Sermon - Trinity III 2024 - Luke 15:1-32

The Parable of the Prodigal Son, Frans Francken the Younger, 1633

God receives repentant sinners

1. The lost truly are lost

2. Sinners are found / received back through repentance

3. We rejoice with the angels over even one sinner who repents

It is claimed by our adversaries that conservative, biblical, traditional Christians, such as us, don’t care for the lost and the sinner. Because we strictly hold to the word of God and we believe the Bible is correct about what is sin and what is good, we are accused of being unloving and hateful. We are accused of being like the Pharisees who grumble about Jesus receiving sinners and eating with them. These accusations are wildly incorrect, since we rejoice that God receives sinners and eats with them. But in order to refute these accusations against us, let’s explore why we believe that God receives repentant sinners.

First off, it’s important to understand that the lost truly are lost, sinners really are actually sinners. Isaiah says “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way.” What does it mean to go your own way? It means to follow your heart. You know what Jesus says comes from the heart: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” The sheep that has gone astray, the lost coin, the son who has left his father and lived recklessly, all are images of sinners who have departed from the faith and unless they return to faith in God will perish eternally. 

Moreover, the scriptures do repeatedly warn Christians not to associate with evildoers. “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”” Again it says: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” And again: “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” These admonitions are both to teach the sinner to be ashamed of sin, and to prevent other Christians from thinking lightly of sin and thus falling into the same sort of sins. 

But the point is that one living in unrepentant sin really is lost from the faith and should not be considered a Christian. This is an important baseline to understand because it shapes our view of the lost and how we are to treat them. Because if an unrepentant sinner is going to hell, then we wouldn’t want them to remain in their sin, and we would instead want to help them get out of their sin. Thus, we would not affirm or celebrate their sin, nor would we ignore their sin or make excuses for their sin, because to do that would only serve to keep them in hell.

This is understandably hard to hear and uncomfortable, because we all know people who are living in unrepentant sin and are thus in serious danger of going to hell. As a congregation we can look at our membership roles and see that the majority of those people haven’t been to church in many months and years, and those people are currently lost. Pretending that everything is okay and that there aren’t eternal consequences doesn’t do anyone any favors.

Because things aren’t okay, this is why the people in today’s parables behaved so fervently. This is why the shepherd was willing to risk 99 sheep in order to find the lost one. This is why the woman burned lamp oil and spent time searching for one lost coin. This is why the father threw a huge party and slaughtered the fattened calf when the lost son came home. Unrepentant sinners are lost to the kingdom of God unless they are found.

Indeed, just as the father slaughtered the fattened calf for the prodigal son, so too did our heavenly Father sacrifice the Lamb of God, the Son of God, Jesus, in order to receive us back from our sins. Finding the unrepentant sinner and receiving them back home requires sacrifice, not our sacrifice, but God’s sacrifice. In order that the lost sinners may be found, Jesus had to be crucified in order for our sins to be forgiven. The only way the heavenly Father could receive us back into His home is through the sacrifice of Jesus. So truly our sins are quite serious and we must not remain in them; this is evidently true because redemption from sin required tremendous sacrifice from God Himself.

This now leads us to our second major point, which is to understand what it means to find the lost. Namely what we hear today is that the lost are found or received back through repentance. Jesus explains the lost and found sheep, saying: “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.” He explains the lost and found coin saying: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” And in the case of the prodigal son, we see that he goes from death to life when he repents: “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” All three of these parables are about repentant sinners.

Thus, when the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear Jesus, they weren’t attracted to Him because He was affirming them in their sins, but because He was calling them out of their sins and into life; He was calling them to repentance. A couple chapters earlier in Luke Jesus preached to the crowds, saying: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” In Jesus’ sermon on the mount He preached quite strongly against many sins, calling sinners to repentance. Thus, the sinners who were drawing near to hear Jesus were there because they were repentant sinners.

Repentance is what it means for the lost to be found and received back into the faith. Again this is understandably uncomfortable, because it means that seeking out the lost requires us to have difficult conversations with them. The person living in unrepentant sin needs to come to repentance, and that can only happen when they know and realize their sin and are sorry. It is not easy to lead a person to repentance. Even if you say all of the right things in all of the right ways it’s still quite probable that they will continue in their sins and be angry at you. The only reason you have this difficult conversation with them is because you love them enough to risk it, you want them to be found.

But even if it’s improbable that the lost will be found and come to repentance, even if there are only a few who walk this narrow way and are saved, we rejoice over the few lost sinners who are found and repent. The father rejoices when one of his two sons comes home, the woman rejoices when she finds one of her ten coins, the shepherd rejoices when he brings home one sheep out of a hundred. Each and every sinner who repents is deeply valued and loved by God, such that “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This means that we should find great joy even in very small successes. So, we Christians here today, who are repentant for our sins and have turned away from them and towards God, we are the repentant sinners whom Jesus receives and eats with. We are the lost who have been found. Every time you sin and repent, you are the sinners Jesus died in order to save. Thus, this assembly is composed of lost sheep, coins, and sons who have been found and returned home, who were dead and are now alive again. When you see one another here in this place, that should cause you to rejoice; afterall the angels in heaven rejoice when we show up! Instead of complaining and grumbling that so few people are in church, we really should be rejoicing with all of heaven that there is even one sinner here who repents and has been found by God. 

So pay no attention to our adversaries who accuse us of not caring for the lost. We do. God cares for them enough that He sacrificed His own life for them. We care for them enough to have the hard conversations with them. Even when there are only a few repentant sinners here, Jesus receives us into His home and eats with us. The angels themselves rejoice over us sinners who repent, and you can hear them singing: Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.