11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.  17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
— Luke 15:11-24, ESV

Charles Haddon Spurgeon famously said, “When you cannot see God’s hand, trust God’s heart.”  Good advice, indeed.  There are times when you want to see what God is doing, then there are times when you just want God.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son gives us a chance to grant both wishes.  If we look closely enough, we can trace the hand of the Father as he guides his son through the narrative of redemption.  If we let the story sink into our soul, we can feel the heart of the Father who loves, lets go, and lures back the wayward son.  

We looked at the heart of the Heavenly Father in a past Father’s Day sermon.  This year I want to trace the hand of the Heavenly Father.  You will find yourself in the story, again, for the doctrine of depravity informs us that we are all prodigal sons and daughters.  

We wander.  God woos.  And the Good Shepherd never fails to gather His sheep into the fold with unconditional love and irresistible grace.  He makes us His, and never again will we roam.  

Watch as the earthly father in the story navigates his son’s rebellion and return.  Then see, the hand of our Heavenly Father, as He writes the story of our salvation from beginning to never end.  This is two stories in one, of the father on earth, and of our Father in Heaven.

The Father on Earth

The earthly story is short, bitter, and sweet.  It is about “a man who had two sons.”  Our focus is upon the man, the father in the story, and the five-fold way he fathered his youngest, prodigal son.  The son would not have had life, nor any meaning in life, apart from the hand of the father.

Decision

The father decided to have a son, actually two sons.  In the human species, decision usually precedes action.  The people who act before they think make up the small minority on earth who wind up causing the majority of the problems.  Most of us look before we leap, and this we owe to the image of God within us.  This father decided to have children, along with the Mrs. I’m sure, and the decision inaugurated a grand plan for the one we call the prodigal son.

Procreation

The father then took action to bring the son into the world.  Of course, the mother did, too, but this is a typical, Jewish, male dominated story.  I shall not elaborate on the act required to bring a child into the world, for there are young children in our congregation today.  So children, be sure to ask mommy and daddy about this when you get home.  Suffice to say for now, the son in our story would not exist apart from the amorous activity of his parents.

Lamentation

As the son began to grow into a man, the father had to make the hardest decision a parent ever makes.  There comes a time when we let go, recognize our child’s independence, and give them the freedom to make their own choices.  We lament this time because we know some of the choices they make will be bad, sinfully bad.  

True to form, the son in our story rebels, wholesale.  He wishes his father dead, wants his fathers money, and gets what he wants.  Young people, please be careful about what you want.  Many times, you just might get it.  This son did, and the father in our story allows him such freedom of choice.  At the same time, he restrains his hand from abrupt punishment, letting sinful human nature take its course.  Somehow the father seems to know the son will be back one day, a better man than he was before.  The father has his hand in this, too.

Return

The father watched, waited, and worked for the redemption of the son.  He watched every day, staring into the setting sun hoping to catch a glimpse of the return of the prodigal son.  He waited every day, with love and patience and confidence.  And he He worked, with hands folded in prayer, hoping, confidently expecting, that the lessons the father had taught the son about the goodness of God and honoring your parents would kick in one day.  Prevenient teaching and persistent prayer are mighty means of grace.  Eventually, they paid off. 

Reunion

Finding the bottom and looking above, the son musters the repentance and faith required to return home.  The waiting father welcomes the son home, never more to roam.  The loving foundation the father provided the son never moved.  The holy, upright way the father treated his sons and his servants never left the memory of the son.  This explains how “he came to himself” in the story.  Convicted of his sins by their consequences, coveting a place even in the servants quarters in his father’s house, the son came crawling back to the father, who met him on bended knee.  The son was restored to his first estate, and the father threw a party the likes of which the countryside had never seen.  

Was it the free will of the son or the sovereign grace of the father that led to this happy ending?  Perhaps we should consult with the great theologian Forrest Gump.  “Both things are happening at the same time.”  Yes, they are, but one happens because of the other.  Let us now trace the hand of our Heavenly Father in the grand story of redemption.  

Our Father in Heaven

The father on earth deftly handled five stages in the redemptive story of his son: decision, procreation, lamentation, rejuvenation, and reunion.  You can see the father’s hand in this, can you not?  If you can, you have also seen the hand of our Heavenly Father directing the salvation of His children.

Election

God’s decision to have children is called Election.  Election is the most unseen hand of God in the Bible.  Some cannot see it, some see it but refuse to believe it, and even those of us who see it and believe it must admit it is a divine mystery without many clues.  

Before creation, God determined and God decided that certain persons would be His sons and daughters.  “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (ref. Ephesians 1:4).  The Lamb’s Book of Life, which contains the name of all saved persons of all time, was “written before the foundation of the world” (ref. Revelation 13:8).  And as God said to Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth” (ref. Job 38:4)?

Election is God’s choice of certain persons for salvation, without any consultation or predictions involving us.  This doctrine seems to bother a lot of people, even God’s people.  But we the people of God should rejoice, not complain, about anything God has done to save us, because He has actually done everything.  In the five-fold plan of God, the first finger on His hand points to the great and true doctrine of election. 

Creation 

Procreation happens because of divine creation.  Whatever your view of the origins of man, if you are a Christian and regard the Bible as God’s word, then you know it comes from the hand of God.  He made the world for us and He made us for Himself.  He made all things sublime and perfect, we added to it our sin and pollution.  

We are the apex of God’s creation, created imago Dei, in the image of God.  As God is free to choose in election, He has given us the gift of making free and willing choices in creation.  Unfortunately, when it comes to spiritual matters, we all have made the decision to sin and separate ourselves from our Creator and Father, just like the prodigal son.

“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way,” wrote the prophet Isaiah (ref. Isaiah 53:6).  The New Testament Apostle Paul said it this way: “For all have sinned and fallen,” (ref. Romans 3:23).  God created us all, and we all have sinned against Him. This puts us in a most precarious position, fallen human beings in need of redemption. 

Fall

Lamentation over the sinfulness have man comes from what we call “the fall.”  The fall of man is first noted in the first chapters of the first book of the Bible.  God made us in His perfect image, which would have been maintained if we had steadfastly chosen to obey the word and will of God.  But God gave us that pesky gift, choice, and from the beginning we have used it again Him.  Even though He warned us about the consequences of the fall.  “For in the day that you [choose to sin against me], you shall surely die.”(ref. Genesis 2:17).  

In the fall, the federal head of the human race did not die physically.  Neither do his descendants.  We sin, but our hearts keep beating as we run and hide from God.  The fall does not kill us intellectually or emotionally, we still think and feel.  The fall makes us dead spiritually, and separates us from God.  Again we hear Paul speak of the fallen man before he is found in Christ, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins” (ref. Ephesians 2:1).  

A dead man can do nothing for himself.  Lazarus could not rise and walk out of the grave on his own accord.  God must do the work to rescue us from sin and death and restore a right relationship with Him.  And God worlds in God must speak before we can come to Him.  And God works in mysterious ways.  

Redemption

Salvation begins to kick in to the prodigal son somewhere in between vs. 16 and vs. 17, which precipitates his return.  It is realized when “he came to himself” and heads back to the father’s house.  He probably started singing that song, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” all the way home.  

To his credit, the son was willing to be a servant just to get back into the father’s house.  Only when one is willing to be a servant of God can he or she become a child of God.  Still, the shoes of true freedom, the robe of sins forgiven, and the ring of a relationship with God can only be given by the hand of God.

On the surface, salvation seems to be our decision to repent and believe in God.  But remember, God made His decision for us ages before we make any decision for Him.  Remember also, dead men cannot make decisions.  And remember furthermore, repentance towards God and faith in Christ are the special, saving gifts God the Father gives through God the Spirit.

The prodigal son never saw it coming.  Neither do we.  But on the holy day of our salvation, it is God’s hand that sends conviction of sin, God’s hand that throws grace our way, God’s hand that delivers salvation to our soul, and God’s hand that raises us up to spiritual and eternal life.  

Spurgeon said when we enter through the gates of Heaven, the sign outside the door will read, “Whosoever Will May Come.”  But on the inside of the door there is another sign that reads, “Welcome Elect from Every Nation.”  

Children of God are made by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone by God alone.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).  

And, oh the things God has prepared for us.

Consummation

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (ref. 1 Corinthians 2:9).  

The reunion of father and son in the story takes your breath away.  There are hugs of love, tears of joy, and a barnburner of a party.  There is no place like home.  But if you are a living, breathing, child of God, you haven’t seen yours yet.  

Today, take God’s hand and hold on tight.  Know the day will come when you will see His face.  What a face it will be!  It will be a face of love and kindness, forgiveness and security, abundant and everlasting life.  

When we finally get to the Father’s house, our calling and election will be sure.  All creation will be restored to perfection.  Our fall will be forgiven.  The benefits of redemption will be eternally ours.  We will consummate our eternal relationship with God, and live in constant celebration, alongside all of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  

We will give glory to God forever, because all of the benefits of our salvation, from beginning to never end, have been given to us by the hand of our Heavenly Father.