Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Matthew 18:11-14
Main Idea: Find the lost sheep.
Ojectives: a. To result in the congregation preaching the gospel to the lost sheep. b. To identify the lost sheep and bring them back to the fold of GMC.
A. Introduction
- Are there lost sheep that belong to GMC or any other churches? Lost sheep refer to those who are baptized and not attending any church or small group anymore. They are out there in the world and being secularized. You may say there are thousands of them out there, right?
- However, in GMC or in any church, there may be so called christians who are phsically in the church but they are lost. Could you be one of them? You may ask me what do you mean.
- This is what I mean. If you do not know why you are coming to church or the purpose of coming to church, you are lost. If you do not why you are on earth, you are lost. If you are not sure if you die tonight whether you go to heaven or not, you are lost. If you continue to sin against God and anybody, you are lost. If you think that by doing all the good works or all the ministry, you are lost. If you believe that without repentance from your sins you are saved for eternity you are lost. If you believe that all believers of religions will eventually cause people to end up in heaven with Jesus, you are lost.
- Why lost? Because the path you take will not lead you to salvation in Christ, eternal life with Christ in heaven. No wonder John Wesley very much emphasize Philippians 2:12, 13 “...continue to work out the salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
- The parable of lost sheep has very strong motive to teach us to find the lost sheep of the church.
B. The insignificant one sheep/ person.
- Jesus desires to use this parable of lost sheep to emphasize that God pays attention to the insignificant lost sheep in His church. He desires to see the insignificant lost sheep returning to the church.
- He addresses these lost sheep as little ones, in verse 10, He says, “See that you do not look down on one of these littles ones...”
- Those lost sheep out there are the insignificant people because they do not catch our attention but today Jesus exhorts us to pay attention to them today.
- They are on the fence, half in and half out, they are half-hearted in their devotion to Jesus and to the church. Their insignificance is in part becasue of their own spiritual indifference.
- The temptation for those who are spirituallly serious is to look down on these half-hearted christians.
- Jesus really uses this parable to teach us not to look down on these insignificant lost sheep. Jesus now upgrades them.
- He even uses an unusual reason to justify why we must not look down on them, in verse 10, the second part, He says, “...For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” Wah, they had angels constantly looking at the face of God; who are so close to God. So, we are making the wrong enemies when we look down on the insignificant lost sheep.
- To emphasize Jesus’ point and to further elaborate His point, He uses this powerful, simple parable to drive home the point.
- The emphasis is upon “the one,” highligting the importance of that single person, that single soul.
- He likens the owner to be a man who owns the hundred sheep. May be that owner is the shepherd of the hundred sheep. I believe that Jesus Himself or His heavenly Father is that shepherd, the Great Shepherd who will actually leve the ninety-nine to find the insignificant lost sheep. What is challenging is Jesus desires us to be that shepherd.
- The parable does not underplay the importance of the ninety-nine sheep. It is just that the one lost sheep requires the shepherd and care must be shown before the worst can happen.
- Why the one lost sheep is so emphasized? Jesus even go to the extend of saying in verse 13, “And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.” So, you see the one lost sheep wandered off, he has a need that deserves the shepherd’s attention.
- Nromally, the one lost sheep is statistically insignificant. Human pscyhology says, “Let is go, we still have ninety-nine.” Our heavenly Father’s thinking is, “I really care for that one person, one soul.”
- Jesus is trying to convert us to the “mentality of the single person.” To pay attention to the statistically insignificant one. The unimportant one.
- And this person is the weak christian among us; not the lost non-christians.
- This challenges all disciples of Jesus, the church of God, to do an active visitation program. It means we need to re evangelize those who are baptized and lost.
- For Jesus says and really reminds us, “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”
C. Actions you can take to visit the lost.
- In view of the significance of the lost sheep in our heavenly Father’s sight, you and I cannot take lightly the reminder of our Lord Jesus.
- What actions can you take to evangelize to the lost sheep? I want to encourage you to take the following actions:
- (1). Come to Jesus in prayer and seek God who are the lost sheep of GMC or any church. Then, pray for the Holy Spirit to touch him or her or the group to come back to church.
- (2). I strongly believe that there are a lot of lost sheep in primary and secondary schools; and colleges here in Miri. You can identify them and reach out to them by inviting them to go to your small group first and the church.
- (3). More concrete action is you give them a call and pay a visit to find out more about their struggles or problems. And continue to do follow up. You may also refer them to me or church leaders, especially the Membership and Evangelism committee.
- (4). If there is someone among us who is lost, then, you should spend time to talk to him or her and counsel them. You may like to refer him or her to me or to any pastor.
4. Conclusion.
- Christians who are lost out there are plenty; countless of them. Just GMC alone, you have a record of about 600 persons in the book of life but those attending the service and Sunday School is only 350. Where are the 250? Many of them are lost. They are in Miri but not committed to Jesus.
- They need Jesus. Will you bring Jesus to them again? Will you evangelize them again?
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