Parable of the Prodigal Son

What are you studying in 2025? Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, host of Renewing Your Mind, and I want you to know that today, Ligonier Ministries is holding an online sale with a variety of discipleship resources to help you grow in your knowledge of God and His Word. Every Friday, you can find a new collection of discounted books, teaching series, study guides, and more. And many resources are only $5. There are few things in this world more futile than waste. To take a good gift, a beautiful gift, and waste it.

Think of the ways that we have wasted the gifts that God has given to us, spent them foolishly. Well, this young man was the epitome of that kind of living. That's why he's called the prodigal. The parable of the prodigal son is a story of estrangement and reconciliation. It paints a picture of the wasteful life of a lost son and the longing of a hurting father. Many of us have read or heard this parable many times, but as R.C.

Sproul will explain today on Renewing Your Mind, we may be getting its emphasis wrong. Continuing this week's study of Jesus' parables, here's Dr. Sproul on the parable of the prodigal son. In this session, we're going to look at one of the most popular parables that we find in the New Testament, one that's very popular with the people of the church everywhere. It's called usually the parable of the prodigal son, although in some Scripture texts, it's given by another name.

It's called the parable of the lost son. And in Luke's Gospel in chapter 15, this parable does not stand alone, but it is linked with two other parables, much shorter in scope, the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost sheep. But the context for these three parables is virtually the same. And before I read the parable, let me read the text that introduces all three of these parables. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him, and the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So He spoke these parables. So you get the context in which Jesus gives the parable of the prodigal son along with the lost coin and the lost sheep. It was in response to the complaint of the scribes and the Pharisees that Jesus had dealings with sinners and tax collectors.

Seeing that then as the background, let's look then at the parable. Then He said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give Me the portion of goods that falls to Me. So He divided to them His livelihood, and not many days after, the younger son gathered altogether, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he gladly had filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant, and he said to him, Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.

But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him, and so he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I have been serving you. I never transgressed your commandments at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said, Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. A short story, but what a story. In this story we have a parable of the gospel in all of its magnificent wonder and beauty and grace. The story begins with one of the two sons who wants to have his inheritance now.

The idea of deferred gratification was not in his vocabulary. He wanted to get his hands on that money as soon as he possibly could, and so he begged his father for that gift, and his father allowed him to have it. And we are told that in a very short period of time, this boy took this treasure and he went off to a far country.

Now we've got to stop right there. Why didn't he stay where he was? Why didn't he spend the money on riotous living every night and then come home to his father's house? Now that's not the way sin works, friends. We're told that we are by nature the children of darkness, that we do not like to be in the light.

We prefer darkness over the light because our deeds are evil. Every time I read this parable or hear this parable, you know what I think about living here in central Florida? I think about an event that takes place every year nearby, spring break, right up the road at Daytona Beach, where the media will give us television pictures of the riotous behavior of these college students who are spending this time basically using drugs, alcohol, and engaged in unbridled sexual activity. And when I see these scenes on the television, I wonder about the parents of these young people, how they would feel if on the 9 o'clock news they saw their daughter or their son involved in this debauchery. Why do the students carry on like this in Daytona? They're away from home.

There where nobody knows them. And so their inhibitions, their familial ties, their cultural taboos have been left back where they came from. And now they're free as can be to live however outrageously they choose. And that's what this young man did. He went to a far country where nobody knew him, where his father wouldn't see him, where his brother wouldn't see him, where the family servants wouldn't see him. And there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living. He went through his inheritance like that, throwing it away, acting as a prodigal, wasting everything that his father had given him.

That story right there at that point should move us deeply. Because there are few things in this world more futile than waste. To take a good gift, a beautiful gift, and waste it.

Think of the ways that we have wasted the gifts that God has given to us, thrown them away, spent them foolishly. Well, this young man was the epitome of that kind of living. That's why he's called the prodigal. But when his money was gone, when he'd spent it all at that very same time, came not a recession, but a famine, a severe famine. So this man had nothing to eat, and he began to be in want. And so he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country who sent him into his fields to feed the swine. This is a Jewish young man, and he has to now go be a servant to pigs, this detestable animal to the Jewish people. He not only has to care for the pigs, he has to live with the pigs. He's living in a pig pen. And he's so hungry, he's so destitute, that he's trying to take the food that is meant for the pigs so that he doesn't starve to death.

He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, but no one gave him anything. Now everything changes in verse 17 with the verse that I think is extremely important. We read, but when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have run enough in despair, and I perish with hunger? In the 18th century in America, the greatest revival that ever hit this nation took place in New England, and it was called the Great Awakening. Not the great revival, not the great conversion, but the Great Awakening, because people were awakened out of their torpor. Now people were awakened out of their unconscious life of unbridled sin. Their consciences were aroused. They began to realize that they were perishing.

And so the conversions that took place under the ministry of Wesley and Edwards and others there in New England was called an awakening. Now that's what happens to the prodigal son. He came to. He woke up. He came to himself. But I want to make it clear that he didn't come to himself by himself.

Nobody comes to themselves by themselves. No one is awakened to the things of God by an alarm clock. Only God can awaken a torpid sinner from their slumber.

