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The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
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The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
Gospel of Luke: Examining Our Spiritual Health
Sunday Message recorded 14 Aug 2022
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Opening Remarks and School Announcements
00:00:06
Speaker
Well, good morning, everyone. How are we doing? Good. Hey, guys, today is the day that the Lord has made. And we must what? Rejoice and be glad in it. Amen. Come on. Y'all, man, y'all act like y'all are still asleep. Y'all wake up. Jeez.
00:00:23
Speaker
So I am excited to be here with you guys this week to share the message with you. And as you guys know, as John just alluded to, this is a big week for all the students in Columbus. This week they are going back to school. They're starting another semester.
00:00:40
Speaker
You're welcome, students. So summer break is now over. I know Wymer went back to school last week. I think some of the Houston schools are already back to school for a couple of weeks. My nieces and my nephew have been in school for like three weeks now back in Georgia. It's been kind of crazy.
Personal Loss and Family Requests
00:00:56
Speaker
And then also thank you guys for praying for my family with the loss of my grandmother. It was
00:01:01
Speaker
pretty sudden, and so just continue to be praying for them, especially my stepmom as she is the executor of the will. Some of you guys know how that is, and so just be praying for them as they continue to go through this process of last and morning, but also celebration. I can stand before you today and say that my grandmother was a believer in Jesus, and she was this biggest fan, and so why should I be mourning when I could be celebrating that she's with Jesus today, right? Kind of jealous.
00:01:30
Speaker
Not really, I'm sorry, but I'm just excited to be with Jesus. How about that? But I am excited to be with you, to share with you the message this morning.
Introduction to the Prodigal Son Parable
00:01:40
Speaker
As many of you guys know, we're going to be covering probably one of the greatest parables that Jesus ever gave in his ministry, probably one of the most well-known parables, the prodigal son.
00:01:50
Speaker
but I'm also kind of nervous to cover it because this is such a well-known parable and I know for many of you in the room this is something that you've heard so many times in your life and I don't want you guys to just like
00:02:05
Speaker
tuning out. I mean, I wanted it to be fresh. I want it to be a reminder to us of what Jesus was actually trying to communicate to his audience when he originally gave this parable. And so if you guys have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to Luke chapter 15. That's where we're going to be today. Luke chapter 15 verses 11 through 32.
00:02:31
Speaker
One of the other reasons why I'm excited about this message is that what we see here as we've been going through the book of Luke, Jesus is actually continuing his dialogue from last week's message that we looked at in Luke chapter 14. And it's a beautiful dialogue that we see here that is unfolding because we're actually in the heart of Jesus' ministry now.
00:02:52
Speaker
Okay, so I'm just gonna do a brief recap of where we're at in the book of Luke, right? So the first two chapters is all about the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus, our Messiah. It's a beautiful way to open the book of Luke. Luke, the author, he put this together so beautifully. It's awesome. And then he goes on from there.
00:03:10
Speaker
And two chapters three through nine, and what we see in those chapters is that Jesus comes, his ministry begins. He starts to come onto the scene. He is revealing himself as the Messiah. He's doing miracles. He's healing people. He's bringing sight to the blind and people and rumors and the message of Jesus is starting to spread.
00:03:29
Speaker
Well, as chapter nine comes about, and as we move along, we are now in the heart of his ministry. His name is out, his ministry is being proclaimed. And with that,
Challenges to Jesus' Message
00:03:43
Speaker
The religious leaders that are hearing this, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, all these different religious leaders, they're starting to get worried. They're starting to get frustrated. And they're starting to get, you know, all these different mixed emotions because Jesus is using the title, different titles, I'm the Son of Man. I am the Son of God. I am.
00:04:04
Speaker
And for that, that is heretical back then. That's blasphemy. And so these religious leaders are now worried about this message that is revolutionizing the people. And so that's where we're at when we pick up here. We're in the heart of Jesus' ministry in Luke chapter 15. And if you guys can remember back with me, as we began chapter 14, Jesus actually is invited to dine with some of these religious leaders, the ruler of the Pharisee party.
00:04:33
Speaker
who is most likely a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish ruling council at the time, invites Jesus into his home with other religious leaders around him. And so he agrees to this and he goes and he dines with them.
00:04:47
Speaker
And that's where we encounter the message which Victor gave last week when as they're dining with him, you gotta remember again, they know who Jesus is and they're kind of worried about his message. And so they're actually probably, if you can just put yourself in that situation, they're probably just sitting there with Jesus at the table and reclining back and they're probably just like, what's this guy gonna do next?
