the Pursuit (Celebrating the pursuit of God!) No Soul Turned Away Luke 15:11 — 24
Description:
How running from God doesn’t take your place away; and how returning to God is the wisest decision you will every make.
BEGIN:
Luke 15:20 ...But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
The Amish have a practice of setting an empty place at the table for the family member that has wandered off from their Amish ways. It’s a reminder that their family still loves them, and remembers them and prays for their loved one’s return someday.
● No matter how long they have been away! ● Or how long they have been shunned that way. ● Or how far they have strayed from their Amish ways!
Three times a day the entire family is reminded their loved one is still welcome, and wanted, to come home someday.
I wonder how many times the father in Jesus’ parable walked to the edge of his property and looked… longingly… wishfully… praying… straining… that he would see his long lost son coming home one day? And Jesus said…
Luke 15:20 ...But while he was still A LONG WAY OFF, his father saw him…
That’s translated from the same Greek word that describes the distance from which the Gadarene Demoniac first saw Jesus when Jesus stepped upon his shores.
Mark 5:6 ...when he saw Jesus FROM AFAR, he ran and fell down before him.
AM061018 - 1
It’s the same Greek word that describes how far away thousands had come to hear Jesus in Mark Chapter Eight. Jesus said…
Mark 8:2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
Mark 8:3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from FAR AWAY.”
It’s the same Greek word that God used when He said to Saul of Tarsus upon his conversion to Christ…
Acts 22:21 ...‘Go, for I will send you FAR AWAY to the Gentiles.’
That’s the word Jesus chooses to use to describe how FAR AWAY the prodigal was when his father saw him coming! And Jesus puts that Greek word in the emphatic position, at the beginning of the sentence... “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him!” How can that be?
● How INTENTLY do you have to be looking for somebody to see that person coming from that far away? ● And how constantly do you have to be looking to catch somebody returning, UNANNOUNCED, from that far away? ● How dedicated do you have to be DAY AFTER EVERY DAY to not be surprised by someone returning from that far away!
It’s as if the father has been looking for his son’s return EVERY DAY!
● Not going about his regular routine, indifferent about his son’s return. ● And certainly not trying to put the thought of his son out of his mind, hostile toward his son’s return. ● But hoping against hope, that his son would return someday.
And that one day, maybe this day would be the day, his son would come home!
It’s as if the broken-hearted dad goes out every morning, every evening, looking wishfully down the very same road that took his son, looking as far down that road as he can; even though he has lost one of his chief helpers and now finds himself short-handed-- he still finds the time, he
AM061018 - 2
still takes the time, and makes the effort, to go out and pray for his son’s safe return. His son who never comes.
AND THEN, ONE DAY, the forlorn father makes his way to the edge of the family farm that is only ⅔’s the size it once was (and we’ll talk more about the reason for that next week), but he goes out to the edge of what’s left, as he has so many times before, and he has to wipe the tears from his eyes! What is that the father sees coming up the road so FAR AWAY? Could it be?
Everyday, while his son was gone, the father had thought about his son. Wondering…
● What his son was doing? ● Was he alright? ● Would he ever come home? ● Would he ever see his son again?
And now? COULD HIS MIND BE PLAYING TRICKS ON HIM?
But he sees a threadbare figure, dragging up the road toward him. It couldn’t be his son, because his son was a snappy dresser, and had left with a spring in his step. And this guy was dressed in rags and looked like he hadn’t had…
● a shave, ● or a haircut, ● or a bath, ● or even eaten for that matter…
...in weeks!
But there was something about that spectacle that looked very familiar to dad. AND THEN IT HIT HIM! This was his son! And that’s when the old man did an amazing thing. HE JUMPED THE FENCE AND SPRINTED OUT TO HIS SON!
Now I added the part about the fence. Jesus simply said…
Luke 15:20 ... But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, AND RAN and embraced him and kissed him.
Have you ever seen an old man run? Come out and watch me play tennis some time! It’s quite the spectacle. Doubly so back in Bible days. When men were robed, and had to “gird up their loins” and expose their knobly legs to run. Which would have looked more like a one handed waddle before the watching world. Nevertheless, hang the world, this was the father’s son…
AM061018 - 3
● who was lost but now found! ● Who, as far as the father knew, was dead, but was now discovered to be alive again!
And when the father saw him, even while his son was still A LONG WAY OFF, his father RAN, and EMBRACED him, and KISSED him… even with the stench of the pig pen still clinging to him!
● Why would any self-respecting dad do that, even before a shower was offered? ● Why didn’t dad at least wait until the infested rags were replaced with that clean robe that would later be offered? ● The ring on his finger, shoes on his feet?
Jesus tells us.
Luke 15:20 ...while he was still a long way off, his father saw him AND FELT COMPASSION (for him)...
One of the more literally translations says…
Luke 15:20 ...his heart went out to him...
Literally, the Greek word speaks of an organ a little lower. It’s the Greek word from which we get our word “spleen”. “Bowels” of compassion is the phrase the old KJV of the Bible used to translate it. This inner feeling in your gut you have toward someone. That’s the compassion that this father felt for his son. And he couldn’t stay away from his long lost son one second longer. That’s why he…
● hiked up his skirt, ● jumped the fence, ● and went flyin’ down the road like he was a young Olympic sprinter again!
That’s why the old man…
● Ran, ● And embraced his son, ● And kissed him!
BECAUSE HE LOVED HIM!
1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us…
AM061018 - 4
...1 John 3:1 says.
“Behold, what manner of love this father has for his prodigal son,” Jesus says.
● That he would not give up on looking for him! ● That he would (trekh’-o) “run” to him when he saw him! ● And “throw his arms around his “trakh'-ay-los” (from which we get our word “trachea”) “He ran to him and threw his arms around his neck!” ● And (kat-af-ee-leh'-o) “kissed him fervently, all up & down!”
Can you see it? You have seen it. When daddy or mommy, or a son or daughter, or a husband or wife sneaks in from soldiering in some war somewhere. And they surprise their young’en in the classroom, or on the ballfield; or they surprise their husband or wife or father or mother at home with a knock on the door. AND SUDDENLY THEIR LOVED ONE IS HOME! And what happens? They run into each other’s arms, and drape themselves around each other’s necks-- and start kissing one another all up and down! And the tears are flowin’ and the love is showin’ that had always been there, but had had no one to express it upon until…
“Johnny comes marchin’ home again! Hurrah! Hurrah!”
Now, multiply that kind of emotion ten times to understand the surprise of this dad! Because this dad didn’t know if his son was dead or alive! Or if he’d ever see him again!
● Imagine what it would be like for a parent to receive a phone call from the FBI reporting that your daughter that had been abducted six months prior had been at long last found alive!
● Imagine what it would be like for a wife to receive a visit from the Army Chaplain apologizing for the mix up; her husband had not been aboard the helicopter when it crashed after all!
This father’s worst fears went up in smoke and tears as he…
● Ran to his son, ● Threw his arms around his neck, ● And begin kissing his son all up and down!
Which leads me to two exciting truths we all need to take home today...
➢ Running From God Doesn’t Take Your Place Away! ➢ Returning To God Is The Wisest Decision You Will Every Make!
AM061018 - 5
Because that’s exactly what God wants every prodigal to do. Because that’s exactly where God wants every prodigal to be, home, at last, with Him. Amen? It’s why God sent His Son Jesus to die upon the cross for our sin. Because God loves us, and God wants us, to turn from our sin and come back to Him! That’s just the kind of Heavenly Dad we have.
END:
In his book, The Good Dad, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly describes standing on his HS football field on Dad's Night. The announcer would call the name of a player and the name of his father, who would run out onto the field and stand by his son and the crowd would cheer!
But Jim's dad was an alcoholic who had tragically died. And Jim had forgotten to ask a man to stand in as his "Dad" for the night. So there he stood, by himself, feeling feeling alone and embarrassed before the watching crowd. And here’s what the president of Focus On the Family says about that...
"Want to know how important fathers are? Ask the guy who didn't have one!”
And had to stand on that field alone. Now contrast what Jim Daly says with what Franklin Graham says about his dad. Franklin says:
“For 8 decades, my father preached on Heaven & wrote books on Heaven-- now he’s in Heaven! At age 99, he went to sleep in his home in his beloved North Carolina mts, and on the the morning of February 21, he woke up in the presence of his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”1
And in the imagery of Jesus’ parable I see God coming on a dead run! Jumping fences and throwing arms around Billy’s neck and kissing him all up and down! Because at last Billy is where God would have him, HOME! Home with the Father and home with the Son! And you and I are left with the decision about what kind of reception we’re going to have when our time comes. I pray no one leaves here thinking that...
➢ Your Running Has Taken Your Place Away In God’s Heart, because it hasn’t. ➢ Your Returning Back to Him Is The Wisest Decision You Will Every Make!
Who will come, as we stand and sing?
1 --Decision Magazine, Special Commemorative Edition AM061018 - 6