A FULL Abundant Life In One Easy Step

April 13, 2008

Scripture Readings-

Old Testament – Psalm 23:1-6  A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fea no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.   

Epistle – 1 Peter 2:21-25  To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself born our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.  

Gospel – John 10:1-10 (The words of Jesus) “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  

Sermon –

Let’s look one more time at John 10:10, the verse we just read: “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Any English teacher, when grading that sentence, would mark it with a red pencil and change it to read “…that they may have life and have it to the fullest.” So I guess we’re just resigned to the fact that the person who translated the NIV obviously didn’t know English grammar. So let’s look at the King James Version and the NASB Version. These translations say “…that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” That’s written in good English, it makes sense. But we have to stop for a second because something is not right. The King James and NSAB versions say one thing, and there’s this weird awkward sentence in the NIV – that’s a tip-off that we need to go back to the original language and see just what it says.

The word used in the original Greek for “full” or “abundantly” is perisson which means “beyond measure”, “super abundant”, or “so full you can’t get any more in” – that’s the essence of the word. And here’s the interesting thing: in the original Greek perisson is a noun, a person, place or thing. “Abundantly” and “to the full” are adjectives, words that describe a noun. So“abundantly” is not a good translation because it implies there could always be more. For example, this past week it snowed abundantly, but we could always have had more! So “abundantly” doesn’t capture what God is telling us and because the word is an adjective we can throw it out. So let’s go back to the NIV where the translation is “the full”; God takes an adjective and turns it into a noun.   

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have perisson. Since perisson, meaning “beyond measure” or “so full you can’t get any more in” is not an adjective, it’s not describing the word “life”, it’s something else, it’s a noun, a thing. Jesus is telling us that He has come so that we may have life and have this other thing which is beyond measure. So how do we get that concept into the English language? The bottom line is, God is telling us about something that is so great, so fantastic, so wonderful, with so many blessings that there is not a word in the English language to describe what He wants us to have; there is not a word to capture this idea. So to get this idea across, the person who translated the NIV took an adjective and turned it into a noun putting “the” in front of “full”. Jesus came that you may have life and you may have something else that is a real thing that is connected to life, connected to Jesus, it is beyond measure, and it’s called “The Full”. That’s how we have to describe it because there are no words in the English language to describe what we have.

This is a whole new concept and the question now becomes how do we get “The Full”, this super abundant, beyond measure life? He tells us in John Chapter 10 – we have to hear his voice. He is God; He has the truth.   He cautions us to hear His voice because there are a lot of other voices that seek to steal things from us and are out to destroy us; other voices that sound good but don’t offer life and certainly don’t offer this thing called “The Full”.

What are some of these other voices that sound good but don’t offer life and don’t offer “The Full”? We’ll talk about a couple this week and continue with a couple next week. This first voice is very prevalent in the Christian Church. It says that Jesus’ purpose, the reason Jesus came to earth, was to just teach us to love one another. That’s the bottom line - we’re just supposed to love one another. If that is the only message of Jesus we don’t have life and we don’t have “The Full” because we can’t love one another perfectly. We may think we love other people perfectly but God tells us in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fallen short”. We have not loved one another perfectly and that is an offense to God.   

Jesus did say we should love other people but loving other people is fourth on the priority list. Before you can love other people something else has to take place. After Jesus’ resurrection He appeared to His disciples and said, “Here’s the plan: Step 1: Repent and turn toward God and confess that we have not loved perfectly; Step 2: Receive forgiveness of sins in Christ (Luke 24:46-48). Step 3 is to get to know Jesus better. Unless we get to know Christ and His love for us, we can never love as God wants us to love. Jesus says in John 15:12, 13 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” We were enemies of God when Jesus laid down His life for us. Here’s the progression: confess sin; believe Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for those sins; get to know Christ and His love for you and as you know Christ you’re going to then be able to effectively love other people. Step 4 is loving others.  1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” We can’t love apart from God.   We have to understand His love for us, His sacrifice on the cross and all He’s done for us, then we can love others. What happens when we believe that it’s only about loving other people and we never confess our sins and never believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior and made payment for those sins? It doesn’t give us life and it doesn’t give us “The Full”, it gives us just the opposite, it gives us death, it gives us hell. So don’t be deceived by other voices. The most important thing is to have forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ, then we have life eternal life and we have this other thing called “The Full” At that point we can love other people. Then you are reconciled, with sin paid for by Jesus, to the God who offers “The Full”.

The second point is something I have heard for twenty years in ministry. People say, “It’s all the same God. It doesn’t matter what you call Him, you can call him Allah, or what my new age friends call him, “the universe”, or Jesus, or Osfaf (One Spirit Fits All Faith), it’s all the same God." Watch out because that is a different voice, God never said that. God is very specific about who He is, that He is the One True God, that He is the person of the Father, person of the Son, person of the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons, one God. And the person of the Son took a human nature and became one of us to do what we couldn’t do; He lived the perfect life and paid for our sins to give us forgiveness. Allah can be God if he has a Son named Jesus Christ and it can’t be any other name because Jesus means “Savior” and Christ means “Messiah, The Anointed One”. It has to be Jesus Christ who went to the cross, died, rose from the dead three days later and said “Here’s the plan, that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be preached in His name, know Him better and love other people.” If it’s not that God, it’s a false god.  

Maybe we can illustrate this. You are five years old and want a Barbie doll for your birthday. So I go to the store and pick out a Ken doll for you. When I give it to you, you say “That’s not Barbie – that’s Ken!” I reply, “Oh, that doesn’t matter, it’s still a Barbie doll, it’s just a different name, another expression of Barbie!” That is not what you wanted; it’s not Barbie, its Ken. Barbie is totally different. It’s not just a different name or a different expression, it a different doll.   In that same way other voices have deceived people. Use this illustration because people need to be taught the truth so that they have life and have it to “The Full”. When we realize that it’s not the same god we have exactly what Jesus said in John 10  -   we have life and we have it to “The Full” because you have the real God who offered “The Full”, the real God who  makes that claim, the real God who can actually bring it about. You have the God of the Bible.

We’re trying to describe a concept that in the English language there are no words to describe. So here are some examples: The God of the Bible offers prayer. Think about what you have and how you have “The Full” when it comes to prayer. God does not hand out a coupon book telling you that you can pray according to your coupons, maybe twice a week for a minute each. That’s not our God! We have unlimited access to God in prayer. We can talk to God in prayer anytime, anyplace.   Not only can you talk to Him in prayer, but He promises to listen and   actually answer. And God goes beyond that because He wants to give you “The Full”. Not only many times does He give us those things we ask for, but He also goes beyond, because sometimes God, who knows everything, who knows the future, who knows your future, who knows what’s good for you and me says “No!” to prayer. And you know why that is? Because He wants you to have “The Full”; because He’s seeing something you and I don’t see. When He says “No!” it’s because He wants you and I to have “The Full” What a great God!

When difficulties and trials come into our lives we can always just tough our way through. But in those difficulties, God wants you to have “The Full”. God can use those trials and difficulties as a way to hear His voice and actually know that what He is saying is true. We are supposed to give our testimony to the power of God and how God is helping us in our circumstances. It isn’t about trials and difficulties at all, it’s about God coming through His Word: the voice of God giving us life and giving us “The Full”. When you experience God and His power and strength, you can pass that on to somebody else. It’s not about the trials and difficulties, it’s about experiencing God. That’s “The Full” God wants you to have.

Jesus isn’t kidding around with His words when He says “Don’t listen to the other voices; don’t be deceived. They offer something less than ‘The Full’”. Stick with the voice of Jesus, listen to what He says. Next week we’re going to continue and talk about other common misconceptions that take “The Full” out of our lives. We want “The Full”, we want to continue hearing the voice of Jesus, hearing what He says, so that we have life and have this other thing called “The Full”. It’s a real thing, it’s a noun, it’s permanent, it’s there and God offers it to you through Jesus Christ. It’s so great that there isn’t even a word in the English language to describe it, it is life abundantly and it is “The Full”. That’s what God offers you when you hear the voice of Jesus.

Prayer –