Some Thoughts on Sheep

Sheep

The term “sheep” has become somewhat controversial in our current social and political climate. It is often used disparagingly to describe those who seem to naively follow whatever their leaders tell them to do, even if they are being told to do what appears to be foolish, harmful, irrational, or even wrong. Some have pushed back against this criticism by arguing that, as Christians, we have been called to be like sheep so we should simply follow whatever these orders might be (though each one who argues this will probably have in mind some limit as to how far they believe this compliance should go).

[Note: In this article, I am not going to address any specific cases in which this concept may arise; but I do believe it will be helpful for us to consider some general principles.]

Does the Bible say anything that would address this controversy? Let us consider some thoughts.Continue Reading

Why Jesus Came to Save Us

The Lost Sheep

Why did Jesus come to save us? There are several answers we could give that would be correct: He loved us (John 15:13), the Father loved us (John 3:16), He needed to fulfill “the eternal purpose” (Ephesians 3:11), He wanted to “bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18), and so on. But why did we need to be saved? Notice what Jesus said:

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Simply put, Jesus came to save us because we were lost. In Luke 15, Jesus used three parables to describe things that were lost: the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10), and the lost son (Luke 15:11-24). When we consider these three parables, we learn several lessons: (1) why being lost is dangerous for us, (2) why the Lord saw fit to seek for us when we were lost, and (3) what our responsibility is in being saved.
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The Good Shepherd

Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus described Himself in various ways. One term He used is the good shepherd (John 10:11). In the context surrounding this claim, Jesus showed us what His work as a shepherd entails, how He can be called the good shepherd, and why no one else is more qualified than He is to do this work.

So what makes Jesus the good shepherd?
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