A New Direction

Luke 15:17-24
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, January 07, 2001
Copyright © 2001, P. G. Mathew

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men 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 men.” 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 15:17-24

This is the first Sunday of the new year and the new millennium. As we enter this new year, God is calling us to take a new direction in our lives. As I was preparing this message, two people came to see me. They came in repentance and weeping, and expressed a desire to change the direction of their lives. Although they have been in the church for a long time, these people recognized that they had been walking in stubbornness, self-will, rebellion, unbelief, and autonomy for many years. They wanted to walk in a new direction-with God.

God is calling all of us to take a new direction in our lives this year. If you are a saint, meaning a Christian, God may have been speaking to you concerning many things, but you have failed to do what he says. I urge you to take a new direction today and put into practice the things God wants you to do. If you are a sinner, God in his great mercy has brought you into this new millennium so that you may have another opportunity to trust in him and be saved. If you are such a person, I beseech you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and take a new direction in life today-away from death to life, away from darkness to God’s marvelous light.

The fifteenth chapter of Luke is called the gospel within a gospel. It tells us of the new direction taken by a prodigal son. This young man thought that true happiness meant leaving his father’s home and going to a far country where he could do what he wanted without any restraint. This son left his father’s home and went to a far country , but rather than finding happiness there, he experienced great suffering and severe discipline. When he repented and went home to his waiting father, he was blessed beyond measure. He discovered that the way of happiness is not through independence from God, but, rather, through submission to him. He learned that to seek independence from God and his holy will is to court disaster.

We must realize that God the Father loves us and, as the Bible tells us, his love is immeasurable, unfailing, and everlasting. Who can discern the width and length, height and depth of the love of God? It surpasses knowledge. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” we read in 1 John 3:1. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see this and deceived them into thinking that serving the devil is the way of freedom and true happiness.

Context

In Luke 15 we find three parables: the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son. These parables were spoken by Jesus to the Pharisees, who were angry with Jesus when they observed how he received the sinners who came to him. These self-righteous people thought they had no need for a savior, and they despised those who did. They were not sick; why would they need a physician? To them, the “sinners” and publicans who were coming to Jesus were unclean and untouchable and to be treated with contempt.

But Jesus came as the friend of sinners. He came to seek and to save those who were lost. He did not come to save the righteous, who would not repent, but sinners. He did not come to heal the healthy, but the sick. He did not come to fill the rich, but the empty.

So Jesus’ actions irritated the Pharisees, and in Luke 15:2 we read, “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'” Praise God, these charges were true. The Lord Jesus Christ does seek and welcome sinners, and when he finds them, he saves them and makes them children of God.

Thus, Jesus spoke these parables in response to the self-righteous Pharisees. In the parable of the prodigal son, the Pharisees were represented by the elder brother, and the saved sinners were represented by the youngest son, the prodigal. The theme of this parable is the love of God the Father for the repenting and returning sinners.

Rejection of the Father’s Authority

The first point we want to mention about this parable is rejection of the father’s authority by the youngest son. Jesus begins the parable saying that a man had two sons, and the younger son hated the government of his father. Blinded by the devil, this young man thought that he could be truly happy only when he got out from under the restraints of his father’s home. This spoiled, rich young man from a rich home wanted to go to a far country to get as far away as possible from his father. To him autonomy spelled happiness.

The prodigal son knew that he would need money to live, so he demanded his inheritance, and his father gave it to him. Isn’t it interesting that sometimes God lets us do whatever we want to do, even if it involves sin? That thought ought to make us tremble! According to Deuteronomy 21:17, the youngest son received one third of the estate and the oldest brother two thirds.

The prodigal son immediately liquidated his inheritance and left with the money to go to a far country. As he left his father’s home, he burned all his bridges behind him, vowing that he would never return to this miserable home or see his terrible father again. To this boy, good was evil and evil good; light was darkness, and darkness light.

In Ephesians 4:17-19 we find a description of the minds of those who are like this prodigal son-the unbelieving, arrogant, autonomous, self-willed know-it-alls of this world:

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

In Romans 1:21 we find another description of such people: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

What about you? Do you hate your father? Do you hate your church? Do you hate your Bible? Do you hate worship? Are you waiting to break loose of all parental influence and go to a far place to seek happiness in independence and lawlessness? If so, you are deceived and blinded like the prodigal son. Soon, if God has mercy on you, you shall come to see that the way of the rebellious is hard. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” In Galatians 6:7-8 the apostle Paul counsels, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. . . .” “For the wages of sin is death,” he says in Romans 6:23.

