Just Because There Is a Need

Our passage is found once again in Luke chapter 15. Before turning there, may I invite your attention to First Timothy chapter 3 and verse 14. First Timothy chapter 3 and verse 14. First Timothy 3:14.

These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Notice particularly the phrase, the house of God, which is the church of the living God.

Now turn if you will to Luke chapter 15 and verse 8. Luke 15 and verse 8. Reading from Luke chapter 15 and verse 8:

What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost.’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

I find the story that I am about to tell you a little embarrassing, and perhaps it may affect you in the same way. We have all heard about the serious famine which is gripping the African land of Somalia. We probably have all seen pictures of men, women and children who are starving on our television screens.

I understand that already over a hundred thousand people have died and an additional two million people are confronting the possibility of starvation. Yet in the midst of all of that human suffering and tragedy there stands the remarkable figure of a 39-year-old Italian woman whose name is Annalena Tonelli. Annalena Tonelli is tall, fair-skinned, a lawyer, and she left her native town of Pavia, Italy, 25 years ago to go out and live among Africa’s poor and sick just because there was a need.

Just because there was a need. She’s not a nun. She’s not a doctor. She’s not connected with any established church. And although her work is supported by gifts from Illinois and donations of medicine from the Red Cross, she works without a salary and usually works until 8 p.m. at night. Her only possessions are a small wooden bed and a table. Her clinics are without electricity or running water.

She tries to avoid publicity and although she gave an interview recently to Jack Kelly of USA Today she refused to allow him to take her picture. According to Jack Kelly’s report this is what Annalena Tonelli was involved with at the time of the interview. She was feeding 2,500 malnourished children within a stone wall courtyard. She was treating and instructing 400 children who were suffering from tuberculosis and were located in an abandoned bank building.

She was taking care of a hundred seriously sick adults in an abandoned Catholic mission and she was helping 90 poor women to weave baskets that they could sell on the local market. Dr. Mario Neri is a pediatrician who works with her and he said to Kelly she’s just following her heart. She believes that life should be lived very strongly.

But due to recent events in Somalia Annalena Tonelli has had to reconsider her commitment to that. Rival armed clans have wanted the buildings in which she is conducting her work and they have repeatedly threatened her and her staff and they have looted food and medicine from her. On the day before the interview with Kelly took place a car bomb exploded outside of the compound killing four people. And while the interview with Kelly was taking place someone tossed a grenade inside the compound and some armed rebel clansmen sprayed the area with machine gun fire.

That was too much for Tonelli and she got out and she stormed down the street totally unarmed to confront the gunmen who were fully armed. When they saw her coming they turned and ran away. Dr. Mario Neri turned to Kelly and shook his head and he said she’s not afraid of anything. There’s only one Annalena. She believes that there’s too much of a job to do to worry about death threats.

Kelly watched as Annalena Tonelli walked back to the compound surrounded by dozens of children and their mothers. Some of them were kissing her hand and others were trying to attract her attention by crying “Mamma mia! Mamma mia!” When Annalena Tonelli got back to the compound she turned to Jack Kelly and this is what she said. She said I have to stay. I am a part of them. I have to stay. I am a part of them.

And you know when I hear or read a story like that I’m a little embarrassed because it seems to me that in my lifetime none of the sacrifices that I have ever made for other people can for a moment be compared to the sacrifices that Annalena Tonelli is making every day of her life and making them just because there is a need. And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning.

And if you happen to be a typical self-centered American who is all wrapped up in his own affairs and concerns you can tune me out right now. This message is not for you. But if you want to do something important with your life, if you want your life on earth to be significant, then I have a project for you to be involved in just because there is a need.

And maybe you have already guessed it because I have repeated it several times but the words that I have repeated are indeed the title of my message to you this morning. For the title of my message today is this: Just Because There Is a Need.

Now most of you who have known me for a long time will not be at all surprised to hear that I frequently mislay articles and personal items around my small apartment. And I guess the three personal items most frequently lost by me are my keys, my eyeglasses and my four-color ink pen. Now which of those do you suppose is the hardest to find? Well if you guessed my eyeglasses you guessed correctly because without my eyeglasses I’m half blind.

And if I have laid them in some unexpected place I have to go all over the apartment peering closely on every possible spot to make sure that I do not miss them. And since I am a world-class performer when it comes to losing items in my home I can really and truly relate to the parable that Jesus told in which we read just a few minutes ago in our passage of Scripture. And I can fully sympathize with this woman who lost a silver coin and had to look for it very carefully.

