The Kind of People God Welcomes

Audio Transcript

If you would, please take your Bible, or your phone, or your tablet—whatever you have—and turn to Luke chapter 15 this morning. Luke 15.

This chapter contains one of the most famous parables Jesus ever told. And I say that up front because there’s always a danger in that, of us going, “Oh man, I’ve heard this since I was in Sunday school.” And we tune out and you start thinking about the lasagna you’re going to have for lunch or whatever it may be. I would urge you to resist that and try to lean into this this morning and really hear this afresh. You’ve probably heard these verses taught as three separate parables. The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. But that is not at all how Jesus told it.

He told this as one parable. In fact, if we go ahead and peek ahead to verse 3. We’re going to start in verse 1, but just look at what Luke says in verse 3. “So He (Jesus) told them this parable.” This parable, singular. It’s one parable with three scenes, you might say. A play with three acts. But they’re all connected.

It’s very important that we look at this in the way Jesus intended it. And I think once you see why He structured it this way, you’ll never be able to unsee it.

This parable was told for one reason. Understand, Jesus is not—when He says these things—He’s not filling up time. He’s not just saying, “Well, maybe I should say something now, so let me see what I can cook up and say.” He’s responding to things that are happening around Him, to things that are being said. And this parable was told for one reason. And that was to answer one of the oldest religious complaints in the world.

And that is, “Why does God allow the wrong people into His kingdom?”

Luke chapter 15, verse 1. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.'”

Jesus, we’ve seen this now in our study so far through the four Gospels, Jesus has gained a reputation for being a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Just a very brief recap. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman government. Jews hated Rome. They were under the heel of the Roman government. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for Rome and skimmed money off their fellow Jews. They were the most hated men in town. Tax collectors were there with Jesus.

Sinners. Sinners was a broader category that the Pharisees used to describe everyone but themselves. When the Pharisees stood and prayed, “Lord, I thank You that I am not like other men.” Yikes. So who is gathered around Jesus once again? Who is He giving His time and attention and care to? Tax collectors and sinners, the most hated, despised people by the religious community in that day. These were the very people the Pharisees spent their entire lives avoiding.

In fact, their whole theology was built on separation from people like this because they were considered unclean. If a Pharisee accidentally bumped into a tax collector or a sinner in town, he would go home and ceremonially wash himself and change his clothes. Pharisees didn’t even want the shadow of a tax collector or sinner to fall across their path.

Yet here was Jesus, claiming to speak for God, welcoming tax collectors and sinners. This infuriated the Pharisees.

And they said, as a public indictment of Him, as a dig, they said, “This man,” they can’t even say His name, “this man receives sinners and eats with them.” That word “receives” is strong. It’s to welcome. It’s to embrace.

And He eats with them. We’ve talked about this before. Eating a meal in that day was not like you going to the drive-thru, you know, at 90 miles an hour because you’re in a, and you grab a burger and you’re on your way. Eating a meal in that day with someone was essentially saying, “You and I are in agreement. We are one.”

“This man receives sinners and eats with them.” He fellowships with them. He’s one with them. And that sentence is the whole reason Jesus told this parable, one story told in three parts. And pattern: something lost, something found, and a celebration.

Pharisees grumbled about Jesus spending time with the lost, and He’s about to show them these are the very people heaven throws parties for.

Verse 4, He begins now, “Which one of you,” answering this question to the Pharisees and scribes, “which one of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” Now, we mustn’t miss what Jesus is saying and where He’s directing this comment.

When He says, “Which one of you,” or the King James says, “Which man of you, having a hundred sheep,” He’s telling these Pharisees to picture themselves as shepherds.

Now for us, that might be a cute, fun thing to think about. “Wow, what if I was a shepherd?” This would have been highly insulting to these Pharisees and scribes. They considered shepherds to be unclean, subhuman people. They wouldn’t go near shepherds.

And Jesus is saying to them, “Hey, fellas, I want you to imagine for a moment that you are a shepherd.” Now, some of them have already swallowed their gum at this point. With the first sentence, Jesus has already brought these religious snobs down one notch.

But they have to agree with the sentence He just said. You know, obviously everyone in that culture knew even one sheep was a valuable asset. It could give wool again and again, and that could be sold, and that would provide an income for the family. So of course, if a sheep got lost, the shepherd would go out and find it. Everyone knew that. Now, this lost sheep represents the first kind of lost person. And I would submit to you that every one of us this morning can find ourselves in one of these here today.

