CRCF””9-19-10
Last Sunday, we had the joy of baptizing 8 folks in Clear Creek. One of those””Mikey Owen””trusted Jesus during Sunday School that morning! He told us all””“I got my name wrote in The Forever Book!” And, along with the angels of heaven, we rejoiced in that reality!
What an amazing thought! We will live forever with God in heaven because we”™ve trusted His Son as our Savior! We deserve Hell, but we”™ll only ever know Heaven because of Jesus!
You know, we can”™t rejoice in that enough, can we?
But sometimes, we so focus on eternity that we miss an aspect of salvation that Jesus really wants us to understand. We miss what He”™s given us in our lives right now””or at least what He wants to give us!
Claiborne
Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death . . . Jesus came not just to prepare us to die but to teach us how to live . . . No wonder the early Christian church was known as the Way. It was a way of life that stood in glaring contrast to the world. (117-118)
Is There Life BEFORE Death?
John 10:1-18
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
Campolo
Even if there were no heaven and there were no hell, would you still follow Jesus? Would you follow Him for the life, joy, and fulfillment he gives you right now?
Now, Campolo”™s question””while unnecessarily dividing this life from eternity””certainly makes a point. Too often we think of Jesus as our ticket to Heaven””not as our Loving Shepherd Who guides and protects us daily in this life, showing us the way as we follow Him and listen to His voice.
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
John 10:1-18 (NLT)
“I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won”™t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don”™t know his voice.”
6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn”™t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief”™s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don”™t belong to him and he isn”™t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he”™s working only for the money and doesn”™t really care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
17 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
John 10:10 (NLT)
10 The thief”™s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
Message
10 A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
Sheep Pen Slide
The Bible scholar Sir George Adam Smith was one day traveling in Palestine with a guide, and came across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him. The man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in. Sir George said to him, “That is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said Sir George. “I am the door,” said the shepherd. He was not a Christian so he was not speaking the language of the New Testament. Rather, he was speaking from a Mid-Eastern shepherd’s point-of-view. Sir George looked at him and said, “What do you mean you are the door?” Said the shepherd, “When the light has gone, and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open place, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door.”
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
As we”™ve seen””this means that Jesus protects us and guides us through all of the ups and downs of life.
Later in this same chapter, Jesus tells us just how secure we are with Him as our Shepherd.
John 10:28-29 (NLT)
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father”™s hand.
BUT, does all of this mean that following Jesus is easy? A walk in the park? NO!
Remember the works of Jesus from . . .
Matthew 16:24 (NLT)
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
There”™s nothing easy about denying ourselves, carrying a cross and following Him! It”™s life of death to self, crucifixion of our wants, and submission to Jesus”™ ways and desires for our lives.
BUT, as Jesus tells us in another place, this life of self-denial and surrender to Him is actually the best life possible!
Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
NIV Study Bible
The life he gives right now is abundantly richer and fuller. It is eternal, yet it begins immediately. Life in Christ is lived on a higher plane because of his overflowing forgiveness, love and guidance.
Remember””we”™re just dumb sheep!
Listen to this description of how helpless we are””and where we”™d end up if left to ourselves!
Not only do they need protection from predators, they need protection from themselves. You have no doubt heard that sheep are some of the dumbest animals in all the animal kingdom. They are creatures of habit: They will graze the same hills until they become desert wastes. To there own destruction they will not move on. They are creatures of bad hygiene: They will pollute their own ground until it is run over with disease and parasite. To their own ill health they will live in their own filth. They are creatures with heavy coats: Their fleece can grow very long and become weighed down with mud, manure, burrs and debris. And when they lie down they can roll over. Once on their backs they cannot right themselves unless a shepherd comes and puts them back on their feet. To their own destruction they become burdened with things.
That description of the behavior of sheep SO fits the way we as people will live, if left to ourselves, if we have no Shepherd that we follow as He protects and guides us!
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
And our world cannot afford for us as followers of Jesus to focus only on eternity, living our day-to-day lives the same as everyone else. Our world needs Jesus”™ followers to live radically different lives as we follow HIM!
Claiborne
Today the church is tempted by the spectacular, to do big, miraculous things so people might believe; but Jesus has called us to littleness and compares our revolution to the little mustard seed, to yeast making its way through dough, slowing infecting this dark world with love.
What the world needs is people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting it now.
Conversion is not an event but a process, a process of slowly tearing ourselves from the clutches of the culture.
Jesus came not just to prepare us to die but to teach us how to live . . . No wonder the early Christian church was known as the Way. It was a way of life that stood in glaring contrast to the world.
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
Old Franciscan slogan
Preach the gospel always. And when necessary, use words.
Sister Margaret of The Simple Way
We are trying to shout the gospel with our lives.
If we”™re living the real and satisfying life that Jesus wants to give us, we”™ll look like He looked! Our lives will show God”™s grace and love and mercy and sacrifice. We won”™t be religious or self-righteous. In fact, we”™ll call out those who are and let the world know that”™s not Jesus! And, like Jesus, we”™ll get serious about hanging out with sinners and those that society throws away, no matter what even other church people say. We”™ll share our lives with those who are poor. We”™ll get radical about serving those without any other family and do the work that no one else will do, in Jesus”™ name so that they may know Him. Of course, we”™ll know opposition and suffering at the hands of a world that hates Jesus and His ways. But we”™ll know a joy, a rest, a fullness of life that can only be known by following in Jesus”™ steps!
Mikey, I”™m so glad our name is written in the Forever Book. But now, Jesus wants us to allow Him to continue to write His story in and through our lives as we follow Him, as we show the world Who He is and what He”™s done by HOW WE LIVE.
THAT is the most real and satisfying life possible in this world! Now, let”™s live it!
Celebration of the Lord”™s Supper