Believers can celebrate God’s restoring forgiveness. This is a Bible study teaching for “Celebrate” on Luke 15:20-32 from the “Explore the Bible” series from Lifeway.

parable of the lost

Today’s lesson is on Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke chapter 15. This is one of three parables in this chapter that illustrate the joy God has when people return to him. But we’re going to read the whole chapter so we can see who the message of the parable was directed towards.

The Parables of the Lost

Beginning in verse 1.

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
So in these two parables, Jesus uses an illustration of a relatively small thing, a sheep and a coin, but something that still has value, and asks his hearers to think about the joy they have when they find a lost thing.

which has more value

But while valuable, these are replaceable, inanimate objects. He asking the Pharisees to think about how precious those things are to them, and is highlighting how much more precious human beings are to God.

the parable of the prodigal son

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Then he goes on to the Parable of the Lost Son also known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.[b]’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

So there is quite a bit in this parable. The first is the younger son’s lack of appreciation for both his position and condition. Commentary points out that normally the son wouldn’t receive his inheritance until his father died and asking for his share was showing his total disregard for his father.

He was comfortable and complacent. He didn’t value what he had and thought he could do it on his own.

I think we’re often like that. We think we’re doing it all on our own and we don’t even recognize the blessing and favor of God in our lives. We take those blessings and go our own way.

I think it also illustrates the question, “Why evil? Why does God allow bad things to happen.” Well first, he created us as free will beings, and as such he gives us not only the honor of a choice but the respect to experience the results of those choices. He got himself into a position where he squandered all he had been given and was completely destitute.

helicopter parents

Could the father of the parable been a helicopter parent and sent more resources after the younger son? He could have, but the son would have stayed and persisted in his depravity for a longer period of time.

Instead, the father allowed the son to experience the absence of his care, and it was that that finally brought the son to not only a place where he repented of his actions but he had a desire for restoration.

And that is the end goal … restoration. God’s end game is eternity and if a trial today will result in our recognizing our need for God, he will allow that trial.

in despair

So the son repents and returns … and the Father “seeing him from a long way off” comes to meet him.

And that is the way God is, he is waiting for that change of heart and meets us in the instant. We are welcomed with open arms and there is a celebration.

But what about the older son? I think sometimes when we read this parable, we focus on solely on the prodigal and his restoration, but the reality is that both sons had heart issues.

The younger son was rebellious and was open about it. His relationship with his father was all about what he could get, he took it and he left.

older son in the parable of the prodigal son

And the older son was obedient, he did what he was supposed to do. He likely picked up the slack when his brother left. But then his brother returns and what happens?

He’s angry. Resentful. He begrudges the calf slaughtered for the celebration for his brother and he won’t go in to the feast.

He won’t go in.

So let’s first look at the older son in the story. He stayed and worked for his father, but really was his heart any different than the younger son’s? Commentators have noted that the younger son’s inheritance would have been a third and the older son’s inheritance two-thirds. What the older son was working for was building what he knew would be his own wealth.

He was with his father all this time and must have seen how grieved his was over his lost son. Going back to Genesis and the account of Joseph and his brothers, part of what brought about his brothers’ repentance was that they saw how it affected their father. Their primary concern when Joseph was testing them and threatening to keep Benjamin in Egypt was how it would affect their father Jacob. Judah offered himself as a slave instead rather than cause his father more pain.

But the son in Jesus’s parable has been with the Father all this time, has seen his grief. But what happens when his father gets his hearts desire and his son comes home?

He is angry. Bitter. Resentful.

He focuses on what HE didn’t get and probably saw that calf, this special calf, as his.

He had the outward show of obedience, but when it comes down to it, he doesn’t care any more about his father than his younger brother did. And he won’t go in to the feast. He didn’t want to participate in the celebration, he didn’t share his father’s joy.

Jesus and the Pharisees

This parable is usually used to highlight the importance of evangelism, but let’s not miss the other big part of the parable … it was a response to the Pharisees and teachers of religious law who were criticizing him for associating with the lost. They claimed to have the inside track on how to find God … Jesus was showing them just how far they themselves were from God. They are the older son in the story, and they won’t come in to the feast.

the second coming

Banquets and feasts make several appearances in Jesus’s parables. This feast is the marriage supper of the lamb that John sees in his vision.

Revelation 19

After this, I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting,
“Praise the Lord!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.
2 His judgments are true and just.
He has punished the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality.
He has avenged the murder of his servants.”
3 And again their voices rang out:
“Praise the Lord!
The smoke from that city ascends forever and ever!”
4 Then the twenty-four elders and the four living beings fell down and worshiped God, who was sitting on the throne. They cried out, “Amen! Praise the Lord!”
5 And from the throne came a voice that said,
“Praise our God,
all his servants,
all who fear him,
from the least to the greatest.”
6 Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:
“Praise the Lord!
For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
7 Let us be glad and rejoice,
and let us give honor to him.
For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb,
and his bride has prepared herself.
8 She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.”
For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”
This “vast crowd” at the wedding feast is the end game. And the Pharisees should have known this because this celebration, this coming together and restoration was not a new message.
Isaiah prophesied this in Isaiah 25
6 In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
will spread a wonderful feast
for all the people of the world.
It will be a delicious banquet
with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat.
7 There he will remove the cloud of gloom,
the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.
8 He will swallow up death forever!
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.
He will remove forever all insults and mockery
against his land and people.
The Lord has spoken!
9 In that day the people will proclaim,
“This is our God!
We trusted in him, and he saved us!
This is the Lord, in whom we trusted.
Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!”

Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings for all the people of the world. The end game is that celebration, but we have to choose to come. And both the older son and the Pharisees refused to come, they were close and thought they were there … but refuse to come because of their own pride, self righteousness, and hardness of heart.

The three parables show God’s love for and desire that the lost return to him. If our heart is really desiring after God, we have the same desires that he does.

time for a heart check

So where is our heart today? Do we desire what God desires or are we the older son?


This Bible lesson was originally taught by Carla Alvarez on March 14, 2021 in the Kingdom Citizen Bible study Class at the Second Baptist North campus in Kingwood, Texas.