This is Rev. Dr. Jaerock Lee, Senior Pastor of Manmin Central Church in Seoul, Korea. I wish for your life to be filled with God’s love and blessing. I want to share God’s grace with you through this message titled “The Prodigal Son.”
To let us realize the great love of God, Jesus gave us the parable of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel of Luke. A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them. The younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living.
A severe famine occurred in that country and he became impoverished. Finally he was hired by a man of that country and sent into fields to feed swine. He would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, for no one had given him anything to eat.
He came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “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.”‘
So he got up and came to his father. His father had waited at the gate of the house every day for the son who had left home, and while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
The father was so glad that he sent his slaves bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and brought the fattened calf and killed it to eat in celebration of his son’s return.
In the same way, no matter what kind of sins we have committed, if we really repent of them and turn from our sins, our Father God forgives us of our sins and embraces us.
Just as the father put the best robe on the prodigal son, our God washes our hearts with the blood of Jesus Christ and puts the fine linen on us so that we can enter heaven. Just as the father put a ring on the hand of his son who had returned back home, God promises us salvation and eternal life and gives us limitless answer and blessings when we believe in His word and obey it.
“The father letting his slaves bring the fattened calf and eating it and celebrating on the son’s return” means that God gives us our spiritual bread. By the same token, when we are exhausted and heartbroken in the world come back to God like the prodigal son, the lovingkindness of God causes Him to welcome us, fully give us spiritual bread, and abide in peace.
May each of you put down all the burdens in your life before Jesus Christ and enjoy true peace in our God, in the name of our Lord I pray!
