The Prodigal Son - Pt. 1

The Parable of the Prodigal Son and Its Immediate Context

Luke 15 11 to 32. This is the prodigal son or more properly that's the traditional term. Or really probably more properly the ungrateful son. And he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father oh please stand.

A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided them to his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together he took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

And when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to the citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would faint it filled his belly with the husk of the swine did eat and no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise go to my father and we'll say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and I'm no more worthy to be called by son make me as one of I hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father. And when he had yet was yet 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 unto him father I have sinned against heaven and an eyesight and in no more worthy to be called by son.

But the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring him hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to be merry. Now the eldest son was in the field and as he came and drew nigh to the house he heard music and dancing.

And he called one of the servants and asked what if these things meant. And he said unto him thy brother is come. And my father hath killed the fatted calf because he had received him safe and sound and he was angry and would not go in.

Therefore came out his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father alone these many years I do serve thee. Neither transgressed I at any time by commandment. And yet thou neighbor gave us me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.

But as soon as thy son was come which hath devoured thy living with harlots thou has killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this.

Thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. Please be seated. The prodigal son is considered by many to be the greatest of Jesus parables. Linsky calls it the crown of all parables which has no equal in literature.

J .C. Ryle says of all the parables in the New Testament this is perhaps the most full and instructive and Stein notes it is probably the most famous of all the parables. The parable is exquisitely simple yet beautiful touching and exquisitely rich in theological significance unlike smoke.

Unlike most parables which have focus our attention on one central point this parable has many important lessons. It presents three main pictures the prodigal son the loving father and the ungrateful elder brother.

No parable surpasses this one in his presentation of the sinner and conversion as well as God's remarkable love for his people. Now before we consider this parable there's important introductory matters that we need to consider first this parable springs from the immediate context verses 1 2.

In verses 1 2 the parables and the scribes that is the experts on the teachings in the Torah the scribes of the scholars in the sect of the Pharisees strongly complained to each other because Jesus associated with administer to tax collectors and sinners and we see this repeatedly throughout the Gospels.

Tax collectors the publicans were considered the scum of the earth by the Jews. They not only had cooperated with the Romans they worked for the Romans in conjunction with the Romans and collecting an oppressive tax on their behalf but they attain most of their wealth by using deception to overcharge the people in line their own pockets.

It was a corrupt scheme and whatever they could collect on their own by corruption and the Romans knew all about this they could keep and thus they were despised. And the rabbinical writings they are placed in the same class as robbers and the synoptic Gospels they are frequently coupled with sinners.

Anyone who became a tax collector was excommunicated from the synagogue immediately. The word sinners on the lips of the Pharisee of the first century referred to Jews who had been excluded from the righteous community because they were wicked and irreligious.

They were unfaithful Jews. They were probably not keeping the food laws and we're living in habitual sinful lifestyle drunkenness adultery fornication covetousness Sabbath breaking and so on. That is the tax collectors.

The Pharisees inscribes found our Lord's behavior highly offensive because it regarded any socializing with such people as sinful and compromising. Christ not only received and the verb means to welcome or allow access sinners but took meals with them in order to preach the gospel to them.

You remember the calling of Matthew. The first thing he did is he went over to Matthew's house and they had a bunch of Matthew's friends come over and Jesus preached the gospel to him. What the first Pharisee saw is defiling Christ viewed as an evangelistic opportunity.

Jesus message of forgiveness attracted the scum and outcasts of society to him. Such people continuously drew near to him. The scribes and Pharisees were angry that our Lord did not treat notorious sinners as they did.

Instead of ministering to them and trying to convert them to bring them to repentance they just shunned them and ripped him behind their back and hated them. They treated such sinners with hatred and contempt but Christ treated them as desperately ill patients who needed a physician.

And you remember what he said to them when they complained to him that he was eating with such people he said well I've not called the call the righteous but sinners to repentance. This reality however does not mean that our Lord approved of hanging out with open pagan sinners simply for the sake of socializing.

