LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

John 10: 1 - 16; Isaiah 63: 7 - 14; Psalm 78: 65 - 72

The thought of leadership is in mind in this service this afternoon. Leadership, of course, is spoken of in many ways in the scriptures. We were alluding this morning to leadership by principles. A very important thing in its setting, that we should know how to be led by right principles. It is easy to be led by wrong principles but at the very outset we are reminded in being recovered morally from the ruin around us, that we have to follow right principles. Right principles are wonderful in that relation. We must not minimise them; we must not make little of them, we must hold them all in their relative values, because they are our salvation, in days of public confusion, difficulty and breakdown. But I want to speak of leadership in persons, which Is also a great matter in its place, for it is important that we should understand right leadership in persons and the door is open for leadership for all of us in different ways, as we may know and have observed in the scriptures.

One great feature of leadership is that we are to take the lead in paying honour one to another. For we shall never love one another rightly, according to divine thoughts, unless we respect one another, and value one another, as it is our right to value one another in connection with divine thoughts. And I want to speak first of all of leadership in Christ, our great Model. Then I want to speak of it in Moses, God leading in and through Moses, and then in David - choice men as they are, two of the greatest men in the Old Testament. They are a great example to us, persons like ourselves, of like passions, a great example to us in relation to the truth and in care and love for the people of God. It is obvious to most of us, to all of us I would suppose, here, that it is right and befitting that we should begin with our Lord Jesus Christ, for He has left a model for us. Leadership, in Christ, according to John’s gospel involves more than an arbitrary lead, it is leadership presented to us in One who can say He is altogether that which He says. A very important matter in leadership, that we should lead as being living exponents of the truth. And the Lord Jesus sets the example for us in John’s gospel and I want to refer to Him in relation to His leadership in this section. As we know this chapter is unique to John’s gospel, we do not find it in Luke, nor in Mark, nor in Matthew. It is special to John, as if it is a chapter that we need to understand in the last days, because John’s ministry is specifically dealing with the last days. This is one part, one chapter that needs to be understood in our time and in our day, because the Lord Jesus stresses in regard to the sheep that they hear His voice and that they will never perish. 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, and no one shall seize them out of my hand.” We were referring to security this morning and we need to get a sense of the security from this viewpoint also, that we are in the hand of Christ. The Lord Jesus is not as it were, in this relation far from the sheep nor the sheep far from Him. Luke in chapter 15 brings in the matter of estrangement and distance through sin but in John 10 the sheep are viewed as in the hand of Christ. It is a wonderful thing to take account of, dear brethren, that we are in His hand. There are many things and forces of evil that would take us out of that position if they could, but the Lord Jesus will give us the fixed assurance and we need that assurance in view of being restful in the divine realm,

