[AI translation] I have given the title of this sermon today, Rich Life, because just imagine what prosperity, carefree, joy, happiness, riches are expressed in this phrase: "My son, you are always with me, and all is yours!" With this father in the story, who was the father of the two sons, Jesus is exemplifying the heavenly Father. So the heavenly Father says this to all the sons and daughters who are in some way with Him, who live around Him, who belong to Him, "My son, you are always with me, and all things are yours." Tell me honestly, is there any richer life imaginable than to take seriously this declaration of the heavenly Father, "Thou art with me always, and all things are thine!" Can our heavenly Father do more than this for us and with us, can he give more than this? What more can he do, what more can he give, so that we, his defiant, discontented, selfish children, can truly rejoice and be glad?This story is, of course, precisely about the fact that our heavenly Father provides this unspeakable rich life, but His sons and daughters do not rejoice in it. The youngest son of the father in the story leaves home because he cannot stand it at home, thinking he will be better off somewhere in the unknown distance. He is lured and drawn by the sense of adventure and the distance and cannot resist it. But the older one doesn't feel at home either. I once preached on this Word a long time ago, and then I gave it the title Home and yet far away. Yes: this older boy is at home in body but away in spirit. He is a type of the soul who lives a life close to the Father without really having His heart. One who is with God without really loving Him. Once led me to a very serious discovery of this verse, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near." (Is 55:6) In other words, it is one thing to be near the Lord and another to find the Lord. So one can be close to the Lord for a lifetime without having found Him in his heart. From the time I was a little child until I was 24 years old, I was close to the Lord, but it was a different thing than being with Him when I had found Him! So there is a relationship between God and man that could be expressed as being with Him and yet without Him. Together and yet apart, in communion and yet alone, alone, belonging to God and yet separated from Him, in short: close and yet very far away! Or: close but not in true communion.
This relationship is like a marriage in which the spouses are united, not even thinking of separation, but not united in thought, plan, purpose, taste, joy, living side by side, but not in communion, not in spiritual communion with one another. The Christian's relationship with God can be like this, and for many people it is just like this: it is ordinary, dull, boring, uneventful, joyless. That's why what happened just a few days ago to a small group of church workers who have just completed a number of home visits can happen. The leader asked them to report on the visit that they felt was good, that went well, that was a joy for them. And how did it end? A big silence! They were working in the service of the Lord and had nothing to talk about! They belong to the Lord, they are in his service, but it is a dull, ordinary, dull, uneventful service, nothing to talk about. This boy in the story is an example of a Christian man who has nothing to testify about because he has nothing to testify about. He cannot rejoice because he has nothing to rejoice about, and even if he does do some service for the Lord, there is nothing to talk about because nothing interesting has happened. Yes: all this boredom, monotony, habitualness, comes out in this complaint of the boy: "Behold, I have served thee all these years, and never transgressed thy commandments: neither hast thou ever given me a kid of the goats to comfort my friends." (Lk 15,29)
Moreover, in this outburst, it is also implied that this elder son is secretly jealous of his brother! How good for him: he has enjoyed the pleasures of the world! In the depths of the souls of many believers lurks a secret envy: how good it is for the sons of the world to be able to indulge in worldly pleasures without coming into conflict with their conscience. Life in the service of God, life according to God's will, is very narrow, limited, monotonous, boring. Even though Jesus says, "My yoke is beautiful" (Mt 11,30), it would be good to drop this yoke for a short while and enjoy other pleasures, to taste the pleasures of forbidden fruit. I wonder what the sin tastes like, to which God says: "No! See, it hurts this elder brother! Now his secret longing, which good-boy conduct has covered up, is out: 'Thou hast never given me a kid of the goats to make merry with my friends!' So: that I might live a little like the sons of the world! The Father says: "All I have is yours!" Yes, that's right, but I'd rather have what belongs to the world. I'm very used to what is yours, I'd like to have a little taste of what belongs to the world. I would like to rejoice and be glad like the world, but I cannot do that because I am a believer, because I am forbidden by the Scriptures, because the Father will be angry with me for it and I will lose my inheritance because of it. I must not! And it is only in secret that the soul longs for sins which it would be ashamed to commit, would be afraid to commit, and only in sleep does it live out those desires which it cries out from its consciousness in its waking life. As a compensation, he loudly condemns and stumbles at the sins of others, which he would like to commit in secret. Behold, how contemptuously the son of the story says: "And when this thy son came, who devoured thy wealth with fornication, thou hast cut off his fatted bullock!" (Lk 15,30) This is the typical virtuous man, who speaks contemptuously of the fact that the other one has devoured his father's wealth with fornicators - but you can tell from his words that he is almost drooling as he thinks about it, he can hardly conceal his envy, if only he could take a few steps along this road for once!