00:05:11
Speaker
Let's just wait and see, right? And what we see is that there's actually a man that comes before Jesus who needs healing in the beginning of chapter 14. And Jesus looks at the man and then he turns to the religious leaders and asks this question, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
00:05:31
Speaker
And for many of us who know, according to religious or Jewish law, it was not lawful to heal on the Sabbath, right? And so he's waiting for the response, but guess what? The Jewish leaders don't respond. And so Jesus heals the man in front of him and then sends him on his way. And so you can only imagine what these religious leaders are doing at this time. They're piling.
00:05:54
Speaker
bp at the nearby and like the the the jewish leader of the new member say he just like to believe it is that my presence you know as you just come on guys please some situation k light up a little
00:06:07
Speaker
But because of their reaction, it opened Jesus to give the parable in which he gave last week, which Victor beautifully unpacked for us.
Feast Parable and Kingdom Invitation
00:06:15
Speaker
And if you didn't listen to that message, by the way, I highly recommend you going back and listening to it because it was awesome. So make sure you go back and listen to last week's message. But this opened the door for Jesus to give this parable of the great banquet.
00:06:31
Speaker
And I don't want to spend too much time unpacking that. But it was this parable that Jesus gives of a man who is hosting this great feast. And he had already sent out these invitations to the members to come in and to enjoy this feast with him. And back then, they sent out one invitation, as Victor explained to us last week. They sent out an invitation for the initial invite. And then they would send out another invitation once the festivity was ready, once the meal was ready. And then they would come and partake of the feast.
00:07:00
Speaker
Well, when that second invitation came out, what happened? The first couple of guys that the servants went to, they were like, hey, the meal's ready. Are you ready to come? They're like, actually, no, I'm not ready.
00:07:11
Speaker
And various things they get various excuses and they actually asked to be dismissed from the feast so word gets back to the host and he gets a he gets angry and And he says you know what fine because they don't want to come go out to the streets go out to the highways go out to the all the different places and invite whoever you can and get them into my house get them into this feast and
00:07:34
Speaker
And they finally, and so the service went out, they did this. And the server comes back to the host again, he says, hey, we did what you asked. There's still room. He says, go again and fill my house because I do not want those men in my feast. Those men I originally invited, I don't want them to partake in this. I gave them their chance and they missed it.
00:07:55
Speaker
So you can already imagine the tone or the feel in the room at this point as Jesus gives this parable to these religious leaders. And then now as chapter 14 ends and we go on to chapter 15, there's now a crowd coming around, okay? This is probably what happens to Jesus everywhere he goes. When people hear that he's there, he's like, oh yeah, let's go see Jesus. And especially since he's dialoguing with religious leaders, I would pay to see that actually. And so he gets this crowd around him.
Parables of Lost Sheep and Coin
00:08:25
Speaker
And then that's what happened. And then we open up with Luke chapter 15. And what we see here is that Jesus doesn't stop. He sees the crowd and he's like, all right, I'm feeling it. Let's just continue to head this up, okay? And so he goes in, so he moves from this parable of the great banquet to where in chapter 15, he begins to get the series of parables of losts.
00:08:51
Speaker
of lusts, which seems fitting given the parable he just gave. And so what we see in the opening verses there, chapter 15, is that Jesus opens the chapter with the parable of the lost sheep, right? And he says, you know, which one of you men out here in the audience, if you had a hundred sheep, if you lost one, would not lead to 99 to go far in the lost one?
00:09:17
Speaker
And when you find it, you throw it over your shoulder, you bring it back home, and then you invite all of your friends and you celebrate over the one lost sheep that was found. Well, he doesn't stop there. He gives another parable. He gives the parable the lost coin.
Retelling the Prodigal Son Parable
00:09:33
Speaker
And now he's calling all the ladies out in the room.
00:09:36
Speaker
He says, now I wish if you women had, if you had 10 silver coins, lost one would not turn your house upside down to find the lost one. And when you find it, you go and tell all your neighbors you found it and you celebrate and you rejoice over the lost one coin that has now been found. And then he goes onto this incredible parable of the prodigal son. And so if you guys, as I said, if you guys haven't opened your Bibles already to Luke chapter 15, go and do that.
00:10:02
Speaker
But as I read to you guys this parable, I'm actually going to read it to you from a different translation, if that's okay with you this morning. Many of you guys probably don't have this translation. If you do, it's because you have children at home. So I'm going to put this up on the screen for you to read, but it's actually out of the Jesus Storybook Bible. Okay? The reason why it is, because again, we all have heard this parable.
