"The Lost son (part 1) The Younger Son"

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Jesus continued. There was a man who had 2 sons. The younger 1 said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that.

The younger son got together all he had. Set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He'd longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no 1 gave him anything.

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. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hired servants.

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 son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

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. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, so they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the oldest son was in the field When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called 1 of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back, safe, and sound.

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat. So I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him.

My son, the father said, you are always with me. And everything I have is yours, but we had to celebrate and be glad. Because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Thank you, Anne, for reading that for us.

If you've got your a Bible near you, it would be helpful for you to have that passage open in front of you, because I'm gonna refer back to the passage. So page, 1 0 4 9. If you've got it open in front of you, I think that will help you. And I'm just gonna pray for us because we need god's help as we come to his word. So let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the Bible. Thank you for your word, and we pray, please, that you'd help us to understand this story that Jesus told, and that you'd help us to apply it to our own lives, and that we would go it from here changed by your words, amen. Well, we're thinking this morning about acceptance. We have been doing a few Thursday evenings with other churches. Maybe you've come along to some of them.

They've been entitled, ever feel like something's missing. And we've thought about things that might be missing in our lives, hope, purpose, and peace. And today, we're thinking about acceptance. And it also ties in with a series we've been doing at Hope Church. Of stories that Jesus told stories on the road.

It was on the road to Jerusalem, and Jesus was telling stories, and this is 1 of those stories. Now acceptance is something that we all long for. In fact, it's something that we need. Psychologists will tell us, that acceptance is is 1 of those things we need. A psychologist, Abraham Maslow, he, put together what what he called the hierarchy of needs.

And at the bottom level, you've got the obvious physiological needs that we have, things like oxygen, food, drink, that kind of thing. Next level up is security or safety, which isn't just that you're not beaten up or that kind of thing, but it's also that you've just got stability in your life. But the next level up is love and belonging. He thought, actually, this is something we need, something you need. And we will do all sorts of things to get love and acceptance from other people.

We will often put forward an image of ourselves, things that we want people to see. You might do it on social media, but you do it in person as well. You might have done it this morning. You wanna put forward things that people will see. People will accept.

But also you will try and hide things about yourself that maybe are unacceptable, your fears, your anxieties, your struggles. You don't come out with them straight away. Because you want to be accepted by others. But rather you will put forward the side of you that you think other people will accept. You wanna be funny or clever or sensitive or you long to be those things, but maybe fear that you're not.

Now we put forward that image of ourselves and we hide other things to be accepted. Now this isn't a psychology talk. You'll be glad to know. The important question that we wanna ask then is, what about acceptance with god? How can we be accepted by him?

And I think lots of people assume that it's a similar deal with god, that to be in with god, to be acceptable to god, you've gotta be a particular kind of person. You've got to have done the right thing and not done the bad things, and you've got to have done your religious duty. And if you do and if you're basically a good kind of person, you'll be acceptable to God. But that then means actually being acceptable to God is as exhausting as trying to be acceptable to other people. Because it is exhausting, trying to be acceptable to others, to put forward the right image, and hide the things that you don't want other people to see.

And it's similarly exhausting if you try to do this with god, because how good have you got to be? There's always more that you could do, and so it's exhausting trying to do all that. And I think lots people assume this is what Christianity teaches. It teaches you the rules that you've got to obey. The religious duties you've got to perform.

So that you can be acceptable to God. Be good is what lots of people think Christianity is about. Except that, this story that Jesus told blows that idea apart. Let's just see where the context of this story if you've got the passage open in front of you, would you just look back a bit before the bit that Anne read to the beginning of the chapter. You see Jesus is addressing 2 groups of people, and you see it at the beginning of the chapter.

Chapter 15 verse 1, it says. Now, the tax collectors and sinners we're all gathering round to hear Jesus. Now that's actually 1 group of people sounds like to, but it's 1 group. It's the tax collectors and sinners. And they are in front of Jesus.

They're gathering round Jesus. Now these are people who are bad people. I mean, if you're a tax person today. Don't worry about it. We don't view you in this way.

But back then, they did because tax collectors were viewed as traitors, and everyone knew that they were skimming off money for themselves. So everyone viewed them as being bad people, but not just bad people. They are quite happy to be bad people, to be on the acceptable and to live this kind of life. They're the tax collectors and sinners, people who are notoriously bad people. That's 1 group of people in front of Jesus.

