Freedom & Truth

Description: Within the verses of John 8:31-36, Jesus tells us that the "truth will set you free." In this message we unpack Jesus' words to find that Jesus is inviting these people to move deeper from just head knowledge to knowing & experiencing himself. We'll learn that Jesus is the one who sets us free.


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I invite you to turn with me to the eight chapter of the gospel of John. We’re going to jump right into the middle of a discussion that has been going on since the beginning of the chapter. Jesus is in the temple talking to a crowd of people. In this discussion, Jesus tells them that He is the light of the world (vs. 12) and how He can spare them from dying in their sins if they believe in Him (vs. 24). Some of the crowd, the Pharisees, rejected Jesus and argued with Him, but others in the crowd believed.

So at one point Jesus turned to those who believed and focused His teachings on them.

John 8:31-36
31Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in my words, then you are truly disciples of mine; 32and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 33They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that you say, “You shall become free’?” 34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 36And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

Story—King had a huge kingdom and a great army and so he taxed his people heavily so that he could gain more wealth. One of the reason he wanted to be wealthy was because he loved food. He would send for famous chiefs from all over the world so that he could taste delicacies from every nation. So the King was very fat. The King had a younger brother who was jealous of him. The younger brother was often mistreated and never received the love and attention that the older brother had. The younger brother managed to overthrow the king one night, but instead of killing the king, the younger brother imprisoned the king. The younger brother built a room around the king, placed a table and a bed inside. The only thing different about this room was that the entrance way was very thin, so that most people had to enter and exit walking sideways. The younger brother came to the king and told him that he is free to leave whenever he wants; however, every morning servants will come and give you a feast of great food. The King has a choice. Will he do the only thing it takes to walk out and eat a little less (instead of super-sizing the combo meal just go for the large) or will he stay imprisoned. If he does choose to stay imprisoned, why would he make that choice? Would it be lack of discipline? Will he think that this room is better than anything out side (free food, warmth, servants, etc...) because outside he might have to work for his food? Or would it be the glamorizing of the room (this is the best it gets)? He could easily deny that he was even imprisoned. What would keep this free man imprisoned inside this room?

So Jesus turns to these Jews who believed and He gives them a pathway to freedom. You abide in my words then you’ll become true disciples of mine and you’ll be free, you’ll know freedom and you’ll experience it.

But these people respond emphatically with the idea that they are not slaves. They said, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone.” There’s two ways that they claim that they’re already free. First, “they’re Abraham’s offspring”, which means because they are Abraham’s physical decedents they feel that they are also his spiritual children. They assume that the righteousness of Abraham is a sufficient guarantee for their own; and they presume that they have been made free from slavery to the evil impulses of human nature by the covenant made by God with their forefathers. So the first idea is that they are spiritually free. The second idea is that they’re physically free, “[we] have never yet been enslaved to anyone”, which is untrue. They were slaves in Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and now they are under the rule and authority of the Romans

These people, these believers, are in this room with all this food and this little doorway, and they’re saying, “We’re not slaves! I’m still the King. We’re not slaves.” They are totally ignorant of the truth. Jesus clearly tells them that, “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Jesus is telling them, “You can’t fit out that door. You can’t stop eating, you can’t see the truth, and you lie to yourself. You’re a slave.

If you think about this on a grand scale, you’ll see how Adam’s sin has brought bondage to all of humanity and all of creation. And you’ll see how we are incapable of getting out of the bondage without God’s grace. And this sin of Adam created an atmosphere for more sin, where once we sin once it is as if we’re inclined to sin.

On a smaller scale, it’s easy to see how tightly we are held in bondage. Just think of the smallest habits you have. Maybe it’s an anger problem that just comes out. Maybe it’s anxiety that you can’t control that keeps you up at night. Maybe you have this tendency to say mean and critical things and you’re completely unaware of it until you see the person crying.

Or maybe there’s this sin that you just can’t stop doing. Looking at the pornography, racist thoughts,

We’re in bondage. We can’t stop. We can’t control ourselves sometimes. And some of us don’t see it. Some of you think you’re free. Some of you will minimize it by saying at least I’m not as imprisoned as that person, while others will say “there’s nothing wrong with this… I’m in control.”


AVENUE TO FREEDOM
Jesus offers these guys an avenue to freedom. Jesus says, “If you abide in my words, then you are truly disciples of mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The path to freedom comes through being a true disciple of Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus you must abide in His words

Story—Following directions and not straying from them.

To abide or to continue (depending on your translation) in the Greek is “meno" (Strong’s 3306), which means to stay or remain. So a person would abide in jail until his term is up. Abide also has the idea of remaining within a sphere or parameters, so that would mean to follow someone’s directions and not leave the guidelines of those directions. So if someone asked you to go to the store to pick up whole milk, but you go and grab eggs and 2% than you’re not abiding in their words.

