Luke 15:1-10 - "The Parable of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin"

so good morning everybody and uh welcome to riverside calvary chapel and if you're new here and welcome and if and if you're online too welcome everyone i'm pastor rob and i'm filling in for pastor brent who just took all my time there and as you might know pastor brent typically goes through the the books of the bible verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book but we're taking a little break uh for the summer here and just going through some of the parables that jesus spoke about and today we're looking at the parables of the lost sheep in the lost coin from luke chapter 15 verses 1 through 10 luke chapter 15 verses 1 through 10. and like i said time is limited and the word is limitless so let's get out of it so let me read our verses here today and then pray and then see what the lord has for us luke chapter 15 verses 1 through 10 says then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to him to hear him and the pharisees and the scribes complained saying this man receives sinners and eats with them so he spoke this parable to them saying what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it and when he is founded he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for i found my sheep which was lost i say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who know who need no repentance and then he carries on with the parable of the lost coin in verse eight he says or what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it and when she's found it she calls her friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for i found the peace which i lost likewise i say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of god over one sinner who repents thank you father for your word thank you for giving it to us lord it is our lifeline lord god and we pray that you would speak to us this morning father by your words cut straight through every heart and soul here including mind father and change us into the image of your son lord we ask in jesus name so first let's get a little bit of of context and let's look at a little bit that chapter 14 i'm not going to take you through some of the verses but just a little bit of a of a context maker for chapter 14 of luke brent spoke a little bit about this in our gathering of the park on wednesday but jesus had been invited for bread and he was in the house of a pharisee and um all the invited guests were all gathered around listening to him and he talked with him about different ideas he was talking about invites he was saying when when you're inviting people to your home don't just invite the wealthiest people and the upper class and the well-respected and the known people but he was saying invite the poor those who have needs and those who won't be able to pay you back so right off the bat he was trying to help them see the difference between how god sees people the lost who need him and how they see people the the the religious leaders of the day and some of the jewish people of the day how they shut these people that are in need they shut them out by their religious requirements and a guest at the table with jesus at that point in time says to him blessed is he who shall eat in the kingdom of god eat bread in the kingdom of god and this opened it up right away for jesus to talk about some of the dynamics of his kingdom possibly the marriage supper of the lamb he was speaking of the the initial big supper that we're all invited to is going to be wonderful and it also helps us to see the mindset of god when he invites people to his kingdom he isn't concerned about the status in life as a matter of fact it's if you look through scripture he seems to have a closer eye on the small people of the world the frail the poor the sick the lame the simple people the humble people people whose hearts are humbler and people that definitely don't struggle with or they don't entertain the the grandiose thoughts about themselves and how wonderful they are some of the first invited guests in this story that jesus told made excuses that they wouldn't be able to come they made all different kinds of excuses if you remember financial excuses and relationship excuses and responsibilities of all different sorts they were so busy their their life and the stuff that they engaged in was so important that they won't they can't or they won't make it to the invite or try and change some things in their agenda so that they can make the invite they just won't but the bottom line is that that these all these excuses that they had on their part apart from god these excuses were all self-centered earthly materialistic desires and these people who you would think are excited to be invited but they have their own agenda the world this world this world held too much for them their life and their agenda in this life had held too much for them so jesus is gradually getting to the cost of responding to this invite and the real cost of following him just before our parables here today and and right at the end of chapter 14 it seems like jesus might have stepped out from the pharisees house because they were they were some of them were still gathered around with them but uh there was there was these this huge multitude it says at the beginning with people gathering around him as he went and many of them were as we'll see here are were the obvious sinners the ones that it wasn't hard to see that they were the sinners in in society the tax collectors and the people whose sins could be seen in their lifestyle and it wasn't hard they weren't hiding it and today it might be some of the people that we might think or this our society might think of the obvious like the drug addicts and the homeless and the foul mouth and the and the drinkers and the prostitutes and and all the all the different supposed questionable people in society people that you think can i trust this person but we know that god reads the heart some of the seemingly holy people had corrupt hearts but but you couldn't see it it wasn't as easy and jesus really began to lay it out and speaks openly with them about the cost of following him if you remember in in chapter 14 it's some pretty harsh speaking he speaks about the need to hate all relationships to be his disciple whether they be your mother your father your daughter your son your friend he speaks about