But then also in front of Jesus, you've got another group of people verse 2. It said, but the pharisees and teachers of the law mattered. Okay. So now the pharisees and teachers of the law, they are the religious leaders of the day. They are very good people, highly respected people, very religious.

They're the kind of people that you want to associate with and you want to be seen with. They are so good, so respected. You would like their posts, and you would love it if they would follow you. Oh, those are the good people. In front of Jesus, you've got the bad people and the good people.

And you notice first too that the good people, the pharisees and teachers of the law, are muttering. They say this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. So they are spotting that Jesus is spending a lot of time with the bad people, and eating with them, and eating with them was a way of saying, sort of not just that you're you're willing to associate with them, but that you like them, and maybe even that you accept them. What's Jesus doing? And at this point, Jesus tells a story.

Verse 11, there was a man who had 2 sons. And what we find is, 1 son is very good, and 1 son is very bad. Now it's not hard to see what Jesus is doing here, is it? He's including his audience in the story. In front of him, you've got the good people and the bad people, and he tells a story about a man with 2 sons.

1 is good, and 1 is very bad. And just to jump to the end of the story, the bad sun ends up in a party, and the good sun ends up outside the party. And what's going on there? Well, we're gonna find out. You see, the bad sun, what we'll find is that the bad sun isn't in because he's bad.

And the good son isn't out of the party because he's good. So what's going on? How do you get accepted by god? How do you end up in the party? Well, this week, we're gonna think about the younger son.

And next week, we're gonna think about the older son. I would love you to come back to find out more about him, but we're just gonna focus on the younger son this week. And the first point is totally unacceptable. I just want you to see how totally unacceptable this younger son actually is. He tells the story.

You've got a man who has 2 sons. And the younger son, and even today, as it was read, I hope you spotted that what the younger son did was just outrageous. Just have a look with me. Would you? So verse 11, Jesus continued there was a man who had 2 sons.

The younger 1 said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and they're squandered his wealth in wild living. Okay. You don't have to travel back 2000 years to the time of Jesus to agree.

That is unacceptable. I mean, this younger son is going to his dad And he's saying, I want my share of the the property. In other words, I want my inheritance. Now, of course, you should only get inheritance when your parents die. So quite rightly, people have pointed out what this younger son is doing is saying to his dad, that I wish you were dead.

It is that rude. It is that brazen that he would say those 2 is that. I wish you were dead because I want what you've got. And clearly, he doesn't want the father. Because the next thing he does is he packs up all his stuff, takes all his things and travels to a distant country.

And that's significant. He's saying, look, not just I'm just gonna take what you what owed me and frankly stuff you file. I don't want anything to do with you. I'm gonna travel so far away because I wanna be able to live my life my way without you interfering, and without you watching over what I'm doing, And giving that sort of, distaining look, I don't I just don't want that. I wanna be able to live my life and be free.

That's what he's saying. And it says he squandered his wealth. He just burnt through it. And ended up with nothing. And then we find in verse 14 that a famine comes on the whole country, and he is in need.

And so he needs to get a job because he's got no income. And so he gets a job, but the job is a terrible job. He is gets a job feeding pigs. Now remember, for Jewish people, the old testament says that pigs are unclean animals. So to get a job feeding pigs is to I mean, it it it would have been viewed as being a totally unacceptable job to have.

That he is debasing, you know, demeaning himself by going and doing this kind of work. But even that job doesn't pay I mean, he he he's left in a position where he's longing to eat the food that he's giving the pigs, which shows that the job doesn't really pay enough. And he's brought down to a sort of level of existence, which is lower than animals, because he's not even being treated as well as these unclean pigs, and no 1 is helping him. Now let's just pause here. This totally unacceptable youngest son.

We need to consider what this means. I wonder if you can see yourself at all in this younger son. This younger son is affected when you said to his father, I want your things, but I don't want you. I want your riches, your money, your possessions, but I reject you, and I will go far away from you. Now clearly in the story, the father represents God.

And we need to see actually this is a picture of how many of us treat God. In fact, it's actually a picture of how we all will treat God. We say, I want what you can give. But I don't want you. I want what you can give.

I I I want to live my life in this world, and I want to have nice things. I want the career. I want to have family, maybe. I wanna have pleasures, the luxuries of life. I want these things.

I want entertainment. I want sport. I want I I just want I want all those things. But god, I don't really want you. I just wanna live my life and enjoy it.

