How Do We Hear Jesus’ Voice Amid Competing Voices?

A lot of faith language sounds comforting until you place it in real life where attention is weaponized, outrage is monetized, and everybody claims to know the truth. We lean into John 10 and ask a sharper question: how do you recognize Jesus’ voice when so many voices are trained to hook you first?

We walk through Jesus’ three self-descriptions in the Good Shepherd: teaching, gatekeeper, gate, and shepherd and we connect them to the healing of the man born blind that comes right before. That story isn’t just about eyesight; it’s about spiritual discernment, refusing easy blame, and letting God open our perception. From there, the shepherd imagery stops being soft poetry and becomes a picture of protection, belonging, and the cost of love when the “hired hands” walk away.

Then we sit with one of the most searched and most misunderstood phrases in the Gospel of John: “life abundantly.” We push back on a heaven-only view that can turn faith into scorekeeping and make people harsh in the name of holiness. Abundant life has to touch the world we’re in, shaping Christian discipleship, social justice, compassion, and the courage to do what is right when it costs something. Along the way we connect that inner shift to Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward and the move many of us feel from chasing “what” to seeking “why.”

If you’ve ever wondered whether “sheep” is an insult or a calling, this one is for you. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who’s wrestling with discernment, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

Transcript

Eastertide And Stories That Matter

Pastor Darren 0:00

So we are uh again in Easter tide, they call it. This is the season of Easter, not just the day. In our series, Stories That Matter, is really about good stories. Right? I imagine each of you could name a few good stories, things that you really like. Now, when I started thinking of it, I thought I was remembering when Kitty and Nancy cornered me at Saturday Night Suppers. What's your favorite movie? That's not an easy question for people who like movies. You're like, give me a category of some kind, right? I mean, uh, but I imagine each of you can think of good stories that have uh left an imprint on your life and that you continue to remember and reflect on and enjoy. Uh so we're going through some stories that are in our New Testament. I went straight lectionary this time, that schedule, three-year schedule of scripture uh uh verses, right in there, and right in the gospel, because we were in the Old Testament for a long time for Lent. I thought, all right, we're giving them some Jesus. We'll see what happens. So I'm watching, it's scientific, empirical. What happens when I give you a lot of Jesus? All right. See, the choir's high on Jesus already. Can you hear this? What's wrong with y'all? You marinating? All right, well, so uh we've had three pretty good stories, somewhat famous stories, well-known stories from the scripture. We started with uh uh Pastor Gary, and he was talking about the doubting Thomas story, right? Uh uh where Thomas needed the evidence that Jesus actually had been crucified, and Pastor Gary talking about we kind of see what we want to see. I think there was even an invitation for us to look for what we want to see in Christ, what we want to see in God. Uh last week we uh dealt with the walk to Emmaus story, again, somewhat well known, where Jesus comes to a couple of the disciples after the crucifixion and resurrection uh for all the reasons Jesus might come to them, but at least with that message of remember, even amidst uncertainty, be who you are, be the Christian that Jesus taught us to be. And then today we are in another passage that some of you have uh probably reflected on: John 10. A lot of people call it the uh passage about the Good Shepherd. Uh now, the Good Shepherd, actually, that verse is 11, and we stopped at 10. So uh I'll clue you in that that's what came much next. And in fact, it is part of my talk here. Um, this is a passage I enjoy, partly because I was at the church in Westminster, which they are called the uh Good Shepherd United Methodist Church. And so I preached on this every now and again because it was the name of the church. And I thought, all right, if this is the identity we claimed at one point, we may as well continue to claim it. What is it gonna mean? Uh so I've enjoyed a journey with this passage in the past. Um, what he does in the passage is he gives us three self-descriptions. This is Jesus in the Gospel of John, three kind of distinct descriptions. They're not unrelated, but they are different. First, he calls himself the gatekeeper, then he calls himself the gate, and then in the passage immediately afterwards, he calls himself the good shepherd. So we're gonna kind of delve into that a little bit. But before we get into it, I want to point out lots of scholars would say that these passages are not unrelated to the passage that comes before it. And that passage is a story of a healing, healing of a blind man. We have the disciples saying, Jesus, who sinned this man or his parents, that he is blind? And Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned. He was born blind, so that God's works might be revealed in him. Do you remember that passage? Maybe a little bit, maybe a little bit. Here I'll remind you of it a little. God's work turns out to be this healing of his blindness. Jesus reaches down to the ground and pulls up dirt, spits into the dirt to concoct his healing agent. Is anybody excited about this? Are you willing to let me try it on you? Dirt and some spit. He wipes it on the man's eyes and he's miraculously healed. He's able to see. So, our passage coming after that, we would do well to recognize the relationship between those two things. It's it's helpful to know that when we're talking about that, those descriptions of Jesus, he's doing it in the context of spiritual healing, right? Being able to see spiritually, have your eyes opened. So he's talking to these disciples, and he starts to speak