John 8:31-36

Pre-Intro

Personal introduction

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Tonight we are going to be in the gospel of John. Michael is going to be back soon and when he is back we will be starting a new book but for tonight we will be in the Gospel of John. If you have one of our bibles it is on page 895. Our text tonight is Joh 8:31-36. And tonight we are going to be discussing freedom. What does it mean to be free and what does it mean to be a slave? Because we live America, most of us have so many conceived ideas of what it means to be free.

Freedom to many of us simply means to do whatever we want whenever we want.

Freedom is being able to do something without getting permission or asking for authorization.

With that definition then, we think of slavery as being controlled. Many of us think of the American slavery of the 1800s that we read in our American history textbooks. We might think of the slavery of the Israelites in ancient Egypt. Whatever specific example we think of, our idea of slavery has some common themes.

To be a slave means being forced to do someone else’s will rather than your own.

Someone else makes our decisions

It means to be owned by someone else.

It means having to give up your own desires and free will to serve another.

So when we talk about slavery and freedom, these are the types of ideas. These are the types of preconceived notions that all of us bring to the table. The Bible, however has its own view of slavery and freedom. And shockingly the bible says that all humans are either slaved or free. And so, tonight as we look at our text, we have to ask the question of ourselves

What does Jesus have to say about slavery? What does it mean to be enslaved in His view and what does it mean to be free according to Jesus?

If you have your Bible’s open read with me as we look at Jhn 8:31-36 to see what Christ has to say about what it means to be free and what it means to be a slave.

John 8:31–36 “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Pray with me before we start

Introduction

So since we haven’t been in the book of John we have to set the stage from the verses that we are reading tonight. The gospel of John is one of the four accounts of Jesus’s life that we have in the New Testament. And John is particularly concerned with showing his readers that Jesus is truly the Son of God. So this is why, rather than starting his book off with a genealogy of Jesus’s human ancestry, John starts it off with his divine ancestry.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And so as John tells the story of Jesus’s life, he is very concerned to point out some of the details which point to Jesus’s identity as not only messiah, but the Son of God. The Divine Messiah. By John 5 the Jews had already tried to kill Jesus because, in there own words, he attempted to make himself equal with God. At the end of our chapter tonight in John 8 Jesus identifies himself as the “I am”. By doing this he is identifying himself as the very God who appeared to Moses at the burning bus.

John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”

In John 17:5 Jesus praying to the Father says. “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

In John 20:28 Thomas calls Jesus, “My Lord and My God”

So the apostle John is recording Jesus’s life highlighting and drawing attention to the way that Jesus claims to be the divine messiah. And of course because of that claim, Jesus faces fierce opposition. That opposition is fiercest from the Jews and particularly the Pharisees. The pharisees of course being the religious leadership of the Jewish people at that time. And so when we jump in at chapter 8 tonight Jesus is in a heated argument with the Pharisees about his own authority and his identity. However by the time we get to verse 31 he begins narrowing his focus on who he is speaking to. He begins speaking to Jews “who have believed in him”. And what he says to them is striking.

We will have two questions that we ask as we read our text. If you are taking notes write these questions down as they will guide us.

Question

Number 1 : What does it mean to be a slave?

Number 2: What does it mean to be free?

Question 1: What does it mean to be a slave?

Read John 8:31–32 this time. We’ll get to verses 33-36 in a moment. Read 31-32. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””

In verse 31 here, Jesus begins addressing some of the Jews who had believed him. In the previous verses in chapter 8 Jesus had been preaching that when he is crucified many of the unbelieving Jews will know that he truly was sent from God. And we are told in verse 30 that many believed in him. And it seems that in verse 31 Jesus turns his attention to these people. He begins speaking to the Jews who believed him.

And what does Jesus say to them? He basically says, if you want a test to know if you are true disciples or are simply being caught up in the moment, here is how you know. Are you abiding in my word? That’s a different way of saying, are you truly listening to Jesus’s teaching.

2 John 9 “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”

John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.””

So we see here that Jesus is giving a sort of measurement that one can use to tell if they are truly a disciple. Disciples desire and aim to not only hear Jesus’s message but to heed and obey his word, his teaching, his authority.

And what else will characterize the disciples? In addition to an abiding in the word, the text here says that they will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

And it is here at this point of the text that we begin to see Jesus raise the question of slavery and freedom. What is Jesus taking about? What is his truth that disciples are to know? How does that set them free? And what exactly are they supposed to be set free from? So far in our text Jesus hasn’t answered that question, he simply asserts that people are in need of being set free. And the same question that you might have right now about what Jesus means here by being set free is the question that the Jesus’s Jewish audience asks him.

Look down to verse 33. John 8:33 “They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?””

Do you see their question? Do you kind of hear even in reading it how they feel insulted by what Jesus just said

They basically say to Jesus here, wait a moment Jesus. You are telling us, God’s chosen people, that we are enslaved to something? Who are we enslaved to? Who do we need to be et free from? We are the descendents of Abraham and you think we are enslaved?

So you can see from their response that they are lost with regard to what Jesus is talking about and there response to him is to point to their special status as God’s people. They claim they’ve never been enslaved. Now on the face of it, that’s really not true is it? Of course the Jewish people have been enslaved. Actually they’ve been enslaved by just about every major group you can imagine

Egyptians. In fact the Exodus is the central event in Jewish history and identity.

Babylonians

Assyrians

Persians

They’ve been conquered by the Greeks and the Romans

So whatever they mean they must not mean that they’ve never been physically enslaved to anyone. Instead, what the Jews are most likely saying to Jesus is that, as God’s chosen people, they aren’t enslaved to the false worldviews of the pagans. They don’t worship the false God’s of the nations. They have God’s word in the Old Testament. Who are they enslaved to?

And it’s at this point that Jesus defines what he means about what it means to be a slave

Read verse 34 with me. John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

There is Jesus’s answer to them. Jesus is not speaking here about a slavery to a nation. He's not speaking about a physical slavery. Jesus is speaking about the way that even the Jewish listeners were enslaved to their sin. Jesus is saying that slavery to an oppressing army. Slavery to a harsh earthly master is not the primary slavery that affects his audience. It is a enslavement that comes from practicing sin

How does that fit into the way that we think about slavery? Isn’t slavery about doing something we don’t want to do? If I want to sin and I commit it, how does that lead to slavery? The reason we don’t understand how sin enslaves is that we don’t understand what sin is. Sure you might think sin is dishonoring to God. You might think that sometimes it can produce negative consequences. If you steal you might go to jail. But if thats all we think of sin than we will never understand!

The effect of sin is a lot less like a slap on the wrist and a lot more like placing your wrists in handcuffs.According to the bible, sin is not a one time act. Sin enslaves those who commit sin! Sin has the form habits and routines. Jesus doesn't just refer to occasional acts of sin; He points to a lifestyle of sin—a pattern that plunges a person further into bondage. The more we sin, the more enslaved we become. The repeated act of sin begins to harden a person’s heart, making it harder to break free. This cycle of sin causes spiritual addiction. The person no longer feels they have control over their behavior or desires.

And if you’ve ever experienced any kind of addiction, you know how something can be enslaving.

A useful analogy is how you use your phone. Think about it!

You pick up your phone to check a simple notification. You intend to spend only a few minutes. But the moment you unlock the screen, you’re drawn into social media, or an endless stream of videos. One post leads to another, one video to the next, and before you know it, hours have passed.

You tell yourself, "Just one more scroll, just one more video." And each time you do, your willpower slips away just a little more. It feels like you’re in control, but in reality, the phone is in control of you. At first, the phone feels like a tool—a way to connect, relax. But over time, you notice something. You can’t stop checking it. It's no longer a tool for your use—it uses you. This is the nature of addiction and really thats also how sin works: at first, you think you’re in control, but before long, you realize you’re a slave to your own desires—your need to check, scroll, or like. Or you are enslaved to anger, lust, greed, envy. Your freedom has been eroded by sin.

I’m not saying phone use is inherently sinful but I wanted to use that example to show you the power of sin.Sin enslaves. Sin is like quicksand. Every sin, even seemingly small sins, sinks us deeper and deeper into the sand as we become powerless and trapped. The sin enslaves us, it separates us from God. This is how elsewhere the bible describes sin!

2 Peter 2:19 “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”

Titus 3:3 “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”

Proverbs 5:22 “The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.”

Do you see now what Jesus meant? Do you see how this definition of slavery is so different than the one we usually think of? And what Jesus says about being a slave, with the exception of Adam and Eve at the very beginning, applies to every single human ever born. All of us here, apart from Christ are slaves to sin. We are chained to our sinful passions and desires!

