Scripture Reading: John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2, 4; Eph. 4:16
Ⅰ
In the Lord’s recovery today, there is the urgent need for shepherding.
Ⅱ
To shepherd is to take all-inclusive, tender care of the flock—John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28:
A
Shepherding refers to caring for all the needs of the sheep.
B
All the sheep need to be well provided for and well tended to.
Ⅲ
Christ is the good Shepherd, the great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, and the Shepherd of our souls—John 10:9-17; Heb. 13:20-21; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25:
A
As the good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly—John 10:10-11:
１
He laid down His soul-life, His human life, to accomplish redemption for His sheep that they may share His zoe life, His divine life—vv. 11, 15, 17.
２
He leads His sheep out of the fold into Himself as the pasture, the feeding place, where they may eat freely of Him and be nourished by Him—v. 9.
３
The Lord has formed the Jewish and Gentile believers into one flock (the church, the Body of Christ) under His shepherding—v. 16.
B
God brought up from the dead “our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant”—Heb. 13:20:
１
The eternal covenant is to consummate the New Jerusalem by shepherding.
２
The eternal covenant is the covenant of the new testament to gain a flock, which is the church issuing in the Body of Christ and consummating in the New Jerusalem.
C
As the Chief Shepherd, Christ shepherds His flock through the elders of the churches—1 Pet. 5:4:
１
Without the elders’ shepherding, the church cannot be built up.
２
The elders’ shepherding should be Christ’s shepherding through them.
D
As the Shepherd of our souls, the pneumatic Christ oversees our inward condition, caring for the situation of our inner being—2:25:
１
He shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our soul and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our inner being.
２
Because our soul is very complicated, we need Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, to shepherd us in our soul, to take care of our mind, emotion, and will and of our problems, needs, and wounds.
Ⅳ
In order to shepherd according to God, we need to become one with God, be constituted with God, live God, express God, represent God, and minister God:
A
Shepherding according to God requires us to be one with God and to be constituted with Him—John 14:20; 1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 3:17a; Col. 3:10-11.
B
Only those who live God can shepherd according to God—Phil. 1:21a.
C
God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as our life so that we may express Him—Gen. 1:26; Eph. 1:11; 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9.
D
As those who shepherd according to God, we need to represent God and function as the acting God—2 Cor. 1:3-4, 12, 15-16; 2:10; 10:11; 11:2.
E
To shepherd according to God is to minister God to others:
１
How much we can minister God to others depends on our being broken by God for the outflow of life—4:10-12, 16; Heb. 4:12.
２
If we would minister God to one another, we need to speak words of grace, truth, spirit, and life, ministering the processed God who has been wrought into our being—Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:25, 29; John 6:63.
Ⅴ
Peter charged the elders to shepherd the flock of God according to God— 1 Pet. 5:2:
A
According to God means that we must live God.
B
When we are one with God, we become God and we are God in our shepherding of others.
C
To shepherd according to God is to shepherd according to God’s nature, desire, way, and glory, not according to our preference, interest, purpose, and disposition.
D
To shepherd according to God is to shepherd according to what God is in His attributes.
E
In order to shepherd according to God, we need to become God in life, nature, expression, and function:
１
We need to be filled to the brim with the divine life, enjoying the Triune God as the fountain, the spring, and the river to become a totality of the divine life, even to become the divine life itself—John 4:14; Col. 3:4.
２
We need to become God in His attributes of love, light, righteousness, and holiness.
３
We need to be the reproduction of Christ, the expression of God, so that in our shepherding we express God, not the self with its disposition and peculiarities.
４
We need to become God in His function of shepherding the flock of God according to what He is and according to His goal in His economy.
Ⅵ
The shepherding that builds up the Body of Christ is a mutual shepherding—1 Cor. 12:23-26:
A
All of us need to be under the organic shepherding of Christ and be one with Him to shepherd others—John 21:15-17.
B
All believers, regardless of their growth in life, need shepherding.
C
We all have defects and shortcomings and need others to shepherd us.
D
We are both sheep and shepherds, shepherding and being shepherded in mutuality.
E
Through this mutual shepherding, the Body builds itself up in love—Eph. 4:16.