of himself as the gatekeeper of the sheep. Right? If you were listening in the passage or maybe you've worked with it before, he calls himself the gatekeeper. Now, of the three descriptions of himself, this one seems to be pretty straightforward. Right? You're you're a shepherd, you're watching over sheep, you have a protective pen that keeps the sheep, right? And in the metaphorical sense, there's a protective pen of spiritual understanding for us, right? Whereas Jesus' sheep, the ones who follow Jesus, there is a pen that we can be in. It is not completely separated from the outside world. It is a pen of spiritual understanding, but we can still connect with the outside world. But in that pen, we are able to stay under Jesus' guidance, safe to a certain extent. And the important thing is that we know the voice amidst all of the competing voices in our lives and around us, all the different uh influences that would claim our uh allegiance. We need to know Jesus' voice. Pretty straightforward understanding part of scripture. But here's what's interesting: even though it's straightforward, these disciples don't seem to get it. They don't seem to understand because Jesus goes a step further, right? Uh maybe um maybe they needed more dirt and spit wiped on their eyes. So he gives them more metaphorical dirt and spit. See, inside I'm laughing because I find that really funny. I hope you are too. Right? So he raises the stakes. Now the pen, this protective, spiritually protective place is kind of makeshift now, because that would often happen. If you were taking the sheep out to some other place so they could graze on some fresh grass, you would have to kind of put together that pen. You'd have to get it organized yourself. And often in that pen, it wouldn't have a door. The shepherd would sleep in the doorway of that makeshift pen. So, so that shepherd is kind of uh uh a guard, I guess you'd say, but also there in case something somebody goes in or the sheep try to get out. So you you can hear why Jesus shifts in his understanding of himself, because it it's a different context, but kind of the same thing. If we are deconstructing this metaphor, he is saying you need to follow him. He is the access point, he is the way through, he is the pathway, be like him. Now, presumably, in the last description, the good shepherd description, these disciples are still not fully seeing, so he ramps it up again. This time he is describing the need for him, Jesus himself, to give up his life. Right? He's speaking, uh even though John was written after Jesus' life, he's speaking words from Jesus that are anticipating what is going to be his end. And he's talking about how he needs to give up his life, hired hands, thieves, etc., all of them in tough times, they're going to leave. They don't have the investment in you, they may not even care about you. But the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep, and that's how you will know it really is him. So this is the truth that we are invited to to see, right, to understand, to own inside of ourselves, this truth that he is the good shepherd, he is the pathway, and we would know it because of his love and allegiance to us, his sheep. So, what are our lessons? There's a couple right off the bat that came to my mind. First is we're supposed to listen for that voice, right? We're the sheep that know the voice, so that we don't get misled by thieves, by hired hands, by others who would want our attention. Um we can listen in different ways. Sometimes the best listening is by doing, even getting in and doing the work of God, social justice, helping people out, offering the love of God in heart and in caring. But another lesson that we might ask ourselves, we might challenge ourselves, and it's a favorite pathway of Pastor Darren, is how good are we at listening for that voice? Because it can be difficult sometimes hearing it, identifying it. How closely do we understand Jesus in a way that we are going to hear that voice amidst all the other clatter? Because that can be difficult too, right? I mean, we live in a time where people are always trying to reach for our attention, always trying to speak to their power, their awareness, their intelligence, their connection. We live in a time where some people even think they're Jesus. Moving on quickly, so that can be different, right? That can be difficult to understand fully what Jesus is trying to say, to understand that voice amidst all the others. But for me, I came down to an area of learning that well, it's the last verse, the last half of verse 10 from our passage today. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. That is one of my favorite verses. If I was a tattoo guy, I might get that one tattooed on. I thought about tattoos, I was talking to a couple of buddies, a couple colleagues, other pastors. I said, Hey, when are we all gonna go out and get our tattoos? And then they said, Yeah, but then you're gonna look like another one of our colleagues who has tattoos. And we all looked at each other like, mmm, I guess not. So we're cowards, this is what I'm telling you in the long way. But it is, it's one of my favorites. I love this missional guiding for our life. Not only are we looking for life abundant as human beings, but God is looking for life abundant for us. I really like that idea of that that life guidance. And it begs the question, how much time do we spend on that question? That question of what does make life abundant? You know, for a lot of people that answer is is kind of driven by uh a heaven percept perception, driven by uh uh a divine perception. It's a it's a heaven-based answer. I'm following, I follow Christ so I can get to heaven. Right? That that's where life abundant will be mine when I get there. I haven't always found that perspective to be really, really helpful, mostly because I think it affects my perception of this world in a way I don't like. This this sort of heaven-based attitude, it it brings kind of a a testing ground perception of why we're here and what this world is about. We start to look around to see who is worthy and