TL;DR:
Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15) highlights God’s deep love for every person who has not yet embraced Him and His persistent pursuit of those who are lost. While evangelism in our own communities is vitally important, Jesus calls His Church to seek those who are lost everywhere—even to the ends of the earth.
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” —Luke 15:4, NIV
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 bring gut-wrenching images to mind. 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 message by George Truett that mentions Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Sheep. In the middle of that sermon, “A Quest for Souls,” Pastor Truett turns to the connection between the parable and world evangelism. To Truett, the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, finding the lost sheep Jesus spoke about requires both a global search and intentional evangelism in our own communities.
Let’s be clear: Evangelism in our own communities is critical to carrying out Jesus’ Great Commission. However, millions of lost sheep today will never be found unless believers faithfully bear witness to Jesus “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The Parable of the Lost Sheep is one of three stories in Luke 15. The other two are about a lost coin and a lost son. All three stories portray the loss of someone or something precious and the joy that follows when what was lost is found. In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus leaves no room for an approach to evangelism that says, “Well, let’s be content with the ninety-nine sheep that are not lost. 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, openly proclaiming that, in Christ Jesus, God is reconciling the world to Himself is dangerous. 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 open evangelism was illegal as “closed countries.” World missions strategists no longer speak of “closed countries.” Perhaps that change reflects the Church’s growing realization that, as Australian missions pastor Andrew Chisholm has said, “unreached does not mean out of reach.” That principle is consistent with the message of Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Sheep.
Chisholm says the Parable of the Lost Sheep teaches that, regardless of the obstacles, Jesus expects His Church to find ways to seek lost sheep to the “ends of the earth.”
— Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
This blog post about 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 looks at what the Bible says about world missions.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep, recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matthew 18:12–14; Luke 15:3–7), is a powerful story that can teach us four important lessons:
In short, the Parable of the Lost Sheep is about God’s persistent love, compassion, and mercy. It speaks to the need for us to find and care for people who are spiritually lost. When Jesus tells the parable, He points to the value God places on each person and describes the rejoicing in God’s heart over the repentance of one individual.
L — Loving Shepherd, seeking one astray,
O — Over rugged hills, He makes His way.
S — Searching until the wandering sheep is found,
T — Tenderly lifting it from dangerous ground.
S — Safe on His shoulders, the lost one comes home,
H — Heaven rejoices; no longer it roams.
E — Every lost person is precious in His sight,
E — Endless His mercy, unfailing His light,
P — Praise to the Shepherd who makes all things right.
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