Other Sheep, One Flock, One Shepherd

John’s Gospel, the Preservation of Scripture, and the Setting of the Series

You'll turn with me in your Bibles, please to the 10th chapter of the gospel of John John chapter 10 or If you received your bulletin not first thing this morning, but shortly thereafter. You have an insert and the insert will have the text on the back.

It looks like this. You do not have to read that part. It's in English on the back. So if you had not noticed that. That is there for your convenience. It is the same one that we passed out a couple of months ago when we started the series.

So if you already have that now you have two. So I direct your attention to that before we look to God's Word. Let us pray together. Our grace Heavenly Father once again as we consider your truth as we consider Not only what John wrote so long ago, but the fact that you have preserved this for us.

May we rejoice and may we have ears to hear what it is. You would have us to hear from your truth. Even to this day. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. For those of you who were not here with us when we began this series I do believe that it is probably one of the most unusual sermon series you will ever encounter.

It is a sermon series based upon an ancient manuscript of the New Testament. You see one of the leaves on the Insert to the bulletin. This is manuscript p45. It is given the letter P because it is made of papyrus.

You can sort of see that given the state that it is in today I do feel a close connection to this particular papyrus. And so when people say wow, it seems to be really beat up. My immediate response is to become defensive and say let's see how you look after 1 ,800 years.

I don't think we'll be doing anywhere near as well as this particular papyrus is and We are basing our study basically looking at this remembering and being thankful first of all for the Preservation of God's Word down through the ages for those of you who have been attending the Sunday morning Sunday school class, which I would highly recommend to you we are a number of weeks 24 lessons into church history and We're already starting to move past the period of time in history when this papyrus was written it was written somewhere between about 180 and 220 ad and so it comes from that very very early time period where the church was under a period of Persecution and it contains material from Matthew Mark Luke what we're looking at here in John and the book of Acts and so what this series is going to involve is Looking at each of the chapters that are represented the papyrus originally contained about 220 pages.

It does not any longer. Unfortunately, that would be wonderful. But as you can see it is fragmentary and so we will only be looking at particular chapters That are contained. We'll look at the entire chapter even if the papyrus does not have for example as you'll notice it starts at verse 7 of John chapter 10.

We didn't just skip to verse 7 and not worry about what came before that but we're letting basically the providence of God in What remains of this papyrus be our guide. As to the study that we are going to be doing I should note just in passing that the translation That is provided in the bulletin insert is a fairly rough literal translation.

You will notice a lot of little brackets in that particular translation. That's because There's holes in the papyrus and so that is what is being provided that fills in the holes or as you may notice The margins are also missing the writing goes all the way out to the edge.

And that means some of the outer portion of the papyrus is missing. And so when you see those brackets, we are providing what is missing. Because of this the condition and this is my own translation. So if it differs some from what you have that will explain that We already began our study of John chapter 10 the last time that we were together.

We looked specifically at verses 14 and 15. I am the Good Shepherd. And I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I give my life or my soul For the sheep. And just to get us back up to speed I want to remind us of the fact that this chapter in the gospel of John contains deep theology.

It contains it is meant to be connected in your mind to other passages in the gospel of John. I think John very much intends us to be hearing his story as a whole and So I think we it is very appropriate for us to be bringing in other New Testament texts as we expand upon the meaning of what Jesus is saying here because it seems very clear That it was John's intention that we hear everything that he was saying in his gospel.

And so there are certain themes that are found in John chapter 10. Which are also found in John chapter 5 in a little bit different form in John chapter 6. They'll be found in John chapter 14 John chapter 17 and each one Sort of fills out and gives more color and more depth to the theme that is being developed by the Apostle John I I have mentioned but let me mention it again one of the reasons that many scholars today Questioned the historicity of the book of John is because it is very clear that John is intending to Weave this this story together and they're like, well it differs so much from the other Gospels.

Well, my my understanding my my theory anyways is that John expects you to know the other Gospels? John expects you to know what the gospel message and the story is and and he's giving you The rest of the story.

