Looking for the Lost

Introduction

This is a reminder sermon - for myself as much as anyone else.

Luke 15:1–7 “1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Look at previous verse:

Luke 14:34–35 ESV

34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Luke is pointing out that these are the people that are coming to honestly listen to Jesus.

Tax collectors – hated for connections with Romans – seen as traitors

Sinners – broad category of immoral people who live their lives opposite of the religious Law

Look who shows up (not to listen to Jesus but to grumble about Jesus):

Pharisees – religious leaders

Scribes – Bible teachers and theologians

“grumbled” – tense in the Greek indicates ongoing grumbling. This was the common attitude toward Jesus because of his interaction with sinners

“This man” – derogatory

“receives. . . and eats” – He’s a friend of sinners (Matt 11:19)

The rabbis had a rule, ‘One must not associate with an ungodly man’, and they took this rule so seriously that they would not even teach the Law to someone they understood to be ungodly

- In other words, they would not allow sinners into their equivalent of church

“A Friend of Sinners” Sounds like a bad thing unless, of course, you’re a sinner. Any sinners here?

The Context: Everyone Needs Jesus

Jesus knows what the religious leaders are saying about him. He knows who the sinners are, and he knows what they need.

“SO” he tells them a parable

Parable – a story his audience would be familiar with and one that gives a lesson much deeper than the story itself. Earthly story / Heavenly meaning

In the telling of this parable, Jesus actually speaks to both groups of people listening: the lost sinners and the religious church-goers

And so through this parable, Jesus will speak to us in two different ways:

1. We will see the heart that Jesus (the Good Shepherd) has for sinners (you and I)

2. We will also see the heart that we, who are called to be like Jesus, should have toward sinners

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?

Parable opens with the tension of a lost sheep. *How many of you have lost a sheep before?

Illust – A lost remote, lost keys, lost child

Sense the tension of the shepherd?

*How many of you have ever been lost YOURSELF?

Sense the tension of the sheep?

Because of this. . .

The shepherd has an urgency for the lost

Love the lost

(remember, Jesus is telling the story to reveal his heart and why he spent time with the sinners. In doing this, Jesus is revealing out hearts and showing us what we should feel as followers of him).

The shepherd was responsible for the sheep - all of them. He would need to pay for the sheep if one was lost or eaten my an animal.

Lost sheep - vulnerable to elements, to attacks.

*When was the last time you shared Jesus with someone?

*When was the last time you altered your day for the purpose of reaching the lost?

Imagine if the shepherds in this parable instead had the sense of urgency of many in modern day churches:

Well, the flock is here whenever they desire to not be lost anymore.

I pay professional “sheep finders” to go find the sheep so I don’t need to worry about it.

I think I walked past some lost sheep on my way here to the flock but I was too busy to stop

I understand there are some lost sheep out there but the found sheep requires so much of my attention (there are 99!) to stay comfortable being found.

Substitute “flock” for church and “lost” for unsaved and “found” as Christians.

With this parable, Jesus is implying to the Pharisees and scribes that they do not have the heart of the Shepherd.

For these religious leaders, shepherds were considered unclean.

I wonder if the religious even cared to have the heart of a shepherd - do you?

You know who else heard this parable? The lost! The sinners!

Church, we should sense a responsibility to care for the flock, but my question is, have we lost our sense of urgency to seek the lost?

This was Jesus’ focus - is it ours?

Kids: Love the lost

The shepherd gives time and energy to reach the lost

Go to the lost

Notice the shepherd left the 99 and went to find the one. This was risky

It has been said that a shepherd can track a lost sheep’s tracks for miles.

This was not a simple task.

The shepherd likely grew tired

maybe faced danger

could have entered the messiness of the lost sheep

The shepherd didn’t sit by and wait, he got up and went.

ILLUST - Brooks lost in Zerns and the boys who helped. They didn’t need to, but they joined int he effort and helped find Brooks. How many other people walked by? How many other people saw Brooks and did nothing?

Jesus spent time and energy (and so much more) to find you.

Someone took time and energy for you to come to know Jesus.

Previously, we discussed how much money it took on average to produce one convert.

Care to guess the average number of church attenders it takes to produce one convert? 85

85:1 is the AVERAGE conversion ratio.

Healthy would be 20:1

With roughly 400 in attendance, we should see 20 converts each year.

ILLUST - urgency, time, and energy was given to win the “sheep game” here today. Have you put that much time and energy into praying for, speaking with, or spending time with the lost? What if we applied the same energy we put into finding paper sheep into praying for, inviting, and speaking with real souls!

5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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.’

Celebration for salvation

Give them Jesus!

What we celebrate as a win we solidify as our goal.

We need to do a better job at celebrating salvation - our own and when we see someone saved by the Shepherd!

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.”

Edersheim quotes a Jewish saying, ‘There is joy before God when those who provoke Him perish from the world’.

Here Jesus says, there will be more joyin heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Not that there is not joy for the righteous, but there is MORE joy for the lost to be found than for already saved.

ILLUST – I don’t get all that excited to see that the remote is NOT lost (well, maybe in our house I do)

Why is there more joy over one sinner repenting? BECAUSE THAT IS THE MISSION OF HEAVEN!

We celebrate when we win. This parable shows us that the “win” for heaven is a sinner repenting and being “found.”

Love the lost

If you are here today and you believe YOU are the lost sheep - You have never trusted in Jesus as your savior, then know: Jesus is looking for you! He’s not waiting for you to find him – He is pursuing you! Don’t believe me? You’re hearing this message today when you need it, aren’t you?!

What do you need to pray for today?

A sense of urgency for the lost?

Time, energy, and opportunity to say something to the person you know who needs Jesus?

Thank Jesus for his work of salvation in your life?