How do you react when you hear it said that through Jesus, we can know “Life in all its fullness”? What do those words even mean? How can we take them seriously or engage with them when we live in such a messy and chaotic world? In fact, how can we believe that knowing “life in all its fullness” is really ever going to be possible in the midst of our own lives as we face so many conflicting pressures, expectations and viewpoints?
These are important questions for us to be free to, and willing to explore. At the heart of our Christian faith rests our belief in Jesus as Lord and Saviour over every single aspect of our lives, not just the bit that brings us together on a Sunday morning where, on the whole, we can give the impression that we are enjoying “life in all its fullness” all of the time, simply because we can “pull it off” as we drink coffee together, sing our worship songs, pray, and listen to the sermon.
Knowing “life in all its fullness” in the way that Jesus meant it is transforming. It doesn’t move us out of the messiness of life and instead place us in some kind of religious bubble where nothing can ever hurt us. Instead, when we are able to fully understand what Jesus was intending for us to take from his words, we can know and see through his example how our faith and trust in him enables us to get the most out of life as it is now, as well as see the light of his hope for the future.
Another way I’ve heard this expressed before goes like this: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… It’s about learning to dance in the rain”.
Knowing “life in all its fullness” will enable us to live fully as God intended as we integrate everything with His ways. We celebrated Jesus coming into the world at Christmas and now we need to live out the wonder of that during the year ahead. We need to be the people God has always intended for us to be as we learn, or re-learn, how to embrace “life in all its fullness” in Jesus’ name.
As we explore John 10 (plus other supporting passages), then move into the latter chapters of John’s gospel around Easter, we will have a fresh opportunity to respond to all that the Lord is showing us, and so be transformed in His name.
John 10: 14 – 18. To be the “good shepherd” Jesus has followed the “command I received from my Father” (vs. 18). Jesus has had to listen and understand fully to be able then to be the perfect example of “life in all its fullness”. Now it’s His turn, and others need to listen to […]
John 10: 11-13. Most of the time when we see sheep in a field they are head down, munching grass, seemingly oblivious to what’s going on around them. But if you try to get close to them, they’ll soon show you that they knew you were coming by running away. If they had heard the […]
John 10: 11-13. For Jesus to say “I am the Good Shepherd” He was taking direct responsibility for the sheep as their owner – they belong to Him. He sets that alongside the example of the shepherd who was just hired to do a job – they may be known by the sheep who are […]
John 10: 7-10. As we keep “the gate” in view for a bit longer, we need to make sure that we really understand why Jesus described Himself as the only “gate” that leads to being saved, compared to everyone else who might have made the same claim, but who were actually deceiving people. Was Jesus […]
John 10:7-10. So far in John 10 Jesus has been setting the scene and putting markers in the sand for the themes that He will now go deeper into. The first has us focus on “the gate”. The gate is a defining characteristic of the sheep. It determines the ability to go in and out […]
As we welcome Matt Roper & Charlotte Piek from Meninadança to share with us today, we will hear stories of how “life in all its fullness” has been stolen from so many young lives in Brazil. Yet, the Lord has not forgotten about them, and so the story includes the actions of those who have […]
John 10:1-6. Jesus shows us in these verses that there are two ways to approach life; one is to listen to the voice of the one who comes to us through honest and favourable means; the other is to listen to the one who comes in via some other, less than honourable way. The examples […]
John 10:1-21. What does it mean to you to hear the words of Jesus saying, “I have come so that you may have life in all its fullness?”. Maybe it sounds too good to be true, or an impossible thing to expect to ever achieve. But Jesus was definite in what he said, so what […]