Joseph Stowell, former president of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago confesses to be like many of us in that there are times in which he says he struggles to feel COMPASSION for the people in this world who seem to make themselves the enemies of our Christian faith—those people who either embrace sinful behaviors or who ridicule our basic beliefs as being too conservative. But—a few years ago Stowell had an experience that convicted him of his need to mature in that area. Stowell writes:
“Dan Rather was on our campus to be interviewed on our national radio broadcast, OPEN LINE. Rather had not been one of my favorite people. I had always looked at him as part of the left wing media establishment with its secular, pluralistic, relativistic, anti-God philosophy.
He seemed a little cold to me and a touch arrogant, and he was never one of my favorite anchormen. But there he was on our campus. During a break he and I spent a bit of time together, and I was shocked because he was the warmest individual. He seemed interested in everything I was saying…plus he seemed to genuinely care about me. Rather said, ‘I grew up in a Baptist home. In my grandma’s house the only thing she had to read was the Bible and the Sears Roebuck catalog. My grandmother read me the Bible every day.’ He went back to the interview, and at the close as the tapes were rolling, ready to go nationwide, one of our interviewers said to him, ‘Mr. Rather, excuse me, I don’t want to hurry anything. But if you were to die today and stand before God at the edge of Heaven, and God were to say to you,
“Why should I let you into My Heaven?” What would you say?’ Rather paused and said, “Well, I have to say it wouldn’t be for anything I have done. It would have to be totally by the grace of God.”
Stowell continues,
“I have no idea what Rather’s spiritual condition is. My words here are not a statement about that. They are instead a statement about a SHAME I bear in my heart. You see, before all this it didn’t cross my mind once to pray for Dan Rather—pray that God would compassionately reach out and embrace his soul, cancel Hell and guarantee Heaven, and fill him with abundant living. I hate to tell you that but it just never crossed my mind. I was too MAD about all his political stuff to think about his need for Savior. I refused to be a middle man in a compassion transaction between God and one who possibly needed Him.”
Can you relate to Stowell’s honesty here? Have there been times when you felt that because you are a Christ-follower—you are on one side of a struggle and the liberals of the world are on the other—which makes them your “enemy?”Has there ever been a time when you felt disgust or anger instead of compassion for someone who embraced sin instead of righteousness? I know I would have to honestly say “yes” to these questions. And I think that is one reason Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal son speaks to me so powerfully because in this story our Lord skillfully deals with all aspects of this issue.
To help prepare us for our youth musical presentation tonight—which I believe is loosely based on this text—I want us to use our time to study this familiar parable. My prayer is that God will use both this message—and tonight’s service to help us all see others—and ourselves more as God does. Take your Bibles and turn to Luke 15 and keep them open as we study this beloved story.
Note that in the first two verses of this chapter Luke tells us about a polarization that existed at that time between the “religious folks” and the people in their culture who didn’t rise to their standards. This polarization came to light in Jesus’ ministry because He became known for the way He compassionately hung around the second group—the kind of people that the religious leaders thought of as the “bad guys” —the “Dan Rathers” or liberals of the New Testament world…and the blatant sinners as well. Verse 1 says, “All the tax gatherers and the sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to Him.” Now—in this incident all around the fringe of this crowd were the religious people and they were grumbling, saying, “This Man—this Jesus—actually spends time with sinners.”
Okay…here are the QUESTIONS I want us to deal with this morning as we look at this parable. First, what can the “BAD GUY” in this familiar story teach us? What spiritual truths can the prodigal help us to understand? And second, what can the “GOOD GUY” —the obedient elder brother—what can he teach us?
(1) Let’s begin with the prodigal—the one perceived of as being the SINNER in this story.
Now, whenever we study this parable, we usually put all our focus on this YOUNGER brother—and that’s somewhat understandable because there is indeed a GREAT deal of obvious truth that can be seen in his attitudes and actions. Skip down to verse 11 where the story begins and as we review it together you’ll see what I mean. One day this younger son comes to his father and makes a surprising request. He asks for his inheritance in advance — while his father is still alive and apparently in good health. To understand how surprising this would have been…it would be like my son saying, “Dad, could you take a loan out NOW on the life insurance we will collect when you keel over and go ahead and give me my share?”
