A reading from the Old Testament comes from Isaiah, chapter 62, verses 1-5. Isaiah, chapter 62. If you're using the Pew Bible, that begins on page 789. Hear God's word. For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not be quiet until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory. And you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hands of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate. But you shall be called, My delight is in her, and your land married. For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." And then our reading from the New Testament, the Gospel according to Luke, primarily chapter 15. We're going to begin with the very last sentence of chapter 14 and then read chapter 15. The last sentence in chapter 14 is Jesus speaking. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he 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. For 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 and reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in want, 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 pods 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 the 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 fatted calf and kill it. And let us eat and celebrate. For this is my son that 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, Indeed, many years I have served you. I have never disobeyed your command, that you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed a fatted calf for him.' And he said to him, Son, you are 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. Let's sing God's praises with hymn number 342. We'll stand to sing. With a sure foundation, Christ the heaven-born Son, Chosen of the Lord and Presence, Highly called the Church in the Holy Triune, Now, forever, ever God-heavens alone. All that meditated, sinning, merely loved God's God on high. He makes offers to salvation for perpetual melody. God, the One in Three, adoring in glad hymns eternally. O Sample where, He told me, Thou, Lord, art most worthy. With Thy wondrous lovingkindness, Here, Thy people, I take praise, And Thy glorious benediction, Send Him in its walk away. Come straight to all Thy servants, what they ask of Thee to be. What they take from Thee forever, live the blessed to retain. And hereafter is Thy glory evermore with Thee to reign. What an honor to the Father! What an honor to the Son! What an honor to the Spirit! Ever free and ever one! One is my prayer, one is glory, one unending angel honor! You may be seated. Pity for the lost comes easily when you think about hell. When you think about the torment, when you think about the separation from God, When you think about the finality of that place apart from God, it's easy to feel pity for those who are headed there. But then there's Melissa. She reeks of cigarette smoke. And her kids are little hellions. And her face is gaunt and her eyes are dark because of the drug abuse in her life. And her language is enough to curl your toenails, especially as she uses God's name in vain. And it's hard to feel pity for Melissa. Because at that moment, you're not thinking about her end estate, but you are being assaulted with all of those things that make it so hard to be near her, to be close to her. Sinners, people who are far away from God, people who may be offensive, People who maybe have given up any hope of trying to please God and get on God's good side. Sinners. Sinners were coming to Jesus. They weren't coming to look for their next meal. They weren't coming hoping that He was going to heal them. The text here makes it very clear. They are coming to hear Him. They want to listen. Jesus had just said at the end of the previous chapter, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And in the very next chapter, Luke introduces us to sinners who are hearing Jesus. Who are hearing that One who is the Son of Righteousness. And who point them to that righteous God. Not the God who accepts everyone as he is, come as you are, all are welcome, you don't have to do a thing. You don't have to be any different than you are. No, he was telling them about a righteous God. Who expected repentance. Who expected not only a change of heart, but a change of life. but was the very one who produced that in those who had ears to hear, those in whom the Spirit had changed the heart and enabled the ears to hear. Some close by, the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the experts in the law, the scribes, were told in the text here that they were grumbling in their heart, their thinking, if this guy really was a prophet, if he really was close to God, he would be offended by these people. They're traitors to our nation. They have abandoned God wholeheartedly He ought to be offended, not eating with them. And it's in response to that, that Jesus gives us this marvelous teaching about joy. Joy over the lost being found. He tells us these three stories. These three occasions for celebration. He begins with the lost sheep. You see the shepherd counting. Jesus tells us that he has a hundred and he only knows that one is missing if he's counted them as perhaps they're coming into the fold for the night out there in that open country, in that wilderness place. 