John 10:25-28 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
In John 10, Jesus describes those who do not believe the truth of the glorious gospel because they are not sheep. Jesus, God Himself, is able to identify all who are sheep and all who will be sheep and has been able to do this from eternity past.
This then means that even before I believed, God saw me and knew me as sheep—one of His very own! The Bible calls these the elect. From a human perspective, I do not become a sheep by believing, but perhaps a better articulation of this would be: I discover that I am a sheep when I believe in the truth that Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb slain before the foundation of the world died on a bloody cross for the redemption of my soul so that my sins could be forgiven and I might be granted eternal life with God forever and ever.
This helps me understand Jesus' words in,
Luke 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Today, even as I am typing away at my laptop, all around the world the Chief Shepherd is using men and women to look for the lost sheep, and the Bible says He looks until He finds it. What a promise to the disciple of Christ committed to the great commission God has sheep out there who are lost and don't even know they are sheep. We must share the truth with them that the Chief Shepherd loves them and is calling them by name.
And according to John 10, they know His voice and will hear Him calling and come home. My brother and sister in Christ, you are not out their hopelessly looking for someone you don't even know is out there. No! It is just the opposite Jesus said,
"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd" (John 10.16).
This is precisely the promise that we must grab a hold of and live by—Jesus said in your place of work and in your neighborhood there is one lost out there that must be found and brought home. He or she is a sheep and doesn't even know it. Go tell them. The Chief Shepherd bids us to go in His Name and for His Name's sake we call out for the Shepherd, and He promises that they will hear His voice and come home.
John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
He tells us that His Word will not return void so we must share His Word.
Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Do you know how to show a sheep how to come home using the Bible? If you don't, BBC offers classes every Wednesday night at 7.45pm so that you can learn to go in His name and call for the Shepherd:
"Come home, come home, You who are weary, come home."
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, "O sinner, come home!"
Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He will send us more laborers who are willing to be chosen vessels sent forth by the Master to bring forth fruit. As we labor in His vineyard for such a time as this. May we be about our Master's business looking for the sheep that is lost and harvesting the fruit that is ripe.
