Slavery and Bondage: John 8:30 - 38

Introduction

Context

Location: Temple

Time: Evening, feast of booths

Audience: Hostile,

New Audience: Those who believed him.

John 8:30–38 “As he was saying these things, many believed in him. 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. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.””

1. Results of Abiding in God’s Word

John 8:31–32 “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.””

A. Abiding in God’s word does three things for us:

We become disciples (followers of Christ I.e. Christians)

We know the truth (Jesus’ words are truth, there is no other truth)

We are set free (We are free from our destiny to die in our sin and go to hell)

Question: What does it look like to abide in God’s Word?

Answer: Read, think, submit, obey, share/teach

Logic: If we do the above things, then we are disciples, truth-knowers, and free.

Transition: What are we set free from? If that is the question in your mind, then you are asking the same question as the Jews.

B. Jewish Confusion Continues

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’?””

The Jews are thinking of bondage to a person which has never been true for any them. Jesus is thinking of bondage to sin which is true of all of them.

The self-righteousness of the Jews is on display yet again. How could they be slaves to anything? They are children of Abraham! They are children of the king! They are the chosen people of God! They are not under bondage? They are good to go.

The Jews are trusting in their ancestral heritage as the thing that makes them right before God. They are self-righteous thinking they are good by their very nature.

Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

The Jews should have been aware of their own hearts, but they were oblivious to what the scripture clearly stated.

2. Sinning Results in Bondage to Sin

A. Sin is bondage

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

Who practices sin? All people are born practicing sin.

Therefore

Who is a slave to sin? All people are born slaves to sin.

Should the Jews have known this? oh yeah

Romans 3:12 “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””

Psalm 14:3 “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

The Jews should know that they are a people with an inclination to do evil. It was written in their Old Testament.

We should know that we are an evil people with an inclination for performing evil.

Injustice, crime, and human atrocities should not surprise us because we are all evil and in bondage to evil.

Man drives car through Liverpool parade

That is not a very happy thought, but it is a truthful thought - and what does the truth do? It sets us free.

We cannot begin to fix the problem until we acknowledge the problem, and if you do not acknowledge the evil that resides within you, then you can never begin to fight it and be free from it. It owns you, and has dominion over you because you act naturally - that is to say naturally evil.

B. We can be free from sin through Jesus

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.”

Slaves have an impermanent status in a house. They can be sold, traded, or removed from the house at the decision of the owner.

A son is permanently apart of the family and remains in the family for life. They live within the house permanently.

The Jews thought themselves to have the status of the son, but in reality they had the status of slaves. They had no permanent standing in God’s house and were destined to be removed from it.

But the Son (Jesus) is able to set slaves free (from sin)

Jesus grants freedom by granting freedom from the slavery of sin. No longer are you bound to sin - serving and fulfilling every evil desire that naturally lives within you. Now you are free from sin’s domineering influence to live righteously as God intended you to do before you were corrupted.

We are not meant to be corrupt, sinful, evil beings. But we are. And we need to realize that before we can begin to seek freedom.

And once we do realize, we are to look to Jesus for freedom

1 John 4:4 “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

See, we have been freed from sin, but we are not free entirely. We still serve a master, but now it is Jesus rather than sin.

1 Corinthians 6:20 “for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

We are free from sin, but not free entirely because we were bought by another - Jesus. And he bought us with his blood. His death was the payment for our freedom, and he did it because he loved us. He did not want to see sin drag you into hell where you would be separated from him for eternity, but died for you - paying the price that was necessary.

Why was his death the price? Because sin must be punished with death. All sin is punished with death. The question is will you pay for it with your death and eternal suffering in hell, or submit to Christ and trust his death to pay for your sin in your place?

3. Everyone descends from one of two Fathers

John 8:37–38 “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.””

A. There are only two sides

Jesus knows that the Jews are physically children of Abraham, but he knows further that they seek to kill him. Jesus knows the heart. He knows who your master is. He knows if you abide in him or not.

The Jews who eight verses ago believed in him are back to wanting him dead. He knows this because he does not see his words within any of them. They are not abiding in his words, but abiding by another’s.

Jesus speaks of heavenly things that come directly from God the Father. He is the ultimate messenger of God who provides the only way to God.

The Jews may be genetic offspring of Abraham, but they do not share the same Father as Jesus. They serve a different father - the devil. That is who they are enslaved too.

B. How to tell the difference

We are all either children of God or children of the devil. Whether you admit it or not, you are on a side. There is no middle ground because everyone will die and go to either the Father in heaven or the devil who’s destiny is hell.

1 John 3:5–10 “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

There is to be no confusion about which side you are on. If you abide in God (Read, think, submit, obey, share/teach) then you are a child of God.

Abiding is not what saves you. That is faith and repentance, but abiding is what proves you are saved.

But this passage says if I sin then I am of the devil. We all sin, but how do we sin?

John says that those who make a practice of sinning are children of the devil.

“makes a practice” literally means in the Greek “to do or to make.”

It means to do sin like I do breathing, or to do sin like I do eating. It is a habitual habit that I do. It means to make sin as in to create or manufacture it. Do you contrive new ways to sin? Are you always thinking about how to get around the rules or disobey without consequence and notice from those above you? That is what it looks like to practice sin.

Do we sin and feel conviction before turning to God and asking for forgiveness? Do we desire to be better? Do we hate our sin and the struggle we have with sin? If you do, that is because God’s word is in you, and he is your father and master, and you are striving to fight the old master and obey the new. You cannot serve two masters, for you will hate the one and love the other. The struggle is evidence of life.

4. Application/Conclusion

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Be encouraged that if you abide in God’s word you are a child of God - even though you still struggle with sin

Take this as a wake up call. Look introspectively and determine if you abide in God’s word or if you abide elsewhere.

Be amazed by God’s love for us by the purchasing of us by his blood. God is a good God and a good master. Turn to him and be free from sin and free to do what you were created to do - serving God which is the greatest joy you can have in life.