Are You Listening?

John 10:22-30

To whom do you listen? To whom do you subscribe to? Who do you follow? The younger generation these days has to contend with all the voices vying for their attention among social media. But even those of us who are older still have to make choices as to who or what we will listen to. If you’re like me, then you enjoy listening to podcasts. Podcasts came about back in the early 2000s when people figured out that MP3 devices like the iPod aren’t just limited to music. They figured out that you could make a broadcast about whatever you wanted and all you had to do was put it on the internet and then people could find it, download it, and listen to it on their podcasts on their iPod that is. Of course, nowadays we listen to them on our phone. But ever since the early 2000s the popularity of podcasts has grown immensely. Where now there’s millions of podcast shows on just about everything under the sun. They have become incredibly niche. Do you want a show, a weekly show about fantasy football? It’s there. Do you want a show about Roman history? It’s there. Or what about the plethora of true crime podcasts hosted by investigative journalists? It’s all available. Whatever your interests are, whether it’s sports, science, comedy, movies, and TV, there is a podcast out there for you. There’s even an official WELS preacher podcast where pastors come together to talk about Bible stuff. And Pastor Cuck has been on no less than 10 episodes himself. There is a podcast for everything that you can do. Everything and anything. And it’s pretty common for episodes of these podcasts to last between one to two hours. Sometimes even longer than that. I once listened to a podcast that was seven hours long. It took me a week to do it, but I got through it. Now, imagine that you were to listen to 40 to 50 episodes of one podcast. And if every episode is one to two hours long, then that comes out to about a hundred hours worth of listening time. And so if you were to do that, not only would you become so familiar with the show format, but you would be able to wreck your brain and your ears, would be able to recognize the voices of the host just about anywhere. And if the hosts talk in a very candid, unguarded manner, then you would start to get to know these hosts pretty well. You would know how they think, how they perceive the world. You might even be able to anticipate the things that they’ll say. You would have a window into their soul, so to speak. And after a while, these strangers might even start to feel like your close friends. So maybe you’re thinking, “But, Vicker, I’ve never listened to a podcast in my whole life.” Okay. But do you have a favorite sports commentator or a political pundit that you listen to on the radio or on YouTube? Do you have… Is there a celebrity or a politician that you follow on X or Instagram? Is there a news outlet that you go to first before looking at any of the other news outlets? Do you have an author that you readily follow? Do you know how they write and so you seek out their novels? Or do you have a friend or a mentor whose opinion and expertise you value over others and so you go to them first? What I’m trying to get at is we all follow and subscribe to something or someone in some way. We ascribe value to certain voices. So what about the voice of our Savior? What are our listening habits to Jesus? If I’m being honest, I sometimes ignore the voice of Jesus. Maybe I make the excuse that I’m too busy to do a personal home devotion. Why do I need to do a personal home devotion when my homework at the seminary requires me to be in God’s word every day anyways? This, my friends, is foolish and disastrous. Because I am weak and I am vulnerable, as are you. Just like a sheep, you see sheep, they don’t have good eyesight. They rely primarily on sound, on the voice of their shepherd. And so if the sheep is cut off from the voice of their shepherd, then those sheep will end up either stranded or killed. Infants are like sheep, in a way. Infants are incapable of caring for themselves. They need mothers, good mothers, to protect and nurture them. You see, an infant is the definition of helpless and vulnerable. So they need their mother. Infants may not know much, but they do know the sound of their mother’s voice. And so if that infant were to be cut off from the mother’s voice, or if that sheep were to be cut off from the shepherd’s voice, then that, my friends, would be disastrous. You see, this all comes down to identity. Who do we say we are? Who do you say you are? Because what you say you are will dictate your actions, or at least they should. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. So if you say, “I’m an athlete,” what does that mean? Well, that means that you’re either at the gym or you’re playing sports on a daily basis. But if you’re never in the gym or on the field or on the court or on the mat, then can you really be called an athlete? If you say, “I’m a dentist,” but you go a whole week without ever touching or examining someone’s teeth, then are you really a dentist? And if you say, “I am God’s sheep,” but you never pick up your Bible or listen to the word, and you don’t love your neighbor, and you never give up money, time, or talents in the service of God’s kingdom, then are you really Jesus’ disciple? You see, even Jesus understood the importance of actions. This is why he did miraculous signs in his Father’s name to prove that he was who he said he was. And yet, people still refuse to listen just as it is recorded in the book of John. You see, Jesus was at the temple. Specifically, he was in Solomon’s Colonnade. And Solomon’s Colonnade was a place where the religious leaders of the day tended to hang out and discuss religious ideas. And so Jesus knew what he was doing by being in Solomon’s Colonnade. He knew that the religious leaders would confront him. And so they come to him and they ask him, or they tell him, “If you are the Christ, then tell us already.” And Jesus tells him, “I’ve been telling you, but you refuse to listen because you are not my sheep.” And that, my friends, is not a place where you want to be. Because if you are not God’s sheep, then what that means is hell and eternal torment. So by giving this harsh law to the Pharisees, Jesus was doing one of two things. Either one, he was wanting them to wake up from their spiritual stupor, or two, he was pronouncing judgment on them. Regardless, this serves as a warning for us brothers and sisters. Because, unlike the Pharisees who were picking up stones to stone Jesus, we do not want to be outside of God’s sheep pen. And so it all comes down to identity. Who do you say you are? You see, God’s sheep, they listen to their shepherd. They do not intentionally run off a cliff. As Jesus says, “No one will snatch them out of my hand.” You see, God is always faithful to us. But that does not mean that we are always faithful to him. In our unfaithfulness, we can jump out of his hand. And to do that would be incredibly foolish and disastrous. Just as if an infant is cut off from the voice of his mother or the sheep, the voice of their shepherd. The sheep listen to their shepherd. If we listen to podcast hosts, to political commentators, to sports broadcasters, to our friends, how much more should we listen to our greatest and best friend? After all, he laid down his life for us. And he gives us his word so that we can thoroughly become familiar with his voice. We can and do become intimate with the voice of our shepherd because we can daily read, study, and listen to it. And we can know what he thinks of us. We can know what lengths he went to to win us salvation. The sheep listen to the shepherd. And as his sheep, he daily feeds us both spiritually and physically. He protects and nurtures us the way that a mother does for her child. He gives to you and me the Lord’s Supper so that we are assured that our sins are forgiven. He reminds us of our baptism, that we are his adopted, beloved children. Dear brothers and sisters, the sheep listen to the shepherd. And because he lives, because the shepherd lives, we listen. He gives to you and me eternal life, and you shall never perish, and no one will be able to snatch you from his hand. Amen.