Aug 31, 2025 "The God Who Leaves the Ninety-Nine" (Luke 15:1-7)

 

Luke 15:1-7 New International Version

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 

² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: 

⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 

⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 

⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 

⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

The God Who Leaves the Ninety-Nine

Luke 15:1-7

 

Most people are familiar with the passage of the shepherd who leaves his flock to find one lost sheep. Although people may know the passage, they do not fully understand the love of God.  

 

People are too calculating and look at benefits and losses rather than doing what is right and pleasing to God. We look at people in terms of their usefulness and how we can benefit from them or what it will cost us to have a relationship with them. 

 

The Pharisees hated tax collectors and saw them as traitors and useless to their country of Israel. Yet, they did not understand the character of God.

 

Jesus presents that the useless and lost are the ones that God puts his energy to rescue and not the ones who are already safe.

 

Luke 15:4 ESV

[4] “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? 

 

God loves all of His creation. You cannot put a value on people you love. We have a value that cannot be calculated because God has created us. In God's eyes, you are precious and carry value.

 

This value not only applies to you but also to others. It is our neighbors, friends, family and enemies. It includes the people who are marginalized or do not have others who care and love about them.

 

When we come to believe and understand how much God loves us and others, we will make decisions that glorify and please God. 

 

Our children have values that no parent can calculate. Children should not be treated or viewed as burdens but have value. The birth rate has fallen because too many people have tried to count the costs of raising children and not the value which God has put on the child.

 

Our lives have meaning that we cannot comprehend  

• You're Worthy of My Praise
• Every Giant Will Fall
• Way Maker

"Prodigal Son"(Luke 15:11-32)

Luke 15:11-32

The story of the prodigal son is a good story which shows our relationship with our Father God.

The younger son damages his relationship with his father when he asks for his portion. Because the younger son believes that he is entitled to his inheritance, he does not see the grace that his father has given him. The son is arrogant in that he believes that what the father has given him is actually his because he deserves it. Like us, we believe that the successes in life we have is due to our efforts and not the grace of God.

The younger son also leaves his father because he believes that he can do things on his own and does not need his father or his father's rules. God is our creator and he loves us more than all of his other creations. When we separate ourselves from God, we suffer. The younger son suffered because of his separation.

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.

Luke 15:12 ESV

The older son thinks that the younger son had a fun life, and that the younger son's life was easy. He did not think that the younger son had suffered.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

Luke 15:30 ESV

As soon as we leave our Father God, we start to suffer. It is not after we have fun that we suffer, but our suffering and grievances are more immediate. The son may not have acknowledged 

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:5 ESV

Once we become children of God, we cannot live without our God. The kingdom if God is not a certain place. It is in you? Where is Hell? It is where God is not. We can experience Hell wherever we are.

The younger son experiences suffering and comes into a time of famine. He tries to fix the problem by being hired. The younger son becomes even more miserable. The son cannot fix his problems. This can only be solved by the father. Eventually, he returns to his father. Like us, we cannot fix the problems of sin, this is something that only God can do. 

The younger son regretted his decisions but repentance without action is meaningless. We need to change our behavior or we cannot really repent. It is not enough to express regret.

The prodigal son returns and is completely changed except for one thing which is his identity.

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.

Luke 15:20 ESV

The father was waiting for his son. By waiting, he was looking for his son to return, and when his son returns, the father runs out to his son. The son makes a choice to return and puts that choice into action. God will run to us if we would only return to Him,

Jesus tells us that we must love our Father God. In fact, this is the first and greatest commandment. If we can do this, we can have a right relationship with God.

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

Matthew 22:37‭-‬38 ESV

"Share your Story"(Luke 15:11-24)

Luke 15:11-24

 

God is blessing us to be a blessing to others. To bless others, we can use B.L.E.S.S..

 

·         Begin with prayer

·         Listen with care

·         Eat together

·         Serve with love

·         Share your story

 

These days more and more people are becoming depressed and anxious. Many church members have stopped coming to church and just watch online services. Church is being shifted to the side when really our relationship with God needs to be in the center.

 

Begin with prayer

OEM church members are being encouraged to reach out to those that God puts on their hearts. After we identify those people that God wants us to be involved with, we can pray for them. Jesus led a prayerful life and started his day with prayer and constantly prayed for others.

