"When God Ran"
Have ushers pass out envelopes!
Play song” When God Ran” during communion.
Text: Luke 15:11-32
11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, `Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 "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! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son 21 "The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 "But the father said to his servants, `Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 `Your brother has come,’ he replied, `and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, `Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 "`My son,’ the father said, `you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’"
Thesis: Many Christians need to remember to keep their focus on Christ and not forget the day when God ran to us and embraced us.
Illustration: Lest We Forget
A Christian girl loved a missionary. Before he left for India he wrote and asked her to become his wife. "If I do not hear from you, I’ll know you have other plans," he wrote. She immediately wrote a letter and accepted his proposal. She asked her brother to mail the letter for her, but it was never mailed! The girl never heard from the missionary again. Years later, she found the letter in the lining of her brother’s coat, yellow and crumpled. It had slipped there when the brother had put it into his torn pocket and he had forgotten to mail it.
It seems like today, forgetfulness is a common occurrence. Usually, the main reason people forget, is because they are too busy to remember to do something. They become so consumed in their life that they just forget certain things. Or they desire to forget on purpose.
The problem nowadays, is that many seem to forget one very important person. His name you ask? Some would reply who’s He? Others would reply, oh, that’s right, I remember Him now! He is my ???
Some Christians seem to think of God as a kind of "spare tire". A spare tire is forgotten for months until suddenly, on the road, we have a flat. Many forget God when things go well with them. When sorrow, sickness and troubles come, then they remember God and want Him to help them. He wants us to call on Him when we are in trouble. He also wants us to remember and serve Him when we are not in trouble.
-- W.B.K.
In Luke 15: 11-31 we have the parable of the Lost Son as told by Jesus.
I. This parable has a two fold purpose in its meaning.
A. It portrays Christ’s love and compassion for lost individuals. (Luke 15:1-30).
1. George Murray said that this parable is "the most divinely tender and most humanly touching story ever told on earth."
2. Charles Dickens described it as "the finest short story ever written."
3. It also has been described as "the Gospel within the Gospel."
4. In the story we see the story of redemption as only Jesus could tell it.
B. Yet this story also has a strong rebuke to the Pharisees and teachers of the law for their harshly critical attitude toward sinners. (Luke 15:25-31)
a. Jesus shows the heart of God in this story. He wants to communicate to us how much he loves lost people when they find their way home.
i. He rejoices! He throws a party!
ii. The Bible tells us that even the angels in Heaven rejoice!
iii. The caution or warning here rings out to all of us who know Christ.
1. Never become jealous over God’s response to lost people who come to their senses and come home to a royal party.
2. Jesus instructs us to always rejoice with the Father over lost sheep’s return to the homeland.
a. Do not become angry because God rejoices over the lost sheep who found their way home.
iv. We need to have an attitude of rejoicing over the lost coming home. Lets reread a section of the story again out of the message.
“All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’ “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’ “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”
v. So how do you respond when a lost brother or sister comes home?
1. Get angry?
2. Annoyed?
3. Jealous?
4. Self centered?
5. Scarred?
6. Fearful?
7. Self righteous?
a. Do a self inventory right now! Be honest evaluate how you respond to a new believer who has just come home.
II. The Parable of the lost Son can be outlined in three stages.
A. The rejection of Home, and his Father
1. We first have the request of the younger son for his inheritance. (Luke 15:12)
12 The younger one said to his father, `Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
a. The request for his inheritance parallels a prayer to God.
i. The request must be regarded as asking a favor from his father. The father grants the request and gives both his sons their lawful portion.
2. The younger son, with a craving for false independence, the younger son gathers all his assets and sets off for "a distant country" or in the KJV "a far country" away from his father’s reign and presence. (Luke 15:13)
2. He wants to escape his fathers direction and leading. He wants to do his own thing. He wants to live the way his ego tells him to live.
a. In this new "faraway country" he proceeds to squander away his wealth in wild living. (Luke 15:13)
i. He gambles, parties, is irresponsible, falls into the drug scene and the list goes on.
b. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
i. It’s amazing how quick the money can be lost.
ii. The Son has a bank roll but within a period of time it is all gone!
1. Miss-spent
2. Miss-used
3. Blown
4. He sets off with his inheritance prematurely, so that he might gratify his carnal desires.
5. He wanted to escape responsibility to his father for how he as going to act with his inheritance.
6. He never notices in his binging the money disappearing.
c. Augustine stated that his "far country" is actually titled, "forgetfulness of God".
i. It’s the time when we just live for ourselves.
ii. We say God who?
iii. We never even acknowledge He is there.
iv. Everything is about pleasure having so called fun.
v. Sunday’s have no meaning.
vi. Church has no meaning.
vii. Prayer has no meaning.
d. It represents that state of being what Paul described as "alienated from the life of God."
i. It’s the time in our life when we are separated from God because of our sinful self-centered life.
d. All this son wanted to do was to fill his belly and live for the satisfaction of his sensual and sexual desires. (Luke 15:30)
“But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
e. He desired to live with harlots. (Luke 15:30)
· He lived in the fast line- Drugs, booze, and women.
