Parable of the Lost Sheep By Paul Thompson


Matthew 18 verses 10 to 14, the parable of the lost sheep.
See that you do not look down on one of these little ones.
For I tell you that their angels in heaven
always see the face of my Father in heaven.
What do you think?
If a man owns 100 sheep and one of them wanders away,
will he not leave the 99 on the hills
and go to look for the one that has wandered off?
And if he finds it, I tell you the truth.
He is happier about that one sheep
than about the 99 that did not wander off.
In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing
that any of these little ones should be lost.
And you'll remember that in Matthew 18,
he's talking to children.
Our last reading and our text for this morning
is in Luke chapter 15.
If you turn to Luke chapter 15,
we'll have a look at this third account
or second account in terms of the parable of the lost sheep.
Luke 15 reading from one to seven,
this is Luke's account of the parable of the lost sheep.
Now the tax collectors and sinners
were all gathered around to hear him.
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered,
this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
And Jesus told them this parable.
Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them.
Does he not leave the 99 in the open country
and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
And when he finds it,
he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.
And he calls his friends and neighbours together and says,
rejoice with me, I've found my lost sheep.
I tell you that in the same way,
there is more rejoicing in heaven
over one sinner who repents
than over 99 persons who do not need repentance.
And that'll be our text for this morning
in particular verses four to seven.
Now, Brother Neil spoke to us last week
concerning the woman at the well
and our responsibilities in evangelism.
And it's interesting because I decided to
preach on this passage of scripture a couple of months ago.
And yet when I began to have a look at the text,
I saw that there was something popping out,
which was the same or similar theme
to what our brother was talking to us about last week.
Now, I'm not trying to cover that ground again,
but we'll mention it to begin with
because I think it's such an important thing.
It's worth refreshing our memories.
Not all of us were here last week.
So let's have a look at verse one and verse two.
There's the three groups of people,
the tax collectors, the sinners,
and four groups of people,
and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law,
or the scribes.
Now,
before we look at these groups of people,
what I want to do this morning
is speak primarily to the children.
Now, I need to be able to see the children.
I want to get eye contact with them.
And I want them to be concentrated
because I'm not gonna speak very long.
I'm gonna be speaking to Beverly, and to Steven,
and to Wendy, and to Jason, and to Brendan,
to Tony, and to Steven, and to Linda.
I'm going to be speaking to mum and dad first.
Let's have a look then at these first two verses.
Who are these tax collectors and sinners?
Well, the tax collectors,
another name for them is tax farmers.
They paid a certain sum to the authorities
so that they might be able to collect the taxes
in that particular district.
And the sinners were the irreligious people,
the people who didn't go to the synagogue.
And they were despised and looked down on
by the Pharisees and the Pharisees
because they weren't orthodox, they weren't church-going.
Who then were the Pharisees?
Well, they were the biggest and the largest sect in Israel.
They had very strict laws.
They believed not only in the law of God,
but an oral law which they'd built up.
And they had, as you'll be familiar,
some absolutely ridiculous things that they had to do.
And they were very strict
and they wouldn't contaminate themselves
or have anything to do with the tax collectors
or the sinners.
The reason being that the tax collectors
taxed them very heavily
and therefore they were despised by the Pharisees.
The Pharisees lost large portions of their profits.
Okay.
Now, the reason,
one of the reasons why Jesus tells this parable,
he's not only speaking to the sinners,
to the tax collectors,
but he's speaking first of all to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees gather around
because they see a crowd gathering around Jesus.
Wherever Jesus went, he drew a crowd.
These tax collectors and sinners,
you remember Jesus ate with them.
He was their friend.
There was no barrier.
They felt free to go and speak to him.
They had this desire to hear what he had to say.
And his Pharisees gather around and they're muttering.
Just imagine this low drone
of muttering, discontented voices
as these eager people are coming around
to hear Jesus.
And Jesus is very quick to attack them
and to point out their wrong attitude.
Because what do the Pharisees mutter?
This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
The Pharisees, they were speaking words of sober truth.
