Declaration of Independent Dependence

Freedom and Dependence

Here’s another opportunity to show you how adorable my granddaughter is.

I talked last week about changes, some happen naturally and others are fostered.

One of the changes she is learning is attitude.

What she’s doing is declaring her independence.

In the Spirit of the 4th of July..

“I’m not doing that.” Yes, you are.

“I’m going to do what I want.” No, you’re not.

One of the important elements of parenting is teaching our kids where their freedom lies.

We want them to be independent, able to make good decisions on their own and get important things done.

Edris is 2, almost 3. She has little cognitive awareness of what’s really going on around her; the bigger picture.

She absolutely has the freedom to make her own decisions w/in the boundaries that her parents set for her.

She has daily blanket time. Mom and dad are busy. She has plenty of toys on her blanket. She can do whatever she wants w/ those toys as long as she stays on her blanket.

She thinks she’s in complete control of her existence. She has no idea that mom and dad’s watchful eye is constantly trained on her. And, the boundaries are firm and will be enforced.

That is where real freedom exists. When someone in authority, who has the power to enforce them, sets boundaries. Then, everyone w/in these boundaries can do whatever they want.

No worries, no fears. As long as we all respect the boundaries.

Issues arise when someone doesn’t respect the boundaries.

When you take my toy and hit me w/ it. That’s a problem.

Visit any toddler room in any church around the country today and likely you will see this principle illustrated.

Minimal rules, minimal boundaries, but firm and enforced.

That’s how we raise responsible adults. Children, whose parents teach them these things, grow into adults who are more aware of their responsibilities to live w/in healthy boundaries than to press their rights.

Greater freedom exists when adults are more aware of their responsibilities than their rights.

IOW, if we all seek to give and serve, we will all be the recipients of the gifts and service.

If we all seek to receive, then there will be no one left to give.

A few basic, firm boundaries is all we need. And, the respect to live w/in them.

This is the way God set up the administration of the Christian life and our Founding Fathers understood this.

Our Founding Fathers understood this

We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments of God. - James Madison

Statesmen my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. - John Adams

The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts. - John Jay

It cannot be emphasized to strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ - Patrick Henry

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. - John Adams

Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do - then do it with all your strength. - George Washington

Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it. - John Adams

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. - Thomas Jefferson

These are just a few of the most significant quotes of our Founding Fathers regarding our freedom, independence from other nations, and our dependence on God.

God has granted us the right to live independently of each other w/ responsibilities to each other and in complete dependence on God.

What matters most is if we have turned to Jesus, completely dependent on the only One who can declare us free and independent from everything that binds us.

We are in . Luke records 2 miracles performed by Jesus thru Peter. Short accounts that set the stage for the next significant event in .

More on this later.

Here are the accounts of 2 miracles and their points about our independence w/ God and our dependence on Him.

Independent

Acts 9:32-

Acts 9:32–35 NIV

As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

Lydda is a town in Judea, about 25 miles NW of Jerusalem.

Peter is traveling around, visiting churches.

He’s not planting, he’s preaching.

These are existing churches and he’s there to encourage the new believers in these new church plants.

Mostly, a Jewish city, but a mixed-religion population.

The farther away from Jerusalem the more diverse the population.

He meets a man named Aeneas.

Is he a believer? Probably, but not sure.

When the church was established in Jerusalem it wasn’t necessary to introduce anyone in the church as a disciple, or believer.

If you weren’t a believer, you didn’t go b/c of the persecution.

As the church and the stories move away from Jerusalem it became necessary to add the adjective ‘disciple’ to specify if the person Luke was writing about was believer.

A third of the miracles Jesus performed that were recorded in the gospels made no mention of faith.It was a non-issue. In fact, some were definitely not believers. Jesus just used them as illustrations for what He had been teaching.

In this case, there’s no mention one way or the other. He probably was. But, w/ no mention of faith, faith is a non-issue for what happened.

