Grumblers Anonymous [2-1-26]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KenXz-FFCwc?si=kOrFCJ7AeGW2D5LR

February 1, 2026

Luke 15:1-10

“Grumblers Anonymous”

Building toward chapter fifteen, we’ve encountered all kinds of people and situations. They’ve been in stories and conversations and controversies from the announcement of Mary’s pregnancy to Jesus’ birth to when he sets his face for Jerusalem. There’s been a great variety of actions and interactions. We’ve see everyday life playing out in different places and faces. There have been healings and confrontations. There has been patience and frustration with people slow to understand. We’ve been here, there, and everywhere. Oh, the places Luke has taken us.

Luke now pivots us to themes of grace and mercy for all people. That is the central them of chapter fifteen. Grace and mercy are available through Jesus Christ for all people.

Luke 15 contains three parables. These three parables express an attitude

from Jesus that is decidedly different from the attitude of religious leaders of the time. And the truth of these parables is available to them as well. However wrong or stubborn someone is, these parables contain truth for all people.

First, what is a parable?

The word, parable, comes from a Greek compound word:

Para=alongside {from which we get parallel}

Ballein=to throw {from which we get ball}

When Jesus wants to make a point, he “throws a story alongside” it to deepen and/or make the meaning stick. Parables are a great teaching tool.

We immediately jump into the tone shift with these three parables. Here’s 15:1-2:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear

him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This

man receives sinners and eats with them.”

What’s the first thing you notice? Tax collectors and sinners…dishonorable people who engage in dishonorable activities…are desperate for joy and good news in their lives. That’s why they are drawn to Jesus.

They are described as sinners by the scribes and Pharisees primarily because they do not stick to the rules and practices and purity standards of the law of the time. In other words, they are sinners because they don’t practice religion the ways others think they should.

And so, the scribes and Pharisees grumble against them. Luke uses a great onomatopoetic word {a word that sounds like its meaning}. Diagogguzon is an intensive form of the verb for constant, heavy, indignant complaining. Imagine the outrage. Jesus is treating these horrible people with grace and mercy. What the scribes and Pharisees miss is that they are equally horrible people. Remember what Charles Spurgeon once said:

“If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be.”

I remind myself of that every day. Jesus even offers grace and mercy to grumblers. Imagine that.

Before moving into the parables, Luke wants us to remember another group of grumblers. It happens back in the Old Testament. It’s a reminder of the churlishness of people who neither believe nor trust the promises of God. It’s from, first of all, Exodus 16:2-3. This happens after God has led the people from the brutal, cruel, and harsh conditions of slavery in Egypt:

And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

How’s that for horrible human nature? The more things change, the more

they stay the same. I love this observation from philosopher Aldous

Huxley, who was born in 1894:

“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of

improving, and that’s your own self.”

How’s that for a powerful message to grumblers? Before trying to change the world, we work on ourselves. By becoming better individuals…more disciplined…more aware…more responsible…we create a ripple effect that can positively influence everything around us.

Grumblers are clueless about the beauty and effectiveness of such an approach.

The Old Testament follows up the description of grumbling with a way out:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

We find great joy in holding fast to God’s promises. It’s always a good thing when even complainers can know God’s presence with them. Which leads us to the first thing you might want to write down:

THE RECOVERY OF THE LOST BRINGS THE LORD JOY.

We hear how that plays out in the first parable of Luke 15:

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred

sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

15:3-7

Heaven rejoices when a sinner is saved. There is joy in heaven when a lost person is found, recovered, and restored.

Joy is a big point in these parables. That’s what’s missing in the life of the grumblers. Joy. But joy is huge in the Christian life. The Bible tells us that joy is one of the attributes of God. That’s why we have joy. Remember, we are created in the image of God. That’s why we’re able to experience joy, pleasure, delight, laughter, and happiness. The grumblers aren’t reflecting their created nature. They’re too grumbly.

What does Jesus say in verse seven? “There will be more joy in heaven

over one sinner who repents.” Jesus says that to everyone in his audience. Sinners. Tax Collectors. Grumblers. How good is that? We’re all invited into the joy. Here are some passages showing us how joy is foundational to our

faith:

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” {Romans 14:17}

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” {Romans 15:13}

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” {Psalm 51: 10-12}

God fills us with joy because He is joyful. He is the source of all joy. How

can anyone be a chronic grumbler? How can anyone be a curmudgeon? How can anyone live like they were weaned on a pickle? God rejoices. So should we. God is joyful. When we are faced with a fallen, broken world, and we remember how people can be terribly behaved, and how we’ve been our fair share of terrible, and we wonder why in the world God

redeems people, it hits us: Because it gives God great joy.

Again, something to write down:

GOD HAS GREAT JOY IN THE RECOVERY OF LOST SINNERS.

I love, love, love the way that great hymn, “Be Thou My Vision” expresses it in verse four:

High King of Heaven, my victory won,

May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heav'ns Sun!

Heart of my heart, whatever befall,

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

Before we dig a little deeper into the parable about lost sheep, one final passage from God’s Word that deals with joy. This is simply icing on the cake of how prevalent God’s joy is in His Word:

“And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

Matthew 25:22-23

So, now on to lost sheep. One hundred sheep is a big operation. There is more than one shepherd. So going after the one lost little dude will not put at risk the other ninety-nine. The other shepherds have that covered. A shepherd goes in search of that which is lost.

Last month, I bought a new pair of winter gloves. They weren’t that expensive. $26.00, on sale at Kohl’s. Within the first week, I lost one. I’ve got another pair. There are ninety-nine other sheep. But the point is, the value of something becomes heightened when it becomes lost. Are you with me on that? I keep the solo glove in my car in case I’m ever in a situation where I can give it to a one-armed or one-handed man. I’m serious about that. There is value in lost things.

How valuable does Jesus say the lost sheep is? The shepherd carries the

sheep back…weighing upward of seventy pounds…on his shoulders. And what does Jesus say the shepherd does all the way back? He rejoices. No burden…no grumbling…just rejoicing.

Remember who’s in the audience listening to this story. Grumblers and sinners and tax collectors, and people everywhere in the middle. And where did Jesus set his face back in chapter nine? For Jerusalem. And what’s going to happen in Jerusalem? Jesus will die on the cross. Arms outstretched. Receiving upon himself the punishment for our sin. There is heavenly joy over every sinner saved. A burden carried, as it were, on the shoulders of our Savior. Amen?

I love how Spurgeon ended a sermon of heavenly joy:

“From the cross uplifted high

Where the Saviour deigns to die,

What melodious sounds I hear,

Bursting on my ravish’d ear!

Love’s redeeming work is done;

Come and welcome, sinner, come.

You have but to trust him, and you have come to him; — to rely upon him, — to depend upon him, — to lean upon him, — to cast yourself upon him, to believe in Christ Jesus, who died, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; for, as soon as you do so, you are brought back to the great Father’s house. May the Divine Spirit bring you there now, for his love’s sake! Amen.”