Amazing Love (Part 5 of 7)

In the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, we see that even after a young man had squandered away his inheritance, his father joyfully welcomed him back home. But what if that son had pridefully rejected the warm reception?

Well today on Truth for Life Weekend, Alistair Begg explains how pride can keep us from discovering the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father. And so, verse 20—and I love the phrase, he got up and went to his father. So he got up and went. This is the second time we're told that he'd gone up and gone. Initially, he got up and went away from his father's house, and his request on that occasion was, Give me. Now he's getting up again, and he's going back to his father's house, and his request on this occasion is, Make me.

There's all the difference in the world in the request. There are plenty of people who are going around saying, Give me to God. God is a cosmic principle. God is a figment of my imagination. God is a provider of health, wealth, and happiness. God is wherever I conceive him to be. And I go to God regular, and I say, Hey, give me. But have you ever come to God and said, Make me? Now, you can imagine that as he rehearses his speech going back up the road, he has only a mind that is full of questions—probably his eyes down rather than his eyes up. And then look at this.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. We might anticipate that the father would seize the opportunity to give him the I-told-you-so speech, to make his son stand in his tattered, smelly outfit while he let him know that this is the kind of thing that happens to a boy who does this. Boy, do you look bad. Boy, do you smell.

Boy, are you an embarrassment. Those kind of human reactions we would understand. If we're honest as fathers, we can see that in ourselves. We might have expected on a human plane him to say, Well, listen, now that you've showed up, let's just ease back into things. Because who's to say you're not gonna go away again? Who's to say you won't run away again? You just come back, because you're messed.

But once you get de-messed a little, you'll be gone again. So why don't we do this? Why don't we just put you in the servants' quarters, down there on the corner of the estate? And we'll take it on a kind of day-by-day, week-by-week, trial-and-error basis, and we'll see how you do.

And if you do well, we'll gradually move you up and along, and perhaps you can err on your way back to your own bedroom. But I wouldn't really hold out a great deal of hope, you smelly, wretched boy. What a horrible embarrassment!

All of that is true, but none of that is there. Right? Look at the story! While he was still a long way off, what we have presented here by Jesus is the Father's wonderful readiness to forgive. The Son could never have dreamt what a surprising reception was waiting for him.

Indeed, the verbs help us, don't they? There in verse 20, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. Saw him! How did he see him? Because he was looking for him. Why was he looking for him? Because he wanted to find him.

It's elementary, my dear Watson. It is a wonderful picture. As a child in Sunday school, I loved this story. I remember the Sunday school teacher, the lady, explaining that every morning the father got up and he went on his porch, and then she told me that he would put his hands over his eyes like this to shield him against the morning sun, and he would look down the road, and he would look for the dust on the road, and the dust would be representative of a person, and then the person would be simply dust in the distance, and then he would become a real person, and then he would be watching and watching, and then eventually that person would not be his son. And then again, as dust is caked up, he looks again. Perhaps this is him.

Perhaps today. And then once again, as yesterday and the prior day, taking his seat back down on the porch. He was watching for his boy. Even though his boy had turned his back on him, even though his boy had shamed the family, still he watched. Let us beware, fathers, of determining a kind of love for our children which they earn.

If you do this, then I'll love you like this. And our kids learned that. Now they're gonna have to earn our favor. Now they're gonna earn their keep. Now they're gonna earn their position within our home.

Now they're gonna have to stay up to snuff if they're going to be loved. The boy turns his back. The father watches for him every day. He saw him. Then notice he ran to him. He ran to him.

Off down the road he goes, a wealthy landowner running down the main street of his village. Extraordinary. Just not done.

Quite undignified. People seeing him pass as he gathers his robes, his long robes, up to his waist and sets off down the road, and someone said, Was that Samuel just went flying past? Yes, he said it was Samuel. Where is Samuel going?

I don't know. But he's going in a hurry. I've never seen him run through the streets like that. Some of them may have tagged along to see what it was.

