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May 16, 2021

The Astonished Heart

Passage: Luke 15:11-32

Speaker: Doug Swagerty

Series: The Tale of Three Hearts

Category: Sermon

Sermon Summary:
The Prodigal Son is a parable in which Jesus reveals the characteristics of three hearts. This week we explore the heart of the Younger Son.

The Younger Son's Heart is:

  1. Ambitious
    He seeks to find satisfaction apart from his Father

  2. Self-Centered
    His actions are an outrageous insult to his father and the entire community. Asking for the inheritance is the equivalent of telling the father "I wish you were dead," and his sale of the inheritance (so he could take all he had with him, verse 13) shatters the family land and would have insulted the entire community.

  3. Lonely
    He ends up completely isolated - physically (foreign land), personally (no one would give him anything), spiritually (feeding pigs makes him unclean).

  4. Broken
    But even his repentance reveals how little he knows the father
    • "I have sinned against heaven and agains you" are the same words as Pharaoh to Moses. Pharaoh's repentance was not a heart-felt desire for reconciliation, it was desperate self-preservation.
    • The son's goal is not to reconcile with the father, but to bargain with him. He expects to remain distant from his father, always working to pay off his debt.

  5. Astonished
    The Father's word, "Quick!" Reveals his strong desire to preemptively save the son from the judgment and condemnation of the community. But the Father's mercy did not remove the son's shame—he took the son's shame upon himself. The whole community would have thought him a scandalous fool.



Jesus is the true Prodigal Son
He came to live in an unclean country, separated from His Father, where he became poor and despised. But he did it for us. Hebrews tells us Jesus despised the shame of the cross (12:2)—He could not care less about the shame of our sin put on his shoulders. Instead he is NOT ashamed to call us brothers (2:11).


Discussion Questions:

  1. In what ways do you see the Younger Son's heart in your own heart?
  2. In what ways do you fall into believing you need to earn the Father's love?
  3. What astonishes you about the Father's love?
  4. Pray for one another.