The Gospel of Luke 15:1-10 Lost sheep, lost coin

We're going to be moving into this passage, Luke 15, 1-10, and this is, like many, one of those that cultural and historical background ends up making a big difference in. These are the parables of the lost and found that we'll be looking at this Sunday and next Sunday as well. And the way it goes is like this.

Chapter 15 of Dr. Luke's Gospel here has three parables of things that are lost and then are found. Luke 15, 3-6, Jesus tells about the parable of the lost sheep that is found. In Luke 15, 7-10, Jesus tells another parable of a lost coin that is found. And then in Luke 15, 11-30, which we'll get to cover this next week, is the parable of the prodigal son who returns. This is the son who demands his inheritance and wanders off and then comes back. And we'll see that's actually a bit surprising too. But, next Sunday. So here's Luke 15, 1.

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near to him to listen to him. One of the things that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had concluded was that people were guilty by implication and association. New Testament times tax collectors and sinners was just an expression for the worst of the worst. The tax collectors and sinners summarized all the most horrible things that people could do and be.

And it's a phrase that's used in Matthew several times, and in Mark a couple of times, and actually this is the third time here in the Gospel of Luke. It'll also be the last time. One of the ways that we see guilty by association, you see this woman in the picture who's sitting next to Christ there? You see how the arms are bare? Constructive adultery, okay? That's constructive adultery, and then by associating with someone who's committing constructive adultery, then Jesus obviously falls into the same category. This is the Pharisee thinking.

One of the things that we saw in Luke 7, 29-39 is they accused Jesus of being a glutton and a drunkard. And was he a glutton and a drunkard? No, but they wanted to pin that label on him because the law allowed them that you could stone him. He wasn't, in fact, a glutton and a drunkard, but he was willing to associate with tax collectors and sinners for the sake of ministry with them. That was his purpose. In these passages in Matthew and Mark and Luke, it makes it clear that Jesus most definitely was willing to associate with these tax collectors and sinners. He, in fact, did so repeatedly, and it seems even intentionally.

It was by that association that Jesus ended up calling Matthew, the tax collector, to be one of his twelve disciples, and Matthew held a dinner for Jesus. Imagine, here's Matthew, he holds a dinner for Jesus, and who does he invite to the dinner? Remember, it's his tax collector retirement party, right? In honor of Jesus. And so he invites lots of tax collectors, who are, of course, the worst of sinners. Now, so as he goes to this party, there's a whole room full of tax collectors. All of Matthew's tax collector friends came. And this was a similar kind of event. Tax collectors and sinners just drawn to Jesus like a magnet. There is a specific reason why Jesus would deliberately take on these opportunities, call them that, right? To spend time with tax collectors and sinners of various kinds and categories.

In Luke 19.10, at the end of the passage about Jesus and Zacchaeus, it says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. To seek and to save that which was lost.

No Pharisee would ever do that. No Pharisee would ever do that. Jesus would seek to associate with these people, intentionally associating with them. He would also seek to intentionally die for them. On purpose. Here's Luke 15-2. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them." Can you imagine that?

So these Pharisees, the ones admired by most of the Jewish culture, I mean, actually, the only ones who didn't like the Pharisees particularly were the Sadducees and the Essenes, the other groups. Of course, the Essenes thought everybody was awful, right?

These Pharisees, admired by most of the Jewish culture, They were actually the Jewish missionaries. They went out into the then known world. Two-thirds of the Jews lived outside of Israel, and as they went out, they were missionary about their Phariseeism. The Pharisees had similar minded friends among the scribes, who were also called the teachers of the law and lawyers, other terms that we've seen. And one reason why the scribes would be friends is this.

If you were a Sadducee, you were only interested in five books, the first five books of the Old Testament, five books of Moses. That was all you were interested in. But the Pharisees believed in the whole Old Testament, as we call it. And so the scribes would get copying jobs for all the books of the Old Testament, not just the first five.

The scribes were the ones who copied the books of the Old Testament. They kept the genealogical records and other public and private records. You want a marriage certificate? They'll write that up for you. You want a divorce certificate? They'll write up that for you as well. You want a copy of a particular book or document? They'll write that up. You want your family genealogy? They'll do that too. As long as you pay them for it, of course.

Now, Pharisee thinking. We want to climb into the mind of the Pharisee, if you can handle that. We want to think like the Pharisees think and understand how they think. The Pharisees despised the tax collectors so much because the tax collectors, after all, could collect anything that they wanted as long as they paid the Romans what they agreed to pay.

