God's Abundant Blessing Now and Forever // An Abundant Life in Jesus, Part 4

Christianityworks Official Podcast

Many people are prepared to accept that God exists, even that He has the ability to bless us – or at least bless other people. But when they look at their own lives, well the reality doesn’t appear to match up with the promise. What’s going on here?

The Blessing of Here and Now

I sometimes think that Jesus would have benefited from the services of a good Public Relations consultant - you know, a spin doctor to dress up some of the difficult messages He had to get across. Take this one for instance: Matthew chapter 16, verses 24 and 25:

Jesus told His disciples, “If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake, will find it.”

I mean, that picture of a cross is a brutal one. It’s a picture of being nailed to a cross and dying a gruesome death.

If any want to become my disciples then let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.

I mean, "Give me a break! Who wants to follow someone like that? I want to be healthy, wealthy and wise. I want to live on easy street! Take up my cross?? You have to be kidding me." Yes, Jesus could have used the services of a good P.R. consultant to get some spin on His message – to make it more palatable. No wonder it says in John’s Gospel that many turned away from Him. Have a listen: John chapter 6, beginning at verse 63:

It is the spirit that gives life; and the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that would not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one comes to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

Yep, Jesus definitely needed a spin doctor. And you know something? I so often hear people speaking about Jesus – whether it’s a preacher preaching or a person telling me what Jesus is doing in their lives and what I hear is not about this gritty, authentic Jesus who was prepared to lose followers, in a world where the measure of a Rabbi’s success – a key performance indicator, if you will – was the number of followers or disciples he had.

But Jesus was prepared to lose followers because He wouldn’t play by the world’s rules. He never let them squeeze Him into their mould. You know, they were looking for a Messiah; a King like David; a powerful warrior to raise up an army and drive the Romans out of this, their Promised Land.

That’s what Israel was believing for, when Jesus came on the scene. After He miraculously fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, the crowds wanted to grab Him and appoint Him King. Can you imagine that? He has been wandering around out there in the fields, speaking to and wooing the crowds, performing some amazing miracles, here he is – this obscure carpenter from Nazareth … Nazareth of all places; “Does anything good come from there?” And finally, Jesus hits the big time! He is pulling some serious crowds! Finally, they recognise how good He really is and they want to make Him King. Woo hoo!! So what does Jesus do? John chapter 6, verse 15:

When Jesus realised they were about to come and take him by force to make him King, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

He withdraws! "Jesus … Jesus, what’s the matter with You? You’ve made it – success at last. What are You doing?" He didn’t need just a spin doctor; He needed a couple of good strategic planning consultants, as well. And He continued His journey … His inexorable journey to that ugly, brutal cross, where He was nailed and left to suffocate, hanging by the nails through His hands and His feet. He tells us why He did it. He tells us in this outrageous promise, why He did that. Listen again with me – John chapter 10. Verse 10:

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

He did this contrary to the thief, this thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy. He did it that we may have life … real life and have it abundantly. Literally, it says in the original Greek language that sits aback of our English translation – "super-abundantly".

Now, He wasn’t talking here just about eternal life. Sure, He came that we could have eternal life and that’s something we are going to be looking at later, but He is talking about our lives here and now. And in this passage He is painting a stark contrast between the imposter and the truth. Let’s listen to a bit more of what He has to say. John chapter 10, beginning at verse 1:

Truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go 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. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care 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.

Do you see the contrasts in this passage: the real shepherd and the impostor; the true shepherd and the stranger; the good shepherd and the hired hand; Jesus and the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy? One sharp contrast after another. The real thing is Jesus and the impostor is the devil – the thin hollow promises of this world. And it’s only the True Shepherd who brings abundant life and we know Him because He’s the One who is prepared to lay down His life for the sheep.

So we can bow down to the impostor, just as the devil said to Jesus when he dangled the kingdoms of this world under Jesus nose. Luke chapter 4, verses 6 and 7:

To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then,” he said to Jesus, “will worship me, it will all be yours.

We can bow down to that, but the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Or we can obtain this abundant life by living out this truth:

Jesus answered therefore, “It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.

