Now let’s consider the phrase: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” Even the most casual reader cannot help but be struck by the fact that throughout this Psalm David has placed a continuous emphasis on the care and diligence of the divine Shepherd. He has made it abundantly clear that all the benefits enjoyed by the followers of Lord Jesus are due in no small measure to the skill, attention and care of the Good Shepherd. With such a good Shepherd, we need never fear, for no matter what difficulties and problems we may encounter; He follows hard on our heels to graciously redeem every single event and situation which we are into in life. The word ‘follow’ in this phrase literally means ‘pursue’ –thus it could just as well be translated: ‘Goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life’. David is saying that although his enemies are pursuing him to dethrone and destroy him, God is following or even pursuing harder on His heels to dispense the twin qualities of goodness and love unto us. Francis Thompson, in his memorable poem entitled The Hound of Heaven, put the same thought in this way saying: …. Those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase And unperturbed pace Deliberate speed, majestic instancy They beat –and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet ‘All things betray thee, who betrayest me.’ So being a child of God is an assurance that in whatsoever situation or problem that you are your faith in Him makes Him follow everything concerning you in other to graciously grant you victory and solution so permanent so that your joy be made full and complete! Let us believe in God with unwavering love and faith.

Now let us read Luke 15:1-7; Now the tax collectors and [notorious and [a]especially wicked] sinners were all coming near to [Jesus] to listen to Him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering and indignantly complaining, saying, This man accepts and receives and welcomes [[b]preeminently wicked] sinners and eats with them. 3 So He told them this parable: 4 What man of you, if he has a hundred sheep and should lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness (desert) and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his [own] shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost. 7 Thus, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one [[c]especially] wicked person who repents ([d]changes his mind, abhorring his errors and misdeeds, and determines to enter upon a better course of life) than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.

So in this chapter, that can be called God's Lost and Found, Lord Jesus reminds them that every life is valuable to the Lord our God. In this first parable, the parable of the lost sheep, Lord Jesus shows the Pharisees how God feels and cares about the lost. In doing so, He also shows us what The Good Shepherd Does For His Sheep which we are. When was the last time you lost something precious? I guess at one time or another we have all mislaid a set of keys, or our glasses or our wallet. Ladies, you may have lost an item of jewelry at some point too – perhaps an ear-ring? (In fact we’ve found a couple of lost items on the floor of Church over the years – maybe one of them is yours?!) If you are as disorganized as me, you may even have once lost an important document! For example, a couple of years ago I even managed to lose my marriage certificate, which understandably didn’t go down well with me! Whatever it was, when you did lose something valuable or precious – how did you feel? Anxious, frustrated, even angry or frightened? Losing something precious can have expensive consequences. And so what do you do in those situations? I assume you stopped everything and looked high and low – in every room, under every cushion, no stone unturned. You’d retraced your steps, rack your brains and even recruit family members to help you find whatever you lost. And when you do find something that’s been lost, how do you feel? Relief, I bet, plus joy – plus perhaps a bit of regret or resentment at the time you’ve spent searching for what was lost – but that’s life I suppose! Today’s parable describes God’s actions and attitudes when He’s confronted with something that’s lost. Not a wallet or wedding certificate, of course, but a person – a human being made in His image; can you imagine that?. Because today’s parable describes God’s response when people are living their lives away from Him knowing that sooner or later they will be in trouble. God’s response when people are living in sin and lost or away from Him; as we shall see, God’s first response is not anger or frustration, but searching and saving. And when He finds what He’s lost He doesn’t feel resentment, but real joy! But before we delve further into this passage, let me/us pray: Lord, help us to learn from You this morning, help us to feel the love