· He gambled with his life and his money and soon discovered that his life was ruined.
3. To him it seemed fun while it lasted, but he eventually ran out of money and became in dire need. (Luke 15:14)
“After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.”
* The stock market crashes and what little he has left is gone.
a. He had to seek employment to be able to have the bare essentials of life.
b. It is interesting that he spent all his money for wild parties and girls but we read in verse 16, that no one gave him anything when the money was gone.
1.) What happened to his so-called party friends?
2.) He had spent plenty on them, but they forsook him in his time of need.
3.) This is a typical trait of the world.
4.) They used him and abused him! Then when the money was gone so where they!
4. The son did have enough sense to find employment as a swine herder.
(Luke 15: 15,16) 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
a. To the Jews listening to these words, they would have shuddered in disgust, because in their eyes there was no greater dishonor.
1.) How utterly degrading for a Jew to be reduced to tending animals, whose very presence would bring ceremonial defilement.
2.) He was in the lowest pit of life!
3.) He had hit rock bottom and it smelled and it reeked of devastation.
b. But worse yet, this job did not meet his basic needs, so he could survive. He longed to even eat the cobs of the pigs but he did not dare. He tried begging but because of the famine, there were no handouts.
1.) Pentecost notes, “When those who run from God, end up with brute appetites, and desire like beasts, to eat garbage like an animal, we observe how depraved they have become.”
a. I have often counseled people to never give up on a loved one because eventually they will hit rock bottom and they will receive a revelation of their condition from God.
b. We may give up on others but God never does.
2.) I have discovered that many do come to their senses when they are in the pit of despair.
a. They become open to looking once again to the Lord because they discover that they are hopeless without Jesus.
3.) Up to now, this parable shows and expresses the state of rebellion against God, it’s really insanity. Insanity caused by self-centered ego’s.
4.) When you forget God, you can be assured of madness.
5. Luke 15:17 Tells us that the son finally came to his senses.
17 "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!
a. It is a wonderful stroke of art, to represent the beginning of repentance as the return of a sound consciousness.
b. Wretchedness stirred reason, and a sinner is half way on the road to salvation when he comes to himself.
c. There is an old Jewish saying which states, "When Israel is reduced to the carob tree they became repentant."
B. The Return Home
1. Perishing with hunger, the young son thought of home with all its comforts and with food to fill a belly.
a. This son had rejected his father’s love and had left his father’s home and had repudiated his father’s authority, but he could not erase the memory of the abundance that his father had provided for him previously.
2. The son recognized within him that he was a despicable person. He knew he was selfish and carnal.
a. He knew that nothing within him would appease his father.
b. He knew he had no good qualities left!
c. The man came out of denial and walked into the realm of truth.
i. He could see clearly now the delusion of super self was gone.
d. This step is the beginning of salvation when we recognize that we are not worthy to be called sons by our heavenly Father.
i. Then you are on your way back home.
3. The son also recognized the need of confession and so he proposed to prepare his plea to his father. (Luke 15: 18, 19)18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’
a. He recognized that he had sinned.
i. He knew he was wrong for what he had done and he is willing to admit it.
ii. How about you? Are you willing to admit when you have been wrong and gone against the direction of the Lord and his Word?
b. He recognized that he did not deserve to be called a son.
i. He knew that his father owed him nothing. He had lost the position of sonship because of his actions and lifestyle.
ii. But he also knew that his Father would have mercy on him and probably hire him as a servant.
c. It is inferred that if his statements were true. If restoration was granted, it would have to be on some basis other than his worthiness. Because he knew he was unworthy.
d. He headed for home. Luke 15:20 tells us that while was along way off, his father spotted him.
1). “So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son.”
* This seems to imply by the original Greek by the words, "a long way off" indicating that the father did not remain in his house, hoping the son would return. Instead the father expected the son to return, and so each day the father evidently traveled a considerable distance from the house to a vantage point where he could discern the son’s return at the earliest possible moment.
e. This parable highlights the son and it also emphasizes the Father. It shows:
1.) The father’s love did not begin with the son’s return.
2.) It was always there.
4.) He always loved the son.
5.) Even when he was lost doing his own thing.
6.) It shows that the father was full of grace and hope for the wayward son.
7.) It shows a father who is anxiously awaiting the return of his wayward sons and daughters.
f. Christ was emphasizing that God loves those who are lost and eagerly anticipates their return.
1.) How suggestive this is of God’s welcome for the penitent sinner!
C. The reunion and restoration at home.
1. The son was received with open arms by his father.
2. The signal of the sons restoration lies in the gifts he receives.
a. Best robe (vs. 22) symbolic of the vesture of righteousness which the repentant, believing sinner receives from God.
