Luke 15:1-7 FINDING LOST SHEEP 4/22/12 Introduction: A. Illus.: Dr. Tim Laniak, a professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Charlotte, interviewed a Bedouin shepherd in Jordan a couple of years ago. Q. How many sheep and goats do you have? A. 2000. I have the biggest flock in this area Q. How many [sheep and goats] did you start with? A. I began with one in 1984. And I still know every one of them. They are like family to me. Q. With that many, you still know every one of them? A. Yes. I am with the flocks every day. Although I have homes in the village, I stay out here with them during the summer [migration]. I must personally supervise the care of the sheep or I shouldn't be a shepherd It's a thing of the soul; it's not a business. Q. Have you ever lost any sheep? A. Yes, but I always looked for the ones that were lost until I found them alive or dead. There is only one sheep that I couldn't find and it still bothers me every day. Q. How long would it take to teach me to be a good shepherd? A. Do you have the heart for it? [Illus.] B. The elders and I have come to believe that VCL has a shepherd s heart. Not long ago, as we met together to think about the direction of our church, one of our brothers said, VCL is a shepherding church. And we all agreed. Jesus has instilled in this congregation a kind of shepherd s patience and grace. Like the shepherd said, It's a thing of the soul; it's not a business. It seems that often wounded people often recover here and feel safe. We feel like God uses this whole church to nourish people, and to stand guard against the spiritual predators. We give students a model of a shepherding church, and help the pastors-in-training learn from our elders and staff how to be good shepherds of God s flock. So we re taking a few 1
Sundays for shepherding school. If God has given us the spiritual personality of the Good Shepherd, then let s open the Bible to be sure we re as much like him as we can be. C. Last week Pastor Michael took us to Matt 9:36, which is something of a theme verse for us: When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. The phrase, harassed and helpless pictures sheep churning and wild-eyed, threatened and defenseless, unable to help themselves. What was interesting was what followed. Out of his compassion for these shepherdless people, Jesus first told his disciples to pray for workers to harvest such harassed and helpless people. Then, as if in an immediate answer to the prayer, Jesus commissioned his disciples to go out among them the lost sheep of Israel with good news that the kingdom of heaven was near, and with superpower gifts of compassion to heal and to deliver people from Satan s power. So in effect, when Jesus saw people like sheep without a shepherd, he made shepherds of his disciples. D. Turn to Luke 15. In Lk 15 we have Jesus three famous lostand-found stories. The lost-and-found sheep, the lost-andfound precious coin, and the lost-and-found prodigal son. Here s why Jesus told those stories: vv.1-2 The Pharisees, proud of how righteously law-abiding they were, where aghast that Jesus would allow himself to be tainted by being so buddy-buddy with such ne er-do-wells. It is a risk, of course. You are known by the company you keep. Hanging out with people who don t care much about their sin carries a risk, and there s really no pay-off. Such people are not going to make you better. So why hang out with them? Vv.3-7 When Jesus ate with sinners he wasn t just looking for company. He was the shepherd searching for lost sheep. VCL is a shepherding church so, naturally, we will pursue lost sheep, too. 2
I. A CHURCH WITH A SHEPHERD S HEART ALWAYS GOES AFTER THE LOST SHEEP A. Jesus was reframing the issue of who he should be seen with. Think of me as a shepherd, Jesus is saying, which was an image that had never crossed his critics minds. Let s say, for sake of argument, that you are the good and safe sheep as I know you believe you are. Wouldn t any good shepherd leave those sheep to find the sheep from the flock who is lost. Of course, the self-righteous Pharisees were as lost as any sheep ever were, but they wouldn t admit it. In reality, every sheep in the Good Shepherd s flock is a found sheep. There s no one in Jesus flock who he didn t have to go rescue! So a shepherding church is never content when the healthy sheep are all safe and sound. B. Here s another thought: No matter what size our church is, we should always think of it as having 99 sheep with one missing. Jesus chose that particular number rather than, say, 57 or 104, because when you hear there are 99, you naturally think, one sheep is gone. And it is true. We re always missing someone. So how big is your