Discover The Word

Thursday, September 10, 2009

“So He spoke this parable to them, saying, ‘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? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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!” 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 15:3-7).

IDEA: God’s love for the lost is aggressive.

PURPOSE: To demonstrate that Jesus is aggressive about finding the lost.

Listen again to this familiar story that is part of a parable Jesus told (Luke 15:3-7).

I. One question people have had about the story is “What happened to the ninety-nine sheep that were left in the wilderness?”

Were they left to themselves just to roam around? (Perhaps by the time the shepherd got back from his search, there would have been ninety-nine more he would have to go after.)

Shepherds with a flock of a hundred sheep did not care for that many alone. He would have left the flock in the care of others.

That is probably what happened. But at the same time we must admit that the ninety-nine are left hanging. We can assume all we like, but we really don’t know.

Why do you think the story ignores that question?

II. The focus of the story is on the one sheep that is lost.

The parable shows the radical, almost illogical reaction of love to a sheep that is lost. It is a dramatic device to heighten the emergency aspect of the story.

Policemen, firemen do this all the time for children who wander off and are lost. They ignore all else that is going on in a community to rescue that one lost child. Think of how diligently they seek the child.

Off the coast of Woodshole, Massachusetts, a storm arose suddenly and a mother rushed to the beach shouting that her young son was out on the ocean in a small boat fishing. Immediately a group of men climbed into a boat and rowed out into the churning waters to risk their lives to rescue that one child. One of the village women said, “It seems so foolish that so many men should risk their lives for that one kid.” To which her friend came back, “Would you feel that the odds were wrong if that were your child?”

Wise parents usually try to love all their children equally. They don’t deliberately neglect some for the others. They try to treat all the children the same. But if one child becomes ill, or gets into serious trouble, then that is an emergency situation, and the parents give focused attention on the one sick, troubled child.

Jesus began His ministry by saying, “I must be about my Father’s business.” Now He is showing by story and action what His Father’s business is—to find the lost, and to find them now!

That is to be the concern of those who are followers of Jesus and who share His heart. Reaching the lost has about it all of the urgency that a shepherd feels when he discovers that one of his sheep has been lost.