96, 97 as they're coming through the doorway of the fold, 98, 99, and there ought to be one more, but it's not there. Maybe he goes and tries to count them again as they're milling around inside that fold, but he comes to the conclusion that one is gone. And he leaves the 99 out there in the open country, you know, not to wonder themselves and be scattered. I think we need to presume that this man is a faithful shepherd who has them in the fold. And then he goes off to search. And he doesn't search just enough to satisfy his employer. He doesn't search just enough to ease his own conscience that he's tried to find this one who is out there exposed in this open place where the other wild animals who would prey upon him are going to kill him and devour him. But Jesus makes it very clear that he searches and he searches and he searches until he finds it. This is an intense search. He doesn't simply do something perfunctory to say he's done his job, but he genuinely wants to find the sheep and he searches until he does. Jesus tells us about the woman. She has 10 silver coins. You don't think about a dime. Don't think about even a half dollar. You know, our silver coins are a quarter in between. That's not what we're talking about here. This silver coin was worth what the average person would earn in a day. So let's say it's worth a hundred dollars. She's lost a hundred dollars. One of ten hundred dollar coins that she had. And she doesn't live in a house like you with bright lights that she can turn on. She lives probably in a smaller home with little oil lamps, probably few if any windows to open, and a dirt floor in all likelihood or perhaps stones on the floor with lots of little cracks and crevices. And Jesus tells us she lights the lamp and she begins to sweep inch by inch by inch until she finds it. And then there's the father, the father who has two sons, one of whom is an ingrate, selfish, ungrateful. What the text is talking about here is that he can't wait for his father to die. When his father dies, you know, he's the youngest son. He doesn't have a right to half of the estate. That would be our thinking today. You divide your estate equally among your children. But the oldest son got two-thirds of it. It was his inheritance. He was expected to carry on the ownership of that piece of property and the stewardship of it. The younger son got a third of the estate's value. And he says to his dad, Dad, I can't wait for you to die. I've got to get out of here now. Give me what's coming to me. And his father does. His father gives it to him. And in a few days' time, he leaves. He leaves, taking with him one-third of all that the father had. what his father had inherited from his father, what he had acted wisely to not only preserve for his sons, but even to enlarge and to expand one-third of everything. And he says, I'm gone. And the money is probably the least of the hurt that his father experiences. The rejection The whole idea that his son has rejected his love and his kindly rule over his household must have cut him to the quick. But unlike the shepherd and unlike the woman, we don't find this father searching. The son goes off to a distant country and the father who has servants, we're not told that he sends some servant off to keep an eye on him or to try to find him. No address, no phone number. The son goes off. And yet we read that glorious statement that when his son is still a far way off, his father sees him. And from his reaction, I think Jesus would leave us with the idea that this father has been prayerfully waiting and watching for this day. He has not been nursing a bitterness in his heart toward that son. He has not been spurning him in his mind every day, because now, when he sees him a long way off, half starved to death, dirty and filthy, he has compassion on him. And he runs to him and he embraces him and he kisses him. And when the son says, I'm not worthy to be your son, treat me like a servant, the father says, bring him a robe and a ring and sandals. Showing by his actions that this was not a servant But this was my son. The second aspect of each of the stories is about the response to finding. There's loss in each story, the loss of a sheep, the loss not just of 1% of the assets, But the loss of that sheep that presumably the shepherd knows. Because Jesus in other places has taught how the good shepherd knows his sheep. He knows them by name. He watches out for them and he cares for them. Presumably this man is a good shepherd. And it's not just the 1% of his assets that he's looking for, but it's the sheep that he knows. And the woman has lost The value of that coin has lost the work that she invested to earn it. And to preserve it, it's not easy to keep money that you put away to save for a specific purpose or a rainy day, but she has preserved it and nine others like it. And so she wants that coin. And the father has lost the love and the fellowship of this Son He loves. And so it's the response to the finding that Jesus focuses on next in each of the stories. The shepherd is glad. He's glad not because this exhausting search at the end of a long day when he wanted to go to bed is now over. And it's not just that that 1% of his assets is back safely in the fold. But we're told