His Voice Is Life, Do You Hear It

What if abundant life isn’t louder, richer, or busier—but safer, truer, and nearer to the heart of God? We walk through John 10 with Pastor Carl to hear Jesus name Himself both the door and the Good Shepherd, the one way into the Father’s care and the leader who calls His sheep by name. As the passage unfolds, we trace stark contrasts: the thief who steals versus the Shepherd who gives; hirelings who flee versus the Lord who lays down His life; religious certainty that hardens versus humble faith that listens.

We talk about what “abundant life” really means, cutting through prosperity myths to reveal a joy rooted in belonging, obedience, and purpose. Pastor Carl shows how Jesus wields unmatched authority—He lays down His life and takes it up again—and why that authority secures us forever. No one can snatch His people from His hand or the Father’s hand. We also explore the breadth of His mission: “other sheep” beyond Israel, gathered into one flock from every nation and tongue, a global family joined by grace, not culture.

Set against the backdrop of Hanukkah and rising tension in Jerusalem, the leaders demand clarity while Jesus points to works and words that already speak plainly. Some charge blasphemy; others hesitate, wrestling with signs that fit messianic hope. Through it all, the invitation remains personal and urgent: hear His voice, enter by the door, and follow. If the gospel has become familiar noise or if you’re unsure what it promises, this conversation offers a fresh, steadying look at Jesus’ identity, His cross, His resurrection, and His care.

If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help more people hear the Shepherd’s voice.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Are you in Jesus? Have you sought after him? Have you found him? Has your life been changed because of him? Did you believe that you were a sinner and that Jesus took your place on the cross and took the penalty for your sin? And that his blood covers, not only covers, but erases all of your sin. Do you believe in the name of Jesus? Do you believe that he rose again on the third day?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

If you've been in the church for a while, maybe you take the gospel for granted. Or if you don't go to church, maybe you're not sure what the gospel says. Today, Pastor Carl restates the good news of Jesus. You were born into sin which separates you from God. To be reunited with Him after death, he sent His Son Jesus to pay the sacrifice that you couldn't pay. If you accept this to be true and admit that you need a Savior, you're sealed for eternity and adopted into God's kingdom. What's your decision? And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

