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‘He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice.’
Joh_10:4 (R.V.)
I. They follow Him.—Of course, this means self-denial. It is the way of the Cross. So the Master said, ‘Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’ (Mar_8:34). ‘True, all our lives long,’ as Miss Rossetti says, ‘we shall be bound to refrain our soul, and keep it low: but what then? For the books we now forbear to read, we shall one day be endued with wisdom and knowledge. For the music we will not listen to, we shall join the song of the redeemed. For the pictures from which we turn, we shall gaze unabashed on the Beatific Vision. For the companionship we shun, we shall be welcomed into angelic society, and the communion of triumphant saints. For the amusements we avoid, we shall keep the supreme jubilee. For all the pleasure we miss, we shall abide, and for evermore abide, in the rapture of heaven.’
II. They know His Voice.—Our Saviour had said that dead souls should hear His Voice and live: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live’ (Joh_5:25). He not simply foresaw, but He purposed that His sheep should hear His Voice and be saved, for ‘Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold (that is, not Jews): them also I must bring, and they shall hear My Voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd’ (Joh_10:16). So Jesus speaks, and their ears are opened to hear. And where does He speak? In the Bible. Hence the necessity of reading and meditating upon the Holy Scriptures.
III. At last the hill is climbed, and what then?—‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour’ (Joh_12:26). And ‘That first sight of the Lord, O what will it be?’
—
Rev. F. Harper.
Illustration‘ “It fell to my lot,” says Dr. James Stalker, “to look over the papers of a deceased friend. As all who have had the same duty to perform must know, it is a pathetic task. There is a haunting sense of desecration in rifling the secrets kept hidden during life and learning exactly what the man was beneath the surface.… When I opened his Bible especially, it told an unmistakable story; for the marks of long and diligent use were visible on every page—the leaves were well worn, the choice texts underlined, short breathings of the heart noted on the margins. In some parts the marks of use were peculiarly frequent. This was the case especially with Psalms, Isaiah, and Hosea in the Old Testament, and the writings of John in the New. I now knew the reality of the life that was ended, and whence its virtues had sprung.… I copied from the flyleaf of my friend’s Bible a few words which perhaps explain the source of true love to the Word: ‘Oh, to come nearer to Christ, nearer to God, nearer to holiness! Every day to live more completely in Him, by Him, for and with Him. There is a Christ; shall I be Christless? A cleansing; shall I remain foul? A Father’s love; shall I be an alien? A heaven; shall I be cast out?’ ” ’
THE GUIDING SHEPHERD
I. Our Lord leads us forth into the common life of men.—He leads us to its home life, to its life of love, to its life of social intercourse, to its life of politics. He calls on us to taste alike its sorrows and its joys. We are, it is true, to be a separated people, but we are not to be a people separated with the separation of those who, like the Baptist, ‘come not eating and drinking.’ We are separated with the separation of those who, following Christ whilst they come eating and drinking, are yet ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.’ We are called to be in the world whilst we are forbidden to be of it. So only can the Church act on the world as its salt, its light, its leaven. In the world, but not of it.
II. Each of us is conscious of his need of a guide as he goes through life.—Ignorance, impetuosity, discouragement so often possess us, and they are each of them causes of peril. We need a guide who is wise with the wisdom of a like experience, who will restrain us with firmness, and encourage us with sympathy. This need Jesus meets as He reveals Himself to us as the director of His people. He is at once wise, strong, and tender. When He came to call His own out of Jewry and Heathendom He went before them in the way of life He would have them tread. From the cradle to the grave He went before, and His people, generation after generation, follow Him in every stage of life’s journey, treading in His steps. In every sphere of life, in the home, in the shop, in the world, in the House of God, in the crowded city, in the still seclusion of the country, on the sea, by the well side, in the garden, on the mountain top His footprints are visible to the eye of faith. Wherever we are Jesus has gone before.
—
Canon Body.
‘They know His voice.’
St Joh_10:4
I. Have I listened for His Voice?—Do I know His Voice? A man says, ‘You tell me that Christ sorted people by His Voice, and sorts them still. What is that Voice?’ The answer surely is, Dear soul, if you do not know that Voice, what then? Is He a stranger to you? ‘They know not the voice of strangers, but My sheep hear My voice, and follow Me.’ If therefore I should be at a loss to know what is the Voice of Jesus calling Me, then surely something is amiss; and I must at once to my knees and say, ‘O let me hear the Voice, for it is they who hear the Voice who are of the flock.’ Is it that I have been too hurried with matters of this world? Is it that I have been perplexed and distracted by various demands, all kinds of voices claiming my allegiance? Is it that I have been selfish, self-concentrated, or stopping my ears? Or have I been afraid that if I listened too closely, if I read the Bible and pondered on the Saviour’s words, if I was constant in church, patient in silent prayer by myself, if I looked into my conscience where He speaks, if I sank into the solitude of my own heart where He makes Himself known—have I been afraid that His demand would be difficult, that He would ask me to give up some practice of my business or pleasure, something which I could not bear to put under the light of His law—is that why I do not know which is His Voice in all the voices of the world?
II. We have much to guide us towards the Voice.—There is the glorious Gospel written, the Church ordained, uplifting and proclaiming His commandments and invitations. There is the speaking appeal of the Sacraments. You might try these, and see whether they find an answer in your heart. See whether through them will not come an appeal which cannot be denied. If a man does not know this Voice, it may be because he is deserting the means of grace; it may be because he has taken pains to keep outside his own heart where Christ knows well how to make himself heard. Every one who says, ‘What is the Voice?’ though he has no answer to that question, yet has a warning and a call of the very Voice he knows not. He has example also to help him. There are many sheep who know the Voice and love it. If I do not know it, it is my own fault. ‘O Saviour and Shepherd, O Lord of my soul, give me this first grace that I may keep still, and pray for grace; give me this first beginning, that I may at least listen. And O give me then to hear, and let me follow.’
III. There are some who know the Voice, but they have not followed.—They put it from them, sink back into their selfishness and sloth, or give themselves even to Christian duties in such a way as to leave themselves no time for speaking and listening to Christ. We know quite well how we can damp down our own souls. We know the Voice, and have not obeyed. ‘O give us the grace to listen, to obey, to be careful, to go forth to follow His footsteps.’ We are His if we follow Him in the paths of self-discipline and loving obedience to all God’s commandments.
IV. In that fold there are sheep that do not follow the Shepherd. What becomes of them?—Somebody claims them later on; somebody whose voice they have grown accustomed to. What becomes of the men who will not hear Jesus? Somebody will claim them later on, somebody claims them now—somebody whose voice they are growing accustomed to; that is to say, Satan, the destroyer of their souls. If you will not hear His Voice, whose voice are you listening to? If you do not care for the invitation to prayer, to purity, to lovingkindness, to worship, and reverence of God, you are not standing still, you are hearing the voice which invites to pride, to self-satisfaction, to self-indulgence, to carelessness of others’ good and salvation, to wicked ways. There are such voices going through the world, and multitudes follow them. Remember, the voice that we follow now is the voice that we grow accustomed to; the voice that we grow accustomed to is the voice that we shall have to own. It will be the voice of our owner at the end. So the man who is growing accustomed to the Voice of Jesus, and loving it, is becoming more truly His; and Christ is his owner, and will claim him and protect him in the last day. But if you persevere in listening to and obeying and following another voice, be sure your character is becoming fixed in conformity to that voice, and you are gaining a different sort of owner. The man who continually answers the call to self-indulgence is finding a master, a shepherd. It is a shepherd who leads him to the shambles, who claims the soul from Christ Himself.
—
Rev. P. N. Waggett.