One Flock

John 10:11-16 – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Acts 10:34-35 – Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

John 17:20-21,23 – “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me…I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Ephesians 2:14-16 – For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

Ezekiel 37:24 – “‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.

Application:

• ·         “I know…my sheep know” is a deep mutual knowledge, like that of the Father and the Son.
• ·         Shepherds might risk danger for their sheep, but they expected to come through alive. Jesus said that the good shepherd is willing to die for His sheep.
• ·         These “other sheep” already belonged to Christ, though they had not yet been brought to Him. “Not of this sheep pen” were those outside Judaism. All God’s people have the same Shepherd.
• ·         God does not favor individuals because of their station in life, their nationality or their material possessions. He does, however, respect their character and judge their work. This is evident because God “accepts from every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right.
• ·         Jesus had just spoken of the mission and the sanctification of His followers. He was confident that they would spread the gospel, and He prayed for those who would believe as a result.
• ·         The unity of believers should have an effect on outsiders, to convince them of the mission of Christ.
• ·         God’s moral standard expressed in the Old Testament law is not changed by the coming of Christ, what is abolished here is probably the effect of the specific “commands and regulations” in separating Jews from Gentiles, whose non-observance of the Jewish law renders them ritually unclean.
• ·         The coming ruler is likened to a shepherd who cares for His flock.
• ·         There are two indwellings here: that of the Son in believers and that of the Father in the Son.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV