[0:00] Luke chapter number 15, we saw three stories, a lost sheep that was found, a coin that was lost, and now we've been looking at the story of really two sons. Maybe in the chapter heading above it, it may tell you that this is the story of the lost son. That's how some people would describe it.
[0:18] If that is the case, the lost son in the story would be the one that we're going to focus on today because we know that the prodigal, the younger son, was lost and found and restored, and that's where we're in with celebrating. The story of the older one is a story that is left unfinished for us today. It's not primarily a story about sin as it is about lostness and things being recovered. So verse number 11 said, and there was a certain man that had two sons. And just like I did last week, I'd like to tell the story just again, even though I have read it, let me tell it to you again from the perspective maybe of the father. Don't be confused here, okay? I'm not telling the story of my sons. I'm going to tell the story of the prodigal from the perspective of the father.
[1:05] Some years ago, I used to travel in a red jacket and preach in satire about missions, and I would talk about how we didn't need to send missionaries and it wasn't important. And one time after preaching a message like that, these nice little ladies came up to me and they said, I really liked your message, especially the part where you said, we should think about ourselves more and not be so worried about the world. And I decided preaching in satire is not a good idea unless everybody's paying attention. So it's not satire this morning, but I'm just going to help you try to look at the story from different perspectives here today. So having two sons, they were close in age growing up, but even though they were close in age, he's just different, it seemed, maybe in temperament or in personality. And the first son, he just never seemed to be content. He didn't take the interest in what we were doing on the family farm, and maybe he just didn't find that his identity was in doing on the farm because he knew he was never going to live up to his older brother. His older brother was a real achiever, always the number one thing to get done. He was the one who stacked the most hay. He was the one that was always leading, always taking on more responsibility. He was just really seemed to be a natural at following the rules and doing and performing. Had a close relationship with the younger one, but he just was always discontent and wanting to go out and do his own thing. Didn't cause me any problems till the day that he came to me and he said,
[2:26] I want what's coming to me. I just want it now. I can't express to you how much that hurt me. He was not just saying that he wanted to leave a location. He was saying that he wanted to leave a person. He was wanting to leave me. He was wanting to leave our family. And he was going to go chase after something that I knew wasn't going to be out there for them. That he was not going to find what he was looking for. It took him a few days. He took the land they gave him. He sold it off.
[2:56] He takes the money and he goes out. I'm hearing reports of people that are coming through. What's going on in his life? He got caught up in a group of people and they were his friends, as you would expect, until he ran out of money. So there he was. He was out of money. And then a famine came in the land.
[3:12] It affected all of us. We didn't have anybody there to help him. And what we found out was during this time that my son, he was working and sold himself to be a servant. And in doing that, he's working and he came to himself. He came to a realization that he could come home, that he should come home. And I will never forget that day when I was out working in the pasture and I was just praying and looking to the horizon. And there he came in the distance. And I ran like I'd never ran before. And I came.
[3:46] You look like you'd be more fun than Jen's here. Okay. And I found my son and I ran. I won't kiss you. Don't worry. Okay. I ran. David the boy will. He was just in Mexico. He told us that on Thursday.
[3:57] How to greet. I ran and I found my son and I was so excited. I got him a robe. I wanted everybody to know that he had a place to come into the home. I gave him shoes because I wanted him to know that he was part of the family. He was not coming as a hired servant. I gave him a ring. He'll have authority here upon the family. And I came in and we killed the fatted calf. We were having such a great time just celebrating what was lost and is now found. And so I'm rejoicing in this, but my heart is also heavy. Because during that time, my older son, he didn't seem to have any heart for the younger one.
[4:37] He didn't seem to have any concern. He was never looking out to the horizon to see if he would come back. He just continued doing what he was doing. And so when we came, I realized everything's great.
[4:47] I have my son. Let's go. Don't leave. Don't leave. All right. I have my son here with me. Hey, let me get a picture of me and my boys. My son was lost and now he's found. Where is Jen's at? Where is Jen's at?
[4:58] He's not here. Okay. And so I had left the house and I went out and I found Jen's. And when I found him, I said, son, your brother is home. He was gone. And Jen's, I didn't realize how much anger had been built up at him. The anger came out of him. He started speaking about the things that his brother had done that I wasn't even aware about. Seems that he must have been keeping track of what was going on or just making up stuff. But he just already had such a strong decision that his son, that his brother did not deserve that. And he said, you've never done anything for me and my friends. You never killed even a goat for us. I've been here. I have been faithful. And it's when I realized that my relationship to my son was not that of a father to a son. He had seen me as a master. He had seen me as somebody that had given commands. But there was no hard affection between here. So when I invite him into the fun, the joy that is found inside of the home, my son just stays there. I entreated him, but he just stays there. And how badly I want to bring my sons together. How badly I want this son.
[6:05] Just as my heart had been broken for the younger one, now my heart is broken for the older one. Because I'm asking him, would you please come home? You guys could be seated. So the father would have ended, if you will, imagining here with me. I read the story to you. You know that I added some other parts to help give us a picture more here. But now we kind of end, not a dad looking necessarily out into the horizon for the younger one to come home, but maybe a dad standing on the end of the porch as he's watching the older sons stand there. And the older son has to make the decision between what he is going to do. Is he going to come into the home? And there's just a dad with the same heart. There was kind of a reprieve. His prayer had been, just come home. Just come home.
[6:51] There was a reprieve, but now there's the time once again, looking at the older one. Just come home. Just come home. Two different brothers, the younger one, he knew what he wanted. He desired to be, that led him out to gambling his life, making risk, doing things that were not right, that were sinful.
[7:10] He loved the sin. It promised him satisfaction to appetite and ambitions. It lured him in with promises. His fascinations hypnotized him. He had what would be called a fling. Sin took him farther than he wanted to go, kept him longer than he wanted to stay, and cost him more than he wanted to pay.
[7:29] He's rebelling against his dad. But now he showed that he had been dissatisfied with his father's provision, his father's restrictions, and his father's guidance. But when he came home, he said, my father has more than enough. I would be willing to serve under my dad because my dad treats the servants better than I'm being treated right now. He comes back to those provision and to that guidance.
[7:54] But the older brother here had no love there for the father. He loved himself too much to be interested in pleasing anybody but himself. Pride born of self-conceit was his guiding star.
[8:07] Probably have heard it said before, but grace is not opposed to effort, but it is opposed to earning. We find a man here that thought he was earning a place on the family farm, but he was not living there in a relationship. Verse 28 said, and he was angry and he would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. He was angry and would not go in. The joy of home was missing a son.
[8:35] The father said, let me get a picture here, not in the Bible, in the story I told. Let me get a picture here with my two sons. But that picture of the day was missing of that older son. It's where his heart was revealed. His heart didn't, the older son's heart didn't get revealed when there was work to be done.
[8:52] His heart didn't get revealed when the earlier conversations that were happening. When did his heart get revealed? It was revealed, manifested itself when grace was being shown to his brother.
[9:05] It was in that moment. The older brother we know represents the Pharisees, starts the chapter off where it says that they murmured because that the Lord was receiving sinners and eating with them.
[9:17] They're murmuring. It's that point where the older son has that revealing of his heart, where he couldn't hide his anger anymore. His actions were not going to allow him to continue doing what his father wanted. The actions of the father and actions of the older sons always seemed to be, they would parallel each other, but they didn't have the same motive for behind it. And it came and it was shown on that day. In reading, I came across some teaching on what is called the pastoral prayer.
[9:47] It's the prayer that after I read the Bible and I prayed and I read about it and the man said something that I thought was really quite helpful. He said this, Pastors, pray so much in your service that the nominal Christians are bored that you talk so often to God they only say that they believe in. That there would be in a time of prayer that a nominal Christian who really doesn't have any affection for God, somebody that was just wanting to punch a clock, a person that was just doing a list of things to be done, would say, hey, I'm just not comfortable with this. Why do we spend so much time in prayer? I don't know. That is certainly not a goal to irritate people. It's not a goal in prayer. But that thought was really interesting to me because the older one got to a point where he realized, this isn't really in my heart. I really don't care for the younger brother. I don't, I really, he really came to a place just like the younger came to a place where it says that he came to himself, that he went out into the far country.
[10:50] Now in verse number 28, we have an older son who's also out in a far country. There's many roads that would lead you away from the father. Now this older one is having to realize that he, he came to himself. He recognized what was in his heart. So ways to leave home, the path of the younger. Here's a type of lostness that is very obvious. It's obvious to the son and to others.
[11:16] He's not at home. He's in a far country. He's not a worker. He's a waster. He's not lifting up, but he's pulling things down. He's not creating. He's destroying. He's typified by this discontentment and a desire just to please himself. He made no, he did not cover it up at all. He had no shame about it. I'm just going to do what I want to do and everybody else can deal with it. But he came home. He recognized that his father's hired hands had more than enough. He recognized the father's sufficiency. He determined that he would come home. I will rise and go to my father's house.
[11:50] And there we see this picture in verse 22. It says, bring the best robe and put it on him and the ring on his hand, his shoes on his feet. All three of these things come in parallel with the prayer that was given. The robe, he said he had sinned. The ring, he had said, I'm no more worthy. The sandals said, I should only be a hired servant. As I said last week in understanding a parable, we want to understand what the people in that culture would understand about the parable. What was available to us to know about them? Well, we know that when he put the robe on the son, he said that the son was befitting for him to come into the father's house. That the ring was a sign of authority and provision.
[12:33] And that putting shoes on him said that he is not a hired servant. That the servant and the slaves would not be wearing shoes. Doesn't appear that he had shoes on when he showed up. But gave him a pair of shoes to show that this is a family member. This is somebody that belongs to the house of this property. And so now the path of the older. He was industrious. He despised slothfulness.
[12:57] His conduct created no scandal. He was an enemy of loose morals. He was mad about it. He condemned it. This type is seldom counted as a loss either by himself or by others. This makes his condition all the more hopeless. His old attitude shows that years of obedience to the father have been years of grim duty and not of loving service. And so here the older one is coming to himself where he has to make a decision. He is standing there and he is mad. Out of the abundance of the heart so the mouth speaketh.
[13:29] And so out of the heart of the older one was anger towards his brother. Out of the heart was a disrespect in the way that the father had been doing things in his life. So though the parable ends, we should have hope that the elder son would come to ascendance, come to himself, that he would be welcomed home. But that we don't know how the story that Jesus would tell him would end. So it asks the question, is there truly hope for this older son? We typically think that the younger son has less hope. But when you hear this, now we look at the older son and we say, is he going to stay there?
[14:08] Because he doesn't recognize that he is lost. He doesn't recognize the problems that are there. He only looks at his performance. He only looks at the way he lived things. He sees himself as completely right. Now he looks at the father. How does the older one relate to the father? We get it in his language. He says, these many years I served thee. This is what he was saying to his dad. Many years I served you. He saw himself as a servant to a master. Neither have I transgressed any of your commandments. He didn't see a father, but he just saw a command giver. That's what he's speaking about here. It dishonors God to treat him as a master in need of slave labor. What honors God is not slave labor, but childlike faith that he is all sufficient. Sean said it so well today in the offering devotion.
[14:58] He has no need of anything from our bank account. He has no need. But what he wants is heartfelt obedience to him. And so we look at this anger. The older was angry at the grace extended to his brother. Or as the young people would say, why are you mad, bro? Right? The question here is, why are you mad, bro? The younger could have looked at the older and like, why are you mad, bro? I came home. What's the problem here? And so you would ask this guy, why are you mad, bro? The dad killed the fatted calf. I would get in there. All right? Everybody seems to be excited about it. You need to get in line.
[15:28] Let's eat. Let's celebrate. He's home. And so we'd say, why are you mad? We see it in his, the anger is expressed in his desire to be disassociated from his brother. When he speaks to the dad, he says, thy son is what he said. He doesn't say my brother. He says, thy son was come and this is what you have done. I'm sure parents in here have done that before, right? I'll say, I'll say, Stephanie, your daughter is doing something. Your son is doing something, right? Let's say, she's acting like you. I'm not associating with this behavior. This is your kid today and this is not my kid. That's what the brother was saying. He didn't say my brother. He said, your son, a desire to disassociate from him. He's frustrated with this grace frustrates a performance-based understanding of life. Grace frustrates a performance-based understanding of life. Yet thou never gavest me a kid. I have done right, but I have never received what this person is receiving. What is it called when a person receives something that they do not earn? We call that grace. And we call grace grace wonderful when it is shown. The grace shown to the younger one, it seemed to come at the expense of the older. This really, this week has really brought such great conviction to me and something that I've never considered before. Because when you tell me a story about grace being shown on the other side of the world, when Graham talks about people coming to Christ there in Nigeria, and you could tell me how horrible the life of the person was. And I rejoice in knowing that a person had lived this life, but now they've been redeemed and they have been saved. What is it about grace that is shown to others that comes at my expense that creates an anger? We kind of form a cooperative partnership with God in which our lives are ruled and judged by performance rather than a relationship.
