Synoptic Gospels Bible Study Lesson 8

Synoptic Gospels Bible Study Lesson 8 Questions

1.How does Luke 15:2 relate to the three parables that follow?

Luke 15:2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. The parable of the lost sheep is very applicable to the great work of man's redemption. The lost sheep represents the sinner as departed from God, and exposed to certain ruin if not brought back to him, yet not desirous to return. Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. In the parable of the lost piece of silver, that which is lost, is one piece, of small value compared with the rest. Yet the woman seeks diligently till she finds it. This represents the various means and methods God makes use of to bring lost souls home to himself, and the Saviour's joy on their return to him. How careful then should we be that our repentance is unto salvation. Three parables of the same import: for the sheep, the piece of silver, and the lost son, all declare (in direct contrariety to the Pharisees and scribes) in what manner God receiveth sinners.

2.What are the common elements of the three parables?

 The three parables of Luke 15 have to do with finding what was lost, the Parable of the Lost and Found Sheep, the Parable of the Lost and Found Drachma (Coin) and the Parable of the Lost and Found Son (commonly called the Prodigal Son). parables are told in response to criticism of Jesus for eating with sinners (15:1-2). The parables teach on God’s infinite love and mercy, rebuke Jesus’ critics and defend his actions. We are so important to God. The power of God’s desire for us breaks throughhuman barriers, such as those imposed by the Pharisees and scribes (15:2).

3.How does the statement "joy in heaven when a sinner repents" in first two parables relate to "prodigal son"?

Luke 15:1-7: “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Applying  Scripture, so to speak, the purpose of the Law was not to deliver “ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”.  Rather, the purpose of the Law was to “shut up everyone under sin”, to temporarily keep us “in custody”, and to be “our tutor to lead us to Christ”.  Again, applying Scripture, so to speak, the purpose of the Law was to corral the Lost Sheep until they could be picked up by the Good Shepherd. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” Instead of condemnation, there is rejoicing for a son who had been dead but now is alive, who once was lost but now is found.

4.Who is the father a picture of? Who is the young son a picture of?

Luke 15:11-24 says the story of prodigal son. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. That father represents the unsearchable grace of God, a grace that rejoices prodigally. This was true of the older son who worked hard, obeyed his father, and brought no disgrace to his family or townspeople. It is obvious by his words and actions, upon his brothers return, that he is not showing love for his father or brother. One of the duties of the eldest son would have included reconciliation between the father and his son. He would have been the host at the feast to celebrate his brother’s return. Yet he remains in the field instead of in the house where he should have been. This act alone would have brought public disgrace upon the father. Still, the father, with great patience, goes to his angry and hurting son. He does not rebuke him as his actions and disrespectful address of his father warrant (vs.29, “Look,” he says, instead of addressing him as “father” or “my lord”), nor does his compassion cease as he listens to his complaints and criticisms. The boy appeals to his father's righteousness by proudly proclaiming his own self-righteousness in comparison to his brother’s sinfulness .By saying, “This son of yours,” the older brother avoids acknowledging that the prodigal is his own brother (vs. 30). Just like the Pharisees, the older brother was defining sin by outward actions, not inward attitudes (Luke 18:9-14). In essence, the older brother is saying that he was the one worthy of the celebration, and his father had been ungrateful for all his work. Now the one who had squandered his wealth was getting what he, the older son, deserved. The father tenderly addresses his oldest as “my son” (vs. 31) and corrects the error in his thinking by referring to the prodigal son as “this brother of yours” (vs. 32). The father’s response, “We had to celebrate,” suggests that the elder brother should have joined in the celebration, as there seems to be a sense of urgency in not postponing the celebration of the brother’s return.

