Jesus- Delivering Freedom! Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• In my view, one of the great deliveries in history is the gift the Founding Father’s gave to us when they defeated the British to give us the United States of America!

• In the USA, we have enjoyed unprecedented freedom since the founding of our nation.

• Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, among others were put it all on the line to allow us to enjoy the freedom we have today.

• We owe a debt of gratitude to all who were a part of giving us our freedom as well as all those up to this day who have protected our freedom from those who would love to take our freedoms!

• In our Great Deliverer’s Series, we have seen both Gideon, and Samson deliver the nation of Israel from bondage. We also saw Moses deliver the nation from slavery and oppression.

• Today, we are going to finish our Great Delivers series by talking about the greatest delivers of them all, Jesus!

• Jesus delivered the greatest freedom that one can enjoy, the freedom from sin and the opportunity to have eternal life in Heaven as a part of God’s family!

• Today we are going to examine an exchange Jesus has with some of the His Jewish audience who according to John 8:30, believed in Him after listening to Him speak.

• However, Jesus is going to try to take these BELIEVERS to a deeper level of understanding as well as a deeper level of commitment.

• One of the things that Christians need to realize is that if we do not heed the words Jesus gives to us in this passage, we will never experience the full freedom that Jesus can deliver to you.

• We can talk about sin and particular sins all day long, but in the end those messages will mean nothing until we allow what Jesus says sink into our hearts.

• Until we allow the Word to penetrate out hearts, until we allow Jesus to rule your heart, what you do does not really matter much.

• The Christian life is not just about sin or not sin, it is about a relationship or no relationship with Jesus.

• Everything we do HAS to spring from our relationship with Jesus.

• Jesus is going to talk about the freedom we can have through Him, let’s begin by turning to our text, John 8. We will begin in verses 30-32.

• SLIDE #2

• John 8:30–32 (CSB) — 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. 31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. The Word delivers powerful results.

• One of the things we gather from this discourse is the fact that being a disciple of Jesus involves more than just believing.

• Verse 30 tells us Jesus is speaking to the many who heard Him and believed in Him.

• According to verse 31, Jesus looks at those folks and addressed them.

• “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.

• The Word CONTINUE means to STAY, PERSIST, to CONTINUE TO LIVE.

• For one to be a Disciple, one MUST continue in HIS WORD.

• We cannot just say we believe, our BELIEF has to lead us to live it out, to live the life, to walk the talk.

• This is more than studying the Word, it is more than memorizing the Word.

• John presents Jesus as the living Word of God in John 1:1 and John 1:14.

• To CONTINUE in His word means that we have to develop a living relationship with Him.

• A disciple is one with a relationship with Jesus.

• Yes, we can get excited about hearing messages about sin, what we are not supposed to do and such, especially if we are not struggling with the sin of the day.

• Don’t get me wrong, we need to deal with sin; however, even if you live a fairly clean life, what does that matter if you are not growing your relationship with Jesus?

• There were many in the crowd who believed, Jesus wanted them to know it takes more than just believing.

• How many of us believe, and maybe believed for a LONG time, but have really never developed a relationship with Jesus?

• The WORD, the WORD of Christ delivers powerful results.

• Continuing in His word will make you one of His disciples.

• That stands in contrast to those who are not REALLY His disciples.

• Jesus touched on this in a passage that should scare many of us.