The Parable of Redemptive Love, Part 1 | God’s Rescue Mission

Luke 15:1-10

Luke 15 is a series of three parables, as you probably know, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, and together those three parables paint for us a, a precious, precious portrait of God’s love for lost sinners and his exuberant joy in rescuing them. I just want to begin by reading the first 10 verses, which is the first two parables, Luke 15:1-10.

“Now the tax gathers and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable: 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? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The Pharisees and the scribes when they say, “This man receives sinners, and eats with them.” They saw that as an evidence of his disqualification, they said it out loud among the crowd in order to discredit him before others. But it is hard for us to think of a simpler way, or a sweeter way to give the essence of the gospel. But in a sentence just like that, this man receives sinners, this man welcomes sinners, and eats with them. That’s the gospel.

That’s why you’re here, aren’t you? That’s why I’m here. We found in Jesus, the true grace of God that this is a man who receives sinners, sinners like you, sinners like me. Jesus has reconciled us to God through his own death on the cross. And when he receives us, when he welcomes us, he doesn’t leave us at the doorstep. He doesn’t even leave us in the front room. He brings us all the way in, seats us at the dining table, like his brothers and sisters that we are, he gives us the privilege to enjoy table fellowship with him at his own father’s table, in the Father’s Kingdom. He brings us all the way in. That’s what Jesus came to do. “To seek and save the lost.” He came to redeem unworthy sinners, to give his life as a ransom for many.

He became the means through his own penal substitutionary atonement, through his shed blood on the cross. He became the means by which God justifies the ungodly, by which he declares us righteous. Imputing our sin to Jesus and punishing him for our sin, and imputing his righteousness to us, treating us as if we were just as righteous as Jesus Christ. What a joy. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we come and worship and praise and sing. That’s why our hearts are filled with gratitude for what God has done in Christ, but the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, they didn’t get that at all. And they had nothing but contempt for Jesus because of that gracious reaching out.

We can sometimes lose sight of the gospel, call it busyness, distraction, the hurry and busy of life, pressure, trials, afflictions, sometimes the complexity of the things that we read, and we’re trying to educate ourselves and grow and understand, but sometimes in all of that knowledge and understanding we, we lose sight of the simplicity that “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” What trial matters, if this man receives me, and eats with me? What persecution matters to me? What, whatever the world condemns me for, what does that matter?

Even any particular sin that I commit. How much does that weigh against the fact that “This man receives sinners and eats with them?” We should never lose sight of the gospel. And in and through the gospel, we should never lose sight of the God of the Gospel who is fundamentally good, and his heart is kind, and he is compassionate, and he is gentle and tender with us. He loves lost sinners, as we just read and those parables, he rejoices when he rescues them.

But we see those interpretive keys coming out of these first two parables, the love of God, and then the delight of God, the love of God, and the delight of God, those two key attributes of God, they’re demonstrated in rescuing lost sinners. So God’s love, God’s delight, Christ’s love and Christ’s joy. Those two keys, they don’t only provide an answer to Jesus’ critics here, which they do, but they provide us with very compelling reasons to repent of our sins, to trust in the fundamental goodness of God and to come to Jesus Christ, not to walk, but to run to him and cling to him and embrace him in faith.

So my hope and prayer for you if you’re not yet a Christian, my hope and prayer for you is that you repent of your sin and enter into the joy of God. That’s what we long to see for you, because we’ve been there, we’ve been where you are and we know the darkness, and the hopelessness, and the sense of dread and the foreboding of coming judgment. We want to see you not lost, but found. If you’re a Christian, my prayer for you is that you through this, you’re greatly encouraged and comforted. You’re reminded of the gospel that saves you, your, your rejoice in your God. You share in his joy and the salvation of the lost. And that you really make it your abiding work to participate in his great work of seeking and saving that which is lost because that is, that is his love expressed to the world and that is what brings delight to God, that is what brings joy to Jesus Christ.

