Slave or Free

We’ll see this morning that whether or not you abide in Jesus communicates whether you are a slave to sin or free in Jesus.

30 As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.

We mentioned last time that this is again an instance of temporary faith as the text makes clear to us. The seed has fallen and been snatched up, choked out, or not fallen on good soil.

31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him,

But, John is expecting us to read on as if they were indeed believing in Jesus. It’s up to the reader to learn that it was just a simple credence toward Jesus and not a trusting in him. “What is true faith”, becomes one of the questions the reader asks of this part of the discourse. This is very important. What is true discipleship? What took place at those Billy Graham crusades? Thousands come down to pray a prayer, how many remain. Charles Finney, the famous burnout district, manmade, man manipulated revivals came about, and what came of it. There’s an account of a town he went to preach to and the folks were weeping, and appear to come to a change of heart, only to in the span of a year to have returned to the same lamentable spiritual condition. Where they true disciples? How do we approach that as we engage with the lost?

“If you abide in My word,

Jesus gives a conditional clause followed by three inferences.

What is it not to abide. To be stirred up by someone for a moment. To go after something or someone flashy. Someone can genuinely be drawn toward Christ through Christian witness and not abide. They can be drawn to the word in many ways and not abide in it. That sounds like a good message. What a powerful speaker. I love the way they are so knit together. They are so kind. They seem to be at such peace. They seem so joyful. They’re conversation is a delightful thing to be around. They talk about very deep and interesting things. All of these are good things, yet none of these is the gospel. Fruit of the gospel, but not the gospel. Nothing demanding, nothing pressing at what the reality of what is inside your heart and why you might need salvation. That you are in bondage and need freedom.

“If you abide in my word”

This lovely and loaded phrase, and word “abide”. To abide in Jesus word is to abide in his teaching and is in fact to abide in Jesus himself. It is to lodge with him, to be taken in by his hospitality. It is communion. Revelation 3:20 “20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

It also means you take the whole word of Jesus. All he says. The freedom as well as the suffering and persecution. Denying yourself, taking up your cross. Loving Jesus more than your family. Putting his kingdom first.

you are My disciples indeed.

This is not works righteousness. Okay, as long as I abide in Jesus word, I will get to heaven. The sense is; you say you are my disciple, okay, if you abide in my word, it holds true. Indeed the seed has been planted on good soil. If someone says they have faith, but that faith doesn’t work, can that faith save them, of course not, that is a dead faith, no faith at all. Faith works, and so here, disciples remain in Jesus. As we’ll learn, Lord willing sometime in the late 20’s, when we get to Ch 15, abiding is sometimes painful, it is a struggle. You get pruned, things in you and in your life need to get cut away.

There is a question here as to baptism. Matthew 28:18–20 19 Go therefore and make disciples [what is a disciple?] of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”

Should there be a sense of abiding before baptism. I am aware that a text like Acts 8:34-40 that need to be compared.

I can give you a case where myself and two other seeming young converts were all three excited about Jesus and eager to be disciples and christian things. Should all three of us have been baptised upon that initial excitement? In the span of 6 months, the other two weren’t as thrilled about Jesus and his Word. They were not abiding.

The true Christian abides. Not always with the same zeal. Aren’t you thankful that you had a savior who joyfully obeyed on your behalf. Even our sin of not being zealous and fervent for God and his worship is covered by the blood of our Lord.

The true disciple remains. Even bears fruit in old age the psalmist says.

Psalm 92:12–15 “12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, 15 To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

Why, because they have been planted by the Lord himself. Because they have remained in his courts in his house, in his Word. You can walk around and

32 And you shall know the truth,

Truth is essential to Jesus, no. Jesus in fact is the truth. So necessarily, one who is intimately connected to him, will know the truth. He didn’t come to decieve but to make known the sure an certain mind, will, love, redemption of the Father. God is true, and Jesus is Truth coming forth from God

and the truth shall make you free.”

This freedom is salvation. Not merely free from ignorance and error, though that be true and a consequence, but free from bondage to sin and death. This goes back to the light metaphor earlier on. Men are in darkness as to their bondage. But once the light shines on them, they see there chains, and the watch them fall off. This bondage and blindness is what has kept them from seeing Jesus for who he really is the entire time you see. It should be clear to the reader that it is their bondage in sin that has kept them.

