John 10:22-42

Who, in your opinion, is the most important personality of all time?

A brilliant young medical student from another country, a disciple of Eastern religion, was asked this question. His reply was, “I am sure that Jesus of Nazareth had done more good, is the greatest teacher, and has lived the most holy life of any personality on Earth.”

Everyone, of course, does not hold that view. In 1876, Corporal Robert Ingersoll, The Great Agnostic, challenged General Lew Wallace’s Christian faith. Struck by his inability to defend Christianity, Wallace began extensive research to prove Christianity was a myth. After years of research and a myriad of materials, Wallace found himself believing in the myth rather than proving it. “It only remains to say that I did as resolved, with results – first, the book Ben Hur, and second, a conviction amounting to absolute belief in God and the Divinity of Christ.”

We will extend the family of God when we have Jesus Christ take His rightful place in our lives. This is true for the person who knows Jesus as Savior, for such a person needs to make Him Lord in all things. This is also true of the person who has never confessed Jesus as Savior. He needs to allow Jesus to do what He came into this world to fulfill: make you a new person.

As we look at this section of Scripture, we will see the uniqueness of Jesus and that He is the supplier of our life’s needs.

• He is unique in His nature (John 10:24)
  • The revelation of His nature
    • “Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me,” John 10:25
    • “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Colossians 1:15-20
  • Clear observation
    • “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
• He is unique in His purpose (John 10:28)
  • He came to give eternal life to as many as that will receive Him
    • “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” John 1:12
  • His purpose is to bring meaning and purpose into our lives
    • “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee.” Augustine, Confessions

Man is the greatest expression of God’s Creation. God, therefore, knows just what we need to have a meaningful life. No contractor would think of building a structure without consulting the blueprints, because that is the only way they can determine how to build it to meet the building’s intended function.

Unless we fulfill God’s purpose, we cannot know peace. We don’t break God’s laws – they break us. A person who jumps off a building isn’t breaking God’s law; he is defying God’s law.

Let’s look at some examples.

Roughly one out of every 2.5 marriages in this country ends in divorce. Yet out of marriages where both spouses are Christian and share a real Christian living, the divorce rate is one out of every 1,015. Jesus Christ makes the difference.

In 1923, nine of the world’s most successful financiers met in Chicago. In 1948, 25 years later, you would not aspire to their lives.

• The president of the largest steel company died bankrupt.
• The president of the largest utility company was a fugitive and penniless.
• The president of the largest gas company went insane.
• The greatest wheat speculator died insolvent.
• The head of the New York Stock Exchange had just recently been released from prison.
• The president of the Bank of International Settlements died by suicide.
• A member of the President’s Cabinet was pardoned to die at home.
• The bear of Wall Street died by suicide.
• The head of the world’s greatest monopoly died by suicide.

They once had success as measured by the world. They lacked the purpose in life that Jesus gives.

• Unique in His work (John 10:41-42)
  • To give life (John 10:10)
  • To do this through death (I Peter 2:24)
  • To enable us to believe in Him and thus have new life

Jesus is the most unique person in history! His uniqueness enables Him to meet your needs today, whatever they are.