A sheep doesn’t run away in rebellion. It simply gets lost by not being alert. Out in the field, with the flock, head down, eating, taking one more step to the next patch of grass and the next and the next until it looks up and sees the whole flock is gone and he is lost.

It’s not rebellion. It’s carelessness.

It’s the kind of lostness that can creep up on any one of us. Because we haven’t been paying attention, we haven’t been vigilant, we haven’t been alert, we haven’t been sober-minded.

It’s the kind where you wake up one day and realize you’ve drifted far away from where you meant to be. It’s the kind you wake up and realize you haven’t touched your Bible in three months. It’s the kind of lostness where you realize you’re going to church every week, but you’re not even there. It’s kind of lostness when God feels a hundred thousand miles away.

This is why the Bible urges us constantly to be alert, to be watchful, to keep our eyes on Him, to listen to His voice, to follow in His steps. This is, it’s not even a daily thing, it’s a moment by moment thing. We must be alert. It is so easy to drift away from the shepherd and to drift away from the flock.

And notice the wording here. The shepherd goes after the sheep until he finds it. Not until it gets dark. Not until it’s inconvenient. Not until he’s too tired. Until he finds it. He won’t stop until the sheep is safely back in the fold. Verse 5, “And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” He doesn’t scold it. He doesn’t beat it. He doesn’t belittle it.

He scoops up that lost sheep. He places it on his shoulders and he carries it home. Shepherds would, well, they still do to this day if a sheep is lost. They will pick it up and they will place it behind their neck with the belly of the sheep on the back of their neck and they’ll hold the back legs here and the front legs here and they’ll walk home with that sheep on their shoulders. That shepherd bears the full weight of that sheep all the way home. A sheep can weigh 50, 60, 70 pounds or more.

The shepherd doesn’t make it walk back. It picks it up, places it on its shoulders, and it carries the weight of that lost sheep until they reach the safety of the fold. It’s a picture of what God has done for us through Christ. Did Isaiah not write about this? In Isaiah 53, verse 6, “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Verse 6, “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'”

And then Jesus gives the spiritual application to this parable that He’s just told. Verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.” Now let me clear this up real quick. Jesus is not saying that there are some people who don’t need repentance. We all need repentance. The fact that Jesus worded this the way He did is absolutely brilliant.

If I were telling this parable, I would have messed it up right here, because I would have been tempted to say, “There’s more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who think they need no repentance.” But that’s incorrect. He’s drawing these Pharisees in now to this parable. Whenever you hear a story, you begin identifying with one of the characters.

And when He says, “99 righteous persons who need no repentance,” the Pharisees said, “That’s us.” Because they were so self-righteous. They were so certain of their own goodness that they truly saw themselves as people who needed no repentance.

And Jesus catches them right here in this one statement. 99 people who need no repentance. They must have said, “Yeah, I know what He’s talking about.”

But Jesus is calling them out. He’s not praising them here. He’s actually saying, “You are the ones who are left out.” He’s saying, “You don’t bring any joy to My Father in heaven.” God doesn’t rejoice over those who think they’re righteous. He rejoices over the ones who know they’re not, and who repent, and who come home.

Scene two, verse eight. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?”

First, Jesus deflated the ego of these Pharisees by telling them to think of themselves as filthy shepherds. Now, He deflates their ego even more by telling them, please forgive me, to think of themselves as a woman. In that culture, and it was a horrid thing. And by the way, Jesus is the one who began correcting this. But in that culture, women were treated about the same as animals.

They had no respect. They could not testify in a court of law. They were looked down upon. They were berated. They were not respected at all. And Jesus is telling these men to think of themselves as a woman. It’s very hard for us to feel the impact of that statement for these self-righteous men. It must have been jarring for them. First, think of yourselves as a shepherd. Now think of yourselves as a woman.

Now this lost coin represents the second kind of lost person. The sheep wandered away by its own carelessness. The coin was lost through no fault of its own. It was dropped, it was misplaced, it was left in a dark corner somewhere, unable to do anything about its own condition, not even knowing it was lost. It’s an inanimate object, but it was lost.

The sheep knew it was lost, but didn’t know how to get found. The coin didn’t know it was lost, and therefore didn’t know it needed to be found. Two different types of lost people.