We aren’t told WHY the younger son made this very disrespectful request.
- Perhaps he felt like the low man on the totem pole in his household and so he had a passion to make a name for himself.
- Maybe the older brother was hassling him.
- Maybe he was just bored with life on the farm.
But for whatever reason—he wanted MORE than what he had—more stuff—more excitement
and He thought the way to get all that would be for him to take his inheritance early and leave.
At this point I want us to stop and note a very important lesson.
You see, this part of the story should make us stop and realize that whenever we think we need MORE than what God has provided for us—we are in trouble. In fact, this was the gist of the message Satan conveyed to Eve way back in the Garden of Eden. Remember? Satan told Eve, “To continue to be completely loyal to God will result in your life being less than it could be, in fact less than it should be. What God has permitted is not only manipulatively restrictive, it just plain isn’t enough. Your life could be richer, more satisfying, and more complete if you were not bound by loyalty to God or His rules.” So you see, we always are headed in the wrong direction when, like Eve—and like this younger son, we think that things will be better for us away from our Heavenly Father. It is always foolish to think that life well somehow be more fulfilling away from His presence….His wise guidance…His GENEROUS and faithful provision.
Well, as you can see in verse 12, for whatever reason, the father granted his son’s SURPRISING request. He gave his younger son exactly what he wanted. Perhaps he knew his boy well enough to realize that the only way he was going to learn in life was the HARD WAY. And God is like that father in that He gives you and me the freedom to accept or reject Him…to follow His guidance or to make our own way in life. By the way, how are you using that freedom these days? Are you acknowledging God in ALL YOUR WAYS? Are you taking advantage of the wisdom He gave us in His book when it comes to the way you spend your money…the way you do your job…the way you parent your children? Or are there aspects of your life where you foolishly go your own way? Well, according to verse 13, this sinful son used his free will to take his inheritance and “WASTE it in RIOTOUS living.” The word “riotous” here means “loud” or “wild.” It suggests a life of constant parties…loud music…bright lights—that kind of stuff. Now some of us might think, “Well boys will be boys! And boys do tend to sow their wild oats.” But listen—when we SOW wild oats that is all we REAP—WILD worthless oats.
And, I don’t know about you but this “party part” of the story reminds me that whenever I foolishly, pridefully disobey God—well, I always come back worse than when I left—scarred by sin and feeling like I have WASTED something precious.
I mean, you and I always pay a PRICE for sowing wild oats—as this prodigal soon discovered. Verse 14 says that before he knew it his cash was gone. I mean, the “bill” for all his “wild living” was his ENTIRE inheritance.
This teaches us that sin is an EXPENSIVE business! Sin is always very costly. When we sin, we always SPEND relationships, health, time—things we never get back again. Verse 14 ALSO says that after he had wasted all his money, there arose a severe FAMINE in the land, and he fell into abject POVERTY. When this happened this lost son lost two other things. First he lost his Far Country FRIENDS. This, reminds me of Proverbs 14:20 where it says,“The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.” This foolish son also lost HIS SELF-RESPECT. I say this because when his cash and his friends ran out, he took a job which would be equivalent to cleaning cesspools today. Remember? The prodigal ended up working for a Gentile, feeding pigs—a task that was forbidden to a Jew because the law plainly said, “Cursed is he who feeds swine.” But the son sank even lower still. He got so hungry that he longed to eat the pigs’ food and, as you know, pigs will eat just about anything!
Some of us have been there haven’t we? We have felt the degradation of sin and sought for something to satisfy us. We learned the hard way that the longer we sin…the longer we stay in the “far country”…the longer we rebel against God….the emptier and hungrier we feel.
This should remind us of a VITALLY important fact and here it is: When the Lord is our shepherd, we do not want. But when we forsake Him we always want. His way is always best….always the most satisfying. Listen, sin always promises things it can never deliver. Sin never gives us what it says it will. It promises FREEDOM but it only brings SLAVERY. It promises SUCCESS but brings FAILURE. It promises LIFE but “the wages of sin are ALWAYS…the opposite.”
