The Lost Coin and the Careful Lady

Well let's take our Bible. Let's turn to Luke chapter 15. We're going to be in Luke chapter 15. I think most of you know that because of our study last week. And we're going to be specifically in verses 8 to 10. Now I will read some of the verses we covered last week. But you see the parable that we're going to cover, the parable of the lost coin right there in verses 8 to 10. Now last Wednesday we resumed our study through the parables of Jesus. We started this study back in September of last year. Really last week when I looked at some of my previous information I was surprised that we studied it a year ago.

And it's been a good journey the past year for me. Now we studied the kingdom parables first. That was in Matthew 13. And then we studied the parables concerning the Christian life or the Christian living parables. And if you didn't get any of that information, any of those messages, I would encourage you to go back and listen to those. Those are categories. You can identify them and study them on your own. And I would encourage you to do that. Last week we started another category, another classification of parables. And that would be the parables that Jesus taught that focus on salvation. Sometimes they're called the salvation parables.

There are different ways you could describe them or label them. But the salvation parables were taught by Jesus and they illustrate teaching and things concerning the salvation of man. And these things are concerning God and the salvation of man, as well as things that are concerning man. So we're going to look at it at both sides a little more tonight. I did allude to that and mention that last week. But more specifically, last week we started these three parables in Luke 15.

And although there are other parables which illustrate and teach things concerning the salvation of man, there are some scholars that say that these three parables in Luke 15 are the most important of the salvation parables. Now I did mention one thing that the Bible commentator William Barclay says about these three parables. Last week I said this is kind of starting off at a high point. And I like this. So I'm going to keep this and borrow this all throughout these three parables. He says that Luke 15 is the gospel in the gospel. Now the gospel would be the gospel of Luke.

And what he's saying is, this is in Luke 15, the gospel inside the gospel. He goes on to say that it is the very distilled essence of the good news. I think that's true. I think you understand what that word word distilled means. We have the distilled essence of the good news of the gospel right here in these three parables. I think that's a very accurate way to look at it. Now before we get into the parable tonight, I want us to look at three things that serve as an introduction. This will help get us started in this parable. First of all, the major theme is found in all three of the parables. And the major theme is joy. Get that.

If you take notes, write that down. The theme is joy. This will be joy in man's salvation. Warren Wiersby says this joy is expressed in four ways. I'll take what he said. I'll put it in my own words. He says first we see the joy of the sinner that's being found. Second, we see the joy of the one doing the seeking, doing the finding. And then third, we see the joy of others when the lost sinner is found. And last and most important, we see the joy of God really in all of heaven when the lost sinner is found. You see that? That's good. But then second is the backdrop of all of these parables. I said this last week. Context is king.

You've got to get context. We've got to remember the background. We must remember the background. And what that helps us see is these parables were not taught out of nowhere. They didn't come out of the blue. Everything Jesus did had a purpose and a reason. These parables came out of a clear and particular conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. Jesus actually taught these parables in the face of these Jewish religious leaders. The Jewish religious leaders were, they were mad. They were insulted at how Jesus associated with sinners. Sometimes this label sinner, sinners refers to the Gentiles.

That would be non-Jews and even notorious Jewish sinners like tax collectors. You might not realize it, but the tax collectors were Jewish, but they had sold out to work for the Romans and they were put in the same category as the Gentiles. But he associated with them publicly and privately. If you study the gospels, you'll see that. He went into their homes. He ate with them. He physically touched them. He taught them the word and he even had the audacity to declare that some of them had their sins forgiven and they were right with God.

You can sum up everything that Jesus did with all of these sinners and Gentiles, tax collectors, publicans, prostitutes. He loved them. He truly did love them. So Jesus was teaching these parables and I used this phrase last week, up against the Jewish religious leaders, their false views about Gentile sinners and how they treated them, how they thought God viewed these people and how they were mad, mad at Jesus interaction with them. Look at verses one and two again. It says now the tax collectors and sinners, that's those phrases for those notorious sinners.

