Tax collectors and sinners keep showing up wherever Jesus is, and the religious leaders can’t understand why He lets them get close enough to listen. His answer isn’t a defense — it’s three stories in a row, about a shepherd who won’t accept losing even one sheep out of a hundred, a woman who tears her house apart for a single coin, and a father who sees his son from a great way off and runs to him before a single word of apology is spoken. And the story doesn’t end at the reunion. It ends with a second son, standing just outside his own father’s party, refusing to go in.
A study in Luke 15 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 27 min read
Rejoice With Me; For I Have Found My Sheep Which Was Lost
“Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”
Luke 15:1-2
“They knew not that the explanation lay in the very words they had uttered as a scornful charge, ‘This man receiveth sinners.’ The souls who came to Jesus felt in His presence that even for them there was escape from the pit of sin.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 186
The very accusation meant to condemn Jesus turns out, unintentionally, to be the truest thing anyone in the story says about Him all day.
“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?”
Luke 15:4
“No sooner does the sheep go astray than the shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety. He counts and recounts the flock. When he is sure that one sheep is lost, he slumbers not. He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold, and goes in search of the straying sheep.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 187
The sheep did nothing to earn this search. It cannot even find its own way back. The entire rescue depends on a shepherd who refuses to write off one out of a hundred as an acceptable loss.
“And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.”
Luke 15:5-6
“Thank God, He has presented to our imagination no picture of a sorrowful shepherd returning without the sheep. The parable does not speak of failure but of success and joy in the recovery.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 188
“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7
“But in the parable of the lost sheep, Christ teaches that salvation does not come through our seeking after God but through God’s seeking after us. … We do not repent in order that God may love us, but He reveals to us His love in order that we may repent.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 189
This single sentence quietly overturns the assumption the Pharisees had built their whole complaint on — that God’s love is the reward for repentance, rather than its cause.
“Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?”
Luke 15:8
“The lost sheep knows that it is lost. … The lost coin represents those who are lost in trespasses and sins, but who have no sense of their condition. They are estranged from God, but they know it not.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 193
Two parables, back to back, cover two very different kinds of lostness — the sheep that knows it has wandered and cries out for rescue, and the coin that lies silent in the dust, entirely unaware that it is missing anything at all.
“And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”
Luke 15:9-10
“As the coin bears the image and superscription of the reigning power, so man at his creation bore the image and superscription of God; and though now marred and dim through the influence of sin, the traces of this inscription remain upon every soul.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 194
The coin’s worth was never in question, only its location. However deep in the dust it has settled, it never stops being silver — and it never stops belonging to the one searching for it.
He Was Lost, And Is Found
“And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.”
Luke 15:11-12
“The youth acknowledges no obligation to his father, and expresses no gratitude; yet he claims the privilege of a child in sharing his father’s goods. The inheritance that would fall to him at his father’s death he desires to receive now.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 199
The request itself is a kind of quiet cruelty — asking for a father’s death, in effect, while he is still standing right there to hear it.
“And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.”
Luke 15:13-14
“And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.”
Luke 15:15-16
“The youth who has boasted of his liberty, now finds himself a slave. … The glitter and tinsel that enticed him have disappeared, and he feels the burden of his chain. … Of the gay companions who flocked about him in his prosperous days and ate and drank at his expense, there is not one left to befriend him.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 200
Everything he thought was freedom turns out, once the money is gone, to have been a rented friendship. What is left when the rental ends is the truth of where he actually stands.
“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.”
Luke 15:17-18
“Miserable as he was, the prodigal found hope in the conviction of his father’s love. It was that love which was drawing him toward home. So it is the assurance of God’s love that constrains the sinner to return to God.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 202
It is not the memory of the father’s rules that turns him homeward. It is the memory of his father’s character — the confidence that even a hired servant’s place in that house beats a famine-stricken field of someone else’s pigs.
“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
Luke 15:20
“But while he is yet ‘a great way off’ the father discerns his form. Love is of quick sight. Not even the degradation of the years of sin can conceal the son from the father’s eyes.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 203
Someone in that house was watching the road. Not sending servants to check, not waiting for word to arrive — watching, personally, day after day, for a shape in the distance that might or might not ever come.
“And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”
Luke 15:21-24
“In the parable there is no taunting, no casting up to the prodigal of his evil course. The son feels that the past is forgiven and forgotten, blotted out forever.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 204
The son never even finishes his rehearsed speech. He gets as far as confessing his unworthiness, and the father is already calling for a robe, a ring, and a feast — answering a request for servant’s wages with the full restoration of a son.
Thy Brother Was Dead, And Is Alive Again
“Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in.”
Luke 15:25-28
“This elder brother has not been sharing in his father’s anxiety and watching for the one that was lost. He shares not, therefore, in the father’s joy at the wanderer’s return.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 207
He stands close enough to the house to hear the music, and still stays outside. Physical distance was never his real problem.
“And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.”
Luke 15:29-30
“He dwells upon his own life in his father’s house as a round of unrequited service. … He makes it plain that his own service has been that of a servant rather than a son.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 207
His own words expose him. He never says “my brother” — only “this thy son.” He has lived in the same house as the younger son’s rebellion all these years, and quietly built one of his own, just better disguised.
“And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”
Luke 15:31
“Through all these years of your brother’s outcast life, have you not had the privilege of companionship with me? … The son need have no question of gift or reward. ‘All that I have is thine.’ You have only to believe my love, and take the gift that is freely bestowed.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 208
The father does not defend himself, and does not withdraw the celebration. He simply repeats, gently, what has been true the entire time — that the elder son’s inheritance was never in danger, and was never something he had to earn in the first place.
“It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”
Luke 15:32
“Was the elder brother brought to see his own mean, ungrateful spirit? … Concerning this, Christ was silent. For the parable was still enacting, and it rested with His hearers to determine what the outcome should be.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 209
The parable ends without an ending. Whether the elder brother ever walks through that door is left unwritten — because the men who first heard this story, muttering their complaints at the edge of the crowd, were the ones who would have to write it themselves.