Christ always hung out with such people solely for the purpose of preaching the gospel to them. He rather believed that such opportunities were ideal for telling sinners to repent and believe in him. And this point is proved by the rich tax collector Zachariah statement of repentance in Luke 19 verse 8.

The complaint that Jesus welcomed sinners was heard by many people in the crowd and our Lord uses this accusation as an opportunity to justify his common practice and condemn the attitude of his opponents.

The Jews hope to turn the people against Jesus by implying that he was an antinomian a lawbreaker who did not care what people live. When people live lies that trampled upon God's law and that's totally false.

But that's what they were telling people. The Savior obliterate such thinking with three parables that demonstrate his actions were not motivated by a desire to party with debauch sinners but rather to save them and bring them none to God.

He did not come to descend to their level ethically or philosophically but rather to pluck them from the fire. Their lifestyle certainly deserved. The three parables or three aspects not only defend Jesus ministry but instruct the multitudes that they also should not murmur but rejoice at the retrieving of such lost sinners.

You must keep the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes in mind as the background of this teaching and the main punchline toward the end of the ungrateful brother. Second the parable of the prodigal son forms a climax of the previous two parables and the first parable a shepherd loses one of the sheep one out of a hundred and goes into the wilderness and seeks a lost ship sheep until he finds it.

Verse four. He leaves all the other ones behind to find that lost sheep. After he finds the lost animal he is so full of joy that he not only rejoices but calls together his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him.

Verses five and six. To make sure the crowd understands its point. Our Lord then notes the great joy in heaven when a sinner repents. Verse seven. Yes when a sinner repents and turns to Christ the angels in heaven rejoice in the throne room of God.

The second parable is almost identical to the first. In this case a woman loses one silver coin out of ten. Like the first parable she carefully searches for the coin until she finds it after she finds it.

There is also a call for corporate rejoicing verse nine. And a reminder of the great rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents verse 10. The third parable follows the general outline of the first two parables.

All three have something cherished which is lost. The cherished thing is retrieved. In the first two it is sought while in the third the son returns on his own. Then there is great joy and even a corporate celebration.

The final parable however is so much longer more detailed and richer in content that it belongs in a class all by itself. It forms a detailed climax of everything that precedes it. While the earlier parables deal with an animal in a coin this one deals with a person a dear cherished son.

Instead of one out of 100 or one out of ten we have one out of two. In addition. Well the first two parables tell the Pharisees describes how they should have acted. The prodigal son concludes with how they indeed did act ungrateful murmuring hating God's plan of salvation and God's grace and mercy.

Although the first two parables portray the joy of a retrieved a cherished possession the final parable clearly reveals the intense love of a father that underlies such joy. The first two parables speak of being lost.

While the final parable tells us what it means to be lost. The third parable difference differs from the first two and that it is a contrast parable. The parable contains two brothers one of which is self-righteous unthankful joyless.

Regarding the extension of grace of the father he obviously represents the Jews in Jesus time. This son and context must be regarded as symbolic of a Pharisees and the scribes and everyone like them who are self-righteous full of pride who because they depend on their own righteousness reject the gospel message which is one of pure grace and mercy.

The Pharisees and scribes hated our Lord's doctrine that even the most vile debauched sinners could repent and believe and immediately receive a free and full forgiveness by God. And of course the imputed righteousness of Christ the works righteousness.

Pharisees hated the gospel because it removes all occasion for boasting because it assumes that we are all vile sinners who fall short of the glory of God. We all fall short of what God requires in his holy law and thought were indeed every day the Pharisees thought that they were really were fulfilling the law and truly were for all better far better than all others.

The gospel message shatters such thinking. The younger brother represents the publicans and open sinners who were repenting and coming to Jesus. They had turned from Yahweh and had run into rank rebellion and open worldliness to serve their own lusts.

These men were not righteous and they knew it. They knew they were fornicating. They knew they were getting drunk. They knew they were whoring around and all that they knew they were wicked when God opened their eyes and they understood the true the truth they repented and they embraced Christ.

