Prodigal Son Parable

Introduction

Yeah, no, it’s good.

Yeah, but I don’t know if they for the MDV, yeah.

G D Cree Man Vertever.

Two.

That was a lot of time.

I have to tell you that it is a pure joy for Jan and I to be here with you today and for the next few days. We’re so grateful for the opportunity to come for the invitation that was extended. I’m thankful to Tony for sharing his pulpit for a few days with me. And it’s just so wonderful to see your faces. We miss you guys a lot. Hope you’ll come see us in Atlanta sometime. You need to do that. Okay, it’s a little far, I know. But if you get that chance, we’d love to have you come see us. This morning we spent our time in Luke chapter fifteen. We started with the very first verse, and we talked about the first two parables that we find in that chapter.

We made the point that these parables were told in response to some complaining, some grumbling that had been taken place by the scribes and the Pharisees against the Lord Jesus, because he had been spending time with sinners, he had been sharing meals with them, and the Pharisees and the scribes thought that wasn’t right. We talked about the parable of the lost sheep, and the man who had a hundred sheep and lost one and went and searched till he found the sheep, and we found that he brought it back rejoicing. The parable of the lost coin, the woman who had ten coins and she lost one, and she swept her floor till she found it, and she rejoiced as well. The point we made this morning was that Jesus was telling these parables to make this clear to the Pharisees and the scribes that this is the attitude that God has toward those that are lost.

And they shouldn’t be criticizing him for seeking them. In fact, they themselves should also be seeking them. But as I mentioned at the end of the class, he’s not through with them yet. There’s another parable in this chapter that really relates to this same context that is the parable of the lost boy.

And I want us to begin the lesson this morning by reading that parable. It is a little lengthy, but I’ll try not to make it tedious. We’ll start in verse 11 of Luke chapter 15. And he said, A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me. So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now, when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pod that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread? But I am dying here with hunger. I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men. So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his slaves, Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found. And they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing, and he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he became angry and was not willing to go in.

And his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, Look, for so many years I have been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours. And yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice. For this brother of yours was dead, and has begun to live, was lost, and has been found. I submit to you that this parable, just as the first two in this chapter, is addressed to the scribes and the Pharisees for the same reason.

It is to show them the attitude that God has toward those who are lost, the attitude, therefore, that Jesus had toward those that were lost, and the attitude that they ought to have toward those who were lost. Now I realize that this is a somewhat lengthy parable, and in such cases, it is almost always true that we want to make this an allegory, and I and I’m sure that there are allegorical points within this parable. I’m not going to spend a lot of time dealing with that. I want us just to go through the story and think about the details here and see if this can’t act toward us the way a story should. We said this morning that the Lord’s parables were some of his easiest to remember teaching.

1. This Younger Son Wants to Receive His Inheritance

And one of the reasons for that is because these are the kinds of things that hit us where we live. But they’re only going to do that if we permit them to do that. So let’s see if we can absorb what the Lord would have us to know from this account. This younger son wants to receive his inheritance. According to Jewish law, when a man died, his estate would be divided amongst his sons equally, except that the oldest son would receive a double portion of that which was to be inherited. This younger man doesn’t want to wait until his father dies. He wants it now. He goes to his father and says, Look, go ahead and divide up your estate and give me the portion that is to be mine.

It’s tempting to say of this younger son that he was greedy, that he was impertinent, and perhaps that’s true. But it also may be true that he simply wants to try to make his own way in the world, and he needs some kind of estate to do that. I am told that in those days it was not that uncommon for a son to make this kind of request. And in fact, in the parable, we don’t see the father objecting to this, do we? What he does is he does exactly what his son asks him to do. So perhaps it is simply that this younger son is of age. He wants to go out and try it. Maybe he wants to go to somewhere and get an education.

I don’t know what he wants to do, but he wants it now. His father says, okay. And so he gives it to him, and he leaves. Whatever was in the mind of this young man, I may not know, but I think that I can know, pretty sure that things didn’t work out for him the way he hoped they would. Things didn’t work out at all the way he hoped they would. In fact, things got pretty bad. Because this young man is not only young, apparently he’s also fairly foolish. He squanders his inheritance. Much of it, apparently in sinful living. And then once it is gone, because he has not planned for the future at all, once it is gone, then something really bad happens, a famine comes into the land.

2. He Came to Himself

Now he’s in big trouble. Now he is hungry. And he has to become a hired hand who goes into the swine pit to feed pigs. Now, for a young Jewish boy, that’d be just about the worst job he could find. The most shameful job he could find. But he has to eat. And so that’s what he does. He is, in fact, even with this job, apparently in danger of starving. And then he begins to realize a few things. For one thing, I think he realizes, I mean, the Bible says he came to himself. I’m sure there are several things that he realizes. For one thing, he realizes that he’s acted foolishly. Another thing he may have realized is that independence isn’t really all cracked up to be.

Also realizes, though, that even his hired hands, his father’s hired hands have it better than he does right now. And furthermore, and this is maybe the most important thing he realizes, is that something has to change. He’s got to do something. He has sinned and he needs to do something about this. He realizes this. And so he resolves to do something about it. What he decides to do is to go back to his father’s house, but with a particular attitude. Not to go back and say to his father, your son has come home, but to go back and to plead with him to make him a hired hand. Because frankly, they have it better than he does right now. And he’s willing to do that. And look at the words.

Look at the words that he that he says. He rehearses his speech. He rehearses it. I will get up and go to my father, verse 18, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hide men. I don’t know how many of you have had the opportunity to do a lot of research, maybe reading in commentaries about this parable. But I have read several accounts of this, and in many of them, they make a real point of saying that what we have here in this young man is a is the true picture of repentance and humility. This man realizes what he has done, and he realizes how he ought to feel about that, and he does feel that way.

I have sinned. I’ve sinned against heaven and in your sight. And I it’s my fault. And there are consequences that are going to come because of what I’ve done, but just make me a servant in your house. And if you do that for me, then that’s all I can expect. That’s all I really deserve. That’s a real picture of repentance. Whenever we sin, it’s a little bit of an aside, I know, but when we sin, you know, that’s how we ought to feel when we come to ourselves. I have sinned. I need to come back to my father, and I need to acknowledge that I have sinned and I need to change my ways. I don’t deserve forgiveness, but I’m going to ask for it.

3. There's No Searching Going On in This Parable

That’s what this young man does. If you were here for the class, then you realize that in the first two parables. The parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd has a hundred sheep. He loses one wanders away, and he leaves the other 99 and he goes out searching for the sheep, and he keeps searching for the sheep till he finds it. In the parable of the lost coin, the woman has ten coins. She loses one of her coins. She’s she drops everything and searches and searches the house until she finds her coins. Here’s a man whose son has gone off. And we do not read about the father going off and searching for his son, do we? He does not do that. There’s a lot of searching going on in those first two parables.

There’s no searching going on in this parable at all. What is the difference? Well, we know what the difference is. It was a sheep. It was a coin. This is a young man. And a young man gets to decide for himself whether he’s going to stay at his father’s house or whether he’s not. He gets to decide for himself. His father is not going to make the decision for him. And I think there’s a very valuable lesson for us in that because, frankly, the father in this parable is God. And this is how he treats each one of us, isn’t it? He lets us choose. Here’s a young man who chose to leave his father’s house, who chose to squander his inheritance, who chose a sinful path in living his life.

4. Father Receives Him Back Enthusiastically

He chose those things, and nothing was done to prevent that. He had the right to choose. And God gives us that right. It is one of the most precious gifts he gives us the power to choose. And so the father longs for his son to be okay. He wants him to be right. He wants him to be, but he’s not going after him because the son gets to decide. Thankfully, in this parable, the son does decide. He decides to come back to his father. How is he received by his father? He means he does exactly what he said he was going to do. He comes back, he starts out with the rehearsed speech he’s got for his father. His father doesn’t even let him finish, does he?

He interrupts him in the middle of it. Quick. Go get the best robe and put it on him. Kill the fattened calf. Put sandals on his feet. Father receives him back enthusiastically. Father didn’t go searching for him, but he was watching. He did see his son coming. And he receives him back enthusiastically. Put the best robe on him. The best robe was a robe that was kept probably somewhere somewhat safe for a really distinguished guest whenever he would come. And the father says, Put this on my son. Put a ring on his finger. What that would signify is that this is still my son. This boy was never going to be a hired hand in his father’s house. He’s still my son. Put sandals on his feet.

Only the slave went barefoot. He got sandals. He’s not going to be a hired hand. He’s being received back by his father. And not only that, but kill the fattened calf. Now, this is a big deal. My understanding of the fattened calf is that this is a calf that was taken away from its mother early. And then grain fed, I presume it would be very tender and very tasty when the time came for it to be killed. And it was only going to be killed when there was some kind of a real feast that was going to take place. Some really great event. Maybe some very distinguished person who came by would get the fattened calf. Father says, kill this calf. We’re going to celebrate. We’re going to have a feast.

My son has come back. My son has come back. And he’s going to be okay.

What do you think the attitude of God is when we sin? And then we come to ourselves, and we come back to him in repentance and in humility, ask him for his forgiveness. What do you think are his feelings whenever we do that? He is so pleased. He rejoices. He is so happy that we have come to ourselves. He didn’t want us to be lost. His father did not want his son to be lost. And the son came back. And what that ought to tell us then, as Christians, what that ought to tell us is no matter what sin we commit, no matter how bad we may misbehave, and sometimes we can go crazy. Our father will take us back. I will tell you that sometimes we doubt that.

