Luke 15:1-24

It's like, wow, I didn't prepare for 324 verses of scripture today.

Reading verses 1 through 24, all the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were complaining, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable, what man among you who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together slavery, saying to them, rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. I tell you in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't need repentance. Or, what woman has 10 silver coins? If she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, rejoice with me because I have found the silver coin I lost.

I tell you in the same way there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents. He also said a man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me. So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country where he squandered his estate in foolish living.

After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. And when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food? And here I am dying of hunger.

I'll get up, go to my father, and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers. So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.

He ran, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father told his servants, quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it.

And let's celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. May we pray heaven. Father, as we look at your word, let us just well up with gratitude that you have given us instruction on how to have a right relationship with you and how to live in a worthy manner that pleases you.

May it be something we understand today by your spirit, and that you would show us by your power how we need to change in our lives and how we act, or what our view is of others. And especially that we would come to a greater appreciation of your great love and concern for us. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. Charles Dickens said that this is the greatest short story that was ever written.

And there is so much that can be said about it today. I have more on my heart than I can say everything, or it would seem like 134 verses, whatever that was. So what comes out is what you get today. Let's look at the setting in chapter 14, Jesus was at the house of one of the leading Pharisees, the religious leaders, and they were watching him closely. But now, now he's eating with tax collectors and sinners, and it tells us all.

The tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Jesus. They wanted to hear what he had to say. They sensed that there was something different about him. They were being drawn to him because of his words. But on the other hand, the Pharisees and the scribes, instead of listening to, they were talking to one another.

And what does it say they were doing? They were complaining about the Son of God, the Messiah, who was performing miracles, healing things that had never been healed before and offering a message of salvation. And this is what they were saying about Jesus. This man welcomes sinners and he eats with them. Now, tax collectors were some of the most despised, but probably the richest people in the land.

They were the Jews that had sold themselves over to the Romans so that they could collect taxes from their own people. And they were allowed to get as much money out of their taxis as they possibly could. So they were hated. They were the lowest and most despised in society, along with those that are called sinners. Here.

And it says that Jesus was welcoming them. It means that he was receiving them kindly. As if they were close, dear friends, we see that the Pharisees are putting the sinners in that category because they thinking, surely we're the religious leaders. We're not in the same category with them. We are not sinners.

Let us remind ourselves that John tells us in First John that if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving in ourselves and the truth is not in us. Even as believers, we are free not to be entangled by sin. We still can and do have it in our lives, even in small ways that we don't always detect.

The Scribes and the Pharisees should have remembered this from Psalm 14, where we read, the Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is just one who is wise, just one who seeks God. And when God looks down, what he sees is that all have turned away, all alike have become corrupt. And there is no one who does good, not even one. So in God's eyes, the sinners, the tax collectors, the Pharisees, the scribes, they all had sin in their life. So the parable here that we're talking about is speaking to both sides.

We go to verse 3 with all this in mind and Jesus understanding what they're thinking and what they're saying and their condition. It says he told them this parable. And it's interesting. It's parable singular, even though it has three parts to it. We're going to hear about the shepherd and the woman and the Father, but it's all one parable that Jesus is relating.

It reminds me of the Trinity 3 and 1. And I think that we can see all parts, all persons of the Trinity. Here in the shepherd, we definitely see Jesus. He's the Son of God, the descendant of David, the Messiah who is going to rule from David's throne. And until David became a warrior, what did he do every day?

He was a shepherd. We read Psalm 23 today, and many other passages in the Old Testament point to the fact that the coming Messiah is going to be a shepherd. The woman could resemble the work of the Holy Spirit because she has to use a lamp, which I think is the light of God's word that shines on her path as she is searching for the coin in her house. And the Father is, is obviously God the Father. Now, when sheep are mentioned in scripture, there's.

There's a vast amount of information and thoughts that are, are going to come to mind to those that were hearing in that day because they're so familiar with shepherding. Shepherding has been A major part of the lives of the Israelites, going all the way back to Abraham and the patriarchs. Cotton is known at this time, but it's not used very much. And it isn't until Islam comes in and takes over the Holy Land that they start to use a cotton. So they're having to depend on sheep and flax or linen in order to provide clothes for themselves.

