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March 24, 2022 - Jim Bakker Show
06:50
Parable of the Prodigal Son | Timothy Alberino on The Jim Bakker Show
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Time Text
Prodigal Son's Return 00:06:50
How does the parable of the prodigal son serve as an example of reuniting the family of God, Timothy?
The parable of the prodigal son, which is, of course, a parable that Jesus told in a series of parables.
And it begins in a family.
There's several different characters in this story, in this parable.
Obviously, the protagonist of the story is the prodigal son.
Now, it's important to get the context of the story, which is it's within the family.
There's a family.
There's a father, but there are two siblings.
There's an older sibling and there's a younger sibling.
And this is within the family of God, remember.
I mean, this is what the parable is about.
It's about the family of God.
And both of these siblings share the inheritance of the family.
They're co-inheritors of their father's estate.
And the younger sibling decides, we all know the story, decides that he wants his inheritance now.
He wants his father to give him his inheritance so that he can take it and go and live it up in the world and spend his inheritance.
And so the father agrees to do this.
He gives him his inheritance.
And the son leaves the father's house, the prodigal son, the younger son, he leaves the father's house and he goes and he spends his inheritance on wild living, as the Bible puts it.
And long story short, he becomes destitute and he becomes indentured to a swineherd.
So he spends all of his money on wild living.
He becomes indentured to a swineherd.
Now, the swineherd is an archetype of Satan.
And by the way, the prodigal son is an archetype of Adam.
So when you think of the prodigal son, you think of Adam and us, all of us, his offspring, who were once part of the family of God, but then went and squandered our inheritance, and we became indentured to Satan, to the swineherd.
And that's being indentured to the swineherd through sin.
And he, you know, there was a famine in the land and he was hungry and the swineherd had him keeping the pigs, feeding the pigs, and he was so hungry that he desired to eat the slop of the pigs.
And he came to his senses.
So he came to his senses and he recognized his depravity.
He recognized his condition that he was in this miserable condition.
And he remembered that even the servants in his father's house live much better than he is now living, indentured to the swineherd, eating the slop of pigs.
And so he decided that he was going to go back to his father and ask for forgiveness and ask to be brought back in to the father's house, even as just a lowly servant.
So he wasn't even expecting to be brought back in as a son because he had squandered his inheritance.
He wasn't worthy to be called a son anymore.
He was going to go back and he was going to beg his father for forgiveness just to be received back as a lowly servant.
And so this is what he did.
And so the prodigal son is on his way home, probably expecting his father to be very upset with him, to be very angry with him for having blown his inheritance.
But as he's approaching the father's house, the father is at the door waiting for his son.
And this testifies to the mercy and long suffering and loving kindness of the father.
He's waiting for his son to come back.
And when he sees his son from afar approaching, the father runs out to meet him.
And rather than being angry and displeased with his son, he embraces him and he kisses his neck.
And the son is shocked.
The prodigal son is shocked to find that his father is embracing him in this manner and is not angry with him.
And his father says to his servants, quick, quick, bring new clothes, new robes, put new sandals on his feet.
And this is, of course, a depiction of the resurrection, the righteousness of Christ.
And, you know, the father, the prodigal son repents when he, after being embraced by his father, he repents and he says, Father, I've sinned against you, and I'm no longer to be worthy to be called your son.
Please just receive me back as a lowly servant.
And the father, that's when the father tells his servants to bring new garments and to shod his feet with new sandals.
And his father brings him back into the family, and he has a feast for him.
And they slaughter a calf and the fatted calf, and they have a feast and there's dancing and there's music.
And the son, and by the way, the father puts a ring on his son's finger.
And that's indicative of being brought back into the royal family, brought back into the father's family.
He's not being reinstated into the family as a lowly servant, you know, as he had asked.
Instead, he's being reinstated as a full-fledged son of God again.
But then the interesting thing, one of the interesting things about this story is that the older brother, the older sibling, the elder sibling, here's the feast and the music and the dancing.
And he asked one of the servants, hey, what's going on?
Because he was out in the field and he's coming, drawing near to the house.
And he asks the servants, what's going on?
Why is there music?
What's going on in the house?
And the servant says, Your brother has come home.
And so your father has thrown a feast for him.
And the older brother was upset because he told his father, he said, I've been with you this whole time and you never threw a feast for me.
But here, my younger brother goes and he blows it his inheritance.
And now you're bringing him back and you slaughter a fatted calf for him and you're celebrating.
And the father's reply is the heart of the gospel to his older son.
He says, We're doing this because this brother of yours was lost and now he is found.
This is the heart of the gospel.
It's about, remember, the prodigal son is us.
It's Adam.
He was a son of God and he wasn't the only son of God.
He had an older sibling in the father's house.
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