Hear His Voice

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on World Communion Sunday, the 3rd of October, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Today's service included our observance of Holy Communion.  (Please note the services for September 26th were canceled due to an incident of COVID-19 within the church family.)  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Today is World Communion Sunday, when Christian churches all around the globe pause to observe Holy Communion.  For us, it’s the first Sunday in the quarter, so we would be holding Communion today anyway.  But it is a special opportunity for us to experience this most holy of sacraments with so many brothers and sisters worldwide.  It gives us another chance to share in the last supper that Jesus enjoyed while still on this earth as one of us.

So let’s take this time to think about Jesus, who He was, what He did, and what it all means to us.  I believe that the letter to the early Jewish converts offers some great insight.  Please listen and follow along to what the author of the letter to the Hebrews left for us in the 3rd chapter of that early epistle, reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible…

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s Apostle and High Priest. 2 For He was faithful to God, who appointed Him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God’s entire house.

3 But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself. 4 For every house has a builder, but the One who built everything is God.

5 Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later. 6 But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ, faithful to the end.

7 That is why the Holy Spirit says,

“Today when you hear His voice,

8     don’t harden your hearts

as Israel did when they rebelled,

when they tested Me in the wilderness.

9 There your ancestors tested and tried My patience,

even though they saw My miracles for forty years.

10 So I was angry with them, and I said,

‘Their hearts always turn away from Me.

They refuse to do what I tell them.’

11 So in My anger I took an oath:

‘They will never enter My place of rest.’”

12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 15 Remember what it says:

“Today when you hear His voice,

don’t harden your hearts

as Israel did when they rebelled.”

16 And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard His voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? 18 And to whom was God speaking when He took an oath that they would never enter His rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed Him? 19 So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter His rest.

--Hebrews 3 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for speaking to us through Your Holy Spirit and through Your word as recorded and saved for us in our Bibles.  We are a busy people, Lord, and don’t often pause in our daily life.  Please help us stop and listen, truly listen, for Your voice.  Help us to hear You and not turn our hearts away from You.  Help us to do as You will and not just whatever it is we want to do.  Please keep us strong in our faith and of one purpose in our service to Christ Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  And Father, please guard us from Satan and those who blindly carry out his orders.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this morning.  May we hear Your voice resonating in our hearts.  May we hear the words of Your Son Jesus and obey His commands.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Two psychiatrists meet at their 20th college reunion.  One is vibrant, while the other looks withered and worried.  "What's your secret?", the older looking psychiatrist asks.  "Listening to other people's problems every day, all day long, for years on end, has made an old man of me."  "So," replies the younger looking one, "who listens?"

Author Robert W. Herron once wrote, "Good listening is like tuning in a radio station.  For good results, you can listen to only one station at a time.  Trying to listen to my wife while looking over an office report is like trying to receive two radio stations at the same time.  I end up with distortion and frustration.  Listening requires a choice of where I place my attention.  To tune into my partner, I must first choose to put away all that will divide my attention.  That might mean laying down the newspaper, moving away from the dishes in the sink, putting down the book I'm reading, setting aside my projects."

The first little story conjures up images from an old movie where the psychiatrist appears to be intently listening to his patient lying on the couch, but we see that he is only doodling, drawing little images on his pad rather than taking notes.  And though humorous, this points out a failing we too often have: we just don’t truly listen to one another.

When someone finally gets enough courage or suffers enough desperation to open up to us about a problem they are facing, does our mind wander off to a chore we need to complete, or an argument with a friend, or what we’re going to make for dinner?  When God is trying to speak to us, do we just turn the TV up a little more because we don’t recognize His voice?

To truly listen to someone, including God, we must put all our focus on them and what they are saying.  We should be silent and still while they are speaking.  As Herron says, the act of truly listening requires us to choose where we will place all our attention.  We humans aren’t really all that good at doing two things at once; not really.  If we want to hear our Lord’s words, especially over all the tumult of these times we live in, then we need to put away any distractions, anything that might divide our attention, and focus solely on that small, still voice.

We don’t know for sure who wrote this letter to the early Jewish converts – many think it could have been the Apostle Paul – but he was clearly concerned about their – and our – relationship with our Lord.  We must not allow our hearts to be hardened against God, he warns, or we may not be allowed to enter into His place of rest.  We must remain faithful to the end, trusting in God and not rebelling against Him, encouraging and strengthening each other, striving to hear His voice.

It may be interesting to note that the author quotes from Psalm 95, verses 7 through 11, in his letter – scripture that his intended audience should be familiar with.  But of course, that doesn’t mean that his message was intended only for them, his audience of that day.  God’s word has been saved for us, for thousands of years, so that we too might be warned, strengthened, and encouraged.

Now, this message from our author - and so from God – isn’t just about listening to our Father God, but also to Jesus, our Lord.  The author notes that Christ Jesus is the Son of God, in charge of God’s entire house, and we are that house if we remain faithful to the end.  We need to also listen for the voice of Jesus, hear Him, obey Him.  The Apostle Matthew confirms that God Himself tells us this, in chapter 17 of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 8, when he writes…

1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” 6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. 7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” 8 When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

--Matthew 17:1-8 (NKJV)

“This is My Son”, God says.  “Hear Him!”  Hear Jesus.  Ok, so we can no longer actually, physically hear the voice of Jesus the Man, with our ears picking up the sound waves created by His speaking.  But we can “hear” the words our Lord spoke that were recorded so long ago and saved for us by those who walked alongside Him.

Just one such example is given by the Apostle John, the beloved disciple, in chapter 5 of his Gospel account, verses 24 through 30, when Jesus spoke and said…

24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. 25 Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

--John 5:24-30 (NKJV)

We need to stop and listen so we can hear the voice of God, and of His Son Jesus.  Their words are saved for us in our Bibles, right there ready and waiting for us to read and study them.  But we can also hear them in our hearts.  God’s Holy Spirit lives within us, speaking to us, helping us communicate with God.  We just need to set aside all distractions, put away anything that might divide our attention.  And hear His voice.

In just a few moments we will come and share Holy Communion with our Lord Jesus.  The Apostle Paul warns us not to come to this table unless and until we are right with God.  Let us take this time to go to our Father in prayer, confessing our sins, promising to turn from them, and seeking His forgiveness.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You speaking to us through our Bible and through Your Holy Spirit within us.  Thank You for warning us not to do wrong, for encouraging us to do what is right in Your sight.  Father, please help us hear Your voice.  Sometimes, Father, we get too caught up in the busyness of life.  Sometimes we hear only of the works of Satan, without paying notice to all the good that still surrounds us.  Sometimes we let too many things distract us and divide our attention, when we should be focused only on You.  Please help us stop and listen as You speak.  Remind us that we were bought and paid for at a great cost: the very blood of Your only begotten Son.  Give us the full conviction of our promise to serve You.  Encourage us and strengthen us as we strive to obey and serve our Lord Jesus.  Please keep us strong in our spirit, in our faith, and in our service to You and Jesus.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, we believe in You and our Father God who sent You, and we strive to hear Your words and obey them.  You are most worthy of our obedience because You gave Your all for us, that we might be spared eternal death.  Thank You, Jesus, for suffering our punishment, for taking our sin upon Yourself, for giving us the bread of life and for washing us clean with Your blood.  Lord, we have heard Your word as saved for us in our Bible, and we eagerly await Your return.  Help us remain ever faithful and true as the turmoil of the world grows around us.  Help us give our full attention to You and our Father God that we might hear Your voices.  Strengthen our will to do what our Father God wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love in this dark world while we still tread this path.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.