John 8:31-36 “Beginning again”
INTRODUCTION: Have you ever been to a fair or maybe to Disneyland where they have these people dressed up like statues and they stand perfectly still and you think it is the stature until they move and freak you out?
I remember reading an illustration about one of these characters that stood on the street corner and he would point his finger at people going by and then say “guilty”. People would look at him, lower their head and try to sneak away. Some would say “how does he know”?
Do you ever get hard on yourself? Do you ever verbally and consciously beat yourself up over the errors, the sins, and the difficulties you have brought upon yourself.
Sometimes we are very hard on ourselves and we should be if we have done that which is wrong.
Sometimes we are very hard on yourselves and we shouldn’t be because we’ve done nothing wrong, but yet we feel the guilt over whatever situation we are in.
Hazel Felleman wrote a poem about this:
"I wish there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all our mistakes, and all our heartaches
And all our selfish griefs
Could be cast like a shabby old coat at the door
And never be put on again"
The problem is that guilt has a tendency to dominate our lives and the devil loves to use it to destroy us.
Jesus said: John 8:34 "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Or as Proverbs 5:22 tells us “evil deeds… ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast.”
Titus 3:3 tells us that “for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us …”
Notice, that he said this is what you used to be, but something caused a change in you.
Jesus said– “… if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
That is the promise of Christ.
When Jesus talks about freedom, he is not talking political freedom, he is not talking about anarchy-the freedom from all the rules and regulations, no he is talking about a spiritual freedom they can only come through him.
I’m not sure that we as Christians even fully understand what he is talking about because there are so many Christians that still live lives of defeat, lives that are stressed out, lives that are overcome by worry instead of lives that Jesus talked about when he said, I have come that you might have life, and have it in abundance, John 10:10.
I wonder if we really understand the word freedom and how it applies to Christians in the 21st century.
As one person said, "This is not the freedom to attend church or not to attend church, it is not the freedom to read the Bible or not to read the Bible, it is not about the freedom to choose the denomination we feel most comfortable in; we are talking about a freedom to live the abundant life that Jesus talks about".
Jesus says, “If the Son sets you free you are free indeed;” But what does that really mean?
1. Freedom from Guilt
STORY: there was a gentleman that was feeling extremely guilty that he had cheated on his tax return, so he wrote this letter to the IRS;
Gentlemen:
Enclosed you will find a check for $150. I cheated on my income tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping, I will send you the rest.
Sincerely, A Tax Payer
There is such thing as good guilt. It is that guilt that the Holy Spirit brings upon us when we have done something to hurt somebody, or we have maligned somebody or if in our thoughts and actions we have done something wrong. The Holy Spirit sends a conviction of sin to our minds and hearts to get us to repent and to turn away from that which we know is wrong.
That is the purpose of our Confession of Sin that we share each Sunday in our services. That’s why we sing songs like we did today;
“search me, O God, and know my heart today.
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
cleanse me from every sin and set me free.
We need to be reminded that we are sinful human beings and sometimes we do things that we shouldn’t do, we say things that we should say and our actions don’t always tell people that we are truly following Jesus Christ. So sometimes guilt in the form of conviction is a good thing and we must listen to it, it will lead us to true repentance.
But there is also false guilt, guilt that others try to place upon us to gain a desired end.
There are many legalistic churches and ministers who are very good at making their congregations feel guilty by telling the congregations what they think the congregation should be doing or not doing. I remember a congregation where the pastor made the people feel that they were doing wrong by celebrating Christmas. To this pastor, Christmas was a pagan holiday. So if the family is celebrating Christmas, they were guilty of sin; but there is nothing in the Bible like that, this is nothing but false guilt.
I don’t believe God wants us to carry around this kind of false guilt that weighs so heavy upon our hearts? FALSE GUILT is an unhealthy guilt that leads to self-destructive behavior because we often feel the need to punish ourselves for what we "think" we did wrong.
FEELING guilty is different than BEING guilty.
We need to remember that not only will God take care of our true guilt through repentance, but He also takes care of our false guilt. Sometimes we have a more difficult time with false guilt than we do with true guilt.
Scripture tells us in I John 1:9 that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Scripture says in Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
One of the biggest things that He has set us free from is the GUILT OF SIN--whether true guilt or false guilt. So, we lay our sins at the feet of Jesus and know that he has taken care of our sins completely.
