Well, I want to draw your attention to Luke 14. We've just completed that chapter, but turn there again. We're going to look this morning at the first 10 verses of chapter 15, parables that you are familiar with. But I want to remind you of something that Jesus said in the midst of his instruction to the Pharisees and the scribes. the scholars of the law. And we see it in verse 11. It is a wonderful summary of what Christ wants the Pharisees to know. It's this, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. The exalted will be brought down and the humbled will be lifted up. And the idea behind that is that God is the one who will be doing both. He will be lifting up those who are humble and he will be bringing down those who have exalted themselves. And herein lies that contrast that we've been seeing throughout the Gospel of Luke. The Pharisees and the scribes, the religious leaders, the religious establishment, the religious elite who have elevated themselves, who look for the applause of men who are prideful in their accomplishments and their works righteousness, versus the needy, the poor, the outcasts, the very ones that Jesus has just told these Pharisees to invite over those that could give nothing in return for such an invitation. Bring in the crippled and the blind, those you are of utmost need. And so you've had this contrast, this puffed up and arrogant Israel who sees themselves as righteous versus the needy. Those very ones who have been outcasted by the religious establishment. And it's to these, you'll notice in our verses, it's these that are coming to Jesus. And Jesus pauses the time to give three parables. This contrast between humility and pride. We must be reminded that pride is what got Satan kicked out of heaven. Pride is what caused man to fall. Pride is the counterfeit to repentance. There's nothing glorious, there's nothing celebratory of pride. What the Bible says about pride is that it ultimately destroys. It leads to judgment and destruction. In fact, in no more clear terms, God hates pride. He responds negatively towards pride. He will tear down the prideful, and he will elevate and lift up. the humble. And I want you to note as we look at chapter 15 who it is that Jesus addresses and speaks to. And so look with me at Luke chapter 15 and we're going to look at verses 1 through 10. Hear the word of the Lord. Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near him. to listen to him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, saying, what man among you, if he has 100 sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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, which was lost. I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman, if she has 10 drachmas and loses one drachma, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost in the same way. I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Jesus gives two parables here. He will give a third that we are all too familiar with, that of the lost son or the lost sons. The first parable he gives is one of the lost sheep. The one who goes and leaves the 99 for the one and then the story of a lost coin. And then the story of that lost son. All three of these parables share a similar pattern. The lost, the sought, the found, the restored, and the celebrated. The lost, the sought, the found, the restored, and the celebrated. That's really the theme of these three parables. The first one is modestly long, only seven verses. The second one is very brief, only three verses. And then the third, which we'll spend several weeks looking at, goes from verses 11 to 32. But even though they are different in their length and their features are unique, the story is really the same. We know these stories well, perhaps the last one best of all. But what we see in these pages is that Jesus is a friend to sinners. Jesus welcomes sinners. He seeks after sinners. He responds positively towards humble sinners. Now, we're all sinners, but there is a contrast between those that have humbled themselves, and those who are prideful. And so I want you to note four ways that Jesus responds to sinners. Four ways that Jesus responds to sinners in these parables, the first two parables. And the first one we see in verses one to two, and that is that we see Jesus' welcome of rejected sinners. Jesus's welcome of rejected sinners. That was the accusation that was brought against him. He receives sinners. They come to him and he receives them. He dines with them. He gives table fellowship with them. Here we have the Pharisees and the scholars of the law again. They are the academics. They are the religious elite. They are the experts in the tradition and the history and the theology. And what do we see them doing in verses one and two? There is a strong contrast between these ones that supposedly represent God and God himself. What do we see them doing? They're grumbling. And what are they grumbling about? The fact that Jesus is spending time with people that they would deem as having a bad reputation. In the text they mention two particular categories, two groups of people for whom they despise. One is the tax collector. The tax collector and then a more generic term, sinners. If you know anything about tax collectors, they were loathed. They were despised. They were viewed as the greatest of all traders. And it kind of makes sense. I mean, in one point, no one particularly enjoys paying taxes. I don't know anyone who looks forward to April 15th with any measure of excitement, right? We pay them. The Bible certainly tells us to render to Caesar what is Caesar's. Paul tells us to pay our taxes and give what is expected of us. But tax collectors were more than merely your typical IRS agents. Tax collectors were cold and calculated. I mean, again, And be reminded that Israel is occupied by a Gentile, pagan, idolatrous nation. They have been for many centuries now. Israel has no king at this time. They have some limited autonomy, but they have a short leash. And what the Roman Empire did was they farmed out tax collection services to nationals. So you'd have a fellow Jew who had likely fronted a certain amount of taxes. He had, for all intents and purposes, purchased a tax franchise. And because he had made that initial investment, he had made that initial risk, taken that initial risk, he needed to be and make profit. But what inevitably happened is extortion. Inevitably, they raised their fees. We know all about inflation. These were inflated fees. This was price gouging, right? And so these guys, because of their price gouging, because in some shape or form, many of them had a legalized extortion franchise, these guys were viewed as traitors. They were the lowest of the low. They weren't actually allowed to socialize with Jews. They couldn't be judges or witnesses, and they couldn't even enter the synagogue. The rabbis would say that a house that had a tax collector in it, who walked in and dined, would be deemed as unclean. Sinners, on the other hand, could be any number of people. It was a generic term. Certainly it included the prostitutes and the thieves. It could have been someone who was simply deemed as ritually unclean. It could have been someone who doesn't follow the Mosaic law, or even more so, the traditions of men that had been created. They don't do that to the same degree as the Pharisees, and so they were viewed as irreligious or even unrighteous. These would certainly include the riffraff the drunkards, the gluttons. So you can understand then, it was not just that these two categories of people were of poor reputation, or that they were from some other political persuasion or party. No, these people were not good, many of them. And Jesus was dining with them. In fact, the text tells us they were coming to him. They were coming near, and that seems to be a pattern in the ministry of Jesus. Remember in Luke chapter 7, the woman who's crying and who breaks open an expensive perfume and anoints the feet of Jesus. She understood her wretchedness, and so did they. The Pharisees were looking down. If you knew what this woman was about, what this woman was up to. You would have never had her even in your presence. Jesus again highlights her humility. He again highlights the fact that she knows who she is anointing. She knows who she stands before, unlike the Pharisees who, ironically, should have known better, who had much more access to the Old Testament scriptures, which spoke of Christ. Now, again, Jesus dining with sinners. There's some caution that needs to be brought up here, because I think this perhaps is becoming one of the more misused passages. It's one of those passages that is being treated casually. I would say it is even being treated outside of its context, what it was intended. And so we need to be very careful when we start making bumper stickers or branding certain things where we say things like, Jesus ate with sinners. True, but what do we mean by that? And what did he do with sinners? Or Jesus welcomed the outcast. And so should you. Now let's be clear here, Jesus received people who had terrible reputations, people who were up to no good, people who earned the name sinner and earned the name tax collector. He had table fellowship with them, which again is a big deal, much more of a big deal in their culture than our own. And that is all true, Equally true is the fact that Jesus's table fellowship was not an endorsement of the actions that labeled them sinners or tax collectors. If you're envisioning Jesus belly up to the bar taking shots with the local drunkard, then I think you're missing the point of the passage. Your social agenda is causing you to miss the context of what Jesus was saying. And these kinds of things are being promoted often in churches or on billboards. in television commercials, right? I keep hitting on the, he gets us, and it's a tough one because on the one hand, there's a part of me that when I watch those commercials, or I see their billboards, I think and marvel at the fact how true that is. He does get us. In the most profound and incredible way, God became flesh and dwelt among us. That is a remarkable thing, but we're using it as a social justice kind of point, and it's more than that. And so we see things like Jesus was a refugee too. He gets us. Jesus made space for everyone. He gets us. And there's images of Jesus washing the feet of a woman in front of an abortion clinic, or someone who's at the gay pride parade, or a Palestinian and a Jew and he's washing their feet, or someone that's black and someone that's white in the deep south and he's washing their feet. And while that may get clicks and views and even sentimental nods, it's a partial and I think confusing caricature of who Jesus truly is and what he has done and what it ultimately accomplishes. It is a marvelous thing that Jew and Gentile, that black and white, that male and female are brought together. That is a miraculous thing. That is a glorious thing that the nations, even a United Nations, is represented in local churches, if it can be. That is a remarkable and beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing that Jesus welcomes sinners, that he invites sinners to come and dine with him, people of ill repute, people who have been deemed unclean or outcast by the spiritually elite. It is something to marvel at that he welcomes the unwelcome and he welcomes the uninvited. But what we must also understand and what we see in the Gospels and even in this text is that he never left them in the same condition he met them in. He wasn't endorsing their sin as if somehow that was fine with him. Because after all, Jesus opens a space for everyone. No, Jesus transformed people. People came to him in repentance. They acknowledged who he was and they gave their lives. I would remind you that Levi, who we met in Luke chapter five, also known as Matthew, was a former tax collector. He didn't continue on in his extortion practices. He was a former tax collector. Jesus was not apathetic about sin. He died for sin. He experienced the wrath of God for sin. He absorbed it all. The context of these parables, I would remind you to reread them. They include, which we'll talk about in a moment, they include repentance. So be very careful how you kind of understand Jesus's welcome of sinners. Yes, he welcomes the riffraff of society, the sinner, both great and small, who exercise their depravity in all kinds of different ways. But he doesn't welcome them to say it's okay. He doesn't welcome them to say, you keep on sinning so that grace might increase. No, he transforms them. We'll get this in Luke 19. What does Zacchaeus do? Does he keep on? No, he repents of his sin and he makes restoration, right? restitution. He gives back what he had done. Now, unfortunately, these Pharisees had lost sight of God's heart to seek and save that which is lost. He didn't come for the righteous, which they shouldn't see themselves as righteous either, but he didn't come for them. He came for the sinner. He came for the sick. He came for the poor. This is exactly why he says, invite the poor and the crippled and the lame. and the blind. There is truth that Jesus welcomes and befriends the undesirable, the unclean, the broken, the disabled. Why? Because he restores them. I don't know if you've seen recently this, it's somewhat of a viral video. If you're a scroller, you'll see it on a reel or a TikTok, but it's from HeartCryMinistry out of Paul Washer's group. And there was an individual who was converted in the prisons. And this guy looks hard. This guy is tattooed from head to toe. And if you watch it, he shares of how Christ has changed him. Jesus welcomes sinners. He welcomes them in all of their sin, in all of their their muck, in all of their depravity. And he changes them. He redeems them. He restores them. That's the heart of Christ. That is the heart of God to transform and change sinners. Contrast that with the heart of the religious elite who, when they come, what do they do? They grumble. They grumble. It's what Israel has often done in the face of God's wonderful redemptive provision. They grumble. That's the very same word that's used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, all throughout Exodus, all throughout Numbers, to describe Israel, remember, out of captivity. out of the enslavement of Egypt, and they are wandering in the wilderness. God is miraculously providing for them, even though He has just miraculously delivered them. And what are the people of Israel doing? They're complaining. They're murmuring. They're grumbling. God has provided this wonderful remedy. God has saved them, and they murmur. They complain. The use of the verb grumbling may be Luke's way of saying that these Pharisees These scholars of the law are simply clones of an earlier generation of unbelieving Israel. They've always been this way. Their grumbling continues. You're no different. Remember, Jesus chastises them. He pronounces a woe on them because they kill the prophets of God. And here stands the prophet of all prophets. And what are they going to do to him? They're going to kill him. And here they are grumbling, but here their grumbling, their grumbling is our gospel, right? Their accusation is our great hope for this Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. Friends, that's good news for you and me, because we're sinners. He dines, He draws us in, He pursues us. Remember what Jesus said in, Chapter 14, verse 35, the very last verse of 14. If you don't remember, look at it. He says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Who's hearing in our text? It's the sinner, right? What do we read right after Jesus says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear? It says, and all the tax collectors and all the sinners were coming near him. To what? Listen, we have ears. We want to hear. What a slap to the religious elite. Who has ears to hear? It's these sinners, these