06-28-2026 - RUNNING TO THE FATHER - Luke: 15

MESSAGE BY PASTOR ROB INRIG FROM BETHANY BAPTIST CHURCH IN RICHMOND, BC. HE IS CONTINUE INVITING US TO EXPAND OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GOD AND HOW IMPACTS OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM.

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I invite you to pray and make this prayer personal, and for whoever needs support in difficult times, we mention names of those who are in need, and also pray for the members of the family and friends. You can also mention the name in need.

(Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G,  Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara’s mom H, Margarita G,  Rosy Ch, Patricia L, Lina J, Manuel D, Silvia H, Magda-, Miguel H.L, Alicia G, Brianda M, Alejandro M, Natalia M. Oscar N.D, Luis Carlos V).

I ask for your healing over every part of my life – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I ask that you make me strong and resilient for the days ahead. I know that you have a great purpose for those who believe in your name.

Help me not to allow the distractions and struggles of my days to weigh me down to the point of exhaustion. I know that your desire is for me to live this life abundantly and free. And my greatest desire is to reflect your love and light to a world that so desperately needs your hope.

For those I love who are facing cancer or a hard diagnosis, I pray for your covering of healing and grace. I pray for your strength and your great peace to fill their lives, reminding them that you are close. Thank you that nothing is impossible with you. Thank you for fighting for us, and you are bigger than anything this world throws our way.

I lean fully on You, Lord, for You alone are able. We love you; We need you this day, and always.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

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Over the last number of weeks, we have been looking at some of the characteristics of who God is and what that means to us. The first week in Psalm 23 is rooted in His name, JHWH - LORD God Almighty - His power and authority over all. The following week, we saw Him as Jehovah Ra’ah, our Shepherd, leading, caring, protecting and last week, Adonai - Master, to Whom we are to bow 

This week and in those coming, we are again invited to expand our understanding of God and how that impacts our relationship with Him. God is known in His names.  When God commissioned Moses to take possession of the Promised Land, Moses’ immediate request was to see God’s glory. Though He believed God and knew His powerful leading in his life, Moses wanted to know more. God answered, primarily by first identifying Himself by His name, and then following that, with descriptions of His character - His compassion, His love, His forgiveness.  

Our first need - to get His name right, which is to say, get Who He is right and only then, to understand His character.  That is, our first bowing is related to the greatness of who He is - bowing to the ONE who is LORD, is Shepherd, is Master.  Our worship is to be based on who He is, not on what He does, although the two are inseparable.  But when we reverse the order, starting from what He does, our worship is often conditional - if He forgives, if He is compassionate, if He does the miraculous, then we will worship. We are determining whether He is worthy, but His worthiness is in who He is.  Listen to how He presents Himself to Moses:

The LORD (YHWH) came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the LORD (YHWH).  And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD (YHWH), The LORD (YHWH), the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Ex 34:6,7. 

This LORD - God Almighty, Shepherd, Master, but this morning, looking at something that changes the relationship entirely, He is our Father.  The Bible tells us that those in Christ bear His name.  For as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the sons of God... See what great love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called sons of God. And that is what we are  Jn 1:12, 1 Jn 3:1

This is far more than the addition of a name; rather, it tells us we have been brought into an entirely new relationship.  We now have children who wear His name.  Left with that, we can rightly say, we now more authentically know Him, but there’s one more thing that’s beyond our comprehension: He knows your name and mine, Ps 43:1, Jn 10. 

Our name is not known by Him merely as an identifier to be checked off on a roster; it is known because of His declaration upon us of sons and daughters.  Our name is known to Him not because of mistakes made, failures done, or sins lived.  Isaiah tells us, I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins:43:8.  Instead, God knows us by the life He has purposed for us.  That He knows us by name is amazing, but far more amazing than a name recognized is that our name has been claimed by Him - we are adopted into His family - we are claimed and named as His children, greatly loved by God.  Adding to the mystery, what we are told in Ephesians, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him 1:4.  We are named as His.

This is crucial in how He sees us and we are to see ourselves.  

God repeatedly describes His relationship with those who are His, as a father.  To the Israelites He said, When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.  Hos 11:1 – 4 

God, our Father.  This is an incomprehensible thought - for many a comforting representation   of the good and admirable, of the good and always there.  For others this conjures up far less comforting images.  Of a father who was distant.  Of a father who demeaned and abused.  Of one who punished rather than affirmed, who critiqued and looked for wrongs, and on too many occasions, one who did the wrong, sometimes the terribly wrong.

