The Prodigal Son

Well, happy Sabbath! Good to see everyone. Yeah, we have a little bit different format. Today, you will be presented two split sermons over the same parable.

Mr. Steve Parker and I presented this material in this format for our young adult regional weekend in the Smoky Mountains a year ago. And we thought it would take this opportunity to present it to you. At that weekend, I took the first half of the parable, and Mr.

Parker took the second half. So we thought we would keep that pattern, of course, as it makes the most sense. So we certainly look forward to presenting this material to you today. The title of our first split sermon is The Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son. Now, when Mr.

Parker comes up to give his part, it will be titled The Prodigal Son. The plot thickens. The plot thickens. So if you have your Bible, I invite you to open them up. And let's turn to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. This is going to be the focus of our study today, this one chapter. We're going to begin today with the verses covering verse 11 through 24. 11 through 24. Luke 15 verses 11 through 24. With this very familiar but striking parable that Jesus spoke.

And perhaps there could be an argument that this is the most best-known parable. Certainly the most memorable parable. The parable of the prodigal son. And being such, I'll tell you right off the bat, it is, in my opinion, the most rich and limitless spiritually of all the parables that Jesus spoke. So therefore, we can't approach a story like this half-hearted. No. Today we're going to need to put our whole heart into this to truly grasp what the Son of God is looking to give us.

And in order to do so, we're going to need to go back and do our best to place ourselves in this very place at this very time in which Jesus spoke. And in doing so, we're going to need to travel out of our Western current culture mindset.

Go back in our minds and attitudes and expectations to that of a Middle Eastern peasant village culture. This is where we're going to go today, and this is where the story takes us. So let's begin here. Luke 15, verse 11 and 12 to begin. Jesus begins the story by saying, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he, the father, divided to his sons his livelihood. So let's stop there. So here right at the beginning we're introduced to a conflict surrounding this request of the younger son.

We call this younger son the prodigal son because he's absolutely reckless in this request. Reckless. Prodigal. That word is certainly fitting here. Even though that word doesn't show up in the narrative here, it is applicable. The word prodigal can also be translated wasteful, self-indulgent, special focus on the word self. Here, the first words from this young man's mouth, it absolutely is clear that he is applying his soul focus on himself. He is the prodigal son, as described.

And again, immediately we're thrust into this conflict here. Jesus says again, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And just know, when Jesus said this part of the story, no doubt the Pharisees here, the Pharisees who were the so-called religious authority of the day, the Pharisees who would have been listening, would have responded, whoa, wow.

This is an absolutely outrageous statement here. An outrageous statement, coming from a young man who is probably in his older teens, maybe early 20s here. Outrageous! Because with this statement, I can tell you, this is the absolute epitome of disrespect to say to his father. To say the least, this is disrespect to the highest degree. You know, for a son to say this to his father, in the culture of Middle Eastern village life, this would have been tantamount of this saying to his father, I wish you were dead.

I wish you were dead. Because you, father, you are in the way of my plans. And you, father, are a barrier to my portion of my physical inheritance and my freedom. And I want it all now. And I want out of this family.

So as we begin here, I just want to, we just quickly can acknowledge, this is a very sad scene here. The youngest son of the family declaring, I have other plans and they don't involve you, father. They don't involve this family. They don't involve the responsibility of the estate. I want my inheritance now.

And I just want to stop at this point to prepare you for what is now to follow. You know, I want to let you know that I'm going to, at this point, present this parable to you, this first half of this parable of the prodigal son. And I'm going to do it in all of its rawness, in all of its ugliness. And I want to warn you that it's bad. It's really bad. So you might want to adjust in your seats a little bit. It's about to get heavy here. It's not easy. I'll tell you, it's purposeful, okay, because resting in the heaviness and sadness that this prodigal son is about to bring on himself and bring on his family, resting in that heaviness, it is purposeful. Because in all the sadness, there is actually an incredible, beautiful moment which is going to emerge here as the father is going to come back onto the scene in one of the most dramatic and heart-changing ways. And we're going to see that after all the tragedy that this young son brings with his actions, all of it, even so, we're going to see that the father's actions toward his son and how he deals with his son, it might just have the effect to change your life today. But first, the heaviness. First, the heaviness.

In the culture of this time, honoring your father, socially speaking, was at the top of all the commandments. And so for a son, again, to make such an outrageous request from a healthy father, this would have been understood by everyone around, again, that he was wishing his father dead. You see, the culture of the time, you would have never obtained your inheritance until your father was dead. So essentially, this is a death wish upon his father. And it was essentially a suicide request from the son. Everyone would have expected at this point to minimally be met with a slap across the son's face, minimally by the father. That was one of the Jewish gestures at the time to show absolute rebuke for such disdain on the son's part. A son who had benefited from everything his family had. A son who had benefited from all the accumulated riches, from all the generations before him. And this is the way you treat your father?

