John MacArthur/Prodigal Son Sermon

a real joy to have John MacArthur withers in person and I want you to give him a good old warm Milwaukee welcome as he comes to shared ministry with us let's say hi to John thank you let's turn to the Word of God now it's always hard again when you come in from outer space and just plop in the middle of a place to know what to talk about but there is something that is ringing in my heart because it's gonna be my next book I think trying to slow down that process a little bit and so I want you to turn to Luke 15 I'm preaching through Luke I am now in chapter 18 in my eighth year in Luke now wait a minute slower is better than faster deeper is better than shallower longer is better than shorter because every word of God is pure all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable I can't force myself to leave anything out but tonight anyway I'm gonna condense what I taught our church a few months ago in the fifteenth chapter of Luke by the way I think I'll finish Luke in about two to three years and the will have probably spent about ten years in Luke and then when I'm done with Luke I'm going right back to mark I figure five years in mark and I will have finished the whole New Testament then I can continue to work on the commentary series but in Luke 15 there's a familiar story about a father who had two sons we call it the prodigal son that's really not a good title for the story because it is not primarily a story about the prodigal son in fact there are two sons in the story but more importantly it is a story about the father if you want to rename it you could call it the forgiving father or better yet let's just call it the joy of God because that's really what it's about Luke chapter 15 and in this 15th chapter there are three parties three over-the-top expressions of rejoicing three great celebrations the first one comes out of a story that Jesus tells from verses three to seven about a man who lost one of his hundred sheep went out and found that sheep and brought it back and called all of his neighbors to have a party and to celebrate because he had found the sheep that was lost everybody understood that story because sheep had great value or their wool and the party was a celebration of the Shepherd's success in finding the sheep and then Jesus tells another story about a woman who lost one of ten coins typically in ancient days people would put their fortune in a very personal place around their neck and undergarments where it could be safe by being on their person and she probably had what amounted to family fortune for a Middle Eastern peasant woman around her neck and somehow lost one of those coins and of course went through the hard effort of searching everywhere in the dusty house until she had found the coins she too calls her friends and they have a celebration of joy because the lost coin have been found and in the third story there is a son who is lost and a son who is found or better yet a son who is for all intensive purposes dead and who is brought back to life again in the language of the story itself and the father puts on a celebration invites the entire village to come to the party these are three great parties three great celebrations and they illustrate obviously the joy of God and that becomes very clear for example in applying the first parable in verse 7 Jesus says I tell you that in the same manner as the celebration over the sheep in the same manner there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who need no repentance because they deem themselves righteous and in verse 10 the second parable is applied in the same way I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents and in the third story there is one sinner who repents and there is a subsequent party and therefore the same conclusion can be drawn this is about three parties all symbolizing one great celebration in heaven over one sinner who repents now scripture is very clear that God has no joy in the death of the wicked we are told three times in the prophet Ezekiel I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked if you look at the nineteenth chapter of Luke you will see Jesus looking over the city of Jerusalem and weeping over it if you read the thirteenth chapter of Jeremiah you find Jeremiah crying the tears of God over the desolation of the people of Israel who are about to come under divine judgment God has no joy in the judgment of sinners but does find his joy in the salvation of sinners in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 9 and 10 we read this for the Lord your God will rejoice over you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his Commandments and his statutes which are written in the book of the law well how are you ever going to do that in your own strength well you can't do it in your own strength so the next verse says if you turn to the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul God will rejoice over you when you give your heart to him and out of that become obedient in isaiah 62:5 it says defining the nature of God's joy as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride so shall God rejoice over you now men you look back at your wedding day as the highlight of your life up to that point the anticipation the thrill the joy of taking your bride that is the pinnacle of human emotion and God says of himself that he has over the repentant sinner the joy of a bridegroom taking the bride of his love this is not some kind of minimal joy this is not some kind of mid-level joy this is the high point of joy and God borrows an expression from an experience that we all know very well it even goes further than that Zephaniah the Prophet chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 says the Lord your God is in your midst he will rejoice over you with shouts God has so much joy that he yells now this is a little bit different for us isn't it we don't think of God as wildly over-the-top hollering because he's so full of joy we think about God as serious and somber and perhaps even more and weighted down with massive awareness of the wretchedness of sin and its presence in his universe and of all those rebels who fight against him and dishonor his name we would think of him as consumed and burdened with that and maybe now and then a sort of momentary smile might