not building anything unless you first count the cost of that thing and then he speaks about the waste of salt if it loses its saltiness but obviously when he's talking about hating our family members jesus wasn't actually meaning to hate them the way that we see the world use that that word in our society but it's but it was a very strong statement he wants me to realize that my relationship with him comes way before anything else or anyone else in my life yes even my wife or my kids to be willing to leave any relationship to maintain my relationship with jesus because the bottom line is i truly don't have anything i might think i do but i truly don't have anything until i first have christ he's trying to teach these guys this he's trying to teach us this he wants me to be realistic about the cost of building this relationship with him and ultimately he wants me to be willing to lose or sacrifice everything in my life to have life with him and then it doesn't get much more hard hitting he says even after coming to him he says if i lose my saltiness my allegiance to him my commitment to him my dedication in my life if people in this world just if they can't see the distinction between me and others if they can't see that i'm a follower of christ because i'm so much like the world then i'm useless i'm of no need or effectiveness i'm not perceived as anyone much different than the world what would what would attract anyone to come to me for something different someone who's if someone's out there whose life is falling apart and someone searching for truth and or ultimately someone searching for a savior why come to me i'm no different than the world they can just pick up the best the next best self help book and and see how they do with that because christ isn't seen in me and they're not attracted to that because i'm he's not seen in me so this blends so nicely into our verses here today because look at look at chapter 15 how it opens there's a multitude of people following jesus and especially and in particular these tax collectors and sinners are drawing near to him to hear him they want to hear him these ones that you think would be repelled by him with all this stuff that he's saying about dying to self and sacrificing he's talking about but no they're attracted to him in his words they're attracted to the truth his truth and they recognize that there's something about him something about what he's saying that they need and they don't they don't know what it is but they but they do sense it so chapter uh luke chapter 15 verses let me read the first three verses one one through three says then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him and the pharisees and the scribes complained saying this man received sinners and eats with them so he spoke this parable to them so before we get into the parable isn't it isn't this great isn't this great evidence that when we water down the gospel when we shy away from talking about sin when we avoid biblical topics that offend the world when we do this we're just being like the world every everything that jesus has been talking about them in chapter 14 was setting up the attitude of people who would ultimately feel compelled to come to him not be repelled they're done with this world they're willing to respond to any true invite and no commitment in this life would hold them back or lure them away they've already been hurt by the by the lies and the promises of this life of this world and they have no problem leaving family or home or work for jesus their sin has already caused them to do that and it's destroyed them so they're willing to to hope that this is different that's all they have that's their hope so the cost of following jesus is worth it's worth any relief from the pain and the chains that they've come from so jesus was talking real hard truth to them and they were drawn to him and not repelled the unbelievers and the new believers were drawn to him in his message the truth but not the self-righteous they weren't at all they didn't like it this grace that jesus was talking about offended the religious ones it was like man this guy's a little too gracious he's bringing in all these bad dudes and those in need of truth if we don't speak the truth even when it's difficult then they never get to hear it we cannot be afraid of the hard truth sin the wrath of god sinners sinners people who struggle with their heart about issues in their life they know that there's something up these sinners who were drawn to jesus knew that there's something wrong inside of them and so we don't need to hide it from them we need to expose it to them so that they can i mean lovingly expose it to them so that they can understand themselves a little bit more and understand their need for your savior and also sometimes just help them understand that there is a savior you don't have to be left like this and if they're ready for the truth we need to faithfully deliver it to them so that they can hear and we need we need not fear that the gospel will repel them because god prepares people for the times that they hear the truth he's prepared them way ahead of time before you've said anything out of your mouth and we know this like we know anything because god tells us in john chapter 6 verse 44 it says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him it's not no one can come to me unless rob goes on the street and says all the right words it's because the father has been drawing him and i will raise him up at the last day so the father draws people he prepares them for for those moments that they hear the gospel those moments that they hear the truth they hear about forgiveness they hear about jesus on the cross his resurrection the cost of following him in this life and we can we can fear sharing the gospel to people because of of those who yes will reject it and i might get some harsh response from them and many times probably will but that is the sacrifice we make so that those who the father has been drawing can hear the good news and we can't fear sharing the gospel and the hard truth from people to fear you know for the fear that they won't respond if they don't respond and look further into it then they either they either haven't been being called by the father at that point in time or they're rejecting it but they need to know exactly what they're receiving or rejecting not some wishy-washy message