OGBC Seeking Like Jesus 03/18/18 AM
Luke 15:1-7
Introduction
1. Stephen Hawking died this past Wednesday.
a. He is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Albert Einstein.
b. In 1963 he contracted ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, and was given just two years to live. However, he went on from Oxford to Cambridge where he became a brilliant researcher. From 1979 to 2009 wasLucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Sir Isaac Newton in 1663.
c. He is famous for his theories related to the Big Bang and the beginning of the universe. His1990 book,A Brief History of Time, was written to help non-physicists understand how the universe began and how it will end. The closing paragraph reads,
However, if we discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable by everyone, not just by a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God (A Brief History of Time, 196).
d. His comment about knowing the mind of God left open the possibility that he himself might believe in God. However, hefinally clarified his comment in a 2014 interview when he stated, "Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation. What I meant by 'we would know the mind of God' is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn't. I'm an atheist."
e. While Hawking sought truth about the physical world, he denied the reality of a spiritual world.
f. A beautiful mind; a terrible disease; but a tragically lost soul.
2. As part of our journey in life, each of us must seek the truth about life, God, and the hereafter.
a. The good news is that not only are we seeking God, but he is seeking us!
b. In our passage today, Jesus spoke about his loving and diligent search for each lost human being.
c. It is a search that we must join in with him as we endeavor to seek the lost like Jesus.
3. Read Luke 15:1-7.
Great Value (1-2)– Jesus places great value on each and every sinner.
1. The Jews could not understand Jesus’ actions whenhe ate with “tax collectors and sinners” (1).
a. “tax collectors” = Jews who helped the hated Roman overlords by collecting their tax money.
b. “sinners” = not only immoral people but also ones whose occupations made them unclean by Law.
c. Eating with them was worse than talking with them because it implied acceptance of them as people.
d. An important note: Jesus did not associate with “sinners” in order to participate in or to condone their sins but to offer them salvation through repentance of sin and faith.
e. Jesus made a habit of associating with such sinners: a Samaritan woman at a well, a woman caught in adultery, lepers, and even a woman whom he allowed toanoint him at the dinner table. Scandalous!
f. The kingdom of God came to eartheach time Jesus shared table fellowship with these outcasts.
2. Jesus came not for the healthy but for the sick.
a. When Jesus called Matthew, a tax collector, to be one of his disciples, the Pharisees also asked about Jesus’ association with “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. . . . For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:12-13).
b. Jesus came for the Pharisees too. They were sick, but they just didn’t admit it.
c. It is difficult to heal someone who does not first admit they are sick.
d. We must admit our sin sickness before Jesus can deal with our illness through his grace and love.
3. The Pharisees and scribes “muttered” (Gk., diagogguzo = “grumbled”) just as the Jews had in the face of God’s providential grace in the Exodus.
a. Jesus received sinners, these ungodly people, whom the Jewish leaders would not associate with even to teach them the law in hopes that they would repent.
b. These Pharisees believed God would welcome a penitent sinner, but here Jesus presents a new idea that God takes the initiative to search for, find, and bring sinners home.
c. We are modern Pharisees when we fail to acknowledge our own need of God’s grace in our lives and when we fail to share that grace with everyone around us.
4. Jesus tells the first of three powerful parables, earthly stories with heavenly meanings, to illustrate the kind of search God undertakes for the lost; the search we must join him in for the lost ones in our lives.
Great Risk(3-4) – The shepherd takes great risks to seek out the lost sheep.
1. The ninety-nine sheep are not at risk. They are already safe at home in the fold.
2. Safe possession of 99/100, that’s an A+, is not enough for the Shepherd. his concern is for the lost one.
3. He stops everything in his search for the lost sheep.
4. I carry electronic files for my sermons and classes on a small flash drive. I keep very close watch over it. Whenever I misplace it, everything stops until I find it. When I find it, there is great rejoicing.
5. The Shepherd demonstrates great perseverance and persistence in searching “until he finds it” (4).
6. Jesus risked everything to leave heaven; come to earth in human likeness; and give his life over to death for our sins on the cross. That is how important you and I are to him.
7. If Jesus takes great risks to his own safety and comfort to search for the lost, what should we be doing?
Great Compassion (5) – The shepherd shows great compassion for the lost sheep.
1. Note that when the Shepherd finds the lost sheep, he does not scold it or beat it for being lost.
2. The Shepherd shows great compassion for the weak, tired, and perhaps injured sheep.
3. Even though the Shepherd is hungry and tired, he places the sheep on his shoulders and carries it home.
4. We have seen this beautiful image in many pictures and paintings.
5. The Shepherd does all the work in bringing the lost sheep home.The sheep simply rests on his master.
6. Do we expect people to come to us or are we going out and bringing them in?
Great Joy (6-7) – The shepherd shows great joy when the lost sheep is found.
1. As the Shepherd returns, it is a time of great rejoicing since that which was lost has been found.
2. It is not only the Shepherd who rejoices, buthe calls all his friends and neighbors to join in.
3. The Jewish leaders believed “There is joy before God when those who provoke him perish from the world” (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. 2, 256).
4. I do not believe that there was rejoicing in heaven at Hawking's death this week.
5. I believe there is rejoicing in heaven when one of the lost ones is found.
6. We need to rejoice over the repentant instead of standing in judgment of the sinful.
Seeking Like Jesus – So what does it take to seek like Jesus?
1. We must place great value on sinners.
a. Whom do we value? Our family? Each other?
b. What value do we put on the lives of outsiders with our actions?
2. We must take risks to reach out to sinners.
a. What will it cost us to reach out to “sinners?” – It will cost our time, money, effort,and the elimination of snide comments and judgmental attitudes from the self-righteous sidelines.
b. What is the cost of not reaching out; failing to be Jesus’ disciple; not taking up our cross withhim?
c. We must be willing to take a risk to reach out with the good news of Jesus to those in our community whom others judge as unworthy and whom we may not like because of their sins.
d. We cannot risk the failure of our mission—“To sow the seed of Jesus Christ so that people become hisfully devoted followers.”
3. We must show great compassion for the lost.
a. God showed great compassion for us in bringing us into his fold by grace.
b. We in turn must show compassion by reaching out with the good news to others.
4. We must rejoice whenever a lost one comes to the Lord.
a. We must not only rejoice but welcome them into our fold, our church.
b. We must help them grow and find their place of service with us.
c. We must not keep up the walls but truly let them in. God has let them in, so why don’t we?