Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon delivered by Pastor Finn on Sunday, July 1, 2018 PENT 6

Text: “Are You Really (Truly) Free?"

In the name of Jesus, dear Christian friends.

This Wednesday is Independence Day.

Everywhere are reminders of the freedoms we enjoy in this great land of ours.

Flags on the street.

Flags on houses.

Flags in front of churches.

Fireworks in the sky and parades in the streets.

Everywhere and every way we’re celebrating freedom—it’s a theme in movies and country songs, even in churches, people are celebrating: Let freedom ring!

That said, I’d like to ask you: Are you free?

I mean really free?

Most people when they think of Christians, don’t think of them as free.

They would look at you and all the rules you have imposed on yourself—and yes they go along with things like the “Golden Rule” and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you—they see the value of being nice to other people who are nice to you—but then you Christians go ahead and add even more rules on yourself that you have to live by—don’t drink too much, no sex before marriage, gotta watch your language—and on and on with all the rules—and that’s what many think Christianity is all about—and that’s not freedom they say.

In our text for today Jesus teaches about who’s really free and who isn’t.

We’ll listen as he points out some wrong ideas about freedom and we’ll learn as he shows how he (Christ) alone has the power to really set people free.

First, Jesus clears up some wrong ideas about freedom.

(vv.31,32) "To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus connects two things together: him and his teaching and freedom in a relationship with God.

In other words, Jesus is saying, “I’ll teach you, and then you stay in my teaching, you continue in it, you go on in it, and you’ll be free.”

Jesus will explain freedom from some things so that we can be free for something else.

But he’s not talking about a curriculum here, a Sunday School year or confirmation, but life-long Bible study of his teachings.

Right away instead of asking Jesus more about that, the Jews are offended that Jesus even hinted that they weren’t really free.

(v.33) “We are Abraham’s descendants,” they said, “and we have never been slaves to anyone.

How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Either the Jews were either ignorant of the meaning of the word, “freedom,” or they were in denial of their own situation.

The Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians had each enslaved them and they were currently under Roman power at the moment.

Yet in their mind they think they’re free because they’re descended from Abraham.

“He was a free man.

We are too.”

Abraham had been dead for 2,000 years by this point.

It’s like today if i ask you about your relationship with God, and you say, “My whole family has always been Lutheran, going all the way back to Luther!

I went to a Lutheran school,” or “My dad was a Lutheran pastor!”

They really misunderstood what freedom in Christ was all about, so Jesus explains: (v.34) “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”

When it comes down to our condition of sin, who of us is really free from that?

Your family name doesn’t matter.

What school you went to.

What your parents do for a living.

We all have a condition—each of us has a sinful nature and out of that comes sin: hating, cheating, stealing, lying, committing adultery.

Like the Jews, we protest because we think we’re basically good people who once in a while do something bad.

But Jesus says, no.

There’s a part of us that is a slave to a cruel, abusive, mean and harsh master: sin.

Sin isn’t just what we do; it’s a condition.

It’s easy to see this.

Rarely will parents have children begging them to go to church.

They won’t argue with you about that, or about how much you will let them study God’s Word!

Instead the sinful nature in them looks for ways to sin and to get away with sin.

As teenagers they will question you about things like: “Why can’t I go to that party or wear that top?” Or, “What’s wrong with drinking a few beers just cuz I’m underage?”

“What’s wrong with doing ____________ with my boy/girlfriend?”

Or “What’s wrong with smoking weed?”

Same thing with adults.

Easy to point out the sin in society, but hard admit our own, especially if there’s a sin we happen to like: like dishing about the latest gossip, or drinking too much, or using the Lord’s name in vain, or being lazy when it comes to worship or slefish in our giving.

And then we’re surprised when the young are confused when it's, "Do what I say and not what I do."

No, Jesus explains that sin is the problem—it’s a condition we all have—the solution?

Now Jesus takes the conversation from sin, to HIM.

(vv.35-36) “Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Back in Genesis three, after Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed Satan and said, “Now there will be two families—and all people of all time are going to part of one family or the other—there’s God’s family and there’s the devil’s family."

Which begs the question everyone needs to ask themselves: where are you?

Who or what has control of you?

To whom do you belong?

Who (or what) runs your life?

Cain is the first person in the Bible who showed that sin had a complete hold on him.

He was jealous of his brother Abel and hated him.

God warned Cain, "Sin is crouching at your door nut you must master it."

In spite of God's warning, Cain got the best of his brother and killed him.

Afterward, he felt sorry for himself, but not for his sin.

After that it says, "Cain went out from the LORD's presence" (), which is another way of saying that Cain remained an unbeliever, a slave of sin.

King David is another good example of a believer who let sin get a hold of him for a time.

First he saw Bathsheba (another man's wife) and lusted after her.

Then he spent some time figuring out a way to get her and commit adultery with her.

Then David used murder to cover up his sin with her, and for almost what seems to be a year he lived with that sin before repenting of it and turning to God for mercy and forgiveness.

The world is full of people who think they are a s free as birds, while all the while they are slaves of sin and members of Satan’s family.

That’s a scary thought.

And just as much as them, we need to hear God's daily call to repentance as well, so that sin does not become our master.

This weekend lots of people looked up to the sky and all the fireworks as we celebrated the freedoms we enjoy in this land of ours.

The next time you look up in the weeks ahead.

I want you to look for something else.

There's a star by the name of "polaris."

This past Thursday I asked the teens in the teen class if they knew what “polaris” was (not the snow mobile).

Polaris is another name for the north star.

It’s not the brightest star in the night time sky (actually it’s the 50th brightest star), but it’s unique because all of the other stars in our night time sky revolve around that northern star.

Dear friends, make Jesus your north star.

Set your sights on him.

Enroll in his school.

(vv.31,32) “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus sets us free, not to do whatever we want, but to live under him.

His freedom is greater than anything anyone else could offer.

Jesus sets us free from sin, death, Satan, slavery and frees us to God, truth, life, worship, and joy.

How do we respond?

We continue in his teaching.

The result: greater freedom.

God becomes greater and sin gets further behind.

You wanna talk about freedom--real freedom?

In the Book of Revelation there's a scene of Jesus revealing himself and us responding, forever, without end.

In heaven we won't be these chubby little cherubs strumming on harps.

Heaven won't be cute and boring.

In heaven, we'll see Jesus and rejoice in the truth about Jesus together, serving him and each other and it will never end.