Evangelism & The Gospel: The Good News of A New Life of Freedom part 2
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The freedom Jesus offers, according to the Gospel message, includes freedom from other things besides our formal guilt before God’s justice.
The freedom Jesus offers, according to the Gospel message, includes freedom from other things besides our formal guilt before God’s justice.
We can enjoy freedom, not only from guilt, but freedom from bondage to ourselves
— freedom from the perversity in ourselves
— freedom from that way in which we become enslaved to serve our own worst inclinations
— freedom from that way in which we become enslaved to serve our own worst inclinations.
Mark my words carefully:
In liberating us, Jesus does not remove from us the human facility for the formation of habits.
No. BUT...
What Jesus does do, is to liberate us from the power of numerous otherwise unbreakable habituations
and these habituations, are those bondages that centre around our pre-occupation with ourselves
— the addictions that have to do with our self-centredness.
…the addictions that have to do with our self-centredness.
Do you recall from John chapter 8 where Jesus was speaking to a group of apparently godly Jewish people of Jerusalem?
v.31 “ If you continue in, if you hold to, My teaching, then you will be My disciples
and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free ! ”
It was as if they replied to Jesus:
“What on earth are you talking about!? And if I may paraphrase a little more:
“We’ve never been in bondage to anybody!
What do you mean, we will be set free!”
And Jesus said back to them:
“Truly I say to you, whoever commits sin is the slave of sin!”
So, our Lord Jesus, insists on the reality of something else from which we must be set free...
…Jesus insists upon emphasizing the danger of something else which deep down we ALL know is true about ourselves.
We not only need to be set free from guilt by Jesus’ forgiveness...
We also — because of our wrongdoing & wrong attitudes, our sin — (we) are slaves of selfish habituations.
Why is that? Why is Jesus so right in insisting on this despite the proud who will be inclined to argue the case?
Because SIN always involves acting on a certain self-centredness...
…and then, of course, self-centredness always ends up cramping and limiting us!
Naturally speaking, we limit ourselves with our self-centredness
and we come into a bondage to ourselves from which we cannot ordinarily break free.
Now, my brothers and sisters in Christ, “bondage to self” is a second thing actually FELT by the people to whom you would witness.
They easily become aware of this when you are honestly talking with them about the natural state of our hearts...
If instead of you speaking about this problem of self-centredness , you were to ONLY speak of the the 3 letter word “sin”...
…well, then, most people hearing you wouldn’t quite understand what you’re talking about!
But you can begin to communicate with people about sin by talking about the problem we all naturally have with “self”.
You can easily begin by speaking of the sort of slavery I have toward my own self-interest — a hurtful bias towards “self”.
And then we can go on to later explain that this problem with self-centredness has occurred because I have asserted my “self” against the priority of trusting and loving my Creator.
And as a result, I can easily see this bias in my asserting my self against the welfare of my fellow human beings!
People easily know what you mean when you begin to talk about this bias towards “self”.
To illustrate this point, an English evangelist once opened up the Oxford English Dictionary to show how many words were compounded with the prefix “self”.
Do you know that he found more than 50 words that people still regard today as having a distinctly bad connotation.
From self-applause through self-gratification and self-indulgent …all the way to self-pity and self-willed.
Now, ask yourself: Why is is the English language so rich in these self-words?
Are the English the only self-centred people?! Not al all!
The answer is that everyone, everywhere knows about this bondage to self and that is why every culture has such vocabulary!
Therefore, my point is that you CAN talk to people anywhere you meet them about this problem with our self-centredness.
You can borrow Malcolm Muggeridge’s phrase, “the dark little dungeon of our own ego”.
And people will know what you mean — even if they’re proud, out-of-control virtue-signallers!
You could borrow Martin Luther’s description of fallen mankind as “homo ince incurvatus” — meaning man bent in on himself.
And for budding feminists, who might bristle at the use of man by Luther, keep in mind that this would also include women as profoundly distorted too!
What a sad thing it is when you see any human being, man or woman, just letting themselves even deeper into this bondage without recognizing it...
What a sad thing it is when you see any human being just shrivelling inwards in personal self-centredness ...or into identity-politic self-identity.
And you should be able to testify:
“Oh, the joy, of being progressively turned inside-out toward others by Jesus!”
