How to Make a Difference?

Good morning we are in our sermon series entitled, “All I needed to learn I learned in Sunday School”

We are looking at the parables that Jesus taught during his ministry.

Parables are short stories and metaphors that carry profound truth —Parables are both simple and complex…

They are Simple enough to teach our children in S.S. and yet complex enough - to be hidden from scholars and theologians…

.. The teaching of parables were foundational to the early church and are foundational for Christian life today...

This morning message is entitled.. How to to make a difference… this is something that I remember being taught from a young age… that I could make a difference? We were told to aim for the stars and if you miss you will hit the moon.. We have all wrestled at some point of our lives.. with the need to find our purpose... we have asked questions like..

How can I make a differnce?

How can I make my life count for something?

How can I …best spend my time and energy

How can I live with meaning?

When Apple Computers fell into difficult days in the beginning , Steven Jobs, traveled from the Silicon Valley to New York City.

His purpose was to convince Pepsico’s John Sculley to move west and run his struggling company.

As the two men overlooked the Manhattan skyline from Sculley’s penthouse office, the Pepsi executive started to decline Jobs’s offer.

“Financially,” Sculley said, “you’d have to give me a million-dollar salary, a million-dollar bonus, and a million-dollar severance.”

Flabbergasted, Jobs gulped and agreed—if Sculley would move to California.

But even with that..Sculley would only commit to being a consultant from New York.

At that, Jobs issued a challenge to Sculley: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to change the world?”

In his autobiography , Sculley admits Jobs’s challenge “knocked the wind out of him.”

He said he’d become so caught up with his future at Pepsi, his pension, and whether his family could adapt to life in California that an opportunity to “change the world” nearly passed him by. But..Instead, he put his life in perspective and he went to Apple..

Why did he do this? Because of this innate desire to live for something that is bigger… than ourselves…

The interesting thing is that as we get older..this desire/feeling doesn’t go away … it can intensify… that’s why people make changes as they get older… some go back to school.. others change jobs.. some move…

Why? Because of this need for transcendence … to live our lives for something bigger than ourselves.l

The well known theologian Francis Schaffer said..

“Man, (was) made in the image of God,

has a purpose—(that is)

to be in relationship to God…

(But) Man forgets his purpose and thus he forgets who he is and what life means.”

Francis says our purpose comes from being created in the image of God.. and not only that our true purpose can only be found in Him ..

Our text this morning is found Luke chapter 15 .. We are going to look at two of the three parables on Lostness…

the parable of the lost sheep.. the parable of the lost coin… the parable of the lost son..,(next week)

What we learn from Jesus is how to live with purpose…

.. it is towards the end of Jesus ministry…(this section is often been called the Travel narratives) because they happen after Jesus says he set his face towards Jerusalem..

Jesus is a the hight of his ministry .. large crowds of people… have gathered to hear him teach.… in these crowds were a mixture of people. .. There were the Religious crowd (or the spiritual Elite of the day) — there were disciples… and then were the curious and the undecided....These are those who are gathering around Jesus..

Lets read our text..

Luke 15:1–7 ESV

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 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.

We are introduced to the crowd —First.. In the crowd are the Pharisees and the Scribes.

The Pharisees were considered the GATE KEEPERS —For about 200 years from 150 BC - they had been responsible for stewarding the laws of God.. and so you can imagine that they were concerned about keeping and implementing doctrinal and ceremonial purity..

Also in the crowd were the Scribes…They were the EXPERTS in the law …they were responsible for interpretating legal matters.. and teaching the Torah and Jewish literature…they were also those who were trusted with transcribing important documents..

So there is the Religious crowd … but there also another group mentioned..that were..

Made up of Tax collectors.. and sinners..

The NASB says that “All” the tax Collectors.. and sinners. gathered around Jesus.. The ALl.. speaks of the volume of this group … crowd was predominately those on the fringes of society..

…in Jesus day it was the Tax collectors were who enforced the Roman taxation on the people… … so you can imagine how popular they were! then there were..

