Lectio Divina: Hearing God's Voice in Scripture - Week 1: July 19, 2026

Good morning, everybody.

Nice to see you.

So if there is a God, right?

Okay, just stick with me for a second, okay?

If there is a God, and if that God is not an abstract concept or a vague force or a sea of energy or something like that, but instead is a living being.

A living being with three aspects, like a like a living relationship.

And if this God who is a living relationship was somehow motivated by love to become a lowly human in order to draw as many lowly humans as possible into his living relationship.

And if this lowly human that God became was named Jesus, was a real historical person, a teacher from Nazareth.

And if this Jesus called a bunch of disciples to follow him, students, apprentices, sitting at his feet, listening to his teaching, learning to say and do all the same things he said and did.

And if when this Jesus returned to the Father, he gave his own spirit to be with all Christians everywhere for all time, okay?

If all this is true, and not just some weirdly resilient myth, then I have to think that communicating with this God, talking to him and hearing from him might actually be a thing that could happen.

Does that make sense?

It might be possible.

It might not just be possible, it might be important.

It might not just be important.

If all those things are true, then hearing God's voice might be at the center of what matters most about life.

Would you agree?

How does this idea of hearing God's voice sound to you?

Does it sound easy?

Does it sound far-fetched?

Terrifying?

Disappointing?

Vital?

Dangerous?

Unnecessary?

I think regardless of how it sounds, if you're in any kind of relationship with Jesus, I would imagine that you're drawn to the idea of hearing from him at least every once in a while.

A relationship in which the two people don't communicate isn't a real strong relationship, is it?

Crazy thing is, according to Orthodox Christian belief across the centuries, hearing God's voice is both natural and normal.

In fact, we probably hear it even more than we realize.

I think a person could argue that hearing God is essential to the very purpose for which we were created.

500 years ago, Teresa of Avila said, prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.

But without being on terms of friendship with God, I don't hear his voice.

And if I don't hear his voice, then the responsibility of leadership in my life falls to me.

And in my experience, things don't seem to go quite as well when I'm in charge.

There's an ancient prayer.

It's the most important prayer in all of Judaism, in fact.

It's called the Shema.

Most of the Jewish rabbis in Jesus' day, including Jesus himself, saw it as being the core of the law, the most important of all the commandments, top priority for humanity.

It's originally found in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and it says this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Does that sound familiar to anybody?

Are you familiar with this instruction?

I'm familiar with it, but I think it's interesting and easy to miss, actually, that the most important prayer in all of Judaism begins with a very specific word.

What is it?

Hear.

Shema literally means hear or listen or heed.

It's a prerequisite.

It's the key that unlocks our ability to follow this great commandment.

Before I can love God with all my heart and my soul and my strength, I have to learn to hear him.

Now, I don't mean to be insensitive, but certain kinds of psychiatric hospitals are filled with people who hear voices they attribute to God, right?

So are churches.

So is the Christian conference circuit and the White House faith office.

And since God does not, for the most part, speak to us in an audible voice that we hear with our actual physical ears, it is shockingly easy to misunderstand or misinterpret or miss completely what he's saying.

It'd be a lot easier, in fact, to simply say that God is finished speaking to people.

Okay?

A person could say this idea of hearing God's voice is spooky and old-fashioned and it just doesn't happen anymore.

That would be easier.

But again, if I don't hear from him, then the responsibility of leadership in my life falls to me, and things don't seem to go as well when I'm in charge.

On the other hand, if we can learn to listen to God and to obey God's word, if we can learn to love his word, is there a chance that our life might come into alignment?

Jesus said in the book of Matthew, he said, People don't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Genesis 1 says that in the very beginning of creation the earth was formless and empty, but that the Spirit of God was there hovering over the water.

And then God said, Let there be light, and there was.

That is a powerful voice.

Psalm 33, which Brooksy read a minute ago, says that the Lord merely spoke and the heavens were created.

But if that all sounds a bit grandiose to you, which, oh my goodness, it is, as usual, Jesus keeps things refreshingly simple and down to earth.

Jesus simply said, My sheep listen to my voice.

I know them and they follow me.

I know them and they follow me.

In other words, maybe we should worry a little bit less about all the possible ways we could misunderstand, misinterpret, or miss completely the voice of God.

