Prodigal Son

Luke 15 and verse 20, we read these words.

While he, the son that is, was still a long way off,

his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

I guess those of us who are used to reading the Bible at various times

know this story only too well.

I'd never forgotten some years ago in church at a family service,

I was doing a Q&A with the children.

I said, who was sorry when the fatted calf came home?

Of course, I wanted the answer, the elder son.

The child stuck his hand up, said, yes.

What's that?

He said, the fatted calf.

I guess there are some subjects in life that everybody has an opinion on.

Right now, I guess Brexit would take the limelight for that,

but we Brits are good at talking about the weather.

Everybody has an opinion about the weather.

When you go to Australia and you say to somebody, it's a nice day, isn't it?

They're like, you what, mate?

It's just not what they talk about there.

But of course, everybody has an idea about parenthood.

I've noticed this.

I've noticed that the generations all have ideas.

In fact, even people who do not have children have ideas about parenting,

especially when they're in a restaurant or on a coach or something like that.

And of course, today is Father's Day.

You guessed that.

My own experience of Father's Day has been mixed.

I mean, for the majority of my life, I'll be quite honest with you,

I never heard of it.

And then American marketing got to work,

and suddenly it became before my eyes.

I have five children.

Two out of five have remembered it's Father's Day thus far.

Not that I'm bitter.

My own father was challenging.

Throughout my teenage years, his constant refrain to me was,

you're a dead loss.

And actually, I pretty well was, to be quite honest with you.

So on Father's Day, when I'm thinking about,

well, what can I thank God for, for my dad?

I do have something I'm very grateful to my dad for.

He taught me to be resilient.

I'm a kind of chumba-wumba-style Christian,

in that I get knocked down, I get right up again.

And so, we come to this amazing story of the prodigal son,

or the lost son, as the modern translations of the Bible choose to call it.

And the first thing you need to understand about this story is,

that the request of the younger son to have his share of the property was truthfully outrageous.

You could not insult your father enough,

other than by asking him for your share of the estate before you died.

In fact, people had tried that with their fathers before,

and the response of the family was,

we will now regard you as dead.

And you get a little bit of that in the story later on, don't you?

After the son comes back, the father says,

my son who was dead is now alive.

Back in those days, you went to ask your dad for your share of the property before you were dead.

You were dead already.

So, the request was entirely outrageous.

And even more strange is the fact that the dad requested it.

I mean, I have one son,

and I tried to imagine what my response would be if he said,

Dad, could I have my share of your overdraft now?

This is a story which in Western tradition,

in many ways rightly,

has focused on something really important,

and it's this.

And of course, this story never actually happened.

It's a parable.

It's supposed to teach truth.

And one of the central truths that the Western church is focused on

is the idea that this father

is very loving and forgiving,

even in the face of extreme provocation.

Well, that's what every Christ follower in this church believes,

that God is ultimately a good God.

And despite our behaviors,

still can find room in his heart to love us.

Tim Keller,

great preacher from the USA,

has a different take.

He takes the more Hebrew approach to it,

and he says this parable

is really about the two fundamental ways

that you can alienate yourself from God.

On the one hand,

it's the younger son.

The son who decides,

he's not going to play by the rules,

he's going to do it his way.

He's going to go out into the world,

and he's going to live a life of hedonism,

and he's going to,

metaphorically speaking,

make an unpleasant gesture towards the rules.

And of course,

the story ends with,

sorry,

that aspect of his life ends

with him sharing food with pigs.

I have never eaten with pigs.

Occasionally I've thought it,

but I've never actually eaten with pigs.

But,

I can't imagine anything more degrading than that,

can you?

And in that degradation,

here's a kind of Holy Spirit moment.

Did you notice that very telling verse in our text?

He came to his senses.

You want to alienate yourself from God?

You do life your way.

Frank Sinatra sang,

and it's now played at people's funeral services,

unbelievably.

I did it my way.

You want to do life your way?

You will inevitably end up alienated

from your Father in heaven.

But then,

there's another way we can alienate God,

which is represented by

the older son.

He represents,

well, he represents,

honestly,

a lot of those of us who go to church.

