SHEPHERDING

E. Christopher

Psalm 78: 70–72; John 10: 14–18; Acts 20: 28

One was impressed on Lord’s day with the thought of the good Shepherd and the reality and glory of a manhood that was wholly delightful to the Father. I thought about David—what a man he was! We have often been reminded of the way that he was sovereignly chosen to lead the people of God. Israel, as a nation, as it says, “He chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds—From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance”. What a shepherd David was! From early years, as a lad, he was tending the flock of his father. What a service that is, beloved; one feels very tested in speaking about it. How little we measure up to these men, and yet the Lord has laid hold of each one of us so that some feature might come out in us that would reflect divine feelings for what is in our localities.

It says, “He brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance”. How often we are reminded of what God has so peculiarly for His own pleasure. He had it, no doubt, in David’s day; David was raised up to this and, that the people might be secured for God’s praise and glory. David reached it at the end of his days, though the filling out of the service was left to Solomon, his son. In the meantime, “He fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands”. O, beloved, what features belong to men of shepherd character, and how many there are in the Scriptures. There is only time to refer to David and what was reached in him, despite the breakdown and failure that belonged to his day and even to himself. I believe it is a link with our own day, when the enemy has wrought so extensively. But, thank God, there are men that we can call shepherds, and it is open to every one of us, in our measure, to strive to this end, to feed the sheep and to lead them.

Then we can speak about Jesus Himself. In John, as we know, the glory of His Person shines; who He was as the Son of God and taking on this beautiful character of a Shepherd, as He says, “I am the good shepherd”. No one could compare with Jesus. There is no one like Him, beloved, serving the sheep and bringing them into the greatest thoughts that God has in mind for them. It is a very tender, affectionate term, ‘shepherd’, and the character of it comes out in the gospels. “I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep”. Who else could lay down his life for the sheep? We have been reminded of David, and I suppose he went at the risk of his life when he slew the lion and the bear; but Jesus laid down His life for the sheep. O, what a shepherd character belongs to Jesus and to Him alone!

That would affect us. It affected us as we were at the Supper on Lord’s day, the character of Man in whom the Father found infinite delight, who lay down His life for the sheep.

Then He has other sheep “which are not of this fold—those also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd”. O, we look forward to that day!

Today is a broken day—how few the sheep are who are prepared to walk in the light of the truth; but the Supper reminds us of the many—not that we are able to walk with all—and we hold them in the light of the one flock, one Shepherd. “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me”. O, the wonder of these statements! “I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again”. How wonderful it is that a divine Person Himself has come into manhood and laid down His life—“I have received this commandment of my Father”. It does our affections good to be occupied with this blessed Man, the true Shepherd, who lay down His life for the sheep, having in mind, as seen typically in David, the inheritance, what was to come in that would yield infinite pleasure to His own heart and to the heart of the Father.

Paul, in Acts 20, is seen as taking character from his Master. He says to the Ephesian elders, “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock”. What difficult days they were! Paul adds, as to the flock, “wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers”—we would desire to be amongst the overseers, would we not, in the locality? The Lord has, I believe, deep delight in the local assembly and He has set men there as overseers. They are to shepherd the assembly of God. We should think about them universally, these shepherds, men prepared to lay down their lives in relation to the assembly of God, which is precious to the heart of Christ and to the Father.

Paul goes on to refer to “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. O, the value, the purchase price, of the assembly! What a tender, affectionate term that is—“the blood of his own”. We think of the perfection of Christ’s manhood, the life that was laid down—“the blood of his own”. How the Father felt it; how the Lord Jesus felt it; but if the flock was to be secured—“one flock, one shepherd”—it meant that the good Shepherd must lay down His life for the sheep. Well, what are the results, beloved; what are they in this place?

As we think of what the Lord has secured in His own, may there be much more from us, for His own heart’s satisfaction and to the glory of the Father, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Gillingham
17 September 1974