“One Sinner Who Repents!”

“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 have 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.” (Luke 15:8-10 ESV)

I love this picture that the Lord Jesus paints for us: “I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” You see, God is not some angry spiritual entity just waiting for someone to sin so He can send them to hell.

Quite the contrary is true. God loves His creation; in fact, He loves them so much that, through His mercy and grace, He has provided a way for them to spend eternity with Him in His Kingdom.  That’s what all three of these parables in Chapter 15 are about. God’s mercy (not giving us what we deserve) and grace (giving us what we don’t deserve) so that we, as sinners, would repent and come to Him.

If you remember, we talked about a parable in which a “certain man,” having put together a big dinner, told all those invited, “Come, for everything is ready now.” This parable was an indictment of the Jews who, for centuries, were told about the coming Kingdom of God and, to get ready, only to have flimsy excuses as to why they would not come. Now we have three parables in Luke 15 talking about why Jesus spent time with “sinners and eats with them”.

To understand the parables Jesus taught, we need to understand whom he was speaking to; in this case, once again, Jesus is answering the criticism of the Pharisees and scribes about His ministry to the poor, the sick, and the undesirables and sinners of society. The Jewish leadership was so proud of their being descendants of Abraham that they confused God’s blessings of prosperity and status as deserved and earned. If someone was poor or infirm, they were not worthy of God because of their sins. All of which missed the intent of God’s truth. God loves everyone, and desires that all should come to the Son for salvation.

These three parables Jesus used were drawn from very common events in the lives of these first-century Jews. Everyone knew the life of a shepherd and their responsibility to look after the sheep in their charge. They all knew the shepherd would do anything possible to find the “one which was lost”. Jesus often called Himself the shepherd of the house of Israel. He said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” So, Jesus was telling these Pharisees and scribes that these tax collectors and sinners were His lost sheep, and He would do whatever was required to bring them into the Kingdom of God.

And who doesn’t relate to the parable of the woman who had lost one of her coins? I know you have, at some point in your life, done an exhaustive search for something valuable you've lost. It may not have been a silver coin, but an earring, a valuable document, or a special gift one of the grandkids had made for you. We can all relate to the effort put into recovering what was precious to her. That’s what God does; He does everything possible to find “the missing coin”. You see, God doesn’t say that he doesn’t care about the missing coin; after all, He has many more. No, God cares about every one of us; God knows that we have sinned against Him. God knows those sins we don’t ever want to think about again, and that we certainly don’t want others to know about, and He still “searches carefully” to find us, where we are, and bring us back to Himself.

Even though Jesus used parables for first-century culture so they could relate to the earthly story and see the spiritual meaning behind it, these parables also speak to our hearts today. If you were once that “lost sheep” or that “lost coin” and remember when God moved heaven and earth to find you and bring you into His loving arms, then you understand the grace of our loving God.

If you are currently that “lost sheep” wandering far from the shepherd's care, don’t think you’ve gone too far. You haven’t; Jesus, the good shepherd, has searched for and found you, and He wants to put you in His loving arms and bring you back to Himself. If you think you can relate better to that lost coin, which once had value but, because of the life you have lived, no longer has any value, don’t believe that lie from Satan. You are still precious to God; in fact, you are so precious that God sent His Son into this world to find you, to die for you, to give you eternal life.

Lost sheep and lost coins don’t lose their value to the shepherd or the woman. They are precious to them, and they will keep searching far and wide to find them and bring them home.

How about you? Are you ready to be carried on the Shepherd’s shoulders? Are you ready to be found even though you’ve been hiding in that dark corner? Are you ready to hear “…the angels of God over one sinner who repents?”

God won’t stop searching for you; stop fighting Him, repent, and come to Jesus.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"