“The Truth Shall Set You Free” (John 8:31-36)
1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Independence Day weekend is taken from John 8:31-36 and it’s entitled, “The Truth Shall Set You Free,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Can we, as Christians, thank God for the United States of America? After all, we recognize many flaws in our nation. We remember the flaws of the past, such as the cruel treatment of Native Americans, slavery, abuse of immigrant workers, and denial of civil rights to various groups. We can easily cite sins of our own age: the lack of protection for the life of the unborn child, the violence and illicit sex promoted through our mass media, the encouragement of materialism by Wall Street and Main Street. In the future, there will continue to be flaws in the leadership, the institutions, and the people of this land. Can we, as Christians, give thanks for the United States of America?
3. Yes, we can. As Americans, we can give thanks to God for a heritage of faith that has been passed down through the generations. We can read about the faith of godly men and women in the history of our country. Of the 250 people we call Founding Fathers, the vast majority, by their own testimony, were Christians. They believed in the Good News of Jesus Christ. They confessed that he died on the cross for our sins and rose again for our justification. These men and women, and their fellow citizens, prayed for their nation and the future of their country. They witnessed to the next generation. We’re the recipients of those answered prayers, and their witness of faith uplifts us.
4. But, probably the one thing that we’re most thankful for here in America is the fact that we can still observe the freedom of our religion. The freedom to speak the truth of God’s Word in all its fullness and purity without worrying about being jailed for it. Our Amercian soldiers who are fighting overseas for the sake of our freedom know that freedom is costly. They do it because they know if the battle is lost it allows the tyranny of the religion of Islam and Islamic extremism to tell us what we are to believe and if we don’t we may be killed for rejecting their Islamic faith. That’s why fighting for the sake of our freedom and for the truth of God’s Word is worth it as many of our American forefathers have done.
5. John 8:31–36 says, 31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” .This is a crucial passage in understanding true discipleship and true salvation. It's critical because in this Jesus puts the emphasis on the very heart of discipleship and He does it by talking about two basic subjects and they are truth and freedom. Those two subjects become the theme of this passage.
6. And fitting that they should be because they are the two things that man has sought since his first searching for anything. And man continues to search for truth and freedom. They are extremely related because the only thing that ever sets a man free is truth. And so man has searched endlessly for truth that he might be free from the bondage of ignorance. And so the subject of these two verses...this section in John 8 is these two things: truth and freedom. And, of course, people have been asking all along...what is true? What is right? What is wrong? What really matters? What is meaningful? What can I put my life on and know that it will hold? What can I trust? What can I count on? Where are the realities? And the search for truth goes on, it goes on in the lab, it goes on in the classroom, it goes on in the library, it goes on in the courtroom, it goes on in the home, it goes on most of all in the heart of every man. It's an endless quest that continues with every new beat of every heart. And truth alone will free a man.
7. But, it’s sad to say that many people have given up the quest. Many people have concluded that there is no truth, that nothing really is meaningful, that meaninglessness is everything and that all you need to do is live for the moment because there is no truth. And people have substituted non truth and non morality and they have gone off into all kinds of escapes to escape the shock that they can’t find truth. So they go into drugs and sexual freedom and they drop out of school and they do every other possible thing even to the extent of killing themselves because they think that they have discovered that there's no truth.
8. But, these people are wrong. It is only the truth that frees us. And it gives us to us eternal freedom. And yet, this is what the Jews who were listening to Jesus in John chapter 8 were denying. They were denying the truth that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior from sin, death and the power of the devil. In John 8:33 they say, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.” This would be true if the Israelites had not been enslaved to the Egyptians for 400 years, or if their land had not later come under control of the Babylonians, Persians or Greeks. Even as those in the crowd spoke these words, they were enslaved because their land had been under Roman control for nearly 100 years.
9. “Jesus,” they thought, “we’re not slaves, so You can’t set us free.” Misguided as they were regarding slavery, Jesus was speaking of a more significant slavery. A slavery from which no one can set himself free—the slavery to sin. Just as Jesus’ hearers balked at the notion of slavery, so His words still rub people the wrong way. People still think things like this: I can do whatever I want. No one tells me how to live my life. It’s my body and my choice. This is the creed of many today. But, the irony is that the more a person exercises his or her imagined freedom, the more that person becomes entrapped by sin. Whether it’s drugs, pornography, gambling, or sexual sins, a person continues on a downward spiral, unable to break free from sin.
10. You sin, and because of this you are a slave to sin. That’s the truth. But that’s not the only truth Jesus spoke in the temple that day. Sin enslaves, but the Son sets you free. By His death and resurrection you are free—free from sin, death and the power of the devil. The price for your freedom has been paid. The cost was the perfect life and the terrible death of God’s Son.
11. The Jews objected not only to the truth that they were slaves to sin but also that Jesus alone could set them free. They didn’t believe they needed to be liberated from anything or anyone, and they certainly refused to believe that by abiding in Christn and His Word would they be set free. Ultimately, they concluded that Jesus wasn’t the source of truth but a Samaritan who had a demon as they say in John 8:48.
12. But, we know that Jesus is the source of truth and our Savior. That’s why we’re here today to give Him our worship, honor and praise. And because Christ has set us free from our sins, then He is also the Lord of our lives. But, some people say, “Well I'm taking Him as Savior but not Lord." No...no. You take Him as He is. The question is not, "Is Christ Lord of my life?" the question is, "Do I obey His Lordship?" That's the question. From the day that Jesus came into your life by making you His child through the waters of Holy baptism, He’s been on the throne of your life. The only question is have you obeyed Him? That's all. You don't make Christ Lord, you don't have that option. When you received Him, He became your Lord.
13. The word "disciple,"is an interesting word. Mathetes, which is the word for disciple in Greek, literally means learner. Isn't that good? A disciple is nothing but a learner. Oh, sweet homework to sit at the feet of Jesus Christ and learn. Are you a true disciple? You start out as a disciple of Christ by being given the gift of faith through His Word and Holy Baptism. That's where you've got to start. But have you ever put that faith to commitment and continue in the Word? You love to learn at the feet of Jesus? That's the character of true discipleship. He's a learner. If your salvation is genuine, my friend, you will continue in the Word of Christ, obeying it and learning it. There's no other way to grow. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:2, "As babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may...what?...grow." That's it, be a learner, sit at the feet of Jesus, soak it up, take it in.
14. You dear brothers and sisters in Christ have the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures reveal to us the truth. You are a slave to sin, but the Son has set you free. Abiding in God’s Word, you will remain in the freedom of Christ, both freed from your sin and as a baptized child of God, free to serve others in His name. Amen.
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