Faith and Doubt M6 (June 7,2009)
Faith and Doubt M6 Sermon Notes June 7, 2009
Title: Does Christianity Stifle Our Freedom?
Text: John 8:31-38; Luke 24; 1 Corinthians 6:12.
Big Idea: A life without restrictions leads to inner slavery, but a life bound to Jesus Christ leads to inner freedom.
I took a ski trip to the Okanagan with one of my best friends when I was in high school. We had played football together and thrown parties together. I was a new Christian at the time and in awe of things that God was doing in my life. I shared about how Jesus Christ could make a very positive difference in my friend’s life. I explained the basics of the gospel--that God loved him and wanted to be in a relationship with him, but how our sins separated us him God. I talked about how Christ died on the cross as sacrifice for our sins and that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God. My friend was nodding his head throughout my explanation.
I asked him, “Do believe this?”
He said, “Oh, yeah. I totally believe that.” I said, “Would you like to turn your life over to Christ?” He said, “No.” I said, “Why not?” He replied, “Well, I enjoy sinning too much.” Then he said, “Maybe when I am old and have done everything I want to do then, maybe then I will reconsider this.”
In this series on faith and doubt we’ve seen how people can resist Christianity for intellectual or philosophical reasons, but like my high school friend there also are a lot of people who are not necessarily rejecting Christ because of some intellectual or philosophical issue with Christianity, but because they believe that if they decide to follow the way of Christ their freedom would be considerably restricted.
Today, as we conclude this series on faith and doubt I want us to raise the question of whether true Christianity restricts or enhances our freedom.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to John 8:31
In John 8 we see Jesus in a dialogue with some Jewish religious leaders.
In verse 31-36 we read:
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
In this passage, Jesus says that a person who holds on to his teaching, literally “abides” in his teaching, will know the truth and then truth will set that person free.
The religious leaders who are listening to Jesus speak about freedom are offended because Jesus, in speaking to them about how they can be free, is implying that are not free.
So in verse 33 they answer Jesus:
33 "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
A little bit of denial going on here. The Jews at the time of this conversation were not really free. They were under the iron-fisted rule of Rome.
But Jesus says to them in verse 34 “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
Many people think that freedom doing whatever they want to do, but is that true freedom?
Is real freedom doing whatever you want to do?
Jesus says we become enslaved when we live in a way that violates God’s design for us—when we sin.
The built in penalty for sin isn’t usually a lightning bolt from heaven, but a greater appetite for the sin you’ve committed.
If we sin we’re going to develop a greater appetite for the sin and if we keep going down that road we’ll find ourselves a slave to that sin.
With some sins like drug use or alcohol abuse or pornography, it’s obvious that violating God’s design for us in these highly addictive ways will make us a slave.
Being a slave to sin is no fun.
When the actor, David Duchovny last year checked into rehab for his sexual addiction, some people smirked said, “Isn’t that the kind of addiction that everyone wants?”
And what Duchovny and other sex addicts have said was, “No, to be a sexual addict is as agonizing as any other kind of addiction.”
When we need more and more of something because it satisfies us less and less, that’s not freedom, that’s slavery.
When you can’t say no something that’s bondage.
(Gerald May in his excellent book, Addiction and Grace, defines addiction as something you cannot say “no” to. It may be drugs, it may be lust; it may be anger and bitterness; it may be the need for approval. That’s slavery)
These are dramatic examples, but let me give a couple of examples that are a little more subtle.
Is freedom being able to do whatever you want to do, say, in the area of what you eat?
Do you know someone who has heart disease? Maybe that person you know with heart disease likes food that’s not very healthy for him. Let’s say this person has cravings for French Fries with lot of gravy—poutine. Will that person become freer if he continues to cave into the craving for French fries smothered in gravy—long term? No. Eating that maintains his desire for greasy foods. That person is more likely to wind up in the hospital for heart surgery.
Or say, we choose to hold to bitterness. Perhaps something happened years ago and after an appropriate season of anger and mourning and perhaps counseling you could let go with God’s help if you chose to. But you choose to resent and re-sent literally means to re-feel something. You choose to re-feel the pain and the anger. You choose to not let go. You become a slave to your anger. There comes a day when you can’t let go.
