Hello. My name is Frank Johnson, and I am speaking to you today from my video blog, ProdigalGod.com.

Today’s message will be the seventh and final part of a seven-part series entitled, “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

Through the first six parts of this series, we’ve looked at the Middle Eastern culture behind the parable, the core belief that both sons subscribed to, but the two very different philosophies of life that core belief led them to embrace, the depth of the younger son’s sin, the inner slavery of the elder son’s life, and the father’s great love which he expressed toward both his sons.

Today, we’re going to wrap up the series with some simple words for the younger sons among us and the elder sons among us.

Words For The Younger Son
Perhaps you are like the younger son. Perhaps you’ve committed some sin which you think is horrible and which you think will keep you forever from knowing God. You think you’ve strayed too far away from the ways of God to ever be accepted and loved by Him again. You think that returning to God would only mean punishment.

And what I want to say to you, dear one, is that no matter what you’ve done, no matter who you are, no matter where you are in life, no matter how far you think you’ve strayed, the Father’s heart is open wide for you, and you are welcome in His presence [Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992), pg. 2].

Even now, He sees you. Even now, He is consumed with compassion for your soul. Even now, He is rising and pulling up his robes. Even now, He is running to you. Even now, He longs to embrace you eagerly and kiss you fervently. Come home to the Father’s love. He will put the best robe on you. He will put a ring on your hand and sandals on your feet. And He will kill the fattened calf for you. And you will dine with Him in intimacy. And music and dancing and joy will be restored to your life. Come home to the Father’s love.

Words For The Elder Son
Or perhaps you are like the elder son. You are living in frustration, because you are struggling in your life to do everything right. You think that if you can just get everything straightened out in your life, then God will accept you and love you. You think that if you can just faithfully perform your duty, God will reward you.

And what I want to say to you, dear one, is that God accepts you now. He loves you now, in spite of all your imperfections and all your struggles. He loves you as you are, not as you should be. He loves you with a consistent love. He loves you with an ever-faithful love. He loves you with a relentless love. He loves you with a constantly-pursuing love. He loves you with a furious love.

And while you stand outside His presence, while you occupy yourself with trying to get everything right so you will be acceptable to Him, your Heavenly Father comes outside the house and calls you to His side and entreats you to enter into intimacy with Himself. He is the God of lavish grace. He is the God of extravagant mercy. He is the God of unrestrained love. He waits for you, and He waits for me, to pour His love upon us. He longs for intimacy with us. He longs to ravish our hearts with His love.

The Call Of The Prodigal God
Beloved, do you hear the call of the prodigal God? Do you hear His call to intimacy? Has your heart been ravished by the lavish, extravagant and unrestrained love of the Father?

If your answer to those questions is “Yes” and “No,”; in other words, if you hear the call of the prodigal God, if you hear His call to intimacy, but your heart has not yet been ravished by His love, then I invite you to cry out to Him and ask Him to ravish your heart in the days and weeks to come.

This concludes the seventh and final part of our seven-part series entitled “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

Thank you for joining me today.

Hello. My name is Frank Johnson, and I am speaking to you today from my video blog, ProdigalGod.com.

Today’s message will be the sixth in a seven-part series entitled, “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

Throughout this series, I’m basing my comments on Luke 15:11-32, so if you’d like to open your Bibles to that passage, you will be ready to follow along.

Let’s get started.

Last time we were together, we began to look at the life of the elder son in the story we traditionally call the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.”

And we saw that the elder son saw his work as slavery to his father and that he refused to enter into intimacy with his father.

Today, we’re going to examine the reaction of his father to the elder son’s attitudes and actions.

Entreated By The Father
In the parable, how does the father react to all of this? And since in the parable, the father represents our Heavenly Father, the answer to this question will also tell us how our Heavenly Father reacts to us when we refuse to enter into intimacy with Him because we believe that we need to work harder and live holier lives before He will accept us and love us.

How does the father react to the elder son?

Luke 15:25-32 says, “Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things might be. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he became angry, and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began entreating him. But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a kid, that I might be merry with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ And he said to him, ‘My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”

“....and his father came out and began entreating him.”

This is abnormal. This is bizarre. This is strange, because no self-respecting Middle Eastern father would do this. He would certainly come out, but he would not entreat his son. Instead, he would beat him mercilessly to within an inch of his life, because the elder son is humiliating his father [Kenneth E. Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal, pgs. 69-70].

