"The Lost Son (part 2) The Older Son"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

Yes. Luke's gospel chapter 15 versus 11 to 32. 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. 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 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 am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hard 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 he's alive again. He was lost and is found, so they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the elder 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 fat and calf because he has him back safe and sound. The elder 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 fat and car 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. Morning, everyone. I'm bar I'm pastor here at Hope Church. It's great to have you here.

And if you're new, if you're visiting great, that you're with us this morning. Please keep the passage open in front of you. That passage in Luke 15, parable of the lost sum, as we're gonna be looking at that this morning. And Ben has already prayed for us, and so let's get into this together. Well, last week, we began looking at this parable, the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son, his famous story that Jesus told.

And we said, that it's very important to notice the context of the story. So just to cast your eyes back again to the beginning of the chapter, Luke 15 verse 1 and 2, where Jesus says, where it says, sorry, the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, but the pharisees and teachers of the law muttered. This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. And we said last week, and it's still true, that in front of Jesus, therefore, there are 2 groups of people. You've got the fair you've got the tax collectors and sinners, people who were notoriously bad.

You've got those people, and then you've also got the very, very good and very religious, the paracies and teachers of the law. And that the good people are looking down on the bad people. And can't believe that Jesus is spending time with the bad people. And this very much reflects how many people view the world And if there is, life after this life, what God is looking for? That God will accept those who've basically been good, but those who've basically been bad we don't really know what happens then.

That's what lots of people assume. Yesterday evening, so I've got to the stage of life where I quite like watching, mortar and mortar and White House gone fishing. I don't know whether that's a stage of life thing, but I found it recently, and, I love it. And particularly after, if you've had a late evening of meetings and that kind of thing, you get back, you watch that. It's like, it's just a lovely thing to watch.

There you go. Some not looking at me with disbelief, but anyway, we watched the second episode of it. So I've started in the beginning. We watched the second episode last night. And, both Paul Paul White House and Bob Mortimer had had have had heart problems.

And they were reflecting about life and talking about what is their beyond life. And they said, well, we walk past a church on our way to this place for fishing. Maybe there are answers in there, maybe the vicar notes. And the Paul White House said, nah, they they they haven't got a clue. I'm gonna clear.

Well, later on in the episode, they talked to the vicar. And it was clear that Bob Bob said, so, you know, is there a is there a reckoning? Is there a time where there'll be a toting up? Will there be a toting up, you see? And his assumption was clearly there will be a toting up.

And then between them said, well, you know, neither of us have committed genocide, so we'll be alright. I mean, clearly neither of them really thought there was gonna be anything. And sadly, Paul White House's assumption about the church proved to be true because they didn't actually get much useful information from the Bicker now. Okay. Maybe they was editing and whatever, but what they got was really not very helpful.

When the vicar could have pointed them to this parable? Because this actually blows out of the water. Any idea that you've got that well, basically, it's the good people are in and the bad people are out. Because Jesus here tells a story in which you've got a father with the 2 sons, as we saw last week, 1 of whom's very good, and 1 of whom's very bad. And by the end of the story, the bad sun is in the party, and the good sun is on the outside.

So that's gotta intrigue us to say. Okay. What is the deal? We're clearly not right in our thinking. If we think it's just, well, those who are better than average or those who just haven't committed genocide are alright, and those who have a a knot.

What's going on here? Well, last week, we thought about the younger son. Who behaves totally unacceptably. We looked at that. We saw how bad he was.

He insults his father, demands his inheritance, said to the father, basically, I wish you were dead, takes the money, goes a long way off, basically saying I I don't want anything to do with you. And goes and squanders it all in, wild living. And we said, well, we can see ourselves in this younger sun. Maybe we can. Maybe you could.

That we live in god's world, and we're happy to live in his world and take what he what he can give, but we don't really want him. And we saw the younger son last week had a moment of realization. He came to his senses went back to his father openly confessed what he'd done, how bad he'd been, and he is met by this whirlwind of love as he turns back. Total acceptance, total restoration, right back in the family, and there is a huge extravagant costly party for this younger son. And the message to those in the room and to us is if we will turn back to god, no matter how far away we've been, no matter how bad we've been, no matter how much we have distanced ourselves from god, if we will just turn back, then we will receive this same response.

