Themes of the Bible: Lost (Luke 15)

 

Themes of the Bible: Lost (Luke 15)

Next week, you need to flip over one page and read Luke chapter 16. For this week, I asked you to read three of maybe the most famous parables of Jesus. There's a lot of Jesus's teachings, but these three are three that really stand out to a lot of people. The lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. Before we get into these specific parables, I don't know if you've ever wondered why Jesus teaches in parables? Well, there's probably multiple reasons but I think at least one of them is this: When you lay down laws and rules, (try it with little kids), they will find every possible exception, every possible technicality and they will do their best to exploit it, that's what they do. Let me give you an example. A simple straightforward rule of scripture that we all understand as believers is that sex outside of marriage is wrong. That's the rule. We all understand. That's what Scripture teaches, the biblical writers call it fornication. That’s fundamentally different than infidelity or adultery, but we know that scripture clearly teaches that’s its wrong. And yet, what do we hear as a result of having that one singular rule? Do people just say, ‘okay, I get it.’ No. What we hear is, ‘well, what actually constitutes sex? What is sex? Is sex, just intercourse? Or are these other things considered sex? And are those things bad as well?...” In other words, we're asking how far is too far? If you're telling me sex outside of marriage is wrong, then I can get all the way up to this line right here, and as long as I don't cross it, everything is fine. That's what happens when you have a rule. People will ask, ‘Is this rule always true? Are there exceptions? Certain times when the man and a woman really love each other. . . What if they're shipwrecked on an island, and they're probably never going to be rescued, but nobody's there to marry them? They're the only two people left, so are you telling me that they wouldn't be allowed to have sex for the next 50 years on the island. . .?’ This is what happens when you have a rule. Or even better, just dismiss the rule altogether as not relevant. I had this conversation recently, “But those teachings were given at a time when there wasn't birth control, and there wasn't all of these ways to have safe sex. And so, in that time period, that was probably true. But now it's not.” Every time you lay down a rule, there's always this kind of stuff. So, in Jesus teaching in parables, he isn’t drawing attention to technicalities. In other words, parables are teaching about attitudes, or teaching about our heart. The characteristics of where our heart is placed. In other words, what is Jesus's teaching relative to sex outside of marriage? When we use his teaching, we understand it's about our attitude, right? The intentions of our heart. And a heart that is chasing after God is not one that's going to say, ‘how close to the line can I possibly get? Is this too far?’ Those questions are never going to come up, because our hearts are pursuing godliness, and we're chasing after his righteousness. And so therefore, these questions don't even enter in. That's what parables do. They don't focus like the Pharisees, always on outward appearances. ‘Are you following this letter of the law?’ ‘Are you doing these things exactly like you're supposed to be doing?’ Rather, a parable focuses on the heart. Where we have been for the last several weeks, the last several months in the Old Testament, seeing in all of these accounts, that what God cares about is what's going on in the heart. And it fits perfectly with what is taught in the New Testament. Jesus says himself that we’re to stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly. How does God judge? He judges based on what's going on in our hearts. Not whether or not we're having religious festivals. He despises those if our heart isn't in the right place.

Parables help us do that. And also, parables are timeless. They understood what it meant then, and we can understand what he meant 2000 years later, and in another thousand or two thousand years, they'll still be able to understand what it means. And then, they have this emotional impact along with the logical one. We understand the logic but there's also an emotional side of this because the parables invite us to be self-critical. We put ourselves into these accounts, we put ourselves into this story and are forced to ask ourselves, ‘Am I that self-righteous brother in the account of the prodigal son, am I the prodigal son? Am I loving and accepting of my rebellious children the way the father was?’ We're able to see who we are, and who we’re supposed to be, and where our heart is supposed to be. And notice also that the people that don't get the parables, they're the ones that had the hardened hearts. They were the ones that Jesus was warning us not to be, which, if you go back into the Old Testament, is exactly what the prophet Isaiah prophesied. The word of the Lord to Isaiah said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed” (Isaiah 6:9-10). Is there a better description of these Pharisees that Jesus encounters? The Pharisees are the teachers of the law. They're the uber-religious people, the ones that go around in their priestly robes and garments, and they make sure everybody knows how holy they are. They issue these prayers in public, they use all of these big terms and all these religious ideas and they give the impression that they never sin. And Jesus is constantly confronting them saying that ‘it's all am outward show with you.’

