[Albert Gunter:] This Sunday. I'd like us to, look back to that... parable, or part of that parable that Jesus... er, told the folk, it's in Luke chapter fifteen. May well have guessed that already from er, our service this morning. And, let me just read you the, it's quite a short parable this one. Let me just read you the... the o the er, the appropriate verses from Luke fifteen, and the opening seven verses. This is after perhaps... with the possible exception of John fourteen, this is perhaps the, the best known, and best loved chapter in the gospel narratives. Most folk, no matter what they don't know, have some familiarity, but it's not always correct of these parables in Luke fifteen, the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. So let's just read those opening verses, it says, [reading bible] now all the tax gatherers and the sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to listen to him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them, and he told them this parable saying, what man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the open pasture and go out to the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home he calls to gather his friends and his neighbours saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost! I tell you the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance. You certainly don't have to be a bible scholar to read this chapter and realize that perhaps the key word in it is the word lost. And there are those who will tell us that really it's not one parable, it's three parables and there's some who think it's, no it's, really it's, it's it's just the one parable with these three little sa, parts of it. One could really argue that in fact there are four parables there really. Because you've got the the er the story, the account of the er, the lost sheep, you've got the lost coin, you've also got the er parable or the story of the lost, the prodigal son, but you also have the... second part of that which is almost a separate story of, the son who had not gone into the far country. But in a sense it doesn't really matter whether it's one parable, whether it's three parables, or whether it's four parables, it's what Jesus was trying to teach to these people, and over these next three weeks, we're gonna be looking at these three, er illustrations that Jesus uses. Again, we see, that one of the very important truths that comes out of this is that people matter to God. Now in a day, in er, in an age when... people are, don't really matter, you know, we we we reel off statistics and they really are meaningless aren't they? You you hear of tragedies, perhaps in,i in... in the Far East... where hundreds, thousands of people are killed in flooding and in the like, and it's just numbers to us. And every single incident, every single one of those people, there i, there is a hu, there is a human being there... a and for every one of them there are perhaps hundreds of other people who are affected by that loss... but it's just a number to us. It doesn't really mean a lot. We become immune to it. And it's good for us to recognise and to be aware and to realize, that in a day when... we are so often just numbers, that as individuals we matter to God. And one of the, the things that Jesus is bringing up particularly in this first se parable here, the parable of the lost sheep, is that he is concerned for that individual, for that one person. You matter to God! Not as a member of the human race, but you matter to God as an individual, as a person... with all your strengths, your weaknesses, with all our peculiarities and our points, as individuals, we matter to God! Another thing, perhaps, we should notice right at the very beginning is that... Jesus didn't actually speak in pa, in in er, in chapters, and they've lost, they've been put in for our convenience, and chapter fifteen is not the beginning of a new incident... Jesus had already been speaking to the people, he had been teaching them in chapter fourteen. Er he he he had been, in verse twenty five, now great multitudes were going along with him, and he turned to them and said to them, and you got there what he tell, what he says, he's talking about discipleship, and of the importance of following him, and the cost that will be involved in following him, and the responsibility of those who follow him, that they are to be salt within their generation, within their environment. And then he concludes what we have as verse thirty five, [reading bible] he who has ears to hear let him hear []. And Jesus hadn't stopped speaking, but even as he's saying that... the these people are gathering around him, the tax gatherers, the sinners, the undesirables of society, they're gathering around him to hear what he's got to say. And as we're gathering around and as Jesus is teaching the people, there are also coming around er bu, being careful not to get too close to the tax gatherers and the sinners! There are the scribes and the Pharisees, and they began grumble saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them, and Jesus told them a parable. He is speaking to the scribes, to the Pharisees. He is speaking in response to their grumbling. They're, they're, they're peeved that Jesus is mixing with sinners. They're peeved that Jesus is in the company of sinners. And you know there are a lot of Christians today who are just like that. They will mix with sinners on their terms, it's alright to speak to them providing you come to my church I'll speak with you. But what about up there where they really are? That's where Jesus went. You know, Jesus didn't spend his days, he went to the synagogue, it was his custom, but he didn't spend his days and nights in the synagogue, he went to the parties. And if Jesus was around today he would be going to the places that you and I would think twice about going to, not because he wanted to have a good time, but because he wanted to relate to the people who were there. He has I haven't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And one of the accusations that was hurled against Jesus again and again is that this man eats and drinks with sinners! He goes to their parties! He's to be seen in their company! And these religious leaders didn't like it. And there are a lot of... religious folk today who don't like it... who get peeved, and who think it shouldn't be. It's alright dealing with sinners but you must deal with them on your terms, and in, on your home ground. Well Jesus didn't act like that he went to where the sinners were... and he mixed with them. And these people who are moaning and groaning at Jesus, Jesus turns to them and he speaks this parable. In understanding the parables and the teachings of Jesus, one of the things we've got to do is to say well what do the various things in the parables, what do they represent? After all, Jesus wasn't just telling them a nice story. Now there are times when Jesus actually sat down with his disciples afterwards and explained to them what the parable was about... and there was a reason for that, it was because, simply, the folk would not have understood it. Jesus was speaking to them in a, in a concealed language, it was only for his disciples, and whilst all the people heard it, they didn't understand it, the disciples didn't understand it, and Jesus afterwards explained to his followers what he was saying. But there are some parables that Jesus ac explained for the simple reason he didn't have to explain them. The folk would have understood. They would have caught the pictures he was using. They would have seen how it applied. That's why sometimes they got mad at him... because they knew he was talking to them and about them... and they knew that it applied to them. And this is one of those incidents. Jesus then, he's talked to the scribes and the Pharisees. Well what do the different... components? What are the different things in this parable mean? What do they represent? One of the other things, of course, we've got to always bear in mind when we... und, try to understand the parables of Jesus is that you cannot, and Jesus never meant for us, to find us u our, you know a parallel for every single little detail, the... for for the colour of this, or the colour of that, or th the shape of something else, he didn't expect us and didn't mean for us to find out a pa a a parallel, a meaning for every single detail... because otherwise you're gonna be contradicting yourself again and again... but what we must see is, what is the main basic truth that Jesus is teaching here? And in the vast majority, if not in all the parables, certainly in ninety nine percent of them, Jesus is not teaching a multitude of different things, he's teaching one basic truth, and everything else is just to... su substantiate and to provide illustration for that. Well, I suppose the very first thing we've gotta ask is just, who or what are these ninety nine sheep? Now, the common understanding of this... is that, they're Christians, these are those who are followers of Jesus, they're the Christians, and Jesus comes and er, ee er, there's the little, there's the one who is wandering away, who's a stray and Jesus goes after them and brings them back into the fold and so on. And you know the songs th that we sing around this, the song about, there were ninety and nine that safety lay in shelter of the fold and so on. But let's look carefully what Jesus actually said here. Though, you know, there's a sense in which we can use,we we're a, we gave it in you to have a certain amount of license, and we can use illustrations just as we would use modern illustrations to describe spiritual truths and to use them to illustrate the gospel. But what actually was Jesus really saying here? Notice what it says in verse four, [reading bible] what man among you if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine... in the wilderness []? In the open pasture. He leaves them in the open pasture says Jesus, he leaves them in the wilderness and goes after the one which is lost... until he finds it.... So Jesus doesn't leave them in the fold. He doesn't bring them safely home and, you know, have them all securely ti er... closed in for the night in safety and security, he leaves them in the wilderness. Notice... what we said earlier on in that last verse, the last phrase of the last verse in the previous chapter, he who has ears to hear let him hear. Who is Jesus speaking to? He is speaking to the scribes and Pharisees. And boy! They, they got this. It hit them! It hit them right where it hurt! They knew what Jesus was saying.... You see, they weren't sinners, they were good righteous, religious people, there was nothing wrong with them. It was all the others who were sinners! It was the tax gatherers, it was the pe, it was the drunkards, it was the harlots, it was all the others who were sinners, not them. They after all, they went to the tiniest details. They used to even tithe of the herbs in their herb garden! So they wouldn't fail to keep the law in one bit. And Jesus says, you keep the minuscule things. You you ti, you tithe of your parsley, and your thyme, and your sage,yo you tithe of these things, when you, when you go and pick ten figs, you give one fig to to th to to God, you tithe of that but you've left the weightier things undone. You haven't done the important things! You've been straining at gnats, Jesus said, and yet, you've allowed the big issues to go by without bothering with them.... They weren't sinners in their own eyes because they did all these little things. And because they did not consider themselves sinners therefore in their own understanding they were not lost.... Notice what Jesus says in verse seven, he says, [reading bible] I tell you in the same way there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance []. Now what on earth does Jesus mean here? Righteous people who need no repentance. We all need to repent! The bible says there is none righteous! Know not one! So what on earth is Jesus meaning here, when he talks about righteous people not needing to repent? Well simply, Jesus is being... rather ironical to them. He's using irony. He's being a bit sarcastic. What he's saying is, you scon, you don't think you need to repent. Well, there is more joy in heaven over the person, the sinner who knows their lostness, and who repent, thereover, you ninety and nine who think you're good enough who don't need to repent. Oh, they were lost alright! The problem was they didn't realize it. They were out of the wilderness. They were not safe, they were not secure, but the tragedy was, they are in their little group in their self-contained unit with all the other ninety eight milling around, they didn't realize they were lost! They didn't realize they were in danger. They didn't realize they were still in the wilderness. And that one that had wandered off from the rest... it became aware that it was lost. What does that word lost mean? Now, we can use the word lost in a nu, a number of ways. But, very simply, what it really means, let me give you an illustration. You're walking along the road and you have a pound coin in your hand and you drop it... it rolls along the gutter... erm... Harlow drains are not quite like the drains we used [LAUGHTER] have in London [], but it rolls along the gutter and it drops down through the grating of a drain. Now you know anything about drains, I've never been down them, but if you kno, if you know anything about them, it goes down about three, four foot, five foot sometimes, and then, there is a, the pipe,the there's, there's a ledge there, and then going on down into the, in into the main drains. Now, you can see that coin down there, if you look carefully, you can see it... you can't get it, you know where it is, it hasn't gone through a hole into the centre of the earth... it hasn't, sort of, disappeared into outer space, you know exactly where it is, the chances are you could pin point it within a few inches of where i, even if you can't see it... you know where it is, but you can't get at it... to you, it's lost... you know it's geographic location, you know when it went there, you know everything about it, you only thing is you can't get at it! Now what does that mean? It means that you cannot use it for what it was intended. Cos after all a coin was a, had a monetary value that meant you could go and buy something with it. I it was it was a co, it was, it was currency as far as you were concerned, you could use it, it had purchasing power. Now in a sense, it hasn't changed it's form one little bit, it is still a pound... it is still currency, it still has purchasing power, the only problem is, it's [LAUGHTER] just out of your reach [], and you can't get at it. So to you it is lost. But in itself it hasn't changed one little bit. It is, so what it means when it's lost is, it is not able to fulfil the function for which it was made. You see, pound coins were not made to rest in drains, they were meant to circulate, they were meant to be used, they were meant as a means of currency... and that's what the bible means when it talks about being lost. It's not lost geographically... being lost, you know where you are, you know when you're, you know, you know your situation in time, in space,i in in geographic location, you know what you're doing and all the rest of it, when the bible uses the word lost it means lost for the purpose for which God intended it. For which God intended you. For which God intended me. That is to be hi, for it to be his, to be to his praise, to be for his glory. When we are lost we are not fulfilling that function.... And one of the problems... that these folk had, and one of the problems we all have is as long as we think we're all right, then we're all wrong. Smugness is dangerous. It's dangerous for the non-Christian. You see, this really, this this parable i is the story of of, of something which is lost... almost by default, it just wanders off, it just goes it's own way... it didn't set out to be lost, it didn't choose you know that i, it didn't go through earlier on in that day, in the little brain that the sheep has, there wasn't the thought going, I am going to deliberately get lost today! I'm gonna go my own way, I'm a perverse creature, and I am gonna go astray! I'm gonna give the shepherd a rough time of it! He didn't think that way at all! It just... as is the want of sheep, it just wandered away from one clump of grass to another, losing all sense of time and direction until it, was lost!... And so, and that can be the ca, the same with us. You know, there are different ways that we are lost. Sometimes it just... without even realizing it, just that wandering away. But all, when we are lost... the danger that smugness of not realizing we're lost, we're alright! I know I'm, I know where I am! I know what I'm doing! I know all about it! I'm okay thanks very much! And all the time we're not alright! We're lost! But you know that is a danger not just for those who are lost as far as God's salvation is concerned, there is a danger there for you and I as Christians, of being smug, of being self-satisfied, I'm alright! Doesn't the apostle say, he that taketh his stand, take heed lest yee fall! Cos we only stand in him. And we're only secure in him. We're only strong in him. Paul says, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing! A danger of smugness. Now the ninety nine, they did not realize they were lost... and yet they were. And the one lost creature, he became the saved one... because it was made aware that is was lost. There came a moment in it's experience when it realized it was where it shouldn't be! When it realized it didn't have anythi, it's mates around him. When he was isolated and insecure, and it was, didn't know how to get out of it, he was in a jam. Now what's Jesus saying? He's saying that every one of us... we are the sheep. He uses that picture again and again in the bible of us being like sheep. The moment we admit our need, the moment we come the realization, I'm lost, I can't help myself, that's the moment that we can be helped. You remember Peter when he was, er, totally different context, but the lesson is the same, when he was... when Jesus called him to walk on the water and he starts walking, and then, he looks around and for what e, for whatever reason he starts sinking, the moment he calls out help... Jesus reaches out and lifts him back him... rescues him. The moment we realize our need... and cry out, that is the moment that God is able to respond. That is the moment that the shepherd comes to our rescue and delivers us. Then, you know, it might be a nice little picture but it's no compliment to be likened to sheep! You know, we, it might be alright to be a nice, to be likened to nice little furry lambs and all the rest of it, but to be likened to a sheep is not a compliment, it's a bit of an insult, because there's no more helpless, stupid creature harpi, God ever created than sheep! They are about the most helpless creatures available! You know, a dog, when it's confronted with danger it can, it can fight it's way out... a cat will do the same, every other creature will, will do something when it's confronted with danger a se, a sheep is so intelligent and is so strong and is, has such a er, a self- preservation er er er... awareness that it just stands and bleats and does nothing because it can do nothing! It has got not power or strength of itself. There are,the there can be few more helpless creatures than sheep.... So it's not exactly a compliment to be [LAUGHTER] likened to a sheep []! It's, to be likened to something that's helpless... that can do nothing! Well of course, it's not er, by chance the bible and God uses that picture... because we're, we are just like sheep in that sense, we can't do anything for ourselves. Listen what Paul says when he writes to the Romans in chapter five... he says, [reading bible] for why we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly []. And two verses later on in verse eight, [reading] but God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We cannot save ourselves! We cannot rescue ourselves! But in our helplessness, in our sheep-like condition... the shepherd comes and he rescues us. And he saves us, because we can't do it ourself! You know, if it was a dog that was lost, if it was a cat that was lost, if it was even a pigeon that had got lost... they've got some homing device, but the sheep hasn't even got that, it can't even find it's own way home. And that's just like human beings. Lost! Without any hope in the world, the bible says. Unable to do anything for ourselves, and then God comes and rescues us in our hop, hopelessness, and helplessness.... Back in Isaiah, chapter fifty three... th the Old Testament prophet he paints that picture very graphically doesn't he? He says, all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Rescuing that sheep was not an easy task. And just as the shepherd had to go out and look for it, and search for it. It di we don't get all the details in the story that Jesus tells of here, but it's quite certain that it wasn't just a case of wandering along a nice path until he found the sheep and then bringing it home. As we've already heard, undoubtedly, it was a difficult job, it was undoubtedly as a hard, a dangerous task in rescuing that sheep. And of course, we know that in the spiritual sense the task of Jesus in rescuing you and I, in rescuing men and women, it was not an easy thing. Er, that same prophet Isaiah, in the same chapter, he says [reading bible] [reading] surely, our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted... but he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for inequities, the chastening for our wellbeing fell upon him. The law, and by scourging we are healed, and the Lord has caused the inequity of us all to fall on him [].... In saving, in rescuing lost humanity, lost you and lost me, it was the hardest, most difficult, most painful job that God could ever do! It was not an easy thing. Forgiving sin... since Christ has died, forgiving sin is easy... but it was, yet, it was the hardest thing that God could do because he could only do it when Christ died for us. So... the rescue operation was not di, an easy one. It was a difficult one. It is the most difficult work Go God had had undertaken! Creating this world and all the, the millions of worlds and spa, and galaxies and, and all the rest of creation, that was child's play... compared to forgiving you and me. That called that God had exercise it's everything... in bringing it about. We've already heard mentioned this morning, some verses have been quoted from another Old Testament prophet, Izekial who used similar graphic language in Izekial chapter thirty four in verse six, let me read those verses again, he says [reading] my flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill, and my flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, there was no one to search or seek for them []. Oh,th the lost condition! But there is,th th there is the promise in, down in verse eleven, [reading] for thus says the Lord God behold I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out []. God did not give the job, he could not, and he did not try to give the job to anybody else! He himself came, the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. I myself will search for my seech, for my sheep, and will seek them out. In verse erm... thirteen, [reading] I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will feed them in good pasture and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel, there they will lie down in good grazing ground, and they will feed in rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock and I will lead them to rest, declares the Lord God []. And David in, that psalm which we read earlier, in psalm twenty three, he paints the picture of how the good shepherd, not only seeks out the lost sheep but once he has brought him back, once he has rescued the, a lost sheep, he care for it. He doesn't leave that sheep that he's rescued in the wilderness, but he brings that one safely home as Jesus says, on his shoulder rejoicing, and he leads it by, as David says, the still waters, and by those green and verdant and lush pastures. Isaiah back in fifty three again tells us what the result will be, in verse twelve. No, it's not in verse twelve. It's in verse eleven, [reading bible] as a result of the anguish of his soul he will see it and be satisfied, he'll be satisfied with the rescue operation, he'll be satisfied with what he has accomplished, Isaiah says [], and Jesus uses, perhaps, even more extravagant language, there in Luke fifteen, when he says in verse six, in verse mm mm, in verse seven, when he comes home with that sheep that he's rescued with that lost... to to... but it now has been found, when he brings it home he says there wi, he says he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them rejoice with me! For I have found my sheep which was lost. I tell you in the same way, there will be joy in heaven over one sinner that repents. The rescue operation brings about joy. Not only joy to the sheep that's been rescued, but it brings joy in heaven. Christ himself is satisfied, as Isaiah, says. He comes home rejoicing. And Jesus speaking to these... scribes and the Pharisees he's... pointing the finger says, you, can I paraphrase and, perhaps use... well no, Jesus used some pretty strong language against these people. He called them white inseficus... full of dead mens' bones, but looking nice on the outside. Graves. And he saying, you miserable bunch of people! You are so wrapped up in yourself. You are so conceited and smug! You don't realize that you are lost! And I can do nothing for you... because I've come to rescue and seek that which is lost, and which is aware of it. I'm, come to seek and to save the lost. And you don't realize that you are lost, and not only that, but you are griping when those who realize their condition call out to me and I'm reaching to them and rescuing them, you are griping at that! That's what Jesus is saying in this parable. Let me just close with some words from Matthew chapter nine... in verse ten, he said that [reading bible] [reading] it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house behold many tax gatherers and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and his disciples, and when the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, why is your teacher eating with the tax gatherers and sinners? But when Jesus heard this he said... is it not those who are healthy who need a physi, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick []. That's it. It's those who are sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous... but sinners. Jesus is not suggesting there are some who are righteous and some who are sinners, because we're all sinners, all have sinned... but he's suggesting that those who don't realize and acknowledge they're sinners, he says, I haven't come to call you. I've nothing for you. But those who recognize their need, they're the ones that I have come to call. They're the ones that I have come to rescue. They're the ones that I have come to find, and to bring home rejoicing and full of gladness! Causes, even heaven to rejoice when they see those who are lost acknowledging their lostness, and responding and being found. Well, we're gonna sing now. We're gonna sing from the redemption hymnal... and it's number three hundred and seventy six.... Three hundred and seventy six in the redemption hymnal and... whilst we're singing this we're gonna be... taking up our morning offering. I'm not ashamed to own my Lord or to defend his cause... maintain the honour of his word, the glory of his cross! At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there by faith... I receive my sight and now... I am happy all the day!... Three hundred and seventy six. Let's stand to sing this shall we?... [piano introduction]