Introduction: (The lights go out…so does the preacher and worship leader, for a minute, until people begin to look around uncomfortably. Then, the worship leader welcomes the crowd and asks them to turn to Lk 15:1. Then, he begins to read…in Spanish…something that isn’t Lk 15. After a minute, he sits down. Preacher gets up)
Feeling a little lost?
Most everyone here this morning can suddenly relate to how left out or lost it feels when you’re not sure what’s going on around you – like when the lights are out and you’re not sure what’s supposed to be going on next. Or, like when someone gets up to read, and it’s in a language you most likely don’t understand.
That feeling is probably what the average Spanish-speaking person would get if they were to come and visit us here. I imagine it’s the feeling a lot of Spanish-speaking people in our area feel as they try to make a life here. I could just stop here and speak about that growing need for the next 20 minutes, but that’s not all I want to address this morning.
Instead, I want you to think for a minute: Have you ever felt lost like that?
I once was lost – in a manner of speaking. I remember that feeling of lostness that comes with a language and culture barrier. I was in India, on the other side of the world. Our short-term evangelistic team had over 15 members. It helped, being part of a large group. Then we split up. One group went to Naudapeta a few hours away from the rest. The hotel was like something in an Indiana Jones movie, complete with lizards on the walls. Fortunately, I had Zane Darnell along to give me important safety tips – like, “Don’t ever drink the water.” And, “When you go out preaching in the villages, just make sure you get back to the hotel before dark. That’s when the snakes come out.” Thanks, Zane! This was also a country where, less than 2 years before, missionaries were being harassed and killed by radical Hindus. This was all rolling around in my mind my first day out as a local preacher, my translator, a driver and I all drove a couple of hours away to villages way off the beaten trail. At one point, there was some sort of toll gate, and the guard kind of eyed me in the back of the car. Boy, was I glad there was a guy there who spoke English who could explain it all to me! We passed on through. After a day’s preaching in the villages, it was time to go. It was then that I learned from my translator that he and the preacher were going to stay up north, and that I was to go back to Naudapeta alone with the driver – a Hindu who spoke no English. At least it wasn’t dark and we were headed to home base. We didn’t speak much. We couldn’t understand each other. After an hour or so we arrived at the toll gate. The guard said something to the driver, the driver said something to the guard, and pretty soon they were yelling at each other. He wasn’t going to let us through. Next thing I know, we’re turned around, and headed all the way back. By this time, it’s getting dark, and my driver is taking the more scenic route back to Naudapeta. For the next couple of hours, I was lost, somewhere in India, far from anyone I knew, with no one around me who even spoke my language. It was a great relief just to get back to my Indiana Jones hotel. Not a great feeling, feeling lost.
I once was lost…So was a man named Zacchaeus. Only, he wasn’t somewhere where he didn’t understand the language or culture. Zacchaeus was lost in his own home. He was lost in life – unable to sort through what really mattered, where he needed to be headed, and how it was all going to turn out. He at least realized he was lost, and that’s why he was seeking to hear from Jesus. And hear from Jesus he did. It changed his whole life, and all the things he’d done wrong before, he suddenly wanted to make right.
Luke 19:7-10
All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a ’sinner.’" But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
That was Zacchaeus’ problem. Zacchaeus had been, what Jesus called, lost!
But all the people standing around didn’t understand why Jesus had gone to be the guest of a man like Zacchaeus. Listen,
If you’re going to understand Jesus, you’re going to have to understand this about Him.
If you’re going to understand the cross, the Church, and what it means to have a right relationship with the Father, you’re going to have to understand the way He looks upon lost people!
Lost. We use that word rather flippantly. And inwardly, we have some kind of idea of how we feel about "the lost." But remember the old hymn – “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost…”? We need to remember that. I once was lost.
We need to re-learn this whole idea of what it means to be lost.