So, what about these specific parables? The three I had you read for today in Luke chapter 15. The lost things parables. Well, I was doing the study for this, and there are some really bright theological minds that can pick them apart and say, ‘Look, each one of these is different, and this is what this teaching is and this is what this teaching is, and then there's this over here.’ Well, most of you know that I'm not that bright. And so when I look at it, I am not able to necessarily deduce all of the differences. But, here's what I see when I read this. Jesus tells all three of these parables in procession, there's one situation that occurs and then Jesus answers with three of them right in a row. It isn't as though he gives the parable of the lost sheep, and then days later tells the parable of the lost coin to a different situation and audience, and then later tells the story of the prodigal son in another different situation to a third new audience. They're all three in response to the same situation that unfolded. And so, with all due respect to the people that are able to understand all of the differences and look at the language here and there, I think there's something to the fact that these are all given in procession after a particular situation unfolded. So, what's the situation? Well, if you got your Bibles open to Luke 15, you can start in verse one. [Read Luke 15:1-3].

Okay, a couple things that weren't right there, “grumbled.” I don't know if you've grumbled before. But grumbling or muttering is where you're complaining and saying something kind of under your breath, but also loud enough that the person can hear. Like, “we’re going to be late for lunch because . . .someone. . . preached a really long sermon today. . .” Not that I've heard those things before but that's an example of grumbling or muttering. So, you are complaining, but in a way that the other person hears, while you're acting like you're not really saying it for their benefit. And that's what the Pharisees do. They are grumbling to themselves but making sure that Jesus hears them. This guy welcomes and eats with sinners and notice that line right there ‘eats with them.’ Now, the Pharisees don't have any problem with Jesus teaching sinners. That's what they did. They stood up behind their fancy pulpits and pronounced all these rules that all of those kinds of people had to follow. They of course, follow those rules to a tee. And they were happy to teach all of the sinners because they were the messed up crowd. They're the ones that have to get their lives in order. But those Pharisees thought it was beneath the dignity of someone who is teaching the scriptures to actually associate with those sinners. You can teach them from on high, but you don't get down there and sit among them. Don't invite them to your house. Don't be seen with them in public. When I see that, I start wondering and have to ask myself, ‘do we have a problem with that?’ Do we as a church have this same problem? Yes, we will talk about and we'll have all these things to say about those people that are messed up. But we don't want to be seen with them. We don't want to be associated with them. We don't want people to know that they're coming over to our house or letting our children be around their children, or actually doing life together. Do we have the same kind of mentality, even if it's to a lesser degree? I think that our culture is not that unlike the Jewish culture of Jesus’s day in this regard. There are a lot of differences between us and them. But in this regard, their culture was all about seeking honor for yourself and avoiding shame. I mean, that's kind of like us, isn't it? We try to craft a persona online and make everybody think highly of us. And then we dogpile on somebody that does something bad because we never do anything bad. Is that not American culture? I mean, it kind of is. And these parables stand all of that on its head. These parables collectively are an answer to the Pharisees criticism. The Pharisees are criticizing, saying, ‘How could you be around those people? You aren't godly if you're associating with them.’ And these three parables answer that, because the Pharisees are criticizing his love for lost people. And so, he starts with the sheep.

