"God's Passion for the Lost" Luke 15:1-7 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Well good evening, Church.

It is a privilege to be here.

Thank you, Daniel, for that uh just kind introduction.

Uh you know, I I mean I'm a little bothered because I specifically asked you to set low expectations for me so that I could hopefully exceed them.

Uh but I do appreciate those words.

Uh I just, Church, I just want to say to you before I say anything else, you are immensely blessed.

There are men in this room who have impacted my life tremendously.

Uh, not just Dan, but Ryan Francis, uh Pastor Jesse, uh, even getting to hang out with Alex this weekend.

Uh I just I just can't emphasize to you enough the grace that God has shown you and the leadership that He has given you.

You are immensely blessed, and there's a reason that uh that you as a church are thriving.

Uh Jesse, Pastor Jesse, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to preach God's word tonight and to fill your pulpit.

I do not take it lightly, and I'm immensely grateful this evening to share the word with all of you.

So just to catch you up, because I know that most of you were not with us for the conference, uh, we have been talking about the passions of God.

We've been talking about the passions of God in the hearts of men.

That is, we've been exploring what Scripture tells us that God is passionate about, what makes God joyful.

And we've been seeking to align our hearts and our passions with what God is passionate about.

We began the conference by exploring what it means to say that God is passionate, that he has emotions.

Simply put, his emotions are not like ours.

His emotions are perfect.

His emotions are manifestations of his eternal and immutable, holy and perfect disposition.

They are not fluctuating, they are not prone to change, they are not influenced by anything outside of himself.

They are perfect.

They are in perfect harmony with his character, with who he is.

That's not to say that he's in any way apathetic.

It's just that what God cares about, he cares about perfectly.

And our goal as we've been going through this conference is to hopefully align ourselves with those passions.

I mean, if there's, I don't know what else sanctification means other than we become more like Christ, who is the very image of God.

And I would certainly think that that principle would uh would extend to our emotional life.

And so we've been exploring what is God passionate about.

We began by looking at God's passion for his creation, for this world.

God made this world, he called it very good, and I think there is a way for us to enjoy and delight in this world that glorifies God.

That when we look out over creation, we see the glory of God, we see his fingerprints, the heavens declare the glory of God.

Then we we dove down a little bit and we looked at God's passion for his son, the eternal love and delight that the Father has in his son, the love that existed in the Trinity in eternity past, even that love that Pastor Jesse mentioned this morning in his message, that God delights in his son.

Then we looked at God's delight and passion for his church, for that unique and particular people that he has called out of this world to be his, that people that he has redeemed by the blood of his son and made a new people, a prized possession that he delights in.

Then we looked at his passion for unity within that very body of people.

That God is joyful when his people are dwelling in unity.

We looked at God's passion for unity within the church.

This morning in the foundry, Paul looked at God's passion for the herding.

A topic that is very pertinent in our day when there's much to be hurting about.

And I think he did a wonderful job of opening up the heart of Christ and the heart of God for the herding.

Tonight, my topic is to hopefully show you God's passion for the lost.

God's passion for the lost.

My goal tonight is simple.

In chapter 14 of the book of Luke, and we'll be in chapter 15 if you want to begin flipping your way there.

But in chapter 14, as Jesse just read, in verse 23, the master says to his servants, Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

My goal tonight is to give you a motivation and a reason to do just that.

Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, we as we approach your word this evening, I pray that we would approach it humbly.

As Pastor Jesse said, we listen to a lot of sermons and we hear a lot of exposition of your word, and sometimes we need to be reminded that every single time that we sit under the preaching of your word, it's because we need it.

Because we need the sanctifying influence of your word on our lives.

We need to be sanctified by the truth each and every day.

Lord, every single part of your word is necessary, and we need it.

And tonight I believe that there is a message that all of us need.

Father, would you give us attention and focus?

Would you open our eyes and open our ears to see wonderful things from your law?

And God, as we hear your word proclaimed, would you cause our hearts to respond in a way that would honor you?

And would you be much glorified in the proclamation of your word and in the reception of it and the application of it in each of our lives.

We pray all of these things in your precious name.

Amen.

Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

I'll begin reading in verse 1.

And we'll read through verse 7.

Luke chapter 15, beginning in verse 1, Luke writes.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable.

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.

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And 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.

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.

Gathering around him to hear something that he has to say.

What have they come to hear?

As we saw in chapter 14, Jesus has come offering them entrance into the kingdom, a seat at the king's table, a spot at the great feast.

And he's not offering it to those who deem themselves worthy.

He's not offering it to those who deem themselves righteous.

He's not presenting it to those who have earned it.

He's offering it to those who, in verse 14, chapter 14, verse 11, says, Everyone who humbles himself.

In verse 13 and 21, he repeats that this is an offer to the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

That is that Jesus is offering the kingdom to all who humbly recognize that it can only be gained through him.

This is not an offer to gain entrance into the kingdom.

As we learned this morning, salvation is by grace through faith alone, and not of your own initiative.

And Jesus has come offering this incredible gift to these people who would have known that they do not deserve it.

Now he has said that there is a cost.

There is a cost to enter the kingdom.

Chapter 14, verses 26 and 27, he says that if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

He says later, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

And he closes the chapter saying, He who has ears, let him hear.

See, he has made an uncompromising demand.

If you would receive this gift of grace, entrance into the kingdom, a seat at the table, you must give everything over to Christ.

You must give him your full allegiance.

And this crowd of tax collectors and sinners, after hearing that, after hearing this incredible demand being placed on their lives, they gather around him because they want to hear more.

They want to hear more from this teacher.

Why?

Why would you want more after such a heavy demand being placed on you?

Well, I think it's because Jesus has given them hope.

Tax collectors and sinners would not have expected an invitation to the table.

Tax collectors, they were traitors.

They were working for the Roman overlords.

And not only that, but they were getting rich through less than honorable means.

They were abusing their position, extorting their own countrymen to line their pockets.

I mean, tax collectors were looked at as the lowest of the low.

They would have not been welcomed to the feast.

Sinners were those who were deemed morally impure by the religious elites, whether because of their vocation or something about their circumstances, they were deemed unworthy.

And worse, these poor and crippled and lame and blind, their contemporaries, they would have viewed them as, or they would have viewed their poverty and their economic depression and their physical disabilities and deformities as signs of divine disfavor and judgment.

We see that in John chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus and his disciples come across a blind man, and his disciples ask him, Who sinned?

This man or his parents, that he has been made blind, he's been born blind.

The idea being that surely if he's blind or if someone's crippled or lame, they must have done something to earn it.

It's a sign of God's disfavor.

And if that's what you grew up believing about yourself, you would not expect to be offered entrance into the kingdom.

You see, these tax collectors and sinners, they would have viewed themselves as the most unworthy, the lowest of the low, the least deserving to sit at the king's table.

And so entrance into God's kingdom would have been a distant dream until Jesus comes along and gives them hope.

So he says, He who has ears let him hear, and they came to hear.

I think it's worth remembering, because I think it's tempting to think of these groups of people as other people.

But we should see ourselves in these descriptions.

We are tax collectors in a sense.

We are certainly sinners.

Not a single one of us was worthy to enter the kingdom.

As we saw this morning, even our best efforts would have been woefully inadequate.

It's tempting to look at these groups and think about other people in our minds.

Oh, yeah, I know this person.

They need to hear this message.

They need some Jesus in their life.

Friends, this is our personal history.

We are all sinners.

And at some point, we came to Jesus to hear him.

And so these tax collectors and sinners they gather to hear Jesus.

We see in verse 2 the first section of this text, I'll call it the protest.

The protest.

These tax collectors and sinners they gather around Jesus, and some Pharisees that are nearby, it says that the Pharisees and the scribes they grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

That word grumbling, it would have been used of the Israelites in the wilderness when they grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

Simply put, there is no positive connotation to it.

They are grumbling.

And you can imagine them murmuring under their breaths, whispering to each other as they watch this group of degenerate reprobates gather around this rabbi, this self-proclaimed Messiah, looking at this shocking scene.

And then they say, This man.

Oh, this guy.

Oh, this guy.

Oh, he receives tax collectors and sinners.

I mean, every word from their mouths is dripping with venom.

What is it that they're so upset about?

What is it that they're protesting?

It's that Jesus receives these people, tax collectors and sinners.

