Sermons

Thank you so much to the musicians for leading us in singing this morning. If you have your Bibles, could you open them up please to Luke chapter 15?  Luke chapter 15, let me read verses one and two and then we'll skip down. To the parable beginning in verse 11. So, let's stand while we read the Word of God. Luke chapter 15.  And reading from verse one.

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “this man receives sinners and eats with them.” Verse 11. “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 that he had and took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property and reckless living. 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 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 have never disobeyed your commands, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, came, you killed the fattened calf for him. “ And he said to him, “son, you're always with me. 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. “

Let's take a moment and pray.  

[Paryer] Our Heavenly Father, we do thank You for the reality of the truth that we have already been singing, that You indeed are the God of salvation, but one that many in this room are able to declare personally are their God of salvation. We thank You, Lord, that knowing full well the nature of our sin and how ingrained it was into our being, yet, Lord, in love You sent your Son. We thank You for His perfect life. We thank You for His sacrificial death. We thank You for the glorious reality of the great exchange, that atonement story where sin has been paid in full and that righteous life of Christ, credit it to all who have faith in Him.  

Lord, we thank You for the glorious realities of the cross, but Lord, we ask that this morning You would allow us to come to these wonderful truths afresh and to appreciate the nature of salvation that little bit more. The nature of what has taken place in the process of repentance. And Lord, You would clarify that indeed we can declare ourselves Yours, not because of any good in us, for Lord, we were a people clothed in filthy rags, and yet, Lord, You have forgiven. Lord, we ask that all glory today would go to Jesus Christ and that we would value Him all the more from our time of study. We pray as well for any who is yet or outside of Christ. And we ask that the picture that is painted in this prodigal would help them to see themselves and their lowly state. And they call upon You while You may be found. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.  [End]

Have a seat.  

Christianity is littered with stories of repentance because there is no true Christianity without genuine repentance. It is a lie that some have in their head and some even say with their mouth, I have always been a Christian. That's not true. That can't be true. For the Bible says all fall short of the glory of God. All were born in sin and transgression. We have within us a reality that exists in the heart, a sinful condition that manifests itself in rebellion against God, and because of that, we are separated from the one who, as we heard last week, we, by creation, belong to. We are separated from Him.  

But thanks be to God that many are able to testify to the fact that there was a moment where that lost reality, God granted sight, He gave them eyes to see their great need of salvation by recognizing their fallen state. And as He allowed them to see how low they really were, He also made known to them the glorious grace available in the mission of Jesus Christ, that by His wounds the guilty sinner may be healed, that He has paid a price that grants forgiveness.  

And many Christians over the centuries have been able to share their testimony. Now, I can't remember what you call him here. Is it Augustine or Augustine? You know, it depends what side of the ocean you really come from, what you call. But he, and many more after him, wrote down his confessions. And primarily what they were, were testimony to the fact that he was once one caught up in his intellect, caught up in an arrogant pursuit of knowledge, caught up in a life that was given to lustful pursuits, and then God broke in and transformed him. And his life was turned in a moment into a totally different reality. His desires, he was still a sinful man, but his desires were ones that wanted to pursue holiness.  

You could go to the island of Ireland, as this church has an inclination to do, obviously. And you would, if you were to study anything about the history of the island, you would discover very quickly the oldest writings we have in Ireland. We have two pieces of writing that were penned on the island. The oldest pieces of writing on the island were penned by no other than St. Patrick. And the most famous of those is his confession. And again, in that confession, in that document, he recounts the man that he was. Now, he was 16 when he became a Christian, 16 when he had that transformative experience, and yet, he makes clear that it was an awareness of his sin that led him to call upon God for grace.  

And that story, again, is true of all. And in the story that we come to, the story that Jesus told, there is a testimony, there is a repentance story that is key, that is central in this particular parable. A turning that takes place in the life of this prodigal where he has gone a clear direction away from his father. And there is a moment of lowly awareness by which the story turns, and he realizes the foolishness of his circumstances and the need to return to the father and ask for forgiveness.  

Remember the context of the story, we read it and we've been hammering this the last few weeks, verses one and two. The whole story is being told in a context where there were known sinners, people who had a reputation for a messed-up life, who over the last number of weeks, possibly months, have heard the teachings of Jesus and have started to gather. Their lives have been affected by the ministry of Jesus, but their reputations precede themselves. These people are known to be sinners. They have a reputation that is stained because of the way they once lived. But Jesus, He knows the condition of the heart, He knows the change that has taken place, and so He tells these three parables, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and here the lost son, to illustrate something of the transformation that these individuals have experienced. And He tells that because there are others in the crowd who are listening too. Jesus teach and seeing this dynamic of sinful people or people with a sinful reputation drawing near, and He tells this story so that those who would have a problem with it would realize that this is indeed the way that God works.  

And so last week we focused on the father. And really, he is the key of the whole story, and we won't be able to help ourselves. We'll mention Him many times this morning also, because he is integral to the whole narrative. We saw last week how the father is one who, in this story, reflects the love of our heavenly Father, and is designed in the story to remind us of His nature and His compassion and His heart for the lost.  

This morning, I want us to focus on the prodigal. On the lost son. And as we do so, I want us to learn something of repentance. This prodigal is such a clear picture of one who has gone a direction headstrong into sin and yet has a transformative experience that draws him back into relationship with his father once more. And as Jesus told that story, He is personalizing or relating the experience of these individual sinners who have drawn close to here to this particular individual. And so, there's much we can learn here about the nature of repentance.  

And so, the first thing I want you to see in the text—and really, there's only two major points this morning, before and after. I want you to see, first of all, the marks before repentance. Let's make sure we understand who the boy is, the marks that pattern his life before the transformative reality, the transformative experience that he goes through. And the marks of repentance affect two things. First of all, they affect his life. There is a broken pattern to his life. A broken pattern to his life, and then we'll see in a moment there is also a broken relationship with his father that the text notes. So, notice first of all the broken pattern of his life. As we think about what he was like before repentance, notice the broken pattern of his life.  

Look at verse 12. Verse 12. It says, "And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me a share of property that is coming to me." And he divided his property between them.” The first thing we can say about this boy before his repentance is he was a selfish character. He was a selfish boy. His life was marked by a pattern of selfishness. Now we said last week the first character mentioned in the story in verse 11 is the father. That is true. But the first character to speak in the story is here in verse 12. And it's our prodigal. It's the son. Now what's important for us to realize is that wasn't normal. There's certain patterns of behavior that every culture has. In Ireland, we have an unusual reluctance to hang up the phone in a phone call. And at the end of the call, and Sarah couldn't work this out for a long time, at the end of the phone call, when the conversation has clearly finished and should long be done, and we're trying to get off the phone, what ends up happening is they don't say goodbye, hang up, they go bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, As if they have a stutter. But they don't. It's just part of the culture. And if you only said goodbye once, it would be considered rude. And she could not work this out for a long time. An unusual pattern in the culture. It's something that they do that in some unusual way communicates a desire to be together and to keep talking.  

Well, in the ancient world that we come to, that Jesus is speaking in the context of, there was protocol and customs that marked the family society. If there was a father, he would speak first. If there was an older sibling, he would speak second. And the younger his opinion would have been vocalized at the end. These societal patterns were important to the people of that world. You think of the Pharisees and tax collectors, sorry, the Pharisees and the scribes and how many unusual laws and regulations they had. They were a people who loved protocol. Who loved patterns and the way things were meant to be done. And the way things were meant to be done was the father should be the first to speak into this situation. But right away we see something about the selfish nature of the son, because he insists in speaking first. And look at the type of language that this son uses. His request we mentioned last time is an insulting request. Father, one day you will die and I want the benefit of that now. I want to live, I want to act, I want to be in a world as if you were already in the grave. Now, that type of custom and culture that you're not meant to tell your parents that they should be dead, we understand even today that that's insulting, that's rude, that a clear line has been crossed. And this son is asking, in effect, for the death certificate to be written now so that he can fill his coffers. So that he can get the financial benefit that event, which should have been a sad event in the future, he wants to get the benefit now because to him that's a happy reality. It's a happy reality to him because he's such a selfish character.  

