THE SERVICE OF CHRIST IN LEADERSHIP (1)
THE SERVICE OF CHRIST IN LEADERSHIP (1)
SMcC I am thinking of the service of Christ in leadership of His people, and how the spirit of it is to work out amongst us. We might read first in John 10 this morning, and perhaps we may amplify it later from the Old Testament.
The services of Christ towards His own are many, and the particular one that is before us is leadership, involving administrative service to His own, working out in love for the saints and care for them, and having in mind, as it says in verse 16, “There shall be one flock, one shepherd,” the great point of contact between John’s ministry and Paul’s. Mr. Darby said that in insisting on Paul we are not to forget John; although we must always keep in mind the distinctiveness of Paul’s ministry, in that he had certain formal commissions which John had not.
One thought that we might begin with this great portion in John’s gospel, which refers us to the leadership of Christ, as in verses 3 and 4, “He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. When he has put forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.” It is important that we should understand the service of Christ in this character of leadership. There is His leadership in regard to the service of God, the service of song in the assembly, but this leadership has to do with the saints in their defenceless character as in a scene of contrariety, yet marked by the features of the work of God; and, as such, coming under the divine notice and attention, and served by divine Persons in an exalted manner, so that the standards that enter into this section dealing with the Shepherd and the sheep are elevated standards;
the Lord alluding in verse 15 to “as the Father knows me and I know Father.” He says in verse 14, “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.” And then again He says, verse 17, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life.” And then the great thought of things being carried through enters into this kind and character of leadership, so that, as He says in verse 27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one.” We can see thus how the sheep go through in principle in these verses. “They shall never perish.” The work of God in that way goes through, whatever may come in, whatever may be linked with the perishing, the falling short of great divine objectives which the Lord is keeping before our minds as to His sheep here, “And they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand.”
We can thus see the effectiveness of leadership as in Christ; and as contemplating this kind of leadership, the spirit of it is to work out among the saints, so that there is the corresponding care for the sheep, as comes into view in the service of Christ. We are to have in mind that the saints might be liberated from the world, as set out in the principle of the Jewish fold, and brought into the abundance of life, the wonderful conditions collectively, where life in abundance is known and enjoyed, involving buoyancy amongst the saints. These thoughts may yield further as we enquire together in relation to this service.
CEJ Has the Lord, in His personal attractiveness,
so secured our hearts that He has an influence over us, so that we would be governed by His voice; and the first matter of leadership would appear to be the leading out, as you suggest?
SMcC He has acquired an influence over us, an important thing; as in verse 4, “when he has put forth all his own.” At the end of verse 3 we read, “He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. When he has put forth all his own, he goes before them”; this is an allusion to the influence that He has acquired over the sheep, which have certain practical affinities with Himself, because He is presented in this gospel as the Lamb of God.
PB Do we get a suggestion of a sheep coming forward in the previous chapter? It says in John 9: 35, “He said to him, Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God?”. Then further down the man said, “I believe, Lord; and he did him homage.”
SMcC The ninth chapter throws into relief the personal service of Christ to one of His sheep, and the influence that He acquires over that person, so that when He says to him, “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on Him?”, showing the influence that the Lord, the Son of God, had acquired over this sheep of His.
WJB Does personality enter into this matter of leadership? It says, “because they know his voice,” not ‘His Word.’ It is the person they recognise by the voice. I wondered if what a man is, bears on this matter of leadership?
SMcC Well, it does. Personality has a great place in John’s gospel. You get the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the Son of God, the voice of the shepherd here, the wonderful suggestions of personality which enter into these great matters of leadership that we are contemplating. You can see it in Paul himself. As Paul is speaking to Timothy, helping him in regard to the truth, he says, “knowing of whom thou hast learned them,” 2 Timothy 3: 14, alluding to the personality that entered into his ministry and his service to the saints.
JC It was said of David, the Shepherd king, “thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel.”
