Have you lost something?
We’ve lost a lot of small things. Sometimes we’ve lost our money, our wallet, our cell phone, little things...reading glass, our keys, screw drivers, pair of scissors -- According to surveys, the top five commonly lost items are: Keys, USB Flash Drives, Nailclippers, Eyeglasses, Gloves
They say with the advent of social media, we also lose a lot of privacy. Some people even with GPS, they lose their way and to a lot of people, the can easily lose their patience.
Sometimes, we lose more important things – Manny Pacquiao lost his match with Mayweather, singers they lose their voice. Sometimes we even lose the trust of someone... we’ve lost a relationship or we’ve lost a friend and probably, worst of all, we’ve lost a loved one. Even in the business world, if they don’t do well in the business… they have a Net Loss. We hear people saying “I’m losing my mind.” One time I heard one of the men saying, I lost my appeal... some would say I lose my appetite. I think one of the few times that we are happy even if we lost something is when we lose weight. Are you with me or are you lost now?
The title of our message is Lost and Found and our scripture is in Luke 15. We are going to talk about the Lost Parables – not because they are lost but because these parables talk about losing something or someone. These are very familiar parables. Today, God will reveal to us something about His nature. If you read the Bible, there are a lot of “names” used to described somebody who does not have a relationship with the Lord. We call them non-believers or unbelievers, pagans, ungodly, the unregenerate. In Psalm 14:1 it says there “the fool says in his heart, "there is no God.” In the New Testament, these type of people who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ is called LOST!
Why lost? Well Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the WAY.” Obviously, a person who does not know Jesus, does not know the Way, obviously, he’s LOST!
How important it is to God when somebody is lost. Why can’t He just concentrate on those people who are not lost, those people who are already in His side, those who have followed Him. Why bother with those who rejected Him or continue to reject Him? But the God whom we worship is not like that. His ways are not are ways. His plans are certainly not our plans. Jesus has compassion for the lost .
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.
2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable:
4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
The Parable of the Lost Coin
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Verses 11-32 is about the Parable of the Lost Son.
· It talks about a man and his two sons, the younger one asked for his inheritance, eventually he left and squandered all his money.
· He became so poor and hungry so he decided to return to his father – asking to be his servant.
· The father, instead of punishing him, he ran towards his son, restored his sonship and threw a party.
· The older son was so angry and did not join the celebration
· The father told the older son, this brother of yours ... he was lost and now is found
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
Jesus was at a Pharisee’s house on a Sabbath day (14:1)
So Jesus was invited to have dinner at a Pharisee’s house on a Sabbath Day. He got invited not because they liked Him. A lot of times, these Pharisees would like to trap Jesus in their conversation. They were waiting for the right opportunity to build a case against Him.
Jesus talked about doing good things during Sabbath, humility, the Parable of the Great Banquet and the cost of being a disciple (14:2-34)
In Chapter 15 verse 1, when the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus speaking, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were whispering “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus told the three parables in response to the Pharisees’ and teachers’ sarcastic comment that He welcomes sinners and eats with them (15:1-2)
His audience were: [a] The Religious Pharisees and Teachers, [b] Sinners and Tax Collectors, and [c] His disciples and followers
And this is a very interesting discourse and there is a very good pattern.
Do you notice the progression in the three
parables?
First was the lost sheep – representing
1% of the flock. Not a big number but
the shepherd still had to go out and search for the missing sheep.
Second was the lost coin – this time
representing 10% of the woman’s total number of coins.
Lastly, the lost son – 1 out of 2 sons,
50%, obviously it’s very significant in terms of percentage.
But that’s not the only case in point
here... the approximate value of the lost sheep was $100. So there is perfect logic for the shepherd to
look for the missing one, right? If you
lose $100 today, won’t you look for it? It’s
valuable right? If you have $10,000 in
your pocket and you counted it and you are missing $100, I am pretty sure you
will look for it.
The Greek translation of the word coin
here is “drachma” which is
equivalent to the Roman denarius or a day’s wage of a Roman soldier. In our time today, it’s probably equivalent
to $200. It is still valuable, right? Especially if you only have 10 coins, you
will for sure search for it if you lose one. This father in the parable lost 1
out of his two sons. No matter how bad
his son was, no matter how disappointing he was, he was still his son!
