We’ll let me add my welcome to Jamie’s and say good morning, especially if you are visiting. We are glad you are with us. Welcome to First Presbyterian Church. My name is David Felker. I’m one of the pastors here. We are really glad you are with us this morning. And if you have a Bible, please turn with me to the gospel of Luke, the gospel of Luke, chapter 15. The passage begins on page 874 in the church Bible in front of you. Luke chapter 15, verses 11 to 32.
And before we jump in and read, something to orient us to our passage this morning. Many of you are familiar with the wildly popular comedian, Nate Bargatze and his stand up special titled, “Hello World,” which was filmed in Phoenix, Arizona. And in it, he talks about being the firstborn child. And he says, “I am the firstborn child.” And he asks that crowd, “Do we have any firstborns here tonight?” And after there’s some feedback for him, he says, “Good, because firstborns have to stick together.” He says, “We have had it the hardest. We have had it the hardest of all the children. We show up and the parents are not ready for us to be there. They don’t have any more; they don’t have any resources. Firstborns basically show up and realize, ‘I don’t think I should even be here yet!’ But then your parents want you, the firstborn, to get a job and start helping out around the house.” And then he talks to the youngest and he says, “Now the youngest, when you guys show up, your parents are trillionaires!” That’s the best line! “When you guys show up, your parents are like trillionaires! You live in homes that firstborns never even saw. The oldest are like, ‘What is an upstairs? That’s like a home on top of a home!’”
And what he’s getting at is that sibling relationships can sometimes be touchy. And as Nate Bargatze jokes about an older child telling the younger, “You show up and your parents are basically trillionaires,” you see in that joke that so many sibling problems have to do with a child’s feeling that there was not proportional parental affection, or there was not evening distributed parental love. You notice in our parable this morning, verse 11, our parable begins, “There was a man and he had two sons.” And this story has often been called the most beloved story that Jesus ever told; Luke chapter 15, the story of the prodigal son. And yet there are two sons. But this story really isn’t first about them. The story is first about the father who loves both of his sons. And it might rightly be called the parable of the searching father. The parable of the searching and the seeking father, the longing, loving father. J.C. Ryle said of Luke 15, “There is probably no chapter, no chapter of the Bible that has done greater good for the souls of men.” There is no chapter in the Bible.
Some of you are familiar with the novel entitled, Old School, which is a novel about a young writer learning what it takes to be a writer. And the very last line of that novel reads that, “He couldn’t help thinking of these old words, surely the most beautiful words ever written or said – ‘His father, when he saw him coming, ran, embraced and kissed him.’” And I love that line. “Surely the most beautiful words ever written or said.” And he’s talking about Luke chapter 15. Look with me at the text. He’s talking about verse 20 and that movement of verbs – “He ran, embraced and kissed him.” He ran, embraced and kissed him. He ran, he embraced, and he kissed him. Many of you know this famous story. This story is about every one of us. This story shows us the way home. Have you traveled to a far country in your life? Have you traveled to a far country in your heart? Well then this story is for you. This story, the most beautiful words ever written or said. It is for all of us because it calls us to be embraced, for the first time or afresh, it calls us to be embraced by the seeking and searching God who brings you home to His table, who crowns you with His love, and who gives you a feast. And so God wants to feast with you today, Christian. God wants to feast with you. And so will you come to Him today? The most beautiful words ever written or said.
And so let’s pray and ask for God’s help before we consider this text. Let’s pray.
Our God of all grace, we come today and we ask that You would give Your Word success. We pray that You would work through the weakness of the words coming out of my mouth, my lisping and stammering tongue. Would You bring us back to You and would You root and ground us, for the first time or afresh, in Your love. And so we pray that You would surprise us with Your grace, and we pray this all in Jesus’ name, amen.
So Luke chapter 15, beginning in verse 11. This is God’s Word:
“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 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 have sinned against heaven and before you. I am 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 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 fattened 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.
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 fattened 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, 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 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.’”
Amen. This is God’s Word.
This is a story with three characters. And so there’s a searching father, there is that seeking, searching father; a younger, prodigal son who was a notorious sinner, a public sinner; and then an elder son, who we might say was a respectable sinner, and he rebelled, he went to the far country in the interior of his life. And so it’s a story with three characters and there are two acts or two parts. This morning we’ll look at act 1 at the first act, verses 11 to 24, about the younger son, and next week we’ll look at the second act. So you have to come back next week and Stephen Biggs will preach about the elder son. The first act, look with me at the text, the first act has three scenes. And so the first scene is in verse 11 – sorry, verse 12 – the son wishes his dad dead and he leaves home. The second act, the second scene, sorry, is in verses 13 to 19 – the son is in the far country. And then scene three, verses 20 to 24, is the return – it’s the return of the son. The most beautiful words ever written or said, “He ran, embraced and kissed him.” And so this morning, what I want to do, I simply want to work through each scene. I want to work through scene one, scene two, and scene three, and then seek to apply it to our hearts.