If you are seeking to cast off the restraints which God has put in your life, I counsel you not to do so. Do not be like Cain, who departed and went away from the presence of God. Why do I say this? Only in God’s presence is there fullness of joy, and on his right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Away from God and his kingdom there is only misery, destruction, and death.

The Reality Therapy of Far-Country Living

The second point we want to make is the reality therapy the prodigal son experienced after leaving his father’s house. Yes, in the far country there was no temple, no word of God, no worship, no Father, no Ten Commandments. There was nothing! We are told that this man squandered all the money he had received from his inheritance, wasting his father’s estate by living asôtôs, meaning spending money without any regard for the future, with reckless abandon. “Spend, spend, spend, spend, and spend more!” was this boy’s motto.

Some of you may begin to wonder why you are living in poverty and have no money. Are you spending, spending, spending, spending, and spending more? After squandering his father’s substance, this man ran out of money and there was no more. Down he went, into dire poverty and distress. This was God’s reality therapy for the prodigal son.

We are told that a severe famine came upon the far country. Let me tell you, God has a sovereign way of bringing a prodigal to reality. He does not deal with all prodigals this way, but only his chosen prodigals, his elect prodigals. He knows how to deal with a rebellious prophet like Jonah. He knows how to deal with a disobedient, rebellious son like this prodigal. He knows how to deal with a rebellious daughter, a rebellious husband, a rebellious mother, a rebellious wife, a rebellious father. He knows exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Our heavenly Father is a fisher of men and he will use whatever means he must to catch his people.

In Luke 15:14 we read, “he began to be in need.” In Psalm 23 David tells us how God looks after his people, saying, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want,” but here the prodigal son began to be in want. For the first time in his life this young man from a rich home lacked food. He had no money, no food, and no friends to take care of him. He was all alone and miserable. The country of great happiness had become a country of great misery for this man.

At this point, the prodigal son could have repented and returned home, but he didn’t. He had to go down further. He still hated his father, the church, the Bible, and all the moral guidelines and restraints of his father’s house. So God had to deal with him further. Before he could go home and take a new direction in life, the prodigal son had to experience more misery, wretchedness, and pain.

This son needed to eat, but he could not find a job during this great famine. First, he sought employment for a living wage but no one gave him anything. “Kid, don’t you know there is a great famine now?” people would say to him. I suspect he finally offered himself and his service for a dying wage to a pig farmer because it was all he could find. This type of job in itself was great humiliation for a young Jewish boy, because there was a Jewish proverb that said, “Cursed is the man who would breed swine,” and according to Leviticus 11:7, the pig was an unclean animal.

But the prodigal son still had to go down, down, down into more misery and humiliation. After hiring himself to the pig farmer, he was treated by the farmer as less than the pigs themselves. The pigs were given carob beans to eat, which, for a human to eat would signify being in a state of the most bitter poverty one could be in. The prodigal son wanted to eat the pods, just to fill his stomach, but we are told that no one gave him anything, not even carob pods. This man was neither being treated like a human nor like a pig. That is why I said he was getting a dying wage.

What was God doing to this man? He was rousing him out of his deep coma, his deep deception, his deep blindness and helping him to see his true state. God was using the discipline of extreme hardship to bring him out of all unreality and deception. God uses famine, poverty, sickness, business failures, death, divorces, loneliness-every type of pressure we need-to turn us to himself. This is the reality therapy of far-country living.

Reflection on Reality

The third point we want to speak about is reflection, which means the clear thinking the prodigal began to engage in. Here he was-in a far country, with no money, no friends, no food, no home, being treated as less than human and less than a pig. Luke 15:16 says no one cared for him. This was the extreme discipline of God.

God’s discipline worked, and in verse 17 we are told that he came to himself. This is a Hebrew expression for repentance: he came to his senses, he began to think clearly, he came out of his coma. The afflictions of God were working in this young man for the good, and now he began to think correctly about his father and his father’s house. He realized that happiness was not found in independence and lawlessness, but in dependence, submission, and service to his father and his God.