restful in the path of the testimony. We need this assurance for our hearts that “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.” You can see, dear brethren, in this relation how intimately the Father and the Son are bound up with the matter of the sheep, according to John. Because the Lord does not speak of His own hand the second time, He speaks of the Father’s hand. It is affecting that God should come into the realm of understandable language, so that we should know the feelings of His heart about us, and toward us, because the Father remains in the inscrutableness of Deity; yet in this gospel we are reminded of how He comes within our range in expressions that are calculated to touch our spiritual feelings and emotions. You will remember how the bosom of the Father is referred to in the first chapter, and the One who is in that place, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. The delightfulness of manhood in Jesus in all its spiritual excellence is in view in that position in the first chapter. But it is not exactly a question of the Lord Jesus that is being stressed here and His links with the Father, although they are in the chapter, but the sheep and what the sheep are, not only to Christ but also to the Father. I think it is a wonderful thing in this gospel, dear brethren, that we come under the notice of the Father because we love Christ, and this chapter would intensify that thought in our minds that as loving Christ the Shepherd, the true Shepherd, as hearing His voice and following Him we come under the Father’s notice, yea, we are in the Father’s hand, the hand of the Father. So that over against all the apostate currents and movements so swiftly flowing in the scene through which we pass, we, the sheep of Christ, are in the hand of Christ and in the hand of the Father. What security, dear brethren, as we think of the Father and the Son bound up in this great matter of the care of the sheep. You will have noticed too how the Father and the Son are bound up in the matter of the administration of the Spirit. The Father sent the Spirit, and the Son sent the Spirit. What a prime matter the coming of the Spirit is in that both the Father and the Son should enter into that administrative act seen at Pentecost. What a prime place the saints of the assembly have in the divine mind. What concentration of interest and feeling in relation to the saints is seen in the Father and the Son in Their activities towards the saints in all the glory of the economy into which They come, yea, in which we have part, serving with the fixed objectives that are in mind in the glory and grace of the economy, the like of which has never been seen since time began. And John would stress in this particular part, the holy interest in the matter of the sheep. What the saints are in all that defenceless character publicly in a scene marked by hostility, yet they themselves are subjects of the work of God and true to the work of God in them, hearing the Shepherd’s voice and following the Shepherd. The Lord Jesus, in speaking about this matter of the sheep, and His place as the Shepherd does not omit references to the false persons that are alluded to in the thief and the robber. He says, “Verily, verily I say to you, he that enters not in by the door to the fold of the sheep, but mounts up elsewhere, he is a thief and a robber.” We have to be reminded, you see, of the legal way, the right way I mean, the door reminds us of the right way. It was not a surreptitious movement that the Lord speaks of here in His coming in but there were those who were marked by surreptitious movements just as in the time of the Galatians Paul alludes to those who came in surreptitiously, to spy out our liberty. What necessity was there for surreptitious movement, to spy out their liberty, when their liberty was apparent? It was a testimony before their eyes in both Paul and Titus and the Lord says here “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.” I want you to notice this, dear brethren, to Him, the emphatic Him. Now the porter contains in the figure an abstruse allusion to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, no doubt an allusion to the salutation of Christ as He entered upon His public service. To Him the porter opens, the Holy Spirit would not make room for the thieves and the robbers, the Holy Spirit would make way for Christ. He would make way for Him in relation to the sheep because these others do not have the care of the sheep at heart, they do not have the best in mind for the sheep. They are thinking of themselves, thieves and robbers as the Lord speaks of them, mounting up elsewhere, coming in through means and ways that are not proper to what belongs to the position. We are to beware, dear brethren, of whatever would deflect us from true leadership in Christ in this relation as in His love for the sheep He would carry us along in relation to all that His voice brings to us, and He says to Him the porter opens. I love to think of that. The delight of the Holy Spirit to make way for Christ in this aspect of His leadership, coming in having the sheep in mind, that the sheep should be led out, as it says. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. The references are to the Jewish fold, how the Lord Jesus came of woman, came under law as Galatians tells us. He came in by the door. He came in in full view, saluted from heaven and the Holy Spirit opening the door for Him to enter in public testimony and ministry having in mind the emancipation of the sheep from all that would hold them in their minds and thoughts and affections in what gendered to bondage. It says He leads them out and when He has put forth His own He goes before them and the sheep follow Him.

Now I want in passing, dear brethren, just to allude to what this kind of leadership involves for Christ. We have mentioned it in the hymn which we have sung. It is mentioned in the chapter, His laying down His life for the sheep. We are not to forget what this leadership cost Him; we, any one of us here, may have a part in leading the sheep but we shall never have to pass through the waters that this Shepherd passed through in love for the sheep. We shall never have to go where He went. Let none of us make too much of our pressure and our suffering, let us remember that the One who has pioneered the way in suffering love for the sheep has gone where none of us shall ever be called to go. How wonderful it is, dear brethren, to think of His leadership, to think of what it cost Him, to bring them out of the fold. There is no fold in christianity. I know we use the word sometimes; you hear it used but it does not properly belong to christianity. The word that belongs to christianity is “the flock.” As has been said Judaism is a circumference without a centre, christianity is a centre without a circumference. We want to understand the intensity of leadership in this chapter. The thieves and the robbers, why is the Lord using these terms? He sets on the matter as to the fold, the Jewish fold, and the thieves and the robbers and those that are serving for wages. How totally contrary to the spirit and grace of the economy into which this blessed Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, has come to serve the sheep even unto going into death for them. The Lord throws into relief, you see, wrong leadership, the elements and the principles and the features of wrong leadership. When the crisis comes, you see, they vacate the position, they leave the sheep, the sheep are left - the Shepherd never leaves the sheep. He not only goes in and leads them out and goes before them. He keeps them in His hand, they are with Him all the way. He never leaves them, they shall never perish. No one shall take them out of His hand. He is with them whatever the vicissitudes, whatever the trials, whatever the difficulties. He stands by the sheep. That is true leadership, dear brethren. Whereas the thieves and the robbers, those who serve for wages, they are concerned about their reputation. They are concerned about their own prestige. They have been serving in relation to their own prestige. Oh, dear brethren, that everyone of us, brothers and sisters alike, might eschew this kind of thing and drink into the spirit and grace of the good Shepherd referred to here who is prepared to lay down His life for the sheep, to stand by the sheep, to be with them whatever the cost. And it says, verse 13, “Now he who serves for wages flees because he serves for wages.” That is, he brings before us the standards of these hireling elements. They are serving for wages and they desert the position, because they are serving for wages, whereas, dear brethren, if we love the sheep, as Christ loved the sheep, we shall be with the sheep whatever the cost may be to ourselves. Think of what it cost the Lord Jesus, the public ignominy, the shame, the reproach, the spitting, the scorn, all that man in the wickedness of his heart could heap upon Him. Think of what it cost Him! Think of how ready, dear brethren, we are to desert when we should be standing by, when we should be identified with the sheep as the Lord Jesus is here. He says elsewhere, verse 10, “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.” Think of the elements around us, all the different persons in the public profession that claim to lead the people, lead the sheep, and all they are concerned about is ravishing the sheep, shearing the sheep. They are not concerned about the sheep themselves, nor the One to whom the sheep belong. The Lord says “I am come that they might have life and might have it abundantly.”

