Luke 15 Round Two: The Father Runs to Us

Grace isn’t tidy, and Luke 15 refuses to make it so. We open with Pharisees grumbling at Jesus’ table fellowship and watch him answer with three vivid stories—lost sheep, lost coin, and a runaway son—that dismantle our small views of God. With cultural insight from first-century life, we trace how a real shepherd safeguards the ninety-nine while pursuing the one, why a single silver coin could carry a woman’s identity and worth, and how a father’s sprint down a village road becomes a public shield against shame.

Walking slowly through the prodigal’s arc, we sit with the insult of an early inheritance, the loneliness of a distant country, and the ache of starving beside unclean pigs. Then we watch the turning point—“he came to his senses”—and the rehearsed plea that asks for a job, not a place at the table. The father’s response explodes expectations: he sees from afar, runs first, embraces fully, and restores completely—robe for covering, ring for authority, sandals for belonging, and a feast for joy. This isn’t leniency; it’s costly reconciliation, the kind that outruns accusation and names a lost child “son” again.

But the music has a critic. The older brother’s resentment reveals a heart that has lived near the father’s resources but far from his heart. We talk honestly about entitlement, spiritual scorekeeping, and the quiet ways long faith can harden when grace lands on someone we don’t think deserves it. Along the way, we draw a sharp line between condemnation, which traps us in “never enough,” and conviction, which calls us home because the Father is enough. If you need a fresh lens on repentance, restoration, and why heaven throws a party for one returning heart, this conversation will meet you on the road and walk you back to the house.

If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review—then tell us: which part of Luke 15 hit you hardest today?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Luke 15 In Context
• 1:01 Why Parables Of The Lost Matter
• 3:07 The Lost Sheep: Care And Pursuit
• 5:24 The Lost Coin: Value And Joy
• 7:08 Prodigal Son: Shame, Rock Bottom, Return
• 10:30 The Father Runs: Mercy Over Judgment
• 13:15 The Older Brother And Our Resentment
• 15:30 Takeaways: Conviction, Not Condemnation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well, hello, welcome to your journey through the Gospel of Luke. Today, Luke chapter 15. And I gotta tell you, I'm really excited about this one. This has got one of the most famous stories, parables that Jesus has told, but there's so much to this parable that when you understand the context behind it, it is just, I'll be honest with you, it's hard to make it through it without tearing up just a little bit. It's the story of the prodigal son. So before we get to that, I want to kind of bring you up to speed. My name is Pastor Brandon, and our goal is just to take a slow walk through the Gospel of Luke and just discover all the things that are there. And so I kind of think of myself as a Bible tour guide, just walking through the gospel account and just pointing things out along the way to hopefully add some interest to so much that is there. Because in our Western mindset, there are so many things that we just read right over and don't understand the significance and the weight that the original people reading this document would be like, oh my goodness, this is so amazing. And that's why I think that the Holy Spirit inspired this guy named Theopolis to call upon a guy named Luke who was trained as a doctor to go into the Judean countryside. You know, Theopolis was from Rome and he said, Hey, I need you to go where I'm guessing he couldn't go. He was a high-ranking Roman person, likely. And he said, I want you to go investigate the claims about this Jesus. I've trusted in him for my salvation. Go and give me an orderly account. And that's what the gospel writer says. He says he went and he investigated the matters and he put together a chronological account of the life of Jesus. And I'm so curious when it comes to this chapter, who did Luke talk to? Was he talking to maybe people that were the tax collectors that we're going to see at the beginning who were really put down by the Pharisees? Or was it Pharisees who, after hearing this, changed their tune? So this is a really, really great chapter. I cannot wait to jump into it. And I want to go and share with you there's there's three different parables that Jesus is going to tell. He's going to tell a parable of sheep that were lost and then found, a parable of a lady who lost 10 silver coins that were then found, and then the loss of a son who is found. And so the every single one of these is the lost or found in the kingdom of God. And he does it in three different ways. And if you remember, a parable is a complex spiritual principle explained in a story to help us get our minds around it. So all of these have this complex spiritual principle. Because the question would be, Jesus, how is it that if I'm lost in my sin, how can I see the light again? How can I come out of darkness into your kingdom? And he's going to say, Well, it's really complex. So let me put it in a story to help you understand what I'm trying to say. So here we go. Let's get started. If you got your NLT Bible open in front of you, chapter 15 is we're going to walk through this together. Get your cup of coffee ready, man. Let's jump in. This is going to be so great. Here we go. Verse 1. Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them. So Jesus told them this story. That is not at all what this is actually saying. What Jesus is saying is, as people would have understood in this culture, that many times shepherds would have large flocks of sheep. And what would happen from time to time is there was always these different sheep that have more of a rambunctious or rowdy spirit about them. And it didn't matter where they were supposed to be, they always had to be somewhere else. And so what would happen a lot of times is you ended up putting a bell on these particular sheep so that when they started to wander off, you knew where they were at all times. But occasionally, maybe it was a young sheep or whatever, it would wander off and you would notice it was gone. And so what the shepherds would do is they would leave the flock in the care of other shepherds and then strike off to go see if they can find the one that was lost. And so there's so much going on in this parable to first of all say that just because Jesus is reaching out to the lost doesn't mean he neglects the found. And I want you to see that in the story, that Jesus actually puts us in the care of those who have who are watching over our souls, the under-shepherds, the pastors and leaders among us. And then he is consistently and constantly reaching out for those who are lost. You know what else I love? The Bible says Jesus says that when he finds the lost one, he doesn't get onto it, he doesn't kick it back into the flock, but he actually carries the lost sheep over his shoulder back again. And I love that idea that when Jesus finds us, he with comfort and with joy and with care brings us back to where we're supposed to be and restores us back. I love that idea. All right, second parable he's going to tell is about a lost coin. He says this, or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call her friends and neighbors and say, Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost coin. In the same way, there is a joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents. Now, one of the reasons why this is important is because when a Jewish lady was married, she was many times given ten silver coins by her father. And among many other things, this was it was a sign of the value and worth that this lady had, that he was giving her something that was valuable and something that was worth to remind her that she was special and remind her that she was important. It was part of the dowry that she would receive herself as a lady from that family. And so what it is is when she would lose one of these coins, it was it was a big deal because that was very special and very important to her. And so that's when it said she would just tear the house apart to go and to look for this lost coin. And the symbolism of this, the spiritual principle is that you and I are so valuable to the Lord that he will tear up all of earth, he will tear up everything he's got to tear up, even if he has to tear up our own lives, to reach us and bring us back into the fold, to bring us back to himself. That's how important we are to him. And then he's gonna tell a deeper story. Now, verse 11 through the end of the chapter is gonna be the story of the prodigal son. And in order to not lose the narrative, because I'm gonna stop here and there to kind of give you some things to hope enrich this text. Let me remind you what the story is. The story is gonna be about two sons and their father. One son comes to their father one day and says, I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to wait till you die to get my inheritance. Instead, I want to receive my part of the inheritance now. And that was would have been considered extremely disrespectful. In this part of the world, family was everything. And it was a respectful thing to work for your father until he died, and then on the moment of his death, or right as he was approaching death, he would then give the uh in the various proportions, he would give the inheritance. And so for this young man to come up and do this was extremely disrespectful, and it was equivalent to say, Dad, I just wish you would die. I want you to die so I can have my money. Extremely disrespectful. But the father gives him his share. Young man goes and he wastes all of his money until after he's wasted all of his money, he eventually comes back to his father and is restored. And then the other son has a problem with it, and Jesus grapples with all of this with us. Okay, that's the overall narrative. The young son leaves, comes back, and the father receives him. So I want to make sure you don't lose that thread because I'm gonna break some of this down to maybe give you some context. Here we go. Verse 11. To illustrate the point further about the loss being found, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, I want my share of your inheritance now before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later, this younger son packed all of his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About that time his money ran out, and a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. Pause. So Jesus was painting this story of just the worst case scenario. Because not only did this young man completely disrespect his father, but then the other tragedy would have been that he would have moved away from his family. That was be considered the height of disrespect to leave those bonds of a family and move away. And then he wasted the money that his father had been cultivating to give him one day. And then what made it even worse is that when he gets to the bottom, Jewish people considered pigs to be the worst animal. Because all the way back in the Old Testament, God said to hey, leave those alone. Don't eat them, don't mess with them, stay away from them. And so then the son who had disrespected his father was now being disrespected himself because the only job he could find was caring for something he was supposed to hate. Doesn't that sound a whole lot like addiction nowadays? When we first start to dabble in drugs or pornography or other things, you know, at first it's fun, at first it's enjoyable. There's a thrill that happens. But what addiction does is it turns our desires against us until we go from being desiring something to now we have to then medicate our pain with something that we hate. I've talked to so many people who say that they can't stand alcohol. They hate the drugs that they're addicted to, but they feel like they have to do these things now. And so I think Jesus very wisely is using something that they would have understood as the thing that you hate is now the only reason why you're able to survive. And so he finally gets to the bottom of everything and he says this. He says, verse 17, when he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, At home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare. And here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. So notice, he's not even wanting to be restored into the family. He just knows that his father is good, and if he can hire him on as a servant, he'll be taken care of. So he he's not trying to get back in good graces. He just wants to be a servant in his father's house. Verse 20. So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. And his father said to him, Father, or he said the son said to his father, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. Now pause again. Why did the father run? Well, first of all, I love the idea that Jesus said that while the son was a long way off, the father saw him. Doesn't that paint the possible picture that the father was always looking for the son? That he had never given up. And so maybe every day, as soon as he would have an opportunity, he would look across the horizon just in case he saw the single silhouette of a young man coming back, and he never gave up on his son. But then here's the next question: why did he run? Well, according to the custom of the time, this the son had done such a bad thing that he would have immediately been completely outcast by the area. He would have immediately been judged by the local community. And it would have been that as soon as the people who would have now considered the son an enemy would have seen the son, they would have ran in order to judge him and hurt him and maybe even kill him because of the shame he would have brought on the entire family. So the father is running to embrace his son, but his father is also running to outrun his accusers, to make sure that the father got there first, to make sure that none of the accusers was able to have justice on this young man, but rather to say, I forgive him, and you must forgive him too. The next part says, But as his father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet, kill the calf that has been fattened. We must celebrate with the feast. For this son of mine was dead, and now he has returned to life. He was lost, but now is found. And so the party began. Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard the music and the dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. Your brother is back, and your father has killed the fattened calf, and we are celebrating because of his safe return. The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in, and his father came out and begged him, but he replied, All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. In all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money when prostitutes you celebrate by killing the fatted calf, and his father said to him, Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and he's come back to life. He was lost, but now he is found. And by doing this, I wonder if Jesus looked right back at those Pharisees from the beginning of this chapter. Because he's looking at those Pharisees, going, You've known about my word your entire life. You've memorized. Pharisees would have memorized large portions of the Old Testament. You know about the goodness of following me. But yet you get mad when I share the good news of life with these tax collectors, with these sinners. You've always had life. They are going to experience life. How could you not offer them the very life that you enjoy? And I think that's a wonderful lesson for all of us today. I think it's very important that we always have an open hand to those who don't have the life of God in them, who don't know what it is to love and to know Jesus, to let sinners act like sinners. And that doesn't mean we it we promote what they do, but at the same time we say, But you don't know my Jesus. And can I tell you about my Jesus? And I'm not mad at you if you receive Christ and you experience joy and you experience the goodness. Can I tell you? Jesus loves to just spoil brand new baby believers. I can't tell you how many times I have finally learned my lesson. I can't tell you how many times I have prayed for something for weeks, and then I watch a brand new baby believer pray for something, and the Lord just answers their prayer right away. And so I've just learned the lesson. If I need something real bad, I go find somebody who's a new Christian and say, Hey, will you pray for me? Because it's amazing how that happens. But I don't begrudge them that. I know that God is trying to teach me and to grow me and mature me through the different things he's doing in my life, but I know he's also doing it in their life as well. And so I think the lesson for all of us is this that just like the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost sheep, and the parable of the prodigal son, our heavenly father runs to us. He runs and he runs faster than his accusers. The difference between condemnation and conviction is condemnation says you're never going to be good enough. Conviction says your heavenly father is already good enough and he's willing to accept you into his family. And so no matter what you've done, no matter where you have fallen, no matter how lost you may feel, your heavenly father is ready to run to you. All you have to do is come to him. If you will come to him, he will run to you. I think that's powerful and amazing. I'd love to know down in the comments below maybe what your favorite part of the Prodigal Son story is, or is there something that maybe we talked about today you'd never heard before? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. I'll see you next time for Luke chapter 16.