Who's Your One Part 4

The Lost Coin

Luke 15: 8-10

Welcome back to our Sermon Series WHO’S YOUR ONE.

We are in week four and I hope you have enjoyed this series so far.

Let’s Pray to the Lord of Harvest this morning that He will use us as harvesters in the lives of those who are living without God.

I think that often we see life in a bubble especially when it comes to church. We can look at other people and think that they have it all together, when in fact most of us, all of us are broken.

We all have issues of life, illnesses, relationships, addictions, finances, work and family. Sometimes life’s troubles can get us down. Yet, I want you to know that whatever you are going through today that God can get you through it, He can and will give you the strength, courage and encouragement to turn the struggles over to Him.

Because the truth is our God is greater than anything that can happen to us in this life. God gives us this thing called HOPE. And have to tell you that in the midst of life we need to be reminded of the HOPE that we have through God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen?

That’s what this teaching series is all about, reminding us that not only that we have been lost, but we have a new hope because we have been found.

But also, we need to be reminded that the majority of our world is lost. Too many born-again believers today think that the world is going crazy, but are not willing to anything about it.

Not willing to take the stand in the world. Its easy to put a dollar or two into missions offering, but getting our hands dirty could be a different scenario for some. A few years back a deacon and I joked around about having Bible carrying hands.

Bible carrying hands are hands that they don’t get dirty, or get callouses on them because all the hands do is carry a Bible. But with all joking aside I think that God wants us to get dirty and have working hands. That’s what we see in this series is all about especially here in Luke chapter 15 in what I call the lost and found chapter.

We see that God knew the world needed Him and He stepped in and did something about it. Jesus said in midst of His ministry in Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost” In other words Jesus did not come to have Bible carrying hands, He came to get dirty, hard hands that came from working to save what was lost.

Now the backdrop of last week and this week comes when the Pharisee and Scribes begin to complain to Jesus about the people who he was sitting and sharing a meal with. They were the spiritually lost, or as Luke describes them as tax collectors and sinners.

So we find that Jesus is sharing a meal with the very people who the religious leaders would have nothing to with because they were outcasts. The tax collectors where Jews who worked for Rome and they stole from their own people. The sinners were people who did not follow the laws of religion and because of this they were cast aside by the religious leaders and their religion. And religious leaders felt that if Jesus is calling Himself God than why would the Holy God sit and eat with those types of people.

But notice with me that Jesus was not about building religion, He is about building relationships. We know this because building relationships in Biblical times and much like today came by gathering together and sharing a meal. And that is what we learn from our scripture.

If you have your Bible with you and I hope that you do, open it with me to the book of Luke chapter 15. If you are unfamiliar to where the book of Luke is, you can find the book of Luke in the New Testament - it is the third book of the New Testament – Matthew, Mark then Luke. Luke 15.

In response to the religious leaders Jesus told three parables that each of them could understand and it surrounds the very issue of the lost becoming found. Last week we discussed the first parable Jesus told this story of the lost sheep- there were 100- but one was lost and when the shepherd counted, he only had 99- Jesus said the Good Shepherd would leave the 99 to go and find the one lost. We learned of the three facts about the Shepherd:

1. He would risk leaving the 99 to find one that was lost.

2. He went rescue the lost sheep.

3. He rejoices when the lost sheep is returned to the fold.

We all know that Jesus was speaking about Himself as the shepherd and people who don’t know Him as the lost. Something to remember is that often-lost sheep don’t know that are lost.

That bring us to the second parable that Jesus spoke which is the lost coin. Again, this is a story that each person in the crowd could understand. But this story has a bit of a different twist. Remember that the first parable was about Jesus coming to the rescue of mankind seeking the lost and rescuing the lost from the danger of death.

The lost coin although seems the same, it’s different. Its more about the religious leaders and us today.

If there in Luke 15:8-10 begin reading with me from verse 8:

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ 10 Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Jesus’ point in this parable is our TAKE-HOME TRUTH.

THE TAKE-HOME TRUTH IS:

NOBODY IS PERFECT, BUT EVERYONE IS SIGNIFICANT.

This is the point of what Jesus is saying when it comes to not only the lost sheep, but also the lost coin. Remember who is in the crowd of people, there are the tax collectors- the sinners- the Pharisee and the scribes. None of these groups were prefect, yet to God they are all significant and important. This teaches us about God’s attitude about the lost.

