Lost 1: The Lost Sheep

Good morning, and welcome to Family Worship with the church family of Eastern Hills! In all that we do this morning, we want to honor Jesus and proclaim the truth of the message of the Gospel. If today is your first time as a guest with us, whether you’re in the room or online, know that we are so glad that you are here, and we pray that this morning is a meaningful experience of worship in your life.

If you are a guest, we’d just like to know that you joined us today so that we can send you a note of thanks. If you’re in the room, you can use the card in the back of the pew in front of you. If you’d rather use a digital method or if you’re online, you can text the word WELCOME to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a text back with a link to our online communication card. Either way, if you’re in the room today, I would love the opportunity to meet you at the close of service, so please plan to come down and say hello after service is over. It won’t take long, and I have a small gift to give you.

Announcements

State Fair Booth Training this Tuesday 8/22 6-8pm at the Baptist Building. Dinner provided. Register for the training on the BCNM website.

Men’s Breakfast this Saturday 8/26 at 8am

I know that the scaffolding has been up for a while, but I want you to know that our new ducting work has been inspected and approved, and so now we can move on to the roof repair. So things are progressing! Keep praying for Ric Rutherford, our contractor, and for his team. And if you are newer to the church and are curious about the work that we’re doing, feel free to ask questions. We do have a fund campaign that you can give to called Endeavor, which is being used to pay for this much-needed upgrade and repair to our facility.

Opening

I love a good story. I always have. When I was very young, my favorite stories were fables: make-believe stories that, looking back on them from an older perspective, teach lessons to small children. Hansel & Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, the Goldilocks & the Three Bears (why do so many fables take place in the forest?), the Three Billy Goats Gruff, and the Emperor’s New Clothes were some of my favorites. Each of these fables told a story that taught some kind of moral, even if that moral was somewhat veiled, and even if the outcome of the story was not exactly, well… moral. I mean, some of those fables I listed are PG rated, right?

Fables are, in a way, more modern parables. But they aren’t exactly the same. Fables and parables are similar in that both are fictional and do contain a central meaning. However, where fables are truly make-believe, parables are grounded in their adherence to reality: the things that make up parables really could happen. They are a built from life. And not only that, but while a fable offers some kind of moral, a parable teaches a spiritual truth—it tells us something about God’s perspective. In the three parables in particular that we are going to consider beginning this morning, we are told something about God’s heart for sinners.

In this four-week sermon series, we are going to cover the “lost” parables of Jesus in Luke 15... what some people might call a parabolic “trifecta:” the Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. Today, we will begin with setting up the context of Jesus’ sharing of these parables, and then consider the Parable of the Lost Sheep, found in Luke 15, verses 1-7. Let’s stand as we are able in honor of God’s Word as we look at our focal passage together:

Luke 15:1–7 CSB

1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ 7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.

PRAYER (The Southwest Church, Pastor Tony Chavez)

As I said earlier, these three parables are recorded together in Luke 15, one after the other. These parables all share very similar themes, as each of them speaks to something being lost. One could argue that the points of these parables are all the same, and while at first blush that might seem to be the case, there is a nuance between them that bears exploring, which is the plan of this series.

But perhaps one of the most important observations that we can make about these parables is to answer the questions of, “Why?” and, “Who?” “Why does Jesus give these parables when He does? And who was His audience at the time?” “How do those things go together?” In short, to fully understand these parables, we need to understand their context.

1: The Context

It’s easy for us to dive right into the parables without giving any thought to the context in which they were given. Think of it this way: I would predict that many of us could easily paraphrase the parables themselves: even the long one about the Lost Son (we usually call it the Prodigal Son). But how many of us remembered the situation that Jesus found Himself in before we read it just now in verses 1-3? Let’s look at that part of the passage again:

Luke 15:1–3 CSB

Jesus isn’t just randomly sharing a collection of stories about lost things. He’s teaching directly to a particular audience based upon what they are actually feeling, thinking, and saying. One thing that we need to keep in mind as we read the Scriptures is that the verse and chapter numbers were added much later, and in our modern way of looking at books, we take chapter breaks as kind of independent sections. While that’s still the case to a certain extent (the chapter breaks weren’t exactly arbitrary), it is nearly always helpful to look to the text immediately before the chapter break to see if it adds anything to our context. This is especially true in narrative parts of Scripture, like the Gospels, Acts, and the history books of the Old Testament.

