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Podigal Son - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Define Mercy.
      - Define Grace.
  - - - What did the son deserve? (the disdain and the wrath of his father)
        
        Instead, his father has compassion on him causing the father to run towards his son.
        
        Ask if someone who knows Latin can break down the meaning of compassion.
        
        The father is willing to suffer with his son in order to alleviate his boy’s suffering.
        
        How does the father suffer? (think context of the times)
        
        First, men did not run unless in battle. Little kids run, not men.
        
        Second, in order to run, a man would have to pull up his robe. A man never showed his legs.
        
        Third, respect and submission to parents was paramount. The community would be furious with this father thinking that the grace he is offering will undermine that principle. By hiking up his robe to run after his son to restore him instead of killing him, this father’s reputation is going to take a massive hit.
        
        His son had already made him look like a fool once in the community, and now he is willing to suffer by looking like a fool again.
    - - The son deserved to be stoned to death. It would have been considered an act of immense grace if the father had only given him the cold shoulder and allowed the son to grovel at his feet before rejecting him.
        
        Instead, the father embraces and kisses his son.
        
        What emotions do you think the son must have been experiencing at that moment and why? (relief, love, etc)
  - - - We deserved Hell with all of its torment, agony, and suffering. We deserved to spend eternity apart from this wonderful God.
        
        We don’t deserve to spend eternity in a perfect relationship with God, in a perfect paradise, with perfect bodies. We don’t deserve it, and yet that is what God gives us because Jesus paid for the gift on the cross.
  - - - What symbolic acts of reinstatement to the family do you see in this verse?
        
        The clothes (were given to him are a sign that he will be provided for)
        
        The ring (not only is a mark of belonging, but it is a symbol of inherited authority. This means when the father dies, he will receive an inheritance all over again. That is amazing grace (getting what you don’t deserve)!
  - - - Again, what would we expect the Father's reaction to be to the rebellious son's return?
        
        You would expect the father to be angered at the sight of this son who has embarrassed him so greatly. Instead, he throws a party and invites guests, proving he wants everyone to know that his son has returned and he has accepted him.
        
        He even kills a fattened calf. I would expect the father to say “you know you squandered a ton of my wealth. It is about time you make yourself useful and get to work and get me back some of my wealth. But he doesn’t give him what he deserves. Instead, he kills the fattened calf. This is a genuine display of sacrificing even more wealth over the son, a stark contrast from demanding the son earn all the previous lost wealth back.
      - Scripture makes it very clear that there is great rejoicing in Heaven by all over the repentance, the coming home, of a sinner (v7). Heaven currently is rejoicing over each person coming into God’s Kingdom today, and when God’s Kingdom is established in its entirety, there will be eternal rejoicing over God and the new family He has created.
- - - - Yes. They will point to their morality and works.
    - - They look down on them with disdain. They are full of pride and think much more highly of themselves and are entitled.
  - - - 1. What was the father’s response to his son coming back safe and sound?
        
        2. Why did he respond this way?
        
        3. What was the older son's response to this news?
        
        4. Why does he respond that way?
        
        He doesn't love his brother or his father! He does not share in the excitement of the father over his once missing brother now being found. The older brother is demonstrating by his actions that he would prefer for his brother to be lost. In fact, in verse 30, he won’t even identify with his brother. He says “your son” as opposed to “my brother.”
        
        In churches all across our country this very same thing takes place. There are religious people who don’t want lost brothers and sisters returning home (aka coming into “their” church). They want “their” church to remain a social club of their peers, and they don’t want outsiders (especially those with morally questionable pasts) coming in and messing things up.
        
        We have to ask ourselves, do we get in the mind-set that this is “our” church or youth ministry, instead of rightly viewing it as God’s church and youth ministry? If we think incorrectly that it belongs to us, we will likely end up like the older brother.
  - - - In his anger over the situation, he explains that he has been treated unfairly. What is his reasoning?
        
        He has been obedient to the father.
        
        But WHY was he obedient to his father?
        
        :explode:Not because he loves the father and wants to please him, but because he wants to get/earn the father’s stuff. :explode:
        
        “I never disobeyed your command, yet you never game me a young goat.”
        
        His selfishness caused him to miss the obvious. Someone read v31.
        
        1 more item...
  - - - He points to everything his youngest brother has done and claims that he has not earned any of these gifts.
      - On the other hand, he has just finished telling the father how good he has been, and how he does deserve the gifts of the father.
      - What the oldest son fails to realize is that his father is the one who owns everything, and he can do with his property what he wants. He does not have to answer to his son on how he handles his own property.
        
        Read Job 41:11 and Romans 11:34-36
        
        :explode:The father gives to both of his sons, not according to a performance based system, but because he loves them. :explode:
- - - - You didn't ever expect to see your sibling again after he or she ran off with your family's money. But...Imagine they come back home empty handed. What's your reaction to them showing up looking to your mom and dad to take care of them again?
  - - - What are the first two parables that come before the prodigal son about?
        
        What do you think these 2 stories have to do with verse 1?
- - - - This parable is intended to be a wakeup call to them.
        
