Luke's Gospel

Jesus continued. There was a man who had 2 sons. The younger 1 said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the youngest son got together all he had set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything, There was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. But no 1 gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death.

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him. Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven, and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the elder son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called 1 of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come.

He replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father. Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home. You killed a fattened calf for him. My son, the father said. You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Okay. Well, good evening, everybody. Good evening.

And welcome from me. My name is Ben. I'm a member here at Cornerstone Chech. And it's it's great to have you, for visiting. For your regulars, it's good to see you guys again.

We're carrying on in our series looking through Luke. We got to chapter 15, 1 year into it. Who knows, maybe we'll be in it for another year. But it's been great, so far, hasn't it? It's been amazing just to see these stories in more detail, learn more about what Jesus has done for us.

Let me pray, just, quickly before we jump into A father in heaven, we we know you are a speaking god, and we know that you have many things to tell us. So please, would you speak to us by your spirit through this passage tonight, help us to see, the lord Jesus and see you the father better, more clearly in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay. So this this is 1 of the most famous parables I think that Jesus taught, isn't it? It's probably up there with actually 1 of the most famous stories in the Bible, I would say, You've got Noah's Arc, Jonah in the whale, David and Goliath, these things that a lot of people know.

And then the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son, and a lot of people have come across it, actually, whether it's whether it's in Sunday school, when they were younger, or even whether they were at school, Maybe they studied it in RE or they looked at it in an assembly. We do a football on Saturday mornings with some guys, local guys, and the Fairfield here in Kingston, and I was doing, 1 of the talk slots recently. I mentioned that I was preach on this. And 1 of the guys said, Oh, yeah. I played that part in school in the school play.

I'm like, which part was that? He was like, oh, the lost son. And he was like, I'm still playing in hell, to be honest. And I was like, well, I was like, mate, at least you are honest about that. And I was like, please come along.

Yeah, so it's it's kind of a famous story, isn't it? And a lot of attention is normally given to the younger son. The 1 I think we can wrap our heads around the most is this young guy. He's gone way off the rails. He's messed up completely, and then he comes back and the father receives him.

And it's a lovely little story if you draw a circle around that and look at that. But the oldest son stumps a lot of people, isn't he? Recently, I was, with Kerry's grandmother, in fact, last weekend, we went to visit her. And she's not a Christian, but I told her that I was preaching on this this week. And she kind of smiled at me and said, Oh, yeah, I know that story.

I know that that parable. I was always a little upset for the older brother. She said. She said, I always felt sorry for him. And I actually remember looking at this story when I was younger, even though I was brought up as a Christian, I remember looking at the story and genuinely feeling the disappointment of the older brother.

I really felt the weight of his outcry. I was like, yeah. I kind of felt sorry for him. I felt sort of with him, and I actually thought the father's response was pretty weak. I just, I just couldn't see what Jesus was trying to say.

And, loved Jesus in the rest of scripture. I loved the other stories he told. I could understand them. I saw what he was saying. But I just couldn't understand what he was trying to say about the older brother.

I just didn't get it. And I wondered, is that just me or is that is there anyone else out there? I wonder if is that you as well? Have you kind of maybe silently gone, oh, yeah, the older brother, actually, his response is kind of how I would respond. And apparently, that's wrong.

Maybe that's wrong. I don't know. Or maybe you're just an out and out younger younger brother. Maybe you you're here tonight and you know that you've run away from god. You know that you've broken relationship with him, and actually you're happy if I spend more time talking about the older brother tonight.

If you're either of those things, then tonight, we're gonna see actually that both of these brothers, the younger brother and the older brother, they were both wrong about their father. They were both wrong, therefore, about god. So you might want nothing to do with god, like the younger brother, or you might just see him as a slave master, someone that you're serving out of duty like the older son. But Jesus is teaching here that actually we should see him as a father And when you see him as your father, that that changes everything. That changes everything.

So let's, get into it. A bit of a recap then before we jump into it properly. This chapter begins in verse 1 with now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. Tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus. Normally, people who preach the message in that time would be preaching a message that excluded sinners and tax collectors.

It drove them away. Get the pharisees there and their sort of self righteousness saying, Lord, thank you that I'm not like these people. So they would normally sort of be driven away. But here is Jesus and he is not driving people away. People are actually attracted to him.

He's calling people to him because he's preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Other preachers are preaching, judgment of sins, but he's preaching a forgiveness of sins, and sinners are flocking to him because this is good news. This is what they've been looking for. They're so thirsty for this particular news. But the pharisees are appalled by this teaching from Jesus and what's going on.

The pharisees entire life is dedicated to being righteous and clean. And they saw welcoming a sinner and eating with a sinner is a sure fire way to make yourself unclean. So why would you do that? Plus, it showed a flawed way of thinking. If you wanted to be clean and righteous, why would you even spend any time with these unrighteous people?

You're not gonna get anything good from them. They're they're useless. Why would you even wanna be around them? And eating in those days, I mean, eating is kind of quite an intimate thing nowadays. Sit across from people.

In those days, you would lie down, and it was a much kind of grander occasion. And it was it was really quite an intimate place to be eating with someone. So if you're eating with a sinner like Jesus was, then actually you're letting their filth infiltrate your body. So that's what they're thinking, and they're they're groaning and muttering to each other in verse 2. They say this man welcomes sinners, and he eats with them.

And then Jesus responds with 2, short parables. Firstly about a lost sheep. And a shepherd who leaves 99 other sheep just to go and find this 1 little sheep. All of the sheep are valuable to the shepherd. Jesus says.

And then he tells another parable about lost coin. And you think, well, what's what's value about about coin? But this old woman, she has 10 coins. She loses 1. She turns her house up upside down just to find this 1 coin.

She's got 9 other coins, but she wants to find this 1. And when she finds it, she has a party. To say I found my lost coin with her friends and her family and her neighbors, and they celebrate. And in both of those little stories Jesus hold, we see how happy the people were when they find their lost things. And Jesus is saying that is just a shadow of the joy that god has when a sinner is found and comes back to him in repentance.

And Tom said last week that that actually is the climax of those 2 little parables. It's not that the things were found, but it's the rejoicing in heaven afterwards. That's the the pinnacle, the glorious part of those 2 parables. There's a happy god So what the pharisees are looking down on his dirt, why are you eating and welcoming those people? What the pharisees are looking down on at dirt, god rejoices over in heaven.

You might think sinners are filthy and worthless varices. You might think that they're not worth welcoming or eating with, but actually They are the very ones that got their lights over in heaven when they come back to him. And so to rub it in a little bit more, Jesus tells this third parable, which we've just read tonight. And again, we see a sinner welcome back and received gladly, and there's a party. But actually, in this 1, he goes further.

He puts the pharisees in this story. And he's saying, yes, sinners have got god wrong. They're lost sinners. But actually you faracies, you've also got god wrong, and you're lost, you're equally lost in different ways you're equally lost, and you need to come back to the father as well. So we get into this parable then.

Look at verse 11. Jesus continued. There was a man who had 2 sons. The younger 1 said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them.

Now that introduction kind of sounds normal to our ears. Those of us who've been in church a long time, we know this story, so we're expecting that introduction. And actually for many people in today's world, it doesn't actually sound that alarming. That's the first time you've heard it, you're probably not like, what did he say? I was actually reading this with someone at a Christianity explored course a few months ago, And they interpreted this as a really positive introduction.

They were thinking, wow, look at the tenacity and entrepreneurship of this sun. He wants to go and make a name of himself. He doesn't wanna sponge off his father the rest of his life. It's a little bit like Donald Trump who talks about his father giving him a small loan of 1000000 dollars just to get started in the world. But that's actually looking at it from the wrong glasses, isn't it?