*This meant the privileges of son-ship were restored.
b. The signet ring (vs. 22b) - symbol of the union of heart father and son experienced. This was a sign that authority was given back to the son by the father.
c. Sandals - These were a sign that the son was not a servant. *Only servants were barefoot.
d. The fattened calf and feast
1.) The fact that the calf had already been fattened shows that the father had already been anticipating the son’s return.
a. Application: God loves sinners, and God looks and waits for the lost to come home. When God sees them heading home he runs to them with open arms. God reinstates the privileges and blessings of their inheritance. They do not deserve it but God gives it to them out of a fathers heart of love and grace.
2.) Open up the envelops and read a personal message from God to you!
3. Christ continues this parable with a twist by introducing the older faithful son.
a. The son’s attitude toward his father for accepting his younger brother was, "anger and he refused to enter the banquet." (Luke 15:28). He is mad as a hornet!
b. The father’s plea is to his unforgiving self-centered attitude.
He has an attitude with his father and with his brother.
1.) The son refuses to change his attitude or participate in the celebration.
2.) He charged his father with injustice.
3.) He older son was saying that his father had withheld from him the reward for his service.
a. Yet this son reveals his true character in this response to his brother.
b. He lacked the quality of grace and mercy.
c. He lacked forgiveness and acceptance.
d. He lacked all these essential character traits of a faithful Christian steward.
i. But are not these the traits we are to live by?
c. This elder son was proud, sullen, cold, self-righteous and would have the same attitude that the Pharisees and Scribes were showing to Jesus earlier that day.
1.) The statement "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours (vs. 31) is noted by Pentecost as:
"You are always with me, and everything I have is yours" (vs. 31). By this Christ was revealing that the same privileges that were afforded the younger son were always available to the older son. But the older son had never availed himself of what the father would have bestowed on him. Therefore the older son could not blame the father for the fact that he did not have what the younger son was now enjoying. The father had provided these blessings for the older son, who had never availed himself of what the father had made available. The fault, then, was not with the father, but with the older son. In this part of the parable, Christ was seeking to convey to the Pharisees that even though they called themselves the servants of God and the sons of God, they were revealing by their attitude toward God that they were not true servants and they were not considered sons. God had made available to them the same privileges that He made available to the sinner who returned to Him. However, the Pharisees had not come to God in order to receive from Him the benefits that He had provided; in spite of their profession of sonship, they were not considered son.
Conclusion:
As Arnot puts it: "All the excesses of the prodigal will not shut him out of heaven, for he came repenting to his father: but all the virtues of the elder brother will not let him into heaven, for he cherished pride in his heart, and taunted his father for overlooking his worth." This parable clearly teaches that the Savior calls sinners and not the self-righteous to repentance -- although the latter need to repent as much, if not more so, than the former. Summarizing the important lessons of The Parable of the Prodigal Son (which by the way has been more instrumental in winning the lost sheep and down and outers of the world) we ask three questions proposed by Locker:
Question #1 - Who is the Father in the story?
* None other than God Himself a father who is forgiving, whose love is wider than the universe. It tells us that our God is eager to forgive. He is looking, waiting eagerly for the lost to come home.
Important Note: "Jesus seldom called people sinners. He called them lost." (Matt. 10:6, 15:24; 18:11; John 17:12) Locker continues to note, "Countless multitudes are still lost in sin, but our God is the God of the lost, and longs for their return."
Question #2 - Who is the Lost Son in the story?
* It’s everyone who rejects their loving Father and wastes their money on frivolous living and the party scene to find fulfillment.
* The idea of lost here, implies those who are lost in sin and have their eyes blinded by the enemy.
* Yet, God still has a loving heart for those in this condition. Remember this is why Jesus came. God’s heartbeat is for the lost to come home and when they do not, His heart is in anguish.
Question #3 - Who is the Elder Brother in the story?
* It certainly applied to the Pharisees who resented Christ’s interest in sinners.
* It certainly applies to Legalistic Christians who resent a church that reaches out to the lost of this world.
* I will go so far as to say it represents Christians who don’t like to associate with the world, who feel uncomfortable with new born babes coming to church.
* Among ourselves, those with the attitude of PRIDE, who believe they are all good enough to enter the Father’s home on their own merit.
* These are individuals who find soul-saving activities distasteful and believe self-righteousness, is the key to God’s heart.
There was a prudent man who brushed his teeth twice a day, wore rubbers in wet weather, did his daily dozen, slept with windows open, was careful with his diet, had a medical examination twice a year, never smoked, drank or indulged in any kind of excess. He was set to live to be one hundred years old.
The funeral was held last Wednesday. He is survived by eighteen specialists, four health institutes, six gymnasiums and numerous manufacturers of health food and antiseptics.
He forgot to look out for a train at a crossing.
- Robert G. Lee
Altar Call – God wants you to know that he loves you and if you are willing to turn around and start heading to home then he will run to you with open arms. He is saying, “My Child, Come Home!”