I suppose I can use that terminology In light of the the great Individual who passed who used to use that term all the time now for the rest of the story. Possibly because he's writing at a later time period and hence can give us more of that inside story the story that the The Apostles themselves would have known because so many of these encounters were either private.

For example, who would have known about what happened with Nicodemus or how safe would have been for Matthew Mark or Luke? We don't know when Nicodemus died. But how safe would have been for them to have told the story of Nicodemus while Nicodemus was still living?

But probably John being as young as he was a living to be an older man according to tradition. Undoubtedly Nicodemus would be gone now. And so why not tell John chapter 3 or John chapter 4 the woman at the well or whatever else it might be.

I think there's a reason why John has a different flavor and a different form to it. It doesn't mean that it's a historical but it does mean that John's trying to communicate something to us. And so when we look at what is said here in John chapter 10, it is Acceptable it is I think What the author himself would have us to do to?

Understand the depth of the theology that he's attempting to communicate to us. And so we see Jesus identifying himself as The Good Shepherd and we mentioned last time that he knows his own and his own.

The Good Shepherd Knows His Sheep and Gives His Life for Them

Know me and I. I just have to pause for a moment to once again Ask you for your prayers. This won't really be relevant to those listening by tape at a time later down the road but this coming Wednesday evening, I will be debating a Roman Catholic a The staff apologist one of the staff apologists of Catholic answers in Atlanta, Georgia and the subject will will be can a true true Christian lose their salvation and One of the issues I can guarantee you that will come up will come from this text because I think one of the appropriate Truths to be derived from scripture is the fact that Jesus as the Good Shepherd Knows his sheep and his sheep know him.

There is a reciprocal relationship. It is a personal relationship that exists between the elect of God and their Savior. And yet what is it that Jesus says at the last day at the judgment? When he sends people away from him even people who said Lord Lord, did we not say this out of the other thing?

Did we not do this other thing in your name? What does he say to them? Depart from me for what I knew you once and have forgotten you. No, I Never knew you. There was never and the intimate relationship of good shepherd to the sheep in These individuals and Jesus's promises.

I know my own and my own know me. I can guarantee you that during the course of the two and a half or three hours Wednesday evening when that debate is taking place in Atlanta. This issue is going to come up.

This issue is going to come up and appropriately so So much so that in verse 15 as we noted last time this relationship is likened to the intimate knowledge that the father and the son have of each other.

And then the statement I give my life my soul for the sheep and We mentioned last time it was fairly brief. But we mentioned last time that this is one of these many passages in the New Testament. Where the giving of the life of Christ is for a specific group.

Now you will very often be told well, yes, but you see you're you're committing a logical fallacy. You see Jesus can give his life for the sheep because they choose to be his sheep. But Jesus gives his life for every individual whether one chooses to be his sheep or not.

Now I just ask How many people knowing What it meant for a shepherd to have a flock made of sheep in? The first century. Would ever have thought that that was an appropriate way of understanding Jesus's words.

The idea of sheep. Choosing the shepherd is simply an absurdity. It makes sense that modern 21st century Western individualized evangelicalism. It makes sense and what's calling itself today the new movement Southern Baptist Traditionalism it makes sense when your fundamental Authority in theology is the free will the autonomous will of man.

But it doesn't make a lick of sense in the context in which these words were originally written the idea that the limitation that Jesus makes here is just sort of an Inpassing thing that actually is all up to man.

The Gia says I give my life for the sheep and he's talking about this intimate relationship between the sheep and him. But what you really need to understand is That that relationships all up to man it's not up to the shepherd.

Every person can enter into that situation. Of course if it's all up to the free will of man to enter into it. Why is it of the free will of man to get out of it, too? One thing I'm going to say this coming Wednesday evening is if you don't believe in the sovereign electing grace of God.

If you don't believe that God has an elect people known to him. You've got no reason to believe. That the Saints will persevere in faith. You have no reason to believe and Once saved always saved eternal security, whatever terminology you want to use you have no reason to believe those things.

None whatsoever because if your free will got you into it. Unless you're gonna assert that your free will gets you in a situation where your free will gets removed. Which I've never heard anyone say then your free will can get you back out of it.

