Luke 15:1-10

The Lord Jesus was criticized for spending time with sinners. He spent time with them, taught them about the kingdom, and ate meals with them. The religious leaders condemned the Lord Jesus for spending time with sinners and eating a meal with them.

Looking back on this we can see the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees but it was not apparent to religious people in that time. There was a lot of history in the Old Testament which taught separation between the righteous and the wicked. Read the book of Nehemiah and you see a man who was so mad that Jews married foreigners that he pulled his hair out. This was the religious background the Pharisees came from. No doubt they put scriptures in the wrong context. But this is what people do. In order for people to justify their unbelief they twist scripture and take it out of context.

The Lord Jesus made it clear that his goal was to reach sinners with the gospel. He was there on purpose to demonstrate the reality of God's love for every person. He gave them simple parables about a shepherd who looked for one lost sheep. He told a story about a woman who searched for a lost coin and found it. These stories demonstrated the joy God has when one sinner repents and puts his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said there was joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repented.

We should rejoice when sinners come to the saving knowledge of the Lord. We should pray that God will use us to reach people with the gospel. The religious leaders did not know God's heart of love for people. Their entire focus was on rules and keeping people under a religious system. Anyone who disturbed the religious system was condemned. The Lord Jesus certainly upset the religious system. Almost everything he did was a challenge to dead religion and tradition. He constantly challenged the religious ideas the Pharisees held.

God loves us! He reaches out to every person. It is not God's will that any perish. The Lord's desire is for everyone to hear the gospel, repent, and put faith in the Lord Jesus.

God provided forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus. The Lord Jesus died on the cross in our place. He was buried. He rose again on the third day. Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord is saved.

Luke 15:11-32

This is a well known parable of the Lord Jesus. It followed the criticism the Lord Jesus received from the religious leaders who thought that the Lord Jesus was wrong to associate with sinners. The Lord Jesus taught through parables that the angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner repents.

This was a longer parable but had the same message and included the reaction of the Jews to the salvation of the lost.

In this parable a father had two sons. The younger sons wanted his inheritance immediately and did not wait. The father gave the son his inheritance and the son left. The younger son wasted his inheritance by living a sinful life. Eventually the young man's sins caught up to him and he was left in poverty. As a result he repented through his suffering and decided to return to his father. The father was on the edge of his seat waiting for his son to return. As soon as the son got close to home the father ran out to meet him and threw a big party to celebrate his return. When the older brother realized there was a party to celebrate his younger brother he was angry. He did not realize why the father was happy about the younger brother's return. He thought his father should love him more because he was faithful to his father and did not waste any inheritance.

This story revealed a lot. The important thing this parable showed was the love of the father. God our Father loves us more than we can possibly comprehend. He loves us so much he sent his Son Jesus Christ into this world to die upon the cross in our place so our sins could be forgiven. God is eager to run to anyone who turns in his direction. The Lord runs out to meet you where you are in life. All you have to do is turn towards him and he will run to meet you. The Lord will clothe you in his righteousness and adopt you into his family. He will rejoice that you come to his house and will celebrate with everyone who is in heaven.

I think we miss this sometimes. We forget that a large part of what the church is here for is the great commission. We are called to be ambassadors for Christ. Our purpose is to preach the gospel and reach people with the good news that God loves them. He loves them so much that the Lord Jesus died on the cross in their place so they can be forgiven and receive eternal life.

Listen to the words of the father. Verse 32, "It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

Let us rejoice today in what God rejoices in.

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