NYUBF | New York UBF

THE PARABLE OF THE LOST COINS

Luke 15:8-10
Key Verse: 10

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

By Bennely Peralta

When I was cleaning under my bed a few weeks ago, I found a book I had been looking for and a few coins. I was excited to find a few quarters because I could use these for my laundry. I also found a penny. Now, because these coins were hidden under a very dark corner they we covered with dust bunnies. I excitedly cleaned the quarters and placed them on top of my desk but when I got to the penny I didn’t want to bother—it was the coin with the most dust on it and the hardest to clean. I thought—it’s just one penny—who really cares about it.

The woman in the parable of the lost coin, however, searches faithfully and carefully for only one coin. Now, this one silver coin was probably only valued by this one woman. Who else would care? What is so special about this one silver coin? We don’t know how long it took this woman to find this one silver coin—maybe a few hours or a few days—but what we do know is her efforts revealed her diligence and persistence. She didn’t stop. The woman didn’t compare her one silver coin to the nine she had in her possession. She didn’t compare it to the one’s she would receive later on in the future. Rather, she focused on this one coin now. This evening, let’s think about our loving God who seeks until he finds us. Let’s think about God’s active and redeeming love for one person.

I. The Value of One Coin

Let’s look at verse 8: Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? The woman in this parable had ten silver coins, each worth about a day’s wage. She loses one out of the ten. No big deal, right? Just move on with your life and maybe if you’re lucky, it’ll turn up one day. But instead of being dismissive, this woman made it her priority to get a lamp and a broom. She used her time and energy to search for this one silver coin. Now, did she stop half way through because she couldn’t sweep through all the dark crevices? Did she stop because there was too much dirt on the floor? Did she become too exhausted to continue, No! She could not ignore the significance the coin had in her life. Her connection to the coin went deeper than its monetary value. Rather the coin formed part of her identity. Without it, she would always be in a state of loss never fully recovering from the separation. Because she knew she could not bear with the loss of the coin, she actively searches for it, illustrating the immense hope she has in finding it. It was her urgent search that revealed her innermost love.

When I was a senior in high school my father, with Alzheimer’s disease, got lost. My mom began to worry when he didn’t return from his trip outside. As the police officers filled my living room, asking us questions about my dad’s physical appearance, I thought I would never see my father again. In a city of 8 million people, my father was lost. How could we ever find him? At times he didn’t even remember where we lived. The thought of losing my father in this way, covered my heart with an indescribable pain. We could not sleep. And so the following morning my 14-year old brother Edwin and I, with “Lost Person” flyers in hand, went out searching our neighborhood. With no luck, we came back home with an irreparable feeling of loss. My father was finally found disoriented and dehydrated on the floor of the Downtown Manhattan train station. He had forgotten who he was and where he lived. The search and wait was unbearable because no one really cared about this one old man with Alzheimer’s disease. He was just another name on the NYPD’s long “Lost Person’s” list. Only 26 hours had passed, but the sense of joy, relief and hope in finding my father overwhelmed me.

Now, let’s imagine how God feels when we are lost and separated from Him. What suffering He must experience as he patiently waits for us to return to Him. What sense of urgency He has when he actively seeks a complete restoration of the intimate love relationship we once had with Him. (Now, do we know who this God is that seeks until he finds…) Why does God search for us so desperately even when we continually break that love relationship we have with Him? Why doesn’t He give up and move on to someone else?

Like the woman whose coin formed part of her life, we, too, are a part of God. In Genesis 1:27, when God creates man and woman he says: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. We were created to communicate with God—we were created to have fellowship with Him—and we were created to be full recipients of God’s love. God doesn’t love us because we are lovable and have something amazing to offer Him. Rather, God loved us and continues to love us because it is in His nature to do so. The power of His love leads us back to Him allowing us to see ourselves with God’s love.

When Adam and Eve hid from the Lord in the garden, he called out to them and asked, “Where are you?” God did not call them out of resentment but rather out of love. A love that revealed His pure desire to seek and to recover what was once His. God’s hope for one person is demonstrated in His active love and urgent search for one sinner. He has hope in recovering our hearts not because he can gain anything from it. But because He knows we are incomplete without Him. Because of God’s desire for the lost, God Himself was incarnated. This is why Jesus Christ came. Through the blood of Christ we have complete and holistic restoration—fellowship and intimacy with God is restored. Our desire to know Him and be with Him is renewed. We no longer feel insecure but we find our worth in Him. We begin to see that our purpose is to bring the most Glory to God. We see that the true value of our lives lies in that Jesus came as the sacrificial lamb. The depth of God’s love is so unsearchable that only one lost sinner motivated Him to send His one and only son Jesus to humble himself on the cross and die. God only needed one sinner. God only needed me to send Jesus.

