WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.280 Well, in our Sunday morning services at the moment we're working through a short study 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:10.000 in some of the parables in Luke. We're picking out ten of these and focusing on some of these 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:17.280 great stories that Jesus told in order to teach some beautiful and glorious theological 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:23.500 truths. Today we come to two of Jesus's most famous parables. We're going to be looking 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:31.440 together at the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. These are beautiful parables. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:37.519 At one level they are so simple. You have the image of a sheep that has wandered off 00:00:37.519 --> 00:00:43.960 and the image of a coin that's gone missing in your house. And yet at the same time they 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:51.200 are so profound and they lead us into a depth of teaching that ultimately will probably 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:59.280 never fully be able to grasp. Both of these parables and in fact the parable of the prodigal 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:04.560 son which comes in the second half of Luke chapter 15, arise out of the context of the 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:12.040 religious leaders complaining that Jesus was mixing with the wrong kind of people. Wes 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:15.159 read that for us at the beginning of the passage. He said that the tax collectors and sinners 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:21.920 were all drawing near to Jesus. The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying this man received 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:29.120 sinners and eats with them. As a result of that he told them the parables that we're 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:34.400 going to study today. There's a huge amount that we could look at and I think I always 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:39.759 say this but we are really only going to scratch the surface. But we're going to look at three 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:51.000 things, the problem of people, the preciousness of people and the joy of heaven. In many ways 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:57.040 at the heart of these two parables, in fact all the parables in this passage is people 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:03.880 who are a problem. As you may remember in this section of Luke Jesus is moving towards 00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:10.879 the end of his ministry and so his public profile would have probably been at its highest 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:16.000 and as he travelled through the region and the towns and the villages more and more people 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:23.680 were coming to hear him. And included in that crowd were tax collectors and sinners. In 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:29.240 other words people who were either perceived as corrupt, the tax collectors who were serving 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:34.520 the enemy and collecting money for Rome or those people whose lives were just in a mess, 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:40.320 those sinners who weren't reaching the standard of behaviour that the religious authorities 00:02:40.320 --> 00:02:47.960 expected of people. To those religious leaders, to the Pharisees and the scribes, these people 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:53.920 were a problem. If you imagine that you'd had the opportunity to maybe go up to these 00:02:53.920 --> 00:02:58.160 Pharisees and scribes you would have seen them and they maybe had a look of distress, 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:01.719 maybe a look of kind of horror on their face and if you'd been able to go up to them and 00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:10.919 ask them, what's wrong? Their answer would have been, these people are here. And as verse 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:18.639 2 tells us, they criticised Jesus because he was mixing with them. These people are 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:26.199 a problem. Now Jesus responds to that by telling us that in God's eyes these people are a 00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:35.319 big problem, but for completely different reasons. For the Pharisees and the scribes, 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:41.159 these kind of people are a problem when they come near. For God, these people are a problem 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:48.359 when they're far away and lost. And this is one of the many places where we see how different 00:03:48.359 --> 00:03:55.079 God is from the culture around us today. So often for us today, things are only a problem 00:03:55.080 --> 00:04:02.600 if they're right in front of us. And that is especially true of people. Our culture 00:04:02.600 --> 00:04:08.720 reinforces that all the time. Brokenness is pushed to one side and as much as possible 00:04:08.720 --> 00:04:13.720 we keep things away because problem people are much less of a problem if they're not 00:04:13.720 --> 00:04:22.280 in our face. And the further away that brokenness can be kept, the less of a problem it is. 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:29.519 For example, imagine tomorrow two homeless men went to a shop and bought a bottle of 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:35.439 whiskey each. Imagine they both drank it as quickly as they possibly could. One of them 00:04:35.439 --> 00:04:40.479 wanders down the Royal Mile and comes to the Scottish Parliament and he gets to the door 00:04:40.479 --> 00:04:49.199 just as Nicola Sturgeon, our first minister, is about to walk in and he vomits on her. 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:57.079 The other person drinks his bottle of whiskey, wanders back to his housing scheme, stumbles 00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:02.120 into a wall, hits his head, dies of a brain hemorrhage on the ground. Which one of these 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:12.560 would be in the news? For scribes, for Pharisees, for us today, people are a problem when they're 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:19.759 in front of us. God is completely different. For him, people are a problem when they're 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:24.840 far away. And the parables bring that out so clearly. If you could ask the shepherd what's 00:05:24.840 --> 00:05:28.800 wrong, he would have said, one of my sheep is missing. If you could ask the woman what's 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:34.319 wrong, she would have said, my coin is missing. You ask God what's wrong, he'd say someone's 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:46.839 missing. Thomas is missing. Or whatever your name is, you're missing. People are a problem 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:53.560 for God, not when they're present, but when they're lost. And we have to ask ourselves, 00:05:53.560 --> 00:06:01.639 why is that a problem for God? Because if there's one thing that's true of God, it's 00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:08.919 that he doesn't need us. God alone is God. And he does not depend on anything else. We 00:06:08.919 --> 00:06:16.120 have absolutely no inherent claim on God's concern or attention. So why is it? How can 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:20.759 it be that lost people are a problem for God? Well, I think that maybe the answer to that 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:29.800 is that when God made us, he made us to be 100% un-lost. So when God created humanity, 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:35.840 he gave us a stunning home. He gave us security and safety. He gave us a meaningful purpose 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:41.560 for life. And he gave us a beautiful relationship with himself and with one another. If you 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:45.000 look at the descriptions of humanity at the beginning of the Bible in the Garden of Eden, 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:53.160 it is a picture of absolute un-lostness. Instead, it's a place of perfect belonging. 00:06:53.160 --> 00:07:00.439 And that's how God made things to be. But sin has ruined that. And you can see that 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:04.120 very clearly because the first thing that Adam and Eve did, what was the first thing 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:12.520 that they did when they sinned? They tried to run away and hide because they'd lost their 00:07:12.520 --> 00:07:20.480 sense of belonging. And in its place, sin has brought humanity into a state of lostness. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:27.360 So we live in a world created to be our home, but people feel lost. People feel threatened, 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:35.720 lonely, disorientated. Our relationships with one another have broken down because of sin. 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:42.319 And often our weaknesses and our insecurities make other people want to push us away. Our 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:47.780 relationship even with ourselves has been damaged. So our own thoughts and our own minds 00:07:47.779 --> 00:07:53.599 can lead us into a lost state of despair. And above all of that, a relationship with 00:07:53.599 --> 00:08:01.879 God is broken. Instead of being in a family bond with Him, we are lost. And in the midst 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:10.119 of all that, we struggle, stumble, and fail. And for some people, that lostness is very 00:08:10.119 --> 00:08:16.679 obvious, a bit like these tax collectors and sinners. Their lostness was obvious to everyone 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:20.120 they could see. And we can see the same. We can see people who've sold themselves to 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:25.000 greed and corruption like the tax collectors had. We can see other people whose lives have 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:31.759 spiralled downwards. And it's obvious, even at a glance. But for other people, maybe for 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:38.440 most of us, our lostness can be much more hidden. And so on the outside, we might look 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:49.840 successful, capable and confident, but inside we can feel so isolated, confused, and overwhelmed. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:58.520 And all too often, our culture responds to that lostness by wanting to confound it. Our 00:08:58.520 --> 00:09:04.280 culture wants to keep people who are broken and lost at a distance. We are to keep that 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:11.919 brokenness to ourselves. What's the phrase that people use when a problem person comes 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:21.360 too close? A problem person, a really problem person, a really difficult person comes too 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:32.439 close. What do we say? Get lost. Isn't that true? And once they are away, we'll say, well, 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:38.800 that's not my problem anymore. This parable shows that God is completely different. To 00:09:38.800 --> 00:09:43.720 God, the problem is not when people come near, the problem is when they wander off. We might 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:51.000 say that someone far away is not my problem. God says, that is exactly my problem. And 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:58.080 so in response to the problem of people, God never says, tell them to get lost. God says, 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:06.759 