…or say:
“It’s like being a flower whose petals are opening to others because of the Sun!”
“THAT’s what Jesus Christ is doing for me… I had no freedom without Him...
...opening me up ...to God ...and to others, like He is doing now...”
My friends, the natural bondage and the bias towards our self-centredness IS something which we really can discuss with others.
Our friends and acquaintances really do experience this bondage.
And they’re attracted to what can liberate them from this bondage.
SO, here is another preliminary aspect ...of the message ...of the good news of a new life of freedom.
And, ONCE AGAIN, you can relate this aspect of the good news to the work of Jesus in order to outline the rest of the gospel message.
We can say:
Not only did Jesus die so that we can be free from the burden of guilt...
Jesus came alive and was exalted to the place of highest influence...
…so that NOW, it is permissible for Jesus to give Himself to us in a special liberating way.
It’s possible NOW for Jesus to give the Spirit of Christ to deeply enter our personalities.
The Holy Spirit is now able to turn us inside-out in increasing trust in God & relaxed freedom of loving service toward others.
SO, Jesus can now liberate us increasingly from our addiction to ourselves.
He’s able to give us the power from within, of which Eric Liddell testified, to live a really different life...
…a new life of freedom from bondage to self.
The gospel certainly involves good news of a new life of freedom related directly to the wonderful redemptive doings of Jesus!
This is good news of a new life of freedom …not only freedom from guilt …not only freedom from self-centredness …but also freedom from fear and intimidating lies.
You know the ancient world of the NT era was dominated by fear.
People lived in fear not only of Caesar’s armies, or his enemies, and of one-sided justice...
…they lived in fear of the supernatural powers which many of them believed to be resident in the stars & planets OR others associated with ancestors.
And still today, Animists esp. in traditional religions are similarly afraid of the spirits.
And aren’t there OTHER fears that dominate in the Western world?
— Don’t modern Western men & women consciously dread various fears?
— Don’t modern Western men & women unconsciously, numbingly, worry over various vague fears?
My friends, get to know the fears which plague the people around you.
I can’t recommend enough our 3 month course on Encouraging Listening delivered by Larry Crabb & Dan Allender, if you really want to practise recognizing & responding to other people’s fears.
Do you sense, around you, the fears ...of serious sickness, injury, aged frailties ...loss of friends, family bereavement
…fears of rejection, of censure, ostracism, abandonment …of loneliness, unemployment, impotence …& of our own death?
You know, even in this relatively educated “enlightened” country where people neglect God and dismiss the sanctity of both sexuality and of life itself, where people plaster their cars with stickers and their lips with oaths that say, “No Fear!” — even here in Australia — people are strongly controlled by their fears — even while they openly deny it.
Privately, they feel these fears though — even grossly superstitious fears.
Many people “touch wood”, “cross their fingers”, avoid black cats, leaning ladders, and unlucky numbers!
Many of our high-rise buildings show evidence of this: As you go up in their elevators, just watch the floor numbers: 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16!
A 13th floor isn’t listed simply because to many people are too superstitious to want to live on the 13th floor.
And they’re too silly to realize that it’s still the 13th floor even if they call it the 14th floor or “level M”!!
As early as the 1970’s, some surveys showed that, by then, twice as many people read their horoscopes daily as read the Bible daily. (U.K. figures)
And how many of my parents generation lived in awe of what they called “Lady Luck”?!?
We have feared and reverenced all the wrong things; it’s crippled us, leaving people in neurotic bondage to their fears.
My friends, we CAN lovingly discuss with people ...all these kinds of fears.
You see, they actually hunger for freedom from such fears.
As long as we don’t mock them in their fears...
As long as we are honest about the fears WE too have fought...
THEN, in that case, we can gain the opportunity to tell them how the gospel says freedom over fear is to be gained.
That’s when we introduce them, once more, to the person and the work of Jesus...
Jesus who says to frightened men: “Be of good cheer, it is I; don’t be afraid.”
And what’s the major reason which the gospel gives that we may be delivered from the bondage of fear today?
It’s because Jesus has been exalted from His death on the cross to the right hand of God the Father — to the place of supreme authority over heaven & earth!
When Jesus came THERE, ALL things are placed under the feet of Jesus.