These tax collectors, sinners, Gentiles, non-Jews, all kinds of unsavory people, they were drawing near to him and the construction of the language indicates that they didn't just come once, but they were coming repeatedly. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, "This man," and this was not a nice term here, a little sarcasm, anger, they were mad, "This man receives sinners and he eats with them." And remember this, this is not an understatement. The Pharisees, scribes, and other Jewish leadership, they disdained all Gentiles, all sinners, all non-Jews. They called them sinners and they even called them the people of the land.

That was a derogatory phrase, the people of the land. Religiously, socially, in every way that you can imagine, there was this giant divide between the Jewish leadership, all these Gentiles, they called them sinners, even the Jewish tax collectors. The Pharisees, scribes, they would not go into the home of the sinner. They were forbidden to do business with the sinner. They would not receive alms or monetary gifts from a sinner. Jewish leaders would not receive a sinner's testimony in courts of law.

They would refuse any contact or interaction with these people, and even though they lived in very close proximity, there was this tremendous divide between Jewish leadership, these Gentiles, these "people of the land." I ran across a comparison just last night. It might not be a fair comparison, but it's the best I can do. Last night, we got home from a doctor's visit a little later, and I turned on the television, and there was a PBS, educational television, documentary on the horrible murder and death of Emmett Till. I think you all probably know that story.

Emmett Till was a little African-American boy, 14 years old, who was visiting from Chicago down in Mississippi in the 1950s, and he was murdered. He was killed in 1955. A little town called Money, Mississippi. Sometimes it's listed as Drew, Mississippi. Many people say that it sparked the civil rights movement. It put it in the overdrive, but as I was watching that documentary, you could see the massive divide between white people and black people, just the anger and the hatred from whites against black people, and it was so horrible, so horrific, and it was so gripping. And I thought about the tremendous divide.

They lived in the same community. They knew each other. They knew their families. Many times they worked together, but the divide was so prominent, and so sickening, and so sad. Well, that's similar. Maybe it's close to what we see here with these Jewish religious leaders and the people of the land. And this divide here and these views basically came from, within the hearts of the religious leaders, serious spiritual and biblical error. The Pharisees, the other Jewish leadership, they believed that God did not love sinners.

They truly did not believe that God loved Gentiles and these people of the land, and they did not believe that they were a part of God's plan in any way. And because they thought God felt that way, well, these Jewish religious leaders felt the same way. One scholar observed this view, this error by saying they, the religious leaders, they looked sadistically forward to them not being saved, but to their destruction. In other words, that scholar understood that they didn't think God loved them, and they looked forward to the destruction of the sinner. And that's awful, but it's true. And it was up against these attitudes.

It was up against these thoughts and their behaviors that Jesus taught the three parables. It was in the face of those religious leaders that were there, their treatment of these non-Jewish people, and how they thought God thought about them, that Jesus taught these parables. Jesus was especially aiming at how they believed God felt about these people of the land. I said this last week, Jesus was drawing a line in the sand. Jesus was contradicting and correcting the Jewish leaders to their face in front of all of the people, and he was proving them as wrong. And it did not win him any more friends.

As a matter of fact, it made them hate him all the more. Now, in the second parable, found in verses eight to 10, I'm going to make four observations similar to what we looked at last week. And from these observations, we're going to continue to learn things about salvation, man's salvation, how God views sinners, and how he feels in these things. So let's go back to the verses. I want to read them, and then we'll get into the message or what I call the body of the message. Let's go back to verse one and two. Now the tax collector's sinners, they were drawing near to him repeatedly. They were drawing near to him. It was their habit.

And the Pharisees, the scribes, they grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and he eats with them." And then immediately we see the first parable. So he told them this parable. That's the parable of the lost sheep. And immediately when he gets through, what does verse eight say? Or in other words, he transitions to another one immediately. Or what woman, having 10 silver coins, your translation might say denarii, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp or a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently or carefully until she finds it.

And when she has found it, that would be the coin, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I lost." Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Now, like I said, there are four observations I want to make here. So notice, number one, the lost coin. We see that right there in verse eight. We have the lost coin. Now, just like with the parable of the lost sheep, we need to understand the situation. But here we have a woman, a lady, and she has lost one silver coin out of 10. The text is plain.

Now, we've got to ask what is the significance of the coin. We need to ask what's the significance of the coin. And we will see that the significance of these things is more than money. First of all, this coin was a drachma or a denarii, depends on what translations you have. And this coin was worth about a day's pay or a day's wage for a common man's labor. Now, for us, that does not seem like much. It does it. But scholars will point out that in that culture where most people didn't have much money and where money was worth a lot more, this was a lot of money. It was a lot of money.

But second of all, this one in 10, this one in 10 means something as well. Scholars say this one coin in 10 represents one or two things. And there are a lot of opinions here, and that's okay to have these opinions. But some commentators say this coin was likely a part of a wedding dowry given to her by her father and her wedding. Now, a dowry in that culture was more than sentimental. This would have provided her security for her future. Remember that in that day, in that culture, women rarely, if ever worked, and they rarely, if ever had the opportunity to make money like a man.

That is why in that culture, sometimes when a husband died, the widow would be destitute, and she could be relegated to making money in a very immoral way. So a wedding dowry was of great value to a Jewish woman for many reasons. But most likely, most likely, this one coin out of 10 was a part of a headband that Jewish girls wore after they were married. This headband was a sign of marriage like we would see in our culture with a wedding ring or a wedding band. And a part of the headband was 10 silver coins. These coins were not much. They didn't have much monetary value, but the value was in what it represented, what they were a part of.

The coins were a part of that headband that spoke to the fact that she was married, and she would have had great value. This would have been of great value to a Jewish lady, a Jewish wife. And again, this would be like a wedding band in our culture. But what's the point of the coin? What's the point of the lost coin? It was of great value to the woman, whether it was a part of a wedding dowry or a part of a wedding headband that was of great value, even if it was from some kind of a savings in the home, the lost coin was of great value. Now, personally, I think this was part of a wedding band, the wedding headband or headdress.

To me, the one coin in 10 alludes to a bride's headband. Remember that those in the crowd here were Jewish, and they would have known exactly what Jesus was talking about. And losing one coin out of 10 on a Jewish woman's headband would have been easily understood. They would have known of the great value. So what's the point of the coin? What's the point? Something of great value has been lost. And notice this was taught right behind the parable of the lost sheep. One out of 100 sheep were lost, isn't that right? And one lost sheep was of great value. Well, one out of 10 coins has been lost, and that one coin was of great value.

So just like with the lost sheep, the lost coin represents lost people. And remember the context, Jesus had been associating with, ministering to all these Gentiles. They kept coming to him. It was a part of his ministry. These were the people of the land, those that the Jewish leaders hated. So the lost sheep here represented the Gentiles, those sinners who had wandered off in sin. And the value of this lost coin said that those sinners who have wandered off, they are of great value. They are of great value. And then notice what I call the careful lady. What I call the careful lady. Go back to verse 8.

Or what woman, having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently. Some translations say carefully until she finds it. Again, here in this part of the story, those listening would have understood this imagery. They would have understood all of this. Although we are culturally disconnected from these things, those who were listening were not. And because those who were listening knew what these things were, they could have easily understood the spiritual meaning behind it. It was attached to the imagery and what was before them. But in verse 8, we see that this woman was diligent.

The King James in the ESV says, the new American says she was careful. And she searched carefully until she found that lost coin. Remember, it was of great value. Now we need to see a few things here that may not be understood for us. Jesus was speaking of a common house in that day. And a common person's house in that time, in that land was small and it was dark. They did not have windows to let in natural light like we do. And if they did have a window, it would have been very small, but most all of their homes were windowless and most all of their homes were very, very dark.

So to find her lost coin of great value, she lit a lamp for her search. This would have been a very small lamp and it would have given off a limited amount of light. I've thought about an illustration. When our electricity goes off, we might light a candle. It gives off a limited amount of light. You understood that. But she would have taken the lamp and she would have swept the hard packed dirt floor of her house until she found the lost coin. Yes, most of their homes had a dirt floor. So ladies, when you feel like your floor is a dirt floor, just think about that you might be a little more biblical here. But what's the point?

What's the point of this lady? Carefully searching, carefully searching for the coin. The coin was of great value to the lady. And I believe that this was a part of a wedding headband. And we see that she made a careful search for her valuable coin till she found it. And the obvious point is this. She carefully searched until she found that which was of great value and that which she loved. So what's the point of the lost coin? Something of great value was lost. It may seem insignificant to some, but it was of great value to the owner. So what's the point of the lady carefully searching? She loved and greatly valued the lost coin.

