The People Around Jesus

Luke 15:1-10 – 1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people – even eating with them! 3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! 8 Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” (New Living Translation)

Three Sets of Characters

The Unwilling Listeners

❏ Tax-collectors and ________________ and Pharisees and teachers of _____________________ law

❏ Today, there are _______________ and _____________________ people

The Lost Things

❏ The lost _______________

❏ The lost ____________

❏ The lost ________

❏ The three lost objects all represent people who are spiritually lost

1. The sheep is lost through _____________________

2. The coin is lost through ________________________

3. And the son is lost through__________________

The Joyful Seekers

❏ We like to think of ourselves as spiritual _______________ or as honest __________________

❏ The biblical gospel turns this idea on its head

Luke 19:10 – For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. (New Living Translation)

❏ Only Christianity says God had to ____________ ____________ into the world to seek and save us

Ephesians 2:8-9 – 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. (New King James Version)

Hebrews 12:2 – Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. (New Century Version)