Good morning everyone. For those here who are visiting Harbor Community Church for the first time, welcome. For anyone who may not know me, I am Brady, and along with Ryan I am an elder for the church. I want to be honest right up front and let you know that me being up on stage is not the usual.
Ryan is typically up here teaching on Sunday mornings. But, about once a month, we break the routine a little and have other qualified men preach for several reasons.
1. First, our 3 core pillars here at Harbor are Biblical Teaching, Authentic Community, and Family Discipleship. With that we want to be intentional in prioritizing each. Because of that, every week Ryan is not up here teaching he is in the back volunteering with the kids. Our children are our first mission field and we want to set the example from top to bottom that discipling our kids is the work of the whole church, not just a few select members.
2. Second, we want to be intentional about not only teaching scripture but equipping others to do the same. One great way to do that is provide opportunities for those with a gift and passion for teaching God’s word. So we share the pulpit and use this as an opportunity for discipling and encouraging future leaders.
3. And lastly, this gives Ryan a bit of a break. Leading a church plant is a challenging endeavor and we always want to do whatever we can to prevent anyone from burning out, especially our main teaching pastor.
So, with that said, this is my first time ever teaching in this setting on a Sunday morning. As an elder I take this responsibility very seriously and at the same time know that I am far from the most gifted communicator. So lets take a moment to pray, and please pray for me as well, that I would simply be the vessel that God uses to speak his word today.
Background
As we begin I would ask you to open up your bibles to the book of John and flip to chapter 8. Today we will study verses 31-38. As a church we have been studying through the book of John each week, verse by verse.
If you do not have a bible, there should be some extras sitting in the back as well as on the welcome table that was right out by the elevator when you came in. Feel free to grab one of those. If you do not own a bible, please take one as our gift to you.
As you are finding today’s passage, I want to briefly recap what we have talked about over the last few weeks. First and foremost, we have to keep in mind that John wrote this entire book with a specific goal in mind.
In John chapter 20 verses 30-31 he tells us that his whole purpose in writing is that we would believe that Jesus is the is Messiah, and that by believing we may find true life.That has been his intended purpose from the beginning of chapter 1 up to where we are today in chapter 8.
To this point, John has recorded for us many miraculous things that Jesus has said and done.
· He has turned water into wine
· He has healed an official’s son
· He has healed a man who was crippled for 38 years.
· He has claimed to be the Son of God almighty.
· He has taught the scriptures as one with authority even though he had no formal education.
· He has fed 5,000+ men with a few loaves of bread and fish.
· He has walked on water.
· He has claimed to be the bread of life.
· He has claimed that he offers living water to all who believe in him.
· And he has claimed to be the light of the world.
By these things, he has caused great division among the people. Some hate him and want to kill him. His words and his works have been so miraculous that many others have believed that he is truly the promised Messiah that the Jews have been expecting for generations. The people could not ignore the incredible works he was doing or the remarkable things that Jesus said. One thing is certain, everyone made a choice, either to reject Jesus or to believe in Jesus.
He has consistently said and done all these things on purpose. He is revealing to the people who he really is.
In today’s passage he proclaims to them where true life and freedom can be found. Jesus wants true disciples who follow his teaching with everything they have.
Now with all that in our minds, lets read John chapter 8 verses 31-38.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Now in this passage I think there are 3 main themes that stick out. As we look at each verse individually I want us to keep these in our minds. I will introduce them now, then we will see them over and over again as we go verse by verse.
Main Themes
1. There is a crucial difference in being a “believer” and a “disciple.”
We will see this play out in the passage today as well as other places throughout John, but here is what I mean by this. Belief in Jesus does not necessarily equate to salvation. Belief isa necessary part of salvation, but by itself, a literal head knowledge belief is not enough to save.
James 2:19 tells us this,
“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
Therefore, one can be a “believer” without being a Christian.