You have for the lost, and share the joy You have when sinners repent. Amen. 1. Listen to Lord Jesus’ words, don’t grumble! (v.1-2): Now the tax collectors and [notorious and [a]especially wicked] sinners were all coming near to [Jesus] to listen to Him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering and indignantly complaining, saying, This man accepts and receives and welcomes [[b]preeminently wicked] sinners and eats with them. Every society has unpopular people; People who are looked down for one reason or another: People, who are despised, disliked or merely made fun of. Tabloid newspapers, for example, often tell us we should look down on certain politicians or celebrities, as well as people like convicted criminals, second-hand car salesmen and estate agents! In the first verse of our reading today, we meet two types of unpopular people in first century Palestine. We’re told that “tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Lord Jesus.” Tax collectors were unpopular, because they collaborated with the Roman occupiers to collect revenue for the Empire, and because they often creamed off some extra money for themselves, people tends to dislike them. Those tax collectors were wealthy and well-connected with the government, but that didn’t stop them being unpopular. On the other hand Sinners was a more general term used to describe anyone who didn’t live according to the Jewish law. Some lived obviously immoral lives, while others were simply ritually unclean, because of what they ate or wore. It’s fair to say that these ‘sinners’ were not members of high society – on the contrary they were at its margins. But whatever their faults, these two unpopular groups of people were doing something rather wonderful: they were unbelievably listening to Lord Jesus as He was Preaching. They were gathering around Lord Jesus to listen to what He had to say. They were obeying an instruction that Lord Jesus had just given in the last verse of the previous chapter. Lord Jesus said there “whoever had ears to hear, let them hear.” And these tax collectors and sinners were wisely doing just that. The same principle applies to us today, whoever we are. Whether we are wealthy and well-connected, or skint (a person having little or no money available) and a social outcast, Lord Jesus calls us to gather around and listen to His words. That’s one reason why we should gather together every Sunday to sit under God’s Word together, as the Bible is read and taught to us here at House Of Joseph Ministries, Enugu. And it’s why we should listen to Lord Jesus in our daily lives, as we read the Bible privately for ourselves and with others in our Church or believers elsewhere. Whatever their faults, those tax collectors and sinners were spot on when they gathered around Lord Jesus to hear God’s word. Sadly, not everyone was listening to what Lord Jesus had to say. Sadly some people present had their ears closed and their mouths open. The mutterers and grumblers are identified for us in verse 2 as the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. These self-righteous, outwardly religious men were within earshot of Lord Jesus Christ, and all they could do was grumble! They were so busy muttering to one another that they missed out on hearing words spoken by God’s Son! So always make effort to listen to God’s Word, don’t grumble; do not be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. What lay behind the Pharisees grumbling was a misunderstanding about Lord Jesus and His motives. They had failed to understand Who Lord Jesus was and why He’d come. You see, their complaint and muttering against Lord Jesus was that: ‘This man accepts and receives and welcomes [[b]preeminently wicked] sinners and eats with them.’ The Pharisees thought that a true man of God would keep far away from tax collectors and sinners. They thought a true Messiah would make it His business to keep apart or avoid those considered spiritually sick and morally unclean. Invariably they thought that only a sinner would seek out the company of other sinners, which is not what God want. God’s interest is on those that are lost, sins, lowly ones, spiritually sick and morally unclean people so that He will teach them how to live life centered on God! Of course, they could not have been more wrong. Lord Jesus had previously defended Himself in against similar accusations by describing Himself as a doctor. A doctor visits the sick, not the well. Lord Jesus said He had come to heal the spiritually sick, not the healthy. But in today’s passage He tells a different story to make the same point. He tells a Parable about a shepherd and his sheep. Parables are messages with a meaning, stories Lord Jesus told to teach us deep spiritual truths. Stories told not simply for our entertainment or to capture your attention or interest, but for our education, edification and freedom from wrongs.

