This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Hey, welcome to the
podcast today. It's February the 11th, and today's
reading is in Luke 15. Yesterday we read in Titus
chapter 3, specifically... what God had kind
of leaned into me to talk about and to experience
out of the scripture was found in Titus 3, 3
-5. We were foolish. We were disobedient. We
were led astray. But when the goodness and the
loving kindness of God showed up, he saved us,
right? It's awesome. It's a brilliant, beautiful
concept for believers. So today in Luke 15, I
think it puts some legs to that concept. We don't
just see it as a concept anymore. We now experience
what it looks like. This is how we are saved,
how God came to us, how he rescued us. You know,
we've talked before on here. It is all God's
work, not ours. We didn't do anything to receive
this salvation. We just trusted in him who did
it all. So Luke 15, the setting, just to kind
of let you see it a little bit, a whole chapter.
I encourage you to read the whole chapter today.
I'm not going to read many verses out of this
text. It's three parables. Jesus teaching the
parables. In fact, very famously, he teaches
the parable of the prodigal son or the lost son
in this text at the end. A lot of evangelistic
emphasis services have to do do with this prodigal
son. You've heard the story a lot, probably.
But I want to look at the three parables as a
whole and see maybe some themes throughout it
that have been standing out to me that I think
can help us all. And so Jesus is in this text.
I'm going to read the first. verse or two here
for you so that you can see the background of
what's about to happen. The Bible says, Jesus
is facing a religious crowd, very frustrating
crowd. They are frustrated at him that he is
eating with sinners and tax collectors. How could
he go to the lowest of the low? What is he doing?
Thank goodness he comes to the lowest of the
low. the low. But that's the background. Jesus
then begins to teach. He teaches three small
parables, little stories that convey a message.
A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly
message, right? That's what I've been told my
whole life. And sometimes we get a little bit
lost in some of that, but I want to help us to
see just exactly what's going on. There's a tension
in the room, in the area where the religious
people are saying, what is he doing? He's doing
it wrong. He's not doing it the right way. They
have in their mind a preconceived understanding
of what religion needs to look like and what
God wants from us. Jesus then flips the script.
He first talks about the lost sheep. Beautiful
story, right? We've heard before, he leaves the
99 for the 1. That's where this is found in Luke
15, verses 3 through 7. You can read that parable
about the lost sheep. It's not a story of careless
sheep, all right? So I just want to go ahead
and make sure we understand this. When we read
the scripture, we need to make sure we have it
in the right lens. This lens is not about a careless
sheep. It's about an intentional shepherd. That's
what this parable is about. We will begin to
see a theme as we go through these parables today
that is absolutely beautiful and incredible.
One sheep wanders off, 99 stay put. So what does
the shepherd do? He leaves the 99 to pursue the
one. That's what this shepherd does. This offends
all religious math. Right? If I'm a Pharisee
sitting there, I'm thinking, well, that sounds
like a terrible shepherd. He's going to leave
the bulk of his sheep and his reason that he's
got a job, he's going to leave all of them to
find the one? That doesn't seem like it makes
much sense. Jesus, though, is not trying to teach
efficiency. He's trying to teach priority. He's
trying to teach and explain exactly what's top
priority. to the intentional shepherd. He goes
after the one until he finds it. He goes after
it until he finds it. What does he do whenever
he finds it? He does not lecture it. He doesn't
put the sheep on probation. He doesn't scold
the sheep. No, listen to what he does. He throws
the sheep on his shoulders and he puts it on
his shoulders. The weight of the sheep is now
on the strength of his shoulders. I've never
thought about that before. I never thought about
how heavy the sheep was, what that sheep was
carrying. Can you imagine that Jesus, the intentional
shepherd, goes after us that's wandered? Maybe
you've wandered off away from the faith. Maybe
you've wandered off away from the Christian faith
and community. Maybe you've wandered off from
the church. Maybe you've wandered off. Here's
the deal. What I've seen, this is going after
the lost, but I want us to understand this shepherd
is intentional. And once he finds that sheep,
he goes after it until he finds it. Then he says,
I will now carry the weight of your wandering.
