We need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus in His ministry for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy. The Lord Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost, and He did so by shepherding us.
The New Testament shows us the saving love and tender care of the Triune God for the fallen man. God came in Jesus Christ not to condemn man or criticise or put him to death, but to save him. And the way He did this was through His shepherding.
Christ came to save people by shepherding people.
We need to follow the steps of the processed Triune God in seeking and gaining fallen people. If we read Luke 15 we see how the Triune God loves man, seeks man, shepherds man, finds man, searches for man, cares for man, and waits for man to come back to God.
The Lord Jesus is typified by the Shepherd who had one hundred sheep and lost one, so he left the ninety-nine securely in a place and went to search for the lost sheep. The Spirit is typified by the woman who had two coins but lost one, so she lit a lamp, swept the house, and searched for it until she found it. The Father is typified by the loving father who waited for the prodigal son to return home.
The Triune God is searching, sweeping, and lovingly waiting for man to come home to God.
However, in our case, many times we lack the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Saviour’s shepherding and seeking spirit, and we are therefore barren, not bearing fruit as we should.
We need to take Christ as our life and person so that we may live Christ, and we need to have the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Lord’s seeking and shepherding spirit to shepherd people according to God.
We need to look at the pattern of the Lord Jesus and learn from Him, for He came as the good Shepherd laying down His life for His sheep, and He is right now the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, in His heavenly ministry, taking care of His flock and bringing many into His flock, so that there would be one flock and one shepherd.
The Lord’s heart is for all men, not just for the good ones and the ones who seem nice and promising. He did gain such people as Nathanael, Mary, Martha, etc, but most of those whom He gained were leprous, sick, dying people, and those who were tax collectors, sinners, and not so promising ones.
Christ came not as a Judge but as a Physician to heal, recover, enliven, and save the lepers (John 8:2-4), paralytics (vv. 5-13; 9:2-8), the fever-ridden (8:14-15), the demon-possessed (vv. 16, 28-32), those ill with all kinds of diseases (v. 16), despised tax collectors, and sinners (9:9-11) that they might be reconstituted to become people of His heavenly kingdom (vv. 12-13).
He is our pattern. We should learn from Him to shepherd people, not choosing who we want to shepherd by going one with Him to care for the good and the bad, so that we may minister Christ to others for them to be saved, receive the divine life, be built up as God’s house, and be part of God’s flock.
Today we want to see more examples in the Lord’s earthly and heavenly ministry of how He shepherds people, so that we may learn from Him. Our learning is not outward by imitation but inward by taking Christ as our life and person to live Him out for the church life.
We need to Shepherd People according to the Pattern of the Lord Jesus for the Church
The best pattern in shepherding is the Lord Jesus, who both in His heavenly ministry and in His earthly ministry shepherded people.
His coming to become a man and live among us was a shepherding, and everything He did was a cherishing and a nourishing to us so that we may return to God and be one flock under one shepherd.
We all were like sheep cast astray, but when we heard the gospel and believed, we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Now He is shepherding us in His heavenly ministry and He commissions us also to shepherd people even as we see in the pattern of the Lord’s shepherding.
Here are some cases where we see the Lord’s shepherding by cherishing and nourishing people.
The Lord had to pass through Samaria, purposely detouring to Sychar to gain one immoral woman (see John 4:3-14). He waited for this woman at the well, and He cherished her by asking her to give Him something to drink, so that He might nourish her with the living water, the flowing Triune God.
He went out of His way and took a detour not to gain a university professor or a top gentleman, but an immoral woman. He met her, cherished her, and then nourished her with the water of life. He is our pattern.
We need to be one with the Lord to shepherd people by meeting them where they are to cherish them and nourish them.
Christ did not condemn the adulterous woman who was accused by the self-righteous people, but He cherished her and nourished her to save her (see John 8:11, 32, 36). He could have condemned her according to the law, but He came not to condemn or criticise but to save those who are sinners and lost.
The Lord cherished the adulterous woman by forgiving her sins judicially (“your sins are forgiven”, “neither do I condemn you”) and setting her free from her sins organically (“go and sin no more”).
According to the Lord’s pattern, we are not here to condemn or “point out the obvious dark condition” of people but to shepherd people by cherishing them and nourishing them.
The Lord went to Jericho to visit and gain one person, a chief tax collector, and His preaching was a shepherding (Luke 19:1-10). The Lord cherished Zaccheus by going to his house for a meal, and He nourished him by preaching in his house.
