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"You've got what it takes" John 10:22-30

by Rev. Clancy Nixon

April 29, 2007

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

It's great to be back with you today. Last week at this time, I was in Belize with

Ginger for a getaway vacation in celebration of my jubilee year. While we were there, we

met a local man of Mayan descent named Antonio. Antonio was the groundskeeper and

security guard for the little house where we stayed. He is also a lay pastor at his

Presbyterian Church, where he preaches occasionally. Every Sunday after church, he

walks to visit the ones who have worshiped in his church that day, to listen to them and

pray for their needs. His church is growing! We got to know Antonio very well, and we

prayed with him often. He has little formal education, but all by himself, Antonio has

everything needed to reproduce the Kingdom of God and to make disciples who make

disciples. And so do you.

As a church, we know our mission statement. Let's say it together: "We love

Jesus; we love our neighbors; we make disciples who make disciples, and we plant

churches that plant churches." This is a paraphrase of the Great Commandment and the

Great Commission. Our mission statement has a movement to it, an inner dynamic of

reproduction. We're Jesus people; we're not in this for ourselves. We love other people

because we have found the love of Jesus. We tell other people the good news because our

lives have been utterly transformed by the man from Galilee. Our mission as individuals

is to reproduce ourselves. The mission of a small group is to reproduce itself. The

mission of a church is to reproduce itself. At every level, we are to reproduce ourselves,

because we love Jesus. Every unit, every individual, every small group, every church,

every network, has all of the DNA necessary to reproduce itself. As long as we have the

Word of God, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit within us, we have all we need. The rest is

paraphernalia.

Alan Hirsch (author of The Forgotten Ways) writes that the early church grew

from 25 thousand in the year 100 A.D. to 20 million just 200 years later, before the

conversion of Constantine. He also tells us that the church in China grew from 2 million

in 1950 to 60 million or more in sixty years. How did that happen? Almost everyone in

those movements took disciple-making seriously. They had to, because Christianity was

outlawed. In both those movements, the faith is distilled to a very simple call: Jesus is

Lord. All the paraphernalia of religion is removed: seminaries, church buildings,

theologians. Jesus is the center of these people's lives.

In John 10:27, Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they

follow me." Notice that the sheep that belong to the master are attentive to his voice. The

Holy Spirit inside of us prompts us to hear Jesus speak to us. This is rarely experienced as

hearing the audible voice of Jesus, though that does happen. Instead, we hear Jesus

though the still small voice, through the gentle prompting of recurring thoughts, of an

inner oughtness, that lines up with the Scriptures. Easter teaches us that Jesus is alive,

not dead! He is alive; he loves you; that means he wants relationship with you. From time

to time He speaks to each one of us; the problem is, many of us are not listening very

carefully to hear what he has to say. How can you tell when Jesus is speaking to you?

Jesus said, my sheep know me, and they will recognize my voice. In first century

Israel, if two or more flocks of sheep came to the same watering hole for the night, the

sheep would intermingle. When it came time to leave in the morning, how could the

shepherds be certain that each shepherd left with all the right sheep, and not with any

sheep that belonged to a different shepherd? In reality, this was never a problem. The

Hebrew shepherds led their sheep with their voice, they did not drive them with dogs,

like American shepherds do. The pig in the movie "Babe" was onto something. Each

sheep grew up with his shepherd, who knew the sheep intimately all its life long. The

Jewish shepherds named his sheep, like brown ear, or spotted leg. Each sheep learned his

master's voice, and trusted that voice to lead him to safety. Each sheep recognized its

own master's voice, and would depart only when he called. So each sheep stays with his

own master, though they mingle with other flocks from time to time.

There are three main ways to learn to hear the rhema voice of God, the still small

voice of God. The First is through regular Bible reading, so you can learn to distinguish

the master's voice from the other voices that are inside your head, like you mother's

voice, your father's voice, your teacher's voice. Once you know the kind of things God

says and does not say, then Second, you need to take time to be attentive to him, to listen

to him, to reflect on your experiences in a prayerful way. The third way you can hear God

is through other believers, other sheep who also know the master's voice. We all need a

small group of believers who can keep us on track, can confirm for us that we are indeed

hearing God's voice.

Notice that Jesus has a very simple call here for us: to listen to him and to follow

him. How do we follow him? As a sheep follows its shepherd. Jesus calls us to trust him

as a sheep trusts his shepherd. We are to trust that Jesus knows us well enough to know

where the good pasture is. He leads us to feed on green pastures, so we shall not be in

want. That trust means that we will from time to time be led in directions that seem

uncomfortable to us.

I'd like to ask Joanne Craft to come forward now to share with us how God spoke

to her on the Women's Retreat this weekend. Joanne, I understand that you have been

sensing that God wants to speak to the body through you. What have you done with that

sense before?

Joanne Craft: "I've known for some time that the Lord has given me words of knowledge

to share in Sunday morning worship, but I was too timid to risk myself in that way. I

thought we'd kind of reached an understanding about that (i.e., I wasn't gonna speak those

words out, no way, no how), but God is one persistent fellow. When we were standing

silently waiting for a word this morning, the Lord whispered in my ear "Ezekiel 2."

"What about Ezekiel 2?" I asked Him, my heart beginning to beat at an uncomfortably

rapid pace.

"Open your Bible to Ezekiel 2." Well I hadn't just fallen off the turnip truck: I wasn't

going to fall for that ploy. I knew if I opened my Bible, the next thing He'd want me to do

is share the text out loud, which was awfully similar to the word of knowledge thing I'd

already told Him I wasn't interested in pursuing. He repeated His request a couple times

more as I tried to convince myself it wasn't Him talking at all, that I'd made it up. He was

quiet for a little bit, which was fine with me -- until we came to that next silent spot--

people waiting for a word.

What happened next? Then the Lord gave me a vision about a child singing to her

mother, and the joy it gave the child to offer the song was exceeded by far by the

mother's pleasure in hearing it: obviously the analogy was the women assembled were the

child and God was the mother. By this time Betsey had been talking for some time about

moving out in the Spirit boldly and with authority. I felt a little hypocritical, having said

'Amen' and nodded in agreement with everything she said during the retreat and then

high tailing it for the hills when it was time to move from theory into practice. It was time

to put my money where my mouth was, as it were. So I spoke up about the vision and

Contance confirmed it. What an encouragement! It was such an encouragement that I felt

emboldened to look up Ezekiel 2. The text was Ezekiel's call to prophetic ministry. Boy,

did I feel silly! God was trying to reassure me before He asked again if I would share His

word with His people. I would have been a lot less scared of telling the ladies about the

vision if I'd been obedient about the Ezekiel thing and let Him encourage me with His

Word.

God is faithful and gentle: even to a stubborn silly sinner like me."

I'd like us to try something new and different today as a way to respond to this

message. We're going to discuss these ideas in a small group. I know that this can seem

threatening to some people, so the ground rules will be that no one has to share anything,

and the others will respect that. If all you want to do is listen to others, that's fine. I'd

like everyone here to find two other people of the same sex to be in a small group with

women with women, men with men gather in groups of three, turn your chairs around

so you're in little clusters of three. First, find a group, introduce yourselves, and wait for

my instructions.

Now, I'd like you to discuss this question: First, What do you make of Jesus'

statement that His sheep listen to his voice and they follow him? Go ahead and take three

minutes to discuss that.

Second, take three more minutes to discuss this hypothetical question. Let's

assume that for some reason, all the believers in our region except the three of you in

your little group today group were called away or killed. Do you believe that the three of

you have everything necessary to grow the faith in our region over a period of years?

What would prevent you from doing that?