2/5/23 True Freedom

“True Freedom”

John 8:31-47

About 10 years ago, I had the honor of singing at a 4th of July celebration in Baraboo. It was held at the High School, and we were entertaining the crowd on a big stage that was placed right on the 50-yard line of the football field. It was a beautiful summer evening and the stands were full of people of all ages eagerly anticipating the fireworks show that would begin at exactly  9:25 pm.

Why do I remember the exact time for the “fire show” to begin, you ask?

Well, it’s because the organizer of the whole event had the ambitious idea of coordinating the fireworks to begin at exactly the same time as my band would be hitting the last note to our final song of the night. In theory, this was a great idea. What could possibly go wrong, right?

In the weeks leading up to the concert we repeatedly rehearsed our final song of the evening, which happened to be “God Bless the USA” (Lee Greenwood) to determine exactly how long it would take us to arrive at the final note of the song. If you recall, the song ends with a slow and majestic ascent to the final lyric……“God. Bless. The. U….S.…A!”

We had the song all timed out for me to sing the final “A” at exactly 9:25:00 p.m. The big night finally arrived and we began the song on time and everything was looking good. The coordinator, just off the stage, had a big smile on his face knowing that we were on time to end at exactly 9:25:00.

Another coordinator at the location where the fireworks were to be lit (a quarter of a mile away) was to have his watch synchronized to that of the coordinator at the football field where we were performing. All looked good. This was going to be an epic display of majesty, shock, awe, and synchronization!

We are now almost done with the song as we begin the homestretch of the chorus. We begin to slow down for the final “God...Bless…..The…….U…..…S……..A!”

As I hit that final soaring note, I’m looking for the shock and awe on people’s faces as their eyes would get wide with amazement of rockets exploding in the sky behind us.

A couple of seconds go by….no big boom. A couple more seconds go by….no big boom. At this point my lungs are beginning to burn. A couple more seconds go by….no big boom. By now I am completely out of breath and had to end the note – take a big new breath – and come back to the note with a set of fresh lungs. If you are a singer, you never want to have this happen, it is like a musical dry-heave….it’s not good.

So I’m holding this note out again on what is now my second load of air and still no boom. A few more seconds go by….no boom. Something is wrong and I’ve got well over a thousand people looking at me like I’m some sort of Diva not allowing the song to come to an end.

At this point, the coordinator has a look of complete panic on his face as he is frantically trying to contact the fireworks coordinator to find out what is happening over there.

It was a lot like being in a car crash – you know, when everything seems to be happening in slow-motion around you. That’s what is happening here. At this point I’m out of breath AGAIN and I’m seeing the musical carnage slowly unravel all around me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the keyboard player motion that we should repeat the chorus again. Ok, good idea. So we go through the chorus again….and again….and again….and again. Finally after about 6 times through the chorus, I hear a boom behind me. It’s about 9:30 and at this point I knew it was either an artillery shell exploding in the air or the bass player just fell off the stage. Fortunately, it was the former and not the latter.

The show finally began and the reason for the epic fail of synchronization seems to have been that the coordinators never properly matched their watches, but who really knows.

The irony in all of this is that the song “God Bless the USA” talks about freedom, and in the moment, I was anything but free. I literally had to keep singing until the fireworks began – whenever that would be. I was not free to stop the music.

In America, we love our freedom – and for good reason.

God has blessed us with the privilege of living in a country where we are not subject to an external authority of any kind. The English Monarchy no longer has any control over us, nor does any other nation. (Foreign surveillance balloons, however, are apparently welcome to fly through our skies whenever they’d like! 😊)

In today’s passage, Jesus talks about 2 very important things: truth and freedom, or to put it another way, the truth about freedom.

The freedom that Jesus speaks of in this passage (And in many passages) is not political in nature. Rather, the freedom that was (and is) most important to him is spiritual in nature.

Last week, we answered the question “What is Truth?” - A question that Pilate cynically asks in chapter 18 verse 38 of the Gospel of John during his interrogation Jesus.

We learned that, through the words and life of Jesus, truth does exist and that we can actually know the truth. The postmodern society in which we live preaches that an absolute, transcendent truth does not exist (Or if it does exist, it is simply unknowable)

Jesus says otherwise. According to him, absolute truth does exist, and he came to reveal that truth to mankind.

Today’s sermon is the second in a series of sermons throughout the month of February dealing with the subject of truth – with today’s emphasis being on how truth intersects with freedom.

