2016-01-10: Luke-The Investigative Gospel – The Lost Chapter

Sermon Audio: The Lost Chapter
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 15:1-3
Duration: 20:05
Size: 9.19 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
The Lost Chapter
Luke 15:1-3

It has been called “the gospel in the gospel,” as if it contained the very distilled essence of the good news which Jesus came to tell.

I. The Approach by the Irreligious

Immediately after setting down the costly terms of discipleship, Luke noted in Luke 15:1 that now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus.

In Luke’s Gospel, the Pharisees and the scribes perceived sinners “as forfeiting their relationship to God because of a lifestyle unfaithful to God’s law.”

Do you know anyone who is not yet a Christian?

Will you care enough for that person and have something to say to him or her about the good news

of the gospel?

II. The Grumbling by the Religious

So, according to the Pharisees and the scribes, Jesus should not be associating with tax collectors and sinners, let alone be eating with them.

We who are active in the life and worship of our church need to ask ourselves whether we are like the Pharisees and the scribes.

III. The Parable by the Savior

In each story – of the sheep, the coin, and the son – something is lost, sought, found, and followed by rejoicing.

The plain meaning of the chapter is that just as there is joy when any shepherd or any housewife or any father recovers a loss, so there is joy in heaven when a sinner is reunited with God.

Do you share in Jesus’ joy for the salvation of the lost?