When I was about 14, my religious education teacher asked our class to go home and draw a picture of what we thought God looked like. Although I wouldn't have called myself a Christian, I was a bit unsure about this task but it was either draw a picture or write an essay - so there I was thinking - if there is a God what is he like?
Now we need to be careful because the Bible warns us against making an image of God. He has however revealed much about his character in the Bible, and Jesus, the apostle Paul says is the "image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). But if we were to paint a picture of God - what picture would you choose?
Perhaps you picture God to be like a police officer - someone in authority who lays down the law.
Or maybe he is like an army major - someone who commands us to do this or do that.
Or we may think of him like a teacher - assessing our every move to see if we make the grade.
The parable of the prodigal son from the gospel of Luke, offers us another picture of God, not as a police officer, an army major or a teacher but God as a father.
You see yes God is in authority - he created the world and so by right is in charge (Genesis 1:1).
Yet why did he create it? Was he bored? No. Did he need us? No.
This story shows us what God is like - he is a God who cares about the lost.
Just before this story Jesus tells us two other stories - one about lost sheep and another about a lost coin - and both stories end with these words.
"Rejoice with me I have found my lost - coin, sheep".
Why do we rejoice when we find something that was lost?
Because the thing that we lost had value. The thing that we lost was important to us. The thing that we lost was not just a thing, but in our eyes it was treasure.
The Bible says God made us to know him. We are not just things in his eyes - to command or to be pushed around - no - we are of great value in the eyes of the living God.
The verse before our passage says this:
In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10).
Think about that for a moment. One sinner who repents and there is rejoicing in heaven. One person out of billions who turns back to God and there is much joy in the heavens. One. If you at the moment feel as though God does not care, maybe due to current circumstances, due to the past, due to fear about the future, take heart because the gospel tells us that God not only cares for you, but he is determined to get you back.
You may be asking, "What do you mean get us back?" My prayer is that we would not only see our lostness, but we would see how God has entered into our lostness to find us and to bring us back to himself. That's the gospel.
Three points to ponder:
1. Rebellion
2. Repentance
3. Rejoicing
Rebellion
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
Here we are introduced to two sons, a younger son and an older son. And by being sons, they are automatically in relationship with their father. We do not choose who our mother and father are - they just are.
Yet more than that, their relationship to their father means they are rightful heirs of his estate. That is, everything that he has will one day be divided between them.
But how does somebody inherit a relatives property? What has to happen in order for these two sons to receive their father's inheritance? He must be dead. This is what is required if the sons are to receive their inheritance - their father must die.
And in verse 12 what do we read, the younger son said to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate."
His father is still alive, yet here he is demanding his inheritance now. In other words he is saying - "Father I wish you were dead!" - "I want your property but I don't want you!" And what is his fathers response to this request?
"So he divided his property between them."
No argument - he freely gives his son what he has requested.
And what does the son do next? He goes to a distant country, a land far away and wastes his wealth on wild living. He spends everything and it's not long before the money runs out, the music stops and reality sets in.
There is a famine in the land and he is in need. And so the very place where he put all his hope for happiness, all his desire for satisfaction, has become the very place that brings him to his knees.
Do you see where his selfish rebellion has led him? Away from his father, in a distant land, with nothing. In his rebellion against his father he is lost. And this my friends is a picture of sin. A picture of our rebellion against God.
We live in God's world - yet when I search my heart, I know that like the younger son I can be more interested in getting the things of God rather than knowing God himself. I, like the younger son, can easily think that happiness and satisfaction in life can be found away from God - but very soon I am brought down to earth as I see again and again the fleeting, temporary and half-baked pleasures of my sinful rebellion. And it is coming to realise our rebellion, that will lead us repentance.
Repentance
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”
I was once driving and it was long journey. I can't remember where I was going, but what I do remember, is that there was a point in the journey when I realised I was going the wrong way. And so like any good driver, I stopped and turned around.
This is what repentance is. To repent of something is to turn around. On my car journey I couldn't just turn a little bit, no, I had to make a complete turn in the other direction. And two things were needed in order for me to be moving in the right direction. Number one. I had to realise that I was wrong. Number two. I had to act and put this new found knowledge into action.
Verse 17 - we read - 'When he came to his senses..."
There was point in this younger sons experience when he came to his senses - he looked around him and he realised what a mess he had got himself into. But more than that, he remembered something of how his father treated his servants.
You see the younger sons decision to turn around and go back to his father, was something to do with him seeing afresh how life with his father was 100 times better than anything he had experienced in this far away land.
His fathers servants had food to spare and here he was starving to death! And so he says:
I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’
True repentance is not just turning around as though nothing has happened. No true repentance is when we recognise that because our rebellion we are not worthy to be called sons.
Maybe God is showing you ways in which you have been rebelling against him - how will you respond? Will you turn away from your rebellion and back to God?
All of us need time and time again to come to our senses and remember the goodness of God and the foolishness a life lived without him. And when someone repents - like the coin that was found, like the sheep that was found - there is rejoicing in heaving.
Rejoicing
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
As the younger son makes his way back to his father's land, rehearsing what he is going to say. What happens next is the last thing that he would have expected to. Yes, he has rebelled against his father, but his father still loves him.
In fact his father is searching for him. Did you see that? "While he was still a long way off his father saw him." When we lose something we treasure it is never lost in our memory - and perhaps this father would wait, look and wait, to see if one day his son would turn back to him.
And when he sees his son what does he do? He runs and embraces him and kisses him. He is filled with compassion. For an elderly man in the culture where this was written to run would have been unheard of. Yet the father does just that. Lifting up his robe above his knees he runs to his son and before his son could finish his words his father says to his servants:
‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’
This is a wonderful picture of the grace of God found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only is this rebellious son forgiven but he is welcomed back. Yet not only is he welcomed back into his family as a son, he is given the best robe, a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet. His relationship with his father has been completely restored. From having nothing he has gained everything. And this is what happens to all those who repent and turn back to God.
Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world...
...were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
This is the gospel. My salvation and acceptance before God has nothing to do with my effort, my works, it is nothing to do with me, but all to do with Christ. All that is required of us is to acknowledge our sin and rebellion, repent and turn back to God. And when this happens - there is much rejoicing in heaven!
And so I leave you with this question - have you turned back to God? Or are you still seeking to find happiness and satisfaction in life apart from God. My plea and prayer is that you will see that true life, true happiness, true satisfaction is only found when we are in a right relationship with the God who made us.
He made us to know him, and as we come to know him, we will come to know life in all its fullness.
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