What they were saying wasn't wrong.
They had recognized something.
But in saying these words,
they missed the complete point of why Jesus was there.
Jesus did welcome sinners.
He was there to speak to them,
to show them the way of salvation.
But the Pharisees were so preoccupied
with their own concerns,
they couldn't understand
why Jesus would allow himself to be contaminated,
to have anything to do with these low class of people.
And so Jesus tells them this parable.
He shows the Pharisees that they should be the ones
that are seeking the lost sheep.
They should be prepared to be contaminated,
to go down in the gutter.
All their customs and their traditions amount to nothing.
And in speaking to the parents and the adults this morning,
it's a reminder of what we were told last week.
Are we the Pharisees?
Are we the scribes?
Will we not associate with other people as different groups?
And this is what we've been challenged about.
Let's take this parable to heart
and see that one of the primary reasons why Jesus gave it
was to confront the Pharisees
about their own hardness of heart,
their lack of evangelism,
the fact that they claim to be orthodox
and church-going and true.
Okay, we've seen the attitude of the Pharisees,
the attitude of the sinners
hungering after these words of Jesus,
this yearning, this desire to know more.
Undoubtedly, they'd heard Jesus on many times before,
but there's this desire that's inseparable
to hear what he's got to say.
Now, I want to speak to the children
because this is a parable about a lost sheep.
And I want to ask you this question.
First of all, am I this lost sheep?
How can I know?
Does God's word tell me if I'm this lost sheep?
You say to me, I've been brought up in a Christian family,
I attend church every Sunday, I've studied the Catechism,
I read the Scriptures, I pray,
how can this possibly be me?
How can I be this lost sheep?
Well, let's read the story again
and I want you to go through
and follow the words as I read it.
So look at the Bible and we'll read it through.
Now, Jesus is here telling a parable
and a parable is just a comparison,
putting one side alongside another
in order to see what it means.
Okay, so let's read it again, let's read it again.
Supposing one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them,
does he not leave the 99 sheep in the open country
and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
and goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbours together
and rejoices with me that I have found my lost sheep.
Okay, so can you picture in your mind's eye
what's happening here?
It's a very vivid, simple illustration.
Now, the fact that the sheep is lost,
the sheep is lost, what does that speak to us of?
Surely that must speak to us of the fact
that the sheep is lost just as we are lost because of sin.
Now, as I speak, I want you to try and recall
some of the things you've learned from the catechism
because that's going to help you understand
what I'm going to seek to tell you.
Now, what did we learn in our catechism about Adam?
We learned, didn't we, that Adam was created by God,
good and perfect and upright.
But because of his disobeying God,
he lost that goodness, that perfect,
the fact that he was perfect.
He disobeyed God, and this is the same
with each one of us, that passage that we read
from Psalm 51 said that we were born in sin.
The Bible says that each one of us is born as sinners
because of Adam's disobedience.
This has been passed on.
The Bible also says that we've broken God's holy law.
You'll remember the answer to that in the catechism.
What is sin?
Sin is any want of conformity to or transgression
of the law of God.
Now, let's then, Exodus chapter 20
in the Ten Commandments to have a look quickly
at this law of God.
Exodus chapter 20.
Now, you remember the story.
Moses is on Mount Sinai.
There's a huge cloud.
The children of Israel are below the mountain.
God's told them not to go up on the mountain,
otherwise they'll be killed, and God speaks to Moses,
and he writes with his finger in a big piece of marble
the law of God, and he says, I am the Lord your God
who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
This is his first commandment.
Now, I want to ask you this morning, children,
have you any other gods ahead or before of God?
Maybe it's some sport, some interest
that takes your attention, and no matter what you do,
it absorbs you and takes the place that is rightfully God's.
You shall not make for yourself any idol in any form.
You shall not bow down to it or worship it.
For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
Do we have idols in our life?
Do I have an idol?
Do you have an idol?
We need to put these idols aside.
God says if we worship these idols, we're breaking his law.
We're guilty sinners.
What else does he say here?