“All” the sinners -the sinners were those who did not participate in the Temple and follow the laws of God..and they were seen as those who were ceremonially unclean ..and just like a cold you catch their disease..

So..Jesus is ministering to a mixed crowd -

There were also different motives in the crowd..

The Religious crowd were looking to entrap Jesus in his words.. Something they often did.. .

WE SEE THIS this IN LUKE 19.. when Jesus is Jerusalem teaching in the temple.. Luke tells us

Luke 19:47–48 NASB 95

And He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him, and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said.

This was the game that was being played..

You have this tension of the Religious leader trying to find fault with Jesus..but never able find anything wrong and being frustrated..

at the same time there are those are hungry for truth and they are hanging onto every word Jesus spoke…

In chapter 15 THE Religious leaders get frustrated.. The began to “mutter ” among themselves...

“This man receives sinners and eats with them”

What they were saying was that Jesus and his disciples were unlean by their association..with sinners.

… but Jesus took this as the highest complement… and uses their question..To spring board into theses parables where he shares his heart and mission…in order to show his discples how they can follow in his steps..

TS — How do we make a difference in Our world ? . first.. We

1. Re-Orientating Ourselves towards His Mission

We have all experienced being lost!

Pam gave permission to share this story.. The other day she went for a walk at Chico Creek … she hadn’t been there before and got a little lost ..she couldn't remember where she parked her car — - …so when she called me I was little surprised…Pam has excellent sense of direction.. And so it didn't take her long to figure it out — She remembered that she came in on a one way street …and she all that had do is find a sign and then walk in the opposite direction if the sign

…It is easy to get lost preoccupied with life and lose our way… when it comes to faith there is only one direction..

Jesus said …He is the Way….. the truth and the life..

some times we get disorientated..… we have to turn around..Get back to the The Way..

The word reorientate means

readjust, rearrange, reconstitute, reconstruct, reorder, reshuffle, retool..

This is what Luke is getting at in our text…

It is about reorientation our life to his mission and purpose..

When You look at the Gospel of Luke . It can be divided into two parts.

The first 9 chapters …establishes Jesus identity..

His Unique Birth..

His titles.. Son of Man, Son of David…

Christ is seen as fulfilling the OT..

The second half From Chapter 10 onwards ..

We are challenged be disciples of Jesus… Jesus said if we want to be his disciples we have… to deny ourselves and pick up cross and follow him ..

Luke challenges us t Re-Orient our lives to Jesus unique mission..

and Jess tells us about hismmission in these three parables.

lets read the text again.

Luke 15:3–4 NASB 95

3 So He told them this parable, saying, 4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

Jesus begins with a rhetorical question -

What man among you...does not leave the 99 and go after the one that is lost?

Remember.. These were not shepherds… but this crowd understood the culture of lockscand herds...

My parents live in Wales in the UK— and there are sheep… all accross the country side…— it is the same in Israel - Shepherding was part of the culture...

The shepherd in the parable is faced with a Dilemma — one of his sheep has wondered away from the flock…and the shepherd is face with a choicrr..

Does he stay the flock or go after the one..

What would a good Shepherd.?…

some questions are tough..

In Ethics they talk about the greater good.. Oing what best for the majority....

if you go to see the Oppenheimer movie.. the issue dropping one bomb to end the war…

Some decisions are made on the basis of the greater good… Those who are most impacted…

Jesus - ask what would A good shepherd do?

Jesus then answer the Question -

he would go after the One..

Jesus was not saying the other 99 were unimportant. But there is a priority and an urgency about by finding the one..

It is not that not that Shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep untended, he would he left them in the care of a fellow shepherd or helper.

But the point f the parablr is that of Priority -

Jesus place a disproportionate amount of investment in finding one sheep…

A Shepherd role was to be accountable for the well being of all the sheep.

And occasionally one of the sheep would get lost.. a sheep strayed away from the fold..…

Bruce Larson in his comments explains how sheep get lost. He says that..they nibble their way into lostness.

They move from one tuft of green grass to the next. They keep moving along from tuft to tuft, sometimes right through a hole in the fence.

When they’re done nibbling they can’t find the hole and they’re lost.

