King & Kingdom Come: Lost & Found

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Well khoda everybody, and today we are heading back into our series called King and Kingdom Come, the Gospel According to Luke.

This is the third part of that series.

As we've journeyed through Luke so far, three threads have kept appearing again and again.

Firstly, we've seen that God works through ordinary people: shepherds, fishermen, tax collectors, women, outsiders, and sinners.

Again and again, God chooses ordinary people and invites them into his extraordinary purposes.

Secondly, we've seen that God's Spirit empowers God's people for his mission.

The Holy Spirit is everywhere, which is good, building on our series that we've just finished.

God doesn't simply give people a task and wish them luck, he empowers them, leads them, and transforms them so they can participate in what he's doing in the world.

And thirdly, we've seen that the kingdom of God or God's world changes everything.

Jesus turns expectations upside down as he shows that the kingdom of God consistently surprises us and is very different to our view of the kingdoms of this world.

Today we come to Luke chapter 15, and all three themes collide in one remarkable chapter, where we see a shepherd, a woman, and a father.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Three ordinary people, three stories, one extraordinary revelation about the heart of God.

In many ways, Luke 15 is the beating heart of everything Luke has been showing us about Jesus.

If you want to know what kind of king Jesus is, look at Luke 15.

If you want to know what matters in his kingdom, look at Luke 15.

If you want to know how God feels about people who are far from him, look at Luke 15.

And Luke tells us exactly why Jesus told these stories.

At the beginning of the chapter, he writes, The tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

Good.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

The issue wasn't that Jesus welcomed sinners, the issue was that he welcomed the wrong sinners, the kind that respectable religious people preferred to avoid.

Luke chapter 15 is Jesus' response to their muttering, and his answer reveals a God who is far more welcoming, far more gracious, and far more joyful than what many people imagine.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Through the telling of three popular parables, Jesus reveals the heart of an extravagant God.

And three simple truths emerge.

God pursues the one, every one matters to God, and God celebrates the one.

We're going to look at these three themes and then we'll see how they apply to our lives a long time after Jesus told these parables for the first time.

Well, Jesus first tells a story about a lost sheep in Luke 15, verses 3 to 7.

Luke 15:3–7

A shepherd loses one sheep out of a hundred.

Now we're a sheep-loving nation.

I grew up watching Country Calendar and a Dogs Show.

And what the vast majority of us in Ayatiroa, New Zealand, know is that sheep aren't bright animals.

No one has ever looked at a sheep and thought, that sheep's a strategic thinker.

Sheep wander.

They get distracted, they follow the wrong thing, they drift, they get lost.

Which is often how people drift away from God.

Sometimes we might think that every person who moves away from faith does so through some dramatic act of rebellion.

And while that's occasionally true, more often it happens slowly.

Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to be far from God.

Most people drift one small decision at a time.

The songs change, life gets busy, we get hurt, we get disappointed, we drift.

One day becomes one week, and one week becomes one month, and over time, people can find themselves a long way from where they once were spiritually.

But what strikes me in this story is not the wandering sheep, but the shepherd's determination.

He leaves the 99 in the wilderness and goes after the one that is lost until he finds it.

Interestingly, no timeline is given.

The pursuit doesn't end until the lost sheep is found.

Then Jesus tells a story about a lost coin in verses 8 to 10.

A woman loses one silver coin out of 10.

The coin was worth about one day's pay, so it's not insignificant.

But then again, if we lost one day's pay, most of us could still probably get by.

But this woman, she lights a lamp, she sweeps the house, and she searches carefully until she finds it.

Again, no timeline given.

Finally, Jesus tells a story about a father and two sons.

And what happens next in the third story is perhaps one of the most shocking moments in all of Scripture.

In verses 11 to 32, a son demands his inheritance, leaves home, wastes everything, and eventually finds himself feeding pigs.

He reaches the end of himself and decides to return home.

And in one of the most countercultural and dramatic scenes in the entire New Testament, verse 20 says, But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.

From this picture, we could imagine that every morning the father looked down the road.

Every evening he looked down the road, another day, another disappointment, another sunset, maybe tomorrow, maybe never.

But he never stopped looking.

And when he sees his son, he was filled with compassion for him, and he does something extraordinary.

He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.

Now, that doesn't sound unusual to us, but in Jesus' world, dignified older men didn't run.

Running meant lifting your robe, exposing your legs, and risking public embarrassment.

The father abandons dignity in order to welcome his son, even before the son can prove himself, even before he can earn his way back, even before he can work his way into the family.

The father embraces him, restores him, honors him, and welcomes him home.

This is the upside-down kingdom Jesus came to announce.

In the kingdoms of this world, acceptance is usually earned.

In God's kingdom, grace comes first.

The father is extravagant, lavish.

That is being prodigal.

And perhaps that's the real scandal of Luke 15.

Not that a son comes home, but that a father watched and waited for him, longing for his return, and then welcomed him so completely.

Earlier you would have listened to Liam's testimony about coming home to Jesus.

I loved it.

His very first words were, Recently I found my way back to Christianity.

Such powerful words.

Jesus had been waiting for him all along, pursuing him even, but Liam had to find his way back.

I'm gonna have Liam's words going around in my head all week.

So in these three stories, we see that the shepherd searched for the one lost sheep.

The woman searched for the one lost coin.

And the father watched and waited for the one lost son.

Different action, same heart.

Together, these three stories reveal the lengths God will go to to bring lost people home.

One of the most remarkable truths of the Christian faith is that the story of salvation begins not with humanity searching for God, but with God searching for humanity.

From the opening pages of Scripture, after Adam and Eve have hidden themselves in shame, God comes into the garden and asks, Where are you?

And throughout the Bible, we meet a God who takes the initiative, a God who moves toward broken people, a God who pursues rather than withdraws.

That pursuit reaches its ultimate expression in Jesus Himself.

God doesn't merely send a message, He comes.

He enters our world, He walks our streets, He sits at our tables, He seeks and saves the lost.

And perhaps some of you need to hear that today.

Maybe you've drifted.

Maybe faith feels distant.

Maybe disappointment or grief or failure has left you wondering whether God is still interested in you.

Luke 15 reminds us that God has not stopped looking.

You may have stopped looking for him, but he has never stopped looking for you.

Might you be able to sing the line of the song that we know so well?

I once was lost, but now I'm found.

Was blind, but now I see.

The second thing that stands out in Luke 15 is the extraordinary value that God places on the one.

Notice how these stories escalate.

A shepherd loses one sheep out of a hundred, one percent.

A woman loses one coin out of ten, ten percent.

A father loses one son out of two, fifty percent.

With each story, the loss becomes more personal and more costly.

Jesus is driving us closer and closer to the father's heart.

A sheep is valuable, a coin is valuable, but a child is priceless.

Jesus is making a profound point.

Everyone matters deeply to God.

You know, we live in a world of numbers.

Auckland has more than one and a half million people.

Churches talk about attendance, governments talk about demographics, businesses talk about customers.

It's easy to see people as analytics and statistics, but God never sees a crowd.

God sees every one.

He sees the one teenager wrestling with anxiety and wondering where they belong.

He sees the one exhausted parent trying to hold everything together.

He sees the one person sitting quietly at home carrying grief that nobody else knows about.

He sees the one neighbor next door who appears to have everything but feels empty inside.

God values the one person everyone else has given up on.

The person others avoid, the person others write off, the person others think will never change.

God sees the one because people matter to him.

The shepherd leaves ninety-nine because one matters.

The woman searches for a coin because one matters.

The father waits for his son because one matters.

I wonder who your one is.

Who has God placed in your world?

Not humanity in general, not Auckland in general, not one person.

A colleague, a neighbor, a family member, a friend, someone who is drifted, someone who is searching, someone who has never truly encountered Jesus?

Because every story of transformation begins with one person.

Every baptism has a name attached to it.

Every testimony has a face to it.

Every life changed by Jesus was once somebody's one.

Here at Windsor we often talk about mission, but mission is not ultimately about programs or strategies or events.

Those things can be helpful, but mission begins with people, because people matter to God.

That's why we say here one life at a time.

Over a decade ago, one of our pastors at the time, Andy Doncaster, built uh this box for a service we had back then when we were talking about mission.

It's hung around in the office ever since.

I still remember the one name that I put in this box.

I still pray for that one.

I still reach out to him.

There's not a dramatic conversion story yet, but I'm hoping to be persistent like the shepherd, like the woman, like the father.

Maybe today you could write down one name.

Put it in your phone, put it in your Bible, put it on your fridge, and pray for that person every day for the next month or years or longer.

Just one person.

It might be you that God is pursuing, but the mission of God is about the ones.

Thirdly, there's something remarkable about these three stories.

They all end the same way.

And the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd at the end calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.

And the parable of the lost coin, the woman, says the same words, calls her friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin.

In the parable that we call the prodigal son, the father says, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fattened calf and kill it.

Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For the son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

Every story ends in celebration.

In these stories, Jesus reveals a father who delights in restoration, a father who celebrates redemption, a father whose heart is filled with joy when lost people are found.

Heaven celebrates what God values.

And this raises an important question for us.

What do we celebrate?

Because what we celebrate reveals what we truly value.

Now, there's nothing wrong with celebrating a graduation or healthy finances or a completed building project.

Our churches celebrate attendance, finances, programs, and buildings.

None of those things are bad.

