The Lost Coin

TENSON.

A few years ago, I was at a wedding with some friends when one of them suddenly realized—he had lost his wedding ring.

And if you’re not married, think of it like losing your favorite hoodie or your phone—something that’s just always on you. You don’t think about it much… but the moment it’s missing, you feel off. Something’s not right.

So we did what anyone would do—we started turning the place upside down. We were lifting up rugs, crawling under tables, checking sinks and drains in the bathrooms. We searched everywhere.

But the ring was just… gone. And eventually, we gave up.

The next morning, I got a text from my friend. He had found it.

Wanna guess where it was?

Sitting right on top of his dresser at home. He had never even brought it to the wedding. He’d been looking everywhere—except the one place it had been the whole time.

He didn’t lose it at the venue. He lost it at home.

And just saying that out loud sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? Lost at home. That feels like an oxymoron.

It makes sense for something to get lost out there. But home is supposed to be the place where things are as they should be. The last place you’d expect something to go missing.

But sometimes…it does.

In fact, I think there are many of us who feel like we’re lost at home.

We’re not running from God. We’ve said yes to Jesus. We’re a lost sheep that has been found. We believe we’re forgiven. We’re doing our best to follow Him.

And yet…

Something’s still not right.

We’re still stuck in habits we hate. We still don’t like the person we see in the mirror. We feel like we’re faking it—like if people knew what was really going on inside, they’d pull away…maybe God would pull away.

We know we’ve been found…but we don’t feel whole.

And that’s what I want to talk about tonight: how can we be in the house and still feel so lost?

I think that the fact that so many of us find ourselves asking that question is exactly why Jesus a second parable in Luke 15 about a lost coin.

TRUTH.

8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

And again, if I’m in the crowd and Jesus asks, if you lose a coin, wouldn’t you turn on a light and turn over your house to find it, the answer is…no?

Jesus, have you seen the bowels of my truck? There are all kinds of lost coins in there

So no, if I lose 1 coin and still have 9, I’m probably not going to turn my house over to find it.

What Jesus is getting at doesn’t really make sense to us…but it would’ve sense to the people who were listening. Because when Jesus said, “a woman had 10 coins,” what we picture is 10 pennies or 10 quarters – currency that isn’t really that valuable anyway. But what the people who were listening to Jesus would’ve pictured is something more like a wedding ring.

In that culture, a woman would often wear 10 silver coins as a headdress on her wedding day – it was their version of a wedding ring.

The individual coins weren’t just 10 pennies thrown together, the coins were called drachmas. It was the standard pay for 1 day of work. So the woman wouldn’t be wearing 10 pennies, she’d be wearing 10 days of work.

So not only were the 10 coins actually valuable, but they were meaningful. They represented something much more than their value. So when Jesus said, “a woman lost one of her 10 coins…” the people listening wouldn’t have thought “loose change,” they would’ve thought “missing diamond.”

Once we understand that, then the premise of the parable makes a lot more sense.

Ok Jesus, I take that back. I’ll definitely flip tables and look under rugs to find that.

But did you also notice where the coin got lost?

At home.

She lit a lamp and SWEPT THE HOUSE to find it…

Jesus is acknowledging the reality that things can be lost at home.

So, once the woman realized that one of her coins had gone missing, she sets out to look for it. And I find it curious that the first thing that she does is turn the lights on. She brings light into the house. And in context, it makes sense. In that culture, the home didn’t have a lot of windows, or if they did, they weren’t very big – so the houses were more naturally dark. And it’s really hard to find something in the dark. So, she brings some light into the house and begins the search to find the lost coin.

And Jesus goes on to say,

9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’

Not only does she look for the lost coin, she finds it! And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors and throws a party to celebrate the fact that she found it.

And then Jesus does the same thing He did in the parable of the lost sheep – He stops being subtle and just comes out and says, “You know I’m not really talking about coins…”

10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

When I was first reading this parable, I knew there were similarities between the lost coin and the lost sheep, but the last line made it feel like it’s wasn’t just similar, it was the same.

And that made me wonder: why would Jesus repeat Himself?

