What Are You Needing To Delivered From?
The Pilgrims began as a religious group who felt that the only way to practice their religion was to separate from the Church of England. These “Separatist” centered around Scrooby, a village in Nottinghamshire in the English Midlands. In 1607/8 the congregation moved to Amsterdam and in 1609 to the city of Leiden in the more religiously tolerant Netherlands. The community began to move to America in 1620.
The religious tensions which led to the formation of the Separatist group stemmed fro the Reformation, particularly in England. In 1532, King Henry VIII withdrew the Church of England from the jurisdiction of Rome, in order to divorce his first wife.
The larger group believed independence from Rome and moderate changes in religious practices to be sufficient. The other wished to “purify” the Church of England through a second Reformation that would do away with bishops as well as the pope. Some of these “Puritans” believed they could accomplish their reforms within an ecclesiastical structure or a more systematic way. Other more radical reformers believed that each individual church congregation must operate independently. The “Separatists” could not support a national church.
The “Separatist/Pilgrims” believed: the one side [the Reformers] labored to have ye right worship of GOD and discipline of CHRIST established in ye church, according to ye simplicity of ye gospel, without the mixture of mens inventions, and to have and to be ruled by ye laws of GODS word, dispensed in those offices, and by those of Pastors, teachers and elders, and according to the scriptures. The other party [the Church of England] though under many colors and pretences, endeavored to have ye Episcopal dignity (after ye popish manner) with their large power and jurisdiction still retained; with all those courts, cannons and ceremonies together with all such livings, revenues and subordinate officers and with such means as formerly upheld their antichristian greatness and enabled them with lordly and tyrannous power to persecute ye poor servants of GOD.
The English Crown forbade separation from the Church, persecuting and imprisoning members of the Separatist movement.
As I have just read the beginning of thanksgiving comes from the reformation. Because of this a group of people felt that they needed to be delivered from England to a place where they could worship GOD the way they felt GOD wanted them to worship. Today we are going to look at a passage of scripture that tells us that we are delivered and who delivered us from our enslavement. Lets go to our scripture.
I can remember in English class my teacher would always have us asking the who, what, when, where and how questions in order to tell the noun, subject and the verb of a sentence structure and I believe that we ought to do this with this verse. We have to understand what we need to be delivered from, when can it take place, who delivers us and how are we delivered. So let us begin.
We need to know who is in need of deliverance: those who through fear. That is you and I. We humans are fearful of so many things we could not list the phobias and what they mean but here is a few of them: the fear of baldness and of bald people, the fear of drafts, the fear of the color purple, the fear of hairy people, the fear of objects on the left side of the body, the fear of the northern lights, fear of obscure meanings, fear of being seated, the fear of standing or walking, fear of teeth and there is a fear of being afraid. We are a people who are afraid of everything and anything. We have become scary cats.
Now we need to answer the question of what, what do we need to be delivered from? We need delivered from the fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. We are in need of deliverance from the fear of death. Because we were born of blood from humans, Adam and Eve, and they sinned we are all sinners and sentenced to death. The human curiosity with death is phenomenal. We fear about how we are going to die, when we are going to die, where we are going to die and how we are going to die. More so than this we often wonder if there is an after life. We wonder about the process of death or what is on ones mind before dying. It has been said of one person who had rejected JESUS that right before this man passed away the people in his room could hear him saying no get away from me and murmmring something about demons. Another instance a preacher was in the room when one of his church members were dying and the person had a smile on their face and began singing a song. No one knows for sure if what they saw is true or not but we can only speculate. We have heard about people with near death situations talking about the light at the end of the tunnel and we know the buzz this creates. I once heard a man on TV who had a near death experience say that he is not afraid of dying anymore because he knows that the next stage of life is one of pure love. I, as a Christian, know this is not completely true because JESUS preached more on hell than HE did on heaven. Ever wonder why? Is it because the way to heaven is narrower than the other way that leads to hell? We are as a nation and creation so caught up with the thought of death. We are so provoked about death that people are scared to sleep, drive, eat or go outside. We are worried about losing a loved one. We are worried about leaving a loved one. We have become enslaved to death that our society has been engulfed by it.
Now let us answer the how part of the question, the how are we delivered? In order to answer this question we must go to verse 14 for the answer. The complete verse tells us this so lets break it down. JESUS CHRIST only breaks the enslavement that we are captive to. See we are born from two humans and therefore we have human blood, which became impure, in a sense, after Adam and Eve sinned. Since that time we have been captive to Satan’s lies and trusting of his deceitfulness. But since JESUS partook of flesh and blood we can be delivered from the fear of death. The word partook or partaken means that HE became like us: susceptible to sin and death. HE humbled HIMSELF because HE was equal to GOD but became lower than the angels. Matter of fact HE was tempted in every way we are…but HE did not give in. HIM becoming like us is unique in that HE limited HIMSELF from GOD. How we are delivered is by JESUS.
When was the fear of death broken: through death. JESUS died on a cross called Calvary. HE died a death that no other man had ever suffered. Yes, many people were hung on a cross but it was illegal to be hit as many times as HE was and there is no mention of anyone else being nailed to a cross as did my Savior.
But the most important, at least today, when question is: when can you be delivered from the fear of death? You do not have to wait until the 28th of November, thanksgiving day or until next week, you can be delivered today, right this very moment. Just confess with you mouth that JESUS is LORD and believe in your heart. Today you can ask death, “where is your sting?”
The statistics are alarming and you have a higher chance of dying than winning the lotto, waking up tomorrow or driving down the street in your vehicle. The statistics show that every one person out of one person will die. Death is a fact that cannot be disputed. Just for the heck of it lets say life today is like renting an apartment house. You are renting it from a person who lives on the same property you live on. At any given moment he comes barging in you apartment. He makes a mess then leaves. He eats your food. You are paying him rent but all the sudden something happens and you miss a month, then another and another and another. You fall even further behind because he charges you for not keeping the place clean and the yard cut. You can never catch up on your rent. Then out of the blue someone else buys the place but allows you to stay in your apartment. The person who just purchased the place comes to you and said your rent is up to date and you will no longer need to pay rent. Less than 30 minutes later your old landlord comes knocking at your door. He complains that you owe him back rent and is demanding it. What do you do? You do not have the money and hey someone else owns it now. So after a few minutes of arguing you tell him to take it up with the new manger. He leaves only to come back even more upset. Screaming and waving things in your face and threatening you with documents, what do you do? You are fearful of the legal aspects but you are not sure what to do. You live in fear of?
If this is your life today no need to fear death or anything else any longer. See JESUS paid it all and your bill of fear and death have been wiped out.
