Would you take your Bibles, please, and open to John chapter 10? I am in some ways I'm not all here this morning. I was cutting the grass yesterday and I have a big tree in the front yard whose limbs are hanging over into the electrical wires and so I decided I needed to get those limbs out. So at the age of 62, I put up this 30-foot extension ladder and I saw it off about seven of them successfully but the one where I kind of was surprised. I finally cut through it and it was laying on the wire and it came back and hit me in the left eye. Now my glasses say my eye but it blew out the left lens and it knocked me off the ladder but I was able to grab hold of the limb and my guardian angel was because he pushed the ladder my way and it caught me when the branch went bent like a boomerang snapped me back so I kind of got down and Jane looked for a couple hours and finally found the lens and later on when I was trying to take the ladder down it fell on me and so Jane lifted the ladder off me so I'm a little bit sore and that's my excuse for not being here this morning. I got hit in the head. The reason why there's some mornings when a preacher gets up to preach and he just is distracted. In fact, Jane sent on the way to church, she said, honey are you listening to me and I said, no. I'm thinking and I honestly believe in God and I believe in the devil and I believe then when a preacher has a very evangelistic message to preach, there's going to be opposition. He's either going to do something stupid and kill himself on a ladder or he's going to get the call to worship wrong and leave out half the kids who are going to be baptized he's going to forget where he is but I think I have an important message today this morning because it's the reason why Jesus came to earth. If I were to ask you why did the Son of God become incarnate, why did he take on human flesh? Why did he become Jesus of Nazareth and what was he wanting to accomplish? He would answer for himself. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. That's why Jesus came. J.C. Ralph says in his commentary, in that statement alone is the great reason for the great cause of Jesus Christ himself. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly and so that begs the question, do you possess this abundant life? Everyone in this room in some way or another is seeking that abundant life. Usually I think through what we call the American dream which is not a totally bad thing. The American dream has built into it two facets, security and freedom. Originally, those coming from Europe, from the old world to the new world, were seeking for both religious liberty as well as political freedom and they were seeking for a life where they were secure to worship God as they saw fit and to pursue their own prosperity. By the time the 19th century, the 1800s rolled around, that American dream had somewhat evolved. It was a little bit less spiritual than it was material and it was the idea that we would be free from old world hierarchies both politically and socially and free to pursue the American dream which was low cost land and a place of your own. By the time we entered the 20th century in this monumental work called the Epic of America, James, Translow, Adam said, the American dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievements. It is a difficult dream for the European upper class to interpret adequately and also to many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of this dream. It is not a dream of merely motor cars and high wages but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest texture of which they are innately capable and to be recognized by others for what they are regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of their birth or position. In many ways it is a noble dream and a lot of people have studied it. What they found, what Sandra Hanson and John Zogby found, was that there are really two dreams in the American dream. There is a majority vision that is primarily spiritual. It is about peace with God and happiness in life and a good family and not necessarily more things. And there is a minority dream that says that hard work and determination should guarantee a person to become all that they want to be and possess all that they rightfully can own. In fact other researchers have found that in the American dream there are four sub-dreams, the dream of abundance that there will always be enough for everybody who deserve it. The dream of democracy of goods that all of us regardless of where we are on the social change will have free access to the same things. The dream of freedom of choice defined as self-determination and finding the dream of novelty of newness, that things will always get better because new things will come along to improve our life. So if you put it all together, the American dream that fills each one of us, it's impossible for us folks to escape this because we are Americans. That American dream includes spiritual joy and peace with God, the opportunity to work in ones calling happily and to make a good living by it, the ownership of a home and hopefully in that home a happy family. A good education for our children to give them upward mobility and free access to the same opportunities and the freedom to choose one's life and lifestyle as one pleases just so long as it doesn't hurt other people. It can be unexpressed or expressed but it's in all of us. And when we think about the abundant life our minds naturally revert to that. Francis Schaefer said in his book, a Christian manifesto back in 1981 that there are really two groups within the silent majority that Richard Nixon used to talk but there's the majority that believe in only two values, personal peace and affluence. And there's a minority of the silent majority that believe in spiritual principles as the pathway into a blessed and abundant life. But all of us have this dream. We don't have no dream in us for the future. That is not true. There may be people in the room and perhaps an increasing number of young people who don't believe that the American dream is as accessible to this generation as it was to previous generations and that may be true. But the fact of the matter is neither I nor Jesus Christ speak to blank slates. In our minds and hearts is this grand vision that somewhere along the line we will find two pillars to hold up our life, security and freedom. Either that will be sought in a spiritual way or in a material way. But whether we're trusting in goods and services and the freedom to be all we want to be or in Jesus Christ and what he would have us to be, those are the two things that all mankind are thinking. It's just not new to us. We're not the only ones thinking about this. I've read that since the wall came down in West Berlin and the collapse of Soviet Union, that people in the country of Russia are now talking about the Russian dream, which is the dream of owning a home and a piece of land, having a happy family and choosing one's course in life to be all that one would like to be without oppression or hindrance from the government. It was true in the days of Martin Luther when the serfs, the slave class, the peasants of Europe were beginning to say, you know, it's not right that royal families and powerful dynasties control their thing. I have a right to security and freedom as well. Led to the great cultural and spiritual revolutions of the Renaissance and the Reformation. And you know what? It had happened in the time of Jesus Christ. As the Roman Empire sunk more and more under the weight of slavery, the slaves who were a fourth of all the population of the Roman Empire began to say, I want security and freedom too. As did the people in Jesus' own community, Jesus would tell them no one conserved to masters for he and the people hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despised the other. You cannot serve God in man. And take care and be on your guard against every form of greed for not even one man has an abundance of his life, consist of his possessions. Do not fear little flock. Your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Jesus spoke into the need of their lives. They wanted the kingdom of God. They wanted a better life. They wanted security and they wanted freedom. And they thought they would find it in man and money just like we Americans do. And Jesus said, no, not so. But your father has chosen gladly to give you these things. Jesus would often speak about life in the gospel of John. I came that may have life. And have it abundantly. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except to me. And this is eternal life that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ who you have sent. The life which is eternal life is the abundant life. And apparently according to Jesus Christ, it can only be found in him in no other place. Here's another thing we need to realize this morning that there are people in your lives who are leading you in one way or another into a version of this abundant life. No one in this room does not have some view of what the good life is. And no one in this room is without some voice encouraging them and calling them and pushing them towards that view of the good and abundant life. We all have shepherds leading us somewhere towards some vision that has captured our being. So Jesus Christ speaks to that this morning. This abundant life he says can be had by all. Everybody can have this if they come to Christ. But listen carefully. This abundant life will not be the same for every person. The way into the abundant life is common to all. But the way that God shapes this abundant life for you and for your loved ones is different. From this one fountain of grace and life in Jesus Christ, there flow out a myriad of myriad of different streams where each person's abundant life looks different from the one beside them. So there is no American version of this. There is no Russian dream of this. There is no standard packaging of the abundant life. It has very much to do with you as a person. You and Jesus Christ and a vital and saving relationship. But there are three things Jesus said you must do to link into him and to plug into this abundant life. And here's the first one. You must know and respond to the voice of the good shepherd. Chapter 10 verse 1. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way. That man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he is brought out all his own, he goes before them. The sheep follow him for they know his voice. The stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers. Now this figure of speech Jesus used with them. They did not understand what he was saying to them. Jesus says in order to find this abundant life, you have to know the voice of God speaking to you through Jesus Christ. Now Jesus resorts to a common motif, a common picture, a common metaphor of God and his people, a shepherd in a sheep. God is often called a shepherd by the poets and the prophets of the old testament. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Begins the most famous song. Psalm 80 says, give ear O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. Isaiah says, he will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young. God is pictured as ancient kings were. That was one of the favorite titles of an ancient king. He called himself the shepherd of his people and God says, I am the shepherd of my people. I know them and I carry them and I govern and I guide and I guard them on their way with me. We are, as the Psalmist says, on a dangerous journey passing through the valley of the shadow of death, but before us goes one who is our God and Savior and the good shepherd. That's how he identifies himself in this passage. And the Old Testament often talked about false shepherds. We don't have time this morning and you don't really need to, but you can look at Ezekiel chapter 37 or Isaiah chapter 56 or Jeremiah chapter 23 or Zechariah chapter 11 and find how God rebukes all these false shepherds because they care mainly for themselves and not for the sheep and in each of those passages he said, but I myself will shepherd my people and I will tend to my nursing lambs. God is pictured as a shepherd. So then in this passage when Jesus did before these Jewish people and said, I am the good shepherd, they knew exactly what reference he was making. He was the good shepherd, the prophets and the poets that talked about, who's opposed to the false shepherds would lead them on their way to an abundant life with God. In fact, he's explicit about this. He says in verse 1, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. He's not a shepherd. He's a thief and a robber. Why? Because he enters into spiritual leadership by another way. He is not cold of God to the way of self-sacrifice, of self-giving, of loving other people more than himself. He's in it for himself and he does not treat the sheep as he should. One commentator said, the world and its history is full of the records of those who have aspired to and grabbed hold of rule. For the most part, they have been brigands who destroyed the flock, not shepherds who tended and nourished it. These self-appointed messiahs, these saviors, these benefactors have one thing in common. They do not follow the way of Jesus Christ, which is we shall learn in this passage, the way of total self-gaming. They climb up by some other way and it's not surprising, therefore, that among most people in the world, the word leadership has become synonymous with abuse and oppression, the opposite of what gives us an abundant life. Now why is Jesus making this point? Because of what happened in the previous chapter. Here's one of his little lambs, one of his little sheep who's blind. Jesus heals him. Rather than rejoice over that, the shepherds of Israel, the priest and rabbis and leaders of the Jewish people, they became angry. They accused that boy of being a liar, of pretending to be blind. They questioned his parents as if they were fake. They said to him, you were born and sinned and you will lecture us about Jesus Christ, and then they excommunicated him from the flock. But the very next verse says, when Jesus heard that they had cast him out, he went and found him. Jesus is contrasting his treatment of this man-born blind with the scribes and Pharisees and priests of the Jewish leadership. He says, how I treat my sheep will prove that I am a shepherd. Not a thief, or a robber. And he says, what's the difference between a thief and a robber? Well, we're really folks in Greek. Those two words really mean a thief or a terrorist. The second word means insurgent, or violent person. It's used a barabas at the trial of Christ. I am not a violent person out to rob the sheep. I am the good shepherd. And when people encounter me, they can tell me from other leaders. I want you to notice two things about this first paragraph. First is Jesus' style of leadership. He says that he comes in by the front door of God's appointment. He is the Christos, the anointed one. He was called by God to save and shepherd the sheep. He shepherds his sheep with love. He knows them by name and leads them. He does not drive them. He goes before them. He calls them. He does not scold them. There's a different way in which Jesus Christ relates to us than even the best pastor in our best churches can relate to people. We have a sinless man who is full of love and compassion and grace. And his view of you is that you are a sheep without a shepherd who needs to be led, not driven or pushed, not controlled and manipulated, but led into a pastor where there is abundant grace and abundant life. And that has to do with his voice. He calls them rather than yells at them. He speaks to them kindly, not with ridicule or anger or pejorative statements. And he is able to call them by name. You are one of the bans of the pastor, especially a large pastor, is that you love people and you don't know all their names. Jesus Christ knows every one of your names, all the names of your children and your children yet to be and your grandchildren who are not yet here. And each