Take your Bibles with me this morning and turn in Luke to Luke 15. Luke 15.

I was planning on preaching from this whole chapter this morning, and I was really excited about it. But I think I am going to save that message for next week when we have our church back together.

This morning we’ll just introduce the main idea of this chapter and cover the first 10 verses.

Let’s go ahead and read those verses:

1 Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
3 And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
9 And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Luke 15:1-10 (KJV)

This is a very important chapter in the book of Luke. It has been called the heart of the whole book.

The theme of this book is that Jesus came to “seek and to save that which was lost.” That phrase is found in Luke 19:10. But that could be the summary of this whole chapter.

At the beginning of the chapter it tells us that Jesus attracted publicans and sinners.

The publicans were tax-collectors who had sold out to the Roman government. They were collecting taxes (never a popular thing to do) on behalf of the invading army. That itself would be enough for them to be hated.

But they also abused their position. They demanded more taxes than were actually due and pocketed the difference. They surrounded themselves with a bunch of low life enforcers to get their money.

They were so hated, that they weren’t allowed to give testimony in court. They were so hated, that synagogues wouldn’t take their offerings.

And who were the sinners? These were people who were obviously living a life of sin. They were people whose lifestyle put them outside the moral norm.

And yet, for some reason, Jesus attracted these people. Jesus attracted sinners. Jesus even ate with them. (And you can see that in many stories, like Zacheaus and the calling of Matthew - who was a publican.)

And this really bothered the Pharisees. They really did not like the idea of any religious leader having anything to do with these sinners and these publicans. They constantly were murmuring and complaining and gossiping about it.

All of that is in verses 1 and 2. For the rest of the chapter Jesus confronts the way they looked at these sinners with three different parables. We are going to look at two of them this morning.

The first parable is the parable of the lost sheep. A shepherd is out in the fields watching 100 sheep. He loses one of them. So what does he do? He leaves the 99 sheep (presumably safe in the care of other shepherds) and he goes after the one lost sheep, searching all over until he finds that sheep.

There are many reasons why he would have done this:

First, he would have had to pay for the lost sheep out of his own pocket. The sheep would have cost something like $1000 today. A lot of money for someone making minimum wage.

Second, his reputation as a careful shepherd would be ruined. He might lose his job.

But I think a third reason may be that he just cared for the sheep. A good shepherd would know all of his sheep, and would care for them.

So he went after the lost sheep and he found it and Jesus said that afterwards, he called his friends together and had a party.

That’s the first parable.

The second parable is the parable of the lost coin. A woman had ten silver coins.

There is probably significance to that. You see, jewish girls when they got married would wear a headband with 10 silver coins on it. That headband was like their engagement ring or their wedding band. Each silver coin was worth a days labor. So in modern terms, that headband would be worth $1000.

Losing one of those coins would put her out $100. But it would have far more emotional value to her. It would be like losing a stone out of your wedding ring.

I remember Amanda losing her engagement ring. We tore our whole house apart looking for that thing. A lot of tears.

That is what this woman was going through. That coin was precious to her and she tore her house apart looking for it. She lit a lamp, she swept the straw that was covering the floor. Finally, she found it and she called her friends together to rejoice over finding it.

But remember, these parables aren’t really about lost sheep or lost coins. Jesus made that obvious. They were about how God looks at lost sinners.

The pharisees looked down on Jesus because He attracted sinners. Jesus wanted to show how God looked at sinners.

Now, I want to give you three points this morning from these parables. Short and simple.

The first point I want to make is

God loves sinners.

That really is the main point of this passage, isn’t it? The pharisees and the scribes they hated sinners. They wanted nothing to do with them. But not Jesus. Jesus loved them and attracted them to Himself.

Maybe you are listening today and you think “I’m a wicked sinner, God couldn’t love me.”

But I want to tell you that you couldn’t be further from the truth. God loves sinners. Even despised traitors like the publicans in Bible times.

One of my favorite preachers who has now gone to be with the Lord was Roy Thompson, the founder and long time pastor of the great Cleveland Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

Brother Thompson didn’t come to Christ until he was in his twenties - and in his words - he was a drunk bum. His sister invited him to a church service and he said he sat there the whole time, conscious of the fact he smelled like a drunk and looked like a drunk. But do you know what he learned? He learned that God loves him.

I don’t think anyone can be too sinful for the mercy of God. You might say “Pastor, you don’t know what I’ve done.” No, but God does, and Jesus already paid the debt for you and He loves you and He has forgiven you.

God loves sinners.

I see a second thing in these verses about God and that is that…

God is looking for sinners like something precious that is lost.

Not only does God love sinners, God is seeking them. He is looking for them. He is actively after them.

The shepherd “goes after that which was lost, until he finds it.” The woman “lights a candle, sweeps the house and searches diligently until she finds it.”

God is after people. He doesn’t just love the lost, He is seeking the lost. He isn’t just waiting for them to come to Him, He is going after them.

Now, this little truth has at least three important applications:

First, I think it means that when we come to Christ, when we come to God, He was always seeking us first. God was after us. Seeking us. Isn’t that a beautiful truth.

A second application is this: lost things don’t find themselves. That lost sheep was never going to wander it’s way back into the shepherd’s fold. That lost coin might have been lost forever.

A third application is that if we are going to be like God, than we need to join him in looking for sinners. We need to be seeking sinners like He sought them - because they are precious to our master.

Jesus said to the disciples, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Part of following God means joining the hunt for sinners.

So who are you more like today? Are you like the Pharisees that are repulsed by sinners and try to stay as far away from them as possible. Or are you like Christ and God - who actively sought sinners and who attract them to yourself?

So we’ve seen that God loves sinners, and that God is actively seeking sinners.

There is a third wonderful truth we can see about God in these verses and that is…

God and the angels rejoice when sinners repent and come back to Him.

Look at verse 7 again:

7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Look at verse 10:

10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

This is an amazing truth. We don’t often think about God rejoicing. We don’t think about the angels celebrating. But God is filled with joy and celebration when just one sinner repents. The angels join in celebration over one sinner that comes back to God.

Now what does this mean for us? Let me give you some career advice. If you want to do well in your job, find the thing that makes your boss or your customer happy and do it. Find the thing that fills them with joy and do that thing.