Reflecting on his situation, the prodigal began to speak to himself, saying, “You know, as I remember, the lowest people in my father’s house-the hired servants-always had food to spare.” In the house of a rich man like his father the sons came first, then the slaves born in the house, and then, in the lowest position, the hired servants. Sons, of course, had what they wanted, and even slaves born in the house were absolutely secure. But hired servants had to worry every day about food, since they were not permanent members of the household.

But this son came to a realization that even the lowest members of his father’s household, the hired servants, had food to spare. In the Greek the expression means they were “surrounded by mountains of bread.”

“Even the hired servants have an abundance,” the son told himself, “while I am here perishing.” This was the reality he finally faced. He was daily perishing-the Greek word is apolumai, which means continually dying-by reason of famine. So he spoke to himself, “I will arise, go to my father, and confess my sins.” He now recognized that his problem was not his father, not his mother, not the temple, not the Scripture, not the church, and not the society, but his own sin. What clear thinking! God had opened this man’s mind, and he now could see reality.

This was true repentance. This was a change of thinking, from false thinking to correct thinking. The prodigal son now agreed with God and his word and saw all things in the light of God’s truth: “God is not the problem and my father is not the problem,” he thought. “No, I am the problem. My sin is the problem. My thinking has been the problem. I was blind and deceived. I thought good was evil and evil was good, but now I realize my folly. I will go home, confess my sins to my father, and begin to walk in a new direction-toward God, toward my father, toward the temple, toward home.”

This son now recognized that life, happiness, and true freedom could be found only in the father’s house, not in the far country. “I think I will find forgiveness there,” he told himself, “as well as plenty of bread. I am going to put myself in the lowest position in my house. I will submit to everyone-to my father and mother, to my brother, to the home-born slaves, and to every other hired servant, especially those senior to me. I want to be the last person. Oh, all I want to do is obey my father. How I love the authority and government of my father’s house! How I love God’s commandments! Now I see that only they will bring me true happiness.”

The prodigal son was embarking on a new direction in his life. His reflection caused him to realize that happiness is only found in God’s kingdom, under God’s rule. He now knew that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The Return of the Prodigal Son

The fourth point is that we must return, but only in the direction toward God. Let me tell you, not only is there a true repentance, but there is also a false repentance. I have seen both. C. H. Spurgeon says that false repentance is like many blossoms. We like blossoms and they have a lot of promise, but not all blossoms amount to fruit that remains and ripens.

The blossoms of false repentance soon fall off, bringing forth nothing. Oh, I have heard many promises, commitments, vows, and resolutions that people make. Most of them fall off and never turn into fruit. Blossoms are great, but only if they result in plenty of fruit that remains and ripens.

What is false repentance? We find several examples of it in the Bible. In Exodus 9:27 we read of the false repentance of Pharaoh. He told Moses, “I sinned,” but that confession was forced out of him from terror. He was insincere and didn’t mean what he said, as his further actions bore out. In Numbers 22:34 Balaam said, “I have sinned,” but he also was an insincere, double-minded man. He loved the wages of unrighteousness more than God, and in due time his blossom fell off, resulting in nothing. In 1 Samuel 15:24 Saul told Samuel, “I sinned,” but he only said that to promote himself and get glory for himself. In Joshua 7:20 we read that Achan said the same thing- “I sinned”-but only after he was discovered and brought before the whole assembly of Israel. Judas Iscariot said the same thing in Matthew 27:4, but later on we learn that Judas’ repentance was not true repentance at all.

But two times, in Luke 15:18 and Luke 15:21, the prodigal son said, “I sinned,” “Hêmarton,” and his subsequent actions prove the sincerity of his confession. He now realized that he was a sinner and had sinned against God and his father. Sin is transgression of God’s law, and apparently this man now appreciated the word of God with its moral guidelines, and the Ten Commandments, and realized he had transgressed all of them.

We know the prodigal’s repentance was authentic because it resulted in good fruit. Having repented of his sins, this man got up and immediately began to move in a new direction, away from the far country of misery and death and to his father’s house of bread and happiness. True repentance is not merely a resolution. It must be proved and substantiated by deeds.