SMcC Yes, David, as we shall see later on, was marked peculiarly by this great administrative grace in care for the flock, the people of God.
JHH I was thinking about your remark, “and he calls his own sheep by name.” I was thinking of what it meant to Mary, at the end of John, when He called her by name, “Mary,” opening up to her how spiritual were the relationships, would you say?
SMcC Very good; showing the personal character of this service, that it is not a service, you might say, en masse; although it does involve this great thought of the one flock and the one shepherd, yet it brings out the individuality of the saints, and the personal observance of each of the saints under the eye of Christ in this administrative service.
PB Conscious knowledge is the great point between the shepherd and his sheep here?
SMcC Yes, and the link of affinity; as we have said, the Lord is presented as the Lamb of God in this gospel, and the saints are viewed as the sheep. The Lord is referred to correspondingly in Isaiah 53 as the sheep, as well as the Lamb. We are thus reminded of the affinity between Christ and His own. John says in chapter 13 that Jesus “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end.” That is the end in the sense of going through all things.
GHW-n Would you open up the thought, “and leads them out”? What does that involve?
SMcC Well, I think it is the gracious character of the administrative service of Christ to bring us out of the world, as it takes form in the Jewish fold; for in John’s Gospel the great principle of the world is embodied in the Jewish fold. We sometimes are very much concerned about deliverance from the fashions of the world, but do not see the importance of being delivered from the world in the figure of the Jewish fold.
JD Has the Spirit a great place in this feature of leadership that you are speaking of? It says, “to him the porter openeth.” Is this great feature of leadership underlying it?
SMcC Well He has; and it is important that we should see how the Spirit of God comes into this matter of Christ’s service in leadership to the saints. “To him”, the emphatic ‘Him’, the personality is stressed, “to him the porter openeth”; as if the Spirit of God is making way for this Person, and no other person.
GWB Does what you are saying bring out the personal link between the soul and the Lord?
SMcC Yes, that enters into it. Our links with the Lord. “He calls his own sheep by name”; that enters into it basically. But the great point in the chapter is the collective position; the collective position is the prime thought in the chapter; but the individual side enters into it basically. Everyone of us, as a subject of the work of God is affected basically.
JHH I was wondering if you would help us on the thought in verse 16, “And I have other sheep which are not of this fold: those also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.” I was wondering if there might be a solemn suggestion that there were those who did not hear His voice.
SMcC There were. Those in the gospel that are presented as the Jews here, that are linked with the Jewish fold, they did not hear His voice. A very solemn thing. John’s gospel is stressing from beginning to end the need of being delivered from the Jewish character of things, in view of getting the gain of the ministry of Christ, as presented in this relation.
FE Would you say that, “to him the porter opens” is still a present service of the Spirit, making way for Christ?
SMcC It is; and you might say that in principle the Holy Spirit will always make room for the Spirit of Christ in this way amongst the saints; and the saints will recognise this kind of spirit in administrative service wherever it is found.
RCMcC Why is this stranger mentioned? Is it suggested that these sheep have learnt to know the voice of Christ?
SMcC There are different things that are referred to here. It says, “Verily, verily, I say to you, He that enters not in by the door,” (we are to notice that, “the door”, the legal, legitimate way of coming in; I am referring to the legal way, in the right and proper sense) “but mounts up elsewhere, he is a thief and a robber; but he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter opens.” Though we are affected as we think of Christ coming into His public ministry and service, having in view that the sheep might be led forth, how also the Holy Spirit makes way for Him, as He comes into that service.
NBS What is meant by the defencelessness of the sheep? Does that provide an occasion for the peculiar tenderness and fullness of divine care and provision for them?
SMcC Yes, I think it is important that we should see that the sheep represent, in that way, the general character of things in the body of the saints. The thought of the one flock is the great point of contact between John’s ministry, and Paul’s ministry in relation to the body. The answer to the flock in Paul’s ministry would be the idea of the body, that wonderful entity; the saints in holy, sensitive, spiritual relation with one another, and the Holy Spirit pervading that entity.
