In our last several posts, we explored the attributes of sheep. When the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples in John 21, He told Peter to feed His lambs, tend His sheep, and feed His sheep. He wanted the disciples to see His followers, the church, as lambs and sheep. He Himself would choose pastors or shepherds to oversee God’s flock, with Him as the Chief Shepherd. In today’s post, we will look at the last attribute of sheep and what the Lord Jesus expects of His sheep and shepherds. To recap, sheep have the following characteristics:

1. Sheep band together in large groups or sheepfolds for protection but run from what frightens them
2. Sheep are very gentle animals and have a strong instinct to follow
3. Sheep have excellent eyesight with a wide field of vision but have poor depth perception
4. Sheep have great memory and recognition skills
5. Sheep become highly disturbed, frightened, and agitated if separated from the rest of the flock and show signs of depression when they experience stress or isolation

We explored the first four attributes in the following posts:

• Scattered and Devoured by the Shepherd!?
• Follow by Instinct, But Also Think!
• Eat for Expanded Vision
• Learn, Grow, and Advance

Today, we will look at the fifth and final attribute: Sheep become highly disturbed, frightened, and agitated if separated from the rest of the flock and show signs of depression when they experience stress or isolation.

Sheep need other sheep to be and feel safe. Their only way of protecting themselves is to gather together. For this reason, healthy sheep will stay together in a group. A sheep should only be separated from the flock by the shepherd if that sheep is ill to prevent spreading a disease. A sheep that isolates itself from the flock is not well and should be looked at closely for illness. Separating or isolating a sheep for any other reason is detrimental to its well-being. In a sheepfold with other healthy sheep is where sheep are safe and protected. As sheep under the Good Shepherd, we should never be isolated or separated from Him or the body of Christ. We are to be one (together) with the Lord Jesus first and then united with other believers.

Above all else, the Lord Jesus expects us to be one with Him. In Matthew 11:28-30, He said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

A yoke is a wooden bar or frame put on the neck of animals used for pulling heavy loads so that they pull together. When animals are yoked together, one of them must be dominant and the other follows. So when we take the Lord Jesus’ yoke upon us, we choose to let Him lead us as Lord of our lives. Since He is leading, we rest in His love, compassion, grace, mercy, and righteousness as our faithful Creator and Savior. As we learn from Him and become His disciple, we can appropriate everything He came to give us and take hold of His easy yoke and His light burden! This is a glorious relationship we can only have by coming to Him!

As His church, we are all one body in Christ. In Ephesians 4:4-6, the apostle Paul wrote, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” He also said in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, “For just as the body is a unity and yet has many parts, and all the parts, though many, form [only] one body, so it is with Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). For by [means of the personal agency of] one [Holy] Spirit we were all, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, baptized [and by baptism united together] into one body, and all made to drink of one [Holy] Spirit. For the body does not consist of one limb or organ but of many” (AMPC).

A shepherd’s responsibilities are to guide, guard, protect, and oversee the sheep entrusted to them, leading them to a lush pasture where they can eat and drink safely and freely. The shepherd is accountable for keeping the sheep together under the Good Shepherd’s voice and leading them by the Holy Spirit only. The yoke the believer has freely taken upon themselves should remain easy and light as they learn and grow.

Replacing the Master’s Yoke

Pastoral leadership in unhealthy sheepfolds attempt to separate the sheep from the Chief Shepherd and have no regard for the relationship between the Lord Jesus and His sheep. The word that describes this leadership is egocentric because they do not have the best interest of the sheep at heart. The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines egocentric as “thinking only of oneself, without regard for the feelings or desires of others; self-centered.” Jude actually spoke of them –

“These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” (Jude 1:-16-19)

In the church today, there are thieves posing as shepherds that do their best to remove the Lord Jesus’ yoke off of sincere believers and replace it with a yoke they’ve created. They want the sheep to be yoked with them. Rather than submitting to God themselves, they ignore His will, forget their calling, forfeit their anointing, and blatantly cross boundaries. They refuse to teach righteousness according to the word of God. Instead of leading the sheep to God, they desire the place of God in the lives of the sheep. Their desire may be for power, attention, praise, money, or even worship.

As we discussed in The Root Cause of Unhealthy Sheepfolds, Nicholas, the originator of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, started out as a chosen, equipped leader in the church, but brought a strange voice into the sheepfold to destroy the people and to be victorious over them. The Nicolaitans taught false doctrine and injected their own teaching into the word of truth. The Nicolaitans speaking in the name of Jesus misled the church in Pergamum and led them right into the very thing the Lord Jesus hates, practices and beliefs rooted in idolatry and immorality.