And maybe you’re wondering the same thing – why would Jesus repeat himself?

The conclusion that I’ve come to is that He didn’t…

I think the point that Jesus is getting at is that there’s more that’s lost than we realize. Because think of the two stories – there was 1 sheep that got lost out of 100. But there was 1 coin that got lost out of 10. And the sheep that got lost got lost out in the wild. But the coin got lost at home. The shepherd that went and found the sheep was a man, but the finder of the coin was a woman.

The differences are subtle, but I do not think they’re an accident. I believe that Jesus is showing that there’s more that’s lost than we realize.

What if the reason He told the story of the lost coin after telling the story of the lost sheep is to show that you can be a found sheep but a lost coin…

The story of the lost sheep illustrates how we are lost in sin and have been separated from God. Finding the lost sheep is a picture of what God is like – He is not content with being separated from us and has come to find us and bring us back into relationship with Him.

The story of the lost coin illustrates how the image of God that is on us has been broken because of sin. The lost coin is a story about what it means to be made whole.

Jesus is not just picking random objects for His stories – He’s showing different objects that represent different layers to what has been lost because of sin.

So why a coin? I think the key to understand that question comes from a different story from Jesus a few chapters later in Luke 20.

22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 23 But detecting their craftiness, he said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” “Caesar’s,” they said. 25 “Well then,” he told them, “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Jesus uses a coin because the coin gives a good picture of what He’s talking about that’s been lost. Coins have an image on them…and so do you. Genesis 1:27 says,

27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

He uses a coin, because like a coin, you have an image on you. But if that wasn’t enough, He goes one layer deeper in making the connection by the specific coin that He chooses. Do you remember what coin it was?

A drachma. The equivalent of one day’s work.

Which just so happens to be how long it took Him during creation week in Genesis 1 to make human beings.

The coin is no accident. It’s on purpose. And what it shows us is that something has been lost about being an image bearer of Almighty God.

Illustration.

Most of us understand that sin separates us from God. He’s holy—we’re not. But what we don’t always realize is that sin doesn’t just separate us from God…

It shatters the image of God in us.

We were created to be a reflection of what God is like—His goodness, His character, His beauty.

But when sin entered the story, it broke that reflection. Not beyond repair. Not beyond hope. But broken.

Think of it like a mirror. If a mirror is whole, it shows a clear reflection. But when it’s broken…[hit the mirror with a hammer]…You can still see something in it, but it’s fragmented. Distorted. Blurry.

That’s what sin has done to us. It didn’t erase the image of God. But it broke it. There are parts of us that are made to reflect God that have been lost and need found.

And I think that’s why a lot of us feel like broken mirrors—we’re saved, but not restored. Forgiven, but still broken. We feel lost at home.

APPLICATION.

And that’s where the next part of the parable comes into focus. Because if we are the lost coin—then who is the woman?

She’s the one who lights the lamp. Who sweeps the house. Who refuses to give up until what’s missing is found.

Just like the shepherd in the first parable represents Jesus—The woman in this parable represents the Holy Spirit.

Because salvation is the work of Jesus—the Good Shepherd who finds the lost. But restoration is the work of the Holy Spirit.

A British pastor named Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

“As here we first see the shepherd seeking the lost sheep, and then read of the woman seeking the lost piece of money, so the great Shepherd redeems, and then the Holy Spirit restores the soul.”

The Spirit is the one who enters the house of your heart…Turns on the light…Sweeps through the dust…And searches the rooms of your life to recover the image of God in you.

Which makes sense as to why there are so many of us, who having a saving faith in Jesus Christ but continue to feel so lost – it’s because we’ve been ignorant or even neglected the role and work of the Holy Spirit.

So how does that restoration actually happen? If the Spirit is the one searching the house— What’s our role in the process?

Jesus gives us the answer in the last line of the story:

10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Repentance is how we join the Spirit in the process of restoration.

Now, let’s be honest—repentance gets a bad rap. Most people think it means beating yourself up…Feeling guilty enough to try harder next time…Or finally getting your act together.

