Recap
Title: It’s Your Time To Walk Free
Series: Discovering The Real Jesus
Key Text: John 11:1-44
Key Message:
Freedom is something we all treasure. Freedom is often won at great cost. Political freedom, economic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of the press and freedom from tyranny are all freedoms to be highly valued.
However, the question is whether we are living lives as Spiritually Free people. Jesus came to set us free from everything that would hold us captive.
As we continue our series on ‘Discovering the Real Jesus’, we learn of the story from John 11:1-44 about Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus who had died. He was not just dead, but dead and tightly wrapped up in grave clothes.
In fact, he had been like this for four days when Jesus arrived on the scene, seemingly too late to change anything. But to everyone’s shock, this dead and bound man didn't stay dead and bound! There came a moment when Lazarus was raised to life again by Jesus. This miracle shows us some important truths about freedom.
Freedom comes through Jesus (John 11:43-44; John 8:36; Galatians 5:1; Isaiah 61:1; Romans 8:2; Colossians 2:12; John 3:3)
Freedom means that everything restricting you must be removed (John 11:44)
You need help to walk in your new freedom (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Corinthians 11:1; )
Apply
Have you experienced true freedom through Jesus? Have you been born again? Have you experienced the power of Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit to make you spiritually alive?
Jesus freed Lazarus from death (John 11:43-44). Only Jesus can do what happened here. Jesus is the supreme liberator. The Bible has so many verses about the freedom that Jesus brings (John 8:36; Galatians 5:1; Isaiah 61: & Romans 8:2)
Just as Lazarus was made alive again, through Jesus we can be set free from the fear and the power of death. We can be sure that we can live in heaven after we die. Also, we can be made fully alive here on earth rather than just physically exist.
Without Jesus, the bible says that we are spiritually dead but also it tells us that Jesus can raise us to a new life.
This is what water baptism symbolises (Colossians 2:12)
By ourselves we cannot free ourselves from spiritual death and decay just as Lazarus couldn’t free himself from death. Only Jesus can make us come back to life spiritually. Only Jesus can perform this miracle of what John 3:3 calls being born again.
Have you removed everything that is restricting you?
Lazarus was alive but he was still bound with grave clothes. Try and imagine yourself in Lazarus' place for a moment. You’re down there dead in the tomb but somehow you can suddenly hear your name being called. So you try to make your way out of the tomb, staggering along trying not to trip up as you go, because of the linen trips around your hands and feet and not being able to see because of the cloth around your face.
You have a new life but there’s still a lot holding you back. You left the grave, but you are still wearing the grave clothes! You may have a life but you’re not yet free.
Well, that’s a picture that may sum up where you are at as a Christian. Yes you know you have received the new life of God. You know that you are born again. Yet there are areas where you are still bound up. You may need to be freed from:
Past failures
guilt and shame
Anger
Hatred
Feelings of condemnation
Bitterness about things that have happened to us
Unforgiveness - we might have a list of things we want to get payback for
Addiction to drugs, alcohol, pornography
You want to get rid of these things but you can’t see how. Then you hear Jesus saying to others nearby ‘Take the grave clothes off and let him go free!’ It is Jesus alone who can set us free when we are bound up, but also as we see in my final point…
Do you know that you need help to walk in freedom?
When you give your life to Christ, for sure the Holy Spirit will help you, but also we need to realise that we need people to help us. Lazarus needed others to take the grave clothes off him and let him go to walk in new life and freedom.
Even if we don’t have a Christian family, God designed the church to be a family where we can be shaped up by the visual aid of seeing how other faithful christians who love Jesus live their lives for him. Christian leaders, pastors, cell leaders, are like shepherds that love, guide, feed, and protect their sheep.
They work to bring us an inspired word from the scriptures that can lead us to freedom and train us how to stay free. In order to live in freedom, we must decide to get help from leaders and not try to get by on our own. They are equipped to help us. This is how we develop as mature disciples in all areas of our lives rather than stay in a place of immaturity and insecurity (Hebrews 13:17 & 1 Corinthians 11:1)
Jesus himself instigated discipleship by gathering 12 who he trained and released with authority. He showed them how to be free, and eventually to do what he himself had been doing to set people free from all kinds of bondage.
Discipleship starts when you decide you want to be a follower of Jesus, and are willing to learn from others how to live free.
That can start when you join a small group and start attending Life Class, which is an introduction to foundations of the Christian faith that runs for 9 weeks. You can sign up to Destiny Training, which is a discipleship training class that runs over 3 terms of 10 weeks each. At the same time you can be connected in a small group where you can be personally mentored.
This will happen when you come to Jesus and accept that only he can set you free; when you allow whatever has held you back to be removed, and also when you acknowledge that you need the help of others to walk in your new found freedom.
