Sin. It's one of those things that we really don't want to talk much
about anymore, isn't it? Sin. We've been told that to talk about sin
isn't politically correct. We've been told that it's not the best way
to win friends and influence people, and we've been told that talking
about sin doesn't offer much hope.
We live in a culture in which there are no moral absolutes. We live
in a culture that says what you believe is okay for you, and what I
believe is okay for me. And so as Christians, people ask us, "Who
are you to tell me what to believe? How dare you? And what
makes you think you're so perfect anyway?"
You see, today most Americans construct their moral belief system
something like this: They simply pick and choose from the myriad
religious titles from the smorgasbord of books at the local
bookstore. Such is life in what is now described as the post-modern
era. And as Christians, most of us now feel uncomfortable talking
about sin. But unless we talk about sin, how is it that we can
understand the doctrine of salvation? And unless we talk about sin,
how is it that we can understand that the Gospel is good news, that
Jesus Christ came to forgive us, that Jesus Christ came to redeem us,
to give us life and life more abundantly?
So what is sin? First and foremost, sin is something that is against
God. Sin is against God's law and it is against God's righteousness.
But the New Testament reminds us that God demonstrates his love to us
in this way, that he sent his son Jesus Christ to offer himself as a
sacrifice for our sins.
For most of us as Christians, the reality of being a Christian would
be something like this: When we first come to faith in Jesus Christ,
we are eager to tell our friends about the change that has taken
place within us. We want people to see that we're a new creation, a
new person. But as we mature in our faith, something happens. We hang
out less with our non-Christian friends, and eventually we have fewer
and fewer meaningful relationships with non-Christians. Oh, there may
be that casual acquaintance, but we're reluctant to let them too
close; we're reluctant to find any time for them in our over-crowded
calendars.
But you know, something strikes me as I read the Gospels. Jesus
Christ was never afraid to spend time with sinners. Jesus was never
afraid to befriend the sinner. He always managed to make time for
people like me and like you. He talked with the sinner. He ate with
the sinner. And he even listened to them.
The religious leaders of Jesus' day condemn him not only because he
welcomed sinners, but also because he shares a meal with them. For
Jesus, sharing a meal is an invitation to life. It's an invitation to
share life, and Jesus came to earth to share his life with sinners.
And so Jesus invites us to the table.
But for the Pharisees, Jesus' behavior borders on sacrilege. After
all, the orthodox Jew was forbidden to associate with anyone who did
not keep the law in its entirety. A godly person, a good Jew, would
never do something so intimate as to share a meal with a prostitute,
with a tax collector, with a Gentile.
In Luke 15, we read two parables that Jesus shares with his accusers:
the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the last coin. These
parables remind the over-zealous, religious person that the Kingdom
of God is meant for sinners, for people who recognize their own need
for God's grace, for God's forgiveness. And against the religious
bigotry of his own day, Jesus speaks of the depth and the breadth of
the unconditional love of God for me, and for you.
In the parable of the lost sheep, a shepherd of very modest means
watches over his flock. Other families may have the means to hire
extra hands to watch the flock, but not this shepherd. This shepherd
is solely responsible for his flock. And so he does the same thing
every night. He counts the sheep: 97, 98, 99, 100. Ah. They're all
there.
But one day, he comes up short. 97, 98, 99 -- 99. One of them's
missing. The shepherd breaks into a sweat. One of his most precious
possessions is missing. The shepherd moves into full gear as he
places the other 99 in the care of someone else so that he can run
after this wayward lamb. He knows the danger facing his little lamb.
The unsuspecting animal might fall off of a cliff or a wild beast
might attack. And so the shepherd will stop at absolutely nothing
until he finds his beloved sheep.
But imagine with me the joy of the shepherd as he finds that lost
lamb. He lifts the animal over his shoulder, and he walks home with a
new bounce in his step, and he can't wait until he gets into the
village and says, "Rejoice with me because I found the lost
lamb." Oh what joy, what cause for celebration. And Jesus says,
"This is what it will be like in heaven when one sinner repents.
There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent."
But some of us might say, "Wait a minute. What about the other
99 righteous persons? Don't they bring any joy to God? Doesn't God
love them too?" Well, we all know the answer to that. The answer
is yes. God loves them too. God loves the one who never wanders from
home. But in God's heart, there is enormous joy in heaven -- even the
angels rejoice -- when a sinner repents, when a sinner recognizes the
need for God's grace, the need for God's mercy.
