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Love Of The Father Part One - Episode 002
06/13/2019
Love Of The Father Part One - Episode 002
Love of the Father Part One The Prodigal Son Parable Jesus demonstrates who His Daddy Is: Why Jesus tells this story I love the story that Jesus tells us about the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. So many times when we hear this story taught we think it's all about the son. I see it as a beautiful story of Jesus showing us who His Father is. In the process, we learn about two boys, not just the prodigal son. Both are opposite of each other and represent two people groups. The Jews and Gentiles. I believe the older son represents the Jews and the younger son represents the Gentiles. We can see this because the father tells the older son, "You have always been with me and have had access to everything I have." The Jews have had this relationship since the days of Abraham. The Gentiles only knew God from a distance and had no access to Him. Who was Jesus telling the story to? The tax-collectors, sinners and the Pharisees. It says the sinners and tax-collectors came near Him to listen to Him. It says the Pharisees came to grumble that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. Jews did not do this because they felt tarnished if they hung around Gentiles and sinners. So they could not understand why Jesus would do that. It's interesting that it was the sinners who loved the story and not the Pharisees. Why? Because of the way Jesus told the story, it did not line up with the Pharisees view of who God is to them. The Pharisees were thinking about all the laws that are being broken in the story. All they could see was everyone’s sins. Father and two sons This parable starts right off by mentioning two sons and the younger one asking for his share of the estate that belongs to him. Without any comment, the Father divided His wealth between both sons. Notice the older son had not even asked and also received. In Deuteronomy, it tells us that the father had every right to take his son to the Elders of the town and have them punish him by stoning to death. By the son asking for his portion of the inheritance, it was unforgivable. When the younger son asked for his inheritance he was telling his father - you are dead to me. Deuteronomy also tells us that the older son gets 2/3 of the estate, and the younger gets 1/3. See Deuteronomy 21:15-23 The youngest son leaves home Within a couple of days, the younger son went off to a distant country and squandered his estate with loose living. Prodigal means spending money wastefully and careless. He was left with nothing and a famine came into the land and he really began to be in need. So he found someone that hired him to feed swine. Another problem with this story is that Jews do not have anything to do with pigs. This was just not done. A Pharisee would have a problem with this too. Then things changed when he realized how hungry he was. Even the pigs had food but he had none. Then a light bulb went off and he thought even the hired hands are fed plenty at his fathers' house. So he figured he would go back and apologize to his father and since he had ruined his father and son relationship, he would ask his father to make him a servant. When he goes to meet his father he is surprised by his fathers' response. Father welcomes his long lost son home Verse 20 is one of my favorites. It tells us that while the young man was a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him. How many times do we hear that about Jesus when healing people? The father ran and embraced and kissed him! Wow, that is amazing considering what the boy did. This shows me God is to quick to forgive and fully restore. Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 tell us God does not remember our sin anymore. Men of that day who were rich did not make a habit of running like that. The embrace and kiss tell me there was full forgiveness. But I also believe due to the customs of that day, the father ran because he wanted to beat any townspeople who still might want to grab the young man and put him before the elders for how he wronged his father. So he wanted to get him before anyone else did. By law, the father had every right to have his son severely punished but chose to forgive him instead. Jesus is showing us the character of His Heavenly Father and His love for us. Why? Our Heavenly Father put all our punishment for sins on Jesus. Why? So we can be fully restored back to the Father as a son or daughter! Read verse 22 below to see some other things restored back to us because of all that Jesus did on the cross. The other amazing thing that the father of this story did for his son was to ‘quickly’ restore him back as his son and not as a servant. He gave him a royal robe, sandals, and ring. Why are these significant? The robe represents sonship and righteousness. The son was so desperate that he would have been happy just to be his father's servant. But his father restored him as his son with all the benefits of his inheritance. In Jewish customs, the sandals represent 'land inheritance'. The father restored his son's estate by putting the sandals back on his feet. Also, servants and slaves went barefoot. The ring would have been a Signet Ring which was how he would buy things. And it would signify authority to purchase and represent his father in the town. Restoration of our inheritance, authority, and Sonship are what God, our Heavenly Father, has done for us through Jesus!! The Older Son The father also said bring out the fatted calf, let us eat and be merry. The father was happy because his son was lost and now is found. The fatted calf is usually raised and saved for the first born sons wedding. If we continue reading we see the older son was not pleased by this!! When the older son comes in from the fields and hearing all the music he asked one of the servants what was going on. When he finds out what happened he is very angry. But the father went out to him to ask him earnestly to come join the party. The son was angry and said I have been serving you all these years and never neglected a command of yours (Sounds like the Pharisees) and yet you have never given me even a goat to be merry with my friends! But this son of yours that took all his inheritance and went out and squandered it with harlots, you are killing the fatted calf for him? The father responded by reminding the young man that he had always been with his father the whole time, and all that is mine is yours. Sounds like the Pharisees. They have had God this whole time but probably never thought to ask him for anything like an inheritance. But I know that this goes for us as Christians as well. Most of us have gone through thinking that we get from God by our doing and not just believing God in what He did for us. It is very humbling to just receive something so amazing without feeling like we have to do something in return. Many times we don't think to ask for certain things and yet it is part of our inheritance that we receive in full the day we accept Jesus in our hearts. God wants us to know our inheritance so we can enjoy it now, not when we get to heaven. What is faith? Romans 5:1-2 New King James Version (NKJV) 5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Ephesians 2:8-9 New King James Version (NKJV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Genesis 15:6 6 And he (N)believed in the Lord, and He (O)accounted it to him for righteousness. See also Galatians 3:5-9 Faith is just believing and receiving grace. Grace is Jesus part, faith is our part. If you recall in Genesis 15 it was Abram’s believing, not doing that God accounted it to him for righteousness.
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