A Word about Divine Abundance on the Road to the Cross

Today I want to share a word about divine abundance on the road to the Cross.  This passage reads:

“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, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 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 will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

 Introduction:

One nice thing about the relatively itinerant life of the ministry is the chance to learn new things.  In New Orleans we learned a French word Lagniappe, which means a little something extra. An example of that is the baker’s dozen of thirteen, instead of twelve, doughnuts

In Christ we have a similar experience of something extra.  Not only does He offer us eternal life, and forgiveness of sins, but he also offers an abundant life here on earth.  Let's look at it from John 10.

The Thief of Abundant Life: 

The world is full of thieves. Too many people covet what others have, and they take it in any way that they can. This makes us lock doors, have alarms, and have guards. Theft is common and few people escape being a victim of theft or even worse, robbery.

When I was a pastor in east Alabama, I routinely saw three of the four members of one particular family in church every Sunday. The three which came varied from week to week, but I never saw all four in church at the same time. When I inquired about this unusual pattern of attendance, I was told that they always left someone at home in their isolated farmhouse to keep an eye on it and their tractors and other farm implements.

The most insidious thieves are the ones you don't see. I once had my suitcase stolen during a train journey in the United Kingdom. On most tarins, bags are not checked like in airliners but are carried on and stored on open racks in an alcove. Apparently, the thief simply boarded the train during a stop at a station, walked through the train, grabbed a random bag, mine, off the luggage rack, and then left the train. I was none the wiser until I reached my destination and my suitcase was gone!

In a different way, the embezzler, the tax cheat, and the bribed government official are also unseen thieves as are processes in your body that you can't see but which are dangerous. For example, a woman I know must be careful with the dosage of her thyroid medication, because if the level becomes too elevated it will cause her calcium levels to drop, robbing her of bone mass. Things like this can make you miserable, but you don't know why.

Spiritual thieves are even more dangerous. These scheme to get our loyalty, time, money, and enthusiasm. Once they get them, they waste them and give nothing back.  Some of these thieves include Satan, false religions, secular humanists, and other charlatans. Satan is chief among these; he is jealous of God, and he will do anything he can to hurt him. That usually means hurting God's people, the ones whom God loves.

 The most tragic of all of the thieves is us. We are our own worst enemy. Like cartoonist Walt Kelly once quipped, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!” We steal defeat from the jaws of victory by believing we are smarter than God and that we know better than God does. We chart our own path, which instead of leading us to abundance, it leads us to defeat. In following our own way be become hapless, helpless, and hopeless, and we steal the joy of the Lord from our selves.

 The Door to Abundant Life:

In this parable, Jesus used an analogy to make His point. He compared people to sheep, and the comparison is as apt as it is sobering.

Sheep need a shepherd to survive and to thrive. Sheep are not very smart, and they have poor eyesight. They have few defensive weapons to protect themselves. Sheep don’t have any means to resist an attacker except to lumber away. The phrase “As meek as a lamb” has a solid basis in reality.

In this passage, Jesus calls Himself The Good Shepherd. Like a human shepherd, He leads the sheep, He feeds the sheep, and He protects the sheep. He is entirely responsible for the sheep and the sheep thrive or die at His hand.

One of the most important tasks of a shepherd was to create a sheepfold where the flock could be protected at night and where they could have rest. The 1st Century was a period long before the advent of barbed wire or fencing like we know it today. What shepherds would do would be to create a corral of thorns which would protect the sheep on three sides. But, what about the opening at the front of the sheepfold? What would close that opening and protect the sheep? Quite literally, it was the shepherd.

The shepherd would sleep across the door to the sheepfold, and by his personal sacrifice, by laying down his own body across the door, the sheep would be protected, and they could have a good night's rest.

Without a good shepherd the sheep would be lost.

·       They would not have the protection of the fold.

·       They would be led by the thieves into a dead-end trap.

·       They would be devoured by the wolves not kept at bay.

·       They would starve.

Just like a glowing coal removed from the fire soon cools, a sheep separated from the shepherd would not last long. That’s a reason why the both the “Parable of the Good Shepherd” and the “Parable of the Lost Sheep” were appropriate for 1st Century Palestine.

Jesus remains The Good Shepherd, and his people are the sheep of his pasture. He does for us, today, what he taught his disciples about The Good Shepherd in John chapter 10. He cares for us!

The Extent of the Abundant Life:

The abundant life in Christ comes through several factors. First, abundant life comes through protection:

·       Protection from those who take, but never give back, like the leaders of religious cults and other dangerous, autocratic groups.

·       It comes from protection from those who teach destructive practices, like those who say, if it feels good, do it.

·       It comes from protection from those who treat us with disrespect. Child abuse, spouse abuse, and sexual abuse are rampant in the world.

·       God extends His protection to the least, the last, and the lost.

Abundant life also comes through provision:

·       The Good Shepherd provides a relationship with God which gives meaning to life.

·       The Good Shepherd provides us with the ability to establish good relationships to people which gives us fellowship.

·       The Good Shepherd provides a mission for our lives which gives us fulfillment.

·       The Good Shepherd provides us the Holy Spirit which gives us comfort, encouragement, and the reassuring presence of God in our lives,

The Bible also tells us that abundant life comes through promotion of a Godly lifestyle: God's way is the best way; He will teach us that better way if we let him.

One of my favorite memories of the pastor who baptized me was from a church fellowship that occurred when I was still a child. I was sitting with the pastor and his sons, and we were enjoying the menu which included spaghetti. A slight problem developed when one of the pastor's sons began eating the spaghetti but making a very big mess on the table.

My pastor patiently taught his son how to take his fork and roll the spaghetti up on the fork before he would put it in his mouth, and that way the pasta would not flop around and make a mess by flinging the spaghetti sauce on all who were nearby.  In the same way, God teaches us the best way to live so that we don't make a mess of our lives.

If we learn from The Good Shepherd, we’ll develop an abundant lifestyle, which will be seen by all as we embody the Fruit of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5:22-23.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

An abundant life in Christ is wonderful, but it isn’t free. Who paid that price?

The Good Shepherd, of course.

The Cost of Abundant Life:

God offers us something extra in His abundant life that non-believers don’t have access to. And what’s more, the cost to us is only to accept it from Jesus. That doesn’t mean that there is no cost involved, however.

When a baker gives a customer an extra doughnut, it comes from somewhere. It is not like when a cartoon character pulls a hammer from out of nowhere to smash it into another character’s head. That has become known as hammer space, and it is a wonderful thing. Out of nothing comes a hammer, or a sandwich, or even a steam locomotive. The problem is that hammer space does not exist. In the world that we occupy, you can’t make something out of nothing, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

An example of the expectation of receiving a great blessing at almost no cost is the original projection of the cost of nuclear energy. One early proponent of nuclear power stations predicted that they would be so cheap to operate that electric power would no longer be metered. Obviously, that wonderful vision of free electricity was never realized!

God offers people an abundant life in Christ, but someone must pay for it. Our sin prevents us from paying that price, so God had to pay it for us. That is why one of my favorite Scriptures is Romans 5:6-11,

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The offer of abundant life was costly to God. It cost Him the most precious gift of all. It cost Jesus everything.  Do we dare reject such a costly gift? Are we so arrogant as to think that we know better and reject what God offers us at so great a cost?

Conclusion:

God wants us to have more than just eternal life.  He wants us to enjoy our lives on this world that He created for us. How much does He want us to enjoy His blessings? Malachi 3:10-12 tells us,

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

Jesus, in Luke 6:38, described God’s abundance this way,

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.

This promise of abundant life is readily available. All we must do is seek it through Christ, The Good Shepherd!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt