 Today we're in chapter 15 here in the Gospel of Luke and we're going to be looking at a continuation of a parable that Jesus began that actually is divided into three parts and so we're going to be looking at the third section of this particular parable and it relates to two sons who would be referred to as lost sons. We'll see that as we go through this passage. Let's begin reading together in Luke chapter 15 at verse 11. I'll read to the end of the chapter and we'll get into our study. It's been traditionally called the parable of the prodigal son but what you really have are two sons who are prodigal and you'll see that in just a moment. Luke writes in verse 11, chapter 15 of his Gospel, then he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood and not many days after the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living but when he had spent all there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have bred enough to spare and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father I have sinned against heaven and before you and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants and he arose and came to his father but when he was still a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and broke it. No, I'm just kidding. Just seeing if you're listening fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said to him, Father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it. Let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing so he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said to him your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound your father has killed the fatted calf but he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came on and pleaded with him so he answered and said to his father, Lothi as many years I've been serving you I've never transgressed your commandment at any time and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends but as soon as this son of yours came who has devoured your livelihood with harlots you killed the fatted calf for him and he said to him son you are always with me and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. Again traditionally referred to as the parable of the prodigal son in reality what we see here are two sons. As I mentioned earlier Jesus is continuing the parable that he actually had begun earlier in the chapter and what he's been doing is he's illustrating the love that God has towards the lost. In the first two sections of this parable we see how God searches for those who are far from him but here as we continue in looking at chapter 15 he continues revealing that God has love for the lost. Now you might find this interesting this parable that we're looking at tonight was used in debate during the Middle Ages. Muslim scholars would actually make reference to this parable when they would debate Christians and what they did is they actually used this parable as evidence against the Christian faith. Now how would they do that? Well this is how they would reason. They would say well in this parable notice the son left home, he went to a foreign land, got into trouble, decided to come home and then upon his arrival was welcomed and his return is celebrated. And so he needed no incarnation, no atonement, no salvation by a messiah. He simply returned home and was welcomed back by a loving father. And so they were arguing against Jesus Christ, his incarnation, atonement, redemption and all of that by using this particular parable. And the question has to be asked is that true? Are these things absent in the story, the story that we see of rebellion and redemption? Well one thing we need to remember is this is a parable. Parables are not necessarily to be understood word by word. They are actually stories that contain a truth that is intended to be communicated and received. And so as we look at this you're going to see that within this there are indications of this redemption that comes to messiah and you'll see it very clearly as we go through it. Now as we look at this I'm going to treat it in a little bit of a different way, not that it's not orthodox indeed, it is an orthodox approach but I know that many of us including myself as we have studied this particular parable in the past or have it taught to us have seen it in a certain way that I want to kind of address. I want you to see something here because normally what we see here is a picture that is given of a young man who repents and decides to come home and all and you really see that in verse 20 actually verse 18 when he says I will arise and go to my father and will say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants and normally when we look at this particular parable those who are teaching it will say that was his place of repentance that's where he decided that he needed to go home and get right with his father. I'm going to show you something as we get into that that actually is going to give you a different insight into what's taking place here. You need to remember that this particular parable is written and given in the context of Jewish society so there are certain cultural things that are taking place here in chapter 15 that we westerners in the 21st century really wouldn't be aware of and so as you prepare your studies you you you see insights especially from those who are close to the events who would understand in terms of the culture and all how that would have been looked at and that's what I'm going to give you I'm going to give you little cultural insights I'm not going to quote-unquote bore you with a lot of information that isn't useful but I want to give you some insight so that you can see what's actually taking place here in its context in terms of how the Jews would