The older brother’s focus was on himself, and as a result there is no joy in his brother’s arrival home. He is so consumed with issues of justice and equity that he fails to see the value of his brother’s repentance and return. He fails to realize that “anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

5.How does the freedom granted to the young son relate to the freedom granted to Adam & Eve? when a repentant sinner “comes to his senses” and longs to return to the state of fellowship with God which was lost when Adam sinned (Genesis 3:8). God gave Adam and Eve the gift of moral agency 3—the freedom of choice--and God gave them laws pertaining to their unique situation. Two of those laws were:

“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” 4

Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 5

Laws have blessings and consequences.

The consequence for partaking of the forbidden fruit was physical death: “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Another consequence follows every broken law—spiritual death, which is the separation of man from God, because “no unclean thing can dwell with God. Satan would have us misuse our freedom of choice and sin, which always leads to misery, hardness of heart, spiritual blindness, and temporal and spiritual destruction, according to the captivity of the devil, 7 for certainly “the wages of sin are death.” If we misuse our freedom of choice and sin, we can repent and be forgiven and redeemed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The freedom of the prodigal son who spent his inheritance satisfying his own desires (Luke 15:11 32). This freedom ends in slavery, for there is nothing more insidious than the unrelenting struggle to satisfy our own desires.

6.In the parable look at the steps the young son goes through - relate them to the steps of repentance.

The parable begins with a young man, the younger of two sons, who asks his father to give him his share of the estate. The parable continues by describing how the younger son travels to a distant country and wastes all his money in wild living. When a famine strikes, he becomes desperately poor and is forced to take work as a swineherd. When he reaches the point of envying the pigs he is looking after, he finally comes to his senses:

But when he came to himself he said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.'"

He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.– Luke 15:17-20

The son does not even have time to finish his rehearsed speech, since the father calls for his servants to dress him in a fine robe, a ring, and sandals, and slaughter the "fattened calf" for a celebratory meal. The older son, who was at work in the fields, hears the sound of celebration, and is told about the return of his younger brother. He is not impressed, and becomes angry:

But he answered his father, "Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him."– Luke 15:29-30

The parable concludes with the father explaining that because the younger son had returned, in a sense, from the dead, celebration was necessary:

"But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found."– Luke 15:32 He had gone out and wasted his living in the things of this life. He was dead; now he was alive. He had come to himself, and returned unto his father’s house and into his father’s service. He was alive. He "was lost, and is found."
This parable teaches the true meaning of repentance, which is the first evidence of new birth. The Lord Jesus began by preaching the gospel of the kingdom saying, "Repent." The first word in the gospel is repent. The first sign, or the first evidence, of true spiritual life is repentance. First, there is a change of attitude. There’s a change of values.

7.What represents grace and what represents faith in the parable of the prodigal? Who is responsible for each?

Lord used the parable in response to the criticism, the two brothers represent the Pharisees and the sinners. In telling the story, Jesus identifies Himself with God in His loving attitude to the lost. The younger son symbolizes the lost (the tax collectors and sinners of that day, Luke 15:1), and the elder brother represents the self-righteous (the Pharisees and teachers of the law of that day, Luke 15:2). This prodigal son was satisfied to return home as a slave, but to his surprise and delight is restored back into the full privilege of being his father’s son. He had been transformed from a state of destitution to complete restoration. That is what God's grace does for a penitent sinner.

8.Did the father force the son to return? What was the father's response and relate to God's response when a sinner repents.