Could they have imagined such a scene? He throws his arms around him. That's the next verb.

He saw, he ran, he threw. There's all the difference between a hug and a hug, you know. There are all kinds of… There's the kind of hug that is polite, that you give to your great-aunt Mabel from Minneapolis, because you think she may be bringing you a present, but you don't really want to get too close to her. There's the hug that you give to the headmaster's wife on the day of graduation.

You don't really want to see her, but you're supposed to do it. There are all kinds of hugs, but this is the apex of hugging. This is the throwing, embracing, grabbing, swallowing, enveloping, I-love-you hug that he gives this boy.

He threw his arms around him. He didn't say, Oh, hey, hey, hey, look at you. Oh, it is you.

I thought it was you. Well, hey, I suppose you had to come back sometime, huh? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Well, just follow me up the street.

Come on. Now, if anybody followed after, they said, Not only was Samuel running, but Samuel started hugging, and whoever the kid is or the person is, we didn't recognize him. He looks like a piece of trash. Whoever he is, he is covering him with kisses. That is literally in the Greek. It says that he threw his arms around him and kissed him all over. He's smooching him. He's like a puppy that does that to you, you know? Getting you everywhere—nuff, nuff, nuff, nuff—all over you. He's like, Get off!

Get off! You know. Not a polite, Oh, the love that sought me, and oh, the blood that bought me, and oh, the grace that brought me to his fold. The seeing, running, throwing, kissing, welcoming love of the Father. Have you met God? Every single person that is here today has this in common—that irrespective of to what degree or to what level of understanding all of us have turned our backs on God as Father, we have walked out of the door and we have told him to get lost. Many of us actually think we're doing him a favor by showing up at his house every so often. We have a kind of arms-length relationship with him. He doesn't interfere with us, and we don't interfere with him. We don't want him to call.

We will call him as necessary. But we never found that he threw his arms around us and squeezed us half to death in an expression of his welcoming embrace. That's why you remain unsaved. That's why you remain unchristian.

That's why you remain unchanged. Not because the Father in heaven is unwilling to see, run, throw, kiss, and welcome, but because man and woman in their pride are unprepared to say, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Now, you say, Well, you missed a verb. Yes, I did deliberately. I missed a little phrase. He saw, he ran, he threw, he kissed. And what was the explanation? The explanation was compassion. He was filled with compassion for him.

In other words, when you squeezed him, compassion came out. If something is filled with something—if a thing is filled with shampoo and you give it one of that, what do you get out of it? Shampoo. If it's filled with olive oil—olive oil. If it's filled with bitterness—bitterness. Resentment.

If it's filled with compassion—compassion. Now, you'll notice that he doesn't finish his prepared speech. He says to his father, I've sinned against heaven and against you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But he doesn't go on to say, Make me like one of your hired men. He doesn't have to.

He knows he's not gonna need to. He's already been swallowed up in the immensity of the father's love. Most of the commentators I read said, Well, he was about to get to the final piece, but because his father started organizing the party, he couldn't get it all out. Well, that may be so. But I think it's at the least possible that the reason that he never finished it is because he didn't have to finish it. Goodness gracious, his father was rolling all around in the street with him.

He was hugging him, he was kissing him, he was shouting out about clothes and showers and parties and everything. It would be a silly thing to say, By the way, could you make me as one of your hired servants? There's not a chance!

No. I wonder, do you know this God, the God who swallows you up in grace? There's nothing that makes our sinfulness so obvious. There's nothing that makes the wonder of God's manifest goodness so unbelievable to us than when we bring our utter unworthiness into the context of the expression of the father's love. If the boy's heart wasn't broken before this, it would be broken this afternoon, wouldn't it? He could have had a guilty conscience and stayed there. He could have had a desire to turn over a new leaf and do a better job for his dad, and still preserve for himself some measure of self-respect. But when his dad comes and overwhelms him in this way, then would it be possible for him to show contempt for the kindness and tolerance and patience of God, not realizing that his kindness was to lead him towards repentance. Now, you've all heard sermons on the robe and the ring and the sandals, and some of it is very good material.

