Good morning, my name is Antoine. Today's scripture reading is from Luke chapter
15 verse 11 through 32 page 902 and the Bible is in the back of the pews. He also
said, a man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, father give me
the share of the estate that I have coming to me. So he distributed the
assets to them. Not many days later this younger son gathered together all he had
and traveled to a distant country where he squandered his estate in in foolish
living. After he had spent everything a severe famine struck that
country and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that
country who sent him into into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his
fill from the pods that he from the pigs he were feeding that the pigs were
eating but no one would give him anything. When he came to his senses he
said how many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food and
here I am dying of hunger. I'll get up go to my father and say to him father I
have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called
your son. Make me like one of your hired workers. So he got up and went to his
father but while the son was still a long way off his father saw him and was
filled with compassion. He ran through his arms around his neck and kissed him.
The son said to him father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight I'm
no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father told his servants quick
bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals
on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it and let's celebrate
with a feast because the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and
is found. So they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field and he
came now his older son was in the field as he came near the house he heard music
and dancing so he summoned one of the servants questioning what these things
meant. Your brother is here he told he told him and your father has slaughtered
the fattened calf because he has he has him back safe and sound. Then he became
angry and didn't want to go in so his father came out and pleaded with him but
he replied to his father look I have been slaving many years for you and I
have never disobeyed your orders yet you never gave me a goat so that I could
celebrate with my friends. But when his when the son of yours came who has
devoured your assets with prostitutes you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.
Son he said to him you are always with me and everything I have is yours but we
had to celebrate and rejoice because his brother of yours was dead and is alive
again he was lost and is found. This is God's Word. All right if you have a Bible
or grab one of the Bibles in the pews turn on over to Luke chapter 15 we're
gonna spend our time there and we'll definitely be in that whole chapter.
Also maybe you didn't know this but the pew Bibles those are for you if you
don't have a Bible or you know someone who needs one grab it take it we'll
replace it it'll be we'll have a new one there by next week but those are those
are so that you can grab them and you can you can use them at home or give
them away. Father we come before you now and we ask that you would speak through
your word work in our hearts Lord Lord may our hearts be like that good soil
ready to receive the seed of your word so that it might produce fruit in our
lives we ask in Jesus name amen. What we have here is probably one of the most
famous parables of the Bible. Second to maybe the Good Samaritan the parable of
what has classically been called the prodigal son or in our headings in the
CSB the parable of the lost son is probably one of the most told and well
known parables there is. Maybe you're wondering what what does parable even
mean right let's let's start there well parable is the the it's a Greek word
that actually means to cast alongside cast alongside that's what parable means
so it's like the cast alongside of the long the lost son and and you might be
going well that doesn't sound right that sounds weird. Well basically these are
stories that were meant to be cast alongside a truth in order to help the
audience to better understand and for to illustrate the truth to them and so
Jesus used parables to teach in fact in Mark chapter 4 it says that he did not
say anything to the crowds of people without using a parable he can say
anything to the crowds without using a parable but then he would privately
explain the meanings of those parables to his disciples and in in your Bible in
the CSB we have a heading that says something like the parable of the lost
son but what we're going to find this morning is it's actually a tale of two
sons two sons and a father and what we're supposed to do as good Bible
students is we're supposed to compare and contrast these two sons in order for
us to grasp a deeper meaning of the text to get beyond the illustration to get to
the actual truth of the text which is the purpose of a parable and this
parable particularly is it's intended to undermine our existing paradigms for how
we understand the radical nature of God's love and how we relate to God and
so I hope that as we work our way through it that is what we ultimately
have is a paradigm shift in our understanding about who this God that we
worship is as we look at the content of that particular scripture we actually
have to go a little bit further back than what was read this morning in order
to get that context and you can see it right there at the top of the heading at
the top of the verse verse 1 of chapter 15 verse 1 of chapter 15 reads this all
the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him Jesus all
