3/16/25 “Lost and Found”
“Lost and Found”
Luke 15:1-10
(Show picture of Lifeguard Station)
What you see on the screen is a picture of a lifeguard station.
This was taken last week when we were in Florida…this particular station (Or tower) was north of Ft. Lauderdale on Deerfield Beach….
(Deerfield beach caters to the older crowd, so Lisa & I felt right at home there)
There’s a total of six of these lifeguard stations on Deerfield Beach, and every time we would walk past one, It made me think about the duties & responsibilities of a lifeguard.
(Has anyone here ever been a lifeguard before?)
The main job of a lifeguard is to watch for people experiencing some sort of trouble in the water, right?
Whether its cramping, or exhaustion, or being pulled under by a rip current, or even being attacked by a shark…
A good lifeguard knows what these signs of distress look like…and they are trained to respond accordingly.
Lifeguards on the beach follow what is called the 10/20 rule.
This means that a lifeguard should be able to scan their assigned zone in 10 seconds – and reach a victim in 20 seconds.
There is also something called the 5-minute rule.
This guideline states that lifeguards must intentionally scan their assigned zone every 5 minutes…
They put out their hand and follow it from one side of their zone to the other…making sure to account for every individual in the water.
It is estimated that – in the US alone – lifeguards save over 100,000 lives from drowning each year…
That’s equivalent to the entire population of Green Bay being rescued each year by lifeguards here in the United States.
Well….our passage of scripture for today also involves the idea of being rescued…
We’ll be looking at 2 stories (2 Parables) about items that become lost….but are eventually found….
2 items (A Sheep and a coin) representing people who are in need of saving…
But, this time, the people being saved – they aren’t drowning in water….
they are drowning in - sin….a far deadlier kind of drowning….because this kind of drowning involves one’s eternal destiny.
Let’s look at our passage for today.
Verse 1 (Luke 15:1) tells us that “Tax Collectors” and “Sinners” were gathering around Jesus to hear him preach…
For many Jewish people of the day, these two classifications of individuals – tax collectors & sinners - described the morally lowest of the low.
Tax collectors made a living off extorting money from their fellow Jews…
…and ‘Sinners’ represented the irreligious and unrighteous “riff-raff” who the Scribes and Pharisees saw as being far inferior to themselves.
In fact, they wouldn’t even talk to a fellow Jew who didn’t practice their faith.
…Yet it was these despised people who were drawn to Jesus – they wanted to hear what he had to say.
The religious elite of the day not only despised tax collectors and sinners…but they despised Jesus as well
…and one of those reasons was because Jesus spent time with these people – and these people, apparently, wanted to spend time with Jesus as well.
Now – it’s important to note here – that although Jesus did have a good deal of contact with these unreligious people….he never condoned their sinful lifestyles or their ungodly worldviews.
Jesus was able to straddle a very delicate line of showing love to sinners without compromising his own beliefs and integrity…
What a great example for us.
Does this describe you?
In other words, are you approachable to non-believers?....or do they perceive you as stuck up, cold, and distant?
How about your extended family members who may have a different worldview than you do….
do they still feel comfortable around you?...Do they value the things you have to say?
As a believer, it takes effort to be approachable to non-believers…it requires us to look beyond sinful lifestyles and demonstrate that we genuinely care about them….and about their eternal destiny.
It takes intentionality. It takes tact. It takes asking the Holy Spirit to provide the strength for us to ‘love our enemies’, as Jesus tells us to do in the Sermon on the Mount.
On the other hand, its really easy to be cold and unapproachable.
This requires literally no effort whatsoever.
Why? because as a professed Christians, the world already thinks that we look down on them….
The world already sees us as their enemy….
Unfortunately, biblically-based churches here in America (collectively) have not done a great job of conveying authentic love for people in their communities over the past few generations…
As a byproduct of withdrawing from worldly activities (Which is generally a good thing) we also tend to withdraw from being around worldly people as well…which can be a negative thing…because Jesus tells us to make disciples…to lead people to the savior.
It’s up to us to overcome that negative perception by demonstrating a genuine interest in others despite their unbiblical lifestyle.
Remember how Jesus treated the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter four?
He treated her with love & respect…despite her sinful lifestyle…all the while conveying to her moral truth that she needed to hear.
Folks, Jesus was an approachable friend to sinners…we need to be as well.
Back to today’s passage, the Pharisees begin to utter their disapproval that Jesus is hanging out with the wrong crowd, so, in verse 4 (Luke 15:4) Jesus begins to tell a story.
He actually tells three stories in a row, all dealing with something that was lost…and then was found again.
A sheep, a coin, and a son.
Today, we’re going to focus on the first two of these.
The third story – the parable of the prodigal son – we’ll be covering as its own sermon in the next few weeks.
As we examine these parables, it’s important to remember that they were directed specifically at the Scribes and the Pharisees…
Jesus was pointing out that their attitude toward others was one of pride, arrogance, and condescension…
in other words…they had a sinful disposition toward people who they considered to be inferior to themselves.
In verse 4, Jesus tells the Pharisees…and others who were in attendance…to think of themselves as shepherds with a flock of 100 sheep.
Right off the bat this would have made the Pharisees uneasy, as the job of being a shepherd was pretty much at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder..
…and now Jesus was asking them to envision themselves as lowly laborers -people whom they would seldom cross paths with in everyday life.
Jesus goes on to tell the rest of the story.
The shepherd loses one of his sheep…..sheep’s gone. He’s nowhere in sight.
Sheep have a tendency of doing this.
Anyone who has raised sheep will tell you that they are…well, they’re not a smart animal.
Like many humans, they have the capacity to get distracted quite easily and just begin wandering off on their own.
The problem with a sheep leaving the flock is that sheep are not only directionally challenged…but they are completely defenseless to predators.
Sheep are worse than sitting ducks!
They have no real horns, they have no claws, they have no protective armor, they have no fangs, they’re relatively slow & clumsy….
….they’re basically a steak dinner walking around on four legs for wolves, coyotes, or any other predator.
Sheep are so inept that many of them that wandered off would soon tip over and not be able to right themselves back up again…
This would lead to their lungs collapsing under the weight of their bodies, suffocating them within a matter of hours.
If you think about it….Sheep are really a good argument against the Evolutionary idea of natural selection (survival of the fittest)…
they should have gone extinct long before man supposedly came on the scene!
So, sheep desperately need a shepherd to care for them and protect them.
This is why Jesus often compares himself to a shepherd, with his followers (us) being His sheep.
One of my favorite prints is that of Jesus cradling a sheep in his arms, providing it with love and protection.
(Show Jesus/Sheep Picture)
(I have it in my office if you’d like to see it)
It reminds me that I need my shepherd each and every day.
Jesus says in John 10:14-15, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
So, rather than chalking this missing sheep up to a business loss…
the shepherd in Jesus’ story leaves the 99 behind in order to look for the sheep that was lost.
The shepherd was so focused on the missing sheep that – in the moment - nothing else mattered….he had to save the sheep that went missing.
A few years ago, Lisa & I went hiking in Arkansas up to a place in the middle of nowhere called Hawksbill Crag (Also called Whitaker Point)
It’s a rock that juts out over a huge valley that is hundreds of feet below.
(Show picture)
Just before this picture was taken, a large family was assembling on the rock to have their picture taken…when they noticed a little toddler making a b-line right for the cliff.
When his mother noticed what was happening, she moved at lightning speed after the little boy and swooped him up just steps before falling hundreds of feet to his death.
At that moment, mom was not thinking about anything except saving her child!
So it is with the shepherd here in this parable…there is no weighing the options of what to do.
He didn’t sit down and think about the ramifications of leaving the flock vs tracking down the lost sheep….he immediately went.
In verse 5 (Luke 15:5) Jesus tells his listeners that when the shepherd finds the sheep, he is full of joy…he picks it up…carries it on his shoulders….and goes back home.
Not only this, but when gets back, he calls over his buddies and they have a big party!....It was time to celebrate….what once was lost…was now found.
Then in verse 7 (Luke 15:7) Jesus says something very interesting.
He says that “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
There’s a lot to unpack here in this one sentence…..
