"The God Who Seeks": Luke 15:1-24

Sermon: March 22, 2020 Luke 15:1-24 “The God Who Seeks” Rev. Todd Higgs, Living Stone Baptist Church, Portageville, MO If you’re following along in a Bible as you’re listening, we’ll be in Luke chapter 15. Parables are brief stories that serve to illustrate a spiritual truth. On first reading, Luke 15 contains 3 parables of Jesus. As we begin to ponder these three parables, we see that in many ways that are really the same story with 3 different movements, as they share some common themes. Taken together, these truths teach us an important lesson about the seeking love of our God. I’m sure we’ve all the experience of losing something and our search for it. A few years ago, I lost my prescription glasses while playing a round of golf. I retraced my steps and spent considerable time looking for them, but never found them that day. A few weeks later, the manager of the golf course called to say my glasses had been found. I drove over to the course, excited to pick them up, only to be disappointed to discover they had been found after a groundskeeper had run over them with a lawnmower. So much for that! In all these of these parables, Jesus tells the story of something that is lost and sought after, then found and rejoiced over. See if you can pickup on these themes as I read these stories: READ LUKE 15 Jesus told these stories in response to those who criticized Him for receiving those society considered sinners or outcasts. The word “receives” used by Jesus’ critics in verse 2 indicates that Jesus accepted and befriended people that some at the time believed were cut off from God and unworthy of His love. So Jesus responds to their criticism with these 3 stories that reminded them that God’s heart is one that seek after those who seem the most far gone, and eagerly rejoices when they are found. Consider these 3 truths with me: 1. People Matter Greatly to God We seek for that which has value. If something has no value to us, we are not bothered when it is lost. When my daughters lose a hair clip (frequent occurrence), I typically don’t spend very long looking for it. It’s not worth the time for the value of what was lost. However, if one of my daughters went missing, I would move heaven and earth to find her for as long as it took until she was found. In all 3 of these stories, the items lost had great value to the seeker: a sheep, a coin, a son. It’s a reminder that people matter to God. We have great value in His sight. Some of you need to hear today that you matter to God. Some of us struggle with feeling that we are valuable because we only see what we aren’t. We tell ourselves that we aren’t attractive enough, or fit enough, or athletic enough to have beauty in the eyes of the world. But God says you are made in His image and fearfully and wonderfully made. We get down on ourselves because we see others who are more skilled than we are or whose personalities seem to shine more brightly than our own and tell ourselves we don’t have much to offer the world. But God says we were “skillfully put together” by His hand before we were even born. We tell ourselves we aren’t successful enough because we don’t have the money, or the fame, or the stuff that someone else has, but God says his thoughts toward us are precious and so vast that even Bill Gates accountants wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. So for those of you doubting today: you matter greatly to God. Others of us don’t have trouble believing we matter to God. Our world that preaches selfesteem & self-actualization has convinced us that we can be anything and do anything we want, and not to let anyone or anything get in the way of reaching our full potential. It’s easy to have such an inflated sense of self that we think we don’t deserve to be inconvenienced or hindered by anybody or anything. So when my marriage isn’t fulfilling, I’ll just move on to someone else. When a pregnancy comes at an inconvenient time, I’ll just get an abortion. When a neighbor has a need that interrupts my social calendar, I’ll just look the other way. In these cases and more, the problem we have is not that we matter to God, but that others do too. For most of us, there is a person or group of people that we have assigned “other” status too, and as a result we begin to think of them as unworthy of value and treat them accordingly. Maybe it’s a particular race of people, such as our black brothers & sisters who for years in our country were told they didn’t count at all, and then when our government did assign a value to them it was to tell them they only counted as “3/5” of a person. Maybe it’s a class of people, like the homeless or the disabled. Studies show that the overwhelming majority of babies who are diagnosed with down syndrome are not carried to term, literally treated as if they don’t deserve to live. Maybe it’s not a group of people we struggle to love, but a person. Maybe it’s someone with whom we’ve had a falling out in our family, or a co-worker who’s pushed our buttons one too many times. Maybe it’s the person on social media who blasts political opinions are totally opposite of our own. Maybe it’s