That we will receive forgiveness and acceptance and love. And it feels like Jesus could have ended the story there. The party being had for this younger brother who has come back, there's the party, the celebration, that could have been the end of the story. But Jesus doesn't end there. The attention now goes from the party to the field.

Where the elder brother has been the elder son. And we need to ask what's going on with this elder brother who clearly represents the morally respectable religious people in the room with Jesus. So let's look at this elder brother. We're gonna look at the elder brother, and then we're gonna see the father's response tune. Thank you.

And the first thing that I want you to spot about the elder brother is how good he is. He is he has been very good. The elder brother comes from the field just to set the the context. The elder brother comes from the field, and hears the music and the dancing of this party. And so he calls 1 of the servants and says, what's going on?

Why this party? And the servant says verse 27 have a look at verse 27, it says, your brother has come. He replied, your father has killed the fat and calf because he has him back safe and sound. Well, this angers the older brother. And so the father comes out to him and pleads with him, and he replies verse 28, sorry, verse 28.

The elder brother became angry. It refused to go in, so his father went out and pleaded with him. He replies verse 29. 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. Now just see how good he has been. What he says is very revealing. He has he says, been very hardworking. He has slaved away.

He says. That means he's been the opposite of the younger brother. The younger brother took his inheritance, went off, squandered it. This older brother has been hardworking. And you can imagine on the farm, the family farm, he has worked very hard.

And if you've seen farmers at work, you know they have to work very hard. You can go past fields in harvest time, feel that at harvest time at night where they are still harvesting by by the light of electric lamps. And you can imagine this young this older son would have been doing all that. Out, maybe all night harvesting, up early to deal with the animals out, you know, he has been really hardworking. And he says, he's been doing it for years.

I've slaved for you all this time. He's he's slayed for years, he says. Maybe as long as he's working life has been, it would have been, wouldn't it? He's worked for years and years, year in, year out unrelenting, probably known by everyone in the village as being this faithful, hardworking son. And he says in verse 29, he's never disobeyed his father.

Whatever his dad told him to do, he did. When he was a kid probably, told to go and tidy his room and he did it straight away. He told that he couldn't go out and be with his friends at the Janice to stay home and work, and he did it. Whatever job he was given on the phone, go and dig this field, go and sow that field, go and reap the hub. He did it.

He was faithful every single time. Well, can you see yourself in this at all? Maybe you can. May maybe you're that kind of person? You're a hardworking person.

You've led a good life, better than most. You've not committed genocide. But more than that, actually, you've been far better than that. And you have been hardworking at work. You have been honest.

You didn't cut corners. That is not your way. You didn't take credit for other people's work. And maybe even if there was an option of getting ahead, but or not getting ahead, maybe even putting yourself at disadvantage, if it meant being honest, you were honest. You have been good.

You've been hardworking. You've been faced. And maybe you can even add in church things onto that as well. Faithful and hardworking at church attend every Sunday, come come to gospel community every time. And when you're on a road, you are there early.

You, you're hardworking. You you do it all faithfully, week in, week out. Maybe you can see yourself a bit in this elder brother. So first thing to see is he's good. The second thing to see is he's angry.

Why is he angry? Well, it sparked by the return of this younger brother, isn't it? The celebration for him, that the father has killed the fat and calf. And we said last week that the fat and calf is a big deal. The fat and calf is an expensive thing.

It's part of the property, it it yeah. There's a lot of value in this fat and fat, and the fact that the father has killed it is a big deal for the family. And he says, just look at verse 29 again, halfway through, he says, yet you never gave me 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 fat and calf thing. Now I wonder whether you can sympathize with this older brother. I've certainly had people in the past say to me, you know what?

The elder brother has a point, doesn't he? Do you agree? Can you sympathize with him? It does does it feel unfair? You can sympathize with him, Connie.

