Hi Team 2:

We continue our journey through the parables of Jesus. His primary purpose in telling these parables is to teach about the kingdom of heaven, which is God’s end game for creation. So far, we’ve covered:

The parable of the sower and the soils: (hearing and receiving the Good news of the gospel requires a receptive heart)

The parable of the weeds: (Jesus explains that the brokenness due to sin will have it’s season ONLY until His work of calling a people to Himself and His kingdom is complete).

This week, we’ll share three parables that teach one theme: the kingdom of heaven is the place where the lost who turn from their sin and receive the free gift of Jesus’ saving grace will be received with joy by the Father. These are the parables of the lost sheep, coin and son (Luke 15).

Memory Verse: There is… joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God. Luke 15:8

Handout: Lost and Found

Narrative: 

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

So Jesus told them this story:  “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. Then he will celebrate with his friends and neighbors over the finding of his lost sheep.”  That’s the type of celebrating that happens in heaven when a sinner who is lost repents.

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it, and celebrate with her friends when she does?” In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.  The young man became so hungry that even the pig food started to look good.

“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. So he returned home to his father and made that plea.

“But his father did more than make him a servant.  In fact he threw a great big party for him! Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he saw the party and learned it was because of his brother’s safe return.

“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even threw me a little party for me and my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money you celebrate with a huge party.’

“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”