Jesus says that if you abide in my word, you’ll become my disciples. To Abide in Jesus’ word does not mean that you sit in your house 24/7 with this book (The Bible) in your hands and read it non-stop. To Abide in Jesus’ word means that you know it, which means you’ll probably have to read it, and then you live your life within the guidelines of Jesus’ word. So when someone hurts you, you don’t leave the sphere of Jesus’ word and step out of it by allowing hatred or bitterness into your heart, but you abide in His word by forgiving. So when you have an opportunity to rip someone a part or to tear down their character, you don’t leave the parameter of Jesus’ word by gossiping, but you remain and abide in Jesus’ word by not just not saying anything at all, but saying uplifting words about that person.

Jesus says that if you abide in my words than you’re my true disciples. And if you’re my true disciples than you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Story—MacGyver always knew how to get out of trouble. He always had a plan, because he was a great scientist. So whenever he was trapped he would pull out his duck tape and his pocket knife and think up a brilliant plan to free himself.

The reason why MacGyver always escaped and found freedom was because he KNEW a lot of interesting and helpful facts. He KNEW that he could mix this with that and it would blow up. Or he KNEW that if he took a little of this and a little of that and if he drank it than you would turn yellow or something like that. He always found freedom because of something he KNEW.

But when Jesus says that you will KNOW the truth and the truth will set you free, Jesus isn’t talking about obtaining a head knowledge. When you become a Christian God doesn’t give you a whole bunch of information on 3X5 cards and say memorize this. The Bible isn’t something that if we memorize enough verses than we’ll be able to free ourselves because of all this knowledge.

The word “Know” in the Greek is “Ginosko" (Strong’s 1097). This does not just talk about head knowledge. This isn’t talking about knowing chemistry. There’s more to this “to know” than an understanding in your mind, but when Jesus says that “You shall know the truth”, there’s a knowledge through experience. This is the same word that is used to describe when Adam knew his wife and she gave birth. This is like a science class where you do experiments as opposed to a class where you just read about experiments. This is something you’ve experienced.

The word “truth”, again, isn’t numbers or facts. The Truth isn’t 1 + 1 = 2. That’s not what John is talking about. The truth here doesn’t mean the correct statement. John uses the word “Truth” very distinctly in his writings. The word truth in the Greek is “Aletheia" (Strong’s 225) which refers to a divine revelation. But what’s so amazing about this revelation is that God is disclosed in revelation.

Turn with me real quickly to John 14:6. Jesus is talking to His disciples how He is going to prepare a place for them. One of His disciples asks, “How do we know the way.” And Jesus responds in verse 6

John 14:6
I am the way and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me.

Jesus says, “I am the way the TRUTH and the life.” I am the revelation of how to get to my Father. I am the Truth. I am the greatest revelation there is.

So when Jesus says that, “If you abide in me then you will know the truth”, Jesus is saying that if you abide in my words, you’ll know me and you’ll experience me, and I’ll become more real to you than anything.

So when He says, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”, Jesus is saying, “I will set you free. I am the truth.” This is an invitation to know Jesus.

You’ve got to remember who Jesus is talking to. He’s talking to some Jews who have believed Him. What John means is that they have heard what Jesus was teaching and it rang true in their minds and they believed Him. So Jesus turns to these believers and invites them to go deeper. Jesus invites them to know Him. If you follow my words and live by them and abide in them then something will happen in that you’ll get to know me and experience me. I’ll become more than just something you’ve read about, but I’ll become real to you. And when you know me like that, when you know me that personally, an amazing thing will happen…you’ll become free. The closer you draw to me the freer you become.

APPLICATION
A lot of us, we know a lot ABOUT Jesus. Many of us grew up in a somewhat of a Christian home. And since we were young or since we’ve become a Christian we’ve been bombarded with fact and verse about Jesus and all that God can do for us. We were forced to memorize a creed about what we believe. We’ve learned the right answers to every question. We know the Bible like the back of our hand, but our lives are still in bondage. We still struggle. We don’t have that Joy. We don’t have that Peace. We’re full of anxiety and fear. And we’re still in bondage from this sinful trait or this sinful habit. We can’t get free from this bitterness or anger within our hearts. It just won’t go away.

Maybe our problem is that we just don’t know Jesus. Maybe we’ve substituted a whole bunch of facts for the true knowledge and experience of Him. We’ve substituted knowing the Bible for knowing Jesus. We’ve got a lot of people who know the Bible, but the fruit of Jesus isn’t in their lives.


CONCLUSION
Do you want to know what happened to that King? One day that king died. He didn’t die of starvation. He died fat and plump in a room with an open door to freedom. He died a prisoner. If you think about it, this room that this king is in wasn’t his first prison. If we look earlier in the story, the king was captive to wealth, food, and power. We look at the Kings brother and although he is now the king, he’s also a prisoner. He’s a prisoner of hatred, bitterness, and jealousy. These are the things that are driving them. They think they’re free, but they’re not. It’s anger that’s driving them. It’s greed that dictates their life, but they just don’t realize it. Many of us are rotting away in our own little prison. Maybe the food is enjoyable or you’re disgusted with it, but you just can’t stop eating it (whatever it is in your life). But make no mistake that there’s an open door there and a path to freedom by the name of Jesus.

Jesus says, “I am the way the truth and the life.” Jesus says, “If you abide in my words…then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”