Now you need to know this that the word that is translated silver coins here in Greek is the word drachma and the drachma was approximately what a field hand could earn by a whole day’s work out in the field. So one drachma was approximately equivalent to a day’s wage for a person working in the fields. And if you had ten drachmas in your possession you had a reasonable amount of money in your possession and if you lost one drachma you have lost the equivalent of a day’s pay for some people in the land of Israel.

And that brings me to the very first of three words that I want you to remember about this parable and the first of these words that I want you to remember is the word value. Value. This woman had lost a coin which had value.

Well the last time I spoke to you about the parable of the lost sheep I threw out a very daring challenge. You remember it. I told you that I had ten dollars in my wallet and I would happily give it to anybody after the meeting who could produce a verse from the Bible that says you have to repent in order to get eternal life or that you have to repent in order to get eternal salvation. Guess what folks? I kept my ten bucks. Nobody even tried to get it from me.

Now since I happen to like to ride a winning horse I am going to double the ante this morning. I have got twenty dollars in my pocketbook and if anyone after the meeting can produce a clear verse of the Bible that says you have to repent in order to be eternally saved or in order to get eternal life just come up and show it to me and twenty bucks will be yours. But do not hold your breath waiting for me to give away my twenty bucks because I hate to see people choking.

You see there is not any verse like that in the Bible and repentance is not a condition for eternal salvation and it is not a condition for eternal life. What does the Bible say? The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Jesus said most assuredly I say to you he that believes in me has everlasting life. And Jesus also said and we all know it by heart do we not for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life.

And the one and only condition for eternal salvation in the Bible is faith in Jesus Christ. And the very moment that you trust in him for your eternal destiny for your eternal salvation at that moment you receive the absolutely free gift of everlasting life and repentance has nothing to do with that. So what is repentance about? Because there is a good bit in the Bible about repentance and this whole chapter is about repentance.

What is the point of repentance? And we suggested to you last time that repentance is the condition for fellowship with God. Repentance from our sins is the condition for living lives that are in harmony with Jesus Christ. And we do not just repent one time. If you are anything like me you repent every day of things you have done of things you have said and if you do not repent you are out of fellowship with Jesus Christ your Savior and Lord.

Do you not see both the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin are in some ways the same story told in two different manners? The sheep that went astray belonged to the flock that the shepherd owned and the coin that was lost belonged to the collection of coins that the woman owned. Both of these stories are stories about Christians who have gone astray who have wandered away from the path that God wants them on.

And the only way they can come back is by repenting of their sins and returning to God. And each and every Christian who goes astray is valuable. Valuable to God. Years ago in what our history books called the war a young Englishman was captured. He was taken prisoner but after two weeks he escaped and his captors hunted for him and they put a price on his head and they circulated handbills that described him.

And folks the handbills were not particularly flattering. Listen to what they said: Englishman, 25 years old, about five feet eight inches tall, indifferent build, walks with a forward stoop, reddish brown hair, pale appearance, is a man who cannot pronounce the letter s correctly and talks through his nose. And as if that was not insulting they insulted him again by putting a very low price on his head. They only put on his head the price of 25 pounds in English money.

Now you are not going to believe this but guess who that Englishman was. You will never guess. That Englishman was Winston Churchill who later became the prime minister of Great Britain and he became the famous bold wartime leader who pulled England through the darkest days of World War II. Do you think his captors underestimated his value? I think so.

But listen sometimes when a Christian gets away from God sometimes when they do not show up at church anymore they have been a long time away from the Lord maybe consciously maybe unconsciously we begin to depreciate their value and we kind of think that they are not worth all that much anymore and that the people who are coming to church and the people who are serving God the people who love God are much more valuable than they are.

But notice my friends the lost drachma was worth every bit as much as any of the drachmas that were not lost and I want you to understand this morning that for God there is no loss of value in a Christian just because he has gone astray. Why? Because that Christian has been redeemed not with corruptible things like silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. That Christian has been bought with a price.

That Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that Christian is a Christian who is going to stand someday in the presence of God in a glorified body praising and worshiping him. And I am telling you if we forget the value of Christians like that God never does. God never does. Each and every one of His children is precious to Him.

So do not be surprised that when this woman finds out that her coin is lost she flies into the process of looking for it. And that brings me to the second word of this parable that I want you all to remember. The first word was value and the second word is diligence. The second word is diligence.

You see this woman lights a lamp so that she can look in the darkest crevices and corners of the house. She takes a broom so that she can sweep into the dirt that may be hiding that lost coin and the Bible says she searches carefully. She searches diligently until she finds it. Now right here an obvious question arises does it not? Who is this woman? Who is she?

Well remember that this chapter contains three parables about repentance and in the first parable the hero is a shepherd. We do not have any trouble identifying Him as the Lord Jesus Christ do we? And the third parable is the parable about the father who welcomed home his prodigal son and we do not have any trouble identifying that loving father with our gracious and loving heavenly Father.

