Sermon Tone Analysis

Lost Sons and Lost Daughters

Coming Home for Lent

Luke 15:11–24 (ESV)

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons.

12 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.

13 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.

14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.

15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 “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!

18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Treat me as one of your hired servants.”

’ 20 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.

21 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.’ 22 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.

23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’

And they began to celebrate.

Lent

Lent should not be considered as a time when we make things right with the Lord through self-denial.

Rather, it is a time for me to reflect on how the Lord Jesus made things right for me on my behalf and is calling me to fully enjoy the blessings of the life he has given.

As Tim Keller wisely remarked:

There are, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically about Jesus?

In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done?

Lent invites each of us to make a deep inquiry into our hearts, and to discern for who and what we are living our lives?

Is it for the Lord and his glory?

Or are we giving ourselves to fleeting and worldly pursuits?

Where are we laying up our treasure?

Lent provides a wonderful vantage point through which our confidence in Christ alone can deepen.

Through this forty-day season, we continue to learn that it is not so much about what we are going to give up as it is about listening to the way God is already leading us to loosen our grip on those things and people that have gotten in the way of our pursuit of Him and the Kingdom.

It is right and beneficial to take a season of the year to reevaluate, re-calibrate, and have the values of our hearts clarified once again.

Lent is such a season.

As we approach Holy Week, where we remember the sacrifice, suffering, and resurrection of our Savior,

Lent is about remembering the suffering and sacrifice of the Savior.

Lent is about confessing our ongoing battle with sin.

Lent is about fasting, and not just from food; we willingly and joyfully let go of things in this world that have too much of a hold on us.

And Lent is about giving ourselves in a more focused way to prayer, crying out for the help that we desperately need from the only one who is able to give it.

That moves us to a beautiful parable that Jesus tells that we find in Luke 15.

This is a parable that illustrates beautifully and powerfully for us our God and Father who greets us, embraces us, and loves us as we come home to him.

Luke 15 is about the love of God coming into our world to find lost sons and daughters.

It’s about the identity of Jesus Christ and the meaning of his mission in the world— then and now.

“The point of preaching the prodigal son is not that you and I would be like Jesus?”

I would say, My first aim is that you would see Jesus.

Jesus did not end the parable with “go and do likewise.”

And Luke did not end this chapter with: “Go and imitate Jesus.”

The first point is: Look at Jesus.

Consider Jesus.

Know Jesus.

Learn what kind of person it is you say you trust and love and worship.

Soak in the shadow of Jesus.

Saturate your soul with the ways of Jesus.

Watch him.

Listen to him.

Stand in awe of him.

Let him overwhelm you with the way he is.

That’s my first aim.

If I could succeed at that, we would be so permeated with the beauty of this risky, painful, sacrificial, loving way of life, we could not but pursue it.

The Lost Son

1.

The Misery of Lostness

2. The nature of the son’s repentance

3. The lavish enthusiasm and welcome of the father

1.

The Misery of Lostness

Running away from God and living without God starts by feeling free and ends in utter misery — either in this life or the one to come, or both.

Look at this in verse 13:

The word “loose” (asōtōs) means a “wild, abandoned, reckless” manner.

This always feels free for a season — like sky-jumping feels free — until you realize you don’t have a parachute.

So running from God at first feels free.

Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be in need.

Easy come, easy go.

And then reality.

A famine.

Where do you think that came from?

What might be the design in that?

Verse 15:

And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

When you break our attachment with God, you will end up attached to another, and that attachment will be slavery, not sonship.

It may be drugs or alcohol or illicit sex or an employer or a spouse or a sport or a hobby or a television or a lake cabin or a computer or books.

The attachment may be crude or it may be refined.

If we break loose from God, we will be attached to another.

And in the end (whether crude or refined) this alien attachment will send us to the swine troughs — either in this life or the one to come.[1]

You and I were made to be filled with God.

And if we run from him, if we take our little earthly inheritance of time and money and energy and use it to attach ourselves to other things than God, it won’t matter what we are worth— our future will be swine food for all eternity.

That’s the misery Jesus describes when we run from the Father’s house.

2. The Nature of the Son’s Repentance

Then he describes the nature of the son’s repentance.Verse 17:

Three elements of The Son’s Repentance.

“When you are alienated from God, you are always alienated from yourself.”

First, he comes to himself

When you are alienated from God, you are always alienated from yourself.

You can’t know yourself or relate properly to yourself if you are running from the one who made yourself for himself.

You were made by God in the image of God for God.

There are three main things about your identity as a human being; you are made by God, like God, for God.

Therefore, conversion is “coming to yourself” as well as coming to God.

It is discovering where you came from and who you are and why you exist.

Running from God is always a running from ourselves.

Repentance is waking up to this truth.

The second part of repentance is humble brokenness and a deep sense of unworthiness before God (Verse 18).