“True Freedom”

John 8: 31 – 36

Tomorrow, on the 4th of July we will celebrate our nation’s birthday.  Our nation was founded on the ideals of liberty, justice, responsibility, Godliness, and the freedom to become all that God intended for us to be.   This was a new and revolutionary idea.

The celebration of our nation’s birthday is really a celebration of freedom. 

The ideal of freedom is an ideal that our founding father’s believed was valuable enough to risk everything on. They risked their fortunes, their families, their reputations, and their honor. They risked their very lives and many of them paid for our freedom with their blood and the blood of their children.

We celebrate this precious gift of freedom that we have today because of the price others paid.    We must never forget that freedom isn’t free.   Freedom is very expensive. Freedom is a very valuable commodity but freedom is not free.

In a letter to William Smith dated November 13, 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants”  No, freedom is not free. The price of freedom is always paid in blood.

The blood spilled on battlefields Concord and Yorktown was not the first time blood was spilled for freedom.   You see Jesus shed His blood on a cross 2000 years ago so that we could all experience true freedom; Spiritual freedom

In our Gospel lesson Jesus said ..."so, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”.

Jesus could say that because Jesus is Truth and Jesus is the author of freedom.  It is in Him and only in Jesus that we are truly free.    The Gospel is a message of good news and The Gospel is also a message of freedom.  The gospel is a message that is still needed today...because far too many people are still not spiritually free.
 

In our text from The Gospel of John Jesus is addressing a group of half believing Jews.  I say half believers because they believed that Jesus was the Messiah but … they had not accepted Jesus as their Lord.   Jesus’ words exasperated these Jews because His teachings require a change in one’s attitude as well as a change in one’s actions.  Jesus taught and practiced love, compassion, and forgiveness.  And if Jesus is our Lord … and …. if we are to be Jesus’ disciples our attitudes must be driven by love … and we must practice compassion and forgiveness in dealing with our neighbors each and every day.

In verse 33 these Jews pretended that Jesus was alluding to political freedom.  Despite the fact that Israel had been conquered by the Romans and the Jews were living under Roman occupation, the Jews refused to believe that they were slaves.  They lived in denial and they totally missed the point.  Jesus was talking about spiritual freedom not political freedom.  The Jews felt they were superior because they had been given The Law.  They held on to the belief that righteousness came from observing the Mosaic Law. 

These Jews had received Jesus words but they refused to allow The Truth to change their attitudes and / or their actions.  They were indignant with Jesus’ reference to slaves and sons. 

Their desire to kill Jesus, the promised redeemer of Israel, that is recorded in verse 37 proves that these Jews were not children of Abraham but rather they were children of Satan.

In our scripture readings for today we read about three things that Jesus frees us from:

1. Jesus frees us from sin;
2. Jesus frees us from observing the Jewish law; and
3. Jesus frees us from spiritual death.

First Jesus frees us from sin:  In Romans 3:23 we read that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.   Yes we are all sinners by our nature and we are all sinners by our actions.  But the Good News of The Gospel is that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  (John 3:16-17)

Romans 8:1 tells us;   “Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.  One of the terms The Bible uses to describe Satan is “The Accuser.  But the Good News of the Gospel is that “we have an Advocate” who stands up for us and we are declared righteous when we accept Jesus as our personal Savior.

Also in the book of Romans (5:8) we read “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us”. ………. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free from the penalty of sin.  Jesus took your place; Jesus shed His blood for you; Jesus died for you so that you could live in Heaven with Him throughout eternity.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free from the guilt of the sins you have committed in the past; you will be free from the condemnation of your sins, and you will be free from the penalty of all of your sins.    If the Son sets you free you will also be free from the power of sin … you will be free to live the victorious life that God has planned for you! Jesus said “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”.

Secondly Jesus frees us from observing the Jewish law

The Pharisees believed that you became righteous by keeping the law.  Not only did they believe you had to keep the Mosaic Law … they added a whole lot more laws just to make sure they were righteous.   Since they kept the law they thought they were more righteous then the gentiles.

Their religion was based on doing certain things.  The sad thing is that no matter how hard they tried could not keep the entire law.  In James 2:10, "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."

In Isaiah (64:6) we read that all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags in God’s sight.  And if our righteous acts are like filthy rags what about our unrighteous acts?

We can never be good enough … nor … can we ever do enough on our own to become righteous in the eyes of God apart from Jesus Christ.

Thirdly Jesus frees us from spiritual death

We are freed from a life without meaning and purpose.  Jesus frees us to the person that God created us to be!

Freedom from spiritual death means that we have freedom from worrying if we will be good enough to get into Heaven.   In Christ we are assured that we will live with God in Heaven throughout eternity. 

In our Gospel Lesson Jesus makes a connection between truth and freedom.   Jesus tells us that until we have the truth we will not experience true freedom.

So the first question is what is truth?  Truth is seeing through all the facades, the illusions, the dreams and the wishful thinking.  Truth is getting down to the heart of the matter, the essentials, that which serve as the basis of reality.

We are confronted with illusions every day.  All you have to do is watch a TV commercial.  We are led to believe that we must have this product.  If you take this you will be skinny and beautiful.  They tell us we deserve much more than we are getting.  We are not getting all that we have coming to us.  And … as you know they appeal to our wishful thinking.

But we must be careful.  For following an illusion does not free us.  Following an illusion binds us.

But…the good news is that Jesus Is Truth. (John 14:6) and in this passage Jesus tells us how we can experience true freedom.

Jesus lays down three principals for us if we are to experience true freedom:

1. Discipleship – In verse 32 Jesus said “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

2. Deception – In verse 33 the Jews started talking about being children of Abraham and as we all know at this point in history Israel was occupied by Rome.  They were under martial law.  They lived an illusion that they were free. Today each of us must accept the fact that we are a sinner and we need a Savior!

3. Deliverance – In verse 33 the Jews were referring to political freedom but we see in verses 35 & 36 Jesus was referring to spiritual freedom.  True freedom is spiritual freedom because we are all spiritual beings temporally housed in a physical body.  Our physical life is very short but our spirits will live throughout eternity.  In verses 35 & 36 Jesus draws a parallel between a slave and a son.   We become sons and daughters of God when we accept Jesus as our personal Savior and our Lord.   Each one of us must choose to accept Jesus as our personal Savior!   Jesus said “If The Son of God sets you free, you will be free indeed.

These three concepts show us how we can experience true freedom.  

• We need to face reality and we must see ourselves as Almighty God sees us. 
• We must become sons and daughters of God by accepting Jesus as our Savior and our Lord. 
• We must live our lives in accordance with God’s inspired word, The Bible.
  
  

AMEN