Grace Thoughts

Tim Kelley: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." Let's just stop right there. So we see that his audience is the Pharisees and their complaint was that these tax collectors and sinners are all drawing near to him.

The Jews, especially the Pharisees, hated sinners. They were seen as unclean rejects. They wouldn't fellowship with sinners. They wouldn't do any of those things. Tax collectors, as you know, they were a Roman province. So Rome would say, "Each Jewish citizen in Judea has to give $10 a month to the Roman government." And they hired tax collectors.

The tax collector goes up to that door and knocks on the door and says, "I'm here to collect your taxes. That will be $15." The Romans only wanted 10. He takes the other five and pockets it. And the Romans didn't care how much they pilfered the people. They just wanted their $10 ahead. So tax collectors were very not liked. Most of them are Gentile, but some of them were even Jews. They were even less liked.

So tax collectors were like the scum of the earth. When you mentioned a tax collector, you saw somebody the Jewish people, especially the religious, were like this. When you mentioned sinners, they were like this. And Jesus said they all drew near to hear him. "I want to go hear Jesus. I want to be around Jesus." Remember Zacchaeus? "I want to hear what Jesus has to say."

The Pharisees didn't like it. Look at his audience. Look at his church. Look at the people that he draws to himself. It's these tax collectors. It's these sinners. It's the filth of society. Wow. Then he says that they grumbled. This word is only used twice and it's intensified. In both instances, it's used to describe the Pharisees doing their best to discredit the Lord. They did their very best to discredit the Lord.

They grumbled against him. They went behind the scenes, tried to turn people's hearts. They cast seeds of doubt in people. Whatever they could do to turn people's hearts against the Lord. Now there's one more important thing that you see here. He says, "This man receives sinners and he eats with them." Now that just skims by our casual English reading, but if I was doing a business deal with Dr. Lewis and we were negotiating this deal and I'm going to give you a Jim Rice baseball card for a Fred Lynn baseball card, something like that.

We're going back and forth and it's a hard deal. We're working a hard bargain and it gets a little tense in some places. Finally, we come to a conclusion and we say, "Deal," and we shake hands. Then we share a meal together. We don't share the meal until there's unity between us. We don't share the meal until there's a relationship birthed and a relationship born that's a feeling of mutual affection and mutual acceptance.

That's when we share the meal together. But before that, we don't eat. If I bring you in my home and I feed you, that means I have an intimate connection to you. I have a personal relation to you back in that culture. So when Jesus, they said Jesus eats with these people, wow. He's saying he's taking tax collectors and he's taking sinners and he's eating with them and they're drawn to him. We've got to get this guy.

And Jesus obviously knew that's what was in their hearts, was in their minds. So with that said, he told them this parable. Who's "them"? Pharisees. This is his audience for the rest of Luke chapter 15. His audience are the religious. His audience are the churchgoers. His audience are the righteous. His audience are the ones that do everything right by their own standards.

They're the ones that have the public respect of the people, the ones that people want to follow and be around. That's his audience. The audience is grumbling against him and trying to take him out. So he gave them a parable. What man of you, having lost 100 sheep, if he's lost one of them, does he leave the 99 in open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, "Rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost." So I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance. Who do you think the 99 is? Pharisees.

There's more joy for the one that repents. So these are very likely community sheep. When you had a village back then, this is sort of important to remember because as we get into the prodigal, this part of the story comes out very strongly. Back in that culture, families sort of hung out together and they stayed together and they sort of moved in together.

Who's seen the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? It's a great movie. I mean, great movie. If you haven't seen it, you've got to watch that movie. It's just a funny movie. Well, at the end of the movie, it's a really tender sign. The Greek woman, the father was just a Greek to the core and he didn't want her to marry anything but a Greek guy. Had to be another Greek guy. Wouldn't let her marry but a Greek.

In the process of time, he becomes Greek Orthodox. They get married and at the wedding, the dad does the most touching thing. He buys them and gives them a mortgage to a house. And that's sort of how the movie ends and everyone's happy and everyone loves him and he loves everybody. The last scene of the movie goes up a two or three or four years later and they've been married now.

They come out of their house that the dad bought them. They have two kids and they're walking their kids to Greek school, wherever they're going. And their next-door neighbor is the dad. The dad bought them a house right next door, 10 yards from their house. So sure, okay, I'm going to buy you a house, but you're not getting far. I know I'm going to buy you, give you a house right next door to my house.

So you have to walk by my house every day. That's sort of how families worked back then. They would here's a village and this family would own this property and this property. And you have Aunt Martha and Johnny, Uncle Johnny over here and Aunt Susie over here. They probably didn't have those names, but they probably something different names, but they all lived in that same area.

