“Father, I Have Sinned”

I invite you to turn in the Scriptures this morning as we take a break from both of our series today in a part one and two of the well-known parable of the prodigal son. Luke chapter 15 this morning. Luke chapter 15, New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke. And this morning we will be looking carefully at verses 11 through 32. That's the whole thing, but we'll be looking at the first son, and then tonight, all the way down, we'll look at verse 25-32, but this morning is just 11-24. So let's give our attention this morning to God's Word, again, the parable of the prodigal son. And he said, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, father give me the share of property that is coming to me and he divided his property between them not many days later the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country and there he squandered his property in reckless living and when he had spent everything a severe famine arose in 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'm no longer 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 and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I've 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 for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to celebrate And there we'll stop the reading of God's Word. Well, this morning as we come to the table of our Lord, it's always important to reflect and think about what kind of heart the Lord desires and loves to come and to commune with Him. This is a wonderful parable that really does display that and put on display Jesus' willingness to receive sinners. What a remarkable thing to say. what a beautiful thing to say but to say that in the first century we understand it was a radical thing because in this entire context demonstrates a whole bunch of people whose attitudes did not share that view i thought this morning as we came to the table this would be wonderful to consider together as no passage i look at luke 15 and i think so beautifully crafted this parable so perfect nothing wasted the lord gave us this to display if you will the heart of god it's the parable of what we have designated the prodigal son the prodigal son we'll look at that and see if that's just so accurate this morning it's going to be a little bit different twist by the end of the day that i hope that you see as we look at this great section of scripture But taking the word prodigal, when we think of the word prodigal, it means the extravagant, reckless, wasting son. Extravagant. He had everything and he squandered it. He wasted it. He was reckless in his extravagance. Well, with that in mind this morning, I want to take us as much as possible back to the setting that Jesus, when he gave this, what they understood by it, how they heard the parable to make the point that Jesus came and gave confessing prodigals a place at his table. And how we respond to that mission, what we understand, what this exposes, what this raises to the surface, which is really the purpose of this parable, it is to raise something to the surface that sits deeply ingrained in our hearts that often doesn't get out. And that's why we have to look at these familiar passages it raises something because it's demonstrating for us and exposing that what we believe about the mission of jesus what we believe about who he receives will demonstrate everything this morning about how our hearts are before him in other words what will it expose what will it show when we see Jesus sitting with the absolute worst of society what really did Jesus speak and say when he said this parable to this first century sort of peasant audience what did they hear when he spoke the parable there's an immediate I think tendency when I've heard this explained to simply jump right into the parable without considering the context into which it came at the end of chapter 14 you will notice that multitudes had been following jesus multitudes had been following him and he was giving absolutely crushing calls it would make us nervous today the law would hit so hard we would be nervous about listening to these kind of crushing calls crushing calls for sinners to denounce themselves to get rid of their self-confidence to humble themselves to count the cost which of you sitting down to build a tower does not first count the cost all this kind of language is there about counting the cost in chapter 14 when he talked about discipleship and following him and then he moves into another parable you'll remember they're actually previous to that just before that of a great feast A great wedding feast. A great banquet, if you will. And the first two were invited, they wouldn't come in. And so in anger, the master commanded the servant to go out and to bring in the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame. No one that he invited in the second round could ever make it in themselves. Amazing thing. These parables are showing us something. Some would not come in. Some were coming. Some would not come in. Think of the older brother. Some were coming. Well, in chapter 15, the whole moment that really does precipitate and drive this famous parable is that is motivated by what just happened at the beginning of this chapter when Jesus was sitting there dining with sinners. you'll notice that in verse one now the tax collectors and the sinners were drawing near to him and the pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying this man receives sinners and eats with them so he told them this parable very important this parable was a response to that these parables of which he gives three in a row, three big blows through these parables, was a response to their grumbling that he was dining with these kinds of people. The