I'd like to direct your attention
this morning to that chapter that Andrew read for us, John
chapter 10. We were just discussing briefly
before we came out about there are certain chapters we might
call great chapters. We say that carefully because
quite rightly all the Bible is all the Word of God. We must have all of it. There
are some chapters, and you know what I mean. have a particular
power, and you perhaps have those that you love, whether it's Psalm
23, Isaiah 53, John 10, Romans 8, you know, you know these scriptures. This is a lovely chapter, and
particularly I want to focus our attention on what we find
in verse 10 of this chapter, there's an awful lot in here,
and it's the words that our Lord says, that I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. So my heading this morning is
life more abundantly. What are we saying here? What
is Christ actually talking about? say we have it more abundantly. I love the context, we always
have to, it's our habit here to take the word, isn't it, in
the context. And of course it's this lovely
chapter, the analogy here, it's so powerful to us, the good shepherd,
Christ is the good shepherd, all that means. And of course
to those folk, They would have understood that. There were a
lot of sheep. It was an analogy that they could follow. It's
one that in our modern western society perhaps wouldn't be quite
so powerful, so clear. We don't often see sheep. It's good when we go on holiday
perhaps, and I can remember many years Gin and I went to Yorkshire
and we would be walking amongst the sheep and watching all their
strange nervous habits and so on. But this would have had resonance. That's the point with Christ.
In a way we didn't have. I am the good shepherd. And all
the analogies he uses, like the door and the sheepfold, were
very clear to them. And he uses these to preach very
powerfully. Now we might say, well, is that
special? Well, he's in contention, as
we've seen in this chapter, with the scribes and the Pharisees.
And his teaching, we are familiar with the Gospels, is very, very
different to the teaching that they would have got from the
scribes and the pharisees and they would have been going through
all the points of the law Jots and tittles and gotta do this,
you gotta do that kind of like Islam tries to do today with
Sharia you know before you have a meal you've got to do this,
you've got to do that, you can only eat with your right hand and the Jews
were very strong in that they had books and books of rules
and regulations and Jesus came along and said I am the good
shepherd And that was totally different. What were the Jews
looking for? They were looking, of course,
for Messiah. But what Messiah were they looking
for? Was it the Good Shepherd? No,
it wasn't, was it? They weren't looking to them.
A shepherd was a mean person. Somebody out in the fields, all
night, sitting looking after sheep. They would have seen a
shepherd as a rather lowly occupation. They were looking for David.
They were looking for a conqueror. They were looking for someone
to come and unite the nation and with power to drive out the
Romans and all the Gentiles and restore Israel to the glory perhaps
that they had known in the days of David and particularly in
Solomon. Christ! This is the Gospel. He said,
I am the Good Shepherd. It's not what they expected at
all. And he sets forth here so many
things about him. He says, there are those who
seek to come into the sheepfold, seek to come among you, are thieves.
The porter opens the door. He says, but the sheep hear his
voice. There's one who the sheep recognize. I've used this analogy
before, I'll use it again. Many years ago, I was on a walking
expedition in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is the most beautiful country.
Very early one morning, I'd gone up into the hills alone. I was
looking after... I was a leader of a group of
young men. And I went up into the hills to pray. And it's one
of those places where you're all alone, there was nothing.
And suddenly on the horizon, I saw two dots moving. And I had been told that we had
to be a bit careful because they were wolves or bears. in Bernese,
and the Croatian man who was leading the expedition had a
great big gun, I always remember his name was Marto, he kept calling
me Marto after that, he had a great big gun which was in theory to
frighten away any wars, and I thought well I don't know what those
are, they seem to be heading towards me, and I was away from
everybody, I didn't have a sticker, so I started walking at an angle,
and the two dots changed their direction You know how your mind,
if you're with me, your mind goes straight and you think,
well, what is this? And then eventually, as it got closer
and closer and closer, suddenly I saw there were two sheep. They
were heading towards me. And then, down in the valley,
there was a voice calling and a bell ringing, and the sheep
shot off. They didn't come for me anymore.
