Lost & Found
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Finding Me
Finding Me
This section has been called the “Gospel of the Outcast”. In the next 4 chapters Jesus will talk about tax collectors and sinners, Rich man and Lazarus, persistent widow, Pharisee and Tax Collector, Zaccheus. All outcasts....
These next 2 parables, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son all depend on the “gospel of the outcast.”
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.
Tax collectors- nobody liked them.... they were viewed as dishonets andimmoral. You can understand the pharisees view of these people by listening to Luke 5.29-30
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
In OT times, nobody hung out with sinners.... see Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
For Jesus to hang out with sinful people, tax collectors- for the Pharisees it was an unthinkable idea. They said he welcomed them and ate with them.... he fellowshipped with them and that was abhorrent.
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?
A very common relatable situation… 100 sheep was an average sized flock. They were counted nightly.... leaving them in the open country was typical, but they would have been left in someone’s care.
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
The frightened confused and injured sheep would have to be carried.
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.’
2 standout items.
First, Jesus takes the initiative in seeking out lost people just as the shepherd sought out his lost sheep. See Luke 19.10
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Second,the climax of the story is notonly the finding and return of the sheep.... but the rejoicing in the return of the sheep… the rescue of the sheep.
Jesus is telling us, by the parabble that his seeking and receiving sinners pleases God.
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.
In heaven (verse 7) is a customary way of referring reverently to God without saying his name…
There will be rejoicing brings out the future....
Christians go astray. SEe Isaiah 53.6
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
See 1 Peter 2.25
25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Religious people do not see their own straying…that is why the Pharisees and scribes saw the tax collectors and sinners as “lost sheep” and could never apply this parable to themselves.
If you were a shepherd, you were Responsible for the sheep. Let me say that again— RESPONSIBLE. For the sheep.
When Jacob spoke to Laban, his father in law, he referenced this law. See Genesis 31.38-39
38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
This responsibility directed the shepherd’s response- he would go and find the sheep.... to not find it meant money out of his own wallet, and being labeled as a careless shepherd.
The shepherd would leave the 99, not because he didn’t care about hem. rather because he cared about all of them. He would go after the one, not at the expense of the 99, but because of the 99. He cared for the flock- every part of every flock.
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?
9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
When a Jewish girl married, she began to wear a headband of ten silver coins to signify that she was now a wife. It was the Jewish version of our modern wedding ring, and it would be considered a calamity for her to lose one of those coins. Palestinian houses were dark, so she had to light a lamp and search until she found the lost coin; and we can imagine her joy at finding it.
The sheep was lost because of its own foolishness.
The coin was lost because its owner was careless. (stumbling block).
Lost is Lost.
Lost means being out of place. Sheep belong with the flock… coins belong on the headpiece… lost sinners belong in fellowship with God and His people.
Lost means being out of service. Lost sheep has no value, lost coin has no value, a lost sinner cannot experience the relationship with God.
Bottom Line:
God Seeks To Save and Saves To Send
God Seeks To Save and Saves To Send
To be found means reconciled to God and purpose in life. It contradicts lost.
Joy for the found.
8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
Joy for the finder.
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.
10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
