This is my adaptation of a sermon by Pastor Henry Wright
I am not a theologian. I don’t claim to be, I don’t try to be, and I don’t want to be. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing necessarily against the theologian, I’m just not one. You see, theologians tend to be deep and profound, often speaking a different language than the people. They use big words that are generally not in our vocabulary. They talk about Christology, which is the study of Christ. They talk about eschatology, which is the study of last day events. They talk about hermeneutics, which is a fancy word for Biblical interpretation. They talk about the prolegomena. They talk about the kerygma.
I, on the other hand, like to be simple. I believe that the gospel is simple. I believe that the full Seventh-day Adventist message is simple, and can be given in a simple way that even a child can understand it. I don’t believe it necessary to use high-sounding words to make a point that most people wouldn’t understand anyway. Therefore, I find it unnecessary for me to normally talk about things like the prolegomena and the kerygma.
But there’s an interesting word. Kerygma. I’m sure all of you have spent your lives wondering what the kerygma is. Simply put, the kerygma is the central message of truth in the Bible. It is the essence of the Bible, and it can be given in 6 simple sentences. If someone were to come up to you and ask you to tell them in 6 sentences what the Bible was about, you would share with them the kerygma.
1. God’s promises made to His people in the Old Testament are now fulfilled in Jesus.
2. The long-expected Messiah, born of David’s line, has come, and God has kept His Word.
3. According to the plan of salvation, Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead to pay the price for man’s sin.
4. Since Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension, God’s promise of the Holy Spirit has been fulfilled.
5. Jesus said in His Word that He would come again, and His Word is sure-He will come again.
6. Therefore, because of what Christ has done, is doing, and will do for His people, men ought everywhere to repent, and believe the Gospel.
Turn with me to Luke 1:1-3. “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus.”
As Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we believe that God is the author of the Bible. We believe it to be inspired, but we do not believe in the concept of verbal inspiration. In other words, we don’t accept the theory that God came and stood by each of the Bible writers and dictated to them, word-for-word, what they were to say and write. We believe in the concept of plenary, or thought, inspiration. We believe that the Holy Spirit came upon the writers, giving them convictions and ideas to write, and they in turn wrote them in their own words.
Each of the four gospel writers was unique. Two of them had known Jesus and served as His disciples, but the other two were probably later converts. Mark was a young man who at two different points traveled with the apostle Paul, and Luke was the only Gentile writer in the New Testament.
Luke tells us at the beginning of his Gospel that he actually researched the story of Christ before writing it. He went to the eyewitnesses and questioned them. He talked with those who had talked with Jesus, walked with Jesus, been healed by Jesus, who had seen Jesus, who had heard Jesus preach. Luke wrote about Jesus, and Jesus is the heart of the Bible, and Jesus is the heart of the kerygma.
Luke tells a series of stories in Luke 15, and these stories are what the Gospel is really all about. These stories are the kerygma. “Now all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”
I want to stop there for a moment and let those words sink in. That right there is a sermon in itself. “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” In fact, one translation says “This man accepts and receives and welcomes sinners.” Every person in this church should say Praise the Lord when you hear those words, because you are included in that category. If Jesus didn’t receive sinners, then He wouldn’t receive you, and He wouldn’t receive me. I don’t know about you, but I’m so glad today that Jesus receives sinners.
Notice that the accusation made against Him is made in public and in His presence. He is publicly accused of receiving and associating with and eating with sinners. And Jesus doesn’t deny the charges. Glory to God! He says, “Yes, I’m guilty. I love to be with sinners.” You see, the fact that Jesus specializes in sinners means once again that He specializes in you and me, because we are all sinners.
Something interesting is that the scribes and Pharisees were upset about Jesus receiving sinners. The reason I find that interesting is that the Bible says that all have sinned, and therefore all are sinners. All is a pretty inclusive word, and since it says that all have sinned and all are sinners, that must mean that the Pharisees were sinners, too.
So let me ask you this. Does Jesus receive ALL sinners? I would have to say no, He doesn’t. Would He like to? Yes. Did Jesus treat all sinners the same? No. Remember, the Pharisees were sinners just as much as the woman caught in adultery, but Jesus didn’t treat them the same way He treated the others. Why? We’ll come back to that later.
But back to the idea of the kerygma. You see, deep theological terms have no relevance to us today unless they can come into our hearts and homes and make a difference in our lives. If the kerygma can’t change my life, I don’t need it.
As I said, these stories in Luke 15 all reveal the kerygma. Obviously, I’m not going to have time to preach all 3 parables today, but I plan to get them in the next few weeks in Vivian. Really, I will probably do 2 sermons on the parable of the prodigal son, because there were really 2 lost sons. But today I’m going to focus on the first parable here, in Luke 15:3-7.
“And He told them this parable, saying, ‘What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. 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 which was lost! I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’”
It is no accident that He talks about sheep in this parable. It wasn’t until recently that I came to see what that meant. Having not grown up around them and only seeing still photographs, I knew nothing about sheep. I would just see pictures of little cuddly lambs and think, “They’re so cute and loveable, so God must be saying that we’re cute and loveable, too.” I have since learned a thing or two about sheep, and my view has changed for the worse. You see, the sheep is world-renowned by most zoologists for one thing—it is, with maybe only one close rival, the dumbest of all animals.
And yet Jesus consciously chooses to tell this parable about sheep. I hate to tell you this, folks, because I don’t want to be insulting, but Jesus is not paying us a compliment when He calls us sheep. In fact, the Bible is full of references to describing people as being sheep, or God as being a Shepherd.
Look at Psalm 23:1. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Isaiah picks up the thought and says in Isaiah 53:6, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” When Jesus saw the multitude in Mark 6:34, the Bible says “He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
Remember what I said. The sheep is known the world over for being probably the dumbest of all animals. One thing that is clear above all else today is that sin in any form is stupid. We’re going to look in the mirror today. Sin is dumb. Think about it. When we are sinning, we are being stupid. When we’re doing wrong, we’re not being intelligent. Ignorance is ruling our lives.
There are two kinds of ignorance. The first one is the kind mentioned in Acts 17:30. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.” King James says that in the time of ignorance, God winks. God might overlook some unknown sin, but that doesn’t mean that there still won’t be consequences. 100 years ago, people thought that smoking was good for the lungs. They were ignorant, but did their ignorance mean that nobody got cancer from smoking? Of course not. People still have to live with the results of what they’ve done.
The other kind of ignorance is willful ignorance. Some people still have the attitude that what I don’t know won’t hurt me. These are the kind of people referred to in Jeremiah 5:21. “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not; who have ears, but hear not.” These are the people who are in open rebellion against God. They don’t read their Bibles, they don’t pray, they don’t go to church, they don’t attend evangelistic meetings, because they don’t want to know what’s wrong in their lives. If they do go to a church, they make sure that they find a preacher who is positive and affirming and attentive to their needs; a preacher who won’t rock the boat.
People often ask me why I preach so straight. The truth is, I’m scared not to. I’d like to be popular as much as the next guy, but not at the price of principle. I know that there won’t be much of a crowd coming to hear me, but that’s okay. I’d rather preach the truth of God’s Word and lead 10 people to heaven than to preach a compromised message of nonsense and lead 10,000 people with me to hell. God said in Ezekiel 33:7-9, “Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your life.”
Remember, one kind of ignorance is the person who is doing wrong but sincerely doesn’t know any better, and they’re doing the best they know how. The other kind is the person who says they don’t want to know what God requires of them because then they’d have to do it. And yet it was for both kinds of ignorance that Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Back to this sheep. Remember, sheep are the dumbest of animals, and we are being dumb when we sin and go against God’s will for our lives, either knowingly or unknowingly. And remember, the decisions we make each day will eventually lead to our salvation with Jesus or our destruction.
I was talking yesterday to Dr. Joseph Greig, a retired teacher from the Religion Department at Andrews University, and an expert on sheep. He told me that sheep have no common sense in some areas. He said that one day he was walking around near a cliff, when he looked down to a ledge 5 feet down and saw 5 dead sheep. Apparently, these sheep were wandering near the edge of the cliff. One of them looked down and saw a bit of grass on this ledge 5 feet down and jumped for it. The other 4 did the same thing. Unfortunately, there wasn’t very much grass on this ledge, so it was gone very quickly, and the sheep had no way of jumping 5 feet up to get back on the cliff. Their options were to stay put and either be rescued or die of dehydration and starvation, or to jump the 50 feet to the bottom of the cliff and be killed in the fall. They stayed on the ledge and died. 5 sheep died just because of a little grass.
You see, I haven’t forgotten that my subject is High On Grass. God calls us sheep. As sheep, we need the shelter of God’s love, but too often we stand out in the rain and storms of life’s consequences. We need the sweet grass and pasture of obedience to God’s will, but too often we go looking for that wild grass of sin’s pleasure that looks greener on the other side.
This first story is about an unnamed flock and an unnamed lamb. The only thing we know about this lamb is that he is good at getting into trouble and getting lost, and he is not good at getting out. How did he get into all his problems? The good news is that the ignorance of the sheep demands a great deal of patience on the part of the shepherd.
Jesus’ eyes must constantly be going to and fro because of all the sheep straying, all the sheep getting into trouble, trying to take care of all of them. Just imagine how busy our guardian angels must be. There’s always some sheep scared of his own shadow. There’s always some sheep straying off or lagging behind. There’s always some sheep trembling at the sight of running water. That’s why David said that “He leads me beside still waters.” There’s always some sheep not satisfied with the grass.
My point is that, as dumb as sheep are, they can still be difficult to satisfy. Thus the ignorance of the sheep can demand great patience on the part of the shepherd. I don’t think this sheep ran off for no reason at all. Maybe he had a falling out with the rest of the flock. Maybe he had been the head sheep, but he didn’t get re-elected for another term of office. Maybe he was the ram, and some other ram took his ewe. Maybe he didn’t like the confines and restrictions of being in the flock, and thought the shepherd was too strict. And then there was this grass. The same old grass every day. It wasn’t fun; it had no kicks to it; it was boring. After all, that grass is so much greener over there on the other side.
The truth is this morning that God has to stay ahead of us in His thinking. He has to put up roadblocks in front of us to keep us from making fools of ourselves everyday. And too often, we are so stubborn, we still try to go through the roadblocks. Remember, the Bible says that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”
I learned something else about sheep. We already know that sheep are dumb. But a sheep tends to think with his stomach. After all, those 5 sheep wouldn’t have jumped off that cliff onto that ledge if they hadn’t seen that little bit of grass there. Dr. Greig told me that it is very difficult to get sheep into a barn because they know that you’ll lock them up, but if you offer them some food, they’ll come in. He told me that sheep will generally run from a person unless the person offers them food. Their lives are controlled by food.
My friend James Elliot, a member at Shreveport First, was telling me that his sheep will eat nothing but grass. Dr. Greig was telling me that sheep will eat other things, but they have one-track taste buds. Sheep like to eat only one thing, and if you try to feed them something better, they resist. He said it is a very difficult thing to get sheep to change their diets. A sheep who has eaten nothing but grass won’t eat oats until he’s about to starve. But a sheep who has eaten nothing but oats won’t eat grass.
Once again, people are like sheep. We like to eat what we want to eat, and how dare anybody tell us what we shouldn’t eat. Overall, diet is not an issue of salvation, but God does want us to take care of our bodies so that we can glorify Him. He gives us laws for what we are forbidden to eat (unclean meats), He tells us what we have permission to eat (clean meats), and then He gives us guidelines (suggestions, but not requirements) for what we should eat (natural foods, whole grains, nuts, vegetables, fruits). But like the lost sheep, we sometimes tend to run off and find our own pasture with our own grass.
You see, folks, I can’t lie to you today. Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”
The devil is a liar. The Bible calls him the father of lies. And yet, our carnal nature dictates that we still enjoy hearing lies. No, we don’t like being lied to all the time, but there are certain lies that we like. A prime example is the wife who asks her husband, “Does this dress make me look fat?” You know that you don’t really want to hear the truth when the lie sounds so much better.
