Someone is Searching for You (Luke 15) | Pastor Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you for joining us.

To learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at Celebration ORL or visit our website, celebrationorl.

Again, a good morning and a welcome to you in the building.

Welcome to you who are online as well.

Would love to have you join us actually if you are in Orlando.

We meet at the Orlando Museum of Art 9 and 10.30 a.m.

So come hang out with us.

As I said, we're in a new series called Lost and Found, looking at these parables in Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And today's gospel writer, Luke, he paints a pretty vivid scene for us to imagine in our minds.

What we learned earlier in the gospel is that Jesus is actually on his way to Jerusalem where he'll eventually be murdered.

But on his way, he takes the time to stop from town to town to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.

And his audience, well, it's a mixed bag.

Luke tells us there are tax collectors and sinners present, but there's also Pharisees and teachers of religious law within earshot.

You guys ever received one of those invoices, maybe for your property tax, or maybe even just your tag title in the mail, and you got this smiling tax collector on the on the photo, and you know, sometimes you just think like probably a pretty nice guy or gal, you know, just doing their job, doing what they're supposed to be doing, right?

When I look at that photo, I don't feel any ill will towards them.

Maybe you do, just keep that to yourself.

But the ancient Jewish people thought much lower of their town's tax collector.

You know, they viewed them as sellouts to Rome, really, because these are Jewish people who chose this profession because they wanted to get rich quick.

They wanted to collect more taxes than what Rome was actually requiring and keeping the rest for themselves, the surplus for themselves.

That friends is called embezzlement, and it is illegal.

You know, I'd probably think pretty low of them too if I found out that was the scheme that they were running.

But Luke also introduces us to another class of people in this scene, notorious sinners, and I'd like to do a little group exercise here today.

Are you guys okay with that?

And if you didn't, we're deodorant, I'm not talking about that type of exercise, just one in your mind.

So that one didn't land.

That's okay.

I want you to imagine in your mind, maybe close your eyes if you are the type.

Umone in our contemporary context who you would categorize as a notorious sinner.

When I say those words to you, who comes to mind when you think of a notorious sinner?

Maybe you're picturing an individual, maybe a group or a class of people.

Just a few seconds, put that person in your mind.

Hold them there, we'll get back to them.

The third class of people that Luke introduces are the Pharisees and teachers of religious law.

These are the ones in Jewish society who are the who's who.

They are the elites, the honorable ones, but Luke doesn't actually portray them so fondly.

Luke portrays them more as whiners and complainers, or the two-year-olds, or the teenagers, depending on your current context.

And now it's subtle in the text, but Luke demonstrates between these two groups of people a contrast.

And other than the obvious, there's a subtle contrast here.

If anybody, if anybody caught it, you're free to shout it out.

But the tax collectors and sinners are listening.

The Pharisees and teachers of religious law are complaining.

Now, before we start to throw stones at the Pharisees and put up our virtue signals, let's take a step back here.

These men are experts in the law of God.

Their entire lives have been dedicated to keeping the commandments and upholding their religious traditions.

And they're teaching other people to do the same thing.

I mean, isn't it wrong for a tax collector to take more than what is owed to essentially steal from other people?

Sounds pretty fundamental to me.

Isn't it wrong to sleep around, participate in revelry and debaucherous behavior, most likely what our notorious sinners in this story were guilty of doing?

So, yeah, I might be a little bit upset too.

There's a man claiming to be the son of God, even claiming to possess the very nature of God, sitting down with people who didn't deserve the time of day.

Most likely many of these people were also ceremonially unclean.

And if you read the Old Testament law, that means that they're not even allowed in the presence of God.

And Jesus is gonna sit here and tell us that he's been sent directly by God to eat with these people?

Come on.

Come on, Jesus.

It's one thing to stand on the street corner and tell people they're going to hell.

It's another thing to rub shoulders, breathe the same air, and do pasta and breadsticks family style, okay?

Or as we do in my home, Pollo Guisado and Tostones.

