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Luke 15

Small group discussion guide

The big idea

God loves you so much that He searches for you when you’re lost - and when you come home, He runs to you with joy.

Read together

Read Luke 15 aloud before you begin — it takes about 3 minutes. These opening verses set it up:

1 Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

3 And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

Talk about it

  1. The shepherd goes after the one until he find it (v. 4) - the seeking has no quitting point. Where have you assumed God had given up on you, or on someone you love, long after the search would have stopped being convenient? And the chapter says heaven breaks into joy over one sinner who repents (v. 7). When someone with a wrecked past turns toward God, is your first reaction the shepherd’s joy - or something closer to the scribes’ murmur?
  2. Two things in these short parables are worth carrying out the door. First, the seeking is relentless and the joy is loud - the shepherd searches until he find it, the woman lights a lamp and sweeps till she find it, and both end with a party and the cry Rejoice with me. If you have been measuring God by your own reluctance - assuming He is as grudging toward you as you would be toward yourself - let these stories correct the picture. Heaven’s settled disposition toward a returning sinner is joy. Second, the parables put a question to anyone who has been faithful a long time. The scribes who murmured were the ninety-nine, the nine, the ones who never wandered - and their failure was that they could not Rejoice with me. So this week, do two concrete things. If you have been holding back from God, sure He is exasperated with you, come home and find Him rejoicing. And if you are the long-faithful one, look for someone whose return others have met with suspicion - the relapse, the wreck, the one who burned every bridge - and deliberately rejoice with them. Be the friend the shepherd calls to celebrate.
  3. The woman lights a lamp and sweeps every corner, seeking diligently till she find it (v. 8) - a small, dark house searched with real care. Is there a lost “coin” in your own life - a relationship, a calling, a part of yourself - that you have stopped searching for because finding it felt unlikely? And heaven rejoices in the presence of the angels over one repenting sinner (v. 10). How does it change your picture of God to know that your turning home is met with celebration?
  4. This chapter ends with the father out in the dark, pleading with a son who will not come in - and the genius of leaving it there is that the next line is yours to write. Most of us are, at any given time, somewhere in this story. There is the prodigal, who needs to hear that the far country is never too far and the road home ends in a running embrace - if that is you, the application is simply to arise and go, to stop rehearsing whether you will be received and start walking, because the Father is already watching the road. And there is the elder brother, the danger for anyone who has been faithful a long while: to serve God for years as mere duty, to stand inside the house with all that I have is thine and feel only obligation, and then to bristle when grace is poured out on someone who has not earned it. That resentment hides easily under a clean record. So sit honestly with which son you are right now. If you are the younger, come home today - the welcome is surer than you fear. If you are the elder, the harder and more needed work is this: name the person whose forgiveness or restoration you have quietly begrudged, and go in to the joy over them. The father came out to both sons. The only question the parable leaves open is whether you will come in.
  5. The father sees the son yet a great way off and ran (v. 20) - reaching him before he could finish his confession. Is there a rehearsed speech you have been afraid to bring to God, certain you must earn your way back before you can come? What would change if you believed He is already running toward you? And the elder brother stood outside the music, angry, and would not go in (v. 28). Whose welcome home have you found yourself begrudging - and what would it cost you to go in to the joy?

Where it points to Christ

The seeking shepherd of this parable is no stranger; He is telling the crowd about Himself. They had accused Him: This man receiveth sinners (v. 2). He answers by describing a shepherd who doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it (v. 4), and lays it on his shoulders rejoicing (v. 5). This is the very thing Luke says He came to do: the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10)[res:intertextual-luke-15]. He took up the title for Himself without disguise: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep (John 10:11), and again, I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:15). It is the answer to an ancient promise, where God says of His scattered flock, I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away (Ezek. 34:16) - the LORD Himself coming to do what the careless shepherds of Israel would not. And the carrying matters as much as the seeking: the sheep does nothing but be found and lifted. Here is the heart of grace toward the helpless: a Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine, comes the whole way to where we have wandered, and carries us home on His own shoulders, rejoicing - the rescue entirely His to accomplish. The murmur was right about one thing. This man does receive sinners. That is the gospel.

Notes

Luke 15 · Scripture quoted from the KJV, a public-domain translation. Free to copy and use in your church — no licence and no attribution required. More at learnofchrist.com