November 27, 2010

• Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly

  Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, the time we commemorate the miracle of the incarnation, Jesus Christ coming to earth in the form of man, becoming fully man, yet also remaining fully God. I'd like us to look back into the Scripture and ask:

  WHY HAS JESUS COME?

  

  I know there are a slew of answers to that question, and I could spend the rest of my blogging days focusing on that, and much of our time in eternity is going to be spent reflecting on and worshiping those things. I'm hoping to write more on this, but for today I'd like to focus on one Scripture which gives us one answer to the question "Why has Jesus come?"

  John 10:10b I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

  And, for the time being, let's just tuck the first part of that verse away, for it tells us why the devil came in contrast to why Jesus came:

  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

  Anytime Jesus Christ is working the devil is working to try to undermine His work. I'm going to touch on this later on. The devil is all about us not enjoying and living and experiencing the abundant life Jesus came to give us.
  

  All right, now let's go back to the last portion of John 10:10. What was it Jesus said?

  I am come that they might have LIFE, and that they might have it more abundantly.

  
  Do you have LIFE?

  
  

  You may have answered in the affirmative, you may say you have life, but we do need to ask another question based on Jesus' own words:

  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it MORE ABUNDANTLY.

  
  Do you not only have LIFE, but do you have LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY?

  Isn't that why Jesus came, not only so we might have life but so we might have life more abundantly?

  I am come that they might have LIFE, and that they might have it MORE ABUNDANTLY.

  That word "abundantly" is perissos in the Greek. Here's the description from Strong's Concordance:

  superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality); by implication, excessive; adverbially (with 1537) violently; neuter (as noun) preeminence:--exceeding abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, vehement(-ly).

  Do those words describe the life you have experienced as a Christian? Do those words describe your daily life? Do those words describe the life you lived in the last 24 hours? Would the people who know you say that you have life more abundantly?

  Jesus wanted to emphasize the quality of life He has come to give all who believe. After all, He is a LIVING God. He is the author of life. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. By Him and through Him, all things live and move and have their being. Jesus Christ is and was and always will be. He was with God in the beginning. He had no beginning and will have no ending. The tomb could not hold Him. He conquered sin, the devil and the grave. He lives from everlasting to everlasting!

  Our having been dead in sins and transgressions, enemies of God, children of wrath under the power of the evil one, powerless and helpless and being made alive in Christ by the mercies and grace of God is in itself is a huge miracle – something God alone could do!

  We have been given life through Jesus Christ! We have been made alive with Christ!

  But now look at the verse again:

  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it MORE ABUNDANTLY.

  Not barely alive but abundantly alive! Let us remember that Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly, that we might live a perissos life!

  Remember, that I am the LIFE. I've come not just to give you life after you die, after the grave, I have come that you may have life now, superabundant life beginning today. Yes, we can look forward to that glorious Day we will all be together in heaven. You know how much I am looking forward to feasting at My marriage supper with you there! I am preparing a place for you, I am preparing you for that day, and yet that's not the only reason I died for you. Yes, you do have a glorious inheritance being laid up and kept secure in heaven for you, but do not miss out on this: My inheritance to you begins today in this life with ALL the saints. Oh, that My Spirit would open the eyes of your hearts so you would know more and more of My unsearchable riches in glory that I died to give you now and make available to you today: life and life abundantly! Perissos life!

  This abundant life I've given you is available to all who will come to Me and drink of Me! If your only hope is for abundant life is life beyond the grave then you are not seeing the glory of My incarnation and are limiting Me in much the same way the Israelites did ("Is the Lord among us or not?"), you've forgotten that I am the God who does wonders and you are locking yourself into a miserable existence the rest of your life here. Do you not believe I came so you might truly live a perissos life in the here and now! O, my children, I so long for you to enjoy Me and live by Me so you can have life more abundantly – to live above your feelings and circumstances, above your trials and temptations, above your disappointments and losses, above your broken hearts and sufferings! I have raised you to the heavenly places! Do not dumb down the promises I have given you and the living reality for which I came: so you might have life and have life more abundantly!