Verse seven, you shall not misuse the name
of the Lord your God, for the Lord will hold anyone
guiltless who misuses his name.
Do we take God's name in vain?
What else does he say here?
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
Do we respect God's Sabbath?
Do we keep it holy?
Or are we so easily engaged in other activities?
These are the questions we need to ask.
We need to search our own heart.
In light of the law of God, it's like a huge mirror
that God puts up and we stand in front of it.
And what do we see ourselves so clearly?
Now here's another law that God gives us.
Honor your mother and your father so that you may live long.
I'm sure that this is a problem that each one of us has,
each one of you has.
Do we honor our mother and father when mum or dad
tells us to do something?
Do we do it?
You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not steal.
When did we last steal something
that we should not have stole?
This is something that we need to give back to someone
because it's been stolen.
We shall not bear false testimony against our neighbor
when we speak wrongly about our brothers and sisters, maybe.
Or we have a grudge or an evilness in our heart.
Let's examine our hearts in the light of God's word.
Because if we do, we'll see that we're guilty before God.
We are that lost sheep, we have broken God's law.
And what does God say?
God says that he's a just and a holy God
who must punish sin.
As you come along, week by week, year by year,
as you've listened to mum and dad,
maybe read the scriptures,
speak to you as our pastor's spoken to you,
you've heard time and time again
that there's a consequence for sin.
God must punish sin.
One day we will stand before him and he will judge us.
Either we will be right before him or we will be guilty.
And God is a God who must do this.
So let's ask the question then,
am I this lost sheep this morning?
You will know in your own heart
whether you're that lost sheep or not.
We must acknowledge before God this fact.
Okay, let's go on to the second point then.
And it's a positive point.
What has God done to find his lost sheep?
Now let's have a look at the parable
because we'll see something wonderful here.
This wonderful story that Jesus is telling us.
And turn back again to Luke 15.
Who's this shepherd in the parable?
Well you remember we read,
Michael read from us from John chapter 10.
Jesus is the shepherd.
Jesus is the one who's looking after the sheep.
He's calling the sheep by name.
He knows his sheep and is concerned
that if a sheep be lost,
be lost because of sin that he might find it
and bring it back.
And so in this parable we're seeing
God's great love and mercy for sinners.
God is concerned that his sheep,
those made in his image,
those who have broken his law,
who've wandered away,
they're the ones who God loves
because they're his own.
This is why the shepherd is going to find the sheep
because it's his own.
And children whether we like it or not,
we are God's own.
God has made us, we are his possession.
He's going to seek us and find us if we're lost.
And we know we're lost because of sin.
Look at the trouble that the shepherd goes to
to find the sheep.
The sheep are in an open country.
It could be a wilderness.
Now the type of country that the shepherd might have
had to have gone into,
it could have been very hilly or mountainous.
And yet there was such an effort involved
in searching it would have been time consuming.
May have even gone into the evening.
It may have gone on for a number of days.
But the shepherd was determined to find the sheep.
Nothing would distract him from his purpose.
He knew that if he looked, he would find the sheep.
And this is the same with our Lord.
God knows that he will find his sheep.
He looks, he looks now.
If you, he calls to you,
he says to you, are you that lost sheep?
I'm looking for you, I'm seeking you.
I'm going to find you.
Will you acknowledge that you are lost?
Will you admit that you need to be found?
Okay.
So God is a God of love.
What did he say?
God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son.
He's a God of goodness
and mercy.
He's full of love.
God is love.
It's a love that's searching and seeking out
that that's lost, those that are lost.
Now what has God done about finding us,
these lost sheep?
God sent his son, hasn't he?
God wasn't satisfied just to sit in heaven
and look down and do nothing.
But God, in the wonderful way in which he's done it,
he's come himself as a shepherd,
born of a Virgin Mary.
He lived on this earth,
was a historical person,
one person who was true and real,
who walked on this very earth that we live and walk on.
But this Christ was not only man,
but he was God.
He had to be God in order to find the sheep,
in order to save the sheep,
in order to satisfy God's anger and God's wrath
because the sheep had strayed and were lost.
