The Parable Of The Master And The Servant

Luke 17:7-10:

⁷ “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸ Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰ So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

In Jesus' day, a servant did not have the rights of an owner, an heir, or a citizen. A servant had to do what pleased his or her master regardless of thanks or praise. A servant had no right to expect approval or commendation. When a servant worked hard and completed a long list of demands, there was no expectation of praise; that servant only did what was expected. Jesus is Lord, Master, and Savior. He has called us to follow and serve him. Of course the incredible blessing is that when we come to him as a servant, he welcomes us as a sister or brother and friend.

In the parable the slave put his master before himself even when most likely he didn't feel like it. He served the master. He obeyed the master. That is the nature of the master/slave relationship. And that's the nature of a disciple's relationship with God, because God is the master and we are the slave.

 In the context, all the things which are commanded would include the instructions from the first part of chapter 17, but it would also include all of the instructions that we have been commanded as followers of Christ. And when we do all that we have been commanded our attitude is simply to be that we have done only what we ought to have done.

When we have done all that is commanded, we should not think, "I've done something exceptional and now God is obligated to bless me." Or, "God is going to answer my prayer in the way I want Him to because of all that I've done for him." We should not think like this, but rather, as Jesus says, we need to say, "we need to say, " We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done."

 

By our obedience we have no special claim upon God. We have simply done what we

should have done. We have given God what He deserves - our complete obedience.

Parable Of The Good Shepherd

John 10:1-18:
 
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.^[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

How do we listen to the voice of our shepherd? We listen by studying the Scriptures. We make studying and obeying the Bible a priority in our lives. We make sure that the voice of Scripture is one with authority in our homes: with more authority than the daily paper, television, the computer and whatever we find on the internet. The way to know whether the Bible has authority in our lives is to ask ourselves: am I spending time in the Scriptures every day? Now I know none of us is perfect. Even I am not completely consistent in my own daily devotions. But the primary way to know Jesus, to hear his voice, to listen to him, and to know therefore how to follow him is to study the Scriptures. Psalm 19: 10 calls Scripture sweeter than honey. Do you feel this way about Scripture? Read your Bible. Get to know it. Ask God to show you how to apply it to your life. Make it a priority.

Only when you become familiar with Jesus’ voice and learn how to follow him will you be able to resist the voices of strangers. Our passage says in vv. 4 and 5 that “the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” What other voices are competing with Jesus to be heard in your life? How can you alter your priorities so that Jesus’ voice is the one with real authority in your life? Only when you become familiar with Jesus’ voice will you be able to distinguish his voice from that of strangers – and be able to run from the strangers of false teaching, other worldviews, media influence, etc.

Parable Of The Lost Sheep

Matthew 18:12-14:

¹² “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. ¹⁴ In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish."

The first insight of this earthly story is that the sheep got away. Because the story does not say what exactly in the sheep’s character led it astray we can imagine that it could be multiple things: -

the dash for freedom, innocent wandering from the fold, or the desire for independence from the shepherd. The word translated by "goes astray" means "to wander away," "to stray," even "to be deceived" or "to be misled." 
We might accept that from time to time, like sheep, people wander from the faith…or the center of the faith…or a commitment to the faith.

And because this story is not just about a human shepherd, but our heavenly shepherd, we must say that God allows it.

The freedom that God has given can be used for faithful following or for wandering away.However a sheep strays from the flock,  there is comfort in knowing that our God is a seeking shepherd. A part of the power of this short parable is that the shepherd leaves the sure thing, the greatest economic value, the 99, for the 1 that is lost.
The parable ends that "In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that anhy of these ones should perish or lost"
While God allows us the freedom to stray our heavenly shepherd wills that none be lost and seeks out such as our children, our friends and colleagues.  

The Parable Of The Owner Of The House

Matthew 13:52:

⁵² He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

The word treasure in verse 52 means something slightly different than it does in verse 44 in the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, where it implies gems and other precious things. In verse 52, it means a place for treasure, not the treasure itself. In other words, Jesus refers to "a treasure house," "a treasury," "a storehouse," or "a storeroom" where a person would keep necessary items like food, clothing, supplies, and family valuables for safekeeping. In context, then, the minister is to use what he has learned and experienced for the benefit of his spiritual family—he is to use as resources all the things he has stored away from his study of God's truth and his know-how in living God's way to lead and provide for his flock.
The "new and old" refers to food stored in a storeroom. The master of the house is in charge of ensuring that his storeroom contains everything needed to feed his family. A prudent householder balances serving his oldest store with the new. In this sense, seeing the value in the old, he wisely serves his family old store as well as the fresh "off-the-vine" food, mixing them in balance so that neither is wasted.

Jesus wants His ministers to teach their spiritual families by carefully balancing the teaching of the Old and the New Testaments (Matthew 5:17-19; Acts 26:22-23). It does not mean that the old is thrown away or is wrong. In the parables, Jesus did a similar thing by taking the old understanding of God's Kingdom and focusing new light on it to expand the people's understanding of its character and future course.

Ministers of Christ may not grasp and understand all the wisdom of God, but having received His instruction and sufficiently understood His message, they are commissioned to make use of this spiritually rich treasure to enrich others (Galatians 6:10). Taught by Jesus Christ and inspired in understanding His Word, ministers are to reflect that knowledge to their spiritual families, their fellow members of the church.