Now this is 1 way that the Bible talks about sin. Maybe you've thought that sin is just sort of doing really bad things, but it's included in there, but really sin is relational with God. It's saying I'll live in your world, but I don't want you. It's a broken relationship. And some people do this saying they don't believe in God.

But interestingly, some people do this. I don't know whether they realize they're doing it. That they do this while saying they believe in God and even the God of the Bible. So they'll say, oh, yeah. I I I know about god, the God of the Bible.

Yeah. I know about all that. I know about him. I know about Jesus. Yeah.

I agree. He's he's the son of God. I believe, yeah, all of that. But actually still living far away from god, not actually paying any attention to god, not living in relationship with God. I mean, after all, the younger son, did he believe that the father existed?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He knew his father existed. He's just distant from him. And we can do this actually by disbelieving in god, but we can do it.

So, yeah, I believe in god, but still living our lives far away from you saying, I just wanna live my life my way. And the story does point to the fact that living this way, living distant from God is actually destructive. Do you see that he he ends up in the pigsty. I mean, he was in the party for a while, but then he's in the pigsty. And I think Jesus is saved as he looked actually living distant from God does lead to bad places.

I wonder if you can see that. Maybe you've experienced that. Oh, sure. Some might be living the high life, living in the party and distant from God. But the reality is for many, their lives are ruined by living this way.

Maybe you know those who go, you know what? I'm gonna live my life, my way, and I'm just gonna throw myself into as much pleasure, as much fun as I can, and I'm gonna love it. It's gonna be great. And maybe you even know people who've gone down that route, and done that in terms of drink and alcohol. There you go.

Actually, that has then led to a really bad place. Or in terms of sexual things where they've gone, I'm just gonna live an unrestrained life. And they go, this is my way to freedom. This is my way to enjoy myself, but it's led to very dark places. Now we might be in the party or we might be in the pigsty.

But if we're distant from god, well, we're very like this younger son. And the people listening to Jesus knew this younger son. Was totally unacceptable. Can you see yourself in? Second point is the turning point in the story.

Now the turning point comes in verse 17, and the first few words here are really significant. Again, would you have a look down at them? Verse 17? So he's in the pigsty, and it says, when he came to his senses. Now just pause on that for a moment.

The younger son comes to his senses. This is a moment of realization, and we've all had these kind of moments of realization, different levels in our lives. I'm sure you know the feeling. Probably when you've been driving, you probably have these kind of moments, my bev and I have had these a few times recently when I've been driving. When, you've got the satnav on, you've programmed them where you're heading.

And, well, we we turn off the volume on the satnav because it's just so annoying this person telling you what to do. And yet you're driving along merrily, and you know that feeling when you just notice, you suddenly realize you've missed the turning. And the satnav may be out of spite and says, actually, you're gonna arrive half an hour late. And just that sinking realises, is as you're driving along and you can see the other road going off the you're, I can't go on that road now. It's far too low.

And you realize where you are and that it's gonna take your whole load longer to get there. That senior that realization, this younger son has that. He has that moment. You can imagine him in 1 day in the pigsty as he's getting the food out, and he's just going, What am I doing? What am I doing here?

How do I get to this? He needs that moment of realization. Do you see becoming a Christian is not actually about entering a fantasy land, but rather coming to our senses, seeing how things really are, that we have distanced ourselves from god, and actually are in a terrible state. And so having come to his senses, he makes a plan. First 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, I will set out and go back to my father. Here's his plan. He says, I'm gonna go back. He doesn't think, oh, come to his senses, realize how bad it is and say, well, that's it. I'm just gonna stay here.

And he doesn't do what maybe some students do. None of our kids have done this, but at the end of the first year of university, having had no contact with parents just sent a message saying, funds running low, send money. Now he doesn't do that. He decides to turn back to his father, to travel back. And Jesus is saying to those in front of him, you've got the good people, you've got the bad people, he's saying, to those in front of him, you need to turn back to God.

That's what the younger son does. And the younger son comes up with this plan. He comes up with a speech He works on this speech. He thinks, right, I I've gotta have something to say when I come back, and here's the speech that he says, verse 18. He says, right, I'm gonna go back, and I'm gonna say, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Knowing what he's done wrong and how bad it is, he decides he's gonna go back, and this is what he's gonna say. He's gonna say. I've done wrong. I've been I've been offensive to you, dad.

