Lost 4: The Other Lost Son

Good morning, and welcome to Family Worship with the church body of Eastern Hills Baptist Church. I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor, and it’s great to gather to praise the Lord and spend a little time in fellowship together this morning. Thank you to our Bible study leaders who faithfully prepare each week to lead their Bible study classes. We had a really good time together for appreciation and training for our Bible study leaders yesterday, and I’m excited to see our teachers implement some of the ideas that Ken Braddy shared with us.

I would like the opportunity to greet you personally if you’re visiting for the first time in person today, so at the end of the service, would you please plan to come down and say hello? I have a thank you gift to give you: a mug filled with chocolate.

We would also like the chance to send you a card to thank you for joining us this morning, whether you’re in the room or online. You can text the word “WELCOME” to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a text back that will have a link to our digital communication card. If you’d rather fill out a physical card, you’ll find one in the back of the pew in front of you. You can bring those to me when you come to say hi, or you can drop those in the offering boxes by the doors as you go out after service later this morning.

Announcements

NMSMO ($3265, goal $11,500) and VIDEO Each year during September and October, we take up our special offering to support the work of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico, called the NM State Missions Offering. This offering will be used to help church plants, collegiate ministries, hunger relief, our two state camps Inlow and Sivells, and to prepare for the Ministers & Family Retreat next fall. Our church goal this year is $11,500, and as of last Sunday, we have given $3,265. That’s a great start! You can designate your gift to this important offering by using the yellow envelopes in the slots in front of you, by writing State Missions on your check, or by selecting the Mission New Mexico fund in our online giving platform. Thanks for prayerfully considering how the Lord would have you give to support the work of the BCNM around the State this year.

Mark your calendars on Sunday, September 17, for a special Revival Sunday with guest Garrett Wagoner. Garrett is great friend and a gifted speaker with a passion for the Gospel, and he is planning to come and share a message of the hope that we have in Christ during Family Worship that morning. I’d like to designate that Sunday as “High Attendance Sunday,” and I call everyone to invite someone for that morning who you know needs to hear the truth of God’s Word and the love of Jesus. That night, Garrett will bring a challenge and encouragement to the church family on sharing the message of the Gospel at 5:30. Plan to be here if at all possible for this special day on September 17.

Because of the Revival Sunday needing to fall on the 17th, we need to move our September business meeting to 5:30 pm on September 24.

Endeavor construction update: roof is coming along!

Opening

Last Sunday in our series on the 15th chapter of Luke. Parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. We’ve already seen that the overarching theme for these parables is God’s heart for sinners. The sheep who wanders off... The coin that is lost... The son who betrays his father… each is a depiction of the person who needs to be rescued, restored, and redeemed by God. And in each parable, we have seen the delight and joy of God when one sinner comes to repentance.

However, this morning we need to take a second look at the parable of the lost son, because we didn’t look at the entire thing last week.

We will read the entire parable again, and then zero in on our focal passage today, Luke 15, verses 25-32. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read this passage:

Luke 15:11–32 CSB

11 He also said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. 14 After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. 15 Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. 17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” ’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant. 27 ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’ 31 “ ‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

PRAYER (To’hajilee Baptist Mission in Laguna, Pastor Jerry Johns)

Because of where we sit in the history of God’s grace and our understanding of the Gospel, we often focus nearly exclusively on the younger son and the father’s response of love and grace to him. Not that that’s a bad thing. We love it because we see our own salvation reflected in it, as I shared last week.

As the late Timothy Keller put it:

“Now, almost always when people think of this story, it’s all about Act 1. The younger son. His coming home. The father’s acceptance. And as a result, almost everyone thinks of this story in the most sentimental terms. We imagine the original listeners hearing this marvelous story of forgiveness, and their eyes welling up with tears. But if you look at the context; If you look at the people Jesus was speaking to; if you look at Jesus’s purposes in telling this parable, you’ll realize that the original listeners were not wiping away tears from their eyes. They were thunderstruck.” (The Prodigal God - The Elder Son, video)

As we have done so in each message of the series, we must remember the context of this parable: who Jesus was primarily speaking to in this moment. It was the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious elite of the day. And it was because of their response to the lost coming to Jesus:

Luke 15:1–2 CSB

1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

For the scribes and Pharisees hearing this parable, as they listened to the tale of the younger son’s descent into destitution, they would have been approving of it. He had dishonored his father. He had lived unwisely. He had thrown off both restraint and wisdom. He had made his bed, so he could lie in it. He deserved what he got.

But when Jesus turned the corner in the parable and they found the younger son repenting and being welcomed back into the family through the gracious, loving arms of his father… that would have been scandalous to them. It would have been shocking and offensive. They would not have been at all happy with this outcome, much less moved to tears of joy.