And today, our Heavenly Father continues to seek the lost. And
seeking the lost should be one of our major concerns if we are
followers of Jesus Christ. If we love God, if Jesus Christ is the
Lord of our life, if we have experienced his life-transforming power
at work within us, then we too should be concerned about the lost.
Today there are over 2 billion people in the world who have never
heard the name of Jesus Christ. Now think of it this way: If the
population of the earth still stands at somewhere around six billion,
that means that 1/3 of the world's population has never even been told
the story of Jesus Christ. And in Romans 10, verses 14 and 15, the
Apostle Paul writes these words, "How can they call on the one
whom they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one
of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone
preaching to them, and how can they preach without being sent?"
We must ask ourselves, how will the unreached people of the world
hear the name of Jesus Christ unless we send men and woman to share
the good news of the Gospel?
As a congregation we have the joy, we have the pleasure of sending
one of our own, one that we prayed for this morning, Scott Draper.
Because Scott recognized the enormous spiritual hunger in China
today, he recognized God's leading and he said, "I am going to
give a year to serve, to teach, and in doing so, to build
relationships so that I might earn the right to share my faith."
God does love people. There's no question about it. And if you really
love God, if Jesus is the Lord of your life, you will love
people and you will want to share his love with people.
John Wesley, that great English evangelist of the 18th century, put
it this way. He said, "I want the whole of Christ for my Savior,
the whole of the Bible for my book, the whole of the church for my
community, and the whole of the world for my mission field."
Some of you this morning might be asking, "Adrian, what's the
urgency? What's the rush?" The urgency is, it's all about
people. God's heart is broken by the grip of sin on humanity. But
some of us put off sharing our faith because we think maybe there
will be a better time. We hope that there will be other opportunities
to share, or we don't feel comfortable. We don't want to offend. We
know that we've been told it's politically incorrect in the
workplace.
So what's the urgency? The urgency is that each day, millions of
people will slip into eternity, and for some, it's an eternity in
God's presence. But for others, it's an eternity in darkness.
Friends, as Christians, we bear the responsibility; we bear the
privilege of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news
that God offers to us a fresh start, a new beginning, the forgiveness
of sins, and the hope of eternal life. And all of this is available
through faith in Jesus Christ. And if we don't share this massage
with others, then we must ask ourselves, who will share this message?
I have a friend that I'll call Marcus for the sake of my sermon.
Marcus was raised in the church. As a young person, Marcus was a
leader in his youth group, and he was loved by everyone in his
church. But as a young man in his early 20's, something happened, and
he didn't attend church much anymore. His friends noticed, and so
they would call to see if he was okay, but he wouldn't really respond
to their questions. Marcus was living simply for the pleasures of
this world. But interestingly, he said that he couldn't fully enjoy
the pleasures of this world because he knew right from wrong, and the
weight of his guilt kept him from coming home, from coming back to
Christ, from asking God for forgiveness, from asking his friends and
his church community for their forgiveness.
Many of us are like Marcus, aren't we? There is something in our past
that so holds us back, that holds us down, that we are so afraid to
give ourselves fully to God. And we mistakenly believe that our sins,
our mistakes, are too big for God to handle. And rather than laying
our sin at the foot of the cross, we carry the weight of our sins on
our shoulders, and we fail to know the fullness of life that is
available to us through complete faith in Jesus Christ alone.
One day I asked Marcus, I said, "So when did things change?"
And Marcus told how his mother had invited him to church, and for
some reason he attended that Sunday. And he heard someone preach on
the parable of the lost sheep. And as the minister shared the
parable, Marcus recognized himself in the story. For Marcus, the idea
that his repentance, that his prayer for forgiveness could bring joy
in heaven, this brought him to his knees; the idea that God would
continue to seek him no matter how far he went astray. Marcus has
never been the same since. He has a renewed passion for Jesus Christ.
In the book of Hebrews we read these great words, "Let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we might receive
mercy and grace." I don't care this morning what's in your past.
Nothing, none of it is beyond God's forgiveness, and that's what I
want you to know. Nothing is beyond God's plan of redemption, and
nothing in your past is beyond God's unconditional love. In Christ,
we are offered a new start. God loves you, and he sent his Son to
redeem your past and to restore your relationship to your creator.