the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen and the Pharisees
and scribes were complaining this man Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with
them so the context is that Jesus is preaching and teaching and he is
attracting groups crowds of tax collectors and sinners well who are tax
collectors but the worst of the worst in the Jewish minds to be a tax collector
meant that you went behind your people's back and you went to the Roman
governments and you agreed to extort and collect taxes from your own people for
the enemy in order to support them tax collectors were garbage sinners well
that's a pretty broad term right and that basically encapsulates all of that
basically it's lawbreakers those who did not pay mind to the law of God or the
Torah Jesus is attracting these kind of characters they want to know more there
they're hearing his words and they're finding life in it but the Pharisees and
the scribes come and they say this guy he welcomes them he spends time with them
to eat with them was a sign of affirmation or affirming how dare he with
this kind of people the Pharisees and the scribes well to contrast them with
tax collectors and sinners they were the true Israel Israelites they were the
perfect Jews there were those who were most faithful they had centered their
life the Pharisees particularly they centered their life around the Torah
around God's Word in fact to be a Pharisee meant that you are on the path
to memorizing the entire Old Testament look at that Old Testament Ezekiel
Isaiah all of it the law of Moses the Psalms you memorized all of it and that
meant you can imagine we did a little exercise this morning in our prayer time
before we memorized Psalm 117 which has a grand total of two words two
verses and it took us a little while yeah we were stumbling I was making
everyone stumble because I couldn't remember it they memorized the whole of
God's Word and so they're coming and they're saying who is this guy and why
is he eating with them why isn't he paying mind to the social
statuses of our time if this really was the Messiah he wouldn't be going to the
tax collectors and sinners he'd be going to the righteous he'd be going to the
Pharisees and the scribes the ones who daily kept Torah read Torah memorized
Torah and Torah is just the laws because of their focus on this they would have
been very keen also because their focus on the law they would have been very
keen on listening to Jesus's words and making parallels to the Old Testament
and it's one of the interesting facts about Psalm about Luke 15 is that we're
going to see all kinds of references to the Old Testament that Jesus is dropping
in there because he wants to shift their paradigm they thought they knew they
thought they understand they had no idea and so they come they complain so what
does Jesus do it says verse 3 of chapter 15 so he told them a parable and what
he's actually gonna do is he's gonna tell three parables right in a row here
in Luke 15 the first one we're also familiar most probably most of us are
familiar with is the parable of the lost sheep a man has a hundred sheep one
strays off right and now he has 99 who are safe with him and one who is lost
and what does he do he leaves the 99 like whoa something's coming through
transmission received Lord he he leaves the 99 to go find the one and when he
finds it he with great joy puts it upon his shoulder and he comes back and
reintroduces it to the fold and then it says he calls his neighbors and his
friends and he says I'm so excited I joy has to be shared I need some people to
rejoice with come and rejoice with me because this one that was lost has now
been found and Jesus says I tell you in the same way that that man when he found
his sheep rejoice I tell you in the same way there will be more joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who do not need
repentance that's a that's an odd statement there too because we go well
we all need repentance right and scholars take a different way but a lot
of them think that that was kind of a tongue-in-cheek 99 who don't need
repentance in their own mind in their own heart they truly do need repentance
they don't recognize it and then he goes from that parable to tell another
parable about a lost coin a woman has ten coins and the coins represent about
a week's wages and she loses one of those coins and so he says she begins to
look everywhere she lights a lamp and she begins to sweep her whole house
trying to find this coin and when she finally finds the coin she is overjoyed
and she calls all of her neighbors and her friends and says come rejoice with
me for this coin that I lost I found it and Jesus says I tell you in the same
way there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents
and after telling these two parables that leads him into the parable of the
lost son and this parable is going to be similar to those first two and yet add
all kinds of new elements to it beginning in verse 11 we see immediately
a hyperlink or a reference that in the mind of the audience that Jesus was
talking to the Pharisees and the scribes who spent their life on Torah Jesus
begins the parallel by saying there was a man who had two sons now if you spent
your life in Torah you spend your life studying the law of God then you know
immediately two sons I've heard that before two sons is a pattern throughout
the Bible throughout the Old Testament Cain and Abel Isaac and Ishmael Jacob
and Esau you notice how in the stories of Joseph Joseph's brothers don't really
have individual identities we don't know a whole lot about them it's like Joseph
and his brothers or David and his brothers it's this idea of these pairs
