Mark, thank you, Grace. Good to see Grace continuing to feel better so she could be on the piano with us today. It is Father's Day, and so I want to give a message related to fathers by speaking of the prodigal's father. You know the story of the prodigal, right? The prodigal's son, we often speak of the prodigal son. And frankly it's one of the most familiar of Jesus' parables. and often has been extolled as one of the great short stories of literature. I think it was Charles Dickens that said that this is the greatest little short story that's ever been written. Not surprising, since the Lord Jesus Christ taught it, so he has an advantage as being as the greatest of teachers that's ever come to this earth. So we're going to look at this text today, and we find it in Luke chapter 15. Just to remind you if you were to look back at Luke chapter 15 it's one of the times where Jesus is facing some hostility and I'll lay that out for you when we start with the text but let me begin by reading Luke chapter 15 starting at verse 11 through to the end of the chapter at verse 32. Then Jesus said, a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And so he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled the stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have bred enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and went to his father, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be married. Now his older son was in the field and he came near to the house and heard music and dancing. And so he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him. And so he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I've been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as the son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive and was lost and is found." Now actually this is the second half of chapter 15 but really we need to remember that the whole of chapter 15 is addressing the same issue. Jesus is giving three parables that relate to the issue. You see it started in chapter 15 verses 1 and 2. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him, to Jesus. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. And so he spoke this parable to them." And then he begins with some parables. So here was the problem. Jesus was being seen with sinners. To the Pharisees, that basically meant anyone who wasn't a Pharisee. They called their fellow Jews, the word they used in Hebrew was Amharites, the people of the earth. In other words, they were sinners because they didn't keep the rabbinic traditions that the Pharisees kept. And then worse than that is tax collectors. Now, remember, tax collectors there weren't just people who worked for the IRS, but they were actually contractors. You would buy the position of a tax collector and then you would collect taxes from that area and you would give that to the government, but the way it worked was you like any business might be, you gave your portion to the government and you would skim off the top for yourself. And so you could often set the rates. So not only were you a Jew helping the Romans take advantage of your fellow Jews, you were taking advantage of your fellow Jews by increasing their tax burden and skimming for yourself. And so often the tax collectors were some of the wealthiest people in the community because they pulled in from everybody. That led to people having a low view. Tax collectors were like collaborators, traitors, and thieves. And so these are the kind of people Jesus would eat with. Reminds you, you probably heard the story, right, of the little boy who came home from Sunday school and, you know, the parents, one of the situations where they'd maybe put him on the Sunday school bus and he'd go and go to Sunday school and come back home. And so they asked him, so, you know, what'd you, uh, what'd you learn about in Sunday school today? And he said, well, we're in church. And they said, well, the preacher talked about my sister today. Parents got a little concerned. What? What did he say? Oh yeah, he said, Jesus sits with sinners and eateth with them. So he was talking about my sister Edith in service. I'm sorry. It's a dad joke. It's Father's Day. I mean, we got to do this. So they gathered there. And Jesus was meeting with these people. And the Pharisee was just saying, we won't eat with them. In the song that was played by Grace during the offer tour, one of the songs was Jesus, thank you. And there's a phrase in there, it's just such a powerful statement. Once your enemy, now seated at your table. Now in the biblical mindset to be seated at the table is to be an honored guest. And in fact, if someone was welcomed to your table, you were responsible for their care and their safety. And so the song is what an astonishing thought. We were enemies of God and now we are guests at his table. Well, that's what's going on in Luke 15. Jesus is sitting at the table with sinners and tax collectors. And the Pharisees are shocked, offended, horrified, And they attack Jesus. What is he doing sitting at the table with sinful people? And so Jesus gives three parables with the same point. God's love and joy, his love for the sinner and his joy and repentance. The first parable is the parable of the shepherd. Remember that he had a hundred sheep, ninety-nine are doing, he does the count, one's missing. He