Please turn now to Luke chapter 15. You can find Luke 15 on page 874. Luke chapter 15. I'll be reading the entire chapter. Please give your attention to the word of God. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So Jesus told them this parable. 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. 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 that was lost. 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. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently 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 coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner. who repents. And he said, there was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property in a reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country. And he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the paws that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran. and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him. But he answered his father, look. These many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when the son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him." And he said to him, son, you were always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. It is more comfortable to live in a tidy mental world in which some people are good and some people are bad. And in which God loves the good and God hates the bad. For then we know what to do. We are to be good and keep the commandments and God will love us. This was the Pharisees religion. This is many religions. Jesus brings a different religion. But we better keep it straight. Jesus says God seeks the sinner. God carries the lost back to safety. God rejoices over everyone who repents. There is no one so lost that God cannot find him. No one so dead in sin, while still alive, that God cannot bring him to repentance. This is the message of God for you. But it's easy to think as the Pharisees and to say, yes, yes, God wants you, but not them. It's easy to follow the Pharisees and grumble if sinners come. And so the Pharisees ask, and this is one place where he does not condemn them for the question. The Pharisees in this place, they're really confused. You seem to be a man of God, but you're hanging out with the sinners, and you just don't tolerate them coming to the edges. You receive their invitations and go and eat with them. You look like a man of God, you sound like a man of God, you do miracles like a man of God, but you're not doing this part right. Jesus, what are you doing? I think for them it's a genuine question. And if our heads aren't right, it will be a genuine question to us. And so Jesus says, and I love how patiently He speaks here. He really goes all out, not only to explain, but to persuade. He goes all out. We think about how He's persuading the prodigal. That's a byproduct. He's really trying to persuade the Pharisees. He says, imagine you have 100 sheep. Now, by the way, if you have 100 sheep in that culture, you are rich enough to have a servant. So when you leave the 99, they're not defenseless. You left them with a servant. Just get that. They know that, all right? If you had 100 sheep, one gets lost. Wouldn't you leave the 99 with a servant? And wouldn't you go out, even if you wouldn't, let me tell you what you should do. You should go and search for that sheep. And you should keep searching until you find it. And when you find it, your primary emotion should be joy. Not irritation. Not frustration. Your emotion should be joy. In fact, it should be such a generous joy that you don't beat the sheep to make it walk back. You should pick it up. And when you get back, you should not just think that you are tired. You should still be inviting others to celebrate with you. Now, Jesus here is deliberately using a lot of Old Testament background. They sang psalms, chanted psalms in church, synagogue. They knew that the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters. All right, what does that make you? You're a sheep. And so he goes on in Psalm 100. Indeed, we are his sheep. We sang Psalm 95. We are his sheep. And in the end of Psalm 119, what is it? I am a straying sheep. Lord, seek your servants. You should remember that. That's 119W. We sing it all the time. You should know that part. In fact, he's not just using Psalms. He's using Isaiah. Isaiah 40. The Lord will gather his sheep. He will gently lead them. He will carry them in his bosom. In fact, in the end of Psalm 53, all we, like sheep have gone astray." In other words, it's an Old Testament illustration that we are like sheep to God. We go astray in sin the way that sheep go astray in the field. And yet we are still of value to God. The man seeking his sheep is meant to be a picture of God seeking people. God seeking sinners. Again, God is the owner of the sheep, that is, of us. And if you want to know how does God seek? Well, God seeks by coming in human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He here explains not just what God does, but what He is doing. He is implicitly saying, and I am the man seeking the sheep. That is why. I receive sinners and eat with them." God is still seeking today in Jesus Christ. Jesus now sits in heaven, yes, but He has sent out His messengers to continue the work and He sends out His Holy Spirit so that this work can be continued in power and so people can be convicted of sin. This work continues to this day. Now how is the sinner found? We know when the sheep is found, when he gets picked up and carried back. But the sinner is found when the sinner repents. You should see the being found in terms of repentance. In terms of the moral, the sinner is found when he repents. And repenting, repenting seems more active than getting picked up, and that's because we're