We may we think of freedom as being able to do whatever we want to do but if our “freedom” isn’t limited by some kind of healthy boundaries—instead of becoming free we’ll become slaves.
Paul in 1 Corinthians, quoting a slogan from Corinth says: “All things are lawful for me.” Then he says, “but not everything is beneficial.” “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.”
Paul reminds the Corinthians that impulsively choosing to satisfy all of one’s appetites leads to bondage.
Jesus says sin enslaves us, but truth liberates us.
Jesus says, “If you hold on to my teaching, then you are really my disciples. You are really my followers.” Then in verse 32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
There are many paradoxes in the Christian life. In losing our life to Jesus, we truly find it; it is in giving that we receive. It is through binding ourselves to the truth of Christ we find true liberty.
We are most free when we have live within the boundaries for which we were made.
A fish isn’t free when it is bouncing on the carpet; it is free when it is limited to the environment for which it was made. Because a fish absorbs oxygen from water rather from air, it is free when it is restricted to the water.
One of life’s paradoxes is that we are most free when we are bound in the right way.
If you want to experience freedom as a musician, if you want to have the freedom to play a beautiful sonata on the piano, you will limit yourself in some way so you can practice, practice, practice.
If you want to be free to talk with people who speak a different language, you must adjust your schedule in some way to study the laws of grammar, conjugate verbs, and practice the language every chance you get.
If you want to be free as a sailor, you need to understand and honor the law of the wind and the wave, and follow those laws. Break the law of the wind and the wave (you are not a sailing stud, not a maverick) and you’ll find yourself overboard.
Freedom is not so much the total absence of restrictions. Living a life without restrictions will ultimately lead to bondage and inner despair.
Real freedom is about finding the right restrictions that enable us to honor our design and, when we honor our design, we experience a sense of joy and fulfillment and inner freedom.
Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke up (i.e. a wooden cross bar placed over an ox that enables them to pull a plow more effectively) upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
What does Jesus mean when he says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”?
The word “easy” in the original means “well-fitting.”
If we take on the yoke of Jesus, it will mean that his yoke, his guidance will be perfectly suited for us.
It will not be burdensome; it will be uniquely matched for us; it will fit us perfectly.
Most of us have never worn a yoke, but all of us have worn shoes.
Have you had a pair of shoes that didn’t fit you well?
I recently got a pair that I thought fit well, but after wearing for about 20 minutes they started create a cut right here.
Bad shoes restrict our movement.
Have you ever had a pair of running shoes that you really loved? They fitted you well and made you want to walk, or run if you are a runner.
The Seattle Mariners baseball star Ichiro has these $30,000 pair of baseball cleats customs designed by Asics. They’re super light (just 260 grams) and they fit Ichiro feet perfectly, and enable him move with grace and speed as a base runner, or as an outfielder.
Shoes that fit us well enable us to move more freely—than we would in bare feet (just ask Dan Matheson who tried playing basketball barefoot and cut the bottom on his foot at the Weekend Away).
And Jesus says, “I have a yoke (or a pair of shoes)--perfectly fitted for you.”
We when walk in the yoke that Jesus has for us, we will discover his that it fits us perfectly and we will be set free.
(transition)
But Jesus doesn’t just call us to adopt some kind of abstract truth--he calls us to himself.
In Luke 24 the passage that Mekhkia and Rees read and that was illustrated through the children’s art work Jesus is walking on the Road to Emmaus with Cleopas and someone else and he explained to them how all the Scriptures point to him.
Jesus as we saw in the Matthew passage, he says, “Come to me.
Come to me and be free.”
We are fundamentally designed to know and love God.
Some of us may think that the truth of Jesus will restrict us, and others may think Jesus as a person might restrict us if we were to get close to him.
When we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, the paradox is that we are restricted in the right ways, but we will also be freer and more fulfilled than we’ve ever been before.
I was talking with someone who’s given me permission to share part of his story.
This person was saying, “My greatest fear was the fear of being trapped.”
“I feared being trapped in a job.”
“I feared being trapped in some kind of relationship.”
So for a long time, he thought, “ I’ll never get married,” but he fell in love with a wonderful person and he recently got married. He says, “I’m trapped, but as I look at this person I think, I want to be “trapped” with her for the rest of my life.”
When we really love someone, in one sense it does limits our freedom, but contrary to what we might expect if we’ve never experienced this, like this person I know, when we really love someone, instead of feeling trapped, we feel joy, fulfillment, peace, real life—even freedom in the midst of a commitment.
In one sense the freest person of all is the person who has no relationship, but is that the kind of freedom we yearn for?
In his famous word from the Four Loves C.S. Lewis says (powerpoint):
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.
But is that the freedom we want?
You can be “free” and lonely, or you can be yoked to a wonderful companion and fulfilled.
Sure, being yoked to a person limits our freedom in some way, but it does so in a glorious way; it doesn’t make us feel oppressed, but brings us a sense of joy and fulfillment, and life.
If you have ever found yourself falling in love with someone, you know how adjusting to that person will involve some kind of sacrifice, but it is also something that you want to do (particularly if the sacrifice is mutual).
“Yeah, I have got a final exam tomorrow, but if you really need to talk and spend time together, I can do that.” And you want to do that.
When are deeply in love with someone, we will want to put a limit on our freedom to please the other person.
So the paradox is that when voluntarily limit in the right way in a love relationship, we are also most fulfilled and experience the greatest joy and inner freedom.
The outsider may think we are completely bound. Tim Keller says, “From the outside friends may think she is leading him around by the nose, but inside it feels like heaven.”
Inside it does not feel oppressive at all.
So it is when if we learn to love Jesus Christ, we will want to follow him and it won’t feel oppressive at all. It will be deeply fulfilling and joyful.
We may think that we will be bound if we fully commit ourselves to knowing, loving and serving God, but when we come to realize how great God’s love is for us--that in Jesus Christ God limited himself as a human being and became vulnerable to suffering and even to death on the cross so that we could be forgiven and free—and recognize how much God has adjusted to us in order and when we allow our hearts to be moved by that--then we will want to enter in a relationship with God and we will not feel oppressed, but loved fulfilled and free within.
Like my friend in high school perhaps you’re thinking, “ Well, maybe at the end of my life, I’ll consider really giving my life to God” … afraid that you’ll miss out if you commit now, but what if real joy and fulfillment and inner freedom came by binding your life to the truth and the person of Jesus… Then you’d really miss out, if you didn’t join your life to his.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread…
Kits vision…
Title: Does Christianity Stifle Our Freedom?
Text: John 8:31-38; Luke 24; 1 Corinthians 6:12.
Big Idea: A life without restrictions leads to inner slavery, but a life bound to Jesus Christ leads to inner freedom.
I took a ski trip to the Okanagan with one of my best friends when I was in high school. We had played football together and thrown parties together. I was a new Christian at the time and in awe of things that God was doing in my life. I shared about how Jesus Christ could make a very positive difference in my friend’s life. I explained the basics of the gospel--that God loved him and wanted to be in a relationship with him, but how our sins separated us him God. I talked about how Christ died on the cross as sacrifice for our sins and that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God. My friend was nodding his head throughout my explanation.
I asked him, “Do believe this?”
He said, “Oh, yeah. I totally believe that.” I said, “Would you like to turn your life over to Christ?” He said, “No.” I said, “Why not?” He replied, “Well, I enjoy sinning too much.” Then he said, “Maybe when I am old and have done everything I want to do then, maybe then I will reconsider this.”
In this series on faith and doubt we’ve seen how people can resist Christianity for intellectual or philosophical reasons, but like my high school friend there also are a lot of people who are not necessarily rejecting Christ because of some intellectual or philosophical issue with Christianity, but because they believe that if they decide to follow the way of Christ their freedom would be considerably restricted.
Today, as we conclude this series on faith and doubt I want us to raise the question of whether true Christianity restricts or enhances our freedom.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to John 8:31
In John 8 we see Jesus in a dialogue with some Jewish religious leaders.
In verse 31-36 we read:
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
In this passage, Jesus says that a person who holds on to his teaching, literally “abides” in his teaching, will know the truth and then truth will set that person free.
The religious leaders who are listening to Jesus speak about freedom are offended because Jesus, in speaking to them about how they can be free, is implying that are not free.
So in verse 33 they answer Jesus:
33 "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
A little bit of denial going on here. The Jews at the time of this conversation were not really free. They were under the iron-fisted rule of Rome.
But Jesus says to them in verse 34 “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
Many people think that freedom doing whatever they want to do, but is that true freedom?
Is real freedom doing whatever you want to do?
Jesus says we become enslaved when we live in a way that violates God’s design for us—when we sin.
The built in penalty for sin isn’t usually a lightning bolt from heaven, but a greater appetite for the sin you’ve committed.
If we sin we’re going to develop a greater appetite for the sin and if we keep going down that road we’ll find ourselves a slave to that sin.
With some sins like drug use or alcohol abuse or pornography, it’s obvious that violating God’s design for us in these highly addictive ways will make us a slave.
Being a slave to sin is no fun.
When the actor, David Duchovny last year checked into rehab for his sexual addiction, some people smirked said, “Isn’t that the kind of addiction that everyone wants?”
And what Duchovny and other sex addicts have said was, “No, to be a sexual addict is as agonizing as any other kind of addiction.”
When we need more and more of something because it satisfies us less and less, that’s not freedom, that’s slavery.
When you can’t say no something that’s bondage.
(Gerald May in his excellent book, Addiction and Grace, defines addiction as something you cannot say “no” to. It may be drugs, it may be lust; it may be anger and bitterness; it may be the need for approval. That’s slavery)
These are dramatic examples, but let me give a couple of examples that are a little more subtle.
Is freedom being able to do whatever you want to do, say, in the area of what you eat?
Do you know someone who has heart disease? Maybe that person you know with heart disease likes food that’s not very healthy for him. Let’s say this person has cravings for French Fries with lot of gravy—poutine. Will that person become freer if he continues to cave into the craving for French fries smothered in gravy—long term? No. Eating that maintains his desire for greasy foods. That person is more likely to wind up in the hospital for heart surgery.
Or say, we choose to hold to bitterness. Perhaps something happened years ago and after an appropriate season of anger and mourning and perhaps counseling you could let go with God’s help if you chose to. But you choose to resent and re-sent literally means to re-feel something. You choose to re-feel the pain and the anger. You choose to not let go. You become a slave to your anger. There comes a day when you can’t let go.
We may we think of freedom as being able to do whatever we want to do but if our “freedom” isn’t limited by some kind of healthy boundaries—instead of becoming free we’ll become slaves.
Paul in 1 Corinthians, quoting a slogan from Corinth says: “All things are lawful for me.” Then he says, “but not everything is beneficial.” “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.”
Paul reminds the Corinthians that impulsively choosing to satisfy all of one’s appetites leads to bondage.
Jesus says sin enslaves us, but truth liberates us.
Jesus says, “If you hold on to my teaching, then you are really my disciples. You are really my followers.” Then in verse 32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
There are many paradoxes in the Christian life. In losing our life to Jesus, we truly find it; it is in giving that we receive. It is through binding ourselves to the truth of Christ we find true liberty.
We are most free when we have live within the boundaries for which we were made.
A fish isn’t free when it is bouncing on the carpet; it is free when it is limited to the environment for which it was made. Because a fish absorbs oxygen from water rather from air, it is free when it is restricted to the water.
One of life’s paradoxes is that we are most free when we are bound in the right way.
If you want to experience freedom as a musician, if you want to have the freedom to play a beautiful sonata on the piano, you will limit yourself in some way so you can practice, practice, practice.
If you want to be free to talk with people who speak a different language, you must adjust your schedule in some way to study the laws of grammar, conjugate verbs, and practice the language every chance you get.
If you want to be free as a sailor, you need to understand and honor the law of the wind and the wave, and follow those laws. Break the law of the wind and the wave (you are not a sailing stud, not a maverick) and you’ll find yourself overboard.
Freedom is not so much the total absence of restrictions. Living a life without restrictions will ultimately lead to bondage and inner despair.
Real freedom is about finding the right restrictions that enable us to honor our design and, when we honor our design, we experience a sense of joy and fulfillment and inner freedom.
Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke up (i.e. a wooden cross bar placed over an ox that enables them to pull a plow more effectively) upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
What does Jesus mean when he says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”?
The word “easy” in the original means “well-fitting.”
If we take on the yoke of Jesus, it will mean that his yoke, his guidance will be perfectly suited for us.
It will not be burdensome; it will be uniquely matched for us; it will fit us perfectly.
Most of us have never worn a yoke, but all of us have worn shoes.
Have you had a pair of shoes that didn’t fit you well?
