Untitled Sermon (4)

To Set Us Free

Good morning and Happy New Year everybody. It’s so good to be here and see yall this morning. 2022 is over. For some of us that’s one that we don’t want to relive right. So we are gonna save the kick off the new year message for next week and I am going to finish off our Christmas series today.

Just to give a little background our series is called Light of the World. And we have walked through some of the reasons that Jesus came to Earth. He came to disperse the darkness. He came to bring Salvation. He came to pay our ransom. He came to be the king of our hearts. And the title of the Sermon this week is To Set Us Free. He came to set us free Amen.

When I was praying about this sermon I immediately thought about the account of Jesus right after He was tempted in the wilderness. He comes into Nazareth and He’s ready to get started right. This is how Luke records this in chapter 4:14-21

14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,

that the blind will see,

that the oppressed will be set free,

19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

What stuck out to me for this sermon was the captives will be released. Now to be a captive has a certain meaning right. If you think about it being a captive doesn’t mean that you’re in jail right. Being a captive is like being held against your will. Normally being a captive involves a type of kidnapping type scenario. There is a ransom demand that must be met. A debt that must be paid by someone else. In those days people who owed debts were taken captive and the family of the captive would have to pay the debt because the captive couldn’t. Sound familiar?

Jesus came to set us free. All of us before we come to Jesus are captives. We have a debt we can’t pay. And Jesus comes to pay that debt and set us free. He pays the ransom by shedding his own blood to set us free.

Point 1: You see Jesus came to set us free from sin and the separation it causes.

Let’s take a look at a few verses here. First in Matthew verses 27-28

New Living Translation Chapter 26

27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

This is during the last supper and Jesus is explaining that He is going to willingly shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins.

Next let’s look at Hebrews chapter 10 verses 10 through 18

New Living Translation Chapter 10

10 For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

16 “This is the new covenant I will make

with my people on that day, says the LORD:

I will put my laws in their hearts,

and I will write them on their minds.”

17 Then he says,

“I will never again remember

their sins and lawless deeds.”

18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

You see came to set us free from sin and the separation from God that it causes. He made the sacrifice, paid the ransom with His blood and then.....I love when the Bible has and then’s in it....And then He sits down. You don’t sit down until the work is done. Jesus didn’t go halfway and decide it was too much. He didn’t over promise and under deliver. He didn’t look at me and at you and say well that one’s beyond me I can’t get it done. No He looked at you and at me and said they are worth it. You are worth it. He paid the ransom once and for all not halfway He got it all the way done and then He sat down.

Point #2: Jesus came to set us free from hopelessness.

Let’s read from John chapter 5 verses 1 through 11

5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”

11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

Can you imagine the hopelessness of being sick for 38 years and not being able to get better. And believing you were so close to a healing but you just weren’t fast enough to get to it before someone else.

This man was so hopeless that when Jesus asked him if we would like to get well the man doesn’t even answer Him. The normal answer to that question is yes. Yes I want to get well. Yes I want to be healed.

Instead this man just shrugs his shoulders and says I can’t. He has no hope. There’s a lot of us that have said I can’t and if i’m being honest I can’t is right. I can’t fix my separation from God. I can’t heal myself. I can’t fix my anxiety. I can’t control the negative self talk that goes on in my head. I can’t....But HE CAN. With a thought with a look with a touch Jesus is healing even now even today He is working healing bringing hope to the hopeless. Setting us free.

How many of yall have felt that sense of hopelessness this year. I’m gonna be honest I have. Circumstances and situations and problems and issues sometimes they just seem so big that we can begin to sink into hopelessness. Can you imagine if this was it. If this was the best it was ever going to be. If we didn’t have hope. If we didn’t have Jesus to set us free from that.

But Jesus heals him. He came to set us free from hopelessness. He came to bring Hope. And this isn’t in your notes but He came to set us free from those people who would take our hope.

Now there’s something else in here i want to point out. The Jewish leaders try to hammer this guy for carrying his mat on the sabbath. I mean come on. Really? Really? They said the law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat. Some of us in the church we get that way sometimes. And the target always seems to be the ones that need Jesus the most. So the next time Jesus does something for you, heals you, delivers you, makes you whole, repairs the broken parts of you, and somebody decides they want to throw the law and religion at you....Just say the man who healed me told me. The man who healed me told me to.

So Jesus came to set us free from sin and the separation it causes.

He came to set us free from hopelessness.

Let’s read John Chapter 5 verse 24

24 “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

Point 3: Jesus came to set us free from the power of death and the grave.

If we place our faith in Jesus and make Him the King of our Hearts we have already passed from death to life. Jesus isn’t referring to a future event here. He is telling us that once we have made that decision to follow Him to be Christ followers we have already passed from death to life. That transition is already done.

In John’s revelation Jesus tells John that He has the keys to death and the grave.

Revelation chapter 1 verses 17 and 18

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

He came to set us free and He has the keys. He holds the keys in His hands. And nothing, no power can take them from His hand.

He tells the thief on the cross today, not tomorrow, not in a week or at some point in the future TODAY you will be with me in paradise.

And I got some other news for you. You may say well yeah but everybody dies everybody has to experience death. Yes to an extent. And we can approach that day with the confidence that God always keeps His promises. He came to set us free. And He won’t abandon us in that final hour.

But there are some and I believe that the time is soon that won’t see that final hour. He came to set us free and on that day it could be here or at home or asleep or at work or on vacation we are gonna hear a mighty trumpet sound and in a moment we will look up to the sky and be changed. Jesus is going to come for his bride. He came to set us free and He is coming again to get us and take us home. Amen.

So to wrap everything up Jesus came for you and for me. Individually. You were worth it to Him. He came to set us free.

If you are sitting here today and look it’s a new year and the last ones just kept getting worse and hopelessness creeped in…you’ve been feeling trapped and captive and anxious Jesus came to set you free. Today is the day for that freedom. HE CAME TO SET US FREE.

for some of us who are Christ followers we need a reminder of that and we need to spend some time with Him this morning. You know there is something about taking that step to the altar to lay things at Jesus feet. There is power in that step because there is faith in that step. Some of us need to excercise that faith this morning.

And there are some here that well you either have never taken that first step in faith and followed Jesus or you’ve been pretending and things are out of control and you know deep down in your heart you haven’t put your trust in Him. Come do that today. I’ll be here at the front as the band plays. Take that step today. Let’s pray.