For the Pharisees, they may have believed that God would accept a
sinner if he came crawling on his knees, but the very idea that God
would go out seeking the sinner, this was unthinkable. They couldn't
understand it. And so Jesus shares these parables. And in the parable
of the lost coin, Jesus offers one more portrayal of God's
unconditional love, of his concern for humanity.
A woman has ten silver coins, or ten drachmas. And the silver coin or
the drachma was worth about as much as perhaps a day's wages. So in
reality, ten drachmas wasn't really worth that much. But for the
woman, it was the sum total of her entire life savings. And so the
loss of even one coin is a serious incident.
One day the woman loses one of these tiny silver coins, and so she
desperately searches for her drachma. She sweeps every corner of her
home until she finds it, and when she finds the lost coin, she calls
her friends and neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me. I
have found my lost coin."
Last week I was driving to Lake Tahoe to speak at a conference of the
Japanese Presbyterian churches. And in preparing to leave, I noticed
I had lost my wallet. Now I had to drive how many hundred miles. This
was kind of a scary thing. So I asked my wife, Janel, if she would
call the church office, and she spoke with Kathryn and asked Kathryn
if she would check my desk to see if perhaps I had left it in a
drawer or in a file or on top of the desk. And Katheryn checked every
corner of my office, but she couldn't find it.
Now like every good secretary, Kathryn not only knows what is on my
schedule for today, but she can tell you everything that I did
yesterday. And so she remembered, "Ah-ah! He had a meeting with
Gerry and June Watson. I'll call them. Maybe it's in their car."
The Watsons looked in their car, and they couldn't find it.
But June remembered that I had had a meeting that previous day
with one of our local Presbyterian pastors, and so she drove over to
that restaurant to see if perhaps I left it on the booth. But several
hours later, my wallet was still missing; that is, until any my wife,
Janel, decided to ask a family member, "Why don't you check the
diaper bag?" Oh, the embarrassment when I got back from Lake
Tahoe. Janel said, "I don't think you carry that diaper bag
enough."
In preparing for this sermon, I've been thinking a lot about that
search for my lost wallet. Because just as Kathryn decided to ask
June and Gerry to search for my wallet, Christ invites us to join him
as he draws others to himself. In the Kingdom of God, God invites us
to join the search, to participate in bringing the lost to him. God
commissions us to go into the world, to declare his love, to share
the name of Jesus Christ. Lost people are extremely important to God,
and he longs for each one of us to give ourselves to him so
completely that he could work within us and that he could draw others
to himself.
These parables this morning force us to ask very tough questions,
don't they? Can we look into the eye of our neighbor and see the
treasure that God sees? Are we willing to share God's love with them?
Are we willing to be vulnerable to share our faith with our families,
our neighbors, our coworkers, even when it might mean being
ridiculed? Do we really believe that there is no other name on
earth by which men and women will be saved? Do we believe that there
is nothing in our past that could bar us from the unconditional love
of God, and do we really believe in our heart of hearts this
morning that God could redeem even our past, even our sins, even our
mistakes? God can, and God wants to. And that's the good news that we
read in the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the last
sheep. There will be great joy in heaven when we gaze into the face
of Jesus for all eternity, when we finally make it home, when the
good shepherd carries us over the threshold and into eternity.
What hope could compare with the hope that is ours if we have placed
our faith in Jesus Christ? One day we will lay our trophies down at
the throne of God, and we will join with that great heavenly chorus,
the angels and the archangels, the cherubim and the seraphim, and we
will stand before the throne of God if we have placed our faith in
Jesus Christ, and we will join that chorus, and we too will sing,
"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty&ldots;Worthy is the lamb
that was slain for our sins."
This morning, Jesus invites us to the table. The invitation to the
table is a reminder that Jesus comes to share life with sinners; to
offer forgiveness, redemption, salvation. As we observe the Lords'
Supper this morning, we are reminded of God's unconditional love. It
doesn't matter what our past looks like. It doesn't matter what the
sin was. Jesus says, "Come and share life with me. Believe in
me. Trust in me alone."
Have you come to a place in your life where you have trusted in Jesus
Christ alone for your salvation? Do you recognize your need for God's
grace? Then come to the table. Jesus says, "Come. There will be
more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents then over 99
righteous persons who do not need to repent."
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