Introduction to the Old Testament Reading

Our Old Testament reading today comes from Psalm Sixty-Seven.

It ties in with our theme this morning as we look at God’s concern for the lost.

I know that that has been part of the very passion and DNA of this congregation through the years but it’s good to remind ourselves of God’s concern for the lost and we hear that in Psalm Sixty-Seven as well.

As the Psalm then seeks and acknowledges God’s blessing in his life but it’s not a thing unto itself that we are personally somehow enriched without sensitivity about others.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

We are blessed that the nations may hear and know.

Psalm Sixty-Seven Reading

So, I invite you to stand at this time to hear God’s reading from Psalm Sixty-Seven.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us that your ways may be known in the earth.

Your saving power among the nations.

Let the peoples praise you, O God.

Let the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy for you judge the people with equity and you guide the nations upon the earth.

Let the peoples praise you, O God.

Let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its increase.

God, our God has blessed us.

God shall bless us.

Let all the earth, all the ends of the earth fear him.

I invite you to be seated for a moment before we read the New Testament passage.

Introduction to the New Testament Reading

Today, we’re focusing on Luke Fifteen and we’re seeing God’s concern.

God’s concern for the lost but before we do that, I want to just kind of do a little bit of a background and setting to equip us before we hear God’s word.

In this passage, Christ tells a trilogy of parables about seeking the lost and it’s good to remind ourselves of a few things and how we can understand and correctly interpret the parables.

One of those keys is to step back and ask, what’s the surprise?

What’s the unexpected twist that we find in the parable?

We’re going to find that coming a little later on as we look at these parables together.

Another aspect is to ask ourselves, where do we see ourselves in this parable?

With whom or with what do we identify as we hear the story being told?

And this trilogy of parables sets up a stark contrast where we identify ourselves at two ultimate extremes along the way.

In the three parables, we have three very stark and different contrasts.

We see a contrast between the Pharisees who are judging Jesus and the sinners who are seeking Jesus.

We also see the Pharisees who are distancing themselves from sinners.

In fact, they go to such an extreme that a good Pharisee would not enter the home of a lower-ranked Pharisee lest in some way, somehow, they might be diminished or made unclean because that person may not be as scrupulous as he is and so they distance themselves not only from other Pharisees but especially they’ll distance themselves from sinners but that stands in stark contrast once again to the shepherd, to the woman, to the father, to Jesus, and ultimately to God our Father who seeks sinners to save them, seeks the lost.

We also have another comparison between the Pharisees.

The Pharisees are grumbling while heaven rejoices.

A whole series of stark contrasts as we ask ourselves, where do we identify in this story and as we anticipate the twist that will come up near the end of our story.

You see, in this passage, Jesus is teaching and gathering crowds.

In those crowds are sinners and the Pharisees start complaining because not only is Jesus then teaching a crowd with sinners in it but it says, he welcomes the sinners and will eat with them.

Eating with them.

He’s connecting with them.

He’s actually eating at that time was also a symbol of fellowship.

And so here Jesus is fellowshipping, you might say, with sinners.

And the Pharisees mutter and complain about it.

So, then, Jesus responds to that by telling this trilogy of parables.

What’s interesting is he tells three parables back to back to back driving home the same truth.

What’s interesting about that is to the Jews, truth was determined through two to three witnesses.

Two or three testimonies was the verification of truth.

So, what does Jesus do?

In response, in answer to the Pharisees grumbling about sinners and wanting to distance themselves from sinners and muttering about Jesus that he associates with sinners.

Christ tells the truth.

He tells three testimonies, three stories that give the testimony of the truth of God’s concern for the lost.

Luke Fifteen Reading

With that as a background, I invite you to stand that we might hear the word of God together this morning.

From Luke Fifteen.

Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him.

And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable.

What man among you?

Having a hundred sheep.

If he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it.

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulder rejoicing.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost.

Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Or what woman having ten silver coins if she has lost one coin, does not light the lamp and sweep the house and search diligently until she finds it.

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I had lost.

Just so I tell you, there is more joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And he said to them, there was a man who had two sons.

The younger said to the father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.

And he divided his property between them.

Not many days later, the young son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country and there squandered his property with reckless living.

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine came in that country and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

And he was longing to be fed with the pods the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread?

But I perish here with hunger?

I will arise and go to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.

Treat me as one of your hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion.

And he ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to the father, father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you.

I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it.

Let us eat and celebrate.

For this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

And they began to celebrate.

Now, his older son was in the field.

When he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said to him, your brother has come.

And your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound.

But he was angry and refused to go in.

His father came out and entreated him.

But he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you and have never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him.

But he said to him, son, you are always with me.

And all that is mine is yours.

It is fitting we celebrate and be glad.

For this your brother was dead and is alive.

He was lost and is found.

May God bless his word to us this morning.

The Priority of the Lost

This morning, we’re looking at God’s concern.

God’s concern for the lost and in these three parables, the truth is driven home deeper and deeper each step along the way.

In our first parable, we see that the lost are God’s priority.

You hear that in the account of the story.

A shepherd has a hundred sheep and he loses one.

But what does he do?

He is willing to leave ninety-nine to pursue that one, that priority, that one.

Ninety-nine are left so he can seek one.

Not only that but the parable adds a richness to it and tells us, not only did he leave the ninety-nine to find the one, but he did not leave them in a fold.

He didn’t leave them with a neighboring shepherd.

He didn’t even leave them with some type of hireling or underling that he might hire to cover for a few moments.

No.

He leaves them in open country.

Ninety-nine in open country to find that one that was lost.

It was his priority to the point that it says he will continue to seek and seek and seek and persist in his seeking until he finds that one lost sheep.

Even at risk for himself.

And when he does, he is filled with an extreme sense of joy that bubbles forth from him and is contagious with his friends and neighbors.

And then Jesus turns the parable back to the Pharisees who are muttering and complaining that Jesus was spending time teaching and preaching and even eating with sinners.

And he says, how about you?

If you had a sheep and the sheep is lost.

What would you do?

And the obvious answer is, we’ll go look for it.

We’ll find our lost sheep.

You can almost sense the unspoken message there.

But wait a minute.

Do you truly believe that one sheep is more valuable than a lost soul?

You’ll do that for the sheep and you complain about seeking the lost.

Who are living and dying in their sin apart from God’s grace.

Where’s your priority?

Is a sheep more important?

But take it back to us.

What’s our priority?

Think about when you lose something.

I don’t know about you, but every once in a while, I swear there are key gnomes that kind of pick up the keys in the house and hide them somewhere.

Right?

Or maybe you’re trying to figure out where your cell phone is.

It was just the other day Sandy called me and says, can you call my phone?

I can’t find it.

Right?

What do you do?

You look and you look and or maybe even worse than that.

Maybe you’re one who has that special place, alright?

You’re going to be going away.

You want everything safe and secure and so you put something in a safe place.

And a week later, you can’t remember where that safe place is?

Now, I see a few heads nodding, right?

And what do you do?

You almost become neurotic looking and looking and there’s no peace.

And quite frankly, there’s not going to be any peace till I help Sandy look and we look and we look and we look till we find.

Right?

It’s a priority to find it.

My first charge was in a college town.

And one of the young men in the congregation had his car stolen.

And I saw the lengths we went to find the lost.

He immediately called the police and filled out the report form.

And then he called his insurance company, went through that whole process.

And then he regularly and consistently called the police over and over and over again for an update.

And when the police did find the car, he got his college buddies together.

And they literally put together multiple cars to go up and down every single street and alley in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Looking for that lost car.

And when it was found, he went through the whole process of going to court and testifying because he had to find his car.

A priority.

The Work of Seeking the Lost

The lost are God’s concern, the lost are God’s priority but then in the second parable we’re told not only is the lost God’s priority but the lost are also God’s work.

It’s a parable of a lost coin.

Now, what we’re talking about here is not, you know, stumbling across that nickel or penny or dime you find in the parking lot and you pick it up and say, oh, look at me.

I found this quarter.

This is a silver coin.

The silver coin is worth probably right around one full day’s wage.

So it has some financial value and worth.

But more than that, it very likely was part of either a bracelet, a necklace, or a coin headband that might have been given to her as part of her dowry.

And so with one missing coin, it was incomplete.

It was missing and it will not be complete until it is found.

Not only that but as part of the dowry, it was a sign of disgrace and some might even read it as a sign of her unfaithfulness if it is not found and once again made complete.

Because that was her dowry.

And so you can imagine the lengths she went to.

This is not just a missing coin.

But no, this was a must-find.

And she was going to do everything in her power to find it.

She was willing to work hard to find that lost coin.

And so we’re told that she lights the lamp.

Probably because in those homes, the houses were very small.

Many of them had no window at all.

And if they did have a window, it was a small little window.

Very little light could come in.

Maybe a little light through the doorway if it accessed the outside.

But not all of them did even that.

And so she lights a lamp.

She sweeps.

She looks under everything.

She lifts up all the bedrolls and shakes them out.

She has to find it.

She’ll work hard till it is found.

And the lost are God’s priority.

The lost are also God’s great work.

Think about Christ’s work for the lost.

Think about Christ’s work for you and for me.

Jesus Christ put aside all the glory of the Godhead.

Put aside the glories of heaven itself.

And the creator of time and space subjected himself to time and space, to flesh and blood.

The boundless one now bound in flesh and blood and humanity.

And he comes to a sinful world.

The holy one entering a sinful, broken world.

And he lives among us.