Because of this added element of contrast the third parable has two main climax points. Instead of one the first two parables conclude with an emphasis on the joy produced by the salvation of a single sinner.

One sinner. This is so wonderful in God's sight that the whole church and all of heaven rejoices at the conversion of one sinner. That's amazing. The third parable has this ending climax but then adds another end element climax after the interaction of the father and the older brother.

For this reason the traditional title for this parable the prodigal son is somewhat inadequate. Third. As I consider this parable it is it naturally divides itself into three sections. There's the section on the younger son.

This portion of the parable includes. A the son's decision to reject his father in order to go out into the world to live in self-indulgent hedonistic lifestyle a life of sin and pleasure sinful pleasure serving the flesh be the son learning by personal experience that the path of sin is indeed hard and attended with bitterness and pain.

Covenantal curses see the son being enlightened to his wretched state and resolution to repent. And then D the son repents returns home to his father and confesses his sins. Number two there's the father's response to his return or repentance and confession of sin.

A the father has compassion on him and exhibits his love by a full restoration of fellowship. B the father bestows on him great gifts of grace and love. And see he also rejoices in his son's salvation by ordering a great celebrative banquet.

We see this when Jesus talks about the wedding feast and we see this in of course Revelation the wedding supper of the Lamb and the wedding feast where they go out to the highways and they ask the relatives and the friends to come which represent the Jews and the Jews are too busy and they're not interested in a wedding.

So they go out to the scum of the earth the people laying by the train tracks and so forth and they all come. And then D he gives an explanation as to why the celebration is appropriate. Three there are the self-righteous elder sons unkind words of disappointment upon hearing the father's acts of grace and mercy toward the repentant younger son.

This section includes a complaint against the father's actions and a confession of self-righteousness and B the father's justification of his actions. Good introduction done. Now let's look at it. The younger son after Jesus introduces this parable a certain man had two sons.

Verse 11 he tells us a brief history of the man's younger son and this history involves a number of significant events. First the son decides that it is time to become fully independent of his father.

Verse 12. And the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falls to me so that so he divided to hit them his livelihood. You know give me my inheritance early. I want it now.

The younger son no longer wanted to be under the authority of his father so he asked for his inheritance early. Now keep in mind parables. The point of a parable is a certain punchline a certain teaching and that we don't want to use this giving of his inheritance to an ungodly wretched son and make that a biblical imperative that's just part of the story.

The expression portion that falls to me is at the bottom. Meros and Adolph Diceman notes that it is a technical formula also used in the papyri and especially a paternal inheritance. Thus the Greek expression could be paraphrased give me my portion of the estate give me my apportion.

He's obviously a rich father. The fact that the younger son would receive only a third of the inheritance and consequently historically would not receive the house or land but rather a monetary settlement makes this part of the story ring true.

According to biblical law a father had no obligation to give an inheritance early. Moreover the father had a biblical right to deny an inheritance to an unfaithful or apostate son. The fact that the father gives a son his inheritance early does not commend such a practice but rather is after the younger son gathered all together and journeyed into a far country.

Why he did not leave right away. It's not specified but it's not crucial for the story development. Perhaps the delay was indicated to indicate premeditation and planning on the part of the son. His determination toward autonomy and the rejection of his father was premeditated and deliberate.

Premeditation determinations toward a sinful course of action and apostasy occur first in the heart and then are put into practice in the life. The gathering of everything together indicates two things.

Number one he converted his inheritance into cash to make it portable for travel. And two he had no intention of returning home. I want nothing to do with my father. He's rejecting his household. He's rejecting his father when he left his father's household.

His commitment to live his life as he saw fit was resolute and in his mind final. I'm done with that old life. I'm gonna go have fun. This is a clear portrait of an unregenerate man. The person who is not born again and is spiritually dead has no interest in the things of God.

He is committed to a life of autonomy. I'm gonna follow my law. I'm gonna do what I want to do. I'm not gonna submit to the law of God. I don't care. This is the essential characteristic of every unsaved sinner.

