The Joy in Repentance (Luke 15) Mark Makary | Sept 28, 2025

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Good morning, good morning.

All right.

Well, because you guys are looking at me, I'm hoping we've pieced it together, or you've been ignoring Pastor Miles and Joel's weekly email.

So if you haven't heard, Pastor Miles and Amber uh welcomed their fourth child.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Because that gave me time to remember their names.

Her name, Lucy Joy Holmes.

So Amber and Baby are doing well.

But when I got that message earlier this week, it was with great pleasure that I'd come in and sub, which worked out really well because he just finished a series on scent on evangelism.

And now we're going to just launch into a new mini-series on the parables of Jesus.

Now, Jesus often spoke in parables.

You probably would have heard it defined before that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

He uses it to illustrate a truth that often revealed the listener's spiritual condition.

And this is what Jesus had to say in Matthew 13 when his disciples asked him, Well, why do you speak in parables?

In Matthew 13, he says, This is why I speak in parables.

Because seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

And he goes on to say that their hearing, their hearts have grown dull.

See, Jesus uses the parables to really reveal, reveal to the hardness of a person's heart, or elicit a further understanding by his listeners.

See, often we see it in scripture, time and time again, right?

When he speaks in parables, especially when the Pharisees and scribes are there, they either respond in resentment and kind of withdraw or retaliation and anger, showing the hardness of their hearts.

Yet when the disciples hear the parables, they often go to Jesus after and say, Jesus, Rabbi, teacher, like what did so-and-so mean?

What did so-and-so mean?

Revealing a spiritual hunger within his disciples.

So with that said, why don't we just stand and read the first series of our parable in Luke 15?

And if you don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand.

Ushers will be walking down the aisle, and they can put a Bible into your hand.

And if you don't own a copy of God's word, this is our gift to you.

So starting at Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable.

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep that was lost.

Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who needs no repentance.

Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it.

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the coin that I had lost.

Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And he said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that is coming to me.

And he divided his property between them.

Not many days later the younger son gathered all that he had, and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose to that country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to feed to his fields to feed pigs, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread?

But I perish here with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will tell him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Treat me as one of your hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And his son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the robe best robe, and put it on him, and put on a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

For this my son was dead, and is alive again.

He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate.

Now his older son was in the field.

As he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said to him, Your brother has come, your father has killed the fatted calf, because he had received them back safe and sound.

But he was angry and refused to go in.

His father came out and entreated him.

But he answered, Well, no.

Yeah, but he answered to his father, Look, these many years I have served you and never disobeyed your commandment, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who was devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him?

And he said to him, Son, you're always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive.

He was lost and is found.

Please be seated.

You'll notice that I read three parables.

Today you get a three-for-one deal.

Okay, we read the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and arguably one of the most popular parables, the parable of the prodigal son.

All three parables are in response to what happens in verse one and two.

So let's read it together again.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him, him being Jesus, and the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

See, the Pharisees and scribes took great offense to the kind of people that Jesus was drawing in and drawing to himself.

Tax collectors were Jewish men who worked for the Roman officials who were collecting taxes from their own people, inflicting hardship on their own community as they inflict very harsh ways of collecting taxes.

They were seen as unclean because they partnered with the Gentiles.

They partnered with the Romans.

And so pious Jews, such as the Pharisees and Scribes, wanted nothing to do with them.

They saw them as outcasts from God.

And sinners, on the other hand, well, this wasn't just individuals who committed minor infractions who just needed a little bit of repentance.

This was a class of people stained by immoral living.

This was the prostitutes, the diseased, the man, the sick, the lepers.

These were social and religious outcasts.

So just picture the Pharisees and scribes in all their righteousness, all their nice polished attire, watching tax collectors, sinners gathering, not only gathering to Jesus, but witnessing Jesus sit with them and eat with them.

This was no accidental collision.

This was no accidental interaction.

As Jesus sat with them and received them and ate with them, what he was doing was he was binding himself in fellowship with them.

And so Jesus responds to the grumblings of the Pharisees and scribes with three parables.

All three parables, Jesus is explaining what really happens when he sits and receives tax collectors and sinners.

Think of it as a three-hit combo, because all three parables point to the joy of repentance.

So it's like a three-punch combo.

It's like what happens when a sheep, when a shepherd uh finds the lost sheep and rejoices.