Another thing the devil does is that he will put something in our heads and make us want to do something. John 13:2 tells us that Judas betrayed Jesus after the devil put it in his heart to do so. It is through temptation that the devil influences our desires to get us to sin, but he doesn’t force us. Every sin we commit is a personal choice of the will. Nobody can make us sin. We do it because, at the time, we wanted to. Sure, as soon as it’s done we might be sorry, but we still did it because we at least thought we wanted to do it.
Something else that the devil does is that when the truth comes to somebody, the devil does everything he can to rob them of it. Matthew 13:19 says that the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in a person’s heart.
We also know that it is the devil who creates dissatisfaction. We read about that in 2 Corinthians 11:3. We can be happily serving God, and the devil makes it seem so boring. Remember, Eve in the Garden of Eden was not satisfied with the fruit of all the trees that God had given permission to eat. It was this dissatisfaction that led her to the forbidden tree.
It happens that way every time. Dissatisfaction with what God has provided will lead you to Satan’s pasture, and a high on grass. Not God’s grass, but the wild grass of sin and worldliness.
Let me share something with you. “Satan well knows the material with which he has to deal in the human heart. He knows—for he has studied with fiendish intensity for thousands of years—the points most easily assailed in every character; and through successive generations he has wrought to overthrow the strongest men…And he employs the same agents now as he employed three thousand years ago.” Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 457-8.
You see, Satan studies your character. He knows better than we do what we like and dislike. He hand crafts each temptation specifically to each individual. What tempts you would probably not bother me at all, and vice versa. What’s more, I read somewhere that the devil even reads our faces to know what we’re thinking at any given time. When the temptation comes, we might say no, but he can read our face and know that we don’t really mean it when we say no. He can tell when we really want to say yes, and he just intensifies his attack to try to get us to fall.
But there’s something else he knows. One Christian writer tells us that Satan knows fully well how weak he really is, and that the weakest believer on his knees is more powerful than Satan and all his angels combined. The Bible says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Our problem is, too often, that we just don’t resist, so we find ourselves falling into his traps. We find ourselves high on the devil’s grass. The truth, however, is that if we will just resist the devil, and cling to Jesus, our victory cry can be that of Paul in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
And so this sheep is lost. Sheep get lost all the time, and if you don’t go looking for them, they’ll never make it home. Dr. Greig told me that sometimes a sheep will be trying so hard to put his head through a fence to get through to the other side. The shepherd will come and open the gate so the sheep can get through, but the dumb sheep, while only 3 feet away from the open gate, can’t see it. He might get his neck caught in the fence so that he’ll choke to death if left unattended, never noticing the open gate just 3 feet away.
The only way that a lost sheep can come home is if the shepherd comes looking for him. Every one of us here today were once lost sheep until the Shepherd came looking for us. And when He found us, when we surrendered to Him, there was shouting in heaven. The Bible says that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
That troubled me at first. The concept of 99 righteous people who don’t need to repent doesn’t make sense. After all, doesn’t the Bible say somewhere else that “there is none righteous, no, not one”? What could this mean?
Remember towards the beginning of the sermon, I talked about the Pharisees being upset that Jesus received and ate with sinners. As I said, the Pharisees were sinners just like the woman caught in adultery, but Jesus treated them very differently. The reason was because of their attitude. A friend of mine describes Pharisees as being sinners in denial. They were sinners for sure, but they wouldn’t admit to God or anyone else that they were sinners. They were proud of their external righteousness. They wanted everyone to see how holy they thought they were. And yet Jesus said to them, “You snakes, you stink.”
None of us are righteous, and every single one of us needs to repent. The question is, will we put on a fake righteousness and pretend that everything is alright in our lives, or will we humble ourselves and come to Jesus as the sheep that we are? Remember, we are lost sheep, and we can’t come to Him unless He comes to us first. The good news is, He already came first for each of us. He came 2000 years ago and died on the cross for us. And today, He’s coming to some of you here today. Don’t continue to be a lost sheep. Come home today.
