All right, Bible Scholars, it's day 21 on our 40-day tour through the Gospel of John.

We're up to John chapter 10, verses 1 to 18.

This is a beautiful and inspiring passage, and I've been looking forward to giving

you a tour of this text for a long time because it's filled with imagery, phrases, even some

key words that are so life-giving. Let's start today, though, somewhere toward the middle.

John chapter 10, verse 10. Halfway through the verse, Jesus says this. He says, my purpose is to,

how would you fill in the blank there? What do you think Jesus is going to say next? The whole purpose

of me being sent in this world is to what? What would the world say? To teach good morals,

to make right things that have gone wrong, to do miracles, to heal the sick.

All of those things are aspects of what Jesus is doing while he's here in this world in human form.

But when Jesus says my purpose is, he doesn't say any of those things.

He sums it up more simply than that and more profoundly.

It's probably worth our attention to what he points us to here. My purpose is to give you a rich

and satisfying life. That's a good, faithful translation here in the NLT of the original Greek, but these original

Greek words are so full that we can see distinctives that kind of broaden out the definition

of these words in their original text. And you can do that by comparing different English

translations. Other translations, Jesus is saying the same thing, similar things,

but a little bit distinctive. My purpose is to give you an abundant life, to give you a full life,

to give you a complete life, to give you a life that's lacking nothing. Dr. Eugene Peterson's

translation called The Message says, Jesus is quoted as saying, my purpose is to give you a life beyond anything

you ever dreamed of. Man, what good news that is. Where else can we go to find a life like this?

I mean, we're digging into God's word. We know the answer is Jesus. It's a daily devotional.

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