Salvation Is of the Lord

However, no one-no elect of God-will take this new direction unless the Father draws him irresistibly. So we believe in the irresistible grace of God and in God’s Spirit working within a person, causing him to repent, to believe, and to take a new direction. In John 6:44 Jesus Christ said, “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” meaning drawing him powerfully and irresistibly to himself. In John 12:32 Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” So the Father draws, the Son draws, and the Holy Spirit draws us-powerfully, irresistibly, and effectually. When that happens, we take a new direction. We repent and move on, away from sin and toward God. Such repentance will be authentic and substantiated by good works. PGM It is caused by God’s love seeking through Christ’s death and resurrection in the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit.

As I was reading this passage in the Greek text I noticed the word heuriskô, which means “to find,” is used seven times in all three parables. The lost sheep was found, the lost coin was found, and the lost son was found, as his father said, “This, my son, was lost, but now he is found.” It is God who is doing the finding; we just don’t find ourselves. We are lost, but God seeks and finds us and brings us into his kingdom.

What else did the father say? “This, my son, was dead, but he is alive again.” I don’t believe in self-resurrection. I am emphasizing the truth that God himself must raise us from the dead. God must seek us and draw us, and then we shall be drawn, found and made alive. No dead person can raise himself again, and no lost person can find himself. Only God can give life and only God can seek and find us. But we have the wonderful assurance that if there is a divine seeking, there will be a divine finding.

The Father Receives His Son

The fifth point we want to examine is the happy reception the father gave to his prodigal son. In Luke 15:19 we read, “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.”

What does this tell us about the father? First, it speaks of a father who was watching and waiting for his son. It speaks of our heavenly Father of infinite love, who is watching and waiting for us to repent and return to him.

Next, it says he had compassion on him. In spite of all the son’s sin, stubbornness, and rebellion, his father’s compassion never dried up. He still loved his son. We are told that this father ran to his son. That is not a dignified act for an old man. But, moved by love and compassion, the father forgot all decorum, dignity, and decency, and ran to embrace his returning son.

Then we are told the father kissed the son repeatedly. I am sure as he kissed, he told his son, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.” There were a lot of hugs from this old man.

And as the father was hugging and kissing and saying, “I love you” to his son, the confession came. When you are sought and found, when you are raised from the dead, you shall confess aright. You will not use excuses. You will not hide behind self-justification. You will not rationalize. You will not negotiate. You would say, as the prodigal did, “Hêmarton,” “I sinned.”

How clearly he sees now! “I sinned,” the boy told his father. And then he says, “I sinned against heaven,” meaning, “My sin is infinite because it is first and foremost against God.” This is what David said in Psalm 51:4, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” Then he said, “. . . and against you,” recognizing the great sin he had committed against his earthly father. Then he added, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

This is similar to the publican’s repentance in Luke 18:13, where we read, “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'” In the Greek it is, “Have mercy on me, ho hamartôlos, the sinner,” meaning, “I am the chief sinner in the whole world.”

That is what you will say when the Spirit of God comes upon you. God will not save anyone without repentance. But if he saves you, you will repent correctly.

The prodigal son was given full forgiveness of all his sins at that moment. And not only was he forgiven, but he was also restored back to full fellowship with his father and his father’s household. You see, many people think that just forgiving someone is satisfactory, but they don’t want to have fellowship with that person. That is not forgiveness in the biblical sense. If there is full forgiveness. then there will be full communion and full fellowship.

The father started issuing commands to his servants. First, he said, “Bring the robe, the first one.” In the Greek it means, “Bring that robe which is the finest in the house.” This was a rich house, and the father was saying, “Bring that robe that is fit for the king.” It speaks about distinction and being honored greatly. Oh, this son had returned to his father, only seeking the lowest position of a hired servant so that he could get some bread. But what God has for us when we turn to him will astound us.

Then the father said, “Bring the ring,” meaning a signet ring, the ring that spoke about having authority conferred upon the recipient. In other words, he was telling his son, “You are still my son, a distinguished member of my family, a son with authority.”

This prodigal son didn’t have any sandals when he came to his father, because slaves did not have any sandals, and that is what he had been reduced to. So the father told his servants, “Bring sandals for his feet.” These were symbols of freedom and symbols that he was a son, for only sons had shoes, not slaves.

