The Loving Father – Luke 15:11–32 (June 21, 2026)

Students in kindergarten through third grade, they can go ahead and head out to their class now.

The rest of us, if you would, go ahead and open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.

We're gonna be in chapter 15 together this morning.

We're gonna start in verse 11 and we're gonna make our way through the end of the chapter.

If you don't have a Bible with you this morning, no worries.

There should be one under a chair around you.

But you can also open up your bulletin.

In your bulletin, you'll find the passage.

There's even some pages there to take notes on if that would be helpful as well.

This summer, in one sense, we're kind of sitting down to story time with Jesus.

You know, parables, what we're looking at this summer, are sort of short stories that Jesus tells, but he packs them with spiritual truth.

And the story that we're gonna look at this morning might be the greatest story ever told.

Now, I know when you hear that phrase, you immediately think of the story of Jesus.

You think of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and there's a sense in which that is a story, but it really is history.

See, the parable that Jesus tells today is what we think about when we think about stories.

It's fictional, and yet it is brilliantly true.

You know, some have called this parable the parable of the prodigal son.

It's probably the way that you know it.

Others, maybe, I think even more correctly, would talk about it as the parable of the two lost sons.

But I actually think the best way at its heart to think about this parable is that it is the story of the loving father.

Friends, I know many of us know this parable, but this story is shocking, it's convicting, and it's wonderful.

It is a story of God's astounding love for us.

You really could summarize this story's main point in just three words.

God loves you.

Friends, I wonder this morning, do you know that?

See, I think many of us would say God loves us, but we're not really sure if God loves me.

Or maybe we would think, well, God has to love me, but he hasn't really loved me.

I think many of us actually struggle to know whether God really does love us.

I think for so many, we spend most of our days trying to earn his love.

We we want to put conditions on his love.

We want to say, God loves me if I do good, if I love him, if I'm worthy, if I live for him, then God loves me.

I think for some of us we think that God almost has this sort of love-hate relationship with us, though hate is probably too strong.

But but we think of it this way when we do good, when we're living for God, God loves us.

But then when we don't do good, when we aren't living for him, we think God is so frustrated with us.

And the problem is that most of the time we know that we don't live rightly.

And so most of our, even if we're Christians, most of our Christian lives, so often it's easy for us to think God is just super disappointed with us.

We actually miss God's love because we mainly just think of his disappointment.

On the other hand, I do think there are some who are certain that God loves us.

Of course, God loves us.

But we can make God's love shallow and superficial.

There is the temptation also to assume God's love or even presume God's love.

Uh, my family, if you were to follow our boys and I around in my truck, you would see the windows down and country music most of the time blaring in the summer.

As we're probably headed to a baseball field somewhere.

And a lot of country music songs tend to have Jesus right alongside a strong drink, faithful dog, good old pickup.

And I think that's kind of how we think about Jesus' love.

It's certain, but it's not really that significant.

We think less of it.

I think sometimes we almost think about it like monopoly money.

It's easy to get, easy to spend, it's actually not worth much.

That yes, maybe God loves us, but it doesn't really matter, does it?

I think here's what's clear.

We profoundly underestimate God's love.

Both its wonder and its worth.

And here, scripture is so clear for us.

Scripture is so clear that God's love is deeper than our deepest sin, it is stronger than our fiercest foe, it is more satisfying, it is better, it is more valuable than anything this world can offer.

God's love is transforming.

Friends, if you're a Christian church, I wonder sometimes if you ever think, where is our confidence in Christ?

Where is our joy in salvation?

Where is our steadfast love for one another?

And I wonder if the answer to that question is not that it is found right next to our stifling views of God's love.

That it is not found right next to how we have confined and contained and lessened God's love.

I really have one hope this morning.

There's one truth that I hope that we get this morning.

And it is this that God loves us.

And that there is no greater truth than that.

Here's our main idea this morning: God's love is deeper than we know and stronger than we can fathom.

God's love is deeper than we know, and it's stronger than we can fathom.

Look at the passage with me in Luke 15, beginning in verse 11.

He also said, Jesus, a man had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.

So he distributed the assets to them.

Not many days later the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living.

After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.

Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his field to feed pigs, and he longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food?

And here I am dying of hunger.

I'll get up, I'll go to my father, and I'll say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired workers.

And so he got up and went to his father.

But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.

He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.

The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father told his servants, Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it.

Let's celebrate with a feast.

Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate.

Now his older son was in the field.

As he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant.

Your brother is here, he told him.

And your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

Then he became angry and didn't want to go in.

So his father came out and pleaded with him, but he replied to his father, Look, I have been slaving many years for you.

I've never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.

But this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, and you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.

Son, he said to him, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this your brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

Church, we're gonna look at three points this morning.

The first is the rebellious younger son.

Our three points this morning are gonna follow the three main characters of this story.

There's a younger son, an older son, and a father.

And each of these uh characters portrays a particular person or group of people.

You might have already guessed, I think we've already hinted at it, that the father represents God.

That Jesus is telling us this parable to tell us what God is like.

But but you might wonder, who are the two sons?

And for the answer, we actually need to go back to the very beginning of the chapter.

If you look at the very chapter 15 at verses 1 through 3, here's what it says all the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him.

That hymn is Jesus.

And the Pharisees and the scribes were complaining.

This man, Jesus, he welcomes sinners and eats with them.

And so Jesus told them this parable.

Now, chapter 15 includes three parables, and they all share this same context.

Jesus is responding to the religious leaders of his day, their frustration that he dines and feasts and welcomes sinners, tax collectors, even.

And the younger son in our parable is a picture of these sinners and tax collectors.

And the older son is a picture of the Pharisees and the scribes.

Let's look at this younger son, Jesus' portrayal of these sinners and the younger son would have shocked even the religious leaders.

Now, we might look at verse 12, look at it, and the son's request, and we think, well, that's relatively mild.

But that is to read it out of context.

When the younger son asks for his father to give him his share now, it's tantamount to wishing his father dead.

You might think of someone who would tell their beloved family member, would you just hurry up and die so that I can get the insurance?

Or so that I can get your inheritance.

That's what the younger son is saying to his father.

This is complete rebellion and rejection of the father.

It's almost to say, I want what you can give me, but I don't want you.

That's what the younger son is saying.

And here's what's crazy: the father actually obliges.

The father gives the son what he wants, and then what does the younger son do with it?

Well, crazily, he sells his estate.

Now you gotta remember, in the ancient world, farming was prestigious, especially in Israel.

It was an honorable occupation.

And the son now gets rid, sells off his estate because he just wants the cash, if you will.

Now, why does he want that?

Well, look at verse 13.

It says he traveled to a distant country.

And when you read that, you need to read pagan, godless, and where he squandered his estate in foolish living.

Think sin, idolatry.

You gotta remember, you have to hear this like the original audience.

This son is forsaking Israel, forsaking the promised land, forsaking God's people, forsaking God himself.

And he's going to pursue what 1 John 2 says is the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of possessions.

He wants to drink deeply of the sinful delights of this world.

And then what happens?

He loses everything.

And then, verse 14, what does it say?

A severe famine strikes the land.

There is now no food, there's little work, provision is scarce, and he has nothing.

Remember, he's cut himself off from his father, his family, his people, his land, his inheritance.

He has nothing.

All he can do is hire himself out to the servant or as a servant to the people of this distant pagan country.

And the work that he gets is feeding pigs.

And as he's feeding these pigs, he's looking at them with longing for their food.

He wishes to be swine.

That hits even in our culture today.

But think about a Jewish culture.

If you've ever had a Hebrew national hot dog that has no pork, all beef, it's really great too.

That is the feel that the Israelites would have had towards pork and pigs.

This is the lowest of the lows.

There is no more desperate, unclean, humiliating position.

This is rock bottom.

Friends, what we need to see is that Jesus does not paint a picture of the sin of sinners and tax collectors in a soft light.

No, he paints it honestly.