We’ll pick it up in verse four. [Read Luke 15:4-7]. Well, we all need to repent, so I love it when people tell me that sarcasm just isn't appropriate for a Christian to use. Because Jesus had a little sarcastic streak, perhaps pointing at the self-righteous. Anyway, notice what's happening here in this parable, a few things that I want you to pick up on. He noticed that one out of 100 is gone. I’ve seen flocks of sheep before, and I imagine if there were 100 sheep together and one of them wasn't there, it’d be hard to notice that one wasn't there. But the shepherd noticed the one wasn't there. What that says to me is that my feelings of obscurity and insignificance being this little guy driving around the Central Coast and preaching at rural churches, my feelings of obscurity, and unimportance, in the grand scheme of God's tapestry of life is totally misplaced. Because I matter. I matter to my shepherd. I don't know if you've ever flown into a big city before, but as you're flying into a city, you realize how small you are, because you look down and you see millions of houses down there. And you know that there's five or six people that lives in each one of those and you got the high-rise apartment complex, and how many 1000s of people live in those and that's just one city and you multiply that outwards. And you think, how important and significant am I in the grand scheme of the 7 billion people that live on the planet? But God notices. He knows us and he notices us. That's the first thing that Jesus is teaching. And then notice in the second sentence, “lost one of them.” Jesus says, doesn't the shepherd obviously chase after the one that is missing? Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, we'll be going through all these Old Testament books about the shepherds that mistreated people and would take their flocks on the other people's lands, and they didn't care about their flocks, and it was all begging for a great shepherd, a good shepherd. And now Jesus is saying, ‘how bad of a shepherd would I be if I didn't go look for one of my lost ones? You're criticizing me because I'm eating with sinners? How awful of a person would I be, how terrible of a shepherd would I be if I was like, ‘well, that sheep’s dirty over there. I don't want to associate with that sheep.’” That isn't the Savior. And it can't be those of us that are supposedly following that Savior either.

Now Jesus knows what motivates the Pharisees, and it isn't their love for God's people, which is why this teaching is stressing that to them. What is it that motivates the Pharisees? Well, you flip over one page, to the passage for next week, Luke 16. We read in verse 14, that the Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were scoffing at Jesus. Jesus knows what motivates these guys. It's all about the money. And so, knowing that, Jesus speaks their language in the second parable that he gives, and that's verses 8 through 10. [Read Luke 15:8-10].

Alright, so I just found this out. Leading up to this message. I had no idea I just always thought that the 10 coins were just a random thing. And maybe it is, but most biblical scholars will tell you it's not just a random choice of 10 coins, and she loses one of them. This likely has a meaning. In these times what they would do is to put these coins tied together in a headdress as part of a wedding dowry, and she would wear this on her wedding day, and it would demonstrate that her family paid an appropriate dowry to her husband. And by the way, if the husband cheated on her or abused her or left her, then the dowry would go back to the bride’s family. So, this is in their mind like a wedding ring. So, imagine it like imagine losing your wedding ring. Some of you maybe have lot a wedding ring, and it's a big deal and you're going to scour the house desperately looking for that wedding ring. The ring means more than the cost of the materials or the cost of a replacement. It's the same principle. You have this headdress, and one of the coins pops out, and you're going to look ridiculous with part of a headdress, just as your spouse would probably notice if you stopped wearing your wedding ring. So, she's desperate to find this lost coin. And that's the point of this story. The emphasis of this story is the zeal. This woman's doing everything. Nothing is more important to her than finding that lost coin, so she tunrs on the search lights. She overturns the couches, she flips over the lamp, she scours everywhere because of its extreme value to her. And what is Jesus stressing with this story? In essence, “You think that somehow I'm betraying godliness by associating with these lost people. They are so incredibly valuable to the Father, they're so incredibly valuable to me that there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to save them.’ Everything that you believe brings value, all of your earthly possessions mean nothing compared to God seeking and saving a lost human soul. Jesus is saying that the person who you turned your nose up at, that is one of God's children, and I love them and I'm scouring everywhere to find them.

