September 6, 2020 (2001)                      NOTES NOT EDITED
Do You Need An Upgrade?
John 10:10

In just my lifetime, computers and technology devices went from measuring storage space in kilobytes (1000 bits of information) to gigabytes (1 million bits of information). When I started college, I thought I was in heaven when I got an “electric” typewriter! Upgrades make technology thousands of times better, and getter better and more sophisticated by the day.

The same idea applies to our spiritual life, except in an infinitely more significant way. The original upgrade comes when we accept Jesus Christ as Our Lord and seek to serve Him passionately each day of our lives. A relationship with Jesus Christ allows us to live a happier, healthier, more productive life.

One writer describes a “Jesus Upgrade” this way: He upgrades despair to hope, bondage to freedom, perplexity to peace and illness to health . . . [and most importantly] lostness to salvation, death to life . . . hell to heaven.

Jesus is definitely in the upgrade business. He wants you to live a full, productive, happy life.  He said so, Himself. Jesus said, (Jn. 10:10) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  

Jesus is speaking about a special “quality” of life not just an eternal quantity of life.  Eternal life is not measured in beats of the heart but by blessings of God.  Jesus did not die to simply add more years to our lives, but more importantly, more life to our years.

Prior to pronouncing His desire to give us “abundant life,” Jesus contrasts Himself as a “good shepherd,” with the lies of the world which He calls “thieves and robbers.” Let’s read this together:

(John 10:1-10)  "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. {2} The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. {3} The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. {4} When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. {5} But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." {6} Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. {7} Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. {8} All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. {9} I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. {10} The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Now, before we look into the three important components in a Jesus Upgrade, let’s get the entire context of what Jesus was teaching. Chapter 10 must be understood in connection, or context, with a man who God a “Jesus Upgrade” in chapter nine. A man, blind from birth and healed by Jesus created a riot of sorts in the town because the religious leaders believed only “God could heal” and this man said he was healed by Jesus. The Pharisees considered Jesus a “blasphemer” who “did not keep the Sabbath”(v14). This is most likely a reference to “how Jesus healed the blind man.” He “spit on the ground and kneaded mud into a patch he put on the man’s eyes”(9:6-7). When the man washed in the nearby pool of Siloam as instructed, he received his sight. The act of kneading the mud into a doughish ball (like kneading flour into bread) was on of the 39 types of work forbidden by the Jews to be done on the Sabbath. The whole incident of healing this man serves to accentuate the contrast Jesus makes between Himself as a “life giver” and the religious rulers as “thieves and life robbers.” Jesus is a “joy giver.” The Pharisees were “joy-stealers.” Jesus gives life in abundance; the religious Pharisees give an abundance of life-squashing rules. 

Jesus gave a blind man the “ultimate upgrade.” He gave him sight for sure, which was an upgrade enough, but Jesus also gave Him eternal life. In chapter 9:35 Jesus asked the man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” In verse 38 the man replied, “’Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped Jesus.” Jesus does not simply “upgrade the physical and emotional aspects of our lives, but He upgrades our spiritual lives. A Jesus Upgrade promises “abundant life beginning at the moment of our repentance and continuing for all eternity.”

Now, how do we get this “Jesus Upgrade that promises us abundant life.” A Jesus Upgrade has three components: 1. It is a Grace-Imparted Life, a Christ-centered life, and a Holy Spirit intoxicated life. bestowed

❶Abundant Life is a Grace-Imparted Life

There are two ways men try to enter into a life of blessing. Jesus calls these two ways “entering by the door or sneaking in some other way.” Jn. 10:1 outlines this contrast of the “Two Ways”: “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.”

Let us ponder a moment on three related and significant words: infused, imputed, and imparted. These all mean basically the same thing: one thing is bestowed upon another thing. This is very important to understanding salvation. By means of God’s grace, salvation is “infused, imputed, or imparted” to man as a free gift from Almighty God wholly and completely apart from any action or merit on the part of man. Protestants call this “imputed righteousness.” Catholics refer to it as “infused” righteousness, but to avoid any confusion I am calling it, “imparted” righteousness. By means of God’s grace salvation, or righteousness is “imparted” to us completely apart from our actions or merit. It is a free gift. One can’t deserve. One can’t discover it. One cannot obtain it through human efforts. The Bible describes this “impartation of salvation by grace”:

²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2Cor. 5:21; also Rom. 8:3-4)

Throughout the Bible, and in the history of religion, there have always been two approaches to the search for meaning or salvation, however salvation is defined by a particular religion. You can call these two ways: ① The Way of Works; and, ② The Way of Grace. If you made a chart of all the world’s religions and marked two columns as the Way of Works and the other the Way of Grace, you would have all the religions of the world in column one, the Way of Works, and only Christianity in column two as the way of Grace. It is grace that separates Christianity from all the other false “ways” of the world.  

