St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 17 – September 27th and 30th, 2001


Luke 15:1-10

1Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

8"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."


About five or six years after Betsy and I were married I lost something very important. I lost my wedding ring. I was throwing things around the backyard as I had done many times before, the only difference being this time the ring went flying also. I had a pretty good idea that it was in the backyard, but our backyard was quite large. Well I did what any good husband would do who had just lost his wedding ring, I looked frantically everywhere in the yard for it. You know how many small holes and divots are underneath the grass that you have never seen before in your backyard. Way too many! After looking long and hard I couldn’t find it. To make a long story short, I got another cheaper wedding ring and went on with life, until one day more than a year later, I looked down at a muddy spot in our backyard at a shiny spot. Much to my amazement, I was full of joy to pull my wedding ring which had been stomped into the mud out. My lost ring was now found.. What a happy day!

As we look at today’s text we see that Jesus uses the picture of a lost sheep and a lost coin. He uses a point that we can understand very well. People lose things and they look to find them. Jesus applies these two parables to lost sinners who have been led by the Gospel to believe in Jesus as their Savior and were thus found again and have returned to their rightful place in God's Kingdom. Jesus says that there is great rejoicing in heaven over every lost sinner that repents. We too this morning have every reason to rejoice. We were once lost and are now found. We can rejoice as we look at all the Savior did to seek and find us in our lost condition. In order that we might more fully appreciate what all this means to us, let us direct our thoughts upon this truth.

Theme: Lost and Found

  1. By Nature we were all Lost.
  2. By God’s Grace we have been found.
  3. We, in turn are concerned about the Lost.

Jesus spoke these words against the muttering and false ideas of the Pharisees. Jesus as had become customary was eating and drinking with the "sinners" and tax collectors. The Pharisees could not believe their eyes and declared that Jesus could not be the Messiah, because the Messiah would not allow or lower himself to eat with these "so call terrible sinners." The Pharisees in their self-righteous living didn't see how anyone could associate with those types of people. It was against those types of thoughts Jesus spoke these words which put down the sinful self-righteous attitudes of the Pharisees, while it at the same time brings us as sinners joy and comfort.

Why does this simple sounding story bring us joy? The reason is because it hits so close to home. By nature we were all lost. This is the condemning statement that we all need to know and believe. There is no getting around the words that we are born into sin. There is no getting around the fact that from the fall of Adam and Eve the whole world is born in sin. The parables that Jesus uses illustrate this perfectly. The one sheep wanders away from the flock. It is lost. It does not know how to return or where to find the rest of the flock. The same idea is found when the woman loses the coin. That one coin is now lost, and cannot be found. When we were born into sin, we were instantly separated from God. And when we were separated from God, we were also separated from God's Kingdom. That is the situation of every single person who has born on this sinful earth. We are not born into grace. We are not so lovable that God had to save us. We were lost.

And to make things worse there is no way that we can find our way back. We will wander forever and ever and on our own. It does not tell us in the parable that the sheep returned on his own. It does not tell us that the coin found itself and put itself back up on the table. In the same way, when we were dead in our sins before God came into our hearts and found us, we were completely dead in our sins. There was no spiritual life in us not even a little spark. Our condition makes us completely helpless. As sheep who were lost in our sins, all we were able to do was wander further and further away. All mankind knows that there is some sort of God and that it is wrong to do wrong. Our consciences tell us that we will be punished if we do wrong. We are conscious of doing wrong, but before God finds us we do not know what to do about this wrong or where to go for help. We do not know of the true God which can only be found in the Bible.

When we were lost, or as we look at the world around us many of which are still lost in their sins, we see many trying to satisfy their consciences by doing good works. It seems like a logical and natural way to draw ourselves closer to God. But living in our sins and being separated from God because of our sins makes sure that our many good efforts fall short. In fact our "so called good works" are like filthy rags without the Holy Spirit working in us. Looking back to Jesus' parables we can take a look at the sheep. There was this sheep lost in the wilderness not knowing where to go or which way to look for help. That was our condition when we were lost in sin. That is the condition of the many people who still are lost in their sin. The only thing that comes to mind at this point is what a pitiful condition it is for all to be lost in their sin.

2. By God’s Grace we have been found.

But the parable of the sheep and coin does not end with them both remaining lost. The shepherd leaves the 99 other sheep and makes an all out search to find that lost sheep. The woman also does something similar when she loses the coin. She gets the lamp down on the floor and sweeps away all the things in the way. This is the beautiful picture which describes the concern and love of God for every single person who is lost in sin living on this earth. God loved us so much that he was willing to send his one and only Son to come down to this earth. God loved us so much that he was willing to let his Son die in the place of all sinners to pay the ransom price for the sins of the whole world. Christ loved us so much that he was willing to suffer and die on the cross for our sins even though he was without sin. That is the Gospel in a nutshell. Christ came to seek and to save the lost.

God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He doesn't want any to be lost. For this reason he undertakes a search for everyone who is lost. He doesn't just search out the rich ones or the famous ones. He searches out all who are lost. That is exactly what he has done in our case. When we were lost in our sins. He came into our hearts through the Word and Sacraments which we call the Means of Grace. Many of us were found through the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Sacrament of Baptism. Others of us were found as we were led by the Holy Spirit working through His Holy Word. God sends his messengers out into this sinful world to call the straying and to seek the lost. God through his Word and Sacraments seeks to lead us to repent from our sins. Through the Holy Spirit he works saving faith in our hearts and the hearts of many others. And it is by the Holy Spirit alone working through the Word and Sacraments that we can come to faith. We can not find God on our own. We can not save ourselves, but God has found us. We are saved by nothing else than God's grace. Without God's grace we would still be lost sheep or the loot coin. As Jesus tells us this is a cause for rejoicing in heaven and on earth. It is this grace that now fill us as we seek those who are lost.

3. We, in turn are concerned about the Lost.

Because God has showered his love on us who were lost, we are filled with concern for the lost souls of this world. As we look out into the world, we can see that there are many who are still lost spiritually. And just as the mother or father frantically searches for the lost child, God sends us to frantically search for the spiritually lost. We in no way can save them ourselves, but God sends us out with the powerful Gospel as his messengers. We have the message that Christ did die for them also and for all people. Some will be led to repentance through the Word we preach, other will reject it. In love and grace we can see how we have been found. It is a miracle.

One pastor once told me that we see a miracle every Sunday. It is a miracle that we are in church. It is miracle, because without God working in our hearts, we would not be in Church today or any day, because we would be lost in our sin. In love and grace let us go into the world to preach the Savior to a lost world. He has called all of us for this purpose -- to make disciples of all nations. As we go out into the world, let us thank God that he is more than willing to associate with the "terrible" sinners, because we were one of those "terrible" sinners before he worked faith in our hearts. And do not let our sinful pride get in the way, but joyfully tell others the message and be filled with joy as we see the Word work and many others are found. What better joy can there be for us than to see Jesus lead others to be found and enjoy the same things we enjoy – life eternal in heaven. Let us rejoice because we were lost and are now found. Amen.