It's like a woman who finds and sweeps the house and finds a lost coin and rejoices, and that's like a father running out to welcome his rebellious son in repentance and rejoices.

All three parables point to the joy of repentance.

So let's get our eyes on the text and let's see where we see the overlap in the parables that draw out our main point of the passage today.

On verse 7, the parable of the lost sheep, just so I tell you, there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

In verse 10, we're at the parable of the lost coin.

It says, Just so I tell you, there's joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

In verse 24, the prodigal son, for this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

And they began to celebrate.

See, all three verses summarize the main point of our passage.

And the main point of our passage is that God rejoices, God rejoices over the repentance of sinners.

And this is more clearly illustrated to us in the parable of the prodigal son.

So for the rest of the morning, we're going to be stepping through in sections the story of the prodigal son.

And the first point I want to draw your attention to is that worldly pleasures deplete you.

See, the prodigal son starts by approaching his father and says to his father, give me what is coming to me, give me my inheritance.

See, in the Jewish culture, when the father was at the time of his passing, at the time of his death, what he would do is he would take his assets, he would take his wealth, he would take his money, and then divide it amongst his sons.

And the firstborn, the eldest, would get a double blessing, a double portion of his property.

And this father happens to have two kids or two sons.

And so the prodigal son would be entitled to a third of what the father owned.

But listen to this.

This is only true at the father's death.

You only divvy up his inheritance at the time of his father's passing.

And so what this meant, the fact that the son approached the father and said, Give me what's mine, was essentially telling his son, sorry, telling his father, I want nothing to do with you.

I want nothing to do with your love.

I want to abandon the family.

I wish you were dead.

Give me what's mine and I'm out of here.

See, it doesn't take much to imagine the devastation that such a request would cause the father.

Let alone the cultural shame of having one of your sons abandon you, abandon the family, and go live immorally.

Besides the social decline of your son stripping your wealth away from you, just the devastation of your son rejecting your love would be enough to tear the heart of the father apart.

See, in the Jewish culture, this would be seen as an unforgivable sin.

But notice the father's reaction.

It's not much long after that.

The prodigal son takes his stuff and heads out to a far-off country.

And it begs the question: what caused the prodigal son to leave?

What caused him to leave?

His father was a wealthy man.

He loved him.

His staff cared for him.

He had food to eat, clothes to wear, shelter to sleep on.

By all counts, he had it made.

And yet, and yet something was missing.

The prodigal son had some other craving, some other thing to satisfy.

And not wanting his father's love, he leaves to a far-off country.

He travels to a place where he wouldn't be recognized, where no one would know him, where he could live as free as he wants to.

Society would call this as discovering yourself, taking a spiritual journey of self-realization.

Some would call it liberation, some would call it freedom, some would call it experiencing the world, others would call it finding your identity, living the bachelor life.

The facade, the facade comes in many different labels.

But scripture, scripture calls it reckless living.

The son had everything he needed in his father's house, and not satisfied, he rejects his father's love and travels to a far-off country to live recklessly.

There'll be a code coming up behind me, Jim Carrey.

I'll be a first quoting Jim Carrey from the pulpit, but let's just do it.

Listen to what Jim Carrey says.

He says, I think everybody, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so that they can see that this is not the answer.

Listen, at least to what I am aware of, Jim Carrey is not a Christian.

Okay?

So this is a perspective of someone who lives and breathes the world, and he says this someone who has a net worth of$180 million, who has success beyond your wallages' dreams and my wallagest dreams, beyond wealth and status and power that I can just imagine, says he wishes we could all attain it.

Wealth, status, power are dreams, so that we can realize that it's not the answer.

The prodigal son had the wealth.

He had the resource, he had the status, but he also had his own dreams and desires.

He had something that he needed to satisfy, and so pursuing them, he left the father's house, left the father's love, and traveled to a far-off country.

So, like the prodigal son, we too are guilty of pursuing desires that take us away from the father's love.

And so I asked you this morning, what is your dreams?

What are your desires?

What are your life goals?

What craving do you have that you feel the need to satisfy them?

What is that void in your life that has you on this endless pursuit, trying to find that thing that will fill that void?

Like the prodigal son.

What do you think the world has to offer that the father cannot?

I think the quick answer really is, of course, nothing.

Like we intellectually know that answer.

We say, of course, the world has nothing to offer that the father cannot provide.

