Who Is This Jesus?
8. He is the Truth that Sets Us Free
John 8:31-36
October 30/31, 2004
Don Jaques
MAIN IDEA: All people can be liberated from slavery to sin by following Jesus.
OBJECTIVES:
• People will understand that they are slaves to sin outside of Christ, and will feel a need for deliverance.
• People will desire the freedom that comes from placing themselves under Jesus’ discipline (becoming a disciple).
• People will understand the progression for deliverance from sin that Jesus teaches in John 8:31-36.
• People will feel new hope for overcoming sin in their lives, and will be inspired to follow Jesus more closely.
INTRO:
REALITY ACCORDING TO HOLLYWOOD:
• All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French bread.
• The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place.
• Cars that crash will almost always burst into flames.
• It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are visiting.
• Any lock can be picked by a credit card or a paper clip in seconds—unless it’s the door to a burning building with a child trapped inside, in which case it can be opened by simply kicking it.
• All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they will go off.
• Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.
• It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts; your enemies will patiently wait to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.
These are kind of funny – but we all know that what we see in the movies and on TV is not real. It’s a pretend reality.
What is dangerous, however, is when we live our lives as if a pretend reality were the real thing. When, either because of ignorance or simply not wanting to be reminded – we fool ourselves into thinking our lives are really different than they are. What we’re going to learn from the gospel of John today is that some of us think we’re free when we’re really slaves, and some of us think we’re slaves when we could really be free. What we need is the TRUTH about who we really are.
Who is this Jesus? He is the TRUTH that SETS US FREE.
In the beginning of this chapter, Jesus offers grace and forgiveness to the woman caught in adultery. Then the next time he teaches he gets into a very heated conversation with the Jewish leaders about his claims to be sent from God, and to be God’s Son. But not everyone was arguing with him, for as we pick up the story in verse 30:
30Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Who is Jesus? He’s the truth who sets us free from sin! Great news – but what does it really mean, and how does it work? Lets pull apart these few verses to get to the bottom of these questions.
HOW TO BE SET FREE FROM SIN
1. Recognize you are a slave to sin. (v. 34)
In the middle of this teaching about how he can set them free, the Jews interrupt Jesus and say, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
In other words, they said, “We don’t need to be set free, Jesus! We’re already free!”
The Jews WERE in bondage – they were under Roman rule – only free to the limits that the Roman authorities had placed on them. They were in denial. But Jesus wasn’t talking about national independence or personal freedom. He was talking about the state of their souls. Without Him, he was teaching, they might think they are free, but really they are enslaved to sin – to thinking and behaving in ways that are against God’s perfect and good plan for our lives.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Citation: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet and dramatist (1749-1832)
This is precisely the plan of our adversary the devil. He lures us into thinking that we are “FREE” when really we’re enslaved to the evil desires and our fallen nature. We think – “I’m free, I can do anything I want” – but really we’re in slavery to the results of that kind of freedom. Pain. Brokenness. Separation from others. Eternal separation from God.
You know, when we are in bondage, we excel at minimizing our enslavement.
We think just a few more adjustments and everything will be all right.
But it is not true.
What is true is that when evil becomes a habit, it becomes a habit that we cannot break.
We can be a slave to hatred, filled with hostility, aggressiveness, and rage, ready to strike any moment.
We can be a slave to pride.
In our arrogance we can indulge in prejudice and bigotry because we think we are better than others.
In our self-importance, we enjoy telling somebody off when they are wrong.
We can be a slave to gossip, indulging ourselves in ruining another’s reputation.
We can be a slave to the misuse of sexuality, thinking that if I look at pornography one more time, it won’t hurt. The truth is, you will keep looking.
We can be a slave to a relationship that is outside of God’s design—adultery, homosexuality, premarital sex—thinking that we can end at anytime. But you can’t.
We can be a slave to materialism, always buying one more thing to satisfy our souls. But we find out over and over, we never seem to have enough.
We think we’re free – but really we’re in bondage, and our sin entangles us.
And what is worse is that as we continue in these, they do not give us the same pleasure.
In fact, the more we do them, the more miserable we feel and the more pathetic we become.
TRANS: The first step to being freed from all this is to recognize that you need to be freed. Once you get there, the good news is that freedom is available for all who will follow the process Jesus explains.
2. Believe in Jesus. (v. 31)
ILLUS:
You’ve heard about the man who asked a mail-order company to send plans for a birdhouse. Instead of sending him the plans for a birdhouse, they sent him plans for a sailboat. He tried to put it together, but it just wouldn’t work. He couldn’t figure what kind of bird was going to live in this dumb birdhouse. So he wrote a letter and sent the parts back to the people. They wrote a letter of apology and added this post script: "If you think it was difficult for you, you should have seen the man who got your plans trying to sail a birdhouse."
If you want the promises of God to start becoming real in your life, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right materials to work with. And the first step is to believe in Jesus. Let’s review. Verse 8:31:
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said…
All of the instructions in this passage are given to those who first believed in Jesus. They believed he was who he claimed to be. They placed their faith in him to be their Messiah. And it was only from this starting point that freedom from sin can be received.
