LESSON NINE – SHEPHERDING THE LORD’S SHEEP

John 21:15 — Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs.

THE NEED FOR SHEPHERDS IN THE LORD’S RECOVERY

We have to build up a habit of contacting people. In Song of Songs 1:8 the Lord said to His follower, “Go forth on the footsteps of the f lock, / And pasture your young goats / By the shepherds’ tents.” This verse indicates that we have to run after the Lord. While we are running, we have to take care of some younger ones. We are to bring them to the tents where the shepherds are and where the people of God meet with the Chief Shepherd.

The Gospel of John, which is a Gospel on life, also speaks of the need of shepherding. By the end of chapter 20, the Gospel of John is actually concluded, yet there is still one more chapter as an appendix, chapter 21. The main thing in this appendix is the Lord Jesus spending time to shepherd Peter. Peter suffered a big defeat.

NOT BEING JUST FLOCKS OF SHEEP

BUT FLOCKS OF SHEPHERDS

When the Lord restored Peter, He reminded him of His desire to have a flock. In 1 Peter 5:4 Peter calls the Lord Jesus “the Chief Shepherd.” Hebrews 13:20 says that Christ is the great Shepherd,  and the Lord Himself said in John 10:11 that He is the good Shepherd. Thus, He is the Chief Shepherd, the great Shepherd, and the good Shepherd. First Peter 2:25 tells us that this Chief Shepherd is the Shepherd of our souls. Our soul is our inner being, our real person. Our Lord shepherds us mainly by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person. But do you think that the Lord Jesus by Himself can shepherd so many flocks of sheep? As the Chief Shepherd, He must have a flock of shepherds under Him. We are not just flocks of sheep but flocks of shepherds.

When the Lord asked Peter if he loved Him, he responded by saying, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You” (John 21:15-16). After the Lord asked him this the third time, Peter could only say, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You” (v. 17). After each of Peter’s three responses, the Lord told him, “Feed My lambs.…Shepherd My sheep.…Feed My sheep” (vv. 15-17). No doubt, this gave Peter a strong impression that he could never forget. This is the reason that he touches the matter of shepherding in his first Epistle. He tells us that Christ is the Chief Shepherd and that he was one of the many shepherds under the Chief Shepherd. He also tells us that the Lord is the Shepherd of our soul, our real person. That was his experience when the Lord restored him in John 21. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” pp. 315-316)

HAVING THE LOVING AND FORGIVING HEART OF FATHER GOD AND THE SHEPHERDING

Luke 15:1 says, “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him.” The gentlemen and righteous men were not joined to Him, but the tax collectors and sinners were. Therefore, the Pharisees murmured and complained again. Then the Lord spoke three parables. The first is concerning a shepherd seeking the one, unique, lost sheep. Of one hundred, this one was a lost one, so the shepherd came purposely for him. Why did the Lord go to a house full of sinners and tax collectors? It was because among them there was one lost sheep of His, whom He had come to seek. The second parable is concerning a woman who lit a lamp and swept the house to seek her lost coin. The third parable is about the prodigal son. The shepherd is the Son, the woman is the Spirit, and in the parable of the prodigal son there is the Father. As the prodigal son was returning, he was preparing and considering what to speak to his father. He prepared himself to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants” (vv. 18-19). While he was walking and thinking like this, the father saw him. Verse 20 says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately.” That the father saw the son a long way off was not an accident. From the time the son left home, the father must have gone out to look and wait for his coming back every day. We do not know how many days he watched and waited. When the father saw him, he ran to him. This is the Father’s heart. The father interrupted the son while he was speaking his prepared word. The son wanted to speak the word he had prepared, but the father told his servants to bring the robe, the ring, and the sandals and to prepare the fattened calf. A teacher among the Brethren told me that in the whole Bible we can see God run only one time, in Luke 15, where the father saw the returning prodigal son. He ran; he could not wait. This is the Father’s heart.

LOVE COVERING ALL

We need to have this kind of love and go to tell all the dormant ones…that the church does not condemn anyone. Rather, the church wants to see all the dormant ones come back. If they all would come back, I would weep with tears of thanksgiving to the Lord. The Lord can  testify for me that I do not condemn anyone. We have no qualification to condemn anyone. Without the Lord’s mercy, we would be the same as the dormant ones. Therefore, we must love them. It all depends upon love, as the wise king Solomon said, “Love covers all transgressions” (Prov. 10:12). We love people. We love the opposers, and we love the top rebels. I really mean it. We love them and do not hate them. Who am I? I am not qualified to condemn or to hate. Am I perfect? Even the prophet Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). Who is clean today? If we criticize people and say something bad about them, we are not clean. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord,” pp. 20-21, 25)

References: CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” ch. 7; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord,” ch. 2

HOW SWEET, HOW HEAV’NLY IS THE SIGHT

The Church—Her Fellowship – 857

• How sweet, how heav’nly is the sight,
  When those who love the Lord
  In one another’s peace delight,
  And so fulfill His Word:

• When each can feel his brother’s sigh,
  And with him bear a part;
  When sorrow flows from eye to eye,
  And joy from heart to heart;

• When, free from envy, scorn and pride,
  Our wishes all above,
  Each can his brother’s failings hide,
  And show a brother’s love;

• When love, in one delightful stream,
  Through every bosom flows;
  When union sweet, and dear esteem,
  In every action glows.

• Love is the golden chain that binds;
  The saints Thy grace thus prove.
  And he is glory’s heir that finds
  His bosom glow with love.