Main Idea: God loves you and you are a child of God. He wants you to come home to Him today!
Text: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “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! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:11-24 NIV).
Message: What is God like? Many people picture God as a judge. They imagine an old man with a long white beard with a stern expression on His face, sitting on an enormous throne waiting for the opportunity to smite a sinner with a thunderous bolt of lightening.
Where did this picture of God come from? Back in the 1700’s, a famous preacher named Jonathan Edwards was known for a preaching a sermon entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In his sermon, he said that each of us is like a spider hanging over a fire by a single thin thread and at any moment God could snap that thread and send us plunging into the pits of hell to suffer for all of eternity. Religious fervor swept America as thousands of people fell to their knees and cried out for mercy from this vengeful deity.
People around the world think God is angry. I have traveled to many nations and I have noticed that religion always focuses on how to appease God’s anger. Hinduism requires people to offer incense. Islam tells its adherents to face Mecca and pray six times each day. Buddism requires monks to follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment. Even Christianity often relies on doing good works to keep God happy.
I used to work hard to avoid God’s judgment. When I was a teenager, I approached God from a works based mentality. I remember thinking, “God notice me!” I tried to do really well at youth group. I repented every night before I went to sleep, “God, I’m so sorry I didn’t please you today.”
It seemed like I was at a dead end. I used to ask myself,
Do I read my Bible enough?
Do I pray enough?
Do I go to church enough?
No matter how much I went to church, or prayed, or read my Bible, I never felt like God was impressed. I felt like He was going to judge me for not doing enough.
Some people in our society think God is a very angry God. They see wars, famines, earthquakes, and tsunamis and they think these natural disasters are evidence that God is angry. Newscasters even call them “acts of God.”
It broke my heart that right after Hurricane Katrina, many in the church said, “God is judging America for her sins.” After the earthquakes in Haiti, I heard a national television preacher say “Haiti is being punished by God for serving Satan.” I saw video of some protestors who were standing outside the funeral of a young solider killed in Iraq who said his death was caused by God as punishment for our nation allowing gay marriage.
Is this the right way for us to view God?
Is God judging America? Is God judging you? Is God looking for a way to punish you? Is God livid over the mistakes you have made?
It is true that in the Old Testament, God was an angry judge. God used to be angry with sin. God was once so angry that he sent a flood to destroy the earth during the days of Noah. He caused the earthquake that killed Korah. He commanded Saul to slaughter the Amalekites for their sin.
But today, we no longer live in the Old Testament, now we live in the New Testament.
I have good news for you! God is no longer angry at you. God is no longer an angry judge. Something changed in the New Testament. No longer are we “sinners in the hands of an angry God,” now we are “sinners in the hands of a merciful God.”
In my hand I hold a piece of paper folded up many times. As I unfold the paper, new sides of the paper are revealed. Unfold one side and a picture is revealed. Unfold the paper again and some words can be read. Each time I unfold the piece of paper, I discover something new.
On my finger is a diamond. When I glance at it, the diamond sparkles. When I look at the diamond from a different angle, it sparkles with a different color. In fact, each small movement reveals a new facet of my diamond.
Just as unfolding the paper reveals something new and looking at the diamond from a different angle reveals a new color, so to can we discover new truths about God.
When we first discover God, we see one side of him. Later, we discover a new facet of his character. In my message today, I want to talk to you about a facet of God’s character that Jesus revealed.
The people in Jesus’ time knew God as Holy, as a Judge, as the Almighty. Because of their religious ideas, they were scared of God. But then, Jesus revealed a new side of God that no one had ever seen before.
“Our Father, which art in heaven…” was how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Do you know how revolutionary this phrase was?
In the Old Testament, people had to purify themselves before entering the Temple. Then they had to offer a sacrifice through a priest. But in the New Testament, Jesus revealed God as “Abba” which means “daddy” or “papa.” Through Jesus, God the Father became accessible to all.
Jesus revealed this new truth about God’s goodness by telling parables, what we call “stories.”
Let’s look at the well-known story about the Prodigal Son. In this story, Jesus revealed a new facet of God’s character. In the Old Testament, the Jews knew God as a holy judge, but Jesus introduced God as a loving father. This was a totally new idea!
This was a completely foreign concept in the Old Testament. Jews did not know God as a father; they knew him as a judge. But Jesus reveled God in a whole new light.
Through this story, Jesus gave us an eyewitness account of what His Father is really like. No one knows God the Father better than God the Son. Let’s pay close attention to what Jesus said.
Once upon a time, there was a rich man who had two sons. The younger son went to his father and asked for his inheritance. This was unusual because usually a son would not receive his inheritance until after his father was dead. This son was basically saying, “Dad, I wish you were already dead.” In a Middle Eastern culture where honor is important, this story is immediately shocking. Jesus’ listeners knew that the father would be justified in being extremely angry over such a deep insult.
But, the father was not offended. Instead he divided up his property and gave half of everything to the younger son as his inheritance.
Immediately the younger son packed his luggage and traveled to a far away country. He spent his money lavishly. He bought brand new clothes. He visited the finest restaurants. He stayed in the nicest hotels. Every night he went out drinking and dancing. He bought drinks for everyone at the party and because of his generosity he quickly made many friends. He visited prostitutes. He gambled. He wasted his money.
Suddenly, his money ran out. He reached into his purse only to find it empty. When he was unable to pay his hotel bill, he was thrown out on the street. He pawned his beautiful clothes for a few silver coins to buy bread but the bread was quickly eaten. He had nothing so he went to the house of one of his friends but that “friend” slammed the door in his face. The people he had partied with rejected him.