I'm not sure how much justification there really is in it. But there is another whole sermon and a half that starts, well, let me explain the robe, let me explain the ring, let me explain the sandals. And we could do that, but let me just say this to you—that the embrace, the kiss, the robe, the ring, the sandals are all expressions of the father's love. They are all emblems of the son's restoration to the family that he had snubbed and abandoned. If his friends were to have followed him back from the pigsty arena and seen him within a matter of twelve hours, he would have said, What in the wide world happened to you? In the evening hour, when they came as the party was ending, and the boy comes out from the party, and they look, and they see glistening in the night this amazing ring. And the last time they'd seen him, boy, did he smell!

And on the last occasion, he looked like nothing! But now look at those sandals! Look at that robe! Look at that ring! What's that cologne? Whose party is this? It's mine!

Come on! No, no, what do you mean? You came back like a bum and your dad gave you a party? What are you talking about? Yeah, he did.

He did? How does that work? What do you have to do to get one of these parties? What do you have to do to get your feet shod with the gospel of peace? What do you have to do to get a robe of righteousness? What do you have to do to get the ring that is an insignia of honor in the family gathering? Just tell me what to do!

I'll have a triad! Nothing! Nothing? Oh, come on!

Come on! Nothing! Nothing! Ah, this is… You have lost your mind in the pigsty!

You are crazier than a hoodo! Now go through it again. Tell me what you did. I came back up the road, determined to ask my father to make me a hired servant.

Before I could get it all out of my mouth, he's kissing me, hugging me, loving me, and we've got a celebration going that'll knock your socks off. And all that I did was acknowledge that I was a mess and that I couldn't fix myself. I listened as Chuck Colson gave his testimony to this esteemed gathering of people. And he said to them, I got in my car outside my friend's house, and I admitted that my life was a total mess. And I asked God to come and save me.

And he did. Don't you think that this boy, if you'd seen him in worship, would have been able to sing, How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure? Don't you think that if you'd been present with him and he was in your row when he got to the line that said, In royal robes I don't deserve, I live to serve your majesty? Don't you think he's going like, Oh, in royal robes, there's no question about this? He who is forgiven much understands.

Now let me wrap this. What is Jesus teaching here? He's teaching the fact that all of us, like this young man, have turned our backs on God in a hundred ways, and we've told him to get lost.

It's not very nice to admit that, but it is true. Although our relationship with him is apparently ruined, the good news is that it can be set right when we come to our senses. He uses things to bring us to our senses—the birth of a loved one, the loss of prestige. Whatever it may be, he shows us our need of him. And if we will turn from our rebellion and our foolishness, then he'll throw his arms around us.

In fact, you would see that the boy's desire to go back was more than met by the seeking of the Father, because Jesus has come seeking to save those that are lost. And when we make our way back, the prospect is not to live in shame but rather that we will be welcomed, not to live as slaves, as day laborers, but to live as sons and daughters in the family house. I think I have time just to read a poem that was given to me some years ago.

Now, I've kept it for a while. I'm going to read this, and then we're through. You can sort of sit back and see if you can follow this poem. It's not ABAB, you know. It's not da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da. So you're gonna have to listen. Somebody gave this to me, a guy called Mark. I don't know who he is. The story begins with a boy gone bad.

Faces in the audience light up. The boy takes full advantage of his father, an ancient kindly man. He wants the inheritance. Everything. Faces grimace. An upstart, someone says. Horse whip him.

Teach him some manners. Some young men smile. But they all wait, eyes fixed on the face of Jesus. The father lets him go after giving everything—the whole inheritance, the gold, the silver, the favorite horse, the treasured cloak, the ring. Faces show surprise. "'This father's a fool,' someone whispers. The son's a cheat." But they bend forward to hear.

