Among the different titles descriptive of the Lord when on earth, there is one most attractive to the heart, suggestive as it is of care, labor, and watchfulness, undertaken on behalf of dependent creatures. The Prophet He was, and the Christ, the First-born of all creation too, as well as the Son of Man, reminding us by these titles of relations in which, as man, He stood to God, to Israel, to creation in general, and to this world in particular. Besides these, however, He spoke of Himself as a Shepherd, and that in a twofold way.
Born into this world, the heir to David’s throne, which had been vacant for centuries, awaiting the arrival of its rightful and expected occupant, He was by birth the Shepherd of Israel (Matt. 2:6, Greek); for by such a term, indicative of their relation to their subjects, are kings spoken of in the Old Testament Scriptures (1 Kings 22:17; Isa. 44:28; Ezek. 34, 37; Zech. 11:17). As such, all Israel were the sheep, whose interests and whose welfare the Son of David would be expected to promote. So, when addressed by the blind Jews as Son of David, and His gracious intervention on their behalf solicited, the Lord at once gave ear to their request (Matt. 9:27; 20:30-34); whereas, to the petition of the Syrophoenician woman, based on the same ground, and pressed with all the urgency of a mother’s heart, He resolutely turned a deaf ear. The blind men, because of the seed of Israel, could get immediate relief when they turned to the Son of David; the Gentile could get nothing, as long as she preferred her request on grounds which were valid only for the descendants of Jacob. For His words, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” showed that He recognized, as established by God, a marked dispensational distance between Israel and the Gentiles.
Had this been the only character of Shepherd in which He appeared, we, who are not children of Abraham after the flesh, might have admired His care and labor as a Shepherd for Israel, but would have known, that the proverbial tenderness and vigilance of pastoral care, as exhibited by Him, we could never hope to experience at His hands. But in John 10 the Lord introduces Himself as Shepherd in a different manner—not of Israel, as such, but of God’s saints, and tells us that His work as the Shepherd was to feed, to shelter, to tend those whom He there calls “His sheep” (v. 27).
Here, then, the Lord presents Himself to us on different ground from that on which the blind men claimed His help. For, as the Shepherd of God’s saints, natural descent from Abraham, however faultless the genealogy might be, could give its possessor no title to share in His pastoral supervision. For none but those who are God’s saints, whether from amongst Jews or Gentiles, belong to that one flock, the mention of which, as about to be formed by the Lord, we first meet with in that chapter of the Gospel by John, though the thought of God’s saints, as such, being Jehovah’s sheep, we are all familiar with from the language of the Twenty-third Psalm. Whilst, however, an analogy may be traced between the thoughts of that Psalm and those of the Gospel, there are also great differences. In both, God’s saints are the sheep; but in the Psalm God’s saints are so viewed, when Israel are owned as the earthly people; in the Gospel, God’s saints are so regarded during the time of that people’s rejection. In the Psalm, too, Jehovah is the Shepherd, who provides for, refreshes, and preserves the saints in life upon earth. In the Gospel it is the Lord Jesus, who was to die, who is the Shepherd, and who proves His claim to that office and title by (1) entrance through the door into the fold, (2) by giving His life for the sheep, (3) by His intimate acquaintance with them, and (4) by giving to them eternal life.
And to Him, as the true Shepherd, the godly remnant of the Jews were drawn, and even publicans and sinners were attracted. And, as knowing His voice, as He said His sheep would, the beggar, once blind, confessed Him at the risk of excommunication; and many resorted to Him and believed on Him, when He went shortly afterward beyond Jordan, to the place where John at the first baptized, and there abode, affording souls, by His temporary retirement from Judea, the opportunity of practically illustrating His words, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.” Not long after this He died, the Shepherd of Israel was smitten, and the sheep of the flock (the nation) were thereby scattered abroad, in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prediction, which the Lord applied to Himself (Zech. 13:7, Matt. 26:31).
By His death, also, His claim to be the Good Shepherd was permanently established (John 10:11, 14, 15). All who had preceded Him, who had attempted to lead the sheep out of the fold, were thieves and robbers, desiring only, as He tells us, the furtherance of their own ends. But He, the Good Shepherd, thought of the sheep, and surrendered all for them, acting in a manner the exact opposite of the thief, and undergoing that from which the hireling, to spare himself, would run away. Did the Lord, then, by death cease to be a Shepherd? With men this would be the case. Not so, however, with Him. For though Messiah, as Daniel predicted, was cut off, and the national hopes for a time dashed to the ground, we learn that the Lord will yet reign over all Israel as God’s servant David, and as their Prince and Shepherd (Ezek. 34:23-24, 37:24). But, besides the fulfillment of this hope, which concerns the seed of Jacob, God’s saints at the present time are taught from Heb. 13:20, that He brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ. He, then, who died as Shepherd, was raised as Shepherd, the Old and the New Testament together bearing witness that death could not despoil Him of that office, whether looked at as the Messiah of Israel, or as the great Pastor of God’s people. Israel looks to see the Messiah, their Shepherd. In this they will not be disappointed, and the godly Jewish remnant will welcome Him with gladness, when they shall have reaped the bitter fruits of their forefathers’ sin in rejecting the Shepherd, the stone of Israel (Gen. 49:24), after being subject to the ravages and will of the idol shepherd, the Antichrist, who will reign over them by the will and power of the Beast (Zech 11:16, 17). But not Israel is it only who expect to see the Shepherd. His saints have been taught that they shall see Him in that character, which He sustained on earth in His life and death, and in which he was brought again from the dead. For Peter, exhorting the elders, told them, that, when the Chief Shepherd should appear, they should receive an amaranthine crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4).
