Found by the Shepard

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Lk 15:1 15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that 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 his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him...

Luke notes there were two kinds of people gathering to Jesus… Sinners and Tax Collectors

Sinner… Could be any kind of Jewish person who simply did not live up to Gods standards in the eyes of the religious leaders

Tax Collector.... is mentioned 22 times in the synoptic gospels. Worked for the Romans. Collected Roman taxes and whatever extra fees they could to line their own pockets. Often well off. They became outcasts to their own people. They were seen as traitors. They were so hated be the fellow Jews they were known simply for their job titles. Their job title communicated everything you needed to know about them.

Tax Collectors of note… There are a couple Tax Collectors of note within the bible. Matthew the Apostle is one. One of Jesus’s 12 innermost guys. Trusted to follow Him and learn the way of life, from the author of life Himself Jesus. Matthew was a Levite by birth. He should have been serving in the temple. Bible Author. Matthew wrote the book in our bibles bearing his name. Tax Collector. And he was also a tax collector. Someone who collected money from his own people, for the Roman empire, the hated ruler of their nation who only did so by the brute force of their military might. Someone who also lined his pockets with money of his own people so he could live in luxury.

But God… And yet this is one of the 12 disciples. An author of the Bible and an earlier church leader and founder. For an intents and purposes and ex-thief and a traitor. This is the kind of man Jesus called out of His past sin’s, failures and mistakes.

Jesus chose and outcast not a socialite… Jesus didn’t grab anyone from the Sanhedrin, religious rulers. He didn’t grab one of the priests from the temple. He grabbed a man with a checkered. Someone so outcast that his own people addressed him hated, despised job title instead of his name.

Jesus picked him above others…Jesus picked someone to follow him that everyone else had already dismissed.

Matthew the Levite and the hard Jews… While reflecting on the significance of Jesus picking Matthew the fact that He was a Levite was important. His job by birth would have been to facilitate temple worship day in and day out. A a young boy he would have been raised learning all the customs, all the rules and all the regulations so that He could preform this one job. He would have been in the temple courts day in and day out watching the Pharisees, Seduces and the other leaders conduct the business of God. He would have seen firsthand how Gods people mistreated and even outright abused one another in the name of religion, the name of their God.

Is that why he left?… Was that what led him to walk away from the priesthood of the Levite’s? Like Jesus did He see a broken system full of Hypocrites. Did he turn his back on worshipping God in the temple full of the proud and righteous only to fall into the depravity of stealing from his own kinsmen. Did he run away from the people of God and fall right into the trap of the enemy?

Jesus called a tax collector… Thank God Jesus called a tax collector. Thank God Jesus welcomed and dined with sinners. Thank God that that invitation is for broken men and woman. Not people who have it together, but people who realize their flawed. People who are humble and seek God.

Lets look at the call Jesus gave to Matthew

Matthew 9:9–13 “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.””

And he rose and followed him… Do you think that Matthew saw something in Jesus that he had not seen in Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day. Yeah. Do you think the other sinners and tax collectors saw something in Jesus that they had not seen in their day? Yeah. Do you think the Pharisees saw something as well? Yeah.

Pharisee’s, the other group drawn to Jesus… If you haven't noticed yet Jesus has interaction after interaction with the Pharisees, scribes and religious leaders of the day. Sinners were not the only people gathering to Jesus in droves, the religious leaders were too. Even if they didn’t want to admit it, and even if Jesus’s life threatened them, the evidence that He was so radical from anything they knew is revealed in who often they sought Him out. Over and over He is clashing with them in debate, teaching them truth, or they are hunting Him down trying to find a way to destroy Him.

The world see Jesus is different… Those who meet Jesus know that there is something different about Him. There is something in Him the world is missing.

John 14:6–7 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.””

The recognize real life… What they recognize is a life of truth. The light has shown into the darkness of mans life and revealed what it is like to live truth. Man sees the way to the Father lived through the life of the perfect Son.

Thankful Jesus did not come for the righteous… Thank God Jesus wasn't there for the righteous, or none of us would have made it.

People began to complain about who Jesus was ministering too.... Those people were the Pharisees and the scribes. Scripture says that they “grumbled” “This man receives sinners and eats with them.

There is a place in scripture where the people of God grumbled against the Lord in Numbers. Lets look at it.

The setup… The Israelites have left Egypt. They have witnessed Gods judgments against the Egyptians. They have seen God part the sea for them to cross over and then bring it back together t destroy Pharos army. They have seen God come down on top of Mount Sinai. They have been lead by the presence of God as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They have come to the door step of Canaan, the promised land. Moses sends 12 spies into the land to spy it out. They spies return to the Israelites and tell them what they saw. Giants whom they are afraid will destroy them.

Nu 14:1–4 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

The Pharisee’s knew this story… The Pharisee’s should have remembered this as they grumbled against God. Every good Jew, the Pharisee’s especially, would have been raised memorizing the Torah, the first five books of the bible. This story in numbers was part of it.

The Pharisee’s would have known the tragedy… They would have also known the consequences of grumbling against the Lord. What happened afterward shaped 40 years of their nations history.

Nu 14:26–32.26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

40 years… God led the Israelites away from the promised land after that. Right on the door step of entering into the promised land of God, He turned them around and sent them away.

What does the grumbling of the the Pharisees in Luke 15 have to do with the grumbling of the Israelites of Numbers 14?

Gods signs and wonders, Jesus signs and wonders, their grumbling… Well you see, just like when God preformed signs and miracles in front of the Israelites, and they grumbled against Him, Jesus preformed signs and wonders in front of Pharisees, and they grumbled against Him. Just one chapter before this in Luke Jesus stops a meal with Pharisees to heal a man with dropsy in miraculous way and they still continue to reject Him.

Both had hard rejecting hearts in common… What the Pharisees of Jesus day and the Israelites of Moses’s time shared were hard hearts. If we against one another that would be one thing, but it went further than that didn’t it. They had hard hearts towards God. Think about it, the Pharisees were grumbling, but who were they grumbling against? Jesus, God in the flesh. History was repeating it’s self. The people of God were rejecting Him.

Matthew 13:14–15 “Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’”

So Jesus tells them a parable, the Parable of the Lost sheep… Maybe with their ears they will hear, with their eyes see, and with their hearts, believe.

4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

Identify with a character… Remember that in every parable it’s the job of the listener to identify with one of the characters in the story. In this story we have

the Shepard

the 99 sheep

the 1 sheep

the friends and neighbors

Who were the Pharisees supposed to identify with?… Well it wasn't the Shepard. Do you remember when Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides? They were not leading or caring for anyone under their charge in any meaningful way. In fact Psalms tells us and should have told them exactly who the Shepard is.

Psalm 23 “A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Maybe that's not clear enough for you… Maybe your thinking, that's not clear enough how could they have known Jesus was the Lord.

Okay what about this scripture they had.…

Eze 34:11–16 The Lord God Will Seek Them Out 11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

Not the Shepard or the friends… So in the parable Jesus is clearly the Shepard. So if they aren't the Shepard, what about the friends and neighbors. Well, they are clearly not friends to Jesus, and in all the interactions recorded about them in the bible, it doesn't appear like they were much of a friend to anyone but their own. So we can cross them out.

Not the 1 Sheep, the 99… It’s also safe to say they are not the 1 sheep. There was a great many Pharisees Jesus interacted with. That leaves the 99.

Who is the 1.… If the Pharisee and scribes are the 99, who is the 1. Well, Jesus showed us who the one was, over and over again.

Its was the woman at the well. It was Matthew sitting at the Tax both. It was the man at the meal with dropsy. It was the paralyzed man by the pool. It was a loudmouth fisher named Simon.

It was everyone who would respond to Gods invitation to through Jesus Christ with humbleness and broken heart that say make me clean o Lord. Clean like your Son.

Lets read verse 4 again… 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

Can you see the commitment of the Shepard there?... He continues to search until He finds His lost sheep. He doesn't give up His a purpose to find the sheep from His fold. Sheep in ancient Israel were very valuable. Simply losing one was not acceptable. If you were a Shepard letting your sheep wander away you probably would not continue to be one for very long. At some point you would run out of sheep.

And then verse 5… 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

When, not if… When the Shepard finds his sheep. Why is the sheep found because the Shepard went looking. I studied Bedouin sheep practices a little bit in preparation for this message. I learned that a sheep that goes astray and gets lost will hide under a bush and ball its head off hoping to be found. That because of fear even when within hearing distance of other sheep or the Shepard instead of coming to the sound it hears it will simply lay there and ball hoping to get rescued.

Let me tell you each one of us has a lot more in common with that sheep than you might first realize… Like the lost sheep laying there under the bush balling and waiting to be found by Jesus each one of us has been in a place where we have allowed sin to drive us to place away fare way from where we are supposed to be. And just as helpless as the sheep the Good Shepard finds us there powerless and fearful, stuck in the crisis of our own making.

But God.… But God shows up. You see He picks the sheep up and carry's it on His shoulders. Through no effort and power of its own the sheep is rescued by the good Shepard. It’s what the Shepard does that rescues the sheep. You see righteousness is not a thing or works, it’s a gift of God, delivered through Christ.

The sheep, the cross… Like the Shepard carried the sheep, so Christ carried the cross. To place where sins would die, so the righteous in Christ could live.

Where does the Shepard carry the sheep?… He carries the sheep home. Im telling you church Jesus mission was to save an seek that which was lost. He is the way to that Father. The path that the sons and daughters of God take to return home to their Father.

Called together friends and neighbors to rejoice… And so of course when the Shepard brought that sheep home there was rejoicing. The friends and the neighbors knew how much the sheep meant to the Shepard. How much he sacrificed to get the sheep back.

Verse 7 says… 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Heaven will rejoice over the lost sheep who comes home.

But of the 99 righteous people who need no repentance, there will be no rejoicing in Heaven. Why is that? Well apart from Christ there is none who is righteous and without Him, they simply wont make it. There is one narrow gate that leads to the Father and His name is Jesus Christ.

John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,”

Closing

The irony in the story is Jesus left the 99 in the open country. The Pharisees knew who Jesus was. The knew what He could do, they just refused to accept it. They refused to surrender to Jesus, to truth.

You want to be the 1. No the 99. What does it matter if you fit in with everyone around you but your forfeit your soul. Choose you this day who you shall serve as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord.

Stop running… To do that your going to have to stop running. The Shepard caught up with the lamb eventually because it stopped it path away from Him. A flock of 100 sheep are hard to count with percision through out the day. Its at the end of the day when they are all put up that its clear one is missing. This would have been when the Shepard started his search. At the end of the day when the sheep already had a great head start.

Surrender - You will not only have to stop running from God. You will have to surrender. A small Israelite sheep weighed 68kgs-149 pounds. That a lot to be carried on the shoulder while resisting your rescuer. The Shepard will not fight the sheep the whole way home. It’s after it has surrendered that it can be carried back.

Let Jesus do what He came to do and rescue you.

Hebrews 3:7–8 “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,”

May those with ears to here hear.