1.
Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord our rock and our redeemer. In the message from God’s Word today we’re
going to take the time to understand what
it means that Jesus was sent to this earth to seek and save sinners. In a day and an age when the popular thing to
do is “seek out God” or say, “I’m
seeking God through my own means of spirituality,” we’re going to learn how
God does just the opposite with us. He’s
the one who seeks us out through His Son Jesus Christ. That’s why the title for today’s message is, “God in Search of Man.” It’s taken from Luke 15:1-10. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
In his book,
“Surprised by Children,” Harold Myra writes: One afternoon my older brother Johnny and I
were walking home from school when we found ourselves surrounded by four older
boys we didn't know. Johnny was a good fighter, but they pushed us into a
field, threw ropes around us, and shoved us down on the ground. "What
did we do?" we demanded. "We
didn't do anything to you."
They laughed, tying us up, tangling us together, cinching the knots
tight. They enjoyed themselves, taunting us and pulling on the ropes. Then the bullies left us in the secluded
field all tied up. We yelled at them to free us, but they were soon gone. At first a wave of relief rolled over me. They're
gone! Now we can squirm free. We yanked at the ropes, thinking we could surely
get loose somehow. But we couldn't. We strained feeling panic building as it
started to get dark. We lay there as the
light slowly vanished. The moon and stars appeared. We wondered how anyone
could find us in the dark and how long this could go on. At long, long last, under the evening sky, we
heard our father's voice. He had searched all along the way to school and found
us in the field.
3.
As we can see here from Harold
Myra’s book it wasn’t until his father came to save him and his brother Johnny
that they were set free from their bonds.
That’s a good way of how God saves us as well. He’s set us free from sin, which only seeks
to tie us up and keep us enslaved. We’re
often beat up by Satan as well as these boys were, sometimes attacked by
temptation when we least expect it. But,
God loves us so much that He searches us out as this father did and He’ll stop
at nothing to find us. God our heavenly
Father truly does love us and He’s in search for us through His Son Jesus
Christ.
4.
In our Gospel lesson today we can
see God’s hand is working to seek and save all who are lost in their
transgressions and sins. In Luke 15:1-2
it says, “Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to
hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with
them." The previous
section of Luke’s Gospel in Luke 14 concluded with the words “He who has ears let him hear.” This new chapter tells us of those who
did gather to hear Jesus and His teaching:
the tax collectors and sinners.
Not only did they listen to Jesus; they were even welcomed to eat with
him! The word “sinner” here in Luke 15 may refer to people who were especially
immoral and wicked. But, it also may refer
simply to people who were not strict about fulfilling all the requirements of
the Jewish ceremonial law in Jesus’
day. They were “sinners” in the eyes of the Pharisees because of their careless
attitude toward religion.
5.
We also notice that it was the
reaction of the Pharisees and teachers of the law against Jesus’ behavior in
eating with these “sinners” that provoked these two parables in Luke 15. The parables would turn their words of complaint into a cause for celebration. In our eagerness to identify with Jesus and
the sinners he welcomed, we may miss the importance of identifying with the
Pharisees and teachers of the law. After
all, they loved God and were hoping of the Messiah to come and redeem Israel. Their role in that coming was to study, obey,
interpret and apply the law of Moses.
For them, keeping the ceremonial
law would prepare the way for the coming redemption that would take place
with the Messiah. The world according to
the Pharisees would be divided into about 6 groups of people, ranking from the
righteous to the sinners. Sinners were the lawbreakers and those
who worked at dishonorable occupations like tax collecting, shepherding and
leather tanning. Given the Pharisees and
scribe’s love for God and His law, Jesus’ fellowship with sinners was an
obstacle for them to the coming redemption of Israel.
6.
But, we notice that Jesus understood
them, and as he identified with the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, He told
them a parable of a man who had lost one of his 100 sheep.
Jesus says in Luke 15:4-7, "Suppose
one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the
ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I
have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous
persons who do not need to repent.” Here Jesus turns the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law notions of sin on its head.
For them, shepherds belonged to the sinners. Some of whom may have been seated at the
table with Jesus. But, Jesus was at the
table as a shepherd who was welcoming the lost and who invited the religious
leaders to identify with the lost by putting themselves in the sandals of a
shepherd. Jesus is showing God’s desire
to search out for man in the midst of His sin and rescue him from it. Even if that may mean that He may leave the
other 99 sheep in the wilderness where wolves, jackals and hyenas may be able
to get at them.
