30 Days of Prayer for the Harvest

Day 26 – Friday, February 6, 2026

Read Luke 15:1-7

¹ Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. ² And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” ³ So He spoke this parable to them, saying: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ ⁷ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:1-7).

Luke 15 is one of the clearest and greatest statements in the Word of God concerning the love of God for lost sinners. Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (prodigal son). Each story shows the heart of the Lord for the lost. The Lord is pictured as a good shepherd who searches until he finds one lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7), as a woman who searches until she finds her lost coin (Luke 15:8-10), and a father who looks for his lost son to return. In each story, there is great joy when the lost is found.

Today, I just want us to focus on the setting for these parables. In Luke 14, Jesus had just taught the multitudes about discipleship, what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus—bearing the cross and counting the cost (Luke 14:25-35). Luke 14 ends with Jesus saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Luke 15 begins with the statement, “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.” (Luke 15:1). The people who responded positively to Jesus’ invitation to hear Him were the tax collectors and sinners. Why would these sorts of people flock to Jesus? As broken and sinful as they were, Jesus was speaking grace to them. He offered them love and mercy and acceptance, giving them an opportunity for new life. Like those seeking cool water on a blistering hot day, these people came in droves to get what Jesus offered them.

These were the unfavorables, the deplorables of Jewish society in the first century. These were people that the “good” religious leaders looked down on, rejected, and cast out. In fact, Luke goes on to show this attitude from the Pharisees, “And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”” (Luke 15:2).

What a charge against Jesus! Yes, He did. It was a scandal to the Pharisees, but a great word of hope for sinners. If the thought of standing before the holy God who knows everything you have ever thought, said, or done frightens you, because you know that your sin is great, don’t run! Rather, do what these sinners in Jesus’ day did: Draw near to Him and listen to Him. He will receive you.

Sinners Jesus will receive:
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the heav’nly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall.0

Sing it o’er and o’er again;
Christ receiveth sinful men;
Make the message clear and plain:
Christ receiveth sinful men.[i]

Jesus owns up to the Pharisees’ charge and defends Himself by telling three parables that all make the same point: God goes to great effort to seek lost sinners and He greatly rejoices when they come to repentance.

If that is what our God is like, then that is what we, as His people, should be like.

Today’s Prayer

(This prayer is just a model for you to pray, make the prayer your own from your heart as the Lord helps you to pray).

Father, thank You that You receive sinners. If it were not so, I would have no hope. Let me never forget how lost I was without Christ. Let me not look down on my fellow sinners as the Pharisees did. May I receive them and show them Your love just as Jesus did to the tax collectors and sinners of His day.

Lord, today I pray for those who are still lost. I ask that You would draw them to Yourself by the grace and goodness of Jesus Christ. Bring them to repentance and faith.

Lord, may I find great joy in seeing lost sinners come to repentance.

Amen.