That's looking at it through today's glasses, where that sort of stuff happens more often. But we need to look at this through the lens of the people that Jesus was telling it to. And if we do that, then actually our jaws should hit the floor because it is a shocking, shocking, introduction. Firstly, jaw dropping to the people listening because this request was unheard of. People just did not do this.

It was scandalous to ask this question. It was disgusting actually. This is not a son going to the father to ask for a small loan to say father. I I don't wanna sponge a few. I wanna make you proud of me.

I want can I have some money? This is not that. This is a son coming to his father and asking for his inheritance now. And when do you normally get inheritance? When that person dies.

So the son is coming to him and saying, father, I can't wait for you to die. In fact, I wish you were dead already. Give me my inheritance now. Doesn't want his father at all. He he only wants what his father can give him.

And in Jewish families, more so than nowadays, the father was the true patriarch of the whole family. Was the 1 that looked after and provided for the whole family, took care of them, all of that kind of stuff. So actually, going to the father and woman him dead, meant he didn't really care about the rest of the family either. He's an enemy to this family that he's in. So asking for his inheritance to is as good as cold blooded murder to the original listeners, jaws would have dropped, listening to that.

But it's also jaw dropping because of the next thing that happens. Which is that the father lets him have it. He just he doesn't there's there's no kind of there's not he doesn't skip a beat immediately after being asked, it says, so he divided his property between them. And everything that I've read and listened to in preparation for this says that's not what should have happened. That's not what the people would have expected to hear.

What should have happened was the father would have beaten that son out of the family home for asking such a question. Now, those nature documentaries where you see a young hungry male gorilla, and there's like an old silverback gorilla, and the young gorilla comes up and he was going, yeah, I wanna, I want all these ladies. Yeah. So he goes up to the to the big silverback and the silverback just beats in black and blue, doesn't he? And the young 1 has to kind of scurry away back to his whatever his jungle.

And that is what should have happened here. That's what the crowd were expecting. Or as soon as as soon as as soon as the young son asked that, they would think of all gonna be a good show, isn't it? It's gonna get beaten up. But the father doesn't do that.

The father splits his property. There's not even a single question, like, oh, what are you gonna spend it on? Well, why do you wanna do that? There's nothing there. He just he just gives the youngest son his share.

And it's amazing because it's not just like going to a cash point, taking out a word of money and saying, there you go, son, off you go on your bike. This is he had to split his property. In those days, the oldest son would have got 2 thirds of the inheritance. The youngest son got 1 third of the estate. So this is a huge chunk of this man's life and his property and his income.

1 third of it, that he's got to sell off to give this son money. This is just the first paragraph of this parable, and 2 things have happened where our jaws should have hit the the floor. And we're left wondering, like, why on earth did the father not beat him black and blue? Why on earth did he not even say anything? What's going on there?

Why does he just let the son have it? This is so shocking that clearly Jesus is trying to paint a picture of something here. And the picture that he's painting is of a son who was already left left. And the father could see it in his in his eyes when he was asking him. The son's already lost his mind.

He's not left the the family home physically. He's still there. But he's checked out in his heart and his mind. And the father knows that the only way for this son to come back is for him to come back to his senses. He's not gonna come back, now just speaking to him.

He's gotta go away and figure this out. And so this is an important lesson for us today. The youngest son didn't become a sinner when he spent all his money on wild living. You see that in verse 13. Which is what he did with the money.

Not long after that. The youngest son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth and wild living. It wasn't the prostitutes, it wasn't the wild parties, the orgies, it wasn't the drunkenness and drugs that he squandered his money on that made him a sinner. He became a sinner the moment his father ceased to be his father in his heart, and he wanted him dead. The moment he decided actually that freedom and happiness, and and the life that I'm gonna enjoy most is outside of the family home.

That was the moment that he became a sinner. Actually, actually my father is keeping me in shackles here. What? He's chaining me. What is he doing?

That was the moment. And you can just see him, can't you this younger son? He's pacing around his bedroom. He's watching his older brother out in the field, working his fingers down to his bone, and he's I don't wanna have to work that hard to get my inheritance. I'm gonna be old by the time that I get my inheritance.

I deserve to enjoy it while I'm young. I want, why why should I have to wait? Why should I have to wait? Why is my father preventing me from enjoying my life going to the city? He's keeping me in chains here.

I wish he was dead. And he's going round and round in his room, becoming more and more sure of himself angry and angry at his father until suddenly he finds himself in front of his father and he's saying, give me my inheritance now. He wants what the father can give him. He doesn't want the father at all. And so the father sees us in his eyes, and he says, he's already gone.

He's bought into this lie. He's lost his mind, so he lets him go. So do you see that before the sun violates any law in sort of wild living. He violates his relationship with his father. That's the order of things.

Before a single law is technically broken, he's broken away from the father. The son's already left. And so the father knows he needs to come back to his senses because he's completely lost sense. The son has brought into this idea that life is out there, waiting to be discovered away from the father and the family home. He's been sold this poster image of what life could be like.

And for a while, he lives it. We see that in verse 13. He's got new friends. It's exciting. He's trying new things.

He's checking off every earthly pleasure that's out there that he's not tried before. But the problem is that he's not read the small print on the poster. It looks amazing, but there's a small print, and everything pays out in the end. And the wages of sin is death. They're not the wages of sin is not satisfaction, it's not happiness, it's not peace like he thought it's death.

And he's handed his paycheck pretty quickly as well. It's amazing. It takes 1 verse, doesn't it? He goes from being a rich young man to being in need in just 1 verse. Look at verse 14.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no 1 gave him anything. So this poster promised him plenty, but he's now in need, it says. This poster promised him freedom but actually now he's hired himself out to someone else.

He belongs to someone else. This poster promised him friends, but nobody gave him anything. This says the poster promised him pleasure and satisfaction, but now he's hanging out with pigs and longing to eat what they're eating. And let's remember that pigs are filthy animals to the Jews. This this is the lowest of the low place they could be.

It's bad enough being with them, but to want what they're eating. This is a colossal fall that this younger son has had. He's gone from rich young man live in his dream to rock bottom in just 1 verse. But it's it's here in this low pigsty, the lowest place imaginable that the sun realizes his mistake. Take a look around him, and as he does and realizes what he's done, where he is, the lies of the poster kind of fade away.

And as they do, he comes back into his right mind. And in verse 17, it says, when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. As he comes to his senses, the madness disappears, And he remembers that, actually, instead of being the monster he convinced himself his father was, he's generous. He is loving. He is abundantly generous.

Even his servants have enough to spare, How much more as his son did he have to spare when he was with him? He was so wrong about his father. How could he have let himself go in circles round and round, believing those things he did about his father? He thought he was evil. He thought his father didn't want him to go and enjoy himself.

He thought his father was stingy, not giving him anything, but now he realizes. He and he realizes that his sin was breaking from the father, and now he wants to go back to the father. And so in verse 18, he resolves this to himself. He says, I will set out, and I will go back to my father and say to him, father. I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father. And now at this point, after getting over the initial shock of the opening scene, and the kind of scandalous question in the father letting him go, the pharisees listening would be suddenly their interest would have been perked. They'd be smacking their lips at this point in the story because Jesus has just described to them the perfect sinner.

Yeah. You couldn't get worse than this guy. Yeah. Here is a guy who has rejected their family, desecrated their body with prostitutes and drugs. And to top it all off, he's now covered in the filth of pigs which are filthy animals anyway.

Jesus was going off from 1 earlier about coins and sheep, but now he's talking some sense. Yeah. This guy would have stank. He would have looked hideous, and his outside, was just a reflection of his inside. They would have been rubbing their hands together oh, now this son is going back to the father.