Do you feel that this is too much? That you have nothing to do with the spirit that this older boy exemplifies? That you are really perfectly content with what He gives and do not desire beyond that what the world can give? Do you think so? If only it were true! But is it really so?
Man has a strange ability: he can tell the truth. For example, when I say in this Word, "My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours," that this is the true rich life, then it is true. But if by that I mean that it satisfies me, I would be lying. We know the Word that the Lord once said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Cor 12:9). It is just not true that it is enough for me! For it is good for me to have God's grace, it is good for me to know that God is gracious to me, that He forgives me, that He loves me, that He cares for my salvation - for that is what God's grace means - but if that were all I had, if I had no food or clothing, if I were a prisoner, if I were sick, if I were a poor man stuck in the earth, if I had no food to eat, for example, could I say: It is all right, God's grace is enough for me, - if he has no other gifts, his grace is enough for me, I am as happy with it as if he had blessed me with many other blessings. Would we not feel very unhappy, penniless, and stepfathers, if the Lord God gave us His grace and nothing else? Wouldn't we complain, as soon as our lips would drop, why God treats us like this? Is it really such a very rich life when all that God says to a person is, "My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours?" Yes: God intended it to be a rich life, a life that would please us!
The younger brother has already found out, because he has experienced what the world can give. He can already compare by experience which is better, which is richer: at home or away? He has already tasted and hated what the other secretly desires. He already knows that what his father says to the older son is really good: "You are always with me, and everything is yours! So you should be happy and rejoice!" Oh yes, this is the real thing, this is the happy, this is the rich life!
Let us try to be more specific: "Thou art always with me!" I am beginning to realize more and more that the secret of the whole Christian life is to believe this, to realize this, to see myself there in His presence. To experience as reality what he says here, "You are always with me!" This is how He sees me, as you know. Because He has removed all the obstacles between us, all that separated us, all that could interfere with this togetherness: Jesus has taken it upon Himself, He has taken it away, He has taken care of it, He has paid for it. Therefore, in view of the death of Jesus, this is indeed how God sees you and me: "You are with me always." So there is nothing to prevent you from seeing yourself in the same way. But you also see yourself always in this way, in the presence of the living God, in reconciled and reconciling communion with Him. At all times, that is, not only occasionally, during the devotions or here in the church, but at all times! This is the secret of the Christian life: to keep ourselves in the holy presence of God and to see Him as present to our souls at all times. A long-ago brother, a 16th century believer, a man called Lorenz, recently wrote a letter to me. In it I read that his particular characteristic was the experience of the constant presence of God, the quiet, intimate communion with God. He wrote of himself, "My only ambition is to keep myself unceasingly in His holy presence, while I direct my attention to Him, look up to Him with love of heart, and engage Him in quiet and secret inner conversation as if I could see Him truly present!" This is what this Word presents to us as an opportunity: "My Son, you are with me always!"
Brothers and sisters, whoever lives this knows that this is the meaning of life. This is also the Psalmist's testimony: "But I am with you always, you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and then receive me into glory." (Psalm 73:23-24) I am also realizing more and more that this is why it is really worth praying. Praying for earthly goods is not praying at all, it is just begging. True prayer is not to ask God for many things, but to know Him through Him who is Lord of all life, to come to Him, to experience His presence. His true children are those who do not always want to receive something from Him, but want to sit at His feet, to enter into communion with Him. Of course, prayer does not exclude petition, but its real object should be the Lord Himself! Once we have reached the source of life, we have the whole of life and all that makes life complete! "You are with me always, and all is yours!" That is why Sundar Singh says, "When I lay in prison locked up, hungry and thirsty, I did not beg for food and drink, but for the living God Himself, offering myself to Him, and I was seized with indescribable peace!"
Brothers and sisters: ask God for God himself! As He gives Himself through His Holy Spirit, through His Word, in Jesus Christ! Let no one be afraid that this is not practical enough, not real enough. There is nothing in the world that is so much more suited to practical living than to be in constant communion with Jesus, to experience communion with God in all the situations of everyday life. Brother, the Lord Jesus also died for you, His death took your sins out of the way, out of the way of experiencing personal fellowship with God. Accept by faith that God is now saying to you, "My son, you are with me always, and all things are yours."
Whoever really wants to accept this, come with me, stand before the Lord, tell Him:
My spirit hastens to come to you,
Though his strength be weak,
Wants to eat from your table,
O fountain of life!
That he may be satisfied
And be part of you.
Favour, O Lord, his mercy
To thy poor servant,
Feel his sweetness
Of thy supper prepared,
To be united with you
And let her soul rejoice in thee.
(Canto 435, verses 2-3)
Amen
Date: 11 November 1951.
Lesson
Lk 15,25-32