A Perfect Father
Luke 15
Chenoa Baptist Church
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
6-15-2025
Happy Father’s Day
Good morning! I would like to wish you a Happy Father’s Day.
In 1909, Sonora Dodd sat through in church listening to a Mother’s day sermon and wondered to herself why there wasn’t a Father’s day. Her mother had died young and her father raised six kids on his own. The idea for Father’s Day was born.
While we have celebrated our mother’s sacrifice and investment in our lives for nearly one hundred years, fathers did not get their due until President Johnson declared the third Sunday in June as an official holiday in 1966.
Some of us will call our dads or see them later today. Some of us will honor their memory and the day will be difficult. Father’s Day is a strange day and many are still not sure what to make of it.
A little boy was asked the difference between Father’s Day and Mother’s Day and replied, “They are about the same…except you don’t have to spend nearly as much money on Father’s Day.”
It is reported that Americans spent 21 billion dollars on Mother’s Day but only 12.7 billion on Father’s Day.
What’s the most common gift? A tie or underwear and socks.
Or maybe, this year you could give him a Mandale. [Video]
This morning, I want to look at a story Jesus told about a father and son that changed the way I saw God and myself completely.
Turn with me to Luke Chapter 15 as I explain the context.
Prayer.
Text within the Context
Verse 1 starts:
“Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him.”
Jesus was doing what he did best - eating lunch and explaining the things of God. He was teaching the people He loved best - the outcasts. Jesus hung out with dishonest businessmen, crooked politicians, and brazen prostitutes who could have cared less about the religious rules of the day.
This verse specifically identifies the “tax collectors.” These were Jews that had turned against their own country and collected taxes for the Roman government that occupied their land.
They extorted money from their fellow countrymen and got rich doing so. For this, they paid a heavy price. Tax collectors were excluded from the religious community and shunned by most respectable Jews.
Tax collecting was treasonous and deserving of death. But in Jesus they found a friend. Jesus had chosen a tax collector whom He renamed Matthew to be part of His mentoring group of disciples.
These men, along with the dregs of Jewish society, were drawn to hear Jesus speak. Jesus went further than just teaching them, He ate with them. To associate with these people was bad enough, but to eat with them was outrageous!
The original meaning of our word “companion” means “with bread.” To eat with someone was a sign of your friendship with that person. Jesus drove the religious leaders crazy!
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Now before we are too hard on these guys, remember that they were the “good” guys. They championed the Word of God. They were interested in holiness and many had a sincere desire for pleasing God.
There was just one problem. They had forgotten that lost people matter to God. They were looking for a Messiah to conquer Rome not One who could conquer lost hearts.
Can you hear them, “ You know he calls himself a rabbi and some say he is the Messiah. Doesn’t he know who he is sharing bread with? Doesn’t he know that God hates sinners?” They were grumbling and muttering and they were wrong.
Or at least, part wrong. God hates sin because it separates us from Him but he loves sinners enough to give His Son for them. The teachers needed teaching and Jesus tells three parables to drive home His point.
He doesn’t give a lecture or a sermon but tells a story of a lost sheep, lost silver coin, and a lost son. Stories bypass our intellect and can get to our heart. Let’s focus on the story of the lost son and his father.
The Lost Son
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father give me my share of the estate.” So he divided the property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had…
· The Son severed ties with his family
The story begins by immediately drawing all the listeners that were fathers.
There are two sons and the younger one demands his share of the estate.
The Message paraphrase puts it this way, “ I want right now what is coming to me.” You can hear the anger in his demands. It was as if he were saying, “Dad, you old fool. You are as good as dead to me. Cash it all in Pops and give me my share. I’m going to blow this one horse town and live it up!”
The Pharisees would have audibly moaned when Jesus reported that the Father honored his demand. For this insolence, the son should have been taken before the elders and stoned outside the city gate [Duet. 21:18-21]
Instead, the father calls his accountant and spends considerable time converting his estate into cash. This would have involved selling off land and livestock. The younger brother would have received one-third according to Levitical law [Duet. 21:17]. with the older brother getting two-thirds. He then “got together all he had.”
He had no plans of returning. He was done with his family and he did not look back as he walked away from the house.