outcasts, these nobodies. And why are they coming? Because they recognize their need. They need what Jesus is talking about. They long for what Jesus is talking about. These are not sinners marching pridefully, parading and glorifying their sin. They're coming to Christ because they have been crippled by their sin. And they need help. They need deliverance. They need to be forgiven. And they see Christ as being able to do that. So they come to him. Jesus welcomes these rejected sinners. The Pharisees had forgotten that it's good to go after lost stuff. This was the ministry focus of Jesus to seek and save the lost, Luke 19 10. So what follows are two parables. Parable of a shepherd and a lost sheep, and a woman with a lost coin. Let's look at those. We see several additional things that we see Jesus doing. Jesus' response. Number two, Jesus' pursuit of ruined sinners. Jesus' pursuit of ruined sinners. We see this in verses three through five, and we see it in verse eight. In the first parable, we see a relentless shepherd who leaves the 99 in the pasture, through the hills and the valleys, and goes after in hot pursuit that one lost ewe. And when he finds that sheep, he puts it on his shoulders and he carries it home rejoicing. The 99 are safe and sound, so this one lost sheep receives special attention. That shouldn't bother the other 99 since it's the shepherd's willingness to go after the one that gives the 99 the security. What a shepherd that would pursue even one lost sheep. The shepherd had one job, right? One job, protect and care for the sheep. I mean, you realize there's not a whole lot of rules when it comes to shepherding, but there is one dominant one, don't lose them, right? Don't lose the sheep. So if you had a missing ewe, you'd go after it, you'd find it, everyone knew. Jesus even points that out. What man among you, if you had a hundred, wouldn't go after that one? Of course you would. course you would leave. It's your responsibility as a shepherd and you would go out until you see in verse 4, until he finds it. Why? Because the shepherd knows sheep aren't that smart. They're in grave danger. They're pretty much defenseless. They lack any semblance of intelligence. I don't know if you've seen another video where a shepherd pulls out a sheep who had fallen in this ditch. He yanks it out, throws it out on the land. It runs around for a few minutes and then falls right back in the same ditch. Now you know what you're dealing with, right? That's what these animals are like. They're not the brightest. They're pitiful, they're skittish, they're needy. But the shepherd knows all of this and so he goes after that lost sheep. He seeks that sheep out. He finds it and then he tenderly cares for their needs. Throwing it over your shoulder is one so that it doesn't go wandering off. But again, it's a sign and a picture, an image of security and safety. The shepherd takes that pitiful animal and secures it so it doesn't wander off again. Again, a picture of God's willingness to pursue and to care for his people. Now, these Pharisees should and probably were well aware of how often the Old Testament used the picture of a shepherd in relation to Yahweh. How Yahweh describes himself in Isaiah 40 verse 11, like a shepherd, he will shepherd his flock. In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them. In his bosom, he will gently lead the nursing youth. This is the character of Yahweh. This is how he deals with his sheep. David wrote of Yahweh in Psalm 23 that he is my shepherd. He's personal. He cares for me. He pursues me. Another passage that you can't help but think about when you think about it in relationship to who he's talking to with the Pharisees is Ezekiel 34. Jesus isn't the first to tell a shepherd and lost sheep story. Ezekiel 34 is all about that. Ezekiel 34 is about the difference between terrible shepherds and a good shepherd. And what you have in Ezekiel 34, you can look there if you'd like, but what you have in Ezekiel 34 is Yahweh putting on blast the religious shepherds, the spiritual shepherds of Israel, and basically saying, you have failed. You have failed your sheep. You've been self-serving and greedy and negligent. In fact, the sheep are scattered because of them. And Yahweh says in verse four, those who are sickly, you have not strengthened. The diseased, you have not healed. The broken, you have not bound up. The scattered, you have not brought back, nor have you searched for the lost. But with strength and with severity, you have dominated them. You've not cared for them. By the way, contrast that with what Jesus is doing. He is strengthening the sickly. He is healing the diseased. He is binding up the broken. He is gathering the scattered and he is searching for the lost. He is doing the exact opposite. These leaders in Israel, in Ezekiel 34 and the leaders here are total train wreck. And in this same prophecy, in Ezekiel 34, Yahweh promises that there will be a coming age. And in that coming age, he himself will shepherd his people. He says in verse 15 of Ezekiel 34, I will shepherd my flock. Verse 16, I will search for the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick. I will do for Israel what you have not done. And then he says in verse 23, he will do this through one shepherd. I will establish