Audio Transcript:

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Good morning. Welcome again to Mosaic. Good to see you this morning. My name is Shane. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new, welcome. We're so glad that you're here. We would love to connect with you. The way we do that is through our connection card. Hopefully, you were able to grab one of those on the way in, if not, we have that also available on our website. You can find a link to that on our homepage. But if you fill that out for us, we would love to just follow up with you this week, and also just send a small gift to you, to thank you for being with us today. And if you fill that out this morning, you just drop that in the little white box at the back of the room on your way out later on.

Just one quick announcement before we get into the sermon today. Tonight at 5:00 PM, we are having a prayer gathering here at the temple in the sanctuary. You're all invited for that. It's going to be a really laid back time. We're just going to spend some time and worship together, spend some time in prayer together. And then we're also going to have a brief message from one of our members on one of the parables of Jesus, tonight. And so, I'm looking forward to that, and you're all welcome to come back and join us for that at 5:00 PM tonight. We'll also going to be doing that next Sunday night and the following Sunday night after that as well.

Today we are wrapping up our sermon series going through the Book of Malachi. And this is going to be the final sermon before Advent. Advent is the time when we remember and when we celebrate Christ's first coming at the birth of Jesus on Christmas. And Advent, is also a time when we anticipate Christ's return, when he comes again to judge the world in righteousness and to make all things new. In this text today, this is not only the end of Malachi, it is also the conclusion to the entire Old Testament scriptures. And it really serves as God's final word to his covenant people before 400 years of silence. And so, after following this text, there's not going to be one single prophetic word given, spoken, written down for 400 years. And the people of God are not going to hear him speak to them again until the Advent, until the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. And then with that, also along with it, of course, the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

So, if you've been with us through the Book of Malachi, you've probably noticed by now that it is a pretty depressing book. In a lot of ways, it's like the darkness before the dawn of Christ's arrival. And what we see is that God's people have returned from their time in exile physically, but their hearts have not returned to God spiritually. And so, the reality of their return is falling short of their expectations, falling far short of their expectations. And what has resulted is a disillusionment. The people are bitter, and the people are grumbling.

And really the last three chapters of Malachi have read like one long argument between God, the Father, and a mouthy teenager. The people are just grumbling against the father. And you really just get the sense of everyone saying, "Dad, we're sick of you. We're sick of your rules. We want you off our back, let us do our thing. Let us go." And all this should sound very familiar.

This is, you think about it, it's really the setup for one of the most famous stories ever told. This is Jesus' parable of the prodigal son in real life, "Dad, I'm sick of you and all your rules. Why don't you get off my back and let me go?" And we see this sentiment in Malachi three. We saw this last week in Malachi 3:15, where God says that, "Your words have been hard against me," says the Lord. But the people say, "How have we spoken against you?" And the Lord says, "You have said it as vain to serve God. What is the profit of keeping his charge, or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant, blessed. And evil doers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape." It's like, what's the point of serving you God?

Did you ever run away from home when you were a kid? And you get so mad at your mom and dad, and was like, "That's it. I'm out of here. I'm leaving. I'm never coming back." And then like 20 minutes later, you're halfway down the block, hiding behind the neighbor's garage, seeing if anyone's coming to look for you. And it's like, "I'm getting hungry. I think I have to go to the bathroom. I didn't think this through. I was just angry and feeling impulsive." And you have the walk of shame back home.

Sometimes God as a good father, he says, "Okay." Sometimes he disciplines us actively. Sometimes he disciplines us passively. This is the passive wrath of God. This is Romans chapter one, where God says he gives them up to their sinful desires and really lets them learn the hard way what life is like apart from him.

Romans 1:21 says that, "Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but became futile in their thinking. And their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds, and animals, and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, dishonoring their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the country rather than the creator, who is blessed forever."

This is Romans chapter one. This is the prodigal son. This is the people that we see in Malachi three. And this is not just them. This is us. And we're all runaways. We're all prodigals. And deep down we're longing to get back home, but we can't. There is sin and pride, and bitterness, and cynicism standing like this chasm between us and the Father.

And so the question is, how do we get back? How do we cross that infinite divide that our sin has caused? How do we get home from here? The question is, how do we take our cold, hardened, prodigal hearts that have been running away from the Father for so long and replace them with tender hearts that are going to run back to him instead? That's what we're going to be talking about today, as we wrap up the book of Malachi. Three points that we're going to look at, we're going to talk about the father's kindness, the father's severity and the father's heart.