Floyd McLung observes, Who will father the children of men? Whose arms are big enough for all the lonely children of the world? Who weeps over our pains? Who will comfort us in our loneliness?  ONLY GOD. A broken-hearted FATHER who is rejected by the little ones He yearns to heal. Our problem is that we, like the browbeaten puppy, shrink away from the One who we assume will be like the other authorities in our lives. But He is not.  He is perfect Love - whose love isn’t based on performance or appearance.  He is not the Father who hurt you, disappointed you or abandoned you rather He is the Father who lavishes His love upon you.  

It’s this loving, perfect Father Jesus came to reveal.  John 14 tells us that Jesus did not actually come to reveal Himself but for us to know the Father.  In this passage Jesus declares Himself to be, The Way, the Truth and the Life. Everything we know about life now and about the life to come is determined by this. That summed up in this that Jesus is, The Truth and the Life, no one coming to the Father except through Him :6.  But this brings us back to the first words Jesus uses of Himself that He is the WAY.

But the way to where?  Is He the way to heaven?  Yes - but that’s not what He is saying.  Is He the way so mankind won’t stay on the path that leads to hell?  Yes - but that’s not what He is saying.  The way Jesus says - is coming to the Father, No one comes to the Father except by Me.  It’s all about access to the Father.  Understand heaven is where we have never ending access to the Father.  Heaven isn’t heaven if the Father isn’t there and hell is hell because the Father and all the good He brings, all the good He is will never be there.  Jesus’ mission is for us to know the Father.  To have the intimacy Adam and Eve had with God before sin entered the world. 

You and I were created to be in relationship with the Father.  Even before the foundation of the world, before God blew breath into mankind, that was God’s intent.  God sending Jesus, so the breath of God’s transforming, life-saving Spirit could be blown into us to give us everlasting life with Him.  

Galatians explains God sent Jesus so that when we are born again, we were adopted as His sons and daughters 4:4-6. Because of this, we can cry out ‘Abba! father! daddy’ Rom 8:16. ABBA — describing the intimacy of the relationship we have.  The lap we crawl into. The ride up high on dad’s shoulders.  The ‘I made it’ first step falling into dad’s arms.  The Abba love tight grip comforting the sobbing pain felt and cruel hurt given.  Strong, faithful and kind.  Abba love.

How do we know that this is who He is?  For that we need to look at Jesus.  What we understand about Him is what we are to understand about the Father, Jesus is the exact representation of the invisible God. No one has seen God the only Son has made Him known and If you have seen Him, you have seen the Father  Heb 1:13, Jn i:18, 14:9.   

Though there are many places we are told about this father love, there are few better than what we are given in Luke 15.  We’ve considered this in greater depth before but for this morning, just a brief return.

You know the story - two brothers - the younger one dominating the story, an ingrate rejecting most of what his father stands for - in rebellion, he walking away from his father.  It’s worse as we will be reminded but that just a snapshot of you and I.  And then there is the older brother who gets little mention but the mention he does get, isn’t good.  He living with his father but one who doesn’t know his father.  Rather than relationship with, he is better characterized by relationship for.  Both sons have little understanding who the father truly is.

Let’s read:  A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood. And not long after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

“Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’

“But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’

“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours, It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ”    Lk 15:11-32

Not long after:13.   Believe it or not, these 3 words tell us a lot - namely that when we walk away from the Father, it doesn’t take long before we end up in worthless living.  Sometimes that worthlessness takes us into places like this young man walked in - pursuing all the pleasure he could get, living for the moment, until the moment turned on him - leaving him empty.  Less obvious but equally as real, sometimes this worthless living is pouring time, energy and passion into things not necessarily bad in themselves, but when they occupy the center and preoccupations of our life, they take on a value they were never meant to have.  Filling hours but incapable of filling what we need.  This emptiness is less visible but no less real.   

With the Father out of sight, we too easily become enamoured with the unimportant.  Not long after telling us it doesn’t take us very long to get all messed up, it doesn’t take us very long to lose our way, it doesn’t take very long to forget whose child we are, it doesn’t take us very long to chase other gods, other loves, other values.  LOSE SIGHT OF THE FATHER, and it’s not long after when we find ourselves living far distant from Him.   

As Jesus tells the story, there is no mention of the father forcing his way into his son’s life.  There’s no begging the son to stay. No raised voices.  No manipulating guilt.  No on his knees appeal.  Because that’s not what love does.  Love doesn’t force, it demonstrates.  It acts.  It reveals.  It invites.  It humbles, and it gives.  Showing what needs to be seen.  

Love we are given to see in the actions of the father, so he divided to them his livelihood, Lk 15:12.  The father’s giving what he did not need to give, His actions not recognized as a gift.   

