As those who believe into Christ and received Him as our life, we are God-men, and our living is no longer a living in the flesh or in the natural man but in the spirit so that Christ would live in us and be magnified in us. Seeing the vision of God’s economy and having the God-man living issue in shepherding people according to God.
We don’t see the vision and have a God-man living so that we may be spiritual Christians but so that others may be brought back to God and enjoy Him, see a vision of God’s economy, and have a God-man living.
In learning to shepherd people according to God we need to follow in the steps of the processed Triune God in seeking and gaining fallen people – as seen in Luke 15 and in many other portions in the Bible. God became a man and lived 33.5 years on the earth in the person of the Lord Jesus, and He shepherded those around Him by cherishing them in His humanity so that He may nourish them in His divinity after His resurrection.
In His loving seeking of the fallen sinner to bring him back to His house, God the Father is eagerly waiting for the prodigal son to return, God the Son is searching for the sinner as the lost sheep in a tender way, and God the Spirit is seeking the sinner as the lost coin in a fine way by lighting the lamp of the word of God so that the sinner would be enlightened, exposed, repent, and return to the Father’s house.
Praise the Lord, our Triune God is the best pattern in how to shepherd and care for others, and we need to learn from Him to treasure people, love them, pray for them, care for them, speak the gospel to them, and tenderly and finely shepherd them back to the Father’s house, the church, where they can enjoy all the Father’s riches.
Following the Steps of the Triune God in Seeking, Gaining, and Shepherding People
In Luke 15 the Lord Jesus unveiled the saving love of the Triune God for sinners; the Triune God in this age of grace doesn’t mainly condemn sinners but wants to gain them and bring them back to the Father’s house. We need to follow in the steps of the processed Triune God in seeking and gaining fallen people.
In the three parables set forth by the Lord Jesus we see that the Son is the shepherd who loves His sheep and would leave the 99 behind to seek the one lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), the Spirit is like a woman who lost a coin and so He searches for the lost sinner by lighting the lamp until He finds him (vv. 8-10), and the Father is eagerly waiting for the prodigal son to return, and He runs to embrace, kiss, and welcome the son back into His house (vv. 17-18).
What we see in Luke 15 is not how sinful and far away we are from God but how much God loves man and wants to lovingly and tenderly bring man back to Himself. I really enjoyed the footnote on Luke 15:3,
In answering the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes, who condemned Him for eating with sinners, the Savior spoke three parables, unveiling and depicting how the Divine Trinity works to bring sinners back, through the Son by the Spirit, to the Father. The Son came in His humanity as the Shepherd to find the sinner as a lost sheep and bring him back home (vv. 4-7). The Spirit seeks the sinner as a woman carefully seeks a lost coin until she finds it (vv. 8-10). And the Father receives the repenting and returned sinner as the “certain man” here receives his prodigal son (vv. 11-32). The entire Divine Trinity treasures the sinner and participates in bringing him back to God. All three parables stress the love of the Divine Trinity more than the fallen condition and repentance of the penitent sinner. The divine love is fully expressed in the Son’s tender care as the good shepherd, in the Spirit’s fine seeking as the treasure-lover, and in the Father’s warm receiving as a loving father. (Luke 15:3, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible)
The Spirit is sanctifying the sinner inwardly by shining in the word of God in him so that he would remember the Father’s house and return. The Son is the good Shepherd outwardly searching for the lost sheep, and He loves His sheep so much that He lays down His life for them by dying on the cross to redeem them. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and the Son sprinkles us with His blood so that we may return to the Father (1 Pet. 1:2).
If we would learn from the Triune God to love the sinners, seek for them, tenderly care for them, and lay down our soul life for them so that they may be open, see the Lord’s love toward them, and come back to the Father’s house to enjoy Christ as everything to them.
If all the members of the Body of Christ learn from the loving, caring, and shepherding Triune God to seek and gain the fallen people, there will be a big revival on the earth, and many will turn to the Lord.
Lord Jesus, we want to follow the steps of the processed Triune God in seeking and gaining fallen people. Thank You for coming as the Good Shepherd not to judge or condemn us but to love us, care for us in a tender way, seek us in a fine way, and receive us warmly into Your house, the church! How we love Your shepherding, Your tender and loving care, and Your seeking and enlightening. Lord, make us one with You in seeking and caring for sinners that they may become sons of God and enjoyers of the riches of Christ in God’s house!
