Finding the Lost
Notes
Transcript
We’re going to continue our sermon series “Called to Serve” this morning. We started our series in 1 Peter 2 where we learned all believers are called into a holy priesthood that offers spiritual sacrifices of our life and our service to the Lord. Then we learned in 1 Corinthians 12 we are all part of the body of Christ and that there are many parts. All of them are important and we should learn how God uniquely created us to fill an important role in the church. Next, we studied Galatians 6 and learned about the call to carry each other’s burdens. Next we turned our attention from inside the church to outside the church when we studied the parable of the Good Samaritan and asked the question “Who is my neighbor?” Last week we talked about the danger of judging others in Romans 2. We’re going to continue our focus on serving those outside the church this morning by reading from Luke 15.
I went to Chattanooga with April a few years ago to celebrate our anniversary. We got there Friday around lunch and spent the evening downtown on the riverfront. The city undertook a revitalization project in the 90’s and has a lot going for it with the Tennessee Aquarium, the Hunter Museum of American Art, and several restaurants and parks near the river. We wandered around town, had some great food, went to a blues concert in the park, and tucked ourselves in bed at the hotel.
The next morning we drove to the top of Lookout Mountain and visited Point Park. I was amazed how much my perspective of the city changed from on top of the mountain. Even with the face lift, Chattanooga is still a nitty gritty industrial city that has its roots in the railroad era. I saw abandoned buildings and industrial facilities littered all over the city. I realized how much of the city was in a state of decay and the people that must be suffering because of it. The night before I was roaming around doing my own thing, but the next day I saw an entire city and thought about how many people down there need to know Jesus.
I realized that God sees the world with a different perspective and I need to look at it through His eyes. We go about our daily life without much thought about the world around us. We get so wrapped up in the daily grind that we don’t stop to think about the masses of people who don’t know Jesus. Those people are lost without a saving relationship with God. Today I want to share a couple of stories that Jesus used to teach us about His perspective of the lost. We’re going to read from Luke 15:1-10.
1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him.
2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable:
4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?
5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,
6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’
7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.
8 “Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
9 When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’
10 I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
Let’s take a look at the first verses:
1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him.
2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Verse 1 says the tax collector and sinners came to listen to Jesus. Tax collectors were subcontractors for the Roman empire who had conquered and ruled over Palestine where the Jews lived. The Romans liked to hire locals who know the people, the land, and the roads. The Jews despised being under Roman rule and hated anyone that helped them, especially the tax collectors. Tax collectors were known to be dishonest and they earned a profit by charging a higher tax than they had prepaid to the Roman government.
The scribes and Pharisees were religious leaders who followed the Jewish laws and traditions to the tee. They were arrogant and legalistic. They were upset because the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to listen to Jesus. The phrase “were approaching” in the original Greek language meant this was a normal thing . They found acceptance in Jesus that they never received from the religious leaders. An interested side note – this phrase is the same one used to James 4:8 that says
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
These people were seeking God in the truest sense as opposed to the Pharisees who pretended to listen to Jesus but hardened their hearts against Him. Jesus spent His time among the lost during His time on earth. He liked to hang around bad people. As a matter of fact, Jesus was known to hang around the poor, lepers, illiterates, outcasts, prostitutes, tax collectors, and the demon possessed.
These people were excluded from the religious community and were considered the scum of the earth by the Pharisees. It was taboo to associate with the outcast crowd, let alone eat with them like Jesus did. Eating with them in the Jewish culture would indicate full acceptance and fellowship.
Jesus took on the religious establishment on many occasions and he used this opportunity to teach them God’s perspective of the lost sinner. He used three stories to describe how God reacts to those who are lost without Him. For the sake of time, we’re going to read the first two.
3 So he told them this parable:
4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?
5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,
6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’
7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.
The Lost Sheep
In the first story, Jesus told about a shepherd who had 100 sheep. This would have been an average size flock. The shepherd left the flock in search of a lost sheep. It was common for a shepherd to work with others and would have left the flock in their care or in a pen. He went after the sheep and didn’t wait for the sheep to come back.
There’s no telling what kind of dangerous terrain he had to cross and the wild animals he might face. But he went after the one sheep. And when he found the sheep, he gathered his friends together to celebrate. The sheep was important to the shepherd. God is in the business of pursuing the lost. He is willing to do whatever it takes to find them. He said there is rejoicing in heaven when someone repents.