Especially whenever we have done something that we can’t believe that we did it. And we can only try to imagine what God thinks about what we’ve done. How can I even approach him to ask for his forgiveness? I don’t want to forgive myself.

He will do it enthusiastically. If we will have this young man’s attitude.

I’ve sinned against heaven. And I know that I have.

5. Did He Get Off Too Easy?

And that maybe was a stretch. I don’t even deserve that. And his father gave him much more. Much more than that. He received him back completely. Did he get off too easy? I mean, here’s a man who squandered his inheritance. He brought shame on himself. He brought shame on his father who had given him the inheritance. He’d engaged in sinful living. He did he get off too easy here? Well, you know, he had to face some consequences. He surely did lose his inheritance. That’s a consequence. He knew the shame of the swine pit, that’s a consequence. He knew the embarrassment, the shame of having to come back to his father with his hell between his legs. That sure would be a consequence.

I mean, what how does the father punish him? What consequence does he put on him? Not really much of anything. Put the robe on him, put the ring on his hand, saddles on his feet, kill the fat and calf. Let’s celebrate.

But he’s never gonna go hungry. He’s never gonna be alone. Did he get away with it? I mean, did he get away? But he just got away with it. Some people would suggest that. There’s a sense in which that’s true, too. And that doesn’t seem right. That doesn’t seem right. We shouldn’t he shouldn’t get away. There ought to be something else. People sin against us. And then they come to us and they say, Listen, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. That was the wrong thing for me to say. I you know, I talk about you in a way I shouldn’t have, and I and I said this to this person and that person, and I’m sorry, I’m gonna talk to them too.

And I’m asking you to forgive me.

Well, okay.

Seems like there ought to be more, doesn’t it? It’s like they got away with it. Now, such curiously, we don’t think that way when we’re the one that sinned, but in fact, when a person sins, when I sin and I come to myself, I don’t get the consequences of my sin either when the father forgives me. The consequences of sin is death, is it not? We don’t face those consequences. In fact, every one of us, when we sin and then come to ourselves and repent, it’s like we got a lower something because the father takes us back. That being the case. How can we possibly withhold forgiveness from someone who sins against us? As long as they turn away from that sin. As long as they come to themselves and recognize that was the wrong thing to do, and they’re not going to do that anymore.

6. There's Another Brother in This Family

It’s not getting away with anything, really. There are consequences of every sin that we have to face. But we surely cannot withhold a forgiveness in light of the fact that we’ve been forgiven for so much. That’d be a nice story if that’s all there was to it. But that’s not all there is to it. There’s another brother in this family, and he comes home and he hears the sounds of music, he hears the sounds of dancing, he asks what’s going on, and he’s told. Well, your brothers come home. And your father says we need to celebrate because he’s come home safe and sound. The older brother’s reaction is he gets angry. He won’t even go into the house. I’m assuming that the servant goes back into the house and tells the father, your other son has come home, because the father comes out to meet him, doesn’t he?

And he implores his son to come on in and join the celebration, and he’s not going to do it. He’s not going to do it. In fact, he says some pretty pointed things to the father. I have served you for years. I’ve never neglected a command of yours. You’ve never given me even a young kid, let alone a fattened calf, that I might celebrate with my friends. We talked about this a little bit this morning.

I’ve never gotten this kind of celebration. What’s the deal here? That didn’t seem right. He also says to his father, but this son of yours, notice he doesn’t call him his brother, this son of yours has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, and you killed the fattened calf for him. And basically, what the son says is, You are guilty, father, of taking my faithfulness for granted, and you are guilty of showing favoritism to this son of yours who doesn’t even deserve your high opinion.

About the welfare of his brother.

He doesn’t really seem to care. What he cares about is how this is affecting him. How does a father react to this? A son should not talk to his father that way. But the father doesn’t seem to be upset. He doesn’t seem to be angry. He implored with it. He says, My child, all that I have is now yours. It’s interesting that he doesn’t mention that the fact that all that he has is now this son’s, by virtue of him being the oldest son, not by virtue of any kind of righteousness on his part. That’s just the way the law read. But he says, All that I have is yours. And we have to celebrate. This is an important point. We have to celebrate because your brother has come back safe.

He was lost, he’s found, he was dead, and now he’s alive. The father speaks of this as though it is an absolutely essential thing to do. Absolutely necessary. To the father, it seems entirely not just illogical, but just unbelievable that they wouldn’t celebrate. Of course we’re going to celebrate. I don’t know how the older brother took it. We’re not told, are we? We’re not told the end of the story here. But, as we said before, the application for us as Christians ought to be pretty clear. And ought to be very clear. If we sin and we come to ourselves and come back to God, he will forgive. I think maybe there’s another application, too. For those of us who are Christians. Back all the way to the first two verses of chapter 15.