Cherishing People in the Humanity of Jesus and Nourishing them in the Divinity of Christ
One of the main reason we are not fruitful but rather barren, not bringing people to the Lord regularly year after year, is because we do not have the loving and forgiving heart of the Father God and we lack the shepherding and seeking spirit of our Savior Christ.
The Lord wants to increase in us and among us, and the only way we can gain people is by being one with the Lord to have the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Savior’s shepherding and seeking spirit. We shouldn’t condemn sinners or regulate them but rather love them and shepherd them.
The spirit of love and shepherding has to permeate all the saints in the local churches so that we may be those who bear fruit by shepherding people according to God. We need to reconsider our ways (Hag. 1:5) and seek the Lord, be one with Him, be infused with His loving and forgiving heart, have His seeking and shepherding spirit, and just care for sinners and saints according to God.
On the one hand, we need to cherish people by making them happy, comfortable, and pleasant in the humanity of Jesus (see Matt. 9:10; Luke 7:34). People should not feel we look down on them or that we are better than them, but we should allow Christ to live in us in His humanity to make them comfortable and pleasant. We need to practice not to put people under legality but cherish them by making them happy.
Then, we need to nourish people in the divinity of Christ by feeding them with the all-inclusive Christ in His ministry of three stages (see Matt. 24:45-47). We need to be the prudent and faithful slaves who are filled with Christ and are ready to give people food at the appointed time!
We nourish people not by talking to them about politics, the weather, the world situation, marriage, or any other things but by feeding them with Christ, the all-inclusive One who became a man, became the life-giving Spirit, and is now sevenfold intensified to accomplish God’s organic salvation to build up the church as the Body of Christ and consummate the New Jerusalem.
First, we need to eat Christ and feast on Him, and then, we need to minister Him as food into people. On the one hand we need to cherish others in the humanity of Christ to cause them to be happy and open, and on the other hand we need to minister Christ to them to nourish them in the divinity of Christ.
Cherishing is for nourishing; just as a mother has to make the child happy and pleasant before she can feed him, so we need to cherish others in the humanity of Jesus to make them happy and comfortable so that we may nourish them in the divinity of Christ with the riches of the all-inclusive Christ.
This is to shepherd others according to God by following the pattern of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus, save us from being legalistic or criticizing the sinners and the new ones. Lord, we want to have the Father’s forgiving and loving heart and the Saviour’s shepherding and seeking spirit so that we may shepherd people according to God. May we be those who cherish people to make them happy and make them feel pleasant and comfortable so that they may receive Christ as spiritual nourishment for their salvation and growth in life. Lord Jesus, make us those who shepherd others according to God by cherishing them in the humanity of Jesus and nourishing them in the divinity of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and The Vital Groups, msg. 4 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Need for a New Revival, week 5 / msg 5, Shepherding according to God (1) Shepherding People by Cherishing and Nourishing Them according to the Pattern of the Lord Jesus and of the Apostle Paul.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Shepherd, receive man, / Come near and eat with them, / Publicans and sinners. / Go out to carry them home / On Your shoulders, rejoicing. / Lord, carry them home. (Song on the Lord as the Shepherd)
# Eagerly awaiting me / That I the slightest turn to Thee would make / Though my life had been a wreck, You ran to me / And fell upon my neck / Kissing me, affectionately; / Killed the calf for me — “Let us eat and be merry.” (Song on Luke 15)
# Foll’wing Thee, Good Shepherd, I would feed, / Shepherd those allotted me, / E’er I’d touch Thy heart’s desire, / Live in Thine economy. (Song on Following the Shepherd to Shepherd others)
Because of the Son’s step of seeking the sinner by dying on the cross and the Spirit’s step of sanctifying by searching and cleansing the sinner’s inward parts, the sinner comes to his senses. This is shown by the prodigal son’s coming to himself and desiring to return to his father (Luke 15:17-18). First Peter 1:2 reveals that before we received the sprinkling of Christ’s blood, the Holy Spirit sanctified us. This is His seeking sanctification. The sinner is awakened by the Spirit’s seeking to cause him to return to the Father. When the prodigal son returned, his father saw him while he was still a long way off. This indicates that the father was expectantly waiting and watching day by day for his son to return. When his father saw him, he ran to receive his returning son (Luke 15:20). This shows that God the Father runs to receive the returning sinners.
I believe there will be a big revival on the earth, not by a few spiritual giants but by the many members of Christ’s Body being shepherds who follow the steps of the processed Triune God in seeking and gaining fallen people. (Witness Lee, The Vital Groups, pp. 39-40)