· “and he set off for a distant country”
For a young Jewish male to leave his home and travel to another country would not have been uncommon due to the transient nature of the Jewish population at that time. But the original language seems to imply he went as far away as he could.
A prophet named Jonah tried this and ended up with a whale of testimony about how far God will search for you. He was running away from all the restraints of home. In a distant land, he could be anonymous and could do whatever he wanted.
· “and squandered his wealth in wild living”
Unrestrained, the young man indulged himself in every kind of sensual escapade. He lived on the wild side. He lived extravagantly and recklessly. He wasted his dad’s money with no thought of the future.
We see examples of athletes who are making millions of dollars a year and end up broke. Sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go and, in the end, leave you not only financially devastated but also emotionally and spiritually bankrupt.
· The shame of the pigpen
“After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.”
Famines were fairly common during this time but this one affected the entire country. So the playboy becomes the pig boy. The Jews considered pigs unclean animals and they were not permitted to touch them or eat them, let alone have lunch with them.
It is very difficult to convey the amount of shame this would have brought on the young man.
A common proverb of that time states “Cursed is the man who tends swine.” He had been eating caviar, now he just wanted to eat the carob pods left over from the pig slop.
· When he came to his senses
“When he came to his senses, he said, “ How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!”
Sitting in a pigpen hundreds of miles away from home, something began to happen inside of him. He began to realize his foolishness. A small inkling of understanding began to form in his mind of how much he must have hurt his father.
My dad called these times in our lives “significant emotional experiences.” It was a divine reality check. It was a wake-up call of cosmic proportions.
John Newton knew this feeling well. After deserting the Royal Navy, he became a pirate and assisted in the trafficking of slaves.
When he was miraculously converted to Christianity, he wrote his life story in a song. The first verse reads: “Amazing grace/how sweet the sound/that saved a wretch like me/I once was lost but now I’m found/was blind but now I see.”
· He prepared his speech
“I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: “ Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” So he got up and went to his father.”
His sincerity is obvious. He honestly admits his wrongdoing. He left on his terms but would return humbled. Hunger and humiliation led to homesickness. Though tired and weak, he starts the long road home to his father’s house, rehearsing his speech every step of the way.
· He was received as a son
But while he was still a long way off his father saw him and filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said “Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to called one of your sons.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick, get the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. For this son of mine was dead; he was lost and is found. So they begin to celebrate.
At this, the Pharisees would have torn their clothes. They expected the story to end with the young whipper-snapper sitting in the pigpen getting what he deserved. That is called justice. What they heard instead was a symphony of grace.
This father had been looking for him. He was peering up over the horizon every day and leaving a light on at night. The wise dad knew he had to honor his son’s demands because only God could flatten his foolishness.
Only God could pulverize the pride of a young, arrogant heart. Only God could make the son hungry not only for his father’s food but for the father himself.
The father ran. “Very uncouth”, the Pharisees would have whispered. Older men in the Near East still do not run. But this father did. He interrupted his son’s speech because it was unnecessary. He showered the son with kisses of forgiveness.
He called for the best robe, which would have probably been his own.
The robe represents the wealth of the family being restored.
The ring is the authority of the father.
Sandals were worn by sons, but not by slaves.
The fattened calf represents the celebration of the father’s heart.
People of that culture rarely ate meat. The calf was being fattened in anticipation of a celebration. The father knew his boy would come home. The calf would have been enough to feed the whole village
The son had come home. The relationship had been restored. It was party time!
The sinners surrounding Jesus would have had tears in their eyes when it occurred to them that they could come home as well, when it occurred to them that is the kind of Father God is.
The story is more about the Father’s heart than it is about the prodigal son. The story also ends with the sinners and tax collectors understanding the passion of God’s father heart toward lost people. The Pharisees walked away from the crowd, shaking their heads, and following their rules.
Earthly Fathers
Why did I choose to preach this passage today on Father’s day?
Because it was that last story about the Father who was standing on tip toe, searching the horizon for his lost son, hit me right in the spiritual guts.
I want to preface this by saying my dad did his best to support and provide for us. He grew up on a farm and was the first to go to college and became a Civil Engineer. He was honest, hardworking, and had integrity.
Imagine his surprise when his first-born son wrote poetry, sang broadway tunes, and loved Barry Manilow. He spoke in the language of math and blueprints. I spoke in the language of music and dramas.
I played baseball and basketball and he was my coach but he never really knew how to communicate with me. My brother is a math genius so they had common ground.
I always felt like I didn’t measure up. One time, when I was putting on my own Broadway musical in the living room, I overheard my dad ask my mother in the kitchen, “Is that boy gay?” That will do something to a nine year old’s heart.
I always had a picture of God, arms crossed, shaking his head in disappointment at some new stupid thing that Jeff had done.
But through the story of the prodigal son and dad that I heard at a college retreat, but discovered that wasn’t God at all. That was my dad. I had projected my dad’s disapproval onto God and that wasn’t fair. God was a very different kind of Father.
AW Tozer wrote:
What comes into our kind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
If you have a flawed view of God, your whole life will be messed up.
The Greeks and Roman gods were capricious, selfish, mean-spirited. No Greek or Roman would ever call the gods of Olympus their Father.
In the Old Testament, God is called Lord, Master, and King, but no one said that God was their individual Father.
But then a young Rabbi named Jesus came along and changed everything. In the Gospels, God is called Father over 160 times!
Jesus called God “Father,” taught His disciples to pray to God as Father, and Paul writes that we can become children of God through faith in His Son.
God is not a cosmic force, or the big man upstairs, or grey haired grandpa.
The Bible is clear - He is a Father. Actually, in Aramaic that Jesus spoke it is Abba, not the Swedish 70s pop group, but “Daddy.”
When you say the word “father” in this culture, some people cringe. They say, “Hey, if God is like my dad, I don’t want any part of Christianity.”
Here’s what I want you to hear this morning. God is not a reflection of your dad. He is not your dad in bigger form. He is the perfection of your dad. He is the perfect Father.
Let’s focus on four types of earthly dads. As we walk through these, try to decide which one best describes your father.
Absent Father
Some fathers are physically absent through divorce, separation, or death. Other fathers are emotionally preoccupied with their own lives, or psychologically absent due mental health struggles or addiction.
From the early years, we crave attention and approval from our fathers - watch me, dad!
If we don’t get it, there is a gap. And we try to fill that gap any way we can, whether it’s healthy for us or not.
One writer put it this way:
“An absent father is like a ghost that haunts you, leaving a void that can never be filled.”
Another female wrote:
“Growing up without a father means learning to navigate life without a map.”
Research tells us that children who grow up with absent fathers have lower self-esteem, don’t believe that they can do hard things, and have more mental health issues.
In the Bible, we see Timothy growing up without a father’s influence in the home. We know that he was raised by his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, who were his spiritual teachers. (2 Timothy 1:5)
If this describes your experience with a father, let me give you some amazing news this morning.
God is not like not like that!
“Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds, rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” (Psalm 68:4-5)
Quoting Deut 31:8, the writer of Hebrews states that “God will NEVER leave you nor FORSAKE you.”
God knew you before you were born (Jeremiah 1:8), knit you together in your mother’s womb (Psalm 136), knows every hair on your head (Luke 12:7), and has a purpose and plan for your life (Psalm 138:8, Jeremiah 29:11).
Zephaniah writes about the Father you have:
"The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
You have been adopted into His family:
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians 1:4-6)
We now cry out, “Abba, Father!”
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Gal 4:4-7)
Before we move on, let me talk to anyone in here or listening that is that absent father. The last chapter has not been written. Write a letter, send a text, show up with flowers or balloons. Swallow your pride. Do the right thing. Open a door. But be prepared to follow through.
B. Abusive Father
Some father’s are there but are emotionally, physically, or even sexually abusive.
Maybe it’s because they are emotionally immature, has mental health or addiction issues, or learned that way from his own father.
Abraham abandoned Hagar and Ismael in the desert. (See Genesis 21)
God is not like that!
Earthly dads may lose patience with us and lash out in anger but not the Perfect Father.
In one of my favorite Psalm, David writes:
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust…But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. (Psalm 103:13-14, 17-18)
He knows we are dust yet His compassion and love are extravagant toward His children.