And so scene one – look with me at verse 12. The story begins with this father. And he must be a wise and diligent man, he must be a loving man, and he has a rebellious son. And the rebellion is so great – look at verse 12 – we’re told at the beginning of the narrative that the son says to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that’s coming to me.” And commentators point out that the son is impatient for his father’s death and is essentially saying, “Dad, I wish you were dead and I want you to give me my share of the inheritance now so that I can go and make the life that I want to live.” I want you to imagine – this is a familiar story to many of us – but I want you to imagine the father’s broken heart. Imagine the father’s wound. Imagine the father’s heartache and hurt, this great loss, this sense of abandonment. Your own flesh and blood. This child that you have carried since the beginning of his life.
For context, the oldest son, by custom, would receive two-thirds of the inheritance; the younger, one-third. And the great surprise, the shock of act one, scene one, is that the father grants this scandalous request. And in doing so, the father suffers. And so he suffers great shame in his community as everyone would know what had happened. He suffers great financial loss. But most of all, his love for his son causes him to suffer. And so he liquidates part of his estate, he gives it to his younger son, we read at the beginning of verse 13 that the son leaves his father’s home. So he breaks his father’s heart and he went his own way. That’s scene one.
Look at scene two. Scene two, in verses 13 to 19, provides a picture of sin. It provides a picture of what it means to be lost, these movements away from home. We see this hurting son, this hurting, hiding son in the far country. You see scene two, the son leaves his father’s home, he breaks his father’s heart, he takes a journey to the far country, he directs his life away from his father, he goes his own way, and look in verses 13 to 16. The son squandered his money in reckless living. He spent everything. He lost everything. Verse 14, a severe famine arose and so he began to be in need. The need is so great, look at verse 15, that he would take this shameful job for an Israelite, that every Jewish person would refuse to take, of feeding pigs – this unclean animal. And then his need is so great, look in verse 16, that he longed for their food. He hungered for their food. And so this hurting, hiding son, he’s run as far from home as he can travel, he has made a mess of his life, he is deep in the darkness of this pit, he is weary of himself, he is near extinction, his choices are exhausted, and he has nothing but need.
And so you see in verse 17 this return begins, this desperate return when he began to come to himself. And he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.” Verse 18, “I will arise and go to my father and I will say to my father, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,’” and then in verse 19, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as a hired servant.” Some people see this, this return, this broken, kind of bruised return of this prodigal, they see verses 17 to 19 as the turning point in his story. I don’t think so. I think we can say that he has a self-awareness, he has some sense of a self-awareness that he came to himself, he has a sense of his wrong, “I have sinned against heaven and before you.” He knows the way home, yes, but I think that we could say that he wants his father’s food more than he wants his father’s heart. That he wants to be a servant more than he wants to be a son. Or maybe you would say, and I would agree with you, that maybe he believes himself to be too unlovely to be a son. Maybe he sees himself too unworthy, too unwanted, too far gone, too dirty for his father’s table, for his father’s joy, for his father’s embrace. And so what does he do? He plots this strategy. “And I’ll pay him back. Make me a hired hand. I’ll work it off. You’ll see, dad. I’ll show you, dad. I’ll earn it back.” And we read in verse 20 that “he arose and he went back to his father.”
I don’t know, boys and girls, if you are familiar with this section, this parable, in The Jesus Storybook Bible. And it captures, I think, this part well where it says that the younger son “practiced his ‘I’m sorry’ speech all the way home.” That the younger son practiced his “I’m sorry” speech all the way home. And you can imagine that. He sang verses 17 to 19 just over and over again. Can you imagine? Can’t you hear him talking it out? “I’ll tell him I’ll do a contract. I’ll tell him I’ll work for it, earn it. Treat me as one of your hired workers.” He practiced his “I’m sorry” speech all the way home and yet it’s an “I’m sorry” speech that’s full of work and it’s full of labor and it’s full of deserving. It’s full of bargaining chips. And it’s not full of receiving and resting in the embrace of the father, receiving and resting in the grace of the father. Is this story familiar to you? That’s scene two.
Scene three, in verses 20 to 24 – how will this father respond? The most beautiful words ever written or said. He begins to travel home – “He arose and came to his father.” I think it’s interesting the story is silent, this parable is silent on when the son sees the father. It doesn’t say when he saw his father. But it does say that his father, it says, “When the father saw the son,” it says, “while he was still a long way off.” And that’s implying for us that the father was looking for his son. That’s implying for us that the father was longing for his son. And it says that “he saw him and he felt compassion.”
