Luke 15:1-32 (Pastor Tim Robinson)

Thanksgiving for Joy, Salvation, and the Coming Kingdom

Amen, let's go to the throne of grace. Father God, thank you that we can come here and sing songs of joy, sing them to you. Thank you for filling us up with joy. Thank you for the worship team, Lord, that they can lead us in this beautiful worship.

Thank you for everyone here at this church that serves. Thank you for all the blessings you've given us in 2024. Thank you for the rain that falls on the just and the unjust alike. Thank you for loving every single person you've made near and far.

Thank you for calling us who believe to repentance and faith in your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for saving us, for you love the world so much that you sent your one and only son, that all who believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Thank you for the life that you've given us. Even now, how we have a more abundant life here on earth. Thank you for the life to come, Lord. We look forward to your coming. We look forward to your kingdom.

Thank you for reaching us with the gospel. I pray today, if there's any here that don't understand the gospel, that haven't truly repented, that they would today before 2025, because today is the day of salvation.

I pray that you would speak to us through your word that we might understand you more, that we would know you more, that we would love you more, that we would leave loving you even more than when we walked in.

Pray that you would stir up our hearts to do things for you, that we would evangelize and preach the gospel to the lost. Thank you for loving all of us and saving us, Lord. We ask that you would bless our time together as we read your word.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, well, today is the day the Lord has made, so we will rejoice and be glad, amen. Rejoice and be glad in it. One of the last times I preached, I preached on Philippians chapter two, and I gave you guys the important message of, and the importance of rejoicing and being glad.

It's so important to be able to rejoice and be glad in the Lord. And at the time that I gave that message, I had a lot in my life to be happy over, a lot of blessed things happened. At the time, I just got out of prison, not because I got locked up.

Maybe one day I'll get locked up because I preached the gospel, that would be cool, and then I'll have a full-time prison ministry. But we went in there with a group of guys, and we got to share the gospel, and we got to see people come to faith.

I was overjoyed by that, so happy. And then during that same time, I had just graduated from Cairn University. Remember I told you guys I crammed a five-year program into 12 years? I managed to be able to do that with all my time at RCBC in Cairn.

I was happy for that, and I also turned 30 years old in April, and some of you might look at that as old, some of you might look at that as young. I'm just happy to be in the fourth decade of life God has given me.

I feel blessed, I'm happy. And during that time, I got married in May to the most beautiful girl in the whole world. She's sitting right over there. I was overjoyed, and now before our first anniversary, God willing, we'll be welcoming into our life a new baby, if you couldn't tell, Mary Elizabeth is expecting.

And we will be welcoming, how many people think boy? Oh, how many people think girl?

Well, you're right.

We're welcoming a beautiful baby girl in May, and we're just so happy and blessed. And I say beautiful because we looked at the ultrasound picture, and the baby already looks like Mary Elizabeth so much.

I couldn't even find one feature that looked like me. So that's a good thing, I like that. I'm happy for that. But we appreciate your prayers and your support, and we're just so thankful for a loving church family that loves us, and we're overjoyed to be parents, and we experience a lot of God's grace that saved us, and now is blessing us with a child, and we're just so happy.

The Father's Joy Over Lost Sinners Found

But today, we're not talking about just our joy, my joy, and your joy, and everyone's joy. We're also talking about the Father's joy. Did you know joy comes from God? Joy comes from God, and anyone around God when he's joyful is gonna be joyful.

So anyone who has the spirit of the Lord, one of the things that they should have, and one of the things they should produce, number one is love, but the second thing is joy. That's what marks a true believer, joy.

But the Lord has joy, and we'll learn about this joy in Luke chapter 15. So you can open up your Bibles to Luke chapter 15, there you're gonna see some headings of the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the prodigal son.

We can easily change those headings to the found sheep, the found coin, and the found son, because all of those parables have to do with something or someone getting lost, someone looking for what was lost, and then someone finding what was lost, and then when the thing that was lost or the person that was lost is found, there's a celebration and rejoicing and joy, and they throw a party for what they found.