00:10:26
Speaker
And this is a fresh way to look at it. So this is my new study Bible, by the way. So I'm gonna read to you guys the account in which is in the Jesus Storybook Bible, and then we'll refer back to scripture. So you guys follow along, it says this. Jesus told this story about a boy who ran away. Once upon a time, there was a boy and his dad. Now one day the boy gets to thinking,
00:10:54
Speaker
Maybe if I didn't have my dad around telling you what is good for me all the time, I'd be happier. Have you guys ever thought that? He's spoiling my fun, he thinks. Does my dad really want me to be happy? Does my dad really love me? The son never thought of that before, but suddenly he doesn't know anymore. So the son goes to the father and says, dad,
00:11:16
Speaker
I'm better off without you. I can look after myself. Just give me my share of your money. His father is sad, but he won't force his boy to stay. So he gives his son what he wants. The son takes the money and goes on a long, long journey to a far off country. And everything's wonderful and perfect for a while. He can go wherever he wants, do whatever he wants, be whoever he wants. He is the boss. He is free.
00:11:46
Speaker
Sometimes he gets a strange, hungry, homesick feeling inside his heart. But then he just eats more or drinks more or buys more clothes or goes to more parties until it goes away. But soon his money runs out and so do his friends. He ends up getting the only job he can find, feeding pigs. One day he is so hungry and so desperate he even tries some piggy food.
00:12:12
Speaker
What am I doing? He suddenly asks. As if he was woken from a nightmare, he spits. Yuck. All of it, ick, out of his mouth. You guys like those sound effects? You're right. My father is rich, and here I am in a pigsty eating piggy food. He wipes his mouth and dusts himself off. I'm going home. As he starts for home, though, he begins to worry.
00:12:38
Speaker
Dad won't love me anymore. I've been too bad. He won't want me for his son anymore. So he practices his I'm sorry speech. All this time, what he doesn't know is that day after day, his dad has been standing on his porch, straining his eyes, looking into the distance, waiting for his son to come home. He just can't stop loving him. He longs for the sound of his boy's voice. He can't be happy until he gets him back.
00:13:06
Speaker
The son is still a long way off, but his dad sees him coming. What will the dad do? Fold his arms and frown, shout, that will teach you? And just you wait, young man. No, that's not how the story goes. The dad leaps off the porch, races down the hill, through the gap in the hedge, up the road. Before his son can even begin his I'm sorry speech, his dad runs to him, throws his arms around him, and cannot stop kissing him.
00:13:35
Speaker
Let's have a party, dad shouts. My boy is home. He ran away. I lost him, but now I have him back. Jesus told them, God is like the dad who couldn't stop loving his boy. And people are like the son who said, does my dad really want me to be happy?
00:13:53
Speaker
Jesus told this story to show them what God is like and to show people what they are like. So they could know however far they run or however well they hide, however lost they were, it wouldn't matter because God's children could never run too far or be too lost for God to find them. Isn't that incredible?
00:14:16
Speaker
Now, obviously, before y'all like start casting stones at me, okay, this is not how the actual story goes in scripture, I get that. However, this story easily portrays the beautiful message of God to a lost generation.
00:14:35
Speaker
And that's why I thought it would be fun to read it out of this story because I'm so excited to start reading this The Shiloh. I haven't started reading this The Shiloh yet. I'm still catching up on my reading ability. But I'm really excited because I feel like they take solid biblical truth and they
00:14:52
Speaker
communicate it in such a way for the younger kids to understand it and start implanting the true word of God, the gospel. And this story portrays that well. But as many of you know, this story obviously is about only one son, but in scripture it's actually about two sons. And so we're gonna turn to scripture now and we're gonna continue to read the rest of the story picking up in verse 25.
00:15:21
Speaker
And it says this, 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 out to 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 fat calf because he has received him back safe and sound.
00:15:43
Speaker
but he was angry and fused to go in. His father came out and had treated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when the son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.
00:16:08
Speaker
He has said to him, then he said to him, son, you are always with me. And all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and to be glad for this, your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Will you guys pray with me?
Prayer and Focus on Forgiveness
00:16:29
Speaker
Lord God, we just come before you and we just offer at this time to you.
00:16:33
Speaker
Lord, as we as a body of believers come to your word and study it, Lord, as I give this message, I pray, Father, that the words that I speak will not be mine, but yours. Because, Lord, this is a powerful parable. And I don't know where everybody is in their current life right now. Some are experiencing hardship.
00:16:55
Speaker
and suffering or loss. Some are probably living the best life right now. I have no idea, but Lord, you know where we all are and you know what our needs are. And I pray God that no matter where we're at, that we surrender all of it to you because you're the one Father, you're the one true God who loves us so much that you sent your one and only Son to down the cross for us so that we could have eternal life. And if there's anyone here today, Father, who does not know that, I pray that today they will find it.
00:17:25
Speaker
But Lord, just be with us, lead us through this time, and may you be glorified, in Jesus' name, amen. So, as we work through this passage, we're gonna be, by the way, we're gonna be spending the rest of our time in actual scripture, okay? I'm not gonna be teaching out of the Jesus story of the Bible, though it's fun. I want us to look at, I want us to break down this parable into three different acts.
00:17:51
Speaker
And I want us to go through it pretty quickly so that way at the end, we have something special that we would like for us to do. But you guys know how it is with me and being quick. It doesn't happen.
00:18:02
Speaker
strap yourselves in. So, the first act that I want to see here though is that we are introduced to the first main character, right? Right off the bat. Jesus, what he does here, you know, in a typical story, what you have is like, you have the background, and then you go, then you are introduced to the conflict or the problem, and then eventually the resolution comes about. Well, Jesus doesn't do that here. He immediately just brings about the problem.
00:18:27
Speaker
Okay, he just cuts right to the chase here. And the younger son is introduced into the parable. So the unfaithful son is introduced into act one. And what we see there in verse 12, when it says this, it says, there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. We already see the initial heart of this younger son.
00:18:53
Speaker
We see this rebellious demand of this younger son to the father. And to the audience that Jesus is speaking to, this would have been extremely dramatic. This would have caught them way off guard. Because in Jewish culture, when it comes to the inheritance, one, you don't receive the inheritance until the father has passed away.
00:19:14
Speaker
And two, the younger son doesn't come to the father and just ask for his inheritance, because when it's divided up, the older son gets two-thirds of the inheritance while the rest of it gets split up, okay? And the younger son is obviously still here, and then you see, or the older son's still here, then you see this younger son coming and demanding of his inheritance right away. He says, Father, give to me the share of property that is coming to me.
00:19:40
Speaker
And then what does the father do? He says, and he divided his property between them. And so we see this rebellious demand, we see the prodigal nature already being revealed in this younger son. He thinks that he knows what's best for him and that by him receiving his inheritance early, that he will have his best life. In other words, he is looking at his father and he's saying, father, I don't need you. I don't need you in my life. In other words, I wish you were dead.
00:20:11
Speaker
I wish you were dead. Give me my inheritance so I can go live my life the best way I can because I know what's best for myself and you don't. How many of you guys have ever been in that situation before? I know I've thought that before. I'm not gonna lie. And I feel like many of us would agree to that. But it goes on.
00:20:31
Speaker
In verses 13 and 14, where it says, and when he had spent everything, so after he received his inheritance, he went to a far off country where he squandered his property with reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. Now, again, how many of you guys have ever been in that situation where we thought we knew what's best for ourselves and we put ourselves in a situation where we thought that everything was gonna be great
00:21:00
Speaker
Man, I have all this money, I can use it to buy the best clothes, I can use it to buy the best car, I can do this, I can do that because I know what's best for me. I know what I want right now. When in all actuality, it's the father who knows what's best for his son and there's a reason why he hadn't received his inheritance yet.
Prodigal Son's Journey and Return
00:21:23
Speaker
And when the son finally goes to squanders his inheritance, it just so ironically happens that a famine hits. So now does he not only lose everything as far as monetary resources are concerned, now he's in a far off country where there's a great famine with no money. Talk about an ideal situation, right?
00:21:48
Speaker
And so we see the shameful results of the prodigal life already right here. And again, I don't know where we're all at right now in our life and in the season in which we're living. But let me tell you something. We don't really know what's best for ourselves. There's a reason why the Lord instituted the family the way He did. Why we have fathers, why we have mothers. Now granted, I know that each and every one of us in this room have different family dynamics and not every father's been a great father or an ideal father or mother.
00:22:19
Speaker
But there's a sense to the family that has been instituted for a reason. And we have to trust God in that. We have to be faithful to that. So for students who are still at home, whether you're in elementary school, middle school, high school, or even fixing to go off to college, while you're under your parents' house, or while you're under their roof, not their house, don't be under their house, you need to obey them. You need to be respectful of them.
00:22:47
Speaker
they know what is best for you. But if you have any doubt in that, please come talk to one of us if you feel like your parents don't know what is best for you, okay? But all that to say though, is that we need to be aware of the fact that the Lord has given us a family structure for a reason, we need to honor that. And we don't need to go and think we know what's best for ourselves, because most of the time when you go off by yourself, you find yourself up like the young man here with a shameful result of the prodigal life.
00:23:18
Speaker
So it goes on there though in verses 15 and 16. And so he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. So if this story so far hasn't caught the Jewish audience off guard, it now has. For this guy to go and hire himself out to a Gentile, ultimately going to work in a pen of pigs,
00:23:44
Speaker
That's like the lowest of low for any Jewish member or like any Jewish person in that culture. You just don't find, they just did not interact with pigs. They were nasty, they were defiled. It was unlawful for them to interact with them. So for him to go and to be hired on as a servant in the pig pens, this is the lowest of low. And Jesus knew that as he was communicating this to his audience, that this would resonate with the Jewish audience.
00:24:11
Speaker
And so he gets hired out and goes to the pig pen and it says here in verse 16, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything. So not only is he working with pigs, but now he has no food to where he is now hungry for the pods in which the pigs are eating. Talk about hitting rock bottom. So this is like the worst case scenario for anybody. Some of us in this room feel like we have hit rock bottom a long time ago.
