The Unbelief of the Jews (John 10:22-30)

Easter 4 (25^th April 2010)

Text: John 10:22-30

 

Gospel Reading: John 10:22-30 (New International Version)

 

The Unbelief of the Jews

 ²²Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. ²⁴The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."

 ²⁵Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, ²⁶but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one."

 

The theme for this Sunday is taken from verse 27 of our gospel reading, where Jesus said: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me”.

I believe that every single person who gives himself or herself to serve in Church believes that he or she is trying to fulfill the will of God in his or her life.  And it is also true for others believers who offer themselves to do something good in whatever areas they feel God is calling them into.   However, I cannot help but ask myself, “If someone is doing the will of God and I am also doing the will of God, why is it that we often can’t agree with one another on a number of issues?  Am I wrong, or is the other guy wrong, or are both of us wrong in our interpretation of the will of God?”

What do we actually mean when we talk about doing the will of God?  We know it means living according to His plan for our lives. It means seeking His guidance in specific decisions so that we can make wise choices or seek solutions to our problems. 

However, there are questions that we also need to ask ourselves: "How can I know the will of God? If God speaks to me, how can I recognize his voice?”   If we want to find the will of God we need to know the voice of God.  Jesus, when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness said, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'

It is a reminder that our survival is not just dependent on what the world has to offer: we must be sustained by the word of God.  This is why it is important to know the voice of God.  But how does God speak to you and I?   We know that God speaks to us through the Bible – that is for sure.  We know God may also speak to us through a sermon or seminar or when we study the Bible in group.  The question is how do we recognize it?   

When I preach a sermon, I say so many words and use a number of illustrations. Where in the sermon is God speaking to you?  I am sure God is not going to speak to you for 20 minutes or even five minutes. Most often, out of the many words that we are using, God may speak may speak to you through a single sentence or in just one phrase, or even a single word.  It may be a sentence or word that brings conviction, penitence, hope, strength, or renewed faith!  So unless you pay attention, there is a great possibility that you will miss it.  That is why so many of us miss that one special word from God because of distractions, tiredness, impatience, lack of interest, or because we happen to be in the toilet at that time.

God speak to us so many times and in so many ways, but a lot of time we miss his voice because there are many things that distract us from hearing the voice of God.  There are many voices in the world clamoring for attention. They may be human voices. Sometimes the voice of man may give wise advice. Sometimes we mistake our grand or logical ideas with the word of God.   But what if the voice of man, spoken from the pulpit or at church meeting, conflicts with the voice of God?  Peter and the other apostles, when confronted with the choice said, “"We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29)

There is the voice of Satan.  The voice of Satan was first heard by man when he spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3: l, 4 & 5).  The voice of Satan is nothing but lies and deceits, and its purpose is to lead man into sin away from God. He can plant the thoughts into our minds or he can use another person to mislead us.  

Evil spirits or demons also have voices. Acts 8: 7 tells us that “unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them...”  Luke 4: 33-44 tells us: “In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, ³⁴"Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

Then there is that voice that comes from ourselves.  Some of us do talk to ourselves.  A few times, when Jesus told of parables where men spoke themselves, they were often up to no good.  One example of this is in Luke 16:3 where the shrewd manager said to himself, “What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg—“.  Another is Matthew 24: 48-49: Jesus said, “…suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' ⁴⁹and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.”  The words that you often say to yourself are words that you won’t dare to say in front of others are often dangerous and destructive words.  That is why Jeremiah said, “I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. “ (Jeremiah 10:23).

Now my main purpose of standing here is to speak about the voice of God.   Jesus in John 10: 3-5 said believers could know the voice of God and distinguish it from the voice of strangers that give wrong guidance.  And he compared the believers to sheep, because sheep must be led by the shepherd; otherwise they would be lost. You need to know a bit how the shepherds looked after their sheep to understand what Jesus was talking about here. During the day each shepherd would guide and guard his own flock of sheep. And every evening all the shepherds would put their sheep together in one enclosure and so all the sheep were mixed up.  How then could they recognize what sheep belonged to whom? It was simple because the sheep recognized the voice of his shepherd. So every morning each shepherd would come to the enclosure and sing a song, and all the sheep that belonged to him would follow him.  Another shepherd would sing his own song and his sheep would follow him too.  I hope you get the picture now when Jesus said that his sheep listen to his voice. If you are Jesus’ sheep you would know His voice and follow Him instead of following other "strange" voices.  There are three important aspects of hearing the voice of Jesus:

1. What do we need to do to hear the voice of Jesus?

First, we must belong to Jesus. If you come to church but have no intention to belong to Jesus, you are not going to hear him speaking to you.  You may hear the readers reading the lessons, me speaking from this pulpit, words of songs being sung or prayers being said, but you will not hear God’s voice.   Remember that when Jesus walked on earth there were thousands of people came to hear Jesus but not all of them understood what he was teaching them:  it was because they refuse to belong to him.  They regarded him as an enemy.  (see John 9:31; John 8:47; John 18:37)

Second, we must have the desire to obey his word. Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”  You may hear Jesus knocking your door, but if you are not willing to open it:  Jesus is not going to come in and fellowship with you.  Hebrews 3:15 says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”  Our stubborn hearts also prevent us from hearing the voice of God.