That’s where the abundant life, that Jesus came to bring us, is to be found. The choice, however, the choice is ours and it’s a choice that has not just eternal consequences – it has those for sure and we are about to look at them after the break – but it has here and now consequences as well. Jesus was talking about a shepherd and his flock, about the protection and the peace and the safety that we can have in His flock, here and now.

Man, people are letting the devil plunder their lives, rob them of life, rob them of abundance, when all along, life in all its abundance is available here and now, through Jesus. And I ask myself, "Why would you do that? Why would you want to waste your life, dancing with the devil, into a Christ-less eternity, suffering all the pain of that deceptive dance along the way, when Jesus came to give us life and to give it to us in all its abundance? I mean, why would you want to do that?"

The Blessing of Then and There

Well, we had a look earlier at the blessing that God wants us to have, here and now. But the days of our lives tick by very quickly, don’t they? You wake up and it’s Monday morning and the whole week is ahead and before we know it, it’s Friday again, heading into another weekend. And whether you just prayed that prayer with me during the break, or whether giving your life to Jesus is something you did years ago, or whether it’s something you still haven’t done yet, our time here on this earth is running out with every tick of the clock.

It seems to me that the weeks are slipping by ever more quickly. You blink and they’re gone and before you know it, another year is gone and we are into the New Year, and pretty much, we’ll blink and this one will be gone too. It’s like a video of a merry-go-round and someone speeds it up and before you know it that little merry-go-round is spinning around at a million miles an hour, and one day "BANG" with little or no warning – it stops! This little merry-go-round, called my "life" and your "life" stops – dead!

Life on this earth will come to an end. I was listening to an interview on the radio the other day of a woman who woke up next to her husband because the radio alarm was going off in the morning and he hadn’t reached over to turn it off. Well, there was a reason for that – he died of a heart attack in the bed next to her in the middle of the night.

It makes you squirm because a lot of cultures, particular Western cultures, we are not so good at talking about death and coping with death, even though death is very much part of life, here on this earth. "What’s the matter with Berni today," you might be thinking to yourself – "why is he going so morose on us?" Not really.

Over the last few weeks we have been talking about the promise that Jesus made to give us an abundant life. John chapter 10, verse 10:

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

And when you look at it, that promise is a life and death promise, isn’t it? The thief; the enemy; the devil comes only to steal and kill and destroy … to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. See the contrast? Death and life! It’s a contrast between an abundant life that Jesus wants to give us and the death the devil is hell-bent on delivering at our doorstep. Life and death.

We live our lives believing that they will go on forever – that we’ll never get sick and we’ll never die. Of course, the facts are, that unless Jesus returns first, you and I are going to die, there’s no denying that. But denying it is absolutely what we do, day to day. We sweep death under the carpet as though it’s never going to happen to us – always knowing deep inside that it will, but trying to ignore that inconvenient truth.

Life is for living, right? Who needs to talk about death and think about death? And so we try and squeeze as much out of life as we can, even if it’s not all that satisfying, in the vain hope that we will stave off the inevitable, death, as long as we can.

I used to be petrified of dying – absolutely petrified. I just couldn’t fathom that I would have to let go of this life here on earth one day, or at least, that it would let go of me. And the thought of what, if anything, lay on the other side of the grave was just horrid. Either there was nothing and I would lose everything with the last breath or there was a God and indeed a heaven and a hell. Man, I was in serious trouble in that department.

So I put my head down; I just concentrated on the here and now, living life, squeezing everything out of it that I could. And no, it wasn’t satisfying. A decade and a half ago, something happened to change all this and it happened without me noticing it. A decade and a half ago I gave my life to Jesus. Now I noticed that bit – but without me realising it my fear of death evaporated overnight.

I first realised it when I was flying in a plane to New Zealand. It was incredibly bumpy and rough flight and in the middle of this terrible landing in – wait for it – Christchurch, I all of a sudden I realised, I wasn’t gripping my seat anymore; I wasn’t afraid. I’d lost my fear of dying!

Have a listen to what the Apostle Paul writes on this subject – it comes from First Corinthians chapter 15, verses 51 to 58:

"Listen,” writes Paul, “I’ll tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

There it is – eternal life! The one thing we had all hoped for, delivered by Jesus through His death on the cross and His resurrection. What could be more abundant than that? I mean, it’s great that we can have a rich and abundant life amidst all the trials of life here on earth. That’s what we have been chatting about these last few weeks on the programme. Fantastic!! But the abundance; the overflow, goes beyond the grave, for ever and ever and ever and ever! And that knowledge … that knowledge of an eternal life is supposed to make a difference; a huge difference to how we live our lives here and now.