that he rejoices over it. He rejoices over the sheep itself because he valued it. And he calls together his friends and his neighbors and says, rejoice with me. We hear that refrain several times in the story. And the woman, when she finds her coin, doesn't keep it as a private joy. We might be tempted to do that. Do I want to let somebody know I've got a thousand bucks in the house? But Jesus wants to make a point. She wants to share her joy. And so she calls her friends and her neighbors to come and to celebrate with her. Rejoice with me, I found my coin. And what does the father do when the son that was lost comes back? It's not a private celebration. It's not just him and his son that are going to eat that fattened calf. We're told there's music. And there's dancing. He's called in his neighbors, his friends, to rejoice with him, to celebrate the Son who is dead and He's alive. My Son has been restored to me. Share my joy. And then, Jesus applies. some of the parable to us, doesn't he? He's applying it most directly to the Pharisees. We read there in verse 2, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. And then verse 3, so he told them this parable. There's certainly a crowd there. Jesus isn't alone. There are sinners and tax collectors who've gathered to hear him. There's a crowd. But the them has an antecedent, doesn't it? You need to remember your English grammar. Where does it go? It goes back to the noun most closest to it. And those nouns closest to it are the Pharisees and the scribes. He's speaking to them. He's making a point to them, to those grumblers. who couldn't find any joy in the fact that there are sinners hearing Jesus teaching them about the things of God. And so he's speaking to them. But notice as well, in verse 7, it begins, just so, here in the English Standard Version, the New King James and some other translations say, likewise, See, Jesus is making a point just as the shepherd called his friends together and celebrated the restoration of this sheep who had been lost and is now found. Likewise, just so I tell you, you know, these scribes and Pharisees, but he begins to speak to the whole crowd. There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. And that gets repeated again in verse 10. after the celebration of the woman over finding the coin and gathering her friends to celebrate with her. Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." There's no specific application like that to the lost son being restored. But it's easy for us to see that this Father is pointing us to our Heavenly Father, to God Himself. We're going to see how the text really emphasizes that for us. Notice what was said there in verse 7. The question becomes now in verse 7 and verse 10, what does the just soul point us to? Who's rejoicing in the way that this shepherd and this woman rejoiced with their friends? Well, in verse 7, it's fairly broad, isn't it? 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. See, heaven is God's estate. It's His place. This is the place where His will is done perfectly and completely. Everything that happens there is what He wants, what pleases Him, what brings joy to His heart. It's in that place that God's will is seen most perfectly reflected. No sinners there. No hint of rebellion there. And there, we're told, there's joy over one sinner who repents. Joy in heaven. Well, who's there? Who's doing the rejoicing? We know that the angels are there. The church triumphant is there. And God Himself is there. Is it all of them rejoicing? Is it some of them rejoicing? The text doesn't tell us. It just says there's joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Then verse 10 begins to focus it in a little more sharply for us, doesn't it? Notice what Jesus said there. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Before the angels. I'm standing before you this morning, am I not? If this were a theatrical production, I'm the performer and you're the audience. I am acting before you. Now I'm not acting, I'm proclaiming God's Word before you. And here the picture is that the angels are the ones before whom this joy is being exhibited. So who does that leave? Whose joy do the angels see? Well, it's either the church, triumphant there in heaven, or it's God himself, or both. And then the third story is what drives it home for us, doesn't it? Even though Jesus doesn't give us this clarifying verse where He says, just so, He shows us the picture. He shows us the Father Himself. The Father rejoices. The Father celebrates. The Father says, come, come, celebrate with me. Let's eat and be married for the Son that was dead is alive. The son that was lost to Me has been restored. Come and celebrate with Me." And that's what we've seen in each of the parables, isn't it? In each part of this parable. The shepherd rejoices first and calls others to rejoice with him. The woman rejoices first and calls her friends and neighbors to come and join in her celebration. And Jesus is showing us That it's God the Father who rejoices. He's the one in heaven who, first of all, rejoices that one sinner has repented. And then He asks you, He calls you, His friends, those who have been redeemed in Jesus Christ, to join Him in that rejoicing. Come and