Not only that, but he eats with them.

And you see the verb that's used here, the idea is not that this was a one-time thing.

The idea is that this was common in Jesus' ministry, that he was always receiving these kinds of people, that these were the kind of people that he hung out with.

If we flip back and look a little bit, we could see numerous occasions where Jesus shared meals with sinners, where he was around them, where he was fellowshipping with them, where he was teaching them, where he was interacting with them.

So this is something that's been bothering the Pharisees for a while.

And they haven't really held their tongue.

I mean, time and time again, they have confronted Jesus, they've challenged him.

You see, they were aware that in the Old Testament there are repeated warnings against gathering with the godless, with the wicked.

Psalm 1, verse 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

Psalms 1:1

Proverbs chapter 4, verses 14 and 15.

Proverbs 4:14

Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil.

Avoid it, do not go on it, turn away from it and pass on from there.

And so you see, these religious leaders, they would not associate with these kinds of people.

They would not associate with tax collectors and sinners.

In fact, one rabbinic tractate goes so far as to say that they shouldn't even associate with these kinds of people to teach them the law.

That would be like me saying, you need to avoid unbelievers so much that you shouldn't even share the gospel with them.

That's the level of separation that these rabbis sought to keep between themselves and these sinners because they were afraid that their uncleanness would somehow affect them.

And so they stayed away.

These people were not worthy of their presence, they were not worthy of their attention, they were not worthy of their teaching, they were the lowest of the low, they were not welcome into the kingdom, and so the rabbis would have nothing to do with them.

And here Jesus is receiving tax collectors and sinners.

And worse yet, he eats with them.

See, sharing a meal in that culture was a sign of acceptance.

It was a sign of favor, a sign of welcome.

Jesus is being radically counter-cultural.

He's doing everything that a pious and an observant Jew should not do.

And these rabbis, they have had enough of it.

They cannot stand it.

They are so frustrated by it.

So they say, this man, this guy, receives tax collectors and sinners.

See, these words are not lost on Jesus.

Either he overhears them, or maybe as he does in Luke chapter 5, he perceives their thoughts.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Somehow he knows what they're saying, he knows what they're thinking, and he's going to seek to try and correct their wayward attitude.

I think it's a good at this point to ask yourself what is your attitude towards the lost?

What is your attitude towards the lost?

See, I fear that far too often the church has a little bit of Phariseais in it.

I think the church at times has a little bit of disdain for the lost.

Think about who you're voting for.

And now think about the other guy.

Do you care about his soul?

Are you concerned about where he would go if he died?

Think about his supporters.

Are you concerned about them?

Are you concerned about their eternal state?

Think about the people that run the abortion clinic down the road.

Are you concerned about their souls?

Are you concerned about where they will go when they inevitably die?

See, sometimes I think we view these people as our enemies.

They are somehow against us.

Jesus would seek to correct our attitude as well.

Now maybe you don't view anyone as your enemy, but maybe you're just very comfortable with the people that are already in this room.

You don't feel the need to fill any more seats.

You're happy, you're comfortable.

This church is already pretty big, it's already hard to know everybody.

It would just be more difficult if more people came, and so you're kind of like, well, I'm satisfied.

I'm content.

This is great.

I love my church, which you should, because God's passionate about his church.

That was lesson number three.

In 1953, uh a pastor named Theodore Weddell wrote a little parable called The Life-Saving Station.

I think it's worth reading to you in full.

He writes, On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station.

The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea with no thought for themselves.

They went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.

Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station so that it became famous.

Some of those that were saved and various others in the surrounding area, they wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work.

New boats were bought and new crews trained.

The little life saving station grew.

Some of the members of the life saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped.

They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.

So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building.

Now the life saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as a sort of club.

Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work for them.

The life-saving motif still prevailed in this club's decoration, and there was a liturgical life-saving lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people.

They were dirty and sick.

The beautiful new club was in chaos, so they immediately had a shower house built outside the club where the victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership.

Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life saving activities as become as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life.

To the club.

However, some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station.

But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, then they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast.

And so they did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old.

It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded.

History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore.

Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.

Far too concerned about what happens inside these walls, that we forget all the people that are outside these walls.

Jesus is going to help us.

He's going to give us a corrective with a parable.