they shot down into the valley. They thought I was the shepherd. They saw a man, they were lost,
probably up and they shouldn't have been, they'd wandered from
the flock, so they came towards me, until they heard the shepherd. And this is what Christ says
here, isn't it? I find it very strong, you see,
this wonderful, wonderful scripture. He said, they won't follow a
stranger, that's what he says here. They wouldn't follow me,
who I was. They thought I was the shepherd
at first. But they know his voice. That's the gospel. Do you know
his voice? Jesus was a good shepherd. He
comes to call his sheep. So he says, this parable Jesus
spake unto them. He said, I am the door of the
sheep. I'm the protector. I'm the keeper of the sheep. I look after you. And there's
so much more of that, isn't there, in the Gospel. Christ is our
Saviour. Of course He is. He saves our
soul eternally. But He comes as the Good Shepherd,
who would lay down His life for His sheep, as we read. In verse
16, He's got other sheep, not of this fold. He said, but they
shall hear My voice. Have we heard his voice? And there shall be one forward
and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love me, because I
lay down my life, that I may take it again. He lay down his
life for the sheep. Sometimes a shepherd would have
to do that. Remember David? What did David say? He said,
if there came a lion, or there came a bear, he fought them,
didn't he? And we might think, how would
he do that? But he did. And that's how Christ
is. He's the Good Shepherd. He lives
for his sheep. And thus, Jesus said, these are
many things. And of course, it causes division,
you see. We read in verse 19, because of his sayings. They
say, he's got a devil. So, all the things that we're
going through. He's mad, they said. But can a devil open the eyes
of the blind? They didn't see it, you see.
Isn't that a mystery? In God's sovereign grace there
are those who can see Christ. And we can understand this. This
is in the mystery of God's providence. And there are those who do see
Christ. Oh, has God opened our hearts
to see Him? We see in this chapter a part
of that revelation of sovereign grace. Because we read in verse
26, you believe not because you are not of my sheep, said Jesus
to these scribes and Pharisees. These men who were the religious
men Jesus says that you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my
voice and I know them and they follow me. Isn't that remarkable?
And that we know that there is a saving purpose. Jesus came
to seek and to save that which is lost. The gospel isn't random. I can remember as a young man
being given a gospel that was hit or miss, you know, you throw
out the gospel and you hope that somebody will hear and believe,
but you can't be sure and it may be that people will be lost,
but no, Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. God has a person, a people, he
is love from all eternity. He will say that is his great
work. It's not our work. As it were,
when we minister, we seek to put forth the word of God, but
it's God's work. And when we enter, we shall be
preserved. Verse 9, I am the door, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved. He shall go in and out and find
pasture. and in a sense that's the condition
spiritually that the believer enters into by the door, by Christ
comes in to be saved and he's nurtured and he's suckered, he's
looked after, he's protected whereas the thief comes, come
if not but to steal, to kill and to destroy and I do think
that's a reference to the scribes and pharisees, they've not come
to lead you to God. They've not come to look after
you. They have their own agenda. They want to appear as important
people. That's what they've come to describe.
But Jesus says, I am come that they might have life and that
they might have it more abundantly. What is this then? This is death. They might have life. Well are
we in a state of death? The word of God says yes, spiritually
we are in a state of death. but there is life and we can
come in by the door by Christ and we can enter and of course
that terrible death is the separation of the soul from the body and
then that separation from God eternally that being lost in
hell and we know in our days amongst evangelicals there are
those who will not uphold the teaching of scripture there's
a heaven and a hell and they just say oh no it's annihilation
people are annihilated become nothing It's not what the word
of God says. These are very central and serious
documents and we must talk about death. Life is a great mystery. I won't go into this in any detail,
but you know that all the space missions are looking for life,
even this landing on this comet. They're looking for, did comets
bring the building blocks of life to this earth? And did they
bring water? How many comets would have had
to come to fill our oceans? It's all a nonsense, isn't it?
We're told in the beginning, in Genesis, the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters, right at the beginning of Genesis.
Water was there, right from the beginning. It didn't come by
comets, it was there. And what about life? Life is
a special creation. God spake, gave a word of authority. Come on, He created, we have
a special creation. The world around us doesn't own
any of these things. So we spend billions of pounds,
And even India now does it, doesn't it? They've got starving people,
we send rockets out to go and see if there's life on Mars.
What good will that do them? We need life, we need to understand,
it's a mystery. I was reading a magazine that
came in the Times some while ago, and it's a very anti-Christian,
anti-God, blasphemous article really, that the Times put out.
talking about how life, oh life, it all came about by chemical
reactions, and they mention how all these things might have come
together, but if you read Dawkins, he says the probability of life
is mathematically impossible, virtually, his number. They can't
explain it. They say we can reproduce life
in a laboratory, you can't. and not the genetic code and
all the complexities, the chemical reactions. Our bodies are so
complex, as we often say, we are fearfully and wonderfully
made. But death is a reality and we need to be concerned about
it. Everybody needs to be concerned.
We are all going to die. We know death spiritually because
we have death in Adam. But we can be most certain that
we shall die. and it can come as a surprise.
Life is a mystery. The Greek word here for life,
and you will know this word, it's a girl's name, often it's
Zoe, and from that word Zoe, or the origin, is the word zoo,
and zoological, life, animals, come from that same root. It's
a dynamic word. We talk, people talk about, oh,
we want to see how life develops. They have no concept how fabulous
life is, I trust that when we study the gospel we see that.
When God created, he didn't just create like a machine or something
ordinary, but he's created a universe that is incredible, fabulous,
almost unbelievable, beautiful, complex, and we have the privilege
in our day of being able to see films and television programs
and have books or all of the world's riches and treasures
and nature and it's just wonderful. It's almost beyond our ability
to take in. And yet we can go into the garden
and we can see the smallest flowers, we can see a little sweet William
in the garden and we can see in that perfection. If we've
got eyes to see it, we can see there is a God in heaven. Now creatures have life, but
no soul. There are people who think they
have. I mean, we live in a very foolish day. But they're not
like man, you see. Our children at school are told
that man is the pinnacle of evolution. He's just an advanced animal.
But no, the word of God says he is a special creation. And he's made in the image of
God. Let's never lose sight of that. We're very, very different.
Every creature around us, we have a soul. And we must understand
that life, therefore, comes from God. And the life of faith is
also the same. It's a dynamic. Where we see
the diversity and the amazing array of life all around us on
this planet. There's nowhere else like it.
Everywhere else they go, it's dead, inert, there's nothing. No trace
of life. They would love to find traces
of life on Mars, but they can see it's always been dead. There's
nothing there. They've got the moon, there's
nothing there, and so on. They're struggling, they think
there might be other planets with life elsewhere, but no,
it's a special creation. This world is important. If we say this world is the centre
of the universe, that is extreme arrogance, but that is the word
of God. Why is this world important?
Because Christ came here. The eternal son of God didn't
go anywhere else, he came here, to this world. This world is
specially made for men to live in, and to the glory of God. We should be in no doubt about
that. That is not the spirit of our age. And God has that
eternal purpose, that he will call people to himself in Christ. What is life? We can't really
describe it, can we? What is life? It's a special
creation of God. There is natural life, and the
scriptures say so much about that. And that is a gift to have. People abuse their lives in our
day and they take drugs and do foolish things, but to have a
life is a wonderful gift of God. To be, you know, if we can use
Shakespeare's word, is the most amazing thing. And then to have
newness of life in Christ. It's the most marvellous thing
you could have in this world. People have aims and ambitions
for all sorts of things in this world. And they may achieve them,
but they will die in the end. These things will fade. They
will grow old, things decay, they rot, they fall apart. We
see sometimes the remains of ancient civilizations, we see
buildings that were once great buildings, they're nothing. Life
in Christ is an eternal life. We're entering into a realm that
is, as it were, an eternal realm. The realm of God's great blessing. And how do we know that we've
got this? How do we know that God is dealing with us? Well,
there is an imperative. And when God comes to us, we
feel our need of him. We begin to feel that we are
sinners. We begin to feel that we need
to confess those sins. God deals with us in sovereign
grace. We call it irresistible grace.
When God deals with us, we know it, we feel it. And when He brings
by His grace, He gives us that gift of faith to believe in Him,
He brings that newness of life, then things are changed. You
know, behold, all things are new, we read. We have that life. How do we know that we've got
it? How do we know God has worked in our hearts? How do we know
we're truly saved? You know, I again in my younger
days went to circles where you went to a rally, football stadium
or somewhere, somebody, lots of music and an impressive, powerful
speaker. and then you had to line up and
you filled up a decision card and they were taking you to a
counselling room and then you were told you're a believer and
they gave you a list of churches, you go to one of these churches.
But that's not being said. I think if somebody's truly said
it, they don't need somebody to tell them. They know. How do we know? How do we know
somebody is a child of God? There are many professing Christ.
We see people in Rome. We see that man of sin in Rome.
We see the Archbishop of Canterbury. We see other people come on the
radio, on the television, especially men of God. How do we know they're
believers? And the answer is this really. How do we know they've got this
life? There has to be some evidence. Jesus said there is evidence
about him. He healed the sick, he raised
the dead. But what are these things you
are going to stone me, said Christ. And they said we are not going
to stone you for what you are and all the things you do. We are going
to stone you for your words. We are going to stone you because
you say you are the Messiah. And we don't want you as the
Messiah. That's what they are saying. We want David. We don't
want the good shepherds. We don't want somebody mean doing
the things you do, dressed like you do, wandering around with
ordinary people in the wilderness. We're going to stone you. And
it hasn't changed to this day. Christ was in this land today.
Don't you think they would want to stone him if he spoke out? You read the Sermon on the Mount.
If he spoke like that in public, they would want to arrest him.
And we know that. People do get arrested for speaking
the Gospel. There has to be proof. There
has to be evidence. And our Lord Jesus Christ makes
that clear. Let's look at one or two references.
Matthew 13 and verse 8. Matthew 13 and verse 8. And we know this parable, the
parable of the cell. Sometimes it's called the parable
of the grounds. I think that's perhaps more accurate. the seed, the word of God went
out and there were reactions but there were three didn't come
to anything, did they? Ah, the other fell on good ground,
didn't it? And how do we know? How do we
know there was anything there? How do we know there was a true
response? How do we know that that word
brought forth true life, spiritual life? We know it because Christ
says here, it brought forth fruit. Some 100 fold, some 60-fold and
some 30-fold. There were different levels,
but there was fruit. And the Christian life must bring
forth fruit. If we go to John, another great
chapter, John 15, I'm sure you know this chapter, and verse
5. I am the vine, ye are the branches. It's another great
illustration, isn't it, of that dependence on Christ, growing
from Christ. He's like a vine. you are the
branches, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit for without me you can do nothing we are
in Christ there should be fruit, is there fruit? there should
be an outworking, there should be something to be seen in our
faith as we come to Christ as the Good Shepherd and then later
in that chapter, I think it's verse 16 Jesus says you have not chosen
me but I have chosen you There are people who want to cut that
sort of verse out of the scripture. We say we don't like election,
we don't like sovereign grace. This is what Christ says, you
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. We cannot argue with
the words of our Saviour and ordain you. But it's not just
to be in Christ, not just to come and sit in the church and
be friendly with everybody and come to the prayer meetings.
No, that's not what Christ has brought us to. He said, I've
ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. The Christian life is an active
life, there has to be service. There's a dynamic about it, or
there's nothing there. And that your fruit should remain.
We do things and there's a permanence, there's some substance about
the things that we do. That whatsoever you shall ask
of the Father in my name, He may give it to you. Your prayers
will be heard. God will answer prayers. And
then just one more, you know this one well, Galatians 5 and
verse 22. I just want to take the spiritual
dimension. There are the practical and obvious
outworkings, but at the root of all this, there is that spiritual
core, isn't there? God works in our heart. by the
Spirit. We know what the works of the
flesh are. Paul tells us previously from verse 19 that they are adultery
and fornication and cleanness and lasciviousness and we live
in a land absolutely full of these things that are paraded
before us all the time, aren't they? Envyings and the rest.