cross his anthropomorphic lips but we don't thank God we don't think of God as having a party we don't think of God as knowing the exhilarating joy of the most wonderful anticipated and happy human experience we certainly don't think of God as yelling at the top of his divine voice because he's so joyful but that's what scripture says where does God get this joy he gets it when one sinner repents that's what it says verse seven one sinner who repents verse ten one sinner who repents can I just give you a little insight here God isn't waiting to start the party when a thousand people are saved he's not waiting to start the party when a hundred people are saying you want to know the truth the party goes on all the time because every moment of time somebody is coming into his kingdom it's a non-stop celebration and what we'll do when we're in heaven in the new heaven and the new earth is eternally celebrate the completion of his saving work I have studied the New Testament and the Old Testament all these years I've written and preached many many times on the theme of heaven have a book on heaven I autographed one earlier tonight and I will tell you that the consummate way to understand heaven is to simply sum it up in that small three-letter word joy the joy of God which is what verses 7 and 10 are talking about not the joy of the angels the joy of God in the presence of the Angels the joy emanates from him and it bounces off the angels and it bounces off the glorified Saints it is the defining reality of heaven boundless unmitigated unrestrained full complete joy and all of it is directed at God for the amazing work of redemption now the Pharisees they thought they knew God Pharisees and the scribes the scribes by the way were the theologians the Pharisees were the practical purveyors of their religious system but the braintrust were the scribes they did the work they were the lawyers they dug in and tried to understand the law they crafted the foundational theology which the Pharisees then taught and the Pharisees were the most influential people religiously in the Land of Israel they basically operated in the synagogues and everywhere where there were 12 men you could have a synagogue so every town and village had synagogues and through that system of synagogues Pharisee religion had basically dominance in the Land of Israel the Sadducees were religious liberals who ran the temple they were basically hated by the people and they were a small influence theologically the Pharisees they were the purveyors of the religion that dominated the Land of Israel at the time of Jesus and had four long time and the Pharisees believed that they knew God they knew God intimately they knew God well they understood is true they represented him he knew them and the task of Jesus in his ministry was to destroy that illusion to show the people and the Pharisees that they did not know God and that's what's going on in this chapter and to prove they didn't know God let's go back to verse 1 all the tax gatherers and the sinners were coming near to him to listen to him this is speaking of Jesus tax collectors they were the lowest of the low the scum of society in Israel because the Romans were an occupying idolatrous pagan blasphemous presence and these tax gatherers were Jews who purchased a tax franchise and they had a certain amount they had to pay to Rome but beyond that they could extort anything they wanted out of their own people they were the traitors of their nation who paid money to Rome extracted from the Jewish people and extracted a lot more to become filthy rich probably the best-known one is a Zacchaeus who when he was converted paid back what he had virtually stolen four fold that's what they did now these people are gonna cough up this money just because you asked and so tax collectors were surrounded by thugs and muggers and strong-armed criminals and of course all the rest of the riffraff of society including the harlots and the prostitutes and all the rest of the lowlifes they were sort of the street mafia all the gang bangers associated with the tax collectors to do their dirty work by any means but it was those people who kept coming to Jesus do you remember if you look back at the end of chapter 14 it closes with this line he who has ears to hear let him hear and the people who had ears and were willing to hear were these people tax gathers and the assorted sinners that collected around them like debris they were coming near him to listen to him and this outraged the religious elite the Pharisees and the scribes so in verse 2 both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble murmur complain here was their complaint this men receives sinners and eats with him in middle eastern culture then and in middle eastern culture now if you eat with somebody at your table you affirm them this was proof positive in their mind that Jesus was satanic you remember they said about him that he does what he does by the power of Beelzebub what convinced them of that wasn't the miracles healing sick people raising dead people making lame people walk blind people see and deaf people here is a good thing feeding the hungry calming a storm banishing illness and disease from the land of Israel during the duration of his ministry you don't necessarily attribute that to Satan why do you come up with this conclusion that he does what he does by the power of Satan and the primary and compelling reason was that he associated himself so readily and so comfortably with that category of people that the religious elite knew belonged to the devil he suffered by his companions and he brought it up again and again and again and earlier in Luke he said to them on one occasion I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance so they think they represent God by the way they were so self-righteous that they identified this class of people had a name on Haaretz I'm hot it's they were unclean and if you had a low-life person cleaning your house for example this is in rabbinic law the minute that person stopped working to rest your house became unclean so you needed to hire two of them so that one was working while one was resting they went so far as recorded in the Talmud as to say do not go near those people even so much as to teach them the law of God Pharisee ik religion was anti evangelistic they wanted