A new creation, no more in condemnation.
Here in the grace of God I stand.
My heart is overflowing, my love just keeps
on growing.
Here in the grace of God I stand.
And I will praise you, Lord, yes, I
will praise you, Lord.
And I will sing of all that you
have done.
A joy that knows no limits.
A lightness in my spirit.
Here in the grace of God I stand.
And I will praise
you, Lord, yes, I
will praise you, Lord.
And I will sing of all that you
have done.
A joy that knows no limits.
A lightness in my spirit.
And I will praise you, Lord, yes, I
will praise you, Lord.
A joy that knows no limits.
A lightness in my spirit.
And I will sing of all that you
have done.
A joy that knows no limits.
And I will sing of all that you
have done.
A joy that knows no limits.
And I will sing of all that you
have done.
A joy that knows no limits.
And you recall how the son goes off
into a far country having insulted his father
by asking him for his inheritance before father
died.
He finds himself in very, very bad circumstances
after a while and determines to come back
to father.
Verse 17.
When he came to his senses he said,
How many of my father's hired men 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 one of your hired men.
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 through 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 oldest son was in the field.
When he came near the house, he heard
music and dancing.
So he called one of the servants and
asked him what was going on.
Your brother has come, he replied, and your
father has killed a 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
kill the 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.
Why did Jesus tell the story?
Well, you've already had an intimation of the
answer.
There were those who muttered against the Savior.
Socially, he had committed the sin of relating
to folk who normally the rabbis would not
allow their shadow to fall upon them.
He welcomes sinners and eats with them.
And then the Lord needed to tell this
story because he had to indicate to everyone,
including ourselves, the reason why he came on
earth as God, the Father's representative.
There are other things that I reminded you
of that we need to keep in our
memories very much at the forefront of our
thinking, actually, as we take in the last
part of our Savior's teaching.
And it is that this lovely parable is
not to be thought of privately as a
piece of conversation between Father and Son and
ultimately the older son.
Rather, it's set in the context of a
Semitic, an Arab, a Jewish village when everyone
would know what was going on.
Now, that's not something that's restricted just to
villages.
Some of the streets in Worthing are such
that it seems as though everybody knows what
is happening.
But in a village context, it's particularly the
case.
So we're to think of this in the
backdrop that Scripture gives of a village.
And then we must always bear in mind
in reading this story that there were two
sons.
You see, it's inaccurate to say it's the
parable of the prodigal son, singular.
It is the parable of the prodigal sons.
And the distinction between the two sons is
this that the one ultimately has his prodigality
resolved.
He's no longer away from Father.
But the older boy, alas, that's not the
end of the tale.
Indeed, there is no end to the tale.
Not as Jesus narrated it, as I'll show
you in a moment or two.
But there is no obvious reconciliation.
So here is the younger son.
He's been off in the far country.
His livelihood has been taken away.
In fact, he had no livelihood.
He was really just using the money that
he'd taken from his father.
But now he's exhausted the supplies.
There's a famine and he is at his
wit's end.
There occurs what someone has called, I told
you last week, a fall within the fall.
He fell from his father's trust and confidence
when he said, Give me the money that
should be due to me when you die.
In other words, behave as you're dead and
let me have a lot now.
That was a terrible fall.
But for this lad, there was a fall
within the fall.
He spent the money he's in need and
he's a Jew.
He can't go back to the village for
reasons that I gave you last week.
And so immediately he determines to do something
about it.
And he glues himself to, if you please,
someone who seems as though they can help
him.
Verse 15, he went and hired himself.
He clung to a citizen of that country
who was not going to help.
A Jew boy gone bad, not at all.
There is something hostile, it seems to me,
as I sense the very verses of Scripture
as it comes to this point.
He sends the Jewish lad who was once
a rich boy into the field to feed
pigs.
And Jews have no dealings with pigs.
Jews look upon pigs as being unclean.
And this lad is so desperate that he
accepts the employment, but he's still terribly hungry.
He comes to the end of his resources.
Someone has said, there is no extent of
departure from Father which precludes return.
Did you hear that?
You see, our Lord couldn't have set up
a more horrific picture of someone being dislocated
from Father than He has with this Jewish
lad amongst the pigs.
And you get that story, my friends, so
that you and I, who perhaps feel that
we are so removed from spiritual things, God
Almighty can have no dealings with us.
There is no extent of departure from Father
which precludes return.
And so the lad comes to his senses.
And he decides that he will go back
to his father's house despite the problems that
he might meet en route as far as
the village youths are concerned and as far
as the older son, his brother, is concerned.
