Set Free

Intro

Cody Clark

Student and Outreach Minister @ Tylertown Church in Clarksville, TN

I have done student ministry for 5.5 years.

I have a smoke show for a wife, her name is Talor

Together we have 3 kids and 2 dogs

Skylar, 17, our bonus son

Titus, 3, the hyper kid

Eden, 5 months, my princess

Paislee and Sadie are our dogs

The Setup

This weekend we get to dive in together and take a look at what it looks like to be “Truly Free”. Meaning that when we really know Jesus, I mean REALLY know Him, we get to live life in a way that really does hit different.

Before we dive in to John 8 tonight, I want us to do something. Take a moment and write down the things that just have you bound up in life right now. The things that keep you awake at night. The things that nobody else knows that you are dealing with. Just write those things down.

Now, once you are done, I want you to flip your bibles to Romans 8, place the card in your bible. Now turn to John 8. We’ll come back to those cards tomorrow night.

Read

John 8:31–36 ESV

31 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. 35 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.

Teach

Context:

It was custom in Jesus’ time to celebrate different feasts at different times. At this particular point, the Jews were celebrating the “Feast of Booths”.

This is where the Jewish people would set up different booths in the streets and play certain games. Like trying to get a ball in a fish bowl to win a fish or throw a baseball to knock cans over to win a giant dreidel.

Just kidding, the Feast of Booths was when Jewish people would set up tents made of palm leave, then stay in them as a way of remembering God’s faithfulness to them when they were journeying to the Promised Land back in the Old Testament.

Throughout the events surrounding the feast, which lasted several days, Jesus had been teaching and preaching. He was teaching people that He was the Son of God and that true life was found only through Him. This message divided the people. Some believed Him and others felt He should be arrested for spreading lies. It was a tense atmosphere.

Enter, Jesus doing what He does and not really caring who He ticks off in the process.

1. Change is First (vv 31-32)

What Jesus says in verses 31 and 32 is pretty earth shattering at this point because of the culture and political climate of the time. The norm was to follow the Law to the letter and not to stray from it. But what Jesus was teaching was a foreign concept all together.

Jesus was essentially stating that the way that things had been for as long as anyone could remember, they we getting ready to change.

The reality is this, when Jesus gets involved in our lives, change is inevitable.

Jesus came to do one thing here on earth, it was to bring freedom to those who could not free their-selves.

It makes me think of a time playing baseball. I could not stop popping the ball up in the air and my dad would scold me and then I would get up to bat again and I would get out again. It was a super fun cycle. I remember I just had to make one little adjustment, drop my hands and I would drive the ball. I wanted to hit line drives, but I didn’t want to change.

In the same way, we have to make a change in our own life if we want freedom.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The same thing occurs in our lives. We want influence, so we chase clout. We want money, so we want more hours. You want good grades, so you do your work. But there is a method to achieving all of these things.

The same principle applies to our faith and our relationship with Jesus. We want to have this audacious faith and see God move in a big way, but we don’t do anything to facilitate it.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Culture leads to Failure (vv. 33)

The Jews first response immediately following Jesus’ statement was, “Nah, we’re good”. They believed that just because they were from the line of Abraham, that they were free from sin.

Here is a news flash, the only person that Jesus cares if you identify is Him. Your parent’s faith is not good enough to save you, it is only good enough to gain salvation through the Grace of Jesus for themselves. You can not save anyone but yourself

Jesus said in

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So what was the disconnect in this passage? The Jews believed that just because something had been accepted as the status quo, that was the way it was.

When we know the Truth of the Gospel in most cases causes some friction in our everyday life.

Most people say that you cannot have Christ AND culture, I disagree, I believe that God wants us to put Christ IN culture.

But once Culture has become our Christ, we have lost the way.

Christ is Freedom (vv. 34-36)

John 8:34–36 ESV

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 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.

I have heard it said that what you practice in private, will be what you live in public.

John 3:16–17 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The reality that if Christ sets you free from you sin, you are really free. No what you choose to do with that is up to you.

Romans 8:17 ESV

17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Ephesians 1:4–5 ESV

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Respond

James 1:22 ESV

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

1 John 1:9 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.