Let’s return for a time to the story that sets up the teaching of Jesus in chapter 10. The occasion was the healing of the blind man on the Sabbath which so infuriated the religious leaders that they attacked both the man, and his family and friends. What so infuriated the Pharisees?  Well, consider first who these Pharisees were.

They were men highly skilled in understanding the Old Testament and traditions of the Jewish faith.  They were the “professors” of religion.  They followed their religion to the letter.  They were religious fanatics.  They were experts in religion. The were the “gatekeepers” of what they perceived was the way of righteousness, that is “keeping the Law of Moses.” Jesus broke that Law in their eyes by forming clay into an eyepatch as we mentioned earlier. The Pharisees did not care that Jesus gave sight to the man who had been blind since birth. All that mattered to the Pharisees was the “way” Jesus healed the man. In the eyes of the religious hypocrites, whom Jesus called, “thieves and robbers,” Jesus healed the man in the wrong “way.” He violated the Sabbath by committing one of the thirty-nine types of work forbidden by “Mishnah, Shabat, 7.2.”

According to the Pharisees (the experts in religion) a person needed to meticulously follow a prescribed set of rituals to gain favor with God.  Because of these burdensome rules and rituals, many people then–and today–have been robbed of living an abundant, victorious Christian life. 

Jesus called them robbers because religion always robs people of a

true relationship with God.  The Bible tells us: (Eph 2:8-9)   For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- {9} not by works, so that no one can boast.

It is impossible to live a truly happy, productive abundant life without

the grace of God.  Grace means: free gift.  Abundant life is Gift-given, not work-earned. Grace is absolutely free. Unlike computer

upgrades that are very expensive–a Jesus upgrade is absolutely free. 

You can’t buy with your money.  You can’t earn it with your religion.

You have to simply accept it as a GRACE–a free gift from God. Grace is the “door to the sheepfold of God and the only way one can enter into the abundant life Jesus promised.” 

The first step to upgrading your life is to respond to the grace of God

and live by faith.  Eternal life is a “grace-imparted” life.

❷An upgraded life is a CHRIST-CENTERED life (3b-4)

The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. {4} When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

A computer has what is called a CPU.  I’m not much of a computer buff, but I know this means “central processing unit.”   It is also called the “mother board.”  This is the brain of the computer.  It controls all the functions of the computer and makes the computer work.  Even automobiles have a CPU that controls many of the functions that make your car function.  If the CPU breaks down, the computer is useless. 

Our lives have CPU’s also. Something controls us.  Actually, SomeONE controls us. We all have a voice in our heart that controls our functions in life.  Computers have many different types of CPU’s.  So do people.  Actually, all these CPU’s in life fall into two main types of voices that control all human activity.  Jesus outlines them in this passage: either you are following the voice of Jesus, or you are following the voice of thieves and robbers. Unlike “false shepherds who drive sheep from behind, a True shepherd guides them from in front. False shepherds lead by intimidation. True shepherds lead by inspiration. Many people refer to Baptists as, “people of the Book.” In truth, we are “People of the Lord.” We follow Jesus as the “perfect embodiment and example of the Word of God.” Our relationship is with a Person, not a printed page. Many people misinterpret the printed page, but nobody could misinterpret the Perfect Example of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.

Many people hear other voices, the voices of “thieves and robbers.” For example many, especially in this age when anyone can have a “video presence on the net,” people fall under the spell of ①false religion, and false prophets. Second, some people only respond the jingle of cash.  They are controlled totally by ②materialism.  These are people who say, “if I just hit the lottery, I’d be happy. If I just had a bigger house or better car, I’d be happy. The Bible, as well as the history of the human experience proves that the voice of materialism is a thief.  It will rob you of a genuine experience with Jesus.  

Other people are controlled by the voice of ③pleasure.  These are people, for example, who might say, “I’d be happy if I could just get high.  I’d be happy if I just had another drink.  Or, I’d be happy if I could just have a one-night stand with that pretty secretary at work.” The Bible tells us, and human experience reminds us, the voice of pleasure will also rob you of a happy, productive, abundant life.

