Please turn again in your Bibles to Luke chapter 15. Now we were and still are going through the book of Romans, I realize that, but I was on vacation for a couple of weeks. I had told the men who preached for you the last couple of weeks, when they asked me what they would like to bring, I said, why don't you just bring the gospel? And so that's what they did. Both of them brought the gospel, but if you, If you tell someone else to do that, you should do it yourself. So I'm going to preach the gospel. I haven't done that for some time. We're a close, clear focus upon the gospel and certainly Luke's gospel, but all the gospels of give a great focus to Christ and his work and his resurrection. But Luke chapter 15 is where I want to go this morning and look at this parable. And let me just read one verse here in Luke chapter 15, because it already has been read in your hearing. But Luke 15, verse 7. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Let's again go to the Lord. Father, again, we are coming. We trust as sinners, but also many of us as saints who know that we are always in need of your grace. We think of the words of the psalmist who pleaded that you would show him the wondrous things contained in your law, and we want to see the wondrous things contained in your gospel. So come, we pray, by your Spirit. We know, left to ourselves, we will have a darkened understanding. We will not be able to walk in the light, And so we plead that you again would be the great teacher that you are, the prophet, priest, and king. Speak to us and give us ears to hear. We pray for everyone, even those, Lord, who would not claim to be Christians, young or old, that this might be a day in which they realize they are lost and they need the Savior. And we pray this in your Son's name, amen. I remember someone describing these parables in Luke chapter 15, the three parables, as a tricycle parable. A tricycle parable. When's the last time you rode a tricycle? Maybe not, well, maybe a long time ago. But you know what a tricycle looks like. It's a three-wheeled vehicle, one big wheel on the front and two little wheels on the back. And really that's what you have here in Luke 15, a parable, you could say one parable with three wheels. Two little wheels, a lost sheep and a lost coin, and a big wheel, the lost son. And while we could, and we even have in many years gone by, dealt with these parables separately and individually, we can also treat them together, I really think, They were meant to be taken together, the full impact of the triple parable. gives us the clear emphasis that Jesus wants to make and contributes to this lost and found theme. And so that's what I want to do this morning, climb on the tricycle of Luke 15 and go for a ride by considering these three perspectives that I think can be seen from these three parables. Number one, the high level of opposition. The high level of opposition. Number two, the wonderful picture of God. And then number three, the terrible plight of the sinner. Okay, so that's where we wanna go. The high level of opposition, the wonderful picture of God, and the terrible plight of the sinner. The high level of opposition. Luke 15, spotlights the master evangelist. We could say that Jesus is engaged in a mass evangelistic crusade or tour. And it's obvious here that lots of people are coming to him. Now, almost from the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus drew the big crowd. Initially, it was his miracles that was the main drawing card. But as we move towards the back end of the Gospels, there's less and less of his miracles. But the crowds are still coming to Jesus, believe it or not. Why? Because of his preaching and his teaching. Look at verse 1. Then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to him to hear him, to hear him. Probably in the thousands, maybe even 10,000 plus people coming out of small little towns and villages are coming to hear Jesus. And all the more remarkable when you realize that Jesus wasn't a candy-coated kind of sermon preacher, or a seeker-sensitive kind of preacher, or a prosperity gospel kind of preacher. If there ever was a counter-cultural preacher, it was Jesus and his parables. believe it or not, would cut against the culture of that day and often the religious mindset of the day. And Luke lets us know that these large crowds who are coming were coming on a continual basis. He uses what you could call a continuous verb or an imperfect verb to let us see this wave upon wave of humanity coming to Jesus. And to better understand who these people are, notice that Luke picks up two descriptive nouns. The first word is tax collector. It's in a plural form, as they say, birds of the same feather flock together. Here they come, lots of birds, a flock of tax collectors. And if you could examine these men or try to grade them in terms of a moral report card, A to F, they would always get F. Big time failure. Why? Well, they were stealers, they were liars, they were traitors, they were betrayers. And as a result, 99% of the Jewish population hated them and despised them. They were not even allowed to enter a Jewish synagogue. And one can somewhat understand why. They were being, used or exploited by the Roman government, and they were exploiting their own people. They were collecting taxes from fellow Jews. And who's comfortable with the IRS? I mean, would you welcome them into your home? I don't think so. And they were ten times worse. They were like loan sharks. Most of them were rich. because they had exploited their people, they had threatened their people, even when they could not pay. Remember Zacchaeus, we get to see him in Luke chapter 19, a few chapters down the road, and nobody wants to let that guy see Jesus, and he climbs up into a tree, he's determined to see Jesus. And so the question might be asked, why were these tax collectors so interested, so wanting to get close to Jesus? Well, no doubt they were burdened with sin, heavy laden with guilt and shame and misery. They felt isolation. They were ostracized. And they were hearing of this man, Jesus, who forgives sinners, the worst of sinners. That's the one group, tax collectors. But notice the second group identified here. They are called sinners. Well, aren't we all sinners? Well, yes, but these were big bad sinners. These were the scandalous sinners. Most people are respectable sinners. These are scandalous sinners. You could have described them in light of that. immoral lifestyle that is described in 1 Corinthians 6. Idolaters, adulterers, thieves, greedy drunkards, revilers, those who practice homosexuality. And like the tax collectors, they were ostracized. They were forbidden to be welcomed into the homes. You could not have business dealings with these sinners. But they too are coming to Jesus. They are flocking to hear Jesus. And the religious establishment that are identified here in terms of the Pharisees and the scribes, they are pretty upset. And they're quite disturbed by the fact, not only are they coming to Jesus, but Jesus, from all appearances, is welcoming them and is even eating with them. Shame upon shame. Here's a good question. If you and I were there, and we were observing what they observed, how happy would we be? Would we be pretty grumpy? Would we be finding fault? Voicing our complaint, there's something within all of us that seems to love the ugly more than the beauty. Would we be enthusiastic to see people like that coming to Jesus, we might even say worse, coming into our churches? That sounds like an amen. Just have to teach a little bit more. Would you want them sitting on your pew? What if they were dressed in a kind of immodest way? What if when they opened their mouth, every second word was a swear word? What if they had tattoos up and down their Arms and legs and neck and how many rings coming out of their noses? Well, what if they had purple hair one week and orange hair the next week? What if when they talked to you, they told you about the places they were going to drink and the different girls they were sleeping with? Yikes. Go to the rescue mission. Don't come here. Can we be like the Pharisees? Have our snobbish morality? Or they don't think the way we think or look the way we look? And the negative reaction on the part of the Pharisees, look here, it's pretty intense, Luke picks up a very strong verb to capture the response of the religious elite, verse 2, and the Pharisees and scribes complain, you could translate it murmured. The verb tense again is in perfect form. It lets us know this went on for some time, sort of like a broken record. And this wasn't the first time. If you go all the way back to Luke chapter 5, they had expressed the same kind of murmuring and verbal attack upon Jesus. And there, Jesus gave a very clear rationale as to why he was doing what he was doing. He said, I did not come for the healthy. but I came for the sick." And here they are again, you could say, stalking Jesus, and they put him in their crosshairs of criticism, and Jesus fires back. Don't think that Jesus was always the silent lamb. Sometimes he roared like a lion, because he is the Lion of Judah. And he fires back, not with a double-barreled shotgun, but a triple-barreled shotgun, three parables, or three stories. And you should know this, again, about the parables of Jesus. They were not nice little stories for Sunday school time. They often had a strong warning, a rebuke, and a confrontation. The high level of conflict, that's the first point. Secondly, the wonderful picture of God. The wonderful picture of God. It's clear, again, that these religious authorities are provoked and they're shocked to see that Jesus is welcoming sinners and tax collectors and treating