It takes a true shepherd to say, My Sheep Hear My Voice, and a true sheep to listen to the shepherd.
When children go to the playground outdoors, and their parents visit to bid them to come home, they call them in an identifiable voice.
The child who hears the voice of their parents identifies with them as soon as possible.
In our previous article, I Am The Good Shepherd, we looked at who the good sheep is and Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. But in this part, we are examining the statements of Jesus Christ about His sheep.
But have you read, I Am The Good Shepherd, Jesus Said? Give it a read if you haven’t already!
My Sheep Hear My Voice Bible Verse
There is one verse of scripture that is translated, My Sheep Hear My Voice, but before that is John 10:16 WEB. It says, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.”
The highlighted words carry the same information from the same speaker in a futuristic manner. However, the main verse where the term, My Sheep Hear My Voice, was taken from is John 10:27. It says:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
What Does My Sheep Hear My Voice Mean?
At that time, there was a celebration in Jerusalem called Hanukkah or the Feast of the Dedication.
According to John 10:23–24, it was Winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the place known as Solomon’s porch, and the Jews came to Him asking Him to tell them plainly if He was the Christ.
In verse 25, “Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me.’”
He continued saying in verse 26, “But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.” This statement preceded, “My sheep hear my voice,” and helps us to understand what He meant.
There was a discussion about belief and unbelief in Jesus the Christ. Those who truly believed in Jesus as the Christ were the ones He identified as His sheep. He said, I know them, and they follow me.
By implication, those who stood against Him were those who did not believe Him, and that was because they were not His sheep. While those who truly believe Him pay attention to Him. He knows them, and they obey Him.
In fact, in John 9:28–29, some members of the Pharisees told the once-blind man who saw that they were not disciples of Jesus but of Moses. Those were the kind of people Jesus described as blind men, you know, because Moses himself testified concerning Him.
I Know Them, and They Follow Me
One thing I have seen people try to do is to detect who is of God by signs and condemn others for missing the mark. But if we all admit our state as humans, the understanding will be much different.
Here is the truth: we all go wrong at one point or another. The reason why we keep coming back and moving forward is because of who we belong to.
While we may not all know who is or is not His, He knows because He sees where we do not and hears what we do not. All we see is what is visible to us.
When Jesus Christ said that His people hear His voice, He also said, “I know them, and they follow me.” The statement was of a certainty on His part as the Good Shepherd. It is but assuring to those who are His.
He did not end there but continued to say, “I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28 WEB).
I Give Them Eternal Life, And They Will Never Perish
I have noticed some people battle with that verse to give it a meaning that is not true. Some exclude themselves from ‘no one’ and think they can snatch themselves out in a way or two. But that reasoning questions whether or not they were there in the first place.
I must say that John 10:28 is one of the plainest and most assuring verses of scripture for The Believers Today. When you pay attention to those words, you will realize that true Believers in Christ will never perish because they have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 WEB
While Jesus said, “I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” He went on to say in verses 29 and 30:
“‘My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.’”
The point here is that to be the sheep of Christ is to be the sheep of the Father. No one is the sheep of God the Father outside the Son, Jesus Christ.
In saying, My Sheep Hear My Voice, And I Know Them, Jesus Christ informs us that He knows His own and protects them from eternal damnation. The question is, are you in the fold?
