The Parables of 4 Lost Prodigals      Luke 15:1-32

The Third and Fourth Prodigals: the Two Lost Sons. (continued)

Luke 15:24 “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”

“For this my son was dead.”

Remember what Jesus said back in verse 11? He specifically said “A certain man had two sons.” They’re not dead sons, but living and breathing sons. They were alive in the beginning! They were alive in the middle! And they are alive now!

The question then here is this, is there any indication at all the younger son here died in the parable? And as we have already noted from verse 17; that the young prodigal son is not dead in any sense at all.

And so this then being true, in what sense is he now said to have been “dead?” The obvious answer (as we before indicated,) is that he was dead to the fellowship of his father, and his father’s house or his family. Therefore the father here is rejoicing because now the fellowship has been restored! Thus the father declares for everyone to hear:

“And is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”

As understood from verse 17, the young son could not have been dead spiritually. Remember that when “there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.” This famine that came in this young man’s life is a famine of a spiritual nature! In the natural realm dead people do not suffer in a famine, why? Because they are dead. And he began to be in want, and again dead people do not get hungry or thirsty. It’s not that complicated, if you’re dead your troubles in the world are over. The Apostle Paul highlights this truth in 1 Corinthians 2:14 saying that “the natural” or unregenerated or not born again “man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

This is not the new-birth; it is instead a wonderful picture of conversion, which as we said is to change direction in that a sinner turns away from the world to God. The repentant son had now returned home to his father’s house! He had behaved himself wickedly before, and even though he had judged himself as being unworthy of any relationship with his father, his father loved him all along! He loved him when he was in his home! He loved him when he wished his father was dead! He loved him when he left and travelled to a “far county!” He loved him when we he was feeding pigs in the pigsty! And he loved him when he saw him returning home again! And He loves him now in the presences the witnesses that are with him at the feast!

Here he takes notice of his sonship to him; he takes notice of his past condition, showing why he is now joyful: “he was dead, and now is alive; he was lost, and” now he “is found!”

We like the prodigal son we were all dead in Adam, but we have been “quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of his grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-7).

“And they began to be merry.”

Now everyone in the father’s house now celebrated the return of the lost son! Now understand that as we have said, Jesus isn’t talking a heaven here. We know this because in verse 11-13, and notice that Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”

In these verses where is the son in relation to his father? The answer is of course he is in his father’s house. Do you see the problem here? If the father’s house is heaven, then we have the son in heaven, and then sinning against his father and leaving heaven to go into sin in a “far country,” and then repenting and returning to heaven again.

There are very few things that can compare to the joy that we experience when we receive the forgiveness of God in our lives! What a great joy there is in knowing and feeling that we are welcomed with His arms of love and forgiveness. This is the picture that Jesus gives us within the parable of the prodigal son; his story is our story. The wonderful mercy that is expressed and given by the father as he sees his son return home again is beyond measure as he says “let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry!”

This is a day of celebration! The father has prepared a feast with joy and happiness to celebrate the return of his beloved son, and we too should celebrate the mercy and forgiveness of our heavenly Father in our lives today! How can we forget what God has delivered us from: a world of filth and darkness, from being prodigals sons to being honoured children once again? Remember the many days that we were lost and stranded in a “far country” of sin? But God received us again into His house!

Jesus told His disciples in John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” He’s not talking about preparing us a place in heaven, no, a thousand times no; heaven was prepared for us from before the foundation of the world! Jesus is leaving; He has left and prepared us a place in His Father’s house, in the church kingdom of heaven! It is here in our Father’s house that He receives us with a hug, a kiss, and a ring!

And as it was with the prodigal son as he confessed his sin saying “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son” (Luke 15:18), so we also, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

In Isaiah 55:1 the LORD cries out to “every one that thirsteth,” saying “come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Too such as have ears to hear this message He says in Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

I don’t know how you feel about this, but I can truly say that I am a great sinner, and not a day goes by that I sin against the Lord! And every time the Lord’s people gather again to worship I need to repent and return to my Father’s house! As I have to live everyday this the old wicked and dark world I begin to be hungered for the things of God, and the one and only place to feast on the grace and mercy of God is in our heavenly Father’s house, in the church of the Living God!

You see like the prodigal son it takes action on our part to get up and go home! We have to get up and go! We have to leave the old way of the flesh and go home to our Father. Let’s run home and experience the joy of forgiveness!

The father exhorts or strongly encourages or urges everyone in the house to be marry, why? Because “this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!” And everyone “began to be merry!”

And just to remind ourselves again, remember at no point in the parable was the son dead, we are still looking at a living son, he was not dead in a nature sense, but he was dead or separated from the fellowship of his father and his father’s house! Now he has repented and turned away from his sin and has returned once again to his father and his father’s house! He “was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!”

Again this is not a parable about being born again spiritually, but it is certainly a wonderful picture of conversion! Or to be changed in form, character, or function! Conversion is at the heart of receiving Christ! I personally have no problem with receiving Christ. But receiving Christ does not, nor can it ever cause the dead in trespasses and in sins to be born again. If someone receives Christ it is too late to be born again! The “natural man” or dead alien sinner cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Conversion is at the heart of entering into the church kingdom of Christ!

And while we’re on the subject receiving Christ let me say that it is receiving Christ will not make Him your personal Saviour. He is, and has always been the personal Saviour of all that were given to Him by His Father before the world began!

In the new birth God the Holy Ghost has given all those who are born again His nine-fold fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 which are “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,” and “temperance.” These are implanted unto us by the exercise of His grace to the objects of His love, to the elect or chosen of God in the covenant of redemption, and therefore it is our sacred duty (by God’s help) to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

As Jesus said in the parable of the prodigal sheep and the prodigal silver coin, there is “joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7, 10).

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