one of them is precious in his sight. I want you to notice something else in this passage. That little man who was blind listened to me. Before he saw Jesus, he heard his voice. Before he ever looked upon Jesus' face or knew Jesus' name, he heard Jesus tell him to go and wash in the pool of salome and he would see. And he believed the voice of Jesus Christ. And he was saved both spiritually and physically that day. See, that is the beginning of finding the abundant life. You must respond to the voice of Jesus Christ in the Bible. The author of Hebrews begins his great epistle by saying, God in many portions and in many ways has spoken to us through the prophets and the beast. But in these last days, he has spoken through his son. Jesus Christ is speaking to the world through his Bible. When you read the Bible, it is the voice of Jesus Christ that is calling your mind and your heart, your life to trust him, to obey him, to follow him. Is that not the voice of a shepherd? Isn't that what Jesus says all the time? Jesus is calling you to conversion, to faith, to salvation, is simply two words. Follow me. Come with me. Trust me to lead you to where the abundant life is. If you are a person and you don't like the Bible and you never read it, and when you do, it doesn't make any sense to you. If it irritates you, causes you to argue with it, or to contradict it. If you're bored with it, you have serious reason to ask yourself, if you belong to the flock of Jesus Christ, or at least explain why it is that you do not know, nor like the voice of your shepherd. I had a great illustration of this in my early years of being married to Jane. Her dad, Boomer Burton, was a cattle farmer. And if you think that sheep are skittish, be around cattle for a while. They're even more frightened by human beings. And they may be less intelligent than sheep. But one day we were out in this field, we were surrounded by cattle, and there was a couple bulls out there. And so, Boomer said, let's get out of the truck. I said, that's not getting out of this truck. He said, I'm not getting out. He said, trust me. So we got out of the truck, and as soon as I stepped out of the truck, I said, because I was nervous, hey, they just ran. He got out in the middle of the field, and he cupped his hands. He went just like this. And they all came. They came to him so close that he was touching them on the heads. They were nustling up against him, rubbing him, like cats do. I got in the truck, I said, boom, this is amazing. How come when I said, hi, they ran, when you made that weird sound, they came. He said because they know my sound. Now listen to what he said. And he said, unlike other cattle farmers, I never strike or kick or curse them. Whenever I come to see them, I have something in my hands for them. And I know them by name. I said, you have a name? For 400, he said, I know them all. I said, they all look the same to me. He said, that's why they don't come to you. Isn't that amazing? He led them with kindness and familiarity and sensitivity. And these stupid bovine came to him. He was a good shepherd. Jesus said, I am a good shepherd. And when I call my sheep, no, my voice, the voice of a stranger, they simply will not respond to, but they come to me. That's the beginning. Step one of the abundant life. You must respond to the voice of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Here's a second. You must enter in and out through the door of the good shepherd. Verse seven, excuse me. So Jesus, again, said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Now, this is the third and fourth I am statement of Jesus Christ. You earlier said, I'm the bread of life. I'm the lion world. Here, he says two things back to back. I am the door of the sheep and I am the good shepherd. He offers to them two things in those statements. Security and freedom. The security of the sheepfold, the freedom of the pasture. He says, if they come in and out through me, they will be saved and will go out and find pasture. There is security. They will be saved. There is freedom. They will find pasture. They'll be able to go out in the open spaces under the security of my leadership in grays and frolic and drink from the Brooks and in joy nature because I give them security and freedom. Isn't it interesting that the American dream offers the same thing. Security in homes and in wealth and in education and the freedom to do whatever we please but they're false security and they're and they're false freedoms. In fact, they're offered to us by those who are thieves and robbers and therefore we always have to trade one for the other. Have you ever noticed that for example with the government or with an employer? If he offers you more freedom, it comes at the price of security. If he offers you more security, it comes at the price of freedom. He cannot and will never be able to deliver both. Total freedom and total security but Jesus Christ said, I can. I can if people enter in and come out through me the door to eternal life. I am the way the door and the truth and the life, this abundant life. Everyone who comes through me will go to the Father and no one can go to the Father except through me. Jesus is not a liberator who leads to bondage. He's not someone who promises you things and later you find out that you had to trade off some liberty or some security to get those things. Jesus offers you the best of both worlds because he offers you himself. Folks, this is important for us to meditate on a minute because what Jesus Christ is saying is that the only way to have the abundant life is first to have me. I am the door. He didn't say there was a theology that was the door or there was a formula that was door. He doesn't even say the gospel is the door. He said, I am the door. I am. It's through me. Now the door is narrow. That's what he'd said in Matthew. Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter it are many for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and few are those who find it. He also would say later on that it was easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into heaven. No why? Ah, here's why. The more you and I seek happiness, fulfillment, freedom, security in things, the more we pile on ourselves. There will come a point when we encounter the living Christ and he says as he did to the rich man ruler, if you want the abundant life you're going to have to lay down all that junk to squeeze through this narrow gate no wider than the width of an average man's shoulders. You must come to God through me and leave all your stuff on the other side. The problem is my friends those things that we get from the thieves and robbers who are promising us the good life have become a power over us. We are in bondage to them and push comes to shove. Many people weigh those things and look at Jesus Christ and they choose the stuff rather than the shepherd because that's how they've been trained. I'm going to make a statement that this is the kind of stuff that causes people to leave the church, but I'm not saying it to be mean. I'm saying it for the sake of your souls. The folks as long as we continue to dote on our children the way we do to make their lead in the school play the highlight of our year, to push them into sports and cheer leading because we never got to be an athlete or a cheerleader and we're living our life through them to act like we're fixated on their grades to live and die with their high school and adolescent ups and downs. To make them the center of the world the more we insulate them from Jesus Christ because someday Jesus Christ will step in front of that young lady, that young man, and he'll say follow me and if we've molded a Jesus that fits into their lifestyle then the real Jesus will not be attractive enough and they'll say to Jesus no thank you I have a good life without you which is by the way what they're doing in universities and colleges by the hundreds of thousands these children of the church. I don't say that to offend you some man asked me after the Sunday school lesson on the medieval church and revival movements he said you know there was a common theme and all those great revival leaders against worldliness and materialism and he said is that a problem today and I said brother I think that's the number one problem facing the church the number one problem we're trying so hard out of love for our children to insulate them from anything that might be painful we don't want to deprive them anything we want to give them all that they want but folks in doing that we pile so much on their backs that they think they have to have to be happy that when Jesus says put it down and follow me they can't and they won't and it costs them their precious young soul so there's a way to enter in to this abundant life and that's to embrace Jesus plus nothing here's the third step which is the obvious one and that is to lay hold of the sacrifice of the good shepherd verse 11 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for sheep he was a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep I am the good shepherd I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep now I have other sheep that are not of this fold I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock one shepherd for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again no one takes it from me but I lay it down on my own accord I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again this charge I have received from my father Jesus said here is the mark of the good shepherd I sacrifice myself for the sheep when the wolves come to the flock I step between the wolves in the flock and I am willing to be torn to shred by the wolves to save the very last sheep I know by name I give my life and I do so willingly God did not make me do this people did not convince me of this I have been chained into this I want to do it and I have the authority to lay down my life to pay for the sins of all my sheep to take care of all of their guilt before God it wipe it out on one magnificent afternoon and then I have authority to take my life up and with my resurrected life to raise my sheep into abundant life and give them eternal life where they will share in glory with me I have the power to do this because my father gave me this mission he said the son of man will come to seek and to save that which is lost and so Jesus Christ has he's paid the ultimate price for our warning all of us like sheep have gone astray each one of us has turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him here is the here is the abundant life it's a cruciform life it's entering into a life with God through the cross of Jesus Christ as grabbing hold of Jesus Christ personally as a Lord and Savior as