Luke 15:32
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Hey church, it's a wonderful thing to be speaking out of this text on Father's Day. We're looking at Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son. Our devotion starts at the end, it's just one verse. It's the very end of the parable of the prodigal son, verse 32.
It's just one sentence. The parable is often called the parable of the prodigal son, but certainly the older son plays a large part in this. But we don't want to call this parable the parable of the righteous son. After all, we all know wayward people. Maybe that describes your life. We also know upright and good, righteous, religious people. Perhaps that describes your life. Maybe you've been both.
But you have never been, nor you have never known a father like the one in this story. I think the best title for this story is the parable of the forgiving father. As I mentioned, it's just one sentence, which is only half of the father's response to the older son, but it is loaded with meaning. Here's the text. It's written on the front of your bulletins. Luke 15, 32. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad.
For this, your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. This sentence is the father's final response to the accusations of the older brother in which the older brother, in his anger, has harshly accused the younger brother and his father. Before we look at the father's response, which is in part verse 32, let us understand the accusation.
The brother's accusation is that the younger brother foolishly squandered the father's money on prostitutes in a foreign land. Now, commentators are quick to come to the younger son's defense saying there was never anything said about prostitutes. The only thing said here had been about wild living or reckless living. But I think we need to acknowledge the older brother at least has a strong case, given a foolish and reckless young man with gold coins in his pocket and the antonymity of another country, you be the judge.
The fact that the younger brother has come to his senses, confessed, repented, doesn't seem to enter into the calculus of the older brother. He feels the younger brother is unworthy of being welcomed back. And that's the one thing the brothers agree on. The younger brother, returning home, barefoot, hungry, half-naked, confesses, I am unworthy to be your son. The older brother sees it the same way.
The accusation of the older brother against the father is, in a way, more serious. He thinks the father is a fool for ignoring the depth of the younger brother's sin, so he makes sure to point it out. Worse, more than being foolish, he sees the father as unjust. Why does the wayward son get a party? The father's never thrown a party for him after all his hard work.
Where's the reward? It's just flat wrong. It's unjust. That's the accusation. Three comments about verse 32 through 32 verse, just the first half of that. It's a fitting response. it's a family concern, and thirdly, there's a path to a party.
So number one, a fitting response. The party is full of merrymaking with barbecue and singing and dancing. The Father says the party is fitting. What does that mean, fitting? It means he's not unjust. It's right to celebrate, to rejoice, to make merry. It's a fitting response to the son's confession, I have sinned against you and against God. The younger son then shows up to the party with new shoes, a new robe, and a signet ring.
You know, in the ancient Near East, a signet ring was used to stamp the family seal on legal documents. By placing the ring on his son's finger, the father is saying, I'm restoring you to legal rights to act in my name. The ring is a physical picture of the covenant. It shows that when God forgives us, that he doesn't put us in a trial period to see if we can earn our way back into his good graces.
It's an immediate thing. That's a hint for us that were given for all who are restored to our Heavenly Father the right to make requests like we did tonight in prayer in Jesus name, Amen that is we pray to God that with the authority of Jesus it's as if we're wearing a signet ring when we pray not only does God give us authority he wraps us in his robe of righteousness seals us with his Holy Spirit establishing a relationship of sonship Much like what we saw in Ezekiel 16 this morning.
Even when Israel squandered the wealth of the covenant, God's ultimate desire was restoration, not destruction. The father's gentle response to the older son is fitting because he understands it's the only way to save his self-righteous, selfish son through a loving and gracious reply. it comes with an invitation. Now, there's no question that the older son is dutiful, but he has forgotten his Bible.
Ezekiel 18, verse 23, Do you think, asked the Sovereign Lord, that I'd like to see wicked people die? Of course not. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. Or, in verse 26, And if wicked people turn from their wickedness, obey the law and do what is just and right, they will save their lives. They will live. Because after thinking it over, that is coming to their senses, they decide to turn from their sins. Such people will not die.
And then verse 29, Ezekiel 18, verse 29. And yet, the people of Israel keep saying, the Lord is unjust. O people of Israel, it is you who are unjust, not I. The older brother has a shriveled, joyless heart. He refuses to go in. He doesn't see the celebration as fitting. Just the opposite. It's a sad picture of a person blind to his sin and that's what self-righteousness does to us we become judgmental condemning unforgiving and blind it shrivels our hearts what irony while the younger son has said I have sinned the older brother says, I have served. He feels justified by his works, and consequently he stays outside.
So, what makes this celebration fitting for us? Well, when we confess our sin, there's rejoicing in heaven. It's an entrance to the party, confession. Put another way, You can't get inside without confession and repentance. There's also a family concern here that's important. Our second point, family concern. Notice the father does not defend himself against the other brother's cruel accusations.