Look at that last bit of that passage from First Corinthians 15 again: Therefore, because of what I have just told you about eternal life:

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

In other words, the knowledge of eternity is meant to impact our lives, here and now, because it changes everything. It gives us hope, it gives us resolve, because at the end of this life there is something worth having; something worth more than absolutely anything and everything that this world has to offer – a life eternal. And yet, we are all so busy – head down, pedalling hard – that we have completely lost sight of the finishing line. And that finishing line is something, not to be afraid of but to look forward to. That finishing line is the best thing that can ever happen to us. Listen again to Paul, the Apostle. Philippians chapter 1, verses 21 to 24:

“For to me,” writes Paul, “living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.

You see this, Paul is not afraid of dying. Paul is torn between this life and an eternity with Christ. Not just does he have an eternal life foremost in his thinking, but he is literally torn between the two. Do you know what I think the Lord is saying to you and me as we are totally immersed in our respective here’s and now’s? He is saying, “Wake up, something much better is coming.” Again, Paul, Colossians chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. He says:

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on this earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Come on, wake up! Something much better is coming. Live life focused on eternity; with an eternal perspective because that is going to add a richness and an abundance and an anticipation that is better than anything this world has to offer. Come on, wake up!

Journey in My Shoes

Well, we have been talking about this abundant life in Jesus over these last weeks and we are almost at the end of that. And as I reflect on our journey together through God’s Word, it seems to me that, well, this life in all its abundance can be an illusory concept. Something in a sense that we are content to hear some joker on the radio talk about because it makes us feel good and something that we are content to agree with, that Jesus could do that and He probably does do this "abundant life" thing for other people, in their lives but something that for many, well, it’s never entered their minds, that this promise could possibly be for them.

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.

Friend, I’m here to tell you – He absolutely means it for you! We are so conditioned to chasing the things of this world, some of us, that we have lost sight of the things of God. I was definitely like that. For most of my life, reality for me was the wealth that I could accumulate on this earth. Reality for me was being happy, only it didn’t really. I would sweep death under the carpet because I was too scared to think about it. And so I could hear the promise of an abundant life but it never meant anything to me. I was like that rich man that Jesus talked about in this parable:

The land of the rich man produced abundantly and he thought to himself, “What shall I do for I have no place to store my crops?” And he said, “I’ll do this – I’ll pull down my barn, I’ll build bigger ones and there I’ll store my grain and my goods and I’ll say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! For this very night your life is being demanded of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is for those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.

"The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy" – The thief is a deceiver; a liar; he robs us of the rich abundant life that Jesus came to give us. He robs us of life itself. As each day goes by, I have been walking with Jesus for a decade and a half, to this point – as each day goes by, I discover more and more this reality that richness is something we get from God.

The blessings of righteousness, peace and joy are something that nobody in this world and nothing in this world have been able to offer me. And the more I get into God’s Word, the more I discover the reality of who He is through Jesus Christ, the more I let the Holy Spirit scrape the muck out of me that God calls sin, the more this life in all its abundance is the reality that I am living out with my life.

Oh and please don’t give me this cop-out, "Well, Berni, you are a preacher on the radio. Of course, the promise is meant for you." Don’t give me that because when the Good Shepherd came to me, I was a sheep that was lost far more than most. I was a man full of pride and success on the one hand, but suffering through the deepest failures of life on the other. If you could have seen me back then, you would never have picked me for what I am doing now and you would never have thought that Jesus promise of life, in all its abundance could possibly have been for me. That’s the truth – it’s the cold, hard reality. And yet by God’s amazing … utterly and completely amazing grace, I can now tell you that I am like the man who found a treasure in a field.

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which someone found and hid and then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

My life – I’m completely sold out to Jesus. Not because I’m so great and clever guy but because the life He has given me is abundant. The life He has given me is exactly what Jesus promised – an abundant life!

Imagine - He gave it to me – imagine!!