THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

108LOST PEOPLE MATTER TO GODThe Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost SonLuke 15:1-32; 19:1-10Have you ever been lost? I mean really lost? While walking in the woods maybe? In astrange city somewhere? Perhaps as a child, you lost your way? Or, while driving along one ofthe highways somewhere you took a wrong turn? Minutes seem like hours when you are lost.Many are lost and don’t know it. This has happened to me a few times. It reminds me ofthe statement, “There is good news and bad news. The good news is that we’re making goodprogress on our trip, the bad news is that we’re going the wrong way.”Some of us are going the wrong way and don’t even know it. As the Bible warns,“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Pr 14:12).JESUS SPENDS TIME WITH SINNERS (15:1-2)After listening to Jesus pointing out the cost in following Him, the Pharisees and theteachers of the law were upset with Him for spending too much time with the lost, the sinners ofsociety:“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Him. Butthe Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinnersand eats with them’” (Lk 15:1-2).Jesus responds by telling three parables about lostness and the joy of finding that whichwas lost. These parables in Luke 15 are some of the best known and most loved of all parables.In fact, Luke 15 has been called “the gospel in the gospel” because it seems to summarize theessence of the Good News which Jesus came to proclaim.1In this parable Jesus responded to the Pharisees’ complaints with a story that contrastedthe love of God with the exclusiveness of the Pharisees. To confront and reprove the Phariseesfor murmuring about the fact that He spent time with those who were lost Jesus told threeparables: