Sermons

Well, good morning, everybody. Could you open your Bibles, please, to Luke chapter 15? Luke chapter 15. I'm looking forward to being able to get together later to sing and to pray with one another. So, if you're free, please do plan to come back and to enjoy some fellowship and time of just collective worship. If you're able, I want to encourage you to come and just enjoy the sweetness of gathering together to praise God with one another. Thank you to Paul and to Austin for preaching the last couple of weeks. It's been good to have that opportunity to go and to get to know some of the other fellowship groups in the church here, got to go and spend some time with the elementary Sunday school class. And that was a particular highlight. I like you guys, but they are so much more fun.

So, I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with that Sunday school class. And then last week, got to go and be with the young singles. And it's just so exciting to see the people that are coming to the church and the way that they're connecting with each other and to have been able to meet already the different leaders that we have who are preaching week in and week out to all of those different groups. It's really exciting what God is allowing to happen here. And while we talk about buildings and all these other things, and there's excitement with that too, it's because the foundations are right. I'm so glad that we have so many ministering God's Word to one another within the context of our church. So, we have a lot to be grateful for.

Now, can I ask you please to stand while we read arguably the best known parable that Jesus told. Let me read verses one to two and then we'll skip down to the parable that will be our focus in verse 11. Let me read Luke chapter 15 in verse 1.

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.” Verse 11, “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 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 in 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 into the 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 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.” 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 the son said to him, “father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” And he began to celebrate.

Now his older son was in the field and 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. And your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.” But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him. But he answered his father, “look, these many years I have served you. And I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened 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.””

Let's take a moment and pray.

[Prayer] Our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that this morning we have opportunity in the church to come around Your Word. We are so thankful for those who have prepared to teach the children in nursery and the elementary class, the middle school, the high school ministry. For those who are teaching and all the various adult Sunday school classes, we thank You for the preparation that has gone on and we pray that You would bless them and minister to their hearts as they seek to care and to minister to those who they will teach this morning. We thank You that Your Word is always true and always applicable, but we also thank You that You have allowed in your grace these particular passages of scripture that speak so clearly of Your love and Your care and Your compassion towards Your children.

Lord, we are an undeserving people. But we thank You that we've already been able to sing praise to You this morning, to declare our love in song, and recognize, Lord, it is simply because You have first loved us and declared that by the sending of Your Son. Teach and instruct us through this beautiful passage of scripture, we pray, that we may know You better and love You more. For Lord, You have loved us perfectly. And it's in Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. [End]

Have a seat.

Really struggled this week to think of a good introduction because I wanted to talk about love. And Sarah would quickly tell you I'm no expert. You're laughing, but it's true. Love's a funny thing because normally we think of love as that spark, that chemistry, first of all, between maybe a husband and a wife. You know, at some point, they saw each other across the room or maybe on an online dating profile, depending on how it began. And there was something about, normally, the appearance that was attractive. And there was something dazzling about the personality. And maybe there were shared interests and just this sense of we enjoy time together. Maybe, if you're more spiritual, there's a sense of you'd love seeing the way that they served and engaged with others in the church. And you were drawn, you were pulled towards them. There was an attractive quality that caused you to love them.

There's something altogether different, though, whenever your kids are born. I remember whenever Isla, our oldest, was born. She came out looking like a little blue alien. You know, like, for whatever reason, she didn't have a chin at the beginning. And she had that weird purpley-blue color that they first have, and I kind of looked at her, and though she looked so odd and strange, and she couldn't speak my language, and I definitely didn't understand her squeaks and cries, yet there was this love that was felt immediately. And this weight that fell immediately on my shoulders as a father. The sense of connection that will not shift, that will not go, and all of the desire that for so long had been quite a selfish desire to look after self and those who will support me, shifted to what can we do to help and to shape and to express love for this little blue alien?

And yet that picture of the Father's love for the child so often Scripture takes and uses to describe the affection of the Almighty God in heaven towards His children. And yet, like any good illustration, it falls short. We're going to see this morning in this particular parable that while there is something closer in that father-child love that we know in this world, yet His love surpasses it all. It goes far beyond what normal human minds are capable of, what normal human hearts are able to conjure up in themselves.