Well, that first and foremost, if you're going to understand the sinful condition of men and women outside of the grace of God, you need to understand sin is an extremely selfish thing. It's cruel to others. It often climbs over the top of other people. It naturally insults other people because it's so consumed with self. Sin is about what I can do for me. It's about satisfying my desires. And naturally, because of that, it is ignorant, it is rude, and so often it is cruel. Those who go headstrong into sin often leave a wake of hurting people behind them. That's the way sin manifests itself. This boy had a pattern of life that was selfish.  

Secondly, as you think about that pattern to his life, his life is one that abandoned all the ways of home. Look at verse 13. “Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country. There he squandered his property in reckless living.” He went to a far country, or sometimes different translations will say a distant country. You understand the idea, something removed, something different. Something that is not home. A place where all the traditions, all of the customs, all of the normal ways that he had grown up with are abandoned. And that's underlined in what happens later in the story. This boy will end up living with and caring for pigs. Something that would have been deeply insulting to the Jewish mentality. In fact, would have been an abomination. Would have disbarred you from worship, disbarred you from integrating into society. This was a full abandonment of the world that he had come from. You see that idea again at the end of verse 13. He gave himself to reckless living. Reckless living. In other words, there's a destructiveness to his pattern of life. So sometimes with individuals, their sin is subtle.

And next week when we look at the older son, we'll see a very clear picture of subtle sin and just how ugly that subtle sin itself can be. But sometimes the sin that expresses itself is not subtle. Not everybody is an older brother. Some, their lives are patterned like this boy. And his life expresses itself in such a way, in such reckless living, that it is obvious to anybody looking in that here is an individual who has abandoned everything he grew up with.  

Too often, and sadly too often, we see those who have had the benefit and blessing of growing up in Christian homes in Godly church environments and they have not embraced the Lord and they wonder. And it's like a switch flicks. They don't just say they're not a Christian, rather they give themselves over to the most reckless thoughtless, dangerous pattern of life. Anything that was good that once marked the home that they came from, it's like a magnet that pushes apart, that they push away from that background, that home, that Christian environment that once was around him, and that this man's life, this boy's life is selfish. He abandons the ways of home, and he finds himself in a vulnerable situation.  

It's not surprising, is it, that reckless living puts a person in a vulnerable situation? Look at verse 14. “And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.” Look at verse 16. “He was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” Verse 14, in one verse, the story goes from feast to famine. Here's a boy living recklessly but enjoying himself and all of a sudden in the space of one verse he has nothing. In verse 14 we read about outside circumstances that have exacerbated his condition. A severe famine comes. Life in this world is not just one that you get to choose what you do. Life in this world is wild and dangerous. And even sinners who think they are kings of their own existence; they find very quickly that they are not the ones in control. And here this boy, he finds himself in a situation of famine, and he loses everything through it. But the important thing to note is that he is in that country. The far country. He, in verse 14, stresses that the famine arose in that country. He's in a place that has also abandoned his culture and the family and the security, and so this boy finds himself now helpless and in pain. It says he began to be in need.  

How often we find so many examples in our world of the destructiveness of sin. People think of sin as something fun, but the reality is when the individual tastes the reality of a sinful pattern in life, it is naturally destructive. It poisons. It warps. It decays. It destroys. And in this particular story, this individual is left vulnerable. Sin does that. It leaves the sinner broken and vulnerable. Verse 16 says, no one gave him anything. He's helpless. And there is no help to be had.  

It's amazing, sometimes, especially teenagers in school, they go through that phase of being particularly tempted to sin because everybody else is in it. Everybody else is doing it. And so often Satan uses the draw of peers. to be with the others as the impetus to run headstrong into that particular sin. How often is this not the end conclusion of that? Here, when everything is broken and everything has been tried, the friends at once he had indulged in sin with run away and leave him. He has no one to give him anything.

Verse 16. He's extremely vulnerable, and he's compromised.  He's compromised. We mentioned last week, verse 15, so he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country again, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. We mentioned last week that word hired out. It doesn't just mean, you know; somebody paid him to do a job. It means he bound himself to. Sometimes we use the phrase he yoked himself to. That's the same idea here. And he yoked himself to a citizen of that country. You know the New Testament call; do not be unequally yoked. The idea is the cattle that is harnessed together, joined together so that they can move as one. Well, here this boy, he doesn't just hire himself out for a day job, he binds himself to a person, a citizen of that country, somebody without Jewish identity, somebody with a very different religion, a different set of customs, a different set of standards. And it's because of that being unequally yoked that the same individual finds himself in verse 16 feeding the pigs and indeed longing to eat that food that belonged to the pigs. For the Pharisees and scribes and indeed for the tax collectors and sinners who were Jewish there is no description that Jesus could give in this particular moment that sounded more foreign and sinful and removed. The Old Testament law, Leviticus 11 verse 7, Deuteronomy 14 verse 8, in particular mentioned the unclean nature of the pig. And so, to have to give your life to caring for them, to being with them, there was nothing further for the Jewish mind, for the individual to go. Nothing further away from home, from the law of God, from the customs that this boy had grown up with. He hadn't just fallen on hard times. In that circumstance, he bound himself to that which was foreign and wrong and wicked.  

This is a boy who was born into a home, into a family, into a situation, into a society with great opportunity, but he squandered it all. And finds himself in a broken situation instead. But that's not the worst part of the story. Too often we think of sin as simply that, bad choices and the net result of that. But what makes sin, sin primarily is not a just the wrongness and the pattern of destructiveness that the individual pursues, but it's the way it's an erect attack against the relationship that we belong to, the relationship we should have with the father.  

And so, not only is there a broken pattern to this boy's life, there is a broken relationship too. A broken relationship that disregards the father. Again, remember verse 12, “the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that is coming to me.”” We've already said it, I want to act as if you're already dead. Now, we understand what's being said, but think about the relational dynamic that is happening here. He is meant to be with his father. The father in the story is consistently loving, consistently kind. We can imagine, done everything for this boy up to this point, and cared for him in every way. The prodigal completely disregards his father. In fact, he goes further. We mentioned last week he forsook his father. Look at verse 13. “Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property and reckless living.” Again, that country, that country, you see that language drummed all the way through this parable, because it's stressing the reality that this boy has forsaken his father and all that the father represents. He goes to a distant country, abandoning his father and every value his father had. So, he has no regard for his father. In fact, he deliberately forsakes his father and his ways.  

And so, we can go even further and say he betrays his father. Look at verse 15. Again, “so he went out and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country.” Again, the word hired, it means to yoke himself to. Now, that in itself is a terrible indictment of the circumstances of the boy and the decision-making that he makes, but to the father, this is abandonment. He binds himself to another when he should be bound to the father. What makes adultery such a terrible thing, such a horrible sin, is not just the infidelity. It's the way the infidelity shows complete disregard for the covenant relationship. Husband and wife make a promise to be together, to care for one another until death they do part. And what makes adultery such a horrible thing is they are not. The individual has chosen not to be together with the one they made the promise to. That's why it's so incriminating. That's why it's so serious a sin. And that's the idea here. This boy, he doesn't just sin. He doesn't just behave in a destructive way. He doesn't just attach himself to foreigners. He has rejected. He's betrayed the relationship he did have with his father. He should have been his, but he became theirs. They now own him. And his former identity is, well, gone.  

Again, if we are to understand sin properly, we need to understand sin is not simply the bad choices that you make. It's not something that's just harmful. Sin, first and foremost, has to be understood as a relational crime. It's a relational crime. Yes, there are bad things associated with it, but every sin is first and foremost something against God. We reject our Creator for folly, and it's that rejection of the Creator that is probably the most grievous; that is the most grievous aspect of each and every sin.  