Like last week, our passage for today comes from the gospel of John and takes place while Jesus is teaching a crowd of people during the festival of Tabernacles (Or Booths) This was a time when Jewish people would come together in Jerusalem to celebrate God’s providing for their ancestor’s needs in the wilderness for 40 years after leading them out of Egyptian slavery.

In verse 31, we are told that Jesus is speaking to “Jews who had believed him”, meaning that these people were interested in what Jesus had to say but most likely had not yet come to a saving faith – as will be made evident in the next few verses.

These folks knew of the miracles Jesus had performed and understood that he was a mighty prophet, yet they were reluctant to fully embrace his teaching on a personal level.

To put it in modern language, “they had head knowledge, but they still lacked heart knowledge.”

Jesus tells them in verse 31 that “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples”  - The key phrase in this statement is “hold to”, some of your translations may say “Continue in” or “Remain in”.

The main point that Jesus is saying here is that in order for a person to truly be his disciple, he must demonstrate perseverance in the faith. Spiritual fruit must be evident over numerous “growing seasons” of our lives in order for us to be considered a legitimate follower of Jesus.

Remember the parable of the sower in Matthew 13? Far too often, seeds fall on the rocky places where there is not enough soil for the roots to become firmly entrenched. These plants will spring up quickly, however they soon dry out and die because they lack proper soil for their root system to function properly.

This is also why in 1 Timothy 3:6 Paul writes that a man interested in becoming a shepherd in the church should not be a recent convert – they must be tested over time.

Jesus is reminding us that it requires more than just intellectual knowledge of, and assent to, the truth – we must consistently act upon the truth in order for us to be considered true followers of Christ.

Then, in verse 32, Jesus delivers the line that will send reverberations through the centuries all the way up to today – and into the future. This is one of the most important verses in all of scripture, and one that is often misunderstood.

Verse 32 reads: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

If you are a true disciple (A true follower) of Jesus Christ, you will be able to understand truth – and by so doing, you will be set free!

So what is Jesus talking about here? What does knowing truth have to do with being free?.....Freedom from what?.....Set free from what?

Our new billboard says “Jesus Saves” …. Some folks who see those words may wonder “Saved from what?” – why must I need saving? After all, I’m a relatively good person, right?

It’s easy to read this verse and think of truth and freedom as secular society understands it.

This verse is actually the motto of many universities including John Hopkins University and it is engraved in stone at the headquarters of the CIA near Washington DC.

It’s easy for us to think that a motto such as this means that the more knowledge we attain, the less bondage we will be subject to. The more facts we discover, the less we will be restrained. Or the more powerful our nation becomes, the less anxiety we will experience..

This is how many people through the centuries have approached this verse that has since become a popular motto for many religious, as well as non-religious, organizations.

But Jesus is talking about a different kind of freedom in this verse. He’s not speaking of political or social freedom – He’s talking about spiritual freedom, and to be specific, freedom from SIN !

Look at how the Jewish crowd answers Jesus in verse 33 “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

At first glance, it would appear as though the people were not understanding the spiritual nature of Jesus’ statement when they claim to have never been enslaved to anyone.

If the crowd was referring to political slavery, they would have had a serious case of amnesia since the Israelites had a long history of being enslaved by many nations including the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Egyptians AGAIN, Syrians, and they were currently under Roman rule.

Obviously, the crowd was either in denial (not the large river in Africa) or they actually understood that Jesus was talking about being spiritually enslaved.

The crowd responds by bringing up their highly esteemed progenitor – Abraham.

We are Abraham’s descendants, therefore sin cannot have dominion over us…..we are God’s chosen people, after all!

The crowd erroneously assumed that because they possessed an ancestral lineage to the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) that God would treat them with favor, or “extra mercy” when it came to sinful behavior – they were privileged people, after all.

A couple of years ago, a video surfaced showing Tom Brady and Drew Brees hanging out on the field of the Superdome a couple hours after their game had ended. No one else seemed to be around (Except for, obviously, whoever took the video)

Drew Brees had his son with him out on the field and Tom Brady was throwing passes to him. Now, say, if I had been to that game with one of my daughters and wanted to hang out with Tom Brady  – there would be no chance that security would have allowed that to happen. Why? Because security doesn’t know me, and Tom Brady doesn’t know me….I’m not a friend of his.

The Israelites erroneously believed that since God “knew” Abraham and the patriarchs, and since he had historically granted a certain amount of favor and mercy to them, then they too would be shown spiritual favor and mercy as well. God was a friend of Abraham, so naturally, God is a friend to his descendants as well.

