Monday 19 November 2012

STUDY QUESTIONS - John 14 ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life’


STUDY QUESTIONS - John  14 ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life’

1. Despite the comfort and assurance offered by Jesus in this passage, its unequivocal exclusiveness – his claims both about himself and about his being ‘the only way to the Father’ – some people do find a touch disturbing if not indeed very hard to accept. Why is this so and how would you reassure them about the wholly inclusive nature of Jesus’ exclusive claims?
2. Can you pick out in the passage the claims, direct or indirect, which Jesus makes about his identity that support the doctrine of the incarnation – that Jesus was ‘God come in the flesh’?
3. Is Jesus saying here that there is nothing good in other religions? Can you think of some of his encounters with gentiles during his ministry? What bearing do these have on our understanding of those of other religions or those who have not heard the Gospel? What can WE do about it?
4. In what ways can our preconceptions about God and about how He acts or ought to act affect our understanding of God’s self-revelation in Jesus? How strong an influence are other world views, religious, scientific, cultural, or otherwise on our faith? How might these adversely affect our call to evangelise, for example?
5. Why is doubt the easy way out? How can we guard against it?
6. Why are we in many respects in a more advantageous position then the disciples to understand who Jesus was and the purpose of his coming?
7. Doing ‘greater works than these’ and ‘asking anything in my name’; how do you understand these phrases in this passage? What does it mean and require of us to share in his ministry of reconciliation?

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY 11TH November 2013


REMEMBRANCE  SUNDAY 11TH  November 2013

As we gather here today our thoughts and thanks quite rightly will be foremost for those who have given their lives in previous conflicts; for today is their day when we remember the sacrifice of their deaths, sacrifices made in order that you and I might enjoy the freedom to live and to live in freedom. It is a day which, if we are truly grateful, ought to prompt us to honest reflection about how we choose to use that freedom; to repent of misuses of that freedom and actively to seek out ways in which we might employ our gifts and talents, experience and expertise, in sacrificial service of our fellow human beings.

But our thoughts and prayers must also be for the living, for those fighting, even as I speak, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, facing every day the prospect of sudden death. I can remember myself, as a young rifle platoon commander in Northern Ireland some 30 years ago now, what that felt like before each and every patrol or ambush. Of course, in your early 20s, you think not only that you are infinitely better than the enemy, you also tend to believe yourself indestructible. Yet talking with some riflemen, recently returned from Afghanistan, the nature of the conflict there, together with the sophistication of the enemy’s devices now, serve to produce a feeling of utter vulnerability: no matter how well trained, how professionally competent, the spectre of imminent death or terrible injury looms exceedingly large in their thoughts.

Now I am not here to speak on the pros and cons of our military presence in Afghanistan; I am here to invite you to ‘remember’ with real gratefulness the sacrifice of all those who have given their lives in the fight against evil, and to encourage you to pray, not only for all those currently fighting against evil but also, and perhaps especially so, for all those who are doing so but struggling; struggling, that is, with the moral issues and choices they face each day, or just with their being there, because the world and the morality of its politics today make so many of the choices our service personnel have to address far less black and white and a great deal more complex than in most previous conflicts. So for them our prayers today and everyday are immensely important.

Our Gospel passage this morning gives us a real sense of what terrifying uncertainty and the prospect of imminent death or loss of friends is like. However, at the same time it also offers to all of us, whatever we are facing in this life in terms of trials or terrors, loss or loneliness, or just trying to make sense of this life and our place and part in it, a source of security, comfort, purpose and hope; something which then enables us to become realists about this life and about what happens thereafter. I say ‘realists’ because the source of this information is Jesus himself, the one whom Christians believe – on the basis of the evidence of his birth, life, death, and resurrection – to be exactly whom he claimed to be - our Creator God come in person as one of us in order to save us. This ‘saving’ is not from trials or terrors or wars, but rather from sin and from ourselves. He does this in order that we might become people fit for heaven. 