The mark of a true believer (what I will call a “disciple”) is one who abides in Christ.
So for the remainder of today I want us to be clear that when I am talking about a “believer” I am speaking of someone with a head knowledge about Jesus but who is not a true disciple of Jesus. A “believer” knows about Jesus and even claims to believe in Jesus, but has not been transformed by Jesus.
In this case, a “believer” is not a Christian.
Then when I refer to a “disciple” I am referring to those who not only believe, but abide with and obey Christ. These “disciples” are Christians.
I want to acknowledge that this can be a little confusing, as the bible does sometimes refer to Christians as “believers.” This is true and good. But, in every case, no matter the word used, only “believers” who truly follow Christ and obey his commands are ever considered Christians. When a person gets saved, their old sinful nature is crucified and they are “born again” as a new creation.
The second main theme we will see is this:
2. True freedom is not physical freedom. True freedom is freedom from sin and death.
The Jews in the passage are thinking in temporary, physical, earthly terms. Jesus is talking of eternal, spiritual realities.
Especially today, the world proclaims that freedom is being able to do whatever you want. To sin as you wish with no boundaries and no consequences. Jesus clearly teaches that this is backwards, those who live however they want are actually living an illusion. They claim freedom, but in reality, they are trapped in bondage to sin.
Only the disciple of Jesus Christ experiences true freedom.
· Freedom from the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life.
· Freedom that leads to our good.
· Freedom that brings lasting joy.
· Freedom that truly satisfies… and
· Freedom for eternity.
And the third main theme we see is this:
3. Jesus is our only hope to be set free from the slavery of sin.
On our own, we are slaves and will never be set free. (verse 35a)
Where Jesus is, there is freedom. (verse 35b)
Jesus alone sets us free from sin. (verse 36)
God’s plan since the beginning of creation has been for Jesus to come to earth to set us free from sin and death. (John 1:1-5, 14-17)
Questions
Now as we begin to unpack each verse I want each of us to wrestle with a few questions.
Have you ever believed in Jesus at all?
If you have learned about Jesus, are you truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, or are you simply a “believer”?
Have you experienced true freedom from sin and death?
Has Jesus transformed your heart and mind and given you new life, full of lasting Joy and Hope?
(At this time I want to mention something that our community groups can discuss this week. First, I would love for you guys to read the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13 verses 1-23. Once you have read the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, then you can discuss, which category of seeds the Jews, that Jesus is talking to, would fall into? We know that they believed in him, but we will see that they do not follow Jesus, so which seeds would they be? Then you can discuss which category of seeds we fall into? Are we seeds that fell on the road, on rocky soil, among the weeds, or on good soil? Which of those describes your life and how can we become good seed if we are not already?)
Now back to verse 31 in John chapter 8:
“31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,”
The first thing to notice in this verse is that he is talking to those who had believed him. If you look back one more verse it tells us in verse 30 that “many believed in him.” So immediately Jesus is addressing this group of believers.
This is very important. They believed, which was good, so Jesus began instructing them how to truly become his disciples. He says that the mark of a disciple is one who “abides in his word.”
Therefore, we must ask the obvious question:
What does it mean to “abide in Jesus’ word?”
I think that we can look ahead to John chapter 15 to help bring some clarity to that question.
Jesus says:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Here Jesus uses the analogy of a vine to explain to us what it means to abide in him. I think from these verses we get a picture of what it means to abide in Jesus Christ.
1. First, Abiding in Christ means He is our lifeline.
His words are our fuel and our food. If we are abiding in Christ, our lives will be marked by a deep hunger for scripture and spending time in God’s word.
So let me ask the question:
· Is Jesus the one who sustains and nourishes you?
· Do his words pour over your soul and give you life?
· Or do they sound more like burdensome rules you have to follow?
I think an illustration will help here: Have any husbands ever brought home flowers for your wife? Here is a tip, and this is free, if you don’t already do this, you should start, even if she never asks for it.
