A HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS

CCCC. Adopting God’s View Of Lost Sinners

(Luke 15:1-32)

I. Introduction

A. Christ’s earthly ministry attracted not only the religious, but even despised publicans and sinners, Luke 15:1.

B. The religiously conservative Pharisees and scribes complained that Jesus not only received such sinful people, but that He even ate with them, a cultural practice that indicated fellowship with such despised folk, Lk. 15:2.

C. Jesus addressed this critique by the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, Luke 15:3-32. We thus view that instruction for our insight, application and edification (as follows):

II. Adopting God’s View Of Lost Sinners, Luke 15:1-32.

A. The parable of the lost sheep teaches God loves the lost, Luke 15:1-7 (J. D. Pentecost, The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, 1991, p. 333, citing A. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jes. the Mes., 1912, vol. 2, p. 255):

1. Jesus taught that any one of His critics who had a hundred sheep, if he had lost one of them, would leave the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness and go seek for the one lost sheep until he had found it, Luke 15:4.

2. When he found it, that man would lay it on his shoulders and rejoicing, he would return home, calling his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him over the fact that he had found his lost sheep, Luke 15:5-6.

3. Jesus thus said that when one sinner repents, there is more joy in heaven over that one repentant sinner than ninety-nine just people who do not need to repent, Luke 15:7.

B. The parable of the lost coin teaches God works hard to save the lost (Ibid.), Luke 15:8-10:

1. Jesus gave a second parable of a woman who had ten “pieces of silver” (KJV), ten drachmas, “Greek coins each equivalent to a Roman Denarius, a day’s wage” (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Luke 15:8).

2. If the woman lost one of those coins, what she highly valued since it comprised a day’s wage, she would light a candle and sweep the whole house, seeking diligently for that coin until she found it, Luke 15:8.

3. When she found it, she would call her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her that she had found the valuable, lost coin, Luke 15:9.

4. Jesus thus said that there was joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents, Lk. 15:10.

C. The parable of the lost son teaches that God fully restores the lost if they repent (Ibid.), Luke 15:11-32:

1. Christ’s third parable told of a man who had two sons was asked by his younger son for his share of his father’s inheritance, so the father gave it to him, Luke 15:11-12. That son then took his inheritance and traveled into a distant country and there wasted his inheritance on wild living, Luke 15:13.

2. A great famine then arose in that land, and without the means for a livelihood, the prodigal son joined himself in servitude to a citizen of that foreign land and the citizen sent him to feed pigs, Luke 15:14-15.

3. The son was so hungry that he was even tempted to eat the food being served to the pigs, and nobody was giving him any regular human food to eat, Luke 15:16.

4. The prodigal then came to his senses, thinking of the hired hands in his father’s house who had more than enough bread to eat while he was perishing with hunger caring for a foreigner’s pigs, Luke 15:17.

5. The son then chose to return to his father and admit he had sinned against God and his father, that he was not worthy to be called his father’s son, and to ask his father to make him his hired servant, Lk. 15:18-19.

6. When the son returned to his father, his father saw him coming from a distance, and, having compassion on his son, the father ran out to him, fell on his neck and kissed him with a warm greeting, Luke 15:20.

7. The son confessed his wrong and admitted that he was no longer worthy to be his father’s son, but the father reclothed his repentant son and made a great feast to celebrate his return, Luke 15:21-24.

8. The older son was upset that his father had given such a great feast for his prodigal brother, but the father replied that the elder son should rejoice that his brother who had been lost was now found, Luke 15:25-32.

9. Jesus thus implied that the Pharisees and scribes should not criticize Jesus for eating with publicans and sinners any more than the older son in the parable should criticize his father for celebrating the return of his prodigal son, but to rejoice with Jesus, God and the angels that the publicans and sinners had repented!

Lesson: God infinitely loves the lost, He searches hard to save them and He fully restores them when they repent, believe in Christ and are saved. Thus, we the people of God need to follow God’s leading to love the lost, to search hard to disciple them and to rejoice greatly when they repent and believe in Christ.

Application: May we follow God’s lead to love the lost, work hard to disciple them and rejoice when they repent.