They're depending on sheep to provide food for them. It's their source of income. But most importantly, the sheep are a major park of the sacrificial system. In the temple, sheep are used to picture individuals in the Old Testament in their relationship to God. And the flock is used to picture the relationship of God to his people, Israel.

So when Jesus asks this question here, everyone present is tracking with his analogy, and everyone is going to be in agreement with what he says. This is the question Jesus asks, what man among you who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? Now, we might think, oh, he's got a hundred sheep. Why, why worry about the one? Well, shepherds had a very intimate relationship with their sheep.

No, Sam's got some cows over here, and if one of them gets out of the fence, he's going to do what? He's going to go look for it. There's that sense here. But shepherds were even more in tune with their sheep. They didn't leave them unattended.

They had to be with their sheep all the time. They were very connected to all their sheep. And if we were to look at 100 sheep, we'd say, they all look what? They all look alike. But to the shepherd, he knew every sheep by the way they looked.

He knew the different sounds that they make. To us, they would all sound the same. But he, oh, that's Maggie over there, and that's Sam over there. I don't know why I just used those two names. I guess because we're having a shower today.

But he would know them by name and he could tell their voices because he was with them all the time. It was this special love relationship that he depended on them, but he also took care of them. It's not just like having cows in a field. It's more like having pets in your home. And some people really, really love their pets.

They remember their birthdays. They. They have names for them. They. They take care of them.

This is more what the relationship here is. So these people are tracking? Yes. We would go after that one sheep, Jesus says, when he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulder, this stinky sheep putting up around his neck. He doesn't drag him home complaining, why did you get lost?

He's lovingly returning him. He's coming home. And he calls his friends and his neighbors together, saying to them, rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. The Jews understand the analogy here. One sheep missing to them is a big deal.

And they wouldn't relax until they found one that was lost. And when they did, they would rejoice. Now, Jesus tells us what this means in verse seven. I tell you in this same way, there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Then over 99 righteous people who don't need repentance.

Now, in all three parts of this one parable, there are similarities. There's always this emphasis upon the One. The shepherd is concerned about the One, the woman is concerned about the One, and the Father is concerned about the One. It's pointing to us as individuals that God loves and cares for each and every one. And he's especially concerned about those that are lost.

And he wants to seek them because he wants to return them to a joyful, close, intimate, personal relationship. And when that happens, it causes God to rejoice. The One is a sinner. And Jesus is responding to the Scribes and the Pharisees who question, why does he eat with sinners? Jesus is pointing out that they are sinners also, and God loves even them.

He's alluding to their opinion of self, that they're not sinners. They're thinking, we don't need repentance. We're righteous and in their own sight, but not in the sight of God. You know, we find here a message of condemnation for that side, for those that are self righteous. But it's a message of encouragement to those on the other side that are sinners, that, yes, God cares for us when we are far away and wants to bring us back.

Jesus, like the shepherd, knows each and every one of us by name. All those that have been born, all those that are alive, and all those that are to come. He's concerned about everyone. In Luke 19, it says, the Son of Man came for this purpose. He wanted to seek and to save the lost.

And when each and every one who is lost comes home to him, there is a grand party in heaven. Now, the return here in every one of these instances is described as repentance, which means that someone is turning from the way that they're going the way of sin and living for themselves, and they turn because they want to live for Jesus according to his word. And this comes about when someone places their faith in Jesus and he truly becomes their shepherd. We go to the second part of the one parable. And again they understand this analogy.

It says, or what woman who has 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? Their houses didn't have a lot of windows. They had a low, narrow door. And if you lost something in your house, you'd have to light a lamp and you'd have to sweep the dust floor because they might not have had tile.

Now, this woman doesn't have the same personal feeling for this coin that a shepherd has for his sheep. But what we see here is that this coin to her has great value. So, like the sheep, God is concerned about us. Like the coin, God values us greatly. Now, again, you might say 10 coins.

I mean, 10 pennies. What is it if you lose one? Are you going to turn your house upside down and go through the grass in your yard looking for one coin? We have to go back to what they would have been thinking in that day. It doesn't say it here, but it's interesting that Jesus mentions 10 silver coins because it was the custom in many parts of Israel that when a young woman got married, either she obtained or her father gave her 10 coins to show that she was married.

