The parable of the loving father

Sermon notes from 17 June 2018 am

Luke 15 verses 11 - 24

The parable of the loving father

In this portion of scripture there is reference to 3 figures - "a certain man had 2 sons" verse 11.  The Lord Jesus points us to 3 people - the young son who went out and made a fool of himself through riotous living, spent everything he had and the elder son who when the young son came back was hardhearted, had no time for him.  Then we see the loving father.  We often refer to this scripture as the parable of the prodigal son but we could call it the parable of the loving father.  He was sitting at home, broken hearted.  In looking to him we have a wonderful glimpse of a heavenly father today.  It gives glimpses of mercy and love our father in heaven shows us that we do well to covet after.

He was a father that was wronged.  It was not uncommon for the inheritance to be shared out before the death of a father in Biblical times.  In Luke 12 Jesus is called on by a young man looking at his inheritance and felt he was wronged.  He asks Jesus to speak to his brother as he hasn`t shared out the inheritance as he should have.  He wanted Jesus to continue being the judge in those circumstances.  The father had passed out into eternity without having everything sorted out in the family.  Now they were at loggerheads.  We often say "where there is a will there are relatives".  In Luke 12 the Lord did not step in, he brings it out that at the end what is important is that we are prepared for eternity.  The young man was more worried about temporal things than the eternal things.  Maybe you are so caught up with things you have here and now that you have forgotten about eternal things.  Christ came into this world to seek that which was lost, what we could never gain in our own right.  God says if you ever want to be in heaven you have to receive my son as your own and personal Saviour.  Have you done that yet?  Or are you still thinking of temporal things?  "This night thy soul shall be required of thee then who shall these things be which thou hast provided?" (Luke 12 verse 20)  Here in this case we have a young son and he comes to his father and he asked him for his inheritance.  He has put a roof over his head yet the young son comes to his father and asks him for what is rightfully is.  The young man had the audacity to ask him for what is his.  The father divides it out - verse 12.  I have no doubt the father would have pointed out the dangers to this young man.  He wanted to see the world, he needed the money to go out and enjoy it all.  That is all we can do with our families.  We can only seek to point them in the right direction.  Deuteronomy 11 verse 19 states that as a father I am to teach my children.  That is my responsibility.  After that I can do no more.  That is what this father did.  He gave to him his own free choice.  God in heaven gives us our own free choice.  The father had to look after his son.  The young mans eyes would light up, he would gather it all up, he would listen to him saying goodbye and watch him leave the home.  He would say to his father "I am no more bound by the restraints of this home."  Isn`t that what we say to God - "I am my own boss, I have my own free will?"  God sets out the way he wants us to live but then we rebel against it.  The young mans exploits would no doubt have been the talk of the community around him.  David loved his son Absalom but Absalom wanted to go to Hebron.  He told him he was going there to worship but in reality he would raise up an army against his father so much so that David had to flee his own family home. (2 Samuel 15)  The great creator God created man in his own image but he doesn`t neglect him.  He puts him in the Garden of Eden and tells him "of every tree in the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it." (Genesis 2 verses 16 and 17) "No good thing will he withhold from the that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84 verse 11)  Not every tree was good enough for man.  Imagine God had given them every other tree but man wanted it all for himself.  We have a wronged God in heaven today but what did he do - he gave us his son to die on Calvary.  He made a way back for mankind to be saved again.

His father was waiting.  Unlike the other 2 parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin no search was made for the young son.  The coin was searched for by the woman and the sheep was searched for by the shepherd.  Here the young man walks away but the father waits.  There was something left in this young man`s heart that he never forgot about.  His father`s love, mercy and grace.  There had to be something in the young man`s heart to come back to the father and the father was waiting.  God is waiting for you, waiting for you to come to the Lord.  "He is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3 verse 9) An door opened on the cross of Calvary just for you.  He is waiting for you to come.  He is not willing that you should perish.  We cannot rush our families into God`s salvation but we need to be sure that we are setting them the right example.  We may be slighted for it but we need to wait on.  A young mans plight - penny less, no money, now wallowing in the depth of depression.  He is feeding the pigs, he is pushing them away from the trough to get into the trough himself.  As he looks at them he begins to remember - verse 17 "And when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father`s have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger?"  He began to think of all he had once in his father`s house.  There will those who will go and perhaps will end up in a prison cell but even there they will remember something of what was taught in childhood.  This young man began to think of his father`s house - "I will arise and go to my father."  We read "But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him."

His father was watching.  He was watching for his wayward son.  Perhaps there never was a day that passed when he didn`t go out to look for his son returning.  We need to be praying for our own young people, praying for them to come back to the Lord.  Even when Absalom was leading the armies against David, David pleaded with Joab to be careful with him.  When God looks down today and sees you in the places you should not be in he wants to tell you he is waiting for you to come home.

The father welcomed the son.  The father gave the wealth of his house to the son.  God gives you the wealth of heaven even today.

The father`s witness.  Luke 15 verses 22 - 24.  The father said "For this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found."  Romans 8 verse 16.  Haven`t we a loving heavenly father today?  He has watched and waited for us for so long.  Where do you stand with God?  Maybe you are not saved today.  Maybe you are backslidden.  Take the example of a loving father and know he has patience to wait for you today.