Think about it.

These tax collectors in Jesus' day, they have sold themselves out.

And they have sold themselves to pagan Rome.

They're just like the younger son in this parable.

And in fact, all sinners are.

Friends, every single sin is a rebellion and rejection against God.

It is to say to our Creator who has given us everything, I want what you can give me more than I want you.

Friends, we also see here in Jesus' description the utter foolishness of sin.

The son thought that these fleeting pleasures had life and joy, but they brought only shame and not just shame, but danger, insecurity, a famine is a picture of God's judgment.

This is a reminder to us that when we flee God and seek sin, we will be utterly exposed before God's judgment.

See, such a picture of the nature and consequences of sin isn't particularly surprising to us.

We know that sin is bad.

If you've read scripture, you know that it's clear.

And yet I still think we need this reminder.

We still need to see Jesus' description because in it I think we see our own sin, don't we?

Do you ever want things from God more than you want God?

I mean, here, take that.

Do you ever want things from God more than you want God Himself?

Yeah.

I think we do.

How many of us, maybe in another uh direction, how many of us this week have been tempted by the fleeting pleasures of sin?

And maybe we've even wondered, well, maybe just this one time.

Maybe just this one time, it will be worth it if I give in.

We might not want to be honest with ourselves, but I think we could also see ways in which we are selling ourselves out to this fallen world, to its values, to its promises, to its acclaim, and in so doing, ignoring Christ and his kingdom.

Friends, we can see ourselves in the younger son.

In fact, I think that's part of the point of the parable.

In Luke, in verse 17, we see that the Son comes to his senses, and part, Jesus is telling us this parable so that we also might come to our senses, that we would see the severity of sin.

This is what Scripture does.

It's such a good gift.

It's like a mirror, it shows us what's true.

Because here's the cruelty of cruelties about sin is that sin actually blinds us to itself.

The truth of the matter is so often we can't see our own sin.

But scripture helps us to see it, shows it to us.

And then know what happens though when the younger son comes to his senses?

He remembers the goodness of his father.

Because sin blinds us not only to our own sin, but it also blinds us to God's goodness.

But look at verse 17.

What does the son say?

He remembers that even the father's hired workers have more than enough food.

Friends, remember that's a picture of our God.

Our God is the God who gives more than enough.

Even to those who are not his, even to those who would call him enemy.

That's how good and gracious he is.

See, then what we see in the younger son is a powerful picture of repentance.

Look at verses 18 through 20.

The son says, I'll get up, go to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, against God, and in your sight.

Sin is both vertical first and foremost, but also horizontal.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired workers.

So he got up and went to his father.

Here's what I think we're so hesitant to do as people is we're so hesitant to admit that we've sinned.

Not blame shift, but actually take the blame.

Friends, we need to be reminded that every sin is chosen.

We choose to sin.

No one coerces us or makes us sin.

This is our choice.

And the consequence for our sin is death.

We are unworthy before God.

We have sinned against heaven, and our only hope, like the younger son, is God Himself.

It's God's grace and God's love.

Friends, that's why we should be so thankful that God's love is deeper than we know and stronger than we can fathom.

That's the rebellious younger son.

But let's look at the resentful older son.

Because there are two lost sons in this parable.

See, this parable shows us that there are actually two primary ways in which we can sin against God.

One is overt and one is covert.

One is obvious, it's out there, one is much more subtle.

Look at how we're introduced to the older son in verse 25.

He comes out of the field to the house.

He comes just like the younger son out of the field to the house.

He too is lost.

And he hears a profound celebration.

But what does he do?

Unlike the father, he doesn't run towards the festivities.

He questions them.

He has to ask a servant about what's going on.

That's how distant he is.

And he learns with dread, it seems, that actually his younger brother has returned.

Look at verse 28.

It says, Then he became angry and didn't want to go in.

Now that response is not what we'd expect.

Especially if we know the response of the father.

We would expect, well, the older son would surely share the delight of his father.

And the son does not at all.