Some of us know what that is—to nibble ourselves bit by bit into the far country.…

This often how we loose our way… it is inch by inch …and bite by bite.. we look up and we have drifted..

Jesus asks a Rhetoric question-

What would a good shepherd do?

Jesus values the one..

He cared about that one little lost sheep —another shepherd might have counted the personal cost and decided to let that one sheep go and be lost forever.

But, this shepherd saw the value in just one sheep and he went after it.

The Shepherd does not stop until he finds the lost sheep!! We can take comfort -- Jesus is relentless in his pursuit of those who are lost..

How do we Regain Our sense of Purpose?

TS We learn from Jesus — How do we make a difference in Our world ?

1. Re-Orientating Ourselves towards His Mission

2. Re-imagining God's Unfailing Pursuit.

In 2010 there was story about a NY bus driver Richard Lucas — who was driving his bus in South Buffalo, when he noticed smoke coming from the back of a house alongside his route.

He stopped his bus, left the passengers behind, and ran to the house, and began banging on the door.

The people inside the two-family home, all of whom had apparently been asleep, stumbled out just as the house burst into flames...

If he hadn’t stopped this would a been a terrible tradgedy…

Lucan had to leave his passengers on the bus in order to save the lives of others.

This is what Jesus did in his ministry…

Luke 15 is one of the clearest and greatest statements … concerning the love of God for the lost .

The rabbis taught that God would receive sinners who sought His forgiveness earnestly enough, but here find Jesua is the One seeking the sinner -

Jesus defined His mission by saying, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

He didn’t simply say that He came to save the lost, but that He came to seek and to save them.

That means that , before the lost can be redeemed, they must first be found.

If we are going to make a difference — We need Envision/ Reimagine — How much God loves people in our lives and community..

Jesus is is already working in the lives hearts of those around us… He is the friend of sinners…

In verse 4 Jesus left the 99 but in verse 5 he finds the sheep..

5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Tim Laniak was professor (Gordon Conwell Seminary) lived among shepherds in the Middle East for a whole year, to study both shepherds and sheep from a biblical perspective… He tells the story of Ahmed, a Bedouin shepherd he met who said: that..

“… I have never lost a sheep or goat that I didn’t find again, dead or alive—except one. And that one I can never forget. She is on my mind every night before I sleep.”

One lost sheep mattered to Ahmed…

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, came to this world to die for the lost sheep— there is not one lost sheep that he does not think about!!

God’s desire to find sinners and bring them back into the fold is beyond what we could fathom.

Notice what happens when the shepherd found the Lamb... He lifts the animal up and he puts him on his shoulders..

The lamb would be placed over the shepherd’s shoulders with its stomach at the back of his neck and the feet would be tied together in front of his face.

It is a beautiful picture…

One of the oldest statues in the church dates back to the third century and it is a statue of the Shepherd bearing the recovered lamb on his shoulders……one of the distinguishing features of this statue is that the sweetness of Jesus Countenance.. “He joyfully puts the lost lamb on his shoulders.

Evidently the persecuted church found immense comfort in the parable of the lost sheep.

This is one those occasion we see the joy in the passion of the Christ…(that last week of Jesus sufferings).. we glimpse a foretaste of heaven..

Hebrew 12.2 tells us to fix our eyes upon Jesus who joyfully approached the cross.

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

There is the willingness of the Shepherd and the Weariness of the Sheep… I can just envision the shepherd reaching Down for this lamb.. who has been struggling….

There is something exhausing about sin..

The bible says sin is only pleasurable for a season — it gets old quickly..

Bad habits…and addictions… are wearisome.

The reason lamb had to be carried because it was total exhausted..

It must have been a relieved to be in the care of the good shepherd..

When we read psalms 23 to see the rest that is available to us.. The lord is my Shepherd… He makes me lie down by quite waters…he leads into green pastures and beside still waters…he restore my soul… surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…and I will dwell l in the house of the lord forever

The shepherd picks up the sheep and carries the him home with him..

We notice rhat - The sheep is not responsible for getting itself home.

