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THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS
March, 1936
ther, and of the realization that it was sin against heaven as well as against his father. 3. The recognition o f his father’s au thority (v. 19). Requesting to be made one of the hired servants, the son showed his willingness to be placed wholly under the authority and direction of his father. 4. The response o f his will (v. 20). The son “arose, and came to his father.” This is the point at which difficulty is en countered in getting wandering souls back to God. The heart desires to return, the conscience says “ought,” but the will does not lead to action. Unless the will moves one to act, everything else is o f no avail. “ And he arose, and came to his father” —there was repentance, return, and res toration. III. T h e R eception by t h e F a t h e r ,(20-24). 1. It was tender and compassionate (v. 20 ). As we read this story, we feel instinc tively that the father’s heart had been ach ing ever since the young man went away. The father needed no reconciliation; it was the _son who needed that. And God, too, needs no reconciliation, but He is waiting for man’s return. And because God is what He is, He permits the bitter ness that brings man to a sense o f need and to a resolve to leave the far country and return to the Father and home. 2. It was gracious (vs. 21, 22). The son thought he would dictate just what place he should occupy in the home. He would be one o f the hired servants. This might sound like humility, but hav ing relinquished every claim to any place in the father’s household, the son must either go without anything, or else take what the father was pleased to give as a matter of sovereign grace. And the fa ther would be satisfied to give nothing short of the highest place—the son’s place —to the one who had returned. In order to fit the son for that place, the father pro vided all suitable equipment. 3. It was joyous (vs. 23, 24). The son was glad, the servants were glad, the friends were glad, and best of all the father was glad, because, he said, “This my son was dead, and is alive again. . . . And they began to be merry.” Joy crowns the end o f the way for the sinner as well as for the returning backslider, when either one comes to the Father. The first two verses of Luke IS should be read as an introduction to the lesson, for they provide and explain the occasion of all that the Lord taught in the entire chapter. “ Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth BLACKBOARD LESSON Points and Problems 1.
sinners, and eateth with them.” Against this Pharisaical fault-finding, our Lord replies with a threefold parable: the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. (The last seems to have been an actual occurrence. See “a certain man,” men tioned in verse 11.) Each one of these literary gems extends hope to repentant “publicans and sinners,” but a sound re buke to murmuring “ Pharisees.” 2. The term "sinners” in the above pas sage does not refer to sin in general, but has a Jewish technical reference. The word was in common usage among the Jews, especially the Pharisees, in designating those particular Jews who did not observe the ceremonial requirements of the Law. “Publicans” was a term applied con temptuously to those renegade Jews who worked for the hated Roman government in the collection o f taxes. Obviously, both these classes would be despised by all pa triotic Jews who were zealous for the Law.* 3. Now it is very clear in the story of the Two Sons that the prodigal repre sents the “publicans and sinners,” while the “ elder son” represents the “ Pharisees and scribes.” Too much attention, I think, has been paid to the sin o f the younger son, and not enough to the sin o f the elder son. I have heard many sermons on the Prodigal Son, but none at all on the Son Who Stayed at Home. Yet consider his record: He is “ angry” at the grace shown his brother (v. 28). He displays a hard and unforgiving spirit, will not even “go in” to greet the reclaimed prodigal (v. 28). He is full o f self-righteousness, claiming that he himself had never trans gressed a commandment (v. 29). Cer tainly, in the sight o f God, this elder brother is worse than the younger, bad as the latter was. Our Lord was always on the side o f the “publicans” rather than of the Pharisees. If we miss this, we miss the main point o f the story. Only grace can save either of them. Golden Text Illustration God is described in the Word as One who “pitieth his children.” The expression seems to carry with it more than the thought of tender love; it also implies pa tient, faithful teaching of the son on the part o f the Father—sympathy in action. The value of a father’s instruction of his son is illustrated by an item published in the Sunday School Times: In the biography of Marion Lawrence, by his son, Harold G. Lawrence, this inci dent is given: “ He [Marion] told what his father used to say to him when he was helping to plow corn. Up and down the rows they would go, and his father would always say, ‘One row more, and then------ .’ The boy thought ‘then’ meant to stop and rest, but the father continued, ‘Then the next row !’ ” And it was from “the next row”—always one more, always yet more to do—that Marion Lawrence learned how to do the present tasks gladly, not for the sake of the end o f the furrow, but thank ful for that which awaited him day by day. How good is our heavenly Father in providing “next rows” for us 1 A Boy’s Good Father L u k e 15:11-24 Memory Verse: “Like as a father pit ieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him” (Psa. 103:13). Approach: In our story today, we are going back to where we stopped two weeks ago. You remember that we talked about how Jesus spent the Sabbath day. After
He healed the sick man, He told stories to the people. He told stories about a feast and about a wedding and about a man building a tower. He told sto ries about a l o s t sheep, a lost silver piece, and about a lost son. Jesus had something ip each
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one of these stories that would help His followers to understand how God cares for people and what He expects them to do. The story that we are going to tell today is the one about the lost son. Lesson Story: It is the story about the young man who was tired of living at home. He wanted to see the world. He said something like this to his father: “Give me the money that will be mine when you divide what you have with my older brother and me.” So the father gave him his portion. Not long afterwards the son gathered all o f his things together and left his father’s home. I’m not sure that he even bothered to say good-bye to his father. At first he had a very good time. He enjoyed doing what he pleased. But he wasn’t very wise in the things that he chose to do. He wasted his money, and soon it was all gone. Next, there was a famine in the land, and he had no food and no money to buy food, and he began to be hungry. He looked about for work, but that was hard to find. At last a man sent him into the country to feed pigs. By this time, he was so hungry that he felt like eating the husks thrown out to the pigs. Then it was that he began to think of how foolish he had been. And he was sorry. Then he did just the thing that is right to do when you have done wrong and are feeling ashamed. He went back to his father and told him that he was sorry. You know the end o f the story—how the father saw his son coming and ran to meet him and listened as he told how sorry he was, and then had a feast pre pared for his returned son. Do you know what Jesus wanted his followers to understand when He told them this story? Do you know who Jesus meant the father and the son were? Objects: Six English walnuts, two pa per sacks, and a hammer. (One sack should be fancy and the other plain. Open the nuts carefully with a knife, removing the meats. Leave one empty, and fill the remaining five respectively with rags, corn husks1—the wrapping from a tamale will do—a small white silk robe, a gold band ring, and a piece of bread. Number the nuts consecutively with a lead pencil. Glue the shells back together, placing the first three in the fancy bag, and the last three in the plain bag.) Lesson: If you could choose, which o f these two bags would you take? Yes, you are just as foolish as the prodigal son was. He thought he would get much more out o f life if he left his father’s home and went into a far country. What did he receive? We will open this sack and see. Three walnuts I Let’s crack this one and see what we find. Rags 1 The prodigal did not realize that poverty and rags were in the sack o f sin when he chose it. Object Lesson C r a c k in g N u ts
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