Reflect the Purposes of Christmas
#2 – Proclaim Freedom for the Prisoners and Release for the Oppressed.
December 8, 2002
Introduction
Today we continue our Christmas series on reflecting the purposes of Christmas, as seen in Luke 4:18-19, which is printed at the top of your bulletin.
I’d like to ask that you join me as we read this out loud together, okay?
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."
Jesus used this portion of Scripture to proclaim that He was the Messiah, and that He had come to begin establishing the kingdom of God on earth.
Last week we talked about the first portion of this Scripture, that Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, both in pocket and in spirit.
Today we move to the second part of what I call the “mission statement” of the Messiah, and that is to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and release for the oppressed.
We are going to look at just what Jesus brought, and how to live in those freedoms. I trust that today will be the beginning of a whole new dimension in many of your lives and relationships with God.
I want to show us three ways to let the freedoms Christ brought us become more than cute religious sayings and theological attitudes. I want these to become so real in our lives that we will wonder how we ever got along without giving them more attention.
So let’s dive in. The first thing we need to do is to…
1. Celebrate the freedoms Jesus brought to us.
Jesus came to set us free. That’s wonderful news! But let’s get past the lingo and find out just what that freedom entails, okay?
JN 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Freedom from:
- Sin
The last part of Revelation 1:5 says this:
All praise to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding His blood for us.
He sets us free from the penalty of sin. One day he will set us free from the presence of sin.
But what a lot of people don’t understand, at least at a level that makes a difference, is that right now, God wants to save us from the power of sin.
We are conditioned in the church to believe that we are slaves to sin as long as we live on earth, but folks, that’s just not true.
Will we sin at times? Yes. But do we have to live a life that is controlled both in attitude and action by sin? Absolutely not!
Jesus came to set us free! Why don’t we live like it more? Let me encourage you to do that.
You don’t have to say yes to sin – you can say no.
But here’s the caution. You can only say no to sin on a if you are a follower of Christ, who has been filled with the Holy Spirit, because only the Spirit can give you the strength to deny yourself and say yes to God.
Jesus sets us free from sin. He also sets us free from the…
- Fear of death
Death is at the top of a lot of peoples’ lists of things they are most afraid of. There is so much uncertainty about the moment of death, and the fact is that most people are not ready to die. They have not taken care of getting ready to meet God, who will judge those who have not come to Christ.
But let me read you a passage from Hebrews 2:14-17.
HEB 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
Folks, the devil is the one who holds people in fear of death.
But Jesus came to destroy him. And if you are in Christ, you have no need to fear death. You have something to look forward to! Eternity in heaven, basking in the love of the Father, and worshiping Him forever.
Jesus sets us free from the fear of death. And He also sets us free from…
- Oppression from spiritual attack.
I don’t have just one verse to share with you here, but let me just remind you that Jesus is shown many times freeing people from demon possession, commanding the evil spirits to leave, and then bringing that person to wholeness.
He cautions that unless you fill your life with Christ, those who have been freed from such episodes can find themselves in an even bigger mess.
But here’s my point. Satan and his followers are not all-powerful. They are not all-knowing. And they are not present everywhere all the time.
Only God is all these things. The angels and the evil spirits who used to be angels are created beings. They are subject to the sovereign power of God.
Satan cannot control you if you are in a growing relationship with Christ.
He is defeated, and he is waiting for his final doom. But in the meantime, he’s doing his worst to bring as many people as possible into the pit with him.
If you have been a victim of spiritual oppression, then call on Christ to deliver you, believing that the enemy is defeated, and submit yourself to Christ, so that the devil will not get a foothold.
Sometimes the devil tries to attack Christians who are truly loving and following God. I don’t mean just temptation, I mean real spiritual attacks.
If that has been the case in your life, and I know it has been in at least some cases here, then I just want to assure you that Jesus is still the victor, and He loves you and is caring for you, even in the midst of these trying times.
Jesus sets us free from sin, He sets us free from the fear of death, and He sets us free from spiritual oppression.
But that’s not the end. You see, I think that Jesus not only sets us free from some things, but I think He sets us free for some things as well. Let’s look at just three of these, okay?
