How Does Jesus Pursue Us?
Discover the depth of Jesus' love and his relentless pursuit of those who are lost, and find insights into the significance of repentance and redemption.
Why Does Jesus Pursue Us?
“Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” Luke 15:1-2
In The Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, Jesus is speaking to tax collectors and Pharisees. The tax collectors are important because their reputation was of very sinful people. When the Roman government sent them out to collect taxes, they would add an excessive amount to what was required so they could personally benefit.
The text also clearly distinguishes that He was addressing tax collectors AND sinners. While yes, we are all sinners, that’s not what Scripture references. When Luke speaks of sinners in this context, he’s speaking of people who habitually sin and are sinners in need of repentance (v. 7).
JESUS: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” Luke 15:4
What is important is that the owner knows they are lost. This reveals that the lost items are missed because they are considered valuable and precious by their owner.
In addition to the tax collectors, Jesus also addressed the Pharisees.
The religious establishment (Pharisees) viewed those other people as being literally “lost causes,” so much so that it seems never to have occurred to the Pharisees to reach out to such sinners. The modern equivalent to this is an indifference to those who do not have access to the gospel, whether they be your literal neighbor or an unreached people group.
Then there’s the main category that Jesus is addressing, the sinners, which are the persons who are spiritually lost. “Lost” is not a playful or trite term. To be lost means not knowing where one is or unaware of one’s whereabouts.
So, when Jesus describes the 99, He’s rejoicing that they are present, but one’s missing. He uses the phrase that they’re lost and out in the open.
The shepherd is said to leave his 99 sheep not just “in the open” or in “open country” as some Bibles translate it: “in the wilderness.” The Greek word is eremo, which is the word for the desert or wilderness—a dangerous place to be and a very dangerous place to be left unsupervised and unprotected.
This is why, by virtue of context, the word “lost” is weighty. You don’t recognize the danger you are in because of lostness and sin. Jesus is sitting with people who are living lifestyles of habitual sin. It’s one matter to be lost, but it’s a whole other matter to be lost and not know you’re lost.
Why Does Lostness Matter?
The instructions and teachings of Jesus fall into four categories:
Promises
Instructions
Warnings
Commands
In our Christian walk, sometimes we can have a default mode, which is only having a surface understanding of who Jesus is and what He said. This is what it means to have only a fractional understanding of Him.
In John 10:10, Jesus promised that “we may have life and have it abundantly.” That’s just a small glimpse of why we don’t want to ignore His promises, instructions, warnings, and commands because they have everything to do with lostness.
JESUS: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (emphasis added)
Let’s not downgrade Jesus’ words here because He elaborates further two verses later.
JESUS: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:18 (emphasis added)
Jesus didn’t say that once or twice but thrice in John 3.
JESUS: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36 (emphasis added)
In other words, under God’s promise that judgment for our sin, which is a life apart from Jesus, we want to be cautious in only knowing Him fractionally. C.S. Lewis said, “(God) must constantly work as the iconoclast. Every idea of him we form, he must, in mercy, shatter. The most blessed result of prayer would be to rise thinking, But I never knew before. I never dreamed…”
An iconoclast is a person who attacks settled beliefs that are widely accepted but are not true. Sin has a diminishing factor to it because it always gives the best at the beginning. Consider what Nancy Leigh DeMoss said:
“Most of us have become so familiar with sin that we no longer see it as a deadly monster. Sin is more dangerous than wild bears, more deadly than blazing forest fires. Ask Nebuchadnezzar, who lost his mind because he refused to deal with his pride. Ask Samson, who was reduced to a pathetic shred of a man because he never got control over the lust of his flesh.”
Sin never gets better than the first time; it only gets worse. Sin adds to your trouble, subtracts from your energies, and multiplies your difficulties. But most of all, it separates us from God. Thus, Jesus uses the term “lost.” To be lost is to be unaware of our own brokenness.
C.S. Lewis said, “We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin.” We must realize that sin is ultimately sin against a holy God. We were not designed for sin; when we rebel against what we’re not designed for, we are ultimately rebelling against our designer.
