The Licentious Son Luke 15
The Audience
Luke 15: 1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." 3 So he told them this parable . . .
The Actors
11 And he said, "There was a man who had two sons So the father basically has no relationship with either son. It is called a tale of two sons. It's not really the tale of one son, it's the tale of two sons and the climax of the whole story indicates that it is the other son, the one we don't think about, that is really the main objective in the story. These are two kinds of people who have no relationship with God. One is irreligious and one is religious. One is as far away from God that he can get. The other is as close as he can be. . . . It’s a totally dysfunctional family, a loving generous father who’s provided massive gifts to two sons. One is a flagrant, rebellious, irreligious sinner; the other is a religious one who stayed home, but neither of them has any relationship to the father or to each other. They both hate each other and the father. Mc Arthur
His story reveals the destructive self-centeredness of the younger brother, but it also condemns the elder brother’s moralistic life . . Jesus is saying that both the irreligious and religious are spiritually lost, both life-paths are dead ends. . . Jesus ‘ teaching consistently attacked the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. (Keller the Prodigal God)
The Action: The Lost Son
Request 12 And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them.
· Shocking Request – The request, was in effect saying, “I wish you were dead and no more say in my life! I am tired of you and I want to be free from you and your control in my life.” (Carr) Deut. 21:17
· Selfish Request - “Give me!” His focus is on “me”. His life is all wrapped up within himself and he cares for no one else, especially not the father. The unbeliever takes no thought for God. Their attitude toward God is “Give me!” They want His air, His food, His water, His time, His world, etc, but they do not want Him involved in their lives! When God made man, He literally poured His life into man, Gen. 2:7. And, every day that men live upon the earth, they consume the resources that God created for them, yet they do not want Him in their lives. They want what He can give them, but they do not want Him!, Psa. 14:1
Rebellion 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living The occasion of his departure was, that he hated the restraint of his father’s presence, and longed for independence, that he might gratify his own inclinations Scarcely had he received his portion, before he left his father, and departed to a distant country, where his actions would pass unnoticed. Having thus thrown the reins upon the neck of his appetites, he carried on with an irresistible impulse. From one degree of sin to another he rushed forward without restraint; nor stopped till he had wasted his substance in riotous living (Simeon)
Realization
Ruin 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. When we break our attachment with God, you will end up attached to another, and that attachment will be slavery not sonship. It may be drugs or alcohol or illicit sex or an employer or a friend or a sport or a hobby or a television or a lake cabin or social media or gamingor studies. The attachment may be crude or it may be refined. If we break loose from God, we will be attached to another. And in the end (whether crude or refined) this alien attachment will send us to the swine troughs—either in this life or the one to come. . . . You and I were made to be filled with God. And if we run from him, if we take our little earthly inheritance of time and money and energy and use it to attach ourselves to other things than God, it won't matter whether we are worth nine billion dollars or buried in unmarked grave—our future will be swine food for all eternity. (Piper)
And like typical sinners, he comes up with the first plan. This is his plan A. “He went, attached himself to one of the citizens of that country.” First thing he said is, “I’ve got to get a job. I’ve got to pick myself up.” This is typical of the sinner. Runs from God, goes out, lives a dissolute, rebellious life, sins up a storm, winds up in the pit, winds up with absolutely nothing, is completely bankrupt, bare. He’s on skid row. He’s walking the street. Has nothing, but he’s going to pick himself up . . . the foolish sinner finally exhausted plan A. I’ll fix my own life. I’ll go to psychology. I’ll take drugs. I’ll drink alcohol. I’ll go to some self-help group. I’ll move to a new neighborhood. I’ll marry a new person. When all that stuff is exhausted, the sinner wakes up at the bottom. (McArthur)
When the music stopped, the friends left, and the money was all gone, this young man found out that he had some needs that he could not meet. His sin had robbed him of everything of value and it left him hopeless and helpless in the far country. That is how sin treats all its victims! It will promise you the world, but it can only deliver hopelessness, desolation and death, “Sin will take you father than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.” Don’t worry, sin always pays off, Gal. 6:9! (Carr)
