The Lost Sheep

Luke 15:1-7

Good News Translation (GNT)

15 One day when many tax collectors and other outcasts came to listen to Jesus, ² the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling, “This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them!” ³ So Jesus told them this parable:

⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it. ⁵ When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders ⁶ and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbors together and say to them, ‘I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!’ 

  ⁷ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent."

Worthless Salt

Luke:14:34-35  (GNT) (Jesus said)

³⁴ “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. ³⁵ It is no good for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown away. Listen, then, if you have ears!”

The Cost of Being a Disciple

Luke 14:25-33 (GNT) Once when large crowds of people were going along with Jesus, He turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to Me cannot be My disciple unless he loves Me more than he loves his father and his mother, his wife and his children, his brother and his sisters, and himself as well.  Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  If one of you is planning to build a tower, he sits down first and figures out what it will cost, to see if he has enough money to finish the job.  If he doesn't, he will not be able to finish the tower after laying the foundation; and all who see what happened will make fun of him.  'This man began to build but can't finish the job!' they will say.  If a king goes out with ten thousand men to fight another king who comes against him with twenty thousand men, he will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king.   If he isn't, he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace while he is still a long way off.  In the same way," concluded Jesus, "none of you can be My disciple unless he gives up everything he has."

The Parable of the Great Feast (continued)

Luke 14:21-24 (GNT) (Jesus continues) "The servant went back and told all this to his master.  The master was furious and said to his servant, 'Hurry out to the streets and alleys of the town, and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.'  Soon the servant said, 'Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is room for more.'  So the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full.  I tell you all that none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner!' "

The Parable of the Great Feast

Luke 14:15-20 Good News Translation (GNT)

¹⁵ When one of the guests sitting at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, “How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”
 

¹⁶ Jesus said to him, “There was once a man who was giving a great feast to which he invited many people. ¹⁷ When it was time for the feast, he sent his servant to tell his guests, ‘Come, everything is ready!’ ¹⁸ But they all began, one after another, to make excuses. The first one told the servant, ‘I have bought a field and must go and look at it; please accept my apologies.’ ¹⁹ Another one said, ‘I have bought five pairs of oxen and am on my way to try them out; please accept my apologies.’ ²⁰ Another one said, ‘I have just gotten married, and for that reason I cannot come.’

Humility and Hospitality continued...

Luke 14:12-14 (GNT) Then Jesus said to His host, "When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors - for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did.  When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back.  God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death."

Humility and Hospitality

Luke 14:7-11  (GNT) Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the best places, so He told this parable to all of them: "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place.  It could happen that someone more important than you has been invited, and your host, who invited both of you, would have to come and say to you, 'Let him have this place.'  Then you would be embarrassed and have to sit in the lowest place.  Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that your host will come to you and say, 'Come on up, my friend, to a better place.' This will bring you honor in the presence of all the other guests.  For everyone who makes himself great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be made great."