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It Is Written

John Bradshaw

Lessons for All Time: Lost

Coming up next, please stay tuned for It Is Written, presented by Pastor John Bradshaw.

Mary Sawyer lived in Sterling, Massachusetts, in Worcester County, Massachusetts, about 12 miles from Worcester.

She attended the Redstone School in Sudbury, a little distance from her house.

Like many children, Mary enjoyed animals.

1 day, something unusual and unexpected happened.

1 of her pets actually followed her to school.

As you can imagine, the other children at that little school were delighted, none more so than a young man named John Ralston, who was visiting the school that day.

John was so tickled by what he saw that he wrote a little poem about it.

He wrote, Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow, And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

It made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.

That lamb is probably the most famous ovine in all of history.

Dolly the sheep was the first mammal ever to be cloned.

Scientists in Scotland cloned her in 1996.

At the time, it was a massive news story.

Now for all of that, you sort of have to feel for sheep.

They're immensely useful animals, but they're, well, they're sheep.

In terms of dollars and cents, they're not really worth that much, not like other farm animals like cows or alpacas or ostriches.

Sheep are vulnerable, vulnerable to predators.

Terrific at keeping the grass down in a big backyard, even if they could be a little bit messy.

Now our lamb, my lamb, Sweetcorn was his name, disappeared 1 day.

Now dad said sweet corn was getting too big so he needed to get rid of him.

I figured out what dad meant a few weeks later when I noticed that our freezer was suddenly full of mutton.

But go to the Bible, and that's when sheep really come into focus.

He wrote in Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray.

Jesus referred to himself as the Good Shepherd.

Ministers of the gospel are referred to as shepherds.

The word pastor, like a local church pastor, means shepherd.

The Bible refers to the church as a flock.

Abraham and his family were keepers of sheep.

A ram caught by its horns in a thicket was offered as a sacrifice when Isaac was spared.

Lambs were offered as the Passover sacrifice.

Lambs were offered as sacrifices throughout the Old Testament and they prefigured Jesus, whom John the Baptist referred to as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The book of Revelation refers to Jesus as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Now, Jesus shared a significant story about sheep, a parable actually.

It's found in Luke 15 and it's the first of 3 parables that deal with a similar subject, or you might say the same subject but from slightly different angles.

You find it in Luke chapter 15 and We'll pick it up starting in verse 1.

Then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to him to hear him.

And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he spoke this parable to them, saying, What man of you, having 100 sheep, if he loses 1 of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the 1 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 neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.

I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over 1 sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance." Notice the context.

Jesus is speaking with the publicans and sinners, the bad crowd, the undesirables.

It's worth noting that Jesus spent time with sinners, with those on the fringes, even beyond the fringes of religious society.

A lot of people who claim to be followers of God today don't model this aspect of Jesus' behavior.

If the church is to reach the lost, the people in the church by definition would need to interact with lost people.

Jesus wasn't hanging out with the lost so he could participate in their sins.

He did what he did in order to reach the unsaved with the gospel.

If you're a follower of Jesus, a believer, give this some thought.

If the orbit of your life doesn't bring you into contact with people who don't know Jesus, you might want to do something about that.

And then if you're not a believer, if you're not a church member, if you're not walking with God, I want you to notice what this points out.

This story shows you that God is interested in you.

It shows you that no matter what's going on in your life, you are of value to God.

Jesus could have gone to the publicans and sinners and excoriated them, criticized them, condemned them.

But he didn't because that's not what Jesus is all about.

If you're willing to be lifted up, if you sense a need for God in your life, then you can know that the same Jesus who hung out with the outsiders back then, who encouraged people back then, that's what Jesus still does today.

Now, verse 2 could keep us busy for the rest of our time together.

Here's what the Bible says, And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

Now again, this isn't Jesus saying it's okay.

This isn't Jesus saying that sin's just fine.

This is Jesus showing that God cares and that God wants to receive sinners and save them.

So Jesus is being criticized by a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites who don't feel a need to help their fellow human beings come to know the blessings of God.

A group of people who couldn't be bothered lifting a finger to help somebody find a better way.

Pious religious snobs, so caught up in their own selves that they can't see the worth of a fellow human being.

Well, as a parable, it's more than a story.

Not exactly an allegory, but a story designed to teach lessons.

He said, which 1 of you wouldn't go and find a lost animal?

None of them would be so heartless as to leave the animal in the wilderness someplace, vulnerable to attack, exposed to the elements.

None of those men listening would have done so.

But a human being outside the fold of God, a person made in the image of God but outside the will of God, they couldn't have cared less about that person.

Jesus was hoping to help them understand his mission.

He was there to save the lost, and he hoped that he could help them to see their own true mission.

God has raised up the church for the purpose of reaching the lost with the love of Jesus.

There are many churches, many, that do nothing to reach the lost.

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Lessons for All Time: Lost

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