8 “Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
9 When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’
10 I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
The Lost Coin
The second story describes a woman who had 10 coins. This was probably her dowry - the only money brought into a marriage that was truly hers (even if the marriage was dissolved). Each coin would have been worth a day’s wages. The fact that she only had 10 coins indicates that she wasn’t from a very wealthy family and each coin was very valuable to her.
After she lost the coin, the woman lit a lamp to try and find it. She wouldn’t have had much light in her small home and the lamp would help her see the coin in a corner or crack in the floor. In poor homes, the floors were made of rough stones with lots of cracks. Small coins would often fall into these cracks, and now, archaeologists find these coins to figure out when people lived in those houses.
She even swept to move away the dirt and try to make the coin rattle in the floor. The point is that she went through a lot of trouble because the coin was very valuable to her. After finding the coin, the woman rejoiced and threw a party. Here’s the kicker: Jesus said that there is joy in heaven when one sinner repents. I like to think that God threw a party when I repented of my sins and decided to trust Him with my life!
I hope that these stories give you a glimpse of the world through God’s eyes. Let’s get a new perspective. I want you to understand that God sees the millions of lost people who are dying without a saving relationship with Him. He desperately wants each and every person to turn from their sin and trust Him. We need to see the world through His eyes. The lost are important and He is pursuing them.
I have a confession to make. I lose my children. Actually, I just lose one of them! Bradley always had a knack for wandering away from us and getting lost. When Bradley was seven, I think he’d been to Disney World six times (we didn’t go to the beach or the mountains – just Disney World). I think he got lost five out of those six times. Now before you call DHR, you need to know that most of those times he was just a few steps away in the crowd. But the last time we went was a lot more traumatic.
We were with our friends and had six kids between us. We were in Hollywood Studios and had just seen the Indiana Jones stunt show. It was awesome! We walked to our next destination and I was talking to my friend Chris and had a couple of kids with me. April was with our friend Kristi and they had a few kids too. You can see where this is going… We got to the restroom and April told me to take Bradley in with me. My heart sank when I realized that she didn’t have him. We frantically retraced our steps and thankfully Bradley had followed our instructions for getting lost. He stayed right where he was back at the stunt show.
I can honestly say that I would have stopped at nothing to find my lost son. I was desperate to find him. I would have even laid down my life to get him back. That’s exactly what Jesus did for you and me. He left His throne in heaven, stepped into His own creation, took on flesh and became a man, lived a perfect life, was crucified on a brutal Roman cross to pay for our sin, conquered death and the grave, and rose three days later and is alive to this day. John 3:16 sums it all up – God loved us so much that He gave His only son that whoever believes on Him will not perish but have eternal life.
God’s plan for reaching the lost is for us to go and make disciples. I want to assure you that Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient for all of our sins and anyone who trusts Him for the forgiveness for their sins will be saved. But not everyone has heard the great news. There are 12,263 people groups in the world. A people group is the largest group that the gospel can spread and churches can be started without a significant barrier to understand like language, culture, or religion. 7,250 people groups are considered unreached because they are less than 2% Christian. Of those 7,250 unreached people groups, 3,118 have not been engaged by anyone.
God has a plan for spreading the Gospel to all the corners of the earth. If you look at the book ends of Jesus’ ministry you see that He taught His disciples that they were to spread the Gospel. He started by telling His followers that they would be fishers of men and ended by telling they would be disciple makers.
18 As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen.
19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”
20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
You see, God never intended for us to be spectators. He expects us to be disciple makers. If we believe the Bible is true then our lives will reflect that belief. God is sending us out into the world so that all may hear the Gospel and be saved. Part of our call at Enterprise Baptist is to serve Christ as true missionaries.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”
I believe that the church in North America has been deceived into thinking that we can attract people into the kingdom of God. There is no doubt that we should make Enterprise Baptist Church a welcome place for both believers and nonbelievers. We should do everything in our power to bring people to church to hear the preaching of the Gospel and to experience the love of God’s people. But we are mistaken if we think we should stop there.
God’s plan is to go and tell, not bring and show. We get lazy by depending on the church to do what we've been called to do - make disciples wherever we go. It’s pretty easy to give a few dollars to the missions offering and while we stay comfortable in our pews.
I’m thankful we are renovating our building. We need to provide a warm and welcoming place for people to visit. But I want to challenge you today - don't get comfortable thinking that’s all we have to do. Our mission isn’t to build bigger and nicer buildings. Our mission is to go into the entire world with the good news of Jesus.
While it’s my responsibility as the pastor of this church to equip believers to share the Gospel, the Great Commission isn’t limited to the “professionals.” Jesus called everyone who follows Him to be disciple makers. We’re all commanded to go. Unfortunately, there a few issues that keeps us from following the Great Commission: selfishness and fear.
First of all, most of us are too focused on ourselves to take the Great Commission seriously. We’re too wrapped up in our own lives, our own schedules, and our own fun to see the world through God’s eyes.
I believe the second issue that keeps us from following the Great Commission is fear. Most people believe they need a lot of evangelism training to share the Gospel, but we don’t. Parents don't need a lot training to talk about their kids. Grandparents don’t need to a lot of training to talk about their grandkids. We talk about what we love and care about. We should want to share the Gospel because it’s the only thing that can save our lost and dying friends and family.
All we need to know are the essentials of the Gospel:
Nature of God
Sinfulness of man
Sufficiency of Christ
We need to trust that Holy Spirit is already at work in the lives of those who He puts in our path and that He will give us the power to share our faith.
David Platt is a pastor and was the president of the Southern Baptist Conventions International Missions Board. David met a woman named Punja in India. Punja and her husband had been invited to a house church gathering at Christmas. They came and didn’t come back for a few weeks. When they visited again, an announcement was made that later that afternoon the church members were going to discuss how to best spread the gospel in their community. The pastor told Punja that they would be meeting for several hours and that she probably wouldn’t be interested in hanging around. Punja wasn’t a believer after all. Punja said that she would like to stay and listen. The church members talked about their strategy for sharing the gospel and they agreed that the first step was to make sure they knew the gospel. As they talked about the gospel, Punja decided to trust in Christ. After she got saved, Punja actually believed that she was supposed to do what they had been planning and so she went home and gathered twenty four of her friends and family and told them about Jesus. Seven people came to Christ and the next week they began meeting in her home to study the Bible together. She went from convert to church planter in two weeks.
The same Holy Spirit that drew Punja to a saving relationship with Christ and empowered her to share her faith is at work in us. We must simply obey God’s command to share the Gospel with those around us.
Jesus not only told us to go, He gave us details about where we should go to share the Gospel.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
God wants us to take the Gospel down the street and around the world. We must engage the world through expanding levels if we are to fulfill the Great Commission.
Jerusalem and Judea = Coaling and Tuscaloosa County
Don’t think that because we live in the Bible belt that we don’t have a mission field here at home. We must begin by reaching our community, our county, and our state.
Jerusalem = Coaling (5 miles around EBC)
7,896 people, 3,046 families
Estimated Unchurched (60%) = 4,738
Estimated Unbelievers (70%) = 5,527
9 Churches ~ 10 | ~ 5,000 people / 10 church = 500 each church
Judea = Tuscaloosa County
237,373 people
Estimated Unchurched (60%) ~140,000
Estimated Unbelievers (70%) ~170,000
Estimated Not Attending Worship (80%) ~190,000
We should begin like Punja by telling our friends and family about Jesus. You can use a wonderful new tool called the Story to share the Good News using your phone or the internet.
We want you to invite five families to church. We’re going to have an event called 3:16 on 3/16.
Samaria = US and North America
People are coming to the US in droves from all over the world and we have an opportunity to reach them without crossing an ocean to get to them.
Church planting locally and in places without a strong church presence
Short term mission trips
Student ministries (high school and college)
Friends of India ministry in Cumming, GA
Disaster relief
Annie Armstrong Easter Offering - Week of prayer March 2-9
Ends of the Earth = International Missions
We can’t ignore God’s call for us to engage the entire world. Enterprise Baptist has no excuses. We’re not too small. We’re not too far away. The same Holy Spirit that empowered the first believers to travel the world with the Gospel is at work in our church today. We have many opportunities to partner with missionaries, churches, and mission organizations to reach the farthest corners of the earth.
Church planting
Short term mission trips
Sponsor missionaries
Adopt an unreached people group
Challenge:
Ask God to tell you how you should look for the lost this week. Pick up a coin on the way out to remind you.
You might be lost and wanting to be found. See me after church to talk about following Jesus.
Invite five families to church on 3/16.
Prayer for unreached people groups.
Join the Missions Team and help us plan events to make disciples in our community, region, and the world. See me after church to find out more.
Bow for prayer.
Take silver coin as a reminder to find the lost only if you’ll commit to doing it.
Pray to see the world through God’s eyes.
Pray for the lost.
Share the Gospel.
