Lost and Found, Luke 15:1-10

In this sermon, Pastor Aaron Shamp explores the themes of lostness, community, and salvation through the lens of the parables found in Luke 15:1-10. He emphasizes the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and the importance of understanding the gospel as an invitation to a deeper relationship with Christ. The discussion highlights the nature of the community formed around Jesus, the condition of being lost, the necessity of rescue, and the role of Jesus as both the Good Shepherd and the sacrificial lamb.

Takeaways

• The parables illustrate the joy in heaven over repentance.
• The gospel invites us into a relationship with God.
• Community with Christ is deeper than mere acquaintance.
• Lostness is a universal condition for all outside of Christ.
• We are like lost sheep that need rescue.
• Jesus actively seeks out the lost.
• The search for the lost is a rescue mission.
• True life and satisfaction are found in Christ alone.
• Jesus takes our sin upon Himself as our Good Shepherd.
• Experiencing salvation brings great joy.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Series on Luke 15
01:37 Understanding the Gospel and Community
04:24 The Condition of the Lost
13:04 The Rescue Mission of the Shepherd
20:01 The Sacrificial Nature of the Shepherd
29:49 Experiencing Joy in Salvation

Creators & Guests

Host

Aaron Shamp

Lead Pastor of Redeemer City Church

What is Redeemer City Church - Lafayette, LA?

Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.

Aaron Shamp (00:00.398)
called At the Father's Table and this is going to be a seven week series going through Luke chapter 15 and so if you have your Bibles with you I want to invite you to open them up to Luke chapter 15. If you don't have them with you we'll have the passage on the screens next to me so you can follow along there but today we're gonna be looking at Luke 15 1 through 10 so I'll give you just a moment to get turned there and then we'll read it or otherwise you can just follow along on the screens.

Aaron Shamp (00:42.412)
All right,

Aaron Shamp (00:48.545)
Once again, loot chapter 15.

Aaron Shamp (00:53.105)
And once you guys get there, we're gonna be starting verse one.

So in Luke chapter 15 and verse one, says,

Aaron Shamp (01:23.042)
does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it. When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders. And coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep. I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't need repentance.

Or what woman who has 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it. When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together saying, rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin that I lost. I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents.

So today we're starting this new series in Luke chapter 15 and we're doing this because we are for going into the fall we are taking a deep dive into understanding the gospel. That is my goal for us in this series is that we understand the gospel and that we understand what it means and what it does in our lives.

Ultimately, what the gospel invites us into is to have a seat at the Father's table, to be to be a part of that group that is described there in the beginning of Luke 15, where of these people who are eating with Jesus in relationship with him. You see, the Pharisees were grumbling.

because not just because Jesus had some loose associations with the tax collectors and quote sinners, right? These were the bad people in the eyes of the Pharisees. They didn't grumble just because he was around them. He had loose associations with them. But they're grumbling because it said that he ate with them. And we know that eating with someone is a deeper form of community than just having an acquaintance with them. Even today, and especially in Cajun culture, we

Aaron Shamp (03:28.644)
tend to bond over food with one another. That's one of the ways we bond with one another by inviting each other to go out to lunch, go out to dinner, or if you cook a meal in your home and you invite someone into your home to share that meal with you at your table, that's an invitation into a friendship, into a deep community. And that's what Jesus was doing with the tax collectors and sinners, the people that the Pharisees looked down on that they did not want to have community with. That's what Jesus is doing and that is what causes them to grumble.

It says they can't believe that this guy who is supposedly a man of God would form community with these kind of people. And so because of that, Jesus tells them three parables. We read the first two this morning and the third one is the famous parable of the prodigal son that we'll be looking at later in the series to explain to them what he is doing here. And if we can catch on as well to what Jesus is doing here, then it can change your life.

