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The Three Parables in Luke 15: Why God Repeats His Message of Love

Michael Prodigalidad · 2025-07-04 · 438 words · 3 min

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Summary

Expository

God repeats the message of his seeking love three times in Luke 15 because human hearts are slow and dull, and every individual — however overlooked by the world — is personally known and pursued by God.

Why does Scripture record three parables about lostness in a single chapter? Drawing on Luke 15, this exposition argues that divine repetition is not redundancy but pastoral mercy — God driving home the same nail of love and grace until it holds. The sermon calls both the familiar and the first-time hearer to lower their defences and receive afresh the truth that God knows every individual, whether near or far, and actively seeks the lost.

Key quotes

You may be one person of 7 billion on the planet. But God knows you. God knows your struggles. God knows your desires.
You may just be a number in your school records or university or college, but not to the true and living God.
You may be near. You may be far, but God sees you. God knows you. And he wants you to hear this.

Applications

  1. Lower your barriers and listen to the parables of Luke 15 afresh, even if you have heard them many times before.
  2. Do not switch off when Scripture repeats itself — recognise the repetition as God's patience with your slowness to learn.
  3. Receive the personal assurance that God sees and knows you, whatever number or category the world assigns you.

Questions this sermon answers

Why does Luke 15 contain three parables about the same thing?

Scripture uses repetition to reinforce truths that are critically important; the three parables function like a builder's tap-tap-drive, pressing the message of God's seeking love progressively deeper.

Does God really know me as an individual?

The speaker insists that however anonymous a person may be to governments, schools, or institutions, the true and living God knows each person individually — their struggles, desires, dreams, and ambitions.

Why should I listen to a parable I have already heard many times?

Because Christians are slow to learn and prone to forget; repeated exposure to the same truth is a pastoral mercy, not a waste of time.

Why Three Parables on Lostness

Why do we have three parables on lostness? Well, stylistically, scripture uses repetition to reinforce something that's very important, something that we need to understand. It needs we need to re we need repetition to emphasize truths. Um,

The Nail and the Hammer Illustration

something about me, I'm not very good with my hands. Uh, you know, home handiwork is is not my forte. Ask me mathematical questions, scientific questions, business questions. I'm happy to wax lyrical about those things, but give me a hammer.

It's a 5050 bet I hold the right end. But I have a friend, a fellow welder, who is a builder. He's very good with his hands and I've seen him wield that hammer to great effect. And what he does is he takes the nail, he places where and he goes tap tap and then tap and it drives it home.

It's not one big drive and it's not even three little taps. It's tap tap and then one big drive. And he puts that nail where it needs to go. And I think we have three parables.

Two smaller ones, the little taps and then one big one to drive the message home.

Pastoral Reason: Our Slowness to Learn

Pastorally, we have three parables because it also reminds us of our slowness, our dullness. As I age, it's harder to remember things, slow to learn, and we can sometimes be stubborn like nails. Maybe you've heard par uh sermons on these uh parables before. I'm sure if you've been sitting under Pastor Butler's preaching, you would have come across one of these parables.

But I suspect that as we go through this today, and and I'm mindful that if you've heard this parable, you you may switch off. There's a great temptation to switch off. But there are many exhortations in the Bible that you've forgotten. You've been slow to learn.

So I want to invite you if you've read this a dozen times to to to lower your barriers and to listen to these things aresh.

God Knows and Seeks Every Individual

I'm going to remind each one of you here. You might be one person of 7 billion on the planet. But God knows you. God knows your struggles.

God knows your desires. He knows your dreams. He know he knows your ambition. You are not just a you may be a number to the Canadian tax uh bureau or whatever they're called.

You may just be a number in your school records or university or college, but not to the true and living God. You may be near. You may be far, but God sees you. God knows you.

And he wants you to hear this

Scripture References

Study notes

Theological terms

  • Lostness×3