It is no accident that this passage follows Luke 14:25-35, where Jesus spoke about what it means to be a disciple, telling the truth about the fact that following Jesus is an all-in proposition:

Luke 14:25–35 CSB

25 Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. 34 “Now, salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? 35 It isn’t fit for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

These are hard teachings, but Jesus doesn’t shy away from calling the lost people following Him (the “great crowds”) to an “all-in” faith, ending with, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.” (14:35).

And then in 15:1, we see that they actually do listen: “All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Him.” Don’t let the section header (the CSB says “The Parable of the Lost Sheep”) or the big 15 there make you miss the connection: Jesus spoke the hard truth, and the tax collectors and sinners were eating it up. They wanted to hear more from Jesus. And so Jesus spent time with them, eating with them, teaching them.

That was a problem for the Pharisees and scribes. They looked at Jesus doing that and were offended. “This man (likely being sarcastic in how they said that) welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (15:2). To sit down for a meal with someone in that culture was (and still in many ways is) to identify with them, to be in fellowship with them. The religious Jews of the day used passages such as Psalm 1:1 to allow them to completely disassociate with the sinful:

Psalm 1:1 CSB

1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!

They wanted nothing to do with those who were lost and trapped in their sin. They thought that Jesus was a fool to associate with those undesirable people.

We might see verse 3 as a throwaway verse, since it doesn’t really say anything “deep.” But the first word in that verse is vital: “So.” In direct response to their complaining about His associations with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus told them—the Pharisees and scribes—this parable. The religious legalists are the primary audience of all three parables, actually. The secondary audience is actually the lost crowds who have come to listen to Him. This is a means of them again hearing of the incredible grace of God, to hear God’s heart for them in their lostness.

2: The Parable

Again, while each of the three parables shares a great deal of similarity, each bears a slightly different image, which will help us as we examine each of them over the next few weeks. The Parable of the Lost Sheep is as follows:

Luke 15:4–6 CSB

4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’

Even though the Pharisees and scribes were certainly not shepherds, the culture as a whole had a solid understanding of the responsibilities of shepherds generally. The shepherd would lead the sheep throughout the day, and then pen them in at night, at which time he would count them before turning in himself. The shepherd in the parable counts his sheep and comes up with one missing.

I’m just going to say it: sheep are not the brightest crayons in the box. The most likely way for them to get themselves lost would be to eat their way lost. They find a tuft of grass. They eat it. They see another tuft of grass in front of them. They step forward and eat it. They see another… you get what I’m saying. And not only that, but they don’t have the same homing instincts that other domesticated animals, like dogs and cats, have. They aren’t particularly good at finding their way home if they get separated from the flock. They also are terrible at defending themselves, so a sheep alone in the wilderness is easy pickings for a predator.

Now, being a diligent and responsible shepherd (he may even have been the owner of the sheep, as sometimes was the case), he leaves the 99 in the pen and goes looking for the stray.

As a quick side note, remember that parables don’t need to have every question about them answered in order to make their point. “How could he leave the 99 alone?” A responsible shepherd wouldn’t have left them alone in the pen. Since this isn’t a real account though, it doesn’t matter—who takes care of the 99 isn’t in view here.

Probably in the top ten, maybe even the top five most terrifying moments of my life happened because of a stray child. A couple of years ago, the church incredibly graciously sent me and my family to Pittsburgh so I could see the Steelers play at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium). The trip was amazing—we saw some of Mel’s family, we visited some cool places, got some great souvenirs, and watched Big Ben lead the Steelers to a victory over the Broncos on a beautiful October day.

But the trip home coincided with Southwest Airlines’ crazy weekend that year of canceling thousands of flights. And guess what airline we were flying? Fortunately, we managed to get from Pittsburgh to where our layover was: Denver (there were a lot of Broncos fans on that plane). But due to the problems with Southwest’s scheduling, our layover was sizeable. When we finally arrived in Albuquerque, it was like 2 in the morning. And when we went to get our bags, one was missing. Then, while Melanie and I were in the Baggage Office making a claim for the missing bag, we suddenly discovered that neither we, nor Maggie and Nathan, knew were Abbie was. The airport was basically empty. She was nowhere that we could see. She was just gone. The bag no longer mattered. At all. We were panicked. We literally ran from end to end of the baggage area yelling for her. There were tears.

The shepherd in the parable makes two points with his going: First, that the ONE missing sheep is as important to him as the 99 in the pen, and second, that that one sheep means so much that he refuses to give up his search for it. He goes after the lost one “until he finds it.”

And when he does find the wayward sheep, he discovers that it no longer has the strength to return on its own, so he picks it up, puts it on his shoulders, LIKE THIS (Picture of Joe with a lamb), and carries it back… not as a chore, not begrudgingly, but JOYFULLY… just like Joe in that picture.

And when at last he gets home following his search, the shepherd is so excited at finding this one lost sheep that he throws a party! He calls his neighbors and friends and says, “Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!”

Back to the story about Abbie: Finally, we checked the bathroom. She apparently had told me and her mom that she was going to the restroom, but it was while we were talking about the missing bag, and we just didn’t hear her.

When I think back on that night, obviously I remember the lost luggage. But what I focus on in my mind and heart more than anything is what it felt like to discover that Abbie was missing, and then the relief and joy of finding her safe and sound. We were so incredibly grateful to the Lord for finding her, we celebrated together with tears of joy.

This is the feeling that comes to mind when I read this parable now. And as Jesus gives us the meaning of the parable He has concocted, we see the heart of God for sinners, as we address our third point:

3: The Meaning

Jesus doesn’t always give the direct meaning of His parables in Scripture. Most of the time He does, but sometimes He doesn’t. A great rule of thumb is that if the author tells you what His story means, then that’s what it means. You don’t need to make up a new meaning. So since Jesus gave us an explanation, we won’t make up a new meaning either:

Luke 15:7 CSB

7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.

Again, parables aren’t allegories, where every detail has a corresponding facet in reality. Here, Jesus makes a clear spiritual comparison to the celebration of the shepherd over the found sheep and the celebration in heaven over the found sinner.

In giving this comparison as the meaning of the parable, Jesus is doing multiple things. He’s identifying Himself with the shepherd, and at the same time, identifying Himself as the One in heaven who rejoices over the finding of the lost. He’s also saying that heaven celebrates when one person turns from sin to faith, just as the shepherd celebrates when the one sheep goes from being lost to found. And since He is comparing Himself to the shepherd in this parable, then His deep love, care, and compassion for the lost are put on display as well.

I also believe that He is giving an indictment to the “righteous” Pharisees and scribes, by implying that they don’t think they are sinners, or that they need repentance. Remember that the context of a parable really matters: the Pharisees and the scribes are Jesus’s target audience with these parables, so there is a lesson here for them as well, but one that we’re really going to focus on later in the series.

And likewise, there is a lesson here for us. I decided that we would cover the parable this week in its entirety first, so that we could focus solely on how we should apply this to our own lives.

4: The Application

So what does this mean for us? How should we live in response to Jesus’ use of this parable? While there are several things that we can apply to this parable, I want to highlight just three of them this morning:

A: All “sheep” are valuable.

The parable shows that every sheep has value, and in the comparison, we are the sheep. Today, we tend to use that term kind of negatively for someone who just blindly follows the flock. There’s even a negative term now for people who act like sheep by being docile, compliant, or easily controlled: “Sheeple.”

But we can’t let modern sensibilities about our characterization as “sheep” turn our brains off. If you didn’t hear any of the points I’ve made so far, and you don’t hear anything after this point, please hear this one. Instead of being bothered by this comparison, think of it from the perspective of the Good Shepherd. Jesus called Himself that in John chapter 10:

John 10:11 CSB

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

We may be sheep, but look at how the sheep are loved! The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep! The Good Shepherd cares for the sheep! The Good Shepherd rescues the sheep!