nothing to do with those people and Jesus wanted everything to do with those people so Jesus says you think you represent God huh and you think I represent Satan let me tell you about God God rejoices when the lost are found and that leads him to this third story starting in verse 11 that was all introduction you can start timing me now but I gotta give you a few things to think about let me just give you a little hint you ever hear a preacher say we need to bring the Bible into modern times translators think they need to do that tamper with the text you don't want to give people antiquated old expositional messages gotta be updated we've got to bring the Bible into modern times that's exactly opposite what you should do you never want to bring the Bible into modern times you want to take people back into ancient times when you teach the Word of God you want to recreate the setting so the person is there so the Bible comes through with its divine message in its original context anything less is robbing scripture snatching verses here and there to make them mean whatever they want if you're gonna retain the true meaning of the scripture you have to go back into the original context and let me tell you something about the Bible the meaning of the scripture is the scripture did you get that that's not circular reasoning the meaning of the scripture is the scripture if you don't get the meaning right you don't have God's Word you may own a Bible you don't have God's Word until you know what it means by what it says and the meaning is in understanding the context now Charles Dickinson and Ralph all Charles Dickens and Ralph Waldo Emerson called this story the greatest story ever written and they were pretty good at some stories too but it's more than just a great story and to understand it I want to take you back okay discount everybody we're gonna go back in time just imagine yourself living in a Middle Eastern peasant village wouldn't be much different today in Arab culture in the Middle East or in some rural Jewish culture I've been in Bedouin tents over there number of times just imagine yourself in a middle-eastern peasant village cuz that's exactly where these people were and what they understood now we got to go back because this makes the story unfold for us one thing dominated one thing dominated shame honor culture shame honor culture that was the defining thing folks it still is whatever is honorable you do and you pursue you avoid it all cost anything that brings shame on yourself or on your family this is the way it's been and it still is we have a girl at the Masters College who is an Arab she was a Muslim one year ago she came to the United States on her visit to the United States she came to Christ she came to the Masters College she was stunned she was dramatically changed she came to a Bible Conference she heard the Word of God talk came to Christ amazing story she went back walked in her house first of all she was arrested when she went back her father was able to finagle her release she went home she just gave gave me this story a few weeks ago she went to her home her mother was not there her father was not there she walked in the house her uncle was there and he said to her this just happened to her in November you have brought so much shame on this family by your Christianity that in order to preserve the honor of this family you must die and her uncle grabbed her slammed her around in the kitchen against the wall until she fell to the ground picked up a chair and pummeled her and beat her bloody separating her shoulder separating her knee until someone came in the house and rescued her and got her through some kind of process her father having some kind of pull with the government onto an airplane and she's back here by the way she told me she's studying she's 18 speaks three languages she studying Greek and Hebrew because she said there are only 200 Christians in her country and they don't have any tools and so she wants to translate she asked me if she could have permission to translate the MacArthur Study Bible into Arabic can you imagine 25,000 footnotes by an 18 year old I think she'll need some help it's not any different there now than it was in Jesus day shame and honor is everything you do what is honorable you avoid what is shameful if you understand that you understand the story because in this story Jesus describes the most shameful cast of characters ever devised that he made it all up Jesus invented all these characters three of them a father and two sons and they're all shameful the the younger son is shameful the father is shameful and the older son is shameful and everything is so shameful as to be bizarre and rude Kilis and outrageous and unbelievable it is a head shaking eye roller for the Pharisees come on they're saying this is impossible no son would act like that no father would act like that Jesus paints extremes here and it's all based on that shame on her perspective all right let's begin the story starts in verse 11 with a shameful request the first shameful character we meet is the younger son and Jesus said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father that's nice respectful give me the share of the estate that falls to me we'll stop there you're out of rank son you're the younger son what are you doing the older son is the son who would be the only one who would have a right to make such a request but no older son in his right mind would make such a request because you didn't get your inheritance until your father was what was dead so to go to your father and say could you please die is outrageous conduct even in this day in the Middle East the honor of the father dominates the culture you don't do this this is the first scandalous shameful behavior it is disrespectful it is selfish it is hateful he wishes the father to be dead and he's not saying look dad I got some business skills kind of split this baby up here and by the way the older brother would get two thirds if there were only two sons and the younger one third because the older always got the greater amounts there will be a two-thirds one-third split this thing up and let me manage my third and it's a big estate he's got servants he's got hired men he's got a fatted calf which would feed between two and three hundred people it's a big party so there's some wealth