Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
The Prodigal Son and the Gifts of Grace
In our discussion, we reflect on how the parable of the prodigal son reveals the patience and compassion of the Father, offering us an opportunity to reconsider our relationship with God through the lens of His unconditional love. As we examine Romans 8:38-39, be reminded that nothing can separate us from this divine love—a truth that stands firm against all trials. We delve into the purpose behind Jesus Christ’s life, exploring how Christmas marks the beginning of God’s grand gift of love through His Son. Together, let’s embrace this journey towards understanding the true meaning of Christmas and the everlasting love offered to us.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Let's turn our Bibles to the book of Psalms. We're going to start with Psalm 36, 5 through to 7. Your unfailing love, o Lord, is as vast as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike. O Lord, how precious is your unfailing love. O God, all humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. Ready, find shelter in the shadow of your wings. And we'll finish off with John 3.16.
Speaker 1:Literally, everybody should know this. Whether you're a Christian or not, whether you're born again or whether you're spirit-fueled, everybody is aware of this scripture in some context. John 3.16,. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so whomever believed in him would have everlasting life. One would think this subject to be reserved for Father's Day, but I think it's also appropriate for Christmas.
Speaker 1:The title of my message today is the Heart of the Father, or you could call it His Love are one and the same, regardless of your relationship with our earthly fathers, and I know that some of you may have not had the best of an earthly father. Some of you may have lost your father too early in life, and others will just think that they had the best dad in the world. Regardless of this, our relationship with our earthly father does not define the relationship we have with our heavenly father. Our heavenly father is the God who created the heavens and the earth. He is the author, he's the beginning, he is the omega and he's the alpha and he's the alpha. Everything about him pertains to goodness, love, joy, peace, happiness. I just want to quote something from W Tozer. He was a pastor and an author from Canada from 1897 through to 1963. Many years ago he proposed this statement.
Speaker 1:What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. So what comes into your mind when you think about God? What is he like? Is he a good father to you? Which of the characteristics of God pop into your mind first? How do you think he feels about you and how do you believe he acts towards you? It's the same with a lot of things. How we see something or how we perceive it has a lot to do with how much we allow it to be within our lives.
Speaker 1:So if we turn our attention now to the Gospels and if we go to you know, you know chapter 15. The entire chapter of this gospel is about three parables for us to meditate on. The parable that we are going to concentrate on is the parable of the prodigal son. We will learn much about our Heavenly Father in this parable. We often focus on the two sons and ask which one we think we might be more like.
Speaker 1:Today, I want us to use this parable to gain a deeper understanding of the love of the Father Now, in the same way that we see the different reflection that Matthew, mark, luke and John had when they were talking about the parable of the prodigal son. So how important was it for them to mention not only the parable but to go into depth in relation to it? But if you look at the entire chapter of Luke 15, this is where the three separate parables told by Jesus to an audience of tax collectors and notorious sinners who had come to sit and receive teaching from Jesus. Luke looked at this parable so differently to the other Gospels. In the same way, every single one of us will look at our Heavenly Father in a different way. How do you perceive him and how do you see the importance of him in his life? Perceive him and how do you see the importance of him in his life, because I'm probably jumping ahead of myself a little bit here, but I'll just give you a little snippet right.
Speaker 1:The reason this relates to Christmas is because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So he gave us our Lord and Saviour, jesus Christ, not only to live with us, to breathe with us, to walk amongst us, but to teach us how to be followers of him. And then he went one step further and sacrificed him for every one of us. I just want to allow that to sink into you a little bit. So the importance of the celebrative times that we have about our Lord and Saviour come into full context and you'll see why. Not only did he give us his son, but he gave us so, so much more. Can you only imagine the scene when the Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law, who were eavesdropping, heard what he said and what he was saying? Every single person listening was hanging on. Every word he was talking about was hanging on every word he was talking about. They started grumbling and complaining and being upset about the association with those people. In typical Jesus fashion, he began to tell stories to all who had ears to hear, especially even those religious ones.
Speaker 1:Upon first reading the story, you seem to focus on the lost a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son. There is something about what was lost and then what was found, about what was lost and then what was found. However, when we slow down and read a little deeper and we go through this a few times, we can learn about the one who experienced the loss. When a man lost his sheep, he leaves behind the 99 and goes searching for the one. When he finds it, he is so joyful. He carries it home on his shoulders. He calls his friends and neighbors to join him to rejoice and celebrate the return of that precious sheep. The woman lost one of her coins. She gets up and begins searching for what has been lost. When it is found, she calls her neighbour and her friends to join her in rejoicing for what had been found.
