The Truth Shall Set You Free

John 8:31-38 The Truth Shall Set You Free Introduction: Perhaps the greatest ideal of the 21st Century is that of freedom. Freedom has become the mantra of western civilization… Monarchy, oligarchy, or anything even remotely resembling totalitarianism is out and democracy is in. The current definition of democracy being that of total autonomy, absolute freedom to do whatever one desires. My intention here is not to discuss which system is right or wrong, but just to point out how highly valued freedom is in the thinking of most people today. Jesus placed a high value on freedom, not freedom in a political sense, not even freedom in a personal sense, but freedom in a spiritual sense. Biblically speaking… Freedom is part of what the Gospel is all about. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” It isn’t just a promise for freedom from the world, for a life after death, but for freedom in the here and now. So what is this freedom Jesus is talking about? Before we answer that question we should understand the slavery that Jesus speaks of in order to really grasp and appreciate the freedom he is offering. 1. True Slavery 1. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” 1. Sin is Slavery -“Whoever practices sin is a slave to sin.” 2. “The slavery of sin which everyone has experienced in some way, is similar to slavery and disease in many respects…. the main difference is that the slavery of sin is one for which we are responsible, and we can be empowered by God’s grace to turn from it, to be free. 1. Martin Luther in his book, Bondage of the Will, explains what it means that sin is slavery, “Man..does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it, like a thief…being dragged off against his will to punishment; but this willingness or volition is something which he cannot in his own strength eliminate, restrain or alter…” 1. Sin is an infection of the human heart, we are inclined to it. We want it, our will is bent on it and we are powerless to it in changing our inclination and desire toward it. Though sometimes we might bend it, we can never break or reform our hearts towards goodness. 3. Ed Welch says, “This enlarged perspective indicates that in sin, we are both hopelessly out of control and shrewdly calculating; victimized yet responsible. All sin is simultaneously pitiable slavery and overt rebelliousness or selfishness.” 1. The Bible says that each of us is infected with this deadly disease of sin, we see it manifested simply in the fact that each of has known the right thing to do in a certain situation and instead we have chosen to do the wrong thing. 1. Just as Paul said, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” 2. “When people rebel against God (creator, designer) in whatever way, new fields of force are called into being, a cumulative effect builds up, and individuals and societies alike become enslaved just as surely as if every single one of them wore a chain and was hounded to work everyday by a strong man with a whip.” 3. This is a terrible thought, it’s no wonder the Jews object to Jesus diagnosis.The reason that the Jews objection is recorded for us here is because it represents the kind of religious, ethnic, moral self-justification that all religions, indeed all humans, use when confronted with Jesus as the only one who can set us free from slavery to self and sin and Satan. It's an illustration of the way all of us try to evade Jesus and his words of indictment that we are slaves of sin without him, and will perish if we don't believe. It isn't Jews only who don't want to hear that they are slaves; it's all humans who don't want to hear it. I'm offended if you tell me I am a slave. And the point of this text is that when we are offended like this, we will use any religious or ethnic or moral self-justification we can. 2. True and False Freedom 1. False Freedom 1. I have the suspicion that most of our attempts at expressing or declaring our freedom, stem from the deeply hidden knowledge or conviction that we truly are slaves..to sin, to pleasure, to whatever..we know we’re deeply flawed..call it whatever. Like we are trying to prove we’re free because we know deep down that we aren’t… 2. Culturally we have come to see freedom as life without reserve, restraint or limits, being able to do whatever we want without anyone stopping us. 1. Yet the notion of the radically independent individual who can do as he or she may please without reference to any other authority, an image often celebrated in modern “post enlightenment” culture, is in fact a lie. This free person is a myth that never existed. Everyone has a certain set of guidelines that they are following. The question is do they give us more freedom or less? Do they give us true or false freedom? 3. G.K. Chesterton in his book, Orthodoxy, gives us an image of this kind of person that sees rules and laws as inhibiting true freedom: “We might fancy some children playing along a grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliffs edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, (in the name of freedom) leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the center of the island and their song had ceased.” 1. I would argue, and in fact I am arguing, that this idea of freedom in fact, does the exact opposite. It leads to all kinds of cultural, social, moral insanity. It’s the kind of idea that says a fish is more free without the “limits” of water. 2. It is a proven fact that human beings actually thrive under moral codes and guidelines. 2. True Freedom 1. “True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us” -Carson 2. I would say that the freedom that God offers us is like the freedom that a musician has when he has a deep understanding of his instrument. He knows his musical scales, keys, and shapes and therefore he has all the freedom in the world to play that instrument beautifully, skillfully. This is the true freedom that Christianity offers us, not just freedom from sin, but knowledge, the reality or truth of things. 3. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.” -1 John 5:20 1. “Those countries in Europe which are still influenced by priests, are exactly the countries where there is still singing and dancing and colored dresses and art in the open air. Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a play ground.” -Chesterton 4. Christian freedom is actually much more than emancipation, freedom from sin, the devil, and death. It is a transfer from the pit to the pinnacle. Freedom in John’s Gospel, is the liberty of a forgiven and reconciled relation with the great God through Jesus Christ, and then, derivatively and subordinately, most of the best features associated with the exhilarating word Freedom. This is the Truth that Jesus testifies to, this is the truth that he wants us to know. 3. How do we get this Freedom? 1. "If you abide in my word,then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” 1. We get this freedom because the Son offers is to us. 1. He is a part of the house by right, by nature. 1. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” 2. It was common knowledge in ancient culture that slaves were not permanent members of a home or family, but that children were. Jesus reminds his hears of this social fact and then applies this to them and himself.. The only way a slave can be free is for a son to emancipate them in this case THE SON. 3. He is God’s ransom for slaves of sin (Mark 10:45) 4. He dies to set the captives free. 5. It is a grace gift to be received - if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed! 2. But this freedom is found, is known and experienced only if we Abide in Christ word. This is crucial - to have this ongoing freedom there is something we must do… 1. “Abide” signifies a settled determination to live in the word of Christ and by it, and so entails a perpetual listening to it, reflection on it, holding fast to it, carrying out it’s bidding. To stick with Jesus word, to live under it in faithful obedience. It means that there is not one area of my life that is free from it’s adherence. -home, church, world. 2. It means by trusting him that I will get my life directions from him by living from now on in the home of His Word. It is here, and only here that we have the promise of knowledge of the truth and the experience of freedom…. 3. Making our home in Jesus’ word is more a matter of simple faith in Jesus and of the simple obediences that flow from this faith of following Jesus - than it is a matter of studying Jesus. Conclusion: If we want the true freedom that Christ offers, we receive it by faith and we continue in it in the same way. Faith is that total trust and dependence on God…..stay close to Jesus, keep his word always before you. God has at long last returned to fulfill his promise to restore all things and reign over all. He is emancipating, freeing those who for so long have been under the weight and tyranny of sin and inviting them to be Sons of the Kingdom, heirs, those that will rule and reign over a renewed creation…. The temptation is to think, why? This world isn’t so bad, I’m not really a slave, I’m free….