This absolutely would have been met with a slap across his face with no small force. This cannot happen. And even not uncommon to such a request would have been met with complete dismissal from the family. This was an absolute outrageous breach. This son, effectively from this point forward, would have been dead to the father and dead to the family. And even to the community. And that's why if you allow your eyes to go down to verse 24, verse 24, when the son comes back to the father, the father says, this son of mine was dead. And then he says it again in verse 32, to the older brother, this brother of yours was dead.

And it was even customary of the time for the possibility to even hold a ceremony, a ceremony, an official ceremony, a funeral, if you will, for such insolence, such dishonor. You're out of the family. You're dead to us. And essentially, you're dead to the community. This is shameful. To the highest level, the highest level, the youngest in the family, the lowest in the line of honor, expressing aggravation and irritation and hatred toward his father. And the father's still alive, therefore standing in the way of getting what he wants. So again, Jesus sharing this story and beginning this story in such this way, he is describing no greater shame than this act here of the younger son. Give it to me. Give me the share of my goods that falls to me. And it's interesting there in verse 12, he uses the word goods, my inheritance. And the Greek word here is usia. It's nowhere else used in the New Testament. But it does mean just that. Give me the goods from my estate. Give me my physical inheritance here, the material stuff. In other words, I'm wanting to cash in my part of the land, cash in my animals, cash in the buildings, whatever physical possessions that I'm entitled to get, I want all of the usia he's saying here. And it's a very distinct...there's a distinction here with this word. The normal word of inheritance is actually kleronomia. Kleronomia. That's the typical word for inheritance. And with that word, when you speak about inheritance, you're actually talking about everything that comes along with the inheritance as well. Kleronomia. That's the totality of the responsibility of the inheritance here. And so you would be talking about...if you're talking about your inheritance in that way, you're talking about management. You're talking about your future leadership in the estate, the responsibility for the resources. You're taking on the inheritance. You're taking on the inheritance of the responsibility of the family. When you receive that inheritance, kleronomia, you're inheriting all the responsibility on behalf of the family. And then it's your responsibility to build upon that. Build upon all that the previous generations built, you see. So in that kind of inheritance comes responsibility. You're carrying on the family's name. You're carrying on the family's generational concerns, accountability to the future. But this son doesn't use that word. He says, give me my usa. Just give me the goods. I don't want any responsibility of what has gone before me or what is to go beyond me. I don't want any of the leadership. I don't want any of the responsibility. I don't want any of the accountability. He's saying any of that future father's estate. I just want my physical inheritance. I don't want to be directed by you, Father. I don't want you to have any say in what I do.

And again, a father at this time would not stand for this. And a father at this time would have set forth to crush, I mean, absolutely crush his son with such a request. But what do we find instead? Well, back to verse 12 there. Verse 12. After this unbelievable request. Into verse 12. Well, the father's response. He, the father, divided to them his livelihood. So he granted the son's request. Interestingly, the word livelihood is the Greek word bios. It's where we get our word bios or biology. So this was the father's very biology, his very livelihood here. His father and his family's life is being sold off here. His living, his standing in the community.

Many considered land of the family just to be a very part of them, part of the very source of their livelihood. But again, rather than crush his son in the face of such insolence, the father grants him what he wants and he extends to his son this freedom. Freedom at the expense of himself and his family. I hope you're making the spiritual connections here. Freedom. The father extends freedom at the expense of himself and the family. Why? Why would a father do this?

Well, the best way I can put it, it's because he was willing to endure the agony of rejected love. Again, the father was willing to extend this to his son, willing to endure the agony of rejected love. This is the agony that's the most painful of any personal agony. You know, they say, the greater the love, the greater the pain when that love is rejected.

And just know what this entire parable is pointing to. I know you've put the connections together. This is pointing to God the Father and you and I, his sons and daughters, here.

And this is right around the time in which Jesus was moving forward very deliberately to the time when he would give himself as the perfect sacrifice for you and I, all of mankind, a sacrifice for our actions, our sinful actions. And he's doing so as the Savior of mankind here. And here, remarkably, then the Father grants us what we want. And God the Father extends to us the freedom to reject him, the freedom at the expense of himself and his son. Keep your marker here. We're just going to turn over just one scripture just to punctuate this point. Keep your marker here in Luke 15. Turn with me, if you will, to 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9. Just one verse where the Apostle Paul picks up on this and punctuates it perfectly. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Just look at one verse here, verse 9. The Apostle Paul understood what's being spoken here by Jesus Christ when Paul says, 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty might become rich. We might become rich. Let's just stop there. So the Father gave his son. Jesus was willing to give everything of himself so that through his poverty we might become rich. The richness that comes from the inheritance of a son and daughter of his father. Amazing.