Yeah? Maybe the father was just waiting to beat him up. Yeah? Waiting for him to realize his mistake come back, Gravon, then hit him, black and blue. Maybe that's, you know, that's what they were hoping was gonna happen to him.

But before this son even gets close to the family home, Jesus interrupts the pharisees thoughts with verse 20. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and he was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son through his arms around him and kissed him. And this the series of events that happen here have to paint 1 of the most beautiful pictures of god in in the whole bible. The father was looking out for the son.

He was longing that he would come home. He saw him when he was a long way off. He was looking out for him. And when he saw him, covered in pig filth, stinking. He's not filled with rage about how he squandered his life's work, but he's filled with compassion.

He doesn't even send a delegation to go and tidy him up. He goes, oh, yeah, my son looks pretty disgusting. Please could you go and sort him out and then I can, you know, meet with him. He doesn't do that. He runs personally towards him himself.

And as he gets closer, and the stench of his son gets fowler, and he sees in more detail the particular dirt and and disgustingness that's on him. He's not deterred. He doesn't slow down and, then start running in a different direction. It says that he when he reaches him, he throws his arms around him. You actually get the sense that his father's speeding up as he's getting closer to him.

It's amazing. You would think he would he would be like, oh, you you stink, but he doesn't. He grabs him. Probably rugby tackles him. I'm thinking in my mind.

And then he does something unimaginable. He kisses him. He's covered in the filth of pigs and his father kisses him. In verse 21, the son said to him, Father. I have sinned against heaven and against you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

So the son knows that his sin was against the father. He doesn't come to the father and say, a list of specific sins that he's done. He doesn't come to me and say father. I have wasted your money with, prostitutes. I've wasted my body with drugs.

He comes to him and just says I have sinned against you. I've broken covenant and relationship with you. He understands actually that sin at its base is lawlessness, which is what we're looking at in won John in in the morning sermon series, isn't it? Sin is breaking away from the law giver, the father. His sin was primarily hating the father.

And then that spewed out into all the other stuff that he did. But before he's able to finish his little rehearsed line, remember he was in the pig guy, and he said, this is what I'm gonna say. He only gets halfway through it before he can finish it and say, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me 1 of your servants. The father quickly speaks over him.

And he reinstates his status as his son. And the best robe is brought out placed on his shoulders to cover his filth, the family ring is put back on his finger. He doesn't deserve it at all. We all know that. This is this is this is a horrible person what he's done, but he is his son, he is the father's son again.

With this embrace, with this kiss, with the robe and the ring. And it's such a lovely little detail that the son doesn't even get the chance to, offer this kind of alternative relationship with the father. It's almost as if the father knew what he was gonna say next. Like, I wanna be your no. I wanna what?

No. He doesn't even give him a breath in verse 22, but the father said to his servants quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, so they began to celebrate.

Can you imagine the feeling of being covered in in just pig filth before your Jewish father, bear in mind, having wanted him dead, having squandered his money, On the cusp of thinking the only way back to him is to work your little finger to the bone. And even then just to be 1 of his servants, and then having the best family robe placed on your shoulders. Yeah? This is the family robe that is in the cupboard in the living room. It never comes out for any occasion.

This is the special family robe. Maybe fathers warn it once or twice before, but it never comes out. And that's the robe that gets put on you. You're on your knees. You stink and it's draped over your shoulders.

Can you imagine the feeling after having thrown the family ring away? Say, I don't wanna be part of this family again. I hate you guys. I just wanna take what you've got and go, and then thinking you never get it back. But wanting it back so desperately, and then it just being presented to you freely.

Well, that is the grace and the love of god for sinners. For those who've broken with him and run away. That is a picture of the grace and love of god thought for us. And that's why Jesus Welcome is innate with them. So if you know you're a younger brother here tonight, if you just know, yeah, I'm a sinner, I am filthy.