But I'm not asking you to answer it intellectually.

I'm asking you to assess your motives, assess your pursuits in life, assess your goals, your dreams, and answer it that way.

See, often we look at what fills our schedules, fills our time, and say, well, this is not intrinsically bad.

And I think there's so much truth to that, right?

Like take work, for example.

Work is not bad.

Before the fall, before Adam and Eve brought sin into this world, God commanded Adam to work the ground.

And as Christians, we are expected to work, and when we go in day in and day out, we better bring our best.

We better work.

Look, take take take your kids, being involved in your kids' school.

That's a good thing.

Being involved in kids' sports, a good thing.

Doing those hobbies that you bring you so much joy, a good thing.

Golf, kind of a good thing.

Like it depends if your drivers on, or at least mine for that matter.

But where we go wrong, where we go wrong is when we take a good thing and assign it the wrong priority in life.

So much so that when we're exhausted, when we're so spent, when we need to dial it back, when we need to bring uh create some breathing room in our schedule, oh boy, aren't we so quick to drop the things of the Lord first?

Just think back at the busy time in your life, this past week, this past month, this past season, when you got ex too busy.

When when your schedules got too full, what was dropped?

What was sacrificed?

What was neglected?

See, the easy, the easy, the easy out here is I had no choice.

And I'm not trying to be harsh with you or or not harsh with you, I guess.

Um I'm just trying to be real, to be honest.

See, the prodigal son, the prodigal son saw more in the world than his father's house.

And so I ask, or perhaps I should rephrase the question that it's not what does the world offer you that the father's house doesn't.

Perhaps I should ask you, what does your time show about what you value?

And just know, like all I'm doing is just rephrasing the question.

It's the same answer.

Your time speaks to your value, your value speaks to your life pursuits, that speaks to what you chase in the world that you can't find in the father's house, or at least you think you can't find in the father's house.

See, the prodigal son didn't value the father's love, and that's what took him to a far-off country to live recklessly.

And I ask, what areas in your life do we do the same?

This brings us to our second point.

It'll be behind me.

I'll have you read it instead of me writing it so I can drink.

God's mercy leads you to repentance.

See, the story continues with a severe famine occurring at the place of a far-off country.

And for the very first time, the prodigal son finds himself in need.

And so what he does in his desperation is he higher hires himself out to feed pigs of all things.

And can you just imagine?

Imagine the the battle that's going through, that's raging through the prodigal son's mind right now.

This is someone who was in a place of honor, had every need met, his father was wealthy, had food to eat, shelter to sleep under, clothes to wear, had servants at his disposal.

And now he finds himself in a far-off country, knowing nobody, no food to eat, no shelter to sleep under, feeding pigs at the point of starvation.

And I want you to know as Jesus is sharing this parable to the Pharisees and scribes, I want you to know that they're like cheering, like they're yelling, justice, justice.

Like they would have seen what the prodigal son did to his father and his family is unforgivable.

That he left to a far-off country to live immorally, to live recklessly, to be with prostitutes, yes, this is justice.

Now he's paying the price for the sins he committed.

But I want you to know that Jesus had something far greater in mind than the justice that sought were sought by the Pharisees and scribes.

And verse 17, we get a turning point in this story.

Let's read it together.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.

I will arise to go to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Treat me as one of your hired servants.

See, we get we gain we gain insight to the depths of his struggle.

We gain insight into where the the the prodigal son hits rock bottom.

But see this, see that through all of it that God is at work in his life.

That it was God's mercy that led the prodigal son to repentance.

God's mercy was was working all throughout this story.

It was God's mercy that had the father say yes to giving the inheritance early.

It was God's mercy that had the prodigal son travel to a far-off country.

It was God's mercy that had a famine hit that same country that he traveled to, and it was God's mercy to bring him to a point of starvation where he would come to his senses.

See, John Piper quotes that God is doing 10,000 things in your life, and perhaps you are aware of three of them.

Though the prodigal son lacked this awareness, God was orchestrating his mercy throughout the story, drawing him to repentance.

God used the prodigal son's misery to demonstrate his mercy.

See, what we witness here, what we witness here is genuine repentance.

See, there's a difference between admitting defeat and pretending like it didn't happen versus what we witness from the prodigal son, where he comes to his genuine senses in self-reflection of the situation and repents for his wrongdoings.