CEJ Would that come in in Ephesians 2: 15, 16, “That he might form the two in himself into one new man, making peace; and might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross”?
SMcC As has often been noted and pointed out, reconciliation in Ephesians 2 involves unity in affection. Jew and Gentile are brought together, but not just as a matter of doctrine. Reconciliation involves that they are brought together, and it works out in unity of affection between one another. It is a great thing that there should be that between us. The Lord is serving administratively at the present moment, in view of the imminence of the rapture to bring us together, not only in unity of light, but in unity of affection.
JC What is the present application of the thought of the fold? The fold is to be entered before the shepherd leads them out. Has it a present application?
SMcC The fold, of course, here alludes to the Jewish fold, the Jewish position; and it would have application in principle to what may carry Jewish features at the present time in the public position around us. The Lord has in mind, in the grace and wealth of His service on administrative lines in John’s gospel, to set us free, wholly free, from Jewish influence.
PAH Was that seen in John 20, the doors being shut through fear of the Jews. There was power to shut the doors?
SMcC So that the saints, through the service of Christ, have come to this great point that the doors must be shut, because of this element that would interfere with life more abundantly amongst the saints.
WJB I heard Mr. Taylor say in conversation in Auckland in 1936, that one of our greatest dangers was Jewish tendencies.
SMcC He has often said that; and in recent times in New York he stressed the awfulness of legality, the darkness linked with the Jewish element, as it exercises influence amongst the saints, hindering them from arriving at what the ministry has in mind: whole thoughts, full thoughts in regard of the truth.
WJB Would you say that one of the greatest dangers in regard of it is its specious character. It is mistaken for spirituality?
SMcC Its intriguing character to the natural mind, as imparting a certain amount of prestige which the flesh always loves is subtle; whereas christianity in its fulness involves that there is one Man that the sheep know, and that is the Shepherd. They know His voice, as it says, “When he has put forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.” I believe that in current matters the Lord has been acting in administrative service as the Shepherd, exercising influence over the saints generally, putting them forth in view, as it says, of what comes in later, pasture. “He ... shall go in and shall go out,” showing the liberty of the brethren to move freely in this realm that the administrative service of Christ as the Shepherd stands related to.
PB Were not the Judaising teachers in Galatians mounting up some other way and confusing the saints there in regard to the fold and the flock, and robbing them of the glory of the gospel which had been presented by Paul?
SMcC They were not coming in by the door. The door would represent the glory of the ministry. Think of what stands at the door in Luke’s gospel, the great anointed preacher and all the grace linked with it. We might in principle think of that as standing related to the door.
JHH I was struck with your mentioning about being delivered from the influence of Judaism. I was wondering if you might see in Peter’s epistle how completely he had been delivered from that, when he speaks to the elders and exhorts them, “shepherd the flock of God which is among you,” and so forth; “and when the chief shepherd is manifested,” and so forth.
SMcC Yes, what a remarkable word he gives there! The flock of God. “Shepherd the flock of God.” That is, it is divine property here. The feasts of the Jews are constantly alluded to in this gospel. Things have become such amongst the Jews that they have acquired them for themselves. Our liberty stands linked with the Lord and the service He is rendering here. And the important thing we should see is that this Jewish element has to be dealt with in each of our hearts. Some of us may be sitting by and thinking of other elements, but what we want to see is that this Jewish element is in every one of our hearts, and the Lord is desirous of leading us out of it.
JC In Acts 20, that great love chapter, Paul speaks twice of the flock.
SMcC He does, so that love enters into this great matter. It is a great feature of John’s ministry. It underlies the service of the shepherd here for the sheep.
Ques So that in verse 9 when it says, “he shall be saved,” is the character of salvation particularly what you have been referring to as the salvation from the Jewish element?
SMcC Peter said to the others in Acts 2, “save yourselves from this untoward generation.” It would be something on that principle, on that line.
JD Are we to be impressed with the greatness of the One who has taken on this service? The continual reference to “I am,” “I am the door,” and so on?
SMcC It throws into relief the peculiar place that Christ has in His service in this great matter. Chapter 9 has been alluded to; it shows to us how the man there will not listen to the voice of the stranger. He might have well come under the influence of the strangers in the way that they had to do with him, but the work of God becomes aggressive in him, and he follows, as it were, the voice of the Shepherd.
RCMcC Why does Paul refer to bewitching? “O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you?” Is that the voice of the stranger?
SMcC It is, and it is a question with them of despoiling the sheep, the flock; they are not thinking of the gain of the sheep, but of their own personal gain.
GWB So does verse 9, referring to the matter of being saved, and going in and out and finding pasture, suggest something to us of the value and greatness of the door?
SMcC The Lord says in verse 7, “Jesus therefore said again to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them.” You see we have to keep to this characteristic idea among the saints, that they do not hear the voice of the stranger, and we want to apprehend better this characteristic feature among the saints, and to make way for it among the saints. Maybe some of us would have been saved more from certain things, if we had made room for this characteristic feature among the saints.
GWB Do you mean to indicate to us by that, that the great body of the saints hear the voice of the Lord, and to show us the great importance of knowing what is really found among the saints?
SMcC There is something amongst the saints in the work of God, that, in the sheep, stands in affinity to the Shepherd.
WLW Is the service of the Shepherd set out clearly and in detail in Ezekiel 34, bringing Christ as Prince before the saints as a shepherd as a climax? “Ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men: I am your God, said the Lord Jehovah,” having the flock in view and manhood?
SMcC The prophets have in mind in their ministry the wane that has come in, and their ministry would bring about stimulation and revival where there has been decline, and keep before the saints the best thoughts. And that is what the administrative service of Christ has in mind in this relation, “and shall go in and shall go out and shall find pasture. The thief comes not but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” That is life in the collective position, known and enjoyed among the saints, through the service of Christ’s leadership in this regard.
PAH “He shall be saved, and shall go in and shall go out, and shall find pasture.” Does the thought of salvation involve a sphere of salvation, known in the assembly really?
SMcC That is what is in mind. It is the collective side that is in view in this chapter, the enjoyment of things in the collective position, what we are to one another in the assembly, forming this great sphere where we enjoy the truth in its fulness.
GJG Should it be a word of warning to us, if the saints do not take a matter on in liberty, as to any matter that might be in hand?
SMcC It is a question of the voice that we are listening to, and the importance of our basic links with Christ being right, our affinities with Christ being made room for in our souls. So that, as He acquires influence over us, we make way for His leadership, and not the leadership of those who are referred to, that are all around us in the general professing body, who are not caring for the sheep, for the flock; the false shepherds, as they are alluded to in the prophets.
KAW Does the reference to the wages throw into relief the principle of the shepherd who cares altogether for the sheep?
SMcC And therefore it behoves everyone of us to allow our hearts to be searched. What have we got in mind, even now, at this moment? What is in mind? Is it personal gain, just for us along the lines of the flesh? Or have we got in mind the one flock, the one Shepherd; what the Shepherd is, and what the sheep are in relation to His leadership?
ENJ Is the word to Peter, “lovest thou me more than these,” a very important matter? Sometimes it is said, we must consider for the Lord; the Lord’s word is, “lovest thou me more than these?”
SMcC It shows what a prime place it has in John’s ministry, that the gospel should open with a reference to Christ as the Lamb of God; and that in the body of it we should have this wonderful chapter, devoted in such detail to the service of the Shepherd and the character of the sheep; and then that we should have one who has failed on the lines of leadership, recovered; the Lord’s personal service to him, as it were, in dilating before his mind and his soul, the greatness of the sheep.
