Luke 16:14-18

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14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. 16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. 17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. 18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. ~ Luke 16:14-18

As we come back to Luke 16, the conflict between religion and the Lord Jesus is at its height. The conflict was pronounced because the Lord Jesus taught that His gospel is for the defeated, not the dominant. The Lord Jesus had been teaching His disciples, but the Pharisees had been listening, and they were "sneering" at Him which means they were “turning up their noses” at Him. 

The Pharisees loved money which was a symptom of their real problem. And, their real problem was their hearts were not with God. They professed to trust God, but they measured life by the priorities of this world.

The greatest enemies of God are those who are the most religious. The arch enemy of God is religion because the religious reject His truth and embrace themselves as god. They thought they were better than everyone else. Their pride tripped them up and muddied their vision for the Messiah.

Religion is steeped by impure motives, love of money, and personal gain. Religion is hostile toward the truth, because its foundation is built on mankind's ability to be good enough to earn their salvation. It is predicated on that which is false. the believer in Christ takes comfort in the fact that God's acceptance of us cannot be gained by our successes nor can it be nullified by our failures.

In v.15 we read, "He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight."

These religious leaders believed they were right in God's eyes through their adherence of certain rituals, standards, laws, ethical codes and traditions. They drove the people to focus on rituals and regulations. This, of course, is detestable in God's sight because man cannot be good enough to earn His favor.

In v.16 we read, "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it."

The main subject of all of the Old Testament is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The meaning of all the Scriptures is unlocked by His death, burial and resurrection. The law and the prophets announced the arrival of the kingdom of God. And, that did not discredit or destroy it, for in Christ, the law has been fulfilled. 

The Pharisees prided themselves in their faithful obedience to the law of Moses, but they were not prepared for the arrival of the Messiah and they did not receive Him of whom the entire Old Testament wrote!

In v.17 we read, "It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law." 

Having silenced the sneering Pharisees, the Lord Jesus then gave them a vivid description of what would happen to them if they continued in their covetousness and unbelief. 

In v.18 we read, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

The Lord Jesus brings up divorce and remarriage because the religious leaders were divided on the issue. Some of the Jews were very relaxed in their views of divorce and remarriage, while the others were very strict. 

The Lord Jesus was most comfortable when He was with sinners and tax collectors because they were honest and authentic in their sinfulness. The religious leaders, on the other hand, were different than the sinners and tax-collectors. The religious were dishonest and inauthentic and rude.  

The religious leaders were lovers of money, antagonistic to the God of the Bible, hostile to His word, promotors of a self-righteousness, and they sought honor from people. This is what set the religious leaders in contrast to the Lord Jesus look like.

On the other hand, the people who tend to be the most gracious toward others are those who know how badly they need grace. Grace always runs downhill, meeting us at the bottom, not the top. The way of the religious leaders says God will love us if we change. The gospel of Jesus Christ says God will change us because He loves us.

Herein is the difference. The Lord Jesus came proclaiming the good news because that is what it is ... Good News! It is good news because it remedies our impossible situation. We had no hope until He can offering us His free gift of forgiveness and salvation.

Luke 16:10-13

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10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? 13 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” Luke 16:10-13

The religious leaders had sold their souls to the wealth of this world, and the Lord Jesus uses the context to teach His disciples on the subject. When it comes to the investment of our lives, it is really an issue of the heart. Faithfulness is the hinge that flings open the door to real success. And, the lack of faithfulness is the precursor to the slamming of the door on such success. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. This is where we go wrong: when our hearts are influenced and led not by the Lord's heart but by the philosophies of this world.

The world is full of stories which testify that no amount of money, fame, beauty, success, or popularity is ever enough. The sad truth is that the higher we climb on the ladder of theses types of successes, the more disappointed we will be. But that doesn’t stop us from scrambling for the next rung.

Today's text begins in v.10 with, "If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities."

In v.10, the Lord Jesus juxtapositions faithfulness with dishonesty. If in small things we are dishonest, we can't be trusted with the larger things. Out of our hearts comes our essence. This is sometimes a painful discovery, and, our pain, in this context, could be God prying open our hearts to remove a gift of His that we have been holding on to more dearly than Him.

In v.11 we read, "And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?" These true riches are the values and godly characteristics of God's values. And, if God's heart is not winning over our heart in a given day, then we will not reflect His heart. The overwhelming focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer.

Our unfaithfulness to God's way of thinking and choosing causes us to miss what He has for us in certain situations. If we are being defined by God's heart, it will be reflected in what we invest in. If we uproot our idols and fail to plant the love of Christ in their place, the idols will grow back.

In v.12 we read, "And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?" All we have, really belongs to God. We are His stewards. We can be like the steward in the previous story in Luke 16:1-9 or we can be true to the heart of God. We will never be perfect this side of heaven but the goal is to be perfect in our conduct. 

The tragic irony of self-indulgence is that the more we waste what is God's on ourselves, the less the eternal will define us. The true riches are the eternal ones, the ones that will endure beyond time.  

In v.13 we read, "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money." 

Everything in this passage is predicated on the verb “serve” which is the verb form of the noun translated “bond-servant.” The Lord Jesus is describing slavery. He says, "No slave can serve two masters." The Lord Jesus is describing the obedience of the purchased slave. He is subtly pointing out the motivation of the faithful believer: we have been purchased by the death of the Son.

God will always lead us to embrace the solidity of eternity, this world will always lead us to be stunted by its fallenness. Money is neither moral or immoral. It is what we do with our money that determines whether it is moral or immoral. 

There is nothing wrong with being wealthy. But, we must understand that money is only an instrument that is used to further the kingdom of God by the life that has had an encounter with God.

Money is not given to us for our benefit only. God rarely blesses us with only us in mind. He always has someone else in mind. We were all born with two great needs: to be loved and to love. And, the ultimate is to love. But we can't love without being loved.

We cannot look at the Bible as if it were fundamentally about us. When we do this, we totally miss the point. The Bible is primarily about God and His activity in the lives of broken people. And, when we see His heart for us through our brokenness, we are put on the road to being defined by His loving heart. This is the road that leads to being the bond-servant of God.

Luke 16:1-9

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1 Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. 2 So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’ 3 “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. 4 Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’ 5 “So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ 6 The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons. 7 “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’ 8 “The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. 9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.  ~ Luke 16:1-9

The Lord Jesus told 40 different parables recorded in the Gospels. These parables were designed to reveal the truth to the honest and to hide the truth from the dishonest. The parables of the Lord Jesus were confirmation of the religious communities rejection of Christ. 

At the same time, His parables were music to those who had come to the end of themselves and, as a result, had ears to hear. One out of three of His parables have something to do with money. The characters in today's story are realistic to mankind's fallen condition.

In v.1 we read, "Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money."

This story is placed here right after the story of the prodigal son because this manager was also a prodigal which means “wasteful.”  The son wasted his inheritance and this manager wasted the assets of his boss.

Many people owed this man massive amounts of money, and the manager of the accounts was woefully behind in collecting the money from them. The term “manager” means "law and house." This man had the law of the house. He was the one delegated the authority to act on behalf of the boss. He managed the land and the crops. He managed the assets.  

Well, this manager had been irresponsible with his bosses business, as noted at the end of v.1. He was "wasting his employer's money.” This word "wasting" is the very same word used to describe the prodigal back in Luke 15:13. This was not some kind of shrewd scheme to embezzle money, he was just being irresponsible. 

In v.2 we read, "So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired." The word “report” is the word from which we get the word “diabolical.” The report included a serious and legitimate slander against the man. Diabolos is the biblical name for Satan, who is the slanderer of mankind. This report of this man’s diabolical nature in the position of manager is being exposed. So, the boss calls him into the office.

Then the boss does a foolish thing. After telling him, “You're fired,” the boss wants an accurate record of this man's irresponsibility. He wants to know exactly what he’s done and he allows the diabolical man to finish the job and provide the report. 

After we fire someone, it is a good idea to let somebody else figure out the mess because if you put them back in the position, they’re not going to do you right. And, that is exactly what this manager did.

So, in v.3-4 we read, "The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. 4 Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.” 

This man is thinking of how to manipulate things so that he gets his due. So, he contacts all of the people who owed his boss money, and he decides to discount their debts to his boss. As a result, the boss is out of money and the manager has gained people who owe him favors.

The discounts are huge. In fact, in v.5-7, we have the specifics. One man owed 800 gallons of olive oil, he got a 50% reduction. Another owed 1,000 bushels of wheat, he paid with 800 bushels of wheat.

This is purely a shrewd way to hurt his boss in such a way that secures the obligation of all these people to this manager. The Lord Jesus is merely telling a story which is consistent to the way it really was. In the real world this is the way it really is, and the Lord Jesus is trying to convey reality. The manager is representative of the religious leaders.