So, we're going to be starting at Malachi chapter three, verse 16. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along. Otherwise, you can follow along up here on the screen as well. So, this is Malachi chapter three, beginning in verse 16. Is that right? There it is.

Malachi 3:16, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord paid attention and heard them. And a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. "They shall be mine," says the Lord of hosts. And the day when I make up my treasured possession and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more, you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God in the one who does not serve him."

Chapter four, "For behold, the day is coming burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming, shall set them ablaze," says the Lord of hosts, "So that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. You shall tread down the wicked, for they will be as ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act," says the Lord of hosts."

"Remember the law of my servant, Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers, to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction."

Now, would you please join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for speaking to us today. And we thank you for your word. Your word is holy. It is inerrant. It is infallible. It is authoritative. It good for us. And we pray Holy Spirit, that you would impress these words upon our hearts, that we would know them. We would love them. We would obey them. We would walk in them. God, we pray today that you would give us clean hands, that you would give us pure, softened hearts. And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Amen.

Point number one, we're going to talk about the father's kindness. Last week was Owen's birthday. Our oldest son turned nine years old, kind of a big deal, last year in single digits. And so, we wanted to do something special for him. And we got on eBay and we bought him an old school game boy with a couple of games. Not like the original game boy, the one that you could only see what you're doing if you hold it at the exact right angle. And it was like a brick. But the one that came after that, it had the nice flip up thing and the back lit screen. And he was pumped.

But here's the thing about older video games. Today's children are cuddled by the video game market. Back in the day, video games were merciless. They were treacherous. They were unforgiving. And he never really had an experience of playing one of those before. And so, as excited as he was, I knew that this was going to be hard for him. I knew that he was going to get frustrated. And sure enough, within 20 minutes, he's on the verge of tears. He's completely disillusioned. He's fed up. He wants to quit because he's been playing the first level of his first game, Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past. Classic. And he's just dying over and over, and over, and over.

And I think about the games back then, is when you died, you had to start over from the beginning. And so, he's just, he's losing it. He's ready to give up. He's begging me to let him quit. He's begging me to beat the game for him. And as a good father, I said, "No way. Owen Louis Sikkema, you are not going to stop playing this Game Boy until you beat that first level."

And now, here's the thing. Sometimes I will take the controls and I will do something for him, because I know there's just no other way that he's going to be able to move forward. Most of the time however, I don't want to do it for him. I would much rather do it with him.

And so, I laid down the law. I said, "I'm not going to let you quit. I'm not going to do it for you, but I will do it with you." And so, I sat down next to him, and for the next hour, I forced him to play his Game Boy. And I've never seen a kid so miserable to play with their birthday present before. But he'd go. He'd get to a certain point in the game, he'd die. Start over, get a little bit farther, die, over and over. Probably 30 times he died. And every time I would point out, "This is what you did wrong. This is what you need to do differently. This is how the mechanics work the controls. Here's some tips. Here's some strategy. And by the end of it, he hated me. He hated the game.

He was probably about ready to smash the thing on the floor, but then finally it happened. He gets to the end. I don't know what that clicking is. I'm really sorry. He beats the boss. And all of a sudden, all of this anger, all this rage, immediately flips on its head. And he's literally jumping around the room for joy, screaming, "I did it, I did it. I did it." And as soon as his mom walks in the door, he just can't wait to tell her, "Mom, you're not going to believe it, Dad helped me beat the game." I went from being the worst dad in the world, to the world's greatest dad." Put it on my coffee mug, I deserve it. And he is so pumped up. For the rest of the day, he can't stop talking about it.

It's a silly illustration because life is not a game, but life is a battle. And it's a battle that sometimes when we're honest with ourselves, we're just, "I don't want to do it anymore. I want to give up, I want to quit. God, you do it for me, but I can't do it."

Sometimes God says, "Okay." Sometimes God steps in, and miraculously takes the controls, intervenes in our lives and changes our circumstances. More often than not, he doesn't do that. I think the reason that God doesn't do those things for us is because he wants to do something in us and through us, and with us. That God is a good father. And as a good father, he needs us to learn this lesson, that his power is made perfect in our, what? In our weakness. That when we are incapable, when we are humbled by the task that is before us, it forces us to rely on God and the way that we always should be all along. It forces us to stop taking the father's kindness and grace, and providence for granted, and acknowledge that apart from him, we can do nothing.

Jesus told his disciples, "I am the vine. You are the branches." And many of the people that Malachi was writing to had forgotten that God was a good father, that he loved them. And that they looked at their circumstances and they couldn't see the good that God was trying to do with their eyes. And so, they started pushing him away in their hearts.

It's easy to do. When life knocks us down, we can get mad. We can give up. We can run away. We can get bitter at life, bitter at God, bitter at people. And like the people, here our hearts can grow cold and hard.

And all we need to do instead is what we see this other group of people that we meet in today's texts. Well, we need to fear the Lord. We need to humble ourselves and come to our father and humbly ask him to give us the help we need. And acknowledge we can't do it alone.

We need to choose fear of the Lord over fear of our circumstances. We need to choose faith over cynicism. We need to choose to get better instead of getting bitter and to see that all of these obstacles before us, by the power of the Holy Spirit are actually opportunities for our spiritual growth. And so, what is the point? How does this relate to the problem of our hard hearts? This is the connection, that our proud, prodigal hearts are softened when we begin to understand that God doesn't discipline us, he doesn't allow us to go through trials and tribulations in order to harm us. He does so in order to help us.

God wants to see his kids grow up. He wants to see his children grow up to be strong and courageous, and resilient. And then at the same time, kind and compassionate and humble. And sometimes what this means is that God is going to care more about pruning our characters than he does about pandering to our comforts. He disciplines us because he loves us. He longs to see us grow up into the image of his son, Jesus Christ.

And so, maybe you felt like you've been going through a lot of pruning this year. And pruning is painful. But how many of you can look back even now, even in 2020, and say that, "This was the most painful, and gut wrenching, and heartbreaking, and yet valuable formative sanctifying year of my life. And I am thankful that God has led me through it." I know you can. I know some of you can say that.

I know for many of you, 2020 is the year when you finally learned how to pray, because you had no other choice. This is the year that you re-examined your life, and you finally got your priorities straight. This is the year where you stop trying to live life in the flesh and learned what it means to live in the spirit. This is the year that you walked through the fire. And it was in those flames that you learned that God is with you and that he is holding you there, not to harm you, but to refine you like precious gold.

This has been one of the most trying and painful year of my life. But I do believe that I'm thankful for it, that I've grown in my faith. I've grown in my humility. I am so humble, you don't even know. I'm growing in humility, I hope. Growing in compassion. So far yet to go, but I can see God working there in my heart. I'm growing in dependence on God's spirit to sustain me. And one of the greatest joys I've had this year is being able to see how the same is true for many of you.

The psalmist in Psalm 119 said that, "It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees." Now, I'm going to pause here and just ask, honestly, how many of you are like, "Yeah, no, I'm not there. I'm not feeling that. I'm not feeling thankful for this. I am really angry at God right now." Maybe your heart feels cold and weary, like you want to give up. I said I felt that way plenty of times this year too, it's not like an all or nothing thing. It's a daily battle to put the flesh to death, and to walk in the spirit, and to believe the promises of God. But if you're not there yet, don't mask your pain, and don't be fake with yourself or fake with God. Be honest with God. Be honest with yourself.

Perhaps the reason you're not there, is because you don't fear the Lord. Maybe you're not a Christian. Maybe for you, what you need to do right now is repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ for the first time before any of this is going to start to make sense. Perhaps you are a Christian, you do fear the Lord. And perhaps the problem is that you're discouraged. And when I say discouraged, I mean, literally you have been drained of your courage, your joy. You are gun shy and fearful of trusting God and trusting his promises because you have been wounded. You have been hurt.

If that's where you are at, then this is what you need to know. This is what you need to hear. And this is what Malachi tells us. What's the first thing that God told the people at the beginning of the book? It says, "I have loved you." And in their cynical hearts, they say, "How have you loved us?" But here again, we see him repeat the same truth, that if this is you, if your heart is cold and weary, listen to these words that God loves you. He sees, he knows, he's not forgetting.

Actually what it says is he values us like treasure. And he treasures us like children. This is straight from our text today in Malachi 3:16. It says, "That those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord paid attention and heard them. And a book of remembrance was written before him, of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. "They shall be mine," says the Lord of hosts, "In the day when I make up my treasured possession and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him."