Indeed, as Jesus states very clearly here, he is the only way to heaven, inviting all who hear this to put their faith and hope of eternal life in him.

But as we can see from this passage, still his own disciples did not really or fully understand who he was and what he was about. It was only after his resurrection that it all fell into place for them and they understood, at last, just who it was they had been with for those two or three years.  The evidence for the resurrection is still there for all to see but, sadly, will never be sufficient for those who are predisposed, for whatever reason, not to see it.

But this morning just put yourselves in the position of his disciples there. How sad, how bewildering, how terrifying it must have been for them: things looked very bleak indeed. Jesus understood this and as a good, strong leader must, encourages and rallies his disciples for the tough tasks ahead. How are they to calm their hearts for the future with all its present fears and uncertainties? For being associated with Jesus would come to mean, as in many countries it still does today, the prospect of torture and death. 

Well, they are to trust; to trust in God and in him.v1 ‘Trust in God; trust also in me.’

Yet it seems their trust in God is perhaps a little shaky, a little vague, to say the least. 

Jesus, in inviting them to put their trust in him, effectively challenges them to regard him as they would God himself. Now that is some claim!

Jesus then says that he is going to prepare a place for them and that he will return for them, comforting them with the information that there is space enough in ‘my Father’s house’, a reference of course to heaven. But here again we are challenged with this very exclusive idea that it is Jesus who is able to prepare us a place in Heaven. Why? 

Because it is, v2 ‘my Father’s house’.

Then comes this note of reassurance v4 ‘You know the way to the place where I am going’, which seems to suggest, does it not, from Thomas’ reply, that Jesus has misjudged his disciples. At one level it is obvious that they don’t think they know the way! But again Jesus is asking them to trust him: it is precisely, he is saying, because they know him that they therefore know the way.

Poor Thomas v5 is still mystified. The Gospels reveal him as a loyal and courageous disciple but one liberally endowed with misapprehensions and doubts – just another typical middle-of-the-road Anglican churchgoer really!

And then in v 6 Jesus answers Thomas’ question with perhaps the most clear and audacious statement in the Gospel records Jesus makes about himself. ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ Jesus is the way to God precisely because he is the truth of God and the life of God. He may properly be called ‘God’ because he is God’s gracious disclosure of himself in human form – as v7 makes clear.

To many people today such an exclusivist claim to being the only way to God is anathema: and of course if we prefer the secular dogmas of so-called inclusiveness or our own imaginings on this, then we will find Jesus’ teaching here hard to swallow. I would just say this: it is so important we look at the life and the credentials of those who argue against the teaching of Jesus and ask ourselves who, on the balance of evidence, is more credible? I realise that the ‘all roads lead to Heaven’ or ‘all religions are fundamentally the same’ assertions can seem very comforting, and they have some very colourful and attractive celebrities who advocate them; but study their credentials before you decide, and compare them with the credentials of Jesus. Our Heavenly Father is loving and merciful, and will never turn away anyone who genuinely seeks to be with him: but whoever they are, whatever their religion to date, and whatever their track record, Jesus says they may only come through him.

Something of these great truths and hard facts are perhaps illustrated if I briefly recount a little incident from the jungle. Some of you know that I am a qualified jungle warfare instructor – a very useful training I have found for surviving in the Anglican church – and one day on my instructor’s course we were out doing a map reading exercise. If ever there is a test of faith, it has got to be map reading and compass work in the jungle. I remember our instructor stressing that to get from point A to point B that afternoon there was only one way. ‘Gentlemen, you may choose to take a short cut or you may choose to take the scenic route; neither of these will get you to your objective by the right time - if at all. There is one way only, and you miss it at your peril.’

Well, if you sympathised with Thomas, here now is Philip. In spite of everything they have seen and heard, these disciples are still hanging on to their preconceptions and their safe assumptions about Jesus, preconceptions and assumptions which combine, as they still do for people today, to blind them to life’s greatest spiritual realities. The disciples did not have all the advantages that you and I have, if only we will take advantage of them – the New Testament and the Holy Spirit. Of course, the resurrection changed all that for them; but if we are sincere in our seeking after the truth about this life, its purpose, and our destiny, then it is surely the utmost folly to subordinate the teaching of Jesus about these things to our own or others’ limited imaginings.