sinners and the tax collectors were the fowl of society. And the Savior wanted them to hear the words of life. Christ wanted to preach to them the kingdom. How radical it was. He's hanging out with these guys. He's eating with these people. He's feeding with them. He's reclining the chair with them. He's healing them. He's had compassion on them and he's loved them. The leadership is in an absolute uproar. Uproar. He has turned the church upside down at this point and with these parables, which he will, exposing their hypocrisy. This man receives sinners and eats with them. You believe that? Deep ingrained into the hearts and into the lives of these long-standing religious leaders with their traditions, deep expressions of the heart had come to surface in Jesus' ministry. That's what good ministry does. It raises to the surface expressions like this. It has this kind of effect and Jesus was doing this everywhere. It was having this kind of effect on the religious leader because the people that Jesus was drawing in did not fit the club. Didn't fit it. Didn't look like what it should. They didn't act like it. They didn't fit into conformity. They didn't fit into the mold. Nothing about it made sense to them. How dare He do this? And it's in this sort of vein that Jesus is saying to us through these three parables, I'm going to show you something. I'm going to show you the willingness of God to receive sinners. How do you respond to that? And what do you think of yourself? Does your attitude correspond with God's attitude when someone comes in the kingdom? That's the point of these parables. Does your attitude correspond with God's attitude when someone comes in the kingdom? If not, who then is the lost son? This is it. That's the whole point of these sections. So from this initial response of the Pharisees to Jesus sitting there, he gives these three parables which have really the same meaning. In the first two, a man loses a sheep. He loses one of his sheep. And then he tells another parable of a woman who loses the coin. and the point of the parable in both of them which was, which one of them will not be really happy when they find what they've lost? Who doesn't get excited when they've lost something really valuable to them that they get it back? You know that in the world. You know that in society. You know that in your own lives. You have any idea then, says Jesus, what happens when a sinner repents? Do you know what goes on? Let me tell you what goes on. Verse 10, there is more joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Heaven rejoices, says the Lord. Do you know that? Heaven's excited. Why in the world are you not excited? What are you doing with your lives if it doesn't correspond to what heaven's doing when a sinner comes? God rejoices. And you can just sort of think about the mentality of the scribes and the Pharisees after these first two parables. Well, that may be, but only with certain sins. Yeah, heaven may rejoice when a sinner comes in, but it's only with certain sins. Some are so bad. Some sins are so heinous. Some sins are so destructive. You cannot just go around depicting God as receiving those kind of people who've done those kind of things. You can't do that. There's got to be a line that's drawn here somewhere. There has to be a real earning of the Father's favor back if we're even going to grant this, right? That was the mentality. It's in this context that Jesus gives the most fascinating, glorious, beautiful of all parables about forgiveness, the forgiveness of God, the attitude of God towards sinners. Jesus begins in verse 11. And he said, there was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Two sons in a house. Ultimately, the focus is in most messages on the prodigal son, this young prodigal son. The younger son is the focus. But I would challenge that and say that that is not really the ultimate drive of Christ here. The ultimate drive is to demonstrate the attitude of the Father. That's what He's showing. It's the Father of. It's the Father of two prodigal sons. That's the message. It's his attitude toward his two prodigal sons. So Jesus is really painting one of the worst scenarios possible that could ever happen in a family of the first century. And it's not so far off from us, is it? One of the worst possible scenarios using the most extreme language, the most graphic depiction that they would have all stood there and said, I mean, that's the effect. It's a tragedy, what he describes here. The younger son comes, now think about this, the younger son comes to his father. Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. Give me the goods. Very rough translation. Just give it to me. In the first century, you may have had a right to something, but you couldn't just then. You had to wait until the father died, and then you could have the capital and have the rights to it. He didn't so much have the rights to it. He wasn't asking for that. He was asking for the rights right now. Give it to me as if you're dead. You may have had the right to it, but you could only spend it when the father died. That's not what he asked for. I want it now. So he asks for the portion of the goods that fell to him. The whole sense that we're getting here and that we should get is he wants out. The idea that comes across is that once he has received his inheritance, once he's got it and has the right to it, to spend as he can, he doesn't need dad anymore. He can finally be free. The only thing that holds him is this inheritance. It's the only thing that really keeps him in the house. If he could get it now, he'd be gone. It would satisfy him and it would free him up from all ties to this family. There's no love for the father. It's not there. There's no