If as Jesus says a bunch of dumb, dumb sheep can figure it out, then maybe you and I can too.

What if hearing God's voice isn't just for monks and nuns, or for wacky charismatics and Pentecostals, or for pastors and Bible teachers, or for the most religious person you know, or for those poor, unfortunate people who hear any number of inexplicable voices that aren't actually there?

What if hearing God's voice is possible for everybody?

Jesus had a favorite saying.

He said it more than almost anything else he said.

And he would say it to people often who were standing right there, listening to him, trying to understand his teaching.

This saying communicates something about just how difficult it can be to hear his voice.

On 15 separate occasions, Jesus instructed his listeners to have ears to hear.

Have ears to hear.

I'm gonna start saying that to my kids.

Guys, please have ears to hear.

It's just it's shower time.

We do this every day.

Right?

Jesus makes it sound like it's possible to stand right next to him, listening to his words, but missing their meaning.

Have ears to hear.

Let's pause for a moment and pray together, shall we?

Heavenly Father, this morning we have gathered together.

We are asking that you would give us ears to hear.

We want to hear from you.

We want to draw closer to you.

We don't want to perform a rote religious act of gathering.

We want to be in communication with you.

We pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would uh decipher your word for us today, help us to understand and to know how to proceed accordingly.

We love you, we trust you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, I want us to read a story together.

Are you guys good with doing some reading and listening this morning?

Uh we're gonna spend a lot of time with this story in the next few weeks, so I want us to get really familiar with it.

It's one of my very favorite stories in the New Testament.

It's uh, oh, it's just very good.

You're in for a treat.

It's found in Luke 24, and here is how it begins.

That same day, two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem.

As they walked along, they were talking about everything that had happened.

As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them, but God kept them from recognizing him.

Okay, let's back up just for a minute.

Uh first, as with much of Scripture, not every scholar agrees about what this story means, but there is a consensus around this story that, as far-fetched as it's going to get here in a minute, it's probably meant to be taken literally.

Okay, Luke wrote this story.

Luke does not tend to play much with uh chronology or poetry or tropes the way that the way that John does, for instance.

Luke is a doctor.

Darn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a poet, right?

This is Luke.

Luke wants the facts and he wants them, uh he wants them reported clearly and accurately and in order.

You know what I mean?

And that's who's writing this story.

So there are a lot of details in here, in addition, as you will see, that given an air of authenticity, including Luke's description of Jesus, which gibes really well with a lot of the other post-resurrection accounts of Jesus.

So let's just say, for the sake of argument, okay, that we are going to side with most biblical scholars who probably know more about this kind of stuff than you and I do.

And we're going to read this story literally, not figuratively or allegorically or as some kind of a parable, okay?

Can we can we do that?

Okay.

The same day it started.

Well, the same day as what?

The same day as the resurrection of Jesus.

That happened earlier this morning.

And now in our story, our two main characters who were followers of Jesus, they've been in Jerusalem all week.

Okay, they witnessed, they saw the whole thing.

They witnessed Jesus' torture and his death.

It has been a long, emotionally exhausting week.

And now they're just going home.

Okay, they're walking home seven miles from Jerusalem back to Emmaus, and as they're walking, a stranger comes up behind them, locks step with them.

Does that ever happen when you're out for a walk?

Someone you don't know comes up and you're on pace with them, and so you get kind of quiet.

You just wait for them to pass by before you continue your conversation.

Okay, well, this stranger doesn't just pass by.

In fact, he pops into the conversation.

He asks them, What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?

They stop short, sadness written across their faces.

Then one of them, Cleopus, here's a nice little detail, right?

Now we even know who one of these people is.

He's a real guy.

Scholars think that the other person was probably his wife.

Cleopus replied, You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened here the last few days.

What things?

He asked him knowingly.

So they're thinking, the two people are thinking, Oh my gosh, does this guy really not know what's been going on?

Should we tell him?

Can we trust him?

You know?

They're doing terrible things to followers of Jesus in Jerusalem this week.

Well, they continue talking to the stranger.

The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth, they say, he was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people.

But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him.

We had hoped he was the Messiah who would come to rescue Israel.

This all happened three days ago.

Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report.

They said his body was missing.

And they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive.

So some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.

So this has been a lot for these two people to process.

Right?

Do you think they believed Jesus was resurrected?

I don't know.

