Word of Salvation – Vol.49 No.42 – November 2004

 

Amazing Love! The Prodigal Son

 

Sermon by Rev L De Vos

on Luke 15:11-20a

 

Scripture Reading: Luke 15

Suggested Hymns: RCNZ Psalter Hymnal: 71; 388; 272; 428; 138

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The parable of the prodigal son is one of the most endearing parables which Jesus ever spoke. People are so familiar with the story of the wayward son that if we asked them to name one parable, this would likely be the one! How about you? Do you know this story well? There is a serious danger in being too familiar with stories in Scripture – we can take what we read for granted and not expect to get anything more out of it.

You might assume today that this sermon is not going to tell you anything new! But if this is your attitude, then you have a low attitude of Christ. Can we ever understand all that we can possibly know about a portion of Scripture? Would any here dare think that we can plumb the depths of what our Saviour knows of His Father and our own hearts? No, if we stand humbly before Christ, eager to hear His voice afresh, there will be something new for us – no matter how often we have heard the Word before. So let us listen humbly as our chief Prophet would speak to our minds and hearts today!

Why does Christ speak this parable at this time? The reason is provided in the first verses of our chapter, Luke 15: ‘Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, ‘This Man receives sinners and eats with them’ ‘ (NKJV). The problem is with the Pharisees again!

They are murmuring that Jesus did not send tax collectors and sinners away when they drew near to hear Him. In fact, He received them and had fellowship with them! In response to the legalistic, self-righteous snobbery of the Pharisees, Jesus speaks three parables, this being the last one.

In this parable we are introduced to two sons: ‘Then He said: ‘A certain man had two sons’ ‘ (vs 11). The meaning is not too difficult to grasp. The prodigal son is a picture of all sinners who come to see their great need of Christ. The elder son shows us the attitude of the Pharisees. But the truth of this parable is most difficult to apply! The elder brother is a picture of all of us by nature until we come to see our urgent need for Christ! He thinks that he is perfectly okay as he is. Even at the end of the parable we notice that he just doesn’t get it!

This parable teaches us two foundational truths, without which we can never really understand the gospel or live in its true joy: 1) It teaches us that we must know the distance of our separation from God and the depth of our own sinful hearts! Or 2) we will never know the amazing love of the Father through Christ for sinners, for us! Only if we know the depth of sin, can we ever really believe and appreciate the height of redeeming grace!

Let’s now look more closely at the main thought of these verses. Our theme is Amazing Love! The Prodigal Son.

 

1. Enjoying Yourself

It is clear that the young son is not happy in his father’s house. He is so unhappy that he makes an unusual demand. Instead of waiting until his father is dead, he requests his share of the inheritance right away: ‘And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood’ (vs 12).

Notice that he does not ask for his inheritance respectfully, but demands his inheritance! But he says ‘father’, you say. Yes, he says ‘father’ only to be rid of his father! He is like a son who asks his father for the car keys in a nice voice only to be gone! He is a young man who is fed up with his father and with his father’s house.

This young fellow is making a declaration of spiritual independence. What he wants is to be free, not of his father’s tyranny, for there was none, but of his father’s testimony and example and holy life. He wants to find happiness outside of the boundaries of a covenant home and covenant God! He wants his own way rather than God’s way revealed in the law of God.

Do you think that you can be happy by placing your rights over and above God’s law? Is God’s law meant to shackle and to harm you? Does God really want to take away all of your pleasure and fun? This young man now collects his cash which was one third of his father’s estate, packs his bags and moves as far away as possible! Like moving from Melbourne to Perth or from Toronto to Vancouver, he wants as much distance as possible between himself and his father’s house!

Do you see a theological picture taking shape in this parable? Do you see Adam and Eve and all sinners discontented with their Father’s house and desiring freedom? Is it not true that all of us by nature want to be free from our loving, faithful God? That we all want to live as far away from God as possible?

Now in this far away country, life is just beginning! Like a young colt released from the corral for the first time, the prodigal experiences freedom like never before! Notice how the prodigal experiences his new freedom. He has money to burn and throws it away! ‘And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living’ (vs 13). The word to waste means to scatter and to do so extravagantly, recklessly, dissolutely, like someone showering confetti at a wedding. He quickly attracted new friends and bought his friends drinks. Like some young men trying to show off in university, there was plenty of cash to go around.

Is this young man not a picture of all of us here today? Who of us has not received wonderful gifts from God? We have minds to know Him, hearts to love Him and wills to obey Him. There is not a boy or girl here who does not have wonderful gifts from God! But what have we done with those gifts? We have thrown them all away! Our Heidelberg Catechism says that Adam and Eve have squandered those gifts! And the truth is that all of us have squandered our gifts by nature when we fell in Adam’s Fall.

As a result of our Fall into sin, we are not satisfied with the fellowship of our heavenly Father. We have declared spiritual independence from Him. Like a young man or woman who moves across Australia to get away from their parents, we have moved as far from God as possible. And we have thrown away our gifts to the wind. This is the experience of every sinner.

Do these words describe you? No I’m not suggesting that you are or were a wild kid. As covenant children you are not expected to behave this way, and we are thankful that most of you don’t live like the prodigal! But do you see your fallen nature outside of Christ? That by picturing the prodigal, Jesus is also picturing your heart and my heart and every sinner’s heart?