Now I say that Trench is going too
far when he says that when a man
comes to his senses, he in effect comes
to God.
I don't believe that.
I think that that is a stepping stone
along the road.
But there is more ground to be covered
before you return to God.
He came to his senses and he decides
to go back home.
But he's not going back home in an
attitude that Father can receive him in terms
of a son.
He's got it worked out.
Make me as one of your hired servants.
Don't have me any longer in your household
as your son, but as a hired servant.
Let me be able to earn my living.
It's still an approach of works with the
possibility that one day perhaps he can redress
the situation and repay the money that he
squandered.
But you see, you can never come to
Father like that.
This is the problem with the sects.
S-E-C-T-S.
In these days, the Mormons, the J-Ws,
I don't care who you quote, all the
sects will tell you this.
You earn Father's love.
You do not.
It is impossible to earn Father's love.
It is too pricely.
It is too costly.
The only way that Father can show his
love to you is as a result of
Father's own benevolent and kindly nature.
So the lad goes back towards his home.
When the terrain gets familiar, instead of being
met with the hostility of the youth of
the village, who in some ways will have
been related to him, and remember he's let
the village, this family village down, instead of
having to cope with them, the first person
who sees him and comes towards him, you
recall, is Father.
So he got up and went to his
father, but while he was still a long
way off, verse 20, his father saw him.
Do you sometimes find that scripture choruses are
not really fitting to your measure of spiritual
ability and intellect?
You know, there is a possibility to have
an approach to choruses like this.
We want the good, doer, 17th, 18th century
stuff, but these choruses, you know, we're a
little beyond that.
I tell you that some of these scripture
choruses have a way of wooing the soul
and telling you what Father is like because
they express it so simply that in some
senses they can be more helpful to you
than the 17th and 18th century hymns.
Draw near to me, and I will draw
near to you.
Move towards Father, and you'll discover, as one
African I knew used to express it wrongly
in the grammatical sense, but right in the
theological sense, God is always previous.
He's always there first.
Father is always waiting.
This is what the lad discovers, is it
not?
His father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him.
If you have a relationship with someone whom
you love, the possibility is that occasionally they
will upset you.
One of the dangers of loving someone is
that because you have such an affection for
them, it can be costly in your emotions,
not so?
It's the people who you love who will
hurt you most.
It's always the case.
The people who you don't love who behave
in a disgusting fashion, it doesn't emotionally upset
you.
Now here is Father, and he's been very,
very upset indeed by the way that his
son has behaved.
And he knows full well what sort of
reception is awaiting him amongst the villagers.
So Father, with compassion, I touched on this
last week, the word compassion, it really is
a sort of psychosomatic term.
Doctors, medical people will understand what I mean.
You see, it's not just an emotional thing,
it's not just something of the mind, it's
something of the body.
He feels in the depth of his soul.
Those of you who have been bereaved, you
will know something of that, the heartache.
Some of you who have been let down
by family, you will know something of that
compassion you still love despite the upset.
And here is Father who has known all
the shame of the way that his boy
has gone off home, the way that his
boy has treated him and brought the family
reputation down to gutter level.
Father nonetheless remains compassionate and runs towards his
boy.
Runs towards him in a way that a
man will not normally run, not in the
Middle East.
Over thirty, I said, a man does not
generally run, it's against his dignity.
With compassion he runs to his boy before
the boy has said anything.
I mean, this is the thing that strikes
me in the account.
The boy hasn't got to the business of
his apology.
Father has read his heart.
He flings his arms around him as Joseph
flung his arms around Benjamin.
And he embraces him and kisses him like
a man in the East will kiss another
man, even though it's foreign to our culture
here in the West.
And then the boy gets going, doesn't he?
With his prepared speech, Father, I've sinned against
heaven and against you and I'm no longer
worthy to be called your son.
And at that point he stops.
Why does he stop?
Because Father butts in or does the boy
begin to understand?
Is this the process of his reconciliation?
That the prepared speech, the second part about
being as one of your highest servants, it
no longer opines.
He now knows what he's done to Father.
He sees it in Father's face.
The very rushing of Father down the village
street, risking the hostility, well not the hostility,
but risking the ridicule of the village youths.
He begins to appreciate what he has brought
his Father to, so no longer will he
trade in terms of what he might do
for Father, but rather bask in the mercy
that Father offers him.
I'm no longer worthy to be called your
son.
That's the moment of truth.
No longer worthy.
Do you really believe that, my friend?
That you're not really worthy to be in
relationship with this Father God, but on the
basis of who He is, you are.