Freedom for:
- Holiness
I’ve touched on this a little bit before, but let me just hit it again here.
You are free to live a life of holiness, a slave not to sin, but to righteousness. God’s washing of your sins and filling you with His Holy Spirit frees you and gives you the power to live a life that pleases Him.
You are free to live a life that, by the power of the Holy Spirit says no to deliberate sin on a consistent basis.
He also gives us freedom for a…
- Full life
Jesus says that He came so that we might enjoy life in all its fullness.
A little boy who lived far out in the country in the late 1800s had reached the age of twelve and had never in all his life seen a circus. You can imagine his excitement, when one day a poster went up at school announcing that on the next Saturday a traveling circus was coming to the nearby town.
He ran home with the glad news and the question, "Daddy, can I go?" Although the family was poor, the father sensed how important this was to the lad. "If you do your Saturday chores ahead of time," he said, "I’ll see to it that you have the money to go."’
Come Saturday morning, the chores were done and the little boy stood by the breakfast table, dressed in his Sunday best. His father reached down into the pocket of his overalls and pulled out a dollar bill-the most money the little boy had possessed at one time in all his life.
The father cautioned him to be careful and then sent him on his way to town.
The boy was so excited, his feet hardly seemed to touch the ground all the way.
As he neared the outskirts of the village, he noticed people lining the streets, and he worked his way through the crowd until he could see what was happening. Lo and behold, it was the approaching spectacle of a circus parade!
The parade was the grandest thing this lad had ever seen. Caged animals snarled as they passed, bands beat their rhythms and sounded shining horns, midgets performed acrobatics while flags and ribbons swirled overhead.
Finally, after everything had passed where he was standing, the traditional circus clown, with floppy shoes, baggy pants, and a brightly painted face, brought up the rear.
As the clown passed by, the little boy reached into his pocket and took out that precious dollar bill. Handing the money to the clown, the boy turned around and went home. What had happened? The boy thought he had seen the circus when he had only seen the parade!
Are you experiencing all that God has for you? The Christian life is a marvelous adventure, an exciting journey. Many people-including Christians-seem to be content to float in a sea of mediocrity, settling for second best. Do you want the abundant life that Jesus promised?
He set us free to enjoy the full life! He wants us to have fun. John Wesley says that sour-faced religion is the religion of the devil. Have good, clean fun and enjoy the blessings of your life in Christ.
And lastly, Jesus frees us for…
- Heaven
Obviously, we won’t be on earth forever. And as we grow older, those in Christ begin to yearn for release from the earth so we can be with Jesus forever.
Only those who have been set free from the penalty of sin can go to heaven, folks. If you are a born again child of God, then you have been freed up for heaven and all its benefits.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait. It’s going to be awesome. I can’t describe it to you, but let me tell you that nothing on earth will be comparable to the awesomeness and glory of heaven.
Jesus frees us for heaven.
Well, Jesus gives us some freedoms. So what? How should that make a difference? Well, for it to make a difference, you need to make a choice. You need to…
2. Choose to live as a free person.
Galatians 5:13 says
You, my brothers, were called to be free.
Paul’s point in the whole book of Galatians was that these people were living lives of legalistic rule-making that was taking them away from living by faith.
They had forgotten that they didn’t get to heaven by their good works – they were trying to get there by doing all sorts of religious jumping through hoops. They had become slaves to a form of righteousness. But it was only a form. It was not real righteousness at all.
Real righteousness only comes from God. It cannot be earned.
Paul is saying to quit living lives locked up in legalistic religious observances that have no bearing on your walk with God or His approval of you.
Live as people who have been set free from all that. And I want to give you three ways to make that happen, and then in a bit I’m going to give you some specific ideas.
But first I want to tell you these three things that can help you choose to live as a free person in Christ. First,…
Change your mind toward sin.
Listen to Romans 6:16-18 –
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
To repent means to change your mind. In the original language of the Bible, the word for “repent” is “metanoia” which literally means “to change your mind.”
Why is this important? Let me lay some groundwork here.