care for the father. There's no concern for the father's name. None. All he thinks about is if he could get out of the house with the inheritance. And if he doesn't get out, he may never get it. He thinks, if I can get it now, I can spend without all the scrutiny of feeling so constricted in this family. This is it. It would be like a son who's just keeping the peace in the house until dad dies. He's out. He'll be free to spend whatever he wants without all the scrutiny, without all the questioning. Free to live and buy and do what he wants. Without all the condemnation of everyone looking at him in his reckless, extravagant spending. So dad does it. Dad does it. And the emphasis of the parable, I mean, no father would be that. We think about it. What father would do that? We would say that if you did that to your son today, not a good thing to do because he just can't handle it. He just can't handle it. This dad gave it all. That's the heart. That's the emphasis of the parable. The Lord wanted people to feel that. This father gave it all to him right then and there. Loved him that much. His heart is so big. What a father. He wants to give every good gift to his son. He doesn't even want it for himself. He wants to give it to his son. What does he do? How many days after? The younger son gathered it all together, grabbed the wad of money, liquidated everything, grabbed it, and he journeyed and he bolted. He bolted as far away from dad as he possibly could. And there he noticed the word, he just wasted his life. He wasted it with prodigal, immoral living. Harlotry. Put yourself in the first century for a minute. Jesus would have said this. The offense would have been unthinkable. A scholar of the first century was once asked, what was Greco-Roman world? What was life like in the Greco-Roman world? When this came, what would it have been like when Jesus told this parable? And the professor said, you want to know what family life was like? He said, watch the Godfather. His point was, that's how the family operated. It was like a little mafia. Fathers were the patriarchs. The children were in service to the father to maintain the name of the family. They lived in one big giant court or square all close to each other with all the many rooms and the family worked to preserve the family name. This is what you did in the first century. So the real picture that Jesus is painting here is he wants out i mean he wants out and this is not like asking to get out of a game you know you could pay the price if you do that with a mafia or a game this is the place of love this is the place of fellowship this is the place of care he gets the goods right to the capital takes his father's name and he drags it through the mud and within just a few days he has run off to another country understand the gravitas of that this is Gentile land when a Jew heard that Pharisees he took all of dad's inheritance dad's hard work all the family gems all the years of hard work that dad did to make a home for his son. Everything that dad worked for. Hard. And he shamed dad. And he went and he spent it all. And not only did he spend it all, he did it with prodigal living, it says. With reckless, extravagant living. What kind of living? Well, put it in our terms. He dumped his family. He dumped his church. He disregarded all the years of Christian training he's ever had. He took the family name, dragged it through the mud, shamefully treated dad the way he did. Everyone saw the greatest amount of hypocrisy take place in this family. And after seizing the inheritance, he went down to Vegas with his wad, bought a beamer, and then hooked up with all the women down on the Vegas Strip. It's the effect. Immoral, loose living. Whole life turned into an extravagant waste. Understand the message? Are we there yet? When we gratify ourselves, when we're searching for all the pleasures of sin, when we're living for more and more and more and we're rushing for one, one pastor said, entertainment to the next, one high to the next. One big life is just one big party. This man is a narcissist. He's a hedonist. It's all about him. He lives to maximize pleasure. It's what hedonism is. Figured it out? It's your story. It's your story. It's my story. People are trying to get away from God ultimately. This is what they do. They want nothing to do with Him. They view Him as constricting. They view Him as holding. They hate His authority structure. They want His provisions. Oh yeah, no atheists in a foxhole, right? I mean, they'll beg for whatever to get it and run. It's a lie of the devil. You've got to get out. You need to be free. You need to go spend. You need to do what will make you happy. Anyone living outside of the will of God is the greatest waster of his life. And this prodigal runs and he wastes everything of dad's inheritance. Dissipation, gluttony, drunkenness, you name it. We know parents who've had children who've done this. It's not flattering to the family name. It's the skeleton in the closet no one likes to talk about. It's painful. The parent feels like a giant failure. Sad. We stand back, sad what happened to that child. Oh, it's just so sad what happened to that child. Right? Is the picture bad enough? Jesus goes further. Now he has landed up and ended up in complete bondage to someone else who doesn't care a lick for him. And when, verse 14, he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and he hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wasted all his inheritance and he went and he joined himself there the word glue he joined he became in union with somebody else and this this other master had absolutely no care for him just as if he went to a harlot and jesus gives us the rock bottom in verse 50 jesus gives