Listen, Believe, Follow

Scripture Reading: John 10: 25 - 30 (NIV)

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”

Message:  Listen, Believe, Follow

Conversation with Jewish scholars

Jesus is in conversation with the Jewish leaders here…

He is responding to the question:  “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” (v24)

A strange question, because Jesus just finished a explicit dialouge revealing Himself as the Good Shepherd

The well known metaphor of the Sheperd - Psalm 23 - “The Lord is my Shepherd”

It was Jesus communicating with Jewish scholars in their own religious language

Because they loved to interpret the meaning of the Scriptures, and they loved the metaphors that came from the Scriptures

And here’s Jesus, the Rabbi, in their midst, speaking their language, using their metaphors, telling them:  “I am the Good Shepherd”

Jesus is saying:  I am that One that you are reading about… 

I am here… the idea and your insights of the meaning of this metaphor is standing right in front of you…

And then they ask: How long will you keep us in suspense?

We read the response Jesus gave them, and there are three ideas that came from this response - verbs from the response 

And it is through thewe ideas that our Lord is speaking to us today…

Listen

In this response, it is as if Jesus is saying:  Are you not listening to me?

Are you so busy in your mindset of debating that miss the truth being spoken right before you?

Jesus is responding to the phenomenon of distracted listening

The phenomenon of hearing the words being spoken with really listening what is being said

The phenomenon of listening with pre-conceived ideas

A pheonomenon where self-imposed mental barriers prevents them form listening

The difference is between listening and hearing is described by Google AI as:  The key difference between