New Testament 2
Lecture 16 
The Prodigal Son
Luke 15:11-32
Three Point Parables
•	Jesus stories often had three main characters in them.  Usually there was one authority figure (____________________________?  , ____________________________?  , master or____________________________?  ) and other subordinates, who exhibit contrasting behaviors.
A Model Diagram of the Prodigal Son
The Parable’s Teaching
•	We will look at the Younger ____________________________?  (The Prodigal) and the Father; The the Older Son. The Father will have to be studied in the Parables Elective that I teach.
The Younger (Prodigal) Son
•	It becomes clear quickly that this son is a ____________________________?  to the core.  It would be unthinkable for a son to ask for his inheritance in the 1st century.  This is paramount to saying to one’s father, “I wish you were dead so I could have what was coming to me.”  Without question, this son is like the son mentioned in Deut 21:20. What should have happened to him?
The Reality of the Situation
•	Is that this rebel son liquidates one third of the father’s estate and flees with them. He totally turns his back on his father and all of his father’s protection and love.  He demands his independence from his father and the father grants this to him.  He goes to live his own life in his own way.  He wants to direct his life. So now he is ____________________________?  of the father. Or is he? Whose money is he wasting even now?
This Younger Son
•	Lives the life of a playboy until his money runs out.  Like many run away boys he has lost his support base in the home relationship of his family. He is unskilled to make a living or to take care of himself.  He has no training.  And to make things even more miserable: a ____________________________?  comes into the land. Not just any famine, an ordinary famine, but a GREAT famine.
Famines in Israel
•	Are somewhat common.  ____________________________?  is a valuable resource and some areas can be irrigated, but most didn’t have the sources to use irrigation in the first century. 
Back to the Boy
•	What will he do?  He will continue to declare his independence from his father and will set out to save himself from shame, disgrace, and from death.  So what does he do? He finds a Gentile pig farmer and manages to get a job feeding the____________________________?  . Can you see the picture? The man with land has plenty to eat, but the rebel can only plead for mercy and help from someone gracious. 
A Lesson to Consider:
•	Imagine this: there is plenty of food for the Gentile’s pigs, but there is no food worthy for the son of Abraham! But the son of Abraham is tempted to eat with the pigs.  How it is true with those of us who claim the name of Christ. We often are ____________________________?  to forget who we are in Christ and settle to eat and live in the world’s pig pens.  
Another Lesson to Consider
•	The prodigal son, being a Jewish boy, was working for a Gentile, who was showing him some level of mercy by letting him work for him. But the Gentile was not taking adequate care of this son of Abraham. The son of Abraham was despised and not wanted by this Gentile pig herder.  Should this surprise us? It was more important to feed the ____________________________?  than to feed the son of____________________________?  . 
The Son’s Realization
•	He comes to himself when he lets his mind wander back home to his father.  He sees and acknowledges his ____________________________?  and____________________________?  .  He came to himself is a Jewish idiom meaning that the rebel repented of his independence from the father.  He was willing to return to the father.  He was deeply ashamed and willing to pay whatever price was needed to be back into the father’s house, not as a son, he had denied that himself, but as a servant. Why willing to be a servant? He knew the grace and mercy of his father for their slaves. He knew his father’s reputation and nature as loving.
Notice the Comparison
•	Between the rebel ____________________________?  and the father’s ____________________________?  in the father’s home.
•	They have bread to eat. Bread refers to all a person needs to live life.  It is the total physical needs of life are being met. But what about the rebel son? He is dying! He is doing without!  His physical needs are not being met.  The wages of sin is what?
•	The gift of the Father is what? Which do you want?
The Rebel Son’s Return
•	He returned to the father. Before his return, he was considered dead.  What does Ephesians 2: 1 and 5 say about rebels? They are dead in their trespasses and sins.  The boy was lost. He was outside the father’s house. He was outside the father’s ____________________________?  and care and love. He was outside the father’s ____________________________?  and protection. He was outside every good thing the father had ____________________________?  and intended for him.  But his return reverses these things.
The Rebel Son 
•	 had broken the commandments without question. But his greatest sin was the broken ____________________________?  with the father. He had been given to the father for fellowship with the father.  This one, single broken relationship is the cause and substance for all of his other wrongdoings in his life.  This rebel son must go home and set things right with the father!  If his life is to be anything like the father intended, he must make his way back to his father.  He must make whatever restitution that is possible.
Now The Father’s Side
•	This parable shows a father who was apparently helpless to keep his son from rebelling against his love or a father who knew that real love has to have the potential to be rejected.  This seems to show that God was willing to allow men the ____________________________?  to reject his love and care.  The Father was willing to let his created “sons” go off their own ways and to declare independence.  
This Father
•	Was willing to let his son act as if he was really____________________________?  . The son was free to go and act as if the father did not exist.  The father was willing to let his son make mistakes and learn hard lessons because he so loved him.  But notice, it is the son who left the father and not the father who leaves or disowns the son.  It is the father who continues to love the rebel ____________________________?  of what the son has done.  
This Father
•	Is willing to let his son return after the son has found the end of his ____________________________?  and ____________________________?  only led to failure, separations and death.  This father loved the son even while he was a sinner and rebel.  This father is willing to welcome home the rebel to his home again after repentance by the rebel.  The rebel must acknowledge his independence was nothing more than a path to death.  
The Father’s Home
•	Is the place of____________________________?  . It ist he place where the son belongs. It implies a common goal or aim.  We speak of the House of Representatives or a publishing house. These mean that those who belong have some things in common.  The father and this rebel son have a restored mutual relationship in common.
The Father’s Orders
•	He orders the son receive the robe of ____________________________?  again.  This is to be wrapped around him. He has been accepted by the father and is to be accepted by the other family members.  He receives the family ring. This shows that he has the full authority of the father behind him and that he is a genuine son of the father.  
One more order of the Father
•	Is the killing of the fatted calf and the eating of the meal.  A meal in the first century world always included three things: the proper ____________________________?  place around the table, proper or ____________________________?  food, and a ____________________________?  time.  So the food is ready and the meal is presented. The father is the host, and the rebel son, now returned, is the guest of honor. He would be on the father’s left side as the right side would be reserved for the oldest son. But even this left side signifies full acceptance by the father and is a place of great honor.
 The Father’s Grace and Mercy
•	Is seen in this parable.  When we ____________________________?  and ____________________________?  to the Father he welcomes us into his House (Jn 14:1-2), he puts the robe of righteousness around our shoulders (   ) and we are seated at the left side of the Father. The Right side is already occupied by the only begotton (older) Son, Jesus (Acts 7;   ).
A Lesson to Learn From A Jewish Parable:
•	To what may Israel be compared? To the son of a man who said to his father, I intend to depart into the far country by way of the sea.” The father warned, “But the time for sailors to ship out for sea has already passed!” He was vehement about the matter and argued, “You must understand that if you go to sea now, you face certain destruction! In the end your ship will be wrecked and all that you own will be lost. Listen I am telling you that if you disobey my word and insist on going to sea, all these things will happen to you.”
The Parable Continued:
•	“which I have warned you about.  However even if the ship is wrecked, you lose everything in it and all your personal belongings are swept away and only you yourself are delivered, remember one thing: Do not be ashamed to return to me. Do not say, How can I have the effrontery to return to the father.” Now I am telling you, even if you disobey and all these terrible things happen to you…you must never be ashamed to return to me and I will surely receive you.”