I don't have to teach the 1030 about that.

I think it's fair to say that the religious leaders' complaints are valid.

What actually seems more improbable to me is the undivided attention given by the tax collectors and notorious sinners.

Now, gospel work, or gospel writing, rather, is meticulous work.

And Luke, he's no exception.

We believe Luke was a doctor, so investigation is a specialty of his.

And at the beginning of this gospel, Luke tells us his goal in the whole thing.

His goal is to record an accurate account so that the reader can be assured that what they have been told by Jesus is in fact true based off eyewitness testimony.

And he brilliantly and thematically curates this gospel as told to him by those eyewitnesses.

You see, preceding this scene that we read today, there's similar encounters and there's similar parables, and there are common threads woven throughout all of them.

Jesus is opposed by religious leaders for the way that he works and carries himself, who he interacts with, and how he does so.

And then Jesus typically responds with a story or an illustration.

You know, right before the beginning of chapter 15, which is where we are today, Luke inserts a teaching of Jesus in 14 that has to do with the cost of being a disciple and can seem a little bit out of place if you're not careful.

Time won't permit us to really go into great detail about the teaching, but basically, Jesus invites all those listening to quantify what living a life under his authority is going to cost.

Essentially, a life with Jesus requires reorientation of everything: family, career, hobby, preference, dreams, goals, and aspirations, all these things have to take a backseat.

As a matter of fact, they may not even be able to ride in the same vehicle that's traveling down the narrow road of discipleship.

Now, here's why this is so intriguing to me.

The people who seemingly have the most to lose wealth, riches, lifestyle, fun, bodily governance, moral autonomy, those are the ones who are captivated most by the message of Jesus.

In order for a tax collector to repent and follow Christ, he's got to lose.

He's got to lose his livelihood and his lifestyle.

Those things aren't necessarily congruent with the disciple of Jesus.

But this is why a few chapters later in Luke 19 that we're introduced to Zacchaeus, he's a tax collector who, upon an encounter with the Lord, is compelled to not only pay back everyone that he's stolen from, but he's moved to give away half of his wealth to the poor.

And Jesus says, Oh, salvation came to this house today.

It's why a few chapters earlier in Luke 7, the author recounts a time when a certain immoral woman encountered Jesus.

Now, certain immoral woman likely means a prostitute, and if that is indeed the case, there is a high probability that she has no husband.

Or she has no close male relative to provide for her in a male-dominated workforce, and actually what the law of God required.

Her only means of survival is to sell her body for food.

Or so she thinks.

So what does she do?

Oh, nothing.

Only break open a really expensive and valuable bottle of perfume, get down on the floor, wash Jesus' feet, using her hair as a towel and her tears for the water.

She shows a willingness to give up everything in order to be accepted by Christ.

Again, the religious leaders are perplexed and even repulsed because Jesus is allowing this certain immoral woman to touch him.

Jesus, recognizing the faith to do what she just did, to give up income, he forgives her of what he calls her many sins.

And she walks out of that house free and forever changed.

Perhaps it's not only the proximity to Jesus that changes people, the methodology in which he taught that changes people, but it's his embrace of those people that changes people.

But if we're being fair, and I like to consider myself a pretty fair guy, the Pharisees and religious leaders have a lot to lose as well, okay?

They've most likely sacrificed a lot of time and money to get where they are in their career.

I'm sure rabbinical school wasn't cheap, alright?

Perhaps they had very little time for anything else growing up.

All they had to do was study their whole lives.

Maybe some of you are familiar with that.

They've spent their entire lives trying to prove to God their worth and to prove it to everyone else by accumulating knowledge and practicing piety.

They're invested.

They're zealous.

They possess the traits of someone who's committed to righteousness.

And because of that, society reveres them or at least gives the appearance of reverence.

These guys, they earn the right to sit at the places of honor during banquets.

They rub shoulders with the political elites.

Their reputation is their currency, man.

