Commentary: What does Jesus' parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 mean for us today?
Lost on the ocean. Lost in the desert. Lost inside a cave. Lost in the mountains. A lost dog. A lost child. Such phrases evoke gut-wrenching images in our minds. Jesus used that emotionally charged word "lost" to describe people who have not yet embraced Him as their Savior and Lord.
The book Classic Sermons on World Evangelism includes a George Truett message which mentions Jesus' Lost Sheep parable. In the middle of that "A Quest for Souls" sermon, Pastor Truett turns to the implications of world evangelism in the Lost Sheep parable. To Truett, long-time Dallas First Baptist Church pastor, finding the lost sheep that Jesus was talking about will necessitate a thorough global search and intensive near-neighbor evangelism.
Let's be clear: Near-neighbor evangelism is critical to carrying out Jesus' Great Commission. However, millions of lost sheep today will never be found unless believers unstintingly follow Jesus' instructions to go to the "ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
The Lost Sheep parable is one of three stories in Luke 15. The other two are about a lost coin and a lost son. Jesus used all three stories to describe the loss of something valuable, something that is valuable enough to merit an all-out search. In the Lost Sheep parable, Jesus rejects an argument about evangelism that says: "Well, let's be content with the ninety-nine sheep that are safe. After all, 99 percent is a really good percentage."
Christopher Chapman, pastor of a church in Jakarta, Indonesia, says the lesson of the Lost Sheep parable is this:
"God surely cares for the ninety-nine sheep that have access to the green grass of the Gospel . . . but the Lord has made clear to us that He feels a special urgency for the lost sheep that have no access to the Gospel."
In some areas of the world, it is dangerous to openly proclaim that God has come in Christ Jesus to reconcile all the world to Himself. People living in those areas can seem beyond the Church's reach. Indeed, a few decades ago, it was common to refer to places where it was illegal to do open evangelism as "closed countries." World missions strategists no longer speak of "closed countries." Maybe that is because the Church has realized that in His lost sheep parable, Jesus was clearly implying, as Australian missions pastor Andrew Chisholm has said, that "unreached does not mean out of reach."
The message of the Lost Sheep Parable, says Chisholm, is that, regardless of obstacles, Jesus expects His Church to devise ways to go to the ends of the earth to find those lost sheep, every one of them.
-- Howard Culbertson,
This mini-essay on a world missions Bible passage is one of more than three dozen articles in the "Heart of God" series published in Engage magazine. That series explores what the Bible says about missions.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep, found in the Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 18:12 14) and Luke (Luke 15:3 7), is a powerful story in which Jesus has several lessons for us:
In short, the Parable of the Lost Sheep is about God's unconditional love, compassion, and mercy. It speaks about our responsibility to find and care for people who are spiritually lost. The parable points to the high value that God places on each individual and the rejoicing that the repentance and reconciliation of an individual brings to God's heart.