Freedom We Have Because of Christ

Introduction

So for the month of December we are going to be talking about different things we have access to because of Christ, and the specific thing we are going to be talking about today is freedom. A group of Jews have a conversation with Jesus here in these verses. Now when it comes to talking to Jesus, it is generally a really great thing to be talking to him or a really scary thing because Jesus calls people out real good a lot of the time. Right here we are going to see one of those conversations you’d probably prefer not to be a part of.

John 8:31-47 31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. 37I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you are seeking to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38I speak of the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”39They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. 40But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. 41You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born as a result of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.” 42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came forth from God and am here; for I have not even come on My own, but He sent Me. 43Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word. 44You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45But because I say the truth, you do not believe Me. 46Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47The one who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

I. Vs. 31-32 34-36

a. So in verse 31 here we see that Jesus starts off establishing something. He establishes to those that believed him, that they needed to continue in Jesus’ word, and THEN they were truly His disciples. You see there are rules here to being a true disciple of Jesus. You can’t just claim the title of disciple. The same people just claim the title Christian by putting it everywhere on socials and wearing this mask.

Illustration:

Some People are a lot like chameleons. They have this super power where they change color in their surroundings to camouflage. To blend in to whats around them. It’s how they defend themselves. Or another way to look at it is by taking on their surroundings they are making themselves feel safe in their environment. Does that sound familiar? Many people and even Christians act a lot like that. Depending on what environment you put them in will affect the way they act. And some people are real good at camouflage. They are real quick to figure out people and try to mimic that to feel safe.

But Jesus is like look guys, if you believe me, you gotta continue in my word, cause that’s really how you become true disciples. After you believe in Jesus there are steps to take. Because discipleship requires something deeper. Don’t act like chameleons guys. Don’t act one way here in this environment and act like a completely different person in another. You need to continue in His word. You need to abide in it. You see you can believe in Jesus. But are you functioning as a disciple of his or does your belief end at just belief and not continue on into a lifestyle of discipleship.

Now Jesus keeps going. He says that by knowing the truth, you will be set free. Now that’s quoted a lot. I always imagine the kind of court setting for that. “The truth shall set you free.” But you see Jesus is talking about The truth. Not just not lying. There are two things to look at. Jesus makes it pretty clear that there is truth. One of my favorite preachers Tony Evans said that, “Truth is the absolute standard by which reality is measured.” we might live in a world where it’s said that however you see the world and however you feel is the right way to see the world is the true way of seeing it in your eyes. But this is just completely wrong. We can’t find truth off of what we see or feel or want but by God. what God says what the truth is and how we see things needs to be based on how God sees them. The second thing to look at is you need to know the truth. When we have true knowledge of the truth we can be free.

b. You see Jesus said that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. As sinners we are in bondage. We are held captive by sin. But He says if the Son sets you free, you really will be free in verse 36. The Truth can set you free. Jesus can set you free. I mean in John 14 we are told that Jesus is the word, the TRUTH, and the Life. Are you continuing in the Word? Are you abiding in it? are you living by Jesus the living Word. The truth. We need to be in our Bibles. We need to be in the word.

Question:

What are some things that we choose to be in instead of the Bible.

II. Vs. 33 37-40

a. Now if we back track a little bit looking at verse 33 right now, we see there original response to hearing what Jesus is saying. Well we don’t need to be free. We are descendants of Abraham and weren’t enslaved so why should they be need to be free to begin with. They were so focused on their physical connection to Abraham not even considering that their own spiritual status isn’t dependent on that. That’s when Jesus responded that Everyone who commits sin is a slave to it. There is no special condition that gets you out of that. No jumping back up to verse 37 we see Jesus continue to respond about their claim about being Abraham’s descendants. I mean he’s basically saying here, “I know you’re descendants of Abraham alright, but despite you being these descendants of his, you’re trying to kill me.” He then goes on telling them 38I speak of the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” This is when the Jews circle back to Abraham again. Jesus says they are doing things that they heard from their father and they were like well that’s Abraham. But Jesus called them out real quick on that. He was like nope you aren’t. Cause if you’re children of Abraham you should be doing his deeds but you’re not. They weren’t acting like how they should at all. they were after Jesus wanting to kill him after all He did was tell them the truth.

