The Parables - Week 3

Outline

I. AThe Lost Sons@ or AThe Prodigal Father@

A. Both sons are lost and in the far country.

1. Younger son is lost because of his bad choices.

2. Older son is geographically in the same place as his father but his lostness comes from within B the lostness of anger and self-righteousness.

B. Who is this parable really about?

ARivet your attention on him. Don=t take your eyes off him. Observe his actions and reactions. Listen to him, feel his heart break, sense the depth of his relentless love. He is the central character of Jesus= greatest parable.

The father. The spotlight is never off him. . . He dominates every scene even when he=s offstage. The two sons are but supporting characters, vivid contrasts to the father. . . His gracious love still thunders through. He speaks both when delivering his eloquent lines and when he silently waits. Who is the father? Jesus hoped we=d ask. The father is God; and God is the real prodigal. This is the parable of the prodigal God!

Lloyd Ogilvie B Autobiography of God

II. AA certain man had two sons.@ In order to find out what God is like, we need to look at the sons and how the father related to each of them.

A. How the father related to the younger son?

1. What must the father have been like that the youngest son could go to him and ask for his inheritance? In essence he is saying to his father AI wish you were dead.@

2. Surprising response of the father B The father is true to what he tells his elder son later in the parable -- AAll I have is yours!@

3. Why did the youngest son want to leave? AI do it myself@ B the desire to control our own lives and separate from the father. Sin!

4. What did the father do? He let him go B Aprodigal love@ (Lloyd Ogilvie)

5. Did the son care about how the father felt? We need to be careful how we look at this. We need to look at our lives and ask ourselves have we ever broken our Father=s heart through separation, busyness, refusing access to parts of lives, etc.

6. The son, in the far country, sinks to the lowest of lows and it is at this point he saw himself for what he was. AFather, I have sinned against heaven and against you@ (v. 18). He returns home for ALife without the Father is no life at all!@ (Lloyd Ogilvie)

7. The next scene demonstrates again to us what God is like & the Aprodigal love@ of the Father that awaits us when we return. The father does something unexpected again B he runs to meet his son B Aa costly demonstration of unexpected love.@ (Kenneth Bailey)

8. The father not only forgives but lavishly & abundantly bestows gifts on his son -- a robe to cover his rags, the signet ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And throws him a party!

B. How the father related to the older son? (This is the son that the Pharisees could identify with.)

2. AMeanwhile, the older son was in the field.@ He was responsibility personified. He wasn=t working in the field out of love and faithfulness to his father. The field belonged to him! Reality check for us: Are we doing what we do because it is our duty or are we doing it out of thankfulness and joy because of what the Father has done for us?

2. The elder brother returns home from the field to find that a party is being given for his brother and he refuses to go into the house.

3. The father=s response B once again, actually twice in one day, the father does the unexpected, he goes out to meet his elder son and asks him to come to the party B another surprise for the hearers of this parable, Aa costly demonstration of unexpected love.@

4. The elder=s brother=s attitude toward his father is evident immediately. There is a definite lack a respect and lack of gratitude on the part of the elder son. By refusing to come to the party, the son is publicly insulting his father.

5. AHe wanted to be loved for his perfection.@ (Lloyd Ogilvie) And he wanted a party, a celebration!

6. What the elder brother fails to realize is that the father loves his sons equally.

7. The father responds by calling him, Amy beloved child@, term of endearment and telling him that Aall that is mine is yours.@

8. Another attitude check B What are our attitudes toward those who have failed, who are sinners, who are lost, or whose behavior we just don=t like?

9. Another question comes to mind B Aren=t there some rewards for years of faithfulness? There are but both brothers have missed out B It is the joy of fellowship with our Father through the years. The younger son left home physically and missed out. The older brother stayed at home and missed out on the relationship because of his own attitude and heart. AThe tragedy of being an elder brother is that we miss the Father=s joy now and forever.@ (Lloyd Ogilvie)

10. No fairy tale ending; just questions are left. Did the elder brother ever go to the party? Did he reconcile with his brother?

III. Two great themes in these parables :

A. Clue to first theme is found in the repetition of words

AThe clue to the first is the repetition of the joyful words about the one who was dead being alive again and the one who was lost being found. These words come at the end of both the first and second parts of the parable and make it quite clear that the story of the two sons is a picture of Jesus= joyful life-giving ministry to the lost. . . .

. . . Jesus understood the revolution of God [His ministry} as the bringing back of people from selfish rebellion and death, through repentance, into the love and mercy of God and the joy of the kingdom.

In ministering to the sinners and outcasts of society, Jesus was not minimizing the seriousness of their sin. On the contrary, he portrays their position as one of outrageous, selfish rebellion against a loving father, the result of which is that they are in a >far country=, >lost= and (strikingly) >dead=.

David Wenham (The Parables of Jesus)

B. The second theme B the somber side of the parable is the elder brother.

AJesus uses the elder brother to portray his religious opponents who objected to his ministry to sinners. The elder brother saw his relationship to his father as correct drudgery, giving him rights in the household, rather than as joyful membership of the loving father=s family. (David Wenham)

IV. What does all this mean to us?

A. Henri Nouwen in his book, The Return of the Prodigal Son, challenges us to grow up and not to continue being Athe lost sons.@

B. So who are we to grow up to be? The Compassionate Father. Jesus made this very radical statement in Luke 6:36: ABe compassionate as your Father is compassionate@ & Jesus is our model.

AJesus shows us what true sonship is. He is the younger son without being rebellious. He is the elder son without being resentful. We have been called to be his sons and daughters and we need to grow to be like Jesus, who is like his Father. The father of the prodigal sons is not concerned about himself. . . He is concerned about his children. (Henri Nouwen)

C. Nouwen says there are three ways to achieving truly compassionate fatherhood: grief, forgiveness and generosity.

1. Grief: we must see the world as it is B a place full of sinful, lost individuals (including ourselves) and we must weep.

2. Forgiveness. Nouwen states that this is almost impossible for us. God=s forgiveness is unconditional, no strings attached.

AOnly when I remember that I am the Beloved Child can I welcome those who want to return with the same compassion as that which the Father welcomes me.@ (Henri Nouwen)

3. The final step is generosity B AAll I have is yours!@ Nouwen feels that giving is a discipline and every time we take a small step in the direction of generosity, Awe move from fear to love.@

D. I Cor. 13:11: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man (or we could put like the father), I put childish ways behind me.@

E. The world doesn=t need any more younger or elder sons/daughters. What it needs is for more of us to grow up and become like the compassionate father who not only welcomes home those who are lost but runs to meet them and embraces them and throws them a party!!!!