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In John 11, we get a whole new picture of Jesus. We see Jesus, standing near the tomb of his friend, pain and grief cascading over him. It's not simply the death of his friend that he rails against, it is the hand behind death. It is the power behind evil, this death symbolizes the accumulation of all that is wrong in the world. Evil, pain, sorrow and suffering, hopelessness, despair, injustice, cruelty, loneliness, and sin. He weeps for his friends, but he is deeply moved by the outrageous abnormality of what has become normal.

As he turns to the tomb, Christ comes face to face with messed up stuff that Father God never intended his children to face when he created us and called it good. He is stirred up in His spirit and shows his face as our champion!

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Isn’t there something in each of us that wants to believe that our stories matter? Sometimes we call that hope. We want to believe that we are living a good story, or perhaps even better yet, we want to believe that we are part of a good story. Yet, there are chapters where it seems like we are stuck in a bad news story. Right? In our culture today, we talk more than a bit about the good life. I live in Happy Valley. How could I live anything but the good life in a place called Happy Valley? But even in Happy Valley, we have bad news stories, right?

There is a question that Jesus asks in this story. The question first to Martha is simply, "Do you believe?" You understand the resurrection is not just something to believe in, it is someone to believe. What do you believe?

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In this series, “The Jesus Way" we are Listening to, learning from and leaning into the gospel of John; to get a better picture of what it looks like to be a Jesus-apprentice. And in this episode, we are finishing John chapter 10. But like the last episode, I’m going to start in John 10 but then wander a bit, all the way back to the Psalm 23. Why Psalm 23? Because there is a lot in John 10, about spiritual battle and a lot about Jesus being our great Shepherd. John 10 contains another one of Jesus “I am” statements. I am the great Shepherd.

And as I was reading John 10 through again, I kept thinking of Psalm 23, which is all about sheep, shepherds, and a crazy battle plan.

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The first problem we have in discovering our identity is that we simply don't know his voice. As my friend Terry says, "We need to develop voice recognition, because we don't recognize his voice." The problem is that we've let so many other voices into our souls. We let the voices that shout lies into our hearts and miss the voice that whispers truth. Ultimately our identity is shaped by the direction of our ears.

So in this episode we'll start in John 10, but we'll spend a little bit of time in Mark 4, where Jesus tells a story about listening and the power of listening to give us a life of great impact. If you want a life of 100x impact, you need to get good at listening for His voice!

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John of Kronstadt was a 19th-century Russian Orthodox priest at a time when alcohol abuse was rampant. None of the priests ventured out of their churches to help the people. But John, compelled by love, went out into the streets. People said he would lift the hungover, foul-smelling people from the gutter, cradle them in his arms, and say to them, "This is beneath your dignity. You were meant to house the fullness of God." You were meant to house the fullness of God but somehow, somewhere along the way they either never knew or they lost their identity. They had lost sight of who they were.

Who am I? Am I what I do? Am I what I wear? Am I how I fail? Am I what I achieve? Am I who you say I am? No really, who am I? That's the question for this episode.

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At the end of the last episode, I said that our vision is shaped by the stories we hear and even more so, that stories we rehearse. Remember I asked, "What stories do you tell and what stories do you hear?" In this episode, I will share four stories that shape our sight. These four stories are not just run of the mill common narratives. These are four stories about Jesus that have the power to change our life. I don't know which story you have landed on, but perhaps you will find yourself or one of your friends who is stuck somewhere before the fourth story.

I'm praying that we all make it to #4!

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If we want to live our one and only life in an uncommon way, we must gain uncommon sight. We need to be able to see what is truly real. We need spiritual sight. So ask yourself the question, "Where am I missing the uncommon sights that lead to an uncommon life because I'm living life blind? Nobody had, nobody has better vision than Jesus. When he looked at people, he saw the mess, but he also saw the glory. He saw the effects of sin, but he also saw the work of God. Jesus had amazing eyes and uncommon vision. John 9 gives us an example of that.

This is one of those seven miraculous signs that reveal something about the heart and power of God and it makes me say, "I want to see like Jesus sees!"

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In our teaching series at Calvary, we've been making our way through four different portraits or roles of a Jesus-Apprentice. The first portrait was Beloved Masterpiece. You are what God does. You are deeply loved and shaped by God to be like Jesus, and He's preparing you to do good stuff, make a difference. Secondly we are called to be courageous leaders. Courageous leaders are those who love others more than self. They are more in interested in developing people than merely achieving tasks. The third portrait was the bridge-builder. My goodness how our world needs humble people willing to be walked on from both sides in order to close the gap, with a sacrificial heart.

The fourth portrait is the front-yard missionaries. We are on a mission to love our neighbors all the way to life, all the way to Jesus! That's what this episode is all about!