the narcissist who makes every conversation about themselves, and so we we run the other way before they spot us in the grocery store. It’s different for all of us, but all of us have someone we struggle to love as we ought. And we need to be reminded here that just as every sheep, and every coin, and every son mattered, every person matters to God. We all have value and worth in the eyes of our Creator. You matter to God. Your neighbor matters to God. He is seeking after them just like He sought after you. If we’re going to live as God’s people, we will seek them too! 2. Seeking Is A Costly Act Seeking is active, not passive. It’s takes energy and intentionality and effort. It means getting off our couch, moving stuff around and turning the house inside out until we’ve found the coin that’s been lost. It means putting grabbing a flashlight, pulling on our boots and raincoat and trudging thru the fields in the rain as night falls looking for the sheep that’s in danger. And it means hearts that never lose hope and eyes that never stop gazing toward the horizon for the child that’s wandered far from home. You know, it’s fascinating in these parables the price that was paid for the one. The shepherd had 99 sheep safely in the pen. Losing one probably wouldn’t have put him out of business. The woman had 9 coins safely stored away. Losing one was concerning, but it wasn’t the end of the world. The father had one son, the eldest who stood carry on the bulk of the family legacy, safe at home. The younger son’s decision to walk away from the family name was heart-breaking, but in NT culture was seen as less significant. But because the one that was lost had great value, a great effort was made to recover it. We see the cost of seeking in our society today. Even if the coronavirus outbreak is massive, health experts tell us only a small percentage of Americans are likely to die from it. I read one expert the other day who said because of our advanced healthcare system, probably only 1% or those diagnosed with coronavirus will die. Yet, we have seen in the past week the drastic measures our society has taken to protect this small fraction of our population. We are social distancing, banning gatherings and shuttering businesses in the name of flattening the curve. And it’s been costly. The stock market has tanked, the government is debating passing a massive spending bill, as much as a trillon (one thousand billion) dollars to fight the disease. I heard a worker interviewed this week who said they had been laid off from their job due to coronavirus shutdowns, but it the cost was worth it if it meant lives were saved. We have seen in our culture today what it looks like when the 99 get serious about protecting and caring for the 1. As Christians, we are called to spend ourselves to go & reach those who are lost with the good news of salvation in Christ. We see in the New Testament Christians who risked life and limb to go after the one. We see believers who had very little giving even out of their poverty so that others might be saved. And we are called to do the same, giving our time, talents, and financial treasures to go after the 1, whether it’s across the street or around the world. We give to our missionaries because we believe that there is someone (even if just one) across the country or around the world, who will be saved by Jesus when we go. We serve and support the ministry of our church because we believe there is a “1” in our community who will spend eternity with Jesus because we made the effort. And we do so, believing every cost we incur in path of God’s mission is well worth it. We pour out ourselves in this life even as we store up treasures in the life to come. We lose ourselves in the path of God’s mission knowing that in doing so, we find our highest fulfillment and truest purpose. And of course, our example in being willing to make the sacrifice of seeking is not our culture’s response to coronavirus, but Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who looked at our lives, and saw that “we were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). And so He came, not to be serve, but to serve, and to seek and to save that which was lost. My pastor growing up once said there are two Greek words that describe the cost Jesus paid to seek us, and they happen to rhyme : skenosis and kenosis.1 •The word skenosis points to the environment into which Jesus stepped to save us. It’s the word translated “dwelt” in John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” It’s a word that literally means to “pitch a tent” and speaks of the fact that the eternal Son of God temporarily bore the cost of leaving Heaven’s glory to inhabit our imperfect world. But Jesus did more than come to earth for us. He also stooped to the torturous environment of the cross, and even the hellish experience of the spiritual wrath of our sins being poured out on Him until cried in anguish, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” Oh, the places that the Son of God was willing to go, leaving heaven’s throne to seek after us! •The word kenosis points to the emptying Jesus embraced for our salvation. Philippians 