Lost and Found (Luke 15:1-32).

Introduction

Good morning! You can turn in your Bible to Luke 15. We are going to look at the whole chapter today. Luke 15 contains one of the most well-known stories in the entire Bible.

You’ve heard of the prodigal son. He goes off and squanders his inheritance because of foolish living. Many of us can relate to that. But the surprising part of the story and what makes is so memorable/spectacular is the love and acceptance the father has for his boy when he returns home.

It’s a parable and parables are intended for the hearers to jump into the story. Imagine yourself in the story. There are 3 parables in Luke 15. The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. And in each parable two things happen: 1) what was lost is found and 2) there’s an invitation to rejoice.

I want to unpack 2 truths of the gospel this morning. 2 realities that hold up our faith and anchor us. If you’re a Christian, this is true of you. You were once lost, but now you have been found. You can’t get out of Luke 15 without contemplating these 2 realities.

Let’s read all of Luke 15 together, beginning at v1.

Notice the great theme of lostness. Luke is telling us something straightforward and clear. Look at point 1 in your notes. Reality number one:

1) We were lost.

This is important to say from the top. If you don’t know Christ right now, you are lost. That’s a present tense reality for you. The Bible says you are spiritually dead. You are not alive.

Now, you may feel alive. But like the sheep, you nibbled your way into lostness. That’s what sheep do. And when a sheep is lost, he can’t find his way back to the herd. He is not only lost, but he is helpless. Unless the shepherd seeks it out, the sheep is wolf meat. And like the coin, unless the woman comes seeking for it, it will remain lost.

Consider the son. He has more agency than the sheep and the coin. He made all the foolish choices and unless the father welcomes him back, he is helpless. And helpless people become hopeless people.

Each of these parables describe a dimension of what it means to be lost. In one sense, our lostness doesn’t hit us until we are far off. Imagine the sheep on the ledge of a cliff: “how did you get there!?” In another sense, like the coin, there’s no light in the house and we are just stuck in darkness.

The truth about the lost sheep and the lost coin is amplified by the lost son. His lostness was simply the result of a sinful heart. Before he went to his father and asked for his inheritance, prematurely I will add, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to indulge in reckless living in the far country so no one would know who he was. Why would he do that? He wanted to indulge sin without experiencing the bitter fruit of shame. Because shame, if we feel shame, it exposes somewhere in our heart that we have guilt.

And if you don’t know Christ this morning, you have to bear that guilt on your own. Like the sheep, the coin, and the son, you are in a sad state. You are helpless and hopeless.

Now, for some good news. Do you want to hear good news?

A single sheep is precious to the shepherd. That’s why Jesus charged the religious leaders in v4, “what man among you does not leave the 99… and go after the lost one?” The Pharisees were offended that Jesus compared them to shepherds. That was dirty work, and it was beneath them. But his point stands. Who wouldn’t go rescue their sheep?

Likewise, the coin was valuable to the woman. It may have been part of her dowry for marriage. A single coin may seem meaningless to us. The quarter that falls into the couch is staying there in my house. But this coin was special.

If you don’t know Christ this morning, I want you to see 2 twin truths: like the sheep, coin, and son, you are valuable to God, but you are lost. That’s the first thing you need to understand about the gospel. All humanity, apart from Christ, is lost. So, you’re not alone. But this truth is what separates Christianity from the religions and philosophies of the world. Christianity says you have a problem, and it’s not outside of you. It’s inside of you.

Paul says it this way after surveying the whole message of the OT. He says this in Romans.

Romans 3:10–12 CSB

as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

That’s what it means to be lost. Now, if you’re like me, you might want to disagree with Paul on this point. You might really want to believe that humans can be good apart from Christ. You might think, “we aren’t worthless!” Paul didn’t say humanity is worthless. His says everyone becomes worthless. He’s talking about trajectory. When Adam fell in the garden, when he committed the first sin against God, he set in motion a series of irreversible realities that me and you cannot fix. The result is that all of us abandon the good and turn to evil.

Here’s the thing you have to understand about lostness. We’re not just the lost sheep and lost coin. That would be nice. We could just play the victim card before God. But that will not work.

You could actually summarize Luke 15 this way. The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons. Notice the plural. You might think you have more in common with the prodigal son. You went off to the far country and lived recklessly. That’s evil to be clear. But I bet many of us have been lost in the same way the older brother was lost.

Self-righteous and full of resentment. Full of comparison and bitterness. He hates the father’s grace. The younger son despised his father by asking for his inheritance prematurely and then abandoning the family. But the older son despised his father’s character; namely, his goodness. Both sons despised their father.

It’s important to understand that the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were not just recording facts and events about Jesus’ life and ministry. They were interpreters. That means they had an agenda when they wrote. And you know what they want you to know? All humanity is lost apart from Christ.

