#134 Lu. 15:1-7 The Parable of The Lost Sheep Introduction: If one is lost and wants to be saved, what he must do is to repent and trust Jesus Christ as His Savior. But if one is saved and wants to be a disciple of Jesus, he is going to have to make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to let the Lord have His way. He is going to have to love Jesus more than all else in order to make the sacrifices necessary to please the Lord. In our text today Jesus gives the first of a series of three parable which show the love of God for lost souls. The first is The Parable of The Lost Sheep. I. The crowd that had gathered around Jesus V. 1, "Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him." You are probably aware that the publicans were tax collectors. Most of the publicans in Canaan's land were Jews who worked for the Roman government collecting taxes from the Jews for the Romans. After they collected what taxes the Romans required for the government, they were allowed to collect whatever else they could collect for themselves. As a result, most of the publicans took unfair advantage of the Jewish citizens and virtually used their power and authority to make themselves rich at the expense of the people. They were officially called publicans. That was the title of their office. They were rightly called sinners because of their greed of wealth and their oppression of the people To look back, one of the publicans named Matthew, whose home and office was in Capernaum of Galilee, went down to Judea to hear John the Baptist preach. While he was there, Matthew got saved under the preaching of John the Baptist and was baptized by him in the River Jordan. This brought about a very drastic change in the life of Matthew and made an honest man out of him and a little later Jesus called him to be one of His apostles. Almost immediately after he was called to be an apostle, Matthew gave a great feast in honor of Jesus and invited a large number of his publican acquaintances. At this feast Matthew introduced them all to Jesus. It is to be presumed that at least some of those who met Jesus on that occasion got saved. Then later in the travels of Jesus, Jesus encountered another publican by the name of Zachaeus. This was little Zachaeus who climbed up in the sycamore tree to see Jesus. Then Jesus stopped at that tree and called for him to come down. Zachaeus got saved that day. So by the time of our text when Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem to be crucified, there was a goodly number of publicans who were saved and who were true believers in Jesus Christ. As Jesus traveled along the way toward Jerusalem, as usual, a large crowd of people gathered around Him and followed along with Him. Our text says that at this time a large number of those people were publicans. The publicans who were already believers had spread the news about Him among their friends and had influenced them to see and hear Jesus. Most of the crowd were following Jesus out of curiosity in hopes of seeing Him perform a miracle, most of the publicans were genuinely interested in hearing Him. They wanted to hear His message. They were interested in knowing if Jesus really is the Messiah of God. According to the following verse, Jesus was invited to eat in the homes of some of these publicans who lived along the route and was accepting those invitations. He would go to their homes, eat at their tables and present to them the message of God's saving grace. But not all who were in those crowds were publicans. There were at least some Pharisees in the crowd. The Pharisees in the crowd became very critical of Jesus because He was friendly toward the publicans and ate in their homes. V. 2, "And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." Now the word, murmured, means that they did not come right out openly and say this about Jesus. They said this to one another and in saying it to one another they said it so that bystanders could hear it. But they never said anything like this in the presence of Jesus nor in the presence of His apostles. I can imagine the scene. One of the publicans approaches Jesus in the crowd and invites Jesus and His apostles to his home for a meal. The publican will invite some of his publican friends over to join them. When he asks, "Will you come?" Jesus says, "Sure. I will come." Then off to the side, the Pharisees were watching and listening, and immediately they began to talk among themselves. "Did you hear that? He pretends to be the Christ and He accepts an invitation to the home of the publicans! He couldn't be the Christ or He would never go the home of publican!" II. The parable of the lost sheep It was in response to this criticism from the Pharisees that Jesus turned to the crowd and spoke The Parable of The Lost Sheep. V. 3-4, "And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" A parable, as you know, is a story that illustrates a point. Not everything in the story illustrates something, but there is one or more points that it illustrates. In this parable, Jesus asks these men, "Which one of you, if you had one-hundred sheep and one of the sheep was lost, would not leave the ninety and nine and go after the lost sheep?" Now a shepherd would know just exactly how many sheep he has in his flock. Periodically throughout the day he would count them. But because the sheep are constantly shifting about during the day it is difficult to get an accurate count. So if he has one-hundred sheep and he counted only ninety-nine he would not be greatly upset. It would not be until evening when they would lie down for the night that he would get an accurate count. If he still comes up with a count of ninety-nine, he is going to be very upset. One of his sheep has somehow slipped away from the group without his observation. There is no need for him to worry about the ninety and nine because there were other attendants caring for them and there were neighboring shepherds with their sheep nearby. But that one sheep that is left out in the wilderness is in grave danger. So without hesitation he leaves the ninety and nine and begins to retrace his steps of the day. If he does not find that sheep pretty soon, he may find its carcass tomorrow morning. There were many wild animals out there just waiting to get their teeth into his sheep. So away he goes with great haste. As he goes he calls loudly. He calls the name of the sheep. By this time he has figured out just which one of the sheep is missing and he has them all named. He calls and he calls as he goes along. That is, he calls and then he stops and listens. By this time, the sheep senses the danger that he is in and he will welcome the voice of his shepherd. So when he hears the shepherds voice, he will bleat. He will answer his master's call with a bleat. It may be well into the night when the shepherd finally hears his sheep bleat. That bleat is like saying, "Here I am come, master, come and get me. I'm right over here." V. 5, "And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing." Now what does that shepherd do when he finds his lost sheep? He does not take his shepherd's rod and beat him for going astray. He does not drive him angrily back to the fold. He does not even say, "Well, come on! Follow me!" No. Rather he throws his arms around that sheep and you would think by the way that shepherd carries on that it was his long lost brother he had found. He would hug him tightly. He would pat him tenderly. He would speak to him and tell him how exceedingly happy he is that he found him before some big bad wolf got a hold of him. Then he would pick him up and lay him tenderly on his shoulder and carry him back to safety. V. 6, "And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." Can you imagine this? You are one of the friends of this shepherd and it's about three- thirty in the morning and this shepherd comes bursting in and says, "Hey, wake up! Get up and rejoice with me. I have found my sheep! I have found my sheep! I have found my sheep!" Can you imagine that? You might not be so happy for him right about this time and you might not be so happy with him either. In fact, you might be a little bit put out with him right about now for waking you up at 3:30 in the morning. But that shepherd's friends would not feel that way. They would all get up and they would have a great time of rejoicing. I can just hear them. Let's suppose this sheep is named "Wooly." I think that might make a good name for a sheep. Don't you? I can just hear them all say, "Wooly, it is so good to see you. We are so glad that you are safe." They would all make over that sheep like he is a member of the family. III. The interpretation of the parable But what about the interpretation of the parable? Jesus starts us out on the interpretation and then leaves the rest us. V. 7, "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance." The parable shows just how much God really cares for those who are lost in sin and headed for the fires of hell. There was no group of people in all of Israel who were more greatly known for their sin than the publicans. "Sinners" that is what all of the people of Israel called them-- sinners. But God loved them. God loved them in spite of their sin. God loved them enough that He would send Jesus down to this world to seek and save them. Jesus loved them enough that He was willing to die for them. The shepherd who would go out into the night to search for a lost sheep would take his own life in hand and risk his life in going out. But when Jesus left heaven to come to this world, He knew that it would cost Him His life. Even as He addressed this very crowd of people, He was on His way to Jerusalem to give His life on Calvary's cross. What great love that sent Jesus Christ to this world and to the cross that lost men might be saved! God loves sinners that much today. We look about us and we see a great deal of sin in this world of our's. There is many a wicked sinner in this world. But there is not one sinner in this whole world that God does not love. There is not one sinner in this world that God is not willing to save. There is not one lost sinner in this world that God does not call out to by the preaching of His word, by the wooing of the Holy Spirit and by the witnessing of Christian family and friends. There is not one sinner in this world that God would not save if only that sinner would repent and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. There is not one sinner in this world, but what God would be extremely happy to see him get saved. There is not one lost sinner in this congregation that God is not trying to reach and get saved. If you are lost, if you are unsaved, if you are on the road to hell, then you are one of the ones whom Jesus has come to save. He died for you on Calvary's cross nearly two-thousand years ago. Today He is calling for you. He wants you to answer Him. He wants you to respond to His call. He wants you to cry out to Him from your heart. You do not need to cry out to Him out loud so that all can hear. You can cry out to Him from your heart and He will hear you. He will hear you and He will save you. Conclusion: We are going to bow our heads for a few moments while these musicians come forward for an invitation hymn and while our heads are bowed, I want you to cry out to the Lord. I want you to call on Jesus and ask Jesus to save your soul. I want Him to trust Him as your Savior to keep you out of the fires of hell. Then I want to ask you to come forward while the hymn is being sung and let us rejoice with you that you have been saved.