And yet, probably we can maybe understand a little bit of this older son's hesitation.

He too was abandoned by his younger brother.

He too was humiliated by the younger brother's reckless actions.

He too lost something when his brother left, and now that his brother is returned, is maybe in danger of losing what he already has.

Maybe even losing a part of his inheritance or his future, his security.

But verse 29 actually helps us to see the older son's true heart.

Look at what it says.

He replied to his father, Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me even a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.

Jesus, the master storyteller, has given us so much in just this one sentence.

Consider all that's here.

First, the elder son sees himself as a servant instead of a son.

I think this is such a contrast.

Think about it.

The younger son longs to be a mere servant in his father's house.

And yet the older son loathes his sonship as though it's slavery.

But we see more than that.

The older son takes great pride in his deeds.

He tells us he's never disobeyed orders.

He's done everything he was supposed to.

And what has he received from the father?

Nothing.

He thinks the father has slighted him.

He hasn't even gotten a goat, much less a fattened calf.

He believes that he deserves better.

He's earned better.

But you know what I think is most telling him?

This description is the very end.

The son wants to celebrate, but he doesn't want to celebrate with the father.

He wants to celebrate with his friends.

See, here is a son who has made himself a slave, who has given his father his deeds, but never his heart.

Like the younger son, maybe surprising to us.

This son also wants what his father can give him, but not his father.

And in fact, this son, maybe even more clearly, values stuff, the things of this world, even more than his sibling.

Look at verse 30.

He says, This son of yours, not my brother, this son of yours.

Friends, it's interesting to me that the younger son wanted his father dead, and the older son wants his brother dead.

Do you see how ugly sin is?

See how horrible it is?

Now remember who the older son represents.

He represents the Pharisees and the scribe.

Jesus is saying, this is your same anger against the tax collectors and the sinners that I am welcoming in.

He knows, Jesus knows that these Pharisees and scribes, he'll say it in Luke 18, they are those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.

See, there are two ways to sin against God.

And the second way is the sin of self-righteousness, the sin of self-sufficiency, the sin of self-centeredness, the sin of pride.

And I actually think that's the far greater danger.

And here's why: because the younger son's sin is apparent to everyone.

It's obvious.

But not the older son.

The older son can almost look as if he's being righteous, as if he's faithful, as if he's near the father.

See, the younger son is lost and he knows it.

But the older son has no clue how lost he really is.

Now, I think that means that we need to ask, but what of us?

Is there a part of the older son in us?

That's why I'm so thankful for this passage, because I think we actually see here four signs of this sort of self-righteous pride.

And I want to walk through these together.

This kind of pride first looks down on others.

In order to think much of ourselves, we have to think little of others.

If you want to see self-righteousness, if you want to see it in your own heart, in your own life, I think all you need to do is look for its seed.

And its seed is comparison.

Pride feeds itself on comparison.

C.S.

Lewis once said very well, pride gets no pleasure out of having something only out of having more of it than the next man.

Isn't that so true?

It's not that we want something, we gotta have more than the guy next to us.

That's what pride, that's what self-righteousness does.

When we find our identity and our worth in ourselves and in our actions, our works, then what we begin to do is we constantly seek to measure ourselves up against everyone we meet.

Think about it.

How often do we spend our lives measuring ourselves against other people?

Those are signs of self-righteousness.

Secondly, what we see is that this sign of self-righteous pride isolates us from others.

Did you notice that the older son keeps himself at a distance from his brother, his father, from the party?

Now think about the uh the uh Pharisees and the scribes.

They were very careful to make sure that they kept themselves away from sinners and tax collectors, from Gentiles.

A sign of self-righteousness is that your circle is always getting smaller and smaller.

That the longer you live, the more and more people and groups that you deem outsiders, that you deem enemies, or in our culture that you deem canceled.

Church, I think we need to be aware of this propensity.

Even in our own midst.

As we grow as a church and as we continue as a church, there's gonna be this temptation to start to create some lists.

That we're gonna have a list of those people who have offended us.

