©1999 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
|
10/31/99
|
Freedom Pt. 4
|
Luke 4:18
|
Freedom Pt. 4
We are involved in a study
of the freedom God offers
to every human being through Christ.
Those of us who live on the eve of the 21st century
pride ourselves on being a part
of the most technologically advanced culture
that has ever existed.
Collectively we know more things
about more things
than ever before in human history.
We have accumulated
a tremendous wealth of knowledge
that has enabled us to produce more
and accomplish more than ever before.
The world in which we live
has obviously changed dramatically
in the past 2000 years.
And yet, with all of our technological advancement,
the fundamental issues that drive our lives
have not changed since the Garden of Eden.
Many of you sitting here this morning
have a cell phone in your pocket,
or your purse,
or sitting in the car in the parking lot.
You can push a few buttons
and communicate instantly
with nearly anyone in the world.
We log onto the internet
and have access to what is literally
a world-wide web of information.
I noticed this past week
that people in Great Britain,
and New Zealand,
and Australia
downloaded some of these talks
from our little web site.
And yet, with all of this knowledge,
we still continue to wrestle with the same basic
questions
that every human being who has come before
us has wrestled with.
Does my life really have meaning?
Do my actions and choices matter?
What can I do with the evil that exists within
me?
How can I find freedom
from the forces that dominate my life?
As we move back into our study on freedom this
morning
I want us to start by joining with a group of
people
crowded into a hot, dusty synagogue
in the little town of Nazareth
nearly 2000 years ago.
I want us to picture ourselves
as a part of that rural 1st century Jewish
community.
There have been some remarkable rumors flying
around town recently
about Joseph and Mary's oldest boy, Jesus.
Until a few months ago
He had been working with His brothers
in the carpenter's shop
started by their father, Joseph,
more than 20 years ago.
After Joseph's death
the boys continued on with the trade
they had learned from their father.
But then one day Jesus laid down his tools,
walked out of that shop,
and traveled a number of miles east,
beyond the Jordan River,
until He found His cousin, John,
who was causing no small commotion in the area as
an itinerant preacher.
Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River,
after which He disappeared into the wilderness
for more than a month.
When He returned
He established a home base
in Capernaum, on the shores of the Sea of
Galilee,
and began a public teaching work
that soon drew people by the
thousands.
Those of us back in Nazareth
hear all sorts of rumors about Him.
We hear that
when our former carpenter visited Jerusalem
during the Passover
He single-handedly drove the corrupt money
changers from the Temple grounds.
We hear rumors that He can actually heal the
crippled,
and the blind,
and the deaf,
and the lepers
with just a touch of His hand.
We hear that He teaches about God
and life
and relationships as no man had ever taught
before.
And now, today, this Jesus is back in town.
The synagogue is packed,
with those who couldn't get inside
standing at the open windows,
and crowded around the door.
It's hot outside,
and far worse within.
The place smells of sweat.
Mothers rock their babies to keep them quiet
and tell their children to hush.
Then Jesus stands and walks to the front.
The place goes instantly silent.
He asks for the sacred scroll of Isaiah.
When it is handed to Him
He keeps turning the scroll
until He comes to what we now know as
the 1st verse
of the 61st chapter of Isaiah.
And then He reads:
Luke 4:18 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon
Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the
gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to
proclaim release to the captives, And
recovery of sight to the blind, To set free
those who are oppressed, To proclaim the
favorable year of the Lord. "
Then Jesus stops reading,
closes the scroll,
and hands it back to the attendant.
He sits down,
but no one moves,
and no one speaks.
Every eye in the room
remains fixed on Jesus.
Then, once again He speaks:
(Luke 4:21) ... "Today this Scripture has
been fulfilled in your hearing."
And now, here we are, 2000 years later,
sitting in our comfortable buildings,
with our cell phones and internets giving us
the world at our fingertips.
We drive our cars,
and fly our planes,
and live at a level of comfort
other generations could not even have
imagined.
And yet...
the words Jesus read that day
in that synagogue in Nazareth
burn into us
and create longings within us
every bit as much as they did in
the first century.
Because, with all of our learning,
and all of our technology,
and all of our knowledge,
nothing has really changed.
We are still so poor in spirit,
sometimes barely able to make it through
another day.
And we are still held captive
in the grips of forces within us
we despise
but find ourselves powerless to break.
And when we are most honest with ourselves
we know we are still so blind
in so many areas of our lives,
and we know what it is to be oppressed,
to carry around with us
the crushing weight of our own failures,
and fears,
and sufferings.
And we too long to hear
that there is Someone
sent to us by God Himself
who can offer us the good news we long for,
Someone who has the authority
to proclaim our release from captivity,
Someone who can open our eyes
and set us free from our oppression.
The things that don't really matter
have changed a great deal in the past 2000 years.
The things that matter a great deal
have not changed at all.
And the good news is
that the words Christ spoke in Nazareth 2000
years ago
He also speaks to us.
He can and He will set His people free.
I have taken so much of our time this morning
to remind us of these words of Christ
because as we move through this study on
freedom
I never want us to loose sight
of where our freedom comes from.
It comes from the Person of Jesus Christ.
And it begins with our submission
to His Lordship
and His leadership in our lives.
Let me state it as simply
and clearly as I know how.
If you find within your spirit
a hunger for a freedom
you know you do not yet possess,
the first step in finding that freedom
is saying to Jesus Christ,
"My Lord,
what I need most of all is You.
I need You
to break the power of this sin in my life.
I need You
to free me from these fears.
I need You
to accomplish in me
what I know I am powerless
to accomplish on my own."
Christ did not come
to offer the world a better system.
He came to offer the world Himself.
It is certainly true
that His words to us
are a crucial ingredient
in the freeing process.
We were looking at that last week.
If you were here,
you will remember the way in which
Christ linked our entrance into the freedom
He offers
with our ABIDING in His words.
But our ability to do that
is inseparably linked to Christ Himself.
We choose to trust what He says
because we have come to trust Him.
Without that foundation of trust in Him
developing an abiding trust in what He says is
an impossibility.
EX.
When my daughter was about five years old
our family was visiting some extended family
members who owned a 3 wheeler,
and I got the bright idea
of taking Joni for a ride.
She was too small
for me to feel safe with her riding behind me,
so I scooted to the back of the seat,
placed her in front of me,
and then reached around her to the
controls.
When I did that, however,
it put most of my weight
behind the back axil.
We took off for our ride,
but when we came to the first steep hill,
when I gave it gas,
with so much weight so far back on the
thing,
the whole machine flipped up
and came crashing upside down
on top of us.
There we were,
gas dripping out of the tank on top of us,
with me on my back,
holding up the weight of the 3 wheeler
with my arms
so that it didn't crush my daughter,
with her curled up in this little pocket
between my chest and the seat above us.
For obvious reasons,
she was scared to death.
I remember laying there,
straining to hold that thing up,
forcing myself to talk quietly and calmly to
her as I said,
"OK, Sweetie, here's what I want you to do.
I want you to turn carefully.
Now, do you see that little space underneath
my arm?
I want you to crawl out through that little
space."
And she did just what I said.
Once she was out of the way
I was able to push the machine off myself
without worrying about it crushing her.
When that thing went over on top of us
she knew we were in a mess.
She had no idea how to go about fixing the mess we
were in.
But she had absolute confidence
in the sound of my voice.
Daddy may have gotten us into this mess,
but Daddy also knew how to get us out.
There are times when freedom for the Christian
requires that same type of trust
between us and our Lord.
Our ability to abide in any aspect of God's Word
begins with our trust in the Person of Jesus
Christ.
He is absolutely committed
to leading His people into freedom.
He understands where our areas of bondage are,
and He knows how to break the power
of that bondage in our lives.
But I guarantee there will be crucial points in that
freeing process
where we will hear Him saying something to us
and everything within us -
everything we have learned in the past,
everything our culture tells us is true,
everything we are feeling in our emotions,
will tell us that what our Lord is saying
simply cannot be right.
Inside we will be screaming,
"If I do what He's saying,
if I go the direction He's pointing,
there is no way on this earth my needs
can ever be met."
At such times
the only thing that has the ability
to keep us moving in the direction
that will ultimately bring us into
freedom
is our trust in the Person of Christ Himself.
It is at those times
that we will find ourselves saying,
"Lord, what You say here
makes no sense to me whatsoever.
In fact, the truth is
it looks all wrong to me.
But because I trust You
I will trust what You say."
In fact, it's interesting that
when Christ returned
to this concept of "Abiding"
in John chapter 15,
rather than returning to the concept
of our abiding in His Word,
He made it far more personal, saying,
John 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless
it abides in the vine, so neither can you
unless you abide in Me.
John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the
branches; he who abides in Me and I in
him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me
you can do nothing.
Here He is not simply talking about
our abiding in some sort of fixed doctrinal belief
system,
He is talking about our abiding in a living
relationship with Him,
and His abiding in us.
Clearly, this can never be accomplished
through our pledging faithful allegiance
to any religious system.
It begins and ends with the Person of Jesus Christ.
Systems,
and groups may be,
and often times are valuable tools
in helping us to understand
who Christ is
and what He's saying to us.
But only our trust in the Person of Christ Himself
has the power to make us free.
Now, having said that,
I want to conclude this morning
by mentioning what I believe to be
the three most powerful issues
that war against our ability to abide in
Christ
in a way that will bring us into freedom.
#1. The first is the whole issue of our personal
submission to Him.
And the best way I can help
those of you who may be struggling with this
is simply to tell you the way it is.
Jesus Christ has both the ability
and the longing to lead us into freedom.
But there is only one way for us to enter into that
healing process,
and that is through our personal submission to
His Lordship in our lives.
And I think you know by now
that I am not talking about our joining some
group,
or attending church more regularly,
or lining ourselves up behind some
charismatic religious leader.
I'm talking about our choosing
to place our lives
into the hands of our Creator,
relinquishing our foolish little efforts
to run our own lives,
and giving Him the right
to be our God.
God works carefully in the lives of every one of us
to bring us to the point where we realize
the need for that choice.
And I know from experience
that the human spirit will frantically seek out a
thousand different hiding places from our God.
"I'll go to church more."
"I'll promise to be a better person."
"I choose to believe there is no God."
"I'm a better person than most."
"The church is full of hypocrites."
"Look at all the evil that has been done in the name
of Christianity."
And on and on.
For most of us
there is no easy way
to bow before our Lord.
But until we do
He cannot begin His healing process in our
lives.
#2. The second issue I want to mention
that has the power to war against
our ability to abide in Christ
is our believing that abiding in Christ is
synonymous with
and dependent upon
our keeping the moral law of God,
or some other expanded list of
religious duties and obligations.
Next week we'll spend our time looking
at both why and how
Christ actually frees us from the Law,
and why that freedom is essential
before any lasting changes can take place within
us.
#3. And then, the final issue I want us to look at,
that has the power to stifle our ability to abide in
Christ
is being deceived into believing
that submission to Christ
will wall us off from some of the
things we believe we must have
in order for our needs to truly be met.
Freeing us from the tremendous power of that lie
is a major ingredient
in the healing process He seeks to bring
about in our lives.
We'll probably get into that two weeks from today,
depending on how far we get next week.