Third, we must have faith.  Hebrews 11:6 says: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”  However, Romans 10:17 says:  Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.  Faith and the ability to listen are intertwined.  You need faith to understand what you are hearing and you need to constantly hear in order to have faith.

We also need to pay attention.  A lot of time when God wants to speak to you he will use normal, everyday events.  And a lot of things can happen during the day or night.  As I said just now, out of the many words that I use to preach, God will just use one word to speak to you.

And that leads us to the next point: we must be able to discern his voice. In John 12: 28-29, after Jesus said a prayer, a voice came from heaven.  But the people who stood by who heard it thought it was a thunder; other said it was an angel.   When Elijah had an encounter with God (1 Kings 19: 11-13), God did not speak to him in the wind or earthquake or fire.  Instead God spoke in a still small voice. So don’t be deceived: a man who speaks the loudest may not be speaking from God, because he is not obliged to use the person.

Next question: Why do we need to hear the voice of Jesus?  In John 10:3 Jesus said, “The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”  Jesus wants to have a relationship with us and communicate with us. 

We need to hear his voice because our understanding of who he is depends on how much we listen to him. Even though I have been here for more than two years, and there are some church members who won’t dare to speak to me.  When they need something, they will ask someone to speak to me on their behalf.  Why?  It may be because they don’t really know me.  They have seen me; they have heard me speaking, but they have not really listened.  Likewise, a person can claim to be Christian, but if he does not come to church, does not have fellowship with other Christians, does not read the Bible, he will not recognize this Jesus that Christians are supposed to believe in. And because he does not recognize Jesus, he is not sensitive to the presence of Jesus; he is unaware of the love of Jesus; and he can’t respond to the holiness of Jesus. 

We need to hear his voice in order to follow him. This is an important point that many Christians fail to understand.  Your and my ability to stand firm in the faith depends on our constant hearing of the word of God.  Once you stop hearing the voice of God, you are going to paying attention to other voices that cause you to have doubt, to be frightened, to lose hope or to trust in your own strength.  It can cause you to become arrogant.

In Matthew 7:24 Jesus likens a man who hears his voice and follows it as one who builds his house on the rock.  It means that if you want your life to be strong and steady, it has to be built on a strong foundation - the word of God.  This is especially important if you are a leader, whether you are a leader in your home, your group, your church, or a leader in the community.  Imagine that, if I stop listening to the voice of God, whose voice shall I listen as I lead and guide you?  I would be simply following my own voice, or someone else’s voice, or even the voice of Satan.  It is a very serious issue because I would not just put my own spiritual life at risk: I would also be dragging many of you into danger.  So if you are leader in Church, you better take heed on how you treat the word of God: because people trust you, respect you or even fear you. You may lead or mislead them. 

Finally, how does God speak to us?   In the Old Testament, God spoke through angels, or miracles, or by means of visions and dreams.  Today God largely speaks to us through his written word – the Bible.  In 2 Timothy 3: 16-17 Paul said, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 

In 2 Peter 1:19-21 it is stated like this: “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. ²¹For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus is not here with us in person but he has made a promise in John 16: 13, where he said, “…when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”  

The voice of Jesus could only be recognized today through the help of the Holy Spirit.   There are a number of ways that God speak to us through the Holy Spirit.  He may speak through our conscience. However, I am always quite wary of person who comes to me and says that he has a word for me from God.  I usually make several tests to see if indeed that is message from God.  Sometimes crazy people can claim to have a message from God. I remember one young priest told me many years ago, that a woman (a single mother) in his congregation approached him and told him that she had a message from God – that God wanted him to marry her daughter.  Some weeks later the woman came to see him again and said that God has another message for him – that he should marry her instead, and not the daughter.  That priest is now married but not to that woman or her daughter.

If you have doubt about the so-called message from God, put it to the test.  Pray about it, and share it with your Bible study group or another matured Christian.  The Bible says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and to me it means that the Holy Spirit often speak to us through the Body – the Church.  I believe that God speaks when we are at meetings, fellowship gatherings, or Sunday worship like this. These are time when the Holy Spirit is actively at work. 

I am sure that God has spoken many words to many different people this morning through his Holy Spirit.  But whether you hear his voice and heed his voice: that is another matter altogether.