these two and so immediately these scribes and Pharisees are going whoa
that's interesting okay I know this story I know how this goes I've read
Torah there's a man who has two sons and then he begins with the younger and he
says here's the younger son comes to the father and he says what give me my share
of the inheritance give me my share of the estate that I have coming to me
right there the original audience would have gasped how dare he what an
unrighteous ungrateful child to ask for the inheritance of the father while the
father is still alive is like saying I wish you were dead I wish you were dead
just give me your stuff I don't want anything to do with you this would have
been an insult and the expected response would have been well to get the cane out
and either verbally lash him or probably verbally and physically lash him this
would have been accepted and acceptable in the culture how dare you get out you
are no longer my son it would have been a complete and total insult what he
wants the father's things the young stuff young son wants the father's
things but he does not want relationship with the father and this would have
caused disgust but you know what it would cause more disgust was the father's
response the father responds and instead of pulling out the cane and beating him
up and giving him a verbal lashing what does it say he did he gave it to him he
gave it to him and we think oh he gave it to him he went and he wrote a check
no their wealth was tied up in their property their wealth was tied up in
their property and if you had two sons one son the older son was entitled to
two-thirds of your property and one son was entitled to one-third of your
property the younger one and so to ask for the inheritance was so much more
than just all right I'll go to the bank account I'll get you the gold and you're
on your way it was I'm going to go out and I'm going to sell my land now I'm
going to sell my land and cash it out I'm going to sell this one thing that
gives me status this one thing that gives me prestige this one thing that
says that I have any worth in this community I'm going to reduce it by
one-third at least so that I can I can supply this request it's interesting
because the word asset that we read in the scripture here when it says so he
distributed the assets the word asset is actually bios and it's it's the same
Greek word that means life he distributed his life because his life
was wrapped up in what he had that's how it was back then is your life and
livelihood was wrapped up in your assets in order to fulfill this request the
father would have had to divest of his life to fulfill it and he does and the
Pharisees would have gone foolish son foolish father what a fool he literally
had to tear his life apart in order to meet this request and the father does so
what happens next well the young son takes his stuff takes this out of these
assets that have been distributed to him from his father and it says that he goes
off to a distant country to a distant land a distant country and this would
have immediately in the minds of the readers and the listeners spoken of the
idea of exile he's going into exile you don't go to a distant country you stay
with your people God brought you into the land and give you the land you don't
go to a distant land stay with your people so he must be in exile he's going
to exile this young son and it says that he takes all of that stuff and it
doesn't give us a whole lot of narrative it simply says and he squanders it all
on foolish living he takes what the father divested that the father tore
apart his own life in order to give to the son so that he could go and in
foolish living squander it all and a severe famine struck that land that he
was in and without any of his without any of his income without any any of his
supplies and now with a famine striking a land he has nothing he's destitute and
so he must sell himself into a sort of form of indentured servitude serving
slop to pigs which were unclean to a Jewish man and at this point the
audience would have said good he got what he deserved good on him but then
the Bible says in verse 17 that after he went through all this process and he's
found himself in the pigsty literally in the mud that he came to his senses he
came to his senses it really literally means he came to himself he came to
himself and he said you know what how many of my father's hired men go hungry
they don't how many of my father's hired men go hungry it'd be better for me to
go back and be a hired man than it would to be and live in this condition you
know what I'll go back to my father and I'll say that I've sinned against heaven
and against him and I'm not worthy to be called his son anymore and I'll ask him
if I could just be a hired man and a hired man was different than a slave see
a slave actually lived in the house he lived in the estate and worked a hired
man usually lived in the city and was hired for a certain price he didn't even
think he was worthy enough to live in the house anymore or on the property
instead what he devised in his mind is I will go back and I will repay I will
repay what I took he has a plan for restitution and it's I'm gonna go back
as a hired man and I'm gonna work I'm gonna receive a wage I'll be able to eat
and I'll be able to repay and maybe one day I'll be able to earn my way back
into the family but all I know is that I can't stay here in this distant land I
have to get back home I have to get back near my father that's what all that's
all I know I have to be near to my father if this is going to work out and
so he makes the decision I will go back and the Pharisees sit on edge the
scribes what's next what's next boy when he comes back the father is gonna lay
get ready for a good show how will the father respond to all of this and we
read in verse 20 the father ran the father saw him far off the father saw
him far off as he was coming and the father began to run and all the
Pharisees gasp because patriarchal men of that time do not run because you
would have to hike up your dress thingy put it between your legs show your knees
in your legs which was dishonorable and disrespectful and run you did not do
that and this father is unlike any father in our culture that this was
there thinking in our culture that we've ever seen who is this guy he's
running now children run young people run men don't run or can't run but they
don't run and yet this father is running running to meet this son running and it
says he fell on his neck which is a way of saying he kissed him and he relieved
all of his his his weight onto the neck like as if you embraced and you just
collapsed into the arms of your son earth-shattering paradigm shaking what
is going on here and the son begins to try to to get get his plan out right I'm
so sorry I'm not worthy of being and the father says no I'll have none of it I
don't need your plan I don't need your money you're not earning your way back
in here in fact go go get the signet ring the signet ring the family crest
the way you signed legal documents the way you said you're a part of the family
go get that ring and put it on my son go get the robe drape it over his shoulders
you know that fattened calf that you saved for a once-in-a-lifetime party
we're gonna cook that tonight that's gonna be the greatest party ever why
because my son has come home this son of mine who was dead is now alive he was
lost but now he's found the son doesn't need to earn his way back in because the
father runs out to bring him back in I'll ask you this morning are you the
younger son are you the younger son did you live your life gladly taking all
that the father gives including your breath and your life and you spend it on
yourself wanting nothing to do with the father but only to indulge yourself have
you spent your life under the guilt and shame that comes from wasting all that
God has given you have you wasted your life on foolish living in sin the good
news of this parable the good news the gospel of this parable tells us
something amazing that no matter who you are and no matter what you've done if
you will simply come home to the father the father will accept you the father
will love you the father will show that radical love that he has and his amazing
grace it's yours if you are far away and you have lived that way come home the
father's waiting but there's more right that's what's so odd about this story is
that's where it's supposed to end the father running this very sentimental
probably you know tears in our eyes or at least in our heart right oh my gosh
the father look what he's done for me for us but it doesn't in there we may
feel the sentimental because we see this beautiful story laid out but again I'll
remind you the original audience would have been shocked horrified what on
earth is he talking about who are these characters who is he saying the father
is who is he saying the young son is who are they this is ridiculous this is
offensive and so Jesus introduces another son and this son the older son
he's been faithfully working away in the fields and he comes near from his day in
the fields and he begins to hear the reggae music check right as he's coming
near to team night and he starts smelling the fat and calf burning on the
grill and it smells good if you ever smelled you know good old tri tip or some
ribs or whatever it's like he smells it he starts to come near he's like he
hears the voices the celebration the laughter the merry-making what is going
on and he's he finds a servant he says I gotta know what's going on I was out in
the field man I was I was faithfully working away what's going on why is
there a party going on and I wasn't invited what's happening here and so the
servant says you know what your brother came home your brother came home and
your dad flipped out with joy like he went off the edge with joy he called
everyone he knew and he killed that fattened calf that we've been saving
forever we had no idea what we were gonna use it for he used it for this he
said this is worth it this is the time kill that thing let's celebrate how's
the older brother gonna respond my brother's home our families reunited
happy ever after the older brother is furious the older brother is furious and
he refuses to go back in in essence he's disrespecting the father's joy he's
disrespecting the father's heart he says I don't want to be a part of this
family if he's a part of this family I won't have it what does the father do
it's another moment there's a father shooting with a BB gun you know get in
here boy no that's maybe what I would do no he it says he came out to him he came
out again the father initiating taking steps to come near to his son he comes
out to him everyone gasp his father is driving everyone mad who's listening
and the son in response to seeing the father he doesn't say father which is
very traditional and is exactly what you would expect in the text he says look
look look look where the verse is there it is he replies to his father look I
have been oh my gosh slaving away many years for you and I have never disobeyed
your orders yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my
friends but when this son of yours came who has devoured your assets with
prostitutes you slaughtered the fattened calf for him you hear all that look he
doesn't even acknowledge him as father I've been slaving away I've never
