Repentance Sermon

The Long Way Home: Turning Back to the Mercy of God

There is a moment in Luke 15 that every honest person recognizes. It is not the moment of wild living in a distant country. It is not even the moment the money runs out. It is the quieter moment that follows both of those, when a young man comes to himself and says, "I will get up and go to my father." That moment is what the Bible calls repentance, and it is one of the most important movements a human soul can make.

This morning we are going to sit with two passages of Scripture that together give us a full picture of what it means to turn back to God. The first is the parable Jesus told in Luke 15, the story of a son who left home and a father who never stopped watching the road. The second is a word from the apostle Peter in Acts 3, where he calls a crowd to do exactly what the son in the parable did. These two texts belong together. One shows us the picture. The other explains the promise.

Part One: The Far Country And The Coming To Yourself

Luke 15:11-24 is one of the most carefully constructed stories in all of Scripture. Jesus tells it in response to religious leaders who are grumbling that he welcomes sinners and eats with them. So he tells three stories about lost things, and this is the third and longest. A younger son demands his inheritance early, which in that culture was roughly equivalent to saying, "I wish you were already dead." The father divides his estate. The son takes his portion, travels to a distant country, and wastes everything on what the text calls "reckless living."

Then a severe famine hits. The son is destitute. He hires himself out to feed pigs, which for a Jewish audience would have been the lowest possible image of degradation. He is so hungry he would have eaten what the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. Then comes the turning point. Verse 17 says, "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger.'"

Notice what is happening in that moment. The son is not yet home. He is not yet forgiven. He has not yet confessed anything to his father. But something has broken open inside him. He sees his situation clearly for the first time. He sees the distance between where he is and where he could be. He sees that his father's house is a place of abundance and dignity, and he has traded it for a pigpen in a foreign land. This is the beginning of repentance. Not a feeling of guilt alone, but a clear-eyed recognition of reality.

He rehearses what he will say. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers." He is not planning to negotiate. He is not expecting to be restored to his former position. He simply intends to go home and tell the truth.

Part Two: The Father Who Runs

Here is where the parable becomes something more than a story about a wayward son. It becomes a revelation of who God is.

Verse 20 says, "So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him."

The father was watching. He had been watching. And when he saw the silhouette of his son on the road, still far away, he did not wait. He ran. In the ancient Near East, a man of dignity did not run. Running was undignified. But this father ran, and he got there before the son could finish his prepared speech. The son begins his confession, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son," and the father interrupts him. He calls for the best robe, a ring, sandals, and a celebration.

The son came home expecting to be a servant. He was received as a son.

This is not a parable about self-improvement. It is not a story about earning your way back into someone's good graces. It is a picture of grace running toward a sinner who has barely turned around. The father's response is not measured or cautious. It is extravagant. "This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." The celebration is not because the son performed well. It is because the son came home.

Jesus is telling the Pharisees, and us, that this is what God is like. When a person turns from sin and turns toward the Father, they are not walking into a courtroom. They are walking into a homecoming.

Part Three: The Apostle's Invitation

Now we move from the parable to the proclamation. In Acts 3, Peter has just healed a lame man at the temple gate, and a crowd has gathered in astonishment. Peter uses the moment to preach. He tells them plainly that they handed Jesus over to be crucified. He does not soften the accusation. But then he says something remarkable in verses 19 through 21.

"Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, about which God spoke through his holy prophets from the beginning."

Peter uses two words together that are worth holding onto. Repent and turn back. In the Greek, the first word carries the idea of a changed mind, a new way of seeing. The second word is a turning, a reorientation of direction. Together they describe exactly what the son in the parable did. He came to his senses, which was the change of mind, and then he got up and went to his father, which was the turning.

Peter connects this turning to three things. First, sins wiped out. Not reduced. Not managed. Wiped out. The language is one of complete removal. Second, seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The word refreshing carries the sense of relief after exhaustion, like a cool wind on a hot day. Third, the ultimate hope of restoration when Christ returns. Repentance is not just a private transaction. It connects a person to the whole movement of God's redemptive plan.

This is the central claim of this sermon: Turning to God in repentance is not a punishment. It is an invitation to come home, and the Father is already running toward you.

Part Four: What Repentance Actually Looks Like

Because this word is so often misunderstood, it is worth being direct about what repentance is and what it is not.

Repentance is not the same as regret. The younger son felt regret in the pigpen, but regret alone does not move your feet. Repentance moves your feet. It is a turning, not just a feeling.

Repentance is not the same as self-punishment. The son in the parable did not spend years trying to earn his way back into his father's favor before he came home. He came home. The restoration happened at the point of return, not after years of proving himself.

Repentance is not a one-time event that only unbelievers need. The New Testament assumes that believers will need to return to God repeatedly throughout their lives. There are seasons when even people who love God drift, grow cold, or wander into places they should not be. The invitation to turn back is always open.

And repentance is not hopeless. This is perhaps the most important thing to say to anyone in this room who has been carrying the weight of something for a long time, wondering if they have gone too far, wondering if the door is still open. The father in the parable was watching the road. He saw his son while the son was still a long way off. That means the father was looking for him. God is not waiting for you to clean yourself up before you come. He is watching for the moment you turn around.

Part Five: The Gospel At The Center

We cannot preach repentance honestly without naming what makes it possible. The reason the father can celebrate, the reason sins can be wiped out, the reason there are seasons of refreshing, is not because repentance itself is powerful. It is because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross and in his resurrection.

Peter in Acts 3 is preaching to people who participated in the crucifixion of Jesus. He tells them so directly. And then he tells them to repent. The very death they were responsible for is the death that makes their forgiveness possible. This is the mystery and the mercy of the gospel. The one who was wronged is the one who provides the way back.

If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, this is the invitation that stands before you today. Not a call to try harder or be better, but a call to come home. To acknowledge the distance between where you are and where God made you to be. To turn toward the Father who is already running toward you. To receive the forgiveness that was purchased at the cross and offered freely to everyone who comes.

If you are a believer who has drifted, the same door is open. The same Father is watching. The same mercy is available.

Conclusion: Get Up And Go

The younger son in Luke 15 had a long speech prepared. He rehearsed it carefully. But the father interrupted him with a robe and a ring and a feast. That is the kind of God we are talking about. Not a God who makes you grovel before he will listen. A God who runs.

Whatever road you have been walking, whatever distance you have put between yourself and the Father's house, the direction home is always available. It begins with what the son did: coming to yourself, seeing clearly, and getting up.

The promise of Acts 3:19 is still standing. Repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

The Father is watching the road. Come home.

Sources Consulted

The Holy Bible, Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2017. Luke 15:11-24; Acts 3:19-21.

Bock, Darrell L. Luke, Volume 2: 9:51-24:53. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Baker Academic, 1996.

Polhill, John B. Acts. The New American Commentary, Volume 26. Broadman and Holman, 1992.

Bailey, Kenneth E. The Cross and the Prodigal: Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants. InterVarsity Press, 2005.

Stein, Robert H. Luke. The New American Commentary, Volume 24. Broadman Press, 1992.