Switchel Ice Tea 🥤The Lost Sheep

I want to read to you something I came across recently that captivated me and caused me to ponder … it said:”

“I think there is a tendency in all of us to write off this present world and age as hopeless. All these immoral, rebellious, shallow, superficial people who are around us today -- how disgusted God must be with these people.

Well, if that is how we feel, we are very, very wrong! We very much need correction by the message of the parable of the Lost Sheep. Which is the first of three parables of the lost things."

And this is why I choose Luke 15: 1-7 for today’s devotion…

¹ Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with t.”

³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Notice that the Pharisees were offended by the type of people that were attracted to Jesus. They were tax collectors and sinners.

They all gathered around Jesus, and were listening to him. And the Pharisees objected.

Now it’s important to understand that the Pharisees honored the authority of the Word of God. They took it literally. They believed it. And they expected Jesus to have the same viewpoint toward these sinners.

But when Jesus saw their attitude toward those around him, He began to tell them three parables about something lost.

And each of these parables help us to see people as God sees them, and to understand the reasons why they are lost.

And today’s scripture is the first story Jesus told.

It’s important to relate to this story from a more rural and agricultural area.

Because it is significant that our Lord chose a sheep and not any other animal like a pig, cow, or dog.

     There is something unique about sheep. Unlike other animals they do not often deliberately run away. …Other animals when given a chance, will leave, just like that. 

Yesterday a family at our church told me how their one horse decided to leave and they went all over town following the trail it had left until they finally caught up with him a couple of hours later. 

But sheep don’t usually run away…they only wander away… They do not mean to. They just drift away without realizing it.

And Jesus has deliberately chosen an animal which represents people who are lost, but who never intended to be lost.

They never meant to be… but in complete sincerity of purpose they suddenly find themselves lost, unsure how it came about.

You can watch a sheep get himself lost. He is with the flock at first. Then he sees some grass a few paces away that interests him so he goes over to it. Then he sees some more in another few steps and moves to that. Then he finds more a little beyond. He is concerned only about the immediate, and, little by little, he is drawn away without realizing it. Suddenly he looks around for the flock, and finds they are nowhere in sight. He begins to bleat and run around, but he does not know in which direction to go, nor how to hide -- so he panics, he runs in circles. Every shepherd knows that a sheep in that condition is utterly helpless. Any wild animal, any hostile force, can take him easily.

This is the picture our Lord gives us of people who are looking only at the present. They are living just for the moment. They do not intend to get lost; they do not intend to waste their lives. They do not intend to wander off into something dangerous and destructive. But, little by little, concentrating only on the present, they wander away.

There are millions like this today. Simply intent on making a living… on feeding themselves... and their families. And that’s all that concerns them. Simply trying to get through another day.

While others have careers and may be doing well… they are working to get everything they want in life… but they’re lives are empty.

In today’s parable our Lord is talking about people who did not mean to be empty and hollow and heartsick, but who find that they are, and do not know how it happened.

But then Jesus tells us the shepherd's response. He left the ninety and nine and went after the one. … Here is the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!

He left something to come and find us.

Just as we’re told in Philippians 2: 6-7: 6 "That he did not count the fact that he was equal with God a thing to be held on to, but instead emptied himself, took upon himself the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of men."

He left, and He came… and we can see how beautifully this is fulfilled in our Lord's own ministry.

This reveals the value that God sets on lost men and women. They are not worthless in his sight. They are not written off, nor neglected. They are made in his image. That is the declaration of Scripture. Therefore they are of unspeakable value to God. They bear his own mark, marred, defiled, and ruined as that image may be, and he longs to find them and reach them and restore them. Notice the remarkable way our Lord expresses God's joy, here:

    "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." (Luke 15:7)