have understood this. Now I want you to see as we begin verses 11 and 12 how Luke begins by saying he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father give me the portion of goods that falls to me so he divided to them his livelihood and so first giving you some insight into the culture during that time legally according to the law law of Moses and all the son this younger son had a right to request his inheritance in this way he had a right to do that it wasn't wrong for him to approach his father and say I'd like to have my inheritance that isn't necessarily bad in and of itself but the bottom line is in this particular parable Jesus is illustrating the fact that the son's heart is bad towards his father there's a problem that's taking place here it's not something that should be done because there's something wrong in the relationship that this son has towards his father and what he wants is he wants to get away from his father so that he can live a life that is free from the father's interference and in doing so what he's doing is giving to us right from the beginning the insight that this is a son who would be called a son of shame because this is a boy with no restraint and so Jesus is intending to illustrate that this son's request was a wrong request because his son actually has a bad heart towards his father you see leaving your inheritance to your sons and daughters is something that the Jewish culture expected as a matter of fact it actually would give to you and you would have an understanding of God's blessing in your life and as a father you would want to leave your inheritance to your children the the Jewish father knew that that God had blessed him with the things that he has and therefore he wants to take what he has and he wants to leave those things to his children and that was common in the culture at that time Proverbs 13 verse 22 says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children not only would i want to leave something to my kids but i want to leave something behind for my grandchildren and so an inheritance is something that i intend to communicate to my kids i want to give it to them according to Proverbs 19 14 houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers and so within the confines of the culture this father would be expected to leave something for his son and his son could have made that request but in the request Jesus is revealing that this is a son of shame this is one who wants to leave his father so he can do whatever it is that he wants to do you see what he's doing is really unheard of and is greatly offensive to Jewish people because in the request though it was lawful it was still wrong in their eyes because in essence what this son is saying to his father is i can't wait until you're dead i want to have the inheritance now and it's a great shame to the father for a son to do that i can't wait until you die now in the Jewish culture during the time of christ in a traditional home there were certain expectations for the father how he would respond to something like that he was expected to strike his son in the face and to drive him out of the house for doing something like that because that's a selfish request but the fact is notice with me the father doesn't do anything like that as a matter of fact verse 12 tells us that the father actually divides to them his livelihood he doesn't give it just to his younger son notice with me he divides to them his livelihood which includes the older brother also now this was a great sum of money we know that this is a very rich father because he gives each son a portion it reveals that he's loving it reveals that he's gracious but this is a rich man because as we'll see in a moment he has a home large enough for a party that's large enough to eat an entire calf in one night he's got herds of cattle and goats he's got servants he was even able to hire a band so that they could dance this is a very wealthy man who's giving a great sum of money to his kid now under Jewish law the older brother would receive two thirds and the younger would receive one third you see that in Deuteronomy 21 verse 17 and so what he does is he divides his assets to his kids but notice verse 13 not many days after the younger son gathered all together journeyed to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living so he liquidates his assets as quickly as possible and he actually turns this into cash he takes the land sells it off and turns it into cash and he gets out as fast as he can he wants to get out of town once again that produces great shame to the father because the community seen this son leaving this quickly liquidating assets and just taken off with cash now the community knows there's a rift between the father and the son this is once again giving great shame to the father you see the son would not sell the property until the father died if he ever sold it at all and so he's selling the land while he has a healthy father and therefore is shaming his father because he could stay a lot he could stay there and he could have farmed that land and so what happens is there's an anger that's growing in the village and it's risen against him now the father is allowing this to take place though it brings him great shame in the community now this is an important point and this is something that's going to help you to understand why the father is there looking for the son during this time if that son loses any portion of that inheritance especially to Gentiles he is going to be punished by the community something we don't understand in in the united states and in our small local towns as we have we wouldn't understand this but 2 000 years ago in the small jewish communities there was an awful