That we're gonna have a list of those people that we want to keep at a distance, that we're gonna have a list that is increasing of those people that we have tense relationships with.

Friends, that's the fruit of self-righteous pride.

See, what this parable is helping us to see is that God's love actually compels us to work through those things and not just to add and increase that list, to cut people off.

I think thirdly, here we see that self-righteous pride is discontent and ungrateful.

The older son sees himself as a slave, working away under a harsh and stingy father.

Self-righteousness breeds discontent because we always think we deserve more.

We always think that we've earned more.

Whenever suffering and hardship come, the Pharisee shakes his fist at God and complains.

This is not what I'm supposed to get.

See, church, I think the Father's response is remarkable.

We're gonna look at it in more detail, but look at verse 31 just briefly.

He says, Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

Brothers and sisters, it is a grave danger to lose sight of God's goodness to us.

If we can't see God's grace in our lives, I would submit that we are not looking.

And if we ever think that God has slighted us more than he has blessed us, that is the pride, self-righteousness working and lurking in our hearts.

Most of you probably know Ben Sass.

He's been on the news a lot.

He's a Nebraska senator, he has terminal cancer, he's been interviewed a lot, he's been asked this question that maybe seems to us like a really good question.

Are you mad at God?

And he replied this way.

He says, I don't fault anybody for the question, but we just don't identify with it at all.

That's not even a question to us, Sass says.

Like if the law is straight and I am crooked, what he's saying, if if God's word, his law is good and righteous and I'm not, I'm sinful, it seems weird to think that the thing that's wrong is the law.

It seems weird to think that God's the problem and not me.

He says, the thing that's wrong is me.

Anything that I get that's good is more than I deserved.

Friends, that is someone who has understood the grace and love of God in Christ and who has been humbled by their own sin.

That is not what prideful self-righteousness says.

Lastly, what we see is that this prideful self-righteousness, it is slow to love and rejoice.

I wonder if you've ever heard of the seven deadly sins.

My guess is you probably have some familiarity with it.

It's a list that kind of arose in the early church and came to prominence.

And one of those sins is the sin of sloth, which I imagine you think, and I would have thought, is laziness.

It's what we say today, that's what it is, but that's actually not what sloth was in the early church.

That's a misnomer.

Sloth actually was a slowness to joy, it was a resistance to love.

Friends, that's why it's such a grave danger and a deadly sin.

It was a lack of joy or love in spiritual things, in the goodness and grace of God.

It was a cold and deadened heart, one that was disinclined to rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and to celebrate God's grace and goodness wherever it was seen.

Friends, this is precisely what we see in the older son.

And what I think we need to look out for in our own hearts.

Klein Snodgrass, he's got a great name and he's a good commentator.

He says, Joy is not an optional feature of the faith.

Joy isn't optional for the Christian, nor can it be attained by smiling more and singing louder.

No, no, no.

It must emerge from awareness of the mercy and forgiveness of God and Christ.

It only arises when we grasp how deep the Father's love.

See, the younger son's rebellion is sinful, but so is the older son's resentment.

And his lack of joy and love is evidence of his deficiency, of his deficient understanding of God's astounding love.

Church, God's love is deeper than we know, and it's stronger than we can fathom.

And we need to look at it.

The last thing I want us to see is the remarkable father.

See, the departure of the younger son is startling.

I think the reaction of the older son is surprising, but it's the father who is shocking.

The father is so shocking.

We know people like both of the sons.

In fact, we just probably saw each of those sons in our own hearts.

We don't know anyone like the father.

We don't know anyone so unique and glorious.

The father is unlike anyone else.

And he is the main character of this parable.

He's in the beginning, he's in the middle, and he's in the end.

And the main feature of it, I've said it many times, but I want to say it again, is his inexplicable love.

Look at when the reckless and rebellious younger son comes to his senses.

He comes to his father, and what happens?

Verse 20.

But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him.

Well, why did his father see him?

Just happen chance to look at the window at that time?

No, he sees the sun as soon as he comes into view because he was looking for him.

Always looking for him, longing for him.

