Jesus spent some time with some shady people: tax collectors and sinners. This frustrated the religious, “super-duper Christian” types. So Jesus told a series of three stories: Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost Son.

Now, when the Scripture writers repeat themselves, it is saying something like: PAY ATTENTION HERE! Only in a few instances does the biblical authors, or Jesus himself, do a series of THREE. It’s like Jesus is saying:

“Okay, here’s a story…

“Now just in case you missed my point, here’s another story…

“Now because I know you are still not getting what I am saying, here is a third story right between the eyes!”

Jesus is strongly emphasizing that the reason he came is to seek and save the lost, not the righteous.

The Parable of the Losts [y3_w13]

Story Lesson (369.27kb, pdf)
Audio File: Lost Sheep (2.84mb, mp3), Lost Coin (3.33mb, mp3), and Lost Son (7.36mb, mp3)
Video Link: Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost Son (11.27.11 @ vimeo.com)
Video Link (11.30.08 @ vimeo.com)

This post is part of the ongoing Main Street Teaching series. Click here to view a list of the other posts in this series.