I don't know why God has allowed things to happen the way that they've happened this past year. I'm really sorry about that. I'm going to move this because I think I'm bumping the cord or something. I don't know why.

I also don't know if things are going to get better or things are going to get worse. What I do know is that God is still God, Jesus is still Lord. And he still loves us. And he loves us with a selfless sacrificial, never ending, covenantal love. And I understand that sometimes that can be hard to believe. And if you're having trouble believing that today, then look to Jesus, look to the founder and perfecter of our faith, look to the cross and see the undeniable proof of God's love. And then look to the resurrection, see the undeniable proof that God is sovereign, that he is in control, and he can work even the darkest moments of history for our good. This is central to our identity as Christians. This is why the New Testament has so much to say to us as Christians about suffering and about suffering.

Well, I wish we had time to just do a survey of the entire New Testament to see all that it has to say on this, this morning. But I'm just going to read one passage for us. And I read this to encourage us, literally to give us back the cruise that we need to be faithful, children of God, through life's trials.

This is Hebrews 12. It says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great, a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners, such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted."

"In your have in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there, whom his father does not discipline. If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live. They disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness."

"For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but yet later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness, without which no one can see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. And by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal."

If you're weary, if you're ready to give up, then remember, remember the father's kindness. Remember that he disciplines those that he loves. Don't harden your heart. Don't grow angry or bitter. It also says don't go seeking comfort through sinful pleasures. Instead, look to Jesus, look to the founder, the perfector of our faith, and know that his power is made perfect in your weakness. The father is forming you because he loves you. He wants you to grow up into the image of his son.

And so, we remember the father's kindness. Point two, we remember the father's severity. This is chapter four, starting at verse one. It says, "For behold, the day is coming burning like an oven, when the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze," says the Lord of hosts, "So that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be as ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act," says the Lord of hosts."

Malachi reminds the people of the father's love. He reminds them of the father's judgment. And one of the major complaints that the people had made against God was that he was being a bad judge, that he was turning a blind eye to evil. He was letting the wicked and the arrogant off the hook. And we saw this in Malachi 3:15. It says that, they call the arrogant, blessed. And evil doers, not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. And God says, "Oh no, they don't. They're not off the hook. Don't worry about them. Their day will come. And I'm not letting anyone off the hook. Their destruction is going to be both terrifying and complete. Instead of worrying about them, you should worry about yourself. Because if I haven't destroyed them yet, it's because I'm being patient. I'm giving you time to repent."

The father's severity should soften our hearts. And it should do for two reasons. First of all, it shows us that God will indeed give justice to the oppressed, that the wicked aren't getting away with anything. That God is a good and gracious judge. And he will one day deal with the problem of sin and evil once and for all.

Acts 17:20 says that the times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now he has commanded all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, Jesus Christ, our Lord. God will do what is just. He is going to right every wrong. And even if the wicked seem to prosper in this life, they will not escape the judgment that is coming and eternity.

And this is very good news for the future, that God is going to deal with this problem of evil. At the same time, it's very bad news for us because we're sinners. We're wicked. We're deserving of God's judgment ourselves. And so, the second way this softens our heart is by showing us that that God's desire is to be patient with us in order that we might find his mercy. And he calls all people everywhere to repent. As an omnipotent, wise and all-knowing king, God sees every sinful act, every sinful thought, every sinful desire and inclination of our hearts. And as a just, and righteous judge, God will call all things to account. Nothing's going to be swept under the rug. Every debt will be paid. Every sin will be punished including yours, including mine. Nothing will elude his justice.

But as a kind and loving father, God desires to show us mercy. And he's made a way for that to be possible for us through the sun of righteousness that has risen. And so, here we see the severe justice and the severe mercy of God that softens our hearts. That on the one hand, God is a good judge, and his justice demands a penalty be paid for sin. And that his wrath towards sin should rightly be poured out on us for all of eternity in a place called hell.

And yet, on the other hand, he desires to show us mercy. And so, for all who fear him, who repent and place their faith in the savior, Jesus Christ, the wrath that we deserved is instead poured out on him. And it was poured out on him on the cross. And this humbles us, because we see that we are so bad that we deserve hell. That we are so bad that Jesus had to die for us. There was no other way for us to be saved. And yet at the same time, we are so loved that God was willing to send his son to do that for us. That Christ was willing to come and to humble himself, and to lay down his rights, and to laid down his life, and to be a propitiation and for our sins, so that we could be reconciled to our father.