And so in part, this is a message of how God saves people who are living in pigpens. He came to Himself, and when He woke up, He said, I will arise and go to My Father. And I will say to Him, I have sinned against heaven and before You. This is what happens when a sinner is awakened by grace. Every sinner who's ever been awakened by grace, when they come to themselves, not by themselves, they say, I will arise and go to My Father.

And I will say, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and I've sinned against You. Make You make me one of Your servants. Father, I was a son in Your house, and I left, but now all I want is to be a slave in Your house.

That's the heart of a converted person, isn't it? I'm no longer worthy to be called Your son. I don't ask You to call me a son.

Make me like one of Your hired servants. And so He rose, and He came to His Father. Now the focus of the story changes from the prodigal son to His Father. When we read, when He was still a great way off, His Father saw Him and had compassion and ran. You know, so often in the Bible we're told to gird up our loins for battle or for labor, and that imagery that is used in the New Testament would speak vividly to somebody in antiquity because they didn't wear blue jeans. They didn't wear trousers.

They wore robes that looked pretty much like dresses, and they would come down below the knees. And so if you're dressed in that outfit and you wanted to run, you had to hike up your skirt above your knees and then put a belt around it to keep that skirt from tripping you so that your legs would be free to run. And I see the prodigal father looking off in the distance, and he sees this figure approaching, and he peers into the distance. He notices the manner of walking. There's something familiar about this figure that is coming, and hoping he gets hope, he's thinking this is maybe his son who had been gone, and he thought he might never see him again. He hikes up his skirt. He puts the belt around him, and this man starts running down the street to welcome his son.

He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. No rebuke, no scolding, no admonishment, just filial love expressed with the embrace and the kiss of a joyful father. And the son said, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. I don't want to hear it, this father said to the servants, bring the best robe. Find the best robe in the house and put it on him.

Put a ring on his hand, the family ring, the signet ring, the ring of authority that says he's my son and has full membership in this family and in this house. And put sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it because we're going to have a party. Let's eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. Now, the focus goes on the other son who represents clearly the Pharisees in this parable. The older son was in the field and he came drawn near to the house and he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants and said, what's all this noise?

What's going on? And he said, your brothers, come home. And because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.

What? My no good, useless brother who took that inheritance and took off and left me back here to do all the work? He's back and we're going to have a party? He was angry and would not go in. And the father noticed that he was missing. So the father came out and pleaded with him. And he answered and said to his father, lo, these many years I've been serving you. I never transgressed your commandment at any time, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours, not as soon as my brother, but as soon as this son of yours came who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, I haven't ever disobeyed your commandment. I've been serving you faithfully all this time, and this kid goes out and lives with harlots, and he comes, he has the nerve to come back here, and you throw a party for him? He says, son, you're always with me.

You know that all that I have is yours. But it was right that we should make merry. It was right that we should be glad. His brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost, and his father, his son, he's your brother. He was dead.

Now he's alive. He was lost. We didn't know where he was. We couldn't find him. Nobody knew anything about him.

And now he's found. Elsewhere the New Testament tells us there's a party in heaven every time a sinner is converted. The angels rejoice, but the Pharisees got mad. The Pharisees hated sinners. One thing that they liked about the sinners is that they thought that they were worse sinners than they were, and they couldn't stand to see a sinner receive a blessing from Almighty God. If that's the heart of the Pharisee, it's the heart of an unconverted person. It's the heart of a person who doesn't understand grace at all.

Because if I understand the graciousness of grace, how can I do anything but rejoice in anybody's receiving that grace from God, even if it's my worst enemy? What a tremendous story Jesus gave. What a tale. It's a story we need to hear and hear again and again, because that person is converted to Christ, is one who was dead in sin and trespasses, and now has been made alive. That person was lost like a lost sheep or a lost coin, but now has been found. That's the gospel in a nutshell.

You know, as we hear R.C. Sproul talk about this parable, many of us are thinking of friends or loved ones who may have wandered from the faith. It's been such a helpful reminder today to keep talking to them about the grace and the forgiveness of our loving Heavenly Father. We've been studying the parables of Jesus this week on Renewing Your Mind, and Dr. Sproul has examined four of them, but this series actually considers 11 of Jesus' parables, and we'd love to send it to you on a two-DVD set and unlock the series and study guide in the free Ligonier app. Simply donate today at renewingyourmind.org or by calling us at 800 435 4343, and this series will be yours as our way of saying thank you. Plus, we'll also send you Dr. Sproul's title, What Do Jesus' Parables Mean? So that's a book, a teaching series, and digital access when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes.

But don't delay, as this offer ends tonight at midnight, so only hours remain. And know that your support is fueling the significant global reach of Renewing Your Mind and Ligonier Ministries, helping put Gospel teaching in front of wandering Christians and those who have never heard the Gospel message and the call to repentance. Thank you. I suspect you're like me and would love to see growth in your prayer life. So be sure to join us next week as we spend time studying the Lord's Prayer with R.C. Sproul. That's beginning Monday here on Renewing Your Mind. .