more than sheep. He'll need to tell another parable. But we see it from God's perspective here, that we are His lost sheep. And with great compassion, He brings us back. And what is God's attitude to you when you repent of sin and you come back to God? What is God's attitude towards you? Well, again, this man, we're not told that he grumbled while he sought the sheep. We're not told that he rebuked and beat the sheep when he found it. We're not told that he drove it back. Let's go, stubby. We're not told that he went to bed in a huff when he got back. No, he is not a picture of someone resentful over the trouble that this stupid sheep has caused him. He's a picture of joy. He calls together friends and neighbors. He expands his joy. And he calls, this is the right response to you, that you rejoice with me over the finding of this sheep. And so he gives you a picture of heaven. There's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous who do not need to repent. He's saying, I am right to welcome sinners. I am right to eat with them. Their coming to here is a step on the way that they're being found. And like the man in my parable, he's saying, I don't exact a price from them. I don't keep them at a distance. I rejoice. This is what God does. I want you to marvel at how much Jesus is extending himself to the Pharisees so that they would get it. Because in some ways they had a zeal for God, but they didn't get God. And so he's extending himself to their experience. If you have sheep, and many of them did, don't you like it when you find them He's saying, haven't you been in synagogue and talked about being the straying sheep? And you asked God to find you. He would also say, don't you know in Ezekiel 34, God condemns the shepherds, that is, the leaders of Israel. And God goes on to say, I'm condemning you because you have not sought your sheep, but I will. I will come and seek my sheep. So again, he's not just saying this is what God is like. He's saying, God told you he was going to do this, and here I am fulfilling the prophecy. That should convince you, Pharisees. I'm fulfilling the prophecies that you know. And he even appeals to their vanity in the first one. He even speaks of 99 righteous ones who need no repentance. Again, as he begins to reason with them, he doesn't challenge them on being righteous at first. No, in the beginning, he says, now, for starters, let me not challenge your self-understanding of yourself. Let me just challenge your understanding of God. You're righteous, sure. For the sake of argument, temporarily, you are righteous. But here's what God is like with the unrighteous. That's where he starts with them. He gently leads them. He gently leads all who think that they are actually pretty good. But that's because he intends to go on to another parable. He says, one woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one, doesn't light a lamp, sweep the whole house, and keep looking until she finds it. And when she finds it, she doesn't just put it into a better pocket. No, she calls together neighbors and calls them to be happy with her because she's found her coin. Notice how Jesus continues to reach out to them. He not only says, I will picture God as a well-off farmer. Now he says, and I will also picture God as a poor woman. That's what he does here. Because why does he have to light the lamp? Because her little one-room house has no windows, because poor people can't afford windows. It's harder construction to put in windows. You want a cheap house? No windows. So when she has to look in it, she has to let a lamp. This is a poor woman. That's why the 10th coin is so important to her. And as you think about this parable, you should not say, how did God lose me? Because you're not a coin. You ought to say, how did God find me? Or how does God search for me? And the way Jesus searches for you being the light of the world. He said, in him a light has been lit to show you what is good. A light has been lit to show and to speak to your conscience. And again, the punchline of the parable is not the finding of the coin. The punchline is the rejoicing that follows the finding of the coin. You notice that in both of these, the punchline is the party that follows the finding. As he appeals to them and says, when I eat with sinners, I do so to lead them to repentance. I do so because they have repented. They're coming to me. They are repenting. And if it's a happy occasion, it's because it's supposed to be. I should be happy. You should be happy. But you'll notice here, as he leads the Pharisees along like a shepherd with sheep, you'll notice how he's intensifying the picture. He's not saying that what is lost, we should think of it as 1 in 100, now it's 1 in 10. He shows the value set on sinners. But he also implies there may be more of them than we said at first. He also raises the guilt of the sinners because sheep are ignorant. You don't blame a sheep too much. But a coin is stamped with the picture of the king. And we are stamped with the picture of the king because we're made in the image of God. And so when we go astray from God, we're portraying our own created makeup. We're not doing as we should. We're to think of this. We're lost in sin. Not just because we don't know things, but we're more guilty than that. And you'll notice in the second parable, he reduces the profile of the righteous who don't need to repent. He does not repeat that part. There is no speaking. of the nine sinners who don't need to repent in the second parable. Only the joy in heaven over the one who does repent. That point he intensifies. The angels of God repent. God rejoices over those who repent. The angels rejoice over those who repent. Jesus rejoices over the sinner who repents. He's saying this is the right way to be. His followers must rejoice over the sinner who repents. But there's a couple of questions left by the time you've done the first two parables. One is, what are you? Are you a lost coin? A found coin? Or a coin that never left the purse? Are you a lost sheep? Are you a found sheep? Or are you a sheep that never left the field? Who are you? Where do you locate yourself in this? And furthermore, the devil always wants to tell you how special you are. in a bad way. Satan may say, he may not be able to stop you from realizing that Jesus came for sinners, but he may get you to think that you're too big a sinner for Jesus. So that can be a problem. Would he have me when I've been running off so long? My 70-year-old uncle whom I saw yesterday, two of them, If they repented today, would God have them? Would He have the apostate who was left to faith? Jesus said there was a man who had two sons. And if you have any ear for rhetoric, you know He's amping up the pressure. We're not talking about sheep. We're not talking about coins. Now we're talking about sons. And there's only two of them. These aren't your possessions. We're not talking about your savings. We're talking about your family. We're talking about people. And how do you identify? You are not to identify in this parable with the Father, because the Father is God. You are to see yourself in one son or the other. It is not for you. You should be encouraged by the father. You should rejoice in the father. But you should not for a second imagine that you are the father in this parable. The younger son spat in his father's face. Dad, I want nothing to do with you except your money. I can't wait for you to die to get it. How about you give me my third now? Third because he's the younger son. Older son gets double. That is an extremely insulting thing to say, even in our culture, and it would have been ten times worse in that culture. You do not dishonor your father by telling him that you can't wait for him to die, and you want his money, and you actually think he should give it to you now. It's an outrageous request. This is what you might expect, and he got written out of the will. But as Jesus is making this point, the father gave him the third of the farm. And having gotten the third of the land, and the animals, and perhaps the servants, however they arranged that thing, he then did something really scandalous. He sold it all. If you are a farmer, if you are a peasant, what is the real wealth? It's land. Some of you can think of a movie. You ain't no kind of a man if you ain't got some lands. That is enunciating the attitude. You've got to buy the fields. You don't sell them. He sold it all. Because you can't take fields with you. And he wanted to get out of there. Because he didn't just hate his father's family. He hated the whole village. He wanted to get out of there. You can't take the land with you. The animals are a pain. That's what money is for. Money is very portable. Some of us are porting it right now in your pocket. You have money. It's a beautiful invention. So he sold it all. He turned it all into easily carryable money. And he left. He left. He left his parents' house. He left the village. He left the country. He went out of the country. This represents he left the faith. He went to a far country, he lived among pagans, and he lived like pagans, and he had no intention of ever coming back, because, I mean, he couldn't come back. He hadn't just burnt bridges, he'd blown bridges up. The whole village knew what this son had done to this father. And once there, he lived it up. Everything's a two-edged sword. Land is tricky wealth. You can't move it, but you also usually can't spend it too quickly. But you can sure spend your money quickly. That money goes fast. So you have here a picture of sin. Sin is departing from the Father. Sin is leaving God behind. Sin is wanting to do nothing with God. Sin really is a shameful thing when you break it down. So sin is departure from God. Sin is also a spending. A spending of your God-given gifts. Sin spends recklessly without thought of tomorrow. And so the sun sank to the bottom. Lenny had spent everything. That was reckless. What happened to the rainy day funds? He spent everything. And then a famine came. And now everybody's desperate. And everybody's looking out for themselves and maybe their families, but he's not with his family. He's a foreigner in a desperate country. And so he's lucky to get the job with the pigs. He's fortunate to be able to hire himself out and to be feeding the pigs and wanting to eat what the pigs are eating. And all the friends that he had enjoyed, you know, if you're spending a lot of money, and inviting people to party with you. Oh, you'll have friends. Keep that in mind. You'll have friends, but when you actually need a friend, they won't be there. Bear that in mind. Once he had nothing, he found out who his friends were, and he didn't have any. Here's a picture here of sin. Sin is leaving the Father. Sin is reckless spending. Sin is also a state of need. Because when you spend God's gifts and you have no contact with God, you have nothing. For every good gift comes from your Creator. And sin is a state of misery. He was longing to eat the pods that the pigs ate. And you know, of course, not just to think of how grubby and dirty pigs are. Jesus is speaking to an audience that keeps kosher still at this point, so they're already thinking of the uncleanness of the pigs. And He's really down there. Because even if he's left to faith, it's still there in the back of his mind that you're not supposed to be close to pigs. And there he is wanting to eat their food. Yes, sin puts you into a state of isolation. You'll find