lot of pressure to conform to the norm of that community and if you were a member of that community and you brought shame to your family there was a quorum of elders that would convene and they would actually hold a trial and you would be dealt with and what would happen would be this if you lost your inheritance and returned to the village without it they had an earthenware jar it would be filled with burned corn and nuts and was broken in front of the individual who returned and the community would shout so and so is cut off from his people and then he would never be spoken to again and so as this kid liquidates all of the assets and takes off and loses it all he knows that should he return to that community he's going to be excommunicated and so he leaves verse 13 tells us that he goes to a far country and there he wasted his possessions with what is called prodigal or wasteful living now that word prodigal speaks of riotous living it doesn't speak of sexual immorality by the way it speaks of irresponsible living it's the older brother who's mad at him who says he wasted his money on harlots but that's not in this portion it's simply an angry brother who's saying that he's mad at him so he exaggerates his brother's failures but he takes off and he wastes the money and that's the point that he's making now it says in verse 14 when he had spent all there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of the country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything and so as he's out there doing what he's doing in his run from his father he ends up in famine and he desires now to return but he doesn't have any money and he's desperate now to recover it you see if he returns home without that money he will be excommunicated but he doesn't have any and so what he does is he joins himself to a citizen of the country he's trying to come up with ways to save up enough money to go home but he's not receiving anything he's tending pigs for a jewish young man that is the highest thing it's the terrible thing for him to do it's the worst thing for him to do and so he's tending pigs for meals and he gets no pay and what you have here is a picture of an unrepentant person who's trying to save himself he's actually trying to earn enough for him to come back and be in good standing that's where Jesus is going with his parable he's trying to earn enough to be in the good graces of his father you see the bible teaches us very clearly that it's not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saves us what jesus is illustrating here is a man's effort to try and come into a relationship with his father his self effort where he's going to earn it through his own endeavors and that's why he's he's a picture of an unrepentant person you see as this is taking place and no one's giving anything to him he begins to think and to scheme it says in verse 17 when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have bred enough and a spare and i perish with hunger and now he comes up with this plan i will arise and go to my father and we'll say to him father i have sinned against heaven and before you and i am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants now i want you to see this notice in verse 17 and i'm going to start developing this a little bit further notice how it says in verse 17 when he came to himself this is where it gets interesting because this is where people begin to say see he repented at this point here he's repenting is this a question of repentance and the answer is not necessarily because it flies in the face of the other portions of the parable remember with me that in the other portions you have someone looking for and finding a sheep as well as somebody looking for and finding a lost coin and so that would fly into the face of that of the first two installments of this one story you have to have someone seeking you see the sheep wasn't seeking after the shepherd and the coin wasn't rolling out from underneath the bed looking for the woman and so what do you have here actually is a man who's coming up with a scheme he's got a rehearsed speech notice it he says i've sinned against heaven and before you now here's where it's where i'd like to develop this a little bit further is this repentance when he says i have sinned against heaven and against you is that repentance now most people would say that it is because it speaks about sinning against heaven and against a person and obviously when you sin you sin against god and you can sin against man and so that's where a lot of people will say well this is obviously a picture of him coming to himself and and and confessing but there's something interesting about this that you might find at least interesting i do this is exactly what ferro had said to moses when the plagues were beginning to fall on the nation of egypt and he was asking for the eighth plague the plague of locus to be lifted because in exodus chapter 10 verses 16 and 17 it says ferro called for moses and erin in haste and said i have sinned against the lord your god and against you now therefore please forgive my sin only this once and entreat the lord your god that he may take away for me this death only you see what he wants to do is he wants to come home and he wants to once again begin to work and then he wants to earn some money so that he can leave again there's no real repentance taking place here at all and so his solution is hire me as a servant i can get job training i'll get my money back i can save myself this doesn't evidence concern over a father's shame a father's humiliation or a father's broken heart this isn't a picture of genuine repentance what this is is a scheming heart this is a kid who's trying to do something to get back and