Like the son they reject the father's care and restraint to pursue sinful desires. Like our first parents in their sin they want to be their own gods determining for themselves what is good and what is evil.

And Paul notes that such men reject the knowledge of God that is obvious turn to idols and as a result all given over to a debauched lifestyle and beloved. We live we're living it today. We're the new Roman Empire where we have a woman on the Supreme Court who can't even tell us what a woman is.

She's such a perverted disgusting person and she's on the Supreme Court. Such men being devoid of truth and wisdom seek happiness and fulfillment and what they regard as liberty. But it is not freedom.

It's a false freedom. For a liberty to sin is nothing more than a rejection of God's government for slavery to one's own illicit lust. It is slavery. They call it liberty. They call it freedom. They call it dignity.

It's the opposite. They are happy to show the good life of living the God the good rule of the living God but only find themselves bound fast in the iron shackles of sin and its deadful consequences. Living in darkness.

Slaves to Satan slaves to sin miserable. You see these Hollywood people in the rock stars and so forth basically kill themselves through sin. This parable was speaking directly to the faithless Jews who had abandoned Yahweh and the covenants of promise and the law as a rule for a sanctified life.

In order to go out and do their own thing members Jesus went around preaching save yourselves from this evil wicked generation. That's what Israel was like in those days. This parable however also applies to all those raised in Christian homes who received a biblical education and all the great fundamental truths of Scripture.

Yet he reject the faith of their parents in order to pursue the unregenerate world's concepts of fun happiness and fulfillment. All such people are truly lost and tragically have chosen their own path of destruction.

Moreover as noted it characterizes all men who run away from God to a life of self-worship hedonism sin. The essence of all sin is separation and departure from God. Men are said to remove themselves far from God who lay aside all fear of Yahweh.

It's tragic. The gathering together of all and departing intimates on man's part the collection of all his energies and powers of the deliberate determination of getting through the help all the gratification he can out of the world.

They've fallen for the lie of the devil that salvation that Dominion that happiness that blessing comes from human autonomy and serving your own wicked lusts. All such persons openly prefer the creature to the Creator.

They put God out of their thoughts to indulge themselves and consequently seek deeper into the worthlessness and vile life. Second the son's apostasy and hatred of the truth is reflected in his independent lifestyle and there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

Verse 13 B. Instead of acting responsibly which is what he would have been taught if he was a faithful Jew following God's law and setting up a business and working hard to glorify God with his capital.

He squanders his wealth on sinful pleasures booze prostitutes parties. He's having the good life in his mind. Of course the money that his father had worked so hard to earn the son treated with contempt.

He lived the life of a reckless hedonist and squandered his whole estate on worthless sinful activities. The verb translated wasted yeah corpizo means to scatter abroad. The adverb translated riotous or prodigal means loosely or dissolutely.

It is the perfect word to describe a debauched and ungodly lifestyle. In our life we are familiar with a young man who comes into an inheritance and spends his money like a drug hookers. And soon that money has got fancy cars.

He visits prostitutes and throws lavish drinking parties where drunkenness drug use and fornication reigns supreme. And this is a perfect description of a consistently foolish and wicked unconverted man.

He is covetous and a slave of his lust. He is gripped by darkness and bound to sin so much so he does not think about his future or God or death or the eventual consequences of his lifestyle. The wicked man runs to a far country to be independent of God to create his own hedonistic heaven.

But as we see he creates his own miniature hell. When you leap aside the law of God and Lord willing. Well you'll hear I have a good one on 119. When you set aside the law of God you serve your own lust.

You create hell on earth. The person who does not live for Christ will live herself like sheep. Everyone apart from a work of the Spirit will go astray and turn everyone to his own way. Isaiah 53 6. They do not know nor do they understand.

They walk about in darkness. Psalm 82 5. 1st Thessalonians 5 7. Those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. Frank Sinatra. The rat pack they used to wake up in the afternoon.

They used to party all night long. Third. The son learns by personal experience at the path of sin and autonomy from God. God is very hard and is attended with much pain suffering and bitterness. Verses 14 to 16.

