The Parable of Redemptive Joy, Part 2 | God’s Rescue Mission

Luke 15:1-10

A heart of righteous affections, and Gospel affections cultivates, thirdly, a heart, number three, of humble affections. Righteous affections, Gospel affections, cultivates a heart of humble affections. Again, this is in contrast completely to the scribes and the Pharisees. It’s in contrast to all the religious leadership. It’s in contrast to the great and the powerful, the mighty, the strong, and their own cause. It’s a heart of humility and meekness.

Again, the close of the first parable, verse 7, “Just so, I tell you,” as he sums up the parable and gives the meaning and gives the point he wants to come across, “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.” Now, who are these ninety-nine righteous persons who supposedly, or allegedly, need no repentance? Who are they?

He’s aiming the parable at grumblers. He’s aiming the parable at the self-righteous, and he’s trying to expose how utterly unfitting their spirit is in light of this beautiful scene of salvation they’re beholding before them. These lost people, these tax collectors and sinners are being found and they’re repenting and coming to saving faith. Grumbling is not fitting, but rather rejoicing. So, in no way is Jesus affirming them as sheep. He’s in no way assuring them that they are indeed righteous people who have no need to repent. He’s actually exposing the very real probability they might not be sheep at all, and they should be examining themselves.

Consider that the ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance, these are those who think they have no need for repentance. These are those who think that they are righteous before God. They think that their merit accrues to their benefit before a holy God.

Jesus said something similar to the same, not the same exact people, but the same group of people, Pharisees and scribes, back in Luke 5:31. Remember there, in the calling of Levi, Matthew, called him into discipleship. In response, Levi, Matthew, threw him a banquet, invited all of his worldly friends. He wanted all of them to hear this good news, this Gospel, and so he invited them. Jesus, tell them what you told me. Jesus, tell them, tell them about righteousness before God. How you have it, and I don’t, and I can find it in you, and I can be accepted before God. I can be justified, me the ungodly, justified before a holy God. Tell them that message, Jesus.

So, there he is, eating, drinking with tax collectors and sinners, and he’s talking to them about the Gospel and the Pharisees come up and they criticize. They criticize, what are you doing? It’s same, it’s the same charge. Receiving them, welcome them, and eating with them, what are you doing? Eating and drinking with those? Remember how he responded? “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” What’s he saying to the Pharisees and the scribes, there? Is he saying, you’re well, you don’t need a, you don’t need a doctor? You’re righteous. Criticism justified. You’re righteous. I haven’t come for you. So, just, just understand I’m doing a different work here. You do your work for God, and I’ll do mine. That’s not what he’s saying.

Back to verse 7. The best way to see verse 7 is not as making a comparative statement, that there is more joy over one penitent sinner and less joy over ninety-nine righteous people. That’s not the idea at all. It’s not a comparative. Instead, he’s saying there is joy in the first case, no joy in the second case. The grammar that Jesus uses here makes that point. It strengthens the disjunctive force of the conjunction, there. So, it literally reads, “I tell you in the same way, joy in heaven there will be over one sinner who repents, rather than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Joy in the first case, no joy in the second case.

It’s reinforced actually by the parallel in verse 10, where there is no comparative idea at all. “Just so I tell you, there’s joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Doesn’t even mention the nine, like the nine coins, the nine who need no repentance. Doesn’t even mention that. That’s it. Period. What fills heaven with joy is one single repentant sinner, not a multitude of self-righteous religious people. Jesus rejoices in the humble few, in that remnant who know that they need repentance. They know that they have nothing to be proud of in their life. They have nothing that accrues to their benefit, nothing on their resume.

There’s no joy in those who are proud in heaven. There’s no joy who those, over those who refuse to admit their need. Hendrickson says this, “Undoubtedly, in mentioning the ninety-nine, Jesus is thinking of the Pharisees, scribes, and their followers. His explanation does justice to the introduction of the parable, verses 1 and 2. The ninety-nine sheep represent the grumblers. They were the ones who were erecting the palace of their hope and security on the frail foundation of their own vaunted righteousness.” End quote.

The shepherd/sheep metaphor should call to mind several significant Old Testament texts, with which the Pharisees, the scribes, are very familiar. In fact, you can turn back to Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, and see one such text. This, when Jesus mentions the shepherd and the sheep, a, there’re obviously a number of texts in the Old Testament they could go to, but this one should stand out. Most notable is this text, Isaiah 53, that should prompt within them a deep sense of humility among those who have penitent hearts. Isaiah 53 is a retrospective text. It’s written from the perspective of a repentant Israel looking back and speaking to an unrepentant Israel.

Look at Isaiah 53:1, “Who has believed what he’s heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look upon him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he’s borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” And then this: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

And, down at verse 10, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; and when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he’s poured out his soul to death, and he was numbered with the transgressors; and yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

What is the appropriate response to that chapter? It’s not just a humble response here, not just a Gospel response. What is the fitting, appropriate, righteous response to the doctrine that’s expounded there, the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, to the shepherd who dies in place of his straying and sinful sheep? Grumbling? No. Is criticism appropriate here? No. Gratitude is the only response with a humble heart, the Gospel heart, the righteous heart, that’s, one that’s been justified, one that’s been declared righteous by God. Gratitude and joy is the only fitting response, praise God, and Amen.

