Sermon Tone Analysis

Christmas And the Abundant Life

John 10:7–11 (ESV)

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

9 I am the door.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

11 I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

INTRODUCTION

My aim this morning is simple: to provide you with Christmas celebration fuel.

The incarnation was God’s plan all along; that

he had planned to save his people from their sins from the moment they first sinned.

Is that all?

No.

The more God reveals to us about the amazing nature and implications of the Christmas story, the more reason we have to celebrate in earnestness.

This sermon flows from a Christmas passage, John 10:7-11.

Jesus came so that God’s people could have an abundance of life.

I want to answer three questions from the text this morning.

1) What does it mean to have life abundantly,

2) Why don’t we already have it, and

3) Where does an abundance of life come from.

1. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE LIFE ABUNDANTLY?

and do you want it?

don’t be wrongly satisfied

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what you really want your life to be like?

That is, do you have a clear picture in your mind of what your life would look like

if you were able to make it any way you like?

If everything in your life was exactly as you wanted it, what would it consist of?

These are just different ways of asking the question of

What do you consider the fullest, or most desirable, or most abundant life?

What’s the first thing you’d change?

Something from your past?

Something about your future trajectory?

Your present health?

Your looks?

Your finances?

Your education?

Your family situation?

Your spiritual life?

What would you focus on second?

Third, what would your life look like when you were all done designing your life?

If you had a the ideal job, an attractive appearance,

an enviable home in a pleasant neighborhood,

a healthy, happy family,

a sharp mind, and a comfortable retirement saving;

if you could eat whatever you want and not gain weight,

run a marathon in a respectable time,

have everyone in your life be happy to go to church together,

and take exotic vacations once or twice every year;

if you knew that you and those closest to you would die peacefully, surrounded by loved ones at a ripe old age without memory problems or significant suffering before going to a place of even greater comfort and ease and pleasure;

would you take it?

Can you imagine a more abundant life than that?

Does a fuller life exist in your mind?

In John 10:10 we see that Christmas exists (in part) in order to answer these questions for you.

Jesus declared that he came in order that his people would “have life and have it abundantly.”

That is, Jesus came that his people would experience fullness of life.

But what, specifically, does that mean?

What was/is an abundance of life according to Jesus?

What isn’t the full or abundant life?

· It is not necessarily a long life,

although there are verses that promise a long life to some,

such as to those who honor their father and mother (Exod.

20:12; cf.

Eph.

6:2–3).

· It is not necessarily a life free from sorrow or sickness either,

although God certainly does spare us many sorrows.

that we might otherwise have

and often preserves us from sickness.

· It is not a life denying reality where everything is “beautiful” or “precious” or “just wonderful.”

The abundant life, as Scripture speaks of it, is, above all,

the contented life.

Contentment comes from the confidence that God is equal to every emergency and does indeed supply all our genuine needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Some words around what an abundant life is

The abundant life is a contented life is the life of the sheep who finds himself in the hands of a good shepherd.

There may be dangers; in fact, there will be dangers.

There may be storms at times, even drought and famine.

Still, in the hands of a good shepherd the sheep is content and life is bountiful.

James Boice

· Our English word “abundance” comes from the two Latin words ab and undare which mean “to rise in waves” or “to overflow.”

The translation gives a picture of the unceasing rise of the waves upon a seashore.

There the waves rise again and again.

One wave surges forward and exhausts its force on the sand, but another follows and another and another.

Thus it will continue as long as time lasts.

The other picture is of a flood.

This makes us think of a river fed by heavy rains, rising irresistibly until it overflows its banks.

The abundant life is one in which we are content in the knowledge that God’s grace is more than sufficient for our needs, that nothing can suppress it, and that God’s favor toward us is unending.

[2]

· John 10:10 is frequently cited by prosperity preachers because Jesus states that he came to give abundant life.

Jesus never said that he came to give an abundance of things.

He came to give life, and that abundantly.

Jesus taught, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

· The fact is that money and possessions do not convey happiness, much less life.

“Money can buy things—it can even buy a pasture, but it cannot buy satisfaction.”7

Jesus promises a satisfied soul, especially as his sheep feed in the plentiful pastures of his life-giving Word.[3]

Kent Hughes

· God especially delights to cause us to prosper spiritually in the midst of earthly difficulties.

Those who pursue worldly happiness will ever be restless, always needing more.

But those who find their contentment in Christ can say with the psalmist: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters” (23:2).[4]