Do You Want to be Free -The Chain can be Broken ( Col. 1:13,14 )
Intro : Freedom! What a wonderful word to us. We all value freedom highly. We delight in being free. We long to live in freedom always.
One of the most encouraging and recurring themes in the New Testament is that Christians are free in Christ Jesus. This especially was good news to the Christians who first received this teaching from the apostles since many of the first believers throughout the Roman Empire were officially classified as slaves. The freedom that the apostles spoke about, however, was not a political freedom but, rather, a spiritual one. They spoke of an inner freedom that allows a person to live above his present circumstances.
This is a freedom that is no less important in our world today, when many people feel trapped in the bondage of addictions, depression, abusive relationships, and other oppressive situations. The world in which we live is not a godly world, and we each must experience the freedom that Christ offers to us so that we can live in the world, yet not be “of” the world.
To any person who feels as if he or she is in the clutches of something negative or evil, the encouraging word is, “You can be free!”
Text : Col 1:13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,
Col 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Gal 5:1 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.
To be free you must first realize that you are in bondage
Some of the things that put you in bondage
Biting and devouring each other,
sexual immorality,
impurity
debauchery; LASCIVIOUSNESS KJV term for an unbridled expression of sexual urges (Mark 7:22; 2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 4:19; 1 Pet. 4:3; Jude 4). RSV translated the underlying Greek as licentiousness; the NASB, as sensuality. Other translations used a variety of terms: debauchery; indecency; lewdness; sexual sin.
idolatry
witchcraft;
hatred,
discord,
jealousy,
fits of rage,
selfish ambition,
dissensions,
factions
envy;
drunkenness,
orgies,
The only thing that can set you free is the REDEMPTIVE ACT OF JESUS
What is Redemption ?
REDEEM, REDEMPTION, REDEEMER To pay the required price to secure the release of a convicted criminal, the process therein involved, and the person making the payment. In early use the idea and the words related to legal and commercial activities. They provided biblical writers with one of the most basic and dynamic images for describing God's saving activity toward mankind.
Old testament --Three Hebrew words express the legal and commercial use of the redemptive concept.
Padah was used only in relation to the redemption of persons or other living beings. For example, if a person owned an ox which was known to be dangerous but did not keep the ox secured and the ox gored the son or daughter of a neighbor, both the ox and the owner would be stoned to death. If, however, the father of the slain person offered to accept an amount of money, the owner could pay the redemption price and live
ga'al indicated a redemption price in family members involving the responsibility of a next-of-kin
to redeem or ransom the family land by paying the redemption price for it (Jer. 32:6-15). Such commercial practices easily passed over into religious concepts. God would redeem Israel from her iniquities.
kipper or "cover" came to extensive use in strictly religious concepts and practices. It is the word from which "Kippur" is derived in "Yom Kippur," Day of Atonement, or Day of Covering, perhaps the most sacred of the holy days in Judaism. The verbal form in the Old Testament is always used in a religious sense such as the covering of sin or the making of atonement for sin.
Religious redemption language grows out of the custom of buying back something which formerly belonged to the purchaser but for some reason had passed into the ownership of another. The original owner could regain ownership by paying a redemption price for it. In the Old Testament the terms and ideas are frequently used symbolically to emphasize dramatically the redemptive or saving activity of God
The New Testament centers redemption in Jesus Christ.
He purchased the church with His own blood---Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
gave His flesh for the life of the world---John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
the Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep---John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
demonstrated the greatest love by laying down His life for His friends---John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
he purpose of Jesus in the world was to make a deliberate sacrifice of Himself for human sin. He did something sinful people could not do for themselves. He brought hope to sinners, providing redemption from sin and fellowship with the Eternal Father. As the Suffering Servant, His was a costly sacrifice, the shameful and agonizing death of a Roman cross. New Testament redemption thus speaks of substitutionary sacrifice demonstrating divine love and righteousness. It points to a new relationship to God, the dynamic of a new life, God's leniency in the past, and the call for humility for the future.
In other ways and language the centrality of redemption through the death of Jesus Christ is expressed throughout the New Testament from the Lamb of God who lifts up and carries away the sin of the world (John 1:29) to the redeeming Lamb praised by a multitude because He was slain and by His blood redeemed unto God's people of every kindred, tongue, and nation --Rev 5:8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Rev 5:9 And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Rev 5:10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."
Rev 5:11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
Rev 5:12 In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
Rev 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
Rev 5:14 The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Redemption is being reconciled to God
To be reconciled to God someone must make Atonement --- The only fast day stipulated in the Mosaic law was the annual day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), observed on the tenth day of Tishri (September-October) at the conclusion of ten days of penitence. The day of Atonement was the only day of the year that the priest entered the holy of holies to make sin offerings for himself, his family, and the "assembly of Israel." After making these offerings, the nation's sins were symbolically laid on the scapegoat "Azazel" that was released into the wilderness to die.
The atonement for sin provided by Christ's death had its origin in divine love. No other reason can explain why "God reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 5:18). The anthem that continuously peals from the Bible is that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16;
This does not mean that God loves us because Christ died for us. Rather, Christ died for us because God loves us. Thus, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"
New Testament affirms that "God is love" (1 John 4:8); it also affirms that "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). Thus, the cross is simultaneously a manifestation of God's will to save and of His wrath against sin.
Images of Atonement
(a) 1. Atonement and ransom. Ransom is an image drawn from ancient economic life. The picture is a slave market or prison. People are in bondage and cannot free themselves. Someone comes and pays the price (provides the ransom) to redeem those in captivity.
The New Testament emphasizes both the fact of deliverance and the ransom price. Jesus said that He came "to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). Paul wrote, "ye are not your own; For ye are bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19-20; compare 7:23). Peter declared that "ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,... But with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19a). The main idea in this imagery is rescue from bondage through the costly self-giving of Jesus.
(b) . Atonement and victory. In this imagery, Satan, the head of evil forces and archenemy of God, has humanity in his power. Christ is the Warrior of God who enters the battle, defeats the devil, and rescues humanity.
This conflict motif pervades the gospels (Matt. 4:1-11; 12:28; Mark 3:27; John 12:31). The warfare between Jesus and Satan was real. Yet, divine victory was so certain that Jesus could say in anticipation, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18).
Victory imagery is also prominent in the epistles. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Christ came so "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14-15). That Christ triumphed is clear: "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:15).
(c) Atonement and sacrifice. Not surprisingly, the atoning power of Christ's death is often expressed in terms drawn from Old Testament sacrificial practices. Thus, Christ's death is called a "sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10:12) and a "sacrifice to God" (Eph. 5:2). Christ is variously identified with the Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), the sacrifice which initiates the new covenant (Luke 22:20), and the sin offering (Heb. 9:14,25-28).
Sacrificial imagery is another way of expressing the costliness of Christ's atoning work. It is a continual reminder that divine love has assumed the shape of the cross (Gal. 2:20). Furthermore, sacrifice witnesses to the effectiveness of Christ's death. Through it, sin is forgiven (Eph. 1:7), and the conscience is cleansed (Heb. 9:14).
(d) Atonement and glory. In much of the New Testament the glorification of Jesus is associated with His resurrection and ascension. John's Gospel shifts perspective. The whole life and work of Jesus is a revelation of divine glory. This glorification climaxes in Jesus' death on the cross (John 12:23-24; 13:31-32).
Consistent with this theme is the emphasis on the cross as "lifting up." This verb has the double meaning of "to lift up on a cross" and "to exalt." The meanings are combined in John's Gospel. " 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' This he said, signifiying what death he should die." (John 12:32-33; compare 3:14; 8:28). The meaning is not that Jesus was glorified as a reward for His death. Rather it means that divine glory was revealed in the death He died for sins.
How does sin affect your relationship with God(human story about wounded relationships)
The Hebrews viewed sin, whether intentional or unintentional, as a breach of the covenant between God and Israel. Sin brought about an estrangement between God and the nation or God and the individual. Provisions were made for Israel and the individual to be restored in God's favor. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was designated as the day when unintentional sins of the people could be forgiven (Lev. 16:1-31; 23:26-32). For these unknown sins the Hebrews were forgiven by the sacrifices and elaborate ritual of the high priest. What about deliberate sins? These could be forgiven only by prayer and repentence. All the sacrifices in the Old Testament could never complete the act of drawing near to God and bringing a sinner into a right relationship with God (Hebrews 10:1-18).
The Sovereign of the universe, who could rightfully annihilate us, took the initiative in breaking down the estranging barrier between Himself and us. Paul said, "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 5:18). In the same context he affirmed, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19Through His love manifested to us in the death of Christ on the cross even while we were in the state of being sinners, God delivered us from law, wrath, sin, and death--the tyrannies that hold humanity in check--and brought us by faith in Christ into a peaceful relationship with Himself.
What did God do to reconcile us to Him ?
The Redemptive work of Calvary
Healing (by His Stripes we were healed )
Physical
Mental
Spiritual
Access to God
the veil of the Temple was torn in half
The wall that separated us from God was torn down
Direct access to God
Forgiveness of sins (repentance ) puts us in right standing with God
The Blood of JESUS paid the price of our sins
Calvary Scene
A/C Do you have sins chain around you ? God wants to set you free !