church? We have 99 right now. One is lost. C. Lost, as in lost sheep, is a kind of innocent word to us like when we get off on the wrong road or when someone can t follow a complicated story plot. But in this story being lost is a tragedy. A crisis. In this story, the sheep is lost because it wandered off, the way people wander away from God. And when people wander away from God they always sin. And what s worse, by themselves they can never find their way back. Sin isolates. Sin starves and wounds, and leaves a person vulnerable to every kind of spiritual predator. They become harassed and helpless because they are sheep without a shepherd. Lost people will die out there in the wilderness unless they are found. 3
D. To a good shepherd a lost sheep is a crisis because every lost sheep is precious. I know every one of them, the shepherd said in that interview. They are like family to me. There is only one sheep that I couldn't find and it still bothers me every day. Each lost sinner is as precious to God as that sheep was to the shepherd. Each of those unscrupulous tax collectors and prodigal sinners eating with Jesus was precious to him. Make no mistake, the way they cheated and hurt people and ignored God was offensive especially to Jesus but yet Jesus just loved them, in spite of themselves. Jesus wants them home. E. So what does it look like when the shepherd or the shepherding church goes out to find a lost sheep? It looks like this: This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. There s this classic painting of the good shepherd reaching down a cliff to rescue a lamb hanging precariously in branches. Pretty dramatic! Jesus laughing and eating with these lowlifes doesn t look much like that picture. But that is exactly what Jesus was doing. Illus.: The Monday after Palm Sunday my friend surprised me: I m getting married Friday morning and I want you to come. It s at the courthouse. Ah, that s Good Friday, I said, it s kind of a busy weekend for me. Well, you don t have to come, he said. But on Friday morning I did what I suspect you would have done. I pushed aside my work and drove to that courthouse. My friend is a lost sheep, and this seemed like another way to show him God s love. It turned out I was the only friend he invited outside the family. I hear over and over how so many of you quietly, graciously look for lost sheep. You form sincere friendships and make personal sacrifices. You have people over, give rides, take care of kids, and sit and drink coffee because you care about lost people. You pray for them, and look for ways to talk to them about coming home with Christ. 4
F. We re at our best as a church when we become a search party. We join one another in praying for lost sheep one of us knows. If one of our friends comes to church we all want to be a welcoming party, because Jesus has given us compassion for lost sheep. When Jesus sent out his 12 disciples he told them to tell the good news and to help people in natural and supernatural ways. Then he said, Freely you have received; freely give. Grace in; grace out. II. A CHURCH WITH A SHEPHERD S HEART DOGGEDLY PURSUES LOST SHEEP TILL, BY REPENTING, THEY ARE FOUND A. It seems like a paradox to read in v.4 that the shepherd goes after the sheep till he finds it and then in v.7 that there is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. Does the Lord find the lost sinner or does the lost sinner find God? Illus.: A year or two ago Linda Willcox s cat escaped. It was cold and rainy and that cat would not come home. Not for three days! The cat wasn t exactly lost; Linda knew where it was a good 20 feet up a tree right outside the back of the house. But that little critter would not come down. So Jim Lindberg took a long extension ladder over to help, and he called me for my unique expertise ladder-holding in the rain. That cat probably hadn t eaten in three days. It was cold and scared, but when Jim finally got up there, that cat was not glad to see him. In fact, the only way Jim got the cat down was to put a towel over its head and pry its claws out of the tree. Jim did all the rescuing. All the cat did was finally let go of the tree. Repentance is often a lot like that finally letting go. When a lost sheep is found and as former last sheep, we can all attest to this the shepherd deserves all the credit. None of us can look to Jesus, remembering our rescue, and say, We made a good team, didn t we! 5