them so graciously and kindly. Why is Jesus doing this? Why isn't he being like us? Why isn't he practicing the ethic of avoidance? You don't get near people like this. They are ceremonial unclean. They're Gentiles, most of them, maybe. And even the Jews, look what they're doing. Look at how they're living. You'll be contaminated by them. They really think Jesus has a problem, a significant problem. But the problem is with them, and they have a heart problem. They are devoid of love and compassion for lost sinners. And they don't know the God of the Bible. And they don't know who Jesus is. And Jesus is gonna tell them the story. He's gonna use three parables. You could call them Christological parables or theological parables. He's gonna describe to them who he is and who God is by way of three simple pictures. The picture of a shepherd, the picture of a woman, and the picture of a father. Picture of a shepherd, a woman, and a father. Jesus often uses parables, again, to break down the pride and prejudices of that day, and shepherds, shepherds were not viewed with high esteem, and women were not either. They were not allowed to speak in court. He couldn't trust them. And Jesus uses a shepherd and a woman as pictures of God. We'll look at them very briefly. The first picture is taken from that world of the Bible. It was an agrarian culture and sheep and shepherds were everywhere. And this shepherd has a hundred sheep and he loses one. And here's what we need to understand about most shepherds in those days, they really did love the sheep. They even had names for their sheep, pet name. And Jesus assumes that a good shepherd, and typically they were, most of them were good in that sense, who lost one of his sheep would not sit back idly, but go after that one lost sheep. And sometimes it involved a lot of time, a lot of effort, crossing into dangerous parts, treacherous journeys to find that one sheep. Now, most of us probably can't relate to that, but you can if you think of your pet dog, can't you? Your pet cat. I don't know if anybody has a pet rabbit here, but if you lose your dog, what do you do? while you go on a hunt. You go looking for that dog. You might make a few phone calls. You might pound the pavement. You might go to your next door neighbors. You might look in the backwoods. You might contact the police department, all for that one lost dog. And that's what you have here. This shepherd is concerned he has a relationship with that one lost sheep. And Jesus, when he picks up this picture or draws this picture, he's using his Old Testament Bible. Psalm 23 could have come to his mind. Or Isaiah 40, I will feed my sheep, I will be a shepherd, I will carry them in my arm. Ezekiel 34, my sheep were scattered, they were wandering about the mountains and over every hill, high hill, my sheep are scattered over the face of the earth. None will seek them, none will search for them. And God says, but I will. The Lord indeed says, I myself will search for my sheep. And don't forget, Jesus puts himself under the picture of a sheep or a shepherd. John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd. You see, Jesus is using the parable to teach them about God, but to teach them about himself. Now you move to the second wheel of parable, and the second small parable is about a woman. She loses a coin, and there's a mathematical change here. The ratio goes from 100 to one for one out of 10, perhaps to highlight the value, the preciousness of what is lost. Verse eight, for what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one? Now the question that has been asked is who is the woman? Well, some commentators believe it's the Holy Spirit. Robert Lenski, the German commentator, sees it as the church. I believe it's God. It's Christ again. Consistent with all three parables. And God compares himself to a woman in four places. Isaiah 40, Isaiah 45, Isaiah 49, and Isaiah 66. And perhaps again, we don't know all of the reasons why, but maybe to highlight the tenderness, the gentleness of God. But again, Jesus is describing something that happens in everyday life, right? We all can lose something. We can lose a diamond ring. Some of the ladies here, I'm sure it happened to you. You've lost your ring. Some of us can lose our glasses if we wear them. You lose your iPhone. You lose your car keys. You lose your credit card. You lose your wallets. And the older you get, the more you lose. and maybe you have one of those favorite basketball or baseball caps and you put it here, you thought you put it there in the bottom shelf in your bedroom closet, but it's not there. What do you do? Well, nine times out of 10, you know where you go? You go to mom. Yeah, you go to your mother or you go to your wife, because you know she can find it better than you can. Nine times out of 10, You go to the woman in the house. She is the best