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Bryon’s Favorites - Luke 15:11-32 - “The Prodigal Sons” · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Hello and welcome back to Tabernacle talk.
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  If you're watching the video podcast, you might notice I'm in
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  a new room and that is because my room is my office is getting
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  prepped to get painted. And so it is a it's actually a
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  pretty clean. There's a lot of books, but it
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  is a clean mess right now. So I'm looking forward to
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  getting back in quote UN quote, the studio after that is done
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  and incredibly grateful for some of my church family kind of
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  putting that together so that that room was able to get
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  painted. I actually found some items in
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  the room from 2011, so about 15 years ago, found some things
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  that were hiding behind a dresser and I was like, man,
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  that is so cool. And I'm thankful for a ministry
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  that's been continuing for many years, 76 years this year, and
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  just incredibly grateful for all that God has done and is doing.
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  Today. We are taking a very short
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  break. This is the final episode of,
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  quote UN quote, the break from the book of Isaiah.
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  And today we are in Luke 15 verses 11 through 32.
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  Luke 15 verses 11 through 32. This is often known as the
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  parable of the lost son or the prodigal son.
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  Really, the point of this parable is the prodigal sons.
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  It is both sons that did not have the relationship with their
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  father that the father wanted to have with them and how that is
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  navigated. So let's walk through.
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  This is one of my favorite portions of scripture.
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  I've tossed into the descriptions like show notes for
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  this episode. A great song written from this
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  passage called Run to the Father by Cody Carnes and I love that
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  song. I've sung it a couple times here
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  at Tabernacle, many times at my church in Washington, Moses Lake
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  Baptist and so excited to dive into this portion of scripture
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  with you. So Jesus is giving 3 different
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  stories, 3 parables, which is a lesson like an earthly story
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  with a heavenly meaning to the tax collectors or sorry rather
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  to the Pharisees and scribes who were complaining that Jesus was
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  eating with tax collectors and sinners.
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  So Jesus is there, He's at a meal, He's with people that were
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  viewed as traitors to God's people through unfair and unjust
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  excessive taxation that they would levy out on their own
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  people, the Jewish people. And so the tax collectors were
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  viewed as allies of Rome, not allies of their own people,
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  Israel. They were viewed as financially
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  abusive and extortionary. We've seen even in the stories
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  of Matthew or Levi and in the story of Zacchaeus, how Jesus
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  didn't say just because you have been a bad person in the past
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  means you cannot be a disciple. God reaches out to and he loves
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  the people that we think he should never reach out to.
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  And then not only does it say the tax collectors, it says and
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  sinners, these would be those viewed as particularly immoral
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  in in different passages throughout the Gospels, you'll
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  see the Pharisees say that Jesus he eats, he's he's friends with
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  tax collectors and prostitutes. And so even as we see Jesus that
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  everyone that our world would completely write off to say,
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  yeah, there's no way that person can have a relationship with
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  God. Jesus is constantly reaching
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  out. The Pharisees inscribes the very
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  religious, the holiest of the holy ones, quote, UN quote in
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  Israel at that time they were upset about this and so Jesus
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  gives 3 parables. This is the last of those
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  parables. In answer to that objection,
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  here's what he says. A man had two sons, the younger
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  of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the
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  estate I have coming to me. So he distributed the assets to
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  them. So in essence, this younger son
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  says to his father, you're as good to, you're as good as dead
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  to me. I don't want a relationship with
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  you. When the father would pass, the
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  older son would receive kind of a double portion.
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  He would receive 2/3 of everything that the father had
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  possessed. And then the younger son would
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  get 1/3 of the possessions. So here the younger son says,
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  just give me a third of, you know, the value of everything
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  that you have. You're as good as dead to me.
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  And so then in verse #13 not many days later, the younger son
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  gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country
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  where he squandered his estate in foolish living.
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  So all of the people there listening to this story would
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  go, yeah, that's that's what he gets.
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  This is a violation of the commandment to honor your father
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  and mother, not treat them like they're dead.
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  So he dishonored his father and mother.
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  And so they would be saying, like, yeah, this is great.
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  This is what he gets for being disrespectful.
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  Then in verse #14 it even goes further.
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  It says after he had spent everything, a severe famine
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  struck that country and he had nothing.