involved here plus he received enough of a fortune to go and and spend it like mad in a foreign place as we will see so we're seeing a picture of wealth here he's not saying I want my piece of it because I want to grow this wealth I want to I want to pour my own ideas into the family agricultural business and see what I can do with it that is not what he is saying at all he is saying very clearly this give me the share of the estate that falls to me give me in the Greek it Stace you see us the stuff the property the goods I don't it's not saying I want to manage part of the inheritance I want my stuff and I can't wait till you're dead I want nothing to do with this family I want nothing to do with you I want you out of the way I don't want to wait any longer I have desires I have things I want to do I want my freedom I want my independence I don't want any more accountability to you I don't want any more restraint out of you I don't want any more commands from you give me my stuff this is outrageous this is a violation of everything that they know and think about in family relationships and what would be expected by the Pharisees standing there or by anybody in a Middle Eastern culture as soon as those words came out of that young man's mouth the father would slap him silly you insolent son and after slapping across the face he would then take him out and flog him publicly in the same way that that uncle took a chair to kill the girl why because he had brought such dishonor on that father father must protect his honor at all costs but the shameful request leads to a shameful response and if the request was shameful the father's response was even more shameful verse 12 and he divided his wealth between them what this is where the Pharisees would say whoa no father would do that you don't give in to that kind of shameful attitude you don't give in to someone that's that insolent but he did he divided his wealth among them they didn't have to wait till he was daddy split it up gave two thirds to the older son one-third to the younger this is a father abandoning his own honor this is a father taking on shame it's ridiculous this is a very very dishonorable son but this is a more dishonorable father this is a weak-willed father in the minds of the Pharisees this is a father who is not protecting what must be protected this is a silly kind of superficial love in their eyes and by the way where's the older brother here he is purposely not in the story Jesus doesn't put him in the story here but he should be in the story and that's another eye roller here because the older brother had a responsibility to protect his younger brother from stupid things and he knew about the division because he got his two thirds why didn't he stop this kind of insolent behavior by the younger brother and why didn't he of all things do what the older son was committed to doing protect the honor of his father it's just absurd the whole thing is absurd the younger son behaves in an absurd way the father in an absurd way and the older brother in an absurd way it's all shameful and it gets worse we then within come to a shameful rebellion verse 13 not many days later when we stopped there for a minute not many days later the younger son gathered everything together how do you liquidate one-third of an estate that's accumulated for who knows how long in a family how do you liquidate an entire estate in a few days you're talking about land and animals all it goes with it all a whole agrarian as to how do you do that in a few days I'll tell you how you do it you sell cheap right you discount and of course somebody buying it is buying a future because they're not gonna get it until the father's dead he sells it cheap he discounts D values this estate to turn it into cash cheap fast sale at a high discount and he takes this money and he went on a journey into a distant country left the Land of Israel for a Gentile land that's what a distant country was and Jews didn't go into distant countries and come back again without shaking the dust off their feet so they didn't bring any defiled Gentile dirt back into Israel that was Pharisee ik religion he gets worse he did go into a distant country a Gentile country a pagan country an idolatrous country and there he squandered his estate with loose living squandered means scattered or basically threw away that's why he's called the prodigal the word means wasteful he took his entire future liquidated at a discount and then threw it away it had taken generations to accumulate and he wasted it fast loose living what does that mean dissipated de botched behavior and the older brother in verse 25 says he spent it on prostitutes this is one stupid guy right one stupid guy but up to now it's all in his control insolent rebellious against his father discounting the value of the wealth that his father had for him winding up in a pagan idolatrous blasphemous environment throws it all away on sexual immorality what a fool in fact of all the sinners that Jesus ever portrayed in his parables this guy's the most extreme everything up to now under his control but life's not always under your control and something happens it wasn't under his control Jesus introduces in verse 14 when he had spent everything perfect timing he's got nothing left a severe famine occurred in that country Oh gasp this is the worst possible scenario the worst possible sinner in the worst possible scenario he's got nothing left and there's a famine we don't understand famine but in ancient days famine is basically when you eat garbage and when there's no more garbage to eat you eat your sandals and when there are no more sandals to eat you eat your animals that you can catch and when there are no more animals you can catch you eat people like the famines described in the Old Testament where they were eating after birth and children this is life at the bottom absolutely at the bottom it gets worse verse 15 he went and attached himself claw and the Greek means to glue stuck himself to somebody you ever been to the third world I've been to a lot of third-world countries I I've had a lot of those little beggar kids coming up and grabbing my coat pulling my pant leg I can't get rid of them they flock Calcutta India it gets pretty scary when you've got about 25 of them pulling it everything can't get rid of him with