Who’s Your One? Why Jesus Goes After the One | Luke 15

I am super excited this morning because uh as a church today we are kicking off a brand new series called Who's Your One?

And over the next few weeks, we are leaning in to one of the one of the greatest missions on earth, seeing God radically transform change eternal destinies, right?

Change eternal destinies, one life, one soul, one name at a time.

So that's what we're gonna be leaning into over the next few weeks.

Who's your one?

Now, this morning I want you guys to imagine for a moment.

Imagine you're responsible for a hundred kids at a park.

You do a head count, you know, 100.

Great.

Okay.

You turn away, you look away, you come back, you got to do a second headcount.

So you do a second headcount.

This time you get 99.

Now, nobody says, well, 99, that well, 99%, that's an excellent success rate.

No, nobody does, nobody congratulates you on the kids who are still standing there, right?

The whole atmosphere changes because one kid has gone missing.

Right?

No, you know, it think about it this way: if an airline announced we are proud to report that 99 out of 100 passengers arrive safely.

Nobody's applauding that.

You'd be thinking, what happened to the one?

Right?

Okay, now before I enter into our passage for this morning, I want you to do something for me.

I want you to put one person in your mind.

I want you to put one person in your mind, somebody you love who doesn't know Jesus.

One person, one name.

And I want you to hold on to that name for the next 30 minutes.

Now, for those of you, if nobody comes to mind, stay with me.

We're gonna get there too, I promise you.

But for the rest of you, think about that name and hold on to it for the next 30 minutes.

Now, we're gonna go into Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

You can open up your Bibles, Bible apps, or you can follow along on the screen.

Let me give you a quick context.

Jesus tells this story that we're about to go into because the religious people around him were complaining that he spent too much time with the wrong kind of people.

This story is his answer to this, it's it's his response to this.

Luke 15, we're gonna pick up in verse 3.

Then Jesus told them this parable.

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.

Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.

I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.

There's gonna be rejoicing in heaven.

Why does heaven get so loud over one person?

That's this question for this morning.

And Jesus answers it in three steps.

He shows us God's concern for the one, his pursuit for the one, and his joy in the one.

Look with me again at verse 4.

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.

A hundred sheep.

Jesus says he loses one.

A man with a hundred sheep back then was actually doing pretty well financially.

He could probably afford to lose a sheep or two.

Nobody would have blamed him for shrugging it off.

But he goes after it anyway.

But think about what this means.

This means the shepherd, he counted.

Right?

You don't you don't know what is missing unless you count it.

He didn't glance at the field and get a general impression.

He went through each of them.

He had the number in his head and he came up one short.

Are you following?

You gotta and let me say this, you gotta understand, you gotta almost get into the shepherd's mind and in his heart for a moment.

You gotta understand the concern that would be brewing in this shepherd.

See, because the lost sheep is already in a dangerous situation.

I don't know if you guys know this, but sheep, they're confused animals.

They have difficulty finding their way back home on their own.

And as soon as they wander off, they are defenseless against almost any danger that comes their way.

Eventually, a lost sheep will fall from a steep cliff, or die of starvation, or get torn apart by a wild predator.

Sheep are defenseless on their own in the wild.

If a sheep wanders off, all they can really do is wait to be rescued.

Now, isn't this such a vivid picture of our own spiritual condition apart from Jesus Christ?

I mean, apart from Jesus, we were lost in the rocky wilderness of life.

Apart from Jesus, we fall into sin and starve from a lack of spiritual nourishment.

And yeah, there's a wild predator who seeks to devour us.

Church, when we are lost, we wander the trails of disobedience and rebellion.

And church, we can't find our way back to God on our own.

All we can do is wait to be rescued.

All we can do is wait for Jesus to find us.

Now, this shepherd, let's go back to him.

He didn't stand in front of his flock saying, I'm at 99% retention.

Woo-hoo! No, he didn't say that.

He said, Somebody is missing.

Somebody is missing.

And church, that's the first shock of this story.

Not that sheep wandered off.

Sheep wander.

That's what they do, it's in their nature.

The shock is what one missing sheep does to this man.

See, because most of us, we probably would have been like, hey, you know what?

No big deal.

99 came home, that's a good day for our family.

I'm good.

Not this man.

He felt the absence of the missing one.

And look, I can let me let me get real with you for a moment, okay?

Because I can get concerned over a lot of things.

Still waiting on the new season of my favorite show on Netflix, I can get concerned about that.

