Real Independence
John 8:31-36
July 2, 2006
Introduction
Well, in case you’re not aware of it, the 4th of July, Independence Day is on Tuesday.
My guess is that all of you are aware of it, and if you have kids, they’ve made you aware of it, if for no other reason than the fact that they feel it’s their patriotic duty to empty your wallet for fireworks, right?
Today I want us to look at independence from the standpoint of spiritual independence.
Why is that important? Because no matter where you live, if you’re not free spiritually, then you’re not really free, even here in the good ol’ US of A.
There are people in the world right now who are not free socially or politically – they’re in prison or unable to practice their faith in Christ out in the open like we do, but they are free, because of their love and devotion to Jesus.
And there are people who, because of what Christ has done for them, are free from the prisons of their past, and free to live for God in the present, enjoying life like they never thought possible.
So what’s the secret? They found out how to get real independence – spiritual independence.
So how do we get that? Is it something you buy? Something you inherit? Something that just kind of rubs off in church or Sunday school?
Nope – none of these. To get real independence that will affect not only how you live and face life on earth, but also prepare you for eternity, you gotta come to Jesus.
Our passage from Scripture tells us about it, and I’d like you to turn with me in your Bibles to John 8:31-36. If you’re using the Bibles in the seats in front of you, this is found on page 758.
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."
33 They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Today I want to show you three steps to real independence. I don’t know that you’re going to hear much that you haven’t heard before, but folks, this is an issue for all of us, in one way or another.
So I’d ask that you pay attention, and ask God to show you if there’s something you can take away from here, okay?
Let’s start.
Three steps to real independence:
1. Realize that you are a slave.
If you don’t know you’re a slave, then freedom means nothing and cannot be obtained.
You know, one of the fascinating and even humorous parts of this passage is when they look at Jesus and say –
"We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.”
Hello! Didn’t they watch “The Ten Commandments,” with Charlton Heston? Oh wait – they didn’t have movie theaters and TV back then.
But the fact is they had awfully short memories. Which is weird because every year they had a celebration called the Passover, which celebrated the way God delivered them from slavery!!!
They were slaves for over 400 years in Egypt, not to mention the exiles to Babylon and Assyria.
The passage here specifically mentions slavery to sin, and really that’s the main area of slavery for people.
Jesus says in our passage that –
“…everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
So let’s very briefly talk about that for a bit.
> What is sin?
Here’s the most basic definition of sin I can come up with. Ready?
Sin is anything that goes against God.
How is that for simple? We can get into all sorts of theological debates about “types” of sin, whether some are worse than others, or whatever, but the bottom line is that sin goes against God.
How do we know what goes against God? The Bible. We learn what God likes and what He dislikes. And we learn that what we might not consider sin is sin, indeed, and that we’ll need to answer to God for it.
But we might also find that something we thought was sin, isn’t actually sin.
And we might find that there are some areas for discussion.
If you want to get more into it, and discuss something in particular, let me know and I’d love to talk with you, and we can look to the Bible for an answer.
But really, I think most people in their hearts know when they’ve sinned. Because the Bible says that God has given us each a conscience that He uses to help guide us even if we don’t know exactly what the Bible says about it.
But we also need to look at this next question –
> Why does it enslave us?
Mouse traps LOOK inviting – but they’re deadly to a mouse. They’re going for something they want to have, then before they know what hit them, SNAP!! – dead mouse meat.
The mouse trap looks inviting and offers pleasure to the mouse.
Sin is the same way. It LOOKS inviting and offers pleasure to the person.
And can we be real honest for a moment? Sin really IS inviting, because it’s pleasurable, for the most part.
Generally nobody thinks, “You know, I’m having a really good day. I think I’ll go do something sinful because I want to feel bad…”
No, they think that that following this path of sin will bring them pleasure, both for the short term and long term.
But they get their heads in that trap, and the next thing they know, they’re caught.
But there’s a key difference between a mousetrap and sin, and it’s that you can look and see the mousetrap on the mouse.
You can’t necessarily do that with people and sin. It’s hidden a lot of times, and truth be told, we might not even realize we’re in a trap.
It’d be a whole lot easier if people wore big mousetraps on their head so people could see that their friend needs help.
“Hey Fred – you’ve got a big mousetrap on your head. What’s going on, man?”
“Oh, is that what that is? I thought I was having trouble getting through doorways without ducking…”
But there is no such device. It’s not so obvious, even to the person who is trapped.
Why? Because as I just mentioned, sin seems good – it doesn’t seem like a trap. But it is, nonetheless.
But the good news is that unlike the mouse, we can get out of the trap – we can get out of the slavery of sin and find freedom.
And we do that by taking the second step, and that is to…
2. Find the way to freedom.
The Wesleyan Church has a very proud history of involvement in the anti-slavery movement, and particularly in the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad was a network of people, homes, and even churches that runaway slaves would go to on their way to Canada to find freedom.
Since slavery was legal according to federal law, states could not, at the time, allow runaways to simply live there in freedom, at least not without the threat of federal intervention that allowed slave owners to come and retrieve the runaways.
There is a church that still exists, in Syracuse, NY that was one of the last stops along the way. The building now houses a restaurant, if my information is correct, but the basement is where you’ll find some of the most startling stuff regarding the church’s role in helping these people find freedom.
Anyway, just wanting freedom wasn’t enough. Getting away from the plantation wasn’t enough. You had to get to Canada. And if you didn’t know the way, then you ran the risk of getting lost, recaptured, or dying along the way.
So what’s that got to do with what we’re talking about today?
Well, simply wanting freedom isn’t enough. We have to find the way to freedom. And there is only one way to that freedom.
It’s following Jesus and His teachings.
It starts by putting your trust in Him and what He did for you at Calvary.
It continues as you grow in faith by reading the Bible and putting it into action in your life by obeying what it says.
I want to stress the word “action” here, because it’s not enough to just own a Bible or to even read it.
The book of James tells us how pointless it is to just read the Bible or even to just hear it at church and don’t do anything with it –
James 1:22-25 –
And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself. 23 For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law—the law that sets you free—and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
Have any of you, since getting ready for church this morning, forgotten what you’ve looked like?
You’re sitting here and you’re thinking, “For the life of me, I can’t remember what I look like.” You wouldn’t even recognize a picture of yourself on the wall.
Kinda ridiculous, isn’t it, unless you have some form of illness, I mean. But that’s how so many people approach the Scriptures. They look at the Scriptures, but don’t do anything with what they read. And it’s just as foolish as a perfectly healthy person forgetting what they look like after going to a mirror.
You see why taking action to make the Bible a real part of your life is so important?
This transforms you into a person who gives an accurate reflection of Jesus in the world and allows you to live the full and abundant life that Jesus promises to all who follow Him.
This kind of transformation allows you to say no to sin and yes to godliness, so you don’t fall back into the pattern of slavery.
The bottom line is that freedom is found in knowing and holding to Jesus’ teachings – about Himself, about God, about life, about how to get to heaven, and about everything else.
There is no other way. Being good doesn’t do, giving to charity doesn’t do it, not even going to church does it. Jesus is the only way.
And once you’ve got the way in your possession, then you can move on to the third step to real freedom, and that is to…
3. Hold to the freedom.
In other words, don’t let the chains be put back on you. Hold on to freedom – don’t go back to the slavery you’ve been set free from.
I mentioned a little bit ago that as we grow in our faith, we become people who can avoid falling back into slavery to sin.
Holding to the freedom means to (1) follow Jesus’ teachings, and to (2) invite God’s Holy Spirit to fill you completely and entirely, giving you the desire and the strength to live a holy life.
But the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of Christians who are lukewarm in their devotion to Jesus, and quite often this shows in the fact that there are some things in their life that they are not willing to let go of.
It might be a specific sin that they’ve learned to cherish in their heart or it could be something like sour attitudes, bitterness, and unforgiveness.
And as long as they continue to cherish these, the chains will remain, even if they don’t realize it.
But when you get to the point that you’re sick and tired of them, and you come to Christ for help, the chains begin to loosen, and after time, with the help of God, His Word, and His people, the chains can fall off for good.
Conclusion
So do you want to be free? I mean really free? Then freedom is available to you.
Let me go back to the Underground Railroad for a bit.
Just because the Railroad existed, did that mean that the slaves were free? Not hardly. They had to take advantage of the Railroad, and take the dangerous journey.
Well, let me pull that back to our need for Jesus for a moment. Just because we have a Savior, does that mean that everyone is saved? Again, not hardly.
To be saved – in other words, to have your sins forgiven and be given a home in heaven, you need to take advantage of the way to salvation. And that’s Jesus.
It’s not an issue of taking a dangerous journey like the slaves did, but it is an issue of trust in Jesus.
The runaway slaves had to trust the people along the Railroad. They had to trust them with their very lives if they were to make it.
It’s the same with Jesus. He’s asking you to trust Him with your very life. Trust that He loves you, and that what He did on the cross paid the penalty for your sins.
When you come to God saying, “I have nothing to offer on my own, so I’m trusting in Jesus to get me there,” then you’ve completed the most important part of the journey.
You’ve made it to Canada, so to speak. But just because you’ve crossed the border doesn’t mean the work is done. You need to live like a citizen of heaven, just as the slaves needed to live like a citizen in Canada.
We do that by holding to the teachings of Jesus, as we’ve seen. And as we do that, our lives are transformed, and we gain even more knowledge and insight into the things of God in His Bible.
So let me encourage you to do two things as we leave:
First, if you have never come to the point where you have asked Jesus to come into your life so your sins are forgiven and you gain a home in heaven, then take care of that today. I’m going to say a prayer here in just a moment that you can use for yourself to get that taken care of.
Second, if you’ve already taken that step, but maybe there’s something that’s in your life that maybe you’re still not free from yet. You’re in bondage to something.
Maybe it’s a sin, or just an unbiblical attitude or unforgiveness for someone who’s hurt you. And it’s got such a hold on you that you can’t get free.
We’re going to pray about that as well. But freedom is only for those who want it. Jesus doesn’t force it on anyone. He offers it to everyone, but it’s up to you to take Him up on it.
I hope that you’re ready for that. I hope that there are people here, whether they’re just coming to Jesus today or they’ve been trying to live for Him for years, who are tired of being a slave to sin, and want to be released for the wonderful life Jesus offers to those who follow Him.
Let’s pray.
