John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

Everyone is chasing a rich and satisfying life—but Jesus came to give the one connection that finally satisfies.

The Universal Search for a Satisfying Life

The New Living Translation records Jesus saying, "My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." I'm not sure I know anyone who isn't seeking a rich and satisfying life, and I'd guess you don't either. Even one of our founding documents speaks of the pursuit of happiness, which is in many ways the pursuit of a rich and satisfying life.

If you interviewed a hundred people about what makes a rich and satisfying life, you'd find some common threads but many different answers. Some think richness and satisfaction are found in wealth. Others pursue power—political, business, or otherwise. Many believe it lies in fame, status, or celebrity. Others look to intellectual pursuits, business achievements, or pleasurable experiences. Whatever it is, just about everybody is seeking richness and satisfaction in some way.

One frightening thing is that many people we look up to—those who reached wealth, achievement, or fame—do not appear to be satisfied. They themselves tell us in interviews that when they finally got the medal, the promotion, the achievement, it wasn't satisfying. Many slide into deep despair and depression because what they thought would bring joy didn't. But Jesus says, "I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly"—richly, with satisfaction.

Jesus Came for a Purpose

This is one of the purpose statements of Jesus in His coming. We just celebrated His advent at Christmas, and it's important to understand that this is not merely a birth—it is His coming. He existed before time began. John chapter one speaks of Him existing in the beginning, and then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is the celebration of Jesus stepping from one reality into this reality. It is the coming into the world of one who already existed, and He says, "I came to this world to give life and to give it more abundantly."

The gospels give us several purpose statements for Jesus's coming. Matthew 5:17 says He came to fulfill the law. Mark 1:38 says He came to preach. Luke 19:10 says He came to seek and to save that which is lost. Mark 10:45 says He came to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. And here in John 10, He came that they might have life and have it more abundantly. So point number one: Jesus came to the world for a purpose. That's not revolutionary, but it's important—there's a reason for which He came, and abundance, richness, and satisfaction are part of that reason.

Solomon's Experiment in Ecclesiastes

Three thousand years ago, a man set out to find abundance and satisfaction in this world. He conducted something of a scientific experiment and recorded his findings in a book called Ecclesiastes. It's only twelve chapters—you could read it in about twenty or thirty minutes—and I highly recommend it. It was written by Solomon, king of Israel, who set out to determine where satisfaction is found.

In chapter one, Solomon thinks he'll find satisfaction in intellectual pursuit and wisdom. His first finding, at the end of the chapter: it is all meaningless, like chasing the wind. He sought satisfaction in wisdom and found it empty.

His second experiment begins in chapter two. "Come on, let's try pleasure. Let's look for the good things in life. But I found this too was meaningless." He decided to set himself with all his wealth, privilege, and power to find satisfaction in pleasure, denying himself nothing—but found it empty. Then he tried cheering himself with wine; that didn't work either. He built huge homes, owned large herds and flocks, collected silver and gold, and had everything a man could desire, denying himself no pleasure.

His conclusion is written in Ecclesiastes 2:11: "But as I looked at everything that I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless, like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere." Sound familiar? This is three thousand years ago. The same man wrote that there's nothing new under the sun, and nothing has changed. People still seek satisfaction in intellect, business, and wealth—and still come up dry.

Look at verse 17: "So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless, like chasing the wind." He hated his hard work because he had to leave it to others who might be foolish. And in verse 20, "I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world."

The World Cannot Ultimately Satisfy

Point number two: the world and all that is in it does not ultimately satisfy. That doesn't mean there are no joyful experiences or great highs in this life, but every one of them is temporary. They do not ultimately satisfy.

Fast forward three thousand years from Solomon to a hit song that's still a hit after decades: "I Can't Get No Satisfaction… and I try and I try and I try." A couple of decades later comes another: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Go through the hit songs of the day and you'll find the same theme—this world and all that is in it does not ultimately satisfy. But Jesus came to give life, richness, and satisfaction.

A World Not as God Intended

Maybe you're thinking: if Christianity teaches that God created the world, why did He create a world that does not satisfy, with so much brokenness and failure? That's a great question. I suggest to you this world is not as God originally intended it.

Some of you set out this past Sunday to read through the Bible in a year. I champion that—stick with it. You'll hit rough patches in Exodus, Leviticus, and Chronicles, but plod through. And if you started at the very beginning in Genesis, you know that God did not create this world this way.

Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." One of the core beliefs of the Christian faith is that God spoke all things into existence out of nothing. As you read through Genesis one, at the end of each day of creation He looks at what He made and says, "It is good"—seven times in the opening chapter. The seventh time, in Genesis 1:31: "And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." Not just good—very good.

Created for Communion and Community

At the center of God's good creation, the final act on the sixth day, God made man in His image—male and female. That means in some way we are like God. The triune God revealed in Genesis—the Father, the Son, the living Word, and the Spirit of God hovering over the waters—created us in His image, to be like Him and connected to Him in relationship. At the beginning, when everything was good, we were united to God in an unbroken connection.

Then in Genesis 2:18 comes the first negative: "It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him." That doesn't mean it was evil—just incomplete. God brought the animals to Adam to name, and Adam realized something was missing; there was no helper comparable to him. So God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and made woman from him, and the two were united as one.

Wanting this goodness to continue, God gave humanity its first command in Genesis 1:28: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion." He was saying, "I created you to be in unbroken relationship with Me and with one another, and I want that to continue." Point number three: we were made to live in communion with God and community with one another. We were made for connection.

Sin Destroyed Everything

But clearly something is amiss thousands of years later, because that communion is lost. Genesis chapter three tells us why. The serpent, more cunning than any beast of the field, came to Eve and asked, "Has God indeed said you shall not eat of all the trees in the garden?" There was one tree God had forbidden, warning that the day they ate of it they would surely die. The serpent said, "You shall not surely die."

There we have the temptation and the fall. The thief—come to steal, kill, and destroy—did exactly that. Man rebelled against the command of God, and that rebellion is called sin. From that sin came brokenness. God, who had been in unbroken connection with man, steps into the garden in the cool of the day, and His words are, "Adam, where are you?" There is now a brokenness in that communion.

There was also a brokenness between man and man. At the end of Genesis two, both were naked and unashamed. Immediately after they sinned, they knew they were naked and made coverings for themselves. Shame entered, and division came. Point number four: sin destroyed everything. The goodness of creation was gone, the connection between God and man was broken, and the oneness God intended was devastated.

Paul writes in Romans 5: "Therefore, as through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all humanity." All 7.4 billion people on this planet are born into the brokenness, and we see it every day.

The Brokenness We Cannot Escape

Here in Southern California we try to barrier ourselves off from the brokenness, and for a time we can. But eventually we experience it; the brokenness is everywhere. Sometimes it affects us at a distance—when we see the suffering in Syria, the terrorist attack in Istanbul, or what happened at the Fort Lauderdale Airport on Friday. Sometimes it comes closer—two young children dying in a fire here in Escondido last week. And sometimes it strikes our own family, when a loved one dies or is diagnosed with cancer.

Yet within every one of us there is a residual desire for the way it was, a longing for life before the fall. So we seek satisfaction in this world—in intellect, wealth, pleasure—and everyone on this planet is seeking it in some form. Follow the worldviews of man through history and you can see this longing, all the way down to the nihilism of our day, where there is no meaning, so people try to create meaning for themselves. And they find no satisfaction under the sun.

Jesus Came to Restore the Broken Connection

But Jesus said, "I have come. I stepped into this world from another world." He is not of this world, but He came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. That is good news—that's what we call gospel. Point number five: Jesus came to restore the broken connection. He came to bring life.

That's what we as a church are all about—this good news of Jesus restoring the broken connection, bringing life more abundantly, seeking and saving the lost, giving His life a ransom for many. Our mission, as it says at the bottom of your bulletin, is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. We begin each year here. Today we talk about life in connection with God; next week, life in connection with one another; the week after, life in connection with the world. And notice: this life comes through Jesus.

Paul continues in Romans 5:17: "For if by one man's offense death reigned through Adam, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ." Adam brought sin and death; Jesus, through His life, brings righteousness. "As through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life." By one man's disobedience many were made sinners; by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.

Brought Near by the Blood of Christ

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:13: "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." He died on the cross, ransoming us from sin and death to bring us back. "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one," breaking down the middle wall of separation, creating in Himself one new man from the two, reconciling them both to God in one body through the cross. He reconciles us back to God through what He did on the cross.

There's not a person alive who doesn't desire, at the deepest level, the satisfaction that comes only from communion with God and community with one another in Jesus Christ. Everyone you know—at work, school, in your family, in your neighborhood—even if they don't know God, has this desire that this is not all there is.

A Culture Longing for Something More

We're living in a post-Christian society. According to Pew Research, 23% of Americans today—almost a quarter of our population—are unaffiliated with any religious group. Yet even among them there is a desire for something more, and we see it in our culture in interesting ways.

Some of the top shows on Netflix right now key in on this. Stranger Things—what is that about? This world is not all there is; there's something behind the reality we live in. The OA—again, this is not the only reality; there's something behind this, and the only way to reach it is through near-death experiences. Pop culture is saying: there's something more, this is illusory, this is not all there is.

This past June at the Code Conference, Elon Musk—founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, founder of PayPal, an avowed atheist—was asked whether we might be living in a simulation, one big computer game. He said, "I've thought a lot about that, and I think it might be true." Forty years ago we had Pong—two rectangles and a square. Now we have photorealistic games nearing a point indistinguishable from reality. Musk reasoned that because we've come so far so fast, it's not unthinkable that this is actually a simulation created by some higher race or greater intelligence, and he put the probability at billions to one.

For millennials and those before them, one of the predominant worldviews is that this is not all there is—remember The Matrix? Many Christians wonder what to do about that. I say: you're closer to reality than you think, because this is not all there is. There is a world more real and more tangible than this one. We once had a connection to that world, but it was broken—and we all know it's broken, and we all desire it to be made again.

Let me tell you something: the Creator of this "simulation" stepped into this world to reconnect us back to Himself. Two thousand years ago the man Jesus Christ came to give life, and that more abundantly. There is a higher intellect who created us and placed us here, and He desires that we be connected with Him. Jesus came to make that connection. Life in connection with God, one another, and the world comes through Him. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You so much that You loved us to the point that You sent Your Son to step down into this world to deal with the problem of sin that was keeping us from coming to You, and to make the way open for us to return to You again. Thank You, God, that Jesus demonstrated that love—that while we were still sinners, You died for us, making it possible that we could be brought back into connection with You.

I pray, God, that we who have been joined to You would bring that good news to those in our world who are experiencing the brokenness and desiring so much more than this world offers. Give us the boldness to share the good news as we interact with people this week. Help us to share Your love and Your grace.

Perhaps you have been seeking satisfaction and richness in the things of this world—through intellect, wealth, pleasure, or some other thing—and you realize it's not there. You will never find it in this world. It only comes from a relationship with God and all the benefits that flow from it. If you'd like to receive God's forgiveness and grace and be reconciled back to God today, simply receive the free gift He offers.

Father, I pray for Your church, and I ask that You would empower us by Your Spirit to be bold witnesses, for there is a growing sense in our nation that this is not all there is and a desire for so much more. God, give us the passion to share the good news with them. We pray this in Jesus' name, and all those who agree said, Amen.