I invite you to turn in the Scriptures tonight to Luke's Gospel, chapter 15. If you are visiting tonight, this is really part two of a message that we began this morning looking at the well-known parable of the prodigal son, and tonight we're looking at the older son, the older son in the field. We'll read verses 11 to the end of the chapter tonight. Let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord. that country and he began to be in need so he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything but when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread but i perish here with hunger i will arise and go to my father and i will say to him father i've sinned against heaven and before you i am not worthy to be called your son treat me as one of your hired servants and he arose and came to his father but while he was still a long way off his father saw him felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him and the son said to him father i have sinned against heaven and before you i am no longer worthy to be called your son but the father said to his servants bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate but this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and disfound and they began to celebrate now our text now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said to him your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound but he was angry and refused to go in his father came out and entreated him but he answered his Father, look, these many years I have served you. I have never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad. For this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. In Matthew 23, Jesus made a jolting statement to the Pharisees who were sitting there and listening to Him. And He said this to them in Matthew 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men here it is for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in you don't go in and you keep everyone else out. What a sweeping indictment. That defines everything Jesus is exposing in this parable. That really does capture the parable. I have made the case that ultimately this parable is not so much about the rebel younger son. This parable shows us the love of the father for prodigals god's willingness is put on display to receive sinners all with the goal of exposing an attitude of the older son who has shut up the kingdom to those who are coming in and he won't enter himself all of that raises important questions you know when you think about the whole context of this and Jesus giving this parable, do they understand at all the gospel mission of Christ? Do they know why God sent his son? Why he had to? Don't they know that Jesus had come to seek and to save that which was lost? Their whole attitude demonstrated no understanding of need and no understanding of gospel and no understanding of the need for grace. Don't they know God? Don't they get it? What kind of God have they created? What kind of God are they preaching to the masses? Jesus is utterly exposing their hypocrisy after they especially openly criticized Him for eating with the tax collectors and sinners, which is what really did drive this entire parable. This is the reason Jesus gave these three parables in a row. They're all one with the same meaning. Remember that in verse 1. Then all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he spoke this parable. Well, we consider the first part this morning, and Jesus is painting just a glorious picture for us. with extremes. He's painting extreme situations and scenarios here to make the great point that their attitude doesn't at all correspond to God's attitude to receive sinners. In fact, they looked at Jesus and said he can't be from God because he's sitting with these defiled sinners. And so they had a cross issue going on here where they said he must be from Satan because he sits with satan's people now remember what jesus did he he graphically depicted one of the worst evils that a young man could do in that particular culture the sin had to do with an attack on the honor of the father the honor of the name so remember the basic story here the father had these two sons the younger said to him father give me the portion of goods give me all of the goods give me everything that belongs to me that falls to me i want out and he committed a shameful display described in this parable of taking his father's inheritance dragging his dad's name through the mud departing the gentile country wasting away his life and prodigal wasteful extravagant living loose immoral living harlotry in that culture this display would have so shamed the family name they would have utterly written him out of the family for good it got even worse he joined himself to a citizen of that country who ended up then sending him to feed with the pigs. What an awful rock-bottom situation we have presented to us in this parable. They really couldn't have imagined something worse happening to the family. The Jews would even scrub off Gentile defilement, you understand, and dirt before entering back into their cities when they left. They had ritual washings. well this morning jesus did it he described the most amazing event and in the midst of all of this guess what happened he repented he turned sorrow filled his heart he came home and it was all planned out he thought to himself well listen slaves are better in dad's house they're treated better than I am so I'm just going to go back and I'll do what it takes to earn his favor that his status would remain as a slave until the father then in that culture would initiate him back into the house as a son determining that even being a slave was better than feeding with the pigs he came home the real moment of the parable this morning really the shame of this, at least from the ways that the Pharisees would have seen it, the shame of it all is the action of the Father. It's a shocking scene. The Father is waiting by the window. The Father is looking out the window. In the distance, He sees His Son. And