Luke 15, What Makes You Happy?

Luke 15 and the Joy of Salvation

Luke chapter 15, I'll be reading the entire chapter, and it's quite a chapter.

You hear the word of the Lord.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

And 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 that was lost.

Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And he said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. 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 and reckless living.

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs.

And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. 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 and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to the servants, Bring quickly for the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and 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. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew nearer to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked him what these things meant.

And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, Look, these many years I served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I may celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you were always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, what makes you happy?

What happens in your life and you rejoice because of it? You do something to celebrate.

You cheer.

Maybe your favorite team winning the championship. I was happy two weeks ago, at least two weeks from tomorrow night. Alabama won. We had some sparkling grape juice, kind of fake champagne, that I had saved for the occasion.

Now, by halftime, I was thinking, what am I going to do with that bottle? We're going to lose this game, but it turned out they won. Well, that's kind of trivial. Mike and Nancy's son is supposed to come here on the 29th, I believe.

Isn't that right? A week from tomorrow. They will be reunited with their son after I don't know how many years of separation. That's something to celebrate. We all tend to celebrate certain things, like weddings.

We have receptions for the celebration of the wedding, and we do celebratory things. For some, it may be the only time they ever dance. They might practice for months just so they can not look too stupid dancing at the reception.

Does anyone, by the way, does anyone play the electric slide except in wedding receptions and aerobics classes?

I don't know.

I never hear it anywhere else except wedding receptions and aerobics classes. Well, getting a raise or a bonus might make you happy, and maybe you go out to a special night to eat and celebrate. Graduating from high school or college, you do something, you finish one duty, you're going to celebrate.

We might celebrate birthdays, finishing another lap around the sun might make you happy. Some people, though, are made happy by the strangest things. If their favorite team hasn't won, at least they can be happy that the team they hate has lost.

I can understand someone being relieved at a divorce, but I'm troubled if someone says that they're made happy by it. Being happy that you graduated because you want to be done with school doesn't mean you should be happy that you dropped out.

Being happy on a birthday makes sense to mark time, but being happy at a funeral, even if for supposedly pious reasons, you know, he's in heaven with the angels now, kind of misses the point that funerals aren't for the dead, they're for the living.

We're not happy at our loss, and we're not happy that death still does sting us some, even if we know it won't last. What are we happy about? Maybe the triumph of righteousness? Yes, but one old religious saying was that heaven was happy at the obliteration of one wicked person.

Seven years ago when Osama bin Laden was killed, many Americans were made happy by that. You're kind of like the munchkins at the Wizard of Oz, you know, ding dong, the witch is dead. It's right to be made happy by justice, but aren't there things to be happier about?

What kind of religion says God is made happy by the destruction, the obliteration of sinners? What kind of people do you think that religion creates? Okay, that religion was the Pharisees. They're the ones that have that saying that God was made happy by the obliteration of the wicked.

And here we see the tax collectors, and they're considered wicked. They're collaborators, they're traitors, they're oppressors, they're crooked people who took more than they should have. And what they call the sinners.

Interesting they didn't consider themselves sinners. But the sinners, the people they called sinners, they're the people who didn't really even try, at least not try hard, to keep all the regulations of the law.

Those kind of people are attracted to Jesus. They're part of that great crowd that's following him. And notice in that first verse that these sinners, they were drawing near to hear him. And remember how chapter 14 ended?

You can look up there, remind yourself. He who has, Jesus said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And it's many of these people, these outcasts, the lowly, the ones the Pharisees thought that God delighted in obliterating.

They were flocking to Jesus to hear him. They had ears to hear. Of course, from the Pharisees' point of view, they were thinking, if you're known by the kind of people who are drawn to you, what's that say about Jesus?

And what's worse, to their shock,.

Jesus receives them.

Gasp. Can you imagine?

And he even, even,.

Can you believe it?

Even,.

Eats with them. He appears, bizarrely, to them, to the Pharisees, to actually enjoy their company. What do you think makes God happy? Well, we see that here, illustrated in this chapter, in three stories.

Three stories,.

Each, though,.

With the same main point. What makes God happy is the salvation of sinners. And this continues the theme of the parable of the great banquet. We looked up two weeks ago. The kingdom of God is a party.

