Apparently our server is down again this seek, so all I have is
the printed version of this sermon. Sorry for the inconvenience. Email calebjohn.schaller@gmail.com if
you really want the mp3 and I'll send it to you. -Pastor Caleb Schaller
SERMON:
Boom! Pow! Ziiiiiiiiiip! Mooooo. Oink oink. Meow.
No, your pastor hasn’t gone crazy. These words are
examples of onomatopoeia. In every language there are words that seek to
communicate a sound by simply imitating that sound.
In third year Greek we learned about one such word that
is used in the New Testament. The Greek word for “grumble”—“gong-guz-oh”.
It’s kinda fun to say. Repeat after me, “gong-guz-oh”.
Okay, let’s experience this word a little deeper. I
want everyone on the right side to say “gong-guz-oh” four times, but not all at
the same time. Kinda overlap your grumbles and put a nice low rumble into them.
Ready? Go.
Nice. Now let’s have the left side give it a try. Say
“gong-guz-oh” four times with a low overlapping rumble.
Nice.
This was the sound that Jesus heard one day when he was
teaching the crowds. The sound of grumbling was coming from the Pharisees and
scribes. The “holier than thou” religious people.
You see, among the people who crowded around Jesus to
hear him speak, there were tax collectors and prostitutes. People who by their
trades were known to be thieves and sexual sinners. But Jesus didn’t seek to
separate himself from these people. He didn’t drive them away. Instead, he
conversed openly with these open sinners and even ate lunch with them.
And so the Pharisees grumbled. And Jesus heard their
“gong-guz-oh”. And in that grumbling Jesus perceived an attitude that was all
wrong.
In our reading for today Jesus seeks to teach that the
proper attitude toward unbelieving sinners is an attitude of mercy, not an
attitude of cold, immovable judgment.
Luke 15:1-10 (ESV)
15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near
to hear him. 2 And
the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and
eats with them.”
3 So he told them
this parable: 4 “What
man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave
the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until
he finds it? 5 And
when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes
home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice
with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 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.
8 “Or what woman,
having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep
the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her
friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that
I had lost.’ 10 Just
so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who
repents.”
▬
In another section of Scripture Jesus famously says,
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged” (Matthew
7:1 NASB).
This statement
gets thoroughly abused. People say that this mean we should never tell people
their actions are sinful. That would be judging them, and Jesus says not to do
that. This is nonsense. Jesus consistently teaches his followers that no matter
what flavor sin comes in, it’s always wrong. Sin is evil. We should always call
sin, sin.
The judging
that we’re not supposed to do happens when we treat sinning people as if they
can’t be regained from their sinful habits. We’re not supposed to pretend like
we know that they can never change. That we know God can’t get through to them.
That’s the judging that we’re forbidden to do. And that’s the very judging that
the Pharisees and scribes were guilty of.
▬
The Pharisees looked
at the thieving tax collectors and the fornicating prostitutes and said in
their hearts, “These people are lost FOREVER. They’re dirty, sick, and
hopeless. They make no effort to change their ways. Let them lie in the bed
they’ve made for themselves. They’ve chosen their path, let them go ahead and skip
down the road to hell.”
Because the
Pharisees judged these people as hopeless, they wouldn’t have anything to do
with them. They ignored and disrespected them at every turn.
It comes as no
surprise then, that when the Pharisees saw Jesus talking and eating with these
people, they interpreted that to mean that in some way Jesus accepted their
sins.
But that wasn’t
what Jesus was doing at all. When Jesus talked and ate with tax collectors and
prostitutes he wasn’t expressing acceptance of their evils. He was expressing
the truth that these people were not necessarily lost forever. They could be
regained. Their sins could be forgiven, and their lives could be reformed.
Yeah, they were lost, but they could be found.
While the
Pharisees and scribes viewed open sinners as having no value, Jesus showed that
God valued them. Which shouldn’t surprise us. Everything God creates has value,
especially those creatures who were originally made in his image!
