393: Lost and Found | Dave Sloop

Introduction

Well, good morning. Welcome to VBS Sunday. We're so glad that you're here. I wish I know that many of you did see it, but I wish you all could have seen it. We had somewhere between one hundred and eighty and two hundred kids that came and got to hear the greatest story ever told, and it took about 150 to 200 volunteers. It's almost like a one-to-one, man on man with VBS, and it was remarkable.

And the reason that we have set this up is because we want you to see what it is. As a staff this year, we decided that this is going to be an event every single year that we stack hands on. This is an all-hands-on-deck event because this age group, and we've shared this before, it is the most unreached people group in Roanoke. And we want this to be just not for our church, but for other kids from other churches and kids that don't go to church and their families.

We extended an invitation. I don't know if anybody took us up on it, but it is our hope, just this year, and in the future, that we would all, that our church would see this — not just our staff, but that all of us would see this as an all-hands-on-deck event to reach our community for Christ.

And in light of VBS Sunday, we've decided that we're going to take a break from our study on the book of Ecclesiastes, which has been fantastic. I hope you've been here for it. Tim, thank you for the first two messages. It's been outstanding.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

But today, we're going to look at what the kids got to hear this week. It is the greatest story ever told, told by the greatest one who ever lived, Jesus Christ. This is his most treasured and most cherished story that he ever told. It is the parable, of course, of the lost son, the parable of the prodigal son.

You may not know that that word prodigal, it does not show up in the actual text. It's not anywhere in the scriptures, actually. That word prodigal, it means to spend lavishly or foolishly. It's excessive waste is what it is. And that's precisely what this younger son is going to do. He's going to take his dad's inheritance, and he's going to just blow it. He's going to waste it. But he is not the main character of this story. The father is.

And as Tim Keller and others have observed, perhaps a better title for this particular parable could have been the prodigal father because this father is excessive. He is lavish, even foolish in the way that he loves his kids who do not deserve it.

The Heart of the Parable

What we have in this story is a story that a four-year-old kid instantly comprehends. In fact, this is where the four-year-old kids stood. I know that because they were climbing over their seats. But some of them listened, and the ones who did, they could comprehend it. You're a much better audience than they were. But they can get it, and yet, you and I could spend the rest of our lives mining the riches of Jesus' words in this story, and we will never get to the bottom. There will be new treasure every single time.

What Jesus gives us here in this story from his very own mouth is perhaps the clearest and greatest picture in our Bible of who God is. Not just what he does or what he's like, but who he is at the center of his being, his essence, his core, his heart, the place from which all of his actions spring. This is who God is, and it is incredibly important that we understand.

There were some people in the audience that day that Jesus told the story that did not understand who God was, and sometimes we get it wrong too. And it's important that we get this right. As AW Tozer said, what comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.

And I wonder this morning, what does come to mind for you, honestly, when you think about God. Because there will be nothing in your life, whether you know it or not, that will set the trajectory and course of your life more than what you think about when you think about God.

Here's the point. If you think about the wrong thing, if you have the wrong view, it leads to the wrong place. And so this morning, in Luke chapter 15, we are going to have an opportunity to renew, refresh, or for some of us, perhaps, even to discover for the first time who God is.

In order to understand the context, you can go ahead and turn to Luke chapter 15. But before we jump in, I want to share with you the last verse of the chapter that comes before. In Luke 14, the very last verse, Jesus is talking to a crowd of people, as he often was, about what it would cost to be his disciple. And it was a great cost, and he was encouraging them to count the cost.

And at the end of it, he says this is the last verse, chapter 14:

He who has ears, let him hear.

In other words, this invitation was extended to be his disciple to anyone that had these and who was willing to hear. It was a wide net that Jesus cast.

The Call to Come Home

With that context, look now at verse one. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. They heard his invitation, and they responded. They came closer.

And this was the shocking realization of Jesus' life in ministry: the least likely candidates for his message, for his grace, for his love, were the ones who were so ready to receive it. And the ones you would expect to get it were the ones who completely missed it. Here, it's the tax collector and the sinner.

Do you know who the tax collector was? I suspect many of you do. The tax collector was a national trader. He had sold out his own people to the Roman government, and he sought to get rich on his fellow countrymen, on their backs. He would steal from them. They were despised. They were despicable. They were hated. They were the bottom rung. You could not get worse.

Well, you could get a little bit worse. You could be a sinner. See, these were the immoral people. The immoral people were the ones that rejected God's truth. They had rebelled against God's law, and therefore, they were banished from God's people.

