Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Luke Chapter Fifteen, as we continue
to make our way through the parables and
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will be continuing and Luke. We're
in Luke fourteen last week and will be
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in Luke fifteen for the next few
weeks. Lord Willing, Luke fifteen will
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begin in verse one. Now.
The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing
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near to hear him, him being
Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes
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grumbled, saying this man receives sinners
and eats with them. So he told
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them this parable. What man of
you having a hundred sheep, if he
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has lost one of them, does
not leave the ninety nine in the open
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country and go after the one that
is lost until he finds it? And
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when he has found it, he
lays it on his shoulders rejoicing, and
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when he comes home he calls together
his friends and his neighbors, saying to
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them, rejoice with me, for
I have found my sheep that was lost.
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Just so I tell you, there
will be more joy in heaven over
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one sinner who repents than over ninety
nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
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Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does
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not light a lamp and sweep the
house and seek diligently until she finds it.
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And when she has found it,
she calls together. They're her friends
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and neighbor saying rejoice with me,
for I have found the coin that I
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had lost. Just so I tell
you there is joy before the angels of
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God over one sinner who repents.
This is the word of the Lord.
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You may be seated. What causes
you to rejoice? What causes you to
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want to throw a party? What
causes you to want to sing? What
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in life causes you to want to
dance? Perhaps that one was too far
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for Presbyterians. will go back to
singing. But think about it. What
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in life makes you want to celebrate? I mean we like to celebrate things,
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and rightly so. Perhaps your wedding
day, if you're married. Perhaps
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that's the moment in life that you
thought that was the time that I wanted
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to celebrate the most, a day
where all cultures, it would seem,
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throw parties, feast, say even
dance. Perhaps a birth announcement. We've
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had several of those recently among us. Those are times that we celebrate rate.
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Perhaps you think back to the day
your first child was born, and
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that that moment where where you wanted
to sing or cry, but rejoicing.
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We like to rejoice. Graduations,
birthdays, anniversaries, times that we celebrate
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yearly. What makes you want to
rejoice? What makes you want to throw
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a party? I think thinking about
this reveals something about our hearts, and
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and a good way. When we
think about what we rejoice, what makes
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us want to celebrate, we get
a glimpse into our hearts, don't we?
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Again, we get a glimpse into
what we love. Let me ask
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you this. What makes God rejoice? What makes God want to throw a
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party? What makes God want to
sing? Well, I want to consider
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that this evening, as we look
at our text, will take a look
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at these two parables, these two
parallel parables that that are probably familiar to
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many of you, and as we
do, I want to keep this question
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in mind. What makes God rejoice? And as we look at these parables,
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I want to want to break them
up into three headings for this evening.
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One, the bitterness of the righteous, to the rejoicing in heaven and
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finally, three, the heart of
God. The bitterness of the Righteous,
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the rejoicing in heaven and the heart
of God so over the next few weeks
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we will be in the evenings Lord
Willing in Luke fifteen taking a look at
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some parables that are familiar. But
the the statement at the beginning of our
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parables this evening really sets up the
the context for the rest of these parables,
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including the prodigal son that will be
getting to next week. And this
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is this first verse. Now,
the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing
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near to him. Jesus and the
Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying this man
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receives sinners, and not only that, but he eats with them. So
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right here, before we jump into
the parables, we are we're found with
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two very distinct groups of people.
We have Pharisees and scribes on one hand,
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we have tax collectors and sinners on
the other. Men will consider both
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for a moment. As we've thought
through the parables this summer we've often come
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into contact with Pharisees and and scribes
and if we'll recall, these are Jewish
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leaders. We get a odd taste
in our mouth when we hear pharisee inscribe.
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But these were men to be respected, men with high social status,
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but also men with high religious status, men who took the word of God
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very seriously, who knew the Torah, who knew the scriptures, not only
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knew them, but worked very,
very hard to follow them. Men that
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would be respected, men closely associated
with the religious elite, and and rightly
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so, it would seem from all
outward appearances. Well, on the other
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hand, we have the complete opposite, tax collectors and sinners. As we've
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thought about tax collectors, we know
that these are individuals who make their living
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defrauding their own countrymen, most of
which are Jews, that the Romans have
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recruited to to collect taxes amongst their
own people. These would be the worst
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of the worst, not exactly people
that you would be excited to see when
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you came around the corner tax collectors. And then sinners is kind of a
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catch all category for people who,
to some degree or another, we're not
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taking the Torah seriously. Specifically as
it came to the ceremonial laws and laws
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that kept them clean so that they
might come to the Temple to worship,
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these folks did seem to care a
whole lot about keeping that ceremonial cleanliness.
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So, on one side, right
in the beginning. We have these religious
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elite, upright folks, and we
have the bottom of the barrel sinners.
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And we find here that these these
pharisees, these scribes, are concerned and
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fact bitter, it says, or
complaining that that Jesus would hang out with
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these kind of people. It says
that they're they're drawing near to him.
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It says that that he is eating
with them, people that are unclean religiously
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speaking, you would not want to
eat with and would contaminate you. And
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then, if you are contaminated,
you would contaminate others that you came in
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contact with. It would render you, at least for a time, on
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Holy. So to a certain extent
they're justified in their concern, aren't they?
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And it says that they grumble.
Interestingly, we know that word when
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it's associated with with the Jews,
as they were often grumbling in the old
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testament because they weren't happy with how
God was working. Well, we should
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keep that in mind perhaps, as
these folks are grumbling. They're irritated folks
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who have gone to great lengths to
stay kosher, literally speaking, and now
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they see Jesus hanging out with people
who seem to have no interest and saying
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kosher, no interest and following the
Torah. But when you think about rejoicing,
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as we started out with, what's
what's kind of the opposite. You
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could think of perhaps grumbling, complaining
fits the bill, and I think that's
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exactly what we see here. These
folks, in response to Jesus receiving sinners,
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act completely the opposite of how God
ends up acting when he sees his
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son receiving sinners. Instead of rejoicing, they grumble, instead of joining in
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the celebration of Heaven, they exclude
themselves from the banquet. If you recall,
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this is in the context of last
week's parable, where Jesus has come
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to leaders of the Pharisees and essentially
said, you know, you think that
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you're coming to this end times banquet, but you're but you're not. You
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know who's going to be there?
Well, sinners, people who are socially
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outcast, he says, the blind, the lame, the crippled. So
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this is coming just a few verses
after that parable. And here we see,
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as we often do, is Jesus
teaches a parable. What he teaches
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starts playing out right in front of
him, and that is what is going
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on here? Well, in response
to this grumbling, the grumbling of these
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righteous men, Jesus decides to tell
a couple of stories. It seems that
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he is not quite done teaching them, and that's good for us, because
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we need to hear the word as
well this evening. So these parable speak
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of the rejoicing and heaven. So
we have the grumbling of the righteous.
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Now let's consider the rejoicing of heaven. Jesus gives us two parallel parables,
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very similar as we can see,
the lost sheep and the lost coin.
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Let's let's consider them together. What
Man of you? He begins in verse
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four having a hundred sheep. If
he lost one of them, does not
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leave the ninety nine in the open
country and go after the one that is
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lost until he finds it? Well, right off the bat, I don't
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know about you, but my first
thought is, well, this doesn't exactly
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seem echianomic or economically expedient. You
know it, that's it's it's one percent
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of your possessions has been lost and
you put the rest at risk. That
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that doesn't quite seem how I would
shepherd, but I'm not the Lord,
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so we'll see what he has.
I think what we see here is that
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the Lord often, as we see, is not about economic expedients. Is
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he act. He's rarely seems to
value the same things that we value.
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Instead, it would seem that the
heart of this shepherd is not expedients,
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but a heart set on seeking and
saving that which is lost, which makes
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sense as we put it in the
context of the rest of the scriptures,
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especially as we know that Jesus is
this shepherd. So the shepherd goes out,
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he goes to look for this one
that was lost and when he finds
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that, he lays it on his
shoulders rejoicing. Now I'm not sure where
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the image is from, but I
have a picture seared in my head.
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I don't know if it was the
children's Bible or there's paintings of this,
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but with this blond, blue eyed
Dutch looking Jesus with this like stuffed animal,
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like lamb, on his shoulders,
it looks like a very peaceful scene.
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But I've done a little bit of
reading about shepherds and it would seem
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like what happens is is when a
sheep gets lost, they go a little
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bit crazy, they become obstinate because
of their fear and and they don't react
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well once they're off on their own
to the kind instruction of a shepherd.
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What often has to happen is that
shepherd has to injure the lost sheep and
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order to get them back to the
pack. So this situation of a sheep
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on a shepherd shoulders is not necessarily
a pleasant situation, either for the sheep
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or the shepherd. But here we
find this shepherd going after this sheep,
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having to do whatever he had to
do to get him on his shoulders,
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and he does so. What rejoicing. This is a pleasant shepherd. Indeed,
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a task that does not seem overly
pleasant, but for the joy that
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is set in his heart, he
endures it. So we man handles this
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sheep, maybe injures them, who
knows? But gets the sheep back to
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the pack. And when he does
he does something quite strange. Again,
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we probably heard this parable over and
over again, but let's think about it
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for a moment. He gets the
sheep back, this obstinate sheep that ran
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off from the pack, and he
calls his friends as neighbors and he says
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it's party time. He says.
This one lost sheep who got away I
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found it. Come rejoice with me. It's time to celebrate, for I
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have found my lost sheep. Interesting, he goes on to tell of this
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lost coin. What woman would not
light a lamp and sweep the house to
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seat diligently until she finds this lost
coin? You know, we think about
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this as well. Why not sweep
the house? Is a good opportunity to
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clean up you've lost something, but
think about we're not. We're not thinking
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about hardwood floors, laminettes. We're
thinking about a dirt floor. Right.
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She is causing a huge mess to
find this lost coin that may be lost
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in the dirt. She is lighting
a lamp, she is looking for this
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coin diligently. This coin represents about
a day's wages, not a small thing
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to lose. But it's interesting that
when she finds it, she says it's
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time to rejoice. Let's rejoice over
this lost coin. She calls her neighbors,
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she calls her friends. It would
seem like any decent party would cost
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more than this one lost coin that
she found, and yet she calls everyone
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to rejoice. So we have one
percent of the possessions, this this lost
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sheep. We have the one out
of ten coins that was lost. Not
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Small things, but doesn't seem like
the kind of possessions you throw a party
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over. And I don't think the
storyteller in this case is trying to say
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that in and of themselves, these
things are of great worth. I mean,
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Jesus has told stories about things of
great worth. Has any pearls of
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great price, treasures and a field? But here we have a sheep and
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we have a lost coin and a
shepherd and a woman willing to go to
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great links to find things that don't
seem all that important. Kind of like
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the guest list from last week's parable
right, if we think of this in
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context, sending out the servants to
find who? Not to the rich neighbors,
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but the poor, the lame,
the blind, the crippled. So
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why does Jesus Tell Us these parables? What? What are we supposed to
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Glean from them? Well, again, I think we need to consider them
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in light of the context, don't
we that we need to consider them and
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in the light of the attitude of
the scribes and the Pharisees, who were
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grumbling because Jesus was hanging out with
the wrong type of people again. But
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we should also look clearly at the
reasoning that Jesus himself gives us, and
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I think if we hold these two
things, we can kind of see what
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Jesus is getting at. What does
he what does he tell us? The
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end of the first parable he says
just so, I tell you there will
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be more joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents then over ninety nine righteous
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persons who need no repentance. Or, in the case of the coin,
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just so I tell you, there
is joy before the angels of God over
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one sinner who repents. Well,
there's a lot of theology to think about
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here, isn't there? I mean, one how does this affect our definition
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of repentance? And the case of
these two parables? A lost sheep that
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had to be shouldered was repentant.
A lost coin found in the dirt was
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repentant. In this certainly must play
into our doctrine of repentance. Right that
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God comes and finds us and causes
us to repent by His grace. That's
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certainly a great, true ruth that
we should consider here. But I think
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the main thing that Jesus wants to
explain. Again, considering the context of
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what Jesus says is that Jesus wants
us to see this opposition between the grumbling
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of the righteous and the rejoicing of
Heaven. It would seem like he has
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set these in contrast. In contrast
to the Pharisees and the scribes who are
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grumbling, when Jesus receives tax collectors
and sinners, people who seem like they
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wouldn't be a whole lot of worth, and the Kingdom of Heaven, God
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throws a party. It's interesting.
Here Jesus does another thing that would probably
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irritate the Pharisees. He peels back
the curtain of Heaven, claiming that he
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knows what goes on and the divine
counsel. He says, you want to
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know what happens in heaven when one
of these sinners repents, he says God
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calls the angels and says it's time
to go. It's time to celebrate.
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When a sinner is repented by the
grace of God, there is a Party
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and heaven the music kicks in,
people start dancing and singing. The party
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of the year breaks out over one
sinner, one tax collector, who repents.
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Perhaps you think I'm going too far
with the party, but if we
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look a little bit further to the
prodigal son, it's exactly what we see,
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don't way? If you'll recall the
older brothers in the field, and
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what catches his attention? Oh,
he hears noise back home. Here's The
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music, and the servants come out
and tell him what your dad's your dads
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thrown a party, the grill is
going, the fatted calf has been killed
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so that we can party. And
then the father comes out, probably sweating
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from dancing the Y M see and
says, come on in, this party's
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for you too. Your brother,
who was dead as now alive. It
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is fitting that we celebrate to these
righteous grumbling that Jesus would invite the wrong
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kind of people, God is rejoicing
over one sinner that repents. I think
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this shows us something really important,
doesn't it? It gives us a glimpse
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at the heart of God, and
that's what I want to consider for the
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last few moments this evening. As
we have seen time and time again in
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these parables, God goes after the
wrong types of people. He invites people
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to dinner that would make us really
uncomfortable. The poor, the lane,
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the blind, the crippled, tax
collectors, sinners. He moves towards us
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with hospitality and kindness before we ever
turn toward him. And that's what he
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shows us in going after these people, isn't it? That's what he shows
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us in going after people like us, people who would never run to God,
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but he runs to us. We
read from Romans five this morning,
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during the reading of the law and
the confession of sins and assurance of pardon,
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that while we were still far from
God, while we were still unrighteous,
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at the right time, Christ died
for us. God and His grace
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leaves the ninety nine and while we
are yet lost sheep and lost coins,
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he comes after us. He finds
us by sending his son to take on
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our humanity, to find us where
we are and by his spirit gives us
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the grace to repent. We are
the lost sheep, we are the lost
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coin, but not only does God
go after us and find us, he
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does so rejoicing. I think that's
where we see this, this heart of
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God. Let's look at it again. There will be more joy and heaven.
