Introduction
Review of the 3 parables. All the tax collectors and sinners went to Jesus. Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
1 – Christ is persuading sinners to come to Him.
It means to repent and believe. We are all sinners though we were dead we were made alive in Christ.
Luke 15:17 (NKJV) “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!
Does not teach works. It is foolish to take this to mean man in his lost state must find himself that he is even able to do so.
John 6:44 (NKJV) “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:45 (NKJV) “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” – I Corinthians 2:14 NKJV
All the work of God.
Romans 8:7-8 (NKJV) 7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
So in the parable if he came to himself it would have been by the Spirit.
Through the 3 part parable the value increases.
Ephesians 1:5-6 (NKJV) 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Luke 15:10 – God is rejoicing. Luke 15:32 – God rejoices. We should rejoice too. The heavenly Father is a loving Father. God hurts for His lost people.
2 – Christ is persuading the self righteous and religious.
They are lost too. The pharisees are the one who don’t think they need repentance. That they on their own right before God. When Jesus said I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Mat 5:20 – Jesus in a sense is being sarcastic in saying unless your righteousness exceeds the pharisees.
We all fell in Adam. The Christian must say it is ONLY Jesus. Not anything we’ve done.
The younger son represents sinners and tax collectors. The older son represents the pharisees. A broader application that this would have to do with Jews and Gentiles. The younger son represents the gentiles. The older son represents the nation of Israel. Jewish nation and Gentiles are brothers. The Jewish nation should not have been angry that the Lord came to save the Gentile nation.
3 – Christians ought to get along with all the saved.
God chose a nation out of the nations.
Deuteronomy 9:4 (NKJV) “Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land’; but [it is] because of the wickedness of these nations [that] the LORD is driving them out from before you.
Acts 13:46 (NKJV) Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
The gentiles needed to hear this.
Acts 13:50 (NKJV) But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.
The Jews were angry at this and stirred up trouble as a result. But Jews and Gentiles are being saved by Christ. Even Peter and Barnabas were led astray. Paul rebuked Peter to his face.
We must be united and welcome those who repent. If we really are the Fathers son then we will act like he acts and rejoice when the Lord saves the lost. Christ ate with sinners and rejoiced when they repented. Christ is the good shepherd sent from God because of His love.