He was Dead and He has Revived

FROM: DECEMBER 10 @ 16, 2019

TOPIC: “He was Dead and He has Revived” Luke 15:11-32 God the Father is here presented as a man who had two sons. We will see what happens with each one of these sons. One of them left the house, moved away from his father and went far away, we know him as the prodigal son. The other stayed at home working with his father. Let us understand that the state of the sinner is of separation and distance from God. Sin is what separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). Just as the prodigal son went far away from THE HOUSE OF HIS FATHER, the sinner also goes far away from God, AS FAR AS HE CAN!

I. The PRODIGAL SON is the one who wastes his resources.

A. The prodigal son is full of desires, of disorder, lives lightly without reasoning, cares for no one and owes no one anything.

1. He’s tired of his father's house and decides to leave.

2. He was not going to wait for his father to die to leave.

3. He was so bound to his passions that they had led him to despair, to madness.

4. His mind was full of plans of the world, of the desires of the world; these were the things in his life that prompted him to ask his father for the share of the property that corresponded to him.

5. (Vs. 12) “…give me my part of the estate.”

6. It is supposed to be distributed in death, not before. What haughtiness!

7. He asks the father for those goods as if it were something that the father owes him.

8. Sometimes we want God's gifts as something that corresponds to us thinking that God owes them to us.

9. This son got tired of his father's house and decided to leave.

10. A son who leaves to spend everything good he has is A PRODIGAL SON.

11. When the son spends everything then he is able to understand and repent on his own.

12. In suffering there is pain and shame, and that produces THE EFFECT OF REPENTANCE.

13. The father distributed, handed each one their share ("...he divided his property between them.").

14. (Vs. 13) The youngest son left to a remote province and spent his money lavishly (in great excess) on sinful pleasures.

15. After he had spent all his money in the place where he was living, there was also a severe economic crisis and he began to lack his livelihood.

16. (Vs. 15) Then he worked taking care of pigs, a job that would have been most hated, it was something odious for a common Jew.

17. When THE PRODIGAL SON watched the pigs eating their carob beans, he envied them.

18. (Vs. 16) No one seemed willing to help him.

19. Others help us when they see that we are doing well in everything, but only the Father loves us as we are!

20. (Vs. 17) Hunger was going to make him reason that everything he had sought was futile.

21. He recalled that the laborers in his father's house were living much better than him.

22. He was starving and there would be plenty of food in his house!

23. He no longer observes things with ambition but looking at the truth, the reality; his fantasies were over and that made him react.

24. (Vs. 18) He moved to want to return to his father with great regret! No longer with THE PREVIOUS REQUIREMENTS, but recognizing his sin and seeking forgiveness!

25. (Vs. 19, 21) He realized that he was no longer WORTHY of being called SON of his father and decided to ask him for work as a laborer: (the prodigal son had already understood that what he had of his father shattered him without any care, now he knew that what was deserved was the work of a laborer, of a pawn, to work for a wage for the day of work).

26. (Vs. 20) The father's eyes waited for him all the time; and long before arriving at his house his father saw him and was moved to compassion and ran and threw his arms around him and kissed him!

27. (Vs. 22) IN HUMILITY AND REPENTANCE THE YOUNG MAN WAS READY FOR HARDER WORK, but the father did not allow it; instead he asked for the best clothing, the ring and new shoes.

28. (Vs. 23, 24) The father made a great banquet celebration, for the son who was lost had now arrived, he had returned!

29. (Vs. 25-28) The eldest son was upset thinking that the father's attitude was not fair.

30. (Vs. 29, 30) In this moment there is no room for the human's own justice!

31. What good is your justice when God's justice is manifested? (Vs. 31) The eldest son had always had the father's blessing!

32. But jealousy attacked him, envy attacked him!

33. (Vs. 32) Meanwhile, the restoration of his brother was occurring, of one who was lost! “...WAS DEAD AND IS ALIVE AGAIN...!”

34. Nowadays some believers do the same when they see that someone is forgiven and is elevated; they become jealous when God is delivering him and pulling him out of the evil he has been in!

35. We should rejoice when someone has been forgiven by the Father! Rejoice as the Father has rejoiced!

36. Rejoice with the one who comes to God repentant! Glory to God for His great love! Amen.