John 8:31-36 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Reformation Sunday, November 3, 2019 “Remain in Jesus’ Word”
This past Thursday, I saw a You Tube star. I saw an Olympic gymnast. I saw a superhero, like you might see in comic books. In fact, I saw all sorts of amazing people and animals and fantasy characters as they walked past me, and they stopped, and they said, “Trick or treat.” Maybe you had a similar experience on Halloween. Halloween gives people the opportunity to dress in a different way, to try to look on the outside in a way that is very different from who they really are. Hopefully, this Halloween dressing up is all in fun. It doesn’t need to cause real mischief. It doesn’t need to be scary. It can be just a fun thing to try to look like someone you admire or enjoy or have some connection to. But as fun as this costumed, make-believe activity may be, it reminds me of something not so fun. Sometimes the rest of our lives are more like Halloween than we would like to admit. What I mean is that there are other times when we try to look on the outside different than what we know to be true on the inside. We try to hide our sins from others, sometimes even from ourselves. We might even struggle to understand exactly what is true. We might feel like things are not the way we want them to be. We might even be confused about what our lives are all about. In our lesson this morning from the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus gives us an answer to all of this uncertainty and confusion and misdirection. He tells us that the one place to which we can always turn for the truth is his Word. And he reminds us how important that truth is in our lives. Based on Jesus’ preaching here, today we encourage each other to remain in Jesus’ Word, for the truth that sets us free and for our place in his family. John’s Gospel tells us how Jesus had been preaching to and teaching some large crowds. Many of the people who heard him believed the things he was teaching. And it was to those individuals specifically Jesus spoke these words from our text, “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples. You will also know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” That was confusing to the people. They had never been slaves. They were part of God’s chosen people, the Israelites. They were descendants of Abraham himself. Of course they were not slaves. Why would they need to be set free? But Jesus explained that their insistence about this was a costume. It was a mask that they were trying to wear. It was misguided. They had misunderstood his point. His point was that they had been slaves to sin. They had been born in sin, and their lives were full of it, no matter how hard they tried to hide that fact from others. Their lives gave evidence of this slavery as people continued in sins. That’s what Jesus came to free people from. He came to take away sin. He came to forgive it. He came to die for the sins that people had committed and to give them his perfect life instead. He came to make them truly free. He has done the same thing for you and for me. We were born as slaves to sin. Since our ancient ancestors Adam and Eve fell into sin, all people have been born sinful. And you can still feel the effects of your sinful nature in your life. Are there times you know what the right thing to do is, but you don’t want to do it? Something else is easier or more fun. Are there sins that you just keep coming back to? Maybe you even feel sorry about it when it happens, but the next day or two days later, you find yourself doing the same thing. We can still feel the pull of sin that once held us in slavery. We can try to hide it. We can try to deny it, but we know it is there. So what is our answer? Jesus says that our answer is the truth that sets us free. He says that we find that answer in his Word. That Word tells us that we are indeed sinners. In the Bible we learn that we have not lived up to God’s expectations. We could not keep from sinning. We act in sinful ways. We speak in sinful ways. We think in sinful ways. We know that we deserve punishment. But we have been set free. There was one exception to the descendants of Adam and Eve being born in slavery to sin. One special child was born with God as his Father to a virgin human mother. Only he, Jesus Christ, lived a life that never once felt the pull of sin’s slavery over him. Only he, Jesus Christ,
perfectly obeyed his Father. And he, Jesus Christ, did for us what no one else could: he saved us. He gave up his perfect life, and he suffered and died so that a whole world of sinners could be released and set free from their slavery to sin. And there is only one way that we know this and have confidence in it. He tells us in his Word. He reveals it to us in the Bible. This is the truth that sets us free. Today is obviously not about celebrating Halloween. Today, we celebrate what God accomplished through a man named Martin Luther. And what is so clear about Luther’s life is that he recognized this truth that set him free. Halloween and Reformation fall together because October 31 was the day that Martin Luther posted 95 Theses on the church door because he wanted to debate about the things that the church was doing and saying. But if you read all of those statements, you might be surprised that they don’t sound very Lutheran. See, that event was just the start. What really made a difference in Luther’s life was that he kept studying God’s Word. Luther even became a teacher of God’s Word although he didn’t feel like he deserved to be that. He became a teacher because his superiors told him to. He had become a monk and a priest because he was searching for a way to be free. Luther had been told over and over again about how God judges sin, and how God punishes sin. Luther was afraid because he knew what his conscience said. He knew all the sins that no one else knew in his life. He knew that even when he tried to do the right thing, it was never perfect. He knew that he was a slave to sin. But since he was forced to study God’s Word as much as he did, since he remained in Jesus’ Word, he finally found out the truth. He finally learned that God didn’t demand that we people get our lives straight in order to be saved. He finally learned that God had sent his own Son, Jesus, to rescue us from our sins. And once he learned that, Luther had a peace and a joy that he had never felt outside of it. He had a drive to learn more and more and to share that amazing good news with others. He had a passion to push back against everyone who would try to hide it or stop it. Luther’s life gave evidence of this: If you remain in Jesus’ word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. That freedom means that God has made you a part of his family. Not only did Jesus rescue us out of slavery, he actually made us into his brothers and sisters. He brought us into his family. He says, “But a slave does not remain in the family forever. A son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.” And understand what that means. Jesus is describing a complete change. Our status as members of his family is secure because of what he did for us. He made us a heavenly home. He made us an eternal home. The theme of our service today says, “Welcome Home: Where You Are Free to Be Yourself.” All together when we gather around God’s Word, we are basking in the truth that sets us free. We are celebrating that we have been made a part of the family. And we don’t need to pretend that we are someone or something that we are not. We don’t need to hide our sins. In fact, when we gather, we admit them and confess them. We don’t need to convince anyone that we are worthy of God’s help or his love. No, we come here as worthless beggars and former slaves, and we receive and rejoice in his love and mercy. Welcome home to the truth that sets you free. It doesn’t set you free to be who you used to be. That’s not freedom at all. That is slavery to sin. It sets you free to be who God has made you to be, a member of his own family. That sounds amazing, doesn’t it? And the way that he assures us of it? Jesus says, “Remain in my Word.” May God graciously grant that we remain in his Word today and always.
The Text: John 8:31-36 (EHV) So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples. 32 You will also know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 “We
are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered, “and we have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be set free’?” 34 Jesus
answered, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Everyone who keeps committing sin is a slave to sin. 35 But a slave does not remain in the family forever. A son does remain forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.”