And what the parables mean, and what they communicate to us is that when God sees one sinner repent and believe in Jesus, there is a party in heaven, there's celebration in heaven, there's joy before God and before the angels, because this is what makes the father happy, this is what makes the father joyful, to see lost sinners found, to see the dead come alive.

I was looking on Instagram the other day, and I saw there's this guy that collects pictures of MLB baseball players that when they hit a home run for the game winner, that's called a walk-off, when they're rounding the bases and they're heading home, right when they round third base, this guy, he collects photos of the player rounding third base, because he says this is the closest thing he can find on earth to what heaven looks like.

Rounding third base, and you know what happens when someone hits a home run if you're not a sportsman? The whole dugout, all his teammates and coaches and everyone in the audience starts cheering, especially if it's the home team, and runs and is ready to meet them at the plate and celebrate with that guy that hit the home run.

What a beautiful picture. And God is ready to celebrate a lost sinner who sinned against him, sinned against a holy God, and is now repenting, turning away from a lifestyle of selfishness and sin, and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

That's what makes God happy. Sure, he's already happy, he's already joyful, and he's already loving, and he can do that all on his own with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, but he's made us and chose us before the foundations in the world that he might save us, and when he saves us and when someone repents, it brings him joy.

And when we see someone who repents for the first time and believes in Jesus Christ, what should we do? We should be ready to celebrate, we should be joyful, we should shout for joy, ready to give God the glory, because it's him who saved that person.

So let's look at the text, verse one. Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him. They were all drawing near to Jesus. You think that's a good thing, and it is. Some people think that's a bad thing during that time.

But tax collectors and sinners were not viewed as someone with a lot of power, viewed as someone that is very likable. They were actually the most hated people, tax collectors and sinners, in the time of Jesus, especially by the religious elite.

They were viewed as, especially tax collectors, as dishonest, they were traitors, they were sold out to Rome, they collected taxes, not for Israel, but they collected taxes for Rome, and then the things that, and the money that they got from their brothers, they gave to Rome, and the extra amount that they collected, they got to pocket, so a lot of them were well-off and rich, and people might have been jealous of them, but people did not associate with them, because they were outcasts, they were traitors, they were looked down upon because they were tax collectors.

The Jews, especially the Pharisees and scribes, looked at tax collectors as outcasts, as someone less than them. Jesus didn't share those same sentiments. The tax collectors and sinners, he seemed to befriend them.

The beautiful thing about Jesus and the gospel is a lot of times, it's the humble, it's the outcast, it's the sinner, it's the one that's a sinner and knows that he's a sinner, that comes to faith. Those are the type of people that Jesus is looking for.

Those are the type of people that God saves. Do you think Jesus should have been caught dead with some tax collectors and sinners? Well, in verse two, it says, and the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

The Pharisees and the scribes, they didn't like that Jesus was sitting with unbelievers, sitting with tax collectors, sitting with sinners, sitting with people that were beneath them. Do you think Jesus should have done that?

How about you guys? Do you guys have unbelieving friends? Do you guys have friends that are sinners? Friends that are outcasts? I do. You guys ever eat breakfast with them, hang out with them? Maybe go to Stacks on 38?

Maybe go get lunch? Do you like eating breakfast? Do you like eating lunch? Do you like eating brunch? Well, guess what? So do unbelievers. You guys like watching the Eagles play? Some of you guys got an Eagles shirt on today.

I like to watch the Eagles play. Guess what? So do unbelievers. A lot of them aren't here on Sunday. They're worshiping football on Sunday, but hey, I like the Eagles, so do they. Some of you guys like movies?

Guess what?

So do they.

Some of you guys like walking around your local park? You like to exercise? You like to go to the gym? Guess what?

So do they.

Here's the difference between us hanging out with unbelievers and Jesus hanging out with unbelievers. No matter what you guys thought, Jesus was there to hang out with them, not to affirm their sin or to sin with them.

He was there to seek and to save that which was lost. He was on a mission. When you guys go and hang out with unbelievers, whatever excuse you make, if you don't have a mission mindset, you probably don't have the right mindset.

You need to come to your senses and see that these people are lost. They need a savior. They're dead and they need to become alive. They need the gospel. They need to hear that Jesus died on the cross.

Jesus loves him and loves them. And Jesus took the penalty of their sin on his shoulders and died on a cross for them and rose from the dead so that they might have life. They need to know this. And he's ready to send the Holy Spirit to save all who believe that.

Those that repent, turn from a lifestyle of sin and selfishness and believe in Jesus Christ. So the thing about the religious elite is they didn't wanna see sinners saved. The Pharisees and scribes, they weren't on the same mission as Jesus.

They were exalting themselves and Jesus was trying to exalt God. A lot of times the Pharisees and scribes opposed Jesus. They grumbled, they complained. They didn't like what he was doing. They should rejoice when they see sinners come to Jesus, but instead they grumbled.

You know, people that grumble, they nitpick stuff. Instead of just being happy for the person, they wanna find what's wrong. We ought not to be people like that. We should be encouraging one another, brothers and sisters, looking for things to lift them up, not squash them and look down on them and grumble and complain.

The Pharisees and the scribes were antagonists. Jesus was the ultimate protagonist.

He's good.

Pharisees and scribes, not so good, but they look good on the outside. My friend Tim McCormick over there taught me that these guys were hypocrites. Jesus called them hypocrites and the best definition for a hypocrite, what Tim taught me, what is it, Tim?

Actor.

Actor.

They're actors.

They're pretending to be something that they're not. They look good on the outside, but inwardly, they're dead. Jesus also called them whitewashed tombs. Look good on the outside, but on the inside, just full of dead man's bones.

Nothing going on. Dead, spiritually dead. So Jesus sees them grumbling, so he decides to tell them a parable. Now, who's around to hear the parables that Jesus is about to speak? Well, you got the disciples, you got the tax collectors, you got the sinners, but this parable is directed right towards the scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus was bold. He was God, but he was bold, and he directed these parables towards them to try to expose. Now, parables, when you read parables in the Gospels, they're stories meant to reveal truth to those that are being saved and those that can hear and those that have their eyes open and the right to the kingdom of God, but they're also there to conceal truth from those that hate the truth, those that are against God.

So parables are both to reveal and to conceal truth. That's why he tells them the way he does. So in verse four, he starts with, what man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

Now, they would have understood what a shepherd was. They would have understood that they don't like shepherds. They viewed themselves as better than shepherds, but Jesus invites them into this story and try to think like a shepherd.

They probably didn't appreciate that. Jesus doesn't mind being compared to a shepherd. He is the good shepherd from Psalm 23. He is really the good shepherd in this story. And to give you a little context about shepherds, their job, they weren't high up on the social ladder, but their job was to take care of the sheep.

And guess what? If a sheep went away, they had to go get it because you know what their job was? Not to lose a sheep. They could not lose even one. So yes, they would leave the 99 to go get the one that's in danger.

And they had to bring that sheep back dead or alive. Growing up, I used to play a game called jackpot. I don't know if any of you kids play that now, but I would have a tennis ball and then my neighborhood friends would be, maybe 30 yards away.

And I would throw the ball in the air and I would yell, 500. And if they catch it, the person who catches it gets 500 points. Yell 300, they get 300 points if they catch it. They drop it, they get no points.

Eventually you yell jackpot and they catch it and they win the game. But when you want the game to end no matter what, if someone doesn't catch it, you yell jackpot dead or alive and you throw it anywhere you want.

Whether it goes in a neighbor's yard or down the street or far away, they gotta go get that ball and bring it back for points dead or alive and they win the game. Well, whether that sheep was dead or alive, that shepherd had to go bring it back and give proof that he didn't lose the sheep or sell the sheep, but the sheep really was dead and he went to found it.

But he also loved the sheep and looked after the sheep and wanted to bring the sheep home. And sheep, they're not very, they're not very, how do I say it? They're not, they're defenseless. Their only defense mechanism is to run, so they're in danger.

The shepherd needs to come and save the sheep. So in verse five, and when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. Notice who finds who. That sheep was not gonna find the shepherd. He's too dumb.

Even if he wanted to find his way back on his own, he wasn't gonna find it. He was gonna go the exact opposite direction. Most of the time, they just got scared and fell on their back until they died or a predator got them.

But when the shepherd went and found the sheep, he threw it on his shoulders and carried it back to the flock. What a beautiful picture. But if the shepherd didn't take any action, the sheep was doomed.

A lot of people think it's the person that makes the first move. Some people say God never makes the first move. They're wrong. God makes the first move. He chose us before we were even born. He sent his son to die for us before we were even born.

So it's God that goes and looks and finds. We never are gonna find God by ourself. It's God really who finds us. And when he does find us, we're ready to turn and trust him. In verse six, and when he comes home with the shepherd on his shoulders, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.

And then Jesus tells us what this parable means in verse seven. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. So the whole point of this story is that God has joy when a sinner repents.

And when a sinner repents, guess who should also have joy?

Us.

We should share in that joy. Jesus wanted to see the loss found. The scribes wanted to shun the sinner and Jesus wanted to save the sinner. But he says, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

The scribes and the Pharisees, they thought they didn't need repentance. They thought they were already good. That's why they didn't need repentance. Although they did, they thought they didn't. But the one that knows they need saving is probably that lost sheep out there that starts to panic.

Maybe some of us. Right at our lowest point, God saved us because we knew we needed him. We need to come to that point that we're sinful and we need a savior. Verse eight. Or, this is a new parable, a little bit shorter, but conveys the same message.

Or what woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? Now, just like the sheep, the coin has value. And these coins back then were probably like a dowry, like some sort of inheritance.

But women kept it as a necklace. And if they had 10 of them, like a necklace, sometimes they put it in their hair, wrapped it on their head. But it was important to them. And if one of the coins that was very valuable fell off, she wanted to find it.

And you can see that maybe she was panicking and looking for it. But when she finds it, she has joy. Some of you guys understand, especially women, if you lose a bracelet or an earring, you're like, where did I put it?

I gotta find it. And you're looking all over your house for it. God forbid your wedding ring, right? Some of you guys would panic and start looking for it. And guys, you know how it is too. When you wanna watch TV and you can't find the remote.

And you're losing your mind, tearing up the cushions. Like, where is it? Just to find it near the counter near the fridge after you looked for an hour. But your wife knew where it was the whole time because she has that vision.

Some of you dads understand, when you find the remote, you call in the family and you're ready to watch a Christmas movie because you found it. Verse nine, and when she has found it, when she found the silver coin, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying,.

Rejoice with me,.

For I have found the coin that I had lost. So in both instances, they're having a party, maybe the shepherd with his shepherd friends, the lady with her neighbors. But the point is in verse 10, again, just so I tell you, this is Jesus' words, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And the word repent means to turn away from sin, turn away from a lifestyle of sin and of selfishness and to turn towards something much better towards Jesus Christ, who offers all forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

And he communicates this even better. Notice in verse 10 that the angels have joy in heaven because the joy comes from the Father. And if the Father has joy, the angels have joy and all of heaven rejoices just over one sinner repenting.

That's how valuable one person is to God. One sinner repenting, all of heaven is ready to throw a party. And then the best of these stories, in many people's opinion, starts in verse 11, where he really brings home his message and tells a little bit deeper of a story.

