Hills Alliance Church inc.

07/06/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed through Christ -The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13k


Lesson Preview: “My Sheep Hear My Voice”

1. Jesus’ words, “My sheep,” reveal far more than sentimental religious language. They speak of covenant belonging, divine knowing, and communion with Christ Himself. In contrast to modern identity confusion and autonomous selfhood, Scripture presents personhood as grounded in being known and loved by God. We explore how the Gospel encountered radically different views of personhood throughout the ancient world and how Paul the Apostle corrected distorted identities in Corinth, Galatia, Colossae, and Philippi by redefining personhood entirely “in Christ.” The lesson examines how the Enlightenment shifted Western thought from relational communion with God toward autonomous selfhood, captured in the famous statement of Pierre-Simon Laplace: “I had no need of that hypothesis.”

2. We then move into Jesus’ words: “My sheep hear My voice and follow Me.” Biblically, hearing is far more than passive auditory reception. To hear the Shepherd is already to begin following Him in covenant faith, obedience, and communion. Beginning in Book of Genesis, we trace the remarkable theology of hearing. God speaks throughout Genesis 1–3, yet humanity is not explicitly said to “hear” until after the Fall: “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden…” Hearing first appears in the context of fear, hiding, and alienation.

3. We follow the biblical theme of hearing through Abraham, Sinai, the wilderness, the prophets, the Shema, the Psalms, John 10, Romans 10, and Revelation, showing that redemption itself may be understood as the restoration of humanity’s capacity to truly hear God again. The lesson explores the profound significance of the Shema: “Hear, O Israel,” as the covenantal centre of Israel’s faith and the background to Jesus’ declaration, “My sheep hear My voice.”

4. We ask the question: How do the sheep hear the Shepherd today in Christ’s physical absence? Turning to Epistle to the Romans chapter10, we examine how the risen Christ continues to speak through Scripture, Gospel proclamation, and the Holy Spirit. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Special attention is given to the preeminent role of the Holy Spirit in both empowering the proclamation of the Gospel and opening the ears of the hearer. The Spirit does not merely add emotional intensity but creates spiritual hearing itself.

5. Finally, the lesson culminates at the Lord’s Table. The sheep not only hear the Shepherd’s voice but are gathered by that voice into covenant communion with Christ and one another. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul declares that the cup and bread are a “participation” (koinonia) in Christ. Communion becomes enacted hearing, visible Gospel, and restored fellowship in the risen Shepherd who gathers His flock to Himself.

Grace and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ, Ps Terry

Listen to 2026-06-07-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13k by Stephen James Davidson on

03/06/2026

Ps Andrew just wrote:- “Ps Terry by God's grace, we completed the 30th DTI on May 29th. The trainees have returned home after finishing the two-month residential training course. During this period, they memorized 150 to 200 Bible verses. I look forward to reproduction taking place wherever they stay through their godly lives. Thank you for your support and for being with us in prayer.”

31/05/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed through Christ -The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13j

1. The Deep Personal Language of Christ. We begin by examining Jesus’ words, “My sheep,” and why this is far more than sentimental religious language. The expression reveals covenant belonging, divine ownership, intimate knowledge, and communion with Christ Himself. In a world marked by alienation, anxiety, and identity confusion, the believer’s security is not grounded in self-construction or performance, but in belonging to the Good Shepherd who knows His own and lays down His life for them.

2. The Old Testament Vision of Being “Known” by God. The lesson then explores how the Old Testament understanding of “knowing” carries covenantal and relational meaning rather than mere intellectual awareness. From Jeremiah, Moses, Israel, and the Psalms, we see that God’s knowledge of His people precedes and grounds their identity. The biblical person is not self-created, but one addressed, known, and loved by God.

3. Hebrew Personhood vs. Greco-Roman Personhood. We examine how the Hebrew worldview differed dramatically from surrounding ancient cultures. In much of the Greco-Roman world, personhood was tied to status, rationality, citizenship, masculinity, and public standing. By contrast, biblical anthropology grounded human dignity in being created in the image of God. We consider: the corporate yet deeply personal nature of Hebrew identity, the dignity of women within creation, the holistic understanding of body and soul, and the covenantal rather than autonomous understanding of the self.