okay you're having a hard time why don't you just open up your heart or it's like they need to know what they're receiving or rejecting the gospel so i think is it first corinthians second first corinthians second corinthians chapter 15. lays out the gospel beautifully if you're having a hard time what to share with people so we need to do this i mean i don't know if many of you know i use this verse all the time second corinthians chapter 5 verse 20. it says now then we are ambassadors for christ as though god were pleading through us we implore you on christ's behalf be reconciled to god but if they don't respond and if they're rude or critical or whatever it's still a win-win everything we know everything that we know of these things is because it's all in god's word first peter chapter 4 verse 14 says if you are reproached for the name of christ blessed are you for the spirit of glory and of god rests upon you on their part he is blasphemed but on your part he is glorified so it's a win-win no matter how they respond so these sinners and these tax collectors were drawn to jesus the father had been drawing some of them and the pharisees they didn't like this they didn't they didn't see they didn't see their own sin but we know that some of them did see the truth in jesus and some were drawn to the father but the trick is that we just don't know only god knows which ones the scriptures say that some pharisees were following him so it's important here also to see the contrast between the religious people and the repentant sinner these religious leaders these religious people these legalists these these some of these faithful church-goers even today's age we're offended by the grace of jesus but this is what jesus came for he came for the lost jesus will show them in a moment here we'll see he'll show them the heart of the father how much joy a repentant soul brings him and how their repentance actually glorifies him and paul knew this he said that the churches in judea had heard that paul had when the churches in judea had first heard that paul was preaching jesus and he was the guy who was who was who's criticizing and killing christians he says because of this he says in in galatians chapter 1 verse 24 he says and they glorified god in me like wow look what god's doing in this guy's life so jesus begins with a couple of parables to try and speak to those who are willing to listen and he wants them to understand how valuable he sees the lost soul and just how much god loves the humbled heart and the repentant person and how he's willing to go to get them and bring them home he goes in different ways than we go though and god we must understand too this too the god never leaves the rest of his children to find the loss he's he he's always with us and at one point we are all the lost sheep we're all the lost coin and that's that's how we need to be seeing these two parables not that not that oh yeah god is is is going out from us the believers to get the rest of the lost yes this is true but it's more important for every single individual to see that this is us this is me i was the lost sheep that he went to find i'm the last sheep the lost coin whom he searched out to find and save and to and i'm and to be always eternally grateful of that chapter or verse 4 says this it says what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one in which he lost until he finds it so like i said it it's been it's been thought or or commented on in some commentaries that the shepherd here is willing to endanger the 99 sheep to go find the lost sheep but i think in the whole if you look at the whole council of god's word and in reality it's safe to say that this this really isn't true it's it's the it's just a literary way of expressing the importance that god is about finding the one who's lost the 99 are already with the shepherd and they were once lost a lost sheep themselves who is now found hopefully that's you today you're lost sheep who the lord found and safe and sound and with the holy spirit indwelling in the word of god the body of christ together like we're here today so we may still be in the wilderness the world the wilderness but we're safe and sound in christ so like he says to the faithful son also which daniel will um open up for us next week remember the faithful son with in the story of the prodigal son he says to him you're always with me so the most important part is to focus on the one lost everyone here today can put themselves in this place that god came for you god came for me we didn't go to him i didn't go to him it may feel like that sometimes but even the convictions that i felt early on the growing feelings of guilt and shame were a gift from him he was drawing me he started it all he's the guy who began and finished finishes it all luke uses the the sheep and the shepherd analogy here because they would all get it at this point in time they all knew that a lost sheep had absolutely no chance of finding their way back home wasn't going to happen they just don't and it's a fact on their own in their own best thinking it's over on my own there was no way that i was turning my life around and coming to the lord there's no way it was over so he reached out to me over and over and over and over in different ways whatever it took and he gave me growing amounts of guilt and shame just in my spirit with no influence from any books or any people or anything just just inside of me and he pulled me out of i i look back now i can see he pulled me out of crazy dangerous places in in unfamiliar cities in my life under the influence of alcohol crazy things could have happened and he brought people into into my path that challenged me and then then one night and i can't tell the whole story right now because it's it's too long but i guess he was just set on telling me the gospel he's like now's the time to download the law into rob and tell them the the gospel and he came to me in the middle of a of a set of music that i was playing the band that i was playing on stage banned playing loud music over 100 db hundreds of people people dancing and he filled me with the holy spirit and the law and the gospel of salvation and like i said it's a whole long story but it was incredible and from that point on he came to me and now it was up to me though to continually respond to him and most of you have your own stories of how he came to you in different