In January our church had a business meeting. We began by reflecting on the story of Samuel. The one when God called his name. And after some confusion he prayed the prayer that Eli taught him, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening”. And God spoke! At that meeting I invited the church to join me in making that our prayer for 2020. We didn’t know that our lives were about to be disrupted by a virus. We didn’t realize that we would only have a few more worship services in our building before it would sit empty for 6 months. How do we make sense of any of this other than to pray, “Speak Lord! Your servants are listening!”.
I believe that God inspired that focus for us in January. And this is the focus that we need right now as we transition to worshipping in our church building.
Our text is John 10:1-6. It’s an illustration about a Shepherd who speaks and His sheep who hear His voice.
The illustration comes out of a conversation about a blind man that Jesus healed. Jesus said, “for judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind” (9:36). Some Pharisees started to piece together what He was saying and asked if He was calling them blind. He replied, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘we see,’ your guilt remains” (9:41). That is how chapter 9 ends. That is the conversation that leads Jesus to say what He said about sheep and shepherds. Chapter 9 is about seeing, chapter 10 is about hearing. There is hope because just as Jesus can heal the man born blind he can tune our ears to hear His voice. But there is also a great caution. Just as guilt is associated with an insistence that we see, error is a real risk when we insist that we hear God’s voice perfectly. Their assumption of being able to see kept them blind. Our assumption that we already know what God is saying keeps us from listening.
John 10:1-2 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.
Let’s identify the main characters.
- The sheep are the church. They are those the Good Shepherd laid His life down for (v11).
- The door is Jesus (v9). He is the only way to enter into salvation.
- The thief is Satan, the one who destroys life (v10). The illustration of the thief extends to anyone who leads the sheep who does not enter by the door of Christ (v1).
- The shepherd is Jesus (v14). Yeah, Jesus is both the door and the shepherd. He can do whatever He wants. And any undershepherd who is led by Jesus(the Good Shepherd) will enter the fold through Jesus (the door).
That is the big picture of what Jesus is saying.
John 10:3-4 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.
Notice what the shepherd does! The shepherd speaks to the sheep and leads them.
Notice what the sheep do! The sheep hear His voice and follow Him.
Speak Lord! Your Servants are listening
This is how the church is designed to work. God’s Church is a voice activated church.
Voice activation technology has advanced to the point that it feels a bit unnatural. We have sophisticated machines, appliances, gadgets and devices. And some of these know our voice and obey it. You can tell the thermostat to turn up the heat while you spend 5 more minutes under your covers. After the house has warmed up you can transition to your recliner and tell the window shades to lower just a bit when you feel the sun in your eyes. Then tell your smart speaker to play your favorite morning tunes. Then, while enjoying the recliner, prepare a hot drink by giving a voice command to your electric kettle over in the kitchen. Your whole house obeys your voice. You’re in control. Unless you talk in your sleep. Then you might burn the house down. But your devices are too smart to do that. There is probably a smart device to prevent the other smart devices from listening to you when it detects you are sleeping.
A hyper convenient overconnected world where our surroundings are controlled by our own voice is not natural. It produces self-centered control freaks. Because it is controlled by the WRONG VOICE.
The church is voice activated but not by our voice. It has to be God’s voice.
Think of God’s power fueling the church in the way electricity powers a lightbulb.
- God has the power to flip a switch. But He doesn’t violate that whole freedom thing.
- With the right wiring and a bit of effort you can power a light by pedaling a stationary bike. And we have been guilty of trying to generate our own power for the church. But God doesn’t do that. He is not out of breath trying to generate enough power to keep His church going.
- Remember the clap on lights? God doesn’t power His church by applause. Our pride might fool us to think that the wellbeing of the church is directly related to how much people appreciate our contributions. But God doesn’t need to feed our pride in order to run His church.
- Lights can be scheduled to automatically come on and turn off at certain times. But church life is never dependent upon a preprogrammed schedule.
None of these illustrations work because they don’t involve relationship. There is nothing intimate about a switch or a schedule. But voice activation requires a relationship of God speaking(initiating) and us hearing(and responding). The voice activated church is a church in relationship with God.
God is faithful to speak!
- Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
- Amos 3:7 For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
- John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
- Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
We are called to listen!
- Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
- Mark 9:7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”.
- John 8:47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.
- Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
In all who are under the training of God is to be revealed a life that is not in harmony with the world, its customs, or its practices; and everyone needs to have a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Ps. 46:10. Here alone can true rest be found. And this is the effectual preparation for all who labor for God. Amid the hurrying throng, and the strain of life’s intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men’s hearts.
Desire of Ages page 363
If we can get past the constant noise of our world we will find a faithful, loving, persistent voice of our Shepherd. Behind the headlines He is advancing His will and involving
That’s what was going on with Samuel, God spoke, Samuel listened.
God spoke, Noah listened!
Genesis 6:13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people…”.
Genesis 6:22 “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”
God spoke, Abram listened!
Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country…”
Genesis 12:4 “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him.”
God spoke, Moses listened!
Exodus 3:19-20 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
God spoke, Saul listened!
Acts 9:4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
God spoke, Martin Luther listened!
God impressed upon him the words of Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith”.
God spoke, Ellen White listened!
There was a voice that said, “Look again, and look a little higher”.
Our ultimate example is how Jesus listened to the Father while living on this earth.
John 8:28 “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.”
Isaiah 50:4 ,5 He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.
That is an ideal for the church. It doesn’t always happen. People don’t always agree or get along in the church. Because God’s sheep get mixed messages. It’s not that we are not wanting to listen to His voice. It often happens when we all think we are listening to his voice and that gives us the conviction behind all of our not getting along.
Where do these mixed messages come from? How should we respond to them?
Verse 4 The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
He calls us by name. He speaks to us individually. When the sheep get mixed messages it’s possible that both messages are from God. Truth doesn’t change but truth is big. Perhaps what you heard and what I hear are not at odds. But if we will follow the shepherd a bit further we may see that the messages fit together in His plan. It’s not always the case. But if we fail to consider this we might miss something important that the Shepherd is saying.
Verse 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
If we don’t know His voice we might follow the voice of a stranger(v5). When the sheep get mixed messages it’s possible that they are listening to the wrong voice. Following the right voice depends on knowing the right voice. And none of us know it perfectly. We must test the spirits to know whether they are from God(1 John 4:1). When you test, test yourself first. Don’t let your first assumption be that another sheep is listening to the voice of the devil. You can help your brother see clearly but first you need to take the log out of your own eye(Matthew 7:5).
Verse 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
There is a bit of irony here. Jesus tells His disciples that His sheep hear His voice and they don’t understand what He is saying. When the sheep get mixed messages it’s possible that they are listening to the right voice but they just don’t understand it. Abraham heard God’s voice but he did not understand why God told him to kill his son. When we don’t understand we need to keep listening and asking. Rather than declaring policies for others based on our little understanding we need to seek God together.
Mixed messages are actually helpful!
The goal is to actually hear from God not to prove that we hear from God better than someone else. We help each other to hear His voice clearly. Sure, it can cause division and conflict. But it is also an opportunity for clarity. An opportunity to check one another. God uses others to help us hear his voice more clearly.
The solution to mixed messages is not to argue about it, to dig deeper into your position, to unfriend others, or to stop moving forward as a church. No, it is to seek God together. Other believers who believe a bit differently are not spiritual enemies but spiritual assets. They are not there to stop us from following the Shepherd but to help us clarify how we hear His voice.
These mixed messages are not going away!
Until the second coming, we are not going to hear His voice perfectly. If we stop hearing it differently, we may have stopped hearing it altogether. And so long as we have a heart for God we are going to feel conviction. Let’s not try to eliminate or ignore the mixed messages. Instead, let’s respond to them in a way that moves us toward God.
The greatest sign of life in our church is not that our doors are open for gatherings but that our ears are open to God. I am grateful for the open doors. I am desperate for the open ears.
Let’s be a church that is activated by the voice of God.
Let’s make this a conversation!
What struggles have you experienced in listening to God’s voice? What has helped you to hear Him?
Consider Isaiah 50:4 & 5. What would it be like to have this experience listening to God?
How have you experienced mixed messages from God in the church? How have you seen them addressed in a positive way? How about in a negative way? What might you do to better support a church culture that listens to the voice of God?
Push yourself to consider that some of the voices you don’t appreciate in your church might be the voice of the Shepherd through on of His sheep. Is there some value in that message you don’t appreciate? Be curious. What could you take from it to better follow God?