OPEN: The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialed the employees home telephone number and was greeted with a child’s whispered, "Hello?"
The boss asked, "Is your Daddy home?"
"Yes," whispered the small voice.
"May I talk with him?" the man asked.
To the boss’ surprise, the small voice whispered, "No."
The boss persisted, "Is your Mommy there?"
"Yes," came the answer.
"May I talk with her?"
Again, the small voice whispered, "No."
“Well, is there someone else there I might talk to?" the boss asked the child.
"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."
"Well then, may I speak with the policeman?"
"No,” whispered the child “he is busy"
"Busy doing what?" asked the boss.
"Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman," came the whispered answer.
Now the boss was growing concerned and just then he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone, the boss asked, "What is that noise?"
"A hello-copper," answered the whispering voice.
Alarmed, the boss nearly shouted: "What is going on there?"
In an awed whispering voice, the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper!"
"Why are they there?"
There was a muffled giggle as the child said, "They are looking for me!"
APPLY: They were “looking” for him….
Now, I’ve been a father long enough to suspect what might happen when that dad and mom finally found their little boy. BUT there can be no doubt about how much they valued him or of the love they had for him. In fact, if any one of my children disappeared, I would do whatever would be necessary to find them.
In our text today, we have Jesus telling 3 stories about things that have been lost. Items of great value to those who lost them.
1. A man lost his sheep. He left the 99 sheep in the field until he found it.
2. A woman lost a coin (worth @ $50 in our society). She swept the house until she found it.
3. A man lost his son. And he constantly looked toward the horizon for a glimpse of his child.
THEY WERE LOOKING FOR WHAT THEY HAD LOST
These are pretty good stories. You can visualize these situations. You can identify with what these people are going through. And yet, Jesus wasn’t telling these stories to entertain His crowd. He had a specific audience that needed to hear what He had to say (Luke 15:1-2) – the Pharisees and teachers of the law.
I. These Pharisees and teachers were representatives of God in their society. These were the men who would be most familiar with God’s word. Why would these religious people be so upset about Jesus eating with “sinners?”
ILLUS: Samuel Colgate, the founder of the Colgate business empire, was a devout Christian. During an evangelistic service that he’d attended, an invitation was given at the close of the sermon for all those who wished to turn their lives over to Christ and be forgiven.
One of the first persons to walk down the aisle was a well-known prostitute. She wept openly as she expressed her desire to become a Christian and to become a member of this church. For a few moments, the silence was deafening. This was in the days when some churches “voted” on whether a person would be accepted into their congregation, and it became apparent that these people weren’t sure they wanted her in their church.
This was the attitude of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. To their way of thinking, when a person sinned so much, they became worthless. They became like so much garage to be set in the garbage can by side of the road for the trash collector to come and carry away. Once a person reached that level of depravity they were no longer of any value to God or man. Or at least, that’s what the religious leaders thought.
But, Jesus was saying to these Pharisees and teachers of the Law:
“I don’t think you understand. These are the kind of people I came for. These tax collectors and sinners are those who have been lost to God because of their sins.”
Apparently Samuel Colgate understood this. Maybe he was even thinking of these parables (in Luke) when arose and said, "I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners.
We’d better ask him to forgive us for this oversight. The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn’t understand that she’s not the type we want him to rescue. We’d better spell out for him just which sinners we had in mind."
Almost immediately, a motion was made and unanimously approved that the woman be accepted into membership in the congregation.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 6:9-11
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
(“And we don’t want those kind of people in our church….” No that wasn’t what he said. Instead he said:)
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God
In other words these were those who were lost. The adulterers, prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers and so on. These were the ones that God looked for.
II. Now there’s something interesting about these parables.
First, there were three of them. Any one of these stories would have proved His point. BUT Jesus told 3 parables… why?
Partly because that’s what God always seems to do. When God wants us to remember something, He repeats Himself. (When God wants us to remember something, He repeats Himself. When God wants us to remember something, He repeats Himself). When HE wants to catch our attention – He tells us the same things, over and over again, many times in different ways. Because we’re a little slow to catch on.
In addition, all these parables are slightly different.
1. A Man who has 100 sheep. He loses 1/100th of his property, and he searches the countryside, till he finds it.
2. A Woman with 10 coins, loses 1/10th of her possessions and she searches the house, until she can return it to its rightful place.
3. A Father has 2 sons, and he loses ½ of his children. He earnestly watches until his son’s return.
Each parable tells a story of items that are increasingly more valuable. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying: “It doesn’t matter how valuable a person may seem to you, God will do whatever’s necessary to find that which is lost.”
As Jesus said in Luke12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God…. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
You are so important to God – that when you decide to turn to Him… when you decide to believe in Him, repent of your sinful attitudes and actions, confess Him as your Lord and Master, and allow yourself to be buried in the waters of Christian Baptism… you are so important, that when you’ve made that decision, there is rejoicing in heaven beyond anything you can imagine.
A Christian song writer, Larry Bryant, penned these words to describe what Jesus described here ("That’s When The Angels Rejoice"):
“When the Model T 1st hit the street, it didn’t bring all heaven to its feet.
And when the 1st computer was born, they didn’t blow Old Gabriel’s horn
There’s only one thing that we’re sure about that can make those angels jump and shout
It’s when a sinner makes the Lord his choice – that’s when the angels rejoice.
Now heaven doesn’t strike up a band for any old occasion at hand
It’s got to be a special thing, to make those angels sing.
Now when the United States became a nation, there was no angelic celebration
But when one lost sinner comes back home, they jump for joy around the throne.”
That song beautifully describes the kind of excitement Jesus is telling us exists in heaven when that which has been lost, is found.
III. One more thing about these parables…
A man loses one of his sheep. What does he do? He searches until he finds it, and then he takes it home.
A woman loses one of her coins. What does she do? She searches till she finds it, and then she returns it to its rightful place.
A Father loses his son. What does He do??? He stays home. The father doesn’t go off looking for His son. He doesn’t call the police. He doesn’t organize search party. HE JUST STAYS HOME.
That doesn’t seem quite right. Why would the shepherd and the woman search for that which they’d lost and then (when they’d found it) put it back where it belonged, while the Father just sits at home on the porch? Doesn’t the Father care???
Of course He cares. But there’s something we need to understand. The Prodigal son is not a sheep or coin. Sheep and coins are commodities. Things to be owned. Items to be collected and stored away. But, you can’t do that with a grown son. The Prodigal Son was an individual with a free will.
CAN YOU IMAGINE what would have happened if the Father had gone into that foreign city and tried to take his son home? He travels to that foreign city, hunts until he finds his son’s apartment and says “you’re coming home with me, boy.”
Do you think the boy will go willingly? Probably not. Well then, the father might grab his son by the wrist and haul him on down to his chariot. And away they’d ride toward home where the father would put his son in his room and lock the door.
Has he regained his son? No. At the next possible opportunity, the boy will run away again. This time, probably, for good. Until the son DECIDED he was going to return, he was still lost. The key to this story of the Prodigal Son is the fact that the father had to wait until the lost son wanted to come home. How that came to pass makes interesting reading (Luke 15:13-24):
"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. (a particularly nauseating prospect for a Jew). 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.’
(He was not even going to try to be taken back as a son. He simply knew that his father’s servants ate better than he did and he hoped his father would take him on in that capacity).
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; (now notice this) he ran to his son, (the father had been eagerly watching the road in hopes his son would return… and when the son did, the father practically forgot everything else that had happened and he ran to him… then) 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 (totally ignoring his son’s words) 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.
As much as the father wanted his son to return. As much as he’d have done anything to convince the boy of his love for him – he still had to wait until the son made the decision to return.
As much as God wants His son to return to Him. And as much as He do anything to convince us of His love. The decision still has to be yours and mine to make.
CLOSE: Nikki was a Jewess. Born of Jewish parents and raised in the Temple, she had never wanted anything to do with the church. But just because her friend Dana had invited her, she agreed to attend go - just this once.
The next week she came back. And the next week, and the next.
She said, “the energy that was present around me was all consuming and actually addictive!” Nikki was captivated.
She wasn’t seeking for God, but she did say, “God was constantly seeking me out. I was asking for proof, and finding it everywhere I looked.”
She had plenty of questions and went through a lot of confusion, but suddenly she realized that in 27 years of being Jewish, “never did I feel near to God, much less in any sort of relationship with Him.”
On August 18, 1998 she realized that Jesus was the Messiah and her Savior by God’s grace, she became a completed Jew. Her life radically changed.
She said “Today, I experience God all around me,” Nikki said, “because the hole in my heart is now full of ever-flowing love for God.”
Had you ever realized that you were so important to God that He has looked for you?
Did you ever know that when He sent sin Son to earth – to die on the cross - He was thinking of you? Did you know that - if you were the only person on earth who needed it – God would have sent His son just for you?
Maybe that fact has become real to you today…
According to Jesus – even the angels in heaven are watching now to see what decision you’ll make.