Now I want to speak of leadership in Moses. In Isaiah 63 we have this reference to the leadership of God in Moses; you will remember how the section opens with the people relating their experiences, the remnant is speaking, someone is speaking here, “I will record the loving kindnesses of Jehovah, the praises of Jehovah according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed upon us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he hath bestowed upon them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.” Then it says, “And he said, they are indeed my people, children that will not lie; and he became their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bore them and carried them all the days of old.” We are reminded, dear brethren, of the care of God for us in this relation, and before saying a word as to Moses and what came to light in divine leadership in Moses, I want to just draw our attention to this great matter of God Himself, and His identification with us in all the vicissitudes of the path here. It says, “He became their Saviour, in all their affliction he was afflicted.” That touches our hearts, dear brethren, as we think of our afflictions, we think of what they are to ourselves, we think of what they are to the saints and how the saints feel about them; but think of what they were to God, what they were to the One who became their Saviour, as it says, “In all their affliction he was afflicted.” Think of that, dear brethren, in regard to the sorrows of the testimony. Think of how God feels about our matters, how He does not hold Himself afar off, hold Himself aloof from our matters, from our sorrows and our difficulties. You see, God is setting out in Himself the great feature of leadership as we may refer to it, “In all their affliction he was afflicted” because we are going on to speak of His glorious arm, His glorious arm leading them by the right hand of Moses. It is a unique expression. You do not find it elsewhere in the same way and relation, His glorious arm leading them by the right hand of Moses. But basic to it, preceding it, we are reminded of God as it says “In all their affliction, he was afflicted, and he became their Saviour.” I think, dear brethren, our sorrows, our trials and our difficulties should draw us nearer to the God whose we are and to whom we belong. He wants to be known by us, indeed in the name Jehovah and in the name Jah He would give an intimation to faith of how He desires to be known in the secret of His Being by finite creatures such as we are. There is nothing touches one’s heart more than the name Jehovah and the name Jah because it intimates to faith that God wants to be known in the secret of His Being by creatures such as we are. He wants to be known by us, not just in the mighty acts of power by which we have been emancipated from Egypt’s thrall and spell, but in all the tenderness with which He is linked with us in our afflictions as it says “In all their affliction he was afflicted,” and “the Angel of his presence.” Dear brethren, what can that allude to? Is it not in our way of thinking and in our way of speaking, in the light of our dispensation, a touching allusion to the Holy Spirit? We referred to Him as presented abstrusely in the figure of the porter, and is there not another suggestion here “in the Angel of his presence?” You will remember how God referred to the name as linked with the angel in Exodus and here it says “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them.” It comes into one’s mind at the moment how much we owe to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is here, we can count upon Him. It may seem at times that the whole position has gone but the Angel of His presence is with us and amongst us; as we would say as the figure would convey to us, the Holy Spirit is still here, dear brethren; He has never left us. He will never leave us. The Lord Jesus said that He would send another Comforter that He may be with you for ever. The Lord Jesus had to leave the disciples, He had to be separated from them but they were to get a Comforter that would never leave them. We want to know the Comforter better, dear brethren, the reality of the divine presence in the Holy Spirit here. It may seem at times the position may go and be overthrown but the Spirit is still here and we can count on the Spirit. There is what is at the right hand of God, all the power that is there, that will bring every element into subjection in a day yet to come as it operates publicly, but do we understand, dear brethren, that commensurate with the position up there is the position down here in the presence of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. So let us take it more to heart, dear brethren, that whatever may occur, whatever may come about, the Holy Spirit is with us and we can rely on Him and call upon Him to see us through, as it says, “The Angel of his presence, saved them.” We have thus the service of Christ mediatorially as the Saviour presented to us in the type and also the suggestion of the Holy Spirit in the “Angel of his presence” and now we come to what it says “In his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bore them and carried them all the days of old.” Think of God speaking about the days of old.

Think of the days of old in New Zealand, the work as it started and has gone on. We have to let these thoughts come into our mind. They come into God’s mind you see, the days of old - we are not to forget the days of old, not that we are to live in the days of old, but we are not to forget them. He remembered the days of old, what days they were, as we shall see, what powerful leadership, what ministry, what service, what pioneering in love in that service, and by analogy we might say as we take account of the work in these parts, think of how the way was pioneered. God does not give up His work, He stands by His work, dear brethren, a great comfort to all our hearts; it says “but they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit, and he turned to be their enemy; himself, he fought against them.” Think of the dispensation publicly, the breakdown on the public side, the awful confusion that has come into the position publicly; God even withholding His hand, but then, dear brethren, let us remember what it follows on with, He remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, not now the people alone but Moses and his people. Think of the choiceness of the expression - Moses and his people. Think of this kind of leadership that our attention is drawn to. “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock - where is he that put his holy Spirit within him,” that is Moses, “his glorious arm leading them by the right hand of Moses.” Think of these unique expressions, putting His Holy Spirit within him, that is Moses. The idea of prophetic ministry is to stress in our minds the attractiveness of spiritual leadership - putting His Holy Spirit within him, His glorious arm leading them by the right hand of Moses. Think of the identification of God with Moses in this great matter, how God said to Moses “I have made thee God to Pharaoh.” Think of the representation of God in that kind of leadership. We are to be affected by all these matters, dear brethren. They have not come to us lightly, they have not come to us easily, they have not come to us in any simple fashion, as I might say; the way the truth has come to us has been pioneered through conflict and suffering. How it becomes us and behoves us to evaluate the position rightly, to stand by this position into which God has come and in which He is leading His people, identified with them in the sorrow and suffering and the Angel of His presence saving them. And it says “Dividing the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name” - God is not putting honour on us exactly here although honour is put upon Moses, but His own glory is in mind, to make Himself an everlasting name. Then it says “Who led them through the depths.” Think of the depths, dear brethren. Some of these circumstances it is difficult to fathom; you cannot go into them and explain them, it says “who led them through the depths like a horse in the wilderness and they stumbled not.” Think of the effectuality of that kind of leadership, and it says, “As cattle go down into the valley the Spirit of Jehovah gave them rest; so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.” Well, these are the conditions, dear brethren, that rightly attach to leadership according to God, to leadership that God is with, and there is no stumbling, there is rest for the saints. A beautiful figure, as cattle go down in the valley, so the Spirit of Jehovah gave them rest. Instead of them being all distraught and all upset, right leadership would involve that the saints are set at rest.

Now I just finish with a word as to David - the matter of David’s leadership. It says that “He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep folds: from following the suckling ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people.” Notice that, dear brethren.

Why should God allude to Jacob, His people? We might say, well it is easy to feed Israel His inheritance, but what about Jacob, His people? Bringing up in our thoughts all the saints are in the disciplinary ways of God, David is called upon to feed Jacob, His people. The people in the disciplinary ways of God are marked by features, as we all are marked by them, that require the discipline of God to refine us, to reduce us. We are not to despise the saints in these circumstances. Right leadership involves that we understand the Jacob side as well as the Israel side. And it says “And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.” Think of that, dear brethren, integrity of heart and skilfulness of hand. I just leave that thought with us in regard to leadership according to God as seen in this Psalm. The position involves in David that our hearts are right, integrity, uprightness, whatever it may cost me, whatever it may involve for me, the integrity of my heart would hold me to the sheep, what the saints are to God. I am not to vacate the position, I am not, going to desert the position because sufferings are entailed.

We have in these verses, the sovereignty of God’s love bringing Jacob His people on to our view, and leadership in relation to them. Judah the mount Zion which He loved, what a position, dear brethren, now to be known in the assembly, and leadership by integrity of heart and skilfulness of hand. Sometimes we say, oh well I may be wrong in the way I do things but my heart is all right, but you will notice that David’s heart and his hand were in the leadership. Our heart and our hand have to be in the leadership - the hand referring to our service, externally, the heart referring to what we are internally, in integrity, in uprightness holding the saints in relation to divine thoughts; and our hands, that is all our external activities and movements in relation to the saints, governed accordingly. May God bless the word and help all of us to cherish these thoughts of leadership so that we may be saved from wrong leadership, especially affected by the place that God has in the matter, in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.