You see, if you followed my relatively subtle
reasoning there, you'll begin to appreciate even more
just how indebted you are to this great
God and Father who has no reason at
the human level to love you at all,
because there's nothing that you can do in
terms of winning His affection.
The Father says to his son, quick, bring
the best rope.
I love that.
Do you remember the story of Mordecai in
the Old Testament in the book of Esther?
And the story of Haman?
Haman feels that the king is going to
appoint him and make him the second in
command.
Do you remember?
A lovely story.
Do read the book of Esther.
It's fascinating.
And so the king puts up the question,
what shall we do to the man who
shall be second in command of my empire?
Well, says Haman, anticipating that it's going to
be him.
Get the best robe, the one which the
king wears, and give it to him.
Now that's very good thinking, Haman.
You go and get it and give it
to that Jew, Mordecai, because he's the one
who's going to have it.
I'd love to have had a camera at
that point, wouldn't you?
Bring the best robe for my lad who
still smells of the unclean pigs.
And incidentally, while you're about it, get the
ring.
How is Joseph known to be second in
the Egyptian empire?
Because the signet ring of Pharaoh is placed
on his finger.
Now the father is talking to people, obviously
so.
You see, the village context is not something
I've made up.
They're all looking at this scene.
He turns around, the servants are there, he
gives them the instructions.
They all know that father has received the
son.
And incidentally, while you're about it, that fattened
cow, the one that we have been feeding
on grain, because if you feed a cow
on grain, the best grain, you'll get the
best meat.
Let's slaughter him.
Everybody's going to be happy apart from the
cow.
Let's slaughter it and let's have a party.
Let's make sure that everyone in the village
knows that this lad has been reinstated.
Not on the basis of what he's done,
for there's nothing that he can do that
would make amends for the disgrace, but on
the basis of what I have gone through.
You see, father suffers for the son.
It's all there in the story if you
read it with spiritual eyes.
As God the father suffers for the sins
that you have committed, for God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
Don't you appreciate that, my friend?
And so, there's a party.
For the very true nature of joy is
that it runs over, longs to impart itself.
And if this is true of joy on
earth, how much more so is it true
of joy in heaven.
Listen to Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 17,
speaking of the consequences of God who is
mighty to save.
The Lord your God is with you.
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you.
He will quiet you with his love.
He will rejoice over you with singing.
The natural response to someone being converted, did
you know that?
Is really to hold a party.
To thank the Lord for the return of
the sinner.
You know, we people in the continent of
Europe are sometimes so lacking in our depth
of perception of the joy that there is
in heaven over the sinner that turns back,
that is converted.
You see, if you can rejoice because a
sheep's been found out of 99 that hadn't
gone astray, if you can rejoice because a
coin has been lost when 9 were still
safely tucked in the purse, how much more
should one rejoice when someone for whom Jesus
bled and died has been returned to Father's
house?
This is what our Lord is saying and
he's got his eye on his semi-hostile
congregation as he's teaching this.
So they began, the end of verse 24,
they began to celebrate because the son who
was dead is alive, the one who was
lost has been found.
But there were two boys, weren't there?
Two boys at the beginning of the tale.
And there were two boys who are still
involved at this point.
The older son who's not been away from
Father geographically, but you see, you can stick
close to Father geographically or ecclesiastically.
You see, my dear friend, you can come
to the tab every Sunday morning.
And if you're really enthusiastic and energetic, some
of you could even try it on a
Sunday night.
And that wouldn't make you near Father.
You see, you can be distanced from Father
even though you're in the presence of Father's
family.
If you have a defective understanding of Father's
heart and what sonship really is.
And now this was the problem with this
older boy.
In one sense, he's geographically as far away
from Father as the younger son was.
The older son, he is dancing.
He's been in the fields, hasn't he?
Verse 25, the older son was in the
field.
When he comes back to the house, there's
this noise of music and celebration.
In those days, it was the men who
danced.
And they would have a dancing party, a
dancing group who would be in this large
house of the fathers.
And as the older brother hears of this
celebration, he wonders what it's all about.
And so he calls one of the boys
in the village.
Again, remember the village scene?
Not everyone would have got into the elders'
house of the village.
The adults would be involved.
They would be there.
But the lads, what do they do?
Well, what do you do in a village?
I mean, even now, a village can be
a very, very stuffy place, can't it?
Especially at night.
So what do they do?
Well, they go to where the party is.
They're not invited, but you can look through
the window.
You can crane your head through any gap
that there happens to be or maybe the
door's ajar.
You see what's going on?