And for some Joe from Nazareth to come to town and tell them they gotta drop everything and follow him because he's the only way to God, that sounds absolutely absurd and downright blasphemous.

You kidding me, man?

You know how hard I work for this job?

You expect me to drop everything and follow your fisherman entourage?

No, thanks.

I like my condo in Jerusalem.

Plus, you guys are always hanging around sick people.

I'm not trying to catch leprosy anytime soon.

The reason tax collectors and notorious sinners were compelled to listen to Jesus was because Jesus made them realize what they were carrying, their way of life, was actually not filling that God-sized hole in their heart.

And the reason the Pharisees and teachers of religious law were compelled to complain was because they believed what they were holding on to.

So, in Jesus' grace and his mercy, even to the Pharisee and the religious teacher, he tells a story.

The Father could have struck them down for not having faith in the Son, and yet Jesus tells them a little once upon a time.

From where we sit, parables can be frustrating, can't they?

Parables can be frustrating if we're honest.

They seem unrelatable, sometimes arbitrary.

And if people in Jesus' day struggled with their meaning, it's no wonder some of us have difficulty when we try to grasp them.

However, these short stories can actually pack a pretty potent punch.

Parables give the listener us an opportunity to contemplate deeper meaning.

But, you know, in an artificial intelligence age, prolonged moments of contemplation seem inefficient and a waste of time.

In an era of instant accuracy, addiction, we fail to possess the discipline of allowing Jesus' words to permeate our hearts and our minds.

Instead, we rush to conclusions.

We're hoping to acquire a new insight that we can add to our spiritual arsenal and then wield at others at self-righteousness.

But this unfortunate practice actually robs us of transformation.

It turns us into pseudo-Bible scholars that irresponsibly and often unknowingly just propagate false gospels.

You know, throughout this Lost and Found series, my prayer for all of us, myself included, is that we would approach these passages with humility and steadiness, that we would allow the Word of God to actually saturate our hearts, sit with it, and let it render transformation and honestly, more importantly, deeper and more authentic relationship with Jesus and with one another.

That's the kind of relationship that Jesus actually speaks about in the parable of the lost sheep.

In order to understand the significance of a man leaving 99 sheep in the wilderness to just go after one guy who's been separated from the rest, we have to understand the value of a sheep.

In the ancient world, and depending on your translation of the scriptures, sheep are mentioned on four to five hundred occasions in the Bible.

They were a primary means of food and clothing, not to mention the bones or horns used to craft tools and utensils, sheep, were a popular, popular form of currency.

And large numbers of sheep actually signified great wealth.

We read in Job that before his testing he had 7,000 sheep and ends up when he is restored to have double that being 14,000.

In 2 Kings, we read that the king of Moab had to pay the king of Israel a tribute of 100,000 sheep.

These are staggering numbers that represent the value placed on these animals.

And that's not even to mention the religious utility.

Sheep were a primary offering and regular sacrifice to God.

To lose a sheep would not only be to lose a large amount of money, but a very important and valuable religious commodity as well.

Jesus probably got through one sentence of this story, and the religious guys are already fuming.

In other words, likening a tax collector and a notorious sinner to a sheep implied great value to the owner, and most likely would have immediately evoked frustration for the Pharisee.

Unfortunately for them, the story gets worse because there is great value assigned to the tax collector and notorious sinner as represented by the sheep.

There must be unrelenting pursuit.

Jesus informs those listening that the search is indefinite.

The man is obligated to go after his lost prize.

Can you picture the tax collectors and notorious sinners hearing this?

They gotta be looking around and thinking, I think he's talking about us.

I think he he means us.

No one has ever gone to extreme lengths to seek me out.

I've just embraced my life as an outsider.

I I even perpetuate the same narrative that I'm unwanted by others.

Actually, I refuse close contact and intimacy because I'll just let everybody down.

They'll despise me even further.

Is there really someone out there that would leave the value of 99 and come looking for me?

And as Jesus continues to to tell his parable, I can just imagine and I want you to do the same too.