A few weeks back when Emily finished up her last chemo treatment I surprised her with a bouquet of some of her favorite flowers. I have a picture and the picture really doesn’t do justice to how beautiful they were. Needless to say, she loved them. And I was glad I could bring her a little joy that day.
But what happened to those flowers a couple days later? They began to wilt and dry up and die right?
Like a flower that fades quickly when it is cut, so our lives will fade if we are forced to go without the Word of God.
If we are abiding in Christ and filling our lives with his words, then we will grow and flourish. But, the spiritual life of anyone not abiding in Christ will quickly dry up like a dead flower that has been cut and thrown out.
Then the second sign of abiding in Christ is this:
2. Abiding in Christ means producing spiritual fruit.
Verse 8 of John chapter 15 tells us that producing fruit brings glory to Godand provesthat you are Jesus’ disciple. Let me say this another way to make sure we caught that, if you are a disciple of Jesus, you will be producing spiritual fruit. If we want to know who Jesus’ true disciples are, we need only to look at who is bearing fruit for the kingdom of God.
So, what does that fruit look like in a disciple’s life?
Overall, I think spiritual fruit will look like anything that is building up the kingdom of God on earth. I wish I could give you a checklist and say “hear is what to look for.” But that wouldn’t be wise as it would quickly become a list of do’s and dont’s to try and earn our way to God’s favor. But scripture is far from silent on what the faithful life of discipleship will look like.
Jesus tells us later in chapter 13 that others will know who his disciples are by their love for one another. So a clear sign of a disciple of Jesus will be how that person deeply loves his or her brothers and sisters in the church.
Paul also tells us in Galatians that the transformed disciple of Jesus will be growing in the fruit of the Spirit. I always like to point out that it is the “Fruit” of the Spirit and not the “Fruits” of the Spirit.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control…
So we should certainly expect a person who is abiding in Christ to exhibit all of these qualities and be constantly growing in them.
Another clear fruit in the disciple’s life is faithfulness to share the good news of what God has done in his or her life. In every case in scripture, the person who has been set free from sin and given new life by God has immediately begun sharing that with the people nearby. This is what we call evangelism.
And God commands us to make disciples of all nations, so we should expect to see new people coming to faith in Christ by our proclaiming the gospel. Now our evangelism will not necessarily mean that we will be seeing men and women come to faith in Christ. Salvation is a miraculous work of God where God gives a new heart and new mind to a person who was previously dead in their trespasses and sins. He alone brings salvation and we cannot force anyone to become a follower of Jesus.
Because of that fact, we will never be judged by the number of converts we personally lead to Christ, but rather we will be judged by the measure of our obedienceto what God has commanded us to do in his word.
But, the reality is, if you have never once shared what God has done to rescue you from sin and death, you are probably not a disciple of Jesus.
Now I do want to be clear here though.
· Spiritual fruit never precedes salvation.
· The fruit of our lives do nothing to earn our way to salvation.
· No amount of good works can gain us favor with God.
· Our salvation is not earned by our fruit.
Rather, salvation is given to anyone who humbly accepts the free giftof salvation offered by Jesus Christ on the cross. We place our faith in what was done for us in love. Fruit simply flows out of our thankfulness for the incredible love God shows to us.
Then, the third way we can know someone is abiding in Christ is this,
3. Abiding in Christ means living in obedience.
We already mentioned that God’s word is the lifeline of a disciple. We also know that God’s word is active and powerful. So, any disciple will be actively studying and living out what God’s word teaches in obedience.
Later in John chapter 14 verses 23 & 24, Jesus says:
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”
The mark of a disciple is obedience to God’s word.
These have been some difficult truths for me to chew on the last few weeks as I try to examine the fruit of my own life.
If we claim to be Christians but there is no obedience to God’s word, then we are foolish to believe we are his disciples.
So, as we have seen,
· There is a crucial difference in being a “believer” and a “disciple.”
· A believer has a head knowledge and belief about Jesus as miraculous.
· A disciple is one who abides in Christ.
· A disciple clings to Christ as his lifeline.
· A disciple’s life produces spiritual fruit.
· And a disciple follows the words of Jesus in obedience.
If we are abiding in Jesus, we will love the things Jesus loves and hate the things Jesus hates. We will walk in righteousness and flee from sin. We will begin to act like Jesus, talk like Jesus, love like Jesus, attract the poor and needy like Jesus, extend grace like Jesus, and ultimately become like Jesus.
Maybe you are actively abiding in Christ and making disciples. Praise God! Maybe you are realizing that your relationship with Jesus is more or less just a belief, with no fruit or obedience in your life and you need to truly be saved. Or maybe you have never believed in Jesus at all.
Either way, verse 32 offers grace and hope.
Lets look at verse 32,
“32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
We can all be set free by the truth.
I think there are 2 important questions we must answer…
1. What is the freedom Jesus is talking about?
2. What is the truth that brings freedom?
We will see these answered as we look at the following verses.
Starting in verse 33:
33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Clearly by the response of the Jews in verse 33 there was some confusion about Jesus’ teaching. Their minds are set on earthly, physical things, while Jesus is ultimately concerned with eternal spiritual realities. This is why they are so confused by his assertion that they could be set free.
Their response is quite ironic actually. Yes is it true that these particular Jews had not been in physical chains. But, as a people, they were currently under Roman control. They had freedom to practice their law but within the realm of what Caesar allowed. So to a degree they were currently in bondage.
On top of that, the Jews have a long history of being slaves to foreign powers. They had been in captivity several times. And most notably, they were slaves in Egypt, which is what led God to raise up Moses to lead them to the promised land. Jesus had even just alluded to that time in chapters 6, 7, & 8 with his mentioning of the bread, the water, and the light. So their assertion that they had never been slaves was shaky from the start.
Ultimately though,
· Jesus was not talking about physical slavery.
· He wasn’t talking about being in chains.
· Or being forced to do manual labor.
· He was talking about being in spiritual slavery.
He tells us in verse 34 about the worst kind of slavery…being enslaved to sin… and he tells us in verse 35 how this slavery ultimately leads to death.
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
Each of us is guilty of sin.
We all practice sin.
I practice sin.
I have sinned and rebelled against God during the time I have spent preparing this sermon.
We sin because, by nature, we are sinners.
David teaches this in Psalm 51 verse 5 when he says:
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
The sin nature within us has been passed down to us through the generations from the first man Adam. Outside of Jesus, no human being has lived without sin. Therefore, each of us was born as a slave to sin. Because of our sin, we are not free. And, worse than that, because of our sin, we are separated from God.
Because of our sin, we are deserving of death, hell, and God’s righteous judgement. And because God is just, he would be acting unjust and contrary to his nature if he let guilty sinners into his holy presence.
God, the creator and sustainer of the entire universe, is perfect and holy.
· He is quite literally the definition of what is good and true.
· He is the standard of justice and perfection.
· He is holy.
· He is light and life.
· God’s nature is incompatible with sin and darkness.
For this reason, our sin causes a division between us and God. Verse 35 tells us that our slavery forbids us from remaining in the house with Father God almighty.
This house represents the eternal dwelling place of God. This house is where Jesus, the Son, will reside forever. This house is where peace, justice, hope, joy, and indescribable love exist in perfect harmony forever and ever.
This house… is heaven.
The problem is that our sin bars us from remaining in the house. The slave is not welcome in the house of the master. That privilege is reserved for the children. Only sons and daughters are invited into the house to stay. One sin is enough to put us on the outside looking in.
Therefore, true freedom is not physical freedom. True freedom is freedom from sin and death.
