Jesus Came for Lost Sheep

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Luke 15:1-7
Psalters: 251, 198, 389, 342
  1. The lost sheep.
    1. The occasion for this (and the following) parable is the sinners and publicans drawing near to hear Jesus.
      1. The “sinners” were the common people who either did not know the laws well or did not work hard to keep the laws.
      2. The Pharisees and scribes severely criticized Jesus because He visited with those they thought He should shun.
      3. Jesus begins the parable with a rhetorical question: all of them would have looked for a lost sheep.
    2. In the parable a shepherd, realizing that one of his sheep was lost, did everything he could to find the lost.
      1. This sheep had foolishly wandered from the safety of the shepherd, not followed his voice but went its own way.
      2. The lost sheep represents the sinners who were coming to Him wanting to hear Him.
  2. The Shepherd goes out and does everything He can to find the straying sheep. Think of the agitation over a missing child.
    1. Jesus “leave”s the other sheep because they have no need for Him.
    2. The shepherd is filled with concern and anxiousness for His purchased sheep that had strayed.
      1. His tender regard for such a sheep made him endure the weariness, hunger and thirst of a night without sleep.
      2. And He leads us back in the way of godly sorrow and sincere repentance.
    3. The Shepherd does this, not with the whip of commandments, but with the tender care, not weary of bringing us back again.
  3. The joy (over against the critical murmuring of the Pharisees).
    1. The shepherd rejoices (6), for he finds his restoring work to be successful.
    2. Fellow believers have great joy when other members of the body repent.
    3. And there is joy in heaven (7).