What Does The Father Want From Us? Series

ANOTHER PRODIGAL SON SERMON: The traditional sermon approach to this passage misses half the story.

- Luke 15:11-32.

- Let’s begin with the way this parable is normally preached.

- This is a great evangelism sermon. It speaks of a son walking away from his father. It speaks of enjoying the high life of the world. It speaks of seeing things fall apart in your life. It speaks of reaching that low moment of recognition that you want to come back to the father. It speaks of the joyful embrace that awaits at the end of the road home.

- That's all great stuff and a great sermon. And there’s nothing wrong with preaching that. This tells a similar story as the parables that precede it.

- It’s worth starting tonight with a celebration of those truths, as typically told in that common evangelistic sermon.

- Yes, we walk away from God.

- Yes, we enjoy the things of the world when we’re away.

- Yes, we often reach a place where things begin to crumble and think about God once again.

- Yes, we wonder if we can go home and what the reception will be.

- And, most wonderful of all, yes, when we go home with a repentant heart, we are embraced by the Father.

- This is a wonderful truth: God receives sinners. He doesn’t refuse us or reject us. He receives sinners. It’s an enormous joy to know that this is true. It’s worth celebrating and proclaiming forever.

- Having said all that, I think it’s also worth noting that is not the big point of this parable. How do I know? Because everything I’ve just said only gets us halfway through the parable. There’s a whole other half to go.

- It’s easy to think along the lines of the two previous parables and just presume that this third one is making the same point, but it’s not. Yes, there are parallels in the first half, but there is more than just that half.

- I want to unpack the whole parable and get to what I believe to be the larger point that Jesus is trying to make with this story.

- First, though, we’ll need to set the stage by talking about the two sons and what they represent.

CHARACTER ONE: The younger son is a happy sinner.

- Luke 15:11-24.

- The first son asks for his inheritance and then sets off for the high life.

- Now, everyone here has heard this passage preached and the point made that demanding your inheritance like he did is basically saying to his father, “I wish you were dead.” I don’t dispute that but I don’t think that's where we need to focus. I think v. 13b is more telling of the larger point.

- The younger son uses up his wealth in wild living. He is having a high time.

- An important question to ask at this point: did the younger son miss his father during this part of the story? No, absolutely not. There is no indication of remorse or regret or sadness or homesickness or anything along those lines.

- I’m going to characterize him as a happy sinner.

- There is a mischaracterization preachers sometimes use in their sermons that presumes that everyone away from God is miserable and secretly wanting to come to God. That's just not true.

- Many people who are out in the world are having a great time. They don’t have any desire to come to God. They don’t have any desire to come home. They are having a high old time. It’s just the way it is. The world can be fun.

- Now, this, of course, needs to immediately be followed by the clarification that that is only true for a season. It may be a week or a month or a decade or, in some lives, an earthly lifetime, but it is not permanent. We know that because going into the life to come without Christ is a horrible position to be in. But that doesn’t change how things can feel for a season.

- That all adds up to our term: the happy sinner.

- He is doing what’s wrong. He is being wasteful with his father’s money. He is focused only on his own pleasure. Although we’re not specifically told, the older brother’s accusation late in the parable of frequenting prostitutes is most likely accurate. And he’s enjoying it all.

- There are many like him in the world. They are happy in the world’s pleasures and enjoying themselves immensely.

- Now, we all know the next part of the story: he runs out of money, there is a famine in that land, and things spiral quickly, leaving him in a state of desperation he never anticipated.