So she carefully searched for her lost coin until she found it. And just like with the lost sheep, this lost coin represented those lost Gentiles. The lost coin represented the people of the land. Those Gentiles, those great sinners were of great value to the owner. And this careful lady searching represents God himself. Those lost Gentiles belonged to him no matter what the Jewish leadership thought. He saw those people of the land as having great value, no matter what the scribes and Pharisees thought.

And no matter what the scribes and Pharisees thought and did, and Jesus was teaching the Jewish leaders and all of those who were listening, that this is how God saw these things. And Jesus was illustrating how God saw these things. He was illustrating it right in front of them. Jesus associated with sinners publicly and privately. Jesus went into their homes. He ate with them. He touched them. He healed their diseases. He taught them the word of God because he loved them. He even forgave some of them of their sins, declaring them to be right with God. Who does that but God?

And Jesus did all of this to demonstrate that God saw great value in all of those Gentile sinners. Jesus did all these things to demonstrate that God even makes a careful, diligent, and purposeful search for them until he finds them. Now, this point of the parable, notice what Jesus is teaching. Notice what Jesus is teaching. First, this teaching is telling us that those other people, lost, dirty, sinning sinners, notorious sinners, they are just like the lost coin. They are aviable. And for the Jews, think about it. Who did they see as notorious sinners? Who did they see as the other people?

And see, for us, we need to see that there are notorious sinners out there, those other people. And we need to ask, how do we see these notorious sinners? We're all different and we need God to identify how we see them, what we think about them, how we interact with them. And we need to ask ourselves. We need to maybe even write down their names. We might need to make a list and evaluate how do we feel about this person? How do we feel about this person? How do we feel about how they live? How do we act when we're around them? We need to examine ourselves here. And we have a lesson here. This is our first lesson.

Those notorious sinners in our lives are of great value to God. He loves them and they should be of great value to us. And we should love them. We should love them. Second, this teaching is telling us that this careful lady, she searched and she searched and she searched diligently, carefully, till she found that which was of great value and that which she loved. And for the Jews, who was of great value to them? Only people like them. They had a tight knit group of friends, folks. Who was of great value to the Jews? Only other Jews. And who did they search after? No one. No one.

And for us, do we love and do we see value in these notorious sinners? But I want to add to that, do we search and search after the lost sinner until we find them? And what I mean is this, do we love them? And do we go to them? Do we witness to them? Do we try to lead them to Christ? Do we try to be the mouthpiece of Jesus? The hands of Jesus? Do we try to demonstrate the love of Christ to them and ultimately pray and hope that God would save them through our witness? You know, sometimes we push back from this term, we lead people to Christ. Well, there's nothing wrong with that. It's Christ that saves the sinner, but it is us.

God uses us to lead people to Christ. And so do we search and search and search for that lost sinner? Do we keep going to them? Do we keep loving them? Do we keep engaging them? Do we work and work and work? And so here we have this second lesson. Those notorious sinners in our lives, we are to search for them and search after them and keep searching for them with the love of Christ, with the gospel. We keep searching and we keep searching. When do we stop? I don't think we ever stop. And so my question is, this is a question we've got to ask here. This is a question that somebody can bring up. Does God search out all lost sinners?

Will all lost sinners come to faith in Christ? The answer is no. The answer is no. These are some great mysteries here. There are great mysteries here associated with God's plans. He definitely searches out some lost sinners, but he does not search out all lost sinners. Some, not all, but that's God's business. That's God's business. It's not for us to worry about who he's going to search out for and who he's going to rescue and bring home like that lost sheep. It is our job to go as Jesus did and to keep going and to keep searching and to keep going and to keep searching. So what is our responsibility here? We value lost sinners.

We do as Christ did. We search them out, trusting God to save them. And remember, Jesus never catered to the sinner. Jesus never changed his message to the sinner, but he genuinely cared for them. And because he cared for them, he gave them the untarnished, unchanged, unaltered truth. And sometimes that means that you look at that lost sinner that you love and you tell them the brutal truth. Now, number three, number three and number four will be rather quick here. Notice the rejoicing on earth. Have you figured out that this really just mimics the previous parable? Jesus kind of planned it that way. Look at verse nine.