John chapter 10. He uses this picture of a shepherd and his sheep. Verse 1 of chapter 10, most assuredly, which is verily, verily, or a man amen, amen. I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way is the same as a thief or a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. There's so much here. He's describing now life in the kingdom of heaven as a sheepfold. And there's a way to come into the sheepfold, and if you try to climb in some other way, you'll be considered a thief because you're not going in the right way. You've got to go through the door, and the door right there is the shepherd of the sheep, and the doorkeeper opens there, and uh the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by their name, and he leads them out. The shepherd knows the sheep, and the sheep know the shepherd's voice. That's why it's so important as we get into the word that we focus in on what the Lord is saying, so that we can recognize his voice and follow him and seek after him. Now, a lot of people uh equate the doorkeeper or the watchman as being John the Baptist, who would call out to his people, There he is, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Follow after him. He's the one that you need to follow after. So he recognized who Jesus was, and Jesus would be allowed to come in to the sheep fold with his sheep, and he would protect them by sitting right there in the doorway. In fact, he called himself the door of that sheep fold. Verse 4 says, When he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, yet they will by no means follow after a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. Jesus speaks to his people, people who have been changed, people who believe who he is and what he said he would do and what he said he has done for us. We believe the gospel, we believe the work, the finished work of Jesus on the cross, and we've been changed from the inside out. And now we seek after him and we we listen for his voice and we follow after him when he says to go, and we stop when he says to stop. And yet, in Jesus using this illustration, they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Not only were they blind, but they were deaf. They didn't understand the voice of the Savior. And it was his heart that they would come to know him. He didn't say these things to ridicule them, he didn't say these things to mock them. He said these things because he wanted them to think and to realize who he was. And that them we're talking about, of course, are the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders that John calls the Jews. In verse 7, Jesus began to say to them again, Most assuredly, verily, verily, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Anyone who's come before me who says they're the Messiah, they're the way to go, that they were they were thieves, they were robbers, they were not right. And even you, you Pharisees, you representatives of God, you think that you are representing God, but you don't even know the Father, so you don't know me, so you're rejecting me, the one who is the door. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the door. Through me, you make it into the sheepfold. Through me you make it into the kingdom of heaven. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers. They were not after saving people, they were after taking advantage of people and destroying people, which is the heart of Satan, right? But the sheep did not hear them, because the sheep were seeking after me. Anyone who enters by me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. It is true, he's restrictive, he's focused. It's he is the way, no other way to the Father but through Jesus. He is the door. We need to go through the door, not come on and figure out some other way to get in. The only way we can get in is through him. Verse 10. The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly. The enemy hates God's greatest creation, mankind. The enemy hates mankind because we were created in the image of God. He wasn't created in the image of God. We were created a little lower than the angels, and yet we were created in the image of God. And the angels were created for a specific purpose, and uh he didn't like that. We're talking about Lucifer, of course, who became Satan because he fell and took a third of the angels with him. And ever since he was out to destroy God's people, and he was out to destroy God because he wanted to be God himself. And if we think of that logically, God who holds all things together by the power of his word, it makes no sense for the enemy to destroy God. Because if you destroy God, you destroy everything. But you can't destroy God because he is God. That's another level, isn't it? But Jesus has come to bring life. Ever since Adam and Eve, we've been born into death. Sin turned everything upside down in God's creation. And the devil laughed. And he continues to mock and destroy and trip up people and destroy the creation. But the Lord has come to turn those things around, to bring life. He is life. Life is in him, he's self-existing. And we can be in that life if we're in him. And he wants to give us life and have it more abundantly. And many times the prosperity teachers mean this is means that every Christian needs to be rolling in the dough. We need to be rich. And that's not what it's saying, is it? It's not saying that we can't be rich, but that's not the goal. The goal is to know the Lord, to be used by the Lord, to have a joy that is unspeakable within us because God loves me and He saved me and He uses me for His purposes. And that's in the here and now. Imagine what it'll be like for eternity when we get rid of these bodies of death, and we no longer have sin or sickness or other things that hold us down from following after the Lord with our whole hearts. We'll know him forever and ever and have life abundantly. That is what he's offering. He says, I am the good shepherd. I watch out for my sheep. I give life to my sheep. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. As a matter of fact, in a few months after this, he would be laying down his life literally for his sheep. You and I. But a hireling. He who is not the shepherd, one who is not, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he's a hireling and does not care about the sheep. And in parenthesis, Pharisees, are you acting more like a hireling? Or are you acting like under-shepherds? Are you representing me? Or are you representing your own agenda, your own opinion? And you fooled yourselves enough into thinking you were doing God's will that you don't even recognize that you've wandered away from God. Because here God stands in your presence, the God man, the good shepherd. And you seek to destroy him. Hirelings just do it for the money, just do it for the position, just do it for the prestige. They don't do it because they love their God. But Jesus, he is the good shepherd. He lays down his own life for the good of the sheep. He's there to protect us, he's there to save us, he's there to give us life. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and I am known by my own. If you don't know me, chances are pretty good you're not in relationship with me. If you don't know me, you don't know God, is what Jesus is saying. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. This is what I've been called to do. And you say you know God the Father, and yet you don't know me. Reconsider what you're thinking. Reconsider what you're saying. And then Jesus even goes on. This is interesting. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice. And there will be one flock and one shepherd. Not only is he the shepherd to the sheep of Israel that would come to know him as Messiah, but he would be the shepherd of all the nations of the Gentiles that would come to know him. And we would all be part of that flock. He is our shepherd. I look forward to seeing him face to face with this great crowd of folks of all different shapes and sizes, colors, dialects, all coming to worship our Lord together. Can you just imagine everybody saying hallelujah at the same time? Because that's a word that is the same in every any language. Hallelujah, Lord, we praise you, we love you. How glorious that will be. And even now we're here, even though we're not all together in the same place giving glory to God. His church, his church universal, made up of all those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, is made out of every tongue, every tribe. Folks from all sorts of backgrounds have come to know the Lord, have been changed at the foot of the cross, and we give glory to our Lord together. Therefore, my father loves me. My father is well pleased of me. My father is endorsing me because I lay down my life that I might take it up again. This is what he sent me to do, Jesus is saying. This is part of the big plan. And this is a plan that has been shown throughout the scriptures in little bits and pieces. And if you look, you'll see it there. But if you take the word and you make it say what you want it to say, and you add to it to become a yoke on the people that you're supposed to bring life to, I think you're missing the big picture and you're missing me, Jesus is saying to the Pharisees. And let's go back to laying down his life. I lay down my life that I might take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. Now we've seen, and we'll see again here, a few times where they've taken up stones to crucify him, to kill him, and they were looking to kill him. And Jesus was able to escape because it was not yet his time. But when we see the crucifixion and we see the roles of the Jewish leaders in there, even the manipulated Jewish people and the Roman government all participating in crucifying Jesus, the truth of the matter is he allowed those situations to happen because it was he that would lay down his life for his friends, for his sheep. He lays down his own life at the appointed time, and he raises himself back up again. This is a neat little trivia question. Who raised Jesus from the dead? The answer is Jesus did. The answer is the Father did, and the answer is the Holy Spirit did. Do a little search on that. There are different verses in the Bible that say different members of the Trinity actually rose Jesus from the dead. But Jesus says, I have the power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father. This is the directive, this is the reason I am here to come and to serve my sheep, to lay down my life and to raise it back up again, to lay down and take the sin of the world upon myself, so that those who believe could have the righteousness of God and be part of my grand family. Therefore, there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. See, they didn't all not believe. Some of them thought, but some of them were so far steeped in their tradition, in their goals, in their power, that many of them said, He has a demon and he is mad. Why do you listen to him? And the others would say, Hey, wait a minute. These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? They were putting two and two together, and they weren't necessarily coming to a conclusion yet, but hold on here. Before we condemn the man, you're saying something that probably isn't true because look at what he's done. And as we go on, this is what Jesus will appeal to. Look at my works. If you don't believe me, look at the things that I've done. Don't these reflect the things that the Messiah would do when he comes? Now, it was the feast of the dedication in Jerusalem. So between verses 21 and 22, it could be that there was a couple months that passed. We were just at the end of the feast of the tabernacles, and now we're at the feast of the dedication in Jerusalem, which is in December, which is the holiday of Hanukkah, which is not one of those festivals that are prescribed in the law. Hanukkah is a celebration of something that happened in the intertestament period between the Old and New Testaments. And it was an amazing thing, and I invite you to dig a little deeper because Hanukkah is a great study in seeing how God moved and how it's a picture of Jesus and how he is the light of the world. And of course, Hanukkah has the Hanukkah lights that never went out for a week. Do a study on that. But that's the time of year it was, and if people ever say Jesus didn't celebrate Hanukkah, here is the fact that he did. It was the feast of dedication or the feast of Hanukkah in Jerusalem, and it was winter. Another definition of winter was a storm is brewing. We have a lot of storms in winter time, and we believe that John is using this as a picture, a sign that, you know, it's winter time, and a storm is brewing. Another storm is brewing. In verse 23, Jesus walked into the temple, into Solomon's porch, a place where people would gather and share and talk about things of the Lord. And the Jews surrounded him, the Jewish leaders, and said to him, How long will you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Now it's been a couple months since he was there and speaking to them. But if we remember back to all of his encounters with the religious leaders and with the with the public in general, did Jesus hold back from who he was? Or did he declare it? Again and again and again. Well, he says, I told you already. Verse 2025, Jesus answered them and he said, I told you, and you didn't believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. As I said to you, remember a couple months ago I talked about sheep? My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow after me. If you don't hear my voice, chances are you're not my sheep. And you don't understand who I am because you don't believe who I am. And I give them eternal life. Jesus is the source of eternal life. It is through him, knowing him, following after him, listening to him, and obeying by the power of the Holy Spirit in a changed life. That's how we get eternal life. And they shall never perish. Now, of course, this perish is an eternal perish, eternal separation from God. And we will all still die physically, but that is kind of how we move from this body of death into the body of life. We get the new resurrected body that lasts forever and ever and ever. And the sad part is, and we we covered this a few weeks ago, in the book of Revelation, it talks about a second resurrection. And that's a resurrection at the end of that age where all of the dead that did not trust in the Lord would be raised to new life and given new bodies and stand before the Lord and their names not found in the book of life. And they'll be sent to the lake of fire, where they will perish forever and ever. But if we follow and trust in the Lord, we will never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Nobody can take them from me and throw them into the fire. Because I'm greater than the fire. I created the fire. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. Are you in Jesus? Have you sought after him? Have you found him? Has your life been changed because of him? Did you believe? That you were a sinner and that Jesus took your place on the cross and took the penalty for your sin? And that his blood covers, not only covers, but erases all of your sin. Do you believe in the name of Jesus? Do you believe that he rose again on the third day? Has your life been changed? Have you been born again? Has he put his spirit within you? As you abide in him, no one can snatch you out of the hand of the Father or of the Son. Because I and my Father are one. We're both deity, Jesus says. We have the same heart, we have the same goal. And that's to save the world. To anyone who would believe. And of course, he's saying this to the Pharisees, many of which are not believing, and so they don't see. And thus the Jews took up stones again to stone him. And Jesus said, Hold on now. Many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which of these works do you stone me? And the Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you, being a man, make yourself God. How does Jesus respond to that? How would you respond to that if you were in Jesus' shoes? I'd just be dumbfounded. But that's the point. Can't you see it? I mean, I am the God man because that's the only way it would work, and the prophecies kind of allude to that. That the seed of the woman would come and save the world. Some man has to come to pay the price for man's sin. I am he.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

You've been listening to Pastor Carl on Come On Up. We're in the book of John. John had been a simple fisherman before meeting Jesus. He was actually a disciple of John the Baptist before realizing that John the Baptist was just paving the way for Jesus to enter the scene. There were so many examples for John to observe, where Jesus made something out of nothing. He fed the 5,000, he brought about a boatload of fish when there had been no bites all night. These miraculous happenings were all around them, and John couldn't help but be enamored by Jesus Christ. What about you? Has the newness of knowing or following Jesus worn off? Are you apathetic about what God's doing in your life or how he's working and how he's trying to speak to you? Keep that spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. John lived a full life devoted to the Lord, and even though he was persecuted and tortured, he never swayed from telling people about the hope and faith he had in Jesus. After all, he had lived with Jesus for three and a half years and had learned much about the heart of God. A way for you to keep learning about the heart of God is by joining us on Sunday mornings at Smokey Mountain Cinema in Waynesville for Bible study. We also have a faith film night the first Monday of every month. We offer quality Christian entertainment that challenges your faith and spurs good conversation. Learn more at themountaincross.com or search for Faith Film Night on Facebook. That's all for today. Come on Up is sponsored by The Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.