        To the sinner in the audience, Jesus gives them a character who be the end of the story has been redeemed
        
        To the Pharisee in the story, Jesus gives them a character whose condition is left unresolved.
        
        Why do you think he does that?
        
        He wants those religious people to understand they need to repent of their sins just as much as their fellow sinners have in order to be made right with God the Father.
  - - - I would like to propose to you that it would look like the Gospel.
        
        Jesus is who all of us, people represented by the younger son in this story who ran away from God, need the oldest son to be.
        
        Jesus loves his Father, and takes delight in what the Father takes delight in.
        
        Instead of staying at home as the oldest son in this parable did, Jesus left his place in Heaven to go to the land where His lost family was. He was born into this world. And even though you and I had done incalculable wrong to Him, He still decided to pay our ransom.
        
        The Son, Jesus Christ, laid his life down, so that we, the lost younger sons and daughters, might be brought back to the Father for Him to rejoice over
        
        And when the mission was accomplished, Jesus did not sulk over our return, but He rejoices for us and allows all that belongs to Him to be given to us as well.
        
        2 more items...
- - - - Evidenced by his demand to receive the inheritance now.
      - :explode: He doesn’t want the father, he wants freedom from the father :explode:
        
        There are a lot of people who think that what stands in between them and enjoying life is God.
        
        Why do you think that is?
        
        Because our hearts are sinful, and what we desire is in opposition to the will of God. The unregenerate person knows this, and wants to flee from him.
        
        John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
        
        This is proved by the fact that as soon as he get the money from his father, he immediately moves far away.
    - - The text tells us that he squandered and used up all of his father's wealth.
        
        Yet he still was not humbled enough to admit his mistakes and repent.
        
        A famine strikes and he hires himself out to a pig farmer.
        
        What do y'all know about Jews and pigs?
        
        Finally, he he sees that he has it worse than the pigs, he awakens, and is ready for repentance!
        
        You know life has taken a wrong turn when you are hungering for the slop pigs eat. That would be like us being jealous over our dog’s Kibble and Bits! :smiley:
        
        Sometimes it takes a hard fall for somebody to wake up.
        
        If you are running from the Father this morning, and you are finding yourself getting close to the end of your rope, perhaps in God's loving kindness he is in the process of waking you up. My prayer is that you will have the humility to turn back to him.
        
        This repentance allows him to see how good he had it, and how badly he screwed it all up.
        
        The hired workers who are working for his father are living like kings compared to his current estate. His father provided them with more food than they could eat. And yet, he was a son to the father. How much better did he have it than even them when he was at home!?
        
        So let's think about how we got to this point. At the beginning of this story the son thought that he wanted what? (Freedom from the Father in order to enjoy life)
        
        :explode: He has learned the vital lesson that all sinners need to understand. The dream of being independent was far less glorious than the life of being dependent upon his Father even as a hired worker. :explode:
        
        John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
        
        In your own words, how would you try to explain to a friend how living a life dependent upon God leads to an abundant life? You can even use your life as an example by sharing what your life would look like if you were trying to do it all exactly the same without him.
        
        He can now look back and see that the moment he left his dependency upon his father, his situation immediately became dire.
        
        How did Adam and Eve learn this very same lesson? (one more point before going to the Father)
    - - He isn’t going to simply tell his dad he is sorry and ask for bygones to be bygones. What is he going to do? (He is going to grovel to his father, and tell him what an idiot he has been, and then ask him to be gracious enough to allow him to be like one of his hired workers.)
        
        He correctly understands his place. He doesn’t deserve to be a son. His rights to the father are completely non-existent. Being a hired worker in his mind is, at best, the greatest thing he could ask for.
        
        This new found humility and repentance allows him to have a paradigm shift.
        
        :explode: Instead of being someone who only wanted to father’s stuff, he now becomes someone who longs to be with such a good father. :explode:
- - - - After the oldest son refuses to come out most of us would think that the father should let him stay out and miss out on all of the incredible food, entertainment, and socializing. If he is going to be an ungrateful baby, let him do so by himself.
        
        After the father shows him this grace and mercy, this wonderful young man responds by snapping at him about how faithful he has been to father in obedience and how unfair the father has been to him in rewarding him.
        
        Yet the father doesn’t treat him as he deserves, he gives him mercy. The grace the father shows him is by leaving the celebration as the host, when he could have easily sent a servant, and personally invite his son in.
        
        I don’t have much toleration for behavior like this. If I am the father, this is the point where I begin to chew my son out. Yet, by this time in the story, it’s no surprise that this father extends mercy and grace again.
        
        He reminds the son that everything that belongs to him has been available to the son. The oldest ate choice food with the father, he slept comfortably, and he enjoyed the entertainment the father provided. In addition to this gentle reminder, he asks the son to consider how he never had to go through the hardships the youngest son did, and so he should be thankful for how privileged he has been over his younger brother in that regard.
        
        The problem is that the oldest son doesn’t deeply love his father. Being with the father, without ever having to experience separation, isn’t really seen by the oldest as any great reward. This is the tragedy.
  - - - :explode:The truth is that the religious are just as rebellious in their heart. Outwardly they might put on a front, but inwardly they don’t want the Father any more than the rebellious. :explode: