About one third of the teaching of Jesus was in the form of parables. A parable is something that is “placed aside”. It is a story that is placed beside another to teach something. We discover in this chapter just how important lost things are to God. So many people today are running from the love of God.

1 – The person of this rebellion (vs. 11-12)

Notice two things:-

• His insistence (vs. 12). He demands his share of the estate. He wants his inheritance. There is no respect for his father. The inheritance would usually come at the father’s death. It was highly unusual and frowned upon for a younger son to demand his inheritance. When your own family rejects you it really, really hurts.
• His ingratitude (vs. 12) – We are not told that the father was anything other than loving and caring for his sons. Let ingratitude come into your heart and your life will go downhill. It is good to give thanks. The son was not grateful for what he had. We need to show gratitude to others and to God on a regular basis. God wants us to be grateful and thankful. Learn to be thankful. The young son would never have done this if he had been grateful. See Psalm 116:17 & Ephesians 5:20.

2 – The pride in this rebellion (vs. 12)

The priority of this boy’s life is himself. He says “me” many times. Pride is a weakness in all our lives. The younger son cared less about others. All he cared about was he. Here are five dangers of pride:-

• Pride provokes God – See Proverbs 16:5 & James 4:6. God hates pride. It was pride that caused the Devil to revolt. It was pride that brought the Devil down! Pride caused Eve to fall.
• Pride proves our depravity – See Proverbs 21:4. Pride is deep in our heart. Pride says that we don’t need the Lord. It can’t be removed – we are born with it.
• Pride will promote dissension – See Proverbs 13:10. It is pride that causes people to fight. Self needs to come off the throne.
• Pride will promote dishonour – See Proverbs 18:12. Pride wants honour but this is not what it gets. You will not get honour, you will be brought down. If you are humble you will get honour. See Matthew 23:12.
• Pride precedes destruction – See Proverbs 15:25. Pride will bring ruin to your life. Pride will bring eternal ruin. See Luke 18:12-14. Don’t hang around those who are full of pride. Remain with those who are humble. It is by the grace of God that we are here at all.

3 – The provision for this rebellion (vs. 12)

The older boy got his inheritance. The younger son stepped on the love of his father. There are two things we can say about the provision.

• It was very generous – The father had some money to divide and had money when the younger son returned. This was a wealthy family. If the Daddy was broke the young son could not have received any inheritance. See Psalm 34:8. What are you doing with God’s inheritance? Are you squandering it like the young son? What are you doing with the goodness of God? The goodness of God ought to bring you to repentance. See Romans 2:4.
• It was gracious – The boy was getting what he did not deserve. This is grace. We can identify with this boy. We got what we did not deserve. Are you running from the grace of God? Stop running and let God’s grace catch up with you. Don’t be ruled by rebellion. God’s grace is amazing! No wonder we sing amazing grace. The best is yet to come. See Ephesians 3:20.

Categories: Luke