Romans 3:9–12 “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

If this is what Jesus means he speaks about slavery What does it mean to be free?

This leads us to our second question.

Question 2: What does it mean to be free?

Read verses 35 and 36 with me. John 8:35–36 “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Again the answer Jesus gives here takes a little unpacking. What does Jesus mean when talking about a slave not remaining in the house forever? To understand this we have to grasp a bit about slaves and sons in Jesus’s time

In Jesus’ time, slavery was a common practice in the Roman Empire. Slaves were often seen as property rather than full members of the household. An so even though some slaves had personal relationships with their masters and sometimes even became very close with the master’s family. They were still temporary members of the family. They were never seen in the eyes of the world as true children

Slaves could be sold, traded, or freed, but they did not have permanent status in the household

ii. On the other hand, The child of the master (the son) would inherit the household, land, and property, and would remain in the house forever.

So sons were seen as heirs, enjoying privileges, security, and permanence in the household.

So with this in mind we can see what Jesus is saying here. Read verse 35 and 36 again with me. John 8:35–36 “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Who is the slave he is speaking of? In context it is the Jewish listeners he was just speaking about. Those who thought that just because they were of the line of Abraham that they were by nature children of God. And instead Jesus calls them slaves of sin. And here he tells them that those who are slaves have no permanent place in the household of God.

and that’s the shock of Jesus’ words. These religious Jews were confident in their lineage. They were so proud of their ancestry. They believed that being descendants of Abraham guaranteed them a permanent place in God’s household. But Jesus shatters that false security. He says, “No, you’re not sons—you’re slaves.” Slaves to sin. And slaves don’t stay in the house forever. In other words, your heritage can't save you. Only the Son can do that. And that Son in this verse— is Jesus Himself—

Only JESUS has the authority to bring people in or send them out. .He is the one who holds the keys to the father’s house. So Jesus is saying here, don’t trust in your heritage, Don’t trust in your outward religion. But instead trust in the Son. That’s the gospel Jesus is preaching: bloodline can’t save you, but His blood can.

He is even speaking to us here today! If you have yet to trust in Jesus, you are a slave to your sin. And by very definition, you can’t set yourself free. Only Jesus can set you free! On his authority, as the one true Son of God who remains in his father’s house, you can be set free. And not only free but free indeed.

Romans 6:22 “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

The prophet Isaiah, prophesying of Jesus says this concerning Jesus’s ministry, “Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”

Jesus because of his perfect life and his death on your behalf has cancelled the penalty for your sin if you believe in Him

When you believe he gives you new life. He changes your desires and passions from being centered on sin to being centered on Him and his word. He sends you the Holy Spirit who gives you the power to fight temptation and sin. The sin that you used to be so enslaved to.

That Holy Spirit draws us to Jesus and makes us abide in his word. He gives us the desire to love and obey God’s word so we don’t sin against him. So our sin doesn’t enslave us and separate us from him.

So then the freedom that we have in chapter 8 is not a freedom to do whatever we want whenever we want it.

Exodus 8:1 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”

It is the freedom to obey God’s word and to serve him and worship Him. To abide in Christ’s word which gives life. God’s word Some of you might be thinking, how is that more freedom. How is following commandments freeing.

Analogy of learning a language.

You’ve heard it said that freedom means doing whatever you want, whenever you want. That’s the modern definition. But true freedom—Christian freedom—is something deeper, something richer.

One theologian gave an analogy of what Christian Freedom means. He says, think of learning a language or an instrument.

At first, when you start learning French or Spanish or instrument, it feels like slavery. You're restricted. You can't speak fluently. You fumble your words. You have to follow rules—grammar, syntax, scales, discipline. You don’t feel free. You feel limited.

But stay with it. Practice. Immerse yourself. Let the structure shape you.

And one day, suddenly—you’re speaking fluently. You're having a conversation in that language. You're improvising music. In a real sense, you’re free. Not because you broke the rules, but because you submitted to them long enough for them to shape you from the inside out.

That’s Christian freedom.

It’s not the freedom to sin—it’s the freedom not to. It’s not being free from all restraint—it’s being formed so deeply in Christ that you can live with joy, courage, and love. It’s not doing what you want—it’s wanting what’s good.

It is abiding in the word of God!

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” That truth is the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Are you abiding in that word tonight?