The King Is Coming : The Lost Sheep - September 13, 2026

0:00Father, we thank you that when we were lost, when we, like sheep, had gone astray, when we were sprinting toward the cliff of our own eternal destruction, that you did not simply watch us run away, you pursued us. We thank you for the good shepherd, your son, Jesus Christ, who pursued us at the greatest possible cost to himself. And he threw us on his shoulders and brought us back to you. Father, we thank you for Jesus. Thank you for what Jesus has done. Thank you that when we were dead and sinned, you raised us to new and everlasting life. Lord, we confess today that if you had not loved us first, we would refuse you still. So thank you for transforming our hearts. Thank you for transforming our minds. Thank you for turning us back to you when we had turned away from you.

1:00And rescuing us when we had wandered astray. So, Father, as we open up your word today, what you show us the good shepherd. Show us Jesus by your word. Make us more like Jesus by your word. That in the same way you pursued us when we were lost, we would pursue those who were far from you. And that even in the preaching of this message today, those who are far from you would be drawn to us. So, Father, as we open up your word now, we ask that you would edify your church. You would glorify your name. Father, sanctify us today in the truth. Your word is truth. Your word is truth. Your word is truth. So, will you give us eyes to see, will you give us ears to hear, will you give us minds to know and to comprehend and to understand, give us hearts that are eager to receive and believe and to do all that you desire for us today. Holy Spirit, have your way and our hearts now have your way in your church.

2:03Father, we pray and ask all these things in the mighty and the matchless name of your Son. Our precious risen Savior, Jesus Christ. All of God's people said, Amen. Amen. You can go ahead and have a seat. Well, if you have your Bible, I'm going to invite you to determine me to Luke chapter 15, Luke 15, verses 1 through 7, is where we're going to spend our time together today. If you don't have a Bible with you, there should be a black, hard-backed Bible underneath the seat somewhere near you. As always, if you do not own a Bible, feel free to take that one with you as our gift to you today. And if you have never used a Bible before in your life, you can use one of those black, hard-backed Bibles and find Luke chapter 15 on page 821. This is the time of the year. We welcome lots of new first-time guests. They can see a lot of unfamiliar faces in the room this morning. So if we've not had a chance to meet personally, my name is Taylor. I serve as one of the pastors here at Cross. I do the majority of the preaching, but if you're here for the next few months, you'll see we have other members of our pastoral staff who regularly preach as well.

3:04That's something that we do here together in plurality as a team of pastors and elders. And just to catch you up to speed on where we are as a church for most of the last two years, we've been walking verse by verse 3, Luke's Gospel account. And it's probably going to take us about 12 to 15 months to finish it up. So all that to say, you have plenty of time to get caught up. All of those messages are available online if you wanted to go back and listen in. But last week we wrapped up Luke chapter 14, and today we're picking up right where we left off with the beginning of chapter 15. Again, if you're here for the first time by word count, Luke's Gospel account. It's not just the longest of the four Gospel accounts. It's actually the longest book in the New Testament. Luke, as best as we know about him, was a physician. He was a historian. And his Gospel account is highly organized. It's meticulously researched. It's a narrative that's based on the testimonies of those who were eyewitnesses to the things that Jesus said and did. So over the course of the last month, chapter 14, we were warned repeatedly about the dangers of religious pride.

4:08And last week we were reminded once again of the cost of following Jesus. Today's we come to chapter 15. Luke organizes this chapter around three parables of something that was lost and then was found. At this past week I reread what's probably one of my top 10 favorite books. It's a short little book by 20th century Anglican minister named John Stott. And the title of that book very simply is Why I am a Christian. And this is a resource I like to revisit on a regular basis because it just takes me back to the foundations of the Gospel and who Jesus is and what he's done for us. And so just to give some background on the book in the 1920s that they, that they, the his philosopher Bertrand Russell had given a lecture in London titled Why I am not a Christian. And it was little more than a straw man take down of a stereotype of Christianity where he launched a series of attacks against the traditional arguments for the existence of God. And so in some ways years later, Stott was writing Why I am a Christian as a counter to Russell's lecture.

5:12But instead of writing a point for point counter to all of Russell's arguments, Stott's primary aim in this book was to lay out a compelling vision for what Christianity actually is. Which was far more beautiful than the way Christianity had been misrepresented by Bertrand Russell. And in this short little book, it's only seven chapters. It would probably only take you 15 to 20 minutes to read each of these chapters even at a slower pace. Stott titles the first chapter of his book The Hound of Heaven. And I want to give you some background as to why he landed on that title for the first chapter. This was the title of a poem that had been written by a man named Francis Thompson in 1890. And the overall theme of the poem is about God's pursuit of us even as we run away from him. Sin leads us to turn away from God to run away from God but in spite of our wandering and in spite of our running, the gospel tells us that Christ has pursued us like a bloodhound on the scent of a lost child.