If it were important Luke would have included it.

Don’t let anyone tell you God won’t work in your life if you don’t have enough faith.

It has more to do w/ how much faith God has in you than how much faith you have in Him.

Aeneas had been paralyzed for 8 years. He used t/b able to walk. No mention of why he was now paralyzed.

Peter is simple, straight to the point. No flowery, spiritual language, no King James English.

Just, “Jesus Christ heals you.”

Aeneas didn’t ask Peter for it. I assume he wanted it.

And, Peter didn’t take any credit for it. Jesus did it.

The healing, as always, was immediate and complete. His muscles would have atrophied and his bones weakened.

You and I would need months of P.T. if a surgeon had fixed the problem.

But, for Aeneas, Jesus fixed it. And, part of the miracles was its immediate completeness.

Peter’s next line is what given some explanation to the point of this miracle.

“Get up and roll up your mat.”

Significance?

Up to this point, while he was paralyzed, he had been carried everywhere on his mat. His mat would have been cleaned and transported by someone else all these 8 years.

Now, after he’s healed, he can take care of his own mat. He has received his independence from all of his care-givers.

He no longer needed them. He was capable of doing for himself what he had been dependent upon other people for these past 8 years.

Jews were dependent upon the priests for their interaction with God.

The priest had to deal w/ his own sin and then could deal w/ the sins of the people.

Worship was led by a priest. They had special access to God that the rank and file did not.

Jesus fulfilled the law when He died on the cross. It was completed. No longer necessary.

And, when a NT believer turns to Jesus and comes to faith, God Himself comes to reside in the believer.

Every believer is a priest. We have received our independent from needing another human being to facilitate our interaction w/ God.

We can go straight to Him.

We don’t need spiritual care-givers like priests anymore.

Pagans have their priests, too. They are the go-betweens between mortals and immortals.

The interaction between humans and Greek gods was severely restricted.

Hercules, half god, half human and his parents were a rare exception.

Temple prostitutes were spiritual go-betweens between their god and the man using the services of the prostitute.

All these religions in their own way, had these go-betweens, spiritual care-givers. Interaction between the gods and the people was impossible w/out the services of the go-between.

Jesus ended all that. It does not matter what religion you come from, once you come to Christ you no longer need anyone to facilitate your interaction w/ God. He will live in you.

Wait a minute, what about your pastor? Bible study leader? Counselor?

We are fellow sheep, using the gifts God has given us, serving you, for you to use as tools on your own to facilitate your own relationship w/ God.

I am here to teach you the bible, not as an end in itself.

Knowledge, facts, of the Bible are important but not the priority.

Knowledge of God, relationally, is the priority.

I teach you so that you can learn more about the character of God so you know what to expect of Him and what He expects of you, and you can take these characteristics on yourself so you resemble Him more.

Being more Christ-like. Mature.

I can’t tell you exactly what you need. I can only teach the bible and God will tell you exactly what you need from the passage I am teaching that day.

I’m not responsible for your spiritual life, you are.

You are responsible to take advantage of every tool available including my sermons, other bible study lessons, prayer, fellowship w/ other believers, humble service, music and other things that the Holy Spirit will use in your life to mature you.

God has declared your independence from needing any other human to facilitate your relationship w/ Him.

So, am I saying we are completely independent of each other?

No. Absolutely not.

We need each other.

We are completely dependent upon God and will use the other believers in your life to accomplish his purposes and help you discover everything about this new life that you have and all that He created you to be.

We don’t need priests. We need fellow believers, gifted and indwelled by God to help us discover who God created us to be.

In our independence, we are completely dependent upon God for our new life and all that it offers.

These are the boundaries w/in which we find total freedom.

This is the second miracle in this passage.

Dependence

Acts 9:36-43

Acts 9:36–43 NIV

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!” Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them. Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Peter traveled to Joppa. About 12 miles from Lydda.

There was a woman there who became sick and died.