Tired, hungry, and cold; he took the only job he could find, feeding pigs. He slept where the pigs slept. He ate the same garbage the pigs ate because he was starving. Any Jew listening to this story would have been horrified at such a terrible fate since Jews think pigs are unclean animals.
One day the son remembered his father. He recalled that even the lowliest servants at his father’s home were eating and living much better than he was. He decided to go to his father and say, “Father, I have sinned against you. I am no longer worthy to be your son, to be in your family. I beg you, please allow me to be your servant and wash your clothes and clean your house.”
He started the long journey home. Slowly, he trudged through the dirt. He kept rehearsing in his mind, over and over again, the punishment his father would give him.
But, the father saw his son from afar off. What does this mean? The father was out looking for his son every day. He was eagerly waiting for him, longing for the day his youngest son would return. The moment the father saw his son coming from afar, he ran to him.
It is amazing that the father ran as fast as he could to meet his son. In that part of the world, an elderly man does not run, he walks in a slow and dignified manner. But, this love-struck father took the initiative to run towards his son.
The prodigal son fell at his father’s feet and began his preplanned speech to beg for mercy. The father totally ignored his son’s words, instead he lifted him to his feet, and began to hug him and kiss him.
The father called his servants. “Bring my best Armani suit. Find my crocodile leather shoes. Bring my son’s favorite food. Put my Rolex on his wrist. Put a diamond ring on his finger.”
The father dressed his son in the finest clothes. Then he told the servants, “We are going to celebrate tonight. Let’s butcher our best calf. Bake some apple pie, that’s my son’s favorite. Hire some musicians because we are going to celebrate. Go invite all our friends to come.”
As the father continued to excitedly give instructions about the party, the one thing he could not stop doing was hugging and kissing his long lost son.
What was Jesus doing in this story? He was introducing God as the Father of hugs and kisses. No longer would God be a judge, from now on God would be seen as a loving Father.
Two thousand years ago all of God’s anger at sin fell on Jesus. Jesus took upon Himself the sin of the whole world, my sin, your sin, and all the results of sin. Sin, sickness, suffering, poverty, our pain and shame all fell on Jesus. He took lust, greed, HIV, tumors, and cancer. The judgment we deserve rested on Jesus.
Jesus became our substitute. At the cross, Jesus dwelt with sin once and for all. We deserved to die but instead, Jesus who is perfect and holy took our punishment. He did not deserve to die. He was the only one on earth who never sinned. But He did it for you. Because of His great love for you, Jesus took your punishment.
Jesus suffered in our place. He took all of my horrible ugly sin upon His body.
In that moment God who is holy could not look on Jesus. As Jesus hung on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth, for the first time God had to turn away from looking at His only Son. Jesus in His agony cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” God the righteous judge had to turn away from Jesus, the sinful man.
That day, all of God’s need for punishment was satisfied. The moment Jesus died, all of God’s wrath and need for judgment was poured out on Jesus. We deserve death, but Jesus took our place. Jesus died so that sin, once and for all, could be taken care of.
Now, you have a heavenly Father who approves of you. God is not here with a big stick ready to beat you if you do something wrong. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus.
God is not angry at you. God is smiling at you. God is pleased with you. He is looking on you through eyes of love. God is not angry at America, or at Haiti, or at any other nation.
Righteousness means you are in right standing with God. Righteousness means you are back in the family! It means you have all the perks again. You once again own the inheritance.
God loves me. He accepts me. He is proud of me. He is smiling at me.
We are excited about being parents. I love showing my child to others. I say proudly, “Look at his beautiful eyes. Look at his ten toes.” As a parent, I do not judge my baby or point out his flaws. Instead I am proud of my son Caleb and my daughter Katie Grace. God thinks about us the same way. He is proud of his children.
The elder brother is like a lot of religious people today. The older son is a symbol of those who live under the New Covenant but have an Old Covenant mentality.
We often approach God as the older brother. We are worried God is ready to discipline us. We have a legalistic attitude. We want to punish others for their mistakes and we are frustrated when God throws a party on their behalf.
What would have happened if the prodigal son had met the older brother before meeting the father? The older brother would have made him pay for his sin. He would have made him sleep in the servant’s barracks. He might have made the prodigal work for years in order to earn an opportunity to see the father.
But look at how the father responded to his oldest son’s legalism. The father loved the older son in the same way he loved the prodigal son. The father treated the older son the same way he treated the younger son.
The older brother obeyed his father, but he did not have the heart of his father. The older son said, “All of these years I have served you and you never gave me a calf. The father replied, “Son, all that I have belongs to you.”
Under the New Covenant you do not have to work to get God’s blessing, you already have it. You do not need to work to get joy, you have joy. You do not need 30 secrets of success, you have success. You do not work to get healed, you have healing.
You are not just a servant, you are a child of God. Servants will toil and sweat and work hard to try to get what they already own as a son. Reject a servant’s mentality and adopt a son’s mentality. Always have a servant’s heart, but a son’s mind. Think, “I am a serving son or daughter.” Servant is “have to” son is “get to.” Servants try to get out of work, sons have ownership.
Jesus tells three stories in Luke 15: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. All three make the same point. They reveal the despair of a great loss and the excitement of rediscovery. These stories reveal how God the Father feels when a lost Son or Daughter comes home.
These stories are about why Jesus left heaven to come to earth. Jesus came to “seek and save the lost.” All three stories put an emphasis on the rejoicing of the finder.
Imagine losing your wedding ring. Or your laptop. Or your car keys. How do you feel when you find what was lost?
When a person that everyone else rejects turn to God, a party breaks out. In the words of Jesus, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” God is happy when we come home to Him.
Will you come home to the Father’s House today?