At this point it would be very easy to get discouraged. After all, because of our sin, we are slaves and can’t do anything in our own power to make our way into the wonderful house of God. The Jews in this story were angry with Jesus and I can understand why. If this was the whole story we would have no hope.
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Last summer Emily and I took a trip to Europe and visited Berlin as one of our stops. One day in Berlin we took a tour of the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp. It was a truly remarkable and heartbreaking place to visit. This wasn’t a death camp like some of the worst ones, but they certainly had a lot of blood on their hands. This camp was one of the very first camps built. And they actually used it as a place to test new methods of torture and experimentation to use at other camps. They did awful awful things to the prisoners and murdered over 30,000 people there.
Right outside the entrance there would have been a small homey looking cottage where they would have a camp fire burning. They did this so that the prisoners they were bringing in would feel comfortable and not freak out as they wondered what awaited them beyond the walls.
I have a picture we took of the gate at the entrance. In German these words translate to roughly, “hard work makes your free.”
They led the prisoners in with the allusion that if they worked extremely hard it would lead to their freedom. They were led to believe that their best efforts would earn them the right to go back home to their previous life of freedom and happiness.
This was an absolute lie!
The guards knew it and the Nazi leaders knew it, yet they lied over and over as they literally slaughtered millions of innocent people. Those who made that assertion were the embodiment of evil….
And Satan feeds us this same lie today.
· We think that our hard work will set us free from the bondage of sin and death.
· We think that we can stop any sin whenever we want.
· We think that God will cut us some slack because we try to be “a good person.”
· We think that surely there will be a scale and as long as our good outweighs our bad we are in.
· We think that we can earn God’s favor if we go to church often enough or pray enough or do anything else enough.
In the same way the prisoners walking through that gate falsely believed they would be set free if they just worked hard enough, we believe the lie that we can earn our way to heaven.
Oh how I wish we could go back to that camp entrance and tell them the truth. If only they would have known the truth about what really laid beyond those walls….
But even worse, imagine if they would have known the truth and went in anyway?
The Truth
I am standing up here to tell you the truth about where freedom is truly found. I want to be like a man standing on the top of that barbed wire wall yelling “turn around, only torture and death awaits through that gate.”I want to be crystal clear about the only way to find true freedom.
The truth is… that freedom is found through Jesus and Jesus alone!
Verse 36 says this.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
In John 14:6 Jesus says:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
· There is only one path to freedom.
· There is only one way of salvation.
· There is only one hope for sinners like you and like me.
Jesus Christ!
Freedom is found in the truth. We are not forced to remain slaves forever. The truth is that we have been given the offer of a lifetime.
Everything we have done has earned our place in slavery, ….
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by graceyou have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We could not earn our freedom on our own, but Jesus paid the ransom to set us free.
· Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price so that you and I can be made holy.
· He died on the cross to set us free from our bondage to sin.
· He rose from the dead so that we could live with him in the house of God for eternity.
· He conquered death once and for all so that all who place their faith in him will be set free.
· His work gives us the freedom to now live for God with our whole lives.
Despite the hopelessness of slavery, the Son, Jesus Christ, offers life and adoption into the family of God.
· Jesus alone is the Truththat sets the captive free.
· Jesus alone is the Sonwho offers freedom.
· Jesus alone has the authority to set us free.
· Jesus alone offers freedom from our slavery to sin.
· Jesus alone is our hope.
· Jesus alone brings us from death to life.
· Jesus alone offers true life... spiritual life... eternal life in the house of the Father.
All we must do is accept the gift of sonship that Jesus offers, through faith in him. Freedom is within the grasp of anyone who has heard this truth today. We are saved by the grace of Jesus through placing our faith in the work of Jesus, as he willingly sacrificed his life on the cross to pay the penalty we owed for our sin. We are set free because Jesus then rose from the dead, conquering death, so that when we place our full trust in him, sin no longer has any authority of our lives.