that your anger will cut you off from other people. The criminal in jail is cut off from society. The thief and the liar is not trusted by anyone. Sin will leave you in isolation. And sin is a form of slavery. The devil's the master and he's not nice. He doesn't pay well. He seduces in order to exploit. Sin, finally here, is pictured for us as insanity. This guy chose this. He chose this. He had been the younger son of an upstanding and very generous and compassionate father. But he chose this. Sin is insanity. And that's signaled when it says, when He came to Himself. Yes, a turning to God is a coming to yourself. Coming back to the image in which you are made. Coming to yourself to realize, yes, God has to be part of any sane picture here. If I'm not relating to my Creator in whose image I am made, I'm nuts. This is insane. And so when He came to Himself, He said, I need words. That's in the Old Testament. Israel, take with you words and return to the Lord your God. He thought about it. He says, I need words. Because I have torched my bridges. But I'm sure my Father will at least, He will make me a servant if I ask Him. At least I will be a servant and I will eat. I need words. And so he did not spare himself with his words. He said, I have sinned against heaven. That's just wrong to do that. And against you. I'm not worthy to be called your son. He had that right. Treat me as one of the servants. You know, repentance takes words. You have to at least say them to God. You have to confess your sins to God, and you're not to lessen them. That is excusing. You need to confess. You need to say how bad it was. Here's the early church father, Tertullian. As far as you have not spared yourself, that is, you said how bad it was, so far, believe me, will God spare you. Let me say that again without the bus. Tertullian, so far as you have not spared yourself, in your confession to God. So far, believe me, will God spare you? And he's just saying, First John, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so the man acted. He got up. He began walking home. He did not say, I owe this guy more service, because you owe the devil nothing. He did not say, once I get my life in order, I'll start home. Because you will never get your life in order as long as you are apart from God. He did not say, I'm too tired because I haven't eaten, because He wasn't going to get any more food there. He might as well get started. He began to go. Because you must go, spiritually, with your words to God. It's the going and the doing that makes the reconciliation possible. Because God welcomes you when you repent. How does God welcome you? We are pictured a father with his eyes out down the road seeing him a long way off. He'll take you eagerly. We're seeing a God who takes you back even if you have shamed him. It says this father ran. Now, he's a father with two adult sons. He's not a young guy. Have you seen an old man run? It ain't pretty. I mean, if he's been running the whole time, he could do it. But if it's an old man who hasn't been running, and in that culture, no old man had been running. I mean, it's just the most undignified, silly look. And if he's wearing a robe, I mean, this is even worse. And so we are given a picture of a man who's not standing on his dignity, but is just so glad to see his son that he is running in spite of the fact that this guy chained him in front of the village, in spite of the fact that this son has been an idiot and shameful, and in spite of the fact that he looks ridiculous. We're getting the picture of God gladly welcoming us back. And when he gets to his son, the son begins with his words. And the father cuts him off. He cuts him off. He said, put the best robe on him. I guess he brought some guys with him. And put a ring on his finger. That means he's a son, not a servant. And put shoes on his feet. That means he's a son and not a servant. Because he's my son. And so the son is confessing his sins, but he never gets to the part about, count me as a servant. Either because he's cut off, or because he realizes that that would be wrong. He is already being welcomed as a son. It is not for him to insist on changing that. It is for him to receive this most unmerited, undeserved welcome. Notice again that the punchline is not even the welcoming, but the party. Kill the fattened calf. That will feed 35 to 75. Let's party with the whole family and all the servants and a chunk of the village. Because my son who was lost is now found. Now, it's supposed to stop here. It doesn't stop here. And this is what makes this parable really interesting. It's already a tremendous parable, but it's not done yet. He's supposed to now say, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels in heaven over every sinner. He doesn't say that here. He misses his cue. He says, now the older son was in the field. And when he came in at the end of the day, he heard a party in his house. Now, if you come home tomorrow and there's a party in your house, what are you going to do? You know, if you trust the people in the house, you'll probably go right in and start to enjoy yourself. But this son did not do that. This son came home to a party and he stood at a distance and he called a servant out of the preparations to explain what was going on. He said, what is going on? Why is there a party in the house? And the servant answered very prudently with all the proper relationships, your brother has returned and your father has killed a fattened calf because he received him back safe and sound. There is no fault to be found with the servant's report. It is all on point. The older son is tired from his day work. He's emotional from his day work. He is still burned by that brother of his who had shamed the