Hearing The Shepherds Voice

Last week, we spoke about, "The Peace of Jesus, the valuable gift of Peace". Most importantly, he asked what the source of our peace and its quality is. I think this will be a good juncture to ponder on that point “the source and quality of our Peace” while reflecting on our lives and events of 2020 and looking ahead to 2021.

I believe the source and quality of our peace are closely linked to today's subject matter. But, before we delve into that, I want to start with a story to set the scene for today's message.

In the days before refrigeration, before they invented refrigerators, people used to preserve food in iceboxes. The ice will be kept in a well-insulated area known as an icehouse and covered in sawdust so that the ice will last for a while.

Maybe you've heard this story before; there was a man that worked in one of those icehouses. In the summertime, while working in the icehouse, he lost a valuable pocket watch, a gold pocket watch that his father had given to him, and he was very upset about that.

He began looking, got out a rack, and he started racking through all the sawdust trying to find this pocket watch. But no matter how hard he looked; he couldn't find it. He called all the other employees, and all the other people together and they all started searching going through the sawdust with their hands trying to find this pocket watch, and nobody could find it. When it was lunchtime, the man was distraught and didn't know what to do. They then went out to lunch, and while they were eating, a little boy slipped into the icehouse closing the door behind him.

A couple of minutes later, this little boy came walking out with that gold pocket watch, and the man was very, very happy and asked the little boy:

Son, how could you find that so very quickly? How were you able to do what none of us was able to do?

Well, the young boy said, I went in and closed the door behind me, and I just lay down in the sawdust, and I was very, very quiet and I heard the watch ticking.

Sometimes in our lives, we don't find things because we are too noisy, we are too busy, and especially when it comes to the things of God, sometimes we don't hear God speak to us because we don't position ourselves, we don't go through the effort of getting quiet, getting into a place where we can hear that still small voice of God speaking to us.

And that is what I want to talk to us about today, hearing the Shepherd's voice. Please open with me to John 10:1-6, we will be reading verses 27-29 later on the message

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

John 10: 27 (1-6) NIV

Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

1. What does it mean to hear the Shepherd's voice who is our Shepherd?

2. Why do the sheep need a shepherd?

3. How do we put ourselves in a position to hear the Shepherd’s voice?

Who is the True Shepherd?

The Scripture tells us in verse 1 that there were many sheep in the pen most likely it was a larger, independent enclosure, where several families kept their sheep at night. They would have hired a ‘watchman’ to guard the gate and only allow those who were authorized to enter to come through the gate.

Those who climb in over the fence rather than through the gate are thieves and robbers. Jesus describes their character as those whose purpose is to steal or brutally wound the sheep. Most likely He was referring to the religious leaders who are more interested in fleecing the sheep than in guiding, nurturing and guarding them. They were the leaders of ch. 9, who should have been listening to Jesus’ claims and recognizing Him as the revelation from God. Instead they belittled and put heavy burdens on God’s flock and drove them away from God.