Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him,
"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know
the truth and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "We
are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage
to any one. How is it that
you say, 'You will be made free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
every one who commits sin is
a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house forever; the son
continues forever. So if the Son
makes you free, you will be free indeed. " John
8:31-36
"We're descendants of
Abraham. We've never been slaves. We've never been in bondage to anyone!"
Oh yeah? What about Egypt?
What about Babylon? What about all this idolatry that has followed you down
through your history?
"Whoever
commits sin is a slave to sin."
We too like to think of
ourselves as free. We are the "freed ones" who go out with the gospel
to "set the captives free." Yet our gospel doesn't seem to have the
impact that it should. Our impact is weak because we ourselves are not as free
as we'd like to pretend.
If an angel were to come to
each of us and gently pull the "Christian" mask from our face, we
might be embarrassed to discover that we carry the face of a slave. Our slavery takes one of three forms: slavery to anger,
or to fear, or to Babylon, the spiritual city where we live.
How can we free the captives, when we ourselves are in
bondage to anger?
We wear the mask of
serenity, but beneath our mask, we are far from serene. A volcano of resentment seethes in our
depths, pushing its way to the surface at the most embarrassing times. Someone comes along and jars
us—out comes the anger.
We're angry on the
job,
angry at home,
angry in the Body of Christ.
We're
even angry when we're asleep.
Sometimes anger takes the
form of grumbling. Sometimes it wears the face of cynicism. Sometimes it flows out as
self-pity. Boil it down, and it's simply anger.
Out we go with our message:
"Here's Jesus! He sets the captives free! Listen
to our gospel!" But while we
proclaim the liberty that's in Jesus, people observe a
chain of anger binding our hands together.
And we wonder why
our gospel seems to have so little impact.
Many of us think of ourselves as free followers of
Jesus, and yet we're in bondage to fear.
Worried about what people think.
Anxious about what's going to happen
tomorrow.
Troubled
every time somebody fails to agree with us.
When we tell the world
about the freedom that's in Jesus, they look at the chains of fear that bind
our feet, hindering us from taking a single step of genuine faith—and they
shake their heads.
And we wonder why
our gospel has so little impact.
Many of us consider ourselves free followers of the
Lord, yet we are in bondage to the glitter of Babylon.
It doesn't matter whether
we have lots of money or no money — we are obsessed with money and the things
that money can buy.
Notice how our eyes
light up when people start to talk about the things we love to collect, how
excited we become when we see dollars coming our way.
We boldly proclaim the
freedom that's in Jesus, but nobody seems to pay attention. They see chains of covetousness wrapped
around our minds. Freedom? Where's the freedom?
When people look at us, our
gospel seems like a joke. Before we can
proclaim freedom in the Lord, we have to be free
ourselves!
Jesus
then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my
word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth
will make you free."
The truth that sets us free
is not a set of facts the we grasp with our intellect,
like the law of gravity…."What goes up must come down." The truth that sets us free is not an idea
that we "grasp," but a power that takes hold of us.
The truth that sets us free
is Christ crucified. The mystery of his
death entering us and cutting the chains that bind us to ourselves is what sets
us free.
We are free to the extent that our lives are joined to
Jesus' death.
"When
I came to your brethren, I did not come to you proclaiming the testimony of God
in lofty words or wisdom, but I determined to know nothing among you except
Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
I Corinthians 2:1
Putting it simply, Jesus crucified is the truth that
sets us free. When the power of the cross begins to live in us, when the death
of Jesus becomes something real within us—then the chains of anger, fear,
covetousness and lust begin to break.
The heavenly power, which
poured out of this strange little man called Paul, was none other than the
power of Jesus' cross.
"For
Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. And not with
eloquent wisdom lest the cross be emptied of its power for the word of the
cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is
the power of God."
I Corinthians 1:17…
The cross…
Think about it.
"We are afflicted in everyway (the cross) but not crushed. Perplexed (the
cross) but not driven to despair. Persecuted (the cross) but not forsaken.
Struck down (the cross) but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of
Jesus (the cross) so that the life of Jesus may be
manifested in our bodies. For while we are living we
are always being delivered up to death, for Jesus' sake, so that the life of
Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death
is at work in us, but life in you." 2 Corinthians 4:8…
"I
have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me (as the dying
One).
The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20…
There
was not a doubt in Paul's mind as to the source of his
power. He knew what it meant to be
standing on holy ground, ministering only from the foot of the cross.
"Far
be it for me to glory except in the cross of Jesus Christ by which the world
has been crucified to me and I to the world."
Galatians
6:14…
O yes, we have a doctrine
of the cross. A doctrine which has
become for many equivalent to an idol. We understand very clearly that on that cross
Jesus did something for us—and it's true, he did.
Twenty centuries
before we were born, he went up on that cross and took our sin into his own
body and dragged it down into the grave with him.
That we understand…
What we don't seem to grasp
is that what Jesus did for us on that cross affects our lives
only when we also allow it to become something he does in us.
So that the cross "out there" has to become the cross "in here."
"If
you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the
truth"…
"That is, you will experience my
death at work in you. You will be crucified with me; and that crucifixion
will set you free!"
The
truth that sets us free is the cross of Jesus.
1. We need to see that cross.
2. We need to join
ourselves to the cross.