3 So He told them this parable: 4 What man of you, if he has a hundred sheep and should lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness (desert) and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his [own] shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost. Verses 3 to 5 today describe Lord Jesus’ Parable, don’t they? Its short and sweet, so let me re-read it: “3 So He told them this parable: 4 What man of you, if he has a hundred sheep and should lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness (desert) and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his [own] shoulders, rejoicing.” Its worth taking a moment to think about sheep. Sheep are pretty stupid. They easily wander off or away, get themselves into trouble, and their physical appearance doesn’t exactly strike fear into the heart. I expect few of us would like to be thought of as a sheep – we’d much rather be thought of as wise old owls, strong lions or a soaring eagle. But the truth is that the Bible consistently and clearly compares human beings to sheep. Human beings are prone to wander away from God and do (frankly) stupid, sinful things. We are prone to get lost – to lose contact with our Creator and harm ourselves and other people by not living His way. That, says the Bible is our condition before we become Christians. That, says the Bible, is the condition of every non-Christian before they come to Christ. Human beings are sheep in need of a Savior, because we do things just like sheep. In contrast, what a wonderful shepherd is described in our Parable! Think about how well he responds when his sheep wanders off: • For a start, he takes initiative – the shepherd goes out to seek the lost sheep, leaving the 99 behind. He doesn’t sit back and wait for it to find its own way home. He knows the sheep desperately needs a Savior. • Secondly, the shepherd shows great perseverance – he keeps going until he’s found his sheep, he doesn’t slack off or get tired or discouraged. • And thirdly, the Shepherd saves His sheep at some personal cost. He sacrifices His time and energy to find it and carry it back home. We should be in no doubt who this wonderful shepherd is meant to be. This Good Shepherd is the Lord Jesus. This Good Shepherd is the God who became man in Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when Lord Jesus came to earth and began His ministry, He began to fulfill a wonderful promise God had made many centuries earlier. Words found in chapter 34 of the book of Ezekiel. Let me read them for you: ‘“11 For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I Myself, will search for My sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his sheep in the day that he is among his flock that are scattered, so will I seek out My sheep; and I will rescue them out of all places where they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.” or “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for My sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness…I will search for the lost and bring back the strays…I will shepherd the flock with justice.” And that’s exactly what Lord Jesus has done – and is doing – to this day. Like the good shepherd in our Parable, Lord Jesus has taken the initiative to seek and save the lost. He came from heaven to earth to bring sinners back into a relationship with God. When He walked the earth He met and ate with sinners – with men like Matthew the tax collector – and called them to repentance and faith in Him. He gave them God’s forgiveness and turned their lives around. And whenever the Gospel is preached by His people today, the risen Lord Jesus is still seeking and saving the lost. And we must never forget that Lord Jesus’ mission to seek and to save came at great personal cost, culminating at the cross. He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His flock. As the prophet Isaiah famously phrased it “We all like sheep have gone astray”, and God laid on Christ “the iniquity of us all”. He was willing to be pierced for our transgressions. 3. Rejoice when Lord Jesus saves sinners! (v.6-7): 6 And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost. 7 Thus, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one [[c]especially] wicked person who repents ([d]changes his mind, abhorring his errors and misdeeds, and determines to enter upon a better course of life) than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance. And why does Lord Jesus seek and save the lost? For the same reason we search fervently for our wallets, keys and wedding certificates! Because human beings are enormously precious to Him. Because we are loved by God and God does not want us to be destroyed by our wrongs. It follows that God’s reaction when a sinner repents is one of joy. Father, Son and Holy Spirit – plus all the angels of heaven – delight when even one lost soul gets saved. Heaven rejoices over every sinner who accepts Christ’s offer of forgiveness and a fresh start. This wonderful scene is described in verse 6 and 7 of today’s Parable. After returning home with his lost sheep, the good shepherd “calls his friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.” As Christians, we must cultivate the same joy at seeing people converted to Christ. It should be the aim and ambition of every Church family to see our family grow. To see more and more people join our congregation and become brothers and sisters in Christ by faith. It has certainly been a joy for me over the past years to see new faces and new faith amongst this congregation. God delights when sheep return to the fold, when sinners get saved – and so should we!

Before I conclude, I should confess that one reason I chose this parable for this morning is that it is intensely meaningful to me. Because back in the Spring of 1996, over 28 years ago, it was after reading this passage that I consciously and deliberately put my faith in Lord Jesus for the first time says a narrator. It was holidays, I was sitting up in bed reading this passage, and I remember it hit me like dynamite. God’s spoke to me through this passage as powerfully as He ever has Lord Jesus called me as clearly as He ever has. It was through this passage that God’s Spirit convicted me of my sin, showed me that I was a lost sheep, and pointed me to the Good Shepherd. A Shepherd who had gone to great lengths – even to the cross – to find me and carry me home. I remember being moved to tears by what I read, as I realized the love of God for a lost sheep like me. If you are a Christian this morning, I hope that you have a similar testimony to tell. I hope you are grateful for the love and forgiveness God has shown you in the Gospel. I hope you have a passion to introduce family and friends to the Good Shepherd who is your Lord and Savior. But perhaps you are here this morning and don’t yet consider yourself a Christian. If that’s you, please take time today to re-read and reflect on this parable. Are you honest enough to recognize you are lost without God? Do you realize how much you are loved by Him? And will you accept Christ’s invitation to forgive you and Shepherd you forever? Because if you do, the whole of heaven will go wild in joy and happiness for your sake!