[Machine transcription]
And when the shepherd comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying
to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.
You may be seated.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Saints, Jesus has tax collectors and sinners drawing near to Him to hear His preaching,
and the Pharisees are grumbling.
him.
This man receives sinners, and he eats with them.”
And so Jesus tells them some parables, three parables in fact.
We had the first two in the gospel lesson, but I would like mostly this morning to consider
the third, the parable that we call the parable of the prodigal son.
But I want to run through the first two parables to kind of get a moving start as we get to
the third one.
When we were looking at these parables from Luke 15 on Wednesday night at the Bible study
down in the parlor, someone said to me, Pastor, I don’t know why we call them the parable
of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin, because after all, the sheep and the
coin didn’t do much.
They just got lost, like the coin just fell off the table.
Wouldn’t it be better, someone suggested, I think this is right, wouldn’t it be better
if we called it the parable of the seeking and finding shepherd?
Or what about the sweeping and the lighting the lamp and the sweeping and the finding
and rejoicing woman?
Now that’s right, actually, that’s right, because these parables are much less about
us and much more about Jesus, who goes looking for you, who mourns that you were lost and
He comes to find you, and He goes out into the woods, He goes out into the wilderness,
He gets down on His hands and knees in the dirt and He sweeps and He looks and He chases
after you and we know what it takes for Him to do this, that He has to come from heaven
to earth, from sitting at the Father’s right hand into our own flesh and blood and into
our sin and into the cross, I mean that’s where He finds you when He’s suffering God’s
wrath on the cross.
He says, there you are, and He grabs a hold of you, and He’s got you, and He claims you
as His own, and He puts you on His shoulder, and He carries you home.
This stunningly Jesus calls repentance.
He says that the angels in heaven rejoice at one sinner who repents.
Now how in the world can this be repentance?
I mean, is not repentance something that we do?
Isn’t repentance something that we manage, that we accomplish?
Haven’t you heard this in the preaching before, that repentance means changing your ways?
It means making a decision.
It means doing something different, making a U-turn, going the other way.
Repentance after all is up to us, is it not?
What?
No, repentance, according to Jesus in the text, repentance is being found by Jesus.
What did the sheep do in the wilderness except for wander away and get lost?
What did the coin do except sit there and collect dust bunnies?
What did you do?
What did you do to earn God’s love?
You were just found by Him, that’s what it means to be repentant.
It means to be rescued and redeemed by Jesus, by His own work, by His effort, by His suffering
and death, by His Word and Holy Gospel.
And then, and now this is the part that astonishes me, and then after all of this, after the
shepherd finds the sheep, and after the woman finds the coin, there is a party.
They invite everyone they know to come over to the house to have a party.
This is the theme of the parables.
Luke 15, verse 6, and when he, the shepherd, comes home, he calls all his friends and neighbors,
and he says to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.
lost.
Just so, Jesus says, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner
who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
And then again, chapter 15, verse 9, when she, the woman, found the coin, she called
together her friends and her neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin
that I had lost.
Just so, Jesus says, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner
who repents.
This is the punchline to both of the parables, and the thing that the Pharisees can’t understand,
and it’s also the setup for the last parable that we’re about to hear, who’s going to come
to the repentance party, but dear saints, I want you to just stop here just to sort
of sauté in the glory of this text, because look at what Jesus is telling us, what He
is revealing to us about how it is with God the Father, about how it is with the angels
in heaven, about how it is with the heart of God, that there is a joy, a true joy, a
mirth, a festive party in heaven because of you, because of your faith in Christ, because
of your repentance and trust in the Lord’s promise.
I think that we are tempted, I think that I am tempted to think that God is generally
angry with me and Jesus is just barely able to hold back the anger of God.
Like you know you’ve done this before, you’ve made someone so angry and their temper is
almost out of control and you can just tell that they just are about to swing a punch
at you, and it’s all they can do to hold it back.
And that we think is the grace of God, that we’ve tested Him to the limit, He’s just about
to break, but Jesus is there and He’s holding, but He says, you don’t want to do this, and
He’s trying to calm them down.
But generally God is angry with us, and the gospel is that He just doesn’t do anything
about it.
This is not the case.
It’s not at all the case.
God, the Father, is not angry with you.
All of that anger is spent on Christ.
So Jesus wants you to know this, that in heaven, there is a party, that God is happy.
I mean, look at this shepherd.
He says to his friends, rejoice with me, I’ve got so much joy over finding this one single
sheep that I can’t even contain it myself.
I need other people to come around me so that they can share in this joy. It’s this overflowing abundant joy
This woman who finds the coin is so happy that she can’t contain herself and that the festive party has to extend to her whole
Neighborhood everyone get in here come over quick. Why because I found a coin
Okay
Are you that happy over finding the coin?
Yes!
Are you that happy over finding the sheep?
Yes!
Are you that happy over me?
Over my faith?
Over grabbing me out of the filth of my own sin and rescuing me and dragging me into the church?
Are you that happy over that?
And Jesus says, yes, I’m that happy.
I can’t contain myself.
I call all the angels together to sing for joy at the joy of your faith, of your salvation,
of your rescue.
That is the happiness that God has for you.
It’s not, it’s not like God is mostly mad and you just barely escaped getting, getting
it from Him.
No, it’s this overflowing and abundant joy and happiness.
So we preach it like this.
I’ve said it to you before, I’ll say it to you again.
The gospel is not only that God loves you, it is also that God likes you.
He, think of it, He likes you.
He wants you to be around forever.
He loves you.
Now you say, well I’m a sinner.
And He says, I know.
That’s why Jesus died.
And you’re cleansed and you’re holy and you’re perfect and I’ve cleansed you off and now
I in fact delight in you.
I smile at you.
you. I call you my children.” That’s what God says. It’s stunning. There’s more joy
in heaven, the angels of God, over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons
that need no repentance. The Lord delights over us like a father and a mother delight
over their children, but it’s even more than that.
The Father delights over us like He delights over His own Son, Jesus.
And that’s what we want to unfold with this parable of the prodigal son.
Now, if we rename the other parables, we should probably rename this one as well.
So how about this for a name?
Let’s call it the parable of the waiting and watching and seeing and delighting and running
and hugging and kissing and ring-giving, shoe-giving, cloak-giving, fatted calf-killing, son-finding,
compelling, rejoicing, Father.
Let’s call it that.
I don’t know if that’s going to fit on the margin, but that’s what it’s about.
God the Father who comes to get you, and He gets you out of every possible slavery that
could entrap you, and he calls you his own son.
In fact, that’s how I’d like to consider this parable.
Under this theme, God wants sons, not slaves.
Now listen, I’m gonna read you the text,
and I want you to listen for something very particular,
because what we see is that both of the sons,
who look like the opposite problem to us,
you know, you’ve got the one son who gets the inheritance
and he goes and he wastes it in Las Vegas or whatever,
And then he comes back hungry and in rags and destitute and despairing and he comes
back to the father.
And then you’ve got the older son who has it all together, who’s been working and
saving diligently.
He’s probably got a good retirement plan.
He is the one that the father brags about to all the kids.
But the problem, the problem is the same in both of the boys.
Both of these boys, both of these boys want to be the servants of the father instead of
the sons of the father.
Both of the boys want to be the father’s slave and not the son, and the father won’t have
it.
Okay, so here’s the text.
Luke 15 verse 11, Jesus says, remember to the Pharisees who were grumbling because He
was eating with sinners, Jesus says this.
There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to the father,
Father, give me a share of the property that’s coming to me.
And he divided his property between them.
Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had, and he took a journey into a far country,
and there he squandered his property and reckless living.
And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in the country,
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 the fields to feed the pigs.
And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate.
And nobody 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’ll arise and go to my father and I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against heaven
and before you.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Treat me instead as one of your hired servants.
You hear it.
And he arose and he came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, the father saw him and felt compassion and ran
and embraced him and kissed him.
And the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy
to be called your son.
But the father said to the 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 alive again.”
he was lost and is found and they began to celebrate now the older son was in the field
and he came and drew near to the house and he heard the 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
Look, look, these many years I have served you, do you see it?
I have served you and I 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 fattened calf for him.
And he, the father, said to him, the oldest son, these words, listen, son, you are always
with me, and all that is mine is yours.
It was fitting for us to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is
alive.
He was lost and he’s found, amen.
Now, I do not know of a more beautiful text than that.
That we are constantly trying to stand before God or stand before one another as slaves
and God simply will not have it.
In fact, we see in the text, and let’s think about it this way, if you’d let me reflect
on it a little bit with you, we see in the text three distinct kinds of slavery and
And we see how God wants to set us free from all of them, the slavery to sin, the slavery
to despair, and the slavery to pride.
So first, the slavery to sin.
And this is the younger son who, I mean, can you believe what he does?
He goes to the father and he says, I would rather have the inheritance than have you
alive.
Give, I wish you were dead so that I could have the stuff, why don’t you just give it
to me now?
You’re dead to me.
So he takes the stuff and he leaves the country, I mean, he leaves the father’s house and
he goes and he lives however he wants to live.
Now, this is the slavery to sin, but here’s the trick, is that the slavery to sin does
not look like slavery.
Just imagine that you stop this younger son, maybe give him, I don’t know, 30 feet after
he leaves the gate.
He comes down the driveway, his wallet’s full of his inheritance, he’s got his nice
clothes on, he’s got nice new shoes, he’s headed for wherever Gentile country, and
And he’s finally now on his own, and you would stop him and you would ask him, hey,
are you a slave?
He would say, I’m finally free, right?
I’m finally out from the thumb of my tyrant dad.
I’m finally out from the bondage to the man.
I don’t have to work.
I can do whatever I want.
I can act however I want.
I can live however I want.
I’m finally free.
You see, this is the first slavery, the slavery of sin, and the devil gives it to us under
the illusion of freedom.
This bondage is under the illusion of freedom so that we put the chains on our own hands.
Jesus says, whoever commits a sin is a slave to sin.
And while it might seem nice at the beginning, it eventually leads to death.
That’s what the son was.
He was dead.
He was lost.
And so it is to the slavery of sin.
Now, we can kind of see this, I think,
in our own lives.
I mean, if we’re captivated by sin,
if we have addictions that we fight,
even as we fight these sort of perpetual
weaknesses in our own flesh,
rebellion and hatred and lust
and bitterness and laziness
and selfishness,
all of these things that we fight,
and we see the sin,
and we can see it for what it is, that it leads to death.
In fact, whenever we commit a sin
and it troubles our conscience,
we see it, hopefully, by the preaching of the law,
we see it for what it is,
but then there comes another slavery.
After we realize that sin is not freedom,
but rather bondage, there is another temptation.
In fact, and let’s just say this
as cleanly and clearly as I can,
that when we’re fighting against the devil,
devil, there’s two attacks, there’s the attack of the first temptation where the devil
comes to us to tempt us to sin, but then there’s a second attack and that is what are you going
to think of your sin?
How are you going to treat your sin?
What are you going to do with your sin?
And this younger son shows us this, this is the slavery of despair.
Remember how he has his own sin, and he looks at his own sin, and what does he think about
it?
He says that this sin has now made me unworthy to be the child of God.
This sin has made me unworthy of the Father’s house.
This sin has made me, instead of being a son, it’s made me into a slave, and it’s all I
can be.
That’s what despair does for us, and I think, dear saints, that the church is inflicted with
the kind of spiritual despair that wants to make up to God for all the sins that we’ve
committed.
In fact, I’ve even heard it preached like this.
This was painful.
I think it actually hurt my ears.
I don’t know if it made them bleed or not, but it reallyâ¦
I heard this preached one time.
Someone said this.
They said, look at what God has done for you on the cross, now what are you going to do
for Him?
Do you see it?
Like the Gospel.
Like the Gospel is a bribe.
Like the promise of God is conditional.
And like the work of the cross
is not to set you free,
but rather to enslave you.
But that’s exactly what the second son is feeling.
He’s enslaved to his own sin.
He knows that he’s done wrong,
and so he thinks that now he has to go
and serve the Father
like a slave serves their Master.
I’m not worthy to be your son.
Make me as one of your hired servants.