We’re all born lost. That beautiful newborn baby that you hold in your arms. This is why parents don’t want me to come to the hospital room after they had a baby, because I say things like, “Oh, you know what? A lovely little sinner.” I don’t say that. I’ve never, I’ve never said that. Pam, David, did I say that to you in the hospital room when this gal was born? No, I didn’t. I didn’t say that. But we’re all born lost, all of us. But most of us, most of us were born in a place where the light of God’s truth was readily available. How thankful we should be for that. But there are some people who are born into very dark places where they’ve lived for years and years and no one has brought the light of God’s truth to them.

Now this is a sticky subject. But Jesus makes it clear that heaven is searching for them too.

This has been a hard one for me to understand when I was younger. I do understand it much more now, but I still have some gaps. Just because I’m human. But the Bible says that everyone who is born, regardless of when they’re born, regardless of where they’re born, everyone at some point will have God’s truth revealed to them in some way. So that no one has an excuse. That’s a hard one to grapple with. But it’s only because of our limitation of understanding of how God communicates His truth to people.

You see, most of us heard the truth by maybe Christian parents, and then going to Sunday school every week, and seeing flannel graph, and hearing hundreds or thousands of sermons, and reading the Bible. That’s how we heard the truth. But I’ve met people in Africa, even some here, not many, but some here who grew up, they were adults, never held a Bible in their hand. Never heard a Bible verse read. Never heard about salvation. And yet they knew something was missing. They knew it. Ecclesiastes 3.11 says, “God has set eternity in the hearts of men.” It’s that ping that goes off constantly. You’re made for somewhere else.

So in some way, you know, Romans 1 describes all this, if you want to dig into that this afternoon. It says in some way, in God’s own sovereign power, that everyone ever born will have a chance to hear the truth in some fashion. He will not leave anyone without excuse. It’s a remarkable thing.

Now look how this woman searches. She lights a lamp. She takes it into the darkness. She sweeps the house. She leaves no corner untouched. She seeks diligently until she finds it. There’s that same phrase, the same relentlessness as the shepherd had. The search doesn’t stop until the coin is found.

But maybe in our modern culture, we should pause and ask ourselves, why all this fuss over a coin? I mean, if you lost a nickel, you wouldn’t spend the whole day turning the house upside down to find it. You might glance around quickly and then go, “Eh, it’s a nickel.”

But let’s be careful when we read the Scripture. What did Jesus say about these coins? He specifically said there were ten coins. A woman had ten coins. I think that’s important. It was common for a man in that day to give his bride a headband made of ten coins strung together. It was a dowry. It was a pledge of his commitment. There’s a picture of a modern-day one right there with 10 coins. This was extremely precious to her. It was like a diamond engagement ring is today.

That’s why she turns the house upside down. Now, Jesus doesn’t specifically say this was it, but a woman with 10 coins, she loses one. It’s highly precious to her. She spends her whole day searching for the thing. Seems to be that this would be what He’s talking about. And she doesn’t stop until she finds it.

Verse 9, “And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Twice now, the same ending: lost, found, and rejoicing.

Scene three, the lost son. We refer to it as the prodigal son. The word prodigal simply means wasteful or excessive. It’s to spend money or resources recklessly. That’s what the word means. So he could be called the reckless son, the wasteful son. Now you’ve heard this part of the parable many times.

A father has two sons, apparently a wealthy father. The younger son goes to his father and demands his inheritance right now, which in that culture was the same as saying, “Dad, I wish you were already dead.”

To say this was breaking protocol would be an understatement. This was one of the worst offenses imaginable for a father to have to bear. “I wish you were dead. Give me what’s mine.”

And so the Pharisees listening to this already now just must be aghast at hearing this. “What a worthless human being! What a shameful son! Dishonoring his father, dishonoring his family name by going and demanding his inheritance early!” And it says the father gave it to him. Now that, that was a real shock for them because they would have expected the father to slap the son through the face, to curse at him, to tell him what a rotten, lousy son he is.

“He’s definitely not getting his inheritance early.” That’s what would have happened. But Jesus, again, is opening their eyes to something they’ve never thought of before. The father gives him his inheritance, all of it.

Now the Pharisees are thinking not just, “What a shameful son,” they’re thinking, “What a shameful father.”

Verse 13, “A few days later, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living.”

Boy, who in the world could pack so much into one sentence but Jesus? He gathered all he had, all his new fortune. I guess went down to First, Third, Ninth, Twelfth Bank, or whatever that is. Weirdest name for a bank I’ve ever seen. Which is it, First or Third? It’s Fifth. Is that what it is? Fifth, Third? Blows my mind every time I drive past that sign.