I recently got a pair that I thought fit well, but after wearing for about 20 minutes they started create a cut right here.
Bad shoes restrict our movement.
Have you ever had a pair of running shoes that you really loved? They fitted you well and made you want to walk, or run if you are a runner.
The Seattle Mariners baseball star Ichiro has these $30,000 pair of baseball cleats customs designed by Asics. They’re super light (just 260 grams) and they fit Ichiro feet perfectly, and enable him move with grace and speed as a base runner, or as an outfielder.
Shoes that fit us well enable us to move more freely—than we would in bare feet (just ask Dan Matheson who tried playing basketball barefoot and cut the bottom on his foot at the Weekend Away).
And Jesus says, “I have a yoke (or a pair of shoes)--perfectly fitted for you.”
We when walk in the yoke that Jesus has for us, we will discover his that it fits us perfectly and we will be set free.
(transition)
But Jesus doesn’t just call us to adopt some kind of abstract truth--he calls us to himself.
In Luke 24 the passage that Mekhkia and Rees read and that was illustrated through the children’s art work Jesus is walking on the Road to Emmaus with Cleopas and someone else and he explained to them how all the Scriptures point to him.
Jesus as we saw in the Matthew passage, he says, “Come to me.
Come to me and be free.”
We are fundamentally designed to know and love God.
Some of us may think that the truth of Jesus will restrict us, and others may think Jesus as a person might restrict us if we were to get close to him.
When we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, the paradox is that we are restricted in the right ways, but we will also be freer and more fulfilled than we’ve ever been before.
I was talking with someone who’s given me permission to share part of his story.
This person was saying, “My greatest fear was the fear of being trapped.”
“I feared being trapped in a job.”
“I feared being trapped in some kind of relationship.”
So for a long time, he thought, “ I’ll never get married,” but he fell in love with a wonderful person and he recently got married. He says, “I’m trapped, but as I look at this person I think, I want to be “trapped” with her for the rest of my life.”
When we really love someone, in one sense it does limits our freedom, but contrary to what we might expect if we’ve never experienced this, like this person I know, when we really love someone, instead of feeling trapped, we feel joy, fulfillment, peace, real life—even freedom in the midst of a commitment.
In one sense the freest person of all is the person who has no relationship, but is that the kind of freedom we yearn for?
In his famous word from the Four Loves C.S. Lewis says (powerpoint):
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.
But is that the freedom we want?
You can be “free” and lonely, or you can be yoked to a wonderful companion and fulfilled.
Sure, being yoked to a person limits our freedom in some way, but it does so in a glorious way; it doesn’t make us feel oppressed, but brings us a sense of joy and fulfillment, and life.
If you have ever found yourself falling in love with someone, you know how adjusting to that person will involve some kind of sacrifice, but it is also something that you want to do (particularly if the sacrifice is mutual).
“Yeah, I have got a final exam tomorrow, but if you really need to talk and spend time together, I can do that.” And you want to do that.
When are deeply in love with someone, we will want to put a limit on our freedom to please the other person.
So the paradox is that when voluntarily limit in the right way in a love relationship, we are also most fulfilled and experience the greatest joy and inner freedom.
The outsider may think we are completely bound. Tim Keller says, “From the outside friends may think she is leading him around by the nose, but inside it feels like heaven.”
Inside it does not feel oppressive at all.
So it is when if we learn to love Jesus Christ, we will want to follow him and it won’t feel oppressive at all. It will be deeply fulfilling and joyful.
We may think that we will be bound if we fully commit ourselves to knowing, loving and serving God, but when we come to realize how great God’s love is for us--that in Jesus Christ God limited himself as a human being and became vulnerable to suffering and even to death on the cross so that we could be forgiven and free—and recognize how much God has adjusted to us in order and when we allow our hearts to be moved by that--then we will want to enter in a relationship with God and we will not feel oppressed, but loved fulfilled and free within.
Like my friend in high school perhaps you’re thinking, “ Well, maybe at the end of my life, I’ll consider really giving my life to God” … afraid that you’ll miss out if you commit now, but what if real joy and fulfillment and inner freedom came by binding your life to the truth and the person of Jesus… Then you’d really miss out, if you didn’t join your life to his.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread…
Kits vision…
posted by Shigematsu at 6:57 PM
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