THE SHEPHERD
Allan P Grant
John 10: 10 “I am come”-15
Psalm 23: 1-4
Acts 20: 28
These scriptures speak of shepherding, particularly relating to the Lord Jesus. This occasion is to occupy us with the glory and greatness of Christ, and I was thinking particularly of His glory as Shepherd. The Scriptures speak of “the good shepherd”, “the great shepherd” (Heb 13: 20) and “the chief shepherd”, 1 Pet 5: 4. It is here in John 10, He says, “I am the good shepherd”.
Our brother knew Jesus as his Lord. He had a personal link with the Lord Jesus as submitting to Him as Lord. He knew Him as his Saviour, as taking his place in dealing with the whole question of sin and sins. He could speak in this personal way, as we read in the psalm, “Jehovah is my shepherd”. What a precious thing to have such a knowledge of Christ. The Shepherd speaks of divine care. God, all through the Scriptures, makes much of shepherds. The first man of faith in Hebrews 11, Abel, was a shepherd. Moses, Abraham, and other great men of the Old Testament were shepherds, but the Lord Jesus is the One who is distinguished as “the great shepherd”, as it says in Hebrews: “But the God of peace who brought again from among the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep …”. What a shepherd we have in Christ, One who has broken the power of death.
The verse from Hymn 103 has been much in my mind:
What love from this Shepherd did flow,
When in care for the sheep He was led
To stand between them and the foe
And lay down His life in their stead.
What a cost, dear brethren! What a full expression of love! “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”.
In John’s gospel, the sheep do not go astray; the sheep are those who value Christ. Our brother had an appreciation of the Lord Jesus as his Saviour and Shepherd. He valued the Shepherd’s voice and His word. He knew His voice, and he followed the Shepherd. The sheep in John’s gospel follow Him. We know the sheep in Luke 15 goes astray. The Lord in grace goes after it and recovers it, but in John’s gospel the sheep are those who are drawn to Christ through the Father’s operations and who appreciate Him, and appreciate His greatness. The object in shepherding in John’s gospel, I think, is to bring the saints into the enjoyment of divine love. John speaks much about love, the Father’s love for Christ, and Christ’s love for His own. In John’s gospel the word has in view that we are brought into the circle of divine love. The man in chapter 9 of John was brought into the flock, a distinctive example of John’s sheep. Our brother was one of these sheep, as every believer is, an object of divine care and security. They are in the Lord’s hand, in the Father’s hand, v 28, 29. What a comfort it is to know such security in a time of sorrow. So the Lord says, “I am the good shepherd … and I lay down my life for the sheep”, the fullest expression of love in view of the saints coming into life. “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”: that life speaks of the enjoyment of the spiritual blessings, the enjoyment of divine love. That is what the Lord as shepherd would bring us into. He says, “I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine”. This was very much the main occupation of our brother’s life, gaining knowledge of Christ. Christ says, “I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine”; His knowledge is perfect. He knows each one; He knows each one by name; and He has taken our brother to be with Himself. What a knowledge He has of every circumstance. Believers regarded as sheep suggest our place down here; the sheep are defenceless, but we have the security of knowing the protection and blessing of the Lord’s shepherd care.
Then in Psalm 23 we have David writing from experience:
Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.
The impression we get in the psalm is not of David wandering or going astray. He is speaking about his experience of the Lord as his Shepherd. “I shall not want”; the shepherd care of Christ brings us into lasting satisfaction. Our brother, I think, proved this satisfaction; he did not seek the things of the world.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
he leadeth me beside still waters.
The shepherd care of Christ would bring us into the enjoyment of spiritual refreshment, spiritual food. The shepherd supplies everything for our spiritual care:
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in paths of
righteousness for his name’s sake.
One of our brother’s carers was reading this psalm to him when the Lord took him to be with Himself. He appreciated the care in the home, and received it from God’s hand. May we be kept in the sense of that hand. Martha said at one point to the Lord, “dost thou not care?”, Luke 10: 40. She lost the sense of the Lord’s care and love as shepherd, but what a blessing to be kept in the conscious enjoyment of it.
And then we read in Acts 20. Paul at Ephesus had brought out the fulness of the counsel of God. He says, “I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”, v 27. The saints in Ephesus had received it but Paul felt the need of shepherds, that the saints might be maintained in the enjoyment of the greatness of divine purpose. So Paul says here, “wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. Think of the value that God placed upon the assembly! I think our brother had a sense in his heart of what the assembly is to Christ, and of what the assembly is for God’s pleasure, and his service had that in view. I think that is the character of true shepherd service. The Lord is the chief Shepherd, but we can all play our part as serving under Him as shepherds, caring for what is most precious to Him. Paul speaks of taking care of the assembly of God (1 Tim 3: 5), the most precious thing that God has here, and He requires persons who in love are willing to take on this service of care that we see so fully in the Lord Himself as laying down His life for the sheep. I think our brother filled out his part in shepherding; we locally knew that especially. The brethren universally too appreciated his service in supplying food for the saints.
Shepherding is a service that both brothers and sisters can undertake. Rachel was a shepherdess, Gen 29: 9. We can all be involved in some measure in shepherding the assembly of God. We are left here in an adverse scene and Paul goes on to speak of the dangers that would come in. We would be concerned that the saints are maintained in the enjoyment of divine purpose. The epistle to the Ephesians brings out the great light that is ours, and I think the shepherd would have that in view, the saints enjoying the fulness of divine love and divine purpose, and maintained at the height of our heavenly calling.
May we be encouraged and comforted as knowing the Lord’s service in this way. For His Name’s sake.
DUNDEE
23rd March 2020
(At the meeting for the burial of John Strachan)