John 10:7

Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear 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 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 10:7-10)

When we grasp the purpose of Jesus, our own purpose in this world comes into meaningful focus.

Jesus' Stated Purpose

As we move into 2019, we are beginning the year with a series on the important topics of meaning and purpose. My proposition is this: when we properly understand the purpose of Jesus, it helps us to frame and understand our own purpose in this world more meaningfully.

In the Gospels, Jesus clearly articulates His purpose through a series of statements that begin with the words, "I have come." As you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you find about twelve or thirteen of these statements. Some have become theme verses. The theme verse of Mark is the first one we considered: the Son of Man "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." The theme verse of Luke is found in chapter 19, verse 10, in the story of Zacchaeus: the Son of Man "has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Along the way we have highlighted others. In Luke 9:56, Jesus says He has come to save men's lives. In John 12:46, He has come to be a light to those in darkness. In John 18:37, He has come to bear witness of the truth. In Mark 1:38, He has come to preach the gospel. And in Matthew 5:17, He has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets—for the Law and the prophets all pointed to the One who would bring salvation to the lost.

Christ Purposed to Save Us from Sin

When you survey every one of these statements, you discover that Jesus' purpose was consistently evangelistic. This is point one: Christ purposed to save us from sin and its devastating effects. This is good news. This is gospel.

When we begin to grasp Jesus' evangelistic purpose, it frames our purpose more meaningfully. We begin to recognize that everything that makes up our lives—the place we live, the family we belong to, the job we do, the training we have received—is ultimately to be used for this meaningful purpose: to commit ourselves to the purpose of Christ.

A Purpose Greater Than Ourselves

Much of the writing on meaning and purpose, whether secular or sacred, agrees on this: to have sustaining meaning, we need to be committed to a purpose bigger than ourselves. Many of the most aspirational speeches ever recorded call people to commit to something greater than themselves. I can think of no greater purpose than the purpose of Christ.

Look around our culture and you can identify the purposes people are committed to. Some think they will find meaning in making money—a very American mindset. Some seek fame, now measured in likes and subscribers on social media. Others pursue pleasure, power, or leaving a legacy. But none of these comes close to the sustaining meaning found in the purpose of God in Christ Jesus.

Here is a way to say it: there are some purposes worth living for, but very few worth dying for. Sustaining meaning is found in a purpose you would be willing to die for. This is why so many find deep meaning in becoming a parent—you have something you would gladly die for. But the danger is that children grow up and move out, and people lose their meaning.

Those Who Lived and Died for the Cause

I encourage you to read an old book, Foxe's Book of Christian Martyrs. It outlines the names and stories of people, from the first martyr Stephen in Acts 7 onward, who were so committed to the cause of Christ that they said, "I will not only live for this, I would die for this."

My acquaintance Ed Stetzer, director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton, recently posted a photograph of a journal entry from October 28, 1949, written by Jim Elliot. In 1956, Elliot and four friends were killed for the cause of Christ as missionaries in Ecuador. His journal read: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." That single statement is the essence of a cause bigger than oneself.

When we see our lives as an extension of Christ's purpose, we begin to engage as ambassadors, and everything else takes on greater meaning. The place you live, your job, your training, your gifts, your family, your finances—the way you see all of it changes when you realize you are committed to the cause of Christ. And I would suggest that change makes this life all the better.

Christ Purposed to Give Abundant Life

This brings us to the third purpose we focus on today, in John 10:10: "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." Point two: Christ purposed to give abundant life.

This purpose is set in contrast to the one identified as the thief, who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Aristotle, 2,500 years ago, would have called this Jesus' telos—His end, His aim, His goal. Jesus' telos in coming as bearer of light, bearer of truth, and preacher of the gospel was that we would have life, and have it more abundantly.

John 10:10 reveals two opposing forces at work in the world. The thief is not clearly identified in this verse, but verses one through nine speak of thieves and robbers. Bible teachers disagree on the particulars of who they represent, but they agree that ultimately the thieves and robbers are connected to the one Christians call the devil, the enemy, the adversary. If God gives, this thief steals. If God aims at life, this thief aims at death. If God builds and restores, this one destroys. Wherever you see evil, brokenness, suffering, and malevolence in this world, you are acquainted with the work of the thief. Scripture reveals him as a thief, a murderer, a destroyer—Apollyon—and a liar.

The Subjunctive Mood of Life

In contrast to the murderous, lying, thieving Satan stands the work of Jesus. Underline the words "may have" in verse 10—they appear twice. Both in English and in Greek, they are in the subjunctive mood, which deals with what is possible and desired but not inevitable.

This is important. The thief is at work in the world; Jesus said we will have tribulation, and we all see it—the result of a broken, fallen world under the sway of the wicked one. But Jesus has come that we may have life, that we might experience what is possible and desired. The very fact that Jesus came to give it reveals that God desires we would experience abundance of life.

Where does the brokenness come from? Genesis 3 describes the fall, the result of sin. Paul writes in Romans 5 that through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all humanity. The thieving serpent, a liar, came in to oppose the working of God. And Jesus came to deal with the serpent's work, just as the very first prophecy of the Bible declared.

The First Prophecy and the Crushing of the Serpent

In Genesis 3:15, immediately after the fall, God says to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." The word is literally crush. A woman would give birth to a child, and He would crush the serpent's head; the serpent would injure Him, but He would crush the serpent.

So Jesus says, "I have come that you may have life." All of us, because of sin, are dead in trespasses and sins. How does Jesus make life available? Point three: Christ fulfilled His salvific purpose by destroying the work of the destroyer. That word salvific means leading to salvation. Jesus crushed the head of the serpent, destroying the devil and his work, when on the cross He said, "It is finished." By this He makes life available to those who were dead in trespasses and sins.

