Love Hutch - Tuesday- 2024

The Parable of the Lost Coin - Changes verses to ESV

Key Take Away - CHRIST CAME TO SEEK THE LOST Key Word - SEEKER

The Context of the Parable.

What is a Parable?

an earthy story with an heavenly meaning.

Luke 15:1–2 “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.””

Were coming - is a continous aspect.

Sinner - bad people /moral law breakers

Tax Collector - were the worse of the bad people. They were seen as traders. [One of Jesus’ disciple use to be a tax collector.]

Luke 5:27–32 “And after that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he left everything behind, and rose up and began to follow Him. And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.””

To share a meal with someone is to treat them as a honored guess. [honoring the dishonorable]

The Pharisee would have look at being with sinners and tax collectors as contamination and to eat a meal with them would be unthinkable in their minds.

Christ did not accept their sin, but the sinners understood the seeker heart of Jesus. He wanted them to turn from their sins and the knew their sins well.

What is a Gospel account?

Rerouting the life of Christ for the purpose of explaining some aspect about His life and character.

The Gospel show that Christ was seeking to save sinners, but it was only the people who knew they were sinners that came to Jesus.

Luke 18:9–14 “And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. “The Pharisee stood and was praying these things to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”” [This is only here because Luke keep bringing up Tax Collectors. ]

Who Is Jesus?

The purpose for Christ coming into he world was NOT to be a example or a good teacher, but to accomplish His Father will in saving His people from their sins.

1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.”

Luke 15:8–10 ““Or what woman, if she has and loses one drachma, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? “And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost!’ “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”” We are thinking about God’s Joy over the lost being saved.

The parable is meant to be obvious, every women who loses her money would look carefully for it.

A child looking for a lost favorite toy

If the scribes and Pharisees were insulted that Jesus asked them to think like a shepherd, calling on them to imagine themselves in the place of a woman was an even greater insult.

The Pharisees has a self impose understanding that they were pure, so they would never come near those who they thought we rotten sinners.

For Jesus to ask them to compare themselves with dirty shepherds would have been insulting, but in a male dominated culture, it would have been even more insulting for Jesus to ask them to them about themselves as a women.

Since Jesus asked them to think in this way, they have to put themselves in the shoes of the characters thereby Implicating themselves in the story, though they are not present as characters in the story.

sweep and search

Continuous verbs / continous activity. This lady will continue to search until she finds it.

Why will she continue to look until she finds it?

Because its precious to her.

Lost winning lottery ticket thrown out in the trash and taken to the land fill. [think through something similar to this.]

drachma [silver coins] -souls are far more valuable than coins are.

The coin could a days wages. She wouldn’t need to spend it all at once. [they would tie the coins in a piece of fabric and carry it. It was kinda like a Purse.]

But it's likely that this is her dowry. Given to her by her father after her marriage or even sometimes by her husband after marriage.

It was meant to be a security for the future. If something was to happen to her husband, she could provide for herself.

Rejoice with me [friends - loved ones - dear ones -]

The main point of the parable is the joy of the women after finding the lost coin.

She calls her friends. [feminine nouns making these her lady friends that she calls on. ]

She can be calm about it. Its such an exciting thing for her that she calls her friends to celebrate with her.

The lady couldn’t contain the joy in her own heart, She had to call her friends because the joy was overflowing her heart.

A cup under running water.

The joy of God

it doesn't say joy among the angels. [where the angels are there is joy]

it doesn’t say its the joy of the angels.

But joy in the presence of the Angel. It will be the joy of God who dwell in the presence of the angels. Angels are created to be where God is in His presence and to worship Him.

This is the main point of application for the parables. It explains Jesus ministry and it reveal the heart of God as a seeking and saving God.

His rejoicing can not be contained until He has shown His joy before the angels.

God is not tranactional about salvation. God is not taking tally of people who are saved. When His grace finds and conquered as sinner and they turn and repent from their sins. God rejoices over such a moment. He nature long for the lost and when He find them, he rejoices.

God is not doing accounting. He is weeping for the loss and rejoicing over the found.

Isaiah 62:5 “For as a young man marries a virgin, So your sons will marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you.”

This scripture picture out one of life greatest joy that of a bride and bride groom

Jeremiah 32:41 ““And I will rejoice over them to do them good and will truly plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.”

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

People are of great value to God. Those who don’t know Him are lost in their sins. Christ paid the ultimate price by dying on the cross for their redemption. Do you know people who are lost? Ask the Lord to give you an opportunity to share the good news with them so they can repent of their sins and be found by our gracious God. [rework]

Heaven’s Joy

What do you think about when you think about heaven? [Tranquility, peace, beautiful surroundings, the glory of God, wonderful fellowship, worship, singing, music, people serving God]

The sum of heaven is joy.

consummate and unending joy.

Romans 14:17 “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Even now we live with a measure of joy.

One of the component of the joy in heaven comes from God joy from the salvation of sinners.

God seeks His own glory and God has a right to do that.

God has chosen that the salvation of sinners will contribute to his glory. He is the one who has determined that.

MacArthur explains components of this parable from their theological perspective  - The woman represents God in Christ seeking lost sinners in the cracks, dust, and debris of a dirty world of sin. He initiated the search for those sinners who belong to Him through His sovereign choice of them, since like the lifeless, inanimate coin, they can do nothing on their own (Eph. 2:1-3). Jesus came all the way from heaven to earth to search for His lost ones, pursuing sinners into every dark corner, and then shining the light of the glorious Gospel (2 Cor. 4:5-6; 1 Tim. 1:11) on them. Having found the lost sinner, God in Christ restores him or her to His heavenly treasury, and then expresses joy in which the holy inhabitants of heaven share. Recovering the lost requires costly grace. The sinless Son of God became a man, lived with sinners, bore God’s wrath for sin on the cross, and rose in triumph from the grave. None of the false gods of the world’s religions are like the true and living God, Who seeks and saves unworthy sinners because He values them as His own; Who makes His enemies His friends for the sheer joy that He receives in saving them.

—— verse to Hold on to ——

Ezekiel 34:16 ESV

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.