It may have wandered away, but the getting home is the responsibility of the shepherd! This is the rest and assurance that we can have..

After it is saved, it finds itself resting upon the strong shoulders of the shepherd! (.

When they get home there is a Party.. a celebration..

Luke 15:6–7 ESV

6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 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.

Jesus explains the parable…

The Purpose of Life… is this Home coming…

There is more joy over the repentant sinner than the joy felt over the righteous people who have no need for repentance

.. Jesus saw this as occasion for joy.. because those who were lost were coming to the kingdom...

Heaven is a place of Joy.. where -God himself and the angels in heaven rejoiced over one sheep returning.

TS We learn from Jesus — How do we make a difference in Our world ?

1. Re-Orientating Ourselves towards His Mission

2. Re-imagining God's Unfailing Pursuit.

3. Re-engaging Our World with Relentless Love.

When Pam I were starting out… we lived in an apartment in Avenues in Harare — One day we managed to lock ourselves out of our apartment.. and was in the the days before cell phones.

We had to go to our neighbors and borrow their land line and call Pam’s mom… So she came to our rescue with the with spare keys in hand … We all get into the elevator…but as we getting in...Pam’s mom gives Ryan (who is a toddler) the keys… and in that moment the slip out of his hands and fall through crack between the elevator and the the doors… It all happened in slow motion…I can still see the sliding over the edge..

Now, here we were all stranded -we were locked out apartment — and all our keys were sitting at the bottom of the shaft of the elevator… the rescue went south..

It took us some time to eventually… we got a steal wire and miraculously fished out our keys..

You can imagine the releif

The second Parable that Jesus taught was the Parable of the Lost Coin. It is a companion to the parable of the lost Sheep… Jesus uses the Conjunction

Or to Join the connect two ideas...

Luke 15:8–10 NASB 95

8 “Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

..

Jesus tells of a story of woman who had 10 silver coins and she looses One Coin.

One coin is a modest amount of money… .A drachma, a Greek silver coin referred to only here in the New Testament, equaled about a day’s wages. It was worth about $7.50…

— While it might not seem like a lot to some.. It was valuable to this woman..

Again Jesus asks a Rhetorical question...What does this woman do?

Does she forget about the coin… does she not care?

The answer… is of cause she is going to search for it..

she will light up a lamp

she will sweep the house

She will search carefully

In fact...She won’t not stop until she finds that one coin...

The search is relentless..

The lost coin is of such value to the woman that she is a whirlwind of organized persistence.

Once she has found the coin.. What does she do?

She calls together her friends and neighbors and they rejoice together because because of coin is found ..

Jesus says in the same way ---There is joy in the presence of the angels of God...over one sinner who repents…

Repentance is a universal message…in the Bible..From Genesis to revelations.. it message turning to God..

The irony in this verse are those who think they are righteous and don't need to repent... are the very ones who need to turn to God...

Is it the same today…those who need him most… those who have a high moral ground..

The Joy in heaven contrasts the grumbling of Jesus’ opponents.

But for those who repent..there is unspeakable joy..

What find is the restoration meanin and purpose!

Conclusion

There a story of a monk that wanted to change the world.. He wrote that..

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family.

My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

Real change begins with Christ doing a work iin us…

To make a difference in the world, we need to first need Jesus to change us...

We need understand

Jesus relationship to our own lostness.

Rember scripture says

“When we were without strength,” Jesus left heaven, and laid aside his glory, and became a man,—the subject of poverty, and reproach, and suffering, that he might find the wanderer.

“The Son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost.”For this he lived, and suffered, and died.

It starts with with transformation within us.

john Stott…said

When we go to the doctor and are given a prescription, his purpose is that we should eat the medicine, not the prescription!

John Stott

We we have given the prescription… for salvation

our shepherd..

became the lamb of God and Carried our sin on the cross.. we .. been given the prescription to live with joy…but you got take the medicine.. We got to live it out.. We have got receive him

1. Re-Orientating Ourselves towards His Mission

2. Re-imagining God's Unfailing Pursuit.

3. Re-engaging Our World with Relentless Love.