"God's Love For Us"

The first man to climb to the summit of Mount Everest was Sir Edmund Hillary. When asked why he wanted to climb the mountain, he replied, "Because it’s there." Hillary went to great personal expense, and risked his life to climb the mountain. I would imagine he felt a tremendous amount of exhilaration when he reached the top. I suppose he enjoyed all the public acclaim he received afterward. Was it worth it? I suppose it probably was, although probably not for those who died and the family and friends of those who died before the expedition reached the top.

Our Lord Jesus faced a tremendous challenge and paid a great personal price in order to win our redemption. His motive was far greater than that of some kind of a personal challenge. His motivation was his great love for us. It was a love that was already there before the foundation of the world was laid. It was love that led him to accept the task. And we know that it gave him great joy when his work was finished.

Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus, "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame." Our text this morning also tells us about God’s great joy when a sinner repents, when one who is lost is brought back to him. God’s love for us led him to promise Abraham that "in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Prophets told again and again what the Messiah would mean for the people of the world. From Genesis to Revelation, we are told about God’s love for us.

Of course, from Genesis to Revelation, we are also confronted with the human condition of sin. If we can’t see our need for a Savior, then the fact that he came here on a mission for our salvation, has little meaning. Scripture doesn’t mince words when it comes to sin.

Our text tells us that the tax collectors and the sinners were drawing near to hear Jesus. Cheating tax collectors. Coarse prostitutes. People who seem like they are about as far from God as people can get. But the fact of the matter is, we are all totally lost, even if we, like the Pharisees, delude ourselves into thinking that we are not lost.

We are all Pharisees at heart aren’t we? We hold ourselves up in comparison to "that other guy," and when we do that, we don’t look quite so bad do we? We find comfort in our ability to find someone who at least "seems" like more of a "sinner" than we are. But a sinner is a sinner. So unless you have never, ever, sinned, not even one time, you are still a sinner. You still stand before God, deserving of eternal punishment.

Yet God loves and values each and every sinner. God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. In the parable Jesus tells that is recorded in our text, we see in this image of a shepherd, his care in seeking the lost. The 99 are left so that the 1 may be found. We see in the poor woman who absolutely must find the lost coin and diligently searches for it, how important one lost sinner really is.

We see that God will not leave us in our misery, that he pursues us until he finds us and rescues us. It doesn’t matter how far we’ve strayed, or how big of a mess we’ve made of our lives.

Seeking out the lost was Jesus’ priority. Sure, he offended the Pharisees by hanging out with the wrong kind of people. Sometimes he got so busy preaching and teaching and healing and showing us how much God loves and cares for us that he even forgot to eat. Jesus said in John 4:34; "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."

Jesus went to the cross willingly, to save us poor lost sinners. Although the day Christ died was indeed a terrible day – in heaven and on earth, I’ll bet that the heavenly host was glad that God’s will had been done and that his plan of salvation had been accomplished. We lost sinners had been found.

It wasn’t an easy task. The shepherd in our parable searched long and hard. The woman had to sweep and search diligently to find the coin. It’s still not an easy task to continue Christ’s mission of seeking and saving the lost. But we do

Sometimes, an adjustment is required on our part in order to reach the lost. Paul wrote, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." (1Cor 9:22) Paul understood the importance of seeking out the lost.

The word "lost" in the context of our text for this morning refers to people who don’t know about Jesus at all. Considering the tax collector and sinners in the context of our text, the term lost also includes the undesirable lost. In our eyes there are nice lost and bad lost. There are the lost that live in fashionable suburbs, and there are lost that occupy gutters on skid row.

There are the lost that are respectable, law-abiding citizens, and there are the lost that we call scum and trash. There are educated lost and uneducated lost, clean and dirty lost, decent and indecent lost. Both kinds of lost are desperately in need of salvation. Jesus made no distinctions and neither should we.

And consider the sheep and the coin in our parables. A sheep may describe those kinds of lost people, who like a sheep know they are lost but still can’t do anything to rescue themselves. And a coin may describe those kinds of lost people that, like a coin, don’t even know they’re lost, that may be unconscious of their plight.

Only the Good News of the Gospel can save the lost, but Christian joy over the salvation of the lost is a motivating and empowering factor to spread and apply that Gospel.

More unreached people are alive today than any other time in church history. We sit around and wring our hands and wonder how to fill the pews in this place, yet at the same time we don’t live a missionary lifestyle. We fail to invite others to journey toward knowing God.

The incarnation of Christ is just one way that God showed us his love and his desire to draw mankind to himself. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Before he returned to heaven, he commissioned His church to continue what he had begun.

All Christians are called into a personal relationship with Christ and are sent into this world to witness His saving grace among those who have not confessed him as Lord. The missional task of all believers, the commission Christ gave to the church was a personal command for every Christian to seek and win every lost individual in his personal world to salvation. We are to scatter over the earth and bear witness.

The word missionary is almost done injustice when it is reserved for professional or vocational people who cross oceans or geographic boundaries in their assignment. Missionaries are ones who are sent, and for the New Testament church, that includes every believer. We are all empowered to be a people sent by God into His world to share His good news of grace and hope.

The picture of a hearse pulling a u-haul trailer is laughable at best. We know we can’t take our stuff with us. But there is something we can take with us to God’s eternal kingdom: other people. If we bring our children to Christ and they remain in faith, they will be with us in heaven. If our friend comes to know Christ, then he or she will be with us in heaven. Nothing matters more to God than saving lost sinners. Yes, "there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The salvation of lost souls brings joy for eternity. We take nothing with us from this life, but if we have led a soul to Christ, a son or daughter, a spouse or friend, we will rejoice with them for eternity. We don’t know a lot about what heaven will be like, but this much we do know; it’s God’s eternal purpose that we should live in his presence.

What great joy there will be on that last day when Jesus raises our bodies from the dust and gathers us with people from all nations who have believed on his name. And greater still be our joy because God has permitted us to be his co-workers, sharing the news of God’s love for us with the world around us. Amen.