And you report down the ranks, down the
line, as to what is happening in the
house.
And so the son comes back from the
fields, and he takes one of these village
boys, and he calls him, and he asks
him what's going on.
So verse 27 gives the summary.
Your brother's come, he said.
Your father's killed a fattened calf because he
has him back safe and sound.
Now that's accurate as far as it goes,
isn't it?
I mean, he doesn't know with the sensitivity
of the father of the miracle that's happened.
Your brother's back is safe and sound.
Your brother, your brother, that one who was
lost, has been found.
That one who was dead is alive again.
Now that's how the word should have been
fleshed out as soon as the older brother
hears what this lad is saying.
But instead of being happy, he's angry.
Verse 28, the intelligence he's received from the
young man does not elate him whatsoever.
He's angry and refused to go in.
Why the intense anger?
Well, the younger brother has dishonored the family
name, hasn't he?
And here he is back in the house,
and they're throwing a party for him.
Has no one made amends in any way
for the insult that's been directed to father
and the family and village reputation?
And what's more, you see, when in a
household father throws a banquet in an Arab
or a Jewish context, who looks after the
servants and enables those who've been called to
the banquet ensures that they have sufficient to
eat?
Well, it's always the older son, you see.
He acts on behalf of father.
We are so glad to have you in
our company that the oldest boy will look
after the guests and supervise the servants and
ensure that the guest of honor particularly is
well supplied with food and is in no
way neglected.
Now you see the rub.
Who is the guest of honor?
It's none other than the younger son who's
the one who caused the family name to
be brought into disrepute.
It's him.
It's too much, too much to ask the
older boy to go into the house, so
he refuses.
Do you remember from the book of Esther,
going there again, how in the opening chapter
you come across one of the most remarkable
women in the Bible of whom very little
is written, but she has my admiration.
Vashti.
She was the wife, the first wife of
Ahasuerus, the king.
And on one occasion the king threw a
banquet, you remember, and the wine was flowing,
and he decided that he would exhibit the
beauty of this outstanding woman before his court.
And she refused.
Full marks to her.
And as a result of the refusal, the
king burns with anger.
You see, you don't refuse an invitation from
one who is over you, not in a
Middle Eastern context.
And here is the older son refusing an
invitation from his father.
So twice within this story, the father is
in difficulty as far as his boys are
concerned.
So what happens?
So his father went out and pleaded with
him.
Within possibly just a couple of hours, father
has gone out twice.
For his lads, not so.
He goes out for the younger boy, the
one who stinks of the pigs, embraces him,
and causes him to be reconciled not only
with himself, but the whole village.
Now he's got another problem.
You see, there's no dancing at the moment.
There's no music.
The authority of father is in question.
That is not allowable in this culture.
And it's a public debate that's going on.
In fact, it's not so much a debate.
It's just rank indifference to father's request.
And so all eyes at this time gazing
not inward at the banqueting hall, but from
the banqueting hall outward towards the older boy
and father who's gone out.
Will he silence him then and there?
Will he ignore him until the guests have
gone home and then arrange for him to
be beaten?
We're dealing with the most unusual father.
He won't follow through what would be anticipated
of him in this culture.
When the lad comes from the field, the
older boy, you remember he summons, he commands
a young lad to come to him and
give him the information as to what is
going on.
Now father can come alongside the boy and
summon him to himself, but he doesn't do
that.
The Greek word here is very interesting.
So his father went out and pleaded.
He went out parakalio.
He drew alongside his boy and stood there
as though he was just as equal.
And now he starts to plead with his
lad.
In the same way as the apostle Paul
will say when he's writing to the Corinthians,
we beseech you in the name of Christ
be reconciled to God.
So father pleads with this boy and asks
him to go back into the house.
For the second time father is disgraced.
You see there can be no reconciliation in
this context unless somebody bears the penalty of
disgrace.
This is why Muslim theology was never so
wrong when it criticizes the Christians who take
this parable as being basic to the whole
gospel that our Lord proclaimed.
They say there is no cost.
I say there is infinite cost.
But the cost is borne by father.
The cost for your redemption my friend is
borne by father.
Every sin that you've ever committed, every evil
act that even now you may be perpetrating,
every time you have indulged in those things
that you ought not to have done, you
have affected father.
You break his heart.
This is what the story rises up and
tells you in the two incidents when father
has to deal with his sons.
So father pleads.
He pleads with his boy and he asks
him to come back.
But the boy is intransigent.
His heart is so stubborn.
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.
He doesn't even address the elder as his
father.