Friends, I think we want to be clear.

The two parables prior to this tell us about a shepherd who seeks the one lost sheep and leaves the 99.

Tells us about a woman who eagerly and earnestly searches and celebrates for a lost coin.

Our God is the one who seeks and saves the lost, who rejoices at the salvation of sinners.

Think about it, when the father sees his son, how is he described?

Look at verse 20 again.

Filled with compassion.

The son has not confessed his sin yet.

The son has not repented yet.

I think Jim Boyce is right.

He says, if you are lost apart from God, this is the very first application to you.

You are valuable to God even in your lost condition.

If you're here this morning and you've made a wreck of your life.

Or maybe you look into your own sort of heart and life and you struggle to see anything worthwhile in you.

Or maybe you think God could not care less about you.

Listen to Jesus, his son.

You are worth you are not worthless to God.

He created you, he knows you, he knows the depths of your sin, and yet his love for you is deeper still.

Friends, we get to see that played out because it just gets better.

Father's compassion is unexpected, but what he does next is just unbelievable in the real term.

Like, like we can't believe it.

He runs.

And he doesn't do sort of a lackadaisical trot.

It's probably what I would do.

No, no, no.

He runs with abandon.

This is so undignified.

In a culture, uh in ancient Israel, men did not run.

It was embarrassing, humiliating, and yet the father runs with abandon.

He doesn't care.

Because he sees his son.

And when he sees his son and he gets to his son, he hugs his son, he embraces him, he uh kisses him.

It's such a beautiful scene, but it's so much more than that.

Jesus isn't just making this up.

He's actually describing a scene from history.

Many of us know the story of Jacob and Esau?

Younger brother, very deceptively takes his older brother's birthright and inheritance.

Sound familiar?

Jacob is scared of what Esau will do when he meets Esau, and what happens when Jacob sees Esau for the first time?

Genesis 33, verse 4.

Genesis 33:4

But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.

The same response.

He expected anger and received love.

And how does Jacob respond?

A few verses later, verse 10.

Jacob says, No, please, if I have found favor with you, Esau, take this gift from me.

For indeed I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God's face, since you have accepted me.

And Esau's gracious response, he says he's seen the face of God.

That's why Jesus describes it this way.

Because what Jesus wants us to know is that this may be shocking to us, but it is not shocking if we read Genesis to Revelation.

Because this is who God is, always has been, and always will be.

This is our God.

Look at verse 22, it just keeps on going on.

The Father tells the servants get the best robe, put a ring on his finger, put sandals on his feet.

These are symbols of honor, status, sonship.

The younger son isn't coming back a slave or a servant, he's coming back a son.

And he's coming back to a celebration, to a feast.

Look at verse 23.

The fattened calf, I imagine wagu beef.

And the fattened calf was only broken out on a huge public celebration and feast.

The father spares no expense in the welcome of his son.

Why?

Look at verse 24.

It's so incredible.

Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

This son of mine, says the father.

He was dead and is now alive.

Lost and is now found.

Don't miss the implication.

Sin doesn't just make us lost, it makes us dead.

That's what Paul says in Ephesians 2.

We are dead in our sin, but this is the God who seeks and saves the lost, the God who resurrects the dead to life.

It's exactly what we see in this parable.

You know, there is a subtle point in this parable that's made so much clearer in the two parables that precede it.

It's that God is the one who seeks and saves the lost.

The son, younger son, doesn't merely return.

No, this parable's clear.

He was found.

Yes, the son uh came back to the father, but the father sought the son.

That's the point of the first two parables.

This is who our God is.

Salvation from start to finish is of God.

And if you have any questions about that, just consider how the younger son comes to the father.

The younger son doesn't clean himself up, he doesn't get all of his things in order, get all right all together.

No, he comes dirty, weak, wrecked in sin.

At rock bottom.

He comes dead in one sense.

Dying of hunger.

It's the only way anyone comes to Christchurch.

And here's what the Puritan Richard Sibs said that I think is so important for us to understand this morning.