But when he had spent all there arose a severe famine in that land and he 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 and he would gladly have filled a stomach with a pause at the swine ate but no one gave him anything.

The life of sin that he chose at first was sweet as honey. He's having fun but bitter in the end very bitter. The son spent his money like a fool and the money ran out. For a time he had fun but now it was time to reap the distress the disgrace and ruin that a life of sin brings.

The covenantal curses were upon it. As his money ran out a severe famine arose and food oil wine as well as other necessities of life became scarcer and consequently much more expensive. He did not think about the future and now circumstances could not be dire without the means to purchase food.

He more and more began to be in want. His situation was so bad that he had to hire himself out as a common laborer to avoid starvation. In this picture to a Jewish audience is especially horrifying serving feeding unclean pigs to work a menial job with their version of minimum wage under a heathen pagan serving unclean pigs that's what sin does to somebody who rejects the faith.

This is clearly an example of God's judgment upon his life and that providentially will be used by the spirit to bring him to his senses. The son rejected the authority of his father in order to be independently an antinomian debauched lifestyle.

But where does the sin and folly lead him. Instead of being under the loving authority of his father in a prosperous and comfortable household he finds himself under the uncaring harsh authority of a heathen stranger mingling in the mud with the pigs so hungry he wants to eat the pig food that is gross and if you've ever raised pigs it is pretty gross because their poop gets all mixed in with the mud and it's gross.

God is showing him him that there can be no religious or ethical neutrality in this life. He rebelled against his father to follow his own concept of freedom and he found himself worse off than a slave.

He departed his household to party with the heathen and lie with harlots. But in God's Providence his companions became swine. When he left home he whined and dined in the best places in the land. And now he is so destitute that he's stealing carob pods from the swine trough.

His substance level salary and economic conditions introduced by the famine led in reality to gradual starvation. Gradual starvation. The younger son has reached his lowest possible point. Before death the prodigal son's cup of misery was full.

His lifestyle of hedonistic pleasure was replaced with a constant gnawing pain of hunger. Now obviously a course of sinful autonomy does not always have disastrous consequences. In this life Frank Sinatra died in a nice comfortable hospital bed next to his wife etc.

But upon death our soul immediately sinks into hell. Many wicked people lead lives that at least outwardly appear quite happy and fulfilling. It is important that we understand that this is a picture of what God does to an elect sinner to a prodigal son on whom his saving love is directed.

The elect person must be brought to a consciousness of his own guiltiness helplessness and foolishness in order to turn to God. Therefore he must be brought low and made aware of his humiliation before he is pulled out of the mire.

God in his Providence enables those he intends to justify and bring into his fold to see their enslavement to sin and the devil. They are enabled to understand that one must bow the knee to Christ or live as a filthy slave in the mire with swine.

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul. Not much. Not everyone experiences a wild excess of riot before coming to such a state. But in the parable Jesus is painting his theological masterpiece with bold strokes so that even he who runs may read.

You might be driving a Lexus living in a mansion. But if the Holy Spirit comes on your heart you're gonna become a miserable man until you come to the foot of the cross. Fourth. The younger son state of extreme desperation becomes the providential turning point that brings him to his senses.

Verses 17 to 18. But when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and despair and I perish with hunger. I will arise go to my father and I will say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants.

This is a wonderful rich picture of biblical repentance and it contains our number of elements. Number one. The younger son became aware of his lost state. There he was an abject poverty and misery when he began to think about his condition to speak theologically of what occurred based on the analogy of scripture we could say that the Holy Spirit changed his heart gave him a heart of flesh opened his blind eyes to see what he really was.

I don't care how rich you are. I don't care how famous you are. Okay. I don't care how popular you are. When the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see your life of sin you become miserable. You hate yourself you despise your life and you know that the only remedy is Christ.

The first thing we see in this picture is that the son was enlightened to the truth. In the beginning of the parable he saw his life of sin as desirable and good. He wanted to be as far away from his father as possible.