By the way we are always headed the wrong way in life when, like this sinful son, we value THINGS more than PEOPLE…PLEASURE more than DUTY…and the “GRASS” on the other side of the fence more than the BLESSINGS we have at home. Let me put it another way. The Prodigal’s example shows that you cannot enjoy the things money CAN buy if you ignore the things money CANNOT buy.
Well, eventually—the boy determined to go home. And at this point I want you to be sure and note something else. You see, this first son’s example shows us the steps we must take when we mess up.
A. The first step is the step of RECOGNITION.
Look at verse 17. It says that the prodigal awoke to his condition and “came to himself.” He finally began to recognize things as they really were. He saw how CRAZY his actions had been. And you know, the fact is ALL sin is really a form of insanity. Anyone would be crazy to give up a relationship with God for the pleasures of this world. We would be foolish to give what we cannot LOSE to gain what we cannot KEEP! But, many times in life we become demented enough to forget this. We delude ourselves into believing that sin is good—that disobeying God will lead us to experience some joy we are missing. Well, it was only when this first son got to the point of starvation that he “came to his senses.” And you know, sometimes, like the prodigal, WE have to learn the hard way that God’s way is best. King David did. I say this because he wrote a psalm of gratitude for the lessons he learned in the school of hard knocks. In Psalm 119:67, 71. He said to God: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now [after I have encountered tough times] I obey Your word…It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees.” In any case, the first step back to God for all prodigals is RECOGNITION—a realization that you are indeed going the wrong way in life—that you need to turn back to God.
B. And the second step is CONFESSION.
The son had sinned and now, having come to his senses, in verses 18 & 19, he acknowledged his sin. He said: “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.” Notice that he didn’t excuse his behavior as understandable “youthful wild oats,” He didn’t blame others as Adam had blamed Eve or Eve the serpent. No, he confessed his sin AS his sin, because he had come to see himself and his offenses clearly. Further, he confessed that it was sin against Heaven as well as against his father—and that gave sin an even greater seriousness. Let me stop and ask—do you ever stumble in THIS particular step back to God? Do you ever start out confessing your sin but end up excusing it? Have you ever said something like this: “I know I was grumpy with my kids but I had a hard day.” or “I know I shouldn’t have gossiped but I just needed to talk to someone.” Or…“I know I should have helped my neighbor but I’ve been so busy.” Do you know what I mean? Ever do that? Do you ever spend more time excusing your sin than confessing it? Listen, God doesn’t take our EXCUSES for sin very seriously. You see, the word “confess” means “to call it the same thing.” In other words, when we sin, we don’t need to make excuses, or blame somebody else, or try to wiggle out of it. We need to say, “God this was sin. You call it sin. I confess it as sin…and that’s all there is to it. Please forgive me.” Confession means saying that we made a conscious choice…and it does not need to be excused, explained—or even understood. After his sin with Bathsheeba, King David admitted to God,“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You and You only have I sinned.” (Psalm 51:4)
By the way we should note that the son showed that he saw his actions as sinful because he planned to go home and ask to be a hired SERVANT and a hired servant was not only less than a son but in actuality he was less than a slave. A slave at least had some sort of security. But a hired servant could be dismissed from his position. So the son asked not for the BEST but for the LEAST in his father’s house. However, when the prodigal got home, he even abandoned THIS request. In verse 21 he said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” So, he didn’t ask to be made as one of the hired servants.
He just confessed and threw himself on his father’s mercy. And THIS is true confession….no deals…no negotiations….no strings attached.
C. We come now to the third step that all returning prodigals must make: REPENTANCE.
Look at verse 20 and see that after having seen himself as he was and confessed his sin as sin, the prodigal “got up and went to his father.” He repented. He turned from his sinful choices and headed home. You see, thinking alone did not save him, accurate though his thinking was. Confession alone did not save him, though he had much to confess. He needed to turn around and RETURN to his father. And that is what he did. To return to God, we too have to take this final step. We must turn and make a complete break with what has been.
There’s a saying in baseball that you can’t steal second base with your foot still on first. And neither can you begin a new future with God with your feet still planted in the past. You have to LEAVE your sin. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses AND FORSAKES THEM will find compassion.”