Speaker 1:A father has lost his son. In actuality, his son just left. So he asked his dad for his inheritance and he hit the road looking for something better and something different. He was not content anymore and he felt that he needed to go and explore the world. In an act of generosity and grace the dad gave the bold ask of the child, his portion of his estate On the part of the younger son and the sacrificial response on the part of the father. If you jump to the end of the story, you will find that the son returned and the father is so excited that he throws a big party to celebrate the return of the loss. But if we do, we will miss so much about the father, not to mention learning about the other son.
Speaker 1:The word lost it is actually a term of endearment. Yeah, I know you would think that loss means that it's sadness, it's something that you grieve over. No, if something is lost and you are frantically searching for it, it means that it matters to you. Have you ever lost something that matters so much to you? Just remember how you felt. What did you do? Did you ever find it? What did you do? Did you ever find it? In the case of the prodigal son, the father didn't know where he was.
Speaker 1:We know from the parable that he was waiting for his return. Now, we can explore that deeper a bit later on, but I want to focus on this for a minute. Are you waiting deeper a bit later on? But I want to focus on this for a minute. Are you waiting on someone to come home, someone to come home to you, someone to come home to the Lord? What do you do in the waiting? We do as the father of the parable did. We get prepared for the return. We wait, we pray. We never give up. In the same way, our Heavenly Father never gives up. He is a patient Father who keeps looking, always looking. Let this be a comfort to you as you wait. The Father is always waiting for his sons and daughters to come home. Waiting for his sons and daughters to come home. This is what our Heavenly Father is doing day in and day out.
Speaker 1:Both the leaving and the returning of the son in this parable is very vivid. The son comes to his senses. He realizes that home is where he wants to be. There's a Christian show on SBS at the moment, or ABC, and you can get it on Good and some other streaming channels. It's called Home is when the Heart Is right and it's just the story of the people living in a small mining town and the things that they go through and the losses and the gains that they have taken place in their life. But Home is when the Heart Is is a very prevalent thing to be talking about here. See, he wants to go home, but he realizes that even though home is where he needs to be, he doesn't know how he's going to be received or whether he's going to be received. He begins to rehearse that he is going to say to his father Before he even gets close enough to his father to begin speaking. His father sees him and I picture the dad sitting on the front porch. The dad sitting on the front porch waiting and praying for his boy to come home. This is in Luke 15. 20 describes the father as being filled with love and compassion. What a beautiful response that is. The next scene describes the father as running to his son. The dad gets up and begins to run. When he reaches him, he embraces him and kisses him. The son begins his rehearsed speech. The father seems not to be concerned about what his son has to say. To be concerned about what his son has to say. The dad starts making preparation for the celebration of the return of what was lost. The father declares his son has gone from dead to being alive.
Speaker 1:Psalm 103.13 says Psalm 103.13 says the Lord is like a father of his children, tender and compassionate to those whom fear him. And when it says who fear him, you've got to have that reverential fear. It's not fear as in oh, I'm scared of you. No, it's a reverential fear. It's not fear as in oh, I'm scared of you. No, it's a reverential fear. It's like you're in awe of our Heavenly Father. But this parable reveals the heart of our Heavenly Father. He is a Father who is waiting for us, searching for us and hoping for our return. Jesus always told parables, powerful, fictional stories that in enduring truth about God and life, jesus came to reveal the unconditional love of God and invites us into his love.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm quite excited about this because, you know, even when you're reading through the Bible and you read certain passages and they sort of like jump out at you, it's basically like something within that scripture was lost. It was lost to you because you didn't get that raiment knowledge of it. And so if you try and look at this from the perspective of just this parable alone, in comparison to what you're getting out of the word of God, you will start to get a sense of it. But if you're a father, or even if you're a mother and you've had a child who's lost lost either to the world, so they're lost spiritually, or they've left home prematurely. And I don't mean you know like you want them staying at home until they're like 45, married and got five kids. No, I'm just saying that they've left home prematurely, maybe well before they were ready to go out into the world, and you're hoping and praying that they come back. So try and visualize how you are feeling when that has actually happened to you and hopefully they have actually returned to the sheepfold. So let's get back to the parable.
Speaker 1:As we continue to read the parable, we see that the older son is displeased with his father and resentful of his brother. He refuses to go into the house again. The father goes to him. He approaches son. After the harsh words and the disrespect the father lovingly explains to him. He answers the older son with patience and grace. He responded to the younger son with unconditional love, a warm embrace and forgiveness. This father wants both of his sons back together with him, back together around the family table.