They could collect anything beyond that and use Roman military forces to enforce it. And the Roman military forces were not either inclined or compelled to tell the truth. False accusations were common. And so these tax collectors could get lots of money. And so it was considered by the rabbis, these Pharisees, perfectly okay to lie to a tax collector in order to preserve property. Okay? It's just fine. You can't break the Ten Commandments, but it's okay to lie to these tax collectors. Right? Because they're such nasty, awful people. Right? Okay.

So the Pharisees also had a saying, let not a man associate with the wicked. even to bring him near to the law. So even to bring the law to them was considered something you just don't do. Not even for that purpose was it okay to get next to these wicked people. So Jesus' thinking was not at all in line with the Pharisee thinking.

So the Pharisees and their friends, the scribes, grumbled. Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. Right? And in fact, the Greek word is ganguzo. And so it's supposed to sound like grumbling. Ganguzo, ganguzo, ganguzo. Right? That's what they did. So, they were grumbled about Jesus receiving and eating with these tax collectors and sinners. The Greek word here, There it was intended to imitate that sound.

The Jews will all grumble once more when Jesus gets social with Zacchaeus. We're going to see that in just a few chapters here. And Zacchaeus is not just a tax collector, but he's a chief tax collector. The worst of the worst of the worst. Terrible. So here's Luke 15, 3 and 4. So Jesus turns around hearing them grumbling and seeing their very disgusted faces, right? He tells them this parable.

What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? If Jesus' listeners did have sheep, they could easily relate to this parable, and even if they did not, they had likely seen or known those who kept these sheep. Now, a hundred sheep would have been sort of an average size of flock, a modest amount of sheep, not a really big number, not a really small number, but fairly average. If just one of these hundred sheep was lost, then any keeper of the sheep would find and rescue the lost one. Now you might be thinking, now wait a minute, what is this about leaving the rest of the flock in order to get the one? Doesn't that leave the rest of the flock at risk?

Are you thinking that? You're wondering? Yeah. Well, not to worry. For a flock of sheep about that size, you might have two to four shepherds. It would be typical. So that would leave, if one person went after the lost one, one to three shepherds would remain with the other 99 sheep. So they'd be okay. You don't need to worry about it. Just don't be counting sheep right now, because I need you to stay awake. Okay. All right.

Now, what happens to lost sheep? Believe it or not, if sheep fall on their back, they may not be able to get up. They need lots of help. And so they may be lost just because of that. Sheep can sit like this for hours. Bleating and squirming and still not able to get up. they may fall into a watering hole. I once had a situation where we had a shallow well. Sheep fell into the shallow well, couldn't get out. And they don't have a sense of, you know, water's a little too far down. They don't have a sense of that.

So they easily fall into things like this. They get caught up in brambles. And I've seen where sheep will go bleating and bleating and bleating until they have no, you know, Bleating noise left this You know, okay, and so they get caught up and and when they caught up like this after eating everything around them They can get thirsty and run out of food. So and they get exhausted, right? So I read that can happen right and they can get stuck in a place where they can't get out. I one kind or another.

You heard of mountain goats. Sheep are not like mountain goats. A lot of these sheep, they can get stuck in a place, and a mountain goat would easily get out, but not the sheep. Now, there's something else that can happen to sheep if they get lost for a long time. Way too much wool. This sheep here had been lost for about five years. 89 pounds of wool on the sheep, when they finally cut all the stuff off. Anyway, I'm glad they found it. Found it, I think, about last September or something like that.

Okay, so different things can happen to sheep, and even worse than what I pictured here. But anyway, we won't go into that. Now, so who is lost here is the question. So the Pharisees, a little bit of wisdom, let not a man associate with the wicked, even to bring him near to the law. valued sheep more than people. I'll go after the sheep, but this guy here? Nah, I'm sorry, he's disgusting.

Amazingly, Jesus spends time with these Pharisees and scribes who are indeed lost but don't know it. See, they consider themselves found. They consider themselves, if anybody, the most found of all. They're lost but don't know it. So Jesus tells them three parables, one about a lost sheep, next about a lost coin, and next about a lost son. And all three of them are found. So here's Luke 15, 5 and 6.

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, which was lost. So the keeper of the sheep found the one lost sheep and put it over his shoulders. And imagine a lot of these sheep, I just showed you some of the pictures, a lot of them will get really exhausted. either lying on their back where they can't get water, they can't get food, right, and so they'll be exhausted, just squirming around and unable to get back up on their feet, or caught in the brambles, or stuck in a place where they can't get out of, and so they'll be exhausted. And so one of the things about taking the sheep and putting it over the shoulders is the sheep then doesn't have to expend any more energy struggling and trying to get back up or whatever the condition is. The sheep would be safe and not have to expend that energy.