He doesn't even respond to the one who
is back as his brother, but rather your
son.
You see you can check through his response
and there is no vestige of understanding whatsoever
as to what sonship really means.
What fatherhood means.
You see he understands his relationship as a
faithful servant, as a servant who has worked
hard and everything that comes his way is
as a result of his deserts.
Now you see that's alien to the Christian
gospel.
It's alien to fatherhood.
It's alien to sonship.
You never gave me what ought to have
been mine so I could celebrate with my
friends.
Wasn't father your friend?
Many people would say that their father was
the best friend they ever had.
But wasn't this son your friend?
No you live in two worlds.
There's the world of the home and your
own private world and your own private world
is the one that is most important to
you.
You don't understand what fatherhood means.
You don't understand sonship.
You see in one sense he is breaking
father's heart far more than the prodigal was
and he's that much more distanced from him
emotionally and spiritually.
And so he continues to insult father as
he launches into what father has done for
the boy, the prodigal, and hasn't done for
himself.
How does father react?
This is the amazing thing about God, how
he reacts with his stubborn children, isn't it?
Verse 31, my son.
You can't bring that out in the English,
you can only get it in the Greek.
You say, what do you mean?
Well you see there are two Greek words
for son, at least.
One is much more intimate than the other.
When Mary loses Jesus, when our Lord is
just a lad ebbing on the borders of
teenage, you remember she remonstrates with him in
Jerusalem and said, my son, we've been looking
for you everywhere.
And she uses the intimate term teklon.
And it's that term, which father never used
of the prodigal when he returned, that he
now employs in regard to the oldest son.
My son, the father says, you're always with
me and everything I have is yours, but
we had to celebrate and be glad because
this story of yours was dead.
This brother of yours was dead and is
alive again.
He was lost and is found.
And there the story stops.
You see, it doesn't end.
It doesn't need to end because in one
sense it's still continuing.
You remember the congregation, the sinners, the obvious
sinners, but then there were the Pharisees who
were not in the scribes.
And if ever they were represented in a
story that Jesus told, it's in this story.
And they're murmuring against Jesus.
They're murmuring because they don't understand what Jesus,
who Jesus is, or who father is, or
what father wants from them.
And so it's left as an open case
as to how they ultimately will respond.
Will the oldest son apologize and go back
in and be reconciled with his brother?
Because you see, you can't be reconciled with
father unless you're reconciled with your brother.
Father can't forgive your sins unless you forgive
others.
That's what father said in the prayer that
he puts up for you and for me
to pray, the Lord's Prayer.
The answer to what happened is Calvary and
the cross.
The oldest son refused.
The Jews, largely speaking, have always rejected the
doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the
sonship of Jesus Christ and what those two
concepts mean.
Now you, my young friend, my older friend,
where do you place yourself?
Maybe you've never seen this story in this
light before.
Well, thank God, if anything I've shared has
helped you to understand something of father.
See, God's not dispassionate.
You can break his heart as you can
break your own father's heart, your own mother's
heart.
Maybe you're doing that right now, I don't
know.
But father stands alongside, he doesn't come as
a tyrant, he pleads with you.
And he asks you to be reconciled and
to accept the fact that his own son
bore on the cross the consequences of your
indifference and your prodigality.
Come to the father.
Come right now.
Let's stand.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
It might well be that some folks here
have never really had a true relationship with
father for a long time.
Maybe some of you have put other things
that God graciously gave you and made them
number one in your life and forgotten the
donor.
I don't know how you've got out of
step, but there are many, many ways in
which it's possible.
You've forgotten the nature of the fatherly love
and care and the cost of that love.
Some of you are professional people here.
Your profession is more important to you than
your Christianity.
Some of you have even got children out
of place in terms of the priority that
you should be giving to father.
Some of you have got relationships askew and
they're more important than father.
But in the parable of the prodigal, you
see how father continues to care.
No matter how you've mishandled the very things
that he gave you, we're going to sing
of father's love.
Father, your love is precious beyond all loves.
Father, your love overwhelms me.
Make that a song that you can sing
as you come back, perhaps, to the fatherly
love that you knew a decade or two
decades ago.
Or if you're walking rightly with him right
now, then let it just be an expression
of what you feel toward him at this
moment as you offer him your obedience.
Father, for the quality of your love and
for its eternal nature, we praise you.
Forgive us when we cause you hurt by
our hardness.
And enable us, Lord, whatever slot we find
ourselves in without parable, enable us to respond
to father as you deserve and demand.
And this we ask for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
Now may
the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, rest and remain with us all,
now and always.
Amen.