He spends it all on prostitutes—wine, gambling, the best hotels, loose living. An old man looks down at his friend and winks. "'He should have invested it,' he says. "'That's the wise way.' "'But this one's a fool,' the other says.

Heads nod in agreement. Soon the boy hits bottom. Nothing left. He ends up slopping pigs. Faces flinch, stunned.

But some smile. He got what he deserved." An old man says, "'This is a good story.' But then the boy remembers home—the feasts, the plenty, the laughter. He sits and weeps, his head in his hands. He decides to return to ask for a bed in the barn. Someone laughs. "'A twist,' he says. Faces show intrigue. The boy comes home, hands gritty, legs scarred. He is penniless, ragged, wasted, a scarecrow. Listeners are laughing now. Revenge, they think. The disowning.

But no! The old man sees him on the road from his chair on the porch, where he has sat waiting each day. He recognizes the walk, the long hair, the shoulders. He jumps up and stumbles out to him, his heart thumping, his eyes wet. He runs to the boy while the boy stands his head down. The old man gathers him into his arms and holds him long, so long, and he weeps. Faces are stern now, their eyes slit. "'This father's a fool,' they murmur.

But still they wait. The boy begins his speech, but the old man has suddenly gone deaf. He throws a cloak over the boy's rags, pulls off his last and best ring, slides it onto the boy's finger, and then begins calling for servants. "'Kill the fatted calf,' he shouts.

"'We'll have a feast!' Faces are hard now. Many shake their heads.

A bitter elder son refuses even to speak to his lost brother. He stomps off, angry, cursing. Some faces nod, but most are gray, their lips pressed white, their eyes aflame, and some stand up to go. "'Nothing has gone right in this story,' they stalk off. "'A bad story,' one says. "'Stupid,' says another.

Not one of his best.' But some from the crowd linger. A prostitute, a tax collector, a thief, a liar. They glance at Jesus furtively and wait. Then they approach shyly, slowly, and one by one they fall at his feet and weep for joy." See, what will keep you from this discovery? You're praying. You're praying.

Mine too. How is a person to come, exactly as we are? When is a person to come?

Immediately. Have you ever come? Have you ever been gathered up in the embrace of God the Father? Do you know God? Do you know how much he loves you?

Have you ever come to him and said, I am more messed up than I was ever prepared to admit, and yet I've discovered that I'm more loved in Jesus than I could ever have imagined? I want to ask you to forgive me for all my slamming of the doors, for all of my wandering, and for all of my rebellion, for all of my self-assertiveness. And I want to simply acknowledge that I need your hug, I need your embrace, I need the warmth of your welcome.

That is true for all of us, isn't it? We all need the welcoming embrace of our Heavenly Father. We've been listening today to a message from Alistair Begg on Truth for Life weekend. If you're ready to receive God's welcome that Alistair has talked about today, but you're just not sure how to go about it, visit truthforlife.org slash the story. There you'll find a video that helps explain God's plan of salvation. God's saving grace is nothing that we can earn on our own. It is a gift that is freely given to those who believe.

Again, find out more at truthforlife.org slash the story. The story of salvation is a message that we love to share on Truth for Life. In fact, it's our mission to open the scriptures so that men and women can come to trust in the Lord Jesus, to save them from their sin, and to lead them to eternal life. In addition to teaching the Bible, we also recommend books to help you grow in your faith. This is the final weekend we're offering a book titled Alive, How the Resurrection of Christ Changes Everything. This book, Alive, is a practical book. It'll help you prepare to answer challenging questions about your belief in the resurrection. The author begins by investigating the historical and biblical evidence for the resurrection. He presents that evidence in an understandable way so that you can confidently answer big questions like, how do you know that the resurrection really happened? The book, Alive, is great to have on hand if friends ask for proof about what it is you believe. You can request your copy of the book by visiting truthforlife.org.

Again, that's truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapeen. Thanks for listening. Hope you can join us again next weekend as we continue this message and discover why the prodigal son's older brother burned with anger. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.