Lost Sheep!

For Saturday, July 12, 2025:

Luke 15:4 MSG: “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it?”

Jesus is teaching the mixed crowd – tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees and teachers of religious law – the parable of the lost sheep. Livestock are valuable, well worth going after if one strays. Sheep share a philosophy that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, so they’re always wandering off, straying, doing the wrong thing, just like many humans! God figures that human souls are worth going after if they stray. That’s why Jesus came to earth, to redeem mankind! Note the ratio, 1 out of 100 missing. We’d check every nook and cranny of the pasture. The search wouldn’t be over until the missing sheep was accounted for!

In real life, something far more valuable than a sheep had gone missing. In this parable, the lost sheep represents a wandering sinner. Heaven patiently waits for each one of us to repent and return, and heaven won’t abandon us until we have had adequate opportunities to reconcile with our Creator. God’s desire is that none would be lost, and that all would repent and return!

When the animal is returned to the flock, the shepherd invites his neighbors in to celebrate the victory. “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep!”

Jesus summarizes his teaching: “In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Lost Sheep = Lost Soul!

For Friday, April 28, 2023:

Luke 15:4 NLT, Jesus speaking: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?”

Using parables or short stories with a lesson is a good way to teach. It can be difficult to grasp a theological concept, but most people can more easily remember a story containing that lesson.

In this case, Jesus wasn’t really talking about sheep. He was referencing souls, God’s created eternal beings. If even one soul gets off track, it’s a huge disappointment in heaven. Our Creator will present the stray with opportunity after opportunity to repent and return to the flock. And there is great rejoicing and celebration when the stray returns and is reintroduced to the flock.

Jesus concluded this parable: “There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Everyone Matters to God

Feb. 17, 2014 Monday Message:

Luke 15 is filled with 3 similar parables: The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Lost Son. Let’s look at the parallels.

In the Lost Sheep parable, the shepherd is God, and the lost sheep is us. In the Lost Coin, the woman represents God, and we are the lost coin. In the final story, the father is God, and you and I are the lost son.

Notice that what was missing in each story was something of great value. The shepherd, the woman and the father never stopped looking until what was lost was found again.

When the shepherd recovers the lost sheep, he calls his friends and neighbors to celebrate.

When the woman finds her lost coin, she calls her friends, saying, “Rejoice with me!”

When the father greets his wayward son, he orders the fatted calf butchered and the celebrating to begin. “This son of mine was dead and now has returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found!”

When what is lost becomes found, Jesus says it’s worthy of a celebration. One sinner repenting and returning puts heaven in party-mode. The Message says, “Count on it – that’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God.” (Luke 15:10)

So you can see the trend: People far from God really matter to God.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) meets every Sunday, at 10:30am, in the North end (gym) of the Oliver Ministry Building, 2647 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis. This week, the Temple leaders question Jesus’ authority to teach. Pastor Michael Pilla moves us into Luke 20:1-8. See you at church!