No. If you're going to believe that the Saints will persevere it is because the triune God Is glorifying himself in the salvation of every single one of them? That's the only grounds for accepting that doctrine to be true.

That's going to come up as well I would imagine but this giving my life for the sheep Means that this giving of life is intensely personal. It is not merely the creation of some Possibility it is not as you have in Roman Catholicism the idea that Christ's death merits grace.

And then you use the sacramental system of the church to avail yourself of that grace over time. It's not merely some kind of commercial transaction either the personal nature of the giving of the life of the Shepherd for his sheep is what makes this a loving action.

Loving action upon God's part toward the redeemed. But you'll also notice it is part of the reason that of the glorifying of the love Between the Father and the Son and once we get to John 14 and 16, which we're not going to be in in this particular study.

But when you get to John chapters 14 and 16, the Holy Spirit is brought into this it becomes the very demonstration of Trinitarian love as well. We talked about the love of God shown in the cross. But if that's some impersonal thing if the death of Christ is just some attempt.

But it doesn't have a specific audience. I submit to you that that love is severely diminished. The nature of it is fundamentally changed. And so yes, I am stating to everyone here today and everyone listening Via the technology available today.

I Believe firmly the John chapter 10 is one of those texts that teaches the particular Redemptive work of the Son of God. I believe that that is true. I believe that is the teaching of Scripture. I am NOT embarrassed by it.

People try to make me embarrassed by it. I refuse to be so because you're trying to make me be embarrassed about the fact that the Son of God Specifically Perfectly fulfills the will of the Father and saves his people by his death without me adding anything to it.

And I will not be ashamed of believing that because that's what the scripture teaches. Thank you for the amen. I appreciate that. So having Got us up to speed now Let's get to the next verse verse 16 and I have other sheep who are not of this fold.

Other Sheep, One Flock, and the Gentile Mission

It is necessary that I gather them and they will hear my voice and they will become one flock with one shepherd. There's a pretty much consistent interpretation down through the history of the church of exactly what this is referring to and if it were not for the lengths to which People are going and the only reason I specifically bring this into our discussion is my assumption is That the members of this congregation and those of you who are visiting as well if you are aware of what reform Baptists are about and why we have the particular beliefs that we do and the Confession of faith that you'll find printed in the back of the hymnal.

We are very open and clear about what we believe and why we believe these things that You want to have interaction with others that you want to be one of those who? wants to engage with other Christians and you want to Seek that to have the gospel to be known with clarity in our world today and that these are important issues.

And as such there are Baptists who might be close to us. I for example came to this congregation as a member of a Southern Baptist Church. I was ordained in a Southern Baptist Church to gospel ministry and I Appreciated the time that I spent there and I still have many friends who are a part of the Southern Baptist Denomination in less than two weeks I'm gonna be one of the primary speakers at the Deep South founders conference in Mississippi and the founders conference is a is a function of Southern Baptists who recognize The deep and abiding reformed elements of their own history and that there have always been among Southern Baptists those who believed in the sovereignty of God and salvation the particular redeeming work of the Son of God the perseverance of the Saints the irresistible nature of God's grace and Redemption so on and so forth that is a part of the history of the Southern Baptist Convention.

But there has been a major pushback In the past number of decades and especially just the past number of years to the recognition on the part of non-reformed Southern Baptists that well There's a there's a whole lot of Calvinist showing up in our churches and this is concerning us.

And so they call themselves the traditionalists and this is just a good illustration when we look at verse 16. And we look down through the history of the church and we look down Through the purpose of John and we look down just through the exegesis of the text.

It seems obvious that what the Lord Jesus is referring to here when he says I have other sheep who are not of this fold. This fold what is he been talking about? Well, if you go back to the first sermons we did in John chapter 10 we saw the connection between John chapters 9 and 10 remember chapter and verse divisions a later innovation and What was going on in chapter 9 well you had the man who had been healed.

Seeing not seeing and Jesus's condemnation of who the Jewish leaders. Who claimed to have sight but really did not and the blind man who had sight. But they thought that he was really not an important person.

And so you have this issue of the Jews and they're gonna come back into the picture Toward the end of chapter 10 as well. They're going to become the primary people that are responding to what Jesus is saying.