There’s more than a hint of sadness, I think, in the words of Jesus in v9 as he realises that he has more work to do in order to convince them. And I suppose it warns us that spiritual insight and spiritual maturity are not so much a matter or product of a length of time as they are of a willingness to set aside one’s prejudices and to be open to knowing Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

Jesus continues, asking them to believe what he has said to be true v11 and then, in appealing to them to have faith in him, turns the focus in these last verses to the fruitfulness that believers will have when they do seek to serve him. When you and I unashamedly make known the truth and the love of Jesus to others – that he is the way, the truth, and the life; when we take on the role of Good Samaritan and give the glory for our good works to God; when we self-sacrificially support the poor or our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ, we demonstrate something of the truth of v12. The contrast here is not between the works Jesus did and the works his disciples will do after his death and resurrection, but between the works Jesus did and the far greater works he will do in and with his disciples from the Day of Pentecost onwards.

You and me he calls to join him in his continuing work of reconciling people to their Heavenly Father through him. He is the way, the truth, and the life: he longs for all to know this, and he calls you and me to make him known to them.

THE ‘I AM’ SAYINGS OF JESUS - ‘I am the True Vine’ John Ch 15 vv 1 – 8


THE ‘I AM’ SAYINGS OF JESUS  - ‘I am the True Vine’ John Ch 15 vv 1 – 8

Did you know that farmers and Jesus have something very important in common; they share a common goal, a common hope. Now, you’ve all heard, I’m sure, those jokes that start, ’What’s the difference?’ For example, ‘What’s the difference between an elephant and a post box?’ To which the answer, for those of you who havn’t heard it, is, ‘Well if you don’t know, you’re certainly not posting any of my letters!’ But this isn’t a ‘what’s the difference’ question; it’s a ‘what do they have in common?’ question. And the answer is that they are both extremely interested in fruitfulness.

Just as the farmer wants to see his orchards produce apples, his fields corn, barley, wheat or whatever, his cows milk, so Jesus wants to see spiritual fruit from his followers, his disciples. The goal of our discipleship is, first and foremost, fruitfulness.        As I have said on so many occasions, the Gospels teach us quite plainly that the goal of discipleship is not goodness but effectiveness: any goodness in you or me of any value in Jesus’ eyes, any goodness worth having at all, will always be as a consequence of our being effective disciples for his name’s sake.   And in our Gospel passage this morning, which contains the next in our series of Sunday morning talks on the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel, 

Jesus here explains not only the key truth that fruitfulness is the goal of discipleship but also here he explains how such fruitfulness may be achieved.

So it really is a very appropriate topic on the occasion of our Harvest Festival, when we come together to thank God for all his gifts and blessings of creation, for the fruit of our labours, and to sing that great pride-busting, humbling Harvest hymn which reminds us that ‘all good things around us are sent from Heaven above’, that we are reminded too that we are each one of us called by Jesus, in whatever work or season of life, to be fruitful for him to God’s glory.

The picture or metaphor Jesus uses here is that of the vine which was used in the Old Testament to describe the people of Israel. But always and consistently the prophets were calling them to repentance because they were not producing the fruit God wanted. And Jesus takes up this picture and claims to be himself the ‘true vine’.

So let’s see what this passage has to tell us about Jesus, about you and me in relationship to him and to each other, and about what it involves and requires of you and me to fulfil our calling to be fruitful, to be effective disciples. 

Our passage is in two intricately connected parts (verses 1-8 and verses 9-16) which inform and comment on each other. Both sections speak of ‘remaining’ or ‘abiding’: the first, of remaining in the vine (vv 4-7), that is, Jesus; the second, of ‘remaining’ in Jesus’ love (vv9-10); both parts hold up ‘fruitfulness’ as the disciple’s goal (vv 5,16); both tie such fruitfulness to prayer (vv 7-8, 16). Both sections are designed to move the listener or reader away from the old covenant to the new covenant in Jesus, from Israel as the vine to Jesus as the true vine. Remember, as we learned at the outset of this series, John is writing primarily to help Jewish converts grasp the fundamental and liberating truth that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s dealings with his people, and therefore to move away from relying on the old practices. Also, Jesus moves our understanding of our relationship with him from that of ‘servants’ to ‘friends’.

Taken together then, as they are supposed to be, these two sections help us to appreciate more deeply the relationship between Jesus and his disciples, and between Jesus and you and me. Our relationship with Him is defined but not exhausted by such terms as obedience, perseverance, revelation, and love: it is this picture or metaphor of the vine which helps us to understand that this relationship with him includes fruitfulness, dependence on him and on each other, vital union with him and with each other, and the uncomfortable one – pruning; pruning away what is diseased or non-fruit-bearing in order to make us more like Jesus.

Again, as with the bread of life metaphor we looked at a couple of weeks ago, there is nothing in this passage about the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion – though many have claimed it in order to support some of their interpretation of Holy Communion. The simple truth is that John is speaking here of the union of believers with Christ, apart from whom they can do nothing effective as his disciples. This union, originated by him and sealed by his sacrificial death for us, is completed by our responsive love and obedience. It is the very essence of Christianity. There are, unfortunately, so many things that the Church and culture have tried to make of Christianity and for various reasons. Sometimes they have tried, with good intentions, to change, develop, or improve it; or, misguidedly, tried to make it easier for people to accept by watering it down or accommodating it to the prevailing culture; or to discredit it: but any understandings of 
Christianity which place greater weight on any such additions or subtractions tend by and large to undermine fruitfulness. Such and such may be our time-honoured custom or comforting habit, but do these things make us more effective disciples? Do our preferred ways of ‘doing Church’ help or hinder others to learn of God’s truth and love for them?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the verses. Sadly, we do not have time to delve very deeply in a short Sunday morning talk but, as with the other talks, this talk will be on our website, together with study questions; and after half-term there will be an evening Study Group if you have been unable to attend the afternoon one on Tuesdays here in the snug New Room in church.

Notice v1 . Although the Son’s role is central, the Father’s is not mere background: it is He who trims and prunes the branches, which is of course a necessary operation in order to produce new, more, and more abundant growth. I know we don’t like being told that we need pruning: there is always the tempting and comforting thought that, in terms of our discipleship, ‘Well, you’re really not doing too badly’ – if only in comparison to some others! And there will always be some kind and comforting soul around to confirm my view of myself, my character, my good works, or my achievements. But be careful; flattery is not the same thing as encouragement: and we all of us need to spend quality time with him, listening to his loving and gentle voice explaining where and why some pruning is necessary if we want to be fruitful for him.                          

V2 Jesus is the vine; you and I are the branches. The branches derive their life from the vine; the vine produces its fruit through the branches. But then comes the pruning and the cutting off of the dead wood. In short what Jesus is saying here is that fruitfulness is an infallible mark of true Christianity; there are no true Christians without some measure of fruit. This is hard-nosed, challenging teaching: Jesus did not suffer from the Anglican sin of ‘niceness’. Coming to church, being baptised, reading your bible, believing that there is a God, are all worthless unless we are producing fruit. Ninety year olds can produce fruit; children can produce fruit: paraplegics can produce fruit; terminal cancer patients can produce fruit. What matters is the state of the soil in our hearts. 

V5 We see here that the branch’s purpose is to ‘produce much fruit’. What is the fruit we are to produce? Well, I think we must envisage a tree or bush that has the potential to produce a whole range and variety of fruits. Let’s not try to restrict or confine possibilities but expand them! So we are talking about: the Fruit of the Spirit, Christian character, love for others, but above all – if we remember the calling God gave to the Israelites – to be ‘a light to the Gentiles’. And if we take into account Jesus’ teaching elsewhere about the purpose of discipleship, this ‘fruitfulness’ concerns at heart the making known of Jesus to others who know neither his truth nor his love.