their little distended stomachs and thin necks that's what he did it's got nothing left it's got no dignity nothing it's got no friends he's got no food he's going to die so he attaches himself to somebody a beggar and this guy not with the purpose of paying him but just to get rid of him as becomes very clear send him into the fields to feed swine now the eyes really roll Jewish boys don't do any of this and they certainly don't hang around swine this is beyond possibility the Pharisee is saying this is so ridiculous this is so extreme nobody could ever be in this bad of condition you know what when they sent him into the field to feed the swine he went I was a pretense though because it says in verse 16 he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating and no one was giving anything to him man wasn't gonna pay him he wasn't gonna feed him it was just a ploy to get rid of him and he got out there and he has to eat what the pigs are eating now he's not only around the pigs he is a pig and again I can't tell you the outrage that this is so bizarre to the Middle Eastern Jewish mind oh by the way he can't eat the carob pods there's some interesting history on carob pods pigs can digest them people can't so a few forays into the carob pods with the pigs and it would have to stop because it would get so sick and they're saying no one no impossible would end up a pig what Jewish boy would ever do this this is the worst possible sinner in the worst possible condition couldn't happen what's this about I'll tell you what it's about this is the picture of the reckless sinner this is the most extreme immoral disrespectful stupid wasteful sinner ever portrayed by Jesus this is a sinner in rebellion against God his father this is the sinner disdaining the goodness of God and the available inheritance this is the sinner who hates God's person who hates God's rule who hate God's Authority who hates God's will who shuns all responsibilities all accountability this is the sinner who ends up on the street this is the kind of sinner that kept coming to Jesus the riffraff the lowlife this is the sinner that squanders every good thing that's who this is sin is reckless evil sin is selfish indulgence sin brings destitution and it brings death the freedom of the will is the most horrible bondage he got what he wanted the freedom of the will sin looks for fulfillment outside and away from God never finds it it leaves the rebel sinner exhausted empty poor hungry hopeless so Jesus invents the ultimate sinner now not every sinner is that bad right not every sinner is that bad but when one is that bad it's pretty important to see how God treats him would you agree because how God treats the most extreme sinner it's important for all the rest because if he can forgive the worst of the worst that's important to know isn't it so let's go to the fourth point a shameful repentance verse 17 when he came to his senses ah finally a breath of sanity came to his senses that's when repentance always starts when you make a true assessment of your condition he came to his senses and this is what he said how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread well I love that I love that how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread you say what's it two big deal about that hey I'll tell you hired men were day laborers missed us the term referring to a day laborer they didn't have a job they didn't belong to the family as servants they weren't craftsmen and tradesmen they were the very lowest of the low they were the minimum-wage guys they were shoeless they were the destitute in the poor and the Old Testament law the Mosaic law said you pay them at the end of every day because they set their hope on that if they don't get that at the end of the day they can't eat so they were the people that stood around in the in the Agora - stood around in the village center those are the ones you remember that Jesus told the story about going into the town on the sixth 6:00 a.m. in the morning then at the ninth hour of the third hour the sixth hour the ninth hour and finally one hour the eleventh hour taking him out to the harvest then they all received the same pay well those are the day laborers they'd they were the lowest on the socio-economic ladder and guess what this young man remembered that his father gave hired men more than enough what does that mean he remembered his father was generous he remembered that his father had compassion on the poor he remembered that his father was sympathetic he remembered that his father was good and that is the foundation of why he goes back because he's going to have to eat crow big time it's going to be humiliating to go back because when he goes back according to Middle Eastern culture and you can read some fascinating studies of this when he goes back the minute he enters that village the whole village which has been dishonored by his behavior is going to take up the defense of that father's honor and they are going to heap scorn and ridicule and mockery and condemnation on that man they are going to defend the honor of that village and that landowner by heaping scorn on that son and he knows that in fact in most cases he would have to sit in the village for days while children mocked him and adults mocked him and maybe after days of taking the scorn that he deserved the father might grant him an audience at which point he would allow him to kiss his feet or his hand and come no closer than that and then he would publicly whip that boy before the whole village to return some honor to himself after which he would lay out the terms of restitution and there would never be reconciliation until there had been restitution how it is an illegal istic system you earn your way back and restitution would have been pretty simple you earn back exactly what you cost the family then maybe after years and years of working at the wage the minimum wage maybe then when you've made full restitution the father might grant you reckon solely ation he knows that he knows going back is gonna be embarrassing humiliating agonizing and hard but he says in end of verse 17 I'm dying what's my option I'm dying for want to live hard to go back and this much I know my father is compassionate and my father is good and my father is generous verse 18 I'll get up out of the pig slop I'll go to my father and I'll say to him father respectful I have sinned against heaven or better I have sinned as high as heaven I piled up my sins as high as heaven and you've seen it implication that the word had come back I am no longer verse 19 worthy to be called your son I'm not asking to be a son I'm not asking that at all and by the way when he left there would have been a funeral in the family they would have held a funeral for him he was as good as dead so I'm not asking to be back in the family I'm not asking to be a son just make me one of your hired men letting me earn back through minimum wage for as many years as it takes what I've lost see that's all he knew because hey they were in a legalistic system where you earn your way to God here is the sinner come to desperation here is the sinner who comes to the end of his life I am going to die no other place to turn I've got to go to the one I know is good and no matter what it cost me a work as long as it takes to live it's reminiscent of Matthew 18 where the man who owed the unpayable debt came back when the King called him in King said you owe me this unpayable debt remember what he said I'll pay it all back that's the culture that's the culture in which legalism exists that's all the religions of the world except the true gospel they're all systems of works you earn your way to God you get reconciliation at the end of restitution and you know for the first time the Pharisees are saying well it's about time somebody did something sensible here this whole thing has been so bizarre this is the first honorable thing this guy's done he's gonna go back and earn it all and so in verse 20 he got up and he came to his father he's on the way back stinking like pigs gaunt hungry near death stinking wretched foul sinner commiserating with the wretched harlots of his foreign country he comes back can imagine what he expected and what he should have gotten rebuke scorn mockery condemnation he expects it as he comes down through the dust toward that Middle Eastern village and toward the entrance which would be where the first couple of little houses were and then the story takes an amazing turn but while he was still a long way off hadn't reached the village yet really important his father saw him what does that tell you father was what it's looking he was looking he saw him and listen to this he felt compassion for him oh no Pharisee see ya this guy's hopeless come on how about a little anger right how about some tough love this guy's is just weak he felt compassion huh yeah I did what does compassion mean he felt in his own heart the pain of his lost son and then amazingly hear and see that it's a Greek word that means sprint middle-eastern noblemen don't sprint old men don't sprint middle-eastern noblemen don't run they glide like a sort of Arabic moonwalk this is not dignified I read some fascinating material on this written by Kenneth Bailey who lived for many years in the Middle East and studied all the ways if you look at the Middle Eastern garb today you see it on the news all the time the air of the culture all the robes go clear to the ground and it is a shame upon any man certainly any woman but also any man to show any part of his legs first of all you don't run it's not dignified to run secondly you don't sprint which is the same word of someone who ran a race here comes the father at the high point of his house looking down the dusty road he sees his stinking sinful son coming down out of there he comes and at full speed runs through the middle of town in order to do that he has to pull up his rope oh do you know there's a there's an Arabic word for robe muck boot you know what it means that which brings me honour if you know anything about the Middle Eastern culture you know that covering is where they honor lies and it's dishonorable to uncover anything you see these women you know what their only their eyes but the father pulls up his robe yikes and he's running at full speed this is even embarrassing you ought to be running through town with your robe up and then in so doing you follow this the father shifts the shame from the son to whom to himself see the picture here the father is the seeker and the father comes down and he comes all the way down to the dusty street of our town and he runs at full speed and takes the scorn and the shame on himself that is do the sinner and when he gets to the sinner he gets to the sinner before the sinner gets to the village before the condemnation can begin he gets to him and look what he did and embraced him that's a sign it's a sign of full reconciliation wait a minute where's the restitution forget it there is no restitution full reconciliation why because he came with a penitent heart understanding that he was coming to a good compassionate forgiving father embraced him that's big stinking sinner and then says he kissed him and the Greek says he kissed him kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and all over the head just kept kissing him and kissing him yeah have you ever had a picture of God like that that's bizarre isn't it wait a minute God is high and exalt yes but he condescended to come all the way down into our dusty world and bring shame on himself to run through our town to take the shame upon himself that was due to us and he embraces the penitent sinner and kisses him all over his head you ever see that picture of God before and if he's saying to the Pharisees if that's not your God then you don't know God you just think you do son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost well wait a minute what should have been done he should have been scorned he should have been slapped he should have been beaten he should have been given an audience with his father at a distance and then he should have been set on a course to work off all his debt no there's one word for this action you ready for it grace and guess what legalists have no category for grace it makes them mad makes them angry oh by the way when he gave the speech remember he rehearsed the speech back in verses eighteen to nineteen I'll go to my father I'll say to him I sinned against heaven in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me as one of your hired men that was the religious system I'll earn my reconciliation but when he gets back after he's been embraced and kissed all over