Something of the glory of God in His soveriegn gifts of spiritual life and spiritual growth...

“My Sheep Hear My Voice”

(John 10:22-42, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 7, 2009)

John 10:22-42 See page 896 in your pew Bibles.

Q: How do followers of Christ respond to the Word of the Good Shepherd?

A: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

The Voice of God (22-27)

In the tenth chapter of John’s gospel, we have been hearing the words of Jesus Christ as He reveled Himself, first as the Door for all who would be a part of His gathering, and then as the great Shepherd of those who would be His sheep. While the entire chapter uses sheep and shepherd imagery in order to make a series of important spiritual points, it does not appear that all of these words were spoken on the same occasion. The first half of the chapter, ending at verse 21, makes reference to Jesus’ great miracle of opening the eyes of a blind man, which we are told took place at the biblical Feast of Tabernacles or Booths in September or October. Beginning with verse 22 we are given a time reference that was two or three months after that great sign, at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukah) in December, which was not a biblical feast at all, but one that came from Jewish tradition. It should not surprise us that there could have been many occasions where Jesus used the biblical idea that God is the great Shepherd of Israel in order to further identify Himself as the God/Man who would lead us to pastures of the fullest blessing.

Jesus Himself brings up the Shepherd/sheep motif again in response to the inquiry of the Jews concerning His identity. They insist, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ (Messiah), tell us plainly.” The expectation that there would be a singular figure sent by God who would work a great deliverance for the whole of God’s people is all over the Old Testament writings. This singular figure came to be known as the Anointed One of God, in Hebrew “Messiah,” and in Greek “Christ.” If they were at all confused concerning whether or not Jesus considered Himself to be this singular figure, His words recorded here must take away all doubt. He says, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about Me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Unless we are to reject the Bible as the Word of God, and as Jesus later says, “Scripture cannot be broken,” there can be no doubt at all from this testimony that Jesus considered Himself to be the Christ.

He reminds them again of the works that He had performed, the great signs of a miracle-working Messiah. He draws their attention to the fact that these signs He did in His Father’s Name. The point of this is to highlight the unity of the Father and the Son in the miracles of Jesus, signs that testify to the truth that He is the Christ. Therefore, it is not only Jesus who claims that He is the Messiah, for through these works that Jesus does in His Father’s Name, the Father testifies to the fact that Jesus is this singular shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep, saving them now from God’s wrath for their sins, and granting them full deliverance, not only now, but eternally. But they have not believed in Him, they have not listened to the message of His works and His words, they have not believed this testimony of the Father and Son concerning Jesus, and the reason, Jesus says, that they have not believed this is that they are not God’s sheep.

There is something for us to consider here. The sheep of God hear God’s voice. Jesus has come to earth as the Voice of God. Do we need this voice? All creation testifies to the eternal power and divine nature of God. Paul testifies to this in Romans 1. The Psalmist says that the heavens declare the glory of God. Yet we can only go so far in our understanding of God and His ways from our consideration of God’s works of creation and providence. We can know that there must be an eternal God. We can and should consider His power. We can also plainly see in the evil and tragedy in this world that something has gone wrong, and we may even find welling up within us a desire for some victory over death, as our hearts yearn for something beyond the flaws that we plainly feel in the present world. We must conclude that if there is any answer to those longings, that answer must come from the voice of God. To get the answer to our deepest questions (What has gone wrong? How will it be fixed? How might that solution mean something good for us?), we must have something more than our own considerations from gazing at the skies. We need a voice, which God has been pleased to give to us first through the speech of prophets. But then Jesus came, and He does not merely speak for God. He is the Voice of God, and the key to all the messages of God granted to His people previously in the Scriptures. The sheep hear His voice, He knows them, and they follow Him.

