Because of Jesus... I am Free

When I was in Kindergarten, our class took a field trip to the police station. I only remember one aspect of that trip; our class, teacher and all, went into a large cell and the officer closed that door. It was terrifying. As a pastor, I have had occasions where I’ve visited people in jail – it seems like the process is different everywhere you go. In Wapakoneta, I had to go up to a two-way mirror and show ID and who I was coming to see. Then I would go through a metal detector and the first door would open. I would go into a short hallway with two-way mirrors surrounding me, and the door would close behind me with an ominously loud clang. There is something very scary and permanent when the jail doors close behind you.

It is easy to recognize that someone in jail is imprisoned. There are physical bars, locked doors, and sometimes razor wire and guard towers. But what can be harder to recognize is the fact that imprisonment is our basic human condition.

Last week when I talked about being lost, I don’t want you to take it the wrong way and think, “Well, if I’m lost, I can find my way back.” This is works-righteousness, because the lostness we experience is more like a prison. The walls were built by our sinfulness –the Original Sin that we inherited as well as the sinful acts we have committed and our sinfulness in not acting when we were supposed to. And no matter what we do inside the prison walls, we cannot escape on our own.

If you look through the Bible, you’ll find the phrase “out of Egypt” over 140 times. Did you ever stop to think why this concept was so important to the Jews? The Jews were literally enslaved in Egypt for generations, and this was a turning point in their history. They celebrate Passover to commemorate God’s deliverance from slavery. In fact, this is one of the chief defining moments of God’s people discovering God’s character. When God gives the Ten Commandments, he starts with a brief introduction. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2, Deuteronomy 5:6) It was no accident that Jesus was arrested during Passover. God did that on purpose.

God’s purpose was clear: God is once again bringing His people out of slavery. Though Israel being freed from slavery was a defining moment in Jewish history, it also became part of a repeated pattern. Here’s how it went: God’s people were in proper relationship with God and everything was good. Then something happened – they got a new leader, they got overconfident in their own abilities, they got threatened by enemies – and they turned from God. Then they were overrun by their enemies and terrible things happened. They were soundly defeated and forced to pay tribute to other nations. Their treasures and wealth were carted off. They were exiled. And they cried out to the Lord, and he delivered them. And the whole cycle started again.

Freedom was always short-lived. Until Jesus, that is. In the hymn, Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, we sing the lyrics: Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Jesus was born to set his people free. Not simply freedom from physical prisons, but freedom from the bondage of guilt and sin.

Early in Jesus’ ministry, he went to Nazareth, full of the Holy Spirit, and, as was his custom, he went into the synagogue and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21)

Jesus was anointed to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, because he himself is that freedom. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus in 2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

In this life, there are often all kinds of ways to get to the same goal. You can do this or you can do that, and if you work really hard, you can get what you want. I have seen many well-meaning Christians working under the same premise: as long as I work really hard and do lots of church stuff, then I’ll finally be free from that guilt that has nagged me for so many years. I can just trade one addiction for another, hopefully a less-destructive one or even a so-called healthy addiction, and I’ll be fine. The truth is you’ve exchanged one prison cell for another, and neither one is “fine.” The prison cells most of us experience are not the penitentiary or the county lock-up; we experience other cells.

A prison of addiction. A prison created by abuse or neglect. A prison of guilt. A prison of inability. A prison of low self-esteem. A prison of self-righteousness. A prison of achievement. A prison built around image. A prison of money. A prison of tradition.

I can understand when someone who doesn’t know Jesus is living as a slave to all of these things, but because of Jesus, we are free! But the sad thing is that there are many people who have been in church for years who are imprisoned by all these things and more. The prison door is wide open, but many will not walk out that door. You are too used to the prison routine and the prison food and you’ve grown accustomed to prison life. You have forgotten that life in Christ is freedom!

In fact, you don’t even believe you are imprisoned. There are things that get in the way of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If we are unwilling to give them up for the sake of Christ, those things become idols in our lives. I’m not talking about terrible things like drugs and alcohol at this point; I’m talking about good things like our hard earned money, our homes, our families, even our traditions. Once it becomes an idol in our lives, we have a choice: we can cast it down (often figuratively!) or we can allow it to imprison us.

