Luke 15

Luke 15:1

S. Parable of the Lost Sheep (15:1-7) 15:1, 2 The teaching ministry of our Lord in chapter 14 seemed to attract the despised tax collectors, and others who were outwardly sinners. Although Jesus reproved their sins, yet many of them acknowledged that He was right. They took sides with Christ against themselves. In true repentance, they acknowledged Him as Lord. Wherever Jesus found people who were willing to acknowledge their sin, He gravitated toward them, and bestowed spiritual help and blessing upon them. The Pharisees and scribes resented the fact that Jesus fraternized with people who were avowedly sinners. They did not show grace to these social and moral lepers, and they resented Jesus’ doing so. And so they hurled a charge at Him, This Man receives sinners and eats with them. The charge was true, of course. They thought it was blameworthy, but actually it was in fulfillment of the very purpose for which the Lord Jesus came into the world! It was in answer to their charge that the Lord Jesus recounted the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. These stories were aimed directly at the scribes and Pharisees, who were never broken before God to admit their lost condition. As a matter of fact, they were as lost as the publicans and sinners, but they steadfastly refused to admit it. The point of the three stories is that God receives real joy and satisfaction when He sees sinners repenting, whereas He obtains no gratification from self-righteous hypocrites who are too proud to admit their wretched sinfulness. 15:3, 4 Here the Lord Jesus is pictured under the symbol of a shepherd. The ninety-nine sheep represent the scribes and the Pharisees. The lost sheep typifies a tax collector or an acknowledged sinner. When the shepherd realizes that one of his sheep is lost, he leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness (not in the fold) and goes out after it until he finds it. As far as our Lord was concerned, this journey included His descent to earth, His years of public ministry, His rejection, suffering, and death. How true are the lines from the hymn The Ninety and Nine: But none of the ransomed ever knew How deep were the waters crossed, Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through Ere He found His sheep that was lost. Elizabeth C. Clephane 15:5 Having found the sheep, he laid it on his shoulders and took it to his home. This suggests that the saved sheep enjoyed a place of privilege and intimacy that it never knew as long as it was numbered with the others. 15:6 The shepherd summoned his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him over the salvation of the lost sheep. This speaks of the Savior’s joy in seeing a sinner repent. 15:7 The lesson is clear: There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, but there is no joy over the ninety-nine sinners who have never been convicted of their lost condition. Verse 7 does not actually mean that there are some persons who need no repentance. All men are sinners, and all must repent in order to be saved. The verse describes those who, as far as they see themselves, need no repentance.

Luke 15:8

T. Parable of the Lost Coin (15:8-10) The woman in this story may represent the Holy Spirit, seeking the lost with the lamp of the Word of God. The nine silver coins speak of the unrepentant, whereas the one lost coin suggests the man who is willing to confess that he is out of touch with God. In the previous account the sheep wandered away by its own volition. A coin is an inanimate object and might suggest the lifeless condition of a sinner. He is dead in sins. The woman continues to search carefully for the coin until she finds it. Then she calls her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her. The lost coin which she had found brought her more true pleasure than the nine which had never been lost. So it is with God. The sinner who humbles himself and confesses his lost condition brings joy to the heart of God. He obtains no such joy from those who never feel their need for repentance.

Luke 15:11

U. Parable of the Lost Son (15:11-32) 15:11-16 God the Father is here depicted as a certain man who had two sons. The younger son typifies the repentant sinner, whereas the older son illustrates the scribes and the Pharisees. The latter are sons of God by creation though not by redemption. The younger son is also known as the prodigal son. A prodigal is one who is recklessly extravagant, who spends money wastefully. This son became weary of his father’s house and decided he wanted to leave.

He could not wait for his father to die, and so asked for his portion of the inheritance ahead of time. The father distributed to his sons their proper share. Shortly afterward, the younger son set out to a far country and spent his money freely in sinful pleasures. As soon as his funds were gone a severe depression gripped the land, and he found himself destitute. The only employment he could get was as a feeder of swinea job that would have been most distasteful to the average Jew. As he watched the pigs eating their bean pods, he envied them.

They had more to eat than he had, and no one seemed disposed to help him. The friends he had when he was spending money freely had all disappeared. 15:17-19 The famine proved to be a blessing in disguise. It made him think. He remembered that his father’s hired servants were living far more comfortably than he. They had plenty of food to eat, while he was wasting away with hunger. As he thought of this, he decided to do something about it. He determined to go to his father in repentance, acknowledging his sin, and seeking pardon. He realized that he was no longer worthy to be called his father’s son, and planned to ask for a job as a hired servant. 15:20 Long before he reached his home, his father saw him and had compassion. He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. This is probably the only time in the Bible where haste is used of God in a good sense. Stewart aptly illustrates: Daringly Jesus pictured God, not waiting for his shamed child to slink home, nor standing on his dignity when he came, but running out to gather him, shamed and ragged and muddied as he was, to his welcoming arms. The same name Father has at once darkened the color of sin and heightened the splendid glory of forgiveness. 15:21-24 The son made his confession up to the point where he was going to ask for employment. But the father interrupted by ordering the slaves to put the best robe on his son, put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. He also ordered a great feast to celebrate the return of his son who had been lost and was now found. As far as the father was concerned, he had been dead but now was alive again. Someone has said, The young man was looking for a good time, but he did not find it in the far country. He found it only when he had the good sense to come back to his father’s house. It has been pointed out that they began to be merry, but it is never recorded that their joy ended. So it is with the salvation of the sinner. 15:25-27 When the older son returned from the field and heard all the merrymaking, he asked a servant what was going on. He told him that his younger brother had returned home and that his father was delirious with joy. 15:28-30 The older son was consumed with a jealous rage. He refused to participate in his father’s joy. J. N. Darby put it well: Where God’s happiness is, there self-righteousness cannot come. If God is good to the sinner, what avails my righteousness?

When his father urged him to participate in the festivities, he refused, whimpering that the father had never rewarded him for his faithful service and obedience. He had never been given as much as a young goat, to say nothing of a fatted calf. He complained that when the prodigal son returned, after spending his father’s money on harlots, the father did not hesitate to make a great feast. Note that he said this son of yours, not my brother.15:31, 32 The father’s answer indicated that there is joy connected with the restoration of a lost one, whereas an obstinate, ungrateful, unreconciled son produces no cause for celebration. The older son is an eloquent picture of the scribes and Pharisees. They resented God’s showing mercy to outrageous sinners. To their way of thinking, if not to God’s, they had served Him faithfully, had never transgressed His commandments, and yet had never been properly rewarded for all of this. The truth of the matter was that they were religious hypocrites and guilty sinners. Their pride blinded them to their distance from God, and to the fact that He had lavished blessing after blessing upon them. If they had only been willing to repent and to acknowledge their sins, then the Father’s heart would have been gladdened and they too would have been the cause of great celebration.