his head the son does give his speech he says father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son period what does he leave out what did you leave out make me one of your hired men why moot point doesn't have to work it off he understood he had just received grace lavish over-the-top grace now this is commensurate with God rejoicing over one sinner who repents and God's joy being like the joy of a bridegroom on his wedding day and God's joy being so great that he just yells across infinite heaven the boy is given reconciliation immediately restoration and forgiveness and has nothing to earn he came with a rabbinic idea a Jewish idea a legalistic idea typical religious idea that you earn your way to God and he was so smothered by Sovereign Grace and accepted it so fully that he understood he had been given full sonship just because he came trusting and penitent who is the father Oh easy right God in Christ coming down from heaven just like it is God in Christ who is the Shepherd who finds the lost sheep who it is in Christ who is the woman who finds the lost coin and by the way it is God who initiates he is the seeker who finds the sinner before the sinner can find him do you remember Romans 3 no man seeks after God God is the seeker God's love for the penitent is lavish pure grace apart from any works God finds his joy in the salvation of one sinner who repents my my what a party must be going on in heaven we're not used to seeing God like this God seems to unrestrained here for us well it leads to a shameful rejoicing shameful rejoicing at verse 22 shameful by the Pharisees standard father said to his slaves bring out the best robe what's that well every father had a best robe right this is your blue suit guys it's the best you've got or your tux so you go rent this is what you'd use for the big vents every father had a robe probably was his father's robe got passed down only for those very very auspicious occasions it usually would be reserved for the oldest son's wedding get that best robe put it on him what is that I'm giving him my dignity I'm giving him my full honor this is just amazing isn't it there's no works here there's no restitution of anything this is just pure unexploited unmitigated grace make him a son I give him my full honor my full dignity put my ring on his finger and the ring was a signet ring that had us the possibility to stamp in wax to authenticate a document give him my dignity and in my authority and put shoes on his feet miss toss the hired men were barefoot only servants in the household and sons wore sandals full privileges of the house this is what happens to the most extreme wretched sinner Jesus could invent he is lavished and smothered in grace for the sheer joy of God who grants to that sinner honor Authority and full sonship at this point the Pharisees would be looking for a skyhook to get him out of this this is just ridiculous just ridiculous and by the way I love one word taku in verse 22 quickly indicating this is instantaneous incredible miracle of salvation in verse 23 bring the fattened calf that would have been saved normally for the older brother's wedding bring the fattened calf figured feed between two and three hundred people kill it that would be a bit of a process that data packed that calf up and chopped it up and it would be a big village barbecue let's eat let's be merry you don't think if God is having a party but there's a non-stop party in heaven pictured here and by the way can I just add a note here this is not in honor of the son this is in honor of the father and it's in honor of such lavish compassion forgiveness reconciliation that the celebration going on in heaven is not in honor of the sinner it is in honor of the Savior well this is just the final outrage to the Pharisees final outrage but for the father verse 24 the son of mine was dead that's why I said he had a funeral he was dead they had an actual funeral typically he's now come to life again he was lost he's been found how's that metaphor you get that one dead in trespasses and sin made alive all in this instant of reconciliation and they began to be merry and the party is on full blast well guess who's not around hmm now his older brother verse 25 well huh interesting lot of stuff going on he doesn't know about right you say well why didn't the father go tell him he had no relationship with the father father had no relationship with him they were totally estranged and alienated you say but he stayed home yeah he hung around the house it was more his style of sin not everybody is a prodigal some are religious hypocrites but his father had no relationship with him and he had no relationship with the father the father not saw no role for him to play in the event the father knew he would have no joy over that son's return hmm and if the Pharisees are listening the older son is them right they were the ones complaining that the sinners were coming to Jesus and he was receiving them and now the Pharisees who have been the audience entered the story now his older brother was in the field and when he came and approached the house the end of his duties out there whatever he was doing he heard music and dancing the thing is full on father's communicated nothing with him they have no relationship he summoned one of the servants outside around the party began inquiring what in the world is going on he said to him your brother has come and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound in the Greek that's related to the Hebrew word Shalom peace has come reconciliation has come verse 28 and he became what angry yeah that takes you right back to verse 2 when all the sinners were coming to Jesus the Pharisees were angry legalists are always the enemies of grace they hate the gospel of grace they want to earn it of course he's angry he is as lost as his brother he too had no relationship with the father he hides his lusts though he hides the wretchedness of his wicked heart and he performs on the outside to please the father in order to hang on to his riches he's got a little different spin on life he doesn't want to waste his money with prostitutes he wants to hoard it and keep it and keep up the illusion of his obedience and allegiance because it'll get him more he thinks but to the Pharisees he appears like the righteous honorable sensible guy because