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There will be more joy and heaven
over one sinner who repents then over
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ninety nine righteous persons who need no
repentance. That is God's heart for you,
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joy over our salvation, over our
repentance. You know, I think
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oftentimes we get in our heads that
God was so gracious to save us but
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now he just kind of puts up
with us, that you know, for
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the most part we're just massive failures
and that he's just holding on until finally
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Jesus comes and and most of the
time we're thinking, or we're thinking he's
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thinking, Oh, they're at it
again, they're doing it again. I
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mean, I know, I maybe
I'm the only one, but I think
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that's often how I feel. God
looks at me as a failure. But
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is that what we see here?
A God who comes to says but would
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just put up with us for the
rest of our lives? I don't think
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that's what we see. and to
back up that claim I want to consider
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a text as we close that we
actually opened our time with, and Zephaniah,
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and I want to go ahead and
turn there. The table of contents
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was made for the minor prophet,
so it's okay to look at it.
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That's at the tail end of the
Old Testament. I want to look at
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Zeph and I have three and just
consider it for a moment and how it
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might help us understand the heart of
God. This evening, Zeph and IAH
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contains this prophetic poetry, most of
it speaking of the coming judgment over Jerusalem
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and the nation surrounding speaking of exile
because of the disobedience of the people.
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It's a pretty heavy prophetic word.
But in the ends we see this this
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prophetic poetry, speaking about a future
restoration. Interestingly enough, it talks about
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how God will restore the humble,
he will restore those who are outcast,
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and these specifically talks about the lame
and and the crippled and and we see
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this heart of God and this future
restoration that after this judgment comes, God
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will himself save a remnant. And
we get to Zeph and I a three
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verse seventeen, and it says the
Lord Yahwah, your God is in your
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midst, a mighty one who will
save. He will rejoice over you with
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gladness, he will quiet you by
his love, he will exalt over you
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with loud singing. The Lord,
your God is in your midst, the
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mighty one who will save. The
Hebrew word for save is as Yeshua,
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from where we get Joshua or rendered
in the New Testament, Jesus. We
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could read this. A mighty one
who will Jesus you. And that's what
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we find in the New Testament,
in the fulfillment. Isn't it that he
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saves us in his son, and
in that salvation, what do we find?
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That he will rejoice over you with
gladness, he will quiet you by
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his love. He Will Exalt over
you with loud singing. There are some
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commentators who suggest that this word exalt
should actually be translated dance. I don't
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know if we presbyterians want to go
that far, but but think about that.
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He will exalt, he may dance
over you with loud singing. Is
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this a God who thinks you're a
disappointment? Doesn't look that way, does
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it? Because in his son we
are not. When he sees us who
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have faith, he sees his son
and it makes him want to sing.
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The beginning of our time we asked
the question what causes God to rejoice?
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What Causes God to sing? What
Causes God perhaps to dance? You do.
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What Causes God to rejoice? You
Cause God to rejoice. What Causes
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God to want to throw a party? You Do, saving you, when
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God got Ahold of Your Life.
He called the angels and he said,
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Jackie repented, it's time to party. He said, Christopher repented. I
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guess what, I'm going to make
him a pastor. You won't believe it.
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Every time one of US repented,
he called the angels said, Ronald
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Repent it it's time to party,
it's time to sing, it's time to
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dance, and he continues to sing
over us, to rejoice in our salvation.
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That is God's heart towards us.
What Causes God to rejoice? We
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do. What an amazing thought that
we are not disappointments to God, far
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from it, but we are a
great treasure, a great inheritance, and
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that reminds us that neither are those
sinners who have repented. Rejoices over them
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as well. All repentance, their
repentance is an opportunity for God to throw
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a party, to call all the
company of Heaven. We read from the
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Psalm Ninety three this evening of how
the oceans roar. That he causes that,
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I mean he can throw a party, he can call all creation to
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sing because of your salvation, because
of our salvation in Jesus Christ, and
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may we feel the warmth of his
rejoicing this day, in this week,
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and may we share in the heart
of God and the rejoicing is other sinners
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like us, come to repentance,
come to faith in Jesus Christ. May
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We share his love with others as
we go this week. Let's pray