And that's what we see beginning in verse 3 through verse 6, a parable.

It says that Jesus told in this parable, and we're reminded of the purpose of parables.

In chapter 8, Luke tells us that parables, they don't affect everyone equally.

They don't hit every hearer the same way.

He told his disciples there that to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

So what he's saying is this.

Yes, he is responding to the wrong thinking of the Pharisees.

Yes, he is seeking to give an apologetic for why he does what he does, for his ministry, for his association with these undesirables.

Yes, he is responding to that, but he does not think that it's going to bring these Pharisees to his line of thinking.

You see, he's also saying this for the sinners and the tax collectors that are listening to him, but I think he is also saying this parable for us, whose eyes have been opened, whose ears have been opened.

This parable, this message, it is meant to change our lives.

It's meant to change the way that we think and the way that we act.

It is meant to change the way that we think about the lost.

And I would encourage you as we go through this parable to not miss that message.

Because Jesus is going to see the depth of his heart, his love, and the lengths that he will go to save the lost.

The same length that he went to save you.

He's going to open up his heart to us.

He's going to see, he's going to show us so that we might see his passion for the lost.

Because he tells us in chapter 19 that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

That is why he came.

That is God's passion for the lost.

And I pray that as we go through this parable, it will become your passion as well.

The parable begins in verse 4 with the phrase, What man of you?

I think what he's saying is what he's about to say is not controversial.

It's the same way that he introduced another little parable in chapter 14, verse 5, when he said to them, Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on the Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him up?

The idea is, look, I'm going to say something that I think we all can agree on.

This is not something controversial.

This is something that everybody in the crowd would agree with.

I think he's saying, look, I hope that if your son fell into a well on the Sabbath day, you'd pull him out.

In fact, I'm quite certain you would.

And what he's about to tell us is the same kind of principle.

He's not expecting disagreement with this parable.

He's expecting these Pharisees to agree with what he's about to say.

And so he says that a shepherd, a shepherd, in verse 4, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost.

Let me paint this picture for you because I think that you can sympathize with this poor shepherd.

You get home from work after a long day of toil and labor, and you walk into your home, and you throw your keys on the counter and slip your shoes off, and just as you're sitting down to relax and rest and recuperate after a long day, you realize that you forgot to do something very important at work.

And you realize that your night is not over.

That's kind of what's happening to the shepherd.

See, at the end of the day, after working and toiling, shepherding these sheep all day, he would have gone back to the sheep, the sheep herd, and he would have been getting, he would have begun to push these sheep and shepherd them into the holding where he kept them.

And he would have been counting them because he wants to make sure that he's not missing any.

And you can imagine as he's letting these sheep into the sheep hold and he's counting them, he's already starting to anticipate that that moment when he walks into his home and he sees his family.

He's beginning to anticipate that warm meal that he'll eat.

He's beginning to anticipate that that long night's sleep that he needs to refresh himself.

And so he's counting 96, 97, 98, 99.

Whoops.

He's missing one.

He owns 100 sheep.

He only counts 99.

Now, 100 sheep wouldn't have been a huge flock.

The average size flock of sheep would have been somewhere closer to 200.

So this is, he's a man of modest means.

That means that every sheep is important to him.

These sheep represent his livelihood.

And so he finds that one is missing and he determines that he needs to go and find that sheep.

Because you see, sheep, they don't find their way home.

They're, I don't know if you've ever met a sheep, had a conversation with a sheep, but they're not the most intelligent of animals.

They're not real sharp.

You know, you know they say that you're not the sharpest tool in the shed?

Like they're not even in the shed.

The sheep is not going to find its way home.

In all likelihood, if the shepherd does not go to the sheep, if the shepherd does not find the sheep, that sheep is going to be lost in the wilderness.

It's either going to succumb to the elements or it is going to be eaten by a wild predator.

That sheep in this moment is as good as dead.

Unless the shepherd finds it.

Unless the shepherd seeks it out and saves it.

And so he goes out and he seeks his lost sheep.

And it says that he goes out and he seeks this lost sheep until he finds it.

Until he finds it.

I mean, just look at the persistence with which he searches for this sheep.

He doesn't just go out and give a half-hearted effort, you know, look around within a one mile square radius of his home.