And then, finally in the third story, he reaches the pinnacle. The parable of the lost son, or better known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. [Read Luke 15:11-32]. I love that story. The father has the compassion of the shepherd searching for the lost sheep. And the father has the zeal of the woman that's looking for her lost coin. But notice the father also has this permissiveness that allowed his sheep to wander to the far edge of the wilderness. He allowed his son to go out with his money and his blessing and make his own choices. He loved him enough to allow him that leeway, but then, notice verse 28. “But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him.” We always dwell on how the father deals with the prodigal son and we think it's amazing. He goes running after the son, throws his arms open and welcomes him home. That's what we always draw attention to. But remember, Jesus knows who was listening to this parable. Remember who he's talking to here. Yes, he's talking to the tax collectors, but who was it that sparked this whole thing? It was the Pharisees. It was the Pharisees that didn't think he should be associating with the sinners and low-class people. They didn't think he should be around them. Jesus knows that the Pharisees are listening to this parable. The Pharisees are the ones that want no part in a kingdom that welcomes sinners. The people that they see as sinners, the people who may be spent all their money on prostitutes and wild living. Pharisees don't want any part of a kingdom like that. They are this brother.

Okay, most of us know that. But what I'm stressing to you is look at what the Father does with that rebellious brother who thinks he's so self-righteous. The father is pleading with him to come in and join the party. Father isn't abandoning him either. He's going out to him and saying, ‘please, what are you doing? Come in and join the feast. Understand my love is for you just as much as it is for him.’ But it's the self-righteousness of the son, his hatred towards his lost brother that is now found, he lets that hatred separate him from his father's feast. And that's what Jesus is teaching these Pharisees, and I think it's what Jesus is teaching our hearts as well. Don't let your feelings of self-righteousness, your feelings of saying, ‘I'm better I'm holy.’ Don't let that separate you from the love of a father that wants to invite in sinners as well. These parables are meant for all of the hearers, then and now. They're meant for us to understand not to let your hatred of your brother separate you from the feast of the Father.

And I want you to notice the things that remain consistent in each of those parables. Something valuable is lost, whether it's a sheep, or whether it's a coin, or it's a wayward son, and great care is taken in the search for each of those things. And there is a personal value. It's not just a monetary value, but a personal value in each of those things. The shepherd had an attachment to his sheep so much so that he noticed when one wasn't there, and the woman, this coin was like her wedding ring. There's a personal attachment to it. And certainly, the son, there's a great attachment there as well. And there is great rejoicing when those lost things are found. Just as Jesus says in verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. . .” In each of the parables, Jesus is stressing God's love for the lost and how much rejoicing there is when one of those lost souls comes home. I mentioned earlier how Jesus is taking everything that these people understood and standing it on its head. Let me make sure you grasp this. The Pharisees in that day were seen as the beloved of God. They're up in front. They're the righteous ones, and all of these shepherds and tax collectors. They're the refuse. They're the trash. They're the ones that are out there squandering their lives away with the prostitutes. And in these parables, what does Jesus do? Jesus is exposing the pride in the hearts of these people that are regarded as so religious. He is saying that they're not more beloved than the others. He's bringing them down because of their pride. And these marginalized people, he's stressing they are as valuable as a lost sheep is to a shepherd. They are as valuable as the lost coin is to a woman in her headdress, and they are as valuable as the lost son is to a loving father.

God's love is for everyone, and he desires everyone to be in the kingdom. It's the same thing that he echoes in Luke 18, when the Pharisee is up giving this elaborate speech of a prayer, and then you have the tax collector who can't even look up to heaven because of all of his sins. And he says, “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” And what does Jesus say about those two? “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

There is a singular message that Jesus gives in all three of these parables. Our Lord is saying, in essence, ‘the lost need me and that is so important to me that I will invest my time and I will endure the inconvenience and the sadness and the rumors of all of you holy people, and the gossip and the anger, I will endure all of that for the chance to win back that which is lost.’ That's the love of your father. Is it the love that you show, as an ambassador of that Father, to the world around you, to the lost people around you? So, the second-class citizens, those who talk a little more course, or are a little rougher around the edges, and ones that you don't really want to be seen with, do we exhibit the same kind of love as the father does for lost things?

And I simply want to say that no matter where you have wandered, you haven't wandered farther than the sheep did. No matter how lost you are, you are not more lost than the coin was, and no matter how many of his blessings you have squandered and abused, you haven't done more than the prodigal son did. And your father is preparing a feast for you, and he wants you to come home. Why not now?

Let’s pray.