Never thought about that before. Today, that's
what jumped out at me. He's carrying the weight
of my wandering on his shoulders. His shoulders
are strong enough. He comes back. And then there's
this wild thing that Jesus throws in here in
this teaching. He says there will be more joy
in heaven over one sinner who repents. I'm telling
you, this is when the Pharisees had to be going
crazy. What are you talking about? You know what's
happening in heaven? When a sinner repents, when
a sinner says, I want to turn to God, I want
to let the loving shepherd put me on his shoulders
and carry me home, the heaven is rejoicing. There
is a celebration happening in heaven. It's a
party that goes on. Luke 15 is awesome. Jesus
just teaches, and he's one after the other. The
next parable he says is a parable of a lost coin.
I look at this text in Luke chapter 15, verses
8 through 10. He's talking about a coin is lost.
Here's what I want to make sure that we understand.
This lost thing is not wandering. A coin doesn't
wander off. It's helpless. It's not able to ever
wander back, right? It is a helpless item. A
coin doesn't cry out. A coin doesn't ever find
its way home. So what does the woman do in the
parable? She lights a lamp. She sweeps the house
and she searches carefully. And when she, it's
a picture of relentless grace. I love the thought
of relentless grace. Grace that says, I'm going
to turn over everything I have to turn over in
order to get you back. That's what I'm going
to do. The emphasis of these parables shift,
right? You've got a sheep. that's lost by wandering.
You've got a coin that's lost by inability. Either
way, who's the one that does the finding? It's
God. It's God that does the finding. When you
wander off, thank goodness he comes and finds
us because we never wander back. Whenever we
are a lost coin, we're a picture of this. We're
not able to get back. We've gone away. Because
of our sinful nature. We're not being drawn back
to God unless he is the one doing the drawing.
We're never like, you know what, I think I need
to go find Jesus. That's never our natural instinct.
If that thought ever comes into our mind, it's
because God put it there. He's the one that does
the finding. What happens after the coin is found?
Again, another celebration. He says again, Jesus
repeats it. His repetition here is there's joy
before the angels of God over one sinner who
repents. I mean, joy, there is delight in heaven
whenever one sinner is repentant and comes back
to Jesus. There's absolute joy. And then, of
course, the third parable in this, the parable
of the prodigal son, as we've heard, or the lost
son. There's a man who had two sons, right? One
son was the younger son who was rebellious. He
had open rebellion. I like to think of this as,
and I wrote this down today to make sure that
we understood kind of the heaviness and the weight
of this. This parable pulls the blood from theology.
It makes this theological understanding of God
very, very real and very connected to us. It
takes this abstract truth. of God's pursuit of
us and God's care for us and God's overwhelming
grace for us, and it makes it painfully real.
We can all think about a son or a daughter or
someone in a family that's connected to us. This
isn't just a sheep. A sheep is basically a piece
of property, right? It's not a coin that if we
never find again, oh well. Now he goes into the
family. the family unit. And he says, this is
where it gets very, very real. It's personally
costly. It's not just a coin or monetary value.
Now it's relational value. It's every value you
can imagine in the family. And it's undeniably
alive, right? This is a parable that now is going
to the very heart of where we are and who we
are. This is theology that's lived, not just
learned. right? Sometimes I'm too dumb to learn
enough theology, theology being the study of
God, knowing who he is. Sometimes I'm too dumb
to learn it all, so sometimes he makes me live
it all, right? That's kind of how I seem to experience
God in ways that I have to go through things
sometimes. This is Jesus explaining a story that
makes you feel it, right? This son, young son,
is in rebellion. He didn't want the father. He
wanted the father's stuff. He goes to him, hey,
I want my inheritance now, early. I don't want
you. I want what you can give me. That's what
I want. He leaves. He wastes everything, and
he hits rock bottom. You know the story well.
I hope and pray you read it again today. Read
it with fresh eyes. Listen to it with fresh ears.
He comes home, and on his way home, he's rehearsing
a speech in his head. He's rehearsing a speech.
He's like, I'm not worthy. Make me a servant.
I'm not worthy. I've sinned against you. Just
make me a servant in your home. I don't have
to be your son anymore. I get it. What I did
was wrong. I'm brokenhearted over it. I can imagine
the boy with tear -filled eyes as he's walking
up, afraid, fearful, not knowing what's going
to happen. And the father doesn't let him get
the speech out. It says when the father sees
him, he runs. He embraces him and he kisses him
before the son even speaks a word. I want you
to think about that. The father in this time
running is a very undignified thing. They weren't
going to do that type of thing. He embraces him
before he's clean. I want you to think about
it. Let that one soak in. Again, I've read this
story hundreds of times. He embraced him before
he was clean. Then he kisses him before he even
confesses. That's the way the story is laid out.