So he goes, you know, he obviously turns it all into cash, and he gathers all his stuff, and he leaves home.

Notice it says he goes to a far country or a distant country. That means nothing to you and me because we travel freely. You know what this meant to the Pharisees listening? He left Israel. He went to a Gentile land. There’s another mark of shame.

Now he’s gone as far away as he can, probably far enough so that the father and the family can’t check up on him. He wants his own life. He wants to do his own thing without anybody looking over his shoulder. He goes to a far country. And there, what does he do? He squanders, he wastes his wealth in wild, riotous living. Well, we’ll find out in a moment what that wild living was. For a while, the son got exactly what he wanted. Lots of money, lots of freedom, lots of partying.

We don’t have a lot of young people in here today, but I would say to you, be very, very careful of demanding to get things before their time. Be very careful. There are certain processes in place that ought to be honored. If you give the car keys to a five-year-old, you’ve violated one of those natural processes of wisdom built in, and there’s going to be trouble as a consequence.

Young people, when you demand to have your freedom before it’s time, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. Be patient, wait, mature in that process of having someone over you. It will serve you well the rest of your life. I’ve met people who broke free early, and I’m not saying, you know, I left home early, some people do, but I’ve met people who did this out of rebellion, and I’m telling you, 40 years later, 50 years later, you see them, they’ve had 128 jobs. Because they cannot stay under anyone’s authority. They’ve always got to be free. And you know what? It’s always the boss’s fault. Staggering, isn’t it? It’s always the boss’s fault.

So he leaves. He gets his way. He gets exactly what he wants. Verse 14. “But when he had spent everything,” oh my, “a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.” Uh-oh, reality. Verse 15, “So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he longed to fill his stomach with the pods,” or the husks, “that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.”

Oh, the shame is mounting now in the minds of these Pharisees. Not only has he shamed his father, not only has his father acted shamefully, not only has he done something wretched by leaving the land and going to a pagan Gentile land. Not only has he acted shamefully by squandering everything he got, now he’s gone and joined himself to a Gentile, working for a Gentile, and now he’s working with pigs. A Jew working with pigs. I mean, it doesn’t get any lower than this.

This boy who demanded his freedom ends up in a pig pen, starving, envying the slop that the pigs were eating. Listen, folks, this describes the outcome of sin. Please hear me. Someone once said this: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” Mark it down. That is a law of the universe. It will not be broken. Sin always has a day of reckoning.

I’ve been there a few times. I can tell you about it.

The younger son has hit rock bottom, and that’s sadly what it takes for some people to come to their senses. Verse 17, “But when he came to himself,” or when he came to his senses, “he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food enough to spare? But here I am, dying of hunger.'”

At his lowest point, what does his mind immediately go to? Home. Home. That place he couldn’t wait to leave. And he thinks of his father, the man he dishonored. And he remembers what a kind and generous man his father is, even to his hired servants. He treats his hired servants with kindness and with generosity. And the boy’s sitting there in the mud thinking about this: “I left this generous man with a heart full of kindness because I thought I knew better. Now look at me.”

So he begins rehearsing his speech. Verse 18, “I will arise and go to my father. And I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'” Now, pause quickly there. He’s not just making this up out of thin air. This would have been protocol for a son who did what this boy did. If he ever wanted to come home, he would have had to work all of his debt off. Would have taken decades in most cases.

He would have been treated not like a son, but like a hired servant. He would have been forced to work and repay that inheritance that he wasted. And the son is now low enough that he’s prepared to do just that.

Verse 20, “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him,” or “fell on his neck,” the King James says, “and kissed him.” And the son starts his speech. He says, “Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me—” And the father stops him. Verse 22. “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick, bring the best robe and put on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”

Man, what a heartwarming picture this is of the father’s love and grace for his wayward children. Listen, in that day, if someone had gone off and disgraced his family as this boy had done, if he ever returned, the people in that village or that town saw it as their responsibility, as a way of honoring the father who had been disgraced. The people in that town, as soon as they saw that one returning, they would run out to intercept his path, before he got home, and they would surround that person, and they would heap shame on him.

But the father had been searching the horizon every day, and when he saw his boy coming home, the father ran to get to him before the villagers did, so that he could cover his son’s shame.

You know this, it was unheard of for a dignified elderly man to run in that culture. They wore robes all the way down to their sandals. He’d have to hike up that robe and show his bare legs and run. It was unheard of for a dignified man to do that, but the father doesn’t care. He runs, he embraces his boy, and he takes his son’s shame upon himself.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.”