Much more if we are talking of human
beings. The 3rd parable talks
about a lost son. Have you ever lose a
child in the mall?
The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We were made in His image and likeness. Not His physical attributes because God is a spirit but we are made in His image of being capable of being loved and loving back in return. God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son and He does not want anyone to perish but that all should come to repentance. If we are lost, it breaks His heart. If we head towards a different direction and not towards His Son Jesus Christ who is The Way, it breaks His heart.
The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We were made in His image and likeness. Not His physical attributes because God is a spirit but we are made in His image of being capable of being loved and loving back in return. God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son and He does not want anyone to perish but that all should come to repentance. If we are lost, it breaks His heart. If we head towards a different direction and not towards His Son Jesus Christ who is The Way, it breaks His heart.
The Bible says in Luke 19:10:
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the
lost.
#1: If God
has so much compassion for the lost, so should we because we were once lost as
well. (v7)
If we call ourselves Christian, we
should have the same compassion for the lost as Jesus do even for the simple
reason that we too, we were once lost.
But we should remember the more important fact... that while we were yet
SINNERS, Christ died for us. When we
were lost, Jesus did not give up looking for us. He was like that Shepherd who had to go out of
His way to seek the lost sheep. He was
like that woman, who had to light up a light in the dark and sweep her floor in
order to find that missing coin. He used
different people to share with us – and probably we have ignored a lot of those
people. Up to now, to some of us,
probably Jesus is seeking. He did not
say “oh ok, I’m not going to share the
Gospel with my relatives this time, they’ll be coming back for vacation next
year anyways.” Or I am not going to
ruin the mood or I’m not going to be a party-pooper, I can share Jesus some
other time. If Jesus had that attitude, we shall all be doomed. God has compassion for the lost. God loves the sinners. God cares for those heading towards a
different direction. He expects us to
have the same compassion.
#2: Believers
are commanded to actively seek the lost and share the Gospel with them. (v8)
We have a mandate. Jesus gave us instructions. He said “Go and make disciples of all
nations.” He said go and be my
witness. In Acts 1:8:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
When we seek the lost and share the
Gospel, we become witnesses for Jesus Christ.
We tell the people, hey, look at me and listen to what I have to
say. This Jesus that I am sharing with
you... I have experienced Him. He
changed my life to the person I am now so it is very important that you are
indeed a changed person. Remember what I
told you in the past, you can either be a good or a bad witness.
You can interpret this verse
metaphorically and make it applicable to personal evangelism Jerusalem being your own immediate
family. Share Christ with them
first. Be a witness to them first. You cannot be an effective witness for others
about Christ if inside your home, you are a different person. WITNESSING starts in Jerusalem, in your own
household. The you witness to your JUDEA.
Judea is another Jewish town in Israel. This represents your friends, relatives and
other loved ones. Sometimes, these firs
two groups of people are the hardest to share the Gospel with. SAMARIA.
Samaria is a place that the
Jewish people avoid. They were enemies
with the Samaritans. Samaria represents
the people you don’t like. Some of them are even your enemies. Jesus said, love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. If you are able to share the Gospel with
them, they can even become your friend. And of course ENDS OF THE EARTH – these are the
people you don’t know. People you meet
on the streets, in the gym, at the supermarket.
These are people who have no idea that you exist and yet you spend time
with them and share Jesus with them. We
are commanded to actively share the Gospel.
#3: Seeking
the lost is never easy as there will always be challenges ahead. (v4, v8)
I’m not sure if you noticed it but if
you read verse 4, it says there: “Suppose
one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the
ninety-nine in the open country and
go after the lost sheep until he finds it.”
Also, in verse 8, it says there “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and
loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp,
sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it.”
What do these verses tell us? Seeking the lost is never easy. It means taking some risks. The shepherd has
to take the risk of leaving his flock in the open country – open country
meaning his flock will be vulnerable to attacks... but wolves and even
vulnerable to theft from other shepherds.
This is the reason why even in churches today, if the shepherd is not
always around... the sheep goes to other pastures and sometimes they end up
going to other shepherds.