“My son is home!” the father exclaimed. “Bring the robe, the finest. Bring the signet ring. Bring the sandals.” And then he said, “Bring that fattened calf and kill it.” Apparently he had been expecting his son to return. God does this with us as well. Every elect, no matter how far he may stray from God, will return, in due time, and God expects it. So the father called for the fattened calf to be killed. This was a special occasion, the best occasion, a great, grand occasion. The Bible tells us there is great rejoicing in heaven and on earth any time one sinner repents.

So the father said, “Let’s have a feast and celebrate.” There was music and dancing and great celebration because of the return of the lost son. Jesus speaks of such celebration in verses 7 and 10, as well as here in verse 23.

It is a miracle when a sinner repents. It is the work of divine seeking, divine drawing, and divine finding. It is a demonstration of God’s love in operation. It is a very special occasion, indeed.

The “Righteous” Older Brother

God seeks sinners, not the righteous, through his Son, Jesus Christ, who came to seek and save the lost. “Righteous” people-that is, those who think they are righteous in themselves-do not need a Savior. But if you are “righteous” in this way, I feel sorry for you. Yes, you may tell me that you are rich, and that you are not lost or sick. But I assure you that if you stay in a state of self-righteousness, you will never experience the salvation of Jesus Christ. He saves only sinners. He heals only those who are sick and finds only those who are lost.

The Pharisees got angry with Jesus because he befriended sinners, welcoming them, eating with them, and receiving them. Jesus said such people would always remain outside of his kingdom unless they changed. In this parable the self-righteous Pharisees are represented by the self-righteous elder brother. So in verse 28 we find him angry and outside. He has no need for a savior, and refuses to come inside when his father invites him to join the celebration in honor of his brother’s return.

How many times God does speak to such people who say they have no need? But where do such people remain? Outside of the Father’s house, outside of God’s kingdom. In Revelation 21:8 we read, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” And in Revelation 22:15 we read, “Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” In Matthew 8:11-12 Jesus himself said, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Outside!

But, notice, the prodigal-this miserable wretch, this less-than-a-pig prodigal-is inside. He finally found happiness, not in the far country, but in his father’s house in fellowship and communion with his father. He who wanted only to be the lowest in the home-a hired servant-was brought inside and restored to his sonship, receiving exceeding abundantly above all that he ever asked for or could imagine. Praise God for his mercy to prodigals!

What About You?

In conclusion, let me ask you a few questions: Have you left the Father and the Father’s house? How long has it been since you left? How long have you been living in a far country, seeking happiness in stubbornness and independence and autonomy? Let me ask you another question. Have you experienced God’s sovereign dealings of afflictions in your life? If so, did you wonder what God was telling you through those afflictions?

God calls us back to himself through pain, poverty, sickness, depression, misery, loneliness, and frustrations. If you have not found happiness in independence, I challenge you to begin to think clearly and see what God is calling you to do. I exhort you to rise today, right now, and return to God. The prodigal said, “I will arise and go,” and he did so immediately. His was not a phony promise. God worked in the prodigal and brought about authentic repentance.

I counsel you to take a new direction even today toward God and his kingdom, his word, and his church. Go to him and take words with you, saying, “O God, I have sinned against you. Sin has been my problem-sin against you, primarily, and against other people.” Then pray, “Have mercy upon me, a sinner.” The heavenly Father is waiting for you, and his compassion has not dried up. It is ever-flowing in great abundance.

What will happen if we do these things? God tells us he will forgive us all our sins and blot out all our transgressions. He promises to remember them no more, casting them behind his back and burying them in the deepest ocean. And when we experience such total forgiveness and restoration to fellowship from God, we will discover that which we wanted to find in the far country-happiness in his presence, fullness of joy, and pleasures evermore on his right hand.

If you are a prodigal son, I urge you to leave the far country, leave your sin and misery, and return to God. He whose love is beyond measure, our heavenly Father, is waiting for you, and promises to welcome you and forgive you. Isaiah tells us, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, and he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).

I pray that each of us will take new direction this year, going away from sin, arrogance, autonomy, and misery, and going toward the kingdom of God. May God have mercy upon us, forgive us all our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that we may experience today and forevermore the never-ending happiness of life in his presence. Amen.