John 10:1-18

The Voice
Sermon preached Feb. 28, 2021

Introduction

Usually when someone asks a person, “How are you?” They’ll reply, “Fine.” Or maybe “Ok,”
“not bad,” “pretty good.”

But some people play the wise guy with their answers: “Maybe one day you'll be lucky enough to
find out.’

Some people whine and complain with their answers: “All right so far, but there's still time for
everything to go horribly wrong.” “Surviving, I guess.”

Some people go for the philosophically upbeat: “I'm better than I was, but not nearly as good as
I'm going to be.”

Some people try to be funny - when asked “How are you?”, responses like: “Happy and you
know it. [*clap your hands*]” or “WHY!? WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT ME?”

But I read about a great response to the question, “How are you?” from the late Peter Gomes,
who was the minister at Memorial Church at Harvard University for many years. When he was
asked how he was doing, he didn’t answer with the typical “Fine,” “Doing well.” Or any of the
wise guy or funny responses. No, he responded with two words. When asked, “How are you
doing?” Gomes replied, “I flourish!” “I flourish!”1

I flourish - meaning to grow and live healthily, vigorously. To thrive. To “live out loud” as
someone put it.

The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to flourish. He didn’t use that word, though, he said it differently
and maybe better - he tells us in John chapter 10 that he came to give us “abundant life.” A life
where we are really alive - alive to the presence and goodness of God, alive in the sense of living
into the life God wishes for us; alive in that God’s glory shine in us and through us. Fully alive.

You want that? Jesus says specifically and clearly that he came to us - so we would have this life
- and have it abundantly. I’m going to do my best in 15 minutes to tell you what it is, and how we
get it.

Abundant Life

Now what does the Lord mean by “abundant life?” Well, he doesn’t mean biological life - there
was a perfectly good Greek word John could have used in his gospel here - bios - if Jesus meant

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biological life. Like in the parable of the widow’s mite, Jesus says that she gave as an offering all
she had to live on - using bios - biological life. But here, it’s a different world - Zoe - the word
means a quality of life - a life where we’re fully alive, where we live deeply, where we recognize
the good in life, where we are able to endure the sorrows of life, where we use our gifts and
talents, where we have deep, persistent joy. Where we are fully alive.

Tony Campolo tells the story of going on a class trip when he was in fourth grade. They went to
New York, to the Empire State Building. At the time, the Empire State Building was the tallest
building in the world. When nine-year-old Tony got off the elevator and stepped onto the
observation deck overlooking New York City, time stood still. “In one mystical, magical moment
I took in the city,” he said. “If I live a million years, that moment will still be part of my
consciousness because I was fully alive when I lived it.”

To have abundant life - to flourish! - is to be fully alive to the deep wonder and goodness of
existence, of life. Not just when you’re on top of the world - during our mundane everyday lives.
Abundant life - to be fully alive to the astounding reality that you are known by God and that he
cares for you. To be fully alive that Christ died for you to forgive your sin and shame and to bring
you into eternity.

Jesus came to give us life, right now. It’s a life that continues into eternity but we don’t have to
wait until then - he gives it now! How are you? I flourish!

We are known

How do we get it?

First, Jesus says his sheep know his voice, and listen to him and follow him. Knowing Jesus’
voice, listening to Jesus’ voice, is the way to abundant life.

Abundant life, is a life where are known and called by name. By the Lord Jesus. Jesus says of us
- his sheep - that he calls his own sheep by name.

In my research on this passage I learned that shepherds in the Middle East did, and still do, name
each of their sheep. Goober and Cupcake and Fluffball, maybe Mittens if they have white wool
but black feet. They name each sheep, to match its looks and maybe even its personality.

Now who would do that? They’re just sheep? Who would do that? Shepherds who value their
sheep, that’s who. Shepherds who know their sheep in their individuality.

You are one of seven billion humans currently living on planet earth. You are one of the
estimated 80 billion humans to have been born on planet earth. 80 billion. That many people
would fill over a million football stadiums. Try to imagine seeing all those 80 billion people in
one big crowd - imagine you put all those people in our Cumberland Valley and then take a

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helicopter up to 10,000 feet to try to see them all - it would be people filling the whole valley,
mountain to mountain, north to south, as far as you could see, it would stagger your mind, that
many people.

You are one of that crowd. And yet Jesus Christ says he knows you, individually. He knows our
names. He knows us inside and out. He knows our pain. He knows our quirks. He knows our
hopes and dreams. He knows we’re still wounded by being bullied in elementary school. He
knows what makes us laugh. He knows we love butter pecan ice cream and hate brussel sprouts.
He knows we can only fall asleep on our right side, not our left. He knows we still have an empty
place, an ache inside, from the death of a loved one. He knows if we’re lonely and desperately
want someone to love us.

Imagine that crowd of 80 billion people again. You’re just one in that crowd. Imagine the Lord is
there and you see him and you work up the nerve to go up to him - you know what would
happen? He’d open his arms and call you by name, he’d say, “Mike, Janice, Dave, Deb, I’m so
glad to see you.”

You matter to the Lord. And when he says he calls you by name - that means he’s calling you to
himself. You, specifically. You, out of all those 80 billion people. So you know he’s your good
shepherd. So you are freed and forgiven from sin and death. So you know you matter. That’s the
first way to abundant life.

We have abundant life because we know his voice

Jesus says that his sheep know his voice, and follow him when he calls to them. The second way
to abundant life, the way to “I flourish!” is to learn to recognize and respond to the Lord’s voice.
You see, the Lord not only knows us, he speaks to us.

I say learn to recognize, because there are lots of other voices that want to lead us, scare us,
influence us, control us. Inner voices and outer voices. Voices inside us, and voices external to us

Inner voices. I have one that I have to fight, that I have to contradict with the Lord’s voice. My
inner voice tells me I’m worthless, a failure. It throws up before me example after example of
failures, of humiliations. It tells me, that’s who I am and that’s all I will ever be. When it pipes
up, it can be insistent and persistent. And if I listen to it the life drains right out of me.

Maybe you have an inner voice like that.

The voice of a long-dead parent whom you could never please; a divorced spouse who
beat you down literally and emotionally;

an inner critic who tells you to work harder and harder if you are ever going to be worth
something;

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 a voice that tells you don’t try, don’t risk, because you’re going to fail and make a fool of
yourself.

I read somewhere that researchers found that 80% of what goes through our minds is negative. A
lot of it, negative directed against ourselves. I’m fat. I’m stupid. I’m useless. I’m unlovable.

But there also voices outside of us - outer voices. The gospel of John tells us that God so loved
the world...but the world is lost in darkness and sin. And that world lies to us.

The world beats us down. Maybe some of you have been beaten down by the world. By what it’s
told you.

Rocky Balboa is the last film in the "Rocky" series. Not great, but good illustration for my
sermon and that’s what counts. Rocky and his grown son butt heads, the son has lost his
way, they talk and this is the scene:

Rocky points to the palm of his hand and says, “You ain't gonna believe this, but you
used to fit right here. I'd hold you up and say to your mother, ‘This kid is gonna be the
best kid in the world. This kid is gonna be somebody better than anybody ever knew.’
And you grew up good and wonderful.

“Then the time came for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did. But
somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a
finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started
looking for someone to blame. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean
and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and
keep you there if you let it.”

It sure will. You don’t make much money? You’re not good looking? Skin’s the wrong color?
You’re not popular? You’re stuck in poverty? The world says, you suck. And you can internalize
those voices and believe their lies and the life God gives you - you shrivel up inside.

William Willimon tells the story of preaching at a black inner-city congregation. He

arrived at eleven o’clock, expecting to participate in an hour of worship. But he didn’t
rise to preach until about twelve-thirty. There were five or six hymns, and gospel songs,
a great deal of speaking, hand-clapping, singing. The benediction was not given until
one-fifteen.

Willimon said he was exhausted. “Why do black people stay in church so long?” he
asked the preacher. “Our worship doesn’t last over an hour.”

The black preacher explained. “Unemployment runs 50% here...higher for the youth.
That means that, when our people go about during the week, everything they see,

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 everything they hear tells them, `You are a failure. You are nobody. You are nothing
because you do not have a good job, you do not have a fine car, you have no money.’

“So I must gather them here, once a week, and get their heads straight, (and) through the
hymns, the prayers, the preaching, say, `That is a lie. You are somebody. You are
royalty! God has bought you with a price and loves you as his chosen people’”

(The preacher concluded..”Yes, we’re here a long time...but)...”It takes me so long to get
them straight because the world perverts them so terribly.”2

We need to be in worship - here or virtually - we need to be reading the Bible - the words of
Jesus - so the Spirit can bring them to mind. And the Lord also speaks, through us, to one another
in the church.

One another. Jesus says he calls us into the sheep pen. Sheep are herd animals, they are happy
when together and scared when they are alone. Human beings are similar - we’d made for
community. One big purpose of the church is to be a community where we belong and thrive,
where we’re known. And where we speak the words of Jesus to one another.

I’m grateful for how you do that for me. The last few weeks, I’ve felt really low. It grieves me to
lead worship in a mostly empty sanctuary - but so glad to see more of you today! I miss being
with people. And I’m just so tired of all this - and I know you are too.

So your texts and emails - lift me up - they are a way I hear the voice of Jesus. I’m grateful for
how you do that for me, and for one another.

What is Christ saying to you?

The Lord Jesus Christ speaks, and promises that if we trust him we will be able to hear his voice.
And he made this promise is the midst of controversy and strife. It comes right after last’s weeks
account of Jesus healing the blind man, for which the blind man gets dragged before the religious
court and interrogated and thrown out of the synagogue for refusing to deny that Jesus healed
him by the power of God. And after this passage, there are more arguments between Jesus and
the Pharisees, with the Pharisees now plotting to kill him. This passage that sounds so peaceful,
that promises us life, comes not apart from the troubles of life, but right in the middle of them.

Jesus speaks us into abundant life in the mist of all the stress and strain and pain around us right
now too.

If you are feeling weak, hear the Lord’s word - I will give you power

If you are feeling alone, hear the Lord’s words - I will never leave you

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If you are anxious, hear the Lord’s words - believe in God, believe also in me

If you are feeling lost, hear the Lord’s words - nothing can snatch you out of my hand.

If you are being convicted about sin, hear the Lord’s words - go and leave your life of sin.

If you are feeling like your life is futile, hear the Lord’s words - whoever just gives a cup of water
to one of my little ones will not lose his reward.

Please join me in prayer...

Endnotes

1. https://www.christiancentury.org/article/living-word/may-3-easter-4a-psalm-23-john-101-10

2. Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens, pp. 154-155. Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1989.