him. My son, the father said, you were always with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to
celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost
and is found. Amen. We pray that God would bless his word to us.
There are lots of privileges for me standing here today and shooting this particular parable,
which has meant a lot to me throughout my life. But one privilege is to say good morning because
we worship at a church plant in Midlothian and we have to rent the building by the hour. So we meet
once a day at 3.30 in the afternoon. But every time I stand in the pulpit, I feel like I want to say
good morning. And I think that's because in my brain, I have something coming to me and I can't
think about anything else. I'm fixated on this thing that is arriving, 3.30 when we go to church.
Well, today we've got two brothers who are both fixated on something that is coming to them.
They're not preaching a sermon, but they're waiting for the inheritance from their father. They know
that when their father dies, they're going to come into quite a bit of wealth. It suggests in the
passage that this is a reasonably wealthy person and they're going to receive that and have it for
themselves. The story is entitled in this Bible, in this version of the Bible that I read,
The Parable of the Lost Son. I'm sure most people are familiar with this story, even if you've never
been in church before, because this idea of making demands, going away, being reckless, and coming back
and receiving forgiveness is a common story to human life. It's a trope that we see in stories
and movies and books all the time. But the parable is called different things in different places. So
here it's called the parable of the lost son. It's also called the parable of the prodigal son,
or the parable of the two brothers. Because the elder brother is just as valuable to this story
that Jesus delivers as the younger. While the younger brother gets more words dedicated to him
in this passage, when we think about the story in context of what Jesus is saying, maybe the elder son,
the elder brother, is most relevant to the audience that he's speaking to, and we'll come to that in a
second. We're also left hanging at the end, so the younger son is reckless, comes home, he's forgiven,
accepted back into his father's family. But the fate of the elder brother is left hanging.
So this morning, what I would like to do is look at this parable through the lines of the two brothers
in order to help us see the needs we all have of another brother. The one that Tim Keller called
the true elder brother, he doesn't appear in this parable. He's the one delivering the parable.
He's the narrator of this story. So we'll first of all think about the younger brother. We'll call him
the rebel. Then we'll think about the elder brother in our story. Let's call him the religious.
And finally, we'll think about the brother who doesn't appear. And we'll call him the rescuer.
The rebel, the religious, and the rescuer. So first of all, the rebel, the younger brother,
the first thing we notice about the younger brother is that he's impetuous. He simply can't wait to have
what he thinks he's due. And he's covetous. He sees what his father has, and he wants those things.
Jesus has already warned us in Luke just a couple of chapters earlier about the dangers of covetousness.
In another parable, the parable of the rich fool, the one who puts all his trust in his money,
Jesus says to the crowd that was listening, watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
Well, unfortunately, this younger brother believes that it does. He believes that he needs worldly
possessions so much that he's going to tell his father that he wants his property now.
This was in a time and a place, of course, where the father was a highly respected figure.
Maybe not like today. I don't know. There was clear hierarchy in place.
And the father demanded respect. He was due respect.
His son shows him no respect at all because he doesn't ask for his share of the property. He demands it.
If we look at the words he uses, he says, Father, give me my share.
I wonder, we just passed Christmas, how many children, when they asked their parents for presents, said,
give me a Nintendo Switch, give me a brand new bike.
And if they had asked in that way, I wonder what the response of the parents might have been.
But the father doesn't respond in this way.
The father is gracious and generous.
He takes his wealth, divides it between the younger brother who's asked for it and the elder brother who has kept Shtoom.
And he splits it and he says, this is your inheritance.
And the reason this is particularly sad, I think, is because the younger son is asking for what he would be entitled to if his father wasn't about.
And in essence, what he's saying is, Father, I don't want you.
I want your property.
I want what I will have when you're dead.
We expect the father to be irate.
But of course he's not.
And he divides his property between them.
Very shortly afterwards, the younger son leaves.
He receives his money and he heads off to what the Bible calls a far country.
I think by describing the speed with which he leaves, we can assume that this is premeditated.
So the son isn't just covetous and he isn't just impetuous.
He's also conniving.
He's got this plan in place.
He's ready to take off as soon as his father gives him what he wants.
The Bible says, not long after that, he knew what he was going to do when he received his money before he even asked for it.
And then we come to the part of the story that is maybe described as prodigal.