leaves the ninety-nine to go find the one. And so he hunts and searches all through and finally finds the one, it's pretty pitiful, so he throws it on his shoulder, comes back and he calls all his friends to rejoice with him, I found the one. And they would get that, shepherds would do that, they would go to all efforts to find that one lost sheep. Sheep are pretty vulnerable. In fact, I've told you before, one of the things they could easily get caught, they were vulnerable to animals, they have no defense mechanism. And in fact if an animal attacks them they don't even run, if they roll over on their back they can't roll back over and so the shepherd has to get out there and find them, brings them home and there's a sense of rejoicing. joy, rejoice with me, I found the lost sheep." He then tells the story of the woman who loses a coin and she had ten silver coins and she loses one of them. And we can all relate. See, back then you couldn't press a button on your phone to make your coin ring or something. And so she's looking all through the house. You know how that is, isn't it? You're looking in every cupboard and where is it? Where is it? And her friends know she's in a dither and that's all she can talk about. I've lost this coin. And then she finds it and she tells her friends, rejoice with me. I found it. And they're all happy. Oh, I'm so glad for you. And then Jesus tells the third story and that's the story of the of the prodigal. And if it would help you you can think of it, this is not the outline I'll do, but if you can walk through the process there's rebellion, repentance, restoration, and resentment. Rebellion, repentance, restoration, and resentment. First we see in this first section, verses 11 to 16, the departure of the first son, the younger son. In verses 11 to 13, Jesus said, a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them as livelihood. Not many days after, the youngest son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living." That's where we get that expression. Notice how quickly the son just says, Father, give to me the portion of goods that falls to me. He's asking for his inheritance. In the biblical pattern the sons received an inheritance, it was divided up. The first son always got a double portion and he actually kind of kept the family name, he became the head of the home. So the younger son says though I want my portion and I want it now. Well to go to your father and say I want my inheritance now what he's saying is I wish you were dead. I mean this is so disrespectful. It's so shameful. He doesn't want to live in his father's house any longer, but he wants his share of the inheritance. How's that? You know, I don't want to be around you, but I want your money, please. And I want it now. I don't want to wait for some later inheritance. Since you're taking your time dying, I want my money now so I can leave. I mean, it's that harsh and it's that difficult. What a grief to the father and remember these were all small towns, small villages. What a shame to the family and in that culture shame was a really big deal. And so he is submitting his family to shame and embarrassment in the community. He's saying his father all I want from you is your money and then leave me alone. And as soon as the business of cashing out the inheritance, and again, when you think about that, if someone says, I want my third of the estate now, well, you know, probably things have to be sold. Then that becomes even more public. Why is he selling off this? Why is he selling off that? Well, because his son wants it to leave. You could just see how the whole time is greed. And again, the audience listening, their mouths are dropping. The father says, okay, he cashes out and gives the son a third of everything he has. You can just see the audience around them that's been criticizing Jesus. What in the world is he doing? What kind of a son? What father? And so he's caught their attention. He goes off to a far country. And he lives a wild and wasteful life. I remember one time talking to someone about someone who'd gone off to live a wild and wasteful life. And the way the person said, oh, they've gone off to a far country. And it was about three sentences later, oh, that was a reference to the prodigal son. So that's kind of a gentle way of describing a prodigal. When we think of a prodigal, what do we think of? We think of someone, we think of a child who's gone wayward, who's going their own way, who is rejecting their family's values, their parental authority, and their family's faith. So rebellion and rejection come to mind and living a life that is self-destructive and sin. That's not really what the word prodigal means though. Let me read Mr. Webster. Prodigal comes from the Latin, as you all know, prodigus, right? I mean, that's what you were thinking when I used it. Given to extravagant expenditures, expending money or other things without necessity, profuse, lavish, wasteful. So when I hear prodigal, I hear first of all sorrow. When I hear prodigal I hear rebellion and rejection of the family. That's not really inherent in the word. This story has caused the word to kind of transform. It's because of this story we use the expression, oh he's a prodigal, she's a prodigal. Because of this story Jesus taught 2000 years ago it's now part of our vocabulary