But according to Jesus, heaven's greatest celebrations occur when people encounter grace, when relationships are restored, when lives are transformed, and when people find their way home to God.

If heaven celebrates those things, then surely we should too.

As we come to the end of Luke 15, there's a detail we can't miss.

The sheep and the coin are found, the younger son comes home, and the celebration begins.

There's music in heaven, the table is set, and the father is rejoicing.

Everything in the story is moving toward joy.

But Jesus doesn't end the story there.

There's still one person outside, the older brother.

And what's striking is how unnoticed he seems to be.

The house is full of celebration, but he's still standing in the driveway.

He's close to everything, close to the Father, but not actually in the joy.

And Jesus leaves the story hanging there.

Because now the question moves beyond the page and into our lives.

Will we come inside?

Will we celebrate what the Father celebrates, or will we stay at a distance from the joy of God, even while it's happening right in front of us?

One of the quiet warnings of the story is that it's possible to be close to the Father and still miss the Father's heart.

We see that the youngest son is lost in rebellion, while at the same time the older son is lost in religion.

One brother ran away from home while the other stayed, but never entered the party.

And Jesus is gently pressing the question, Will you come into the joy of the Father?

Luke 15 is not only about what God does for the lost, but also about God inviting the people who have found to not just receive grace, but to reflect grace.

People who don't just celebrate their own forgiveness, but lean into the celebration of the forgiveness of others.

And we're left with a picture of the Father, a father who runs, a father who waits, a father who welcomes, a father who opens the door and says, Come in.

There's no lecture, no hesitation, no barriers, no conditions, just joy and grace and welcome.

So where are you in the story?

Maybe you're the younger son.

You know what it is to be far from home and something in you knows it's time to come back.

There's still a father who is running towards you.

Maybe you're the older brother.

You've done the right things, stayed close, held things together.

But somewhere along the way, joy has drained out of your faith.

And it's hard to celebrate what God is doing in others.

Or maybe you're simply being invited again into the Father's heart.

Not to perform, not to prove, not to compare, but just to come in.

Because Jesus is clear.

You can't stay outside the party and claim to love the father.

The father's heart is always towards the lost, and the father's house is always full of celebration when they are found.

So maybe the invitation is simply to come home, to step back into grace, to step back into joy, to step back into the father's heart.

Or maybe the invitation is to lay down whatever keeps you standing outside the celebration.

If we learn to see what the Father sees, to love what the Father loves, and to celebrate what the Father celebrates, then something begins to change in us as well.

Not just our mission, not just our church, but our hearts.

And here's a question for a lot of us.

Who's our one?

One person, one name, one life that matters deeply to God.

Because heaven still rejoices every time one person comes home.

And maybe the invitation of Luke 15 is as simple as this.

Don't just admire the truth, live it.

Carry one name, pray for one person, love one person toward Jesus.

Because that's what it means to live in the kingdom of God.

People who carry the heart of the Father into the world and trust him to do what only he can do.

Might these three parables remind us of the extravagant grace of God, his pursuit of us, his desire to run towards us, and the invitation that we have to be welcomed home, to be found.

Might that be something that we accept and live and celebrate.

Let's pray.

Father, we are grateful for the Gospel of Luke as we resume our journey through it.

Grateful for the parables that we now enter that Jesus starts to tell as he is journeying around village after village, reminding people, particularly the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, of the extravagance of grace.

Father, it's profound.

It turns the world upside down.

The kingdom of God is so welcome and it's not dependent upon performance or rules.

It's well, extravagant is the only word I can think of.

But it's so life-giving.

The forgiveness of our sins, the openness of the kingdom, the joy that that brings, the peace that passes human understanding, as the scriptures say.

It's such an invitation to us.

So firstly, might we allow the joy of heaven into our hearts?

And might we celebrate what we see you doing in our world with the ones?

But might we take that responsibility for those of us that have a heart for mission to perhaps refocus back to the one?

What is one person that you're putting on our hearts?

And what is one action that we can take?

What is one prayer that we can pray?

What is one way that we can change our lives that might show to that one person that we're living at our faith and it makes a difference for us?

So, Father, I pray that whatever the challenge is for us, that we would be welcoming of that today.

That you would guide our next steps, that you would surround us with people that would encourage us and support our own journey.

Father, we pray that as we go about the rhythms of our week, that we would see people as ones, the one person we sit next to on the bus, the one person we stand behind in the queue at the supermarket, the one person that perhaps annoys us.

Might we see them as your loved children?

Might we have a heart to expose them to the things of the kingdom.

To guide us as we think about what you might be challenging us to respond to in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for joining our audio teaching today.

If there are ways that we can continue to support you or help you in your journey, please reach out to us.

Head to our website, windsap.org.nz, and you'll find various ways to contact us.

God bless.