OceanSide church of Christ

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THE PRODIGAL SON (1)

Luke 15:11-32

 

The Rebellion

Luke 15:11-16

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.    Many parents have experienced a child who has left the faith.

1.      The parent feels embarrassment.

2.      The parent experiences heartbreak.

3.      The parent feels guilt wondering what he/she could have done differently.

4.      The parent questions his/her effectiveness as a parent.

5.      The parent wonders if there is any hope for his/her child.

 

B.      The answer to that last question is found in a parable that Jesus taught during His earthly ministry.  The parable is very familiar to all.  It is referred to as “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” recorded in Luke’s gospel, Luke 15:11-32.

 

C.     In this lesson, we want to begin studying this parable is some detail.  The first lesson is subtitled:  “The Rebellion” (Luke 15:11-16).

 

I.       THE DESIRE (Luke 15:11-12)

 

And he said, A certain man had two sons:  and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.  And he divided unto them his living.

 

A.    The Reality (Luke 15:11)

 

  And he said, A certain man had two sons.

 

1.      Parables are stories based upon events in life that could very well be true.  (This story could have been told about my grandfather and his two sons, my father and uncle).

2.      They are earthly stories.

3.      The earthly stories have laid along side them heavenly meanings. 

4.      Thus, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

 

B.      The Request (Luke 15:12a)

 

…and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of good that falleth to me.

 

1.      The young son makes a bold request of his father.

2.      He asks to be given his portion of goods from his inheritance.

3.      It is interesting that he asks for these things even before his father has died.

4.      LESSON:  In their youth, children can make what seem to be bold, foolish requests.  They are ignorant.  They are selfish.   They are impulsive.  They are short-sighted.  They are undisciplined. 

 

C.     The Response (Luke 15:12b).

 

And he divided unto them his living.

 

1.      The father in the parable does something very unexpected.  He grants his son’s request.

a.      Many of us would not have made this move. 

b.      We would have told our son to wait for his inheritance.

2.      LESSON:  There are times in life when parents must give up their control and allow natural consequences to work in the lives of our children.  This is difficult because we want to protect them, but some children only learn by attending “The University of Hard Knocks.”

 

II.                THE DEPARTURE (Luke 15:13a)

 

And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country…

 

A.    It is not easy to watch our children leave home to enter into a very evil, difficult world, especially when we know that they are not fully prepared to do so.

 

B.      This child went into a far country.

1.      It was far from home.

2.      It was a foreign land.

3.      It had people, ideologies, and customs that were new and strange to this son.

4.      It made promises to him.  It tempted him.  In his mind, he thought this land held everything that he wanted.

5.      LESSON:  Youth often have a perception of things that is not based upon facts.  Youth can be easily allured and deceived by the “far country.”

 

III.             THE DEGRADATION (Luke 15:13b-16)

 

A.    The Riotous Living (Luke 15:13b)

 

…and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

 

1.      We are not told how much money the son received from his father. 

a.      It was probably a decent sum. 

b.      The son thought it would last a long time.

c.       His ignorance and his fleshly desires caused him to waste his profits.

2.      Riotous living

a.      Definition:

1)      Strong (811):  dissolutely

2)      Thayer:  dissolutely, profligately

b.      The man lived with no regard to saving at all. 

c.       “He went the limit of sinful excesses” (Robertson, e-sword.com).

d.      In today’s language, he bought clothes, cars, drugs, alcohol, and women.  He attended parties.  Whatever he desired, he did.

 

B.      The Reward of Want (Luke 15:14)

 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

 

1.      Lesson:  Resources are not limitless.  There is an end to what they can buy.  This young man spent all.

2.      Instead of being wise and preparing for the future, the young man found himself unprepared for the mighty famine that came upon the land.

3.      Because of his foolishness, “he began to be in want.”

a.      Want involves desperation.

b.      Want causes one to be irrational.

c.       Want causes one to make hasty decisions.

 

C.     The Role of a Stranger (Luke 15:15)

 

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into the fields to feed swine.

 

1.      This young man’s independence was gone.  He now had to rely upon another.  In this case, it was a stranger of the country he was in.  He must now do this man’s bidding.

2.      The job assigned to him was the feeding of swine.

a.      To a Jew, this was an unclean animal (Lev. 11:7-8).

b.      The animal and his environment stink.

c.       The work is long and difficult.

d.      LESSON:  A sinful life will take us much farther than we every desire to go.

 

D.    The Rations of Food (Luke 15:16a)

 

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.

 

1.      When we think of husks, we think of corn husks.  This was not what the prodigal son was eating.

2.      The Greek word refers to the pod of a Carub tree.

a.      At the time, the Carob tree served two purposes:  food for the lower class and feed for swine.

b.      It was not something the prodigal would have eaten at his home. 

3.      The mention of this ration of food was to show how far this young man had fallen in the socio-economic world.  It might be similar to eating only rice or peanut butter every day of our lives.

 

E.      The Rejection by All (Luke 15:17b)

 

…and no man gave unto him.

 

1.      As long as the young man had money, he had friends.  Now his friends were gone.

LESSON:  There are some people in life who will disappoint us.  When we are in need they flee.  They call themselves friends as long as they benefit from us, but they are not our friends.

2.      No man

a.      No one was there to assist him. 

b.      No man tried to pull him out of the hog pit. 

c.       No one was seeking to make his life better.

d.      No man was worried about his happiness.

e.       No one sought his best interests.

f.        NOTE:  All of these things could have been found “BACK HOME.”

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.    This young man had made an extremely poor choice in life.  Now, he was struggling.

B.      What would happen to him?

1.      Would his pride keep him in fellowship with the hogs?

2.      Or, would something happen that would radically alter his life?

 

C.     Most of us already know the answer to these questions.  We will find out more about this prodigal in our next lesson.