THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON
Study Text: Luke 15:11-32
Introduction:
- This parable of the Lord Jesus was not told to entertain but to educate. And not to educate us about others, about other parents’ wayward sons, but to cut to the core of our own being. To the heart of each of us.
- To teach us about our own relationship with the heavenly Father. To teach us of Christ who came to seek the lost and to save sinners. When we carefully gaze into the parables of Jesus, we suddenly see ourselves.
- And the father is the Father in heaven who waits for us. It is Jesus Christ himself who welcomes us.
- There are three stories in this parable:
i. The story of the prodigal son who went into the far country, squandered all of his money in riotous living, & then finally came home again.
ii. The story of the father who was watching & waiting anxiously for his son to return. And when he did, he welcomed him with love, and even threw a party for him.
iii. The story of the older brother who usually goes almost unnoticed when we read this parable. He reacted negatively to his brother’s return and the undeserved reception given to him by their father.
- We shall discuss this parable under seven sub-headings:
1. The Request of the Prodigal Son
2. The Recklessness of the Prodigal Son
3. The Realization of the Prodigal Son
4. The Repentance of the Prodigal Son
5. The Return of the Prodigal Son
6. The Reception of the Prodigal Son
7. The Reaction against the Prodigal Son
1. The Request of the Prodigal Son.
- When this boy asked for his father to divide the estate, he was in effect saying, “I wish you were dead and no more say in my life! I am tired of you and I want to be free from you and your control in my life.”
- But, this father is so gracious! He could have refused and kicked the son out, but he doesn’t. He merely does what his son asks him to do and gives his boy what he asks for.
- Friend, if you want to live your life like there is no God, then He will allow you to do just that! If you want to take all that He can give you without acknowledging Him, He will let you do that too
- But, you need to know that end of such a life will be a Christless eternity! Is that what you want as the sum total of your life?
- He asks for his inheritance--an unusual, yet legal request. The fall of the prodigal son began the moment he claimed his rights; when he separated his interests from the interests of his family--and not simply when he began to live separately and recklessly, far from home.
- The desire to leave home and face the responsibilities of adulthood is perfectly natural; the restless yearning to flee responsibilities is immature.
- The prodigal son got what he wanted, but lost what he had. God’s most severe punishment may be to give us what we want. Even though the son’s actions were impulsive, the father did not stand in the way
2. The Recklessness of the Prodigal Son
- He takes his father’s grace and he squanders it by living a wicked, self-indulgent life. The words “riotous living” refer to a life totally given over to sinfulness and wickedness.
- In other words, when this boy left home, he also left behind all his moral restraints. He lived in such a way as to gratify every whim and desire of the flesh.
- Did he have a good time? Oh yes! However, notice the last phrase of that verse, “for a season”. Friends, the seasons of life change! And when they do, that which brought you pleasure at one point will bring you pain instead.
- A life lived indulging sexual sins, a life lived for fleshly pleasures, a life lived for self. All these end up in the same place! Yes, there is pleasure for a short time, but is eternity without God in Hell worth the short time spent in the pleasure of sins embrace?
- Gathering up his things, the prodigal leaves for a "far country"; a place which exists first in our hearts. Like so many of us, his happiness was conditional upon his circumstances; he was not content with his situation.
- Freedom became freedom to sin, and pleasures provided a false security. The prodigal son was eager to "see life", apart from God—yet to say, "I will have no more of God" is to say "I will have no more of life."
- The prodigal son lusted for freedom without restraints and ended up enslaving himself. When his money ran out, his so-called friends deserted him--they were only friends of his wealth.
- He learned the hard way that we can’t enjoy the things money can buy if we ignore the things money cannot buy.
- Destitute, he was forced to do for a stranger what he refused to do for his own father--to work.
- Sin promises freedom but it only brings slavery...it promises success, but it only brings failure...it promises life, but "the wages of sin is death." Those who reject God’s rule are compelled to serve the devil.
- When the father in heaven gives us good things they are blessings. The harvest is good. The economy is good. Life is good. For the most part, we enjoy peace and security, and unprecedented wealth. But when we use them without reference to the father, they are simply wasted.
3. The Realization of the Prodigal Son
- “When he came to himself” - This boy’s entire time in the far country had been a time of insanity. He hadn’t been thinking clearly! Now, the fog lifts and he remembers how good it had been at home with the Father.
- He remembers that even his father’s servants were in better shape than he is! What a realization!
- Seeing where you are is always the first step in getting to some other place! Friend, a life lived in sin is a life of insanity! Why? Because the sinner is blind to his condition and to his ultimate destination, 2 Cor. 4:4.
- The first step in getting out of sin is to realize that you are in sin in the first place, Rom. 3:23.
- The first step of repentance comes when people realize the foolishness of their actions, and sense the despair into which they have fallen.
- The prodigal son complains about no one but himself, and speaks of no unworthiness but his own. He doesn’t blame his plight on his former evil companions. He admits his eagerness to leave the protection of his home and offers no excuses to cover his guilt or justify his waywardness.
- He has reached rock bottom, and his only remaining resource is repentance. He confesses, "I have sinned; I am unworthy."
- When the son’s life was at its lowest, his need for the father was the greatest - Our need for God is most apparent at the low points of our life.
- The son was left with nothing, but the memory of his father’s generosity - Reminders of God’s grace and provision are never far from us.
4. The Repentance of the Prodigal Son
- Guilt and shame are painful to face, yet we desperately need to see ourselves for what we are.
- Before we can respond to God’s mercy we must gain a sense of our inability and unworthiness, and the horror of how our sin has debased our lives and offended God.
- A mark of true repentance is the prodigal’s desire to be subject again to authority. He became lost when he claimed his rights; he is found when he surrenders them.
- The return to the father was a return to wisdom. The now-penitent son unconditionally confesses his sin, offering no excuses. Realizing how well his father treated his servants, he turns from his sin and turns toward home.
- His resolutions are turned into action. This is an essential step. Some people drown in guilt and depression and never turn to God for recovery. Conviction can lead to despair. It can also lead to repentance and restoration
- This repentance of this prodigal son is not just disgust with self. It is not just loneliness. It is not just homesickness. It is not just self-interest. It is not just turning from the world, or turning from something. It is turning to something. A turning back home.
- When the son has come to the end of his road, then God begins with his. The end, from man’s point of view, is the beginning from God’s point of view—that is repentance.
- Disgust with yourself will not heal. Sorrow in itself will not cure. Disgust and sorrow in this world, of this world, is a repentance that leads to death (2 Cor 7:10). It is a misery that leads to destruction. To an emptiness that none can fill. To despair.
5. The Return of the Prodigal Son
- He gets up and he heads home. He doesn’t know what will happen when he gets there. He may be rejected. He may be humiliated. He may even be put to death. However, at this point, he does not care!
- He is tired of the far country and he is going home! Friends, that is what conviction will do for you! The Spirit of God will make the blackness and end of sin so real and the salvation Jesus offers so glorious that you will do anything to get to Him.
- You will pay any price. Stop any sin. Embrace any truth, just to be saved! Do you remember the feeling of God’s conviction upon your life? If you are saved, you do!
- You remember how He hung you out over Hell and how He pointed you to Jesus. That’s why you came! If that was not your experience, then maybe you need to look at your salvation experience again!
- Don’t let the fact that you were raised in church and good person cause you to doubt your salvation. If the Lord showed you your condition and pointed you to the Saviour and you received Him by faith, then you have done all He requires to be saved. It’s all about leaving the far country and coming home. Have you?
- It seemed unlikely to this young man that his father would allow him to return, even as a servant...but he had reached the point of desperation. With nowhere else to turn, "He got up and went to his father". He was dying of physical hunger, and was hungry and thirsting for righteousness.