  Have you known My heart beating in you, My love constraining and comforting and assuring you? Has My Spirit borne witness with you that you ARE the children of God? Do you know Me not just through the written word, but have My promises begun to be written on your heart by My Spirit, so along with the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, your heart truly burns within you and burns for Me? Has the doctrine become alive in you? Or is the Scripture just a cold, dry document, not touching you inwardly and not moving and animating you and reviving and invigorating your soul and spirit from within, so that your whole being has become truly alive through My life in you? That is life and life more abundantly!

  Do you know that you serve a living Savior? Do you proclaim with the song writer that you know I live because I live within your heart? Do you know Me or only know about Me? Am I merely an external construct or a philosophical treatise or a doctrine to speak of – or am I a living reality in you? If you do not, no wonder then that you are living a life far below the superabundant life I died to give you. My blood-bought children, don't waste your life with a shell of religion! Seek Me! Seek My face! Ask to see My glory!

  I did not come to earth and give My life for you so you could squeak by here while you are in this body of flesh, while you live on this fallen earth. I did not die for you so you continue to moan and groan and whine and complain, all so you could count down the days until you see Me face to face. I want you to enjoy Me and enjoy My life I have given you each and every day. All the days you have here are ordained by me. Oh, that you might know my abundant life in you: that you might know Me in you, the hope of glory!

  Do you understand that you can look on Me this very day, this very hour, with unveiled face and see My glory through My Gospel? Do you even see that as a possibility for you? Have you spoken to Me like My servant Moses? Have you ever asked to see My glory? Have you gone with a holy boldness behind the veil to commune with Me? You know I have opened the way for you to come through My body and blood!

  You're not just supposed to grin and bear it here, My brothers and sisters. Remember the instructions the Israelites were given as they were sent to exile: they were told to build houses and dwell in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit, take wives and have children that they might increase in the land. This is the way I want you to live on this fallen earth each and every minute until I take you home to Me or until I return in glory to take you to be with Me. You've been redeemed by My life so My redemption life in you might flow out through you to the ends of the earth. I have made it possible for you to live that kind of life! You can live that way through Me.

  Look to how I lived My life. You know that you have the very same Holy Spirit Who has come to dwell in you and abide with you forever. He was promised to you back in the Old Testament. He is My gift to all believers. He is part of the inheritance I died to give you. I promised I would send Him. The Father and I have sent Him to you. Will you refuse Him? Will you quench Him? He has come to dwell in you forever so you might live a life of superabundance beginning today and continuing forevermore. A life which is exceedingly above any life you can live apart from Me. A life beyond beyond measure. The quality of your daily life should exceed the lives of those in the world who do not have My Spirit abiding in them. Does it? Is your life any different because you know Me? Do you really know Me?

  It grieves me to see you settling for life UNabundantly when I came in the likeness of men and lived and suffered and bled and died and rose again and ascended to heaven so you might have life MORE ABUNDANTLY, superabundantly! This is part of the glory of My incarnation: that sinners might be filled with Me, with My life, so you might have life and have life more abundantly!

  Are you settling for less than Jesus came to give you?

  Are you settling for less than Jesus died to give you?

  Do you really believe Jesus came to give you life and life more abundantly?

  Do you live like Jesus died to give you life and life more abundantly?

  I was reading in Psalm 23 yesterday....

  Verse 1 starts us off: The LORD is my shepherd; I SHALL NOT WANT. This is a living reality that each and every sheep whom God has purchased with the precious blood of the Lamb should be able to boldly proclaim. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  David is speaking of the very same Shepherd who spoke to us in John 10 and came to give us life and life more abundantly. I shall not want...Consider it! Consider Him! Consider the reality of daily life lived by and with our Shepherd! I shall not want. Consider Him and His unsearchable riches! I SHALL NOT WANT! The verse just grabbed me. Children of God, we have not received a slave's portion or pittance or a meager ration. WE SHALL NOT WANT! We are the children of God! We shall not want! Full satisfaction in and through Jesus Christ! WE SHALL NOT WANT! NO WANT! Perfect and complete and full provision for all the children of God!

