Norway Grove Lutheran Church

3rd Sunday after Trinity

June 1O, 1894

Luke 15:1-1O

 JESUS RECEIVES SINNERS

Dear fellow redeemed! Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As it was in the days of Jesus' flesh so do sinners still approach Jesus to hear him while self-righteous Pharisees frown at them and find only themselves entitled to approach Jesus and to enter the kingdom of heaven because of their piety and virtue. And because the poor sinner feels his sin and unworthiness, the Pharisees' grumbling causes him anxiety and perhaps tempts him to withdraw from Jesus even though he feels that he needs him.

Our Gospel today contains a beautiful comfort for all such repentant, anxious sinners, because the very thing for which the Pharisees reproach Jesus here, is consoling divine truth:

JESUS RECEIVES SINNERS.

When the publicans and sinners came near to Jesus in order to hear him and the Pharisees murmured, Jesus set forth these parables to them: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently til she find it?"

What is Jesus teaching here? Obviously this that just as that man seeks the lost sheep and that woman the lost piece of silver, so does Jesus seek the lost, namely the sinner.

Now we can of course appreciate in a way the fact that we are sinners, and lost sinners at that, expelled from Paradise, and ruined. But we cannot and do not want to turn back. We do not want to and cannot seek Jesus the Good Shepherd who has dedicated his life in order to lead us stray sheep back to him. That's why Jesus has to seek us.

And as he says about that man that he goes out after the lost sheep, so did Jesus come down here to earth to save that which was lost. He pities our need. "The son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Lk. 19:1O.) "This is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (1 Ti. 1:15). That's why he lived his life and suffered an accursed death on the cross for us.

And is he not coming and seeking you in his Word today? Has he not gone after you so many times with its persuasive correction and comfort and sought you diligently? Not merely during his walk on earth did Jesus preach the Word. At his departure he provided for it that it should be preached until the end of days. Because through the Word he pricks the conscience and reveals our sin and lost condition to us. The Word is like the candle with which the woman looks in the cracks for the lost piece of silver. The Word of God penetrates into the heart's most secret places and reveals its evil inclinations and lack of truth, love and obedience, all in order to save the lost.

The Word is preached in season and out of season. Now it uses sufferings, now blessings, now the examples of other people, in order to get people's attention. He sought "publicans and sinners." No one is too wretched, too great a sinner for him not to want to seek him. Think of the thief on the cross, of a Mary Magdalene, of a Saul!

And, you see, he does not pretend to seek them just for the sake of appearance. No, he seeks, in order to find sinners. Or was it not he who found those people I mentioned, found the raging Saul so that he became a Paul, found Mary so that she sought her all in him, found the thief so that in the hour of death he asked and received, and he got to be with Christ in Paradise?

It's true, many people will not let themselves be found. They love the world, mammon, friends, sin, themselves, their fun, their honor, more than their soul and their God. They harden themselves against the testimony of the Spirit. He must say today about so many people as he did before about the Jews: "How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!" (Mt. 23:37.)

And yet the Word does not return void.

When we were lost, the Good Shepherd

To us came in the wilderness,

His own life 'gainst the foe he laid,

The cruel wolf, the devil is;

'Mong thorns and thistles He did tread

And called us long, 'til He us found,

Home with Him us He carried.

The testimony of God's love melts so many a hard heart, removes the natural stubbornness of the heart and regenerates it so that it approaches Jesus in the distress of its sin to hear the Word which is like balm for the wounded heart.

Take note of this, it is not we who first find him and grasp him. The shepherd finds the sheep, the woman the piece of silver, and the Good Shepherd finds us, and it isn't because of our willingness, our merit or good attitude. No, it is his love as our Savior, his faithfulness as our Shepherd which finally finds us.

When you became a child of God in baptism, was it not he who did it? When you acknowledged your sin, was it not from him that you learned it? When your heart hungered for grace or rejoiced in the forgiveness of your sins, was it not his work in you?