he's them he became angry was not willing verse 28 to go in his father came out and began in treating him Wow here again is condescension here again is God in Christ coming down even to the hypocrites in the latter months of Jesus ministry every time he spoke to a crowd almost the Pharisees were there and he kept extending the same Kingdom invitations to them that he extended to the extreme sinners on the immoral side they were the extreme sinners on the moral side Jesus continued to offer them entrance into his kingdom many sinners came as far as we know in all the Gospels only one Pharisee ever came whose name we know and that was Nicodemus tough to reach legalists and hypocrites but from their viewpoint he was righteous verse 29 he answered and said to his father look oh wow how about a little respect even the prodigal said father look for so many years I've been serving you and I've never neglected a command of yours and you've never given me a goat let alone a calf to have a party with my friends what did I ever get out of you well he's really pent-up angry hostile legalists again I say it hate grace they hate the gospel of grace that's why the Liberals continue to attack the Christian gosh and so do every other form of false kind of Christianity and religion but when this son verse 30 of yours came who has devoured your wealth with harlots prostitutes you kill the fattened calf rate and this is a pretty shameful reply I'd say and it just pictures the Pharisees so perfectly no category for grace they despise it but the father is compassionate and in verse 31 he said my child the tenderness in that father the son says look like look buddy disdain but the father says my child you always been with me all that is mine is yours and I always think of all those people in false forms of Christianity you have a Bible in their hand it's all there isn't it it's all there it's always been there we had to be merry we had to rejoice we didn't have any other option for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live was lost and has been found you get the picture here God cannot restrain his joy every time a sinner repents because it is another exhibit of his incomprehensible lavish grace and the party in heaven is about the grace of the Father the grace of the Father the wonderful grace that the Angels don't experience but want to look into to understand well that's not an that's not an ending I just stopped what happened I don't see anything between verse 32 in chapter 16 do you well what happened well first I give you a little picture of the Linguistics going on here stories that were told in the Middle East even in the time of Jesus have some very interesting forum formats typically they run sort of in a parallel fashion and a prolonged story like this should have balance in this sense if there were eight stanzas going from the introduction of the younger son to the reconciliation with the father there should then be eight stanzas dealing from the father's starting the celebration through the encounter with the second son and you can show this Kenneth Bailey and his research has shown how these stories are told that way because if you were living in a culture where everything was passed on verbally it was a it was a memorizing device to work your way through parallel stances problem is this has eight and seven where's the last one I'll tell you what how about I write the last one all right here's the last one the older brother seeing the compassion of his father repented of his hypocrisy embraced by the father walked back to the celebration to enter the joy you like that unfortunately it's not the ending you want the real ending listen upon hearing his father's words the older son picked up a piece of wood and beat his father to death that's the real ending that is the ending it was the Pharisees and the rest of the hypocrites who took the incarnate God and killed him with wood and they even said let his blood be on us and you know what while the older brother was pummeling the father to death he was saying someone has to protect the honor of this society someone has to protect the righteousness of this family someone has to uphold justice you are shameful you are shameful you are evil you are satanic as he crushed out his life thinking he had risen to the heights of righteous judgment it's what happened but the irony is the father being beaten to death paid the penalty of death for every sinner hypocrite or profligate who repents and comes to him so it all ends at the cross silently but that's where it's headed why did God go to the cross why did he let them beat him to death crucify him listen to this fixing our eyes on Jesus Hebrews 12:2 the author and perfecter of faith listen to this who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the what the shame he gladly took the shame for the joy father we thank you for the power of your word the power of your truth you thank you that this book is alive we feel like we've got dirt on our feet from being there in the village when all this unfolded we understand it a fresh new grasp of grace fills our minds o Lord we thank you that you've been gracious to us whether we came as the extreme profligate or whether we came as the extreme hypocrite or anything in-between you can save to the uttermost all who come to you and in an instant comes reconciliation forgiveness sonship the lavish affection and love you give us the right to become children of God thank you for this glorious message of grace and may it panned we give you the glory for you are the loving compassionate father who came down and took our shame we love you in Christ's name Amen you've been watching a special program originating at a vcy America rally audio tapes or CDs are available of this presentation for a donation of five dollars or you may obtain a video tape or DVD for a donation of $20 write vcy tape ministry 3434 west Kilbourne avenue Milwaukee Wisconsin 5:30 208 or you may call one eight hundred seventy two nine nine eight two nine this rally has been a special presentation of vcy America providing Christian

Channel: matthew3dwi

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Rating: 4.6145453 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur

Id: BPxSgB28v3M

Length: 79min 40sec (4780 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 23 2011