Back to Luke 15. This helps us understand then the end of verse 12. Back to Luke 15 at the end of verse 12. So, he the Father divided them to them, his livelihood. So, just so we can get this, this is the Father pointing us to God the Father, the giving of his son, and also the giving of the freedom to choose him. This is the picture then of a son or daughter now rejecting the relationship with the Heavenly Father, not wanting a relationship with him, wanting nothing to do with him, nothing to do with the family of God, the future inheritance of the family of God, the individual who has no, who doesn't want any accountability, does not want to submit to God, does not want any responsibility. And so likewise, the Heavenly Father in the agony of rejected love lets his son or daughter go. And what a cheap sell this is. What a cheap sell compared to the eternal inheritance and the internal opportunities from our Heavenly Father and what's being offered to us. Well, back to the story. Here he is. He gets his stuff. In verse 13, journey's off to a far country. Verse 13 again, not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal, reckless living. At the same time, a famine comes onto the land, a severe famine. Verse 14, but when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he, the son, the prodigal son, began to be in want. Now, perhaps today we don't understand in our culture what severe famine meant at this time. This kind of famine over the land, there would have been so much death and desperation at this time with this kind of famine. So we're talking about a level of desperation here that's beyond anything that we could probably conceive of today. But for those listening here, they would have certainly felt the full weight of what Jesus was describing here in this story, and there would have been sheer horror that would have come across their mind and their hearts here from such a wonderful place under such a loving father in such a generous environment. He has now come to his life to the lowest of low here. No family in a foreign land, nowhere to turn, all the resources gone, destitute here. And now at the end of verse 14, Jesus says he began to be in want, in need here.

In other words, perhaps for the first time in this young man's life, he can't supply what he needs. And he's coming face to face with death here, the end of himself, the end of himself. What sorrow it is to give up everything for what the world offers. This is the greatest of the tragedy of all stories, isn't it?

But wonderfully, wonderfully, this is in fact the beginning of something new here for this young man. It's the beginning for him, we'll see.

And Luke records here this journey that he's now coming upon. No doubt, this young man's loving Heavenly Father is placing in his path circumstances to give him the best opportunity to move back to, toward his earthly father here. But the young man's not quite there. Verse 15, he's come up with a plan, you know. Verse 15, the plan is to join himself to one of the citizens of that country. A citizen of that country would have been someone in good standing, had some privilege at this time, this connection here, this connotation of joining himself to a citizen. Sometimes you may be experienced, if you've been in certain places where there's extreme poverty and often you may see youngsters, if they see someone that looks like they are of some status, they will join themselves to that individual, they will go and beg for something from that individual. So it has this kind of connotation, so this young son is now in that state here. And perhaps the citizen, just to kind of get rid of him, you know, tells him, well go feed my pigs, go feed my pigs, perhaps gives him a token for that. Jewish boy here, feeding the pigs, unclean animals in a gentile land.

The listeners at this point would have just been aghast at this story. I bet some of the Pharisees who were listening, their jaws would have just been open, their eyes are, you know, as big as saucers at this point. The end of verse 15 to 16, so he, the citizen, end of verse 15, sent him into his fields to feed swine, verse 16, and the son would have been gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. These likely would have been carob pods. I looked that up. I was just interested. I didn't know this information. Carob pods. These were bitter blackberries that the pigs would eat. So very likely, he's eating maybe what was left over that fell from the pig's mouth, you know, maybe the pulp from that. He longed, it says, to eat it, but I don't know if you've ever competed with pigs for food. I'm sure that's not a match that you'll win out most of the time. So perhaps he's just waiting for that, which is discarded from the pig's mouth, picking up those bits and pieces.

Again, greatest of tragedies, greatest of rebellion, greatest of waste of life, greatest of waste of an opportunity here. So there is no hope for this young man. I mean, no hope. Absolutely no hope. How could we ever conceive of any notion of hope with this scene? Perhaps you've gone through those kind of feelings. Those kind of feelings do creep up on us when we're in this examination state before the Passover season. I know I've felt these, where you go before God and you say, there is no hope for my life. I don't even know if I can even utter the words to you. Why am I even talking to you, Father? I don't have any right to talk to you. Who am I? I've rejected your love. What use am I?

