Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Alright everyone, go ahead and turn in your bibles to Luke chapter 15.

Tonight, we are covering the most famous parable in all of history.

It is the most documented, the most noted, the most sung about, the most painted, most recorded parable in all the gospels.

Tonight, we are looking at the parable of the prodigal son.

I’m going to guess most of you are familiar with it, but in case you’re not…let me set it up real quick.

Jesus is in the midst of a conversation with some Pharisees and scribes who are complaining that Jesus was not only surrounding himself with sinners, but was welcoming them.

Sinners, like the tax collectors who were considered to be traitors by the jewish people.

So the scribes and pharisees are complaining, and Jesus spends chapter 15 confronting them and defending his welcoming of sinners through the use of three parables.

Each parable, roughly getting to the same thing, but each one building on top of the other.

This results in the parable of the prodigal son being the climax of his teaching in this passage, which is why we are camping out here tonight.

And as we head into this passage, let me just set up the three parties in this story.

The first, and most important, is the Father.

The Father represents God.

We’ve been talking about sin a lot the past couple of weeks, and we’ve been talking about repentance and salvation.

And it’s been some pretty heavy hitting stuff…talking about hell, damnation, repentance, security of salvation…all important things, but all heavy things.

But, tonight, we are going to move past just focusing on repentance and spend some time talking about how God both views, and treats, those who are repentant.

And that brings us to the prodigal son.

The Prodigal Son represents the sinners and tax collectors.

As we will see, the Prodigal son is representing the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus has been welcoming.

As we will also see…the prodigal son is who we want to be, and who Jesus calls us to be if we are sincere Christians.

And lastly..

The Older Son represents the self-righteous Pharisees.

That is, the older son represents the scribes and pharisees that have been grumbling against Christ.

And I’ll tell you, they are who we don’t want to be.

The ones who boast in their works and become entitled and bitter towards the grace and mercy of God.

So, there are the three characters in this parable.

Now, let’s get into it and take it a few verses at a time.

And what we are going to do, is see five truths that can be learned in this parable.

Let’s read the first one.

God is gracious.

(v.11-12)

The definition of grace is to be given something you don’t deserve.

And when we say God is gracious, we are saying that he is full of grace.

That is, he is full of the quality of giving good things to people who don’t deserve it.

We are going to see this later on in verse 22, after this son has repented…but seeing it here in verse 12 accents even more the willingness of our Father to love and give good things even when we don’t deserve it.

And this son…really doesn’t deserve anything right now.

Because, if you look back at verse 12, when he says “father, give me the share of property that is coming to me”, he is actually saying “father, I wish you were dead and I could get the inheritance you owe me”.

Now, I know most of you are too young to have much worth inheriting at the moment…so you maybe you can’t resonate in that aspect…but many of you could imagine what would happen if you told one of your parents that you’d rather they die so you can have the house, or money, or car.

You can imagine, that they might be upset.

And they would have a right to be.

And so would God the father in this…but he doesn’t.

Instead…he does what you absolutely wouldn’t expect…he gives the son his inheritance.

It says it right there at the end of verse 12… “and he divided his property between them.”

So yes.

God is gracious.

He’s gracious because when his child wishes him dead and treasures only what he can get from God rather than God himself....God chooses to give good things anyways.

Because that is who he is.

So what we see here, is that even in the midst of our sin…when we didn’t know God…when we were his enemy…for those of us that are saved that is….even when we were enemies…God is still a gracious God.

And we live and breathe because he extends a certain amount of grace to all.

God is gracious, it’s a part of his very nature.

But that’s not all he is…We’ll see more in a minute but first we need to see the second truth found in this parable.

Sin is devastating.

(v.13-16)

I say this because what the prodigal son did was sinful.

It was idolatrous in many ways.

Choosing to love things of the world over God, and choosing to love money over what holiness.

What the son did also lacked wisdom, as it says that he squandered his property (that’s his inheritance) in “reckless living”.

On top of that, we find out in verse 30 that this son actually spent some of his inheritance on prostitutes as well, which is sexual immorality.

So all that to say…the prodigal son is living a sinful life…he’s taking what came from the goodness of his father, and using it to drive himself away from the father.

We are no different today.

Taking the things that could be used for Godliness, and turning them to sinfulness.

Like our cell phones and the internet.

How amazing is it that we could use these devices to communicate the gospel to someone thousands of miles away, and store God’s word right in our pocket to be accessed at all times.

How amazing is it that the gather of God’s people can be streamed to those who are unable to attend…it’s an amazing gift from God that could be used for good…but is often used to fulfill our sinful desires.

The same device that you can use for spiritual good is the same device that you use look at porn.

Or text gossip and slander.

Or fuel your idols of comparison and lack of contentment…always needing the next best thing.

Taking what could be used for Good and comes from the one who gives good things…and using it for evil purposes.

That’s what the son is doing.

And what do we learn from it?

That it’s devastating.

That the sin he so loves…devastates his life.

It says in verse 13 that he squandered all he had, and in verse 14, because of his squandering, he was unprepared for the life given to him....and so he tried to work his way back in his own strength…but it wasn’t good enough…because eventually he got to the place where even the pig’s slop looked delicious…and yet, he couldn’t even have that.

His sin, devastated his life.

Just as our sins, if left unrepentant, can devastate ours.

Not only physically, but spiritually.

Even leading to death.

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wages of sin is death, but that’s not all this scripture says.

How does it end?

BUT, the free gift of God is eternal life.

Sin is devastating, BUT, God is merciful.

God is loving and merciful.

(v.17-23)

So I defined what gracious is.

Let me define what mercy is.

Mercy is God withholding what you do deserve.

In this next part of the passage, we see both the love of the father, and the mercy of the father.

Look back at the text to see that.

So the son is devastated in his sin.

He’s at the end of his rope, it literally says in verse 17 that he is perishing, and he feels he has nowhere else to turn.

But then he comes to his senses there at the beginning of verse 17, and has a realization.

He realizes.

His father is known to be a kind and merciful man.

One who would certainly welcome him in if he offered to be treated, not as a son, but as a worker.

The equivalent would be that you would come home not expecting for your parents to let you live in the house again, but rather allow you to be the gardener.

You may not get to be one of the children, receiving the blessing of abundance and inheritance…but at least you’ll have food, and the place to stay under a kind employer.

As such, the prodigal son begins rehearsing what he is going to say.