Remotes missing.

Oh, the whole house shuts down.

We formed search parties to find my TV remote.

The thermostat moved down two degrees.

Ooh, somebody's gonna answer for that one.

Dishwasher.

Oh my gosh, don't get me started on the dishwasher.

Dishwasher's loaded like nobody's ever seen a dishwasher before.

My phone hits 20%, and somebody took my charger.

Somebody at the leftovers I plant to eat.

You know, my the hot water runs out in the shower.

Wi-Fi starts to buffer for a few seconds.

Now I gotta call somebody.

Publix out of my favorite ice cream.

Oh gosh, somebody put the empty ketchup back into the fridge.

You too bad.

I can't skip, so I gotta watch the whole thing.

Drive through forgets the sauce, and God forbid somebody is sitting in my seat.

Church, I can get concerned about a lot of things in my life.

But am I concerned about the guy who cuts my hair every month who doesn't know Jesus?

Am I concerned for my neighbor who's been living in spiritual darkness for years and nobody has ever once shown genuine concern for her life?

Am I concerned for somebody at my own dinner table?

Somebody I love who doesn't have the hope that I've got.

Church, do you have that concern?

Who's the lost person in your life?

Who is your one?

I have a pretty big family here in Florida.

Anytime we have a family gathering with all the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, of course, pictures have to be taken.

Everybody gets up, people are shuffling around, getting themselves situated, everybody's fixing their hair, others are sucking in their tummies, myself included.

Everyone's getting their smiles ready, you know, and they get they get ready for that for that picture perfect moment, that photograph to be taken.

And somebody says, Oh, wait, wait, wait, where's Mikey?

What happens next?

Well, nobody wants to take the picture yet.

Because the group is almost there.

Almost.

See, nobody says it's it's good enough.

We we have almost everybody.

No, no, nobody says that.

Nobody says it's it's good enough.

No, somebody says, where is he?

And then they go looking for him.

See, that's verse four.

Let me ask you something, church.

If I looked at your calendar, your phone, your dinner table, your prayers, would I find evidence at all that lost people are on your heart?

And look, I'm not talking about lost people in general.

That's safe.

I'm not talking about the lostness of America.

I'm talking about a person with a name.

Would we see evidence of that?

You know, when I first got saved, all I wanted to do was talk about Jesus.

In fact, my whole life was full of people who didn't know Jesus.

No joke, out of every 10 people I was friends with, at least seven or eight, maybe nine of them, were non-Christians.

And this wasn't a strategy, this was just my life.

We moved back to the US, and over the years, those numbers have started to shift.

Maybe four out of ten people.

And eventually I became an elder at a church, and then eventually became pastor here at Belvedere.

And now almost every single person on my calendar already believes.

Church people, fellow pastors in the city, elders at other churches, leaders here, believers, believers, believers.

And look, let me let me be clear.

Let me tell you something.

I didn't I didn't lose the desire to reach the lost.

I want to be crystal clear about that.

I did not lose the desire to reach the lost.

I lost proximity.

And I didn't even notice it was happening.

It happened slowly over years.

And then one day I look up and I realize I could go an entire week, maybe two, maybe three, without one real conversation with somebody far from God.

And I know some of you, you've been in church 20, 30, 40 years.

You built a good life.

You built a good Christian life.

And somewhere along the way, you stopped noticing the lost people.

But this morning, let me tell you something.

I'm not leaving you there.

God's not gonna leave you there.

Because I want you to remember something.

God noticed you.

God had concern for you before you were saved.

You didn't bring your impressive resume to God.

You didn't find your way into the flock because you were smart about it, or you cleaned yourself up first, or because somebody looked at you and thought, oh, that one, that one's got potential.

No, that's not how it happened.

You you were the one he counted missing.

He counted, he came up once short, and it was you.

You're not sitting here because you were better at finding God than everybody else.

You're sitting here because God was better at finding you than you were at hiding.

And praise God for that.

He came up one short, and then he pursued.

You know, there's the passage, the passage says, doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

I mean, imagine that for a moment.

I I mean, I can only imagine what this could have been like.

Yeah, just picture this.

The shepherd, he leaves the 99, he walks off into the dark after the one, the one lost.

You know, maybe he goes up the ridge.

He climbs the hills that he would rather not climb.

He goes down, down into the ravine, the place where an animal falls and can't get itself back out.

Thorns tearing at him the whole way, hands bleeding on the rocks.

And he's calling out all night.

He's calling out, he's calling out to his lost sheep.

And he's all there all alone doing this.

Nobody's out there with him, nobody's got a flashlight or anything with him.

But he doesn't turn around, he keeps going.

Now, look, Luke doesn't say any of those details.

That's that's me being a little bit creative and filling in the dark.

But the verse does tell us where he went.

He went where the sheep had gone.

Not where it was easy, not where it was convenient.

He went where the sheep was.

And look at where Jesus ends the search until he finds it.

Search, the the church, the the the search has an ending, and the ending is found.

The sheep was lost until he finds it, until it is found.

He seeks until he finds.

All night, if it takes all night, that's what he does.

He pursues.

When this shepherd goes out after the one, you can be sure he's gonna come home with one.

If our shepherd goes out after the one, he is gonna come home with the one.

Now let's go back to the start of the parable.

Because there's another point I want you to see here.

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep.

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep.

See, he's having you imagine you're the owner.

He's having you imagine you're the owner.

A man who home who owns a hundred sheep back then, they've got employees.

They've got hired men.

Sometimes it's their own sons.

So as the owner, he could stand at the gate, he could point to one of his hired men and say, Go find it, bring it back to me.

I mean, that's actually what you would expect this shepherd to do.

But that's not how the story goes.

See, this man went himself.

He's the one in the ravine at midnight.

He's the one with his hands bleeding.

And church, God promised this.

In Ezekiel 34, God looks at the shepherds of Israel, the ones who let God's flock scatter, and he says, I myself will search for my sheep.

I myself.

And then he did.

He climbed down, down into the ravine, and into our ravine.

The Son of God came down into our humanity.

Jesus walked into our darkness to pursue after us, to rescue us.

You know, a few years ago, I was out on a on a jet ski here in uh peanut island.

And I'll tell you, the currents that day, they well, they were strong.

Uh I saw I saw swimmers getting getting pulled away from their boats and fast.

I come across, I see this husband and wife couple out there swimming for their lives.

Waves are are crashing into their faces and they are exhausted.

I mean, you could see it all over their face.

They're trying to get back to their boat, and they're not getting any closer.

The more they're paddling, every time they they come up, these waves are just crashing over them, and as strong as they're going, they're getting further and further away.

So I drove over to them and I threw them a rope.

But I didn't tow them in on the rope.

I pulled them onto the jet ski, both of them, out of the water, sitting behind me, safe.

No chance of them slipping off and going back under into the into that strong current.

And as I watched them, I saw what true helplessness looks like.

I mean, they were they were kicking with everything they had, and they were losing ground every second.

They couldn't save themselves.

If someone didn't reach into that current and pull them out of the water completely, they were going under.

Church, that was you and me in the current of our own sin.

We were we weren't paddling our way to safety.

Jesus pulls us up out of the deep.

Church, I know there's a lot of you this morning who are here still still trying to hold on to that rope.

In fact, most religious teaching of Jesus' day said that the sinner makes the first move.

You clean yourself up, you find your way to the fold, and then God receives you.

And I know there's a lot of people in this room who may believe that.

You maybe you won't say it out loud, but you believe it.

You some for some reason you think that God is standing so far in a distance, and he's standing still.

He's standing far in a distance, standing still, and you're the one who has to close that gap.

Friends, that's not the gospel.

The gospel is not God yelling directions to people lost in the dark.

It is God coming into the dark to bring people home.

And he didn't meet you halfway, he came all the way into your lostness.

He died for you, he rose from the dead for you so that you could be forgiven of your sin and restored in a right relationship with God.

In fact, there's something I've been praying about lately, and and and I want to give it to you this morning.

I've been praying, I I I want to be amazed again.

I want to be amazed again that Jesus pursued me.

I've been praying, Jesus, make it amazing to me again that you pursued me.

And church, he's still doing it.

He found one sheep and he kept going.

He's on a pursuit right now, this morning, and he doesn't stop.

He doesn't stop until every last one of his people is home.

The Lord is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

And listen, I know Jesus is coming back.

I have real hope in that reality.

He is coming back someday.

And when he comes back, the door closes.

But right now, the door is open.

Right now, the invitation is still out.

Right now, this is the patience of God.

And I'll tell you what I sit with when I think about that.

I sit, I thank God.

Thank God Jesus didn't come back before somebody came and got me.

Thank God he waited.

Thank God he was patient with a kid who thought Christians were brainwashed.

Thank God the door was still open to this rebellious, filthy wretch of a sinner.

Thank God the door was still open, and I was able to walk through it.

Thank God for having concern over my life, for pursuing me, for rescuing me.

Mike, stand up.

Thank God.

Thank God he was patient and he didn't return until he saved you.

Bree, stand up.

Thank God that he came and rescued you before returning for the end.

Ray, well, you're already standing, buddy.

Thank God.

Thank God we have a long suffering, patient God.

In fact, everybody stand up.

All of you stand up.

Thank God that He has not returned yet.

Thank God He is patient with us and He has rescued you.

He has rescued.

You each and every one of you, and if you're not in Christ, thank God because He's pursuing you too.

And church, that is why I can't sit still with this.

Because there are people I love who don't know Jesus yet.

There are people in my neighborhood, there are people in my family.

I want them saved.

I want them with me.

I want to be standing next to them in eternity.

And church, the door is still open.

That is the whole reason we go.

Jesus pursues his people through his people.

So we pursue.

We pursue the lost.

Sit down.

The great shepherd.

He goes out into the dark to pursue his people.

And he is calling his people, you and me, all of us, to come out there with him.

So what does that look like for you?

It means you quit waiting for lost people to find their own way in.

Are you hearing me?

Lost sheep can't do that.

That's the whole point of the story.

They can't get themselves home.

Somebody has to go.

It means you see what they need instead of blaming them for their mess.

Right?

That man's life fell apart because of the choices he made.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

That that's probably true, but so did yours.

You don't stop pursuing them.

You love them.

You pray for them.

You don't give up on them just because it takes longer than you hoped.

You keep faithfully pursuing them as long as God gives you the opportunity.

And don't misunderstand me, church.

You leave the saving to God, but you pursue.

You pursue.

It means you learn his patience.

Maybe you invited somebody three times and they said no, three times, and everything in you just wants to say, Well, I did my part.

No, you keep pursuing.

He searched until he found.

Church, that's the pace he is setting for us.

And look, I know some of you are here this morning.

You're not being sent anywhere.

You're the lost sheep.

You're down.

You can't get up.

And you know it.

To you, I tell you, let Jesus come get you this morning.

Let him rescue you.

Verse five.

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

He finds it.

So look at the sheep for a second, because what does the sheep do here?

Nothing.

It gets picked up and it gets carried.

That's the sheep's entire contribution.

What does Jesus call this in verse 7?

He calls it repentance.

And I want you to pay attention to this.

See, the sheep doesn't rescue itself and then come back to the shepherd.

No, the shepherd finds the sheep and carries it home.

Repentance isn't cleaning yourself up so God will come get you.

It is turning away from your wandering and entrusting yourself to the shepherd who came for you.

That's repentance.

And picture what this actually looks like.

I mean, picture the shepherd as he's carrying this sheep.

Right?

He takes that animal, he lays it across the back of his neck, gathers all four legs, puts it together in front of his chest, and he holds on.

And then he starts walking.

And understand a grown sheep can be over a hundred pounds.

That's a long way back home.

So the whole way home, he can feel it.

He can feel the weight on his neck, the warmth of it.

He can feel it breathing.

He can feel its heart beating.

The animal is so close, close enough to touch his face.

And church, Jesus puts one word on this man.

Joyfully.

He is joyful the whole way home.

With all that weight on him, he's happy about it.

The weight isn't ruining his joy.

The weight is the proof of his joy.

The weight on his shoulders means his sheep is safe.

If the story ended there, that would be that would that would already be mercy.

He went out, he found it, he brought it home.

That's enough.

Jesus isn't finished.

He wants us to see how God feels about the lost.

Remember when I told you I was kind of filling in the dark with my own creative details?

The thorns, the the hands bleeding on the rock?

Again, Luke, Luke doesn't tell us, you know, there were thorns or or bleeding hands on this shepherd's, you know, during the shepherd's search.

But the gospel tells us something far greater.

Because there did come a day when thorns went into Jesus' head.

There came a day when he took a weight up onto his shoulders and carried it up a hill for people who could not walk themselves home.

Ambrose, a pastor from 1600 years ago, he said it like this: the shoulders of Christ are the arms of the cross.

The shoulders of Christ are the arms of the cross.

Hebrews says he went to that cross for the joy set before him.

Joy.

Verse 6, then he calls his friends and his neighbors.

He calls them together and he says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.

I mean, think about this.

He can't hold it in.