SL The Lord seems to be very jealous, does He not, of the matter of, “lovest thou me more than these?” Peter put himself in the forefront, but he had to learn the lesson with the Lord, did he not?
SMcC It is a great matter that we should see the place that the saints have in the mind of Christ, in the mind of the divine Persons, because the Father comes into this matter. The Father is operating in this matter, as well as Christ in relation to the sheep.
CEJ Would you say something as to verse 10? “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” I was just wondering whether having life abundantly would involve just what you say, that the Spirit of Christ is at liberty amongst the saints and filling everyone?
SMcC It throws into relief before us the greatness of the collective position, because life in this way is not enjoyed individually, it is enjoyed amongst the saints collectively, the life more abundantly, “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” There is therefore, the need for the sheep, as it were, being in the full gain of the service of Christ, leading them out from all that is extraneous to the position, extraneous to christianity, that they might know the fulness of the truth, and enjoy, as suggested, on this side, life abundantly.
JHH I have been thinking, too, of the remark you have made several times of the Lamb of God. You remember two of John’s disciples followed the Lamb of God, “and they abode with him that day.” Is that necessary, in a sense, in every heart, that we may enter into this thing fully?
SMcC So the importance of our personal links with Christ, as to whether the truth in all its fulness has involved the development of these links in their strength, which means our salvation from every wind that might toss us and carry us.
GWB Is there a significance in the fact that in Revelation 21, it says, “I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And then, “The Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb,” linking it on with what has been said as to the nearness of Christ to the assembly?
SMcC Well, He will be near in the holy city, very near to the saints. In the administration of that day, He will be known through the assembly. Not that we would limit it to that, because He is a divine Person, He shall come to His people, His feet shall touch the Mount of Olives; we cannot limit it entirely to that. But generally the Lord will be known through the assembly in the glorious administration of that day. But what we want to get hold of is how He is known now, the peculiar way in which we may be held in relation to Christ, over against the disrupting movements that are around us, that would deprive us of getting the truth, and getting the enjoyment of the truth in its fulness.
NBS The Lord says twice, “I am the door,” and twice, “I am the good shepherd,” and on the second time on each occasion, He enlarges on the thought; is that to encourage us that we might grow in the apprehension of what He is as Leader in that way?
SMcC This word ‘good’ is to be noted in these relations. “The good shepherd.” He does not say, ‘I am the right shepherd.’ What He says involves that, in the teaching of the chapter, but He says, “I am the good shepherd.” He says in verse 11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” The very word ‘good’ should bring something into our mind, because there is so much that is bad around us.
HSD Would you enlarge a little on the Lord’s words in verse 15, “I lay down my life,” in relation to this subject?
SMcC Well, that is a great matter that we should see, that this administrative service involves a preparedness to lay down our lives for the brethren, for the sheep. John is inculcating this kind of thought into our minds. True leadership involves that the saints are not run away from, and left. True leadership involves that the saints are stood by, even supposing it costs our lives. Of course, this is unique here; we must keep before us the uniqueness of the Person of Christ. He says, “I lay down my life, that I may take it again.” That could never be said of us. That is a divine Person that is speaking. He laid down His life in one condition, and took it again in another condition.
JHH So that the writer to the Hebrews has taken this in to his heart. He says, “the God of Peace, who brought again from among the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep.”
SMcC Very good, and you notice that before that he says in chapter 13: 9 - 13, “Be not carried away with various and strange doctrines; for it is good that the heart be confirmed with grace, not meats; those who have walked in which have not been profited by them. We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle; for of those beasts whose blood is carried as sacrifices for sin into the holy of holies by the high priest, of these the bodies are burned outside the camp. Wherefore also Jesus, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate; therefore let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” That coupled with what you are saying, brings in the line of teaching which we have in this verse, the sheep going forth.
JHH That was the scripture that the Lord used through a brother to bring me into fellowship.
SMcC Very good. It is important that we should see the value of these scriptures. As we move on in the chapter, the Lord says, verse 14, “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. And I have 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. 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, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father.” The Lord is bringing the Father on to our view now, to impress us with another divine Person coming into this matter of the sheep, interest in the sheep; and not only has the Lord, as the Shepherd, a personal interest in the sheep, but the Father has too, especially as we come down to the later verses, to this matter of perishing.
CTMcC Is that why he uses the word ‘must’, verse 16, “those also I must bring”? Is that on account of what divine Persons have set themselves on doing?
SMcC That is why we are here this afternoon. It is the great service of Christ to the Gentile world. Where would we have been if it had not been for that? He has brought us. “Those also I must bring.” We have been brought, and we have heard His voice. “There shall be one flock, one shepherd,” as if the Lord delights in holding this thought to the end of the teaching that has gone before in the chapter.
JC Does the Lord in this wondrous act of devotion to death provide the Father, we say reverently, another motive for loving Him?
SMcC We are to understand that principle in John’s Gospel, the promotion of the activity of love. The Lord Jesus sets it out as a divine Person in relation to another divine Person. He, the Lord Jesus in manhood, He promotes the activity of love, gives motives and reasons for that love to be active toward Him; a remarkable thing. And we should be concerned about it, in relation to one another and in relation to divine Persons.
JD So that ‘one flock’ and ‘one shepherd’ would really involve that, would it not, thinking of the love that you are speaking of?
SMcC It does involve that, that the unity is a unity in affection, not just an arbitrary unity. The unity that is suggested in the body involves spiritual sensitiveness in our relations with one another; and in the sheep, in the flock, it involves these affinities in one another, and our links with Christ.
CTMcC Is it significant in that way that the first fruit of the Spirit in Galatians is love, where they were in danger of biting and devouring one another?
SMcC Well, that is to be noted, and John is the great love gospel. The administration of Christ working out in John’s Gospel involves this subject of love, and it involves it amongst the brethren too, and we are to make way for it. Solomon’s porch comes in here now, which is to be noted, the great suggestion in Jesus walking in the temple in the porch of Solomon. “The Jews therefore surrounded him, and said to him, Until when doest thou hold our soul in suspense? If thou art the Christ, say so to us openly.” They were charging Him with their deficiencies, with their difficulties, whereas He was not the source of their difficulties, they were the source of their own difficulties. How often that is the case, that we charge others with the source of our difficulties when we have ourselves to blame.
WHF Would that be suggested in Ephesians 6: 23, where the apostle speaks of “peace ... and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.” Two divine Persons commending peace, love and faith to the brethren.
SMcC It is remarkable that that letter should end that way, full as it is with heavenly light, bringing before us the whole scope of the truth, and we must keep that in mind, the whole scope of the truth, and it finishes with that word, involving practical conditions among the saints. We cannot arrive rightly at the truth in its fulness, as a whole thought, unless there are practical conditions among the saints, that would make way for it.
WHF I was particularly connecting it with your reference to the Lord in Solomon’s porch, and the readiness of the flesh to blame somebody else, and indeed overlooking the Lord’s rights.
SMcC The sheep would never overlook the rights of the Shepherd. They know His voice, they hear His words. They are intelligent, but their link of affinity with the Shepherd as His own sheep saves them from the voice of the stranger.
EH There is constant reference to hearing; does that suggest in the whole of the chapter that our minds are to be held rightly?
SMcC Yes. And especially that organ, the ear. To what am I listening? Is it a voice that corresponds with Christ, a voice in which there is affinity to Christ’s voice; or is it the voice of a stranger that I am listening to?
PRP Would you say something in that connection as to verses 14 and 15 as to the knowledge?
