Luke 15:11-32 “The Parable of the Absurdly Gracious Father” (Bexley North 10:00am)

Morning, everyone. Lovely to see you. I'm Jasper. If you haven't had the chance to meet. Let's pray as we come to this wonderful part of God's word.

Father in heaven, this is such a rich and beautiful passage. Please help us to listen to it now as we go over it together. And I pray, Father, that you'd help us all today to see a fresh your grace for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his name, Amen. When I was a kid, my dad loved fishing. He was a bit of a fishing fanatic, and he used to especially love it when I would come along with him, when me and Mum would kind of get up early and come with him to go fishing.

And I don't know about you, but as a kid, I didn't love the smell of prawn juice on my fingers. I didn't love kind of trying to catch this swinging sharp hook to put bait on it. I didn't love early mornings and a bit of feeling seasick and sand and cold mornings. But dad persisted. He loved it when he could share this thing that he loved with me.

Why is it that dads are so keen for their kids to do the things that they love with them? I don't know what your dad made you do when you were a kid, but I think all dads have this deep desire for their kids that they would share their heart.

And, you know, maybe it's taking up the family business. Whatever it is, it's just honoring them by mirroring what they are like. And in our passage from Luke 15, Today, Jesus is going to show us that there's a reason why all human fathers are like this. It's because in some small, imperfect way, they're all a bit like their Heavenly Father, the Father from whom every family is named. Because our Heavenly Father is one who longs for all of his children to share his very heart.

The context to Jesus telling this story is exactly the same as last week. In chapter 15, verses 1 and 2. If you just have your Bible open and glance back to verses one and two, you'll see some sinners and tax collectors are coming to listen to Jesus. But the Pharisees, the religious guys, they're muttering, this guy eats with sinners and tax collectors. He welcomes them and eats with him.

So Jesus told the two parables that we looked at last week, and he doesn't skip a beat before telling this one today. And I have no shame in telling you that the main point of this parable is not that different from last week, but I think if Jesus repeats himself, then this is a truth that needs repeating. And so the story begins in verse 11 with a father and two sons. And in verse 12, have a look there. The younger of the two sons comes to his father and asks for the inheritance.

And this might seem just kind of mildly greedy to us, but in that culture, and perhaps in a culture that you might come from, that would bring shame on the whole family. You see, the son is essentially asking his father to bring forward his funeral.

The father's death is when the funds are distributed for the inheritance. And so the son is saying to his dad, I'd rather you were dead so that I can have your money. Not only that, the son is publicly stating that he would rather desert his father and go and be his own man than live with the family and take up the family business. But he can't do it on his own. He needs his father's cash to do this.

And look at what happens next in verse 13. Not many days later, the youngest son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country where he squandered his estate. In foolish living, the younger son uses his father's wealth to fuel a life completely outside of the relationship. We don't think about overseas travel as that much of a big deal these days. You know, we go to Europe for holidays and that kind of thing.

But back in the ancient world, there was no WhatsApp, no not even a reliable postal service. You know, no Facebook, no way of keeping in touch. And so when the younger son goes to a distant land, well, what he's doing is he's turning that obvious emotional distance that's there into a physical reality. He is genuinely cutting off the relationship. I'll take your cash, but I don't want you.

You gave me life. Now I'd like my life without you.

It's interesting to remember that in the Ten Commandments, you know, it doesn't say, obey your father and mother, obedience to your parents. That is talked about in the Bible. But what do the Ten Commandments say? They say, obey, honor your father and mother so that it will go well in the land promised for you. There is something so fundamental to what God wants from us in honoring our parents, the ones who gave us life.

And so what this younger son is doing is much worse than it might appear at first. He's dishonoring his father. In a culture where shame and honor meant everything to bring dishonor on your own father, to walk away from your own family, nothing could be worse.

So what happens to the son in a foreign land. Verse 14, you'll see, he spends it all recklessly and there's a famine, so he needs to get a job. And in verse 15 he works for one of the citizens of the country. And I wonder when is the time in your life when you've hit rock bottom?

Because verses 15 to 16 are the younger son's rock bottom. Verse 15. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything.

This wealthy Jewish boy with a large inheritance becomes a hired hand, but not just any kind of worker. He now works under a Gentile boss. He's not just doing any kind of work, he's feeding pigs the one animal that a Jew would want nothing to do with because it made them unclean. But as if that's not bad enough, he's hungry. And the pods that the pigs are snuffling, they're starting to look pretty good.

It's not clear in verse 16 whether or not it's saying no person gave him anything to eat or none of the pigs gave him anything to eat.

Either way, I think you can see the point. This is rock bottom. It doesn't get much lower than that.

And it's at the sun's rock bottom that we get this vivid picture of what it means to be a sinner. From Adam to me and you. This is exactly what we do. But we don't just do it to any old dad. We do it to our Father, who is the Creator of the universe.

In this story, Jesus paints a picture of the human condition of sin. And this is precisely the absurdity. Sin. It is absurd because we take the Father's good gifts and choose them instead of him. We cut ourselves off from the source of our life.

We dishonour the one who is worthy of all our honour. We take the money and run, so to speak. And sooner or later we find ourselves at rock bottom. The great absurdity of sin is that we seek for what we already have and lose it all in the process. God freely gives to us the wonders of human marriage and sex, and yet we selfishly chase our own satisfaction and find ourselves in a rock bottom of sexual immorality.

Or God freely gives us life and breath and everything, but we greedily chase more and more and we find ourselves in a rock bottom where nothing satisfies.

The absurdity of sin is that we seek for what we Already have and lose it all in the process.

And some rock bottoms are more dramatic than others. And some sinners haven't got there yet.

But one day they will. They're still recklessly spending the father's money, but one day the cash will dry up, the cheque will bounce, the famine will come rock bottom.

But it's not just hunger and famine for the younger son. Here again his regret. In verse 17, 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. What the son realizes is just how absurd his situation is.

It's not that he's starving. It's that he walked away from his father's table for what? For this? He traded security for strife, family for famine. A loving father for a filthy, harsh place with no one to love him, not even a pig.

Worst of all, he severed the one relationship that could ever get him out of this mess.

Brothers and sisters, you may have been at rock bottom in your life. You may not have been yet in God's kindness, he may have always held onto you as father. As I wrote this sermon, I stopped and prayed that if you're ever in that place, that you'd respond like this younger son does. Because the son comes to his senses. And in verse 18, he rehearses his speech to his father.

He says, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm not even worthy to be called your son. He owns what he's done, and he goes back to his father with his tail between his legs. We're at point two, the absurdity of grace. And at this point in the story, I imagine the Pharisees kind of leaning in, and I think they're probably wondering just how hard the father is going to slap his son.

Oh, great. He's finally come to his senses and can go home to get the punishment that he deserves for dishonoring his father so much.

It would be sheer mercy if this father did anything other than send his son straight back where he came from.

Verse 20.

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, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him.

What needs to jump off that page at you is the father's heart towards his lost son. He's filled with compassion. He hasn't forgotten his son like the son forgot him. He's not angry. No.

He's been waiting. And there's no glimmer of doubt in his eye. Did you see any hesitation in that verse? None. And what you need to picture is a.

Is an old man with a beard and long robes. Long robes, because that's what kind of fathers of a household would have been wearing. And what has he got to do? He's got to kind of hike up his robes so that he can run to greet his son, so that he can close the distance between his son. The distance that began in the son's heart, the distance that was made physical, the distance that is no more.

Because the son starts his sorry speech in verse 21, but before he can really finish verse 22, the Father says to the servants, quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. The ring, the robe, the sandals. What they show us is that the Father is restoring his son to a position of significance in the household. The son, remember, he just wanted to be a servant again.

But it's like the Father is saying to him, no, no, no, you always were my son and you always will be. And now there's cause for celebration. I don't know if you do this, but some people will have a special bottle of wine or a special bottle of champagne kind of set aside on their shelf for that special moment in life. And it never really feels like any moment is quite significant enough to pull it off. You go, oh, we had a kid and we didn't pull it off.

What are we going to do? When is there going to be a better time to open this bottle of wine? Well, killing the fattened calf was a symbol of celebrating a significant moment. And why does the Father kill the fattened calf at this moment? Verse 24.

Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. And I want you to imagine the Pharisees listening to this part of the story. And Jesus is saying, this is who God is.

He's not coldly distant. He's running, kissing, hugging, restoring, celebrating anyone who turns back to him. Grace is the Father's heart, and there's nothing reluctant about it.

I think the absurd thing this parable teaches us about God's grace is you're never too far gone for God to welcome you back.