So here's an individual with a broken pattern of life, it's selfish, he abandons the ways of home, he finds himself in a vulnerable situation, he's a compromised life that marks him, and even more than that, that tells us something about the broken relationship the boy had with his father. He disregards his father, he forsakes his father, he betrays his father.  

Maybe this morning you say again that you know Him. You know the Father. Well, I hope that is true, but it will only be true if first you've come to realize that you abandoned Him. Again, there's no such thing as the individual who says, I've always been a Christian. The only way to know true relationship with the Father is to first have been brought to this low point of understanding. And to realize that, again, we don't just have things that are mucky and messy in our life, but we've denied and rebelled against the relationship we were designed to enjoy.  

Do you know what the most horrible sin is known to be in the Curry house? Do you know what sin gets punished the most in the Curry house? Lying. And why is that? Well, it's because lying isn't just another wrong thing. To lie to your parents is to act in a way that's completely the opposite of the way this relationship is meant to be. How can parents care for? How can parents love? How can parents help if they don't know the truth? And so, we consider that in our house a very serious thing, but every sin ultimately is a serious thing because it contradicts the relationship we were meant to have with the Father. It's not just wrong, it's an attack against the relationship we were created to enjoy. Now, if these marks are in your life, and if you're a human, they are, you need repentance. This lost son didn't realize his condition until verse 17. That's the sad reality of sin. We are dead in our sins and transgressions until first God touches us, and that's what we see with this boy. Maybe the marks of this fictitious character mark your life also. Well, you need to realize that there is a repentance that you need also to change, to be transformed, and to know a different kind of relationship with the Father in heaven.  

So, I want you to see the marks of repentance as well in the story. We've seen what the boy was like before repentance. Now notice the marks of repentance. This boy, he turns and he changes, just like those sinners listening to Jesus' story. Jesus knows they've 180. They've turned about. They've turned around. And so, he's trying to help the others see that that reality has taken place. And the reality involves a new perspective on life. This boy has a new, a restored perspective on life. And that shows itself, first of all, on the fact he recognizes his lostness. He recognizes his lostness.  

The boy finds himself, obviously, in this awful condition. And that condition itself is described by Jesus with one particular word that He repeats over and over and over again, all the way through, in fact, the three parables. It's sometimes translated lost or lostness. And it's sometimes translated perish, but it's the same word that's being used. So if you look at chapter 15, verse 4, it says, "'What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost?' until he finds it.” If you look at verse 6, it says, Verse 8, "'Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and diligently seek until she finds it? 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.'" 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, it's the same word, same word as lost, I perish here with hunger.” Verse 24, “for this son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” Verse 32, “it was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. “

Now, when Jesus bangs the drum of one word over and over and over and over, in the space of one dialogue, because remember, all three parables were said one after the other. When that takes place, that word is important, and that word gives us insight. And the condition that Jesus is speaking of that marked these sinners who had repented and marks the reality of every true repentant individual is they have come to recognize that they were lost. The word means to ruin or to lose, to be disregarded, to be in a state of brokenness, of complete ruin. And here Jesus is using that language to describe the mess of lostness and ruin that the sinner has created for themselves. And that comes through in verse 17 because the turning point for this boy we read in the text happens when he came to himself. That means literally, in his heart a reality was understood. Something happened. Something clicked. And what clicked was he recognized his lostness. He recognized his ruined, perishing, no way of rectifying it condition. He doesn't see himself as a victim of bad circumstances. Having been born in a disadvantaged area, been born into a broken family, rather he sees that it was his folly and his sin that has created this condition of lostness. Friend, do you see that? There is no true repentance outside of realizing you have created a state of lostness. Your life is a mess. Every natural inclination that you have is broken. You're completely helpless. You're like the child in the supermarket who's lost and cannot find his parent or her parent. Someone has to find them. Completely stuck with no way forward. That's this boy. He recognizes his lostness.  