The rabbis would teach, you're not even to associate with a sinner, an immoral person. In fact, some of the rabbis taught, you don't even teach God's law to those people, and you certainly don't eat with them. And they were there that day in the crowd too.

In verse two, it says this, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, as religious people often do. They muttered and whispered about all those others. This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

And then in verse three, we read this, then Jesus told them this parable. The catalyst for this parable was the setting: to whom he is teaching. It was the muttering religious people and the tax collectors, and the sinners who had come to hear.

Here's the thing. If you were a Pharisee or a religious person, you had no frame of reference for a God that would seek out sinners. It just wasn't in here. This teaching was entirely new, and that's precisely what Jesus is going to say. That's what Jesus is going to say: God is like.

That's who he is. He's going to tell you two stories. This is one parable in three parts. It starts with a man who's a shepherd, and he loses a sheep. And he leaves the 99 to go get the one because his heart is moved for the lost one.

And then there is a woman who loses a coin, but it wasn't just any coin. It was one of ten that she would have strung together and worn on her head. It would have been her dowry. It was part of her identity. To lose this coin was precious to her.

It wasn't just money. See, Jesus tells a story to a man that a man would get. He tells a story to a woman that a woman would understand. In other words, everybody here, whether you are a woman or a man or a tax collector or a sinner or a religious person, everyone here gets these three things:

1. We understand what it's like to lose something of value.
2. The instinctive response to losing it is to go looking for it.
3. Upon recovery of that which has been lost, there is spontaneous celebration and joy. You just can't help it.

And then there's a phrase that both of these stories share. Here's the phrase:

In the same way, there's rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.

First of all, do you notice, God doesn't see a mass of humanity. He sees you. He sees you. He sees you. And heaven rejoices if anyone turns around and comes back home. That's who God is.

But as I said, the Pharisees had no concept of this. They thought it was the right thing, not even to teach to a sinner, much less to seek one out. But Jesus is turning the idea of who God is upside down.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

And then we get to the treasure, to the crown jewel, part three of this story, in verse 11, where Jesus says, there was a man, and he had two sons. And the young one said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them.

Notice the arrogance of this young man. This isn't a request, by the way. He doesn't even try to sugarcoat it. He's not like, hey, dad, would you consider maybe giving me a little in advance? I'll see how I do with it. No. No. This isn't even a request. It's a demand. Give me my share. But don't miss what he's actually saying. When do you get the inheritance? You get the inheritance when your father dies. He's saying, I wish you were dead. He's saying to his father, You are only as good to me as what's coming to me when you die. So just give it to me now, and I'll be on my way.

And the shocking thing about this story is that it says the father did it. He divides his property between them, meaning the older son got the larger share, and the younger son would have gotten a smaller portion, but he got his. Why does this father do it? Because he's prodigal. He's lavish, almost foolish, and how gracious he is to his children, even to the point of letting them walk away with his stuff.

And that's precisely what this son does. It says in verse 13, not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had and set off for a distant country. He got together all that he had. Likely, what he would have inherited from his father is property, physical land. And the only way that he could leave with it, and everything else he owned, by the way, he wasn't coming back. The only way that he could leave with it is by liquidating it.

This land that had likely been in the family for generations passed down to his son, he gets it early and sells it off. And he takes the money, and it says he heads to a distant country. That word means a far-off country. And he goes far away because the life he intended to live, he could not live in the presence of his father. In fact, he couldn't even live this life in the presence of God's people. And so this far land that he goes to, we're going to find out later, it's a Gentile land because he goes to live like a Gentile. He wants to experience every sensual pleasure that he can imagine.

In fact, at the end of this chapter, that's exactly what the brother's going to say. You squandered—he squandered the property on prostitutes. And that's what this boy does. He sets out in pursuit of every pleasure. And for those of you that have been down that road, you know that maybe at first, it's fun for a little while, but a life like that always comes to a screeching halt, and that's precisely what happens with this boy.

It says, after he'd spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. Not only was he now broke, almost as quickly as he leaves, he's broke. He spent it all. But there's a famine in the land, which is no fault of his own. But in a time of famine, food is scarce, work would have been scarce, it would have been a tough economy for a young Jewish boy at a Gentile land to try to make it.

And so it says he hired himself out to a citizen of that country. He'd become a slave of a Gentile. And here's his job. He sends him out into the fields to feed the pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

You could not paint a picture more low than this. He had gone from a dignified son of a noble, wealthy Jewish landowner to the slave of a Gentile whose job it was to serve the most filthy animal on the planet to a Jew, a pig. And if you were hearing this story as a Pharisee and they were there that day, they were loving this story because this little boy was getting exactly what he deserved. He was lucky to be alive.