There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

There is always more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

If you're not a Christian here this morning, there could be a hundred reasons why that might be the case.

But this parable would tell you that there's one reason that cannot be the reason.

And it cannot be that God doesn't love you.

That cannot be the reason that you don't come to Christ.

Because this parable is so clear that his love, his grace, his mercy is not deficient.

You might not come to Christ, but you cannot not come because you think he doesn't want you to come, or because you think he won't save you, or that he can't save you.

It is so clear that our God is the one who welcomes and rejoices and saves sinners because he loves.

Church, I think we need to be reminded of that too.

If this is how God welcomed us when we were his enemies in sin, how does he welcome us now?

What do you think the Father thinks of us now as we are his children in Christ?

Christian, God the Father rejoices in you.

God the Father loves you, and not because of anything you've done, not because of anything you will do, not because of who you are, but because you are his.

That is a glorious truth.

And in Christ, nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from his love.

Nothing.

See, I think many of us don't feel like prodigals.

We feel like Pharisees most of the time.

And maybe you think, well, surely God can't love the self-righteous.

He can't welcome the self-righteous.

Well, look at verse 28.

The same response to the older son as the younger son.

So his father came out and pleaded with him.

The father comes out to the older son who is resentful against him.

And the older son rebukes the father.

And how does he respond?

Verse 31.

Son.

And that's not the ordinary word for son.

That is the most deepest, loving, intimate word for son that you have.

It is child.

And he said to him, You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

The Father pleads with the Son, every single thing I have is yours, son.

Come, celebrate.

And then the story ends.

Abruptly.

We have no idea what the older son does.

And that's the point.

Because this parable was written and told for the Pharisees and the scribes.

They were frustrated, angry that Jesus was dining with sinners, and Jesus' message to them is this no, no, no, you.

You too.

Feast.

You're lost, and I have come to find.

See, that's why it ends.

It ends with this sort of question that should be in our minds.

In fact, every single one of us, will you receive the Father's love in Christ?

Will you rejoice in the salvation and life he offers?

That's where the parable wants us to be.

Well, we know this astounding love of the Father.

But I think there's a fourth character in the story.

See, I think it's the narrator.

I think it's Jesus.

And you might be wondering, well, how does Jesus fit into this parable other than telling it?

Well, I think Jesus is the true and better older brother.

I'm indebted to Tim Keller, he's a wonderful book, The Prodigal God.

Here's what he says: think of the kind of older brother we need.

We need one who would not just go into a far country, but who would come all the way from heaven to earth to find us.

We need one who would not just open his wallet for us, but pour out his life.

We need one who would not just pay a finite cost, but an infinite debt to bring us back into God's family.

That's Jesus.

We have that older brother.

When the father says to the older brother, everything I have is yours, that's literally true of Jesus.

Jesus has all God's glory, equal glory with the Father.

And yet, Philippians tells us he emptied himself for us and for our salvation.

How do we get the Father's robe?

Because Jesus was stripped naked on the cross.

How do we get the Father's feast?

Because Jesus took the cup of wrath that we might have the cup of joy.

Jesus came to earth and truly obeyed his father and never disobeyed any orders.

He truly had the right to all the Father owns.

But instead, he came out and searched for us.

He found us in the pig sty and he carried us home on his shoulders, singing with joy.

And he gave us his robe, his garments, his righteousness, he gave us his ring, he gave us his place, he gave us his wealth, his inheritance, he gave it all at his expense.

Friends, if we want to know if God the Father loves us, we just look to the Son.

This is what the Son has done for us.

You know, we began with this question: where is our confidence in Christ?

Where's our joy in our salvation?

Where's our steadfast love for one another?

I would argue it's here.

It's in the astounding love of the Father, God, for us in Christ.

A love that seeks us even when we don't want to be sought.

And a love that transforms us.

A love that the more we grasp it, the more in all of it we are.

A love that actually changes us.

Friends, God's love is deeper than we know.

And it is stronger than we can fathom.

And we need to know that this morning.

Let's pray.