Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke is
about the parables of the lost, the lost
sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, but
there are different degrees of loss mentioned here.
The lost sheep goes out from the ninety
and the nine.
This represents a one percent loss.
The lost coin represents a larger percentage of
loss as the woman having ten pieces of
silver loses one piece, which is a loss
of ten percent.
Notice the progression in the text.
With the first two items, they represent property.
A sheep, a coin, there is a common
feeling attached to the loss of property.
Though it has a loss, it can be
replaced, but the third parable takes it all
to a much higher level and a higher
loss.
The father had two sons.
One is lost, and this represents a fifty
percent loss, which is felt deeply in what
makes this loss so stinging.
To the heart of the father is the
fact that it is not merely a property
loss like in the first two parables, but
this is a personal loss.
What can be more devastating, more wounding, more
personal than a family loss?
In this parable, friends, we have the universal
emotion of fatherhood laid bare as a father
yearns over a wandering child.
A fifty percent loss is a tragic loss.
If you lose fifty percent of your money
in the stock market, it will greatly impact
your entire net worth.
But to lose a child to the world
who grew up in church and delighted in
vacation Bible school and perhaps even attended private
Christian school, when they leave the church and
turn their back on God and go into
the world, it's a much harder loss to
swallow.
Oh, how the godly parents' heart breaks to
watch a child grow up and leave the
church to go wander in the world, to
drift with its tide, to experience its bruises
and yet not turn back to God and
their Christian testimony.
Oh, how this breaks a mother's heart.
How it wounds a father's heart to have
a backslidden child.
We do all we can to pray for
them.
We witness to them.
We are there for them, but yet they
show no interest in returning to God.
And to top it all off, our fears
are increased because they run with a fast
crowd of friends.
How many modern prodigals do we have out
there now?
The title of my message today, friends, is
the modern prodigal, but I want to make
a statement right here before I go any
further.
I firmly agree with most Bible scholars who
say the prodigal son represents the lost sinner.
I believe if you read Luke chapter 15
about the prodigal son with that mindset, you
will get all the rich meaning of the
text.
However, it is permissible to read also into
it as the prodigal being a backslidden Christian
because God's mercy and grace is bountiful enough
for both cases.
The part of the passage which I feel
best captures the heart of God toward a
returning sinner is seen in verses 20 to
24, which read, And he arose and came
to his father.
But when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion
and ran and fell on his neck and
kissed him.
Let me pause here to say, friends, notice
the two little words, and ran.
For I believe the entire love of the
heart of God is bound up in those
two little words.
He couldn't wait to be reconciled with his
son.
He ran to him, and I believe he
ran as fast as he could.
Those two words are charged with emotion, and
ran.
The devil tries his best to load us
down with guilt when we sin, to stay
away from God as long as we can.
But it is God who is more than
ready to receive the repentant sinner.
Christ's reception of sinners is a master oil
painting of a bloody cross.
The father, when he saw him, he had
compassion and ran.
Oh, how we parents would run to our
own returning children.
How we would embrace them and kiss them
and rejoice over them.
Here, the father in our text fell on
his neck and kissed him.
And the son said unto him, Father, I
have sinned against heaven and in thy sight,
and am no more worthy to be called
thy son.
But the father said to his servants, bring
forth the best robe and put it on
him, and put a ring on his hand,
and shoes on his feet, and bring hither
the fatted calf, and kill it, and let
us eat and be merry.
For this my son was dead and is
alive again.
He was lost and is found.
And they began to make merry.
I will stop there, friends.
Oh, how God's love goes out to meet
his returning prodigals.
The gifts the father gives him are significant.
Notice the robe is an emblem of character.
The prodigal is treated like a high priest
with a royal robe.
The ring is a token of wealth, position,
and honor.
The ring may have even had a family
crest on it, signifying a return to the
family.
Either way, the father is liberal in his
giving to the penitent sinner.
Them he also justified.
And whom he justified, them he also sanctified.
Grace is on display here.
Notice that when Jesus was telling the first
two parables of Luke chapter fifteen about the
recovered sheep and the found coin, he followed
up each with the words, I say unto
you, there is joy in the presence of
the angels of God over one sinner that
repented.
We can translate that joy, friends, to the
joy and merrymaking in the father's house at
the return of the prodigal.
I want to say something here, friends.
I want to address a particular person here
listening to me now.
If you've been away from God, friend, if
you have backslidden away from God through sin,
and you are yet back in a vibrant
love relationship with him, you're still back in
your backsliding, fearful to face God like Adam
in the bushes, I want you to know
one thing.
God wants you to return to him more
than you want to return to him.
God says, return to me, and I will
return to you.
Gone is the closed heaven.
Gone is the guilt of sin.
Forgiveness awaits you, friend, no matter how badly
you've sinned or how far you've gone away
from God.
There's enough grace waiting for you right now.
And God wants to welcome you back in
his love and embrace.
Say with the prodigal, I will arise and
go to my father.
God is full of expectation of your return,
friend.
He's been continually looking out the windows of
heaven to see your returning figure on the
horizon.
Go to him now and ask him to
forgive you.
He has more than enough grace waiting for
you to lavish upon you.
There's more than enough love in his father's
heart that he wants to spend on you.
You come back to God, friend, and he
will throw a big party for you.
The party will be merry because Jesus is
standing at the door with his arms outstretched,
beckoning you to come to him.
Let us pray.