OPEN: (It is best to memorize the following illustration to allow for optimum delivery)
“Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the farthings and flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune, feasting fabulously with faithless friends.
But fleeced by his fellows in folly and facing famine he was forced to find a job as a feed flinger on a filthy foreign farm. Fairly famishing, he fain would have filled his frame with the food fragments from foraged fodder.
Then he said to himself: “Fooey (pause) my father’s flunkies fare far finer than this!”
And the frazzled fugitive - frankly facing facts - fled forthwith to his family.
Falling at his father’s feet, he forlornly fumbled. “Father, I’ve flunked. I’ve failed. I’ve fruitlessly forfeited family favor.”
But, the farsighted father, forestalling further flinching, furiously flagged down his flunkies to fetch a fatling from the flock
… and they fixed a feast.
APPLY: The fact I want to focus on today is the fond father’s fervor for his son.
I. When most people hear this story, how do they usually refer to it?
It’s the parable of… (the Prodigal Son). That’s right, the parable of the Prodigal Son. And it is that. It’s the story of a boy who foolishly threw away his fortunes in an effort to live his own life in his own foolish way.
But I’ve come to believe that Jesus actually intended this story to tell us as much about the Faithful Father as it did about the Prodigal Son.
ILLUS: Scholars have discovered that Jewish rabbis told a similar story to this one YEARS before Jesus began His ministry. So, as Jesus was telling story, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were thinking, “Yeah, I’ve heard this one before.”
But, there was a difference in the ending of the story the rabbis told. As the rabbis told the story: the younger son ran away from home, spent all his father’s money - and when he came crawling home - his dad rejected him. As the Rabbis told the story the repentant son begged his father to take him back. But the father looks away and basically said, ‘Forget it! You had your chance. You wanted to live like a pig… go back to your pigs!”
Why did the Rabbis tell the story that way? Because that’s how they viewed God.
BUT… that was an entirely different VIEW of God than what Jesus presented.
The Father in Jesus’ story NOT ONLY did not turn his child away…
… He embraced him
… put His best robe on him
… placed a ring on his finger
… killed the fatted calf and had a feast.
II. So why did Jesus tell this story?
Edward Robinson once observed: “The world is a spiritual kindergarten where bewildered infants try to spell God with the wrong blocks.”
I believe Jesus told this parable because many people have a warped view of God.
Many see Him as a cold, cruel and uncaring deity. They see Him as a judge prepared to pass a terrible judgment on them… because that’s what they’d do if they were in His shoes
ILLUS: I remember hearing a preacher tell about why he entered the ministry. He’d have dreams – nightmares really - where he would see God dressed in a long white flowing robe… seated on a throne far above him and looking down on him with a look of disappointment and disapproval. He became a preacher because he wanted to find a way to make this God love him. His entire ministry was dedicated to working so hard that this God of his would not punish him… that this God would not destroy him.
But he never seemed to work hard enough and long enough to bring him any peace. In his mind’s eye, his was a God who’d never have accepted him if he had behaved like the prodigal son did. This man’s God was not a God of love and forgiveness… but of judgment and fear.
One day, however, that all changed. This preacher said that he was in the bathroom shaving… when suddenly it seemed as if the walls of the room disappeared and he found himself standing before that throne of judgment. There on the throne sat the same God of judgment he’d always seen before… but this time, the judge stepped down from his throne and placed his arms around this man and held him tight. The sensation was so overwhelming that the man just stood there and wept for the longest time. This was the king of God he’d always longed for.
III. Now it’s important for us to realize… God IS a God of judgment
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 tells us “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
God’s a God judgment!
The problem is, many people believe that once a person has stepped over a certain line… once they’ve sinned a certain number of times… or once a person has sinned in a certain kind of sin… there’s no coming back. God would NEVER accept them
ILLUS: Samuel Colgate, the founder of the Colgate business empire, was a devout Christian. He once told of attending an evangelistic service and noticing that as the invitation was given at the close of the sermon - one of the first people to walk down the aisle was a well-known prostitute.