TRANS: So first we need to recognize our need to be freed from sin, then we come to Jesus and place our faith in him. But if we want to be set free we’ve got to do what Jesus says to do next.
3. Hold To His Teachings. (v. 31)
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.”
What does this word “hold” mean? Greek “meno”, most commonly translated “abide”, but also carries with it “to stay with” or “not to depart”.
Jesus was glad that these people had believed in him, but he taught that if they wanted to really be set free from their sin they were going to have to choose a life of discipleship. They would need to abide in His word, to stay with it, to not depart from it, to hold to it. THAT, he says here, is what will prove that they are really His disciples.
Are you abiding in Jesus’ teaching? Are you regularly reading God’s word? Are you submitting to and trying to apply it in your life? Or do you simply believe in Him?
See – if you want to be set free from sin in your life it is going to take more than passively believing something about Jesus – it takes you rolling up your sleeves and putting effort toward learning and then HOLDING to His teachings.
As author Neil Postman wrote…
I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.
Citation: Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death. Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 10.
Jesus wants to deliver you from your sin, but you’ve got to be willing to hold to his teachings.
TRANS: Then IF you hold to his teachings and IF you are His disciple, THEN…
4. You will know the truth. (v. 32)
You do not need to go through your life wondering what is right and wrong. There is no need for you to be confused about which direction you should go in your life. You do not need to be swayed by the wisdom of the world, and the lies of the devil.
If you abide in his word, proving yourself to be his disciple, the promise is that you will KNOW the truth.
You’ll know how valuable you are to God.
You’ll know what your life is all about.
You’ll know what is truly important – and what is not.
You’ll know what habits you need to be developing.
You’ll know what you need to repent of.
You’ll know the power of the Holy Spirit to make the changes called for.
You’ll know when the devil is lying to you and you’ll send him packing.
Remember the devil is a liar.
John 8:44b (Speaking of the devil): [there] is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
When you know the truth, you’re set FREE from the tyranny of the lies of the devil.
5. The truth will set you free. (v. 32)
32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
How does knowing and applying the truth in our lives set us free? Erwin McManus, in his book, Uprising, shares the following story…
Several years ago I was mesmerized by the amazing talent of a classical pianist named Chris Crossan. After playing a wide spectrum of music, spanning from Beethoven to Bach to the Beatles, he invited an admiring student to come up and play. The student seemed a bit off balance by the invitation. It wasn’t that he was timid before audiences; it was that he didn’t know how to play the piano. But Chris insisted, almost as if missing the most important part of the information. Chris kept emphasizing he was free to play anything he wanted. Again the student, in a somewhat embarrassed manner, explained that he didn’t know how to play the piano. And then Chris pressed his point.
Although the student had the opportunity, he really didn’t have the freedom. Opportunity and freedom are not the same thing. Chris’s freedom to play the full spectrum of music, to passionately express the music within his soul, was only available to him as a result of years and years of discipline. Discipline can be confused with conformity. Many times we run from discipline or at least resist it because we feel we are being forced to conform in the most negative sense of the word.… Yet the irony is that when we forsake discipline in our attempt to avoid conformity, we lose our potential to be truly free.
--Erwin McManus, “Uprising”, p. 16.
When we know the truth, and we’re abiding in it, and we’re following the word that God speaks to us through the Bible and through the Holy Spirit – we are set free to become that person that God really wants us to be. And when you’re set free…
6. You will no longer be a slave to sin. (v. 36)
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
In his book Teaching the Elephant to Dance, James Belasco describes how trainers shackle young elephants with heavy chains to deeply embedded stakes. In that way the elephant learns to stay in its place. Older, powerful elephants never try to leave—even though they have the strength to pull the stake and walk away. Their conditioning has limited their movements. With only a small metal bracelet around their foot attached to nothing, they stand in place. The stakes are actually gone!
Citation: Adapted from Hans Finzel, Change Is Like a Slinky: 30 strategies for promoting and surviving change in your organization (Northfield, 2004);
The word of God says that when we hold to Jesus’ teaching we will be set free – really free – from the power that sin has over us. But so many of us live like those elephants – still considering ourselves shackled to our habits and our desires.
But we’re not. We’re free from slavery to sin. Because of the blood of Jesus we have been set free. Because God graciously offers us the gift of his holy spirit we are free!
CONCLUSION:
Let’s review,
1. we need to understand we are a slave to sin and that we need to be freed.
2. If we believe in Jesus, and make ourselves his disciples by holding to his word, then the promise is we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.
3. And if we’re set free by Jesus – we are truly free – we are no longer slaves to sin – but free to become the person God has designed us to be!
What’s keeping you from experiencing this in your life?
Have you never understood that you are truly in bondage?
Have you believed in jesus but never submitted your life to his teaching?
Have you stopped abiding in his word?
Have you simply been acting like one of those elephants – and you’re ready to put your shackles behind you?
Let’s pray together and invite the presence of the Lord to set us free!
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Jude 1:24
