Year C. 1st Term. Lesson 4. Parable Series: The lost sheep and the lost coin

Scripture: for teacher background:  Luke 15:1-10

Making contact:

1. Play the hot/cold game. Send one child out of the room. Hide something like a sheep puppet or ball of wall, or a coin. Everyone else knows where it is hidden. Call the child back in and as they begin looking, you tell them if they are hot or cold. Cold is far away from the hidden thing and getting warmer is when they are getting closer. Very hot is when they are so close the article will burn them.
2. You can play the same game using a song. You all sing softly when they are far away and very loudly when they are close by.

 Exploration:

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were grumbling about Jesus that He welcomed outcasts and even shared meals with them. They hated that He was kind to people that they thought were beyond God’s love. They felt there were people just not worth caring for.

 So He told them these 2 parables. The meaning is the same – like a pair of shoes – this is a pair of parables.

Suppose one of them had a hundred sheep and he lost one of them. What would he do? He would leave the 99 and go and look for the lost one. 

When he finds it, he is so happy and he puts it on his shoulder and carries it home. 

Then he calls his friends and neighbours and says: “I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!”

 In the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over

99 respectable people who do not need to repent.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel said that God searches for His sheep Himself and looks after them. “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so I will look after my sheep.

 I will rescue them form all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays."(Ezekiel 34:11,12,16)

The other parable is about a humble housewife who loses a coin that was probably part of her wedding necklace.

 At once she lights a lamp and sweeps every little corner. She looks carefully everywhere. 

She is so excited when she finds it that she calls her friends and neighbours together and they have a party to celebrate.

 In the same way, the angels celebrate and rejoice over one sinner who repents.

Application

We can be lost in life just like that one sheep or the one coin and God is looking and longing for us to be found. 

He is like that anxious shepherd searching and searching for us and there is huge jubilation and celebration when we are found. 

God is very concerned about people who have lost their way in life. He doesn’t just write them off and say “Oh they are too bad or too useless to worry about.”

 There is no one too lost or too bad to go and look for. God loves sinners and no sinner is too bad for God to love and search for. 

The Pharisees thought they were very good people, they didn’t need to repent, or so they thought. We must also be careful of thinking we are too good for God. All of us need Him.

Jesus knew what made God happy and He also knew what great celebration goes on in Heaven over one sinner who repents.

Imagine if that person was you and Jesus finds you and you repent and say sorry and He washes your sins all away. 

Well, the angels are celebrating and having an enormous party for you because they are so happy that Jesus found you.

Does God look for us and search for us with so much effort, or does He sit in Heaven shaking His head at our sin and wait for us to pull ourselves together?

 He went to a lot of trouble to come and search for us. He became a baby, born in a manger, grew up to teach us His way and then they killed Him, but He knew that His death would be the way how we could be found and made new people.

 Let’s not waste all that He has done for us. Let’s cause a party in Heaven. Let’s repent and be found.

Challenge to Mission

A man was left to die on a pavement in Johannesburg because the paramedics thought he was too dirty for their ambulance. 

This got in the papers and everyone made a big fuss about how terrible these paramedics were. But how often do we also leave people because they are too “far gone”, or too dirty or too poor? 

The shepherd went to search for one lost sheep just like this man. Mother Theresa searched for others in Calcutta, also dying on the streets.

 Maybe we can’t do that, but we can look for one lonely child crying on the playground because he doesn’t have a friend. 

This week, why don’t you help Jesus look for a lost sheep, or a lost silver coin who is a person who really needs some love?

Consolidation

There is a worksheet with a word search.

Memory Verse

“There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine people who do not need to repent.” Luke 15:7