She wept openly as she expressed her desire to become a Christian and to become a member of this church.
For a few moments (he said) the silence was deafening.
This was back in the days when some churches “voted” on whether a person would be accepted into their congregation, and it became apparent that these people weren’t sure they wanted her in their church.
This was the attitude of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
To their way of thinking, when a person sinned so much, they became worthless. They became like so much trash to be set out by side of the road for a truck to come and carry away. Once a person reached that level of depravity they were no longer of any value to God or man.
Or at least, that’s what the religious leaders thought.
But that’s not what Jesus taught. In Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son. The young man had sinned so severely that the audience fully expected the Father to turn His back and send the boy away.
But instead of turning His back on this boy… the Father embraced him. Put a robe on his back. A ring on his finger. Killed the fatted calf and held a feast.
Why?
“BECAUSE (the boy) was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:24 & 32)
Notice… the father in the parable says this not just once… but twice (verses 24 AND in verse 32).
Jesus wanted to drive home the fact that God is INDEED a God of judgment… but He was also a God of REDEMPTION. The God Jesus taught about, rejoiced when people - who have been damaged & destroyed by sin - came to Him and were made alive again.
When Paul gave that list of people who would not inherit the Kingdom of God in I Corinthians,
· the sexually immoral
· the prostitutes
· the adulterers and homosexuals
· the drunkards, liars and swindlers
he quickly added:
“And that is what SOME OF YOU WERE. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)
ILLUS: When the people at that church revival - where Samuel Colgate attended -quietly refused to accept the repentant prostitute… Colgate stood up and rebuked them:
"I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners we wanted saved. We’d better ask him to forgive us for this oversight. The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn’t understand that she’s not the type we want him to rescue. We’d better spell out for him just which sinners we had in mind."
Almost immediately, a motion was made - and unanimously approved - that the woman be accepted into membership in the congregation.
You see, that church had forgotten that God was a God of forgiveness as well as judgment.
IV. Now… there’s one more misunderstanding I think Jesus was trying to correct.
You see, I believe the Prodigal son was suffering from a false view of his relationship to dad.
The Prodigal Son is left home, squandered his inheritance, and became so destitute, that he was reduced to feeding pigs to survive. And when he gets so hungry that he actually wants to eat the slop that he’s feeding the hogs… he comes up with a speech he intends to make to his dad:
“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.” (Luke 15:18-19)
ILLUS: A preacher named David O. Dykes observed that this speech contained 2 truths and one falsehood.
First he said, “I have sinned against heaven.” That was right. Primarily, all sin is against God, so he had confessed his sin to God.
Second, he confessed to his father, “and I have sinned against you.” Right again. One of the hardest things for any of us to say is, “I was wrong. Will you forgive me?” That’s what he was saying.
But look at the third statement. He said, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” That may sound good on the surface, but there is a mistake in his thinking. He was NEVER worthy to be called a son of his father.
That’s a basic teaching of Scripture: “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
How many have sinned? (All)
How many of you have sinned? (have them raise their hands)
That’s right! There’s not a single man or woman in this audience who has not sinned. You, I, every Elder, Deacon, Sunday School teacher, every upstanding member of this congregation has sinned and fallen short. Thus none of us DESERVE… or EVER WILL deserve to go to heaven!
You can never be good enough to be good enough for God.
You can never be sinless enough for God to say “Hey – you deserve to go to heaven!”
V. Well… if that’s true – how can you or I ever hope to be pleasing to God?
If you and I will NEVER reach a sinless state of being – why would God ever accept us?
Question:
Why had the Father in Jesus’ parable accepted the prodigal son back home?
Was it because the son had never sinned? (no)
Was it because the boy had sinned less than someone else in the household? (no)
Was it because the prodigal had stopped by Las Vegas on the way home and gathered enough winning to somehow pay his way back into the family? (no!)
So why did the Father accept the boy back home?
Because the Father loved his child.
