One Voice

John 10:22-30

August 27, 2023 • Mount Pleasant UMC

A reporter came to Calcutta one time to interview Mother Teresa, and in the course of the conversation the topic turned to prayer. “What do you say when you pray?” the reporter asked the nun. “Nothing,” Mother Teresa replied. “I just listen.” “Well, then, what does God say to you when you pray?” the reporter pushed, to which Mother Teresa replied, “Nothing, he just listens.”

Christians talk a lot about prayer. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been going through old sermons and I noticed that over the years I have preached a lot on the topic of prayer. Even earlier this year, we walked through the Lord’s Prayer and talked about the ways Jesus taught his disciples and us to pray. We talk a lot about prayer and when we pray, we talk a lot. We tend to do all the talking, in fact. We tell God what we want. We often tell God how we want it and how he should accomplish it. And, if you listen to a lot of praying like I do, you will notice we spend a lot of time telling God things he already knows. We do a lot of talking. Now, I want you to imagine if you were with someone you love, your spouse, your children, a really good friend, and all you did was talk. You never stopped. You just talked and talked and talked. What kind of a relationship would you have? I’m going to go out on a limb and say, “Not a very good one.” Or maybe a “one-sided one.” Even worse, what if all you talked about were the things you wanted? Or what if you just spent a lot of time telling the other person how to do what you wanted them to do for you? Now what would the relationship be like? And yet that is the way we tend to interact with God, the one who loves us more than anyone or anything else. We talk a lot about prayer. And we talk a lot in prayer. But if prayer is actually supposed to be a conversation with someone we love and who loves us, which we say it is, why don’t we ever stop talking and listen?

This morning, we’re going to start a series about prayer, but not prayer the way you usually think about it. For the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about some of the ways we can listen to God, ways we can hear God’s voice. Pastor Pete Greig, founder of the 24/7 Prayer Movement in the United Kingdom, says, “Learning to hear God’s voice—his word and his whisper—is the single most important thing you will ever learn to do. I’m not exaggerating. Hearing God is not peripheral; it is integral to human history” (How to Hear God, pg. 3). After all, as Moses told the people of Israel just before they entered the Promised Land, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3), which is something Jesus quoted when he was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. We live on the words that come from the mouth of the Lord.

I want to tell you up front, however, that I’ve never heard an audible voice that I believed came directly from the throne of God. I read in the Bible about the times God did that, how a voice came to Moses through a burning bush (cf. Exodus 3-4) or how people heard God’s voice when Jesus was baptized (cf. Matthew 3:17). But I’ve never heard a voice like that, probably because I’m a Methodist and couldn’t handle it. But I’m also not one who believes, as some do, that God stopped speaking at the end of the New Testament era. I believe we do hear God speaking to us, probably much more than we realize (cf. Greig 6). However, we use phrases like “God told me this” or “The Lord said that” and we don’t think much about it. Nor do we usually stop to define it. Try going to your doctor and saying, “I’m hearing the voice of God.” Or show up in court and say, “Your honor, God told me to do it.” Pete Greig says if you do those things, “They’ll medicate you or detain you before you can shout, ‘Hallelujah!’” (5).

I believe there are still people today who hear God speaking directly to them, but I also believe that not everyone who claims to hear God speaking is actually hearing God speaking. Sometimes what we blame on God is just our own internal voice, usually telling us exactly what we want to hear. I’m often amazed how many times “God” tells people to do just what they had already decided to do! And yet, when God speaks in the Bible, he’s often telling people to do things they wouldn’t have some up with on their own. Think about it: Abraham would not have chosen to sacrifice his son Isaac (cf. Genesis 22:1-19), Moses wouldn’t have chosen to go back and confront the most powerful nation on earth (cf. Exodus 3:18-20), Jonah didn’t want to go preach to Nineveh (cf. Jonah 1:1-3), and Jeremiah out and out says that God “deceived” him (cf. Jeremiah 20:7). So how do we know that what we are “hearing” is actually the voice of God? That’s what we want to look at over the next four weeks. We’re going to look at some ways God still speaks, ways we can know that we are hearing from the Almighty, and the place we want to start this morning is with Jesus.

In the passage we read this morning, Jesus is in Jerusalem for what John calls “the Festival of Dedication” (10:22). We know it as Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday that takes place in December. It remembers an event which took place in the time between our testaments, a time when the Roman emperor had made Judaism illegal and then desecrated the Jewish Temple by making a sacrifice to a pagan god on the altar. Naturally, the Jews were infuriated and a group of rebels, led by Judas Maccabeus, fought for three years to restore the Temple and the nation to Israel. After they won, the Temple was rededicated through an eight-day festival. That festival became Hanukkah and is celebrated to this day. It’s a festival that is characterized by a lot of light and a lot of joy (cf. Whitacre, John, pgs. 267-268). And it’s in the midst of that, in the midst of the joy and a focus on true, renewed worship, Jesus is confronted by some of the Jewish leaders.