And they would make a headband with 10 coins, or they would make a necklace made out of those 10 coins. So it was kind of like a wedding ring. And imagine if you lost your wedding ring, that you would be doing what? You would be combing the house to look for it. If you lost it at the beach, you would be looking through the sand.

That's the type of value this woman had on it. That's why she's lighting a lamp, she's sweeping the house, she's searching carefully until she finds it. But not only does she value it, but it would be a disgrace now to go out in public. Where's your wedding ring? You know what happened to it?

Well, I just carelessly lost it. Well, why aren't you looking for it? Well, I don't really care about it. That's what this woman would have been saying. It would have been a disgrace to her, and I couldn't find it again.

But I've heard in the past that sometimes a husband, if his wife disgraced him, or if a father was disgraced by his Daughter, that he would pull one of those coins off and not give it back until things are made right. This was a serious matter for this woman. It says when she finds it, like the shepherd, she calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying, rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost. And again, this picture is how God sees one who is found. I tell you in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels over just one sinner who repents.

We have here again 1. We have the lost, we have the return or the found. And it results in joy. As the sheep was the sinner, now coin is the sinner. God is concerned for each sinner, God values each sinner.

And God has a party every time one person returns to him in repentance. Now, there can be a twofold application of this parable. It can refer to the nonbeliever, which is what I've kind of been emphasizing. But you can also look at from the angle that God treats believers in the same way. The family of God.

The number of true believers can be seen here as the entire flock of a hundred sheep, but one has gone astray. The family of God could be seen here as the entire set of 10 coins, but one has been lost. The one lost sheep already belonged to the shepherd, but for one reason or another, he's just wandered away without knowing what they've done. Sheep aren't the brightest animals. Or maybe the sheep said, well, the pasture that the shepherd's given me doesn't look as green as the one over there.

And they're intentionally wandering away. But in the process of wandering away from the presence of the shepherd, they are lost. It can be that way in the church, in the family of God, somebody just quits showing up. We don't see them in a long time. And then we find out that they've just wandered off and they're not going to church anywhere.

And it's not that they've lost their salvation, they've just lost their close relationship to the Lord.

But the case for the lost coin, it's not out in the marketplace. It's not in another pasture. It's right there in the house. Sometimes we can have people in our congregation that they're here, but they're not really here. They're not involved in the close relationship with the Lord like they've had in the past.

And in a sense, like the coin, they are lost.

Like the lost, sheep wander away from involvement and attendance that is accompanied by less involvement with Jesus. Can happen within the body of Christ. And like the lost coin, there are still some that are in our presence. But we just notice they're less involved and they need to be encouraged to draw closer to the Lord. Both the Son and the Spirit are sad that these people are missing because they value them greatly.

And both the Son and the Spirit work to bring the lost back to the intimate relationship that they want to have with each and every one of us. The shepherd calls those by name as he seeks to return them. And the Spirit sheds light into their hearts by God's word to bring them back. But we have to remember it's always God's desire to restore everyone to this relationship that he wants it to be with us. That's intimate, personal, loving and restorative.

That's why Jesus came and lived among us. That's why he suffered. He paid the penalty on the cross for our sins. He was buried and he was raised from the dead because he wants to know us intimately.

Let's go back to the text now. Verse 11.

Those listening, they were tracking, they understood about the shepherd and they understood about the woman. But when it comes to this third part, they are not going to understand at all what Jesus is saying. This is going to be completely foreign to them that this would happen and that the Father would respond this way. They're going to be in shock. They're going to be aghast.

Jesus says there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me. They would have all been floored. They would have taken this son out and flogged them. They would have disowned them, they would have sent them away. No Jewish son would have dared to do this to his father.

The son is wanting that which he has not even worked for completely yet. And it tells us that the father is going to divide the state to both of them. The older son is going to get 2/3 according to Jewish law, because he'll have to take care of himself and his widowed mother or his older father. And the younger son's going to get a third because he's not responsible for family.

But normally the sons would work until the father passed away before they received his wealth. Again, this would be seen as a huge insult to the father. No son would dare to do this. The Jews that were both religious leaders there and the non religious sinners would have seen this as a terrible thing and they would have immediately been against the sin of the son. And sided with the father.