Imagine with me for a moment when he gets to the next part.

And he turns his attention away from the religious leaders, and he begins to lock eyes with the sinners one by one.

And he says these words.

And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.

The man in the parable could have reprimanded the sheep for being lost.

He could have grabbed a staff or even tied a rope around it, made the sheep walk back.

But instead, he picks up that worn down, covered in thorns and thistles, exhausted sheep, puts it on his shoulders, heads back home.

And while the religious leaders mutter under their breath, the sinners they breathe the greatest sigh of relief.

And if that isn't enough, the man carries that battered sheep home, cues the music, and throws a block party for the ages.

If we have pictured anyone other than ourselves, we are misguided.

If we have placed anyone else in the category of notorious sinner, then we run the risk of rubbing shoulders with the Pharisees and teachers of religious law, complaining to Jesus that he's hanging out with the wrong crowd.

We're in danger of becoming blind to our need for God's mercy and becoming deaf to the truth pouring out from the mouth of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul experiences this for the church in Rome.

It's a very diverse church, mainly Jew and Gentile.

And there's a little bit of friction, there's a little bit of misunderstanding as to what it really means to be a Christian, what it really means to follow the ways of Jesus.

And some are claiming this, some are claiming that, and Paul just levels the playing field in Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

He says, Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others?

No, not at all.

We've already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin.

And then he goes to quote on the Old Testament, as the scriptures say, no one is righteous, not even one.

No one's truly wise.

No one is seeking God.

All have turned away.

All have become useless.

No one does good.

Not a single one.

Their talk is foul like the stench from an open grave.

Their tongues are filled with lies.

Snake venom drips from their lips.

Jeez, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

They rush to commit murder.

Destruction and misery always follow them.

They don't know where to find peace.

They have no fear of God at all.

This is very explicit imagery and language here.

Fact of the matter is that every person to walk the planet, including you and I, have strayed away from God.

And we are in desperation.

Desperate need of pursuit.

Something really interesting about this passage, and I may be looking into it a little bit a little bit more than I should, so God forgive me if that's the case.

But nowhere in the text does Luke actually use the word shepherd to describe the man looking for the sheep, which would be a very familiar term.

Now it may have gone into the heads of the listeners as he as Jesus was saying this, but I'm wondering what if that was intentional?

Again, just a theory here, so don't crucify me, but what if Luke is communicating something even more profound?

And Ezekiel 34 caught my eye.

We're going to read the Bible in church today, if that's all right with you.

It says, Then this message came to me from the Lord, Son of Man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel.

Give them this message from the sovereign Lord.

What sorrow awaits you, shepherds, who feed yourselves instead of your flock?

Shouldn't shepherds feed their sheep?

You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flock starve.

You've not taken care of the weak.

You've not tended the sick or bound up the injured.

You've not gone looking for those who've wandered away and are lost.

Instead, you've ruled with harshness and cruelty.

So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal.

They've wandered through all the mountains and all the hills across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.

Quite an indictment.

But there's a solution in verse number 11.

For this is what the sovereign Lord says.

I myself will search and find my sheep.

I will be like a shepherd looking for a scattered flock.

I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they're scattered on that dark and cloudy day.

I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations.

I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers and in all the places where people live.

Yes, I will give them good pasture land on the hills of Israel.

There they'll lie down on unpleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills.

I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the sovereign Lord.

I will search for my lost ones who have strayed away.

And I will bring them safely home again.

I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak.

But I'm going to destroy those who are fat and powerful.

I'll feed them, yeah, I'll feed them justice.

God's funny.

What if the man in the story is the owner of the flock?

What if the 99 who are left behind are still being tended to by the shepherds that work under the owner of the sheep?

But the task is too critical.

The lost prize is way too valuable to trust anyone else but himself for the job.

Now I'm perfectly aware of Psalm 23 in John chapter 10, but what if Luke is elevating the stakes here just for a moment?