He was spiritually and ethically beside himself and that he had been raised with the truth and deep down knew better. But in coming to himself he sees that it would be far better to be a mere servant and his father's household than to fellowship with a wicked and suffer the consequences of sin.

So the first step in repentance is to see ourselves as God sees us. To see ourselves as God's law sees us not simply in the outward life but in the mind the heart the thoughts the speech the action. When we look at our lives through the lens of Holy Scripture and see our foolishness and guiltiness we are truly enlightened.

True enlightened knowledge comprehends the guilt wickedness misery and folly of sin and yearns to be free of it totally in order to serve God. Now it is noteworthy that Jesus used a rejection of the truth in a life of sin as being beside oneself.

It is so stupid and foolish that is akin to a self-induced ethical and spiritual insanity a life of sin a life of serving Satan a life of deliberately living in darkness a life of deliberately continuously rejecting the truth is a life of total foolishness insanity.

It is irrational it is insane. He presents conversion as being right-minded. One must be rational sound honest properly balanced or spiritually right-minded to see one's sinfulness in the supreme beauty of Christ.

Number two coupled with a spiritual enlightenment was a commitment or inner determination to break off from sin to go to his father confess his guilt before him and even even more importantly before God.

I will arise go to my father and I'll say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants verses 18 and 19.

This is a wonderful picture of genuine conversion before God. The younger son assumes a position of total humility by acknowledging his sin and admitting that there is absolutely nothing in himself not one thing.

There's nothing in his behavior that merits or deserves his father's favor or blessing. He appeals. His appeal is akin to God be merciful to me a sinner Luke 1813. Later the older son will appeal to his own faithfulness as a source of blessing.

I deserve to be saved because I'm so good. Look at how I've served you. Look at my faithfulness. Look at my obedience to the law. I have merited heaven. No no we're rotten sinners. Even the best of people are rotten filthy sinners.

But not this younger son. He knows that he is guilty and polluted and he freely and openly admits it. There's nothing of merit of works righteousness. In this parable Jesus exalts the grace and mercy of God and saving undeserving sinners.

The younger son has nothing to bring or offer and therefore he places his trust in the father's love and compassion. He knows that he has no other choice and his reception will be all of mercy or nothing at all.

Nothing in my hand I bring only to my cross I cling. Note how his confession is eminently biblical. He does not make any excuses for his behavior or refer to it as simply a mistake. But he calls it sin.

It is evil. It's sin it's wickedness. This is what I did. He does not qualify it or diminish it diminish it in any way. He acknowledges that a sin was first and foremost against heaven. And heaven of course is a Jewish circumlocation for God.

They didn't like to say the word God so they would use words like heaven. He understood that sin is always against God the lawgiver before anyone else. And this brings to mind David's confession. Psalm 51 3 to 4.

For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me against you. You only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. The fact that all sin is first against heaven is what makes it so exceedingly sinful.

Sin can only be seen to be dark vile wicked evil and damning against the infinitely bright background of Jehovah's infinite holiness and righteousness. No one can be saved in enter heaven without owning and confessing his sins no one.

It is necessary before we receive pardon and peace with God because it is an admission that we are guilty and polluted and cannot save ourselves or even contribute to salvation or even make one foot toward God apart from a sovereign work of grace on the heart by the Holy Spirit.

It is necessary if we are to truly place all of our hope and faith in Jesus Christ in his saving work. Paul understood this well and thus boldly asserted that he regarded all his supposed good works as filthy rags in God's sight that he may own Christ and his righteousness.

Philippians 3 7 to 10. I regard all my righteousness. Here's Paul under studied under Gamaliel a strict Pharisee from a very young age. And here he says. I regard all of my subjective law-keeping all of my righteousness as a pile of excrement in God's sight.

The younger son also notes that he is not worthy to be called his father's son. This is equivalent to an admission that his guilt deserves just recompense. And there also is a plea of mercy. I do not deserve to be called your son or loved by you for I turn my back on you rejected your authority and broke all of your commandments.