Jesus Came for Lost Sheep
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
1/8/2017 PM
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Text:
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Luke 15:1-7
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Psalters: |
251, 198, 389, 342 |
- The lost sheep.
- The occasion for this (and the following) parable is the sinners and publicans drawing near to hear Jesus.
- The “sinners” were the common people who either did not know the laws well or did not work hard to keep the laws.
- The Pharisees and scribes severely criticized Jesus because He visited with those they thought He should shun.
- Jesus begins the parable with a rhetorical question: all of them would have looked for a lost sheep.
- In the parable a shepherd, realizing that one of his sheep was lost, did everything he could to find the lost.
- This sheep had foolishly wandered from the safety of the shepherd, not followed his voice but went its own way.
- The lost sheep represents the sinners who were coming to Him wanting to hear Him.
- The Shepherd goes out and does everything He can to find the straying sheep. Think of the agitation over a missing child.
- Jesus “leave”s the other sheep because they have no need for Him.
- The shepherd is filled with concern and anxiousness for His purchased sheep that had strayed.
- His tender regard for such a sheep made him endure the weariness, hunger and thirst of a night without sleep.
- And He leads us back in the way of godly sorrow and sincere repentance.
- The Shepherd does this, not with the whip of commandments, but with the tender care, not weary of bringing us back again.
- The joy (over against the critical murmuring of the Pharisees).
- The shepherd rejoices (6), for he finds his restoring work to be successful.
- Fellow believers have great joy when other members of the body repent.
- And there is joy in heaven (7).