Sermon 120

📖 Sermon 120 – The Prodigal Son (Part 1)

Date: [no date given]
Text: Luke 15:11–16

Introduction

This most beloved parable begins with the younger son’s departure. Jesus shows the downward course of sin — from self-will to separation, from wastefulness to want, from want to deepest misery. It is the story of every soul that wanders from God.

I. The Demand of the Younger Son

A. “Father, give me…”
Self at the center — not God. He wants the father’s gifts without the father’s rule.

B. A bold, disrespectful claim
The inheritance was normally given at death. Sin demands independence prematurely.

C. The father grants the request
A solemn picture of God permitting sinners to follow their chosen path.

II. The Departure into the Far Country

A. “Not many days after…”
Once the heart turns from God, the feet soon follow.

B. “A far country”
Distance from God — not measured in miles, but in alienation of heart.

C. The illusion of freedom
He who rejects God becomes the slave of sin.

III. The Waste of a Life Apart from God

A. “He wasted his substance…”
Sin squanders time, gifts, mind, body, and soul.

B. “With riotous living”
Pleasure blinds until consequences arrive.

C. Divine providence intervenes
A famine arises — God awakens the sinner by outward need.

IV. The Depth of His Misery

A. He began to be in want
Sin promises happiness and ends in hunger.

B. He joins himself to a citizen of that country
The sinner clings to anything when he has turned from God.

C. Feeding swine
For a Jew, the deepest humiliation.

D. “He would fain have filled his belly…”
Sin leaves the soul empty, desperate, starving.

Conclusion

This is the first half of the parable — the story of a willful departure and the misery that follows sin. But mercy is on the horizon. The next portion reveals the first stirrings of repentance and the Father’s longing heart.