Faith and Self-Deception
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Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”
the emphasis could simply be on allowing room in your life for God’s word to take root, and the freedom that comes on the other side of that.
I’m thinking about talking about how you make to make room in your heart for faith, and the deception that can come when we don’t have faith we can deceive ourselves that everything is ok - potentially deceiving ourselves all the way to destruction, but true disciples are free because they choose to make room for faith
32-
you can’t have Jesus word’s without Jesus.
This is during booths
Introduction
welcome
spend some time tonight talking about self-deception.
The bible will make the point that this kind of self-deception happens all the time and there’s a pattern to it. We are in danger of deceiving ourselves the less
We deceive ourselves when
We don’t know God’s Word
and we think there’s an easier way.
self-deception is fleshly, and we can see it out the outside
my daughter putting on her shoes
me waking up in the morning.
Intro to this passage in John
during the time of the festival of booths or sukkot
we’ll be exploring this theme of Exodus this year, and there is clear connections to the exodus in this passage.
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;
Jews who had believed in him - thought he was Messiah
continue - remain, meno, those are who are true disciples as opposed to those who claim to be disciples but are deceiving themselves. Jesus is going to help them not be decieved - by the end of chapter 8 they want to kill him.
and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
this is an iconic verse, colleges use it as slogans, in a lot of books and movies.
my favorite is in Liar Liar, truth will set you free.
but this isn’t some objective truth - Jesus is the way truth and the life
You can’t have jesus’ teaching without the person of Jesus.
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
the self-deception hits an all-time max here.
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greek, then Egypt again, then sria, and now currently Rome.
they are actually in bondage but they have deceived themselves
they are at the whims of their current master
this kind of deception is a slow burn. there are prophets that preach, peace, peace.
34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.
don’t let old sermons trip you up here, this isn’t just bad people
what is sin - not to have faith in the way of Jesus, and this affects your practice.
35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.
temporary
36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
to make this explicit, the son and truth make you free. God wants people who are free, God has been in the business of freeing people from the very beginning, unfortunely, people are pretty terrible at being freed.
- remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
- remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
37 I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word.
they think they are children, but they are not, they are hostile to the way of Jesus.
no place in you for the Word, it’s not been made hospitable.
38 I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”
The irony in this passage is dripping, in tents, celebrating their imagined freedom, while sitting in slavery.
How do we not do this - fall into this kind of self-deception:
first learn God’s Word, make your heart hospitale for it.
secondly, Follow Jesus way - do what you have heard from the father and has been revealed by Jesus, stop looking for shortcuts.
Also, recognize that non-action and waiting for everything to pan out is a shortcut, Gregg mentioned those sitting on the sidelines a few weeks ago. You are deceiving yourself if you are not following Jesus’ way, and Jesus didn’t sit on the sidelines.