he's willing to do anything there are a lot of people like that who don't honestly repent at all they're not really concerned that they heard somebody they're not concerned that they sinned against god what they're trying to do is buy themselves some time they're trying to find a way for them to be in the good graces listen i'm eating pig food here and i'm not making any money at all my dad's got servants who live better than this how am i going to get back how am i going to get back into the house you know i as a kid when i when i would do something wrong and and um i would try to find ways to to earn myself back into the good graces of my family i tried to do that there are times i can still remember and it starts out early and some of you would understand this because you were just as sneaky as me but when i was a kid you know my mom would say you know i was a little less than 12 and i'd be out with my friends or whatever in the neighborhood and uh she'd say i want you home at seven o'clock and uh and normally i'd be home on time but there were times when i got caught up doing the things that i was doing and and i was running late and and now i'm i'm it's 15 minutes late it's seven o'clock it's now seven 15 and i'm late but we had a neighbor who lived next door to us as i grew up who who grew roses and uh i would go to her rose bush and i would break off a rose and then i'd come into the house and knock on you know come on in the house and i'd say here mom here's a rose for you and i know my mom was wise to me i mean come on but you know i would you know just kind of here you go mama you know and i'd try to find a way to get out of trouble and a lot of people do that we try to scheme our way out of being in trouble we're not really repenting it's not like we're sorry for what we did i'm not sorry that i caused my father humiliation i'm not sorry that i wasted all of all of the the money that he gave to me i'm not sorry because i enjoyed myself as i was doing that but you know what i want to get back in i want to have a place to sleep i want to have something to eat i want to have this again and and and i'm willing to do about anything i can to get back to my dad so i don't see this as necessarily that he's actually repenting what i see is him continuing the scheme he's continuing to try and work his way back in which a lot of people do because that's the heart of man and so what he's doing here is he's trying to return to home you know he knows that the community is going to reject him and he also knows that he's about to have a lecture from his father and so he's returning home empty handed after insulting both his father and community and he needs to come home and he's got to find out a way to get home now here's the question why is he coming home and the reason he wants to come home is not because he wants to be reconciled with his dad the reason he wants to come home is he's hungry he's tired of eating or wanting to eat pig food he's tired of the life that he's living but he hasn't repented you can get to the place where you're tired of the way that you're living and you may regret it and you may stop doing some things for a while but that doesn't mean that you're actually repentant i was 20 years old once it was i think it was like september september of 1970 i think it was august september can't remember now exactly i do remember this i do remember going to the monoray pop festival i do remember taking something called magic mushroom some of you know exactly what that is and being absolutely loaded for a couple of days i had a friend who lived in pacific grove who allowed us to stay at his house actually went to the concert with us and everybody took off to go to you know to the festival but i didn't want to go this one i'd i'd already gone the day before and and i decided to stay behind and while i was staying behind if you don't mind me telling you this i you know i i started reading a book it was jr our tokens uh trilogy and i started reading the first book as i was listening to the moody blues and smoking pot and as i was doing that i started thinking about my life i was there by myself as 20 years old just to turn 20 and i started thinking i don't like where i'm going i don't like the way that i'm living i don't like i don't like what i've become you see when i was at the pop festival i was walking on the grounds with some friends of mine and a man a woman and their child came walking towards me and as they were walking towards me i still remember some of it they were wearing white and they had all three of them had long blonde stringy hair and as i walked past them they were barefooted wearing clothes that they made out of sheets and and i looked at them as they walked by me and it was obvious that these people were into into drugs and their kid was being raised in that environment and i remember as i walked by these three and i was loaded on magic mushroom to be honest with you but i remember as i walked past them i looked at them and i and i had this thought that just came into my mind that's you that's what you're going to be like in a few years you're going to end up with a gal you can't afford to clothe she's going to end up making clothing out of sheets you're going to have a kid that doesn't have anything no clothes to wear so he wears a little robe made out of a sheet i started thinking that and i don't know about you but i wasn't raised that way i wasn't raised that way my mom and dad did not raise me that way and i started thinking that's what i'm going to do to my kids that's how my wife is going to be that's my life i saw it very clearly it was an hallucination it was i saw it i said that's what i'm going to be like and it bothered me and so yeah the next day i'm still smoking pot and doing all of that but i started thinking it was at that point that the holy spirit actually began to speak to my heart now i'd already been to calvary chapel costa mesa i'd already been there i already seen the hippies who are worshiping god and all of that i was not really aware of of god moving in my life in any way but he was beginning to to awaken me but for me i just didn't want to live a life that ended up being a poorly lived life had nothing to do with being right with god and then shortly after that and it was in my mind shortly after that right around actually the same time i had been just before this actually because this had taken place in in early september and this other thing had happened in august i had received a draft notice i was to go into the military august 25th and i had stayed out until three in the morning drinking smoking pot and just just getting very loaded very loaded and i didn't even come home until three i woke up at six and my dad took me to the to los angeles so that i could go in at the center there and they didn't take me that day and so i returned to my parents home and that's when i continued even going further down and further down and further down from that point i was actually going lower and lower so when i went to monorail and i still was doing all the drugs and all of that i started thinking this is not the the way i was raised this is not what i should be doing and it was right around that time that i began to pray it was right around that time that i began to say there's something wrong with me there's something wrong with me and then after that is when i i dropped five reds second all downers and drank pretty much most of a half gallon of wine and almost died of a drug and alcohol poisoning and that's when i started saying god you got to help me you got to help me most of the time it was what can i do to not get kicked out of my dad's house though what can i do to not hurt the people that i love because the day that i was supposed to go into the into the army mom and dad my two sisters they're in the kitchen and i hadn't slept very well i had tossed and turned for three hours got up at six o'clock they're all standing there in the kitchen as i walked into the kitchen and my mom looks at me with tears in her eyes and my two sisters are crying and my dad's very angry just standing there looking at me and when i walk in my mom says when your brother went into the navy he he cried and he actually climbed in to our bed in between dad and me and told me how much he was going to miss us and you couldn't even come home and i still remember that and i still remember looking at my mom and i was i was hung over to be honest with you i mean i was still a little high and and i looked at my mom and i said so what i'm out of here you won't see me for two years that was my response so what i'm not frank frank does that i don't so what that was my attitude evil mean unloving but you know what the lord began to speak to my heart about that lifestyle about being like that being a prodigal being someone who breaks your father's heart you see and i started seeing that and that was the holy spirit who had begun to convict me who had begun to tell me you know there's something wrong with your life see jesus and john 168 says if the spirit of god convicts the world of sin righteousness and judgment and so you can you can have this attitude at one point where you say man i just want to get back into the house and a lot of people do that guy goes out on his wife she's got a broken heart he doesn't want to live in his car and he doesn't want to hang her on with the woman he's having an affair with and he calls her up and he says to her honey i'm sorry i love you he doesn't really have sorrow and he doesn't really have love he just doesn't want to be living on the streets anymore he wants to come home he hasn't repented he's just sick of the life he's living right now but once he's back and once he's in his bed again and once he's there in this house and everything's going good then his eyes begin to wander and off he goes to do something else again because he never repented this kid here that we're looking at this prodigal son he's thinking there are servants in my father's house because my father's very rich who live a lot better than i do i want to eat these carib pods that we feed the pigs with the poor man's bread i want to eat that when in reality i was raised better than this i ate finer than this i dressed better than this what happened to me what should i do well this is what i'll do i'm going to go back to my father and i'm going to say i sinned against heaven and i sinned against you and i'm not fit to be your son make me as a servant because if i can work for my dad i can save up some money i can get a skill and i can leave and i can do something else that's kind of where this this young man is at and so that's what he's planning on doing verse 19 i'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants and so verse 20 he arose and he came to his father but when he was still a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran fell on his neck and kissed him the son said to him father i have sinned against heaven and in your sight and i'm no longer worthy to be called your son notice he doesn't finish his sentence why is that because when he saw his father running to him it broke his heart it broke his heart he broke his heart you see the bible and i want to i want to point this out i want you to notice first how the bible says he was still a great way off and his father saw him he's not just speaking of distance in terms of physical terms but spiritual terms he's far away from the lord now the father of course knows that so what