And they would have been even more aghast that the Father would distribute the assets as were demanded, like the sheep. Again we see the one. But this is different. Because where the sheep has a rather low iq, this supposedly intelligent son with higher IQ than a sheep, instead of accepting the daily loving provision from his father, is demanding that it all be given to him so that he can use it the way he wants to use it, instead of using it the way his wise, loving father is going to meter it out to him over time. And like the coin, we again see the one.

But this is different, where the coin had no recognition of its value to the woman. This son is arrogant, he's prideful, he's demanding, he's demeaning his father in his request, and he's causing a great embarrassment. And what we see here is the depth of the.

Depth of the enmity and the hatred that people in the world have for God. In Romans 5, 6, 10, we find these things that say what we're like before we come to God. In faith. We're helpless, we're ungodly, we're sinners, we are enemies of God. And that's what this son is acting like.

He's acting like an enemy of his Father.

The Father responds not by banishing him, not by beating him, not by taking away his rights and privileges. Instead, he distributes the assets to both of his sons. Makes us remember how good and great God is. In Genesis 1:31, God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Everything good that we have in this world comes from God the Father.

Every good and perfect gift that we have, it comes down from the Father of Lights, because he is the giver of all good things. Things. And in Matthew we learn he doesn't just do that for those that love him and for the righteous. He causes his Son to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

And so the Father in the parable here, he's showering his blessing on both the Son that is against him and the One that is for him. God is good, God is giving, God is ever providing. That's what the Father is showing here in the parable, even to the Son, that is embarrassing him.

What happens to the young man says, not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and he traveled next door. Where does it say he went? He wanted to get as far away from home as possible. Remember, he's not just running away from home. That Would have been a different story.

He's taking a third of his father's wealth with him. And it says where he. In that distant country, he squandered his entire estate in foolish living. The older brother later says that he spent it on prostitutes. He was probably gambling in Las Vegas and he was betting on horses and he was taking drugs and he was drinking.

He was doing everything that the world says will bring you pleasure. He sought all the sinful pleasures that the world has to offer. And the thing about sin is it promises pleasures. It promises reward. But those pleasures and rewards are always short lived.

They always leave you for a desire for more. Just like a drug addiction. There's a high, but then you're down and you want more. There's a high, but then. And then you're down and you want more.

The pleasures of the world never fully satisfy, but the pleasures that God offers are eternal.

He spent everything. And then to make things worse, a severe famine struck that country. And now he had absolutely nothing. He had to go to work for one of the citizens of that country, which would have been an embarrassment. He had been the son of a rich man and now he's having to enslave himself.

But even worse than that, this man sent him into his field. To do what? To feed pigs. You have to understand that the Jews could have nothing to do with pigs. They couldn't eat barbecue ribs, okay?

They couldn't have bacon. They had miserable lives.

But to them, this guy is in the lowest of the low. And you can smell a pig farm for hundreds of miles. I mean, it's terrible. Not only the worst place to be, but it would have been the most disgraceful place for this young man to be. And while he was there, he was so hungry that he wanted to eat the pig slop.

But they said, you can't even have that.

To work with pigs was the most menial, despicable job that any Jewish person could imagine. And I'm sure everybody listening to Jesus says, yes, that young man got what he deserved after what he did to his father.

But what we find here, this is the condition of anyone who is separated from God in similar ways. Both the nonbeliever who has not met Jesus and the believer who has moved away from Jesus. And a close relationship is going to go down, down, down as they get further and further away, as they waste everything that God has provided. When they live like fools, they end up spending everything and having nothing left.

Now it's a God thing for this young man because he suddenly realizes his condition, he finds himself in desperate need with nowhere to turn. He's hit the bottom. And he realizes there is no one that can help him.

Those of us that if we've ever removed ourself from the presence of the Lord and people that are not saved yet, it's possible to get to a place that you're so down and you've gone so far away in sin or something that you say, surely God can't take me back. But that's a lie from Satan. Because no matter what, how far, how stinky, how dirty you are, God is watching and waiting for a lost, a sinner, a distant child of his to return.

Verse 17 says that he came to his senses. He started thinking, wow, how many of my father's hired workers had more than enough food, meaning all of them do. And here I'm dying of hunger while they're feasting. He says, I'll get up, I'll go to my Father and I'll say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired workers. Sometimes people have to reach the bottom before they remember the Lord. And again, for some, they believe that they've gone too far to return to the Lord. But we can never go so far that God is not there. He remembers his father.