First, all behavior is based on a belief. In the case of sin, you sin because you believe that you’ll be happier if you disobey God.
Behind every sin is a lie that you and I believe. “God doesn’t really call this sin. He won’t mind if I just do it this one time. Hey, I’m only human; I’m supposed to be faulty.”
But change always starts in the mind. This is why Paul says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
The battle for sin always starts in the mind. And so trying to change people’s behaviors without changing their beliefs is a waste of time.
To repent from sin is to say, “once I believed this, now I believe that.”
I used to believe that sin was no big deal, and now I believe that sin angers God, and grieves His spirit.
Believing correctly about sin will pave the way to a changed life. The Word of God applied to your life will bring about the changed life God desires.
Changing the way you act is the result or fruit of repentance. The Bible says that we are to prove our repentance by our deeds. In other words, our changed lives are evidence that we have repented.
Unfortunately, many who call themselves Christians have never really given up their false beliefs regarding sin.
They think they can just slough off, and never get serious about becoming a man or woman of holiness.
And don’t forget the Bible commands that we be holy. But we can’t do it unless we get it through our minds that God hates sin, and desires to help us become holy people.
So change your mind about sin. The next way to choose to live as a free person is to…
Take advantage of the opportunity for a deep relationship with God.
I talk about this a lot, but I just can’t get past it. God, the Creator of the universe, the One who holds it all together, who keeps this whole world going just right, the One who came to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, the One who parted the Red Sea, the One who made the lame to walk and the blind to see, the One who raised the dead, and defeat death by rising from the grave Himself, wants nothing more than to have a deep relationship with you.
The kind of relationship that happens only between people who love each other dearly, to the point of giving their life for the other if needed.
You see, Jesus did that for you. He’d do it again if necessary, though it isn’t necessary. Once was enough. But He did it for you.
And not only did He die for you, He gave you His Holy Word, the Bible, so you could get to know Him better.
He gave His Holy Spirit to you so you could understand the Bible and be able to apply it to your life in a way that changes you for the better.
He opened the gates of heaven so you come right to His presence in prayer, visiting about whatever you want. Talking about what’s going on in your life – the joys, the triumphs, the sin, the agonies, whatever.
He listens and He acts. For you. On your behalf.
Take advantage of that. Make a decision and commit to it to be in His Word on a daily basis so you can get to know Him better.
He’s waiting with great anticipation.
Thirdly…
Reflect Him.
Basically, what I mean here is that you allow God’s Word to become your guide for life, in every area – thought, word, and deed.
Then you will reflect His love and care for those who would want what He has to offer through His Son, Jesus Christ.
I’ve given you some thoughts on how to live as free people, but I want to leave you with some specific ideas that you can put into practice as a start in being people who live in the freedoms Christ purchased you.
So in this last section I want to encourage you to…
3. Choose to do something specific.
I’m going to suggest three ideas that will give you just a start. I don’t want to get you all excited about something without giving you some specific ways to apply what God has been saying in His Word.
The first couple of these applications are no big deal; anyone can do them. The third one takes a little more guts.
Here we go:
Memorize John 8:36.
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Create a bookmark with today’s Scriptures and a prayer.
Get a piece of paper or card stock, (you can get some from Stamp Ladies, too, I’m sure. Put John 8:36 on it, or whatever Scripture from today’s message hit you the most.
And I would make a couple, so that you could keep one in your Bible and one in whatever book you happen to be reading, so you will have it with you all the time.
The third one is probably the one that takes the most commitment, but one that I think will bring the greatest dividends from our time today, and that is to…
Covenant with God to thank Him daily for His freedom.
Do whatever you need to do to remind yourself of it. Maybe your bookmark in your Bible, or maybe put it on your alarm clock so that one of the first things on your lips in the morning would be thanks that God has made you a free person because of the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.
There are lots of ways to live as people who are free in Christ. And as you make time to be in His Word, more will come to mind, I guarantee it.
But for now, just know that Christ came to set you free. He wants you to live as free people. And He wants to help. Let Him do it. For your own good, and for the glory of God in heaven.
Let’s pray.