When I was younger, I didn't exactly know what prodigal meant.
I thought it was just kind of general bad.
But it's got a very specific meaning, which I'm sure you guys know already.
It's about being lavish and extravagant, especially in a kind of wasteful or reckless way.
And that's what happens to the younger son in verse 13.
The Bible tells us he squandered his wealth in wild living.
He wastes all the good things his father has given to him in sinful ways.
And then he gets in trouble because he has wasted the blessings from his father and famine arises.
And this young man's wasted his inheritance.
He's unprepared.
He's got no safety net of his father to help him.
And he becomes destitute.
I think it's interesting in the context of the parable that the son doesn't go home at this point.
He doesn't think to himself, I've blown everything.
My father's got more than enough.
I'm going to go home.
He doesn't choose to go back to the relative safety of his father.
But instead, what he tries to do is dig himself out of this hole himself.
I think he wants to work it out for himself.
He wants to save himself.
He wants to do something to sort out his own mess.
Or perhaps he's too stubborn.
Perhaps pride has a hold of him.
And he cannot bring himself to go back to his father.
We see this so often in life.
People we might know have drifted away from the truth.
There's lots of reasons that we can find to stop us from going back to our loving father.
But we have to remember that it doesn't matter how hard we work.
It doesn't matter where we go if we're apart from Jesus.
If we're apart from God.
All the day-to-day problems that we face.
At home, at work, in school, in our relationships.
And the biggest problem we face.
The sin that's in our hearts.
Is it irreconcilable?
Apart from our loving father.
So instead of returning to his father.
The younger son here humiliates himself further.
He's already destitute.
And he goes into the employment of a foreigner.
Who we can see really clearly.
Has very little regard for him.
He sends him into his fields.
To feed pigs.
An animal that's unclean in Jewish culture.
He's, in a way.
Put himself into servitude.
To a man who cares nothing for him.
But this isn't the point at which the younger son has arrived as a slave.
He's been a slave all his life.
He was a slave to jealousy.
And then he was a slave to the false freedom of living apart from his good father.
Then he was a slave to his money and his inheritance.
He's simply now a slave to something else.
In verse 16 we read that this man is so humiliated that he doesn't even eat as well as the pigs.
The pigs are better off than he is.
None of the choices that he has made in what seems to be the pursuit of freedom have benefited him in any way at all.
I was wondering for him if he had co-workers alongside him.
Or maybe for us if we were in the office or at work.
If we were to ask the people around us for support in that situation.
People who don't know God.
People who are in a similar situation as we are.
Maybe they don't have the upbringing that this young man had and knew about his good father.
What would they say to you if you felt lost and confused and destitute?
They might say just don't think about it.
Put it out of your mind.
Push it away.
Distract yourself.
Fill your mind with content.
Netflix and music and podcasts.
Don't think about where you are and what you're doing.
Or they might say you just need to work harder.
Put the effort in.
Roll up your sleeves.
You know in a couple of months time you might be the guy driving the other pig feeders to the fields.
They might say look inside yourself.
That's where true happiness is.
You just need to get deeper inside yourself.
You need to work out what it is that you are at your heart.
And pursue that.
Or they might try and convince you that you're exactly where you should be.
This is real freedom they might say.
Yes it's tough.
But at least you don't have your father looming over you.
They certainly wouldn't say return to your father.
Your gracious good loving father.
And he will forgive you.
But this is the only answer that we have.
All the hard work.
Self reflection.
And all the positive thinking in the world.
Are completely worthless.
If we're estranged from our heavenly father.
Finally.
And this is the turning point of this young man's life.
In verse 17 it tells us.
When he came to his senses.
Or he woke up to the truth.
When he remembered the goodness of his father.
And he didn't seem to hang about.
He remembered the goodness of his father.
In verse 20 tells us.
So he got up and went to his father.
There's an urgency there.
He doesn't clean himself up.
We're not told.
We know he doesn't try to find a pair of shoes even.
Because he goes back to his father.
And his father says put shoes on him.
On the way he's rehearsed a whole speech.
About why he's going to tell his father.
What he's done wrong.
How he sinned against heaven.
How he sinned against his father.
How he knows.
There's no possibility of him being accepted back as a son.
But maybe.
Just maybe.
He could be a servant for his father.
And instead of longing after the pods that the pigs eat.
Maybe he could have some bread.
I remember I watched a movie once.
This is a terrible illustration.
Because I can't remember the name of the film.
And I can't remember any of the actors in it.
But it's kind of western.
And there's a young son.
Who is reckless and rebellious.
And he kind of leaves the homestead.
And he goes off.
And he gets in trouble.
I think he starts a fire.
And his father, the hero, rides in.
Saves him.
Takes him back home.
And they're walking home.
This is the kind of final scene of the act.
And it's beautiful prairie land.
The sun's going down.
The sun is on the back of his father's horse.
They're reconciled.
His father's talking gently to him.
And the father says,
You know I'm going to have to whoop you a bit.
And the son says,
I know, Pop.
And at the time,
I thought this was the pinnacle of parenthood.
I thought this man
was the perfect illustration of fatherhood.
Because he has come.
He's saved his son.
He's forgiven him.
He's taking him back to the family.
But he knows he's got to be punished.
He needs to punish him.
So that he doesn't do it again.
Well, we know
that's not how this father responds.
This father does anything but punish his son.
This father says,
Put a ring on him.
Give him the best robe we've got.
Put shoes on his feet.
And make a feast worth celebrating.
The son had said to himself
when he was in the field,
My father's got plenty of bread.
But he doesn't receive bread.
He receives the choicest steak.
The best that his father has to offer.
As well as full restoration
into the family.
So as for us.
Because of the work of Jesus.
There's no guilt in life.
No fear in death.
As the song tells us.
Our punishment
fell upon him.
Yes, we deserve
to be whooped a bit.
We deserve so much more.
And yet Jesus has taken our guilt
and our shame.
And the father has laid upon him
all of our sins.
So that's the rebellious son.
And for a long time,
I thought that was the extent
of the parable.
The parable was called
the prodigal son.
That's what it was about.
The man, manny squanders it.
Goes away.
It's forgiven.
But when we go to the beginning
of our passage,
the story's actually introduced.
If you look at verse 11,
it says there was a man
who had two sons.
So we know that this story
has not ended.
And at the beginning
of the chapter,
Luke tells us,
in verse 1 of this chapter,
chapter 15,
Now the tax collectors
and sinners were all
gathering around
to hear Jesus.
But the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law
muttered,
This man welcomes sinners
and eats with them.
Then Jesus told them
this parable.
So Jesus is with sinners,
as he tended to be.
But he's delivering
a series of parables here.
in quick succession
recorded by Luke,
to the Pharisees
or in response
to the attitude
of the Pharisees.
The ones who thought
that they could earn
God's favor
by obeying the law.
The first parable
is about a lost sheep.
So there's a man
who has a hundred sheep
and he loses one
and he goes
and searches for it
until he finds it.
The second one
is about a coin,
a lost coin.
A woman has ten coins.
She loses one
and searches everywhere
until she finds it.
And then he tells
the parable,
this parable,
of the two sons.
And personally,
I can imagine
the Pharisees
listening to these parables
and nodding along.
The sheep, yeah,
our God is a good God.
He cares about everyone.
Even though there's a hundred,
he cares about the one
who is lost.
And the lost coin,
the Pharisees
may nod along
and say,
yes,
our God will lose
none who come to him.
And even in this parable,
the story of the younger son,
the one who's reckless
and comes home
and is forgiven
by his forgiving father,
we can imagine
them nodding along
because it fits
their narrative.
But when Jesus gets
to the elder son,
the one who stuck around,
worked hard
to keep the rules,
the one that thinks
that law keeping,
obeying his father's command
has entitled him
to something,
then you can imagine
the anger
that they may feel.
The Pharisees
are like
the older brother.
As human beings,
we have our biases
confirmed
and we appreciate that,
but when they're challenged,
we don't like it at all.
And the idea
of the older son,
the elder son,
being in the wrong,
even after obeying
his father's commands,
must have been
incredibly challenging
to the Pharisees
who were listening.
So the elder son
is angry.
First of all,
he's angry.
He's in the field,
he hears music and dancing,
he refuses to go in
and demands
what's going on.
I think there's
a few things
going on here.
So as the elder son,
he would have received
a double portion
of his father's inheritance,
twice as much.
And the younger son's
already blown his,
so I wonder
if he's concerned
that this feast
is coming out
of his money.
Reveals to us
he's just as concerned
about money
as the reckless
younger brother was.
Secondly,
the elder brother's
upset
with his father
that his own
good performance
hasn't been rewarded.
He says,
you haven't even
given me a goat,
let alone a fatted calf.
He tells his father,
look,
all these years
I've been slaving
for you
and never disobeyed
your orders,
yet you never even,
you never gave me
even a young goat
so I could celebrate
with my friends.
The elder son
believes that he's
entitled
to reward.
He believes that
his hard work
and effort
in obeying
his father's commands
is what will earn
him privilege.
But our good
and faithful father
doesn't castize him,
he says,
son,
you're always with me
and everything I have
is yours.
This reveals something
else about the elder son.
It reveals that
he doesn't value
being with his father.
He doesn't understand
that being in the presence
of his father
has been a blessing
all along.
He thought it was
a means to an end
rather than a blessing
in itself.
And finally,
the elder son
doesn't love his brother.
That's so clear
from the language
he uses here.
He says in verse 30,
this son of yours,
disassociating himself,
he doesn't say my brother,
he says your son.
And he says,
has squandered your property
with prostitutes,
painting his brother
in the worst possible light.
Not only that,
but while the younger brother
was away
in famine-stricken land,
starving,
we find no record
of the elder son
even thinking
about helping him out.
He just feels resentful
when he comes back.
In 1 John 2,
and verse 9,
it says,
anyone who claims
to be in the light
but hates his brother
or sister
is still in darkness.
It seems as though
this elder brother
says he's in the light,
he's been following
his father's commands,
but he's still in darkness.
He's been keeping up
appearances,
but with jealousy
and pride
and even hatred
for his brother
in his heart.
The Pharisees
couldn't understand
why Jesus was hanging around
with publicans
and sinners.
He could have been
debating theology
with them.
He could have been
ensuring people
were obeying
the law.
They had such a low opinion
of the people
Jesus spent time with.
But in the book
of Samuel,
it tells us
the Lord does not look
at the things
people look at.
People look at
outward appearance,
but the Lord
looks at the heart.
Jesus knew
the hearts
of these people.
He knew these people
from before
they were born.
And he knew
that keeping
the law
as a way
of putting God
in debt
is not
any kind of
salvation at all.
So the elder son
reveals himself
to be self-serving
and self-righteous.
He doesn't obey
his father
out of love.
He's kept
the rules of the house
because he's got
his eye
on his inheritance.
It's interesting
that he has kept
his act,
his pretense,
his performance
all this time.
But when it falls down
is in the face
of his father's
lavish generosity
and reckless love
that he shows
towards the elder son.
So we've got
two brothers.
We're quite accustomed
to thinking about
things on a spectrum
these days,
I think.
On one end,
we've got wild
and reckless
and on the other end,
we've got
self-righteous
and prideful.
And maybe
where we sit
on that spectrum
defines our existence.
We think about that
in terms of creativity
or neurodiversity.
We talk about
being on a spectrum.
But I think maybe
as Christians
it's less of a spectrum
and more of a pendulum
because
my personal experience,
one day
we're fighting
against
wickedness
and sinfulness
overtly
and the next day
we're swinging
the other way
and fighting
about being prideful
about our performance.
We have a bad day
when we're tempted
to go
the path
that we were on
before we were saved
and then we have
equally bad days
when we think
that our performance
before God
has somehow
earned us
the right
to demand things
from Him.
We're constantly
trying to control
our lives
by leaning
into these
two directions.
So we think
we don't want
God to control us
I want to do
what I want
and we edge
towards recklessness
and then we think
actually I'm going
to obey the commands
and earn God's favor
and we lean
into pride
when in fact
we need to be
in the middle.
Of course
the work of sanctification
the Holy Spirit
working within us
maybe makes
our swings
to each side
smaller.
maybe we don't
fall as far
as maybe we once did.
But the fact
that we still swing
shows us the need
that we have
for one
who has never
been swayed
in either direction.
Someone who can
stand before God
in our place
because we
are constantly
swinging
from side to side
blowing with the wind.
That brings us
thirdly
most importantly
but most concisely
for today
to the third
brother.
The one who doesn't
appear in this story
the one who's
telling the story.
So just like
the younger son
Jesus left home
but unlike
the younger son
he made no demands
of his father
before he left.
In fact
he left the glory
and majesty
of heaven
where all
he had known
was love
for all eternity
and he went
willingly.
He didn't go
into a far country
to be separate
from his father.
He went to
fulfill his father's
will.
And while he was
on earth
Jesus was never
wasteful of anything
not even a word
or a thought.
Everything he did
pleased his father
and unlike the elder son
he never took praise
for himself.
He never thought
I've earned this.
He was constantly
pointing to God
the father
and everything he did.
Jesus tells us
why do you call me good?
No one is good
except God
constantly giving
his father the glory.
Jesus came for us
unlike the elder brother
who had the means
to help his younger brother
but chose not to.
Jesus came for us.
He left glory.
He left the glory
of heaven
to come for us
and he paid
the ultimate sacrifice
for our sins.
The greatest ever
act of love.
And the seriousness
of this cannot be
lost on us
because at the end
of our parable today
the father says
to the elder brother
your younger brother
wasn't just away
from the family
he wasn't just
out of the scene
he was dead.
The hard truth
is that's the same
for all of us
who don't have
our faith in Jesus.
And it would have been true
for every single human
had Jesus not come
and not given himself
for us.
And Jesus returned home.
Like the younger son
he returned home
the young son though
went home starving
and barefoot
because of what
he'd squandered
because of what
he'd lost.
Jesus went home
with his feet
pierced through
with nails
because of what
he'd won.
on the cross
Jesus defeated
sin and death
so that we can also
go home
to our true home
with our Lord.
And now he sits
making intercession
for us
asking the father
pleading for us
not because we deserve it
but because
of his goodness.
So in conclusion
then
I wonder
why we are
here
today.
The younger son
left his father's
house because
he didn't want
his father
looming over him.
There's no real
reason for us
to be in church
today socially.
It's not as if
people think well
of us
at work
because we go
to church.
We're not in line
for a promotion
because of our
behavior
on a Sunday
morning.
we're clearly
not running away
from God
like the rebellious
son did.
Maybe we're
coming home.
Maybe we've
come to our
senses
and we're
returning to
our heavenly
father with a
repentant heart
and a willingness
to submit
ourselves
to his
goodness.
And if we
are
we will be
accepted.
Rings
shoes
feasts
await.
Don't delay
in coming to
your heavenly
father today.
Maybe we're
here because
we think
we're earning
brownie
points.
Like the
elder son
might have
done.
Maybe we
think that
God will
look at us
here in
church.
It's cold
out there.
On a Sunday
morning we
could have
been in bed
with tea
and toast
but we're
here.
Maybe we
think that
we're going
to add a
tally mark
against our
name in
God's book
of life
against
mark us
up one
point.
Well I'm
confident that
we're not.
even if we
were this
idea of
earning our
way into
heaven would
crush us.
There's no
way that we
can keep
the law.
We're all
sitting on a
pendulum swinging
from sin to
sin.
It's only by
God's grace
that we're
saved.
We have to
be here this
morning because
of Jesus.
The one that
Tim Keller
calls the true
elder brother,
our elder
brother,
our rescuer.
remember in
Acts when
Paul and
Silas were
freed from
prison and
the jailer
asked them
what must I
do to be
saved?
They didn't
write out a
list of
laws or
recite the
Ten Commandments.
They said
believe in
the Lord
Jesus Christ
and you
will be
saved.
You and
your household.
No try
this, no do
that, no it
might, it
could, maybe
you might have
the potential,
will be
saved.
And it
doesn't matter
what kind of
unbeliever you
were, whether
you were wild
and reckless or
whether you
were self-righteous
and conceited or
anything in
between, God's
able to save to
the uttermost all
who come to
him.
We're not here
because we're
trying to earn
anything, we're
here because we
delight in the
one who's already
earned it all.
He's paid the
price for our
sin.
He's taken the
punishment that we
deserve and we
love him.
We're not
merely grateful
to him because
that would be to
underplay enormously
what he has done.
We love him, we
live for him.
As the psalmist
says, I desire to
do your will, your
laws within my
heart.
This is our
pleasure, the
highlight of our
week, the place
our souls are
restored as we
travel along life's
journey until at
last we will be
with him in glory
for all eternity.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father,
Yeah.