The keeper of the sheep is privately rejoicing as he goes back, right? And then once he gets back with the rest of the flock where it belongs, then he asks his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him. So this part of the parable tells us that the keeper of the sheep had been talking to his friends and neighbors about the lost sheep, right? Otherwise they might just be surprised. But he might have said, you know, I can't find this. Have you seen it? No? Sorry, you haven't.

Talking to all the friends and neighbors about the lost sheep, going out and finding that sheep, and then rejoicing, says that the sheep is valued. One. Just one. Valued. A sheep that is lost is not to be simply written off, but to be pursued. That, of course, is what you're going to do. But now, we all know Jesus isn't just telling a sheep story, just like Verne doesn't just tell farm stories, right? Okay. So here's Luke 15, 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. So the sheep, of course, is the lost sinner, just one. The shepherd who goes after the lost sheep is Jesus, who said that he is the good shepherd. This is in John 10, 1 through 18. I am the good shepherd. The Old Testament pictures God as the shepherd of Israel. Psalm 23 is a personal expression of that. The Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd individually. Psalm 80 verse 1, the shepherd of all the nation of Israel.

Other passages convey that same thing. The Pharisees and scribes would never see themselves as lost. They would see themselves as rather the ones who distance themselves from those who are lost, as they estimate it. This parable also conveys the value of ministry to individuals.

Here's Psalm 28.9, Save your people and bless your inheritance. And this is, of course, from Israel's national hymn book. Be their shepherd also and carry them forever. Carry them forever.

Here's Isaiah 40 verse 11, like a shepherd he will tend his flock, in his arm he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom and he will gently lead the nursing youths. That shepherd picture, word picture, is carried over into the New Testament about us in the body of Christ. Now, the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, Christ, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.

Here's 1 Peter 2.25, For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

And finally, in 1 Peter 5.4, Peter's writing to the elders, and he says, And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Here's what's interesting. The word that's translated pastor is only used as a title in these passages of Christ. It's never used of someone in the role of a pastor. Isn't that interesting?

So here's Luke 15.8, or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

And believe it or not, we'll find out here in a minute, this parable starts just like one of the parables that the Pharisees used to say. Right? So we'll look at that in a minute here. This coin is the Greek drachma, which is roughly equivalent in value to the Roman denarius. It's a day's wage for a laborer or a lower level Roman soldier. And some have suggested that this was the woman's dowry. And sometimes you'll see pictures and even movies made with that implied there. But it's not really clear from the context. It's not clear that she's married. It's not clear that it's particularly for a dowry or anything of that sort. So that would be an assumption but not necessarily proven.

Coins being lost on the floor however was actually fairly common and people sometimes hid them under the floor intentionally. Once in a while archaeologists will find a cache, a large gathering of coins underneath the floor, underneath the threshold in the doorway and But it was pretty common to find that.

Cobblestone floors had cracks between them and dirt was easily blown in, tracked in, etc. so as to cover a coin. So either way, you might lose a coin on the floor. As a matter of fact, sweeping them would uncover the coin by getting the dirt off of it or be more likely sweeping to dislodge a coin that had gotten caught in the crack. And you'd hear some kind of a clink noise when the coin hit on the stone. At the synagogue at Magdala, they were able to date the synagogue by the coin stuck in the floor. Same thing at Capernaum, coins underneath the floor actually allowed them to get a date for that as well. So coins getting stuck somewhere on or between or on top of the floor was pretty common.

Now, it talks about this woman lighting a lamp. Houses had small windows, if they had any windows at all. And think of it, they didn't have glass, so you couldn't have a large opening or the house would get a lot of wind and that sort of thing in there. So windows were small, typically high up. And so lighting a lamp would be necessary from that standpoint.

But there's another thing. Some areas in Israel have dark rock as the native rock that's available. That's the case in Capernaum. And so if you have acres and acres and acres of this dark basalt, you're also not only going to have small windows, but you're going to have dark walls inside. And your flooring material will probably also be dark. And so to find a lost coin required a lamp, even if it wasn't nighttime. So the woman would sweep and move the lamp along as she went along checking until she found this coin.

Where is that coin? Where did it go? I had no idea I'd lost it. The implication is that the woman was not wealthy. Loss of one coin, ah, this is panic. She searched carefully, Jesus said. So here's Luke 15, 9. When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I have lost.