You know, not too long ago I heard a story of a young man named Tim who grew up in a Christian family, but Tim, like this prodigal, he left his family’s home and he broke their heart and he went to the far country. And so this family, as you can imagine, was hurt and wounded and confused. And the father kept wondering, “How can I understand? How can I understand what’s going on with my son, what’s going on in his heart?” And so this father would often, on business trips, he would pick up hitchhikers. And he would pick up hitchhikers who reminded him of his son, Tim. And he would just talk to them. And so one late night in the darkness, the father saw a young man with his thumb out and the father pulled to the side of the road and he asked this man to come into the car. And this young man was Tim. And in that moment his son realized what his father was doing. He realized that his father had not recognized him in the darkness. He recognized that his father had never stopped looking for him. He had never stopped longing for him. He had never stopped loving him. And that moment was the beginning of Tim’s return to the Lord, his seeking, searching Father, his looking, longing Father.
Verse 20, the father saw his son, while he was still a long way off. And so he was looking for him, implying that he was watching for him, he was longing for him in the field, or maybe on the porch. Imagine at the dinner table, and his eyes are always going towards that horizon, towards that road. He is looking for his son, hoping, longing, watching, waiting. And this day, this day the father begins to study the horizon and he sees his son coming and he felt compassion. Most every commentary on Luke 15 points out that this father does the unthinkable here. He doesn’t remain cold, he doesn’t remain distant. He doesn’t take a seat and wait to see what his son has to say. But the father acts in a very undignified way, in a very humiliating way in that culture. No one would ever run, but greater still a father, and greater still a father running for a son who left in a scandal. And this loving, longing father pulls up his robes, he pulls up his outer garments, and before the “I’m sorry” speech left the son’s mouth, we’re confronted in the story with the most beautiful words ever written or said – that “he ran, embraced and kissed him.”
You see in verse 21, the son said to his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” You’ll notice that he admits his wrong, he admits his unworthiness. If you compare the speeches, he doesn’t say everything to his father. He doesn’t say everything from his “I’m sorry” speech. The son, you notice, he’s interrupted. And so he doesn’t use his bargaining chips, he doesn’t use his, “You’ll see, dad. I’ll show you. I’ll work it off. I’ll pay it off.” He doesn’t use any of that. He’s interrupted. And as one minister said – I love this – he said, “He is interrupted by grace.” The son is interrupted by grace.
Let me ask you this morning, men and women, boys and girls, old and young – Have you been interrupted by grace? Have you ever been interrupted by grace? Have your bargaining chips and your penance plan and your “I’m sorry” speech been interrupted by grace? You see, I think that this, this is the moment that changed his life. I think this is the transforming moment for the prodigal. Not verse 17; verse 20. Not verse 17; it’s in verse 20. What changed his life? It wasn’t his speech, it wasn’t his prayer, it wasn’t his weak attempt at penance. I think this was the moment that changed his life. Not when his prayer was full of labor and work and deserving language – “Make me a hired servant.” No. I think his life changed when his head is buried in his father’s chest. I think his life changed when he is home in the embrace of the father. I think when he understands now, fully and finally, what Thomas Goodwin said, that “Free grace, free grace sits on the throne of God’s heart.” “Free grace sits on the throne of the Father’s heart.” And so the son is interrupted by grace. The father doesn’t want to hear the promises to change, the father doesn’t wait to be paid back by the son’s work, the father doesn’t say, “Go shave, go bathe, go get dressed and then we’ll talk about the payment plan.” He doesn’t say any of that. He is interrupted by grace.
You see in verse 22, he said to his servants, “Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.” So the best robe would be the father’s robe. “Put a ring on his hand.” This would be the family emblem ring, saying, “You are back in the family.” “Put shoes on his feet.” Slaves don’t wear shoes; servants don’t wear shoes. Who wears shoes? Sons wear shoes. “You are my child.” Can you imagine that this younger son, can you imagine this boy coming home to this? “I don’t deserve this. I don’t have any bargaining chips. The penance plan wasn’t going to work. I don’t deserve to be here. I don’t have anything to offer.” And then he says, “Bring the fattened calf and kill it.” This is the most expensive animal on the property. Some time ago, I saw a satire article about the fattened calf. And so I remembered and went back and looked it up this week and the article read that “A local fattened calf was struck with a sudden, overwhelming feeling of dread today after seeing his owner’s lost younger son unexpectedly return from living abroad.” Though the son had long been regarded as lost to the family, his father was overjoyed by his surprise return, much to the chagrin of the fattened calf.” And then it quotes the calf. “I thought things were going pretty well, and now this guy comes waltzing back into the picture. I can’t put my finger on it, but I suddenly have this sinking feeling like maybe this is really bad news for me.”
The father looks and says, “Bring the fattened calf and kill it.” He says, “Let’s have a feast to celebrate. This son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” And verse 24, “They began to celebrate.” So this would have been a community celebration. To kill the fattened calf meant that you would invite everybody. You would invite the entire community, the whole town. Everyone is invited to this public feast, a party to show that you as the father, that you are not ashamed of your son, to show that your son has been embraced by you. As one commentator said, “The father intends not only to restore the son to himself but to the whole community who considers him a shame. And so he sets off a celebration of grace.” And at this public feast, truly a remarkable scene, the most beautiful words ever written or said, the celebration of grace – “Let us eat and celebrate.” And that’s the end of scene three, the end of verse 24. We’re at the intermission of the story and the curtain falls on act one.
Let me briefly, by way of application, let me say something first to the non-Christian in the room. Some of you hearing this, you maybe see yourself in this young man, in the far country. And maybe you think that Christianity is that you clean yourself up and you dust yourself off and you get back on the wagon and you put together a payment plan and you find some bargaining chips and maybe, just maybe you can see where things land with God. That’s not the story. That is not Christianity. The good news for you this morning, no matter what you have done, no matter how far you have run from God, no matter your debt before Him, no matter what is in your past, God is not ashamed to chase after you, to crown you with His love, to embrace you, to call you His child, and to give you a feast. You do not have to clean yourself up to come to this God. As one author said, “you do not have to be good enough, but you do have to believe He is good enough.” So “All the fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him.”
All you need is our need, so don’t assume that your story is too dark or dirty or it’s too late or it’s too much. I want to invite you this morning to lay your self-sufficiency down. Lay down your self-sufficiency and surrender to the Father’s love. Receive and rest in the good news of the grace of Jesus for sinners, and if you do, there is a ring and a robe for you. If you do, there is a calf being fattened for you. And you can say something like this prayer, “Father, I am no longer worthy to be called Your son. I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I bank everything on Your grace. I bank everything on Your grace.” And if you do, you will experience verse 20, the most beautiful words ever written or said – “He will run and embrace and kiss you.” You will be embraced by this seeking, saving, longing, loving Father. And so He is pursuing you this morning. The question for you is, “Will you rest in this good news today?”
I think for the Christian, I think, do you see that this story, Luke 15, do you see that this story is your story? Do you see that this story is your story? Let me close with this. This past week I was at our annual denominational meeting in Chattanooga. And with over 2,000 people around on Thursday afternoon I ugly cried. I was walking out of the assembly hall and I ran into a minister that I hadn’t seen in many years. Some of you know this man. His name is Bill Heard. And Bill Heard was the minister at Grace Presbyterian Church in Starkville for a number of years and he is a wonderful pastor. And in particular, he was a wonderful pastor to my parents. And he was a wonderful pastor when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. And he walked through that valley with her until her death in February of 2019. And when she died, Bill was out of the country; he was on a mission trip. And then shortly after her funeral, he took a new call, he took a new church in Georgia, and so I had not seen Bill since 2019. And when I saw him on Thursday, he said to me, he followed me out of the assembly hall and he said to me, “David, I never told anyone this, I never told anyone in the family that the last time I went to the hospital to see your mom before she died,” he said, “that when she talked about you guys, when she talked about her children, that she beamed and that she was so proud of you.” And when Bill Heard told me that story I just ugly cried. And that story will now just be a very precious story to me, that literally in her last days that she was beaming when she talked about me. That is precious to me to be her son.
I think the question for you, Christian, this morning, is this – “Is being God’s child precious to you? Is being God’s child precious to you?” And that is not a simple question because it can be hard to bear the embrace of the Father. I think especially when you feel unworthy, especially when you feel unlovely. That He could look at you and beam. Has it been a long time for you? Has it been a long time since you sensed the embrace of your Father? This story, Luke 15, it’s your story, Christian. And if you come here cold today, if it has been a long time for you, if being God’s child is not precious to you today, then you have to see a fresh Jesus Christ. You have to see Jesus who left His Father’s embrace, He left heaven to this distant country so that we could receive the Father’s embrace. He was stripped of His robe, He was stripped of His ring. The way of the cross, the state of humiliation, so that we could be welcomed as sons and daughters. The most beautiful words ever written or said – that the Father would see us from afar and run, embrace and kiss us. He left home so that we could have a seat at the table and could slide our knees up under our Father’s table and could have our Father’s smile, our Father’s joy, our Father’s embrace. That is where He washes all of our deadly doing, and we are completely undeserving. We have been interrupted by grace and we are preciously loved. Amen. Let me pray for us.Father in heaven, we pray that You would come and that You would restore to us the joy of our salvation this morning and that You would give a new song on our lips. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.