Sermon Tone Analysis

! Come Rejoice with Me!

 

 

 

!! TEXT:  Luke 15:1-7

 

*Introduction*

 

          Ronie and I visited Columbus on Thursday and rode around….got

lost….got

found….and

finally arrived back on Route 27 and back to familiar territory!

We saw some, how shall I say this, interesting establishments while traveling around Columbus….and

I began thinking about them.

SO…..

I wanted to let you know that as soon as Ronie, the kids and me are settled in the Valley, I plan on spending about two evenings a week in Columbus and I’m going to pick out a couple of tattoo and body piercing shops and, at least one adult establishment….and

I’m going to hang-out there and get to know the owner or manager of each and see if I can get them to let the church buy them lunch…or dinner and then I’m going to try and build a relationship with them….hopefully

become friends and invite them to church!

What do you think about my idea?

I see some shock and bewilderment on some faces this morning!

What do you think of my idea?

Now, I know that I’m your new pastor….and

you have already demonstrated your love for me and my family in the short time we have been around you….but what do you think of my newest idea for ministry?

Will you still love me….will you encourage me in this very difficult ministry opportunity?

Will you still trust your new pastor?

*Transition*

          O.K., before someone turns this morning’s worship service into a business meeting and calls for ANOTHER VOTE on calling me as your pastor….I’m not seriously considering going to Columbus and seeking out the lost in bars and taverns, or tattoo parlors and adult bookstores…but are we, as Christ Followers called to build relationships with such people.

You see, most of us will give lip service to “sharing the gospel” with everyone…but aren’t we usually guilty of selectively  choosing who we want to share Christ with and who we, subconsciously judge as a lost cause and so we ignore them.

We often cross the street to avoid them or walk around them so that we don’t come in contact with them.

We may not even realize we are doing it…but we have made a decision NOT to chance an encounter with one of these….you

know…the alcoholic who everyone knows is abusive to others (including his family) OR the flaming homosexual who is not only lost in his or her sexual sin, but wears it proudly while thumbing his nose at the “Christian Right!”

Here is the crux of the problem with which we are faced…..God loves his people and He seeks to save the lost…and Jesus never judged anyone unworthy of the gospel!

*Turn in your Bibles to Luke 15….I want us to look, this morning, *at a picture Jesus gives us, as recorded by Luke, into the heart of God for the lost!

Lk 15:1-7

 

*The Parable of the Lost Sheep*

*15 *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.”

*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?

*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.’

*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.

*The Scandal*

          Luke begins this event in the ministry of Jesus by, interestingly enough, declaring that tax collectors and sinners were “all drawing near to him.”

Now this was a scandalous bunch, these tax collectors and sinners…we are talking about.

First, the sinners: These would have been the notorious ones…the thieves, the harlots or prostitutes, those who would never set foot in the temple to worship God or give offerings; they would not give alms to the poor…in fact they would, most likely, prey upon the poor and seek to gain money and pleasure in any way they could.

They were the immoral dregs of society.

And if the “sinners” were the dregs, then the Tax Collectors were the scum that settled to the bottom under the dregs!

You see, the Tax Collectors were the universally hated class of Jews in Palestine…they were turncoat Jews….they had sold their souls and abandoned their religious heritage as God’s chosen nation in order to secure, what we might understand today, as a franchise from the Romans, giving them the right to collect Roman taxes from the people.

They would over tax the people in order to build their wealth on the backs of their own brothers and cousins and uncles….they

were the despised of the despised!

What a Scandal!

Here is a holy man who dares associate with these dregs and scum!

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law (the Scribes)….they

grumbled and murmured continuously (imperfect tense in GK) for Jesus not only did not rebuke these sinners for daring to come near to him and defiling him…making him unclean…NO, HE WELCOMED THEM AND SAT DOWN TO SHARE MEALS WITH THEM!  Jesus was breaking rabbinic laws….for the rabbinic commentary on Exod.

18.1 cites a rule that, “a person should not associate with the godless.”

Yet he is welcoming these sinners and religious outcasts to a table to share a meal, to laugh, and to tell stories.

In other words….Jesus was going about building relationships with them!

*The  Real Scandal* – is addressed here by Jesus as He begins to tell the parable…..Notice that v.3 begins, “So, he (Jesus) told them (the Pharisees and Scribes) this parable.

From the parable, it is easy to see who our Savior judged to be the most scandalous…and it wasn’t the Tax Collectors!

You see, the scandal was that the leaders of Israel, those who have been entrusted with the laws of God and are the undershepherds of the Shepherd of Israel, who is God Himself, have been failing in their task of tending the flock of Israel! 

*Turn with me to Ezekiel 34*

Eze 34:1-4

 

*Prophecy Against the Shepherds of Israel*

*34 *The word of the Lord came to me: *2 *“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!

Should not shepherds feed the sheep?

*3 *You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

*4 *The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.

Isn’t this a picture of what we see with the Pharisees of the NT! 

*Skip down to v. 10*

* *

* *

Eze 34:10-12

*10 *Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep.

No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves.

I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

*The Lord God Will Seek Them Out*

 

*11 *“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

*12 *As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

The thrust of Ezekiel’s prophecy is clear….since

the undershepherds of Israel had failed in feeding the flock….in

seeking the lost sheep…God Himself will rescue his people…He will intervene…but HOW?

Look at vv.s 23-24:

Eze 34:23-24

*23 *And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.

*24 *And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them.

I am the Lord; I have spoken.

Who is this David?

It can’t be King David, for he has been dead or over 500 years!

No, God will use the ultimate son of David….the

lion of the Tribe of Judah….He would send His ONLY SON…Jesus, the Good Shepherd to complete the task that the leaders of Israel had failed to do!

The Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law could have cared less for these sinners and Tax Collectors…BUT Jesus could not have cared more for them….God sent His Son….and later, in Luke 19.10 Jesus would proclaim that he, the Son of Man,  had come to earth to “seek and to save the lost.”

Now, let’s look at the parable to see how Jesus answered the grumbles of the religious elite:  *First, there was the loss….*

*The Loss:  *A shepherd, evidently a pretty well-off one at that since he had 100 sheep, loses one sheep.

Now, on paper this would not be a great loss…in business terms today we might call it “an acceptable loss”…but  not to this Shepherd….and,

as Jesus personalizes it toward the teachers around him….   “What man among you….”

which is Jesus’ way of saying “Wouldn’t you….do

this…wouldn’t you leave the other 99 in open country (meaning unprotected) in order to go and find the one that is lost!! 

Jesus continues by telling of the search…..

*The Search:  *and this search begins immediately.

At this point, I think it’s important to remember the nature of a sheep.

They are a pitifully helpless species….their

instincts are useless and they are defenseless against predators and, really from themselves.

They are, to be it mildly, senseless animals.

*But, Jesus knows this!

The Good Shepherd* understands the predicament of his sheep….and

He is willing to search without ceasing, to pour out energy in searching the valleys and combing the hilltops…always calling and seeking His lost….it’s

Ezekiel’s prophecy lived out…  “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out…..” (Ezek.