His earlier claim that “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 who don’t need to” (Luke 15:7), was obviously aimed at those same Pharisees, and the older brother’s behavior mirrors their self-righteous attitude toward the Lord’s dinner companions. Even in the midst of our very worst rebellion, we can’t stop being our Father’s children. Like the Prodigal son, we may yield up our privileges for a time but we can never lose our position in the family of God. Instead of rebuking his son, the father patiently grants him his request. This is a picture of God letting a sinner go his own way. The son begins to reflect on his condition and realizes that even his father's servants had it better than he. His painful circumstances help him to see his father in a new light and bring him hope. No Father did not force his son to return. He realizes he had no right to claim a blessing upon return to his father’s household, nor does he have anything to offer, except a life of service, in repentance of his previous actions. With that, he is prepared to fall at his father’s feet and hope for forgiveness and mercy. This is exactly what conversion is all about: ending a life of slavery to sin through confession to the Father and faith in Jesus Christ and becoming a slave to righteousness, offering one’s body as a living sacrifice. Jesus portrays the father as waiting for his son, perhaps daily searching the distant road, hoping for his appearance. The father notices him while he was still a long way off. The father’s compassion assumes some knowledge of the son’s pitiful state, possibly from reports sent home. When the father reaches his son, not only does he throw his arms around him, but he also greets him with a kiss of love. He is so filled with joy at his son’s return that he doesn’t even let him finish his confession. Nor does he question or lecture him; instead, he unconditionally forgives him and accepts him back into fellowship. The father running to his son, greeting him with a kiss and ordering the celebration is a picture of how our Heavenly Father feels towards sinners who repent. God greatly loves us, patiently waits for us to repent so he can show us His great mercy, because he does not want any to perish nor escape as though by the fire

9.How would you compare 2 Chron 7:14 to the parable of the prodigal? Who is responsible for what? God and man?

God promises to receive those who return with repentant hearts. As the father of the prodigal "ran to meet him," God always meets us at least half-way. We see in this prodigal son story the graciousness of the father overshadowing the sinfulness of the son, as it is the memory of the father’s goodness that brings the prodigal son to repentance. God is pleading with us to repent. He greatly desires that we turn to him. He is patiently waiting on us. Repentance is a change of heart and a change of mind. We must make up our mind to stop living life our way and start living it God's way. It is making up our mind that henceforth we are going to serve God with all our might and do everything He says. The parable of the prodigal son shows the nature of repentance, and the Lord's readiness to welcome and bless all who return to him. It fully sets forth the riches of gospel grace; and it has been, and will be, while the world stands, of unspeakable use to poor sinners, to direct and to encourage them in repenting and returning to God. It is bad, and the beginning of worse, when men look upon God's gifts as debts due to them. The great folly of sinners, and that which ruins them, is, being content in their life-time to receive their good things. To look unto God as a Father, and our Father, will be of great use in our repentance and return to him.

10.How does David's response to his sin with Bathsheba (Ps 51 & 32) relate to the prodigal? Who was responsible for David's response? God or David?

David’s lust for women and his idleness contributed to his committing adultery with Bathsheba. David had to condemn his own sin before he could find forgiveness. Bathsheba was the "daughter of

Eliam" and the "wife of Uriah the Hittite." (2 Sam. 11:3) Now David not only commits premeditated adultery with Bathsheba, but betrays the confidence of his closest bodyguards, Uriah and Eliam, and insults the trust of his counselor Ahithophel. Uriah's

house was adjacent to the palace as a reward for Uriah's faithful service to the king. It is likely that David had observed beautiful Bathsheba many times in royal banquets in his palace.David responded to his guilt with remorseful lament and true heartfelt repentance as we can clearly see in Psalm 51.  When he was told that the child of this

pregnancy would die he fasted and prayed that the Lord would spare the child's life.  When the child died David arose, stopped grieving and broke the fast.  At the child's death David stopped fasting and arose and went about his normal business assuming that his sin and its consequences were over.

David experienced those lifelong consequences for his sin with Bathsheba, including that he would not be approved to build the temple.  But he also reaped the whirlwind with the sins of his son Solomon, (son of Bathsheba) and the generations that followed reaped

the misery of a divided kingdom.  Each of their sins led to the Babylonian Captivity.

When we confess our sins the Lord is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  But it is not over. God will not stop the natural consequences that our sins reap.  We will reap what we sow.  Our sins will affect the course of our lives and the lives of those around us. David sinned against bathsheba and repented so as prodigal son repented for his sins.