And then say, well, you know what?

It's getting late, I'm calling it a night.

Maybe he'll come back in the morning.

Maybe I'll find him later.

No, it says that the shepherd goes out and he searches for the sheep until he finds it.

He is determined to find his lost sheep.

Why is that?

Within the past six months, uh, both my wife and I managed to lose our wedding rings.

Well, I should be more clear.

Uh, our three-year-old, George H.

Lee Part V managed to lose both of our wedding rings.

Now, when I lost mine, we kind of looked for it a little bit.

You know, we searched around a bit.

Uh I checked in a few places where I thought it might be.

I pretty quickly gave up the search.

Because my ring is like, it was worth like 10 bucks.

I think I got it on Amazon.

Free two-day shipping.

I was like, you know what?

It's okay.

But when my wife's ring was lost, we tore the house apart.

We looked everywhere, and the search continues.

We looked everywhere.

You know why we looked so hard for my wife's ring and not that hard for my ring?

It's because you persistently search for that which is valuable to you.

My wife's ring was valuable, and so we searched for it persistently.

Just like this shepherd searches persistently for his lost sheep.

Do you see the heart of God for the lost?

He searches persistently.

He seeks.

Because the lost are valuable to him.

Do you see God's passion for the lost?

He goes after the one.

And he searches and he seeks until he finds it.

The little parable after our parable, which I think accompanies this one, they have the same message.

We get even more an even clearer picture of this process.

It tells us that a woman who loses a coin, she lights a lamp in her house.

She didn't have electricity back in the day.

So she lights a lamp so she can see, so she can search.

It says that she sweeps the house and she seeks diligently until she finds it, because she's determined to lost this thing that is valuable to her.

That is the same heart that God has for the lost.

He pursues us until he gets us.

He seeks us until he finds us because he values the lost.

God, the eternal, infinite, immutable, infinitely glorious and worthy God finds lost people valuable to him.

And yet, for some reason, it's hard for us to engender the same passion for the lost that he has.

How silly of us.

If God feels this way for the lost, then why don't we?

If you want to see God's heart for the lost, just look at the heart of Jesus.

The image of the invisible God, the perfect expression of who God is.

I think of the leper in Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

The leper runs to Jesus and he says, Jesus, teacher, if you will, you can make me clean.

What does Jesus say?

He says, I will.

He says, I desire to be clean.

I think of the rich young ruler that comes to Jesus and says, Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And it says that Jesus loved him and told him to give up everything to follow him.

I think of the tax collectors and sinners that he speaks of in Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

He says that they need a physician because they're sick.

And I have not come, I have not come to treat the healthy, I've come to treat the sick that need me.

That's why I am here.

I think of all the times that Jesus looked out over the crowds with compassion.

And he said, I have compassion on these people because why?

Because they are lost, because they are harassed like sheep without a shepherd.

See the heart of Christ for the lost.

See the heart of Christ for the lost on the cross.

You see there, Jesus, the good shepherd, laid down his life for the sheep.

Jesus, the Son of God, the eternal son, who had dwelt in unimaginable glory with the Father, who was basking in the light of the love of the Father for all eternity, who had equality with the Father for all eternity.

His heart for the lost was so great that he humbled himself and took on the form of a man and lived in this world among us.

And he lived this perfect and righteous life, the life that we needed to live.

He lived that life on our behalf, and then he went to the cross, and there he bore the wrath of God against sin in our place, so that the lost could be found.

But if you are here this evening and you've not put your faith in Jesus for the salvation of your souls, then know that his heart is deep and wide for you.

And he went to the cross for you because you are valuable to him.

And even tonight he is seeking you and he desires to save you.

If you would just come to him.

Verse 5, we see that when the shepherd has found his sheep, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Rejoicing.

This scene reminds me of Isaiah chapter 40 when it speaks of God who in his power and might stretches out his hand to save his people.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

And then it says that he takes his people in his arms like a tender little lamb, and he gently and compassionately carries them and cares for them.

You see, this motif of God as a shepherd, it would have not been unfamiliar to these people.

Flipping your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel chapter 34.

Ezekiel 34 · chapter mention

Ezekiel chapter 34, we get this incredible image of God as a shepherd.

