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CHRIST - THE SHEPHERD

I would like, dear brethren, to bring before our hearts the two great objects of the service of the Lord Jesus Christ in the character of Shepherd. One is referred to in the first scripture we read, in which it speaks of Christ typically — “from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.” What I believe that suggests is, that the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as shepherd leads us to know Him as the stone of Israel. The other scripture tells us that “Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep,” which means that the object of the shepherd activities of Christ is to secure a wife. I believe that these two great thoughts culminate in eternity. The result of the Lord Jesus coming out as a shepherd will be that for eternity there is a dwelling place for God, and another result will be that for eternity He will have “a bride adorned for her husband.” He will have what a wife suggests, for His own heart, and I wanted, with the Lord’s help, just to bring before you for a few moments some of the shepherd services of Christ, so that, as knowing them a little more, we might be prepared to have part in God’s building more definitely, and to take our place as belonging to that blessed company which ministers to the heart of Christ.

I take it that the object behind the precious activities of Christ as shepherd has those two great and blessed ends in view. I do not think that any of us will doubt that the shepherd service of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most attractive ways in which we know Him. Wonderful, dear brethren, to remember, wonderful to enjoy, what the passage means which is so well known, even to the children, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” What a wondrous thing for the heart to take hold of!

“Feed the flock of God which is among you.” There is but one flock composed of innumerable sheep; yet, dear brethren, do not let us lose the blessed sense that “The Lord is my shepherd.” The Lord Jesus would convey to each heart the sense of His personal interest and affection for each sheep. I think everything springs out of that, the maintenance of the personal regard and love of Christ for each one.

The apostle John, he who speaks so much of the shepherd service of Christ, when he speaks of himself says, “that disciple whom Jesus loved.” He had learned in his sojourn with the Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, to enjoy the love of Christ in his own soul. So that when he speaks of himself he says, “that disciple whom Jesus loved.” Of course He loved the whole flock; but John knew that He loved him, and it is John who says “Now Jesus loved Martha.” One delights in the attractiveness of that passage; it does not say “Now Jesus loved them,” but “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,” so that each of the three has the sense personally of the love of Christ for them. What a joy and stay to the heart! If only, dear brethren, we should each one be preserved with the living sense in our hearts that the Shepherd calls His own sheep by name; how real it would make the love of Christ to us!

That was the manner of Saul’s introduction to the flock. From heaven he heard, “Saul, Saul!” He learned that the Lord Jesus in heaven had a personal interest and regard for him, so that later on he says, “the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” How that was conveyed to Saul’s soul afterwards as he was in the house of Judas in the street called Straight! One of the subsidiary shepherds, one of the shepherds that worked under the Great Shepherd, with the true shepherd’s heart — Ananias — said, “Lord I have heard by many of this man; how much evil he hath done to Thy name.” He had regard for the sheep, he feared the sheep might suffer, and he speaks to the Chief Shepherd about it; but the Chief Shepherd says, “Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” Saul had the sense conveyed to him of the deep interest of Christ personally from heaven, and then from one of the under shepherds.

I feel for myself, and I am sure we all share it, the intense necessity of being maintained personally by the touch of Christ, and having the sense of the joy in our own hearts of the personal love of Christ for each sheep.

And then we find the Lord’s shepherd care for the household of His own — the two going to Emmaus — coming into their house, drawing near them, loving to hear what they say of Him. It is most impressive to see the delight the Lord has in hearing the sheep speak of Him. The Shepherd loves to hear the thoughts of the sheep as to Himself. He draws near to these two and says, “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?” And they say, “Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that are come to pass there in these days?” And the Lord said, “What things?” And they said unto Him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” It was just what they thought of Him that He wanted to draw out from their hearts. They might have said something more than that. The Lord loves to draw out of the hearts of His own their impressions of Him. I would just point that out for the encouragement of the feeblest, that the Lord loves to draw out of our hearts our impressions of Himself, as He evidenced when He said, “What things?”

Again, when He drew near to Mary Magdalene, and said to her, “Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?” He knew why she was sad, but He wanted to hear what she would say when He said, “Whom seekest thou?” “If thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast taken him and I will take him away.” That was sweet incense to the heart of Christ. If she had not Him she had nothing. He drew it out deliberately.

So one just loves to touch a little more upon the shepherd services of Christ. The Shepherd of the flock, not only of each single sheep. There is but one flock and one Shepherd; and while the under shepherds have failed ignominiously, yet the blessed Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, carries on His service, and there is food and there is quietness. The effect of His service is that it teaches us to love Him; it draws out our affections for the Shepherd, so that we learn to know Him as the Good Shepherd. “I am the Good Shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep.” We learn to know Him as the director of every other shepherd that lives here. The service of the Chief Shepherd is to give direction to every other shepherd. I believe that this in a living way prepares us for the two lines I have indicated.

