Luke 15:1-2, 11-32 | Parables in Practice

Listen to this week’s sermon, Parables In Practice preached by Rev. Benjamin Kandt from Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.

Transcript

Welcome And Prayer

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Reading Luke 15

Lostness As The Human Condition

Raquel West 0:21

Please stand for our prayer of illumination. Pray this prayer with me. Guide us, O God, by your word and spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. You may stand. Um, don't sit. Today's scripture coming is coming from Luke 15. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing nearer to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable. 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 your 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 the 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. 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 is 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 have 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. This is God's word. You may be seated.

One Parable With Three Stories

The Shepherd Who Searches

The Woman Who Sweeps For You

The Far Country And False Freedom

Hitting Bottom And Coming To Yourself

The Father Runs And Restores

Robe Ring Shoes And Joy

The Older Brother And Hidden Lostness

Hypocrisy Entitlement And Contempt

Jesus The True Seeking Brother

The Father Who Never Gave Up

Closing Prayer And Invitation

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 4:27

Thank you, Rocky. That was a fitting reading of Luke 15. There's a story of a young girl who lived on the edge of a forest, and she loved to wander in the forest until one day she got lost. As it grew dark and the little girl did not come home, her parents grew worried and they began calling for her and searching the forest, but it grew late. So they came home and they called their friends and their neighbors and they said, Hey, can you help us come and search for our little girl? Meanwhile, the girl wandered around the forest and she became anxious as it grew dark because she could not find her way home. She tried this path and then another and then another and became more and more exhausted until it got so dark that she came into a clearing in the forest and she found a big rock and she laid down next to it and fell asleep. Her frantic parents and neighbors scoured the forest. They called her name and called her name, but to no avail. You see, this experience of being lost is what the Bible calls the fundamental human condition. Have you ever been lost? Have you ever been so disoriented that you didn't know how to find your way home? You know, all of us have this longing, this deep need to find a place where we can finally call home, a place that you don't deserve or earn, a place that you can come to where you are accepted despite deserving it and despite being impressive. And so this morning I have one point, which is only two words, but summarizes this whole sermon, and that is this come home. Come home. It's not a command, but it is a plea. And I hope that if God pleases, you will hear the plea not just coming from me, but from him as well. So if you have a Bible or a device or the worship guide, go ahead and get Luke chapter 15 in front of you. We're gonna look at verse one here. I'm actually gonna walk through more of the text than was read this morning, but start with me at verse one as we see the setup to this parable. Luke 15, verse 1 says this. So he told them this parable. Pause for a moment. Who is them? Well, in this little setup here, we see there's two groups of people. There's the tax collectors and the scribes, and then there's the there's the fair, I'm sorry, there's the tax collectors and the sinners, and then there's the Pharisees and the scribes. You've got the the irreligious and the religious, you've got the insiders and the down and outs. They're they're both in the room, if you will. And Jesus tells the parable, it says in verse 3, he told them this parable. Notice that that that word, this parable, it's singular. Commentators for thousands of years have pointed out that this story actually almost feels Trinitarian. It's one parable with three stories telling one message. How do the lost come home? How do the lost come home? So let's look briefly at the first two stories, the the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin, before we really slow down on the lost sons. Look with me at the lost sheep in verse four. It says this What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. Notice the shepherd is not passive. Instead, he goes after the one, he seeks, and I love this phrase, underline this if you will, until he finds it. There's a diligence, there's an unwillingness to give up here. Verse 5, it says, and when he comes home, when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he, here's the main point of the sermon, comes home. Imagine being these friends and neighbors. Would this feel like overkill? Throwing a party over a lost sheep? One out of a hundred, even at that. Well, look at verse 7. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy. Somebody say, more joy. More joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. You see, Jesus is not concerned about the fact that there is a joy that is disproportionate to the recovery. What is heaven like? Let's be biblical here for a moment. Heaven throws parties over repentant sinners. That's what heaven is like. Again, I could spend more time, but let's look at the lost coin. Look at verse 8 with me. Or what woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it. Listen, do you assume that God is waiting for you to clean yourself up first? Or do you believe that God will sweep the house to look for you? Look at verse 9. It says, And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Let's just assume for a moment. I think this is funny to think that the shepherd and the woman live in the same town. The same friends and neighbors are like, for real again? Another party? Friends and neighbors now at another party because a coin came home. But Jesus goes on in verse 10, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Notice here, the Holy Spirit doesn't waste his breath. Look at it, it says, notice the joy, it takes place in the presence of the angels. It's not saying that the angels are the source of the joy, it's saying the joy happens in front of the angels in the heavenly courtroom. It's God's joy. God is the one rejoicing. So let's be biblical again here. Heaven is a world of joy, and God is the rejoicer in chief. That's what the Bible says about heaven. And so as we turn now to the third story, traditionally called the parable of the prodigal son, you have to understand that prodigal means someone who is reckless or wasteful or extravagant in their spending. And you see, up to this point, the shepherd lost one of his hundred sheep. That's only about a 1% of his assets. The woman actually lost one of her ten coins. That's a little bit more. It's 10% of her assets. There's an intentional intensification happening in this moment. We're being primed when we get to this third story to ask the question: how much has the father lost? Well, let's see. Look with me at verse 11. And Jesus 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. You ever wonder why did the younger son leave? We don't know. But what we do know is that when he says, Give me my share, he's saying, You are worth more to me dead than alive. Give me my part of the inheritance. You see, this is really getting at the core of the human condition, which is that the root of all sin, the root of all going astray, is saying something to God like, I don't need you. I don't want you. Now give me your stuff, but I'm gonna go my own way. And the Father grants the freedom to reject his love. Look with me at verse 12. It says, And he divided his property between them. This is a principle throughout the story of Scripture that gives me great concern, and that is this God will give you what you most want. God will give you what you most want. He's non-coercive in that way. So if you want a life of autonomy and self-definition and going your own way, he might just give it to you. Look at verse 13. It says, 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. You see, the far country always looks like freedom, but it's the kind of freedom a fish gets when it jumps out of the water and onto the dock. That's the freedom of the far country. And the father knows this, but he lets the son go. And we see in verse 14, when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. You see, what happens is sometimes it takes a famine to expose our false freedom. And in this moment, the father is teaching by taking away. And I know enough to know that he's doing that in some of our lives too, right now. We feel a famine, and the father's allowing it because he's trying to draw us to come home. Look at verse 15. So the son 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. Now, the story of the prodigal son is hailed as maybe the greatest picture of the love of the father that we have in Scripture. And yet, notice the Father's love is willing to let us feel the consequences of our actions. The father is not an enabler. The father of the prodigal son does not send care packages or money or help to his son. He lets his son feel the full consequences of his actions. Because the father knows that the only thing that will rescue the son is that he feels the effect of reaping what he's sown. But notice the son has to come to himself before he can come to his father. Look at verse 17. But when he came to himself, Augustine of Hippo has this brilliant line. He says, the prodigal son must have traveled so far that he even left himself behind. Now, this is what addiction literature calls hitting rock bottom. This coming to oneself. M. Scott Peck has my favorite definition of mental health. He says, Mental health is the ongoing dedication to reality at all costs. Why? Well, because reality can be a really good tutor. It can teach us to come home to ourselves, to come to ourselves and realize that we're in a place that we don't want to be anymore. But but you have to notice that it's not coming home when we improve ourselves, it's coming home when we collapse ourselves. Look at verse 17. 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. That's important to know. What is it that moved the son to come home? It was first contemplating the poverty of his own, of what happens when you run your own life. But second and more importantly, it was contemplating the abundance of the Father's house. There's more than enough. There's more than enough. Do you believe that the Father in heaven has more than enough? More than enough to forgive, more than enough to satisfy, more than enough to revive. If so, arise and come home. We go on in verse 18. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, and he's a good preacher, he's got three points. Check this out in verse 19. Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. That's point one. Point two, I'm no longer to be worthy to be called your son. And point three, treat me as one of your hired servants. But this is actually asking a lot. You see, in that culture, a son didn't just come home embarrassed, he came home to danger. What he has done is brought shame on his family and his entire village. And it actually would be right for the village to publicly cut him off in an act of dishonor, for his act of dishonor, which means before he ever reaches the house, he has to make it through the crowd. That's the plot tension of this moment as we get to verse 20. And it says this, and he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran. You see, the father knows this. The father ran to accept his son before the village could reject his son. The father lifts his robe, exposing himself to public shame. The son deserves rejection, but the father takes his humiliation. The son deserves exclusion, but the father restores him, and he does that publicly. Now, is this just a happy accident? No, I don't think so. The father was looking for him. He was searching the horizon for his boy to come home. Maybe every day, maybe every day he would get up and he'd walk the outskirts of his property hoping to see his boy come around the corner. And the father is looking, and day after day he went home disappointed, but he never gave up. He never gave up. You see, the father is looking for you. Some of you are a long way off. You've run a hundred miles from home, and you wonder, what would it even take for me to come home? What's encouraging about this story is you just turn around and it will be as if you never left. Because the father is looking for you. He's searching the horizon for sinners to come home. That's what we see in the text. In verse 20, it even gets better. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. The son hasn't even properly apologized yet. Pete Greg tells this, he says, if you were to sit down with this son afterwards and ask him about the story, he might say something like this: I was hugged until I cried. I was held so close that the excrement wiped off of me onto his white robes. I was listened to until I had no more lies inside me. I was accepted until I was changed. You see, the son in verse 21 says to his father, it says, Father. First word that the son utters out of his mouth when he comes home is Father. Now he had his little prepared speech. You remember three points. Look at point one. He says, I've sinned against heaven and before you. Point two, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But notice what happens here, verse 22. But the father said to his servants, he doesn't get to point three. Why? Three points. The first two are true. He has sinned, he is unworthy, but the father won't let him speak the third point, which was make me like a hired servant. Why? Because he will not let him earn his place. He will not let him earn what he can only be given and must receive freely. You see, he will not let you come and say, I want to earn my right to come home. Treat me like a hired servant. He will have none of it, because coming home is only possible if it's a place you do not deserve and do not earn. And so it's either all of grace or it is not at all. Before the son could say, Treat me like one of your hired servants, the father said to his servants, in verse 22, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. You see, the father used his servants to treat his son like a son. He won't let him be treated like a servant. Many of us feel that if we if we just grovel enough when we're coming home, we can show God that we really feel bad about it this time. Not like all the other times, of course. And we think that if God will just take us back, you know, because we feel really bad. But listen, verse 22 has two words that won't let that happen. Bring quickly. The father will tolerate no probationary period. He has an urgency to restore those who come home. And we see that the father he comes and he doesn't hand the son a towel and say, Clean yourself up. You disgust me. He's covered in pig manure. That's not what the father says instead. The father clothes him. He replaces his worn-out rags with the best robe to restore his status. The father slips a ring on his pig-stained hands to give him back his authority as a son of the house. The father puts shoes on his far traveled feet, restoring his dignity, because only servants went barefoot, never sons. You see, the son was stripped of his self made identity, and he was given an identity that could never be achieved, but only received. The status of sonship. It says in verse 23, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. Let's linger over these three words. The fattened calf. Definite article. There's only one. Two, it was fat. Three, it's a calf. This is like Kobe beef. How's this for exegesis? Is this working? Okay. Listen, I imagine for a moment that this father's fattened calf is known in the town. And the butcher comes around, and the butcher's like, hey, I'll buy that calf off of you. And the father looks at him and he goes, It's not for sale. I'm saving it for when my boy comes home. You can't have it. The butcher and all the townspeople say, That man has lost his mind. That boy's never gonna come home. Think about the joy in the father's heart when he gets to say these words. He gets to go, bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. My boy is back. His father's heart is full of joy at the return of his son. He can't help himself. And the son goes from longing to eat what the pigs ate to being sitting at the table in the father's house and feeding on a fattened calf. Ronald Rolheiser says it like this. I've got a slide behind me. It says this real love is always a coming home. It's not a place we deserve or earn. It's coming to a place where you sense others will love you without necessarily being impressed with you. Thus, real love is always experienced as a security, a safe place, a home, a safe harbor that we sail into. It is a place of rest. For this reason, it is experienced as a place from which you do not want to or need to go home. Our true rest lies namely at a place where we don't have to impress or perform or earn or win, where we feel safe and secure, and we are at home. Whoever you are, wherever you are, come home. This is what's on offer. Verse 24, it says, For this my son was dead and is alive again. You hear the resurrection language there? He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. I think it's important because coming home is akin to dying and rising again. The reason that's important is because for some of us in this room, you need to hear that there's nothing so wrong with you that a good resurrection couldn't fix. Augustine of Hippo said it like this there is no saint without a past, and there is no sinner without a future. That's the good news of Luke 15. And the story could end here. It'd be a great story, but it doesn't. Why not? Because there's more than one way to be lost. Look with me at verse 25. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. I'm so sorry, fundamentalists. There's dancing in the father's house. Just teaching the Bible here for a moment. Is that okay? Verse 26. 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. Some of you identify with the younger son. That's good and right. I know first part of my story that would be true. I identify with the younger son. But now my greater temptation is probably that of the older son. The younger son runs away from his father, and it's obvious. But the younger son stays and tries to control his father, and it's subtle. You see, you can be far from the father's heart, the father's house, but near to the father's heart. But even more concerning is that you can be near to the father's house, but far from the father's heart. These two ways to be lost are fundamentally the same, though, if you look at the text. You see, the younger comes back and says, Treat me like a servant, and the father's like, No, you're my son. And the older one says, These many years I've served you, and the father's like, Yeah, but you're my son. You see, the fundamental place of conflict over your life is whether you will embrace sonship as something that's freely given. Text goes on. The older brother says this, but when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. Do you hear the contempt? You ever wonder why people leave church? I talk to