Before going further, don’t overlook the huge offence in the son’s request.  In essence, he is saying to his dad, If you don’t have the decency to die, give me what I’m entitled to and let me get on with my life.  You’ve lived your life, now let me get on with mine.  

My life, which, by the way, you should finance.  The father gave even though knowing the son was rejecting everything his dad stood for.  A rejection of the family, a rejection of his people, a rejection of life in which he was raised and a rejection of God.

In brief, we are told that this man journeyed to a far country,  and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living:13. Money Money in hand, he devoted himself to ‘living large’, not understanding the pitifully small he had chosen - the small far more than just an empty bank account, rather as he would discover in time, an empty life account.  

Don’t miss what his actions meant to the father -  the offence of his actions exposing his dad to public shame.  All know the family dispute.  There was no hiding the discord.  No hiding as his dad went into the marketplace.  No hiding as the For Sale signs would go up for the disposition of the father’s wealth.    All saw the shame of his son’s rejection, but this shame didn’t end with that.  It also subjected the father to the contempt others would have for him for allowing his son to act as he had.  That son deserved banishment, not gifts of wealth. But this father would bear the shame, he would suffer the contempt, he would lay aside the demands he rightfully could make - all these sacrificially done if it meant the actions of his love, even though rejected, might one day reclaim his son.   

And reclaiming would clearly be required because, as would be seen, this son was committed to removing all evidence of the life he once knew - this son removing himself to a far off country:13.  This ‘far off country’ took him into pig country, which meant he had stepped into a Gentile world, leaving his Jewish roots behind.

A Father rejected, the journey into a far country is inevitable, and where it takes us is also inevitable.  Here, resources gone, father far out of sight, he is left in the inevitable - No one giving him anything:16.  Bankrupt, famished and forgotten.  A place he never thought he would find himself in.  Truth is, when the music is loud and the lights are bright, who thinks about things like this?  

And then what we read in:17 When he came to himself.   This is an interesting way of framing what happened, but it’s important to understand that until this happens, there is no change to our story. 

It would be easy to take this, when he came to himself, as ‘when he had more time to reasonably think and act’ - when the drunken stupor subsides, and the drug high no longer distorts.  But far from the son returning to his best self, it’s actually when he is honest with himself, realizing the far-off country he is in, that he actually comes to understand his real self.  As is true for us as well, our need to see ourselves for who we are.  It’s only then we truly begin to see the Father for who He is - a Father who would have His love rejected, who would suffer the shame and the contempt, who would be despised, but a Father waiting to forgive and restore.

Finally, all currency gone - no money, no dreams, no importance - the younger brother admits the self from which he has been running.  The self who can no longer deny that, at its very core, he is a sinner who has been lost in his sin.  This revelation is not because of the corn husks strewn at his feet and the grunting of pigs that surround the party, or the party invites that no longer come, but because, for the first time, he truly looks at himself without the distraction of the noise and the parties and backslapping friends.  The attraction of those things held value only as long as the liquor was free, friendships were paid for, employment was secure, and accomplishments were achieved.

It’s at this point that his, he came to himself, insight allowed him to say, I perish with hunger:17.  The reality of our hunger is no different than the place each one of us must come to.  Usually, that hunger is ignored until things come that remind us that the things we go after to fill us can never satisfy.  Until then, a true understanding of the Father escapes us.  The thing is - Jesus doesn’t tell the story, so we will focus on the offences of the son - those are just the backdrop of the story - His focus is on the heart of the father and what the father will do to rescue the son.  

:20  When the father saw him from a long way off, he had compassion on him.

The Father is always waiting, always looking, seeing us even when we are a long way off - sees us when we don’t see Him.  Sees what we have done, where we have been, the wounds we’ve endured.  The father was always looking into the distance, waiting for us to take that first step home.

And when that first step happens, when the decision is made, I will arise and go to my father:18, the father no longer watches, he no longer waits - he runs.  He does what a typical older Middle Eastern man would not do, which was shameful to do - He hikes up his robes and runs, not slowing down as he gets nearer to his son. Not slowing down to ensure he’s owned the full immensity of the words, I’m not worthy to be called your son, instead, a full-on wild, crushing embrace of his son.

But so much more than embrace - the presentation of sandals.  The gift of a robe.  The gift of a ring.  The gift of a feast.  A celebration of return.

The sandals denote a forgiven child, not a slave.  The robe - the father’s, a presentation of honour.  The ring - the father’s authority - grants every provision that is needed.  The feast - a celebration of a table prepared for all who run into the Father’s arms, children at the table from which we will never be turned away.  

All because of a Father, ABBA love, daddy love - 

that forgives, that restores, that makes new.

This from our Father who says, Son/daughter, 

You are always with Me, and all that I have is yours!

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