James Nisbet Commentary - John 10:16

James Nisbet Commentary - John 10:16 - 10:16

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James Nisbet Commentary - John 10:16 - 10:16

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‘ALL SOULS ARE MINE’

‘Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall bear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.’

Joh_10:16

When our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of Himself as a Shepherd and His people as sheep, He was not giving a new idea to the Jews who heard Him. David, their king, had been a shepherd-boy, and the prophets and teachers of the people had often used the figure in speaking of God and His care for His people.

Let us first think of our Lord’s teaching as to His work.

I. Christ makes a claim to the whole world.—He is not simply the Shepherd of the Jews, of the sheep who could be seen all around; there were many others whom men did not know, many who might never have thought of themselves as being God’s sheep; for those He had a care. God saw them, even though they were as sheep scattered without a shepherd, and God had a purpose for them in their life.

II. The Divine obligation.—Why did He say He must? What was the obligation?

(a) Because it was written of Him that He should.

(b) Because the love of God required it.

(c) Because there was no one else who could. Man cannot save himself; he cannot go back to God alone.

III. And what is the end of His work?—What does He wish to do? To make all one. ‘There shall be one flock under one Shepherd.’ You notice that I say one flock, and not one fold, as it reads in our New Testament. The word ought to be ‘flock,’ and it is very unfortunate that the word ‘fold’ was ever used here. Christ came to bring life, and this life is in Himself. All His members have this life. This tells us how very close all are to one another. All are Christ’s, all have His life, so all have the same life—a spiritual life. Surely this binds them together as nothing else could. ‘Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.’ The end of the work of our Lord, then, is to gather out of all the world all who will come to Him, and learn of Him, and receive His gifts. He gathers them into one flock, and that flock is His own Body; and in that He gives them His own life, that all may be one in Him. This flock it is which is known as the Holy Catholic Church throughout the world.

—

Bishop E. W. Osborne.

Illustrations

(1) ‘The Jews thought there was to he one fold, one enclosure, as it were, into which all were to be gathered, and the hedge or fence about this fold was the Jewish law. Even many of the Jews who became Christians were a long time in learning that the new Christians from among the Gentiles were not bound to keep the Jewish law; they need not become Jews. But our Lord did not say this, He did not say one fold, but one flock. Roman Catholics of to-day often seem to make the same mistake as the Jews. They think there must be one fold, and that fold is the Roman Catholic Church, and the hedge round about it is the laws which that Church, and especially the Bishop of Rome, who may be called the chief shepherd of that part of the Church, may make. They think no one can be in the fold who is not a Roman Catholic. They quite forget, and you must remember, that it is not one fold that we are to come into; we are to be gathered into one flock.’

(2) ‘External unity is not required. There may be many folds, and yet but one flock. The east and the west, the Churches of England and America, of South Africa and Canada, coloured and white, Swedish, German, Italian—so long as they hold to the principles Jesus Christ has laid down in the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, their life in Him may have many external differences, but they are not thereby divided. There are many folds, under many under-shepherds, but with it all, one flock under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE UNFOLDED FLOCK

In that language the Old Testament was uttering itself, from one end to the other, as well as the New. ‘Other sheep I have,’ that was the spirit of it all. The families of the earth were to be blessed in Abraham and his seed; supremely and in a transcendent sense in a distant day, in some sense every day.

I. In the Redeemer’s heart how large a place was held by the unfolded flock can readily be seen by all who will watch for it in the Gospels. It seems seldom out of His thoughts, and is expressed now with tenderness, now with austerity.

II. To endow the Apostles with power for this momentous advance was one great purpose of the Pentecostal grace. Not that we are to think their personal, their immediate and instant dispersion was to follow.

III. The maintenance of Gentile Church privilege and equality kept St. Paul a good deal upon the defensive. His determination to secure them a perfect Jewish level in matters of social intercommunion, wherein he found even St. Peter and St. Barnabas once hesitating to support him, was not the secondary matter it seemed, though but temporary and local; to vindicate their coordinate rank with Abraham’s seed in Messiah’s Church free from the Mosaic yoke, involving points of far-reaching principle, was felt by him a matter of the gravest necessity.

IV. Jesus in glory watched all, directed all.—Let us finish with that. If the Gentile redemption be what is displayed in the Epistle to Ephesus, there are other scenes still to express its heavenly beauties, win on the Christian imagination, and stir the heart that has any power to rise. Paul passes away, but the Apostle John abides, and by his inspired imagery the Saviour again depicts His great salvation in both its aspects, Israelitish and Gentilic. In one of the scenes we have a sealing of the twelve tribes, after which are ushered in before us a multitude which no man can number, all in the habiliments of salvation, out of every nation, kindred, people, and tongue. Pastoral language is again employed. ‘The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.’ In another scene an angel flies in the midst of heaven, ‘having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.’ In a final vision a new Jerusalem, adorned as a bride, descends, a city which the Apostles have made ready for the Lamb, bearing the names of His twelve, and of the twelve tribes. The nations of them that are saved walk in the light of it, and it has a tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations.

Rev. C. Hole.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE CHURCH’S MISSION

This ideal of a Catholic Church, in which there should be ‘neither Jew nor Greek, but in which all should be one,’ was not only unacceptable to the Jews, it stirred their opposition. Hence, Christ was in this, as in so many other matters, an offence unto them. But that which in their blindness they rejected and opposed, has become a cherished thought to those whose eyes are opened.

I. The ideal.—The gathering of the flock out of all nations and peoples and kindreds and tongues by the Great Shepherd into the family and flock of God, is seen to be the end of Christ’s work all along the Christian ages. The words of the Good Shepherd are seen to be a prophecy which is rapidly being translated into history. The ideal of the Lord is becoming an expressed fact. The calling out of the elect from the world and their union under the pastorate of Jesus, and in the Communion of His Church, is a work that is carried on through all the varied conditions of the Church’s chequered course. Soon it shall have found its full expression in that day when the fullness of the elect shall have been brought into Christ’s fold, and they shall have ‘become one Flock, one Shepherd.’ And then, when the ideal of the spiritual Israel shall be realised, shall the nations of the earth be saved.

II. But how shall this ideal be realised?—How shall the sheep of Christ be gathered out of the world, and be brought into the unity of His one flock? He Himself tells us that this gathering of the sheep shall be His own work. He it is Who will seek them, find them, call them, bring them to Himself, number them one by one with His flock. This He will do, not chiefly whilst dwelling on earth, but when He is in Heaven. Thence will He gather the elect of His flock by the power of His Spirit. Thence will He seek, and find, and fold them by the ministry of His Church. Yet this ministry shall be not so much the ministry of the Church in the world for Him as His ministry through her. The words she speaks are His words; the power in which she speaks is His power. She is His voice; it is not she who calls, but He by her. ‘Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one Fold, one Shepherd.’

III. The Church, then, is created to be the organ whereby Christ carries on His missionary work in the world.—But the co-operation of the Church with her Lord in this work is willing, and not of constraint. And this willingness is not a corporate willingness in the first place. It is a personal willingness shared in by each, though expressed in the collective and ordered work of the Church. It is when the fiery tongue rests on each that all witness for Christ. But this Baptism of Fire only falls on those who give themselves to Christ to be His fellow-workers in the gathering of His elect. It is to win us to this self-dedication that our Lord spake the words we are considering now. Listen to them again: ‘Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one Fold, one Shepherd.’ Thus speaking, Jesus takes us into closest intimacy with Himself. He bids us see the glorious ideal that is ever before Him, filling His mind with one thought, His imagination with one joyful desire, His will with one glorious purpose.

—

Rev. Canon Body.