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  They would view this as, Oh yes, this is just like the famine
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  that God brought on Israel during the time of Ahab and
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  Jezebel where they needed to turn to God and they didn't.
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  And so yes, this is exactly what happens to bad people.
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  Verse #15 Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that
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  country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
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  By now you might actually have like cheers of joy and
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  excitement coming from the Pharisees and scribes.
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  This is a person that is now not only violated the commandments,
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  suffered consequences as a result, but now they were viewed
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  as no longer being like one of God's people.
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  They were shut out from the community of faith in Israel as
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  a result of the fact that he is eating or he's he's feeding
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  pigs, which were unclean animals.
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  This would have been horrific in that culture to think about
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  being one that would feed the pigs.
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  And then we read this in verse #16 he longed to eat his fill
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  from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give
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  him anything. He is even now lower than an
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  unclean UN kosher animal and he can't even get permission to eat
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  pig food. So he is at the absolute bottom
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  rung. The Pharisees and scribes would
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  probably have said, like, man, what a wonderful story.
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  You tax collectors and sinners. You have squandered the gifts
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  that God has given you and so you need to repent of your sin.
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  You need to stop doing evil but also like this is the end that
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  is waiting for you. It would be a self-righteous We
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  are the ones like the older son that stayed that didn't dishonor
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  his father and you guys are the ones that have dishonored your
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  father God and have squandered and lived evilly.
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  That's where they would end the story.
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  I want to stop right here and ask you right now, what are you
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  thinking in relation to this story?
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  In truth, every single one of us probably have some ways in which
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  we're like the older brother, that we do some things right, We
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  love or respect God. We do some things that are
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  expected of us, and all of us can fit into this mold of the
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  younger son. At times that we've done things
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  that God has said not to do, we have found ourselves on the end
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  of what we might consider to be hardships brought on through our
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  bad choices. And so we we could say, yeah,
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  I've, I've been there. I've been at rock bottom, you
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  know, unable to get pig food, you know, pigs at, at farms.
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  They never have to wonder about where their next meal is coming
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  from. But man, I, I've been in that
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  boat where I don't know where that next meal is going to come
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  from. Verse #17 Jesus says when he
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  came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired
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  workers have more than enough food?
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  And here I am dying of hunger. He goes even those ones that
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  like they're not the sons of my father, they're just the hired
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  hands, but they have more than enough food in their life and
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  I'm starving here. We're summer 18.
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  He says, I'll get up, go to my father and say to him, so you
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  can think about it. He goes, all right, I'm, I'm
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  going to go from this far country back to dad's house and
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  I have this script that I'm going to say to dad.
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  He says, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight
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  that there's a recognition of fault against God ultimately and
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  a fault against humanity. Realize this, when you sin, you
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  do not just sin against a holy God and need forgiveness from
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  him. We need to seek forgiveness and
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  repentance and restitution towards one another as fellow
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  image bearers of God. You can be if you will.
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  You can ask for forgiveness from God, but the genuineness of our
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  repentance is often seen in if we are seeking to be reconciled
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  with our fellow man, if you will.
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  The word righteousness is it's right standing with God and with
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  people. So you can see this in the story
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  of Zacchaeus where he repents, he recognizes his evil, but then
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  it results in him paying back four times what he unlawfully
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  stole from people on top of Rome's taxes.
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  So there he has, as John the Baptist would put it, he has
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  fruits in keeping with repentance.
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  This is what it looks like to truly have my will aligned with
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  the will of God. So he says, Father, I've sinned
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  against heaven and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be
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  called your son. Everyone listening to the story
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  would go, yeah, absolutely. Like, that makes total sense.
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  That's that's the kind of thing that would happen.
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  You would be disowned. There's no way that he can then
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  come back into his father's good graces.
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  But he says, make me like one of your hired workers.
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  They go, yeah, you know, he, he can be a slave.
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  He'd be deeply dishonored, but he could certainly be a slave
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  within that house. Verse #20 So he got up and went
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  to his father. He's got the script.
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  He knows exactly what he's going to say.
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  He's going to say, listen, I know that I'm disowned.
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  I know that I am unwanted as family, but I can work for you.
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  Think about it from a salvation aspect.