33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

Here is where the tension begins to mount that will culminate in their attempting to stone him. I believe they understand that they are not religiously and politically free in every sense. And I believe they understand somewhat what Jesus is saying here. They have a spiritual pride in their covenant lineage. Because of their descent from Abraham, they don’t believe they can be spiritually bound. How can we be bound when God has promised us that we shall never be bound. At least that’s how they see it. It’s almost like royal children walking around the kingdom behaving arrogantly and foolishly and then claiming royalty if anyone messes with them. But this is turned on its head by both Jesus and John the Baptist.

Luke 3:8 “8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”

Covenant lineage is for not. If you do not bear fruit worthy of repentance, you will be cast out. The whole system is coming down. If you have not the Spirit of Christ, you are none of his.

But they won’t here it because they are fleshly.

Natural man does not want to hear that he has a problem.

I was bringing the gospel to one of my coaches back in 2016 and I was going through mans fallen nature, and this particular man had a beloved uncle who did so much good, was so kind, and upon what he had observed in his uncle, he could not believe that none does good no not even one. There was no way of convincing him that he and his uncle were in bondage

This is the statement that will get them into a lot of trouble and is really the center of the dialogue for the next 25 verses. Who is your spiritual Father. You know me according to the flesh, and I( Jesus will affirm) know you according to the flesh. And I know you according to the flesh. John 8:37 “37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.”

But who is your spiritual Father? Do you belong to God. A lot of ink and effort is put forth today about who those people over in the middle east are. Whoever they are, Jesus will have a word not only about their identity, but everyones identity that does not abide in him.

34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

Is Pharoah a harder task master than sin? Not even close. Sin demands that it’s needs be met, and it not only gives nothing, but gives misery, and death and hell. There sin of being proud of the flesh is a sin that needs to be fed over and over again, they can’t let go of it. It will eventually lead to their death.

Proverbs 26:11 “11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.”

We always had a dog growing up. We had a collie that was getting older, and we had convinced my parents to get us a sheltie( min collie). We actually went through two of them. They were very popular back then, I remember several neighbors had them which probably influenced our desire to have one. Thinking back I want to say they were bad dogs, but its probably more that we were terrible owners. The first one lasted about a week before running away, and the second won a few weeks. The second one, Toby and Toby 2. Toby 2 gave me my first real life experience of The proverbs text above. He had gotten in to something bad, we don’t know what it was, but we noticed he wasn’t doing well, and he went and hid under the outside steps and started vomiting, and after vomiting, he would frantically hover over the vomit and lap it back up. He repeated this several times, one time our older collie came over to get some as well and proceded to vomit that up while the sheltie gobbled up the same pile of vomit again. Really quite disgusting and repulsive. It is whatever was in that vomit, that killed that little sheltie which ended the 4 week experiment of Sheltie dogs in the Tobler home. The dog was rightly vomiting up what was harmful to its body, Well this is the picture.

2 Peter 2:22 “22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.””

They are slaves to their sin of proud lineage. And even some who have left it for a moment, have returned to it, and many will follow it down to hell.

35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.

36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

What Jesus is telling them is that they as a nation are about to be moved out, they are representative of the flesh of the bond-woman. Cast out the bondwoman we are told. Here the slave does not abide forever. Who does though? A natural, eternal Son does. If I, whom am God’s natural Son, make you free, you will be free, you become adopted son’s. You will remain in the house with me. You should, because it’s the house you built. You labored over it so that it would show forth me, the grand design of God’s dealings with Israel. Don’t stumble over me, rejoice in me.

But as we mentioned, It is their bondage to sin that keeps them from seeing the glory of Jesus words and works up to this point. They want the scaffolding more than the building. They want the construction tools, rather than going into the house and sitting down and revelling in what God is accomplishing in Christ.

They want to stay in bondage rather than be free.

The glory of the Christian message is its simplicity and foolishness. It is a message that says, Jesus died so that you might be set free from the penalty, the power, and one day the presence of sin. We proclaim this freedom through a suffering, dying, but risen and exalted Savior. Believe on him, come to him, and he will set you free indeed.

A lifelong convict who has found Christ, is as free as every other soul in Christ, and freer than everyone who remains in bondage.

We are surrounded by people everyday who are in bondage. 

The only way to be set free is by and in the Son. 

It is the job of the church to proclaim that liberty to them. That captive souls might be set free. May the Lord give us, as those who are free indeed, the freedom to proclaim this glorious gospel to the lost in our community and those in our lives.

Lets pray.

Luther on Liberty of Christian

John 8:37 “37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.”