John 10:16, One Flock, One Shepherd

16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

If the sheep fold is Israel, to whom Jesus has come to shepherd, then the other sheep are us, the Gentiles. He sees as central to his mission what God promised to Abraham centuries ago: “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In the Gospel of John, this is one of the few references to a broader mission outside the Jews—a mission that Jesus will hand off to his disciples to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

The Apostle Paul explains Jesus’ sentiments in Ephesians 2:13-16: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” Through Jesus’ sacrificial death, there is now peace and no longer a division between Jew and Gentile. There is to be one people, one flock, one shepherd, one Lord and Father of all.

In Revelation 7:9-10 we see another picture of the one flock united in worship around the Lamb who was slain for them and who holds them together in love: “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!’”

Consider the mission Jesus calls you to—the mission of having one flock united in him. In prayer, ask the Lord to use you to bring unity where there is division, recognizing we are all lost sheep who must learn to listen to his voice.