Do you find that hard to do? I do. To be rejected after an attempt to be kind even if it's an angry person and to ignore mean-spirited slander. Yet, the father lets it pass. He begs the pouting older son to come to the party. The father speaks tenderly to his older son. He longs to reconcile the older son to the family.
He longs for the older son to see the repentance of his brother. He wants him to join the banquet to come inside. This is the only correction the father makes to the older son's wounding accusations, and it's nuanced. The older brother has said, with disdain, when this son of yours came back, he's refusing to say, my brother. The statement, this son of yours, is a way of disowning his brother and ultimately the family.
The father makes sure to say in his reply, this your brother, it's a correction, an important one. Living in unforgiveness, anger, and accusations towards God and his people leaves you outside. To remain at odds with brothers and sisters at the party puts us at odds with God. Tonight is communion. We should take that seriously.
Greg is exactly right when we say almost week to week, if there is something between you and a family member here, take care of it now. It's more important than taking communion. Thirdly, look at the reason for the party, the path to a party. The final 11 words of the father are a contrast to the miserly, selfish mindset of the older son. The father's concern is about life and being found.
Look, he says, your brother was dead but has gained life. He was lost but found his way home. He's saying, don't you see, this is bigger than you just getting a goat to have a little party with your friends. Did you notice the father was not invited to the goat party in the older son's mind? It's life and death. It's about life abundantly. This celebration is a picture of the joy of finding your way home.
About being found alive. And let me say, there's no one more alive right now than Melody Abel. No one. I wonder what the people Jesus was talking to thought of when Jesus said he was dead and now is alive. Does he mean, you know, his life was at a dead end? Maybe they thought he was using hyperboleic language. Surely it didn't mean he was actually dead. Jesus means he is a dead man.
His life is hell because he had lost his soul. What good is it if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul, Jesus asked. Jesus is looking at the resurrection of the dead, his first and then many to follow to glory. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, you are dead in your sins. The Father is saying the way of life is to come to the party. But you must first repent and live a life of repentance.
You need to fully realize that your sins are against both others and God. Just like the younger son. Regardless of the size of your sins, you must confess, everyone must confess that we are unworthy of God's grace and love and forgiveness and mercy. Instead of comparing ourselves to others like the older brother, look at yourself through God's standards and say, Oh God, forgive me, a sinner.
The reason the older brother hasn't ever had a party with his father is because he never repented. And the father knows it. the message is as true today as it was then. The sins of the younger son is obvious. But let's take the older son at his word. After all, his father doesn't dispute it. He is not disobeyed. The father requires no more service of him, just come to the party.
He has always been with the father. But the older brother doesn't understand. The party is only for those who repent. The statement of the prodigal to his father, I am worthy to be your son, is what makes the prodigal worthy. Both the wayward who repent of their waywardness, like the younger son, and comes to the party. Or the self-righteous, like the older brother who repents of their self-righteousness and comes to the party.
Both only get entrance by repenting. That's the path. That's the path to the party. Either way. The goal is to come to the party knowing that righteousness is not achieved by worthy obedience. It's worthy obedience. But we come to the party as a gift the Father gives to us in His great love. Here's a litmus test. Religious people obey God to get stuff.
Friends, security, social contacts, place to belong, husband and wife, great singing. Gospel people obey God to get God, to get more of Him. Knowing Jesus is of surpassing worth. If you want more of God in your life, repent and come to the party. It's interesting, the parable is not really resolved. Like many Bible stories, I think of the book of Jonah, of Jonah just sitting on the hillside, pouting, waiting for God to strike the Ninevites down.
We suspect, we don't know, but we suspect the older brother doesn't go in. But Jesus doesn't say. And so we're left to wonder what happened to the older son. Of course, the parable is specifically aimed at the Pharisees. We wonder, did anyone listening come to faith? I suspect Luke, the writer, would have his companion and father in the faith, the Apostle Paul, in mind.
As Paul tells it in Philippians 3, If anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted a loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them in rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. what a treasure it is to have watched Melody Abel suffer oh she honored God she was brave but only because of what Christ had done in her life that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death to live as Christ and to die as gain.
Paul is perhaps the greatest example of a converted older son. He's almost interchangeable with the older son, Paul of Tarshish. No one would know better than Luke that Paul had been the older brother full of rage on the road to Damascus where he accepted the father's love, repented, and joined the party. I mentioned earlier that we're taking communion tonight. That's an invitation to a celebration as well. That's an invitation to a banquet. When we take communion, it's the Lord's table.
It's extended to the penitents. You can't join this party either, this table, without repentance either. The good news is, of course, you can do that right where you sit. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, thank you for this evening, this sober evening. We thank you for the incredible testimony that you give us in this forgiving Father in the parable that you told.
We thank you that this parable resonates with us to this day. We pray, Father, that you would be with us as a church as we model and think about what it means to be tenitent, confessed, walking with Jesus, people of God, at Third Avenue Baptist Church. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.