And we lose sight of the significance of the parable if we don't first recognize what we have said over the last few weeks. Verses 1 and 2 set the context. Jesus is speaking to a group. And at the core, at the center of the group, according to verse 1, are those who were known to be sinners, who had made a mess of their life, who had had a destructive pattern that marked them, and yet had drawn near to hear the life-giving truth of Jesus Christ. Their lifestyle had been marked by patterns of sin and yet the teaching of Jesus had called them to new life. And in that spirit they drew close to Him and hung on His words.

But in that same crowd, according to verse 2, there is another group of people, those Pharisees and those scribes, those who were marked by a moral uprightness, at least on the surface. People thought much of them. People wanted their kids to pattern their lives off them to a certain extent. They were the upstanding members of society, and they looked at what was happening in front of Jesus and were disgusted that He would make time for sinners. That He wouldn't dismiss the obviously messy, that He wouldn't reject those with obvious problems and patterns as sin, but rather, in the way He taught, He seemed to embrace them close.

And Jesus, in light of that, tells three parables according to verse three, that they're to speak into that situation. So, He told that wonderful parable about the lost sheep, about the shepherd that is willing to leave the 99 out of a burden and desire to seek after the one that is lost that they may be brought home. And He tells the story of the lost coin, that lady who loses a coin that is full of significance to her and she scours the house, she searches everywhere, she lights a lamp and gets a brush and with full determination insists and seeks until she finds the coin that she had lost.

And now, we come to the parable of the prodigal son, the lost son. Again, speaking to the situation in front of Jesus. He's been trying to explain to these grumpy Pharisees of verse 2 that God loves the repentant, that the sinner that draws near is treasured, is indeed celebrated by God. Not by the angels of heaven, but before the angels of heaven, as He has just said. God himself before those angels is celebrating the lost who have now been found.

This is an obviously longer parable. And it's really the climax of Jesus' speech, three-fold speech to these particular Pharisees and sinners. And so, I want us to take three weeks to be able to unpack it. There's at least three perspectives that we need to understand in this particular parable, and this morning I want us to focus on what I believe is the most important, and it's the perspective of the father in the parable. Well, we'll think of the wayward son next week. We'll think of the older brother the following week. But today, I want us to think of the father here in the story, the father that reminds us so clearly of the disposition of our heavenly Father towards us.

Jesus is trying to communicate to the crowd the way the Father in heaven feels about these lost sinners who have been found. And he, more than the lost son, more than the older brother, is the focus of the story. That's why we're starting here, that the term father is used 12 times in this parable. In fact, the parable starts in verse 11 by mentioning, first of all, the father. Before the lost son, we have the father mentioned. And he will be the last to speak in verse 32. He very much is the alpha and omega of this parable. And so, it's right to see him as central, as key, as the first step in understanding this parable in its fullness.

And Jesus again is telling us this parable that we would understand that the Father in heaven has an incredible love for sinners. Those that caused the Pharisees to grumble in verse two. Jesus pulls no punches. Pharisees, you need to understand, God loves them. God cares for them. He has sincere, deep compassion towards them. And so, I want to make six. Very simple observations about the father and the story that we would understand the disposition of our heavenly Father towards us better this morning.

And the first point is this; the sons belong to Him. Very simple, but the sons belong to Him. You look at verse 11 where the parable begins, and that is made very clear from the start. And he said, there was a man who had two sons. The whole story hangs on this very simple idea of a father-son relationship. That is what is in place, that is fundamental, that is what was meant to be enjoyed, that was meant to be treasured, that was meant to be favored. There is a relationship that is lost, that is broken, but that existed. That's why it is lost that these two boys, both of them, and both of them, will have their own hiccups and own issues, but both of them fundamentally belong to the father. They were made. They were created. They were designed to enjoy relationship with the father who they belong to.

Now, they may have wandered in their own ways, the younger son by flagrant, sinful living, and the older son by an estranged, self-righteous distance. They may have gone their own directions, but fundamentally, they were meant to have relationship with the father. They belonged to him. My children, Isla, Ian, Izzy, they didn't choose me to be their father. I'm sure they could have made a far better choice. They got me as their father. They belong to me, not by their desire, not by their disposition, but by biology. That's how this thing works.

And here we fail to understand the nature of the natural man or natural woman's condition to the heavenly Father if we don't recognize that first and foremost, they belong to Him. My children, I keep them around, not because they're performing well. Like when their room is messy, we don't get rid of them. They are graciously allowed to stay. Their relationship with me is not based on performance. It's not based on even articulation of affection. It's based on where they came from. And that's so important because we need to recognize that first and foremost, every man and woman in church today and in the world today, belong to God Himself. Psalm 24, verse 1 says, “the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.”

Now, as good as NASA is, there is no human being that does not dwell therein. Every person, in other words, that lives in this world belongs to God. Too often, men and women think of themselves as neutral. God is a concept for you to explore. And it may be of interest to you is how the world most often thinks. That's not true. You belong to Him. It doesn't matter today if you call yourself a Christian or not, you belong to Him. He is the Father that you belong to. And either you're a rebel against that, or you're one who enjoys relationship with Him because it's what you were made for, but either way, you belong to Him.

And in order to understand humanity, that's first and foremost. God isn't an optional thing that may work for you. You have a relationship with God whether you want it or not. You belong to Him, and you're either living in rebellion to that, or you're enjoying it and savoring it and worshiping him in it. So, this son or these sons belong to him.

The second thing that's obvious in the first half of the story is this son, this lost son, he forsook him. Both sons belonged to him, but this son, he forsook him. He forsook him. Look at verse 12. Verse 12 says, “and the younger of them said to his father, “father, give me a share of property that is coming to me.” And he divided his property between them. He asks for his inheritance. “There is a day coming, Father, when you will die. And in that day, because of my genetics, I'll be getting something from you, but I want it now. I don't want to wait. I don't want to hang around. I want it now. I can't wait any longer.”

Now, most certainly to the Jewish audience, but even to a Greco-Roman audience, this is the height of insult. This is the equivalent of saying, “Father, give me this stuff because I don't care about you. I wish you were dead. I want what's coming to me and that'll be good, but I don't want any of the relationship with you.” It would have been seen in that particular culture as the greatest disrespect and the most wicked rebellion. That the fact that the father in the story goes along with the idea would have caused the Pharisees and scribes and indeed even the sinners to kind of panic a little. This is not the way they expect the story to go down.

Because of Deuteronomy 21, they expect that son to be taken outside the city and stoned by the elders of the city. Because that's what the Old Testament law expected in this type of situation. What they did not expect was the father to show kindness. Here was an inheritance, like any inheritance, designed to be distributed at death, not by request. The two words translated the same way there, property, are actually two different words in verse 12. Do you see that? The younger said to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.” That first word, property, it speaks of financial wealth. Give me the money. Give me the riches.

But look at what it says immediately after. And he divided his property between them. Now, in the Greek, that second word that's translated properly is actually a different word. It's a word that is derived from life, the word we get our word, life, from. In other words, the son comes and he says, "Give me the riches. And we're told that the father gave off all that was he, all that was in him, all that made him up, all that he had to live on. In other words, what we're being told is the father didn't just grant the request; he went way beyond the request. And he gave of his very self here. It's an extreme granting that is going on. And it speaks to the incredible patience and incredible kindness of the father.

Again, remember those Pharisees. How dare you let those sinners draw near? They should be cut off. They should be disposed of. They have no place in this particular church. And Jesus says, no, God here is far more patient, far more kind, far more wonderful than you could ever think or imagine. Look at verse 15. Verse 15, we read, “so he went and hired himself out.” Speaking of the lost son in the foreign country. Literally, hired is not a strong enough word. It's he joined himself to. In other words, he didn't just, you know, go and get a job. He attached himself, put himself in a place of slavery, of subjection to, of commitment to. All that was in him, his identity, was now attached to this Gentile, this foreigner, this outsider. He's rejected all of his past. He belonged to the father, and he attaches his identity. He joins his identity to one of the citizens of that country, of another country. He's joined a gentile, and he ends up feeding pigs. He completely abandons his family, his ethnic background, his religious background, most certainly with the pigs. And Jesus is helping us to see the full extent of the forsaking of the father by the lost son.