This is the gospel. This is the good news that lies at the center of our faith. This is what fills us with love, hope, peace, and joy. As we enter into the Advent season, we remember that Christ has come, our Messiah has come, that he's accomplished redemption, that we have been saved from the penalty of our sins. This is also what we anticipate during Advent in the second coming of Christ, that he's not just going to remove the penalty for our sins, but by the power of his Holy Spirit, the risen Christ is saving us from the power that sin has over our life. And he's coming again to remove the very presence of sin all together and for all of eternity, when he comes to judge the world in righteous.

And this just fill our hearts with hope and joy, and courage. And we see, we get a glimpse of this in chapter four, verse two. It says, "For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. And you shall go out leaping like calves from in the stall." And we experience this right now in part through the gospel of having our sins forgiven. But a day is coming when we are going to experience that completely and in full.

The sun of righteousness will rise. It's a picture of a life-giving light. It's a light that vanquishes the darkness and exposes truth. And it destroys lies. And it floods and it fuels creation with righteousness. It makes things right. There is healing in its wings. As it reveals the truth, it also rejuvenates the creation. It reverses the curse. It writes the wrongs. It fixes what is broken. There will be no more sickness or sorrow, or tears, or death, or sin, or decay. That day is coming.

He says, "You shall go out leaping like calves from a stall." Have you ever seen that? Have you seen a calf, a baby goat, jumping for joy. Just YouTube, baby goat park. It'll change your life. It'll make your whole year so much better. Now, as you're watching that say, "Yes, that is me. That is my heart. That is what it feels like to know that my sins have been forgiven, and that the father loves me." It's a picture of freedom and joy that we have been set free from the stalls of sin and death, and Satan's tyranny.

So, you see the father's kindness was softened by the father's severity. Finally, we talk about the father's heart. In light of all of this, Malachi concludes his book, and the Holy Spirit concludes the Old Testament scriptures with two final instructions. Verse four, "Remember the law of my servant, Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel." Verse five, "Behold, I will send you, Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction."

It says, "I want you to remember, and I want you to behold. I want you to look back and I want you to look forward. I want you to hold onto my word and live your life as I've taught you to live. And I want you to look forward and hope to the sign of Elijah, who's going to come, and he's going to prepare the way for the Messiah. And I'm telling you this, because I want you to be ready when he arrives." Again, we see God's patience. That before Messiah would come, God would send this sign that Elijah would come and he would lead the people in repentance, so that they would be ready to receive the Messiah. Now, here's the problem. If you know your Bible history, Elijah lived 400 years before Malachi. And wasn't he long dead by now? Actually, no.

One of the interesting things about Elijah, you might find this interesting. Is yeah, he did live 400 years before Malachi wrote these words, but Elijah actually never died. Elijah, is one of only two people in human history who never ever died. God took him up in to heaven before his death. It seems as if his ministry is not complete yet.

And so, what is going on here? Some people speculate that Elijah is going to literally come back before Christ's return. Some people think that maybe he is one of the two prophets mentioned in the Book of Revelation. It's not entirely clear. But what the New Testament does tell us clearly is that this prophecy was in fact fulfilled, at least in part through the ministry of John the Baptist, which is interesting because the 400 years of silence that are about to follow are not going to be broken until the announcement of John the Baptist's birth.

And so, in the opening scenes of the New Testament, we read that Zachariah was serving as priest before God in the temple. And a messenger from the Lord, an angel appears to him. And this is what he says in Luke chapter one, verse 13, he says, "Do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard. And your wife, Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name, John. And you will have joy and gladness. And many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. To make ready for the Lord a people prepared."

So, John was born. He fulfills this ancient prophecy. But what does this all mean? And what does this have to do with fathers and with children? It's a strange way to end the book, or at least it seems so. If you think back over Malachi, the people of God, had really two major problems. One, they had a major problem with their worship and their devotion to God. And they had a major problem with their families. They were unfaithful to God and they were unfaithful to their wives.

And so, what we see is that there were some of the men were intermarrying with idol worshipers, and they were not teaching their children to grow up to love and serve the Lord. Others were breaking their marriage vows and they were divorcing their wives. And because of all of this, they were failing at their purpose.