And when she has found it, that's the coin she calls together her friends and her neighbors saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I'd lost. Here in this part of the story, those listening would have understood these things. They would have. Community celebrations were common to them. Village celebrations were common to them. They lived in very close knit communities and villages. They would have all known each other. They would have been very, if we could use this term, communal. They would have shared in sorrow and mourning during difficult times, like in death and sickness.

They would have shared in joy and celebration during happy times, like when babies were born or even when there was a wedding. So this kind of a scene would have resonated with those listening. But in the parable, we see that the careful lady carefully searched for her loved lost coin. And when she found that coin, she called together all of her friends, her neighbors. She called for a celebration. She was celebrating the fact that she had found that which was lost. She had found that which was of great value, that which she loved. And she called her community to celebrate with her.

And just like last week, we need to ask the question, this rejoicing here on earth, who and what does this represent? Just like when the community rejoiced and celebrated when the lawsuit was brought home, here the community rejoiced and celebrated when the lost coin was found. And again, all of these things were of great value to their owners. So how does this apply to us today? I'm going to talk about that here in a minute. And then fourth, or number four, notice the rejoicing in heaven.

Verse 10, "Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Again, just like at the end of the previous parable, Jesus has the crowd right where he wants them to be. Jesus had taught this parable right up to its ultimate point up to its climax. Again, verse nine, it's easy to see. Verse 10 is the climax of the teaching. And notice, just like with the parable of the lost sheep, if there is any misunderstanding as to the meaning of the different parts here, Jesus clears it up. He clears it up. Really, he tells them and us who the lost coin represents.

He tells them and us who the careful, diligent lady represents. And the point of the parable is clear. The high point is clear. Jesus says, "There is great joy in heaven with the angels and with God over one sinner who repents." And just like with the previous parable, at this point, not only is Jesus making it clear the purpose of the teaching, but he is exposing the Pharisees, the religious leaders for the frauds and the fakes that they were. They had no genuine interest in the lost. They were even totally, totally indifferent to the God who seeks after the lost, who finds the lost, who rejoices when they are found.

They were even filled with more hate for Jesus after he taught these things and after he had demonstrated these things. So the rejoicing in heaven, what does it represent and what does it say? It's plain. When one sinner repents, there's joy, in heaven, with the angels before God. There is literally a celebration. And again, I'm going to allude to what that means for us today or speak to what that means for us today here in a moment. So this rejoicing on earth, how does this apply to us? Well, our lesson here is this.

When the lost, valuable, loved coin is found and put back in its place, all those in the community of God, God's people should rejoice and celebrate. So when our lost loved ones, even those notorious sinners, they're found and they're placed into the family of God, we should celebrate. For us, we're going to do this very thing. Yes, very soon. We're going to do that when we have our baptismal services because we're going to have baptism on the first Sunday of September, September the 4th and the first Sunday of October. And look, let me share with you what that's going to be like.

Those who have professed Christ and demonstrate a saving faith to Christ will give their testimonies before you. We will rejoice. We might applaud. If a mom or a dad stands up and raises their hands, I'm going to be all great with that because it's a celebration. And then we'll baptize out in the courtyard. You know, we don't have a baptistery here, so we have to get a little innovative and that's okay. And we'll eat after and we'll have a good time. And if everybody smiles and cries and high fives and hugs and cries some more, and it sounds like a big celebration, we will be being biblical. So this rejoicing in heaven, how does this apply?

Our lesson here is this. We must see that when the lost, the valuable love coin is found and put back in its place, all those in heaven rejoice. So when our lost loved ones, even those notorious sinners, they are found and put into the family of God, God celebrates. And this past summer, we had some profess Christ came to Christ. God celebrated in heaven. A couple of Sundays ago, George was here, shared briefly his testimony before he went out to Houston for cancer treatment. And the day he came to faith in Christ, God celebrated. A lost coin was found and put in its rightful place.