ways you look back and go oh man this all makes sense now in my life and we need to pray for our society out here who believes that that they need to be good first before they come to hear god's word or hang out with us we've all heard of the people who feel that they need to kind of get their act together before they enter into the church because these holy people that here will notice them and they won't fit in and they'll feel uncomfortable but it's like but those who are truly surrendered to jesus we all come the same way just come as you are for goodness sakes i mean there's another verse i use all the time and uh it's a verse that drew me before i came to the lord come to me all you who labor on a heavy laden and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i'm gentle and lonely in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy my burden is light and man i need a dress i was just like lord my goodness i need rest from from my life and you see actually here jesus is coming to me because he sees someone who's admitting i'm broken i'm lost i'm hurting i'm struggling i'm without hope so jesus sees these people and he goes to them the lost sheep who realize i'm lost and that's the part that i play admitting that i'm lost some of these tax collectors and the sinners they knew that they were lost so jesus drew them there was something about him so when i've gone to the streets of chilliwack or vancouver and spoken to some down-and-out people they have no problem admitting that they're that they're messed up and to let them know that jesus will always come for a person who calls out to him in any capacity always and that's the the calling card of the lord simply just truthfully admitting that you're lost that you're you've depleted all your own resources and you don't know what else to do verse 5 says and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing but that wasn't the end of my story but he he certainly put me on his shoulders because from that point on i i always knew that he was around from that from that night on whether i was in my depravity or or trying to be holy in my own strength he was always present from that point on and i definitely had no strength but even though i didn't know scripture i i know now that this is true i can look back and see scriptures like this for when we were still without strength in due time christ died for the ungodly so the shepherd here is rejoicing but at the time i wasn't rejoicing always all the time at that point in time i didn't understand that once i was in jesus arms that he was never gonna let me go he was rejoicing because he he had me now and and and he knew that he would always have me and i was eternally sanctified in beginning the process of working out my salvation with him i didn't know that at that point in time but he knew and he rejoiced i wish i would have known at the time i would have rejoiced with him instead of just going oh my goodness this is crazy verses 6 and 7 says and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for i found my sheep which was lost i say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance so once again this is evidence of the joy that god experiences when a lost sinner repents and falls under the saving grace of jesus and i tell you it's all over scripture this joy of the lord zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17 says the lord your god in your midst the mighty one will save he will rejoice over you with gladness he will quiet you with his love and he will rejoice over you with singing can you believe that when we come to the lord that it says the lord your god will rejoice over you with singing that he's singing over me coming to him it's unbelievable so everything okay there so and also we see that the person repents after you see that the person repents after jesus finds them and brings them in and this is more reason for you to not wait to be open to the lord's calling just come as you are it's his relentless mercy grace and love that softens our hearts and changes us after we after he saves us in luke chapter 7 jesus had told them if you remember the story he told about two men who owed to a creditor but they both were forgiven their debt but one's debt was much larger than the other than the others and he teaches them that the one who owed much was forgiven much and if they were forgiven much they would love much so the key is that he knew that he was forgiven much this the the the guy that was had his debt let go here that's the key he knew he was forgiven much jesus then speaks about the prostitute that was sitting at his feet in luke chapter 7 verse 47 it says therefore i say to you her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same loves little and some go oh my goodness like that sounds a little difficult what does he mean there but i believe at this point in time being not that god loves anyone any less than than any other but that he wants me to realize that my sin is great and no less than any of the prostitutes drug addicts thieves or murderers in this world and my sin alone would send me to hell and jesus needed to come and die for me for my sin so knowing this my love if i know this in a great degree my love for him can be great just like this woman and lord willing i would love much because i know i've been forgiven much and i know that some people some christians still they still haven't understood that just their sin would send jesus to the cross even even the sins they commit after coming to him pryor would have been grave enough to send him to the cross but for his grace so we all need his grace daily so just imagine how how this how wonderful this would have been for the sinners and the tax collectors that were following him god had come for them and was rejoicing when they repented from their sin so this might be a wonderful for you too if someone who's online or someone who's here this morning it might be hopefully if you're there that it's a wonderful thing for you too just hearing this maybe for the first time or understanding for the first time that god loves you and he wants to forgive you just as you are and he has come for you and it was wonderful for me when i first heard it i knew that i was lost i was incredibly burdened in my soul and in my mind that i always i always i was always trying to find my way out of my sin and i had crazy compulsive activities and it was my