B. So what does it take for sheep to be found? Patient, dogged pursuit by the loving Shepherd and his church. Illus.: No one captured that better than the Victorian poet, Francis Thompson, in his poem, The Hound of Heaven. I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown titanic glooms of chasmèd fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbéd pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet All things betray thee, who betrayest Me. C. We as the church are often part of God s pursuit, that unhurrying chase. So we are patient, for repentance can be awfully slow in coming. We help each other persevere and trust in the slow work of God till a far-away prodigal finally comes to his senses. We explain God s truth to our lost friend, often in little bites, and we try to draw them into the life-changing fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We help each other with the disappointing wait. But we don t give up. We don t stop. D. Remember what it cost Jesus to pursue us. If the Pharisees were shocked that Jesus would honor sinners by dining with them, what would they have thought of him dying for them? There s an old song based on this story, made popular when D. L. Moody was preaching a hundred years ago. One verse says: None of the ransomed ever knew How deep were the waters crossed, Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed thru, E er he found the sheep that was lost. 6
III. A CHURCH WITH A SHEPHERD S HEART REJOICES WITH THE LORD HIMSELF WHEN LOST SHEEP ARE FOUND A. I ve been there when God finds a lost sheep. I ve watched people repent. I ve repented myself, of course. There are often tears of relief. Sometimes a person looks like an enormous pack has fallen from her back. They smile even laugh. They will talk with a kind of surprise about how good they feel. I ve seen people repent. Maybe you have too. But have you ever seen God when a sinner repents? Look here: vv.5-7 B. Finding something lost and precious is a unique kind of joy, isn t it! It is rejoicing with big dollops of relief mixed in, knowing that it might not have turned out so well. It is having back something doubly valuable: yours in the first place, and yours again because you searched and found. Here it is as if Jesus looks those Pharisees in the eyes and then says, Can you picture that shepherd coming home with his sheep? Can you hear the neighbors rejoicing? That is what it is like for me when one of these sinners repents, and that is what it sounds like in heaven. That is why I welcome sinners and eat with them! That old song I mentioned, The Ninety and Nine, has a grand last verse: But all through the mountains, thunder riv n And up from the rocky steep There arose a glad cry from the gates of heaven, Rejoice! I have found my sheep! And the angels echoed around the throne Rejoice! For the Lord brings back his own! Rejoice! For the Lord brings back his own! C. One sure mark of a shepherding church is our joy when a lost sheep is found. We re like the friends and neighbors whom the shepherd calls together to share his joy. On Easter Sunday we loved singing the songs of the 7
resurrection, and hearing the sermon about our sooncoming wedding to Christ. But wasn t the best part of the whole service the three baptisms? Hearing those testimonies from Mitch, Todd and Alec? Celebrating those lost sheep found? We enjoyed that so much because we really are the Village Church of the Good Shepherd. Conclusion Illus.: Early one Sunday morning eight years ago I stopped to get coffee at the Mobil station near my house and ran into Sy. His life is hard, and he deals with a lot of sadness. Out of the blue, he said, So preacher, what are you going to talk about today. I told him I was going to tell the story of the good shepherd going out to find the one lost sheep. He said simply, I m a lost sheep. I invited him to church, and a few weeks later he shambled in. I barely had time to greet him, but I introduced him to Ed and Elaine and they invited him sit with them. Then they invited him out to lunch with them. Several other people here met him and made him feel at home. Sy still isn t found, so far as I know, but we re not done pursuing him either. We are a church with a God-given knack for shepherding people. Thanks to the life of Jesus Christ within and among us, we re amazingly gifted at seeking and finding lost sheep. With Jesus eyes, we can look at a crowd of people and have compassion because we see them for what they are: harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. With Jesus compassion, we can simply welcome sinners and eat with them, and they will taste the grace of God. Because of Jesus working through us, individually and as a church, lost sheep will weary of their waywardness and prodigals will see their pigsty for what it is, and begin to think of coming home to the Father. Look for lost people to hang out with. Invite lost people to hang out with us. We are a shepherding church. This is what we do! 8