Mighty Things - LIBERATOR
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Nobody likes being bound by rules, other people’s thoughts or actions, and yet we have all found ourselves shut up in our homes, isolated and not even worshipping in church together this week.
Why - a mandate, safety, an evil virus.
We free lovin Americans don’t like being restricted! It stinks!!! We want our free lives back!
Realize something this morning — we will eventually gain back our freedoms to move about freely, have regular church services, go to sporting events and fly on planes wherever we can afford, but some of us will still not be free.
In reality, those who do not know Christ and even many who do are still bound up by the effects of sin in this world in our individual spiritual lives.
Jesus came to SAVE us from our bondages - to be our liberator!
As we approach Easter this year, I want us to look at the MIGHTY THINGS JESUS DID for the PURPOSE of SAVING OUR SOULS - and setting us free!
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He recognized at the outset of His earthly ministry that He came to set the oppressed free --- but in what ways was he talking?
Let’s look this morning at the account of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.
1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives,
2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.
3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.
7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.
10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Rotten sneaky Pharisees, hypocrites! Condemning a woman and not even the man, trying to trick Jesus, guilty of who knows what themselves...
Here are some things that Jesus rescuing this woman demonstrates to us what He does for us...
1. Liberated from RULES
1. Liberated from RULES
In this case those rules are the LAWS God gave, but that law was useless in helping man overcome it!
Here, the religous leaders of the day were using the law to judge and destroy this women’s life! The only basis they had for what they were doing was the law.
How much good had the law done? This woman was still breaking the law...
In fact, if you note when you put down rules today or tell someone they can’t do something it is like inviting them to do it!
20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Rules often show us how we fail or come short!
The same with the law of God — man is born with a sinful nature and that nature until changed by the sacrifice of Christ leaves us in bondage to rules that are contrary to our natural state.
We need a liberator from this
Romans 4.15
15 For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)
Rules and the law simply demonstrate our inability to obey! They give us something to fail at!
The law itself, or spiritual regulation has no power in the fight against sin!
This woman on this day was about to be rightfully stoned to death for transgressing the law, though it existed she still continued to break it.
REALIZE TODAY that mankind feels the weight of the laws of God - they sense the fact that they cannot live according to it - it is the cause for so much of the animosity toward Christianity! So much of the fight to call things right that have been viewed as wrong - because the Grace and Power of Christ to liberate is being denied and man is powerless against the law on their own!
However, realize that Jesus came to set us free from the curse of the law!
Here Jesus stopped the law from being acted out - the stoning about to take place!
Why? Our liberator does mighty things --- HE LOOKS BEYOND OUR FAULT TO SEE OUR NEED! We were in need of one who could pay the price for our sin and set us free the nature that enslaves us!
13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
He took the curse upon Himself so we did not have to pay the price for transgressing the law.
1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.
2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,
5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
eph
God has brought us the gift of salvation that releases us from the bondage of the law on our lives by releasing us from the bondage of sin.
2. Liberated from Condemnation
2. Liberated from Condemnation
The other thing we see at work in this interaction with Christ is the liberation from condemnation!
He not only comes to this woman’s side and refuses to pronounce a sentence upon her when the Pharisees are using her as an example for him to do so, He tells her - I do not condemn you.
The law brings means for people to condemn one another.
If I can catch you in your sin, I can condemn you! I can give you a reputation! I can make you pay for your mistakes.
By doing this people hope to not feel the condemnation against them the same!
You and I both know what that is like - to have someone look and pass judgment on you. That is what the Pharisees were doing that day, passing judgment and condemning this woman to die!
Yet at the same time they were not looking at their own failures and shortcomings.
3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?
4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
Everyone loves the part about Jesus writing in the sand in this story, we often assume He is writing out the sins of her accusers, or the names of those who had sinned with this woman, perhaps He was writing out Scripture on showing justice and mercy!!
The reality is without the saving act of Christ on the cross - we would all be stuck in condemnation.
How could we ever get rid of the guilt from our sin.
People experience the burden of sin in their lives, it weighs them down, depresses them, causes them to seek relief from it. They struggle living with the condemnation of their behavior and actions in life that have hurt others and themselves.
Rom
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
Jesus chooses to NOT CONDEMN US but to forgive us and extend grace...
He is the liberator from condemnation — calling us by His name, His co heir, his own special people
9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
We are His chosen, His very own possession - we belong to HIM!
We are His chosen, His very own possession - we belong to HIM!
3. Liberator of Sin
3. Liberator of Sin
Let’s not make the mistake that because Jesus did not condemn, and set us free from the law that we are free to sin ---
We are not free to sin, but free FROM SIN!!!!
SIN NO LONGER HAS A HOLD ON US because HE HAS LIBERATED US...
Jesus looks at this woman and says - were are your accusers, who condemns you, NEITHER DO I -
GO AND SIN NO MORE!
You see, when we encounter the amazing grace of Jesus Christ we are made into new creations and liberated from sin.
That is HIS PURPOSE IN COMING, DYING, and RISING AGAIN - TO LIBERATE OUR SOUL FROM SIN!
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?
2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
Jesus was liberating this woman from the law, from condemnation and from the very sin that held her in the greatest of bondage.
The law was ineffective and condemnation the result, but through His grace and power - she was free to walk into newness of life away from her sin!!!
36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
Can it get any better than this - to be set free by the greatest of liberators???
13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
JESUS OUR RESCUING LIBERATOR!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
So, this account reminds us that Jesus can do MIGHTY THINGS - and perhaps the MIGHTIEST OF THEM ALL is SAVE US FROM OUR SIN!!!
He liberates us from the law, from condemnation and from sin!
This is more important than His healing, provision, moving mountains, it is the ULTIMATE PURPOSE of why He came --
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
No matter who you are, where you have been, what you have done --- OUR LIBERATOR wants to FREE YOUR SOUL from the law, condemnation and sin!
OH MIGHTY THING THAT GOD HAS DONE --- HE SET ME FREE!