tell them I am coming to find them and bring them home. And in all of that, we need to 00:10:06.759 --> 00:10:16.480 ask ourselves the question, when it comes to people, is God's problem our problem? In 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:22.320 other words, when people are broken, what bothers us more that they're too near or that 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:29.840 they're too far away? And if I look at my own heart, I see that so often, what I have 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:34.600 a problem with and what God has a problem with are not the same. And I pray that that 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:41.240 will be different. And for us as a church, it's a powerful reminder that when people 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:47.040 muck up in their lives, our response as a church should never, ever be to push them 00:10:47.040 --> 00:10:52.080 away. Sometimes that can happen either consciously or subconsciously. People muck up in their 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:57.400 lives and their instinctive response is to push them away or at least to keep them at 00:10:57.400 --> 00:11:02.759 arm's length. God's response is to go after them and to bring them home. And as a church, 00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:10.040 we must always be the same, always. And the only time we should ever accept someone staying 00:11:10.040 --> 00:11:16.400 away is when they absolutely refuse to come back. And everything that we tried has been 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:24.600 rejected. Our default position is to go after the lost, to bring them in and to protect 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:34.480 them. So for God, people are a problem. And that leads us to the second thing, because 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:40.240 the reason that people are a problem is because people are precious. That's one of the really 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:46.319 striking things about this parable, the value that is placed on the item that's lost. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:51.640 So to the shepherd, the sheep, the lost sheep is precious to the woman. This lost coin is 00:11:51.640 --> 00:11:56.960 of great value. That's reinforced by just an interesting phrase that Jesus uses in verse 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:02.080 4 and verse 8. He says, what man of you, what woman of you, as if to say that to not look 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:08.480 for the sheep or the coin is unthinkable. It's a no-brainer that these things should 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:16.960 be looked after, looked for. That's because these things are precious. And one point that 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:22.800 I think these two parables bring out in an even more powerful way than the parable of 00:12:22.800 --> 00:12:30.759 the prodigal son later in this chapter is this, that the collective value of the many 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:38.039 does not compensate for the preciousness of the one that's lost. In other words, in 00:12:38.039 --> 00:12:49.519 God's eyes, the value of everyone else does not for one second mean that you are any less 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:55.599 precious to him. You look at the woman, she's got 10 coins, she's only lost one. You think, 00:12:55.599 --> 00:12:58.959 well, that doesn't seem too much. And it's even more striking with the man, he's got 00:12:58.959 --> 00:13:06.679 99 sheep. It's only 1%, only one that's missing. Surely, surely the rest would make up for 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:15.000 the lost, but it's not the case. In fact, it's not even remotely an option to think 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:22.519 like that. The value of the many is not an adequate replacement for the preciousness 00:13:22.519 --> 00:13:29.039 of the one. And verse 7 reinforces that, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:38.199 who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. The 99 cannot substitute 00:13:38.199 --> 00:13:48.000 for the one. Now I want you to just think about that for a wee moment. That means that 00:13:48.000 --> 00:14:00.759 in God's eyes, you are irreplaceable. Now we live in a world where people are very 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:05.600 quickly replaced. Right now in the UK, the most powerful person in our country, Theresa 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:13.679 May, is about to be replaced and they are queuing up, as we can see, to take her place. 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:16.799 I'd say over the last two years, there's probably not been a single week where Theresa 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:21.839 May has not been in the news. After this summer, that's going to change very, very quickly. 00:14:21.839 --> 00:14:27.519 But it's not just in high profile positions where people are replaceable. In your job, 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:34.399 in your community, in your friendships, even in relationships and family, we live in a 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:46.599 culture where people are replaceable. We live in a world that regards you as dispensable, 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:58.759 forgettable, replaceable. That's never true with God. And of course, that makes perfect 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:10.279 sense because no one knows your preciousness better than God. No one knows your uniqueness 00:15:10.279 --> 00:15:17.399 better than God. Every single person is unique. We have this uniqueness and God knows that 00:15:17.399 --> 00:15:22.720 better than anyone. In fact, he's the one who gave it to you. So your DNA, your fingerprint, 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:28.159 the pattern of your iris, your freckles, your tastes, your talents, even the numbers of hairs 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:43.519 on your head, he knows it all. God knows everything that makes you, you. And that makes you irreplaceable. 