See, we don't just see the prodigal son shrug his shoulders apathetically and say, Man, this was a bad decision, and head back to his father's home and pretend like it never happened.

No, we see him come to a genuine repentance.

And we know that because of the surrounding verses.

Look at it with me in verse 18.

He starts by going to who he's wronged.

He acknowledges his sin against heaven, he acknowledges his sin against the father, and he's ready to accept the penalty of sin, not by going home as a son in a place of honor, but his willingness to go and be a hired servant.

So the prodigal son repents and he was ready to pay the price for his sins.

In the depth, in the depths of his misery, he turns to the Father's mercy.

And so I can ask you like, is that is that what repentance looks like in your life?

Like if you're if you're looking at your life the last week, again, the month, the season you're in, are there things that you have to turn over to the Lord to call into repentance the things you've done?

The prodigal son demonstrates what genuine repentance looks like.

It's leaving that reckless life of his and in pursuit of the Father.

It's an absolute severing of that immoral life in pursuit of a renewed one, a realization, a confession of his sin, an acceptance of the penalty.

And I just wonder if that's how repentance looks like in our life.

Or do we downplay it, excuse it, ignore it, make little of it.

I know in my life, I'm like the master justifier.

Like I can justify the anger which I show, I can justify the way I respond back to my wife.

There will be a wrestle in my mind of trying to justify all the reasons why I responded the way I did and how I was right to do so.

And it's not until God, in my own misery, shows me the ugliness of my sin before I can come to a genuine repentance of it.

And so I ask: are we prepared to walk down the same path that the prodigal son demonstrates for us?

Because if we are, then it brings us to our third point that God's compassion, God's compassion will restore us.

Let's read verse 20 together.

And he rose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced and kissed him.

See, there are subtle details in this parable that demonstrate to us that the father was a wealthy man.

And although it doesn't say this, I suspect when the prodigal son left, this wasn't just a few coins in his pocket.

If he was entitled to a third of what his father had, I very much think it was bags upon bags of, I guess, coins.

Or perhaps he was pulling a wagon full of stuff riding a donkey.

But if you fast forward to verse 20, the son is returning to his father.

Not riding a donkey, but walking.

Not carrying bags upon bags of coins, but coming empty-handed.

Not in the nice attire that he left with, but tathered clothing, likely filled or full of the filth of pigs.

And while he's yet a long way off, his father ran, felt compassion, ran to him, embraced him, and kissed him.

Jesus is telling the story to the Pharisees and scribes, and he's piling on the characteristics of God, from compassion to pursuit to embrace to love.

He's hammering the point that could be found in all three parables.

That God rejoices over the repentance of sinners.

Listen, I want to I want you to try to picture this with your own children.

I want you to think of your own children.

Think of the aspirations you have for them, the kind of school you want them to be partaking in, the kind of education you want for them, the kind of career you want for them, the kind of ministries you want them to be part of, the kind of servants you want them to be of Christ.

And I want you to take all that and throw it in the trash.

Instead, they rob you, they bring shame to your family, they leave your house, they live an immoral life, they spend all your money, and then they come crawling back.

And instead of being angry with them, you rejoice.

You rejoice embracing them, forgiving them.

I had uh lunch with him a few weeks ago.

I was telling him he had to he had to uh break the uh break the ice behind the podium and get emotional before I did.

He he promised he would, so I'm gonna hold him accountable.

Listen, these aren't words on a page.

These this isn't this isn't a made-up story.

This is a story of the unthinkable, the unimaginable.

This is a story of tax collectors and sinners, a story of you and me.

We are the prodigal son that rejected the father's love.

And I wonder here, how many here have convinced themselves of that?

Convince themselves out of the compassion of the Father.

Convince themselves that they're too unworthy, too undeserving, too sinful for the Father's compassion.

That you look at your life and you say, hey, I've I've repented over this thing over and over and over again, and like now wrestle with the fact that is it even genuine?

Wrestle with the fact that you, you know, maybe you think God is annoyed because you keep coming back to him in repentance.

Listen, there's a reason why we end the service with three words.

And when you pull out of the parking lot today, you're gonna pass the same three words on a sign.

You are loved.

You are loved.

Like, do you believe that?

Yes, by the church and its members, but more importantly, by God.

Do you believe that God loves you?

In the depths of your sin, in the depths of your struggle, in your misery, at rock bottom, when you've lived immorally, when you've spent all that you've had, when you've abandoned your friends and your family, God still loves you.