The Lost Sons and the Forgiving Father

Verse 11, and he said, there was a man who had two sons. So this story just isn't about the prodigal son, but it's about two sons. You could probably rename this parable, the story of the lost sons, plural, because two of them were lost.

One was lost far away, but one was lost very close in the house. He was lost in his father's house. One was lost in the far country, considered as good as dead, but one was right there, just as lost. MacArthur says, you can rename this story, the forgiving father, or better yet, he says, just call it the joy of God.

I agree with him. But whatever you want to call it, it's an amazing story and it's touched many people. One time, my friend Phil the evangelist was sharing this story at RCBC, and he was like, Tim, I love when you tell the parable of the prodigal son.

Can you tell it? I love when you tell it. And I'm like, I don't remember if I ever told this in front of Phil. And I'm like, Phil, why don't you tell it?

And then I didn't know,.

Phil was tearing up thinking about the story. And yet he told the story to this young man named Jamar. And after a while of telling the whole story, you know, three of us, at least Phil and I were weeping.

And we don't know if it was hitting home with him or not. And eventually Phil's like, all right, we're wasting your time and tries to give him some literature. And we're walking away and he's like, wait, how much more time do you have?

Phil and I look, oh, we got time. And we got to talk with him. Eventually the guy came to church for a few weeks. I don't know if he's repented and believed the gospel yet, but it was amazing to watch Phil share that story.

And I think the only reason he wanted to come and look was because Phil shared that story of the prodigal son with him. So this is an amazing story. Let's read together. And the younger of them, the younger son, said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.

And he divided his property between them. Other words, father, I wish you were dead. I want to live life on my own. I don't need you anymore. I don't want you anymore. I want to do things my own way, for myself, by myself.

That's what's best for me. I want to leave.

Give me my inheritance.

The religious leaders would have been like, what? In a culture that, you know, shame and honor meant everything. This was so dishonorable for someone to say that. Disrespect the father of the house and say, give me my inheritance.

The crazy thing is, it's even more absurd. The father does it. He says, here you go. Take it. Gives it to him. And this father, we'll learn later in this story, he's pretty well off. He's got hired servants.

He's got kids. He probably has a big house. Looks after a lot. Very recognized in the town. Father's probably a big deal. So to ask for that type of inheritance was probably a lot of money. Now, back then, the older son got a bigger inheritance.

The younger son only got half of what the older son got. Back then, they esteemed the oldest child. Because of Deuteronomy 21 and because of Jewish culture, they gave more to the older son. There was some honor to that, being the older son.

Some of you older sons like that. You wanna give more inheritance to your oldest son. I'm an oldest son. Maybe that would be good for me. But if you're the oldest, you got a double portion. You got double what everyone else got.

So in this case, the prodigal son, or the younger son, would have got one third of all what the father had. So he converted it to cash pretty quickly. I don't know how he sold his property and all that.

The story doesn't tell us. Maybe the dad just bought it from him, even though it was his. He seems like that kind of guy. But the younger son took his inheritance, said, peace, I'm out of here. I don't need you anymore.

I'm on my own.

Was that a wise choice? We'll find out. Verse 13, not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property in reckless living.

So he had a lot of money. He had it made. He was living recklessly. He probably had girls on his arms. He probably was doing what he want, when he wanted to, trying to live it up, probably look good in front of other people, try to make a lot of friends, and probably did because he had money.

He was trying to sell his wild oats, as some people say. But it was stupid. It was dumb. He lost all his money very quick. Some of you guys might see some NBA players and they have a lot of money and they come from poverty and they get it quick.

A lot of them are broke by the time their career is over. My friend Joe Gormley told me that a lot of people that win the lottery, years later, I don't know if it's the Powerball, Mega Millions, whatever it is, they're all broke.

How is that? Well, they don't know Proverbs 13, 11. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle. It's wasted, it's gone. But whoever gathers little by little will increase it. It's a good lesson for me too. They don't know what it means to be able to gather little by little and work for it.

They get it all at once and they don't know how to manage it. It happens to many people. It's not just this guy. Stupid, yes, but we're all prone to do it. The prodigal son really means wasteful son. He wasted his life.

He wasted what was given to him. He wasted it all. Verse 14, and when he had spent everything on top of losing everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he lost everything and a famine came.

And back then, famines were not good. You didn't have any food to eat. You resorted to eating your animals or eating each other, cannibalism, horrible. Wasn't a good time to be alive. He didn't know how good he had it in his father's house.

Left, dwindled it all. He left prideful, but God is gonna humble him. He began to be in need for the first time in his life. Verse 15, so, he has an idea, he's gonna get a job. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs.

And we don't understand this because we all eat bacon and things like that now. Back then, especially for Jewish boys, they didn't hang out with pigs. They didn't eat pigs. This was a shame that a Jewish boy was hanging out with pigs.

He went to feed the pigs. They were unclean. And really, if you look closer, he wasn't trying to feed the pigs. He was trying to have the pigs feed him. He wasn't there working for anyone. He wasn't feeding the pigs.

He was one of them. He was one of the pigs. Verse 16, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. Pigs don't have a good diet. They eat trash. They eat pretty much anything. And this guy is in such need that he's looking at that and says, oh, that looks pretty good.

How low is this guy must have come? Yet no one gave him anything. But, verse 17, I think this is my favorite verse.

In all of it.

So beautiful. But when he came to himself, he came to an end of himself. He came to his senses. He's got his right mind. He's thinking clearly. He's looking towards God. He came to his senses. And he said, this is beautiful.

How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? He's thinking clearly. Thinking about his father. Thinking about how good he was. Thinking about how good he had it. Viewing his life and viewing himself correctly.

He says, but I perish here with hunger. Viewing himself as in need. He needs his father. And he's ready to turn towards him. And he's thinking, wow, even the hired servants at my father's house, he takes care of them.

He's a good father.

He's good.

And in verse 18, he has another idea that's better. I will arise and go to my father. And I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. And we all need to come to this conclusion as sons and daughters of God.

That we need to recognize that we have sinned against a holy God. As high as heaven, sinned against God in heaven and our father. And we need to be able to confess that. So he has this idea that he's gonna say.

And he says in verse 19, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. He views himself as a wretch. He's not even worthy. He left proud and now he's humble. Treat me as one of your hired servants. He's saying, just bring me back as a servant.

I don't even wanna be a son. To be with you is better than to be out on my own. Verse 20, and he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off. This is a great verse, Phil. I know you love this part.

He was still a long way off. Guess what? The father was looking. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion on him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. The father felt compassion on his son, seeing them probably from the top of his house.

And you know what the father did? He started running. In that culture, guess what? Fathers didn't run. Esteemed men, older men, they didn't run. John MacArthur says they glide. I don't know what that means.

But I know they ran or they didn't run. But this father is running and they wore a long robe. And you can't really run very fast in a robe. And back then, they were more into modesty and covering up, especially the women.

But even the father of a household didn't even show his legs. But he didn't care. He saw his son. He came flying out of that house, ran through the village with his robe up. He didn't care. Ran, sprinted right for his son and hugged him and kissed him and embraced him.

Now the rest of the city was ready to shame the son. Eric Meyer told me after the sermon that actually he read that a lot of them would have been ready to stone him. Before he left, they would have held a funeral for him because of the egregious, sinful, shameful way he treated his father.

They would have had a funeral and considered him as dead. Maybe some of you guys do that with your family.

He's dead to me.

Well, the father still had compassion, even though he was a long way off. And he saw him and ran to him and embraced him and hugged him and kissed him. And he said to him, he has a speech prepared, remember, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

He didn't even get to the part where he said, I don't wanna be your son. I'll be a hired servant. Just bring me back. Father knew. But the father said, he interjects. And he says to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoe on his feet.