I don't know.

They may just be repeating what they had heard.

Hey, the body was gone.

That's what we've heard.

Regardless of what they think is happening, they've decided that what they want to do is go home.

So they've decided to leave Jerusalem.

They're just headed home.

Hey, we had hoped Jesus was the Messiah, but things didn't turn out the way we thought they were going to, they're saying.

But then the stranger, who's been walking with them, listening to their story, he decides to chime in himself.

Then he said to them, You foolish people, you find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the scriptures.

Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?

Then I love this.

Then he took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Okay, so who's who's the stranger?

It's Jesus, right?

But they don't know this.

They don't recognize him, right?

It said that God kept the couple from recognizing them.

So hold on.

So Jesus has risen from the dead this morning.

Now it's what late afternoon, evening, and he's on a walk with his two friends.

He knows these people.

This is Cleopas and Mrs.

Cleopus.

These are friends, but they don't know it's him, okay?

Well, spoiler alert, Jesus is going to reveal himself to them.

They will figure it out.

But how does he do it?

Does he show up in a blinding light and a booming voice?

Does he knock them down?

Does he fly over?

Does he give them a big emotional experience of his presence?

No.

No.

He leads them in Bible study.

Do you remember how far of a walk it is from Jerusalem to Emmaus?

Seven miles.

That's what, two hours?

Three hours if you're exhausted and you're talking the whole time?

That is a long Bible study.

For three hours, Jesus explains to them all the things written in the Jewish scripture that are actually about him.

Okay?

Let's continue.

By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey.

Jesus acted as if he were going on.

I love that.

My grandma used to do that.

Alright?

She'd pop by to visit right before suppertime and say, Well, I'd better get going.

Lots to do.

Okay, grandma, just stay for dinner.

Okay?

Jesus does this.

Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, stay the night with us since it's getting late.

So he went home with them.

Okay.

I'm sure they're so happy to be home.

It has been a long week.

They've gotta be pooped.

Okay.

I'm sure they washed their feet and they lit their lamps and they made some dinner and they put on some coffee.

And it's time to eat.

And so they all sit down at the table together.

Well, this is Cleopas's house, right?

So as would be customary, I'm sure he's gonna bless the food.

Let me say grace, right?

But he's interrupted.

Continuing.

As they sat down to eat, he, the stranger, took the bread and blessed it.

Then he broke it and gave it to them.

Does that sound familiar?

These two weren't in the upper room when Jesus did that with the disciples.

But suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

And at that moment he disappeared.

They said to each other, didn't our hearts burn within us?

As he talked with us on the road and explained the scripture to us.

Now that they realized who it is, they're like, I knew something was different.

He made the scripture come alive.

It's like everything was starting to make sense, the whole thing.

He is the Messiah.

And he was right here in our house eating our bread.

Here's the end of the story, honestly.

This is probably my favorite detail of the whole thing.

And within the hour, they were on their way back to Jerusalem.

They're so, they're so excited and invigorated and renewed by their encounter with Jesus.

They're not even tired anymore, right?

They're getting their shoes, they're putting their jackets back on, they're headed back seven more miles, three more hours back to the place they just came from.

And actually, I bet they made it in half the time.

All the way back to Jerusalem.

There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them who said, The Lord has really risen.

He appeared to Peter, right?

They get there, they're like, guys, you are not gonna believe what just happened to us.

And Peter's like, I'll believe it.

Right?

Happened to me too.

Isn't that a wonderful story?

That is so good.

Okay, here's my question.

After reading that story, do you think God wants to communicate with people?

Do you think it's possible for people to hear God's voice?

In 20 short verses in this one little story, the Lord speaks to the two people in conversation.

He speaks to them by studying the Bible, he speaks to them sacramentally, by taking communion, by supernaturally opening their eyes so they can see something they couldn't see before, and by speaking directly into their hearts.

Weren't our hearts burning, they said, while he was talking with us.

Five ways the Lord communicates with these people in a short period of time.

You think God wants to communicate with people?

Part of me loves this story because it's so fantastical and weird and wild and kind of funny.

And part of me loves this story because it's just so normal.

It is so indicative of what my experience as a follower of Jesus who wants desperately to hear God's voice has been.

What I see in this story is that for every person who encounters Christ suddenly and dramatically and emotionally on the road to Damascus with a blinding light and a booming voice, like Paul did, hundreds, thousands, maybe millions more encounter Jesus slowly, quietly, deliberately, maybe even incognito, on the road to Emmaus through friendship and conversation and studying the Bible.

You know what I'm saying?

I think there's a chance that some of us struggle to hear God's voice because our experiences or our expectations complicate the hearing.

Maybe I only expect to hear from God in a blinding light and a booming voice, and so I miss all the subtle ways He's already speaking to me.

Maybe when I've prayed for a miracle, it didn't happen, and when I read the Bible, it's boring, and when I ask God to speak to me dramatically, there's never a voice from heaven like I wish there was.

Or maybe I've absorbed some of the prejudices of dispensationalism, this idea that God has just finished speaking to people.

Maybe I've never experienced hearing God's voice, so I don't recognize it when I do hear it.

Maybe you were taught, okay, this may be the one thing that you need to hear somebody say to you this morning.

Maybe you were taught that hearing God's voice really just means the same thing as experiencing a sense of inner peace when you make a tough decision.

I don't know about you, but many of the best decisions I've made in my life were accompanied by pure blinding terror, not a sense of peace.

There's gotta be more to it than that, right?

Maybe you struggle to hear God because you're a hyperactive extrovert and you were taught that God will only speak to you if you can be quiet and sit still long enough to hear him, which is really hard, so you assume you just stink at prayer.

Or maybe you struggle to hear God because you're a private introvert, and you were taught that God will only speak to you in a big group of people that you may or may not want to spend any time with in the first place.

As I said earlier, 15 times in the Gospels, 15 times Jesus told his disciples to have ears to hear.

And for the next few weeks, we are going to try and find our ears.

Okay?

Maybe before we go any further, we should pray again.

Would you pray with me again?

Oh Lord, here we are.

We have gathered before you want.

to hear from you.

Give us ears to hear what you are saying.

Give us a greater willingness to wait.

We we want to pursue you wholeheartedly, but sometimes we don't, sometimes we're we're half-hearted.

Do whatever it takes, Lord, to renew in us a passion for hearing your voice.

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see you.

Holy Spirit, please soften our hearts to receive you.

Father God, grant us the faith to believe that when we pray you draw close to us.

Amen.

Okay, so it is my opinion as someone who is not a dispensationalist that God still speaks to humans and that he does so in a variety of ways, through the Bible, in prayer, in prophecy from others, through the Holy Spirit whispering directly to us a feeling we may experience, weren't our hearts burning within us, right?

I think he speaks to us through our experiences with the created world, through voices from within our community of believers, and even through redemptive acts in our culture.

We saw Jesus speak to his friends five different ways just in that one story we read.

And that's not even to mention all the old school ways we read about God speaking in the Hebrew scriptures a booming voice from heaven, a still small voice, a talking donkey, a disembodied hand writing on a wall, a spontaneously combusting shrubbery.

I'm not ruling anything out.

Okay?

But that's a lot to sort out in one sermon series.

So for the next few weeks we are going to focus on what I believe is the primary way God speaks to his children.

Not the only way, not to the exclusion of those other things.

Just primary.

Let me be clear I believe the primary way God speaks to us is through his written word, the Bible.

I think it's really interesting and kind of funny that in the story we just read, the couple's encounter with Jesus isn't characterized by an intense emotional experience, but by a three hours long exposition of scripture by Jesus walking them through the whole big story of Scripture and saying, this is how you're going to start to understand me.

This is where we're going to begin.

Do you think it's possible to hear God's voice in Scripture?

I think it is.

And I think if we want to hear from God, that's where we should start primary.

And in our effort to hear God's voice in Scripture, we are going to try our hand at an ancient Christian practice called Lectio Divina.

Can you say Lectio Divina?

That's good.

That sounds like you're casting a Harry Potter spell, but that's okay.

That's because it's Latin, right?

Lections Latin it means sacred reading or divine reading.

Lectio Divina is an approach to the scripture that emphasizes reading it prayerfully, slowly and with imagination.

Did you know it's okay to use your imagination while you read the Bible?

Who knew?

Lectio Divina is about the heart more than the head.

It's not about having a rigid map to follow in our Bible reading.

It's about helping us to engage with scripture differently than the way we typically engage with scripture.

