Luke 15

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¹Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. ✦ ²This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! ✦ ³So Jesus told them this story: ⁴“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? ✦ ⁵And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. ✦ ⁶When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ ✦ ⁷In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! ✦ ⁸“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? ✦ ⁹And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ ✦ ¹⁰In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” ✦ ¹¹To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. ✦ ¹²The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. ✦ ¹³“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. ✦ ¹⁴About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. ✦ ¹⁵He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. ✦ ¹⁶The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. ✦ ¹⁷“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! ✦ ¹⁸I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, ✦ ¹⁹and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’ ✦ ²⁰“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. ✦ ²¹His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ ✦ ²²“But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. ✦ ²³And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, ✦ ²⁴for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began. ✦ ²⁵“Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, ✦ ²⁶and he asked one of the servants what was going on. ²⁷‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’ ✦ ²⁸“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, ✦ ²⁹but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. ✦ ³⁰Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’ ✦ ³¹“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. ✦ ³²We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Where this chapter connects

Luke 15 ·29 Eph 2 ·12 Luke 7 ·8 Luke 19 ·7 Jer 31 ·7 Ezek 34 ·7 Luke 18 ·6 Ezek 16 ·6

Christ at the center

Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.

How Luke 15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Luke videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Luke 15YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Luke 15David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on LukeMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Luke 15Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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