seeker and the best finder in the home. Talk about gender distinction. You know, scientifically, women smell better, hear better. I don't know if they see better. I think they do. But they have a senses, acute senses, because God made most of them to be mothers. So they'll pick up on little things with their ears and with their noses. My wife will sometimes say, honey, do you smell that? No, honey, what are you talking about? I get down close to where it comes from, and sure enough, there's a smell there. Well, here's a woman. That's probably why Jesus mentions her. She is the one most likely, she has the highest skill level and aptitude. She picks up a broom and she goes sweeping. She makes an extensive search in every corner of the house until she finds the lost coin. This is not a lost penny. He underscores here again the value. This is a drachma. That's the Greek word, which was what was paid to a person for a full day of labor. 10 silver coins. It may have represented something that was equivalent to an engagement ring, a wedding band with diamonds. And when she realizes it's gone, it's fallen off, she goes on a seek and find mission, under the bed, under the carpet, into every nook and cranny of every room in that home. That's a picture of God. The seeking God. And then the third parable. It's the big wheel parable. And here, it's a picture of a father. In the Old Testament, you don't have that word father used as it is in the New Testament, but it's sometimes used in terms of national Israel. He's the father of Israel. But Jesus even is described under father image, isn't he? Think of that prophecy in Isaiah 9, wonderful counselor, everlasting father. Now the third parable of the lost son is far more detailed and nuanced, and the lost factor becomes greater. There's an increase here in terms of what is lost, in terms of the preciousness and the value of what is lost. It's not a sheep, it's not a coin, but a son. And this father doesn't have a hundred sons, he has only two sons, and the younger son goes AWOL. He gets his father's inheritance, jumps on his motorcycle, and he's out of town, and he seeks to go as far away as he can from dad. That's why some students or kids, when they grow up to get to college age, they wanna go. They don't wanna stay home. They don't want the voice of conscience. Dad out of sight, dad out of mind. Now the third parable is a different kind of emphasis. Did you see that? Not so much the seeking. You got the seeking shepherd, you got the seeking woman, but you don't sense that the dad's doing a lot of seeking here. The dad appears to be waiting. waiting for his son to come home. But I think that Jesus wants us to know that God is often seeking people when they don't even realize it. And he uses different instrumentality or different methodology to find that which is lost and bring them home. God can use anything and anyone. He uses the famine the famine to help get this son to think past the end of his nose. And what you see in the third parable or the third story that is so striking is God's heart. This is the heart of God. This is the heart of Jesus. And when dad sees his son returning, he's not passive. He run like an Olympian right towards his son. He makes a beeline towards his son. And no sooner does he come into close proximity to his son, and it's all hugs and kisses, and the kid probably stunk like a pig. But look, there's something else that comes through loud and clear. I think Jesus wants us to see this, maybe more than anything else. It's the joy response. Did you see that? The joy response. Verse six through seven, when it comes to the shepherd, he wants to bring in his friends to tell them he's found that one lost sheep. Same with the woman, verse nine through 10. And then with the father in verse 24, joy, joy, joy. Jesus is setting up a contrast between the Pharisees and the scribes and their grumpy, frowning, ugly, prejudicial, proud response and he's showing them a contrast in terms of God by the shepherd, the woman, and the father. How unlike God you are. How unlike me you are. And Jesus wants us to know that no one is happier than God and all the angels in heaven when one sinner repents and comes home. It's a beautiful picture of God. A loving, caring, seeking, compassionate, joyful, happy God when one sinner repents. So the high level of conflict, the beautiful picture of God, but one more thing we need to see in terms of all three parables, and that's the terrible plight of man. the terrible plight of man. Jesus, again, uses these parables. He wants us to see God. He wants us to see him first and foremost, but he also wants us to see ourselves. He wants us to see what's true of humanity across the board. Each one of the parables forces us to think of people outside of Christ, people who don't know Jesus, they have a problem. What is it? They're lost. That's the