The Flock Of God

by G. Prasher | Category: General | Apr 1944

The flock of God is a term which the Holy Spirit uses to describe the disciples gathered according to the will of God. The metaphor as used by the Spirit of God is that of a flock of sheep.

Sheep are prone to wander, and thus we read: "All we like sheep

have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all "(Isaiah 53.6).

"What man of you," said the Lord Jesus, "having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" (Luke 15.4). Here are set forth the straying sheep and the seeking Shepherd. In the wondrous love of His heart He came to seek and to save that which was lost.

"He held the highest place above,

Adored by all the sons of flame,

Yet, such His self-denying love,

He laid aside His crown and came

To seek the lost,

And, at the cost

of heavenly rank and earthly fame,

He sought me, Blessed he His name!"

As in thought we follow the shepherd in his search we can readily imagine him listening attentively if perchance he may hear the wanderer's bleat. This would guide him to the needy creature I In like manner the Good Shepherd of the sheep listens for the sinner's voice. Has He at any time heard the reader's cry, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16.80). Have you ever said to Him, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep "? (Psalm 119.176). If not, why not give Him this joy now? Perhaps most have seen a sheep straddled across the shoulders of a shepherd, and have noted the front legs firmly gripped in the one hand, and the hinder ones in the other hand. The safety of the sheep depends upon the strength of the shepherd. "When he hath found it, he layeth it upon his shoulders rejoicing (Luke 5. 5). Thus Christ uplifts the wandering sinner who believes in Him, places him on His shoulders the place of omnipotent strength and holds him with the grip of eternal security. How this recalls the words of the Lord in John 10. 28-30. "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch I them out of My hand. My Father, which hath given them unto Me greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one".

The end of the journey is home and so the Lord adds. And when "he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbours, Saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost" (Luke 15.6). Thus the Good Shepherd who laid down is life for the sheep, and who has been raised again in the power of an endless life, will see to it that each one of His sheep is carried home

"He will not fail, He cannot faint,

Salvation's sure, and must be mine,"

Wondrous is the joy that fills the Shepherd's heart even now, but greater still will be His portion when His sheep for whom He bled are at length "at home with the Lord." In the parable of Luke 15. it is all what the Shepherd does in His boundless love and Omnipotent strength.

We turn now to another parable or proverb- that in John 10. Here we have a fold, aule, an unroofed enclosure, in which the sheep were guarded by one called a porter. We think the porter is John the Baptist. His mission was "to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him." The Pharisees, who had known no repentance, had sought admission to the fold, but they were called. by John, "Ye offspring of vipers "(Matthew 3.7); and in John 10. the Lord Himself classed them with thieves and robbers. Then, the Lord is baptised -by John, and as the true Shepherd enters the fold. "He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them 6ut. When He hath put forth all - His own, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him : for they know not the voice of strangers."

It is important to observe the difference between this parable and that in

Luke 15. There the sheep is on the shoulders of the Shepherd, here it is on the disciple pathway : there it is life in Christ, here it is responsibility in the Lord: there His omnipotent shoulders uphold the sheep, here much weakness may become manifest: there He carries the sheep home, here He leads them out : there the individual sheep receives eternal life, here, in addition to salvation we have the truth of the-little flock receiving the kingdom.

A dear child of God was listening to ministry on these lines, and -having been exercised about doing the will of God she concluded that as she had been a long time. on the shoulders of the Shepherd, it was now time for her to set out also on the path of the disciple. Soon thereafter she was baptised in water, and added to the church of God in the town where she lives. It may be that some who read these lines have a similar exercise. If you, dear reader, like the woman in Song of Songs chapter 1., are inquiring for the flock of God, and are saying,

"Tell me, 0 thou whom my Soul loveth, where thou feedest thy flock, where thou makest it to rest at noon: For why should I be as one that is veiled (wandereth) Beside the flocks of thy companions?"

We would give the divine reply of verse 8 of that chapter "Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock."

These are plainly indicated in the New Testament Scriptures, and particularly in the Acts of the Apostles, where we are told how the disciples acted in their obedience to the Lord. Among the earliest of these footsteps are, (1) receiving His word, (2) being baptised, (3) being added to the flock, (4) continuing stedfastly in the apostles' teaching, (5) continuing in the fellowship, (6) continuing in the breaking of the bread, and (7) continuing in the prayers. See Acts 2.41, 42.

The flock of God describes those who know the Shepherd's voice, and who together follow Him. In John chapter 1 we have examples of some of those who were among the early followers. Two disciples heard John speak, "and they followed Jesus" (verse 37). A few more are brought to Him in the same chapter. These are added to day by day by others whom the Lord called and as the disciples brought

others along to their Master "Other sheep I have, said the Lord, which are not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock (poimne) one Shepherd" (John 10.16).

On the night of the Lord's betrayal the she of the fl3ck were scattered abroad (Matthew 26. 31) but when the Lord was raised from the dead they were again assembled around the Shepherd in Galilee, and received from Him commandments to 10 observed during this dispensation.

The Lord spake of His disciples as a little flock in Luke 12.32. Then in Acts 20.28, the elders of Ephesus are exhorted to take heed of themselves, and to all the flock. This refers in particular the church of God in Ephesus. They were told that grievous wolves would enter in among them, not sparing the flock. How needful at all times to be oil guard against these depredations! The churches in he five provinces were allotted as charges to the elders. They were to tend the flock of God, and make themselves ensamples to the flock (1 Peter 5.). It appears clear, therefore, that the term the flock of God is applicable to those who to-day are gathered together in the churches of God forming the house of God.

"Jehovah God the Father, bless and keep

His little flock of feeble lambs and sheep."

In the 10th of John the Lord forewarns of the dangers confronting the flock from the activities of the thief, the hireling and the wolf. The thief, says He, comes to steal, and kill, and destroy, and such were the Pharisees. Punctillious and pious outwardly, yet with hearts estranged from the Lord, they would destroy the flock. Their traditions made void the commandment of God, and so to-day the same charge applies to many.

There is, however, another danger in the insidiuous hireling the person who cares only for his salary. He is not a shepherd, "whose own the sheep are not." He "beholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf snatcheth them, and scattereth them: he fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep" (John 10.12, 13).

Beside other kinds of servants, the Scriptures present two kinds m particular, those sold to, or born in, slavery, who may serve either from fear or because of love (Exodus 21.5, 6), and the hirelings who serve for wages.

The Master Himself has set the example in serving. out of love. It was He of whom it was true, "I love My Master, My wife and My I children; I will not go it free." Only such service on the part of the shepherds can have resultant good now, and an assured reward at the coming judgement-seat.

From the shoulders of the Shepherd the rescued sheep can never be brought down by thief, hireling or wolf, but it is possible for the enemy to prevail against it as in the flock of God. This consideration should suffice to prove to students of the Word of God that the term, flock, sets forth an earthly relation. The believer's position on the shoulders, like his place on the Rock, is innumerable, but the disciple's position in the flock, evidenced by his being in a church of -God, may be successfully attacked. (Compare Acts 20. 29; Galatians 1.13).

May we all be helped unto a real, intimate knowledge of the Shepherd, for herein alone lies our safety. Like David we will then be able to say:

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me.

Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me" (Psalm 23.4).

G. Prasher | Apr 1944
General