Well, if you've had those kind of thoughts, if you are currently having those kind of thoughts, I encourage you to listen on here to the story because it does make a dramatic turn here. And I believe the turn comes in verse 17, a small but powerful statement. Verse 17, the beginning of verse 17, but when he came to himself, I know I've been in that state. The 21st century phrase is when he found himself. I'm sure you've heard that phrase. I just need to find myself, you know, and I'm on this journey of finding myself. And you understand what they're saying. They're really looking for, to answer the question, who am I? Is this who I am? I don't feel like this is who I am. I feel like I'm someone else. What is my identity? And they're truly searching for themselves. They need to come to themselves. And perhaps they found themselves, but they haven't liked the person that they found. That's the real issue here. And they're trying to find some other kind of identity. Often we go on these searches. Often it's through prodigal type living, where we search for our identity. Outside of, this search typically happens outside of the father's house. And unfortunately, that's where many sons and daughters of the father, or it's where they're attempting to do, is to find who they are outside of the father's house. But the young prodigal is beginning to come to himself, and he's beginning to be gripped with his true identity. And what is the identity he's needing to embrace? Well, he is a son of his father. That's who he is. And many have been down this road. Many in the church have been down this road. You're trying to find who you are and your identity down different roads outside of our heavenly father. And we have the need to find our identity right where we began. And in case there's any doubt, everyone I'm talking to today, you are a son of your heavenly father. You are a daughter of your heavenly father. That's who you are. That's who you are. You do not belong in a pigsty. That's not who you are.

And so, that was beginning to well up in the young son here. So here it is in the mud in the muck.

The younger son is coming to this understanding, coming to accept who he is. He is his father's son. He needs his father. Therefore, he needs his father. But again, how could there be any hope for this son? He's way too far done, way too far gone. It's been way too long. No hope.

Unless, unless he finds waiting for himself a searching, seeking, loving father. And that's exactly who he finds. Look at verses 18 through 24. Verse 18 through 24. I will arise, verse 18, the young man says, and go to my father. And I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Would you make me like one of your hired servants? In other words, I don't even belong, I don't even belong in your family. How could I?

And he arose with this plan in mind, came to his father. But, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion. And the father ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father, no doubt, cuts him off right there, yelling back to his servants. Bring out the best robe, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring out the fatted calf here 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. Let's stop there. So, um, no, I told you so speech, you know, which us fathers, us parents are uh, tempted to give sometimes. You know, this is what happens to a son like you, you know. Uh, boy do you smell, you know.

Uh, then, uh, us earthly fathers and mothers, we say things like, we look around, other people are looking, this is an embarrassment. Uh, why couldn't you come back at nighttime? You're an embarrassment to myself, you're an embarrassment to your mother, you know. All of that's true. None of that's here. None of it. Look at this story. While the son was a great ways away, the son, verse 20 again, the son arose to come to his father, but while the son was still a great way off, his father saw him. So what is the picture here? This is a picture, if you will, of a father coming out every morning on his front porch, leaning across the railing, looking down the road, just to see any indication of any dust kicking up in the distance. How many mornings did this father go out looking for his son's return? Perhaps that morning, is that him? No. Goes back in with the longing and deep desire to see his son again. Goes out the next morning? No. But until one faithful morning here, this wonderful picture, how many days had passed, I wonder, that the father in this story had looked down that road. But on this day, on this fateful day, he sees his son. Off he goes, running down the street here. A wealthy, patriarch landowner father, having to pick up his robe as he runs, you know, reaches his son, embraces him, kisses him on the neck, throws his arms around him. By the way, patriarch fathers of this time never ran, okay?

Children ran, perhaps a mother might run, not fathers.

Oh, the love, the love that sought this young man, a father welcoming his son back into his family with an incredible feast here.

And the younger son's story ends there. And with that, we'll end. And I'll end with a question here.

Did you know that this is the love that seeks you? And that he, our heavenly father, is searching for you. And he's searching for you with a kind of running, throwing his arms around, kissing, welcoming kind of love. This is the love that God has for you. Have you found this kind of love from your heavenly father? I hope you'll find it. It's a personal journey. It's a very personal, intimate journey. I can say, though, perhaps it will start by first bowing your head and asking God for this kind of longing for your heavenly father. You know, this kind of gnawing hunger for him. Pray for that. Pray for that need for him to then move you to his compassionate embrace. And when you receive that embrace, may you never let him go.

Well, my prayer for you this Passover season is that you will find this loving father in this way. I'll finish with a poem from the perspective of our father, and with this we'll conclude this first message.