You can say, well, doesn't it this younger brother has come back get the fat and carb killed for him. And this older brother's saying, you didn't give me anything. I didn't have a goat. I mean, you didn't just I mean, that's a relatively small thing. You didn't even give me that.

But the immoral son who comes back, he's so immoral. He's insulted you father. He has taken your wealth and squandered it and you killed a fat and cup. 1 commentator said this. It must have felt like to the elder brother, like immorality holds more merit with the father than faithfulness.

You're rewarding bad behavior dad. And parents. You know, you don't do that. You don't give sweets to the kid who's just stolen a toy from their sister and give nothing to the sister. She's not what you do.

You don't reward bad behavior. Maybe we can sympathize. But very significantly, also third thing to spot is that he's distant from the father. Now this is a bit more subtle, and we need to just take a moment to think about this. You might have spotted in the way that the older brother speaks to his father, that there is a distance here.

The relationship is not right. It's not good. Do you spot first off, when he addresses his father, verse 29, he says, but he answered his father. Look. Now that's not a good way to start speaking to your father.

Even now, that wouldn't be a good way to start on the phone, your phone, you know, how are you doing? Look. It's not a good way to begin. Back then, even more so, even the younger son started every time he'd spoke to the father, he would call him father, but this just starts with look. Well, things aren't quite right.

And he says, it's very revealing that he says, I've been slaving for you. His attitude to his work and his morality has been that of a slave. In other words, though it wasn't explicitly down on paper, he treats his father like there's a contract between him and his father. Yeah. Unwritten.

But the contract is this. I work hard. I am good. I am obedient. And you give me what I am due.

Some kind of payment. That's how it works. And therefore, he thinks clearly thinks you owe me. And you owe me more than you owe this irresponsible sum. Now do you see how that mentality creates distance between the elder brother and and his father?

You know the difference between someone doing something for you, purely out of love, and them doing it to get something from you. You see this with children. In a very clear way, sometimes. Little child, drawn her mother, a lovely picture, And it's a beautiful picture, lots of lovely colors, and it says on it, you're the best mum in the world, and I love you. And she gives the picture to her mum, and the mum's like tears in her eyes.

It's like, oh, this is just delightful. And then the next words out of the little girl's mouth, wreck it. Because she says something like can I have some chocolate now? You go, okay. Why did you do this picture?

And if the mom said, no. No. Hang on. No. Now it's not the time for chocolate.

If that girl goes into a tantrum and even says, but I drew you a picture. He goes, why did she draw the picture? Did she draw it for her mom? Well, no. She really drew it for herself, didn't she?

Because she wanted the chocolate. Now children have mixed motives, and sometimes they do things out of love, and sometimes they do things out of self love, But if a child were to grow up and only relate to their parents for what they could get from them, that's really not good, is it? A new 1 elderly person a few years ago. Who felt her children she was she was an elderly lady. She she felt her children were only looking after her because they wanted her inheritance, and she was very bitter about it.

It was horrible. Do you see that attitude actually creates distance? That just doing things to get things from someone. Now here's what I want you to see. Actually, therefore, there is a big similarity between the elder brother and the younger brother.

You seeing that? Because both want the father's things but don't really want the father. The younger brother does it really, obviously. Just says, give me your things, and I don't want you and moves far away. Just blatant.

But the older brother, the older son, also wants the same thing. He just wants what the father's got, but doesn't really want the father. Did you notice when he says, you didn't give me a young goat. What's he gonna do with that young goat? Did you notice?

End of verse 29, yet you never even gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. That's not what was going on with the younger brother. The celebration for him was that he'd come back and they'd be having a celebration together with the father because he was back with the father, but the elder wants to use the goat just to go off to be with his friends, not with you. No. No.

I wanna go and be with those people I wanna beat with. They're actually quite similar. But their way of getting hold of the father's things is different. Younger brother, just blatant, older, through being good, through being obedient. Through being hardworking.

Both are distant from the father, 1 through being bad, and 1 through being good. Now can we spot this in ourselves? It's important to say that some people may be totally older brother, hundred percent older brother, like the people in the room in front of Jesus. But others of us can be older brother like older brother ish. You may be a genuine Christian, but yet your heart tends towards being older brother like.