But look at what the father does in the parable. The son has this rehearsed speech
You can think of it as he kind of drags himself barefoot probably feet bleeding that were in this raggedy clothes
He’s half the weight
He was when he left the father’s house his raggedy beard and and he you can hardly recognize him except for the father knows exactly
Who he is and he comes over the corner and he’s been rehearsing this speech the whole time
I’ve got to say it just right and maybe
Maybe if I say it just right, and act just right, and play my Ps and Qs just right, maybe
the Father will give me the dignity of being one of His slaves.
And so he gets to the Father, and he starts his rehearsed speech, Father, I’m not worthy
to be called your child, and the Father shuts him off right there.
He says to the servant, get the cloak quick, shoes quick, ring quick, fatted calf quick,
Let’s have a feast quick because my son who was dead is now alive. Do you see it the father you?
The father will not endure dear saints. Listen carefully. The father will not endure any talk of slavery
Any talk of earning your place any talk of being his servant instead of his son?
He will not endure any talk of you trying to make up for your sin or trying to somehow
earn your place in His love.
He cuts it off.
You are His child.
You are part of the family.
And if we think that there is a lavishness in what the Father does in the parable, think
about the lavishness that Christ gives to us.
Think about the lavishness of God the Father who doesn’t wrap us in a fine robe.
It says in the text that he puts on the best robe, but God the father God your father
Wraps you in the robe of the blood of Jesus and he the for our father does not kill the fatted calf
He puts his own son on the cross as the feast for us
He puts the ring that that that makes you his own child in your baptism when he puts his name and his cross on you
He gives you everything his kingdom and his love and his spirit and his kindness
He does not want you to come to Him groveling on your knees as a slave.
He wants you to stand in the joy of being His son, of knowing that your sins are forgiven.
So He sets us free from despair.
And then there is a third slavery, the slavery of pride, and this is the older son.
Now this in fact is the trickiest part because while the younger son can see that he has
sinned and see that he’s deserved the Father’s wrath instead of his love so that he comes
back simply as a beggar and has to receive from the Father a gift.
The older son has been enslaved and the whole time apparently he’s been enslaved to pride,
to thinking that because of his goodness, because of his works, because of his efforts,
that he has earned the Father’s love, that he rightly has a place in the Father’s house.
Listen to what he says when he’s so mad, you see he’s mad over the feast and this
is one of the marks of pride.
When we’re mad that the Lord can have mercy on people who are so miserable, we know that
we’ve been enslaved to pride and so he sees the feasting and the joy and he stays out
in the field and the father goes out to him.
This is an amazing father in the text.
I just think if I was the father and the kids were pouting in the backyard because we were
having a party inside, I’d say, let them pout.
But not this father, not this father, not your father.
He goes to him and he says, why don’t you come into the feast?
And this older son says, look, all of these years I have served you, I have slaved for you.
It says in the text, so that even the older son thought of himself not as the father’s son,
but as the father’s slave.
I never disobeyed your command and yet you never even gave me a goat to celebrate with my friend.
But this son comes back and you kill the fatted calf for him and the father says to him
son
again
He says son
You’re not a slave either
You you or you are not a servant in my house. You are my son son
He says you are always with me and all that is mine is yours
It was right for us to celebrate and be glad for your brother was dead and he’s alive again
And so that God the Father looks at us in the slavery of pride and he says, look, everything
that you have also is by my grace, by my kindness and by my mercy, by my love.
You haven’t earned, God be praised, you have not earned or deserved anything that you have.
All of it, every single bit of it is a gift from God the Father.
So what do we do?
Look, you and me, all of us, have this temptation.
Our flesh, our sinful flesh is naturally enslaved, and it’s drawn to the slavery of sin, or it’s
drawn to the slavery of despair, or it’s drawn to the slavery of pride.
In fact, all of us are such a mess that we’re probably tempted to all three of these things
all at once.
us. We have a slavery to sin on one hand and slavery to pride on the other and slavery
to despair in the morning or halfway through the afternoon. Who knows how it goes? But
listen, the Lord has an answer to all of this, to every single one of them. He comes to set
you free and He sets you free with this word that you are His child. You’re not God’s
servants, you are God’s children. By the death and resurrection of Jesus and by the forgiveness
of all of your sins, you are his children. Behold, John writes it like this, behold
what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children
of God. And such you are. Amen. The peace of God that passes all understanding.
Guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