Let’s bring this closer to home. To me, Christmas Eve isn’t Christmas Eve if a few things don’t happen. First of all, we have to read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and we have to sing Silent Night while lighting candles. I firmly believe that these are good, solid ways to celebrate Christ’s birth, but what would happen if the Holy Spirit spoke to us and said, “I want you to do something else for Christmas Eve.”? What would happen if God wanted us to do something completely different? If we didn’t listen, we would be guilty of making our Christmas Eve services into idols.

So, in everything we do, we need to constantly ask, “Is this glorifying God, or is it an idol?” Do our church services just make me comfortable, or does it point me to Christ? There are good things in our lives, things that were created for our good that have become enslaving idols. In Galatia, Jewish tradition was such a prison, especially circumcision. The Jewish Christians were requiring circumcision, saying, “You can’t follow God if you aren’t circumcised,” and Paul opposes it strongly. He asks the leaders: But now that you know God – or rather are known by God –how is it that you are turning back to these weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? (Galatians 4:9)

There are things that have always been sinful and as we grow in Christ, we despise those sins more and more and realize that we were worse than we once thought we were. For example, maybe before you were a Christian, you used to watch all kinds of movies and listen to all kinds of music, but the more you surrender to the Holy Spirit, the more some of these things bother you. I’ve never really been much of a movie-watcher, but I listen to a lot of music, and I’m sure I used the old “I’m not listening to the lyrics” line, but the truth is, the more I surrender to the Spirit, the more the godless lyrics of popular music bother me. And it’s not just the cussing and swearing; it’s the total immoral disdain for God that underlies most of it. And that can be an imprisoning idol. But what I am talking about this morning is things that were meant for good, but we have been ensnared by them.

Let’s look at an example from the Old Testament. In Numbers 21, Moses is leading the Israelites in the wilderness. They are going along, and the people begin to get impatient and they complained against God and against Moses. So God sent venomous snakes among them, and many people died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. (Numbers 21:7) It sounds like they have repented, turned from their sin and turned back to God. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (Numbers 21:8-9)

Did you get the picture of what happened? The Israelites sinned against God, and God punished them, but when they repented and turned back to God, He showed grace to the Israelites and gave them a way to escape death. But years later, when Israel is a well-established (but divided) kingdom, Hezekiah has become king of Judah, and the first thing he does is reform some of their customs. Listen to how 2 Kings 18 describes what he does. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time, the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (2 Kings 18:4)

Something God had given Moses and the Israelites had been corrupted; instead of something to help them look to God, the bronze snake had become the object of worship. Too often this happens in our churches. The place or building becomes the object of worship. The worship style becomes the object of worship. The elements of worship become the object of worship. The clothes that the preacher wears, the instruments used in worship, the means of baptism, the means of Communion, the order of worship… none of these were meant to be bad, but they are too often idolized, and when they become idols, we are ensnared.

God did not create us for enslavement, but without Jesus, we are slaves. Listen to Jesus’ own words: “I tell you the truth, anyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34). We all serve someone, and in our sins, we are slaves to sin. But that’s not the final word, because, as Jesus goes on to say, “So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” (John 8:36)

Because of Jesus, we have true freedom.

So how do we live out this freedom? Galatians 5:1 tells us that It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  God calls us to recognize that Jesus set us free – it wasn’t anything we did, but it was all by God’s grace. So stand firm in your freedom; do not let anything in your life become a yoke of slavery. Daily offer it all to God.

This is why Jesus called the rich young man to sell all he had and give the money to the poor in Luke 18; his money had become a yoke of slavery.

In fact, the Bible calls us even to offer ourselves. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

Jesus never said it would be easy; we’ve often lived in prison so long that it is a difficult transition to life of freedom. But God calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This renewal only happens by immersing ourselves in God’s Word and by listening intently to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

And because of Jesus, we can have that freedom. Romans 8:1-4 tells us: Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did  by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Live by the Spirit. Live in freedom. God didn’t send Jesus to earth to be born in a humble manger just to make us comfortable in our prisons. He came to earth to set us free.