In verses 7, 8, and 16 we see that any such fruitfulness is the consequence of obedience to Jesus’ words, prayer in Jesus’ name, and offered to the glory of the Father. So when we are examining or testing whether or not any claim to fruitfulness is genuine, we need to apply this three-stemmed litmus test: is it a consequence of faithfulness to Jesus’ revelation (his words), of prayer in Jesus’ name, and to the Father’s glory?  Why is this necessary? Well because, sadly, there are often too many things that the Church and Christians do that do not pass this test: rather, they are the product of purely human invention and pride or cultural and worldly pressure. Jesus makes the point here too that such fruitfulness in believers is one of the ways that Jesus Himself glorifies his Father.

I said that the second section (vv 9-16) is really a commentary on and expansion of the first 8 verses. A very important thing we need to grasp here, something that is frequently mentioned in chapters 13 – 17, is that the relationship Jesus has with his Father is the example or paradigm for the relationship He wants between us and him. This is why prayer is so important in the Christian’s life: we need to get to know God better and to discover what it is He wants us to be doing as Jesus’ disciples. And Jesus in this second section moves into a deeper presentation of God’s love for you and for me: the agricultural metaphor is very useful, but on its own it cannot express adequately the wonderful truth that ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you’. 

Then, in v12, we see explained the imagery of the vine as it touches upon our relatedness with one another

So in effect what these 16 verses are is a picture, an unpacking, and an application of the two great commandments, a kind of loving that necessarily contains a profound element of self-sacrifice. And in v 11 is surely, what I would want to call, the ‘break through truth’ for anyone’s understanding of why the two great commandments are so important and why  the very best and most rational and sensible goal in life, the true and only happiness worth having, is to become a disciple of Jesus.

Finally, together with this self-sacrifice, we see, from the idea of the disciples’ ‘going out’ and producing ‘fruit that will last’, that the fruit Jesus has in mind is primarily the winning of new converts to him. Above all else this is fruitfulness, this is the goal of discipleship, this is what genuine, effective, and joy-giving Christianity is all about.

STUDY QUESTIONS
1. When you hear or read this metaphor of the vine, what thoughts and feelings does it create in your mind and heart? Do you find it helpful or encouraging?
2. When you think of the vine metaphor and its branches, how far do the branches stretch?
3. The vine expresses our relatedness and interdependence? In what ways is, can, and ought this to be shown and practised?
4. Can you think why Jesus places such emphasis on ‘fruitfulness’ and on evangelism (telling others about Jesus) in particular?
5. How does having the objective of ‘fruitfulness’ help my own spiritual growth and maturity?
6. In what ways are we tempted not to bother about ‘fruitfulness and fall back instead on our own private spirituality?
7. Why is prayer central to discipleship?
8. What is the point of our ‘fruitfulness’ being ‘to the glory of the Father’?
9. Why is self-sacrifice at the heart of the Christian understanding of love?
10. In what way has this passage of Jesus’ teaching encouraged you? 
  



Wednesday 7 November 2012

John 10 verses 1 to 10

This week we’re continuing our series on Jesus I am sayings in John’s gospel and looking at Jesus’ claim to be the gate for the sheep which you’ll find in verses 7 and 9 of today’s gospel reading.

Firstly in order to understand these verses its helpful to know a bit about Jewish sheep farming.
Initially sheep were kept in large folds along with several other flocks. The Gatekeeper mentioned in verse 3 was the person in charge of this fold.

The Gatekeeper obviously knew the shepherds of the different flocks and allowed them access to the fold to collect their flock.

Unlike in this country shepherds didn’t drive their sheep but called them.

The sheep learnt to recognise their shepherd’s distinctive call and then followed them.

