Saturday, February 24, 2018
Ninety-nine
Luke 15:4
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
In the devotional yesterday, we mentioned a comment made by one of our readers who said that “we are busy with all kinds of programmes for ourselves, outsiders don’t attend, unbelievers don’t attend, targeted groups don’t attend, and we end up attending them ourselves.” We are the ninety-nine.
The ninety-nine make the church look good on Sunday morning. The pews are full, and, for preachers, they could make one feel like they have a really good audience for what they have prepared. First-time visitors would be impressed and think that this is a good church to attend. Visiting speakers would leave and talk about the great work that is being done there.
The ninety-nine are also good for business. The ninety-nine look good in the promotional photography and videos. They look good on, Instagram, Twitter, and on Facebook in live streams. Most importantly, as I heard in a church planting seminar this week, “people pay bills.”
Many of the ninety-nine are the ones tithing, giving, supporting special projects, and who are prepared to be cajoled into given a love offering to the visiting speaker, the ladies prayer breakfast, the men’s bring-a-brother day, pay for concert tickets and what ever else the leadership can think up. Our leaders and churches focus on the ninety-nine and take advantage of them.
In Luke’s narrative, Jesus tells this parable of the lost sheep in the midst of a long discourse, Luke 15:1-7, it also appears in Matthew 18:12-14. At the time, according to Luke, the ninety-nine, were upset that Jesus was hanging out with folks, one of whom could have taken Him to one hundred or more. He was with those the church had discarded. “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”” Luke 15:1,2.
Jesus, by this parable, was trying to get the Pharisees and other ‘church’ folk to understand that there must be a constant drive to draw to Him, and the Kingdom of God, those who are on the margins of society and those who are not now in our number.
Our investments of money, time, and resources must always reflect this. I am familiar with a group of churches where ninety percent of the monthly tithe is the pastor’s income. Now, we are clearly taught in the scriptures that those who make their living by the Gospel must be taken care of, but what is left for ministry if ninety percent of the tithe has gone to the pastor’s income?
Strange enough, one might have thought that if a pastor was getting ninety percent of the tithe it would be an incentive to grow the number of tithing members in order increase their income. But the opposite is true, this group of churches is not experiencing explosive growth despite the obvious benefit to the pastors.
Same thing with the Pharisees. It is clear that Jesus, in our story, had among those in His company persons of considerable wealth. Every reference to tax collectors in the New Testament tell of their means. But even this didn’t matter to the leaders of the synagogue. They despised them enough that the love of God couldn’t reach these people through them.
Jesus said that the ninety-nine could be left in the care of each other while the shepherd goes after the one which he lost until he finds it. This is a great conflict for leaders. I myself have said about some people, that “I am not going to fight up over them.” But I am wrong, that is not the biblical model. That is not the teaching of Jesus.
Think about how different our churches would be tomorrow if the leaders spent today going after the missing one. Think about how different church would be if we put half of our fund-raising efforts into seeking those missing from the fellowship. Think about how different church would be tomorrow if we had new faces or faces that were missing for a long time, waiting to be embraced because they are home.
We are too focused on ourselves as a church. Most of us haven’t learned anything much from the last conference, nor have we been really inspired by the last concert. The visiting speaker didn’t really tell us anything that our pastor couldn’t or didn’t. And the camp was good R&R but we weren’t really inspired to do anything particularly new the week after.
And this devotional could be just as useless to you as any of the things mentioned in the paragraph above. You need to put the phone down and do something with what we’ve said. Here is what the Apostle James wrote, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27
When you’re done reading this, let today count for tomorrow by practising “pure religion.” Message, call or visit someone who is missing from fellowship or who needs a word or touch from God and talk with them. Bring them to the fellowship tomorrow. Give them attention. “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Think on these things:
- Can you remember anyone who was missing from church for a while?
- Is there an organised system with a leader to follow-up those who fall away?
- Can you make a list of those who might be in trouble and need the church’s help?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be able to seek out those who are missing today.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex