PRODIGAL – The Heart of the Father

Prodigal – The Heart of the Father  – Sermon Notes            Pastor Mike Snodgrass

                                            November 9, 2025

Luke 15:1 NIV

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Review:

• Lost things matter to God!
• Jesus is telling this parable to describe what the Kingdom of God is really like!
• The true definition of “Prodigal” is “Wreckless” or in this case “Lavish Spender”
• The Pharisaical group around him hearing this story heard a salacious story of what they felt was hypocrisy!
• The younger son asking for an extravagant demand and the father granting it!
• Moving away from the family and blowing the money on wild living!
• Then coming to his senses:

Luke 15:17-20 NIV(exact)

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

• We also read how the older brother responded to his younger brother’s return and how the father treated him.
• So let’s read what was the consequence of the younger son and the conclusion of this story!

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The Heart of the Father:

Luke 15:20-24 NIV (exact)

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Do you remember how the older son responded?

• Became angry
• Refused to go to the party
• Disowned his brother
• Became spiteful to the father
• Accusing the father of slighting him

This is where we have such contrasts within the story and how Jesus is telling it for a very specific reason to draw these contrasts out!!!

Remember what Jesus is trying to say: “This is what the heart of the father looks like”!

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Two Major Contrasts within the story:

• The father vs. the older son:
  • The Father:
    • Sees his son’s return as a chance to restore and redeem what was lost.
    • Responds with grace, compassion, and joy.
    • Is focused on relationship and reconciliation, not past mistakes.
    • Reflects the heart of God, celebrating repentance and return.
  • The Older Son:
    • Views his father’s love through pride and offense.
    • Feels entitled because of his faithfulness and obedience.
    • Struggles to understand grace, believing acceptance should be earned.
    • Represents the self-righteous heart that misses the joy of restoration.

• • Again, the older son did not know the heart of the father!!!
  • The father was the only one in the story who was looking up and watching for the prodigal’s return.
  • The older brother had his head down, doing “good things” on the father’s farm.
  • It’s easy for us to become like the older brother—busy doing all the right things for the Father, yet completely missing His heart and passion for what really matters. LOST THINGS MATTER!!!

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• The Crowd listening to the story: Sinners etc. vs Pharisees and Scribes:

Luke 15:1 NIV

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

• • A better title for this story may be “The Father’s Love” rather than “The Prodigal Son”.
  • It highlights the difference between the Pharisees—who were focused on themselves and the religious requirements that they  missed the heart of God’s love—and God’s own joy and compassion when someone turns back to Him.
    • Behavioral vs. Heart
    • Bounded Set vs. Centered Set

• • The father is the most offensive person in this story – at least to the Pharisees.
    • Everything that the father chose to do for his younger son makes you think:
    • “Doesn’t God care about what people are doing these days? Someone has to have standards around here right? Why should we let people get away with that type of spoiled behavior and lavish living???
      • Older brother thinking
      • Jesus is challenging the Pharisee’s mindset!
  • The Pharisees’ response to the story!
    • Scandalous!
      • The actions of both the father and son
      • Pigs…
      • The story was meant to provoke the religious holy rollers – to ensure that they were fully disgusted with the young man in the story!
    • To the Pharisees and scribes, the younger son was a lost cause, a wasted life, a disgusting and unholy disgrace to his father. And he was getting what he deserved.

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GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LOVE FOR US:

Romans 5:7-8 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, CHRIST DIED FOR US.

What does this look like in the parable???

Luke 15:20 NIV

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

• “Kazazah,” or “Keẓaẓah,” was an ancient Jewish ritual of public shaming and severing of ties, meaning “cutting off”.
• In this ceremony, they would break a clay pot filled with burnt corn at the feet of someone who had brought shame or acted disgracefully. It was a powerful symbol that the person was being publicly rejected and cut off from the community. This act of rejection stands in stark contrast to the father’s warm, welcoming embrace in the story of the Prodigal Son.
• Noble men DON’T RUN!

Luke 15:22-23 NIV (exact)

.. ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.

• The Father is the real “prodigal” or lavish spender!
  • Vs. 22 clothe him (robe) and make him his own (ring) sandals
  • Vs. 23 fattened calf and feasting.
  • Best robe, ring, sandals, feast: Each was a sign of position and acceptance!
• The father DID NOT require anything from the son. The son was:
  • Filthy
  • Broke
  • Ashamed
• Anytime Jesus engaged a person who was living in habitual sin, caught in adultery, extorting others, full of greed, and the like, he consistently invited them to sin no more and follow him – without first demanding repayment for what they had done.
• Jesus cares more about the people who have issues than the issues people have! – Mike Burnette

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Conclusion:

• So who is really a prodigal in this story?
  • God has extravagantly shown His love for us by what Christ has done!

1 John 3:1 NIV (exact)

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

• • Paying the ultimate price!!!
  • Death on the Cross!
  • We can truly see the “heart of the father”
• The question continues to be for you today: 
  • Do you accept that free gift that He has given you and I?
  • Are you the younger son, “coming to your senses” and “coming home”
  • Are you the older son, bitter and hurt who doesn’t know or accepts the love of the father?
  • Are you the Pharisees and religious elite who cannot accept a love that does not require first conformity and “earning” it?
• Another way to ask these questions is:
  • Are we a church who is like the younger son, older son or Pharisee?
  • Do you know or do we have the “Heart of the Father”?