This morning I am continuing to mine John's tenth chapter. Man, there is so much good in this one chapter. The verses I am reflecting on are the following - John 10:14-16 NIV:
[14] “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me--- [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father---and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."
Recently I was talking to friends about how the Lord directed me out of the Catholic Church, and this verse and the mindset of Christ were significant in that process. At the time I didn't have a fuller appreciation for the rest of the Body of Christ, and as a born-again, Spirit-filled Catholic, I thought I was experiencing the fullness of everything possible in Christ. I knew plenty of Christians from other denominations, but I always thought I was experiencing more than the rest and our expression was the fullest, most true expression of the Church.
When I felt like the Lord was moving us toward something different, I had some serious discussions with Him, explaining why this couldn't be right. I think it is quite funny in retrospect when I look back at times I thought I knew better than God. I am sure the Lord gets a kick out of it too. :-) Anyway so I was explaining to the Lord how He couldn't possibly want me to experience a lesser expression of His Body, when He politely interrupted me and asked me how I thought He saw the Body of Christ, the Church? This is one of the verses (verse 16 above) that ran through my mind, along with 1 Cor 12, and Paul's analogy of the Body. I had to answer that it was pretty clear that there was only one Body of Christ, one flock and thus one Church. The denominations were just parts of the one body. He went on to explain that I was putting lines of separation where He saw none and I needed to adjust my view to His. I wasn't leaving the Body of Christ or the Church, I was just moving within the Church to another part.
To be clear the two sheep pens Jesus is talking about were the Jews and the Gentiles, not the Catholics or Protestants, Pentecostals, Baptists or anyone else that think they are the true church (not trying to be mean here) and everyone else. At the time, Jesus has stated clearly that He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel (Matt 15:24), and even though He did miracles for and ministered to others who were not Jewish, His focus, and His directions to the Apostles were to the Jews (Matt 10:6). We understand this even more through the Book of Acts, where Peter had to be supernaturally directed to minister to Gentiles, and was then called on the carpet for doing so by the rest of the Apostles (Acts 10 & 11). Clearly they hadn't fully grasped what Jesus meant when He issued the great commission - Matthew 28:19 NIV: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,"... They did go to other nations, but were primarily if not wholly focused on spreading the Good News to the Jews that were in those Nations. Clearly, as revealed by God through Peter, He intended all nations to mean "All" nations including the Gentiles. So unless we have active Jewish heritage (I think that is what this means), we are part of the other sheep pen or the other nations.
So back to the verses, Jesus makes it very clear, "one flock and one shepherd" (Him). We are all part of the same flock!
The other part I really like here is that Jesus describes the relationship of knowing between the sheep and the shepherd, as just like He and the Father. Wow! Think of that as a relational comparison - we and Jesus can be like Jesus and the Father. Everything Jesus did and said was at the direction of the Father, and that same dynamic is available to us. That is just mind-blowing to me.
Additionally, He says we will listen to His voice - which means we can each discern His voice, know it and understand it. Some, through practice, have gotten better at hearing His voice, or maybe I should say better at listening to His voice, but all of His sheep can hear His voice and listen to it.
I was just thinking that listening is one of those things that you can practice at and get better. Not everyone is a good listener, and usually that is the result of a choice we make about what we give our attention to and focus on. With the proclivity of smart phones, we have the opportunity to become worse and worse at active listening and real conversations.
We can, however, choose to grow in our ability to listen to the Lord (Our Shepherd) as well. There are very few people that I know of, or that I know, that have a well developed ability to hear God and discern His voice right away. For almost everyone I have ever talked to, listening to God is something they learn, and choose to do. Almost every morning I spend time practicing my listening, learning to turn my attention to God, away from the distractions of the day, away from the news, Facebook or anything else that might distract me. I practice listening to His voice, following the thought lines He leads me down, thinking about the verses He leads me to read. There are times of enlightenment, and other times of just practicing. Sometimes I fall asleep, and those times I remember the enjoyment I used to get when one of my kids used to fall asleep while on my lap. Overall, I guess the point is that God has made us all able to listen to His voice and receive His direction and guidance, and that is a really good thing!
In summary, we are one flock, we have one shepherd, and we listen to His one voice!
Amen!
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