John 10 · chapter mention

What if he's saying the Lord loves you too much to outsource your search to a hired servant?

He will personally go find his lost sheep, bring them home, and throw a party.

And you know what, church?

That's exactly what he did.

Isaiah 53.

All of us like sheep astrayed away.

We've left God's paths to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly, and he never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Unjustly condemned, he was led away.

No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream, but he struck, but he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.

He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone, but he was buried like a criminal.

He was put in a rich man's grave.

God became a man in the form of Jesus.

He went to his lost people, the Israelites, and began bringing them back into the fold, one by one by one.

Follow me.

Follow me.

He not only went to extreme lengths of leaving his throne in heaven for a manger, he himself became the helpless lamb.

The lamb who would take away the sins of the world.

And as the scapegoat of all of our sins, they were placed on his head and he was driven away from the presence of his Father.

As the sacrificial lamb, the holy lifeblood of God incarnate was shed to purify you and me, giving us unhindered access to God.

However, unlike the sacrifices of old, this lamb would rise from the dead.

This lamb ascended into heaven.

This lamb sits on the throne to rule and reign over all the earth.

But he didn't leave his flock unattended.

He sent his own spirit to relentlessly pursue the lost.

You.

Me.

And when he has found us, he brings us home and he invites all of heaven to celebrate.

Rejoice with me, because I found my lost sheep.

You know, in a world concerned with expanding its reach through mass communication and populous infiltration, Jesus employs a concentrated focus.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, he seeks out the individual, brings them into the family, and then goes out searching for more.

Why?

Because we're valuable to God.

You don't hear anything else this morning.

You're valuable to God.

The reason you're valuable to God is because you're made in his image.

You're more valuable than a sheep.

You're his child.

You're his son.

You're his daughter.

My friends, you may have come in here searching for something, searching for a catchphrase to get you through the week.

Searching for some sort of inspiration, some sort of hope, maybe even searching for a person.

I'm here to tell you this morning, my friends, someone has been searching for you.

And he will stop at nothing until he has found that which belongs to him.

For those of us who were once lost and now are found, we have wandering tendencies, don't we?

We can set out looking for greener pastures only to be reminded that there's no place like home.

There's no place like being in the loving care of our Lord.

My encouragement for us is to simply stay put.

Stay in the fold.

Trust that God hasn't forgotten about you.

Trust that he's not going to abandon you.

Trust that there's no way he's letting you out of his sight after the work it took to bring you home.

And if you're wondering, well, what purpose can you serve while you're waiting around, I'd invite you to join the search.

There's other people who are lost.

There's other people who are far away from the fold.

Join the search party.

And if you're concerned about knowing the right things to say or what not to say or being looked at a certain way or not a certain way, don't be.

The Holy Spirit is the pursuer.

Jesus is the one who did the heavy lifting on the cross.

Just let others know that, hey, I used to be lost too.

I used to have insecurity a lot too.

I used to be helpless.

I used to feel unwelcomed.

Not anymore.

I'm home.

Actually, the guy threw a party for me.

Can you just imagine for a second the darkest point in your life?

Maybe it's even right now.

The deepest, darkest sin in your life.

And can you just picture Jesus coming out of the woodwork, throwing you over his shoulders, taking you back home, saying, guys, check this out.

I found the lost one.

He's home.

She's home now.

It's even hard for me to imagine, it's even hard for me to think back to when I was just in deep sin.

Deep sexual sins, abusing drugs and alcohol, no place to call home.

Sitting in the back of a church, weeping because I had never in my entire life felt the love and the presence of God before like that.

In the darkest point of my life, Jesus came and found me.

And he's doing that for each and every single one of us.

Lord, we praise you for your word.

We praise you that you haven't left us alone, God.

If you're lost today, you're just totally, utterly lost, or you're wandering, you're looking for different spaces.

Come home.

Today's the day of salvation.

Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost.

And we'll throw a party for you.

God, thank you for your word.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at Celebration O R L or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.