Knowing the Voice
GABBY GOODSELL
“The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
- John 10:3-4
- John 10:3-4
Learning about stranger-danger is one of the key lessons our parents teach us as children. Don’t talk to strangers or trust strangers, especially if they offer candy or a puppy in their van. It’s a common-sense lesson, but it has to be taught, because children know little about the world. They’re innocent and sometimes too trusting. They’re sheep-like. And why teach it? Because the stranger might be a wolf on the prowl. The sheep doesn’t know this, but the shepherd does, and our parents act as our shepherds with lessons like these to keep us safe.
In John 10, Jesus describes the Good Shepherd: ‘The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.’ Even better than knowing the voices of our shepherd-parents is knowing the voice of our ultimate Shepherd: Jesus. Through the Bible, God has given us the ability to discern his voice, and we come to know it personally when he calls us by name.
Exchanging names is one of the first things that bridges the gap between strangers. But though God may once have been a stranger to us, we were never strangers to him. In calling us by name, he gives us the chance to learn who he is and follow him. And we do need to follow, because the whole Bible, not to mention our own daily lives, shows that we are sheep in need of a shepherd. Our hearts are prone to wander. Ezekiel 34 puts it this way:
In John 10, Jesus describes the Good Shepherd: ‘The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.’ Even better than knowing the voices of our shepherd-parents is knowing the voice of our ultimate Shepherd: Jesus. Through the Bible, God has given us the ability to discern his voice, and we come to know it personally when he calls us by name.
Exchanging names is one of the first things that bridges the gap between strangers. But though God may once have been a stranger to us, we were never strangers to him. In calling us by name, he gives us the chance to learn who he is and follow him. And we do need to follow, because the whole Bible, not to mention our own daily lives, shows that we are sheep in need of a shepherd. Our hearts are prone to wander. Ezekiel 34 puts it this way:
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
God describes the sheep as lost, strayed, injured, and weak. And these sheep are us, needing a Savior in this fallen world. How kind and powerful, then, that the Lord God himself would be our Shepherd, seeking us faithfully and tirelessly whenever we go astray.
But sometimes we listen to the wrong voice. The stranger with candy our parents warned us about becomes the voice of a political leader promising all the things they’ll do to improve the county, state, or nation - or a religious figure insisting that if we only tithed more, Jesus would make us rich. The danger is less a physical kidnapping than a spiritual one. These voices lead to spiritual ruin, to willingly wandering from God.
Jesus goes on: ‘He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.’
Why would the hired hand flee when guarding the sheep was his job? He flees because he is play-acting a shepherd. Think of a babysitter. A babysitter can care for children for an evening, but can never love them the way their parents do. Even a good babysitter has a limit to what they’d risk in the face of an intruder, but a dad would meet that intruder at the door with a shotgun. In the end, the hired hand protects himself; the shepherd protects the sheep.
And Jesus does more than stay when danger comes. He says, “I lay my life down for the sheep.” He promised it and then kept that promise at the cross, laying his life down, taking our sin onto himself, closing the gap between God and us for good. Tending the sheep was never just a job to Jesus. He laid his life down because he loves us.
So what does it look like to live as sheep under our Shepherd? Real sheep probably don’t dwell on their shepherd while they graze and sleep and “baa” and do whatever else sheep do, but for us that isn’t a bad idea. As Christians, we aim to love our Shepherd in everything, living in obedience to Christ. In practice, that means learning to listen to his voice, discerning his wisdom in the Bible, and praying that God would align our hearts with his.
There are so many distractions in our world, so many voices clamoring for our attention, so many hired hands whose ‘job’ it is to save us but who never will. Jesus calls us by name. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep. So let’s be sheep who aren’t easily distracted but listen for the voice of our Shepherd and follow it.
But sometimes we listen to the wrong voice. The stranger with candy our parents warned us about becomes the voice of a political leader promising all the things they’ll do to improve the county, state, or nation - or a religious figure insisting that if we only tithed more, Jesus would make us rich. The danger is less a physical kidnapping than a spiritual one. These voices lead to spiritual ruin, to willingly wandering from God.
Jesus goes on: ‘He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.’
Why would the hired hand flee when guarding the sheep was his job? He flees because he is play-acting a shepherd. Think of a babysitter. A babysitter can care for children for an evening, but can never love them the way their parents do. Even a good babysitter has a limit to what they’d risk in the face of an intruder, but a dad would meet that intruder at the door with a shotgun. In the end, the hired hand protects himself; the shepherd protects the sheep.
And Jesus does more than stay when danger comes. He says, “I lay my life down for the sheep.” He promised it and then kept that promise at the cross, laying his life down, taking our sin onto himself, closing the gap between God and us for good. Tending the sheep was never just a job to Jesus. He laid his life down because he loves us.
So what does it look like to live as sheep under our Shepherd? Real sheep probably don’t dwell on their shepherd while they graze and sleep and “baa” and do whatever else sheep do, but for us that isn’t a bad idea. As Christians, we aim to love our Shepherd in everything, living in obedience to Christ. In practice, that means learning to listen to his voice, discerning his wisdom in the Bible, and praying that God would align our hearts with his.
There are so many distractions in our world, so many voices clamoring for our attention, so many hired hands whose ‘job’ it is to save us but who never will. Jesus calls us by name. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep. So let’s be sheep who aren’t easily distracted but listen for the voice of our Shepherd and follow it.
STUDY QUESTIONS: READ, EXAMINE, APPLY, PRAY
READ:
EXAMINE:
APPLY:
PRAY:
READ:
- Jesus uses two different images for himself in this passage. In verses 7 and 9 he says “I am the door,” and in verses 11 and 14 he says “I am the good shepherd.” What does each one tell us about how we come to God and how he cares for us?
- Trace every character in the scene: the shepherd, the sheep, the gatekeeper, the stranger, the thief, the robber, the hired hand, the wolf. Who does each one represent?
- This passage immediately follows John 9, where Jesus heals a man born blind and the Pharisees cast him out. Read 9:35–41 and 10:19–21 together. How does the healing frame the way we should hear the shepherd discourse?
EXAMINE:
- In verse 10 Jesus contrasts the thief, who comes “to steal and kill and destroy,” with himself, who came that we “may have life and have it abundantly.” What is the “abundant life” Jesus offers? How is it different from what the thief does?
- Jesus says the sheep follow him because “they know his voice” (v. 4) and will flee from a stranger (v. 5). Practically, how do God’s people come to know his voice? How do we learn to recognize a stranger’s?
- In verses 17–18 Jesus says no one takes his life from him; he lays it down “of my own accord” and has authority to take it up again. Why does John stress that Jesus’ death is freely chosen rather than something done to him?
- Verse 16 mentions “other sheep that are not of this fold.” Who is Jesus pointing to, and what does “one flock, one shepherd” mean for the church?
APPLY:
- Whose voice are you most prone to follow instead of the Shepherd’s? Name the “stranger” that most often pulls you away.
- Where are you tempted to settle for a “hired hand” - a counterfeit shepherd who looks the part but will abandon you when it costs something?
- Jesus knows his own and calls them by name (v. 3, 14). Does being personally, individually known by God feel like comfort or exposure to you right now?
- The abundant life of verse 10 is a promise. Where in your life are you living as though Jesus came only to restrict rather than to give?
PRAY:
- Thank Jesus that he lays down his life for the sheep by his own choice.
- Ask God to tune your ear to the Shepherd’s voice and dull the lure of other voices.
- Pray for those who don’t know the Shepherd, that they would hear his voice and follow.
- Pray for our church to be one flock under one Shepherd, and for the “other sheep” not yet gathered in.