Prodigal Son | Part 1

Message Transcript:

Good morning Harvest! It’s a privilege to be able to open God’s Word this morning with you. I’m excited about the message this morning, which is part 1 of a 2-part mini-series, 2nd part to come next week.

Just to give you a bit more about me…was born in Orange County, California, moved to Cary in 1995, when I was entering the 7th grade. Graduated from Athens Drive High School in Raleigh in 2001, and took the long road through college, graduating in 2008 with a degree in Youth Ministry. Took on a Student Pastor position in 2009 in Cary, and worked there until June 2020, 1 month shy of 11 years.

I’m a big Carolina basketball fan (accept the boos), love the art of coffee roasting and brewing, and would rather be at the beach than the mountains. I’ll tell you a little more of my story after we study our passage this morning, but I want to save it because it will be more meaningful then.

 Our passage for the next 2 weeks is Luke 15:11-32. Here we find the parable of the prodigal son. You can go ahead and turn there in your Bibles, or click there on your phones. We are going to break this into 2 parts, as I mentioned earlier. This week we are going to focus on the 2 sons in the story, and next week we will focus in on the Father.

 We’re going to read the story together, but I want to first give you just a brief context to the parable. Luke 15:1-2, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” And then verse 3 begins, “so He.” Keep that in mind as we read; who Jesus was allowing into his company, and the attitude of the Pharisees. As we read I also want you to consider this question: Why would Jesus give US this parable?

Luke 15:11-32

Charles Dickens said that this story was the finest short story ever written. But it’s more than just a mere story. See if we look closely enough, we might just find ourselves in the midst of it.

Anyone in here with young kids? Anyone have kids and remember when they were young? Have you ever sat your young child in front of a mirror? There’s typically a look of confusion initially. They don’t realize at first that it’s their reflection they are seeing. But when there’s movement, it slowly registers, “wait a minute, that’s me!” It’s the same here with this story. It’s familiar for sure, but the more we get into it, the more we may say like the child, “wait a minute, that’s me.”

Big Idea:

We are all on a journey of faith that finds us in one of two places: We are either aware of our sin and pursuing Jesus in the midst of it, or we are unaware of our sin and growing distant from Him.

1. Son 1

In this son we find a process of decision making that ultimately leads to repentance and restoration. Let’s look at this process together:

A. Attitude towards his father (12)

He looks at his father with disdain in his heart, not interested in remaining in relationship with him. He makes a decision here that in effect breaks the relationship. The language used here is pretty serious. By asking for his inheritance while his dad is still living, what he is saying is, “I wish you were dead.”

Keep in mind that as Jesus is telling the story, there are Pharisees present. They would have been absolutely appalled by the idea that a son would shame and dishonor his father with this request. It showed an arrogant disregard for his father’s authority. It’s absolutely shameful.

B. Lost all he had through reckless living (13)

The Greek word behind “gathered together” in this context means to “gather things together and turn them into cash.” So he took all of the material possessions that his father gave him, took them to the village pawn shop, jumped on a camel, made like a banana, and split. To a “far country.”

While there, he “squandered” everything, meaning he spent it extravagantly and foolishly. And here’s where it gets really bad.

C. Found himself in a desperate situation (14-16)

Notice that the famine was severe. I mean famines are bad enough, but it must have been a really bad famine. And he began to starve. Think about this: he followed his heart to a lifestyle marked by partying and foolishness, and what did he get as a result? Pain, emptiness and on the brink of starvation. He is desperate. But even in his desperation, he wasn’t quite ready to humble himself and return home.

Instead he pursues this pig farmer and begs him for help. Now the implication here for Jesus’ listeners is huge. Remember, Pharisees. The thought would be that this son is a Jew, and the “far country” would imply a Gentile country, in which the pig farmer was a citizen. So a Jewish man, begging a Gentile to take care of pigs, which were unclean animals in Jewish tradition. I mean Jesus is just teeing up his punchline perfectly.

And just to add insult to injury, he had to find his sustenance in the slop of the pigs, for “no one would give him anything.” He was alone, hopeless, and at the end of his rope. His decisions had led him to this place, and he had wandered so far from his father and his home that he was disgraced and shamed in the muck of pigs.

Have you ever found yourself feeling like he must have felt? Alone, ashamed, with no foreseeable hope? What have I done? Maybe you know someone who is exactly there. The rest of this story shows us that no one is too far removed from hope. Let’s keep going. Here comes the turning point.

D. Internal reckoning (17-19)

“When he came to himself.” This internal “reality check” is the first step to repentance. See God uses our desperation to wake us up and draw us back to himself. Think about this. How many of us in this room have fasted for any length of time? Why do we do it? We do it to grow closer to God and to understand our  dependence on Him. Because every time we feel the hungers pangs, it causes us to stop and spend a moment in prayer. That feeling of hunger shows us our need for God to provide.

A Scottish pastor by the name of Dr. Andrew Bonar served up an illustration that emphasizes this perfectly:

“In the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn’t get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can’t jump back again and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint that they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. Why don’t they go down there when the sheep first gets there? Because they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did.”

God allows us to get to certain lows in our lives. Sometimes, if we don’t get there, we don’t really understand our dependence on Him. We may lie to ourselves and be convinced that we had something to do with the turn around.  It often takes literal rock bottom to open our eyes to our need for Jesus.

The son gets to this point, and begins to make plans to return home. Notice as well that he understands that he hasn’t just sinned against his earthly father, but against heaven. In other words, “I have sinned against God and against you.” But this is just the rehearsal. A really important part comes next, and that is the actual getting up out of the slop, and walking away, leaving it all behind. And that’s exactly what he does.

E. Action towards repentance (20a)

Riddle me this. Two frogs sat on the edge of the water. One decided to jump. How many did that leave on the edge? Two. I didn’t say one jumped, I said one decided to jump. See there’s a big difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it.