6:13That's why Thompson titled his poem The Hound of Heaven. He was writing of how God tracks us down how we find this one we're lost. And so to begin our time together today, I want to ask you the exact same question. John Stott asks in the introduction of his book. And here's the question I want to ask you. It's a simple question. Why are you a Christian? Think about it for just a moment. Why are you a Christian? Initially, the answer to that question might seem simple enough. A church, how we answer that question can reveal whether or not we truly know what the gospel message is. How we begin the answer to that question. When you answer that question, let me ask you this. Does your answer begin with your pursuit of God or does your answer begin with God's pursuit of you? Does your answer begin with your pursuit of God or does it begin with God's pursuit of you? If I ask the question, why are you a Christian? Some of us might begin with our family heritage.

7:13We might say, well, you know, I was born into a Christian home with two faithful Christian parents who raised me to no love and follow Jesus. Others of us might point to our church heritage. I was born in the church, grew up in the church, and I've always just kind of believed in God just sort of always had a relationship with Jesus. Some of us might be tempted to point to our citizenship and say, well, I'm a Christian because I was born in the United States of America. Are we all Christians? We might point to an intellectual quest. You might say, well, I examine the arguments for all of the claims of the other major world religions, and I have found the claims of the Bible to be the most intellectually satisfying, and I believe it to be true. Or many of us might point to what we believe is our conversion experience. You might say something like, well, I'm a Christian because when I was 12 years old, I was sitting in a worship service, and the person preaching gave an invitation, and I repeated a prayer, and I raised my hand, and I walked an aisle, and I met with a counselor, and I got a t-shirt, and I got baptized. I kind of just been doing all of this ever since.

8:16But the reason why John Stott opened his book, Why I Am a Christian, with the chapter titled, The Hound of Heaven, Church is because our story, our testimony, my story, your story, it does not begin with our pursuit of God. It begins with his pursuit of us. That is the foundation of our conversion. And so here was John Stott's answer in the introduction of his book, of why he is a Christian. He wrote, Why I Am a Christian is due ultimately neither to the influence of my parents and teachers, nor to my own personal decision for Christ, but to the hound of heaven. That is, it is due to Jesus Christ himself who pursued me relentlessly, even when I was wondering away from him in order to go my own way. And if it were not for the gracious pursuit of the hound of heaven, I would today be on the scrap heap of wasted and discarded lives. Friends, we are not Christians because of us. We're Christians because of him. It's because of him. Our testimony does not begin with our personal pursuit of God.

9:20The testimony begins with God's pursuit of us. He shows us in him before the foundations of the earth. All of us are Christians, our only Christians, because when we were lost and wondering away from sin, when we were sprinting toward the cliff of our own eternal destruction, the only reason any of us or followers of Christ is because the hound of heaven first tracked us down. And so what we're going to see today at the beginning of Luke chapter 15 is a parable about Christ's relentless pursuit of us. Even when we were lost and wondering away, and Jesus illustrates this through a story of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep behind in order to pursue a single sheep that had wondered away, all of Luke chapter 15 is organized around three parables of something that was lost and then was found. Today in verses 1 through 7 we see the parable of a lost sheep. Next week, verses 8 through 10, we're going to see the parable of a lost coin. And then we're going to spend two weeks versus 11 through 32 looking at the parable of a lost son. Something was lost and then was found.

10:25First parable we see today is the parable of a lost sheep. And so here's the key truth we're going to see together today in verses 1 through 7. This is good news for all of us today. Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus is the good shepherd. And this is how good of a shepherd he is. He's the good shepherd who leaves 99 sheep behind until he finds the one sheep that has been lost. If there's one that's lost, Jesus doesn't brag about his 99% retainment rate. He tracks down the one that's been lost. Church, we should praise God for Christian parents if you had them. We should praise God for bringing in the church, especially if you're in a church where the Bible was faithfully taught, the gospel was faithfully preached. We should praise God for good arguments and defense of our faith. We have them. We should praise God for the moment we confess Jesus is Lord. But we are not Christians because we found God when we were lost. We are Christians because when we were lost, God found us.

11:25He came after us. That's what we see today in Luke chapter 15. So let me read the full passage for us verses 1 through 7. Then we'll work through it one verse at a time. Luke 151. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. In the Pharisees and scribes grumbled saying this man received sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, what man of you having a hundred sheep if he's lost one of them does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that's lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me. I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, then over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. This is the word of the Lord. Jesus is the good shepherd. He's the good shepherd. He leaves 99 sheep behind to find the one sheep that has been lost.

12:32We see first and verses 1 and 2 of our good shepherd. He receives us when we turn to him. He receives us when we turn to him. Verse 1, Luke records that tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus. And of course this is a problem for the Pharisees and scribes. It's always a problem for these guys. Luke records verse 2 that they grumbled and they said this man received sinners and needs with them. Now way back towards the beginning of last year, we were in chapter 5 just to give us a refresher here. In the first century culture, there was center bad and then there was tax collector bad. Tax collectors were considered to be so vile to be so sinful. They were given their own unique classification. There were sinners and tax collectors, center bad, tax collector bad. Tax collectors were despised by the Jewish people because oftentimes they were Jews themselves who were oppressing their own people. And so they were even considered scum by the Romans who employed them because the Romans saw how quickly they would take advantage of their own people.

13:36Tax collectors were considered to be so vile, so untrustworthy, so morally repugnant that they were placed in their own unique category of sinner and yet were regularly shown throughout the gospel accounts that Jesus associated with tax collectors. He seated at tables with tax collectors. We've seen it in the past. We see it today. We'll see it again later. And so let me just very quickly show you how Luke builds this theme throughout his gospel account. Again, going back to chapter 5, we saw there that Jesus called Levi to be one of his disciples and what was Levi's profession. He's a tax collector. He's a tax collector. But Levi did not first come to Jesus. Jesus came to him. He saw him at his tax booth. He called him away, said to Levi, Luke 520, follow me. And Luke 528 tells us that Levi left everything to follow Jesus. He throws a feast for Jesus. All of his tax collector friends show up. And Luke 530 says the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled.

14:36It's the same word we see in chapter 15 today. They ask Jesus there, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and centers? And so Jesus just responds and very simply says those who are well don't have a need of a physician. It's those who are sick who have need of a physician. He says, and this is one of the reasons why he came. He said, I have not come to call the righteous or those who think they are righteous. He said, I've come to call centers to repentance. This is why Jesus had come. He'd come to call centers to repentance and just to make sure we keep the context of this in mind, church. Let's be reminded here. Jesus did not sit at tables with tax collectors and centers so they would feel affirmed in their sin. That's not why he didn't. He didn't sit there at the table with Levi while he continued oppressing people with unjust taxes and saying, hey, don't worry, I'm not judging you. That's not what Jesus was doing. He came to call centers to repentance, to call them away from their sin.

15:39We see it again, Luke chapter 19. Jesus calls another tax collector there. His name is Zacchaeus. I might have a footnote in your Bible that tells you he was a wee little man. Had a hard time seeing, climbs up in a tree to see Jesus. What happens? Jesus calls Zacchaeus to himself. Zacchaeus repents of his sin. He refunds everyone he had defrauded even more that he had defrauded them from. Jesus says, Luke 19, salvation has come to this house. For he's the son of Abraham. And then the key verse for Luke's entire gospel narrative comes right after that in Luke 1910 where Jesus says, for the son of man came to seek and to save. The lost. This is why he had come. He had come to call centers to repentance. He had come to pursue the ones who had fallen away. This is why Jesus had come. His mission on earth, this is why he came. God's covenant people had gone astray in sin so Jesus came to rescue the sheep who were lost.

16:41It's why he had come to seek and to save the lost. So here in Luke chapter 15, when Luke records the tax collectors and centers were all drawing near to Jesus. Church, we need to understand, we need to remember they were only drawing near to Jesus because Jesus had first drawn near to them. He had first called them to himself. His word receives in verse 2. It's a word that means more than welcome. This was a word that represented a deep fellowship in community that they enjoyed with Jesus. They could draw near to Jesus and they could be received by Jesus only because he had first drawn near to them and called them to himself and away from their sin and the exact same reality is true for us. Church, understand the initiative in salvation always begins with Jesus. It always begins with God. If someone asks you who gets credit for your salvation, if your answer isn't 100% Jesus, you have a false gospel.

17:43It's not enough to say, well it was 99% Him and 1% you. If it was 1% you, you still are lost. It's 100% Jesus. The divine initiative in our salvation always begins with Jesus. The message of Scripture could not be more clear. We are 100% responsible for the sinning and God is 100% responsible for the saving. All the credit goes to God. All the glory goes to God in salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It's what the word of God tells us. We are responsible for repenting or responsible for believing as our eyes are open to our need for Him but we are only able to repent and believe in the first place because of the sovereign initiative of God. Paul says that Ephesians chapter 2, we say, by grace through faith this is not your own doing. This is a gift of God. Friends, let me remind us today we were so dead in our sins. We cannot even take credit for the faith that was required to call on God in the first place. The faith itself is a gift.

18:44And so when someone asks you the question, why are you a Christian? The beginning of that answer can never be because I. The beginning of that answer is always going to be because He. It's not because I turn from my sins and I drew near to God. The beginning of our answer is because when I had turned away in sin, God in his grace drew near to me in the person of work of Jesus Christ. God drew me by the power of his Holy Spirit. God opened my eyes to Christ through the preaching of his word. Let me tell you why this is so deeply personal for me. This exact account here in Luke chapter 15. Let me, again, lots of new people here today. Let me just give you the, the scanning on my personal story and kind of how I got to the place that I'm in today. Here's my story in a nutshell. Born in a home to two godly, faithful Christian parents. Long line of ministers on my dad's side of the family. My dad had grown up in a pastor's home. He worked full time for Christian ministry. My mom worked for Christian bookstore. I grew up around pastors everywhere in my family and my dad's work.

19:49We were one of those families in church every single not just you know right now our culture. It's kind of like a one hour a week or one hour a month or whatever we made it. I grew up in one of those churches that was like the whole family. We went to Sunday school one hour and then the whole family sat in the worship gathering in the next hour. The whole family came back for Sunday evening discipleship at 5 p.m. That was immediately followed by another worship service at 6 p.m. We were back on Wednesday night. We were there every single time the doors were open. I went to a Christian school. I only had Christian friends and listen. I was lost. In church but far from Jesus. Very much resisting everything that was around me and not in any way shape or form wanting what was being presented to me had already resolved in my heart at a young age the day I turn 18 I'm done with this moving on. That's who I was but what happened to the course of my life against the sin and resistance of my own heart in small subtle ways every step of the way I look back now and I can see those were the footprints of the hound of heaven tracking me down.