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  God, I recognize that I am not perfect, but God, I will do
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  things for you. I will obey you.
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  I will read my Bible, I will go to church, I will pay tithes and
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  offerings and God, I'm going to pursue all of the good things
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  that I should have been doing all along and, and maybe you
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  will allow me to have some blessings in my life as I do
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  these things. Verse #20 continues.
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  But while the sun was still a long way off, his father saw him
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  and was filled with everyone could imagine the next word
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  being rage. He was filled with anger.
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  He was filled with bitterness or resentment.
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  But that is not how our God sees us when we come running to Him a
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  long way off, imperfect, flawed, failing.
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  When He sees us a long way off, He is filled with compassion.
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  I love one of the words for compassion in the Greek language
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  is the word splagic non. It is a moving, a deep moving
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  and emotion feeling from one's gut.
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  Very literally, it's like your splagic non are your intestines,
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  but it's from the depths of my being.
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  I am moved with love and compassion for you.
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  Do you realize that that is the way that your God views you
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  today? He does not view you as on
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  probation. He does not view you with angry
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  eyes. But for every person that has
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  cried out to Jesus to say, God, I have sinned, I am no longer
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  worthy to be called your Son. That He sees us and He has
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  compassion and love for us because His mercy, His steadfast
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  love, endures forever. So he sees his son.
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  He's filled with compassion. And if that was where it
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  stopped, man, what a wonderful truth that as the son comes, he
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  comes not to an angry father, not to a vengeful father, but he
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  comes to a compassionate father. But that's not what happens.
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  So his father is filled with compassion, and he ran.
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  Running was viewed during this time period as something that
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  was for, you know, messengers. It's for slaves or servants.
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  It is not for the people that are dignified, the heads of
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  households, those that are masters, those were not the
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  people that ran. You would send someone else
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  because, you know, everyone looks a little goofy when they
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  run, unless you're, you know, Usain Bolt or something.
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  All the rest of us, we look goofy when we run.
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  But the father, he ran to his son and it says he threw his
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  arms around his neck and kissed him.
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  There is embrace, there is love, there is closeness that is there
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  between the Father and the Son that squandered everything, that
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  was cut off from everyone else, that suffered all of the
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  deprivation that life could offer.
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  When we turn in our hearts and faith to God, He comes running
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  to us, filled with compassion, embraces us, places us into the
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  body of Christ that we would be ever more a part of His family.
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  We are adopted children of God even still.
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  The Son says this in verse 21. Father, I have sinned against
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  heaven and in your sight I am no longer worthy to be called your
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  son. And so then his next line is
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  like, make me as one of make me one of your hired servants.
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  But before he can get the last part of his speech out, verse
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  22, the father told his servants, quick, bring out the
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  best robe. He doesn't just say bring out a
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  robe, He says bring the best robe.
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  God does not have subpar things in store for you and for me.
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  No matter our imperfections or our sin, God cannot give less
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  than his best. God is the one that gives good
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  and perfect gifts. He is not the one whoever gives
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  anything haphazardly or shoddy. And So what God has in store for
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  us is his best. He says put on the best robe.
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  And you can think even of the fact that we are clothed now as
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  believers in Jesus, in the righteousness of Christ, that
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  when God looks at us, he does not see our imperfections.
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  He sees the perfection of Jesus. It has been attributed to our
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  account through faith in Christ that we've been made one with
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  Jesus. And so as a result, everything
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  that he has, his, his glory, His love, His righteousness, His
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  peace, His joy, all of it is ours through faith in Christ.
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  So we are given the best robe. He says, bring out the best robe
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  and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his
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  feet. Here this man did not even have
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  shoes or sandals to walk in. And God provides for his needs.
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  The Father provides for the need of the Son and a ring is put on
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  his finger, signifying identity with the family.
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  We have this even still with like husbands and wives that
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  they wear rings that say, you know, we're we're connected to
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  each other. You can think of it like with a
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  a king or a signet ring, something like that that would
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  say this person belongs to this family.
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  And here the father says, no, the son is not one of my hired
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  servants. And even though through his
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  actions maybe he might have no longer been worthy to be called
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  the father Son, the father nevertheless calls him his son
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  and gives him the ring, and he is part of the family.
