By Arthur J Licursi

In Bible study, according to Paul’s admonition of “rightly dividing the world of truth” (2Tim 2:15), we need to differentiate between three people groups with regard to their relationship with the Lord and His call for them, if we are to see His eternal plan as a whole; encompassing both “the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1).

I am writing of these three (3) people groups of God:

1) The Apostate Nation Israel, which is presently “fallen” (Rom. 11:10-11, 25).

2) The New Covenant believing “remnant” of Israel are believers who believed in the time of John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and the twelve Apostles, and those who died in faith during the Tribulation.

3) The mainly Gentile “church…the body of Christ,” whose Apostle is Paul (Rom. 11:13), consists of those who are saved today under the terms of Paul’s grace gospel. This is presented in Paul’s unique thirteen epistles (Romans to Philemon). Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God” applies to “all men,” both Jews and Gentiles, during this age of the “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2, cf. Gal 3:28)

These differences are only seen as different and Biblically differentiated when we “rightly divide” the Scripture as to what prophetically applies to Israel versus that of the secretly planned “body of Christ.” We must “Study … rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, KJV only)

Having said that, we can now look at examples of the various terms used to differentiate between the Apostate Nation Israel, and the New Covenant believing “remnant” of Israel, as seen here.

“Even so then at this present time also there is a ‘remnant (of Israel) according to the election of grace.’  ⁷What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election (of Israel) hath obtained it, and the rest (of Israel) were blinded” (Romans 11:7 (KJV)

In Romans chapters 9-11 Paul addresses the place of Israel not “the body of Christ,” during this age of grace.

Before I address Jesus words concerning the sheep on John 10, we should note John 9 to set the context of John 10. In John 9 is the blind Jewish man was healed by Jesus, receiving his sight. Soon after, the healed blind man was brought before the Pharisees speaking supportively of Jesus who healed him. These religious overseers of the Nation Israel then “cast him out” by the Pharisees (Jn. 9:35). Recall that Jesus had come to ‘seek and save the lost sheep’ of which this man was. We could say Jesus led this man out of the religious fold of Israel, to follow Him. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” (Jn. 10:27 (KJV)

Now we can consider see the term “other sheep” of John 10:16 which as we will see refers to the New Covenant believing “remnant” of Israel. These “other sheep” came out of the “fold” of unbelieving National Israel by the grace of His calling and “election” of faith in Jesus to form a His “little flock” (Luke 12:32) who would inherit the kingdom on earth. So these are they that heard and followed Jesus as their “One Shepherd.” Jesus, was always addressing “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  

“⁹I [Jesus] am the door: by me if any man [anyone of Israel] enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go IN and OUT, and Find Pasture… ¹⁰ I am come that they [those of Israel] might have life (Zoë, His Spirit-life), and that they might have it more abundantly. ¹³The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling [a paid religious worker works for money], and careth NOT for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the ‘good shepherd,’ and know my sheep, and am known of mine….

¹⁶And ‘OTHER sheep’ I have, which are not of this fold (of National Israel): them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold (Greek, poinme, FLOCK), and ‘one shepherd.” (John 10:9-16)

The verses above have nothing to do with the members of “the Church… the body of Christ.” Jesus of Nazareth said He had come to address only “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). All that Jesus spoke concerned the Nation Israel. He defined who His real sheep were, calling them His “little flock” (Luke 12:32).

So, as we see, there are two (2) kinds of “sheep” of Israel being discussed by Jesus in John 10. Jesus said only the sheep who “hear (His) voice” (v16) and “follow me”; but the record is also clear that vast majority of the sheep in the “fold” of the Nation Israel did not receive Him – they called for killing Him by Roman crucifixion! Those who rejected Him are those of whom Jesus said, by parable, “we will not have this man [Jesus] to reign over us” (Lk. 19:14). Those of apostate National Israel rejected the Savior and did not believe to become part of His “other sheep” of v16, who are Jesus’ believing “little flock” (v16). Jesus’ “little flock” were “in” or part of the God-ordained Nation Israel but they came “out” of the “fold” of apostate Israel; these are not of “the body of Christ” as many Christians suppose.