In Christ's Purposeful Death We Find Life

Point four: in Christ's purposeful death, we find life. That word purposeful is there deliberately. Jesus' death on the cross was not an accident; it was God's purpose, going all the way back to Genesis 3:15.

Jesus knew what was coming. In Matthew 26:2 He told His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Who delivered Him up? In Acts 2:23, Peter preached that Jesus was "delivered up by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God." Revelation 13:8 calls Him the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Yet Peter continues in the same breath: "you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death." Here we see God's sovereign purpose and man's responsibility together. God the Father purposed Christ's death so that we would live.

In keeping with the subjunctive mood, it might be more precise to say: in Christ's purposeful death we can find life. His death is sufficient for the salvation of all people, but not all find life in it, because not all have put their trust in Christ.

Life More Abundantly

Jesus desires not only that you would have life where you were once dead, but that you would have it "more abundantly." Those two English words are one word in Greek. Paul uses that same word in Ephesians 3:20: God "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." This is not just abundance—it is abundance squared, exponential life, life so much better than you could ever imagine.

So there is a difference between finding eternal life in Jesus where we were once dead, and a life that is greater still—a life that is abundant. If you have trusted in Jesus, you have eternal life. That is good news. But Jesus desires that you would experience exceedingly abundant life too.

Adopting Christ's Purpose

Point five: by adopting Christ's purpose, we find life more abundantly. That is my pitch in this series. If you have never trusted Jesus, do so and find life where you were dead. But maybe you have been a Christian for one year or thirty, and you have hope of eternal life. Jesus desires that you would experience abundant life here and now—and we come into that experience by adopting His purpose.

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who does not desire life more abundantly. But we must define abundant life as Jesus does, not as the world does. Abundant life is not merely a life that is long. The billionaires of Silicon Valley are investing heavily in life-extension research, but though you live four hundred years, you are still living in a broken, fallen world. Abundant life is not merely comfort and ease, nor health, wealth, and prosperity. Plenty of people who followed Christ did not live long or enjoy ease, yet they had abundance of life.

My friend David Guzik writes that abundant life is a life of satisfaction and contentment in Christ. Look around our nation, full of people chasing comfort and prosperity, and what is conspicuously lacking is satisfaction and contentment. Abundant life is sustaining in meaning, peace-filled in the knowledge that it endures into eternity. It enjoys the presence of God in His fullness—"in Him dwells all the fullness of God, and you are complete in Christ" (Colossians 2). It enjoys "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3). As one commentator said, it is a life beyond our wildest dreams.

The Opposition That Comes

Adopting Christ's purpose is the path to abundant life with sustaining meaning—but there is always a "but." Adopting Christ's purpose means bearing witness of the truth to people who trust in lies, and shining light to those who are in darkness. In doing so, we expose the work of the thief. And when you do that, you make waves.

Jesus said in John 3:19, "This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light." People comfort themselves in lies—"there is no God," "there is no judgment," "all paths lead to heaven." When you bring truth to those who find refuge in lies, it shakes things up.

This is why one of Jesus' purpose statements is, "For judgment I have come into this world" (John 9:39). There is an implicit judgment in bearing truth to those who trust lies, and an explicit judgment when a Christian says Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. In our 21st-century culture, which detests anything that divides or is narrow, you will be labeled a bigot. But Jesus came so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind.

This may be part of why Jesus gave His most striking purpose statement, in Matthew 10:34: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother... and a man's enemies will be those of his own household." Adopting the purpose of Christ is the path to meaning, but it is a path with opposition, because there is a force in this world that opposes the working of God.

The First Step Is Prayer

The first step in adopting Christ's evangelistic, light-shining, truth-bearing, lost-seeking, selfless-serving, abundant-life-producing purpose is prayer. Take out the card in your bulletin. At the bottom are three blanks. Think right now of the first three individuals who come to mind whom you would like to see connected to God—people who are lost, blind, who have trusted the cultural lies of our day, and whom you long to see know the abundance of life Jesus gives.

E. M. Bounds once wrote, "Where prayer is focused, power falls." We first did this just before Labor Day in 2017. I wrote down three names: Rick, Kim, and Daniel—my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law. My father-in-law is sitting right here this morning. Within a few months of writing his name down, God began to move powerfully, and within three or four months I was able to sit with him and tell him the gospel. Where prayer is focused, power falls.

So write down three names—maybe you can only think of one, that is fine, but think bigger. There are many people we know who do not know Jesus and are looking for sustaining meaning they will never find in money, pleasure, or power. It is only found in the purpose of Christ. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 9 to "pray the Lord of the harvest that He will send out laborers into His harvest"—and then He sent the very men who were praying. We will pray, and God will use you to reach these friends, family members, and neighbors who need Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Father, we come before You in humility, recognizing that Jesus said no one comes to the Father unless the Spirit draws him. So God, where prayer is focused, power falls. We ask that by Your Spirit You would powerfully move in the lives of these individuals right now, wherever they are. You know where they are. We lift these names into Your hands. We ask that You would move in their lives, and we trust that You have a desire to reach them with the good news of the gospel. Move mightily for Your glory and for the salvation of those who are still lost. You came to seek and to save that which was lost, to give Your life a ransom for many, to bring light to those in darkness and truth to those who have trusted in lies. Would You use us in our testimony and witness to bring this glorious gospel to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, that they would have life. We pray to this purpose, to this end, because it is Your purpose and Your end. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.