Luke 15:1-2
Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
Luke gives us the setting for this whole chapter, which we’ll be looking at this morning. And when he does, he helps us to see a message for 3 kinds of people:
I. For Those Who Complain - You need to learn about the Father’s concern for the lost
Story - A non-member of the church in Hillsboro, OH once complained to me about the people who attended the church there - people who’s lives in the past had been ugly. They had been lost, but things were different now, and here was this person, proving to me that we had some flaw as a church! And I said, "Praise God!" What a great thing it would be if there were even more people in the Church whose lives had hit bottom, who once were lost, and were now living testimonies to the power of Jesus to change them! If only there were more people whose lives aren’t yet changed, but who are searching and learning and coming to the right place to do that!
Yet, within the Church, always lurks this potential for us to become an unwelcome place for the lost. We like us. Things are comfortable when everyone acts just like us, thinks just like us, and behaves like us. It’s a lot less work to keep a shark in an aquarium than to swim out into the ocean and catch them! New people mean added expense, stress, and changes. They make more work, make it hard to know everyone, make it harder to find a parking place, harder to keep our usual place where we sit. Even skunks, when they go to church, all get to sit in their own pew!
lll – My poor doctor. He might be quitting. I’m afraid it may be my fault. The only time I ever see him, I don’t feel good. Maybe it’s not all my fault. Everyone who comes to see him is sick! He’s tired of it. The only people who visit his office are sick – so he might be quitting. Wait a minute – it’s supposed to be that way, isn’t it? Can you just imagine a doctor sitting around complaining that everyone coming to him is sick? Can you imagine a hospital where every time someone’s admitted the nurse shakes her head and says, “Man, the only people who ever come here have some problem!”
Think about it: when we complain about expense, parking spaces, finding a seat, or the changes that we have to consider, we’re complaining about the lost. For those of you who complain about the lost: you need to re-learn the Father’s concern for those who are lost. Jesus found Himself surrounded by a group of people who complained about the lost, so He told these stories:
Luke 15:3-24
Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ’Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ’Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ’Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. "When he came to his senses, he said, ’How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. "The son said to him, ’Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ’Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Lk 15 about lost things: lost sheep, coin, son. 2 points of view when it comes to things being lost: the concern of the lost person or animal or whatever it may be - and the concern of the owner who’s lost it. In all 3 parables, the main place where Jesus directs our attention is to owner’s concern for what’s lost: In other words We need to re-learn the Father’s concern for the Lost!
A. It’s demonstrated in the search
Ill – Once, in a ministry before I was born, Dad had finished evening services, and a boy who was tired asked his parents if he could go on out to the car and wait. When they went to leave, he wasn’t there. Quickly, everyone in the church was calling one another, starting a search, as the parents went into a panic. You can imagine. And maybe you can imagine the relief they felt when a couple of the church called back. Out in their garage, asleep in the back seat of their car, was the missing boy. He’d gotten into the wrong car, and no one noticed!
In all 3 of these parables there’s somewhat of a search: The shepherd leaves the 99 sheep and goes after the one that’s lost "until he finds it." The woman who lost a coin wasn’t just looking to get in some extra house cleaning! She stops her day’s activities and conducts a search, sweeping her probably dirt-floored house. She lights a lamp. She searches carefully. The father who’s son had left, for some reason, sees him while he’s still a long way from home, and he makes no hesitation to run to him and accept him back.
For all 3 there’s an anticipation, a hope, a concern that’s quick to look thoroughly for what was lost, and a great reluctance to give it up.
Jesus is teaching us about God. He’s pursuing the lost. He’s reluctant to give them up. (II Pt 3:9) "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." God’s concern for lost souls is demonstrated in the sending of His Son, and in the commission that the Son gave to make disciples of all nations. It’s God’s search for people who have wandered from Him.
B. It’s demonstrated in the joy that follows when it’s found!
All 3 of these parables are about a party too! Because all 3 tell about the rejoicing that follows when the lost item is found. This is so much the opposite of complaining about the lost.
Now, I already enjoy being here on Sundays. I’m not here because I’m paid to be here. You couldn’t pay me to not be here! And I love being with my brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter where I am. We’re here to please the Father, not ourselves. The joy I receive is a fringe benefit of seeking to please the Father! And each week that’s what we pray: That what we do here will please the Father. I hope that the Father looks down on us and rejoices that His people are here to worship.
