The Life: A Friend of Sinners

In 1967, The Beatles released a song that is still an anthem for all friendships today:  I get by with a little help from my friends. That’s the thing about having a friend isn’t it? A friend is… someone who you can call on to help you when you’re in a bind.

A friend is… someone who is there for you when life throws you a curve. In a couple of weeks, I’m going to see one of those friends. He was one who stood by me ten years ago when I went through one of the toughest times of my life. I’ll never forget him for that. A friend is also someone who goes into battle with you. When I left Langley, BC after 8 years of serving with some really great people, I grieved the loss of so many great friendships we had forged in planting that church. But then after awhile, I came to the realization that I never lost those friends. We still keep in contact. In fact, many of those friends helped support us financially when we came to start this church.

A couple other things I’ve discovered about friendships:

A friend is someone who will listen to you. A friend is someone who will stick with you even when you mess up. They are not fair-weather friends. And a friend is someone who will let you be you. You feel safe with them, you can let your hair down with them, you can laugh and cry with them. A friend then, is one of the most valuable relationships you can ever have. In fact, Proverbs 17:17 says this about a friend: A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

There’s no question we all need friends like that. And I hope you want to be a friend like that. But this morning as we return to our series on The Life of Jesus, I want to help us see how great a friend we have in Jesus. So if you brought your Bible with you, let me encourage you to open it to Luke 15, where Jesus shows us how great a friend he is. How he’ll never give up on you. How he’ll always treasure you. How he’ll be incredibly patient with you. And how he wants far more for you than you ever imagined. So if you’ve found Luke 15, let me set the stage by reading the first couple of verses: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2

Let me make just a couple of observations here. First, look who was drawn to Jesus: “tax collectors and sinners.” Tax-collectors were deeply despised by the Jews because they were dishonest and immoral traitors who served the Romans and lined their pockets with whatever they could extort from you. They had zero religious or social standing in the Jewish culture. Sinners were a class of people who were considered to be completely irreligious and therefore, ritually unclean. The Pharisees, however were so particular about their own ritual purification, that they intentionally kept their distance from anyone unclean, especially irreligious sinners. They would have nothing to do with them. They avoided such people intentionally. And so they were aghast that Jesus, a rabbi, a teacher of the law, would have anything to do with sinners.   And what made matters worse, Jesus actually shared meals with such people. To them, eating with sinners and tax-collectors implied something: mutual acceptance. And no act, apart from participation in their actual sins, could have been more wrong in their eyes.

Secondly, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” This was NOT a KIND observation, rather a condemning one. How could this man hang out with people like that? How can a Rabbi associate with unclean sinners? What Jesus was doing was unthinkable to them. They were shocked and offended by Jesus’ actions. But it was this acceptance of such outcasts that earned him the name “friend of sinners.”

You see, earlier in Luke’s gospel, the religious leaders coined this name for Jesus but Jesus wore it as a badge of honor: For he said, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” Luke 7:34 Jesus befriended the worst of the worst: the outcasts, the unclean, the unlovely, the rejected, and the broken. And the Pharisees just didn’t get it. So Jesus is about to instruct them on God’s heart for sinners, by telling them three parables. So, it is from these three parables Jesus shows us how much He loves sinners and how great a friend we have in Jesus. So how great a friend is Jesus?

He seeks all who stray    “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders  and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I 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. Luke 15:3-7

Jesus was trying to teach these Pharisees their responsibility as God’s shepherds of Israel. Tax-collectors and sinners were God’s people who had wandered away, they were like sheep who had gone astray. They were lost, alone in the world with no one to look after them, no one to care for them. So, the Pharisees, if they understood God’s heart would realize that it was NOT their role to shut out irreligious sinners, but to go after them and bring them back into the fold. So Jesus equates God’s love for sinners with a shepherd’s love for his sheep. And a shepherd who loves his sheep will drop everything to seek even one that strays.

Now it may seem foolish for a shepherd to leave 99 sheep and go search for just one. But the shepherd knew that the 99 were safe, whereas the lost sheep was in danger. (most likely the other sheep were left in the care of a fellow shepherd). But the point Jesus is making, is that every person who strays is of great value to God. And because every person who strays is of great value to God, those with God’s heart for His people will make it their business to seek and find anyone who strays.

This is the gospel. This is why Jesus has come. God’s love for every person who has wandered away from Him is so great, that God sent His only Son Jesus, to seek and save the strays. This is why Jesus ate with dishonest, immoral and questionable people. Not to condone their sins but to bring them back home to God.

Did you know that this is the picture of our spiritual state before we come to faith in Jesus? In Isaiah’s prophecy God’s Word says that, We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6

The Bibles tells us that every single person has wandered from God. That means we are surrounded by people who fit this description: people who have wandered away from the very one who created them and loves them. Now people wander from God for a variety of reasons: Some drift away because the pull of making a fortune leads them down a path away from God. Others stray because they get in with the wrong crowd. Some walk away because no one ever included them or took their spiritual questions seriously. And some walk away because they were hurt by people in their a church, or part of a church who never taught them the gospel – that mercy and grace, life and truth are found in Jesus. But for whatever reason people go astray, what Jesus is saying here is this: God loves you too much to ever give up on you. He will seek you until He finds you. Because He wants you safely home with him.

And what this tells us about Jesus is that Jesus is a friend who will never give up on you. That neighbor who is angry at God… Jesus has not given up on him. That daughter who doesn’t have time for God… Jesus is still pursing her. That friend who used to walk with God… Jesus longs to see him come back home. And when you drift away, Jesus seeks to bring you back home too.

You see, Jesus is a friend who will not quit on sinners. He will never give up on you. You matter to Jesus more than anything else in the world. That’s why He came, why He made it his business to make friends with people far from God, and that’s why He died. And if we are hearing what Jesus wants these Pharisees to hear, this is the kind of friend Jesus wants us to be: a friend with a love for those who wander.

Perhaps even right now, God’s Spirit is bringing to mind a friend, a neighbor, maybe even a loved one who has drifted away from God. Don’t give up on him. Don’t give up on her. Invite him to dinner. Love her like Jesus. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That’s what Jesus wants to teach us about His friendship. He will never give up on you. He is always seeking you. And that makes him the greatest friend you’ll ever know.

But there’s more. He doesn’t seek just those who wander from God. He also…

He pursues all who fall Look at the next parable: “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:8-10

Now this parable shifts to a woman who looses a very special coin. Palestinian women would often receive ten silver coins as a wedding gift. So this coin not only has monetary value, but sentimental value, like a wedding ring. To lose such a coin would be devastating. So she goes into an all out search. So Jesus compares her all out search to God’s loving pursuit of people who fall into a life of sin.

You see some people wander from God. But others fall away because they fall prey to the enticements of the world: the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – the temptations of pleasure, prestige and power. They go all in with what this life offers ; they become friends with the world and get caught up in a life where they want nothing to do with God. And Jesus compares these lost people to a precious coin lost in the darkness. In fact, they are so lost they don’t even know they’re lost; they don’t even know there is another kind of life. As John describes them, they are lovers of darkness rather than lovers of light. They have no interest in God. They won’t be drawn to a church no matter how great the music is, or how relevant the messages are, because they’re not really interested – what draws them is life in the here and now. They are not looking for God.

But God is looking for them. He’s willing to light a lamp, search in the dark corners, sweep the dirt floors until He finds what is precious to him. After all, that’s the point of this parable. God sees every single person He created as Precious. And like the woman in this parable, He will search in the darkness until He finds them. And when He finds even ONE sinner, lost in darkness, who comes to repentance – who turns to back to God, what does He do? God celebrates! He throws a party in heaven.

Are you starting to get a handle on what Jesus is saying here? Every person matters to God! Strays matter to God. Sinners matter to God. People who will never darken a church door matter to God. God treasures you. And God treasures the drug addict, the, the single moms, the homeless beggars. God treasures the dreamers and the schemers. God treasures the down and outers and the up and comers. God loves every single person who draws the breath He gives. And He’s willing to go to the darkest corners, and even down on dirt floors to find them. That’s why Jesus is a friend of sinners and a friend of us – for you matter to God. And that gives you great value.