family. He does not go in. But the father comes out. And you're supposed to catch something there. How many times did the father come out? He comes out twice. Because he has two sons and neither one of them has been with him in heart. He had to come out to the younger prodigal. Now he has to go out to the older one. He goes out and the son says, what are you doing? He doesn't even say father. He says, look. Look. All this time I've been working. I've never disobeyed a commandment. You never gave me a goat. to party with my friends. But when the son of yours comes, you kill the fattened calf for him." A goat, fattened calf. With whom did the son want to party? With his friend. With whom did the son not want to party? With his father and brother. The Father answers with great patience, because the Father is God. And He is merciful and compassionate, both with Prodigals and with Pharisees. He says, my son, you are always with me. He acknowledges that all the time, you've been working there on the farm. I've been working to keep God's commandments. All that is mine is yours. Have no fear. There will be no re-division of the property. It's all yours now. It's smaller than it used to be. And it's your two-thirds. There will be no new division. You have nothing to fear. You will not be cheated here. But we had to. The fitting is weak language. It was necessary for us to rejoice and be glad. For this, your brother, Notice how he insists on the proper relationship, not my son, your brother. This, your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. And then, Jesus messed it up again. Do you know how he messed it up? He did not finish the parable. We don't find out what the older brother did. The parable drops us off with the father speaking to the older son. The father, you know what he's going to do. He's going to go back to the party and rejoice with the son that he's found. What you don't know at the end of the parable is what the older brother is going to do. Why did Jesus, the master storyteller, leave us hanging? Well, because in this case, it wasn't for him to finish. The older brother is the Pharisees. It's the people from chapter 15, verse 2. That's the older brother. They're the ones grumbling that Jesus has received sinners. That's the older brother. And it's up to them to decide how to finish the story. It's up to them to say, you're right. We should celebrate that brother is back. Or it is up to them to say, no, I will find somewhere else to stay tonight, for I will not go in. Yes, it's a powerful parable. The father here seeks his self-righteous bitter son, even as Jesus. That is, Jesus is drawing a picture of Himself seeking the self-righteous bitter Pharisees. And perhaps today the Holy Spirit, through this, is seeking some of you. You'll notice that some Pharisees did go in. It says in the book of Acts that there were some Pharisees who believed. That produced future problems, but that was okay. They worked that out. Some Pharisees believed. Some priests believed. They did hear Him. They did perceive. Oh, God is in this. Jesus was the shepherd sent to seek the lost. Ah, Ezekiel 34. Correct. I got it. But many others did not. Many others said, well, if this is God, I don't want God. I want my vision of God. I don't want a compassionate God. Many others were like Jonah. Like Jonah. Jonah ends on a similar note. Jonah is angry when he is a successful preacher. Because he didn't want those evil people who oppressed his people to repent. He didn't want them to not be destroyed. Jonah ends with God reasoning with Jonah. Is it not good that I have not destroyed them? And that's where this parable ends. What is God like? Well, the real God is far better than we could ask or imagine. The real God receives you when you return. But we all need to return. We all need to repent. There are no 99 sheep that never left the fold. There are only a variety of sons and daughters who have rebelled in one way or another, who are at some distance from God, either openly or in the heart. And so the call here is for all to repent, that everyone needs to repent. The prodigals, and the tax collectors, and the sinners, and the Pharisees, and the older brothers, and the ones who have never disobeyed one of your commands. We all must repent. And the amazing thing is that the full Gospel, is even better than this parable. Because the full Gospel includes what Jesus had to do to bring us back. Muslims like this parable because it has no atonement in it. The full Gospel has to include Jesus' atonement. It's even better than this. But for today, let us remember this, that all of us have by nature a heart problem. We're not tracking with the Father until we repent. And when we repent, the Father is gracious and compassionate, not to stand on His dignity, but to receive us back with joy. And we are to return, and we are to rejoice. We're to rejoice in our own salvation. We're to rejoice in everyone else's as well. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, help us to know The height and the depth and the breadth of Your love for us, it is in Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, the Pharisees' mindset, the older brothers' mindset is so easy for us to get into. Even after we have left it, we can go back and do it. Help us, Lord, instead. Help us instead to see our own need for repentance. And to rejoice when others repent. Yes, Lord, help us to rejoice when we ourselves repent. Help us to rejoice that you are far better than we deserve. Far better than we could ask. We thank you that you are full of grace and mercy and compassion. We thank you that in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness and adoption as your children. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.