as soon as the Father sees the silhouette of His Son, He bolts out. He runs. as fast as he can and he falls on the neck of his pig-stied son. Embraces him. And forgave him without one work. Embraced him. Loved him. Clothed him. Through the grand feast, the whole thing showed nothing but joy. The whole thing had ended on such a wonderful mark of joy and happiness. what a tragedy when somebody runs what a tragedy when a young person runs what a tragedy when we run from the lord we're all prodigals well pharisees are just furious by this point absolutely furious if you can put yourself in their shoes that boy needs to work that boy needs to get it back boy needs to earn favor with this god or with his father even in the conventional wisdom of our day you know what father would just okay come on back in everything's good the most moving thing about the parable is how Jesus applied it. He applied the whole thing in the middle of this by saying, before He started, this is God's disposition toward a sinner when He comes home. Heaven rejoices. Angels are mimicking what the Heavenly Father has taught them. This is God's disposition. There is more joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. Jesus here is giving the purpose for which He came forth. There's no parable that so beautifully puts on display the love of God better than this. The Father's love in giving His Son. Look at God receiving filthy sinners. Now, tonight we get to the heart of Jesus' concern. Pharisees are standing there right in front of them. He depicts exactly how heaven views the returned prodigal, but now the concern about the attitude of the older son, which represents them. Look at verse 25. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. He said to him, your brother has come home and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. Now, the brilliance of this parable is that Jesus uses a variety of things to really capture the spirit and the attitude of this older brother. Remember, this was the one who was morally upright. Morally upright. This is the one who had always been there. This is the one who never left. And what we find is the most unexpected thing in the parable, that in actuality, we're finding a lot out about his heart. He's just as far as the other younger brother from the father. Living in the father's house, he doesn't even care about the father. Think about this. Jesus emphasizes the fact that he was in the countryside or the field. So he's out doing his own thing. Notice how Jesus has set this up. Essentially, you have two sons returning home. Don't miss this. Two sons are coming home. Both are prodigals in the proper sense. How so? Well, who's coming near to the house? The question we should think of is, whose house? Remember verse 12? Whose house is this? Well, all the livelihood had been divided. In principle, this was the older son's house. Until the father was dead, it really, he had already laid claim to the house. Everything had been given to the younger son who had went out and squandered everything. Whatever was left was his. You could put it this way. Ever since the livelihood was divided, the younger brother took his and left. This son stayed in the house. This son remained. This son kept the house up. This son was building the house. He has been in the house. He's been providing for the house. The house is essentially his house, if you will. Now you can understand the intensity of this. He comes up to the house and all he hears is music and dancing. There is a party going on. Dancing. Great music. They're listening to all this. He can hear it. You can probably imagine. I don't know if it was like this, but you can imagine them all hooked up with arms and their legs are going up and they're all dancing around, right? The older brother comes up and he hears all this going on. And he says, what is this? Well, think about it. He's so far from the father, he doesn't even go in. He refuses to go into the house. He calls one of the servants. Explain this to me. As if to say, if the younger son had no real interest, does this one care about why his father is joyful? The contrast here is startling. Both sons are represented as alienated from the father. One, the profligate, the other, the moralist. What a moralist. And yet, only one comes to realize the need for the father. He goes to the servant. Explain this. Your brother has come home. And because your father received him safe and sound, he killed the fatted calf for him. What a moment. Imagine the excitement of the servant. Can you imagine the attitude of the son? He did what? My father is eating with him? My father has received him back? Is he using my portion of the inheritance? And now we see what Jesus is striking at here, don't we? This was the big problem the Pharisees had with Jesus. They were saying it his entire ministry. The son of man came eating and drinking. They say, look, a glutton and a wine bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. There was the charge. This guy hangs out with thugs. He eats with these guys. He associates with them. He's going out into Gentile regions. And he's getting their filth on him. He touches them, the lepers. He does everything against their unclean, clean laws. He goes into people's houses like Zacchaeus, the tax collector. Are you kidding me? He makes a part of his inner circle of the 12, his closest communing circle, Matthew, the chief tax collector, a wretched, small, mokey tax collector. You know what that all brought about? It brought about this. They said, no true prophet could do this. He has a devil. He's a Beelzebub. He's the ruler of demons. Jesus would come along and say, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. God's on a rescue mission. And they stood furious with stones. the older son so far removed from the father verse 28 he is angry notice it says it he wouldn't go in no wait the other one came in this one won't go in and he's in the house think about that farther going down the road the same picture is that now the father runs out to meet this son. Look at the father. Look at the character of the father here. Look at how the father is depicted in this parable. The father goes out to meet this son. And in the mind of this son is, how dare you, father, receive him? Do you know what he's done? Do you know what he did to your name? Do you know what he did? He took your name. He dragged it through the mud. Do you know the shame he brought on our house? Do you know the shame he brought on your house and your name and everything you worked for, everything you taught, everything, all your principles, he just trashed. This is really sad that you've done this. To which you stop and say, did he ever love his brother in the first place? Did he ever himself go out and try to stop his brother when his brother ran? Did he ever run out and say, no, no, brother, don't do this. Don't, don't, don't, don't do this with your life. He is furious at grace. You know that's a Pharisee. The best definition of a Pharisee is somebody furious at grace. He was angry, verse 28, and he refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him. I mean, it's seriously like this morning, the supper, and the father, somebody's out at the door mad about somebody who's in here and the father runs out and he opens up the door and he, come in, come on. Son, come in. How can we open up the door wider for you to come in? Come into the house. Share in this joy. Share in my joy. What an amazing moment as he is shaming his own father by not coming into His Father's feast. It's easy sometimes to reach someone who has blatantly despised everything and lived in open sin because once the famine hits, the conscience is so sensitive to the remedy and they know what they've been, they know what they've tried, they know what they've done, they struggle with God's love, They struggle with whether God will receive them, but they are so sensitive in the conscience. And they well up. Because they know where they've been. It can be really hard being in the house. And we could delude ourselves in self-righteousness and be living quite far from the Father in the house. Have you thought about the picture that Jesus is painting? Come. Both sons. Come, son. Come in. You want to keep staying out there. Come. What are you doing with your life? Come. And now, we're getting to the heart of his problem. The elder son is invited to the feast. Remember chapter 14? A great feast was planned and the Lord invited many and they didn't come in. So the Lord said, that's it. If they don't want to come, I'm going and getting others. Go out quickly into the streets. Go into the lanes of the city and bring in the poor, bring in the maimed, the lame, and the blind. Come in. They came. They came in. These foul ones, They came in the house. And here, even though this one ever came, he is pictured here, even though he was in the house, never would come into the feast in the house, he is furious at grace. He thinks, how could God build His kingdom with people like this? This is the chaff that the wind should drive away. verse 29 gets to the heart of everything tonight but he answered his father look these many years i've served you and i never disobeyed your command you hear it i have worked this guy needs to make some kind of restitution before he's just received back in you know there's there would have been some kind of public humiliation we looked at that this morning ridiculing at the gate there would have been used to this shame but you just embraced him you just threw your neck on you fell on his neck and you gave him a higher status than me you gave him my robe it's my robe you threw on him you already divided his portion you notice the spirit I worked it's a legal spirit i mean think of this in connection with the parable of the workers in the vineyard you know some started in the vineyard at the beginning of the day and they you know then the lord brings in workers at the very last hour i mean how do you make anything on anyone who comes in at five o'clock on a work day you don't make anything on them they didn't do anything to benefit you but then the landowner gives them the same amount as those who had been in the vineyard all day long. You don't do that. I built this. I sweat. I worked. You see the legal spirit in you? Jesus takes it further. Lo, I have been serving you all these years and, hold on, I never transgressed your single command. Which one? Well, I can't help but think it had to have been the fifth. Honor your father. I did it. I was always there for you. Let me put it in our terms. Let me put this in our terms so that it helps us tonight. I always attended church, twice. I sacrificed to put my kids in the Christian school. I never was down at the bars. I worked hard all my life. I maintained an honorable life and you just received someone from our family and gave him a higher status than me who left the church, got on drugs, wrecked their family, did nothing with their kids to train them in a Christian way. And now after all that, you fall on that person's neck. You feel it? You threw your arms around someone like that. Everything I did was right. I tithed. But did you know your father? Did you love your father? Do you have any idea that being in the house was all grace to begin with? Do you understand your need, son, to come into the feast? You never gave me a goat. But when this son of yours came in, not my brother, I have separated out because they didn't do things the way that I did. I broke that fellowship because he didn't do it the way that I did. He just ransacked our house. But you gave him a goat and he's out celebrating with his friends. What am I doing with my buddies? He devoured it with prostitutes. Feel the thrust of that? And you gave him a calf. Father, you really do need to apologize to me. You really do. You owe me a giant apology. You've offended me by bringing trash back into our house. Boy, how do you think that went over among the Pharisees? And it can be so prevalent in us keep the filth off of our little block right here. How does the Father