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:48.159 God knows your potential better than anybody else. So we often talk about looking for potential 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:51.919 in people. We want to encourage people. We want to look for talents to see what people 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:57.799 might be able to do. Sometimes we get that right. Often we don't. And if I ask myself, 00:15:57.799 --> 00:16:04.639 can I look at somebody and say that I can recognize every area of potential that that 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:13.759 person has? Can I do that? No, I can't. Nobody can do that except God. He knows every ounce 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:21.719 of potential you have. That makes you irreplaceable. And that, of course, is why we thrive when 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:28.320 we follow his path for our lives. God knows your uniqueness better than anyone. He knows 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:34.920 your potential better than anyone. God also knows your fragility better than anyone else. 00:16:34.920 --> 00:16:39.639 It's important to remember that preciousness doesn't mean invincibility. More often than 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:44.639 not, it's the very opposite. The most precious things in life are often fragile and delicate. 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:53.439 So jewelry, technology, works of art, and newborn baby, these things are to be handled 00:16:53.439 --> 00:17:03.879 with great care. That is so true of humanity. Humanity is incredibly precious, but immensely 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:08.680 fragile. And God knows your fragility better than anyone. He knows your blind spots. He 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:13.799 knows your pressure points. He knows your insecurities. He knows your vulnerabilities. 00:17:13.799 --> 00:17:20.519 But none of these reduce your value to God. In fact, they simply reinforce your preciousness. 00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:24.279 The man who lost his sheep doesn't think, oh, well, she's a strong wee sheep. I'm sure 00:17:24.279 --> 00:17:33.759 she'll be fine. He thinks she's precious and she's in danger. I am going to get her. No 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:41.799 one knows your preciousness better than God. And that's why no matter how many people might 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:48.319 be in this church, there's a gap if you're not here. And this is where we see that the 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:56.720 gospel gives us this extraordinary balance. On the one hand, God doesn't need you because 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:08.399 only God is God, and he depends on none other. But at the very same time, you are irreplaceable 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:21.519 because he's made you, he loves you, and to God, only you are you. In the gospel, the 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:27.680 value of the many never replaces the preciousness of the one. Now, I think this is an extraordinarily 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:34.120 relevant message for today because I think that this addresses what is possibly the most 00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:44.599 pressing craving that people in Western culture currently have. What is that? It's the need 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:51.279 to feel special. You notice that we live in a culture where people are desperately trying 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:58.119 to hold onto their value in the crowd. So in many ways, we've almost moved beyond simple 00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:02.679 individualism that just says, just give me space to do my own thing. We've progressed 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:08.640 onto a kind of, I don't know what you call it, neo-individualism or hyper-individualism 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:13.799 that doesn't just want space to be yourself, it actually wants the whole crowd to recognize 00:19:13.799 --> 00:19:21.440 and affirm our individualism. So there's this desire that everyone's identity and individuality 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:27.600 should be cherished and praised by the many. That's why when we have arguments about rights 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:35.480 and equality, these arguments ultimately come down to kind of ambiguous absolutes like dignity 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:41.519 and humanity. So my self-identity should be valued by the crowd as part of my right to 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:48.519 dignity. People want to stand out from the crowd. People want special status. People 00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:55.240 are fighting for value and recognition in the crowd. Now, all of that is fine if you're 00:19:55.240 --> 00:20:07.440 tough and loud. But if you're weak and fragile, you don't stand a chance. Our culture is a 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:14.079 fight to be recognized as special. That's why we have competing ideologies all around 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:19.279 us. And in any culture, it's the strongest and toughest. In any fight, it's the strongest 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:28.359 and toughest who wins. In that kind of culture, the weak one among 99 strong doesn't have 00:20:28.359 --> 00:20:37.720 much hope. And so our culture is desperate to feel special. And the mindset it holds 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:43.000 is that the only way to get that is to fight for it. If you do, you'll stand out from the 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:52.079 crowd and you'll be special. The gospel is the complete opposite. In our culture, you 00:20:52.079 --> 00:21:00.839 have to fight for your specialness. In God's eyes, you have already been special forever. 