Does God care

 

The call of Luke 15.

The illustrations given by the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 15 are firstly a call to the followers of the Lord Jesus to act like God.

Does God care about lost people?

1.    One sheep is lost for some reason. It could be like the tax collector of verse 1 – tempted to make easy money.

God reacts as a shepherd seeking his own sheep. They still belong to Him and He goes seeking it until he finds it.

Do we seek lost people like God, who loves all the people of all the world?

2.    One coin is lost – we don’t know how it was lost and like the coin, some people seem of no value to anyone because of the wreckage of sin. But we do know that the coin still had the image impressed by it’s maker. As the woman was delighted to find the coin, so the angels in heaven rejoice when a sinner turns back to God.

Are we available to the Holy Spirit to seek, to sweep, to search until  the lost one is found?

3  One son was lost and we do know that his selfish selfwill was the problem. It was his own fault, so why bother to win him back? God, like the good and gracious father, gives, watches, forgives and restores the one who by rebellion is as good as dead.

Do we care, do we yearn, do we pray, do we forgive. It is so much easier to be like the older brother – to be judgemental and bitter.

The Lord Jesus calls us to “be like our Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:48).

‘Lord, let Your love constrain me to love like God loves.’

 

Then we will be able to rejoice with the angels – a sheep found, a coin recovered, a son restored.