he opens a life with God for you it's listening to his voice every step of the way this is the way walking in it follow me that's the abundant life and I'm not preaching this my friends off with some pages of a commentary or out of some theology book John 1010 is the most important verse in the Bible to me as a person when I was a little boy around the age of eight or nine I determined that I wanted to become a Catholic priest for one reason because I was taught that the Catholic priest was the closest to God and had the most abundant life and I wanted that so at the age of 11 I joined something called the future priest club of the society of the divine word and I made a retreat to this monastery up in Perry's burger high by Toledo when I was 14 years old in 1960 there I went to live there for four years four years in a monastery they were the most miserable years of my life every years of deep loneliness of great insecurity and fear and longings that were not fulfilled and then one Wednesday afternoon in our monastery rhythm we went to school on Saturdays we took off on Wednesdays I was in the chapel I was despondent and so I reached into the purac and I grabbed this little New Testament I still have it after 45 years and I turned to the gospel of John I began to read there's only one verse in this whole New Testament underlying and here it is I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly I closed this little book and I said father I don't have this abundant life I have religion but I don't know you or your son and I'm not going to find you here I left that chapel I went immediately to the office of father David slattery the dean of students and I said I'm out of here I don't know why
and that God-fearing man said Michael everybody must find Jesus Christ in their own way and perhaps the priesthood is not for you and I knelt down his office and he laid his hands on me and prayed for me that God would show me this abundant life and do time for 10 years from 1966 to 1976 I explored every way to find personal peace a fluent security freedom a happy life outside of Jesus Christ they all led to a very disillusioned and disappointing dead end everyone of them and then almost 10 years to the day in August of 1976 August 14th the Saturday evening around 7 or 8 o'clock at night the shepherd came looking for me by name and found me in Memphis Tennessee he saved me that night he gave me the abundant life and the next morning August 15th at 12 noon I went forward and confessed that I believed in Jesus Christ that I belonged to him and I have had for a long time now this abundant life it was interesting it was while in that monastery in this little New Testament that I first heard the voice of a shepherd who called me to follow him I strayed and fought and tried many other ways to avoid that for a decade but 10 years later an answer to my heart yawning and the prayer of David's lottery the good shepherd found me by name and he saved me and gave me this wonderful life I want to give you that opportunity this morning I won't give you an alter call you say pastor are you a Baptist I may become one because I think there's something significant about publicly professing Christ drawing the line in the sand and saying you know I want this life I want to follow Jesus Christ I've heard his voice this morning and I want to open that door of Christ into a life with God I want him to make me in the kind of person he wants me to be and I want him to give me the freedom of grace some of you need this because you don't know Jesus Christ and you're not a Christian and you can become one this morning you can be saved this morning you can enter into abundant life and others of you you do know Jesus Christ but it's been a long time since you felt the personal call of his savior or the embrace of his arms he's been an idea of theology a system for you for a long time in his time for you to experience personal renewal by claiming the one verse that God will always honor the reason he came to earth in his son I came that they might have life and have it abundantly the elders will be down here for those of you who need someone to talk to and pray with I'm going to ask John to come lead us into him as I lead us in prayer father I want to thank you that you chose to save me before the world even began you knew me by name and you counted me as one of your own and in time in space in my own experience I heard the voice of Jesus Christ in your Bible because your Holy Spirit opened my mind and my heart to understand that Jesus was calling me you pursued me a good shepherd chasing a loft sheep for a decade all over the United States and then you cornered me one night in an apartment and you came and dealt with me in a tender and personal way and gave me what only you can give a life with God I love you for this and I thank you for this and I want this for each person in this room but not as much as you wanted for them and I ask you now to move by your Holy Spirit in their hearts and lives that they might if it is your will to do so receive you this day confess you as a shepherd affiliate and openly attach themselves to your flock and begin the walk that leads to more and more grace greater security and greater freedom this freedom of the gospel we find in Jesus Christ and we ask you for this favor for our sake and for his as we pray this in Jesus name amen