Rella ~ I am a woman
Well-Known Member
A great question .What do you make of this?
John 10:16 NIV
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.
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3 Important verses that could raise more questions then answers are these.
Mathew 15:24 I list this first because it seemingly had Jesus making a specific point.
But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
However leading up to this comment that Jesus made to the the woman seeking a healing for her daughter was...
Mathew 10:15
These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans;
So, After selecting twelve disciples, Jesus instructs them for their mission to the villages of Galilee. The first of these commands may surprise some readers, since Jesus restricts their mission to the Jews. They are not to go to Gentiles or Samaritans at all!
The 3rd verse is what you asked about:
John 10:16 NASB95
I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
So are these from Mathew and John conflicting... they almost seem to be.
If we remember James and John want to call fire down from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village for refusing to receive Jesus (Luke 9:54). Even though Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman, his disciples are surprised he is talking to the woman (4:27).
And also even as late as Acts 10 Peter is reluctant to preach the Gospel of the God- fearer Cornelius and he is criticized when he returns to Jerusalem (11:1-3). James is still suspicious of Paul’s gentile mission in Acts 21:17-26.
I found this commentary that offers this explanation Why did Jesus tell his Disciples to not go to the Gentiles? - Matthew 10:5 - Reading Acts
BTW... reading Acts you can have come directly to your inbox.
"It is therefore not surprising Jesus tells his disciples to only go to the Jews. The announcement that the Kingdom of God is near, and Jesus is the Messiah would have little meaning for a Samaritan and less for a Gentile. Mike Wilkins asks why Jesus would bother with the command if the disciples were not likely to go to the Gentiles anyway. For Wilkins, the prohibition dispels any doubts about whether Jesus was really the messiah. This is “Israel’s opportunity” and later they will be responsible for their rejection of the Messiah (Matthew, 390).
Is this restriction retracted in the Great Commission? Perhaps. But in the Book of Acts the initial mission was to still to the Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 2-7) first. There is suspicion of Philip’s mission in Samaria (Acts 8) and of Peter’s mission to Cornelius (Acts 10). Even in Acts 21 it does not seem like James is operating under the Great Commission; he is not reaching out to Samaritans or Gentiles (and probably not Hellenistic Jews). John Nolland argues Matthew did not consider the Great Commission as a “replacement of the mission to Israel with a mission to the Gentiles,” Jesus’s disciples are to continue their mission to Israel after the resurrection (Matthew, 429).
Who are the lost sheep of the house of Israel? The “lost sheep of the house of Israel” alludes to Jeremiah 50:6 and evokes the long exile of Israel. Just prior to the final destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of God’s people among the nations, God describes the people as “lost sheep,” ignored by their shepherds and harassed by the nations. Remember Matthew has just described the Jewish crowds as “sheep without a shepherd” (9:36). As the messiah, Jesus is the good shepherd sending his working into the world to care for the lost sheep.
The twelve are to proclaim the same message as Jesus, “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Although repentance is not specifically mentioned in 10:6-7, Jesus condemns the villages of Galilee because they did not repent after seeing his miracles (11:20-24). The disciples are to do the same messianic signs as Jesus in Matthew 8-9 (heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons).
So we get to John. John 10:16
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd.
And a handful of other related scripture
Isaiah 56:8
Thus declares the Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: "I will gather to them still others besides those already gathered."
Ezekiel 34:12
As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
Acts 15:14
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
Romans 8:29,30
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren…
John 6:37
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Ezekiel 37:22
And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
Ephesians 2:14
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
“Replacement theology” that considers the church to have taken the place of Israel is sinful, not only because of its arrogance toward the Jewish people which the Bible warns us against, but also in terms of its failure to appropriate Romans 1:16 in its understanding of the Great Commission. The gospel is for the Jewish people today as much as it ever was. Our challenge is to boldly and joyfully embrace the truth that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation particularly to the Jew and equally to the Gentile.The church must strive to remember that historically, contextually and covenantally, the gospel is, was and will always be particularly and especially for Jewish people because it’s such a Jewish thing!
Romans 11 teaches that Gentiles can be included and grafted in equally, alongside Israel. Ephesians shows how the Gentile believer is welcomed into a new home, one they have never been to before, but they are now warmly invited in as family. The red carpet is laid out for the nations to join the commonwealth of Israel, and they can be adopted into a home that was not their own. Equally, when we share the gospel with Jewish people, we are not asking them to leave the faith of their Fathers – we are inviting them to come back home.
Yet, it certainly seemed in the beginning that Jesus was only for the Jews....
Yet, it still certainly seemed in the beginning that Jesus was only for the Jews.... and I praise God with thanks for that Olive Tree.