I am utterly I just stink. If you know that you've broken away from the father, if you've thrown the family ring away, then actually, do you know that this is what Jesus wants for you? This little picture of the embrace, the kiss, the robe, and the ring. That is what Jesus wants for you. Don't believe the pharisees lie, they're preached their sermons where god wants nothing to do with you.

Lord, thank you that I am not like this sinner. Don't believe that. He wants to cover your sin with the best family robe. Which is the righteousness of Jesus, by the way. He wants to put the family ring back on your finger.

He wants you to be back in the family again. And look at what the son Sorry. What look what the father says about the son here in verse 24. He says for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

So this son of mine, the father says, he was dead. He was lost, but he was still mine. You can't lose something that doesn't belong to you. Can you? The shepherd and the woman, in the earlier parables who lost the sheep and lost the coin.

They wouldn't have celebrated they'd just found another coin or another sheep. I'm just gonna nick that 1 and replace my 1. The reason they celebrated was, oh, my coin. My coin. On my sheep.

And it's the same here. So if you're a sinner, then you you might well be dead in your sins. You might well be lost. That you once belonged to the father, this son of mine. So why don't you come back to him?

Whatever state that you're in whatever state that you've gotten yourself into doesn't change the fact that you're still his. And I hope you can see the reception that you get from him if you do come back to him. And so now we'll come onto the older sun. And what I wanna say about the older sun is is is is this. He looks like a saint And this is why we get confused by him, but he's got the father wrong too.

And this parable is incorrectly labeled. I've I've I've I've corrected it up there. It should be called the parable of the lost sons. Look at verse 25. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field.

When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called 1 of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come he replied. And your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. So in comparison, to the younger son, this older son looks perfect, doesn't he?

He he he never left the family home he still wears the family ring on his finger. He's not throwing that away. And he's working hard in the field to preserve the 2 thirds of what's left of the estate. So when he comes out all guns blazing now against the father, you can feel like it's justified. He says in verse 28, the older brother became angry and refused to go in.

So the his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father. Look. All these years, I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never even gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you killed a fat in car for him. It's like not only has he shamefully squandered 1 third of your wealth on prostitutes, but when he returns, you throw even more money at him.

You honor him with the fat and calf. It's easy to feel for him, isn't it? But this is the thing about the older brother, Do you see how he parallels the younger son? The younger son firstly wanted freedom from the father, And here, the older brother thinks he's a slave of the father. He says all these years I've been slaving for you.

That's how he saw his father as a slave driver. Someone he served simply because that's the way it was. Secondly, the younger son wanted what the father had and not the father himself, and here the oldest son complains about not being given a goat. He's with the father all the time, and a goat is the thing that he wants. Yeah?

A goat is better than being with the father in his opinion. Thirdly, the younger son despised his family, he abandoned them, and here the older son refuses to call his brother, his brother. He says, this son of yours. It kind of smears what the son's done on the father as well. It's pretty nasty.

And fourthly, most importantly, the younger son broke his relationship with the father And here, the oldest son demonstrates, actually, that he's got a broken relationship with the father as well. Look at how he addresses his father in in verse 29. But he answered his father. Look. Doesn't even say to him father.

These are the reasons why I'm upset. He just says, look. Let me tell you how things are. And in the end, the oldest son treats his father transaction. He all these years I've been slaving for you, never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

I put all this in and you never gave this stuff out. All I wanted was the stuff you could give me, and that's exactly what the young son, younger son wanted, isn't it? He just had a different tactic to get in the stuff in the end. The younger son unashamedly just demanded it. His tactic was just go to the father and demand it.

And the older son was working to get it instead. Neither of them wanted the father himself, only what the father had And the result of this broken relationship with the father, well, the younger son left the family home. And here in the end, the older son refuses to go in. To the family home. Look at verse 28.