And so when he says I have sheep who are not of this fold. It has been understood down through the history of the church. It makes perfect sense in the context that what is being referred to here is the Gentile mission of the church and this of course is extremely important not only in the book of Acts, but when you look at the the Synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke as well it is very important in those Gospels as well to point to the prophetic testimony of The fact that God was going to bring the Gentiles and you were going to have one Christian church.

In fact, if you really want to know why Paul is so angry in the book of Galatians. It's because if you follow the Judaizers and their understanding the truth of the gospel is destroyed and what you end up with is a Jewish Christian Church and a Gentile Christian Church and to understand Paul's zeal.

To understand the the lengths to which he would go he fought against that tooth and nail you could not have that division and. Why not? Well because there is only to be one flock with one shepherd. To to do what Peter did at Antioch and withdraw from table fellowship with the Gentiles.

Was to go directly against the reality that there is to be one body of Christ. Not to do not divide it do not divide it and Yet that is what the Judaizers were seeking to do by establishing the need to become Jewish before you could become Christian and.

So you have for example Wednesday night we mentioned in looking at Acts chapter 13. When Paul said it was necessary for us to go to you first. Now we turn to the Gentiles. What do you immediately do? He quoted from the Old Testament scriptures about being a light to the Gentiles as being fulfilled in what was going on.

That's what you have here in verse 16. I have other sheep who are not of this fold is necessary that I Gather them and they will what they will hear my voice. What does he just said about his sheep? They know me.

I know them. They will not hear the voice of another. That intimate relationship once again, and of course in the Gospel of John hearing. Being able to hear being able to see. Not just being the physical manifestations of these things, but the spiritual Manifestations these things what does this mean if they're going to hear his voice one flock one Shepherd no Gentile.

No, Jew, no supremacy of one to the other one flock one Shepherd one church and This is going to be the work of whom Jesus himself is this not a parallel then to Jesus a statement in Matthew chapter 16.

I Will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I Will build my church. This is what Jesus has promised. I Gather them it is necessary. The same word that is used here is The word that Jesus used in the original language when he said it is necessary the Son of Man go to Jerusalem and Be arrested and beaten and crucified and rise again the third day same language it is necessary and Jesus says it is necessary that I gather them and They will hear my voice.

These are not the words of A Savior who's going to try to do something as best he can. These are the words of a Savior who is Confident that he will fulfill the will of the Father for him that is he's going to lose none of those are to given to him whether Jew or Gentile whether Jew or Gentile and So I have other sheep who are not of this fold.

It is necessary that I gather them and They will hear my voice. That means there is going to be communication to them. They are going to understand who he is again the reader of John chapter 10. It is assumed they've already read John chapter 6.

They already understand what G has said in the synagogue Capernaum. They understand what it means to be drawn by the Father to the Son. All these concepts are to be given at this point. And so we're not reading into the text anything that was not already intended to be there by the author who penned these words and They will become one flock with one Shepherd.

Now you and I might say well the unity of the church as In a division between Jew and Gentile doesn't strike us as any major issue. How can that be overly relevant to us today? But we must remember we have already mentioned it in the church history series, so I will mention it in the service.

There is a sad and deep Testimony in church history to an anti-jewish anti-semitism. That is a tremendous embarrassment. It goes directly against John Romans chapters 9 through 11. It goes directly against the warning do not boast in Romans 11.

Do not boast against those branches that have been broken off well. I guess that section got allegorized away. Because it is true that one can read the writings of early church fathers and with embarrassment.

See the fruit the seed that was sown there. Coming to fruition even in later days we must with honesty Recognize that especially Toward the end of his life not thankfully during the early Reformation period but toward the end of his life even someone like Martin Luther Said things that were just simply outrageously wrong in regards to the Jewish people.

The reality is That there is only one church and and there is an excessive reaction to this the other direction to where you have people today trying to create a Jewish Christianity that in essence is it exists unto itself Separated and not having fellowship with the rest of us.

So there's extremes on all of this and unfortunately it frequently brings up tremendous emotions and people's experiences. But the reality is there were times of great persecution on the part of alleged Christians of The Jewish people just as there was persecution of the early Christians by the Jews.