Notice that Jesus is actually minding his own business when this story starts. He’s been having confrontations, but at this moment, he is simply walking near the Temple Courts in a place called Solomon’s Colonnade (which actually had nothing to do with King Solomon). As Jesus strolls, John says, these Jewish leaders surround him. That’s not meant to be intimidating at all, is it? Of course not! These leaders are frustrated. For months they have been dealing with this teacher from Galilee. For months they have been hearing rumors and speculation about just who he is. For months they have had to deal with people talking about his teaching rather than their own. And so when he is in town for this festival, they surround him and say with probably more than a little exasperation, “Just spit it out. If you’re the Messiah, the Savior, just tell us so we can get on with our day” (cf. McKnight, John, pg. 169).

Scot McKnight says, “The easiest answer is ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ But Jesus won’t go there. He wants them to answer their own question…” (169). Jesus says, “I did tell you, but you do not believe” (10:25). He then basically tells them they won’t understand: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (10:27-28). Can’t you figure it out yet? Don’t you know who I am? And then he gets really shocking when he talks about his Father. He says he does what he does in his Father’s name (10:25). He says his Father has given his sheep to him (10:29). He reminds them his Father is greater than all and can hold onto these sheep securely (10:29). Then, Jesus goes for the gut punch when he makes a statement that, to these religious leaders, would sound heretical. Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (10:30). In other words, he and the Father speak with one voice. What Jesus says is what the Father says. And so one way to hear God, and I would argue it’s the primary way, is to listen to Jesus.

John, you might know, is the last of the Gospels written, and by the time he writes these words, John has had a lifetime to reflect on Jesus’ words, his actions, and what they all might mean. By the end of the first century, the church had begun to understand that Jesus was and is more than just a human savior. That’s what Jesus was getting at when he says that he and the Father are one. A little bit later in this Gospel, on the last night Jesus spends with his disciples, one of his followers, Philip, asks Jesus to show them the Father. And Jesus responds, Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). Because Jesus and the Father are one.

The fancy theological word for this idea is “trinity,” which of course means “three,” not “two.” The disciples will soon learn that this means Father, Son and Holy Spirit—not three gods, like in the ancient, pagan thought, but three persons who make up one God. Three persons who are one. One author says the doctrine of the trinity is the “cockpit of all Christian thinking” (Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, pg 16). It’s the center of who we are; God is three-in-one. And if you’re scratching your head about that, join the club. It is, I believe, beyond our ability to fully grasp. It’s a stumbling block for many people. I’ve read books about the trinity and I still struggle to understand how such a thing could be. But here’s what I remind myself of: a God I could completely comprehend, a God I could nail down all the details about, would not be a God I would want to worship. What I do know is this: God has revealed himself as Father, Son and Spirit, and every single way I try to explain that comes up short. I’ve heard people do the shamrock, three leaves yet one plant. I’ve heard the trinity described as three phases that water goes through—ice, steam, and liquid. I’ve heard it described as various roles that one person might have—father, son, and uncle. But none of those really grasp three distinct persons somehow wrapped up as one. God is trinity. God is community. God lives in an eternal relationship of love. And if you can completely understand that, you’re doing better than me. But what that means for our purposes today is this: when Jesus speaks, we are hearing from the Father because they are one.

Every Christmas Eve, we read the opening words to John’s Gospel, fairly famous words about the Word. John starts not with Jesus’ birth, but with creation itself when he writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” (John 1:1, 14). Jesus is “the Word,” which I remember one Bible teacher explaining this way: “Jesus is everything God wanted to say to us.” When we listen to Jesus, we are hearing from God. They speak with one voice. Everything should be filtered through the things Jesus said and the things he did. So if we want to hear from God, we need to really get to know Jesus. “Nothing can replace, and nothing matters more, than a personal encounter with Jesus” (Greig 13). He is the Word of God.

But, I pretend to hear you say, isn't the Bible the Word of God? Isn’t that what we call it? Yes, that is true. The Bible is the word (small w) that points to the Word (capital W), Jesus. C. S. Lewis put it this way: “It is Christ himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to him” (qtd. in Greig 13). We need both because the Bible is the only way we know about the personality and purposes of Jesus. But we don’t worship the Bible; we worship Jesus. We don’t have a personal relationship with the Bible; we are in relationship with Jesus. “One without the other simply doesn’t work. Hearing God begins with Jesus and leads us immediately to Scripture, which, in turn, points us back to Christ” (Greig 13).

Scripture is vital if we want to know whether what we’ve heard is from God or it isn’t. Let’s say someone tells you something Jesus has said to them, and it sounds really good and spiritual and even kind of like it might be something the Jesus you imagine might say—but it contradicts Scripture. If that is the case, no matter how wonderful it is, no matter how much we might want to believe it and no matter how many Bible verses might be wrapped around it, it is not Christian. It is not the voice of God.