It can change your life to understand what the gospel means, what it does in our lives, and how it brings about a very real and practical change in our lives in forming a new community around Jesus. Because just as he brought sinners to himself and he formed a community with them in that day, he continues to do the same today in his church. And so the stories will help us to understand why. But the two big things we have to remember is that what starts those stories,

going to understand these parables. He was welcoming sinners and the Pharisees were grumbling. And so these parables explain why and what's happening there. So today we're looking at those first two about a sheep and a coin that are lost, sought out and found. We're to look at it with three headings. We're going to look at the lost and what that means. We're going to look at the search and then we're going to look at the joy at the end. So we begin by looking at the lost.

Once again, Jesus is explaining through the parables the meaning of what is happening there, the meaning of him welcoming sinners and forming a new community with them and why the Pharisees are grumbling over that. He's explaining that through these stories. And so he chooses two stories. One of them is about a shepherd who, though he has a large flock, one of his sheep are lost. They go astray and he goes out to find it. In the second parable, it's a woman who has 10 coins. She loses one of her coins, even though she still has nine.

Aaron Shamp (05:56.492)
she won't rest until she goes out and she finds that one coin. And in both cases, there's great joy after the search has been concluded. But Jesus is using the metaphors, if you will, of a lost sheep and of a lost coin to explain the condition that we are in whenever we are not in community with him.

So it's not just the tax collectors and it's not just quote unquote the sinners, but any of us who are not in deep friendship, who are not in community, who are not following Christ as our King and Savior, this is a description of us all. And he uses the image of a sheep and a coin. Now whenever Jesus talks about us as his sheep,

In our minds, that often conjures up things that are really comforting. It's like, how sweet, a cute little fluffy sheep being caressed lovingly by its shepherd. And, that's nice and warm and that's comforting. But if we appreciate the metaphor here and what he's saying, it's actually a pretty well calculated insult, OK, to be compared to sheep. Because here's what he is saying. And this is our first big point, is that we are like lost sheep that need rescue. We are like lost sheep.

that need rescue. Once again, he's explaining the condition of a sinner. He's explaining the condition of anyone, no matter how good your life looks, he is explaining the condition of one who is not in relationship with him. And to not be in relationship with Jesus, no matter what else you're doing with your life, is to be lost. And he explains lostness through the metaphor of a sheep that is lost. You see, because sheep are not the kind of animals that

Well, first of all, they're not highly intelligent animals.

Aaron Shamp (07:44.598)
They lack survival skills. They lack awareness of knowing where they when they are wandering into danger and how to get back into safety. If they wander away and get lost they'll never find their way back home. They're there. They need a lot of care. They're easily lost. They're susceptible. They have no self-defense and so on. You know I think a good kind of a good example of this or analogy. I have two dogs. I have I've got my

My younger one who's a blue healer, name's Cosmo, he is highly intelligent, he's athletic, he's tough. If he were ever to get away and somehow just like be released into the wilderness, he would be fine.

Okay, he would take care of himself. He would survive. Healers are half dingo. And so he's got wild dog in him already. So he would be absolutely fine. Now my other dog, she's almost 10 years old. She's a little Karen terrier. She is the epitome of a lap dog. She is not nearly as athletic as Cosmo. She's not as intelligent as Cosmo. She's not as self-sufficient as him and so on. If she were to escape from our yard,

which for some reason she's always trying to do, she wouldn't make it half an hour. She'd be gone. It would not take long at all. She would need me to go out and rescue her, whereas Cosmo, he'd be fine. In fact, he could probably find his way back home just fine on his own. Very different. Jolie, my little lap dog, is a great example of the sheep.

If she got lost, she would need me to go out and find her. Similarly, sheep, even though they're in a large pack with one another, if one of the sheep thinks that there's grass somewhere over in another pasture on the other side of a hill, maybe if the sheep thinks that there is grass even off the side of a cliff, that sheep will go and try to find that grass because that's all they're trying to do. They're trying to find the grass and eat it. That's all they're concerned about. And they have a pretty good herd instinct. And so what will happen is if one sheep starts

Aaron Shamp (09:52.944)
to wander off because he thinks he's found some more grass, another one's going to follow him, and then a third one's going to see those two and say, they found some more grass, and he's going to go and follow them. And slowly you're going to have a whole herd that is lost. You're have a whole herd that might be in danger of their lives because they're somewhere that isn't safe for them, whether it is up on cliffs, on the side of a hill, whether it is somewhere that's in the presence of predators, right? And they're going to need a shepherd to go out and rescue them.

Jesus uses the analogy of these sheep, how prone they are to becoming lost, and their need for rescue to explain what we are like whenever we are outside of Christ.

We as well will wander away to feed on things that we think will sustain and satisfy our soul. We're like spiritual sheep that will go after and chase things in the world, things that life has to offer us, things that money has to offer us or relationships have to offer us. In the terms of sheep, grass. We think there's more grass in this pasture over there, over that hill there, and our souls will go.

wander away to feed on it. Whatever it is, it might be wealth and affluence, it might be prestige and respect, it might be good moral works that we think will satisfy us, it might be a special relationship, whether it be like a parental relationship, whether it be like a romantic relationship. We will wander away to feed on these things, but meanwhile, by wandering away, putting ourselves in danger.

because we are separated from the true source of life and of protection, which is the relationship that we were meant to be in, which is a relationship with Christ. Where whenever we're in that relationship with him, he, as it says in Psalm 23, like a good shepherd, leads us to green pastures. In other words, in him, we find the satisfaction of our hungry souls. But Jesus says, once again, that we are like sheep who wander away. We wander away, leaving the safety and provision of the shepherd.

Aaron Shamp (12:02.496)
And so the question here that I want to ask before I move on is this, what is your soul feeding on today? In this past week, what was your soul feeding on for a sense of security? What was your soul feeding upon for a sense of significance? What was your soul feeding upon wherever you needed assurance of your future even? What was your soul feeding upon when you felt that hunger?

You felt that longing, whatever it might be. What kind of green pastures did you go to? Did you seek out Christ? Did you find satisfaction of your hunger in Him? Or did you look to other things? Like I said, relationships, your careers, whatever else it might be, right? Did your soul try to begin to work to achieve?

the satisfaction of your hunger, or did your soul instead rest in the good shepherd? What is your soul feeding upon? If it is not Christ, then you are wandering away into lostness. If it is not Christ, it's not life. True life will only be found in Him. If it's not Him, it's emptiness, right? And will eventually be death. What is your soul feeding upon? This is a metaphor that's all over scripture.

that Jesus uses. One of the most famous ones is in Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53, six, the prophet says, we all went astray like sheep. This is the default condition of humanity before Christ comes into the picture to rescue us. We all, Isaiah says, like sheep go astray.

feeding our souls on other things. He says, we all like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way. We have all gone away from him. So I just want to ask you, what is it that your soul is feeding upon? If this is the default condition, this lostness that we have, what is it for you?

Aaron Shamp (14:06.59)
Sheep need a shepherd. They cannot find their way back home on their own. They need a rescuer. And this is the second thing that I want us to see as we consider both of these parables. In both parables, both the lost sheep and the lost coin, there's a rescue mission that has started there.

Jesus doesn't say that one of the sheep goes astray from the herd and then finds its way back and then they rejoice. He doesn't say that the lost coin somehow becomes animate, right, and finds its way back into the purse magically and then the woman rejoices. In both cases, the lost sheep and the lost coin, there's a search party.

there is a rescue mission that has to happen for that lost sheet to be found, for that lost coin to be recovered because on their own, left to themselves, there will be no rescue.

There will be no coming back home. The lost sheep needs the intention and the pursuit of the shepherd to bring the lost sheep home. Jesus, once again, is explaining why he is bringing these tax collectors, these sinners, these lost sheep into community with himself. He's saying he is the shepherd. He's saying he is like the woman searching out the coin. He is the one doing the on the search, on the mission to do what is necessary to save the lost.

So Jesus is the shepherd that searches out the lost. But let's be very specific here. Who does he seek?

Aaron Shamp (15:43.221)
Does he seek just anyone?

No. He seeks specifically the lost.

This is important for us to recognize because if we come in here and we think, I don't need rescue, then if you don't recognize your lostness, then Jesus is not for you. In another place, in Mark chapter two, he is once again sitting around a table with sinners.

