The Parable Of The Prodigal Son: The Son Is Resurrected Series

“Well over three hundred verses are concerned with the subject of Jesus' resurrection in the New Testament. We are told that this event is a sign for unbelievers (Matthew 12:38-40); cf. John 20:24-29) as well as the answer for the believer's doubt (Luke 24:38-43). It serves as the guarantee that Jesus' teachings are true (Acts 2:22-24; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20) and is the center of the gospel itself (Romans 4:24-25, 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Further, the resurrection is the impetus for evangelism (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 10:39-43), the key indication of the believer's daily power to live the Christian life (Rom. 6:4-14, 8:9-11; Phil. 3:10) and the reason for the total commitment of our lives (Rom. 7:4; 1 Cor. 15:57-58). The resurrection even addresses the fear of death (John 11:25; 1 Cor. 15:54-58; cf. Hebrews 2:14-15) and is related to the second coming of Jesus (Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7). Lastly, this event is a model of the Christian's resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:2; 1 Cor. 6:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and provides a foretaste of heaven for the believer (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Peter 1:3-5).” -Gary R. Habermas & J.P. Moreland, Immortality - The Other Side of Death, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1992, p. 245.

Happy Resurrection Sunday brothers and sisters, He Is Risen! Jesus Christ is alive right now. He is present in this room. He is alive in our hearts. He is alive in heaven right now. He is currently present at hundreds of thousands of church services around the world right now. He is our Living Lord and King.

The Resurrection is central to everything we believe as followers of the Messiah. It is the truth about God, ourselves, and the world around us. Christ is resurrected, and in a similar way, each of us has been resurrected from sin and the flesh, and are now burning brightly with an inner light of the Spirit that is leading us ever closer each day toward the kingdom of God eternal.

Today we are resurrection people. And so I think it’s fitting that today we study a parable about death and new life, the parable of the prodigal son.

This is probably the most famous and most well known of all the parables. I’ve listened to many sermons about it. I’ve viewed paintings depicting the moments within it. I even once saw a play called “A Long Way Off” and the entire story was of the parable of the prodigal son.

One might call it the resurrected son. Since today is a day in which we celebrate the most important of Christian holidays, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we ought to consider two truths today: 1, the resurrection of the prodigal son. And 2, the resurrection of Christ.

We were once all fleeing, prodigal, but, Christ resurrected, and this made a way for our own resurrection. That is wonderful beyond words.

One more thing, last week we talked about the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin, and it’s important to note that in scripture, in Luke’s gospel, we see the prodigal son parable immediately after these two. They are definitely all linked together with a common thread of truth. But it’s also interesting to note that the prodigal son parable is only listed in Luke, it doesn’t appear in any of the other gospels.

The Parable begins like this, from Luke 15:11-13: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.”

He’s headed out. He’s taking his inheritance early, and off he goes. It’s a fairly common theme in our society. One gains great wealth, and that person squanders it with bad decisions. Did you know that most people who win the lottery end up losing everything? That’s right, about 70% of lottery winners, according to readers digest, will spend it all within 5 years. Many will end up in debt, lose everything, with broken marriages, and become addicted to drugs.

God often does us a great service by not giving us everything we want.

Wealth goes beyond paper money though. Our wealth is our health, our relationships, our friendships, our job, our skills, and abilities. These are all gifts from God. And how many of us, squandered those gifts, that wealth, before we knew Christ. We spent it on foolish things. We used our gifts to build our own stuff, instead of what God wanted us to use it for. Let’s continue.

It says, “14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.”