us the absolute rock bottom we say that with people maybe sometimes people need to hit rock bottom jesus gives it right here here's rock bottom. And then verse 15 and 16, he was sent to feed with the pigs and he was longing. This is where it all ended up. This is where all his extravagance brought him. This is amazing. You would think if you had all your money and you had all the money to spend in the world, think about where this ended up. This is where it all ended up. He was feeding and wanted the pods that pigs ate. that's all that was left no one gave him anything now pause pharisees are standing there he did what he went to the pigs to the jew that is the most unclean foul disgusting disgusting things that you could ever go hang out with pigs apologize to the pig farmers here after all of his rebellion after all of his squandering he hits rock bottom finds himself in the soot in the grime of the pigs and he's feeding with what they feed with. The man has trampled the name. The man has wasted the family inheritance. The man has ended up in loose living. He has departed to a Gentile land. He's united with the wicked and he's ended up feeding with everything that's unclean imaginable. To which I say, that's where sin lands you. That's where sin will take you. promises so much. And at the end, the end of its long path is not just death. You're naked. Yeah, it's death. But you're naked on the way there. Destitute, empty. And it ends in death. What a sad life. Now Jesus just described who? The tax collectors and the sinners that He's sitting with. They ran. They tried it. And they're at the bottom of the barrel, man. I mean, they are at the bottom of the barrel eating with the pigs. That's whom Jesus has now come to sit with. And the Pharisees, why is God sitting with them? Well, they didn't say God. They didn't think Jesus was God. But it was God. And He's going around preaching in the regions and the good news of the kingdom and these tax collectors and sinners are the ones that are coming to Him. Think about that. Lo and behold, those in the pigsty. And Jesus depicts what's happening in verse 17. This becomes the changing point for the young prodigal. This is right where Jesus is. Jesus is out preaching. This is the changing point for the young prodigal. It's one of the most striking moments of the parable in this despicable, horrid, wretched situation. All of a sudden, he came to himself. Boom. What am I doing? This condition I'm in. I've just wrecked my life and I didn't even see it. Then he starts to think about his father. I had no appreciation for him. He had thrown out everything he had learned. And all of a sudden, the light came on. I'm lost. This is always the point of turning. Deep reflection of the path that you've chosen and the choices that have brought you ruin and misery. And that apart from the Father's house, this life is just hopeless. There's nothing to live for. Apart from the God of heaven and earth, you're unsatisfied, you're empty, but you could try it and it tastes good on the way, right? You're empty, you're lonely, you're miserable. Look at a young person who's chosen it. He wastes his all-morning sleeping because he's been out late drunk. The question becomes, how can I return? It's what every sinner starts to struggle with. Is there a way back? How do you make this right? If I've done something so terrible, can God really love? What do I need to do? You struggle with your sins? Do you wonder about God's favor? notice how jesus paints the whole picture but when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread but i perish with hunger i will arise and go to my father and i will say father i have sinned against heaven and before you what does he remember about the father he remembers that he even treated his slaves well. Well, look what I'm doing. What are you seeing? What's Jesus describing? He's describing repentance. Here, all of a sudden, the heart is softening and it's humbled and it's broken and a contrite spirit starting to come out and he says, here's my plan. Here's my plan. I'm going to at least give this. It's the only thing I have. I'm going to go back to him. I've got to go back to him and I've got to talk to him. I've got to try to get back into that house. Maybe he'll let me back into the house. But I know what I've got to say. The first thing I've got to say is, I have sinned. Sounds like David. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what's evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. I'm going to go back with that kind of approach. Who knows what he'll do. Maybe I can just be one of his hired servants. I'd be glad to get in the house if I could just open the door. I'll be a doorman in God's house. This is what I have resolute in my mind I'm going to do. Even if I have to work for it, I'll try it. When a son did this in the first century, you know what would happen? They had ceremonies to disown rebellious children, by the way. They were completely written out of the family name, and if the son came back, he would publicly be beaten, and the principle of the Old Testament was still in the Jewish community, though they didn't fulfill that, they didn't stone. He would actually be put in front of the gate of the city, and there would be a public humiliation that would take place and he would be expelled from the father's house and rights would go to other children. You've got to say, if many of our kids were living in the Old Testament theocracy, you wouldn't even see them today because they've been so rebellious they would be stoned. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and mother shall take hold of him, bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives and they shall say to the elders of the city this is our stubborn son and rebellious he will not obey our voice he's a glutton and a drunkard then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones well something similar without the stones took place of the shame pharisees at this point would have all agreed what you know that's right that something would have to be done you know some way to expose this man's awful path and bring on him the shame he doesn't just get a pass back in he doesn't just get a pass back into the community his repentance needs to be proved they all thought favor back into god's house couldn't happen until enough work was done and the son worked to restore it amen let him work for it you bet and here comes the most jaw-dropping moment of the parable. Jaw-dropping. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. He looks out, which means he's by the window. And he sees way off in the distance his son coming home. He's got nothing in his hands. He's covered in pig crap. He's coming thinking, I've got to beg for Dad's mercy. And the whole idea is not only had the father been waiting by the window, as soon as he sees him way out, just his little figure out in the distance, he bolts down the path. And the father wells up with compassion for his son and the father runs to him and the word expresses the sense he dropped everything he could and he ran as fast as he could down the path to his son. In the Middle East, this was a noble. They wore long roads. You can picture him lifting up the robe and bolting in shame to his son. He doesn't want him to be shamed at the gate. The father takes it himself and the overwhelming truth of the parable is that the son was forgiven before one work was done. I'll go back and work. go back was forgiven you see what jesus just portrayed god the father is represented as sprinting after sinners embracing and going and getting them and bringing them back into the house and he did it through his son you want to know why the pharisees wanted to kill jesus because Jesus portrayed God this way. You just defiled God. And this is his joy. So the son says, Father, I've sinned. Bring out the robe. Which means it was probably the robe for the firstborn. Put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. You give him the best. And then I want you to do this to my servant. I want you to kill a calf. I want you to prepare a feast. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost. And see, now he's found. The graphic picture that Jesus just employed should have made everyone pause this morning as it should have in the first century. Can that really be? When a sinner turns from his way, does God really take him back in? Does he really clothe him? Does he really feed him? Does he really love them? Does he really hold a feast? The fatted calf was killed. He's rejoicing over the fact that the son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. That's the issue. The son was dead and now is alive. That's the story of humanity outside of Jesus. they're dead. And with his cross of it, he makes them alive. Ephesians 2. You were dead, he made alive. We need to be reminded this morning of how long-suffering God is. Because if it were not for his long-suffering and compassion in my life, who knows where I or where you would be today. But I tell you what, it wouldn't be here. Some of you may be running right now and you just are ready to get out of the house. You are so close to bolting. Some sitting here, I don't doubt that's the case. But something keeps you. Your father's inheritance keeps you. Whatever it might be, you're afraid of what you'll lose. You're still in the house and you're not here today. You understand that? And before you bolt, why don't you come today? Why don't you come now? Don't even try the path. Some may say, how does the father ever receive a son back like that? That's tonight's sermon. What does the Lord want us all to say? I'm the prodigal. And I have, in the course of my life, and who knows how many occasions, tried to bolt from God and get away from God. And sin is just that. Departure from God. Today, he's saying, come back. 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 to seek that one that's straying? And if he should find it, assuredly 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. Isn't that glorious? So I close with this. Turn back to verse one. Then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes complained, grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. To come to this table this morning, I want you to say, I'm one of those tax collectors and sinners. And with sincerity of heart, I want you to say as you eat and you drink, Father, forgive me. Thank you for giving me a place at your table by the blood and the righteousness of your Son. And thank you, Lord Jesus, for dining with me and feeding me with your body and blood to hold me. Thank you for feeding me a sinner of which I am chief. He'll never despise or cast out those who come with that kind of heart. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, saying Father this morning means so much more. Thank You for receiving us this way. And thank You for giving Your best, Your only begotten Son, that You would bring prodigals home. As we feed now, and as we're assured of Your love, would we all come with the kind of broken and contrite heart that we have seen here this morning in this young man. realizing that we've been in the pig slop many times in our lives and that today you ran and brought us back in. Thank you for your care and love. Forgive us our sins. Cover us in the rich robes and garments of Christ's righteousness and nourish us today in assurance of your love with his body and blood. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.