I really, really want to talk about the Father’s response to his son’s homecoming, but you’ll have to wait until next week for that. Notice though that the son follows through.

F.. Admittance of wrongdoing (21)

He admits his fault, understanding that his sin has tarnished his relationship with his father, but the father welcomes him home with loving arms and so much more.

And by the way, the Pharisees would have been ticked at this point. WHAT?! The father didn’t shame him by making him sit in the village outside the gate of the family home? He didn’t make him work to gain full restitution into the family? I mean this was absolutely crazy! That the father would overlook the grave sins of his son and welcome him back home so quickly and so mercifully. But that’s the beauty of the gospel isn’t it?

Now I want to shift and spend a few minutes talking about the 2nd son, because his story is important as well.

2. Son 2

A. Comfortable at home, tending to his responsibilities (25)

He is out in the field working hard, doing exactly what he is supposed to do. Remember again that Jesus is talking to the Pharisees who are upset about Jesus spending time with sinners. The Pharisees who believe in a works-based righteousness. And what was their attitude towards Jesus spending time with those people? They were angry. Notice the older brother’s response.

B. Anger about his brothers return/reconciliation (28)

“He was angry and refused to go in.” And it’s so ironic because by refusing to go in, he is now the one breaking relationship with his father. Just like the older brother refuses to enter his father’s house because he welcomes the sinner, the Pharisees refuse to have true fellowship with Jesus, because he welcomes the sinner.

C. Pride and ungrateful attitude (29)

Very interesting word-usage by Jesus here. The word “douleuo” means to serve as a slave. So this son wasn’t working out of love for his father. He considered himself a slave. “I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked, but you’ve never thrown a party for me!” He is so self-righteous and ungrateful. But his whole life has been wrapped up in working hard to gain his father’s favor.

D. Jealousy (30)

Notice what he says, “this son of yours.” Not “this brother of mine.” He wants nothing to do with him! I mean he just can’t believe the red carpet that’s been rolled out for his brother.

And again we’ll skip diving into the response of the father, until next week. But for now, where does this leave us?

I want to tell you a little more of my story before we draw some application points together. I grew up in a Christian home, and was in church my whole life. When I was in high school, Young Life was the place to be. You guys familiar with Young Life? It’s a Christian organization that reaches Middle and High School students, as well as College students, mostly those who probably wouldn’t initially step foot through the doors of a church. The mindset that I had was of the self-righteous kind. I looked down on the kids that were claiming to be Christians that were smoking and drinking and calling Young Life their home. I despised Young Life, but for reasons much like the older son, because “those kids” didn’t “deserve” what I had. Pretty disgusting if you ask me. Son number 2.

I went to my first college at Cedarville University in Ohio, and after 2 years dropped out because I spent the whole time on academic probation. I didn’t care about school as much as I did about having a good time, so I came back to North Carolina and moved in with some high school friends. Things got worse, and I entered the college party scene. After about a year of that, I woke up one morning to my Mom calling me. It was a Sunday. It was my moment of internal reckoning. I had reached that place of desperation, with no hope for the future if I continued living the way that I was. I moved out that week and back in with my parents for a short season, and during this time is when I finally allowed Jesus complete control of my life. I was 21 years old, just about 17 years ago to the week. I said a prayer when I was 8 with my Mom, asked Jesus to save me. But I didn’t grasp the full gravity of relationship with Him until I was 21 years old. Much like the younger son, I walked away from Jesus until I came to that point of reckoning, and experienced the restoration of relationship with my heavenly Father. Son number 1.

As we were working through this together, maybe you saw a glimpse of your reflection in the mirror. Maybe you saw a glimpse of someone you know and are burdened for. 2 big thoughts for us as we close:

1. People are never too far gone to experience the hope of salvation found in Jesus.

We can be on 1 of 2 sides of the coin here. Either we find ourselves in the story of the younger son, or we know someone who is there. Either way, 1 thing remains true. People are never too far gone to receive the hope of salvation found in Jesus.

Think of Saul. A murderous hater of Christians, dragging them out of their homes to be imprisoned or killed. He met Jesus face to face and it changed his life forever.

If this is you, and you have never experienced the salvation that Jesus offers, the beauty of relationship with the Father, then I pray that you don’t leave this room without confessing your need for a Savior this morning, someone to pull you out of the desperation that you may feel.

If this is you, and you feel distant and disconnected from God because of choices that you have made, because of sin that has gripped your life, and you don’t feel like you can get away from it, talk to someone. Talk to Mike, talk to one of the elders, talk to me, just bring other people into your struggle and your pain so that they can walk with you through it. And pray, pray hard that God would release you from that sin so that you can experience, again, the sweet fellowship with the Father.

If this is someone you know, then pray, hard. A close family friend of ours prayed until his dad was 93 years old, and he finally accepted Jesus, no more than a month before he died and entered eternity, now with the Father. It’s never too late, and people are never without the hope of salvation.

2. A self-righteous attitude can cause us to miss out on the beauty of fellowship with Jesus.

Maybe this is where you find yourself this morning. Maybe you look down on others without even really realizing it. We know that the gospel is for everyone, right? But do we really believe that? Do you maybe feel like you’ve been working hard at serving people, at setting up or directing traffic or maybe other jobs around here that go unnoticed, but you don’t get the recognition for it? My encouragement to you is to keep working hard, because God sees, and we do it for an audience of one.

Let’s remember that none of us is worthy, not one, but Jesus. He went to the cross on our behalf, died a sinner’s death as a perfect man, so that we could be saved from the wrath of God, and enter into fellowship with Him. There’s nothing like it.

Next week we’ll look at the Father’s response in this story, and see just how incredible our God is.