God’s Concern for Evangelism

Text: Luke 15:1-10

Focus: Evangelism

Function: To reinvent a missionary vision.

Form: Bible study

Intro:

This week, someone on Facebook said: “if churches didn't have youth groups and preschools, churches would never have to face a scandal like you are going through.”

So, I sent him a private message saying, well, we could just have these really high standards, certain looks and attitudes, the right words, the proper family background before anyone is allowed to come to Church.

I then said, with that kind of attitude about sinners, your perspective would mean that only the righteous are allowed in here, and everyone who doesn't meet your standards can just go to hell for all you care.

He answered, not send them to hell, but casting out the immoral one so that their flesh will be destroyed in order to preserve their souls for eternity.

I guess he didn't get it, so I suggested we could have youth groups, but we would have to enforce a policy where all the girls wore burkas.

So, he asked me what kind of youth group we allow in our church, and I told him that they were just like me, not a righteous one in the bunch. We are all a whole lot of people who need a savior.

And the good news is this: Jesus is more interested in bringing people back to him than anything else.

Let us look at today's scripture and see just how much.

This is the first two of three stories about it. The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son, which follows our text this morning.

The look at the lost sheep and the lost coin morning leads us to the parable of the prodigal son.

All three stories are given to explain to people, especially to believers and the leaders of the faith, just how important it is to God when the lost return to Him.

I am still loving Dan's devotion at the last leadership team meeting when he said, “the whole story of the bible can be summed up in 4 words: `God wants everyone back.'”

And the reason why these three stories are right here in this passage has to do with what we read in the first verses.

¹Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

Have you ever said that about somebody? (PAUSE)

Has anyone ever said it about you? (PAUSE)

The Pharisees reacted to Jesus being with sinners.

Why?

They would never let themselves spend time with that kind of people.

Why might we be accused of the same thing?

Let me ask you some more questions:

Have you ever been harmed by someone's sin?

Have you ever been taken advantage of?

Have you ever been robbed?

Have you ever been cheated?

Have you been lied to and made a fool of?

Has anyone ever taken advantage of your good nature, kind and gentle spirit?

Has someone ever harmed someone you love dearly?

For Jesus to “hang” with sinner, the implication is that He is willing, perhaps already has, forgiven them.

Is that fair? Is that fair to you?

When we think of the concept of forgiving sinners “out there” we have these noble feelings of grace, the goodness of God, the purpose of that cross, the glory of resurrection, the joy of someone loving themselves enough to receive redemption.

And the neat thing about that last statement is that most often, when someone chooses to love themselves enough to find redemption, it is because believers like you and me physically demonstrated unconditional love to someone who believed they were not worth it. And they began to believe that God loved them also.

That is what we love about our message, about the gospel.

And when it is “out there” it is full of noble causes and feelings.

But what if we get burned in the process?

And that is where this story comes to play.

In my opinion, the story of the prodigal son is misnamed. It isn't about the prodigal son, but about the elder brother who resented the grace given to the sinner.

We can resent it for many reasons, like: He got to sin and get away with it, he made a mockery of all my hard work, it doesn't seem fair, when is it my turn? Those were all the thoughts in the elder brothers mind.

And all of that makes it hard for us, right now.

But here we are, and this is what Jesus says.

Look first at the lost sheep.

100 sheep, one wanders off, the shepherd leaves the 99 and spends his energy on the 1.

To me, that kind of gives a great perspective on pastoral ministry.

How does the shepherd know it is safe to leave the 99? What if they all wandered off?

Well, you have all heard the simile: “Like sheep to the slaughter.”

It means that sheep are communal, they stick together.

So, there is relative safety with the 99, enough safety for the shepherd to trust them while he goes to save the 1. Ultimately, the church grows one person at a time.

The Pharisees represent the 99. They know they are righteous. They can't understand why the shepherd doesn't spend his time honoring them for being so righteous.

They think it is about them.

But Jesus tells us where his passion is. It isn't that he doesn't care for the 99, no, he believes that the community, and its power will keep them together.

But the Pharisees lost sight of the importance of the one.

The importance of the one.

What is the passion of the shepherd?

· The Pharisees couldn't accept a missionary call. They were the keepers of the system and if the rules of the system are going to be broadened, in their opinion, if the circle of what it means to be faithful is going to grow, then it may not be about them.

· That is what happens when we let the faith move into maintenance instead of the mission that Jesus gave it.

• Jesus is moving from maintenance mode, to Missionary mode.
• The second worse sermon I ever heard happened when Annual Conference was in Orlando Florida. It was Sunday morning, and the preacher stands up and says: “Jesus died.” “Jesus died and that was it.” And then a long pause. “Jesus died, the disciples were sad, they got together to comfort each other, and the Church was born. The Church is a community held together by inspirational stories, allegories and superstitions.”

What was completely missing was the fact of Jesus' resurrection.

The Church was born in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on the 120 like tongues of fire.

And it all started with Jesus.

So the shepherd, verse 5, takes the lost sheep, lays it on his shoulder and then calls his friends for a celebration.

I have never been a shepherd, physically caring for those wooly animals, but I have seen them. A full grown sheep, a mature sheep, isn't going to fit on the shepherds shoulder.

As we mature, we follow. We follow because when we were baby Christians, the Shepherd went and found us and brought us back to Him.

That act, placing the sheep on his shoulder was a bonding maneuver.

Because of the love of the shepherd, the sheep wasn't going to run away again.

It starts right there with Christ, our job is pointing them there. Worship is for God’s sake, but it is evangelism, as it also brings people into the presence of Christ.

Then, a woman loses a coin. All that she has to live on. Her desperation explodes into a panicked search of her house for that coin.

It means life to her. And when she finds it, it is a treasure.

When God finds a lost person back in his arms, it is a treasure to Him. He gave His life to bring everyone back.

Now, the lost son: HE SQUANDERED GRACE.

This prodigal, he squanders away his own future share in his inheritance. The father tells the elder brother when the younger brother returns: “all that I have is still yours.”

There is this implication that although the son was lost, the father is fair to the elder.

But the brother doesn't see the value in it. He resents grace. He wants daddy to call his brother “the black sheep” of the family.

But to God, the son was dead and now he is alive.

Have you ever wondered why the father would give his son his share early?

I mean, isn't that an insult?

“Dad, I don't want to wait until you die, all you are good for to me is what I can eventually get out of you.”

“Daddy’s dying, who has got the will?”

What a terrible person, this prodigal. What wickedness!

Why would the father do that?

The father would rather let him go than keep him there by force. He loved his son, and wanted a son obedient from the heart.

What about times when our best efforts fail?

What about when we give our Christian duty, which should be very sacrificial, and our sacrifices are taken advantage of?

It feels a lot like betrayal.

Because, when the son returned, he came from his heart. Sometimes, really bad things need to happen to get us back to our missionary calling.