He realizes that he is dying and that he cannot save himself. He realizes that his only hope is to return to the Father. And he knows that when he gets there, he's going to have to admit his sin. He understands that he's completely worthy of nothing.

And so it is with our relationship with the God. It's not that we deserve it in any way. It's all a gift of grace. But with all his thoughts, he still has hope. He has faith that his Father will accept him.

This is the path that a person coming to Jesus for the first time must follow. They have to acknowledge that they're sinful and they have no ability to help themselves. They have to believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation, to a right relationship with God, and then not only know that in their head, but they have to go to the Lord in faith and repentance in order to receive the salvation that is offered again. We're seeing won, we're seeing lost, we're seeing a return. And what we're going to see next is the joy.

Verse 20. He got up and he went to his Father.

And everybody listening to Jesus, they're thinking, well, what is dad going to do, he's going to punish that son. He's not going to accept that son back.

But if they were shocked before at what the son did, they're going to be even more shocked now. Because while the son was not even in the driveway, he's a long way off. It's like the father has binoculars looking every day all the time for his son to return. And he's not wanting him to return to discipline him, but he's returning. He's going to be filled with compassion.

And this man is probably older, did something that would be really embarrassing for a father in that day. He ran and his son with pig slop and manure and mud.

The dad threw his arms around his neck and it says he kissed him. And the Greek says that he kissed him over and over and over.

The Jews would have wanted the father to rebuke the Son, to discipline the Son and to reject the Son. But that would not have been the picture of our heavenly Father that Jesus is relaying.

The Son said to him what he probably had rehearsed over and over, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the Father told his servants, quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him. It's a picture of God, clothes us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ when we come to him in faith. And he put a ring on his finger that would say that he's restored to all his rights as his son. The Son would have been like a signet ring. It would have been what said, you have the right now to make decisions again in this family.

And unlike the slaves, he put sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and slaughter it. Let's celebrate with the feast. Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

So they begin to celebrate. The whole parable is about the One.

God is always concerned about the One. The whole parable is about those that are lost, that are enemies of God, that have offended him. Whether they're believers or non believers, they're lost. And in human terms, we would not seek those out or want them to return. But that's not the way God looks at it.

He's actively pursuing, looking for them. And when they do return, there's a great celebration.

This is all because of God's love. A.W. Tozer, in his book Knowledge of the Holy, talks about God's love. He says, because God is self existent. His love has no beginning because he is Eternal, his love can have no end.

And because he is infinite, his love has no limits. And because he is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity. Meaning there's nothing selfish in God's love. There's nothing that expects any return. And because he is immense, his love is an incomprehensibly vast bottomless, shoreless.

See if you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, God wants you to come to Him. He's seeking you. And when you do, he's going to celebrate with joy.

If there are those among us today, we're like the coin in the house. And we're not as close to God as we used to be. And maybe we think we can't be restored to being that close and intimate with him and he's ready for you to come back.

For those that are not even here today, we should be concerned about them and not write them off. We should think if God wants them to come back to fellowship, then we should be concerned about them too. And for those that are in this world, that are completely lost and have never come to a saving faith of Jesus Christ, our desire should be like God's, that we want them to come back. And it isn't just to bring joy to us, but when we do these things, when we come to Father, when we see other people come to him, it brings joy to God and that should delight us to see him enjoying what we have here. I don't know how God is speaking to you today.

You may need to come to faith. You may need to just return in a right relationship with the Lord. We're going to have some people at the back with a prayer team badge on and they'd love to just talk to you and have a word of prayer. So as we stand and sing, just make your way to the back to find someone to talk to. Will you stand with me as I close this in prayer?

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are concerned about each and every one of us. We thank you that you seek after us and even in the most despicable, terrible things that we do, you want us to come back all stinky and smelly. You love us. You will put your arms around us, Father. Draw all of us with the desire to have the close relationship back at home and in the flock with you that you desire of us today.

Guide our hearts and any decision that we need to make and encourage us, Father to step out and to speak to to someone, but most importantly to respond to you. In Jesus name we pray Amen.