The father cuts off the boy’s speech before he can humiliate himself. He says, “Bring the best of everything. We’re having a party.” Lost, found, celebration.

I intentionally misled you at the beginning of this sermon. I told you there were three scenes, but there are actually four. Some of you may not have known that because this last scene in the closing verses always seems to get overlooked. But I want to begin winding it down with this, verse 25. Now that itself would be a wonderful end to the story, but sadly it’s not the end because Jesus still has to deal with these Pharisees standing in front of Him who just accused Him of hanging around with bad people.

Verse 25, “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And the servant said to him, ‘Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he’s received him back safe and sound.'” Verse 28, “But he, the older brother, was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat.'”

It could be worded, “You never gave me even as much as a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.” “But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, how did he know? You killed the fattened calf for him.”

The Pharisees at this point must have been nodding in agreement. “Yes, the older brother, he’s the one who kept all the rules. He was the one who was faithful. He’s the good one like us. He’s the one who should be celebrated.”

And they took the bait.

Watch how tenderly the father responds. Last two verses in this parable, 31 and 32. “And he, the father, said to him, the older son, ‘Son, you’re always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad for this your brother.'” Uh-oh, Dad called him out. Did you hear a minute ago? Older brother wouldn’t say “my brother.” He said “this your son.” Dad says, “No, no, no, no. This your brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.”

The older son could have been with his father any time he wanted. He had access to everything that the father had, but instead of seeing it as a relationship, he saw it as a transaction. He was keeping a ledger. He said, “Look at all I’ve done for you. I deserve to be honored.”

And Jesus is aiming this right at the Pharisees and scribes. He’s essentially saying to them, “You think you know God? You don’t know God at all. You don’t even know that what brings Him the most joy is when a lost sinner is found and comes home.” That’s what brings Him joy. That’s what causes heaven to burst and erupt in praise.

They didn’t know that. They thought God took joy in them because of their pride and their arrogance and their self-righteousness. That’s exactly why they complained in verse 2 that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. They were saying, “We’re the good ones. We’ve earned the party, not the people You’re hanging out with.”

I tried to boil all this down into one sentence. Here’s what I jotted down: “Grace always feels unfair to those who think they’ve earned their place.”

And Jesus ends the parable right there. Like, it doesn’t say another word. We’re never told if the older brother goes in or stays out. Jesus left this parable unfinished on purpose so that the Pharisees and scribes would have a chance to write their own ending. He’s inviting them all in. But sadly, most of them would never go. And they ended up putting Him to death.

At some point in our lives, we’ve all been one of these lost people/items. Which one do you identify with?

Maybe you’re the sheep. You didn’t rebel, you just drifted. You just haven’t been careful. You haven’t been paying attention. You haven’t been alert. One small step at a time until you looked up and you realized you had strayed from the flock. Is that you this morning?

Maybe you’re the coin. Through no decision of your own, you were dropped somewhere along the way. You were lost and left in a dark corner, not even aware of how lost you really were.

Maybe you’re the younger son. You knew exactly what you were doing. You looked God in the face and you told Him off, and you walked out, and you wrecked your life.

Or maybe you’re the older brother who stayed faithful the whole time. You’ve been a good boy and a good girl. Been in church every week. You’ve done the right thing, and you’re angry that God welcomes sinners because you think you deserve the party.

But celebrating is exactly what happens when something that was lost has been found. And every celebration answers the complaint back in verse two that we started with. They accused Jesus of receiving and eating with sinners, and He said, “Yes, that’s exactly what I do. That’s why I came. I didn’t come to call the righteous, ahem, but sinners to repentance.” He’s saying, “Every meal I share with a sinner who’s come home brings joy to My Father’s heart and to all of heaven.”

Folks, how thankful we should be that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, because that is the only reason any of us were found.

I ask you as I close — have you been found?

I want to encourage you by saying, don’t believe the lies of Satan. Don’t believe the lies of other people or the lies you tell yourself. Don’t believe for a minute that you’ve wandered too far, or that you’ve been left in the dark too long, or that you’ve rebelled too badly, or that you’re not welcome inside.

The fact is, the shepherd is climbing that hill looking for you. The woman is lighting the lamp, searching for you in every dark corner. The father is scanning the horizon, waiting for you to return. He’s inviting you into the feast.

All of heaven right now this morning is longing to celebrate the moment that you go from being lost to being found. Will you be found this morning?