Jesus: Lamb and Shepherd

Reginald Heber

James Montgomery

Charlotte Elliott

Sermon by John Turner

Based on Revealtion 4:1-11; 5:1-14; 7:9-17; 21:1-4, 22-27; 22:1-5

July 12, 2009

Setting for the Lamb and Shepherd Imagery of Early Nineteenth Century Hymns

I do not know why, but the hymns of the early 19th century contain within them frequent references to Jesus as Lamb and Shepherd, some of these hymns relating to or even drawing directly on the Lamb and Shepherd imagery of the Revelation to John.

The background setting for this imagery is in Revelation, Chapter 4: John is invited in the Spirit to view the heavenly throne room. There he sees spiritual beings praising God with the words, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. When the spiritual beings so sang, John saw 24 elders falling before God’s throne, casting down their crowns, and saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” This is the setting in which the Lamb appears in Chapters 5 and 7.

Reginald Heber

Reginald Heber turned this passage into one of the top English hymns of all time: "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty" praises God’s perfection, but also notes the dilemma that the eye of sinful humanity cannot enter into the divine presence to see such perfection.

Heber wrote another hymn addressing this dilemma: "Bread of the world, in mercy broken, wine of the soul, in mercy shed, by whom the words of life were spoken, and in whose death our sins are dead."

Heber was born in 1783 in Great Britain, into a family of wealth and culture; he became a great scholar, poet, and clergyman. Though he possessed unusual literary gifts and was a friend of Britain's leading men of letters, one of his strongest ambitions was to improve the hymn singing in his local church. When Reginald Heber accepted the post of Bishop of Calcutta in 1823, it was the realization of another longtime, deep-seated interest in foreign missions. For three years he traveled tirelessly from place to place in India, using his remarkable gifts to advance the work of the church.

On April 3rd, 1826, Heber preached on the evils of the caste system before a large audience. Afterwards, he went to cool off in the swimming pool at the home where he was staying. Some time later, he was found drowned, the result of a stroke. At the age of forty-three his brilliant life was ended far from the life of ease and acclaim that could have been his. I trust that he found, in this life as well as in the next life, something better than ease and acclaim.

The Lamb Is Introduced

In Revelation, Chapter 5, John, still in the Spirit in the heavenly throne room, sees a sealed scroll. I believe the scroll held the secret of how the dilemma of God's holiness and human sin was to be resolved, of how God was to reconcile his holy perfection with his persisting love for sinful human beings.

The question was: Who would be worthy to open the scroll to reveal the answer? As it became apparent that no one seemed to be worthy to open the scroll of redemption, John began to weep. Then he heard, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of Judah, the Jewish Messiah, has conquered so that he can open the scroll.”

Hearing this, John looked up through his tears, but, instead of a Lion, he saw a Lamb, standing as though it had been slain, but filled with the Spirit and with power. Then he heard the spiritual beings and the 24 elders who in Chapter 4 had sung “Holy, Holy, Holy,” now singing a new song, a song to the Lamb, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.”

James Montgomery

James Montgomery saw the significance of this passage and expressed it in a hymn:

“Come, let us sing the song of songs—the angels first began the strain—The homage which to Christ belongs, “Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!

Slain to redeem us by His blood, to cleanse from every sinful stain, and make us kings and priests to God, “Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!”

To Him who suffered on the tree, our souls, at His soul’s price, to gain, blessing, and praise, and glory be, “Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!”

Long as we live, and when we die, and while in heaven with Him we reign, this song our song of songs shall be, “Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain!”

Montgomery, born in 1771, was brought up in Scotland, Ireland, and northern England. He was the son of a Moravian minister. When James was seven, his parents were sent to the West Indies as missionaries, and James was left behind to attend a church school in England. He did not thrive academically. He was then apprenticed to various practical jobs where he also did not thrive. A would-be poet, he was 21 when he found his career as a journalist. He was a strong advocate for the poor and forgotten, for righteousness and justice, and he twice spent time in prison for his exercise of freedom of the press. It seems likely that he had some resentment to overcome against the church, regarding his separation from his parents at so early an age, for he was 43 years old, the same age as Heber died, when he at last joined the Moravian Church and began the most important part of his life.