2:5-8 says: “Jesus, 6who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be [f]grasped, 7 but [g]emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death [h]on a cross.” The word that refers to Jesus emptying Himself is the word kenosis. It means that Jesus Christ didn’t move from a noble place to a more humble one to rescue us from sin, but He was humbled as a person as well. The Son of God, the holy, eternal, immortal, all-knowing, all-powerful second person of the Trinity, became a mortal human being. The king of glory entered earth as a baby laid in a feeding trough. The One formed the universe allowed an earthly father to teach him how to make a kitchen table. The One who owned the cattle on a thousand years walked around teaching crowds and healing the sick with no place to call home. The Word of God didn’t say a single word when he was falsely accused and sentenced to death. And the One who knew no sin became sin for us a the cross—rejected, mocked, beaten, spit on, cursed, pierced, separated, and forsaken. Jesus paid a greater cost than we could ever imagine so that we might have the offer of salvation without cost. He left heaven to endure hell for us and He traded His kingly crown of jewels for a crown of thorns. Truly, He moved heaven and earth to seek and to save that which was lost. 3. The Joy of Being Found All three parables end with joy. Joy over a sheep returned safely to the fold. Joy over a coin deposited safely back into the account. Joy over a son who’s come home, safely asleep in his own bed. And that joy overflowed to others. Neighbors were called over to celebrate. Parties were thrown. Happy tears were shed. Jesus said when anyone is found by God, heaven rejoices: (read verse 7). It’s not that the 99 matter less than the one who was lost, it’s that the value of what was lost and the cost expended in finding it cause us to overflow with joy when what was lost is found. Maybe today, you are like the lost son. You’ve been trying to live life your own way for so long, but you’ve come to the point where—though you might not admit it to anyone else— deep down in your soul there’s a restlessness, sense of hopelessness, a void that you’ve been trying to fill with one thing after another and still you sense there’s must be something more to life. I pray you’ll see in this text, that behind that nagging discontent you feel is a loving Father whose pleading with you to hear his call and come home. Unlike the lost son, you don’t have to fear that you’ve made too much of a mess of life that there’s no point in trying to make thing right with your Heavenly Father. When you come back to Him, He will not scold or chastise you: Isaiah 53 says the chastisement for our sin has already fallen on God’s only begotten Son, Jesus. He won’t punish or strike you for how you’ve strayed, because Jesus Christ already was wounded for us at the cross, and the punishment of our sins laid upon Him until there was no more to punishment to give, and He cried out “It Is Finished!”. Friend, Christ has done all that He can to remove the miles of separation our sins have laid between us and God, so that when we turn away from sin & draw near to God, we find He has already drawn near to us. And He’s waiting, with open arms, to lovingly embrace us, to accept us as we are. He’s willing to cover our shame in the cloak of Jesus’ righteousness and to put on our finger the signet ring of the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell within our hearts, taking the dead and making it alive, the old and making it new. And He’s already got the supplies ready to kick off the party that ensues in heaven among the angels and on earth through His church when we come back to Him! So today, if for the first time, you sense God drawing you to Himself, and find yourself ready to put your faith and trust in Jesus, you can pray something like this: “Lord, I know I have turned away from you. I maybe a great sinner, but Jesus Christ is a great Savior. I believe that He gave His life on the cross and rose again from the dead that I may be saved. And I repent, turning away from my turning away from you, and having been found by Jesus, I choose to follow Him.” If you prayed a prayer like that, or if God is dealing with you in some other way, I encourage you to reach out to our church this week. You can find us on Facebook or on livingstonebaptist.org and we’d love to celebrate with you your decision to follow Jesus. Many of you have already been found by Jesus. The challenge I want to leave you with this morning is, “Who’s your one?” Who is someone this God is calling you to bear the cost of seeking after that they may be found? Maybe it’s that person you were thinking of earlier who is hard to love. Maybe it’s someone you’ve known and loved for a long time. How can you seek after their soul this week? It may take more effort during this seasoning of selfdistancing, but maybe God will use that effort to begin to move your one toward faith in Jesus. Thank you for listening to this message today. Let me pray that God will use it in your life this week. 1Sermon by Dr. Sing Oldham, FBC-Martin, TN, October 26, 2003.