So if the shepherd wanted to lead his own flock off to some pasture he’d call them out of the fold from among all the other sheep, and recognising his call they’d scurry off after him.

Sheep were often kept for milk and wool production so they tended to live a lot longer than they do in this country today, and over time would develop a close bond with their shepherd, who would name them individually.

At night the sheep would sleep in a stone enclosure with no roof which was open to the elements. The shepherd would lie down and sleep across the entrance to the enclosure thus becoming the gate.

Obviously if someone tried to climb over the wall of the enclosure they were up to no good.

Having become experts in Jewish sheep farming we can now look at the passage.

Firstly this teaching of Jesus comes immediately after he has healed a man who had been blind from birth.

This man has been hauled in for questioning by the Pharisees, and has told them that Jesus is the one who has healed him and that he couldn’t have done this unless God was with him.

The Pharisees take exception to this and throw him out of the temple.

This man finds Jesus and tells him what happened and then comes to believe in him.

Some Pharisees watch the man’s encounter with Jesus and Jesus then addresses this teaching partly to them.

The Pharisees as religious leaders were meant to look after God’s flock but they weren’t doing a very good job, and it is the Pharisees and religious leaders that Jesus is calling thieves and bandits.

They were robbing the Jewish people of the spiritual care and direction that they deserved and which it was their job to provide.

They have just expelled this man who used to be blind from the temple when in fact he is a child of Abraham – one of the very sheep they should be looking after.

Now this shepherd and sheep imagery that Jesus uses is extremely significant.

God himself is portrayed as a shepherd in the Old Testament.

The most obvious example of this is the 23rd Psalm which we all know – the Lord is my shepherd.

David describes God as a shepherd who leads him and cares for all his needs.

There is another passage in Ezekiel chapter 34 where God says; “As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep... I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down declares the Sovereign Lord.”

So, by portraying himself as a shepherd Jesus is again using the language and imagery of God himself.

In verse 6 of today’s reading John tells us “Jesus used this figure of speech with them but they did not understand what he was saying to them.”

The Pharisees and those listening don’t understand that Jesus is claiming to be the Shepherd spoken of in the Old Testament so from verses 7 to 18 he spells out clearly what he is saying

Initially in verse 7 he tells them that he is the Gate for the sheep and then of course in verse 11, which Mike will look at next week, he tells them plainly that He is the Good Shepherd.

But what does Jesus mean when he says he is the Gate for the sheep?

Basically he is saying that he is the only way into the kingdom of God.

The only way we can become one of God’s sheep and gain entry into his flock and his kingdom is through Jesus.

Now why is this? Well the reason is quite simple and its because we all need a saviour – someone who can save us from our sins – and Jesus is the only one who can do this.

Mankind’s fundamental problem is sin. We all sin – we all do things we know we shouldn’t and we all don’t do things we know we should.

We fall short as in an arrow falling short of a target.

We have a tendency to lie, to cheat and to steal. We can hate others and can hurt others by our words and actions.

No person apart from Jesus has lead a sinless life.

Because we sin we are cut off from God who is perfect.

One day we’d like to go to heaven – a perfect place – but if God was to let imperfect people into heaven it wouldn’t stay perfect very long.

Jesus took our sins upon himself on the cross and paid the debt we owe for hurting others and offending God.

On the cross he did everything necessary for us to be put right with God and one day to be made perfect – just as God is perfect.

As we come to acknowledge that we do sin and that we do therefore in fact need a saviour – we should come to Jesus, to acknowledge our need for forgiveness and to invite him wholeheartedly into our lives.

If we do this sincerely we become one of his sheep and enter into his sheepfold.

Jesus is the gate for the sheep because it is only through his death and resurrection that we can be reconciled to God.

Once we become his sheep we are to follow him and the way we do this is by knowing his voice as it says in verse 4.

Knowing his voice involves both hearing and recognising his voice.

As Christians we can sometimes hear God’s voice but not always recognise that it is Him speaking to us.

