Hi guys how was your group bible studies? I am one of the three messengers speaking on Luke 15. I am covering the introduction of the famous parable of the Prodigal Son. Just like Sam encouraged us last night, I hope that we can draw near to God’s presence through the passage, starting with me and continuing on with David Won and David Wolf.In my message I want to focus on the heart of the father and how he’s actual the most prodigal character in the parable.
Let’s pray.
Dear heavenly father, please help us dig deeper into the passage where your love as a father is beautifully displayed. Help me to deliver this message and speak to us through me. Amen.
The title of my message is The Prodigal God
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Key Verse: 11-12
“ Jesus continued: ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them”.
Let’s read verses 1 and 2 together: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” We are introduced to the passage with Jesus being surrounded by “sinners and tax collectors”. However the Pharisees also seem to be at the same place as well. They judge Jesus for hanging around sinners and welcoming them. After this, Jesus goes on and starts to tell the parable of the Prodigal Son.
The parable of the prodigal son begins with a father who had two sons. One day, the younger son asks the father for his share of the estate. The father executes the son’s request by dividing the property between them and gives it to his younger son. The younger son then packs together all of his belongings and leaves his father’s home to live in a distant country. During the son’s time away from his father’s home, he lived his life recklessly and spent all his money living a wild life. The younger son lived this way until a famine hit the country. He does not go back to his dad because he thought he had disowned him for his actions regarding his inheritance and his departure. Therefore, the younger son hired himself out and began to work as a pig feeder. The amount of money was so small that he barely had enough to feed himself, and he found himself envying the pigs and thought of eating their food as well. Coming to the point of nobody wanting to help him, the son had hit rock bottom. Look at verses 17 and 18: “ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” He finally realized he needed his father and started his journey back home.
Once the younger son came close to his father’s home, his father had seen him coming and ran to his returning son with open arms. His father was overjoyed that his son had come back home and barely let his son get a word in. The son tried to earn his way back thinking that he was not worthy to be in the family, but his dad was too excited that he called for his servants to prepare a celebration for his son with fine clothing and a ring and a fattened calf. This response was nothing the son had imagined when returning back home. Eventually the ears of the older son picked up the chaos as he returned to his father’s home after working in the fields all day. He was not impressed with the situation. The older son actually became very angry that his father was celebrating the return of his brother when his brother left on poor circumstances. He felt his younger brother should have been shunned like many others would have been if they approached their fathers in the same manner his brother did. The older son asked his father of the purpose of the festivities when his younger brother disrespected their father while him, the older brother, worked every day for his father and served him. His father pleaded with him exclaiming that he is still as valuable and loved like his younger brother, but it is his younger brother that was lost and then found.
In the beginning of the passage, Luke mentions the two groups of people that were gathered around Jesus. Back in the day, to sit down and eat with someone was a sign of acceptance. Jesus accepted the sinners and hoped that in return, that they would someday accept him as well. But the Pharisees saw this as an insult to their pride. How dare Jesus, a religious teacher, sit down and eat with such scumbags! “If they never listened to our messages, what makes them listen to Jesus? He’s probably just telling them what they want to hear”. We can clearly see how the sinners correspond to the character of the younger son in the parable. They live the wild life and left behind their traditions and respectable societies. And then we have the pharisees and teachers of the law who share the mentality of the older son. They live by the book and live exactly by the way that society has always taught them to live by. By telling this parable, Jesus is speaking to both the sinners and pharisees to change their hearts. He is revealing the sinner's’ self centered heart and also the high moralistic life of the pharisees.
In this passage, there are many important messages that I received. The original title of the parable that Jesus gives in the passage is referred to as the Prodigal Son. When you look up the word prodigal, the definition is, “recklessly extravagant” or “having spent everything”. I believe that this is exactly how God is towards us. As you can see, God is actually the one who is prodigal. When we reject him and push him away from us, he is doing everything that he can to allow us back home. He went to the greatest extent by sacrificing his son for us. In a worldly point of view you can see why it would be called that since the younger son squandered all of his wealth in a short amount of time. But as I dug deeper into the meaning of the parable, one of the messages that stuck out to me was of how the father in the story, who plays the role of God, was portrayed. From the beginning when the younger son asked the father for his portion of the inheritance, the father just agreed to give it to him without any hesitation. This was like a slap in the face for the father. By the younger son asking for his share of the estate, the son was basically implying that he wished his father dead. The father and the younger son clearly had no intimate relationship with one another. But by giving the younger son his portion of the estate and was hoping that this would possibly change their relationship for the better. All the father cared about at this point was the son, even if that meant that the father had to lower his status in the community and endure the pain of rejected love from his son. This reveals a lot about how God, in the same way, never holds us back. Even when we reject God and decide to go our own way, he allows us to make our own decisions with the freedom of choice. This parable is about the prodigal god.
Next we see the restoration of the father with the younger son. The father doesn’t show up again in the passage until the end of the passage and there I saw how much the father loved his son through his forgiveness and compassion. When the father saw the son, he ran straight toward the son, hugged and kissed him. This is very unusual behavior for a father at the time since fathers never ran and they definitely never showed any signs of affection. This father didn’t care about his image, he cared much more about his son coming back home. The father had no idea if he was ever going to see his son again and now he was finally reunited with his lost son. Let’s read Verse 22 , “But the father said to his servants, Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.” The younger son is coming home being drenched in pig manure and the father is putting an expensive robe on him? Not just a robe but the best robe! Now I’m starting to wonder if the father’s in his right mind. Just kidding. But seriously, this is significant because the robe mirrors God’s forgiveness. Normally a robe like this would’ve went from his shoulders down to his feet. This elegant robe covered all of the younger son’s filth. When the father put the ring on his son, it represented the son being reinstated to the family. He did not care about the son’s past actions because his son came back home. In the same way, when we are covered in Jesus’ blood, God does not remember our sin but instead he celebrates to have us return to him. He is quick to forgive and is eager to welcome us back to his family as sons and daughters.
After receiving word that the older son was outside refusing to come in, the father did not scold him but pleaded with him. As the father reached out with mercy, the older son refuted with harsh words that revealed the true nature of his heart. Verse 29 “Look, all these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends”. This verse offers the same disrespect that the younger son had portrayed to his father earlier in the story. The older son’s words have the tone that his father should be asking for his forgiveness for not allowing him to have a young goat to feast on with his friends. The father was in pain, mixed with compassion for his oldest son because the younger and older son were not interested in the father himself, they both were interested in what they could get out of the father. The father made one more plea to the older son by saying in verse 31and 32 let’s read it together, “My son, the father said, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”. The younger son was lost and found his way back home as a different person which was a reason for the father to celebrate. The father grieved the loss of the younger son during his absence. When his son came back it was like he came back from the dead. In addition, the father’s words were to speak to the older son as well. His father would have celebrated for the elder son if he too would come to him, like his brother. The celebration, Jesus speaks of, is the celebratory joy that fills heaven after a sinner repents.
This passage really moved me because of the father’s role in the parable and how he clearly showed his amazing grace towards his lost sons. I see myself as the younger son since many times I fall short with God. A lot of times I will ask God for something and treat him like he is a genie that just pours out wishes for me. This year I applied to many universities hoping to be accepted to at least one. Due to God’s grace towards me, I was accepted to many universities except for the very one that I wanted to go to. Like a spoiled child I became angry with God because of how my friends, who even cheated their way up, were accepted and not me. Sometimes I don’t care about my relationship with him as long as I get what I want. At the same time I can be like the older brother. I try to grow in a relationship with God by doing my part through praying personally, doing daily bread, and writing sincere testimonies as if these things are the only way that God will accept me. But what I’m learning through this passage is that God just wants my heart. He wants my life and he wants a relationship with me. This is what brings him the most joy and excitement.
Despite all my shortcomings, God still pours out his grace towards me which ties to how he is the Prodigal God. He went to the greatest extent by sacrificing his son for us. He lavished his grace towards us so that lost people like me can one day come home to him where we belong, with our father. Our heavenly father is waiting for us with open arms. Many Christians and non Christians often have the misconception of what Christianity is all about. When Christianity first started, it was not even considered a religion because of how differently their faith was portrayed. They did not perform sacrifices to their god, they didn’t have a clergy or an official house of worship. But throughout time, we can see how it became to be structured like a religion.
My point is that it is not about our actions that define God’s love towards us. God does not measure his love for us when we write testimonies or do daily bread all the time. He just so desperately wants that connection with us where together you and God can blossom in a beautiful relationship together as it is with a father and his child. And in the end, that is all that matters with our heavenly father.
After pondering this truth, I had a resolution about the university. In the end it is not what God can give me that makes me want to be a Christian but it is that I want to experience the deep love of God that is more than my personal wishes. I pray that all of us can grasp the realization of the most important factor in our Christian life which is to have a relationship with our heavenly father. He is more than a generous father who can spoil us.
Let’s read the key verse all together one more time, Luke 15:11-12 “ Jesus continued: ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them”.
Let’s pray. Dear heavenly father thank you that we could learn about your incredible love for us. Thank you for giving me your wisdom to speak to hbf today. I pray that everyone here may learn at least one word from this passage and know how much you love every single person here. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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