And it’s interesting to me that this is the expectation of all who live by the elder son’s standard. We feel that the only way to gain the acceptance of our Heavenly Father is through faithful performance of duty, and when we fail to faithfully perform our duty, we expect to be punished, to be beaten mercilessly as it were.

But, beloved, can you see the heart of your Heavenly Father in the heart of this Middle Eastern father?

The father in our parable comes out and entreats his son. The Greek word which is translated “entreat” is parakaleo. It is made up of two words: para, which means “alongside,” and kaleo, which means “to call.” And so parakaleo literally means “to call alongside.”

And this is just what the father does. Instead of beating his son, he calls his son to his side. He calls his son to intimacy with himself. He is saying, “Son, all your life you’ve found your fulfillment, your satisfaction, your security, your stability, and your meaning in life in what you do, in attempting to faithfully perform what you feel is your duty to me. But hear the cry of my heart, son: I accept you and love you as you are, and I long for intimacy with you.”

And beloved, our God says the same to us: “All your life, son; all your life, daughter, you’ve found your fulfillment, your satisfaction, your security, your stability, and your meaning in life in what you do, in your work, in attempting to faithfully perform what you feel is your duty to Me. But hear the cry of My heart, son; hear the cry of My heart, daughter: I accept you and love you as you are, and I long for intimacy with you.”

A successful relationship with God does not depend on our correct behavior. Instead, it depends upon the love of God and upon our decision to accept and receive that love.

The Parable Of The Prodigal God
We call this story “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.”

Do you know what the word “prodigal” means? For many years, I did not know the definition of “prodigal.” I always thought it referred to someone who had gone away or separated themselves from someone else. But that’s not what the word means at all.

The word “prodigal” means “lavish, extravagant and unrestrained” [Lloyd John Ogilvie, Autobiography of God: God Revealed in the Parables of Jesus (Ventura: Regal Books, 1979), pg. 10].

Then who in the story is prodigal? Who in the story is lavish? Who in the story is extravagant? Who in the story is unrestrained?

It is the father who is prodigal. It is the father who is lavish, lavish in his love for his sons. It is the father who is extravagant, extravagant in his love for his sons. It is the father who is unrestrained, unrestrained in his love for his sons. It is the father who is prodigal.

This is not the parable of the prodigal son. It is the parable of the prodigal God [Lloyd John Ogilvie, Autobiography of God: God Revealed in the Parables of Jesus (Ventura: Regal Books, 1979), pg. 10], the God who is lavish in His love for you, the God who is extravagant in His love for you, the God who is unrestrained in His love for you. There are no limits to the Father’s love. There are no limits to the Father’s grace. There are no limits to the Father’s mercy. He is lavish, extravagant and unrestrained in His love for you. He is the prodigal God!

This concludes the sixth part of our seven-part series entitled “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

I hope that you will join me next time as we wrap up this series with a few simple words to the younger sons among us and the elder sons among us.

Thank you for joining me today.

Hello. My name is Frank Johnson, and I am speaking to you today from my video blog, ProdigalGod.com.

Today’s message will be the fifth in a seven-part series entitled, “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

Throughout this series,I’ll be basing my comments on Luke 15:11-32, so if you’d like to open your Bibles to that passage, you will be ready to follow along.

Let’s get started.

Last time we were together, we finished looking at the life of the younger son in the story we traditionally call the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.”

And we looked primarily at the reaction of the father to his younger son’s sin, and we found that the health of the relationship between the younger son and his father did not depend on correct behavior on the younger son’s part but instead on the love of the father.

Today, we’re going to begin looking at the life of the elder son and discover how his inner slavery prevented him from experiencing a full love relationship with his father.

The Elder Son: His Slavery
Let’s examine for a moment the life and attitudes of the elder son. Do you remember his philosophy of life? Like his younger brother, the elder son believes that a successful relationship with his father depends on correct behavior. But this belief leads him to a different philosophy of life: faithful performance of duty merits reward. If you do the right things, your father will reward you. If you live right, your father will accept you and love you. So you have to try as hard as you can to do everything right and not make any mistakes.

And so not surprisingly, much of the elder son’s life revolved around his work and around his performance of what he understood to be his duty to his father.

When his younger brother returns from the far country, the elder son is in the fields, working. He’s performing his duty to his father. We see this in verse 25.

And in verse 29, while arguing with his father, he compares himself with his younger brother in the area of performance of duty. He doesn’t understand why his brother is rewarded when he hasn’t performed his duty to his father, but that he (the elder son) is not rewarded even though he has worked hard and faithfully performed his duty to his father. This is exactly the philosophical problem with which the Pharisees and scribes were struggling.

The elder son says to his father, “Look! For so many years I have been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours (I’ve performed my duty to you); and yet you have never given me a kid, that I might be merry with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots (he has not even come close to performing his duty to you), you kill the fattened calf for him.”

Do you see the elder son’s mentality: faithful performance of duty merits reward. He thought that if he did the right things, his father would reward him. He thought that if he did the right things, his father would accept him and love him.

And many of us unfortunately tend to live our lives before God according to this same philosophy: faithful performance of duty merits reward. If I just do all the right things, God will reward me. If I just live correctly, God will accept me and love me. If I can just be holy and righteous, then I can live in intimacy with God.

What the elder son failed to understand is the same thing we fail to understand: we don’t need to strive to gain the Father’s acceptance and love because we already have His acceptance and love.

Do you notice the focus of the elder son’s words: “For so many years I have been serving you....” One translation says, “All these years I’ve been slaving for you....”

In fact, the Greek word which is translated “serving” in verse 29 literally means “to serve as a slave” and comes from a root which can include the idea of bondage.

The elder son sees his work as slavery. As an aside at this point, the major difference between a slave and a son is that the slave has virtually no relationship with his master, while the son is expected to experience a great deal of intimacy with his father.

The elder son believes that the only way to gain his father’s acceptance is through faithful performance of duty. He has never neglected one of his father’s commands. He finds his security, stability and meaning in life, not in his relationship with his father, but in what he does, in the performance of his duty.

Refused Intimacy
We’ve seen the elder son’s philosophy of life. He believes that he should be rewarded for the faithful performance of what he believes is his duty to his father. Now, let’s examine his attitude toward his relationship with his father.

And the one thing which stands out above all else in this regard is that the elder son refused to enter into intimacy with his father.

Verse 28 says, “But he became angry, and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began entreating him.”

“(He) was not willing.”

The Greek word which is translated “not willing” in verse 28 literally means “to wish, to will, to want, to desire, to be ready to do something.” It’s a gutsy word—a word of purpose and resolve; it implies a choice of the will and determination. And the verb is in what is called the imperfect tense, which signifies continuous action. He continually refused to enter into his father’s house.

“(He) was not willing to go in.”

He was not willing to go into his father’s house. What’s happening inside his father’s house? A meal, the symbol of intimacy. He was not willing to enter into intimacy with his father.

Notice in verse 29 that the elder son is willing to eat the fattened calf, but not with his father. He wants to eat it with his friends, not with his father. He wants intimacy with his friends, not with his father.

And so, the elder son continually refused to enter into intimacy with his father.

Why did the elder son refuse to enter into intimacy with his father? The answer to that question lies in something we’ve already seen. The elder son was constantly striving to gain his father’s acceptance and love, which means that he didn’t believe he yet had his father’s acceptance and love.

Why would anyone want to experience intimacy with someone who did not accept nor love him? Since the elder son mistakenly felt that his father did not love nor accept him, he did not desire any form of intimacy with his father.

Again, the verbs in this verse are in the imperfect tense, signifying continuous action. Thus, the elder son’s choice to not enter into intimacy with his father was not a casual decision. It was an attitude of his heart which had been reinforced over and over again by countless one-time decisions to refuse intimacy with his father.

The elder son was driven by his goal and purpose to faithfully perform what he thought was his duty to his father. He thought that by faithfully performing his duties, he would gain his father’s acceptance. But he was blind to the fact that he had always had his father’s acceptance. In the faithful performance of his duties, the elder son ignored the desire of his father’s heart: intimacy.