life was just a mess chaotic on the from the inside out but but now my head hits the pillow at night and after praying to the lord i know that whatever is going on in my life that he's got it all under control i have complete peace so also we could get so consumed with with being the lost sheep that we forget how much the lord had to to give up to come here to find us he gave so much for us so the parable lost coin we'll go through really quickly here because it's verse 8 that we really want to look at let me just read it to you verses eight through ten says or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it and when she's found it she calls her friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for i found the peace which i lost likewise i say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of god over one sinner who repents so verses 9 and 10 are very similar to the parable of the lost sheep so we're going to because of of the little time that we have here um i really want to look at at verse 8 here i think it's safe that the um if you look at the the the important thing here is that we read that these parables that are that that we're looking at we need to understand who the characters are you know how sometimes you struggle with who's who's the character here is it god or is it jesus or is it is it is it me or is it the body of christ or is it a wayward christian and i think it's safe to to see that the shepherd in in in verse 4 is the lord himself coming for the lost but here in verse 8 isn't it interesting that it's a woman with that i think it's safe to say that this this could be the lord yes but i think also it's it's the church it's the bride of christ it's his hands and feet on the earth it's you guys and look at what what we do to do this as the church to find the lost coin the valuable lost center out there in the world first first of all once again it's it's very it's very valuable for us to to put the time and the energy just to go do this is wonderful enough but we need to clean house it's valuable its value is even more extreme now too because we know this because the lord is speaking about one coin out of 10 instead of 99 sheep out of out of a hundred so look what the woman does she lights a lamp sweeps the house and searches carefully how does the church light a lamp well verse psalm 119 verses 105 and a few other scriptures make it really clear your word is a lamp to my feet and the light to my path and we use the word of god we use it first to cleanse ourselves to grow and become ambassadors able to speak the lost and remember the verse that i mentioned earlier too so that we could be this so we could be ambassadors for christ and plead on his behalf and then we use the word the light of god to convince and convict and encourage the lost that jesus is the answer and that he is the answer because that's where the power lies in romans chapter 1 verse 16. for i'm not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god to salvation for everyone who believes and because that's that's what it's all about here today and always it's isn't it that it's it's what we're here for we're here to for for the sake for the lost we're here to help people to be saved by the gospel of jesus christ the good news of jesus christ and we're desiring that the loss gets saved from hell through the gospel isn't that what it's really all about and we sweep the house what it says in in verse 8 there what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp and sweep the house through the word the holy spirit indwelling the fellowship of the saints here us rebuking one another admonishing one another encouraging one another loving one another we sweep the house make this a a holy place we grow as a as a congregation so that we're more effective in the world around in the community around us we make it our goal to grow in holiness individually and corporately can i ask the worship team to come out and and we do this we don't do it through the law we do it by by the grace of god by by teaching the word extending grace forgiving one another extending grace encouraging one another extending grace i keep saying extending grace over and over again because that's that's the biggest thing it's just extend grace to one another and and grow in holiness and it's wonderful how we initially can think that these parables are all about the loss but a lot of it is about us here as a church what we're going to do psalm 95 says he is our god and we are the people of his pasture in the sheep of his hand today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts so if you're here today if you're online or if you're here today and and you're not if you heard the word of god and you're not with him if you're not saved from your sins just come to him he's calling you and there's nothing there's absolutely nothing that jesus will not forgive you for and you can receive that forgiveness right here right now just ask him to forgive you tell him that you believe that he died on a cross for your sins and he rose again and you want that gift of salvation and then ask him to come into your life and to take control of your life and ask him to guide you from this point on and he will ask him to help you turn from your old sins and if you do that the bible says you're born again and then simply just stay close to jesus so if you do that today if you do it online email us if you do it here today let one of us know let me know let someone know here so we can pray for you and so that we can help you along let's pray thank you father for your word here this morning lord god thank you for thanking that you came for all of us lord that's why we're here this morning at some point in time lord you drew us and you saved us lord we were lost sheep and you came for us we thank you for that lord god and lord i pray that you would grow our understanding of the magnitude of what you sacrificed for us that we would have much love knowing that we're forgiven so much lord we need to grow in love and we can only do that if we recognize just how much we've been forgiven to help us with that too lord thank you for speaking to us here this morning lord we thank you in the powerful name of your son jesus christ amen

Channel: Riverside Calvary Chapel

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Length: 36min 32sec (2192 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 27 2021