Now notice that in this parable there was a woman, Jesus did not define who she was because it wasn’t important. What is important is she was at home and lost something of great value to her. The coin did not wonder off like the sheep, it was right there in her home, yet when she went to get the ten she finds one coin was lost.

Culturally everyone with Jesus could understand an sympathize with this parable because the coin represents something more than just money.

Culturally the lost coin was significant to who she was. I read that in the biblical days, in Hebrew culture the married women wore a headband at was made up of coins strung together.

These coins were typically given to the bride by her father when she was married. And as it is worn it shows people that she is married. Like how we wear wedding rings today to show that we are committed to one another through marriage.

I also read that by removing coins from the headdress it could tell what kind of wife she was. That these coins were her dowry and it was the only thing that she brought into the marriage. If the marriage was dissolved she would have the ten coins for her livelihood.

History tells us that one silver coin was worth one day’s pay in that day. The coins not only represented who she was as a woman, but also her livelihood if she no longer had a husband. That is why the coin was significant to her.

Notice as a headdress the nine coins would not be complete without the 10th . That is why she gets so worked up over it.

I don't want you to miss this; That one coin had absolutely no value at all while it was lost! It was good for nothing! It could not adorn her head. It could not grace her life. It could not be used to provide the essentials of life.

It was useless as long as it was lost.

That is why it was imperative that it be found! It was just one piece of silver, but it was worth everything to this woman!

You see all people are like the lost coin, even though they are lost they all hold a significant value to God.

And as Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders, He is also telling them that the lost should be of value to them, just as they are to God.

I see the woman in the story in our day as the believers and the church. Remember that New Testament describes the Church as the bride of Christ.

Today I want to share with three important truths of the Woman that Jesus speaks about.

THE FIRST TRUTH IS, SHE LOST THE COIN.

Look wit me at the first part of verse 8;

“what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin”

She had the coin, it was in her possession, yet it became lost. The coin Jesus says is lost, as lost as lost can get. Now remember she did not lose it on the road or at the market, but at home. The coin could have become lost in many different ways. It could have been set aside and she could have forgotten where she put it.

The coin could have been dropped and rolled away or someone else could have moved it from where it was. Has that ever happen to you? You could have put something in a specific place and its gone?

Now, I am a very strategic person- I will intentionally put something in a place where I cannot forget where it is, then someone (I’m not naming any names……) But someone comes along and moves it… Now I cannot find it and its lost.

Has that ever happened to you?

So the coin could have been lost in different ways, but here is the thing, once its lost, it is useless until it’s found.

Not in some many words Jesus is telling the Pharisee and the scribes that the very people they are complaining about are lost because they have done nothing to ensure that they are found.

Here is what it means for us today. There are people in our home perhaps, or in our social bubble, that are in this world that are lost .

There are people in our lives that are lost because we never tell them about Jesus, we never invite them to church. There are people who we work with, neighbors, family members, people at the stores, restaurants, who are in our area of life (our house), but just like the coin, they are lost because of us.

And because they are lost, they are no use to God. Just as the lost coin could preform its function, so to the lost people cannot preform their Godly purpose in life.

1. Jesus said it was the woman who LOST THE COIN IN HER OWN HOME.

The Second truth is this: SHE SEARCHED RELENTLESSLY FOR THE LOST COIN.

Now this is the part of the parable where the coin hits the floor.

Notice in the second part of verse 8:

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?”

This woman lost the coin in her house, it was a dark place even during the day. A typical house in those days is described in Kenneth Bailey’s book, Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke 15 wrote:

The building material was around the northern end of the sea of Galilee where Jesus spent a lot of time teaching is a beautiful very black basalt. Archaeologists have found that the buildings are almost exclusively constructed of the local black rock.

The windows…were about six inches high and placed in the wall about seven feet above the ground. They are little more than slits in the walls to let the smoke out. The ancient building techniques produced ceilings from slabs of the same black basalt. The floors were covered with flat basalt stones taken from the lake. The cracks between the stones are naturally wide. “The deep cracks between the stones are filled up with earth….”

Jesus said that the coin is lost in the darkness of this house.

Because of this she had to be determined in her search if she was going to find the coin. So, what does Jesus say that she does?

First, she lights a lamp. Now the definition of dark is the absence of light. So she lights the lamp, she is willing to use what lamp oil she has to light the lamp to search.