So how do we prepare ourselves to hear the voice of God through Jesus? First of all, we need a regular diet of Scripture. And by regular I mean daily. We know that our bodies can go without food and water for a period of time, but if we go without for too long, our bodies will suffer damage. Just like we need food to survive, our spirits need the Scriptures to thrive. Remember, Jesus affirmed we live on the words of the Lord. We can go a few days without reading the Bible, but our spirits will begin to wither, to stagnate. We need to read regularly and deeply. That’s part of why every week we give you a list of suggested readings for that week, because I’ve had people over the years say they just don’t know where to start reading. So start there, with what is listed each week. There are also a lot of online Bible sites and apps that have reading plans you can use. Many of you use YouVersion, but there are several others as well. Whatever structure or plan works best for you—the main point is to get in there and read because if we don’t know what it says, then we won’t be able to know when it is God speaking to us and when it is not. If we don’t know what he says, what he has already said to us, we won’t know if what we hear contradicts or compliments that. And make sure your Scripture diet includes a healthy portion of Gospel readings—because, again, that’s the only place we can read about and know what Jesus taught, said and did.

The second thing I would say is sort of a corollary to the first, and that is that we should always approach reading the Scriptures with an open heart and a listening mind. When the young boy Samuel felt God was calling to him, his wise mentor the priest Eli told him to respond, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). That’s a good prayer for us as we approach reading any part of the Scriptures. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” When we open our ears and hearts to listen, God will speak. And you may read the same Scripture you read last week at this time and find God is speaking to you in a different way. That’s part of the beauty of the Scriptures especially as we approach them in a prayerful and listening way.

The third way we can learn to hear God’s voice is by surrounding ourselves with people we trust who can help us discern what we’re hearing. As I mentioned earlier, the easiest thing for us to do is to assume that what we think is what God is saying to us. We assume that our desires, our plans, the things we’ve already decided to do are what God wants for us. But so often when we charge ahead without taking any sort of time for discernment, we end up in a disaster. That’s why we need others in our lives who are mature in their faith, who will listen, and who aren’t afraid to tell us no when it’s appropriate. God works through those we know and love and trust to say even the hard things to us. We need people in our lives to whom we can say, “I think God may be saying this to me,” and they can either affirm or redirect us. For some, that may be a spouse or a trusted friend. For others, that might be a small group. Either way, you want people in your life who are also rooted in the Scriptures so that they can help you discern what Jesus would say.

One other thing we need to remember: God is rarely in a hurry to speak (cf. Greig 24). We live in a world that wants answers and wants them right now. I used to call it a “microwave society,” but I don’t think the microwave is even fast enough anymore. We’ve grown accustomed to having answers at our fingertips, in our pockets, being connected to all knowledge all of the time. We want what we want right now. And God is not in a hurry. The promises God gives rarely happen the next day. The people of Israel waited over 400 years after the last prophet of Israel spoke before the savior to which that prophet pointed was born. Four hundred years of silence. All they held onto during that time were the promises. They believed that God, though not in a hurry, would come through, would speak again and would keep his promises in his time. God is rarely in a hurry to speak. He is not on speed dial. But to those who wait, to those who stay with him, he will show himself. He will answer. He promises to be found by those who seek him (cf. Jeremiah 29:13).

One of Jesus’ favorite expressions—one he uses twelve times in the Gospels and three times in the book of Revelation—is “for those who have ears to hear” (cf. Grieg 26, 239). The only phrase he uses more often in the Gospels is “truly I say to you.” I would guess he used it so often because, as the crowds who came to hear him grew larger, he needed to remind people to really hear what he was saying. It’s not any different than church today; it’s easy to be in a crowd of any size, and even to look directly at the person who is speaking but not really hear. Today, there are some two billion people on planet Earth who claim the name Christian. How many of us have “ears to hear”? How many of us want to hear what God is saying through Jesus, the one who is the Word of God? If we would learn to listen and, as Jesus says, put his words into practice, I believe the world would be changed for the good. As we seek to hear the voice of God through Jesus, let’s not be like the Pharisees, to whom Jesus said, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). Let’s not just study the Scriptures for more knowledge. Rather, in these pages, let’s learn to listen to Jesus, and hear the voice of God because he and the Father are one and they speak with one voice. So let’s pray…and let’s listen.

(A prayer adapted from Pete Greig, 26-27)

Lord, we are here before you now, wholeheartedly.

Speak as we seek your face.

Give us ears to hear what you are saying and a greater willingness to wait.

If we are here before you now half-heartedly,

fuel the fire of our desire.

Do whatever it takes to renew in us an all-consuming passion for your name.

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to perceive you.

Holy Spirit, soften our hearts to receive you.

Father God, grant me faith to believe that when we pray in this way, you hear and draw near with words of infinite love.

Amen.