“An Evangelistic Heart: ER”
Luke 15:1-32
The television show called “ER” was one of the most popular shows in television history. It tried to portray the reality of life for the personnel involved in a big city emergency room. The main purpose, of course, for the emergency room and the personnel is to meet the needs of those ill or injured who cannot adequately care for themselves. The Bible shows us a similar reality – the church is God’s emergency room, where those ill, injured, or lost can go for help. And THERE IS A LOT OF LOSTNESS IN OUR WORLD. But there is a difference – people in need, people who are lost, seldom come to the church; the church must go to them. The church must be a traveling emergency room – just as Jesus was. Listen to how Luke describes it (15:1-3): “1 Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."” The religious leaders were having a hard time understanding Jesus. He was supposed to be one of them but He spent his time with all the outsiders. They were upset. How would you feel? It’s like a young girl who’s all excited about her boyfriend coming to her house to spend some time with her – and he spends all the time with playing with her little brother. She would be upset! Jesus knew what they leaders were feeling. “3 Then Jesus told them this parable …”
It was the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ who gathered around Jesus. PEOPLE ARE LOST. There are at least four types of lostness. There are, first, the WANDERERS. When I was in seminary, the administration asked me to go on a recruiting trip back to Central College, from which I had graduated. So one of the professors and I flew into DesMoines, Iowa, where the college chaplain picked us up. He started to drive us to Pella, a trip of about an hour. The three of us had a great time talking, sharing, and laughing as we traveled. Two of us had traversed this road many times so we knew the way. It was late at night, and it was dark, and I was not particularly paying attention to where we were, so I was surprised when the chaplain slowed down and stopped. As we looked around we realized we were not on the right road – and we had no idea where we were. We did know we were clearly lost. We had not set out to be lost, it was not our purpose to be lost, but we were lost. We were so busy enjoying ourselves that we had simply wandered off the right road. And we had no clue how to get back on the right road.
The reality is that there are a lot of people who are wanderers – people so busy living and enjoying life that they have simply wandered away from the truth, and now are lost. At some point they recognize they’re lost, but have no clue how to find their way back. You, in fact, probably know some people like that. So did Jesus. So (3-7): “3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 "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? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 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.” The wanderers.
Another group of lost people are the VANISHERS. Barb and I were privileged to tour the Holy Land in 1985. While there, we took over 200 slides. Upon our return we had put them together in two different presentations. In 1986 we moved from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids. Sometime later we wanted those slides and began to look for them. They were nowhere to be found. We looked in every box and closet in our house; we went back to Kalamazoo and looked in every closet in the parsonage and the church; we ran announcements in the bulletin of the church in Kalamazoo to see if anyone had seen them or knew of their whereabouts. Through no fault of their own, the slides were lost. (Maybe you’ve never lost your slides, but think about what you do when you can’t find the TV remote and it’s game time or show time…) The slides were totally unaware of their lostness and were, in fact, completely unable to know it. But they were totally lost nonetheless.
The reality is that there are a lot of people like that – people who never had any feeling about or knowledge of the truth and who, through no real fault of their own, are totally lost. You, in fact, probably know some people like that. So did Jesus; so he told yet another parable (8-10): “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? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The vanishers.
The third group of those who are lost are the HIDERS. When I was elementary school age we lived one-half block from a little corner grocery store. I often went there for my mother to pick up some groceries; we just put it on the bill (am I dating myself here?) One day I picked up some things and, with Mom’s permission, bought some candy. But after I got home I realized I really liked the candy and could easily get some more. So I went back to the store and told Reva, the owner/clerk that I had not bought enough, that I needed some more for a party; so I charged some more. Then you know what I did? I hid under our porch to eat it. I knew it was wrong so I hid. Remember Adam and Eve? I may have been wrong, but at least I was Biblical!
The reality is that there are a lot of people like that – deliberately sinning and then running and hiding – it is, in fact, the story of humankind. Jesus knew people like that as well. So he continued with his parables (11-24): “11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, `Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 "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. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 "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! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 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. 21 "The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. ’ 22 "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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” The hiders.
The fourth group of lost people are the IGNORERS. When we moved to Kalamazoo we had a little dog named Josie. He was cute and loveable – but he was dumb, at least when it came to a sense of direction. He could walk to the end of our sidewalk and have no clue how to get back to the house. The previous owners, who had lived in Holland, told stories of Josie being found on the other side of town. He simply had no clue how good it was right at home and never realized when he wasn’t there. He was oblivious to where home was and what it was all about. There was no intimacy between him and our home.
The reality is that there are a lot of people like that – who are oblivious to the blessings of home and, while physically living there, are never really there. They have no sense of intimacy with home, so they never miss it. Jesus knew people like that also. So he concluded his series of parables (25-32): “25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 `Your brother has come,’ he replied, `and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, `Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 "`My son,’ the father said, `you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’" The ignorers.
Did you notice something? There’s a thread which ties all these parables together – it’s God’s heart of joy at the finding and saving of the lost. GOD WANTS LOST PEOPLE SAVED. Ever have one of your children get lost – or know someone who did – even if for a brief time? How did you or their heart feel? The same way the heart of our heavenly Father feels when He sees the lost – broken and determined. Jesus affirmed this when He claimed (Luke 19:10): “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” GOD IS COMMTTED TO SEEKING AND SAVING THE LOST. It is why He sent His one and only Son to die – that the lost might be saved. If you, in fact, identified with the wanderer, the vanisher, the hider, or the ignorer this morning – know this: God is here right now seeking you. He wants to bring you home. Let yourself be found!
But let’s not miss the thrust of this whole section in Luke – of Jesus’ parables. WE ARE TO BE LIFE SAVERS. Jesus began the series by saying, “Suppose one of you…” We are to share God’s heart. We are to pursue the lost with the same earnestness and intensity that we pursue what we treasure. The world needs an emergency room – it needs the church. There are injured and lost all around us. But the
reality is that they will not come to us – we must go to them. As Paul urged (2Cor. 5:18-20): “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” Ambassadors do not sit at home and wait to entertain visitors – they go to foreign turf. As someone has said, “Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of a field in hope that the cow will back up to them.” Listen to the words of a poet:
IF THEY WERE OUR OWN
If you boy or my girl were in darkness –
Were groping alone in the night,
Soul—weary and helplessly seeking
In vain for a glimmer of light,
Thro’ the dangerous depths of a forest,
Bewildered and frightened and lost,
Would I be at home by the fireside
Demurring and counting the cost
Of an organized search for the lost one,
Or grumbling because we must pay,
For the service of guides and for torches,
To drive the dark shadows away?
If you girls of my boy were in danger –
In imminent peril of death –
Were standing unwarned in its pathway,
Do you think we would waste any breath
In complaining about the depression –
Bewailing our loss and our lack,
When a clarion call should be ringing
To summon the wanderer back?
Oh, what if our own were in peril!
Would the sacrifice then be too great?
Even tho’ we must strain to the utmost,
To save them before ‘twere too late?
Then away with delays and excuses!
There are souls lost in sin’s dark ways,
And the voice of the great Guide is calling
For searchers, with torches ablaze
To carry the light to the hopeless
In the homeland and over the sea,
For the Father who sees the unsaved ones
Is depending on you and me!
Whom will you seek this week? To whom will you go? With whom will you share?
