Freedom and slavery
John 8:31-36
- To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
- Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
- They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
- Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
- Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
- So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Theme: Slavery and Freedom
Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Even today People reject Jesus because they confuse His physical and His spirituality. In the passage for today; Jesus is speaking about the spiritual things, not physical or political; bondage and liberty.
Surprisingly the believing Jews in attempt to prove their faith argued on their Physical human advantage, just as the opponents of Jesus did.
In (John 3:4) Nicodemus was talking about physical birth; the same way at the Jacob’s well (John 4:15) the Samaritan woman was talking literally about physical water:
Meanwhile Jesus was talking of Spiritual birth and eternal life which is the true living water).
Now Jesus is talking about spiritual freedom, yet these Jews lacked faith and claimed, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Unfortunately, these Jews whom Jesus was speaking to had forgotten what it is to abide in God’s word. They had forgotten the promised God made to their Ancestor Abraham to send them a Savior.
By their error: they failed to see their sin; as a result, they were unable to see their Savior standing right in front of them… Instead they looked back in time through their lineage and saw their ancestor, Abraham and they trusted in the things of Abraham and failed to see faith which leads to God. They forgot that “Abraham lived in God’s abiding word and God credited it to him as righteousness”.
As descendants of Abraham, they were confused and believed they were already spiritually free from sin.
Jesus has power to forgive the sins of the world; and Jesus brought that freedom to the Jews in the temple that day but they misunderstood God’s promises and they; did not truly believe in Jesus.
My dear listeners
God’s word abides forever in the person of Jesus:… God knows that humanity need His word at all times. God’s word is the one which established the world and it is powerful enough to sustain the world, even long after Jesus’ death; His resurrection and ascension into heaven: Jesus knew that His word will prevail:
- Even Long after the temple has been destroyed in AD 70 and God’s people scattered;
- Even Long after new continents have been discovered;
- Even Long after a man has walked on the moon;
- Even Long after the wars and the famines; the floods and the hurricanes;
- Even long-Long after all of these things, God’s word will remain unchanged.
Dear friends: It is God’s word; which sustains the The Church united in the Body of Christ, until the day Jesus returns in His glory with His Holy Angels to judge the world.
Akwasi and my fellow Lutherans church members: As we are celebrating the Festival of the Lutheran Reformation, and the 60th Anniversary of the Lutheran church in Ghana, we need to be thoughtful and reflect on God’s promises:
The caution word is that Celebrating the Reformation, in many ways, is a celebration of history:
In the Temple, the Jew looked back to their ancestor Abraham: Dear Beloved; as Lutherans, on this occasion of Reformation; we have every right to look back in time and see Dr. Martin Luther of blessed memory and the great works he did at his time: However Luther’s works should not blind us to sin and takes away the freedom that Jesus brings to us today and always.
Let us take some time to reflect on God’s abiding words: that we might celebrate the Lutheran Reformation by taking comfort in God’s promises.
Jesus stood in the temple; teaching us about the power of God’s abiding word. Saying: “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32)…..
Friends: The truth, Jesus mention in the text: Is the fact that we are all sinners, and born as slaves into sin, and in our state of hopelessness we can nothing… we need Jesus the Son of God to redeem us from the bondage of sin, death and the devil and our own sinful desires…. Jesus is the righteousness of God to set mankind free….. Hallelujah!
Fellow Lutherans: It is easy to mistakenly see our Lutheran heritage and get stacked in the culture of the 16th century, as if our Lutheran heritage frees us from the needs of the Law and the Gospel.
We need not put our hope and faith in generations of Lutherans that have gone before us; it is good to learn from their bold and faithful service; But not to boast in.
- We should not boast in our Lutheran lineage, the number of Lutheran pastors or teachers in our family,
- We should not boast of being a founding member of this or that church,
- Neither should we boast of the number of years we have serviced the Lutheran Church, or join the Lutheran faith;
- None should we boast of anything as if they have the power to take away our sin: (Romans 3:22-23), for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and we continue to sin much on daily bases. All our good deeds and things are like filthy rages before God. Nothing of ours is satisfactory enough to save us, from the wrath of God! Absolutely Nothing of ours!
Ref to (Gen 3:15) In the Garden of Eden; God in His divine council promised the Seed of the woman to come and crush the head of satan the devil, the great dragon, the original serpent ….. this promise has been fulfilled on the cross and revealed in Rev 12:9.
To God be the glory for keeping His promise, by sending His Son Jesus to bear our sins and in return became our Savior. By His death and resurrection, Jesus destroyed the power of sin and death, and set all those who believe in the promise free; and open the Kingdom of God to believers; that by faith in Jesus we shall not perish but have everlasting life.
This is the promise which Abraham by faith believed; that even if he sacrificed his beloved son Isaac, God will raise him up….and it was credited to Abraham as righteousness: -… Abraham by faith saw the day of salvation when God will come to the world as a Son and, through His life, death, and resurrection, the nations of the earth will be bless… Exactly that is what God promised Abraham, saying through your own seed I will bless the nations of the earth……(Gen 22:18)
If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:34-36)….. Hallelujah
by this statement, Jesus reveals to us our sin as well shows us our salvation. For He said “if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.”
Jesus is pointing to Himself, the Son of God who took upon Himself the punishment of the sin of the world, and in return gave eternal life to those who believe in Him…
Thanks be to God; for that joyous exchange on the cross of Calvary!! We are free indeed!
Jesus is God’s promise, in Him we shall attain eternal life. Salvation is not based upon our heritage, but upon God’s own love and faithfulness… Jesus is the Truth, the Way and the life, those who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life…. Jesus is God’s abiding word for us.
Akwasi, fellow Lutherans and my cherished listeners; as we commemorate the Reformation….We should look back to the days of Martin Luther, and see The Lutheran Reformers gathered before the Emperor Charles V, face to face with the adversaries defending the Christian doctrine…
For that matter, We have every reason to shout Lu-ther! Lu-ther!! Lu-ther!!!
At the Diet of Worms (April, 1521) we should see our ancestor Luther; boldly defending what he believes at the peril of his lives…. With meekness, we need to look beyond that bravery… and when we do, we should be seeing faith at work!
Looking deeper into that mirror of faith, we should see God’s promise. In fact we should see Jesus, the one who rose triumphantly from the grave (to set us free from death)!
- We should see Jesus who has ascended into heaven and glorified; sited on the right hand of God the Father Almighty…..watching and ruling His Church by the power of the Holy Spirit… and giving us His gifts of grace…
- We should see Jesus who has opened the Kingdom of heaven to all believers.
- By faith we should see Jesus who is preparing a place for us and at the appointed time; will come and take us home as His beloved free children and co-workers…and together we shall live and serve freely with Him and His Holy angels in everlasting blessedness…
- By faith we can boldly claim through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are children of Abraham; more than that; we are children of the resurrection because Jesus Christ the Son of God; who is our senior brother shared His Blood to free all believers from the bondage of sin, death and the devil and has declared them justified. God the Father, through the Son Jesus Christ has reconciled all Believers onto Himself as free children.
The Son has set us free and we are free indeed… ! This statement is most certainly true! Amen!
May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding keep your hearts and your minds unto Christ Jesus, believing and trusting that we are set free in Jesus’ name till life everlasting…Amen.