You know in Psalm 51, that Psalm of David, whenever he had sinned in that terrible way by sleeping with Bathsheba and then orchestrating the murder of Uriah. Certainly not fulfilling his role as king and moral leader of the nation. In verse 4 of Psalm 51, as David expresses what has taken place, he says, "'Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." Is that true? Is Psalm 51 verse 4 true? I'm going to sound like a heretic here. Technically, no. He sinned against Bathsheba. Far more clearly, he sinned against Uriah. And I would say he sinned against the nation of Israel for he forsook his moral responsibility to be an example to them.

This whole thing happened when he was meant to be leading his army in war. So, he didn't just sin against God, but the point of Psalm 51 verse 4, “against you, you only have I sinned, “is so massive. It's the magnitude that we have sinned against this loving, heavenly Father that we belong to, that all other human dimensions of that sin peel into insignificance when compared to the fact that against God, we have fallen and forsaken Him. That's the incredible anguish of Psalm 51. And that's the idea here. This son does everything in his being to reject the God, the Father that he belongs to.

Sin isn't an impersonal thing. We think of sin of; I did this thing that's wrong. It's not a thing, a mistake. It's an insult against the person of God. That's what makes it sin. That's why it's such a grievous sin. Sin is not just, oh, I did a bad thing. It's spitting in the face of our Father. It's a deeply personal thing. No matter what sin it is, it is deeply personal because it is an attack on the relationship we were designed to have with the Father.

Third thing I want you to see in this particular story is the goodness that marked him. The goodness that marks this father in this story. You know whenever you hear a really, really good story? Like if you have a really good storyteller, what tends to happen is, in the way they tell the story, they pause, and everybody leans forward because they're hooked. They're into it. They love what's coming. And there's a sense here of something hooking, of drawing the lost son. Did you notice what it was? Well, it was the goodness of the father.

What begins to move the lost son in the right direction is a remembrance of the goodness of the father. Luther described true faith as vibrant trust in the goodness of God. That's where faith most often begins, with the individual first remembering that God is good. And because of that, we have the assurance of his compassion and gentle way that he deals with the repentant sinner. Look at verse 17. It says, “but when he,” the lost son, “came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger?”

You see, the repentance began; we're told at the beginning of verse 17, when he came to himself. In other words, whenever the mind cleared and he started to see things as they really were, he regained perspective. But what was the perspective that he regained that changed everything? What was it about? What was it in relationship to? Well, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. He remembers his father's goodness, that the hired servants it speaks of are day laborers.

Those who would have just been maybe standing on the, you know, corner of the street, you know, you can think of them standing outside the hardware store wanting that day's wage, that job for the day. And it's those sorts of characters; they're taken, and they would have maybe worked in the field or on a particular building project for the landowner, and they would have done his bidding. And at the end of the day, normally, they would have been given a minimum wage, the smallest amount that was deemed appropriate. It was up to the owner to do it, and normally they were frugal, and they were trying to make as much profit and bring as much benefit to themselves. So, it was enough to get them potentially to come back again, but not much more than that, except in this story.

For in this story, the father's hired servants, the day laborers, have more than enough bread. You know, a minimum-wage job is notorious for being a job that's hard to feed your family well. But these guys who are in that type of work, because of who they're working for, they're feeding their family pretty well. They have more than enough food. Now, why is that? You know, it's because the father in the story, he pays them generously. He goes over and above. He's so kind. He's so good.