It is a sorted reality. That should not have been. But there needs to be an emphasis upon the fact that there must be one church that we must have Unity. Anyone who confesses the true gospel of Jesus Christ anyone who truly believes What God has revealed in his word there needs to be unity there and so often Christians are willing to divide over things that should not divide us.

They should not separate us from one another. Unity is a means by which God is glorified and his truth is proclaimed. Now in regards to verse 16 I mentioned to you that this verse gives us an illustration of Just how far? people will go to attempt to undercut the biblical testimony to The sovereign grace of God and let me give you an illustration from verse 16.

I Have other sheep who are not of this fold. There is as I mentioned to you this movement. It has identified itself now over the past couple of years as Southern Baptist traditionalists. It's focused primarily in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary now.

Let me mention there are good men teaching in both places. There are good students in both places, but the leadership of these particular institutions are Thoroughly focused upon seeking to try to I would say Inoculate their students and the churches over which they have influence against well you and me in essence against anyone who would present a reformed understanding of Soteriology now.

I won't go into much detail this morning, but I will just use as an illustration this verse. I have other sheep who are not of this fold. What they do with this verse is to say well What this is actually about is not about Jews and Gentiles at all.

This is not this is not a great fulfillment passage in the New Testament as we have in the synoptic Gospels of the unity of the Christian Church Jew and Gentile together the mystery of Ephesians. It's not one of those places where these beautiful threads of divine truth Come together in that woven harmony of God's decree and God's revelation here.

No, no, no, that's not what this is about this is only about the disciples and so the sheep the the first fold are just the disciples and The other sheep are just the people who are going to believe in Jesus.

Well Why would you want to do this? Because you can't have a limitation. You can't have a specificity in this flock. It has to be a general thing. Why? Because they're struck there their main focus is upon the fact that the atonement must be Universal it must be Universal and hence, not only here but in regards to Judas and other places in New Testament, they will come up with these extremely unusual interpretations.

Why? Because they need to be able to point to places where Jesus that this is this is not how they will ever express it. But this is what they have to find. They must be able to point to places where Jesus is atoning death.

Does not save the individual for whom it was made because if you believe in universal atonement if you believe that it was the intention of father son and spirit in the death of Jesus Christ to specifically redeem All mankind that that was the desire being expressed that was the intention.

Don't don't get into whether there are non salvific benefits in the incarnation and atoning work of Jesus Christ in his death because there are and you'll find reformed writers if you want to if you want to dig into the theology and dig into the history dig into the Writings of the Westminster divines and stuff like that.

You'll discover that a number of them were very strong on Emphasizing that there were other benefits to the ministry of Christ and even to the death of Christ outside of specific redemption of the elect of God and you can get into the Amaraldi and Controversy and all the rest that kind of stuff you can get into all of that.

But that's not really the issue here. And I find it rather disingenuous in the part of the leaders of the Southern Baptist Traditionalists that they drag all that stuff into the conversation. It's not really relevant because they don't believe in The sovereign decree of God in the first place everybody was having that argument all agreed God has a sovereign decree and the elect of God are known to him and are chosen by him if they reject that they're not Even a part of this conversation.

Why bring that up? It's irrelevant, but they do anyways but to think That people would be seeking Ransacking the scriptures to try to find verses Where Jesus's death? Fails. To save an individual. I know that's not how they think about it.

From their perspective what they're saying is no we're saving evangelism. Because you need to be able to go out and say you need to accept Jesus. Because Jesus loved you so much that he died for you. Yet you never hear an apostle say you should accept Jesus.

You should do something nice for Jesus because Jesus did something nice for you. That's not the gospel that's how you can get away with not using words like repentance and Punishment for sin and things like that.

The gospel is not do something nice for Jesus because he did something nice for you. You'll never find the Apostles preaching that and so Jesus's statement Where he's talking about what his power? Do you see that in verse 16?

This is his power. I have other sheep. Why does he have other sheep? Why is Jesus have other sheep. John chapter 6 all the father gives me will come to me and I've come down. I've heaven not do my own will but the will of him has sent me and this the will of him has sent me that of All he's given me.

