One Shepherd, One Flock
But does practice not show that this is often very difficult, and that seeking other contacts easily breaks down over differences of opinion? Let us then consider on what the content of Lord’s Day 21 is based. That is what Jesus Himself teaches us, beginning with John 10. He Himself is the good, the excellent Shepherd, who is there for His sheep. He knows His sheep, He loves them. He feeds them and protects them. And the sheep also notice of their part that their Shepherd loves them:
they listen to His voice and follow Him. But other leaders, such as hired hands and false shepherds, they do not follow.
Furthermore, Jesus teaches in John 10 that He, as the only Shepherd, as the only Head, also truly wants to have only one flock. He has the first sheep from the Jews, from God’s old covenant people.
But then sheep come from outside, who in the past did not belong, but who also want to follow Him at His call. These are believers from the Gentiles. He does not make two flocks, but keeps one flock (John 10:16). Before Pentecost it is one Shepherd, one flock. After Pentecost it remains one Shepherd and one flock, because the Shepherd wills it so. He gives His life for all the sheep who hear and will hear His voice and gathers them into His one House. See also Ephesians 2:14–16.
How far that unity goes and must take shape we read in John 17, the High Priestly Prayer. In that wonderful prayer Jesus prays as He institutes the Holy Supper on the eve of His crucifixion. He prays therein to His Father in heaven. Very earnestly He pleads as High Priest, as He still does daily at the right hand of the Father. First, Jesus prays for the glorification of His Father. To Him belongs the honor for the completion of His atoning sacrifice on the cross and for the redemption of His own, of His Church. He also prays for His own glorification and for the glorification of all who believe in Him—His Church.
Next, Jesus commends His disciples, whom He will leave behind as apostles at His ascension.
He prays that the Father may preserve them from the attacks of the hostile world that is in the Evil One, and that they may hold fast to the truth of the Gospel (v. 17).
Perfect Unity
From verse 21 onward, Jesus prays that with that truth they also may be one in faith. He even prays for a very particular unity. Not merely a unity in which the apostles believe the same thing, but that they remain bound to one another as He is bound to His Father. Jesus wants to extend this much further in His prayer: He also prays for all who through the word of the apostles will believe in Him, all who through the Gospel accept Him as the Redeemer sent by God the Father. Thus He prays for the church as it is spread over the whole world, the church as we know it today.
And He says: “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us,so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfectly one.”
The unity for which Jesus prays is therefore not limited to unity on paper, nor to unity in thought,
nor to attending interdenominational conferences. No, Jesus fervently prays for a perfect unity,
a unity such as is seen between Father and Son, a unity in which the glory of Christ is visible through His Spirit.
One Body
The apostel Paul devotes extensive attention in several letters to that perfect unity, for example in Romans 12. There he speaks about the body with its many members and different gifts of grace. In 1 Corinthians 12 he elaborates further: it is one body in which the one Holy Spirit works with different gifts. Also in Ephesians 4 this image of the one body of Christ is held before the congregation.
She is called to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace: one body, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is above all and through all and in all.
From Christ as the Head the whole body is joined together and held together by every supporting ligament. Thus the body obtains its growth, to the building up of itself in love. In such a congregation the truth is held fast in love, and the congregation grows as a unity toward Christ, the Head.
Also beyond the local congregation there is unity between congregations mutually— that is, the unity of a federation of churches, and the unity of sister churches. In the time of the apostles that unity was maintained by the apostles themselves. There was mutual concern at a distance when there was financial need. Co-workers of the apostles, such as Timothy and others, also traveled to the various congregations to serve there. In Jerusalem a meeting, a council, was held for all the congregations spread over several countries (see Acts 15). There, in the interest of unity in the truth, biblical guidelines were established for the mutual relations of Christians from the Jews and Christians from the Gentiles.
For unity in the truth everything proceeds from Jesus Christ, for He is the one Shepherd, the one Head. The unity in and with Him must continue in His body: His church, with its locak federation and all worldwide foreign contacts. That is also conform the image of Revelation 1, where John sees Christ walking among seven lampstands—the seven churches— that is His church of all places and times.
(to be continued)