[17:31] relationship. What I should, what the brother should have said, what is the purpose of a fatted calf if it isn't to celebrate the finding of my brother? What is the purpose of this farm if it isn't to have our family on it? What is the purpose of anything we're doing if we cannot rejoice in the fact that a, my lost brother is now found, but that is not what is happening here. He feels here as if he is losing something something. Because everything that was on the farm now belonged to him, and that's what he said. The brother had already taken his inheritance. The father, when he would die, everything that would have been left would have been left to the older brother. So that older brother didn't see that as the fatted calf that God had given for celebrating the finding of the son. He saw that as his fatted calf that he shouldn't lose. He didn't see the robe and the ring and the opportunity for the son to come back onto the farm as the father's farm. He sees it as his own. And so verse 30, the scribes and Pharisees murmured, why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Here the older brother sees the father as the prodigal and not the younger son. A prodigal means spending money or resources freely and recklessly, wastefully and extravagantly. The younger one we know to be the prodigal. Here in this moment, the older brother looks at the father and says, you're the prodigal. I don't understand why you would waste our money like that. I don't understand why you would welcome that person into our home. He did not see the father as he should. So I ask you, are you the older brother?
[19:11] Are you a older brother? One of the hardest things in the world is stop being the prodigal son without turning into the elder brother. To stop being the prodigal, but not become the elder brother.
[19:21] Vince Habner says, nobody in the pulpit or pew needs a revival more than the bitter spirited fundamentalist with his dispensations right and his disposition wrong. He did everything right.
[19:35] He was where he was supposed to be, but he had no heart for the things of the father. He had no joy in what he was doing. And so how necessary is it for you to be the younger son to appreciate the father?
[19:48] The gospel is that Jesus came to deliver both the older and the younger, the prodigal and the Pharisee and their respect of slavery to sin. When I read this story, I see Jesus arguing against the Pharisees, but trying to draw the publicans and the sinners. But that's not what's happening.
[20:06] Jesus is saying, I love both of you and both of you are wrong. He is presenting the gospel, the good news in such a way that the Pharisees are listening ought to say, I am a great sinner, that I am in need of something. And it takes a miracle to be delivered both from the blinding sinful self-righteousness and the blinding sinful indulgence. It seems here the older brother, he's standing there. Will he be awakened to the fact that he has not loved as he should?
[20:37] There's hope for us in the Bible as the older brothers. You know, the apostle Paul, he's an older brother, if you will, in the Bible. Paul was not found in a pig pen, but outside the house with pride that would not allow him to come in. I was circumcised on the eighth day. Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal. So much zeal, I persecuted the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, having memorized it, having lived it out as he believed that it was interpreted. He did everything right. He wasn't in the pig pen.
[21:13] He was checking every box there was to be checked. But what is Paul's expression about the cross? God forbid I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. He said, I find no glory in my self-performance. I find no glory in those boxes that I was checking. I only find glory in the cross. His response is that as the younger brother, as the prodigal, he came to himself and he recognized that he needed what was available from the Father. And this requires a work of God. The older brothers of this world, we are the rich men of the world where it says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. It takes a miracle. It takes God waking you up to the fact that you are a sinner. That's what that older brother needs right now in the front yard. He needs to recognize that my, the way that he had lived his life where he believed that he was earning and the way that he had lived his life towards the father made him in no better condition than his younger brother. And so there's hope for us today as there's hope for the apostle Paul, there's hope for the older brother in that story. There's hope for you in here today. If you're in lostness because you've never came to recognize that you were a sinner in need of a savior, or if you're a Christian that is taking on not the season of the prodigal, but you're taking on the attitude of the older brother who has no heart for those that are lost today, who has no excitement when grace is extended, that you are mad when things go well for people and grace extended to people when you believe that it comes at your own personal expense.
[23:02] Men, there's anger. Ladies, there's anger so many times in our lives and we can't, at times we don't know where it's coming from. If you have that in your life, could I encourage you to consider that the grace, the anger that you may be feeling in your life may be directly related to the fact that you think the father got it wrong, that you think that the father is the prodigal, that he is wasting on other people what ought to be given to you. That is a large source of anger in the world that we live in, among the religious of this world, in false religions, and even among us as Bible-believing people.
