The Lost Sheep
- stpeterstoronto
- Sep 6
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 29
Did you know...
that Jesus is happy when people turn away from sin and follow God?
This story is about searching for something you care about. Jesus searches for people who need help to learn about God.
There was once again a day when large crowds came to Jesus to hear Him teach. The Pharisees and scribes came as well, but they were annoyed to see some people in the crowd that broke the laws. They wondered why Jesus met with sinners and imagine, He even ate with them!
Jesus explained using a parable:
The Lost Sheep
A man owned a hundred sheep.
One night, after they had returned home from the fields, he counted them, and found that one sheep was missing!
What should he do? Should he just go to sleep with the ninety-nine and not care about the one that was missing?
Of course not, the man would go out into the wilderness to search for the lost sheep.
When the man found the sheep, he was so very happy. He carried it all the way home on his shoulders shouting with joy.
When he got home, he called together his friends and neighbours to have a party and said to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!”
He wanted everyone to share in his happiness.
Jesus explained that God feels about people the same way the man felt about his sheep. Even though some people may become lost and forget God’s teaching, Jesus will always look for them to lead them to the correct path.
Jesus said to the men, “In the same way, Heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are good persons and haven’t strayed away.”
The Lost Coin
Jesus then continued with another story. He asked, “What if a woman has ten valuable pieces of silver and loses one? Will she not light a lamp and look in every corner and sweep the house until she finds it?
And when she has found it, she will call her friends and neighbours together saying, “Celebrate with me, for I have found the piece of silver which I had lost.”
Jesus explained, “In the same way, there is joy in Heaven when even one sinner repents.”
Read the next story about the Prodigal son. What does that story tell you? Is it the same or different than this story?
Images are the copyright Jill Kemp and Richard Gunther of www.lambsongs.co.nz (One Hundred Sheep and Parable of the Lost Coin) for teaching purposes only, all rights reserved, and are used according to their terms of use - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Distributed under a license with FreeBibleimages.
Learning Activity Extensions
Read the story in the Bible: Luke 15:1-10
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Download the lost sheep colouring booklet from Lambsongs.co with 7 colouring scenes.
Colouring pages courtesy of Supercoloring.com. Download and colour, or colour online
Diary of a Disciple: Luke's Story - The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin.
SUtube (2:10 min)
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