Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 15 as we celebrate Father’s Day. And I would like to thank all you father’s out there who are willing to sacrifice for their families, their children to see them grow up loving and serving the Lord. It is not an easy task but it truly is a blessing as you see them grow and mature. Not only that but you can see what the Lord is doing in their lives and through their lives!
As I was praying about this study, I don’t know why but my first thought was the father who had the demon-possessed son. I think any of you who have teenagers can understand that one. But as much as there are some great lessons in this story, how a father loved his son so much that even as an outcast of society, not a perfect child, he loved him and did all he could to see him heeled. In fact, he did all that he could to bring him to Jesus, the only one that can truly heal! But the Lord was leading me to another portion of Scripture for this morning’s message, The Prodigal Son!
As I was meditating on this I was having a hard time finding a great example of a father in the Bible. Not Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or David and the list goes on-and-on. They were not great fathers and yet God did use them mightily. And then it hit me, there are no perfect fathers out there in the Scriptures and outside the Scriptures because we are all imperfect people. Yes, some are better than others, but we all fall far short of what a father is to be!
Well, that is not exactly true. There is one perfect father in the Scriptures, and that is God the Father. All that He does, all that He says, all that He is, He is perfect. Thus, we truly need to look to Him as the ultimate example, the perfect example of what a father is to be like and apply those lessons to our lives. Now I am not saying this to discourage you, but this is the reality. We are not perfect, but we can learn lessons to help us in being a father.
Now I do realize not all of you are fathers out there this morning, but down the road you might be and these lessons can bless your life. And even if you will never have children, you can glean principles from this study to help you in your walk with the Lord!
Before we get to our text this morning, let me share with you this definition of what a father is according to the Bible. This is from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia and we are told:
Function of the Father in the Family. — In the OT, the father was the main figure who wielded authority and commanded respect. He was to be honored (Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16; Mal 1:6; cf. Ex 21:15,17) and obeyed (Deut 21:18; Prov 23:22; cf. Isaac's obedience to Abraham in Gen 22:1-14). He possessed almost unlimited power over the lives of the members of his family — he could sell his daughter into slavery (Ex 21:7), have his son stoned if the son attempted to entice him away from Yahwism (Deut 13:6-10) or if the son was a glutton or drunkard (Deut 21:18-21; cf. Judah's pronouncement of the death sentence upon his daughter-in-law in Gen 38:24), or take away the birthright of the eldest son for a serious offense (Gen 35:22; 49:4; 1 Chron 5:1; favoritism was prohibited, however, in Deut 21:15-17; cf. deVaux, pp. 41 f).
Along with this position of authority the father had certain responsibilities. He had to love, care for, and protect his children (Deut 1:31; Ps 103:13; cf. Job 1:5; Jer 47:3; Hos 11:1-3). He also had to train, educate (Deut 4:9; 6:7; Prov 1:8; 22:6) and discipline them (Prov 13:24; 19:18; 23:13; Ecclus 30:1-13; cf. deVaux, pp. 48-50).
In the NT, Jesus acknowledged the continuing validity of the command in Ex 20:12 for children to honor their parents (Mark 7:9-13; 10:19). Paul reiterated this (Eph 6:2) and added that obedience to one's parents is also necessary (Eph 6:1; Col 3:20). He instructed fathers not to provoke their children to anger (Eph 6:4; Col 3:21), but to discipline and instruct them (Eph 6:4).
(from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised edition, Copyright © 1979 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved.)
Also, and something I believe is very important for a father to do is to teach God’s Laws, His Word continually to his children. In Deuteronomy 11:18-21 we are told, “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.”
And the idea here is not only are we to teach them by sharing the Word of God with them but teaching them by living the Word of God. That our children need to see us live out our faith, that it is real, that we do apply it to our daily lives. With that as our background, let’s begin reading in Luke chapter 15, starting in verse 11 and see what the Lord has for us on this Father’s Day!