This is why, when David lied, manipulated, deceived, murdered, and fell into sexual sin when he repented, he said, “Against you, and you alone, I have sinned (Psalm 51:4).” See what David Platt had to say about sin:
“The penalty for sin is determined by the magnitude of the one who is sinned against. If you sin against a log, you are not very guilty. On the other hand, if you sin against a man or a woman, then you are absolutely guilty. And ultimately, if you sin against a holy and eternal God, you are definitely guilty and worthy of eternal punishment.”
Lostness carries an enormous weight, but fortunately, while this parable is very heavy, this isn’t where it ends.
Meeting Our Great Shepherd
The great shepherd, symbolized in the story, pursues the sinner. Most people don’t understand how Jesus comes after people—but He does pursue, and He is pursuing some of you reading this right now.
Psalm 23 exemplifies our Great Shepherd as carrying a rod and a staff. The staff is utilized to guide and express compassion. The rod conveys the concept of Jesus’ authority, which includes His power and discipline. When Jesus disciplines, He brings conviction to the heart through the Holy Spirit. [READ MORE: The Lord is My Shepherd Explained]
There’s a difference between our guilt and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. When we’re convicted of sin, we feel not only a need and propulsion in our heart to move toward Jesus, forsaking our sin, but we have a direction to go toward, and that is the Lord.
I say the following in loving appeal to you: If you are living in sin or are lost, don’t waste your wilderness. Don’t waste this opportunity if you sense God speaking to your heart through His loving and convicting hand. His pursuit is always for restoration with Him.
Jesus is the shepherd who is not content with the 99 being safe but is concerned that the one is lost. He pursues and will “go after the one that is lost until He finds it” (4). He is the One who will “sweep the house and seek diligently until [He] finds it” (8).
In both parables, we read that there is great rejoicing when the lost is found, which reveals much about God’s character.
Jesus said that when the man found his lost sheep, “He lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (5). Not only that, “When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’”
The woman who found her lost coin “calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost’” (9). The shepherd and the woman rejoice in finding what was lost, and they wish others to share in their joy.
They turn to their friends and say, “Rejoice with me!” The joy that comes in the parable illustrates the great God’s great joy sinner is found.
We read that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (7).“There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (10). All of heaven rejoices when a person commits their life to Jesus Christ and enters the kingdom of heaven.
So Jesus’ approach to seeking the lost is not letting them stay lost. This is not a case of (as some distort it), “God loves me no matter what so it doesn’t matter what I do.” This is a case of God loving you; because he loves you, he calls you away from sin. James Montgomery Boice said:
“This is a paradox, of course, as Augustine, Luther, Edwards, Pascal, and others have pointed out. When individuals rebel against God, they don’t achieve freedom. They fall into bondage because rebellion is sin, and sin is a tyrant. On the other hand, when men and women submit to God, becoming His servants, they become truly free. They achieve the ability fully to become the special, unique beings that God created them to be.”
What God did through Christ in that horrible death on the cross was to restore us from the place of lostness that separated us from God. That’s how weighty this matter is to God. The forgiveness of our sins required the piercing of His body and that His blood be shed.
His resurrections represents that He’s not like everybody else. Jesus hanging on the cross wasn’t just anyone, that was God encapsulated in flesh. We don’t get what we deserve because He shows us mercy and searches for His lost sheep. We are delivered from judgment because of His grace. That’s available for you today. Don’t waste your wilderness.
TL;DR
In Luke 15, Jesus shares parables of the lost sheep and lost coin, highlighting his pursuit of sinners.
He emphasizes the seriousness of lostness, urging repentance.
Through these stories, Jesus reveals God's immense joy in the restoration of the lost, illustrating his love and grace towards humanity.
Related Reading
Give it To God by Bro. Chris Carter
The Lord is My Shepherd Explained by Rev. Paul Lawler
Who We Are Depends on Whose We Areby Rev. Paul Lawler