So today we’ll look at the themes of divine love in these two parables and I’ve got four themes for you. Number one, we see the pardoning love of God. Number one, the pardoning love of God, look back at those first two verses. “Now, the tax collectors and sinners we’re all drawing near to hear him. The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners, and eats with them.” In leveling their criticisms of Jesus, the Pharisees and the scribes, you need to understand this, they were not wrong about what was happening here. They were identifying this correctly, they weren’t wrong in identifying the people who are drawing near to Jesus, because they were sinners.

In fact, they were the very worst of sinners. Doesn’t do us any good to kind of shade that with soft hues and gentler tones. These are bad people coming near to Jesus. It’s Luke who tells us, not the Pharisees and scribes, but it’s Luke who tells us in his introducing them, that these are tax collectors and sinners. We’ve already been introduced to tax collectors, they, back in Luke chapter 5, in particular. They are unscrupulous people who were also considered by their fellow Jews as treacherous as well because they were, they were willing to oppress their countrymen while collecting taxes for Rome. That’s a double sin. It’s James Edwards, who summarizes their character this way, says “The Roman tax system depended on graft and greed and it attracted individuals who are not adverse to such means. An honest tax collector was in principle, a starving tax collector.” End quote there.

But to make their living these tax collectors were dishonest, they charged more than what was actually due to Rome. And that was because they were able to buy the tax franchise or buy a part in it and then they could charge what they wanted to. Rome didn’t care, because if they were killed, because they charged too much, just get another one. Plenty of people who will turn against their fellow Jews, their fellow countrymen. So they charge more than what was actually do. They skimmed off the top to make money for themselves. And so they were hated on two accounts. They, they were hated for collaborating with Rome, collecting taxes for the invading pagan power, and they were hated for cheating their fellow Jews. So because of that tax collectors lived in the margins of society, they were the ostracized outcasts of society. They lived in the company of other outcasts, those summarized there in verse one by that general term sinners.

Some of these sinners were hired muscle for the tax collectors. They were these big, large, physically imposing thugs, they collected what was due. They were the strong arm guys, and they protected the tax collectors from retribution. Some of the sinners provided illicit entertainments for the tax collectors and all their buddies and friends, gamblers, drinkers, prostitutes, the like, immoral people, all of them living on the edges of the law or outside of the law, far away from polite society, far away from any religious company. They would have been politically not conservative, politically very liberal, politically they wanted whatever would allow them to live an unhindered happy, in their estimation, life.

So let’s just say that they were the kinds of people that were not invited to the banquets and the feasts of the Pharisees. I mean, the, the Pharisees would not even eat with an ignorant masses of the land. For fear of contracting any residual uncleanness from them. I mean, these are the moral people of the land, but just uninstructed, untaught, not well educated, lest in their ignorance, they picked up some ceremonial uncleanness. And then it rubbed off on the Pharisees, so they stayed away from them. But these sinners, they weren’t like that, they weren’t ignorant in their sin. They were decidedly immoral, perpetually unclean, utterly deplorable.

I was reading Spurgeon earlier, and he was talking about these kinds of people. And he said, “Even Jesus didn’t delight in their company, on the basis of who they were and what they were committing, it didn’t thrill his soul.” You sometimes hear people say, well, Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes. No, he didn’t hang out with them. He was there to bring the gospel to them and he set aside, because he was accommodating them, because he loved them, he set aside what offended his holiness in order that he might bring the gospel to them, but he didn’t indulge in any of that, he didn’t overlook it and it’s certainly not overlooked here.

You can see in the first two verses Luke has cast these two separate groups. In contrast with one another, you see the tax collectors and sinners of verse 1 contrasted with the Pharisees and the scribes in verse 2. So there’s an interesting contrast, it just helps you paint the picture even more. If you look at their character and their way of life, the immoral sinners, that general term could not be in starker contrast to the morally fastidious Pharisees. Total contrast, night and day, light and dark, Pharisees dotted every religious I, crossed every religious T, the sinners couldn’t care less about I’s or T’s or any other letter in the alphabet, if it didn’t lead to some kind of pleasure or some kind of profit. If you look at their sense of propriety and dignity and reputation, you couldn’t get more of a contrast between the tax collectors and then the scribes.

