Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3549
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32.
How kind and tender Jesus was towards His disciples! When He spoke sternly, it was to the outside multitude. Many a time was His spirit moved to rebuke them sharply. Very familiarly, however, did He unbend Himself in the presence of the few attached followers who were gathered round Him and drew near to Him—His chosen, His beloved. To them He unveiled His heart. To them He disclosed the things which He had received of the Father. From then, He kept back nothing that pertained to their welfare. “If it were not so, I would have told you,” was once, at least, His confidential expression. He thus abode with them as a Friend, as an elder Brother, as a loving Father. It is really pleasant to observe how much He thought of them—how deeply He sympathized with them—how far He was from despising them. The great ones of the earth would have shrugged their shoulders and sneered at the poor helpless band that gathered around the Prophet of Nazareth. Not so the Divine Master. Without for a moment concealing the fact that they were a little flock, He looks upon them fondly and applies to them invitingly the very epithet their enemies would have used resentfully— “little”—as He says, “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Few in number they were, He calls them a flock. Thus He takes upon Himself the office of a shepherd and by implication He guarantees to them feeding and folding, solace and safeguard! And He speaks of “little” with a liking. As we often employ diminutive words to express endearment, calling those we love by little names, so does the Savior here seem to dwell upon the littleness of those He loves. The original word might be properly rendered, “very little.” “Fear not, tiny flock.” There is a double diminutive on which He seems to harp, although it had a pleasant ring about it. So mothers are known to call their baby children by bantling names in their fondness for the wee creatures. But far surpassing woman’ s love, our Savior’s strong affection can no rival know. In mild accents, He seems to say, “Never mind how few you are, or how despised. Your feebleness gives you a warmer place in My heart and makes Me press you more closely to My bosom. Hush, hush. Be still. Fear not, little flock.”
And, oh, how ready He is with a reason to revive their confidence! “It is your Father’s good pleasure.” Thus does our beloved Lord recognize His own intimate relation with His disciples. “It is your Father’s good pleasure.” And who was their Father but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? He might have said, “It is My Father’s good pleasure”—but then this was the sweeter way of putting it—“It is your Father’s good pleasure.” They would know that their Father was His Father when He thus said, “yourFather.” But had He said, “MyFather,” they might not have so quickly recollected that He was also their Father or, pondering it, they might have had some doubt on the subject. What He does, therefore, is, in effect, to call Himself their Brother, for if His Father is their Father, then He, Himself, must be their Brother. They are near kinsmen! He puts Himself on an equal footing with them when so speaking! At once He lifts them up to Himself while He goes down to them. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Must it not have been delightful to be on such friendly terms with the blessed Lord of Life when He was Incarnate here on earth—to have been able to say with John, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory— the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of Grace and truth”? Not that we have any need to fret because we have not that privilege, for we have a higher one, inasmuch as Jesus said, “It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” It was better, therefore, for us that Jesus should go in order that we might have the abiding Presence of the Holy Spirit, not only to dwell with us, but also to be in us! Oh, that we might realize and enjoy the Comforter’s Presence at this time! It were ill for us to miss the Savior’s company without having the consolation of the Spirit! To be without the bodily Presence of the Lord and without the spiritual’Presence of the Holy Spirit were a double loss! Rather let us rejoice that He is in us, and shall be with us evermore. In the Presence of the Comforter we have a higher grade of communion with God than even in the solacing society of the Son of Man. He has gone from us, but He has left the words of His comfort to cheer us. In the power of the Holy Spirit, then, let us talk with one another concerning these words, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Our attention is here drawn, first, to a little flock and a Great Shepherd. And then to a great fear—what if I say a variety of fears—and a still greater consolation.