does he do while his father gathers his robe in his hands and he runs out to meet him he doesn't wait for the speech he's loving him before a word comes out of his mouth middle easterners never run in public while wearing long robes for them to do something like that is humiliating also the middle eastern father would wait in the home for the son who was expected to come and stand outside of the house and very loudly beg his father for forgiveness the father would not necessarily come out as a matter of fact normally he wouldn't because the father would be thinking he shamed me and i'm supposed to go to him i will not do that he is a son of shame and so he needs to humble himself to me and in front of the whole community he needs to beg me for forgiveness that's the way it works in the middle eastern society but what you have here is a picture of the incarnation because you have a picture of this father out of love emptying himself of his prerogatives assuming the form of a servant and running to reconcile his estranged son this is the incarnation that you're looking at god taken upon himself human flesh dwelling amongst men and reaching out to sinners who are estranged from him in philippians chapter two verses five through seven pulsated this way he said let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus who being in the form of god did not consider it robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and so what you have here is the incarnation it's a picture of god reaching the sinner even when the sinner isn't even aware that the father's been waiting for him and looking for him you have a shepherd who is seeking out a lost sheep you have a woman who is looking for a lost coin and you have a father who is looking for a lost son and so this father runs in humiliation to reconcile the sinner and as he does so he's a picture of god in jesus christ how jesus christ reconciles us to himself in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 Paul said you know the grace of our lord jesus christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich and so as this is taking place and he sees the father humbling himself and running that touches his life and so he says in verse 21 the son says father i've sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son this is repentance when you get an opportunity when i got the opportunity of seeing god in christ reconciling the world to himself when i came to realize that my god took upon himself human flesh and dwelt amongst men when i understood that my god took upon himself human flesh and loved and yielded up his life was tortured beaten ultimately died and was buried and he did that for me all the scheming is gone there's no more plans how i'm going to earn my way because i'm seeing the humbling of the father i'm seeing that that god was willing to humble himself if you will jesus being god in the flesh taken upon himself the form of a servant and seeking me out that caused me to stop trying to earn heaven to try and be good enough for heaven i can still remember again as a young man just before i got saved i can still remember as i began to pray and started saying god helped me god helped me i can still remember and i can remember sometimes with with emotion there were times that that i was by myself in the house at my parents home and and i would and i actually would would cry out i actually began to cry out and i would say god i can't take it anymore i can't stand the way that i am anymore i can't take this anymore i've got to change i've got to change i need your help god i need your help i can remember that very well god i need your help i was driving my vokes wagon i've been dropping some reds and doing some drugs i was drunk actually i was drunk that night driving my vokes wagon and i i was shifting it you know four-speed manual and and i slammed from third gear into fourth year i slammed it into fourth and i pulled the um the stick ship the stock right out of the transmission just pulled it right out of it and so you get to a stop light and you're in fourth gear so a guy actually four guys in a big old grand priest some of you know those ancient behemoth cars huge pulled behind me it's on pioneer boulevard i still remember that and one of them walks up to me and says you need some help and i said yeah these guys were loaded on reds and i was drunk and i said yeah they said we'll push you i said great so they get behind me and they start pushing this vokes wagon up to intersection of pioneer and imperial highway and then stop and like a slingshot i go flying into the intersection because they were so loaded they didn't even know there was a red light and so oops they stopped i can't and i went swinging around and i smashed into the the signal there in in the median and smashed the car and it rolls over to the side of the road and and as i'm there on the side with the smashed side there a sheriff pulls over and says if you climb out of this car i'm going to have to arrest you because he could see that i was not all there and so okay but some girls i knew pulled up behind me to see what was wrong and i climbed out of the car i got arrested i was taken to the norwalk substation i was put in the drunk tank one of the guys who was in the car who had been pushing me ended up being in the drunk tank too he had some reds in his pocket and we dropped some reds i still remember that the next day i was taken to los to los angeles to county jail and i called my dad actually i didn't call my dad i called my best friend's dad i didn't want my dad to come and get me because i knew my dad was going to kill me but my friend's dad told my dad my dad showed up my dad did not smoke but he had a pack of cigarettes and he was chain smoking