And therefore, don't just assume, well, this isn't me. Let's all assume, you know, let this examine our hearts. How can we be older brother like? Well, do you think, essentially, if you examined your relationship with God, does it look like there is this unwritten contract? Think about it.

Do you assume that your good morals, hard work mean God owes you? That he is in your debt. Lots of people assume this. It's but even people outside church assume that this is the way it is. So, a bit like I was saying about Bob Mortman, his attitude is effectively that there's a kind of contract between mankind and God.

And I've spoken to plenty of people, whose funerals, the funerals I've taken of their loved ones, where they will say things like. The person who died were, he he worked very hard He provided for his family, and he was kind. He always helped people. Whenever anyone was in trouble, he would always go out of his way to help people. And the assumption of the family is therefore Well, surely, therefore, he's alright.

Of course he's okay. Beyond death. Of course he's alright. Though he spent gave God not even a second thought. Of course he's alright.

Because the contract is we do good. We're basically all right, and God should therefore give us life after death. That's the contract, unwritten, but that's what we assume. But we could add religiosity into it as well, The people in front of Jesus were very religious, so you could say, well, I go to church, I serve on the rotors, all those things we mentioned before, and therefore God owes me. And what does he owe me?

Maybe he owes me life beyond death, certainly that, but probably a good life now as well. That things will go well for me. Now I think you really spot this older brother mentality in our hearts when it feels like God doesn't keep his end of the deal. How do you feel if bad things happen to you? The suffering comes your way.

Do you get angry with god? If you have bad health or your children have bad health or if they have other difficulties and struggles, if they don't get into the school you want them into, or if you don't get the promotion that you want, or if you don't get married and you really wanted to, or whatever it may be, if there are those things where you're going out, you know, this is what this is what I should have, and I've worked hard, and I've been good, and I've been religious, and yet I've not got those things. And in fact, things have gone really badly. Do you actually get resentful with God and feel he's not kept his end of the bargain? On the other side, If we do we get angry with God or with others, if they get the good things we really want, more than us, but they haven't worked as hard.

Or haven't been as good or haven't been as religious? Do you get angry with God that others have good things, nice things, pleasant things? But they're not like you. They've not been as good as you. And you feel why aren't I getting those things?

God, it's just not fair. You didn't even give me a young goat. And do you hate the idea that those who've been seriously immoral? On their deathbeds, could turn to the lord, could be forgiven, and accepted as sons. And in the image of what we saw last week, have the robe put on them ring on their finger, sandals on their feet, beloved, and accepted by God.

Well, that could anger us if we think there is this unwritten contract. And the tragedy is that if we're totally like that, we actually are distancing ourselves from God. Because sin is not just doing bad things. It's part of it, but sin is distancing ourselves from God. And the elder brother is just as distant as the younger brother.

He may still live at home, but he's far from the father. So now let's turn to the father and his reaction to his elder son. The loving father well, we were moved last week by the father's love. I mean, it it was incredible last week. He'd been scanning the horizon for his youngest, so I'm hoping he would come back when he saw him, he ran to him, say, I forget about the protocol.

Forget about respectability. I just wanna run to my son. And what we see here is that the father has the same love for the elder son. When the elder son, verse 28 refuses to go in, the father comes out to him as well. He goes out to him, pleads with him.

Do you see Jesus is saying, God loves the elder brothers, too, pleads with them. Here's the love of the father, and his response is there in verse 31 and 32. And I've just picked out 3 of the phrases just to put up on the on the screen. And the first I think this is so significant. The first thing he says is, well, he says, my son he says, you are always with me.

And I think that's really significant. That's the big thing. He's saying, you had access to the best thing that there could possibly be. Not the father's things, not the father's property or money, but the father himself, he says, son, my son, you're always with me. Do you really think the younger brother had it better than you?

Because he took his part of the estate, lived a wildlife, and now has the Faten calf slaughtered for him. Do you really think that's better than being with me. The father's saying you had the best of all things. And if we don't see that a relationship with God is worth far more than all the things we could get from God. And we've not really grasped how great God is.

Do you see Jesus died for us? Not so that we could simply have things from God. Not so that we could simply have eternal life as a as a gift from god, although it's true, and not just so that we could have forgiveness. No. That is true as well.

But Jesus died for it so that we could have God so that we could know him and come into a relationship with him. That's the goal of the gospel is to know God. That's what Jesus died to give you. God doesn't want slaves. He wants children.

Sons and daughters. And he doesn't promise us health and wealth and all those things that people chase after. He doesn't promise you those things. He doesn't the contract is a complete fiction. He promises you himself, and we may go through struggles, and we may go through trials, and we may not have the things other people have.

But if we've got god, we are far better off than anyone else. Do we see that? If you've got god, It doesn't matter what else you get. You've got the very best thing there is. The second thing on to put down is the father saying everything I have is yours.

That's what he says to his older son. As if it weren't enough that he had the father, he does say, you know, you do realize you've got everything here, which is literally true. In the story, because at the beginning, the youngest son says, give me my share, The old the father then divides the property between them. That's what it says right at the beginning. It says verse 12, so he divided the property between them.

In other words, the older son now has because there are only 2 sons, he literally has everything else. Everything there is does belong to him. So what's this whining about you didn't give me a a goat? It all belongs to him. In other words, this older son is living like he's poor when actually he owns the lot.

And we've already seen in earlier passage in in Luke that Jesus said God has been pleased to give his children to give you the kingdom. And yet, we live assuming we're Pampers. Assuming God is mean as if he is miserly towards you, and you, you know, we'll reluctantly give you some things. If you really plead for a meal, just give you the bare essentials. He'll give you what you what you need, not what you want.

He'll just give you the the very bare minimum. As if he hasn't given you everything. We don't recognize how rich we are as Christians that we have the kingdom. Do you realize the position and privilege you have as a Christian? And when we realize these things, when we realize that we have God himself, that he has given us the kingdom, that we have infinite riches as Christians.

Do you see how that changes us? It's gotta change us. We don't think God you owe me. We know we owe God everything. And if suffering comes, we know God hasn't failed us.

He hasn't failed on his end of the deal. But we can go through sufferings knowing God is our loving father. We can trust him. And it means when others come to faith who have been maybe led totally immoral lives, It is not unfair on us. They don't get more than you, and what they get doesn't diminish what you get.

And if they get the things in life that you don't get, they've not ultimately got more than you, but they join you in being in the family and enjoying knowing the father. And therefore, we can join in celebrating. With anyone who turns to god, the father says we had to celebrate. If we can't celebrate when others come to faith, it shows we're pretty older brothers. So what's Jesus saying to those in the room?

He's saying to the religious people in the room, You know what? The world is not split into the bad people who shouldn't be in the party and the good people who should. But he's split between those who are distant from God and those who've turned to God. For forgiveness. Both sons were distant.

The younger, through rebellion, the older, through being good, and both need to turn to God. And God longs for both to do so. And you may have thought, well, how how do I know if I'm just older brother like or fully older brother? Well, in actually, in the end, the the remedy is still the same. Turned to the farm.

Ask for forgiveness. And remember that Jesus, our perfect elder brother, who was totally good, totally pure, totally perfect, and yet came from glory for us. He could have stayed in glory. He deserved it, but he came and sacrificed himself and died. He was the perfect elder brother, and he came for us so that we could be forgiven and brought into the family.

So will we turn to god? In the story, Jesus ends it with the elder brother elder son, still outside the party, and it's left as a cliffhanger, isn't it? Which is to say to the religious and self righteous people, maybe to say to us. What about you? Will you stay outside, your pride, self righteousness, or will you come to the father too?

That's great. He heavenly father, we pray, please, that you would help us to see the elder brother, elder brother ishness in us. And where we see that, to repent, to turn to you, ask for forgiveness, and to know your love and your grace towards not only younger brothers but older brothers too. And help his father to delight in knowing you, to see that you are the greatest treasure there is, that your love is better than life. And therefore to rejoice that we can know you through Jesus Christ and his fig his sacrifice for us.

Oh, man.