celebrate with Me, He says. Rejoice that the one who was lost has been found. We ought to expect that God would celebrate a repentant sinner. That's what the scriptures as a whole have taught us to expect. You heard it back in Isaiah chapter 62. Think about those images that were there in verses four and five in particular. He's saying to his people, he's speaking especially about Jerusalem, about Zion, that special name, Zion, for his covenant people. He says, you shall no more be termed forsaken. See, there was a time when they were forsaken by God. Because they had rebelled against him and they had sinned against him and he had turned them over to their enemies. He had forsaken them and allowed them to be trampled by their enemies. He says, no more will you be turned forsaken. No more will the land be called desolate. You shall be called, my delight is in her. She is the one I rejoice in. I celebrate her. And notice the picture that he goes on to give us. And your land married, for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. That was driven home to me Friday night. I got to go to a wedding at my home church. Ian Buchanan married Ian McIvinny. Ian is a seminary student. At Trinity Church, there's a couple levels up to the platform. The tradition is that when a father brings his daughter to the front, they stop right in front of the first pew. And the groom and the groomsmen are up on one of the levels already. And then after the father gives the bride to her husband, then the bride and the groom together come up higher onto the platform. Well, Ian, from the moment he saw Aaron at the back, you could just see the joy all over his face. And when Aaron and her dad got there, Ian was ready to bolt down there and get her. And Pastor Westerveld literally had to put out his hand and grab his sleeve to remind him, not yet. He was on his way. This is my bride. Let me at her. That's what the picture that God gives us here. He says, The bride that I love. I adore you. I delight in you. This is the picture that God gives us. This was not the faithful church. This was Israel, full of sin, who had once been called forsaken and desolate. But God in His rich grace now says, I'm married to you and I delight in you like a bridegroom does in his bride. And then over in Jeremiah chapter 32, just to point to one more text. There are multiple, multiple places in the Old Testament where you see this attitude. In Jeremiah 32, beginning in verse 37, God says, behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place and I will make them dwell in safety and they shall be my people and I will be their God. I will rejoice in doing them good And I will plant them in this land and in faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul." See again, a sinful people, a nation that has rejected Him, that has spurned Him, who gave them this good land, who brought them out of bondage in Egypt. and gave them this land as their inheritance and promised them blessing upon blessing if they would only be obedient to Him and love Him. And instead, they spurn Him. And God deals with that in His people. But then He says, I will bring you back. I'll bring you back to this land. But not only will I bring you back to this land, I will again say, you are My people. And I will plant you in the land in faithfulness. And I'll do it, not grudgingly, but I'll do it with all my heart and all my soul. See, our God is a God who rejoices in us. Who rejoices in every sinner who repents We see this attitude of searching and seeking for the lost come to expression in Jesus. We hear it there in John 3.16-17, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. See, this is God's attitude. His sons and His daughters, those whom He created, He gave them good gifts. He gave Adam and Eve each other. He gave them a garden and yet they hear Satan and listen to him. And each one of us, spurns God. We live in unthankfulness to Him, sinning in multitudes of ways before He brings us to His Son. But He sends that Son to seek and to save what was lost. Not to condemn. Not to seal our faith forever in condemnation. But that we might be saved. That we might be restored. to the Father, that we might love Him. But most of all, that we might know His love, His eternal love that does good to us. Not just all the days of our lives here in this world, but for eternity. Jesus is the one, then, in whom we see this intention of God toward His lost and fallen people. It is to seek them, and to save them, to gather them in again. And as each one comes, not as they come by the tens of thousands, or the thousands, or the hundreds, or the tens, but Jesus teaches us in Luke 15, that the Father celebrates. When just one comes, when one repents, there is joy in heaven. The Father celebrates each child just as that Father in the parable runs and embraces His Son and kisses Him. Spiritually, the Father comes and embraces you as you repent and turn to Him And he calls on his friends, he calls on the church triumphant there in heaven to rejoice with him. But he calls on you, who have been found before, who are part of the church yet here on earth. He calls on you to rejoice as well. That's the point of the parable in Luke 15. It's the scribes and Pharisees who are standing off to the side with their arms folded and their faces scowling, and who can't see beyond Melissa's reeking of cigarette smoke, and the face that testifies to her drug abuse, and the Hellion children who are undisciplined because she is so undisciplined in her own life. And who doesn't know any better, not just to not use coarse language, but who doesn't know any better than taking the name of the very God who is seeking her in vain. Don't be like those Pharisees and experts in the law Jesus is saying to you. And it's easy for us to get into that mode, isn't it? It's easy for us to be offended by the sins of sinners. But Jesus wants to remind you that the proper response is celebration. It's celebrating because God is celebrating. Notice the father in the parable, even when that older son, who's maybe like the Pharisees. Some have said that maybe he's to represent the Pharisees. Others have argued against that. But whatever, what we see about the son is he won't come in. He doesn't want to join the party. And he makes a good reason for it, doesn't he? You can perhaps identify with that reason. Why do you want to celebrate? what this scum has done. He took your money and he ran and he wasted it. How does he know that he spent it all on prostitutes? It's probably a good guess. Maybe that's what he did. The text doesn't tell us that. But he spurned his father's love. Why do we want to celebrate that? Why would I want to hold that up as a good example to my kids to follow? But the father reminds him, that's not what we're celebrating. It was right. It was fitting, he says to his older son, for me to kill the fatted calf and throw a party because my son was dead and he's alive. That's what we're celebrating. That's what God is celebrating. This child of his whom he had lost, through the fall of Adam, and who had spurned him through his own sinfulness, has now, by the grace of God in Christ, been brought to repentance. By the work of the Spirit, his heart has been softened, and his ears that were all clogged up so that he couldn't hear spiritual things have been opened up so that he can hear Jesus said, let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. And the sinners are hearing. That's not something innate in them. That's God's work in them. That they're hearing. And what they're hearing is that God indeed is righteous. And He expects your repentance. But He has provided for you a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When you trust Him, when you embrace that Savior that God sent in faith, you are washed clean. And the Spirit begins a work of transformation in your life. Normally that doesn't happen overnight. Lots of sin comes along. And it takes time for the Spirit to put all of that fleshliness away. But the work presses on by God's grace. So God calls you, His people here, to celebrate, to rejoice when one sinner repents. As we come to the Lord's table today, you come remembering what Jesus did for you, that you needed His body to be broken and His blood to be shed for the forgiveness of your sins. There was a day when God celebrated your coming alive, your being found. And He calls on you to celebrate as one more. And another after that. And another after that are found by Jesus. Let's pray. Father, how thankful we are that You found us. Each and every one of us who is a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. Not one of us came in by our own efforts. Not one of us cleaned up his act on his own. Not one of us was outside the group that needed to repent. Father, how grateful we are that you searched and you found us. How thankful we are that you sent us your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus, who paid the penalty for our sin, our rebellion, every one of our deeds of utter rejection of you. We thank you for this Savior. We thank you for his righteous life, for his teaching that faithfully shows us you. We thank you for his broken body and his shed blood. And we thank you now for his prayers, for his people before you. We thank you for his prayers for us, how we need them. And our Father, we come today especially praising you. for the restoration of Bo Bergdahl to his family and to his nation. We thank you for sustaining him during these last five years. We pray that you have worked a work of great grace in his heart. We thank you for sustaining his mom and dad. And we pray that in this being reunited, that they will celebrate and the nation will celebrate with them. But we do pray that we as a church in due time might hear that we can also celebrate that a sinner has been welcomed home by you. Our Father, we pray for the ministry today that will take place outside this building at the street fair. As each conversation happens, as each person picks up a piece of literature, how we pray that your spirit would attend that, that through the words said, through the words read, the spirit might point them to you and to your Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, and that you would add others to Franklin Square Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We pray that there might be great rejoicing at those who are lost now, but who are being found by you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.