Nicolas Campbell
“Lost”
Luke 15:8-10
June 3, 2012
Intro
A. Story about Candaice finding my stuff I lose.
B. I’m constantly losing my stuff. I’m telling you if I didn’t have Candice to find something of mine I would probably lose my left arm. In our story today we are faced with someone who has also lost something.
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Doesn’t she 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.” (NIV)
Body
I. People are lost, but looking for the way.
A. If we look at the beginning of this chapter we see in v. 1-2 that Jesus is actually sitting with tax collectors and sinners. Here the tax collectors are grouped with sinners because of their industry. They were severely hated by the Jewish nation, but something intrigued them about Jesus. They followed him just to hear his teaching and to learn about the truth of God. On the other hand we again see the experts of religious law. They were grumbling and complaining about how this great Rabbi was actually conversing with and even eating with these “sinners.” So Jesus starts gives two parables and we are looking at the 2nd this morning. The first thing that we are told is that there is a woman who had 10 silver coins. Each one of them was worth a days wage, and she loses one of them. There are a couple different theories as to what the coins are. Some people think that the ten coins are part of a headdress, which was passed through her family, and one of the coins fell off. Some people think this is her life savings and she simply misplaced one of the coins. Honestly it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is the coin is very valuable to the woman and it’s gone.
B. This February there was a woman in Delray Beach, FL who was shopping at a local mall. She sat in her car and removed her wedding rings to put some lotion on her hands. She put the rings in her lap and when getting out of the car her rings fell onto the ground and were lost. These rings were not just any rings but were given to her by her mother in law who had recently passed away. These rings also were not just family heirlooms, but had been hidden away through the Holocaust and survived through 4 different concentration camps. They were priceless. Sure they could have easily been replaced with a new set of wedding rings, but it wouldn’t be the same. The woman probably had other rings with their own value each with their own history, but the rings meant so much to her. There was a news channel that picked up the story and the woman pleaded to have her rings returned. Turns out a woman found one of the rings and sent a message to the owner. The rings were found and returned.
C. The same idea carries over from the lost coin. The woman lost a coin that was incredibly valuable. Sure there were others like it, but the one was still so precious. We are told that the woman in the parable is actually God and the coin is a lost person, or a sinner. Sometimes people get lost. But God still sees lost people as valuable. We each have our own history, which can never be replaced with someone else.
II. God searches for those who are lost.
A. Look back at v. 8. “Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” Here we can see that the woman stops what ever she is doing and searches diligently for what has been lost. She has to light a lamp, which tells us that she is searching in the dark and grabs a broom to sweep the floor looking for the coin. She labors endlessly and carefully probably down on her hands and knees searching through the dirt and in each crack and crevice hoping that she will touch the coolness of the silver. She does everything she can to find the lost coin.
B. One of my favorite books is Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novel “The Old Man and the Sea.” I must have read this book a dozen times. It’s the story of an old Cuban fisherman, Santiago, who has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Each and every day he gets in his skiff and sails out into the hot tropical sun and shows no result at the end of the day. On the 85th day the old man ventures out into much deeper waters. He lets his lines out, and at noon hooks the fish of a lifetime. It’s a marlin and it’s a whopper! It’s the biggest the old man has ever seen and it begins to tow the boat into deeper waters. Now this fish wasn’t hooked on a fishing pole, but completely by hand. The old man knows that if he ties the cord off to the boat that it would snap, so he wraps it around his hands and holds on. His back and shoulders are in agony. Whenever the fish dashes for freedom the cord cuts deep into Santiagos hands, but he still holds on. Three days the old man continues sleep deprived, dehydrated, and delirious finally the old man lands his catch.
C. See it doesn’t matter how long it takes or how much work is needed. God will endure. The fish in our story fought and fought, just like we do. Every time we pull against God it pains him. Just like the cuts in the hands of Santiago from the cords. God is willing to take that to bring us to him. Just like the aches and pains for days God tells us we are worth it.
III. We are worth it.
A. My favorite part of this story is the end. The woman finds her lost coin and she rushes over to all of her neighbors rejoicing and shouting. “I have found my coin! Come rejoice with me!” Now this in the context of just a coin is ludicrous. If she invited all of her neighbors to her house for a party then she would have to feed them and supply wine for everyone. She would spend more on the food and drink than the coin itself was worth.
B. Just yesterday I read an article written by a young man named Michael Glatze. Michael by the time he was 30 had become editor of one of the fastest growing magazines in the country, had discussed hard issues at the JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard, had his work on the cover of Time Magazine, and was featured on PBS and MSNBC. Michael was a legend in his field, an innovator, a dreamer. This man has been done more things professionally before he was 25 than most do in their entire lives. He had everything going for him and yesterday he released the article explaining why he left it all behind.
See Michael was a homosexual activist. He became the editor of the first gay magazine directed at young males in America. He was a leader in the “gay rights movement.” In this article Michael talks about how there were times where he knew what he was doing was wrong, but he just wrote it off as “that’s how life goes.” Michael saw his talk at the JFK Jr. forum and in self-analyzing what he calls his “performance” he began to doubt what his life was all about. He was also suffering from digestive issues from his lifestyle, which caused debilitating cramps, which drove him to cry out to God in prayer.
Michael says in the article, “God came to me when I was confused and lost, alone, afraid and upset. He told me – through prayer – that I had nothing at all to be afraid of, and that I was home; I just needed to do a little house cleaning in my mind.”
See Michael was lost. He admits that himself. He was spinning out of control in his sinful lifestyle and cried out to God… and God answered. I can just imagine God saying to him “I’ve been looking for you. You are my lost coin.
C. See Michael was lost. He admits that himself. He was spinning out of control in his sinful lifestyle and cried out to God… and God answered. I can just imagine God saying to him “I’ve been looking for you. You are my lost coin.” Jesus tells us in v. 10 “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” See there is a party going on in Heaven right now for just this one man. There is a party going on for each and every sinner that turns to God. There’s a party going on because God knows that just one person is worth it. He is willing to throw the most outlandish over the top celebration with angels singing and trumpets sounding and great lights that is greater than any of us can imagine. And he does it all just for one of us. God thinks we are valuable. God thinks we are worth it.
Conclusion
A. Turn to God.
B. We have all been that lost coin. Or maybe you are still in the dirt and you are seeing the light of Christ from God’s lamp looking for you. There is a party waiting for you. You are the guest of honor. That article that I read really was a great one and just one more part I think plays a part here. Michael writes, “In my experience, “coming out” from under the influence of the homosexual mindset was the most liberating, beautiful and astonishing thing I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.” If I could tell him anything I would tell him, “Just wait. We haven’t even gotten to the party yet.”