It’s interesting to consider that a “fold” is an animal stock pen where stray sheep lost to their owner were found and held until their rightful owner would come to claim them. This holding pen or “fold” is the Apostate Nation Israel who was called of God but consistently rejected God and even killed His prophets in the Old Testament, and then they killed the Prince of Peace, Jesus of Nazareth, when He came to Israel.  

By contrast a “flock” describes a group of like-minded ones who are united in following their One Shepherd. I picture this “flock” in the open green “pasture” (Jn. 10:9), beside “the still waters” (Psa. 23:2), secure under their “One Shepherd,” while at the same time life for sheep in the “fold” of Apostate National Israel is one of ‘captive sheep,’ eating dry straw and barely existing.

1) The unbelieving sheep of the “fold” of Apostate Nation Israel did not receive Jesus.

2) The believing “other sheep” (Jn. 10:16), who are of Jesus’ “little flock,” did receive Him by faith, being His “remnant… according to election” (Rom 11:5, cf. v7).

Jesus’ New Covenant Messianic believers of Israel are the members Jesus’ “little flock” who;

a) were baptized with ‘John’s water “baptism unto repentance”;

b) heard Jesus of Nazareth’s declaration that “the Kingdom” was “at hand,” and

c) those who responded in faith to “the gospel of the kingdom” that Jesus preached, to follow Him. and then the words of the Twelve Apostles during the early Acts period.

Jesus called these liberated sheep of John 10, His “little flock” (Luke 12:32). This was a “remnant,” a small number of the whole Nation Israel. While speaking to those of the Nation Israel, in the “fold,” (Jn. 10), Jesus referred to these believers of His “little flock” as His “other sheep” (John 10:16).

“Fear not, ‘little flock’; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Paul, “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13), later referred to the “little flock” as “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16). These Messianic believers of Israel will one day co-reign (Rev. 5:10, 20:6) and dwell with Jesus in His Millennial Kingdom, and in the Eternal Kingdom, on earth, beginning with His 2^nd coming.

Again. the “little flock” (Luke 12:32), “other sheep” (John 10:16), “the remnant” (Rom. 11:5, 7), also called “the Israel of God” by Paul (Gal 6:16), and those of a “circumcised of heart” (Rom 2:29), all refer to the Messianic New Covenant believers of the Nation Israel, not the Christian members of “the church… the body of Christ.”

These phrases do not include or have anything to do with the Gentiles of today’s grace age members of “the church, which is His body” (Eph 1:22b-23a), This, His “body,” consist of those who came to believe and receive the Lord as savior and then learn of Paul’s “Great mystery” (Eph. 5:32) which is “His body” during the Post-Acts age of “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2).

We can liken the Biblical distinction among the two groups of Israelites to what we see as played out among Christians today. There are those law-keeping legalistic Christians who are captive to their denomination’s precepts and traditions, living on straw. But also, there are Christians who have seen Paul’s grace gospel and live in liberty and power of the cross, free to “walk in the Spirit” (Gal 5:16, 18, 25), following Christ as He leads by “the Spirit” and “the word.”

In His earthly ministry “to the circumcision [Israel]” (Rom 15:8, Matt 15:24), Jesus of Nazareth preached that the Kingdom to come on earth was “at hand.” He demonstrated the miracles that will the norm in His Millennial Kingdom and then in the Eternal Kingdom – under the New Covenant, for “the Israel of God,” but they of the Nation Israel would not believe, so Israel is fallen, blinded, and cast away for a time (Rom. 11:12-12, 15) “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25)

The “kingdom of heaven” will one day come down to come to earth. The believing “remnant” of Israel which is Jesus’ bride, consist of those of Israel in whom His Spirit dwells on “the new earth.” Israel will have received her eternal inheritance, which is “the Spirit” of Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ living in and through them as His agents on earth. He will indwell every believer of Israel and ‘cause them to walk in righteousness.’ This was prophesied, long ago, by Israel’s prophets.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh (tenderness). ²⁷And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. ²⁸And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Of course, today, we as the living members of “the church, which is the body of Christ” (Eph 1:22b-23a), have already received the eternal resurrected “Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” into our human spirits to be “one” with Him. Thus, being one with Him;

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in [heaven’s] glory.” (Colossians 3:4 (KJV)