Luke 15. Parables of lost sheep, coin, and son. (Prodigal son).

Please remember these are only notes so don't expect correct grammar or good flowing English.

3 parables - similar theme.

Lost sheep, coin, and son.

Arise from an incident.

1 Luke 15:1-2 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people--even eating with them!

To eat with someone - sign that respect him and want to be friends.

Same today.

¨       Sociable is to invite them to a meal.

¨       Cup of tea. 

¨       Not thirsty - welcome and relaxed atmosphere.

This is why Pharisees object.

Jesus is showing good will to tax collectors (dishonest traders and sinners).

But this is the gospel.

God welcomes us as his

          - In-spite of our human failings and sins.

He tells us that we belong to him.

He wants to take us home to where we belong.

`welcome' = `awaits for us expectantly.'

same word as `waits and hopes for the `kingdom of God'

God waits and hopes for our fellowship with him.

In the third parable:

Father waits for the return of his runaway son.

The gt declaration of this is that Christ left his home in heaven and came to this world

                   - far country.

- to be one with us & carry us through his death & res and bring us back to God.

He took on the whole human condition:

Our conception, birth, childhood, manhood,

          Our joys, frustrations, sufferings and death.

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When Jesus ate with sinners their lives were changed.

He did not first demand that they repent and then after offer them friendship.

It was in the giving of his friendship that they were brought to repentance.

God did not demand that the world first reform its ways before sending Christ.

However his coming among us does call us to return to God.

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When we meet people in our daily lives of whom we disapprove,

                   our first reaction must not be                       judgmental - but gracious.

Of course it won't force people to turn back to God.

There has to be a warning as a last resort.

So Jesus did speak of God's final judgement on an unrepentant wicked.

But this was not his purpose.

`he did not come to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.'

`to seek and save that which was lost.'

Hence the parables of Luke 15.

The first two are `lost sheep' and `lost coin'

·         The shepherd goes out to the distant mtn to search for the lost sheep and rejoices when he brings it home.

·         The woman searches on the dark earth floor of the house and rejoices in finding the lost coin.

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God searches for us.

          `many people searching for the spiritual meaning of life but are they prepared to let the true God find them?

Francis Thomson hound of heaven.

Readers of English poetry will recall the turbulent life of Francis Thompson. His father wanted him to study at Oxford, but Francis lost his way in drugs and failed to make the grade time and again. This was a slumbering genius, if only his life could be rescued. When Francis finally succumbed to the pursuing Christ, he penned his immortal “Hound of Heaven”:

I fled Him down the nights and down the days.

I fled Him down the arches of the years,

I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways

of my own mind: And in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter

Up vistaed hopes I sped;

Down titanic glooms of chasmed fears

From those strong feet that followed, that followed after.

For though I knew His love that followed

Yet I was sore adread

Lest having Him I have naught else beside.

And he ends:

Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,

I am He whom thou seekest!

Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me.

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The next parable seems different.

`The lost son'.

He comes back of his own free choice and is welcomed back by his waiting father.

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Both are true.

When we look to our own Christian lives

          - it was God who sought us

                   - through various people and experiences

                   - found me and brought me home.

Or looking at the same story we can remember that we decided to belong to God and return to him.

Both are true.

How can they both be true?

Think of Jesus.

          2 aspects to his the salvation he brought us.

1. He is the Son of God come to search for us.

2. He is also the son of man - one of us - who returns from the far country (this world)   to his father in heaven - ascension.

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1. He is the Son of God come to search for us.

Parable of lost sheep.

Familiar O.T. theme.

`all we like sheep have gone astray ..' (Isaiah 53)

We haven't all made a deliberate decision to be wicked,  but many of us have wandered away from the place where we should be, and that may be v. Far from God.

Ezek 34:11-12 for the Lord God says: "I will search and find my sheep.

12        I will be like a shepherd looking for his flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places they were scattered.

`The Lord is my shepherd'.

Shepherd knows his sheep are in danger.

Wickedness of mankind is v. Dangerous.

Appalling consequences in the world, and ultimately its wages are eternal outer darkness - hell.

Shepherd puts his own life at risk.

 In reality the `good shepherd' laid down his life for the sheep, so that the world might be forgiven.

Still on the theme of God's search, we move, perhaps to His search for us, using the Church,

So next parable: lost coin.

`woman searches for the coin'

Woman represent the church?

          Bride of Christ.

The lamp with which she searches is the word and Holy Spirit.

It is our church's responsibility to seek out the        lost in the darkness of Britain today.

It is no good merely wringing our hands

- look at all the bad people

          - look at all the bad politicians and the bad royalty.

People are turning to evil because they are lost.

Do not know the purpose or point of human life.

When did we last invite someone to church?

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2. Now the other side of the coin: Our decision to return to God.

We return  to the story of the Lost Son:

20        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; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21        "the son said to him, 'father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

22        "but the father 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.

The father eats with him.

Feast.

`this is  my son'.

As we said earlier, Christ not only is God searching for us.

He represents us, in our humanity returning to God.

As son of man he went into the far country of this world, into our experience of alienation, suffering and death.

Beyond that He, as man, returns to the Father in resurrection and ascension.

In answer to the objection of the older brother, father says:

24        For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

He once said (in the vision he gave john on the island of Patmos) :

Rev 3:20 here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

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