2. Freedom from the spiritual Consequences of Sin:
In this world sin has consequences. You steal something, you will get caught and you will have to either make restitution or pay in some way for that which you have done. There is an old adage that says that if you pound a nail into a board, you can pull the nail out but the hole will still remain. You do that which is wrong and in this world there will be consequences.
Take for example if you’re going to get involved with “smokin, drinkin, cussin, chewin, and acting ugly,” you will learn self-destructive habits takes a toll on your health. Sin always has consequences in this world.
Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The verse is telling us; sin will always lead us on a downward spiral unto death, BUT God's gift is eternal life... freedom from the final consequence of sin through the work of Jesus. When Jesus went to the cross, he took all your sin and the consequences for your sin upon himself and paid the ultimate price for our forgiveness, redemption, and salvation. We might have to experience earthly consequences for our sin, but because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are free from the final spiritual consequence of sin (death, separation from God).
When we come to Christ, when we give ourselves to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we can be certain that sin’s power is broken. We are no longer under sin’s control. He is able to set us free from the downward spiral. God gives us the power to change. He gives us freedom from the control of sin when we give ourselves completely to God. It is by his grace through faith that we can overcome and we can walk in the freedom of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:1 tells us, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” “You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature” (v. 13)
3. The Freedom to live according to the truth:
In the Lutheran ambassador (the church magazine for the AFLC), a second-year student by the name of Nathan Olson, at our Bible school wrote an article entitled, “Tell the truth”. In that article he said, “uniquely, Christians have the amazing gift of having the truth of Jesus as the ultimate certainty in our lives, but how well do we know the truth that each of us has within us? Even though Christians have the only truth, why is it that so many believers seem confused by it?”
“What is the truth? Scripture tells us that Jesus HIMSELF is the Truth that sets us free. He is the source of the truth--the perfect standard of what is right. Jesus frees us to BE all that God wants us to be. John 14:6 Jesus said, “I AM the way and the TRUTH and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This was one of His I AM statements. He didn’t say, I HAVE the Truth or I KNOW the Truth but rather I AM the TRUTH.”
We can begin to experience a new life because of His guidance and direction in our daily lives. Galatians 5:16 tells us to “walk under the control of the Spirit and we will no longer be forced to live in bondage to the desires of the flesh.” We no longer have to live angry, jealous, hateful, selfish, under guilt and condemnation or any other of the characteristics of a sinful lifestyle. Why would a person who has accepted God’s gift still live in bondage to the same old lifestyle?
Titus 2:11-12 tells us “the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. It teaches that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age.” Many people want the promise of heaven when they die, but they want to live like the world around them while they are still here. They don’t want to live according to the truth.
Jesus was telling these people in verse 31 that if they continued to do what He taught them, they would REALLY BE HIS DISCIPLES and as a result REALLY BE FREE INDEED.
Paul says it in a little different way in II Corinthians 3:16-18 “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM and we...are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord...” We are FREE to become all that the Lord wants us to be. He can make it happen for you. But we need to turn our lives over completely to the Lord.
4. Freedom from Worry
Have you ever been enslaved by worry?
Someone has said, "Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s trouble."
STORY: A man was worrying all the time about everything. He was a chronic worrier. Then one day his friends saw him whistling. "Can that be our friend? No it can’t be. Yes it is." They asked him, "What happened?" He said, "I’m paying a man to do my worrying for me."
"You mean you aren’t worrying anymore?" "No whenever I’m inclined to worry, I just let him do it." "How much do you pay him?" "Two thousand dollars a week." "Wow! How can you afford that?" I can’t. But that’s his worry."
I read somewhere, “Worry distorts our thinking, disrupts our work, disquiets our soul, disturbs our body, and disfigures our face. It destroys our friends, demoralizes our life, defeats our faith and deflates our energy” .... If you have ever found yourself caught up in the clutches of worry - you know those things to be true.
When the Son sets us free he truly sets us free, and He wants to set us free from the destructive power of worry.
CONCLUSION: Are you free today? What are you being controlled by?
Is it guilt? Is it the consequence of your sin? Is it a life not lived in the truth of God’s word? Is it too much worry? Jesus can take care of that, “Cast your care upon Him for He cares for you”.
Do you desire a new beginning? Speak your concern before your heavenly Father, He will listen and he will answer. He will set your free and you will be free indeed.