So parable number one is about God the Son and parable number three is about God the Father. Who is missing folks? Who is missing? May I suggest that parable number two is about God the Holy Spirit and that this woman represents the Holy Spirit of God.

Now I hope that there is nobody out in the audience who is starting to say uh there is that preacher who for six weeks drove around with a Clinton-Gore sticker on his automobile and Clinton was supported by the feminists and no sooner has he gotten elected than the preacher gets out on the side of the feminists and he is telling us that a woman can represent the Holy Spirit. Well folks if you have not looked at my automobile this morning you will notice that the Clinton-Gore sticker is gone and this time I took it off myself.

And furthermore as I have been telling everybody if anybody can come up with a Jack Kemp in 96 bumper sticker I will put it on right away. But I pause to say this that Mr. Clinton is scheduled to be our leader for the next four years and I intend to pray for him regularly just as I also pray for President Bush. So this interpretation does not have anything to do with politics folks. I want to assure you of that.

But think of it one of the primary responsibilities that is given to women is to run the home to manage the home and that is why the apostle Paul says in First Timothy that he wants the younger Christian widows to marry and manage the home. And if you ever read the last chapter of the book of Proverbs which presents the ideal wife you will find that she runs everything in the home. She runs everything and by doing so of course she frees up her husband for his activities as well.

Matthew when the Lord Jesus Christ went back to heaven He sent the Holy Spirit to earth to create the Christian church and to live in the Christian church and the Christian church on earth is like God’s house. We saw that in the statement in First Timothy chapter 3 the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and support of the truth. And listen the Holy Spirit manages the house in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He controls all that goes on and whatever is done to the glory of God in the Christian church all over the world is done by the power and working of the Holy Spirit of God. And if we can look at the parable in this way it seems to me that a very wonderful truth leaps out at us and the truth is this that the shepherd who is concerned for his sheep is equaled by the woman who is concerned for her coin. Or to put it another way the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit share God’s concern for the Christian who has gone astray and they diligently they diligently look for that Christian.

Many years ago there was a woman in the city of Boston and as she was coming out of a police station she tripped on the top of a flight of stone stairs and fell down the stairs. She was seriously injured taken to the hospital and the doctor who examined her said that she would hardly live more than a day. While the nurse was taking care of her the nurse was very kind to her and the nurse won her confidence and so the woman said this to the nurse.

The woman said I have traveled from California stopping in every major city from San Francisco to Boston always going into two places the police station and the hospital. She said you see my boy left me and he did not tell me where he was going so I sold my property so that I could take this trip and look for him. And if ever my son comes into this hospital I want you if you notice him to say to him that there were two who never gave up on him.

That night as the doctor stood by her bedside and stated that in minutes she was going to pass away the nurse leaned over to the dying woman and she said tell me the names of the two and if I see your son I will tell them to him. And the woman replied tell him if you see him but the two who never gave up on him were God and his mother.

Now I know that in our story the woman represents the Holy Spirit but may I suggest to you that whenever a Christian is recovered to God there are always at least two at least two who are searching for him. You see the Holy Spirit works through us and when he lights the lamp of his truth we carry that truth to the straying Christian and when he uses the broom of his word to sweep away the dirt and grime he allows you and me to wield that broom.

And maybe the person who is cooperating with the Holy Spirit in searching for a straying Christian maybe that person is that Christian’s mother or maybe that person is the Christian’s father or maybe the Christian is not related to the straying Christian at all and the reason that the Christian is involved is just because there is a need. Christian friend this morning are you too wrapped up in your own affairs and interests to be involved in something like this? Or are you allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you to seek out some fellow Christian who has gone astray and to encourage them to come to repentance and return to fellowship with God?

Do you know that it is possible that you could be the only native evangelist of Victor Street Bible Chapel because you get involved you allow the Spirit to use you just because there is a need? Well guess what happens? Just what happens? The woman finds the coin and that brings us to the third of the words that I want you to remember about this parable. The first word was value. The second word was diligence. And the third word my friends is joy.

Joy. Remember that when the shepherd found his lost sheep that he called together his friends and neighbors and he said rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that is lost and Jesus interprets that by saying and I say to you there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. And did you notice that the woman does exactly the same thing? She summons her friends and neighbors and she says to them rejoice with me I have found the drachma I have found the coin that I lost.

And Jesus adds likewise there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Hey do not read that wrong. Are there any of you who think that that just said the angels are going to be rejoicing? They did not say that. There will be joy in the presence of the angels of God. No doubt they will rejoice but…