Unfortunately, Scripture also gives us another simile of how we are sheep-like. It says that we all, like the lost sheep in the parable, stray:

Isaiah 53:6a (CSB)

6a We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way;

This is our problem: we have all gone astray, walking our own path away from the loving arms of the Good Shepherd. We decide that we know best for our lives, not Him. We decide that we can determine what’s right and wrong, not Him. We decide that we can take care of ourselves, thank you very much, not Him. This is called sin. And sin separates us from God, because it’s us rebelling against His good desires for us. We don’t deserve and could never deserve to be with Him, because He is perfect and we aren’t. Because of our sin, we deserve death on a spiritual level. We deserve to be separated from God forever and ever because we can never be perfect. That’s what hell is: eternal separation from the Author of Life, the Designer of love, the Creator of everything... from the One we were made to be in a perfect relationship with—the One and Only God. So the only way for us to be brought back into that relationship is for someone perfect to pay for our sins with His life.

This is why we need the Good Shepherd, and why Jesus said that He lays down His life for the sheep. Let me start that Isaiah passage over, and listen to where it goes:

Isaiah 53:6–7 CSB

6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.

This is how the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep—He died and took the penalty that we deserve because of our sins. And He was buried, and He overcame death by the power of God, and He can never die again. He did this so that our slate could be wiped clean, so that we can experience the forgiveness that we desperately need, and so we can have eternal life. If we repent of going our own way, believing that only through what Jesus has done can we be forgiven, trusting in His sacrifice for our salvation, then we are saved according to Scripture.

His desire is that none—not even one—should perish, but all come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

You matter. You have value in God’s eyes. You are loved by Him, and He wants to have a relationship with you. But without Jesus, we’re lost like sheep. We can’t find our way to God. God proves His love in the same way the shepherd in the parable displays his love for the sheep. This is because God is a “seeking” God.

B: God is a “seeking” God.

We can’t get to God. He is perfect, and we simply are not. And no matter how religious we might be, or how moral, or how helpful, or how kind, we’re still broken and sinful—there’s no sliding scale for salvation. We’re all sheep who have gone astray, and we have no way on our own to get back to Him. He must seek us. Just as the shepherd went looking for the sheep, so God “seeks” us, and He always has.

Over and over in Scripture, we have examples of God seeking to restore His relationship with His beloved creation, mankind. His seeking goes all the way back to the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden. He made man and woman, and they were told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And they ate from it anyway, choosing to stray instead of listen. And rather than the fruit of that tree teaching them anything at all about good, it instead showed them the difference between good and evil, because they discovered what evil was… they already knew good, because they already knew God. They became sinful, and so they were separated from their fellowship with God just like all of us are.

And the Bible says:

Genesis 3:8–9 CSB

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

God knew where they were physically. They had become separated from Him spiritually. In a way, He’s asking Adam, “Where did you go?” But the Lord seeks them in their lostness. Because we are all human, we all have the same faults, the same tendency to go astray like sheep. But God’s heart is a heart that seeks to restore the relationship with us, even if we’re far away from Him.

Consider the story of Jonah. We know that he was swallowed by a fish. But Jonah’s mission from God was to go and preach to a pagan culture in a city called Nineveh, to warn them that God’s judgment against their sin was coming. Jonah did that, and the people repented. When God forgave them, Jonah was actually mad about it. God’s response is the last verse in that book:

Jonah 4:11 CSB

11 So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

Or what about Ezekiel? God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, had over and over again denied Him and gone their own way. They had leaders who led them terribly. They worshiped idols. They mistreated their countrymen. And so God allowed them to be defeated by their enemy and taken into captivity. But even from captivity, He shows His heart of compassion and desire for relationship by using the same picture of a shepherd and His sheep:

Ezekiel 34:11–16 CSB

11 “ ‘For this is what the Lord God says: See, I myself will search for my flock and look for them. 12 As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and total darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them to their own soil. I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the land. 14 I will tend them in good pasture, and their grazing place will be on Israel’s lofty mountains. There they will lie down in a good grazing place; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will tend my flock and let them lie down. This is the declaration of the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak, but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will shepherd them with justice.