In v.8 we read, "The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light." 

The Lord Jesus points out that this is a well-devised scheme. He points out that this manager took advantage of his opportunity. He worked the situation to secure his future on earth. 

Sinful people act to secure their own future in very clever and ingenious ways. They use the resources they have with shrewdness, whether honest or dishonest to secure the best future they can secure for themselves. This is how the world operates, this is descriptive of the religious leaders who had the most opulent houses in the neighborhood.

In v.9 we read, “Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.” 

Translation? This manager used what he had, his assets, the wealth to purchase dwellings for his future, his temporal future. That’s what the world does. Even though the religious leaders were wrong in their greed and irresponsibility, we can learn from their shrewdness.   

Our life on earth is very short. On the final day when life as we know it is over, we will discover how our lives impacted eternity for others. Endless personal accumulation in this world is meaningless. With regard to eternity, we don’t want to waste our opportunities. We are stewards of all the Lord has given us. God has given us all we have to impact this world with the eternally relevant truth that He is imparting to us now. 

As believers in Christ, we are stewards of the gospel message. God has committed His treasure of truth to us. We are wise to actively look for ways to gain a hearing with the unbelieving world, looking for opportunities to share the most important message that they will ever hear. Their eternity, in part, depends on it. Be heavenly minded, my friends, and earthly relevant with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 15:28-32

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28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’ 31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” ~ Luke 15:28-32

The Prodigal came home, the father celebrated and the older brother was angry. And, in the older son, the Pharisees met themselves. They were angered by the the Lord Jesus' grace shown to known sinners. The religious leaders believed in righteousness and justice and holiness, yet they lacked a proper definition of each. According to their theology, there was no grace of God.

In v.28, the Lord Jesus uses the word "begged." The Greek word parakaleō means to come alongside to speak to, to come right alongside someone. The noun form of the word is used of the Lord for the Holy Spirit. God pleads with him, and he calls him to come into the experience of His love. 

In v.29 we read, "but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends."

The older brother had a master servant relationship with his father. And, since in his eyes he was perfect, having not disobeyed his father once, he made the most arrogant statement ever. In this one verse, we see why the religious leaders never turned to the Lord Jesus: they didn't need a savior. There is an amazing amount of self-deception being thrown out here in one verse. 

In the last sentence of v.29, "And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends." The older son is accusing the father of unjust favoritism. And, his father is nothing more than a slave master. The older brother probably wished the father were dead. He doesn't care about his father and now his father is wasting assets on this other son, a wicked son who by his own admission is unworthy. 

In v.30 we read, "Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!" He identifies his brother as "this son of yours." He wouldn't even say "my brother."

So, we've got a celebration going on with music and dancing and the younger son and the feast and it's just a high time of joy.  And out in the dark of the night we've got this horrific assault on the father by the older son. The Lord Jesus was picturing the religious leaders, they saw themselves as righteous, and they sat in judgment of God.

In v.31-32 we read, "31 His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!"  

Divine joy is released when one sinner repents and is reconciled. And heaven's joy will be released not just for the prodigal, not just for someone who's immoral and irreligious and blatantly sinful, but for secret sinners, the rebels, the religious, the moral, the hypocrites, the ones whose lawlessness is all on the inside.  

The younger son was overwhelmed by his sin and with his father's grace. Immediately he confessed his sin and he received instantaneously forgiveness, reconciliation, sonship, all the rights and privileges that the father had at his disposal to give. He entered into the celebration of the father's joy . That is eternal salvation. And, the joy in heaven will be for ever.

The older son who had experienced the same tenderness, kindness, mercy, and grace, reacts with bitter resentment. He attacks the integrity of the father. And his father makes one final appeal.  "We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!"

Everybody in Luke 15 experienced the joy of the Lord except the older brother. The shepherd, the woman, and their friends all experienced the joy of finding. The younger son experienced the joy of returning and being received by a loving and gracious father. The father experienced the joy of receiving his son back safe and sound. But the older brother would not forgive his brother, so he had no joy. He could have repented and attended the feast, but he refused, so he stayed outside and missed out on the eternal celebration.

Luke 15:25-28

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25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’ 28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him. ~ Luke 15:25-28

The posture of the religious says: "Since I earn God's favor, everyone else has to earn it." They think they earn God's favor by being good and moral. The problem with this mistaken idea is: we can not be good enough to either earn or maintain God's favor. Both our justification and our sanctification are couched in God's grace.