And he dies for us.

Not just dies for us but his perfect work of salvation.

He takes upon himself our sin, our shame, our brokenness, and ultimately, our deserved punishment.

He takes upon himself the wrath of hell itself and drinks the cup of God’s judgment down to the bitter end for you and for me, and he dies for us.

That’s the length of work that God does for the lost.

The Passion for the Lost

The next parable tells us about God’s passion for the lost.

Think for a moment.

Think about your children.

Is any one of them expendable?

Can you turn your back and ignore and not care?

It hurts us.

It cuts us.

We grieve for them.

And in this parable, we see the passion of a father for a lost son.

We especially see the depth of passion when we understand what is going on in the actions of the son and father.

The son comes to his father and says, dad, I want my share of the inheritance.

In essence, what he is saying is, dad, I love money more than you.

Think about that.

The brashest.

Dad, I love money more than you.

Even more than that, the inheritance came on the death of the father.

So, in essence, not only saying, I love money more than you but dad, quite frankly, I wish you were dead.

And the dad gives him his share of the inheritance.

And what does he do?

He turns his back on the family.

He turns his back on, you might say, the believing community and wanders off to a foreign country.

And there he wastes the family inheritance, his inheritance, with prostitutes and wild living.

And how low does he sink?

He ends up being sent to the field to feed pigs.

Now, to a good Jew, that’s as low as you can go.

Pigs were unclean.

And here he was associated.

The Pharisees wouldn’t associate with a lower-ranking Pharisee even and now here in this parable, this son has wasted everything, wished his father was dead, turned his back on the believing community.

He goes off to the foreign country.

He rejects his faith.

He ends up feeding pigs and to the point that he has now become unclean associating himself with unclean pigs.

In fact, to be truth be told, he has to look up to the pigs.

What we’re told in this passage is, he wished he could eat the pig slop.

The pigs were better off than he was.

That’s how defiled he was.

Couldn’t get any lower and then he begins to come to his senses.

And he turns his heart toward home.

In a moment of repentance.

But what’s interesting as he is coming home, before the father hears a single word of his repentance, what does the father do?

You talk about the father’s passion?

He sees him at a distance.

This is the son who said, dad, I love money more than you.

Dad, I wish you were dead.

Dad, I don’t mind how defiled I am and I reject your faith.

And the father runs to see him.

Now, you have to understand, based on all the things that he gives the son later on, this was a prominent person in that village, a wealthy person, possibly one of the governing people in this one.

He had privilege and wealth and power and as such, he would be standing clothed in long flowing robes, a symbol of his status, a symbol of his wealth, a symbol of his position.

And what does he do?

He takes his robe, pulls it up, cinches it into his belt or sash, and runs.

Here, the father is willing to disgrace himself for the disgracing son.

That’s the passion of the father.

And he embraces him.

He hugs him.

He kisses him.

He gives him the best robe.

He puts sandals on his feet.

He puts a ring representing the family, welcoming once again into the family, a signet ring of the family and position in power.

He welcomes him and then he throws a party.

Let’s celebrate.

That response of the father’s passion stands in absolute stark contrast against the older brother.

The older brother comes back, hears the celebration, wants to know what’s going on.

He asks.

He’s told.

And he becomes angry.

Angry to the point that he refuses to go in.

And here again, the father now lowers himself and disgraces himself by leaving the celebration to go talk with his rebellious, righteous, quote-unquote, son, the older brother.

And what’s interesting is, while not minimizing the sin of the prodigal son, not minimizing it, who is the one who receives words of judgment in this parable?

It’s that righteous older brother.

He turns to his father and he says, this son of yours, he’s disconnected himself with the son of yours.

The father said, no, no, no, no, no.

Your brother.

A direct confrontation to the hardened heart of that older quote-unquote righteous faithful one.

See, he may be externally righteous-looking but his heart was not right.

His heart was harboring anger and bitterness and resentment and sin.

The Twist in the Parable

So, where’s the twist?

Take a wild guess who the Pharisees until they heard the final punchline related to.

They were the ones who were externally righteous.

They were the faithful ones.

They were the faith community ones.

Right?

They related to the older brother.

And yet, the older brother, aka, now, the Pharisees are the ones who receive the judgment because externally clean doesn’t mean our hearts are clean, right?

That’s the twist.

That’s the punchline.

That’s the answer to the Pharisees muttering and complaining.

And so we ask ourselves, you know, hopefully, none of us relate to the Pharisees in this.

So, where do you see yourself in this parable?

Identifying with the Lost

Maybe some of us see ourselves in the lost.

You know, the lost sheep, the lost coin, that lost son.

If you see yourself in that point in the parable, hear God’s concern for you.

Hear God’s love for you.

What’s interesting is all three of the lost in this parable are slightly different.

You have the lost sheep.