4. The Modern Identity Crisis and Societal Estrangement. Drawing on sociologists such as Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Bauman, and Charles Taylor, the lesson reflects on modern fragmentation, alienation, and instability of identity. We explore how modern culture increasingly treats identity as something self-created and endlessly reconstructed, while Scripture presents true identity as something received through communion with God.

5. The Gospel’s Collision with Ancient Cultures in the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts is approached not merely as missionary geography, but as the Gospel entering radically different “personhood cultures.” We trace the Gospel moving from Jewish covenantal thought, to Samaritans, to the Ethiopian eu**ch, into Greek philosophical cities, and finally into the Roman imperial world. Each culture possessed different assumptions about humanity, belonging, status, embodiment, and divinity.

6. Paul’s Corrective Letters and Distorted Views of Personhood. We examine how Paul’s epistles were often corrective responses to cultural distortions of identity. Corinth grounded personhood in status, rhetoric, power, and self-display. Galatia in law, ethnicity, and religious performance. Colossae in mystical spirituality and cosmic mediation, Philippi in honour and Roman citizenship. Paul responds by redefining personhood entirely “in Christ,” where identity is relational, communal, cruciform, and grounded in participation in the risen Son.

7. Why These Questions Led to Nicaea. As Christianity spread through diverse cultures, the Church was forced to answer difficult theological questions: Is Christ truly God? How can God be relational while remaining one? What does “person” mean when speaking of Father, Son, and Spirit? We explore how the controversies culminating in First Council of Nicaea arose from the Church defending the biblical revelation within radically different philosophical and cultural worlds.

8. Nicaea and the Foundations of Christian Personhood. The lesson traces how the Nicene confession that Christ is homoousios (“of the same essence”) with the Father preserved more than abstract doctrine. It protected the truth that salvation is real participation in the life of God Himself. We then explore how the Cappadocian Fathers clarified the distinction between one divine essence and three divine persons, laying the foundations for the Christian understanding of relational personhood and communion.

9. The Triune God and the Recovery of Human Identity. Finally, we reflect on the profound claim that ultimate reality is not impersonal force or isolated individuality, but eternal communion: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In contrast to modern autonomous selfhood, Christian theology understands personhood through relation, participation, love, and being known. The lesson concludes by showing that the deepest human crisis is estrangement, and the deepest human healing is found in the Shepherd who says: “My sheep hear My voice… and I know them.”

Grace and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ, Ps Terry

Listen to 2026-05-31-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13j by Stephen James Davidson on

24/05/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed through Christ -The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13i


1. At the Feast of Dedication, Jesus is pressed to speak plainly, yet He points back to what He has already revealed through His words and works, showing that the issue is not lack of evidence but unbelief, because knowing Him is grounded in belonging, not merely understanding.

2. Overview of vss 25–30. Jesus reveals that unbelief flows from not being His sheep, not the other way around; His sheep hear His voice, are known by Him, and follow Him, receiving eternal life and absolute security grounded in the Father’s sovereign giving and the Son’s preserving power, climaxing in His divine claim, “I and the Father are one.”

3. Exegesis and Theology. Jesus overturns religious expectations by showing that faith is not the cause of belonging but its result, a truth recognised by D. A. Carson and Raymond E. Brown, and developed across the Church by Athanasius of Alexandria, John Calvin, Karl Barth, and Thomas F. Torrance, all of whom emphasise that knowing God is participatory, grounded in union with Christ rather than human reasoning alone.

4. The Inversion – Belonging Before Believing. Faith does not begin with human initiative but with Christ’s prior claim upon us; we believe because we belong, as we are drawn into His life by grace, where revelation confronts and overturns our categories, appearing as contradiction before it becomes truth.

5. “My Sheep” is a deeply personal and covenantal expression showing that the flock belongs to Christ Himself, not as a religious category but as a living communion of those known, gathered, and sustained by Him, echoing the Old Testament vision of God as Shepherd and fulfilled in Jesus’ divine identity.

6. The Comfort of Belonging. The highest theology becomes the deepest comfort: our identity is not grounded in performance or certainty, but in belonging to Christ, who knows His own, calls them by name, lays down His life for them, and holds them securely in the united love and power of the Father and the Son. So, to belong to Christ is to be known, gathered, and kept by the Shepherd whose voice calls us into His life.

Grace & peace in Jesus, Ps Terry

Listen to 2026-05-24-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13i by Stephen James Davidson on

17/05/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed through Christ -The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13h

1. Introduction: John 10:22–42 — Hearing the Shepherd. In John 10:24, the tension is not between honest seekers and an unclear Jesus, but between two fundamentally different ways of reading Scripture and recognising God’s revelation. Jesus has already spoken plainly through His works, His words, and His fulfilment of Israel’s Scriptures and feasts, yet His hearers struggle to recognise Him because His identity does not fit their expectations. The issue, therefore, is not lack of clarity but lack of participatory recognition, for they do not believe because they are not His sheep (John 10:26). This passage invites us to see that true knowledge of Christ does not arise from detached understanding, but from belonging to Him and hearing His voice.

2. Key Movements in the Passage. The setting is the Feast of Dedication (10:22–23), a festival celebrating the restoration of the Temple and the triumph of light over darkness, where Jesus stands in the Temple as the true consecrated One and yet is not recognised. Within this context, the question “tell us plainly” (10:24) is not a neutral request but a demand that Jesus conform to their expectations, assuming He has been unclear when in fact He has revealed Himself in Scripture-shaped ways. Jesus answers by pointing to His words and works (10:25–30), showing that His works testify to His identity and that His sheep hear His voice because they belong to Him, culminating in the declaration, “I and the Father are one.” The real issue is then exposed in 10:26, where recognition of Jesus is shown to flow from belonging, so that knowledge is not merely informational but participatory.

3. The Deeper Conflict. At the heart of the passage, two ways of reading Scripture collide: the Pharisees operate with a Messiah defined by established expectations, while Jesus reveals Himself as the Messiah who both fulfils and redefines those expectations. Therefore the problem is not a lack of revelation but a mismatch of categories, since Jesus reveals Himself through the familiar imagery of Shepherd, Temple, and Feast, which are recognised but not grasped in their true depth. As a result, knowing Christ is shown to be participatory, not a movement from understanding to belonging, but from belonging to recognition.

4. Pastoral Frame. The enduring danger is not the rejection of Scripture but the tendency to confine Christ within our assumptions, so that we demand clarity on our terms while missing how He actually speaks. In this way, true hearing is not the result of mastering information, but of belonging to the Shepherd and being attuned to His voice.

5. Conclusion: The issue in John 10 is not that Jesus has failed to speak plainly, but that His hearers lack the participatory belonging that makes His voice recognisable.

Grace & peace, Ps Terry

Listen to 2026-05-17-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13h by Stephen James Davidson on

10/05/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed Through Christ -The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13g

In John 10:14–15 Jesus declares, “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” Here Jesus reveals that knowing God is not merely intellectual or abstract, but participatory. Believers are drawn into the Son’s own relationship with the Father through His self-giving life. This challenges both purely rational approaches to God and modern forms of detached knowledge. Thinkers such as Karl Barth and T. F. Torrance emphasised that true knowledge of God is grounded in Christ Himself, while Michael Polanyi argued that all genuine knowing is personal and participatory rather than merely objective. In Christ, believers are brought into the communion (koinonia) of the triune life.

This participatory reality becomes clearer in John 10:16–18 where Jesus says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold.” The scandal is that God’s saving purpose is no longer confined to Israel’s ethnic and covenant boundaries but is now centred entirely in Christ. In first-century Judaism, “the sheep” referred to Israel alone, shaped by Torah, Temple, and covenant identity. Yet Jesus relocates belonging around Himself and His voice. As D. A. Carson explains, the “sheep pen” represents Judaism, but Jesus calls His sheep out from it and gathers others beyond it, namely the Gentiles, into one flock.

Jesus’ words are therefore both narrowing and expanding. They narrow because not all belong to His flock. “My sheep hear my voice” implies that some do not hear because they are not His sheep. This creates division because belonging to God is no longer assumed through ethnicity, religion, or social privilege but revealed in relation to Christ. Yet His words also widen the scope because He has “other sheep” beyond Israel. Those once considered outsiders are now included through the Shepherd’s voice. Thus Jesus simultaneously breaks false religious security while opening God’s saving purpose to the nations.

