Jesus Is Seeking You

Title: God is Seeking You

Theme: To show how God is seeking after the lost.

Text: Luke 15:1 – 7

Introduction

If you would please turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 15. Luke 15. Bishop Kerns did an excellent job reviewing the stories in this chapter. He challenged those of us who felt like we are lost. Maybe lost our way, lost our purpose or lost our desire.

It is my goal this Sunday to “zoom” in on the first story. This is the story of the shepherd and the lost sheep. But before we go there let me tell you why this chapter was written. Look at the first two verses.

Luk 15:1 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 them."

So Jesus attracted crowds. He attacted the sinners and the tax collectors. These were considered to the be the “outcast” of society. They were lonely and beaten down. They struggled with their self worth. They struggled with their lifestyle. They struggled with their sin.

Nobody was giving them hope. Then Jesus comes on the scene. He shares a message of God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness for “all mankind”. Not just the Jews but the Samaritans and the Gentiles alike.

So the people flocked to him.

“First, they were hungry for His message. They were not coming out of curiosity, nor to observe, nor to seek physical blessings; they were coming out of a spiritual need, out of the need to receive His message of salvation.” – Preachers Sermon and Outline Bible on Luke 15.

Jesus also attracted another crowd. They were the religious crowd. They would never be seen talking to or hanging out with the tax collectors and sinners. They did not understand how Jesus could do this.

“They felt it was beneath the dignity of any respectable person to associate with such vile sinners.

Note an important point: Christ was not of the world, but He was out in the world trying to reach men for God. It is this that is often overlooked by both the liberals and the separatists.” PSOB on Luke 15

This important reminder, we can seek the lost without compromising our faith. Jesus’ desire is not to keep them where they are but to draw them out.

(3) So he told them this parable: (a story of symbolism)

Jesus often used illustrations to get His point across.

(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?

Let’s pause here. First notice the number. There would 100 sheep. How many got lost? 1. It makes you pause for a moment and consider what the shepherd is doing. He could easily have said, “Well I got a good many. You keep what you got but you cannot keep them all.” But to this shepherd to God everyone is important.

Lost (apollumi): to perish, to destroy, to lose, to lose eternal life, to be spiritually destitute, to be cut off.

How sheep get lost?

3 (15:4) Sheep, Lost—Man, Lost: the sheep was lost because of itself. A sheep loses itself in one of five ways. From Preacher's Sermon and Outlibe Bible on Luke 15

a. The sheep is attracted by something out “in the wilderness,” away from the flock of the shepherd. What the sheep sees is more attractive and appealing. It tempts and seduces him, and he lusts after it (“the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes,” 1Joh 2:16).

b. The sheep is aimless, not paying attention to what is going on. It aimlessly wanders off, and while it is getting lost, the sheep does not know it is losing its way. The sheep is already lost when it discovers it has lost its way.

c. The sheep refuses to heed the warnings of the shepherd and the example of the other sheep (“the pride of life,” 1Joh 2:16).

d. The sheep is not attached enough to the shepherd or to the other sheep. There is not the bond or union there should be. Therefore, he stays off by himself, eating and resting and working alone until eventually he wanders off without anyone’s knowing it, including himself (Heb_10:25).

e. The sheep does not trust the shepherd. It does not think the shepherd will take care and see that there is satisfying food. It goes astray in search of greener pasture and more satisfying food (see note—Mat_18:14 for the help of others needed by the shepherd to care for the sheep).

“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).