For small groups · 10 questions
Luke 15 Bible study questions
Jesus answers grumbling religious leaders with 3 stories of lost things: a sheep, a coin, and 2 sons.
Read the chapter aloud first. Then take the questions in order: what it says, what it means, what to do. About 45 minutes. Skip any question that doesn’t fit your group.
Start here
- Tell about a time you lost something and found it again.
Look: what does it say?
- Who is coming to Jesus, and who is complaining about it?Luke 15:1-2
- What does the younger son ask for, and what happens to him?Luke 15:11-16
- What does the father do when he sees his son far off? What does the older brother do?Luke 15:20-32
Understand: what does it mean?
- What do all 3 stories have in common at the end?Luke 15:6-7,9-10,23-24
- The son plans a speech. The father does not let him finish it. Why does that matter?Luke 15:18-22
- Who in Jesus’ audience is the older brother? How does the father treat him?Luke 15:2,28-32
Live it: what will we do?
- Are you more like the younger son or the older one right now?
- Is there someone whose return you would find hard to celebrate?Luke 15:28-30
- Who do you know who is far off? What could you do to watch the road for them?Luke 15:20
Close in prayer
Thank God that he runs to meet the lost, and pray for someone far from home.
Luke 15
Lumin Translation. It prints after the questions, so the group has the words in front of them.
1 All the tax collectors and sinners kept coming close to hear him.
2 But the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering, “This man accepts sinners and shares meals with them.”
3 So he told them this parable:
4 “Which of you who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go looking for the lost one until he finds it?
5 When he finds it, he lifts it onto his shoulders, full of joy.
6 Then he goes home, calls in his friends and neighbors, and says to them, ‘Share my joy, for I have found my sheep, the one that was lost!’
7 I tell you, it is like that in heaven: there will be more joy there over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.
8 Or which woman who owns ten drachmas and loses one of them does not light a lamp, sweep out the house, and hunt for it carefully until she finds it?
9 When she finds it, she calls in her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Share my joy, for I have found the drachma I had lost!’
10 In just this way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.
12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided what he had to live on between them.
13 Only a few days later, the younger son collected everything he owned and went off to a faraway country, where he scattered his wealth in wild, wasteful living.
14 When he had used it all up, a terrible famine swept through that land, and he started to go without.
15 He went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that land, who sent him out to his fields to tend pigs.
16 He wished he could fill up on the carob pods the pigs were eating, yet nobody would give him anything.
17 Coming to his senses, he said, ‘Think how many hired workers my father has, all with more bread than they need—and here I am, perishing with hunger!
18 I will get up and make my way to my father, and I will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Let me be like one of your hired workers.”’
20 He got up and came back to his own father. But while he was still far away, his father caught sight of him, and his heart went out to him. He ran to him, flung his arms around his neck, and kissed him tenderly.
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 told his servants, ‘Hurry! Bring out the finest robe and clothe him with it. Slip a ring onto his hand and sandals onto his feet.
23 Bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let us feast and celebrate,
24 because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 His elder son, meanwhile, was out in the field. As he came back and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 He summoned one of the young servants and asked what all this could be.
27 He told him, ‘Your brother is here, and because your father has him back in good health, he has slaughtered the fattened calf.’
28 But the elder son grew angry and would not go in. His father then came out and kept appealing to him.
29 He replied to his father, ‘Listen! For so many years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never once gone against your orders. Yet you have never once given me a young goat for celebrating with my friends.
30 But when this son of yours showed up, the one who ate up your livelihood on prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him!’
31 The father said to him, ‘Child, you are with me all the time, and all that I have belongs to you.
32 But it was right that we celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.