Well—next comes the BEST part of this story. Verse 20 says, “…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.” This indicates that the father regularly LOOKED for his son’s return. Every day he probably went for long walks on his estate keeping his eyes on every road that led to the family home. In this story, the father of course symbolizes God—and in all of Scripture this is the only time we see God hurrying at anything….hurrying to welcome a repentant sinner back into His presence. I don’t know about you but this part of the story reminds me of James 4:8 where it says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you….He will run to be near to you!”The fact is our HEAVENLY FATHER loves it when sinners come home. It is as Philip Yancey says, “God is like a love-sick Father….” Who cares more about us than our sin. He LONGS to welcome us home and restore us to full sonship. When we take these three steps: when we recognize our sin, confess it, forsake it, and return to our Heavenly Father, He “restores the joy of our salvation.” (Psalm 51:12) and “redeems us so that we can receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:5) Don’t get me wrong. God is Holy. He is a consuming fire. But when we turn to Him, He is a God Who comes running—running to lavish His love on us. And—the glorious news of the Gospel is that no one is beyond His love. You cannot do anything that will keep Him from kissing you and bestowing upon you the robe, the ring, and the sandals. I mean UTTER forgiveness is the only kind of forgiveness that God gives.
Some of you may remember that during the imprisonment of fifty-two American hostages in Iran back in 1979, it became popular to wear or display yellow ribbons as expressions of our joy in welcoming the released hostages back home. What you may NOT know is that the use of the yellow ribbon grew out of the following true story.
A group of college students were en route from New York to Florida for spring break. As their bus passed through New Jersey a man dressed in a plain, ill-fitting suit got on the bus and sat down in front of them. He never moved his dusky face or said much. He just nervously chewed the inside of his lip a lot. As they traveled together the young people introduced themselves to him and began to learn his story. He had been in a New York jail for the past four years, and now he was going home. For the past three and a half years he’d had no contact with his wife or children. At the beginning of his imprisonment he had written his wife, telling her only that he was going to be away for a long time; and that if she couldn’t stand it, she could merely forget him and marry someone else. He would understand. Now, for all he knew she might have done that. One of the young people replied, “And are you going home now not knowing?” “That’s right,” he said. Then he told them that the week before, when he was sure that his parole was coming through, he wrote his wife again. There was a big tree on their place near the highway, and he wrote her that if she’d take him back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree. Then he would get off and come home. If she didn’t want him, she should forget it—put no handkerchief on the tree, and he’d pass on through. By this time the bus was twenty miles from his home, and all six of the young people were caught up in anticipation. They took over the window seats on the right side of the bus, waiting for the view of that tree. The bus acquired a hushed mood. The man stopped looking, fortifying himself against still another disappointment. The bus drew nearer his home—ten miles and then five. Then, suddenly, all the young people were up out of their seats, screaming, shouting, and crying, doing small dances of exultation. All except the man. He sat there stunned, looking at the tree. It was covered with yellow handkerchiefs and ribbons—twenty of them, thirty of them…maybe hundreds. The tree stood like a banner of welcome blowing in the wind! As the young people shouted, the former con rose from his seat, and sidled to the front of the bus. He was going home again.
The good news this part of the parable illustrates is that you and I can go home again. We were created for fellowship with God. Sin….our sin….broke that fellowship and separated us from our Heavenly Father. But, in spite of our rebellion, God still loves us and through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, He made provision for our forgiveness and our return. We can return to the open, waiting arms of our Heavenly Father—our God Who watches and waits for us to return to Him.
Now—like many pastors, whenever I have preached on this text in the past I have always stopped at this point—but after my study this week, I realized how wrong that would be. You see, to fully understand this parable we have to look at the actions of the other brother…the ELDER brother…the OBEDIENT brother. In fact, the part about the younger son’s actions is actually a set-up for the true target of Jesus’ teaching that day. Remember, the recipients of this parable—the people Jesus was talking to—were the RELIGIOUS folks—the OBEDIENT folks—the people who, like the elder brother, embraced the “us” vs “them” mentality and thought of sinners as the OTHER people—the enemies—the people who deserved only punishment.
(2) So let’s take a few moments to look at the older son—the “righteous” sibling. What can we learn from him? Where did he go wrong?
And, make no mistake, he did indeed go wrong. In fact, his actions in the story remind us of a vitally important truth: “good” people—obedient people—can be just as guilty of sinful attitudes and actions as the prodigals in this world. And we don’t have to wait long to see that in the elder brother because he sins when he refuses to attend the party—the celebratory feast thrown by his father. You see, in that culture to refuse your father in this way was VERY disrespectful. But—not only was he guilty of “dissing” his dad—he was also guilty of refusing to feel compassion for his repentant brother. So—in essence—right off the bat the elder brother broke the two most important commandments. He failed to love his father…and his brother. Look at verse 30 where he hatefully refers to his sibling as “YOUR son” not “my brother.” He refused to embrace his repentant brother and had obviously not missed him or worried about him. He didn’t care about his brother’s happiness. His only thought was his own recognition. In fact, like the Pharisees and scribes—like you and me at times—this elder sibling was very SELF-righteous because he excelled in keeping the rules that HE defined as important. In verse 29 he told his father, “I have never disobeyed you.” which I am sure was an exaggeration but the point is self-righteous people are masters at recognizing the sins of others…while being blind to their own.
According to his definition the elder brother was one of the GOOD GUYS. In fact, every day he secretly congratulated himself on how good he was—especially in comparison to his “bad guy” sibling. As he went about his chores every day—chores his younger sibling used to help him with—he no doubt stewed on how much he deserved for being so good. So he was very ticked that his brother was being forgiven and welcomed home. And his self-righteousness blinded him to the fact that when it came to taking in the true grace and goodness of his father’s heart and reflecting it to others, he was every bit as abysmally lost as his repentant sibling. I mean, at first we think the elder brother is the opposite of the younger but if you look closely you can see that he’s not that much different. In fact, both sons are primarily interested in Dad for what he can be manipulated into giving them. The only difference is their strategy for getting it. The younger tried to get it by asking for it early…the elder by being obedient. Let me put it this way: the elder brother considered the work he’s been doing as SLAVING—not SON-ING. He thought by his obedience he was able to EARN his father’s gracious blessing.
Well, have you ever slipped into that kind of thinking—believing that by being good—you somehow DESERVED God’s goodness—that you were BETTER than other people? In his book, The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller says a major problem facing the church today is that we think that God can be won over by our good deeds…or even worse that He can be compelled to give us what we want…happiness, prosperity, love, or eternal life…if we just follow the rules. Keller warns, “If, like the elder brother, you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey Him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but He is not your Savior. You are serving as your own Savor.” The fact is, with this kind of self-righteous thinking—it is possible for us elder brothers to leave the “Father” without leaving the “farm.” In his CONFESSIONS, St. Augustine said, “It is not by our feet, nor by change of place, that we either turn from Thee or to Thee. No—in darkened affections, lies the distance from Thy face.” The younger had been far from the father because of sins of passion..but the older because of his sins of attitude.
Well, in the story, the father responds to the sin of the elder brother much as he did the sin of the younger. The same father who RAN to meet the prodigal HURRIED out of the house of feasting to plead with the older son. It is the very same act of closing the distance we saw with the first son. And this leads me to a very important lesson we must learn from this story if we truly want to imitate Christ in our attitudes and actions. We need to look at broken, foolish—even self-righteous—sinners the same way God does. Remember, Jesus said, “I have come to seek and to save that which was lost.” And before He ascended to heaven, He said to all Christians, “As the Father sent me, so send I you.” The tragic truth is that many Christians act like they are on a search-and-destroy mission instead of a seek-and-save mission.
Well, let me ask you…after our study of this tale of two brothers, which brother would you say that are you most like? Perhaps you identify with the younger one. You have rebelled against God and you see your need to return…to Him. Or…maybe this story has shown you your need to be less like the Pharisees and reach out in compassion to the lost of the world. Whichever brother you most identify with I can promise that our Heavenly Father waits to respond to you in the same way the Father in the parable responded to his sons. God is watching for you to come home to him. If you have a decision that you wish to make public…if you want to profess your faith in Jesus or ask to join this church..I would invite you to walk the aisle and share that decision with me as we stand and sing.