Do the people furthest from God find you approachable? What would it take for someone with a bad reputation to want to sit at your table?

Before the parable there is a complaint, and it is the reason the parable exists. "This man receives sinners and eats with them." The Pharisees and scribes meant it as an accusation. It is, in fact, the finest summary of Jesus' ministry anyone ever produced — and they produced it by mistake, while trying to discredit him. Notice what specifically bothered them. Not that he taught sinners, or rebuked them, or called them to repent from a safe distance. That he *ate* with them. In that culture a shared table meant acceptance, association, belonging. He was not conducting outreach at arm's length. He was having dinner. Drake said God pursues the sick more than the healthy — that is the logic of everything that follows. So the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.

Have you ever assumed you were the one who wasn't worth going after? What does the shepherd's 'of course' say to that?

Drake did something clever that morning. He asked whether there were any shepherds in the crowd — and there was one. Nilo. Welcome, he said, we are honoured you are here. I have a very warm place in my heart for shepherds. Who is watching your flock right now? *My brother. We take turns.* How many sheep? *A hundred, teacher.* Say one of them wanders off. What do you do? *I would go find it, of course.* Of course. But what about the other ninety-nine? *I would have to leave them behind. I cannot lose that sheep.* There it is, from a working shepherd who did not know he was illustrating the gospel. It was not a hard question for him. Of course you go. The math that says ninety-nine is more than one is not the math a shepherd uses. God does not do actuarial tables on souls. He goes

When you imagine returning to God after wandering, what expression do you picture on his face? Where did that picture come from?

"And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing." Two details, and both matter enormously. First: he carries it. A sheep that has wandered far enough is exhausted, injured, and frequently unwilling. The shepherd does not find it and then march it home under its own power with a lecture about staying close. He picks it up and takes the weight himself. Second: rejoicing. Not sighing. Not resentful about the trip. The whole way home, glad. That is not how most of us imagine being found. We imagine the finding, and then we brace for what comes after — the disappointment, the accounting, the conversation about how we ended up out there. Jesus puts none of that in the story. There is no rebuke anywhere in this parable. Just a shepherd with a sheep on his shoulders, walking

Is there anyone whose return to God you would struggle to celebrate? What does that reveal?

He gets home and throws a party. "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'" Drake pressed the shepherd on this too. And if you find it? *I'd put it on my shoulders and bring it home. And I'd probably do a little dance.* And what would you say to your friends who have been worried about you? *Rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep.* Did you catch what he just said, Drake asked the church. He is happier over one sheep than over the ninety-nine. That is the offensive centre of this parable, and it was aimed squarely at the men who were grumbling. They could not understand why Jesus made such a fuss over the wrong sort of people. This is the answer: because that is what finding

Do you still see yourself as someone who needs finding, or have you drifted into thinking of yourself as one of the ninety-nine?

"Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." That last phrase has an edge to it. *Ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance* — Jesus is describing the men standing in front of him, who were quite sure that was them. There is no such person. That is the joke, and it is a serious one. Everyone in this story is the lost sheep. The only question is whether you know it. Which is why the sermon's question was *are you the lost sheep?* Not: do you know one. Are you. Because the moment you decide you are one of the ninety-nine — settled, secure, not the sort who wanders — you have quietly placed yourself outside the story where the rejoicing happens. Heaven throws parties for peop

Luke 15 opens with two crowds: tax collectors and sinners drawing near to listen, and religious leaders grumbling that "this man receives sinners and eats with them." What was it about Jesus that pulled one group in and set the other one off?

The Good Shepherd Who Pursues the Lost In a world filled with competing voices and endless distractions, we need core values that serve as anchors for our souls. These time-tested truths help us navig…

James pointed out that the parable's first line — "what man of you, having a hundred sheep" — landed as an insult, because the Pharisees were men of the law, not men of the land. His modern version was telling a staunch Republican he sounds progressive. Why do you think Jesus opened with a jab rather than an argument?

The Good Shepherd Who Pursues the Lost In a world filled with competing voices and endless distractions, we need core values that serve as anchors for our souls. These time-tested truths help us navig…

James put Abraham on stage with a 70-pound sandbag and kept him walking with it, and admitted he himself would rejoice at finding the sheep but not at carrying it home. What does it tell you about God that the shepherd is rejoicing the whole way back?

The Good Shepherd Who Pursues the Lost In a world filled with competing voices and endless distractions, we need core values that serve as anchors for our souls. These time-tested truths help us navig…

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Are You The Lost Sheep? · Group Guide

Luke 15

James Drake Sunday, October 26, 2025

Icebreaker

What is the longest you have ever spent searching for something you lost? Did you find it, and what did you say out loud when you did?

Discussion Questions

1
Luke 15 opens with two crowds: tax collectors and sinners drawing near to listen, and religious leaders grumbling that "this man receives sinners and eats with them." What was it about Jesus that pulled one group in and set the other one off?
2
James pointed out that the parable's first line — "what man of you, having a hundred sheep" — landed as an insult, because the Pharisees were men of the law, not men of the land. His modern version was telling a staunch Republican he sounds progressive. Why do you think Jesus opened with a jab rather than an argument?
3
James put Abraham on stage with a 70-pound sandbag and kept him walking with it, and admitted he himself would rejoice at finding the sheep but not at carrying it home. What does it tell you about God that the shepherd is rejoicing the whole way back?
4
James said religion creates walls but Christ builds a table, and noted that Jesus was literally a carpenter. Where have you run into a wall someone put up in God's name — or caught yourself building one?
5
James described people walking around under that 70-pound bag: a relationship you know is not right, money you are uneasy about, a regret you have not set down. What are you still carrying that you were never built to carry?
6
James's closing challenge was to name your one — the person far from God you would go after. Who is that person, and what is the single thing you will do for them this week: a text, a meal, a seat next to you on Sunday?

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Are You The Lost Sheep? · Group Guide

Luke 15

Discussion Questions

Related Reading

The Good Shepherd Who Pursues the Lost: God's Heart in Luke 15

Why Is the Church Full of Hypocrites?

Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? The Evidence From 1 Corinthians 15

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