20:56Two major events happened in the fall of 2001 one was September 11th 14 years old my eyes just being open to how dark and evil the world was and just being overwhelmed by the sense of how evil it was. A couple months later in November of that year a student in our student ministry taken his own life and I was just just confronted once again with just the evils of the world the darkness of the world the reality of the reminder once again I I too will die someday knowing deep down in my heart that I was resisting things that I really knew to be true. In November 11th 2001 in the gym at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Boone North Carolina through the preaching of our youth pastor Kevin night a couple of days after this event against the sin and resistance of my heart the hound of heaven caught me. Not because of what I did I was running. Not towards him running running away from him. And so listen when we sing a song like we just sang a moment ago when when we sing Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God I can't help lift my hands and sing those words of tears of my eyes because I know I was the stranger.

22:09I was wandering from the fold of God and he tracked me down and listen whether you wanted minute or not that's your story too. Some of us were rebelling in sin some of us were rebelling with our own sense of self righteousness and thinking we could do it without him. But either way we had to be tracked down. This is good news for us today the good news for us today is that because God in the flesh Jesus Christ drew near to us pursued us when we had gone astray because of his enabling grace we can turn from our sins and we can draw near to God in faith. Listen this is so good for us he receives us when we turn to him because he was the one calling us in the first place. It's not like when you turn away from your sin you turn toward Christ that he's going to look at you and be like what are you doing here. Now that was him calling you in the first place. That was him pursuing you in the first place when you turn away from your sin and you turn to Christ in faith you can have confidence that he will receive you.

23:12He's not going to turn you away. But it was the exact opposite disposition of the scribes and Pharisees. If you haven't noticed as we walked through this book the last couple of years the scribes and Pharisees had the spiritual gift of being sticks in the mud. These guys just never happy about anything they had this extraordinary ability to always find something wrong with things that were good. So in verses 3 and 4 Jesus responds to the grumblings of the Pharisees as he often did with the short parables. Let's read again verses 3 and 4. Here's the parable. He says so he told them this parable. They're grumbling. He receives sinners and eat with them and he told them this parable. What man of you having a hundred sheep if he's lost one of them does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. We saw this back in chapter 14 that everyone's about Jesus will appeal to something that they absolutely knew to be true in order to expose their hypocrisy. And so that's what he's doing. He's appealing to something they know. He's saying you know if you had a hundred sheep you go chase him down.

24:16He's appealing to what they know. So we saw in verses 1 and 2 he receives this when we turn to him. Second, verses 3 and 4 he rescues this when we are lost. Our good shepherd rescues this when we are lost. Let's keep making sure we keep the order right. We're not Christians because we first found him when we were lost. We are Christians because when we were lost he first found us. It always begins with him. It always begins with him. The scribes and Pharisees, the grumbling and complaining that Jesus is receiving sinners and tax collectors. It's because they had completely lost sight of their own sinfulness and their need for God. They can't stand what Jesus is doing for others because they have completely forgotten what has been offered to them as God's covenant people. And their hearts are hardened against God. People are turning away from their sins. They're finding forgiveness in Christ. They're experiencing the joy of fellowship and the presence of God. But the scribes and Pharisees can't stand what they're seeing. So Jesus rebukes them in the form of this simple parable.

25:17He appeals to what they know. Which one of you? You had a hundred sheep. He's going, you know exactly what you would do here. You had a hundred sheep you were responsible for and you're counting them one day and you realize there's only 99. You know you're leaving those 99 to go find the one that was lost. Accountability for a shepherd in the first century culture was critical because if a shepherd had a reputation for losing sheep it could cost him his entire livelihood. And so it was critically important that if a shepherd lost a sheep you do everything you can to go and rescue the sheep that was lost. And so Jesus does what we saw him doing back in chapter 14. He's appealing to what they know to be absolutely true. But we're just too hard-hearted and proud to admit. He's telling them you know beyond a shadow of a doubt. If one of your hundred ran away you go searching for it until you found it. And so this is what he's setting up for them and here's what you and I need to see and consider today as well. If shepherds had so much concern for lost sheep how much more concern should we have for lost souls?

26:25He's saying to them if this is what a shepherd would do for his sheep how much more should we do for those who have wandered away from God? I'm going to say something that's going to put some of us in our feelings a little bit. So just bear with me for just a moment. I just like to ask you to hear me out. I just felt the whole room get nervous when I said that. Just hear me out for just a second. I want to just get our brains thinking about things. Popular song came out several years ago about the shepherd leaving the 99 to pursue the one. And the title of that song was reckless love. The song is about this passage. I can already feel it. Some are like don't you dare. Don't mess with the song. Just hear me out for a second. Course went like this. So the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God. It chases me down, fights till I'm found, leaves the 99. So this song is referencing these verses right here in Luke chapter 15. The song is referencing these verses. There was a lot of controversy about the use of the term reckless in his defense.

27:28The artist Corey Asbury defended the use of the term reckless because he was saying that he was using it in the sense that Christ was unconcerned with his own personal comfort and safety in his pursuit of his. And so on that one hand, you might be able to make some defense of the use of the term. But regardless of the author's intent, the primary issue with using that word in the context of leaving the 99 is that according to Jesus, that kind of action isn't reckless. That kind of action is completely reasonable. That's the context of Luke 15. He says this is completely reasonable. He's asking which one of you? He appeals to what they know to be true. Yes, it's true. Yes and amen Christ, the lay to side his comfort. He pursued us at the cost of his own life. But according to Jesus, the actual action of going after a lost sheep, that's not a reckless action. That's a reasonable one. So let us update the song. The overwhelming never ending completely reasonable love of God. Maybe we can sing it after that.

28:29He's appealing to what they know to be true. He says this is exactly what every single one of you would do. And you know that you would do this. It was completely reasonable of him to pursue a lost soul because it was completely reasonable of shepherds to pursue lost sheep. We have to be careful with words like reckless because with the best of intentions, it could actually work against what Jesus is saying in this passage. Church, good shepherds pursue lost sheep. That's what they do. Leaving the 99 to go after the one is what any reasonable shepherd would do. If it makes sense for a shepherd to pursue a lost sheep, how much more should we pursue lost souls? So I want to pause for a second. We're going to build this out for a few more minutes here because I want us to have some really practical handles on how is this actually accomplished? What does it actually mean to leave the 99 and go after the one? How has God done this for us? How do we do this for others? What does it mean for us as the church?

29:30Because we really can look at this on a few different levels. We've seen already our salvation, our conversion that begins with God pursuing us. He draws near to us. He turns our hearts away from sin. He opens the eyes of our hearts so that we can repent and believe the gospel. He pursues us, but he doesn't just pursue us. Oftentimes, God pursues others through us. This is what Romans 10, 14 and 15 is all about. You've asked Paul this series of questions. He says, how then will they call on him and whom they've not believed? And how are they to believe in him and whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they're sent? And that's why he says, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news? God is sovereign over salvation, but God's not just sovereign over the end. He's sovereign over the means. And he often draws people to faith in Christ through our ministry to others so he pursues us. Oftentimes, he pursues others through us. But anybody who's been a follower of Jesus from over about 10 minutes knows

30:30that even when he finds us and we're drawn in and we become part of the body of Christ, man, our hearts are still prone to wander. We can very quickly, we can so quickly still be drawn into the very temptations we were pursuing when we were apart from Christ, that the enemy hates what's happened in our hearts. It wants to isolate us from the body of Christ and so listen. One of the primary ways the Lord continues pursuing us, even when we belong to Jesus, is through the practice of membership in the local church. This is one of the, this right here in Luke 15, this is one of the primary reasons why we are such champions here, of what we call covenant church membership, where we commit to one another, we make each other accountable as members of the body of Christ to do what Jesus has caused to do. Listen, a shepherd can't leave 99 to go after the one if he didn't know he had 100 to begin with. There was clear definition on who the flock was. Let me give you just a little bit of homework here.

31:30It was one year ago this week actually that we started a seven week break from our time in Luke and we did a message series on the biblical foundations for church membership. The message series is called assembly required. I would just encourage you go back and maybe relisten if you need to refresh your, if you want some foundations on the importance of church membership, go to that. But to keep us grounded in Luke chapter 15 today, let me show you two key texts from the New Testament. They're really where the foundation of that series that gives us the framework for how to pursue the one that has wandered away. The first passage is for leaders in the local church and then the second passage is more for all of us as members of the local church. writer of Hebrews says this, Hebrews 13, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. And so that's the role of pastors, that's the role of elders, that's the role of leaders in the local church, is to watch over souls in the same way this shepherd watches over sheep or called to watch over souls. They do this as those who will have to give an account, let them do this with joy not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you.

32:36So like shepherds keeping watch over sheep, the writer of Hebrews tells us that leaders in the church are keeping watch over souls and we will have to give account, if we've been given 100, we will have to give account for that 100. But every single believer in Jesus, we're not just called to make ourselves accountable to other leaders, we're not just commanded to make ourselves accountable to the leaders of the church, we're also all commanded to make ourselves accountable to all of the members of the church. And we get this from the mouth of Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 20. This is one of the strongest passages of scripture in the New Testament for the defense of church membership. And so I want you to do this with me for just a moment. If you've got your Bible open, turn over to Matthew chapter 18, because I want you to see the placement of this passage. The placement of this passage is really, really important. If you go to Matthew chapter 18, what you'll see in verses 10 through 14 is the parable of the lost sheep.

33:38Same parable that we're looking at today, essentially the same as a different context, but it's largely the exact same parable that we're looking at today in Luke 15. And listen, right after the parable of the lost sheep in verses 10 through 14, Jesus lays out the process for pursuing a person who has fallen into sin. Don't miss that. Jesus talks about the heart the shepherd has for the one that's lost. And in the very next section, he gives the church instructions for how to pursue the one. And so let me read it for us. Matthew 18 verses 15 through 20. This is from the mouth of Jesus himself. He says, if your brother sins against you. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. That's the goal. Restoration is always the goal. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to who? Tell it to the church.

