One Shepherd. One Flock. John 10:14-17
[one_half first][/one_half][one_half][/one_half]The Scripture we are looking at this morning has been misinterpreted and misapplied over and over again throughout history with devastating and misleading consequences. That’s why we are going to spend some time taking a look at it this morning. The tragedy is that this section of God’s Word offers for us some of the most powerful evidence of God’s Sovereign plan for His people, a plan that has been unfolding throughout history. I’m convinced that by the time we finish here this morning that you will be blown away by the Father’s love for you and all of His people. Let’s read our Scripture and then we’ll get started.
14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-- 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father-- and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 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. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. (John 10:14-17 NIV)
Before we take a look at what Jesus was teaching, let’s first take a look at some of the ways Jesus’ words have been misinterpreted, manipulated, and misapplied. The first misapplication I want to highlight for us is found in John 10:16 where Jesus said, “…and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” We can understand what Jesus meant when He spoke these words, and we will understand it before we leave here this morning. Jesus’ words have been manipulated and misapplied by those who want to claim that their group or church is the “true church,” the only receptacle of truth, and the only path to God. There have been many movements throughout history that have made this claim. Some of those leaders and groups have made it pretty obvious that they were way, way out in left field. You may have heard of Rev. Jim Jones and the People’s Temple or David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco. Koresh and Jones held themselves up to be the true shepherd and their followers the one true flock. Other groups, denominations, and leaders aren’t quite as brazen in their claims, but if you listen long enough you will learn that they believe they have something the rest of the followers of Jesus don’t. They may acknowledge that there are other churches, but they are the one true church and their followers are the true flock of God. I want to encourage you to do something. If, at any point in your life, you are part of a fellowship of believers and the leaders claim to know something about God that nobody else knows or they claim that their group or church is the one true church of God, you need to get away from that leader and that group as quickly as possible. “One flock and one shepherd.” We’ll talk more about what Jesus meant by that phrase in just a minute, but I wanted to show you how leaders and groups have misused that phrase to manipulate well-intentioned people throughout time.I want to show you one other phrase from our Scripture for this morning that has been misinterpreted by groups and leaders. Take a look at the phrase, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.” You may have had Mormon elders stop by your house and offer you, “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” Joseph Smith, the Founder of Mormonism, and all Mormons today believe that Jesus, after His resurrection, visited the Nephites in the Americas and these are the people Jesus was referring to when He said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.” More than one hundred years ago, James E. Talmage, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, wrote,
The 'other sheep' here referred to constituted the separated flock or remnant of the house of Joseph, who, six centuries prior to the birth of Christ, had been miraculously detached from the Jewish fold in Palestine, and had been taken beyond the great deep to the American continent. (Jesus the Christ, p.4