Montgomery became a strong advocate of Moravian principles: personal holiness, Bible study and prayer, close and supportive fellowship, evangelization of the unchurched, compassion for the poor, and world missions. He wrote 400 hymns; probably something like thirty of his hymns can still be found scattered among modern hymnals. His best known hymn, the Christmas carol, “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” is in nearly every hymnal. His “O Bless the Lord, My Soul,” was selected for use in the Broadway musical Godspell. We sang his “Stand Up and Bless the Lord” at the beginning of today’s service. We use his “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” on appropriate occasions, and some of you may know his Lord’s Supper hymns. Some of his hymns are printed as a sep0arate blog entry.

The Moravians to whom Montgomery belonged had a profound understanding of the Lamb in Revelation 5. Their motto is, “Our Lamb has conquered; let us follow him.” Montgomery’s goal for the last 40 years of his life was to follow the Lamb.

The Lamb Is Our Shepherd

But he knew something else as well, something that shows up in Revelation 7:9-17. John says, "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!' And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.' Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?' I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'"

Montgomery knew that the Lamb was also the Shepherd. He wrote a Lord’s Supper hymn, “Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless Thy chosen pilgrim flock with manna in the wilderness, with water from the rock. Hungry and thirsty, faint and weak, as Thou when here below, our souls the joys celestial seek which from Thy sorrows flow. We would not live by bread alone, but by Thy Word of grace, in strength of which we travel on to our abiding place.”

Jesus Reigns for All the Earth

Montgomery understood that the Lamb who died for us is also the Shepherd who rules over us, not just for us, but for the whole world. Montgomery looked back to hail the time when Jesus’ reign began: “Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater Son! Hail in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free; to take away transgression and rule in equity.” And he looks ahead to the time when Jesus’ reign will be complete, when as in Revelation 21-22, the reign comes to fulfillment as a new heaven and new earth, and the angels and saints must hail the consummation of history, “Heaven and earth must pass away! Songs of praise shall crown that day! God will make new heav’ns and earth; songs of praise shall hail their birth.”

How will this be? The beginning of the glorious end for all creation is anticipated wherever the Holy Spirit prepares the way for the Christian gospel to be effective. Montgomery wrote in his hymn, “O Spirit of the Living God,” “Give tongues of fire and hearts of love to preach the reconciling Word, give power and unction from above, whene’er the joyful sound is heard. O Spirit of the Lord, prepare all the round earth her God to meet; breathe Thou abroad like morning air, till hearts of stone begin to beat. Baptize the nations; far and nigh; the triumphs of the cross record; the Name of Jesus glorify, till every kindred call Him Lord. God from eternity hath willed all flesh shall His salvation see: so be the Father’s love fulfilled, the Savior’s sufferings crowned through Thee.”

Montgomery had the picture that the gospel of salvation must reach the whole world. It does so through the Spirit-led conversion of one unbelieving sinner at a time.

Charlotte Elliott

Charlotte Elliott was born in Great Britain in 1789. As a young person she lived a carefree life, gaining popularity as a portrait artist and writer of humorous verse; at this time of her life, she was agnostic and resented evangelists. In other words, she was one unbvelieving sinner.

By the time she was thirty, however, her health began to fail rapidly, and soon she became a bedridden invalid for the remaining years of her life. She was despondent and bitter; her wit turned to vinegar. In 1822, when Charlotte was 33, a noted Swiss evangelist, Dr. Caesar Malan, visited the Elliott home in Brighton, England. While seated at supper, the minister said he hoped that she was a Christian. She took offense at this. Dr. Malan said that he was sorry if had offended her, but that he hoped Miss Elliott would some day become a worker for Christ. When they met again three weeks later, Charlotte told Dr. Malan that ever since he had spoken to her she had been trying to find her Savior, and that she now wished him to tell her how to come to Christ. The evangelist replied, "You must come just as you are, a sinner, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

Throughout the remainder of her life, Miss Elliott celebrated every year the day on which her Swiss friend had led her to a personal relationship with Christ, for she considered it to be her spiritual birthday. Fourteen years after her conversion experience, at age 47, she set Malan’s counsel in verse to the title, “Just as I Am” with a repeated refrain, “O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” It has been estimated that no other hymn has been associated with the bringing of so many people into the kingdom of God, and this from the pen of a woman who began as an agnostic and then became an invalid before coming to the Lamb and the Shepherd, as the source not only of her salvation, but also of her sustenance and satisfaction.

Though Charlotte Elliott lived to be eighty-two years of age, she never regained normal health, and she often endured seasons of great physical suffering. She daily awakened herself to activity by repeating Christ’s invitation, “Take up your cross and follow me.” She wrote, “God sees, God guides, God guards me. His grace surrounds me, and His voice continually bids me to be happy and holy in His service just where I am."

In her hymn, “Jesus, My Savior, Look on Me,” Elliott says that Jesus is “my Rest, my Strength, my Light, my Refuge, my Rock, my Life, my All.” When our lives are shepherded by Jesus, no losses can take away the final victory, nor can they take away the meaning of each passing moment that we live for the praise of his glory.

Meanwhile, West of the Atlantic

So much for Great Britain. What was going on across the waters in America in the early 19th century? Writer Ray Palmer and composer/arranger/editor Lowell Mason teamed up to encourage us to look with trust and prayer to the Lamb of Calvary by means of the hymn, “My Faith Looks Up to Thee.”

Editor Dorothy Thrupp published and possibly wrote the otherwise anonymous, “Savior, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us.” Hear these words addressed to the Lamb Jesus: “Thou hast promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be; Thou hast mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse and power to free.” And these addressed to the Shepherd Jesus: “We are Thine, do Thou befriend us, be the guardian of our way; keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, seek us when we go astray.”

This is the era of our own Restoration Movement founders, Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. No one considers Stone a great hymn-writer, but he had several hymns of passable usefulness for their time. Stone's great emphasis in his ministry and in his hymns is that we are invited into the transforming presence of God by the Lamb Jesus' sacrificial, redeeming love--by that and by that alone. He also believed that we were challenged, empowered, and supported by the Shepherd Jesus to go forth in daring mission on behalf of his redeeming love. Here is one of his hymns:

1. The Lord is the fountain of goodness and love, Thro' Eden once flowing in streams from above, Refreshed every moment the first happy pair, 'Til sin stopped the torrent, and brought in despair,

2. O wretched condition! What anguish and pain! They thirst for the fountain, but cannot obtain; To sin's bitter waters they fly for relief, They drink, but the draught still increases their grief.

3. Glad tidings, glad tidings! No more we complain, Our Jesus has led opened this fountain again: Now mingled with mercy, enriched with free grace, From Zion 'tis flowing on all the lost race.

4. How happy the prophet, how pleasant his road, When led down the stream by the angel of God! Tho' shallow at first, yet he found it at last, A river so boundless it could not be passed.

5. Come sinner, poor sinner, 'tis boundless and free, You're welcome, take freely, 'twas open'd for thee: The Spirit invites you, the bride calls you too, Come, call all your neighbours, they're welcome with you.

6. Come all ye dead sinners, here life you will find, Come all ye poor beggars, ye halt and ye blind; This water has virtue to heal all complaints, Come drink, ye diseased, and rejoice with the saints.

7. Say not "I'm a sinner, and must not partake," For this very reason, the Lord bids you take; Say not "too unworthy, the vilest of all;" For such, not the righteous, the Lord came to call.

8. Make not your complaints an excuse to delay, Let not your transgressions affright you away; Tho' bad your condition, you're welcome draw near, Come, come on, dear sinner, and cast away fear.

9. Come, Christians, let's venture along down the stream, The shallows are pleasant, but O, let us swim; Let's bathe in the ocean of infinite love, And wash, and be pure as the angels above.

10. Too long have we dreaded to launch the great deep, And loved near the threshold of Zion to keep; But Jesus now calls us: arise, let us go, O glory transporting - 'tis heaven below.

Okay, so now you know why Stone was not a great hymnwriter, but he was a good and faithful man who was worthy of the leadership to which he was called. The message is one of redeeming love in daring mission. This is the message on which our movement was founded. With this good news as our message and mission, Stone challenges us to venture forth into deep waters to serve our Lamb and Shepherd, our Savior and Lord.

As we reflect on early 19th century hymns, we are called upon to trust Jesus to be our Savior and our Lord, our Lamb and our Shepherd. We are called upon to trust him today, tomorrow, and for eternity. We are called to trust him in hard times and in good times, in apparent defeat as well as in apparent victory, always with the understanding that he is the only one qualified to determine what is actually defeat and what is actually victory. Trusting him means that we obey him in his call to us to come to him and in his call to us to serve him. The patterns of such trust in this life may be quite varied. The patterns include short lives such as Reginald Heber’s and long lives that did not get on track until in their middle years such as James Montgomery’s and Charlotte Elliott’s. But the patterns of faith in Jesus, Lamb and Shepherd, have the same ending in eternity, for nothing, nothing, nothing, can separate his faithful ones from his love. That goes for you and for me as well as it does for hymn-writers.