He Taught Them Many Parables… (The Parable Of The Prodigal Son) # 8

The quote is, "You can always tell a man by the company he keeps." Can you? Always?

No, this is not always the truth. For example, Jesus kept company with many that society had rejected.

(1) HE KEPT COMPANY WITH LEPERS

Now in first-century Palestine, lepers were viewed with horror and loathing. They had to announce themselves as they moved about, crying out, "Unclean! Unclean!". In this way, everyone could scamper out of their way and avoid contamination. When we read that Jesus consorted with lepers, we must understand that he deliberately befriended those who were most vehemently despised and rejected.

(2) HE KEPT COMPANY WITH THE SOCIAL OUTCASTS

The woman at the well was a prostitute. While the Lord was concerned about His reputation, He was more concerned about this lost woman.

(3) HE KEPT COMPANY WITH THE GENTILES

The Jews considered the Gentiles to be no more than dogs, yet the Lord treated them with kindness. For instance, a Gentile exemplified greater faith than any Israelite He had met, and the Lord acknowledged that He had never seen such faith in Israel.

Because the Lord kept company with such people, He was motivated to give us this parable of the prodigal son.

The religious “snobs” of that day could not understand how he could associate with such people. He responded somewhat like this:

• "Do you object to what I'm doing?”

• “Do you resent my friends?”

“If you do, let me tell you a story."

In Luke 15, he told two parables to show his love for lost mankind. The parable of the Prodigal son is our Lord's defense of himself in the face of these accusers.

The parable of the Prodigal son is probably the most popular of all the parables in the Bible.

Any time we study a parable, we must remember that the Lord would take something that people were familiar with, and use that particular thing to teach them a spiritual truth.

Sometimes He would use:

• A farmer sowing seeds

• Weather

• Fishing with a net

He used many things they were familiar with.

These are only a few of the many things He used to take something familiar and teach them a spiritual truth.

The parable of the father and his two sons is the longest parable in the gospels. In this parable, the Lord chose to use a father and two sons to illustrate spiritual truths that He wanted to teach them. The parable clearly teaches a number of important things, such as:

I. EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS

Notice, the Lord in this parable speaks of a father and two sons. Look at Luke 15:11, we read, "There was a man who had two sons.”

There is nothing unusual about a father having two sons, until you start to see the difference in these two sons. Both of these sons had the same father, and were raised in the same home, but they were completely different from each other.

• The oldest son seemed to be content staying at home and working with his father

• The youngest son thought he could do better elsewhere

Let’s look at these two sons more closely.

(1) LET’S LOOK AT THE YOUNGEST SON

This young son was not asking advice from his father, he came and told his father what he was going to do.

Look at verses 12-14, we read, “And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and 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.”

Notice, the Bible speaks of him as the “younger son”. What young people fail to understand is that older people have been around a long time, and during that time they have acquired knowledge the younger people do not have.

For example, they know that money does not grow on trees like some young people think it does.

Illus: They remind me of the young boy who was in a toy store with his mom, and he saw a toy he wanted and asked his mother to buy it for him. She explained to him that she did not have any money. He said, “You do not need money, write a check!”

This seems to be the attitude of some young people these days. When they see something they want, they write a check or use a credit card.

WHY DO THEY THINK THIS WAY? Because when you want something, and all you have to do is hold your hand out and get it, you soon start thinking money grows on trees.