and part of our thinking. It's no longer just someone who's spending everything they have. It's someone who is in rebellion. And by the way, the Greek term, you could kind of literally translate it as an unsaving life. It takes the word to salvation, if you will, and puts an un on it, unsaving. So in other words, someone who's very wasteful, they're not saving. They're just spending everything they have. And of course, nowadays, it's worse because you can spend a lot more than you do have with that little piece of plastic. All of a sudden, you've spent more than you can come. It's not like you emptied out your pockets. I mean, you've emptied out the future. That would be prodigal in the original sense of the word. But this person has spent away everything. And so that's where we come in verse 5, he journeyed, he went with prodigal living, wasting, and of course one thing about prodigals is they can attract friends. If someone's got an open wallet and quick wanting to impress people with all their lavish, well there are people that will gather around them to enjoy their money with them and as soon as the money's gone They stop replying to texts, they disappear, they unfriend, what is the expression now? They ghost them. He was living lavishly, unsavingly, in other words he's not taking what he has and setting aside for the future and then we're told a famine came. When he spent all there was there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in want. And then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, but no one gave him anything." This is the problem with that spendthrift, that unsaving approach to money. If you're not saving, then what if a calamity comes? It's devastating. You know, if someone is just spending everything they have, enjoying all the frivolities of life, and then a flat tire happens, oh no. It's a catastrophe. Well, that's because you weren't saving for, guess what, one day you will need tires. I think it was Chuck Swindoll, I heard him years ago talking about his, you know, I guess his first car. And he was so excited, he's young, and he was out there and he was really enjoying all that the car could do. Well, sometimes if you are a prodigal with your car and prodigal with your tires, guess what? Eventually, you're going to have to replace them. And then soon enough, they wore out. Then he had to discover, oh, tires are expensive. All he knew is, hey, here's a car. I'm going to go and enjoy it. He wasn't thinking. And he learned a life lesson from that. Well, this prodigal is spending away wildly. And then a famine comes, and he's not ready for it. And so now this downturn. is devastating. He has nothing to do and so the best he can do is he joins himself, and the word join has the idea of gluing, he attaches himself to a citizen of the far country. It's kind of an unusual term there, a citizen of the far country, but basically he's saying he's clearly a Gentile. He's not a Jew who happens to be in the far country. He's a citizen of the far country. He's a Gentile. And so it's not surprising that he raises pigs. And so here we find this Jewish boy who came from what seems to be a prosperous and respected Jewish family. He has now lived a foolish life and now he's at a place where he has to become a hired servant. And worse than that, his job is feeding pigs. Now again, think of the Pharisees, prim and proper, listening to the story. Their jaws drop when they hear how this boy talks to his father. Their jaws drop when they hear how the father actually says yes and divides up his estate. And then he describes this boy as now working for a pig farmer, and he's not just working for a pig farmer, he is slopping the pigs. In Jewish mentality, you're thinking, you couldn't get much worse. It gets worse. He's envious. This Jewish boy from a nice Jewish family is envious of the pigs because they eat better than he does. You get the sense of this story is meant to shake people. And it sure caught their attention. He is a pig slopper and a hungry one at that. A starving one. I'm reminded of the phrase, you probably heard it. Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. The first time I heard those words was out of the mouth of someone in a prison. He was saying, that describes where I am today. Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. Sin does that in our lives. It's devastating. It's destructive. I was going to say captivating but captivating can be a good thing. That was a captivating movie. It's enslaving and it's a hard taskmaster. When I hear about this young man, this Jewish man coming from a prominent family and now slopping pigs and starving, it reminds me of the story of John Newton. You might remember him, he was a slave trader. But eventually, he got so low, he lived such a profligate, prodigal life. And prodigal in the sense not just spending everything, but a rebellious and rejecting life. At one point, he ended up not just being a slave trader or working on a slave ship, he actually became a servant of slaves in Africa. And he writes about that when he wrote what was to be written on his tombstone, and what's on his tombstone. John Newton, clerk. once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy. He was that prodigal, and he had seen how sin could bring him to the bottom of the world. And he saw how God's grace could bring him to a place of usefulness. So here's this prodigal, slopping pigs in a Gentile country and starving and envying the pigs. In verses 17 to 24 we see the story of his restoration. Verses 17 to 19 say, when he came to himself he said, how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father. Does that remind you? Do you remember the old gospel song, I will arise and go to Jesus? Stolen from here, I'm sure. 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. Make me one of your hired servants. He finally wakes up to his circumstances. See, that's what sin will do. It's a slave master. But also, sin darkens our thinking. It twists our thinking. The things that we think are fun and enjoyable are actually destroying ourselves. Sin is like that. But finally, he has been brought so low, he wakes up. Sometimes when I pray for those who are on the path of the prodigal, I pray God in your mercy, bring them low quickly so they can wake up. He was brought to the end of his rope and he realized, what am I doing here? What am I doing? He wakes up. Here he is at the bottom of the world. He's bottomed out in his own life. And he thinks back to his father's servants growing up. Again, we get the impression his father was a man of wealth. He wasn't just getting by. He had hired servants. He had a staff that did work for him and he's thinking, Those servants that I hardly paid attention to, they live better than I'm living right now. And in thinking about it he recognizes my father treated his servants much better than this man's treating me. He's starting to realize the goodness and kindness of his father. Not just that he was a man of means but he was a man of goodness and kindness. And with that, it brings him to a place of repentance. He's going to go to his father and plead mercy, but he's not even going to ask for restoration to the privileges of a son. He simply wants to go and say, would you do me the kindness of letting, would you hire me as a servant? Could I please have the benefit of being a servant in your household? Because you're a good man and it's good to work for someone like you and that's all I deserve. He wisely practices his speech. He thinks through what he's gonna say to his father. And sometimes when you have something difficult to say, it's not a bad idea to think it out. Maybe write it out. Sometimes it's even good to run it by someone. And they might help you say, no, no, don't say it that way, say it this way. definitely don't leave that one out. Why don't you say this instead? And so he's thinking through what he's going to say and as he does it, we see his heart. This isn't dad, I'm hungry. Would you please, you don't want me starving to death do you? He doesn't do any of that guilt thing. He comes to him and notice what he says, we see his repentance because he realizes he wasn't just foolish and selfish and rebellious, he was sinful. And true repentance sees that his greatest sin is ultimately against God. All sin is first against God himself and then that is destroying and destructive to those around us and hurtful. So most of all he comes to his father and he's going to say, dad, I wasn't just rebelling against you. I was rebelling against God. And that's the real problem. A theologian of the past, Augustus Strong, said true repentance takes God's part against ourselves. True repentance takes God's part against ourselves. True repentance sees our sin in God's eyes and with that is horrified at our sin. So he followed through with his plan. Verse 20, he arose and came to his father. And when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Once again, the Pharisees are, you can almost hear them groaning. Oh no. That stinky wretch. And by the way, stinky is literal here. He didn't have a change of clothes. He's come straight from the pig sty and he doesn't smell of bacon. He smells of filth and he comes home. His father saw him and it didn't go as he had planned. His father sees him from a distance and that tells us something. So in that world he would have lived in the village, ideally sometimes within walls because that's where you come in days of hardship, but he would live in the village and his fields would be outside the village. You see that for example when Boaz is going out to where his field is he leaves the village of Bethlehem and goes out to his fields and so he lived in town and he went to the property. And so there in town, notice he sees his son a long way off and that suggests, I think, that he was looking, that as long as his son has been gone he didn't just forget him, he was looking. Would he ever come back? And so he saw him from a distance, first thought is he probably was shocked. Covered in filth. You can see a broken spirit instead of the proud stiff back as he left. We don't know how long it was. How long it took him to reach bottom, but the father was looking, waiting, hoping, watching for him to return. And again, that tells us something about the father. If we look ahead and we've already read about the son, I don't think the other son ever gave a thought to him. If he did, it's just good riddance. I'm glad he's gone. But the father, and this shows us the father's heart, was waiting, hoping, praying for his son. And when he sees him, he ran to meet him. You need to understand that that's a rare thing in the Middle