He came not to despise or condemn the sinful ones but to shepherd them and save them. Our being with people in their home in the humanity of Jesus cherishes them, and our speaking to them to minister Christ to them in the divinity of Christ nourishes them.
We need to learn from the Lord Jesus to preach the gospel to gain one person, whom we visit to cherish him and to whom we minister Christ to nourish him.
Christ cherished the parents by laying His hands on their children (Matt. 19:13-15). His disciples tried to prevent the children from coming to the Lord, but the Lord stopped their preventing and welcomed the children to Him.
He loved the children, cherished them, blessed them, and laid His hands on them, and this was a cherishing to the parents.
Many times we can test whether we are a good shepherd or not simply by being with the children.
If we condemn them, correct them, and so they run away from us, then we act like a judge rather than a shepherd.
We need to follow the Lord’s pattern by stopping any preventing of people or children from coming to the Lord and by cherishing and nourishing people to shepherd them according to God.
Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You to shepherd people. Give us Your heart for man so that we may even go out of our way to gain one sinner, cherishing him and nourishing him for him to be part of God’s flock, the church. Save us from condemning others, criticising them, or pointing the finger at them for what they are and what they have done. Give us Your heart of love for man and Your loving care for all men. Lord, may we learn to cherish others in Your humanity and to nourish them in Your divinity!
The Lord shepherded Peter on the seashore after Peter took the lead to go fishing (see John 21). He didn’t point out the obvious by exposing Peter’s backsliding and taking the brothers with him, but He prepared breakfast for them to cherish them, and He stirred Peter’s love for Him to nourish him.
When we see any backsliding ones or those who do not meet regularly, we need to learn to cherish them by making them happy in the Lord’s humanity and then to nourish them and stir their love for the Lord. For this, we need to be full of Christ, even to live Christ, so that the good shepherd in our spirit would live in us and care for others in us.
The first one saved by Christ through His crucifixion was a robber sentenced to death (Luke 23:42-43).
Shepherding is not a work we do; shepherding is a living. The Lord Jesus lived a life of shepherding, and He is our pattern.
Whether He was with a great crowd and having compassion on them, with His disciples and ministering to them, on the mountain or by the sea, and on the cross, the Lord Jesus shepherded people.
Even on the cross, the Lord Jesus shepherded the robber crucified with Him by telling him, Today you will be with Me in paradise. What a pattern!
In His heavenly ministry Christ is the High Priest, with a golden girdle about His breasts, and He is cherishing and nourishing the churches (see Rev. 1:12-13).
He is girdled with the divinely strengthened love, and He walks among the local churches as the lampstands to shepherd the saints by adding the oil, trimming the charred wicks, and causing them to shine.
Through His speaking to the churches, the Lord today in His heavenly ministry cherishes them and nourishes them so that they may shine bright for His testimony on the earth.
In His heavenly ministry Christ is the great Shepherd to consummate the New Jerusalem according to God’s eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20-21).
Now the God of peace, He who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant, is perfecting us in every good work for the doing of His will, until the consummation of the New Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord, we are under the Lord’s shepherding until the New Jerusalem – His shepherding consummates in the New Jerusalem!
Thank You Lord Jesus for loving us, caring for us, not condemning us, not criticizing us, and not rejecting us because of what we are and what we have done. Thank You for receiving us as we are, and thank You for all Your shepherding. Duplicate Your heart of love and care in us, Lord, so that we may shepherd people just as You did, by loving them, caring for them, and cherishing and nourishing them. Lord, keep us under Your shepherding until the New Jerusalem, and make us one with You to shepherd people until they are part of the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Vital Groups, chs. 9-10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 6, The Apostolic Ministry in Cooperation with Christ’s Heavenly Ministry .
- Hymns on this topic:
# In Matthew’s house and at his table, / Jesus was there to eat with all the sinners. / Strong ones don’t need a physician, / He came for those who are ill. / Then Jesus went to visit, / To teach and preach and heal. / To shepherd all the lost ones, / Compassion He did feel. (Song on, In Matthew’s house)
# 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, Shepherd, receive man)
# The great high priestly robe He wears, / For every church He fully cares: / He trims the lamp, the oil supplies; / He makes them burn, flames in His eyes. / A golden girdle on His breast— / His work is done, and from His rest / He unto all the churches pours / Himself in love, the treasure store. (Hymns #1184)
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