But guess what...V7 Jesus says there’s more rejoicing in heaven when someone turns to Him! I ask you: Are we made happy by the same things that make the Father happy? If it makes us rejoice that we’re here, does it make us 99X more happy when someone stands here and proclaims Jesus as Lord and we witness them baptized into Him? Does our rejoicing, our cheering even approach the roar in heaven when someone passes from death into life? Or do we really believe that’s what happens?
Ill - My brother Ken told me about a man who accepted Jesus at a Church in Cincinnati. He hadn’t been raised in a church setting, and no one had clued him in on all of the cultural idiosyncrasies of the Church. So, the Sunday after he was baptized, when a little boy was immersed into Christ and was raised from the water, in that church’s usual stony cold silence, this man let out a big "Thank you, Jesus!"
I’d never try to get someone to put on a show just because they’re told to, but I make no apology for rejoicing when someone accepts Jesus. That’s following the example of the Father.
The Church’s concern for the lost flows from the Father’s concern for the lost, so we need first to understand the Father is concerned for a lost world
There’s a message for another group of people here...
II. For Those Who are Indifferent - you need to remember what it’s like to be lost
Most of us don’t openly complain about the lost, but there’s another harmful attitude Jesus addresses in Lk 15.
Ill - Remember Joseph. In prison, he interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker. 3 days later, the chief cupbearer was restored to his job. Joseph remained in prison, and the chief cupbearer forgot about him (Gen 40:23). He was back fat and happy, and it was 2 full years before he even remembered the guy who had given him hope in prison. Then Pharaoh had a dream, and the cupbearer said, "Today I am reminded of my shortcomings." Some of us are there today. We’ve been freed, we’re back fat and happy, we’ve become indifferent concerning the others back in prison where we once were, and we need to be reminded of our shortcomings.
Ill - A Quiz: What’s 750,000 miles long, reaches around the earth 30 times, and grows 20 miles longer each day? Answer: The line of people who are without Christ.
I’m here to burden you today! -- To increase the burden for lost people among the people of our congregation. "I came here to unload my burden, not get burdened!" Great! Unload your worldly burden and pick up the right one, the light one that Jesus says we’re supposed to take!
Quote - James Kennedy - "One of the saddest statistics of our day is that 95% of all church members have never led anyone to Christ."
-Ill - Do some number crunching here: About 8 out of 10 people who become a part of the church do so because of a personal invitation by a member of the church. That means you could potentially multiply those 8 by 95%. So if every Christian became actively involved in just bringing people to Christ, the number of people accepting Jesus at VHCC would jump by 15X! 15 people would change to 225. We’d have to start a building program right away!
Yet, indifference is a much more comfortable and common course. What can we do to break free of it? What will change our hearts to actually care about the lost? I think Jesus would have us remember what it’s like to be lost.
The Bible helps us do that each time it describes us like sheep.
Mt 9:36 - Jesus going through towns and villages - has compassion on the crowds because they’re harassed (bullied, oppressed, a mangled corpse) and helpless (thrown down, unable to escape), like sheep w/o a shepherd.
Num 27, Moses prayed that the Lord would provide a leader for Israel. Why? So the people wouldn’t be like sheep w/o a shepherd.
Ill - It’s not a good picture. Sheep, lost out in the wild, are goners. They aren’t very bright. They have no natural defenses. They can’t even run real fast. On their own they don’t do well at finding adequate food and water. Every time the word lost is used to describe a sheep, it’s a word in the original that carries a powerful sense - in fact it’s a word for absolute destruction, death, ruin. That’s what it means to be lost.
Ill - I’ve read instances of shepherds in the Middle East where there’s a lamb with a tendency to run off by itself and get separated from the group. The shepherd takes the lamb and breaks a leg, making it partly cripple the rest of its life, to save it! Seems extreme, but the lamb that wanders off is a goner. That’s how serious it is for sheep to be lost. Jesus said in Mt 5 that if your eye causes you to stumble it would be better to gouge it out and throw it away, or if your hand causes you to stumble, better to lop it off and throw it away than to keep all your body together and lose it to hell. Learn this from the shepherd: Better to be broken than to be...lost!