The lost sheep knew the shepherd.

He was part of the flock and yet something drew that sheep.

He or she away.

Maybe things, maybe the grass looked greener or whatever.

Chased a butterfly.

Things around the sheep drew it away.

And some of us get enticed by the glittering things of this world.

We pursue our own definitions of happiness and security.

And maybe we just begin to wander.

Begin to drift.

Bottom line is, we’re lost.

Maybe you relate to the coin instead.

To be honest, the coin didn’t know it was lost.

You know, the coin doesn’t go, I want.

No.

There are many in this world that are lost and don’t know it.

There are some who have never heard the gospel and it just challenges us to engage in missions but there’s also a lot of people in our culture and society that don’t think that they are lost.

You know, they kind of go through life with the philosophy.

I’m okay.

You’re okay.

God’s okay.

So, it’s okay.

You know, maybe they’re putting their trust in their good works.

I’m better than and they name a half a dozen people.

I’m a good husband, a good wife, a good son, a good daughter, a good neighbor, a good citizen.

I’m good.

Isn’t that good enough?

The truth be told, it is not.

We’re not saved by our good works.

None of them are sufficient.

In fact, one sin is one sin too much because it separates us from an absolutely pure and holy God.

Or maybe you relate to the prodigal son.

You flat out turned your back on faith.

You flat out rejected God.

You gave way to a life of sin and rebellion and brokenness.

No matter who you are, if you relate to any of those, you are God’s concern.

You hear that in each one of those parables.

The seeking of that lost person, that lost thing, that lost sheep, that lost coin.

You are God’s concern.

Responding to God’s Love

So, how do we respond?

We respond by acknowledging God’s great love.

Romans Five, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

John Three Sixteen, for God so loved the world, lost people like you and me, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

And that’s the challenge for the son.

And for us when we are lost.

In each of the parables you hear the acknowledgement of repentance.

You know, the rejoicing in heaven when one repents.

We hear that in the first two parables and in the last of the parables, we hear twice over in the lips of the son, his repentance for his life of sin and his responding to that love by coming back home.

And that’s the challenge: have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus?

Come to him honestly in confession.

Acknowledge your sin.

Seek his forgiveness.

And then know that heaven rejoices.

With God’s amazing grace.

Expressed in your life.

Identifying with the Seekers

Or maybe the last one, you relate to the seekers.

The shepherd, the woman, the father, Jesus, God.

So, I just want to kind of wrap up by just challenging us on each of those fronts that we’ve seen so far.

The lost are God’s priority.

You hear that in the rejoicing of heaven.

We’re told three times in each of these parables, there’s a celebration when the lost is found.

Twice, we’re told heaven rejoices, the angels rejoice, and then we have the father who throws a party of rejoicing for the lost.

We find three different groups that will rejoice.

We have the seeker who rejoices.

We have the friends and neighbors who rejoice and you have ultimately heaven itself rejoicing.

Again, three witnesses, you hear truth in the Jewish mindset.

The truth is heaven rejoices because it’s God’s concern being lived out in reality and in salvation.

We also hear that it’s a priority.

Ninety-nine to one, nine to one, one to one.

It’s a heightened priority throughout these parables.

It’s God’s priority.

Is it your priority?

A priority of your time, priority of your life, a priority of your prayer life, a priority of your finances.

This is the priority of your church.

Make it a priority.

And it’s God’s work.

We see the length that Christ went in his great work for the lost.

In fact, we see it throughout Christ’s ministry.

Zacchaeus, that despised tax collector that couldn’t really be around other people who hides himself in a tree is found by Jesus.

The Samaritan woman at the well who basically was not accepted by the Jews but also she’s out there at high noon not accepted by her own community and yet Christ reaches out to her and accepts her and ministers to her.

It’s his work.

We hear it in his teaching.

We’re told in John Ten that Jesus has sheep that are not in his fold and he’s there to seek and to find those sheep that are not yet in his fold.

We’re told in Matthew Eighteen that Christ when he sees the crowds has compassion on them because they are lost and weary.

And finally, we are told in Matthew Nine, he wants us to pray for laborers to go out for the lost.

In other words, Christ is praying for you.

He calls you to that work.

And he’s given us that direct charge in the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Right?

Baptizing them, teaching them, unfolding them into a faith community once again and finally, it’s God’s passion.

Is it our passion?

You know, you have three or four potential responses to the lost.

You can act like a Pharisee and stand in judgment, in rejection, and in hatred.

Or possibly a second response is to just be indifferent and ignore them.

Or number three, you can welcome them when they come to you.

But in these parables, the sheep didn’t come.

The coin didn’t move.

It had to be found.

The father goes out ultimately to the son before he hears those words of repentance.

Conclusion: Reflecting God’s Passion

What’s the final response?

Reflect God’s passion and go seek them.