Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

John 10:22-30  +  Ezekiel 34:25-31  +  Revelation 7:9-17

Dear sheep of the Good Shepherd, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Those tender words of Jesus weren’t part of the Gospel that was read today. They come right before it, though.  Aren’t those the words that brought you hear today in the first place?  Aren’t those the words that keep you coming back here Sunday after Sunday? The words of the Good Shepherd to his sheep, calling you to hear and to follow.  Lots of people hear the voice of Jesus. But as we heard in today’s Gospel, not everyone listens to it, that is, not everyone hears it in faith.

Why? Why do some trust in Jesus as their Good Shepherd while others don’t? Why do some people find the image of Jesus as Shepherd to be one of the most comforting, beautiful images in all the world, while others want nothing less than to be shepherded by Jesus? Why do some hear in faith while others do not? That’s a tough question, because it’s a question the Bible doesn’t answer to the complete satisfaction of our human reason. But our Gospel today does answer that question up to a point and this is the answer it gives: Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice.

Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice. They hear it when others don’t.

The Jews who came up to Jesus and surrounded him that day in Jerusalem’s temple weren’t earnestly investigating whether or not Jesus was the Christ, the promised Savior. What they wanted from him was a confession.

What they wanted to hear was for Jesus to come right out and say it, “If you’re the Christ, tell us plainly!” Because if he said those words, “I am the Christ,” they thought it would be easier to have him arrested by the Jewish leaders and executed on the spot. You see, these people hated Jesus. They hated that he accused them of being sinners. They had seen his miracles which, as Jesus said, testified to his being the Christ and they thought, “He must be demon-possessed!” They had heard him say that he was the Good Shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep and take up his life again, and they thought, “No way! We don’t want him as our shepherd!” They heard Jesus’ voice, but they didn’t hear it and trust in him. They didn’t hear it and want him as their shepherd.

Why? They had heard the same words that everyone else had heard, seen the same miracles. Why did these people turn him away?  “You don’t believe,” Jesus said, “because you’re not my sheep. My sheep listen to, my sheep hear my voice.”

When someone hears the voice of Jesus and doesn’t want to hear it as the voice of their shepherd calling out to them, it’s not God’s fault.  Long ago, there was a theologian named John Calvin, whose teaching still influence many of the Reformed and Evangelical churches in America. According to his teaching, if someone hears the Gospel and doesn’t believe, God is responsible. He taught what’s called “double predestination,” that God not only chose some people ahead of time and destined them for salvation, which the Bible does teach – those are the “sheep” Jesus was talking about. But “double predestination” teaches that God also chose some people ahead of time and destined them for hell, and that, the Bible doesn’t teach. God so loved “the world,” after all. Those who don’t believe have only themselves to blame.

Calvin also taught what he called a “limited atonement,” that Jesus only died as payment for the sins of the chosen ones, of the elect, of his sheep. But the Bible doesn’t teach that. It says that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, yet not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. Those who don’t believe have only themselves to blame.

Calvin also taught that the Holy Spirit works irresistibly on people, apart from the Means of Grace. So if someone hears the Gospel and doesn’t believe it, it’s because the Holy Spirit wasn’t there in the Gospel to create faith. But the Bible doesn’t teach that. It says that the Word of Christ is the power of God, the sword of the Spirit, that whenever the good news of Christ is preached, the Holy Spirit is there offering salvation, working on a person’s heart to create faith in Jesus. Those who don’t believe have only themselves to blame.

What a horrible thing! To resist the Holy Spirit! To cling to sin and to shut out the Good Shepherd’s voice. Those who don’t want Jesus for their shepherd will find that, on the Day of God’s wrath, they will have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no Mediator to speak up for them, no Good Shepherd to care for them. Worst of all, they will find that God really did love them, that Jesus really did die for their sins, too, and that his invitation to believe in the Gospel was real. But they didn’t want it, because they weren’t Jesus’ sheep. That may be an explanation for their unbelief, but it’s not an excuse.

So it’s not God’s fault when someone doesn’t hear. But neither is it within a person’s capability to choose to hear. Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice. They hear it because of God’s election.

By nature, no one really trusts in God or knows God or loves God. “We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way,” as the prophet says. You and I were once wandering sheep, too, living to gratify the cravings of our sinful nature, living our lives as if we got to make up our own rules, our own truth, be own our god. That sinful mind is hostile to God – it doesn’t submit to his law, and it can’t. Do you know what it’s like to run away from God – to know he’s real, to know his Word is true, but to keep on running anyway?

We would all keep running away from the Shepherd’s voice, so far gone we are by nature. But God the Father did the most wonderful thing a long time ago, even before the world was made. He foresaw humanity running away from him, and out of pure grace, he determined, “This one I will bring back. And this one. And that one. For as stubborn as they are, these sinners are my chosen ones. These are my elect, these are my sheep, and they will not be lost forever.  They are mine.”

But a price had to be paid, if these sheep were to be bought back from death to the Father’s fold. The Father’s Son had to die to bring them back from death. And he was so willing, so eager to do it. “I lay down my life for the sheep. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” That was the price for saving the sheep, paid in full on Calvary’s cross, paid in full with the blood of the Lamb. That payment for sin qualified Jesus forever as the Good Shepherd of the sheep. And so what did the Father do with those sheep he chose for himself in eternity? What did Jesus say in our text? “My Father has given them to me.”

That’s why Jesus can say, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”  These sheep belong to Jesus!  Not because they’re more worthy than others. Not because they’re less sinful or better at believing. But only because of God’s grace in electing them. Because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for them. And because of the grace of the Holy Spirit of God who tugs at their hearts through the Gospel and leads them to rely on Jesus as their Good Shepherd. Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice. They hear it because of God’s election.

Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice. They hear it and are saved eternally. 

I give them eternal life, Jesus says. But how does he give it? Where does he give it? Not at the cross. It’s not when the Shepherd died for the sheep that they entered his fold. You know when you were given eternal life? You know when God declared you innocent and brought you into the fold of the Good Shepherd? It’s when the Good Shepherd sent the Gospel to your ears, when some Christian spoke it to you, maybe a shepherd of the Good Shepherd, and when the Holy Spirit broke through your heart by that Gospel and taught you to hear the Shepherd’s voice. There was probably water involved, too, and there in Baptism the voice of the Shepherd was not only heard in words, but was seen and felt as a cleansing bath.

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  What a promise! The devil assails the sheep with doubt and fear and guilt. The world tries to intimidate the sheep and push them around. Their own sinful nature tugs at them and entices them. But Jesus’ sheep will be kept safe until the end. They may stumble, they may even fall, but the voice of the Good Shepherd will reach them again and call them back to repentance and faith, so that, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, because he is with us. In life, in death, and in the resurrection from the dead.

But even this promise isn’t something that Jesus fulfills apart from the Means of Grace, but through the Means of Grace. How will the wolf be kept at bay? How will the devil and the world and the sinful nature be kept from snatching Jesus’ sheep out of his hand?  By the power of the Gospel that you continue to hear, by the power of baptism in which you still live, by the power of the body and blood of the Good Shepherd with which he feeds his sheep throughout this life, guarding them from unbelief, protecting them from the wolf.  The voice of the Shepherd calls out to his sheep in a sermon, in a Bible reading, in the liturgy, in the hymns, in bread and wine, “Here is salvation! Here is eternal life! Here I am, my sheep! Come to me!” And his sheep hear and come. Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice. They hear it, and are saved eternally.

Why do some hear Jesus’ voice with faith while others don’t? More important than the question why is the question, what about you? Do you hear his voice? Did you come today in repentance and faith, yearning to hear again the voice of your Good Shepherd? Doesn’t his Word of forgiveness comfort you? Doesn’t his promise to shepherd you safely through this life make you love him all the more, make you more eager to follow him, wherever he may lead? As the writer to the Hebrews says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts… See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”

Or did you perhaps come not yet knowing the voice of the Good Shepherd?  Do you hear his voice and say to yourself, “Jesus sounds like such a good Shepherd! I want to believe in him, but I don’t know if I can. I want to have him for my Shepherd, but I’m so weak and feeble and prone to sin. Maybe I’m not his sheep.” Friend, if you’ve heard the voice of Jesus and his voice seems at all pleasant to you, if his voice has led you to mourn over your sin and to want salvation from him, then guess what that makes you! Only his sheep can hear the Shepherd’s voice. Trust him, then. He wouldn’t lie to you. He laid down his life for you, and gives you eternal life. What a joy it is to hear the Shepherd’s voice! Amen.

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