He Came for Me
God don’t play about you. - Pastor Charlie Dates
Luke 15:1-10
15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to Him. 2 And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to complain, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
3 And so He told them this parable, saying, 4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’ 7 I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.
8 “Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin which I had lost!’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Jesus liked to tell stories called parables.
Parables are earthly stories that give heavenly insight.
Jesus took the ordinary things in life and put them into a story to help people understand a grander vision of God.
Reading parables, like the ones in Luke 15, is supposed to elicit an emotional response.
When the shepherd loses his sheep, we are to feel concern. When he finds them, we should be relieved.
Heaven feels the emotion we feel when something lost is found when one person comes back to God. Times a million!
Lost people are valuable to him and he rejoices when they come back.
The parables in this chapter are a defense of Jesus’s ministry against the Pharisees and scribes.
The Pharisees are representative of legalistic religious traditions today.
They complained about the people Jesus chose to minister to.
This chapter gives us three angles of vision on the character of God:
God is like a shepherd who cares so much for sheep that when he loses one, he is relentless in his pursuit to find it.
God is like a woman who has some currency and when she loses one, she goes on a search to find it. And when she finds it, she invites others to rejoice with her.
God is like a father who has two sons, both are lost but only one recognizes it. And when he does, then the father throws a huge party.
This chapter also gives us three angles of vision on lost people:
The sheep gets lost because the sheep is stupid. The Bible refers to us as sheep.
The coin got lost because of carelessness. People in our world get lost because there’s no care for them.
We’ll discuss the son next week.
There’s one sheep, one coin, and one son. The one really matters to God.
Out of all the people on planet Earth, God has been concerned about one and that one at some point was you.
When the woman lost the coin, it was lost in the house. Some of us aren’t lost in the world, we’re lost inside the house of God. We go to church every week, sing the songs, and are still on the road to hell.
Jesus left all the comforts of heaven to come and find you.
God is still searching and when he finds the lost, he still rejoices…
When one sinner repents, all of heaven rejoices.
Reflection Questions:
How does understanding God's relentless pursuit of the lost change your perspective on his love for you?
Are there areas in your life where you feel lost or disconnected from God? How can you open yourself up to being found by Him?
How can you apply the message of God's joy in finding the lost to your relationships with others?
What steps can you take to ensure you are not "lost in the house" but fully engaged in your faith and relationship with God?