How Our Father Feels

HOW OUR FATHER FEELS

Luke 15: 11-24

When you come to chapter 15 of Luke, the Pharisees and scribes have for some time been trying to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people.

They are jealous of the following that Jesus has, and they are jealous of the way that the people marvel at His teachings, and that jealousy drives them to try to tarnish the image that people have of Jesus.
If they can discredit Jesus they can promote their own agenda. We are seeing this in our society today.

So, here in Luke 15, when they see all these tax gatherers and sinners coming near to Jesus…and listening to Him they (the Pharisees and scribes) grumble and say, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

In their minds no holy man of God would be associated with these kinds of people.
They certainly wouldn’t be.

So, they try to discredit Jesus and Jesus responds.

He responds with this parable found in verses 11-24…and what Jesus does in this parable is He presents God to them in a way that was, for the most part, foreign to them.
He presents God as a “father.”

You see, in the OT scriptures, which the Pharisees and scribes claimed to have a great knowledge of, when it came to God being a “father” they thought of Him as being a “father” primarily in reference to Him as being the “originator”…as the one who gave Israel their beginning.

They didn’t think of God as being an intimate, caring, loving, compassionate “father” who was concerned for his children.

So this concept of God as a loving Father was somewhat foreign to them.

They preferred a God who was so righteous and holy that there is no way that He would care for or associate with tax gatherers or sinners.

But that is not the concept of God that Jesus had.

Over 250 times in the NT God is referred to as “Father” and this is due mainly because that is how Jesus referred to God.
When it came to a designation for God, Jesus used the word “Father” more than any other designation.

Jesus used the term “Father” 107 times in the Gospel of John.

And here in the book of Luke the very first recorded words of Jesus are: “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s {house?”}
And the last recorded words of Jesus on the cross were: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

Jesus saw God as a Father…but not just a Father…but a caring Father who wanted his children back.

You see, the scriptures teach that, in the sense of creation, all men are God’s children.
But sin has driven the children of God away from home.
And God wants His children back, something these Pharisees and scribes didn’t comprehend.

So Jesus, in order to try and teach these Pharisees, and in order to point out their error to the multitudes, teaches this parable and presents God as a Father.

So, this morning, let’s look at this parable…and let’s look at the “father”…and let’s learn some things about our heavenly Father…and how He feels about a son who leaves home…and is lost…and who is found.

Let’s learn how He feels about us.

And let me tell you what I suspect.

I suspect that there is someone here, or you and I know someone who, like the boy in this parable, wants to come home…but they haven’t because they have the same concept of God as these Pharisees and scribes did.
And it may be the reason they have that concept is because of the way that perhaps you and I, as God’s people act or think.
Let’s look at this parable and learn what kind of Father we really have.

Look at verses 11-13. We have already read them so we won’t read them again but the first thing I want you to notice is when the boy left home the father didn’t stop him.

Our Father is not going to keep us any where we don’t want to be.
He doesn’t want us to leave.
When we leave it must be heartbreaking to Him.
We understand that because some of us have had our kids leave home and we know how disappointing it is.
And what makes this situation worse is this boy leaves and goes to the “distant country” and you can read and see what happens there.
This must have been very disappointing to this boy’s father.

But the point is, our Father doesn’t want us to leave home; it is heartbreaking for Him, but if we choose to leave He will not stop us.

The father here in this parable could have chained this boy to the farm…but the boy’s heart would have been somewhere else.
In like manner, God is not going to chain us down…if we don’t want to stay with Him He is not going to stop us.

But keep this in mind.

When you choose to leave the Father…that is when the trouble begins, just like it did for the boy in this parable (seeing this in our society today).

So, this boy leaves his father…and many fathers in this situation would say, “You leave, don’t you come back.”

But not our Father.
Look at this.
This boy spends all his inheritance…he is broke and hungry.
He gets a job feeding hogs.
And finally he decides to go home…and beg his father to let him be a hired man.
Sometimes the only time some people realize their need for God is when they are as far down as they can get!

And notice verse 20. It says: “While he was a long way off his father saw him.”

Why? Because the father was looking for him.
You see, in this story, the boy leaves…not the father.
But when the boy leaves…the father is always looking for him, hoping he will come home.

We understand that don’t we?

We have all waited for our kids to come home.
Oh you don’t just stand and look out the window every second.
But every time you pass by the window you look…
And you make a point to pass by the window so you can look.
In fact, so you can watch, you may even decide for the first time in 10 years, that that window needs cleaned.

But you watch.

And finally you hear a car door…and you run to the door…and you are disappointed because it wasn’t his car….it was a car a block down the street…that is how hard you are listening.
And so you wait and watch and watch…and finally you see him coming down the street.

That’s the picture Jesus paints here of our “Father”…He is always watching…hoping we will come home.

He is always willing for those who are lost to come home.

And notice what He feels in verse 20. It says, “He felt compassion for him.”

That word “compassion” in the Greek actually means, “he hurt in his gut” for him.
He didn’t feel contempt for him.
He didn’t stand there and say, “You left, don’t come back.”
“You got what you deserved.”
He felt compassion for him.

And, notice what it says next. It says that He, “stubbornly stayed in the house and waited for that boy to come to him”…after all, “the boy left…not me…no way I am going to run to him.”

No! He stood on the porch and when the boy got there he said…”Well, it is about time you came to your senses.”
“OR do you really think you can just come back and everything will be ok?”

That is not what it says. It says that the father “ran and embraced him.”

This is an amazing statement that must have shocked these Pharisees and scribes.
This was not something that you did.
You didn’t just hike up your robe and show your legs and take off running like he did.
That wasn’t the proper thing to do.
But, that is how important it was to the father for his son who was lost to come home.

I remember when my son was at boot camp…and we went down for his graduation…we were finally going to get to see him.

They came marching in formation…all dressed in their dress blues.
And they went through a flag ceremony.
And finally we as parents were allowed to go down on the field to see them.
I wasn’t too concerned about protocol and etiquette and I quickly found my way through the crowd until I found him!
I wanted to see my son!

And that is the way God feels.

Remember when the soldiers came home from Desert Storm?

When those people hadn’t seen their sons or their husbands for some time.
And they had all these ropes up for everyone to stay behind.
But as soon as those soldiers got off those planes…what did people do?

You see, what is important is to get to your boy as quick as you can.

Here in verse 20 is the only place in the Bible that I know of where God is in a hurry.

And it says, “He embraced him.”

You know, arms can say a lot.
I have seen all different kinds of daddy’s arms.
I’ve seen dads cross their arms as if to say, “I dare you to take one more step in this house.”
Or a dad can throw his arms up in the air like, “What in the world am I going to do with you?”
Or a dad can put his arms out like this as if to say, “I love you this much.”
That is what this daddy did.
And, our heavenly Father has too.
On the cross.

And the verse says, “He kissed him.”

“I love you son.”

Do you know what this father did that the Pharisees didn’t do…and what some of us don’t do?

The father focused on this boy’s present repentance instead of the previous rebellion and he restored his boy to sonship.

And notice something else; vs. 19.

The son had all of it worked out, he had all the offers to make, all the speeches about how he would be a hired man.
And in verse 21 the boy confesses that He has sinned.
And, what I want you to notice is the Father allowed the confession…but He didn’t allow concession.
He took him back as his son.

We some times will allow someone to come back…but things aren’t going to be like they once were.

Our Father isn’t that way.

True story…J.W. Rosenberry…Methodist minister…young man on train…nervous, I am a minister is there something you would like to talk about….he and his father had literally come to blows. Boy left…change of heart…wrote mom…said….the train runs right by the farm…and if dad will let me come home…just tie a towel around the tree….looked like snow had fallen…sheets on fences…in trees…last image G. W Rosenberry saw was this boy running up the road toward that farm with his suitcase in his hand.

That is the kind of father we have.

He wants His wayward children to come home.
He longs for them to come home.
And if they will, He will restore them to the full privileges of son-ship.

Now, real quickly let me mention some things that you and I may need to do.

First, we may need to alter our view of God.

He is our Father…a Father who is compassionate and who loves and cares about His children.

But do you know what we struggle with. I think we struggle to believe that people could matter that much to God.

Jesus’ critics didn’t think they did.
Why did the Pharisees in Luke 15 act the way they did?
Because they thought they were acting like God?
Holiness to them was holding themselves apart from everyone they considered to be less holy than they were.
They had no contact with sinners because they thought God didn’t.

Some of us may need to change our view of God.

You see, our view of God is going to affect our ministry.
It is going to affect our message.
We are going to preach what we think God is.
And if our view of God is wrong…we may give people the impression that they are not welcome to come back to the Father…that the Father will not take them back, even if they do confess they have been wrong.

The second thing some of us may need to do is alter our view of sinners.

They are lost children.

Do you know who Luke 15 was written for?

Luke 15 was written for people who had themselves crossed the bridge of forgiveness and then they wanted to turn around and blow it up so no one else can get across.
And Jesus is saying, “Listen, pagan people may be prodigals. But they are not pigs. They bear the mark of their Father and their Father wants them back!”

What that means for us as His church is that we are in the business of trying to get His children home.

And that means we have got to constantly ask ourselves, are we doing things around here for us or for them?

And then 3^rd, some of us need to realize that our Father will meet anyone at the altar.

He will get in a hurry to meet them.

I cannot understand a heart that will say no to a love…to a father like that.

I do not know any reason in the world why anyone shouldn’t come back to the Father today.