3. We need to practice the cross in our life with each other.
4. We need to proclaim the cross out there in the world.
We
begin by seeing the cross. We have to see the cross of Jesus as the absolute center of the
universe — the source of all our life.
"Look unto
him and be saved all the ends of the earth."
"Behold the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
"As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that people, looking at the serpent,
were healed, so must the Son of man be lifted up on
the cross so whoever looks to him in faith may come to life."
John 3:14
Every
word Jesus spoke, every sign he performed, can be understood only when it is
seen in the light of that cross.
"When I came to you brethren I did not come to you proclaiming the testimony of
God in lofty words or wisdom for I decided to know nothing among you except
Jesus Christ and him crucified."
Because
that cross is the door into the kingdom. It is the window into the real world —
the only real world.
Do you want to know what God is like? Look at the cross.
Do you want to have faith? Look at the cross.
Do you want to become truly sane? Look at the cross.
Do you want to be delivered from your…
Anger, Anxiety,
Covetousness? Look at the cross!
"Behold the
Lamb of God"…Behold…
Behold…"Behold the Lamb of
God"
From
Isaiah 53, written centuries before it happened:
"Surely
he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:
Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of
us all."
We have to see it.
But
we have to do more than just see it … we have to join ourselves to the cross.
What's
the first thing we do when we become followers of Jesus? We are baptized. To be
baptized means we are joined to his death.
"Don't
you know (says Paul) that as many of us who were
baptized
were baptized into his death?"
We
are taken down into his grave. We are joined to his death—that's the source of
our life.
Every
week when believers gather, the climax of our worship is the
bread and the wine. In the bread and wine we are joining ourselves to his cross.
"This
is my body given for you. This is the blood of the new covenant shed for your
sins."
"I
have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me."
"If
you continue in my word, you'll know that! It will become real in you!"
"You will
know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
"If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself
(a death), take
up his cross (daily death), and follow me (to a cross).
Every
day of our life we begin by laying ourselves aside, denying ourselves, taking
up our cross with an act of the will, and following
him. This is not a morbid act. It's the
source of our life!
There is no liberty…
There is no authority…
There is no power…
Nor
is there any joy until we are bound to that cross by an act of the will, day
after day, hour by hour, moment by moment.
We need to start practicing the cross in our life together.
"Now
before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to
depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the
world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil had already
put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
Jesus,
knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had
come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments
and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin,
and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel
with which he was girded." John 13:1-5
Jesus is practicing the
cross. He is doing, in the midst of his disciples, the
very thing he is going to be doing the next day at Calvary.
He lays aside his garments, which is to lay aside his
life.
He gets down on his
hands and knees while wrapped in a towel and becomes a slave.
He washes their
feet with water — tomorrow it's going to be his blood.
Jesus is reminding them, in
this act, of what he has been to them for three-and-a-half years. He has been a servant — always a servant.
"That's what I want
you to do toward each other."
"When he
had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said
to them, 'Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord;
and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an
example, that you also should do as I have done to
you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor
is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." John13: 12-17
"Lay aside your
garment. Get down on your knees. Wash your sister's feet. Wash your brother's
feet. Become a servant. Submit to them. Lay down your life for them."
And to lay down our lives
for one another does not mean that we have to throw
ourselves in front of a truck. If the
need should occur, may we all have the courage to act. But Jesus is calling for service that's right
in front of our noses.
We have ample opportunity
to die for each other. It comes down to the normal day-in-and-day-out,
nitty-gritty of our life together. It means that we forgive each other. And
then we forgive each other some more. And then … we forgive each other some
more. That's what it means to practice the cross in our life together.
If I refuse to forgive my
brother or my sister, I block the power of God. When I refuse to die—thinking,
"They've gone too far! They walked
on my ego!" I block the power of
the Spirit. I need to let his death work
in me so his life may flow out.
Our natural tendency is, if
they hit us with a pea-shooter we respond with a
gun. But the Lord is saying, "I'm
calling you to live the kingdom life!
Do you want to be a club
for nice people, or do you want to be my disciples? If you are my disciples,
then practice the cross in your life with each other.
If you choose not to do this there will be no life in you, personally, nor will
there be any life in your fellowship."
Finally, we are called to proclaim the cross out
there in the world.
"When I
came to you brethren, I did not come to you with lofty words or wisdom. For I determined to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
Paul goes into Corinth and
proclaims the crucifixion of Jesus — over and over and over
again. Not just with his mouth, but by the way he lives. Eighteen months
later he leaves Corinth, and behind him is a flourishing church.
We are called to do the
same. Our gospel is simple, and it will be easy to proclaim, if we are living
it. When I have that cross in me, then I
can proclaim it outside in the world. When we proclaim Jesus Christ and him
crucified as a truth that we know, not only with our minds, but as a living
truth burning in our hearts, the world will feel the impact --- and we will set
the captives free.
Jesus
then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my
word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth
will make you free."
The truth that makes us
free is the cross of Jesus.
We need to see it.
We need to join
ourselves to it.
We need to practice it in our life with each
other.
We need to proclaim it out there in the world.
If we will
do these things, the chains will fall from our hands, from our feet, and
from our minds — anger, fear, greed, lust, and envy will be buried in the blood
of the Lamb.
– We will be free.
And with a power we have never known before,
we will free the captives.