And he doesn't excuse it. He doesn't sugarcoat it. He doesn't blame his dad for his upbringing. And he doesn't use the politician's way of saying things, you know, mistakes were made. No.

We see through that. That's just not taking responsibility, but he takes responsibility. He says, I'm gonna come out with it. I'm just gonna lay it out before my father and say, this is what I've done. I've offended heaven.

I've offended you. I've sinned. And I said at the start that we often think that we've gotta put forward an acceptable image, hide the bad bits, just put forward the good bits. To be accepted by others, but maybe to be accepted by god, but that's not what this younger son does. He just comes before the father.

He said that I'm gonna come before the fa my father, and I'm just gonna say it how it is. I'm gonna bring myself and all I have done wrong and just admit it. And then interestingly, he reckons that the only way this is gonna work is if verse 19. He says I'm no longer whether to be called your son, make me like 1 of your hired servants. He thinks this is the way back in The hired servant, apparently, there are different grades of servant in a household.

Don't know about your household. We don't have grades of servant. But, apparently, in the we don't have servants. But, apparently, in those days, there are different grades of servants. And this is the bottom client, the hired helper.

This is the sort of 0 hours contract. Nothing wrong with having that, but this is the 0 hours contract kind of serving that you just bring in for special occasions for things like that is the lowest form of serving. He thinks this is how I will get back in with the file. If I just do the worst job. And maybe, again, you've thought that about God that you've thought, maybe you've seen the bad things you've done, the distance you've kept from god, and you've thought my only way back in is if I just do the worst things.

Maybe I can earn my way back in. Maybe I can slave my way back in to god's presence. Well, this is his plan, this is his speech, and he's gonna head back. And can you imagine him heading back on the road? It's a long journey, but he's got nothing.

And he's walking back. What's he expecting? Is he expecting to knock on the door? And what's it I mean, what's gonna happen? He's got his speech ready.

He's probably gone over it over and over. And he's expecting he'll knock on the door, the dad will open, and what will there be? That'd be anger? Sure. The anger.

There's gotta be anger. He's treated his father appallingly. Last thing he said to him was I wish you were dead. It's gonna be disappointment at least. It's gonna be better.

See what happens next. First 20. So we 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.

Now this, this is incredible. The son is still a long way off when the father sees him, which must mean that the father has been looking for his son. That I mean, you can imagine he's been on the upstairs and on the balcony or something with these binoculars just scanning the horizon every day to see is my son coming back? There's no real reason to think he would be but just on the off chance that his son is coming back to him. And when he spots the figure on the horizon and thinks, I recognize that shape.

I recognize that. That's my boy. And he runs. Now in those days, you need to know, running was something that older respectable gentleman didn't do. It was undignified.

I mean, it's quite undignified when I run. But back then, it was more of a status that you just didn't do it. Older men didn't do that. They didn't run. But this dad just doesn't care about that.

Who cares when my boy is back, and he runs to him. And before a word is said, his arms are round his son, and he kisses him. And the words are the and it's an affectionate kiss. For his son. And the son has his speech all red.

He can imagine he gets it, you know, oh, what's my speech? Okay. Yeah. I got my speech first 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. Do you see he can't finish the speech? I love that. He can't he doesn't finish the speech.

He doesn't get onto that stuff about the hired service. He just doesn't get there. And maybe that's because he's just wrapped in his father's embrace. Can't barely speak it. Or maybe it's just actually that whole talk about being a hired servant just seems a bit silly now in his father's embrace.

And the father calls the servants first 23, verse 22, sorry, but the father said to the servants quick, bring the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. What's the father doing here? Each thing is significant. The robe is the best robe. This is honor he is giving to his son.

The ring is probably the signet ring, which shows that he is getting the authority of the family back. And the sandals are gabber, that servants didn't wear sandals. So these sandals is saying you're not a servant. And you're not just coming in through the back door. You are right back in the center of the family.

You have total acceptance, total forgiveness. You are back. And you're my son. And he throws a party. And this is a big party.

It says he calls for the fattened calf to be killed. And the fat and calf well, that is a big deal. They didn't eat meat very often. It was a luxury when they had meat. And so for the cat fat and calf, because this was a calf that was fed up, ready for the big special occasions where the whole village would celebrate together for something.