First of all, Jesus says that heaven rejoices when a sinner repents and comes to saving faith.
This comment was directed squarely at the Scribes & Pharisees who – essentially – were indifferent to the spiritual plight of others.
They didn’t celebrate when someone repented and turned from their sins…
They were more concerned about their own public image and reputation for being Israel’s highly esteemed religious “shepherds”.
Jesus is reminding them through this story that true shepherds ought to care deeply for their sheep….so deeply, in fact, that they would give their life in order to save just one of them.
How true is this of Jesus’ love for us?
Jesus was the lamb of God who gave His life as an atonement for sin…he literally gave His life for the sheep.
The Scribes & Pharisees, however, were false shepherds who knew nothing of the compassionate, caring, loving heart of God.
It is to them that Jesus, somewhat sarcastically, compares the other 99 sheep when He mentions people who “Do not need to repent.”
Remember Romans 3:23 tells us that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Only self-righteous, hypocrites could look at their lives and not see the need to humble themselves before almighty God and repent of sin in their life.
The 99 sheep – who I believe are representative of Israel’s religious leaders - were in the flock, so to speak, of Judaism…
…but many of them assumed they were inherently righteous… simply because of their familiarity with the law and the traditions of the faith.
As Jesus tells the Pharisee Nicodemus in John chapter 3, a person can only be righteous by being born again….by humbly submitting to Christ and taking on HIS righteousness.
Jesus is teaching here that it isn’t about external identification…but about internal transformation!
It’s not about what’s in the head…it’s about what’s in the heart.
The sheep that was lost…he knew he was lost.
He would have been desperately crying out for his shepherd to find him.
It reminds me of the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector at the Temple…remember that parable?
Just a few chapters later in the gospel of Luke, Jesus – also talking to the Pharisees here as well, tells the story in Luke chapter 18:
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14)
The Scribes and the Pharisees saw no need for repentance in their lives because they assumed their good works had made them right with God…
Jesus was – in no uncertain terms – setting them straight concerning their cold, unredeemed hearts.
In the final three verses of our passage this morning, Jesus tells another very brief parable about a woman who loses a coin….then frantically looks for it until she finds it again.
…And when she finds it, she joyfully celebrates by calling together her friend and neighbors so they can celebrate with her.
The coin that Jesus describes here would most likely been a Drachma…a Greek coin similar to a Roman Denarius…the value of about one day’s work.
…remember the Denarius from the parable of the workers in the vineyard?
In today’s economy, I suppose this coin would be worth about a couple hundred dollars.
Many married women of the day wore a necklace consisting of numerous drachmai…so perhaps this woman’s necklace broke and the coin fell on the dirt floor in her home.
Regardless of how it got lost, look at her joyful exuberance when she finds it!
And, again in verse 10 (Luke 15:10) Jesus reiterates the truth that he taught back in verse 7, that even angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents.
Both of these parables highlight the vast difference between how the Pharisees would have viewed the lost items (i.e. lost people) and how God views them.
While the religious leaders of the day were ambivalent toward wayward souls….God passionately pursues them.
His desire is actually for all people to turn to Him in faith.
The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God “…wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Yes, we know that - because of sin - the majority of people in this world will never come to a saving faith in Christ….but that doesn’t change the desire of God’s heart for all mankind.
While the false shepherds withheld mercy toward those who were lost…God pours out His mercy to those who are lost.
Brothers and Sisters….what a comforting message in these two parables!
God loves you so much that He came looking for you when you humbly cried out to Him in repentance, begging for forgiveness.
…and He continues to pursue you today if you find yourself drifting from His presence…
If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, He will never let you perish alone in the wilderness….He will ALWAYS come looking for you.
The savior loves you so much that – like the mom on Hawksbill Crag swooping up her child inches away from certain death – Jesus will never allow you to walk off a spiritual cliff of eternal damnation.
Trust in the Lord and His mighty hand of salvation…
Believe that Jesus – the perfect sacrificial lamb – gave his life for you…
And practice obedience as your worshipful response to God’s endless love for you...
Get to know the voice of the true shepherd…for it is by his voice – and his voice alone - that you will be saved.
Let’s Pray.