One God, One Voice (28-38)

Jesus wants us to closely connect His voice with the Father’s voice. The sheep that follow Jesus He calls “my sheep,” but He also says that the Father gave the sheep to the Son. They are in the Son’s hands, but they are also in the Father’s hands, for He says that no one is able to snatch them out of His Father’s hands. This parallel talk, where something said of the Son is also said of the Father, must mean some kind of unity of being between the Father and the Son. We do not have to guess at this, since Jesus plainly says, “I and the Father are one.” There is something here of the Trinity in the words of Jesus. Jesus is one, and the Father is one. Why would not Jesus and the Father together be two? Something like that could be said, and we would be able to understand it as referring to the person of the Father and the person of the Son, but Jesus is teaching us something here. Jesus is one, the Father is one, and Jesus and the Father are one. There is only one God, and the two persons of the Father and the Son are together one God. The Jews who are pressing Him hear these words, and they pick up stones to stone Him.

It is clear from their reaction that there were those who took great offense at His statements. Were they being fair, or did their response reveal an unfair hatred towards Him? Their accusation was that He, though He was a man, was claiming something of the title of “god.” Jesus turns to the Scripture in order to show that the word that we translate “god’ has a range of meaning that can include leading men with no claim to divinity at all, men who have merely been vested with the authority of judgment, and are for this reason granted the title “god” (Psalm 82). If God could use this word to describe sinful men of authority (like these adversaries), and every word of Scripture is true and cannot be broken, how could it be blasphemy for Jesus to call Himself the Son of God? He came down from heaven. He was set apart by the Father for His unique mission as the sinless God/Man who would die for our sins. There is something sinister here. These men hate the true Son of God, and they want to kill Him.

Jesus calls on them to consider the works that He has done, and then to rightly consider who He is, and what His relationship is with the Father. They need to know and understand that the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Because there is only one God, there can only be one divine voice. All of the created world was made and is now sustained by the Father and the Son, and all of the Scriptures inspired by God can be thought of as the Word of the Father and the Son. There is one Voice and one God.

Hearing His Voice (39-42)

Early in this discussion Jesus had stated that He had already plainly revealed Himself as the Christ. But now He has added to His previous statements with further clear assertions concerning His unity with His Father in His being, in His saving work, and especially in His existence as the Voice of God. What would be an appropriate response for those who love God, and can plainly see that Jesus has fulfilled the prophetic expectation of what the Messiah would do in His miraculous signs? Anyone who would have even the smallest sense of the Voice of God in the Words of Jesus Christ should recognize our great need to hear this Voice. The beauty of the earth is a wonder to behold. It does testify to the eternal power and divine nature of God, but the answers to our deepest questions can only come from the Voice of God speaking to us in words. Even more than the Words of the Voice, we needed the Voice to come in person to die for us, and to firmly establish the blessing of the new life for us in His resurrection. We need to hear that voice as One that is truly for each of us. The only appropriate thing for a worshiper of God is to hear that voice in the simple preaching of Christ from the Scriptures, and then to listen to that voice, and to follow Him.

This was not the response from the Jews who were confronting Jesus that day. What did they do? They sought to arrest Him, but they could not seem to accomplish that yet. The hatred of the world for Christ and His message is not the response of fair, open-minded people who are honestly waiting for just the right combination of eminently reasonable points before they will surrender to God. By our nature we hate God. This is why it is such a joy when any of us, after our years of resisting the Lord, is actually brought to eagerly hear God’s Word. Such a thing can only come from the Spirit of God, the third person of the Godhead, whom John will say more about in later chapters.

There were others at the end of John 10 who did have a good response to all of what transpired. Though Jesus had to leave the vicinity of Jerusalem and minister in another place, these other people sought Him out and came to Him there. They considered all that John the Baptist had earlier said about Jesus when he pointed to Him as the Lamb of God, and many of them believed. The Voice of God in the person of Jesus Christ is the voice that we need to hear if we want to have true spiritual growth as the Lord’s sheep. This is what the preaching of the Word from both the Old and the New Testament needs to be all about. We need to hear the Shepherd, the voice of the Man who insisted, “I and the Father are one.” There is nothing lacking in this saving and sanctifying Voice. Hearing and following Him is the way for us to grow. Refusing His Word or ignoring what He says in order to go our own way makes no sense for the true flock of God. It is part of the glory of God that His sheep hear His voice and they follow Him.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What has Jesus “plainly” revealed about Himself?

2. What is the “voice” that the true sheep of God hear and follow?

3. Why do the Jews claim that they want to stone Jesus? Are they being honest?

4. How can we today grow in our hearing of the voice of Jesus Christ?