God is the most powerful, good, gracious, just, compassionate, and wise Person in the universe and He loves you and me and wants to give us all spiritual blessings and riches and, most of all,
“wants to give us Himself.”
It pleased God to send His Son with the message of hope and forgiveness and to die for this sin-sick world. Can you just imagine the joy that God and all of heaven have when one lost person responds to Christ's invitation to come to Him and exchange his or her sin for His righteousness.
And God not only wants us to know about this incredibly good news of restoration and redemption, He is inviting us to share in His joy. Today we will be looking at a passage in the book of Luke.
Parable of the Lost Sheep
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
Parable of the Lost Coin
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” (Luke 15:1-10)
What brings God joy
In this passage, we see that Jesus is sharing a meal with some disreputable people in the community. We know that sinners and especially the tax collectors were viewed as a scandalous bunch to the Jews.
Their testimony was not received in Jewish courts. For centuries before and after Christ, tax collectors were especially hated.
These “sinners” and tax collectors freely came “near” Jesus, which means that they could get extremely close to Him because He was very approachable. They not only ate with Him, they listened to Him.
“His words stirred up their faith, moved them to action.”
We know that Zacchaeus’ life was totally transformed when he met Jesus and He invited Himself to his house. Matthew, the rich tax collector repented after He met Jesus and was later numbered among Christ’s 12 disciples.
“Prayer is an invitation from God to come close to Him,”
to fellowship and commune with Him. We want Him to fill our hearts with His heart for us, for our families, for our situations and for others. Every time we come close to God, it brings Him joy.
Share in His joy
Let’s reflect on parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Jesus was using stories that people could relate to. Those listening to Him knew that sheep are defenseless and have a tendency to stray and not find their way back. That is why they need a shepherd (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:25) and every shepherd would automatically go after the one lost sheep because they knew they could be in danger.
“To the shepherd every sheep is very important.”
So, He searches for it and when he finds it, not only will He rejoice as he carries it home on his shoulders, this wonderful news becomes an occasion for celebration, even a time of feasting with friends and neighbors. The Shepherd wanted to share His joy with others.
The same emphasis is found in the story of the lost coin. This wasn’t just any coin that this poor woman lost but scholars bring out that these could have been coins that formed part of a woman’s headdress - the bride price or dowry.
Whether or not that is the case here, the mention of ten coins implies that
“each coin was a tenth of all she had and each coin had great value.”
When she lost it, she made a full-on search until it was found. When she found it she called her friends and neighbors, to rejoice and celebrate with her. This is the value Jesus places on one lost soul.
In these parables in Luke 15, Jesus was revealing His heart of compassion as He searches for lost, wandering people who are suffering because of sin. He doesn’t just wait for the lost to come in through the doors,
“He actively goes out to find them and did so at the cost of His own life.”
And He not only seeks for lost people, but He also greatly rejoices when they are found. One of the “joys set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2) as He faced the cross was knowing that multitudes would accept His gift of life.
