Luke 15

Introduction

Many people believe there are three parables in chapter 15

However, the grammar of chapter 15, indicates there is one parable with three pictures

Another person puts it - 1 picture but three panels

CHS - A pyramid - a different inscription on each side.

The side of the parable has common themes

Something valuable is lost

All three items lost worth saving, finding

There is rejoicing when it is found.

Each picture gives us a different phase to the parable.

The lost sheep - stupid, foolish, unthinkable wanderer from God

Lost Coin - The passivity of the lost.

Prodigal Son - deliberate and willful

God

The Lost sheep - Jesus seeks - He is the great Shepherd that gives His life for the sheep.

The Lost Coin - The Holy Spirit through the church sweeping to find the Lost

The Prodigal Son - The Father

The Parable of the four verbs

Lose

Seek

Found

Rejoice

The Lost Sheep

The Tenderness of Jesus

Who are the 99 Sheep - They are in no need of repentance

Jesus seeks the Lost

This is a new teaching

You had to reform life and come to God

The shepherd does not stop until he finds the lost sheep

He goes to where the Lost is - Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost.

He carries the found sheep - Romans 5:6

Romans 5:6 KJV 1900

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Repentance is an important piece

Joy and rejoicing

The Lost Coin

The story - wife dowry present - Therefore very important

The women of that time often wore upon their brow a frontlet that was called a semedi - It was made up of coins, it themselves largely valueless…But it was a coin that had stamped on it an image of authority . The frontlet signified betrothal or marriage.

She does not count the coin as lost or irrelevant

Effort

She lights a candle

Sweeps the House

Seeks diligently

Rabbis teaching - There will always be joy in heaven over one sinner obliterated.

The Prodigal Son

Significance

George Murray - The most divinely tender and humanly touching story ever told on earth.

Charles Dickinson - The finest story ever written

This parable has a two-fold purpose

Christ love and compassion for the Lost sinner

His rebuke of the Pharisees and scribes

There are three main characters

The Prodigal Son - Represents the publican and sinner

The Father - Represents God the Father

The other son - The religious community

The Prodigal Son

Wanted His inheritance now

Wasted His inheritance

He crossed the Jewish line

Took while his father was still alive

Went into another country

Lives wickedly and immorally

Worked with swine

Came to Himself

The Great Shepherd Seeking

The Holy Spirit Sweeping

Humble

Did not expect anything more than to be a hired servant

A hired servant different than a slave. A slave could be viewed in family terms but a hired servant could be gone by tomorrow.

His two request

Give me

Make me

His focus was on the Father

Father

Never Lost hope

Looking for His son to return

Runs to meet His son

Hugs his son

Kisses his son

Dressed Him

The ring - the union the father and son experienced

Shoes - only house hold members were shoes

Rejoicing

Celebration - pointing to his love for the Prodigal

The other son

Angry

Unhappy

Envy

Insulted to hear that the Prodigal was restored.

Thy brother

The story began with the younger son leaving home and ends with the older son refusing to enter the home

Conclusion

Lost people do not deserve the goodness and grace of God

Self-righteous people do not have pity on the lost

Heaven rejoices at a salvation - Artistically constructed unit with a single theme - namely, God’s joy when he finds a lost sinner.