He represents

somebody who plays it by the book,

who keeps the rules,

who somehow thinks that by keeping himself

the rules,

he's earning special favor with God,

and therefore,

more and more,

he has less love in his heart

for those who don't play it by the book.

And he becomes self-righteous

and judgmental.

You get that,

don't you,

in our story.

All these years,

I've been slaving for you,

said the elder son,

and never disobeyed your orders.

Yet,

you never gave me

even a young goat

so I could celebrate

with my friends.

Keller says,

this type of person

sits in church

Sunday by Sunday

with a shriveled soul

and doesn't even know it,

and actually thinks

it's justifiable

to look down their noses

at the rest of the world.

And they expect favor

with God

for behaving like that.

Two fundamental ways

you can alienate yourself

from God

if you want to.

One is by being judgmental

of those who don't keep the rules.

The other sort

of the people

who don't keep the rules

and just lead their lives

lead into degradation.

How tragic

and how sad.

What can we learn from this?

Well,

the first thing is,

there comes a point

in your life

when you need to have

a Holy Spirit moment

and come to your senses

and decide

what kind of life you want.

Do you want to do it

your way?

And isn't,

I mean,

that is a terrible temptation.

I would say

before I gave my life

to Christ,

there was one person

in my life,

it was called me.

Paul put it like this,

he said,

we dissatisfied

the desires of our flesh,

our earthly lusts.

If I was a Christian,

I didn't know

any other rules

to play by.

You do that,

you alienate yourself

from God.

There comes a moment.

I don't know,

this may be your moment today,

maybe even some of you

need to come to your senses

and allow the Holy Spirit

to prick your conscience

so that you might make a move.

And the second thing

we note in the story

is what's the right move

to make

for the younger son

and for the older son

and the move is this,

he threw himself

on the grace

of his father.

You know what he said?

He said,

I'm going to go

and see my dad.

I'm going to say to him,

Dad,

I know

I am no more worthy

to be called your son.

But if you'll have me back,

don't have me back

as a son,

have me back

as a hired hand

on your estate.

Just give me a chance,

will you?

You?

See, the way to avoid

either becoming

the younger son

or the elder son

if you are the younger son

and the way to stop

being the older son

if you're the older son

is to remember

that this God

is a God of grace.

His love

is deep love,

it's compassionate love

our story tells us,

but it's the kind of love

that's shown to you

when you don't deserve it.

That's why it's called grace

and that's why you need it

because you can't do anything

to earn that love of God.

God is love,

said John

in his epistle.

That means,

literally,

God cannot not love you.

But he loves you

even though you don't deserve it

and if you choose

to turn your back on him,

you will end up

somewhere along the line

with a messed up life.

What do you need to do?

Go to the throne of grace

and throw yourself upon it.

But if you're the kind of person

who has strong morals,

you're the kind of person

who's happy to quote

the Bible at people,

if you're the kind of person

who owns a Bible

as big as a paving slab,

and you're prepared

to go around town

beating people around the head

with it

till they submit,

and you have a very low view

of people

who don't keep the rules,

I think you need to do

the same thing.

I think you need to come back

to the throne of grace

and remember

who you are.

you are a forgiven sinner.

You have no right

to go around the planet

judging other people

and being self-righteous

and feeling great.

And how horrible

when that manifests itself

in the church.

The place where the love of God

should be shown

to people who don't deserve it.

And the third thing

that's amazing

about this story is

the father welcomes him home.

Even when he was a long way off,

his father saw him.

It was in the days before

very focal spectacles.

His father saw him.

And he gets out his best robe.

A mark of great honor.

He takes the ring

of his finger

and he gets the fatted calf

out of the shed,

poor thing.

And there's a party.

You remember elsewhere

Jesus said,

when one sinner repents,

there's a party in heaven.

It is amazing

that however much

we humans

test God,

however much

we provoke him,

however much

we choose to do things

our way

or we sit in churches

judging others,

at the moment

we come to our senses,

God says,

you know what?

I'm going to throw a party.

That's going to be

in your honor.

I try to imagine,

I mean this is not

a bad litmus test

for those of you

who are Christ followers,

right?

Try to imagine,

suppose in Cleveland

there was a very notorious person

who lived recklessly

and lived sinfully

and ended up living

a very degraded life

and became a menacing

kind of beggar downtown

and was in a...

You should ask yourself this.

If Clive bumped into him

in the street

and prayed with him

and this person

had a Holy Spirit moment

in the middle

of the high street

and Clive brought him

to church on Sunday

and said,

you know what?

We're staying on afterwards

because we're going to

throw a party for this guy

because this fellow

who was dead

is now alive.

How many of you

would come?

How many of you

would throw your hats

in the air?

How many of you

would go out your way

to help this person

get back on their feet?

Well, I know

there are some people

out there

who really would do that.

I know there are some people

who'd even bring

their musical instruments along

to make the party go better.

And maybe a bottle of

Let me just say

for you sensitive people

a bottle of squash.

You can see

can you not?

Why Tim Keller says

this story is about

the Father's love

but it's also about

our human behaviors

and the best way

to alienate God

if you want to.

But of course

to go back

to the Western churches

tradition

you have to marvel

at the Father's love.

And dance

we need to listen up

about this stuff.

One of the first things

that strikes me

about this story

and this is such

a horrendous thing

for all parents

not just dads

but for mums as well.

When you get to a moment

where your child's behavior

has been so difficult

has been so disruptive

has so wrecked

your family life

has made it hard

for siblings

etc. etc.

That love sometimes

demands

that you've got to

let go.

The son

came to the father

insulted him greatly

said give me my share

of the stuff

and the father did

let him go.

Same kind of thing

happened on that boat

wasn't it

that Jonah

set sail on

because Jonah

was supposed to go

to Nineveh

and he decided

I'm not doing that

I'm going to Tarshish

so he gets on a boat

going exactly the

opposite direction

and they run into a storm

and the mariners

on the boat

saying whose fault

is this

and Jonah runs up

and the mariners

these must have been

gracious pagan people

they're a little nervous

about throwing him

overboard

so that the stone

right

but in the end

for the greater good

of Jonah

they had to throw him

off the boat

into a turbulent sea

I cannot answer

this question for you

but I know

that for some of you

you'll have had to

come to a point

in your lives

where you have to decide

is loving my child

occasionally about

throwing him

off the boat

but if that love

sometimes needs

to let go

that love needs

to retain hope

I guess

in our story

in the father's mind

there must always

have been the hope

hope

that his son

might come home

you know why

for those of you

who are stuck

in your sin

for those of you

who have decided

you're going to live

life your way

I think your father

in heaven

retains hope

that you might

have a moment

when you come

to your senses

and decide

that you will

return home

what I love

about the love

about the love

of the father

in this story

is

it was so pregnant

with risk

some of you

are sitting

thinking

if that was

my son

coming home

after spending

a bunch of money

I wouldn't be sure

he wasn't coming

home asking

for a bit more

not this father

this father

before he even

knows why

his son

is coming back

gets out

his robe

and his ring

and throws

a party

and in our

text today

it says

he put his arms

around the child

literally what

that means is

he opened

his arms

wide to his

child

this story

never happened

it's a parable

it's not

history

but my goodness

it speaks

straight into

the heart

of our human

situation

does it not

for surely

the climax

of the whole

gospel

is about

a God

who opens

his arms

on a cross

and the moment

we respond

to that death

that sacrificial

death

the moment

we respond

to God's grace

in faith

on the cross

of Calvary

Bible says

there's a party

in heaven

and your name

is on that

party

this story

takes us

to the heart

of the human

condition

God

won't force

anybody

to come

to their

senses

won't force

anybody

to throw

themselves

on the throne

of grace

but whether

you are

the younger

child

or whether

you are

the older

child

the remedy

is the same

throw yourself

throw yourself

on the throne

of grace

and you will

find that

the love

of God

is higher

broader

deeper

than you

could ever

imagine

and you

will discover

that your

life can be

transformed

more into

the likeness

of the son

Jesus

and you

really can

start to

become

the person

that God

wants you

to be

when he

was still

far off

says the

father saw

him and was

filled with

compassion

for him

he ran

to his

son

threw his

arms

around him

and kissed

him

the older

brother

hears what's

happened

and becomes

angry

the younger

son

came to

his senses

the older

son

doesn't

and the

difference

is utterly

amazing