Psalm 106:1 declares that “God is good and his love endures forever.”
Instead of hurting you, God’s heart is to protect you. Listen to the first verses of Psalm 18:
“I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:1-2)
He is our strength, rock, a fortress, a deliverer, a refuge, a shield, a stronghold that will never falter. You are safe in his love.
On Facebook, I asked people to write what they think about when they here the words, “God the Father.” One wrote this:
“I picture me laying my head on his lap and him playing with my hair. As a father does a little girl. I also picture me sitting on His lap as a cry and he just hold me.God the father to me, is security, disciplinary with Love. Strong, He is my shelter!.”
God never holds a grudge or brings up the past:
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)
If you are this kind of earthly dad, get help. Seek Christian counseling and get control over your anger.
If, like me, experienced this kind of trauma, let me give you a word picture.
When someone is abused, the mirror they see themselves in is shattered. We spend years trying to put the shards of the mirror back together, cutting our hands in the process.
God the Father doesn’t want you to put the mirror back together. He wants to give you a brand new mirror. He wants
“…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” (Isaiah 61:3)
God wants to take away your shame and make you into an oak of righteousness. Psalm 31:5 states:
"Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”
Let me also mention the command to honor your father. If you had an abusive dad, how do you honor him?
We honor their positions and not their personalities.
In an article entitled, “Honoring your Father When He’s Evil,” Jennifer Greenberg writes:
“Honoring ungodly people means calling them to repent of their sin, encouraging them to do what is right, and preventing them from doing further evil. An honorable response to sin is confronting it, refusing to enable it, and reporting crimes to law enforcement.
In the spirit of the law, I honored my father by refusing to succumb to the damage his sin inflicted. I honored my father by reporting his abuses. I honored my father by breaking the cycle and being a godly parent to my children. I honor my father daily by not letting him near my daughters.”
C. Performance-Based Father
I am a child of the 80s, and the quintessential 80s teenager movie is The Breakfast Club. Emilio Estevez plays Andrew, the jock, the wrestling champion. He is in detention because he beat up a weaker kid. Why did he do this? To impress his dad.
His father loves Andrew…when he is winning. Andrew understands that his father’s love is conditional, he has to earn it. If he’s winning, his dad is happy, if he’s not, his dad becomes verbally and physically abusive.
God is not like that!
Paul wrote to the Roman Christians:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
One author writes:
“While we were still sinners. While we were still blowing it. While we were not measuring up. While we were oblivious to Him and His love, He sent His Son to die for us. That is unconditional, sacrificial love and it is unlike anything you can experience on this earth. God is a Father who chose to love you and you didn’t do a thing to earn it.”
God cannot love you less and He can not love you more. And nothing you do can separate you from His love:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
You are saved by God’s grace and you live out your love for Him through His grace. You don’t have to preform.
D. Passive Father
Some dads are passive. They are permissive. They don’t enforce rules, don’t punish, and allow the child to set their own boundaries. They want to be their kids’ friend, not father.
Scripture abounds with these kinds of dads.
Eli the priest heard the rumors that his sons were wicked, stealing from offerings and engaging in sexual immorality, but he only offered a weak rebuke instead of decisive action.
David was a military genius but a weak father. He didn’t confront his son Amnon when he raped his daughter Tamar. Then his son Absalom murdered Amnon and rebelled against his father, the king, leading to civil war.
Good father’s discipline their children. But often times even good father’s discipline leaves emotional scars.
God is not like that!
Solomon wrote to his own sons:
“…do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” (Prov 3:11-12)
The writer of Hebrews quotes these verses and then goes on to say:
“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:7-11)
God disciplines us out of perfect love and out of a heart that wants the best for us. He’s got a purpose and plan for our lives - to become more and more like His Son Jesus. So, like a sculptor, He chips and sands away anything that would hurt us in the long run.
Another Facebook response:
“It changed my faith when I started seeing him as Father. Unconditional love, discipline when needed, no matter how far you have strayed, He will scoop you right back up when you see the error of your ways, all things for our good…like we do with our own children. But more perfect. And how perfect it is that He is the ultimate father to the fatherless as well.”
You are the Kid
? On December 30-31, 1990, I attended a church retreat in Moscow, TN, This was pretty novel for me due to the fact I prided myself in being too smart to believe in God.
But my life was empty, I was homeless living with two friends on their floor, addicted to porn, drinking too much and the hopelessness that was taking over my soul was leading me to contemplate suicide.
If there is no God then there is no purpose. And if there is no purpose, then what’s the point of living?
But the speaker taught the story of the prodigal son and explained how to come home to God. I remember walking around the lake trying to understand the Father’s heart. The story didn’t make sense to me.
I returned home on New Year’s Eve afternoon and attended my girlfriend’s party that night. She met me at the door drunk and her mother was upstairs smoking marijuana with our friends.
This was my life. I sat on the couch and something began to happen inside of me.
It is very difficult to explain. I had so many questions:
Why was the Father standing on tip-toe waiting for the kid to come home?
Why didn’t he punch the kid in the face? Why did He run?
Why did he insist on the ring, robe, and sandals?
Why did he throw a party?
What kind of father is this? I didn’t understand. And then…
It was as if everything slowed down and this one thought completely overwhelmed me “Jeff Williams, I am that Father and you are that kid and this is your pigpen.”.
My life was a pigpen. God had given me so many opportunities and I had run off in the far country of sin and squandered them all.
I sat hungry for meaning and purpose but continually ate the pods of this world - lust, power, greed, and pride. God convicted me of my sin and prompted me to repent.
I came to my senses that night.
I didn’t walk down an aisle or say someone else’s prayer. I looked up and said, “If you are really that kind of father, then I’m in. I know I’m a screw-up. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. I want to come home.”
In the middle of a party on New Year’s Eve 1990, 35 years ago, I was born again in the middle of my hopelessness and shame. and my life has never been the same. All because I finally understand God as the Perfect Father.
Response
Not many of us grew up with The Beaver’s dad.
I’m reminded of a student who said, “My husband has such huge shoes to fill. My daddy has loved me so well, that any one who tries to take his place will come up short.”
I’m also reminded of a student who showed up at my house and sat on my back deck sobbing. She had ask a friend to go to the movies and she said, “I can’t. I’m going on a daddy-daughter date.” She said through tears, “I want a dad who take me on dates. What’s wrong with him? What’s wrong with me?”
Some of us grew up with average dads and that’s okay. I was an average dad. I failed…a lot. In little ways, I was ever one of these dads. I spent way too much time at the church ministering to everyone but my family. I learned that lesson too late.
When some people hear God is a father, they physically cringe. Their father was such a poor example that they project their dad’s failing onto God.
Let me repeat what I said at first. God is not just a bigger version of your dad. He is not a reflection of your dad. He is the perfection of fatherhood.
Another Facebook response:
“The ultimate version of a good earthly father - He loves me with all his heart, always wants what is best (even if I disagree), is a strong support to lean on, is present in my daily life, is to be feared in a respectful way.”
Also, let me make this point. We are all creations of God, but we are not all children of God.
“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:11-12)
God the Father sent God the Son to die in our place, to pay for our sins, to make a way back to God and make us a part of His forever family.
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)
Coming to your senses involves repentance:
Admitting you are a sinner and that no amount of rule-keeping or good deeds will ever get you in good with a Holy God:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23)
(2) Believing that Jesus died on the cross in your place so you would not be held hostage by your sins:
“If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9)
(3) Confessing that you are a sinner and that you are hungry for a relationship with God:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
(4) Surrender your heart to Him today:
Today is the only day you have. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.” [Hebrews 3:15]
We are going to sing two songs to end. The first is “Good, Good Father” by Housefires.
This song was written by Pat Barrett and Tony Brown of Housefires. Tony grew up without a father figure in his life. In an interview he said that, “the only person in my life who I called father was God.” And then he went on to say, “I know saying ‘good good’ isn’t grammatically correct, but it wasn’t enough just to say it once.”
The second is a hymn called “How Deep the Father’s Love for me” that Stewart Townsend wrote as he was meditating on the extravagance of the Father’s love and the cross and his own sin that caused Jesus to be sacrificed there.