00:24:41
Speaker
But this is like rock, this is truly rock bottom. And Jesus knows that and he's portraying this to the audience. But as it goes on though, the story turns in a way that would even rock the Jewish mind even more. In verse 17,
00:24:56
Speaker
When he comes to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough to bread? But yet I am here perishing with hunger. I will rise, 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." So the son now has this radical, you know, change of mind. He is transformed here. He awakes and realizes almost as if like he's waking up from a nightmare. He's like, what am I doing?
00:25:26
Speaker
I have embarrassed myself. I have taken what most once my father's I have squandered it. I have defamed his name. And then now here I am working in the a den of pigs trying to eat their food. And he has this realization. He's like, why am I doing this? I can just go back to my father.
00:25:45
Speaker
who has hired servants and I can just ask him to bring me on as one of his servants. So we see this recognition going on and this enlightenment in the young man who's saying, my father, though I have hurt him, though I have essentially asked him to die in my life, he will receive me back, at least as a hired servant.
00:26:06
Speaker
You see, this is a beautiful picture here that Jesus is trying to communicate to the audience. What he's saying is that by this son's example is that by anybody who has walked away from their faith or has turned their back on God or turned their back on their family or whatever, it doesn't matter how too far off you've gone, you're never too far away from God to redeem you. Jesus is, what he's communicating here, he says, it doesn't matter how far off you are, you need to turn back to the Father because he's ready to receive you.
00:26:37
Speaker
He's ready to receive you. And we'll hit on this here in just a little bit, but that's the whole reason why Jesus is there, is to communicate the gospel message so that way they can't come back to the Father. So again, if anybody's in this room and you feel like you are too far gone, you are not too far gone. You are never too far gone. As the story tells in this book,
00:27:04
Speaker
It doesn't matter how far you are, you're never too far away from the love of God. So don't continue to put yourself in a situation or to convince yourself that you're too far gone. Release it, let it go. Turn back to the Father and He will receive you.
00:27:25
Speaker
This is where act two opens up though. And this is a beautiful act that we see here in verse 20. So he says, I am no longer worthy to be called your son, treat me as one of your high servants. And verse 20 says, and he arose, 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. Wow.
00:27:50
Speaker
We have this rebellious son who's living a prodigal life, who's wasted everything, squandered everything, and he's at his rock bottom, his worst, and this is the same son who pretty much asked his father, he says, leave my life, I don't want you anymore, I know what's best for myself. And here he comes, back to his father. And what does his father do? He sees him from the distance, right? First off, let's just talk about that for a second. This is not a passive father.
00:28:20
Speaker
This is an active father. This is a father who's been, from the moment his son left his life, has been seeking and searching for him every day that he was gone. He has been searching for him and hoping that one day he will return so that way he can embrace him and welcome him back to the family, reinstitute him, because that's how much he loved his son.
00:28:46
Speaker
And so like the story said in the Jesus Storybook Bible, by the time the son was able to reach the father and begin his I'm sorry speech, what did the father do? He threw himself on him, hugged his neck and kissed him relentlessly and didn't even hear what the son had to say. He just says, I'm so glad you're home.
00:29:06
Speaker
And again, when you think about the audience that Jesus is communicating to, this is undignified of the father for him to do this. In the Jewish mind, if a son ever did this, the father would ostracize him. He would cast him out, never let him back in. He would essentially be no longer a member of that family forever. So for Jesus to communicate the story this way, this is counter-cultural back then.
00:29:34
Speaker
This is rocking the minds of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders, and also for the Gentiles, those who were not Jews back in that time. This was a good message for them. This was hope.
00:29:51
Speaker
But it continues on, right, in verses 21 through 22, it says, And the Son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am 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 and let us eat and celebrate for this my son was dead and is alive again.
00:30:19
Speaker
He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. What a picture. So you see the undignified depths of the Father's love to the Father restoring his lost son, and not just restoring him, but look at what he's doing here. He says, bring quickly, bring the best robe, put it on him.
00:30:42
Speaker
And then put a ring on his hand. You see, he's putting identity and words back into his son. If you remember, the son says, hey, maybe if I go back and just ask him to be a hired servant, he'll bring me back in, because I at least know they eat better. But the father says, no, you are no servant to me. You are my son. And I am going to restore you 100% completely.
00:31:07
Speaker
There's gonna be no shadow of a doubt that you are my son when I am done restoring you. So he brings the robe, puts it on him. He's starting to look fresh and clean again.