Ill - You’ve probably seen them in a store – a 3yr-old child who turned down a wrong aisle and lost Mom -- weeping, desperate. The look of horror and complete helplessness on that little face is usually enough to melt any heart. To not care about him would take a pretty cold heart, especially since you’ve probably been there yourself in one way or another. LOST.
Think about a time when you were lost. Remember what it’s like? Remember the feeling of desperation? Remember the choking feeling in your throat? Remember the loneliness? THAT’s where people without Jesus are! LOST! They’ve wandered from the Father. They’ve lost the security of a loving Shepherd. They’ve lost the certainty of having their needs provided. They’ve lost protection from predators. They’ve forfeited the happiness of the rest of the flock.
If you’ve become indifferent to people outside of Christ, remember what it’s like to be lost!
"Well, the gates open. Those lost sheep can come in any time they want to. We’re not keeping them from coming!" Listen - Jesus said He’s the gate. He’s the one Who has opened the gate for lost sheep to come in. That’s not up to us! And maybe we’re not keeping them from coming in, but someone is! What’s up to us is going out and bringing them in.
By the way, when you were being read to in Spanish earlier, not only were you lost because of the language – you were also deceived, because what was being read to you wasn’t Lk 15 at all. That’s exactly what’s going on to the people around you who are lost. Not only are they at a loss to know what to do, but they’re also being lied to. All around them are voices that say, “This is truth!” “This is real happiness!” “This is what life is about!”
It’s up to us to is to seek out those who are broken and confused, who’ve been scattered, who are struggling, who are at the mercy of predators and the elements. It’s up to us to bring them to the gate so they’ll go in.
quote - George MacLeod "I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the market place as well as on the steeple of the church, I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles: But on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; At a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek... And at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died, and that is what He died about. And that is where Christ’s men ought to be, and what church people ought to be about."
We can’t understand what it’s like to be lost and then remain indifferent to people who are. And God help us if we reach a point where we say we don’t understand what it’s like to be lost! Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost.
(III. For Those Who are Lost - you need to know that the Father is waiting for your return)
Joke – A man in a suit and a nice car pulled up to a backwoods shack where a guy was sitting out on the porch sucking a piece of straw. Obviously in a hurried panic, he rolls down his window: "Say, can you tell me which way it is to Hicksville?" "Nope." "Well, do you know if this road goes to US 42?" “Nope.” "Well, do you know if I’m in Dekalb county?" ”Nope.” "You don’t know much do you?" "Nope, but I ain’t lost!"
I realize today that there may be a few people here who for the first time thinking about themselves being "lost." And we’ve been talking about you. There’s something you need to know today. You need to know that in John 10, Jesus said, "I am the good Shepherd." You need to know that the Father is waiting for your return.
Look again in the parable of the lost son. Look again at a father whose son has shamed and abandoned him and then hit hard times. Look again at what the Father does when His son returns: He welcomes him with open arms and open home and love that never once failed while he was gone.
That’s what you need to realize - that there’s a Father waiting for you with open arms -- a Savior Who loves you and Who would rather Himself die than to have heaven be without you. And though the Church He loves sometimes fails to reach out to you as it ought to, He has never failed, and He is reaching out to you right now in the same way He always has, only now the plea is more urgent than it ever was before, because the time is shorter now than it ever was before, and the time when it will be too late is closer now than it ever was before.
Conclusion: Corrie ten Boom, Amazing Love - If I straighten the pictures on the walls of your home, I am committing no sin, am I? But suppose that your house were afire, and I still went calmly about straightening pictures, what would you say? Would you think me merely stupid or very wicked?
We’re not to straighten pictures today. We’re to yell that the house is on fire!
We’re here to tell you, “I once was lost. I know it’s a hard place to be. But I’ve been found, and today you can be found too!”