respond? Even to the self-righteous, Son, you're always with me. All that is mine is yours. In other words, what have you ever lacked? I've been here for you, haven't I? I've provided. Where have I ever done you wrong? You tell me where I have ever done you wrong. You've had a place in my house. You've always been provided for. What kind of grace even to a Pharisee is Jesus telling us about? It's really remarkable. The Lord is extending grace to Pharisees. Guess what? We're all recovering Pharisees. Be thankful for that. And the final probing question of the parable comes out in verse 32. It was fitting to celebrate. It was fitting to be glad. For this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and he's found. Aren't you happy about your brother? We're so overjoyed in the house right now that he came home. aren't you? Don't you want that? Isn't it right for us to have joy? Isn't that the goal? That he come home? Or would you rather him stay out there? Do you want him to stay out there? He was dead, but he's come home and he's alive now. And I'm full of joy. Heaven's rejoicing over this. He was going to go to hell. But he came home. Son, would you come into the feast and be happy with us? Come in. Jesus really did end this parable by making the point, and he's been saying it the whole time, that's God's attitude when a sinner turns and comes. Heaven has a ceremony of rejoicing. Jesus had been saying all along, I've come as light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. I don't want people to abide in darkness. I've come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. That's the purpose I came. My purpose is to forgive sinners. My purpose is to free them. My purpose is so that you would know the truth and the truth would set you free. And this is our mission. This is why we're here. This is what we're a part of. And you're part of the feast. but take heed you don't despise one of these little ones for i say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven for the son of man has come to save that which was lost what do you think if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountains and seek the one that's straying and if he should find it assured that i say to you he rejoices more over that sheep than over the 99 that did not go astray Even so, it's not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Son, aren't you excited? My son was lost and he's found. He was dead. He's alive again. Most commentators kind of freeze at this moment. There's no end. Did you catch that? There's no end to this parable. The problem with the parable is I want to know how this ends. I want to know when dad went to the door, if the older brother came into the feast. I want to know that. And did his attitude change? I want to know, did these self-righteous Pharisees come in? What was the response? You can't leave us hanging, Jesus. Is the son going to come in? Well, I suppose then you have a few options in terms of response. Phil Reichen just captures it when he says, for us the most important question is how the parable will end in our own lives. How will I respond to the Father's welcome? Will I share my Father's joy by repenting of my sin and acknowledging that I am both the prodigal son and the elder brother? Will I share his joy by confessing my need for grace that he offers through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? How did this end? How do you want it to end? Well, wouldn't it be great if the older son heard that, fell on his knees and cried out, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Father, I've sinned in not loving my brother. I want to come in. And the father falls on his neck and he throws him around and he grabs a robe and he puts it on this son and both sons come in the house and they are married. Sadly, here's how it ended for the Pharisees. Finally, he sent his son to them. saying, they will respect my son. Then they said, hey, there's the heir. Come, let's kill him. Let's seize him and take his inheritance. So they took him and they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Even after we killed God's beloved Son, whom He loved, He raised Him from the dead, and today the Father stands at the door and says, come. Come in. Come in. Let us never despise grace as He is building His kingdom. Because He builds and fills His church. A church where you all should come with filthy, justified sinners. Prodigals just like you and me. Let's thank Him tonight in prayer. Heavenly Father, when we think about where we would be apart from Your wooing grace, and You seeking and saving that which is lost through the blood and the righteousness of Your Son. We would still be in the pigsty. Or, we could be here every week and not know You. Oh Lord, I pray that that is torn down. If there's anyone here who doesn't know the Father and the Son, and is just going through the motions, and is not part of Your building project, and doesn't understand grace and is actually a despiser of it. That You would work powerfully in their hearts for them to see their sins. And that all of us together today would say, oh, we've tried it all. We tried being the younger prodigal. We ran. That's our story in Adam. And we lived and we ended up at the bottom of the barrel. And then in the house, we have been the other prodigal son for we've been despisers of grace. Fill us with the Gospel Spirit. that as we come and gather around the great feast that You gave us this morning, anticipating the eternal feast, that such joy would fill all of our hearts together and that we would praise the God of heaven and earth who called us out of darkness and brought us into this marvelous light and be so joyful as the angels in heaven are when somebody else is brought into that kingdom and is made a part of this family. Thank you for instructing us in righteousness and thank you for convicting our hearts and may this week we love you and follow diligently after you drawing near knowing that you will draw near to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.