Seeking the lost is never easy as there
will always be challenges ahead. When
the woman lost one of her silver coins, it says in verse 8 that she had to
sweep the house and she even had to light a lamp, she probably lost the coin at
night. Seeking the lost will certainly
involve some work for us and it is certain that we’ll face some
challenges. People will not like
us. People will persecute us. People will mock us. Sometimes, even our own families will abandon
us because we are sharing the Gospel with them. Missionaries risk their lives in order to
seek the lost. Should we keep on
counting? Maybe Jesus needs to remind
us.... “Hey, I gave up my life in order
to seek and find you... isn’t that enough reason for you to seek others?”
Jesus Himself said:
You will be hated by everyone because of me (Matthew
10:22)
But we know that as we get to know the
truth more and more, God allows some challenges and trials and testing to keep
us growing in our faith. It is through
these challenges that we depend on God more.
Remember also that our battle is not against flesh and blood.
It is spiritual in nature. It is against the dark forces of this
world. Once the devil sees that you are
embracing this new faith... once the enemy sees that you have personally
accepted Jesus in your life, then he starts to pay attention to you. He starts to create situations that will challenge
your faith and makes you doubt the decision that you made.
In case you did not notice, in verse 8,
the woman when searching for her coin, had to light a lamp. It was probably night time. She cannot wait until the break of dawn,
until it’s daytime to look for her missing coin. In the same way the shepherd in verse 4
cannot wait to bring his flock to a safe place, or have them taken-cared of by
another trusted shepherd but instead he left them in the open country to look
for the missing one.
What does this tell you?
There is urgency in seeking the lost, we should not
waste time and we must share the Gospel with them.
I read from somebody... seeking the lost
is like responding to an emergency, on a beach... somebody is drowning and
shouting for help. You happen to know
how to swim and you have knowledge and skills on how to save a drowning
person. The natural reaction is for you
to RUSH towards the sea and to swim towards that person and save him from
getting drowned, right?
If you see a drowning person, and you have
the proper training and skills, assuming you are drinking coffee... you will
not tell the drowning person “ah, please
wait, I need to finish my coffee... you know this is a nice coffee... this is
from Organo Gold.” You will not say
that right? Or if you are running
towards the drowning person, you will not stop, assuming you saw a beautiful
lady in her bathing suit and you just stop and chat with her... no, you won’t
do that. You probably won’t call the
lifeguard, you will save him yourself.
If you know a person who needs salvation, you don’t need to call your
pastor or wait for his availability before sharing Jesus with that person. The natural tendency is to run towards that
drowning person before it’s too late.
Church, a person who is lost is worst that a drowning person. So there is an element of urgency. We are talking about his eternal destiny....
where would he spend eternity?
In
verse 5, it tells us “And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his
shoulders and goes home. Then he calls
his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my
lost sheep.’
As far as the woman is concerned, in
verse 9 it tells us “And when she finds
it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I
have found my lost coin.’ She threw
a party... she might ended up spending more than the value of the coin.
Same thing with the Father when his son
returned, he threw a grand party, to the dismay of his envious older son.
We should rejoice when the lost is found or when
somebody receives Christ in his/her life (v9)
Are you glad when somebody receives
Jesus? Are you happy when somebody
realizes that he was lost and then was found?
One of the issues Jesus had with the Pharisees and teaches during His
time was their “holier than thou” attitude.
They think and act as if they are morally superior to others. In fact, most of them, they look down on
others who don’t share the same faith with them. We must be careful with the same attitude. It’s called PRIDE. Some Christians become too proud of being a
Christian that they don’t even want others to become one. We should rejoice
when others found Christ. The Bible says
“I tell you that in the same way there
will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” The right context of the 99 sheep actually
was that they represent those who are these self-righteous people who thought
they are good enough for God and that they don’t need any grace at all.
Despite the challenges and the certainty
of facing persecutions,
Will you go out and seek the “lost?”
Will you celebrate when they are “found?”
Prayer
Wherever you are, whatever you situation you may be -- you need the love of Jesus in your life.
Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:
Father God, I confess all my sins to you today. Please forgive me. Today, I open my heart to your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Him in my life as my Savior and as my Lord. May the Holy Spirit come to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be. In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen.Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:
The above article is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at WCF Richmond during its service on Sunday, May 24, 2015.
I apologize if there are grammatical and spelling errors.
I also apologize if I have missed acknowledging or making proper references to my sources, if any. as it is purely unintentional.
If you are looking for a church in British Columbia, Canada please visit our website at:
www.wordchristianfellowship.com
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