SMcC It would involve the Spirit in the saints, because John’s ministry, really contemplates the fulness of the dispensation. Christ at the right hand of God and the Spirit down here. As he says in chapter 8, “I am the light of the world”; in its fulness that really involves Christ in heaven at the present moment, the light of the world, and John’s ministry contemplates that.
GB Would you say a little more as to why Solomon’s porch comes into this chapter?
SMcC Well, it is an interesting thing that the porch of judgment should come up in the chapter that is dealing with the sheep and the Shepherd, as if we were garrisoned in our minds by the thought linked with the teaching here in the chapter as to the Shepherd and the sheep, the one flock, and the one Shepherd; we shall be helped as to this position that Solomon’s porch suggests, where moral questions are resolved.
JC The truth is that there is only one Shepherd. The Lord Jesus Himself charged Peter as a shepherd. Peter uses the word to others and so does Paul, but there is really only one Shepherd.
SMcC And therefore the importance of hearing His voice, as in verse 25, “Jesus answered them, I told you.” They say to him, “If thou art the Christ, say so to us openly.” What had He been doing all the time? The truth had been coming out all the time, and they are trying to imply that He was not saying things openly, when the teaching was there, as He refers again in the end of the gospel saying that He had done nothing in secret. It was all there for them to take account of; but that is the working of the Jewish mind. And He says, “The works which I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness concerning me; but ye,” the emphatic ‘ye’ do not believe, for ye are not of my sheep, as I told you.” The Lord is very defined in His language here. And then He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish.” Now this involves the fulness of the truth, because the Spirit is here to guide us into all the truth; and the Lord has in mind that we should reach the full thought on the heavenly line.
GHW-n Does the Lord, in speaking of the Father, bring in the great family thought?
SMcC I think it is stressing more the activity of grace. He is presented in John’s Gospel in relation to Christ, “my Father.” It is His sonship that is in mind. When you get the expression, “the Father,” and “my Father” here, to us it would be more God known in this wonderful Name of grace.
PB What you are really emphasising is that the sheep characteristically recognise the shepherd’s voice over against every other voice, and they believe, and they are subject to being led; and they are in the joy and the power of eternal life, and in the conscious security of the Father’s and the Son’s love in activity toward them in grace?
SMcC And that produces a sense of security; as He says, “they shall never perish.” I think we all want this sense of security, as amongst the sheep of Christ and belonging to the flock, and we should have a sense of security, that we are in a sphere of security where our lives, as it were, are not in danger, but we are going all the way in view of the whole truth, not falling in the wilderness, but going all the way.
ENJ Where there is warmth in the flock, over against the winter conditions in the Jewish position?
SMcC That would be the point. The pasture, the life abundantly, and life eternal, and they shall never perish! While it is a negative thought, it is a wonderful thought that we have security and are positively in the enjoyment of life as linked with that position.
JHH Would you say that it progresses in the 11th and 12th chapters? One who hears His voice is at table with Him. What security he would feel, what safety he would feel!
SMcC So that the family of God figuratively comes on to our view, and the personnel of the family of God in the succeeding chapters.
RCMcC Would you say something about the hand of Christ, and the hand of the Father?
SMcC Well, they are figures of speech which are employed to intensify in our minds the care of divine Persons in relation to us as the sheep of Christ. And it says in verse 31, “The Jews therefore again took stones that they might stone him,” as if they would meet all this kind of ministry with that kind of attitude and that kind of feeling; how it should help us, every one of us in our hearts! Jewish elements are there latent in every one of our hearts; not just some hearts, but in every one of our hearts, and have to be judged to get the full gain of the administrative service of Christ in the light of this chapter.
GWB Is there something very attractive when the Lord says, “My Father ... is greater than all.”
SMcC Well. He is stressing the supremacy of the Father; the Father is the supreme governor in the universe. And then He says, “My Father and I are one,” showing how the Lord’s equality with the Father is brought on to our view, again the dignity of the Person; because we are reminded all through John’s teaching as to the dignity of the Person who is the Shepherd.