Friends, this is a picture of sin, and it is the default posture of every human heart, not just in this room, but on planet Earth. Whether subconsciously or consciously, every single one of us have looked God in the face, and we have said, I do not want you. I just want your stuff. I wish you were dead. I want to live in your world, breathe your air, feel the warmth of your sunshine. I want to enjoy people that you made, God. In fact, I want to treat some of them like they're my property for my own personal enjoyment. But I'm not interested in you. Give me my share. We set off on our way.

This is sin. Paul would put it this way in Romans chapter one. Because here's the deal, everyone is guilty. Even people that would say, well, I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I don't, I didn't know about God. Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter one:

Since the creation of the world, His invisible qualities, His eternal power, his divine nature, had been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that men are without excuse.

Although they knew God because, logically, of course, although they knew God, they neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

And skipping ahead to verse 24, just listen to what it says:

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And then, listen to this, they served and worshiped created things instead of the creator who is forever praised.

That's what sin is. It is an attempt to find life apart from the creator in stuff that he made. It's the trade of humanity. It's the trade that the son makes, and it always leads to the same place. What starts out as the promise of freedom, as the promise of satisfaction, in slavery. That which we pursued, that we sought to control for our own pleasure, now it owns us. We are enslaved to it, and it doesn't satisfy. In fact, the more we pursue it, the bigger the ache, the bigger the hole, the deeper the hunger, and no one will give us anything.

We look at the food that's for the pigs—the most vile thing you can imagine—and we long to fill our stomachs with it. We're slaves to it. Second Peter 2:19 would say that whatever we obey, we are slaves. It's become our master. Like a dog returns to its vomit, so man returns to his folly. This is the trade. This is what we've all done, and that's precisely where it leads.

And the only hope that we have is that our sin would bring us eventually to the end of ourselves, where we would realize the hollowness—in the language of Ecclesiastes—that sin is a chasing after the wind. It doesn't work. You never catch it. It never satisfies. We're starving to death. And that's precisely what happens to this son.

The Turning Point

The turning point in verse 17, it says, 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. He remembered that even his father's employees, such as they were, had a meal that was sufficient for their hunger, they had food to spare. There's leftovers every time. He said, I will set out and go back.

He doesn't say go back home. He says, I will go back to my father. That's where he was headed. I will go back to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven, and I've sinned against you.

This young man knew that all sin was sin against God first. Do you know the first commandment? Thou shalt have no other gods before me. There's nine others. But in order to break two through 10, you've got to go through one. All sin is sin against God. This boy knows that, but he also knows that he hurt his father. He sinned against his father. He confesses both.

And then he says this, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. This wasn't just poetic for effect. He was no longer worthy to be the son. He was cast out. He was cut off, and he'd done it to himself. He was not allowed to come back in that culture, in that eastern first-century Jewish culture.

Everybody knew that that son doesn't have a shot. He knew it. And it wasn't a humble request for him to say, let me come back as a hired servant. We hear that, we hear humility. No. That was a bold request. Do you know in Deuteronomy chapter 21? Do you know what it says? It says, if you have a son that refuses to hear the voice of God and refuses to respond to the voice of his parents, if he's a drunkard and a glutton, take him out to the city gates and let him be stoned so that the people of Israel will hear about it and fear God. Children, glad we live in the age of grace.

This boy, he didn't know what he was going to get. He stepped out in boldness. It is not what he deserved. And in that culture, it could have ended poorly. But he says, I will go back. And then it says, so he got up, he arose. In the moment of his grief over his sin, he actually acted on it. He didn't say, you know what? I'm going to go ask for a raise. And if he gives me a raise, I'm going to stick around for a little longer. He doesn't just kind of think about how the fact that he probably should go back and apologize. He acts on it immediately. This is what repentance looks like. It says he arose, and he went back.

He changed directions. He started moving in the direction, not just of his home, but of his father. But while he was still a long way off. You know that word long? It's the same word that's used in verse 13 to describe the country that he went to, a far-off country. And it says, while he was still far off, the father saw him. The fact that the father saw him is evidence that the father was what? Looking every day, scanning the horizon, hoping today would be the day that he would see that figure in the distance that he knew because it was his boy.

And today, he saw him. And then listen to what's said next. He was filled with compassion. You know that word compassion? It is a word that is only used about Jesus or by Jesus. Three times, it's in a parable describing Jesus, and the other times, it's completely about Jesus. We don't have an English corollary for it. The best we can do is filled with compassion. But what it what it literally means is to feel someone's pain so intensely that it causes you to act on their behalf. I'll give you an example. He saw the leper and he was, he was filled with compassion, and he reached out his hand and he touched the man. That's the word that's used here.

And the father in this story, he feels this compassion and he's moved to act two. What does he do? He ran. Now, this is lost on us because we don't live in this first-century Hebrew Jewish culture, rather. Jewish men, especially old Jewish men, they didn't run. It would have required you to hike up your robe, exposing your skinny old man legs, and run through town, and you would have looked like a fool. It was a disgraceful thing to do for a wealthy, well-known, distinguished man to run through town. But it wasn't just that he ran. It was to whom he ran.

You think that town didn't know about this boy that took his daddy's inheritance and blew it, left his family and God's people? He was dead to them. But this daddy can't help himself. He runs to his son, to this wretch, to this enemy who had only disgraced him. In fact, this was a double disgrace. He disgraced him the first time when he left, and now the father invites more shame on himself in his pursuit of this wicked kid.

It says he hugs him. It says he ran to his son, he threw his arms around him, and he says he kissed him. And in the actual Greek, the grammar that's used there, it's he kissed him, he kissed him, he kissed him repeatedly. Because that's what you do when you recover something that was lost. See, this daddy knew what it was like to lose something of great value. And he had been looking for him since he left.

And upon recovery of his precious—not sheep, not coin, but his flesh and blood, his very own son—there's spontaneous rejoicing. He can't help it. He throws a party and kills the fattened calf. He invites all the neighborhood friends, and they celebrate. Why? Because this son of mine was lost. Now he's found. He was dead, and now he's alive.

The Other Son and the Heart of the Father

There's another son. I'm going to tell you about him real fast. This son was out in the field working, and he hears about the son who comes back, and he's enraged. He's infuriated. They're having a party for my brother who squandered my father's property on prostitutes? And he won't go into the party. And so the father, get this, comes out to that son too. He leaves the party, and he pleads with his son.

And this son looks his daddy in the face. He doesn't even call him dad or father. He puts his finger. He says, look, all these years, I've slaved for you. I've never disobeyed you once. Do hear what this kid said? It's perfect. I've never disobeyed you. What else? His service to his father was not joy. It was slavery. And he couldn't comprehend grace, unmerited favor, that this boy was.

Why? Because he didn't need it. He was perfect. He was self-righteous. You see, I heard somebody say once, you can be lost with the pigs or you can be lost in the pews. But both of those people need to be saved by grace.

There are two kinds of people. There are sinners who know that they need grace, and then there are people who don't think they sin. But there's no such thing as a righteous person who does not need to repent. We are all sinners.

And Jesus, or the father rather, in this story, he runs out to both. Can I tell you, there are three sons in this story? There is the younger son, there's the older son, and there's God's son. And he's the one who tells this story. He is the visible image of the invisible God. He was in very nature God, but he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.

In four chapters, he would be walking into Jerusalem for the last week of his life. Why? Because he saw you from afar, and he was willing to be shamed. He ran, stretched out his arms, and he allowed himself to be nailed to a cross so that you could fall into his father's arms. He took what you deserved. And when you come, you know what you get? You get covered in his robe. He covers your shame. This all happened. I skipped over it. But this all happened in the prodigal son story.

He didn't put a ring on your finger. He gives you something better. See, the ring told the prodigal son, you belong to the family now. You're a son again. You're not a slave. He gives us his Spirit, a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, which really, at this point, belongs to the older brother. But we have a better older brother, and he says you can have it. He lays down his life, and he gives us what he deserved. We're crowned with righteousness. He gets crowned with thorns. He dies so that we can live.

Conclusion

Is this your view of God? When you close your eyes, what's the look on his face? Is he angry? Is he frustrated? Or does he love you? Can I tell you something? This is who God is. This is the gospel. And by the way, this is not just a message that is good news once. And if you're anything like me, we might be tempted to think this is God's heart for me the first time I come home. But once I'm home, I better get it right. And friends, that is not good news because none of us would receive grace in that case.

But if that is your view of God, can I tell you what you see when you close your eyes? You don't see delight. You see disappointment. You imagine a God who's irritated, frustrated. He puts up with you, but he doesn't delight in you. And if that's what you believe God is like, can I tell you something? You won't run to his presence. Name one person whose presence you're excited to run into because you know they're irritated.

Listen. That is not how God feels about you. So whether you are coming home for the first time or for the five thousandth time, this is his heart for you. Come home.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this beautiful picture of who you are. If you're here today and you need prayer, maybe you want to pray by yourself. These curb rails are for you. If you need someone to pray with, there's someone that would be there who would love to pray with you—straight rails. Don't miss this chance. Amen.