of life, that you'll remain on the outside.

Did the older brother ever join the party?

We don't really know or do we i don't know do we did he ever join think about

it the real question today though is would you join the party will you be part

of that reason that heaven celebrates,

will you be part of that reason let's stand together.