We have to build up a habit of contacting people. In Song of Songs 1:8 the Lord said to His follower, “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.” This verse indicates that we have to run after the Lord. While we are running, we have to take care of some younger ones, who are our kids. We are to bring them to the tents where the shepherds are and where the people of God meet with the Chief Shepherd.
The Gospel of John, which is a Gospel on life, also speaks of the need of shepherding. By the end of chapter twenty, the Gospel of John is actually concluded, yet there is still one more chapter as an appendix, chapter twenty-one. The main thing in this appendix is the Lord Jesus spending time to shepherd Peter. Peter suffered a big defeat. Only a short time before John 21, he was boasting by telling the Lord, “Lord, everyone may reject You, but I will not. I will follow You to the end.” Then the Lord told him, “Truly I say to you that in this night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times” (Matt. 26:34). Peter responded, “Even if I must die with You, I will by no means deny You” (v. 35). No doubt, by that time Peter did not believe that he could ever deny the Lord. After his terrible failure that night, he wept bitterly (v. 75).
When the Lord Jesus resurrected, how could Peter face Him once again? The days must have been difficult for Peter after he denied the Lord. He was taking the lead among the disciples throughout the three and a half years of the Lord’s earthly ministry. Then he had a great failure. He even denied the Lord to a young servant girl (vv. 69-70). The Lord surely knew that Peter was down. After his failure, he took the lead to go back to his old profession of fishing in order to make a living (John 21:3).
When the Lord restored Peter, He reminded him of His desire to have a flock. In 1 Peter 5:4 Peter called the Lord Jesus “the Chief Shepherd.” Hebrews 13:20 says that Christ is the great Shepherd, and the Lord Himself told us in John 10:11 that He is the good Shepherd. Thus, He is the Chief Shepherd, the great Shepherd, and the good Shepherd. First Peter 2:25 tells us that this Chief Shepherd is the Shepherd of our souls. Our soul is our inner being, our real person. Our Lord shepherds us mainly by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person. But do you think that the Lord Jesus by Himself can shepherd so many flocks of sheep? As the Chief Shepherd, He must have a flock of shepherds under Him. We are not just flocks of sheep but flocks of shepherds.
When the Lord asked Peter if he loved Him, he responded by saying, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You” (John 21:15-16). After the Lord asked him this the third time, Peter could only say, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You” (v. 17). After each of Peter’s three responses, the Lord told him, “Feed My lambs....Shepherd My sheep....Feed My sheep” (vv. 15-17). No doubt, this gave Peter a strong impression that he could never forget. This was the reason that in his first Epistle he touched the matter of shepherding. He told us that Christ was the Chief Shepherd and that he was one of the many shepherds under the Chief Shepherd. He also told us that the Lord is the Shepherd of our soul, our real person. That was his experience when the Lord restored him in John 21.
Some may think that the Lord Jesus went to the seashore in John 21 to help the disciples get some fish for eating. But Peter realized that this was not the Lord’s intention. The Lord’s intention was to touch Peter, to shepherd his soul. At that time his soul was really suffering. His soul could not have been happy after denying the Lord. The disciples caught 153 fish (v. 11), but Peter did not care for that because of his failure. Because the Lord knew this, He shepherded Peter in his soul. Later, Peter said that he was one of the shepherds, and he exhorted his fellow elders to shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet. 5:1-3).
Now I would like us to consider what the church needs today. The biggest lack, the biggest shortage, is in the eldership, because the elders should be the shepherds among God’s people. Because there are no elders, most of the sheep in the Lord’s flock are wanderers. Millions of Christians are wandering in the wilderness. Who is taking care of them? They do not have any shepherding. Even if there are some shepherds, they concentrate mostly on outward affairs; they do not shepherd people’s souls.
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