haunting word. in the parables. Six times, six times, he drives home they are lost. It's a frightening word. He uses it in verse 4, verse 6, verse 8, verse 9, verse 24, and verse 32. Jesus uses these parables to help us see God, but also see ourselves. And at some point in time in your life, in my life, might not be true today, but you were lost. Every one of us, every one of us was once lost. And the Bible's version of lostness is not equivalent to what we might think in terms of getting lost. There's an element of that which is true, but this is the worst kind of lostness in the world. Let me try to explain. Even the parables are helping us to understand what it means to be lost. In the first parable, what it is, sinners are what you could call naturally lost or natively lost. They're like sheep. There's nothing easier for a sheep to do than get lost. And the Bible uses that figure of sheep not to flatter us, but to remind us of the natural tendency and inclination of the human heart by birth. We go astray, we are all like sheep who go astray. We are born dead and we are born lost. Romans three, language. Paul uses to remind us of our depravity, no one seeks after God. Psalm 51, speaking lies from our mother's womb. There's something more about the lostness here. We're like sheep, lost, we're natively lost, we're naturally lost, but we are like that coin. How's that lost? Hopelessly lost. Helplessly lost. Ever talk to a coin? Can a coin help you find itself? Ever hear a coin whisper? Sinners are lost. Sinners are dead. How can a dead man come to Christ? Tell me. What finger will he use? What toe will he use? Will he blink his eyes and say, look at me? A dead sinner can't do nothing. And a lost sinner cannot find Christ. How do they get saved? Jesus. He came into the world to seek and save that which is lost. If Jesus had not come into the world, no sinner would be saved. Sinners are natively lost. Sinners are hopelessly lost. Third, there's another parable here, another storyline that you have to use or figure out a little bit more of what it means to be lost. The first two parables emphasize the sovereignty of God and finding that which is lost. But the last parable emphasizes the responsibility of man and why he's lost. In the third parable, there's a willful, culpable choice-making when it comes to your lostness. That prodigal son makes choices. He decides that he wants money from his dad. He decides where he's going. He sets his GPS for a far country. And he goes on what you could call a self-destruction mode of living. You see, this lostness is destructive. But he makes choices. willful, deliberate, culpable choices. He can't blame God for his lostness. It's like Adam and Eve in the garden. As soon as they eat of that forbidden fruit, what do they do? They're running from God. They're not running to God. And the prodigal son, he packs his bags, he sets the GPS and heads again for the far country, and he goes on what you could call a self-destruction binge. Do you know what I heard just this past week? from a very reputable source, that there are more suicides in America than in the history of this country, and most of them are by young men. Young men. Young men are on a self-destruction journey, just like the prodigal. That's where sin will take you, sooner or later. It'll take you to hell. But by all three parables, Jesus has drawn a beautiful picture of God, but an ugly picture of the sinner. And looking at all three parables, one might ask the question again, how can anybody be saved If you look at the complex of lostness and what it involves, we are naturally, hopelessly, willfully lost. You would have to come to this conclusion, impossible, impossible. But remember what Jesus said, what's impossible with man is possible with God. And we can't forget the wonderful picture of God. He makes the difference. Jesus defines his mission, as I came to seek and save that which is lost. But left to ourselves, we would never find him. Never wanna find him. We would never find him. Left to ourselves, ultimately to ourselves. If it all depended on you or on me, none of us would come home. None of us, none of us. Seeks after God. None of us wants to be saved. But God is a seeking God. And did you notice that every one of these parables or every one of these stories, the divine seeker finds that which is lost. He always finds it. 100% success rate here. He never fails. Don't worry. He will find that lost sheep. He will find that lost corn. He will find that lost son. He always does. Let me just conclude. Three brief, brief application. Number one, in light of what we've said, how should we respond? Well, I hope we would start with rejoicing, and that's stressed in the psalm, or in the stories. Rejoicing, joy, joy, joy, Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the Lord always. And if you are a sinner who was once