Tax collectors were unscrupulous and deplorable in society, known that way, even walking down the street, people would cross the street not to be near them. The scribes on the other hand, were highly regarded, very well respected in society ‘cause they’re well educated, they’re diligent students of the law. They’re, they’re the religious and legal experts. They’re the lawyers who regularly dealt with complex matters. By contrast, tax collectors, they’d given up on all honor. They just abandon any hope of having any good reputation. They traded in a good reputation for the lure of easy money and prosperity.

Another way to take the measure of these sinners drawing near to Jesus is just to think about how Jesus describes them in the three parables. We got the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. One commentator puts it this way, “The lost sheep represents the stupid, foolish sinner. The lost piece of money, the sinner completely ignorant about himself and the younger son, the willful sinner. It’s a good way of looking at it. Folly, ignorance, willful transgression, that’s these people coming near to Jesus.

The Pharisees and the scribes, they’re, they’re not wrong in identifying the sinners as sinners, they’re seeing the picture correctly. What the Pharisees and scribes failed to see though, what’s really happening here. They failed to interpret it theologically, doctrinally they failed to take notice of the significance of spiritual change that’s happening right in front of their eyes. Look again, at verses 1 and 2, and let’s not miss what they were missing. Let’s not make that mistake.

 There’s three evidences here in verses 1 and 2 of God’s pardoning love, at work happening in real time right in front of them in verses 1 and 2. First, in verse 1, Luke tells us the tax collectors and sinners, we’re all drawing near to hear him. Luke’s grammar describes what’s really going on, listen to a more wooden translation of the original, gives a little bit of a clearer sense. It says this, “Now, to him,” it’s emphasized in the original, “to him they were drawing near, all the tax collectors and the sinners.” And then there’s an infinitive of purpose, “in order to hear him.” Here on either end of the sentence “to him, and in order to hear him.” Luke has already told us the significance of that. He’s told, he’s actually prepared us for that statement. We see it more easily when we ignore the chapter and verse divisions and look back at the previous verse, Luke 14:35, the final sentence in that verse, what does Jesus say? “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And what are the tax collectors and sinners drawing near to do? Their drawing near to hear him. Maybe subtle, but it’s very clear in the text.

Luke is describing here, a scene of newly regenerated tax collectors and sinners. Why do they have ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to understand? Because God sent his Spirit, caused them to be born again, that they might be regenerated to new life, have a new nature, and therefore have ears to hear. And now that they hear, what did Jesus say in John 10? “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.” These are newly regenerated people, and they’re doing what regenerate people do. They’re drawing near to Jesus, and they’re coming near, in order to hear him, in order to hear and receive his teaching, in order that they might grow in grace and knowledge and the truth.

Whatever it was, that had characterized them in the past, whatever that sin nature drove them to, whatever channels of sin, that sin had cut deeply in their lives, whatever shaped their sinful lives had taken on the outside, that identity is dead and gone, in light of the regenerating grace of God. In light of the words of pardon spoken by Jesus Christ, that is gone, that is an old reality put to death, with Christ on the cross. The first evidence of God’s pardoning love is in the grace of regeneration. We see played out here before us, they gave them ears to hear the truth and a heart to draw near to Jesus and listen.

Second evidence, again, taking careful note of the context. When the tax collectors and sinners are drawing near. What exactly did they hear Jesus say, what were they listening to? Again, back up to the previous context, that previous section. Luke 14:26, 27, 33 they heard in those verses, Jesus laying down the terms of discipleship. In terms of loyalties, by comparison, one must hate his own family relations, even his own life to be Jesus’ disciple. Well, these tax collectors and sinners as they’re counting the cost on that, all their relationships had been ruined already by their sin. I mean, what deplorable sinner do you know that has all his family relationships intact?

They long ago stopped looking in the mirror. They couldn’t stand the sight of that hollow face and those empty eyes staring back at them. They were done with self, their loyalties. They thought, check. I’ll come forward. I’ll follow him in discipleship in terms of priority. Jesus said, in order to be my disciple, one must embrace the rejection that comes with being a disciple of Jesus Christ. So they had already been familiar, very familiar with the feeling of rejection being society’s outcasts, pariahs, rejects, they were rejected for all the right reasons that they should be rejected. Now to be rejected, because of him, for the sake of holiness, for the sake of a righteous life, hated by the religious leadership, check, number two, they’re in.

They’re counting the costs through this thing and then realizing, I’ve got nothing to hold on to. In terms of prosperity in verse 33. Listen, they’d lived out all the allurement of easy money and guilty pleasures and cheap thrills. And that lifestyle had left them hollow and cold and dead and numb and empty. They’re counting the costs, they’re like, renounce everything and follow him? Check, number three, I am in. These tax collectors and sinners. They had no qualms about confessing themselves as sinners. They could see it, everybody could see it. They had no qualms, no hesitancy about acknowledging themselves as sinners, seeing their own sinfulness.

What about you, beloved? Have you become so polite, so well put together, that you can’t admit yourself to be a sinner? That you can’t take a good hard look at yourself and say, and that is sinful, that is wrong, can you not bring yourself to confess your sins to one another? We must have the sensitivity that these tax collectors and sinners had. We must cultivate that, otherwise, you know, what we turn into? The Pharisees and scribes, don’t we?

 This is what put the tax collectors and the sinners in much closer proximity to the kingdom of God, than all those who were outwardly moral because sin had already ravaged them. They were ready, here at this point to renounce all. They’re ready to embrace the gift that Christ offered to be pardoned for all their sins. That they might be numbered among Jesus disciples, this is good news. And they’re looking around, looking at each other. Seeing none of the scribes and the Pharisees going forward. And they’re like, I don’t know, I must be stupid. They’ve always told me I’m stupid. But that sounds like good news to me. I’m going forward.

They’re ready to renounce everything. They’re ready to embrace this gift that Christ offers them, the privilege of being numbered as one of his disciples; to be pardoned of all their sin, to be free from the burden of their guilt, to be cleansed, washed white as snow, to have their consciences cleared from all the evil works. All the bad memories, be numbered among Jesus disciples, a holy band, God’s pardoning love and regeneration, he’d given them a new nature. One that found Christ radical call to discipleship not repelling, not a reason to turn and flee, but it was compelling. It drew them near; they longed for that. Their ears are open to the gracious call of Jesus Christ. So they turned toward him, not away from him. They drew near to him; they didn’t stand aloof.

And in coming to him we can see a third evidence of God’s pardoning love, in verse 2, in the complaint of the Pharisees and the scribes. Jesus received them and he’s willing to fellowship with him, he’s willing to share a table with them. They repented of their sins, they received his pardon, they responded to this invitation. And here they are around the table with him. Language of Luke 13:30. These tax collectors and sinners are among the very last expectedly of every expectation. They’re the last, but they became by God’s grace in the economy of salvation. They became among the first to find faith in him. “The first shall be last, the last shall be first,” man they’re in. No matter who they are, no matter what they have done.

Jesus tells us in verse 7, and in verse 10, these people repented. Because there’s joy in heaven, verse 7, over these repentant sinners, there’s joy before the angels of God, verse 10, over each and every one of these repentant sinners as individuals. So Jesus is pleased to receive them. As they’ve come to him in repentant faith. He is pleased to grant them the gracious pardon from his father in heaven, of forgiven sin of full, free, unfettered access of reconciliation with God.