Are You Listening?

Scripture Reading : Matthew 13:18-23; Hebrews 1:1-3

I heard somewhere that S.D. Gordon was a “quiet” kind of preacher. A soft voice. But spiritually powerful. It is said that he would, at times, lower his voice to almost a whisper and ask, “Are you listening?” Great question. One of the unique things the Scriptures is the presupposition that God speaks to us. The writer of Hebrews tells us long ago, in many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days has spoken to us by his Son…

In theology we talk about revelation, inspiration, and illumination. For the sake of this article’s brevity, we can simplify things by saying God spoke inspirationally to the writers of the Scriptures and he speaks to us illuminatingly through the Scriptures. That is, the Holy Spirit illuminates our understanding of what was revealed through the inspired writers of Scripture. God, then, speaks to us through the Bible, his word.

Hearing is something Jesus talked a lot about. He is often heard saying things like, he who has ears to hear, let him hear throughout the gospels. Obviously, he was not talking about having ears and hearing in the normal sense. The people he was talking to had ears and they could hear. His point was the breakdown in communication between God and man is not because God isn’t speaking. The problem is we aren’t listening.

If we can’t hear someone on the other end of a phone conversation we don’t jump to the conclusion they aren’t speaking or they have died. We most likely first assume there is a problem with our phone or phone service. We realize we have a poor connection.

Poor listeners make for poor disciples. A disciple, by definition, is a learner. A learner, by necessity, is a listener. What kind of disciple you will be is largely determined by what kind of listener you are.

And so we can and should pray, “Lord open my ears and help me to hear.” That would be a great thing to pray this Lord’s Day as you head off to church.