00:21:00.839 --> 00:21:05.160 And you most definitely don't need to fight for it. Specialness is something that the 00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:14.000 gospel just pours out upon you in utter abundance. And that's evidenced by the pattern that's 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:19.080 set out in these parables. In both of them, something's lost, a sheep and a coin. In both, 00:21:19.080 --> 00:21:25.200 it's the man and the woman who initiate the search and who persist until they find what 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:31.560 they're looking for. And behind these two images are two glorious truths, God's initiative 00:21:31.559 --> 00:21:36.919 and God's persistence. In the gospel, the initiative always lies with God. So we're 00:21:36.919 --> 00:21:40.480 the ones who are lost, we're the ones who have wondered, we're the ones who have made 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:45.960 mistakes, but God is the one who takes action. And if you look through the whole Bible, you 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:51.240 will see that one thing that's abundantly true is that God is always the one who takes 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:57.079 the first step. It's an amazing reminder that before we ever think about God, he's thinking 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:07.559 about us. Before we ever look for God, he's looking for us. Before we ever love God, he 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:14.519 has loved us. But not only does God initiate, he also persists. If you look, there's a beautiful 00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:21.159 phrase at the end of each parable, they keep looking. The shepherd keeps looking until he 00:22:21.160 --> 00:22:30.080 finds his sheep. The woman searches and sweeps her house until she finds it. So when it comes 00:22:30.080 --> 00:22:45.519 to looking for you, when does God give up? Never. And if you want proof of that, you 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:52.759 only have to look at the cross. That's how far Jesus will go for you. God is a God who 00:22:52.759 --> 00:23:03.400 initiates and he is a God who persists. And all of this explains why the Gospel is not 00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:14.240 really a call for people to join something. The Gospel is not a call to join. It's a call 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:22.319 to repent. And there's a crucial difference. Joining conveys the idea of entering something 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:34.480 new. Repenting means coming back to where you've always belonged. And people, I think, often 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:39.000 make the mistake of thinking that becoming a Christian is like joining something. And 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:45.200 often joining something new feels quite scary. It's a step into the unknown and it feels 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:50.319 pretty unnatural. Whenever I go along to something new, I'm always like, I'm not sure I want 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:57.640 to do this. And you feel very reluctant and hesitant. We can think that becoming a Christian 00:23:57.640 --> 00:24:02.960 is like joining. You're joining something new. And you think this is going to feel awkward 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:09.559 and difficult. Do you know that's 100% not what becoming a Christian feels like? What 00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:19.960 does becoming a Christian feel like? Feels like coming home. These parables remind us 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:26.400 that people are incredibly precious. You are incredibly precious. In our culture, you have 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:32.720 to fight with the crowd in order to be special. With God, you are already so special that 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:44.600 He will fight for you. So these parables are showing us the problem of people, the preciousness 00:24:44.600 --> 00:24:53.279 of people. Lastly and briefly, they show us the joy of heaven. Both parables follow the 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:58.880 same pattern. They start off with something that's missing. Then they describe the search 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:06.800 and then in both of them, the outcome is the same. Rejoicing. The shepherd, when he comes 00:25:06.800 --> 00:25:10.640 home, calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, Rejoice with me for I found 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.960 my sheep that was lost. The woman, when she's found it, she calls together her friends and 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:20.920 neighbors saying, Rejoice with me for I found the coin that I had lost. And the great concluding 00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:26.960 point is in verse 10 where Jesus says, Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:35.279 of God over one sinner who repents. And of course, that is in direct contrast to the 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:41.160 grumbling of the religious leaders in verse two. They were horrified that these broken 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:45.480 people might have the opportunity to repent and come into God's kingdom. To them, they 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:50.759 were just not up to scratch, but to God and to the angels of heaven, the repentance of 00:25:50.759 --> 00:25:59.119 a broken sinner, the return of a precious lost sheep is a source of utter delight. In fact, 00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:04.160 verse five describes the shepherd going and finding the sheep and picking up the sheep 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:12.240 with joy. So it's not just a joy