In order to be right with God, we must have a personal relationship with Him. And, in order to make this possible, He came to befriend those who are honest about their hopeless condition. The honest, in their culture, were the outcasts, the inappropriate, those who had been rejected by religion. These were the one's who had failed so much, they had given up on their efforts to get it right.

In Luke 15, the Lord Jesus tells three stories to demonstrate just how this required relationship is initiated. Due to the fact that the Fall has alienated us from God, something had to be done outside of man in order for us to be brought into a personal relationship with God.

We have seen that the Prodigal son, while in pursuit of the life he thought would fulfill him, dropped to an all time low. His plans wore him out and left him destitute. And, it was out of this posture that he cried out to God. After crying out to God, this son who deserved a woopin', is introduced to the one who took the woopin' on his behalf.

In v.25 of our text, we read, "Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house." The older son, who represents the religious, had been out in the field that day working. And, astonishingly, his father hadn't told him anything about his younger brother's arrival. This is explained by the fact that just like the younger brother, this older son had no relationship with the father. Being out in the field was a metaphor for where he was in terms of the father. The younger son was in a far country, the older son was in a far field. Both were far off from the father. 

As the oldest son approached the house, he heard music and dancing. It is at this point that the religious leaders to whom the Lord Jesus is speaking connect with the story. The oldest brother represents them. They have a safe place in their souls for his approach to life.

In v.26-27 we read, "He asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’" 

The older son's heart should have been filled with joy, but it was filled with resentment. The outrageous conduct of both his younger brother and his father was more than he could stand. The seemingly foolish father had received his wayward son back into the family. To the older son, this was the worst because the father was using his resources to throw the party for the son who did not deserve it.

And so, in v.28 we read, "The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him." The older son had no love for his brother because he had no love for himself. And, he had no love for himself because he was trying to earn his father's love. This explains why he didn't rejoice that his brother had repented. 

In addition, the oldest son had no love for his father. He didn't share his father's response because he had not the father's love. Oh, the father loved him, but he received it not. This is a typical, religious hypocrite standing on the outside condemning the gracious work of salvation. Anger is the only emotion he feels. And, the religious leaders thought their posture was right.

The Legalist does not believe in grace. He does not understand acceptance that is not earned. He understands that free forgiveness is limited. He thinks, "If one does not appreciate forgiveness by producing good works, then that one does not deserve it."  

And so, the Legalist does not go into the party. And, what we have here is a public display of private hatred. He cannot enter into his father's joy because he lacks the infrastructure in his soul for this type of joy. And, the rebar of this joy is the love of his father. The Legalist is the person who hangs out at the house of God but he does not know the heart of God. This is the greatest deception that has ever invented and it is the characteristic of every false religion on the planet.  

Salvation comes only to those that are spiritually bankrupt, destitute, impoverished and fall on their faces as beggars before God because they have come to the end of themselves.

The older son shares his younger brother's former malady, he is also a rebel. Unlike his younger brother, he's not an outward rebel, he's an inward rebel. He's a secret sinner. He feels all the same lusts that his brother felt, but he hides them because legalism never changes our flesh. He covers up his real condition and never fulfills them because he is earning his father's blessing. And so he's driven by pride more than he's driven by baser things. But the base things are still there.

The religious are the hardest to reach with the gospel because in their minds, they don't need to repent. But, the Lord Jesus came to save sinners. He came to rescue those who have tried it all and have come up languishing. 

In the last part of v.28 we read, "His father came out and begged him." The Father seeks both the religious and the irreligious. The older brother missed in sharing in his father joy over the return of his younger brother. If we have no relationship with God, our ability to love others will suffer.

D. L. Moody was traveling in the highlands of Scotland. He saw shepherds keeping sheep and he noticed that the sheep were wandering away. So, he engaged one of the shepherds in a conversation.

The shepherd said, "There's a particular type of grass that these sheep will go after. It's very sweet and they love it. This is why they wander away, and sometimes they even jump down into the landing in a real steep place, ten or twelve feet below, in order to eat the grass." 

The shepherd went on to say, "Now, they can't get back up. In fact, they require a rescue operation. They isolate themselves by the jump and they eat the grass. And as their shepherd I leave them there. After a while, when they notice their plight, they start bleating, they crying out, but I leave them there. I wait till they've eaten all the grass. And I leave them there for days until they're so weak that they're going to faint." 