If you need to experience that freedom today all you have to do is this, repent of your sins and follow Jesus.
If you have never done that before today, why in the world would you wait? Pray to the Lord today to set you free from the bondage of sin and death and he will answer that prayer. So if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.
How could we not praise the one who offers us so much undeserved grace?
· When we understand what a great price was paid for our freedom it will inevitably lead to worship.
· The only proper response to Jesus is to follow him with every ounce of energy we have.
· When we understand the depths of grace offered to us it will burst forth from inside us to those around us.
· When we accept the free gift of grace in Jesus it breaks the chains of slavery to sin.
· When we are changed by him we will begin to love like him.
· When Jesus sets us free we will obey his commands and bear the fruit of God.
· When Jesus is the king of our lives, we won’t be able to maintain a mere belief or head knowledge about Jesus… his extravagant grace beckons us to die to ourselves and follow him as his disciples.
Therefore, Jesus is our only hope to be set free from the slavery of sin.
Paul deals with this exact topic very clearly in Romans chapter 6. I don’t have time to read it all today so I will just highlight a few things. (But I would love for our community groups to read all of Romans chapter 6 together and discuss this question:
What is the proper response of a Christian who has been set free from the bondage of sin?)
In this chapter we see this, apart from Christ our sin controls us. Therefore, we must follow Jesus’ death to put to death our sin. Jesus’ resurrection gives us the power to truly be free from our sin. So the call to follow Christ is a call to come and die, but the promise of Christ is that, by his resurrection, we will gain life for eternity. Our old self is crucified so that our new self is able to follow after Christ. In Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin and never will be again. Those chains have been broken. Therefore, we no longer live to satisfy our former sins, rather, disciples of Jesus now live for his glory.
Verses 22 and 23 tell us:
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The offer is open to all of us today. Not only to believe, but to obey and have life and life eternal. Jesus is not looking merely for those who believe, he is looking for disciples.
Lets look at the last 2 verses from our passage in John and see how these Jewish “believers” responded to Jesus’ offer of freedom. (Remember that these are people who have believed in Jesus, yet we will see that their belief is simply a head knowledge that had not transformed their lives.
They believed, but they didn’t abide. Therefore, Jesus exposes that they are still slaves to sin, and ultimately still in slavery to their “father” satan.)
Look at verses 37 and 38
37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
I hope that you feel the weight of the tragedy unfolding in these verses. The Jews here were very proud of their spiritual heritage.
· They were proud of their knowledge of the law and the scriptures.
· And they were especially proud that they were the offspring of Abraham.
· They knew the promises that God had spoken thousands of years before to Abraham.
· They knew that the Jews were God’s chosen people.
· They knew a Messiah was coming to establish God’s kingdom on earth and that he would be from their bloodline.
· So they took their identity as “offspring of Abraham” very seriously.
The offer of eternal freedom for the whole world was literally standing right in front of them.
In their midst was the embodiment of all the promises they had learned about for generations.
Yet they missed it...
The choice was clear:
· Accept the offer of full, eternal, grace driven freedom from sin and death.
· To repent and believe that Jesus truly is the Messiah.
· To die to self and follow after Jesus.
· To abide in the one who makes all things new.
· To experience true life and joy and peace.
Or,
· To remain in their sin that leads to death.
· To try to work their way into heaven, but ultimately fail.
· To continue in their pride and miss out on true life.
· To live a life with no hope for eternity.
That same choice is clear today.
Are you following Jesus and abiding in his words?
Have you been set free from your sin and death?
There is no hope for us if we place our faith in anything besides Jesus.
· The faith of our parents,
· Our knowledge of the bible,
· Our good works,
· Our genuine effort to please God,
· Our church attendance,
· Our giving to charity,
· Our volunteering to setup chairs,
· Our serving in the kids ministry,
· Our feeding the homeless,
· And even my being up here teaching God’s word all are incapable of providing freedom from sin and death.
Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man remains in the Father’s house except through faith in him.
Conclusion
So I had a conclusion prepared earlier in the week but something happened this week that changed my plans.
At the end of last year Emily and I made goals for 2019. We had an idea of how the year would go. We looked forward to where we would travel, how much money we would be able to give, when we would hopefully start a family, and many other things. Then in April our world was flipped upside down when Emily was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 27. For those who are like me and knew nothing about cancer, being diagnosed before your 50’s is nearly unheard of. Her oncologist calls her a unicorn.
This has by far been the most difficult year of our lives. We have been forced to trust in God to provide comfort and hope the way that only He can.
Then also, I have known for several months that I was going to preach in December, but I didn’t know the exact date until probably about a month ago. As soon as I found out, the first person I texted was Coach Mike Jacobs to let him know. He was my baseball coach at the University of Mobile and he and Mrs. Joy had told me to let them know so they could come listen. Ever since I played there, they were some of my biggest supporters.
I texted him and told him the date I was preaching, and he simply said “Awesome. We will be there.”
He is literally a huge reason why I am even up here today.
He was the only coach to offer me a place to play college baseball.
Because I went to UM I met my wife Emily.
Most of my closest friends are guys he recruited on the baseball team, like our other pastor Ryan.
He introduced me (and Ryan) to Mars Hill Church, which ultimately led us to plant Harbor Community Church.
Without Coach Jacobs this church may not even exist.
Coach Jacobs even got me an internship at the engineering company I still work at today.
He is a spiritual giant in my eyes and a man I have come to love and respect as much as anybody in this world. He modeled to every person who ever played for him what it meant to love Christ and serve him with the gifts God had given him. He made sure that every player he recruited would hear the gospel. He showed us what it looked like to love his wife deeply and to serve alongside her. Ultimately, he showed us what it looked like to not just believe, but to abide in Jesusand be a disciple of Christ.
Then this Tuesday, I got a text saying that he had a heart attack and passed away.
Just like that everything changed.
God’s plan is often not at all what we would plan. That has certainly rung true this week. We had no idea that Emily would get cancer. Nobody had any idea that would happen to Coach. The beautiful thing about both these situations though is this, we have hope, because we know a God who offers life beyond these physical bodies.
We have hope that God is much more powerful than cancer.
We have hope that Emily is healed and the cancer is all gone.
But more than that… we have hope knowing that whatever God’s will is, we will ultimately live with him in heaven forever.
We mourn the loss of Coach Jacobs deeply. Yet we can rejoice because we know that he loved Jesus more than anything in this world. Coach Jacobs is more alive today that he ever was walking on this earth!
In Jesus we are given life that
· no cancer,
· no heart attack,
· no sickness
· no disease
· no job loss,
· no divorce,
· no wayward child,
· no sin,
· no tragedy,
· no pain,
· and no heartbreak can ever take away.
I know one thing for sure, if Coach Jacobs were here today I would want to make him proud. And I know that nothing would make him more proud than to make sure that not a single person walks out of here today without hearing the truth.
The glorious good news of Jesus Christ.
We are all sinners in need of a Savior. We are enslaved to our sin and on a crash course with death and hell and eternal punishment for our sin by a just, holy, and righteous God.
But God… who is rich in mercy provided a way out for us. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to earth and lived a perfect life. He was crucified to pay the penalty of our sin, that we deserved. And then he rose from the dead, conquering sin and death once and for all. And because of what Jesus did, God offers us freedom from sin and death! All we must do is repent of our sins, accept the free gift offered to us, and follow after Jesus Christ.
If you have never done that, or if you are trusting in your hard work for God, or if you have a belief with no fruit and no abiding relationship with Jesus,
I beg you to cry out to God to be merciful to you today.
If you have questions or want to talk about this more please grab me or Ryan or anyone near you to talk about this. We will be hanging around after the service as we clean up.
Closing Prayer
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.