Recognition 17 "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! Seeing where you are is always the beginning step in getting to some other place! The first step in getting out of sin is to realize that you are in sin in the first place, Rom. 3:23 (Carr). He first begins to see how madly and wickedly he has acted. He feels that he has reduced himself to a wretched and perishing condition. He considers how happy are those once despised people, who enjoy the favor of his heavenly Father, and how happy he himself should be, if he might but obtain the lowest place in his family. With these views he determines to consider himself as a vile, self-ruined creature. There are no terms so humiliating, but he finds them suited to his condition. He is fearful of not humbling himself sufficiently, . . . He resolves that he will go to a throne of grace and ask for mercy; nor will he wait for any more convenient time, lest he should perish before the hoped-for time arrives. He is ashamed indeed to go in such a destitute condition; but he despairs of ever going in any other way. He therefore breaks through all the engagements he has made with sin and Satan, and goes, with all his guilt upon him, to his God and Savior. Simeon He had been unconscious of his true condition, and he had lost all power to deliver himself from it; but now he was coming round again, returning to consciousness and action. The voice which shall awaken the dead aroused him; the visions of his sinful trance all disappeared; his foul but fascinating dreams were gone; he came to himself. He was one recovering from insanity. He had played the madman, for sin is madness of the worst kind. He had been demented, he had put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for darkness; The insane man does not know himself to be insane, but as soon as he comes to himself he painfully perceives the state from which he is escaping. Returning then to true reason and sound judgment, the prodigal came to himself. (Spurgeon)
Repentance 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."' 20 And he arose and came to his father
Notice three elements in this repentance.
1) v. 17 he came to himself . Awakening- When you are alienated from God, you are always alienated from yourself. You can't know yourself or relate properly to yourself if you are running from the one who made your self for himself. You were made by God in the image of God for God. . . . as a human being; you are made by God, like God, for God. Therefore conversion is "coming to yourself" as well as coming to God. It is discovering where you came from and who you are and why you exist. Running from God is always a running from ourselves. Repentance is waking up to this truth. (Piper)
2) v 18 I have sinned Assessment a humble brokenness and a deep sense of unworthiness before God.: Lostness is not something we can make excuses for. We are guilty. We are rebels (Is 53:6). We have known our Father's will, and have rejected it. So repentance is a deep sense of how horribly offensive this is to God, and that we have no rights before him at all.
3) v 17'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread , v 18 I will arise and go to my father Alignment we cast ourselves on God's free, merciful, bountiful provision of grace.. The focus is on the incredible bounty and generosity that he has so foolishly traded for the fleeting pleasures of sin. Repentance is believing that God is so great and so good that the smallest enjoyments of his house are better than ten thousand worlds without him. (Piper)
Restoration But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his servants,' Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate He gets up and he heads home. He doesn’t know what will happen when he gets there. He may be rejected. He may be humiliated. He may even be put to death. However, at this point, he does not care! He is tired of the far country and he is going home! That is what conviction will do for you! The Spirit of God will make the blackness and end of sin so real and the salvation Jesus offers so glorious that you will do anything to get to Him. You will pay any price. Stop any sin. Embrace any truth, just to get right with Jesus. (Carr)
The lesson is that sin is rebellion against God the Father. It is not rebellion so much against His law, it is more rebellion against His relationship. It is the violation of His fatherhood, His love. Sin is disdained, sure, for God’s law, but before that it’s disdain for God’s person, God’s authority, God’s will. Sin is shunning all responsibility, all accountability. It is to deny God His place. It is to hate God. It is to wish God was dead. It is to not love Him at all, but to dishonor Him. It is to take all the gifts that He’s surrounded you with in life and squander them as if they were nothing. (Mc Arthur)
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