1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we observe the festival of the Reformation is taken from John 8:31-36, it’s entitled, “Jesus Gives Real Freedom,” dear brothers and sister in Christ.
2. It’s a powerful message: Freedom! At the end of the movie Braveheart, the Scottish hero William Wallace, as he’s being executed by the English, cries out, “Freedom!” Of course, we have the American patriot Patrick Henry saying, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Does anyone know about the Four Freedoms that were talked about during World War II? Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, and freedom from want.
3. But, far greater than political freedom, is the freedom Christ gives. “For freedom Christ has set us free,” St. Paul writes in Gal 5:1. The message of the Scriptures uncovered by the Reformation is that by faith in Christ, before God we are free, saved by God’s grace alone, for the sake of Christ alone, through faith alone. And this is the true freedom. In Jesus, we are free from the guilt of our sin, free from the power of death to destroy us, and free to live for Jesus and for others.
4. But how do we live in this freedom without letting it go to our head? Or without falling back into slavery? How will our faith in Christ’s promise be sustained? These are questions Jesus will address in today’s Gospel from John 8. Here Jesus lets us listen to his extended conversation with the Jewish leaders and people. As a result of Jesus’ Word, some believed in him. That’s good. Thank God. For in the Word of God, Jesus Gives Real Freedom.
5. But now Jesus adds in John 8:31, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” Abide: It means remain, sit down in, rely on, live in my teaching. You see, the Word of God is what works faith in a person. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17), Scripture says. But faith not only originates in the Word. The Word of God is also what keeps faith alive. Faith always comes from the outside in. So, for faith to stay alive (not just strong or growing, but to stay alive), we must abide in the Word of God and the Word of God abide in us.
6. The longer a person who has been brought to faith in Jesus stays away from the Word, the weaker faith becomes. Eventually, if faith is not nourished again by the Word, it will die. The Word of God is the food of faith, the air faith breathes, and the fuel faith burns. Without the Word constantly nourishing and sustaining faith, our faith dies.
7. There is no other way. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” Jesus said, “but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Scripture says in Is 55:10–11, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” The Church of Christ is sustained and given life and freedom through the Word and through the Word alone. We know this. That’s why the Lutheran Church is the Church of the Bible. “Scripture alone!” is one of our Reformation watchwords.
8. So, how many of you regularly read your Bible? I have to admit, not as much as I should either. Do you think the devil knows “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” as the Scripture says in Heb 4:12? Of course, he knows that! That’s why the devil works so hard to keep people from the Word. That’s why he tries so hard to keep pastors from doing their best to bring the Word. That’s why he works so hard to divide people from their pastors. Whatever it takes, the devil is constantly trying to get us away from the Word of God, because he knows that’s where the freedom is. Without the Word of God, we are still slaves of sin. “If you abide in my word,” Jesus said in John 8:31.
9. Writing about this passage, Martin Luther says: The true disciples remain . . . [in] the Word of God, saying: “I am helpless. May God help me. It all rests in His hands. He promised and said: ‘Just cling to the Word, and I will uphold you. When you find yourself in any extremity or distress, you will learn to continue in God’s Word. This will liberate you and make you a true disciple.’ ” . . . Truth does not consist merely in hearing Christ . . . but also in believing in your heart and in experiencing with your heart that Christ wants to set you free. (LW 23:401)
10. “You will know the truth,” Jesus said, “and the truth will set you free” John 8:32 says. But the Jews respond in John 8:33, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Never enslaved to anyone? Right then and there, they were slaves to the Roman Empire. And that wasn’t the half of it. Because they didn’t see their need for the Word of God, they were slaves of sin, a slavery far worse. Before we look down on them, have you ever heard it said, “I don’t have to come to Bible class; I learned it all years ago in confirmation”? This is one of the devil’s favorite tricks: to convince us we really don’t need to know all that much of the Word of God. “I was born a Lutheran, confirmed a Lutheran, married in the Lutheran Church, and I’ll be buried a Lutheran,” someone once told a friend of mine. When asked, “Well, don’t you have to come to church once in a while?” he said, “Why?”
11. People of God, when we think we learned all we need to know years ago and have no more need to study the Word, as though God has nothing more to teach us—we are actually despising the Word of God. When we hear a preacher and, like an audience at a movie, judge the sermon on how well it entertains us, instead of hungering and thirsting for a deeper understanding of the Word of God, we are despising that Word. Here Jesus exposes our real problem. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever,” he says in John 8:34–35.
12. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” That gets us all. No one is left out here. You’ve sinned? You’re a slave. Sin is your master. Can you free yourself? No. Have you ever known anyone who stopped sinning? Anyone who claims he’s stopped sinning is already full of the sin of pride and self-worship and, ironically, is still a slave to sin.
13. That’s why Jesus invites us to confess our slavery to sin, so that his Word can bring his freedom. And with confession, Jesus also rouses in us a hunger for the Word. For in the Word, we come to know the truth, and knowing the truth in the Word is what sets us free. Jesus says in John 8:35–36, “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Free from sin, free from fear, free from death. Free from slavery! People of God, the Word was written down in the Scriptures, not to give us a list of dos and don’ts. The Scriptures are given to unfold for us the precious gifts God gives in Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, crucified and raised from the dead for us. The Bible is all about Jesus and what the Father gives in him. It is his book, his words. His Spirit inspired it from the first words of Genesis to the last amen of Revelation. This book preaches into our hearts the truth that is Jesus, and it is this truth that kindles faith and keeps it alive.
14. And the truth that is Jesus is the truth heard from a cross, the true Word of forgiveness and of freedom. Jesus speaks it on every page. He alone can speak it, for he alone has carried the sin of the world—even the sin of not listening to him and not wanting to hear what he has to say. He has carried it all. It’s all forgiven. To know that truth, then, is to be set free from slavery: freed from our callous disregard of the Word, freed to listen, to love, to treasure, and to keep the Word.
15. “You have been born again,” Peter says, “not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Pet 1:23–25). That Word is the truth that sets you free! That Word lasts forever. That Word makes you last forever.
16. Again, Luther has a vivid way of putting it: This doctrine proves its worth when death approaches, when the devil speaks to you and says: “You are forsaken by God, you are steeped in sin.” It is also invaluable when your conscience denounces you. At such a time it is not a doctrine composed of mere letters and words, but a living doctrine, one that does not tell you what to do and what to say, but how to live, how to defend and preserve your life against death, and how to escape the jaws of the devil. In such an hour, words and boasting are futile and vain. . . . This freedom is attained when I have faith in Christ and believe that He suffered and died for me. This is what liberates me from sin— . . . [nothing I do]; but it is solely Christ’s redemptive work. For no one else was born of Mary, died, was buried, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven than this one Man, Christ. Outside of Him there is no one in heaven or on earth, not even any angel, who could help us. Therefore we must cling solely to this Man and acknowledge Him alone as our Savior. (LW 23:411)
17. This is why we have a special Reformation service. Not just to remember something that happened almost 500 years ago, but so that God’s Word can do what it does in our lives and hearts now. So that we are reformed by the Word. So that our churches are pulled back into the Word of God. So that we hear again the Son say to us today—Go in peace, you are free! Free to live in Christ and for others. Free from sin and the power of death to destroy us. Free from the condemnation of the Law. Free to live joyfully as a son or daughter of God. Free to live in the house forever.
18. Freedom! In Christ it is the Word of life: “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul says in Galatians. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Abide in the Word of Jesus, my friends. Only his Word brings freedom and life. Christ has broken all the powers that enslave us. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” John 8:36. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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