Go back to Luke 15. Now if, if yours is a heart of righteous affections, if you have Gospel affections, if you have humble affections, you’re not proud, but you’re humble, meek, you’re going to find yourself at home in heaven. You’re going to find yourself at home in the company of the angels. You’re going to be there among friends and neighbors who share the same affection that you have for that one neighbor, God, and his Christ, who saves sinners. You’re going to find a home there.

Number four, you’re going to have theological affections. Theological affections. What I mean by theological affections is I’m talking about theologically attuned affections, theologically informed affections. Your reaction to all of this, righteous, Gospel, humility, all of this is going to be informed by the theology that drives it. It’s these affections that are informed by who God is and what God does, who he really is in his essence, and what he does accomplish in his redemption.

This is about affections that respond in sympathy to God. This is about the creature who worships God, his Creator. The redeemed worshiping God, his Redeemer, the sinner worshipping God, his Savior. There’s a theological reason that we respond in affection for the salvation of the lost. It’s what Joaquin Jeremiah describes as, quote, “the soteriological joy of God.” Soteriology is the doctrine of salvation. Study of seeing his joy in saving sinners. It’s a theme that, well, as we see in the text has significant emphasis. It’s repeated five times.

Number one, verse 5, the shepherd finds his lost sheep and he, himself, personally, privately rejoices. He returns home in verse 6, calls his friends and neighbors together to what? Rejoice with him. Third, you can see in verse 9 the woman does the same thing. She calls her friends together to rejoice over the coin that she lost and then found. And then the parables portray the joy of heaven. Two more references to joy, verse 7, so this is number four, fourth expression here, of joy: joy in heaven over one sinner repents, and then verse 10, number five, joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

 And we want to be theologically accurate, here. We need to be careful about how we speak about God. God does not respond to the salvation of one repentant sinner by rejoicing. Catch the language, there? He doesn’t respond to it. He doesn’t respond with any kind of emotion or affection because God is God, he is simple essence. And in his simple, eternal, perfect essence, he is immutable and impassable, that is to say, he does not change, and he is unaffected. Nothing moves upon him or moves him. He is not affected. He’s not moved upon by some outside force. He’s not even moved by an internal sense. For God to be moved would mean that he has moved, of necessity, from one state of being to another state of being. That would constitute a change in God, not eternal perfection, but some element of change. He had to change from a less joyful God to a more joyful God. That’s impossible for God because he is eternally immutable, impassible; he doesn’t change at all.

The right way to think about divine joy is this: God dwells perfectly, unchangeably in the bliss of eternal blessedness. He is perfect and unchanging in divine delight. Saying he’s not affected, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. It’s just that his care couldn’t get any better. It’s perfect care, it’s eternal care and it doesn’t waver. It doesn’t change. It’s not to say he doesn’t love or have compassion, it’s just that his love and his compassion are perfect to the extreme, perfect to the infinite degree, because he is an infinite, unchanging, eternal God. It does not waver, it does not change. That is good news for us.

So, we praise God that he is not affected. We praise God that he does not have changing passions that heat up and cool down like ours do. We praise God that he’s not a man, or even an elevated man. Praise God that he’s not some kind of mythical Grecian deity, with wavering affections, changing and waxing hot and then cooling off. Rather than being moved by unstable passions, rather than God experiencing affectation or changing affections, God’s love is eternal, God’s love is unchanging, it never waxes and wanes, it stays red hot. His delight is eternal. His delight is unchanging. It’s always constant, it’s eternally perfect.

If his delight and affection and love are perfect, would we prefer that they fluctuate so we can make him more relatable to us? Not at all. God rejoices in the salvation of sinners perfectly, in an unchanging way. He delights because he’s the one that came up with the whole plan to begin with. He rejoices over one sinner who repents because that repentance leading to salvation is his doing from start to finish. He’s the one who initiated it. He’s the one who executed it. He’s the one who carries it on to completion. So, God delights in accomplishing and applying Christ’s redemption to sinners.

It is in response then, to God’s fixed, eternal, unchanging love, it is in response to God’s fixed, eternal, unchanging delight in saving sinners, whenever that happens for us in time and space, to witness the evidence of his salvation in the repentance of sinners, well, even Heaven itself erupts in joy. All the creatures surrounding God that he created to respond to him in affection, they erupt in joy. They are immutable, changeable. They go from one state to another, and they are affected. They are changed. They do go from less joy to more joy in response to God. Mutable creatures around his throne. They are affected in rapturous joy. They respond with a resounding chorus of exultant praise. How could they keep silent? If they keep silent, the very rocks will cry out.