But what about the child of God? The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith. And we see
also neatness, temperance, against which there is no law and they,
Lord Christ, have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
The newness of life is this, isn't it? It's to be living in
the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. Our lives, therefore,
have to be very, very different to the lives of those around
us. And then we'll mark us. And I'm sure some find that people
do mark them and say things to them. And it's different. I know in my working career so
many times I wouldn't go along with things that people were
doing. And I would get mocked and scorned. But in the end,
if you're consistent, people respect you. They respect you
if you're consistent. And you always take that ground.
They're looking for weakness. They're looking to expose you.
They're looking to say to the believer, well, you're really
like us. You're not really different. You're like us. If we can work
on you, we can crack you and prove you're like us. But we
need God's, certainly in our days, God's grace and help that
we might do what we should do. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth and the life. In our day we're told, There
are many ways to God. In schools we have to have multi-faith,
all religions are valid. I'm sorry, but we have to be
quite clear. Jesus is the way, the truth and
the life. There is no other way. We know
that from the Word of God. No other way to the Father but
by Him. There is no life in Him. There
is no life in Islam. Without even wanting to go into
it, you can see what Islam is. Manifestly it is. You can have
no doubt, looking at Islam and its fruits, what sort of religion
it is. Our religion must be very different. When people look at you and I
and how we live, what do they see? What are the fruits? Is there newness of life there?
Again, is there that dynamic? And I love the way it's put here
in this verse. I might have life, But the Lord
goes on and says they might have it more abundantly. Isn't that a wonderful verse?
Not just to have newness of life in Christ. It's not the normal
life of the world where people might map out what they want
to achieve in life, but it's a spiritual life. But Jesus says
you can have it more abundantly, this Greek word for this, and
the word has a sense of abundance and there is a concreteness,
a tangibility, there is something about it. The way this particular
word is used, it is powerful. It is used by Paul in 2 Corinthians
8 about the gifts of the saints, the abundance. You know there
was the famine in Judea and there was the abundance of the gifts
and the supplies that were made. I have another reference, Matthew
12 and verse 34. And this word appears a number
of times in the New Testament, and it tends to have that sort
of overflowing abundance as it falls. So, verse 34, Matthew
12. I've got the wrong chapter. I'm looking
in the wrong place, I'm sorry. He says, O generation of vipers,
how can ye be me who speak good things, for out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh? And this is the context, you
know, of the good tree and the bad tree. can bring forth good
fruit, but the corrupt tree brings forth corrupt fruit. And he is
saying that out of the corrupt heart, the corrupt tree, there
is also an abundance. And we only have to read our
papers and consider what goes on around us to see the abundance
overflowing of evil that takes place in our land today. And just one more in reference
to John chapter 14. And if we look in verse 6, John 14 verse 6, Jesus said unto
him, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Sorry, that's not in the context
of abundance. I want Luke 6.45. Very sorry. We'll get there. Luke chapter
6 and verse 45. A good man, out of the good treasure
of his heart, bringing forth fruit, that which is good. And an evil man, out of the evil
treasure of his heart, bringing forth that which is evil. For
of the abundance of the heart, he is now speaking." So the challenge
to us is when the Word of God says, well, what is at stake
of your heart? What is at stake of my heart?
What is that abundance that we are bringing forth? Are we looking
to God? day by day, that we might have that to bring forth, we
might have that to do, that ability to serve in the cause of truth,
we might have that opportunity to speak of Christ, that opportunity
to help somebody, to do some necessary deed. What is that
motivation? Go back to this verse, we need
to seriously consider what it is to have life abundantly. Are you living that life? Could
you say, I'm not going to ask you to respond, but could you
say, I'm living an abundant Christian life? Because that's what the
Lord wants you to have in Him. To have life, not just be, I'm
a Christian, I'm a believer, I come to church, I'm a member
of the gospel standard and so on, but to have life. and to
have it more abundantly. This is what we have before us. And it is a challenge. I find
it a challenge. I think, well, what is my life?