But that’s where Jesus leaves the younger son—in the house at a celebration with his father. No longer lost. No longer estranged. Redeemed into the family he had left for dead.

But in verse 11, Jesus said that the man had TWO sons. In verse 25, the focus shifts to the relationship between the older son and his father.

Luke 15:25 CSB

25 “Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

The older son had never left. When his father had divided up the inheritance, he gave the younger son his third of the estate, and everything that remained and any profits or increase that would happen from the point of the division forward would belong to the older son. So the older son was out in the field working when the younger son came home, which is exactly where we would expect the dutiful heir to be. But it turns out that he was just as lost as his brother was.

You see, he was all about doing the “right things,” but as we will see, he did them for the wrong reasons, and so he was just as estranged from his father as his younger brother was. Similarly, it’s possible to do all the “right” things for all the wrong reasons, and still be far from God. But in this part of the parable, we still see God’s heart for sinners: even for those sinners who don’t think they are sinners.

1) The son’s self-focused fury

One thing that we need to grasp before we get to the son’s response is that the party that the father was throwing was no small thing. Killing the fattened calf was a big deal, because it was a costly move, especially in a culture that ate meat only rarely. And doing so would have been cause for communal celebration: more than the household was invited to this feast. Likely, the whole town was.

So when the older son returns from his work in the field and sees and hears the commotion, he is confused, and rightly so. He hadn’t heard about a party. What was going on at his house? The thing that’s interesting is that there’s a clue to the state of his relationship with his father in verse 26:

Luke 15:26–28a (CSB)

26 So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant. 27 ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28a “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in.

He hears the sounds of celebration—music and dancing—coming from his house. The house that only he and his father have control over. So who could be throwing a feast? Only him or his father. But he doesn’t go to the father to ask. He gets a servant and asks him.

The servant, of course not knowing that the elder son would take issue with the fact that his brother had returned, just simply gives him the facts: “Your brother came back, so your dad called for a feast to celebrate it.” When the servant tells him that the younger son is back “safe and sound,” the Greek word is more than simply “not injured.” It means that he was healthy, well, and as he should be—physically, emotionally, spiritually, and geographically. He’s home and restored to the family.

This is where we see the elder brother’s heart. He’s furious. He’s so angry about his brother’s return that he refuses to go in and take part in what was certainly one of the biggest moments in his father’s life. All he can think about is himself.

The irony in this is that it’s a reversal. The younger son had been blatantly rebellious, treated his father poorly, and wasted his inheritance, while the older son had stayed behind, kept working, and had the blessing of enjoying the family estate. The younger son was out, and the older was in. But now, junior had realized his lostness and come back in humility and repentance, while his older brother in his pride couldn’t handle it. So the younger son was inside in celebration, while the older remained outside in self-focused anger.

He didn’t really care about his brother. And if you think about it, he didn’t really care about his father, either. In this moment when his father was rejoicing at the restoration of this lost son who he believed he would never see again, the older son refuses to join him.

Given the context, Jesus is clearly drawing a parallel between his primary audience of the scribes and Pharisees and this older son. In fact, the older son (had he been real) would likely have leveled the same attack against his father as they did against Jesus: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” They didn’t want to come to Jesus in humility and faith, and they didn’t want the “lost” to come to Him either.

Jesus spoke of this attitude in His “woes” to them in Matthew 23:

Matthew 23:13 CSB

13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in.

But rather than leaving his son outside in the cold, the father in the parable takes action similar to what he did with his younger son:

2) The Father’s request

Remember that the father dishonored himself to a certain extent by hiking up his robes and running to his youngest when he saw him returning from a distance. That dishonor was limited to who happened to see him. But now, because of the older son’s refusal to come into the feast, the father must leave the celebration that he is hosting and go outside to try and retrieve his wayward child.

Luke 15:28b (CSB)

28b So his father came out and pleaded with him.

In this moment, the son isn’t just estranged from his younger brother. He’s estranged from his father. And the father’s earnest request is for reconciliation—that the older brother come and be a part of the family.

In the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, the parallel to the person who does the “losing” is God the Father. And if the older son is being compared to the scribes and Pharisees, then what we see is that they were far from God as well.

