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The Sermon for Sunday, September 14th, 2025, the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Psalm 51:1-17; Exodus 32:1, 7-14; Luke 15:1-10
The Text: Luke 15:1-10
INTRODUCTION
There is a great contrast between our First Lesson and Second Lesson today.
The nation of Israel provokes the anger of the Lord through their rejection of Him by turning to worship idols, whereas our Second Lesson presents the joy of God the Father and of the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents. The First Lesson reveals the wrath of God against sin and His just judgement that the sinner and the sinful nation must be destroyed. If it hadn’t been for Moses interceding with God for Israel, God would have destroyed Israel then and there. The Second Lesson illustrates God’s joy when a sinner repents. The Lord’s joy when a sinner repents the Lord Jesus illustrates through two parables: The Parable of the Lost Sheep, and the Parable of the Lost Coin.
Part of the contrast can be attributed to the dispensational principle stated by St. John:
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
(John 1:17, KJV)
Though we cannot call St. John a dispensationalist, since dispensationalism arose only in the nineteenth century, and emphasized different dispensations in the history of revelation and salvation, we must recognize that the Law or Torah that God gave to Israel was a necessary part of God’s revelation. By it we are taught God’s absolute standards for righteousness and holiness and the justice and necessity of God’s judgment on all who break the laws God has given mankind. Without the consciousness of our sin that comes to us via the Holy Spirit whenever we sin, we would not understand how serious sin is, how it cuts us off from God, and how it deserves God’s just condemnation of death (Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”). On the other hand, “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17b, KJV). Through the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, God gave superabundant grace to mankind, the grace to repent and to be forgiven, to be redeemed from eternal death, the grace to be delivered from all evil, to be set free from bondage, to be healed, to persevere in following the Lord, to be sanctified, to be reconciled with God, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and so much more. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), and his Spirit leads the Church into all the truth in Christ. He is Emmanuel, that is, God with us. No longer can we say, as ancient Israel once did, that we have no guide to lead us to the Promised Land (Exodus 32:1), for the Holy Spirit himself is our Guide.
THE INDIVIDUAL’S RESPONSIBILITY TO REPENT AND GOD’S DELIGHT IN REPENTANCE
Now that Christians have received such grace from the Lord Jesus Christ, they must not neglect to repent of all the sin that the Spirit of God convicts them of, knowing that the Lord God delights in the repentance of even one sinner. In our First Lesson, the whole nation of Israel is liable to judgment for the sin of idolatry, but in our Second Lesson today, the responsibility lies with every individual to repent. Already in Ezekiel 18, these verses declare God’s delight in the person who repents and his complete forgiveness of the person who turns away from his sin and does what is right:
But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
(Ezekiel 18:21-23, KJV)
THE JOY OF GOD OVER THE REPENTANT SINNER
When we come to Jesus’ Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, however, we find our Lord emphasizing to a greater degree than Ezekiel had, God’s delight in one person who repents. Why was this emphasis necessary, one might ask? The answer may be found in the introductory verses of Luke 15. The publicans, or tax collectors, and sinners were approaching Jesus to listen to his preaching and teaching, and the Pharisees were grumbling at this. These categories of people were unclean, in the view of the Pharisees, and they believed that associating with them would contaminate the Lord and his disciples with the moral filth of sinners and tax collectors. In the Pharisees’ view, a righteous person observing God’s Law should not even associate with sinful people. To do so, one would pollute oneself. Many Christian people still have this pharisaical attitude today, and such an attitude conflicts with their effectiveness in reaching people who need salvation.
In relating these parables, the Lord Jesus was not making the statement that all the sinners and tax collectors coming to him would repent and be saved. Instead these two Parables hold out the possibility of the lost person being found. The Parables also teach that one must look for what is lost in order to find it. Implicitly, the Parables dismiss the idea of being contaminated by sinners and replace it with the exciting possibility that associating with sinful people may lead one of them to repentance, that is, to a changed way of life that rejects sin and embraces righteousness.
THE PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP
In the first Parable, the Lord appeals to their conscience through the shepherd that cares so much for one lost sheep that he leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness, probably with an assistant shepherd or two looking after them, and goes after the lost sheep until he finds it. Then he picks it up and puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Arriving home with the sheep, he invites his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him because he has found his lost sheep. The Lord then explains that there will be similar joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine righteous people who did not need to repent (Luke 15:4-7). The Lord Jesus himself is the Good Shepherd (John 10:14) who knows his sheep, whose sheep know him. Yet in everyone who goes looking for the lost sheep to bring him into God’s kingdom, Christ the Good Shepherd is reaching out in love.
THE PARABLE OF THE LOST DRACHMA
The drachma, or silver coin, was a Greek coin with the approximate value of a denarius. In 300 B.C. a drachma could purchase a sheep. The ten silver drachmas the woman had might have been an ornament or bridal gift. To lose one of these was to lose a very precious coin. It was certainly worth it to light a lamp and sweep the house to search for it. When the woman finds it, she calls together her neighbors and friends, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the silver piece that I had lost.” The Lord concludes by saying that there will also be such joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
RADICAL TURNAROUND FROM DEATH TO LIFE IS CAUSE FOR GREAT REJOICING
Now someone might object, “What about God’s joy over those who remain righteous?” Nothing in this passage suggests that God has no joy when people continue living in righteousness. He surely does delight in them! But the Lord and the angels of heaven have more joy when a person turns away from a selfish life that was leading him to hell, and turns to the Lord who forgives him and gives him eternal life! These Parables clearly indicate that a sinner’s repentance is known in heaven and is a cause of great rejoicing by God and his angels.
CONCLUSION
In living in this world, we Christians are surrounded by all kinds of people. Of course, we have a responsibility not to follow sinful examples and evil ways. But we must also be aware of how even art and music can be expressions of the hopelessness of society around us.
When we look at modern art or listen to modern music and are tempted to write it off (or find it amusing), we do well to remember the words of Francis Schaeffer:
These paintings, these poems, and these demonstrations that we have been talking about are the expressions of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness. Dare we laugh at such things? Dare we feel superior when we view their tortured expressions in their art?
Christians should stop laughing and take such men seriously. Then we shall have the right to speak again to our generation. These men are dying while they live, yet where is our compassion for them. There is nothing more ugly than an orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion.[1]
While we remain determined to live holy lives, let us also be filled with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ as we reach out to others, and perhaps some, perhaps even one, may turn away from a sinful life, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and follow Him as Lord!
[1] Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There (InterVarsity, 1998). Quoted on p.196, , Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.