  And now, verse 5: MY CUP RUNNETH OVER! Oil is a picture of Christ's Holy Spirit. In what manner is the Shepherd giving to his flock? Is there any stinginess or holding back? Is He a Scrooge? Is He miserly? No, He is pouring out freely and fully of His plentiful supplies and the cup runneth over!  Runneth over! Over! Pressed down, to full and overflowing. That is the superabundance Jesus came to give us.

  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
  

  Much like Jesus' words in Luke 6: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.

  Or the living waters Jesus described in John 7:

  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

  
  Are rivers of living water flowing out of your belly? Do you have life and have it more abundantly? Have you ever come to Jesus Christ and drunk?

  How King David knew of this superabundant life! And how He knew the need to keep asking for God to grant him grace so He might continue to live life more abundantly, to keep going back to eat and drink of Christ!

  Psalm 36:7  How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8  They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. 9  For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. 10  O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

  To say that God's grace and fullness was not known to the Old Testament saints is a travesty! God's plan of salvation was grace through faith from beginning to ending. So many of those saints knew God's grace far better than we who have lived after the incarnation, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection and the ascension – and – after Pentecost! How pathetic we are not to expect and seek after and ask for and drink of His riches in glory! How pathetic we are that we live so far below this superabundant life Jesus came to give us! We have a glorious inheritance: WE SHALL NOT WANT! OUR CUPS RUNNETH OVER! But how we miss it! This is part of the devil's work. He doesn't want us to believe these things are truly possible. He is a liar and a deceiver. But now this: they are possible to all who will believe and come in faith asking, seeking and knocking!

  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

  The "they" there are all Jesus' sheep. This life, this abundant life, this perissos life is offered to each and every lamb! No exceptions! All who are adopted children of God are urged to go and ask our heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit:
  

  
  Luke 11:13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
  

  How excellent is His lovingkindness! This makes my heart leap! To be abundantly satisfied! Abundantly satisfied! That is what our God has for us – IF we believe and come and drink of Jesus Christ! These are the "glorious possibilities" the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones spoke of (see here).

  Let us press on to KNOW HIM, not merely to press on and keep accumulating more and more head knowledge ABOUT Him.

  Let us press on to take hold of Jesus and the promise of life more abundantly, the glorious possibilities which Jesus Christ came to give us, so might testify with King David, "I am abundantly satisfied! I have drunk of the river of His pleasures!" "I am living life more abundantly through Jesus Christ!"

  Has the Lord drawn you and made you drink at the river of His pleasures? Is He drawing you now? Will you go and drink of Him? With Him is the fountain of LIFE! Jesus Christ is THE fountain of life! He is the fountain of LIFE! Where else can we go? How foolish and brutish we are when we do not drink of HIM and the river of His pleasures and we settle for cheap substitutes when fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore await us!

  Psalm 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

  Where are you drinking? Will you ask Him to draw you and make you drink at the river of His pleasures?

  O, that God would be gracious to us and open our eyes to that more abundant life He came to give us, those glorious possibilities. May He be gracious to us when we begin drinking elsewhere and show us the emptiness and vanity in our drinking anywhere else but of Him. When we have strange cravings, may He lead us back to the river of His pleasures, and give us a thirst for Him alone so we will not be satisfied with broken cisterns and stagnant waters in which there is no life – and certainly nothing close to abundant life!

  The heavenly inheritance fit only for a prince, for a heir of the King of kings – all this has been freely offered to us through Jesus Christ! This is one reason Jesus came. Here we are, the poor and needy in the land, and yet by His grace we can find refuge in Him and drink freely from the King's cup at the King's table! Manifold mercies and great grace and amazing love! And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety... Blessed ARE the poor in Spirit for theirs IS the Kingdom of God. The superabundant life! These are the rivers of living water Jesus Christ came to give us and longs for us to have, but we must come TO HIM and drink and then keep drinking of Him. The Scripture testifies OF HIM, but we must COME TO HIM directly and DRINK! TO HIM DIRECTLY! Your accumulated Bible reading isn't going to quench your thirst. You've got to come to Him through His blessed Holy Spirit. That was the grave and grievous and deadly error of the Pharisees:

  John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40  And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

  Thank God for His grace which draws us and binds us with cords of love so we will not remain satisfied with the broken cisterns and stagnant waters! I do not know too many Christians out of whom are flowing rivers of living water. There are so many of us out of whom nothing flows, or if there is something it is putrid and stagnant.

  How can we make it through the dry and dusty and barren and weeping places in this world if we are not drinking of Jesus Christ Himself (see Psalm 84)?
  
  How will the world come to thirst for Christ if they do not see us living the superabundant life He came to give us? How will the world come to know Jesus Christ is the fountain of life if we continue drinking from broken cisterns and filling ourselves up with stagnant waters? Will they have any desire to taste and see that he is good if we are filling up with garbage and spewing out garbage?

  In Luke 15 the prodigal son returned home expecting to be treated as a slave, but we see he was welcomed as a son and received a feast and a son's welcome, a superabundant inheritance! And we see that the older son stayed at home but was blinded to the superabundant inheritance that was freely available from his father – if only he had asked...We see the father's heart for his children and his extravagant, prodigal love freely offered to both his sons. Oh, that we would have ears to hear our heavenly Father's heart beating for us and His desire for us! May we have our eyes opened to see His riches in glory that He makes available to us beginning today: life and life more abundantly! That is what the devil wants to keep us from, from understanding these things as a real possibility for us so we might settle for far less than the abundant life Christ came to give us.

  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

  This is one reason Jesus Christ came into the world. Will you devote this Advent season to considering Him and why He came!? May God give you grace to take hold of Jesus Christ and begin to drink of Him so you might live the abundant life He came to give you.

  ---

  Related:

  Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
  Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful (a post on the Holy Spirit)
  trusting the eagles' wings (reliance on the Holy Spirit)
  postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck? (the glorious possibilities)
  Thankful for UNanswered prayer
  update w/ excerpt: Lloyd-Jones' sermons on the role of experience in Christianity
  Where do you go when the world is unlovely? (Psalm 84 & the theology of Biblical counseling)
  Considering Jesus: (1) Making time to consider Jesus
  Considering Jesus: (2) Why do we do quiet time anyhow?
  Get gnawing, put your nose down in the Book to feed the white-hot flame of God's gift
  How's your spiritual appetite? (Jonathan Edwards)
  "Garbage In" (Are you truly His disciple?)
  "To keep the lamp alive with oil we fill the bowl"
  
  My letters on assurance and joy including:
  
  

  • Letter 3 on assurance and fighting for joy (Jesus' desire vs. Satan's desire)
  • Letter 10 on assurance and fighting for joy (joy is for ALL!)
  • Letter 18 on assurance and fighting for joy (my testimony of joy)
  • Letter 25 on assurance and fighting for joy (a strong craving ≠ His joy)
  • "I thirst! I thirst!" Whitefield's experience of joy (letter 51 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • The ultimate joy (3): today: imperfect enjoyment; one Day: perfect - Thomas Boston (letter 59)
  • dear devil/dear flock of God (day in, day out): Letter 63 on assurance & joy
  • John 3:36a Whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life (letter 64 on assurance & joy)
  • "give me also springs of water" - Will you be an Achsah? (letter 66 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • Do you know the LORD as your portion? | a hymn by John Newton - letter 80 on assurance & joy

  Advent & Christmas Posts (Series Links)
  Series Links: The Present of Pentecost (and other posts on the Holy Spirit)

  Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible

  • 7:13 PM
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