And what was the purpose? What was the thing that God said he was seeking from them? Well, he told them in chapter two, that what the Lord was seeking was godly offspring. He was seeking a godly legacy from these people, but they were failing.

Malachi 2:14 says that, "The Lord was witnessed between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant, did he not them one with a portion of the spirit in their union. And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. And so, guard yourselves and your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth."

Instead of leaving legacies of faith, they were leaving a legacy of faithlessness. Instead of leaving a legacy of godliness, they were leaving a legacy of godlessness in this. And what was becoming, was they were becoming a generation of prodigals who had run far from home. And now they were raising a generation of children who didn't even know where home was. They were so far from God.

And Malachi concludes with these words of hope and says, it's not always going to be so. The day is coming, when fathers will turn to their children and children will turn to the fathers, and they will together, turn their hearts toward God, the heavenly father. And that John was going to come to prepare them for the Messiah. And that the Messiah was going to come to bring them back home.

And thinking about this through the lens of prodigal and specifically, the story of the prodigal son, the Messiah is really coming as the true big brother that the prodigal son never had. If you remember the parable, it ends in a party, right? The father throws the celebration. And everybody is inside. They're having a good time. They're celebrating that the prodigal son had come home, except for, of course, the older brother. He's outside by himself, grumbling in the darkness against the father.

And the father goes out to reason with him. In Luke 15:25, it says, "Now, the older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and he asked what these things meant. And he said to him, "Your brother has come back and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound." But he was angry and he refused to go in.

His father came out and he entreated him, but he answered his father, "Look, these many years, I have served you, and I've never disobeyed your command. Yet, you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him." And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me. And all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and he's alive. He was lost and is found."

We can see the father's heart in this. But had the older brother had that same heart, had the older brother had the father's heart, the story would have ended much differently. Because what the older brother should have done, what a good older brother should have done, is gone to the father and said, "Father, let me go after him. I'm willing to leave behind everything that I have here with you. And I will go to the ends of the earth, if that that means I can bring my little brother back home." He didn't do that, but Jesus did that.

And that's what I mean when we say that Jesus is the better big brother. That John prepares the way, and then Jesus comes to seek us, to save us, to find the prodigals, to bring them back home. And he softens our hearts so that we can cross that chasm, that infinite divide of our sin that has separated us from the father. And we can be reconciled to him. Once again, this is the love that can change the world, because this is the love that changes human hearts.

And I think Malachi singles out the fathers and the children here, because I think he's getting that this was what God's vision was from the very beginning. This was going all the way back to the garden, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue. It wasn't just a command to make lots of babies. It was a command to make image bearers of God, who fill the earth, who raised children, who love the Lord, their God with all of their heart, and with all of their soul, and with all of their might, and with all of their strength.

It's a picture of healthy people, producing healthy marriages, producing healthy families, healthy communities, healthy societies, in which people love and serve the Lord with all of their heart, because his love has transformed them from the inside out. That's God's vision. That's Jesus' vision. And that's why he came as our older brother to break that cycle of cynicism and sin, to tear down the walls of hostility between fathers and children, between families and peoples. And he does so by tearing down the wall of hostility between us and God. To turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children, and the fathers and children together, back to their God. To take our proud prodigal hearts that have been running from God for so long, and turn them back into the father's embrace.

And so, whoever you are, wherever you've gone, whatever you've done, this is the call to repent, to turn, to come back and to see that the father is waiting, standing at the door. And he's standing there not waiting to strike you, but to embrace you, not because of anything that you've done, but because of what his son, Jesus Christ has done for you. He's waiting to welcome you in to celebrate and to say the words that he said in Luke 15:23, "Come on, let us eat and celebrate, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found."

Let's pray. Father, we praise you as a powerful and mighty king. And we honor you as a just and righteous judge. And we love you as a kind and tender father. And we thank you for sending your son, our big brother, Jesus Christ, to seek us, to save us from ourselves, to take our hearts of stone and replace them hearts of flesh. Hearts that can beat and rhythm with yours, with your truth, and with your love.

God, I pray today that you would heal the broken hearted, that you would lift the needy from the ashes, and that you would strengthen our hands and feet, and give us the courage we need to be your children, to be your ambassadors, your representatives. God, I pray that your power would be made perfect and put on display through our weakness. That the light of your salvation would shine through us as a beacon of hope to this cold, dark and hard hearted world. We pray this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.