Luke 15 part II - The Prodigal Son - notes from Wednesday night bible study meeting

 

Now we come to the lost son, the Prodigal Son. ---it's a little longer than the others--- Its the story of a Father and 2 sons who were very different indeed.. We will look at the nature of forgiveness, the heatbreak , the patience, and love of the father and much more.. This is why its call the greatest short story in human history and literature….

The story of the Prodigal Son, also known as the Parable of the Lost Son, follows immediately after the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. With these three parables, Jesus demonstrated what it means to be lost, how heaven celebrates with joy when the lost are found, and how the loving Father longs to save people. Jesus was also responding to the Pharisees' complaint: "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Most everybody's heard of this wonderful parable. It's the same lesson as the previous three, but there is a difference. In all three of the parables, something is lost, but progressively that which is lost becomes more valuable.

A sheep is valuable, but relationally a coin would be more valuable than a sheep, but certainly a son, a person is more valuable than a sheep or a coin. So, with each parable it becomes amplified to make the point. It's becoming more and more valuable.

"A certain man had two sons." By the way, this is called the parable of the prodigal son.

This is really more the parable of the perfect father. It's more about the father than the son.

"And the younger of them"---the young son out of these two boys, "said to his dad,

" 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood." Okay, when there were two boys in the family like this, the oldest would get two-thirds of the inheritance, the youngest would get one-third. But they didn't get any of the inheritance until the Father died.

It belonged to the father. It was theirs, but only upon the father’s death. So for the son to say, "Give

it to me now," is tantamount to him saying, "I wish you were dead." No son would dare ask his father for his inheritance ..It's very insulting and that's why the crowd that heard this must have gone, gasp! A son

wouldn't do that. But this one did and its says the Father “ divided to them his livelihood. And not many days afterward the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions on (high) prodigal living." Can you see the difference between the sheep, the coin, and the son?

Sheep wandered away. The coin was lost by somebody else. The coin has no will of its

own. It's an inanimate object. It's sort of a victim of somebody misplacing it. But a son has a will. That's a human being that makes a choice. Some people wander away like sheep. Other people are victimized and misplaced by this world and displaced by our society. And still other people, by their own will, wander away, shake their fist at God, and get on with their life.

This son wasted it all …. "But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and it began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine."

Now, this is a Jewish audience, and this would be, presumably, in the story a Jewish boy now going to the very lowest possible strata of society---a pig farmer, unkosher meat.

So the crowd again would be shocked..and it says that " " he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate." Swine, , by the way, were fed carob pods. If you’ve never seen a carob pod were fed to the pig, but the human stomach can't digest them without being highly processed. "And no one gave him anything." Even begging he couldn't get anything. "But when he came to himself"---aah, that's the key. It takes a person to come to himself or come to herself, to repent..to get saved or get right with the Lord…

and sometimes it can take a long time. "But he came to himself, and he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you." ' " This is repentance. This is confession. " admitting to what we have done is wrong."

"And he arose, came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him

" 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' " And before he could finish his premade speech, "The father [butted in] and said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe' "---it's a place of honor to be given the best robe. And, perhaps, the best robe was his robe, the father's robe. 'And,' " notice this, he " 'put a ring on his hand' "---that's a symbol of authority---" 'and sandals on his feet.' " In other words, he restored him back to sonship, freely forgave him. " 'And bring the fatted calf' "---something that was reserved only for a great feast or sacrifices---" 'and kill it, and let us eat and [be happy] merry' " 'For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.' " That's the basis of the hymn, Amazing Grace.

"And they began to be merry." Everybody was happy, except for one.It says.. "Now, his older brother was in the field. And as he came to draw near to the house, he heard the music and dancing." So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.' "

"But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I have never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends.' "As soon as this son of yours . . . ." He didn't say, "This brother of mine."

He won't even acknowledge him as a brother. So he's ungrateful to his father. This can be a lesson, a reminder to us, because I know it's just part of our human condition, so often we can be ungrateful for what we don't have rather than grateful for what we do have.

He said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and alive again' "

This is the point of all three parables---" Something of value 'was lost and is found.' " Some of you have been serving the Lord a long time faithfully, prayerfully, diligently. You look for needs around the church. You're involved. But then you see somebody else and you have wondered---I think we all Do or have wondered---"Why is that person seemingly more blessed and I do more? I'm more faithful. I'm always prayerful..

I'm always working hard fulfilling my spiritual mission…

Do you know it's possible to be laboring in the Father's fields and not close to the Father's heart?

We can do things for the wrong reasons. When we see somebody blessed or somebody come back, even if they have sinned with a horrible background, rejoice that they're in the kingdom, they're in the Father's house, which leads us to this---contentment. It's a great word. Paul said, "I have learned in all things to be content in every state I'm in."

In the parable of "The Prodigal Son", the main theme that Jesus emphasizes and wants to show is not the return of the son nor the celebration of his return. But we should not overlook , the focus is really on the importance of asking for forgiveness. If not for the willingness and humility of the son to come to the Father he may have died a needless death.. Because he was able to ask for forgiveness he was restored by the father…

This chapter speaks to the joy of serving the Lord, the contentment and peace that we must have in our hearts as we serve him daily and it speaks to the undying love of the Father…. and we can be grateful for this as we stumble forward in our lives, making our mistakes and being human.. As the Father restored the prodigal son so will God , through our repentance, will restore us in our minds, our souls and our hearts….

I’ll close in prayer..

Lord we are grateful for this gathering this evening .. Help us receive your word into our hearts and fill us with the joy, peace and contentment that you have intended for us…We are grateful for your love and grace as you forgive each of us daily… extend to all of us your light so that we also may shine in a progressively dreary world….

Thank you for your word, preserved, open our eyes so that we might grasp the wisdom meant for us…

Remember those of us in need tonight both physically and spiritually…

We are thankful and ask all in Jesus’ name..

Amen