34:42And if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. This is why we practice church membership. We know, hey, this is our hundred. This is our hundred. That way when one goes missing, we can know who's missing. And what's the process laid out by Jesus if one falls into sin? What do you do? One of you go to him. Go to him one-on-one conversation like a sheep that's wondered, hey, hey man, what do you do in way out here? How'd you get over here? Come back to the shepherd. Come back to the truth. Come back to the community of believers. And if that person refuses, what do you do? That's where we get the community group involved, right? Two or three others. Come on, let's go to him. Let's go to her. We got a caller back from this. Got a column away from this. She's running towards the cliff, headed towards a destruction call away from this.

35:47And they still refuse to listen what's the third instruction by Jesus. Tell it to you. The church. And listen, so many churches refuse to practice this because it's almost always exclusively talked about like some kind of punitive thing. The church, the goal here is in punishment, its restoration. And so when we tell it to the church, it's not to tar and feather the person. This is sending out the search and rescue party. It's going to the church saying, we have a brother, we have a sister. He is running astray. She has fallen away. Go after him. If you see someone sprinting towards a cliff of their own destruction, how much you have to hate him to not say something about it? The goal is not punishment, it's restoration. It's restoration. It's hopes that the lost sheep that's drifted will be brought back into the fold and listen, when a person turns away from their sins. They've been pursued and they come back. What is the response of the church?

36:49Rejoice. It's to rejoice. That's what we see in the rest of this passage versus five through seven. Sheep has been found. Shepard finds it verse five. And when he has found it, when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders doing what? Rejoicing. Rejoicing. He lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing when it comes on. He calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me. For I found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven. Did you catch that? There will be more joy in heaven over one center who repents. Then over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Jesus is our good shepherd. He leaves the 99. He pursues the one. He receives this when we turn to him. He rescues this when we lost third. You're probably already ahead of me on it. He rejoices over us when we're found. He rejoices over us when we are found. I'm going to cover this point really quickly because this is a key theme. This theme of rejoicing carries over very strong in the next week as well.

37:58But just very quickly here, there's a bit of debate about the nature of what Jesus is saying here in verses five through seven. In Jesus says in verse seven, there will be more joy in heaven over one center who repents. Then over the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Some are going to make the argument. A couple of different camps here. Some are going to make the argument that Jesus is saying this more tongue and cheek because we're all centers in need of repentance. There's not actually someone who's not in need of repentance. We're all centers in need of repentance. All of sin and fall short of the glory of God. There are some who interpret this as Jesus basically saying, clearly you guys think you're all good. Clearly you have no sin. Clearly you've been made righteous. You won't mind me going and pursuing this person that needs help. There's one camp that looks at it as more of a sarcastic jab. Others will argue it's not tongue and cheek. They'll emphasize no. The 99 are safe. And since they're safe, the shepherd can temporarily leave them and pursue to the one that's lost. Just some my cards are on the table. I personally favor the tongue and cheek interpretation based on what we see later in chapter 15.

38:59But I don't want us to miss the forest for the trees. You guys go argue about that community group all you want. That's fine. That's what group is for. Let's not miss the forest for the trees here. Whether the statement is a jab at the Pharisees or not. The point is that when a law sheep is found it's time to rejoice. It's time to rejoice. It's time for rejoicing. But the scribes and Pharisees, the grumbling and your complaining and Jesus is telling them that's not what you do when you find a law sheep. When you find a law sheep, you rejoice. You lay it on your shoulders and rejoice. You take it back home. You call your friends. You call your neighbors. You let them know that sheep I lost. He's back. I found him. It's a time for rejoicing. It's not a time for grumbling. When someone turns away from their sins. Listen, regardless of whether or not they were a tax collector. If you consider to be the kind of person so vile, so morally repugnant that they are deserving of nothing. Even if you put them in their own unique category of sinners. When a person turns to Christ and faith, it's not time for you to sit back and say, yeah, we'll see about that.

40:11I know about you. If you're that kind of person that you're always trying to turn a blind eye to your own sin to maximize somebody else's, Jesus has a word for you. It's not a time for grumbling. It's time for rejoicing. People who grumble at the repentance of others are people who have lost sight of who they were apart from Jesus. We've become blinded by our own self-righteousness. We've convinced ourselves we needed less saving than everybody else did. It's a time to rejoice. Next week we'll celebrate baptisms after this worship gathering. Hope you plan to stay. When those brothers and sisters in Christ go under the water and come back up, what do we do? We rejoice. We go after that even when we put the video up on the screen. And we watch it again one week after the fact. And we watch those brothers and sisters go under the water and come back up. What will we do sitting in this room? We'll rejoice. This is what you do. As God rejoices over us, we rejoice over others who are raised from death to life through faith in Christ. We rejoice here on earth when the lost are found because all of heaven rejoices over even one sinner who repents.

41:23You imagine that with me for just a moment? Countless millions of the redeemed in the great cloud of witnesses, all of heaven rejoices over even one person who repents. The day you turn to faith in Christ, there was partying in heaven. I mean marching bands in confetti canons, right? I just made that up. That's not biblical, but you get the idea. It's a time to rejoice. Every time a lost soul is found, the countless millions of the redeemed in glory join their voices together in rejoicing. It's what you do when the lost are found. Several years ago I was coaching our oldest son's baseball team and the game ended. We're playing out of Burton Wells. And parents, if you've ever had kids doing activities of Burton Wells, you know it can be chaos out there. On a night where there's lots of games going on, there's multiple baseball fields, there's multiple soccer fields, hundreds of people, hundreds of vehicles, and so the game ends. And as we're walking off the field, one of the parents of one of the boys that I was coaching, I heard kind of this commotion going on and heard something about a kid that they were looking for that had gone lost.