It's different than studying the Bible to understand the Bible better.

It's using God's written word to facilitate a conversation with God himself.

It's about hearing God's voice in the scripture.

And there are four steps to Lectio Divina.

They're also in Latin do you know why they're in Latin?

Because they're super old very, very old.

Here are the steps.

The first step is lectio which means to read you read the passage aloud to yourself no more than 15 or 20 verses at a time read slowly prayerfully reverently.

The second step is meditatio which just means to meditate.

You read the same passage again identify a phrase or word that jumps out to you embrace interruptions follow tangents the third step is where we finally chime in it's oratio we read the passage again pray short prayers related to the themes, words or phrases that jumped out to you in the last reading and the fourth step which is kind of the goal of the whole thing is contemplatio.

You read the same passage a final time and this time we just sit quietly and reflect and ask what's the one thing from this passage I will take with me today?

Okay.

Now here's the thing I know for a fact that some of you are like yes I love this contemplative stuff.

I love the idea of slowly and deliberately centering my thoughts on God's word.

I also know for a fact that some of you are like uh you lost me at meditatio.

Last summer you made us do a digital fast and this summer we're meditating all over the place.

That's fair.

But I would say this by far the primary most important and most consistent way in which God speaks is also probably the least dramatic.

Learning to hear God speak through the Bible takes patience and it doesn't always seem very exciting but do you want to hear from him or don't you?

If you do let's start here let's quit holding out for for booming voices and blinding lights and feelings of peace and just give this a shot, okay?

There's a writer that I really enjoy, a guy named Pete Gregg.

He's an English guy.

And recently Pete Gregg took on this kind of fun project of interviewing inspirational people about hearing from God.

It's a little bizarre.

It's like watching the Tonight show if you took away the band in the studio audience and you replaced all the celebrity guests with pastors and scientists and nuns.

Okay?

And the fun thing is that Pete Gregg acts like they're celebrities.

He gets really excited which I think I get a kick out of so much in fact that uh we are going to sit in and watch one of these interviews each week during this series and see if we can learn something about hearing God's voice.

So let's meet tonight's guest Sister Mary Magdalene.

She was a medical doctor who left her oh hold on a second Derek I'm gonna set I'm gonna explain this a woman she was a medical doctor who left her profession for a life of solitude by becoming a contemplative nun at a convent in Devon, England.

I'm not making this up but she's been practicing Lectio Divina for 20 years and she's going to be able to explain it much, much better than I can.

Okay, so let's watch a short conversation between two of the most pleasant voices you will ever hear in your life Pete Gregg and Sister Mary Magdalene.

How precious is that that's so good.

I could listen to them all morning Lectio is the moment she said where I have a personal encounter with Christ guaranteed.

That's something He has a plan for me she said he has something he wants to say to me in that passage that perhaps he's never said to me before I may have read it a hundred times but today it will be different.

That's what she said.

Isn't that amazing we want to understand she said what God is saying to us there's no point just reading it closing the book and carrying on I love that she also said I thought this was good she said there's a literal meaning to scripture to be discovered and also a deeper spiritual meaning that is meant for you something God wants to say to you through the scripture we're gonna talk a lot more about that next week lastly I love that she said if I hope to receive almost nothing from him his hands are tied as it were but when I hope to receive everything from him he can give me unlimited treasure.

That is absolutely beautiful so what do you think?

Would you like to have a personal encounter with Christ guaranteed that's a bold claim are you at least willing to give it a shot come back next week please and we're gonna try it together okay next week we're gonna talk a little bit about a couple of five dollar religious words exegesis and hermeneutic we're gonna talk a little bit about the idea of seeing scripture as a picture to look at versus seeing it as a window to look through.

We're gonna spend a little more time with our story of Jesus and Cleopas and Mrs.

Cleopas on the road to Emmaus and we're going to begin to dig into this ancient practice of Lectio Divina, hoping not to receive almost nothing, but hoping to leverage God's written word to have a conversation with God himself.

Let's pray together one last time Heavenly Father we thank you for your word it is good and it is true and there are layers to it and we believe that you want to speak to us through your written word.

Holy Spirit we ask you in the coming days and weeks to do the work of of interpreting what we're reading so that we can have ears to hear it and hearts that are open to understanding Lord we love you.

We pray your blessing over everyone here this morning we pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus amen