Sometimes this can be because God’s voice is very loving and encouraging and we miss recognising it because we can’t believe that God can be that kind and generous and patient towards us.

Our own condemnatory voice which tells us we are hopeless or useless or we’ve messed up again, can drown out God’s gentle encouraging voice.

As we come to understand God’s love for us we are better able to recognise his voice as he speaks to us lovingly and positively, as a parent to his beloved child.

How does God speak to us? The answer is in all manner of ways.

He can speak to us through the bible. As we read a verse or passage we can see something in it that touches our own situation and speaks to our heart.

He can speak to us through our own thought voice, the voice we use when we speak to ourselves. He can speak to us through an inner conviction that we should do something or go and talk to someone.

He can speak to us through other people. Sometimes this can be in normal conversation when something someone says really strikes a chord in us.

Sometimes this can be when we pray with another Christian about a problem or situation we’re facing.

As two or three pray together God can give one of you some insight or a bible verse or a picture that throws some light on the situation.

I remember praying with a man I knew at my previous church. He was a lorry driver and he knew that God was calling him to some form of ministry.

He was desperate to know exactly what it was and he was becoming very frustrated that it was taking a while to find out.

As we prayed together I had a picture in my minds eye, of this man who was pushing with all his might against this huge wheel which was slowly moving along.

The man was exhausting himself as he pushed but the wheel wasn’t moving any quicker. 

Basically God was saying to him that his plan for his life was unfolding and all would be revealed in good time.

His straining to know what lay ahead wouldn’t make things go any quicker.

That man has been a church army minister in Scotland for about 10 years now and was recently ordained.

God can speak to us through dreams or visions, like he did to Peter or sometimes he can even speak to us audibly like he did when Samuel was a child.

The reason I ended up doing my Reader training was because God spoke to me very clearly and unexpectedly one evening about going to an Arrival Day which is the first step in Rochester 
Diocese towards some sort of ministry.

God can speak to us in all manner of ways to guide us, to encourage us, to deliver us from fear and to bless us, as we seek to love and bless those around us.

Our part is to step out in faith and obedience to what we believe he is asking us to do. As we seek to walk in obedience to him and follow him we will hear and learn to recognise his voice.

Of course there are other voices that do not belong to God and we need to be very wary of these because if we follow them we will be led astray and find our faith undermined.

If we read our bible and become familiar with what it says we can test whether what we are hearing is in accordance with the scriptures.

God also of course gives us his Holy Spirit who may cause us to feel uneasy if we hear something that doesn’t sound quite right.

Sheep can tend to be a bit dim and without a shepherd would find life very difficult. They are short sighted and totally defenceless against predators. They are prone to getting stuck in fences or wandering off and getting lost.

When this happens, all they can do is to bleat loudly and wait for their shepherd to come and help them.

The best thing a sheep can do therefore is to try and stay close to its shepherd who will lead it to fresh pastures and protect it from harm and predators, and who will care for its day to day needs.

I don’t know how you feel about being compared to a sheep but perhaps its not such a bad analogy.

We can’t see what the future holds or protect ourselves from what life may throw at us. We are prone to ending up in difficult situations or getting stuck in life, sometimes even addicted to things which we find very hard to break away from.

We all need the help of a shepherd when we’ve got big decisions to make and we don’t know which way to turn, and especially when life goes pear shaped and we can’t see our way out.

Jesus says in verse 10 of today’s reading that he came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.He is the one who will provide us with all that we need as we follow him.

Under his care and provision we can experience the best that life can offer.

Jesus alone can provide us with eternal security, perfect guidance and real purpose and meaning to our lives.He alone can truly set us free from addictions and fear and sickness.

If you haven’t yet put your life in his care and entered into the sheepfold through him and become one of his sheep and you want to, he is just a prayer away.

He is eager to welcome you into his flock if you will acknowledge your need for him and you are prepared to follow him.

Lets end with a few moments of quiet

Just close your eyes and express whatever is on your heart to Jesus and if you want to, invite him into your life to lead you and to be your shepherd. Amen