7.
The second parable carries over with
the same idea of searching out for something that was lost. Jesus says in Luke 15:8-10 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses
one. Does she not 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." The words of
Jesus called the Pharisees to imagine themselves as a woman to see what was
happening in Jesus’ fellowship with tax collectors and sinners. Their daily prayer, “Thank you Lord of the universe that you did not make me a woman,” distanced
themselves from women. But, Jesus closed
the distance and called them to identify with a woman even before her actions
were described.
8.
The parables are full of actions
that interpret Jesus’ behavior in his table fellowship. Both parables are about losing, searching,
finding, restoring and celebrating the return of what was lost. We were once lost in our sin, but NOW HAVE
BEEN found by God. Jesus says in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Jesus shows just how much God is in
search of man and was willing even to go unto the point of death, death on a
cross, so that all of us could be rescued from eternal death and damnation in
hell. In a world where the value of
people is classified according to age, race, class, gender, wealth, power and
virtue God’s unrelenting search provides the true measure of a lost sinner’s
worth.
9.
We also see that heaven rejoices
when a sinner repents. The shepherd and
the woman rejoice when the lost are found.
How are we as a Church to understand the relationship between repentance
and being found? How are a lost sheep
and coin like the sinners who ate with Jesus at the table? Well, let’s delve into this a bit
further. If we stay with the story our
resource for understanding what Jesus meant by repentance is given when Jesus
says at the end of Luke 14, “Let anyone
with ears to hear listen.” Then we
hear those words that the tax collectors and sinners were coming to listen to
Him. This is how the church is to
respond to those who hear the Word of God and are led to repentance. That’s what the word repentance means in
Greek, the word metanoia, literally
means to “to change one’s mind” and
we know that it’s the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God that
does that. Repentance is both a coming near to listen and the experience of
being found by the one who calls. It
isn’t something we accomplish by our own works, as the Pharisees and the
Teachers of the law had thought. But,
it’s something that happens to us when we come close enough to listen to the
life changing Word of God we hear every Sunday morning and every time we gather
together as a Body of Believers in Bible Study or in family devotions around
the dinner table.
10.
Parents and grandparents don’t
underestimate the influence you have on your children and grandchildren.
You are also shepherds of their souls.
As we start another school year at Christ Lutheran School and also
Sunday School and Confirmation classes at our churches, remember the importance
of training our young people in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord. Proverbs 22:6 says,: Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.” So as parents we make sure
to get our children to school and we cannot overlook the routine of getting to
worship, Sunday School, bible class or confirmation to educate our children and
ourselves as to what God’s word says and what we need to believe: “whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have everlasting life.” That is a part of education—by the power of the
Holy Spirit saving faith is breathed into our children... a saving faith that
will carry them through the peaks and valleys of life just as it has carried
you. Educators tell us that as a parent
it is important that you look at what they bring home from school and ask
questions. An interesting question I ask my children at supper time was: “What did you learn today?” For us as
Christians that is a good question we should ask our-selves after worship on
the weekend, “What did I learn from God’s
word?” At our worship we can sing, confess, and attend the Lord’s Supper
but we also can learn and apply God’s Word if we listen. Remember that Mary
chose the right thing according to Jesus. So send the children off to learn
reading, writing, arithmetic, and God’s word. Hurry!
11.
Martin
Luther wrote of why the Church is called to continue its mission of seeking and
saving the lost when he said, “We live on
earth only so that we should be a help to other people. Otherwise, it would be best if God would strangle
us and let us die as soon as we were baptized and had begun to believe. For this reason, however, he lets us live
that we may bring other people also to faith as he has done for us.” Wow!
Martin Luther uses words like “strangle” to describe how vital it is for
us to use our baptized lives to serve those around us so that others may be
able to be brought into the Lord’s Family.
After all, that’s what Jesus was doing through His ministry. He wept over every sinner that wouldn’t
repent and turn away from their sins.
May we too as a Church come to seek out the lost so that they may be
brought into the Lord’s family. And may
we remember that God continues to be in search for man through His Son our
Savior Jesus and through Him He holds us in the palm of His hand and has
secured for us life everlasting. Amen.
