The Thief and His Plan // An Abundant Life in Jesus, Part 2

Jesus promised each of his disciples – that’s anyone who believes in Him – an abundant life. Yeah, right!! But in the same breath – in the very same verse in the Bible, he also says that there’s a thief – and all the thief is interested in is to steal, kill and destroy.  Well – if Jesus talked about him – this thief – then maybe it’s worth you and me taking a closer look.

I was speaking recently with a group of people, it was a Church service on a Sunday morning and I asked them this question, “Is there anybody here in this room today who doesn’t have at least one thing going on in their lives that hurts? One thing they wish wasn’t there, one thing that they want God to heal or to change or to solve or to take away?”

If you don’t have at least one such thing in your life raise your hand in the air. There would have been, I’m guessing, over a hundred people in the room. Silence. I cast my eyes around the room, I just allowed the silence to hang there momentarily and not a single hand went up in the air, not one.

These were all people who believed in Jesus. These were all people who had heard Jesus say, John chapter 10, verse 10:

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.

They all heard Jesus promise them an abundant life. Literally what Jesus says here, the original Greek language, it means a super abundant life and yet everybody had something in their lives that was troubling them and you know what it’s like, your whole body can be healthy but you jam your finger in a door and the excruciating pain in that one finger is all you can think about.

The fact that the rest of your life is just fine at that point is pretty much irrelevant; it’s all about that one bit that hurts.

It’s true isn’t it? It is so easy to live our lives focusing on that one bit in our lives that hurts; The difficult relationship, the financial pressure, the problem at work, the worry about what other people are thinking about us. It’s pretty much different for each one of us but when we have that one thing, or perhaps even two or three, that ache that we wish would just go away then it consumes us. It robs us of life.

Now this promise of Jesus to give us an abundant life comes in the context of a much wider story. So let’s have a listen to what He says. John chapter 10 beginning at verse 1, He said:

Truly I tell you anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep fold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gate keeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he’s brought out all his own he goes ahead of them and the sheep will follow him because they know his voice.

They won’t follow a stranger but they’ll run away from him because they do not know the voice of a stranger.’ Jesus used this figure of speech with them but they didn’t understand what He was saying to them

So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate, whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The hired hand who isn’t the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

The hired hand runs away because a hired hand doesn’t care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, my own know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep.’

This was a very familiar story to those who were listening. They knew the profession of a shepherd was one of honour, one of protecting his sheep. They knew that as a shepherd led his sheep out over the stony plateau of Israel in search of pasture, thieves would often attack to try and steal the sheep. Wild animals would sometimes attack to steal a sheep and eat it for dinner. It was the reality of life for a shepherd.

And a true shepherd’s job was to defend his flock. But let’s focus for a moment in this story on the thief.

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

Jesus is telling a parable here, a parable that’s meant to reach into our lives. And the thief in this story is the enemy, the devil, the tempter, the deceiver he’s referred to elsewhere. The one who dangles glittery baubles under our noses, trinkets and treasures that are so alluring, so seductive they appear to promise so much. Can he get us to wander off?

And other times he comes simply to attack us through circumstances, through other people. We see that in Job’s story in the Old Testament, how the devil uses financial collapse, sickness, family breakdown, even so called friends to attack Job.

Paul, the Apostle gives us a glimpse into the spiritual realm to tell us what’s going on when we’re under attack from this enemy, this thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy. Ephesians chapter 6 beginning at verse 12 Paul writes:

Our struggle isn’t against enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

See there’s a spiritual dimension to life and if we ignore that we do so at our peril. There is a devil, he is our enemy and sometimes he comes dressed as an angel of light to deceive us. Other times he sneaks up like a thief or he attacks openly like a wolf. All that is in the Bible and we ignore this, this spiritual dimension of evil at our peril.

But look at it with me again if you will at what Jesus says about Himself:

O again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you I’m the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and bandits but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I’m the gate, whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.’

In summer the shepherds would stay out over night with their flocks. They’d roam further because it was warmer and dotted around the place on the plateau were pens that had been built using dense hedges. So by night the shepherd would lead his sheep into one of these pens but the pens had no gate so he would sleep in the opening, in the gateway.

He, in effect, became the gate to keep the sheep in over night safe and sound so none would wander off and to keep the thieves and the wild animals out. He would fight any that came with his shepherd staff and his rod, a kind of club with spikes. He was the gate, he was their safety. He gave them protection and so safety and peace.

And that is Jesus in our lives today my friend, make no mistake about it. The thief will come to steal, kill and destroy. To rob us of the abundant life that Jesus has planned. The wild animals will come to tear at our flesh and to corrupt our flesh. And yes we could wander off in our own direction but out there on our own you and I are sitting ducks.

The place of safety is with Jesus. The place of safety is close to our shepherd, the true shepherd who laid down His life for us. Think about it, if we’re constantly being ravaged by the devil how can we possibly be having an abundant life? Yep there are going to be struggles in our lives and when they come, when things hurt the place to go is Jesus, the one true shepherd; the one who lays down His life for His sheep.

He is meant to be our refuge. He can and He will protect us. What a pity, so many suffer through things alone when all along Jesus is waiting. You see the thief only comes to steal and kill and destroy but Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly.