“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” (Ezekiel 34:11)
Let’s begin our week with this most astonishing truth: Our Lord Jesus Christ does not send someone out in His place to search for and look after His sheep. No, the prophet Ezekiel tells us that God Himself, the Sovereign Lord of all the universe, is our Seeking, Searching, Shepherd Savior. And He is all that for you. Is that not a word of cosmic comfort to you today, regardless of where this message finds you?
Notice something else contained within today’s text. Our salvation not only begins because of our Searching Savior, but it continues and is sustained because of our Shepherd Savior. No matter where or how often we wander away from our Savior, He searches for us and returns us to His sheepfold. And this does not happen after a certain number of His flock wander away. The parable of the lost sheep makes it gloriously clear that our Great Shepherd leaves the herd to go off and find that one, single lost sheep and brings him or her back to the fold. You matter that much to Jesus!
One final point: To be looked after by our Shepherd is to be locked into our salvation. Jesus said quite plainly, “This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39). Jesus will not lose a single sheep; nothing can take you out of His hand (John 10:28-30). Is this not a powerful promise to plead if you find yourself feeling far off from the sheepfold and strayed from your Shepherd?
Peter felt the power of that promise. When he had denied Jesus three times on the night our Lord was betrayed and Peter heard the rooster crow (it must have sounded like a crushing thunderclap of despair to him), Peter’s heart was broken for having walked away from his Savior. But after the Resurrection, Jesus restored Peter by asking a simple question — not once, but three times: “Do you love Me?”
If your answer is the same as Peter’s — “Yes Lord, you know that I love You” — then be assured that nothing can or will ever separate you from your Shepherd Savior. Let that truth set you free today and every day until you cross the Jordan and enter into your eternal rest.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 