Secondly, he recognizes his sin. He recognizes his sin. We said last week, we reminded ourselves of the Psalm 51, “against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Well, that reality is this boy's experience. He recognizes again that he's not guilty of just doing some wrong things, but he's guilty of a betrayal against his father. Look at the language of verse 18, “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father; I have sinned against heaven and before you. I have sinned against heaven.” In other words, I've done what is clearly immoral. I've done what is clearly wrong. I've done what is not the way things ought to be done. But also, I have done it against you. Against you. Again, sin is not simply bad choices that we make, but it is against one. It is extremely personal. Every sin is a personal attack against the Father. It's a betrayal against Him. And we don't understand what sin is if we don't understand every sin has this relational dimension to it. If you look at verses 18 and 19, look at the continual use of the personal. 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.” So personal, isn't it? Five times he uses the pronoun I or me. It's very much a personal recognition that's going on here. He has done wrong. This is sometimes people think of repentance as we recognize, well, all of us in this world, we're all a little broken, aren't we? Well, true repentance has no regard for others. True repentance involves the individual heart and recognizes; I, I have sinned against the Almighty. I have fallen short of His glory. I have rebelled against Him.  

And as a result, not only does he recognize his lostness, not only does he recognize his sin, he also recognizes his unworthiness. This is true repentance. He recognizes his unworthiness. Verse 19, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” And then he says just as much in verse 21, “the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Like one of your hired servants.” There's no entitlement here; that's the point. The older son will parade in at the end of the story, and he'll only talk about his entitlement, but this boy feels none. He knows the father owes him nothing.

I think what stops most people from truly repenting is they have still too big a view of themselves. You know, I'm glad to be right with God now because I can do great things. I'll be a big help to the church. God will be so glad to have me on site. We are completely unworthy. Apart from His kindness, we have nothing to offer. And that's the turn, what makes this situation better? It's not actually anything the son does. Verse 20, it is the compassion of the father, that's what turns the story. And the truly repentant individual realizes I am completely unworthy. I am a sinner, I am in a lost state, and it's against yYou God, I've done wrong. And we would have no hope. If we got what our sins deserved, and this is what your sin deserves, it would be eternal punishment and nothing else. And the only reason we sing today with a different note of hope is because, verse 20, the compassion of the father. Verse 21, I am no longer worthy. That is right. And yet the one who is no longer worthy is embraced and showered with kisses, showered with the love of the father. Are you conscious of that reality this morning? You are embraced not because you did a good job. Not because you prayed the right prayer. Not because you had the courage to come forward. Not because of anything to do with you. It is only because of the compassionate nature of the Father. This boy, because of grace, starts to understand his condition. But he can do nothing to fix it by himself. It is only the father that can rectify the situation. And so, the truly repentant will also recognize their lostness and recognize their sin and recognize their unworthiness.  

Now, that doesn't sound like a very uplifting sermon, does it? But this is the nature of grace. The truly repentant individual, God gives an ability to see just how low they sit so that He can pick them up and lift them up high. And that's exactly what happens because though this individual deserves absolutely nothing, the very relationship he rebelled against is the very thing that is restored.

Look at the restored relationship. It's one that, as we said last week, where God grants dignity. Look at verse 22. “But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.” We talked about it last week, so I'm not going to elaborate it more, but he insists before the servants, before the community, in dignifying this boy. He calls for things to be done quickly, immediately.

Let me make clear, this boy is restored. God is the one who gives dignity to this repentant sinner. God is the one who transforms the situation. This is the ultimate rags-to-riches story. Well, actually, the ultimate one is the reality this story points to. Where our sinful rags were taken off our shoulders and put on Christ at the cross and He was punished. God the Father punished the Son for our sinful deeds. But in the glorious reality of the gospel, that righteous life of Christ was also taken and placed on our shoulders, credited to our account. We are given full dignity. When you become a Christian, when you truly repent, what takes place is not simply the record is cleaned and you go into some state of neutrality, rather the best robe. That robe of righteousness is credited to your account. So, when you come before the Father, He doesn't just see you as one who is clean, He sees you as clothed in the full righteous life of Jesus Christ, and He is endeared to you with affection, it’s amazing. The ultimate rags to riches story.  