Jacob, referring to Joseph as a type of Christ, says, “the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.” In human things there is no link whatever between these two — i.e., a shepherd and a stone; but I believe that Christ in His service as shepherd prepares our hearts for the thought of Him as the stone. I want to touch a little on that “The Stone of Israel.” It does not speak of the characteristics of the Stone, but simply lays it down that the Shepherd is the Stone. It introduces our minds and hearts to a building; but first of all one has been impressed by this, that the first knowledge we ever have of Christ as the Stone is as a stone of stumbling. God says, “Behold I lay in Zion — a stone of stumbling.” What for? To clear the ground for God’s building. To clear the ground of all the rubbish. The one who clears it is the Shepherd. The One who clears our minds and hearts of the rubbish is the Shepherd. “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” It is laid in mercy. Do you know one of the greatest mercies we ever get from God is that He brings down our pride; that He humbles us? We may not think so at the time, but it is an immense mercy that God has come in to bring down the pride of man. He does it in mercy. Why? That we may have part in the building which God is erecting for eternity. We will never take into that building anything of the pride and glory of man. The Lord Jesus comes in as the Stone of Stumbling, as Simeon understood it when he took the little child in his arms and said, “This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.” God will bring down the pride of man, and the way He does it is by bringing in Jesus. No heart ever followed in the footsteps of Christ intelligently without being humble. At His entrance into this world where do you find Him? In Bethlehem. “The Lion of the tribe of Judah” was there in the manger. Is that the One you are to believe on? The One in the manger? Where do you find Him? At Nazareth! We know that no good thing could ever come out of Nazareth, according to the mind of man, so He is known as “Jesus of Nazareth.” Of His public life in this world what do you see? He has no home — no place of abode. Followed by whom? Mary Magdalene, out of whom He cast seven devils. A woman of the city who was a sinner and whom He had forgiven. The blind beggar whose sight He had restored and who followed Him in the way. Certain women ministered to Him out of their substance. He went out of this world with the reproach and ignominy of Calvary, with a thief on either side. What is God doing? Laying a stumbling stone to bring down in our hearts and minds the sense of pride and glory of man. What for? So that we may have a living part eternally in God’s building where everything, is for His glory. The One who does this we have known as Shepherd. We have learned to love Him. Hence we are prepared by Him as a stone to bring down man’s pride and vain-glory. We see Him as a Stone. We see Him on the ground that has been cleared of the pride and glory of man. We see a foundation laid in Him. He is not only a stone of stumbling, but a foundation — “Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone elect, precious.” We have learned Him a little as the Shepherd, we have learned to trust Him — we have seen His self-sacrificing love, and it brings our hearts to be in accord with this, that everything for God must rest on Him. This world does not rest upon the foundation God has made in the Lord Jesus. The apostle Paul came to that. He stumbled at the Stone. He had to come down from his own heights, great man as he was, and found there was no foundation for God unless resting on the Lord Jesus.

Not only does He clear the rubbish as the stone of stumbling — that starts the whole foundation — but He is the chief corner stone. What are we connected with? Does it, whatever it is, give pre-eminence to Christ? If not, it belongs to another building that will come down. But the building of God gives pre-eminence to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the chief comer stone. We are told He is the head stone. The completion of the whole structure is Christ. He can be trusted as a foundation: He is great enough to be the adornment. He is worthy to be its foundation — “The Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.”

In Hosea we have another suggestion, and that is that “Jacob served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.” The building will be a dwelling-place for God, and will be eternally the result of the self-sacrificing service of Christ. There will be nothing that is not descriptive of Christ. John’s gospel tells us that He appropriated God’s temple to Himself. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He spoke of His body. God could only dwell in that which was expressive of Christ. The Church, which is His body, is the temple in which Christ is expressed now, and that will be eternally the dwelling of God. What God will get out of the service of Christ is an eternal dwelling-place in which His glory is secure — where Christ is enthroned. Christ is its foundation, adornment and completion.

Something for the heart of Christ is seen in the other scripture: “He kept sheep.” You and I are preserved by His shepherd care. He does not let His sheep go. He tends them: He tends the weak and sick: He tends the oppressed. “We were,” says Peter, “as sheep going astray.” He had learned by experience the precious service of the Shepherd. He was going astray; he had turned away from Christ; he had gone out; but the Shepherd went out after him. “Ye were as sheep going astray, but are returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”

What I wanted to touch on was this — that the object of the service of Christ to each one of us is to draw us near to Himself, and how much we ought to thank Him for it.

He keeps sheep for a wife, so that He will secure a vessel that has the characteristics of a wife. What are they? Subjection to her own husband! Three times in the New Testament it is confirmed that the one great feature of a wife is that she is subject to her husband. The effect of the shepherd service of Christ will be that the church will be subject to Him for ever, and will hearken to His voice eternally with the gladness of hearts that love Him. What then? “And the wife see that she reverence her husband.” “The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.” Christ is infinitely greater than the church. Christ is the object of the reverence of the church eternally. As the psalm says, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; he is thy lord and worship thou him.” As Sara called Abraham lord, so our hearts will eternally pour upon Him the reverence that a wife gives to her husband — the source and spring of it all the service of Christ. God intends every local company of saints to have the character of His building. As our hearts know Him as Shepherd, we are prepared for a structure where He is supreme. We are prepared by the removal of the glory of man for a structure that rests upon Him, and where He is the adornment. As our hearts delight in Him as Shepherd, we are prepared to minister to His heart as happily subject to Him who loved the Church and gave Himself for it.

May the Lord help us to so learn the preciousness of His shepherd service, that here in this city there may be something in the nature of Cod’s building, something that bears the features of a wife for the heart of Christ for His name’s sake.

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