The father has been looking for his son. He's
waiting, looking down the road every day. That's
how much he loves us. He says, when you come
back, whenever you come back to me, I'm going
to be waiting. And I'm not going to let you give
me your rehearsed speech before I run to you.
before I hug you and before I kiss you and bring
you in. The son then begins to give his confession.
He says, I've sinned against you. The dad's now
covered in whatever the son was covered in because
he's embraced him. He's tasted on his cheek what
the world tastes like in that moment. The father
has now absorbed this. The son says, I've sinned
against you. I'm so sorry. And the father just
restores him. He says, here's the robe. Here's
the ring. Here's the shoes. Let's put you together.
And then he says, we're going to celebrate. You
know, in each of these parables, there's a celebration.
We think about heaven and we think about, I'm
not even sure what we think about in terms of
what's going on in heaven right now. Let me tell
you, if you want heaven to rejoice, lead somebody
to Christ. If you want heaven to rejoice, this
is what Jesus says. There is more rejoicing in
heaven when someone turns their life back to
Jesus. When somebody says yes to Jesus, to the
gift of salvation, there is that much joy that
takes place. And we're over here saying, well,
we're fine if heaven's not partying. I want heaven
to be a party. I want to be part of the reason
heaven is partying, right? I want to be the one
leading people to Christ, knowing as soon as
I do, those that have gone before, those angels
that are around his throne are celebrating and
saying another one has given their heart and
their life to this Jesus that's worthy of all
of it. That's what I want to see. That's what
I want to hear. I look through the scripture
in the prodigal son, and I think there wasn't
a partial restoration. It was full restoration.
It was full sonship that was given to him. But
the story doesn't end there. Luke 15 keeps going.
There's another brother, the older brother. He's
been obedient. He's been moral. He's been hardworking.
He's also completely lost. Completely lost. He
doesn't want the father either. He wants control.
That's what he wants. He wants to be the master
of his own life. That's what the older brother
wants. He wants credit. He's angry at grace.
He's offended by mercy. He's uncomfortable with
the celebration. Read it for yourself. Go look
it up. That's what happens with the older brother,
the one who's been there with the father the
whole time. Father goes out to him too. You know,
thinking this through, this father is a good
father. He says, even though you're... frustrated
at the mercy that I'm showing your brother, even
though you're uncontrollable and out of your
mind about this celebration that we're throwing
for him, I want you to know you've been here
this whole time and you still don't want to be
around me? You still don't want to celebrate
what's gone on? Heaven is celebrating right now.
Why would you not celebrate? Are you not a citizen
of heaven? Father goes out to him with the same
love. The same invitation, the same open arms,
and yet Luke 15 ends with no resolution. I don't
know why the story doesn't resolve. I did think
today, what if it doesn't resolve because Jesus
is still asking the question to all the listeners,
which son are you? Are you the one that came
home, or are you the one that doesn't want anything
to do with it, doesn't want anything to do with
the Father? Which son are you? You know, as I
look through this text and I think about God's
character in these three parables, I've looked
and God's the one that seeks the lost. God rejoices
over repentance. He restores without shame and
he welcomes the undeserving. He does all of that.
It's not reluctantly. He doesn't do it casually
or cautiously. He is good in all of his nature.
The sheep that he's put on his shoulder, the
coin that he finds and celebrates, the son that
returns home, the son that's there that still
doesn't want any part of it, and he still offers
and extends this grace. You know, Luke 15 is
not about getting our act together. Luke 15 is
about what kind of father you will be coming
home to. He's good. He's good. But here's the
deal. If you are living a life away from him
at the moment, I want to encourage you to turn
and come home because the Father is already on
the road. He's already on his way to get you.
If you're wondering, he pursues. If you are helpless,
he searches. If you are ashamed, he runs. And
if you are resentful, he comes outside for you
too. He is always on the move. Luke 15 is not
about you cleaning up your life. It's about you
realizing how great this father is.