00:31:16
Speaker
Then he gets a signet ring and puts it on his finger, which speaks authority, which speaks significance. These are the rings that when they signed seals or when they signed letters that were authoritative, that they would take that ring and they would press it into the wax, giving their signature. So now not only is the son being dressed and clean again, he's now given authority again. The son who defamed his father, the son who turned away from his father, wished him dead.
00:31:44
Speaker
This father is now restoring him with authority. And not only that, but then he says, you are not a servant of mine. Put shoes on this man's feet. You see, servants back then, they didn't wear shoes around then or when they were working. So the father says, no, no, no, no, you're not a servant. You're my son. Put shoes on this man's feet.
00:32:07
Speaker
And so they do. And then they celebrate with this great feast. They take this fattened calf, which was ceremonially typically set aside for extremely powerful situations, right? So it's for great parties, great feast of great celebration or a great cause. They don't just take a fattened calf and just go, oh, well, I want a fattened calf today. I want to go eat it. No, that's not what they do. It was for big monumental moments of celebration.
00:32:35
Speaker
And so the son is fully restored and we see the immense, we see, like I said, the undignified death of father's love, his restoration, and then the celebratory feast of the lost son. And guys, this is such a powerful thing for many of us. And then you see, this is where many of us like to stop in the story because this is where we resonate so much. This is where we are able to empathize so much as with the younger son.
00:33:01
Speaker
because we all fall short, we all sin, we all wander away. If you haven't experienced that in your life yet, it's probably bound to happen. You will space the time in your life where you're gonna turn away, whether it's from a family member, a friend, a spouse, or even from your faith.
00:33:19
Speaker
But the hope here is that no matter how far away you turn or how far away you run, the father is there and he's ready to receive you back with great love, with great mercy. He's ready to restore you with great authority. That's beautiful. Beautiful.
00:33:39
Speaker
But as I said, the story doesn't stop there.
Older Brother's Reaction and Lesson
00:33:41
Speaker
The story continues and with act three introduces the other son, because remember there's two sons. So you have the younger son who is the prodigal son. He is the rebellious son who runs away. And then you have this son who stays the elder son.
00:33:57
Speaker
And we don't like to typically put ourselves in the situation of the older son because a lot of the times the older son was right by staying, right? I mean, he was right by staying. He remained faithful to the father. But let's see how this actually plays out. Picking up in verses 25.
00:34:13
Speaker
But now he says, now his older son was in the field and he came and drew near to the house and he heard the music and dancing. And when he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. So we see that the son is out doing, he's diligently being faithful to the father. He stayed home. He stayed there on the grounds. He was working in the fields. He was continuing the family legacy and the family business. He was honorable. He was morally correct, right?
00:34:43
Speaker
So you would think that this would be a reasonable explanation, right? For him to ask a servant and be like, hey, what is going on over the house? Why are they celebrating? Why is there music? Why is this? And then the servant gives the answer. He says, well, you see your younger brother, the one that left. Yeah, the one who took your inheritance essentially and left. Well, he's returned. And not only has he returned, but your father has now restored him and they are now celebrating over the new life in which he has.
00:35:10
Speaker
And so you can only imagine what's going on in the older brother's mind, right? And this is where Jesus really gives a final blow to the Jews. Is that you see his, so there's a reasonable explanation here. He comes asking the servant like, hey, what's going on? See verses 27 and 28 to where now it's the father's or the son's unreasonable response.
00:35:33
Speaker
And he goes on here, verse 27, it says, and he said to him, your brother came, your father killed the fang calf because he's received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. The older brother. How many of you guys have ever been in that situation? Yeah, you don't like to confess and admit that, do you? How many of you guys have ever asked the question, why do good things happen to bad people?
00:36:01
Speaker
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are there people in office that shouldn't be in office? They're not morally correct. Or why is this celebrity getting all this when I am remaining faithful to God's word and I'm not getting any of that? Yeah, you act like you're not the older brother, but when you ask us questions, when you have that heart, guess what? You are exactly the older brother. It is not our place to ask us questions.
00:36:31
Speaker
It is our place to go and to share the love of the gospel, the love of Jesus to those who are lost. But when we have this heart, we are not capable of sharing the love of Jesus when we have this heart. So for any of us who feel like we're not the older brother, you're already stopped in your tracks. Many of us oftentimes are the older brother here, okay? So, but it goes on.
00:37:01
Speaker
So he hears this and he becomes angry and he refuses to go into the party. Well, his father hears wind of this, right? He catches wind of this. And his father there in the second half of verse 28 says, his father came out and then treated him. He pleaded with him. He says, son, why are you not coming into the party? You're younger brother's back. He's restored. He was once lost how he's found. Why are you not coming back in? Well,
00:37:26
Speaker
The brother, I mean the older brother, he just lays it out there to him. The true heart of this brother now comes out in verses 29. But he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you. I have never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when your lost son comes home who has devoured your property with prostitutes, which by the way, that was never mentioned in the story. Now you see the older brother actually
00:37:51
Speaker
filling in stuff here because he's that mad. You kill the fat calf for him. So he's living. He's like, dad, you don't understand. I remain faithful to you. I remain faithful to you. I was here at the homestead. I was here at the property doing all these things. But yet when your son, this one son who goes off and squanders off your inheritance, comes home, you are celebrating him? Are you kidding me? And you want me to come into the party after you gave him my share of the inheritance?