 

Listen with care

Jesus asked many questions and listened intently to what people were experiencing and thinking. Jesus listened and this allowed people to feel valuable and heard. We can do the same by taking the time to listen. Too often we want to give advice or our opinions, but it is so important to really listen to what people have to say to make a genuine connection with that person.

 

Eat together

We can also be a blessing to eat together. Zacchaeus ate with Jesus, and this brought about the occasion for Zacchaeus to share his thoughts, feelings and dreams with Jesus. During this meal, he realized how much he needs to follow Jesus as his savior. We don't need to convert person, but we can bless people with our time of fellowship. God can use us to encourage others.

 

Serve with love

Committing time and resources to serving people seems hard, but If we are prayerful and intentional, it is not difficult to be a blessing. Jesus taught us this through example and He relied on God to supply His needs to serve others with love.

 

Share your story

The story of the prodigal son gives a framework to share your story. The prodigal son cannot wait for his inheritance and asks his father to pretend the father is dead. The prodigal son squanders his wealth and later comes to his senses and returns to the father. The father accepts the son and later has to correct the older son.

 

To share our story, it is good to look at three chapters in our life. We need to look at our lives before Christ, when we accepted Christ and our life after accepting Christ. It will follow this pattern.

 

1.       I was lost.

2.       I was found.

3.       I have grown.

  

We need to think about how we are lost. Going back to the prodigal son story, we can see ourselves as one of the two lost sons.  One son wastes his life because he wants things and rejects God. The other son does everything God tells them, but he is focused on the rules and how good he is. Both are lost, but in different ways. If we do not know we are lost, how can we find the right path?  Knowing that you are lost and need to be saved is the first step to salvation. We must also tell people how we were lost, so they can understand what God has done in our lives and saved us because we are special. The shepherd went out to find the one sheep even though the 99 sheep were protected. This applies to us and others who are lost.

 

The father saw that the son was returning before the son saw the father coming. For every step the son took, the father took ten. Our God is one that embraces us, who runs to us who waits for us to make the first step to return to them. This is the God that we serve. This is the God who blesses us when we are found with robes and rings.

 

Why does God put the robe of honor on you? Because Jesus was stripped naked, so that we may be honored. Why does God put a ring on our fingers? Because Jesus called out, "my God" and not, "my father" so we could have an inheritance from God. Being found brings a blessing of grace that we do not deserve.

 

God will use you to share the good news. Therefore, God blesses you in Jesus Christ so that we can bless others.

 

So, let us pray for two people and share our blessings with them. We will find that we will become more generous and find more surprises if we commit to to blessing others.

"The Lord Who Never Gave up on Us"(Luke 15:1-10)

Luke 15:1-10
 Every one of us has had the experience of losing something and the frustration of trying to find them. This is especially true when something is of great value to you.

 Jesus gives us the parable of the lost sheep and the woman who lost one silver coin. As we read the parable, we may find it incredulous that someone would leave 99 sheep to look for one sheep or why this woman spent so much time and effort for one coin.

 At the time when Jesus told this parable a man who owned 100 sheep would be considered rich. It is likely he had other wealth as well. It is also strange that when this man would have noticed his one sheep was missing.  Obviously, it would have been at night when the sheep are returning to their pens. To go out at night to look for one sheep in the evening and in the dangerous wilderness with wild animals is foolish. But because the man understands ownership and responsibility. He is the good shepherd and not a hired hand.

 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
John 10:11-13 ESV
 
The man sees the sheep not as being lost but destroyed. Like the tax collectors and sinners who are destroyed by Sin, the good shepherd could not sit back and watch those who belong to him be destroyed.
 
“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.
Luke 15:4-5 ESV
 
We are created in the image of God and belong to him. We are his because we bear His image.
 
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 ESV
 
Jesus fought for us. Just like he fought for Matthew and Zacchaeus. It is the same with us. We belong to Jesus and He will persistently pursue you.
 
The same is true with the women who lost the one coin. To her, the coin was of great value.
 
The economical imbalance still makes no sense. The owner calls for a celebration over one sheep. The cost of the celebration would have been far more than the actual cost of one sheep. For God, the joy of one turning back to Him is worth it. God desires for us to be back in His safety.
 
 What is expected of us is that we need to listen to His voice.
 
1.       We belong to God, so He will not give up on us.
2.       We are of value to Him.
3.       God will not give up on us until we are returned to him safely.
 
And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luke 15:5 ESV
 
God does not punish or lash the sheep but puts it on his shoulders to carry it. This is contradictory to what farmers or shepherds would do.
 
 God carries the sheep because the sheep does not how to get home. As sinners we may have fallen away so far away from God that we have lost the strength and will to return home. Sometimes, we are so damaged by our sins that we cannot return to God on our home. Like a sheep that was lost and injured, the only way it will get back home is if the shepherd seeks out the sheep to find it and bring it back to safety.

"How to Rise Back after Falling"(Luke 15:11-33)

How to Rise Back after Falling 

Luke 15:11-33 

The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the best known lessons which Jesus gives us. Sometimes it is difficult to look at the parables such as this one with new insight. Pastor Donald looks at three main points in this parable which are the power of sin , the unfathomable love of God,  and our role  in the salvation of God. 

1. The Power of Sin
Jesus warns us about sin. Sin will eventually destroy you if you allow it to enter your life and do not repent. We look at the son who wants to live his life and leave his father. He takes his inheritance and squanders it on reckless living. Then later ,just to survive, he takes a job feeding pigs which are considered dirty. Then he even considers eating the pig slop because his situation is so desperate. Sin will slowly move you to do things that you would have been ashamed to do. Sin eventually kills everything we value. Just like sin in our lives, our situation becomes worse and worse and eventually leads to death if we do not return to God.
2. The Unfathomable Love of God

The father has an unfathomable loving kindness towards his son. We suspect that the father did try to stop the son. Any father would do that, and although the father has the authority to deny the son, he allows his son to go. The father allows himself to be ridiculed. Everyone would have known that the son left the father in an insulting way. Also, the father knew he will lose wealth and that the son would fail. Yet, the father had prepared gifts for the son's return and waited for the son to come back. It is important to see that the son walked away from the father. When believers come to the father, we are part of his house. When we sin as believers, we move away from the father. The father does not move away from us, but he does wait for us to return.

3. Our role in the salvation of God 

 When we look at the son, we see he took certain actions to be saved. First he knew who he was. We need to know our identity in Christ. Second, the son realized the mistakes he had made and took full responsibility. We need to consider ourselves responsible and take accountability. Go to God in humility. Come with a broken heart.  Next, the son moves to the Father. He takes action to change his situation. It means to be practical. Even if it means that we drop friends, practices or situations that are causing us to sin. Finally, we must willingly accept the cost of our actions. The older son is not impressed with the younger son coming back. We need to be ready to accept that although God forgives us, others may not.

"He Saves the Unworthy and Recovers His Own" (Luke 15:1-10)

Often times Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for the company he kept. Religious leaders ostracized tax collectors and others who were deemed sinners and even denied them the chance to attend religious assemblies. Jesus accepted all and was criticized for this. Such is the case in Luke 15:1-10 when Jesus responds with two parables about lost things being recovered.  For the Pharisees Jesus wanted them to understand that God loves all men and not just the righteous or those who are not lost; however, Jesus also shows the nature of God which is abnormal in our human understanding. Pastor Donald teaches us that Jesus' nature when He Saves the Unworthy and Recovers His Own 

In the first parable of the shepherd who leaves behind the ninety-nine sheep to go and search for the one lost sheep, it does not seem to unusual until we think about it more closely. Who is watching the ninety nine sheep while the shepherd is off looking for one? The time that he is looking for the sheep would have been at night when it is more dangerous and less likely he would have found the sheep. The efforts the shepherd uses to find the one sheep shows the great value that the shepherd has for the sheep. Much the same the woman who searches for the lost coin may have exerted more effort than the actual value of the coin. In both cases after great effort of finding what was lost, the owners express their joy. It is the joy that an owner experience when finding something that has great value to them even if the value is not recognized by others. 

From this we learn three points about God.

1. He endures with sinners because he own humanity.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 

Genesis 1:26 ESV 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 

John 1:1‭, ‬3‭-‬4 ESV 

2. He endures with sinners because they bear His image and therefore are precious to Jesus.

“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? 

Luke15:4

 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins,^[a] if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 

Luke15:8

3. He endures sinners because He delights in our wellbeing.

Like the lost sheep, we must listen for our Lord's voice and respond to the calling of the shepherd. Otherwise we will remain lost and miss our chance to be rescued. 

So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 

John 10:7‭-‬9 ESV