But that’s not repentance.

Repentance is when you stop hiding the parts of you that are still broken…And invite the Spirit to bring them into the light.

That’s why the woman lights the lamp first. Because before anything can be restored, it has to be revealed.

You can’t heal what you won’t admit is broken. You can’t be restored if you pretend there’s nothing missing.

Repentance isn’t just about fixing a mistake. It’s about recovering the image of God in you. It’s about letting the Spirit restore the parts of you that sin buried and shame silenced.

And when you do?

Jesus says the whole house of heaven throws a party.

And maybe the most surprising part of this story…Is that heaven throws a party—not just when someone is saved, but when someone takes any step toward being made whole.

Jesus says, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

That’s the same line He used in the parable of the lost sheep.

Heaven celebrates your salvation AND your sanctification.

God rejoices over your moment of surrender just as much as He did over your moment of salvation.

Because it means something that was lost has been found. It means another piece of the image of God in you is being restored. It means the mirror is starting to reflect more clearly again.

So, if you’ve ever thought God was disappointed in you for still struggling—Or bored with you for repenting again—Or distant because you’re not growing fast enough…

Let this story remind you: Heaven celebrates your salvation AND your sanctification.

STORY.

For a long time, I didn’t believe that a moment of surrender was something to celebrate. I thought it meant I’d failed. And if I’m honest—I struggled to admit I needed help. My dad was my pastor when I was growing up, and I can remember so many moments in services like this where I felt the Holy Spirit speaking something to me, inviting me to surrender, but I didn’t respond because I thought my dad would be disappointed. I was worried about what everyone else in the church would think about the pastor’s kid needing prayer, needing the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin in my life. And so I would do nothing. I quietly wanted to change and knew I needed to, but I didn’t feel like I had permission to.

But recently I was spending time with God on my back deck, and I had a moment with Him where I started to confess the places in my life that I still felt lost. I started to name sins that I have struggled with since I was in elementary and middle school. And as I started to confess things, it was like the Holy Spirit turned on the lights in my heart and started to show me other places where I was not whole. I started to confess to those too. Every time I confessed something, I repented of it, I renounced it, and I asked the Holy Spirit to make me whole in that area of my life.

And, normally, if I were hearing someone else say this, I would be the most skeptical person in the room. But I’m telling you, since doing that, I’ve had supernatural freedom in places that I was bound. I’ve had supernatural peace in places where I was anxious and unsettled. I don’t know why it took me so long, but I’m so grateful for what God has done in my life. And I don’t want you to have to wait until your 30 years old to experience what I have experienced.

So tomorrow morning, we’ve created some space for you to have a moment with God like I did on my back deck. And I have faith that God will do for MANY of you what He has done for me.

But before anything can be restored, it has to be revealed. I think about it like going to a doctor’s office – before you can receive treatment, you have to diagnose what’s broken.

Tomorrow morning is going to be an opportunity to receive restoration that only the Holy Spirit can bring, but tonight we need to take a few moments to reveal where we are not whole.

So, I’ve put together some questions for you to walk through with God to help you get a diagnosis of where you may not be whole.

Reflection Questions:

What part of me still feels lost—even though I believe in Jesus?

Is there a part of my life that still feels broken, fake, stuck, or like something’s missing? Even though I know I’m saved, are there places I still feel like a lost coin at home?

Have I let the Holy Spirit into that part of my life?

Am I letting the Spirit turn on the light and sweep the dust in that place… or have I been hiding it? Hoping it would just go away or no one would notice?

What might change if I stopped hiding and let God start restoring that part of me?

What would it look like to let Him begin putting that broken mirror back together? What would I feel, believe, or do differently if I was made whole there?

I want you to take a couple of minutes to walk through these. But as you do, I want to remind you that treatment is only as helpful the diagnosis is truthful. God will not force restoration on you. You have to open the door and let Him in. If you are not honest with God and honest with yourself, you will not receive all that I think God desires to do in you.

But that kind of honesty takes courage. So before we move on, I want to pray. That the Spirit would give you the courage to open the door—and start the work of restoration tonight.