The older brother became angry and he refused to go in. Both sons want to be on the outside and away from the father. Both sons thought that they knew better than the father, and both sons broke their relationship with him. So these are the parallels between the 2 sons. What's the difference between them?

Because the end of this parable, 1 of them is inside the family home, and the other 1 is is on the outside. So what's the application for us? What can we learn here from them? Well, the difference between these 2 sons is found in verse 17 and 18, where the younger son comes to his senses and remembers his father. Remember him pacing around in his room wishing his father was dead, hatching a plan to take the inheritance, and leave the family behind.

But in verse 17, he comes to his senses and he remembers the father and his generosity and his love and his progression. And he he he thinks, why did I want to steal from my father? Everything I ever wanted was already there. Why did I despise being with him? In that pigsty, he realized actually he would give anything to be with the father again.

And so when he comes to his senses, he calls him father 3 times. Verse 17, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I am, starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, father I have sinned against heaven and against you. And then when he does arrive and sees him again in verse 21, he looks up at him, he's ashamed, He's he's disgusting and he calls him father.

In contrast, when the oldest son sees in verse 29, he says, look. He refuses to call him father. And that is the only difference between the 2 brothers that counts in the end. The youngest son, even though he was far away, having broken every law that there is to break, disgusting and filthy and stinking. He knew the father.

In that pigsty. He remembered him. And the older son, even though he's close and obedient, doesn't know the father. He thinks he's a slave driver. And the parables, sorry, the pharisees listening to this parable, they thought that the ones in the family home at the end would be the ones that were spotless their whole life, who had been obedient their whole life.

Who hadn't broken a law their whole lives, but Jesus is saying no. No. No. No. No.

The ones who are in the family home are those who see god as father. And who come to him as their children, as his children. It's the father who covers you with the best family robe to cover your sin. It's the father who puts the family ring back on your finger. Those things can't be earned transactionally.

They can only be given compassionately by a father to those who come to him, to be closed, to be brought back into the family. So what about you then? Where are you in this story? Who are you in this story? Are you the youngest son?

Have do you know that you've run away from god? But perhaps you're just the youngest son in in certain aspects of your life, but not your whole life. You know that you're just chasing pleasures in this particular part of your life. And actually, maybe you think God's got something wrong. Actually, God, you're right about all this stuff, but this, no.

I know what I'm doing there. Maybe you've never even actually known that god is a father, is your father. Or is your first instinct, like the pharisees to think about how well you've behaved? I mean, look at you all here tonight. You're all at church.

You made it to the evening service no less. Yeah. Many of you guys are in church WhatsApp groups as well. Yeah? Surely, you're obedient and close to the father.

And Joe, a big giveaway, that we we're like the pharisees is that when we hear sermons, we think about other people, but how it applies to them, you know, well, sermon was amazing for this person. Yeah. I really hope that they download it and listen to it later. In fact, I might send a link to them so that they do. Whatever you are, whether you're a younger son and you know you are, or whether you're an older son and you know you are, or you're probably somewhere in between.

The only real question that matters is is how do you see god The younger son initially wanted nothing to do with him. The older son simply saw him as someone to obey. But do you know him as father? Do you think of him as your heavenly father? I know we're so busy in this we we run around from this thing to that thing.

We're serving here, and then, oh, we're late to this because we need to serve here as well. But when we're doing that, do we remember that we're serving our father? And we're not just doing stuff out of duty. Do you call godfather? Jesus taught us to pray our father in heaven.

So when you prayed, do you say father? Don't have to say it all the time. You can say, almighty god, you can say sovereign lord, but do you ever call god father? Roman's 8, says, Romans's 8 sorry. Romans chapter 8 verse 14 says this.

For those who are led by the spirit of god are the children of god. The spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again, rather the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him, we cry, Abba father. God is not our slave master, We are not his slaves. He's our father, not just father, formal, serious father, It's Abba father. Abba means daddy.

It's intimate. It's loving. It's tender. We're his children. And so finally, the last question is is how can we be with this father again?