God's heart was full of joy that a lost sheep had been found and brought into the family of God. And now that I understand what this means, I can look back to February of 1989 when I came to faith in Christ, there was a celebration in heaven when I came to faith in Christ. So this really applies to us, maybe far more than you know. Now I want to conclude similar in a similar way that I did last week. I want to continue with a few reasons why these parables are so important. And these reasons come from some material that I've read the past couple of weeks and some things that I see, it sometimes gets all mixed up.

But I want to give us a few reasons why these things are important. I'll finish this list next week. But the first reason that these parables, this teaching, it's all important. It's because of the major theme. The major theme is joy. The major theme at the center of all three parables is joy. Look at verse seven. "Just so I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance." Look back at verse 10. "Just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." It's almost word for word. And we will see this theme of joy.

It is at the center of the last parable as well that we get to next week. And I do like how one weirsby identifies it. He calls it a four fold joy. First we see the joy of the lost sinner who's been found. Second we see the joy of the one who's doing the finding. And then third we do see the joy in the celebration of others. And then fourth we see the joy of God in heaven. So the biggest reason why these parables are so important is that they tell us how joyful God is when the lost sinner comes to faith in Christ. And I was encouraged last week. One of the men of our church contacted me on last Thursday.

He said pastor I listened to the sermon. I missed it. I needed to hear that. He said I have lost sight. I have kind of forgotten the fact that God loves lost sinners. I have lost sinners in my family. I needed to hear that God is joy filled when a lost sinner comes home. And what he is saying is he needed an adjustment there. He needed to see that afresh and anew. But the second reason these parables are important. They remind us how valuable and how loved lost sinners are to God. And they remind us that we should value and love lost sinners just like God. Now folks let me tell you sometimes it's really hard to love lost sinners.

And third these parables remind us that the pride and the arrogance of the Jewish religious leaders cannot creep into our life and they can it cannot creep into our church. Now listen listen close. There are always those around us who are pharisaical. They're like the Pharisees. The Pharisees did not like lost sinners and they didn't love lost sinners. Remember that they did not like them and they did not love them. And remember this the Pharisees looked very spiritual.

And remember no matter who they are no matter how spiritual they look if they come in here and they sit in our pews and they go to our small groups and they look real godly but if they don't like lost sinners and they don't love lost sinners they very well can be a Pharisee. And we all have to realize this a little Phariseeism can creep into all of our lives. So I put number two and number three right there together. This reminds us this teaching reminds us how valuable and loved lost sinners are and it reminds us how prideful and arrogant and wrong the Jewish were leaders the Jewish leaders were.

Fourth reason that these parables are important. We see both God's sovereignty at work and man's responsibility here. We see both. This is dealing with salvation folks. Man is like a sheep. He is willfully, foolishly, wondering in the wilderness of God. He's making those choices. He is lost because he has wandered in the sin. Also man is like this inanimate object. He's like a coin. He is lost and he is unable to understand God, seek God, or come to God. And man is responsible to repent.

Verse seven and both verse seven and verse ten both say that God joyfully celebrates when one lost sinner repents and we know that lost sinners are responsible to repent and believe the gospel. If you go to the beginning of Mark's gospel when Jesus started his earthly ministry, he came out preaching the gospel and calling people to repentance. But on the other side it is God who searches for the lost sheep like a loyal loving shepherd. It is God who carefully searches the house for the lost coin like this careful lady who is looking for her lost loved coin and sheep cannot come back to the shepherd on their own. There's no way.

The lost coin cannot come back to the wedding band on its own. It takes God to do what only God can do. So we see both man's responsibility here and God's sovereignty here. We see both. Now remember we are seeing the gospel inside the gospel. Now why do I bring that up? Folks if you grasp each parable they all build together, they all fit together. If you grasp each parable, if you grasp all of the teaching and the ultimate aim of the parables, you will grasp the gospel. So this is the gospel inside the gospel.

And I want to go ahead and tell you next week's may challenge some of you because next week's parable is one of the most misunderstood portions of scripture I believe in all of the scripture. So what do we have tonight? The lost coin and the careful lady. I call her the careful lady because she carefully looked for that coin diligently and that word diligently does mean carefully. So we have the lost coin and we have the careful lady.