So, as Jesus, here, gives us a peek into Heaven itself, gives us a special view, and we see the creatures of Heaven responding to the sovereign grace of God, as the repentance of this one sinner becomes known to them and the repentance of that one sinner becomes known to them, the angels of God are affected, and they respond in praise. The saints of old are affected, responding in praise. The spirits of just men made perfect, affected, and responding and praise. The center of attention in this scene, the worship leader of all of Heaven: the risen Christ Jesus himself.

Isaiah 53:11, the father says, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied…” And then this, in verse 12, I, “Therefore God says, I will divide him a portion with the many, he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and he makes intercession for the transgressors.” And when he makes intercession, and that sinner comes in repentance and faith, Christ rejoices, and he leads a chorus of celebration and, and singing, and joy in Heaven itself.

Writer to the Hebrews pictures him there in that scene, saying this, Hebrews 2:12, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the great congregation, I’ll sing your praise.” I’d love to see and hear Christ sing, wouldn’t you? He will point to the portion that God has given him. He will point to the spoils of the battle that he fought and won. And Hebrews 2:13 says, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

I guarantee this, there will be no grumbling in that place at that time. No response there, but pure, unmitigated, unrestrained joy. One commentator said it’s, it’s a mark of great joy that seeks sympathy, it’s a mark of great joy that seeks sympathy when you have something so severe happen to you, and it’s just so dire and so difficult and so treacherous and grave. And then you’re brought out of that condition and rescued. You can’t wait to tell somebody. You want to share it, which is fitting and appropriate. It’s good news. It’s a Gospel affection.

Can we expect friends and neighbors to reciprocate the joy of the shepherd? The joy of the woman? Of course we can. It’s taken for granted. Those who have affection for the shepherd, those who love and sympathize with the woman, their status as friends and neighbors is not simply a matter of familiarity or proximity, it’s a matter of relationship. They’re invested with this person and when they joy, rejoice, they rejoice. How different that is from the attitude of the Pharisees.

Alfred Edersheim, he quotes straight from the rabbinic text, he finds the same attitude there. The Pharisaic, rabbinic attitude says, “There is joy before God when those who provoke him perish from the world.” That’s hard. That’s hard stuff. Those who provoke him, hmm, isn’t that all of us? What are we to make of that attitude in light of texts like Ezekiel 18:23? “‘Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ declares the Lord God, ‘and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?’” Like, don’t I take pleasure in repentance instead of death? Ezekiel 33:11, where God testifies about himself, he says, “Say to them,” Ezekiel, tell em, “‘As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?’”

In this political climate we’re in, where the media and the politicians are trying to foster division, and foster anger and animus, and hatred among us, don’t let that be your attitude. Don’t get caught up in all the anger and hatred and vitriol of this world that we’re living in. Rather, have the idea that God loves even those despicable people who are trying to go after our kids. God loves them. God wants to see them repent. That’s the attitude. Do I take any pleasure in destroying America? No, but rather that America should repent and live. Same principle Jesus has unpacked for us here, verse 7, verse 10, that Heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. He passes over the self-righteous grumblers, but he rejoices in one sinner who repents.

Do you respond to the joy of God, that God who delights in saving sinners, who finds pleasure in the repentance of one sinner? Because that’s happening in our midst, you know. There are people coming here who are repenting, who God is favoring with his grace. They have a litany of sins. They got skeletons in the closet, they got, they got stuff they don’t want to talk about and God has been pleased to show them grace. Will you rejoice? Spurgeon said, “I feel a sudden flush and flood of delight when I meet a, with a poor creature who once lay at Hell’s dark door but is now brought to the gate of heaven.” Do not you? I do, I know many of you do too, as well, we, we all love to see the salvation of the lost. We love to see God show himself strong in the rescue of the lost.

May we all share those same affections. May we all respond to the perfect love and delight of God in saving sinners, an eternal delight, an unchanging love. Let us rejoice to see that happening in our midst. Regularly, here, God is favoring us by showing the grace and kindness of the Savior, Jesus Christ, plucking out lost sinners and bringing them to himself.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we do delight in what delights you. And we do admit, even now as we express that delight, as we’re moved by what Jesus has taught us here, we do admit that sometimes our hearts are cold, indifferent, distracted. There are times, we must admit, that we are like these Pharisees, scribes. We can tend toward that self-righteous attitude, critical spirit, finding always the dark questions and pondering those instead of rejoicing and celebrating as we ought to, as we must.

And so, father, we just pray that our congregation, our church, would be characterized by this joy over the lost, over the salvation of the lost, that we would delight in divine love, a love that will seek and save those who are lost. We all count ourselves among those lost sheep and lost coins. We count ourselves among those tax collectors and sinners, or on the other hand, what even seems more despicable in scripture, we count ourselves even among the scribes and the Pharisees, looking down on others, having this self-righteous, proud attitude.

Oh father, please forgive us for those sins. Please rescue us and free our hearts to indulge in your love. We pray that you would do that much more as the days go forward and help us to be that conduit of salvation, bringing that Gospel message to this lost world around us. We long to see more saved to the praise of your glorious grace, that gratitude would increase, and your praise and glory would be renowned. We love you, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.