Demands Of Discipleship Series

The Demands of Discipleship

The Cost of Freedom in Christ

John 8:31-37

• There is no price for salvation.

• No amount of money will buy it.

♬ Nothing good have I done to deserve God’s own son, I’m not worthy of the scars in his hands,

Yet he chose the road to Calvary to die in my stand, Why he loved me I can’t understand.

• But there are responsibilities that come with faith.

• There are evidences and apparent fruit of true faith.

ILLUS: I have had cars in which the gas hand was not accurate. You can’t ALWAYS tell the temperature of the engine or the gas in the tank or the oil pressure in the engine by the instruments. But most of the time you can. You can’t always judge the heart by the life, but Jesus did say, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

• Some people argue for what they call “simple faith.”

• If you mean a salvation with no demands upon the recipient, then that is not simple faith. That is CHEAP faith!

• Today, we will look at Jesus’ own teaching on the subject:

MY TRANSLATION:

John 8:31 - 37 Therefore Jesus was saying to the Jews which had believed in Him, If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples. 32 And you shall know the truth and the truth shall free you. 33 They answered him, We are Abraham’s seed and we have never been enslaved: How are you saying that you will become free? 34 Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you that every one doing sin is the slave of sin. 35 And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 If the Son therefore shall free you, you shall really be free. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s seed, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you.

CONTEXT:

• The great annual Feast of Tabernacles (John 7) has just ended.

• Jesus remains in Jerusalem.

• All of chapters 7:1 to 10:21 take place around this feast.

• In chapter 8:1-11, Jesus talks with the woman caught in adultery.

• In 8:12-20 He proclaims that He is the light of the World.

• In 8:21-30, He declares that He is the only way to Heaven.

• He showed them how he was different! In comparison to the Jews, they have . . .

Different Destinations

Different natures.

Different obedience to the Father.

• In the last verse before our passage today, we see that many “believed” on Jesus.

• But was it saving faith?

• Jesus Himself answers the question!

INTRODUCTION:

• In our text this morning, the Jews thought that they were free.

• They thought that they knew their father.

• They were proud of their freedom and their father.

• But they were wrong! Dead wrong.

• Jesus is speaking to a group which believed in Him, but not on Him.

QUOTE: They believed him (cf. 6:30) as to his claims to being the Messiah with their own interpretation (6:15), but they did not commit themselves to him and may represent only one element of those in verse 30. (RWP)

An Argument About Freedom (31-37)

I. Jesus’ Demands: The Prerequisite for Freedom (31,32)

A. Requirements For Freedom (31)

[31] Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

1. Believing

• Faith is the starting place.

• Without faith it is impossible to believe God!

• But anyone can claim to have faith.

• For faith to be proven, there must be evidence.

2. Continuing

• Works are not necessary for faith, but they are natural results of faith.

ILLUS: Some beg to differ with our Presbyterian friends on the terminology “Perseverance of the Saints.” They prefer to use “eternal security.” Yet when we look in the Bible, we find that perseverance is the better term. God’s saints assuredly will persevere!

• It is at this point that I must oppose many of the mega church ministries of today.

• They are talking people only half way.

• They may believe in Jesus, but there is little emphasis on the demands Jesus placed upon those who would follow Him!

QUOTE: “The question is not wheter Mr. Fosdick is winning men, but whether the thing to which he is winning them is Christianity.” (Fundamentalist Presbyterian thinker, J. Gresham Machen)

Romans 2:13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

ILLUS: If you walk out into the parking lot this evening and someone says to you, "How do I get to Atlanta?"