The Flock Without Borders
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jeremy_2_10-30-2025_141456: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts.
We are in John chapter 10. Last week we saw Jesus talk about himself as the gate for the sheep. And today he's gonna use an adjacent image to that. He's gonna play on that image and then add to it a little bit as we're gonna see in verse 11.
Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run. When he sees a wolf coming, he will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he is working only for the money, and he doesn't really care about the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and they [00:01:00] know me just as my father knows me and I know the father, so I sacrifice my life for the sheep. So again, Jesus is co contrasting himself with the other kinds of leaders that these people have encountered, and he's referring to them as hired hands and referring to himself as the shepherd, the true shepherd, if you will.
Now, I want you to recall what we saw all the way back in John chapter one, because there's an interesting connection here in John one 11. John wrote this. He came to his own people and even they rejected him. So now Jesus is saying that he is the shepherd that cares for his people. And John has already made the point that Jesus came for his people even when his people didn't recognize him.
So we have a shepherd who continues to lead, [00:02:00] continues to sacrifice even when the sheep either don't recognize him or choose to disown him. Which really means he's not like these other kinds of leaders who only look out for their needs. Now today, we watch many of our leaders hide behind their own self-interests.
In fact, we just have come to assume that's normal. That's what leaders do as they have figured out how to take care of themselves, and we just have come to expect it. In fact, I would say nations are often run by hired hands. This definition that Jesus gives is a great way to describe much of the politics we see around the world today.
But Jesus is offering us a different model. Verse 16, he says, I have other sheep too that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them Also. They will listen to my voice and there will be one [00:03:00] flock with one shepherd who are. These other sheep that Jesus is talking about here. This is, this is a verse we don't talk enough about.
This is one of those verses that should stop you. You should be going, what on earth is he talking about? There are other sheep that are not in this sheep fold. I mean, is Jesus going, woke on us here. What is he talking about? What other sheep are there?
Identity theft is not a joke, Jim. Millions of families suffer every year.
jeremy_2_10-30-2025_141456: Now, what about our borders? Jesus, you know, we have decided who's in and who's out.
Who looks the part? Who doesn't? Who acts the part, who believes the right thing, right? In all of our contexts, we're really good at being gatekeepers. But as we saw last week, Jesus said He is the gate. He's the one who determines who gets in and who gets out, and unfortunately for a lot of [00:04:00] Christians, Jesus seems pretty intent.
On letting in a lot of people, Jesus seems intent on letting in sheep that aren't in this sheep fold, and you can imagine the way the sheep who are in the sheep fold will react to that kind of language. Now, in its immediate context here in John chapter 10, Jesus is likely talking about uniting all of Israel.
In their context would be Judah and Israel, the two different kingdoms of Israel, and again, this is Old Testament history that gets into a lot of this, but the idea here and elsewhere throughout, especially in the New Testament, we see that Jesus brings together people that are unlikely. Jesus includes people who are unlikely.
It's one of the themes of the work of Jesus and much of what we find in the New Testament. My friend Brandon Robertson has said it so well. He says, when [00:05:00] God acts in a way that is contrary to our theology, it is our responsibility to change our theology rather than deny the work of God. And he says this, God is always more inclusive than we are, and God is always drawing humanity toward greater inclusion, justice and peace.
I think Brandon is spot on when he says God is always more inclusive than we are. I mean, that one hits hard because we always have people that we think, no, you don't fit, you don't belong. And then we find Jesus talking about bringing in other sheep from a different sheep fold that aren't even in this one.
And we begin to wonder what does he mean by that? And what might this mean for us? Today. Notice there is only one flock. Uh, or as I've heard it said, there's only one [00:06:00] Holy Spirit. So anyone who has the Holy Spirit, any type of Christian, anybody who might have the Holy Spirit who doesn't claim the title Christian, there is only one Holy Spirit.
There is only one flock. At the end of the day, even when we might say, no, this is our sheep fold, right? This is our group. Jesus doesn't seem to think in those terms. Then we get to verse 17. Jesus says, the Father loves me because I sacrifice my life, so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me.
I sacrifice it voluntarily for I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again for this is what my father has commanded When he said these things. The people were again, divided in their opinions about him. Some said he's demon possessed and out of his mind, why listen to a man [00:07:00] like that?
Others said, this doesn't sound like a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind, which is a callback to chapter nine, as we've already looked at. So the story ends with a debate about the authority of Jesus. With some people saying he doesn't have the kind of authority to say the things that he is saying and to do the things that he's doing and to call out the people he is calling out and others are saying, no.
I think he does. I think he does have this authority and so as with today, we can fall in all different sides of the aisle when it comes to, do we think Jesus has this kind of authority in our lives today?
Oh, he think he is. I'm your king. Well, I didn't vote for you.
jeremy_2_10-30-2025_141456: Now in our culture, we are currently watching people use authority to dehumanize other people.
In fact, that's what authority means. You get to determine who gets [00:08:00] dehumanized, and this has, again, become so normative that we might not even realize how prevalent it has become. But this use of authority always leads to authoritarianism. When you use authority against people and, and to, uh, cause certain people to be alienated so that certain people only will be the ones to thrive.
This is ultimately what you get in authoritarian leadership. And this, as we have seen, has led to bombing children, is led to crudely deporting people and ripping them away from their family. And it's led to cutting off food to millions of our own people. What authority is being used, especially in our country today in that way.
But Jesus is contrasting this. Jesus uses authority in a very different way to quote something from the Old [00:09:00] Testament, Isaiah 56 A, I love this image to end on this. For the sovereign Lord who brings back the outcasts of Israel says, I will bring others to. Besides my people, Israel. See, this has always been something that God has been up to and God keeps bringing in more and more people.
God is always more inclusive than we are, and this is how God uses authority to bring more people in, not to exclude others. So which kind of authority are we believing in today? I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