for God to welcome a sinner back. It's a joy for God 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:20.400 to go and carry you home. Now, when I think of that image of the shepherd going and picking 00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:26.000 up his sheep and coming home rejoicing, the image that comes into my mind, now this is 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:31.000 not really the most profound language that I've ever come up with. But the image I have 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:43.759 in my mind is of Jesus beaming with joy while he gives you a piggyback. Your return home 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:53.440 into God's family is just a brilliant thing for all of heaven. But I want to just ask 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:58.400 for the last couple of minutes, what does joy in heaven look like? It's a brilliant 00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:02.960 phrase. There's more joy before the angels of God. And I think was it verse seven that 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:08.000 also mentions joy in heaven. What does joy in heaven look like? Well, in order to answer 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:12.000 that question, I want us just to think for a moment about the imagery that the Bible 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:20.000 attaches to the word joy. When we think of joy in church, we maybe think of a sort of, 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:27.599 you know, a sort of maybe a wee nod of approval and maybe a tiny smile. And maybe we think 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:33.680 the same of heaven that is maybe this sort of very formal sort of like, oh yes, I'm pleased. 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:40.720 A kind of quiet sense of pleasure. I don't think that that's really accurate at all. 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:44.880 And I think the Bible reinforces that because if you look through the Bible, you'll see 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:52.480 that there's certain key actions that are associated with joy. Here are some of them. 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:56.880 Laughing and shouting. Sam 126 tells us that then our mouth was filled with laughter and 00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:04.319 our tongues with shouts of joy. Clapping. Sam 471, clap your hands all people, shout 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:11.279 to God with loud songs of joy, singing. Sam 511, but let all who take refuge in you rejoice, 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:19.039 let them sing, ever sing for joy. Jumping. Luke 623, rejoice in that day and leap for joy. 00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:27.599 Dancing in Jeremiah 31, 13. Then the young woman, then shall the young woman rejoice in the dance. 00:28:28.159 --> 00:28:34.159 So when Jesus says that there is joy in heaven over your repentance, he is saying that all of 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:43.120 heaven jumps, sings, shouts, laughs, claps and dances with utter delight because you're not lost anymore. 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:53.680 In other words, the whole of heaven roars with joy for you. Now, do you think that heaven is a quiet 00:28:53.680 --> 00:29:02.880 place? We tend to think of heaven, we think quiet. No way. Heaven is roaring with joy when people 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:12.000 come to know Jesus. And again, this is where we see that the gospel is so different and so much 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:16.800 better than what our culture has to offer us. As we've been saying, our culture says you need to 00:29:16.800 --> 00:29:22.880 stand out from the crowd to be special. And in our culture today, people are really pushing for that 00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:28.960 special status in the name of equality. People think that equality means standing out from the 00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:41.680 crowd and being appreciated. Now, that's not equality. That's competing. And only some win. 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:50.480 And in the gospel, your specialness is confirmed not when you stand out from the crowd, 00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:59.920 but when you come into it. And instead of constantly fighting off competition to stay special, 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:05.759 you just join the family and you enjoy being special forever. 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:16.559 Will our culture cheer for you? Maybe for the select few, maybe for a moment, but often the 00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:24.799 world will quickly turn on the people that they once cheered for. The gospel says that no matter 00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:34.399 how lost, fragile or broken you are, if you come back to Jesus, heaven will roar with joy. 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:40.559 So if you are a Christian, heaven has roared for you. 00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:54.000 If you become a Christian, heaven will roar for you. And only Jesus, only with Jesus, 00:30:55.679 --> 00:30:59.839 are you that special. Let's pray. 00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:16.079 Dear God, our Father, we thank you for these parables which are so simple and yet teach us 00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:21.519 such extraordinary truth about your love and mercy and grace. 00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:34.879 And we just thank you so much for your commitment to us and for the specialness that we find in you. 00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:44.720 And we know that we don't deserve that, but we have it because you are such an amazing God. 00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:52.079 And we just return our thanks to you with all our heart. Amen.