If we've been the younger son and we have wished he was dead, or we've we've been the older son and thought of him as slave master, someone simply to do something for to get something out. How can we come back to him? If we come to our senses and say, I wanna be with my father, but I'm disgusting. Then how is it that we come back to him? Well, when the younger son, came to his senses and he wanted to be with his father, he thought he would have to work to make up for it.

He planned to say, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hired servants. But before he's able to say anything, the father puts the best robe on his shoulders, puts the family ring back on his finger. He thought he would have to work hard just for the right to be with his father again. And even then, it was as a hired servant, not as his son, you know, let alone wearing this family ring.

But Jesus is teaching us in this parable, the grace of god. Our status as his children is not down to what we've done to lose it. And it is not down to what we can do to earn it. It is given freely by the father to those who come to him. We don't have to make bargains with God.

Thank goodness for that. We don't have to go to God and say, look, if you'll have me back, then I will give this up, and I will do this you, and I will do that. No. Before we can say any of that, if we come back to him and the rings on our finger. The the robe, the righteousness of Jesus is is on our shoulders.

And we don't have to tidy ourselves up to even get to that point either. Did you notice? Yeah. The son came back to him in his pig filth. 1 of the things the father says is put shoes put sandals on his feet.

He was probably half dressed without any shoes on, disgusting. If he had waited to wash himself up first before he came back to god, he wouldn't have ever come. He'd never get to a point where he could wear a robe better than the 1 his father was gonna give him. You can't clothe yourself better than god can clothe you, so don't try and fix yourself before you come back to him. Come back to the father as you are and let him cover you.

I remember this is this story is in a a sequence of stories where lost things are found by their owner. And again, Jesus here is telling us that god is a god who pursues his children. While the younger son is still a long way off, the father runs out and throws his arm around him. And when the older son refuses to come in, the father again comes out and pleads with him to come in. And these are pictures Jesus is showing us of the fact that God is a god who seeks his children.

He wants to come and get us to bring us back into the family home. The beauty of this, if you have eyes to see this, is that the 1 who's telling this parable, the the very 1 who's saying these words, is the 1 who left the family home of heaven, to come down and to save us. This parable is about us, but it's also about Jesus and the cross. Jesus came to earth to die on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. So he left heaven to make a way for us to come back to the father to throw his arms around us, embrace us while we were still a long way off.

Even, those of us who think that we came to Jesus in a fairly good state, We're still a long way off when he when he found us. So don't run away from god like the younger son is what I wanna say. Don't run away from god, and don't see god like a slave driver. Like, you're just on set up tonight because that you're on the rotor. Don't see god like that.

Know him as father, like the younger son did here, as Jesus teaches us. And see from this parable how god is seeking you out. Yeah. He left the family home, and now he speaks through his words. So this very sermon is god trying to reach out to you to bring you back into the family home, to plead with you.

Please come back into the family home. You are still my son, you are still my daughter. Come back home. And whatever state that you're in now, you might go, you know what? I am disgusting.

I am filthy. And that is the very state that you can come back home to. Don't try and clothe yourself better than god. It's gonna clothe know him as father, know him as daddy, and resolve like the youngest son to go home, to go back to him. Let me pray.

Our father in heaven We thank you for this parable that the lord Jesus has told. We thank you for how it exposes us. Exposes our wrong understanding of who sinners are, who We are enough who you are. Thank you that you are our great father, and you delight in us when we come back to you. Please help us to know your love for us, that you sent the lord Jesus to the cross, that you plead with us to come into the family home, Please keep us from being like the older brother, stubborn, arms folded thinking that we know best and refusing to be with you.

Keep us from being like the younger brother thinking that life happens away from you. Help us to know you as father and come back to you. In whatever state that we're in. With actually the confidence that because of your grace, you will put the ring back on our finger. You will cover us with the best rope.

In Jesus' name, amen.