people about this a good bit, and one of the most common reasons, the top two are this: what's called the problem of evil, and number two, I would say, is the hypocrisy of older brothers. That's why people leave the church. That's why New York and San Francisco are full of people from the South and the Midwest. It's because they're fleeing older brothers that are in churches in those places. You ever wonder why people don't come back home to the church? Well, it's because they feel the contempt of older brothers. They feel like if they came home, they would be treated like this older brother treats his younger brother. So why would they ever come home? Well, the only hope for any of us to come home is if we hear that there is a father who is far more prodigal than any of us could ever be, far more reckless and lavish in grace than we are in both sin and religiosity. That's why we would come home to the father. You see, the the reason why the older brother is so angry, it's not because he hates his brother's sin, it's because he hates grace. Listen, the moment that grace is free to the undeserving is the moment the older brother loses all control over his father. His works mean nothing. All of his years serving in the father's house are worth nothing. If somebody like this younger son can go away and come home and be accepted with the fattened calf, that's why the older brother is furious. That's why the religious are always furious when there's grace to the undeserving. It's threatening, takes away their control. In verse 31, it says this the father says to his son, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. Like, what if we believe that this really is the heart of God for the undeserving? All that is mine is yours. It's a fundamentally different way of viewing life with God. It's a different religion altogether. Verse 29, when the son says, Look, these many years I've served you, yet you never gave me fill in the blank. Like some of us, the reason we don't touch the joy of being in the Father's house is because we struggle so intensely with entitlement. I've served you, you don't give me anything, God and the Father, I love it. Jesus is never a Pharisee to the Pharisees. You've always been with me. Which asks the question Does the older brother come home? We don't know. The text doesn't tell us. I think that's because Jesus is a master storyteller and he's putting it on you, the listener. Will you come home? Will you come home to the scandal of grace in this text? Or will you stay away until you can clean yourself up a little bit? You see, the main point of this parable is that the father would rather hurt hug a dirty child than a distant child. Come home however you are. Come home wherever you are. This story isn't just about unbelievers becoming Christians, although it is that. It's for Christians who live like unbelievers. The Father's looking at you saying, Son, daughter, you've always been with me. All that is mine is yours, but you act like a hired servant in the Father's house. And so Jesus doesn't tell the end of this story. And I think the reason is because he wants to show us that there's hope in this story for all of us. As we come to the end, I want to go back to the beginning. Look again with me at verse 2. The whole inciting incident for the parable. Verse 2 says, The Pharisees and the scribes, aka the older brothers, they grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners, aka the younger brothers, and eats with them. So how does this parable answer the Pharisees' grumbling? Well, listen, if you compare the first two stories with the third, you'll notice that there's something missing in the third. You'll notice that something that happened to the sheep and to the coin didn't happen to the lost son. No one went out to search for the son. Where's the older brother? Verse 25 says that he's in the field working for his father's favor instead of going out to search for his lost brother. You see, Jesus is saying, You are the older brothers, and these are the younger sons. The older brother should have gone out to bring the younger brother home, but he didn't do it. He refuses to come into the party. How much more is he not even going to go into the far country to find his brother? Listen, nobody goes after the younger son until now. Because Jesus comes to search and save the lost. He goes into the far country to bring us home to the Father at great cost to himself. And in this great reversal, the Father says to you about Jesus, your brother was dead and is alive. Listen, are you far from God and you know it? Or are you near to God, but you're cold? Either one, if you feel like the Father is standing there looking at you with his arms crossed, the invitation would be to instead look at Jesus' arms spread out on the cross. That's where we see the Father's love. The Father sending his son into the world in order to bring us home. Coming home has two steps. First, coming to yourself. Second, coming to your father. The first one, you have to believe that whether you're close or far, you are far from God. But second, and far more importantly, you have to believe that you can come home because your older brother has made a way. So listen, there would have been no ring, no robe, no kiss, no fattened calf if the sun had remained in the far country. And so the invitation is to come home. Make heaven happy. Come home. Bring joy to the father's heart. Come home. Let me finish the story that I began with with this girl in the lost forest. You see, many of the friends of the neighbors got exhausted searching all night and they left. But the girl's father never gave up. He searched and he searched through the night. And early the next morning, he came into the clearing where the little girl had laid down and fallen asleep. When he saw his daughter, he started screaming and yelling her name enough to startle her awake. And when the little girl saw her father, she looked at him and says, Daddy, I found you. You see, all your life you've been looking for the one who's been looking for you. Come home. Let's pray. Father, what a gift it is. What a gift it is that we can come home without earning it or deserving it. Jesus, just as you seek and save the lost, would you do that even now? In our midst, Holy Spirit, turn all of our hearts back to you. We refuse to come back on our own terms. We take your terms, the terms of surrender to grace. Freely given to all who will receive. Help us, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.