Sermon Central
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Jesus Finds Lost Things! (The Lost Sheep) Series
Contributed by Tony Searles on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: This is the first of a three part sermon series I preached during our Month of Missions emphasis. In this particular sermon we considered how the sheep represent people who wander away from God without even understanding what they are doing.
Why do I say that??
The truth is… Religious people do NOT have a heart for missions!
-I am going to be bold and say this. If you don’t have a heart for others, and for sinners, then you must repent because that IS NOT God’s heart!
POINT ONE: REJECT
We find, in our text, that it was the religious people who REJECTED Jesus’ heart for Missions!
-“Can you believe it,” they exclaimed, “Jesus sits and even eats with sinners!”
-More than that, they REJECTED the people who were lost in their sin themselves.
*With that attitude, they would never be able to help them or see change come to their lives…
However, the truth is…
Jesus actually goes OUT OF HIS WAY to REACH the lost! He wants to find them!
But, the religious people of Jesus’ time, and ours, REJECT the thought of reaching out to sinners and having a heart to win them to Christ.
Yet, in the scoffing of the Scribes and the Pharisees, we read a powerful truth!
Luke 15:2 - Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
-In this, they did speak the truth!! JESUS DOES RECEIVE SINNERS! Praise God!!!
-He even eats with them! In that culture, that is a big deal!!!
More than that though…
-Jesus died for these sinners and His blood is still powerful enough to wash them white as snow!
-He receives the biggest rejects and loves the unlovely!
I want to tell you this morning…
While the world may feel REJECTED by the religious folks and others in the world, the wonderful truth is that Jesus RECEIVES sinners!
-His heart is FOR the lost!!!
-And we need His heart to be our heart so that we can speak into the lives of the lost!
*REJECTING them is not going to give us an advantage.
POINT TWO: RECEIVE
This is the better thing for us to do – to RECEIVE them!
And THAT is what Jesus did!
-Because He has a heart for people - for MISSIONS!
In order for Jesus to prove His point more and to explain His heart for MISSIONS and for people, He decides to share a parable with these snooty religious folks…
The Great Shepherd tells us the parable of the Lost Sheep!
The scenario is that there was this shepherd who had 100 sheep within his care…
The dilemma is that 1 of those sheep wandered off, leaving only 99 behind.
-So this shepherd leaves the 99 to go get the 1 that foolishly wandered off.
Now, some might think, “So, what’s the big deal? You still have 99! Why even worry about that dumb one that wandered off?”
But there is something that you need to understand about a shepherd back in Jesus’ day…
-While it was a lowly job, they took it seriously!
-And they understood that this job was a treacherous one at times!
-Still, a good shepherd did NOT take their job lightly.
In fact, for some small and poor villages, they would put all their sheep together to make one herd and leave a shepherd to oversee all of the flock.
Then at that point of the day, when it was time to take a head-count of the flock to be sure that none were lost, sure enough, they came up one short!