But the Lord is not done pleading with those who are far from Him to turn back to Him in faith. And now, He even calls us to the same task as His ambassadors:

2 Corinthians 5:20–21 CSB

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Church, we are the Lord’s representatives in this appeal, assigned the task of making this appeal to the lost, the wayward, the estranged. We are called to share the message of reconciliation: that our sins have created a barrier between us and God that we can never overcome, but God in His mercy and because of His love sent His Son, Jesus the Christ, to take our place by dying to pay the penalty for our sins, and overcoming death by rising again. God in Christ was humiliated for us, so that we could be redeemed through Him. If we believe in Jesus, trusting in what He has done to save us and surrendering our lives to Him, then we will have forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Consider this an invitation for you to believe in Jesus right now. Don’t miss this moment to trust Christ.

Sadly, most who hear the Gospel are like the older son: they won’t believe. They won’t repent. They won’t surrender. They refuse reconciliation, saying in essence that they can save themselves. The older son did the same thing:

3) The son’s self-righteous response

Rather than listening to his father’s pleading to him, the elder son explains why his father is out of line and in fact, how he has been treated unfairly by his father in comparison to his little brother.

Luke 15:29–30 CSB

29 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’

This is not merely an explanation. It’s an accusation. Basically, he’s saying, “Where is the justice?” Between verses 29 and 30, he contrasts himself and his sibling, and brings an indictment against his father in the comparison. The truth is that just as far as the younger son had been from the father physically, the older son was relationally. He didn’t want reconciliation with his father. He just wanted his father’s stuff.

A few quick things to note: He doesn’t refer to his father in any term of respect (not even “father”), but as his social equal by saying, “Look.” He doesn’t see that he was building the family fortune (including his own), but saw himself as a slave, and thus implies that his father is a hard-driving master. He justifies himself by saying that he “never disobeyed” his father’s “orders,” but also sees that he deserved to be given an animal for a party with his friends… but notice that the father would not have been invited to such a gathering. In his thinking, He’s earned this by staying home, by keeping up with his work, and by his obedience.

He doesn’t think that he’s done anything wrong, and in fact, he thinks that he as actually done everything right. But his heart was far from his father. He believes that his father owes him, but he’s not interested in relationship, just the inheritance. You can see this in what he says about his brother.

In his mind, the younger son isn’t even the elder’s brother any more. He calls the younger “this son of yours,” as if he wasn’t really part of the family proper. He says that the younger has “devoured your assets with prostitutes,” likely a reference to Proverbs 29:3:

Proverbs 29:3 CSB

3 A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but one who consorts with prostitutes destroys his wealth.

Whether this was true is immaterial, because these aren’t real people. But the elder son ends with the greatest injustice that he sees: the lavish celebration thrown in honor of the younger’s return. This was a waste in his mind, as shown by his wishing that he could have taken an inexpensive goat for his own party… which he certainly could have done had he just asked.

The older son’s position is one of legalism and entitlement. He played by the rules, so he should get the rewards. And he’s right: he played by the rules, but that’s not the point. In the process of his selfish actions, we’ve discovered that he doesn’t care about the relationship with his father. In this way, he’s just like his little brother. But unlike his little brother, he refuses to repent, because he’s certain that he is justified in his position of anger and disrespect against his father and hatred against his brother. Instead, he puffs out his chest and says, “You owe me.”

In his commentary on Luke, pastor and author Thabiti Anyabwile writes:

“Pride, entitlement, and self-righteousness keep him from repenting. If we think we have something to boast about before God, then we won’t see our need for turning to God in repentance. This man thinks his obedience justifies him before his father just as the Pharisees thought their self-righteousness made them right before God.”

— Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke

The Pharisees and scribes thought they had following the rules down. And since they followed the rules correctly (in their minds), then God was obligated to save them. And if their adherence to the rules obligated God, then if you wanted God to be obligated to you, then you needed to do things the way they did things. But they had it all wrong, which is why this parable would have been so frustrating for them.

I wonder if sometimes we aren’t like the Pharisees here, in a couple of ways. Have you ever heard of someone coming to faith, and instead of rejoicing, you doubted? “How could that person be saved?” Or a brother or sister in sin comes to repentance, and we choose disbelief instead of celebration and encouragement: “I’ll believe they’ve changed when I see it.” Aren’t we judging more the power of the Gospel than the power of their past? Or maybe less sinister, we come across someone who is on fire for Christ, with a passion that in us perhaps has calmed down to a glowing ember, and we aren’t encouraged by their example… we think they’re weird. Maybe the problem isn’t them… it’s us.

The truth of the human condition is that none of us is sorted. We all need grace, because all of us are broken because of sin. And that’s the wonder and beauty of the Gospel. None of us can claim that God owes us anything other than eternal condemnation, and yet He offers us eternal life in His presence and hope and power in this life through Christ. And His offer is the same for all who would believe, regardless of your past. Jesus can save anyone. You don’t have to get your life all figured out first. Come to Jesus, and He will figure it out by His Spirit.

