Luke 15:1-7--The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Luke 15:1-7
English Standard Version

The Parable of the Lost Sheep
15 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.”

​3 So he told them this parable: 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? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 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 that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

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As a reminder, this is the passage from which the 99-1 Ministry Team originally got its name.  Let's first take a look at verses 1 and 2 to understand the meaning of verses 3-7.  The Pharisees are once again following Jesus around (they probably have never stopped) and this time there is a group of "sinners" and tax collectors coming to Him--likely to repent and believe.  Jesus had already told the Pharisees so many stories about how the "sinners" and tax collectors would beat them to the kingdom of God because they realized they were in need of repentance and salvation and the Pharisees thought they didn't need to repent.  That will be the meaning of this parable, but for now the Pharisees and the scribes (notice the coalition is growing) oppose Jesus to accuse Him of something wrong by accepting and having fellowship with sinners, so we are likely at another party, but not at a Pharisee's house this time.

Jesus then told them a parable to explain that He is the Good Shepherd and all the sheep that belong to God belong to Him, but He is not content to lose any that belong to Him and will leave the "ninety-nine" sheep who already are following after Him in a place of safety and security to go after the one sheep that belongs to Him, but is not being obedient.

With all that said, the Pharisees think they are the ninety-nine sheep that need no repentance, but for the most part, they are not.  They are the salt without taste from the last parable and the guests who were sent an invitation to the king's banquet but made excuses why not to come so that the "sinners" and tax collectors were compelled to come and fill the king's table and take their seats.

This is one of a series of parables where there is someone looking for something or someone who is lost and the Pharisees will show up in the last of the three parables again.  These parables will focus on the nature and character of God, and specifically God the Son, to let us know that He is the one who seeks and saves that which is lost.  He is not content to lose any of the Elect that belong to Him (if you prefer words like "remnant" to "Elect" that works too).  In each of the parables the thing that is lost increases in value to the person that loses it,  First one out of one-hundred sheep, then one out of ten silver coins, and finally one out of two sons.  It is a greater loss each time both because proportionally but also because of the intrinsic value of the item.

So God values even the sinners and tax collectors, even if the self-righteous "churchy" people do not.  The ones who we talked about last time that have an appearance or form of godliness, but the Spirit of God is not in them and they still live like the world.  Yet these sinners and tax collectors were of the world but were trying to turn and repent and believe and the Pharisees were trying to play Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Services officers saying "We don't need your kind here in the kingdom of God."  Funny thing is they were never in the kingdom of God to begin with and while heaven only has one Gate through which to come legally and everyone who tries to come in by any other way won't be allowed in, no one that wants to come in through the one Gate is turned away.  That is the point here...even if it means that God has to go looking for the ones who are a little rebellious and running away from Him.  If they belong to Him, He will not lose them.

We will see this consistent theme at the end of each lesson that there will be rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents than over the ninety-and-nine righteous who need no repentance (this is the verse our ministry team focused on because we wanted to celebrate the repentance and salvation of the ones that no one was going after and that many would have thought needed to be excluded from their churches).  There is no rejoicing of the ones that think themselves righteous and in no need of repentance because they were never really saved.  Jesus will make this abundantly clear in the last story when the son that we think is "good" stays outside and refuses to come into the party (that is heaven) by his own choice because he won't tolerate the Father having compassion on someone like THAT who he thinks doesn't deserve God's grace and mercy.  If he has to hang out with "those people" in heaven, he'd rather not be there.  I'm spoiling things a bit for you, but this is the attitude of the Pharisees.  Right now the point of this parable was just to say that it is God's nature to go after His sheep, no matter how good or bad the sheep was because that's that nature of the shepherd.  They should have understood that.  Neighbors may have said to the shepherd, "Why do you keep going after that one?  You know he's just going to run away again?," but the shepherd would say "Because that one belongs to me and I love that sheep whether or not it always acts like it loves me."