- The father runs to meet his son half-way, and lovingly embraces him. This is a vivid picture of grace. It was the hope of mercy that brought this son to repentance and forgiveness. God offers the kiss of reconciliation when we turn to Him.
6. The Reception of the Prodigal Son
- The returned son attempts to deliver his prepared speech in vs. 21—he admits he has sinned against "heaven", too shamed to even speak the name of God.
- He begins, but doesn’t get to finish, for his father calls to the servants to bring out the best robe--to cover the son’s poverty and shame; a ring--as a seal and symbol of his identity as a member of the household; and shoes--so that he can now walk in a new way...also, shoes were not worn by servants!
- The father does not humiliate his son, but welcomes him into all the privileges of the family and treats him with honour.
- He then directs the servants to prepare a feast! Everything this wayward son hoped to find in the far country he discovered back home. He moves from "give me" in vs. 12, to "make me" in vs. 19, resulting in reconciliation, vs. 24—“He was lost and has been found".
- Sometimes we think we need to clean ourselves up before we come to God. All we need is to come home...and the Father will give His best even though we’re filthy.
- If you’re afraid to come to God; if you’re ashamed of your past; if all you have to offer is your guilt, then remember the loving father of the prodigal--He is in fact, the Father of us all, and is ready to run to us with open arms.
- The father is not just celebrating that his rebellious son has returned safely. No, he rejoices that reconciliation has been achieved, reconciliation between the child and himself, and between the child and the village.
- The banquet is a celebration for the father’s success at reconciliation and peace, not just that the lost son found his own way home. The father has received his son, a sinner and is eating with him.
7. The Reaction against the Prodigal Son
- The first-born son is informed of his brother’s return, and is furious. He feels betrayed by his father, and bitterly complains that mercy has been wrongly granted to this rebel. Not wanting to even speak his brother’s name or acknowledge the family relationship, he rebukes his father in vs. 30 for welcoming "this son of yours, who has devoured your wealth...."
- The greatest commandment is to love our heavenly Father and then love others--the older brother broke both. The younger son has been compared to the prophet Jonah in his running; the older is like Jonah in condemning the Father’s forgiveness.
- Who was this older brother? When Jesus told this story, He had a group of people specifically in mind; He adds this postscript for the benefit of the Pharisees, the self-righteous experts in Jewish law. They cared little about those who were lost in sin.
- This older brother remained at home, out of trouble, obeying the rules. In self-conceit he considers himself the perfect son based on outer conformity. Outwardly he was in compliance with his father, but inwardly he too was far from home.
- He regarded his position in the family as one of bondage. He was home, yet not at home! It is a sign of spiritual decay when we’re uncomfortable in a healthy environment.
- People can also be active in church work yet harbour wrong attitudes and motives. The Apostle Paul warned that being born in a Jewish household doesn’t make a person a child of Abraham spiritually.
- - It is interesting how our perspective changes things. Here is the elder brother who has always been there, eating at his father’s table. He’s always had enough food. He has always had clothing to wear, always had something to do. But he thinks that the father is stingy.
- But the prodigal, out in the far country in the midst of the manure, begins to remember how generous his father is. As he is sitting there, he suddenly realizes, "even my father’s servants have more than enough food to eat."
- Amazing, isn’t it, how your perspective changes things? Instead of a stingy father, he sees him as a generous father. So he comes home, because he recognizes that the father is generous.
- The elder brother doesn’t see it. He thinks that the father is stingy, and he is unloving and unforgiving towards his brother. He won’t even recognize him as a brother.
- The father treats both sons with the same tenderness. His riches were always at his first son’s disposal, but were apparently left unused. We have only ourselves to blame if we do not utilize that which God has provided us. We have the unlimited assets of His grace.
Conclusion:
- Here was the best of homes. The father has both compassion and wealth. He loves his sons and is concerned for their happiness. Both sons are far from home--one geographically, both spiritually. To both He earnestly, tenderly calls: "Come home, come home, you who are weary come home."