But this is still future. Another question arises-Does the Lord, while absent in person from the earth, bear, not the name only, but sustain also the character of the Shepherd of the sheep? By His death His Shepherd character as Messiah fell into, and remains in abeyance. Not so, however, that of which we have mention in John 10; for Peter, writing to the strangers of the dispersion, tells them, that they were as sheep going astray, but, as believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, had returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls (1 Peter, 2:25). In this character, then, the Lord still acts, as Peter teaches, and Paul also, addressing the Hebrews, clearly intimates. For it is in those portions of the New Testament, which are especially addressed to the faithful from amongst God’s ancient people, that we meet with the term Shepherd, as applied to the Lord Jesus, to remind them, it would seem, that though, as Messiah, He does not now do the Shepherd’s part, they can count on the Shepherd’s heart as much as ever, and look to Him to care and provide for those, whom He now acknowledges as His sheep, and for whose blessing He was concerned, when He publicly reinstated Peter in a place of confidence and service after His resurrection (John 21:15-17).
And what He will do we learn from Himself: — “I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9). Such is the Lord’s own description of Himself, as the one absolutely needed by all. Through Him, and Him alone, is there entrance into blessing, but, through Him, into all blessing which the sheep are capable of enjoying. He came that we might have life, and might have it abundantly (περισσὸν) —life through His death, life in Him, life in its fullness, so that its possessor should have no need to turn elsewhere to have, what the Lord can give, supplemented by something He cannot supply. Freedom, too, without the burdensome restraint under which Israel was placed, and pasture suitable and sufficient, would be found, and that for anyone who would enter in by Him. All, then, that the sheep want would He supply, for that is the work of the Shepherd, which He so graciously took up, and which, though He has died, He still carries on, and thereby manifests the significance of His three titles, the Good, the Great, and the Chief Shepherd. By His death for the sheep He manifested Himself to be indeed the Good Shepherd. Raised up as the Great Shepherd of the sheep, we learn that his relations with them now continue unbroken; and, as He is the Chief Shepherd, we understand, that there are those under Him, who tend the flock in person during His absence from earth.
When on earth He was Shepherd, and there were none beside Him. But from the glory He has provided those who shall minister to, and care for His sheep—a token of His affection and abiding interest in their welfare, till they see Him, and are with Him where He is. For besides giving apostles, prophets, and evangelists, He gave also some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting (along with the other gifts) of the saints, unto a work of ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ. In what close relation to Him are we here reminded His saints stand! But care for the sheep in shepherding them is not confined to pastors, those gifts bestowed on men by the ascended Christ, for Peter tells the elders in Asia Minor of pastoral work to be carried on, and Paul, when exhorting the elders of Ephesus at Miletus, speaks in the same strain:— “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you,” wrote Peter (1 Peter 5:2). “Shepherd the Church of God,” said Paul (Acts 20:28). The former, by his language, reminds them that God owns now but one flock, as the Lord had taught in John. The latter, in his address, affirms that the flock and the assembly, or church, are the same company of souls. And were not these apostles, in the exhortations they gave—entering, as they did, so fully into the circumstances and necessities of the saints—living examples themselves of the pastoral care of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by their ministry and active service, and not by theirs alone, would have His sheep tended and fed? By and by the Chief Shepherd Himself will appear, then the service of shepherding the sheep, committed to some of His people, will end; but, till all are safely housed, the Lord Jesus will continue to manifest His watchfulness over and His interest in them.