b. The Jews weren’t acting like how children of Abraham should act. They weren’t acting rightly, trying to kill God who stood before them! They were so obsessed with their connection to Abraham. They used a connection to justify themselves. To justify what they were doing. They were descendants of the great Abraham and all so why would they need to look at their spiritual status. Their position with God. I mean they weren’t enslaved either right? We might look at this group and be like how dumb is it that they are justifying themselves because of their relation to Abraham. But they aren’t really any different from us. We justify ourselves all the time because of our connection to other things. “Oh, I was just doing it because they were doing it. It was their fault. I can’t be blamed. this is how identify so you can’t blame me for acting this way. This is who I am. I took a test online that says my personality makes me act this way so it really isn’t my fault.” People try to justify themselves constantly because of their supposed connection to other things. It’s a complete lack of self-accountability. How could you be wrong right? That’s what the Jews that about being descendants of Abraham. Are you holding on to your connection to things of this world to justify the way you are living?

III. 41-47

a. Jesus again tells them that they were doing the deeds of their father. Now the group starts acting like a bunch of middle schoolers. They go a low blow. Saying that his birth was illegitimate because his mom wasn’t married when she got pregnant. Now that is a very bad thing to say directly to God. They had no idea what they were saying and what they were saying wasn’t under the right idea because Jesus’ birth was far from illegitimate. They take it a step farther and say that God’s their father. So the deeds that they are doing, wanting to kill Jesus, is of God. But again Jesus is able to call them out on them honestly just being ridiculous. “If God were your Father you would love me.” (read verse 42 again) Because of the way they were acting, they could not be of the Father. There was no evidence of them being of Abraham let alone God. There was something else. Something sinister in how they were acting. Jesus said, 44You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. They were of the Devil. The way they were acting was of the Devil. Jesus had already told them if they were of Abraham how they acted would reflect that. If they were of God, how they acted would reflect that. But there actions reflected the nature of Satan. They were carrying out their father’s desires. The devil was a murderer from the beginning and now they were wanting to murder Jesus too. Why? Jesus was telling them The Truth. What was true. What was right. Who would hate that more than the Father of Lies. Them opposing Jesus was of the Devil

b. The Jews here had now been claiming to be of God. They had kept bringing up them being descendants of Abraham and since obviously that wasn’t working against Jesus, they tried to lie against him telling him that He was illegitimate and that they were of God. While acting completely contrary to God and acting in hate against Jesus. they had been placing their identity in being of God, but when fact checked they weren’t. They had placed they identity and justified themselves with Abraham, But the claims that had to that identity did not line up with who they really were. It didn’t line up with their actions and Jesus called them out on this.

Does how you identify, match up with who you really are? If you got fact checked would you be called out like these Jews were and be of the Devil, or would you be telling the truth. People can identify however they want. They can play a charade. They can wear a mask and they can act as a chameleon. but is your identity truly in Christ, or are you of the Devil. Claiming to identify with something and that being your true identity are two very different things.

Conclusion

You can come up with all of these different reasons on why you’re free. You can try to pull from other peoples spirituality to justify yourself. There’s an infinite amount of excuses you can give as to why you act the way you do. But the question is, is how your identity in line with the Truth, or the Father of Lies. Because putting on that mask, that isn’t what sets you free. It’s the truth that does. It’s Jesus that does. He is the truth. You can try to hide and justify yourself all you want. But just like how Jesus saw through the Jews here, He sees through you. You aren’t that good at hiding things I can promise you that. God sees it. So stop with all these lies and be set free by the truth. You don’t have to be in bondage anymore. Because freedom is found in Jesus. Let’s pray.