What did Christ say?
He said that he was that shepherd,
that he'd come to seek and to save those that were lost.
Christ came to die for sinners.
We see it in the Old Testament, don't we?
We've talked often of the sacrifices,
the need for a perfect sheep to be brought,
the sinners to lay their hands on the sheep,
the sheep to be slaughtered, the blood to run out
and appease God's wrath and anger.
That's what they did in the Old Testament.
And of course what they did in the New Testament
was they crucified Christ.
They put him on the cross.
He died a sinful death.
He was a substitute.
He died in the place of that lost sheep.
He died in the place of sinful men.
Look to Christ now as we look at this parable.
Don't look to your own sinfulness,
the fact that your conscience tells you
that you've broken the law of God,
that you're guilty before God.
Look to Christ, look to the shepherd
because God is a God that seeks you.
He's a God of mercy, a God of love.
Now at my final point is this.
What must I do to be found?
I admit that I am lost.
Yes, but I've heard this message time and time again.
But yet again, God says to me from his word, I'm lost.
What am I to do about this?
What must I do to be found?
Well God says, first of all,
that we have to recognise that we're lost.
Now not all the sheep were lost, were they?
Ninety-nine were safe.
They knew the shepherd's voice.
The shepherd knew the sheep by name.
Each sheep had a particular name.
And when the shepherd called the sheep
by his particular name,
the sheep recognised his name and he came.
But this lost sheep didn't have that privilege.
He didn't recognise, he didn't, pardon me, understand
or know who was speaking to him.
Otherwise he wouldn't have run away.
He was disobedient, didn't know the shepherd.
Now what happens here?
The shepherd finds the sheep and what does he do?
He puts the sheep on his shoulders and he carries it home.
Now how they used to do it was they'd get the sheep
and they'd put the stomach of the sheep
across the back of their neck
and they'd tie the feet together.
Now you can imagine how heavy that sheep must have been.
And they might, the shepherd might have had to,
could easily have had to walk some miles with the sheep.
That's the only way that the shepherd
could bring the sheep back.
And Christ has done that for sinners.
He's found them, put them on his shoulders
and he's going to carry them.
They're incapable of finding their own way back.
You can't save yourself.
Coming to church, reading the Bible,
learning the catechism, trying to be good is not enough.
Trying to obey those different laws, that's not enough.
No matter how hard you try, you'll fall down again.
Now when the shepherd finds the sheep, he rejoices.
Why?
Because he's found something of his own.
His own property has been recovered.
He has a love for that sheep
and that sheep is with him again.
And he finds that sheep and he rejoices
and he goes and tells others.
Now what does he say here by way of comparison?
Verse seven, I tell you that in the same way
there is more rejoicing in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons.
Now the sheep is in the wilderness.
God is in heaven.
There's a big difference between the wilderness and heaven.
God in Christ the shepherd has come from heaven
to find the last sheep in order
that it might be brought back to heaven.
In order that in obeying God's word
you might return to be with him for eternity.
You're his, he doesn't want to see you lost.
He desires to bring you back.
Now he says here there is more joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons.
What must I do to be found, to be found?
I must repent.
That's what the parable tells us.
If I am a sinner, the Bible says that I am
and my conscious tells me that I am, I'm to repent.
And what does repent mean?
We've learned the answer to repentance
in the cataclysm, haven't we?
Repentance means to change my mind, to return to God,
to change my mind about those sinful things that I do,
those various laws of God that I break,
the fact that I fail to obey mum and dad
when they ask me to do something.
I keep thinking evil thoughts about my brother or sister
or saying wrong things against them.
I can't help but steal cookies or something like that.
I've got other idols or interests that absorb
and take up my time outside of God.
These are the things that we're to repent of.
That it's a repentance that's permanent.
Now I'm going to close and I'm going to ask you again,
are you that lost sheep?
The Bible says, God says that you are
if you haven't repented of your sin.
You've heard the message many times before.
What does God say?
God says today is the day of salvation.
If you hear his voice today, do not harden your heart.