A WATCHFUL SHEPHERD IN IRELAND
We were on a family trip in Ireland. One of the delightful features of that lovely place are the sheep. Often on the back roads we were slowed down or stopped as sheep made their way from one pasture to another. Once in a sparsely populated area, we stopped to watch some that were grazing close to the road. We thought that no one was around. However, as soon as we got out of the car and walked toward the sheep, a shepherd in a pick-up truck appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He wanted to check us out to make sure that we were not there to harm the sheep. He was a good shepherd.
Jesus says that he, too, is a good shepherd who protects us from harm and gives us life. In John 10:7-11 Jesus says: “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8>All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9>I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go 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.”1
“I came that they may have life,” Jesus says. One of the most precious gifts that God gives to us in Christ Jesus is the gift of divine life.
In Greek there are three main words that are translated by our English word life. One is bios which refers primarily to biological life. Another is psuche which refers to an individual’s own personal life as over against that of other individuals. The third is zoe which, when used in reference to humans, refers mainly to the quality of one’s life.
It is important for us to know the difference between these three Greek words so that we can understand what Jesus is saying in our text. Verse 10 says, “I came that they may have life [zoe], and have it abundantly.” That means that he came to give us a new quality of life, which he wants us to have in abundance. That is why we sometimes use the term abundant life. In fact, some churches use “abundant life” in their name. It is a reference to this new quality that God in Christ gives to us in such abundance that our existence is more than merely the movement from one day to another, more than the duration between conception and death, more than bios or biological life. Rather, it is a new quality of life.
In order for Jesus to give us this new quality of life, he was willing to lay down his own personal life for us. The word here is psuche. In verse 15 he says, “I lay down my life [psuche] for the sheep.” Our Lord laid down his own individual life so that we can have a new quality of life. He laid down his psuche so that we can have zoe.
Jesus says that whereas some satisfy selfish purposes by stealing sheep, he as the good shepherd protects them. This is the idea behind verse 9 where Jesus says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
The shepherds of Jesus’ time built little shelters for their sheep. Often, at night, they slept at the entrance in order both to keep the sheep from wandering out into the darkness of the night and to keep thieves from slipping in and snatching the sheep. So Jesus says that he is this kind of human gate for us. He protects us from wandering out into the darkness of the night where spiritual enemies can destroy us. Furthermore, he keeps those same enemies from coming in to harm us. Christ’s sheepfold is a safe place to be.
The last part of the verse is about the pleasurable life offered by the good shepherd. Going in and out and finding pasture is a symbol of the abundant life that Christ brings.
Abundant life, therefore, means several things. It means nourishment; we find pasture under the direction of the good shepherd. It means safety; the shepherd watches over us by day and by night. It means freedom; we have freedom from spiritual enemies, freedom from spiritual hunger, freedom of spiritual dynamism, movement and rhythm.
The thieves and the robbers come to take the life out of us, but Christ Jesus came to put life into us.
The Gospel According to John begins with the declaration that this Christ “was in the beginning with God. 3>All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4>in him was life [zoe], and life [zoe] was the light of all people.”
Advent and Christmas are about the gift of zoe which God gives to us in Christ Jesus. According to John, this gift is no less than the quality of God’s eternal life. It is very good news to know that we can have this same divine quality in our own lives here and now. Eternal life is not something we have to wait until after death to experience. We can enjoy it even now through faith in Christ Jesus.
A WOMAN WHO SEARCHED AND FINALLY FOUND THE GIFT OF LIFE
Christine Palamaris was born in Athens, Greece. She was brought up in a family, which although committed to going through the motions of being religious, didn’t experience Christ in the heart.
Christine lost her father when she was two. Her mother remarried in hopes of bringing the two of them a better quality of life. When she was thirteen all of that turned sour, though, when her stepfather began abusing her sexually. Trying to keep the abuse a secret from her mother, Christine went to live with her grandmother. After the mother’s marriage broke up, she too moved in with the grandmother.
While Christine’s aristocratic family gave her a good education; they also introduced her to a materialistic lifestyle. She had everything she wanted except inner peace. She felt empty inside.
Leaving home, she pursued success and more money. She was free to do whatever she wanted. Her own words are: “My freedom soon became anarchy…Listening to hard rock music, smoking marijuana, and drinking became my only escapes. There were parties every night with drugs, sex, and rock and roll.” At fifteen she began traveling all over Europe, and exploring Eastern religions. But her life was still empty. After two suicide attempts, two automobile accidents, two rapes, and an overdose on sleeping pills, she left for Italy thinking that perhaps she could find fullness of life there. She did find a good job in a theater with famous people, and a man to marry, but he turned out to be a member of the Mafia. With a broken heart she returned to Greece and became dependent on heroin, coke, and alcohol. As a devotee of black magic, she began dressing in black, painting her face wild colors, and spending much time at parties and bars.
Her whole nervous system was breaking down. She cried for hours, and thought maybe she had gone crazy. It was at this lowest of all points that she remembered a Christian who had earlier told her about the abundant life offered by Christ. She finally found him at his little church. Though only a few people were there, they had a wonderfully refreshing quality as they prayed and sang to the Lord. Because of what she saw, she began looking seriously at Christ. As she looked, though, a spiritual battle raged inside her. That battle ended, however, on November 19, 1989 when she walked into the Church of God near her home in Athens and surrendered herself to the Lord. One of our CBH: an Arabic speaker, Adel Masri from Beirut, was guest speaker. By God’s grace he led Christine to the Lord that night. Now some seven years later, she tells about the experience in these words: “As we prayed, I gave my heart to my new Father. I felt all over the warm touch of the Holy Spirit, and I knew I was born again!” Christine says that she shares her testimony because she wants all who search for the meaning of life to know that Christ Jesus is, as she puts it, “the answer to all searching.”2
At last, Christine Palamaris has accepted the gift of new life in Christ.
Dear listener, this could be the day, when you, too, accept the gift. I am glad to tell you that Christ is able to free you from your spiritual enemies; he can nourish your soul to health; he can give you the kind of freedom that will always build you up and never tear you down. Will you accept God’s gift of abundant life now?
PRAYER
Let us pray:
Gracious Lord, giver of life abundant, so work in the hearts of all persons listening that they will experience in the divine life that you gave to us in the birth of Christ. This we pray in the name of the life giver. Amen
1 New Revised Standard Version used here and throughout.
2 Christine Armyra Palamaris, “Searching for Love,” Five Loaves and Two Fish, ed. Cheryl Johnson Barton (Anderson: Missionary Board of the Church of God, 1996), pp. 26-28.
“I came that they may have life,” Jesus says. One of the most precious gifts that God gives to us in Christ Jesus is the gift of divine life.
In Greek there are three main words that are translated by our English word life. One is bios which refers primarily to biological life. Another is psuche which refers to an individual’s own personal life as over against that of other individuals. The third is zoe which, when used in reference to humans, refers mainly to the quality of one’s life.
It is important for us to know the difference between these three Greek words so that we can understand what Jesus is saying in our text. Verse 10 says, “I came that they may have life [zoe], and have it abundantly.” That means that he came to give us a new quality of life, which he wants us to have in abundance. That is why we sometimes use the term abundant life. In fact, some churches use “abundant life” in their name. It is a reference to this new quality that God in Christ gives to us in such abundance that our existence is more than merely the movement from one day to another, more than the duration between conception and death, more than bios or biological life. Rather, it is a new quality of life.
In order for Jesus to give us this new quality of life, he was willing to lay down his own personal life for us. The word here is psuche. In verse 15 he says, “I lay down my life [psuche] for the sheep.” Our Lord laid down his own individual life so that we can have a new quality of life. He laid down his psuche so that we can have zoe.
Jesus says that whereas some satisfy selfish purposes by stealing sheep, he as the good shepherd protects them. This is the idea behind verse 9 where Jesus says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
The shepherds of Jesus’ time built little shelters for their sheep. Often, at night, they slept at the entrance in order both to keep the sheep from wandering out into the darkness of the night and to keep thieves from slipping in and snatching the sheep. So Jesus says that he is this kind of human gate for us. He protects us from wandering out into the darkness of the night where spiritual enemies can destroy us. Furthermore, he keeps those same enemies from coming in to harm us. Christ’s sheepfold is a safe place to be.
The last part of the verse is about the pleasurable life offered by the good shepherd. Going in and out and finding pasture is a symbol of the abundant life that Christ brings.
Abundant life, therefore, means several things. It means nourishment; we find pasture under the direction of the good shepherd. It means safety; the shepherd watches over us by day and by night. It means freedom; we have freedom from spiritual enemies, freedom from spiritual hunger, freedom of spiritual dynamism, movement and rhythm.
The thieves and the robbers come to take the life out of us, but Christ Jesus came to put life into us.
The Gospel According to John begins with the declaration that this Christ “was in the beginning with God. 3>All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4>in him was life [zoe], and life [zoe] was the light of all people.”
Advent and Christmas are about the gift of zoe which God gives to us in Christ Jesus. According to John, this gift is no less than the quality of God’s eternal life. It is very good news to know that we can have this same divine quality in our own lives here and now. Eternal life is not something we have to wait until after death to experience. We can enjoy it even now through faith in Christ Jesus.
A WOMAN WHO SEARCHED AND FINALLY FOUND THE GIFT OF LIFE
Christine Palamaris was born in Athens, Greece. She was brought up in a family, which although committed to going through the motions of being religious, didn’t experience Christ in the heart.
Christine lost her father when she was two. Her mother remarried in hopes of bringing the two of them a better quality of life. When she was thirteen all of that turned sour, though, when her stepfather began abusing her sexually. Trying to keep the abuse a secret from her mother, Christine went to live with her grandmother. After the mother’s marriage broke up, she too moved in with the grandmother.
While Christine’s aristocratic family gave her a good education; they also introduced her to a materialistic lifestyle. She had everything she wanted except inner peace. She felt empty inside.
Leaving home, she pursued success and more money. She was free to do whatever she wanted. Her own words are: “My freedom soon became anarchy…Listening to hard rock music, smoking marijuana, and drinking became my only escapes. There were parties every night with drugs, sex, and rock and roll.” At fifteen she began traveling all over Europe, and exploring Eastern religions. But her life was still empty. After two suicide attempts, two automobile accidents, two rapes, and an overdose on sleeping pills, she left for Italy thinking that perhaps she could find fullness of life there. She did find a good job in a theater with famous people, and a man to marry, but he turned out to be a member of the Mafia. With a broken heart she returned to Greece and became dependent on heroin, coke, and alcohol. As a devotee of black magic, she began dressing in black, painting her face wild colors, and spending much time at parties and bars.
Her whole nervous system was breaking down. She cried for hours, and thought maybe she had gone crazy. It was at this lowest of all points that she remembered a Christian who had earlier told her about the abundant life offered by Christ. She finally found him at his little church. Though only a few people were there, they had a wonderfully refreshing quality as they prayed and sang to the Lord. Because of what she saw, she began looking seriously at Christ. As she looked, though, a spiritual battle raged inside her. That battle ended, however, on November 19, 1989 when she walked into the Church of God near her home in Athens and surrendered herself to the Lord. One of our CBH: an Arabic speaker, Adel Masri from Beirut, was guest speaker. By God’s grace he led Christine to the Lord that night. Now some seven years later, she tells about the experience in these words: “As we prayed, I gave my heart to my new Father. I felt all over the warm touch of the Holy Spirit, and I knew I was born again!” Christine says that she shares her testimony because she wants all who search for the meaning of life to know that Christ Jesus is, as she puts it, “the answer to all searching.”2
At last, Christine Palamaris has accepted the gift of new life in Christ.
Dear listener, this could be the day, when you, too, accept the gift. I am glad to tell you that Christ is able to free you from your spiritual enemies; he can nourish your soul to health; he can give you the kind of freedom that will always build you up and never tear you down. Will you accept God’s gift of abundant life now?
PRAYER
Let us pray:
Gracious Lord, giver of life abundant, so work in the hearts of all persons listening that they will experience in the divine life that you gave to us in the birth of Christ. This we pray in the name of the life giver. Amen
1 New Revised Standard Version used here and throughout.
2 Christine Armyra Palamaris, “Searching for Love,” Five Loaves and Two Fish, ed. Cheryl Johnson Barton (Anderson: Missionary Board of the Church of God, 1996), pp. 26-28.
Script 2606 (GWS)
December 8, 1996
SERIES: GIFTS MOST PRECIOUS
2. The Gift of Life
Scripture: John 10:7-18
December 8, 1996
SERIES: GIFTS MOST PRECIOUS
2. The Gift of Life
Scripture: John 10:7-18
FREESTANDING COMPONENT OF THE PROGRAM
I take this opportunity to inform you that at the end of December I will be completing a decade as speaker on this program. It has been a most rewarding form of ministry, but the time has come for some changes. I plan to continue teaching full time, as I have been doing all along, at Anderson University School of Theology. Also I shall continue preaching, leading spiritual renewal weekends, and conducting theological conversations in connection with my new book, published this year by Warner Press, Theology for Disciples.
As of January, my friend Jim Lyon will come to this assignment. Until 1991, he was the pastor of the Fairview Church of God in Seattle, Washington. He now serves the North Anderson Church of God here in Indiana. Regarding radio, Jim Lyon says: “Its power and promise cannot be overstated. We live in a media age, and right now radio is the world’s most universal medium of communication. The church should be harnessing that medium.” I couldn’t agree more. Pray for this good man as he plans to come to this microphone soon.
I take this opportunity to inform you that at the end of December I will be completing a decade as speaker on this program. It has been a most rewarding form of ministry, but the time has come for some changes. I plan to continue teaching full time, as I have been doing all along, at Anderson University School of Theology. Also I shall continue preaching, leading spiritual renewal weekends, and conducting theological conversations in connection with my new book, published this year by Warner Press, Theology for Disciples.
As of January, my friend Jim Lyon will come to this assignment. Until 1991, he was the pastor of the Fairview Church of God in Seattle, Washington. He now serves the North Anderson Church of God here in Indiana. Regarding radio, Jim Lyon says: “Its power and promise cannot be overstated. We live in a media age, and right now radio is the world’s most universal medium of communication. The church should be harnessing that medium.” I couldn’t agree more. Pray for this good man as he plans to come to this microphone soon.
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