I lose none of it, but raise it up on the last day. So Jesus has other sheep. He has them. I Have other sheep it is necessary that I Gather them and they will hear my voice and they will Become one flock with one shepherd, isn't it amazing?

How many times? Passages of Scripture that are emphasizing God's power God's ability here the incarnate Son's power and ability to save and to make one church and to accomplish his purpose and somehow professing believers in Jesus Christ because of their false fealty to a false Idol named free will turn those texts into passages about Jesus's Inability to do something because of the power of man's will.

Is that not amazing? I'd call it downright offensive and yet you and I both probably have friends That would buy into that perspective. And what does that remind us? It reminds us of the power of tradition the power of tradition and What it can end up doing to the very exegesis of the text of Scripture the believing child of God should look at verse 16 and Absolutely rejoice because what do the sheep do here?

Just how much just how much contribution do you get out of the sheep here? Let's see. I Have other sheep so they don't do anything there. They are sovereignly given by the father to the son. That would be what we see in John chapter 6.

John chapter 8 other places like that. So I have other sheep who are not of this fold. It is necessary that I gather them well. You know when you gather the sheep Who's doing the action the shepherd is?

The shepherd is doesn't say I will try to gather them. The shepherd actually accomplishes it. Ah. There it is. They hear. Well, it says they will hear my voice ah. See, but see the here's here's where free will man.

If you've got to be working this hard to try to find some place to cram free will in you got a problem. They will hear my voice. Well, they can choose not to. That means they didn't hear it did it because to hear his voice is to know.

Because remember those who remember John see John chapter 8 comes before this tip. Remember what happened in John chapter 8? Jesus says to the Jews. Why do you not hear my words? Now, what is the? Synergistic Southern Baptist traditionalist Arminian.

Answer to the question why someone does not hear the words of Jesus because they choose not to. They choose not to it's their will. What was Jesus's response in John chapter 8, why do you not hear my words because you do not belong to God He who is of God.

Here's my words. What? Yeah, that's not the normal evangelical response is it but that's the biblical response. That's the biblical response. So I gather them they will hear just as in John 6 45. The description of the drawing by the Father the Son is being taught by God hearing learning.

Nowhere, is there an even a beginning the suggestion that we somehow control those things. Those are all divine actions. They are accomplished and they will hear my voice and they will become one flock with one Shepherd.

All I see here is God Accomplishing that which glorifies the Holy Trinity. I see nothing about man in here at all. Do you you say but we don't we don't glorify God, of course, but Everything that we do is dependent upon what God has done.

And that's what we have in these verses in this verse a single verse so the natural response of reading these words should be Praise God once again another example of the Perfection of my Savior in being able to accomplish everything.

That the triune God Father Son and Spirit in eternity past Chose to accomplish and we we can expand that because we know in the rest of the New Testament That all of this how it becomes one flock with one Shepherd.

How does that work each and every day in our own fellowship? It's the work of the Holy Spirit within us. What does Jesus say? How does Jesus and the Father take up their abode with us according to John chapter 14 by the means the Holy Spirit?

This is the Trinity. Glorifying the Trinity in the salvation of a specific people and the reaction of the redeemed heart should always simply be awe and thanks and Glorification and nothing else and yet if there are those who are looking at these texts and trying to find a way out of Allowing God to be glorified because it's God that does it all just to find a place for man dangerous ground.

Dangerous ground. I don't know about you but as I look over and By the way, we're pretty much You're about 40 down the down the papyrus right now, it's a little bit hard to read but I've been doing a lot of reading of it.

So I know where it is. But I look at these this 1 ,800 year old papyrus and I know that that entire verse there weren't very many brackets in that verse were there. All you've got is will here. That's the only thing in brackets in that verse.

It's all right there. You can all see it. Is there. Can you understand why when I see these things and I think about How long ago? These words were written. And I think of the generation after generation after generation of people who've read these words and rejoiced in the very same truths you and I are rejoicing in today and Then I think of the word and I think of the fact that God did not have to bless us by giving the us these insights.