Then Moody asked, "Why do you do that? Why don't you just rescue them?" The shepherd responded, "Because, if I were to jump where they just jumped, I would scare them. Then they would jump out over the cliff and kill themselves. So I have to wait till they're so weak they can't jump. And then they just let me carry them and I lift them up and take them to safety." 

Sometimes, we have to lose a lot before we say, "I give up." And when we say, "I give up," the Shepherd says, "Ah, you're in the right spot." To which we respond, "Lord, I'm at the end of my rope." "Good, " He says, "Now I can rescue you. Let me teach you that your success at every level is dependent upon me."

Luke 15:22-24

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22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. ~ Luke 15:22-24

We return to the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The father in this parable pictures for us our heavenly Father who not only ran to welcome his once wayward son, he embraced him and he also threw a party to celebrate his homecoming. Just as the previous two parables in this chapter ended, we see the exorbitant joy of the father on display. 

In Christ, the father's heart has broken through the dark clouds of mankind's rebellion. And, before this youngest son could finish his well rehearsed confession, his father interrupts him, revealing his broken heart for his once lost son.

In spite of the fact that this once rebellious son had brought disgrace to his father and his family, the heart of his father scurries through with an embrace that enables him to lose sight of his rebellion. Everything the prodigal had hoped to find in that far off country, he discovered back home. 

In v.22 we read, "But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet." 

God replaces the filthy, stinking rags of this rebellious Hedonist with His own robe of righteousness. This happened for us when the Lord Jesus went to the cross. It was on Calvary's hill that God made it possible for us to be brought back into His family and to be clothed with the very righteousness of Christ.

In those days, families had a special robe that was most expensive because it was so finely crafted. This was the father's robe and he had this robe put on his once derelict son. The believer's robe is the Lord Jesus Christ who has not only covered our sin, He has washed it away with His blood.

Then the father has a ring placed on the hand of the youngest son. This ring was a signet ring and it had on it the family crest or seal granting the son the family authority. The authority of the Son of God has been applied to the one who would turn from his wayward life and has banked on the scandalous grace offered through the Lord Jesus.

In v.23 we hear the father say, "Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate." This fattened calf was grain-fed veal. This was prime meat. And, this was the greatest celebration that had ever occurred in the family for it was the father's way of saying to the son, "Everything I have is yours."

This is what our Father in heaven has done for us as believers in His Son, He has shared all that is His with us. The apostle Paul coined a word in order to communicate this phenomena. The term is co-heirs. We are co heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even though the father had already given part of his estate to the older son who had not left home, the father maintained the right to use the older son's wealth to throw this party. So, essentially, the father throws a party with the inheritance of the older son. 

The grace of God triumphs over sin at its worst. This is undeserved forgiveness and unmerited salvation. This kind of love is scandalous and bizarre to the legalistic mind. This parable provides us a glimpse of heaven. When one lost sinner comes home, God puts on a feast of sizable proportions. 

In v.24 we read, "For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate." 

Rather than tell his son to change, his father's expression of grace provides the change. Max Lucado once wrote, "Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.” The father insisted his youngest son join in on the festivities. I do not know about you, but when I deliberately sin and I am caught in that sin, I want to crawl into a hole out of sight. But the heart of my Heavenly Father is such that I can't do that. He insists on embracing me and lavishing me in His acceptance, especially when I am at my worst.

Luke 15:17-21

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17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ Luke 15:17-21

We have been considering the three parables of Luke 15. Today, we consider, again, another part of the third story, the parable of the Prodigal Son. The whole chapter is about the joy of God in response to the foundness of the lost.  Today's text begins with: “When he came to his senses.”  

There is an “insanity” to sin that seems to paralyze the image of God within us and liberate the “derelict” inside. The younger son changed his mind about himself and his situation, and he admitted that he was in need of a savior. In fact, the hardest to reach with the Gospel are those who see no need for a savior. But, this younger son confessed that his father was a generous man and that service at home was far better than “freedom” in the far country. 

The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 2:4, it is God’s goodness that leads us to repentance. If the son had thought only about himself, his hunger, his homesickness, his loneliness, he would have despaired. But his painful circumstances helped him to see his father in a new way, and this brought him hope. 

True repentance involves our souls which is made up of our minds, our wills and our emotions. And, if repentance is the work of God in our lives, we will obey Him. We will not only experience justification, but we will embrace His sanctification.

The context of this chapter is framed out by the fact that the religious leaders of Israel knew nothing of God's joy over repenting sinners. In fact, they never wanted to be anywhere near sinners. They felt that they would be somehow polluted and made impure if they came into contact with them at all. So, they kept their distance by only associating with each other in a sort of self-imposed isolation to maintain the illusion of their own holiness.

These so called leaders could not comprehend the fact that the Lord Jesus associated with sinners, these who were the worst, the most publicly scorned, the outcasts. To them, this was proof that He was not of God, rather He was of Satan because He associated with the people who were known to be a part of the kingdom of darkness.

At this point in the story, all of a sudden, the father of the younger son comes to his mind. Having been led by his lusts, he has fallen to the bottom and there is no where to look but up. This is the good side to our rebellion, it puts us in the position to cry out to our Father in heaven. So, left with nothing, destitute, in a famine, dying of hunger, this young son comes to his senses. He has a conversation with himself which leads him to consider, "How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death?"

This is the beginning of repentance. It begins with an accurate assessment of our condition. All repentance begins with an honest assessment of one's condition of destitution, helplessness, and desperation. Humility thrives in this context. And, there is no greater enemy to pride than humility which is the primary root of repentance.

The younger son thinks about his father. This is where this young boy grows up. He remembers that his father paid his hired servants more than enough. Finally, he sees his father as generous. He remembered that his father gave them more than his hired hands generally needed to survive. He now sees his father as loving, good, and kind. 

Now that he believes in his father, he is in the place to embrace repentance. And, repentance leads to salvation because repentance is one of the best expressions of faith. Most believe we repent in order to get better, to merit the favor of God. This is not biblical thinking. No, we repent because we can't do what is necessary. Having come to the end of ourselves, we trust in our father's goodness, compassion, generosity and mercy. 

So, in v.18-19 we read, "18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants." 

His sensible thinking moves him in his soul. Armed with correct thinking, he chooses, of his will, to return home. This is how repentance works. After we come to our senses, we bow our will to the Sensible One. A bowed will is willing to embrace the shame of returning to the One we have rejected. 

He said, "I have sinned against heaven and against you." He is genuinely repentant. He recognizes his life is a total disaster, and there's no one to blame but himself. He is owning his stupidity. This is what humility does, it owns its own stupidity.

According to v.20, “So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." 

The younger son wants restoration more than he wants his way. At this point, he needs his father and his resources. So, here comes the son with another outrageous request after he has already wasted a great portion of the family's fortune and the honor of his father.  

The culture of that day dictated that the father would be hard-hearted in his response to his returning, rebellious son. This hard hearted approach was designed to make the repentant son learn his lesson and work hard to earn his father's favor back. This impossibility would take the young man along time to do.

But this is not what happened. In fact, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. The father reaches his son before his son reaches his home. He not only wants to initiate the reconciliation, but he wants to protect his son from shame. He wants to protect him from the scorn and the abuse and the slander. He wants to bear the shame, take the abuse, which was expected in their culture.

The father felt compassion for his son. He felt a sick feeling in his stomach when he saw the boy and knew he was headed toward this unleashing of the townsfolks scorn. And so, he ran. But, Middle Eastern noblemen don't run. But, this father could not get to his son fast enough. 

Now, Middle Easterners didn't run because they all wore long robes that went to their ankles. And, honor was connected to the father's robe. The Father ran, taking the shame, to protect the son from taking the shame. He takes the scorn and the mockery and the slander so that his son doesn't have to bear it.  

When the son finally gets to his father, his father embraced him. He collapsed in a massive hug, buried his head on the neck of his son, stinking and dirty and ragged as he was. And now the son knows that his father had been suffering silently for the whole time he's been gone. By the time the boy walked into the village, he was a fully reconciled son.

In v.21 we read, "The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." The grace of the father melts the heart of his son even more. So much that he joins his father's humiliation and he confesses.

Confession is a doorway to freedom and forgiveness. No, it doesn't earn freedom and forgiveness, it enables us to access it. Confession isn’t telling God what he doesn’t know. It is a radical reliance on God's grace, a trust in God’s goodness.  Confessors find freedom that deniers of sin do not! Holding onto our sin hardens us, but confession softens us. Confession is the pressure relief valve of the souls that has come to know the soul changing grace of God.