Here name meant Gazelle, or gracious like a gazelle runs.

Tabitha in Aramaic. Dorcas in Greek.

She was a believer, probably wealthy, and very generous with her time and money in helping the poor, those who could never pay her back. Thus, gracious.

Her body had already been washed, meaning it has laid for a few house.

The Jews would entomb her by sundown. Maybe she died after sundown and they were waiting till the next day.

Greeks culture waited a day to entomb so it could be that another culture had influenced their care of her body.

Either way, this good woman was gone.

They sent for Peter knowing Jesus had worked thru Him before and he was in the area. He’d never raised anyone from the dead, but Peter had been the instrument of healing.

They hurried him. She’d been dead for a while and she was about to be entombed.

The weeping widows who met Peter in her room were wearing some of the clothes that Tabitha had made and given them as gifts.

Obviously, they want Peter to know she is worthy of whatever God would do for her thru him.

Peter had been humbled by now, so not wanting to draw attention to himself he asks everyone to leave the room.

He prayed for her. He knew He could do nothing for her. He was completely dependent upon God for Him to do anything.

Whatever God chooses to do, He does.

He could have just said, “Tabitha, get up.”

But that would have been him trying to do it in his own ability. Which is not near enough to raise the dead.

He prayed. That’s between him and God. God was the focus. He knelt. he was humble. There was nothing arrogant about his activity in the room.

THEN, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” And she did.

She’d been dead for hours. Decay would have already begun. Yet, no lasting physical effects and no brain damage.

Jesus’ healing is immediate and complete. The best a doctor could have done would have left her oxygen-deprived brain and body in a vegetative state.

She was alive. Everything worked.

Jesus is the only one who can give life. He can take someone who is physically dead and bring them back.

He can take someone who is spiritually dead and give them new life.

He can take someone who is physically dependent upon others to facilitate every human necessity and interaction and declare them independent.

And, He can make us spiritually independent.

Man or woman. Jew, Gentile, Greek, Roman or American.

As a result of these miracles many turned to the Lord. They turned away from their old lifestyles, idols, and god and turned to the One who can give them freedom in their new life.

They are completely dependent upon the only One who can declare them independent and free.

As I said earlier, these 2 miracles set up the next event. , where Cornelius is the first full Gentile to turn to the Lord and come to faith.

Equal standing before God.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Those who believe in Jesus, who receive Him, He gave everyone the same right to become a child of God.

No longer does anyone need to become Jewish and worship thru a priest separated by walls and courtyards in the temple.

We can worship wherever we are, men and women, regardless of country of origin, citizenship of our parents, nationality of origin.

All that matters is if we have turned to Jesus, completely dependent on the only One who can declare us free and independent from everything that binds us up.

Applications

Turned?

Have you turned to Jesus? Have you turned completely away from your old life, that isn’t life at all.

Turn to Jesus and everything he offers to anyone else is also yours.

Peace in this life. And a seat at the table in the next.

We are completely dependent on Jesus for everything good in this life and the next.

He is the only One.

Responsible?

Are you being responsible for your own spiritual life?

Or, are you too dependent on me, pastor in the valley, spouse, others for what God intends for you to get yourself.

Make your own bed. Lie in it. Pray in it. Study in it. Serve with it. Carry it.

Be responsible for what God declared you independent for.

Serve

No one needs you for them to have their own relationship w/ God.

Everyone needs you for them to discover and be everything God created them to be.

Find ways, probably ways in which you are gifted and talented, to lead those around you closer to Jesus.

Our Founding Fathers knew the only way this experiment in democracy would last if we lived independent lives dependent upon Jesus for life.

True freedom only exists under the rule of law.

Boundaries. Few but firm. Respected by all.

We can only experience real freedom in Christ. Inside the boundaries of His love.

All that matters is if we have turned to Jesus, completely dependent on the only One who can declare us free and independent from everything that binds us up.