Luke 15.21, Father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son

Luke 15.32 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.

The story of the prodigal son is a story about the Kingdom of God. Many bible college graduates and pastors kept repeating their mantra about the love of God, the inclusive nature of God to receive all Peoples of faith, and lastly God working through our kindoms to the community where we are ministering to others becomes ministering and seeing God. But really, the kingdom of God works rather differently. Often we try to replace the kingdom by the kindom not realising that just like the prodigal son, we are lost without Christ. We should celebrate the salvation in Jesus Christ, the coming back into the kingdom rather than the distorted and narrow ways of the ecumenical bodies.

The story of prodigal son is not really about the son or the father but about the Kingdom of God and the return to the kingdom. Are we dead or alive, are we lost or found? It is not our works that matters but where we are and whose we belong to. When Gay churches don’t preach a kingdom message, they are denying gay people the embrace of a loving Father God.

When the son turned back, repented and returned to the kingdom, the blood of the lamb was applied to his heart for the forgiveness of sin. What he did was remembered no more. So are we when we are in Christ, all our sins are washed away, as if we had never left the Kingdom of God. The celebration was to celebrate the complete forgiveness and restoration into the kingdom, ie the communion table of wine and bread, of the body and blood of Christ.

1. The son chose not only to leave the kingdom temporarily, but permanently by insisting on his inheritance. He was the son of the kingdom, but he lost/sold away the birthright and became of nothing, not even the level of the servants. He has absolutely no relationship to the Father. Ie we can talk about how God the Father loves everyone, but actually there is a vast gulf and the love of the Father has no reach in the other kingdoms. We are separated from God without Christ. By right and morally , we are not children of God but outside His Kingdom in another kingdoms own by the devil.

2. The Father is not dead and in real life, the story would have caused laughter because it was not technically possible to take fortune and leave. Ie the vile existence of the son, outside the kingdom until he had no money would be seen as justice  because the son actually considers his father dead. This is true of people of faith, because by having faith in other gods, the son being in other kingdoms, we are saying that the God is Israel is dead and does not exist and that we have many gods, all the same as Father God.

3. The son came back into the kingdom but was still considered as nothing until the Father from afar saw the son coming back and rushed to meet him. When we take a step towards the God of Israel, He takes 10 steps to meet us. But first, the son must step back into the Father’s kingdom and realised the lack he was in. The son must turn away from the kingdom he was in, turn back and repent, and walk back into the Kingdom of God. The repetitive echo of some that God loves us is deceptive and half truth by not telling us we are in another kingdom. It was at the celebration, at the communion table, that the son was officially forgiven, where underserving grace was bestored upon the son.

4. The son was living with the pigs in the other kingdom. The pig is a symbol of spiritual uncleanliness although the pig might be cute. To live with the pigs would be a shock to the Jewish listeners so is eating pig food. The problem is that this was the state of the Jewish people under the law, even proclaiming the love commandments every day. Jesus was talking about them.

We have modern-day pastors and theologians proclaiming that we are generally good, worthy and righteous in many ways by our own good works which is sad because really we are spiritually unclean and eating pig food in some churches. Ironically, when we eat the kingdomless pig food from the pulpit, we will remain so hungry that we may begin to read the bible, and the grace of God and the revelation of the word comes in to reveal the truth that will set us free. When we eat pig food in some gay churches preached by the wise yet foolish, we realised how much better food we could have been eating by the simple revelation of the Holy Spirit showing us Jesus from Genesis to revelation.

5. There are christians, those in the Kingdom of God who doesn’t realise their standing and become jealous as a result. A big celebration was given but we have another grudging son who was unhappy, which is silly since all the father have is his ie there are many christians who doesn’t understand their inheritance in Christ. As Christ is so are we. As Jesus Christ is righteous so are we. If Christ is blessed, so will we. When God sees us, He sees Jesus if we are indeed in Christ.

The brother wanted the younger brother to be punished for his terrible sins but didn’t realised the son was forgiven just as he was. The brother operated under the demands of the law, but the Father under grace. This is the Amazing Grace that only be comprehended when we realised that it is His righteousness, not ours. Was the brother any more a sinner? Of course.

6. Who was telling the story? Jesus Christ. The Father has sent His Son to bring us back home to His Kingdom whilst we are languishing in another kingdom. But Jesus paid the price because He had to lose everything not because of carnal living, but to pay for the judgement on our sins, to come on earth to bring us back home. The son was lost, but now was found.

7. Once outside the kingdom where the Father is the king, the father considered the son dead even though he was physically alive. When we are outside of the kingdom of the God of Israel, we spiritually dead, lost in the darkness of the spiritual realm. God is far more exclusive than many liberals perceived. One is seen and judged by the god or the deity we worship. We belong or are owned and swear allegiance to the spiritual deity or god that we worship. When Israel worshiped other gods, it was said that they went into spiritual adultery. When God sees us, He sees the demonic spirit that we worship as if we are one. But when we worship Christ, as Christ is so are we. As Christ is righteous, so are we.

The Kingdom of God is here. Many of us are eating pig food in many gay churches which do not preach the kingdom message yet do not realised it. But often just like for the prodigal son, there is no alternative because that is the only gay church in the city. Better to have  some bad food rather than no food.

Father God is waiting for us to realise that we have sinned (by rejecting Jesus as the way, the truth and the life), and to return to God’s grace in Jesus Christ, and to embrace us with His loving embrace. The celebration in the kingdom of God comes when the prodigal son comes back home, is akin to coming to God’s table of communion. It is to celebrate the Kingdom of God, the salvation in Christ. But alas, many gay churches do not believe in the kingdom nor salvation in Jesus Christ.

We have gate keepers in Singapore trying to prevent gays from coming into the Kingdom of God. We have others who deny the Kingdom of God building their own kindoms of earth despite having a church banner. But the love, grace and mercy of Father God is so much greater. He sents Jesus to the door waiting for and seeing us from afar. He sent the holy spirit to knock at our hearts. The celebration when the son returned back to the kingdom is in many ways, a celebration of the Cross of Calvary, the One who came to our kingdom to take us back into God’s kingdom.

Down at the Cross where my Saviour died

Down where for cleansing of sin i cried

There to my heart was the blood applied,

Glory to His name

 

Glory to His name x2

There to my heart was the blood applied

Glory to His name.