He leads us to repentance and faith, so that we confess and pray:

O, woe is me, that I had strayed!

From Thee toward hell's wide, open gate!

Grant but that I regret it!

Lead me into Thy pastures now,

From sin and wrath, oh, free me now,

Sincerely do I ask it!

And now when Jesus has found the sinner, what then?

"Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." "Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."

Just as Jesus' soul was "sorrowful unto death" (Mt. 26:38) over our wretched condition, so does he rejoice over our salvation, over the fact that a sinner returns to him again from the snare of the devil. He rejoices over the fact that what he has done and suffered in order to come to bless us has not been in vain. The prodigal son was received with joy, so is the sinner by Jesus. With joy he carries the sheep which has been found, carries it with much patience toward our weaknesses. He nurtures, strengthens and comforts us through the Holy Spirit, just as a mother can joyfully carry the weak child who daily causes her anguish and toil.

Jesus rejoices over every sinner who is converted, over the fact that there still are some who know his voice, belong to his flock and are his. He of course looks with sorrow upon those who step over into anoth-er place. How must he not love us when our weal and woe grip his heart like that!

Hasten, then, to run to Him! Jesus is the sinner's Friend.

It also means something when Jesus points to the joyful participation of friends and neighbors in both parables, and as though summarizing the parables, says: "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents." You've learned, of course, to ask God that he shall order his angels to surround you. If you mean anything by that then you also mean that the angels joyfully preserve God's children from evil, yes, and joyfully accept every one who comes from the darkness into the light. Shouldn't the angels rejoice over everyone who places himself under the banner of light? Every belie-ving soul rejoices over every one who confesses the name of Christ.

Yes, the more often the true Christ must grieve and lament the falling away and the hypocrisy, the greater will be his joy when he sees a sinner turn from his evil way to his God. He will also rejoice that the Lord's hosts are increased, that brothers and sisters make their appearance at his side in battle against the forces of evil. And he thanks God for everyone who is snatched as a firebrand out of the fire. Because God is certainly the one to thank for that. Jesus says that a sinner repents, although, of course, it's Jesus who finds him, because it's with the sinner that this happens. The change occurs in the sinner. It's the sinner who is converted and turns to God.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, can there be anything more joyful for us than what we've heard today? Is it not a comfort and an encouragement for every poor sinner who is anxious and who fears for his un-worthiness when he considers his many and great sins of the past and his daily errors and weaknesses? Isn't it rich comfort and encouragement to stay close to Jesus in order to hear him, when he sees how kind Jesus is, what effort he makes in order to seek and to find the sinner, and how he rejoices over his salvation?

Therefore:

Ye sinners, come, O, come hither,

O, come now in the time of grace!

You are all in great danger:

See, Jesus now does ope' His heart

For all them, who with pain confess

That their sins have done them hurt.

When we look at ourselves then we can well think that we ought to flee from him, the Holy One, but that, friends, would be our ruin. No, we are to stay close to him to hear him, not stand far off as though he doesn't concern us, but close, in order to hear what he has to say to us, and that, not just once, not just on Sunday, not just when we are in distress, but constantly.

And if Jesus thus has found you, my friend, then you should grasp him as you are apprehended by him, to purify yourself just as you have al-ready been made clean through the word which he has spoken: "Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you."(Mt. 9:2.) It has to do with not consenting to any sin, fine or coarse. "My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent" (Pr. 1:1O). It's easy to fall away, stray, be lost. Therefore, let us stay close to our Lord and Savior, dedicate ourselves to him with body and soul, which belong to him.

You see, he receives sinners. Come! Jesus can and will save you, yes, take you in his arms. Come, with penitent, weeping hearts. Fall at his feet in faith. He will be merciful to you!

Lord Jesus! You receive sinners. Receive also me! Amen.

H.A. Preus delivered this sermon shortly before his death. As were several of his last sermons it is not as fully developed as he was accustomed to doing. Mindeblade til Jubelfesten paa Spring Prairie, 1851-19O1; p. 13-16