This morning we are going to focus on four aspects of this parable and see what lessons we can glean from them. First, we will look at THE PRODIGAL SON – LUKE 15:11-20a, 21. Next we will look at THE HEART OF THE FATHER – LUKE 20b, 22-24. From there we will look at THE JEALOUS BROTHER - LUKE 15:25-30. And we will conclude by looking at GODLY CORRECTION – LUKE 15:31-32. So let’s dig in and look at these four aspects this morning.
1. THE PRODIGAL SON
– LUKE 15:11-20a, 21
We see this son start out with a REQUEST, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.” Now, on the surface this seems fair, nothing wrong with what he was asking for. But there was something wrong here. You see, he was asking for his portion of his inheritance from his father, which was usually given out after the death of the father, not before. The son wanted it now and he couldn’t wait!
He must have had a good reason for needing the money, right? Not exactly, in fact, not at all! After a few days after he received the money he took off for what we might call the “high life.” He is going after wine, women and song, you might say. We might call this REBELLION, as he “Journeyed to a far country.” He had all kinds of friends, all kinds of party’s, things couldn’t get any better for him than this, and they were not going to get any better! In fact, they were going to get a lot worse, more than he could ever imagine!
You see, once he wasted all his money, all his inheritance on wine, women and song, all his friends left him, they deserted him. Not only that, but there was a famine in the land. No money, no food, no friends, he is starving, and not only physically, but there was a famine in his spirit also. We might see this as RETRIBUTION as we are told, “He began to be in want.”
So he now goes looking for a job and he does find one. Not exactly something a young Jewish boy should be doing, but it was a job. His new job is feeding swine, feeding pigs and that is not kosher! And he is so hungry he is willing to eat pig slop, the carob pods! How come? Because we are told in verse 16, “No one gave him anything.”
Now that may seem unfair, it may seem cruel, but the reality is, this young man needed to be broken and if anyone helped him out, he would not have repented. At this point, even if his dad knew where he was at, I don’t believe he would have helped him out, because he was not ready to repent, not yet. You see, like this young man we must come to the end of ourselves before we will repent and return to Him many times. So it is not always right to come to the aide of someone in need – first you must pray about it!
As he sat there day in and day out hungry, he began to REFLECT, “He came to himself.” In other words, “What in the world am I doing here eating pig slop when I can go home to my father?” And that leads to the RESOLUTION, “I will arise and go to my father.” Where else could he go, all his friends left him, he had absolutely no one. The only problem was, did he burn those bridges with his father, will his father even accept him home. I think he understood the love of his father and that is why he even thought about returning. That his father was filled with love and thus, he was going to try and return home!
What we need to see here is his heart of REPENTANCE, “I am no longer worthy,” “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” There is true repentance here, he was broken, he was helpless, he was in a state of despair because of his sin and he would return to his father a broken man! But again, how would his father respond to his son returning home after squandering all that money away? Let’s read on and see what the heart of the father is all about!
2. THE HEART OF THE
FATHER – LUKE 20b, 22-24
How did the father know his son was coming home? I believe he was out there every day looking, praying, and waiting for that day when his son would return. And I love the way he responds. He doesn’t say, “I told you so! Why didn’t you listen to me in the first place?” But he doesn’t do that. He runs out to his son, had compassion on him, kissed him, loved him to death! And think about this. The penalty for the way he treated his father was stoning! Thus, as he wrapped his arms around his son, he was saying to those around him, if you want to stone my son, you have to go through me first! That is love and that is forgiveness!
Several years ago Benny Hester had a song, When God Ran, and it truly shows the heart of our heavenly Father. The song goes like this:
- Benny Hester, When God Ran
That truly is the heart of our heavenly Father as I have said, and dad’s, that is the kind of heart our heavenly Father wants us to have towards our children. He did not condone the sin, but in repentance his arms were open wide. He did not help his son to continue in his sin, but again, in repentance there was forgiveness. I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with your children, but as this illustrates for us, we need to forgive. Yes, children may and probably will rebel to some degree, but I will also tell you this, they are looking for a father’s love and they may not run back until they come to the end of themselves, but when they do will you receive them with open arms? God wants you to!
Forgiveness is important in our lives, people long for this and many times they don’t receive it. That is tragic. But listen to this story and you will see that people are looking for forgiveness. We are told:
There’s a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.”
On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.
- Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, p. 13
I am not going to go into details, but I have experienced this in my own life and I am so thankful for the relationships I have with my sons and now my daughter-in-laws. And I wonder what kind of relationship it would be now if I let my flesh, my pride get in the way of receiving them back with open arms! You see, as much as my sons may have not agreed with me when they were teenagers, if they ever wanted to come home my arms of forgiveness were open wide for them, and I believe that they knew that! What a joy it is to see how faithful God is and all He asks us to do is to walk by faith, be obedient to what He is telling us, what He is showing us!
Dad’s, yes we must discipline our children in love, correct them in love, let them go, loving them, and always being ready to forgive and restore as our heavenly Father does with us! And, as much as they may not say it, it is what they are looking for. Now, as the celebration is starting, everyone is excited, the son has returned home but there is one person who is not excited. And that is our third point, the jealous brother!
3. THE JEALOUS BROTHER
- LUKE 15:25-30
The older son, in hearing all that was going on, comes before one of the servants and wants to know what is up, why all the celebrating. And the servant tells him that it is because his younger brother has returned home. He is safe, he is sound and a celebration is taking place welcoming him home!
Once the older brother heard this he became very angry. He refused to join in this celebration; he did not want to welcome his brother home, not after what he had done! And his father pleaded with him to come to the party, he flat out refused. He basically told his dad that he has faithfully served him for many years. He had kept the commandments of his father and yet, he received no special treatment from his father, at least not in his own eyes!
And yet, “This son who squandered everything. He squandered his inheritance on loose women. The money you worked so hard for dad he just threw away. And you are now throwing him a party because he came home? Give me a break!” Why was he so upset? Well, it sounds that he had reason to be upset, but I think he was upset because he didn’t see what he did have and became resentful because of what his brother was receiving now, this big celebration. Be careful, don’t go down that ugly path, nothing good can come from it!
He should have rejoiced that his brother returned home safe and sound. He should have rejoiced that no harm had come to him in the lifestyle he was involved in. But instead, jealously ate at him. It is as this story illustrates for us of what jealously can do in our lives and it won’t help us but it surely can hurt us. We are told:
There is a fable of an eagle which could out fly another, and the other didn't like it. The latter saw a sportsman one day, and said to him:
"I wish you would bring down that eagle." The sportsman replied that he would if he only had some feathers to put into the arrow. So the eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but didn't quite reach the rival eagle; it was flying too high. The envious eagle pulled out more feathers, and kept pulling them out until he lost so many that he couldn't fly, and then the sportsman turned around and killed him. My friend, if you are jealous, the only man you can hurt is yourself.
- Moody's Anecdotes, pp. 44-45
What was this father going to do now? The situation was tense and it could get ugly. Jealousy could erupt into a fight. How was his father going to handle it? And that leads us to the last point we will be looking at this morning, Godly correction!
4. GODLY CORRECTION – LUKE 15:31-32
The father makes no excuses for his actions. He does not try to placate or appease this son. He does not tell his son he has every right to feel this way. What he does do is he gives him Godly correction so that he could see his error and repent of his sin. Yes, he was in sin, jealously is not a fruit of the spirit and he needed to get his heart right before this jealousy ate at him and destroyed him. This older son had lost the perspective of what he truly had and because of that it led him to a faulty conclusion. Thus, his father corrects him and tells him that he had all that was his father’s, he had it all, it was all at his disposal. But, jealousy clouded the picture and he could not see clearly of what he really had!
