Monday, September 28, 2009

Lost and Found, Part 19 of 78

TEXT: Luke 15

IDEA: Lost people are those who are out of right relationship with God.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that men and women can be lost in many different ways.

Have you ever been lost?

What was it like?

“Lost” is a frustrating word. It is an adjective (actually, a past participle) that we have turned into a noun.

Luke 15 gives a series of stories about the lost and about God’s attitude toward people who are lost:

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Then He said, “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf’ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”

Jesus told these stories in responses to the charge that He freely associated with “sinners.” Jesus didn’t deny it. In explaining why He associates with such people, He describes them as inst.

The lost are not necessarily renegades or moral wrecks: they are people out of their right relationship. There are four different types of lost people:

1. Some are lost as the sheep was lost.
The sheep wasn’t lost because it had stumbled over some cliff. It was lost in that it had wandered off from the shepherd and away from the flock. It had lost its sense of direction, and it didn’t know how to find its way back again.

Many people are like that today. They are “between two worlds, the one dead, the other powerless to be born.”

2. Some are lost in the sense that the silver coin was lost.
The coin did not cease to be silver. It was not lost because it no longer bore the image and superscription of the emperor. It was lost in that it was out of circulation. It was as useless as if it did not exist.

The supreme sin, according to Jesus, was uselessness to God and to others. The parables of judgment were directed not against those who had done a positive wrong, but against those who had failed in their duty. Buried talent, bridesmaids without oil, the man who saw the needy and did nothing.

3. Some are lost as the prodigal son was lost.
He was a rebel. He wanted to have his fling.

4. Some are lost as the elder son was lost.
Most people don’t think of him as lost. He is completely out of sympathy with
both his father and his brother. These people are the most difficult to restore.
Why?

You can be out of relationship with God in many ways.

God loves lost people and searches for them. He wants them in relationship with Himself.