East and especially today. You see a couple of things when God and the angels came to Abram's house to eat, he ran to get the meal. He ran to get things in order for him. But normally you do not see a man running, a respectable man, because for one thing, if you're going to run back then, you've got to, you know, lift your gown up and you're exposing your ankles. Shocking. And so to run, It is embarrassing. I read from a pastor who worked in the Middle East for many, many years and has written quite a bit about seeing the Bible through Middle Eastern eyes. And he writes this, a pastor of my acquaintance was not accepted as the pastor of a particular church. He applied for a job at a church. He was rejected because in the judgment of the elders, he walked down the street too fast. Now put that on your list of pastoral qualifications. But in other words, it was undignified because he walked. And so for this father, he's a man of means, he has a household, he has land, he has servants and he hoists his robe and he starts running down the street. Once again the Pharisees are, oh no, it's only getting worse. How shocking, how shameful. Probably the best way of understanding it is the father, two things he wants to communicate, welcome home son, but I think he's trying to communicate something else. He's making a statement to the community, my son is home. And so he is willing to put his own respect, his own reputation, he lays it down in the dirt to go and run to his son. That's how great his love for his son is. In this way, he's communicating, I think, a biblical principle. The word that comes to mind is imputation. By running to his same shameful son, he is basically putting his honor on his son. What happened at the cross is often called the great exchange. Christ, the sinless one, the righteous one, took our sin on himself and the wrath of God that we deserved and puts on those who follow Christ. He puts the righteousness of Christ, a great exchange. Well, the father is in a sense taking his son's shame on himself and putting his honor and reputation on his son. Verse 21, The father said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. He starts a speech. Before he can offer it to live as a servant, the father cuts him off. But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe, put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And I would add, if I were telling the story, and take these clothes and burn them. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be married. For this my son was dead and is alive. He was lost. and is found and they began to be married. He is again, he's treating him with honor. He gets the best and the finest of treatment. He gets literally, my translation says, bring out the best robe. It's literally the first robe. This is dad's best robe for the best events. Get my best robe, put it on him. put a ring on his hand. Now I don't think that's like the, some say it's the signet ring. Remember in those days that was your signature. I don't think he's, he's not restoring him as a signatory of the home, but he's saying he's not a servant. He wears jewelry. Servants were barefooted. Put some shoes on that boy. What he's saying is he's a son. He's to be treated with honor instead of repudiated and rejected. He's no servant. He's a son. And then he calls for a celebration. His son has come home and it's as good as resurrection. He was lost but now found." Again, you wonder, that's where I think Newton came to the story and said, that's a good line. So this story, I've mentioned a couple of hymns already that borrow from phrases in the heart of this. And that's the story of every sinner who comes to Christ, lost but found. And he calls for celebration. He calls for the fatted calf, and that, just to be clear, you know, remember, they don't have refrigerators back then. When we lost power for hours or even a couple of days, we were all in a panic. What about all the stuff in the freezer? Well, that wasn't a problem back then. They didn't have a freezer. And so, when you killed an animal, everybody eat up because, you know, we're not going to put it in the freezer. And so a fatted calf, or literally a grain-fed calf, this was a calf that had been specifically preparing for a good meal. And so what he's saying is, we're gonna have a big meal. We're gonna roast the cow. And so he's calling for a big celebration. He's not just saying, get him some clean clothes. He's saying, this is a family celebration. And everybody's invited. This is a picture of what Jesus described two different times, once with each of the other parables. But going back to chapter 15, verse 10, Jesus said, Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angel of God over one sinner who repents. And here's a picture of that. Here's a picture of that. See, the Pharisees, they see a sinner and all they have is disgust. And Jesus is saying, if a sinner wants to come, and listen to my teaching, that's a good thing. And instead of having disgust and despising a sinner, Jesus says heaven throws a party every time a sinner repents and comes to faith. That's a nice thought isn't it? We weren't even conscious of it when we trusted Christ. We just kind of thought we were having a private, at least with me, I was alone in the room and I had a private transaction with the Lord Jesus Christ and I laid down my life and received the gift of salvation and I went to bed. Well, apparently the party started in heaven. And that's true for each of us and that's the point. Instead of God being, oh no, not him, which would have been appropriate, it's hey, rejoice, let's gather, let's kick off the singing. So a couple things just to notice here, repentance comes when we see our sin. It's consequences in our life and we turn to Christ in confession and appeal for mercy. That's repentance. It's not just saying, look at the mess I've made in my life. Lots of people have regret. Repentance is, God, I have made a mess. Here it is. Please cleanse me and make me new. That's repentance. And again, the father delights to welcome the repentant sinner. Notice what else happened. What drew the boy back? Well, what made him aware of his need was his difficult circumstances. And again, that's how we can pray for the prodigals that we pray for. God as they bottom out may you use that in their life to awaken them. Instead of giving what they deserve it's like Lord use this to help them see how destructive sin is. What drew the boy back ultimately though was the love of his father. He thought of his kindness to the servants first and then he thought of his kindness to him. I can't believe it. I treated him like that and what did he do? He put a third of his wealth into my hands and let me go. He knew him as a man of love as he thought about it. By the way, notice carefully as you read through this parable again, never once did the boy say, I'll go back to my home. I'll go back to my bed. No, I'm going back to my father. I'm going back to my father. I read it, the account at the funeral, I'll read it to you, at the funeral of the former first lady, Betty Ford. No, she didn't invent the cars. And for some of you, that's an ancient name you hardly know, but some of us are old enough to remember the Ford presidency. At a funeral of former first lady Betty Ford, her son Stephen said, she was the one with the love and the comfort. She was the first one there to put her arms around you. Nineteen years ago, he said at her funeral, her son did, when I went through my alcoholism, my mother gave me one of the greatest gifts and that was how to surrender to God and to accept the grace of God in my life. And truly in her arms, I felt like the prodigal son coming home. And I felt God's love through her. And that was a good gift. What a testimony of a son to a mother. I once was lost but now I'm found. Thanks mom. Stephen Ford concluded his tribute with these words. Thank you mom for loving us, loving your husband, loving us kids, loving the nation with the heart of God. I think the prodigal saw his father in the same way in this story. Now again, I keep saying it as if it's a real event, right? It's a story, but Jesus tells such a compelling story. I'm expecting to meet the prodigal son up there in heaven. In this final part we see the departure of the second son. The title for today's message is the prodigal's father, the prodigal's father. There are two prodigals in this parable. The first prodigal is the young son and the second prodigal is the second son. And really the parable is not about the son, it's about the father. The older son, we're told in verses 25 to 28, now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him, what do these things mean? And he said to him, your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. Verse 28, but he, the older son, was angry and he would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So apparently he's out, younger, older son, he's out there working in the field. He didn't know about his brother's arrival. He didn't see him coming to town and see all this. He just comes home and he hears music and dancing. Music is the word we get symphony from, and dancing is the word from which we get choreography. Now when you think dancing, how do you hear dancing? You sometimes will see things in Israel, you'll see them do what's called the hora, where they're all in a circle and they're doing the folk dancing. I took a one-time class in that when I was in Israel. It damaged my toes because the guy next to me had these heavy boots and I was barefooted. That's my remembrance of Israeli dancing. But it's a spirit of celebration. It's a party of joy. And so he asked the servant, what's going on? And the servant tells him, and notice he says, he's not only come home, he's safe and sound. He's okay. Because that's one of your fears, isn't it? If he comes home, will he be okay? He's good. He's good. And by the way, so he's having a dinner, isn't he? And what was the complaint of the Pharisees? He eats with them. Jesus sits at the table and eats with sinners. What's this father doing? He's sitting down at the table with the son who's just come from the pigsty. He's really putting it in the face of the Pharisees, isn't he? We see the grace of his father when he ran to welcome his son. He welcomed him with joy, celebration, no recrimination, no good stink. All right, you can stay in the shed. He lovingly reaches out in the same spirit to his other son. verses 29 and 30. So he answered and said to his father, notice the father waited for the first son to come. He goes now, he goes to the older son. He leaves the party and he says, you know, he says, come on, come celebrate. In verse 29 and 30, the son answered and said to his father, Lo, these many days I've been serving you. I never transgressed your commandment at any time. Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. As soon as this son of yours, by the way, it's his brother, this son of yours came who has devoured your livelihood with harlots. You killed the fatted calf for him. Notice he never even calls his, he won't call his father, father. And he won't call the son his brother. He's your son, he's not my brother. He is bitter and resentful. He claims he's had a life of faithful service without ever disobeying. It's Father's Day. Let me just ask, anyone here could claim that they never once disobeyed their father? Okay, good, because we haven't gotten to it yet in the catechism, but one of the commandments, thou shalt not bear false witness. And so when this son says, I never once disobeyed you, liar. Of course he did. Never once did I disobey you. Faithful service never disobeyed. That sounds like a self-righteous Pharisee. A lot of times that's a self-righteous, they can't even see their own sin. They won't admit their own sin. That's quite a contrast to repentance of the younger son. The older son, he said, I never got a party. But notice the party, not even a small goat. You're giving him the calf. I don't even get roast chicken. But the point he's saying here, too, is notice what he wants to do with that party for me and my friends. I don't want to party with you, Dad. I want as little to do with you as possible. I'm working here, I'm keeping the business alive for when I get it. But he has no heart for his father. And that's supposed to say about the Pharisees. Self-righteous, condemning others, works righteousness. He's like the Pharisees. And so Jesus is telling a story to the Pharisees contrasting the heart of God to their heart. verses 31 and 32. And the father said to him, son, you're notice he calls him son. You are always with me and all that I have is yours. I mean, give your brother got his third. Everything I have is yours. It was right that we should make Mary and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. And the father reminds him of his son, of his blessings. He has the father. He's the heir of everything the father owns. You're blessed, be grateful, but rejoice in repentance. But notice the father doesn't back down and apologize. Oh, I'm sorry, I overreacted. No, you're getting it wrong. This is how we respond to repentance. We welcome it and we honor it. So as we look at this parable some things we can notice. First of all we see the need for repentance. and the blessing of believing repentance. How do we come back to the Father? When we begin a relationship with God, we begin by facing what's the elephant in the room. The reason that we're not in communion, Father, is my sin. I've sinned against you. I plead for the mercy that you offered in Christ. We can learn a lot from these two men, these two sons. One repented, one did not. Both needed repentance. See, it's easy to look at someone out there living a wicked, wicked, outwardly wicked, wicked life and say, that person needs to repent. But you know what? The person who's sitting in an office and impeccably dressed and impeccable lifestyle without Christ, they need to repent too. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every one of us needs repentance. Now chiefly what this parable was doing is it's teaching us about our Father in Heaven. He is this Father who goes above and beyond. He's loving, eager to forgive, watching and waiting for our repentance, eager for it. Not like, oh, I guess we've got to accept him home. It's like, yay, repentance. And like the Father, He showers blessings on those who come to him in repenting faith. He actually makes us sons. He makes us co-heirs with Jesus Christ. On Father's Day, this parable speaks to us as fathers. May we have the same hunger for our children to repent. to come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. What he's saying to the son is that's what matters most. Okay, I've lost a third of what I own but I have my son who's given his heart to the Lord. That's time for a party. May that be our greatest longing and our greatest prayer. George Whitfield had a brother, remember the great evangelist of the 1700s? He was incredible as an evangelist. His brother had lived far from the ways of godliness. One afternoon he was sitting in a room in a chapel house. He had heard his brother preach the day before and his poor conscience had been cut to the quick. He said when he was at tea, I'm a lost man. And he groaned and cried and could neither eat nor drink. Lady Huntington, who was a leading evangelical sponsor of the time, sat across the table from him. What did you say, Mr. Whitfield? Madam said he, I am a lost man. I'm glad of it, she said. I'm glad of it. Your ladyship, how can you say so? It is cruel to say you're glad that I'm a lost man. I repeat it, sir. I'm heartily glad of it. He looked at her more astonished at her barbarity. I'm glad of it, she said, because it is written, the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. You qualify. I'm glad you see you're lost. You now qualified for Christ. See, you know what Jesus said? I didn't come to save the ones who don't need saving. Of course, there aren't any. She's saying, I'm glad you see your need. With tears rolling down his cheeks, he said, what a precious scripture and how is it that it comes with such force to me? Oh, madam, said he. Madam, I bless God for that. Then he will save me. I trust my soul in his hands. He's forgiven me. And he went outside the house, fell ill, fell upon the ground and died. Now, I like the story for two reasons. It's about George Whitefield, the great evangelist, as told by Charles Spurgeon. I don't get any better than that. But what a reminder, right? We pray for those who are struggling with illness. There's no guarantee you're going to make it out to your car today. Are you ready to meet the Lord? I'll just read one more story. This bishop of London was telling the story of a drunken poor man and the horrible experiences he had had in his life. A little London girl from the slums was being examined on the parable of the prodigal son. So a little girl lived in poverty, they were teaching her the prodigal story and so asking questions. The teacher has gotten as far as the repentance of the prodigal and is eating the swine husks. When the teacher asked the little girl what else could he have done? He had nothing else to do, all he could do is eat the pig food. The child replied evidently speaking of her own experience, well he could have pawned this little girl's boots. So she heard the story of the prodigal, she thought of her own father and how when he got rock bottom he sold her shoes. Jesus does much for us in this parable. He shows us the reality of sin. I had a theology class with Dr. Rari one time and he recommended some time that we might do a series 40 years later, I still haven't done it, but a series on New Testament words for sin. He said, you do that study and you'll find almost all of them relate to the destruction that sin brings. Often when people think of sin, they think of having fun and knowing God's not happy. No, it's bringing destruction into our lives and the lives of those around us. And no, God is not happy with that. But rather, Jesus tells the story here of a God who delights in repentance. He delights in forgiveness. He's not begrudging in the mercies he shares and pours out on the repentant one. He delights in repentance. If you have yet to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, let me urge you, hear what Jesus says about it. You need it. And he's calling on you to join the repentant ones. By the way, do you notice about this story? It has one massive failure. I'm reminded of, I was in a preaching class one time and one of the other students preached a story and he used this really compelling story in his life situation. After the sermon was over came the grilling. It's like you kind of got your sermon up and then the guns were pointed at you. And the professor said, you didn't finish your illustration. What happened in the story you were telling? I don't remember what it was about, but he got the point. He wanted to cross, but he left us all hanging. Whatever happened? Did she die? What happened? Don't leave us hanging. What did Jesus do? What did the older son do? I don't know. Why not? I think he's telling the Pharisees, you finish the story. What will you do? And that's the message for us today. What will you do? And we can have two ways that would honor the Lord. First, if you again, if you have yet to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, lay it down now, recognize your guilt, receive the gift of salvation by coming to Christ. For those of us who know the gift of salvation we've got something to lay down too, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. May we have a longing for, a praying for and a delight in the repentance of the sinner. And may we be someone that someone would come to and say, help me trust Christ. I know you would love me enough to do that. On Father's Day, I imagine every one of us can think of someone, as we've heard about this prodigal, maybe someone has been in our thoughts. Someone that needs to take that walk home. Maybe we can join together in our own hearts and pray for the prodigals we know about. Maybe family, close friend, but someone you know that needs to come to know the Lord. Good time to pray for them. I'll pray and then we'll have our final hymn. Father, thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, the master teacher. But Father, thank you for the master story of your love for us. And Father, we confess that we are those prodigals, far from you, but brought home by mercy. I pray, Father, if any here have yet to make that walk of faith, that turning from their sin and receiving Christ as Savior, Lord, today open their eyes to see their need and give them the grace to trust in him. And Father, we just join our hearts. And pray for those prodigals of whom we know and ask Lord that you would turn their hearts to you. I pray this in Jesus name, amen. The man who wrote the song we're about to sing, I've told you the story before. One time he was in a carriage riding along and the lady in the carriage was humming a song. And he said to her, man, would you please stop humming that song? Oh, and she said, it's a wonderful song. It's called Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. He said, I know the song. I wrote it. And oh, what I wouldn't give for those thoughts to be true in my heart today.