Ezekiel 34 · chapter mention

Ezekiel chapter 34, the chapter begins with God condemning the leaders of Israel, his under-shepherds, because they have abrogated their duty.

Ezekiel 34 · chapter mention

They have not done what they were called to do.

They have gorged themselves on the fat of the land, they have served only themselves, they have not given any thought or care to the people.

He says in verse 4 that the weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not upheld and healed, the injured you have not bound up.

He says, the strayed you have not brought back, and the lost you have not sought.

See, God condemned the leaders of Israel because they did not seek the lost.

God is a seeker of lost sheep.

He goes on in this chapter to say that because these shepherds have woefully abrogated their duty and not done what he put them over his people to do, he will take matters into his own hands, and he will do it himself.

Verse 11, for thus says the Lord God, behold, I, I myself, will search for my sheep, and I will seek them out.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

In verse 15, he says that I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.

Verse 16 I will seek the lost.

And I will bring that I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.

Like a shepherd who has lost one, he goes out and he finds his people and he brings them back.

Because they are valuable to him.

Because he loves them.

You realize that Jesus loves you, that God loves you.

What a sentence.

We have heard it and said it so many times that it has lost so much weight and gravity.

But the God of the universe loves you.

He seeks you.

And perhaps tonight is the night that he will bring you back into the sheepfold.

I think what's most amazing is what Jesus clarifies in Luke 15 that's not immediately apparent in Ezekiel 34.

It's that when the shepherd finds his sheep and brings them back, he does it while rejoicing.

While rejoicing.

That is, God delights in finding his lost.

God takes joy when a sinner comes to him through faith in Jesus Christ.

In verse 6, when he gets home with that sheep, he doesn't limit his rejoicing just to him.

In fact, he calls his friends and his neighbors to rejoice with him.

Now remember, this isn't at three in the afternoon.

This is probably late at night.

I don't know what hour this is, but I'm imagining like a midnight, 1 a.m.

knock on the door or knock on the curtain, whatever they had back then, saying, Friend, you have no idea what happened tonight.

I lost a sheep.

I don't know where I lost it, but I went out and I found it and it's back.

Come rejoice with me.

It's a joy that cannot help but spill over to the people around it.

This is the joy that God has when a sinner comes to him, when a lost son comes home.

It's a joy that is so full and deep that it can't help but spill out onto the people around it.

The shepherd calls his friends and neighbors together to rejoice with him.

And I think God calls us to rejoice with him when people are saved.

That's why we love things like baptism.

Because we get to hear stories of people that were lost and have now been found, and we get to rejoice and clap and sing with them and shout for joy with them.

Don't you want more of that?

I mean, do you want more joy or less joy?

Hopefully, more joy.

If you want less joy, we should talk after.

That's what we get when someone who was lost is found.

More joy.

Verse 7.

Principle.

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

I think we should just take a moment to try and imagine what a heavenly party looks like.

You know, imagine the best Christmas party you've ever been to, and now multiply it by a hundred, and now recognize that whatever you're thinking of right now is woefully inadequate to tell you what a party in heaven will be like.

That's the imagery that Jesus is giving us.

He's saying that when a sinner repents and comes to God through faith in Jesus, all of heaven rejoices and parties.

Every time a sinner comes to faith in Christ, it's like New Year's Eve in heaven.

You know, a sanctified version of New Year's Eve.

There is great rejoicing.

There is more joy than even over 99 who need no repentance.

And we should understand that that statement is a little bit ironic.

Because if anything has been clear in chapters 1 through 14 of Luke, there is no one that is not in need of repentance.

But Jesus is trying to make the point that there is such a great joy in heaven when the lost are found.

And this would have shocked the Pharisees.

It would have absolutely shocked them.

You see, the Pharisees would have taught that God was joyful at the downfall and destruction of the wicked.

One rabbinic text reads that just as it is a delight before the omnipresent to see the strengthening of the righteous, so it is a joy before the omnipresent to see the downfall of the wicked.

They would have said, God finds great joy when the lost are damned.

Jesus says God finds great joy when the lost are found.

The Pharisees must have been blown away.

No wonder they wanted to kill this man.

He's giving them a portrait of God that they cannot understand.

They cannot comprehend.

Where does this joy come from?

Why does God value the lost?

I think we saw it so clearly this morning as we were looking at the book of Ephesians.

And I know that you've been studying Ephesians, so I would remind you of what Paul says and what he tells us in chapter one of Ephesians, as he's opening up for us the incredible work of redemption that God has brought.

Verse 3 he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is Ephesians 1, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be found holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise, verse 6, to the praise of his glorious grace.

Why does God find so much joy when the lost are found?

It's because he's glorified when the lost are found.

Verse 12 of Ephesians chapter 1 says that we who are in Christ, we are the first hope in Christ, and we would be to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Verse 14, we have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit.

He is our guarantee, he's the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

We have to remember that yes, God does find us valuable.

Notice, I did not say that the reason God wants us and desires us is because we are valuable.

I said it's that he finds us valuable.

But it's not because of who we are.

It's not about us.

One of the themes of this conference this weekend has been that God does everything that he does in creation and redemption for his own glory.

And God is glorified when sinners are redeemed and when they praise him for what he has done.

Jonathan Edwards writes, God is glorified in the work of redemption, in this, that there appears in it so absolute and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him.

Another way to say that is salvation is by grace alone.

And so God gets all the glory.

And because God is the infinite and perfect being, it is only right that he delight most in himself.

Because to delight more in anything else would be wrong.

It would be immoral.

And so God's greatest delight is in his own glory and in the expression of that glory.

And there is no fuller and greater expression of that glory than when he redeems sinful people who are woefully undeserving of his grace.

Just like a sheep adds nothing to his being found and being saved, so we add nothing to our salvation.

And so God is glorified.

And so God delights in that work because his glory is displayed.

And so, yes, God is passionate about the lost.

It's because he's passionate about his glory.

And I think that for us ought to be the greatest motivation for evangelism.

The glory and joy of God.

I mean, yes, we should evangelize because we care about people, because we care about people made in the image of God, because we desire to see them escape the wrath that is to come.

Yes, we should evangelize because we have been commanded to evangelize by our Lord and Master.

But I think our greatest motivation should be that God would be glorified when sinners are redeemed through the gospel.

I think that sometimes the reason that we struggle to find a heart or a desire or a motivation for evangelism is because we don't value the glory of God enough.

I mean, is God's glory your greatest passion?

Is his joy enough of a motivation for you to go to the lost?

If we claim to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, then we ought to desire that he would be filled with joy.

Yes?

Henry Schuggel wrote, He said, On what sure foundations one's happiness is built, whose soul is possessed with divine love, whose will is transformed into the will of God, and whose greatest desire is that his Maker should be pleased.

That is to say, that our joy will be certain and sure if our greatest joy is found in God's joy.

See, tonight what I want you to see from this passage is that God's joy can be our motivation for evangelism.

God's delight, his pleasure, his passion ought to be a driving force for us to go outside of these walls to the lost.

You live in a city near other cities filled with lost people.

Imagine if each one of you went out with the goal of bringing God joy each and every day.

And so at every opportunity, when you were presented the gift of having the opportunity to share the gospel with someone, you took it with joy.

Because you knew that if God deems to save that person, he will be glorified, he will find great joy in it, and you will find joy because your master and Lord, the one that you love with a love that ought to be unmatched in your life, will be happy.

Would that be enough of a reason for you?

It should.

And know that I am preaching to myself just as much as I am preaching to anyone.

We must realize that a heart for evangelism begins with a heart for God.

I pray as we close this weekend, and we as we close this conference, and for you who didn't come to this conference, as we close this message, that you would see the beauty of God on display in his passion for the lost.

And that your desire for his glory would grow so great that you would share that same passion.

Emmanuel Bible Church, you have such an incredible opportunity to glorify God in your community and in your neighborhoods, in your city.

And so go and pursue the joy of God as you seek the lost.

Let's pray.

And we worship you.

Forgive us for how often our passion for you falls far, far short of what it should be.

God, would you implant in us such a love and passion for your glory that we would be driven to go out to the highways and the byways to compel them to come in.

May we not be passive evangelists, may we be active evangelists.

May we seek to persuade that you might be glorified and that you might be filled with joy as the lost are found.

We pray this in the matchless name of Christ, our Savior and God.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.

If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.