When Jesus
mingled with thieves and fornicators he was showing them that God still loved
them, cared for them, and in mercy was reaching out to SAVE them. He wanted to
save them from the final judgment, and hell, and he also wanted to save them
from all the pain and heartache that a sinful life heaps on a person.
▬
When a climber
is reported missing, the rescue teams around here don’t spend a bunch of time evaluating
whether it was the fault of the climber or not. They just get out onto the
mountainside and start looking.
Rescue teams do
this because they value human life.
▬
This is the
same attitude that we should have when it comes to rescuing the souls of lost
sinners. We shouldn’t spend a bunch of time evaluating whether a sinner
deserves their fate or not. And we certainly shouldn’t abandon the rescue
attempt if it was their own choices that got them in trouble.
If we value the
people that God has made, we will seek to cultivate an attitude of pity and
mercy toward them—even when it’s their own stupid choices that have gotten them
in trouble, even when their sins are being committed against US!
After all, that’s
the kind of attitude that God had toward us! ALL of us deserve hell because of
our sins against each other and against God. We aren’t forgiven because we
chose God, but because he chose us. HE CHOSE US. HE used the law to show us our
sins. HE used the Gospel to show us our Savior. HE convinced us that through
Christ we have complete forgiveness and peace with God. If we EVER look at someone
else and dismiss them as worthless and un-savable like the Pharisees did, we
aught to be flogged.
▬
Jesus used two
parables to show us how to view sinners. One parable has to do with a shepherd searching
for a lost sheep. The other has to do with a woman searching for a lost coin. The
point of both parables is that when something is LOST, you go and find it.
The details in these
parables help us to mold the right attitude. First Jesus teaches us to view
sinners as LOST, and in need of rescue.
The foolish
sheep that gets away from the safety of the flock needs help! The shepherd is a
pretty pathetic shepherd if he says, “Dumb old sheep, it deserves to be taken
down by the wolves.” Yeah, the sheep got itself lost, but that just emphasizes
the fact that it needs help.
The parable of
the lost coin teaches us to view sinners as VALUABLE. God didn’t created them
to be lost. He didn’t create them just to watch them wallow around in sin and
guilt. He’s not amused by the pain sinners feel as they make one horrible
mistake after another. God created us to be in an intimate and loving
relationship with HIM, and to experience meaningful relationships with one
another. As Christians we aught to see everyone as a valuable soul that God
cherishes, wants by his side, and wants us to cherish also.
▬
At the
beginning of the sermon we talked about the sound of grumbling that Jesus
heard. But there’s also another sound that Jesus mentions here. The sound of
the angels rejoicing in heaven.
The prophet
Isaiah heard the angels sing around God’s throne when he received a vision of
God’s throne room. The shepherds heard ranks of angels praise God with their
voices as they announced the birth of Christ. I wonder, what does it sounds
like when the angels rejoice with loud voices? It must be pretty amazing. Full
of power and glory and joy.
It’s a shocking
contrast that while the Pharisees were grumbling, angels were singing for joy
in heaven as more and more sinners were brought to faith in their Savior.
I guess that’s
the question that we need to ask ourselves: do we want to be like the grumbling
Pharisees, or the rejoicing angels? If we want to be like the rejoicing angels
then we need to apply love, honesty, and patience to the sinners we know.
That’s what they need! They certainly don’t need our grumbling judgment. They
certainly don’t need to be abandoned. They need us to bring them the truth, in
love. They need us to patiently call sin, sin. They need us to point out their
sins and the consequences of sin until they own their guilt. And then they need
us to bring them the Gospel of God’s grace. That’s how the lost get found.
▬
In Greek class
we also learned about the word, “Mercy”. In the Greek it’s “eleos”. This word
is defined as, “kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted,
joined with a desire to help them” (Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon).
This is the
attitude that we should have toward sinners. May God give us a heart full of
mercy.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you
didn’t abandon us because we were guilty. Though we made choice after horrible
choice and committed sin after stupid sin, you sought us out and found us. You
placed us on your shoulders and brought us home. Help us to have the same heart
of mercy and love toward the sinners around us, the same heart of mercy that
you had for us. Thank you. Amen.
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