The Father didn’t accept the Prodigal Son back because the Son deserved to be accepted.
The father accepted the boy back because He LOVED him.
Notice what the Jesus tells us in this part of His story
Luke 15:20 "… while (the son) was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Had the Father forgotten how his son had treated him when he left? I doubt it. The boy had asked for the inheritance he would have received once the father died. In essence, he was telling his dad:
“I wish you were dead.
I don’t want to live under your roof any more.
I don’t want to abide by your rules any longer.
I don’t want you in my life.”
Do you suppose the Father had heard about how his son had behaved in that distant country where the boy had squandered his inheritance. I’m sure of it. If one of my kids were to run away, and I knew where they had gone, I would listen for every bit of information I could receive. And the information this father would have heard would have brought shame to the family.
But here’s His son – still a long way off - and the Father sees him.
He’s filled with compassion.
AND HE RUNS TO THE BOY
This was no small thing for the Father to do. In the Jewish culture, men wore long robes. In order for a man to run, he had to lift the hem up and hold it high to keep from tripping over it. In doing so, he would bare his legs, which was considered highly undignified. it would have been embarrassing - Men of respect never ran… But this Father did.
Why? Because He loves this boy. He would have done anything to get the boy to come back home… but he knows nothing would have worked. If the dad had gone to that far country to try to talk his son into returning he would have failed. In pride the boy would have said “No, dad, I’m doing just fine. I like feeding pigs. I like being on my own. I’m living my own kind of life now.”
And it would have been even worse had the father gone and hauled the boy back home by the ear. Even if he locked the son in his room… eventually the boy would have run away again. This time for good.
So all this father could do was watch and wait… until his boy DECIDED to come home.
You see, that’s all that boy had to do to receive his Father’s forgiveness was… to come home.
CLOSE: In his book, Capital of the World, Ernest Hemingway told the story about a father in Spain who had a son named Paco.
Because of his son’s rebellion - Paco and his father became alienated from each other
Finally, the father became so angry and bitter with his son, he kicked him out of the home.
But after years of bitterness, the father’s anger ended and he realized his mistake. He began to look for Paco, with no results. Finally, in desperation, the father placed an ad in the Madrid newspaper. The ad read, “PACO, ALL IS FORGIVEN. MEET ME AT THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE AT 9AM TOMORROW. LOVE, YOUR FATHER.” Paco is a rather common name in Spain, and Hemingway wrote when the father arrived the next morning, there were 600 young men–all named Paco–waiting and hoping to receive the forgiveness of their fathers.”
That’s the story of Scripture.
God has placed an ad… a classified on a cross.
And in Jesus Christ, God has declared – all will be forgiven. Just come home.
If you’re already a Christian who has fallen back into a life of sin. If you’ve messed up so badly that you don’t think God will ever take you back, listen to the words of this promise to Christians in I John 1:8 and 9
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just AND WILL FORGIVE US our sins and PURIFY US from all unrighteousness.”
But, if you’re not a Christian yet, understand that God loves you deeply. So much that He gave His only Son to die on a cross to reach into your life and forgive you of the deepest and darkest guilt that you have.
How do you receive this great gift?
Like the Prodigal Son , you need to accept that you can’t do it anymore on your own.
Accept that your way has not brought the satisfaction you had thought it would.
Decide that you want to be His child and belong to Him.
And then die to what you used to be… bury your past in the waters of baptism and rise from that watery grave to live a new life in Christ.
OTHER SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Cool Runnings - Isaiah 40:1-40:31
The Race Toward Evil - Isaiah 59:1-59:21
A Prize Every Time - 1 Corinthians 9:19-9:27
Getting Your 2nd Wind - Mark 5:1-5:20
Running For Freedom - Acts 8:26-8:40
The Runaway Lad and The Waiting Dad - Luke 15:11-15:24
ALSO: If you haven’t already done so, I would suggest you look at David O. Dykes’ sermon on the Prodigal Son here at Sermoncentral.com - I owe much of my insights in this sermon to his information.