disobeyed and when this son of yours I'll have nothing to do with him he's
not my brother the son of yours came home look what you did look what you did
don't look what you never did for faithful me when the son of yours who
has been devouring your assets spinning it on prostitutes comes home you
continued to give him more you gave and gave and now so think about it father's
assets one-third goes to the younger son two-thirds remains whose two-thirds is
that going to be it's gonna be the older sons everything that he had
everything the father now houses going to the older son so everything he spends
is what the older son won't get and the older son says you took these precious
things and you gave it to him and it's like you took it out of my own stock you
took it out of my own cut how dare you the son of the father then turns to him
and says son son you are always with me and everything I have is yours really
truly everything he has is his older sons it will all be his but we had to
celebrate and rejoice because his brother of yours was dead and is alive
again he was lost and is now found the elder son can only see that his younger
brother is taking and taking more he can't wrap his head around this kind of
grace that the father is showing because he too has only obeyed and served his
father for what his father can give him he too has only faithfully obeyed and
faithfully slaved away for what he hoped he got out of it that became apparent
through the text and so Jesus here with the Pharisees and the scribes are saying
the younger brother and the older brother are the same the older brother
and the younger brother the same one said I want nothing to do with you give
me what is mine so I can go away from you and go live my life in licentious
sin and all kinds of you know debauchery and whatever it is that I want to do
over here away from your presence and the older son said you know how I will
get what I want I'll obey I'll be faithful I'll study the word I'll pray
every day I'll go to church regularly no one will ever be able to say that I
wasn't faithful a faithful Christian and then God will owe me then God will owe
me he'll owe me blessing he'll owe me an easy life he'll owe me heaven he'll owe
me comforts he'll and when God doesn't give it what happens I thought you said
if you're faithful I thought you said if you would only give yourself to the word
then you'll live out your days in peace and harmony and joy I thought you said
where's mine where's what is owed me he only obeyed
slaved away because he wanted the father's stuff more than he wanted the
father himself act one we get a very clear take on what it is to be a sinner
it's pretty easy for us to see right you do that stuff your sinner we can list it
off we all know self-centered self-indulgent in the gutter
prostitutes whatever it is yeah that's a sinner we see it very clearly but can
you see an act too with the older brother the same things they both want
the father for his things they're both using the father to get what they want
the younger is self-indulgent in his badness the older is self-righteous in
his goodness both trying to get control one by leaving and one by staying one by
breaking all the rules and one who is trying to control God by keeping all the
rules both are lost both are lost because both are alienated from the
father you can hide from God through your self-indulgent immoral life and
you can thumb your nose at God but did you know that you can also hide from God
with your self-righteous moral living you can hide from God and your
self-centered self-righteousness and so I'll ask you are you like the older
brother I'm good I pray I go to church I keep the rules and therefore God owes it
to me to bless me God owes it to me to give me all the things the story began
with tax collectors and sinners coming to Jesus and Pharisees complaining and
saying how can you let them come how can you eat with them and can you see in
this parable both of those he represents the centers the tax collectors as the
younger son the Pharisees and the scribes as the older son and he says
you're both in the same boat when you're sending when the sinners were
sending they were trying to take all that God has given without acknowledging
God or having relationship with him and when you go about reading your Torah and
memorizing your Bible verses and then lording over people your
self-righteousness you're trying to get from God all his things without having a
true relationship with God and God doesn't want either of those for you
gospel-believing Christians obey just to get God just to get God to know him to
love him to honor him and to have relationship with him that's enough and
so if you are in either one of those and we all have been there in some ways
we're all all in in both of those at times our self-righteousness or our
blatant sin encouragement today is to come back to the father that's what it's
about it's not about one or the other it's about being with the father having
relationship with the father loving the father if you came today thinking that
if I go to church I'll be more acceptable to God and therefore I'll get
all the benefits of being acceptable to God you are just like the Pharisees if
you came today and you did not come for God out of a hunger and a thirst to be
near to God to know God to love God you are just like the Pharisees and you need
to repent and come to the father and he will meet you he will come running to
meet you and welcome you and if you've been living in sin and wrapped up in
that life trying to escape God repent come back and he will come running to
you relationship with God is really what it's all about