He wants each of us. All of us. No exceptions. He loves us. He wants that relationship with me. And yes, He wants that relationship with you.

But the truth is that He doesn’t just want a part of me or a part of you. He wants the whole thing, in trusting surrender to Him. Notice that the shepherd carries the sheep. It doesn’t walk back on its own. It has to trust the shepherd. And it certainly doesn’t get found and then say “thanks” and continue to go its own way. When God calls us, He calls us to come and die to ourselves so that we can live for Him.

Luke 9:23–24 CSB

23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.

Do you want to be saved? Then believe that Jesus died for you, turn from going your own way, and surrender your life to Jesus in faith. He’s done all the work. All you have to do is be carried! There is no better life than the eternal life that Jesus gives! Will you trust in Jesus today?

I have one last point to make from this parable to those who already belong to Jesus.

C: If we are Jesus’s disciples, we are called to seek the lost as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the reality is that if we are going to follow Jesus, then we are called to be a part of what He is doing, to join Him in the mission that He came to fulfill. A disciple is a follower, and does what his or her Teacher does. Should we truly call ourselves disciples if our hearts have no compassion for the lost, if we have no desire to seek those who have no hope and who need Jesus?

Jesus’s mission is recorded in Luke 19:10:

Luke 19:10 CSB

10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

And in Luke 5, Jesus clearly declared that His goal was to bring spiritual healing to the spiritually broken, not to pat the self-righteous on the back for their high view of themselves. If we’re going to join Him in His mission, church, we must ensure that we are a place of healing for the sick, not a country club for those who believe themselves to be healthy.

Luke 5:31–32 CSB

31 Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Unfortunately, many who claim Christ today tend to either act like the Pharisees and scribes in this passage (saying, “I won’t even be around those lost people, and you shouldn’t be either”), or they go to the opposite extreme: deciding to look so much like the world and say we’re SO inclusive that we never honestly talk about sin, and thus we present a watered-down version of the sinner’s need of the Gospel of Jesus, even giving some weak argument that, “Jesus hung out with sinners.” Yes, He did. But not because He agreed with them and how they lived. Remember that they were coming to listen to what Jesus was saying—and He was saying that there was no one and nothing as important as Him. He called them to repentance and faith.

Shane Pruitt, National Next Gen Director for the North American Mission Board, tweeted this last week:

“Jesus didn’t hangout with sinners because he affirmed and celebrated their lifestyles.

He spent time with sinners to show them their need for a Savior, and to teach them a different way of living.”

—Shane Pruitt (tweet on August 8, 2023)

We are to love joyfully as Jesus loved—being on mission to seek the lost with the hope only found in the truth of the Gospel, so that we can introduce them to the Savior, the Shepherd and overseer of our souls, Jesus.

Closing

The lost sheep are all around us. Maybe you’re here this morning and you’re the lost sheep. Know that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. The only way into that relationship is by faith in Him. Believe the Gospel. Trust in Jesus to save you. Surrender your life to Him. And if this morning, you’ve trusted in Jesus, or if you have more questions about salvation, please come and let us know. I’ll be here, along with Trevor, Kerry, and Rich, while the band plays in a just a moment. If you’re online and have questions or have trusted in Jesus today, send me an email to bill@ehbc.org so we can help you as you start this new journey of spiritual life.

If you are a follower of Jesus, and you believe that Eastern Hills is a church family where you can plug in and be a part of fulfilling Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost, then I’d like you to consider joining through formal membership. If you would like to learn more about membership, please come and let me know, and we’ll set an appointment to sit down and answer any questions you have about the church, to share our testimonies, and to get to know each other a little more.

If you need prayer, you can of course pray where you are, but you can also come and pray at the steps if you’d like, or you can come and pray with one of us.

This is also a good time to give back to God out of gratitude for what He’s given to you. You can give through the website or the app, or you can give in person using the offering boxes by the doors as you leave. If you’re a visitor and don’t have time to come and bring me your welcome card, you can put that in those boxes as well.

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Deut 18)

Pastor’s Study

Prayer Meeting

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Let’s read 1 Peter 2:21-25 out loud together as our benediction:

1 Peter 2:21–25 CSB

21 For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; 23 when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.