When I think about my past I can’t believe that I am standing in from of you today. Growing up I never valued myself because I thought that the physical abuse that was taking place at home had to do with me not being good enough for God. There had to be something wrong me. My family was so broken that this had to mean that I was broken too. And so I lived as if I was broken. When I got to Columbia, I felt inadequate and useless. I tried to find my value in my friends and efforts. However, I soon recognized that it only created a greater feeling of uncertainty. My fear had paralyzed me. When I started to study the bible my junior year I had no hope for my life. When I heard God’s Word I cried every time Suzanne and I met for bible study. The Holy Spirit had revealed to me that although there wasn’t anything humanly special about me God loved me. The unsearchable love and grace of God was what moved me to realize that I was a sinner in need of repentance. God’s active love in restoring my relationship with Him was sufficient enough reason for Him to seek me; to seek me and bring me back to Him. God did not forget about my life. He found me and lifted me out of a very dark place. He gave me life and a new identity where my value was not questioned. My value rested on His one-sided love and grace for me. And so God truly rejoiced when I accepted Him.

II. Rejoice With Me
Look at verse 9. And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.” When the woman finds the coin, she doesn’t place it in a safe bag instead she emphasizes its worth. She calls all her friends and neighbors to celebrate in order to acknowledge its importance. This woman was so delighted to find this coin that she made it the focal point of the celebration.

This is God’s true attitude towards sinners. He longed for us so much that His heart couldn’t withstand our separation from Him. Because we are the focal point of all creation, He completely, absolutely and personally gave Himself for each one of us. And so God holds a big banquet because it is in His character to find the lost; to find His children.

Verse 10 reads: In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. All this rejoicing for only one sinner… Yes! All it takes is one repentant sinner to cause heaven to rejoice. In this rejoicing, we see God’s hopeful heart and His individual care for one person. In this rejoicing, we also see the limitless love of God to see beyond our sins and mistakes and to make us beautiful in His eyes because we are His children. The woman’s lost silver coin was probably so dirty, dusty and beaten up from being on the floor. Its luster had probably faded. Sin does this to our lives; it takes away our value and Satan makes us think we are useless. However, we see how God takes our lives and uses them. He makes them beautiful and valuable because of His active and transparent love for each one of us.

…Over one sinner who repents. When we make the decision to fully accept God’s love for us, we see that repentance is not this intensive and burdensome act. Rather, repentance is a natural expression of our acceptance of God’s love. The love He so freely poured out to us in the blood of Jesus Christ. We see that the love God offers is a divine love that must be nurtured, not with our human effort or with our empty words. But rather it is a love nurtured through our active turning away from our sin and self-sufficiency. A love nurtured by the active reliance on God’s Word and active confession and acceptance that God does love us.

When we repent, we become available for God to use. Like the woman in the parable who searched diligently for the coin, she knew before she lost the coin the value it possessed. When God created me in His own image, He knew how important and useful I would be to Him. Genesis 1: 31a reads: God saw all that he had made and it was very good. Because God said we are very good, He uses us tremendously when we make the decision to return to Him. He rejoices over our repentance because He sees our lost state and knows for certain we can be used to bring the Most Glory to Him. He clearly sees our value in His Kingdom and honors us. When I hold on to God’s love the beautiful Glory of Jesus is revealed in my heart leading me to freely share my personal revelation of Christ. When I think back at how hopeless and lost I was, I can’t fathom going back to that same state.

It is this recollection of God’s mercy and urgency for my life that leads me to repentance and to want to share the gospel with others; that leads me to pray to know the heart of God and rejoice when lost ones are found. It is very clear: God rejoiced when I was found because he loved me even with all my sin and mistakes. I have learned that repentance is the practical way we can accept God’s love for us and it is when we finally realize that God is consistently seeking us and loves us that He reveals Himself to us. It is only then that we can truly become active participants of God’s urgent search for lost sinners.

God is seeking a love relationship with each one of us here; that is why he invited us to this conference. May we come to him in repentance and accept his wonderful love for us. May we share his heart to search for lost sinners and rejoice with God when they are found; let’s pray.

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