And if you're sitting here this morning feeling distant from God, perhaps you're feeling weighed down by a particular sin, conscious of your distance. Well, then you need to know the compassionate Father, the Father who runs, who hugs, who kisses, who clothes.

He waits for Your return patiently and longingly, not at a distance with his arms crossed, but at the gate, looking at the horizon.

But why is Jesus telling us this story? We're at point three, and we've spoken about the Pharisees, how they were complaining about sinners coming to Jesus. And that's why Jesus is telling this story. Because here we come to the third character in the story. And in verse 25, we learn that there's an older brother, and he's been in the field working, and he finds a servant and asks him what's going on?

Why is there music and dancing? And why can I smell a roast? And the servant tells him what's happened. And the older brother responds. In verse 28, he became angry and didn't want to go in, so his father came out and pleaded with him.

The older brother's angry. He's angry at his father, and he's angry at his brother. First, let's look at him being angry at his father. Verse 29. Look, I've been slaving many years for you.

I've never disobeyed your orders. But you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.

You can hear his tone, can't you? And I think if you're an older sibling, perhaps you know this tone. This isn't fair.

But listen closely to what he's saying, though. He says, you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.

What does that tell you about the older brother?

Well, it tells you that he's believed that. That he has earned his father's favor. It also tells you he thinks he has his father's favor, not so he can enjoy a relationship with his father, but so that he can celebrate with his friends.

This brother might not have been off in a far country, but his heart is just as distant from. From the father's heart. He's angry at the father, but he's also angry at his brother. Verse 30.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him. Four words in this verse, I think, tell you all you need to know. This son of yours.

Not my brother. Not my brother who was lost, not my young. No. This son of yours. Look at what your son did.

And now you've slaughtered the fattened calf for him. That's absurd. Don't you know what he did to you, this son of yours?

Did you notice the tenderness in the father's response in verse 31?

Son, he said to him, you're always with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

And that's it. The story ends. It's a little bit abrupt, isn't it? We never hear what the sons do next. Does the younger brother keep living in his father's household?

Does he change his ways to honor his father? Does the older brother come in from the cold and give up his resentment? It's an unfinished story. And Jesus is inviting the sinners and the Pharisees alike to think about what's next. He's also inviting us to do the same.

What the Pharisees have to see is that they're like the older son. And what they're doing is absurd precisely because they are just as lost as the sinners were.

They're lost because they're as far away from the Father's heart as they could be. Instead of compassionate, they're complaining.

And we also need to forget that we too were sorry. We need to never forget that we too were lost sinners welcomed home by a gracious Father. So, two points of application for us to close. One, don't look down on unlikely converts. Two, share the Father's heart for the lost.

One, don't look down on unlikely converts. I wonder who is the most unlikely Christian you can think of. It's different for all of us. Just pick the sin you think makes you least likely to come to Jesus. Maybe it's the drug addict or the prostitute or the racist bigot or the trans activist.

Yep. Or maybe. Maybe it's just the family member who has calmly and persistently avoided all of your attempts to share Jesus with them. Whoever is least likely, we need to see them as lost children of a gracious Father. And if in God's kindness, they they walked in those doors, we need to know that just like us, they don't leave those sins behind overnight.

Sometimes sharing the Father's heart means bearing in love with serious struggles in the lives of new believers. But how do you rejoice like the Father through all of that?

It's because we know that we were just as lost when the Father welcomed us home. The easiest way not to look down on unlikely converts is to remember how unlikely it was for us to come home.

That's one, don't look down on unlikely converts. Two, share the Father's heart for the lost. I'll never forget the first ever staff conference I went on with a church. We went away together. And we sat down and we were talking about what percentage of people in our area were actually coming to church.

And I'll never forget that our senior minister, who was a very friendly guy, but, you know, not very emotional, he just started to weep. He sat there and wept because of how few people in our area came to our church.

That's what it looks like to share the Father's heart for the lost.

It won't look the same all the time. Sometimes we'll weep, sometimes we'll pray. Sometimes we'll persist in praying even after decades.

Sometimes we'll invite, knowing they'll reject.

But always we will grieve like the Father for his lost son.

Always we will rejoice when lost children come home.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we want our hearts to be like yours. Please give us your heart for your lost children. Help us to grieve that they're lost, not despise them. And help us to rejoice when they come home. And we thank you so much that you have welcomed us home by your son Jesus, in his name, Amen.