[23:38] And Jesus is. There's hope for us because Jesus is the true and perfect older brother. We could spend a lifetime on this, but the joyful suffering of our older brother. Remember, the prodigal's older brother was angry. He didn't want anything shown to his brother. He didn't want anything given. He was mad about it. But listen to what Hebrews 2.10 says about Jesus Christ.
[23:59] For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
[24:12] Verse number 10. And then it goes on to, so he came to us perfect through suffering upon the cross. Jesus Christ, he lived the life of suffering. He died upon the cross, so he'll be the firstborn among us. He is the brother that brings us in the family who understands our suffering, and he did that.
[24:30] He chose the cross that was before him. He wasn't like the older brother in the story that says, I don't want any suffering. I don't want any cost to me. But Jesus, he was made perfect through his sufferings. In verse number 11, look at the contrast between Jesus and the brother in the story.
[24:48] Verse 11. For both he that sanctifieth, and they that who are sanctified, all are of one, for which cause is not a shame to call them brethren. He is not the older brother in the story.
[25:01] He is the one that was willing to suffer so that we could be made the sons and daughters of God. Older brothers, there is hope for us today, and I would say come home. Older brothers, join the joy of our father's house. Let go of your anger. Rejoice in the prodigal display of love that the father has given the sinners, knowing that we need grace. The relationship is the prize, not the work, or not the money. Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. The father said to the older, you have been with me this whole time. I am what makes this place special.
[25:39] The relationship we have is special. It isn't the tractor over there. It isn't the how many acres that are over here that makes this place special. It was the relationship that we have. And the older brother had to get to a point and just said, I don't care about the relationship, dad. I don't care about what's going inside of your home. This isn't about a relationship with you. This is about me getting the life that I want by pretending to follow your rules. And he had to come to himself that day if the story was going to end as it did for his younger brother, recognizing what is your relationship. And so we look at our father, the same father who had left the house for the prodigal left the house for us, compelling us to enter into the joy of the Lord. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. He came to him where he was at. Is there anything more wonderful?
[26:35] No, there isn't. There is nothing more wonderful than the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life that says the relationship that is available to you should not cause you to live a joyless life that is only filled with performance and religion. He loved us too much. He entreated us.
[26:57] If you're a believer in here today and you're living a joyless life, you're not excited about the grace being extended to other people. You're angry because you don't understand why things aren't going better for you because you've been doing all the things that a Christian is told to be done.
[27:11] When you were younger, they said, good boys and girls do this. And since your time of being a child, you've been doing that your whole life. But now when other people, grace has shown to them, and they didn't follow all the rules their entire life, but Jesus Christ still saved them, and he's still restoring their lives. And you find yourself mad about it and seething, and you just can't enter into the joy of the Father. Can I help you see how wonderful it is that the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction into your life? It was the pig pen and not having any food and recognizing it was better that woke up the younger one. It ought to be the fact that you may have everything in life together, but you have no joy that should wake up the older brothers.
[27:53] The fact that you're living a joyless Christian life ought to cause you to realize that your relationship with the Father is in need of restoration, your relationship with Him.
[28:05] So as we end this chapter here, instead of answering the question, what does it mean that Jesus is eating with tax gatherers and sinners? The question is, what does it mean that the Pharisees and the scribes are not eating with them? That's the question. You're wondering to know, what does it mean about me that I won't eat? Jesus is saying, you're wondering to know what it says about me that I eat with sinners? The question is, what does it mean about you that you cannot rejoice in the fact that I am eating with sinners?
[28:32] What does it say about you that you have no heart for the person that is getting restored? And so we would expect those listening who would want to know, how does the story end? I believe that it would be fitting in that story in Luke 15 and in this room today when it says, how does the story end for Jesus to say, well, you tell me. You tell me how this story is going to end. Pharisees, you finish out this story. What does the older brother do? Do you continue in your anger?
[29:02] Do you continue in this joyless, no relationship with me as you continue to do all the things you're supposed to do? You tell me how the story ends. And I ask you, will you enter into the Father's joy or will you stand in pride and self-sufficiency outside of the house? That's the question that we must answer today. Let's pray.