Lost Sheep and Lost Sons

The Pharisees were accusing Jesus of associating with the wrong sort of people. The tax collectors and the sinners were gathering around him. They said, "This man welcomes tax collectors and sinners and even eats with them." In those days it was a very big thing to sit down and eat with a sinner. Jews did not normally sit down and eat with people who weren't Jews. They were very particular about the company that they kept. Jesus tells them of the lost sheep.

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (Luke chapter 15.)

I was giving out leaflets in Gateshead town centre. I offered one to a man who wouldn't take it and said, "I'm not religious." You don't have to be religious to become a Christian. You don't have to be religious or even good. The only thing you have to be is lost. The lost sheep in this story represents a sinner who has never repented. The ninety nine sheep are the holy people and the other one is the lost person, far from God, not even living right. Jesus is the shepherd, and he will leave the ninety nine other sheep to find this one that is lost. When he finds it, he's going to bring it back home with him and have a party to celebrate. There is great joy over a sinner who repents. Are you lost tonight? Are you still in your sin tonight? Then Jesus wants to come and find you. He wants to bring you back on his shoulders and carry you home to be in his family, and when he gets there he's going to throw a huge party to celebrate.

Some people, after they have become Christians, wander away from the faith and return to a life of sin. The prodigal son is a Christian already. He is a son of the father. He says to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate." Some of us will inheret money from our parents when they die. We might inherit their house and their savings. To ask for that while they're still alive would be a terrible thing to do. Imagine that. "Dad, I want you to sell your house now, give me half the money, and give me half your life savings." Then he went to a far away country to spend it all on wild living. Sometimes a Christian can do that. The story was once told of a man who had been very high up in a missionary organisation who decided, "All the rules of Christianity are negative and legalistic." He spent the next few years of his life indulging in all sorts of wild parties, drink, drugs, goodness knows what. I had a teacher at university who's face shone. He had such a peace, happiness and contentment in his life. I said to one of the other students, "There is something about that man." At that time we had a strong Christian movement and a strong socialist movement in the university. I said, "He's got something. He's either a Christian or he's one of those socialists." I met him at a student event and he said he was a Christian. A few years later he left his wife for another woman. I couldn't believe that such a shiny faced, beautiful Christian had done something like that. A person like that is a prodigal. They are a son of the father, but they have wandered away. The sins of the world are tempting. Drink, drugs, immorality, all sorts of things that bring physical pleasure, but also some much more subtle sins. Some drug addicts become Christians and stay off drugs, but when they get a good job they go far away from God. How easily can love of money settle into someone's heart? Just letting money take over. It's not wrong to have a nice house, a nice family and a nice car, but it's very easy to worship those things, to live for those things. Does this mean that their Christianity never meant anything? Not always. Conversion may have been real. Repentance may have been real.

After the Prodigal Son had spent everything, there was a famine in the land. I remember a song on an old Christian tape, "There's a famine in the land, not of bread, not of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord." These people enter a famine, if they are real Christians and they are not living right, and their hearts are not right with God, they become aware of something missing from their lives, the closeness to God that they had once. A child of God is like a sheep. A sheep will hunger for its mother's milk. Are you a child of God? Does your heart long after the things of God? Are you aware that you haven't had the things of God for a very long time? Have you been running from God? Is there a famine in your land, tonight? The son gets up to go to his father. "How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men." What did the father do when he came back? Was he angry? No, he was overjoyed. As Keith Green said in his song, "Bring the best robe, put it on my son. Shoes for his feet, hurry put them on. This is my son who I thought had died. Prepare a feast, for my son survived." We sometimes feel rather angry with people who've gone away from God and perhaps done terrible things. Perhaps the older brother in the story is angry about the way his brother lived. If that's you tonight, the father won't be angry with you when you come home. He waits to receive you with arms opened wide. Run along the road tonight, run along the road and cry out to him, cry out to God, "I want to be in your family again. I want to be a follower of Christ again." He will receive you. There'll be a great big party in Heaven tonight to celebrate your coming home.