Jesus puts this faulty reasoning to rest in verse 34 when he says, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”

Did you catch that? EVERYONE who sins is a slave to sin.

It doesn’t matter who your parents are, your grandparents, your great-grandparents….you could share DNA with Billy Graham and it will not help you one bit in regard to sin’s influence upon your life.

Only by genuinely believing and trusting in the truth of Jesus as Lord & savior of your life can you be set free from the bondage of sin.

“It’s not about a physical pedigree, it’s about spiritual fruit on your tree!”

“It’s not about your physical chemistry in the world, it’s about your spiritual adherence to the word”

Simply put: Freedom from sin comes from faith in the truth of the gospel.

Galatians 3:7 states: “Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.”

In verse 34, Jesus introduces the image of slavery.

Did you know that we are all slaves to something? That doesn’t sound appealing, does it!

Think about it – If you are a Christian, as (hopefully) all of us here this morning are, then you have chosen to become a slave to Christ and his teachings.

Romans 6:16 says “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.”

We are all slaves to one of 2 things: (1) Sin (in the form of an idol of some kind) or (2) Christ.

Matthew 6:24 says: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

We will either be slaves to God – or slaves to the world (which is sin)

Someone may say, but pastor Andy, I’m not a slave to anyone or anything – I just live my life as I see fit and no one tells me what to do or how to do it. Well, that sounds impressively free, until you realize that what you “see fit to do” means that you are simply serving the desires of the person in the mirror looking back at you. You are serving yourself – and by doing so, you are ultimately serving Satan.

Anyone remember the Sprite slogan from back in the 90’s?....(the soft drink, or ‘pop’ as we say here in Wisconsin) Their very successful marketing campaign  for over a decade was “Sprite - Obey your Thirst”

If you are not a genuine believer in Jesus Christ, then you are obeying your sinful thirst. There are only 2 options: you either obey God, or you obey yourself.

Our society preaches that we must obey ourselves if we are to be happy.

Some of you may have seen the 2013 animated movie Frozen – it was a big hit at the time for Disney Studios.

A line in the main song called Let it Go says this: It’s time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through, no right, no wrong, no rules for me, I’m free.

Disney had little 8 year old girls everywhere singing about the virtue of not having any rules, no moral absolutes…..that must be true freedom! That must be my path to happiness!

Well, at our house at least, our girls still had to put up with rules…and they seem to be pretty happy these days.

In our flesh, we so desire there to be no rules. No authority. We naturally want to pursue uninhibited, unrestrained freedom.

Culture preaches the lie that unrestrained freedom will bring happiness. The idea that true freedom is doing whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it.

It preaches that the only sin not tolerated is the sin of intolerance.

No one can tell me what to do! I’m as free as a bird, man!

That sounds cool, but there really is no such thing as being totally free.

Why not?   Because freedoms often come into conflict with each other.

For example, we are not free to have enduring health and free to eat nothing but Hostess twinkies all day, every day.

You can’t be free to run a marathon and be free to never exercise.

As I learned way back in college, you can’t be free to be an A student and be free to spend all of your time outside of class practicing for your next band gig!

So, we must decide which freedoms are the most important.

In verse 35, Jesus introduces the concept of a domestic situation where there are sons and slaves.

His point here is that sons have authority in a particular household because of their inherent birthright. Slaves, even if they are wonderful people, do not possess the authority that a son will have.

Then is verse 36, Jesus reiterates what he said back in verse 32. Verse 36 says: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Jesus, you see, has authority in the house of God. And because he has this authority, he has the ability to proclaim freedom to slaves.

When our daughters come home for a visit, they will occasionally head over to the refrigerator and grab something to eat or drink. Even though they no longer live with us, Lisa and I are ok with it because they are our children. Now if someone other than our daughters comes over to visit and they begin rummaging through our fridge, this would be a bit out of place. This would be weird.

This would have been the situation a few years ago with our sons-in-law before they married our daughters. But since they are now married, they have been granted the same “refrigerator privileges” as that of our daughters.

Essentially, they have been ‘set free’ to rummage through our kitchen because someone with authority in the household has granted them the right to do so.

Spiritually speaking, Jesus (the Son) has granted those who believe in him the privilege of freedom from sin – the power to reject Satan.

So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!

My prayer for you is that, if you haven’t already, choose to prioritize freedom in Christ over everything else.

We were all born slaves to sin and those chains are only broken through our willingness to be slaves to Jesus Christ.

Freedom from sin is only found through true freedom in Christ….Let’s Pray.