He doesn’t want you to fall into sin. But if you do, He will look for you until He brings you back to Him. For when you repent and come back to Him, there’s nothing that gives Him greater joy. He seeks all who stray; He pursues all who fall and one more thing:

He waits for all who rebel Listen now to his final parable: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.’ The younger son, who will one day get a third of the his father’s estate, arrogantly comes and demands his father give it to him now. He is a disrespectful rebel who is telling his father: “I want out. I don’t want to live under your rules anymore. I want to go my own way. So give me my inheritance so I can be my own master.”

And so the father gives him what he asks for. And then we read, Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. In no time at all, this rebel son throws away his inheritance like a fool. His living it up, doing whatever he wants, but in no time he runs out of money, runs out of friends and runs out of luck. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.  

What a sad picture. Look at where calling the shots, being his own master had got him: starving in a pigsty. No one would help him, no one would feed him. He’d ruined his life. He’d turned his back on his father, spent all his money, and had nothing. What a picture of coming to the end of yourself. Those listening may have been thinking, “Serves him right. That’s what he gets for disowning his father.” But Jesus is not done: “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’  So he got up and went to his father. Luke 15:17-20

This is Jesus’ picture of repentance. He’s already spoken of sinners repenting in the previous two parables. He’s told us of the joy that erupts in heaven when even one sinner returns to God. Now, Jesus paints this picture of the rebel’s repentance. He is ready to go home, confess how he has wronged his father and deserving of nothing.

At this point, the Pharisees are thinking the same thing. This kid deserves nothing. He disowned his father. Surely his father won’t even take him back as a hired hand. But they were in for a shock. Because now Jesus reveals the scandalous grace of the father: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. Luke 15:20-24

This is the Father’s heart for rebellious sinners. Here this father who has been patiently waiting for his son, is a picture of our Father in heaven waiting for rebels to turn back to Him. This father’s been watching for his return. Our Father is watching too. And as soon as this father sees him, there is no, “I told you so,” there is no holding back of affection. While the son is still far off, the father, filled with compassion, abandons all sense of dignity, runs as fast as he can to embrace his son. And the son, with speech all prepared, confesses his sin but the father doesn’t even let him finish the rest of it. No, he is so happy to have his son back, that he holds nothing back to welcome him home.

Never once does he bring up the son’s sin. He simply goes all out to restore His son. He clothes him in his best robe. He puts the family ring on his finger. He puts sandals on his feet. And then he calls his servant to prepare the fattened calf. If there were ever a time to party, it was now: For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’  What a picture of mercy and grace to an undeserving sinner. And yet, this is precisely what our Father in heaven does when even one sinner turns back to Him.

God the Father, the creator of the universe, welcomes and accepts, restores and rejoices over anyone who repents and comes home to Him. This is what Jesus wants us to hear. This is the good news: God loves lost causes. And if God loves lost causes, if God loves arrogant rebels who have turned their backs on Him, the good news is there no one is too far gone for God to redeem and restore by His grace!

But when we do come to repentance, just like this rebel son, God opens the floodgates of grace. He rejoices over every sinner who repents    Don’t miss this!

In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus said, “I 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.” Luke 15:7

In the parable of the lost coin, Jesus said, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:9-10

And in the parable of the lost son, Jesus says, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ Luke 15:22-24   That’s why Jesus made friends with sinners. Jesus is all about grace: loving us when we are unlovable; giving us what we do not deserve. And here he reveals how truly great a friend He is to anyone who repents. For when you turn back to God, God gives you far more than you can ever imagine: He clothes you with the righteous robe of Jesus. He puts a ring on your finger and restores you fully to Sonship. He puts sandals on your feet accepting you fully into His home. Then he throws a party in heaven, because nothing could bring Him more joy.

That is why Jesus is a friend of sinners. That’s why Jesus has come and that’s what makes Jesus the greatest friend ever! Do you know this Jesus? Do you know how much He loves you?   Do you know His grace?