They’re under His Kingly control…placed there once more so that NOW He may cause His Kingdom to come to its appointed climax.
Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father so that He can fully work out His good redemptive purposes in the lives of all His true & willing subjects.
Did you know that NOTHING is going to be permitted by Jesus to happen to you that will thwart Jesus’ purpose from finally unfolding in your life.
That is TRUE if you are one of his born again children.
Where are all the things of which we are naturally, ordinarily, afraid?
They’re under the feet of Jesus…our Messiah-King. [Psa 110:1]
When you see that such things are THERE …they begin to shrink to their correct proportion; they decrease as fears in our estimation.
Our fears begin to shrivel up …because fear is rather like a fungus.
It grows in the dark…not in direct sunlight.
That’s how fungus is in natural light.
But spiritually speaking, we must remember that the devil is the Prince of Darkness & Detraction.
Darkness is his preferred habitat!
In his habitat, he’s very pleased to be able to aggravate our fears.
Our fears, like a spiritual equivalent of fungus, grow in the darkness of the devil’s habitat.
Therefore the thing which must be done, is to bring our fears into the spiritual light, and,
that is especially the greatest light of the supreme exaltation of Jesus.
We’re talking about the light of Jesus’ glory through His resurrection & ascension.
We need to see our fears in the light Of Jesus’ Kingly reign beginning from the right hand of the Father in heaven and coming to a climax as He returns to earth again to overthrow evil.
We need to see our fears in the light Of Jesus’ Kingly reign beginning from the right hand of the Father in heaven and coming to a climax as He returns to earth again to overthrow evil.
Ultimately, Jesus over-rules all that seeks to resist Him!
Ultimately, Jesus over-rules all that seeks to resist Him!
Paul tells us that Jesus has disarmed all the rulers and authorities...
…that Jesus made a public display of them...
…that through Jesus, God the Father triumphs over evil by liberating people from the final control of evil.
That is to say, that through Jesus, God the Father has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us as children of God into the kingdom of Jesus.
This raising of Jesus through resurrection into His spectacular Kingly reign was all built upon His prior death for our sins upon the cross.
Our calling is to begin with people’s bondage, in this case to fear.
So we sometimes might start with someone’s deep need for freedom from the domination of fear.
We help them recognize that they need a Saviour Who has conquered the power of evil and all that we fear...
We point them to the resurrection & exaltation of Jesus — from death right to the Father’s right hand, so as to be able to reign over our ultimate spiritual welfare.
We tell them that when we willingly come under Jesus’ Kingly rule, we can then begin to see and experience all our fears being under Jesus’ feet — under His masterful over-ruling purposes...
Our fears begin to shrivel up, like fungus under direct sunlight, when they’re seen in the glorious light of Jesus reigning for us & coming to complete His Kingdom’s peace.
So my friends, we can relate any one of these great human needs for true freedom to the 3 great events in the saving career of Jesus.
In the end we must point our friends to the full story of Jesus’ saving work.
Thus we tell our friends, as they read Scripture:
[1] There can be freedom from guilt …only because Jesus died in our place taking all our consequences for sin when He died upon the cross.
[2] There can be freedom from self …only because Jesus was also raised alive from that special depth and is now rightly able to give us His Spirit and His own life and power to turn us inside out, to enable us to live a life of freedom over the limitations of self
We don’t have to stay in bondage to self-interest; we don’t even have to stay self-pre-occupied trying to achieve a sufficiently good, godly life; we enjoy the friendship & partnership of God working out His freedom to serve through; service comes from relationship & reliance upon Jesus’ Spirit.
[3] There can be freedom from fear …only because Jesus was raised from His special death and is rightly able to reign, to His glory, on our behalf, working out all things for the benefit of His Kingdom and His subjects; everything which we might fear is under His Kingly overlordship; what we fear can be seen to be under His feet!
Can you remember to listen and look for these 3 needs in people you meet?
You can start with at least one of these 3 needs in order to begin telling your acquaintances about Jesus.
Guilt — answered by Jesus’ dying at the cross
Self — answered by Jesus made alive to give us His Spirit from Pentecost onwards
Fear — answered by Jesus risen to the Father’s right hand (not only to give the Spirit, but)
to reign for us as King over all our fears.