Discipline, correction is not always easy, but it is necessary as this story illustrates for us. We are told:
The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once had a discussion with a man who argued that children should not be given any religious training, but should be free to choose their own faith when they were old enough to decide for themselves. Coleridge later invited him into his garden. It seems our Mr Coleridge was a great poet but not a great gardener. "Do you call this a garden?" the visitor asked. "There are nothing but weeds here!"
"Well, you see," Coleridge replied, "I did not wish to infringe upon the liberty of the garden in any way. I was just giving the garden a chance to express itself."
- Reported in Daily Walk, March 28, 1992
Children are like a garden, they need to be cared for and there are times that those weeds need to be dealt with, you just can’t let them grow wild or they will destroy the garden, they will destroy the child! You see, if you are training your child up in the things of God, you will be correcting them when they are wrong; showing them what is right and what is wrong. That is what this father was doing here with his son, showing him the error of his ways so that he would get right!
As we have read, this father not only shows his older son that he should be rejoicing because of all that he does have, but because his brother who was dead is now alive. His brother who was lost in the world has now been found. That is Godly, fatherly wisdom and he did a great job. How did the son respond to these words? That does seem to be the issue for most of us. Guess what, we are not told! We don’t know how the son responded, all we do know is that he had the opportunity to respond, to change his ways, but it truly was his choice!
As father’s, we too need to give Godly correction. And I realize, we too ask, “But how will they respond to what we have to say?” That is not the issue, at least not for us as fathers. We need to give them the truth, speak what is right in love and then it is their choice on how they will respond to it. They can continue to be bitter, angry or they can turn to the Lord and be better, full of joy as they obey their father and more importantly, they are obeying their heavenly Father!
Let me share this story with you that will give to you the wrong way and the right way to respond in situations. And please understand, we first must respond according to God’s Word and allow the Holy Spirit to give us the words to say, not in anger, but in love. We are told:
It happened some years ago that a most urgent and unusual invitation came to me to visit a military academy, in which the students had mutinied, in the hope that possibly I might be of service to the situation. The students had struck in everything: lessons, study hours, drill. The principal handed me a large number of telegrams which had come from the parents who had been wired regarding the situation. These messages were telescoped through which one could look into the various kinds of boys’ homes and the parental relationships connected with them.
One father wired his son, “I expect you to obey.” Another said, “If you are expelled from school, you needn’t come home.” Still another, “I’ll send you to an insane asylum if you are sent home.” Another said, “I’ll cut you off without a shilling if you disgrace the family.” But the best message was couched in these laconic [to the point] words: “Steady, my boy, steady! Father.”
There was a man who believed in his boy and probably there is no greater influence upon a boy who respects the spirit of his boy and treats him like a man.
- Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, 1637
May we, as fathers, be a godly influence upon our children, upon their lives as they are growing up. May we have that unconditional love for them, having arms that are open wide with forgiveness towards them, letting them know that we really do love them in spite of how they might feel. Yes, they may not do what is right as the prodigal son did, but he did return when he came to the end of himself! What we need to do is make sure they know we love them, that we do correct them but never close the door of forgiveness towards them!
As I begin to close this morning, let me share with you these words because they once again illustrate the love of a father and the longing for forgiveness from a son! We are told:
Evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman recounted a testimony given by a man in one of his meetings. The man said, “I got off at the train depot one day as a tramp. For a year I had begged on the streets. Badly in need of food, I touched a man on the shoulder and said, ‘Mister, please give me a dime.’ As soon as I saw his face, I recognized my aging father.
“Don’t you know me?’ I asked.
Throwing his arms around me, he cried, ‘Oh, my son, I have found you at last! All I have is yours!’
Think of it—I was a tramp who begged for 10 cents from a man I didn’t know was my father, when for 18 years he had been looking for me to give me all he possessed!”
- Our Daily Bread, November 12, 1992
May we follow after the example of our heavenly Father as He loves us, forgives us, restores us and-so-on. May we have the heart of the Father balanced with Godly correction and see what God can do in us and through is in the lives of our children. Father’s - STEADY ON!