None of us like being lied to. Here’s the thing about God’s word I hope you understand... it is given to us to tell us the truth. If someone has an agenda it works a lot better if they tell you upfront. Otherwise, you feel like you’re being lied to. Luke doesn’t do that. He lays out his agenda, and you can’t get out of chapter 15 without being confronted about the lost condition of the human heart. That’s the truth Luke wants you to know.

And in a world where the truth is hard to come by, I hope you can at least respect this about God and his word: he’s not lying to you. You might not always like what the Bible says, but God is not lying to you. He wants you to know the truth.

The second reality we are going to look at is as important as the first. To be honest, understanding out lostness is almost too heavy to bear. If you really understand it, it crushes your soul. But what makes it bearable is that...

2) We have been Found in Christ.

Luke 19:10 CSB

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.

That’s the reason Jesus came. He came to seek and save the lost.

If you’re in Christ right now, you were lost. That’s a past tense reality for you. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. You accepted that fact. But now you have been made alive in Christ Jesus. You have been found by him.

The church of the living God is a living, breathing, organism made up of saints who were once dead but have been made alive. Not by reason. Not by human strength. Not by our own goodness. We are alive today because God made us alive in Jesus Christ. Through his death and resurrection.

Jesus stands in contrast from the religious leaders who never went out of their way to usher people into the kingdom of God. Perhaps they evangelized on occasion, but they cared more about growing their group than they did building God’s kingdom. Most of the time they just had labels for people like “tax collector” and “sinner” to intentionally separate themselves.

But Jesus is like the shepherd who gladly left the 99. And once he found the lost sheep, “he joyfully puts it on his shoulders.” Describe the picture. Look friends, Jesus is not overwhelmed by your lostness and your sin. He sought you out when you wondered from the fold of God. He knew the terrain of entering a world ruled by sin and darkness. He came as the light of the world and he pursued us. Like the woman, he carefully searched for us. She lit the lamp, swept the house, looking in every nook and cranny. That’s what Luke means when he says, “the son of man has come to seek and save the lost!”

And the love of Jesus points us back to the love of our heavenly Father. Our God is a missionary God. He sent his son on a rescue mission to deliver us from sin and death. And like the father in the parable, when you and I came to our senses and abandoned our evil way and return home, our God is ready for us! When the parable says “there is joy in heaven” when a sinner repents, that’s talking about God’s joy and delight in us when we turn to him.

You were lost, but now you have been found in Christ. What a precious truth for us to behold this morning. Go back to that place where you grabbed hold of the gospel for the first time. Recall the day when God made it clear to you that you were a sinner in need of his grace.

If you’re not a Christian, if you can admit that you are lost right now, I want you to see what it means to be found. Perhaps you needed the far country to realize that you had lost your way. Up to this point, you’ve wasted your life. You’ve squandered it. Now you’re at a place where pig slop looks good to you. Maybe it’s been a life of addiction.

Notice what the son says to himself in v17:

Luke 15:17–19 CSB

How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” 

When you hear the word “repentance” that’s what the Bible is talking about. See the heart of the son. He sees his foolishness and sin for what it is. He’s unworthy to be a son. That phrase “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight” is powerful. He knew that his sin was first and foremost against God. David says in...

Psalm 51 CSB

Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight.

That’s the heart of repentance.

Now notice the father’s response in v20. As soon as the son was within eye-shot of his father, he went running for his boy! This behavior was undignified for an older man of wealth. But he did not care. That’s the picture of God’s love for you.

What a beautiful reunion. The son can’t even get the words out of his mouth of how sorry he is. And I want you to understand something about biblical repentance. Sometimes the father’s love just silences you, and that’s okay. It’s about the posture of your heart more than it is the words you speak.

The last thing I want you to see from Luke 15 this morning is this. It’s a question. Will you rejoice when sinners repent?

In the parable of the lost sheep, once the shepherd found the sheep and returned, he called out to his friends and neighbors and said, “Rejoice with me!” And the woman who swept the house looking for her lost coin, upon finding it, called out to her friends and neighbors and said, “Rejoice with me!”

But then, in the parable of the lost son, the father pleaded with the older brother to join in celebrating the return of his younger brother, but he resisted.

Make no mistake. God rejoices when sinners repent, and he calls us to join in. The mission of building God’s kingdom doesn’t advance with a begrudging heart. The kingdom explodes when we understand the radical grace of God.

It comes down to this. If you’ve received grace, you rejoice when others receive it. You get excited. You celebrate with them. When grace invades your heart, you live expectant that it will invade the hearts of others. And that excites you. We will get to experience this next week. We have 3 candidates for baptism!

If that excites you it’s because you know the foundations of gospel reality. That you were once lost, but now you are found.

Let’s Pray