42:28And so I just asked him, I said, who's missing? And he turns around, he's got tears in his eyes, he says, my son. It was like a like two, I think maybe maybe three or four years old. I can't remember the exact age, but very little. And of course you're just frantic in that moment. Parents, that's the worst feeling in the world, right? You just you lose sight of him for a moment, especially an environment like that. There's cars everywhere. There's people everywhere. And so let me tell you what happened in the span of about 30 seconds. All the adults in the vicinity, we wanted two pieces of information, what's his name, what's he wearing? And what do we do from there? My boys are with my wife, what do you do? Hundreds of adults, so then we start running all over the Burton Wells property now by the grace of God with just a few minutes he was found. And when he was found, what did everybody do? Oh, thank God. We rejoice. We rejoice. Now let me tell you what absolutely no one, what absolutely no one did when this event was going down. When this information was going out about a little boy missing, there wasn't a single person there that said, you know, I don't really know him personally.

43:29So I don't quite feel like this is my place to go looking for him. I'm worried that you know if he sees me, I'm going to wonder who I am, is maybe going to be afraid. He might be offended if I suggest he's in the wrong place. I feel like we should get some people who are closer to this situation, maybe go to the playground, talk to some of his preschool friends, be like, hey, go get your guy. Like he's you're the one that knows him, you need to get, of course not. This is all we needed to know. A kid is lost, he needs to be found. In the body of Christ, shirts, that's all we need to know. Our brother, our sister has wondered this person is lost, they need to be found. If shepherds do it for sheep, why don't we do it for souls? This is the point Jesus is making here again. Friends, the parable of the lost sheep is a parable for every single person who belongs to Jesus Christ. Because the gospel tells us when we had wandered away and sinned, God in Christ pursued us at the cost of his own life. He bore our sin on his shoulders.

44:34At the greatest possible cost to himself, he carried us to our eternal home so that we could rejoice forever in the presence of God and fellowship with him. The Lord had said it like this through the prophet Isaiah centuries before Isaiah 53 verses 4 through 6. Surely, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. That's what he took on in shoulders. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed verse 6. This is our testimony. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Listen, if you are lost or if you claim to be a follower of Christ, you're in a place today where your heart is going astray for those who are wandering, for those who are drifting from the truth, for those of us who find ourselves in a place, we don't know how we got here, but we're here.

45:41And we know it's not where we're supposed to be and we don't quite know how to get back home. The good news for you today is that the hound of heaven hasn't stopped tracking you down. The good news for you today is that the good shepherd is still pursuing the one you are here today. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you are here today because the good shepherd doesn't lose his sheep and he's not going to let you go. Jesus had promised this himself, John 1027, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and here's the promise. I give them eternal life. Listen, and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. He's not losing one. If you belong to Jesus Christ, if you've been converted by the gospel, God has drawn you to himself. You've repented of your sin, you've confessed Jesus is Lord, you are indwelt by the spirit of the presence of the living God. If that is you, if that is you, that the teaching that you can lose your salvation, that is a lie from the mouth of Satan that was born in the pit of hell.

46:46That's preached by people who like to take about two verses in the New Testament, wildly out of context while completely ignoring things like Jesus says here, you say salvation can be lost, you're calling Jesus a liar because the shepherd doesn't lose his sheep. The shepherd doesn't lose his sheep. If you were lost, if you're drifting, if you're wondering, if you're confused, the good news for you today is that your salvation is not contingent on your ability to hold onto God. It's contingent on his ability to hold onto you. He's not letting you go. He's not letting you go. You are here today because he has drawn near to you. He has drawn near to you by the convicting power of his spirit. He has drawn near to you by the power of his word. And because he has drawn near to you and called you to himself, you can turn away from your sin and draw near to him in faith with the confidence that he is not going to turn you away. So four application points for us as we close out our time together today. We'll do these quickly because again most of this is going to carry into the next couple of weeks.

47:54First of most pressing urgency turns to Jesus Christ and repentance in faith. Turn to Jesus Christ and repentance in faith. Believe today that God has drawn near to you in the person work of Jesus Christ. Believe today that the Lord is drawing you to himself by the power of his Holy Spirit through the preaching of his word and know that you can come to Christ without fear of being turned away because Christ himself has first drawn near to you. Pray this prayer from Psalm 51 verses 15 today if you're lost, if you're broken, if you're worried that he's not going to receive you because how big of a mess you've made of your life. Pray these words today. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with the burn offering the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Broken and can try to heartle God, you will not despise. If you were lost, if you're wondering, if you have drifted, don't believe the lie that you have to fix it all before you can come to him.

