Month: May 2019

Easter 4
John 10:22-30

Hearing the voice of Jesus

My sheep hear my voice, I know them, they follow me

Amongst my most irritating habits is thinking about something else whilst someone is talking to me. As Sarah will  readily attest, what is really irritating is that after being accused of not listening, I repeat back pretty much word for word what she has just said to me . . . thereby proving that I have heard . . . but of course I haven’t heard at all!

I haven’t been attentive and responsive to what was said to me.

We are in the season of The Resurrection. The season of the call to New Life – the Life of the Children of God. Hearing that call is literally Vital. If we do not hear the call to Life we remain dead in the old life. Jesus you may remember emphasises the blessedness of those who have not seen, yet have believed. That dear brothers and sisters is us. We his church are those who have Heard and believed. As St Paul says, ‘Faith comes through hearing’ Romans 10:17. For we Christians ‘Hearing is believing’ Hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd. This is why we stand for the gospel, to Hear Jesus.

One of the things we notice about John’s gospel if we are attentive listeners is how often Jesus speaks of the significance of Hearing. So when today we hear Jesus say ‘My sheep hear my voice’, we may well remember hearing in John 5

Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.

‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Very Truly – in Greek ‘Amen! Amen!’ [Return to this re receiving the Eucharist.] Not just Amen, but Amen Amen! Twice in two consecutive verses. Amen Amen. Jesus is speaking Words of Deep Truth, Amen! Amen! like a trumpet call to bring us to attention
Anyone who hears my word and believes God has passed form death to Life. Amen, Amen! the hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live . . . and then that perhaps makes us think of Lazarus! Who hears the voice of the Son of God and passes from death to Life. ‘Lazarus! Come out!’

The Resurrection of Lazarus is not as it were a sign of The General Resurrection of the dead – for if it were he would be here with us to this day. No the Resurrection of Lazarus is a Sign of what happens to those who hear the voice of Jesus. They come out from death to Life. They enter the Life of the Resurrection, the Life of the Risen One. In which the Life is one of response to the voice of Jesus. That is their very Life.

His voice literally Animates – Enlivens. His Command is Life!

We have learned to Hear his voice – to respond to his command. Those who have heard His voice have moved from death to life.

This is clear in John’s first letter

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. We’ve heard Jesus. Whoever does not love abides in death. Has not heard the voice of Jesus, has not come out from the place of death, to the place of Life. ‘you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice’

Why do we love one another? Because we are responding to the voice of Jesus, we reveal He is our lIfe in so doing. We have heard His voice and so we love one another. But we are responding to his voice. The word Obedience is from a latin root which means to Truly hear! One who lives in accordance with the voice of Jesus is one who has truly heard the voice of Jesus and to hear the voice of Jesus is to pass from the old way of Sin and death to new Life in Him

My sheep hear my voice. What does it mean to be one of Jesus’ sheep? It means that we belong to the Shepherd – put in terms which make this clearer we recognise Him to be our King. The Shepherd was the Image of the King. So we find Jesus walking in Solomon’s porch. He is in the Kings door – no wonder they are asking Him, are you the Anointed One? Are you the King? As Jesus has said – The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. – Jesus walks in the Kings gate to the Temple. The Temple the place from which flowed the life giving water of the Life of God, through the King.
Throughout the story of the children of Israel, the King was called to be the source of Life. The king whose Life was devoted to God was Life giving, a good shepherd. The Life of the King was intimately woven together with the fortunes of the people, and this life giving nature of the King was epitomised in the Temple from where the Life flowed.

Lives woven together with the Good shepherd. ‘My sheep hear my voice, I Know them.

Regrettably we live in world where relationships are horribly thin . . . we may even say that we know someone whom we have never met. We may be ‘FB friends’, but to Know someone in the Scriptures goes much much further. It the the verb used to describe intimacy between a husband and a wife. To Know is to Love and to surrender oneself to. To be identified with – Jesus in saying ‘I know [my sheep]’ is saying he has surrendered his life for them, has woven His lIfe together with that of His sheep so that He is their Life. If we have heard and respond to the voice of Jesus, we are his sheep, His eternal Life is woven together with ours

My sheep hear my voice, I Know them.

My sheep hear my voice, I Know them . . . they follow me

Jesus says, ‘The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’

Those who belong to Jesus, his sheep, hear his voice, they respond to it – they are Animated and enlivened by His command. This is the meaning of faith! Do you believe in Him? Then your life should correspond to His! How do we know we have passed from death to Life? How do we Know that we are Jesus’ sheep? Because He is our Life! His Life is ours and we delight in responding to Him.

You may remember last week – and we considered the climber who climbed that great cliff without a rope? This was his Life – it was what he lived to do. Do you remember what the climber said after he had climbed the mountain, not – ‘I am so glad that is over, that was so scary – I was so afraid.’ But That was so good! So delightful. We know we are the sheep of Jesus when we enter into the knowledge of Jesus of the Goodness and delight of responding to his voice, of loving one another!