Who Was The Wayward Son?
Who in this parable was the wayward son? Was it the younger son? He was wayward at the beginning of the story, but he came back to his father and was no longer wayward. But the elder son remained wayward throughout the story. He didn’t go to the far country like his younger brother. But he didn’t have to take a long journey to reach the far country, because the far country was always in his heart [Lloyd John Ogilvie, Autobiography of God: God Revealed in the Parables of Jesus (Ventura: Regal Books, 1979), pg. 10].

The “far country” does not consist primarily of sinful actions. Instead, the “far country” consists primarily of separation from the father.

What the younger son had done in the far country was relatively unimportant. What was important was that he had been separated from his father. He did not experience intimacy with his father while he was in the far country.

On the other hand, the elder son did everything correctly. He had never neglected one of his father’s commands. He had faithfully performed what he felt was his duty to his father. Deafened by his drive for acceptance and love, though, he did not hear the cry of his father’s heart. He remained separated from his father. He continued to refuse to enter into intimacy with his father, and in this, he was forever a citizen of the far country.

Many people today are just like the elder son. We are consumed by our drive for the acceptance and love of our Heavenly Father. And we think that the way to gain our Father’s acceptance and love is through the faithful performance of our duty, through doing all the right things. But we are blind to the fact that we have always had our Father’s acceptance and love.

This concludes the fifth part of our seven-part series entitled “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

I hope that you will join me next time as we begin to examine the reaction of the father to the elder son’s attitudes and actions.

Thank you for joining me today.

Hello. My name is Frank Johnson, and I am speaking to you today from my video blog, ProdigalGod.com.

Today’s message will be the fourth in a seven-part series entitled, “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

Throughout this series,I’ll be basing my comments on Luke 15:11-32, so if you’d like to open your Bibles to that passage, you will be ready to follow along.

Let’s get started.

Last time we were together, we began to examine the life of the younger son in the story we traditionally call the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.”

And we looked at the depth of his sin, but we also began to discover the depths to which his father’s love would reach to restore him.

Today, we’re going to look further into that truth - that no matter how deep we have fallen into sin, the love of our Father can reach even farther to restore us.

A Long Way Off
Let’s take a closer look at verse 20. First of all, it says that while the younger son was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him.

The Greek word which is translated by the phrase “a long way off” is a derivative of the word which is translated “distant” or “far” in the phrase “distant or far country” in verse 13.

The significance of this is that no matter how far the younger son had strayed, the father still saw him in his heart, still felt compassion for him, and still longed to run to him and embrace him and kiss him. He saw him a long way off. He saw him, even in the far country.

Again, this is a picture of your Heavenly Father. No matter how far you have strayed, no matter how far away your distant country lies, your Heavenly Father still sees you in His heart, still feels compassion for you, and He still longs to run to you and embrace you and kiss you. He sees you, even in your far country. His eyes are watching over you, even in your distant country.

He Felt Compassion For Him
Verse 20 says that the father felt compassion for the younger son.

The Greek word which is translated compassion comes from a root which refers literally to the deepest inner organs of a person’s body. The idea is that this is a compassion which comes from the deepest part of a person’s soul.

It means to be moved with compassion, to yearn with compassion.

The writer is using the strongest term available to him to describe the emotion the father experiences when he sees his son returning. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that the father is consumed with compassion for his son. His compassion for his son is the most intense emotion he could possibly feel.

Again, this is a picture of your Heavenly Father. No matter what you have done, your Heavenly Father is consumed with compassion for your soul. His love and compassion for you are the most intense emotions anyone could ever feel for you.

The Day God Ran
We’re told that when the father saw his son, he ran to him.

No Middle Eastern man runs. It’s humiliating. But the father was full of compassion for his son, so when he saw him, he ran.

In order to run, the father would have had to pull up his robes and expose himself. It was humiliating.

One thing which the story doesn’t specifically mention but would have occurred in a Middle Eastern village will give us a vivid picture of how deep the father’s love for his son was.

When the younger son returned from the far country, he would have been in rags. And normally, if the son had returned in such a state, the young ruffians and bandits of the village would have gathered around him and followed him all the way through town, taunting him and shaming him.

But because the father pulled up his robes and ran to his son, exposing himself, the young ruffians and bandits who would have taunted and shamed the son instead taunted and shamed the father [Kenneth E. Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1973), pg. 55].

The father took upon himself the shame that was due his son. Do you see the cross?