Now, I ask you . . . whose voice are you listening to? The voice of thieves and robbers, or the voice of Jesus. Third, a

❸Jesus Upgrade requires a SPIRIT-INTOXICATED life (10)

To get a Jesus Upgrade for your life it is not enough to simply hear the voice of Jesus and respond. This will get you into heaven, but you must also constantly feed your soul with the nectar of the Spirit–this gets heaven into you. Here’s what I mean.  Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full .

The word “full” is an adjective.  It describes or modifies the word “life.”  At the time Jesus spoke these words in Greek the word for “full” meant: over and above, superfluous in every possible way, a more than sufficient amount, extraordinary, or uncommon.”   It means “filled up and spilling over, or stuffed so full of good things that you are about to burst.”

Greek, the language the Bible was originally written in, uses two basic words for “life.”  One is ①“bios.”  This word refers to the “basics” of life: food, clothing, shelter, etc.  It would refer primarily to “how many years are in one’s life.”  Bios is represented by the two numbers separated by a “dash” on a tombstone.  The other Greek word translated “life” is ②“zoē.”  It refers to life’s quality: not the number of years in one’s life, but the amount of life in one’s years.”

Jesus came to give us the ultimate upgrade: abundant life. Americans

are fat–in every way. Almost everything we do, we do to excess. We drink too much.  We eat too much.  We seek thrills in ways that are not good for our health.  We are a nation of excess.  We have about 6% of the world’s population but we consume over 90% of the world’s natural resources.  We are indeed a “nation of abundance.”

But, being an American ain’t nothing compared to being a Christian.

We can get fat on the Word of God, drunk on the Spirit of God, and go to extremes exercising our faith in God without all the risks and ill-effects of eating too much alcohol, too much eating or too much time seeking ever more stimulating pleasures.

The abundant life means, “We CAN have our cake and EAT it too!”

When it comes to the blessings of God–excess is acceptable, even desirable. Ephesians 5:18 says: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

We all know how addicting and controlling alcohol can be.  Being intoxicated with alcohol will cause you to do things and say things you would not do otherwise. It’s the same with the Holy Spirit.  Once you get intoxicated by His presence in your life – you will never go back to what the world has to offer.

Like the young man hitchhiking through Kentucky.  A farmer stopped his pickup and offered the young man a ride.  The young man gratefully climbed into the truck.  As they drove along they started talking about the local moonshine manufactured in those parts.  The farmer asked the young traveler if he had ever tried moonshine.  The farmer’s passenger replied, “No, I think it would be too strong for my taste.”  The farmer replied, “Nonsense!  You’ve got to try some.”  He then pulled a small jug from under the seat and handed it to the young man.  The young man politely refused.  The farmer insisted. “No, sir.  I thing that is way too strong for me.”  The farmer continued to insist as they traveled down the road.  The young man continued to resist.  Suddenly, the farmer pulled off the road and slid to a stop.   “I said, ‘you gotta try it’ and you’re gonna try it.”   The farmer reached under the seat pulled out a double barrel shotgun and pointed it at the young man holding the jug of moonshine.  “Try it!”  “Okay, okay, I’ll try it” the hitchhiker said with a look of fear on his face.  He wasn’t sure which scared him most–the moonshine or the man with the gun.  He took a big gulp.  This was powerful stuff!  His throat muscles tightened.  His eyes watered and he made a coughing sound.  The farmer smiled.   “What do you think of my moonshine? Kinda potent, ain’t it?”   Gasping the young lad said, “Yeah.  That’s some pretty strong stuff.”   Then the farmer handed the gun to his passenger.   “Now, you hold the gun on me and make me take a drink!”

If I could hold a gun on you and make you take a drink from the river of life, I would do it.  But, I can’t.  If you are going to lead a Spirit-intoxicated life, you have to do it willingly and freely. You have to spend the time praying. You have to spend the time studying the Word. You have to spend time in Church. God will not force Himself on you but once you taste what He has to offer, you will be hooked for life – eternal life.

Is your life Grace-entered, Christ-centered, and God-Intoxicated? If not maybe you should consider and upgrade.  Jesus said,  “I have come that you might have life . . . eternal life filled up with blessing and running over. A Jesus Upgraded life.