And they all had their own sheep and they sometimes especially the families would put their flocks together and say, "Hey, look, we'll just get our flocks together and then we'll hire a shepherd or one of us will go watch and take turns so none of us get burnt out." So it was a community that sometimes a whole village would be made up of one, two, three, four families. And that's it.

And that'd be the whole population of the village. So when somebody, when Aunt Martha lost a sheep, Aunt Joan and Uncle Johnny rejoiced because they had a staked interest in that which was lost. Jesus is basically saying to the Pharisees, he goes, "You have this lost sheep. You don't care for the dirty lost sheep. I want them safely back. That sheep wanders away."

What about the 99? I'll risk to get the one sheep back. I'll go after the one sheep because I know all 99 and I love that one sheep and I'm committed to that one sheep. And that one sheep will never lose my care. I'll go after him if he wanders away. I'll go after him again. If he wanders away, I'll go after him again. And every time that sheep wanders away or sheep plural wander away, I will go get them because I'm the good shepherd.

Remember the exegesis of God. You want to know who God is? Look at what Jesus is talking about. Verse 8: "It's three stories, one parable here. That's important to understand. This is just a continual thought, no break in the action here. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp or sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?"

"And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, 'Rejoice with me, I have found a coin that I had lost.' Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner that repents." So the Lord again, in a sense, he's got the Pharisees, my friends, and he's sort of poking them a little bit. Not pointing at them, just poking them a little bit.

"You didn't like that last story, did you? It bugged you, huh?" Poke you a little bit more. "I'm going to tell you something else about a lost coin. Then I'm going to tell you about some lost sons. That'll be next week. That's going to really bug you. But let me tell you about these lost coins. When she dropped the coin in the house, she swept the house. She looked in every crack, nook, and cranny to find that coin. She didn't take it casually. She took it very importantly."

He says, "While you're judging the lost and while you're judging the sinners, I'm seeking them. When you're judging the backslidden, I'm seeking them. When you're judging the weak, I'm seeking them. When you're judging the feeble or ignoring them, I'm going after them. In fact, you know what, Mr. Pharisee, everything that you reject, which is pretty much everyone but yourself, I accept."

"I'll take the broken. I'll take the hurting. I'll take the lost. I'll take the publicans. I'll take the sinners. I'll take the tax collectors. I'll take the woman caught in adultery. You send me the lost. You send me the broken. You send me the hurting. I'll go after them. They are not the scum of the earth. They are inhabitants of heaven. And these people, that sheep, that lost coin, that lost son next week, have great value."

Now, he said two other things in these two first parables, which I thought was interesting. He said all of heaven rejoices. He goes, "This isn't just me, guys," to the Pharisees. "This isn't just me. This is the economy of heaven. All of heaven sees it. All of heaven knows who's missing. All of heaven knows who's lost. All of heaven knows who's no longer in fellowship."

"And when one of those people come home, there's a celebration not only on earth in the house with the lost sheep and the lost coin, but there's a celebration in all of the glory of heaven in regions you cannot see, you cannot even understand." My friends, there's grace for whatever you face. One of the biggest challenges of grace is to receive it when you can't do anything.

For those who've been strong your whole life and then you find yourself weak. For those who've been active and you find yourself just struggling to remain active or just get out of bed. For those who've been pretty much self-reliant and haven't run into any big road bumps in your life and all of a sudden you find yourself emotionally, mentally crippled maybe, physically, maybe physically hurt.

The body doesn't work like it used to work and you beat yourself up. "I can't do what I used to do. I can't serve like I used to serve. I can't perform like I used to perform. I can't do these things." And you wonder, "What's wrong with me? I should be able to get over this. There's the Holy Spirit in me. I should be able to get over this." But no matter how hard you try to climb that ladder, you keep slipping back down and slipping back down and slipping back down.

You want to know grace? Accept yourself just where you're at. You want to know grace? If you can't get up, rest right where you're at. If you're weak and God's not giving you strength and you're seeking him, just make sure his strength is made perfect in your weakness. That's a bigger challenge for grace, my friend, than being the person who falls flat on their face and crawls back into fellowship with God.

That's a bigger challenge when I can't perform anymore for one reason or another. And it can be a hundred different reasons. That's somebody who has really beginning to embrace the grace and the mercy of God. You Pharisees don't get it. You think you honor me, but you miss me in its entirety. I seek the lost. I seek the hurting. I seek the confused. I seek the socially unacceptable.

These are the people I seek. If you've been in prison, I want you home. If you've been backslidden, I want you home. This is not a God that judges you. It's not a God that's looking at your lifestyle and saying, "Tsk, tsk, tsk." He's God. "Just come home. I have a better way. Come home. I'm seeking you. I want to know you. I desire you. Just come home. There's a celebration waiting to accept you when you get here."