and he says what's going on and i remember saying to him dad i'm just sick he sent me to a psychiatrist and now i'm starting to go to a psychiatrist to try and get my mind straight but i didn't think that just talking to this guy is gonna do me any good and it didn't because i thought i was having girl problems when in reality i was having spiritual problems and it wasn't until i came to realize that i couldn't save myself it wasn't until i came to realize i didn't have the power i mean the will was present the ability to perform that which i desired was not i wanted to be good i just couldn't i didn't have the power that's when i heard the gospel clearly that's when the message spoke to my heart and said you need to repent you've got a father looking for you and it's not just your dad it's a heavenly father looking for you but you have to stop scheming your way back to him you need to just take him as he is and that's what happens see no more scheming here there's no more scheming at all he simply says i've sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son but the father verse 22 said to his servants bring out the best robe put it on him put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry for my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be merry and so let's celebrate is what the father says notice he says he was lost and is found not he's come home he was lost and he has been found again who found him well it's a picture of jesus jesus saw him while he was still a great way off and and like the sheep and like the lost coin it took someone to find him and notice he gives him the best robe he gives him a ring and he gives them sandals these are symbols of status and authority it's a picture of salvation because in salvation you have freedom and then he has a fat fattened calf that is slaughtered and and the fattened calf that is slaughtered is really saved for the most important guest so this is a tremendous party that he's giving now as this is happening verse 25 his older brother the older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing so he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said your brother has come in and because he has received him safe and sound your father's killed the fattened calf now he hears the sound of celebration and he's asking what's going on here and then they tell him and it gets him upset now what's happened well what has happened is the son is reconciled he's reconciled with his father he's reconciled with his community and so the father's humiliation results in reconciliation not only with the father but with people again that's the essence of being a christian because when i get right with god i am also now getting right with my community and so there's this joy within the community when that happens but when he says in verse 27 your brother is coming because he's received him safe and sound not only is he in health but he's come to a place a piece with the father this gets the the kid upset and verse 28 tells us he was angry he wouldn't go in again notice his father came out and pleaded with him so he doesn't have just one rebellious son he has two and now the father is humbling himself you see he doesn't want to hear that he's been welcomed home safe and sound he wants this kid punished and it makes him very angry and he lashes out before a witness at his father and he refuses to participate in a banquet once again this is unspeakable this is an insult to the father he's angry he's angry that his father didn't make the younger brother pay for his sins so what happens verse 28 tells us his father came out and pleaded with him now culturally the father would be expected to ignore the insult and deal with him later on by going out he was publicly humiliating himself once again but what he does is he shows grace he shows grace to the one who thinks he's keeping the law even as he showed grace to the one who knew he was breaking it and he complains verse 29 he says these many years i've been serving you i never transgressed your commandment at any time and you never gave me a young goat that i might make marry with my friends as soon as the son of yours came who has devoured your livelihood with harlots you killed the fatted calf for him i am so upset at you i can't believe it i haven't asked you for anything i've done my best to be the best kid i could possibly be to make you proud of me your son humiliated you in front of everybody this whole community knows how he treated you you know dad i i just i just can't believe you did this i just can't believe you did this what have i ever done wrong you know i work long hours i stayed here with you i work the farm i've never asked you for anything i don't ask you for anything you never even offered me anything the Pharisees the Pharisees we keep the law we're righteous before god we don't understand why you welcome sinners into your fellowship remember how this began at verse one in chapter 15 and verse two all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying this man receives sinners and eats with them this older brother represents the Pharisees you see in verse 25 when it says his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing that's what jesus had already alluded to in verse seven when he said i say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents that's what jesus was referring to in verse 10 i say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of god over one sinner who repents the celebration is just illustrating the reality of the joy that god experiences when we get right with him and the Pharisees who thought they were righteous could not understand a gracious and forgiving god and they got upset over this and that's what jesus is speaking about here this is an un-thankful brat when he says i've never disobeyed he's showing his self-righteousness this is a kid who's already been assigned two-thirds of the estate when it was divided and yet he says you never gave me anything and so notice the father how he speaks to him verse 31 he says son you're always with me and all that i have is yours it was right that we should make mary and be glad your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found two sons both lost one comes to faith the other can't understand grace one says i don't deserve to be called his son the other one says i do deserve being called his son one wastes all that the father has the other says i've never wasted a thing but they're both lost and because the older son doesn't understand the joy that the father would have over the recovery of a lost son he's revealing that he's been lost all along himself and what is interesting is that this parable closes with the Pharisees left to make a decision jesus is leaving them who are listening to him leaving them in the position where they have to identify themselves he's actually saying to them in these store in the story here which one are you are you the lost sheep are you the lost coin are you one of the lost sons which one are you which one are you now if you can't rejoice over the recovery of someone who's been lost then maybe it's because you yourself are still lost and don't understand the joy that comes when a sinner repents no matter what it is that you've done no matter how far you've run away from the lord no matter how much you have wasted all that he's given to you you can run run for miles and you can run for years you can run and run and run continually over a lifetime you can run but it only takes one step to come back and that's what the lord is teaching us here it only takes one step to come back you can run but there's a father who is there waiting for you because he wants to run and embrace you you see when the father was there looking for the son he knew that if one of the community members got to his son first that that son would be banished from the community forever that's why he's waiting that's why he's looking that's why his eyes are out there because he wants to make sure that nobody gets to that son before he does and when he saw him he knew that if somebody else in that community saw him and got to him first then he would go through the excommunication process that's why as he saw him he's willing to lift his robe and to run humiliated himself in front of the whole community so that he could grab hold of his son and hold him and say I got to you first and as that son is scheming in his mind how am I going to get back into the house when he sees his father humbling himself running down that road it breaks his heart because this is my father my dignified father who would never humiliate himself in public I humiliated him I'm not worthy to be his son and that's what causes the son not to go on with this scheme that's why the son says I'm not worthy I'm not but dad says the minute I hear that all is forgiven it's all done it's all over as a father there have been times when I as a father have had to speak to my kids when they've tried to argue me out of there out of being upset at what they done it has never worked it has never worked it's never worked and they tried all kids do well this is my position this is what I believe and I when they were younger I haven't done this for years but when they were younger in their teen years they do that to me well this is what I believe and I would say do you think this is a conversation you're making a mistake this isn't a conversation I'm talking to you and you're listening see I'm a father and as your father I'm not one of your little friends I'm not one of your little friends that you can argue with you're making a mistake no what you need to do is you need to listen to what I have to say because what I have to say I'm saying as your father and I'm right so listen and that's how I was and if they said dad I see it I'm sorry it was over at that moment you can ask my kids when they did something wrong and they repented I've never brought it back up to them I'm not one of these dads who says you remember when you were 16 and you you remember when you were 19 and you I never do that never have because I learned from my heavenly father that if it's under the blood it's gone it's over move on and that's how I treated my kids that's how I treat people in general if there's a problem it's resolved it's over let's move on why waste our time looking back when we should be looking forward to see what God wants to do why always turn around and look at the past when God is doing something so good right now and has so much more in the future let's keep our eyes there but why turn around and always look back I don't want to do that so when my kids would say dad I'm sorry I was wrong I would say this I'd say you know what good good let's move on let's just move on because you fail today but tomorrow is a new day and God is going to bless us tomorrow so let's just move on as long as you repent it's all I care about but if you try and argue with me that what you're doing is right you can't win that argument you will not win and so you need to see what you've done so you can change the way you are God works that way with us he wants to embrace us he wants to change us he wants to direct us to the future he rejoices over us he doesn't bring up our sins he just wants us to be right with him he wanted the older brother to be right with him and he rejoices that the younger is may we be as the younger realizing who we are realizing who he is and receiving his forgiveness and in doing so we can rejoice with him