over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will shepherd them, and he will shepherd them himself and be their shepherd. This is in reference, again, you look at John chapter 10 when Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. There's a reason why they wanted to kill him after he said that. They were thinking, Ezekiel 34. They were thinking Psalm 23. So by using this imagery in his parable, Jesus may well be claiming to fulfill the very shepherding work Yahweh had promised in Ezekiel 34. And at the same time, indicting the Pharisees for being more of the same in terms of bad shepherds in Israel's history. Regardless, the lost receive Jesus' primary attention. He goes after them. And we see this in the very next parable. A woman searches for a lost coin. This one small coin is likely the equivalent of a day's wage. She's got ten of them, but she loses one. Now that's a big deal. If you lost a day's wage, you might want to go and search for it and look for it. And so what does she do at this lost day's wage? She acts. What does she do? She lights a lamp. She does all the things you would think to do. Maybe it's close in coloration to the ground, so she gets a lamp so she can see more carefully. She sweeps the whole house. And she diligently searches for it until she finds it. She clearly is looking for this coin like a mom looks for something that's lost, not like your kid looks for something that is lost, right? There's always that difference, right? Mom, I can't find, and you find it in like 2.3 seconds, right? No, she's searching carefully, why? Because there's value to what she is looking for. This woman knows how to look. By the way, that is significant that Jesus uses a woman in this parable. Luke's gospel is full of those things. Jesus kind of changing all of history, right? He's removing these taboos, right? And here Jesus uses this woman. He could have very easily used a man, but he doesn't. Notice that little adverb there, she searches carefully, thoroughly, meaning she is paying special close attention. Is this how you envision God? That he is actually on the lookout for ruined sinners? That he's in pursuit of sinners that carefully? That he's ordering their steps, he's directing their path, putting circumstances and things in their life to draw them to himself. You know, you might be tempted as a Christian to look at a neighbor or a colleague or maybe a family member or even a friend. You might be tempted to think, man, this person, so-and-so, and you all have the image in your head, man, that person is hopelessly lost. There's no turning around. on this one, too far gone. You've prayed for them. You've shared the gospel with them. You've read books on apologetics to argue with them. And their heart, as the days increase, seem less receptive, not more. And you feel hopeless about them and their hopelessness. And while it is true that we don't know what God will do, right? We don't. We don't have any guarantee. And yet, I just want to encourage you that texts like this remind us that there is one who is in pursuit and he will have his people. That should be an encouragement to you. You know, somebody that you've just, man, it just seems like forever. You've tried and you've tried and you've tried. You just keep going to the one who pursues. You go to the one who saves. You ask. You keep praying. You keep working. You keep proclaiming the gospel. With this kind of anchoring all of those efforts, the shepherd will have his sheep. The shepherd will gather his sheep. The shepherd, John 10, knows his sheep, and they know him. And they hear his voice and they follow him. That's what the scriptures say. Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. The sheep hear. So even those that you've deemed hopeless, you be reminded that Jesus is a friend of sinners, that Jesus pursues tax collectors. That's what he does. Every sinner can sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Now, to be fair, some sinners have expressed and lived out that wretchedness to varying degrees. We're all depraved, we're all lost, we all are hopeless. But some exercise that depravity into great lengths. Don't get all hung up on the hopelessness of this particular sinner and his sin. Know instead that ruined sinners are pursued by the shepherd and they're rescued. Some of them, when they're not even expecting it, are looking for it. Jesus dines with sinners. He pursues sinners as the hound of heaven and he rescues them. And friends, that's good news because that's our testimony as well. Every lost sinner has a different story to tell because we all got found in different ways. But whenever, wherever, and however, the story is the same, isn't it? Jesus finds lost sinners. He pursues them. And notice the response to the shepherd finding the lost sheep or the woman finding the lost coin or even the prodigal son who returns home. I think this is really the crux of all of the parables and it leads us to our third point. Notice Jesus' joy over rescued sinners. Jesus's joy over rescued sinners. We see this in verses 5 through 7 and verses 9 through 10. It's actually the singular point of these three parables. If there is one big idea, it is this. While the Pharisees are busy grumbling, God's response to lost sinners, the community's response, heaven's response is one