48:58He's already calling you to himself. Bring him your broken heart, you'll find healing in him. And then what comes with that second is commit to membership within the local church. Commit to membership within the local church. Shepherds can't leave 99 to go after the one if he didn't know he had 100 to begin with. Listen for those of you who may be regularly attend worship services here, but you've not taken the steps to commit his members of the local church. If you're telling people in this area, hey cross communities, my home, do we know that? Do we have you counted among the 100 so that if you drifted and fell away, we would know that and we would pursue you? We're called to make this commitment, not just because we're trying to stack up numbers and build membership rosters. This is how we shepherd one another. This is how we care for one another. This is how we pursue those who were lost. I think some of us just have to get out of this mentality that accountability is punishment when it's a gift. Accountability is a gift. It is through the relationships in the local church that the Lord keeps us.

50:00And he holds us. It's the knowledge of no, man, I don't know about you. I'm so grateful that I get to be a part of a church that if I started falling away, there'd be a bunch of people coming to track me down. You've got five men who are members of this church. I've deputized every single one of them in my life. Watch me. Pay attention to me. You see me drifting in my preaching. You see me drifting in my leadership. You see me drifting in my marriage. And with my parenting, you see me minimizing my sin. You call me out on it. That's a gift. That's a gift. Brothers and sisters in Christ. A lot of us, man, we don't want accountability. We want enablements. We want people that just tell us we're right about how wrong we are. It's not a punishment. It's a gift. I praise God, man, I've got a wife. If she saw me slipping behind the scenes, she's not the pastor's wife that would bury it to save face. She'd go to Mike Walpole or Elder Chair and be like, go get your boy. He's in sin. He's not qualified. That's a gift. That is a gift. This is how we hold one another accountable.

51:02This is how we pursue the one. And so when others do drift, third, pursue those who have wondered away in sin. This is one of the biggest responsibilities we've been given as the church. Pursue those who have wondered away in sin. Let listen to how the vision James gives us for this James 5.19. James wrote there, my brothers, if anyone among you wonders from the truth. So he's acknowledging, even in the first century church, where we like to look at it all as just this perfect utopia where people never sinned. They did. And so he's acknowledging someone wonders from the truth and someone brings him back. Look at this verse 20. Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wondering will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. What a mission we've been given. What a mission we've been given church. Our work together is not just life saving work. It's soul saving work. It's eternal work. And when people turn away from their sins, when they come back from their wondering and they come back into the fold, forth, and finally rejoice with all of heaven when the lost are found.

52:10Because that's what you do when you find a lost sheep. If a shepherd rejoices over finding a lost sheep, how much more should we rejoice when a lost soul is found? And so I want to ask you again one more time today as we close out our time together the exact same question I opened with just a few moments ago. Why are you a Christian? Do you understand why you're a Christian? Do you understand truly the gospel? Do you understand that it's not because you first found God? It's because he first found you. Do you understand that he was pursuing you before you ever pursued him? Do you understand that you can only pursue him because he first pursued you? Do you understand that he received you when you turned to him? Do you understand that he rescued you when you were lost? Do you understand that he rejoiced and continues rejoicing over you now that you are found?

53:11If you belong to Jesus Christ, you can rejoice today in knowing that the shepherd who first found you is the shepherd who is still keeping you and will continue pursuing you until you see him face to face. We all, like sheep, had gone astray. We were lost, we had wandered, but if you belong to Christ, you can pray today in faith. This truth, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leads me in the paths of righteousness, not for my name's sake, but for his name's sake. God has put skin in the game, in the salvation and sanctification of your soul. If you belong to him, he's going to see you through to the end, because our good shepherd doesn't lose a single one. We'll be back our heads with me as we close our time together. Just a moment will take the Lord's supper together, and so I want to just appeal to those of you here for just a moment who maybe do not profess to be followers of Christ who are, as we would believe, lost, whether you know it or not.

54:22Lost and wandering and searching, I hope today that you have heard of the hound of heaven who is tracking you down. I hope you've heard today of a good shepherd who seeks after the one, and would you consider today that the reason why you are here is not first and foremost because you are seeking God. It is first and foremost because he's seeking you. He is drawing you to himself. He's doing that through the convicting power of his Holy Spirit. He's doing that through the preaching of the gospel. Surrender to him today. Turn away from your sin. Turn away from your sin. Turn toward Christ and know that it was always him calling you in the first place. It's always been him seeking you. Even for those of us who are followers of Christ, listen, if you're just in one of those places, we get here so easily where goodness, we're pulled back into the same temptations we were pursuing before we knew Christ.

55:31If you've just drifted, if you've wondered, if you're just in a prison of, feel like you're at least you're in a prison of sin, your shepherd's not coming today to, to scold you for falling again. He's coming to meet you out in the rain and ask you, what are you doing way out here? He's ready to put you back in his shoulders. He's ready to take you back home. And so if you have drifted, if you have wondered, if you have lost, or just encouraged you to pray, as you've probably prayed like me many times before, God of second chances, will you come find me again? I'm prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. I'm prone to leave the God I love. So here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for that courts above. Let's confess our sin. Let's ask the Lord to grant us hearts of repentance that we would turn away from sin and turn to Christ in faith. Let's do that with a confidence of knowing that when we turn to Him, He will not reject us. He will receive us because it was Him drawing us all along.

56:49So Father, today as we pray and as we sing, as we confess our sins and repent, as we rejoice in the finished work of your Son, Jesus Christ on the cross and respond to the gospel today, will you be glorified now in the response of your people? Pray and ask all these things in Christ's precious name and all of God's people said, Amen. Amen.