1. Survivor Eva Hart remembers the night, April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic plunged 12,000 feet to the Atlantic floor, some two hours and forty minutes after an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in the starboard side: "I saw all the horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning people."
Although twenty life-boats and rafts were launched-too few and only partly filled-most of the passengers ended up struggling in the icy seas while those in the boats waited a safe distance away.
Lifeboat No. 14 did row back to the scene after the unsinkable ship slipped from sight at 2:20 A.M. Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few.
Incredibly, no other boat joined it. Some were already overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their half-filled boats aimlessly in the night, listening to the cries of the lost. Each feared a crush of unknown. Swimmers would cling to their craft, eventually swamping it.
2. One of the Impressive things about our God is how much he cares about us. HE initiates our relationship with him
a. Adam – “Where are you?”
b. Abram
3. Luke 15.1-7
I. The Defiant Disapproval
A. Scribes and Pharisees
1. Knew the Torah (specially trained scribes copied; Pharisees studied it and oral law)
2. 5 Bad Pharisees and 2 Good; Yeshua (Jesus) close to Pharisees in Theology
3. Zealots were a branch of the Pharisees – impatient with God – “DIY”
4. “Separated Ones”
a. Separate from Sadducees/Priest – sold out to Rome/Hellenism (no EL)
b. Separate from sin and sinful people – holiness issues/uncleanness
B. Misunderstanding God
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, "Here am I, here am I,"
to a nation that was not called by my name. Isaiah 65.1
Samuel Colgate, the founder of the Colgate business empire, was a devout Christian. During an evangelistic service that he’d attended, an invitation was given at the close of the sermon for all those who wished to turn their lives over to Christ and be forgiven.
One of the first persons to walk down the aisle was a well-known prostitute. She wept openly as she expressed her desire to become a Christian and to become a member of this church. For a few moments, the silence was deafening. This was in the days when some churches “voted” on whether a person would be accepted into their congregation, and it became apparent that these people weren’t sure they wanted her in their church.
Apparently Samuel Colgate understood this. Maybe he was even thinking of these parables (in Luke) when arose and said, "I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners.
We’d better ask him to forgive us for this oversight. The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn’t understand that she’s not the type we want him to rescue. We’d better spell out for him just which sinners we had in mind."
Almost immediately, a motion was made and unanimously approved that the woman be accepted into membership in the congregation.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 6:9-11
“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 male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
(“And we don’t want those kind of people in our church….” No that wasn’t what he said. Instead he said:)
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God
In other words these were those who were lost. The adulterers, prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers and so on. These were the ones that God looked for.
1. By misunderstanding the nature of God, they misunderstood the mission of the Messiah (Luke 19.10)
2. By misunderstanding the nature of God, they misunderstood their mission – instead of seeking lost sinners they kept to themselves in their religious club
II. The Searching Shepherd (A Picture of Messiah/God)
The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialed the employees home telephone number and was greeted with a child’s whispered, "Hello?"
The boss asked, "Is your Daddy home?"
"Yes," whispered the small voice.
"May I talk with him?" the man asked.
To the boss’ surprise, the small voice whispered, "No."
The boss persisted, "Is your Mommy there?"
"Yes," came the answer.
"May I talk with her?"
Again, the small voice whispered, "No."
“Well, is there someone else there I might talk to?" the boss asked the child.
"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."
"Well then, may I speak with the policeman?"
"No,” whispered the child “he is busy"
"Busy doing what?" asked the boss.
"Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman," came the whispered answer.
Now the boss was growing concerned and just then he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone, the boss asked, "What is that noise?"
"A hello-copper," answered the whispering voice.
Alarmed, the boss nearly shouted: "What is going on there?"
In an awed whispering voice, the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper!"
"Why are they there?"
There was a muffled giggle as the child said, "They are looking for me!"
A. Sees the Value in ONE Sheep
1. Left 99 to find the ONE
2. Took Risks in the Wilderness
a. Dangerous animals; terrain; thirst; hunger
b. Yeshua encountered the Adversary in the wilderness (Matthew 4; Luke 4)
B. Has Compassion on ONE Sheep
1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake. Psalm 23.1-3
1. RESTORES my soul – repentance; to go from waywardness to paths of righteousness
2. Relief when retrieved – Isaiah 40.11
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
C. A Depiction of Yeshua (Jesus)
1. Good Shepherd – John 10.11
2. Shepherd who seeks his sheep – Luke 19.10
a. Reference to Ezekiel 34.11ff
For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.
b. Condemns bad shepherds and does the work himself
c. Carries the helpless home
III. The Community Celebration
Several years ago the city of Pittsburgh constructed a large, new post office at the cost of several million dollars. On the day of its opening, the Governor made a speech, the bands played and the people cheered. It was quite a celebration.
But when the first man entered to mail a letter, to the embarrassment of the engineers, it was discovered that in the rush to meet the deadline, they had omitted the usual letter drop. Here was a costly new post office, but no place to mail a letter! It was a slight omission, but it negated the very reason for its existence.
A. The Return Home
1. Sheep is Safe
2. The Shepherd is Successful
B. The Focus of the Party – the Found Sheep
1. Saved from Disuse – while lost of no value
(sheep are not smart/have no sense of direction)
2. Saved from Danger (sheep are defenseless)
3. Saved from Death – given new life
1. A man was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again, he kept hurling things out into the ocean.
As the man approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water.
The man was puzzled. He approached the man and said, "Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing."
"I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it’s low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen."
"I understand," the man replied, "but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?"
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied, "Made a difference to that one!"
2. WE are like the lost 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
3. How important is each of us?
a. Important enough for God to come after us
b. Important enough for Yeshua to die and rise for us
4. The Bible tells us to seek God because he is seeking us
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near; Isaiah 55.6
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29.13
(That is what he has done for us)
Sheep was lost and did not know how to get home – shepherd came to the rescue!
