LOST AND FOUND
LUKE 15:1-10
#lostandfound
SEGMENTED NARRATIVE 1
I want you to imagine a very busy shopping center. Perhaps it is your favorite mall. Maybe it is even Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and there are sales after sales and the shopping center is wall to wall people. It is loud. It is hurried. Every vendor and shop is full of people purchasing. There are smells of the cookie companies baking fresh cookies. The smell of pretzels in the air is strong in certain parts of the mall. Dippin’ Dots are being handed out by the bowl-full. There is music from a local radio station in the background touting that you should shop shop shop.
I also want you to imagine a father and son walking through the mall. The father and son are hand in hand. They look alike… he is his father’s son. People brush by them often as they try and make their way through the crowds. The father decides to stop at a vendor and look at some sun glasses. He points his son to a nearby bench and asks him to sit while he shops just a few feet away.
The mall is filled with sights and sounds that were amazing. The video game store across the way had huge posters of the latest games. The boy’s eyes grew big as he saw the possibilities of what he could have. The boy looked all around from his bench and spotted a store filled with every kid’s wishes… a toy store… right behind where he was sitting. The little boy looked up at his father, hopped off the bench, and ran over to the window in front of the toy store. People rush by him constantly, not noticing him, as they go on about their business shopping.
He pressed his nose against the glass.
His breath caused a small fog on the window.
The boy looked inside and saw all sorts of toys he had seen in commercials on TV. He liked them. He slowly inched his way down the window looking at all the displays. He would stop for a second and then move on. The very next store was a chocolate store and he just had to look in those windows as well. He slowly inched his way down the window as he saw the different chocolates. Chocolate cookies. A cake. Some chocolate covered pretzels. Something that looked like chocolate covered bugs. Some things with nuts and some things without.
About that time, the father finished paying for his brand new pair of sunglasses. He turns around to retrieve his son from the bench directly behind him. He was gone. His son was gone. The father had a huge knot well up in his stomach. His throat hurt. His eyes dashed to and from the bench frantically looking for his son. He did not see his boy anywhere. His son was lost.
He turned back around to the cashier at the sunglasses stand and asked her if she had seen his boy. She had not. The first person who bumped into him as they walked by had not seen the little boy either. The father vainly looked under the bench to see if his son was playing a trick… but of course he was not there. He was not on the neighboring bench either.
He called out his son’s name, but in the hustle and bustle of the mall and the noise of commerce, there was no way for him to be heard. His son was gone. His son was lost. He had looked and looked and had not found him.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE LOST?
What does it mean to be lost? If you were to simply look up the word ‘lost’ in the dictionary you would find that it is a surprisingly complicated word. There are a lot of small changes to the word lost that make it a significant word.
On the surface, the word lost simply means “unable to find one’s way.” That makes sense. Those of us who are directionally-challenged often find ourselves lost. I would tend to think that men stay lost longer than women because of our reluctance to ask for directions, but that is my opinion only. But “unable to find one’s way,” is not the only definition of the word.
Also, the word carries with it the idea of “vanished or spent or no longer in existence” such as “lost youth” or “lost sock.” The word can also mean something that is “no longer known or practiced” such as “a lost art.” There are many ways in which this word is used… six according to the dictionary I consulted.
(http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/lost)
I guess though, the kind of lost that I think of when I use the word lost, is the classic definition, “unable to find one’s way.” I am lost on the way to the store. I am lost on the way to pick up kids from camp. I’m lost because Indiana doesn’t put street lights on any street anywhere. I am “lost” because I spiritually cannot find my way and I do not know God.
ILLUSTRATION… Sister Visiting me at the wrong Howard Johnson (p)
I remember one time about 15 years ago that I was on a trip and my sister was in the area and she came to visit me. I was staying in a Howard Johnson. She called and I told her where I was staying. She pulls into the hotel parking lot and does not have a good feeling. The hotel is quite sketchy. Very run down. It is a Howard Johnson. I has already told her my room number. My sister parks in front of my room and gets out of her car. She is about to knock on the door when she has the same bad feeling.
She gets back in her car and calls me. Yes, I am in my room at the Howard Johnson. I open the door expecting to see her sitting in her car, but there is no one there. She says she is at the Howard Johnson on Dale Mabry Highway. I tell her I am at the Howard Johnson on Dale Mabry Highway. She says she is staring at the door of the room I gave her. I tell her I am standing in the doorway of my room. She describes her surroundings with the stadium nearby and we concluded we were at 2 different hotels and she was lost.
We put our heads together and she drove on the same road south 3 miles and found me. At a hotel with the same name on the same road. Being lost can be dangerous.
You see, the passage that we are going to look at today has everything to do with being lost. It is a parable that Jesus gives as He defends Himself against the Pharisees and their condemnation of His interest in the tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was seeking out these sinful people and was making a difference in their lives. The Pharisees saw this and were offended and condemned Jesus for even eating with these type of people.
The beginning of Luke 15 tells us:
READ Luke 15:1–2 (ESV)
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had a set way of doing things in their minds and set categories of who could be right with God and who could not. They had a strict set of rules of how one behaved with God and how one should not behave. To be honest, some of it was right and some of it was wrong. The issue was that the Pharisees and scribes had decided that they would not even associate with anyone they deemed unworthy of God… which is a very slippery slope. We are all sinners. None of us is good. We are all in need of God.
Jesus Christ sees the hearts of the Pharisees and the others and He wants these religious leaders to understand God’s attitude about “sinners” and those that are “lost.” Jesus wants to explain why His time is spent with people whose lives have taken a turn into sin and may on the surface seem less than desirable. Jesus, more than anything, wants to share the heart of God with everyone so that everyone knows God. He wants to share the heart of God with those given the label “sinners” and those given the label “righteous.”
SEGMENTED NARRATIVE 2
This man’s son, in the middle of the mall, peering into the window of the stores in the mall, had no idea about several things. There were several facts he did not know.
Number one, the little boy did not know that he was lost. If he was to turn around, this little boy would not know where he was in relation to his father… he had wandered away. He had gone away on his own, away from his father, and would not know the way back. He had disobeyed his father and as a result was not where he was supposed to be and in such a busy mall, is in danger if the wrong person happens by.
Number two, the little boy did not know that his father was frantically looking for him. He was totally enthralled with the toys, candy, and other items in the windows. He did not hear his father’s voice. He did not know his father was looking high and low, near and far, for him. The passion and urgency of his father’s searching was evident on his face and voice and in his actions, but the lost kid did not know it.
The little boy came to the end of a long line of windows and he saw all there was to see. The toys were fun. The chocolates looked good. A thought popped in his head and he realized that he was supposed to be sitting at the bench. He turned around from the window and he did not see the bench. He looked left. He looked right. He did not see anything but people rushing by him. His stomach hurt. His eyes filled with tears. He did not hear anything but people talking and background music. He called out in a small voice, “daddy.”
[pause]
The crowds parted some and the boy saw his father rushing towards him... for his father knew his son’s voice and heard it through all the noise of the crowds (John 10:27). The little boy could not help it; his feet ran as fast as they could towards his father. They embraced in the middle of the mall. What was lost had been found. His father hugged him tight… tighter than he ever remembered.
Let’s read the rest of the section in Luke 15.
READ LUKE 15:8-10 (ESV)
3So He told them this parable: 4“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
WHAT DOES GOD FEEL ABOUT THOSE WHO ARE “LOST”?
What does God feel about those who are lost? There are people that can be described as “spiritually lost”. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day just called those people “sinners.” Jesus would proclaim just a few chapters later in Luke 19, in the house of a man named Zaccheus, that “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).
God is passionate about those that have lost their way that He sent His Son to find them. God loves those that are stuck in a lifestyle of sin. How do we know that? Jesus died on the cross so that their debt of sin would be paid. God seeks out those who are lost like a shepherd who looks after sheep and risks all to save one. God seeks out those that are lost with such fervor that Jesus describes the woman in His parable as diligently and painstakingly searching her house for the lost coin. Every corner is swept out and every dark place is investigated. No piece of furniture is left standing in her efforts to find the lost coin.
It is the same with God. The parables are about God. God is the shepherd that risks and searches and never gives up pursuing. God is the woman searching for the lost coin. We are the lost sheep. We are the lost coin. God searches for us. God makes a great effort in seeking those that are lost to Him. Psalm 14:2 tells us, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.”
The picture we get from Jesus is that each and every person is very important to God. Every soul is valuable. We get that message from both parables at the beginning of Luke 15.
TRUTH
Here is a bit of truth: ‘Lostness’ does not mean you are disqualified from God’s love and His pursuit of you. Jesus wanted you to know that.
Here is another bit of truth: You are extremely important to God. Jesus wanted you to know that.
WHAT DOES GOD FEEL ABOUT THOSE WHO ARE “FOUND”?
We should not stop at “lostness” when we think about these parables. The parables of Jesus definitely present someone as “lost,” but He also describes that the lost is found. Found would be the opposite of lost.
Found is to know where you are.
Found is the finding of the way to where you need to be.
Found is someone else finding you in the mist of being lost.
Found means in existence and seen and recovered.
What does God feel about those who are found?
Verse 7 in chapter 15 tells us, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Joy in heaven. Happiness. Delight. Relief. Elation.
Verses 9-10 in chapter 15 tells us, “And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Rejoicing. Joy. Celebration. Satisfaction. A party.
The word that is used most often in these two similar parables is the word “rejoice.” Rejoicing means the presence of joy. The presence of gladness. Extreme happiness. Elation. The KJV says that “joy shall be in heaven” (Luke 15:7) when someone is found. In the Bible, singing is associated with rejoicing (Psalm 5:11; 32:11). The playing of instruments like flutes is associated with rejoicing (Isaiah 30:29). Shouting is also associated with rejoicing (Isaiah 35:2; Jeremiah 31:12).
The whole image that we get is a huge celebration in Heaven when someone turns to faith
in Jesus Christ and comes to God. There is singing and shouts of joy and the clamor of instruments each time a person is “found.” It is a huge celebration. It is a big deal. Jesus Christ was trying to explain to the Pharisees and anyone else who would listen that He came to seek and to save the lost ones. Jesus was looking for those who had wandered away from God. God wanted them. He loved them. He still wants them. He still loves them. It was Jesus’ purpose to make a way for those lost ones to find their way back to our Heavenly Father.
How does God feel?
* Joyous and happy that He has found the lost one… just like the father in our story
* Relieved… just like the father in our story
APPLICATION
In thinking about the story I told earlier, I want us to think about ourselves and maybe the people around us.
Number one, the little boy did not know that he was lost. He had been distracted and wandered away. Are you lost? Have you been sitting and listening today and you realized that you have wandered away from God so far that you are lost? Sometimes we get caught up in the window shopping of the world that we do not realize we have drifted from God. Are you lost?
It might also be that you have never chosen God in the first place and you have never made the decision to place faith in Jesus Christ. Placing faith in Jesus Christ means you repent and want to change away from sins and confess “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and I accept Him as my Lord and my Savior.” Baptism is that time to confess and in immersion we participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and at baptism we are forgiven of sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Do you need to choose Him?
Number two, the little boy did not know that his father was frantically looking for him. I hope you realize that God loves you and is frantically looking for you if you have indeed stepped away from Him. Yet, we have to make a small step and call out in faith for our Heavenly Father. He gives us the choice to stay lost if we choose to… I wish He didn’t, but He does. God does not force Himself on any of us. Do you need to call out for your Heavenly Father today?
Number three, if you are not lost and you happen to be one of the ninety-nine sheep on the hillside or one of the nine coins still in hand, I hope you see the importance God places on finding those who are lost. Our church mission is to “Help People Find and Follow Jesus.” That is what we do. That is who we are.
How can you aid this effort?
Who do you know that is lost and needs some spiritual direction?
How much effort are you placing in your life in spreading the Gospel?
CONCLUSION
