SUNDAY JULY 31, 2016 GRACEVIEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP LUKE 15: 1-7

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1 SUNDAY JULY 31, 2016 GRACEVIEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP LUKE 15: 1-7 Rev. Shelley Howard Baa Baa black sheep have you any wool, yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full Years ago black sheep were not the kind of sheep you wanted in your flock. Black wool was considered commercially worthless because it could not be dyed. Even today, black wool is so difficult to sell commercially, that many merchants require that there not even be a strand of black in their wool. In the day of Jesus a sheep that was black was a liability to the shepherd, and their owners would often remove them from the flock so that they wouldn t taint the purity of the flock by interbreeding with the white sheep. Black sheep were undesirables. Because of that people use the term black sheep to describe someone who is undesirable, someone they don t want in their flock. You will hear the term, he was the black sheep of the family - it means he was not a nice person. Nobody wants him around. No one even wants to have him in the family tree. This tendency to ostracize people that are undesirable is so prevalent, psychologist even have a term for this behaviour. Its called the black sheep effect. In our lesson today, Jesus is dealing with the black sheep effect. Luke 15 tells us the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. They were upset because Jesus has been spending his time with the black sheep of society. He s been coddling the losers. He s been eating with the sinners. He s been welcoming them to his flock. That s just not right. But that s why Jesus came. In Matthew 15:24 Jesus said he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. And in Luke 19:10 he said he has come to seek and save that which was lost. Jesus came for the lost sheep and so to illustrate the truth he told a parable about sheep. But in his parable, Jesus didn t use the term black sheep.

2 Why not? I mean, its perfectly descriptive of the kind of people He came to save, so why not use the term? Well a few reasons come to mind. First, black sheep are born black sheep - they have an excuse - that s just the way they are. And you ll hear sinful people try to use that as an excuse for themselves. The adulterer will say, I feel bad about having slept with that woman but I couldn t help myself. The child molester will say, I know it was wrong to molest that child but that s just how I am. People who do wrong all say the same thing I have an excuse, I was born a black sheep, I can t help myself. That s just how I was born. Neither the rapist nor the adulterer nor the child molester nor the murderer was born that way. They didn t do what they did because they couldn t help themselves. They did what they did because they are sinners. They were black sheep by choice. Jesus didn t tell a parable about a black sheep---because the sheep that got lost in Jesus parable got lost because it made a choice. It wandered off because it chose to wander off. That s the second reason Jesus didn t use black sheep in his parable. Black sheep are not rejected because they made a choice. Black sheep are born that way. They are never going to change, they can t change. You can t condemn a black sheep for being a black sheep. But the people Jesus spent time with were condemned. They were condemned because the righteousness of God condemned them. In 1 Corinthinans God tells us, Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. The people Jesus spent time with were condemned because they made a choice. And their choices were going to separate them from God for eternity. Do you know how a sheep gets lost? It kept its eyes on the wrong things. Its head is down looking at something that appealed to it rather than looking up at the good shepherd who promised to take care of it. To help you and me Iearn this morning I want to break down a flock of sheep into 3 groups.

3 1. The first group of sheep decided to look to the shepherd and follow him wherever he leads. These are the good sheep who follow the good shepherd my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. John10:27 2. The second group wants nothing to do with the shepherd. They want to run their lives their own way and they deliberately decide to walk away from him. They don t want to hear and they don t want to follow. 3. But the third group decides that they like the shepherd. They want to hang out with him, but they don t want to get too close to him. They still want to keep their options open, they want to look for their own grass once in awhile. They want to nibble at a little of this and a little of that. Someone said, On the whole, humans want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time That s the problem with the third group of sheep. They like being close to Jesus, just not too much and not all the time. And because they have that loose connection to the shepherd they are the ones that end up wandering off. They are the ones that end up getting lost. They are just close enough to the shepherd to feel secure and just far enough away to not hear his voice. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. And so they wander off into their own little world. And they end up getting hurt and making bad decisions and those decisions cause them pain and heartache. Proverbs says, The way of transgressors is hard. Without the protection of the shepherd the sheep are open to attacks from Satan and the world. The first reason Jesus didn t use the term black sheep is because people would use it as an excuse to say well that s just the way I am. The second reason Jesus didn t use the term black sheep was because, unlike black sheep who can t choose the colour, we can make choices to decide to follow Jesus. The third reason was because nobody usually wanted black sheep. They were relatively worthless to the shepherd. In Jesus parable, He wanted to drive home the fact that this sheep was precious to the shepherd. Yes, there were 99 sheep still back in the fold. They were good sheep who would never think of just wandering off. They were no trouble to the shepherd. They listen, hear and obey. My sheep hear my voice AND they follow me.

4 This lost sheep didn t want to listen to the shepherd, didn t want to get too close to the shepherd. He made a choice to follow his own agenda and so the sheep got itself so tangled up in thorns and brambles of life it was going to take a lot of effort to go and rescue it. So why bother? The other sheep were good sheep, this one wasn t, so why bother? Because no sheep was worthless to the good shepherd. He was going to seek and save that which was lost. Listen to this from Ezekiel 34: As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so I will look after my sheep. I will rescue them from the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. God was willing to make the effort to search for us. God was willing to see the lost and bring them home to himself, because to God there is no such thing as a black sheep. There is no such thing as a sheep with no value. Jesus came to save the lost. Jesus came to rescue those the rest of society had rejected. Jesus primary objective was not to build an impressive church but to rebuild unimpressive people. Perhaps you have heard someone say, God loves us just the way we are and he loves us too much to leave us that way. John 3: 16 tells us, For God so loved And that gift of love was not a cheap display of affection. In giving us his son Jesus, God paid a high and terrible price. Isaiah 53:6 declared, We all are like sheep who have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. What a load, what a burden! In order to seek us and bring us back to himself, Jesus went to the cross. He suffered insults, pain and a long lingering death. He allowed his body to die and be buried. He did that for you. He did that for me. In the eyes of Jesus there is no one who is worthless. It could be that you are one of those lost souls today.

5 Maybe you are already a Christian and you have wandered from your shepherd. Perhaps you ve done a good job masking your lostness. Maybe you ve fooled everyone around you and made them believe you have it all together - but you know better and so does God. He is looking for his lost sheep. Is that you? The 99 others are all together but He knows you are lost. You have to decide to follow Him. You have to decide and choose to come back to the fold. And you have to decide that you are worth receiving the blessing that God wants to give you. One sheep wandered away but were there 99 others who think they need not repent and have gotten too comfortable in the flock. Where is your shepherd? Is he near by? If he spoke would you hear his voice? Maybe some of you would simply like prayer today to sense the closeness of the shepherd Jesus who loves you. I want to give you an opportunity this morning to ask for prayer by simply raising your hand while our eyes are closed. Raise your hand and I will speak to God for you this morning.