Remember what this is really about. Scribes and the Pharisees were complaining. You’re spending time with these folks. You’re eating with them. You shouldn’t be spending time with these unrighteous sinners. Parable of the lost sheep. You know, we ought to be willing to seek for those who are lost. Parable of the lost coin. We should be willing to diligently, earnestly seek for that which is lost. And then this parable, which I would suggest to you, should have said to them, and when one that is lost is found, we need to be willing to celebrate and rejoice that has happened. That’s mentioned in the other two parables as well. But you know, here it’s it’s like anyone who has a heart ought to be able to understand this.

Anyone who has a heart ought to understand that this is exactly what is supposed to happen here. We made this point in the two parables this morning. This is simply what is right. We talk about duty, we talk about obligation, and we should. But what is really important here is that this is what is right. We should seek, we should seek earnestly, and when we’re able to help one who’s lost become found, we should rejoice. And I know that we do. I know that we do. It’s the seeking part that we sometimes maybe don’t do what we ought to. But we are grateful to God, we’re grateful for his word, grateful for his son, that we can reach out to people with that news and to help them to be found.

Conclusion

And we’re going to do that right now. You can go get your songbooks out if you want.

If we sin, if we fall away, and you can fall away, as long as we come back, as long as we have a repentant heart, a penitent heart, and are willing to come back, he will receive us, and he will receive us enthusiastically. The application for those who are not Christian, you know it’s almost exactly the same. Even though you’ve never been a part of the Father’s house, you are his creation. It was pointed out this morning in one of the classes in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9 that Peter tells us, you know, God’s not one for any to perish. He doesn’t desire that. He wants all the codes of repentance. Maybe you know that. Maybe you know a little about a bit about what the Bible says.

Maybe you know, in fact, what you need to do to become a Christian. He says that we have to come to it in faith. We do have to turn away from sin. We have to confess his name before others, and we have to be baptized to have our sins washed away. Maybe you know those things, but you’ve not responded to the gospel. Maybe part of the reason is you’re not sure about whether you can live the life of a Christian the way you should. Well, the answer is no, you can’t. We all mess up. But you can live as a Christian and get better and better and better at it. You can. Maybe part of the problem is you don’t know enough. You’re not sure about it.

If you really understand this, if that’s the situation, then don’t leave this room this morning without talking to somebody here about a question that you’ve got about that. What is it you don’t understand? Would you like to study with someone? I’m here for three days. I’d be happy to study with you. If you need more than that, we’ve got men here who live for opportunities like this. Don’t go out of here with your questions unanswered. Or maybe part of it is. You look at your life and you think, how can God forgive me? If that’s something that was holding you back, please let this parable be an encouragement to you. God does not want to punish people. He doesn’t desire that. He wants to have people come to him.

And he wants to forgive. He sent his son to die for us so that could happen. He wants that. Do not believe for a moment the lie that the devil is whispering in your ear, oh, he won’t want you. He won’t want you. He wants people who are better than you. No. He wants you to be better than you are. Just like he wants us all to be better than we are. So if you if you’ve not obeyed the gospel, this is your moment. This invitation is for you. Please think about this. Come forward. Let us know that you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Tell us of your resolve. That you want to change your life. You want to be a better person.

You want to live the way that God wants you to live. Confess that faith before men. And let us baptize you this morning into the Lord Jesus Christ. Your sins will be washed away. You’ll be a new creature. Heaven will rejoice. And so will we. And so will you. So will you. Yeah, you’ll make mistakes. But that’s okay. You can always come back. You need to, it’s a growth process. We all understand that. But you have to take that first step. The song that we’re going to sing asks a very important question. I found it a minute ago. Where will you spend your eternity? There in the chorus. That’s the question I wanted to think about. Where will you spend it? You see, the choice is only here for now.

While we’re living. A time will come when we won’t be here. A time will come when the Lord will come back. And then the chance to make these kinds of decisions is passed. So right now, while you’re thinking seriously about this, while the love of the Father for those who come to Him in repentance is right in front of your eyes, why not right now take advantage of this opportunity? If you’re a Christian and you need to and you need to be restored to faithfulness, you know what to do. You know how the Father will react. You know how we’ll react. So he just read about it. Why not today? Why not right now? We’re going to stand, we’re going to sing, we’re doing this to encourage you to come.

So please come and let us help you if we can.

What will be? What will it be? What will it be? Where will you spend your eternity be? What will it be? What will it be? What will be? Sadly you’ll stand if you survive. Trembling you’ll fall under me. Faith and a sentence of God for others. What will it be? What will it be? What will expend your acre to me? What will it be? Oh what will it be? What will your answer be? Now is the time to prepare my friend Make yourself thoughtless and free the blood of the news and five one He will serve me What will it be? What will it be? Where will you spend your acre with me? What will hurt me all what will it be? What will your eyes serve me?

Can I say one more?