of joy. It's one of rejoicing. The overarching point of those parables is that contrast between the grumbling of the Pharisees and the gladness of God. Look at verse 7. Notice what he says with that lost you, that lost sheep being found, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Verse 10 with the found coin, in the same way I tell you there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. In verse 32, the father says to the older son, but we had to celebrate and rejoice for this brother of yours was dead, but now is alive. He was lost, but he's been found. You notice celebration, rejoicing. This is a joyous occasion. And notice verse six, it's public. It's public when he comes home with his sheep, when he calls together his friends, he invites them to join in the celebration. This is a reason for a parade. This is a reason for confetti and loud shouts and bands and singing. This is the occasion when lost sinners are found. This is how, this is what, This is how heaven would respond to a lost sinner being found. This is public. This shepherd is encouraging his friends, his neighbors, rejoice with me. Isn't this good news? And in verse nine, when she has found the coin, what does she do? She calls together her friends and her neighbors and says, rejoice with me. I have found the coin. What does the prodigal son, what does the father do? He's the highlight, isn't he? The father runs to him and calls for a celebration. He calls for the fatted calf to be slain and strike up the band. It's time to party, because my son was lost, but now he's found. This wayward son of mine is home. By the way, that's the nature of true joy, right? It overflows. You want to share it. It's the nature of unbounded gladness that you want to share it with others. You want to be public about it. You can't hold in the joy, right? You rejoice. You post about it all over social media, right? It's on Instagram, right? Or if you're old school, it's on Facebook, right? You want the world to know the joy that you have. You text and call everyone you can think of. I think of when my grandson JJ was born, right? I'm texting people. I wasn't allowed to post too much, but I posted a little bit. But you want people to know he's here. What a joy. We're sending pictures. It's something joyous. When the Dodgers won the World Series on my 50th birthday, no less. I was with my Dodger-loving sons who were all going crazy, and we were FaceTiming with those family members, those Dodger-loving family members. I was texting other Dodger fans. We were rejoicing. We wanted everyone to know about our excitement. Well, those things pale in comparison to what we have here, a lost center being found, someone who has been Drawn out of the clutches of judgment and condemnation and hell. How much more should we be celebrating? More than a shepherd who finds a sheep, more than a coin, more than the Dodgers winning the World Series. Hope they do it again. How much more though when ruined sinners are rescued? I mean, friends, when we witness a baptism, do you understand what you're watching? Do you? Do you understand when someone professes faith in Christ and then walks with him that we are celebrating? That someone who was lost is found. We're rejoicing with them. I've always thought it's so odd when I hear that churches tell you, oh, don't clap after they're baptized. What? If heaven is clapping, we ought to be too. If heaven is rejoicing, we ought to be rejoicing too. Baptism is a celebration. Someone coming to us and saying, I was lost, but now I'm found. I was torn up in my sin. I was a slave and now I've been set free because of Christ. There's no greater thing to rejoice over than that. I mean, the fact that heaven is rejoicing, is a way of saying that God is rejoicing. The one who has done the rescuing, right? He's rejoicing. The community is encouraged to join in the rejoicing. This really does tell us the heart of God for the lost. One person, right? One sheep, one coin, one lost son. It's rejoice worthy, just one. And the rejoicing doesn't stop there. Jesus says it, verse 7, in heaven. Verse 10, in the presence of the angels. I mean, who ought to know that the angels rejoice in heaven but Jesus because he was there? Remember that? His pre-existence. This is definitely speaking of his deity here. Jesus ought to know what the angels are doing in heaven. He knows them. He commands them. They're involved in his incarnation even. How would you ever know the angels were celebrating a lost sinner? Well, again, Jesus made that declaration in John 10, or not John 10, I think it's John 4. I have come down from heaven. Of all people, he would know. It's a little bit of revelation, right? He pulls back the veil. What's happening in heaven? What is happening in the presence of God? Here you have it, rejoicing. celebration. This again is God's heart for the found sinner. Heaven responds. I don't know if you know 1 Peter 1 12, but that verse has always fascinated me. Peter's talking about the gospel, he's talking about the salvation that we've been recipients of that the apostles, the prophets declared and the apostles are declaring. And then he speaks of angels and he says this, things, talking about salvation, things into which angels long to look. It's describing a strong interest, an overpowering impulse. They have this ongoing yearning and interest to understand. Think of this for a minute. Angels have been involved in God's redemptive plan. They announced the arrival of the Messiah. We read it in Luke 2. They ministered to Jesus in his temptation. They were there at the resurrection. They attended his ascension. And we know from Peter's that angels are intensely intrigued by God's redemptive plan. having been witness to it, but never experiencing it themselves. That's a mind-blowing thing. They are rejoicing at all that God is doing, even though they're not experiencing it practically, right? And so Jesus now says they join in the festivities, in the celebration. This is the greatest joy. But notice this rejoicing was not simply because he found them. Notice how the sinner is described in verse seven. There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who what? Repents. Who repents. Verse 10. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who what? Repents. It's repeated. Verse 21. In the parable of the prodigal son, again, the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Over and over again, it is joy over sinners, repenting. Do not forget that. Jesus welcomes repenting sinners. Jesus rejoices over repenting sinners. Jesus pursues repenting sinners. In fact, again, this text isn't dealing with that, but I think the fact that they repent is the fact that he's pursued them, right? It's the cart before the horse. This is not a giant come to Jesus and remain in your sin. Come to Jesus and still be identified as your sin, by your sin, right? I was a former, fill in the blank, right? A former witch, a former gang member, a former murderer, a former, you know, whatever, whatever it was, former. That man has died, I've been found. The sinner doesn't glory in his sin, he comes repenting. Being a found sinner involves repentance. Liking Jesus isn't enough. I would even say loving him. I think true love is you take him as he's declared him to be, right? I've said this repeatedly. You don't get to come to Jesus on your own terms. He has set the terms. He has said what is true. He has said what is right. He has set the terms. So we don't get to create a Jesus of our own liking, a Jesus of our own making. And this leads us to a fourth point, and that is Jesus's stipulation for restored sinners. Jesus's stipulation for restored sinners. Being found, again, involves repentance. You're not found without it. You're still lost. This is what characterizes you as being found. It's the very essence of being found. If there is no repentance, there is no foundness, which means you're still lost. Now, again, this is not to say that you're perfect. This is not to say, again, let other passages inform you when it comes to that. It's not to say you're perfect. or that you're gonna be perfect. It's not to say you don't trip up. The entirety of the Christian life is going to be one that is marked by ongoing repentance. But in each of these parables, the point is that the sinner accepts the consequences of his choices. He offers no excuse. He even says, the son, I'm not worthy to be your son. He makes no claims. He doesn't say, hey, I want you to be like this father. No, he doesn't create his own terms. He throws himself upon the mercy of God. And that's what all that's all we could ever do as sinners. Jesus spends his time with those who were drawn to him, those who knew they were sinful, those who who were meek and mourning and hungry and thirsting. Those who were destitute spiritually. These are the ones who see their sin, so they see their need. They acknowledge it, they confess it, and they're met with mercy. Again, it'll take us a little while to get there, but Luke 18, right? The tax collector and the Pharisee that go up, which man came down justified? The one who is acknowledging his sin. Have mercy on me, the sinner. It's the humble. It's the humble that are what? Lifted up. It's the prideful. I'm not a sinner. I've not done anything bad. I've not offended God. That's the whole point, right? Jesus is saying those that are humble will be lifted up, but those who are prideful will be torn down. What happens to those who repent? Restoration, right? They're restored. The sheep returns to the fold. The coin is returned to its place. The son is reconciled to his father. He goes from destitution to restoration. I just wonder. Friend, are you, have you been found? Have you abandoned Your sin, have you turned to the living God? Have you turned to Christ for salvation? Acknowledging, I am a sinful man, deeply desperate for the mercy of God. And as we see from scripture, he is eager to extend mercy. He's never turned away a humble sinner. He's never turned one away who has come to him in need and in desperation. And so I just would encourage you, friend, if you've not done that, that you would. That you'd let go of your pride, let go of your self-righteousness, your feelings of being good and abandon them and run to the one who is good. One, run to Christ, who is righteous. Believe on Him, and you will be saved. Believe on Him, repent of your sin, and place your faith in Him, and you will be found. You will. This is the Savior we serve. We have a God who seeks out sinners and then rejoices in their return. He seeks, He finds, He rejoices. May Anchor Bible Church do the same, amen?