Tag: Luke 15:11-32

Father’s Welcome

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Biblical Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

The parable of the Prodigal Son is the text. It remains one of the few biblical stories in common purchase. Which is good because at it most simplistic it is the Old Old Story. It is the pure gospel of the Father’s Welcome. But Jesus’ parables are always deeper than the simple application if we are willing to ponder them a bit. This sermon is an attempt to do that. Starting with the fact that the Bible doesn’t seem to like eldest children. There are three main points:

  1. The Providence of God is for everyone. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.
  2. There is only one way into the Father’s house, as a son.
  3. The feast is going to happen, the question is if you are there. (And to be there means to live as a member of the household whose currency is love.)

Give it a listen and think along with it. I could be wrong, but we tend to emphasize the love of God, but we don’t really think about the means. We think about it as some generic force that has no implications. But the parable brings one son back, but at the end leaves the son who had never left outside the festival tent.

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Divine Sovereign Grace

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Biblical Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

The text is the Prodigal Son, so you already know it. It is the gospel. Nothing can separate us from the Love of the Father.

But this sermon wants to meditate on the text in a little different way. How, if we haven’t been conditioned to hear it as we have been, would we hear it? What did the original hearers think? (I think they would have jumped at the two brothers theme. Jesus doesn’t go where an OT raised person would expect. More in the sermon.) What would someone in our West hearing this for the first time think? (I think this might be more common that we know. And I think it would be the absolute Sovereignty of the Father in the story. And the prideful natures of the sons. Again, more in the sermon.) Hearing it new today, yes, it is a parable about love and grace, but it is also a parable about pride. The only thing that separates us from the Love of the Father is our pride. But He is sovereign. And how he has done things, was necessary. And he doesn’t consult us. Do we humble ourselves, or would we rather be outside the party and the love?

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