Luke 15 (2)

Pray Psalm 28.8, 9.
The LORD is their strength,
And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.
Save Your people,
And bless Your inheritance;
Shepherd them also,
And bear them up forever.

Sing Psalm 28.8, 9.
(Angel’s Story: O Jesus, I Have Promised)
Our strength are You, O Savior, our strong defense and sure.
Anointed with Your favor, we rest in You secure.
Save us, and bless us, Jesus, upon us turn Your face.
With shepherd’s care, Lord, keep us forever in Your grace.

Read Luke 15.1-7; meditate on verses 3-7.

Preparation
1. What did the shepherd do for his lost sheep?

2. What was his attitude in so doing?

Meditation
Following Jesus, being His disciple, is a process of becoming more like Him. As John the Baptist said, He must increase while we must decrease (Jn. 3.30). Paul taught this as well, saying that we must “put on” the Lord Jesus Christ and be transformed into His likeness (Rom. 13.14; 2 Cor. 3.12-18). And Peter called us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3.18).

But if we are to increase in Jesus, to become more like Him, we must have a good sense of what He is like. We must be able to see, with the eye of the heart, all that Jesus is, all that we may learn of Him (Eph. 4.17-24), beginning in His Word (Jn. 5.39). Our passage shows us three aspects of the character of Jesus that we can cultivate in our own walk with and work for Him.

Jesus is the shepherd who seeks His sheep and gathers them to Himself (v. 4). He has compassion for those who are lost in sin, and He seeks them – the “Hound of Heaven” (Francis Thompson) – until He finds and secures them unto Himself (v. 5). When we were lost, Jesus came in the enormity of His compassion and love, found us and laid us on Himself, so that we became one with Him by His Spirit.

And He did not find this an onerous or tedious task. Rather, Jesus rejoices to seek and find His lost sheep, and He calls all heaven to rejoice with Him each time one lost lamb is added to the fold (vv. 6, 7).

If we would be true disciples of Jesus, we must be seekers. We must seek the Lord to give us love and compassion for the lost and to keep His chosen ones safe until they may be found. And we must go among the sheep in our Personal Mission Field, to encourage the found and to seek the lost, wherever that may take us day by day. We are appointed to be seekers – of the Lord and of His sheep. That’s why the arrows on your Personal Mission Field map point outward, rather than inward.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
The God of heaven and earth, Jesus His only begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit—the three Persons of the Godhead, the Triune God, the One Whose voice is powerful and full of majesty (Ps. 29.4), the LORD God Who sat enthroned at the Flood, and the LORD Who is King forever (Ps. 29.10)—this God came looking for you and me, then rejoiced when He found us.

Do you really believe that?
Do you rejoice at the thought of His love and care for you?
Do you understand this amazing love?

How many of us have loved ones who are wandering around, straying from the other ninety-nine, walking around without a clue as to where they are or why they are there? Maybe they are angry about church hypocrites, or health failings, or unfair treatment from family, friends, and enemies alike? Maybe they are just soured on life as a whole? Who knows the reasons? But nonetheless, they are floundering. Fish out of water. Sheep without a shepherd. Oh, how we long for them to let Jesus love them.

We all once were floundering wanderers in desperate need of being found:
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him [our Beloved Jesus] the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53.6).

And for those who are lost, it doesn’t have to be this way. They needn’t be lost and wandering. The Shepherd longs to find them and tenderly care for them:
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake” (Ps. 23.1-3).

They can come to Him and be embraced by Him:
“For you were like lost sheep going astray,
but have returned to the Shepherd
and Overseer of your souls” (1Pet. 2.25).

They can repent, trust Jesus for their salvation, and follow His commandments:
“I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant,
for I do not forget Your commandments” (Ps. 119.176).

Let us all hear and rejoice over these words spoken by our Savior:
“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!’” (Lk. 15.5, 6).

Those are words that reach every heart, lost or found.

Amazing love! How can it be that Thou my God, shouldst die for me?
(Charles Wesley, 1738)

For reflection
1. How does Jesus reach and find His lost sheep?

2. How did Jesus reach and find you?

3. How will Jesus use you today to seek His lost sheep?

There is a breadth of patience in our Lord’s parables, the patience of the shepherd that makes him seek and find the straying sheep. Impatience would readily take no account of a single sheep, but patience undertakes the wearisome search. Tertullian (155-260), On Patience 12

Pray Psalm 28.1-7.
Call on the Lord to shepherd, shield, shape, and send you this day for the good work He has appointed for you. Rejoice before Him with praise, for He hears your prayers and is with you always.

Sing Psalm 28.1-7.
(Angel’s Story: O Jesus, I Have Promised)
I cry to You, our Savior, O, be not deaf to me!
Lord, speak to me with favor, lest I should dying be.
Hear now my supplications when for Your help I cry.
Receive these, my oblations, before Your throne on high.

Lord, count me not among those who walk in sinful ways.
With words of peace their tongue glows while evil fills their days.
Your works they disregard, Lord, while evil fills their hands.
Destroy them by Your Word, Lord, and let them no more stand.

Blessed be the Name of Jesus, for He will hear our prayer.
His strength protects and shields us with mercy and with care.
In You our heart rejoices; You help us by Your Word.
To You we raise our voices to praise and thank You, Lord.

T. M. and Susie Moore

You can download all the studies in our Luke series by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available free by clicking here.