What Jesus Said
He Left the 99 For You
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Welcome:
Call to Worship: Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
We continue to learn from Jesus’ teachings and example through the Gospel of Luke this month, and today we’re going to look more closely at the parable of the Lost Sheep.
I saw this picture come across Facebook a while back and it just stopped me and I couldn’t stop looking at it. This picture says so much more than we sometimes get out of reading the parable by itself. Look at this little lamb, alone in the elements of the weather, vulnerable to prey lurking about, lost out in the woods, potentially stuck in the mud and separated from the flock. Ever felt like this little lamb? Maybe you do right completely exposed, lost, and have no idea how to get back to safety.
Then look, we see the Shepherd in the background just standing there but clearly on a mission to find this lost lamb and in seeing the lamb, is running to rescue it from the danger it is in. Running…
It’s a powerful image for me that speaks of His reckless love as we just this image portrays. There is nowhere we can go that He won’t come find us! We are never too far gone, too lost that He won’t track us down and bring us back to safety. He is our Good Shepherd who not only watches out for us, but He lays His life down for us, to keep us from the clutches of the evil one and bring us into the green pastures with all the saints. This is why He was sent from the Father, and this is why He came, to seek out and save the lost.
This image is how I want to see My Jesus and His love for me when my heart wants to wander or stray; to know He is searching for me and will come running after me to bring me back into the fold, back into safe pasture under His watchful care. We can’t fully comprehend a love so great.
Although we do have some ideas, even with our pets or maybe our farm animals when one becomes lost. My goodness the Rio Facebook page is always sharing about some dog on the loose and people understand how much a beloved dog means to a family and they try to help or at least offer encouraging words hoping for their safe return. We see the community rejoice when someone posts the pet is found again; we understand the joy of having the pet safely back home and the peace of mind of knowing they are ok.
And as much as I love my animals, God’s love for His children is so far beyond our understanding and there is no length He won’t go to, to call His children out of darkness back into His light. He says “They are Mine and no one can snatch them out of My hand.” This image for me brings in the emotion of the search and rescue we all feel when we have been in that position with our pets or even our children. Pure elation in finding them and rescuing them before they are harmed beyond return! We rejoice when we find them and that is exactly what God and all of heaven do when one sinner is found and offers his/her heart to God! There is nothing greater to celebrate! There is JOY in the kingdom of heaven! There is JOY in the worship of our God and King who loves us beyond measure and spares nothing to keep us safe in His care. There is JOY when we see another lost soul find his/her way home. We should be joyful as Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is drawing hearts unto Himself-another one free from the clutches of evil.
Yet as we’ll see in our message today, we don’t always rejoice. The Pharisees didn’t rejoice in those whom Jesus was drawing. Instead, they showed great disdain and were not approving at all; for these people, were known sinners. They were not righteous like the Pharisees and Scribes; they were not clean; and why on earth would Jesus associate with them? We don’t break bread with the sinners; we don’t sit at the same table with them; and we certainly don’t want them in our synagogues bringing their filth in here.
Jesus had a word for them and He has one for His Church today too. Let us listen to His teaching; let us hear the heart of God for His children and let us examine our hearts today, and choose joy as He chooses joy!
The parable is short, but don’t be fooled. There is much Jesus is saying in this short teaching.
Luke 15: 1-7 NIV
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
- Sent to Gather the Lost.
God sent His Son, down from glory, to gather up the lost who had been scattered by whom, those who were supposed to care for them; those who were entrusted to watch over them. Instead, those in the place of leadership and power were oppressed, condemned, and sent right into the den of the enemy lurking about. The religious leaders were entrusted to be shepherds to the flock of Israel, but they failed them. Jesus was about to call them out and make this known.
Luke 15: 1-2 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
We see in their response the disdain they have for those flocking to hear Jesus and learn from Him. They couldn’t fathom why Jesus would do such a thing and put Himself in a position to become unclean by associating with those who were unclean, or to certainly be seen with those who are known sinners. These people they were mentioning had sins that were publicly known and did not keep up with the purification traditions the religious elite prided themselves on. So these people were without shepherds because they weren’t worthy of one in the religious leaders' eyes; they weren’t righteous like them.
Ever wonder why Jesus told this particular parable for these Pharisees and scribes? It’s not just any parable He grabbed out of His box of stories and said oh this one will paint a nice picture. This goes directly back to God’s own words spoken through the prophet Ezekiel as a warning to the leaders and shepherds of Israel.
Ezekiel 34: 1-6 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.
Ezekiel 34: 11-12 11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
Enter in Jesus as the Shepherd who came to do what the previous shepherds would not do. Jesus knew they were familiar with this as they studied all the prophets and the Scriptures through them. So the fact that He told a parable about lost sheep and how much value there was in finding and gathering one lost sheep, would hit home. He was reminding them what God Himself declared and called the leaders to do.
The Pharisees grumbled about Jesus’ association with such sinners before when Jesus called Levi, the Tax Collector to follow Him and become His disciple. Then He dared go into the tax collector’s home and dine with him and others like him. It was unheard of! We must remember tax collectors were the worst of all sinners-that is why they get their separate grouping in Scripture- they worked for the Roman government who oppressed Israel and they took money from their people to give to the ones who were oppressing them. They were considered thieves and traitors and were most despised. Jesus knew this and knew the ones who were deeply lost.
Luke 5: 30-32 NASB 0 The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.”
In this response, Jesus is using the Pharisee's terminology against them. He was saying, I did not come to call the righteous-as you call yourself who think they are already saved but have no idea how lost they are-but I have come to call the sinner-as you call them- (of course everyone is a sinner for we all fall short of the glory of God-but the religious elite didn’t view themselves in that light). He said I have come for those who know they are lost and are looking for someone to save them. These are the ones I came for ones who will hear My voice and respond to My call.
- The Shepherd Seeks and Saves!
Jesus tells us John 15 “You did not choose Me but I chose you…” God is the pursuer of our hearts and we read in Psalm 139 from King David Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. He will always find us, no matter where we run to or stray. For this is His heart- to tenderly watch over us and bring us back into His care.
John 10: 14-16 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
This is why Jesus came; to bring unity to all God’s children and chosen ones, to gather all who were scattered and bring them back to safe pasture. One day there will be one flock-the body of Christ; the children of God; and one Shepherd-Jesus Christ, our King of kings and Lord of lords. He is actively gathering the lost right now from all over the world until the Father calls us all home.
The Good Shepherd has a compassionate heart for those who have gone astray and is searching them out.
Look at who was flocking to Jesus; the ones who recognized their Shepherd when He called to them; the ones who were comforted in His words-it was the tax collectors and the sinners. The social outcasts that nobody else wanted anything to do with. These were the ones Jesus had a deep love for; come on home lost lamb.
Luke 15: 1-2 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Those who needed Jesus the most; who needed hope; who needed rescue from the pit of despair and shame; who needed light in their darkness; who needed love and redemption were cast out from the religious ones in their day.
Jesus was making it known have it all wrong. If you are found, it is your responsibility to go and seek out the lost and bring them back to the flock; show them the way home. Reach down your hand and pull them out of the pit. Shine My light into their darkness. Share hope in their hopelessness and help set their feet on My rock. Let us not miss this; for it is surely not about giving thanks we aren’t like somebody else who is a worse sinner than we are, but rather giving thanks that every time we have been lost, our Savior and Good Shepherd seeks us out and saves us. Again and again. For we all stray and wander, just as Israel did throughout their history. The hymn Come Thou Fount speaks a truthful and humble prayer, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for thy courts above.”
But for the grace and love of God, none of us could perish when we wander off on our own. Let us remember this verse and pray it when we feel our heart has wandered:
Psalm 119:176 I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.
Because it is that wandering and lost heart that brought our Savior here and it is that lost soul our Savior cannot resist to rescue.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost
- Rejoice! Cause for Celebration.
Look at the response of the Shepherd who found that lost sheep and let our hearts ponder that overwhelming joy that our God feels when one of His children returns to Him with a repentant heart.
Luke 15: 5-6 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
This other picture caught my attention too and made me think of this verse-how He tenderly holds us, knowing we are weakened as we stray and have been caught in the elements. He carries us back to safety. There is joy in His heart for we have been found and our heart is joined with His heart again.
Luke 15:7 7 I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
It’s a party up in heaven! He wants us to rejoice with Him! There are times for being somber in our worship but hear this message of JOY in our worship and JOY in the kingdom! We can and should be joyful in following Jesus because He is joyful in finding us! Let us rejoice with Heaven when a lost sinner has been found!
Conclusion: God is the pursuer of our hearts. He sent His Son to seek us out and save us. Give thanks for a love so great, that no matter your past or where you might run to, your Good Shepherd is coming to gather you home.
Let’s pray.
Offering: remember we are giving to the Rio Area Food Pantry for our February Love Offering.
Prayers:
Final Song
Final Blessing: Psalm 121:7-8 The Lord will keep you from all evil;he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