Similar in pattern to the shepherd that found his lost sheep. Rather than the negative grumbling that we hear from the Pharisees and the scribes, This parable, and the one before it, had the friends and neighbors being invited to rejoice in what was lost, then being found. So the call to rejoice again showed the opposite of what the scribes and Pharisees were doing. While it contrasted there, the Pharisees and scribes are not prominently pictured in this or the previous parable, but it soon will be shown in the next one, in the Prodigal Son. We'll see that. So as I mentioned earlier, the Jews had a parable like this one. It was all very similar. You can imagine the Pharisees, as they begin hearing Jesus tell this parable, they're saying, yeah, we've heard this before.

But Jesus puts a twist in it they're not expecting. In the Jewish parable, the moral of the story was that a person should search the Torah more diligently than the woman searched for the lost coin. since the Torah study would yield an eternal reward, supposedly, and not just earthly enjoyment. And so Jesus took that parable that they were all familiar with and made a different ending in it. The Jewish parable taught the merit of works.

Work hard. Dig all you can out of that Torah. Jesus' parable, on the other hand, sought to convey compassion that Christ the Savior had and the joy in heaven over the salvation of just one. One by one. Here in Luke 15, 10, in the same way I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Now, we're inclined in our modern culture to be impressed by numbers in both evangelism and in shepherding and teaching people. People tend to think about numbers and statistics and efficiency and effectiveness. I think Halley used to call it nickels and noses, right? And that seems to impress people a lot these days. How many people did we have and what was the offering and getting all the numbers up?

But Jesus is telling about the value of one individual. God cares about one. He usually healed people, some exceptions, one at a time. And He gave individuals His time. He didn't just do program management. He wasn't just selling His brand. Over the centuries, God has saved millions and millions of people. And how did He do that?

One at a time. As we've been saying of late, you specifically and personally have God's undivided attention. That's important for us to realize. God's not just dealing with masses and programs and dividing up His time among all the different people. Because God is an infinite being, He always, as we sing the song, He always has time for you. Always. He's never pressed for time. Now this mentions the angels of God. Jesus said there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over even one sinner who repents, expressing the value of the individual.

That is, they change their mind so as to end in belief. This is important to get clear as to what repentance is. It's not feeling really, really bad, right? Repentance is not crying and sobbing a whole lot. It's not promising to do better next time. It's a change of mind that ends in belief. That's what repentance is.

The angels like us are created spiritual beings, but created quite differently. The appearance is that the angels were given one window of opportunity to choose for or against the Lord, and about a third of them chose to follow Satan against the Lord. But, unlike us, there does not appear to be any means of salvation made for them, as we do. The angels look at our situation and marvel. They're amazed by it. Because it is through looking at us that they learn about God's wisdom and God's mercy and God's grace.

At Luke 19.10, at the end of the passage about Jesus and Zacchaeus, it says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He has come explicitly for that. Not like the Pharisees, to keep apart from people. Not like the Pharisees, to make sure I'm better than that one.

Salvation has multiple dimensions for us in the body of Christ. we are saved from the penalty of sin and grace given our position a person will believe that Christ died for their sins was buried and rose again and God said that's it I'll take it from there I'll do everything else and from there From there, God does all the other things, including we are crucified with Christ and separated from the law, the world, and the sin nature.

We are buried with Him. We are raised with Him and given life. We are ascended with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places where we're blessed and have our citizenship in the heavenly places. All that happens, and God did it all. We didn't earn any of it. All we did was believe. that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. That's it. We're placed into Christ, and Christ is placed into us. We're placed into the Spirit, and the Spirit is placed in us. And all those mean different things. But all of God's accomplishment in our position is because we believed, and that's all. It's not of our own merit. We're saved from the power of sin. What does that mean? It means the sin nature has been dethroned.

It means, as Paul puts it in Romans 6.11, even so consider, reckon, as the King James has it, yourselves dead to the sin nature but alive to God in Christ Jesus. And by the way, that second half is very important.

It's not optional. You can't sit there and battle the sin nature and expect to have power over the sin nature. We're saved from the absolute reigning monarchy power of the sin nature. And finally, we're saved from the presence of sin. There will come a time, I hope it's today, there will come a time when we will walk through heaven's gates and we'll be done with these bodies.

And we get a new one, like His. 1 John 3, 2 says, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. In what ways will we be like Him? We will be like Him in every way but His deity. in every way but His deity. A body like His, having been identified with Him, sharing a history with Him. Be like Him in every way but His deity.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You as we look at this. You have indeed sought us out. You sought us out and radically saved us. Saved us not just as an insurance policy, But You saved us indeed from the penalty of sin. You saved us from the power of sin. And You saved us from the presence of sin. And we look forward to that day. We hope it's today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.