Lost

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family. 

We happen to be in Luke 15, a text that is perfect for celebrating our 10th anniversary as a church, because it serves as a powerful reminder of the mission of the church – why we exist and what we pray the Lord will continue to do with us.

1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.

Luke wants us to see that something about Jesus is attractive to these people, in particular. These are the outcasts of Jewish society. They want to be close to Jesus. But not everyone appreciates this.

2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

The Pharisees are concerned that Jesus is attracting “the wrong kind of people” to his ministry. We’ve talked about the Pharisees before, but I want to make sure we know who we’re dealing with. You probably know them as self-righteous religious leaders – and they were – but there’s more to it than that.

When the Romans conquered Israel, the Jews responded by dividing into several parties. There were the Essenes, the Zealots, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees.

The Essenes were like the Amish. They ran off into the wilderness and completely separated from the surrounding culture.

The Zealots were the radicals. They attempted to fight the Romans, usually by acts of terrorism.

The Sadducees wanted to live in peace with the Romans, but they had to liberalize their religion to do so. In other words, they compromised on many of their beliefs to embrace the Roman world.

But the Pharisees were like the moral majority. They were conservative, they didn’t compromise for the sake of Roman culture, but they also didn’t fight like the Zealots. Because of this, they became the popular group among the average Jews.

If the average American Christian had to choose a team in that political context, most would have supported the Sadducees. But many of us would have probably supported the Pharisees.

And they did not like Jesus, because Jesus chose to spend his time with the kinds of people they rejected. The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus because he welcomed the poor, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, those half-breeds known as Samaritans… Jesus called them all to repentance and offered them a seat at his table! He developed a reputation of having frequent dinner parties with these kinds of people and it infuriated the moral majority.

But Jesus did not endorse any of those political parties and He is going to respond to this criticism in a way that exposes something about us… all of us. We tend to think that the problem in this world is some other group of people.

If you’re rich, you think poor people are a problem. If you’re poor, you think rich people are the problem. If you’re religious, you think pagans are the problem. If you’re pagan, you think religious people are the problem. If you’re conservative, you think liberals are the problem. If you’re liberal, you think conservatives are the problem.

But Jesus offers us a different way of thinking about people and a different way of thinking about ourselves.

3 So he told them this parable:

4 “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?

Jesus phrases this question as if the answer is obvious. Any of you would go after a lost sheep, right? But stop and think for a moment. Jesus specifically says that searching for the one lost sheep will leave the 99 “in the open country”. That’s code for “defenseless” … without a shepherd! This man is risking 99% to save 1%.

In other words, this is not what is best for the majority. In fact, most shepherds might not go after the one lost sheep, for that reason. But Jesus sees it as a worthy mission!

5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Why must the shepherd lay the sheep on his shoulders? Because the sheep must be carried home. It’s too weak or too scared or too stupid to go home willingly.

There’s an extremely funny video on the internet of a sheep stuck in a ditch. Someone comes and pulls it out of the ditch, but the sheep starts running away, and jumps right back in the ditch again.

Rescuing sheep is never an easy proposition. Sheep are cute but incredibly dumb animals. And yet, the shepherd rejoices to be carrying his lost sheep home.

6 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.’

Surely, the Pharisees are now asking the right question. Who values one sheep that much?

Like many of Jesus’ parables, this one is a bit ridiculous. I don’t think most people would throw a party for a lost sheep. It’s just not that valuable.

But apparently Jesus disagrees with us. He sees incredible value in this one lost sheep. And now we come to the punchline:

7 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.

It’s probably best to read that last part with air quotes. Luke has made it abundantly clear that we all need repentance, but some people think they don’t. And that’s the only real difference between the Pharisees and the “sinners”. Repentance.

Jesus pulls the rug out from under his critics. He’s telling them that these people they rejected have more value in heaven than they do! And just in case they missed that point, he tells a second parable.

8 “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?

The coin has value, and in this case, nothing is being risked by searching for it. It is, however, a 10% loss compared to 1% in the first parable. It seems like a worthy effort but look at verse 9.

9 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.’

Another party, this time for a lost coin. And once again we should ask, is this really something worthy of a celebration? Apparently, Jesus thinks so.

10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Again, Jesus shows us the heart of God. He places a tremendous value on lost people being found. Every repentant sinner is cause for celebration in heaven!

If you drop a penny down a sewer drain, are you going to go looking for it? No, because it has no value. You only go looking for that which has value. In telling us these parables, Jesus is telling us that we are of high value to God. All of us, no matter who we are or what the world thinks of us.

And I would ask you, what’s the alternative? If God doesn’t exist, then why is a human valuable? If you study human psychology, you will learn that self-esteem is highly important to human development. In other words, we need to feel valuable to live a healthy life. And so, let’s do a quick experiment.

I want you to think about a situation that would make you feel really good about yourself. If this were to happen to you, it would make you feel so good about yourself, you’d never ask for anything ever again.

Most of us will naturally think of success or health or money or fame or body image. Think about how good you would feel about yourself if you achieved that thing.

Here’s the crazy part – the people who have the thing you want, if you interviewed them, they most likely struggle with feelings of inadequacy just like you. It’s never really enough, because your value isn’t determined by you at all.

That’s the thing about value. Something needs to be valued to be valuable. There’s always an external standard. Why is a dollar bill valuable? It’s just a piece of paper! It only holds value because we think it does.

The same thing is true of human beings. We have value because God says we have value.

And we have a God who values people even when their performance isn’t the best! Of the one hundred sheep, he leaves the 99 out in the open, unprotected, to go after the one whose performance was the worst! He throws a party for the reject!

God has a heart for the lost sheep of the world. You can be the worst at everything, and He still chases after you. He values you immensely. And we know this because chasing after lost sheep required the death of Jesus. That’s how much He values us.

Hebrews 12 says that Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him… a joy that Jesus Himself describes as finding lost sheep!

And we want to be a church full of people who are humble enough to know that we were lost. We were sinners in need of repentance. And we want to be a church full of people humble enough to pray for, seek out, and joyfully welcome in lost sinners.

We are celebrating 10 years of God’s faithfulness. And from God’s perspective, the biggest cause for celebration is that we’ve had more than 40 professions of faith in this church – not people who transferred membership. These are lost sheep being found by Jesus at this church.

I think it also worth celebrating that Christ Fellowship reflects an important part of God’s vision for the church, found in Revelation 7 – all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues.

The church should be the one place in this world where we no longer see class divisions, race divisions, political divisions, any other kind of divisions – because our value has nothing to do with any of that! We are one in Christ!

But repentance is necessary for all of us.

Have you ever seen a herd of wild sheep? No, because sheep can’t survive without a shepherd. We can’t survive without a shepherd, and we will die in the wild unless He carries us home. Trust your shepherd. Rest in His arms. Be welcomed at His table.