2. Coming To Yourself

A time came in the prodigal’s life when all the money was gone. And then his friends and pleasure were gone, too. ‘But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want’ (vs 14). Notice from our text here that in the providence of God a famine strikes this area so that a serious recession sets into the economy. The Bible tells us that the party was over for the prodigal son – he now began to be in want! Desperate to get by, the prodigal takes on a job utterly abhorrent to a young man raised in the covenant – he looks after pigs. ‘Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine’ (vs 15).

Have you ever fed pigs or seen pigs eating? Someone from a farm will tell you that pigs eat almost anything! And when hungry pigs are eating they fight for food and snap at one another. The pigs in our parable ate pods from the carob tree, which look like large broad beans. But what about the prodigal? What does he get to eat? ‘And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything’ (vs 16). Totally famished, the prodigal would gladly have tried to grab some food from these creatures. Proverbs tells us that the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. How true here, for the owner of the pigs treats the pigs better than the prodigal.

Now the Bible uses a most interesting clause to describe the prodigal. It says, ‘when he came to himself.’ This means that the prodigal wakes up and comes to his right mind. He re-gained his sanity. Implied here is that a life of sowing wild oats, a life apart from God is irrational! Sin is irrational! Think about this for a moment. A man ruins his family for a brief sexual encounter that brings no lasting happiness at all! During his entire time of rebellion, the prodigal was beside himself. Here we have come to a turning point in the life of the prodigal. Now under the afflicting hand of God, he comes to himself.

Now in his right frame of mind, he begins to feel utterly forsaken so far away from home. ‘But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!’ ‘ (vs 17). In his right mind, he begins to think and to dream of home, of his father’s house! There is food enough at father’s table even for servants. But here I am starving to death! I am perishing with hunger while pigs are being fed. What hopeful prospects do I have in this far county?

Instead of the plenty in his father’s house, the prodigal has poverty. Instead of freedom in his father’s house, he is now in servitude. In place of honour of a son, he now has degradation and shame. Oh, how good his father’s house looks now. Why did he ever leave it? If he could only go back!

But someone might ask or think, is there not pleasure and satisfaction in sin? Does not sin pay some rich dividends? To be sure, there is satisfaction in sinning, but the prodigal realised that there was no ultimate satisfaction from this lifestyle. It was empty and the wages of sin began to pay him death. Have you ever come to the realisation that to live apart from God is death? Or do you secretly imagine that a loose life, a life apart from God would be fun? When the Bible tells us that the prodigal came to himself, he is a most fortunate, young man. Why fortunate, you ask? Because not everyone in this far away land ever knows that he is in want and need, that he is dying! Our world is filled with many people wallowing in pleasure and wealth, who have not begun to feel their spiritual emptiness. The majority die without ever having known their spiritual poverty and their desperate condition apart from God! O, what a fortunate man is the prodigal! Having come to his right mind, he reminisces about his father’s house and thinks fondly of his privileges there when he was a son. What a fortunate person, for this self-realisation is an act of God’s mercy. Not one of us will ever look back to our Father’s house by our own act of self-will. Only the Holy Spirit can regenerate, convert and bring us back to our senses.

3. Coming To The Father

Having come into his right mind, the prodigal begins to see just how great his sin and misery are! ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants’ ‘ (vss 18-19).

Notice that he is convicted of his sin against God! The phrase ‘against heaven’ shows us the real essence and guilt of sin, for heaven includes God and all that is perfectly holy. Many people come to see that their lives are empty. They begin to reform their lives, perhaps they stop living wildly. They join Alcohol Anonymous or a local health club. But they never understand that sin is against a holy God. Many people have a vague sense of sin in that all men have flaws and do some wrong things, but never come to feel themselves condemned before a righteous God.

But the prodigal experiences the greatness of his sin and misery! He openly confesses his sin to God, without hiding a thing: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.’ He confesses his utter unworthiness before a holy God: ‘I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

Have you ever come to see your own spiritual bankruptcy? Do you truly believe that you are unworthy of God’s love but deserve His wrath and displeasure? When we become aware of our own sin and sinful nature then, like the prodigal, we experience humility. We give up every claim of our own righteousness, every hope of being received by the Father because of something good in ourselves: ‘I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ And we wear this humility all through our new life in Christ, too! Humility must characterise us from the beginning to the end of our Christian lives. Is yours a superficial confession of sin, or a heartfelt confession that you are unworthy of God’s grace, and that you deserve hell?

The penitent prodigal does experience the depths of sin and misery, but does not just look at himself. He looks toward home with a longing heart. He wants to return to his father. Fed up with his life that has led to utter poverty of body and soul, the prodigal resolves that he will go home! ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants’ (18-19).

True repentance is a turning from sin and a turning to God. No, not just to God but to my Father. True faith awakens us to the fact that my Father is always there and willing to take me back as His own son. At first the prodigal does not have a great deal of confidence in how his father will receive him. But he does have some hope, some trust that he can go to his father. Perhaps your confidence is wavering too!

But the call of the gospel is that you can go back home, to your Father. What is behind all this? How did the prodigal ever come to this resolution that he would go back? Behind this wonderful story of repentance is the electing, regenerating, and unchanging love of God! We have not really understood what Jesus is teaching us in this parable unless we understand that we are no different than the prodigal. No, we have not all lived wild, lawless lives. But we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We also do not understand this parable unless we understand that no matter how lost we have become, no matter how far we have wandered from God, the Father is calling us to come back home. His love for sinners is far greater than our love for Him. He is delighted when His erring sons and daughters are awakened, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and come home.

Conclusion: Do you know the greatness of your sin and misery? I urge you to continue to hope in God! His love of sinners is so great that He has turned back none who comes to Him.

Amen.