Second, she sweeps the floor. I bet she did not sweep the floor chaotically, but rather systematically. sweeping and shining the light in the areas that she swept.

Third she searches diligently. Perhaps getting on her hands and knees, shinning the light in the darkness and feeling around with her hands.

She was searching a small house, but she was working in very dark conditions, carefully sweeping away whatever filled the cracks in the floors, looking for where that coin may have gone, perhaps covered over by more dirt.

Against these very difficult circumstances, the woman is focused on finding that one lost coin, worth a day’s wages, worth so much to her family, but worth nothing if it remains lost in a crack on the floor.

The coin was lost in the darkness, lost in the dirt, it could no longer be used for what it was created for, yet it was right there for her to find.

Notice what Jesus is doing here. He is explaining that the tax collectors and sinners are lost in a dark place, cover by sin, and that they cannot be used for what it was made for and they are right in front of the religious leaders.

Isn’t that what Jesus is saying to us today?

You see the parable is not about silver coins, however, it is about people.

The people who are in the lost in the darkness of this world, cover by the dirtiness of the sinful world of lusts, self pleasures and pride.

How far do we have to go to find the lost? Just look in your home, your life, they are all around us.

The truth is God cannot use them for what they were created for unless they become found, and they are cleaned up and restored.

I want you to know today that:

This light in the darkness, represents Christ in the world.

John 1 says that Jesus is the True Light to all people and that His Light shines in the darkness.

So the light is the representation of Christ in the world.

The broom represents the cross by which His blood cleanses and restores all people.

And the woman, well she represents the believers in the world.

She represents us, the bride of Christ. And Jesus is saying that we must search diligently for the lost, shinning light into the darkness, sweeping and searching through the cracks of this sinful world.

Because NOBODY IS PERFECT, BUT EVERYONE IS SIGNIFICANT.

1. SHE LOST THE COIN IN HER HOME

2. SHE SEARCHED RELENTLESSLY BY SHINING THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS AND SWEEPING THE FLOOR.

Then last truth Jesus speaks of is this:

3. SHE CELEBRATED WHEN SHE FOUND THE LOST COIN.

Look at verse 9 with me “And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!”

WHY DID SHE CELEBRATE?

Because she has been made complete again. She has regained who she was. WHAT MADE HER COMPLETE.

Watch this: Her identity is complete again.

You see that coin repents lost people and sin takes people away from their true identity. She has now been restored to her true identity.

A Royal priesthood, child of God and heir of God, co-heirs with Christ.

The Bible tells us once we have become found in 2 Peter 2:9 that: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”

God’s Word goes on to say in Romans 8:16-17: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”

You see once she found that coin look at what happened.

Notice that she gathers those closest to her and celebrates with them. As the lost are found in our lives, we can come together and celebrate with those who are closest to us, the body of Christ.

WHY BECAUSE WHEN PEOPLE ARE FOUND THEY ARE MADE COMPLETE!

You know something about a silver coin? When it is in complete darkness and you shine a light on it, it reflects the light and it can be found.

Jesus then sets the importance of the one person who is lost in the dark and found by saying; Notice verse 10:

“Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Why? Because what is significant to God has been found! The lost has been found!

This parable tells us about God’s heart and attitude towards the lost people of this world, how in His heart of hearts God wants all people to be saved.

Therefore; He is on a very diligent search for each lost person, as much as this parable shows us who our God is, it also tells us who we are called to be.

As followers of Christ, we are called to reflect Him, to shine with His characteristics, to embody His love and forgiveness and to diligent search for those who are lost.

Jesus tell us in Matthews Gospel 5:14-16 that “You are the light of the World”.

The light of our lives is Christ shining His way, His truth, and His life through us.

Just like the moon reflects the light of the sun back to a dark world, we too reflect the light of Christ to a world of people in darkness.

If it is God’s desire to search for the lost ones with a passion like this woman searching for a small coin in a very dark room where there are deep cracks for a coin to hide. We also are to have that same passion for searching.

God is calling us to find our one, by shining His light, searching for them so they can be found and fulfill their purpose in His kingdom.

Who’s Your One? Who is that lost person you need to reach with the gospel?

It is the mandate of Christ and it is the example of Christ to seek and to save the lost. For when even one is redeemed, the angels rejoice.

Invitation