Parable 10 The Prodigal
Notes
Transcript
Parable 10
The Prodigal
The Prodigal
Luke 15:11-24
Some background
Husk
This is kind of funny
When I began my preaching ministry, I had started with a KJV.
Here is verse 16 in the KJV.
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
kjv
Fain = long for.
Fain = long for.
Husk = what do you think about when you hear the word husk and feeding pigs?
Corn husk.
I have even this descried as slop.
It’s none of that.
And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
The word is pods –
care ob
carob pods.
carob pods.
They look like this.
The importance of this is…
Knowing the background of a passage helps to better understand what is going on.
It’s also important to compare translations.
Honor and Shame.
Honor and Shame.
Another import matter about this parable is the society in which they lived.
It was an honor and shame society.
We don’t live in that kind of society not even close.
Japan is an honor shame society.
They have a very low crime rate.
To bring shame on the family would be a very negative thing to do.
Everything this son did would have brought great shame on his family.
The people listening would have been horrified.
But the people that Jesus was associating with (v: 1-2 sinners) would have brought shame to their families.
How can we relate?
How can we relate?
Simple question
Have you ever made a decision so foolish that you wondered if you could ever come back from it?
Have you ever made a decision so foolish that you wondered if you could ever come back from it?
Maybe a financial decision, A relationship.
Maybe you opened your mouth when you should have kept it shut.
Slow to speak quick to listen.
Words are hard to take back.
Maybe a spiritual decision
Compromising with sin?
Entertaining “small” sins, believing they won’t do much harm.
Living with unconfessed sin instead of repenting.
You have made peace with a temptation rather than resisting it.
Prioritizing money, things, status, or pleasure above obedience to God.
Seeking approval of people more than God’s approval.
I want my money
I want my money
The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
This would have been a shocking insult.
He was basically saying dad I wish you were dead.
This would have brought great disgrace to the family.
Wild Living
Wild Living
“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.
I’ve sowed some oats but…
This was another level.
The word here has the meaning of reckless indulgence.
But to do this he left for a “far country”.
He distanced himself from his Jewish community
When people fall away from church and lose the community bad things can happen.
We can find ourselves in the pig pen.
Have you heard the saying “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it”?
The Money is Gone!!!
Finding ourselves in the pig pen.
About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
For a Jewish audience, this detail highlighted the son’s utter degradation.
Pigs were unclean animals (Lev. 11:7).
So working with pigs would have been repulsive.
Compound that with staving.
Jesus is painting a picture here of total desperation.
Rock bottom
Sometimes we have to find ourselves at the bottom to begin finding our way back up.
You ever been so low so out of options?
Maybe to the point of self-harm?
Coming to our Senses.
Coming to our Senses.
When willpower fails.
“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
Maybe you are like Paul when he said in…
I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
One day through the work of the Holy Spirit I must realize that what I’m doing is not working.
Paul admitted to himself in this passage that willpower alone is insufficient.
Sheer willpower apart from God, cannot overcome sin.
The flesh is too weak.
“Meaning” Outlasts Sheer Effort
“Meaning” Outlasts Sheer Effort
Willpower says: “Push harder.”
Motivation tied to meaning says: “This matters to me.”
Meaning carries emotional weight.
That weight sustains us.
Willpower is a well that will run dry.
God’s Grace is the True Source of Change.
Where willpower fails
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
Grace brings salvation but watch this.
Titus 2:12 (GW) — 12 It (grace) trains us to avoid ungodly lives filled with worldly desires so that we can live self-controlled, moral, and godly lives in this present world.
It (grace) trains us to avoid ungodly lives filled with worldly desires so that we can live self-controlled, moral, and godly lives in this present world.
Grace is not only God’s favor in salvation.
It is also His power to live the Christian life.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) — 9But he said to me, “My GRACE is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
But he said to me, “My GRACE is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Give your struggles and battles meaning. Trust God not willpower.