When an appointed shepherd begins to remove the Lord Jesus’ yoke to put their own yoke on the believer, the intent is to cause deliberate damage. This is injurious because that shepherd’s self-created, self-serving yoke will be unbearably heavy and burdensome, causing the believer to be burned out and unfocused. The promise of rest and ease in their God-centered relationship with the Good Shepherd is sabotaged. Oppression replaces the freedom and lightness found in Him. The believer wanders from the voice of the Good Shepherd, and their faith is shipwrecked. The believer is moved out of position for the abundant life promised and will be stolen, killed, or destroyed by the thief, or even worse, devoured by the shepherd.

Dividing and Separating Members of the Body

We are to be yoked with Christ and be one body of believers. Therefore, any separation is a sign of an unhealthy sheepfold. In the church today, there is pastoral leadership speaking in the name of Jesus that intentionally causes division. Since a sheep’s best interest is being together with other sheep, when pastoral leadership begins to separate and isolate the sheep under their care, it’s no longer to shepherd the sheep, but to misuse them. A strange voice speaking in the name of Jesus always brings division. The sheep must know the Shepherd’s voice because a strange voice will mislead them, making them easy prey for the enemy. The Bible warns us of these divisive tactics in Romans 16:17-18 –

“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.”

Egocentric shepherds dominate, manipulate, and devour sheep for their own personal gain and to satisfy their own foul appetites. Any pastoral leadership that the displays the qualities or behaviors below knowingly instills division and isolation within the body. If any of these tactics are encountered, that pastoral leadership should be noted and avoided:

1. The pastoral leadership determines who is approved to attend their church and suspends or expels members from the body that don’t comply with their yoke and says that God led them to do it. This is control.
   
2. Based on their perceived spiritual superiority, the pastoral leadership teaches that they alone can speak for God in the lives of the members in their church and all other teaching is flawed or unbiblical. Also, because of this perception, they are entitled to special treatment and demand special honor from their members. This is idolatry.
   
3. The pastoral leadership expects allegiance to them above all others and teaches Scripture out of context to convince the sheep to isolate and separate themselves from family, friends, or other support systems. This is brainwashing.
   
4. The pastoral leadership “teaches” certain members apart from the rest of the church because they have determined that additional “training” is needed. This is manipulation.

Control, idolatry, brainwashing, and manipulation within a sheepfold are all tactics to steal, kill, and destroy. Notice the “their,” “they,” and “them” in these tactics. All are self-centered, and all result in isolation, separation, and division. An isolated sheep is in a dangerous position because that sheep is out of God’s will. We must be vigilant of these abusive tactics and not disregard, ignore, or overlook them. Spiritual, mental, and relational damage will be done if left unchecked.

Unity Self-Examination

We must examine ourselves to gauge our level of engagement within the body. Are we connected to other members of the body? Are we connected to more than just the pastoral leadership? Separating a sheep from the rest of the flock causes the sheep to be disturbed, unsettled, and frightened. If you’re experiencing fear, angst, depression, stress, or anxiety in your relationship with the Lord Jesus, a strange voice is speaking into your life. If you’re experiencing exhaustion and burn out while “serving” the Lord Jesus, a strange voice is speaking into your life. If you’re in a church where several members–not just a few here or there–are constantly leaving or are being put out of the sheepfold by the shepherd, a strange voice is speaking into your life. Any shepherd that constantly isolates or scatters sheep is not shepherding according to the word of God.

Churches with a long track record of division must be noted and avoided. If you are in a church that thrives on division and drama, a strange voice is hindering your spiritual maturity and therefore blocking your inheritance in Christ. We must know the Shepherd’s voice to not be led away from Him. As followers of Christ, we must recognize and remove ourselves from all sabotaging and distracting influences.

In conclusion, the Lord Jesus calls and leads us together. Division is contrary to His will and teaching. Any doctrine or belief that is contrary to the Lord Jesus’ teaching must be rejected without compromise. We must not let anybody other than the Lord Jesus put a yoke on us. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1) And we should never, ever be separated from God or His love as promised in Romans 8:35-39 –

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Disclaimer: Before making decisions or changes that affect your spiritual life and well-being, always personally seek God for His perfect will for your life and always follow peace.

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. lockman.org”