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The Father
/Luke 15:1-32/
The Reckless Extravagance of God’s Grace
1.
The Father’s Search
2. The Father’s Shame
3. The Father’s Squeeze
4. The Father’s Celebration
How do you picture God?
If you were asked to describe God based on how you think of him and feel about him—not just based on what you know he is like—how would you describe him?
Obviously, the way we picture God and the ideas we have about God are not always correct.
In fact, they are often wrong and inaccurate pictures of who he is.
That’s why we have to look at what the Bible says about what God’s like.
But, for now, set that aside and let’s have a moment of honesty.
How do you really view God?
How do you think God feels about the world?
How do you think God feels about you?
Do you think God likes you?
Maybe you view God as “the big guy upstairs” who is really nice and really wants nice things for you, who won’t ask you to do anything and who basically exists just to make you happy.
But, if you stop and think about that or if you read your Bible at all, you know that’s not the case.
God is far too just and righteous to just serve as your butler, giving you everything you ever wanted.
Instead, my guess is that most of us would describe God as angry at the world, mad at people, disappointed by Christians, and unhappy with us as individuals.
After all, the Bible does say that we are sinners and that we all seek after our own way instead of after God’s way.
The Bible says that God opposes the proud, and most of us are filled with pride.
And the Bible does say, that “/the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men/” (Romans 1:18).
So, it is correct for us to view God as angry against sin and evil, as well as those who do evil and continue in it.
That is a biblical view.
But, does that mean that God is like a grumpy old man who is ready to yell at anybody who bothers him?
No.
The Bible also describes God as extremely joyful and happy.
Psalm 16:11 says, “/In your presence is fullness of joy/.”
It says that God rejoices over his people like a groom would rejoice over his bride on a wedding day.
So, at the same time God can be both angry and joyful.
If that’s the case, then what makes God joyful?
What brings God great delight and great joy?
Is it possible for you and I to bring God pleasure and joy?
If we want to bring God delight, how do we do it?
Well, God answers this question for us in the Bible, and he constantly reveals to us what he is like and how he feels about things.
He even gives us stories and illustrations that describe what he is like.
The Bible calls God a consuming fire, a rock, a fortress, a shield, a light, a tower, etc.
All of these things describe in some limited way what God is like.
And when Jesus taught, he often gave pictures—usually word pictures through parables—that described what God is like.
I think one of the most powerful pictures of God in the entire Bible is found in this parable that we’ve been studying of the man with two sons.
We will see a number of things about God from this passage, but the thing I want you to see first is that God takes great delight in the restoration of sinners.
God gets very happy when a person who has been rebelling against him turns to him.
There is nothing that brings God greater joy than making a person right with him.
I want to appeal to you tonight, that there is no greater way for you to bring God joy than for you to turn to him in faith and to trust him and to delight in him and to relate to him.
God has made this possible for you by sending his Son, and nothing would make him happier.
Up to this point, we’ve looked at the younger son who rebelliously shamed his father and embarrassed his family so that he could have his father’s stuff and live selfishly.
We’ve also looked at the older son who compliantly stayed behind and worked his tail off, but did it to get the father’s stuff and earn his approval.
Both of these sons were lost, and both were invited in.
And so, tonight, I want to turn our attention to the hero of the story, the father.
It’s really too bad that the focus of this story is usually on the younger son.
It’s not surprising since he has such a dramatic turnaround.
But it’s too bad, because it often takes the attention off of the main and most impressive character, the father.
Tonight I want you to see a few things about the father, and I want you to see that they are representative of how God is.
*1.
The Father’s Search*
I have to think it was absolutely heartbreaking for this father to have his younger son say to him, “I wish you were dead.
Give me my stuff so I can get out of your life.”
I can’t imagine the sorrow and pain that a good father would feel in that moment.
And so, as his heart breaks, the father watches his arrogant punk of a son walk away.
But that didn’t stop the father’s love for his son.
He hoped for his return.
He expected his return.
And he searched every day for his son to return.
If you look at Luke 15:20, you’ll see that “/while he was still a long way off/” his father saw him.
The implication here is that his father was constantly scanning the horizon looking for his wayward son.
Though in that culture it would have been customary to consider a shameful son like this dead—and they might even have a full funeral when he left—this son wasn’t dead to his father’s heart.
And so his father is searching for him, looking for him and one day his dream comes true.
He sees his son from a distance.
Maybe he recognized his walk.
Maybe he recognized his stature.
Or maybe a crowd had begun to form around him that was beginning to mock him and make fun of him and remind him of how stupid and evil he had been.
But, whatever it was that the father notice, he was looking for this lost son.
This is the point of the first parable that Jesus tells at the beginning of Luke 15.
He says, “/What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?/”
The point is, God is searching for those who are lost.
He is pursuing them.
He is scanning the horizon.
He is searching.
You need to know that God is looking for you tonight.
He has not forgotten you.
The Bible says that he knows every hair on your head.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve sinned as bad as you can possibly imagine.
I think that’s why Jesus paints a picture of the younger son that is so extreme and ridiculous.
He wants you to see that no matter how you’ve ignored or rebelled against God, he is still on the lookout for you.
And he is not looking for you just so that he can zap you or punish you or ruin your life.
Though God would have every right to kill you right now and stop your heart, he is looking for you and wanting to love you.
We see this from the next part of verse 20, which says that the father “/saw him and felt compassion/.”
He felt compassion.
He felt love.
He felt sorrow.
He felt sympathy.
Though he had every right to embarrass his son or show him the folly of his ways, he felt compassion.
And God doesn’t just seek after those who, like younger brothers, have gone wildly astray.
He is also searching for older brothers who have been religious and moral, but who haven’t loved him from the heart.
We know this because he also searches for the older brother.
In Luke 15:28, we see that the father goes out to his older son and begs him to come to the party.
Whether you have been like the younger brother or the older brother, God is searching for you.
You need to know that God is feeling compassionate toward you.
He feels love.
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