And so he says, this is that level of celebration. Let's kill the fat and calf. The fat and calf livestock was also a form of wealth and security. So this is taking some of the assets of the home of the family and saying, let's, let's use it. Let's celebrate now.

This is not sort of miserly celebrating. It's not a little celebration. This is let's blow it. Let's do it. The sun is back.

And not just that the son is back, did you notice the language that he uses? First 20 fourth, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. Now I think that's significant because that doesn't quite fit the story, doesn't. I mean, he wasn't he wasn't dead. But I think Jesus is saying, you know, when we live our lives, distant from god, we are dead.

It is that serious. And whether we're in the party or whether in the pigsty, if we keep that distant, it's very serious. And if we stay like it, it is very serious. We're dead if we're like that. But the sun's back.

And if we come back to god, we can live, have life. So what's Jesus saying to the people in the room? To the bad people. People who know that they're distant from God to us. How can we be accepted?

Turn to God. Turn to God. And it doesn't matter how bad you have been in the past. It doesn't matter how much distance you have kept between you and God. If you will but turn to him, you will be met with such a whirlwind of love that it will knock you off your feet.

He'll wrap his arms around you, and he will bring you in to be his child with total acceptance, total forgiveness, and with all the status and position of being a child of God. He puts the robe on you, the ring on your finger, sandals on your feet, and brings you back and says you're my child, and I love you, if you will turn to him. And you go from being dead to being alive, lost, to found. And God is longing for each 1 of us to turn to him. Now there is a cost in this story.

I don't know if you spotted it. I I I don't think it's a a major deal is made of it at this point, but but there is a cost Who pays the cost for the sun coming back? For him to come back, there is a bit of a cost there in there, and there's the fat and carp and that kind of thing. Well, the father pays the cost, doesn't he? But in a way, also, the older brother pays a cost too, because if if the younger son has had all his part of the inheritance, everything that's left, there were only 2 sons that everything that's left should go to the older older son.

Yeah? So for the younger son to get anything, the fat and can't I mean, that's a big deal. That's a little wealthy, you know, significant thing. That actually costs the older son as well. Costs the father costs the older son.

And actually, what we'll find if we come back next week is that the older son isn't happy with this. The older brother is not happy. But you have an older brother who's very happy to pay the price. Jesus himself pays the price for you and me to be able to come back into the family, and he's not killing a calf. It's his own death.

But he willingly lovingly pays that so that you can come back into the family. He takes the price for you and me. So here's the invitation from this passage. However, bad you've been, however rebellious, there is nothing so bad that it needs to stop you from turning to God. Confess to him, your rebellion, turn to him, and this is the re reaction you will get.

This is the response you will get. Now, of course, that will mean stopping living in a far off country. It no means no longer living at a distance from god, but living in relationship with him. But why would you stay in the pigsty when this welcome awaits you? So if you haven't done so yet, you need a turning point.

Come to God with all that you are. All that you've done wrong. Bring it to him, and know the acceptance and love of God. It is total. And this changes our lives.

I I mean, in so many ways, But 1 way that it does, we said at the beginning, we need acceptance. Can you imagine what it is like to go into this week to walk out of these doors with the robe on? Maybe we should have had robes. Give you a robe. Go out into this week.

Okay. Forget that. If you can imagine what's it like to go out of here with the robe on your on your shoulders, with the ring on your finger, with the sandals on your feet of being a child of God. You go out into this week saying, I am totally accepted and totally loved. By god, I am a child of God.

And that then means but we don't need acceptance from other people. Oh, it still hurts if we don't get it. But we don't need it because we are loved and accepted by the 1 whose love matters more than anyone else. And we know we have that love, not because we're good, not because we're bad, in spite of the fact that we're bad, but actually because of god's love and his grace. And because he is this kind of father.

Now maybe maybe there are some here who are thinking, you know what? I I just don't think I'm that bad. I don't think, I am that far off from God. I've done my duty. I've done the good things.

I've done all that kind of thing. I in fact, I think God owes me if that is in any way in your heart. Would you come back next week? Because we're gonna think about the older son, and he is just like that. Let me pray for us.

He heavenly father, we thank you for this story and how it just shows your heart for people who are lost, who are dead, who are far away from you. And father, if there are those today, here who have recognized that that is them living far from you. Father please work in their hearts to bring them to their senses to turn to you. And we thank you for this reassurance that anyone who turns to you receives this kind of overwhelming welcome. Turner's father, we pray to you, amen.