And it's that remembrance in the son's mind of the common kindness of the father towards these ordinary people that moves him forward. It's amazing, isn't it? If you were to ask a child, what do they remember? What do they know about their earthly father? It can be quite revealing what they would say at that point. But here, this boy, in a far-removed country, in a very different context, as he thinks back to his father, the thing he remembers most about him is his goodness, the way he cared for the ordinary people, the way he, in his nature, was kind and compassionate towards them.

Romans 2, verse 4 says, “God's kindness or God's goodness is meant to lead you to repentance.” It's meant to lead you to repentance. That's what's happening here. There is a movement, and we'll think more about it next week, of repentance in the son, but what drives it is the sense first that the father is altogether good. Psalm 34 verse 8, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” In his essence, he is good. The pilgrimage of true saving faith starts with that sense of the goodness of God and being drawn towards it.

C.S. Lewis said, “God is not merely good, but he is goodness itself.” In other words, everything that is good flows from God. He's the definer of what is good. It's not good unless God is the one who has set that standard. Goodness finds its very definition in who He is. That's His disposition. That's who He is. And it's why as wandering lost sons and daughters, when we come back to the Father, we can come back with full confidence because we know that He will always do what is good. He'll not change in that disposition. He'll not move forward in a different way. He is in and of Himself good.

And the question is, do you know His goodness this morning? There can be a lot of people who find themselves in Christian company that have this sense of dread of God and nothing more. And we should have the fear of the Lord, that sense of deep respect and awareness of who He is and the dignity attached to Him. But true Christianity always insists on going further and recognizing that the God that we fear is in and of Himself good. And that's what gives us confidence as lost sons and lost daughters to come near to Him, for He will always do wonderfully, what is good. What is good.

Fourth thing I want you to see about this father in the story is the compassion that moves him. The compassion that moves him. Look at verse 20. Speaking of the boy, it says, “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.”

You know the Pharisees and the sinners expected Jesus to say at this particular point in the story, the son repentant comes back broken in spirit and the father has nothing to do with him. The father sends a servant possibly to tell him to sit at the gate of the city and sit in sackcloth and ashes, and to allow the elders of the city to see his humbling in front of their face. And then after weeks, possibly months, a time would be arranged for the father to meet with the son, and in coldness, give him a list of requirements by which he could slowly make his way back into a servant-like role. And that's the best possible outcome that they had in their mind. That would be an example of grace in their mind.

But that's not what we see here in verse 20. Instead, we read that this son while he's still in process, but while he was a long way off. That phrase, long way off, it's emphatic. You could underline it. The distress is when he's way, way, way, way, way, way, way down the road. His father saw him. In other words, the father in the story, he's constantly looking out. He's constantly hoping. He's constantly vigilant, looking to see a movement on the horizon, to see if one would come.

And as soon as he sees this lost boy, he runs. He runs. Again, in the ancient world, they didn't run. The patriarchs of the family, they were not runners. They were the authority figures and so they strutted. They didn't run. They walked with dignity. But this father, and again, remember the type of clothing that they had. He gathers up his long robe, and he tucks it into his belt and he sprints down the road, fearful that if anybody else in the city where he's so respected, remember he looked after the hired servants so well. If there's hired servants standing at the edge of the city looking for work, they'll throw stones at this guy because they love the father. They respect the father and maybe out of a desire just to shield him. To make sure that nobody else would hurt him. That nobody else would interfere. He sprints down the road and we read in verse 20, “He embraces him.” He collapses upon his neck and he kissed him. And the language there is one of repetition. It's not one gentle kiss. It's continually he is kissing him cheek and cheek and cheek. It's constant.

It's the same word that's used, do you remember back in Luke chapter 7? Luke chapter 7 verse 38. Lovely, kind picture of a repentant lady in that particular chapter. Look at chapter 7 verse 38. We read of that sinful woman who has known forgiveness from God that she stood behind him at his feet weeping and she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair on her head and kissed his feet. That's the same word, it's not just a singular kiss, it's a repeated action.

So consumed is this lady in the story with who Jesus is and the kindness that He showed to her, that she labors upon his feet, these kisses, she doesn't know what else to do. And it's the same now in chapter 15, but it's the father, not the sinner, the father in the story that's doing the kissing. He's so overwhelmed with affection. It's an incredible picture that we have here in Luke 15. A high level of affection. A deep love that he feels.