And he says to the Pharisees who are grumbling in that case as well, he says to them, you know, the well don't need a doctor, only the sick do. The sick are the ones who need a doctor. And he says, I'm like the doctor who comes to heal the sick, that those who think they are well have no need of. Similarly here, he is making a point to the Pharisees that he has come to seek out the lost. If we come in here today and we think that

We have no need of rescue and that we can do a fine job in ourselves to bring ourselves back to and present ourselves to Jesus in a nice, clean, orderly manner. Friends, we are mistaken. We need the rescue of Christ.

Aaron Shamp (17:03.166)
We need his saving. We need his deliverance. None of us are in a righteous situation in and of the merits of our own life and our own work. Jesus comes to seek and to save the lost.

So no matter what grounds we have to stand upon today, no matter what our life looks like today, we must recognize that even if my life looks much, much better than this group or that group or whoever else, I am a lost sheep as well that needs the rescue of this shepherd. If we don't acknowledge that, we will not be rescued. He comes to seek out the lost.

The lost require rescue from someone else. The sheep needs the shepherd to come. The coin needs to be found by the woman. The sheep cannot find their way back on their own.

You know, if you guys have ever been down to New Orleans in the French Quarter, one of the staple things that you'll see there, anytime you go down to the French Quarter, is the carriages and mules taking people around on these tours. And I don't know if you've ever done one those before, but we're big fans. know, whenever we can and we're down in New Orleans, we go down and we do one of those tours because it's so much fun. And these mules that pull the carriages are incredible, not only for their strength that they can pull those carriages

all day. But if you go, you ride the tour guide, gets the mule started, and then he just turns around and talks to you the whole time. And the mule is navigating the French Quarter pretty much all on his own. That's something I can't even do.

Aaron Shamp (18:47.286)
But the mule does it, he navigates around and the tour guide is just telling you history about this building and that building and he's telling you about this and that and every now and then if there's a traffic jam or something he'll slow the mule down but otherwise it's like having an autopilot. That mule just knows where to go throughout that whole route.

And similarly, at the end of the day, whenever they're done and it's time for the mules to, you know, take off for work, they can find their way through New Orleans back to where their stables are, somewhere miles away, all on their own.

They know how to find their way back, which has always been mind blowing to me. need my GPS to get from point A to point B every time, right? But they can do that. They can find their way back home. Sheep cannot. Guys, we are not like the mules. We are like the sheep. We need a rescue. We need a deliverance. And so Jesus seeks and searches out the lost sheep.

Aaron Shamp (19:45.984)
He doesn't sit back with the rest of the herd in the pasture and say, I'm here if you can find me. He seeks us out. He seeks out the lost sheep. He seeks out the lost sheep and then once he rescues them, he brings them back to the herd. Notice that in both stories, there is a lost sheep that is brought back to the herd.

It's not found by Jesus. It's not found by the shepherd. And then they just stay there. Or he brings it back and he places it somewhere else away from the rest of the herd. In the story of the lost coin, the woman doesn't find the coin and then keep it in a pocket separated from the rest, but she puts it back with the rest of the coins. So we recognize that a part of the search means being found by Jesus, but then it means being found by Jesus and then placed into his community.

Once again, this is what Jesus is doing with the sinners and the tax collectors. He is forming not just an individual relationship with them one-on-one, but he is forming a community with them that revolves around himself. And so if you are found by Jesus, then you'll be in the community of Jesus as well. That community that revolves around him, that is based upon his work and based upon his grace. But how does Jesus,

rescue the sheep. The way that Jesus rescues the sheep is a little bit different than what happens in the story. You know, in the story, the shepherd realizes he has lost one of his sheep, so he goes out to find it. Wherever he finds it, he takes the sheep and he places it up on his shoulders. That's something that the shepherds would actually have to do. If they found that sheep, they'd grab it by the legs, put it up on its shoulders, and carry it back to the herd because he couldn't just expect it to follow him back or whatever else. He would carry it back.

to the hurt on his shoulders. The way that Jesus rescues us is slightly different. In this parable,

Aaron Shamp (21:42.144)
That's all the shepherd has to do is bring it back. But Jesus, as our good shepherd, he doesn't just place us on his shoulders, but he takes our sin and he places our sin on his shoulders. He takes our lostness. Once again, we are our souls go to feed on other things other than him in the world, which is what makes us lost. That is our sin. We deserve death because of our sin. We deserve condemnation. We deserve the righteous judgment of God because of our sin and our loss.

But Jesus is our Good Shepherd. What He does is He takes our lostness, He takes our sin, the justice that we should have experienced and He places that on His shoulders. What Jesus takes up on His shoulders as the Good Shepherd is the cross. He did this quite literally in His trial, in His crucifixion. He had to take up His cross and carry it.

And then he had to not just carry it, but be nailed to the cross and hung on the cross and die the death that we should have experienced. For Jesus to rescue his lost sheep, it would not just cost him some time and effort going out to find them and bring them home, but it would cost him his life. He is the shepherd who lays his life down for his sheep. And by taking...

He makes it possible for lost sheep, He makes it possible for tax collectors and sinners to be brought back into the community of God, to be brought to the Father's table, to enter into a relationship with Him because He does away with our sin, He does away with our lostness, He does away with the condemnation that we ought to experience.

and have poured out on us. He receives that condemnation and he receives that justice whenever he dies on the cross. He is the shepherd who is also the sacrificial lamb. You know, there's this story in the Exodus where...

Aaron Shamp (23:53.846)
the people of Israel are slaves in the land of Egypt. They have no capability of rescuing themselves or of liberating themselves from their slavery in Egypt. And so God comes in and through Moses as his prophet and leader, he goes to liberate his people. And one of the things that he does is he sends plagues upon Egypt to try to wear down Pharaoh and have Pharaoh let his people go. It doesn't work. He sends plague after plague. Finally, he sends a plague that

we call the Passover. He says that the angel of death is going to pass over the land of Egypt and that angel of death is going to take the firstborn son of every family. We need to understand what's happening here. Theologically, God is judging their sin because...

In their religious system, to pay for sin, you would need a firstborn lamb to be sacrificed as a substitution or as an atonement for sin. God is doing with the angel of death is taking the firstborn son. see, so it is a judgment of sin over the land of Egypt. But what about his own people? Don't they deserve judgment for their sin as well? So what he does for his people is he opens up a way of salvation.

of being spared. He says to them, you're going to take a firstborn lamb that is without spot and blemish and you're going to sacrifice that lamb. You're going to kill it. You're going to take the blood of that lamb and paint it on the doorpost of your homes. And whenever the angel of death passes over the land of Egypt, for every home that is covered by the blood of the lamb, that home will be saved. The angel will pass over that home, which is where we get passed over.

And then the families inside of that home would sit and have a meal with one another. And at that meal would be the table and on the table would be the lamb that had been sacrificed so that they could be saved. Not just saved from their sin, but they could be liberated from their slavery. And as the angel of death passed over, they would eat that lamb that had lost its life so that theirs might be saved. Jesus is the good shepherd who is also the sacrificial lamb.

Aaron Shamp (26:08.288)
Because centuries later, after Israel, the Jewish people have been practicing this year after year. All of a sudden, in the life of Jesus, at the meal that we call the Last Supper, he sits down with his disciples, and there's the lamb on the table. Once again, they are remembering what God had done for them. For years, they had been remembering this as a people, that God had passed over because a lamb had been sacrificed. But Jesus at this meal says that he is the lamb.

At this meal, the lamb that would save them from their sin was not on the table, the lamb was at the table. It was Jesus. He took up the bread and the cup and he didn't say, you know, this represents the suffering of our peoples. But he took up the bread and the cup and he says, this represents my blood and my body.

Aaron Shamp (26:58.879)
because it was in His sacrificial death. It was in His standing in our place, His blood being shed so that the blood might be applied to our lives that gives us salvation from our sins. Friends, do you know Christ?