The shepherd comes down off that hill and he's got the whole street standing in his yard rejoicing with him.

You ever been in a room when that when that famous Neil Diamond song comes on, sweet Caroline?

Right?

It doesn't matter where you are.

Maybe it's a ball game, maybe it's a wedding reception, maybe it's someplace on Clematis on a Friday night.

The second those horns hit, the whole room knows what's coming.

And then everybody sings it together.

Sweet Caroline, bum, bum, right?

Nobody organized it.

Right?

No, nobody passed out sheet music.

You got strangers with their arms around each other.

You got grown men who can't sing one note, singing at the top of their lungs.

Good times never seem so good.

So good, right?

You you understand what I'm saying?

One room, everybody in the same room, same joy, same moment.

The whole crowd is singing together with just joy and glee.

But even with all that joy in that room, it doesn't even come close to the joy that happens in heaven when one lost soul is saved.

Not even close.

And then verse 7 Jesus takes this whole thing and he moves our eyes upward.

I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.

More rejoicing in heaven.

Church, he's not talking about the neighbors anymore.

He's talking about the throne room of God.

And he says, heaven rejoices, the angels, God, all of heaven rejoices.

Understand, God is not reluctantly persuaded to save sinners.

He's not dragging his feet toward mercy.

He carries the sheep home with joy.

And contrary to what you might believe, our joy in being saved, hear me, our joy in being saved doesn't even come close to his joy in saving us.

Are you guys hearing that?

Our joy in being saved doesn't even come close to his joy in saving us.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this part.

I know some of you are hearing these verses.

And maybe it's not landing like good news.

Maybe it's landing like heartache.

Because you've been praying for that same name, maybe for 20 years.

Maybe some of you are raising your grandkids right now, praying for their parents.

And you hear that that heaven throws a party over one, and something in you says, Well, then where's mine?

When is God gonna save my one?

I want you to listen to me.

The final ultimate party hasn't happened yet.

Which means the pursuit is still on.

So we pursue.

We continue to pursue the lost.

Now I want to be clear about something before I ask you guys to do anything.

See, I don't want you to feel guilty enough to talk to somebody.

Right?

Guilt might get you to do one awkward thing, maybe one time, and then you'll just quit.

Joy changes what you want.

Evangelism isn't a recruitment for an institution, it's it's joining the celebration of what makes the heart of God glad.

And church, a testimony of a lost soul saved by faith in Jesus.

That's something that heaven celebrates.

So when God gives you a name, he's not handing you a project.

He's teaching you to share his joy.

And to share in his joy.

At the start of this morning, I asked you to put one person in your mind.

Who's your one?

Every day this week, Lord, show me my one.

And listen, if you came up empty, don't fake a name.

That blank is telling something true.

Not that you're a bad Christian.

It's that maybe, maybe your life got arranged so that you're almost never around somebody who doesn't already believe what you believe.

So for you, your week looks a little different.

I want you to look at the rooms you're already in.

The break room, the job site, the office, the clinic, the gym, the golf course, the classroom, the community clubhouse, the bleachers at your kids' game.

There are lost people around you every week.

People you've been just walking right past.

So this week, pick one.

Learn something about their life.

Be curious about them.

See, listen, you were somebody's one.

God used somebody who noticed you.

Somebody prayed.

Somebody invited.

Somebody spoke up.

Somebody didn't give up on you.

That's in part why you're sitting here.

Who's your one?

In fact, picture your one.

Picture your one being found.

Being forgiven.

Standing in that water, getting baptized in front of this church, telling their story with hope and love in their eyes.

In heaven, rejoicing.

Church, do you want what God wants?

If yes, then ask him, Lord, show me my one.

Church, who is your one?

He came after you.

He was joyful the whole way home.

And he has not stopped pursuing.

Let's pray.

Father.

Align us with your heart.

You have a concern for the lost.

There are people, there are children of yours who do not yet know you.

Lord, you had a concern for the lost.

You continue to have a concern for the lost, but you don't leave it just as a concern.

You pursue.

You pursue your people through your people.

Lord, align our hearts, align our activities, align our behaviors, align our prayers to that concern and that pursuit.

Help us know who the one is in our life that you want us to reach.

And Lord, we pray expectantly, with expectant anticipation, that you will lead our ones to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and all of us will rejoice as heaven rejoices.

Father, we thank you.

And Father, light this flame in our hearts and fan this flame as we go out into our world and reach your lost people.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.