Speaker 1:Do you see and feel the father's heart? This is the heart of our Heavenly Father. He gives us love and grace when we deserve it the least. Now let me tell you that again. I will complete this in one phrase he gives us. Our Heavenly Father gives us love and grace when we deserve it the least. So, in other words, we are so unworthy of his love and grace, but he will still give it to us. He meets us with tenderness, warmth, and when we feel the most unloved, he comes to us with mercy and forgiveness. There is no better place for us to be than near the Father. The great mystery of our faith is that God first loved us. 1 John 4, 19. We are hidden in the shadow of his wings.
Speaker 1:We go back to the Psalms. In Psalm 91, 4, and our names are engraved on the palms of his hands, isaiah 49, 16. Listen, our Heavenly Father is not wanting to punish us than punished by our own inner old self and our outward youngness self. He tells us that we are his beloved. You will find that if you're a halfway decent person, then you will find yourself being more critical to yourself than anybody else is, but let alone our Heavenly Father. He does not want you perfect before you come to him. He is there to receive you as you are. This is why the Pharisees had a problem with Jesus when he was talking to sinners, tax collectors and the lower end of the scale that you would say.
Speaker 1:His freedom includes the possibility of us leaving home and losing everything. The Father's heart knows all the pain that will come from that choice. Our God offers us a love that can only be freely received. That can only be freely received. He reached for us with outstretched arms and he wants a warm embrace and a tender kiss. Not one of us has travelled too far away that we cannot return to the Father. Every one of us can come home. Everyone is welcome.
Speaker 1:The point that I'm trying to make here if you look at Luke 15, read through the whole chapter and I don't think just read it as a novel. Read it through, absorbing it all. Absorbing it all because Luke chapter 15 speaks about the searching, the relentlessness, the run after you and the love of God. Throughout the Gospels we encounter Jesus, who spent his earthly ministry teaching, living and revealing the inexhaustible, unlimited love of God towards us. His love is a love that always welcomes and always celebrates. This love doesn't demand we explain why we were lost. It is forgiving, it is everlasting and he lavishes us with it. It is a generous and patient, full of grace experience.
Speaker 1:God's great love is a love that reaches out. It is constant. The sheep didn't ask to be found. The shepherd simply went searching the coin, didn't know it was lost. The coin didn't know it was lost and the woman knew it was valuable and searched for it until she found it. The young son did not understand the father's response and was surprised. He returned repentant and he received consistent, unconditional love. The older son was confused and the father took the time to help him understand how he loved and appreciated both of them. This is our Heavenly Father's love for us. The heart of the Father is the only love towards us that is there, that is constant, that is needed all the time. He rejoiced when we returned back to him. Our Father is not hiding or aloft. He is on the lookout for us and God smiles when we allow him to shower us with overwhelming, endless love. Will you let him do this endless love? Will you let him do this? Are you willing to open yourself up to that unconditional, searching love? We have a God who is willing to run to meet us. This is why I believe this is appropriate at this time of the year. He loves us so much and missed the fellowship that he once had with us, and he so desires to have it back that he sent his son to dwell amongst us.
Speaker 1:The Apostle Paul wrote the Book of Romans, also known as the Epistle of the Romans, in 57 to 58. Paul wrote the letter while in Corinth during his third missionary journey, and it was intended to be a source of guidance, encouragement for the Church of Rome. Encouragement for the Church of Rome. Just listen to what he said in Romans 8, 38-39. You don't have to look there, I'll read it for you.
Speaker 1:And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today or our worries for tomorrow, not even the powers of hell, can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. May you know the love of our Heavenly Father today and every day. May his love bring you comfort and joy, and may his love call you home when you are lost. Without the birth, the death and the resurrection, we would remain lost and separated from the Father's love from the Father's love.
Speaker 1:It's important for you to really understand every aspect of Romans 8, 38 and 39. There's nothing, absolutely nothing, that can stop God wanting to connect to you, except you, because he gave us free will, and so you can choose to embrace him or you can choose to reject him. But know this without a shadow of a doubt that Christmas is letting us know about the purpose behind that baby being born in a manger in Bethlehem. That was the beginning of an outpouring of such love and compassion by a heavenly father to wait for that time when Jesus would enter his ministry and everybody would know who he is and why he was sent. The love of the Father's heart has always been there, and I pray that today, if you have not got it, you start that journey towards it, because nothing is more precious than the outpouring of his love towards you. I pray that this christmas you will get the full understanding of why Jesus came and dwelt among us. God bless, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye for now.
