One Flock, One Shepherd: The Unfinished Mission

Today, we conclude our week of praying for missions by fasting and praying.

If your personal priorities were like favorites on your phone, what would be included? Like the saved numbers you place in your cell phone, what priorities would be included among your favorites? The care of your family, a job and a career, and time to relax and enjoy yourselves. Social media time, Netflix, and “me time” – would they be in your favorites? Some of you give time to the community because you are officers, firemen, social workers, and teachers. Would you include reaching the nations for the gospel in your favorites? Do missions and evangelism rise to make it in your top five or your top ten?

As you ponder this, consider Paul, who wrote about half of your New Testament. For the apostle Paul, he wished he would go to hell if it meant the Jewish people could know Christ (Romans 9:1-3). Paul had this burning desire to share the gospel where people had never heard the name of Jesus (Romans 15:20).

Again, I ask you: Do missions and evangelism rise to make it in your top five or your top ten?

Find John 10 with me, if you will.

Before our nation was formed, a young man spent much of his adult life spreading the gospel to the Native Americans in the New England area. He said, “I exceedingly longed, that God would get to himself a name among the heathen … I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardship I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ.”1 That young man was David Brainard, who died at just 29 years of age from tuberculosis. His diary would inspire thousands over the next few centuries to go into the mission field. “I declare, now I am dying, I would not have spent my life otherwise for the whole world.”

Today’s Scripture

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:1-18).

During this week, where our focus is on missions, I want you to focus on Jesus’ words: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also.”

Sermon Preview

1. Nine Facts About Jesus and Us

2. I Have Other Sheep

3. Where Do I Start?

1. Nine Facts About Jesus and Us

There’s a lot going on here. Since I doubt any of you raise sheep for a living, and probably none of us even knows a shepherd. Let me offer you nine facts that come straight from Jesus’ words.