Remember, this is a picture of your God. On the cross, Jesus took the shame and the punishment that were due you because of your sin. So “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” There is no punishment awaiting you when you return to your father, because Jesus took all the punishment for you. There is no shame awaiting you when you return to your father, because the shame of the world was laid on Jesus.

When you return to your Heavenly Father, expecting punishment and feeling shame, lift your eyes and you will see your Father pulling up his robes and running to you!

Eagerly Embraced and Fervently Kissed
The passage tells us that when the father reached his younger son, he embraced and kissed his son.

Both words here have interesting connotations. The word for “embrace” means “to embrace spontaneously and eagerly.” The word for “kiss” means “to kiss fervently.”

According to Middle Eastern custom, when the son returned from the distant country and first met his father, it would have been required of the son that he kneel before his father and kiss his feet in utter humility [Kenneth E. Bailey, Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke 15 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1992), pgs. 146-147].  I can imagine that the younger son was ready to do this when his father approached him. But as he began to kneel in order to kiss his father’s feet, his father lifted him up and embraced him and kissed him.

When you return to your Heavenly Father, all that you feel you need to do to restore yourself to your Father is of no benefit. It is the Father who will restore you by His grace and in His mercy.

So when the father saw his son, he felt compassion for him, ran to him, embraced him eagerly and kissed him fervently.

Again, this is a picture of your Heavenly Father. His great desire is to embrace you eagerly and kiss you fervently in the Spirit. He longs to express His deep love for you.

A typical Middle Eastern father would not have done what this father did. A typical Middle Eastern father would have ignored his son. He would not have paid any attention to his son. And then later, he would have beaten his son mercilessly, to within an inch of his life [Kenneth E. Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal, pg. 54].

And that’s exactly what the younger son expected. Because his core belief dictated that that is what would happen. If it were true that a succesful relationship with one’s father depended upon correct behavior, then only punishment could await him.

But instead, this father saw his son “while he was still a long way off....and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Notice that the son doesn’t say everything he planned to say. He had planned to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son’ make me as one of your hired men.” But he only says part of what he planned to say: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

Stunned By The Love Of God
The younger son expected to first be ignored and then beaten. But instead, when he enters the village, he sees his father rise, pull up his robe and run to him and feels his father embrace him and kiss him.

The younger son was shocked. He had never seen his father run. He never expected to be embraced and kissed. He was shocked by the depth of his father’s love. And so, although he planned to suggest how his father should punish him, he instead was cut short and didn’t complete what he planned to say.

In that moment, his core belief was shattered and his philosophy of life lay in ruins at his feet. He could no longer believe that a successful relationship with one’s father depends upon correct behavior. He had to recognize that a successful relationship with his father depended upon the father’s great love and upon the younger son’s decision to accept and receive that love.

And I’d like to suggest to you that every person must be brought to this same point in life where they are shocked and stunned and overwhelmed and even ravished by the depth of the love of their Father in heaven, ravished by a love which cannot be believed, by a love which cannot be fathomed, ravished by the consistent, ever-faithful, relentless, constantly-pursuing, furious love of God, ravished by a love beyond their wildest dreams.

Every person must come to this same moment when his/her belief that a successful relationship with God depends upon correct behavior is shattered. Every person must come to this same moment when he/she recognizes that a successful relationship with God depends upon God’s great love and upon the person’s decision to accept and receive that love.

Charles Wesley, in his great hymn, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain,” wrote these words: “Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my God shouldst die for me?” [The Methodist Hymnal (New York: The Methodist Book Concern, 1905), pg. 218].  He was stunned by the love of God.

In Ephesians, Paul said that God’s love “surpasses knowledge”—it is beyond comprehension. He was overwhelmed by the love of God.

And you must have this same experience: you must be shocked, stunned, overwhelmed, and yes, even ravished by the depth of God’s love for you. You must come to the point in your life where you realize that no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, no matter where you are in life, no matter how far you think you’ve strayed, the Father’s heart is open wide for you, and you are welcome in His presence.

You must have a vision of your Father seeing you, rising to his feet, pulling up his robe, and running to you and embracing and kissing you.

This concludes the fourth part of our seven-part series entitled “Wayward Sons and a Prodigal God.”

I hope that you will join me next time as we begin to examine the life of the elder son and the slavery he experiences in life.

Thank you for joining me today.