The certainty of this gathering is expressed in Jesus’ statement, “I must bring them also.” The Greek word dei (“must”) signifies divine necessity. This is not mere intention but the outworking of the Father’s eternal purpose. Throughout John’s Gospel this “must” marks decisive moments in salvation history: the Son “must” be lifted up (3:14), Jesus “must” pass through Samaria (4:4), and now He “must” gather His sheep. The inclusion of the nations is therefore not an afterthought but part of the Shepherd’s mission from the beginning. Jesus adds, “they will hear my voice,” combining divine necessity with divine certainty. The Shepherd does not merely invite; He seeks, gathers, and brings His sheep into one flock under one Shepherd.

This gathering is grounded in the Cross. Jesus says, “I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.” The Cross is not something imposed upon Him unwillingly but His own self-giving act in obedience to the Father. John Calvin observed that Christ offered Himself willingly, while Athanasius of Alexandria described Christ entering death not as its victim but as its conqueror. Jesus possesses authority both to lay down His life and to take it up again. His obedience is therefore not coercion but the free expression of divine love within the unity of the Father and the Son.

The result of Jesus’ teaching is division. Some accuse Him of madness or demonic influence, while others cannot dismiss the signs He performs, especially the healing of the blind man in John 9. As Lesslie Newbigin observed, the Gospel always appears either as foolishness or revelation. Jesus overturns every human category of belonging, authority, and knowledge. Some are offended by the exclusivity of “my sheep,” others by the expansiveness of “other sheep,” but all are confronted by the Good Shepherd who freely lays down His life and takes it up again for His flock. In Him, the people of God are defined not by race, institution, or human qualification, but by the Shepherd’s voice and the communion of life He shares with the Father.

Listen to 2026-05-10-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13g by Stephen James Davidson on

03/05/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed through Christ -The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13f

1. Introduction: John 10 is set within Israel’s long history of failed leadership, where Jesus, as the promised Good Shepherd of Ezekiel 34, stands in contrast to false shepherds by gathering, protecting, and giving life to those who truly hear God’s voice.

2. The Shepherd’s Knowing: In John 10:14–15, Jesus reveals a profound participatory knowing between Himself, the Father, and the sheep, where His self-giving life expresses and grounds this relational, Trinitarian communion.
The Importance of Knowledge: John presents knowing God not as mere information but as relational participation, reframing the univocal vs. analogical debate by grounding true knowledge in being drawn into the Son’s own knowledge of the Father.

3. Participatory Knowledge: Through Christ, knowing God is neither simply identical nor merely analogous, but participatory sharing in the Son’s intimate knowledge of the Father, as emphasised by Karl Barth and Thomas F. Torrance.

4. Personal Knowledge: Michael Polanyi helps illuminate this by showing that all knowing is personal, tacit, and participatory, aligning with John’s vision that the sheep know the Shepherd through relational indwelling rather than abstract cognition.

5. The Trinitarian Pattern Emerges: The mutual knowing and indwelling of the Father and the Son becomes the pattern and reality into which believers are brought through union with Christ by the Spirit.

6. Theological Conclusions: To be known by Christ is to be drawn into the very life of God, where salvation is understood as participatory communion rather than merely conceptual understanding.

7. Communion: In 1 Corinthians 10:16–17, the Lord’s Supper is revealed not as mere symbolism but as real participation (koinonia) in Christ’s life, death, and body, creating both union with Him and communion with His people.

Grace & peace in Jesus, Ps Terry

Listen to 2026-05-03-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13f by Stephen James Davidson on

27/04/2026

Ps Andrew just messaged me. Ps Terry we are currently devoting ourselves to a two-month residential discipleship training program at the Philippines Center. Only three weeks have passed so far. Every Saturday, we are conducting lectures for MDiv graduate students.

In June, I will visit Yangon, Myanmar again. This is because the dedication ceremony for the Tyrannus Grace Elementary School building is taking place there.

In Nepal, we have built a beautiful playground for Hindu and Muslim children. Children are flocking to that village, which previously lacked a playground. We are sharing the Gospel of the Kingdom with them there.

Please remember and pray for us.

26/04/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed through Christ -The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13e

1. This study situates John 10 within the long and troubled history of Israel’s leadership, tracing the story from the divided monarchy through exile and into the complex political and religious world of the first century. Across nearly six centuries of foreign domination. Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Israel experienced repeated failures of both political and spiritual leadership. Of the kings who ruled, few were faithful, and the pattern of misrule exposed a deep and enduring need for a true Shepherd-King.

2. By the time of Jesus, Israel’s leadership had become layered and fragmented, shaped by Roman power, Herodian politics, Temple authority, and Pharisaic influence. These structures often placed institutional stability, economic control, and social power above the care of the people. In this context, Jesus’ words in John 10 are not merely comforting they are profoundly confrontational. His declaration that “all who came before me are thieves and robbers” exposes centuries of failed shepherding while simultaneously announcing Himself as the true Shepherd who gives life to the flock.

3. This study explores the real social, economic, and religious consequences of corrupted leadership. It shows how false shepherds “steal, kill, and destroy”through spiritual blindness, social exclusion, economic exploitation, and political catastrophe, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Against this backdrop, Jesus’ ministry, seen especially in the healing of the blind man, reveals both the failure of Israel’s leaders and the nature of true shepherding grounded in knowing, restoring, and gathering the sheep.

4. At the heart of this study is the biblical theme of the “remnant.”Despite widespread apostasy, God has always preserved a people whohear His voice. From Elijah’s seven thousand to the witnesses of faith in Hebrews 11, and ultimately to the healed blind man in John 9, Scripture testifies that the true sheep are those who are attuned to God and not defined by false shepherds.

5. Finally, this study draws out the critical distinction between the thief, the hireling, and the Good Shepherd. It exposes how leadership corrupted by self-interest, whether religious or political, ultimately consumes the flock, while true shepherding is marked by self-giving love. In contrast to all failed leadership, Jesus stands as the fulfilment of Ezekiel 34: God Himself come to shepherd His people.

6. Conclusion. When human leadership feeds on the flock and scatters the people, God does not abandon them. He comes Himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.

Grace and peace in trusting Jesus Himself – Ps Terry

Listen to 2026-04-26-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13e Ed by Stephen James Davidson on

19/04/2026

The Doctrine of God Revealed through Christ – The Book of Signs in John’s Gospel – Pt 13d Ed

1. Truly, Truly, I Say unto You. Jesus’ solemn declaration intensifies the crisis of revelation as His “I AM” sayings (“I am the Door” and “I am the Good Shepherd”) openly identify Him with the divine name of Exodus 3:14, confronting His hearers with either true revelation or perceived blasphemy, while His exclusive claim as the only Door exposes false shepherds, corrupt leaders, messianic pretenders, and exploitative authorities and calls believers into a secure, abundant life grounded not in self-definition but in union with Him.

2. Will Be Saved! In John’s Gospel, salvation is not merely rescue from judgment but participation in divine life through entering Christ Himself, where the future promise “will be saved” signifies covenantal belonging, relational communion, and lived security, culminating in the paradox that the Shepherd saves His sheep precisely by refusing to save Himself, laying down His life to bring them into eternal life, freedom, and fellowship with God.

3. Comparing the Good Shepherd and the Thieves and the Robber. The Good Shepherd, who enters by the door, knows His sheep and lays down His life for them, stands in stark contrast to thieves, robbers, and hirelings figures representing deceptive, violent, and self-serving leaders while the immediate context of John 9–10 reveals this as a judgment on Israel’s religious authorities and exposes the deeper hermeneutical conflict between Scripture fulfilled in Christ and Scripture interpreted apart from Him.

4. The Politics of Israel Historically.Set against Israel’s covenant history from divine election, Sinai’s theocratic constitution, and the failure of kings and shepherds, to prophetic denunciation and exile Jesus’ claim to be the Good Shepherd emerges as the fulfilment of God’s promise to personally shepherd His people through a true Davidic king, confronting corrupt leadership and restoring the flock into faithful covenant life under God’s reign.

Grace and peace in Jesus Ps Terry

Listen to 2026-04-19-TheDoctrineOfGodRevealedThroughChrist-Pt13d Ed by Stephen James Davidson on