The Lord Jesus is the good Shepherd, and we all are His sheep; He takes good care of us both inwardly and outwardly, both spiritually and psychologically and physically. How we love our good Shepherd, and how we enjoy His tender all-inclusive care! If we read the gospels we see how He shepherded and cared for those around Him; He cherished them in His humanity to make them comfortable and happy, and He fed them in His divinity that they may have the life of God.
In particular, the Lord Jesus shepherded Peter, one of His disciples; this one was full of zeal for Christ, and the Father revealed to him that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16). Even though Peter loved the Lord very much, he had to be cherished and perfected by the Lord so that he may be a God-man who loves the Lord and shepherds the Lord’s sheep. The Lord told Peter, after he tried to stop the Lord from going to be crucified, that he needs to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow the Lord.
The Lord shepherded Peter from living by himself and not under the cross; after His resurrection, the Lord went and met Peter and the other disciples who went fishing, and He made breakfast for them. After they ate breakfast, the Lord asked Peter, Do you love me more than these? By asking Peter if he loves the Lord, Jesus was shepherding his soul and restoring his love for Him so that, out of this love for the Lord Peter would also shepherd the Lord’s sheep (see John 21:15-17).
Here we see that the Lord Jesus didn’t just shepherd Peter but also perfected him to shepherd the Lord’s sheep also. We need to practice to be one with the Lord and love Him so that we may shepherd people regularly, shepherding people according to God.
As we love the Lord, enjoy Him, are being shepherded by Him, and are being made one with Him, we will shepherd the Lord’s sheep according to God for the enlargement of Christ, the corporate God-man, consummating in the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah, we also can shepherd others according to God just as the Lord is shepherding us!
Following the Lord to Love and Shepherd All Men even as He Did
One time some parents brought their children to the Lord, but His disciples stopped them, preventing the children from “bothering the Lord” (see Matt. 19:13-15). But the Lord said, Allow the children to come to Me, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens. The Lord cherished the parents and the children by receiving them, and He blessed the little children. He was not bothered by children – which can be a nuisance at times; His disciples, however, tried to prevent the children from coming to the Lord, and this offended the parents.
Quite often we may also try to prevent people from coming to the Lord instead of cherishing them….but the Lord in us and in other members of the Body welcomes all people, young and old. When He was on the cross, the Lord Jesus was crucified together with two robbers sentenced to death, and one of them opened to the Lord and was saved.
The first one saved by Christ through His crucifixion was not a gentleman or a righteous man but a robber sentenced to death (Luke 23:42-43). We may look away from robbers and sinners while appreciating and trying to talk to the people who are more of a high standard (in our eyes), but the Lord saved a robber by telling him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise (v. 23).
Some Christians may feel that those who committed great sins such as this robber should suffer eternal perdition, but the Lord saved him. We need to be one with the Lord in His loving and caring heart and His shepherding spirit to pray for ALL men and receive ALL men, and we need to let Him in us shepherd others and preach the gospel to all men.
It is very meaningful that the Lord was not bothered by the children nor did He shy away from a robber sentenced to death who wanted to be saved.
Lord Jesus, give us Your loving and caring heart, and impart into us Your shepherding spirit so that we may receive all men indifferent of their age, color, class, background, and culture. Lord, be the shepherding One in us toward others. May we be one with You to love people and shepherd them without any discrimination. Dear Lord Jesus, we love You, we open to You, and we allow You to live in us and shepherd others through us according to God!
Loving the Lord and Being One with Him to Shepherd His Sheep for the Church, His Body
In John 21:15-17 we see how the Lord came in resurrection to shepherd Peter and recover His love for Him; Christ shepherded Peter as He commissioned him to shepherd His sheep and feed His lambs. The real secret of shepherding others according to God is in John 21, which is, LOVE ME! Loving the Lord is the secret: if we love the Lord, we will love, care for, and feed His sheep.
However, even though in Ephesians the word “love” is mentioned 22 times, in Rev. 2 we see that the first thing the church in Ephesus lost was their love for the Lord. The loss of the first love is the beginning of degradation and the door to all kinds of problems in the church. Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord as the Shepherd. If we love the Lord, His heart becomes our heart, our attention is fully on Him, and we will be ONE with Him.
Today Christ is in His ascension walking as the High Priest among the local churches to take an all-inclusive tender care of them (see Rev. 1:12-13). He has accomplished all the work: redemption is accomplished; now He is girded at the breast with a golden girdle, signifying that His divinity is the golden energy strengthening Him to exercise His love and care for the churches.
Christ as the Shepherding High Priest takes care of the churches as the lampstands, the testimony of Jesus, as the Son of Man to cherish them, and as the Son of God to nourish them. In His humanity Christ cherishes the churches to make them happy, pleasant, and comfortable, and He then “dresses the lamps” by removing the charred wicks (see Exo. 30:7; 25:38). When the flesh, the old man, the self, and the old creation is manifested in the church, the testimony of Jesus is affected; Christ as the Son of Man then comes in to remove these charred wicks which make the saints uncomfortable, and He also adds the oil – He bountifully supplies us with the Spirit.
Christ is the heavenly High Priest – He’s the God-man with a golden girdle on His breast to shepherd the saints in all the churches in love, and He is carrying out His ministry for the enlargement of Himself as the God-man. As He shepherds us, His desire is for us to be one with Him as the Shepherding God-man so that we may shepherd His sheep according to God. In His heavenly ministry, Christ is the Great Shepherd to consummate the New Jerusalem according to God’s eternal covenant (see Heb. 13:20-21).
All Christ does today and all He did in the past, together with all that He has accomplished, is for the church to be built up and for all the saints to be shepherded to become the enlargement and duplication of Christ. We need to allow the Lord to shepherd us and see how He shepherds the saints in love, and then we will love Him and be one with Him in His heavenly ministry to take care of God’s flock, which is the church issuing in the Body of Christ. May we be those on earth who are under the Lord’s shepherding and love Him, open to Him, and allow Him to shepherd others through us.
Lord Jesus, we want to be one with You as the Great Shepherd to shepherd Your sheep and feed Your lambs for the church, the Body of Christ. Thank You for setting up a pattern of shepherding others, and thank You for Your tender all-inclusive care in ascension. Lord, we love You! We open to Your shepherding. Shepherd us and shepherd others through us. Make us one with You in Your heavenly ministry to shepherd the saints according to God and feed the saints with the riches of the all-inclusive 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, msgs. 8, 11 (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.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd / Brought us right out of the fold / Into His pasture so plenteous, / Into His riches untold. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221)
# You’re the One inside who cherishes me, / Feeding me with milk from Your holy Word, / Lord, You bring me just to feast upon You. / And You feed me richly… / And now I see… / You’re the One who’s always shepherding me. / And I see… / You’re the One who’s feeding, watering me. (Song on Christ as our inward Shepherd)
# 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. / O my Lord, All thanks to Thee! / Goodness, mercy follow me; / I’d ever dwell within Thy house, / As Thy Body glorious! (Song on shepherding others)
When the Lord stayed with His disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension, in one of His appearings, He commissioned Peter to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in His absence, while He is in the heavens (John 21:15-17)….To shepherd is to take all-inclusive tender care of the flock….This is to incorporate the apostolic ministry with Christ’s heavenly ministry to take care of God’s flock, which is the church that issues in the Body of Christ. (Witness Lee, Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, pp. 130-131)