That word compassion, it speaks of deep feelings in our very bowels towards the one. You know, whenever you first maybe saw the love of your life, and you had that weird, when you kind of knew this is a real thing, and maybe you men thought about asking that lady to marry you, the awful butterflies in the stomach, that blech, in the gut. Beyond words, yes, you understand. That's the word "compassion." That within that deep emotion, there is this feeling of otherness, of affection that must be expressed. And so, from that, there is this reaching out. But the father here feels it immediately towards the son. The son hasn't said anything to him yet. He's already moved to action. He's moving before the son even has a chance to answer.

The fifth thing I want you to see in the text is the dignity the father bestows on him. The dignity he bestows on him. Look at verse 22. In fact, let me read from verse 21 so you see the picture. “The son said to him, “Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servant, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.

He cuts off the son mid-speech. I am sure the son had more to say than half a sentence. But he doesn't get a chance. Because the father insists instead of being the one who's speaking. And he doesn't speak to shout and holler. He doesn't speak to put the son in his place. He immediately speaks, in verse 22, to affirm the relationship he wanted to have with this boy. He wants to communicate that at his core; he wants full relationship with the son.

Isaiah chapter 65 verse 24 says, “before they call, I will answer.” That's what's going on here. The son barely can get words out before the father interrupts, and he interrupts to say what? Well, he asks for the best robe. Do you know whose robe was the best in that house? The father's. He's the patriarch. He's not just saying, get the old robe out of my lost son's cupboard. Believe me, the son took that with him long ago. It's his robe. His best. The suit that he would wear to the wedding. Get that and put it on him right now.

And put sandals, put shoes on his feet. In that society, not everybody wore shoes. Slaves, these hired servants, they didn't have anything on their feet. And again, the lost son doesn't have spare shoes at the house. This is either the older brother's shoes, they probably have athlete's foot, you know, so it's most likely the father's shoes that he puts on him as well. And they wear a dignity symbol. He's not a slave. He may say he wants to be a hired servant, but believe me, he's not that. That's what's being communicated.

And put a ring on his finger. It's most likely that signet ring, a status symbol. The family's authority, the father's authority, is bestowed on this son. The father is putting a robe, sandals, and ring on the boy in order that the whole community that may be tempted to throw stones would know from the beginning that this father has fully restored the son. In fact, taking him even beyond what he used to be to a higher status, to a fuller role. It speaks of the father's immediate, full acceptance of the boy.

You know what one of the most humiliating experiences was in coming to Texas? California. When you move to California, they'll give you a driving license like that. Because they did, they gave me a driving license like that. When I came to Texas, I went to the DMV. If anything would make you believe in purgatory, it's the DMV. I went to the DMV, I booked to do the test and everything else and they said, you can't do the written and the practical on the same day. You'll have to do one. And so, I did the written test and thankfully passed it. And I went to the counter, and she gave me a learner's permit.

I haven't had a learner's permit since I was 17. It was so humiliating because you felt that you have been driving for, I'll not tell you how many years, but there's a lot of them. And all of a sudden, you're pushed right down. The point in this verse is full dignity is granted to this boy. There's no restrictions on his license. There's no probation period in his restoration. It is full and complete. The son, remember, when he was with the Gentiles, he had nothing. In fact, he'd lessen the pigs. He'd long to eat what the pigs had. And now he is given by the very one he rebelled against. Full, immediate status as son. It's absolutely incredible.

And the sixth thing I want you to notice about the father here is celebration is commanded by him. Again, Deuteronomy 21 verses 18 to 21 would say that what would have been lawful was the stoning of this boy. But we don't see stoning. Look at verse 23. “And bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate.” The fattened calf is not just like, well, isn't that funny? We had a fat calf out there. This was a purposeful investment. The landowner, the rich landowner especially in that day would have had a prized animal that they would have fattened up with grain. And they would have done it for a long period of time until something significant came along like the older brother's wedding. That's probably the type of thing this was being saved for. Like a massive celebration.

The biggest of events. And so, the last thing that would happen with a fattened calf is a whim on a day; the order be given for it to be slaughtered. But that's what happens here. The fattened calf is killed. Then verse 23 says, "Let us eat." There's an inclusiveness. The whole village, kind of like what we saw with the lost sheep and the lost coin, everybody's pulled into the celebration. Let us eat and celebrate, celebrate. The father's joy is exuberant. This is public. This is jubilant. This is a fun party.

Sometimes, Christians, we give the impression that, you know, everything's a bit grim. But the father is jubilant. Joy expressing. There's celebration and conversion here. That fattened calf would have been enough to feed 500 people with just the prime cuts alone. This is Texas barbecue gone crazy. And it's free. Everybody is invited to come.

At the end of World War II, there were parties, you can read about it, parties that broke out in New York, and Paris, and Moscow, and London, and all of those major cities, those parties went on for days, days. Just this overwhelming celebration, it couldn't be contained, it has to be expressed. Well, that's the father in this story, it has to be expressed. There has to be celebration. And why do we need to celebrate? Why do we have to insist on this? Look at verse 24. “For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate.” We've heard that language of being lost and being found. That's probably the key phrase that's coming through in all three parables. It's important, but a new phrase has entered just here. We're also told that he was dead and is alive. But did he die? Well, unless there's some brief moment where his heart stopped and the pigs die. There wasn't a physical death in this story. None of the details make us think that. But he was dead in relationship with the father. And in that regard, he has been made alive.

Jesus is telling us that this, that our nature with the heavenly Father, we were designed to be in relationship with Him, to know Him to an even greater degree than you and your physical body were designed to breathe. You and your physical body, the heart was designed to beat. When the heart stops beating, we declare the person dead. Well, when the person has no relationship with God, they are spiritually dead. Because that's where life is lived and that spiritual life is found. The only place where that can be known. And so important is it to the father that he celebrates. Do you see how wonderful he is? How loving he is?

I've been talking for too long, but there's one last note I want you to see before we close, and it's this. This is a story about a father, but it's also, Luke 15, there's three sons in the story. We'll talk more about two of them in the next few weeks. You have the one who we've been seeing a lot of, who returned and was embraced. You have the one, the older brother, who shunned his father's invite due to self-focus. But there's another son in the story, or I may be being cheeky. There's another son telling the story.

And here's the bit that's important. He's the one that's committed to making the story come true. What's he doing in this scene? Remember the sinners who have drawn near to here? And the Pharisees who can't get their heads around it, he is declaring to them that God loves these lost individuals. You've been found. John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

This isn't just a compelling story to interest the crowd. It's the very reason for Jesus' mission, because God loved lost people, Jesus came. And in verse 24 and verse 32, whenever Jesus tells us the reason, the summary, the importance of finding lost sons and daughters, that was only possible in real life through the commitment of the Son of God. Obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of that, we live. Because of that, lost people are found.

Jesus is telling a story to address the tension in the room in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 15, and to show how much God loves these repentant sinners. But the conclusion of the story isn't actually in verse 32. The conclusion comes later at the end of the gospel where Jesus Himself would die on the cross. Only through the commitment of the storyteller to be obedient to death, even death on the cross, are lost individuals able to be found by the Father who loves them.

Friends, if you are a Christian this morning, you have such a, even now, a small idea of how great the Father's love is for you. And if you're not a Christian this morning, the Father is so good, so good, and it's declared the same by the sending of His Son, that if today you would repent, you can know the joy being found and loved by our Father in heaven.

Let's pray.

[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we love You because You first loved us. Shape and move and raise our affection towards You, we pray, that in the way we live, and the opportunities we have in Sunday school classes to learn more and our conversations as we engage with each other and our opportunity to even come and sing praise together tonight. May we savor the opportunities that we have to declare our love and our affection for You, the great God who sent Your Son. Go with us, we pray, for it's in Jesus' name we ask it, amen. [End]

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