00:38:20
Speaker
And the father comes back and he says this and he said to him, son, you were always with me. You were 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 now found. You see the older brother here, he was just as lost as a younger brother. Though he stayed home,
00:38:47
Speaker
Though he remained faithful to the Father morally, spiritually, he was just as lost. By this response to the Father, the older brother essentially said the same thing the younger brother did, by him asking for his inheritance. By him responding this way and saying, I have been here many years. I have served you. So he's no longer identifying himself as a son. He is identifying himself as a servant.
00:39:18
Speaker
So that relationship to the father, from the older brother to the father, is just as broken as the relationship from the son to the, the younger son to the father. They both have been alienated from the father. And again, this is why I was saying this is the final gut punch to the Jews, because Jesus is calling them out. He says, you are the ones who say and proclaim that you are the followers of the ones who live in God.
00:39:47
Speaker
that you are obeying His commands, that you are following His commands to the T, but yet you're not actually following through on them. Because what's the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. But yet the Jews placed all other laws above that.
00:40:11
Speaker
They were more worried about their presentation, more worried about their appearance, more worried about how they presented Scripture in the synagogue. They didn't have a relationship with God, the true Father. So they are just as lost as the Gentiles. And Jesus is coming and He gives this parable to open the eyes of everybody in the audience, not just the Jews, not just the Gentiles, but everybody
God’s Mercy and Love
00:40:36
Speaker
in the audience. He says, hey,
00:40:39
Speaker
Paul will later write this in Romans 3, 23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of you. And what's the result of that? Death. But Jesus says, don't fret. I came not to destroy you or not, I didn't come to bring wrath upon you, but I came to, so I can save you, so I can redeem you, so I can restore you and write relationship with the Father if,
00:41:08
Speaker
You turn away from your unrighteous and sinful living and you turn to me and you surrender it all to me. It's as simple as that. You see, we have a tendency to get caught up in this parable with the comparison game of, okay, am I more like the younger son or am I more like the older son? Or we use this as a comparison game for others of like, oh, wow, they're really the prodigal son. Like, wow, wow, they're really being Jewish over there, aren't they?
00:41:38
Speaker
but we never stop and actually look at the heart of this parable. This parable is saturated with the mercy and the love of the Father. The Father is the one who pursued both sons. The Father is the one who remained faithful no matter what happened. Through the thick and thin, the Father was the one who pursued them and loved them unconditionally and wanted to redeem them and restore them so that way they could celebrate together as one family.
00:42:08
Speaker
And that's the whole purpose of Jesus coming, is to restore us so that way we can be one body under the name of Jesus. So that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, so that we can bring heaven down to earth so that way people can see the glorious riches and grace and mercy of God the Father through us. What a privilege.
00:42:35
Speaker
You know, I said that comment earlier of like, man, I'm kind of jealous because I'm not in the presence of God right now, but let me tell you something. We can be in the presence of God right here, right now on this earth. We are the hands and the feet. We are the kingdom on display. So let's not be the younger brother or the older brother. Let's be like Jesus. There's one thing, there's one final act that I want to unpack for us real quick as we wrap up.
00:43:06
Speaker
Gosh, man, I can never finish on time. There's one thing that I want to unpack here, though, and I don't want us to miss this thing, okay? Now, this, some of you guys may have your opinions on this, but I'm gonna say it anyway, so you can come talk to me afterwards, but this parable, like I said, is we're able to connect with it, we're able to resonate with it and empathize with it so personally because of our own experiences in this life.
00:43:34
Speaker
But what I want us to not miss here is that in this final act, I gotta find myself in the notes now, I went too far ahead, is this, is that the older brother here is actually another representation of our first brother, our first older brother, Adam.
00:44:00
Speaker
You see, the reason why I say that is because in context of this passage, the older brother is the one who was responsible to go out to receive the younger brother. In Jewish culture, it was the responsibility of the oldest brother to go and to seek out the lost sibling or the lost younger sibling and to bring them back to begin that restoration process. But what does the older brother do in the parable? He says, good riddance.
00:44:28
Speaker
He leaves him. He stays because in his heart, he was doing the right thing. He was remaining faithful. And he completely missed the mark. So that's why I say, this is a picture of our first older brother, Adam. You see, Adam, when he was created, he was called to go and take care of the garden, to take care of God's creation. And what happened? He got distracted.
00:44:56
Speaker
He followed his own heart, sinned into the scenes of his wife Eve, and instead of remaining faithful to the one true God, he turned from God and followed after sin, which would then result in him being banned from the garden and out of God's presence forevermore. And here we are, the result of that one sin. But you see here, Jesus becomes our true older brother.
00:45:25
Speaker
And that's what I wanna end on today is this, is that if anybody feels lost, feels like that they're just too far gone, or that they just can't redeem themselves, or they can't figure it out, well, we're not supposed to figure it out on our own, first off. We have a true older brother who's come and who has restored us already.
00:45:45
Speaker
His name is Jesus. All we gotta do is surrender. We gotta believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and He will restore us back to the Father. It's a beautiful thing. But you see, Jesus' job is not done yet though. He came and died the perfect death.
00:46:06
Speaker
And he rose again and is now sitting back at the father, right? So he's accomplished so many things as a true older brother, but guess what? His final act is still yet to come. And that's why I'm saying we live in the final act right now and the fact that Jesus will return and he will complete what he is supposed to do and he will restore us and he will bring us back into the presence of the father. He has come to receive us and to retrieve us and take us back to the father.
00:46:33
Speaker
And for those of us who confess in the name of Jesus and have a relationship with him, that is a reason to celebrate. That is reason to be excited. That is reason for us to go and share the good news because we all need this hope. But for anyone who does not know Jesus, that doesn't send shivers down your spine. I don't know what will. Because if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, then when he comes back, you're not gonna be taken back home with him.
Call to Embrace Jesus' Love
00:47:06
Speaker
So I plead with you today, make sure that you are right with Jesus.
00:47:13
Speaker
Make sure that you know who Jesus is. Make sure that you understand the weight of your sin and that you will surrender that to him, that you'll turn it over to him so that way he can take it from you and cast it as far as the East is from the West so that you can be made right, so that you can be restored, so that you can have, now that you can wear the robe and wear the signet ring and put sandals back on your feet and boy look good. Don't leave this place until you are in right relationship with the Father.
00:47:46
Speaker
But as we close, I just want to end with this. As we said in the beginning, this is a week where many of our students are going back to school. Many of our teachers have already been back in the school. Parents, y'all are getting ready to embark on another season of this. When it comes down to us being the hands and feet of Jesus and to imitating the true older brother, Jesus,
00:48:16
Speaker
What a privilege we have now as you guys go back into schools and as you go back into a system that is falling far away from truth. So students feel the weight of that. You guys are now being sent into a mission field to go and to share the love of Jesus to those who are lost, teachers,
00:48:44
Speaker
I applaud you for what you guys do. You guys as well are being launched into the mission field. And parents and church members, we are their support structure. So may we truly come alongside them and be praying for them and being their hands and feet for them as they go and become missionaries into these fields.
Closing Prayer for Students and Teachers
00:49:13
Speaker
I would love for us though to stop right now though and to actually pray for our students and pray for our teachers as a congregation, if you guys don't mind. So students, I know this is, I'm putting you guys on the spot. You guys hate it when I do that. But if you're a student from elementary school, all the way up to college, if you're a student, I want you to stand up for me. If you are a student, I want you to stand up.
00:49:41
Speaker
Now, this is what I would love for you guys to do as a congregation. I want you to go, and I want you to put your hands on these students, and I want you to pray with us. So now, if I want you as a congregation to go find a student, I want you to lay your hands on them, I want you to pray for them.
00:50:05
Speaker
Or you can pray over it in your sheets, that's fine too. But I would like for you guys to pray with me as I pray over these students. Lord God, we come before you, we just thank you so much, Lord, for the fact that you're the one true Father, the one who seeks us out, the one who is ready to restore right relationship with us, to put the robe back on us, to put the ring on us, to put sandals on our feet, give us our identity. But Lord, I pray right now that you be with our students,
00:50:35
Speaker
that you will be with our teachers, Lord, because there are so many out there who are living the prodigal life. And I pray that we will not be like the elder brother. I pray, God, that we will be just like the true older brother. That we'll live on mission, ready to share the gospel in and out of season to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And I pray that's exactly what these students and these teachers will do.
00:51:00
Speaker
Lord, that you'll give them power, Lord, that you'll give them courage and that you'll give them strength to go and to share their faith, to be the light into the darkness, to be the salt into the earth, Father. That they will love their enemies and that they will love their peers as you love them. Because God, we live in a day now that Satan is really at play. Satan is really active.
00:51:29
Speaker
And I just pray, God, that you'll just allow these students and these teachers and our parents and us as a church to be there to support them and to encourage them and to equip them and ultimately, Father, for all of us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. But Lord, we lift them to you now. We pray for this upcoming school year and that it will be glorifying to you. It's in Jesus' name, amen.
00:51:56
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.