In another parable, called the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20, Jesus said:

Matthew 20:1–2 CSB

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the workers on one denarius, he sent them into his vineyard for the day.

The landowner then goes out every few hours and hires more workers for the remainder of the day, saying “I’ll give you whatever is right.” (20:4). At the end of the day, he pays each worker the same amount: a denarius, beginning with the last ones hired (20:9). Since they were the last paid, the first ones hired somehow expected that they would receive more than the others, but they also received a denarius (20:10):

Matthew 20:11–16 CSB

11 When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner: 12 ‘These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day’s work and the burning heat.’ 13 “He replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius? 14 Take what’s yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what is mine? Are you jealous because I’m generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first last.”

It is the grace of the landowner that paid the workers from the various times of the day a denarius each. It is the grace of the father that both welcomed back the younger son and went to plead with the older. And it is the grace of God that doesn’t actually give us what we deserve, because we could never earn our salvation if we tried. All we can earn in our sin is death, but in His grace, God offers us life:

Romans 6:23 CSB

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christian, on what do you base your salvation? Is it based on how well you perform, how busy you are in the church, or how impressive your spiritual resume is? Or is it based simply on trusting the grace of God given through Jesus Christ? God wants to save you because God loves you, not because of how lovable you are.

The father in the parable shows that this is case in his reply to his son’s accusation.

4) The Father’s reply

The father is perfectly consistent throughout this parable. In his grace, he divided his estate so that the younger could have his share. In his grace, he watched for, ran to, outfitted, and threw a party for his wayward son. In his grace, he left the celebration to plead with his older son. And now in his grace, he responds patiently to the older son when he accuses the father of injustice:

Luke 15:31–32 CSB

31 “ ‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

You can hear the compassion for both of his sons as the father responds. First, he calls him not just “son,” but basically “child” (English doesn’t have a good word of endearment for an adult male child).

We don’t want to read too much into verse 31 as far as salvation theology is concerned. Jesus’s main point with the parable is to show God’s heart for sinners, and we see that in the father’s heart for this wayward son. The father actually addresses the accusation leveled against him when he says, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” The older son had said, “you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.” In his bitterness against his father, he has forgotten what it has meant to have direct access to his father for so long. And since all that his father owns is essentially his, he can take a goat whenever he wants.

And finally, the father seeks to correct the elder son’s disassociation and estrangement from his brother by telling him that it was completely necessary to celebrate his return. He brings correction to his older child’s calling his brother “this son of yours,” by calling him “this brother of yours.” A celebration was right because a resurrection of sorts has taken place. This son who was dead to the family is now alive. He was lost to the family, and has now been found (echoing what he said in verse 24).

We’ve already seen the kind of celebration that takes place in heaven when a sinner repents:

Luke 15:7 CSB

7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.

Luke 15:10 CSB

10 I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

It is good and right for us to celebrate when someone professes to come to saving faith in Jesus. For the scribes and Pharisees, they didn’t want to celebrate the undesirables coming to hear Jesus. Like the older son, they didn’t remember the Father’s incredible grace: His setting apart Abraham, His deliverance of Israel from Egypt, His patience in their apostasy in Judges and under most of their kings, or His protection of the remnant in captivity and their return to Jerusalem… all the ways He had revealed His grace to them in spite of their sinfulness. Jesus was holding up a mirror in the image of the older son.

Closing

But the parable of the lost sons ends with a cliffhanger, which was meant for a purpose: to allow the audience to finish the story. So we are left with a question as well: who are we most like in the parable? If we’re in Christ, we should certainly be able to see ourselves in the person of the younger son, having been brought from death to life through God’s grace, and we should be thankful that we do! But if we find that we’re more like the older son, there is only one thing to do: repent of our self-focus and self-righteousness, and join the celebration! It’s only in going into the feast that the elder son will be restored to the family.

Where is your hope for salvation? Do you have any hope at all? Are you like the older son, thinking that you can somehow earn your place with God? As I said earlier, it is only through God’s grace in Christ that we can be saved, by believing—putting our complete trust in—what Jesus has done so that we can be forgiven of our sins and have abundant life now and life forever in heaven. Surrender to Jesus as your Lord and Savior right now, where you are. And then when the band comes back up in a moment, come and tell one of us that you’ve surrendered to Jesus this morning. If you have questions about salvation, come and share that with us as well. If you’re online, send me an email.

Church membership

Prayer

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Judges 5)

Pastor’s Study (Eph 4:7-10)

Prayer Meeting (considering the connection between evangelism and prayer)

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Ephesians 2:8–10 CSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

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