Have you experienced his salvation? Have you heard his calling to you? have you felt his pursuit of you that he would find you and that he would rescue you from your sin, that he would rescue you from your lostness? Have you experienced that yet? If you have not yet, have you heard him calling you? Do not continue to run away. Maybe some of us in here are hearing this and thinking to ourselves, you know, but you don't know the places that I've been.

You don't know the things that I've done. You don't know the thoughts that I've held and that I have kept inside of my mind and my heart. You you don't know. It puts me too far away from Him.

Listen, it is not about what you have done and your ability to overcome that, to make your way back to Christ. It is about his strength and his power as a shepherd to find you. No matter how far you think you've gone, you are not too far out of his reach. No matter what kind of dark places you have gone into, it is not too dark for him as the good shepherd to go and find you there and bring you home on his shoulders. Maybe some of you have been walking with Christ, but you have

as we say, backslidden, or you have wandered away. Though you were once with Christ, you started to go and feed and other green pastures, letting your soul be satisfied by other things. You did not blow your chance. Jesus seeks after you still. He is the good shepherd who rescues us, and then he continues to rescue us over and over and over again.

Aaron Shamp (28:51.581)
As we are prone to wander, he continues the search for us because he said that he will not lose any of those that the Father has given to him.

Aaron Shamp (29:04.384)
If you have experienced that, then here's what will happen. Jesus says it five times in five verses here. There will be great joy. He says there is great joy whenever a sinner repents. He says that there is rejoicing in heaven over just one sinner repenting. Whenever one lost sheep is brought home on the shoulders of the shepherd, there is great rejoicing. There's a party thrown in heaven.

And so how do you know if you have experienced that salvation in your life, there will be joy because you have been saved. You were once lost, but you are now found. You were once far away, but you are now home. You were once longing and hungry, but you have now been satisfied by Him. You were once condemned, but you are now justified. That, if you have that, there will be joy.

there will be rejoicing. It will be found in your life. It is a joy and rejoice and that is not based upon the circumstances of your life and how good or poorly things are going. It is a joy that sustains you no matter what is happening in the outward circumstances of your life. Do you have that joy? Has it sustained you?

Do you feel it in your life? Do you live it out in your life? Or is that joy lacking? Are you asking, have I ever experienced that joy before of salvation? The shepherd is calling you. The shepherd is searching you out. He desires that you might be saved. He desires that you might be brought home. What do you do? Be rescued. Be lifted up and placed on his shoulders.

There is no amount of works or merit that you can accomplish to earn your way back home, to find your way back home, to initiate the search. He sought you out before you turned to him. So just as we sang, lift your eyes to him, just turn to him and receive the blessing of salvation that he offers. And then there'll be great joy.

Aaron Shamp (31:16.149)
We're gonna get to experience that today as we have a new member joining in our church and we're have a couple of baptisms in our church. And we're gonna get to have a little taste of that kind of rejoicing that Jesus talks about that happens in heaven whenever a sinner is brought home. And if you haven't experienced that yet, then let me urge you not to waste time.

not to put it off and not to allow any lies into your heart and mind that tells you you're too far. But that kind of joy and salvation is offered to you as well. Let's pray. Father, we come before you and we thank you that we have a good shepherd who seeks us out in our lostness and brings us home upon his shoulders.

Father, I know that there are some of your sheep in here this morning who have experienced that joy of salvation and know how exhilarating it is to be lifted on your shoulders and know that we are now safe. We are saved. We are washed clean. We have known that, but we have wandered away.

Aaron Shamp (32:29.429)
So Father, would you help us to see that our wandering away did not disqualify as you seek us out still?

So let us experience that joy once again. For those who have never experienced that joy, who are still lost, who are still in danger, Father, would you meet them here with your irresistible grace, your grace that breaks through our barriers, your grace that is like light, that can pierce any darkness, awaken our souls so that our eyes might, our heart might have eyes that can see you.

and that we might be lifted up upon your shoulders and brought home. Father, we pray all these things in the name of our good shepherd, our savior, our king who laid his life down for us, Jesus Christ, amen.