And not only while absent in person has He provided gifts by which souls may be fed, and their spiritual interests fostered and furthered, but He concerns Himself directly with His own, as the history of the Acts abundantly confirms. “I know my sheep,” He says, “and am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father.” A knowledge on His part, at once intimate and perfect; a knowledge on theirs, both intimate and fitted to engender confidence. Philip, the evangelist, learned how the Lord knows His sheep, when, in the midst of His usefulness in cities and the haunts of men, he was ordered to go toward the south, to the way that goeth down from Jerusalem to
Gaza, which is desert, to meet one man, the Ethiopian eunuch—a sheep unknown as such to any on earth, but whom the Lord would have instructed in the truth ere he returned to his own land. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning; the Scriptures which spoke of the Lord Jesus being still as a sealed book to him, when, lo! in the desert, a stranger accosted him, and preached to him the glad tidings of Jesus. It was what he wanted, though doubtless unknown to himself. The Shepherd’s eye had been on this sheep, and had brought the evangelist a long distance on purpose to meet with him and teach him. That done, and the eunuch baptized, they parted—the eunuch to continue his journey homewards, Philip to be found at the sea-coast. Cornelius, too, had experience of the Shepherd’s intimate knowledge of His sheep, and Peter likewise—the former, when commissioned to send for the apostle, from whom he should hear words by which he should be saved; the latter, since his name, place of sojourn, position of the house, with the owner’s name and occupation, were all told to Cornelius by the angel. The Gentile centurion proved how fully the Lord knew his soul’s condition, his desires, and his ways. Peter had an illustration of his Master’s acquaintance with his movements. So Paul, when needing someone to minister to him after those three days of fasting and blindness, was visited by Ananias, sent by Christ to the former disciple of Gamaliel. Ananias knew not till the Lord told him of the change that had taken place in Saul, and Saul probably knew nothing of Ananias till after he had entered Damascus. But the Lord directed the latter to the street and the house in which he would find this vessel of God’s choice, and at the same time prepared the neophyte, by a vision, for the visit of Ananias, one of the so called sect of the Nazarenes. In each of these instances the servants of Christ had no previous personal acquaintance with those to whom they were to minister, and knew not that their services were needed by these souls, till commissioned directly to speak to them. Again, when Paul was at Corinth, and open opposition was aroused, who encouraged him to stay there to labor but the Great Shepherd Himself, who told him that He had much people in that city? (Acts 18:10). He knew who they were, and where they would be found—whether at the river-side, like Lydia, or in the jail at Philippi, or among the Areopagites, as Dionysius, or among the crowds of the metropolis of the Roman province of Achaia. And when the word by His servants reached these Gentiles, they became, as gathered in, the illustration of the Lord’s gracious declaration, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd” (John 10:16).
But not only have we examples of the sheep being, sought out and fed, but we learn also how the Shepherd was fully acquainted with their circumstances, and met them in their need. Of this Peter and Paul are proofs—the one in his prison at Jerusalem, the other when standing before the Roman Emperor, Nero, at Rome (Acts 12, 2 Tim. 4:17). The former was brought out from his prison at night, the latter was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And when death, for Christ’s sake, was imminent to Stephen, the protomartyr, looking up to the heavens, laid open that day for him alone, saw what was just suited to sustain him in the hour of suffering—the Son of Man, for whose sake he was about to die, standing at the right hand of God. How timely was this sight! what strength must it have given him, Heaven’s seal appended to the dying martyr’s ministry! And must not those words of the Lord, addressed to John in his banishment at Patmos, have come as balm to his soul, “I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death “ (Rev. 1:18). A communication this was fitted to sustain him and others in their testimony for Christ, by the assurance that, if death for Christ’s sake should be in their way, He for whom they would die had the keys of Hades, where the soul would be, and of death, into which the body would enter. Placed beyond the reach of man’s help and power by death, they never could be where the Lord would not have absolute control over, and full possession of them.
But not only to His people in their circumstances did the Lord from the glory minister. He could, He did stand by His failing servant, Paul, in his prison-cell at Jerusalem. Cut off, as he was at that time, from the expression of human sympathy, without any companion, as at Philippi, with whom he could have communion, the Shepherd knew where the sheep was, and when all the world were asleep, He stood by him, and encouraged him, both by His presence in the cell, and also by the assurance that, though he had not attended to the direct utterance of the Spirit (Acts 21:4.), he should still be allowed the privilege of bearing witness for his Master in Rome. How gracious of the Lord was this, thus at midnight to visit His servant, testifying by it, that the relation formed between the Shepherd and the sheep could never be broken, even when failure had come in!
He knows His sheep, and they know Him. Of this, too, we have examples in the conversation between Ananias and the Lord in the vision at Damascus, and in Paul’s answer to Christ, when in the trance at Jerusalem (Acts 9:10-16; 22:17-21). What freedom of intercourse was there between them and Him!
But are these examples of the personal care of the Shepherd indications of what went on only in early days! Surely not. Surely we are to view them as samples of the thoughtfulness, the watchfulness, the tenderness of the Great Shepherd of the sheep. Cannot the experience of saints in subsequent ages supplement what the history of the Acts has furnished? Without that history some, when specially cared for, or directed by the Shepherd, might have feared that they were the victims of delusion. With it they learn the reality of His presence and pastoral supervision. How comforting is the assurance that He knows His sheep! How comforting, too, is the declaration of their everlasting security, held firmly in the grasp of His hand! No seed of decay from within them can induce destruction, no power from without can pluck them from His hand, for His Father who gave them to Him is greater than all, and none can pluck them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:28, 29).
Truly no simile but that of a shepherd could teach what the Lord Jesus does for His own. Yet this, as a simile, falls short of the reality. For, what no shepherd could do, that He has done, and what none could say of themselves, He can, and will make good of Himself. He died that the sheep might live. He lives that they might be saved. He holds them fast in His hand, and none can pluck them out of it.