And God, as the host, has invited many. But some of those invited didn't come. Now, why wouldn't anyone want to go to a party? Parties are supposed to be fun, enjoyable occasions. That's what the kingdom of God is.

But there are costs, Jesus says. Remember? We're supposed to count them. Remember that Jesus is followed there in the previous chapter by this great crowd. And they think they're following him to wealth and power and everything that the world offers, handed to them on a silver platter by the Messiah, who will gain it for them.

And they just want to ride his coattails into all that glory and good stuff. And so he turns to them, and he tells them that they have to hate all the relationships that the world thinks are the nearest and the dearest, to renounce everything that they have, to take their cross, that despised, brutal form of execution.

And if they can't do that, then they can't be his disciples. Now, I bet that thinned out his crowd after that. But in case we get the feeling from that that God is kind of exclusive, you know, it's kind of like a fancy country club.

You've got to meet certain criteria. And actually delights in just rejecting us riff-raff, stamping rejected on our application notice. And in case we get the feeling that he doesn't really care if people come after him or not, that he's purposely trying to get rid of many of them.

That he's kind of like an old Marine Corps ad. You remember? The few, the proud, the disciples. And in case we get the feeling that Jesus is like an elite university, you know, that the boast of how many applicants.

It rejects,.

Then immediately, in case we get the feeling that God's like that, immediately comes this. These three stories, each with the same main point. God rejoices in the salvation.

Of sinners.

In showing us that, he shows us three facts about salvation. First, who saves? Second, why he saves? Then, how he saves? Who, why, and how? Well, first, who saves? Who is this God who is made happy by the salvation of sinners?

He's obviously different than the one who people imagine celebrates the obliteration.

Of the wicked.

That's what the Pharisees thought God was like. Here, God is very different. And these three stories, we see three features of who he is. He is the shepherd, he's the searcher, and he is the father. Now, first, he is the shepherd.

Why does he receive, and even with sinners, people who are not even yet trying to be right with God, you know, they're not even particularly religious. Why does he receive them? Well, to answer that,.

Jesus tells a story.

Which of you, you had 100 sheep, one goes missing, won't leave the 99 by themselves on the open country and go searching for the lost sheep? Now, sure, it's a little bit of risk to the 99 to leave them in the open country, but it's the lost sheep who is in the most danger.

Indeed, you'll go after it, he says, until you find it, in verse 4, you won't give up until it's found. It's what any human shepherd will do. Then how much more will the good shepherd go to find the lost sheep?

And notice that he will go out, just like in the parable.

Of the great banquet,.

Where the master of the house sends his servants to the highways and to compel people, go out of the city to compel people to come in. Here, the shepherd himself goes out to where the lost sheep might be.

He's not nearly around him. He has to go out into the countryside. He doesn't just shout out, you know, here, sheep, sheep, sheep. Doesn't do that. He doesn't just hope the lost sheep will hear and kind of wander back.

He doesn't passively sit back waiting for the lost sheep to find its own way. Finding lost sheep requires going out. Sometimes it's literally going out to apartments, to houses, to the school bus stops and looking for lost sheep there.

Now, we're blessed here that we have a building in which the building kind of attracts people. The gym does. Mostly kids and youth to come to us. But we still have to go out of ourselves, go out of our comfort zone, put up with music, maybe that's not to our taste, with sagging pants.

We'll need to let them play ball, even if that's not our thing, to go out of ourselves so that we can be used by the good shepherd to find lost sheep. How long do we do it? Well, until we, until we finally get big and respectable and we really don't need extra people?

Until we get tired of it, maybe? Until maybe there's, you know, it doesn't seem to be working? No, until we find it. Until here, the one lost sheep. But for us, there are many lost sheep out there and we don't know who they are.

We keep going until everyone is found, which means we keep going until the end. That's what he's doing now. In John 10, Jesus said that he is the good shepherd. He lays down his life for the sheep. He said he has other sheep.

Other sheep, besides the disciples, besides you disciples, I have others, besides these great crowds from Israel who were following him at that time. In John 10, verse 16, I have other sheep. They're not of this fold.

In other words, they're not of Israel and I must bring them. Notice that, I must. It's like a compulsion. Bring them also. Go out to the other sheepfolds, sheepfolds of Ethiopia, of China, of America, and get the lost sheep.

Who are there.

Because that's what kind of shepherd.

He is,.

A good one.

He must do it. And when he goes, he says, they will listen to my voice. The sheep have ears to hear. So there will be one flock and one shepherd. And what Jesus is doing right now is going out and finding lost sheep.

If you want to follow Jesus, that's what you'll find him doing. Now we see that again in the second story. A woman has ten silver coins and she loses one of them. She lights a lamp so that she can see clearly.

She sweeps the house, hoping to hear the coin scrape or tinkle on the ground. Gets down on her hands and knees, staring under couches and chairs, looking for that one lost coin. She is a searcher. She searches diligently.

It's the key word there in verse 8. Diligently. Here she shows us something about God in salvation. He is the searcher.

Now, you know,.

It's a common term in the modern church growth movement. They talk about people being seekers. In the Bible, you don't find that term. In the Bible, God is the seeker. And that's what he's doing here.

That's what the story shows. Later in Luke, Jesus himself describes himself. Remember the famous saying? I'm seeking and saving the lost. He doesn't just say he saves the lost. If they'll come back to me, I'll save the lost.

If they'll do their part, I'll save the lost. No, he says I'm seeking.

He seeks.

This is especially the contribution of this story to this picture about God. In this parable, what is found can do nothing to being found. It being found is entirely dependent on the searcher diligently searching.

Think about it. A coin can't help you find it. God is that kind of searcher. He diligently searches. He's not just a searcher for the lost. He's a diligent searcher. He's also a father. The parable of the prodigal son should probably be better be called the parable of the loving father because that's really the main focus of it.

Notice several things about the father in that parable. First, he's known to be kind and generous and forgiving and accepting. He's not thought of as a severe man. He's a righteous man, but he's kind of cold about it, methodical.

Oh, he might do justice, but he loves mercy. So when the prodigal son is at his lowest, envying the pigs for eating what is better than him, he thinks of his father. And what's he think? His father treats his hired hands better than my employer here.

Is treating me,.

Some Gentile pig farmer in some faraway country. My father would be treating me much better if I were just a servant. If he could just get a job, he's thinking, if I could just get a job working for my father, just as a servant, never mind me accepting back as a son.

If I could just be a servant of his, I'd be better off than I am now. So he finally realizes that. Doesn't think, well, his father, whom he's insulted so badly. Imagine he's basically said to his father, I can't wait for you to die.

Okay, you're living too long. I was hoping you would have keeled over by now so I could get my stuff. I can't wait for you any longer for you to die. So just hurry up and give me my stuff now. That's all you're worth to me.

The money that I can get from you so I can go live the party life. Okay, that's what he said to his father. He doesn't think, his prodigal son, about his father, well, he's going to be so mad. I mean, he's going to be so offended by what I did, so angry that he'll never accept me back.

He knows that if only he repents and apologizes, that the father will accept him back. At least to be a servant, he thinks. He knows the father is merciful. God is merciful. The father is also watching.

Did you notice that? He's not dreading seeing his son again. You know, wondering what will happen if that brat comes back here dragging his way through the door. Well, how am I going to teach him the lesson he deserves?

He's not given up on the prodigal son. You notice the father sees him while he is a long way off. He sees him because he's looking a long way off, in verse 20. Expecting him, he's hoping for him to come.

The father is eager for his son.

To return.

You know, sometimes I've stood at that door on a Sunday morning, hoping that this will be the morning that so-and-so returns. The father had compassion, in verse 20. Notice that he sees him a long way off, and he doesn't think bitterly.

There's that punk who thought I was only worth what money I could give him. I'm going to teach him a lesson now that he's hit rock bottom. No, he had compassion. He has moved to the core with pity. The Pharisees thought God was moved mostly by wrath, reveling in the opportunity to destroy some wicked person.

But here, the father, portraying God the father, is moved with compassion by the misery of a child who's suffering the sting of sin. He's literally moved to run when he finally sees that his son is returning home.

The older brother, no,.

He's not moved by compassion. Notice first in verse 25 where he is. He was in the field. He was working. That's what he does. He works. He hears the music and the dancing, and he gets the news that his brother has returned safe and sound, that his father is celebrating.

You'd think if he didn't like his brother much, he would be happy for his father. But he hears this news, the prodigal son has come back, and he's been received by his father graciously and happily. And how does he respond?

What moves him? He was angry at verse 28. He's moved by anger, because to him, the father was an employer. He was a boss. He thought he should be pleasing his boss with enough work, enough obedience. Notice the way he describes his relationship to the father in verse 29.

These many years I have served you like a servant, like an employer. I've put in 30 years in this company. All I get is this lousy watch. I never disobeyed your command. Like he's a private in the army, obeying orders.

And then he complains, you never gave me a young goat. You know, the same father, the prodigal son, knows is generous. His older son thinks is stingy. Those who serve God.

As servants,.

As employees, keeping the rules strictly and thinking if they do that enough, well enough, they're going to get a payday. They'll get a reward. They'll finally get something from this God. Maybe a young goat.

Maybe a nice house, a decent job, better health, maybe heaven if I hold on hard enough and don't sin too badly. Those who serve God that way think he's hard. He's a skinflint. Those who know he's their father, knows he's generous and lavish in his love.

Why?

Why does God save sinners? You know, that he would relish the destruction of the wicked actually makes sense. Our culture has forgotten about it because we have a kind of fantasy view of God. But it's clearly rational that God,.

The holy,.

Perfect,.

Great king,.

The judge of the whole earth, the king of the universe, that he will do justice. And if sinners deserve their punishment, if Osama Bin Laden deserves a bullet to the head, if the Japanese, as I once heard one Singaporean say, deserve the atomic bombs,.

They deserved it,.

Then that's the way it is. Then why shouldn't it make him happy to dish it out? It makes sense that God would be happy by obliterating the wicked. We know we're not supposed to say that today, but if you think about it, the Pharisees were completely logical to think that.

What is the real mystery is why God.

Loves.

Think about God's statement, repeated twice in the Bible, Jacob, I have love from God. Jacob, I have loved, but Esau, I have hated. Now Calvinists like me often quote that to show that God doesn't love everyone, at least not everyone in the same way equally.

It's a puzzle. It's a shocker to most modern people, even most modern Christians. You just quote that verse to them. Jacob, I love Esau, I hate him. And one skeptic about Christianity pointed to that verse and said it was very strange.

What do you see so strange about it? Oh, that part, of course, about hating Esau. But actually the strangest part of all is that he could ever have loved Jacob or us. That's the mystery. Why does God save some?

The first.

Parable shows us that God, Jesus, the good shepherd, rejoices in finding lost sheep. He gets joy from it. It makes him happy. When the good shepherd has found one of his lost sheep, he drapes it over his shoulders.

He carries it back. There is no way that this sheep is getting lost on the way back now. It's not even going on its own. It's on the back of the shepherd. And when he comes home, the shepherd announces to his friends and neighbors, I have found my sheep that was lost.

Rejoice with me. Let's have a party, in other words. The kingdom of God is a party. For us, it's mercy that brought us there, that carried us there on his back. For the host, it's sheer joy in having us there.

Just so, I tell you. In verse 7. This is the theme. This is the main point for this entire chapter. Verse 7. Just so.

This is what.

Each of these parables is to portray. There will be more joy, more joy than that shepherd who found the sheep. More joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

What makes God happy is when we sinners repent. The housewife is made happy by finding her coin. Now why? Why is she made happy by that? The answer is obvious. She values her coin. She cherishes it. It's worth a lot to her.

Especially if she's poor. It means a lot to her. It's a lot of her wealth. One-tenth of her wealth there. So here's a picture of God made happy by a sinner repenting because he values one lost sinner.

Every soul is worth a lot to him. Here, like the shepherd, she announces to her neighbors, you know, rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I lost. Have some sparkling grape juice. Fake champagne.

Let's just drink it. And then Jesus says, just so. In other words, in exactly the same way there is joy before the angels of God. Notice the way that's put. It's very exact phrasing. Notice he's not saying that here, at least not here, that the angels of God get joy from it.

Although that may be. But that's not what he's saying here. He's saying that there is joy before. In other words, in their presence before the angels, in the presence of the angels where the angels are looking.

What are the angels looking at? What's before their presence? God. God himself is the one who has the joy. He's the one in heaven who has the joy when the sheep are found. The angels see it and rejoice too, I'm sure.

But it's mainly God who is made happy by one sinner who repents. All it takes is one to make his day. Why? Because he values that one sinner.

Why does.

God save his children? The answer is so obvious. Because he loves them. We left off the loving father story, halfway. The father's looking down the road, hoping for his son to return. And then finally, off in the distance, just coming over the horizon, sees him, maybe recognizes his walk, his silhouette.

He has compassion on him. And then he does the unthinkable for a dignified elderly man in Israel.

He runs.

You know, there's no dignified way for an older man to run. Oh, but who cares about dignity? He runs to meet his son, and in verse 20, he embraces him and kisses him. He doesn't even let his son finish the apology.

Did you notice that? The apology the son had rehearsed in his mind. He's not able to get it all out. The father interrupts him. Bring the fat calf. Get shoes for his feet. Put a ring on his hand. Ah, all a picture of love.

Exuberant love. Let's never become so knowledgeable, so sophisticated, so impressed with our theology, that we have all the.

Tees,.

And crossed eyes, whatever you do with them, that we lose the wonder, the celebration, the exuberant casting away of our decorum, because we know. Let's just know and celebrate.

This simple truth.

Yes,.

Jesus loves me. Who saves us? The God who is a good shepherd, a diligent searcher,.

A good,.

Good father.

Why does he save? Because of his joy in finding them, because he values, like a poor woman values a coin, he values them, because of his exuberant fatherly.

Love.

How does he save? But Jesus said, remember John 10, that he's the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The shepherd in the first story has to lay aside his convenience.

Much easier where he is, he can stay with the other sheep, it's comfortable there. He has to lay that aside. To go out into the wilds where there's bears, or who knows, lions, whatever else, where the sheep might be.

Just so the good shepherd laid aside the privileges of godhood and sacrificed himself to find us. It wasn't just a demonstration, a display of love, a gesture of affection, it was what was necessary for us, and for him, to get the lost sheep.

He saves us by sacrifice. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Then he carries us back, promising that no one will be able to snatch us out of his hand. Someone said that if we could lose our salvation, we would.

But because it rests on his holding onto us, his carrying us, not our holding onto him, not our carrying ourselves, we can be secure. How does he save us?

By his searching,.

By his sacrificing, by his.

Caring.

How does he.

Save us? By shining the light that his spirit brings. Notice that in that second story, the woman searching for the coin, she lights a lamp. All these details are important. She lights a lamp. She needs light, she needs illumination to know where to find the lost coin.

And so the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 16, verse 8, that he is sending the Holy Spirit to us to convict the world around us of sin, their sinfulness, ourselves of our sinfulness, righteousness of God's right ways, and judgment that we'll all have to answer for our lives.

The Holy Spirit shines like a lamp so that Jesus can continue.

His work.

That he's doing now of seeking and saving the lost. The Holy Spirit is sent out into this present darkness to shine so that sinners can see.

That they are lost.

And repent. Remember the moral of the three stories.

God,.

The Father, the Son, the Good Shepherd, and this Holy Spirit are made most happy, in verse 7, by one sinner who repents. But did you notice something? Here's the moral of the story, right? God is made happy by one sinner who repents.

Right there at the end of that first story. But the first story is about a sheep that is found. How does a sheep illustrate repentance? How does that story illustrate repentance? At least it's the way we often think of repentance.

The sheep was found. It didn't come back on its own. You know, the sheep didn't wander back. The shepherd didn't just call out and the sheep heard the voice and found its way. No. A sheep could perhaps accidentally wander back, or it could bleat and give away its location.

But in the story, finding the sheep is entirely the work of the shepherd. How is that story then a picture of a sinner repenting? Jesus says it is, so how is it? Now, sure we see that repentance, what we think of commonly is repentance in the parable of the prodigal son.

He comes to his senses. He realizes that the Father is more merciful than the slave driver he's working for here in this country. Now, some people want us to focus on that and say, well, see, we have it with ourselves.

They take that phrase. He came to himself. We have it with ourselves to manufacture repentance, to bring ourselves back to God. And if we do all by ourselves,.

Then.