lost, but now are found, you should be one of the happiest people on planet Earth. You shouldn't be a grumpy Christian. There's grumpy Pharisees, but you shouldn't be a grumpy Christian. You should be one of the happiest, you shouldn't stop rejoicing. Maybe every morning say, Lord, as difficult as this day might be, as difficult as I'm facing this trial or that trial, I'm a Christian. I should be rejoicing in the Lord. Not getting preoccupied with all my trials and problems. Be a happy Christian, be a rejoicing Christian. In the words of Isaac Watts, keep asking the question, Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I made to hear thy voice when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? Why did you seek me? Why did you seek me? Why not my brother? Why not my sister? Why not my cousin? Why not, why me? Were you better? Were you prettier? Were you more handsome? Were you smarter? If you answer the question, it was because of you, you don't understand the gospel. You've turned it upside down. It's because of Him. Because of Him. He gets the glory, not you. We all are under the same curse. We are all deserving the same punishment and the same hell. Rejoice, I say rejoice, second practical application. In terms of the lost and found parables, praise him, praise him, he's a wonderful God, a seeking God who finds sinners. And there's no sinner so lost, so depraved, that God can't find him or God can't save him, never doubt his power, his wisdom, or his love. Rejoice, thank God, praise God, and the last thing I would say, don't give up. Don't give up when it comes to those lost sinners who are still lost. This should drive us in terms of evangelism, right? We have a sovereign God that we can pray to, and he will find them. We might be the very instruments he uses. I've had people come up to me years after, years after, years after, said, Pastor, you preach the sermon here, not in this church and another church. I want to tell you God used that to save me. I didn't have a clue. Think of your salvation. Think of how God brought you to understand the gospel and to know who Jesus is. Think of the people he brought into your life. Maybe it was a knock on the door. Maybe it was a telephone call. Maybe it was a trial. Maybe it was a famine. Maybe someone died, but you came to your senses. On Sunday night, we hear testimonies on our prayer meeting nights, Sunday nights. And it's been a marvel to hear them and to hear God's dealings with the saints and how he brought them to himself. But everyone's different. Everyone's different. But you can always sing Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace. One Savior, one gospel. but different ways, different circumstances, different people, different times in their lives. But somehow, someway, they get to hear the gospel. They get invited to church. They get invited to a Sunday school program. I don't know what they might be invited to, but somehow they get to hear the gospel. They have to hear the gospel. They read a book, maybe someone asks a few questions. When I was 16, in my hospital bed, I was not seeking God. I know I wasn't. I didn't think about God. The guy came in my room and said, God, if you died in that car accident, would you have gone to heaven? What? You know what my answer was? Good little Pharisee. I go to church. And he smashed me. He said, that doesn't make you a Christian. What? What? I thought I was a good boy. God was seeking me. I wasn't seeking him. Now, after the fact, I got more interested in the Bible and reading my Bible and talking about God and talking about Christ. But God was the seeker. God was the seeker. And God can use anything in our lives to bring us to know His dear Son. So never stop praying for your lost friends, for your lost husband, for your lost father, for your lost Work associate, never stop praying and never stop evangelizing. Never stop evangelizing. Keep talking, keep speaking. I did that with my brother for 40 years. That's a long time. Keep on talking, keep on pointing them to Christ as the only one who can save them from their sins. And maybe, maybe you sit here this morning and you're sitting here and you're in the far country. You're lost. God's seeking you. Wouldn't it be wonderful to go home today singing Amazing Grace? Lost, but now I'm found. To him be the glory. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we again cry to you as the God who loves sinners, who sent his son to die for sinners. We pray, Lord, again that you would convict those who sit amongst us perhaps who are people that we've talked to with regard to the gospel, that you would even be convicting them today or next week, that you would be using whatever means to bring them to know your son. Lord, we thank you that you sought us when we were not seeking you, and you found us. We bless you, we praise you. In your son's name, amen.