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  Then in verse #23 he says, Then bring the fattened calf and
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  slaughter it. And let's celebrate with a
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  feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again.
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  He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate here.
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  If there had not been a feast, the Father would have been
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  lavish in his love for his Son. But he feasted, He celebrated.
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  And you can think about it. Every single time that we
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  observe the Lord's Supper together, we participate in this
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  feast of those who were once lost.
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  But through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, now we have been
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  brought to the family table to feast and to celebrate together.
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  What a joy because we were dead and now we've been made alive.
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  Through Christ we were lost, but now we are found.
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  What a wonderful story. But that's not where the story
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  ends. Verse #25 Now his older son was
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  in the field. As he came near the house, he
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  heard music and dancing. So he summoned one of the
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  servants, questioning what these things meant.
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  Your brother is here, he told him, and your father has
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  slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and
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  sound. This should be a time of
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  rejoicing, just as Jesus with the tax collectors and sinners
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  who have come to know and have relationship with the Son of
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  God. Verse #28 Then he became angry
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  and didn't want to go in, so his father came out and pleaded with
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  him, just as Jesus here is pleading with the Pharisees and
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  the scribes to have a love for the people that were broken
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  relentlessly, hopelessly broken, and yet now have been returned
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  back to the Father. So the father came out and
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  pleaded with him, but he replied to his father.
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  Look, I've been slaving many years for you.
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  And I've never disobeyed your orders.
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  You never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my
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  friends. Here there is the mindset that
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  the son was the older son was operating with.
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  I am a slave for my father. Did you read that word?
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  I've been slaving many years for you.
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  How do you view your service to the Lord?
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  Is it in relationship? Is it joyful?
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  Are you happy to serve God? Are you happy to serve his
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  people, the church? Or do you view it as drudgery,
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  as slavery? Let's have a joyful heart when
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  it comes to our service for the Lord.
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  It isn't something that we have to do for God.
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  It is something that we get to do in a relationship with him so
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  that what God wants to accomplish, he accomplishes
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  through me and through you. That is the joy of serving God.
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  Then the the older son says, but when this son of yours came, who
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  has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the
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  fattened calf for him, he, he says he wasted the money that
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  you gave him and now you're celebrating that he's back.
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  But then this is what the father says in verse 31, son, he said
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  to him, you are always with me. The joy in life is not that we
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  get to do things for God. The joy in the Christian life is
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  that we get to be with God. That is Holy Spirit lives inside
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  of us that as we gathered together as believers that the
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  Spirit of Jesus is among us, we are with him.
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  And then he says, and everything I have is yours.
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  The younger son, he already took his inheritance.
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  So everything that the Father possesses belongs to the older
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  son. Can I tell you everything that
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  belongs to Jesus is coming for us as well.
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  We're told that we are joint heirs, Co heirs with Christ and
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  that we have God's eternal blessings and love and and joy
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  awaiting us on the other side of eternity.
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  No matter what happens to us in the here and now in this life,
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  we have everything awaiting us. Everything that the Father has
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  is coming for his children and nothing that anyone else does
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  will ever dampen our inheritance.
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  So love lavishly. If you have to spend and be
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  spent for others, do so knowing that God is with you and that
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  everything He has will belong to us.
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  Verse #32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice because
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  this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.
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  He was lost and is found. What kind of mindset do you have
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  around the imperfect people around you?
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  Those that you think you know they're, they're just always
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  looking for a handout. They are just always failing,
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  gossiping, not being careful enough, not being consistent
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  enough. The temptation for many people
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  that are very religious and very regimented, very disciplined in
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  our religiosity is that we can become the older brother.
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  And instead of looking to Jesus and his grace in the
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  relationship we have with him and the inheritance that awaits
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  us in heaven, we're focused on the here and now.
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  We're focused on how imperfect we perceive others to be in
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  comparison with our own quote UN quote holiness, my friends, let
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  us not be like the Pharisees and the scribes.
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  Let us rejoice for those that were dead, that were lost, but
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  now are alive and are found. That concludes kind of my
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  section through some of my favorite passages in Scripture.
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  I'm looking forward to jumping back into Isaiah with I believe
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  it's Isaiah 15 next episode and I believe that'll come out on
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  Monday. Looking forward to it.
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  God bless.