Jesus at the Center of Our Story
Compassion • Message 2
J.C. Thompson
April 14, 2024

Memory Verse: But You, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15 (NLT)

A. Introduction (Luke 15:1-2. C/R: Psalm 86:15)

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We are continuing our series on Jesus at the Center of Our Story. Today, we will be in Luke 15. Today’s passage is a story from Jesus to answer the issues surrounding a critique He was receiving from the religious leaders.

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that He was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

Luke 15:1-2 (NLT)

These leaders were complaining about who Jesus was associating with. I felt similarly this weekend as the women of Brookwood were gathering together.

While the men were left fending for themselves, many of them shared with me that this is what their house looked like while the women were frolicking at the church.

I was thinking, who are these women hanging out with, leaving us alone with the kids?!? But that did give me and the kids a chance to eat a bit more unhealthy than normal.

Jesus was known for hanging out with all kinds of people. In fact, before Jesus ever performed a public miracle, He got invited to parties. In fact, His first miracle takes place at a party, a wedding party.

Jesus was known for hanging out with people that the religious people did not want to hang out with. Why didn’t they want to hang out?

Well, because they thought they were fulfilling the Law. You see, in those days, there was a distinction between Clean and Unclean.

Jesus did not make that distinction when it came to who He desired to spend time with, but the religious leaders, I believe, were so afraid of becoming unclean that they avoided many who had been hurt and isolated by sin or disease and would not associate with those who were living a sinful lifestyle. This fear marked their attitude towards outsiders. You can feel in their words and criticism an heir of superiority.

But in our passage today, Jesus uses a story to redefine for these leaders God’s approach towards sinners and those who are “unclean.” I see one word to sum up this idea, and that word is compassion. Jesus, God, and the Spirit approach those who come to God with compassion.

What is compassion?

The Bible describes compassion as, first and foremost, an attribute of God. God is compassionate. The word connotes two ideas. First, it means a feeling that comes from a full understanding of a person’s sinfulness. Second, it is acting in that person’s best interest in terms of their identity. It is not just a feeling but also an action.

I put it this way in your outline.

Compassion = Understanding + Action

This definition is important because, as God’s people, we are to demonstrate compassion to the world, especially to those who are open to the message of the Gospel.

Jesus, in Matthew 14, saw the sick, had compassion on them and healed them.

In the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, Jesus had compassion on them because they had nothing to eat and commanded the disciples to feed them.

Jesus described feeling compassion towards people who were like sheep without a shepherd.

In each of these cases, Jesus is not only feeling empathy towards the situation that these people found themselves in but also acts on their behalf.

This is Jesus’ position towards those who are hurting.

This was not how the religious leaders thought about sinners. They thought about how a sinner might affect them.

Back to our passage, Jesus is receiving complaints about who He is connecting with. So, what does Jesus do? He tells a story to demonstrate God’s perspective on Jesus’ behavior towards those who are sinners.

When Jesus shares this story, I want you to see a couple of things.

‌First,

1. God PURSUES the lost. (Luke 15:3-4. C/R: Matthew 9:36; Luke 7:12-13; Ephesians 2:4)

So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?

Luke 15:3-4 (NLT)

Jesus tells the story with a question designed to be answered in the positive. But it is important to note that answering the question in this way would have been counterintuitive to their understanding and still is that way today for us.

You see, a lost sheep was seen as a waste of time. More than likely, that sheep had gotten itself into trouble, and that trouble would have resulted in that sheep’s harm and possibly its death. It was a wasted effort to spend all that time searching for one sheep that more than likely would have never been found to begin with.

Those listening would have been surprised by this story. It is not a good use of the Shepherd’s time to go searching for a wandering sheep, they would have thought. Instead, the Shepherd should remain with those who did not wander.
But Jesus points out that this is the way in which God views those who are searching for Him. If they go looking for God, if they wander from the flock, if they get caught in sin, He comes after them.

Ill: Story of me and my sister at a theme park. My parents told me to stay put.

I think one thing I notice a lot when I meet with people, and we are talking about our faith. One thing that I hear is people wanna know how God feels about them.

So, as best I can today, I want to share the heart of God toward anyone who wants to get close to God. Anyone who is willing to hear Him and follow Him.

The Bible describes this part of Jesus as

When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish and perplexity and sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them.

Dane Ortlund

Do you believe that Jesus deeply wishes that you come to Him? That in the midst of your great sinfulness, pain, failure, confusion, heartache, anxiety, depression, sickness and grief, Jesus deeply wishes you come to Him.

You are not inconveniencing, burdening, overtaxing, weighing or pressing Jesus into a place He doesn’t want to go. No! He deeply wants to meet your need!

But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead.

Ephesians 2:4-5a (NLT)

Rich in mercy, loved us so much. We have nothing to offer because we are dead because these things gave us life through Christ.

Today, if you are there, searching and waiting to clean up or figure out how to come to Christ, stop. Right now, reach out to Him in prayer and ask Him to meet you.

2. God PARTIES when the lost are found. (Luke 15:5-7. C/R: Mark 2:17, Revelation 22:17)

For some of you, this might be a more uncomfortable picture than you would like to admit. The idea of God partying might not fit the regal, austere picture of God, and by no means am I attempting to make God more casual or somehow more human. He is still the Supreme Being of the Universe, worthy of honor and praise. And He parties when a person far from Him is forgiven of their sins and made new.

And my guess is that a God party dwarfs our ideas of what awesome parties are.

But when a sinner returns to God, it brings Him great joy.

Much in the same way that when your spouse or your child needs healing, and they get it, it brings you much greater joy than when you get that help for yourself. This is how God feels when a sinner repents and trusts in Christ.

I think, as followers of Christ, we deeply need this. Some of us, I think, are so down and out in our faith because we do not have an opportunity to celebrate with someone who was lost and is now found!

As a follower of Jesus, you need to find opportunities to reach out and serve and love.

If you were to say that Jesus’ own joy, comfort, happiness, and glory are increased and enlarged by… What? How would you finish that statement?

Is it when someone chooses to trust Christ above all others?

Or when followers of Christ stand fast through trials and temptations?

Thomas Goodwin, in his work, The Heart of Christ Towards Sinners on Earth, said it this way:

Christ’s “own joy, comfort, happiness and glory are increased and enlarged by his showing grace and mercy, in pardoning, relieve in, and comforting his members here on earth.”

Thomas Goodwin

Christ is most rejoicing when sinners come to Him for pardon.

You see, at the end of this story, Jesus tells.

And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

Luke 15:5-7 (NLT)

As we close today, Christ is waiting like someone at a surprise party. God is moving in your life, and you are starting to recognize your own sinfulness, your brokenness and your need of something outside of yourself for forgiveness and healing.

He is crouching at the door, waiting for you to come near, and like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, when you are there, He more than meets you halfway; he runs towards you to grab you, embrace you, and throw a party.

If that is you today, Christ desires for you to come. If you need to trust in Christ, come down. If you need prayer for healing, come down. If you need someone to lean on and pray, come down. If you need help and you don’t know what it is, come and pray.

Let’s pray together.