going, hmm-mm-mm. And who's not so worthy? I don't like that that space, right? And and it's a problematic place too, because we have to accept that we are putting rubrics on what we see in the world. We're uh uh deciding what's good and what is bad, and they are likely influenced largely by our own perceptions. We're giving ourselves permission to judge others, and I don't like that space, you know. Well, he's made this and that choice in life, so I don't really I don't really owe him that much when you think about it. The other problem I don't like about this is what does this say about how God views the world? It feels a little uh like God could give or take each and every one of us. Literally, because that judgment is always lean, it's always leering in the background. I've seen some people justify really unloving, unjust behavior because they're in that spot. Have you heard that phrase, so heavenly focused as to be of no earthly good? That resonates with me. I feel like I've been in that space. For me, the abundant life that is being talked about here, that Jesus is talking about, it has to be talking about the life we have here as well as whatever lay beyond. Have you ever thought about that question? Where is that abundance in this world? What would it look like? My guess is you think about it off and on, somewhat frequently. We have talked about a book study here, a Richard Rohrbrook Richard Rohr book. Surprise, surprise. Clearly, you're learning this year. Uh I am uh devotee. But a lot of people are talking about uh reading a book called Falling Upward. Have many of you read that yet? Let's do hands because we might do it in church. Okay, this is good. Just a few of us. So maybe we'll do it so the rest of you can get introduced. To put it succinctly, and probably not covering everything, oversimplification, but it talks about how adult life can be understood in two halves. The first half is spent on this question of what? What am I going to do? What will I create? How far am I going to reach? How much will I achieve? What will I be leaving for my family? We spend those first 20, 30, 40 years in that space, and it drives us, and there's ambition that comes from it. But then the second half starts to come. And instead of focused on that question of what, we start moving into the question of why. Why do I do this? Why is it worthwhile to be done? And it really is a natural progression of aging, right? You get to that spy space where you've been rushing, you've been driving, you've been trying to get to wherever you're getting, raise your kids, uh, move up in the world, all those things, and then finally you're like, why am I doing this again? And then usually a lot of your life, the rest of the way, is sort of navigating that other question and drawing it out more, describing it for yourself, getting it clearer and clearer in your mind. You'll recognize you're moving into that space when you start asking yourself uh things like, is my family coming first? Am I really thinking about what really matters here? Am I taking care of myself? Is the thing that I've been working so hard to create make something I'm proud that's being created, that is changing the world in a positive way. You'll know it when you realize it's not all about what you do, but also about how you do it. Who is being blessed, who is being challenged or injured. For me, that question kind of started taking shape with churches, because I've been in a lot of churches, that's kind of the way it goes with pastors, and uh I've been blessed enough that most of where I've been has done well. You know, I'd not don't have my Nobel Peace Prize yet. We've done generally good work, and then you leave, and what comes behind you sometimes is its own version of really good. Sometimes it's not very good, and it doesn't hold up. And my investment in, oh, I created this, and here's the stripes, and this is what I've left, kind of fades away a little bit. It's not as strong. But what I realize on that journey is there are some things that I'm still in relationship with, I'm still connected to largely my family. Like, oh now that's something that I keep my stripes for. That's something I continue to be proud about. It's something I have a deeper understanding of the why. But it looks kind of like that journey when we're talking about that why question, and maybe you've been on a journey with it yourself. And I think that really is a lot of the focus or the helpful focus for us with this verse. And maybe it's why there's such a strong emphasis on knowing the shepherd's voice. Because we're asking these deep, deep questions, and we can be answering them in so many different ways, not all of them helpful ways, or deep ways, or faith inducing ways, meaningful ways. We've got a lot of voices around us. We need to be like those sheep who follow the shepherd. So I wanted to end with with this. Are sheep weak? I know in the common understanding, we think of them as being kind of weak. Right? Oh, they just follow. They don't they don't uh uh think for themselves, they just all go in these masses together, they try to stay together, they only do what the shepherd tells them to do. In our world, uh uh that's not necessarily honored, respected, appreciated, right? Do we really want to be like sheep, just following, not thinking for ourselves? I feel like the world's perception of sheep is weak. And yet, how difficult can it be to continue to live by Christian principles in a world that isn't always holding those values as well? How difficult is that? How hard is it to speak for justice, especially when there's a cost for that justice, maybe even a financial cost? How hard is it to treat others with Christian love when they aren't being very lovable? How difficult is it to lay down our lives for what the voice tells us is right? It would seem to me that the Christian who knows the voice of the shepherd is the one who was going into the burning building and not justifying the demise of that building. Maybe the sheep aren't weak at all. We're just the ones who know where true uh courage, true strength come from. Amen.