The same way he demonstrated his love to the prodigal son.

So does he love our children, his children?

And you may look at the prodigal son and say, where's the justice?

Where's the penalty of his sin?

Where's the right in that?

And I gotta tell you, you can't look at his life.

Because where it was made right was the cross.

Where God poured out his wrath on his children, his son.

The story wrecks me every time.

I'm gonna have you read Romans 8 for me so I can collect myself.

Romans 8, 38.

I want everyone to turn there.

I like to hear the pages.

I say this only because I joked about it yesterday with somebody.

For I'm sure that neither death or life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, or things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor things else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Mark your Bible, nothing can separate us from his love.

See, it's at this point of the story that the Pharisees and scribes go from celebrating the justice that is seen by the fall of the prodigal son to an absolute, unimaginable reaction by when the father demonstrated his compassion.

See, they would have seen the prodigal son's sin as unforgivable, unredeemable, too immoral to be restored.

And so when they witnessed the father not only receiving the son, his son back, but restoring him to a place of honor, well, this is unimaginable.

This is unincomprehensible to the Pharisees.

See, the Father tells his servant to go get the finest robe and put it on him, go get the ring and put on his finger, go get shoes and put on his feet, kill the fatted calf because it is time to celebrate.

And verse 24 tells us why.

It tells us the heart of the father says, For my son is dead and is alive again, he's lost and is found.

And they began to celebrate.

And you think the story ends right there, right?

The father, sorry, the son rejects the father's love, abandons the father, lives immorally, wastes away his money, has nothing left for himself.

And so he comes crawling back to the Father.

And the Father restores him.

Like you, it's like in repentance.

Repentance is a huge one there.

Can't believe I missed it.

Repentance, then restoration.

You'd think, okay, the story comes to an end.

This was a really nice bow tied for us on this parable.

But the Lord is not yet done pointing at the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes, which brings us to our last point.

Self-righteousness destroys you.

We're at a point in the story where Jesus now focuses on the heart of the older brother.

And we have here older brother syndrome, first child syndrome.

All right?

Always working the field, being responsible, never getting in trouble, doing what mommy and daddy tells them to do.

And you can tell I'm not the older brother, and there's no resentment there.

But listen, you'd think, okay, well, why isn't he getting praise for this?

Right?

Because it's not his work ethic that's a problem, it's his heart.

It's his heart.

When he finds out that his brother returned safe and sound and is repentant, look at verse 28 with me.

This is the condition of the older brother's heart.

But he was angry and refused to go in.

His father came out and entreated him.

And then in the surrounding verses, he just goes, he unloads on his father, says, Look, I've served you, I've never disobeyed you, you never give me a young goat.

He's saying, Wake up, father, wake up.

Your son robbed you, brought shame to our family, lived immorally, lived with prostitutes, and now he has no money, no success, nothing to show for it.

Of course he's coming back.

Of course he's gonna crawl back.

Don't fall for it.

Look at me.

Look at what I how much I serve you.

Look how much I obeyed you.

Where's my reward?

Where's my fatted calf?

Or said another way.

Look at my righteousness, Father.

Aren't I so good?

That despite the fact that the older brother never left the father, his heart was far from the father.

Despite never leaving his father, despite his obedience, despite his hard work in the field, his actions rooted in self-righteousness could never, could never, could never please the father.

At the very heart of it, his actions were very pharisaical, wasn't it?

He saw his younger brother so far gone, too immoral, too much sin to ever be restored.

I think the scariest part of this parable is the fact that the older son thought he was right the entire time.

He thought he was doing an honorable thing.

He thought his younger brother, and perhaps now even his father, were the foolish ones.

And yet completely lost, completely lost on both of them as they both were in need of repentance.

Both brothers were lost.

Both brothers dishonored their father.

Both brothers used their father's wealth and status.

But look what happens when God's mercy works in one brother and man's self-righteousness in another.

The prodigal son, reckless in disobedience, confesses his sin.

He confesses it.

The older son, ungrateful in obedience, demands his rights.

The prodigal son confesses his unworthiness to his father, whereas the older son declares his righteousness to his father.

The prodigal son renounces his claim to sonship and invites servitude, and the older son despises his servitude and expects celebration.

In this parable, Jesus is telling the Pharisees and scribes that they, they are the older brothers.

That it is the tax collectors and sinners that are of the prodigal son that will bask in the Father's presence forever, not them.

Like a shepherd finding a lost sheep and rejoicing, like a woman sweeping the house, finding her lost coin and rejoicing.

The Father here is demonstrating that there's more joy, there's more joy in repentance of sinners than the obedience of the self-righteous.

It is a scary thought to see how close we can be to the Father and yet be so far away.

Like the older brother, we too can be in the very presence of the Father and have our hearts be so far from him.

Like the older brother who worked the field for his father's favor.

I wonder if we too are guilty of laboring for the Lord's favor.

Perhaps church attendance, perhaps our giving, perhaps our morning devotions, we're just hoping can add up enough credits to perhaps swing prayers our way.

So this is how self-righteousness will destroy the idea that we can produce within ourselves something worthy enough to be acceptable by God.

See, we can see it so clearly in the Pharisees, can't we?

When we talk Pharisees and scribes, when we talk Sadducees, immediately we think righteousness, uh self-righteousness.

Perhaps we can see it now in the older brother, but my question to you is can we see it in our own lives?

I'm gonna present you four questions.

Four questions, and by no means is this comprehensive, comprehensive.

But I'm hoping you can see the pattern, the train of thought that I'm trying to get to to flush out whether or not we re-root things in self-righteousness.

The first question.

When you hear of others falling into sin, do we feel disgust or compassion?

When others are not serving as much as you are, do you turn to resentment or prayer?

When others are praised for their work, are you jealous or joyful?

Or here's one, when your work goes unnoticed.

Are you bitter or are you content?

Each question, the response is self-focused or God-focused.

The ugliness of self-righteousness is revealed when the desired outcome is not attained.

And then we feel unjust, wronged, like something bad happened to us.

We begin to sin and we probably don't even know that we are doing it.

But when we're rooted in a God-focused perspective, we submit to his will, his direction, his guidance in our life.

We submit to his outcome, whether we understand it or not, because he's all-knowing, all-good, all-powerful.

And whatever goes on, whatever the direction may be, it is for the best.

So in closing, this was a parable about a lost son who returned home.

This was a parable about the lost son who was lost at home.

This was a parable that showed that God rejoices in the repentance of sinners and doesn't care for the self-righteous obedience of anything.

But there's one more son in this passage.

Do you see it?

It's the Son of Man, it's Jesus Himself telling the story who left his father's home in.

Luke 19, 10 says he did so to seek and save the lost.

So we all here, all Christians are prodigal sons, we all have lived immoral lives.

We all have rejected the Father's love, abandoned our families, lived immorally, lived sinfully in our misery, God drew us back to himself.

And when we when we were repentant of that, when we were repentant of God rejoiced so much.

There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance.

But if you're here finding yourself relating more to the older brother, who finds himself hard at work to earn God's favor, earn his blessings, rely on your obedience to him to keep you in good standings with him, know that your righteousness does not compare to the righteousness he clothes his children through the sacrifice of his son.

Like the prodigal son, all he did when he came home, what he brought was his sin.

Yet his father ran to him, embraced him, kissed him, received him, restored him.

There's more joy and repentance over sinners.

Let us pray.

In our misery, Lord God, we can find your mercy.

Lord, that it brings you so much joy to our repentance.

Lord, let us see that.

Lord, let us see that there's nothing that the world can offer that the Father cannot.

Let us see that it is all but folly.

The world may look attractive, but it it delivers emptiness.

Lord, we're so thankful for your compassion that draws us to repentance.

We're so thankful for your mercy that restores us, Lord God.

We're so thankful that it is not by own our own merit, our own deeds, our own actions, our own labor, Lord, but is through the work of the cross, Lord.

It was your son.

That's where we can see the penalty, the price that the prodigal son had to pay.

And that was the death and resurrection of your son.

When God poured out his wrath on your son, not for the sins he committed, because he was a sinless, perfect man here on earth.

The son of man, Lord, but it was our sins that you bore, Lord.

And we're so thankful, Lord, that you did that out of love, giving us the greatest demonstration of love, just as we saw the Father run out to his prodigal son and embrace him and kiss him and restore him, Lord God.

You await the day where we do the same, where we turn to you in repentance for all that we've done.

Lord, I pray that you get all the glory and honor this morning.

Amen.