And then we see not only does God grant dignity, but God insists on celebrating. And it comes all the way through this story. Verse 23, “bring the fattened calf and kill, let's eat and celebrate.” It's repeated in verse four, or 24, they began to celebrate. It's repeated in verse 29 and it's repeated in verse 32. There's a lot of obvious celebration going on. The repetition, again, repetition is so important in these stories. In that world, that's like saying, this really matters. And it really matters. He celebrates.

My nephews and nieces, they are very young. They're all very young at this moment. And all they do is talk about their parties, their birthday parties. They'll talk about their birthday parties nine months out. And they'll tell me on and off whether I'm allowed to come to their birthday party or not. It's a very serious thing. They love their parties. Well, this father loves his parties. And they're such loud and jubilant things. Those of you who have been foolish enough to watch the World Series. We were watching it last night and when the Dodgers won, I had a, you know, a subtle smile on my face and oof, I was very impressed. Next thing I heard a splash because Ian and his two little friends had run out and jumped in the pool, they were so excited. That's jubilant celebration. And it's hard to underestimate the way the father here in the story expresses his joy over the lost son restored. It's loud, it's overt, it's public, it's clear, it's pronounced. Again, Jesus is letting people know the Lord insists on celebrating.  

And most importantly, in this restored relationship, notice God declares us sons. It all starts, doesn't it? I think this is key to understanding, and we'll talk more about this next week, to understanding the difference between the younger and the older boy. It all hangs on one title. The younger boy throughout talks about, look at verse 18, my father. My father." The older boy never calls him father. He certainly doesn't call him my father. My father. You want to know if you're repentant this morning? That's key. Do you know God as your personal Father? Hope not in what you've done, but in the disposition of the Father towards you through the work of the Son. My Father. That's where hope is to be found.

And look at how that reality is affirmed in verse 24. “For this, he says, “my son is dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” That's the ultimate declaration in the story. This, this boy who is lost, this boy who is a sinner, this boy who is unworthy. Let me tell you, the father says, my verdict of him, this is my son. The father declares the individual as the object of his love and care, and that is the glorious reality for you, Christian, if you have truly repented. He declares you His son.  

It's one of the most profound realities of the gospel, and we could talk about it all day, but for the sake of Mark Becker's Sunday school class, I'm going to refrain. When we become Christians, we are not just made neutral, it's primarily a glorious reality because the relationship with the Father is restored. Just before we left Ireland, one of the sweetest things that happened was we had friends who had taken in this little girl from a very difficult situation, and we're offering her foster care, and it was really emergency care at the beginning, and God slowly worked to grow a heart for this little girl, and eventually they started the adoption process, and that's no mean feat, that's a big process. I'm gonna be part of the witnesses that had to give testimony to the good, caring nature of these parents, and eventually the court date came, and the girl's last name was changed, and she permanently, legally became theirs. Never to change. Friends, when we truly repent, we become His, His. Repentance is marked by a changed life, but it is at its core a changed relationship. We once rebelled against Him, and yet through His grace, He has helped us to see how low we are, to pick us up and declare us His.  

There is no such thing, as we said earlier, as someone who has always been a believer. Every true Christian has this story of transformation. It will sound slightly different amongst us, but it always involves this reality where God helped us to see our lostness, our sinfulness, and our unworthiness, so that He could pick us up by grace and declare us His. Let's pray and ask that God would cause us to treasure that work of repentance that He brings in the heart.  

[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for that reality that though individuals are lost, they may be found, and we thank You, Lord, that many in this room are able to testify of that work in a personal way. And we ask, Lord, that You would cause us to treasure Jesus Christ and the compassion You have revealed to us in Him, and the adoption that we can enjoy as sons of God. May I ask as well for any who have been deceived to this point, and we pray, Lord, that you would bring them to this place of humbling so that they would know the glorious forgiveness and restored relationship to be found in Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen. [End]

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