What is it that I do? What is it that I say? What is
my area of service? And we trust that God will challenge
us on these particular points. What is our expectation? If we
have no life, at all, then we are sadly in a state of death,
spiritual death, and we need to be looking to God that by
his grace and mercy he might reveal Christ to us, and that
he might draw him, that Christ, as Christ said, it is his purpose
to call people to draw them to him. as he is, as we just read,
the way, the truth and the life. No one comes but by him. In Adam we are all in a state
of death. Every single one of us are descended
from Adam. And we are spiritually in a state
of death. That's our natural state. Unless
Christ comes and brings newness of life to us, we do not have
life. And all of this, of course, we
bow the knee to God. This is an amazing gospel. He should make us humble. We should see our Lord for who
He is, King of kings, Lord of lords, the one to whom we bow
the knee, we look to Him to do His great purpose in our life. I want to link this to light
as well, just very briefly, in John 8 and verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." He said,
I'm the light of the world. Why does Jesus say that? This
world is in darkness, spiritually. It's got light when the sun comes
around every day. It's very bright, isn't it? But
spiritually it's in darkness. Men don't know that. I mentioned
this magazine article on origins of life, the men there were so
proud, so full of themselves, they could answer where life
came from, where life is going to go, what were the building
blocks of life, how the genetic code formed, they got every single
answer, but they were in complete darkness, because they did not
know there was a God in heaven. And the things they were saying,
I'm sure others would look at it, Christian scientists, and
we could pick holes in it. I'm not able to do that. Now
when we come to light, to knowledge of Jesus, we don't come into
something that's mean or measly. People think, oh you Christians,
that's What sort of life have you got? What sort of interest
have you got? They see it as a kind of beggarly
thing that we've come to. Well, you come to church every
Sunday. I've had people say it to me.
Whatever do you want to go to church for? But this is what
the Lord says. He says, I am the light of the
world, because this world is in darkness, and he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness. If you want to walk in light,
you've got to walk in Christ. Or you are in darkness and you
need the Lord to tell you. And then you shall have the light
of life. I put those two together. You
have the light of life. Then you have life and you have
light. And light of course in the scriptures is always used
in terms of the wisdom of God, the knowledge of God, the word
of God. We will have what we need. We will be equipped. We will
have that revelation to our souls of how we are to live. We are
not left immigrants. God has given us his word. Every
single one of us can know how it is that we should live and
walk and please God. But we cannot do that in the
flesh. We cannot do that as the natural
man. We need the Good Shepherd to come and reveal himself to
us and that we might know that we are his sheep. Sheep may seem
very ordinary, very mean, everyday things, but we can see in this
context it means everything to our Lord and Saviour. So it's
a challenge to us, the dynamic of the new birth. It's a challenge
to us, the real religion. Have we got real religion? Do
we read such a passage of this? Do we respond to it? Do we look
to our Lord? Can we say, He is my Good Shepherd. He is the door to the sheepfold. He is the one who looks after
me, cares for me. If I wander off, he'll leave
the 99 and come and take me back and protect me in whatever circumstance
I am. He is the door. He's not the
thief. He is the Good Shepherd. And
the Good Shepherd, this is ultimately that expression of Christ. and
of his great love. We read the Good Shepherd gave
his life for the sheep. Christ gave his life. The glorious
eternal Son of God without sin, all perfections, laid down his
life in the most horrible death for sinners like you or I. Can
we respond to that? Can we love him? By the grace
of God, we will. Amen. concluding hymn this morning
is hymn 193. 193, the tune is Violet Cottage. I am, says Christ, your glorious
head. May we attention to the resurrection
of the dead, the life of all that lives, by taking them to
service with new life, new death, and new life, and even in my
new belief, to live, to die in the Lord, in the unity of His
Spirit. I am, say Christ, your glorious
head. May we attention give The resurrection
of the dead. Love, I know, that lives. I faith in Thee, the soul receives. You, like the dead, live for
And he that in my name believes shall live to die no more. The sin of sleeping in His grave
Shall have my voice arrayed And when I once begin to say My work
I'll never forsake O fill thy promise, gracious
Lord, on us this temple here. Hold forth thy spirit with God
in word, and cause the dead to hear. Praise of the love of faith alive,
In those who love thy name, Though sin and Satan daily strive, To
quench their thirst.